by Tiegan Clyne
“Your witch need to move here where she more welcome,” Oksana told him.
The wild weather was contained on the other side of the river, held in place by Oksana’s spell. From where they stood, Charlie and Solomon could see the wind whipping the tops of the trees and blowing shingles away from roofs. Solomon crossed his little arms.
/Serves them right,/ said a hawk. He wore a jeweled collar, but it was more decoration than containment.
/Monsters,/ agreed a hound. /And they call our witches names!/
“Ooh, people!” Oksana shook her fist at the other town. “So people-y!”
Charlie looked across the river and despaired. /But… I was supposed to get trick-or-treat candy,/ he sighed. /I’ve failed./
“What failed?” Oksana asked. “You think only mundane people trick or treat?”
/I... yes…/
“Silly kitty!” She picked him up. “Nice costume!”
/Thank you. My grandma made it for me./
“Grandmas are best.” She chucked him gently under the chin. “Don’t be sad. We going to make it right.”
She carried him across the square to the Coven Council. Three witches, nearly identical in their ravishing beauty but none of whom he had ever seen before, sat here toiling over ledgers and books. Oksana knocked on the door and called out in a bright voice.
“Trick or treat!”
The witches greeted them with smiles. “Oh!” one of them exclaimed. “What a cute little goblin!”
“Cat. Dressed as bat.”
“Of course. Cat.”
Charlie sighed. /Trick or treat,/ he said, trying to look as winsome as he could.
The three of them came forward, each of them with a wrapped candy. “Happy Halloween,” another of them said. They were so similar that he wasn’t certain which of them had spoken.
Oksana held him out to them, and they tucked the candies into his sweater. He purred loudly. /Happy Halloween!/
Chapter Twelve
The shadows were lengthening when Charlie scratched at the door to the house, and Matilda opened it immediately.
/I have the candy!/ he announced. /And oh, what an adventure!/
“You’ll have to tell me all about it once this is over,” she told him, smiling. She saw the bruise on his hip and frowned. “What happened?”
/Some people are mean./
While she took the candy out of his sweater, he told her about the flyer and the mob, and she shook her head in horror and cuddled him in her arms. “You poor baby! I’m so sorry! I’ll never send you out alone again.”
/Thank you./ He licked her nose. /It was worth it to help you./
“You’re so sweet.” She kissed his forehead. “I’m glad we found each other.”
/So am I./
In the armchair, Eddie grumbled something around the sock that Matilda had put into his mouth. She glared at him, and he fell silent.
/Are you ready with the spell?/
“I think so.”
Specs rocked on her feet, and then the reflective surface began to ripple. Solomon hopped through into the house, followed by Olivia, who was dragging a wooden chest that very nearly didn’t fit through Specs’ glass. Matilda helped her haul her burden into the house.
“What is this?”
“You can’t very well go to a Halloween ball without a ballgown,” Olivia said, smiling, “and you need to be there in person to cast this spell on Xander.”
Olivia opened the trunk and revealed masses of black lace and satin. She whispered a word of magic, and two beautiful, elaborate black gowns levitated out of the trunk and did a slow pirouette in front of Matilda’s widened eyes.
“Mom, these are beautiful!” she exclaimed.
“One for me and one for you.”
Matilda hesitated. “I don’t know if they’re going to fit…”
Olivia clicked her tongue. “They’re magical, silly. They’ll resize automatically.”
Solomon climbed up the leg of the kitchen table and said, /We think we know what you need to do./
“So do I.” Matilda touched the nearest dress. Charlie sniffed at the hem. “I have the incantation, and now I have the candy. I just need to be in the same room as Xander to make this end.”
“Then let’s get changed and get to it,” Olivia said.
Matilda grinned. “Are you coming, too?’’
Her mother laughed. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
The Academy was brilliantly lit with orange lanterns and bubbles of fairy lights that bounced and floated around the grounds. Music filled the air, and the sweet smell of apple cider was everywhere.
Carriages rolled up to the gates in a long procession, some made of gold, some made from enchanted pumpkins like something out of a storybook. Matilda and Olivia, their familiars in their arms, walked toward the Academy in their black gowns.
Eddie had told them, before he was gagged, that he was being paid to watch Matilda. She wasn’t certain why Xander had such an interest in her, but she supposed it probably had to do with their encounter in the town square. She didn’t want to take the chance of him seeing her before she could get close to him, so she and Olivia had added magical enchantments to their appearance, concealing their true faces so that they would be more able to sneak up on Xander without him realizing who they were. Charlie was in his bat costume still, and this time a little hood had been added to conceal his face. It was silly, and he disliked it, but he wore it like a trooper.
Matilda, eternally practical, had enchanted both gowns to have extra pockets in the skirts. In one pocket, she had a newt in a special magical bubble to keep the creature safe and secure. In the other pocket, she had the candy that Charlie had obtained through trick-or-treating. She had the words of the incantation memorized, and she just needed Xander to show himself so that she could make things right.
Henry strolled along with them. He was invisible, but his presence was very tangible. Matilda wished that he were alive in truth, because she found herself extremely drawn to him. He was kind and handsome, and it was a rotten shame that he’d been dead for so long.
