Halloween had come to the shops of Hollywood Boulevard, all the shop windows were lined in black and orange, pumpkins, black cats, and discounts on Halloween products ornamented the windows giving their usual wares a festive feel. Of course outside the palm trees were still dark green, it was 73 and sunny outside but the merchants were determined to give you a taste of fall in sunny Southern California.

Tucked quietly away on a side street of the famous Hollywood Boulevard was a small quiet shop called the Three Orbs: Relics, Curios, and Mysteries, one of the few places in Hollywood that wasn't decorated for the season, at this story everyday was Halloween. It was a unique place, a small store that was crammed so full that it barely accommodated three isles that ran from the front door to the large glass counter in the rear of the store. The entire store was filled with all manner of oddments, if it belonged in a horror movie it would be found in the Three Orbs. Along with the creepy creatures floating in yellow liquid in jars, there were weapons, daggers, swords, maces, axes, everything you needed to start your own renaissance festival. One wall was filled with bookcases filled with strange leather bound books, on the opposite wall full of ingredients fitting for a new age youth serum or a witch's brew. But among the fanciful items that looked stolen from a prop closet were many mundane items, cooking pots and a collection of dolls. It certainly was a curious place.
It was this that brought Taffy, Lacy, Brittany, and Lisa to the Three Orbs. " This is it?" asked Lacy, looking over the tops of her Gucci sunglasses.
" This is it" said Taffy, " Danni said this was the place where she got her stuff for that costume party, there is no way that I am allowing that bitch to outshine me."
" So you want to find something to make the Halloween party cool?" asked Brittany, " in this dump? Why don't we just get hotter guys?"
" Because this is a Halloween party" she said, " it is supposed to be scary."
" Why not print pictures of you after your nose job?" asked Lisa.
" How bout you before your implants?" asked Lacy.
" Hey, these are real" said Lisa, cupping her breasts, " I had a growth spurt."
" Two cup sizes? Sure" said Taffy, " come on, we have to get to the spa at 3."
The girls climbed out of Taffy's Mercedes and entered the store. The girl's eyes grew wide as they looked at the story, none of them could make heads or tails out of the place but were all filled to the brim with curiosity.
Taffy looked across the store, in the back was a counter made up of three glass display cases. Sitting behind the counter, her attention consumed by a book, sat a girl with short messy black hair wearing a rather boring t-shirt and jeans combo. Taffy rolled her eyes, it is girls like her that give fashion such a bad name.

Bethany Drake heard the chimes as the door opened. She set her manga down and slowly craned her neck up to see who had come in. She looked at her new customers and wanted to laugh. Four tanned blonde girls in the latest hot fashions wandering through the store like they were sucked into a parallel dimension. Her sapphire eyes twinkled, this was a gold mine waiting to strike. " Can I help you?" asked Bethany, taking her old Vans off the glass counter.
" Yah" said the first blonde, sounding like it was rather obvious, " we need like something to spice up a Halloween party."
" What do you have in mind?" asked Bethany, a sale was a sale to her.
" Something creepy, which you have lots of" she said, " I want something really spooky."
" Ah how bout this?" asked Bethany pointing into the case at a severed hand in a jar, " it was the hand of Roger Black, a notorious pirate who touched one too many harem girls in Arabia."
" Eeew" she said, " I want spooky, not sick."
" How bout this?" said Bethany pointing to a large suit of armour that stood in the corner of the store past the end of the counter, " the armour of Radu the Wicked, an evil Romanian knight that was reputed to be a vampire."
" How much?" asked Taffy.
" 18 grand" said Bethany.
" Ouch" said Taffy, " how bout something I can afford."
" What is this?" asked Lacy looking at the large bookshelf that ran the length of one wall in the store.
" There are a couple of books there" said Bethany, " you can just hold it up, I understand some of them have really big words in them."
Taffy giggled and Lacy steamed, " This one, Secrets of something" she said, holding up a large leather bound book.
" Ah Secret of Ku Chi Kuloo" said Bethany, " it is an ancient sex manual, has the secrets to give a woman a dozen orgasms."
" How much?" asked Lacy.
" Brad not cutting it" laughed Brittany.
" Shut up" said Lacy, " you couldn't either."
The girls replied with oohs and cat calls making Brittany flush with anger at being so embarrassed. " What about this" said Taffy, looking at the book in the case.
" That is one of my newest acquisitions" said Bethany, " the Tome of Papa Dio, a powerful black magician in Haiti, they say he wrote the book with human blood."
" They have some really cool illustrations" said Taffy, looking at the rotting skull picture, " this will be so cool. How much?"
" It is one of a kind" said Bethany, " would 2 grand be too much?"
Taffy looked at the book, it just looked so cool. " Sure" she said.
Bethany took the book out from the glass display case and carefully wrapped the book up and put it into one the black and purple boutique bags with the Three Orbs name on the side. " Have a nice day" said Bethany.
The girls started for the door but Lacy hung back waiting until her friends were leaving before dropping the book on the counter. " I'll take it" she said, " just wrap it up."

Bethany smiled, Halloween time was her best time of year, it was like printing money. Bethany walked into the back of her store and walked through a large workshop over to a large Egyptian Sarcophagus. She opened it to reveal it was a refrigerator that aside from holding Bethany's lunch of leftover Mexican held several jars filled with all manner of strange items which were used in all manner of spells. Bethany set the plastic box on her work bench and waved her fingers across, her finger tips glowing blue as she did, quietly saying, " Heat."
She popped the box open and smelled the warmed Mexican. " How can you eat that?" came a snide voice, " greasy fatty food, it looks like somebody already ate it."
" Shut up" said Bethany, " not like I'm asking you to eat it."
" Oh, biting comeback" the voice replied, " why don't you come over here and I'll show you a real biting comeback."
Across the room sitting on a shelf was a head in a jar floating in light blue water. He was Lufric, several centuries ago he was a terror across the world until Bethany's ancestors slew him but he was so powerful that if they simply buried or burned him he would eventually piece himself back together so to ensure he would cause as little trouble as possible his head was placed in that jar where it continued to live on under the watchful eyes of the Drake family.
Bethany grabbed a piece of cloth with strange symbols all over it and tossed it over the jar. The sound of Lufric's annoying voice was silenced. The Muting Cloth was probably the only way Bethany and her ancestors maintained their sanity with Lufric around. Bethany smiled as she munched on her lunch, she knew Lufric was probably talking up a fiery storm by now.

