Jim gradually regained consciousness. As his eyes began to adjust to the dim light he slowly looked around the room; it looked like a cellar. Was he still within the village, he had no way of knowing. The only thing for certain was that he was tied to a chair. Trying to move was impossible as the chair would not budge when he pushed forwards. Upon moving his head as far as possible to the side he learned why; Andy was sitting behind him. The two chairs were tied together back to back.
“Andy,” whispered Jim, a little more loudly than intended.
Andy moaned in response, as he started to awaken.
“Those girls must have poisoned us,” stated Jim introspectively.
“Where the heck is this place?” inquired Andy.
Jim began to look around the environment, seeing beer barrels along the wall.
“Well unless they have taken us a good distance away; I would hazard a guess at the Rat Catcher's Retreat.”
“I think you may be right, take a look at those frigging rats in the corner.”
Andy tried to move his head to the other side of the cellar, where the unsettling screeching and scraping noise was emanating from. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the scuttling movements from the floor.
“Shit; I hope those things don't get anywhere near us,” shouted Andy.
All of a sudden the shadows of the rates were enlarged against the wall as the light began to emanate from behind the two young men.
"I thought I said, make sure they're both gagged," said a female voice.
"Ah; sorry dear, I forgot," replied a gruff man's voice.
“That must be old Rose and Malcolm,” stuttered Andy, “what the heck is going on around here.”
Rose and Malcolm now walked forwards out of the darkness. The light from the Inn above began to illuminate the cellar; making the swarm of rats ran away, into holes within the far wall.
“Now; what did I tell you about staying away from my girls!” exclaimed Rose.
“Well; they kinda came onto us,” replied Andy, now beginning to get some of his bravado back.
“Personally; I don't blame 'em. If I were a younger man...”
“Malcolm,” shouted Rose, “just shut it for once, okay.”
"What've you brought us down here for," stammered Jim, "we've not so much as touched your daughters?"
"I'm sure you didn't, young man," replied Rose, "but that's not the point. You see, every now and then we need to... let's just say, feed."
“Frigging hell, you're cannibalistic witches,” screamed Andy loudly.
"Keep your voice down lad, not all of the Inn's regulars upstairs are in the coven," replied Malcolm."
“So; you and your pals upstairs, are male witches?”
“Warlocks.”
“Heck; those cute British swear words of yours,” retorted Andy.
“No; you're thinking of 'bollocks' I expect.”
“Malcolm,” reprimanded Rose.
"Sorry, my luv."
“Personally, I didn't expect you two lads to wake up this soon,” said Rose, “but to show that we're not complete savages I will send down one of the fellas with some grub for you.”
“Yeah and make sure the 'grub' is vegetarian,” sarcastically replied Andy. Just as Rose and Malcolm were leaving and closing the cellar door. Leaving the boys in darkness once again.
“Hey; don't annoy them,” warned Jim.
“I don't see how I could make things any worse than they already are. We're just about to become a meal for a coven of witches. Things don't get much worse than that. Well; I suppose they could torture us first and then...?”
“Just stop for now, hey.”
Andy resignedly gave a long sigh.
They sat there for some time. Nothing to do but wait. Luckily there was no further sign of activity from the rats in the corner of the cellar. Hopefully, they had scurried away.
Just then the door of the cellar creaked open, making Jim jolt in his chair. Out of the tunnel of light, a figure ambled down the stairs towards them.
“Hello lads,” cheerfully said a familiar voice.
“If it ain't Mad Pete,” said Andy aggressively, “you in the coven?”
"No, young man, but I'm not turning down a good few quid, in exchange for just helping to carry you down here."
“Traitor.”
“Eh; now that's a bit strong. Truth is that I never take sides around here. You don't want to get on the wrong side of Rose Oldroyd, you see.”
"Is Rose the leader of the coven, then," inquired Jim.
"Yep, she is and speaking of which, the old cow wanted me to see you were fed properly tonight. I guess she is fattening you lads up, for whats to come later."
"I guess we're on the starters menu right," sarcastically blurted out Andy.
"Nay, lad. You are just the desserts. In fact, there are a few more people locked up in the cellar back at the Oldroyd Guest House. Just waiting to be chopped to death and boiled."
"So; that's what the strange wailing sounds were, I guess."
"Could well be, young man."
Pete brought a sandwich out of a picnic hamper he was carrying and pushed it in front of Andy's face.
“Don't worry, it's vegetarian; I would never eat any meat based products from this Inn either.
Andy scoffed down the sandwich held out to him, after which Pete then hand fed a sandwich to Jim as well.
“Sorry you two lads are still tied up, but I don't want you punching me.
