Jack had promised Kat that he wouldn't tell his parents what she really was. So rather than admitting to what he knew or had been in on, he yelled over to Kat, "Hey, Kat? You got any ideas?"
"Uh.... can everyone please come outside?" Kat shouted. Sarah got back up, and the three followed Kat out. "It's too loud to talk here," Kat stated as she pointed "To the garage!"
They all went to the garage, got inside and closed the door. "Ok," Kat said, "I think I can explain."
"I sure hope so," said Steve. "Well," Kat went on, "See, I'm a witch, mostly a good witch, except that I had a stupid annoying brother I needed to be rid of. So... I turned him into an animal, a deer, set him free to start his new life and then cast a spell to remove his human existence so that he'd never been born. To get rid of him, I had to do something with his soul, hence the deer."
Silence ensued for an awkward minute or so. "Ok, Sarah said, "A lot of things are making more sense now. Let me guess, that's the deer I shot?"
"Yep," Kat smiled awkwardly as her knees shook nervously.
"No need to be nervous, dear... Sorry, poor choice of words.... Don't worry, sweetie. You're not the first witch I've met. So I know that sometimes things go wrong with magic. We'll figure something out."
"Wait just a minute," Steve demanded. "I've butchered a good many deer in my life and I've never seen anything like this. How do we know this spell is really the cause?"
"You want proof?" asked Kat. "Well yeah, if possible, that would be nice," Steve responded. "Ok, got any of that jerky on ya?" Kat asked. "Of course, I love this stuff," Steve said as he pulled a piece out of his pocket. "Ok, here I'm opening the garage door so we can hear the screaming again. Now shove the entire piece in your mouth and chew it up," Kat demanded. Steve did so, and the screaming magnified.
"My lord," said Steve, "What ever do we do?" "Yeah, Kat," Sarah asked, "Can't you just turn it into something else?" "Very dangerous," she replied, "See, if I turn him into something else, say a new animal or whatever, while he's in this state, we have no idea what we'll end up with. If you think this is bad... I'm telling you we could end up with a real monster."
Steve tried to think logically, and calmly asked "Well, Kat, I'm thinking something changed, because last night we had a delicious roast dinner with no issues. Then today... I mean, it's obvious that something changed. Have you changed any spells or cast any new spells this morning?"
Kat's face turned red in embarrassment, "Oh no, Steve, you're right. I was feeling just a bit bad for Dan, my uh... former brother... and so this morning I cast a spell that would allow him to feel again, so he would have the ability to feel happiness again. That spell must have been too strong, allowing us to unknowingly torture him whenever we sit on the new deer skin cushions or eat a piece of his meat, for example. Here, I'll cast a new spell to take away his ability to feel.... There. That should do it."
The screaming stopped. "Amazing!" exclaimed Sarah, "Now do tell me Kat, why didn't you tell us before now that this thing used to be your brother?"
"I'm sorry," said Kat, "It's just that I knew how happy you were about getting your big buck, and I didn't want to ruin it for you..."
"No worries Kat," said Sarah, "I don't care where it's soul came from, sweetie. I was deer hunting. When I shoot a deer, I'm after it's body, not it's soul, ok? I want the meat. I want the pelt. And I want that beautiful trophy head on my wall. And I don't care what my food thinks of me, haha. We will be eating, it will be eaten. End of story. Cool?"
"Cool," said Kat, "Can we go back in now?"
"Of course," said Sarah. The four walked back in to find a quiet deer head mounted on the wall, and no blood to be seen anywhere.
Sarah grabbed a piece of venison jerky and got right up in Dan's face. "Listen here, Danny boy," she started. "Oh shit, she knows," Dan thought. Sarah continued in a firm voice, "I don't care WHO you think you are... or who you think you were. Kat turned you into a deer. You walked in front of me while I was hunting. I shot you. Steve gutted you. We butchered you ourselves, and we paid good money to have your head mounted and your pelt made into our cushy suede leather seat cushions. You are our seats, a pretty decoration on my wall, and you are meat in our freezer. We own you. Steve and I worked very hard for all this, and you will NOT be taking any of it away from us, you got that? You have no say in this matter, Dan. Try any of that shit again, and I will blow your head to bits. You will accept your place now."
And with that, Sarah looked straight into Dan's eyes as she shoved the entire piece of jerky into her mouth, chewed it up and swallowed. She licked her lips, smacked them together and walked away.
"And Kat," Sarah said sweetly, "You have your magic, and I have mine." They both smiled and hugged.
Jack asked his dad, "Sooooo.... we still grilling venison burgers for dinner tonight?" "Hell yeah we are!" he answered.