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Mystic Hollow Community Page
New post from Mayor Croft: It has come to my attention my son has been telling people to go home and save their Halloween spirit for tomorrow. This is untrue. Please proceed with your regular Halloween preparations. We want tourists to remember this Halloween in Mystic Hollow forever!
I don’t have to look hard to find Harry. When I walk up to the house, she’s waiting on the porch, wearing an oversize black knit sweater of Mom’s. Behind her, the candles in the house are flickering like there’s a poltergeist inside. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was at this point.
“Hey,” she says quietly, and I watch her face crumble. She wipes away a tear under her left eye. “You forgot your phone and I was getting worried. I think we should talk.”
Why is she the one crying? She’s the one who cast the spell.
“I don’t want to talk to you.” I walk past her, then whirl around.
“Actually, that’s not true.” I let the porch door slam shut.
“Harry, you cast a spell on me without telling me, and then you expect an apology? I didn’t make you erase your boyfriend, and I know you loved him, but I was in love, too, or, like, close to being in love.
With a really great guy. Or maybe you don’t remember Reese?
I get that the other guys weren’t into me and weren’t nice, but Reese?
You worked with him. He was even really close with you too. You were, like, best friends!”
Harry sets her jaw. “We were.”
I stare at her. “Is that all you have to say?”
She stands up and pulls me inside the house. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? Do you forgive me? We need to just forgive each other and move on so we can save the town.”
As we walk back through the entryway, I don’t even recognize our family home. Garden gnomes sprout between the floorboards like weeds. The house is cold and seems to breathe, creaking and groaning and—is that a growl?
Harry only stops once we’re standing over the crack that cuts the house exactly in half.
“Just apologize, and then we’ll call the aunts,” she says, sweeping her frizzy hair behind her shoulders with that classic perfect Harry composure.
I grit my teeth. I can’t believe I have to apologize to her for anything considering what she did to me, but I know that the magic needs us to repair our bond, so I try to summon any genuine regret I feel.
“Fine, whatever. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I’ve been so boy crazy and so boy obsessed.
I’m sorry I turned Halloween into something it’s not. ”
Harry nods. “I forgive you.” She glances down at the crack as if expecting it to have healed itself. Instead, a gnome flings a banana peel at her head. It sticks. I watch her curl her lip in disgust.
“Okay,” I say, rolling my eyes. “Well, we apologized. We’ve probably fixed magic or whatever.”
I wait for Eleanor to float by and tell me how wrong I am, but for once she’s strangely silent.
“And the wards?”
“Tomorrow night, I’ll cast them. Alone.”
“Alone? That’s not how it works!” Harry starts to say.
“We’re witches, Harry. We don’t need boyfriends to be magical.
If your backward spell has taught me anything, it’s that I’m magic.
On my own,” I say, more confidently than I feel.
“And another thing, my party is back on.” Harry starts to protest. I don’t need to tell her it sort of wasn’t my idea.
“They’ll be safer here and you know it.”
Harry sighs deeply. “You might not be wrong about that. And fine. I’ll do the spell, too.”
I continue, feeling a fire in my belly. “Perfect. You can go to the cemetery to do the protection spell at Beatrice’s grave while I do the protection rituals here at the house. We’ll see who’s the stronger witch, once and for all.”
“I don’t know if this is the best idea,” Eleanor interjects, finally manifesting behind the couch.
“Stay out of it, Eleanor!” we both snap, and then I feel bad when I see the look of hurt on her face.
She disappears in a flash. Harry and I stare each other down.
I wonder if we’re both secretly thinking the same thing—that we’re not at all sure that doing the spell separately will work, but there’s no way we’re going back now.
“I think this is better for both of us,” I declare, willing myself to believe the words. “This way we don’t have to have anything to do with each other.”
“Great! Sounds like a plan,” Harry says icily.
“My plan,” I remind her, and then we turn in separate directions, going to our own sides of the house. Even without the crack, this home has really split in two, because our sisterly bond, or whatever was left of it, is officially severed.