Bethany had eaten through most of her lunch when there came a soft jingle through the workshop. That was the real customer bell. Bethany wiped her mouth and walked out to the store front.
A normal looking guy was standing there, very normal looking guy. The guy was so normal you would never be able to pick him out in a crowd. Of course this was a disguise, a well crafted disguise of some magical creature. Magical creatures existed all around us but do their best to stay not noticed. Being noticed usually brought angry mobs with torches and pitchforks and angry mobs could shorten the life of any creature, magical or not. " Oh hi" said Bethany, " here for your Yeti hair?"
" Yes" said the man, holding up his bag.
The bag was a magical bag of holding, everybody in their business had one of these. A bag of holding usually looked like a wallet or small leather sack but thanks to a magical spell the interior of the bag was a great deal larger. How large depended on the skill of the mage who made it, the more powerful the mage, the more that a bag of holding could contain. Some fabled bags of holding could contain very large objects such as cars or small buildings.
His was designer, a brand new Erasmus Bag of Holding. Bethany had been ogling that exact bag of holding in Beverly Hills last week, lucky devil, make that demon. " Let me get it for you" said Bethany.
Bethany hurried into the back, she could still hear the bubbling in Lufric's jar, he may have lost all his magical powers, but he still had one ability left, the ability never to shut up. Bethany opened her refrigerator and plucked out a jar with a large clump of white hair in it. Bethany picked up the jar and felt the chill of the Yeti hair radiating from inside. Bethany quickly made her way back to the counter, Yeti hair was very fragile stuff in the heat and in the LA heat the stuff usually only lasted a few minutes when not properly chilled.
Bethany handed the jar to the man, whose face was illuminated with a bright joy. " Oh thank you, look at how firm the hairs are so firm and crisp" he said, " this is perfect."
" If I may ask, why an Ice Demon is doing in LA?" asked Bethany, " this is a desert after all."
" Yah but look around, the women wear so little" he replied, " where I come from the girls were so much clothes you don't really see their figure until your four layers in, and by then it is too late."
Bethany chuckled, as the man dug in his bag of holding, this was the problem with bags of holding, you could lose stuff amazingly easy in them. Bethany was convinced she had a gremlin in her bag of holding that really liked her cell phone because she was always losing the damn thing in there. For all she knew there really was a gremlin in there, they could be very small little critters with a knack for being in the oddest places.
Finally the man produced the money, all three thousand in rolls of bills. Magical creatures usually had a hard time getting credit cards and where very distrustful of banks that are younger than them so magical creatures carry lots of money. He laid the money down, Bethany didn't mind, at least it wasn't gold coins, it was impossible to deposit gold coins at the bank without raising eyebrows. " Have a good day" said Bethany, as the man slipped the jar into his bag of holding.
He smiled at her, probably trying to figure out how to ask her for a date when another man entered. It was Iggy Martin. The Ice Demon guessed this guy was somebody to Bethany and decided to exit.

Iggy wasn't a mage, a hunter, a magical creature, nor all that intelligent but Iggy knew some very dicey characters that knew where they could lay their hands on special things, magical items, rare ingredients for powerful spells, or front row tickets to a sold-out concert. Iggy was a worthless sniveling lizard of a human, he was paranoid of his own shadow and was utterly terrified of most of Bethany's customers, but he was reliable and that one little fact kept him on good terms with most people in Bethany's business. " Bethany" he said, sweating more than usual so much so that he looked like he'd installed a waterfall in his shaggy blonde hairline, " there is a problem."
" What is that?" asked Bethany, not totally sure to worry or not, Iggy was very excitable.
" You remember that voodoo book I got for you?" he said.
" The Papa Dio?" asked Bethany, getting that weird feeling in the base of her spine that trouble was coming fast.
" Yah, the guy I bought it from lied to me" he said.
" And?" asked Bethany, gripping the edge of the counter.
" It's... it's... it is real" said Iggy, " he stole it from the old man's grave."
" It's what?" asked Bethany, blue flame gathering around her eyes.
Iggy tried to shrink into the floor and slink out of the store. " Don't you move" growled Bethany, angry blue flames leaping from her eyes, " if I decide to set your hair of fire I want you close."
Iggy stopped and began to knock his knees together. " I didn't know" he said, his voice turning into a high squeak, " I swear, if I knew I would have warned you. I swear on my mother's bones, which I happened to have sold to you. If you want we can bring them out and I will swear on them. I didn't know, please don't set my hair on fire, please, please."
Iggy sniveled, shook, and wanted to flee but he knew if he ran Bethany would zap him before he made it to the door. " Get" said Bethany, the blue flames starting to disappear from her eyes.
" We're still pals, right?" he asked.
" Depends on what you bring me next time" said Bethany.
Iggy turned and ran like Bethany had set his pants on fire. Bethany looked at the big empty spot in the display case as the door slammed. She cursed herself more than she cursed Iggy, she should have tried a couple of the spells out before putting it in the front.

Bethany had two sets of inventory, stuff that works, and stuff that was a replica. Replica items were either copies made from similar, and non-magical materials in the case of weapons and other objects, the books were copied by hand usually but with a few words or phrases changed to make the spells useless. Think of them like those 'Swiss' watches the guy on the street sells out of his coat.
The ingredients on the wall were all real but if you didn't have the right spell it wouldn't work. Bethany knew selling an actual magical book to a bunch of dimwit blondes was probably more dangerous than giving them a nuclear bomb with a huge red button on the side that said Don't Press Me. Who knows what kind of absolute hell those girls could raise and even worse they had it on Halloween, a time of year were the magic was at its most powerful, especially magic that involved the dead.
Cursing and swearing up a storm Bethany quickly waved her hand turning off every light in the store, dropping the three heavy locks on the front door, and making the sign on the door go from open to close, then open, then back to close.
She dug through her cash register until she found the credit card slip that Taffy had signed. She really wished she'd written a check, life would have been so much easier.
Bethany went back into her workshop and opened the refrigerator once more. She shuffled through a few bottles with various coloured liquids. She found one with a light pink liquid in it and plucked it out. It was a potion, one Bethany had whipped up herself. She picked up the telephone and dialed the number of Taffy's credit card company. As the phone rang Bethany plucked the cap off and drank the liquid down. She wasn't a potion maker or alchemist by trade but the potion did work if not tasting a little vile.
" Pacific Credit" came a voice on the other end.
" Yes" said Bethany, the potion making her words hypnotic, " I am looking for information on one of your card holders."
" And what is the name?" the voice asked.
" Taffy Reese" she replied.
" Ms Reese has a card with us" the voice replied, " she has an active credit of 100,000, she current debit is 24,000."
" Do you have an address?" asked Bethany.
" Yes, one moment please" the voice said.
Bethany leaned against her workbench and listened to the easy listening music as she waited on hold. After a few minutes she, much to her annoyance, found herself tapping her foot to the tune. Finally before Bethany was totally sucked into the music the voice came back. " We have a billing address of 85841 Glover Drive Century City California Suite 15A."
Ah crap, she thought, it must be her dad's office, damn it, now I have to do it the hard way. " Thank you very much" said Bethany before hanging up.
Bethany growled and looked down at the receipt, it was 4th and long, time for a Hail Mary. She hoped some of Taffy's aura had rubbed off. She was not happy with the fact that she couldn't use the receipt itself as part of the spell, not even a Voodoo Armageddon could bring her to give up the 2 thousand dollars it was worth, so it would have to be done the hard way.
Bethany laid out a huge map of Los Angeles, so huge it spilled over both sides of the work bench onto the floor. Bethany held the receipt in one hand as she began to softly chant the location spell as she sprinkled the dust of sailor's bones over the map. The sailor's bones were the key, a sailor knew in his bones how to get home, and when used she could tap into a person's aura and find their home.
Slowly a small red light began to travel along the roads on the map, slowly circling about going from Santa Monica down through Venice, into Orange county and stopping in the middle of Laguna Beach. The dot circled for a bit, desperately trying to locate her but finally returned to the starting point and disappeared.
" Shit" groaned Bethany, " at least I know where to start."
Bethany got up when she realized she was looking for a dimwit tanned blonde in a city of nothing but dimwit tanned blondes, the needle in the stack of needles was now sticking its tongue out at her now. Bethany scowled, there was nothing for it. She knew her name, Taffy Reese, and had a day before the book's power could be effectively used by a non-gifted person she had to get to work.

