The night was quiet. The street lamps dotting the square glowed, leaving only pockets of darkness. Fog obscured the far end of the square so that the vague shape of the pumpkin house was the only thing visible.

  The shop wasn’t marked with a difficulty level. If she was lucky, she could just buy the vitamins like they could buy food from Charlie.

  Laura turned the corner. This street was much darker than near the square. Laura could clearly see inside the shop from a block away. Glowing lights spilled through broad picture windows, and a glass door gave an unobstructed view of low level shelves and a dark wood counter along the back wall. A woman stood behind the counter, sorting into jars. Her long curly dark hair was loose, and she wore denim overalls over a velvet shirt with long sleeves.

  The majority of the shelves were stuffed full of books, crystals, and other magical looking items. The sign above the shop door said The Witch’s Wager. As Laura looked at the sign a message popped up.

  This shop has what you seek if you can afford it. But if you can’t, there is an alternative. Are you brave enough to take the Witch’s Wager?

  A bell rang over the door when Laura pushed it open. The woman behind the counter looked up. Witch - Level 20. That was a frighteningly high number, but in a way maybe it was good news. Laura couldn’t possibly be expected to fight her.

  Laura looked through the shelves of items, cautiously working her way farther into the store.

  On the counter a small cauldron bubbled to one side, but instead of candy like the shop used to have, it contained a foul looking sludge instead. Behind the witch were tall shelves full of dozens of identical glass jars to the ones she was sorting into, each with any number of odd ingredients. Cursive script in gold labeled one jar as “bat fangs”, another said “poisoned mushrooms”, and yet another, confusingly, said “poisonous mushrooms”. There was also an orchard’s worth of dried fruits and flowers, including one jar labeled “cherries gathered under a full moon”.

  “Special items are behind the counter,” the witch said. She didn’t pause in sorting herbs and other items into the glass jars in front of her. Occasionally she dropped something into the cauldron.

  Laura continued to browse the shelves, hoping that somehow her vitamins would be shelved amongst the books and baubles. Behind the counter implied expensive.

  All the books were magic related. There were volumes on any number of topics including defensive spellcasting, controlling inanimate objects, and one particularly dark book on reanimation. Caroline would probably kick someone in the nuts to get her hands on any one of these books. Laura picked up one book titled “Beginning Transmutation”, but wasn’t able to open it.

  Your charisma is insufficient to access this item.

  She put the book back. When she reached the end of the shelves she took a deep breath, and strode towards the counter.

  “I’m here for prenatal vitamins.”

  “Congratulations,” the witch said with a curving smile. She didn’t blink. She snagged a mouse that was running across the counter, and then with a wrinkle of her nose turned it into individual components—bones, fur, a vial of blood—and dropped it all in the cauldron. Her hands remained spotless.

  She sealed the remaining glass jars and transferred them back to the shelves behind her. She trailed her hand down the shelves, then pulled a bundle of herbs out of one of the jars. From another shelf she pulled a brass bowl with a green candle.

  She set the items on the counter in front of Laura. With a wave of the witch’s hand, the wick of the green candle burst into flame. She set the candle in the bowl. Then she dipped the end of the herb bundle in the fire until it started smouldering. She waved the bundle around Laura, the fragrance from the herbs wafting around her, then dropped the bundle into the bowl with the candle where it continued to smoke. “A little luck spell for the baby. Gratis.”

  Laura hadn’t ever been one to visit metaphysical shops, but in that moment all she could think was that she hoped it would work here. “Thank you. I could use all the luck I can get.”

  The witch pushed the bowl to one side and pulled out a bottle of vitamins and set it on the counter. They looked like any typical bottle of prenatal vitamins Laura would have found in a pharmacy, right down to the plastic seal around the cap.

  “These will cost you 30 tickets.”

  Laura laughed. Even if she borrowed tickets from the others she probably still wouldn't have been able to come up with that much.

  “I could loan you the tickets,” the witch continued, “but the interest is fairly exorbitant.”

  “How exorbitant?” Could Laura even be sent to collections by a witch from an alien bubble?

  “Your firstborn.”

  Laura’s blood ran cold.

  “There is one other option besides the loan, of course.” The woman pulled a silver tray from under the counter. On it were two perfect candy apples. “One is poisoned. One is safe. Can you tell which is which? Choose one to eat and I eat the other.”

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  The Witch’s Wager.

  “How does the economics of this work exactly?” Laura mused, as she let the blanket slip from around her shoulders. The smell of the burning herbs still clung to her hair.

  “The antidote is 100 tickets. And people become a lot more receptive to the terms of the loan once their life is slipping away.”

  Laura wondered if there was any parent on earth who would take those terms. But of course there were.

  “So why do people chance it in the first place?”

  The woman shrugged. “Desperation. Hubris. They think they have what it takes.”

  Laura thought of the transmutation book and what the witch had done to the mouse. It wasn’t just a game of luck. It’s a puzzle. One meant for a magic user. But it meant there was a way to win outright. There was, presumably, a right answer.

  Laura weighed her options. Caroline certainly wasn’t prepared to tackle something like this yet. She pictured the creature growing inside her, attached to her, requiring nutrients her body might not be able to give. That meant potential damage to fetal development and, maybe even more crucial for her survival right now, risks to her own health.

  Laura moved to turn away, defeated, when something made her turn back.

  “I’ll take the wager.”

