Zach took the stewed his mom had prepared in direction to his bedroom. His mother, Molly Mole, grumbled a little and then Zach sat back at the table. He wasn't that crazy to make his mom angry but Alexandra–with her typical low-eyelids sight–detested the food.

"This is a disgusting snack, I don't want it."

"Well, girl, you'll have to eat it," replied the woman with a sibilant voice.

Zach witnessed the argument with fear.

"I don't like carrots," Alexandra said without any hint of emotion. It felt like she was just saying words randomly.

Mrs Mole moved her snout sideways; her sequin red dress blinked while she breathed.

"I didn't spend my time making food just to leave it."

"You can't make me... I'm older enough."

Zach was about to interrupt this usual moment but thank heavens, his mom appeased herself and let the event go meaningless.

"Just get off the table before I ..."

The boy saw his sister go to her always locked bedroom, ate quickly and went for some dessert to the fridge. He was already in his bedroom when he saw Randall running through the place with cute energy.

"I brought you pudding."

"We don't want," said Randall. This plushy bear had a tiny hoary voice. It looked like a mini version of Billy Bear.

"Randall means," added the bigger bear, " we do not need it." It was sitting on the bed in a pensive way. "Remember I told you that Teddysprouts do not eat."

"Oh yeah, I know but ... it's pudding. Don't you want, Randall, are you sure?"

"No, Willy, what I want is cause hex and destruction," replied the small bear.

"Oh, so cute!"

Randall said this kind of odd things but its tender appearance and its minimal size didn't concede it any trust in those words.

"Don't mind it, Zach. Randall cannot hurt anyone," announced Billy Bear.

"Oh, they brought more! They brought more!" Randall shouted hopping from the floor to see through the window.

"What you mean?" Zach asked and got closer to peep.

"It's the third truck with furniture they've brought," the hopping Teddy said.

"Randall," Zach let say, "I don't think it's a good idea to spy on the neighbors through my window." There were some men downloading some large furniture of an archaic style from a big truck.

"What do you expect us to do all day here locked in this oven? We should at least run through the house."

Zach felt bad.

"But I can't let two animated plushies walk through my house, mom would get a heartache. At least, Paris's looks like a dog."

Randall stared with a forlorn look at Zach. The boy leaned down and put a knee on the floor to talk to it closer; then, the small bear drew a cloud of dust from its tiny round hands and sprinkled it on his eyes. It probably took it from the pot of the flowers that rested over the windowsill.

Zach screamed, rubbing his eyeballs. The tiny bear started to dart and got lost under the bed. "I'm so tuff!" It was heard.

"You damn fluffball! I'm gonna ..." But before the moloid boy ended his curse, his eyes turned to the house in front. Through the glass of his window he saw an old woman, her hair was salt and pepper, dressed in black, commanding the men who carried down her furniture. The woman was really homely, Zach thought of her as a witch, a wealthy witch. "It seems the old house will be taken finally."

"Who lived there, Zach?" Billy Bear asked mildly from the bed, "Another moloid family?"

"Who?" Zach guffawed. "Rich moloids don't exist. Not any of us could have ever a house like that in front. A senior woman lived there with her son but they disappeared. That old house was empty since then."

Zach, completely stood up, used his goggles to zoom on the happenings but the light from the sunset annoyed him. Suddenly, the rain started.

"That's weird."

The old woman ran inside the house with a funny pace and behind her, a girl in black had shown up.

"Where the hell did that girl come from?" Zach exclaimed. "It is like she was brought by the rain."

The girl in black held a tenebrous umbrella in her right hand and a basket over her left forearm. She turned around from where she was and looked directly at Zach's eyes.

"What happens, Zach?" Billy Bear asked. It saw an obnubilant look on his face.

"Is she seeing me?"

But she couldn't. She was like 150 feet away. A big grassy space separated Zach’s surroundings from the front houses, in fact, some thick weed and several trees made it hard to look over from each of the sides. For much dismay, the unusual rain hardened even more the vigilance. Still, still, that girl under the umbrella seemed to be staring at Zach’s eyes through his very own goggles. He slipped them up rapidly, like ashamed of watching straight, then he turned his eyes to the floor.

"What happens, Zach?" Billy Bear repeated finding a dark cloud of thoughts on its changer. “Why are you so pensive?”

