Alchemy shot the nurse at the door one of her dazzling smiles; he almost fainted and only just missed sending a senior citizen down the stairs. Her blood red lips showed the smirk on her face clearly for all to see.

Flicking a curl of dark chocolate hair over her shoulder she waved her hand at the door, mumbling a few words under her breath. The doors swung open without so much as a squeak of protest. She strode into the room; there was a slight dent in her aura of superiority, filled only with respect.

"You called" her voice was smooth and sweet, most people described it as being husky; but the few who knew her could see what lay past the voice of velvet and the pathetic attempt to not look like the goddess that she was.

"Yes, I did" Her grandmother was propped up on the bed, smiling fondly at her granddaughter, should you look at Mrs Silk, then you could easily see that Alchemy must have taken her looks from her father`s side.

"I hope you know how many dates I had to cancel to get here" Alchemy settled herself on her chair; she knew that this had the potential to be a long and senseless conversation.

"You`re the one who wanted to know the secret to unlimited power"

"It is hard to take over the world when there are people with more power than you"

"Yes, that it may be, you are much too weak dear, one of these days you`re going to come up against a woman and you are going to be absolutely doomed"

"Grandmamma, you can rest assured that you have not gone soft in your old age"

"I hope not dear! Her grandmother looked almost offended at the thought of becoming soft at any time in her life, it was incomprehensible. "Being cruel is my hobby"

"Have you not tried knitting?" Alchemy asked, examining her fingernails while sound like she would rather be somewhere else.

"Knitting?" her grandmother scrunched up her nose in disgust. "That`s the thing mortals do, isn`t it?"

"Yes, Grandmamma" Alchemy sighed.

"I don`t like mortal pastimes" as the old woman moved to grab her dentures, Alchemy shot a glance at the chessboard that sat on the desk.

"Obviously not" Alchemy rolled her eyes.

"You won`t be getting the magic secret with an attitude like that" her grandmother gave her a warning look. Alchemy just sighed melodramatically.

"Just tell me grandmamma" despite being raised by the woman she had never quite figured the old hag out.

"I got you a gift" she smiled at her, wrinkles creased her face, her grandmother leant over, for a few moments, searching for something.

Alchemy watched the wrinkled prune stretch her vine-like arms under the bed, dragging out a shoe box that most likely didn`t even weigh that much.

Taking the box from her grandmamma, she sat it on her lap, fully expecting an old spell book she was instead greeted by another sight.

Alchemy frowned at the contents of the box. A pair of beautifully crafted red shoes. Steep red heels, smooth satin fabric, real satin she noted, none of that silly stuff that sticks to my feet. They would look amazing on her and she knew it.

Since when has my Grandmamma had a taste in shoes, she`s still living in the eighteen hundreds!Nothing that her grandmother bought was suitable to wear in public, with people under fifty present.

"Did you pick them yourself?"

"No"

"I can believe that"

"Tracy bought them; she said that you would like them better than these lovely cream loafers that I had picked out, oh those shoes Ally!" Her grandmother gently stroked a horrible old lady shoe with a look of adoration on her face.

"I thought your nurse was called Nancy" Alchemy specifically remembered giving direct and rude instructions to a fat nurse while making fun of her name at the same time.

"I ate Nancy, she stole my diamond and pearl necklace, so I strangled her with it, she was such a disappointment" Alchemy decided to ignore the fact that her grandmother had broken a witch law, again, and moved onto hope that she successfully disposed of the body.

"How did she taste?"

"Vile, take her corpse, I`m too old to cast, and you need to leave before Tracy tries to `forget` to give me my lunch, I don`t want to have to go through two obese nurses in as many days" Alchemy sighed and walked out of the door.

When Ally slid into her car with the grace of an angel, she glanced over at the shoes that she had set on the seat. They would go perfectly with this dress she realised. Though she did have a pair similar at home, these ones lacked the horrible and cheap gold-leaf that littered the other pair.

Sighing, she simply rolled her eyes and waited for her driver Henry to load the other gift from her grandmother into the boot of the car, that would have to be cleaned should her grandmother started eating from her favourite place-the neck- as the blood would stain terribly and she planned on kidnapping the prime minister next week, she could hardly expect him to lay in a puddle of still wet blood.

Once Henry had finished his rather unpleasant job, he sat down in the front seat and started the engine on the limo, his employer liked to travel in style.

"Where to, Miss Alchemy?" He asked.

"Home, tell the chef that I want Coke, six mars bars, and some human fingers" Henry glance in the rear view mirror and nodded. "And Henry"

"Yes Miss Alchemy?"

"I`m going to do a bit of casting, be a dear and make sure that no one can see me"

"Yes Ma`am!" Henry flicked a switch, cutting him off from the compartment where Miss Alchemy sat. He had made the mistake of watching a casting once, never again would he look at one of those terrifying rituals.

***

When Alchemy entered her house she could hear the people bustling about, But everyone pushed themselves up against a wall to let the lady of the house through, she was hardly about to push her way through her own animals.

"Miss Alchemy" Alchemy stopped and waited for her personal assistant to catch up to her. Why did I hire someone who was only three feet tall? I thought that I had more common sense that that.

What appears to be the problem Noirlette" The tiny elf flicked though a calendar.

