Halloween

The night was dark and scary on Halloween. I was dressed as an Egyptian mummy, sweating and choking because the bandages tightly covered me. My sister was dressed as a mad scientist as we went for trick or treat in the neighborhood. At the end of the street there was a big manor; it was dark & creepy and nobody lived there because it was rumored that once three witches lived there. Once or twice, children broke into the old manor for a dare. My sister and I badly wanted to enter into the manor but we were not allowed to do so.
Finally we reached the end of the street and there in front of us stood the huge mansion, which was damp, derelict and unoccupied. Some of its windows boarded, tiles missing from its roof, and ivy spreading unchecked over its face. My sister and I questioned each other at the same time, “Shall we go in?”
This was the first time we were here all by ourselves free to enter into the manor.
“Sure,” I replied, “but how do we get in, the gate is locked?”
“I think we can climb it” my sister replied.
“Alright! I’ll go first” I said and I started climbing the gate, my bag of candy clenched tightly between my teeth. I moved onto the other side of the gate and jumped down. I took a look around and asked my sister who was now climbing the gate, “ Did you get the torch Alexis?” “ Oh Yes!” she replied grinning.
“C’mon! Lets go in, have a look and come back,” I said. I was now sweating.
“Are you chicken Nikki?” my sister asked, “Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!” she folded her arms and started flapping them like wings.
Actually I was not sweating; it was the costume that made me sweat.
“No” I screamed, “I’m not, now lets get in quickly before anyone sees us.” I took the torch from her & started towards the manor door. The front door of the manor bore no sign of being forced, and nor did any of the windows.
“Oh no, the door is locked” my sister said.
“I think there might be a back-door,” I said.
We went to the back of the house until we reached a door almost completely hidden by ivy. I bent and saw a small door for a pet. I pushed my sister forward and said, “ Go on Alexis, you can squeeze through it and open the door for me.”
She crept through the small opening and opened the door noiselessly.
We had let ourselves into the cavernous kitchen, our nostrils full of the smell of decay, ears pricked for any sound of footsteps or voices from outside. We reached the hall, which was a little lighter owing to the large mullioned windows, either side of the front door, blessing the dust, which lay thick upon the stone, because it muffled the sound of our feet. The furniture was kind of strange, big crystal balls, thick round black caldrons. I flashed my torch around.
“Lets explore this place separately,” I suggested.
“Ok” Alexis readily agreed.
I wandered around for sometime, and then I came to a halt near the shelf holding large crystal balls.
“ Alexis! Quickly come here, I found something,” I whispered.
“ What is it Nikki?” she asked nearing me.
“ I think we can take one of those balls to show everyone,” I said pointing my hand towards the shelf.
“Oh wow! I’ll get them,” Alexis said.
She went near the shelf and took out one large ball from among two others and I went round the room to one corner where there was an assortment of odd mirrors. I took one, which lay in a wooden box; the box was decorated with ornamental designs and carvings. It was a hand mirror and had a big blue stone engraved on the top. ‘Wish mirror’ was written across it. I thought it was a fine one so I went to show it to Alexis.
Alexis took the mirror from me and examined it. “Hmn… I am a real mad scientist,” she said examining her reflection in the mirror.
“Mine is the best costume!” she exclaimed handing me back the mirror
“Nah, not better than mine” I said.
Then looked into the mirror and saw an ugly mummy peeping back at me “I am the ugliest mummy alive!” I said.
“That’s True,” she said teasing me.
I moved around and saw many weird looking objects like broomsticks and jars containing dead insects. Suddenly I heard a mad laughter behind me, it was my sister laughing.
“Alexis you scared me to death,” I said angrily.
“Sorry Nikki, I don’t now why I did it,” Alexis said apologetically.
I said never mind, but somehow I thought she did this purposely.
“Alexis I am feeling strange, lets go for trick or treat or else we have to eat mum’s homemade mince pies,” I said.
“ Yeah lets go I heard Mrs. Clarence is giving big chunks of chocolate to everyone, you wouldn’t want to miss that do you?” she said
“ Not a chance” I replied.
I started going towards the kitchen door when I saw my sister walking like a hunchback. I got such a shock because it looked so natural that I thought for a fraction of a second that she was a real mad scientist! “Nice moves, Alexis” I told her.
“Huh, what are you talking about?” she asked me.
I thought she was just playing but there was again something peculiar in the way she looked at me and one of her eyes looked strangely bigger than the other, I thought it must be the dim light which made her look so different. We were nearing the kitchen door when I saw something in the mirror, which made me come out of my skin. An alive and creepy mummy was staring at me through it; its dark and red eyes were gleaming at me with a gruesome expression in them. “AAAAAAAAH!” I fell to my knees, Alexis came running to me and then the mummy disappeared. I got up and stared into the mirror and then did I realize that it was my own reflection but my eyes were not the same sky blue instead they were red.
“Hey Alexis look at my eyes they are red not blue,” I said.
“Maybe they are going red because you are tired and you need sleep,” Alexis replied.
“Yeah I think so t---
“Ouch!” I felt my skin burning with pain and the bandages around me tightening. Something weird was going on but what? I thought to myself. And then a horror dawned upon me and I knew what was going on. The curse was coming True! It wasn’t any ones idea of a joke it was the real thing! “Alexis!” I screamed
“The mirror! It wasn’t just a mirror remember, it was a real wish mirror!” I told her
“Remember what you said while you looked down into the mirror ‘I am a real mad scientist’ and I said ‘I am the ugliest mummy alive!’” I said with a spine-chilling thought running through my mind.
“What are talking about? Look this is no time to fool around o.k. It’s getting late and if you don’t stop this we’ll be late, now come on” she said impatiently pulling me towards the door,
“Alexis! You’ve got to listen, come here” I told her and took her in front of the big mirror “look. Now you can’t say this isn’t happening, just glimpse at yourself” I told her pointing towards her hump which was now almost like an actual one.
She seemed to realize what was going on but she ignored my words and brushed aside my fears saying I was being superstitious. But just then I heard the mad laughter again and saw my sister put a hand on her mouth to stop her laughter. “See I told you, but you wouldn’t believe me.”
“But Nikki you know that magic doesn’t exist,” said Alexis.
“Maybe, but who knows if it does” I said with a feeling of panic starting inside my head. I looked anxiously around as if trying to see some magic going on.
“But…but, how can it be true? I mean many people have been here before” she said
‘ And how many you know have been in here are alive?” I countered.
“There’s no time to waste we need to search something to get back to our normal selves otherwise we’ll become monsters!” I said.
“But where?” Alexis asked,
“Well, we can find something helpful here if we look around” I said after considering for a moment. It was risky in here but we had to break the spell by hook or by cook.
So I moved about in the room and came to the box in which the mirror was first placed. It was lined with velvet in side and a small bit of parchment, which I had not noticed earlier, was kept in it. I took the parchment, it was old and yellow yet strong enough so that the writing was visible, written in curly long handwriting was

