I can't give you readers any candy, instead I give you another chapter for the holiday. Happy All Hallows' Eve! Happy Halloween!


Chapter V


"Zack, please take these downstairs."

"Sure, Mom."

Picking up the boxes of this week's museum records he made his way down to the basement. The Binx's basement was crowded with numerous boxes surrounding the two desks that sat back to back right by the stairs. Zack sighed and added to the mess, dating the box in black marker: October 30, 2010. "Only a few more hours until Halloween," he muttered, standing and stretching. It was during these days out of the entire year that he was uneasy. Halloween had always been Zack's least favorite holiday; it held too many bad memories.

"Yeah, so can you take me?" He turned to look at the stairs behind him. His little sister was sitting on the steps watching him through her warm brown irises. Her chestnut hair was pulled into two identical ties over her shoulders and it fell into her eyes that stared at him intently. He smiled at her and opened his arms. She ran to him happily. Picking the girl up with ease, he held her at eye level.

"You really want this big idiot to take you around?" When she nodded her head with a jerk he smiled. "Okay."

"Yay! Thank you Zack!" She threw her arms around her older brother's neck and jumped from his arms. He found the need to stretch again, his sister wasn't getting any lighter. Soon she would be too old to carry around like that.

"Hey Em, what are you going as? A scary ghost, a blood sucking vampire, or an evil witch?" Zack smirked at what Tania would do to him if she heard him say that.

Emeline, however, stuck out her tongue and told him, "You're so old-fashioned." Zack coughed, not many people would want to be told that by their little sister. Especially if it's true. "I'm going as a faery princess. Mommy's making my dress."

"Pink?"

She scoffed as well as a little girl could. "No." She drew out her words like she was speaking to a naïve child. "It's blue, almost periwinkle." That was her favorite color - not blue not purple but periwinkle.

"Okay, okay Ms. Fairy."

"Faery…" She drawled out again. "Not fairy."

Zack rolled his eyes and she glared happily at him, definitely not anything compared to Tania's signature glare. Then she ran upstairs as he began to chase her. "Zachary and Emeline Binx! If you want to run around, do so outside." The two siblings paused and looked at each other, then shrugged. Emeline darted out of the front door and into the empty street, almost hitting someone who was walking down the opposite side walk.

"Em, watch where you're going!" Zack scolded, following her outside.

"Sorry." Emeline called back, both to her brother and to the older girl she had run into.

"It's fine." Another girl, who had come up behind the first girl, said as she focused a blank stare on Emeline's brother. Zack stopped short when he saw who it was.

"Milesius," he greeted, beckoning his sister over. "What are you doing on this side of town?"

"Walking, is that a crime?" Tania crossed her arms, leaning her head toward her friend as the other girl whispered something into her ear in a different language. "Yeah, I know." Tania replied to her, which caused the other girl to say something hurriedly in the same language she used before. Tania laughed in a spiteful tone. "The hierarchy can go to hell for all I care. Besides it's not my fault." The other smirked and spoke again this time her tone teasing. "Angel," The girl cocked her head in question, "Shut up."

The girl stuck out her tongue, before turning to Zack and his sister placing a hand over her throat. "Hello, my name is Aryella. I'll be staying with Tani this weekend."

Zack smirked. "Tani, huh? Your aunt calls you that too." Tania scowled. "I'm Zack Binx and this is my younger sister Emeline."

"Em for short." Emeline protested.

Aryella smiled and cheerfully reached out her hand. "Want to play a game?" Emeline glanced at her brother for permission and when he nodded she took off with the strange girl.

"Interesting girl." Zack commented, watching the two fool around.

Tania sighed exasperated, "That's angels for you. In my lifetime, I've only met two that acted serious most of the time."

"Angels? So that's not just a nickname?"

"I didn't say anything, but yes Angel is Aryella's nickname." Her eyes fell onto Emeline and they softened to a gentle caring fell as she watched the young girl. "She has grown wiser since her past life."

Zack nodded. "She is cautious now, and doesn't usually trust strangers. I'm surprised she took to Aryella so quickly."

"It's because their spirits are similar. It's in an angel's nature to retain all childish antic until a mission or battle."

"Battle, what for?"

Tania shrugged, watching her friend roll around in the grass. "There had never been a battle in my lifetime, so I don't know and Aryella won't tell me."

"How would she know?"

Tania raised an eyebrow at him. "She's over 200 years old."

"You have got to be kidding me."

"Nope, she was born into a group of angels hiding among the Lenape roughly around 1750. Though angels that are pure magic don't have immortality like those that are the human dead, they do have a very long lifespan."

"How long is very long? Are we talking centuries or J. R. R. Tolkien elves?"

Tania smiled at the analogy, but then frowned as she answered. "She is nearing the end of her last century. She told me once that she waited this long so she wouldn't outlive her husband by centuries. She wants to marry a mortal." Tania clarified at his confused look.

