Demona marched angrily to the intercom.  Those little brats were pressing on it continually, ruining her efforts to ignore it.  She pushed the button down and hissed into the intercom, "Listen you little brats, I don't have any candy, and I'd rather poison you little beasts anyhow!  Go Away!"  She then flipped the buzzer off, so that if any more beggar human children came calling they wouldn't bother her.

She was looking over a report for work when the doorbell rang.  Demona's eyes widened in shock.  The security system was up and running.  No one should have been able to get to her door alive, let alone without setting off the alarms.  She set her papers down and went to check the security camera before opening the door.

She stared dumbfounded at what looked like three small children standing on her porch.  They were dressed up as little witches, with pointy hats that completely obscured her view of their faces.  The camera on the porch was set for taller visitors.  She tilted her head and just stared as one little witch moved up to the house and reached up as far as she could to ring the doorbell again.  "I don't believe this."  Demona muttered quietly.  She double-checked the settings on the security system, and it was operating at full power.  MacBeth wouldn't be able to get to her door, and yet these little kids managed it?

She marched down the hall, muttering to herself as she headed for the front door, "These little brats are going to tell me exactly how they managed to get in."

Demona opened the door quickly while glaring down at the children with a snarl on her lips.  When she saw the three, really saw them, her eyes widened in shock. They were identical, except for their hair.  Demona slammed the door shut without saying a word.  "Dammit!"  She cursed loudly.  The green glowing lights that seeped in from under the door were expected as the gargoyle took one step back before holding her ground. 

Three attractive mid twenties looking women appeared in the middle of Demona's entryway.  They had high cheekbones, model good looks, and stood regally.  They all wore a white and blue robe, and if it weren't for the hair no one would be able to tell them apart.  One had hair as black as night, another as white as snow, and the last had strawberry blonde hair.

"Have you come here to torment me some more?!"  Demona's eyes glared red as she stared at them in a mixture of anger and fear.  "This is my home, and I did not invite you in!"  Her voice was rising, but the three women didn't seem the least bit concerned.

"Demona, you still curse the gift we gave you?"  The three spoke as one.

"Gift?!"  Demona growled, "You call that a gift?!"  Demona tried to take a menacing step forward, but found herself unable to move.

The white haired one, Luna, stepped forward, and her voice soft, "You don't grow old, you are forever young and strong.  It is what you asked for.  I… we just gave you what you asked for."  The fey's face held a rare look of compassion and caring.  The other sisters stepped back to give her and Demona space, which puzzled the gargoyle.  These three always acted as one, and now she was only hearing the one voice, Luna's.

"This was not what I asked for!  A thousand years of wandering the earth without anyone, being forced to hide from humans and to steal food to survive.  I've seen Hell; I've been living in Hell!  This is not what I asked for!"  Demona screamed at Luna, her face turning slightly purple in her anger and her efforts to move. 

Luna stared at Demona, and the gargoyle just couldn't read the expression on the fey's face.  Luna glanced over at Selene, and then her eyes traveled to Phoebe, before turning back to Demona.  "We can remove it if that is what you truly want."  Luna spoke quietly, and Demona was shocked.  She just stared dumbfounded at the female.  "But it won't end your loneliness, it will only limit the amount of time you have to endure it."

"What is the trick this time?"  Demona tried to sound hostile, dangerous, but her voice was soft as the shock of this offer still rang through her body.

Phoebe took a step closer, into Demona's sight, as Luna turned away from the gargoyle.  "There is no trick.  We can uncast it tonight, and only tonight, or you will need to wait another few hundred years.  You will just start to age normally, and die as other mortals do."  The fair haired fey waved her hand and whatever force that had held Demona still, ceased to be.  Demona remained motionless anyhow, trying to comprehend the offer that these three were making.

"When we made you immortal, we really thought that you'd appreciate the gift.  You don't."  Selene spoke while holding Demona's gaze evenly, "It was meant to be a gift, but if you feel it is a curse, we will remove it."

A slight whimper made Demona turn her head and her eyes widened as she saw Luna's back hunched over as if in pain.  The white haired fey was holding a hand over her mouth, and her eyes were brimming with tears.  Once the fey realized that she was noticed, she moved into the living room and out of sight.  Demona felt like she'd entered a very strange dream.  She glanced over at the blonde fey and saw her glancing after Luna with a look of concern on her face.  "What's going on here?"  Demona's voice regained its strength and authority.

Selene's voice was cold, and her eyes glared at Demona.  "You have until dawn to make your decision.  One of us will be back later to either undo the spell, or… leave it."  They disappeared after that, in a show of green lights, making Demona feel like she might have imagined the entire thing.

 She would have convinced herself that it was a dream, or a delusion, but when she opened the front door, three child size witch hats were sitting on the porch.
 

Demona paced nervously as she tried to come to some sort of decision.  She didn't think that she should trust the Weird Sisters to do just what they said they would, they'd never done that in the past.  And now that she was faced with the possibility of not being immortal anymore, she didn’t know what to think, or decide.

