3rd Person P.O.V

It had been a few days since the group had arrived in Salem for their trip. Admittedly, they'd gotten to learn quite a bit more about the Salem Witch Trials. Calliope and Nessarose had also finally celebrated their eighteenth birthday, much to their relief. That particular day, which also happened to be Halloween, they had just learned about the infamous tale of the Sanderson Sisters. However, Duke had been the first to notice that Calliope, Nessarose and Jason had hardly paid attention to the story, something which Chandler, Mac and Veronica had quickly caught onto. So, after they had headed back to the hotel, the green-clad Heather was quick to confront the trio.

"How come you guys didn't listen to the story of the Sanderson Sisters?" She asked.

"The three of us grew up in Salem, remember? They tell that story every year on Halloween, so we know it by heart." Nessarose answered.

"Besides, we get free reign to do what we want tonight. Although for us, we use All Hallow's Eve as a night of remembrance, since it's the anniversary of our family's death." Jason said, which wasn't a lie. That particular day marked exactly three hundred years since his mother and aunts had died, not to mention 317 years since his twin sister had disappeared. This was a fact only the Sanderson family knew, but Jason was not an only child. He'd had a fraternal twin sister, Emmaline Sylvia Sanderson, but she had disappeared only a few days after birth, and none of the sisters had been able to find any trace of her, despite using their best tracking spells.

"That seems fair." Mac said.

"Yeah, so that's our plan for the next couple of hours, and then we'll meet up with you guys afterwards." Nessarose suggested.

"Sounds like a plan. We'll see you guys later." Veronica said, before she and the Heathers went back to their room. The cousins then headed back to their room to set everything up. Normally they would wait until night fell to do this, but they had a strange feeling that something was going to happen that night, so they were doing it earlier than they usually did.

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The cousins rejoined their friends a couple of hours later. Veronica was the one who answered the door to their hotel room.

"Hey guys. Interesting outfit changes. I'm guessing it was part of your remembrance?" Veronica asked.

"That and our ancestors also lived during the Salem Witch Trials, so sometimes on All Hallow's Eve, we pay tribute to them by wearing clothes similar to their 17th century attire." Calliope answered. It wasn't a complete lie, since what they were wearing were the same clothes they had been wearing that fateful Halloween night, but they couldn't reveal that they were actually over 300 years old.

Veronica stepped back to let them in, which gained the attention of the three Heathers.

"Your ancestors certainly had unique taste then, for picking such bold colours for their outfit choices." Duke noted when she saw their outfits.

"Indeed, but we can't fault them for it." Nessarose said. After all, she and her sister always wore a colour scheme similar to the one their mother had worn. And while Jason may have taken to wearing black over the past few years, he still wore the emerald jewellery that Winifred had given him for his sixteenth birthday. Mac had pulled out a few board games from a nearby drawer, and so the group had sat down to play a few games in order to pass the time. A few hours later saw the group in the middle of a game of Monopoly. Mac, Nessarose and Duke had all been knocked out of the game, leaving Chandler, Jason, Veronica and Calliope still playing. But their game was brought to an abrupt halt when the Sanderson cousins all tensed up, as though they had sensed something was wrong. Then, their eyes began glowing. Jason's eyes were glowing green; Calliope's eyes were glowing blue; and Nessarose's eyes were glowing pink. Once the glows subsided, all three cousins looked at each other.

"The candle." They spoke in unison, before they got up and all but ran out of the room.

"Candle? What the heck are they on about?" Veronica asked, looking very confused.

"I have no idea. We should probably follow them and find out." Duke said. All four girls got up and quickly went after the cousins, since they wanted to find out what was going on.

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Soon enough, the cousins had reached their old home, though they had to take a few minutes to recover from how far they had run.

"Note to self, running in a corset is always a bad idea." Nessarose remarked. Admittedly, the corsets she and her sister had worn back in the 17th century had been magically altered to be much more comfortable to wear and did not have a negative effect on their bodies, but they still weren't the easiest thing to run in.

"Agreed. Now, let's see if we can find out what caused that earlier feeling." Calliope said. The three entered the cottage, immediately taking note of the wet floor.

"Look! The Black Flame Candle has been lit, and true to its name, the flame is black instead of normal fire." Nessarose said.

"It can't just be a case of someone breaking in to light the candle as a prank. Our magic wouldn't have had that reaction if the curse hadn't been fulfilled. Which means...." Jason trailed off as the realisation hit him.

"They're back." Nessarose breathed out, almost in disbelief. The sound of footsteps entering the cottage caught their attention, causing them to turn around, only for the three teens to freeze when they saw Winifred, Mary and Sarah standing in the doorway. For several minutes, the Sanderson family could only stare at each other in shock. Eventually, Sarah was the first one to move when she rushed over to her daughters and hugged them tightly.

"My dearests. I thought I would never see you again." Sarah said. Calliope and Nessarose quickly hugged their mother back.

