A Horror's 'Happy' Halloween

                   A Horror’s ‘Happy’ Halloween

Years ago, during a time when superstition was prevalent, two towns on either side of the earth were the target for three evil witches who were trying to open a portal to the world where werewolves, witches and the like exists and rule the earth.

Do to some miscalculations they only had enough power to place a curse on four young teenagers: a European boy and girl, and an American boy and girl – changing them into Halloween horrors and trapping them in limbo.

~

Now a gap has opened allowing the four to return, but they are no longer teenagers, or human for that matter.

They zoom through the sky and crash land in the backyard of an abandoned house.

Lee, Lee-Roy (American), wakes up first, “what in the world just happened?”

Janet (European) wakes up next and tries to answered Lee’s question, “that hole thing that pulled us in the first time must have opened up again and thrown us out.”

Will, William (European), woke next and started to ask, “Well now that we’re out, what do we doowaaa!”

Janet and Lee asked in unison “Will are you ok?” “Is something wrong?”

“Y-you guys l-look like” stammered Will “like monsters!!!”

“We’re not the only ones, you look wacko to,” stated Lee, crossing his arms across his chest.

Before they could figure out what they looked like, Janet ask, “Where is Gloria”.

Gloria appeared to have landed elsewhere, they began to search. “Gloria!” “Gloria where are you” “Gloria”.

In frustration, Will sat down, but something said ‘hey’ and jumped to his feet quickly.

As they looked around wondering whom or what spoke, the voice continued, “Why do you guys looked so freaked”.

Though he felt awkward, Will stated, “We look a bit strange, we’ve lost our friend, and I’m talking to a voice. Do we really need any more of a reason to look freaked?”

The voice answered, “I agree with you on the first one, and I can help with the other two at the same time”, out of nowhere, a ghostly figure began to appear in front of them. When it became completely visible, it said, “Hey guys it’s me, Gloria.”

“Gloria, you’re a-ah,” stammered Janet.

Lee stated, loudly, “Ah Ghost!”

Gloria answered, “Yes, well, you all look a bit odd yourself,” she pointed in turn and continued, “Will, you look like a vampire. Janet, you look like a forest-earthen witch. Lee, you look like, well you seem normal except for the unibrow.”

Janet stated, “Well if what you and what we see is true, we don’t just look like monsters, WE ARE MONSTERS!”

Will wondered, “Well what do we do now?”

Janet suggested, “I guess we wait. Something is bound to happen.”

~

At the local high school, a boy from Europe was starting he’s first day at his new school, but he wasn’t getting much help.

He stood outside the school asking students who came by where he’s first class was “Ah excuse me, could you please…oh could you tell me where my, ah…could you please help me, I’m a little lost.”

A girl with short pigtails walks up to him and says, “Hi, I’m Lily. I’ll help you out, but first tell me your name.”

He answered, “My name is Jason, and thank you. I’m new here, I just moved here with my parents because of a job offer or something. Hey, would you want to hang out, or something?” 

“Sure, we should head to class the bell is about is about to ring,” answered Lily.

As they headed inside, Jason felt relieved to have made a friend so fast.

When school ended for the day, Jason and Lily headed to the library to start on their homework.

Before they got there, they were blocked by the school bullies.

The largest, possible the leader, stepped forward and said, “Well looky here, the new foreign freak and the book-geek freak. A total freak show eh boys.” The others laughed in unison.

Lily stepped forward and said, “Just get out of the way Drew and leave us alone.”

“Why don’t you make us” stated Drew, he and the others started walking toward Jason and Lily.

As they began backing up to try to avoid the bullies, Jason said, “Maybe we better run.”

Lily quietly nodded, and both turned around and ran as fast as they could down the street.

As they ran, they looked for a place to try to hide from the bullies.

Lily spotted an old abandoned house and signaled Jason to follow her inside, hoping the bullies wouldn’t follow them.

They got inside, shut the door, and bared it with some furniture near by.

The bullies came up to the house and looked in through the windows to try to see where they were inside.

The bullies started to taunt and scare Lily and Jason out.

“You better come out before the ghosts get you”

“Watch out for wild animals. Especially dogs, BIG dogs”

The bullies started to giggle and snicker at what they said, thinking what Lily and Jason were feeling.

What the bullies didn’t realize was that neither Jason nor Lily were anywhere near the front of the house.

They had started exploring the rest of the house; Jason went up stairs while Lily checked out the first floor.

Lily commented, “For looking so old it looks pretty nice, wonder what’s out back” and went to check out the back yard.

However, as she stepped out, she had the feeling she was not alone.

She turned around and came face to face with someone or something and both screamed.

Meanwhile Jason was trying to find something interesting on the second floor.

As he turned the corner he saw a barely closed door and thought ‘maybe there’s something in there’, he went up to the door, had barely started to push it open; when he heard what he thought was not only Lily but another girl screaming downstairs.

He ran down thinking one of the bullies got in some how, but when he reached the bottom, he realized the screams came from the back yard.

He kept running trying to figure out how the bullies got out back.

When he burst out the back door, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A grown woman in clothes that looked like they had been made from the forest.

He shook his head to wake up, went over to Lily, covered her mouth to stop her from screaming, and urged her back toward the house.

As they got closer to the back door, they suddenly bumped into someone.

They slowly turned around and saw what looked like a tall, skinny vampire.

They both screamed until someone came up behind them and covered their mouths.

Lily and Jason stared at the vampire and forest woman, trying to figure out who or what these people were.

From the far right they saw a shear, floating sheet coming over.

As it solidified, it said, “I’ve never heard two people scream so much.”

The vampire asked the forest woman, “Janet, did you scream first or did she?”

Janet, the forest woman, answered, “She screamed first. She scared me so badly I screamed. Ask Gloria, she was out here too.”

Gloria, the ghost, stated, “Of course she screamed first, you should know Will, you were closer then me hanging from the gutter. By the way, you didn’t help by scaring and making them both into screaming again. Well, what do we do about them now?”

The person behind Lily and Jason said, “Why don’t we ask for their help? There has to be a reason that we came back now, right. They can go to the library and do research.”

Gloria said, “That makes sense Lee. Maybe we had better explain things to these two though. Let ‘em go, they’ve heard enough to want to hear the whole story.”

Lee let them go, and as Lily and Jason staggered back, they tried to take in everything they were seeing.

A burly man with a unibrow, a skinny vampire, a woman that looked like she grew up in the forest, and a ghost.

Lily just stood there with her mouth open, so Jason asked, “why do you look like that? How did you end up here? Where did you come from? What are you exactly?”

The vampire, Will, stepped forward to try to answer, “None of us really know how or why we look the way do. We came through a portal or something from another world or whatever and landed in the back yard of this house. We think we are a vampire, a witch, a ghost, and a guy with unibrow”, he pointed in turn to everyone.

Lily, having recovered from the shock of everything, remarked, “Actually, I think you’re a werewolf, in most books werewolves in human form have a unibrow.”

In response, Lee said, “well that explains a lot. Hey, do you know anything else, off the top of your head.”

Lily stated, trying to recall what she has seen and read, “the werewolves in human form have a unibrow, they don’t like certain plants, will go full werewolf during a full moon. Vampires usually have pale skin, hate sun light, and sleep in a coffin. Ghosts go through walls and such, can change their form at will in to what ever they want, try to scare people. I don’t know anything about woodsy witches, sorry.”

Janet said as she headed for the door, “Well, let’s go to the library and see what we can find there.”

“We can’t do or go anywhere with those bullies out front,” stated Jason.

Will turned around to face the front of the house; he seemed to think hard on something then turned it to a wily smirk. “I’ll take care of them, just wait here,” he said just before he changed in to a bat and went in to the house.

They all waited, finally Gloria said, “How long do you think we …” but before she could finish they all heard screams from the front of the house.

When the screams had settled Will walked back to the others with a grin on his face that faded the moment he saw the looks Gloria, Lee, and Janet were giving him.

Will said, trying to defend himself, “it doesn’t matter how or why they left, just as long as they did, right.”

Lee walked over to Will, stood so that their faces were only a few inches apart and said, “We don’t want to scare anyone, on purpose or accident. And if what she says is right you can’t go outside anyway,” he folded his arms across his chest with a slight smirk on his face, waiting for Will’s response.