It was an hour before dawn and she was still no closer to making up her mind.  "Are you starting to see it as a gift yet?"  A soft voice spoke from the corner of the living room, startling Demona.  She spun around to see Phoebe sitting in the chair in the corner watching her.  The fey looked tired, and she was alone.  She'd never seen one of them alone before.

"Why are you here alone?"  Demona moved to sit on the couch and glared with red eyes at the fey.

"Luna is too upset to come back, and Selene is with her."  Phoebe looked down at the rug as her voice softened.  "MacBeth decided quickly, and he was Luna's favored.  She's heart-broken."

Demona's eyes widened, "He's mortal?"  The disbelief and shock in her voice reflected her face, which had gone paler.  That would null the spell on her.  She didn’t really have a choice.  It was a trick, and she suddenly realized that she didn't want to be mortal.

Phoebe's eyes held compassion, "If you decide that you want to stay immortal, we would just tie the spell to someone else.  You do still have a choice.  We wouldn't let him decide that for you."

Demona stared at Phoebe in shock, "Who would you tie me too?  Do I get any say in this?"

Phoebe's small, mysterious smile worried the gargoyle.  "Last time we looked for your equal as a warrior.  This time we'd tie you to someone more likely to be a true partner to you."  The smile faded away, "We didn't understand about the loneliness you both felt.  We," Phoebe took a deep breath, "I am sorry."

Demona looked into the eyes of this fey that had doomed her to immortality, and what she saw there shocked her, "Why me?  Why did you do that to me to begin with?"  Since the fey was in an unusually forthcoming mood, she better take advantage of it.  This was incredibly rare.  She'd never heard of anyone getting straight answers from the sisters before.

Phoebe got up from her chair and moved to sit next to Demona.  The proximity of the fey worried the gargoyle.  Phoebe's skin was soft as she caressed Demona's cheek while staring into her eyes.  "MacBeth was Luna's favored,"  Phoebe's eyes seemed to stare into Demona's soul, "and you were mine.  I didn't want to see you grow old and die.  You wouldn't have lived much longer.  Age was already creeping up on you, as it does to all mortals."

Demona's eyes widened in shock as Phoebe spoke.  They'd done that spell because they cared about them?  Her mind had a hard time grasping the truth.  Phoebe continued to speak in a soft, gentle voice.  "I hope that you decide to keep our gift.  When we first gave it to you both, it was assumed that you two would keep each other company throughout the years.  That neither of you would ever be alone.  We never realized that he wasn't a good match for you.  We can do better.  Selene's favored would be a much better companion for you." 

 It was as if saying Selene's name conjured her.  The dark haired fey stepped into the room regally, "We need your decision now."
 
"Wait.  Who is it that you'd tie me too?"  Demona spoke quickly as the sisters' eyes started to glow, while waiting for the answer.

"We don’t have time.  You have to decide now."  Luna stepped in from the hall, her eyes bloodshot, before they too started to glow.

When the sisters all raised their hands towards her Demona was forced to say something or lose her immortality.  "I'll keep the gift!  I'll keep it!"

 

********************

One Week Later

She'd gone to his funeral, because she thought that she should.  MacBeth had decided that he didn’t want the time that his mortal body still had, and had ended his life two days after the spell was lifted from him.  She was still puzzled by his actions, as she signed the last of the forms that left everything that he had to her.  She'd inherited his fortune, because he'd never gotten around to changing his will after their 'divorce'.  He probably never thought that she'd be alive to collect.

She stayed at the office until well past sunset looking over the will, and the list of items that she now owned with a blank look on her face.  She felt oddly empty.  The sudden twinge of pain in her leg made her eyes go wide.  It felt like him, his pain.  That couldn't be right.  The sisters said that she was tied to someone new.  They never told her who was the person tied to her in this immortality spell, they just did the spell and disappeared. 

The window to her office flew open as she leapt out to find who it was making her leg hurt.  She had to know what the Weird Sisters had done.  The pain grew more intense as she neared Central Park.  When she saw the man raising a gun to the prone figure on the grass her eyes blazed red and she dove down to ram into him, knocking him out against a tree trunk.  She then turned to finally look at her new partner in this spell, and her jaw dropped in shock as she watched the woman trying to remove the knife from her thigh, and the pain in her own leg left no doubt.  This was the one.

 
********************

One Hundred Years Later

Demona sat in the dark kitchen staring out at the water lapping at the shores of their beach house.  Almost no one recognized Halloween anymore, it was like an ancient and dead holiday, but as she stared out at the full moon, she said one soft thank you to the three witches that graced her front door exactly a hundred years ago.

She heard the front door open and smiled softly into her tea.  "I thought you had to work late."

"Not tonight."  The shadow of her lover walked into the kitchen to wrap her arms around Demona's shoulders in a hug.  "Tonight is special."

 Demona smiled and reached up to caress her lover's arm.  "I'm glad you're home, Elisa."