#hocus pocus fanart | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

acefaun · 1 year ago

Text

Sanderson Zodiacs

Synopsis: You’d been waiting all month for this moment. After much preparation with your zodiac boyfriends, it was time for the summoning! Of course, something that was all in good fun turned quickly into a night of distress when there were witches on the hunt for a starry-eyed goddess.

✨Masterlist✨ Female goldfish!

A/n: Happy Halloween! 🎃 If you don’t have some crazy Halloween Party to go to, join these guys! We’re having our own Halloween Party! Let’s summon witches! Another glorious fanfiction! …Makes me sick! We got fanart with this one, YAY! It’s also my masterpiece thus far in my artistic journey, so I’m pretty proud of it! This is definitely going up on my facebook! 😚

–Word Count: 8,925–

The sky was barely getting a hint of that darker blue color the closer the sun drew to the horizon. The edge of the sky was starting to glow a dim orange color. It was almost time for a Halloween party-of-four! The other gods had to attend a ceremony in the Heavens where they would meet and greet with the returning souls of humans. The souls of the dead returning was a bigger event for the gods than it was for the humans of Earth, who treated it more as a game.

The only reason I was able to snag Ichthys, Dui, and Teorus was because they were the troublemakers of the two departments, and they wouldn't be sorely missed. Besides, my the zodiac gods wanted me to have a happy Halloween as well. I couldn't do that if I were home alone and moping… So what would be better than a Halloween party with a Hocus Pocus theme?

The mansion was elaborately decorated for the occasion. The entire mansion felt eerie, from the entrance all the way to the living room. The lights were turned off, replaced with light from candles, jack-o-lanterns, and the moonlight through the windows. There were cobwebs everywhere, but that only added to how old everything looked. Similar to how the outside of the mansion appeared to be falling apart, the inside matched perfectly. The once-clean marble was replaced with planks of wood, and the wallpaper was peeling everywhere. It would’ve been scary the way it was without the addition of a light fog that rolled across the floor.

It seemed my additional plastic trinkets weren’t going to be necessary for this party. Walking into the living room, I paused, taking in the equally spooky atmosphere. It might’ve seemed more welcoming if Ichthys, Dui, and Teorus would have been there like they promised. But my eyes locked onto something that was set up on a wide coffee table. Was that the book from Hocus Pocus?! I bolted over to kneel on the floor as I eagerly flipped through the book. It was everything like the movie. It left me wondering if they actually stole these props.

Too occupied with the realistic book, I hadn’t noticed anyone was there until arms wrapped around me from behind. I don’t think I would’ve been so scared if it weren’t three pairs of hands gripping at me, forcing a startled shriek from my lips. Though, it only took a moment for me to recognize who was harassing me.

My eyes narrowed as I both heard and felt Ichthys’ laughter from behind me. His head leaned against my shoulder, his tongue sticking out playfully. “We got you! Happy Halloween!”

Pouting, I tugged out of their hands, finding that all of them were in on Ichthys’ prank. “Not fair… You guys nearly gave me a heart attack! You can’t just gang up on me like this when the mansion’s all scary-looking.” If the mansion didn’t look like it could pass for a haunted house, I wouldn’t be so jumpy. “Well… Anyway, whatever! Did you guys get this stuff from the movie?”

“We actually got the book from the Heavens,” Dui explained, though he didn’t look too comfortable about the memory of it.

Ichthys, on the other hand, was grinning as if this was his biggest achievement in life. “It took really hard work to take this from the palace without anyone noticing. Luckily, everyone was pretty occupied with other things today.”

Teorus nodded his head in agreement, but he appeared more on Dui’s side of things. Neither of them seemed comfortable with the lengths they had to go through to get the book. “It was actually in the forbidden section,” Teorus added, “So, while it wasn’t hard for us to get in… it was hard to smuggle it out without getting caught.”

Ichthys grinned at their successful heist of the library as he held out a candle made with pale wax. My mind was quick to recognize that as well, and I exclaimed, “You got the spell book and a black flame candle?!”

Dui nodded, a smile spreading across his face thanks to my contagious excitement. “We followed the ingredients from the book, so it’s an authentic black-flame candle. So… uh,” he paused, tilting his head. The ingredients didn’t seem too special in creating a black flame, but what did he know about witchy stuff? “It should have a black flame. And there’s only one way to test it.”

“Ah,” I praised nervously, “I have chills; this is so cool! You guys are the best! Just- You have to promise you won’t take advantage and try and scare me!” My eyes were evenly trained on them to make sure they heeded my warning. I didn’t need to have more heart attacks than I could handle in the spooky mansion.

Teorus pat my head like a child and reassured, “We won’t do anything scary. But after we do our ritual, we can dress up and go trick-or-treating! (Name), do people give out milk for Halloween?”

I fell silent at his odd question. Last time I checked… no one in their right mind would give out milk for Halloween. But who was I to crush his dreams? “Well, there’s such thing as candy that’s made with milk. Like… milk chocolate? Yeah. So you’ll get candy-milk! That’s it!”

