Fanfic: Dance Macabre, Part VIII, Conclusion.
Title: Dance Macabre.
Rating: PG-13, at most.
Fandom: Halloweentown.
Synopsis: Marnie needs a date for the prom, and Kalabar is once again plotting his revenge against the Cromwell witches. Everything goes downhill from there. This story takes into account the first three Halloweentown movies, but does not acknowledge the fourth, ‘Witch U’, as part of canon.
Disclaimer: Halloweentown and all associated characters are the property of Walt Disney Inc., who would probably sue the pants off me if they knew I'd posted this. No infringement on existing copyrights, wrongs or indifferents is intended or implied. Please do not hit me with sticks.
***
89: Rain.
Gwen was still asleep, trapped under Perryn’s spell; Dylan had joined her on the couch, falling into a more natural slumber, exhausted by the events of the day. Agatha rose, putting her herbs aside, and moved to the front door, checking the lock once more.
“This is pure foolishness, Agatha Cromwell,” she said to herself, softly. “When they come, they’ll come.”
Kalabar would come for her before too much longer: she was sure of that. The clouds overhead weren’t even shifting anymore, and when she truly allowed herself to think about it, she had to admit that she was no longer certain the sun existed. Halloweentown was a magically created world, after all, and Perryn’s spell had changed its very foundations, using the power of three Cromwells to twist their world away from what it was designed to be. Now Gwen was unconscious, Sophie was firmly in his power, and Dylan was deep in his denial. Only Agatha herself still believed in their world the way it was meant to be -- Agatha, and maybe Marnie. She’d seen flashes of the girl Luke said he cared for.
Hurry, Luke, she thought, resting her head against the door. If you want to save her, hurry.
The wish had almost reached the height of its power, almost finishing with the recreation of all of Halloweentown in Kalabar’s twisted image. She could see it working even around the edges of her home, making the masonry weaker and wood slightly twisted, like it hadn’t been cared for in years. When the wish fully took control, not even having her family here around her would keep her powers from fading, reacting to mourning that she’d never truly done.
It was possible that the rest of her family would fade along with her powers, still here, but somehow impossible to see or speak to. According to the terms of the wish, they were dead, after all.
And it would only take a death to seal the deal forever. One little death...Kalabar had shown that he didn’t mind killing to get what he wanted.
Kill Luke. Kill Agatha herself. And the spell could never be broken, could never be unmade, because the world it had been cast in wouldn’t be possible anymore. “He’s so close to taking it all,” she whispered. “So close. Oh, Marnie...don’t let him win. Luke says you saved us once before. Please, darling. Please.
“Be strong for just a little longer, if you can.”
Outside, the clouds rumbled with the sound of distant thunder, and it started raining once again.
*
90: Better Lies.
Sophie perched on the edge of Kalabar’s desk, hands cupped together, a ball of marble floating roughly eight inches above them, held up by the strength of her magic. She’d been first surprised and then delighted to realize how quickly magic was becoming second nature to her -- she was learning fast.
A little too fast for Kalabar’s tastes. He stood in the doorway watching her, and frowned. He wanted to keep Sophie, he truly did: the Cromwell witches had humiliated and nearly destroyed him, but more than that, they were powerful when they were used the way that they were meant to be used. As tools. His tools, to command and control and throw aside when he was done.
The ball wobbled and then dropped into Sophie’s cupped hands. She frowned at it.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, my dear,” Kalabar said, stepping into view, cane twirling jauntily in his hand. “Why, your mother was twice your age before she could do a thing like that.” Just one more lie on top of all the rest. “That’s probably why she tried to deny your magical heritage. One of the reasons, anyway.”
Sophie looked up, nose scrunched slightly as she considered this. “She was jealous?”
“Who wouldn’t be? A witch of your power comes along...why, once a generation at the most. Your sister must have burned up inside looking at you.”
“Marnie always was mean to me,” Sophie said with a frown, looking down at the ball in her hands. Something about that statement didn’t seem right; something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
This was wrong. But the magic -- oh, the magic. She wanted it so badly.
How could anything so wonderful be wrong?
“You know that she’s trying to get rid of you even now,” Kalabar said, half-dismissively.
Sophie’s head snapped up. “What?”
“That green boy she had with her -- the goblin? He’s a golem. She made him from worms and caterpillars, to confuse my spells. If she can get him in here again, well...” Kalabar shook his head. “I don’t know if I can stop her, Sophie.”
“But without the golem, she can’t hurt us, right?”
“Well, I suppose that’s true,” he said slowly.
“And it’s not really killing if he’s not really a person...”
Kalabar allowed a slow, satisfied smile to spread across his face. “Why no,” he said. “No, it’s really not killing at all.”
*
91: Not A Bang, But A Whimper.
“Grandma? How is she?”
“Not good, my dear,” said Agatha, wiping her tears from her cheeks before she turned away from the door to face Luke and Marnie. “Not good at all. Come here. Both of you. Please.”
They walked over, and she gathered them into a tight hug, looking past Luke’s shoulder to where Dylan and Gwen still slumbered on the couch. “Oh, my darlings,” she said. “I remember living so long without you, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again...”
“Grandma, what do you mean?” asked Marnie, pulling away.
“Look around you, Marnie,” Agatha said. “The spell is winning. You’re here, but that’s not enough to stop the wish from rewriting reality. Soon, I’ll forget you. We all will.”
“Not all of us,” said Luke gruffly.
“No. Not all of us.” Agatha looked between them, voice grave. “The wish will finish spreading outwards, and then it will become final, and Kalabar will have one of us killed to keep it from ever being broken. Once that happens, Halloweentown will be lost forever. My world, my family -- you, Marnie, everything you should have had -- will be gone. I’m sorry. But unless you find the loophole, unless you break the spell, it’s over. There’s no point in fighting. I can’t even wake your mother. My power is fading, and soon I’ll just be mourning you again, and not remembering you were ever here.”
Marnie stared at her grandmother for a moment, eyes very wide, before she turned and bolted for the door. Agatha watched her go, not saying a word.
Luke stared after her, then turned on Agatha, demanding, “How could you say that to her?”
“I had to. It was true.”
“If it’s true and I’m the only one that’s going to remember, why did you have to say it? She didn’t have to know! You didn’t have to hurt her like that!” If it’s true, then I’m going to lose her. No matter what I do, I’m going to lose her. A world with no Marnie in it, no Marnie at all, ever again...
The idea was almost more than he could bear.
“Luke...”
“Don’t talk to me.” Luke took a step backwards, then turned and ran after Marnie, out into the rain. It seemed like he was always running after Marnie anymore.
Agatha listened to the door slamming shut behind him and closed her eyes, tilting her face up towards the ceiling.
Please, she thought. Please, let this work. I don’t know what else to do.
Please.
*
92: The End of the World as We Know It.
“Marnie! You have to come back inside with me! Please.”
“No, Luke! Don’t! Just don’t! Leave me alone.” She was speaking so fast that her words were running together, blurring until it sounded like she was saying ‘don’t leave me alone’ instead of telling him to leave.
Luke just hoped what he was hearing was what she actually wanted to say, and couldn’t, because of that damn spell. If it wasn’t, if she truly wanted to go...
He was running out of options. He’d have to let her.
“Marnie, it’s pouring out here.” The rain was coming down in sheets, blocking out all light from above and turning the yard into a swamp. It was only thanks to the dim light shining through the windows of the house that he could see Marnie at all, and if she went much further from the porch, even that would be gone. “Please, just come back inside before you catch a cold.”
“Come back inside and do what, Luke?” She turned to face him, flailing her arms in a helpless, angry gesture. “Wait to fade away completely? Wait to see if anyone remembers we’re here so that we can get home? I don’t want to die here, Luke. And I don’t want to leave.”
“What?” He started walking slowly towards her, aware that he was moving like he was trying not to startle a wild thing. In a way, that was exactly what he was doing.
“I don’t...I don’t want to go.” Marnie sounded more miserable than he’d ever known her to be, utterly overwhelmed by what was going on around her. It wasn’t right. Marnie -- his Marnie -- was a lot of things, but she was never helpless. “I don’t want to forget again. I don’t want to go back to just walking through life and not knowing something’s missing. I don’t want to leave, Luke, and I don’t want you to forget me.”
“I won’t forget you. I’m the only one that never can,” he said, coming to a stop just in front of her. Her hair was hanging in her face, pulled straight and heavy by the rain; he pushed it aside without thinking, leaving his fingers resting against the curve of her cheek. “Remember? I’m your loophole. I can’t forget you, because the spell can’t touch me.”
Marnie sniffled. With the rain falling everywhere, he couldn’t tell whether she was crying or not, but he wouldn’t bet against it. He was crying, after all. “Really?”
“Really. Even if I wanted to forget you, I couldn’t do it.” And he didn’t want to forget her. If there was anything he’d been sure of since the day that Kalabar said he could make him human if he just did as he was told, it was that he didn’t want to forget Marnie.
Marnie, who taught him about taking crazy risks and working for good over evil, just because it was the right thing to do. Marnie, who laughed when he was scared and said she’d always be there to catch him when he needed her. Marnie, who made all things possible, just by being a part of the world.
Without her, would anything be possible? Anything at all? He wasn’t sure.
He just knew that he wasn’t willing to forget her.
“I’m scared, Luke. I’m so scared. How can we stop this? I don’t want to go away.”
“We can break the spell. Save your sister. Wake your mother. Restore Halloweentown to the way that it’s supposed to be.” She should have been the one saying those words, not him. She was the one who led the grand crusades and fixed things; he was just the one that followed her and was glad to have the privilege. When he wasn’t screaming and convinced that he was about to die, that was.
But she’d forgotten herself, and this time, he had to be the one who convinced her to follow him over the edge and into whatever madness would save the day. He just had to hope that she’d follow him the way he’d always followed her, or he didn’t know what else he could do.
“How am I supposed to break this spell, Luke? I can’t do anything. I can’t save a world. I can’t even save myself. Much less my family and everybody else.”
“You have to hold on, Marnie,” he said. “It’s not over yet. It’s not over until we’ve lost, and we haven’t lost. Not while you remember who you are. And not while I remember you.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Luke, if all the creatures in Halloweentown can’t stop Kalabar, how can I? Even if I was a Cromwell witch before all of this...before...I’m not anymore. I don’t have any special powers or...or anything.”
