Dead End: Midnight Hollow

by Penn Cassidy

  “What is it?” I asked, heart falling into my stomach.

  “I’m going back,” she said. We all sucked in a collective breath.

  I blinked at my best friend. “What do you mean you're going back?” My voice turned raspy as my throat clogged with emotion. I couldn’t lose her too.

  Looking guilty and so sad, it made me want to cry, Maddie took my hand and squeezed. “I have to go back. My family probably thinks I’m dead or missing…and to be honest, I still have to wrap my head around this whole witch thing. Everything’s been happening so fast, I don’t even know where my head is anymore. I need to do this…just for a little while.” Her eyes begged me to understand.

  “B-But the portal—” I stammered, trying my hardest not to burst into tears.

  “Will still be there on Halloween. I’ll come back on the bus, Toby, I swear. I’ll come right back at the stroke of midnight on Halloween. I just need to handle my shit before I choose to make a life here, ya know? Plus, someone needs to keep an eye on Ichabod for a while, make sure he doesn't terrorize the mortals.”

  “You’re serious about this?” My heart was breaking, but I knew I couldn’t stop her.

  “Absolutely. It’s what I need,” she said, and I saw the truth of it in her eyes.

  “Here ya go, Maddie girl,” Auntie Fe said suddenly with a sad smile. She reached in the pocket of her dress and pulled out a tiny compact mirror. “This is a witch mirror, so it has the power to transcend worlds. Whisper the words inscribed on the back of it here,” she gestured to the pewter siding, “and we can speak with you anywhere. It’s like FaceTime for witches!”

  Tears rolled down Maddie’s cheeks as she took the mirror and held it to her chest. “Thank you, Auntie.”

  Maddie looked at Baen, and I followed her gaze. His jaw was clenched tight and so were his fists, but I could tell he wouldn’t say a word. They’d barely gotten to know each other, so he knew he had no say in this decision she was set on making. But his eyes were impossibly sad, and she looked away just as quickly. Gaze flickering to Cal, her brow furrowed, and she turned back to me before she said something she might regret.

  I took my best friend in my arms and squeezed her impossibly tight, tears leaking down my cheeks as I sucked in heavy breaths. I hadn’t cried this hard since the night my parents died, and it sort of felt like a shard of my soul was splitting off. Maddie and I had been inseparable since we were little kids, sisters in the truest way. She was my family, and I suddenly needed this next year to pass us by as quickly as possible so I could have her back.

  “I miss you already, you bitch,” I murmured into her inky locks.

  She sniffled through a laugh. “I’ll think of you every time I see a spider.”

  “Aw, you do love me…” Jessica said, though her voice was wobbly.

  “Never!” Maddie mock hissed, but I could tell she would miss Jessica too.

  When I let her go, Maddie gave the guys a round of goodbye hugs and kissed the aunties on the cheeks. She bit her lip as she gazed between Cal and Baen as they stood next to each other with grim expressions.

  “It’s not goodbye, but see you soon,” she whispered and turned away before they could say anything.

  She faced the portal, taking a deep breath. I watched with a hollow heart as Maddie stepped to the threshold, the magic already brushing her skin.

  She turned to the side and said, “Now I have to think of something good to tell the police.” She sighed deeply, but turned at the last moment and glanced down to where Roger was sitting. “You! Come with me, I’ll need your help keeping an eye on our newly mortal pain in the ass while we're there.” We all laughed at how happy Roger looked. His new master was definitely a step up from the last one.

  “Maddie,” Michael said, and she turned to look at him. “When you get back, can you check on our families and see what the official story is? Maybe report back so we know for sure?”

  Maddie smiled. “Of course I can. I’ll probably have to play amnesia while I’m there, so I’ll do a little sleuthing.”

  Michael nodded gratefully. Roger made it to Maddie without a word and grabbed her hand. With a wave, they stepped into the light of the portal, and I felt like sobbing as the magic swallowed her up, carrying her back home.

  It was silent after she was gone. I couldn’t believe it. She was really gone, and I’d have to go a whole year without my bestie. I was definitely not prepared to face this place without her, but on the other hand, I was happy for her. She needed this time to sort things out for herself. Knowing Maddie, she’d probably come up with some hair brained idea to tell her parents she was headed off to college overseas or something.

  “It’s time,” Auntie Fe said, stepping up to me.

  We all clasped hands again, and I noticed that even Norman, Freddy, Jason, and Baen held on too, even though they had no raw magic themselves. We were going to give Maddie a send off as a family, and we were locking Ichabod away forever.

  “Remove ostium. ego imperium!”

  We chanted together as one, repeating it ten times as the portal began to shatter and warp. Wind whipped my hair, and we all staggered but kept chanting, the collective force of our power tearing it apart bit by bit.

  A cracking and popping noise tore through the hallway, and the wall around the door splintered as light shattered around us. It blinded me, and I had to close my eyes and look away.

  When the wind died down and the hallway fell into an eerie silence, we dropped our hands and looked up to find only an arch shaped scorch mark left behind on a plain wall, a single crack splitting right down the center. I was still crying, so I wiped the tears away and felt someone approach me from behind.

  “You did the right thing,” Freddy whispered, kissing me lightly on the cheek. I leaned in to that kiss as Norman came around to my other side.

  “She’ll be okay. It’s Maddie.”

  “It’s the mortals we have to worry about with that spitfire,” Jason added, walking up next to us. “They won't even see her coming.” He smiled at the scorch mark.

  Michael joined us, and the others stood around in a daze, recovering from the surge of power. I felt a sudden flush of warmth run through me as I stood there surrounded by the people I cared about and who cared about me. Love really was a beautiful thing.

