✓ 𝐖.𝐈.𝐓.𝐂.𝐇. | ʜᴏᴄᴜꜱ ᴘᴏᴄᴜꜱ

𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗲

"THIS IS REALLY BAD!"

the trash can that max had just finished kicking rumbled against the brick wall. everyone stood and thought about what to do next, but we were just kidding ourselves.

allison hit max with her hand. "max? come on. calm down."

"look, i want you to take dani back to your house and don't let her out of your sight!" max snapped at her.

"max, i'm not leaving you," dani told him.

a door opened behind us and we all hid behind lobster crates, hoping the guy in the pirate outfit didn't see us. he went over to a tank and grabbed a lobster.

"okay, guys, who's goin' for the jacuzzi?" he taunted one, pulling it out. "angelo. too bad."

"uh-oh," binx said in a sing-song voice.

we all looked out of the alley and saw the sanderson sisters coming right down. we all ducked and hid, hoping they wouldn't be able to see us.

they all mumbled to each other before retreating, talking about some kind of fish and what to cook it with.

when we were finally able to leave, allison slammed open what looked like an old rusty oven. we all gasped and waited for the sisters so come storming around the corner.

allison looked at the oven and grinned. "i have an idea."

*

we managed to trap the sisters into the kiln of our highschool. luckily we had a pretty decent art program otherwise we would have been royally screwed.

"turn it on!" i shouted to allison when we locked them in.

she clicked the start button on the wall and we waited. their faces shone brightly in the small window on the door. they were screaming and shouting and banging on the door.

as much as i felt bad, they kind of deserved it. after planning on killing hundreds of children over the years, i think it was a good enough punishment.

we all high-fived and danced around the hallways before running outside. our plan had worked! the sanderson sisters were gone for good!

we trotted down the empty streets of salem, cheering jubilantly and jumping all the way to where max lived to drop him off.

"we did it, binx!" i laughed, looking up at the cat on the tree.

"we stopped them," theo grabbed my arm and shook it as if to convince himself it was true.

binx looked up at the moon and reminisced about the good old days. i didn't think the days of old were all that good, considering the things like racism and sexism and genocide and other things like that, but binx was different. all he wanted was to live his life, and he couldn't even get that.

"i've wanted to do that for 300 years," he said, "since they took emily."

while max, allison, and dani were jumping around, theo and i stayed with the cat. we all had some sort of history, and i'm pretty sure theo and thackery even shared some blood.

"you really miss her, don't you?" i asked him, but he closed his eyes.

theo shrugged his shoulders. "man, you can't keep blaming yourself for that. that happened so long ago."

"take good care of each other," thackery said. "you'll never know how precious the other is until you lose them."

thackery jumped off of the tree and started running away. i didn't understand why he was doing that after he had helped us so much.

"binx! where do you think you're going, buddy?" i called out. "you're a messinger now, buddy."

theo nodded. "one of us!"

"come on, binx," i called the cat over to the gate we were standing by. "let's go home."

*

"you're our kitty now," i said, petting thackery while he drank a bowl of water we put out for him.

he looked up. "you're going to turn me into one of those fat, useless, contented house cats."

theo giggled, patting the bed for him to come up and jump. "you betcha."

thackery hopped up onto the bed and layed down beside us. we were lucky theo had a big enough bed for the three of us, otherwise someone would be falling off and it most definitely would not be me.

"you know, binx, i'll always take care of you," i told the cat, stroking his head as he began to purr. "my children will take care of you, too."

theo grabbed my hand and rubbed his thumb in circles on my knuckles. "and their children after that. and theirs after that."

i think binx eventually fell asleep because he went over to another part of the room and started purring.

"can i tell you now?" theo asked, staring up at the ceiling.

i sighed, not wanting this feeling to be ruined after all that had happened tonight. i wasn't sure what he would say or how i would react.

"can we just stay like this for a little while?" i asked him.

"why is it that whenever i try to get closer to you, you always shy away from me?" he asked after i closed him off again.

i gave him a look as we both sat up in the bed, our backs towards the pillows.

"you wouldn't understand."

"try me," he challenged.

"my problem is that i'm scared," i said. "i'm scared of getting too attached to someone, until eventually, that someone has the power to control me. to end my world when they feel like
it."

he was quiet, thinking it through.

"am i close?"

i looked at him with a mysterious gaze, "too."

he put his hands on either side of my face, and the room fell away. i had never gotten so lost in a kiss before. the space between us exploded. my heart kept missing beats and my hands could not bring him close enough to me.

i tasted him and realized i had been starving. i had loved before, but it didn't feel like this. i had kissed before, but it didn't burn me alive.

maybe it lasts a minute, and maybe it's an hour. all i know is that kiss, and how soft
his skin is when it brushed against mine, and that even if i did not know it until now, i had been waiting for this person forever.

you could see it in our eyes; we weren't quite friends anymore.

the way i smiled for him? friends don't smile like that.

the way he put his hand on my back? friends don't touch each other like that.

the way my face lit up when he spoke? friends don't look at each other like that.

the way his voice changed when he said my name? friends don't talk like that.

anyone could see it, clear as day.

we weren't quite friends anymore.

we had grown into something even greater.