Salem 1993

Max couldn't believe his eyes. This couldn't be happening. This shouldn't be happening. It was a myth. A story. He did not just bring back witches from the dead by lighting a 300-year-old candle.

He looked for Allison, but she was out of sight. Was this a prank? A weird Salem-centric way to get back at him for insulting Halloween earlier? But the way the Black Flame Candle burned returned to Max's memory.

The other two women clasped hands and began to dance and jump around the room, giggling. The blonde one wore a low cut pink dress with filmy sleeves. The other wore layers upon layers: an orange dress under a red vest and a matching wool cape. Her tartan skirts were intersecting black and grey lines and, depending on the light, a dozen other colors.

"Oh, sweet revenge!" The red-head cried. "You see, sisters? My curse worked perfectly."

"That's because thou art perfect, Winnie," the brunette with the crooked cornucopia hair said, touching her sister's shoulder.

'She means Winifred,' Max thought, recalling Miss Olin's story from earlier that day. 'Winifred Sanderson.'

The sisters laughed, then Winifred crossed the room, her brunette sister following. The blonde waited, then popped up onto her tippy toes, reached into the rafters over the door, and pulled something out. She smiled at what appeared to be a length of twine.

"My lucky rat tail!" she crowed. "Just where I left it."

"But who lit the Black Flame Candle, hmmm?" Winifred wondered, moving towards the strange flame. She paused, her fingers pressed to her lips, but noticed the large glass case with her spellbook. She gasped, delighted, and hurried over to tap on the glass with her long nails.

"Come on, sleepy-head!' she cooed. "We have work to do. I missed you – did you miss me too?"

The brunette moved close to Winifred again. "Winnie," she whispered.

"Yes, Mary?"

"I smell children."

"Sic 'em!"

The three witches fell into a line, Mary at the lead, sniffing the air like an eager dog on a trail.

"It's a little girl," she announced.

The blonde nibbled her rat tail, as the trio marched closer to Dani.

Max could see his sister crouched behind the ticket-taking counter, chewing her bottom lip. He tried to gauge the distance between himself and Mary Sanderson and wondered how long he could distract them if he jumped out of his hiding spot.

"Seven," Mary guessed, sniffing the air again. "Maybe eight. And a half."

"Let's play with her!" the blonde cried.

"You'll frighten her, Sarah," Winifred scolded.

"Come out, little children; I'll take thee away –" Sarah began to sing.

Dani raised her eyes to the ceiling, praying, pleading with some higher power to help her.

Winifred covered Sarah's mouth, cutting off the song. "Come out, dear," she cooed, trying to cox the little girl out. "We will not harm thee."

"We love children!" Mary agreed, slamming her hand down on the counter above Dani. Winifred shot the brunette an ugly look, but it disappeared as Dani popped up in front of them. Dani was frightened out of hiding by Mary slamming her hands down.

"I thought thou'd never come, sisters," Dani adopted the worst British accent that Max had ever heard.

"Greetings, little one," Winifred's voice was warm.

"'Twas I that brought you back."

"Imagine," Winifred said. "Such a pretty little –" she seemed to choke – "child."

Sarah giggled.

"And she's so well fed, isn't she?" Mary moved around the counter. "Plump!" She poked Dani in the ribs. Dani shrieked. "Plump!" Another jab. "Plump! Shish ke-baby!"

Max had decided to barrel across the room to save his sister when Winifred did it for him. "Tell me, dumpling," the ginger witch said, placing her hand on Dani's arm and leading her deeper into the house, "what is the year?"

"Nineteen ninety-three"

Dani found herself pushed into an ancient straight-backed chair.

"Sisters," Winifred said eagerly, "we have been gone three hundred years."

"Well, Winnie, how time flies, huh?" Mary joked, "When you're dead?"

The sisters burst into laughter, and Dani laughed too, hoping to please them. But the little girl kept laughing even after the sisters had stopped until she spotted Mary's hungry face and her laughter died with a nervous chuckle.

"It's been great fun," Dani stood up. "But I guess I'd better be going."

"Oh," Winifred pressed Dani back into the chair, "stay for supper."

"But I'm – I'm not hungry."

"But we are," Mary's smile was dangerous as the implications of her words.

Dani tried to stand again but this time, Mary and Sarah grabbed her arms, lifting her, kicking and screaming, towards the cauldron at the center of the room.

