#well it’s not that late but it’s still dracula/frankenstein and I’ll be home reasonably late

[cookinguptales]

SPEAKING of tarot, look what came. :)

thank you, @theartofmadeline, they’re lovely!

I’ve got to run soon for a late night double feature picture show, but if I’m not too tired when I get home, maybe we could have a fun tarot night. haven’t done one of those in a while!

[fishoutofcamelot]

Zombie symbolism in media? Body snatchers? That sounds extremely interesting 👀👀👀

OOOOOOOOOOH ARE YOU READY FOR ME TO RANT? CUZ I’M GONNA RANT BABY. YALL WANNA SEE HOW HARD I CAN HYPERFIXATE???

I’ll leave my ramblings under the cut.

The Bodysnatchers thing is a bit quicker to explain so I’ll start with that. Basically, Invasion of the Body Snatchers was released in 1956, about a small town where the people are slowly but surely replaced and replicated by emotionless hivemind pod aliens. It was a pretty obvious metaphor for the red scare and America’s fear of the ‘growing threat of communism’ invading their society. A communist could look like anyone and be anyone, after all.

Naturally, the bodysnatcher concept got rebooted a few times - Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1978), Body Snatchers (1993), and The Invasion (2007), just off the top of my head. You’re all probably very familiar with the core concept: people are slowly being replaced by foreign duplicates. 

But while the monster has remained roughly the same, the theme has not. In earlier renditions, Bodysnatchers symbolized communism. But in later renditions, the narratives shifted to symbolize freedom of expression and individualism - that is, people’s ability to express and think for themselves being taken away. That’s because freedom of thought/individuality is a much more pressing threat on our minds in the current climate. Most people aren’t scared of communists anymore, but we are scared of having our free will taken away from us. 

The best indicator of the era in which a story is created is its villain. Stories written circa 9/11 have villains that are foreign, because foreign terrorism was a big fear in the early 2000s. In the past, villains were black people, because white people were racist (and still are, but more blatantly so in the past). 

Alright, now for the fun part.

ZOMBIES

Although the concept has existed in Haitian voodooism for ages, the first instance of zombies in western fiction was a book called The Magic Island written by William Seabrook in 1929. Basically ol Seabrook took a trip to Haiti and saw all the slaves acting tired and ‘brutish’ and, having learned about the voodoo ‘zombi’, believed the slaves were zombies, and thus put them in his book.

The first zombie story in film was actually an adaptation of Seabrook’s accounts, called White Zombie (1932). It was about a couple who takes a trip to Haiti, only for the woman to be turned into a zombie and enchanted into being a Haitian’s romantic slave. SUPER racist, if you couldn’t tell, but not only does it reflect the state of entertainment of the era - Dracula and Frankenstein had both been released around the same time - but it also reflects American cultural fears. That is, the fear of white people losing their authoritative control over the world. White fright.

Naturally, the box office success of White Zombie inspired a whole bunch of other remakes and spinoffs in the newly minted zombie genre, most of them taking a similar Haitian voodoo approach. Within a decade, zombies had grown from an obscure bit of Haitian lore to a fully integrated part of American pop culture. Movies, songs, books, cocktails, etc. 

But this was also a time for WWII to roll around and, much like the Bodysnatchers, zombie symbolism evolved to fit the times. Now zombies experienced a shift from white fright and ethnic spirituality to something a bit more secular. Now they were a product of foreign science created to perpetuate warmongering schemes. In King of Zombies (1941), a spy uses zombies to try and force a US Admiral to share his secrets. And Steve Sekely’s Revenge of the Zombies (1943) became the first instance of Nazi zombies. 

Then came the atom bomb, and once more zombie symbolism shifted to fears of radiation and communism. The most on-the-nose example of this is Creature With the Atom Brain (1955).

Then came the Vietnam War, and people started fearing an uncontrollable, unconscionable military. In Night of the Living Dead (1968), zombies were caused by radiation from a space probe, combining both nuclear and space-race motifs, as well as a harsh government that would cause you just as much problems as the zombies. One could argue that the zombies in the Living Dead series represent military soldiers, or more likely the military-industrial complex as a whole, which is presented as mindless in its pursuit of violence.

The Living Dead series also introduced a new mainstay to the genre: guns. Military stuff. Fighting. Battle. And that became a major milestone in the evolution of zombie representation in media. This was only exacerbated by the political climate of the time. In the latter half of the 20th century, there were a lot of wars. Vietnam, Korea, Arab Spring, Bay of Pigs, America’s various invasions and attacks on Middle Eastern nations, etc. Naturally the public were concerned by all this fighting, and the nature of zombie fiction very much evolved to match this.