His eyes began to glow with excitement as he grabbed my arm, pulling me over to the small coffee table where they had their candles ready. “Come on, virgin! Light our candle so we can go get milk candy from humans!”

My eyebrows furrowed together, half-glaring at him. I lightly smacked his hand off of mine as he pulled me to kneel on the floor with him. “Don’t start calling me a virgin, weirdo!” Huffing, I gestured for Ichthys and Dui to join us on the opposite side of the rectangular table. “Let’s get the party started then! How does that saying go again…? On All Hallow’s Eve, when the moon is round, a virgin will summon them from under the ground!”

Grabbing one of the longer candle sticks, I used the small flame to carefully light the candle that was sitting on the table. Almost instantaneously, a black flame was atop the candle, and we all stared at it in wonder. Ichthys was the first to make a comment, “Hey, Dui, I guess this makes you a witch now! You can make magic candles!”

I would’ve made a joke to go along, but I couldn’t help but feel unsettled… as if something weren’t quite right in the air. Teorus also had an expression that told me he felt something off.

After a quiet moment, all the candles went out in the room suddenly, and I latched onto Teorus like my life depended on it. I shouted accusingly, “You said you wouldn't play more pranks and scare me!”

“Ichthys?” Dui called the pisces for an explanation.

“It wasn’t me,” he quickly tried to defend himself. Or… maybe it was? He definitely didn’t turn out all the lights, though! “Teo, did you do this just so (Name) would jump on you?”

“No way,” Teorus argued, though he wasn’t going to be one to complain that I latched onto him for protection. Needless to say, it wasn’t any of us that did it… “Maybe it was a gust of wind?”

I pulled back, trying my best to give him a questioning look despite how dark it was. “Really? A gust of wind strong enough to blow out the fire place inside the mansion?” It sounded like the most ridiculous things ever, but it was better than the other possibility… My eyes popped open as the flames suddenly reappeared on the surrounding candles, the black flame still lit as it was before. My limbs started trembling as I wondered if this was like the movie. I didn’t want to die!

“Hey…” Dui muttered, our eyes scanning the still room. “I don't have a very good feeling about this…”

If the gods were uneasy about this entire thing, then how was I supposed to feel? But glancing around the room, I quietly asked, “If things do go south… the mansion is considered hallowed ground, right? Even if they wanted to… witches couldn’t come in… right?”

“Well…” Ichthys scratched the back of his head, drawing glares from both Dui and Teorus. Ichthys, yet again, did something he wasn’t supposed to, therefore putting all of us in unnecessary danger. Well, that’s what his face was telling us. But seeing our expressions, he quickly tried to brush it off, “It’s not like I completely masked the divinity of the mansion. I just wanted to make it feel more scary in here. But… if all else fails, we can always escape to the Heavens, or just hide in our rooms.”

“Right,” I snapped, gesturing around the room. “Let’s just escape to the Heavens while the witches are feasting on children and becoming eternally youthful! Perfect plan from the gods in charge of protecting humanity!”

Dui tried patting my head to get me to calm down. We were all pretty high-strung with the way our ‘perfect’ night was going, but we didn’t need to be fighting. “Calm down, guys. The obvious answer to our problem is just to keep the book away from them until the sun rises. We’re gods. They’ll never find us.”

I nodded my head, agreeing with Dui’s logic. Just based on the movie, we already had a higher chance of success. We knew exactly how to beat them. Despite the comfort of having a sound battle plan, my heart leapt in my chest as we heard the echoes of cackling filling the empty mansion. Weakly, I muttered, “It’s the Sanderson sisters…”

We all watched the door in apprehension as a voice exclaimed, “What a disgustingly large house… BOOOK!”

I flinched, snatching the book out of the air before it could fly out of the living room. Dui pulled me out of sight behind a bookshelf just in time for the doors of the living room to burst open and reveal the three ancient witches. I didn’t have time to see where Ichthys or Teorus were hiding before Dui pulled me into hiding, but I hoped they stayed hidden and unnoticed wherever they were.

Sarah danced around the room, her arms flinging her sleeves around as she sang, “A virgin lit the candle again, Winnie!”

“Ah,” Winifred gleamed at the black flame that sat on the table amongst the other seemingly useless knickknacks. “It seems they did. Which means… they have my book. Mary!”

“Yes, Winnie?” Mary and Sarah listened intently to their sister’s orders. I watched them quietly from behind the bookshelf, but I knew we couldn’t stay there forever. They were searching around the room pretty thoroughly, starting from the middle.

Winifred gestured around the room for them to get searching. “Sniff our little virgin out.”

I wasn’t the only one who figured out that by Mary sniffing closer to the candle, she would get my scent first. Then it would only be a matter of time before they found our hiding spot. Dui caught onto this predicament and held me closer in case he needed to make any sudden moves to get me out of danger.

We waited with bated breath for them to do something or say anything more. I leaned closer against Dui, trying to make us smaller and less noticeable.