---

Zach and Paris were at Nettai Park when they saw Gina Belt and the redhead that's always beside her taking some anmitsu from a truck. Gina tried a lot to disappear them from her day but she was taking too much effort to focus on Samantha and not go to them, blast their pockets and retrieve their Teddy's like they're were hers so she could stop having a connection to the rich girl and the moloid. Suddenly, when neither of them expected it, a whole bunch of patrols entered the park and without further explanation, the voice through the megaphone had everyone leave.

There wasn't much commotion, the people there took it easy and the ones who made picnic started to pick their things up and others who jogged or were flying with their megaboards, also stopped in their tracks. The guy with the anmitsu truck fussed to close while Gina and Samantha sat up in the direction of the police cars. So did Paris and Zach–although he just wanted to leave like the rest of tranquil visitors.

Officer Elli got out of one of the cars. She carried a red megaphone brand Healtown. Gina approached her, like competing with everyone to get her first.

"What's happening, Officer Elli? Why do we have to leave the park?"

"We're in the middle of something here, Gina Belt, there's nothing to explain, we'd like you to obey and go home."

Gina rose an eyebrow, she forgot she had some anmitsu in her hand. Samantha was eating hers behind her and soon, the blonde and the moloid approached to the conversation as well.

"I think citizens should know what's that something the police is in the middle of, am I right?" Gina let say. She started to get mad.

Officer Elli didn't know everyone in New Heart Hill. In spite of being a town, it was quite broad and dissected in so distinct regions. But everyone in Nettai knew Gina Belt. She was the devil, a cheeky girl and according to Mrs Figg, the cause of that big fire in Crown St, years ago.

Certainly, Officer Elli didn't hate Gina but she disliked the way she showed defiance against her and any grown-up.

"We're in an operation. Please, evacuate the enclosure," the policewoman stated sardonically through her megaphone, making everybody plug their ears. Some other cops popped out of their cars and split their ways to the surroundings of the park.

"Huh, excuse me..." Paris said. It dawned on the policewoman that one of the most important people in New Heart Hill was there; the woman stiffened. "I would like to know why I'm being kicked out of the park when I was enjoying a nice morning." Paris was using that self-sufficient tone she did when speaking. She didn't need to sound defying, the money she represented was enough. Zach just wanted to skip this conversation.

"O-oh, Ms Healtown. We-we are just in the middle of an operation. We need the park to be vacant... It's a police affair."

"Huh? Not even the bimbo can know?" Gina said. "Must be a top operation."

"Shut up, Gina," Samantha adviced. "Let's just go home. They're here for that old woman who escaped the nosocomial."

Everyone stared at Samantha while she finished her cup of anmitsu. Officer Elli grimaced.

"I heard the news on tv. Don't you hear news nowadays? They said that woman is a schizo and was on the loose."

"Enough. If you don't go home, I'm going to ask my officers to escort all of you."

"Chill out, officer," Gina said smiling. "We'll let you do your job."

Gina grabbed Samantha and walked out of the scene. Paris turned around and Zach followed her. At the end, Officer Elli thought she did a great job scatting them off.

"Zach!" Paris commanded while she was walking to her limousine. "Look for the news about the woman who escaped the nosocomial."

Zach did. "Ok well, it's a, a seventy years old convicted woman. Ta, ta, ta, murderer, extremely dangerous. Jinks! Uy says police believes she's after a hoard she hid somewhere in the city. She's all of a madwoman. Why're you interested in her, Paris?"

Once inside the limousine, Paris saw how a sudden rain poured down out of nowhere. Zach was scrolling through his Berry phone and squinted, he kinda knew that woman. He thanked heaven for the photo was blurry because her visage was eerie, almost taken from a slasher film.

"How strange. It started to rain like crazy," Paris mumbled.

Zach lifted his head and peeped through the car window when he finally saw that girl with the umbrella walking from the park in their direction.

"Oh no!" Zach shouted. "Paris, crank up! Crank up!"

"What's wrong, Zach?"

"Just do it! Crank up now!" He was hysterical. "Jim, start the car!"

The butler did and the limousine started to hover until it soon sped up, leaving the girl in the umbrella half way to them. Or so Zach thought.

