A.N. Here we are again. All I have to say is that I hope you guys like this chapter, and I'm sorry for the gap.

OooOooOooOooO (Lacia POV)

I shook off the trance of shock that had taken hold of me, and I sprinted back to Binx with my heart beating so fast that I felt like it was trying to escape.

"Binx!" I screamed as I dropped to my knees beside him. "Binx, what happened? Are you okay?" A flash of light brightened the sky momentarily, and thunder echoed once more. "Lightning," I whispered. "Binx just got hit by lightning! Binx, are you okay?" I repeated.

No sound left his lips, and smoke still wafted from his burned form. "Binx!" I shrieked in desperation. "Binx, please! You have to be okay!" I clasped my hands in supplication as tears ran down my cheeks. If the smell of burned flesh hadn't been making me sick, I would have thrown myself onto his chest. "Binx," I wept.

A hand landed on my shoulder and pulled me backwards and to my feet. "Kid, get back from there," Billy instructed as he tugged me away. "It's alright. He's immortal, remember? He'll come back to life in a couple minutes, and he'll be completely unharmed."

"But what if this time is different? What if he doesn't wake up? I- I can't…"

"Lacia, get a hold of yourself. It'll be okay. He'll be fine; you just need to calm down," Billy instructed grimly. I gulped in some air and forced myself to breathe deeply. It was harder now then it had ever been.

"Okay, Billy," I answered at last as I let my shoulders droop from their tensed position. The zombie looked me in the eyes for a moment, nodded, and let his decayed hand fall from my shoulder.

"I just… even though I just met Binx tonight, I don't know what I would do without him. I don't think I realized the extent of that until now, and I barely know him. How did this happen?" I pondered out loud. Billy didn't answer, but I hadn't expected him to.

Just as I pulled myself out of these disconcerting thoughts, a gasp echoed through the night air.

OooOooOooOooO (Sanderson House, 3rd Person POV)

Winnie slammed through the door with her book in hand. She was muttering furiously to herself about a little redheaded brat and an interfering boy. Her sister Mary followed with the cautious look of someone crossing a minefield. Sarah danced in after them, but she appeared as carefree as ever.

After a few moments, Winnie composed herself. "It is of no matter whether they have escaped us for now. We have the book, and that is all we need," she growled as she set the tome on its stand.

"But Winnie, the sun will come up soon, and we will be dust! What are we to do without a child?" Mary asked nervously. Winnie cackled.

"Just brew the potion, sisters. I have a plan, and we will not need children tonight. All we need is the potion and my brilliance to succeed. Then we will be able to go out in the sunlight, capture that little trollop, and make her pay for crossing us!"

"Oh, Winnie, thou art divine!" Mary cried as she quickly began assembling the ingredients for the potion. It seemed that she slipped back into the tongue of olden days when she got excited. "Sarah, make thyself useful and light the cauldron!" Sarah made a face at the command, but she obeyed.

Within minutes, the potion was nearly completed, and Winnie was all but dancing with joy. She finished the final phrase of the incantation, and the siblings spat into the bubbling green liquid. Steam rose up from the giant pot, and somewhere across town, a girl named Lacia felt a shiver go down her spine.

"Now, my sisters, I will share with you the sheer genius of my plan!" Winnie reached down behind the counter, and when she stood up, a small baby rat writhed as it hung upside down by its tail from her grip. "This is our salvation, at least for now," the witch explained.

Sarah squealed in delight. "Are we gonna eat it?" She inquired eagerly.

"No!" Winnie snapped. "We shall force-feed it the potion and drink its life force. Though it will last much less long than the life of a child, it will get us through the week. You see, my darling book has explained it to me. The potion works by using the potential energy of life. That is why it must be children that take the potion. We take all the years the child has left, and those years are subtracted from our age, in a way. We gain those days and our appearance changes, I suppose. In any case, we will not get years from this sick little ratling, but we will get days enough to gather children."