Bethany grabbed her red jacket and slipped it on. She walked into a small side room that was Bethany's private stash where she kept the store safe. She unlocked the safe and took out a Mauser C-96 pistol and slipped it inside her jacket. The pistol disappeared into the jacket thanks to the pieces of her old bag of holding she had sewn into the lining of the jacket. She grabbed her keys and left her shop through the back door making sure to turn the lights off before leaving. She didn't worry about somebody breaking in, she had plenty of little surprises for any unwanted visitors.

Bethany drove down Hollywood Boulevard drumming her fingers on the steering wheel desperately trying to figure out how to find Taffy in a day. Walking up and down the beach with a giant sign Taffy was seriously being considered as she sped down the highway streaking through Los Angeles heading for Orange County.
Bethany parked close to the beach and looked out at the beach before her. It was a Saturday and the beach was filled people, crammed full. Bethany sighed and climbed out of her car. I really should have packed my bikini she thought as she made her way down the steps to the beach.

Three hours later, hot sweaty, and with plenty of sand in her shoes Bethany had given up. It seems like half of them knew a Taffy, the other thought she had cute boobs and wanted to take her on a date. Of course those that knew a Taffy weren't sure if it was the Taffy she was looking for or not. Bethany gave up and flopped down at a taco stand. " Make 'em spicy and keep them coming" said Bethany.
The little Mexican behind the counter nodded and started making tacos. Bethany was formulating plan B, wait until something really bad happens, then she'll find her book and the Union of Mages bring the mops and buckets to clean up the mess.
Bethany was into her sixth spicy taco when a guy walked up. He was stereotypical surfer boy, shoulder length blonde hair, golden tan, colourful board shorts and a blank look in his eyes, his mind was probably so thoroughly sun baked it was crispy. " Dude, I like totally heard you were looking for Taffy?" he said.
Oh god, they really talk like that? thought Bethany, " Taffy Reese?" she asked, wiping the hot sauce off her lips.
" Yah, blonde hair, boobs like yours, totally righteous I might add" he said, " she had the most righteous place on the beach, man the waves are so totally righteous there."
" You know where that is?" asked Bethany, if he did she was going to take back everything she ever said about surfers.
" Yahuh" he said, " like down the beach that way. She is having the most awesome party tomorrow. Total costume bash, it is going to be totally rocking, man."
" Cool" said Bethany, " there a way I can find this house?"
" Yah, it is all white and stuff, real round and junk" he said, " and there is like this big palm tree in the front. You can't miss it, all the happening people in Orange are going to be there. I'll see you there."
He picked up his surf board and made his way up to his Porsche. Bethany grinned and took four tacos to go. She climbed into her car and drove down the road until the public beach came to and end, marked rather subtly by a massive grey concrete wall and signs that said 'NO Trespassing' hung ever three feet. Bethany drove into the refined gated community that sat on the beach and found the home of Taffy Reese.
The surfer boy was right, it was white and it was round with a big palm tree in the front yard. Bethany waved her fingers across her face and whispered, " Source."
In Bethany's vision a small pulsing blue dot appeared, the book was in there, or this family owned some other magical item and didn't know about it. Bethany made sure to scribble down the address and left the neighborhood for her own happy home.
She had half thought about breaking in and stealing the book, but she wasn't the best cat burglar around and stealing the book was going to raise too many questions. It would much easier to swap the book for another, a fake, during the party. Then nobody would be any wiser and Bethany will have averted a voodoo catastrophe.

Bethany arrived at her house, a pleasant Spanish style home in a nice neighborhood in quiet Pasadena. It even had a nice big pool in the courtyard in the center of the house, it was Bethany's private little slice of the heaven pie. It wasn't cheap, it wasn't even cheap for LA standards, but the sale of magical items was a profitable business.
The house was decorated a lot like Bethany's store, but all this stuff Bethany would never part with, this was her private collection. Bethany went up to her bedroom and opened a small wardrobe.
The wardrobe wasn't exactly small, much like a bag of holding, this was a wardrobe of holding. For a clothes rat like Bethany this thing was priceless. Bethany stepped into the wardrobe and walked inside.
She walked down the row to her costumes, no way could she just waltz in to this party dressed in a t-shirt and jeans and besides she couldn't pass up an opportunity to dress up in a costume.

Bethany stood in front of her costume section thumbing through the various costumes, it was a tough decision, it couldn't be too fluffy or difficult to move in just in case the party gets out of hand, nor could it be too nice just in case it got ripped.
Bethany finally settled on her pin strip gangster outfit, pin strip pants, a tight pin strip vest, and a fedora hat. It would be perfect, maybe even snag a rich boyfriend out of this.

Bethany spent the night practicing her magic and exercising, those tacos always went straight to her butt. After throwing a few fireballs, mondo bursts, energy spikes, and magic missiles, then after running a few miles on the treadmill it was time for bed, Bethany knew tomorrow would be a royal pain, her butt could tell when it was due for a kicking.

Taffy kissed her boyfriend Seth Miltner goodbye, he was spoiling for some quick sex but Taffy wanted to get ready for tomorrow. Taffy quickly closed the door before Seth could make any more attempts by him. He could get so whiney if not pleased but did he ever have the hot body.
She locked the door and put the security system on. She kicked her shoes off and left them lying in the middle of the entry. She walked through the house to her father's full sized bar. She was the only one in the house and that meant the entire bar was hers.
With a martini in hand Taffy toured her house working out in her mind how she wanted the place to be decorated tomorrow and most importantly where to put her new book.
At first she thought of the bar, but knew that if she did the book would be swimming in booze before the party even began. She thought about one of her dad's display cases, but putting it next to his crappy trophies would make it look ordinary. Taffy walked about drinking her martini trying to find inspiration. Finally as the last sip swirled about in her glass she found inspiration. She drained the glass and hurried into the entry.
She pulled the vase off the pedestal in the entry and set it down by the steps. It was perfect, it had this great slope and everything. Taffy placed the book on it and flipped through the pages until she found the most gruesome picture. She stepped back and admired her genius. It was perfect. Taffy hurried upstairs, she wanted to get to bed extra early so she would have the energy to stay up all night and party tomorrow.

The afternoon broke warm and cloudless, it was really shaping up to be a perfect California day. Bethany woke up with the sun shining in her face. She growled and rolled over pulling the pillow over her head. She wasn't in the mood for sun today. She waved her hand at the curtains and they violently snapped closed. Bethany was about to go back to sleep when her little voice screamed into her ear. Bethany's little voice was often the only thing that kept Bethany's motivated and away from her Playstation 2 and the anime.
The little voice loudly reminded her today was Halloween and she had to save the world. Bethany sat up and looked at her curtains, she'd pulled one clean off the rail. It certainly was Halloween, her powers were much stronger. Bethany ran her hands through her short black hair as she looked at the clock, it was almost noon, no party worth its guest list would start before ten so she still had some time.

Taffy woke up excited for the day. She hurried downstairs in her nightgown and gave orders to the three Hispanic maids on what to do in preparation for the party, it wasn't like Taffy was going to clean the house, she had to go to her last fitting for her costume. The maids looked at her and dutifully nodded. They set off and went to work and Taffy raced back upstairs.
" She is in quiet a good mood today" the first maid said, in their secret tongue of Spanish.
" I had that much plastic in my body I'd be happy too" the second said.
The three went about cleaning until the third maid let off a gasp. The other two hurried over and found her staring at the book. " This book" the third maid said, " it is evil."
The other two maids looked at the rather grotesque picture, " It is ugly" the first said, " rich people have too much money for their own good, I'd never buy this thing."
" I'd use it as a coaster" the second said.
" No, this book is of the devil" the third said crossing herself repeatedly, " oh I know something terrible is going to happen here tonight, and we are going to have to clean it up."
" I know" said the second, " it is going to be a party, like that Sweet 16 thing she had last year. Don't worry, they trash the place we get time and a half. Come on we need to take the inventory of the liquor for Mr. Reese."
The two other maids dragged the third away from the book and went back to work.