Will stood there, his eyes fixed on Lee. His mouth opened and closed several times as if he was trying to talk but couldn’t get the words out. Then for no reason, Will bared his Vampire fangs.

Everyone took a few steps back in shock and fear.

Lily stepped on something, lost her balance, and fell on to her butt.

Will saw what he caused, drew his fangs in, and walked over to help Lily up.

Lily had her head down and was still in slight shock of what she saw, when she looked up and saw Will with his hand out offering to help her up.

Looking up into his face she saw that he felt bad for what he did whether he meant to do it or not.

She grabs his hand and he pulled her to her feet.

“Hey guys, do you know if there are any old cloths in this house,” Lily asked, looking at everyone.

Gloria closed her eyes for a moment to think, then said “yeah, in the attic mostly. Why do you want old cloths?”

Lily stated, with a look of mischief, “there not for me, there for you guys.”

They looked at each other then back at Lily, not sure what to say or do.

Jason made the first move “Lets go inside and find all the cloths we can, then Lily may tell us her whole plan.” So off they went to find cloths, shoes, hats, and anything else that might help.

When they had finished, there was a small pile of cloths in what the four called the ‘back room’. The cloths varied from small to large, long and short, dresses to shorts and tops.

Gloria spoke first, “So we have a ton of cloths, that should have been throw away, now what.”

Lily stepped up to the pile and started sifting through the cloths as she said, “find some cloths that not only hide you but will also protect you from any thing that would hurt you because of what you are.”

Lee locked his fingers together, placed them behind his head, and threw Will a smirk and stated “Yeah, wouldn’t want ya getting a sunburn, or turn to dust.”

Will glared at Lee, and then started looking through the pile trying to find any thing to keep the sun off his skin.

He paused for a moment, realizing he had no clue what to look for, ‘any thing black should work’ Lily said with her head inside the pile.

Soon everyone found something’s that might work.

Lee wore a long sleeve shirt and work gloves with denim jeans and hiking boots.

Janet wore earth tones, a long dress and cowboy style boots.

Will wore all black - long sleeve shirt, hoody, gloves, pants, and shoes - sunglasses for his eyes.

Gloria wore a black, white, and gray colored dress and shimmery/glittery ballet shoes.

As Janet admired herself in the mirror she said, “now that we look the part shall we try it out.”

Gloria did her ghost thing and checked out front for the bullies and other people.

When the coast was, clear Lily and Jason joined Gloria outside and waited for the others.

Lee walked straight out, turned around, and folded his arms in wait for Will but Janet came next. She walked out cautiously as if she wasn’t sure if the ground outside was too hot or not. She shortly joined everyone in wait for Will, not sure what would happen.

Will stood in the dark doorway, not sure whether he would want to go out side and chance anything that came with being a vampire, but seeing Lee’s smirk convinced him to at least try. He took a deep breath and walk out to the others.

Will stood there in front of his friends, with his eyes shut tight.

He finally opened his eyes when he heard someone say, “You look like your in one piece.”

He slowly opened his eyes and saw Janet and Lily smiling at him.

“Maybe I am dead, seeing two cute girls,” Will said with charm and a smile, resulting in Lily and Janet giggling.

Lee sighed heavily and said, “Can we get going now.”

They began to walk towards town when Jason said, “Gloria, Will, maybe you should stay here keep an eye on things and we don’t need you suddenly withering or walking through something without knowing it.”

“They don’t have to stay here,” suggested Lily “they could scout around, and see if anything looks out of place.”

“Sounds good,” Said Will “Gloria, you take the day/light shift, I’ll take the night shift: For obvious reasons” he then became a bat and flew back inside, quickly.

Janet looked back at the house and sighed heavily, “Can we first do some research on vampires, to try to help Will somehow.”

Off they went, Lily and Janet headed to the library.

Jason and Lee went to find a Goth shop to see if the owner could give any advice.

Gloria went ghost, flew over the town, and near by forest to see if she could spot anything.

With some help from the librarian, Lily and Janet started their search in the folklore/fiction section.

After a couple of hours, they only found out that vampires normally ‘slept’ in a coffin during the day or stay in a very dark basement or cave; bites and drinks the blood of their victims to ‘live’, and could have immense strength and speed when the moon was right.

Janet thought she would strongly suggest to Will not to pick up the trait of drinking blood and instead have tomato juice or something.

When a werewolf changes depends greatly on the moon phases, and they can turn violent after they change; the change is supposedly painful or somewhat harmful to the person who undergoes the changes.

Lily thought of a training collar to make sure Lee didn’t turn on them at random moments.

Ghost or spirits range from whispers someone thinks they hear to what people call ‘poltergeist’ that can throw objects and even people, and some cases of these spirits possessing people.

Nothing to frightening, just tell Gloria of the abilities ghost were said have.

All they had on witches or Wicca, were some sketches of hags with green warty skin leaning over a caldron; some stories, that Lily would not even give them a first glance, of witches either scheming to get revenge on humans or hiding away in an alternate world doing who knows what.

Janet thought she would try to be a Wicca and they looked for and found a few herb and plant books as they headed out of the library.

~

As Jason and Lee, walk through town, they see signs and storefront advertising everything from chewing gum to high fashion clothes.

They came to a less populated area and were about to turn back, when Jason notices a store with black shades in the windows, and they walk in for a peek.

Inside the store was filled with charms on neck cords to sculptures of dragons and fairies.

Lee walked over to a shelf that had charms that looked like crescent moons, and is about to pick one up when he hears “they may not do you any good, lupine” a woman in black clothing stepped out of the shadows.

Lee jumps back from the shelf and says “sorry, just looking.”

The woman walks over first to Lee then glances at Jason, “people like you only come here if they have seen the truly amazing. Aside from this werewolf, what have you seen?”

The two of them told her what they could, and Lee even mentioned where he and his friends had been and how they may have come back.

She looked at them both for several moments before walking to the back and pulling back a curtain to reveal a hallway and motion them to go through and leads them in to a small room with a few shelves and a round table.

Lee and Jason sit at the table while the woman looks for something.

She suddenly dropped a large journal on the table, startling them both, and started thumbing through its pages.

She quickly found a page and turned the book so they could see.

“There are tales of three witches trying many times to open a portal to try to change our world into what they wanted. Most of them failed, but you are proof that they may be getting somewhere with their plans. This book has notes going back hundreds of years and should provide you with plenty of info, take it with you for future reference.” and pushed the book toward Lee “I’m sorry about you and your friends, I’m not sure what will change you back or what will happen when you stop those witches.”

She lead them back to the front and gave them a few charms, charged them half price, and wished them goodnight as they left.

~

Gloria scanned the area for anything unusual, but because she didn’t have much knowledge of the current tech, making it hard to tell an oddity from normalcy.

After what seemed liked hours, she saw black shadowy dogs running in to a thicker part of the woods.

She flies down until she was just above the treetops to keep an eye on them and see if they might lead her to whoever summoned them. However, as she starts to see something in the distant, the trees suddenly get very thick causing her to fly up and back.

Whatever it was defiantly required further investigation, and flew back towards the house to wait for the others to return.

Back at the house, Gloria found Will in his bat form hanging from a broken light fixture.

She shook her head and said, “How long have you been ‘hanging around’ in stead of keeping watch.”

Will eyes popped open and said while trying to right himself “Gloria, hey. I-I wasn’t up here for long. I just figured, why would anyone even bother with an old abandoned house when there are several other nice looking houses, right.”

Gloria looked at him with one eyebrow raised “whatever you say. I promise not tell the others, especially Lee.”

Will sighed heavily and nearly fell to the floor, Gloria catches him and adds “oh almost forgot. I saw a pack of shadow dogs run in to the woods, I would have followed but the trees got thick and thought I might need back up.”

Will changes in to his human form and says, “Good find. The others should be here soon and we can pool our finds. Its still pretty bright out, I’m gonna head down to the basement. If it’s still sunny when they get back, ask them to come down ok.” and heads for the basement.

Gloria watched as Will walked down stairs and thought, ‘maybe all the stuff in books and movies isn’t real’, sighed then floated off to find something to do till the others got back.

