Linda surveyed her work with satisfaction. She turned to Lucy and pointed to the revolting mess. "Scrape it off, toad breath," she hissed.
Lucy did not move. Dorinda - who was terrified of Linda and always tried to be helpful - grabbed a spade from a pile of implements in the corner and handed it to Lucy. Linda glared at Dorinda; this was not how she had intended for Lucy to remove the mess. Lucy seized the spade, but Linda was no fool. She saw the way Lucy was eyeing her. "I'll do it," Linda snapped, snatching away the spade.
Linda's angry shoveling revealed a pressed dead cat, a rat's nest with three babies - which she flattened with the spade - and finally a massive rusted iron trapdoor.
"Oooh," Dorinda trilled rather nervously.
Silence fell and everyone stared at the trapdoor. No one - not even the Witch Mother - knew what lay beneath. Of course they had all heard stories, and if the stories were only a little bit true it was certainly not going to be anything soft and cuddly. Suddenly, very dramatically - because Linda liked a bit of drama - Linda raised her arms and began to chant in a high wail, "Mirg...Mirg...Mirg ekawa, ekawa. Mirg...Mirg...Mirg - ekawaaaaaaaa!"
Wolf Boy had learned enough from his time with Aunt Zelda to know that this was a Darke Reverse Chant. But even if he had not known, there was something about the weird, catlike way Linda sang the words that made the blood feel cold in his veins. In front of him, Lucy shivered. She glanced back at Wolf Boy, the whites of her eyes shining. For the first time she looked afraid.
The chant died away, silence fell once more and an unpleasant feeling of expectation filled the air. Suddenly a tremor ran through the floor and Wolf Boy felt something shift. It was not a good feeling - he knew the rotten state of the Coven's floorboards and joists. A small whimper escaped from Dorinda.
Linda's eyes shone with excitement. She took the spade and stabbed it at the edge of the trapdoor, dislodging a mummified black snake that was curled in the gap. The snake flew into the air and joined the chicken head on top of Dorinda's towel. Dorinda froze, not daring to move. With the snake gone, Linda got the spade under the gap around the trapdoor; she gave it a powerful shove, and the trapdoor began to rise. Wolf Boy discovered he had been holding his breath. He breathed out, and when he breathed in again the smell of old fish and dirty water filled his nose. As the trapdoor rose, a swishing, gurgling sound emerged, and Wolf Boy realized that there was water below - deep water, by the sound of it.
The measured rising of the trapdoor mesmerized the occupants of the kitchen, including the cats, which for once stopped their hissing. Everyone watched the trapdoor slowly travel through 180 degrees and silently lay itself flat upon the floor, revealing a large square hole covered with a metal grating. Linda kneeled down, heaved off the grating and threw it to one side. She peered into the depths. Ten feet below, water rocked gently to and fro, its oily black surface just visible in the dim light. All seemed surprisingly calm. Irritated, Linda leaned farther - where was the Grim?
As if in answer, the surface of the water suddenly broke, and with a tremendous swish, a long black tentacle snaked into the air and thumped down onto the kitchen floor. Dorinda screamed. Wolf Boy reeled back - the tentacle had a strong stench of the Darkeness about it. Laughing, Linda smashed her spade on the tentacle. Wolf Boy winced - Darke or not, that must have hurt. The tentacle slithered back through the trapdoor and fell into the water with a splash. The water rocked and rippled for a few seconds, a few bubbles erupted, and some lazy red swirls of blood drifted to its oily surface.
Linda turned to face Lucy with a triumphant smile. "That was the Grim, Rabbitface. It will be back soon. And when it returns you can say hello to it, can't you? And if you speak nicely, it might be kind and drown you before it smashes you to bits. Or not. Ha ha."