"Okay, is that…?"

"It's a very big deal. Witches, wizards and those magic folk that have normal life spans will usually marry a mortal occasionally. For an angel to do so…" She hesitated, rolling her eyes up to the sky in thought. "It's unheard of. Among magic users the closer you are to pure magic the more useful you are. I'm only a quarter so it's the same as if I don't exist."

"Sorry."

Tania snorted. "Like I care." But she changed the subject with her next sentence. "Tomorrow… is Halloween."

"I know."

Tania hesitated, thinking deeply before warning. "Watch her carefully."

Zack looked at his younger sister determined. "I'm not losing her in this life."

LINE

"Hello, Zack," Fay greeted when she opened the door. "I'm sorry, but Tania isn't here right now. She and Aryella decided to take a walk to the city limits. You do know Aryella, right?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah, I met her yesterday. I'll drop by later if she's not here." He turned back to leave, but Fay called him back.

"Wait, Zack," Fay's face dropped its cheerful demeanor and took on a worried frown. "You see Tania in school, don't you?"

"Only in English."

"Oh…well how much do you know of her past?"

At this, Zack looked Fay in the eye, completely serious, and said, "I know she lost her parents and then ran away from her home: an action that she has always felt extremely guilty about. I know that something has been bothering her for awhile now, and that's she's currently trying to seclude herself again."

"So you are aware of your past life."

It wasn't a question, but Zack answered anyway. "Yes."

"And you're aware of her powers."

Again, not a question. "I know that she has powers, just not the entire principle of the thing."

"Then if she trusts you, I will too. I found a curse in one of her notebooks, one that was placed on her approximately 300 years ago. This might be the reason why she'd secluding herself from you."

"But that's already taken place." Zack protested angrily. "17 years ago the witches, called the Sanderson Sisters, came back to life when the candle was lit, and they were destroyed with the rising sun." Fay looked at him curiously, before she asked what he was talking about. "The black flame candle was lit by a virgin on Halloween 1993. The Sandersons came back from the dead and they tried to suck the lives out of the children of Salem," He ranted, pacing along the porch. "And they would have succeeded, except that Max knocked over their potion. Afterwards, Winifred, being who she was, wanted revenge on Dani, Max's younger sister, because she shoved the truth into her face. With another girl's, named Allison, help the three kids were able to stall the witches, but what it came down to was Max drinking the potion to save Dani's life while the sun rose, causing the witches to become dust." He finished, but didn't stop his rant.

"Then I died and 'moved on' only to be reborn two days later. How exactly does that whole death thing work anyway?"

Fay laughed at his exasperated face. "I don't know. Aryella probably doesn't even know, but you can ask her. I doubt you'll get an answer, of course."Then she sobered in thought. "However, that doesn't sound anything like the curse I found in her room. The only similarity is that they both would bring the sisters back to life. This curse also mentioned a first curse, which would make the one I'm talking about the second one."

"A second one?" Zack asked weakly.

Fay nodded and closed her eyes to recite, "'And should the first spell fail, another take its place. When two time-crossed lovers, separated for centuries or more, are reunited, they shall be called back again. This time more lingering than a single black flame candle.'" She opened her eyes and saw Zackary Binx standing, dumbfounded. "She never told you, did she?" Fay asked, sympathetic.

He turned sharply and stormed off the property, fists clenched. "That bitch." Zack growled under his breath, thinking over everything he had been told. "I guarded that house for 300 years, 300! Yet she neglects to tell me there was a second way those hags could return. Even when she ran away in the woods she never told me. She knew that despite all my efforts to stop them, they would come back anyway. Damn everything, all that waiting for nothing."

LINE

"Hey Zack, what do you think?" Emeline twirled gracefully, the fabric curtaining the young girl delicately. Underneath the sparkled skirt were black pants that protected the young girl against the cold weather. Her wings matched the skirt and they folded with her as she dipped into a playful curtsy. Despite his anger, Zack couldn't help but smile.

"You look cute, Em."

Emeline didn't fail to notice her brother's mood as she sat herself down on the stairs next to him. "What's wrong?" She asked, concerned.

Zack shook his head, knowing that his knowledge and agitation was not for his younger sister. "It's nothing." He hesitated, but went on. "Look Em. I know I said I'd take you around tonight, but do you think you could go with the Gairdens? Something's come up with our project and I need to meet with Tania so we can fix it. We'll be spending the night at the library, it's hardly any fun."

Emeline pouted, but nodded in agreement. "I'll go call Carolyn."

Zack smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Em."

Emeline shrugged. "That's alright. Say 'hi' to Tania and Aryella for me alright?"

