Chapter Text
Sunday mornings were quite nice and relaxing in the Spellman household.
They would always begin the same way: while Phillip laid soundly in his bed, a restful smile would be on his face as he cuddled his favorite blanket.
It was a special gift to him from his uncle, who just so happened to share the same name as him, just spelled differently.
His parents would be downstairs.
While Piper, Phillip's pelican palisman, was outside enjoying the snacks that were given to him by Caleb and ****** in his nest, the couple were peacefully preparing breakfast together in the kitchen.
The indulgent and tasty meal they were making was a favorite amongst the Spellman family.
As soon as the familiar scent from downstairs traveled to his room and up his nostrils, Phillip quickly shot up from his sleep.
His eyes, as well as his smile, were bright.
"Flapjacks!" he beamed as he hurriedly slid out of bed in his handmade socks (also a gift from his uncle), racing out of his cracked door and into the hallway.
When he arrived downstairs, the little witchlet halfling was immediately greeted with a smile by both his mother and father.
"Good morning, Phillip," Caleb said to his son as he and ****** sat at the table, where the pancakes were already plated up.
Phillip had a seat himself, smiling fondly at his dad. "Good morning, Papa!" he greeted back with a chirp in his voice.
Piper flew into the cottage through the front window and landed on his webbed feet before walking towards the breakfast table.
When he approached them, the family noticed him eyeing the bowl of roasted baby growtatoes with keen interest.
They all began to laugh.
Caleb looked to Phillip. "Seem's Piper is about ready for breakfast, too. Would you like to put together something for him, or shall I take care of it while you eat?"
"Don't worry, Papa! I can take care of it!" Hearing that, Piper walked over to Phillip's side, opening his very long bill.
Phillip took his plate and used his fork to transfer some of his breakfast into Piper's mouth. He promptly shut it and enthusiastically began to eat.
Proud smiles lit up the faces of his parents as they let out soft laughs.
Their respective birds flew into the cottage and landed on their shoulders.
"You're growing up to be a very kind and responsible boy," Caleb told his son as Phillip smiled with a forkful of pancakes.
"Oh! I've been meaning to ask…" Caleb looked to ******, who directed her smile at him and nodded her head.
He glanced back at Phillip. "Did I ever tell you the story about how your mother and I met?"
After swallowing the chewed food in his mouth, Phillip responded excitedly with, "No, you haven't! I wanna know, Papa! I wanna know the story!"
Chuckling at Phillip's joyful demeanor, Caleb began telling him.
...
"Caleb..., Caaaleb, ... Caleb?" His brother whispered his name to him, but Caleb's world remained dark as ink.
That is until Philip felt the need to take hold of his shoulders.
"Caleb, wake up!"
"H-Huh?!" Caleb's eyes shot open as he immediately woke up from his blissful dream as a father.
The back of his head repeatedly came into contact with his pillow as Philip shook him.
Upon seeing his brother now awake, the brunette released his shoulders.
After wiping his eyes with his arm, the 23-year-old blinked a few times before giving his 19-year-old brother a displeased look.
"Philip, was that really necessary?" A groggy Caleb asked before a small smirk crept onto his lips.
"If you're enthusiastic about a date you've arranged with a girl, you couldn't have waited until I woke up on my own to inform me about it?" he chuckled.
Philip gave Caleb a very vex frown. "It's not about that," he replied in a deadpan tone, rolling his eyes at his older brother.
He let out a huff before speaking once more. "Caleb, be serious. I woke you up because of this."
Reaching a hand behind himself, Philip revealed a brown attaché case and showed it off to Caleb.
"Look."
The blonde tilted his head some at the strange-looking case. "Oh?" He blinked, examining the case as his eyes now represented brown dots as a gag.
"What's tha--," Caleb began to ask curiously but brought his words to a pause.
It suddenly hit the young adult like a bullet the more he stared at the case.
With swift movement, he reached under his pillow and pulled out ******'s key.
Ever since it was removed from her neck, Caleb has kept it under his pillow for safekeeping.
'She was history,' he constantly told himself.
His mind had long ago erased her as a bad memory.
An evident lie.
Holding up the key to the case for comparison, Caleb realized that the skull-shaped design on the bow was similar to the one on the front of the case.
He soon put two and two together, his eyes and aura becoming bright.
"That must be ******'s magic door! Pip, how did you manage to find it?" Caleb asked, genuinely amazed and impressed.