“You guessed right,” replied Andy.
“At least give me chance to regain your trust, like.”
“How do you mean,” said Jim, after he had finished eating the sandwich.
"You see, the rest of us villagers ain't happy with the strange things that have been going on around here and we want these shenanigans stopped. Though the thing is that no one around here is brave enough, or more likely stupid enough to confront Rose and her coven members. Anybody who has attempted to thwart Rose's campaign of evil in the past has eventually found their way into the cooking pot."
“It figures,” mused Andy.
"Now; if that's not a good enough reason for the locals to leave Rose to her shenanigans, then I don't know what is," continued Pete, as he carried on feeding Andy and Jim sandwiches, "now this is where you two boys come into the plan. If I'm good enough to untie you and let you go; the deal is you will free the other people trapped within the Oldroyd guest house.
“It's a deal.” agreed Jim.
“Hey; at least let's discuss the matter first,” objected Andy.
"The way I see things, this is basically Hopson's Choice. You either help me and the rest of the honest to god villagers with my plan or you lads with certainly both end up as somebodies dinner."
“What happens: if we agree to help you out, you free us both, but instead of helping with the rescue we just overpower you and make a run for it.”
"Ah; I wasn't born yesterday lad, I already expected you to be thinking along those lines. You see, you don't hang around with a group of witches for all these years without learning the odd spell yourself. Not enough magic to turn a man evil, and the like. Just enough to still leave me sane."
"What do you mean?" said Jim.
“You must have noticed that group of rats hanging around in the corner of the cellar,” explained Pete, “well, a man like myself can command such a group of rodents.”
“So?” said Andy a little confused.
“If you lads step out of line at any point, it won't be the witches eating you for dinner, instead the rats will be feasting on you both, instead.
“Great; I see your point. Now, what do we need to do?”
"The plan is that I'll magically command the rats to lead you out of this cellar. You will follow them through a trap door and down an ancient passageway, which will lead you out of this cellar and into the basement of the Oldroyd Guest House. Upon scampering out of the opposite trap door, you will find and free the people you see trapped within the cages; here are the keys you will need by the way," said Pete as he dangled a chain of keys from his fingers.
“Then we are free to go?” enquired Andy.
"Well, not quite, I may still need your help at this stage. You'll need to return to this cellar; the rats will guide you back. Although, like I said earlier, you really have very little choice in the matter, and don't even think of scarpering away before I say so; you know the consequences."
"Okay; we'll help out," agreed Jim.
Pete untied the two boys and beckoned them across to the cellar's trap door. Jim noticed the rats had returned and were congregating at the far end of the room.
"There we go," said Pete as he heaved open the trap door. With a whistle, he gestured to the rats, who obediently obeyed and quickly ran down into the passageway.
"It's time to follow those rodents," said Pete, as he was rummaging through the picnic basket, he then pulled out some items, "here, take these two electric torches and the key chain, and make sure you don't lose those keys in the tunnel. Once you have freed the trapped people, come back here and wait for me to arrive," Pete saw the expression on the boys faces, "Don't worry; at this moment in time Rose and the girls are here at the Inn, you should have no problems, I'll keep them all busy and make sure they stay away, while you unlock the cages" reassured Pete.
“Thanks,” said Jim as he took the keys and the torches.
"Good luck, lads."
Once both Jim and Andy had climbed down into the passageway, they both switched on the torches as Pete slowly closed the trap door.
"Excellent; now we've been trapped down in the cellar by the local lunatic, and will probably starve to death or get eaten by those rats."
“I kinda trust Pete,” said Jim.
“What the heck, Mad Pete is probably more insane than Rose and Malcolm. Do you really think those rats are commanded by magic; give me a break.”
Exactly on cue, the rats congregated together and started to scamper down the tunnel.
“Only one way to find out,” suggested Jim.
The passageway meandered on for a fair distance, as the two young men were finding it tricky to keep up to pace with the rats. Even though the tunnel very occasionally split up into different directions, the rats still seemed to know the way. Eventually, the rats seemed to stop and started screeching out, making Jim feel rather uneasy.
"Looks like this is the end of the tunnel," said Jim, "The exit door should be around here somewhere."
"Up ahead, I can make out a trap door," shouted Andy a little too loudly for comfort.
The boys clambered their way carefully around the rats. Jim climbed up onto a rock and unlocked the exit door. A welcome ray of light lit up the corridor. Peoples voices could be heard a short distance away.
After pulling themselves out of the trap door and into the Oldroyd house's basement. The boys were greeted by the sight of a group of dishevelled people locked up in cages. A young man and woman in one cage, plus two young ladies locked up within the other.