"We missed you, Mom." The twins spoke in unison, their voices cracking a little due to emotion. Jason looked over at Winifred.

"It's good to finally see you again, Mother. I'm glad the curse worked." Jason said, allowing his mother to hug him in a rare display of affection that Winifred reserved only for him, Calliope and Nessarose. The cousins then moved to hug Mary as well. It was only after they'd separated, that Jason noticed something was off.

"Where's Book?" Jason asked, seeing the broken display case where they had kept Winifred's spell book in order to keep it safe after the cottage had been turned into a small museum.

"He was stolen by the same people who lit the candle." Mary answered.

"That's not good. He has all our spell creations. We kept them stored in Book since it was the best way to keep them safe." Jason said.

"Including our spell that will enable you three to live past sunrise without needing to use the Life Potion." Nessarose said.

"Then let's go get him back. Whoever took him can't have gotten far, and Salem isn't exactly a huge town." Calliope said. None of the three cousins had remembered one small detail that was about to throw a wrench in that plan.

"Oh my god..." The cousins turned around to see Veronica, Chandler, Duke and Mac all standing in the doorway.

"You three are really fast." Mac said, giving a light frown.

"What did you follow us for?" Nessarose questioned.

"Well, you guys got those glowing eyes, then you said something about a candle, and then you ran out in the middle of the game with no context. Of course we were gonna follow you." Chandler said. Then, Veronica spotted Winifred, Mary and Sarah, and she recognised them from the story from earlier.

"The Sanderson Sisters. So the stories are true. You three mentioned your ancestors dying on Halloween night, so you use it as a night of remembrance. You guys are descended from the Sanderson Sisters?" Veronica questioned.

"Yes and no. Yes, we're descended from them, but not as distantly as you think." Jason answered.

"What do you mean?" Duke questioned.

"Nessa and I are the daughters of Sarah Sanderson, and Jason is Aunt Winifred's son. We were there that fateful night, forced to watch as our family was taken from us." Calliope answered.

"But that was back in 1693. How did you guys stay alive that long?" Mac asked.

"We cast a spell to protect them, because we knew the Salem townsfolk would try to kill them along with us. The spell also prevented them from ageing. They've been 17 for the last three hundred years, and they would only resume ageing once they met their soulmates." Sarah answered.

"Which we have done. We finally started ageing again last month, which has allowed us to finally celebrate our eighteenth birthdays." Jason said.

"So, I'm presuming there's a lot more to the story that you guys have kept hidden from us." Veronica remarked, a little upset about how secretive her girlfriend had really been. Calliope walked over to Veronica and managed to take her hand.

"Ronnie, I know you have every reason not to trust us right now because of this, but I promise we will explain everything. We just need to get our family's spell book back first." Calliope said.

"Actually, it would probably be better for us to explain it to them now. Mom, Aunt Mary and Aunt Winnie can go and retrieve Book." Nessarose said.

"I guess that's true. We'll come and find you three once we're done here." Calliope said, looking at her mother and aunts, all of whom nodded before retrieving their brooms and flying away into the night, leaving the seven teenagers at the cottage to talk things through.

"So, ask away." Jason said, knowing the four were likely to have a lot of questions.

"Were you guys really born in the 17th century?" Mac asked.

"Yes. Jason was born on September 26th 1676, and Nessa and I were born on October 30th 1676." Calliope answered.

"So, can you guys use magic?" Duke asked.

"Yes. Calliope and I are both witches, and Jason is what's known as a warlock. But we never hurt innocent people. We hated doing that. We especially hated having to watch innocent children be stripped of their youth and their lives so our family could stay young. We mainly work together to create spells, one of which would mean our family would be able to stop using the Life Potion, which would save so many innocent children." Nessarose explained.

"What did you guys do for the last three hundred years? And how did you know we were your soulmates when all you had to go by were our names on your wrists?" Chandler asked.

"We stayed right here in this house. We continued to work on creating spells. Our only other companion was an immortal black cat, who was once a human boy named Thackery Binx, who we were forced to curse into his current form because he insulted my mother, who doesn't take very kindly to that sort of thing. We only had each other to rely on, since Callie and Nessa's father had already died a few months prior to that fateful night, and the less said about my biological father, the better. As for knowing you were our soulmates, we used one of our spells to look into the future. And we knew it was safe to do so because all we were doing was putting your names to faces, so that we would know what you looked like when we finally met you all." Jason told them.

"Okay. So, how can we help get your family's spell book back? Since it's clearly important, and you obviously need it to help your family live past sunrise." Veronica asked.

"Are you sure you want to get involved? Magic can be quite fickle, and can also be very dangerous if you're not careful." Nessarose questioned.

"We're sure." Mac answered. The three cousins knew that they could trust the group, so they explained the plan to get their family spell book back, after explaining why the book was important to them. They just hoped they were able to get Book back before sunrise, otherwise they would lose their family for a second time, and this time it would be for good.