1. The Wicked Witch

The noise echoed away through the street. From behind curtains people carefully looked out onto the street, most of them staying out of view. The motorcycle gang was back in town, and usually that did not bode well.

"Dammit, Skull, when are you going to fix that stinking carburetor!", one of the men yelled as he got off his Harley. The woman that usually was behind him had already jumped off to get herself to safety. Bubba was angry, and when he was like that he did not pay attention to anything. Several kicks in her side had taught her that.

"Yo, Bubba, I thought I had done so!" Skull kicked the innocent and abused engineblock. "I'll look at it later, I need a piss and a drink first."

"Yeah!", the rest of the gang joined in. They trotted off towards the nearest bar, which was by default also destined for an involuntary remodeling. The six big bikes remained in the middle of the street, unattended. Nobody would touch them.

In Bantrey's Bookshop, the proprietor looked out of the window. "Oh dear. They are back."

William Conolley stepped up to the window and saw the motorcycles. "They?"

"The motorcycle gang. It is run by someone they call Bubba," Bert Bantrey said. "The obnoxious yellow machine is his."

"I see," said William Conolley. "Now... about this book..." He returned to the table where a large, leatherbound book lay open. The sides of the pages had a thin golden lining, the paper was old and yellow, and the font of the text had more resemblance to the patient copying-work of an old monk than something a modern printer would produce. "I do want this book, but the price you ask for it is outrageous, my good man." He carefully tapped a page, making sure he did not touch the text or the gold. The book was old enough to be handled with respect.

Bert Bantrey sighed and looked at the book. "I know, the price is high, my dear friend, but it is worth it. Every single penny. I cannot lower the price unless I want to cut into my own flesh. I mean... look at the leather. Look at the printing. Feel the paper and its original pattern..."

William Conolly slowly was pulled over. The price, he knew, was not at all over the top, but his merchant spirit did not want to give in so easily. He slowly paged through the book a bit more, looked at the pages. Held one against the light, to see how the pattern of the paper was perfect everywhere. He mumbled something to himself, then look Bert Bantrey in the eye.

Bert already sensed that he had won. A smile was on his face, his hand was already in the position to be shaken. "Come on, Bill, do it. You know you want it. It has your name all over it, in your favourite typeset. The smell of the book is irresistable and you bloody well know it."

William shook his head. "You are one mean person, Bert, but I am going to buy this book from you."

The woman stood in front of the mirror as the motorcycle gang parked their monstrous machines. She had no knowledge of them, as she was very far away from them. She looked at the silvery glass, touching the necklace she wore. The mirror showed an image of a young woman with black hair and a fair skin, who was walking along a field covered with flowers.

"Yuck," the woman spat. "All those colourful things. I'd forbid them, if I had a say in it."

The young woman in the mirror seemed to sing as she picked flowers.

"I'll have you gasp for air, once I get that apple to you," the angry woman said as she turned away from the mirror. Her long grey hair floated over her dark red robe, her black dress rustled as she walked over to a table. She took up a small silver stick and an apple.

With the stick pointing to the apple, under her breath she mumbled a few phrases. "And I hope I got it right this time," she ended her short monologue.

Then, the apple and the stick in her hand, she turned to the mirror again and started to approach it, as she built up her concentration. The apple was pulsating, as if a light lived inside it that was fighting to get out. "No, no, not yet my little killer friend," the wicked witch (for that was who she was) said. "Only a few minutes more, and then you can do what I have made you for. You will stick in that stupid girl's throat and make sure that she is not getting in my way to take control over this country." A loud cackling laugh filled the room, its echoes making even the furniture shudder.

She pointed her wand at the mirror and started speaking a spell that was going to take her to the meadow where the innocent wench was dancing and trampling through the flowers. The incantation was gaining strength, the magical aura around the wicked witch formed exactly the way she wanted it to do, so it would project her to her victim.

In Bantrey's Bookstore, the two men shook hands on the sale, and then, as their habit was, they both slapped the page that was open.

The wicked witch unleashed the built-up power from the wand. As it hit the mirror, the mirror exploded in a million tiny fragments! The power around the witch was disturbed by quantum-physical laws that she had no knowledge of, and she disappeared from her room. Instead of ending up with her apple in the meadow, however, she materialised somewhere entirely different...

