Witch Zanthia's Little Shop Of Horrors

Opal Twister was in jail. In a cold, dark cell in the women's ward. Her own cell. She was scared but not to the point of being paralyzed with fear. No, she was more outraged than scared. Why was she there? She had not done so. She was completely sure of that. The thing all those people claimed that she had done.

Kill a noble? Ridiculous!

And with poisoned candies of all things!

When the captain accused her for the first time in front of the Lord Magistrate, she could not help answering:

"Listen, your Excellency, do you think someone like me has enough food to walk around putting poison on and giving it away? With the hunger I have, if I get a food as delicious as candy, I'll eat it right away! "

Of course, neither of them took the answer very well. They thought she was mocking them. So Opal went straight to the cell, waiting for her trial to take place, probably the next day. Now she had time to be alone. Time to think and clarify her ideas.

This absurd situation had begun the day before, in the morning.

She had been hanging around all the day with Pedro.

The only male friend she had. Pedro Gomez. Sometimes they played together, although his mother would not like it the least bit if she heard about it. It was normal.

People of good social standing like the Gomez do not get along with the people living on the street like homeless, bums, vagrants and the like. But Pedro did not care that she was living out there on the streets. He was always kind to her.

That's why it was always Pedro who gave her a gift. And yesterday, they were candies that looked great. The kind of candy the nobles eated.

Opal was so happy with the gift that she gave him a kiss and the boy turned all red. Of course, it was the same for her. The two blushing kids laughed. The sun rays c.a.r.e.s.sed their faces and the birds were warbling. Everything was going well and they were just going to start eating the candies....

It was a happy remembrance at the beginning. But then, the memory went sour

Because, it was a that momnet when the gang appeared.

A gang mainly composed of children and teenagers of noble families. The beggars and thieves of the neighborhood knew them, since it was not the first time they came here. These nobles liked to appear in the morning, when there were more patrols and it was relatively safe.

Also, it was the time when the truly dangerous people in the neighborhood, the killers and armed robbers, were soundly sleeping to get some rest from the misdeeds they had performed at night. Sometimes they were even escorted by servants of their families or by a guard who was at their service.

What were they coming for? Well, cruel people are entertained by spending time mocking the misfortunes that afflict others. These guys were like that. They did not do anything too serious, but they were obnoxious.

This group of noble kids and teenagers sometimes throwed stones at the windows of the stores , other times they pulled out the wheels from the carts on the streets and, if they were in a bad mood, they kicked out the beggars from the doorways.

After a couple of hours of cruelly having fun in this way, they always went back to their homes before the real predators in this area showed up. With those dangerous killers and robbers the gang of nobles did not dare to get involved, only with the weak people. People like Opal.

As they were shouting, the girl soon found out what they had come to do. They wanted to break the storefront´s window of a new shop, which supposedly was in a neighborhood alley. Since they did not know exactly where it was, they had already broken three different store´s displays and windows, just in case.

As Opal recalled, it was the leader of the group, a fat teenager with sallow complexion, who first approached Pedro and exchanged a few words. It seemed that they knew each other from somewhere. By the expression of Pedro, she immediately could tell that they weren't friends. And it looked like this fat teenager was up to no good.

Opal heard that his name was Lucas and that he was from the Montes clan. The fat teenager pointed to the candy, said something to give it to a girl named Fiona. A kind of plan B in case the damage to the store failed to impress her.

At that time, she simply could not understand the boy's actions. She just stood there , pondering about the motivations behind.

Who would think of destroying a commercial store to impress a girl in the first place? Either that boy was a bit silly or did not know girls at all.

At least the candy had a little more meaning. A romantic gesture like that, all girls liked it very much. Well, maybe not all of them, but it definitely worked with Opal, who was always hungry. Maybe it would have the same effect on that Fiona gal.

Although she opined that it would not.After all, having all that money, the noble girls filled their belly with sweets every day. She would have done it if she could.

Still, it was a nice gesture on the part of a boy to give candy to a girl; much better than when they gave you flowers, which had that bitter taste, almost the same as chewing grass. Or worse, vegetables.

The sweets were definitely a better gift. Surely Fiona agreed with her on that. So, would Fiona give Lucas a kiss as the one she herself had given to Pedro?

Wait…Why did that thought occured to her in such a moment?

She imagined that unknown girl, who was certainly prettier than her, kissing her friend. For a moment she felt horribly jealous. If one of those noble girls was interested in Pedro, how would she compete?

Enough, Opal. Don't go there, girl! Control your crazy imagination! You do not even know that girl! Maybe even Pedro does not know her! So go back to reality once and for all!

Now, in the present, Opal remembered how hard she admonished herself that morning when Pedro and Lucas were talking. It was because she cared about Pedro. She cared a lot. But her caring could not stop what happened at that time.