Bethany stood before her kitchen table, her morning cup of tea in hand, as she surveyed her equipment. She had finished cleaning her pistol and checking each bullet to make sure the magical spell on each was still fresh and strong, the last thing she needed was a dud, it would be very embarrassing. She was bringing extra ammo, plenty of ammo, running out of ammo would be even more embarrassing. The rest was laid around, two soul stones in case the girls raised a vengeful spirit, spirit stones were the size of pool balls made of opaque stone like quartz that when the proper spell was used could trap a ghost or spirit inside it. A blue talisman called a Wayward Stone, having this on her person would ensure nobody could possess her, her house keys, cell phone, good luck charm, a silver ankh that she wore around her neck, and finally her bag of holding, a well worn leather pouch Bethany usually tied to one of her belt loops.
Bethany looked over at the fake book that was sitting on the edge of the table. She was itching to get going, she wanted to cast a silencing spell over the entire house and just take the book. But silencing spells were very against the rules, she had enough problems with the Union of Magic without pulling a major stunt like this.
A silencing spell stopped time in a prescribed radius, but it was terribly obvious, the area was surrounded by a massive blue dome that was probably visible from space. Nope, it would have to be done the hard way.

Taffy looked at her big pretty pink dress, it was absolutely perfect. It showed off all her best features, and hid her butt from too much scrutiny. She was going to the perfect princess for Halloween. She paid the lady and was leaving the costume shop when a man approached her. He was dressed all in black and wearing a sandwich board that proclaimed 'The End Is Nigh!"
" You girl!" he said, pointing his well thumbed bible at her, " you are going to damn us all."
Taffy quickly rushed past the freak and leapt into her car. Taffy peeled out of the parking lot leaving the raving street preacher to holler to an empty street, " Doom Us All!"
Taffy watched the raving lunatic in her rear view mirror, god this time of year brings them out in droves, Taffy thought.

Taffy spent the rest of the day obsessing over every little detail of the house and driving her maids insane. The maids left at dusk and Taffy squeezed into her dress. In a few short hours it would be party time. The last thing she made sure to do was find the perfect page to have her new book open too before the guests arrived. She settled on one page with the least number of words and pictures of gross zombies rising out of the ground. The pictures looked perfect. Satisfied that everything was in order Taffy retired to the bar for a drink.

Bethany was sitting on the couch watching a horror movie when she realized it was after 8 and she still wasn't at the party. Bethany looked out the window, she didn't see any disaster yet, and she really, really liked this movie. Bethany sighed, she had to save the world, and that meant at the expense of the movie. These dimwits better be happy she is there to save them.
Bethany reluctantly got off the couch and changed into her costume. She slipped her stuff into her bag of holding and slipped the bag of holding into her pocket. She put her hat on and gave her the once over in the mirror. She grinned, she looked absolutely perfect.

The party was in full swing when Bethany arrived, both sides of the street looked like a luxury car lot. Bethany's trusty old Jeep looked very much out of place among the Hummers, Mercedes, Jaguars, and other sports cars and SUVs. Bethany turned off her Jeep and took the fake book out. It wasn't an exact match, this was a voodoo spell book, but then again these girls wouldn't notice. Bethany opened the door, it was time to get to work, hopefully she would be in and out in time to get to a real Halloween party.

Bethany made her way past the gates and into the front yard of the party. The music was thumping loud, her skull started to throb to the beat. The party looked pretty full, it was perfect all she had to do was slip in, disappear among the guests. Easy as pie.
Pie, Bethany would definitely need to pick up a pie. She needed pie when this was all done.

Bethany walked through the few costumed party go-ers that were hanging out on the front steps and passed into the entry. There was the book, sitting on a short pedestal with Taffy standing next to it as all the guests fawning over the book.
Bethany scowled, there was no way to get the book now, too many people would notice. Being chased out of here by the cops would really let the cat out of the bag. Bethany looked at her watch, she had to kill some time.

Bethany slipped through the mingling crowd that was filling the house. She hoped there was a bar or at least a keg here. As she headed through the living room somebody caught her eye. It was just for a moment from the corner of her eye but she never forgot a face.
Bethany saw him again, she knew it had to be him. She was very curious why he was here, the last thing she wanted was competition over the book. True Bethany wouldn't think twice to stomping him six feet into the ground but the less violence was used the happier Bethany would be.
Bethany slowly drifted across the party and snuck up behind the guy. He was so busy putting the moves on two disinterested girls that he didn't noticed Bethany until she slapped her hand on his shoulder. He spun around and the smile was quickly wiped off his face. " Hiya Angelo" Bethany said.
Angelo Dimatto looked back at the two girls and found they had already moved on. " Damn it Beth" he whined, " I had almost got them."
" Sure" said Bethany, " what the fuck are you doing here?"
" It is a free country" said Angelo, " what the fuck are you doing here? This isn't exactly your crowd."
" I'm working" she replied, " you cruising for a snack?"
Angelo smiled, it was an dopey smile that really showcased his fangs. Angelo was of course a vampire, a real vampire those fangs weren't dental caps. Modern vampires fared a lot better than their ancestors, vampires were cool and now mingled with their cattle openly. Bethany had no real qualms with vampires, most were clever enough to drink from several people to get their fill instead of draining their victims dry. It made more sense to leave their victims with a headache rather than a bleach white corpse. " So we cool?" asked Angelo, craning his neck to find a girl.
Bethany saw Angelo's hands were slightly shaking, he was jonesing for blood. Angelo had high ambitions, he liked to think of himself as a connoisseur of blood, but he lacked the social skills or the hypnotic powers of older vampires to really get good girl when they aren't drunk. The poor guy looked thirsty, " Go on" said Bethany, " but keep out of trouble."
" Sure, sure mom" said Angelo slipping back into the crowd.
Bethany watched Angelo disappear back into the crowd. She turned her attention back to the book, there were still too many people fawning over it to make a clean switch. Bethany finally succumbed to the siren's song of the bar and found herself making a bee line for it. If she was going to go through all this trouble why not drink some of the free booze while she is at it.

Taffy's friends were all thrilled by the book, so thrilled they hadn't even strayed far from the entry so far. Even Danni was impressed by the book, and for Taffy to impress Danni was a miracle worth being chiseled into stone. " So you think this thing works?" asked Danni looking at the words.
" Dunno, you think I practice voodoo?" asked Taffy.
Danni leaned over and did her best to spit out the words on the page. It sounded awful, it sounded more like someone was hitting Danni on the back of the head with a wiffle bat while she tried to the Declaration of Independence backwards. By the time she reached the end of the page everyone was laughing. " Yup" said Taffy, " and you are a world class Voodoo Priestess. Better watch out somebody may have heard that."