But the late 1900s weren’t just a place of war. They were also a place of increasing economic disparity and inequal wealth distribution. In the 70s and 80s, the wage gap widened astronomically, while consumerism remained steadily on the rise. And so, zombies symbolized something else: late-stage capitalism. Specifically, capitalist consumption - mindless consumption. For example, in Dawn of the Dead (1978), zombies attack a mall, and with it the hedonistic lifestyles of the people taking refuge there. This iteration props up zombies as the consumers, and it is their mindless consumption that causes the fall of the very system they were overindulging in.

Then there was the AIDS scare, and the zombie threat evolved to match something that we can all vibe with here in the time of COVID: contagion. Now the zombie condition was something you could get infected with and turn into. In a video game called Resident Evil (1996), the main antagonist was a pharmaceutical company called the Umbrella Corporation that’s been experimenting with viruses and bio-warfare. In 28 Days Later (2002), viral apes escape a research lab and infect an unsuspecting public.

Nowadays, zombies are a means of expressing our contemporary fears of apocalypse. It’s no secret that the world has been on the brink for a while now, and everyone is waiting with bated breath for the other shoe to drop. Post-apocalypse zombie movies act as simultaneous male power fantasy, expression of contemporary cynicism, an expression of war sentiments, and a product of the zombie’s storied symbolic history. People are no longer able to trust the government, and in many ways people have a hard time trusting each other, and this manifests as an every-man-for-himself survivalist narrative. 

So why have zombies endured for so long, despite changing so much? Why are we so fascinated by them? Well, many say that it’s because zombies are a way for us to express our fears of apocalypse. Communism, radiation, contagion - these are all threats to the country’s wellbeing. Some might even say that zombies represent a threat to conversative America/white nationalism, what with the inclusion of voodooism, foreign entities, and late-stage capitalism being viewed as enemies.

Personally, I might partly agree with the conservative America thing, but I don’t think zombies exist to project our fears onto. That’s just how villains and monsters work in general. In fiction, the conflict’s stakes don’t hit home unless the villain is intimidating. The hero has to fight something scary for us to be invested in their struggles. But the definition of what makes something scary is different for every different generation and social group. Maybe that scary thing is foreign invaders, or illness, or losing a loved one, or a government takeover. As such, the stories of that era mold to fit the fears of that era. It’s why we see so many government conspiracy thrillers right now; it’s because we’re all afraid of the government and what it can do to us.

So if projecting societal fears onto the story’s villain is a commonplace practice, then what makes zombies so special? Why have they lasted so long and so prevalently? I would argue it’s because the concept of a zombie, at its core, plays at a long-standing American ideal: freedom.

Why did people migrate to the New World? Religious freedom. Why did we start the Revolutionary War and become our own country? Freedom from England’s authority. Why was the Civil War a thing? The south wanted freedom from the north - and in a remarkable display of irony, they wanted to use that freedom to oppress black people. Why are we so obsessed with capitalism? Economic freedom.

Look back at each symbolic iteration of the zombie. What’s the common thread? In the 20s/30s, it was about white fright. The fear that black people could rise up against them and take away their perceived ‘freedom’ (which was really just tyrannical authority, but whatever). During WWII, it was about foreign threats coming in and taking over our country. During Vietnam, it became about our military spinning out of control and hecking things up for the rest of us. In the 80s/90s, it was about capitalism turning us into mindless consumers. Then it was about plagues and hiveminds and the collapse of society as a whole, destroying everything we thought we knew and throwing our whole lives into disarray. In just about every symbolic iteration, freedom and power have been major elements under threat.

And even deeper than that, what is a zombie? It’s someone who, for whatever reason, is a mindlessly violent creature that cannot think beyond base animal impulses and a desire to consume flesh. You can no longer think for yourself. Everything that made you who you are is gone.

Becoming a zombie is the ultimate violation of someone’s personal freedom. And that terrifies Americans.