Pedro and Lucas argued, in an increasingly loud tone. Opal wondered if she should intervene but was afraid to say something stupid. Then, everyone would make fun of her. She tought that it was better to let her friend do the talking.

The teenager from the Montes family kept insisting that they have to give him the candy. How tiresome! Why he did not buy others instead and be done with it? Clearly, this boy had so much money ...

Of course, she was not going to sell them, since they were a gift from her friend, but if she had others she would not mind doing an exchange. Surely a noble would pay well for something he needed. Right?

But no. This boy did not intend to buy them. He demanded that Pedro give them to him for free. And he did not ask for it in a good way.

Of course! Opal suddenly remembered that her friend had once told her about an odious person. A boy who made life impossible for Pedro each time he met him. Was this Lucas Montes that person? It seemed so!

Just when she was going to give him the candy, the fat kid named Lucas punched Pedro. Her friend responded with another. Then a fight broke out.

"Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The obnoxious kids cheered and clapped but she felt horrified. What if Pedro ended up hurt?

She tried to run, to get away, maybe if she got to Pedro's house, she could call someone to help but then the other children caught her. Apparently, they did not want the fun to end so soon. So they grabbed her arms and forced to go back. By then, Pedro was already lying on the floor, with visible bruises. It was clear who had won.

The obnoxious and fat teenager pushed her to the floor next to her friend and took out her candies. ¡He seemed so angry! He grabbed one candy and then very slowly began to eat it in front of them. After finishing the first, he grabbed another and did the same. Opal did not understand anything.

If he wanted so bad to give then candies to that girl, then why was he eating them?

But a couple of moments later she understood . It was because he wanted to make fun of Pedro. And of herself. Show them that they could not do anything to avoid it. That he was more powerful than them.

She saw Pedro humiliated, crying with rage for not being able to defend her and started crying too. Lucas ate the candies, one by one, in front of them, while laughing. The other children encouraged him.

She got very angry. Angrier than she had been in a lot of time. So much that she could not help but furiously keep shouting at him.

The children laughed even more. Who would have imagined that something like this could really happen? But she knew that it was really risky to say something like that when she was angry. She regretted as soon as the words left her mouth. She was so afraid that she held her breath without realizing it.

For a moment, she feared that the boy would collapse right there like that one time in her old house so many years ago. But no. Fortuantely, this time it was different. There were no sparks, no dizziness, and no blood coming out of her nose.

And the fat boy was still perfectly fine. Fortunately. So there was no need to run away. Thank goodness! Opal exhaled, looking relieved.

Everything went exactly the same but now she was calmer. The danger seemed to have passed. Putting things in perspective the situation was not so terrible. Opal had already met this kind of person before. They liked to cause fear in the others. This gang of noble children was like that.

Idiots! If she could have a life like theirs, she would never come to that dirty street where they had found her. And less for something so foolish as to scare a shopkeeper or worse, harass her and other poor beggars who lived there.

Those rich kids fo the gang did not know how lucky they were. Always wearing clean and expensive clothes, and eating delicious food every day. They could even sleep in a comfortable bed under the safety of a roof.

No, they did not deserve that kind of life at all. It was because they did not appreciate it nearly enough.

Once, long ago, Opal had been like them. Now, the girl almost did not remember that life anymore. The few memories seemed as if they were from someone else. That time, the same as now, she had had only one friend. And then that horrible thing happened.

Opal Twister was very afraid that it would happen again, that's why she was always so careful; always making sure not to spread her fingers to point at anyone, not to insult by screaming and not getting too angry.

She tried to be a good girl, as good as her current circ.u.mstances allowed. The street does not allow anyone to be too good. Being good is a weakness and being weak on the street is dangerous. Very dangerous!

But that did not mean that she was willing to become a murderer. No, it was best to try to avoid problems as much as possible. So when the candies were taken away from her she did not protest too much, even if her heart cried inside.

It was only the fact of seeing her friend hurt that had angered her enough to lose control for a moment and curse the fat teenager. Now it was fine again. She just wanted this bad moment to end soon and be left alone with her friend.

However, Pedro was taking it worse than her. He had got into a fight and had lost. Evidently, Opal's friend was not used to things not going the way he wanted.

Being the son of a successful merchant, he probably considered himself important. More than once he had told her that he would try to convince his mother or father to get her out of the streets.

And he promised that if he failed, then they will just have to wait until later. In a few years, when he had grew up old enough and become the master of his household, or maybe when at least he managed to sustain himself alone, he would come and take her with him.

In Opal's ears it sounded like a beautiful fairy tale that always helped her to survive in the most painful and solitary nights.