"Hey!" Max shouted, jumping out of his hiding spot. "Let go of my little sister."

"Roast him, Winnie," Mary growled.

"No," Sarah grabbed Winifred's arm eagerly. "Let me – let me play with him."

Winifred listened to Mary, rather than Sarah, and shot a bolt of bright, branching lightning at Max. The boy lost consciousness for a moment as he hit the ground, but woke to a pain spreading through his whole body. He groaned.

"Max!" Dani screamed.

Winifred threw her magic at the boy again, dragging him across the floor and pinning him to the wall.

"I haven't lost my touch, sisters," she cackled. "See?" She flipped Max over to face her.

Max felt like there were knives in his blood. The pain was sharp and sudden, and he worried his heart would give out. He wanted to cover his chest, but his hands were pinned by an invisible force.

Sarah nestled into his neck. She smelled like wet earth, orange pomanders, and honey.

"Hello," Winifred said to Max. "Good-bye."

This time the green bolts lifted him off the ground. His body skimmed the wall as he moved closer to the ceiling. Max couldn't see straight, he could barely remember to breathe he was in so much pain. His whimper was drowned out by the electric crackle and hum.

Mary held tight to Dani as the little girl screamed her brother's name.

"Mary," Allison said, catching the witch's attention. When the witch turned Allison brought a broom from a display down on her head, before quickly grabbing a frying pan and hitting her again as she stumbled.

"Leave my brother alone!" Dani, now free, shouted at Winifred, hitting the witch with her candy bag. She lashed out at Sarah too.

Max fell to the ground, weak and exhausted, but no longer in pain.

Dani crouched down to check on him, when the black cat reappeared, leaping at Winifred's neck. It flexed its needle-like claws into the softest parts.

"Get him!" Winifred spun, shrieking at her sisters. "Get this animal – get this beast off of me!"

"Max, let's go," Dani pulled at her brother's jacket.

Max forced himself up, stumbling towards the door where Allison was waiting for them. He was about to join them when he realized, they couldn't leave the Sanderson sisters here, they'd eventually make their way into town, and he didn't want that horrible lighting magic used on anyone else.

The witches were still struggling to get the cat off Winifred, who wasn't helping with her wild spinning.

"Get out!" he shouted at the two girls. "Go, go, go!"

The witched finally managed to fling the cat off.

Max stopped short of the door. How do you kill a witch? He wondered. In the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy threw water on the witch, but he didn't have a bucket of water.

Then he remembered the sprinklers.

When he was positive Allison and Dani were gone, he climbed up on to the sleeping loft and stood, a little unsteadily. "Hey!" he shouted, getting the sisters' attention. "You have messed with the great and powerful Max and now must suffer the consequences. I summon the Burning Rain of Death."

The sisters tried to figure out what this boy was talking about.

"Burning what?" Sarah asked.

"Burning Rain of Death," Winifred repeated.

"Rain, did he say?" Mary wondered.

"I don't know. Burning – "

Max pulled out the lighter and snapped it. The sisters gasped at the flame.

"He makes fire in his hand," Winifred muttered, impressed with the trick.

Max lifted the lighter toward the spigot on the sprinkler and waited until the water came flying out.

The sisters ran for cover, screaming.

Max jumped down from the loft, slipping in a puddle and falling hard onto his back. Only to find the cat jump onto his chest.

"Nice job, Max."

Max recoiled, gasping, "You can talk."

"Yeah, no kidding," the cat responded sarcastically. Max didn't even know cats could be sarcastic. "Now get the spellbook."

Max couldn't move and he wasn't sure if it was from a broken spine or shock.

The cat batted at his face. "Come on," it ordered, "move it!"

Max shoved himself to his feet and grabbed a post that had an information card on it. He used it to shatter the glass around the spellbook and pulled it out, ignoring the glass that cut into his skin.

The witched cowered under the loft, too afraid of the water to chase him.

"My book!" Winifred cried. "He's going for my book!"

Max ran to the door and down the front steps, the spellbook clutched to his chest. Allison was calling him and he followed her voice down to the street and through the property's front gate.

"Follow me!" the cat yelled, leading the three children to somewhere he knew was safe from the witches. The graveyard.

A/N: No Abigail in this one but she'll be back in the story in three days. I really did hate not having her in this chapter, but them fleeing to the graveyard was too good of a stopping place to continue.