Never Break This Rule

A good rule of thumb is: never piss off a witch. Buddy did not heed such advice. He felt he was above the rules since he is a journalist and journalists have a job to get done. The regional witch’s convention is a case in example. The witch’s union published a press release warning everyone to stay away from the woods this evening as they held their annual convention.

Buddy took the press release as a challenge. Soon after dark he found a hiding place to wait until the witches came out at midnight to perform their rituals. Buddy was noted for calling witches “crazy women”. As you can imagine, Buddy was not popular with the witch’s union.

Shortly before midnight the witches started to gather. At midnight sharp they performed their opening ritual to welcome all guest witches from out of town. Buddy recorded the event on his cell phone. Halfway through the opening ritual the lead witch suddenly stopped and looked up. The rituals gave the witches power Buddy was unaware of. The lead witch pointed in Buddy’s direction. Before Buddy knew it he was surrounded and captured by the witches.

He was brought to the clearing. The witches circled him as the lead witch stood in the middle with Buddy. “You should have heeded our warning, Buddy,” the lead witch said as she raised her staff over her head. “You accuse us of being “crazy women”, now you will spend the rest of your days as a real “crazy woman”. Sparks flew from the staff and knocked Buddy to the ground unconscious.

The next day Buddy woke up in a strange world. It was still his home town, not that he remembered. The townspeople soon took to calling her “Crazy Nancy”.  Once a month, on the full moon, Buddy would remember for a few moments the greatest error of his life the night the witches warned him to stay away. But only for a few moments. The rest of the month he was stark raving mad.