At almost thirty minutes to sunset, the others came back to the house.

Lilly and Jason left quickly to get home and keep their parents from worrying, but said they would try to sneak out and meet them later tonight.

It was nearly two in the mourning when their parents finally fell asleep and they headed back to the house.

Inside they found Gloria and Janet looking over everything they had found, Lee was snoring loudly on a pile of blankets, and Will was staring out the window in the next room.

Lily walked in first “hey, we’re here, lets get started. Oh by the way, could one of you guys help me with my history homework, it’s got me stumped.”

Gloria opened her mouth to volunteer, but Will came in behind Lily and said, “Sure, I was pretty good at history and geography when I was in school.”

The others stared as Will took a seat by a small table and motioning for Lily to take the other seat.

Jason came in after Will and Lily began their ‘study session’.

He sat down on the floor opposite Gloria and Janet. “Find anything useful in that book Lee and I got from that Goth store,” he asked?

Janet shook her head and turned to Jason “some notes that someone found, though most are in a language I don’t understand, off hand anyway. There are lists of remedies for fighting, but not killing, a person who has fallen victim to some of these afflictions, with recipes for more complex concoctions.”

“Hey guys, in the park, I saw some ‘black shadow dogs’ run into the woods. I followed the best I could, maybe we should go take a look in those woods as a team and see if we find anything,” suggested Gloria.

Lee sat up when he heard Gloria’s plan and stated, “We can’t just chase down shadow-hounds if we have no way to defend ourselves if they or anything else comes after us. I think we should continue our research about the witches that caused the opening to limbo to appear and our transformation, find out where they are, and stop them, and then everything else should, as you say, come up roses.”

Will glanced up at Lee from the book he was looking at and commented “what? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of other dogs. You are a werewolf remember, and probably stronger then any strong man out there. Oh, and I did look at the info file on the werewolf, you can get rid of them with silver bullets and any silver would most likely scare them off” he gave a big smile, then turned his attention back to the book.

Lee growled deep in his throat, but walked out of the room, leaving the others to their work.

Moments later, they hear a cross between a scream and a howl coming from the backyard and run to see what’s happened.

Out back they find what they think is an unconscious Lee halfway through his first shape shift.

Will and Jason go back inside to find something to carry him inside, while the girls watched to see if he might do anything else.

Not more then three minutes later, Lee looks more human and tries to get up.

Gloria stepped forward “Lee, stay down, we think you just tried to change in to a werewolf but it stopped midway. Lily, go tell Will and Jason that Lee is awake and they can help him back in to the house.”

Lily runs inside to find the others, leaving Janet and Gloria to keep an eye on Lee.

Janet asks, “Lee, did you feel anything as you started to change or is it just a blurry thought.

Lee, sitting by a tree trying to catch his breath, said “I felt something start to rise from my core when I looked at the moon, then it goes blank, sorry.”

Gloria and Janet shared a look of acknowledgement, Janet turned back to Lee and said, “One of the traits of werewolves is that the moon affects how they change. So one of the facts is true it seems.”

Lee groans and lets his head roll backwards in to the tree he is leaning on.

With Lee quite annoyed, Gloria and Janet waited awkwardly for the others to return.

They soon return and Will helps Lee inside, but by himself to keep him from hurting anyone who could be hurt by what ever he might do.

He takes Lee up stairs to one of the empty rooms to recover from his ordeal.

With Lee more or less asleep, everyone else gathered in the ‘living’ room to take a good look at everything they had found.

“The recipes for combating the affects of the transformations have some odd ingredients like, eye of newt and liver of a salamander. Where can you find some of this stuff,” Janet threw her hands in the air in defeat.

Gloria grabbed one of the herb and plant books they had checked out for Janet to study to be a Wicca.

As she thumbed the paged she wondered “maybe some these books have the ‘old’ name of the stuff and the modern name next to it. Look, liver of dragon is any animal liver with a stone in it.”

Lily was grossed out.

Jason shrugged and said, “So, how does that help us. What animal would have a stone in its liver?”

Janet lit up and stated, “It doesn’t need the stone before you get it, you can add it afterwards. Will, help Gloria ‘translate’ each recipe. Once that’s done, we can head out for some shopping.”

Jason and Lily’s shoulders sag, and Lily states “we have school tomorrow, you’ll have to do some of this on your own till school is out for the day, sorry.”

Will sits down next Gloria and grabs a book as he says, “it can’t be helped. The more you learn at school, the easier life will be. At least that’s what someone said to me once. Anyway, while at school check out the library and see if you can find anything there. I always found something useful on those shelves.”

Jason and Lily head home to try and get in some sleep before the sun came up, leaving the others to keep an eye on Lee and modernize some recipes.

The next day at school, they see the bullies and walk past them to get a good look at their faces.

As they get closer, the bullies jerk their heads up and see them, and run for cover.

Lily and Jason almost fall to the ground laughing so hard.

The bell sounds for first period and everyone heads inside.

During lunch/free period Lily and Jason go to the library to see if they could find any more info that might help.

Most of what they could find was stories and poems on the stereotypical ideas of monsters.

Lily snaps the book shut in her hands, sighing, “We’re getting nowhere. All we’ve found are tales others have written ‘after’ they have read or seen others ideas of monsters from limbo. The poems don’t even help; they don’t say how to get rid of monsters without harming the person inside.”

Jason laid the book he was reading on the table, “yeah, but we can say that what others have said aren’t true. Lee is not violent when he changes; he’s just a little crabby.”

Lily giggled, “And Will is afraid of light, but not afraid of taking on Lee for whatever reason.”

They hangout in the library until the bell rang then headed to class.

~

The shadow hounds paced around the clearing; along with black twisted things that cackled as they watch the three witches proceed with their plan.

The three witches stood around a cauldron, discussing the next step of their plan.

“It is nearly ready, just a few more ingredients and we can begin casting the spells.”

“By this worlds haunted day, Halloween, we shall have all the power we need to open the portal and allow are brothers and sisters a new world to feast on.”

“Ghost hounds, here are the last items we need,” the witch holds a paper with the list of items, a dog stepped forward and took it in his shadow jaws, she continued, “hags, go make sure no one gets near this place. Scare or whatever, just keep them away till all is ready. Now GO!”

The witches swing their arms out over their heads, signaling all the ghost and ghouls to leave and do their set jobs.

~

As Lily and Jason approached the house, they hear a howl coming from inside.

They look at each other before going in to face what might have happened since last night.

Once inside though, they didn’t see anyone.

They looked around the first floor and only saw Will hanging from some metalwork in his bat form as they walked past the back doors.

Jason continued looking around inside as Lily tried to wake Will up.

Lily scratched his head, tickled his wings, and even nudged him into a sight swing, but he just kept sleeping. She crossed her arms and asked “you going to wakeup soon?”

Will’s eyes popped open, and as he looked at the annoyed look on her face he said, “give me a break, it has been sunny and the only dark place outside is outback here. I had only been asleep for the last few hours. On a side topic, do you know any pests that no one would mind…?”

Lily narrowed her eyes and stated, “You are not to ‘feed’ on anyone or anything. Just drink some tomato juice or something like that. Now why don’t you change to human and walk inside, or I could carry you inside somehow,” she said with a wily smile on her face.

Will chuckled and shifted to human, then followed Lily inside.

They find Janet in the kitchen cooking something that smelled terrible.

Lily, holding her nose, asked Janet as she held the storage door for Will so he didn’t have to let go of his nose, “what are you making, it smells like something died in here.”

Janet smiled at them for a moment before going back to her ‘cooking’, “I think if it smells bad it’s right, I think, or it could mean I’ve made a smell bomb of sorts. I was trying to make something to combat any thirst for raw meat or ‘living’ blood. The most this might do is knock them unconscious. Back to the drawing board.” she then grabbed the pot and carried it out back to dispose of.

Now able to breath, Will, with his two cans of tomato juice, and Lily head off to the living room to check out the books the others had worked on to translate.

~

Meanwhile, Jason went up stairs after getting a smell of what Janet was trying to do.

All the doors were open so he only had to glance inside to see if anyone was there.

He found Gloria in the only room with a wardrobe and a few mirrors set up to look at yourself in several angles at once.

