The Haunted National Park: A Tale from the Peter Wood Multiverse
Chapter Seven: The Alchemy Lab

“So, how do we get to your lab again?” Peter asked.

“Through the fridge. It’s the one I brought along with me when I was forced to flee from my home. It was just after the civil war started actually.” The Witch took a key out of one of her robe’s pockets and stuck it in the key handle underneath the fridge’s door handle.

“Wait,” said Lily. “Civil War?”

“Oh, come on now.” Said the Witch, fighting with the key. “I know they’ve separated our people pretty much completely now, but surely the paranormal world must have heard something about what’s been going on in the Wizardlands. Ah, there we go!” The fridge finally opened up and to Peter’s and the others’ surprise, she walked right in and said, “Alright, you three. Come on in.”

If Peter’s parents knew that he and his friends were about to willingly stuff themselves into a large fridge at the request of a complete stranger—and a witch no less—they would have grounded him for the rest of his life. He was very happy then that they were nowhere in sight.

The three of them hesitantly stepped into the fridge, the witch closed the door when they were finally in and bunched up together, and they waited in silence. After a few moments of nothing happening, Peter decided to try and open the door. Perhaps the witch just couldn’t open the door because she was stuffed at the back.

But when Peter reached for the edge of the door, the Witch told him to wait. They all turned to her and watched as she counted down from ten. Only when she was finished did she open the door, and reveal to them her alchemy lab. The room itself looked like it was carved out of a glacier, as every wall as well as the ceiling was made from ice. All around the room were various tables and alchemy equipment covered in frost and many of the items were also covered in snow. To Peter’s surprise, there was also an area made separate from the lab space that was set up to be more of a living space. In this area were a sofa, a couple of chairs, a tall bookshelf, and a small kitchen space. There was even a lit brick fireplace that somehow wasn’t melting the walls around it or even the icicles that were built up on it. The rest of the living area it was centred in looked quite warm all the same, though.

“Well, here it is.” Said the Witch. “My home away from home. You can go ahead and put your things on one of the chairs if you like and I’ll start melting off this frost on my equipment.”

“Oh, this all looks so cool!” said Lily. “Why is your lab inside your fridge, though?”

“Because this way I can just leave out certain ingredients that need to be refrigerated without having to fuss about whether or not they’ll go bad.” The Witch then waved her magic wand while standing in front of her equipment and all of the frost and snow that had built up on it all instantly began to melt away. “Odd for so much snow and ice to have been built up over such little time, but no matter. Come, children, let's start looking for those ingredients for your project.”

The ingredients in question that they spent the next few minutes looking for turned out to be: pumpernickel, a small vial of living slime, as well as some fools’ gold.

“Now, children,” said the Witch as they searched. “I am going to need something from you in return for these ingredients.”

“Like what?” Peter asked, warily. “None of us brought any money with us.”

“No, no, nothing like that. What I need is just some information. From what I can tell, I made my sleeping potion too strong and as a result, I believe I’ve been asleep much longer than I originally planned to be. I would like some help trying to figure out based on what you know, specifically about what’s going on in the war.”

“You mean that civil war that you were talking about earlier?” said Lily. “We don’t know that much about it either.”

“Yes, that’s what confuses me the most actually. While I don’t expect you to know all the details of my people’s civil war, I replace it surprising to hear that you don’t know anything about it. What about the attack on Antirrhinum Majus? Please try and think hard about it, I’m trying to gauge how my family has been doing all this time. The attack would have had something to do with a resistance movement fighting against MAG-PAR and attacking the security forces that were stationed there using Yukon Dragons.”

“Antirrhinum Majus? You mean Snapdragon, the wizardkin school?” Peter asked. “Well, we never hear much about the Wizardlands to be honest, especially not Snapdragon—you guys usually keep all of that a secret from us paranormals. But we have friends who know kids at that school so there’s no way we wouldn’t have—”

“Wait a second…” Lily chimed in. “Magical Parliament officials attacked with dragons at Snapdragon? I have heard of it! But…that was so long ago…in our history books that they--your government--put out a rumour that they were keeping the children of the resistance fighters locked up in the school as a way of luring out parents in the resistance who were acting out against the government.”

“Yes,” said the Witch. “Me and the other members of the resistance searched all over the Wizardlands for those of our children who had been snatched. And when we realized where they had supposedly been taken—before we realized it was a trap—we decided to hit them hard.”

“Wait, you?” said Lily. She and Peter were no longer searching for the ingredients they needed. “You’re saying that you were part of the resistance that burned the school down? With all of those people inside?”

The Witch stopped what she was doing, turned away from her table to look at them and then softly said, “Yes.”

“But why?” Peter asked. “Why would you—”

“Because they took my daughter from me.” Said the Witch in a much higher tone. “Look, I don’t expect a child like you to understand, but…there isn’t anything I wouldn’t do to protect Angelina—my daughter—or to get her out of harm's way.”

“Wait,” said Lily. “Your daughter’s name was Angelina—?”

“Look,” said Peter, abruptly. “I know you want us to believe you’re a nice person and all,” said Peter. “But what about when you used your magic to strike out at Lily earlier just because she had your daughter’s bear?”

“Yes, which brings us to my next point which is just as important for you to understand and believe…I would never do anything to hurt another mother’s child…not…not intentionally. You’re completely right to call me out on what happened in the hallway, though. I overreacted. I’m sorry. It’ll never happen again.”

“Well…OK then.” Said Lily. “I forgive you…as long as you promise not to do that again.”

“I won’t. You have my word.” After a few moments of uneasy silence, the Witch then smiled at them weakly and said, “How about this then: you two go over to my lab’s living area and warm up by the fireplace. You should replace a magical plate on the coffee table that refills itself with fresh, warm, chocolate chip cookies. Have as many as you like. I’ll keep looking for the ingredients and preparing them.”

And with that, Peter and Lily made their way to the sofa by the fireplace. The plate of rather large cookies was right where the Witch said they were on the coffee table. They were right between a pile of napkins and a pile of old copies of a magazine called, The Monthly Spell-Book. Peter picked one up and begin looking it over.

“Hey, Lily,” he said, giving her a nudge. “Have a look at how old this magazine is. It says it’s from the 1800s! Cool right?”

Lily didn’t answer at first, but she did take the magazine from him, examined the publication date on it, and then carefully and quietly placed it back down on the coffee table. She kept looking over her shoulder the and back of the couch—keeping a close eye on the Witch as she worked at her lab area. Then Lily whispered, “Peter, I…I think we should leave.”

“Yeah? You don’t buy her apology then?” Peter had to admit, he was starting to think Mindy was right about the Witch being more dangerous than he first anticipated.

“It’s not that…I think I know who she is now…I think I finally understand what she’s been talking about whenever she mentions her people’s ‘civil war.’”