Bagsy Beetlehorn and the Vampire Affairs (The Bagsy Chronicles 4)

Sight, Words and Strength

Gulping, Bagsy spread the cards out on the table. She did genuinely wonder if she had the sight, so she figured there was no harm in taking this test seriously. Closing her eyes, she tried to see if she felt anything special or any kind of visions leading her in a specific direction. When she opened her eyes again she randomly picked a card with a blue cat on it. She thought it looked cute.

Primrose let out a breath of amazement, revealing the card in the pouch to also be a blue cat. The crowd let out gasps, some of them lightly clapping.

'Next round,' Primrose said theatrically, revealing she was holding another black bag and pushing a selection of objects in Bagsy's direction. 'Same deal, Bagsy. Can you figure it out or are you so dumb you need me to repeat?'

'No.' Bagsy's voice small in the presence of such a big group of people. She looked at the objects. A fork, a picture frame, a bow, and other strange ornaments looked back. Not sure exactly what she was meant to do, she selected the fork. Primrose raised her eyebrows and pulled an object from the bag to reveal an identical fork. Even more gasps and clapping followed.

'Finally,' said Primrose. 'The verbal round. This one's trickier. I'll drink this,' Primrose held up a vial of black liquid, 'which will make the word I say take form in writing in the air. I'll speak the word quietly into this bag,' she held up a final black pouch, 'and once Bagsy has guessed what the word is I'll open this to prove if she got it correct or not. If she has, the only explanation is that she has the sight!'

Ooooh's of anticipation sounded. To Bagsy, it was like the terrifying wailing of a siren.

Primrose grimaced. 'Alright Bagsy, let's see if you can do it.' Primrose downed the black liquid and whispered something into the bag.

Feeling hopeless, Bagsy thought long and hard. She figured she'd been lucky so far. If she had the sight, wouldn't a vision be telling her what to say? Deciding to get this over with, she forced out the first word that came to her. 'Snake.'

Primrose's face fell and she looked at Bagsy blankly. 'Snake?' Her eyes narrowed. 'Are you sure? Snake? That's your answer? You don't want to change it?'

'Uhh...' Bagsy stumbled.

Primrose cut over her, 'Actually, it's too late. You made your choice. Fine. Snake it is.' Holding the pouch above her head, Primrose pulled it open and let five black letters slither into the air.

The word snake sat smugly above them.

Bagsy felt as if she'd been slapped. She couldn't think of any other explanation – she had to have the sight. It was too much of a coincidence.

The crowd erupted with elated cheers.

'She's an amazing actor and she can tell the future?' someone gasped.

Bagsy put her hands over her ears, just wanting all the noise to stop.

'Finally,' Mezrielda's familiar voice breathed next to her. 'I had to bulldoze my way here. Come on, I doubt you like being at the centre of this.' Then, with guiding confidence, Bagsy felt Mezrielda's hands help her away from the table and out of the crowd, pushing through the other bodies to make a path.

Primrose watched them go, a dark grin on her face.

Once they were out of the hall and had some distance between them and the raucous noise, Bagsy fell against a wall and slid down to the floor, her arms and hands held out in front of her as they shook, and her head falling to face the floor from insurmountable tiredness.

Mezrielda sat down next to her quietly. 'Sorry I didn't get to you sooner. Those gremlins refused to budge and I'm sure you're aware I'm not as capable of bending people to my will as I have been in the past.'