Jason stood in the door way and asked, “How can you see your self in a mirror when you have no reflection?”

Gloria put her hands on her hips as she said, “I can see myself in a mirror when I want to, thank you vary much. Oh, and if you are looking for Lee, he’s two doors on the right from the end.”

Jason left Gloria to admirer herself in the mirror.

Before he even reached the door, he heard loud snoring coming from behind it.

He opened the door slowly and peeked inside.

Lee was sleeping face up, on a pile of old blankets, flattish pillows, and cloths that were in shreds.

“Most likely was like that before he got to it,” Jason said quietly about the cloths.

He opened the door wide then knocks on it to see if that might wake Lee up.

Lee stopped snoring, licked his lips, and rolled on to his stomach before asking, “Who dares to wake a sleeping werewolf?”

Jason chuckled lightly as he stated “a young man, to tell him that he and a young girl are here to see what to do next about this whole thing” though he said ‘thing’ with uncertainty in his voice.

Lee raised an eyebrow as he said, “Yeah, we all want to know ‘what’ to do next. The first step is for me to get up and go downstairs. Why don’t you head down and wait for me. If I’m not down in a few minutes, Gloria will come in here and drag me down there.”

Jason shook his head as he left.

He glanced in the room that Gloria was in, still admiring herself in the mirrors.

He continued down stairs to wait for everyone.

He found Lily and Will looking through some books as he walked in to the front sitting room.

“Anything to help a lazy werewolf get moving?” Jason asked as he looked at the old reference book.

Will snorted, “Yeah, that would be under ‘miracle’ not in a recipe book. By the way, did you guys find anything at your school library?”

“No, just books that weren’t that accurate with what we’ve seen you guys do and say. We did see the bullies, and boy did they freak when they saw us coming. It was hysterical to watch them; I only wish I would have recorded it to show you all.” Lily said while trying to restrain her laughter from remembering.

Janet walked in just after Lily finished telling how the bullies reacted and said, “just don’t get carried away, we may not always be here if they come after you again. I say we give Gloria and Lee another five minutes to see if they come down on their own before we start yelling at them.”

A couple minutes later, they hear an annoyed growl coming down the stairs, followed by Gloria dragging Lee by his ear behind her.

Lee growls again and asks, “I’m here now, so let go.” Gloria lets go, letting Lee rub his sore ear.

“I have a suggestion. We practice using our, monster, powers. Like,” Gloria walked through a wall, then walked back a moment later, “so. Janet, how goes the spells and potions?”

Janet shrugged as she dug the toe of her shoe into the floor, “everything I ‘cook’ just stinks, and I haven’t found any spells that don’t have a bad affect or side affect. Most are for summoning ghouls and goblins to wreck havoc on someone you don’t like, others are for putting inflictions on people like warts or boils.”

“Ok, gross. It goes the same for me. Vampires are known for luring girls to their lair as his bride or something. I can do the change easy, but the sun thing is a serious downer though.” Will said leaning back in his chair.

“And now for…”Gloria started to talk, but Lee knew where she was going. “Yeah, me. I can do the strength just fine, and speed and what ever else there is. But unless you can figure out if it will only hurt the first time, or Janet finds something that can make it easier, I see no way I can handle my shape sifting into a werewolf.” he crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, tired of the topic.

“Well, I know from the books we found that ghosts can take over the body of someone else. Would anyone care to volunteer?” Gloria said with a smile on her face.

Will looked at Lily and Jason before he said, “I think it should be one of the three of us, those who are still ‘living’ shouldn’t take the chance if it goes wrong.”

“I’ll do it. I have nothing to lose.” Lee said.

Gloria takes a deep breath, or looked it not being alive. “Just relax, and let’s see how it goes,” she stepped into Lee.

For a moment nothing seemed to show she had done anything, slowly Lee changed form a man to a werewolf.

Gloria stepped out of Lee and said, “I figured out why it was hard, the change I mean. Your mind and your wolf like mind didn’t connect right, so while I was in there I did a little something so now you can shift with no pain at all.”

Lee stared for a moment at Gloria before running upstairs; the others sit waiting for him to come back.

Seconds later, they hear a happy howl coming from the second floor.

Lee walks back, as a man, and takes his place leaning against the wall with a smile on his face.

Will smirked as he asked, “you up for he woods search now, Lee-Roy?”

Lee growled and bore his teeth, “how many times do I have to tell you, DON‘T CALL ME LEE-ROY! In addition, I think we should do a search in teams by other woods for any other signs. Whoever did all this may have another hiding place incase someone starts snooping.”

“Lee’s right. I think each needs one flyer, one human, then that just leaves me and Lee.” Janet said as she grabbed her bag to carry anything she might find.

Gloria out her hands on hr hips and said, “I don’t think Lee and Will should be on the same team. So that makes the teams: Will, Janet, Lily; Lee, me Gloria, Jason. Because I don’t think Lily wants to hang with a werewolf any longer then need be.” Lily smiled sheepishly at Lee, who just shrugged.

After a quick run home to tell their parents they would be at the library, they run back and head off on their search.

Lee Gloria and Jason head for some woods behind the school while Will Janet and Lily head for the woods that Gloria was at earlier.

~

The hounds watched as the three head into the woods, and growl.

They ran to the twisted hags and barked what they just saw.

The twisted hags yell to the sky, and then fly off the scare the intruders away.

~

It looked quite from appearance, but they kept heading in.

Lily rubbed her arms and said, “Why does it feel so cold?”

Janet held out her hand, trying to get a feeling for the air, “it does seem to have chilled a bit sense we entered the woods. Will, do you smell anything?”

Will stood still as he breathed deeply, taking in all the scents around him.

He scrunched up his brow, “it smells dead several feet ahead, like something rotting. Kind of reminds me of your attempts at witches brew.” he glance at Janet over his shoulder.

“I wonder why…” Janet began, but was cut off by Lily screaming.

They turn and see shadows flying around them.

Janet grabs Lily and pulls them both to stand with Will, waiting for what the things might do next.

For several minutes, they only circle the three, then out of nowhere one blasts out of the woods and screams as it heads right for them.

Lily screams and runs away, with Janet and Will close behind.

~

The hags laugh and follow the three to see the end of their little show.

~

Lily finally stopped after running several feet away from the woods and tripped over her own feet.

Will walked over and picked Lily up in his arms, “we better get her back to the house and wait for the others.”

Janet nodded, they headed back with Lily shivering and crying until they got there.

The others soon return to find Lily sleeping in one of the upstairs bedrooms, while Will and Janet talked in the front room.

Lee asked, “What happened? Weren’t you guys going to the woods that Gloria was at before?”

Will turned and looked wide-eyed at them, “we did go to the woods, but we didn’t get far. Some witches chased us away.”

“You mean scared me and you guys followed,” Lily said from the base of the stairs, with tear-stained eyes.

Janet held Lily in a hug and said, “Will and I were both frightened by them, and we knew we couldn’t leave you in the woods alone.”

Jason crossed his arms as he stated, “So now we know which woods they are in, and that they have guards. But we still don’t know what they are planning.”

“I have an idea. Will, you and I will go back tonight and check the woods out together. With Will’s flying, he can fly out of trouble, and my strength can get me out of anything. You up for it?” Lee said as he out his hand for Will to shake.

Will thought for a bit, then smiled as his shook it, “yeah, I’m with you. Janet stayed with Lily until she and Jason have to get home. We’ll try to back before that.”

With that Lee and Will walk out of the house, Will flies and Lee runs to the woods.

They reached the woods in a matter of minutes, but wait just outside the tree line.

They were still uncertain of what they might see.

Will fluttered by Lee’s head and said, “It was your idea. Why don’t you take the lead on the woods search?” he stumbled a bit in flying as he finished talking.

Lee glared at Will and said, “scared-y bat. Fine, I will, because I’m not afraid,” he took one-step forward, and stopped when they hear cackling from further in.

He turns to Will and says, “Stay close. More eyes and ears to see something.”

Will nodded and followed close behind him.

As they go farther in, the trees grew closer and thicker. They get so thick that Will had to change back to human and walk.

As they near what they think is the center of the woods, all light vanishes, limiting how far they can see ahead of them.