Far off shore, embraced in the cold wet embrace of the ocean, the words reached receptive ears. On the ocean floor was the final resting place of the Maelstrom, a ship that once terrorized the seven seas. A ship so wicked that only the sea itself could have stopped it. A violent storm finally sank the ship that no battle could. The crew of the ship felt the words wrap around their old moldy bones and felt their long stiff limbs become lively once again.
One by one they slowly began to haul themselves to their feet. They looked about the ruined remains of their ship and looked up to the bridge to receive their orders. The captain gripped the rail of the ship and looked at his waiting crew. He smiled a mouthful of yellowed and missing teeth, they may have been dead for 250 years but the lust for plunder was still strong. He drew his cutlass from its scabbard on his belt and pointed towards the shore. They had 250 years of looting to make up on and they were hungry.
The crew climbed over the side of the boat and dropped into the sand of the ocean floor. It wasn't all that hard, the Maelstrom was buried in the sand past her gun ports. The pirates began their slow march to the shore. 250 years had made them very stiff and there wasn't a masseur onboard. They could smell it, they could smell the tantalizing scent of warm flesh.

Bethany was playing with her third beer, the book was starting to burn a hole in her pocket. She was getting antsy, her mother always said she never had the patience to be a truly great mage, it was hard trying to escape the shadow of someone like her mother. Bethany finally saw Taffy and her crew moving through the party, kissing ass and having their asses kissed in turn. Bethany smiled and drained the last of her beer as she watched Taffy cross into the next room. It was switch time.
Bethany moved through the party, gently drawing the book from her bag of holding. The cover was a little more greenish than the Papa Dio, but that couldn't be helped now.
Bethany reached the Papa Dio tome and realized how much more green this cover was but there was no more time to worry about that. She took one last look around and went for it.
Bethany was about to make the switch when suddenly there came a scream from outside. It started off as one scream but was quickly joined by more and more until it was a symphony of panic and terror. She immediately knew a spell had been cast, she could still feel the lingering effects in the air slicing through her pleasant beer buzz. There was a great surge of terrified party goers in expensive costumes that Bethany had to fight against to make it to the back door. It took several minutes of hard pushing to finally break through and get out onto the deck.
Bethany saw what the commotion was all about, from the sea at least 30 if not more zombies were slowly shambling their way up from the sea.
Zombies, damn it all, thought Bethany, I hate zombies. Zombies truly were nothing but trouble, they maybe slow moving and dumber than the average NASCAR fan but in large groups they were troublesome. Bethany hadn't seen this many zombies in a long time, the last time was three times this many, but there were five mages dealing with it. Bethany sighed, alone, outnumbered and not sure of what was going on, days like these being a mage royally sucked.

Bethany scoped out the competition. They were dressed like pirates, the yo-ho yo-ho a pirates' life for me type. Bethany loved the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disney and these guys looked like they had just escaped from it. The leader was wearing a big hat and stumbling on a rotten peg leg. Bethany even noticed a skeletal parrot on his shoulder, it was so cute, if it wasn't attached to an undead pirate.
The motley crew was shambling against the tide the best they could. This was good, it would give the party goers a chance to escape before the bulk of them reached the house.

The party was over, the kids were stampeding for any available exit, windows, doors, anything that could be open was and people were flying out of them. They leapt into their cars and disappeared into the night.

Taffy was watching as the party disintegrated before her eyes. This was terrible, this was awful, her party was ruined, all because of some moldy pirates in the water. God she was never going to top Danni now.
" Nice party" sniped Danni as she hurried past a stunned Taffy, " loser."
Danni flung the front door open and screamed. Eight moldy pirates were standing at the front door. She was barely able to let off an ear piercing scream before the blade went in. Taffy's eye grew wide as she watched the blade exit out the back of Danni. At that very moment the gravity of the situation had slammed home to Taffy. Her world crumbled, her rival, the reason she went the extra mile everyday was dead. Taffy stared as Danni sank on the ground and the zombies converged on her.

Bethany had heard the scream and ran through the house wondering what was next, if there was some sort of ancient Indian burial ground in the front yard she was just leaving. She raced to the entry and saw that not everyone had made it out. A group of four or five zombies were crammed in the doorway, blocking the exit. They had killed one of the guests and were devouring her flesh. The last seven remaining guests were starring like they had never seen five zombies eating a person before and while sickened by the sight they were unable to pull themselves away from the surreal scene.
The main zombie, a man with long shaggy hair that was interwoven with seaweed that almost totally covered his head and shoulder was eating away at the girl's chest when suddenly he reared up and let off a wet gurgle. The other zombies suddenly stopped from their feast and looked at their boss. He was grabbing at his throat, desperately gurgling and thrashing about, he looked in serious distress. He doubled over and let off a loud ear popping cough that sounded like a cannon going off.
A slimy gore covered silicon implant flew from his mouth and skidded across the tiled entry floor like a hockey puck. It slid straight into Bethany's foot and jiggled as it came to a stop. There was something about the sliding implant that made Bethany laugh, it was just too much for one night to keep Bethany from cracking up.
Bethany laughed loud enough to attract the attention of the zombies who all slowly looked up at her. Taffy and her remaining friends too looked over at Bethany as she was laughing. Bethany could feel the eyes burning away at her from all sides as she regained her composure. It was time to get to work.
Bethany slipped her hand into her bag of holding and drew her C-96 out. At this range Bethany could have wowed the audience with some trick shooting but decided to keep it strictly professional. She took aim at the choking zombie who was starting to get to his feet and pulled the trigger.
The gun shot echoed through the entry as a bright blue ball of light escaped from the barrel of the gun. Bethany's magical 9mm bullet found it marks right above the zombie's left eye, dead on, bye-bye zombie brain, hello re-dead corpse.
The bullet smashed into the soggy rotten skull and made a squish noise like hitting a fully soaked sponge with a baseball bat. The bullet tore away half of the zombie's skull above his eyes splattering dark greenish goo all over the doorway knocking the zombie back to his heels.
But to Bethany's surprise the zombie didn't fall over dead, or re-dead, but just stumbled back and let off a long growl before regaining his balance. He ran his hand along his head and swept across the rather large empty hole in his head several times before he figured out it was gone. This made him growl louder, grinding his yellowed rotting teeth together as he glared straight at Bethany. This guy was not happy.
Bethany let off a small groan, this was not good. Bethany decided to fall back, get some space between her and these zombies to think things out. She started to step backward slowly so not to make the any sudden movements to spook the zombies. She had taken only a few steps when she heard the smashing and crashing of the zombies from the sea attacking the patio furniture.
She was trapped between the patio zombies and the door zombies, she knew there was only one way of escape. " Everybody upstairs!" Bethany shouted as she took off like a bolt of lightning.
Bethany waved her hand in front of her and shouted, " Up!"
Bethany sailed into the air and landed with ease on the second floor thanks to an incredibly simple levitation spell. She turned to see the others rushing up the stairs with the zombies fast on their heels. They rushed past Bethany as she leveled her pistol. She aimed low, she knew she wasn't going to kill these suckers, at least she wanted to slow them down.
The first bullet clipped the closest pirate's left leg perfectly, an inch below the knee. The pirate tipped to his right and rolled over the stair rail and crashed into the tile floor below.
She fired again, this time she missed, like you would do any better in this situation, and the bullet smashed into the steps breaking the fine marble into a million razor sharp pieces that landed into the charging zombies to no effect.
After the last of the party go-ers had gotten a safe enough distance away Bethany stuffed her gun into the waistband of her pants and followed them down the hall. They all rushed into a bedroom and Bethany followed close behind.