Luke paused, his hand still resting against her cheek. “You said ‘creatures’.”
“What?”
“You said ‘creatures’. Not monsters; ‘creatures’. Marnie, part of you knows that you can do this. That you have to do this, because part of you, even when you don’t remember...part of you belongs here, and it always will. You’re a Cromwell witch, Marnie Piper. Kalabar can’t take that away from you.”
“I can’t. I’m just a normal girl. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Oh, Marnie, Marnie, you’re wrong. I’m sorry, but you’re wrong...” Luke said. He slicked her hair back, ignoring the way the rain was pounding down on both of them, and said softly, “You’re not just a normal girl. You’re not.”
“So what am I?” she asked.
“You’re my Marnie,” he said, and leaned in, and kissed her.
*
Interlude: Breaking Wishes, Part I.
The purple glow of the crystal faltered, dimming as a thick crack lanced its way down the side of the spire. The light returned, but it wasn’t as strong as it had been before; it was flawed now, robbed of its perfection. It was cause for alarm, and for recasting the spell that depended on the light, before everything came tumbling down.
Or it would have been, had anyone been aware of the change. But there was no one there to see, and in Kalabar’s mansion, preparations to hunt down and destroy the Cromwells continued without pause.
In Agatha Cromwell’s house, her daughter Gwen sighed in her sleep, and was still.
*
93: Aftershocks.
Marnie jerked backwards, eyes very wide as she pulled away from Luke. He stared at her and let his hand fall to his side, cheeks slowly turning a dark gray-green with embarrassment.
“Marnie, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what...”
“Be quiet,” she moaned, clapping her hands over her ears. Her head was suddenly full of voices, all of them talking at once, demanding her attention. No, mother, they’ll grow up here...chicken keeps best on the bone...no Halloween parties no witchcraft no ghost stories grow up normal grow up human grow up just like Daddy...I made a song...somebody’s coming...only once a year...only once a year...the door opens, but it only opens once a year...
Inside her mind, a door opened -- not a once-a-year door, but a door for every day, a door for always -- and she understood. Not everything, but enough; enough to begin finding her way through the dark. She was a witch. She belonged here, in Halloweentown. He was right about that, and more.
She was a Cromwell witch; she was Marnie, daughter of Gwen, daughter of Agatha, the latest heir of a line that went all the way back to the days of Merlin himself. She was the savior of Halloweentown three times over, and she was better than the crying, simpering creature that Kalabar had tried so hard to force her to become. She was. She always had been.
She was a Cromwell.
She was Marnie Piper.
She was on her way back home.
“Marnie?”
“I call on the powers of creature and mortal,” she whispered, her whole body shaking, her hands still clasped over her ears.
Barely able to believe what he was hearing, Luke repeated, “Marnie?” That didn’t seem like enough, and so he added, “Marnie, is that you?”
“I call on the powers of creature and mortal,” she whispered again, more firmly this time. Lowering her hands, she raised her head and looked at him. “To hear the wish that I implore. Though summer is high, now you must grant a portal; do as I ask you, and open the door. Luke. Luke, what did you do?”
“I...I kissed you. That’s all. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”
“Luke.” She looked helpless and small -- but hopeful at the same time, like someone had lit a candle behind her eyes. Her smile, when it came, was very slight, and that didn’t matter, because it was brilliant all the same: a jack-o-lantern smile, filled with the hope that the light would see them through to the morning. She was coming back to him. “Kiss me again?”
And so he did.
*
94: Kiss and Tell.
Agatha twitched aside the curtains of her living room window, squinting through the darkness and the rain to see two small figures with their arms around one another, holding on so tightly that unless she’d known it was a pair, she’d have thought them to be only one. One person standing lonely in the rain...or not so lonely, all things considered.
Finally, Luke, she thought to herself, already starting to grin, giggles bubbling up in her throat. You finally chased hard enough to catch up with her.
She let the curtain fall back into place and sat down in her chair, laughing until the tears rolled down her cheeks and Dylan jerked himself awake, staring frantically around the room while he tried to get his bearings back.
“Where am I?” he demanded.
“Oh, don’t worry, darling,” she said, waving a hand. “You’ll know where you are soon enough. It’s home. That’s all.
“You’re home.”
*
95: Tell Me Who I Am.
The second kiss lasted longer. Much longer.
Luke wasn’t entirely sure how he’d wound up with his arms around her, or when they’d come to be standing so very close; he could feel her breathing, and every beat of her heart was like the pounding of a drum, resonating through her skin and into his. It was raining, but that wasn’t the only reason that her cheeks were wet. He could taste her tears, bitter and salty on their lips. At least now he knew for sure that she was crying, even if he didn’t know how long they’d been standing that way. He never wanted the moment to end.
When she finally pulled away he released her only reluctantly, studying her face, looking for a sign. She didn’t look any different. She was still wet, still bedraggled, still Marnie. She’d been Marnie all along.
And then she smiled, and the little candle he’d seen before had somehow become the bonfire behind that jack-o-lantern grin, and he knew that Marnie -- his Marnie, the real Marnie -- was home.
“Hi,” he whispered, and grinned at her. He couldn’t help it. Not all the magic in the entire world could have made him hold back that grin.
“Hi,” she whispered back, reaching up to push his wet, matted hair away from his face. This time, she was the one who left her fingers against his cheek, and he was the one who couldn’t pull away. “Miss me?”
Luke had known that not all the tears were Marnie’s, but it wasn’t until he felt her fingers on his cheek that he realized that he couldn’t seem to make his own tears stop. He hadn’t really allowed himself to be afraid before, but now -- she was home. She was really and truly home, and that meant he could admit that he hadn’t been sure she’d ever make it back to him at all. “You have no idea.”
“I have some,” she said, and leaned in to kiss him again -- quick and glancing this time, there and gone between one breath and the next.
“What...” He swallowed. “What was that for?”
“Not slapping me. I deserved it. I was a spoiled, vicious little brat without my memory.”
“It was the spell. I knew it was the spell.”
Marnie thought back on the Halloween night when she and her siblings had first followed her grandmother to Halloweentown; the memory seemed incredibly fresh now that it had been restored to her, shining and new, like it had happened only the day before. She winced, shaking her head.
“Not entirely the spell,” she said. “Without witchcraft, that’s what I would have been.”
“I guess I’m lucky you had your witchcraft,” Luke said, letting his face rest against her hand.
“I guess you are,” Marnie agreed. “Luke. Am I dreaming? Will I still remember when you let me go?”
“I haven’t let you go yet. Why would I start now?” Luke asked. Then he flinched. Stupid. She’s just remembered. Don’t go getting all sappy on her. You know she doesn’t want it.
“Luke?” Marnie frowned. “Why do you look like that all of a sudden?”
“I just...I’m sorry. It’s always a kiss that breaks the spell, isn’t it? It’s traditional. I had to try it to be sure that it wasn’t the answer. I’d feel stupid if we didn’t at least cover the bases.” Luke ducked away from her hand, starting back towards the house. “Come on, Marnie. We have to tell your grandmother that you remember!”
She watched him run back into the safety of the light that shone from the house windows. When he reached the porch he turned back and waved to her, beckoning her on. “Come on, Marnie!”
Was that really all it was? she thought. He kissed me just to break the spell? No other reason than that? But he hadn’t looked like he expected the spell to break; he’d just looked like a boy who wanted to be kissing a girl.
For a moment, before the world went fuzzy with the rush of memory returning, he’d looked almost like he loved her.
“Coming, Luke,” she said, pushing her hair back, and followed him into the light.
*
96: Into the Light.
“Grandma?” Marnie ducked her head slightly as she stepped through the front door, suddenly assaulted with the memory of her first trip through that door, back when she was a stowaway exploring a world she had no business being a part of. The memory of her last trip to her grandmother’s kitchen came close behind it: the day she asked Luke to be her date to the Prom. That seemed like such a long time ago. It was no time ago at all.
Amnesia, Marnie decided, was even less fun when you were recovering from it. She reeled, catching herself against the doorframe, only to find herself steadied as Luke moved to stand behind her, pressing one hand against the damp fabric of her shirt. That made her smile slightly, despite her confusion. Luke was always there to support her when she needed him. If she’d learned anything from this experience, it was that.
Agatha turned to face her granddaughter, hope and trepidation warring for dominance of her expression. In the end, hope won. “Marnie?” she replied.
“Oh, Grandma!” Pulling herself away from Luke’s stabilizing hand, Marnie threw herself at her grandmother and flung her arms around her, heedless of the way she was soaking them both. After a moment’s startled pause, Agatha put her arms around Marnie, squeezing back. “Grandma, I remember!”
“You...remember?” asked Agatha, voice cracking.
“I remember everything.” Marnie pushed herself out to arm’s-length, eyes solemn behind the tangled, sodden clumps of her hair. “You’ve been teaching me to be your successor, Grandma, so that one day, I can take over as head of the Cromwell witches. You’ve been training me for years. Mom didn’t want you to, but we convinced her, because I love Halloweentown. It’s my home. It’s where I want to be -- it’s where I was always meant to be. I remember it all, and I’m not afraid anymore, Grandma. I’m not afraid at all.”
Behind her, Luke smiled, and turned his face away. That was his Marnie, all right; the real Marnie, full of fire and love for her chosen homeland. She was his best friend. And that was just going to have to be enough.
Agatha raised one hand to touch her granddaughter’s face, tears pooling in the bottoms of her eyes. “Oh, Marnie,” she whispered. “You remember. I don’t remember teaching you, but Luke, and now you...I truly believe that you’re remembering the real world, and not this travesty. This was never meant to be this way. This world isn’t supposed to exist.”
Marnie nodded, mouth firming down to a thin, hard line. “That’s why we’re going to fix it. We’re going to get the real world back, Grandma, just the way it was when we lost it.
“We’re going to save Halloweentown.”
*
97: Family Reunion.
Sophie Piper had a plan.
That sounded almost like a song inside her head, and she smiled a small, secretive smile, playing it over and over again in a jaunty little rhythm: Sophie Piper had a plan, yes, a plan indeed; she’d go and find the golem-man, and then she’d make him bleed!
