Fire Locks

Chapter 6

Third person pov

"Mark, I don't think that's supposed to be bubbling."

"What are you- oh shit, I think you're right."

Mark, Atlas, and Nev all stood surrounding a large cauldron in the cave beneath Ella's house, peering down into it with expressions ranging from mildly-concerned to completely horrified. Their witch friend had been attempting to make a potion that would allow them to communicate with someone from an alternate universe. As far as they could tell, they'd had no success. Now all they were left with was this simmering vat of sludge. It was probably toxic. They probably should've been wearing respirators of some sort. If any of them contracted a form of cancer after this, they wouldn't be surprised. 

"W-What's that?" Nev asked nervously as something bubbled to the top. Everyone leaned back cautiously as the sludge rolled off of it. They hadn't put anything in that hadn't disintegrated into the concoction. They'd even tried bones and they'd been eaten up almost immediately by the mystery liquid. They were too afraid to try and dispose of it. What if it ate a hole into the ground or something? Or killed the grass in the yard? They weren't going to risk it. Mark had worked too hard and too long keeping it green to let it all go now. 

"I have no fucking idea." Mark admitted, squinting at it. "Satan's offspring?"

"Probably." Atlas agreed, nodding definitively. It kind of did look like a fetus if you looked at it from an angle. What were they going to do if it was alive? Maybe they could cook it and feed it to Earl. He seemed to take just about anything they left out as an offering. Assume that was him and not some other random entity living inside the house. Which was a good possibility. Perhaps they should invest in some better rat poison...

The cauldron's bubbling slowly got more and more violent to the point where it was sloshing out. It got pretty bubbly at times, but not like this. It wasn't supposed to do this. Well, maybe it was. They really couldn't say seeing as they had no fucking idea what it was. They just stepped back and watched the liquid absolutely demolish the floor around the cauldron. There was no coming back from this, honestly. They would just have to fill the gaps with concrete or something. The wood wasn't going to recover. Well, assuming Ella didn't use some random spell to fix it up.

Mark and Atlas let out screams of pure terror when something on fire flew from the cauldron like a bat out of hell. Nev shrieked for a good few seconds, his hands flying up to cover his eyes as it spun awkwardly onto the ground. The wooden floors had an enchantment on them that prevented them from catching on fire most of the time. Luckily, it seemed to work in this case, leaving them all to wait until the flames died down. The cauldron had presented them with things before, but never had it spat them out in a furious blaze. 

"That's new." Atlas whispered after a moment of tense silence. Nev had yet to uncover his face.

"Yeah, normally they just bubble to the top and we get em' out with the prongs." Mark noted. They had a special pair of prongs made out of what Ella called an 'enchanted tree'. Mark and Atlas were pretty sure she'd bought them at a Home Goods store in the village though. How they withstood the mixture was a true mystery. Maybe she hadn't been bullshitting them. 

"Fire is a chemical reaction that produces light and heat." Nev murmured. Atlas and Mark expertly ignored him. It was normal for him to spout out random facts, no matter how obvious they happened to be. 

Atlas didn't hesitate to shove Mark towards the thing that had just flown out of their pot of god knows what. The tattooed boy shot him a glare before turning and slowly approaching it. It was crumbled up into a weird shape that almost made the dark-haired teen think it was a mouse of some sort. He crouched down, nose scrunching up. Why did they all smell like grape laffy taffy? How had she done that? Essential oils?