Keeping up with the Crowley's

Tabatha yawned and stretched languorously, enjoying the warmth of the morning sun that streamed in through her bedroom window. It was Saturday morning and she had the house to herself for the morning, nobody to tell her to get up and do chores or hassle her in any of the other innumerable ways her parents seemed to delight in finding. At the age of thirteen, time to herself was a valued commodity.

After learning her parents would be out all morning, shopping for tonight’s dinner party, she had envisioned a lazy morning in bed doing her toenails and talking to Tiff on the phone. The fact that it was their neighbours, the Crowleys, coming to dinner hadn’t stressed her too much. I mean, Davin was a PAIN, but if she just ignored him it wouldn’t be too bad.  Maybe she could even get away with hexing him into silence without getting caught. It was strictly against the rules of course and very bad manners to boot, but he WAS such an annoying little twerp. She smiled for a moment at the thought, then sighed and abandoned the idea.

Pulling back the covers she got out of bed and walked over to the window. All her cosmetics were set up there, a colourful ménage of colour lurking there like an errant rainbow having a fight with a cloud of glitter. As she admired her collection something moving in the back yard caught her attention, it was the Crowley’s big black cat Captain Smiggles, slinking across the back lawn, belly low to the ground and ears laid back.

The Captain, as he was known in the neighbourhood, was a mean spirited beast that terrorised pets for miles around. He was a notorious killer of birds, basher of cats and tormenter of all but the most ferocious neighbourhood dogs. Davin had been given Captain Smiggles as a birthday present three years ago, an adorable little black fluffball. However, immediately after becoming Davin’s familiar he had turned mean, just like Davin.

The big cat was halfway across the yard and heading directly towards the lily pond where mum’s familiar, Freddy, spent most of his time. Freddy was a huge toad, as big as a cat, but still no match for the Captain. Tabatha felt a rising panic as she fumbled with the latch on the window, her fingers suddenly clumsy. The wards around the back yard were her responsibility and if Freddie got eaten because they failed, she would REALLY cop it, mum would be MAJOUR pissed for sure.

Finally the latch capitulated and she slammed the window up, making the glass shudder in the frame.
‘OUT!’ she screamed. ‘OUT OUT OUT!’
The black cat froze for a second, quickly glancing up at the shouting girl, before continuing his slink towards the pond. Movement from the pond caused Tabatha to freeze in mid shout, as Freddie hopped out into plain view, wondering what all toe commotion was about. The toad had not noticed the stalking cat and was staring up at Tabatha in puzzlement.
‘HIDE FREDDIE, SWIM!’ Tabatha screamed, but the toad just sat there on the edge of the pond, oblivious to the approaching danger.

Casting around the room for something to throw, now in a total panic, Tabatha grabbed one of the Jimmy Choo pumps it had taken her over a year to save for and hurled it out the window just as the cat tensed to pounce. The bright red shoe flew through the air like a fashion designer’s bizarre interpretation of a heat seeking missile, landing no more than an inch in front of the cat. The sudden noise and movement startled the captain, who gave a feline squawk of indignation as he leapt two feet vertically in his catty surprise.

The leaping cat was all it took and a second later an exclamation mark of bubbles was all that remained of Freddie. Thwarted, tail thrashing and hair standing on end, Captain Smiggles expressed his fury and indignation. Suddenly something in the grass in front of him caught his attention, something sheik and bright red. Looking up at the girl at the window the cat moved forward very deliberately to squat over the shoe.
‘Noooooooooo!’ cried out Tabatha, as the filthy beast proceeded to relieve himself.

The sound of laughter intruded on her personal horror, coming from over the fence, from the Crowley’s yard. There, his ugly little head poking over the fence like a demonic prairie dog was Davin, laughing like a hyena.

Checking her wards, Tabatha felt the ripples around Davin where he had bent them enough to let Captain Smiggles into their yard. Suddenly furious, she pulled in magic from the air around her, the sudden drop in temperature, causing ice to form on the window panes.

Davin realised he was in danger just in time to throw up a hasty shield, which shattered as the hex from the furious girl smashed through like a truck. Crying out he fell backwards off the fence, hands raised helplessly against the next attack he could already feel building.

At the window Tabatha’s towering fury was out of control, fuelled by the magic she continued to pull in. Suddenly the back door of the Crowley’s house burst open and Davin’s parents were there, pitting their considerable powers against Tabatha’s raw fury. Past caring now, the teenage girl took the accumulated magic, condensing it, then released it through the lens of her anger. The power of the Hex blew the window from its frame as it hurtled over the fence.

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Sitting at the dinner table Tabatha waited nervously, tapping her fork on her plate.
‘Strange, I’m sure it was arranged for tonight.’ Said Tabatha’s mother. ‘It’s not like Alaister and Ilyaine to be late.’
‘Maybe they just forgot.’ Mumbled Tabatha, desperately trying to keep her eyes away from the dining room window, where three ducks were clearly visible on the roof of the garden shed quacking their decidedly un-duck-like anger.