When Spirits Beckon

When Spirits Beckon, Part 1, Chapter 5

13 months ago ...

Peter waited a week after Eliza returned home before getting in touch with her. Falsely presenting himself as a kindly soul, he cunningly nudged the conversation towards Adrian and stayed stubbornly on this topic till her defenses crumbled and she let pour her woes.

Stop, he had finally told Eliza when he had had enough of an earful. In the name of love, I'll help you snare your man.

Listening intently to this surprise offer of unsought assistance, she eagerly agreed to be a contestant in the sequel, promising to do her part to lure Adrian away from the island.

Inwardly, Peter exulted wickedly. It is amazing what vague promises could do to those foolishly grasping at straws, he thought snidely.

Aghast at this exchange, his ever-present chaperon began protesting violently as a matter of due course. Peter had counted on such an objection, and told Adrian's ghost to go do some rather unsavory things with itself instead. And since he was going to be busy drawing up the challenges, Peter pointedly informed the haunting sprite to butt out and get lost so that it wouldn't have an unfair advantage over other contestants.

The next day, Peter went to meet the network executives and gave them the good news with a devilish grin. At every opportunity, Peter made pointed barbs aside at Adrian's ghost, which simply hung around unhappily – no longer interfering.

~+~+~+~+~

That's how, some frantic weeks later, 24 contestants found themselves on another rusty shipping trawler chugging its way to the Samoan island.

Of these, four had been part of the first series and they included Eliza. The rest were cast from the same mold; namely nubile and hunks of 21-year olds who couldn't keep their eyes off each other. All had been informed that the last contestant would be joining them shortly – no prizes for correctly guessing who it would be.

To stack the odds further against possible cooperation like what had taken place in the last round, the ground rules were changed. The contestants were broken up into five teams, and the last two teams remaining would then be merged for individual challenges. Cheating was openly encouraged; any semblance of honesty or alliances would be punished with time penalties. And the most important change of all was the duration of the contest; it would now stretch over 10 weeks instead of the previous season's allotted 35 days.

Despite having a bigger budget and supporting crew to play with, Peter didn't hesitate in stooping to the theft of ideas from other reality game shows. He kicked off the competition by staging an actual shipwreck ala Survivor™ 7 when the trawler had been moored roughly a mile off the island.

The contestants had been given no advance warning, of course. When the trawler had arrived late the evening before, they had only been told that their challenge would begin at the crack of dawn. The five teams were informed in advance that they would need to swim out to a nearby course marked out by buoys. At the end of the watery stretch were five canoes with instructions on what the teams would be required to do next.

While the contestants slept, the trawler's crew slipped away in a powerboat just before the sun was due up. The sputtering engine noise woke the dozing passengers, who found themselves stepping off bunk beds into water-logged cabins. After much confused running around, they realized the trawler had been holed and there were no lifeboats on board. In the bewildering darkness, everyone somehow managed to get to the deck of the sinking trawler where they saw their only practical source of salvation visible against the dawning skyline – the canoes.

Cursing and blurry-eyed, everyone quickly realized the challenge had begun. They stripped down and dived into the water to make their way through the marked course. There was confusion in the water while they tried to find their respective starting points as they could barely see each canoe's marking – with team logos of a circle, triangle, diamond, hexagon and a five-pointed star. Amidst this confusion, the contestants were quickly dissuaded from resting on any of the buoys – for they were electrified!