“Winnie…” Mary called with a subtle smile, her eyes flickering around the room. “I smell… children.” Though, she didn’t look like she had an exact location. I figured it was probably because Teorus and Ichthys were hiding elsewhere, so our scents were probably a little everywhere. I was sure that was some kind of plus, but I knew better than to think that a witch whose power was in her nose wouldn’t be able to figure things out. Based on the movie, their goal was usually to find the youngest one. Unfortunately, that meant me—who was also their black-flame virgin, as well as the current holder of their precious book. Aside from Ichthys being the youngest god, I was less than a fraction of their age. Still, when it boiled down to it, we were all considerably younger than any of the other gods; I was sure that fact alone made all of us targets.

With the witches drawing steadily closer to us, however, Dui firmly wrapped his arms around me, ready to get me out of harm’s way at a moment’s notice. But as if to save us the trouble of getting caught, Ichthys was the first to burst out from where he was hiding. “Hey!” Seeing the witches in person for the first time, he hummed, shaking his head. “Yeah, you’re not as pretty as I thought you’d be. You should definitely leave this place before we kick you out.”

Despite Sarah and Mary fretting over a boy, Winifred seemed surprised to see Ichthys… as if she knew him. But she wasn’t faltering in the face of this newcomer. In fact, she sounded quite familiar as she hissed, “Ah, a pesky little god. I could only imagine how sweet a soul like yours might taste.”

Before she could attempt to attack Ichthys, Teorus distracted her, throwing a plastic skull at her. “Why don’t you witches go fight someone your own strength? You think you stand a chance against gods?”

As much as the three witches were interested in the power of the gods, it was too bad they were outnumbered four to three. But… two gods were sure to do the trick against three witches, right? At least, that was what was going through Teorus’ mind as he shouted, “Dui, run!”

Fleeing with the book made sense and was really the only choice we had here. But how were we supposed to flee when we had the full attention of those witches who were quick to corner us?

Dui seemed to have the same doubt of mind as I did, since he made sure I was behind him as we faced off with the two younger sisters. Teorus and Ichthys were occupied by Winifred, who was waiting for Sarah and Mary to retrieve her book from me—or freed from me, at least.

“H- Hang on,” Dui weakly said, hesitant to face the two surely powerless witches. “I don’t want to hit ladies… Plus, I’m a god; I could really hurt you. You should stay away from (Name), or else we won’t be gentle.”

“We?” Mary couldn’t help but chuckle at how I seemed to hide further behind Dui. This seemed like an easy hurdle to jump, in their opinion. “Your little friend might have trouble keeping hold of that book.”

The minute they tried to distract Dui by going separate directions around him. After all, Dui couldn’t stop both of them at the same time… right?

Oh, how wrong they were to underestimate a god. Dui’s expression shifted, and a scowl crossed his face as he glowered at them. “That softie wasn’t talking about the goldfish!” Snapping his fingers, the two witches were shoved back a decent distance from me. But, he knew that wouldn’t get rid of the problem. Turning, I flinched as Shadow Dui glared at me, snapping, “What are you waiting for, idiot? Go to the Heavens. I thought the whole point of this god-damn fight was so they don’t get that book.”

He was right… but I was too alarmed to leave their side. Well, that wasn’t exactly the problem either. I quickly exclaimed, “But I can’t go through the door without one of you, and- and that wouldn’t stop them from causing trouble on Earth!” My eyes flickered to Ichthys and Teorus, but they didn’t look like they’d be able to slip away without giving Winifred an opening to come after her book. My grip tightened around the living book in my arms.

These witches were just humans, when it came down to it. Sure, my gods weren’t as powerful as usually because of the general darkness and negative energy of Halloween night, but we still had to overpower these guys! Well, that’s the optimism I was going off of, anyway.

Dui hissed, “Then we’re just going to have to get you into a freaking church!” He sounded sarcastic, but if we couldn’t leave Earth, and we had to keep the book away from the witches, then his suggestion sounded like the best option. After all, the goal of the Sanderson sisters wasn’t to catch childish gods; their goal was to get their book back so they could make their youth potion. Their dilemma was that they couldn’t make their potion without their book, and I wasn’t planning on letting it go anytime soon.

“Agh~”

A sudden shout made everyone pause, the room falling silent. My wide eyes flickered to where Teorus and Ichthys were once fighting Winifred. “Ichthys…?” I apprehensively called out. He was in pain and he was… shrinking?

Right before our eyes, Ichthys shrunk into a black cat. We weren’t really sure what to expect from a witch turning a god into an animal, but Ichthys’ laughter rang out through the room as if this were just some funny game. “Wow,” he cheered, “now it’s just like the movie, huh?”

Winifred smiled triumphantly over the defeated god. “Well, meddlesome god down… two more to go.” Her powers were able to best a god, further securing their position as the most powerful witches in history.

While the situation wasn’t as fun as he was making it out to be… that was, indeed, an Ichthys response to danger. It only made me warily sigh, while Shadow Dui snarled, “You damn fish!”

Teorus relented, stepping between Ichthys and Winifred. “There’s nothing we can do now. Ichthys, go help (Name)!”