Bethany kicked the door closed and pushed a chair underneath the handle. Hopefully this would give her enough time to think. The others in the room were all a hysterical mess, they were screaming at each other as loud as possible. Suddenly Brittany screamed, Bethany was impressed by her ability to make her fillings rattle, " Taffy!" her voice rang out loud and clear, " they scratched you."
Taffy looked at her leg, her flawlessly tanned thigh was marred by three long scratches. If the panic in the bedroom had been bad before, it now only got worse. " OH GOD!" shrieked Bradley, as loud as the girls, " you're infected!"
" No!" Lacy shouted back, " that is only when your bite, you only get infect if you're bitten in the movies."
" What if we are all infected!" shouted Lisa, " we're all gonna die!"
" That's not now it works" shouted Wes, " you can only get infected if they bite you. I've seen all the movies, nobody dies from a scratch."
" But that goth freak shot one of them in the head" said Brittany, " isn't that how you kill them in the movies?"
" But what about that one movie" said Bradley, " the one they couldn't be killed, they used a nuclear bomb in that one. OH GOD THEY ARE GOING TO KILL US ALL!"
The group began to loudly debate which movies were correct about zombies and which weren't. Bethany could only take so much, by the time they suggested sacrificing animals to a voodoo god she took her pistol out and cocked the hammer.

The argument sharply stopped when Bethany fired into the ceiling making the bullet pass through the ceiling, through the attic and out into the night sky through the roof. " Shut up" said Bethany, " just shut up."
" You are one to talk" snapped Brittany, " you have no idea what to do."
" I do, just shut up for two seconds" said Bethany, " who read from the book?"
" Wasn't it Tanya?" asked Wes.
" No it was that Mexican chick, Rosa" countered Lisa.
" No it was you" said Bradley pointing at Lacy.
" Fuck you it was July" Lacy retorted.
" It was her!" Bradley squeaked, going back into panic mode, " it wasn't my July."
" It was Danni" said Taffy.
" No way" said Lisa, " no fucking way."
" Way" Taffy replied.
They began to argue once again, Bethany shook her head and cocked her pistol again. Everybody shut up, " You're sure it was Danni?" asked Bethany.
" I saw her" said Taffy, a strong sense of certainty in her terrified voice, " I saw her do it."
" Where is she?" asked Bethany.
" She's downstairs" said Wes, " I saw them eating her beautiful boobs."
Oh, it was the implant girl, thought Bethany, " Great" she said.
" What does that mean?" snapped Lisa.
" Only she could reverse the spell" said Bethany.
" You mean there is no way of making it go away!" shrieked Lacy.
" It is going to wear off" said Bethany, really hoping the zombies would burst into the room, she really didn't want to start teaching class here.
" How? What does all of this mean?" asked Taffy.
" These are magical zombies" said Bethany, sitting on the vanity, " magical zombies are brought back for a limited amount of time, they are re-animated by the spell and will not die until the spell runs out."
" Is this like some sort of illusion?" asked Brittany, " are you some sort of magician?"
" I guess you could say that" said Bethany.
The group erupted once again, at least they agreed this time in believing she was full of shit. " Fine" said Bethany, yanking the beret off Bradley's head, " I'll show you."
Bethany turned the beret upside down and ran her finger around the inside brim as she chanted the portal spell. She stuck her hand in and drew out a fluffy white bunny rabbit. The girls all sighed at the sight of the cute bunny, thankfully the astral plane was full of rabbits. Why do you think magicians pull them from hats? No one is quiet sure why it is rabbits, maybe it has something to do with how they breed but certain areas of the astral plane look like massive rolling seas of white fur they are that full of rabbits. " Yah I'm a mage" said Bethany.
" Can you cast a spell to make them go away?" asked Lacy.
" Once this type of spell is cast it can't be undone unless the one who cast the spell does it" said Bethany, " and she is currently zombie food."
" Then what do we do?" asked Bradley.
" We get out, and make sure the zombies don't leave" said Bethany, it seemed a rather simple plan.
" But how?" whined Brittany, " you couldn't even hurt one of them."
" How do you close that gate I passed through when I came here?" asked Bethany.
" Ah the control box, duh" said Taffy.
Bethany closed her eyes, her eyeballs were burning with fury at the moment. " Where is the control box?" asked Bethany.
" There is one in the garage, one in my dad's study and one out by the gate" she said, " why?"
" Zombies aren't exactly good climbers" said Bethany rising up from the vanity, " we close the gate we keep them inside. Now let's split into two groups, one goes for the garage, one for the study. Does anybody know how to get to the garage?"
" I do" said Lacy.
" Good, Taffy you are coming with me" said Bethany.
" Me too" said Bradley.
" And me" each said in turn until nobody was going with Lacy.
Bethany divided the group up with the barrel of her gun, the guys were going with Lacy, there was no way she was dragging those whiners along. They armed themselves the best they could, it was a teenage girl's bedroom after all. Armed with last year's purses filled with last year's shoes, and two middle school soccer trophies, just for participation, they ventured into the hallway.
The house was silent, way too silent. Zombies weren't known for being stealthy except for when they were about to pounce. Bethany looked up and down the hallway, the zombies weren't in sight which made her more uneasy about all of this. Bethany took a deep breath, she didn't have any choice and slowly made her way down the stairs with Taffy, Brittany, and Lisa clinging to her back. She looked over her shoulder and saw Lacy leading Bradley, and Wes in the opposite direction. She knew one of them would make it, the money was on her, but she always hedged her bets.

Seth had been busy when the commotion started. He was in the laundry room with some girl, she was dressed like a French maid with curly black hair and most importantly breasts that didn't quit. He hadn't noticed anything was wrong until they had finished and he didn't hear any voices, any laughing, any of the noises that made up a party except for the pulsing music. Seth got up and walked over to the laundry room door.
Seth gently pushed it open and looked into the hall. He couldn't see far, all he could see was the hallway and the kitchen but both were totally empty. When he and the French maid chick went into the laundry room the kitchen was totally packed, now it was empty.
" What's going on?" asked the French maid chick, wearing just her fishnets and head piece.
" Nothing" said Seth, finding his discarded pants.
He fished out his cell phone and looked at the time, it was barely midnight, none of Taffy's parties ever ended before 2 or 3. " Nothing" he said again, " nobody is out there?"
" What?" she asked, " you're sure."
Seth pointed to the door and let the girl teeter over on her high heels. She looked out into the hall, " Fuck" she said, " where is everybody? My damn boyfriend was supposed to give me a ride back."
Seth slapped her very toned butt, " Come on" he said, tossing her costume at her, " let's scram."
She tugged her costume on and followed after him down the hallway.

Bethany's foot hit the tile of the entry making an ominous thump that seemed to echo all across the house. Everybody froze and waited for the zombies to attack. They looked about, the entry was empty, no zombies to be seen. " Do you think they're gone?" asked Brittany, peeking over Taffy's shoulder.
" I hope not" said Bethany, " if they did the whole town is in trouble."
Bethany took another step and opened her mind to sweep for the zombies. Zombies were always dangerous, being mindless eating machines it made them impossible for a mage to trace by thoughts or auras. Right now Bethany was just as clueless as the others on where the damn zombies where.