It wasn’t the best song she’d ever made, but it would do nicely, oh, yes, it would do nicely. She paused for a moment, frowning slightly. She’d made a lot of songs; she knew that. There were some places where she wasn’t entirely clear on what she did and didn’t know, but she knew she’d made a lot of songs. She just couldn’t...remember any of them just now. Not except for the newest one. And that wasn’t right. She’d always had an excellent memory.
So why couldn’t she remember her songs?
Sophie hesitated, worrying her lower lip between her teeth as she tried to work her way around the problem. She had a good memory; she made songs; she liked the songs she made; so why couldn’t she remember them? More than ever, she had the feeling that something was wrong.
A werewolf howled in the distance. Her head snapped up, lip slipping out from between her teeth as the brushed the troublesome questions away. She didn’t remember the songs right now, but she’d remember them again, soon enough. For right now...
For right now, her wicked, wicked sister was hiding behind a golem made from icky, squirmy things, and until the golem was destroyed, she couldn’t be banished from Halloweentown, and Sophie couldn’t be sure that she’d be able to stay.
“Sorry, Marnie,” she said mildly, and resumed her walk. “I just can’t let you take this away from me.”
The rain was sheeting down all around her, but Sophie barely noticed. Keeping it off had been a matter of casting a very simple shielding spell, one designed to stop rain and dull wind without preventing her from breathing. Just a few syllables difference and she could use that same spell to suffocate an enemy, or to keep herself warm while she swam in cold water. Magic was just wonderful that way. It was the most wonderful thing she’d ever encountered, and she was going to keep it.
Of course, her shielding spell didn’t prevent the rain from falling on the trees around her, and their waterlogged branches kept getting in her way, forcing her to brush them aside. It would be easy to just blast a clear path through the woods, so that she could reach Agatha’s house without all these stupid impairments. Kalabar would even approve, as long as she destroyed that nasty golem. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was like she cared about the stupid old woods. There was no good reason for it, but she did.
Well. There’s no rule that says life needs to make sense, and she was almost there, anyway. She could see the lights of her so-called grandmother’s house shining through the trees, dim but unwavering. She’d be there soon, and then? Then she could get down to the real business of the evening. There was only room for one Cromwell witch in Halloweentown.
It was going to be her.
*
98: Broken Doorways.
Once things began to happen, they happened very fast.
Marnie had her hands on Agatha’s shoulders, smiling warmly into her grandmother’s face -- how could she have forgotten it? Even for a moment? She knew that face almost as well as she knew her own -- while Dylan watched, puzzled to the point of silence, from the couch, where Gwen was still sleeping soundly. Luke hung back near the door, giving Marnie and Aggie the space they needed for their reunion. He had his Marnie back. He could be patient.
“How do you propose we do that?” Aggie asked. A bit of the old twinkle was starting to come back into her eyes; she was beginning to believe that they really could save Halloweentown, now that they were a family again. Still a small, broken family, it was true, but a family all the same, and where there’s family, there’s hope.
“We have to start by finding Sophie,” said Marnie firmly. “We don’t know what Kalabar may be doing to her by now.”
“Oh, no,” moaned Dylan. “Now you’re crazy, too.”
“I’m not crazy, Dylan,” said Marnie. “I’m finally sane.”
“Maybe Sophie’s got the right idea, hanging out with the evil warlock kidnapper guy,” Dylan said, covering his eyes with his hands. “At least his crazy probably isn’t contagious.”
“Regardless of whether we’re all crazy, dear, we need to find your sister,” said Aggie, growing solemn. “There’s no telling what Kalabar is doing to her m--”
The sound of the door being blown off its hinges was almost impossibly loud within the confines of the small living room. Marnie shrieked, covering her head with her hands and trying to put herself between her mother’s sleeping body and the blast. That was why she didn’t see what happened clearly; she was too busy trying to protect her mother.
Agatha thrust her hands into the air, shouting, “Galair!” in her most ringing voice. A dome of colored light snapped into place around her, and the flying debris bounced harmlessly off of it. It tinted her view of the room a smoky shade of amber, but it wasn’t enough to keep her from seeing the chunk of the doorframe strike Luke across the side of the head. His eyes went briefly wide with surprise, and then he was falling, crumpling to the hallway floor in a boneless heap.
The debris that was still in the air froze abruptly before falling straight downwards, suddenly robbed of its momentum. Marnie looked back towards the door, uttering a wordless cry as she saw Luke crumpled there, unmoving. She started to run to him, and froze as unseen hands caught hold of her, fixing her in place.
“Don’t fight me, Marnie,” said Sophie’s voice, from the direction of the blasted door. “It isn’t worth it. You tricked me once, but I’m stronger than you, now. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt any of you.”
“Let me go!” Marnie cried. “Luke! Luke, are you all right? Can you hear me? Luke!”
Sophie came walking into the hallway, looking dispassionately down at Luke’s fallen form. She nudged him with her foot. He didn’t move. “Gosh, Marnie. If I were going to make a golem, I wouldn’t make it so funny-looking. How’s anybody supposed to believe that this thing’s for real? It doesn’t even look like a person.” She sighed, gustily. “Maybe you’ll do better next time. Or you would, if there was going to be a next time. Sorry.”
“Sophie, what are you talking about?” Marnie stared at her sister, stricken as much by Sophie’s words as by the sight of Luke lying unmoving on the floor. “Luke’s not a golem! He’s a goblin!”
“There’s no difference,” Sophie said dismissively. Raising her hands to shoulder level, she started to chant.
“Sophie!” Agatha cried. “Stop! Don’t do this!”
Sophie stopped chanting, looking towards Agatha and scowling. “Why? Because you don’t want your precious favorite granddaughter to get her toys broken? I know you chose her over me. I know what you’re trying to do. And I won’t let you. I’m going to get rid of this golem, and then me and Mom and Dylan, we’re going home. You can’t stop us!”
“Sophie, darling, why would I want to stop you from doing what will make you happy?” Out of the corner of her eye, Aggie could see Marnie straining against the spell that bound her. She was starting to wiggle free. If she could just keep Sophie talking -- and keep her from hurting Luke for just a little longer -- Marnie might be able to get loose. Two against one wouldn’t be a fair fight. It might also be a fight they could win without anyone being seriously hurt. “You’re welcome to go home.”
“Since when do you care about my happiness? It’s just Marnie with you. Kalabar told me everything.” Sophie glared at her. “You were going to take over Halloweentown, you and Marnie, and you didn’t care if it meant the rest of us got hurt. Well, I’m not going to let you. Do you hear me? I won’t let you.”
“Oh, my God, his crazy was contagious,” said Dylan, sounding horrified. Sophie whipped around to face him, eyes wide. “Are you listening to yourself? Jeez, Sophie. Grandma and Marnie may be crazy, but they didn’t kidnap us and lock us in a dungeon. You’ve totally lost perspective here.” He stood, crossing his arms, and shook his head. “I was definitely right when I told Mom she needed to stop letting you watch so much television.”
“Dylan, she sold us out!”
“Um, newsflash, Sophie: she didn’t stick us in some stupid dungeon and knock Mom out with magic Tinker Belle powder. Marnie’s nuts, but she didn’t do anything to us.”
Sophie stared at him, unwilling to believe the things he was saying to her. Dylan was always the rational one. So why was he spouting such horrible lies? “Stop saying that! If they’re so good, why wouldn’t they give me magic?” Suddenly infuriated, she raised her hands and made a flinging gesture, sending a ball of blue-green fire blazing in his direction.
Too surprised to think about what he was doing, Dylan whipped his own hands up in a blocking gesture, and caught the fireball. He stood there, staring at his hands.
Sophie was staring, too, and her shock was enough to release the spell binding Marnie, who stumbled suddenly forward, and started to run towards Luke.
“Marnie, no!” Agatha called. “Get your sister!” She dropped the shield spell around herself, raising her own hands and starting to chant.
Marnie slammed into Sophie, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl as she started trying to struggle. Up close, the stench of Kalabar’s magic was almost palpable. “Grandma, she’s under a spell! Not just the wish!”
Agatha continued to chant, hands beginning to glow white. Closing her eyes, Marnie joined in. Sophie moaned. The chant ended on a high, ringing note, as Sophie went limp in Marnie’s arms.
Dropping her hands, Agatha sighed. “He enchanted her to make her more willing to believe what she wanted to believe.”
“Is she all right now?” Marnie asked.
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Um, guys?” They turned to see Dylan still holding the fireball at arm’s length, eyes very wide. He looked up at them, and asked, plaintively, “What do I do with this?”
“Well, just put it down, dear, it’ll fizzle once it doesn’t have a purpose,” said Aggie, sensibly. Dylan made a dropping motion, and the fireball disappeared. “There you are. My, aren’t you just the finest potential warlock?”
“Warlock? Me?” Dylan scoffed. “I’m not a...” He stopped. If he wasn’t a warlock, and he’d snatched a fireball out of the air, what was he, exactly? “I’m not.”
“Marnie?” Sophie raised her head, blinking as if tired. “What happened? Where am I? Where’s Mom?”
“Still asleep, dear,” said Agatha, and walked over to pull Sophie away from Marnie, gathering her into a tight hug. “Oh, Sophie.”
“Grandma?” said Sophie, sounding puzzled. Then, jubilantly, she cried, “Grandma!”
Marnie smiled slightly as she watched their reunion. A breeze blew in through the broken door, ruffling her hair, and her smile faded. “Luke!” Turning, she ran back to where the goblin lay, face-down on the floor, and dropped to her knees beside him. “Luke? Luke! Oh, Luke, wake up, don’t be dead, wake up...”
Agatha and Sophie stopped their greetings and turned, numbly, to watch as Marnie slumped forward, and started to cry.
*
99: Sleeping Beauty.
Being hit in the head by a flying chunk of doorway hurt. It hurt a lot. Luke wasn’t sure it qualified as the most painful thing he’d ever experienced, but it sure looked like a clear winner just at the moment. The idea of sleeping until the pain went away was pretty appealing, but he could feel himself starting to wake up, inch by aching inch.
