It has been fifteen years since Amelia and Lydia Clack last seen Black Hollow. They wouldn’t even be there now except their grandparents had left them the house when they died. Amelia and Lydia were the only set of twins ever born there in the history of Black Hollow. Their parents didn’t want them to be viewed as an oddity so they moved them away at a very young age. Black Hollow was built strategically at the base of Witch Mountain and it was the home to hippies and eccentrics.

Choosing to leave their hometown, of course, meant they would be outsiders and outsiders weren’t welcome. The twins didn’t have any intention of staying in town for very long so they weren’t worried about what the town folk thought. That would prove to be a mistake that both of them would eventually regret.

Amelia was the oldest twin by six minutes and she was definitely the more confident one of the two. Lydia was shy but she had a few strengths that Amelia didn’t have which is why they made a great team. As they pulled up their grandparent’s house they were in awe of the sheer size and beauty of it. It could easily be the largest house in town and definitely the most elaborate.

They felt like they had just stepped into one of the fairytale stories that their parents used to tell them. As they walk around the house they discover a secret garden and pond filled with various critters. This house would definitely sell fast and then they could quickly return home. As the girls walked around the house they never even noticed the person watching them from the woods. Lydia grabs the suitcases from the car while Amelia unlocks the front door. It has been several months since their grandparents passed so everything inside was coated with dust. They immediately commit to the task of opening up some windows and dusting.

They definitely didn’t want to sleep in their grandparent’s bed tonight so they chose to share the guest room. It was an elaborate room with large wooden furniture and several bookshelves filled to capacity. Lydia walks over to check out some of the titles but most of them were just numbered. She decides she’ll take a closer look later this evening once they have settled in. She leaves to join her sister who had already started setting up the for sale sign in the front yard.

Once the girls do some quick cleaning and unpacking they settle themselves on the couch. Amelia had brought her laptop so that she could work on some writing and Lydia brought a stack of books to read.The girls both sat quietly occupied for several hours until it started to get chilly.

Amelia got up and stretched before she headed over to the fireplace and that is when she noticed the large well-worn book lying open on the mantel. “Hey come over here and look at this.” She tells her sister. “It had better be a hidden treasure or something,” Lydia tells her as she makes her way across the room. Lydia gives her sister an annoyed look and says “It’s just a book!” “I know it’s a book but look closer at the pages,” Amelia says. As Lydia gets closer she notices the pages are filled with drawings and things that appear to be recipes. “I don’t get it.” She says to her sister. “They’re just strange recipes and pictures that make no sense.” Lydia continues. “I think they’re spells,” Amelia tells her.

Is this why their parents moved them away at such an early age? Lydia closes the book to read the title hoping it was some sick joke that they could laugh about later. The book was titled Witch Bones and that definitely didn’t feel like a joke. They quickly skim through it and learn that the book held various spells and secrets from their grandparents. Their grandparents were apparently the last two original practicing witches of Black Hollow.

The girls were shocked at the things the book revealed about this town and their grandparents. For the first time since they arrived, they were actually nervous about being in Black Hollow. The girls were interrupted halfway through the book by a loud knock on the door. Lydia jumped up to answer it and was shocked to see a tiny disheveled woman standing there. “You don’t belong here!” She says as she spits in Lydia’s face. The woman didn’t even wait for a response before she turned away and headed towards the woods. Lydia stands there horrified as she wipes the woman’s spit from her eyes.

“That woman just spit on me!” she screeched. Amelia gets up to go after her but she was long gone. “Let’s just try and make the best of this night by building a nice fire in the fireplace,” Amelia tells her. After splitting a bottle of wine they decided to just hunker down in the living room where it was warm. Amelia was the first one to wake the next morning and noticed blood smeared all over the windows. She tries to wake Lydia up but she wouldn’t budge in fact she didn’t even appear to be breathing. Amelia looks closely at her sister and notices her face is blotchy and her eyes are swollen shut. Lydia was barely breathing and Amelia could only detect a faint pulse.

Somehow Amelia felt the only thing that could help her sister now was her grandparent’s book. She knew that it must have an answer and after checking the table of contents she finds it. It seems as though Lydia had been infected with a poison delivered to her through the woman’s spit. There was an antidote that could easily be given to Lydia but she had to hurry. The poison was rare and could have easily killed any other person but the twins were made from witch bones.