"Winnie, thou art so brilliant!" Mary praised with a grin. "We are saved!" Sarah seemed to be pouting that they would not be eating the rat, but she brightened soon enough as a thought entered her empty mind.

"Are we gonna see the pretty girl again?" She inquired dreamily. "And the blonde boy?"

"Yes, you fool. But first, we must defeat the dawn, and the time is at hand. Let us feed the rat and drink the life that we require!" Winnie commanded with a growl. She waved her hand dismissively, and Mary rushed to the cauldron.

"I'll do it!" She exclaimed as she scooped out a spoonful of the steaming concoction. Most of that potion ended up dripping down the poor creature's back, but it soon glowed with an ethereal light at what little potion it had consumed began to take effect.

The three hags sucked in the fog of life in unison, and the rat went limp with a last squeak. The witches had gained two weeks of life from the ill baby rat, and now they could put the next part of Winnie's plan into motion.

OooOooOooOooO (Lacia POV)

I whirled around at the sudden sound echoing through the night air. Binx was sitting up, and all of his wounds had vanished. He still appeared to be pained, but an uncomfortable Binx was much better than a dead one to me.

All the air in my lungs whooshed out in one deep sigh of relief, and I flung myself to the ground next to him. My knees stung with the new scrapes I had just created, but I ignored the mild pain. Just then, I felt a strange and disconcerting shiver rush across my skin. I shook it off, though, chalking it up to the chill in the October air. Or perhaps it was November air now; I wasn't sure what time it was, and I couldn't particularly bring myself to care.

Billy came to stand next to me, shaking me out of my rambling thoughts. "How are you feeling, kid?" He asked Binx gently. "Can't imagine dying is particularly comfortable, 'specially like that."

The boy in question rolled his neck until it cracked before answering. I winced at the sharp and painful sound, but he seemed unaffected. "I'll be fine. Let's just get out of here before something else happens."

I thought back to the strange shiver and decided to voice my concerns. "I think it might be too late." I told them about the sensation and the foreboding that accompanied it. "Something has changed, and I don't think it'll do us any good," I concluded.

"Feelings like that aren't to be ignored, and they don't bode well," Billy agreed. Binx was nodding as well, and I couldn't help but be glad that they were listening. They didn't think I was crazy or silly; they believed me, and I couldn't have been more grateful.

"We just need to avoid the witches until dawn, and they'll be dust. Hopefully, if we can keep away from them, whatever they're doing won't affect us. Following that theory, we need to get moving," Binx instructed as he rose to his feet. There was no hesitation to his step, but I was wary none-the-less.

"Are you safe to be moving?" I inquired nervously as he started off down the road. "You did just get struck by lightning…"

"I'm just fine, Lacy. It's not the first time something like that has happened to me. Karma has been getting me back for not saving Emily for a long time." I flinched again at the self-hatred in his tone, but I knew that I couldn't convince him that his sister's death was not his fault.

"Well, if you're sure, I trust you. Just… take it easy, all right?"

"I will. So where are we going?"

"You mean you don't know? What happened to the all-seeing, all-knowing three hundred year-old genius, huh? I thought you had a plan!"

"How could I have had time to plan? I've been a bit busy being dead!"

"Well I-" I cut myself off as I thought over what he had said. He was, as usual, correct. "I'm sorry; you're right. We'll figure something out. I'm just really worried about you, what the witches are doing, and everything else that's going on. I shouldn't have blown up on you like that, and I'm so sorry."

'That's the second time in an hour that I've screamed at someone for no reason; what is wrong with me?!' Overwhelmed by the guilt and horror at my lack of self-control, I sprinted off down the street. My only thought was to get away from the boy who had uprooted my entire life in one night, made me spill my darkest secrets, and seen parts of me that I kept hidden from the world for good reason. "I'm sorry," I whispered to the wind as a shout echoed behind me.

"Lacy!"

OooOooOooOooO

A.N. Again, terribly sorry. Feel free to leave scathing reviews (Jessi, I'm looking at you.) And I hope you don't want to kill me too much.