Seth and the girl carefully peeked around the corner, they were in the family room now, or so Seth thought. He really didn't know the house very well aside from Taffy's bedroom.
It was a big family room with an appropriately big TV. Seth was definitely jealous of the TV, the thing was massive had to be at least 90 inches. As Seth ogled the TV the French maid was wondering where everybody was. The only person she saw looked passed out over the coach. He was dressed like a pirate but a pirate that had fallen into the ocean. He was all covered in sea weed and smelled nasty.
She slowly approached him, wondering if he was still alive or just incredibly drunk. She reached her hand out to shake his shoulder and suddenly the man moved. She pulled her hand back just in time barely escaping the snap of his teeth.
He looked up at her, his eyes were milky white and unfocused. She had seen enough late night monster movies to know what a zombie looked like. She leapt backwards immediately checking her hand for any bites. She grabbed the fireplace poker from the decorative fireplace in the corner and charged the zombie.
Seth had barely noticed the commotion until the girl rushed past him with the poker held like a baseball bat. He yelped when he watched the girl hit the guy slung over the couch squarely in the head. He was suddenly filled with fear that the chick he just hooked up with was some kind of psycho. Judging by the way she clocked the guy she was the worst kind of psycho, the one that hits.
" What the hell was that?" yelped Seth, quaking in his shoes.
" Get back" she said, " the guy is a zombie."
Seth was now wondering what kind of space cadet he had just hooked up with. He really wanted to run away as fast as possible... until the guy got back up after being hit square in the head. " Holy shit" squeaked Seth leaping behind the girl, " no fucking way he is a real honest to fucking god zombie."
" No shit" she replied, " just stay away from his teeth."
She rushed the zombie again and hit with double the strength. He flew off the end of the couch and she followed him. Seth watched as she gave the zombie a beating that would make the LAPD proud.
She stopped and stood up, " Softball champ two years running" she said proudly, " let's go."
Seth obediently nodded, he wasn't going to argue with this chick. The pair carefully snuck out of the living room, they were now very on edge waiting for the next zombie to strike.

After what felt like a lifetime Bethany, Taffy, Lisa, and Brittany reached the bottom of the steps. Bethany took in a deep breath, her heart was pounding like a bunny under the talons of a very hungry hawk. They carefully tip toed through the entry and peeked into the next room. " Where is the study?" asked Bethany.
" Down there" said Taffy pointing down a long dark hallway between the living room, where the wet bar was, and the kitchen. Bethany just knew it had to be the longest creepiest hall in the entire house that was the way her night was going. " Come on" said Lisa, " let's just go."
Bethany put her finger to her lips, she had heard movement on the other side of the wall. It was only two, hopefully Bethany could pulverize them enough so they wouldn't be too much of a threat. Bethany raised her gun and everybody froze. Bethany pressed her back up against the wall and inched towards the opening in the wall. Everybody stayed far away, huddled close to the stairs ready to flee back to Taffy's bedroom at a moment's notice. Bethany took a deep breath and spun.
Bethany rounded the corner into the living room and leveled her gun into the girl's face. She let off a loud scream which made everybody, even Bethany jump. " Sorry" said Bethany.
" Fucking A" she said, " the fucking zombies are everywhere."
" You saw them?" asked Bethany.
" Yah" she said, holding up the fireplace poker with little bits of flesh on it, " fucked one up good too."
" I am so happy you are here" said Seth, " those things, they aren't dying."
" Seth?" asked Taffy.
Seth looked over Bethany's shoulder and saw Taffy staring at him with demon eyes, " What are you doing?" she asked.
" I got stuck" said Seth, he was a lousy actor, " they were everywhere."
Taffy glared at him, " Stuck, huh" she said, " between those?"
The French maid looked down and saw both of her nipples were sticking out of the top. " Let's not do this right now" said Bethany hoping to defuse the situation.
Bethany felt Taffy's rage, she didn't need to a mage to feel that and put her arm out to catch Taffy in mid stride, " You bastard!" she shouted.
Brittany and Lisa quickly grabbed a hold of Taffy to keep her from mauling Seth. " Nice night huh" said Bethany.
" Been better" said the girl tucking her nipples into her dress.
" Mind giving me a hand?" asked Bethany, " we need to get to the study."
" Sure" she replied, " my name is Melinda Rodriguez."
" WHAT!" shouted Taffy, " Seth you are screwing the daughter of one of my maids!"
Bethany heard a loud growl and put her hand to her throbbing forehead, the zombies had heard that.

The first zombies appeared from the doorway to the kitchen. Bethany leveled her gun and squeezed off two rounds. The first bullet blew through the first zombie pirates and went into the second. She managed to topple one after blowing his spine in half but the second managed to stay on his feet despite the absence of most of his left side. The second bullet went high, Bethany had pulled the trigger too fast and the bullet completely destroyed the ornate top of the doorway dropping chunks of plaster and wood on the zombie's heads. This slowed the zombies enough for everyone to make a mad dash for the hallway which the study was down.
They ran for all they were worth down the hall. The hallway seemed to go on forever. Taffy looked over her shoulder convinced the zombies were going to grab her any second. When she saw that the zombies were at the opposite end of the hall she turned back.
Bethany heard a loud wham and Taffy curse. She looked over her shoulder and saw the study, it was about time she thought. She turned around and ran full speed into the study. She was the last one through, just barely because Seth and Brittany were already closing the door on her.
Taffy was on the floor holding her bleeding nose. " Fuck" she whined, " I just got my nose done."
" I think that is the least of our problems" said Bethany, " where are the gate controls?"
Taffy pointed over to a control panel on the wall near the door. Bethany hurried over and looked for a button to press. Much to Bethany's dismay all the controls were electronic, so she was forced to start scrolling through options trying to find the gate controls. Finally after several failed attempts she found them and hit the button to close the gate.

Everyone rushed to the window to watch as the wrought iron gates slowly swung closed sealing the zombies inside. " Wait!" shrieked Lisa, " we're trapped too!"
" Don't worry" said Bethany, " the door will hold."
As if fate wanted to embarrass her, the moment she uttered the words a fist smashed through the cheap hollow core door and a hand, now filled with slivers of the thin plywood door, appeared and began to grab blindly for a snack. It was followed shortly after by another hand, well rather a hook which also began to fail about looking for flesh. Then came a foot and the door began to groan as it bent outwards into the hall.
Panic set in moments later, everybody began to run about terrified as they realized that there was no way out. It was up to Melinda to take action while Bethany was busy waiting for the door to explode on her.
Melinda grabbed the big padded leather chair behind the desk and hurled it at the window with all the force that fear of being eaten by zombies could muster.

The chair burst through the window and fresh night air filled the room, cooling the hot air and cleansing the stink of fear from the room. " Out this way!" Melinda shouted.
Before she finished the sentence the others had already raced out through the broken window onto the lawn. " Get going!" Bethany shouted, it was time for the heavy guns to come out and play.
Melinda rushed out of the study just as the door gave way. The door buckled in half as the zombies pulled the door towards them. Thankfully the zombies were stupid enough to pull the door towards them and thus tangle themselves up with it that gave Bethany the time to charge up her spell.
Bethany closed her eyes, placed her hands close together, and began to chant the incantation of the Mega Blast spell. It wasn't her most powerful or most effective in this situation. She would have preferred a Black Bolt or the trusty Fireball but both of those spells would cause a lot of damage to the house, she didn't exactly what to be slapped with a repair bill for a place like this if she burned it down.
The last words barely escaped her mouth when the zombies finally cleared themselves off the door, they were a perfect target standing there all bunched together.
Bethany pushed her hands forward and let the Mega Blast go. A large cylinder of blue swirling energy launched from her hands and traveled across the room and hit the zombies dead center.
It was a perfectly executed spell, a perfect target and a perfect hit. Bethany wished she'd brought her camera, this really is a Kodak moment.
The Mega Blast blew all the zombies down the hallway, scattering them into chunky pieces as they went. The blue energy disappeared leaving seven pairs of feet standing in the doorway. Bethany smiled broadly, until the feet began to move.
Bethany's jaw dropped as she watched as all the parts that were littering the hallway were starting to move. They were piecing themselves back together, Bethany groaned, it was all so not fair.

