Chapter Text
Thackery woke up suddenly from his bad dream, relaxing quickly when realizing it wasn't real. After a minute, he looked over to his sister's bed "Emily?" He found the bed empty and called out louder, "Emily?"
Thackery gets a bad feeling and quickly makes his way outside, finding his friend Elijah staring into the forest. "Elijah! Has thee seen my sister Emily?"
Elijah looks over, his arms crossed under his chest, with a worried expression on his face. "Nay, but look" he points over to the top of the forest where purple smoke emerges from inside "They conjure."
"Oh god, the woods... Emily"
"She's there" A voice comes from beside the two. Thackery looks over and sees Alice, who is pointing at the edge of the forest.
There was Emily, in her sleeping gown, as she followed an old woman in a purple cloak.
"She's done for" Elijah breathes out as he watches.
"Not yet! You wake my father. Summon the others. Go!" He commands quickly before running off towards the forest, calling out "Emily!"
From inside the fence, Alice watches Elijah run into town and Thackery to the woods. Her mind races, but she quickly drops the basket filled with clothes as she chases after Thackery, not nearly as fast, with her dress forcing her strides to be shorter.
Once inside the woods, Thackery falls down a hill, the sharp twigs tearing his shirt and skin underneath.
Alice slows down when she sees him fall, stopping just before she would as well "Thackery?" She whisper yells
Thackery sits up at the bottom and looks back "Alice? What art thou doing here?"
"My apology, but I couldn't leave thee on thy own. These woods art dangerous for a valorous reason," she says while carefully making her way down the hill, grabbing trees to steady herself.
"Precisely why thee shouldn't has't cometh; I wish not for thee to be hurt while under my own guise"
Alice shakes her head "We haven't the time to argue; Emily can't be far", she says before walking past him, following the direction of the purple smoke in the sky.
Thackery sighs and follows close behind as they quickly come up to the cottage, seeing Emily disappear inside.
The two walk close and step over stones in the water surrounding the house. Thackery peeks in the window at the end of his stone path; Emily notices him from inside; he quickly crouches and shuts the window before the witches can see him. He looks to Alice and points to the side of the house before he climbs into the water that's up to his knees, making his way to the side.
Alice shivers and follows in suit, hearing the window get pushed open and a shrill voice saying, "Oh, look. Another glorious morning. It makes me sick! Sisters!" Alice takes a breath as she hears the voice fade as the three women go back inside.
Thackery grabs her elbow and leads her to follow him around the water wheel up on the side of the cottage. He climbs up the wheel as the water pulls at it, signalling Alice to do the same, needing to help her once she's at the top of the wheel to climb through the window inside the second floor.
Once inside, Alice realized her soaked skirt would make noise as it dragged across the wooden floor, so she quickly pulled the ribbon out of her hair to tie one of the sides up in an attempt to prevent it.
Thackery watched, a blush covering his cheeks, before he ducked and crouched on the floor as he approached the edge, looking down at the three witches moving around and Emily sitting in a chair by the fireplace.
The red-cloaked witch starts looking around before walking to the sister with the green cloak "I-I smell a child."
The green-cloaked witch scrunches her face and points at Emily "Ehh, what dost thou call that?"
The first witch tilts her head down and responds, "A child?"
"Hmph!" A few minutes later, the green witch says, "Sisters, gather 'round. One thing more, and all is done... Add a bit of thine own tongue." The sisters bite off a piece of their tongues and spit it into the cauldron "'Tis ready for tasting. One drop of this and her life will be mine." She hesitates before correcting herself "I mean, ours." She gets a spoonful before the three walk over to the chair Emily is on "All right, girl. Open up your mouth."
From the second floor, Thackery suddenly jumps up and shouts, "No!"
Alice flinched and quickly got up with him, ready to follow his lead.
Thackery jumps down onto the first floor, avoiding 2 of the witches by going around the opposite side of the large cauldron.
Alice's eyes widen when he jumps down, and she is too hesitant to do the same. She holds onto the edge of the second floor to try and make the distance shorter.
Whinnifred saw her and made her way over, reaching up to pull her down. Alice panics and swings her legs back and forth, kicking Whinnifred in the nose before she falls. Whinnifred held her nose, cracking it into place before she glared at Alice and sent shock bolts at her from her fingertips, making her collapsible.
Whinnifred is smug about her window before she hears the chaos happening behind her.
Thackery and the other 2 witches had started pushing the cauldron at each other. The 2 witches quickly fall over, and Thackeray pours the potion out. Whinnifred calls out, "No! My potion!"
Thackery immediately strides over to Emily, and just before he can reach her, Whinnifred sends shock bolts at him as well, making him fall to the floor.
Mary groans and holds her head, as it throbs from her fall. She smiles as Thackery falls but quickly smiles when her gaze shifts. "Winnie, look" she said, pointing at Emily, who had ingested some of the potion. Her life force is glowing around her on the chair.
Winnie's mood changed as well, quickly walking over, her sisters following. The Sanderson Sisters share Emily's life force. Each deages in miraculous amounts
The three sisters then start to dance together in a circle as they celebrate.
Afterward, the three witches then turn back to the two on the floor. Mary and Sarah drag a barely conscious Alice to lean against Thackeray.
Winnie grins as she looks at the two. "Let's brew another batch!"
A pitiful look comes over Thackery's face as he looks from Emily to Alice. He pulls himself to sit up with the latter behind him, rage filling him as he turns to the witches "You hag! There are not enough children in the world to make thee young and beautiful!"
Winnie gasps shallowly and crosses her arms, looking at her sisters "Hag...Sisters, did you hear what he called you?" The three discuss what to do, calling over the book before turning back and saying, "His punishment shall not be to die...but to live forever with his guilt.
Sarah and Mary both ask, "As what, Winnie, as what?"
Winnie brings her hands up, and the three start the spell.
"Twist the bones and bend the back."
"Itch-it-a-cop-it-a, Mel-a-ka-mys-tic-a."
"Trim him of his baby fat."
"Itch-it-a-cop-it-a, Mel-a-ka-mys-tic-a."
"Give him fur, black as black. Just...Like...This."
Not even a second later, Thackery starts ringing in pain as he is transformed into a black cat. He pisses at them when they try to get closer, making them laugh and back up
Before the three can get their next spell ready for Alice, a loud knock comes from their door, hearing the townspeople shouting outside.
The three move over to the door to keep it closed.
Alice feels a nudge against her cheek. She manages to force her eyes to open fully, seeing the black cat stare at her. "I'm so tired" she says, her breathing becoming heavy. Her eyes start to flutter before she passes out.
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Not long after, Alice wakes up and finds herself tied up with the whole town staring at her. Once she got her bearings, she quickly looked around and saw the swaying bodies of the Sanderson sisters from the tree in front of the cottage. She quickly flinched and turned her head away from the horrendous sight.
Thackery's father spoke up from the front of the crowd, "Alice Pritchett, thou art accused of assisting the three Sanderson sisters in the death of mine own children, Thackery and Emily. Dose thee haveth any words to sayeth for yourself"
Alice looked forward quickly, strands of her hair falling over her face "What?! Thackery is dead?!..." She looked down, her eyes watering up before she stated, "I did no such thing to help the Sanderson sisters in this demonic act. I hadst come here with Thackery to try and save Emily" At her feet, a black cat was staring at the crowd before her, as if he was putting himself between the two parties. "Please, I beg thee, I do not wish to die"
"Thou shouldst've thought about thyself before thee tooketh part in such a vile act against thy own soul as well as against mine own children" With that, Thackery's father made a motion and seconds later, Alice dropped, her limbs struggling against the rope before everything went dark and still.