Our Town of Halloween | Halloweentown ❥ Ethan

𝟎𝟒: 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐢𝐧 𝐇𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧

They headed towards the bus stop with Aggie speaking, "And I've never understood why you bother with that Internet thing, when my witch's glass can show you anything you want to know."

They stopped and Maisie realized something seemed off. She looked around and spotted nothing. "Where is the bus stop sign?"

Marnie agreed, pointing at the ground, "Yeah, isn't this where the bus stop's supposed to be?" 

Aggie looked around, "Oh yes. Oh, Arnold must have forgot to put the thing out again."

"Oh, good," Maisie replied, feeling relieved.

"I swear, that man would lose his head if his wife didn't put it in his lunchbox," Aggie continued.

Maisie felt a relieved laughter leave her. 

"Well, I'll summon the bus," Marnie said.

"Good," Aggie said. 

Marnie cleared her throat and said, "Gestum ex alius mundus nos te appello ut adduco domus."

Nothing happened.

"My turn," Maisie said, with a grin. She said the spell, putting as much feeling as she could into it and nothing. She felt her face warm up in embarrassment. But why didn't the bus come? She and Marnie couldn't possibly suck at magic, right?

"Well, I guess we'll just have to call up the portal ourselves," Aggie told them. 

"I suppose," Maisie said and they stood around, putting their hands together and closing their eyes. It must've been a sight to behold if some people were to walk by.

"From the mortal world depart we now on this night, the night, All Hallow's Eve, back into Halloweentown," they said in unison, wiggling their fingers. "Through the portal we take our leave. 

They looked over at the doors and at the countdown that was above the door. 

"We have four hours before it closes for a year," Maisie pointed out. 

"We'll be back in plenty of time," Aggie assured her.

They went through the portal and down the alley.

"Oh, it feels great to be back," Aggie told them. "Sophie was right." She did a twirl and clapped, "I needed to come home." She hugged both Maisie and Marnie. "I've been missing my friends terribly."

"And I'm sure they've missed you too," Maisie said. She stopped, realizing how wrong Halloweentown looked. 

It was so...gray.

And boring. 

"W-where's the big jack-o'-lantern?" asked Marnie.

The jack-o'-lantern was just a cube made out of concrete blocks it looks like.

"Why is everything so gray and boring?" asked Maisie. It wasn't Halloweentown anymore, that's for sure.

"I-is this some kind of joke?" asked Marnie.

Aggie said, "As goes the jack-o'-lantern so goes Halloweentown."

Maisie was feeling terrified as she looked around Halloweentown. She asked, "Is this why the bus stop wasn't there?"

"I don't know," Aggie told her.

Someone walked by them, as they carefully treaded forward.

"Grandma, what's happened?" asked Marnie. "Like Mai said, everything's gray and boring."

"Not just everything," Aggie pointed out. "Everybody."

There were people in the street, looking hunched over.