“I’m on it!” Ichthys agreed without hesitation, swapping places with Dui who worked on distracting the sisters with Teorus. Bolting past me, Ichthys encouraged, “C’mon, (Name). I don’t have hands to open doors anymore; keep up!”

I rolled my eyes, frantically following him through the dim halls of the mansion, opening doors per his directions until we finally made it out of the mansion's front door. I absolutely wasn’t made to be running around like this…

Ichthys, on the other hand, seemed like he was living for every second of this excitement. Irritated, I snapped at him, “Stop enjoying this!” This was far worse than the movie, in my opinion. The movie didn’t show that they could overpower even gods on Halloween night! Besides, what good was Ichthys as a cat? Ichthys couldn’t fight back like this. Not to mention if Winifred did that to Teorus and Dui… “Ichthys,” I murmured as we slowed our pace to a walk, “we need help from the other gods.”

“Don’t worry,” he responded quite confidently. “You’ve got me, Dui, and Teo.”

I shot him an uncertain glare. “You mean I have Dui and Teo. What good are you? You can’t even fix yourself.”

“Hey…” Ichthys sounded disappointed that I thought so little of him. “I might be smaller, but I’m still a god. I might’ve had my guard down around some humans, but when it comes to keeping you safe, I’m giving you my all.”

“I…” I faltered, exhaling tiredly. “I’m sorry. I know you are. It’s just that this isn’t about me. This book puts everyone in danger. I’m starting to have my suspicions about why it was locked up in the Heavens.”

“Yeah,” Ichthys uttered, his ears falling. It was a slight movement, but it was enough for me to notice as he sullenly added, “I guess I messed up pretty big this time.”

Noting the heavy mood that was suddenly bearing over us, I suggested cheerfully, “It’s like you said, isn’t it? This is like the movie. What do three old hags have against modern gods? Besides, there’s no mess you can make that we can’t clean up. Haven’t all your years in the Department of Punishments taught you that?”

I smiled as I heard him chuckle. That’s right, there was no point in being negative. We had to do what we could, given the circumstances. At least he seemed more cheerful, as our destination was whatever church we came across first.

We had a good plan, everything was figured out, and we were sure we would make it until morning. If only more trouble wasn’t stirred up the closer we got to the tree line. What kind of luck did we have to emerge head first into two dark gods?

Crow and Servillah were loitering around the forest, which was brimming with dark energy on Halloween night. However, even they seemed thoroughly surprised to find me, the ex-goddess, running straight into them. They never in their wildest dreams expected me to walk right into their arms.

Though, we were both seemingly at a loss for words to exchange. Face-to-face with each other, there was awkward silence.

After a brief moment, having had time to comprehend the current situation, the dark gods were more than pleased. Crow grinned, the first to speak. “I can’t believe some dimwitted goddess like you actually had the gull to come into a forest brimming with dark energy!”

Before I had a chance to escape their presence, Servillah grabbed my shoulder, jerking me towards them. The sudden motion along with the way his fingers dug into my skin made me wince and cry out, “O- Ow!”

Seeing me in pain, Ichthys hissed defensively, lunging into Servillah’s face with his claws extended. The dark god was easily startled, quickly releasing me in favor of prying the cat off of his face. “Wait,” Crow ushered the other dark god to be still so he could help.

With Ichthys serving as a distraction, I stumbled away from the two dark gods, scrambling behind a tree and staring at them with wide eyes.

“Stupid beast!” Servillah growled at the cat as Crow finally pried Ichthys off of him, throwing him to the ground.

The two dark gods were about to approach me again, when Ichthys darted between us, interrupting, “I’m not going to let you lay a hand on her! (Name), stay behind me!”

Both of the dark gods were surprised by the cat speaking; but they were no less pleased with the amusing situation as they realized… this creature before them was a god.

Servillah regarded his friend, “Hey, Crow… How do you suppose a god snaps his fingers… when he doesn’t have any fingers?”

Crow, grinning, replied, “I suppose… he doesn’t.” There was a pause as the two seemed to register the situation as they spotted the all-too-familiar book in my arms. “Those Sanderson witches scared you straight into our waiting grasp, did they? Regardless of how they were resurrected this time round, I guess we’ll have to give them a little reward for their good work. Now, goddess, don’t do anything stupid and come with us.”

Seeing that they were going to grab for me once again, I was quick to use the book as a weapon of self-defense. At least I wasn’t alone, and that was a comforting thought as Ichthys helped in fending off Crow from one side while I took my chances swinging the heavy book at Servillah.

Of course, our defenses could only last so long before the book was knocked out of my hands. I was sure I was on the verge of being snatched away to the Under Realm before my saviors showed up.

Dui and Teorus arrived just in time to scare the dark gods away—though it took a little convincing, via their powers.

After our momentary success, Ichthys then glanced between the two other gods curiously. “Hey, you guys were pretty fast. How did you two manage to get away from all three of the witches?”

