Personally, Andrew couldn't see it. Silver had silver hair and silver eyes. Although one could barely see his face properly because of his shades, it still bore no resemblance to that of Scarlet's. The biggest shock for him was to come to terms with the fact that he wasn't raising cats, but witches. That too, witches who were his grandma's responsibility. Not only did she ditch him but she left him with baggage. A soft buzzing woke Andrew up. He reached out and grabbed his phone and turned off the alarm.

  It had taken them a couple hours to reach the hideout. Andrew figured it would take at least that much more to go back. He decided he could squeeze a short nap in. Never before in his life had he physically worn himself out as much as he had in the past few hours. However, the nap wasn't nearly as helpful as he'd hoped it would be. Andrew rubbed his eyes miserably feeling a sharp stinging sensation behind his eyelids. As he further regained his senses, he looked around.

  Two pairs of eyes watched him from the opposite sofa. They were fixed on him. 'Were they watching me sleep?' He thought uncomfortably. He straightened up and faced them.

  "Andre," Scarlet cleared her throat. "What do you want to know?"

  It seemed that they had all of their important discussions while he slept. It was a shame; he had wanted to eavesdrop. Well, it was his turn and he needed to make sure to ask them the most important questions first.

  "Why do you call me Andre?" he started.

  Madelaine rolled her eyes and Scarlet giggled. "I've always called you that!" she said.

  "Ah, so that's what some of those meows translated to." Andrew nodded sagely. Madelaine rolled her eyes again.

  "I'm Scarlet. One of your grandmother's apprentices. The other, of course, is Elaine. Your grandmother used to live in the same village as us once."

  "And I am Madelaine, though you know that by now," Madelaine said. "You can call me Elaine."

  "Just a heads up-" interrupted Silver "everyone should call me Silver."

  Ignoring him, Elaine continued, "We've been on the- we've been away for over ten years now. Your grandmother found us again and hid- kept us with you in Ga- in your realm. We've been with you since. We were strictly instructed not to reveal our non-feline selves to you."

  "Your grandmother didn't tell us anything before she disappeared," Scarlet said.

  "Welcome to my world," Andrew sighed.

  Scarlet smiled sympathetically. "The news we get from the other realm comes in broken pieces. Unlike Sylves- uh, Silver, we don't have any state of the art technology. We've tried countless spells to locate her but we weren't able to. Then we thought we saw that she had surrendered herself."

  "You two saw that?"

  "In a crystal ball and everything,"

  "We have a crystal ball at home?"

  "We do."

  "Well, what exactly did you guys see?"

  "We didn't see it in a lot of detail. It's just as we said. We saw your grandma surrendering herself to Oz. I mean, at the time we thought it checked out since she left without telling us anything... Maybe that was why?"

  "Apparently we were wrong, though," said Elaine. "Because Sylve-ver... Silver, heard nothing of the sort."

  "And he's quite sure that she's not with them," Scarlet added.

  "I'd have heard something if she were," Silver said as he sat on an adjacent sofa. "I've pretty much gotten a hold of all of their communication lines."

  "Where do you think my grandmother went then?"

  "I don't know where she is but," said Silver upon silence from both Scarlet and Elaine "Oz has been on the move again. Seems they're planning something big."

  Scarlet and Elaine's faces were flushed with silent fury.

  "Your grandmother's probably trying to thwart their plans from the shadows again," Silver added nonchalantly, sitting up with a gulp upon receiving sharp glares from the two witches.

  "Again," Andrew repeated after him. He wasn't all that surprised. There were a million things she hadn't shared with him. He couldn't get surprised at each and every one of them. It all felt surreal to him.

  "Andrew," started Elaine, no doubt trying to be as tactful as she could. "I know there is a world of things you'd like to know, but we aren't sure where to begin and..." she paused, "maybe it'll be better to discuss it all when your grandmother is back with us."

  If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

  They were just trying to push off the burden to a later time. Who knew how long it would take for his grandmother to return? Andrew just nodded solemnly and the atmosphere went completely silent.

  -------

  Andrew's home, Skyridge Farm, was on a hill on the outskirts of Gate Town. The farm was at the base of Greenwood forest on its north and eastern sides; as one went deeper, it was utter wilderness. On the southern side was the edge of Skyridge peak, and to the west was the sloped road leading down to town. To reach Skyridge farm, one had to drive up the narrow road along the cliff that had been open to a deep and tragic fall. It was there that Andrew had lost his parents on the night of a deep fog. Having driven down that path a multitude of times, it was unimaginable that they would've fallen, no matter how thick a fog there might have been. Andrew had concocted various conspiracy theories about the event, much to the chagrin of his grandmother. She told him that sometimes he needed to accept loss, that that was the only way to move forward and live on. But they were his parents. They weren't some simple loss that he could accept with a sigh, and carry on with life.