When they looked closer at the trees, they notice that some have lost all their bark and leaves.

They try to get past the dead looking trees, but start to see shadows moving around just out of view.

Lee tries to get a look at what is circling them, and says, “I think we better get out of here. We have lost the element of stealth and surprise.”

“Yeah, but how do we get out of here? I can’t fly with the trees so close together,” Will said as he eyed one shadow that seemed to get a bit closer.

Lee turns and grabs Will arm, saying, “Can you fly off fast if I throw you?”

Will looks at Lee in shock. “Is he insane”, Will thought but said, “It’s worth a try.”

Will braced himself to change fast as Lee readied to throw Will as fast and hard as he could.

With a roar and grunt, Lee pulls his arms and throws Will back the way they had just came.

The moment Lee let go Will changed into a bat and zoomed off.

Lee growled loudly at the shadows and runs after Will.

~

The hags report to the witches what had happened.

The witches stand at their caldron and ponder what to do next.

“Should we continue with our plans? They may try to stop us somehow.”

“They don’t even know what we are doing. We should continue our plans, and let the hags and hounds have some fun with the intruders.”

“The hags and hounds will stay by the woods and keep guard and watch to make sure no one else gets anywhere near the heart of the woods. Come, we have much to do before Halloween is here, and we must be ready if we are to succeed.”

The three witches laugh evilly aloud, with the hags and hounds joining in with their horrifying sounds.

~

Will and Lee fall into the house and just manage to close the door behind them as they sit on the floor, breathing heavily.

Gloria walks in when she hears the door shut and sees them totally exhausted. She asks, “Are you two ok? What happened?”

Lee got to his feet and leaned on the wall, “we saw the shadow things again, but I think they are guarding something.”

Will sat cross-legged and added, “All we managed to see was that the trees near the heart of the woods looked lifeless, like all the energy had been drained from them. How is Lily doing?”

Gloria helped Will to his feet as she said; “Jason took her home after she slept for a few more minutes. I assume they are both home, safe and sound.”

Lee grunted, “I don’t think anywhere is safe with what might be in those woods. Tomorrow we prepare for anything that might come out of those woods, but we do it without ‘them’ knowing.”

Janet walks in and asked, “What going on here, and what were you talking about.” Will fills her in and her says, “in other words, we, the four of us, keep a low profile while Lily and Jason gather info and bring it back to us. But what about the bullies?”

Will crosses his arms and glares out the window at the moon lit scene outside, “bullies are the least of our worries.”

~

For the next few days, the four of them stayed in the house during the day.

When night fell, they would go out and look for anything that mean something is about to happen.

Lily and Jason do research wherever they can and bring it back to the others.

A week or so later, Lily and Jason come to the house to hang out, but find only Janet readying herself to go out.

Looking her up and down asked, “where is everyone and where are you going all dressed up like that?”

Janet answered, “Will has gone off flying behind buildings. I think he just stir crazy or something. Gloria is admiring dresses in widows at a mall or somewhere. Lee is snoring loudly up stairs, so no one will come near this house when they hear him. Jason has offered to show me where some wild plants grow that I can use for potions, or attempt to anyway,” and with that Janet and Jason leave Lily standing in the entrance hall.

With everyone else doing his or her own thing, Lily decides to go shopping at downtown. She walks around, seeing what shop she wanted to start at.

From behind Lily hears a familiar voice say, “Look what we have here”.

Lily spins and sees Drew and his gang surrounding her.

All Lily can do is back up, but they just walked towards her.

~

Drew and his gang have Lily surrounded in the square with no one around to help.

Will is flying behind buildings to avoid the sun, just wanting to see the sights, and sees Lily in trouble.

He glances at the sun shining brightly but thinks ‘what the heck, I knew I would have to face it sooner or later’, and flies behind a nearby statue to change back to human.

He peers around the edge for one last quick survey of the situation, ‘several bullies, one Lily, and one me, yeah piece of cake’.

Will held his arms up and jumped in front of the statue, screeched and made himself as scary as he could.

The bullies screamed and ran in fear.

When they were gone, Lily ran to Will who had fallen to the ground from being in the sun and dragged him between some buildings before saying, “are you insane, you could have turned to dust from being in the sun. What were you thinking?”

Will leaned against the wall with his arms wrapped around himself as he said in a weak voice, “I couldn’t stand by and let them hurt you. I have a request though, could you carry me back to the house, if I change back to a bat? I don‘t think I can make it after that stunt I just pulled.”

Lily sighed but nodded and took out a blanket she had in her bag as Will changed to bat form.

Lily then gently wrapped Will (the bat) in the blanket and placed him in her bag, and hot footed back to the house to see if Janet knew anything that might help him with out involving blood.

Lily made it back to the house in under ten minutes, she barreled in and slammed the door just before yelling into the house “Janet, where are you, Will needs help!”

Janet runs in from the backyard were she was looking for mushrooms that might match what she needed for any of the recipes.

She looks at Lily as she carefully lifts Will the bat from her bag, she places her hand on his head gently as she says, “I’m guessing he went into the sun, I’m not sure what I can do to help. Let me double check the recipes and see if I can find a one that gives a formula for making synthetic blood without using blood.”

She then runs to the front room were they were keeping everything they found involving their transformation or anything involved with who made them like this.

Lily stands in the doorway to the front room and holds Will as if he was a baby as she watched Janet and waited to see if there was anything that might help.

Gloria walks down stairs, sees Lily standing in the doorway, and calls to her, “Lily, what are you doing here. I thought you were shopping or something?”

Lily turns her head and says “I was corned by bullies and”, she then turned and showed Gloria Will in the blanket who was now shaking a bit, Gloria gasped as Lily continued “Will jumped out and scared them away. Janet is looking a formula for synthetic blood. Oh Gloria, will Will survive?” she started to tear up.

Gloria put her arm around Lily’s shoulders and tried to calm her down as Lee walked down stairs.

He saw Lily with tears running down her face holding a blanket with Gloria standing on one side of her.

He walked over and took a peek at what was in the blanket, he saw Will and said “let me take him, you should go home or at least go find Jason and the two of you go try and relax.” he tries to take Will from Lily, but from Will and Lee’s past interactions she pulls away and looks at Lee with tear stained eyes.

Lee smiles and says, “Will and I don’t always see eye to eye, but I will take good care of him and help with what I can so he feels better.”

Lee takes the blanket that Will is wrapped in, and Gloria walks Lily back to the front door.

“Go find Jason, both of you go to the library or go for a walk and try to calm down. I’m sure Will will be fine,” Gloria closed the door behind Lily.

Lily stands there for a minute or two before running to the nearby woods/park.

She lies on the grass, face up, and just cried aloud.

If he doesn’t make it, it will be my fault, she thought to herself.

A shadow fell across Lily face.

She looked up and saw Jason looking down at her. “I’ve been up dated on what happened, and told to come and make sure you are ok,” he said as he sat down next to her.

Lily sat up and took the small towel that Jason offered, and tried to dry her face.

Through the tears, she said, “he is the only one who can not go outside. I was stupid to just go anywhere by myself, and now Will has paid that price. What if he doesn’t make it? What if he goes to their side, and helps them? What can I do?” and buried her head in her hands.

“The others are doing what they can; all we can do is wait. I think we should go for a walk and see the town in all its autumn glory. Come, up we go.” he stood up, and then helped Lily to her feet.

They walked to the garden Jason had read about, and looked at all the trees as their leaves changed colors and fall to the ground.

It was nearly nightfall when Lily asked to go back to the house.

They enter the house just as Lee heads for the kitchen.

Lily asked before anyone could think, “is Will ok?”

Out of the door to the front room stepped Will as he said, “you asking about me?”

Lily’s mouth hangs open for a second, before wrapping her arms around his neck. “I was so worried about you. If anything had happened to you, I don’t think I could ever forgive myself.”

Will chuckles and hugs Lily in return.

Janet stood behind Will and said, “It was an easy fix. A little nightshade and a flower that likes moon light, mixed with a sour fruit, and he was right as rain in minutes. But I say again, be careful what you do to bullies, it can come back at you when you least expect it.”

“Yeah, I get it. Be careful, and don’t take unnecessary chances,” Lily said as she and Jason head back to their homes for the night.