Her emotions must have echoed through to Charlie, because her little familiar put his paw out and patted her hand. He looked up at her wordlessly, but the love shining in his eyes made her smile. She didn’t know how she’d ever gotten along without him.
When everyone was gathered in the ballroom, Administrator Agatha Winterhex stood up on stage with the musicians and began to speak.
“Witches of Button Hollow, welcome to this celebration of our most cherished night!”
The attendees applauded politely.
“We have….”
Agatha choked, and Matilda could feel a wave of power sweeping through the room, coalescing in a green glow that surrounded the administrator. She began to shake, her body rocking with wild contortions.
/Counterspell!/ Solomon shouted to them, gripping his hat in his little hands. /Counterspell!/
Olivia began to chant. “The spell that’s working will not bind. It falls away from me and mine. The spell that’s working will not bind. It falls away from me and mine!”
She continued chanting, and a bubble of white energy surrounded Olivia, Matilda, Henry and the familiars. Outside Olivia’s protections, Agatha began to croak like a toad. She dropped down onto all fours, and each croak left her throat in a cloud of green that surrounded the people in the ballroom. All the witches dropped to the ground and vanished into the folds of their dresses.
Agatha transformed into a warty toad, her bulbous eyes rolling as she continued to croak. Dozens of newts crawled out of the dresses that lay in heaps on the floor, and Matilda shook her head in annoyance.
“That’s the only spell he knows.”
“Well, my dear,” Henry said at her elbow. “You’re on.”
Matilda grasped the candy in one hand and the newt in the other. She stepped forward. “Xander Melrose, show yourself!”
A bat flew past her, the wind
from its wings ruffling the curls that rested on her forehead. She ducked. When she straightened, Xander was standing on the stage, holding in his hand the toad that had once been Agatha Winterhex.
“You can’t tell me that you have any loyalty to these witches who have always spurned you, Matilda,” he said.
Charlie hissed, and she hushed him. “What you’ve done is wrong. I will give you one chance to undo what you’ve done.”
Xander laughed. “Undo it? Why would I do that?” He held the toad in his hand and stroked its warty back. “I am now in a position to declare myself the administrator of this Academy. You could join me, if you wished. Think of the power.”
“I don’t want power. I want you to make this right.”
She held out the newt and pointed it at him. Xander laughed until his eyes watered.
/He asked for it,/ Charlie said, irate. /Let him have it./
Matilda held out the candy in her other hand and intoned:
One if by pumpkin,
Two if by bat,
Three if by ghosties
All brought by a cat
Ghosts of the nighttime
From Halloweens past
Turn back all injustice
Bring justice at last
She put the newt on the floor and stepped back. The room fell preternaturally silent, and Xander continued to laugh at her. He put the toad down and gathered the musicians, who had been turned into newts. He piled all the little creatures together in Agatha’s hat.
Solomon asked, /Did it fail?/
Henry appeared beside her, his eyes as round as saucers. “No.”
The ghost of the sea captain abruptly disappeared, shattering into a thousand glittering bits of light that plunged through the floor. In the distance, a cacophony of howling filled the night, getting louder and closer by the minute. The doors of the ballroom blasted open, and Xander stopped laughing.
Spirits of all sizes and shapes, black and gray and misty white, swarmed into the room. Matilda and Olivia huddled with their familiars, terrified. Legions of ghosts filled the room, packing the air so tightly that the witches and familiars could see nothing but ectoplasm on all sides of them. The walls, floors, ceilings, even Charlie’s own paw in front of his face - they were all hidden in the spiritual storm cloud that filled the room.
Magic, wild and uncontrolled, swirled around them, and they could hear Xander let out a gurgling scream. Beneath them, something banged three times, the noise echoing up from the dungeon and rattling their teeth. Olivia and Matilda trembled, and Solomon hid beneath Olivia’s hair and screamed.
Charlie knew what was happening. He leaped out of Matilda’s arms and ran up toward the stage.
“Charlie! Come back!”
The ghost cloud began to recede, and as it went, the screaming and murmuring of spectral voices were replaced with the chatter of living witches, once again standing on two feet in their party clothes. Charlie raced up to the stage, grabbed what he was looking for, and brought it back to Matilda as the last of the ghosts swept back out into the night.
He dropped an oversized newt at his witch’s feet. /You did it!/
“Is that… Xander?”
/Yes!/
She bent and picked up the newt. It was larger than the ones in her house - all of whom had probably been returned to their witchy selves - and it glowered at her angrily. It chirped at her, and if she’d spoken newt, she would have been incredibly offended.
Administrator Winterhex stood up and brushed herself off, looking pale but none the worse for wear. The others in the room, all of them reversed back from newt to witch, looked at one another dumbly, uncomprehending.
“Charlie,” Matilda asked slowly, “have you ever eaten a newt before?”
/No, but I’m willing to try it once./
She put Xander down on the floor. He shook his amphibious head, but she had no pity for him. “Run if you can, newt boy.”
