Villainess 4: Janet’s Haunted Escapade

Red Pill 21: Binges, Coincidences

Janet’s affinity pool was so big and heavy that it exceeded the limits of Lady Graves’ shadow, unable to close off its remaining part left shimmering in the moonlight. As such, Lady Graves couldn’t move much beyond the confines of her natural shadow on the ground, pinning her there like a dog on a leash. So Janet and Rowena talked it over with Lady Graves and thought up a solution, and Janet and Rowena reached into Lady Graves’ shadow and pulled about half of its bulk out onto the square. With that done, Rowena expanded her own shadow to encompass the other half of Janet’s affinity pool, and then Janet and Lady Graves pushed that half into Rowena’s shadow. But unlike before, there was no thud inside, and the rumbling at their feet was kept to a minimum.

Then Rowena and Lady Graves walked onto the patio, stretching their shadows across it from the convergence point at the edge of the garden square. With both of their shadows holding Janet’s affinity pool there, Rowena and Lady Graves asked Janet to step into the middle where their shadows joined.

Janet did so, saying, “Like this?”

“Good,” Rowena said. “Now come over here, and your shadow should be attached like ours.”

Janet joined her mother and Lady Graves on the patio, and lo and behold! A third shadow now ran across the patio from the convergence point on the edge of the square.

With their shadows joined, the trio trudged through the patio, pulling against the collective weight of Janet’s affinity pool like a ball and chain behind them. In this way, they passed the double doors, but the trip up the stairs was every bit the nightmare Lady Graves had predicted. With every step and heave and huff, Janet and her companions struggled up the stairs like Sisyphus pushing a boulder up a mountain.

Yet as they ascended, Janet’s mind flashed with images of her mother squatting while holding onto the bars of her cell. She heard her mother’s groans and saw her face scrunching up in agony and relaxing, heard and saw her mother struggling alone in the gloom of her cell. Janet closed her eyes and opened them as she heard Lady Graves saying they were halfway up the stairs, urging them to keep going the whole way before resting for a bit. But her words already faded away as more visions crowded Janet’s mind, till Janet heard a sharp cry. Her mother was on her back now, gritting her teeth and convulsing in one more agonizing strain, and then it was over. Amidst her mother’s panting, there were no cries from the newborn, and when Janet smelled blood and heard her mother’s sobs, she knew what had happened. So she squinted her eyes from the scene, wanting to cry herself out of the ignominious start of her life that began with her mother begging DeeDee to save her daughter with her last dying breath . . .

And for a time, Janet’s mind lingered in oblivion, till DeeDee’s words filtered through her mind, saying, “Janet, open your eyes. It’s time to wake up.”

“DeeDee?” Janet said.

“No, it’s me, your mother,” Rowena said.

When she came to, Janet was sitting at the top of the stairs inside the mausoleum, sitting in between Rowena and Lady Graves with Rowena’s arms wrapped around her. Janet’s cheeks were slick with the salt of her tears, much of it soaking the bodice of her mother’s jacket, so she pulled away from her and sat up and wiped her face with the sleeve of her bolero.

“What happened to me?” Janet said.

“You fainted on the stairs,” Rowena said. “Did you have a nightmare, Janet?”

“Yeah,” Janet said, squinting her eyes of the residual images of her mother’s end and her own ignominious start in this life, wiping her eyes again.

“Was it that bad?” Rowena said.

Janet nodded her head but said, “It’s okay, Mom. I’m fine,” and she looked back down the steps into the bluish green haze of the Spirit World but saw no sign of the big shadow they had been dragging behind them. “Where did it go?”

“It’s fine, don’t worry,” Lady Graves said. “Rowena and I let you sleep, and we managed it the rest of the way. We’ve already taken it outside.”

“Were they surprised to see it?” she said.

“No, they weren’t,” Rowena said. “They were more surprised at seeing me, especially your clones. Nobody there could see your darkness affinity, except for DeeDee. We talked to her a bit before going back and bringing you here.”

“Are you really okay, dear?” Lady Graves said, rubbing circles around Janet’s back. “It looked like you had a really bad nightmare.”

“I’m fine now, don’t worry,” she said. “How long was I out?”

“Almost an hour,” Lady Graves said.

“Oh my God, that long?” Janet said, getting to her feet. “What time is it now?”

Rowena and Lady Graves got to their feet, as well.

“It’s half past eight o’clock,” Rowena said. “And you’re not the only one who needed rest, Janet.”

“We needed a break, too,” Lady Graves added. “Do you want to rest a little more?”

“No, I’m fine,” Janet said.

“Then let’s go and wake you up,” Lady Graves said. “Oh, and don’t forget your lamp.”

Janet picked her lamp off the sarcophagus, turning its glow from bluish green back to green, and followed her guides out past the open door of the mausoleum and into the nighttime air. She spotted her clones and her friends all sitting on the ground by their lamps and talking, while DeeDee was sitting in her invisible-chair position beside Janet’s body, perusing the pages of a profile book by the light of her lamp. And on getting closer, Janet noticed that her clones and her friends, still holding hands amidst the blinking light of their lamps, were discussing the possibility that the real Rosalie Edgeworth was alive. And looming behind them like a giant slime monster (invisible to everyone there except for DeeDee) was Janet’s affinity pool reflecting the light green luminescence of their lamps, while its bulk still gave off a bloody red hue from its center.