THE WISH MIRROR
Ask a wish and it will be done,
The only one you ask in front,
Alas! If midnight’s gone,
The wish will remain on…

At first I didn’t understand the meaning but then slowly as I read it for the fifth time the words seemed to make sense and unless I was wrong they meant that we had time only till the midnight to find a way to break the spell! I rushed to Alexis with the note frantically pushing it under her nose. She read the note quietly and looked at me in horror. “What do we do! What do we do Nikki?” She asked. She leaned out of the window and looked at the clock tower. “Its nearly nine, we have only three hours left!” she gasped.
“Like I said look around we might find something helpful,” I said.
“Ok! Ok!” She said moving to the other corner.
I moved to the farther corner of the room.
“Hey Nikki! Come here! Look what I have found,” Alexis whispered.
“What is it Alexis?” I asked hurrying over to Alexis. I saw a huge shiny glass case. Inside it there was a stand holding leather bound book. The book had a red seal and a letter “M” carved on it.
“I think its some kind of old book, oh Nikki do let us take this book with us to show everyone that we really came in here,” she said.
“All right but how do we take it out?” I asked Alexis.
“Find something to break this glass case Nikki,” she said.
We started searching all around the room for something hard to break the glass case.
“Hey Alexis! I have found a broomstick, lets try to break the glass with it,” I said.
“Bring it over,” she said.
I took a firm grip of the broomstick and hit the glass with full force just as Alexis covered her face with her arms. The glass shattered into pieces and flew in all directions with a loud crash. The book lay untouched on the stand.
“Lets have a glimpse of it,” Alexis said.
“Okay,” I said.
I picked up a piece of glass from the floor and opened the book’s red seal. The book made a small twitter and lay still. I opened the book slowly. Something then, made us both jump with fright. The book’s pages started turning vigorously with a screeching sound and then came to a halt on a rather crumpled page. We both started reading it together,
“Wish breaking potion
To break a wish made by the magic of the mirror one has to brew together the potion of greed, desire and passion together and drink it before the clock strikes twelve midnight.”