He scampered toward the open door, and Charlie raced after him.
Agatha called, “Matilda Greenbottom. Olivia Greenbottom.”
“Yes, Administrator?”
“Approach the stage, please.”
They were halfway to where Agatha waited when the door to the dungeon stairs opened. Matilda gasped. Captain Henry Davenport, warlock and sea captain, stood there in the flesh, hale and hearty and very much alive. His clothing had been magically refreshed, and his eyes twinkled above his bright grin.
“All injustice was reversed,” he announced. “All of it.”
He stepped aside, and a troop of male witches came out of the dungeon behind him, some of them achingly young. They came into the ballroom, some staring at the decorations and stunned by the lights, others staring at their own hands as if they couldn’t quite believe that they were real.
Henry crossed the room to Matilda. He clasped her hand and kissed it.
“You have saved me, Miss Matilda. How can I ever thank you?”
“How can any of us?” Administrator Winterhex asked. “We owe these two witches a deepest debt of gratitude. Witches of Button Hollow!”
The witches, warlocks, and familiars all turned their faces toward the stage. Matilda and Olivia stepped up to join Agatha, who took their hands and held them high.
“Give thanks to these witches! They have saved us all, and they have saved Halloween!”
The room erupted into applause, but to Matilda, the greatest gratitude was the light she saw shining in Henry’s eyes.
Solomon found Charlie in the vestibule, licking his paw and washing his face. The squirrel put a paw on the cat’s costume bat wing.
/All’s well that ends well? / he asked.
Charlie put his paw down. /Definitely. /
Solomon looked around. /Where’s Xander? /
The little cat’s eyes sparkled. /Let’s just say I think I’ve developed a taste for newt. /
The End
BONUS STORY:
“Board Games”
When the invitation came, Ellen Harper had to read it three times just to convince herself that she was actually seeing the words printed on the card.
You are invited to a Halloween party!
Nobody had ever invited Ellen to anything, unless you count the “request” from Julie Finney to join her in the school bathroom so the mean girls could shove her head into the toilet and break her glasses. Now, in her super-flowery handwriting with little daisies drawn in as the dots on all of her I’s, the captain of the cheerleading squad in her high school was inviting her to a party.
Michelle Wells was everything Ellen wasn’t. She was pretty, thin, popular and rich. Her father worked as a foreman in the local auto factory, and he made what Ellen thought was ridiculous amounts of money. Their house was the grandest on their street, with an in-ground heated swimming pool and a three-car garage. Michelle had just turned sixteen, but she already had a car of her own, and all of the girls at school competed to see who would be chosen to get to ride along. She dated Mike Nichols, the quarterback of the football team, and everybody just knew the two of them would get married after high school.
Ellen thought it would be a miracle if Michelle made it to graduation without getting knocked up.
She walked into the kitchen with her school backpack still slung over one shoulder, the rest of the mail in one hand while she held the invitation in the other. Her grandmother was sitting at the kitchen table, peeling apples. She looked up with a smile.
“What do you have?”
“An invitation.” She could hear it in her own voice how she didn’t believe the card was real. Ellen held it up so her grandmother could see the cheesy googly-eyed bat on the front. “To a Halloween party.”
Her grandmother smiled. “Well, that’s nice.”
“No, it probably isn’t.” She put the invitation down on the table.
“Is this from one of your school friends?”
“Well, one of the girls from school, anyway. I don’t have any friends.”
&nbs
p; Angelica Harper picked up the invitation. “Which girl is this?”
“The cheerleader captain. Michelle.”
“The blonde?”
“No, her friend. The red head.”
“Ah.”
Ellen sat down across from her grandmother and picked up an apple. Taking a bite out of the red fruit, she said, “She hates me.”
“Hate is a pretty strong word.”
“It’s accurate.”
Angelica nodded sagely. “Well… why do you think she wants you to come to her party?”
“They’re probably just inviting me so they can pick on me all night.”
“That’s not very nice,” Angelica commented, putting the invitation back on the table, “and it’s not very wise. You’d think that with our family’s reputation, those girls would know better than to start any shenanigans on Samhain.”
Ellen sighed. “I don’t talk about it, Gran. I’ve never told them...”
She picked up the apple she’d been working and resumed carefully cutting away the red skin in one long spiral. “You don’t have to talk about it. Everybody knows… but maybe that’s part of the trouble, hmm?”
Ellen couldn’t look at her. Angelica had raised her ever since her parents had died, and she’d always been wonderful, but sometimes she was embarrassing. When she talked about the Old Ways in public, or walked up to a stranger in the grocery store with a message from spirit, it was enough to make Ellen wish she could sink into the earth and disappear. The entire town knew that Angelica Harper was a psychic and a witch. In a conservative burgh like Henley, that sort of thing made Ellen an outcast.
I’m a freak, Ellen thought.
“Nonsense,” Angelica said firmly. “You’re not a freak. The rest of Henley is just closed- minded.” She nodded toward the invitation. “What are you going to do?”
Ellen shrugged. “I don’t know. Go, I guess.”
Her grandmother smiled beatifically. “Good girl.”
