Escape the night

Six Feet Under

The string is over!"

Okay. Oli takes a deep breath, letting the cool night air attempt to calm his quivering lungs. Okay. It worked. We're getting there. Thank God. "Guys, I think it's here," he says, using his flashlight to point at the spot below them.

Eva, Joey, and Tim immediately start poking around in the dirt. GloZell stands to the side, watching the others go at it, muttering a string of gibberish to herself.

As for Oli, his nerves are beginning to get to him. Yes, the string ended, and yes, they found a spot to dig, but what if they got it wrong? After all, you can never be too careful, especially when you're dealing with supernatural puzzles. "Are we positive that this is—"

"We found it!" shouts GloZell.

So they have. "I told you it was there!" exclaims Oli, his confidence instantly restored. Of course it's there. It's fine. There's nothing to worry about. They're on the right track. They're fine. They're fine. They're fine.

There's a piece of the puzzle—half of a green heart—peeking out from the dirt. It's accompanied by a note, which Joey takes it upon himself to read.

The heart of the forest longs for its missing half. Take the string and fold it in half. Using the druid statue as a center point, make a circle with the string. Inside the circle, you'll find the other half of the heart. Reunite the pieces and the forest will reveal the location of the coffin.

Fortunately, it doesn't take them long to find the druid statue. It's sitting on a rock, apparently deep in thought.

"So we use the statue as the center point, right?" Tim asks.

"Right," mutters Eva.

The group uses the string to make a circle around the statue's neck. Joey grabs the other end of the string and walks off with it, finally stopping once he's out of string. "Okay." He turns to face the others. "This is the distance we can go in any direction from the center, so..." He waves his flashlight around like a frenzied firefly. "Let's look around in this area."

Oli frowns. "You think it's around the tree?"

Joey nods, and Oli once again gets to work. He's still not quite sure what's happening, but he figures wondering about it isn't going to help him any. Better to focus on the task before him; the rest can wait till later.

Besides, at least the druid statue isn't going to kill anyone.

Probably.

"There's a piano down there," says Matt, pointing at a brown baby grand three feet down the road from them.

Justine rubs her eyes. "I'm sorry, what?"

She's hallucinating. She has to be. Too many drinks, not enough sleep, and now she's seeing pianos in the middle of nowhere. Come to think of it, that would explain this entire twisted night.

Either that, or it's all an awful dream, and she's going to wake up any minute now.

Lele, being the devil-may-care person that she is, heads straight for the piano without even thinking twice. The others follow her, though Matt doesn't seem all that keen on doing so. "I don't even know if we should go near it," he remarks, his hands in his pockets.

"Hey." Justine throws up her hands. "Look, I don't do coffins, but I'll do pianos."

So they approach the piano. All of its keys are black, except for two white ones that Lele takes the opportunity to fiddle around with. "These are the only two white keys," she informs them.