Author's note: A spur of the moment story, a little Halloween gift. Enjoy

Halloween was on a Friday this year. 14 year old Mel Halliwell, dressed in her usual all black attire, slammed the manor door with more force than usual.

"Don't slam the door," her mother called out from the kitchen. It was after school and her mom was in making cupcakes for Magic School's annual Samhain party.

Mel dropped her book bag on the kitchen table and slumped into a chair.

"How was school," Piper asked.

"I hate being a witch."

"Oh no, some dress up in green and warts?" Piper didn't know whether to be amused or exasperated at what her children referred to as "cultural appropriation." Her niece Tamar worked at a Wiccan shop part time, selling herbs and crystals, and she complained that people kept asking for Harry Potter wands and robes for their costumes.

"No." Mel sighed. "My friends are planning to summon the Devil at Ashley's tonight, but I can't go because it might actually happen."

Piper set down her tray. "Okay, then."

"Yeah, and it sucks that I can't do anything fun on Halloween. No séance, no summoning demons, no hexing the neighbors-"

"Who's hexing the neighbors?" Leo walked in, still in his robe from work.

"Not Mel, unfortunately." The two parents shared a look, the kind of look that parents have when they are more world weary than their kids. Mel hated that look.

"What's the point of Halloween if you can't do anything magical?"

"Well there's always biting an apple to see your true love's initial. Your Aunt Phoebe got a C, and look who she married."

"Ew, gross. Save the romance for the Hallmark holiday." Mel slipped her bog over her shoulder and headed upstairs.

"There's the Magic School party tonight," Leo called up to her as she climbed the stairs.

"Thanks Dad, but I'm not 10 anymore."

"Kids your age go."

"Yeah, students who live at school and have nothing better to do because the school's wifi sucks." Mel continued up the stairs. Her parents heard her door slam shut.

"And to think," Piper said, "if we were a normal family we would be worrying about her getting into witchcraft."

Leo chuckled. He kissed his wife's cheek.

"Instead we have a call from the principal saying our daughter tried to free the frogs from the biology lab."

Piper picked up her tray and started filling it with batter. "Much better."

Paige orbed into her living room on Halloween afternoon to find her son Henry lounging on the couch in a blue Elsa costume and a blonde wig that sat lopsided on his head.

"Is there something you want to tell us," she teased.

"Yes." He held up small bag of candy. "I won apple bobbing at school."

"Nice." She leaned over to adjust her son's wig and stole a kitkat. Then she walked into the kitchen, which had a window out into the rest of the house.

"Yeah, but this one girl almost drowned because her braces got stuck on the barrel. They had to turn the barrel upside down and it got water everywhere."

"Oh no." Paige had braces as a kid. Thank god her kids' teeth were fine. She turned on the stove to heat up the kettle. Nothing like hot tea to warm her up after saving her charge in Boston.

"And then a woodshop teacher had to find the plyers. But she was alright."

"Well that's good."

"Hey Mom?"

"Yeah?" The kettle screamed. Paige poured herself cup of chai and another one for her son.

"Can I go trick or treating with Bobby and Alexis tonight? Alexis' dad is coming too. I know at 12 I'm kinda too old, but maybe one or two more years couldn't hurt."

"I don't see why not." She sat next to her son and gave him the tea. "But you'll miss the party at Magic School."

Henry shrugged. Lately he didn't like hiding at Magic School whenever there was a demon attack. Even though his parents, aunt, uncles and the Magic School staff all made sure to treat him no differently than the rest of the Charmed kids, Paige could tell her son was beginning to feel left out. His sisters were about to have their powers unbound, and they were learning basic spells rom their mother and aunts. Paige rested her hand on her son's back.

"Hey, how about next weekend you and me go out to LA and eat at that Indian place where we had your birthday? We can even make fun of people drinking pumpkin spice lattes."

"Really?"

"Yup. Mother son day. Unless of course you're too embarrassed to be seen in public with your mother?"