Teorus smiled as if it were nothing and explained, “Well, our powers are a little weak on Halloween, but we still had enough power in the mansion to make a bunch of voice-activated books that would respond to Winifred’s voice… So those three are going through a bunch of books right now.”

Smugly, Dui added, “They’ll have to go through them one by one to find out they’re all made with divine power. Though, I doubt it will hold them up long with the dark gods suddenly around.”

Ichthys excitedly said, “At least this gives us time to come up with some sort of counter plan.”

“I- I don’t think it does,” I said, sounding particularly nervous as I revealed the fault in our position, “The dark gods took the book…”

“What?!” The three gods were shocked. Though, Ichthys was looking disappointed again, his head drooping as he mourned, “I messed up again. I couldn’t keep you safe or keep the book from falling into their hands.”

Teorus comforted, “It’s okay, Ikky. It’s not like it’s all your fault. Besides, you protected (Name) until we got here to help. You did what you could.” He sighed. “We should have been more careful and really checked this stuff out before stealing from the palace library.”

“Right…” Dui sorrowfully agreed, “We could have just taken the things from the movie, like (Name) said.” He winced. “Meaning… we should probably fix all of this before Zyglavis finds out.”

“Then our goal is to get the book back and protect the humans!” Ichthys nodded, pausing in thought. “Should we sneak back into the mansion?”

“I don’t think the witches would stay there, though, would they?” Teorus tilted his head with furrowed eyebrows as we tried to work through this problem of ours.

I shrugged my shoulders in silent response. “Maybe we could give it a look? It’s gotta be better than standing around waiting to figure out what to do.”

“I agree with Teo,” Dui offered his opinion. “I don’t think they’d stay at the mansion for longer than necessary—especially if those dark gods are helping them now. If they stayed in the mansion too long, not only would it hurt them, but it would also alert the other gods in the Heavens.”

Ichthys sighed, his tail wavering behind him as he sat on the ground. “While that might help us… I don’t really want to face Zyglavis’ wrath for freeing ancient witches…”

“Well, I’ll take Leo’s wrath over losing (Name),” Teorus decided with a firm pout. “They would all be more powerful, just coming from the Heavens. Being on Earth on the darkest night of the year hasn’t been very helpful for replenishing our powers. Otherwise, we’d have already turned you back, Ikky.”

“I guess you’re right,” Ichthys reluctantly agreed. “But they’d have to notice something was wrong first, and who knows if that’ll happen.” He exhaled again. “Let’s start by scanning nearby areas for dark power. We’ll be able to single out where those witches went from there.”

***

Hours passed, searching ceaselessly for the three witches and the dark gods, but nothing came up in their search.

“All this walking around, and we haven’t found anything,” I griped, growing frustrated as I followed along the road with the two gods and the cat. “It’s not like they’re summoning children or anything like in the movie, otherwise we’d be able to find them easily—follow the zombie children to their secret witch hide-out. But… also… if they’re not eating children by now… what are they doing?”

Dui shrugged tiredly, his shoulders sagging. “I’m not sure… but this going in and out of places with dark energy is getting really draining. At this rate, we might become like Ichthys.”

Teorus added, “I wish we could have just gone trick-or-treating with you instead, (Name). I was really looking forward to getting that milk chocolate stuff you were talking about.”

Ichthys nodded his head as he bemoaned, “Yeah, it would’ve been super fun to dress up in costumes and walk around Earth with all the humans. I bet I could’ve played some awesome pranks tonight.”

“I feel like we’ve been trick-or-treating for witches, going from place to place with no results,” I pouted, compared our long night of witch-hunting to trick-or-treating, though the two really weren’t anything alike. “It’s not fair that we can’t seem to get good or bad results. There haven’t been any tricks or treats all night. That’s not how trick-or-treating works!”

“Trick-or-treat!”

“Waah~” I felt like the air was knocked out of me all at once as my body was lifted off of the ground suddenly, an arm crushing around my rib cage. I wanted the arm to release me, but at the same time, I had no idea how high I was dangling in the air.

The only thing that revealed my position was the cackling of the three Sanderson sisters. As quick as I was taken, the gods tried to race to my side in a panic. Only… they found that they couldn’t fly to my rescue. Teorus’ eyes were wide as he sputtered, “H- Huh…? Hey, why can’t we fly now? The dark energy shouldn’t be making us this weak.”

“The gods haven’t realized they were cursed…” Sarah softly sung, “The little goddess has been draining your powers all night.”

The gods were confused, but I was even more so. “I- I haven’t,” I argued. Surely one of us would have recognized something like that. But it was growing hard to keep my optimistic thoughts with me when I could have been the cause of their weakness. We needed answers. “What are you talking about…?”

“Ah, but you have.” Winifred drawled. “Our dear companions put it on you when they first had you in their grasp. Mary,” she demanded, gesturing for her sister to prove it.

Then, Mary lowered my collar, exposing a dark tattoo on my shoulder. It seemed like such an obvious place, but of course we never would have been looking for something like that on me.

Dui’s eyes widened as he muttered, “A curse… We never even noticed…” He looked exceedingly guilty for missing something so important.