However, the sad reality was that although his friend also came from a good family, he could not compete with the status of those children from the nobility. Opal was afraid he would try to defend her again or do something silly like that. That would not be good. The best thing was simply to wait.

Once the a.d.u.l.ts arrived everything would end but if they both insisted on resisting then Pedro would be harmed, maybe his family too. As for her, well everyone knew what happened to the beggars who offended the nobles. If those guys dared to damage a store just for fun, what would happen to her in the hands of the a.d.u.l.ts who raised them?

And she was not wrong.

With all the scandal and the screams of the children, very soon the a.d.u.l.ts managed to locate them. The noble families had guards and servants everywhere. The only reason they had not met them before was that they had not attracted enough attention or stayed in the same place enough time for the rumors to reach their parents' people.

However, as soon as they began to mess again and because they remained in the same location for a long time the rumors arrived at the correct ears and they were found immediately. First arrived the servants and afterward it came some of the parents.

The fat boy told his parents that he had bought the candy. Scared and not wanting to get into any more trouble, she convinced Pedro not to say anything this time. They even received some gold coins from the parents of the child, who had to know their son enough to suspect that things had not happened as he said.

It was a kind of bribe for Opal and especially Pedro, not cause problems. The coins did not compensate for the bad time they suffered but they were better than nothing. The rich children left. Everything seemed to return to normal.

The memory turned good once more. It was because after the were left alone, even without the candies, Pedro and Opal managed to spend a fun afternoon and forget the bad time.

This silly good friend of hers wanted to use the coins to buy her a dress. A beautiful dress that she had told him she liked, on the day they had met for the first time. This Pedro. So cute. What was she going to use it for? There are no gala parties on the street!

No, she convinced him that it was best to eat together. Surely they could buy something tasty with those funds. Had not that been his original intention? To give her the delicious candies so she could enjoyed eating them?

So the best thing was to buy a lot of tasty things to fill their bellies. Of course, they were not going to ask for any vegetables. Nor flowers.

That afternoon Opal visited with Pedro all the best places where she had wanted to eat whenever she was hungry. First they enjoyed smoked bread rolls with hot chocolate at Martha's stand. Then Opal and Pedro eated a big and tender roast beef with fruit juice at Joe's restaurant. Finally, they savored the most delicious dessert; chocolate-coated cookies with fruit jam and sugar that they bought at Lily's bakery.

Eating with Pedro was the best part of the memory. All that delicious food shared with her best friend! Even now, at the damp cell, and with a hungry stomach, Opal could close her eyes and recreate the flavors and fragrance of the foods on her mind. But the memory was not over. there was more.

Once they were already sated, they still had some coins left so it was the perfect time to use them to buy her a dress. After some searching, they found a worn pastel pink dress that, although it was not as nice as the other dress, it was much more appropriate for someone like her.

During the walk several times Opal wanted to buy something as a gift for Pedro but this stubborn boy insisted that since he had given her the candies, the coins belonged to her completely. Her dear friend refused to accept any gift.

So she decided unilaterally to give him a few kisses, so that he had at least that as a thank you present. It seemed that he liked them a lot, because he did not reject any. The two continued walking together, as blushing as happy, through the streets of the neighborhood and wishing that the day would never end.

But hours later something happened that exploded their blissful world of fantasy. In her cell, Opal clenched her teeth and her eyes teared. The memory went sour once again...

Pedro met an acquaintance at the street and they unexpectedly received the worst news.

That silly teenager from the Montes clan was dead! Poisoned! The worst thing of all was that everyone said it was her fault because they believed that she had sold him the poisoned candies.

Ridiculous! They were not even her candies! They were a gift from Pedro. There was no way they were poisoned. Pedro and his brother had eated those candies before and they remained in good health. A little fatter, sure, but in good health nonetheless.

Had it been her words? All those insults and curses she proffered at him? Opal thought not, but she was not sure either. After all, something similar had happened once.

Opal decided to run away, just in case something else went bad. The best thing was to leave the city. But the guards came for her when Opal was still saying goodbye to Pedro and she had had to hastily escape.

They chased her. She eluded them. The scene repeated itself again and again. She had almost managed to escape completely when she collided head-on with the cat lady and all the oranges fell on her.

What was that lady doing there, walking with all those pets? Did she not know that the elderly should stay at home, in front of the fire, very quiet?

She tried to get up and run away but the guards had already reached her. They said she was a murderer. Then they took her and threw her in this cold, dark cell.

All things considered, the cell was not that bad. It had a roof, a dry floor and even a bunk. When Opal was in the street she had to sleep on the sidewalk, wrapped in straw, cardboard or whatever material the kid could find so she would not die of cold. And now Opal had this whole cell for herself. They had even given her some food.

No, it was not so bad. You could almost say that being in prison was nice. She could think of it as a kind of refuge. Opal would have been almost grateful to be there.But she was not because the little girl knew that very soon her trial would begin.

