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Mystic Hollow Community Page
New post from The Mystic Hollow Neighborhood Watch: Lock your doors! Stay inside! The undead are here in Mystic Hollow!
New comment from Anonymous: LOL. Happy Halloween!
When I reach Harry at the monument, I see spell prep is well underway. She’s drawn a circle with chalk and, instead of salt, she’s painted a barrier using sugar packets from Witches Brew. The pentagram at the center of the circle could be blood, but it—
“Is that chocolate syrup?” I ask.
“I had to improvise,” she grits out, paging through Beatrice’s book. “That should be what it takes to end the Horseman. If we can do the wards—”
Behind us, I can hear the commotion on the green.
People are shouting; several are screaming.
I can’t make out voices, but I’m worried for all of them.
For Laney. For Zach. For all of us. The energy in the air is crackling with negativity.
The wind picks up, and I take a deep breath.
“Yes,” I say, and reach for her hand. “Together.”
“Together,” she repeats, giving me an anxious smile. She loops Zach’s apron, and I take the other end and do the same.
“Love that binds,” I say. Because she’s my sister. She’ll be my sister forever.
“Love that finds,” she repeats, holding up the donut. I almost laugh as we both lean in for a bite.
As the cakey sweet crumbles away, we lock hands and tighten the apron.
Right away, I feel the difference from the first time I cast this spell. The ground feels like it’s settling, not cracking open again, and I feel a strange sense of peace. “I think it’s working!” I say, hopeful, spitting donut on my sister’s face. She frowns at me.
“We need more power. Our love isn’t enough.”
“It is,” I tell her. “I know it is. You erased Jack’s memories of your love, just to maybe save my heart.”
Her smile trembles. “And you forgave me, even when I failed.”
I grip her hand tighter. “I know you were just trying to be a good big sister. And I was just trying to measure up as your little sister. But we’re more than our failures.”
She clasps my hand right back. “We’re sisters. And there’s no love truer than that.”
There’s a blast of white light that extends from our hands and shoots up into the sky, arcing down across the entire town. Harry smiles at me. We’ve fixed the wards. She quickly kneels and scrabbles in the dirt at the base of the monument, burying the knot to seal the spell.
But then her smile falters. Because even once it’s in the dirt, the Horseman is still coming, and his army of undead zombies is overcoming my army of lovesick boys.
“What do we do now?” she asks.
“A family makes a home,” I say, thinking of Beatrice. “And you and I, we saved our home. But it takes a community to make a town.”
“We’re here!” Zach calls.
He’s leading a large crowd of people our way with Laney at his side.
There must be two hundred of them! I recognize several people from my party, Chris from Haunted House of Hamburgers.
My teachers, the grocer, my neighbors. Mayor Croft and his wife are here too, and so is Laney’s and Zach’s werewolf guy/dog.
“I told everyone the Hadley sisters can’t protect Mystic Hollow alone, and they all want to help,” Zach explains.
“Mystic Hollow is nothing without the Hadleys!” Mayor Croft cries.
He’s wearing his traditional Halloween blazer, the one with the Headless Horseman on it in a checkered pattern that I’m certain after tonight he may never wear again.
He looks around nervously. “Where are your aunts? And your mother?”
“It’s just us, sir. And now all of you.” I adjust the brim of my witch hat as the mayor looks at me nervously. The crowd murmurs to one another, and I can feel the fear radiating off them.
“Don’t worry,” Harry addresses everyone. “We’re going to stop them, but everyone needs to listen.”
“Where do you need us?” Laney asks.
“Everyone gather round the circle,” I instruct them. “Don’t step into it. Just gather round and hold hands. Quickly now!”
“He’s coming!” someone cries, and everyone starts screaming.
Behind the crowd, I can see the Headless Horseman and his army advancing. My eyes lock with Zach’s.
He nods. “You’ve got this, Hadley sisters!” a few others chime in.
“Go, Hadleys!” someone yells.
“Go, Kat, go!” Laney cheers as Ronald/Fred howls in agreement.
And then people start to cheer, their voices rising into the cloudless night.
“We aren’t alone,” I tell Harry, my heart thumping madly. My jitters fade away. How could I think I wasn’t loved? My sister loves me. My family loves me. And my town loves me. “Let’s finish this together. All of us.”
“All of us,” Harry agrees. “Everyone, get ready!”
People get into position, the circle growing larger and larger as people take each other’s hands.
Harry and I are the only two not part of it yet.
With a nod, Harry flicks on another match and ignites the monument.
The stone shouldn’t catch, but with magic it does, the marble melting like butter in the sun.
We’re sacrificing the town monument for the town.
I feel my magic tingling, working along with the spell.
“I think it’s working now!” I yell to Harry over the roar of the crowd, people cheering and yelling our names.
“The sacrifice is done,” Harry says, clutching Beatrice’s spell book again. “Now we just need the intention. Everyone! Repeat after us: This circle is cast, protect Mystic Hollow at last. Say it over and over again till we tell you to stop. Got it?”
“Yes! Yes! Hurry! The Horseman is almost here!” the mayor says.
Harry and I rejoin the circle and begin to chant along with the others.
I clasp hands with Harry and with Zach, and feel my magic surge under my skin.
A small crackle of energy and a light that begins to glow from within.
It’s working! I want to cry, but just as it starts to pulse, I feel it fade away again.
Something is wrong. Is our love not enough?
Just when I’m ready to fear the worst, there is a large pop and a massive gust of wind.
A vortex of swirling light appears like a cloud, and I can see through it to another space and time. Into a . . . ballroom?
And then Aunt Viv and Aunt Diane step out, decked from head to toe in the sparkliest formal wear.
“Aunt Viv!” I cry, wanting to break from the circle. “Aunt Diane!”
“Girls! Oh, thank the stars!” Aunt Diane says, looking misty.
Aunt Viv looks from us to the crowd, then to the Horseman’s army, inching closer. “I see we made it just in time.” She muscles into the circle beside the mayor. “Croft? Give me your hand. Get in here, Diane!”
As soon as they join us, I can feel the difference in our magic immediately.
Mine is pulsing now, the energy in our joined hands growing big and bigger before a bright white light forms over our massive circle.
And still, we keep chanting, until finally there is a blast that sends waves of energy over the circle with such force, we’re knocked to the ground.
Every light gutters, the scarecrows and the torches, the jack-o’-lanterns—even the poop one.
And then comes the wind, a screaming gale.
“Don’t let go!” my aunts scream, and we all hold each other’s hands tighter.
The wind forms a cyclone, whipping up first the gnomes and the gremlins, then the vampires, the werewolves, the kraken. Finally, only the Horseman stands, a few yards away.
He doesn’t need a face to convey his rage.
He raises his gloved finger, points it at me, and kicks his steed into a gallop.
“Kat!” my sister yells, trying to yank me away, as the Horseman’s mount leaps up, black hooves flashing.
I squeeze my eyes shut, clinging to my sister.
“Oh stars,” I hear my aunts whisper.
I open my eyes slowly to the stone-white hoof of a horse statue. Atop it sits a headless figure, axe raised, finger pointing straight at me.