Somewhere, Marnie was talking to him. Somewhere very far away. Still, it was Marnie, and so he did his best to listen. He frowned inwardly. It sounded like she was crying. Who was making his Marnie cry?
“...to wake up, Luke, okay? I just remembered who you are, I mean really remembered, and you have to wake up. You’re not allowed to be dead. I won’t let you.”
Oh. He was making her cry. And she really sounded like his Marnie, too; her memory was really and truly back. She was actually herself again. That was nice.
“Luke!”
And she knew his name.
“Luke. Please. Please, Luke, wake up. Don’t die.” Her last words were very faint, but he still heard them clearly. They were the words he’d never expected to here.
“I love you.”
Luke opened his eyes.
*
100: Wake-Up Call.
“Did she just say she...?” Dylan eyed his sister dubiously. He wasn’t sure what was going on, exactly; just that when Sophie came in slinging fireballs and talking crazy, Marnie’s green-skinned friend had gotten himself nailed, and now Marnie seemed to think that talking like she was living in a Disney movie would wake him up. On the other hand... “Huh. Maybe it’ll work. Nothing else in this crazy place makes any sense.”
Agatha smiled, a little wistfully. “It’s always nice to see someone figure something out for themselves.”
“It’s about time, too,” muttered Sophie, before she froze, eyes widening. “I...remember.”
“Remember what?” Agatha asked, looking down at her and frowning.
“Everything!”
“Well, I don’t remember anything, so I guess we’re even,” Dylan said sourly.
Whatever Sophie might have said next was cut off by Marnie’s sudden, wordless cry of delight. All three of them turned back towards the doorway, where Luke was sitting up, his arms locked tight around Marnie, who was holding just as tightly onto him, sobbing into his shoulder. Agatha smiled.
“Look out, Halloweentown,” she said. “The Cromwells are back.”
*
101: The Plan They Had.
It wasn’t the best plan. It wasn’t the safest plan. But it was the only plan that they had.
Once Luke was back on his feet, the bumps and bruises he’d sustained from Sophie’s entrance smoothed over with a simple healing spell, Agatha had led them all into the kitchen, leaving only Gwen behind to slumber on the couch. “Fairy magic,” she said, “always has an escape clause, but when the spell is this far-reaching, you have to go to the source.”
“Perryn,” said Marnie, grimly. She was holding fast to Luke’s hand -- had been since he was healed -- and didn’t seem inclined to let go any time soon.
“But how can we cancel the wish, Grandma?”
“If they hadn’t locked up all the other fairy godmothers, you could ask one of them to let you wish the world back to normal, but as it stands...” Agatha’s lips thinned into a hard line. “Break her wand, break the spell. It’s as simple as that.”
“So we’re going to go and find a crazy fairy godmother so we can take her wand away and get rid of what you people think she did to the world?” Dylan demanded. “That doesn’t sound simple to me.”
“I said simple, dear,” said Aggie. “Not easy.”
Now here they were, just the five of them -- one witch rendered old and tired before her time, two apprentice witches still shaking off the remains of a fairy godmother’s spell, one unwilling warlock, and one somewhat battered goblin -- marching towards City Hall to take on a fully-powered warlock and the fairy godmother than had already been able to enchant them all once.
The square was practically deserted, lit only by the dark, smoky flames from the great jack-o-lantern that was the heart of all Halloweentown. Marnie left her right hand clasped in Luke’s, but held her left hand out to her grandmother, who took it firmly, joining her own left hand with Sophie, who reached out to Dylan. He eyed the line dubiously for a moment before finally taking his sister’s hand, completing the chain.
They came to a halt in front of City Hall, where Agatha tipped her head back and shouted, “Kalabar! Your reign of terror is over! Come out and face us like a man!”
Eerie laughter filled the square, and then the doors of City Hall were opening, and Kalabar himself was stepping out, looking jaunty and relaxed in his top hat and suit coat. “Now, really, Aggie, is this the way for a woman of your age and frankly questionable social standing to behave? Be reasonable. Turn around and go home like a good little Cromwell, and we’ll forget about this whole thing.”
“We know what you did to Halloweentown, you monster!” shouted Marnie.
“I? I did nothing, you foolish little witch,” he spat. “My lovely wife, on the other hand, restored the glory that you had so selfishly, stupidly taken away from me. Why should the Cromwells have all the power? What makes you so worthy of guarding this place?”
“How about the part where they don’t ruin it?” Luke shouted.
“Halloweentown is supposed to be something wonderful, and you’ve destroyed it!” Marnie added. “That ends here!”
“Yes,” Kalabar said, shaking his head. “I suppose it does.”
On the last word, he whirled around, shaping his hands like he was hurling a ball. A globe of glowing light shot out and towards the line of people standing in front of him; they let go of one another and dove at the last minute, scattering.
“Did you fools really believe that you could defeat me?” he boomed. “I am Kalabar! I am King!”
“You are yesterday’s news!” shouted Sophie, scrambling to her feet. “We beat you once, and we can beat you again!”
“That’s right!” said Agatha, rising to stand behind her granddaughter. “Marnie! Dylan! Luke! Find Perryn!”
“On it, Grandma!” said Marnie, and grabbed Dylan, hauling her brother to her feet as she ran towards City Hall, with Luke following close behind.
“I don’t think I’ll be that difficult to find,” Perryn’s voice said, from behind them. The trio skidded to a stop, whirling around to face her. The fairy godmother smirked. “Isn’t this cute? You’re trying to undo all my good work. Well, I’m afraid that can’t be allowed.”
“We aren’t making any wishes, Perryn!” said Luke. “There’s nothing you can do to us!”
“Not to you, perhaps, but to darling Gwen? To little Sophie? Oh, I think you’re choosing to underestimate what a threat I can be.” Perryn’s smirk widened. “Go home, children. You’ve lost before you fully be--”
Dylan slammed into her from the side, sending her sprawling as he exclaimed, “You stay away from my mother!”
Startled, Perryn lost her balance, stumbling to the side, and lost her grip on the wand at the same time. Luke dove forward, grabbing it. With an indignant scream, Perryn flung Dylan away, and pursued the goblin as he turned and ran from her.
“Marnie!” Luke shouted. Perryn shrieked, closing the distance between herself and Luke in a buzz of wings. Her hands closed around his throat, and the two of them went down hard, skidding on the rotten straw that covered the ground until Luke’s shoulder slammed up against the pumpkin. But as Luke fell, he threw the wand, sending it spinning end over end through the air.
Marnie thrust her hand into the air, and caught it.
“Hey, fairy godmother!” she shouted. “Looking for something?”
Perryn turned towards her, eyes very wide. On the other side of the square, Kalabar was flinging balls of flame and ice at Marnie’s sister and grandmother, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the wand.
“Little girl...” Perryn began. “Marnie. Please. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know--”
“I’m saving Halloweentown,” Marnie said, voice flat. She took the wand in both her hands, and bent sharply downwards. Perryn screamed.
The sound of the shaft snapping was almost anticlimactic.
*
Interlude: Breaking Wishes, Part II.
The crystal shattered as the light inside it went fully out, sending fine shards scattering in all directions. They tinkled as they landed, like distant bells.
And then there was silence.
*
102: Halloweentown, Part II.
There was a flash of blinding light. Marnie dropped the broke halves of the wand, raising her arm to cover her eyes. All around her, the others did the same.
It wasn’t until she heard the sound of distant birdsong and felt sunlight on her skin that Marnie lowered her arm, and stared around herself with undisguised delight. Kalabar was gone, as was Perryn; as were the clouds that had choked out the sky since Luke hauled her back to Halloweentown. The buildings around the square were clean and jolly-looking, exactly as they should be, and the flame in the pumpkin burned brightly.
“Home,” she whispered.
“Oh, Marnie!” Agatha shouted, and then she was running across the square to grab Marnie and pull her into a hug, with Sophie close behind. Even Dylan came over, throwing his arms around the three of them.
“Grandma,” said Marnie, happily. Agatha looked like herself again; the aura of tired, beat-down hopelessness was gone.
“Mom! Kids!”
“Mom!” Sophie cried. The four of them turned to see Gwen running towards them, arms outstretched, and Sophie and Dylan ran to her. The other denizens of Halloweentown were beginning to creep back out of their homes, looking around with caution that quickly became joy.
Luke picked himself up from where Perryn had dragged him, dusting the straw off his shirt. He didn’t even see Marnie coming until her arms were thrown tight around his neck, and she was kissing him, and then his arms were around her waist, and nothing else really seemed to matter.
Across the square, Gwen looked up from hugging her two younger children, and stared. “Is that...?”
“They finally figured it out,” said Sophie, happily.
“Nothing like Halloween for lovers,” said Agatha. “Truly, there’s nothing at all.”
And almost despite herself, Gwen smiled.
*
103: Some Enchanted Evening, Part II.
“How’s my hair?”
“Your hair is fine.”
“How’s my stasis-spell?”
“Your stasis-spell is fine.”
“Sophie, how do you know when you don’t even look up from your book?” Marnie demanded.
Sophie raised her head, shrugging. “Because it was true the last eight times.”
Since returning from Halloweentown, the Cromwells had found the mortal world entirely restored, as if Perryn’s wish had never changed things in the first place...but unlike Halloweentown, where the residents remembered the horrible reworking of their home, the mortals had completely forgotten. For them, the wish had never happened. It was probably better that way.
The rest of the school year had been as interminably dull as Marnie had known it would be...but the tedium was somewhat alleviated by her trips back to Halloweentown, which had become even more frequent now that she had something other than lessons to visit for. Luke still didn’t much like to fly. Marnie was learning the value of long walks, and of the hidden nooks and crannies on Lost Lover’s Lane.
Spreading the skirts of her black and white satin dress, Marnie nodded anxiously. “Do you think he’ll like it?”
“I think he’d like it if you wore a potato sack,” Sophie said seriously.
Marnie grinned. “When did you get so smart?”
“I always have been,” Sophie said.
Maybe you only get one prom. But there’s always Grad Night. And that particular Grad Night would be remembered forever as the year when the witch and the goblin -- with no illusions in sight -- shared a slow dance three feet above the gymnasium floor.
Happy Halloween.
Rating: PG-13, at most.
Fandom: Halloweentown.