The days pass by with no show from the bullies.

They must have given up on getting us, Lily thought.

Everything settled into a quite and pleasant rhythm.

A few nights they saw the ghost hounds gathering some weird plants and taking them back to the woods.

Gloria does some recon, but only sees several ghost hounds and hags wandering around in an odd pitch-black pit of sorts that looked miles wide in the dark.

One night Will as a bat flies into the library and uses one of the computers to search for anything involving the woods and any rumors about it.

Will red, “the woods grew green and lived for years. Then for no apparent reason they grew twist and looked dead in the heart of the woods. When people went in to investigate, they found ruins sticking out of the dry ground. No one has any idea where the ruins came from, because there had been no record of any one living there before the town was built. Some say that witches are the cause of it all, and that they are waiting for the right moment. The woods have been dead in the heart of the woods for over 20 years.”

Before he can read any further, he hears someone out front and makes a quick getaway.

Back at the house they discus what Will found, but are startled by a sudden explosion from the kitchen area.

The run in and see Janet and walking out of a smoke filled kitchen, coughing badly.

Will leads her outside as Jason asked, “What happened?”

Janet waved her hand in front of her face for another minute then said, “Another witch recipe went wrong. Maybe I’m not a witch, just a bad cook.”

Gloria walked through Will, causing him to shudder.

All he manages to say is “hey”, before Gloria starts talking, “Why don’t we do the recipes together? You know the old saying; two heads are better then one. In addition, you’re better at book crunching anyway. I can’t sit still for hours; I have to be doing something.”

Lee locks his fingers and places his hands behind his head, “well then, we have a job switch here. Anyone else who wants to trade?”

Everyone glared at Lee.

He knew no one else could do any kind of duty swap.

Gloria walks into his body and puts him in a hilarious pose before she walks back out.

Everyone laughs as they run back in to get away from the growling giggling Lee-wolf.

Knowing people had seen ruins in the heart of the woods; Jason and Lily go to the library in the mourning and see what they can find on the history of the area.

They find articles in old newspapers that dated back to when someone first found the ruins and saw the woods turning brown.

“This one says people saw the trees turning brown just in a small area in the center of the woods. It must have taken a while for the trees to turn brown so far out from the center.”

“This says landscapers found the ruins when they had gone for a relaxing nature walk in the woods, and one nearly fell in the pit in order for them to find it. So the woods weren’t getting any light before people found the ruins, guess it makes it easier to hide it all.”

“The articles on the woods only go for about a year, and then orders for people to stay away for safety are printed for a month. Therefore, no one knows what state the center of the woods are in now. Guess that leaves it to us to find out.”

“We might want to do a search during the day. There maybe less active during the day than at night.”

“Let’s go tells the others the plan, then go from there.”

Jason and Lily find Janet in the front room, looking over/at the books.

Before they can say a word to her, they hear a growl coming from the backyard.

They run out and see Lee the wolf running and trying to jump on Gloria, who just went ghost and sends Lee rolling behind her.

Gloria sees Jason and Lily, and waves, “thought of a way to help Lee get use to being a werewolf. He runs and tries to jump, then I go ghost and he just passes right through. His jumping ability is getting better; he changed in midair once already.”

Lee walked over and stood by Jason and said, “The air move was an accident. Should I assume you two found something on the woods?”

They all go back in and head to the basement. It was still very sunny, so Will would be in the darkest room in the house.

Lily explained what they had found out from the newspaper, that people had seen the trees turning brown and the ruins.

“But an order to keep out was put out for safety reasons. So no one has any idea what it looks like now,” she finished.

Lee leaned against the wall and stated, “So now we, Gloria Janet and I, go and see what we can find in the woods. Is that what your were going to say next?”

Jason and Lily look at each other for a moment then turn and nod their heads.

Lee rolls his eyes and heads back to the first floor to get going.

Janet follows and Gloria says as she does the same, “You three hang out till we get back. If Will has nothing better to do, maybe he can help you two with homework,” then flew up through the floors.

Will stared at the spot Gloria had just been. She had made him as homework helper, and he didn’t even have a chose. He looked at Jason and Lily who just stood there, not knowing what to do now.

“I think it’s best if we work in a lighted area. If we need help, we’ll come to you,” Lily said as she walked back upstairs, Jason followed right after her.

Will breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have to stay with them in the sunny part of the house.

He changed back to a bat and went back to hanging on the metal ornament in the corner.

~

Gloria Janet and Lee get to the woods hours before sundown, but it still looked pretty dark when there was still light shining.

Lee takes the lead in wolf form with Janet between him and Gloria.

He sniffs the air as they go farther in, “these woods don’t smell right, they smell stale; and the air doesn’t move at all, not even a breeze. What ever is in here is working hard to ‘want’ people to keep out. Janet, which way did you go last time?”

Janet turned around for a second then said, “That way, I think. It should smell like something rotting when we get close.”

~

The hags where asleep in piles of dead leaves, but the ghost hounds were up and surveying the rim of the pit.

One catches the sent of a dog like thing with a human sent mixed in.

It barks and leads the others in the search for it.

~

They nearly reach the edge of the living trees and about to take the first steps in the dead trees, when they hear a howl.

Janet stops and asks, “What was that?”

Lee sniffs the air and says, “Nothing good. Janet, go back to the house, let me and Gloria go on from here. She can’t take any real damage, and I heal pretty fast.”

Janet nods and makes a quick exit.

Gloria hovers just above the ground next to Lee as he prowled through the woods, having all his senses alert to anything or anyone coming up on them.

“So, any idea what might be ahead?” Gloria asks, looking all around.

Lee shrugged, “for a moment I thought I could smell a dog or wolf, and then it turned nasty, bad, like whatever it was…”

Gloria finished his thought for him, “was dead.” they exchanged worried looks and continue in.

~

The ghost hounds flow through the trees like a smoke, searching for the one with the dog-man sent.

They knew what to do with intruders. First scare them away, and if that did not work attack.

One on the side sees a white glow hovering through the trees several feet away.

It snarls what it saw and soon the whole smoke is flowing after the white thing.

~

They were now quite a ways into the dead tree part of the woods, and trying to find the point where the woods stopped and pit began.

Lee suddenly stops and sniffs the air, then says with a growl, “we’ve got company.”

Out of the trees flows a dark stinky smoke that surrounded them, making sure they did not go any further.

Lee growls at the smoke and tells Gloria, “go on and see what you can find. I’ll keep them busy.”

“But,” Gloria started, but a part of the smoke turns into a twist wolf.

With out a second thought, Gloria flies as far into the woods as she can before anything else comes after them.

All the smoke turns into a pack of wolves, surrounding Lee.

They talk to each other through barks, about what to do with this freak.

Unfortunately for them, Lee could understand wolf quite well.

He barks, “Enough”, and jumps the closest wolf, squashing it to smoke that spread out in all directions.

The rest of the ghost pack converges on Lee, to take revenge for their fallen pack mate.

Lee spins and smashes two more wolfs together, then howls a battle cry.

Gloria had to zoom between trees to dodge the few ghost dogs that were chasing her.

When she heard a battle howl, she knew Lee was doing ok, and flew faster.

The dogs jumped and tried to bite what they thought might be her tail, but she either ghosted out before they could close their jaws or floated out of reach.

Up ahead she could just make out that the trees ended in just a few yards.

“Just a little farther,” she told herself.

She had to at least see what might be in the pit, be it monsters or who ever turned them into monsters and trapped them in ‘limbo’.

One ghost dog tries one last time to grab the ghost thing, but falls into the pit.

Gloria flies as high as she can, and takes a look at the area. It all looked dead and twisted with evil…something.

She hovers over and sees several shadows moving around on the ground.

“What are they, and what are they doing?” she wondered.

She spots something glowing green in the middle of some ruins.

“Just like in the newspapers sketch,” she said as she flew closer.

The glow came form a caldron, but whatever it was smell horrible.

She flew down and looked into it.

It twisted and churned, as if it felt sick and might throw whatever was in it out.

Gloria flies away and says, “Time to get back to Lee and tell the others what is really going on here,” and heads for an exit.

Gloria suddenly sees leaves rustling below.