"Well. . ."

Paige threw a snickers candy at him. Soon the two of them were throwing candy all over the living room, laughing and saying what celebrity they wanted to spy on.

PJ pulled Parker's hair into a tight ponytail. With an expert hand she twirled her sister's hair into a neat bun. A touch of hair spray and it was done.

"Mom, Dad, she fixed it!" Parker bounced off the bed and scampered out of the room, one hand carrying the skirt of her red Renaissance dress. She was excited for the Magic School dance. Some boy, Blake, was going to be there. According to Parker not only can this guy astral project, he can speak fluent French. The knight to sweep her ladyship off her feet.

PJ herself was wearing a red T shirt, black skirt and mouse ears. She never liked Halloween that much. It seemed like the world tried for one night to be what she was everyday. A witch. Mel called it cultural appropriation. PJ just thought Halloween was for mortals. She stopped trick or treating when she graduated middle school. At 14 she had much better plans.

She slung a night bag over her shoulder and galloped down stairs. It was almost 7. She would get there early to set up. Yumi's parents were out of town, and as far as Mom and Dad knew she was going to a sleepover. At 9 everyone was supposed to show up. Brad was bringing the beer.

But when she got downstairs, her mom stood by the kitchen phone, one hand on her hip. She didn't have to say anything. PJ knew she knew. She still tried to play it cool.

"Hey Mom, what's up?"

"You're taking your sister trick or treating."

"What? But Mom-"

"No buts. Your father has work and I'm going to help with the dance."

"They already have chaperones. What are you going to do, read people's fortunes?"

"Actually, no." She smiled and shook her head. "I'm going to be doing the reading."

The reading. There was this old book of stories a teacher would dust off every year. Stories of witches and creatures of old. Merlin. Circe. Isis. The old times when good magic users were known and revered. The only one in the family who was into it was Tamara.

"What about Yumi's?"

"Yeah funny story. Turns out you got the date wrong. Yumi's mom said they were going to be out of town. In fact they decided to send Yumi to her grandmother's for the weekend."

PJ opened her mouth to protest, but one look from her mother and she shut up fast. At least she wasn't in trouble. Last month the girls found their mother's old yearbook and ever since then she was hesitant to discipline them. Nothing any of them did was anything close to "Free-be."

The sound of videogame guns blasting everything in sight echoed through a simple white townhouse. A coffee table covered in half eaten pizza slices and empty soda bottles sat in front of the TV. Three boys were sitting on the couch, eyes glued to the screen. The one on the middle, Wyatt, was winning.

"Yes, yes, no no no no!" Mason jumped off the couch. Laser sounds got louder. Wyatt grinned, going for the kill. When suddenly both boys let out a slew of curses. The scree dinged. Game over. Zack sat back against the couch.

"Well boys, I guess some people are just better. And some just suck."

"Up yours," Mason said. He switched the game off. "What do you want to do now?"

Wyatt shrugged. "Is 18 too old to go trick or treating?"

"We don't even have costumes, idiot." Zack grabbed a pepperoni off a plate.

"True."

"We could smash pumpkins," Mason suggested.

"Eh." Wyatt did that last year.

"There aren't any good parties. The only one nearby was this girl whose parents found out before they left." Mason got up to go get another Coke.

"Why do we have to do anything for Halloween this year?" Zack looked over the couch as Mason went to the kitchen. "They'll be better parties in college. Plus gas is expensive."

Wyatt already told his parents he wasn't going to Magic School for Halloween. Chris was going only to hang out with his friends there (they would probably sneak into someone's dorm room and play spin the bottle or something.) And Mel agreed to give out candy (which meant putting out an empty bowl with a "take one" sign and eating the candy herself and watching TV.) He technically could throw a party, but demons would probably attack or someone would bring weed. And he'd be screwed. Honestly, getting up at all sounded unappealing.