Synopsis: Marnie needs a date for the prom, and Kalabar is once again plotting his revenge against the Cromwell witches. Everything goes downhill from there. This story takes into account the first three Halloweentown movies, but does not acknowledge the fourth, ‘Witch U’, as part of canon.
Disclaimer: Halloweentown and all associated characters are the property of Walt Disney Inc., who would probably sue the pants off me if they knew I'd posted this. No infringement on existing copyrights, wrongs or indifferents is intended or implied. Please do not hit me with sticks.
***
89: Rain.
Gwen was still asleep, trapped under Perryn’s spell; Dylan had joined her on the couch, falling into a more natural slumber, exhausted by the events of the day. Agatha rose, putting her herbs aside, and moved to the front door, checking the lock once more.
“This is pure foolishness, Agatha Cromwell,” she said to herself, softly. “When they come, they’ll come.”
Kalabar would come for her before too much longer: she was sure of that. The clouds overhead weren’t even shifting anymore, and when she truly allowed herself to think about it, she had to admit that she was no longer certain the sun existed. Halloweentown was a magically created world, after all, and Perryn’s spell had changed its very foundations, using the power of three Cromwells to twist their world away from what it was designed to be. Now Gwen was unconscious, Sophie was firmly in his power, and Dylan was deep in his denial. Only Agatha herself still believed in their world the way it was meant to be -- Agatha, and maybe Marnie. She’d seen flashes of the girl Luke said he cared for.
Hurry, Luke, she thought, resting her head against the door. If you want to save her, hurry.
The wish had almost reached the height of its power, almost finishing with the recreation of all of Halloweentown in Kalabar’s twisted image. She could see it working even around the edges of her home, making the masonry weaker and wood slightly twisted, like it hadn’t been cared for in years. When the wish fully took control, not even having her family here around her would keep her powers from fading, reacting to mourning that she’d never truly done.
It was possible that the rest of her family would fade along with her powers, still here, but somehow impossible to see or speak to. According to the terms of the wish, they were dead, after all.
And it would only take a death to seal the deal forever. One little death...Kalabar had shown that he didn’t mind killing to get what he wanted.
Kill Luke. Kill Agatha herself. And the spell could never be broken, could never be unmade, because the world it had been cast in wouldn’t be possible anymore. “He’s so close to taking it all,” she whispered. “So close. Oh, Marnie...don’t let him win. Luke says you saved us once before. Please, darling. Please.
“Be strong for just a little longer, if you can.”
Outside, the clouds rumbled with the sound of distant thunder, and it started raining once again.
*
90: Better Lies.
Sophie perched on the edge of Kalabar’s desk, hands cupped together, a ball of marble floating roughly eight inches above them, held up by the strength of her magic. She’d been first surprised and then delighted to realize how quickly magic was becoming second nature to her -- she was learning fast.
A little too fast for Kalabar’s tastes. He stood in the doorway watching her, and frowned. He wanted to keep Sophie, he truly did: the Cromwell witches had humiliated and nearly destroyed him, but more than that, they were powerful when they were used the way that they were meant to be used. As tools. His tools, to command and control and throw aside when he was done.
The ball wobbled and then dropped into Sophie’s cupped hands. She frowned at it.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself, my dear,” Kalabar said, stepping into view, cane twirling jauntily in his hand. “Why, your mother was twice your age before she could do a thing like that.” Just one more lie on top of all the rest. “That’s probably why she tried to deny your magical heritage. One of the reasons, anyway.”
Sophie looked up, nose scrunched slightly as she considered this. “She was jealous?”
“Who wouldn’t be? A witch of your power comes along...why, once a generation at the most. Your sister must have burned up inside looking at you.”
“Marnie always was mean to me,” Sophie said with a frown, looking down at the ball in her hands. Something about that statement didn’t seem right; something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
This was wrong. But the magic -- oh, the magic. She wanted it so badly.
How could anything so wonderful be wrong?
“You know that she’s trying to get rid of you even now,” Kalabar said, half-dismissively.
Sophie’s head snapped up. “What?”
“That green boy she had with her -- the goblin? He’s a golem. She made him from worms and caterpillars, to confuse my spells. If she can get him in here again, well...” Kalabar shook his head. “I don’t know if I can stop her, Sophie.”
“But without the golem, she can’t hurt us, right?”
“Well, I suppose that’s true,” he said slowly.
“And it’s not really killing if he’s not really a person...”
Kalabar allowed a slow, satisfied smile to spread across his face. “Why no,” he said. “No, it’s really not killing at all.”
*
91: Not A Bang, But A Whimper.
“Grandma? How is she?”
“Not good, my dear,” said Agatha, wiping her tears from her cheeks before she turned away from the door to face Luke and Marnie. “Not good at all. Come here. Both of you. Please.”
They walked over, and she gathered them into a tight hug, looking past Luke’s shoulder to where Dylan and Gwen still slumbered on the couch. “Oh, my darlings,” she said. “I remember living so long without you, and I’m afraid it’s going to happen again...”
“Grandma, what do you mean?” asked Marnie, pulling away.
“Look around you, Marnie,” Agatha said. “The spell is winning. You’re here, but that’s not enough to stop the wish from rewriting reality. Soon, I’ll forget you. We all will.”
“Not all of us,” said Luke gruffly.
“No. Not all of us.” Agatha looked between them, voice grave. “The wish will finish spreading outwards, and then it will become final, and Kalabar will have one of us killed to keep it from ever being broken. Once that happens, Halloweentown will be lost forever. My world, my family -- you, Marnie, everything you should have had -- will be gone. I’m sorry. But unless you find the loophole, unless you break the spell, it’s over. There’s no point in fighting. I can’t even wake your mother. My power is fading, and soon I’ll just be mourning you again, and not remembering you were ever here.”
Marnie stared at her grandmother for a moment, eyes very wide, before she turned and bolted for the door. Agatha watched her go, not saying a word.
Luke stared after her, then turned on Agatha, demanding, “How could you say that to her?”
“I had to. It was true.”
“If it’s true and I’m the only one that’s going to remember, why did you have to say it? She didn’t have to know! You didn’t have to hurt her like that!” If it’s true, then I’m going to lose her. No matter what I do, I’m going to lose her. A world with no Marnie in it, no Marnie at all, ever again...
The idea was almost more than he could bear.
“Luke...”
“Don’t talk to me.” Luke took a step backwards, then turned and ran after Marnie, out into the rain. It seemed like he was always running after Marnie anymore.
Agatha listened to the door slamming shut behind him and closed her eyes, tilting her face up towards the ceiling.
Please, she thought. Please, let this work. I don’t know what else to do.
Please.
*
92: The End of the World as We Know It.
“Marnie! You have to come back inside with me! Please.”
“No, Luke! Don’t! Just don’t! Leave me alone.” She was speaking so fast that her words were running together, blurring until it sounded like she was saying ‘don’t leave me alone’ instead of telling him to leave.
Luke just hoped what he was hearing was what she actually wanted to say, and couldn’t, because of that damn spell. If it wasn’t, if she truly wanted to go...
He was running out of options. He’d have to let her.
“Marnie, it’s pouring out here.” The rain was coming down in sheets, blocking out all light from above and turning the yard into a swamp. It was only thanks to the dim light shining through the windows of the house that he could see Marnie at all, and if she went much further from the porch, even that would be gone. “Please, just come back inside before you catch a cold.”
“Come back inside and do what, Luke?” She turned to face him, flailing her arms in a helpless, angry gesture. “Wait to fade away completely? Wait to see if anyone remembers we’re here so that we can get home? I don’t want to die here, Luke. And I don’t want to leave.”
“What?” He started walking slowly towards her, aware that he was moving like he was trying not to startle a wild thing. In a way, that was exactly what he was doing.
“I don’t...I don’t want to go.” Marnie sounded more miserable than he’d ever known her to be, utterly overwhelmed by what was going on around her. It wasn’t right. Marnie -- his Marnie -- was a lot of things, but she was never helpless. “I don’t want to forget again. I don’t want to go back to just walking through life and not knowing something’s missing. I don’t want to leave, Luke, and I don’t want you to forget me.”
“I won’t forget you. I’m the only one that never can,” he said, coming to a stop just in front of her. Her hair was hanging in her face, pulled straight and heavy by the rain; he pushed it aside without thinking, leaving his fingers resting against the curve of her cheek. “Remember? I’m your loophole. I can’t forget you, because the spell can’t touch me.”
Marnie sniffled. With the rain falling everywhere, he couldn’t tell whether she was crying or not, but he wouldn’t bet against it. He was crying, after all. “Really?”
“Really. Even if I wanted to forget you, I couldn’t do it.” And he didn’t want to forget her. If there was anything he’d been sure of since the day that Kalabar said he could make him human if he just did as he was told, it was that he didn’t want to forget Marnie.
Marnie, who taught him about taking crazy risks and working for good over evil, just because it was the right thing to do. Marnie, who laughed when he was scared and said she’d always be there to catch him when he needed her. Marnie, who made all things possible, just by being a part of the world.
Without her, would anything be possible? Anything at all? He wasn’t sure.
He just knew that he wasn’t willing to forget her.
“I’m scared, Luke. I’m so scared. How can we stop this? I don’t want to go away.”
“We can break the spell. Save your sister. Wake your mother. Restore Halloweentown to the way that it’s supposed to be.” She should have been the one saying those words, not him. She was the one who led the grand crusades and fixed things; he was just the one that followed her and was glad to have the privilege. When he wasn’t screaming and convinced that he was about to die, that was.
But she’d forgotten herself, and this time, he had to be the one who convinced her to follow him over the edge and into whatever madness would save the day. He just had to hope that she’d follow him the way he’d always followed her, or he didn’t know what else he could do.
“How am I supposed to break this spell, Luke? I can’t do anything. I can’t save a world. I can’t even save myself. Much less my family and everybody else.”
“You have to hold on, Marnie,” he said. “It’s not over yet. It’s not over until we’ve lost, and we haven’t lost. Not while you remember who you are. And not while I remember you.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“Luke, if all the creatures in Halloweentown can’t stop Kalabar, how can I? Even if I was a Cromwell witch before all of this...before...I’m not anymore. I don’t have any special powers or...or anything.”
