"Oh!", exclaimed Mammaria, who then glanced down at her watch. I sorta forgot about that. Thanks for being patient, but by now you might wanna change from 'help me out', to 'quickly and orderly evacuate the premises'... she said, looking sheepish again.
"What? What are you talking about? And what's that noise?", asked Meredith.
"Noise?", asked Sharon?
"You probably can't hear it, Sharon. It's my good ears. But it's coming from the basement door over... there."
Meredith pointed. The door in question was outside the room, and down the hall. Now that their attention was on it, everyone could see that Mammaria had apparantly etched several runic looking symbols across the door and the walls and floor around it. She had also shoved a chair and bookcase in front of it.
"It sounds like somebody's working with something metallic. And there's a sound like water bubbling and churning, and some hissing too. What's going on down there?", asked Meredith.
"Yeah. That's sorta the reason I called you over.", admitted Mammaria. "Although I think it's too late now to go with my original plan of having you help me catch him. From what you describe it sounds like he's jury-rigged something out the washer and dryer. It's probably best to leave for now. Why don't you guys go out the back door? I've just gotta grab some stuff and reinforce the barrier spell around the basement door, as well as throw up a few new wards to boot. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. I think I have that long..."
"Wait. I don't understand yet. What are you talking about? Who's 'he'? What's going on?", asked Jim.
"The gremlin of course.", said Mammaria, as she ran up her stairs.
"Gremlin? Did you say gremlin?", Jim called up after her. When he got no reply, he turned back to the others. "She did say gremlin, didn't she?", he asked.
Sharon, just as confused, shurugged, and looked at Meredith, who waved her hands and shook her head.
"Oh no. You're looking at the WRONG person here this time, guys. I might have picked up more occult knowledge over my life than most, but I don't know anything about even half the stuff that Mammaria goes on about sometimes. The only thing I know about gremlins or anything like them is you're not supposed to get them wet or feed them after midnight."
"Sorry. I'd just gotten so used to you filling me in on all this stuff.", apologized Sharon. Suddenly there was a booming sound that emanated from behind the basement door, which all could hear easily, heightened senses or not. Less then a second later, a bright flash lit the seams of the door itself, and the wall and fortifications shook as something crashed into the other side.
"Well I was curious too, but suddenly I feel more than content enough to wait to hear any explanations later... like after we've gotten out of danger.", said Jim nervously.
"Same here."
"I concur."
Without further ado, the trio escaped out the back door, ran through Mammaria's yard, and out by the steet. From outside, Sharon and Jim could see that Mammaria actually had a rather nice and spacious place, if rather eccentric and antiquated looking. It looked like it had been built decades ago as a clasic manor house, and rebuilt with different varying styles whenever something or other was added on or repaired.
They waited outside for about ten minutes. Occasionally a crackling flash would light the inside of the windows. Or more booming would echo inside the house. Suddenly, Mammaria reappeared out the back door, Wearing a purple steepled hat from which her red locks now trailed out from under, with a large backpack thown over her shoulder, and holding her staff in her other hand. Turning around, she dug a piece of chalk out of her pocket and began making mystic looking markings on the back door as well. After another minute, she finished by waving her staff over the runes, and murmuring softly in an odd-sounding chant. The markings glowed briefly, then returned to normal, and Mammaria turned around and smiled.
"There. That should keep him bottled up for about a week. I can't stop him from summoning more gremlins, but I can at least stop them from getting out and causing havoc for a while. With any luck, even though they'll have the free run of the house once they get out of the basement, and will certaily mess everything up, they'll get bored just being cooped up without any technology other than my computer and appliances, and just wander back home of their own accord before the week's up.", she said, smiling happily.
Meredith opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again and just sighed. "No. Nevermind. I'm not mentally prepared to ask what you've done or what you're talking about right now. You can do that tomorrow. Right now I just want to get back to the house, eat dinner, take a shower, and attempt to forget that this happened."
"Sounds like a good plan to me.", said Mammaria, nodding. "By the way, don't worry about fixing a place for me to sleep. I grabbed my own sleeping bag on the way out, so I'm all set for a sleepover.", she beamed.
"What are you talking about?", asked Sharon.
"Well I just told you. I certainly can't go back inside there till I figure out a way to deal with the gremlins. So I figured that since you guys were on your way back to your place, I'd just tag along.", replied Mammaria.
Meredith shook her head in disbelief. "Mammy. We just watched you magically seal yourself out of your OWN house, because of a gremlin or whatever that you yourself released, and then somehow managed to forget about for over half an hour while you just let us all sit around and talk while we could have been helping you DO something about it when there was still time... And now you were wondering if we'd let you in OUR house?"
"Heh heh heh...", chuckled Mammaria weakly. "It does sound kinda bad when you put it that way. If it matters at all. I wasn't specifically trying to summon a gremlin when I attempted the spell...It was supposed to be a leprechaun actually..."
"No! I can't believe it? What makes you think we'd be so foolish to let you set foot in our house after this. I mean, you're a sweet friend, Mammy, but there's a line of credibility here! How much more damage do you want to do?", asked a incredulous Meredith. She hadn't noticed it herself, but Jim was staring in disbelief at her as she had lost her patience enough to begin triggering her transformation. She was now sporting fangs, and lupine ears, and her fur was growing out. Sharon was doing her part to keep him calm.
"Oh please Mary? I'm really sorry for imposing like this. I can make it up to you somehow. Really!"
"No!", shouted Meredith, shaking her now clawed hands.
"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeease?", begged Mammaria...
*****************************************
"I can't believe we caved in.", said Sharon.
"I know. Both of us. You'd figure one of us would hold onto sanity even if the other didn't. But, yet, here we are.", said a now-fully-human-again Meredith, shaking her head.
All four were now back at Sharon and Meredith's place. Sharon and Meredith were sitting on the couch, as Jim was switching DVD's in the player. Mammaria was popping some popcorn in the microwave for everyone. Jim's recent uncomfortability with Mammaria was quickly forgotten when he realized that she shared several key interests with him, including their love of anime movies and video games.
"This is awesome!", gushed Mammaria, re-entering the room. "I've been waiting SOOOOO long for a chance to see Ninja Scroll!"
"And I've been waiting a long time to see Furi Kuri", replied Jim, smiling. "I still can't believe though that you stopped to grab your movies before you fled your house."
"Hey. A girl has to have her priorities straight.", giggled Mammaria.
"I still can't believe we let her in here. She just looked so cute and pathetic though.", Sharon continued to muse.
"I still can't believe we were able to convince her to NOT teleport us back.", muttered Meredith
Jim cuddled up to Sharon. "I know it's certainly been wierd, but we can start sorting things out tomorrow, right?"
"I suppose.", acknowledged Sharon thoughtfully. "And Mammaria's only here for a week at most."
"...If all goes well.", said Meredith, rolling her eyes.
"Shh. The movie's starting guys.", said Mammaria, giggling playfully.
As the opening scenes of Ninja scroll began to play, the four new friends sat together happily...
Thu Jan 01 00:40:11 2004