"Ugh..." Thackeray groaned softly, as he began to wake up on the cold hard wood floor only a few moments later, looking up to see the witches' three ugly faces staring down at him.

     The young troll struggled to get back up, but he couldn't seem to gather up enough strength to move.

     "Winnie! Winnie, look!" Mary shouted out suddenly, pointing to the young girl who was now glowing in a white mist, as she continued sitting in her seat.

     "'Tis her life force!" Winnie announced excitedly. "The potion works!"
"N... no..." Thackeray muttered, slowly stumbling up to his feet, having to hold onto a table to keep his balance, as he gripped his side tightly in pain.

     The three witches circled around the young girl, who just sat there, not resisting in the slightest.

     "Take my hands," Winnie ordered, holding out her hands for her two sisters to hold. "We will share her."
"Oh, Winnie, how generous of thee," Mary praised, taking her elder sister's hand.

     Slowly, they all leaned in to the young child, beginning to suck the life right out of her, as Thackeray watched wide eyed, completely helpless, having no way to save his little sister from the cruel hands of death.

—————

     "Sisters, behold!" Winnie shouted out, as the little girl's lifeless body flopped to the floor. "I am beautiful!" Mary shouted, observing herself and her newfound 'beauty'. From sucking the life out of the young child, they had in turn taken that youth for themselves, now young adults, instead of old women.

     "Boys will love me!" Sarah praised herself, doing a flirty pose.
"We're young!" Mary squealed with joy, jumping around the room.
"Well... younger..." Winnie correct, fluffing her hair. "But it's a start! Once I suck the life out of all the children in Salem... I will be young forever!"
                  
     "You hag!" Thackeray shouted out, struggling to stand on his own two feet. "There aren't enough children in the world to make thee young and beautiful!"

     "Hag!?" Winnie gasped in shock, placing her hand on her chest dramatically.
"Uh-oh..." Mary muttered softly, know full well what happens when someone makes her sister mad.

     "Sisters, did you hear what he called you?" Winnie asked, acting as if she was going to faint in shock. "Whatever shall we do with him?"

     "Let's barbecue and fillet him!" Mary suggested excitedly.
"Hang him on a hook, and let me play with him?" Sara said, whacking at a dead mouse that hung from the ceiling by a rope, kinda like a cat would do with a toy.

     "No!" Winnie yelled out, slapping her youngest sister on the back of the head. "We need a spell from my book. Oh boooook! Come here darling. Come to momma."

     Suddenly, the book floated off of it's pedistool, hovering right over to Winnie before landing gently in her hands.

     "Let's see..." she said softly, flipping through the pages of her precious book, as her two sisters loomed over her shoulders. "Yes. His punishment must be more fulsome, more lingering. Let's see... amnesia, bunions, chilblains, cholera," she read. "We can do better than that, I think." She flipped the page again, smiling fiendishly at what she had come across.

     "Yes..." she smirked. "His punishment shall not be to die..."
"No?" Mary questioned, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
"But to live forever with his guilt," Winnie continued with a malicious cackle.

     "As what, Winnie, as what?" her two sisters asked excitedly, hopping up and down with joy at the thought of torturing this innocent child after having just killed his sister right in front of his young eyes.

     "Twist the bones and bend the back..." Winnie sang, waving her hands around mystically, as she slowly approaching the young boy, who closed his eyes tight, bracing himself for the pain he knew he was about to feel.

     "Itch-it-a-cop-it-a, Mel-a-ka-mys-tic-a," Mary and Sarah sang backup.
"Trim him of his baby fat..." Winnie continued.
"Itch-it-a-cop-it-a, Mel-a-ka-mys-tic-a."
"Give him fur, black as black."
"Just..." Mary sang.
"Like..." Sarah sang.
"Thisssssss," the three sisters hissed together, wiggling their fingers at Thackeray, as he screamed out in pain, suddenly falling down to the floor, as he began to transform.

     Thackeray was now gone... replaced by a small black cat, who looked up at the three witches with wide green eyes.

     'Hisssssss!' the cat hissed, scratching fiercely at the witches, as they cackled at the transformed child, poking him with their long broomsticks, tauntingly.

     'BANG! BANG! BANG!'

     Angry screams began to fill the air, as a loud banging erupted on the other side of the door.

     "Open up, witches!" a shout screamed out, accompanying the loud bangs. "We know thou are in there! Open this door!"

     "Hide the child!" Winnie ordered, Mary quickly throwing a blanket over the little girl's lifeless body.

     "Witches?" Winnie shouted through the door, playing dumb. "There be no witches here, sir! We are just three kindly old spinster ladies!"

     She pushed her body against the door, trying to hold it shut, as the angry mob on the other side worked to break it down.

     "Uh... spending a quiet evening at home!" Mary added innocently, running over to help her sister hold the door shut. "Sucking the lives out of little children!" Sarah shouted out like an idiot.

     Suddenly, the door came crashing down, several village people bursting into the old house, as they tied up the witches so they couldn't escape.

—————

     "Winifred Sanderson?" an older turquoise troll said, standing in front of the three sisters, as they stood with nooses around their neck.

     "Yes?" Winnie said, looking to the man innocently.
"I will ask thee one final time..." the older troll said firmly. "What hast thou done with my son Thackeray?"

     "Thackeray? Hmm..." Winnie said, pretending to think about the question.
"Answer me!" the turquoise troll demanded harshly, hugging his crying wife who had just lost both of her children in one morning.

     "Well, I don't know..." Winnie lied. "Cat's got my tongue." The three witches cackled at the joke, the mob quickly silencing them.

     "Tell me where my son is, witch!" the older troll yelled, beginning to cry softly, though he did his best to hide it.

     Winnie glared at the old man, and then finally cleared her throat as if to finally answer the question he so desperately wanted to know.

     "Sisters..." Winnie spoke clearly. "Sing."

     "Thrice I with mercury purify and spit upon the tables," the three witches sang together, as if to cast a spell on the angry mob.

     "Don't listen! Cover your ears!" the turquoise troll ordered. "Listen to them not!"

     The crowed of trolls quickly covered their ears. One of them, a young boy who had been holding on tightly to Winifred's book, lifted his arms to do the same, accidentally dropping the book to the ground, allowing it to open up to one of the pages.

     "Ah! Fools! All of you!" Winnie laughed, looking down at her book. "My ungodly book speaks to you! On All Hallows Eve... when the moon is round... a virgin will summon us from under the ground!" She cackled, looking up at the mob of trolls. "Ohh! We shall be back! And the lives of all the children shall be mine!"

     "Away!" the older troll shouted, gesturing towards the executioner. "Away with you beasts!"

     The floor dropped out from underneath the witches' feet, their malicious cackles slowly dyeing down into pure silence.

     "Meow!" Thackeray meowed, rubbing up against his father's legs to try and get his attention, but it was no use. His father had no idea it was him, nor would he ever...