The Witching Hour {Nick Scratch}

1. COLD WAR

CHAPTER ONE

COLD WAR.

"I WAS CONFUSED BY THE zombies," Harvey Kinkle stated as a group of five friends strolled through the cinema, walking down the busy staircase. He walked at the back of the group, Susie Putnam and Rosalind Walker were in the middle and the two Spellman twins; Sabrina and Echo were at the front, "I mean, why were they so freakin' slow?"

"Fast-moving zombies is a relatively concept in horror," Sabrina explained, "Earlier incarnations assumed that reanimated corpses were afflicted by rigorous mortis, and, as such, moved slowly," The blonde half-witch stopped dead in her tracks when her eyes landed on a group of jocks close by the entrance.

Echo quickly picked up on her sister's thoughts and the redhead turned to look back at Susie; ignoring the conversation happening between Harvey and Ros. The older Spellman twin sent Susie a reassuring smile before placing her hand in Susie's as she carried on walking towards the entrance with her head held high.

Suddenly, Sabrina bumped into a woman when she was turning around to joke with Harvey and Ros, "Oh, I'm so sorry," The blonde quickly apologised before letting out a surprised gasp, "Ms. Wardwell, hi. I didn't know you were a fan of horror movies."

"Sabrina's nuts for them," Harvey spoke up, smiling politely at the teacher, "the gorier, the better."

Ms. Wardwell smiled politely at the teenagers as she cleaned her glasses, "Well, uh, who doesn't enjoy a good scare every now and then?" She placed her glasses back on her face, "Especially at this time of the year."

The group of friends and the teacher all walked out of the cinema, through the large crowds of friends and families.

"Ms. Wardwell, we have a tradition of going to the movies and then to Dr. Cerberus' to dissect whatever we just saw. Do you want to join us?" Sabrina asked when they finally made it outside into the chilly air of late October.

Echo raised her eyebrow and shared a confused look with Rosalind, the two girls not understanding why Sabrina; a teenage girl, would invite a teacher to hang out with them. Echo loved Ms. Wardwell as a teacher, the woman was definitely the best one in Baxter High, but it was still a weird thing to invite a teacher to hang out with a bunch of students on a weekend.

"Oh, I have papers to grade," Ms. Wardwell explained, "But thank you, thank you for the offer. Really," She was smiling widely, "See you in class, guys," The older woman said before she waved to the group and disappeared into the crowd once again.

"Brina, why would you do that?" Ros questioned, looking at the blonde with an amused expression on her face.

"Invite Ms. Wardwell?"

"Yeah."

"I feel bad for her," Sabrina confessed, "Living in that house...all alone," She sighed.

"Oh, Brina, you're too nice for your own good," Echo commented, shoving her hands into her denim jacket pockets as the five friends began making their way down the street.

-

"THE WHOLE THING FUNCTIONS AS a metaphor."

"It's a monster movie, Susie," Harvey chuckled as he leaned back in his seat. His arm casually draped over Sabrina's shoulder as they sat opposite Echo, Susie and Rosalind in a booth at 'Dr. Cerberus' Books'.

"Devil's advocate, can't it be both?" Sabrina suggested, glancing between her boyfriend and Susie.

"Exactly!" Susie exclaimed, "Exactly, it's both! On one level, yes, it is about zombies, but it's also about the Cold War."

"Civil rights," Ros nodded enthusiastically.

"The collapse of the nuclear family."

"Did we just watch completely different movies?" Echo asked jokingly as Harvey nodded, agreeing with the redhead.

"You didn't get that?" Susie asked, looking between Echo and Harvey, "From when the daughter turned into a zombie and then ate her mother?"

"I just thought she was hungry," Echo nonchalantly replied as she took a sip of her soda.

"I think Harvey may have had his eyes closed during that part," Sabrina joked.

Harvey shook his head and chuckled, "No, no I didn't."

"Aww ickle Harvey," Echo said as the girls began laughing at a red faced Harvey.

Sabrina chuckled at her boyfriend's expression before the lovestruck teenagers connected their lips together, feeling their teeth clashing into each other due to the large smiles on their faces.

Echo fake gaged, "Gross."