THE CAT LED THEM ABOUT HALFWAY ACROSS TOWN TO THE GRAVEYARD. The entire time, most of them were convinced that they were just chasing this cat senselessly through toward, but Max seemed convinced that this animal was the answer to everything, or something.

Max seemed very disappointed when he saw their destination, but Wendy was a little excited since she had many p-leasant memories associated with the place. She was staring to realize just how weird her family was. The Dennison boy sighed, "This is a graveyard!"

"It's hallowed ground," the cat explained, and all of the teenagers froze in shock. Well, except for the one who already knew that he could speak. "Witches can't set foot here."

Noticing the surprised looks on his friend's faces, Max shrugged and informed them, "He talks." Thanks, Max. I couldn't figure that out by myself. They had just assumed that the boy had gone insane from whatever Winifred did to him, and he was just leading them to their death.

"Oh. Follow me! Over here. I want to show you something," the animal called, and they followed him through the graveyard and toward one of the stones. "Give you an idea of exactly what we're dealing with."

''William Butcherson, lost soul'?" Freddy read out in confusion, tilting his ehad and squinting his eyes as he tried to figure out what that could mean.

"Billy Butcherson was Winifred's lover, but she found him sporting with her sister Sarah, so she poisoned him and sewed his mouth shut with a dull needle... so he couldn't tell her secrets even in death," the cat told them, and Wendy wondered how the hell this cat knew everything about the sisters. "Winifred always was the jealous type."

Allison muttered, "You're Thackery Binx."

"Yes," Binx answered with a nod, and Wendy's eyes widened because everything was coming together in her mind. He was Thackery, and he had been cursed to live eternally as a cat.

A small smile appeared on her face, and she felt like a little girl again, believing deeply in the stories about the Sanderson sisters and Thackery Binx. "Huh. So the legends are true."

"Well, come along. I want to show you something else." He led them to another headstone that read 'Here Lies EMILY BINX.' "Because of me my little sister's life was stolen. For years I waited for my life to end so I could be reunited with my family. But Winifred's curse of immortality kept me alive. Then one day I figured out what to do with my eternal life. Now, I'd failed Emily, but I wouldn't fail again. When Winifred and her sisters returned, I'd be there to stop them. So for three centuries I've guarded the house on All Hallows Night, when I knew some airhead virgin might light that candle."

"Nice going, airhead," Freddy groaned sarcastically, and Max shot him a look.

The Dennison boy sighed, running a hand through his hair as he glanced at all of them apologetically. "Hey, look, I'm sorry, okay? We're talking about three ancient hags versus the 2Oth century. How bad can it be?"

"Bad," Binx responded, and his head snaped to where Allison was holding the book. She was slowly opening it and peeking into the pages. "Stay out of there! It holds Winifred's most dangerous spells. She must not get it."

"Well, let's torch the sucker," Max suggested, and he grabbed the book from Allison and placed it on the ground before holding the lighter to it. However, the flame seemed to be blown away from the book by an invisible wind.

Binx looked at them like they were idiots. "It's protected by magic."

"Thanks for telling us that thirty seconds after Max suggested it so that we just wasted time that could be spent doing useful things," Wendy commented sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

They all froze when they heard a scary cackling in the distance, and they looked up to see the three witches flying above them on broomsticks. They began backing up as Winifred mocked Max. "It's just a bunch of hocus pocus. Book! Come to Mommy!" the redheaded woman called, and the book's eye opened. It started to hoover slightly above the ground, ready to fly to the witch that owned it.

Binx jumped on the book quickly, pinning it to the ground so that it could not move. "'Fraid not!"

"Thackery Binx, thou mangy feline! Still alive?" Winifred breathed out, amused that the boy that she had put a curse on so many years ago was still suffering because of it, just like they had.

The cat nodded, and Wendy was still amazed by the fact that it could talk and that there was a conversation going on between Winifred freaking Sanderson and Thackery freaking Binx right in front of her. He shouted, "And waiting for you!"

"Thou hast waited in vain!" she responded, shaking her head like a disapproving mother, even though she was very happy about what she was saying. "And thou will fail to save thy friends, just as thou failed to save thy sister!"

"Grab the book!" the cat ordered, and Max grabbed it before they all sprinted under the cover of some trees on the other side of the graveyard. The witches could not step foot on the land, and hopefully, the branches would keep them from coming too low as well.

They got scared when Winifred started chanting, "Unfaithful lover long since dead, deep asleep in thy wormy bed, wiggle thy toes, open thine eyes, twist thy fingers toward the sky. Life is sweet. Be not too shy. On thy feet, so sayeth I!"

The ground began to shake violently, and they all had to hold onto each other to keep from being sucked into the hole that was forming. The shaking stopped, and they thought that the worst was over until a hand popped out of the ground right next to the tombstone that read 'William Butcherson.' A head and a body followed after the hand until a fully rotten person was staring back at them. They looked at each other and back at the creature before screaming and scrambling to their feet so that they could run.

As they followed Binx, Freddy turned to Allison. "Are you a zombie because you're drop-dead gorgeous?"

