Escape the night

The Seance

Seconds after the lock of hair joins the earrings and the scarf in the golden dish, yet another drawer pops open. This is no surprise to anyone, least of all Joey. After a certain number of pop-up scares, his brain has become practically immune to their effects.

Lele, however, still seems surprised. "Another drawer opened up?"

"What's in it?" Oli asks.

Joey approaches the open drawer, braces himself, and reaches inside. He pulls out a small brown scroll, held together by milk-white binding.

"Joey, what is that?" Matt wants to know.

"It's a scroll," says Joey, hesitation lining the edges of his voice. He takes a deep breath, removes the binding, opens the scroll, and...

"Oh, God, no!"

It's a diagram. There's an outer circle sketched in black ink, along with a note stating that the circle must be seven paces across in diameter. Inside the circle is a triangle, and the directions clearly indicate where the "remnants of the deceased" are to be placed within the triangle. Finally, at the center of the triangle, a tiny triangle serves to mark the place where the "mouthpiece of the group" has to sit.

Joey gulps. He's never done a seance before—heck, he's never even done the Charlie Charlie Challenge, let alone summon anything. Why would he want to mess with ghosts? Isn't meddling with the supernatural supposed to be a bad idea?

Then again, everything about this situation is the definition of "bad idea."

"Guys." Lele points to the note on the side of the scroll. "Read this."

Sierra shakes her head. "This is so creepy."

As Joey watches in nervous anticipation, Eva reads.

You are now ready to speak to the dead. You may construct the seance circle, enclosed with white sand.

Before Eva can finish, Arthur dashes into the room, accompanied by a burly man with a thick black beard and a permanent scowl. "Ladies and gentlemen, Marvin's our groundskeeper."

Marvin nods at the group. Joey, of course, knows him already; he's been tending the gardens for as long as Joey's lived here. And yet, in all that time, he hasn't said a word—not to Joey, not to Daniel, not to anyone.

"Here is some sand," Arthur adds, placing a bucket on the ground inches from Sierra's high heels.

Eva continues reading.

Each participant sits in front of a candle. One among the group needs to act as the voice of the deceased and sit in the center of the circle.

Joey gulps. "Okay." He glances around the group, hoping against hope that this is not another death sentence. "Who wants to...uh..."

"I will."

Sarah. Of course. The maid. The one who's unnerved Joey from the beginning. She's standing there, arms folded, a twitch of a smile on her face, looking like she wants to use her butter knife to surgically remove Joey's spine.

"Great. Sure. Thanks, Sarah."

Better her than us.

So Sarah's gonna go be the "voice of the deceased" or whatever. Go figure. GloZell's not surprised at all. She knew there was something up with that maid. She knew it from the start.

But the real question is, why the heck are they even doing this? She knows it's to get out of the house or whatever, but come on. Doesn't anybody watch movies around here? Messing with dead folks never ends well.