Luke paused, his hand still resting against her cheek. “You said ‘creatures’.”
“What?”
“You said ‘creatures’. Not monsters; ‘creatures’. Marnie, part of you knows that you can do this. That you have to do this, because part of you, even when you don’t remember...part of you belongs here, and it always will. You’re a Cromwell witch, Marnie Piper. Kalabar can’t take that away from you.”
“I can’t. I’m just a normal girl. There’s nothing I can do.”
“Oh, Marnie, Marnie, you’re wrong. I’m sorry, but you’re wrong...” Luke said. He slicked her hair back, ignoring the way the rain was pounding down on both of them, and said softly, “You’re not just a normal girl. You’re not.”
“So what am I?” she asked.
“You’re my Marnie,” he said, and leaned in, and kissed her.
*
Interlude: Breaking Wishes, Part I.
The purple glow of the crystal faltered, dimming as a thick crack lanced its way down the side of the spire. The light returned, but it wasn’t as strong as it had been before; it was flawed now, robbed of its perfection. It was cause for alarm, and for recasting the spell that depended on the light, before everything came tumbling down.
Or it would have been, had anyone been aware of the change. But there was no one there to see, and in Kalabar’s mansion, preparations to hunt down and destroy the Cromwells continued without pause.
In Agatha Cromwell’s house, her daughter Gwen sighed in her sleep, and was still.
*
93: Aftershocks.
Marnie jerked backwards, eyes very wide as she pulled away from Luke. He stared at her and let his hand fall to his side, cheeks slowly turning a dark gray-green with embarrassment.
“Marnie, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what...”
“Be quiet,” she moaned, clapping her hands over her ears. Her head was suddenly full of voices, all of them talking at once, demanding her attention. No, mother, they’ll grow up here...chicken keeps best on the bone...no Halloween parties no witchcraft no ghost stories grow up normal grow up human grow up just like Daddy...I made a song...somebody’s coming...only once a year...only once a year...the door opens, but it only opens once a year...
Inside her mind, a door opened -- not a once-a-year door, but a door for every day, a door for always -- and she understood. Not everything, but enough; enough to begin finding her way through the dark. She was a witch. She belonged here, in Halloweentown. He was right about that, and more.
She was a Cromwell witch; she was Marnie, daughter of Gwen, daughter of Agatha, the latest heir of a line that went all the way back to the days of Merlin himself. She was the savior of Halloweentown three times over, and she was better than the crying, simpering creature that Kalabar had tried so hard to force her to become. She was. She always had been.
She was a Cromwell.
She was Marnie Piper.
She was on her way back home.
“Marnie?”
“I call on the powers of creature and mortal,” she whispered, her whole body shaking, her hands still clasped over her ears.
Barely able to believe what he was hearing, Luke repeated, “Marnie?” That didn’t seem like enough, and so he added, “Marnie, is that you?”
“I call on the powers of creature and mortal,” she whispered again, more firmly this time. Lowering her hands, she raised her head and looked at him. “To hear the wish that I implore. Though summer is high, now you must grant a portal; do as I ask you, and open the door. Luke. Luke, what did you do?”
“I...I kissed you. That’s all. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean...”
“Luke.” She looked helpless and small -- but hopeful at the same time, like someone had lit a candle behind her eyes. Her smile, when it came, was very slight, and that didn’t matter, because it was brilliant all the same: a jack-o-lantern smile, filled with the hope that the light would see them through to the morning. She was coming back to him. “Kiss me again?”
And so he did.
*
94: Kiss and Tell.
Agatha twitched aside the curtains of her living room window, squinting through the darkness and the rain to see two small figures with their arms around one another, holding on so tightly that unless she’d known it was a pair, she’d have thought them to be only one. One person standing lonely in the rain...or not so lonely, all things considered.
Finally, Luke, she thought to herself, already starting to grin, giggles bubbling up in her throat. You finally chased hard enough to catch up with her.
She let the curtain fall back into place and sat down in her chair, laughing until the tears rolled down her cheeks and Dylan jerked himself awake, staring frantically around the room while he tried to get his bearings back.
“Where am I?” he demanded.
“Oh, don’t worry, darling,” she said, waving a hand. “You’ll know where you are soon enough. It’s home. That’s all.
“You’re home.”
*
95: Tell Me Who I Am.
The second kiss lasted longer. Much longer.
Luke wasn’t entirely sure how he’d wound up with his arms around her, or when they’d come to be standing so very close; he could feel her breathing, and every beat of her heart was like the pounding of a drum, resonating through her skin and into his. It was raining, but that wasn’t the only reason that her cheeks were wet. He could taste her tears, bitter and salty on their lips. At least now he knew for sure that she was crying, even if he didn’t know how long they’d been standing that way. He never wanted the moment to end.
When she finally pulled away he released her only reluctantly, studying her face, looking for a sign. She didn’t look any different. She was still wet, still bedraggled, still Marnie. She’d been Marnie all along.
And then she smiled, and the little candle he’d seen before had somehow become the bonfire behind that jack-o-lantern grin, and he knew that Marnie -- his Marnie, the real Marnie -- was home.
“Hi,” he whispered, and grinned at her. He couldn’t help it. Not all the magic in the entire world could have made him hold back that grin.
“Hi,” she whispered back, reaching up to push his wet, matted hair away from his face. This time, she was the one who left her fingers against his cheek, and he was the one who couldn’t pull away. “Miss me?”
Luke had known that not all the tears were Marnie’s, but it wasn’t until he felt her fingers on his cheek that he realized that he couldn’t seem to make his own tears stop. He hadn’t really allowed himself to be afraid before, but now -- she was home. She was really and truly home, and that meant he could admit that he hadn’t been sure she’d ever make it back to him at all. “You have no idea.”
“I have some,” she said, and leaned in to kiss him again -- quick and glancing this time, there and gone between one breath and the next.
“What...” He swallowed. “What was that for?”
“Not slapping me. I deserved it. I was a spoiled, vicious little brat without my memory.”
“It was the spell. I knew it was the spell.”
Marnie thought back on the Halloween night when she and her siblings had first followed her grandmother to Halloweentown; the memory seemed incredibly fresh now that it had been restored to her, shining and new, like it had happened only the day before. She winced, shaking her head.
“Not entirely the spell,” she said. “Without witchcraft, that’s what I would have been.”
“I guess I’m lucky you had your witchcraft,” Luke said, letting his face rest against her hand.
“I guess you are,” Marnie agreed. “Luke. Am I dreaming? Will I still remember when you let me go?”
“I haven’t let you go yet. Why would I start now?” Luke asked. Then he flinched. Stupid. She’s just remembered. Don’t go getting all sappy on her. You know she doesn’t want it.
“Luke?” Marnie frowned. “Why do you look like that all of a sudden?”
“I just...I’m sorry. It’s always a kiss that breaks the spell, isn’t it? It’s traditional. I had to try it to be sure that it wasn’t the answer. I’d feel stupid if we didn’t at least cover the bases.” Luke ducked away from her hand, starting back towards the house. “Come on, Marnie. We have to tell your grandmother that you remember!”
She watched him run back into the safety of the light that shone from the house windows. When he reached the porch he turned back and waved to her, beckoning her on. “Come on, Marnie!”
Was that really all it was? she thought. He kissed me just to break the spell? No other reason than that? But he hadn’t looked like he expected the spell to break; he’d just looked like a boy who wanted to be kissing a girl.
For a moment, before the world went fuzzy with the rush of memory returning, he’d looked almost like he loved her.
“Coming, Luke,” she said, pushing her hair back, and followed him into the light.
*
96: Into the Light.
“Grandma?” Marnie ducked her head slightly as she stepped through the front door, suddenly assaulted with the memory of her first trip through that door, back when she was a stowaway exploring a world she had no business being a part of. The memory of her last trip to her grandmother’s kitchen came close behind it: the day she asked Luke to be her date to the Prom. That seemed like such a long time ago. It was no time ago at all.
Amnesia, Marnie decided, was even less fun when you were recovering from it. She reeled, catching herself against the doorframe, only to find herself steadied as Luke moved to stand behind her, pressing one hand against the damp fabric of her shirt. That made her smile slightly, despite her confusion. Luke was always there to support her when she needed him. If she’d learned anything from this experience, it was that.
Agatha turned to face her granddaughter, hope and trepidation warring for dominance of her expression. In the end, hope won. “Marnie?” she replied.
“Oh, Grandma!” Pulling herself away from Luke’s stabilizing hand, Marnie threw herself at her grandmother and flung her arms around her, heedless of the way she was soaking them both. After a moment’s startled pause, Agatha put her arms around Marnie, squeezing back. “Grandma, I remember!”
“You...remember?” asked Agatha, voice cracking.
“I remember everything.” Marnie pushed herself out to arm’s-length, eyes solemn behind the tangled, sodden clumps of her hair. “You’ve been teaching me to be your successor, Grandma, so that one day, I can take over as head of the Cromwell witches. You’ve been training me for years. Mom didn’t want you to, but we convinced her, because I love Halloweentown. It’s my home. It’s where I want to be -- it’s where I was always meant to be. I remember it all, and I’m not afraid anymore, Grandma. I’m not afraid at all.”
Behind her, Luke smiled, and turned his face away. That was his Marnie, all right; the real Marnie, full of fire and love for her chosen homeland. She was his best friend. And that was just going to have to be enough.
Agatha raised one hand to touch her granddaughter’s face, tears pooling in the bottoms of her eyes. “Oh, Marnie,” she whispered. “You remember. I don’t remember teaching you, but Luke, and now you...I truly believe that you’re remembering the real world, and not this travesty. This was never meant to be this way. This world isn’t supposed to exist.”
Marnie nodded, mouth firming down to a thin, hard line. “That’s why we’re going to fix it. We’re going to get the real world back, Grandma, just the way it was when we lost it.
“We’re going to save Halloweentown.”
*
97: Family Reunion.
Sophie Piper had a plan.
That sounded almost like a song inside her head, and she smiled a small, secretive smile, playing it over and over again in a jaunty little rhythm: Sophie Piper had a plan, yes, a plan indeed; she’d go and find the golem-man, and then she’d make him bleed!