"What the hell was that, Zach?" Paris recriminated, she was not pissed though.

"It's that girl!"

"Who?"

"Ugh, the girl who moved in. She's a witch. She's following me up!"

"Oh please, Zach. Who would want to follow you up? You're not rich. For heaven's sake. You're all about jabberwocky, hotkey!"

The moloid's chest pumped. He was scared. Somehow, Zach Mole was pretty sure the girl with the umbrella was a graduated witch or at least, she was studying to become one.

"Didn't you see her uniform?"

"I saw nothing."

"She was wearing that blue uniform from the ladies school."

"What's with that?"

"Pff, everyone knows that's a poser school for witches."

Paris giggled.

"You really believe that crap? That's a regular school, Zach. For girls only. All the people in New Heart Hill are this dumb? I wish I were back in France, to be honest."

"You can laugh all you want, Paris, but that rain didn't create itself. I know that girl is a witch."

---

Gina was aware Paris Healtown knew too much for her own good. She detested the fact that that toff was a changer just like herself and that both her brain and her heart were as filthy as her pockets. Without noticing, the girl started grimacing. It wasn't for naught; conveniently, everywhere she went, she ran into the blonde plus, her lickspittle, Zach Mole who was a changer himself too.

"I'd like to snatch their Teddy's."

"What're you murmuring, Gina?"

Samantha made Gina touch earth. The redhead was tying some roller blades.

"Well, yesterday there she was in the park, now here in the ice rink. Paris Healtown, I mean."

"Can't help it. Nettai isn't that big."

Samantha finished tying her helmet. Gina was propping her elbows on the small wall that delimited the shoe changing section from the circular rink.

"Not like she's from this region."

"Yeah, but isn't the Condos a bunch of manors stuck together? What can there be there for fun? You wanna know what I find funny? A moloid kid tagging along her all the time."

"Bah! That's her goonie. I bet Zach Mole brushes her hair and changes her channels on tv."

Both Gina and Samantha laughed. Soon, Waldo Robinson, Gina's ex, entered the rink skating.

"No way, it's Waldo. Who told him to pull those shorts that tight?" Samantha babbled sardonically.

"I don't feel like skating now."

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Waldo, a big boy who looked in his twenties, wasn't thinking on wasting this chance to make Gina forget he'd dated her and Cindy Junson at the same time and wanted to show her some moves to drag her to love him back. The black-haired girl had made her mind up time ago. She had cast that water out of the bucket no matter how bulky he looked.

Zach Mole was tying his helmet while Paris, sitting on the bench of the shoe changing section, gave wet cookies to Tobby. "How did you do to make them take the dog in."

"Zach, I'm a billionaire."

"Yeah, sure. Why the wet cookies?"

"Tobby doesn't have teeth."

"Then why do you buy it cookies? It won't make any..."

A thunder rolled inside the place. Who were skating got baffled. Waldo even tripped and fell.

"What was that? Was that a thunder sound? Did something explode?"

Suddenly, it began raining inadvertently inside the very ice rink.

"What's happening? Let's get away"

A horde of voices and comments were mustering up.

"It's raining, Zach!" Paris yelled.

"Don't be silly, Paris. The fire sprinklers..." Zach would go on but his brown eyes widened when from the buzzing crowd of teenagers, emerged the girl with the umbrella.

Vividly, the moloid saw her dry and pale skin. Her countenance was stoic and imperturbable, more gelid than Alexandra's. Yes, indeed she was wearing the uniform from Nettai's ladies boarding school, turquoise and black. A black cat peeped its head and a foot out of a basket hanging from her folded left arm; her opulent umbrella which kept her disconnected from the surroundings highlighted her sepulcral aspect.

"Not again."

Zach grasped Paris and they both darted with the multitude.

When they were all outside, Zach scanned around to make sure that girl was not. Paris sat on a bench. All the teenagers had dispersed due to the commotion of the sprinklers. Zach started rocking to-and-fro.

"Stop moving, Zach. You're making me sick."

Zach stared at the trees from the Alameda near the sides of the ice rink building. The back part of the ladies school could be seen separated by a black grind. Just when they had avoided getting wet, the rain entered the scene like it was skipping on high heels.

"She will kill us all, Paris!"

