Page 58 of Black and White, Twice the Might

I laugh as Ernest pulls his hands free and walks away from Adhan, walking towards Elliot, who has just arrived.

“Hey, Elliot,” Ernest says in greeting, pulling him into a hug.

He hugs him back. “Are you all okay?” he asks, pulling away.

“My family is mad, it’s quite sad really,” Ernest says, shaking his head.

“Says the morbid one,” Cam says.

Elliot looks at Ernest. “Why are you morbid?”

“The dark witches gave all of us the same nightmare last night. Us in the Haunted House dying. I apparently died in everyone’s dream, and I wanted to know how I died.”

Elliot laughs. “I think I’d want to know as well. It should be a spectacular death, nothing boring like a stabbing or shooting.”

“Well... it depends on the stabbing. I mean, if it was just some thug, that would be disappointing, but if it was Chucky, that wouldn’t be so bad.” Ernest says.

“Well, if it helps, the murdering dolls did kill you,” Justice tells him. “They knocked you down, staked you to the attic floor, and took turns stabbing you to death.”

“See, now that was an awesome death, no stabbing thugs for me,” Ernest says with a smile.

I can’t believe Ernest is enjoying hearing about his deaths.

“The dancing clothes smothered your face,” Temp tells him. “And some items were folded on your torso. The folded clothes were really heavy, like stone slabs.”

“I was pressed to death? I would never have thought of that one. See, no boring deaths for me.”

Elliot, well, pretty much all of us laugh at Ernest.

I shake my head. Elaine was right, Ernest is kind of crazy, but in a good way.

“You could add that to the website. Add how everyone was killed and rate the deaths out of ten,” Sly suggests.

“I like the sound of that. Everyone, send me a message with who died and how, and I’ll add it to the list so we can all score our demises,” Temp says, grinning, a proper carefree grin I notice.

I squeeze Sly’s hand and nudge his shoulder with mine. He’s helped Temp.

“Before that, though, witchlings, we need to redo the protection around the town,” Molly says, walking over to join us.

“We do,” Titus agrees.

We walk the rest of the way to the outside temple and form a circle, making sure someone stands on each point. I bet this temple gets a lot of use.

Next to each point is a stone plinth-type thing, I imagine for offerings for calling the elements, or for binding rituals. I wonder if binding rituals are still used. I give my head an internal shake and focus on the now.

“Family, let’s all hold hands and start,” Ernest says.

“If I’m holding Ebby’s hand when we use magic, our magic turns grey,” Sly tells them.

“Is that just with Ebby or any light witch, Dark One?” Molly asks.

“I don’t actually know. I just know if Ebby and I use magic when holding hands, our magic is grey.”

“Hold my hand and let’s both send a bit of magic out to see,” Titus says, standing next to him.

Sly takes his hand, and I watch as they both send magic out. Grey magic.

“So, any light witch then,” Molly says. “That’s good to know, Dark One.”