“Odd” she thought but kept flying toward the edge of the pit.

Then out of nowhere, something flies right past Gloria, causing her to spin out of the way.

When she rights herself, she sees a twisted hag coming right for her.

She puts on full speed and flies off to find Lee so they can both get out of here.

Lee kept fighting and what he thought was beating these ghost dogs, but once he beat a few the first ones came back.

He didn’t think he could keep it up much longer. He leans against a tree to catch his breath, when he sees a glowing white sheet coming towards him.

“Time for my pick up”, he thought as he jumped into the air.

As she flew past, Gloria grabbed his outstretched arm and flew as fast as she could out of those woods.

“Boy, do we have things to tell the others,” Gloria exclaimed.

~

The hounds and hags cower on the sides of the pit, in fear of what the witches might do to them for failing.

The witches into their caldron, trying to understand how beings like them would turn on them.

“They could be human trying to see what is inside the woods. If so then it does not matter, they are scared stiff by now.”

“But why were they here in the first place. I say we send scouts out and see if there are traitors with the humans, then deal swift punishment.”

“I believe we have seen them before. The hags mentioned a vampire in all black and a woman dressed in shades of earth tones; the hounds saw a wolf man and white ghost this time. Does that ring any bells,” she looks at the other witches to see their response.

Their eyes open wide, “the first test!”

“They got out. But how?”

“It does not matter, what matters is finishing the plan and ruling this land. We will deal with them after we control everything.”

They all laugh loudly as their plan comes closer to completion.

~

Gloria and Lee collapse in the backyard, happy to have made it back to the house.

The others stand near by and wait for them to tell what they saw.

Gloria sat up and said, “It is a huge pit, and if you’re not careful you can fall in. in the middle were the ruins and a caldron that had something glowing green and smelled horrible.”

Lee said after finally get his second wind, “and this time we saw ghost hounds, that can change into smoke. Whatever they are doing, they don’t want anyone to interfere.”

Janet crossed her arms and said, “To bad, we are not letting them do to the world what they did to us. Now that we have gone back, we had better not go again for a while. So back to the usual, I guess.”

Will leaned against the house and said, “Don’t you think we should name this house?”

Lee looks at Will with a raised eyebrow, “that is kind of random. Why would anyone name a house?”

Will shrugged, “changing to a gentler subject. I just thought we could call it, The Horror House. Ya know, because we are horrors and all.”

Lily smiled, “I like it, ad it can be code to. All in favor of calling the house The Horror House, say ‘I’,” everyone, even Lee said ‘I’, “it is unanimous. Oh, Jason, we better get going. We agreed to do extra credit for school incase this search got complicated and we forgot about school.”

Lily runs for the door as Jason says, “see you later,” and follows.

Will yawned and said; “now we can all get some rest.” everyone looked at Will.

Lee dragged himself inside and said, “You didn’t face a pack of ghost wolves.”

Gloria followed, “or fly at high speed to get away from hags.”

Will frowned; he didn’t mean anything by saying that. Janet patted him on the shoulder, “their just tired. Come on, you and I will rest till nightfall then get back to the books.”

“I see better in the dark anyway.” Will chuckled and went back to the basement to sleep until sunset.

~

It was now October, which meant everyone was going to be getting ready for Halloween. Everyone except for Lily and Jason.

The group had figure out that whatever or whoever was planning was going to do it on Halloween night, the night ghouls and ghost could enter our world freely.

While everyone tried out Halloween pranks, the gang was planning on how to deal with what might be to come. Jason and Lily forgot they had real life problem, and it would get in Jason’s faces soon enough.

The next day at school went pleasantly, for the most part. Lily and Jason are getting their things for their next class, when Lily suddenly slams her locker closed.

“Oh shoot. I gotta go or I’ll be late for class. See you later Jason,” Lily waves as she runs to keep from being late.

Jason watches her until she turns the corner.

He closes his locker and leans down to pick up his backpack, when he hears “Well, well, what have we here.”

Jason spun around, but knew who said it.

Drew and his gang stood in a line across the hall, the one he needed to go to get to his next class.

He didn’t have a chance to try and get away.

They grabbed him and dragged him to the back of the school, to ‘discus’ some things.

Jason walks into the front room, with a black eye and swollen lip.

Everyone stares at him for a second, Janet stood and looked at him as she asked, “how did this happen?”

“The bullies decided I was the one they would beat up for a while. They said as they walked away that I should expect this for the next few days, minimum, max a few weeks,” he said, wincing as Janet touched the bruises.

Lee walked in and saw Jason. He said, “You look like you walked into a door.”

Will shot Lee a glare, “he got beat up by the bullies. I don’t know anything about how to deal with fighting, sorry.”

Lee snorted, “That’s apparent, after the way you dealt with those bullies that cornered Lily out in the broad daylight. But luckily, I have learned how to fight, and how to fight without fighting.”

Janet looks at Lee with raised eyebrows, “I don’t encourage violence, of any sort.”

Lee placed his hand on Jason’s shoulders and began to lead him to the back yard as he said, “then I will teach him how to fight with out fighting.” the others peer around the door into the hall, and watch as they go outback.

Jason and Lee spare for the next few hours.

Lee would say what he would then explain how to dodge it and not get hurt, then had Jason try blocking some attacks.

When the moon was nearly up, Lee stood back and said, “You’re doing really well, and I think you can take those bullies next time. Well, when I say take them, I mean you can use what I taught you to not fight. If all goes well, they will get tired before you even get hit by them.” and leads Jason back inside where Janet has cold wash cloths to try and get the swelling down on his bruises.

The next day, Lily stayed with Jason as long as she could, but then she had a class that he wasn’t in. she said with worry in her voice, “I know we agreed to stay together at school so we may not have as many problems with the bullies, but I have to get to class. I’m sorry,” and walked slowly away, trying to hold back a few tears.

Jason watched her until she turned the corner, but then headed for his next class.

He rounded a corner and came face to face with the bullies.

They all smirked at him, thinking how easy it was to get him before.

They form a circle around him, keeping him from escaping.

Drew stepped forward and stated, “time for your daily beating,” and cracked his knuckles.

Jason looked at the bullies that where surrounding him. He hopped what Lee taught him would work on them all.

Drew stepped fast and threw a punch.

Jason saw his motion; it matched what Lee showed him, and dodged it.

Drew stumbled for a moment, then turned back and kicked this time.

Jason deafly jumped up and dodged the kick like an acrobat.

This went on for several minutes, until Drew got tired, then one of his flunkies stepped in to take over for him.

One after another the bullies came at Jason, but he dodged everything they threw and even blocked a few just to try the moves out.

The bullies finally got too tired to keep going and just walked away.

Jason smiled and turned to go to class, and sees a teacher standing not far away.

The teacher smiled and nodded then turned and walked off.

Jason knew all their bully troubles would be over soon, leaving them to focus on the witches and what they were planning.

Jason walked in the horror house with a big smile on his face.

Before Lee and could ask how it went at school, Janet walks and asked, “You didn’t fight did you?”

Jason rolled back and forth on his heels and said, “I didn’t throw a single punch.”

Janet looked confused, so Lee said, “you let them to all the punch throwing, and just watched. Am I right?”

Jason nodded enthusiastically, “I didn’t do a thing, though I blocked a few throws. Had to try out the moves you showed me, but it was when they were already pretty tired.”

Will looked at Lee, a little shocked, and said, “so that’s what’s you meant. Let your enemy wear himself out, and just walk away when he can’t even lift his hand to punch. Lee, you are astounding.”

Lee did a small bow and bared his wolf teeth.

Everyone laughed, Lee didn’t even look scary now when he turned werewolf.

Lily asks, “So does that mean we don’t have to worry about the bullies anymore?”

Before Janet could go lecture on them, Jason said, “A teacher saw the whole thing. So I think our bully problems are over.”

“Good, well kind of. Now all we have to worry about is what the witches or whatever is doing in the woods.”

Will groaned, “Did you have to bring that up. I was feeling so good learning you guys didn’t have to worry about bullies at school or anywhere. Well we can’t do much of anything right now, it is too soon after the last time we went in. we either wait till Halloween then…”

Gloria turns to Will and asked, “why Halloween?”

