Chapter Nine

Ezzie

Pain. and darkness. The two usually go together and now is not an exception. I slowly regained consciousness. I groaned and opened my eyes. I was laying down on a hard concrete floor. There was no one else with me. A set of stairs led upwards to a door. I tried to stand and realized that my hands and feet were tied. Most of the time I could turn them into snakes with a nod of my head but now, everything was achy and painful. My mouth was too dry to speak a spell and my head was fuzzy. The door opened and someone walked down. They looked familiar but I couldn't recall the name. The tall boy leaned over me.

"Hello, witch." Me? Was he talking to me? He nudged me with his foot.

"Are you still unconscious?"

"Water." I rasped. It felt like I hadn't had a drink of water in a week. He turned and walked back up the stairs. He came back down with a glass of water. He held it up for me to drink from and I drank half of it quickly. My mind started to clear and he started talking.

"So. sorry for kidnapping you but you have something we want." He leaned forward to try to intimidate me.

Tall Boy uses [intimidate]

Ezzie has a passive effect of Black Market Experience

HE BLOCKS THE ATTACK!!

I don't even flinch. Stupid boy, ive faced off mafia lords! You think that you'll scare me? He sneered at me and three more people walked downstairs. A boy and two girls. I couldn't see much in the dim light son i couldn't make out their features. The boy was going on with his speech of how i don't deserve my magic and they should just take the privilege away from me when i looked up at him. My head had cleared except for a slight headache and i was mildly upset.

"Shut up." he looked shocked that i spoke to him so rudely. "Now if you want to intimidate someone be sure of several things." i stood and the ropes untied themselves. They slithered over and wrapped around my "captors''.

"One, Make sure they don't have super cool magic powers that could literally blow up half of New York." The pretty girl and boy were practically crying. But the short girl and curly haired boy were more calm. That is to say, panicking, but calmer that the other two.

"Two, make sure they're not Baba Yaga, the feared Witch of the Wood. And three, make sure its not me." I clenched my fist and walked up the stairs. The ropes tightened and they floated behind me. The stairs turned into an escalator and the door opened up. I walked through to see i was in some house. A small, lace covered house. Probably belonged to an older woman. I sat down in a floral print chair and snapped my fingers. The ropes loosened and the people fell to the floor, trying to catch their breath. I leaned forward.

"Now, what happened. I have no memory of the last week. What's going on?" they were still catching their breath. I sat back and waited. The short girl stood up and walked in front of me.

"You've got a lot of nerve buddy!..."

"Last I checked you kidnapped me, now the tables have turned." Her mouth dropped open and she sputtered nonsense. I grinned.

"Did someone say something about wanting magic?" They looked up at me. "Well it so happens that i run a business in the black market, selling charms and potions to people who can pay." i was going to say more but the short girl started crying.

"Oh, you don't know how long, as a child I was…."

"Save me the sob story girl," I interrupted. "Just tell me what you want and show me what you have to trade." The girl whipped out her phone and clicked around on it for a second before showing me. It was a bank account of The GoodGhouls. I snorted.

"Pfffff! That's not money! Thats a phone number! Good try though!" she shook her head.

"No this is our bank account. You give us magic, and its all yours." WHat!? Thats a lot of money! Oh but for 4 people its the average. I suppose this could work. I nodded and held out my hand.

"Deal" We shook hands and the girl suddenly threw up her hands in my direction and yelled.

"Avada Kedavra!" Nothing happened. I had read the books so I knew what she had tried to do. I smiled and stood up.

"I haven't given you anything yet and it'll take a lot more than that to kill me." Really if she had thrown a killing curse, the worst it would do is knock me out. I'm immune to most attack magics, perk of being a Yaga. She looked away and I held up my hands. I traced a symbol in the air and it glowed red. I pushed in the center and it became 3-D. It fell to the floor and grew into a spinning red and black hole on nothingness.

