Anya brushed her hair out in front of the mirror.  "Maybe we're the wrong ones, Dimitri.  Come on, a nice little old widow is a murderer?  We just don't understand her..."

Dimitri stopped his pacing and turned to look at her.  "I've been right about everything so far, haven't I?  Trust me, I understand that she's up to something!"

Anya turned around, her long red hair tumbling around her shoulders in soft curls.  "Okay, so you claim she's a so-called killer.  We need a little more proof than just a collection of guns, Dimitri."

He snapped his fingers.  "I got it.  Let's sneak in, get Vlad's medicine, exchange it, then test it out on something.  Then when the something dies, we can show him!"

Anya sighed.  "And what, Sherlock, do you plan to try it out on?"

"Well, Watson, I was thinking maybe a small animal...like a mouse."

"A mouse?!  You can't kill an innocent little animal!  Throw it in a plant or something, but not an animal!"

"Since when did a mouse become 'innocent'?  Those things nearly wiped out all of Europe during the Bubonic Plague!"

Anya pulled her hair up into it's high ponytail. "Fine, a mouse.  But I refuse to catch it."

"Just help me then," Dimitri said.  "We can go to the basement and put one in a crate, then feed it the medicine which will be put out later tonight.  We'll steal it when Vlad's in the bathroom brushing his teeth."

Anya raised an eyebrow.  "You have everything planned out, huh?"

Dimitri grinned teasingly.  "I was just waiting for the right time to use it."

The two snuck down the back stairs to the pantry.  After grabbing a piece of cheese, Dimitri lit a candle and placed it on a holder, then slowly opened the creaky door to the basement.  The two walked down the steps, Dimitri holding the candle out in front of him to light the way.

"This has bad horror story written all over it!" Anya whispered.  "Look out, there's a spider over your head!"  Dimitri ducked down quickly.

"Ew...she probably keeps it as a pet!"

Anya laughed quietly.  "Wiebke must be a cousin that Comrade Phelemingkof never mentioned."

The next step broke through, leaving Dimitri to have to quickly scramble out of it and hop onto the next.  He helped Anya jump over it.  "This place is like a maze!"

They reached the bottom of the 'never-ending stairs' and began to look around.  Dimitri grabbed an old moth-eaten cloth.

"Okay, you scare a mouse my way, I'll grab it's tail with this cloth and throw it into this box over here, and then we'll get the medicine and feed it to our friend Monsieur Rodent."

"Fine, fine...OW!  Do you mind using that candle for BOTH of us to see with, please??  I just bumped into some huge box!"  Anya grabbed the candle and leaned over it.  "Look at these corners!  I bumped right into them!"

But Dimitri was looking at something else.  He dusted off the corner of a book laying on top of it.  "What's this writing on it say?"

Anya peered at it.  "I don't know, it's in German.  I can't read German.  It looks suspicious, doesn't it?  I bet it's a curse book or something.  It looks eerie with that picture of three witches on the front."

Dimitri smirked.  "Now who's jumping to conclusions?"

Anya sniffed.  "Well, it does!"

"Hmm...maybe she's a witch!"

"A witch?  Oh come on, Dimitri.  She's not some gingerbread witch after Hansel and Gre -- oh good grief, we're Hansel and Gretal aren't we??  She could eat us!"

Dimitri rolled his eyes.  "Let's just find that mouse already and get out of here!"  He laid the cheese down on the ground then hopped up on a crate.  He scooted over to allow Anya a place to sit beside him.

After waiting for what felt like hours (in reality 15 minutes), they were both considerably antsy.  Dimitri felt Anya tickle his back.  He laughed.

"Come on, Anya, stop."

"Stop what?"

He laughed harder as she tickled faster.  "Stop, stop!"

Anya raised an eyebrow.  "Stop WHAT?"

"Tickling!"  By now he was bent over in laughter.

Anya didn't find the matter as funny.

"I'm not tickling you..."

Dimitri's laughter stopped.  He slowly looked at her, eyes wide.  "Then what IS?"

They both stared at each other in shock then let out twin, piercing screams.

"AHHHHHH!!!!!"

Dimitri jumped up and started to run around frantically, swatting crazily at his back.  In her haste to get as far away from the mysterious tickler as possible, Anya knocked the candle over, leaving the basement covered in darkness.  This didn't help Dimitri's sanity.

"AHHH get it OFF get it OFF!"

"It's the curse!" Anya screamed as she tripped over a box.  She stumbled to get herself up.  "It's coming after you!!"

"NO it came after you, it just mistook ME!  GET IT OFF!"

They collided into each other.  Anya quickly grabbed the cloth and pulled something large and warm off his back.

"AHHHH It's a...it's a...MOUSE!! AHH!!!!"  Anya dropped the mouse onto the ground.

"A mouse?!  Get it, fast!"

"I let it go!"

Dimitri started to scramble desperately in the dark, reaching out for the rodent in vain.  He knocked into a large barrel and tumbled to the ground.  Anya tripped over him and fell on top of Dimitri.

A wave of light splashed onto their faces, illuminating their vision.

"Good heavens!  Children!"  Wiebke was at the top of the stairs, Vlad peeking around her to see.

Dimitri and Anya shared a distraught look.

"They'd never believe us if we told them..."

© 1999 AnyaMuse@aol.com
© 1999 AnyaCI@aol.com