“No wonder we were so weak,” Teorus lamented. “We couldn’t even help Ichthys because of that thing. It’s been draining our powers, it wasn’t the dark energy on Earth to blame.”

Sarah chirped, “Now they understand.”

“Let us go!” Winifred ordered, “We can’t have this little goddess slipping away from us again.”

The gods were clearly fearful as they watched the witches fly away with me. Ichthys hopped onto Dui’s shoulder, doing his best to get as close to me as possible as he yelled, “We’ll be right behind you, (Name)! We’re coming!”

The three gods would never leave me with witches and dark gods to steal my soul. Now, however, Ichthys was kind of wishing for Zyglavis to hurry down to Earth with all his wrath.

***

Midnight… It was officially midnight; meaning, that it was November 1st. The other gods had to collectively agree that they were relieved to finally be done with their long night of Halloween.

Tauxolouve sighed, complaining, “Why does it feel like All Hallow’s Eve lasted longer this year?”

Aigonotus nodded in agreement, his head leaning to rest on Tauxolouve’s shoulder. “There were way too many spirits to talk to this year…” He grumbled tiredly, “I can’t wait to see (Name).”

Karno pointed out with a knowing smile, “You just want to use her lap as a pillow, don’t you?” Wordlessly, Aigonorus nodded his head in acknowledgement. It was pretty obvious what his intentions were.

Krioff added in confusion, “Shouldn’t (Name) be sleeping right now? You better not wake her up.”

Partheno nodded with a slight shrug. “Perhaps… Trick-or-treating is over, in any case, and I’m sure she had her hands absolutely full with those three.”

However, as the three wishes gods and two punishments gods walked into the mansion, they have to pause, finding Huedhaut and Leon neck to neck with Zyglavis and Scorpio. While the sight wasn’t that uncommon between the two ministers, there was an odd feeling in the mansion that wasn’t so familiar. Not to mention, it looked very eerie, like an actual haunted house.

Though everyone was tense and silent, Karno was the first to address it. “What’s going on here?”

Leon’s sharp eyes shot to Karno. “Those troublesome-”

“Those three stole a very important book from the Heavens for (Name),” Huedhaut interrupted Leon with a powerfully frightening scowl of his own. Moments like these, Huedhaut looked like he belonged in the Department of Punishments. “While their intentions were well, they should have known better than to summon witches.”

“Witches…?” Aigonorus was wide away with that startling news. His nose scrunched up. “Where’s (Name)?”

Zyglavis’ eyes darkened. “We’re searching for all of them now. Let me be clear, we’re not dealing with anything relatively good. These particular witches have been on the Punishment’s list for centuries, as they are in cahoots with the dark gods; the Dark King being the master they serve.”

Leon added, “This dark presence in the mansion can only mean that there’s been trouble.”

The gods were clearly frustrated that they had this problem running around Earth once again. Scorpio criticized them, “They honestly thought it was just a movie? Stupid problem children… Stupid goldfish… If it were just a movie, we wouldn’t have had that stupid book locked away in the Heavens.”

Tauxolouve sighed, asking, “Well, should we find and help them?”

Irritated, Leon answered, “We need to clean up this mess around the mansion first. If we don’t get rid of this dark energy now, we won’t be able to help anyone.”

“Besides,” Krioff said bluntly, however helpfully, “The sun’s going to come up in a few hours. Won’t those witches just turn to dust?”

Zyglavis sighed, rubbing his forehead. Everyone was sure he would refute that and explain that movies aren’t accurate, but he surprised them with an affirmative answer, “That’s right, but there are still hours left until then, and we should prepare for the worst.”

“But hope for the best,” Tauxolouve added optimistically. Of course, all the gods knew I wouldn’t fold to any old witches when I tended to put them, gods, in their places almost on a daily basis.

***

The air was suffocatingly still. The only sound to be heard in the silence was the cawing of crows along with the murmurs of the witches and dark gods a short distance away from me.

I was nervous to be tied to a chair in the middle of a forest, somewhere that would likely take Ichthys, Teorus, and Dui a while to reach since they weren’t able to fly. Not to mention, the dark gods were there too, likely deciding what to do next with me. The sun was still a few hours away from rising, I knew, but it couldn’t come fast enough. I was stuck with these witches until then…

Servillah observed me from where he stood, noting that I was stubbornly refusing to meet their gazes or acknowledge their presence. Still, in my position, I wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. “Good,” he commented, “Now that we’re certain she can’t move… We’re going to take care of those pesky gods and make sure they doing interfere. You three take care of the ritual to summon the Dark King. When we come back… we can get started. I’m sure her soul will be ready by then.”

Watching the two dark gods leave, we were once again left in uncomfortable silence as the witches prepared their potions and spells. Clearly, there was still work to be done before they would use my soul. But… maybe I could stall them.

“Y- You know…” I stuttered, trying to convince the witches to spill their plans. “You’re not being very good villains.”