It wasn’t the best song she’d ever made, but it would do nicely, oh, yes, it would do nicely. She paused for a moment, frowning slightly. She’d made a lot of songs; she knew that. There were some places where she wasn’t entirely clear on what she did and didn’t know, but she knew she’d made a lot of songs. She just couldn’t...remember any of them just now. Not except for the newest one. And that wasn’t right. She’d always had an excellent memory.
So why couldn’t she remember her songs?
Sophie hesitated, worrying her lower lip between her teeth as she tried to work her way around the problem. She had a good memory; she made songs; she liked the songs she made; so why couldn’t she remember them? More than ever, she had the feeling that something was wrong.
A werewolf howled in the distance. Her head snapped up, lip slipping out from between her teeth as the brushed the troublesome questions away. She didn’t remember the songs right now, but she’d remember them again, soon enough. For right now...
For right now, her wicked, wicked sister was hiding behind a golem made from icky, squirmy things, and until the golem was destroyed, she couldn’t be banished from Halloweentown, and Sophie couldn’t be sure that she’d be able to stay.
“Sorry, Marnie,” she said mildly, and resumed her walk. “I just can’t let you take this away from me.”
The rain was sheeting down all around her, but Sophie barely noticed. Keeping it off had been a matter of casting a very simple shielding spell, one designed to stop rain and dull wind without preventing her from breathing. Just a few syllables difference and she could use that same spell to suffocate an enemy, or to keep herself warm while she swam in cold water. Magic was just wonderful that way. It was the most wonderful thing she’d ever encountered, and she was going to keep it.
Of course, her shielding spell didn’t prevent the rain from falling on the trees around her, and their waterlogged branches kept getting in her way, forcing her to brush them aside. It would be easy to just blast a clear path through the woods, so that she could reach Agatha’s house without all these stupid impairments. Kalabar would even approve, as long as she destroyed that nasty golem. But somehow, she couldn’t bring herself to do it. It was like she cared about the stupid old woods. There was no good reason for it, but she did.
Well. There’s no rule that says life needs to make sense, and she was almost there, anyway. She could see the lights of her so-called grandmother’s house shining through the trees, dim but unwavering. She’d be there soon, and then? Then she could get down to the real business of the evening. There was only room for one Cromwell witch in Halloweentown.
It was going to be her.
*
98: Broken Doorways.
Once things began to happen, they happened very fast.
Marnie had her hands on Agatha’s shoulders, smiling warmly into her grandmother’s face -- how could she have forgotten it? Even for a moment? She knew that face almost as well as she knew her own -- while Dylan watched, puzzled to the point of silence, from the couch, where Gwen was still sleeping soundly. Luke hung back near the door, giving Marnie and Aggie the space they needed for their reunion. He had his Marnie back. He could be patient.
“How do you propose we do that?” Aggie asked. A bit of the old twinkle was starting to come back into her eyes; she was beginning to believe that they really could save Halloweentown, now that they were a family again. Still a small, broken family, it was true, but a family all the same, and where there’s family, there’s hope.
“We have to start by finding Sophie,” said Marnie firmly. “We don’t know what Kalabar may be doing to her by now.”
“Oh, no,” moaned Dylan. “Now you’re crazy, too.”
“I’m not crazy, Dylan,” said Marnie. “I’m finally sane.”
“Maybe Sophie’s got the right idea, hanging out with the evil warlock kidnapper guy,” Dylan said, covering his eyes with his hands. “At least his crazy probably isn’t contagious.”
“Regardless of whether we’re all crazy, dear, we need to find your sister,” said Aggie, growing solemn. “There’s no telling what Kalabar is doing to her m--”
The sound of the door being blown off its hinges was almost impossibly loud within the confines of the small living room. Marnie shrieked, covering her head with her hands and trying to put herself between her mother’s sleeping body and the blast. That was why she didn’t see what happened clearly; she was too busy trying to protect her mother.
Agatha thrust her hands into the air, shouting, “Galair!” in her most ringing voice. A dome of colored light snapped into place around her, and the flying debris bounced harmlessly off of it. It tinted her view of the room a smoky shade of amber, but it wasn’t enough to keep her from seeing the chunk of the doorframe strike Luke across the side of the head. His eyes went briefly wide with surprise, and then he was falling, crumpling to the hallway floor in a boneless heap.
The debris that was still in the air froze abruptly before falling straight downwards, suddenly robbed of its momentum. Marnie looked back towards the door, uttering a wordless cry as she saw Luke crumpled there, unmoving. She started to run to him, and froze as unseen hands caught hold of her, fixing her in place.
“Don’t fight me, Marnie,” said Sophie’s voice, from the direction of the blasted door. “It isn’t worth it. You tricked me once, but I’m stronger than you, now. I don’t want to hurt you. I don’t want to hurt any of you.”
“Let me go!” Marnie cried. “Luke! Luke, are you all right? Can you hear me? Luke!”
Sophie came walking into the hallway, looking dispassionately down at Luke’s fallen form. She nudged him with her foot. He didn’t move. “Gosh, Marnie. If I were going to make a golem, I wouldn’t make it so funny-looking. How’s anybody supposed to believe that this thing’s for real? It doesn’t even look like a person.” She sighed, gustily. “Maybe you’ll do better next time. Or you would, if there was going to be a next time. Sorry.”
“Sophie, what are you talking about?” Marnie stared at her sister, stricken as much by Sophie’s words as by the sight of Luke lying unmoving on the floor. “Luke’s not a golem! He’s a goblin!”
“There’s no difference,” Sophie said dismissively. Raising her hands to shoulder level, she started to chant.
“Sophie!” Agatha cried. “Stop! Don’t do this!”
Sophie stopped chanting, looking towards Agatha and scowling. “Why? Because you don’t want your precious favorite granddaughter to get her toys broken? I know you chose her over me. I know what you’re trying to do. And I won’t let you. I’m going to get rid of this golem, and then me and Mom and Dylan, we’re going home. You can’t stop us!”
“Sophie, darling, why would I want to stop you from doing what will make you happy?” Out of the corner of her eye, Aggie could see Marnie straining against the spell that bound her. She was starting to wiggle free. If she could just keep Sophie talking -- and keep her from hurting Luke for just a little longer -- Marnie might be able to get loose. Two against one wouldn’t be a fair fight. It might also be a fight they could win without anyone being seriously hurt. “You’re welcome to go home.”
“Since when do you care about my happiness? It’s just Marnie with you. Kalabar told me everything.” Sophie glared at her. “You were going to take over Halloweentown, you and Marnie, and you didn’t care if it meant the rest of us got hurt. Well, I’m not going to let you. Do you hear me? I won’t let you.”
“Oh, my God, his crazy was contagious,” said Dylan, sounding horrified. Sophie whipped around to face him, eyes wide. “Are you listening to yourself? Jeez, Sophie. Grandma and Marnie may be crazy, but they didn’t kidnap us and lock us in a dungeon. You’ve totally lost perspective here.” He stood, crossing his arms, and shook his head. “I was definitely right when I told Mom she needed to stop letting you watch so much television.”
“Dylan, she sold us out!”
“Um, newsflash, Sophie: she didn’t stick us in some stupid dungeon and knock Mom out with magic Tinker Belle powder. Marnie’s nuts, but she didn’t do anything to us.”
Sophie stared at him, unwilling to believe the things he was saying to her. Dylan was always the rational one. So why was he spouting such horrible lies? “Stop saying that! If they’re so good, why wouldn’t they give me magic?” Suddenly infuriated, she raised her hands and made a flinging gesture, sending a ball of blue-green fire blazing in his direction.
Too surprised to think about what he was doing, Dylan whipped his own hands up in a blocking gesture, and caught the fireball. He stood there, staring at his hands.
Sophie was staring, too, and her shock was enough to release the spell binding Marnie, who stumbled suddenly forward, and started to run towards Luke.
“Marnie, no!” Agatha called. “Get your sister!” She dropped the shield spell around herself, raising her own hands and starting to chant.
Marnie slammed into Sophie, wrapping her arms around the smaller girl as she started trying to struggle. Up close, the stench of Kalabar’s magic was almost palpable. “Grandma, she’s under a spell! Not just the wish!”
Agatha continued to chant, hands beginning to glow white. Closing her eyes, Marnie joined in. Sophie moaned. The chant ended on a high, ringing note, as Sophie went limp in Marnie’s arms.
Dropping her hands, Agatha sighed. “He enchanted her to make her more willing to believe what she wanted to believe.”
“Is she all right now?” Marnie asked.
“We’ll have to wait and see.”
“Um, guys?” They turned to see Dylan still holding the fireball at arm’s length, eyes very wide. He looked up at them, and asked, plaintively, “What do I do with this?”
“Well, just put it down, dear, it’ll fizzle once it doesn’t have a purpose,” said Aggie, sensibly. Dylan made a dropping motion, and the fireball disappeared. “There you are. My, aren’t you just the finest potential warlock?”
“Warlock? Me?” Dylan scoffed. “I’m not a...” He stopped. If he wasn’t a warlock, and he’d snatched a fireball out of the air, what was he, exactly? “I’m not.”
“Marnie?” Sophie raised her head, blinking as if tired. “What happened? Where am I? Where’s Mom?”
“Still asleep, dear,” said Agatha, and walked over to pull Sophie away from Marnie, gathering her into a tight hug. “Oh, Sophie.”
“Grandma?” said Sophie, sounding puzzled. Then, jubilantly, she cried, “Grandma!”
Marnie smiled slightly as she watched their reunion. A breeze blew in through the broken door, ruffling her hair, and her smile faded. “Luke!” Turning, she ran back to where the goblin lay, face-down on the floor, and dropped to her knees beside him. “Luke? Luke! Oh, Luke, wake up, don’t be dead, wake up...”
Agatha and Sophie stopped their greetings and turned, numbly, to watch as Marnie slumped forward, and started to cry.
*
99: Sleeping Beauty.
Being hit in the head by a flying chunk of doorway hurt. It hurt a lot. Luke wasn’t sure it qualified as the most painful thing he’d ever experienced, but it sure looked like a clear winner just at the moment. The idea of sleeping until the pain went away was pretty appealing, but he could feel himself starting to wake up, inch by aching inch.