  After that incident, the road had been redeveloped. The cliff from where his parents' car had fallen now had a strong rail guard running along it. It was after much of this development that Caroline had been permitted to come visit him (chaperoned by their butler, George). Her family had come once, in their chauffeur driven car, to offer his grandmother and him their condolences. When they verified that it was quite safe, they allowed Caroline to visit Andrew every so often to keep tabs on him. As for how Andrew went to school everyday, he walked down the hill to the bus stop.

  The stars were out by the time they had reached Andrew's desolate home. The witches had instructed Silver to go there directly. The jagged edges of Skyridge peak looked fearsome from the skies. It was like the land there had been violently bitten off. Like the wreckage of a ship that was chewed off by a large shark with razor sharp teeth in a movie he'd watched with Caroline.

  Andrew and his dad had tried to liven the area around Skyridge Peak. They'd built a small shed and a small wooden platform that little Andrew had called their watchtower. His parents had gotten him an expensive telescope for one of his birthdays, and he and his dad had spent some delightful nights stargazing there. Andrew realized that he hadn't gone back to their little corner since the last time they'd been there together. He tried to push the loneliness away and hinder it from affecting him. He refused to cry in front of strangers. Esther was there beside him, taking in the view as well. Her eyes were distant and though she had no bittersweet memories there, she seemed to be affected by the lonesome peak just as much as he was.

  As they landed, the atmosphere felt thick and Andrew felt that breathing was a bit more difficult than it had been a while back. It occurred to him to ask for their cell phone numbers and tell them to stay in touch, but then he began to wonder if witches even used cell phones. They descended the camouflaged skyship via the elevator wordlessly. What Andrew thought would be a sorrowful goodbye at the end of an exciting journey, ended up being not quite so.

  Scarlet pointed her gloved index finger at the main door, and it swung open and the interior lit up. Andrew was amused, as the most he did was unlock it, even turning the handle by himself. Magic really did make people lazy. The four of them walked inside ahead of him without even waiting for an invitation.

  "Huh," said Silver with a tone of disappointment as he looked around, "houses in this realm are the same as those in ours."

  "What were you expecting?" asked Esther.

  "I dunno," Silver yawned. "I expected them to be so mundane, that it would be intriguing." And with that, he plopped down on a sofa.

  Elaine had disappeared into the kitchen, and not more than 10 seconds later, reappeared with a tray of cold drinks and biscuits. She looked disapprovingly at Andrew. "You should buy more food. There's barely anything in the fridge!"

  Andrew shrugged. He wanted to tell her that firstly, he never expected guests. Secondly, why didn't she conjure up food with magic? Thirdly, food cost money and he needed to be careful with it. But he didn't want to be too rude to his guests, who didn't seem to be acting like guests. Then he remembered that Scarlet and Elaine were not entirely his guests. They too had been living in his house with him, but as cats.

  As everyone settled down on sofas on either side of the coffee table, he noted silently that the house hadn't had that many people in it for a long time. He glanced at each person, who sipped their drink in silence. Scarlet tapped her glass and it transformed into a cup with steam billowing out of it. She frowned. "Andre, we are running out of teabags."

  Andrew wasn't entirely sure they had a pack in the first place.

  "Please get more. I'm a tea person. Milk, no sugar. You must remember from now on."

  Andrew's heart leapt to his throat. He didn't understand the meaning behind those words.

  "Ah yes. And I'm a coffee person. Milk, three spoons of sugar," Elaine said.

  Did it mean they meant to visit from now on? Andrew bit down the smile his lips twitched with. He refused to delude himself so he asked to be sure. "What do you mean?"

  "Well," Elaine said haughtily, "I'm sorry if you preferred us as cats, but we won't be living in that form from now on!"

  He lost her there. He was about to express that when Scarlet spoke up.

  "I suppose we better finish discussing these matters now, we're all tired after all." She looked at Andrew with a serious expression. "Andre, please clear up your junk from the other two rooms. I'd always tell you as a cat, but of course you wouldn't understand. Elaine and I will not be occupying such a small space anymore."

  "You will be staying here?"

  Elaine and Scarlet exchanged glances. "Uh... Well, for the time being we thought-"

  Andrew could no longer suppress the smile, that came out as a hefty grin. "I'll... I'll clean them up!" he exclaimed, a bit too excitedly.

  "Good," sniffed Elaine. "Or else I'll throw them out."

  "Well, we better head back," Silver got up and stretched.

  "You could stay back and rest a while," Scarlet suggested. She looked disappointed when he refused the offer. There were meetings to attend and business to take care of. With that, Silver and Esther headed back to the ship and disappeared into the sky. The two witches and Andrew stood outside and watched them go.

  "Maybe next time Es can stay back... Though I don't even know what to say to her after..." Scarlet trailed off. Elaine nodded silently.

  "I wonder how they got to know each other though. I can barely recognize Sylly now. To think it's been 10 years since I saw him," Scarlet lamented. "He grew up so much."

  "At least you got to see him," Elaine muttered as they walked back into the house.