Rats!?!?

This is more insanity from my past.

“There are rats in the soufflé again,” my sister said.

“Good. It give you power,” the leader of our coven replied as she scratched the wart at the tip of her long, pointy nose.

“Eww, that’s sick,” our newest member, Anna said with a tinge of green creeping into her face.

I just watched them all with disinterest as I ladled the egg mixture into small wooden bowls. Of the thirteen members of the coven, I was the oddball, but I supposedly had the most power. As each member came forward to get their food. I slyly slid a touch of salt onto each bowl. After all, we did need protection from ourselves.

We sat in a semicircle around the roaring fire, eating our rat soufflé. I could hear Anna complaining about the rats even though I had sat as far away from her as possible. I smiled to myself, anticipating her discovering the salamander I had slipped into hers from under a nearby rock. My patience was rewarded as she screamed in revulsion. She threw her bowl straight into the fire. We all watched it go up with a puff of oily smoke.

“You dare to disobey me,” our leader said, rising from the ground. “You must eat all of the pre-ceremony meal or be punished before a curse comes upon all of us. What punishment does she deserve?”

The leader turned to me for an answer. I paused for a moment, pondering the best torture. Suddenly my mind felt clear and I knew what would be perfect.

“The punishment for disobeying—the only punishment that will keep a curse from befalling us all is to tie her to the nearest tree and tickle her,” I said pointing to the broad bole of a nearby oak tree.

We grabbed her and tied her to the tree with licorice whips and tickled her until she begged for mercy. Thus ended our only game of “we’re all witches” and began the tickle fight heard round the block.