Although an interesting - and concerning - phenomenon is this new wave of wish fulfillment zombie-ism. You know, the gun-toting action movie hero who has the personality of soggy toast and a jaw so chiseled it could decapitate the undead. That violent survivalist notion of living off the grid and being a total badass all the while. It speaks to men who, for whatever reason, feel their masculinity and dominance is under threat. So they project their desires to compensate for their lack of masculine control onto zombie fiction, granting them personal freedom from obligations and expectations (and feminism) to live out their solo macho fantasies by engaging in low- to no-consequence combat. And in doing so, completely disregarding the fact that those same zombies were once people who cruelly had their freedom of self ripped away from them. Gaining their own freedom through the persecution of others (zombies). And if that doesn’t sum up the white conservative experience, I don’t know what does.

So yeah. That’s zombies, y’all.

Thanks for the ask!

[olicitybishop-clairmont]

Motherboards, Mischief, and Magic CH. 7

Hey everyone! In honor of Arrow being back on, I thought I could post an update for one of my multichaps. Here’s the next chapter of my supernatural/Halloween/magic/high school AU. Hope you all like it!

Master List

CH. 1, CH. 2, CH. 3, CH. 4, CH. 5, CH. 6

Enjoy!

Felicity

Standing in front of the mirror in her room, Felicity nervously smoothed down the front of her costume. She had to admit, it looked pretty good on her, especially with her blonde hair down around her shoulders.

However, her costume wasn’t what made her anxious.

For the past day and a half, Felicity had been watching her friends like a hawk, waiting to see if anything would happen to them because of her brownies, and rather than be relieved that nothing had yet happened, her anxiety only seemed to increase.

Felicity turned at the sound of the door opening, seeing her mother poke her head through the door.

“Felicity, the girls are downstairs waiting for you. Are you ready?”

Felicity tried answering her, but her voice caught in her throat. She simply nodded in response. Donna’s face softened in sympathy.

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m sure everything is going to be all right. We don’t even know if you managed to do anything... extra to the brownies. It’s been almost two days and there’s been no sign of odd activity. Maybe there’s nothing to worry about.”

“I don't think so, Mom. Something’s... off... about tonight. I can feel it.”

Donna walked over to Felicity, placing her hands gently on her shoulders and turning her away from the mirror to face her mother.

“Well, I didn’t eat any brownies, and the book is down in the kitchen. I’ll be staying home tonight to hand out candy to the trick-or-treaters. My phone will be with me the entire time, so if you need anything, don’t hesitate to call me. Okay?”

Taking a deep breath, Felicity nodded. “That actually does make me feel a bit better.”

Donna placed a quick peck on her daughter’s forehead and said with a slightly forced cheeriness, “I’m glad. Now you need to get going or you’ll be late! Those girls won’t wait outside for you forever.”

Felicity gave Donna a somewhat shaky smile squaring her shoulders and reaching to grab her clutch from her nightstand.

“Well, I am off to see the Wizard! I’ll let you know if anything happens.”

“You be safe, sweetie. Okay?”

“Will do, Mom.”

With that, Felicity went outside to meet her friends. Once in the driveway, she laughed at seeing the costumes on Iris and Caitlyn.

Wonder Woman, Batgirl, are the two of you taking a night off from crime-fighting and saving the world to go to a Halloween party?”

Iris laughed and adjusted her crown. “No more than you are taking a trip from Oz, Glinda. You ready to head over to the party?”

“Yup. Got my phone, some cash, my ID... I am good to go. And I call shotgun!”

Caitlyn groaned, “Oh come on! No fair!”

While walking over to the driver’s side, Iris laughingly stated, “Sorry, Cait, those are the rules. She called it.”

With a huff, Caitlyn got into the back seat of the car while Felicity got into the passenger side.

They certainly couldn't be late to the party.

0o0o0

Friday evening, just before 6 pm, Starling City’s Community Center

The town square in front of the Community Center was rapidly filling with people of all ages in costumes of all kinds. The party would officially start at 6 pm, after the clock tower chimed the hour. Then it would be music, dancing, food, contests, and trick-or treating until midnight.

Felicity looked around nervously at the gathering crowd. There were definitely more people attending this party than she originally thought. If anything was going to happen tonight because of her spell, she didn’t know how she was going to spot it and potentially reverse it with so many people around.

Felicity, Iris, Barry, Caitlyn, Ronnie, and Cisco had found a corner where they could stand as a group and watch everyone coming in with their costumes and offer their opinions on who had the best look, even if they were only talking to each other. According to Cisco, who had taken off his Stormtrooper mask to have a drink and a snack, their group was the one to beat in the costume department.

Iris nudged Felicity, subtly pointing in the direction of the entryway. “Look who just showed up.”