"You must be the two Americans. Pete told us about you. I'm Giles and this is my girlfriend Sophia. The two young ladies next to us are Laura and Sharon." said Giles pointing to the two girls who appeared to be half asleep and almost unconscious within the next cage.
"Please to meet you, Giles and Sophia," said Jim, "but I'm afraid we don't have much time, we need to get moving."
"Pete gave us the directions to a 'safe house' owned by some friendly villager friends of his, we can stay there until the coast is clear."
"I'll try and wake up the two girls over there," said Sophia, "ah; what on earth..."
Both Jim and Andy span around, expecting to see Rose or Malcolm. Instead, they saw a small swarm of rats, running about behind them.
“Their kinda our 'tour guides', no time to explain now,” half joked Andy.
Jim unlocked both cages and Sophia succeeded in rousing both Laura and Sharon out of their slumber. They all started to climb up a small stairway into the back room of the guest house; with Jim and Andy helping the still half conscious duo of Laura and Sharon, to climb the stairs. What greeted them was the sight of a large theatrical looking cauldron and a selection of sharp knives on the table. Jim half wondered what might be kept within the pantry at the end of the room, but he did not want to ponder over this rather disturbing thought for too long.
"I will just go and check that the coast is clear," whispered Giles, as he wandered towards the main doorway. Jim handed him the relevant key to the guest house's main door.
Giles was gone for slightly too long, which started to make everyone feel a little too nervous. Luckily during this time, Laura and Sharon had overcome the effects of whatever substance had doped them into unconsciousness.
“Have you been sipping the Rat Catcher's Retreat beer,” joked Andy to Laura and Sharon.
Sharon nodded knowingly. It looked like the girls had been the victim of the same poisoned ale trick too. Andy was wondering if Giles and Sophia had been captured in the same way, but did not have the time to ask.
“We are good to go,” said Giles as he returned from the guest house reception area, “are you two blokes going with us.”
"No, unfortunately not," replied Jim, "you see, Pete said he might still need our help, back at the Rat Catcher's Retreat.
As if on cue, the small swarm of rats had now followed the group up the stairs and through into the reception area.
"Look's like our chaperones have arrived," said Andy.
Giles and Sophia helped the still slightly woozy Laura and Sharon out of the main door.
“Thank you both, boys,” said Sophia just before they left the house.
While Jim and Andy took a brief pause to get their breath back. All of a sudden the rats were starting to seem rather more agitated and louder than they had been previously. It was almost like they could sense something, that the two young men could not.
“Looks like we should be making a move,” said Jim, “it seems like those rats are getting a little restless.”
The rats screeching was becoming a crescendo. The rodents started jumping around manically and then the swarm fled past Jim and Andy and out of the still open guest house door.
“Are we supposed to follow those rats out the front door now,” said a confused and slightly edgy Andy.
“You two are not going anywhere,” said a familiar voice.
Out of the doorway, Hannah had appeared, quickly followed by her sister Gretchen.
"What the heck," shouted a surprised Andy.
"We thought that Pete was up to something," said Hannah, "we somehow knew we would find you here.
"We can't have our dinner running away from us, now can we," laughed Gretchen.
“No, we certainly can't,” agreed Hannah.
"Run for it," screamed Jim panicking.
The two boys make a run for the door, but were frozen in their tracks and lifted up by an invisible force. Hannah and Gretchen seemed to be commanding some kind of supernatural power. Both Jim and Andy were forced up into the air.
"What are you going to do now," said Andy with what little bravado he had left, "make us drink more of your poisoned beer?"
Andy's head got smacked back against the ceiling.
“Now you're just pissing them off, Andy,” whispered Jim, “just keep quiet and let me do the talking.”
Jim could not believe what was happening to them at the moment. These people were authentic witches for sure. He had no idea what the next move would be.
“We will just subdue you with out magic this time,” said Hannah with an evil grin.
"Why didn't you just use magic before," inquired Jim, "instead of going to all that trouble with the poison?"
"There appeared to be a magic blocking spell surrounding you when we met at the Rat Catcher's Retreat," explained Hannah, "most probably put there by your 'guardian angel' Pete, I would guess. Fortunately for us, the blocking spell appears to have worn off now."
"We also managed to make those rats scramble away too," Gretchen said, "You can never be too careful. I hate to think what Pete has commanded them to do to people."
The next thing that Jim knew, he was drawn into the gaze of Hannah's hypnotic eyes. He slowly felt himself being lowered down from the ceiling, while all the time getting more sleepy. He caught a brief glimpse of Andy being hypnotised by Gretchen; just before nodding off into a deep sleep.