  “I love you all,” I whispered. Everyone looked at me with smiles on their faces. “I mean it. I love you all so much, and I just needed you to know that.”

  “We know, little goth. We know,” said Michael, gripping the back of my neck as his finger kneaded the spot, and I relaxed under his touch.

  We were silent, nobody wanting to move yet. We just stared at that wall, as if trying to linger as long as we could with Maddie. But it was time to get things in order around here, and that’s exactly what I would do. I’d see Maddie soon. What was one year anyway?

  “She’ll be back,” Baen whispered before clapping Cal on the shoulder and striding away with his hands in his pockets and his big shoulders slumped.

  I glanced over at Cal, and he hesitantly gave me a sad smile before nodding his chin at me and walking out behind Baen.

  I smiled at the thought that when Mads came back, she was going to have her hands full, and I hoped she would give them a little hell to contend with. I took a deep breath and turned around to drag my guys off with me, but Pip suddenly clapped her hands together and announced, “You know what goes well with victory? This new cupcake recipe—”

  “No!” we all shouted collectively before falling into a fit of laughter immediately after, while Auntie Pip just stood there with her hands on her hips.

  “For the love of the great pumpkin, Auntie…a girl can only die so many times.”

  The end is only another beginning…

  “Detective Maddie reporting for duty. Come in, Night Phoenix, come in!”

  I woke groggily, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes to the sound of a metallic clicking on my vanity table. When the dark room came into focus, I
sat up and spotted the small compact mirror the aunties gave me rattling around on the wooden surface.

  I scrambled up, throwing the sheets to the side as Michael and Norman made a show of rolling over and groaning after being woken up. I rolled my eyes as they cursed and pulled pillows over their heads. Practically sprinting across the room, I swiped the metallic mirror and opened it up, already smiling as I heard, “I swear to the great pumpkin, if you don’t put the dicks down and answer my—”

  “You rang?” I mumbled into the mirror. Maddie’s smiling face looked out at me, as if we were on a smartphone, only connected between worlds instead of miles. “And did you call me Night Phoenix, or was that just a fever dream?”

  Maddie chuckled. “That’s your official code name. Figured we needed some in case anyone got a hold of this mirror.”

  “So what’s yours then?” I asked.

  “You can call me Merlin’s Beard,” she said with pride.

  I rolled my eyes as I said, “So to what do we owe the pleasure of your call this early morning, Merlin? I see you made it back in one piece.” I was kidding around, but secretly, I felt my eyes watering at just seeing her face. I already missed her so much.

  “Just wanted to report in. Things are weird on this side.” Her eyes flickered to the sides really fast before she leaned in for a close up. “Shit’s been going down on my side of the universe.”

  “What kind of shit?” I asked, suddenly nervous. By now, I could feel Norman and Michael sitting up in bed, and when a cold shiver caressed my neck, I knew Norman had breezed out of bed to stand behind me.

  Maddie lowered her voice to a whisper. “So the bus crashed, just like we thought, but that isn’t even the weirdest part. Apparently, every single person on the bus has been missing for three weeks. Not a trace, just a bunch of broken bus parts.”

  I shook my head, confused. “That doesn’t make sense…”

  “Tell me about it.” She sighed. “When I walked into my parent’s house, my mom straight up fainted and my dad thought I was a ghost. It’s a big mystery on this side, and people all over the state are treating me like a sideshow.”

  “What did you tell them about where you've been for weeks?” I asked.

  She laughed, this time a full belly laugh. “Get this…I’m pretending to have amnesia. Totally clueless. It’s all terribly frustrating for the detectives.”

  “And our parents?” Norman asked over my shoulder.

  Maddie waved and smiled. “Hey, Bat Wing! All good on the parent front for now. I told them the last thing I remembered was a bright light, and then we were somewhere else. I told them I have a feeling you’re all alive, but that I can’t remember anything after that or where we were taken. We might have to come up with something soon, because right now, the country thinks we were abducted by aliens or something. The news is still crazy over here.”

  Norman let out a relieved breath as he said, “Well, keep us updated.”

  “Yes, sir.” She saluted my boyfriend, and he rolled his eyes and went back to the bed.

  Maddie was smiling cheekily when I looked back. “You realize how lucky you are, right, Tobs?”

  I smiled, cheeks heating. “Girl, I’m still in shock every day.”

  “Well don’t be. You deserve all the good things, and you know it.”

  “I miss you,” I whispered, fighting back the waterworks.

  Her brown eyes crinkled with a smile. “Miss you too, bitch.”

  “Come back to bed, pumpkin head!” Michael called out, and Maddie snorted as I shook my head and flipped him off over my shoulder.

  “Guess that’s my cue.”

  She chuckled. “Go, have some fun with your harem.”

  “Harem?” I raised a brow.

  With a wink, Maddie blew me a kiss before signing off. But right before her image disappeared, I could have sworn I heard her laughing as she said, “Save some dick for the rest of us!”

  About Penn Cassidy

  Penn lives in the California Valley as a full time self published author with her husband and her two cats who proofread everything she writes. She's a fan of horror movies, Tim Burton films, and smutty romance novels. She writes primarily New Adult Ficton, Reverse Harem and Dark Romance Fiction. You can find Penn on Facebook for updates and information on new releases, pre-orders and events.

  Stalking links below:

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  About Madeline Fay

  Madeline lives in rural Michigan in a castle with all her fur babies and husband. She loves to read, you’ll find her in her tower with her kindle and cup of tea. She has a few addictions, chocolate is her weakness and anything seventies related. She’s a hippy at heart. She has an evil day job, but at night she watches over her city in the shadows and calls herself batman. Not really but she keeps hoping it might come true one day. She’s in her bat cave writing and plotting mad, evil genius, stories while sipping some wine.

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