Taffy and her friends were desperately catching their breath. Taffy was now starting to really regret her choice of costume, the built in corset of the dress was making it hard to breath. She really wasn't expecting to run all night in it. Taffy had almost caught her breath when Bethany went sprinting by. Nobody asked anything they just started running.

Bethany wasn't exactly sure where she was going, she just wanted to get away from the zombies, especially ones that didn't know when to stay dead. Bethany looked over her shoulder and saw the others were keeping up. She looked back and ran smack into Lacy.
It turned into a real train wreck, once Bethany went down the others were too busy looking over their shoulders to stop in time. They all ended up in a big pile in the middle of the yard. " Damn it" swore Brittany, " why are you running?"
" Them" said Lacy, pointing at the zombies crossing the patio towards them.
Everybody started to scramble in every which direction trying to get out of the dog pile. They all managed to get to their feet before the zombies got to them.
The situation was looking pretty bad, they had zombies on two sides, and a sizable hedge behind them, the situation was looking pretty bad when Taffy's shouted " The pool house!"
It wasn't much, just a little shed that stood next to the pool. Bethany doubted she'd be able to cram them all in there but it would get them out of her hair. The all ran for the pool house as Bethany charged up another spell. This time it was a fireball, she didn't want to mess around anymore.
The fireball hit one of the pirates and the flames leapt to two others. It slowed them down but the flames burning away on the rotting corpse filled the air with a foul stench of burning flesh.
By the time they all rushed into the pool house everyone was coughing and gagging at the smell. Bethany shoved Taffy in and slammed the door. It was a very tight squeeze but she really didn't care right now, let them be squished for a bit. She cast a locking spell, she didn't want any of these stupid kids getting any idea about playing hero or getting in her way.

Bethany had barely finished the lock spell when she heard the clicking of teeth directly behind her. She slowly turned and found herself face to face with the zombie pirate captain.
His hat was still on fire, his face had been cleaned of any remaining flesh and only blackened bone remained, even the parrot upon his shoulder had been stripped down to blackened bone. Bethany assumed he was smiling but without flesh on his face to move she wasn't entirely sure. Just to make sure Bethany smiled back before casting another spell. " Dam Burst!" she shouted
The ground around her suddenly erupted skyward, throwing all the zombies about and dropping them back to earth with heavy thuds. This gave Bethany an opening which she took.
Bethany raced away from the zombies and leapt up the steps to the patio. She came face to face with another group of zombies who were feasting on two unfortunate party guests that were too slow to escape. They had already been pretty much cleaned down to the bones, these zombies were very thorough eaters. When she interrupted them the zombies were fighting over the last pieces. The arrival of Bethany was a pleasant surprise for them.
" Magic Missile Barrage!" shouted Bethany, half in surprises, half in plan, to be totally honest it was a knee jerk reaction but she wouldn't admit it.
From her hands two dozen bright flaming arrows flew across the patio and destroyed the zombies, and the patio furniture, and the large grill all the way across the patio.
Bethany took a long tired breath, she was started to become exhausted. Magic took energy, casting one spell was like jogging up a flight of stairs, it didn't take that much out of a fit young woman, but when you add the other spells, all the running and being scared on several occasions, all together it was starting to take it toll.
Bethany caught her breath as the zombies again regrouped and pieced themselves back together. She was amazed by the sheer number of zombies she now faced, how many pirates are in this crew? She wondered, One Piece had like 8, there was at least 30 here. Bethany stumbled down the small step that separated the patio from the pool and the zombies rushed her.
Bethany let another barrage of magic missiles fly which only slowed the first two ranks of zombies before the others got to her. The first zombie got to her grabbed her vest, Bethany stumbled from the force the zombie's grab and her vest burst open throwing buttons in every direction. Bethany let off a shout as the zombie's cold slimy hand got himself a big handful. She punched him in the face and felt her hand squish in as if she just punched a big bowl of really cold pudding. She jerked her hand out and stumbled backwards falling straight into the pool with a loud splash. She swam in fast strokes across the pool and leapt from the pool. She looked at her ruined vest and really regretted not wearing a bra tonight.
Bethany raced down to the beach, she was almost too exhausted to use any of her big spells anymore and this was becoming ridiculous. Bethany looked at the sky, she had no idea when this spell was going to wear off, and she couldn't slow these damn zombies down long enough to catch her breath, the zombies she had hit with the magic missiles had already gotten back together and were joining their friends on their unstoppable quest to snack on her flesh. It was time for the big guns, not just the pair Bethany was graced with.

Bethany knew she was out of time and out of options, these zombies were going to learn one hell of a lesson. Bethany drew a circle in the dirt around her with the toe of her shoe and then drew a second inside the first . She knelt in the sand and began to draw symbols inside the two circles. Every time a zombie started to walk towards her, she lifted her pistol and shot him in the leg.
Bethany had drawn the last symbol when she fired off her last bullet. It was time to get down to business.
Bethany leapt to her feet and readied for her ultimate spell, Omega Doom. Yes it sounds a little silly but the spell is thousands of years old and has been translated through a dozen different languages, should probably be happy it wasn't called Happy Bunny Attack.
Bethany watched as the zombies shambled towards her, her lips were flying as fast as she could, a spell this powerful took a lot words to conjure. Bethany neared the last lines of the spell, soon a blast would wipe out all the zombies, the house, the hedges, the cars, the lamp posts, sidewalks, neighbor's pets, the beach, just about everything around her but Bethany was out of choices.

Suddenly all the zombies stopped, so did Bethany. Maybe they knew about Omega Doom and were going to be good little rotting corpses and go home, she had only two words left to say before the big boom. The zombies slowly turned and began to march towards the ocean.
Bethany dug in her bag of holding until she found her cell phone and looked at the time. She smiled and began to jump up and down for joy, it was almost dawn, and the spell must be wearing off.

Bethany watched as the zombies slowly began to march back into the sea slowly disappearing back beneath the waves. Bethany flopped down into the sand and watched as the captain's hat slowly slipped beneath the waves, finally extinguishing the flames. Bethany looked at her ruined top, it was going to take a good afternoon to sow all the buttons back on. Bethany wiped the last bits of slime off her breasts, men even when dead they still just wanted her boobs.

Bethany waved her tired hands and the lock spell was broken. The door to the pool house burst open and everybody crashed out onto the lawn. " Are they gone?" asked Taffy looking up from the pile.
" Yup, they're gone" said Bethany, " no more zombies."
The group slowly got to their feet and walked back into the house. It was dawn, the party was over, it was time to go home. Bethany walked into the entry and grabbed the book. She jammed it into her bag of holding and headed for the door. " Wait" said Taffy.
Bethany turned, it was time for the cliché thank yous and a lot of ass kissing. She knew it was part of the job and got ready to accept it. " Yes?" she asked.
" Can you come over next Halloween?" she asked, " this was the coolest Halloween ever."
Bethany let off a groan, " I don't do parties" she said.
Bethany walked out of the front door, and had to admit in retrospect it was kind of fun after all. Certainly would go down in history as one of the more memorable Halloweens for Bethany. She had made the beach safe for kids again, they wouldn't have to fear the scourge of pirate zombies from the sea invading their town.