The thought of the two teenage girls brought the anger back, but he nodded anyway. When Emeline left to the kitchen, Zack sat down on the stairs with his hands folded in front of his face thinking. For as long as he'd known her, Tania had been keeping secrets from him, but this last one was pushing things way too far. If the witches were able to come back even after they wasted the black flame candle, all of the work that he'd done was for nothing.

No, no it wasn't. If I didn't guard the house the candle could have been lit much sooner and without any knowledge of how to defeat the witches the townspeople would have died. My time wasn't worthless. He assured himself, but it did little to soothe his anger at one witch in particular. This last secret that Tania kept actually explained her behavior in the last few weeks. She knew that the Sandersons could return and she was always cautious with what she did.

He thought over the curse in his head, trying to analyze it and find an answer to how they could return. Suddenly he froze as the answer finally hit him.

LINE

"Milesius!"

Tania turned to the angry teen, and when she saw the state that he was in, she told Aryella beside her to go home. Aryella glanced at her friend warily, but did as asked. Zack stood before her, completely ignoring Aryella as she left, eyes only for Tania. "What do you want?"

He grabbed her arm, tighter than Aryella would have and started pulling her down the street the girls had just come up. "Come on. I want to show you something, Milesius." She followed, not bothering to put up any form of resistance just yet. She was curious to see what was wrong with the boy, and what had caused the anger pulsing off of him. She didn't comment about it; after all, it wasn't like she didn't deserve whatever anger he actually had toward her. Zack Binx never really had ever gotten angry with her in either of his lives. This was a first. When they stopped short, Tania looked around to find that they were in front of the old cemetery.

"Zack," Tania stopped cautiously, despite Zack's refusal to let go of her arm. "I can't go in there." The fear of this place was clear on her face; unlike most times, she was unable to hide this panic that was creeping into her system. Beyond these gates the spirits increased and the voices of the past tore at her soul.

Zack ignored her, "For someone like you?" he smirked not at all playfully, his anger taking over. "I'll take the chance."

"Zack please." The girl was growing paler with every step into the hallowed ground. "Don't…go in…" Tania halted, completely rooted in the spot.

"Hey, what is wrong with you?" His grip slackened and she took the moment to rip away from him. "Hey!" He followed her out of the yard and almost past her leaning against the stone wall.

Tears poured down her face, her breathing was hard and labored as she sunk onto the sidewalk with her face buried into her arms. "Zack, they're in there. All three of them. I can sense them."

"Do you want to see Emily?" Tania looked up at him. He was leaning one arm against the wall staring at her, all of his anger gone. "She's in there, resting." Zack held out his hand and she took it firmly.

"I'm sorry for acting like that, Zack." She apologized, wiping the water from her face.

Zack shrugged nonchalant, as her grabbed her hand and helped her into the graveyard. Not all witches couldn't go into a cemetery. "It's no problem…wait did you just call me Zack?"

"It is your name, isn't it?" She asked, her sarcasm back. "And I've been calling you by it for the past five minutes."

"Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention. My anger got the better of me."

Tania hesitated, and then asked. "Why were you angry? Not that it really matters to me, but you've never gotten angry at me before." She rambled, trying to get rid of the awkwardness she was sensing.

There was hesitation on Zack's part as they walked. "Why didn't you tell me about the second curse?"

Tania sighed. "Who told you?"

"Your aunt."

She looked out at her surroundings. "I didn't want to burden anyone, it was placed on me."

"So you heard it alone, that doesn't make it your burden." Zack argued fiercely.

"But –"

"No, it wasn't about you alone. It was about us." It was out there in words, there was no denying that fact now. Tania didn't say anything in response. He stopped in front of a grave and kneeled. The name upon the stone caused Tania to kneel as well. "Hello Emily, it's me again. And I brought a friend with me. You remember Tania, don't you?" Zack grabbed her frozen hand and placed it on the ground in front of the tombstone with his own on top. "Well, she finally came back, just like we thought she would. Also, I think all of your teasings might actually have been true."

He stared at Tania, waiting for her reaction. She was gaping at him slightly, no one could ever mistake the teasing that Emily constantly preformed. Frowning, she stood up and started to walk away, but he grabbed her wrist.

"Tania."

"I won't be the one to summon them."

"Tania you aren't going to let some 300 year old curse run your life, are you?"

"You were willing to."

"And I was miserable for over three lifetimes until my last day. I don't want you to have to go through that too…Tania," Her head faced away from him. "Tania." He stood up, bringing the two closer together.

"What?" Her voice broke as she tried to leave.

"Tania, don't keep running away."

"Fine." She turned to him, smiling slightly. "But if they come back…"

"We'll fight them, and we'll win." He let his hand slip from her wrist to clasp her hand. Her smile widened as she shook her head at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Brave little mortals," the two froze, "are thee positive thee can beat us again?"


Till Wednesday!
-DD
October 31, 2009

(c) Disney 1993