"Freddy!" his sister exclaimed, panting as they sprinted across the grass in order to not be eaten or murdered or caught by the zombie behind them. "Now is not the time!"

"It was just perfect because, you know, the people rising from the dead," he exclaimed, and despite the situation, Allison giggled a little bit, causing her best friend to be very disappointed in her sense of humor.

The Addams girl nodded and rolled her eyes at her brother and friend. "Yeah, I got that."

"In here!" Binx called to them, and they slid into a hole in a wall. Wendy and Max were the only ones left above ground, and Billy was coming after them. The brunette girl wondered why the Dennison boy stopped until he tossed her the book and grabbed the tree branch next to them. He pulled it back and held it until the zombie got to them. Then, he released it, causing it to snap back and take Billy's head off with it.

"Nice one, Max! Now, let's get out of here." Wendy smiled in shock, but her face dropped when she saw that the body was still moving without the head.

They slipped down into the hole as well, and Max helped the girl down so that she did not hurt herself. His hands were on her waist, and when she turned around, they were shockingly close. Both of them were frozen, staring at each other without really comprehending that their chests were pressed against each other until Freddy cleared his throat, and they jumped apart. The Addams boy raised his eyes at the cat. "What is this place, Binx?"

"It's the old Salem crypt. It connects to the sewer and up to the street," the cat informed them, and when they all looked at him with shocked faces as they looked around the room, he waved them off with his paw. "Relax. I've hunted mice down here for years."

"Oh, my God. Wendy, you're bleeding," Max exclaimed, and they all looked toward the girl to see that her dress was soaked in a dark, maroon liquid. The origin of the blood seemed to originate in her stomach, and all of their eyes widened when they saw her reach down and get some of the substance on her finger before sticking the digit in her mouth.

"Dang. Those stupid witches poked a hole in my blood bag." They all stared at her in confusion and worry, not sure if they should be relieved that she seemed fine or concerned that she was making no sense. She sighed and pulled out a plastic bag coated in the 'blood' as she explained, "I was going to pop it later to freak everyone out, but I forgot about it since we're being chased by freaking witches! It's chocolate syrup and red dye. Now, I'm going to be sticky all night. I did not think this through."

They rolled their eyes at her but just chuckled before following Binx through the crypt and the sewer. They walked for a while until they finally reached a ladder. He started climbing as he directed, "Up the ladder! Come on! Careful." Wendy was very interested to see a cat climb a ladder and then open the top of the sewer above them that led to the street.

"Binx! Look out!" Max shrieked from behind him. The cat was already on the road, but the boy was holding the door open from on the ladder. He dropped the top of the sewer and ducked down just as a bus drove over it.

Dani yelped, and they all slowly climbed out of the sewer to see a flattened Binx lying on the road. Dani immediately dove into Allison's arms as Freddy breathed out. "Oh, my God."

"It's all my fault," Max sighed, and Wendy put her hand on his shoulder as he turned around. He leaned on her slightly as he ran her hand up and down his arm comfortingly.

She shook her head, assuring him. "Max, it's not your fault."

"Look!" Dani yelled, and they all turned to see Binx's once flattened body returning back to normal. He opened his eyes and climbed to his feet, shaking it off like nothing had happened.

"I hate it when that happens," he groaned, and they all stared at him in complete and utter shock and confusion. "Well. I told you, I can't die. Dani, you all right?" She nodded. "Okay, then, let's go!"

They made it to the center of town so that they could hopefully find someone to help them, and they ran into a police officer that was sitting on a motorcycle. Allison rushed over to him as the rest followed. "Officer, we need your help."

"What's the problem?" he questioned, and they all gestured for Max to start talking since he was the one that started the whole mess.

Max just grunted in reluctance before beginning the story. "Well, you see, for — I just, I just moved here. Well, you see, it's like this. I, um, I broke into the old Sanderson house and I brought the witches back from the dead. See, I even have the book."

"You lit the black flame candle?" the officer asked, since everyone in town had heard the story dozens of times. Max nodded in shame, and the man hopped off his motorcycle and led them to the side. "Come on. Okay, let's get on the sidewalk."

"And he's a virgin," Dani added, and Freddy snorted slightly.

The cop leaned in and gestured for Max to do the same. The Dennison boy complied and tilted his head so that the officer could whisper to him, "Are you a virgin?"

"Yeah," he answered, not sure what that had to do with anything. Why was that the most important part of the story when there were three ancient witches running around and trying to kill them and eat all of the children?

The officer seemed shocked, and his eyebrows raised quickly. "Really?"

"Why isn't he asking me?" Freddy quizzed, almost offended that the man was shocked that Max was a virgin but not him, even though there was no one that questioned his virginity.

Although that was definitely not Wendy;s first topic of conversation, she shrugged and smiled at the opportunity to make fun of her brother. "Maybe he heard one of your pickup lines."

"Look, I'll get it tattooed on my forehead, okay?" Max sighed.

"Hey! I put my life on the line to protect this community, and you punks pull this?" the man exclaimed, and they all jumped at his sudden tone of voice. He gestured for them to leave as he shook his head in disappointment. "Get outta here. And take that cat with ya."