Will looked wide-eyed for a moment, “well, most spooky things happen on Halloween. So why not what they are planning. It makes sense don’t it?”

Lee crossed his arms, “to much sense. I think we may have heard what they planning in ‘limbo’, and Will remembers some of it just now.”

“Now that we have a date, we know when we need to get ready. Jason, Lily, you two have to go about your normal lives. That will draw attention from what we are doing. At night, we’ll gather the gear we’ll need. Gloria, do you know how far the drop was to the bottom of the pit?”

Gloria nodded, “not far. You can lower a person from the top to the bottom easily.”

Will picked up their first ‘weird things’ reference book, “Janet and I can go through the books and see what to do to stop what they are planning.”

Lee flexed his muscles, “and I’ll be on guard duty. Now all that is left to do is wait.”

Jason and Lily head for the door, Lily says, “We’ll see you all tomorrow after school and get the plan worked out. For now we better get home and do our homework before our parents wonder what has happened to us.”

The four of them worked the plan out to when they would go in and when they had to finish or all was lost.

The first week they kept Lily and Jason informed on what they were doing, but the next week whenever they came by, they walked into an empty house.

The gang had to keep the plan as quite as they could, which meant not being seen by many people.

On the weekend, they updated Lily and Jason on what they had gathered.

Everything was going so smoothly, they lost track of what the day was, and Halloween caught up to them before they knew it.

~

Lily was heading over to the horror house when she hears a whisper like cackle.

She looks up and sees what could have been mistaken for stray smoke, but it turned and showed two glowing red eyes looking back at her.

Lily ran to the house and barged into the front room saying, “what is today’s date.

Everyone stares at her, except for Jason who answers, “It is…oh my word. It is Halloween night.”

Every gasps, how could they forget about this, they had been planning for this for weeks now.

Janet shrugged, “what now? Do we still go through with it, or…”

Lee punched his hand into this palm, “we take the fight to them. If we don’t, everyone will suffer.”

Lily stood on a chair and said, “It’s now or never if we want to stop them. Who’s with me?” pumping her hand into the air.

Without a second thought, they all say, “we are!” and pump their hands into the air next to Lily’s.

The six of them meet at the edge of the ‘twisted tree’ woods and then head in towards the ruins.

Lying on their stomachs, they looked over the cliff on to the scene below.

Some twisted witches and flying shadows had congregated at the ruins to try to open the portal to the other world.

The Horror-gang had to stop them.

Janet and Gloria hovered down to the ground and stood watch, while Will and Lee helped Jason and Lily down to the ground.

Will flew down in bat form and then shifted back to human form when he reached the ground and turned to help Lee.

Lee slowly and gently lowered first Jason then did the same for Lily.

When they were all on the floor of the ruins, they headed toward the center of it, as fast as they could.

“So what’s the plan?” Lee asked, still looking like a werewolf.

Gloria stated, “The book said that a caldron or a large container is where the witches would cast their spell, and draw all their power. So you take out the caldron, you take their power.”

They ran for that they thought was the center, but were soon stopped by three witches that appeared out of no where and only looked about 30 years old.

Will pulled Lily behind him while Lee pulled Jason behind him.

Janet stepped forward to face the witches, but the witches quickly stopped and forced her back.

They all started to back up slowly realizing they had no way to fight these particular witches, but the other witches and shadows surrounded them to keep them from leaving.

Some of the shadows started to force Will, Lee, Janet, and Gloria toward the three witches.

The witches made an orb appear out of thin air, and smiled evilly at them.

“So you came back. Well, it means that our attempts yielded some results,” said the witch on the left.

“And you dare to come here, when we are on the verge of triumph. You are all very foolish,” taunted the witch on the right.

“And now you will be witnesses to our great plan unfolding on this world. But first, we have to make sure you wont interfere” threaten the witch in the center.

They raised the orb above their heads and made it glow.

The glow somehow attacked the four of them, and they fell to the floor howling and moaning in pain.

Will threw a glace back at Jason and Lily.

Lily locked eyes with Will, and saw him give a sharp nod.

Lily gave a nod back, and ran toward the caldron the witches were using to begin their spell.

The three witches saw her and made the orb glow brighter and cause more pain for the four.

Lily stopped just a few feet from the caldron and turned back toward the others.

The witches give her a choice, “step away from the caldron and we will change them back to normal and do them no harm, or we will use the orb to turn them in to dust.”

Lily looked back at Will for advice, ‘what do I do now’.

All he did was shift his gaze between her and the caldron, telling her everything she needed her to know.

She ran to the caldron as fast as she could and pushed it over, spilling it contents.

All the witches and shadows screamed and ran towards her but vanished before they reached her, from stepping in the liquid that was spilling from the caldron.

The three were enraged and raised the orb as high as they could and made it glow as bright they could, but because their power came from the liquid the orb did no more then send bolts of blue static toward the four.

Lily started to run to help them, but was stopped by Jason.

The lighting bolts arched through what ever they touched, included the four of them.

They screamed and howled in pain; causing Jason and Lily to cover their ears not know what they could do to help.

They hear a shriek and look over to see the witches aging right in front of them.

They shift from 30 something year olds, to gray haired old ladies, to thin old ladies, to skeletons that soon turned to dust and blew away in the wind in just a few moments.

Jason and Lily then turn back to the others, who were now shimmering a bit in the rising sunbeams.

Right in front of them, they could see the four change into shimmering dust fling away in the wind.

Lily and Jason started to tear up.

The four stood up and looked at each other as they began to change back to their true forms.

Lee became a tall man, with fall colored hair, sneakers, denim jeans a green shirt under a black leather jacket.

Gloria a woman, with thick black hair, thick-soled ballet shoes, dress, pants and a sweater.

Janet a tall thin woman, with dark brown hair, knee high brown boots, a skirt with a matching blouse.

Will a tall thin man, with lightly tanned shin, blue jeans, sneakers and thick wool knit long sleeve shirt.

One by one they began to vanish, first Gloria with one last wave good by, then Jason with a scout salute, Janet blowing them both a kiss, then Will who smiled at them.

Just as the sun began to shine in to the clearing, the dust disappeared, leaving Jason and Lily alone.

They saw another way out and walked home, hand in hand.

For the next several weeks, they went about trying to adjust to the change that their friends were not coming back.

Walking back home from school, Lily sees a man that looks somewhat like Will and follows him.

He leads her to a Goth, book, and whatever store.

“I think I better tell Jason about this” Lily runs to find Jason so they can check this out.

With Jason beside her, they walk into the store to take a look.

When they enter the place looks empty, until Lee walk out from be hind a bookshelf, Janet stands up from behind the checkout counter, Gloria looks out from behind a chair, and Will comes up behind them and hugs them.

“You’re all ok” Lily grabs Will around the neck in a hug before he can stand up right.

Jason stared for a moment before stating “but we saw you all turn to dust when the witches vanished. How can you be here?”

Janet sat on the counter and spun around to face everyone, then she said “all we know is we saw you tearing up as we vanished in the wind, next moment we wake up in the old house. Now though the house isn’t so old and run down and we apparently own and live in it and have jobs in town.”

“I have a gym and volunteer to teach kids, and may be your gym teacher” Lee winked at them and leaned against the counter.

“I have a bakery and I’m teaching home economics. You should sign up for it, it comes in handy during the holidays,” Gloria said as she checked the pot over the fire, what ever it was smelled good.

“And as I mentioned the night you asked for help, I am teaching history and geography. I may also sub in various other subjects, but I’ll say no more on the topic, not now anyway” Will chuckled and smiled.

“I run this store, though I’m still trying to think of a good name to call it. Think you can help” Janet asked, leaning her elbows on her knees and rest her chin in her hands.

Lily and Jason think about a name for a few minutes, then Lily’s eyes pop open and she says with a big smile “why not limbos wonders, you know like things that look like what you may have seen while you were in limbo.”

“Sounds perfect”, “it fits, and it’s ironic”, “we have a winner” everyone said at once.

So everyone went back to a normal, happy life style.

After school everyday, they would hangout at ‘limbos wonders’, enjoying having the gang back together.

On the weekends, they would have a sleep over at the former ‘horror’ house, when Lily and Jason’s parents allowed them to.