Felicity looked over to see the Queen family walking into the courtyard. Moira and Robert looked fantastic as a very lifelike Frankenstein’s Monster and his Bride. Thea looked terrifying next to her parents in a Maleficent costume that looked as if she had gotten it straight from Angelina Jolie. And Oliver...

Felicity giggled quietly as she realized who he was pretending to be in his costume. For some reason, she expected him to go more the superhero route, like Batman or Green Arrow. Although that might not have been the best idea next to his best friend and his new girlfriend, seeing as Tommy and Laurel had come as Green Arrow and Black Canary.

Caitlyn’s statement brought Felicity back to the conversation.

“I gotta say, Oliver makes a pretty good Harry Potter. It looks like he has the scar and the glasses and everything. I wonder if he chose a specific year.”

Felicity silently agreed with Caitlyn. he did make a pretty good fictional wizard.

And he was so rocking those round glasses.

“Quite the coinkydink, don’t you think?” Felicity heard Iris’s coy question.

Frowning in confusion, she turned to look at her friend. “What do you mean?”

“He’s here as a wizard, you’re here as a witch... He’s newly single... You’re not seeing anyone... He has clearly expressed interest from what you told me about that incident in the library...”

Felicity closed her eyes in realization. She hadn’t told her friends about her coffee date!

“First of all, while he is dressed up as a wizard and me as a witch, we are not even in the same fictional universe. Second of all... I guess I didn’t tell you about yesterday?”

“Yesterday? What happened yesterday?”

Caitlyn chimed in. “Oh! Is this about why I saw him walking away from you in the costume shop yesterday?”

Iris looked at Caitlyn in indignation. “Why didn’t you tell me anything?”

“Because Felicity didn’t tell me anything!”

Both girls turned to look at her at the same time, saying, “Spill!” in unison.

Felicity raise an eyebrow at their nosiness. “You two already have boyfriends. Why do you need to know about my love life? Or lack thereof?”

“Nice try changing the subject, Lis. Not gonna work. Now tell us before the announcements start!” Iris said, snatching Felicity’s phone from her hand. “You can’t have this back until you tell us.”

Felicity huffed, crossing her arms. “Fine. If you must know, before Cait got me my costume... Oliver came over to talk to me.”

Both girls looked at her expectantly. “...Aaaand?”

“And... he asked me on a coffee date tomorrow!” Felicity’s excitement at her date briefly overshadowed her anxiety, and for a moment the three girls celebrated quietly at Felicity’s new romantic opportunity.

“See? I knew he liked you. Clearly he just needed to get up the courage to say so,” Iris stated smugly. She handed Felicity’s phone back to her with a flourish.

Rolling her eyes at her friend’s tone, Felicity snuck a peek over at the Queen family.

And saw that Oliver was already sneaking a look at her.

Felicity could feel the color rising in her cheeks at the fact that she was caught, but she didn’t drop his gaze. She saw his smile widen slightly into a smirk, and then he did something that, for a split second, froze her brain.

He winked.

A thrill shot through her, and she bit her bottom lip slightly to keep from grinning widely.

The two of them were still gazing at each other when Felicity felt a nudge in her side and heard a whisper of her name. She looked over to see Caitlyn nodding to the Community Center steps, where a microphone was positioned.

“The announcements are about to start. You can ogle your new boyfriend later,” Caitlyn whispered.

“He’s not my boyfriend!” Felicity whisper-shouted, causing a few of the surrounding crowd to look back at her.

“But you want him to be,” she sing-songed back.

“Oh, shut up.”Felicity couldn’t keep the small smile off her face, though, at the thought of being something... more with Oliver.

Saturday could not come soon enough.

Mayor Steele walked up to the microphone and greeted the people in the square.

“Hello, and good evening, everyone,” he said in a hilariously fake Transylvanian accent. He had decided to dress up as Dracula for this years’ Halloween celebration.

Mayor Steele’s greeting made the crowd laugh, but then he dropped the act to speak normally. “Thank you all for coming to the annual Starling Halloween Monster Mash. I hope you are all ready to eat, drink, and be scary! As is tradition, the festivities will begin at 6 pm after the last bell chime from the clock marking the hour. Have a wonderful time tonight everyone, and get home safely!” 

Just a moment after he finished speaking, a loud ring could be heard from up above. The clock tower was marking the 6 pm hour.

The first chime brought cheers that the party was about to start.

The second chime brought another sound.

Cries of surprise. Shock. Fear. Pain.

