The Case of the Weird Wizard

It was late at night, but there was a huge crowd outside the old castle. Some of them were dressed oddly in long robes. They were chanting in a weird language.

Others, like a Professor Venkman, were dressed in normal suits, but made up for it by carrying some strange electronic equipment.

Into this strangeness, car pulled up and three friends got out. The first was a confident boy with blonde hair. The second was a long-haired nervous looking boy, and the third was not a boy, but a cat.

"Well," said the blonde boy. "This looks like the place where the wizard was last seen."

"Well, then Frank, couldn't we be seen someplace else," said the other boy. "Like maybe where there's hamburgers."

"Forget it, Sam," said Frank. "We have to get to the bottom of this mystery."

Just then, one of the white-robed people came up to the group. "Have you seen the light?" he asked.

"Like no," said Sam, "it's pretty dark here. Maybe we should have brought our flashlights?"

"Not that kind of light," said the stranger. "You see this wizard who lives in this castle is the incarnation of the Druid Wothan."

"Oh," said the cat, "Wothan."

"Your cat talks?" said the stranger.

"It's a long story," said the cat, "but it's probably no weirder then what you're about to tell us."

"Well," said the stranger, "like I said, we're all here to welcome Wothan and follow him into the new age. Are you prepared?"

The boys decided to get away from that guy, but then they bumped into Professor Venkman's equipment.

"What are you doing?" asked Frank.

"I'm monitoring for spectral activity."

"Oh," said the cat, "spectral activity."

The Professor looked up from what he was doing. "Your cat talks?"

"Here we go again," said the cat, "Yes, I talk, but what exactly is spectral activity?"
"Well," said Professor Venkman, if the wizard does appear again tonight. "I want to get a reading of its spectral signature."

Just then, a loud shout passed through the crowd because there was a cloud of sparkles at the castle entrance and the wizard appeared. He was dressed in a purple robe and a pointed purple hat. He was also waving a silver wand.

"People," he called out in a loud voice, "depart from this place!"
,"
"Here that?" said Sam. "He wants us to depart from this place. Let's go!" But nobody else was budging

One of the white robed members of the cult called out, "We are ready to follow you, Wothan!"

"Follow me?" said the wizard. "No, I don't think you understand. You need to get away from this place. Don't come around here around here anymore. Go away!"

Now there was some confusion, Nobody seemed to know what to do next. Finally, the cat spoke, "Oh for heaven's sake! People are really strange sometimes." With that, the cat went running up to the castle and leaped at the wizard who tumbled to the ground.

"Now, to find out who our wizard really is," said the cat and pulled off the the wizard's beard.

"It's Mr. Jenkins!" said someone in the crowd.

"I have no idea who that is," said the cat. Then, he walked into the castle. A few minutes later he came out. "I understand now," he announced. "That castle is filled with equipment for counterfeiting. Apparently, this Mr. Jenkins wanted to start a counterfeiting operation and he thought that this would wizard prank would scare people away."

"Yes," said Mr. Jenkins, "and I would have succeeded if it hadn't been for you meddling kids."

"No, you wouldn't have," said the cat. "Have you noticed that it's precisely because of your prank that all those crazy Wothan people started hanging around here? Not to mention that wacky professor. Why you people think it's a good idea to use a fake haunting to keep people away from your criminal activities, I don't understand. It just attracts attention.

"Police! Get rid of this guy."

668 words