"This is a portal to House. That's where my ingredients are." i bowed and gestured to it. "Ladies first." The pretty girl crossed her arms.

"No you first. How do we know that it's not a death thing?" i nodded and stepped into the portal. Swirling

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All falling and fading into a familiar sight. I fell onto the wooden floor of House with a hard thump. I rolled to the left and got up. The gentle swaying told me that we were moving, but where? I looked out the window as the clints slammed into the floor. We were in some kind of forest. I didn't recognize it. As I turned back towards the clients, the fire lit itself and my table cleared itself of all the papers I'd left there.

"Now!" I clapped my hands together and made the people jump. "What did you want again?"

I walked through the shelves as they talked to me.

"Ah, just magic."

"Yes but what kind? Be more specific!"

"Ill have, Ahh, how bout ice powers. Like elsa!" i sighed and walked to random shelf. As i had expected, Reverse Fire was sitting there in a jar that was alternating from steamy to frost covered. I grabbed it with the leather gloves sitting next to it for that purpose and walked back to my cauldron. I popped the lid and tossed the grey dust onto the fire. Instantly it turned pale white and made cracking sounds. It looked like ice acting like fire and thats what it was. I sealed the jar and snapped my fingers. The Reverse Fire floated back to its place and more jars floated to me. I whispered the incantations and threw them in. Anaconda Skin, for strength. Flowers Preserved in Amber, for grace and beauty. Souls, for control. And a lot of other stuff. I finished after a hour or so and sat in the chair. The clients had gotten bored and where looking in my shelves. The boy who had wanted the ice powers walked up to the potion and looked at it. It was a swirling mass of ice chunks and liquid most freezing. The temperature was probably near -60 degrees but it wasn't frozen. I slapped his away when he tried to touch it.

"This doesn't look very magical to me." he said doubtfully.

"Well it is so dont touch!" i was pretty tired but i would be fine after an hour or so.

"Uh, Help?" called a voice from my shelves. I got up and walked into the maze. The pretty girl had gotten lost and was now standing by my pickled organs, looking incredibly uncomfortable. I steered her to the main area and had her sit in the big chair. The short girl and curly haired guy walked out and sat down on the floor due to me only having one chair. I ladled a cup of the freezing stuff into a goblet. I handed it to the tall boy and grinned.

"Cheers!" he looked pale and set the cup down.

"You want me to drink this stuff?!"

"Yes. and do it quickly, before it melts!" I grabbed the warming cup and shoved it into his face. He drank it and nothing happened at first. I stepped back and hid behind my cauldron.

"What are you doing?" the curly haired boy asked.

"Hiding! I dont know whats going to happen but there's a large chance he'll blow up!" his face went pale and he dove behind my desk. The girls ran behind the shelves and the tall boy doubled over in pain. Heavy smoke poured from his mouth and nose. He started shaking and screaming. I ducked behind the cauldron as he stopped screaming. I cautiously looked up. He looked and his hands and clothes in wonder. His hair turned white and his hands had frost covering the fingers, creeping up the arm. His clothes were covered in frost. I clapped and stepped out from my hiding spot.

"Wonderful! I would have thought i'd added to many souls with that smoke but it turned out perfectly!" he was still staring at his hands in wonder. His expression suddenly turned to panic and he looked up at me.

"Mirror! Do you have a mirror?" he corrected himself after I glared at him. I snapped and the remaining potion floated up into a mirror. I solidified into a frost glazed mirror. He looked at his face and sobbed.

"My face!" he turned and growled at me. "What did you do to me!?'' I raised my hands.

"I did nothing except what you asked for. This was an unexpected side effect. Eep in mind that this is the first time i've ever done this." he growled and stepped for me and i held out my hand.

"You forget who's in charge here. I gave you the power. I am still more powerful than you by far! Don't start a fight you can't finnish." he stopped and sat back down in the chair. I turned to the others and threw out my arms in a grand gesture.

"Whos next?"