Another chime.

Felicity watched in horror as more and more people around her doubled over in agony.

Another chime.

The cheers turning into roars and screams. Felicity looked over at her group of friends, seeing them all in some sort of pain. She rushed over to where Caitlyn and Iris were sprawled.

“Oh my god, are you guys okay? Iris? Caitlyn?”

Iris shook her hair out of her eyes and said, “Who is this Iris you speak of? My name is Diana of Themyscira. This is not my home. How did I get here? Do you know?”

“What? Iris, what are you talking about? You’re in Starling. Caitlyn? What about you?”

Another chime.

Caitlyn looked at her like she didn’t recognize her. My name’s not Caitlyn, it’s Batgirl. I have no clue who you’re talking about. Wonder Woman, we need to figure out what the hell happened here and get back to the rest of the League.”

The final chime.

Felicity looked as her two best friends walked away from her as if they didn’t even know her. Their departure brought her eyes to the rest of the people in the town square.

At least, they used to be people.

All around her, chaos was ensuing.

Loud, cruel laughter sounded off from near the entrance of the square. That looked like... Thea. Surrounded by green fire. Felicity watched as her nose morphed into a long snout. As her skin turned dark purple and... scaly. As her fingers transformed into claws. Within just a moment, a massive dragon stood where Thea had once been.

And near the punch bowl, it looked like Mayor Steele was bent over someone and he was... was he actually drinking someone’s blood?

A growl made Felicity look in front of her to see what looked like a humanoid version of a wolf, prowling towards her.

Felicity slowly began to step backward, and the wolf’s eyes latched onto her movement.

Felicity froze.

The wolf pounced.

And was slammed into a nearby wall.

Felicity’s arms, which had raised to futilely shield herself, slowly came down. She looked to her left to see Oliver standing there, his arm outstretched and a furious expression on his face.

Felicity, still in a state of shock, stuttered out, “O-O-Oliver?” She looked at the dazed wolf-like creature and then looked back at Oliver.

“W-What was... How did you do that? I thought that thing was going to eat me!”

She took a step toward him, but paused. Cautious, she asked, “Is it you, Oliver?”

He looked confused by her question. “Felicity, of course it’s me.” He stepped up to her, his warm hands closing gently around her upper arms. “Are you okay?”

“I-I think so. But is sure doesn’t look like anyone else is! I’m pretty sure I just saw Mayor Steele drinking blood, and your sister just turned into a dragon. I have no clue what the hell is going on!”

Oliver was about to respond when he looked over her shoulder and his eyes widened. Yanking on her arms, he pulled her out of the way of an arrow that embedded itself into the wall behind where Felicity had been standing. Moving themselves well out of the way, the two of them watched what looked like... Tommy and Laurel come racing toward them. They watched the two of them jump on someone’s motorcycle that had been parked outside the square and peel off down the road.

Oliver and Felicity looked at each other.

“We definitely need to get out of here.”

“Agreed.”

Oliver took her hand and the two of them ran to his car, dodging townsfolk left and right.

Once in the car, Felicity got her phone out of her bag and immediately called her mom.

She picked up on the first ring.

“Felicity?! Sweetheart, is that you?”

“Mom! Please tell me you’re okay? Are you at the house?”

“Yes, and I’ve barricaded myself in. I had to after I watched little Wally West and Jesse Wells from down the street turn into an alien and a clown.”

“Oh, jeez. Mom, do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Oh, honey, I think I do. And so do you.”

“What? What is that suppo-” Felicity thought back to their earlier conversation before she left for the party. She gasped, and tears gathered in her eyes as she realized what had happened.

“Oh, mom, this is all my fault! I turned the whole town crazy!”

At that statement, Felicity heard denials from both her mother on the phone and Oliver in the driver’s seat as he was trying to find a route to get away from the town square.

“Honey, you had no idea what you were doing. This is absolutely not your fault.”

“Felicity, I don’t know what happened, but I am absolutely sure that this isn’t your fault. One person can’t turn a whole town into their costumes.”

She looked at him, confused at his statement.

“What you do mean, turned into their costumes?”

Oliver was focused on the road as he made a sharp turn to avoid crashing into what looked like a zombie standing in the middle of the street.

“I mean that when the clock struck 6 pm, everyone... became the characters they were pretending to be. Tommy and Laurel were the Green Arrow and Black Canary. Mayor Steele was drinking blood because he became a vampire. My sister turned into a dragon because she turned into Maleficent.”