“I thought…” Sarah uttered, glancing worriedly between her two sisters, “we were being really evil witches…”

With their skeptical expressions, I took my chance to continue, clearly having them with hook and bait. “What I mean to say… is… that typically, in modern times, there’s usually an evil monologue. You know, to hype up your purpose for doing… whatever it is you’re doing; and… I don’t know, scare your captive by giving them a scary overview of what’s happening?” I was only slightly confident in this distraction plan, but the worst they could say was no… right?

Seeing them huddle together, I pursed my lips as I watched them deliberate over my words. But finally, they turned back to me with wicked grins. Winifred started, “Very well, little goddess. Our master would be pleased to have a trembling goddess at his feet when he returns.”

I flinched in surprise—though, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. So, they were going to bring back the Dark King. They were serious about it… and I supposed this was a perfect place for it. I didn’t have to act apprehensive as I asked this time, “You’re… not talking about who I think you’re talking about… Are you?”

“Yes,” Winifred only smirked as she answered me. This ‘villain’ role and getting their captive to tremble in fear was quite simple.

Mary added with a hungry grin. “We’re going to get a filling portion of thine soul for catching thee from those pesky gods.”

Sarah sighed happily over my shoulder, “What a delicious soul our little reborn goddess must have…”

“But,” Winifred paused. “Let us explain why the little goddess is so special, hm? Even just a small portion of thy divine soul shall grant us eternal youth!”

“We’ll be young and beautiful forever!” Sarah danced giddily.

They were too excited over this… I had to keep stalling, pressing for as much information as they were willing to spill. “My gods would never let you get away with this!”

Mary wheezed out a laugh as she pointed out, “Your soul is going to resurrect the dark lord… and those gods are going to die.”

“Mary,” Winifred ordered excitedly, “The potion, retrieve it, now!” The three witches were moving about excitedly as they brought the potion before me.

The three witches were crowding me. I didn’t like this; I didn’t like how Winifred’s nails were digging into my cheeks, angling my head up. Attempting to get my mouth open was no small task, but it was easily done with a bit of persuasion—pain.

The potion didn’t taste good, and I definitely didn’t want to know what was mixed in it, as I was forced to choke it down.

“Now…” Winifred contemplated, “What was the next step?”

Reading from a sheet of crumpled paper, Sarah said, “Let… simmer for… 60… minutes!”

“Now, that doesn’t sound right, dear sister,” Mary lightly chastised her, pulling the paper from her hands. Though, Mary tilted her head at the words written on the page. “But it is… Winnie, are we going to have to wait an hour to taste her?”

Winifred snatched the paper out of their hands, hissing at the directions. “Indeed,” she uttered in distaste. “Tis because this little soul is a divine one. It will take time for the potion to extract the undamaged soul from her.” The explanation made sense; however, they disliked having to wait for something that was so tempting. “Regardless, we have to wait for the Dark gods to return and complete the ritual to summon his highness.”

The three sisters collectively sighed. “Alas.”

***

After a long hour of waiting, it seemed the return of the dark gods wasn’t growing any nearer, and there were a measly three hours before the sun would rise. Suffice to say, the witches were growing restless with my delicious soul teasing them, glimmering around my tired form.

“They wouldn’t notice…” Mary started carefully, “if we took… just a taste…?”

“Not a sniff,” Winifred shot a glare to her sister, “Not a taste, until they return.”

They sat tiredly like impatient children with a cookie in front of them.

“Hey!” A shout came from further within the forest. “Hey! Catch that god!”

Their heads snapped up as a small black cat bound up to them, skidding to a stop in the dirt as he ended up beside my tied feet. Ichthys’ eyes were wide as he looked between the three witches and me. “(Name)! I’m here to save you!”

The witches were suddenly surrounding Ichthys as Winifred spoke down to him, “I think not. You may have escaped the wrath of those dark gods, but you won’t escape from us a second time! Take a look, your beloved little goddess has already succumbed to our potion! It’s only a matter of time now…”

Ichthys’s tail swished behind him as he stood protectively between me and the witches. His head tilted as he shot back, “I would look… but I think it’s you who needs to turn and take a look behind you!”

Turning, they were surprised to find Teorus and Dui still alive—and, not to mention, in very personalized robes that looked unironically similar to Sarah and Mary’s outfits.

The sisters were clearly flustered over this, as Mary pointed out, “I thought they were supposed to be dead…”

“I know!” Winifred huffed, clearly angry with how things were looking. But the gods were clearly at the disadvantage here. “We needn’t worry. We’ll handle them ourselves.”

“So, is that what you think?” Ichthys suddenly asked again, drawing the attention of the witches, who suddenly found themselves surrounded. Ichthys was no longer a cat, but, in fact, dressed in a very… ironically familiar robe.

The little kerfuffle between gods and witches didn’t last nearly as long as the first time, and it only ended with the three gods standing proudly between me and the witches. The three gods stood close enough to spare their powers to undo the effects of that nasty potion, while still being in a good position to protect and defend you.

