Page 5 of Black and White, Twice the Might (Cadenbury Town #8)

W e park up and get out of the car. Thankfully, there were millions of signs pointing to the car park and cars turning into it, not that we wouldn’t have found the place; we just followed all the other cars.

We walk a path lined with pumpkins leading the way to the Haunted Farm entrance and the ticket office.

I’m surprised how not expensive it is to enter, plus the ticket gives us entrance all day until closing, meaning we can have a look round and play and then come back after dark and experience it all again.

We walk into the farm, and there is a signpost ahead, pointing in all directions. We follow the sign for the Haunted House, as that is where the opening will happen.

As we walk towards the house, I send a little magic out to have a look around. Not that I really needed to, as magic is all around us.

“Well, this is interesting,” Sly mutters.

“Yeah, keep your senses open.”

“They are, and I’ve sent some magic out,” he whispers.

“Me too,” I look at the boys. Thankfully, they don’t seem to have noticed, being too excited looking around.

We join those that are gathered outside the Haunted House. The house is amazing. It looks like something out of a storybook, in that old, neglected haunted house kind of way.

A group of men walked up the steps and turned to look at everyone. One of the men was Cam Stone, two were the men we saw in the glass shop.

Enoch moves closer to my side, and I put my arm around his shoulder.

Suddenly, a loud whistle sounds and the area falls silent. A large man steps forward.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the Haunted Farm. For our visitors, I am Adhan Stone, the Mayor of Cadenbury, and I welcome you to our town and this event.

“My brothers and I, plus you know our partners,” he says, waving his hand about.

There are some laughs at this, and one of the men on the porch puts his hands on his hips, glaring at the mayor.

Adhan looks at him and laughs, before looking back at the crowd.

“We’ve all had fun getting the Haunted Farm ready.

We welcome and thank Elliot Walker and his funfair for coming to help make our event bigger and better.

So have fun, enjoy yourself and try not to get too scared. The Halloween Farm is now open. Enjoy.”

Just as he said this, through the trees, lights suddenly appear and fair noises sound.

The men walk off the porch, and people start to walk away.

“Shall we go to the fair first?” Sly suggests.

Xander nods happily. “Yep.”

“Sure,” Enoch says, with a sigh.

“It will be fine,” I assure him. I mean, this place is massive. I’m sure we can keep out of their way.

This fair is so much fun. It’s been years since we went to one, and the boys, being boys and Sly being himself, have to go on everything .

As we were walking to the funfair, Sly’s and my magic came back. This area is full of magic, both white and grey, and there is a section that seems to be warded to the hilt. But neither of our magics sense danger.

We bundle onto the ghost train and ride around it; people jump out at us. There are sections of scary monsters and sea creatures. We can hear people from other cars screaming, but the four of us just laugh and point things out to each other.

The boys love it.

“I can’t wait to do this again when it’s dark,” Xander says, happily climbing out of the car.

“It will be awesome,” Sly agrees. “House of Mirrors next.”

We spend ages inside laughing at each other and ourselves as we look in each mirror to see how distorted we look.

We walk outside laughing, and the scent of hot donuts fills the air.

“I smell hot donuts. Can we have some?” Enoch pleads.

“Sure,” Sly says, taking some money out of his pocket and handing it over. “Do you two want to go and get some?”

“Yep, we'll be back,” Xander says, walking off with Enoch.

I watch them walk away, concerned.

“They are both sensible, happy and laughing,” Sly tells me.

I lean into his side. “I know.”

He slips his arm around my waist and kisses the side of my head. “I got another email from my father earlier, demanding I come home and help them in their cause.”

I look at him. “What cause?”

Sly shakes his head. “No idea. I wouldn’t be surprised if it is to do with the rumours, we’ve heard though.”

“We really need to find out if they’re true,” I say, then pause. Something is wrong. “Enoch’s scared.”

We both take off at a run towards the donut stand and see Enoch standing just to the side of it, with two men in front of him. One of them is from the glass shop, the other is the man who put his hands on his hips, during the Mayor’s speech.

We rush to Enoch’s side, and I push him behind us. I feel Xander run over and take his brother’s hand.

“What the hell?” Sly growls out. “Are you in the habit of scaring young children? What were you going to do with him or to him?”

We both send our magic out to read them. One white witch and the other grey.

“Nothing,” the man from the shop said. “I recognised him from earlier and just wanted to talk to him.”

“So, you do that by scaring him?” I say in anger.

“No,” the other man said. “Look, this is going wrong.”

“I’ll say,” I snap out.

“I’m only going to tell you this once: stay away from us and stay the hell away from our brothers.” With that, Sly blows out a breath, and they both go flying backwards.

We don’t stick around to see where they land, but grab the boys and rush towards the car park.

We see Cam, and he looks at us in concern. “What’s wrong?”

We stop and face him. “Two men trying to prey on our brother,” I say, still angry.

“Where?” Cam practically grows out.

“By the donut stand,” Sly says.

“I’ll see to them,” he says, rushing off.

We let him go and hurry to the car park, thankfully, we are parked near the exit.

“Wait, look,” Enoch says, stopping and pointing. “She looks like she needs help.”

We all look to where he is pointing and see the witch lady, standing by a post, looking like she is having difficulties. One hand looks to be clutching her chest.

We run over to her. No matter what just happened, we can’t not help someone.

“Excuse me, do you need help?” I ask her gently.

She looks around and smiles. “Some days I feel old.”

“Can we drive you home?” Sly offers.

She cackles out a laugh. “Not home, but to the bookshop for coffee and a slice of cake. That would be helpful.”

“Cake?” Xander asks, perking up.

“The best cakes,” she replies, smiling at him.

“Let me go get the car, and we can take you to the best cakes,” Sly says, smiling at her.

“Thank you,” the lady says, as Sly dashes off.

“Where’s your crow?” Enoch asks her, staying close to my side.

She cackles out another laugh. “He decided to stay home today.”

Just then, Sly pulls up and jumps out of the car, running around the bonnet and opening the passenger side door. “Your chariot, milady,” he says, with a bow.

“Thank you, Dark One,” the lady cackles out another laugh as I help her into the car.

Sly looks at me in shock and then shrugs.

“Everyone in. Enoch, you’re in the middle,” I say as we all climb in the car and drive back to town.