But for people of low social standing who killed nobles there was only one sentence. Death by hanging.

Opal knew that she only had one chance to convince the magistrate in the audience but she did not know how to achieve it. Perhaps talking about herself would awaken the sympathy of the magistrate?

She tried to be a good girl, as good as her current circ.u.mstances allowed. She was not a bad person…

Granted, she often used to misrepresent the truth and from time to time showed a certain indifference to the concept of private property. Whatever it was necessary to do to get some coins, something to eat or a roof to shelter from the cold rain.

But it would be dangerous not to do it. In the streets prevailed the law of the jungle. The weak were devoured by the strong. So she had to be careful.

From her first week on the street, after a horrible experience with a group of gang members, Opal learned to distrust men and avoid their proximity in places that did not offer multiple exits. She often sought out the company of other women on the street so she would not feel so alone.

Should she tell these sad memories to the magistrate so he could better understand her circunstances? But would he care about that?

In this kind of thoughts Opal Twister was pondering when ...

* FFWUT! *

The air in front of her seemed to compress and a mysterious black card materialized floating. The card gleamed with a blood-red design. It was a circle with strange symbols of mystical appearance, similar to runes but more perverse. For some reason to read that card hurt the eyes. On the card it was written:

"Devil Demian's Club of Reasonable Exchanges."

When she read the card, the nefarious power contained in it activated and her eyes started to bleed. The card glowed in a deep red hue and something was summoned. However, at the same time, this unknown force invading her body caused an unexpected development.

It also awakened a tiny fragment of the ability hidden inside her very soul. First her nose started to bleed and then there was some sparks. After that, Opal´s green emerald eyes shined deeply on an unfathomable way; gradually a strange scene depicted in her mind.

The figure of a devil glinted briefly. He had a bull's head and legs, huge horns and a long, pointed tail. The skin was red and covered with black veins. He was clad in a metallic armor with a lot of chains and hooks that moved on its own like if they were alive.

The bull's headed devil was lazily lying on a couch watching as another member of his kind, even larger and more muscular, was repeatedly whipping the bleeding figure of a kneeling man. With every lash came a cry, a disturbing mixture of p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e and pain.

Meanwhile, a female devil in a low cut maid dress was serving some gr.a.p.es directly in the mouth of the devil lying on the couch.

Everything was happening in a dark place, with columns made of skulls and bones, a floor with puddles of blood and a lot of chains hanging of the unreachable roof. The location was infested of strange shadows that crawled all over the place and because of that reason it was barely illuminated despite the nearby presence of a large pool of flaming lava.

Opal had the sensation that the gr.a.p.es were not gr.a.p.es at all. If she concentrated her gaze on the gr.a.p.es she could see a tiny figure of a human being suffering inside each one.

Then, the devil seemed to noticed her looking at them. He turned his head very slowly in a totally unnatural angle until their gazes meet and he gave her a sinister smile.

Suddenly the scene changed completely. The female devil, the kneeling man and the devil that hit him disappeared together with the furniture, the columns and the fire.

Now the place seemed to be a lot smaller than before. Also it was cleaner and better lit, without shadows of any kind. In fact, it had assumed the appearance of an ordinary office. The devil had transformed into a human being, dressed in a suit, who reviewed some papers with the serious air that one would expect in a reasonable and prosperous businessman.

A voice echoed in the darkness of the cell. A tempting voice.

"A customer! I'm waiting for you. Take the card. "

This time nothing in him seemed suspicious and Opal wondered for a moment if what happened before had been only a product of her imagination. And yet she still remembered what she saw with her twitching eyes. Maybe if she were a normal person she would never have seen what was hidden under the disguise.

But she had seen it. Pure evil.

Opal backed away slowly. She quickly scanned the entire cell with her eyes. She needed something to cover herself and hide within. She needed something forceful enough to use as a weapon. She needed some object that could serve as an obstacle to interpose between the card and her. But more than anything else, what Opal Twister needed was to be far away from there.

Opal kept backing and suddenly felt the cold stone of the wall against her back. There was nowhere to go. The girl realized that she had been wrong before. Being in prison was not pretty. Although there was a roof and the floor was dry, the cell was not a shelter. Not at all.

The brightness of the card increased its intensity. The girl was afraid that the card would fly to her but the card never moved from the spot where it floated.

What happened then was exactly the other way around. The card called her, a summon she could not ignore. The same unknown force from before invaded her, this time much more powerful, and began spreading through her insides. Soon she found it fighting against her for the control of her body.

Little by little, step by step, Opal was approaching to the floating object against her will. She extended her left arm first, then her hand, and although she did her best to stop, her index finger finally touched the evil card.