Mr. Easy let out a groan, then mumbled something about seeing her medical license.
"What's that? You need more gas?" the witch said, shoving the mask back onto the man's face. Several seconds later he returned to la-la land. "I used to sell candy out of this place, but once the story got around, I couldn't drag children into the store."
"The Hansel and Gretel story?" Daphne said to clarify.
The witch nodded. "It ruined my business."
"Are you surprised?" Sabrina said.
"You did try to eat them," Daphne added.
"Oh, I did not!" the witch said, suddenly jerking and making a terrible cracking sound in Mr. Easy's mouth. "I was just trying to scare the little brats."
"That's not what I read," Sabrina said. She knew the story of Hansel and Gretel, two children who wandered into the woods and found a house made out of candy and gingerbread. The witch had captured the children and tried to fatten them up so she could devour them. It was gruesome stuff.
"Well, you shouldn't believe everything you read. First of all, those kids were out of control, wandering around in the woods, making all kinds of racket. I mean, what kind of parent lets their kids play in a forest? Really! People should have to have a license to have children.
"Second, they were eating my house," the witch continued as she went back to work on Mr. Easy's bicuspid. "The boy was outside gnawing on the fence, the girl was licking the shutters. Mongrels, that's what they were. I called the police and you know what they told me? If I was going to live in a house made of candy, I should expect children to come along and eat it. Is that what I was paying taxes for? No! So, I took the law into my own hands."
"You put them into a cage!" Sabrina said.
Puck laughed. "That's so awesome."
"It was only for a couple of hours. I fed them too, and trust me, it was the only decent meal the kids had had in a long time. Their mother never saw a carbohydrate she didn't love, and those kids were really packing on the pounds. That's the part of the story no one's ever heard. Yes, I fed them, but I gave them a salad. They had no idea what it was--apparently, they'd never had a meal that wasn't covered in cheese sauce! Well, after dinner I let them go and before I knew it I was being called a cannibal. The only thing bigger than their waistbands was their imagination."
The witch set her tools down and took off her rubber gloves. "Mr. Easy, I've got good news and bad news," she said to her patient, who gazed at her dreamily. "The good news is we're going to be able to save the bicuspid. The bad news: All the other teeth are going to have to come out."
"What?" Mr. Easy cried.
"You need more gas," Frau Pfefferkuchenhaus said as she took the mask and put it over her patient's mouth and nose. "Just breathe deep."
Mr. Easy's head was wobbly and a line of drool was dribbling down his chin. "Mughadinkalbeettershpliem," he mumbled.
The witch got up from her chair and led the children out into the hallway.
"We don't want to bother you, but we were wondering if anything has been stolen. Say, something magical?" Sabrina said.
The ancient witch shuffled uncomfortably and nodded. "I had a small vial of water from the Fountain of Youth."
"Why didn't you ever use it?" Puck asked rudely.
"It doesn't make you young," she replied with an angry glare.
"Uh, can we back up? What does this water do?" Daphne said.
"It stops you from getting any older. For an Everafter like me, it's worthless--we're immortal anyway--but I thought I might make a little extra cash someday selling what little I have to a human. Unfortunately, when I came in this morning, it was gone. Someone stole it right out of my locker."
"Could we take a look at the locker?" Sabrina asked.
The witch led the children down a hallway into a small room. There they found a table, some jackets hanging on the wall, and a row of lockers. One of the lockers had the door ripped off its hinges. It lay on the floor in a twisted heap.
"Whoever did it was strong enough to rip the door off," the witch said.
"No," Sabrina said, holding the warped locker door. "It pushed itself out from the inside. If someone had ripped it off, the bend would be going in the opposite direction."
She looked inside the locker and spotted the woman's handbag. There was a small hole in the side of it, identical to the one in Morgan le Fay's bag.
"So, you think whatever stole the water came out of this locker?" the witch said.
Sabrina nodded.
"Can you get the vial back for me?" the old witch continued.
"We're going to try," Sabrina said. "But maybe you can answer one more question. So far, the Wand of Merlin, the Wonder Clock, and your magic water are missing. Why would someone want those three things?"