“And why Iris and Caitlyn turned into Batgirl and Wonder Woman,” Felicity breathed. It was all starting to make sense.

Donna’s voice on the line brought Felicity back to the phone.

“Felicity, where are you?”

“In a car with Oliver, trying to find a way out of here.”

“Oliver Queen?”

“Yeah, why?”

Silence.

“Both of you need to get to the house, Felicity. Right now.”

She hung up.

Felicity turned to Oliver and urgently said, “Oliver, we need to go to my house. Now.”

He looked like he wanted to argue, but then saw the expression on her face.

The car turned down her street.

0o0o0

Oliver and Felicity parked in the driveway and sprinted up to the front door, where Donna was ready and waiting, holding it open. The second they stepped through and into the house, she immediately closed and locked the door behind her.

Before anyone could say anything, Donna drew her daughter in for a crushing hug. Felicity held her mother just as tightly, burying her head in her shoulder. Donna’s hand came up and stroked her hair softly.

“It’s all my fault, mom,” Felicity’s voice, though muffled by shirt fabric, could be heard.

Before Donna could respond, Oliver chimed in. “Felicity, this is not your fault. I have no clue what happened out there earlier, but you are not to blame here.”

“Actually, Oliver, I am.” Felicity pulled out of her mother’s arms and wiped her eyes. “I am the reason that this is happening.”

“Felicity, how could you possibly have done this?”

She took a deep breath and looked him in the eye.

“Because I can do magic.”

“...What do you mean, magic?”

“I mean I cast a spell. But I didn’t know I was doing it! I was just making brownies from an old recipe book that I found in our attic when I went up there looking for my mom’s old cookbooks and she didn’t even tell me it was actually a spellbook until I got home from the bake sale, and practically the whole town bought a brownie, so now everyone has eaten my weird magic brownies and I have no clue if what’s happening is permanent or how to reverse it and it’s all my fault!”

Felicity took a big gulp of air. She had said all of that in one breath and was ever so slightly light-headed.

“And I’m also wondering why you are not now believing you are The Boy Who Lived, because I know for a fact that I sold you a brownie.”

“I never got to eat it,” Oliver said absently. He was still trying to wrap his mind around everything Felicity had said. “I put it down and Thea ended up eating it as a midnight snack.”

“I know it sounds absolutely crazy,” Felicity sighed, pleading with him to understand. “But it’s true. I can do magic, and I did this.”

Oliver looked at her like he was seeing her for the first time. “You can do magic.”

Felicity nodded cautiously.

A grin slowly grew on his face. Oliver reached for her, taking her into his arms and hugging her tightly.

Felicity slowly placed her hand on his shoulder, not quite hugging him back. “Oliver? Are you okay?”

He pulled back from her, his arms still around her waist. “I am better than okay. I was so worried about how you would react if I ever told you, but it turns out you’re just like me! This is amazing!” He backtracked quickly at the look on Felicity’s face. “I mean, it’s awful, what’s happening with the town and all.”

Felicity wasn’t focused on that. “Wait, what do you mean, ‘like you’?... Are you telling me that you can do magic too?!”

Oliver nodded, his smile fading and wariness creeping in. “My family comes from a long line of magic. My parent both have it, and so does my sister. Tommy and Laurel do as well. In the past, people who find out about us, people who don’t have magic... They tend not to react well. A lot of our ancestors were either burned at the stake or chased out of towns they helped build. So, we keep it a secret.”

Felicity pulled out of his arms and placed her fingers on her temples. All this new information was giving her a headache. “This is a lot to process in the span of a few days.” She turned to her mother, who was being strangely quiet.

“Mom?”

But Donna was looking into the entryway to the kitchen. Oliver and Felicity turned to see what she was looking at.

The spell book was on the table.

It was open.

And glowing.

The three of them stepped closer to see words appearing on the page.

“By the last chime tonight will all fates be sealed

To remain spellbound or true forms revealed

Say it once, say it twice, say it thrice to be sure

Or else all will be lost with never a cure.”

The three of them read it silently, taking the words in.

Felicity was the first to speak.

“What does it mean?”

They all watched as the glow faded from the words, setting them into the page. Donna answered her daughter.

“It means we have only six hours to reverse the spell put on those brownies, or it becomes permanent. Everyone will become their costumes. Forever.”

And there is chapter 7! Crazy, right? As always, let me know what you thought and if you want to be tagged!

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