Paris fished out a striped umbrella from her handbag and cuddled Tobby. Both were a bit sprinkled. Gina was coming towards them rapidly.

"Hey you two! Gosh!"

The girl with the umbrella showed up before them.

"Who are you?" Gina said baffled. Paris was indifferent, she really deemed anyone else lesser. Zach started screaming hysterically and Gina Belt needed to shut him up by punching him on the stomach, making the boy kneel down on the wet concrete. Paris believed the Belt girl as a wildlife animal.

"I have tried to talk to you," the girl in the uniform announced, "it's dangerous..."

Zach stood up achingly and dropped a smoke bomb to the floor. Some noises followed. The enigmatic girl saw no one around once the smoke was vanished.

Zach got home and ducked into his bedroom to rest his breath before he dared leaving to the exterior again. Billy Bear was insisting that the moloid boy let it go hunt rubins.

"I can't let you be seen, I'm sorry. Why the insistence to look for those things?"

"I told you, Zach. We are here for the rubins."

"Rubins!" Little Randall shouted, running through the walls of the bedroom. "I am here for be tough!"

Billy Bear wasn't being importunate. The teddysprout didn't seem to be bothered by being sheltered but by missing its mission. Randall, on its own, seemed eager to rush away and get lost in mischief.

A knocking made Zach turn around. It was her mom. Since his teddysprouts had showed up in his life, Zach's bedroom has been locked.

"Zach," Mrs Molly said once he unlocked smilingly, "why do you lock yourself in all the time?"

"..."

"Why do you have those stuffies?"

Both Billy Bear and Randall had dropped dead.

"Nothing. They're ... they're Paris's."

"Well, hope you return them to her soon. Alexandra and I will go to the new neighbors'. Watch out for the house, water my poppies."

Zach was almost letting his mom go when he suddenly held the door eye-widened.

"Who? Wait, what?"

"We'll take this," she grabbed a casserole, "to the new neighbors!" Mrs Molly sang.

"I don't want to but she's making me," the sister added in her phlegmatic tone.

"Oh Zach, the old house has been sold finally. Your sister and I will welcome the newcomers with a good neighborship gift. Oh, I only wish they are moloids."

"But, mom. You can't go there! Those people are witches!"

"Zachary Mole, watch out for that tongue! What will you know?"

"I wouldn't go if I were you. You will be hocus-pocused."

"Great, maybe we stop existing," Alexandra murmured.

"Cut your nonsense, children. Alexandra, move on. Zach, if you don't want to go, it's ok. Just make yourself some dinner."

"Mom! Well, I won't rescue you if she ever does something bad to you."

"Grow up, Zach."

Mrs Molly's sibilant tone sounded miffed. She bounced her body to the door and exited with her daughter. Zach threw a fist to the dining table and rocked to-and-fro again through the living room. He sat down on the armchair, zapping on the tv, then went back to rock, pondering. He'd been like this for an hour. Randall asked what he was doing.

"How did you come out?"

"You let the bedroom door open, Willy."

Zach saw how Billy Bear finished opening the wood door of his bedroom wide and then approached.

"You know what? We're getting out tonight."

"Are we going to look for rubins?" Billy Bear asked.

"Kinda. But we'll need extra help."

Zach called Paris on his phone. He was already believing something bad had happened to his mom and sister.

"According to Paris, you all guys can fight, right? Like you have special abilities. I guess Gina's dog has some too," Zach mumbled.

"Who is that Gina?" Randall asked.

"She is a ... how did you call me? A changer. A changer like me and Paris, I guess."

---

Some crickets chirped to the night and the bushes seemed to shake a bit too much in front of the manor that used to be uninhabited. Some days ago, so much movement were coming and going there when the moving trucks brought apparel and furniture but this night, it seemed as forlorn as usual. Zach Mole emerged from one of the bushes, goggles on, zooming towards the facade to peep through the enormous glass windows. Paris Healtown emerged from one too, covered in loose leaves.

"Worst idea ever, Zach."

"Silence!"

"Don't shut me up! What do you see?"

Zach zoomed in and a group of bodies appeared on the floor. They were tied up. Another shadowy figure threatened them standing.

"I knew it!" Zach exclaimed. "I knew that darn witch kidnapped mom and Alexandra. She will suck their souls!"