The door has been on their search list since they found the key for it.
"Oh!" Philip smiled cockily upon seeing his brother be dazzled by his discovery.
"Well," he began. "I had... managed to wrestle it out of the grips of a brown bear in the woods. I, of course, came out victorious by the end of it."
Philip explained, clearly trying to come off as more courageous than he really was.
He had no intention of telling Caleb that he had gotten into a scuffle with a possum over it.
"A brown bear, huh?" Caleb commented with a chuckle, aware that his brother would probably run away screaming if he came into contact with an actual bear.
"I see. Nice work, Pip. Though..." Caleb's eyes reverted to dots once more. "Why does it look like a case rather than a door?"
Soon enough, Philip's eyes began to resemble his brother's.
"That I'm... not entirely sure why...," he admitted with his now dotted eyes, confused like his brother.
"I... guess that doesn't matter...," Caleb trailed off before a determined smile flickered on his face. "Let's just figure out a way to open it."
Philip nodded and smiled, indicating his determination as well.
...
"... Maybe you put it in like this? Or maybe like this? Hmm... perhaps it goes... somewhere here? Oh wait, no. It... doesn't." Caleb sighed out a visible puff of air, dropping his shoulders.
The oldest Wittebane was trying but ultimately failing to insert the key into the case's non-existing keyhole for about an hour while standing at the entrance of the woods with his brother.
With his satchel on and a bored expression, Philip observed Caleb's fruitless attempts and exhaled a drained sigh.
"Dear brother," the brunette began with a groan. "Please, allow me to help. You're obviously not succeeding at this," he pointed out.
"... Fiiine," Caleb groaned in a low, weary voice, accepting his brother's offered help as he handed him the key and the case.
Philip began to inspect both with a precise, squinted eye.
"But Pip, I'm not certain if you'll be able to--"
Click!
After a simple press of the skull-shaped button on the key, the case and key quickly flew out of Philip's grasp, startling both him and Caleb as both items levitated before them.
The brothers were stunned by the sight that unfolded before them next: a black flash erupted as Caleb and Philip shielded their eyes.
As the Wittebanes gradually lowered their arms, they saw that the case was now a door that opened into a black portal that led to an unknown realm.
The inside was bathed in jet black, with a swirling vortex of ultra-bright silver glitter, speckled with tiny pinpricks of light, shining like distant stars.
No words were spoken by either brother as they stared.
"W-Wait!" Caleb managed to say while holding his arm out to stop Philip, who was about to take a step forward toward the shimmering doorway.
Caleb placed his hands on Philip's shoulders while gazing into his eyes.
"Pip, we must be careful. Who knows the dangers that await us on the other side?"
The care and concern in his brother's voice was audible to Philip.
"I know, I know...," he said.
"But... we'll be fine. I know we will. We always have God on our side, as well as each other. I have no doubt that we can overcome any obstacle that comes our way together," Philip assures Caleb before smiling a purposeful smile at him.
"We're the Wittebane brothers after all, and no witch, demon, or fiend can ever prevent us from completing our mission of eradicating witchcraft."
After seeing Philip's face full of confidence and determination, Caleb slowly began to smile.
It reminded him of when Philip was a small boy, always confident and determined to stop 'witches' when they played witch hunters in order to bring about good.
"You're right," he said with a soft expression before grinning without delay.
"But try not to hide behind me the entire trip, okay? It could be a hindrance to our progress, Philip."
Caleb laughed at Philip's lips twisting into a playful frown as he gave a hard eyeroll.
"Understood," he lightly grumbled out with narrow eyes.
"Well, I guess it's time for us to start going. Are you ready, Pip?"
Philip replied with a nod of his head.
Both brothers enter the portal together, heading into the unknown as the door folds up and disappears.
...
"D-Did you see that, Henrietta?" Mr. Kookman whispers to his wife in disbelief.
The befuddled woodlander takes a sidestep from the tree he was hiding behind, clutching his Henrietta near him.
He had no words to express his emotions about what he had just seen.
"D-Do... do you think they'll be back?" the town kook asked his wife.
"Cluck!"
"Oh! I... I see. Do you know what that means, dear?"
Henrietta gives a slight head tilt. "Cluck?"
Mr. Kookman nodded at her answer.
"Exactly... FREE HOUSE!!" Mr. Kookman exclaims loudly in delight as he dashes in the direction of the Wittebane household.
He had a plan to transform their home into his own.