With the effects of the potion wearing off, I gazed at the three gods in a daze, as if waking up from a dream. “Dui…?” My head lulled slightly as I lifted it to try and take in the situation. “Ichthys and Teo?” I blinked, swearing that I was still dreaming—and maybe had been this whole time. Only, if it were a dream, I was sure I wouldn’t be tied to a chair in the middle of a creepy forest. My eyebrows furrowed as I asked, “Why are you… the Sanderson Zodiacs?”

“Hah!” Teorus laughed. “I like that name. Yeah, let’s go with that.”

My eyebrows furrowed as I failed to make sense of what was happening. “But… I thought your powers were drained because of me?”

“If you’re the one that was draining our powers, what do you think happened the minute they took you away from us?” Dui smartly asked, pausing to let me connect the dots. But they still had business to take care of. “Sit tight for us, (Name). We’re almost finished here.”

Their attention went back to the witches, and I watched in awe to see what my gods were planning on doing. With their powers recharged, this was bound to be an interesting show for me.

“Do you want to know something cool about Teo?” Ichthys gestured to the blond god, pausing with a dark grin before he pointed out, “He’s the god of time…” This time he paused to try and let the threat settle in.

“Oh!” I exclaimed excitedly, seeing what they were getting at. This was a perfect strategy; Teorus could make the sun rise early! Why hadn’t they thought of this before? “Of course…!”

“And now,” Teorus grinned, and I waited with bated breath for him to continue. “I’d like to introduce you to a little thing known as daylight savings time.”

There was a quiet pause and Dui sighed loudly in disappointment. I turned my head away, muttering, “You just… couldn’t leave that line out of it…?” I groaned quietly; I thought he was going to say something scary, something that would dissuade them from returning again. What I hadn’t expected… was for him to mock a line from the movie… “Please… go back to being the scary and intimidating god of time.”

“And what are you going to do?” Winifred mockingly asked, “Give yourselves more time to save your little goddess?”

“We could do that,” Dui—or maybe this was Shadow Dui who came out—agreed. His tone was just as mocking, and his grin was just as unpleasant. “Or we can speed things up a little! I’m sure you wouldn’t mind if we turned the lights on!”

“Ah, Winnie,” Sarah called, “The sun! It’s rising!”

“Curses!” Winifred screeched furiously. “Damn you, gods! We’ll be back! And when we do, your little reborn goddess will be ours!”

Suddenly, my vision darkened as I felt Ichthys’ hands hover over my eyes. Softly, he whispered, “This… isn’t quite like the movie, so I’ll have to cover your eyes for this part.”

***

“Hm?” Krioff’s attention was stolen by a sudden glimmer outside the window, far in the distance, and his eyebrows furrowed as he found the sun rising. “That’s weird… Wasn’t the sun supposed to rise in an hour from now?”

“No worries,” Tauxolouve eased, smiling at the sight of the rising sun. “This is a sign that things went well, don’t you think?”

“I agree,” Huedhaut added, looking out of the window with a fond smile. “(Name)’s just fine in the hands of our three troublemakers.”

“Tch…” Scorpio scoffed off to the side. “Those brats are gonna get what’s comin’ to them when they get back to this mansion.”

Tauxolouve nodded his head as if content with the fact that the three gods were going to be punished very thoroughly by likely both ministers and vice ministers. “Yeah… This was a stressful Halloween.”

***

The grass was cold beneath me as I leaned back on my hands, sitting beside Teorus, Dui, and Ichthys. The only thing that warmed me up was the feeling of the sun that was rising just above the horizon. I pursed my lips, hesitant to break the peaceful silence, but finally, I had to speak, “You know… you guys are going to be in a lot of trouble when we go back.” I paused, adding, “Especially since you kept me out all night… Well, more-so for the dark gods and witches stuff… but, well, you know.”

There were solemn nods of agreement. “Yeah,” Dui verbally agreed with me, but he had something else on his mind. “Hey, (Name)... we still didn’t get to celebrate Halloween with you, though. Do you think we could hold off on going back just yet?”

Ichthys eagerly suggested, “Yeah! Can’t we go to your place for the day until Zyglavis and the others calm down?”

Teorus leaned toward me eagerly, “Please? I know we didn’t get to go trick-or-treating, but I really want to try some of that milk chocolate!”

I sighed loudly, but I couldn’t deny my finely dressed Sanderson Zodiacs. I glanced over at them. “Are you three planning on staying in costume all day?” They glanced at each other before collectively nodding. “Fine,” I relented. “It’s November first, so the Halloween candy should be on sale today…” Glancing at their eager expressions, a huff of laughter left my lips. “Alright. Let’s stop at the store on our way to my place.”

They followed me like excited little Sanderson ducklings down the street. Teorus praised, “You’re so good to us, (Name), letting us stay at your place so we don’t get in trouble with Ziggy and Leo.”

“And letting us celebrate Halloween with you a day late,” Dui added with his usually friendly smile.

Ichthys peered over my shoulder with an equally innocent smile. “You know how much we love you?”

I scoffed, angling my head up with a somewhat satisfied smirk. “Problem children… C’mon.”

9 notes · View notes