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New post from Dave Leyland: Avoid Hadley Lake! I repeat: Avoid Hadley Lake! I was walking my dog around it this afternoon when a giant tentacle came out of the water and pulled a deer into the lake! I sound crazy, but I know what I saw.
The wind seems to carry me home. I rush past the town green filled with people enjoying Mystic Hollow and feel a pit in my stomach when I think about the werewolves, Mothman, and vampires here with them.
And now the supernatural want to help resurrect the Headless Horseman so he can turn Mystic Hollow into a realm for the undead?
Clearly that myth is not a myth. He’s as real as all the other supernatural beings who are showing up.
Between that thought and all the running, I’m hyperventilating as I reach the house.
“Harry!” I scream. “Harry! Vampires are in Mystic Hollow! Where are you?” I’m racing down the hall toward the kitchen when the rug is pulled out from under my feet.
Literally. I hit the floor with a thud. Tiny figures in pointy hats, one wearing a string of pearls, another carrying Aunt Viv’s favorite brooch, run past me.
“Gnomes! Who let them in?” I scramble to stand, and Phoebe drops from a table above me, all the fur on her back spiking up, hissing at the garden gnomes.
Suddenly one of the gnomes staggers backward, clutching a candy bar.
And then it’s raining candy. I look over to find Harry, pelting them with candy.
“They like the chocolates best,” she says as the gnomes giggle and race off with their treasure.
“Harry,” I say, but now that we have time to talk, I’m not sure what to say. “I—I think I need to say . . .”
“I’m sorry,” she says. “It’s all gotten way out of control.”
“I just watched a vampire drink a football player with a straw,” I say, and Harry’s eyes widen even more. “And that’s not all. I’m seeing ghosts everywhere, and I think there is a werewolf hanging out at Witches Brew.”
“The kitchen has turned into an ice realm,” Harry blurts out.
“How?” I screech.
Harry nods, swallowing hard. “I was halfway through the cookies ’n’ cream—” She cuts herself off, reddening.
“So I take it the conversation with Jack didn’t go well?”
She hangs her head. “Um, no.”
I push open the door to the kitchen, tensing up at the blast of arctic air.
“You weren’t kidding!” I dart inside, ducking icicles from the ceiling, and grab the pint, yanking two spoons from the gnomes snacking on the counter.
I offer her one. “Whatever happened with you two? I mean, I feel like you disappeared senior year, and then you were broken up, and you were in college.”
Harry slumps down onto the floor, weakly reaching out with her spoon. “Witchcraft 101. Spells take intention . . . and sacrifice.”
I sit down next to her, hard. “Do you mean . . .”
“To stop you from breaking your heart, I had to break mine.” She digs into the ice cream. “I sacrificed our relationship. Erased his memories of us, of me.”
I’m too stunned to even eat ice cream. She stares at me innocently over a huge bite of cookies ’n’ cream.
“And you just went to talk to him?” I ask.
“Mm-hmm,” she replies through a full mouth. When she swallows, she adds, “I had to lure him to that coffee shop with a long story about my lost dog and when I got there . . . his eyes just slipped over me. He didn’t recognize me. Of course he didn’t. I couldn’t handle it.”
My spoon clatters to the table. I can’t believe my sister went through all that. Sure, I’m pissed at her, but no one should have to go through that. “Harry,” I try, my voice low, but she waves me off.
“I kept telling myself the fate of our town depended on me making him fall in love with me all over again, but I couldn’t even go over and introduce myself.
I followed him around, trying to get the nerve .
. . but I couldn’t do it.” She sighs, her ice cream forgotten as my stomach churns.
When I reach for her hand, to, I don’t know, let her know that I’m here, she pulls away.
I watch as she fixes a smile on her face.
It’s as flimsy as a mask, but I can tell she needs to change the subject or she’ll cry. “So how was your day?”
“Oh,” I say, trying to sound breezy, “I just threatened some vampires who say they want to bring the Headless Horseman back to life so he can continue his reign of terror over the living and kill everyone in Mystic Hollow or something. All they need is the location of his grave and then it’s game over for all of us living folks, I guess. ”
Her face pales. “They said that?” I nod. “This is really bad. The Horseman’s grave is under Hadley House. If the foundation keeps cracking, they’re going to be able to raise him.”
I feel a chill that sweeps through my bones, and I’m not even sure where to start. “What are you talking about? He’s real? Like really real?”
Harry looks frightened now too. “Yes. It’s a secret Hadleys have kept since Beatrice, well, you know.
” She drags her hand across her throat. “I found a whole entry about what happened in the family spell book. He’s kind of the whole reason we do the yearly protection spells.
” She rubs her face with her hands. “The magic here keeps him contained, but now that the house is breaking . . . Kat, the veil between the supernatural and Mystic Hollow is falling. Samhain is tomorrow. And neither of us have anyone to do the rituals with. We have to call Mom and Dad. Or at least the aunts.”
“Okay,” I say slowly. “Okay, let’s just think about this. You have no one who loves you.” Harry groans and throws her head back. “And I have dozens of boys professing their love for me. Surely we can work something out.”
“It’s so stupid,” Harry gripes. “We’re witches. Why do we need boyfriends to do magic?”
Despite it all, I almost laugh. For once, Harry sounds like the sister I grew up with.
We’re interrupted by a strange moan from the kitchen. The two of us look at each other, then slowly push open the swinging door. That’s when we see the sink. It’s filled with slushy water, and a green tentacle is muscling its way out of the drain. We both scream.
“What is that?” Harry freaks out.
“Kraken.” Eleanor appears through the nearest wall to join us. “There’s one in the lake behind the homestead that Hadley magic has kept contained. At least, it did.”
I bolt for the switch next to the sink and flick on the garbage disposal. There is a tiny scream, a funnel appearing in the water before it turns to chum. I fight the urge to throw up.
Eleanor floats over, glancing down at the dirty water with distaste. “Wonderful job, Katherine, but remember, that’s just a tiny tentacle. The real thing is in the lake.” She glances our way. “If you don’t deal with the true problem at hand, creatures like that will keep appearing all over town.”
“What does that mean?” I ask. “We’re calling in the aunts. They’ll cast the spell with their husbands.”
Eleanor, however, sighs. “A spell. Wonderful idea. How have those been working out lately?”
My stomach tightens as I look at Harry. Didn’t we just have our sister moment?
“I believe forgiveness is the foundation of a healthy relationship,” Eleanor adds.
Forgive her? I feel bad that she dumped her boyfriend, but she cursed me to remain loveless. And then stopped talking to me.
“Eleanor is right,” Harry says quietly. “I need to try to forgive you. If you apologize, I think I can.”