Somewhere, Marnie was talking to him. Somewhere very far away. Still, it was Marnie, and so he did his best to listen. He frowned inwardly. It sounded like she was crying. Who was making his Marnie cry?
“...to wake up, Luke, okay? I just remembered who you are, I mean really remembered, and you have to wake up. You’re not allowed to be dead. I won’t let you.”
Oh. He was making her cry. And she really sounded like his Marnie, too; her memory was really and truly back. She was actually herself again. That was nice.
“Luke!”
And she knew his name.
“Luke. Please. Please, Luke, wake up. Don’t die.” Her last words were very faint, but he still heard them clearly. They were the words he’d never expected to here.
“I love you.”
Luke opened his eyes.
*
100: Wake-Up Call.
“Did she just say she...?” Dylan eyed his sister dubiously. He wasn’t sure what was going on, exactly; just that when Sophie came in slinging fireballs and talking crazy, Marnie’s green-skinned friend had gotten himself nailed, and now Marnie seemed to think that talking like she was living in a Disney movie would wake him up. On the other hand... “Huh. Maybe it’ll work. Nothing else in this crazy place makes any sense.”
Agatha smiled, a little wistfully. “It’s always nice to see someone figure something out for themselves.”
“It’s about time, too,” muttered Sophie, before she froze, eyes widening. “I...remember.”
“Remember what?” Agatha asked, looking down at her and frowning.
“Everything!”
“Well, I don’t remember anything, so I guess we’re even,” Dylan said sourly.
Whatever Sophie might have said next was cut off by Marnie’s sudden, wordless cry of delight. All three of them turned back towards the doorway, where Luke was sitting up, his arms locked tight around Marnie, who was holding just as tightly onto him, sobbing into his shoulder. Agatha smiled.
“Look out, Halloweentown,” she said. “The Cromwells are back.”
*
101: The Plan They Had.
It wasn’t the best plan. It wasn’t the safest plan. But it was the only plan that they had.
Once Luke was back on his feet, the bumps and bruises he’d sustained from Sophie’s entrance smoothed over with a simple healing spell, Agatha had led them all into the kitchen, leaving only Gwen behind to slumber on the couch. “Fairy magic,” she said, “always has an escape clause, but when the spell is this far-reaching, you have to go to the source.”
“Perryn,” said Marnie, grimly. She was holding fast to Luke’s hand -- had been since he was healed -- and didn’t seem inclined to let go any time soon.
“But how can we cancel the wish, Grandma?”
“If they hadn’t locked up all the other fairy godmothers, you could ask one of them to let you wish the world back to normal, but as it stands...” Agatha’s lips thinned into a hard line. “Break her wand, break the spell. It’s as simple as that.”
“So we’re going to go and find a crazy fairy godmother so we can take her wand away and get rid of what you people think she did to the world?” Dylan demanded. “That doesn’t sound simple to me.”
“I said simple, dear,” said Aggie. “Not easy.”
Now here they were, just the five of them -- one witch rendered old and tired before her time, two apprentice witches still shaking off the remains of a fairy godmother’s spell, one unwilling warlock, and one somewhat battered goblin -- marching towards City Hall to take on a fully-powered warlock and the fairy godmother than had already been able to enchant them all once.
The square was practically deserted, lit only by the dark, smoky flames from the great jack-o-lantern that was the heart of all Halloweentown. Marnie left her right hand clasped in Luke’s, but held her left hand out to her grandmother, who took it firmly, joining her own left hand with Sophie, who reached out to Dylan. He eyed the line dubiously for a moment before finally taking his sister’s hand, completing the chain.
They came to a halt in front of City Hall, where Agatha tipped her head back and shouted, “Kalabar! Your reign of terror is over! Come out and face us like a man!”
Eerie laughter filled the square, and then the doors of City Hall were opening, and Kalabar himself was stepping out, looking jaunty and relaxed in his top hat and suit coat. “Now, really, Aggie, is this the way for a woman of your age and frankly questionable social standing to behave? Be reasonable. Turn around and go home like a good little Cromwell, and we’ll forget about this whole thing.”
“We know what you did to Halloweentown, you monster!” shouted Marnie.
“I? I did nothing, you foolish little witch,” he spat. “My lovely wife, on the other hand, restored the glory that you had so selfishly, stupidly taken away from me. Why should the Cromwells have all the power? What makes you so worthy of guarding this place?”
“How about the part where they don’t ruin it?” Luke shouted.
“Halloweentown is supposed to be something wonderful, and you’ve destroyed it!” Marnie added. “That ends here!”
“Yes,” Kalabar said, shaking his head. “I suppose it does.”
On the last word, he whirled around, shaping his hands like he was hurling a ball. A globe of glowing light shot out and towards the line of people standing in front of him; they let go of one another and dove at the last minute, scattering.
“Did you fools really believe that you could defeat me?” he boomed. “I am Kalabar! I am King!”
“You are yesterday’s news!” shouted Sophie, scrambling to her feet. “We beat you once, and we can beat you again!”
“That’s right!” said Agatha, rising to stand behind her granddaughter. “Marnie! Dylan! Luke! Find Perryn!”
“On it, Grandma!” said Marnie, and grabbed Dylan, hauling her brother to her feet as she ran towards City Hall, with Luke following close behind.
“I don’t think I’ll be that difficult to find,” Perryn’s voice said, from behind them. The trio skidded to a stop, whirling around to face her. The fairy godmother smirked. “Isn’t this cute? You’re trying to undo all my good work. Well, I’m afraid that can’t be allowed.”
“We aren’t making any wishes, Perryn!” said Luke. “There’s nothing you can do to us!”
“Not to you, perhaps, but to darling Gwen? To little Sophie? Oh, I think you’re choosing to underestimate what a threat I can be.” Perryn’s smirk widened. “Go home, children. You’ve lost before you fully be--”
Dylan slammed into her from the side, sending her sprawling as he exclaimed, “You stay away from my mother!”
Startled, Perryn lost her balance, stumbling to the side, and lost her grip on the wand at the same time. Luke dove forward, grabbing it. With an indignant scream, Perryn flung Dylan away, and pursued the goblin as he turned and ran from her.
“Marnie!” Luke shouted. Perryn shrieked, closing the distance between herself and Luke in a buzz of wings. Her hands closed around his throat, and the two of them went down hard, skidding on the rotten straw that covered the ground until Luke’s shoulder slammed up against the pumpkin. But as Luke fell, he threw the wand, sending it spinning end over end through the air.
Marnie thrust her hand into the air, and caught it.
“Hey, fairy godmother!” she shouted. “Looking for something?”
Perryn turned towards her, eyes very wide. On the other side of the square, Kalabar was flinging balls of flame and ice at Marnie’s sister and grandmother, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was the wand.
“Little girl...” Perryn began. “Marnie. Please. You don’t know what you’re doing. You don’t know--”
“I’m saving Halloweentown,” Marnie said, voice flat. She took the wand in both her hands, and bent sharply downwards. Perryn screamed.
The sound of the shaft snapping was almost anticlimactic.
*
Interlude: Breaking Wishes, Part II.
The crystal shattered as the light inside it went fully out, sending fine shards scattering in all directions. They tinkled as they landed, like distant bells.
And then there was silence.
*
102: Halloweentown, Part II.
There was a flash of blinding light. Marnie dropped the broke halves of the wand, raising her arm to cover her eyes. All around her, the others did the same.
It wasn’t until she heard the sound of distant birdsong and felt sunlight on her skin that Marnie lowered her arm, and stared around herself with undisguised delight. Kalabar was gone, as was Perryn; as were the clouds that had choked out the sky since Luke hauled her back to Halloweentown. The buildings around the square were clean and jolly-looking, exactly as they should be, and the flame in the pumpkin burned brightly.
“Home,” she whispered.
“Oh, Marnie!” Agatha shouted, and then she was running across the square to grab Marnie and pull her into a hug, with Sophie close behind. Even Dylan came over, throwing his arms around the three of them.
“Grandma,” said Marnie, happily. Agatha looked like herself again; the aura of tired, beat-down hopelessness was gone.
“Mom! Kids!”
“Mom!” Sophie cried. The four of them turned to see Gwen running towards them, arms outstretched, and Sophie and Dylan ran to her. The other denizens of Halloweentown were beginning to creep back out of their homes, looking around with caution that quickly became joy.
Luke picked himself up from where Perryn had dragged him, dusting the straw off his shirt. He didn’t even see Marnie coming until her arms were thrown tight around his neck, and she was kissing him, and then his arms were around her waist, and nothing else really seemed to matter.
Across the square, Gwen looked up from hugging her two younger children, and stared. “Is that...?”
“They finally figured it out,” said Sophie, happily.
“Nothing like Halloween for lovers,” said Agatha. “Truly, there’s nothing at all.”
And almost despite herself, Gwen smiled.
*
103: Some Enchanted Evening, Part II.
“How’s my hair?”
“Your hair is fine.”
“How’s my stasis-spell?”
“Your stasis-spell is fine.”
“Sophie, how do you know when you don’t even look up from your book?” Marnie demanded.
Sophie raised her head, shrugging. “Because it was true the last eight times.”
Since returning from Halloweentown, the Cromwells had found the mortal world entirely restored, as if Perryn’s wish had never changed things in the first place...but unlike Halloweentown, where the residents remembered the horrible reworking of their home, the mortals had completely forgotten. For them, the wish had never happened. It was probably better that way.
The rest of the school year had been as interminably dull as Marnie had known it would be...but the tedium was somewhat alleviated by her trips back to Halloweentown, which had become even more frequent now that she had something other than lessons to visit for. Luke still didn’t much like to fly. Marnie was learning the value of long walks, and of the hidden nooks and crannies on Lost Lover’s Lane.
Spreading the skirts of her black and white satin dress, Marnie nodded anxiously. “Do you think he’ll like it?”
“I think he’d like it if you wore a potato sack,” Sophie said seriously.
Marnie grinned. “When did you get so smart?”
“I always have been,” Sophie said.
Maybe you only get one prom. But there’s always Grad Night. And that particular Grad Night would be remembered forever as the year when the witch and the goblin -- with no illusions in sight -- shared a slow dance three feet above the gymnasium floor.
Happy Halloween.