Witches?

He eyed me sideways across the bar.

“Hit me again.” He didn't need any more. I could smell the beer from my side of the bar.

I poured him another glass and slid it over to him.

“Tell me again. What happened?”

Ross Carmichael took another swallow of beer and burped loudly.

“I told you.

“Tell me again.”

“Oh Hell, one more time isn’t going to make it any better.” He shrugged. “All Right. I was in the woods, You know, north of town…”

I nodded. I knew those woods well, as they had been used as a training ground during the war. Part of a nearby military base then but abandoned these days.Now was a prime hang-out spot for local kids looking for a place to hide to smoke or do drugs. More than a few kids had been found there drunk or half-dead from drugs. It had been the suspected scene of several rapes and assaults. The place was getting a bad reputation.

“Ross, what were you doing there?”

I told you I was following a bird. You know a dame.” I nodded.

“Who?”

“Linda Warner. I was hired to follow her by her ole man. He thought she was stepping out.”

“Was She?”

“Hell, I don’t know. I followed her into the woods, down that little path from the back road. I lost her for a second but caught up to her around the end. She was there all right, but she wasn't alone. There were three of them, Witches. I swear. They had hats and black dresses, just like you see in the pictures. And they had black pot— A BIG ONE.” Ross swallowed the rest of his beer and burped loudly again, this time spitting out beer on the table.

“Ross, you’ve had enough. What next?” I pulled the half-empty beer mug from him and wiped the table with an old rag.

“They saw me. And The next thing I knew, I was in the pot. They were going to boil me. ALIVE !!” His eyes grew wider the before.

“And?” I prompted again.

“They were swearing and saying some weird stuff, and I could feel the water getting hotter. My feet and legs were already too hot. I swung at one, hit her, and she swore and cursed me. They grabbed me and tried to hold me in the pot, but I managed to push them away and, in the process, tipped the pot off the fire. Water went every, and I crawled out of the pot and ran. I could hear them screaming and chasing me until I got to the edge of town.

“Okay, you had a bad time with some supposed witches. What do you want me to do?”

“Come with me. Let's find those witches and kill them.”

“You know, if you pissed them off that bad, they’ll find you.”

Ross blinked hard at the thought. He clearly hadn’t thought of that. “So?”

“So, you aren’t not safe. even here in town.”

“How they going to find me here?

“It's not hard.”

I nodded toward the door as Linda Warner and her two friends entered the bar.

Ross Carmichael looked at them, then at me, and fainted, falling off the barstool.

Linda smiled, “You’d think he’d seen a witch or something.” She and her friends sat at the bar, and she smiled again. “Pour us a drink.”