“Wow! Does this book show us what we want to know?” Alexis asked.
“Maybe, lets try again,” I said closing the book. “Now think of the potion of greed, desire and passion,” I told Alexis closing my eyes. “Right,” she said. I opened the book again and the pages started turning rapidly and came to a stop. We read again,

“Potion of greed, desire and passion
Each of the three witch sisters had a quality of greed, desire and passion. They enchanted their qualities into three separate potions before dieing and took their potions with them to their grave. The green potion is of greed, the blue of desire and the purple of passion. When these are combined they form a strong wish breaker.”

“So now, where do we find the graves?” I asked.
“Earlier people used to bury their dead somewhere in their houses mostly in their lawns,” Alexis said.
“But this house does not have a lawn, but wait a minute- there’s a backyard!” I exclaimed.
We both raced to the kitchen door and out into the backyard. We didn’t notice this place before. In the middle of the backyard there was a stone statue of three witches standing back-to-back, hands and faces facing the sky. We went near the statue and examined it carefully. Under the first statue of a plump witch was written Gabriel Greed, beside it was a tall and bony witch under whom was written Francis Passion and the Last statue was of a beautiful witch with long hair falling to her waist. Under her it was written Diana Desire. “Alexis if the statues are here, then the graves must be near by,” I said.
“Hey! We’re standing on them!” Alexis said and I jumped at these words as though a hand would come out of the grave to catch my feet any moment. “We’ve got to look immediately. The potions must be above the ground I don’t think they can be under the ground,” she said. I was relieved when she said this but suddenly I saw that my bandages had turned yellow and thought with disgust if my skin was rotting under them. “It must be nearing mid-night we should be quick” I said and Alexis agreed and at once we started searching for the potions. “Look here Nikki, don’t you think this is odd? She asked pointing at the rectangular base on which stood the three witches. “This rectangle looks different from the other three.” She said and bent down to examine the rectangle she was talking about. It was right under the witch named Gabriel Greed. I bent down and saw that Alexis was right it looked different from the other three rectangles, as though it wasn’t made up of stone at all. “Its wood!” Alexis gasped and cleared the earth from it and then as though magically words appeared on it in green blue and purple ‘The Witch Sisters’ and then disappeared. Alexis shook the plane and took it off without an effort. There was a small box like area inside it. It seemed as though there was nothing inside but just then a bright blinding light emerged from it and then died down and there inside it stood three gleaming bottles. One containing a green potion, another blue and the third purple. I watched in amazement as Alexis took out the three bottles and got up. “We’ve got to brew these together,” she said. “But how are we going to do it?” I asked getting to my feet. “Don’t be so hare-brained Nikki” she said “ We’ll just mix them up in one of the caldrons inside, now be quick its nearly midnight,” she said looking up at the clock tower as it struck 11. We both hurried towards the old and ancient house of the witches and soon we were brewing the potion over the fire. The liquid inside had now turned a bright blood red. I thought to myself what bizarre things were happening. And I hardly had thought what would mum and dad would think of us getting so late. Oh god! I completely forgot in this chaos about them. “Alexis what are we going to tell mum and dad?” I asked her but she gave a shriek of that same mad laughter. Then she looked up at me, it gave me creeps the way she looked at me. She wasn’t herself, she was turning into the mad scientist and I was turning into a mummy! I couldn’t wait any further so I took one of the empty bottles and filled it with the red potion in the cauldron and forced Alexis to drink it, she was now laughing even louder so I hesitated for a moment then without further ado I poured the whole content of the bottle in to her mouth. She took a gulp of it and stopped laughing. She stood quietly rooted to the spot. Then slowly her hunch disappeared and her face came back to itself. I was glad but suddenly my insides disappeared (literally!). My bones were clinging to the worn yellow bandages and I felt a dizzy sensation just when I saw Alexis hurrying towards me with the bottle in her hand. After what seemed a long time to me I came back to myself. I was lying on the floor where I fell before Alexis made me drink the potion. I got up and saw Alexis looking anxiously at me when I opened my eyes she took me in a hug and exclaimed “ Oh! You’re all right!” “ We did it Alexis, we broke the spell,” I said murmuring faintly as I was still feeling shaky after what happened that night. Alexis helped me to get up and we left running towards home without looking back at the dreadful house. Why did we ever try to get in!! When we reached home it was to see mum and dad angry, worried and waiting for us. We got a big telling off that night and got a month’s worth punishment. But that was nothing compared to the lifetime punishment of living as a mummy and that too an alive one! At last when I got to my room I couldn’t help but smile. Everything that took place that night was just like a wild dream. Worst, I told myself, it was like a nightmare. But at last it was all over…