"Witch?" Randall hopped from the bush. "Witch?" Billy Bear said alarm.

Paris grabbed Randall and squeezed it. "What a cuteness is this! He's so much cuter than Tobby."

Tobby emerged from the bush absentmindedly.

"Let go!" Randall complained. "I'm tough!" And he threw her a cloud of dirt in the eyes. Paris screamed.

"Everybody shut up! We have to approach the house furtively and then when she diverses, we find the way to untie my family and leave. Ready?"

"Hey, you pair of bedbugs," a feminine voice echoed.

Both the moloid and the blonde turned their heads around and around but didn't see a thing. When Zach rose his head, he saw Gina Belt levitating in her rocketboots; her long black hair waved in the wind giving her the aspect of a superhero.

By the time she landed, Zach advised her to hide and explained what was happening and what he wanted to do.

"Just blow those doors up," Gina proposed.

"As usually, Gina Belt thinking like a simian," Paris said.

"I'd rather think like a simian than not know how to think at all. Knock, knock," she knuckled her temples, "who's there? No one. It's empty." She ended up laughing.

"Oh my, shut up!!" Zach screamed. He realized he'd made noise enough to wake every neighbor up.

"Whatever," Gina concluded. The girl turned around, moved the handles in her gloves and a luminous sphere grew I'm her right palm. She threw that away to the massive wooden doors and one of them charred and tumbled down. She entered levitating. Zach and Paris, together their teddysprouts, followed along. They had already made the most noise.

Once the three of them got in, they could see Zach's mom gagged and slept on the granite floor of a spectacular dusty foyer. Glued to her, Alexandra, that homely woman from the moving day, and the girl with the umbrella herself. All of them seemed knocked out but the young girl.

"Wait a minute," Zach mumbled, astonished.

"What are you doing in my house?" An old woman recriminated. She was wearing a black dress with a black riding hood and a kitchen knife in her hand.

The shadowy figure Zach had seen in his goggles was this one. Gina, Zach and Paris guarded, the teddysprouts along them, except Randall who was not around.

"The old woman from the nosocomial."

"I'm Killer Grandma Martha," the ugly woman corrected. "Get the hell out of my property, you filthy thieves! I'm going to cut you to pieces like I am with those women. You will not take my treasure!"

"Enough grandma," Gina announced in the middle of the trio, "drop that knife and go back to the loonie bin where you escaped from. Otherwise, we'll take those chattering teeth out."

"Do your best, snot."

"What? Did you all hear that? She just challenged me! Don't you see we're better armed than you?"

"Careful, Gina. That woman is a murderer," Zach warned.

"I have two words for you," the girl replied moving her glove handles. "Mode Two," the womanly voice said and a volley of blue spheres were expelled from her right palm but didn't ever get to the destination.

The old lady got a book out of her clothes and mumbled some words that made Gina's spheres freeze in the air. Then, the old lady read again.

"A taste of your own medicine?" She laughed.

"No, no," Gina said. "Everybody run away."

The old lady forced the plasma spheres to run like propelled by themselves. Everywhere around. Paris ran towards the stairs, Zach headed to his family, Gina lost in the heights of the broad room with her rocketboots and the teddysprouts tried to evade the touch of the spheres. The old lady believed herself the conductor of an orchestra. She giggled a lot.

"All of this is Gina Belt's fault!" Paris complained on the stairs, eluding one of the plasma balls hitting her.

"Already used to hearing that!" Gina replied, flying randomly.

Grandma Martha kept on murmuring from her book. The spheres stopped moving and then reorganized in the center of the room mustering in a big orb.

"The old witch will make gruel out of us!" Billy Bear yelled in its raspy voice somewhere.

Zach removed the gag from the girl with the umbrella. She was the only one conscious.

"I'm really sorry. I sold you as a witch."

"There's no time," she claimed in a rushing breath, "just snatch the book from that hag. There's no much she can do without it." She sounded willing to help.

"Ok. Billy Bear, the book!" Zach didn't know where his teddysprout was but even so, he had shouted out. The boy then threw a smoker to the floor and the fog invaded the whole house enough to blind anyone. The old lady was reciting something new when she stopped, stuttered and screamed. The giant orb in the middle of the room vanished in simple orbs like fireflies.

