Page 68 of Cadenbury Town Does Halloween

“There is just one teeny tiny thing,” another says, gazing at one of the mirrors, looking a little pale.

“What?” I ask looking around. I gasp when I see the reflection.

“Because that’s not at all creepy,” Ebby says, turning to look.

The mirror shows us, all of us, standing there covered in blood as if we’ve been stabbed, shot or had our throats slit.

“Pretty sure that mirror wasn’t there on the first walk through,” one of the teenagers says.

Being closest I put my hand out to touch the mirror.

“Don’t,” Adhan says, catching my arm. “You touched the zombie and made it real. Maybe don’t touch the mirror sweetheart.”

I pull my hand back. “Yeah, let’s not do that.”

“Let’s try that way,” Ebby says, pointing in the other direction.

We walk past more mirrors, but every now and then they move position, trapping us, before moving again. The images of us getting more disturbing.

For some reason, this feels familiar. Not the disturbing mirror images, but the mirrors moving.

“Why does something about this seem familiar?” Adhan asks, echoing my thoughts.

“I thought the same thing,” I pause, and then it hits me. “Now I remember. Sal had this problem at the abandoned funfair where he found the box. Everything kept moving for him remember, that’s why he was missing for three days,” I reply.

“Three days?” one of the teenagers exclaims.

“Oh, hell no!” Ebby says, looking at Sly.

“Has your magic come back?” I ask them.

“No,” they both say when from somewhere we hear the sound of glass shattering.

“I’m going to go out on a limb and say that was a bad sound,” Adhan says, moving to stand in front of the teenagers.

I hear sinister laughter getting closer and then a song.

“Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream, if you’re stuck inside a mirror, don’t forget to scream.”

That catches my attention.

“We’re inside a mirror,” I quickly say. How did we get trapped inside a mirror? “Ebby, Sly, throw your magic out and shatter the mirrors.”

Just as I say this, a clown carrying a red balloon comes into view.

Hell to the no. I gather my magic. “Now,” I say and blast it out. I know the witchlings and I decided never to blast anything ever again, but needs must and all that.

I see Ebby and Sly do the same, two white magic’s and Sly’s black magic shoots out and all the mirrors around us shatter. We’re suddenly standing on the grass outside the Hall of Mirrors, surrounded by our family, some of the town witches, townspeople and fair folk.

“It worked,” someone says and Ebby and Sly are suddenly hit by their brothers running up to them and hugging them.

The teenagers are swamped by their families, and we are suddenly surrounded by ours. I get a massive hug from my parents and then everyone else.

“How long were we trapped in there?” I ask generally.

“Six hours,” Ma tells me, sighing, most probably in relief.

Elliot hugs us as well. He’s grinning like a loon. “Did you have fun?”