In O'Malley's Bar, the pina coladas were the drink of the day. Skull and Bubba, together with their friends, were having a great time. The barkeeper was tied up on a stool in the corner of his own establishment, the large mirror had been taken down - in tiny bits - with the aid of a winebottle, and the whiskey flowed liberally. The gang had the bar to themselves. The other customers had left the place as the gang had entered, which was usually the safest and healthiest option. The runaway clientele would return to pay for their beverages later. If there was something to come back to, of course.

"Hey, Bitch, come over here!" Julius shouted to his girlfriend. The girl, with long black hair that desperately needed a wash, and equally black pants under a purple shirt, waddled over to him, not taking the brandy bottle from her lips.

Julius slapped the bottle from her hand, pulled her against him and started slobbering in her neck, which he considered his personal interpretation to a kiss. Bitch screamed with laughter, let him at it for a while, then calmly reached out and whacked a bottle over Julius' head. The slobbering ended right the same moment, and Julius descended to terra firma. "Always told you that booze gives you a rotten head," Bitch grinned, kicked her lover and went looking for another bottle.

The general level of sound and noise the gang produced inside the bar prevented them from hearing a rather loud sound that happened outside. In an alleyway that was rather close to where they had all parked their bikes, an alley that ran next to Bantrey's Bookstore. The sound from the alleyway was not just that, it also manifested a very fierce gust of wind, strong enough to blow the bikes over. As was to be expected, it did just that.

"Oh my," Bert Bantrey said when the windows stopped shaking and the floor was without tremors again, "did you hear that?" Quickly the two went to the window again, and were there just in time to see the last bike roll over and play dead.

"Uh-oh," William said. "The motor people will not be happy with that. Perhaps I should load my acquisitions into my truck and make miles..."

"Let me give you a hand, old boy," Bert said, "you'll damage your back with that pack!"

Together they lifted the large crate with books and carried it outside, where William opened the truck. The crate fit in the compartment like a hand in a glove made to order. The precious leatherbound book lay on top of it, wrapped in a fine cotton cloth.

The two men shook hands again, and then William got in and drove off quickly. Bert did not waste time either: he went inside his shop, turned over the sign in the window, so it told the world the shop was "closed", and locked up.

"Where the hell am I?", a voice came from the alleyway. A woman, dressed in black, wearing a long deep red cape, came from the alley. Her long grey hair stuck everywhere, she had bruises on her face and her dress was as dirty as the alleyway's floor. And that was quite dirty...

The witch looked at the apple that no longer pulsated. "Crap. All that gone to waste." She flung the apple away. It ended its flight in the sound of broken glass. The witch nodded. At least that was satisfactory, she thought. On the ground, in the street, she saw six strange things, with wheels, handlebars and lights.

"Hey... you are too early for the ren faire!", someone on the other side of the street laughed.

The witch looked at where the laughter came from. She was not partial to laughter, and even less if she was the reason for it. She pointed her wand, mumbled something, and the couple that had been walking along suddenly stood next to her, frozen. "Now this is interesting," the wicked witch said as she looked at the clothes of the two people.

Both of them wore blue pants, like usually the men wore when they would go out riding. They wore also blue jackets of the same fabric, and white shirts that looked skintight. They also wore identical footwear, which looked comfortable.

"So this is how you dress here." The witch nodded. She waved the wand. For something simple as this, there was no need for a spell. The clothes of the frozen woman had moved to the body of the witch. The clothes of the witch lay on the ground. Another move of the wand and the clothes had changed into a convenient large bag to carry around, which she slung over her shoulder. The witch then stared at the naked body of the frozen woman and then tapped the navel piercing. "Fascinating," she said. "You'll stay here until the sun sets," she told the two silent figures.

From behind windows, people had seen what happened. None of them wanted to get involved.

The witch looked around, her long grey hair blowing in her face. "Oh, crap, that again." She snipped her fingers, and her hair hung down in four long, thick braids. "Now to find out where I am," she grumbled. "There is something fucking wrong here. This is not a meadow with stinking flowers..."

She started walking down the street.