Lucy glared at Linda. This did not go down well with the witch; Linda liked her victims scared, screaming and begging for mercy. Preferably all three, but any one of those would do. But Lucy was not obliging and that was really getting to Linda. Angrily, she grasped Lucy's arm and dug her nails in. Lucy did not flinch. Wolf Boy was deep in feral mode and thinking fast. Any minute now he was sure that Lucy's defiance was going to get her thrown through the trapdoor - he had to do something. Wolf Boy realized what he must do, but the problem was he was pretty sure it was something that Lucy would not take to very well. But there was no choice. He took a deep breath and said again, "I have come to feed the Grim. What will you give me?"
Linda looked furious - what was the boy up to? But she knew the Rules of the Coven, and she wasn't going to break them, particularly as she already thought of it as her Coven. "May I answer, Witch Mother?" she asked. The Witch Mother was finding the whole Grim business rather a strain. Her memory was not so good nowadays. She was getting older and didn't like changes in routine. And she particularly did not like tentacles.
"You may," she replied, unable to keep the relief out of her voice. Linda bared her teeth at Wolf Boy, like a dog that knows it has won a fight but will still not back down. "We give you this," she replied, poking Lucy sharply with the spade.
"What say you?"
Wolf Boy took a very deep breath. "Yes," he said.
Lucy spun around and glared at Wolf Boy.
"Oooh," Dorinda trilled, overcome with admiration for Wolf Boy. "Ooooh!"
Linda looked somewhat deflated. She had decided to push Lucy straight in after the boy refused her - which she was sure he would - and she had been looking forward to it. She had, in fact, decided to push the boy in too. Linda read a lot of detective novels and knew all about how important it was to get rid of witnesses. But she knew the Rules. She sighed petulantly. "Then let her be yours for GrimFood. Hmph."
"Good!" said the Witch Mother cheerily, as though someone had just told her that supper was ready. "That's settled then. Come on, girls. Time to go."
Linda had forgotten this part - that the GrimFeeder must be left to feed the Grim alone. For a moment her self-control left her - believe it or not, Linda had been exercising a fair amount of self-control in her treatment of Lucy - and she stamped her foot and screamed, "Nooooooo!"
"Come along now, Linda," said the Witch Mother disapprovingly. "Leave the GrimFeeder to do his work." And then, in a loud whisper, "We'll go upstairs and listen. Much more fun that way. And less...messy."
Linda refrained from saying she liked the messy parts, that ever since she dragged Lucy up from the cellar she had been really looking forward to the messy parts. Sulkily she followed the Witch Mother up the ladder. She was not, she told herself, going to put up with being bossed around for very much longer - not very much longer at all. Wolf Boy and Lucy watched the spiky boots of the Witch Mother disappear through the hole in the ceiling. They heard Linda heave the Witch Mother onto the landing (the Witch Mother had trouble with her knees), and then they listened to the shuffling of feet as the witches gathered to hear the sounds of the GrimFeeding. Right on cue a great gurgling came from the pit below. Three tentacles snaked out of the black water and slammed down onto the edge of the trapdoor with a tremendous thud. Lucy glared at Wolf Boy. Her nostrils flared like an angry horse, and she tossed her head.
"Don't even think of it, rat boy," she snarled, "or it will be you in there with the tentacles."
"I had to say it," hissed Wolf Boy, "otherwise they'd have pushed you in. This way, we get some time - some time to think how to get out of here."
Wolf Boy knew that the witches were upstairs waiting for the sounds of him feeding Lucy to the Grim, and he knew that they would not wait long. If they came down and discovered Lucy still in an undigested state, he had a pretty good idea of what would happen - they would both be GrimFood.
"We haven't got much time," he whispered. "I've a plan to get out of here, but you'll have to do what I say. Okay?"
"Do what you say? Why should I?"
Suddenly, with a head-spinning lurch, the floor heaved and a wash of filthy water spewed through the trapdoor. The Grim had surfaced.
"Yes," Lucy hissed urgently. "Yes. I'll do what you say. I promise."
"Okay. Good. Now listen to me - you are going to have to scream. Can you do that?"
Lucy's eyes lit up. "Oh, yes. I can scream. How loud?"
"As loud as you can," said Wolf Boy.