The fog was suffused by Billy Bear. He was flying a small airplane made out of its own yellow scarf and the helix cleared the space. It seems it could make its scarf transform into anything.

The book was with Billy Bear.

"Oh damn imp!" The woman cursed. "You all see. Won't take my hoard!" The very moment the woman stepped forward, Paris Healtown roped her around with her electropliers and shock her. Gina descended.

"You're under arrest, Killer Grandma Martha," the black-haired girl menaced her showing her the sphere of plasma in her palms.

"Tobby, watch her out," Paris commanded, passing along Gina in a displacency strut.

Zach received the book from Billy Bear. The old cover looked rotten and moistened, it was written with all kanji nobody would understand now. The police siren was arriving. Paris got close to him and behind her, Gina.

"We can say it all worked well. We have the criminal and your family," Gina said, drawing the v for victory with her right hand. "It's amusing how you believed that girl was the criminal."

"My name," the girl from the floor replied, "is Eni."

Zach cut carefully the ropes that tightened her and his family with his own claws. His mom was blinking behind her sunglasses.

"New Heart Hill police!"

Chief Elli and other officers entered the foyer and had the woman arrested. She was somewhat injured. Quickly, Zach hid Billy Bear inside his jacket, Paris whistled Tobby but there wasn't much issue if people saw it tromping.

"You shouldn't take this as your job. Getting criminals is ours," Chief Elli told the trio.

Gina smiled patronizingly. "You're welcome."

"Did you call the police, Gina Belt?" Paris asked.

"That's right. I searched the woman and the most logical thing was thinking she was going to get back to retrieve what she left before getting arrested. Once Zach Mole called us up, I imagined what was happening. It's stupid how you forgot that woman was your neighbor."

Zach frowned. "Where's the dog?"

"Hunter won't get its snout in if it isn't about rubins."

"Rubins?" Billy Bear murmured under Zach's jacket.

Zach's mom and Eni's aunt – the homely woman – were taken to the station to give their statements while the kids were left with Alexandra, who gave a damn at what happened and went outside to do who-knows-what. The foyer was a mess and the wooden doors of the entrance had been charred.

"Sorry for blowing your door," Gina apologized to Eni.

"Has somebody seen Randall? It's so tiny. I hope nothing has crashed on it," Zach said in the background, lifting dust and curtains.

"So, finally, how did you know the crone would come for you? Is there any blood relationship between you two?" Gina inquired arm-crossed. "I just can't picture where everything comes together."

"I didn't know that woman would pop out threatening us with a knife," Eni riposted, "I didn't even know there was a magical book in this house."

"Then," Paris Healtown joined in petulantly "why were you chasing us?"

"I wasn't chasing any of you."

"Spill the beans, lass," Paris incited. "What do you hide? Are you a witch or not?"

"I'm not a witch."

Zach stopped prowling and slowly joined in the girls.

"I am what we call a preacher. I have visions of the future, it's a family thing. I moved in because I needed to find you. The three of you. But you're hard to get. I must warn you from that presence."

"Who?" Paris asked irked.

"The creature from the darkness."

"You mean the thug that broke my first electropliers?" Paris went on.

"The man with the eerie voice!" Zach caught.

"That's not a man," Eni emphasized.

"Then what is it? What does it want?" Gina changed the tone to a serious one. The ambience turned grim.

"I can't figure it out. I just know I saw Him and I saw you and something awful will fall onto you if you don't stop that thing."

"That's easy. A single punch of these gloves ..."

Eni trimmed Gina's confidence. She had giggled a bit. "No, you don't understand it. That is an entity even older than the human race. Right now, you don't have any chance. You have to unite and complete the meteor before He does."

Randall's raspy voice echoed in the foyer. Everyone saw it hopped in from the window.

"Willy, I have a message for Gina Belt!"

The tiny teddysprout hopped into Zach's hand.

"What're you saying, Randall?" Gina asked. "Oh my! Look at those feet!"

When Gina tried to squeeze Randall's body, it cast a cloud of dust to her but she didn't couldn't get mad at its cuteness.

"What's the message?" Zach asked.

"The message is Troubles is coming."

"Pardon?" Paris babbled.

"Who gave you that message?" Zach asked again.

"The man in the black rope. He was tough! I want to be tough like him!"