"You have been under booked"

"Or more specifically you cancelled all of my appointments for today" Alchemy could hardly blame her, when Grandmamma started talking; she rarely stopped unless she was drugged or became tired, most of the time, it was the former.

"Yep, I cancelled every godforsaken meeting, appointment and date that you were doomed to waste your eternal life at today" Alchemy wished that she had hired an Oracle, that way her planner would be polished to perfection.

"Remind me why I hired an elf"

"Because, I, like many other elves, am cute, efficient, cheap and just darn loyal, that, and we make the most awesome pop stars!" Alchemy decided not to ask why elves singing voices made a difference to her schedule, Noirlette

"Exactly the reason why you`ve worked for me for the past two hundred years" Alchemy patted Noir`s head.

"I hate it when you do that"

"Which is the whole reason I do it in the first place, Go get my food, I`m hungry"

"Yes Ma`am!"

Once Alchemy had retired to her bedroom, Henry entered with a tray, a glass of coke and six snickers bars along with a few human fingers if the need for human flesh decided to emerge.

Henry placed the tray on her bedside table; she didn`t look up from the Ancient leather bound book that she was reading.

"Should I leave it here Miss Alchemy?"

"Yes, that will be fine, now lock the door"

"Should I leave before locking the door?"

"No" her reply made his skin crawl, Goosebumps rippled across his flesh and fear crept up his spine. He couldn`t shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen to him. Alchemy looked calm, carefully debating his fate, her evil smile was given to her by the devil, it was a well known fact.

"Miss Alchemy" Henry gulped and walked over to the door, sliding the bolt into place, the smooth click sealed his fate, there was no escape, no one to save him. His employer was many things; but Merciful was not one of them.

"You took something from me" he voice was barely above a whisper. She still hadn`t looked at him; she turned the page on her book, her eyes scanning the page. Then she placed the book down on the bed, Henry couldn`t read the Demonic language fluently, but he had picked up the basics, and he knew that on the top of that page the word torture was mentioned far too many times for his liking.

Henry slid his hand into his pocket and placed a small leather book on the table, the cover was fraying at the edges but the star shaped pentagon that was on the front cover was easily seen in the dim light on the room.

"You know what happens next" Alchemy watched Henry open the door to the basement.

"Yes My lady" he walked down the steps into the fiery realm of hell and hopped that it wasn`t as bad as he remembered.

It wasn`t, it was worse.

Alchemy allowed herself a satisfied smirk.

"Oh Grandpa, if only you could see me now" she whispered, glancing up at the box that she had imprisoned her grandfather`s ghost in. "Oh wait" she smirked again. "You can". Alchemy grabbed the box and stashed it under the bed.

Glancing over at the box that Henry had placed on her bed; she picked it up and removed the lid.

The shoes were exactly as they were before, nested in the cr�te paper and almost glowing the soft light.

She placed them on the floor, slowing her feet to slide into the velvet lining.

***

Maya smiled at the man by the door, she tucked a blonde curl behind her ear, she really would have to get the mop that sat on the top of her head cut.

"Ma`am, Sir Jasper is here to see you" her little elf assistant handed her a slip of paper with the room number and Jasper`s details. Not that she needed the description, she had dethroned the man.

She stopped at the door, composing herself before strolling into the room.

"Jasper" she nodded curtly, tossing her hair over her shoulder.

"Morning, your highness" he grinned at her as he bowed. The wrinkles that once covered his face like knife wounds had faded away just like the paleness that had emphasised the dark rings under his eyes that had also disappeared.

"You look well" Maya arched her eyebrow, shouldn`t he be swearing revenge or something along those lines?

"You look ten years older than you did three months ago" Jasper was giddy with satisfaction.

"Running the world is hard, you should know"

"I do know" he nodded in agreement.

"What is the reason for your visit today?"

"Just to say thank you!"

"But I dethroned you!" Maya was utterly shocked. She publicly humiliated and discredited the man!

"I know! I was there! But it is a wonderful downsize to go from ruling the world to simply controlling a Manor and its grounds. Did you know that my Wife`s name was Patty? I never did!" Maya gaped at him; He knew his wife`s name? Since when!

Once Jasper had been escorted out, Maya had a moment to ponder over her life, but one thought kept on clawing its way into her mind.

Have I wasted my life trying to rule the world?

***

Alchemy was jerked violently back into her own time. Gasping for breath she kicked off the shoes and let herself fall backwards onto the bed.

Maya`s last words echoed through her head. Have I wasted my life trying to rule the world?

Maya, Alchemy wondered. I always thought that you were the strongest person I knew. But I thought that you were a fool for regretting your takeover. But maybe I was the fool for doubting you.

Standing up, Alchemy picked up the book Henry had stolen.

Should I?

"Noirlette! Get Henry out of the torture chamber and have his wife take care of him!" Alchemy ordered, she heard her elf shout in acknowledgment.

Alchemy flicked to the first page of her Journal, the title of her journal was written in cursive script that was as elegant as she was.

The ancient art of World domination The words stared at her from the page.

You worked your entire life for this an annoying little voice in her head whispered.

"Yes, but maybe that was a waste of my time" Crossing out the sentence, she replaced it with this:

The Ancient Art of Wearing Red shoes