"Let's just stay here and watch the Hangover," he said.

Mason plopped back on the couch. Zack flipped the channels. Within minutes Wyatt was laughing at cheap slapstick like it was any old Friday instead of the biggest Wiccan Sabbath of the year.

Kat's dad agreed to take her and her friends out trick or treating. Sure, they were in 9th grade, but it was free candy and Mollie was small enough to pass for a 10 year old.

They ran from door to door collecting candy. The air had a certain festival quality to it. Children running around in costume was always fun.

"Hey Kat, aren't those your cousins?" Mikey pointed across the street wear a Minnie Mouse was holding a little black cat girl by the hand.

"Hey yeah," Dad said. He waved at them. Peyton waved back, but PJ just scowled. Someone wasn't in the Halloween spirit.

They climbed up the hill to the old white manor house. An old rich lady lived there with five cats. Every year she gave out full size candy bars.

Ding dong. She opened the door in a black witch's hat and a blue house dress.

"Trick or treat," they said.

"Oh look at you. Cinderella, Spiderman, and uh, what are you dear?"

Kat pulled her mask over her face. "I'm Deadpool. It's a superhero."

"Ah yes. Well here you are kids." Each teen pulled out a Hershey's bar from the bag.

"Happy Halloween," she said.

"Thanks. Happy Halloween." They ran down the driveway onto the next house.

"Too bad your sister isn't here," Dad said. "She'd love these."

"Yeah." Kat wouldn't say why her sister wasn't there. Tamara wasn't ready to tell yet.

"And so the great wizard Merlin sealed up the sword in the stone, waiting for Arthur to return."

Wyatt had the sword since he was a baby. Tamara jiggled her leg impatiently in her seat. The lecture hall was filled with students of all ages and a few teachers, listening to her aunt read. She wrapped her cloak around her body and hoped her Aunt Phoebe would hurry up to her story.

"But there was another great mage of Camelot. A woman feared through time. A sorceress whose very name sent a chill up the spine of scholars through the ages. But to the knight of Camelot, she was a wise and brave woman.

Morgana la Fay."

Tamara mouthed the name. It felt right in her tongue. It always had.

When she was little, Tamara would have dreams of a castle. In it, people bowed to her. She had dresses and jewels. Men, really hot men, would come and propose marriage. But the best part of all of that was her library.

"She possessed one of the greatest libraries of magic in the history of witchcraft." Aunt Phoebe squinted at the old cursive. "And like the library of Alexandria, lost to time."

Tamara couldn't remember what happened to the books. The dreams faded as she got older. Reincarnation usually worked that way. But whenever she heard these stories she could almost see herself there in her study.

She remembered Wyatt, too. He was her older brother then, but he was basically like her brother now too. She saw both of them riding horses side by side on their way to progress through the kingdom. He told her about his marriage troubles and she realized she didn't want to marry. Better to be-

"A scholar of magic, and most of all the founder of astral projection."

Tamara already mastered astral projection. Everyone compared her to Aunt Prue. She didn't want to correct them. No one knew of her past life but Kat.

"But tragedy struck the great witch."

She always hated this part.

"The king Urien of the land of the Scots wanted the lady Morgana for his bride. He went mad with obsession. Portraits of her filled his castle and songs of her filled his ears. When he refused," Aunt Phoebe paused for dramatic effect, "he marched straight through Camelot's gates and struck her dead. If he could not have her, no one could."

Luckily Tamara didn't remember that part. But she wondered if-

"Legend has it King Urien wandered the world, searching for his so called bride."

It was probably nothing to worry about.

Probably.

Tamara fiddled with her crystal pendant as everyone clapped at the story's end. Aunt Phoebe moved to other stories. After that they danced to old pagan songs and lit candles to thank the gods for another year. The veil between the living and the dead was thin. It was a time of year Tamara looked forward to, where she felt the most like herself. It was the witches' Sabbath. It was Samhain.