  The witch looked exceedingly surprised.

  She pushed the tray towards Laura.

  One apple is poisoned, one is not. Can you choose the correct one?

  Do you accept the Witch’s Wager? Y/N

  Laura selected “yes”.

  The witch smiled. “Just remember what I said about hubris.”

  Laura bent down and inspected both apples, looking extremely closely at the glossy finish.

  “I assure you, they look identical.”

  They did in fact look identical.

  Laura turned the tray one way, then another. Finally she straightened up. She had to make her choice.

  She grabbed one of the apples. Her heart thumped. What if she was wrong?

  The witch picked up the other apple. She bit and swallowed. Then gestured to Laura. The candy coating cracked under her teeth, giving way to the sweet flesh underneath. The juices dripped down her throat.

  She swallowed.

  “You chose wrong,” the witch said.

  Laura’s heart dropped. Then it started racing and a cold sweat broke out.

  “Now you have a decision. To make it fair—” the witch cupped her hands and a bubble appeared. Inside was a tiny fetus no bigger than Laura’s pinky. “Your baby can grow and develop here. They no longer have a physical need for you. So now you choose. Your life for their freedom. Do we have a deal?”

  “If I say no?”

  “Then you die and they’ll be delivered to their nearest relative.” The witch summoned a single drop of blood. “This can be used to find them.”

  Laura’s mind raced. If she accepted the deal she’d have a better chance of surviving this place. She and Danny could try again. He wouldn’t have to know what happened here.

  A stabbing pain mounted in her stomach, so sharp it took her breath away.

  She’d been so sure. So sure. She stared into the bubble as a bead of sweat slid down her face.

  The witch’s eyes flickered down to Laura’s stomach. “Do we have a deal?”

  Laura stared intently at the witch. “No,” she said finally.

  The bubble in the witch’s hands vanished. “Congratulations,” the witch said. Maybe the bubble had always been an illusion. The witch grasped for a small vial and popped the top, drinking it down. Laura could see now that the witch was also sweating, large droplets of sweat rolling down her forehead and dampening her hair. “You answered correctly.”

  The herbs still burned in the bowl, smoke trailing into the air.

  Two notifications popped up one after the other. Laura dismissed them without reading them.

  “I chose the right apple to begin with, didn’t I.”

  “I never said I couldn’t lie,” the witch said. The pain was subsiding but Laura’s heart was still racing. She pressed a hand to her chest. “The coating on the apple,” the witch explained. “It’s uncomfortable but it won’t harm you.”

  “That’s quite the setup you’ve got here. You get them coming and going. Either they choose the wrong apple or you make them think they did.”

  The witch shrugged and smiled again. “It’s a living.”

  Rage flared deep in Laura’s stomach but she kept her smile plastered on her face.

  “You were quite lucky,” the witch said. “As a non-magic user that was quite the gamble.”

  But it hadn’t been luck. It had been the smell. As Laura had been turning to leave she’d suddenly smelled a distinct smell, like bitter almonds. If she hadn’t been pregnant she almost certainly wouldn’t have noticed it. The only gamble then had been whether she could isolate which apple was which. But all she’d had to do was get close enough.

  “So I get the vitamins?”

  The witch slid them across the counter to her. Laura snatched them up. Then she leaned down and grabbed the blanket that was crumpled at her feet.

  “Take care, Laura. Of both of you. Someday you may need to make another hard choice where there won’t be an easy way out.”

  Laura’s anger, searing and white hot, clutched at her throat at the memory of the attempted manipulation. “Oh believe me, I won’t forget. I promise.” She smiled her most primate-like smile. Then she turned on her heel and walked towards the door, watching the witch’s reflection in the dark window.

  Just before she stepped out the door, Laura’s anger finally manifested itself. She checked the witch’s reflection again and saw she was now busy with the cauldron and a fresh batch of apples. Laura glanced at the shelves closest to her. There. She felt compelled to grab the small velvet bag sitting on the middle shelf. She angled her body to shield her hand from view as she deftly reached out and snatched the bag off the shelf. Yes, it was petty. But it also felt damn good.

  When the door swung shut behind her with the velvet bag still clutched in her hand, she expected vengeance—some notification of the impending vendetta of the witch or at least that she’d been banned from the shop. But there was nothing.

  When she turned to look behind her the shop was dark, and a closed sign hung on the door.

  Laura turned her back to the shop again, and curled her body protectively over the bottle of vitamins as she wrapped the blanket around herself. She purposely didn’t look at the velvet bag in her other hand, and instead stored it in her inventory to more safely examine it there.

  Item: Tarot Cards

  Type: Magic

  This velvet pouch contains 5 tarot cards from the Major Arcana.

  Each is a single use item. Charisma and constitution requirements vary by card.

  Note: You do not have the charisma and constitution levels required to use these cards.

  She also examined the two notifications she’d dismissed earlier.

  Level Up! You are now Level 3.

  You’ve received the skill MOTHER’S INTUITION by beating the Witch’s Wager. This skill will occasionally draw your attention toward valuable objects like weapons and other useful items.

  “Mother’s intuition?” She looked up at the sky, knowing they were almost certainly monitoring her. “Seriously? Kiss my ass!” She shook her head and muttered, “I’ve been pregnant for all of two months for crying out loud.”

  She walked back down the street towards the Rest a While, the blanket pulled tightly around her and the bottle of vitamins cradled in one arm. She smiled