Upon Janet’s entrance with her guides, they all stood up with smiles on their faces, and DeeDee said, “I was wondering when you’d show up, Lady Detective.”

“Sorry,” Janet said. “Wait, what?” She then looked to her mother and Lady Graves and said, “Did you tell her about Rosalie?”

“Yeah, we did,” Rowena said.

And Lady Graves added, “We talked with DeeDee about it for a little bit before we went back for you.”

“What about the other—”

But Rowena whispered, “Save it for later.”

DeeDee just stared at Janet’s mother for a time, then said, “I’m impressed, Janet. Your theory about Miss Edgeworth gives a motive for her actions against you and your clones. I’ve been looking through your clones’ entries in this book, and your theory fits the progression of events fairly well. Of course, I’ll have to check the other books to make sure. And your theory doesn’t factor in Lady Dorian’s actions against Lady Kessler or the Ladies Drevis, but it’s a start. With that said, what else were you going to say?”

Janet looked at her guides, who shook their heads, so she said, “We’ll talk about it later.”

But when DeeDee eyed the three conspirators, Rowena and Lady Graves came forward and whispered something into DeeDee’s ear, making DeeDee look at them and then at Janet, then breathed out a long sigh and said, “We’ll do it your way.” She dissipated the book from her hand and added, “Janet, put your lamp on the ground next to your body and lie down. You’ll wake up, but stay still, and we’ll do the rest.”

With that, Janet entered the circle made by her companions and placed her lamp next to her body and laid herself down, overlapping her spirit with her corporeal form, and once again fell down into a falling dream. A moment later, Janet breathed through her lungs as if coming up from a deep dive in the ocean and opened her bodily eyes at a starry sky and heard the chirping of crickets around her. And to her left, the moon was now halfway up in the sky, shining like a pockmarked coin made of white gold, so she imagined herself reaching up and manipulating it in her fingers like an actual coin. All the while, Janet thought about the crazy idea she had let loose on her listeners and wondered if such measures were ingenious or just plain nuts.

“Celeste, Rowena,” DeeDee said, blinking the lamplights, “get into position behind Janet’s affinity pool. When I create an opening, you two push it in. Got it?”

Celeste and Rowena nodded, then exited the circle of people and readied themselves behind the big blob.

Meanwhile, DeeDee bade Janet’s clones and friends to keep their hands together for the duration of her spell. When they all nodded, gripping their hands tighter, DeeDee crouched and placed her hand over Janet’s stomach and said, “You’ll feel uncomfortable, but please bear with it, okay?”

Janet nodded, wondering what she meant by ‘uncomfortable,’ but she trusted her.

DeeDee’s eyes flashed a green glow as she said, “Come out, ye Spirits of the Aether, and loosen the chains binding this child! As Guardian of the Aether, I command ye!”

And the collective lights inside the circle of lamps flashed and swirled, and green glowing tendrils leaped through the air like the arcing sprays of a dancing water fountain and plunged into DeeDee’s hand. Her hand glowed a bright green over Janet’s stomach, and a circle of light inscribed the supine girl inside its circumference before DeeDee plunged her hand in her stomach, making her grit her teeth in a grimace—

“Bear with it, Janet!” DeeDee said as chains of glowing green light appeared wrapping themselves around Janet’s middle, slithering along her body like a constricting python. But when she pulled out her hand, uncoiling the chains and allowing Janet to breathe, DeeDee looked at her clones and added, “After you all came into this world, I had to squeeze every drop of darkness affinity out of your spirits to bring you back from the dead. In doing so, I’ve robbed you of your powers and made your lives miserable. Please, forgive me for my actions,” and she bowed to Janet’s clones.

The clones stared at the spectacle in silence before trading whispers amongst themselves. Then Janet’s suicide clone stepped forward and said, “We’re not angry. If it wasn’t for you, DeeDee, none of us would be here.”

DeeDee smiled and said, “Thank you.” Then to their living avatar, she added, “Are you okay, Janet?”

A wheezing Janet sat up and said, “Is it over?”

“Not yet,” DeeDee said, reaching out her hand, “but at least the hard part is done now.”

So Janet grabbed it and got up to her feet, then doubled over and clapped her hands on her knees. When her equilibrium returned, Janet looked at the giant blob looming (unseen) behind her peers and said, “What’s next?”

DeeDee backed away and said, “My younger sister is expecting you, Janet. When she offers you a cup, take it and follow her directions.”

“You have a younger sister?” Janet said.

“Six of them, actually,” DeeDee said. “I’m the eldest.”

Janet wanted to ask her what they were like, but DeeDee was in the middle of saying to Janet’s clones and friends, “You can let go of each other’s hands now.”

So the girls and boys and clones did so, whipping their hands on the fabric of their skirts and pants.

“Take up your lamps and vacate the circle,” DeeDee added. “Since none of you can see this affinity, you must keep yourselves out of range of my next spell.”

So they took up their lamps and gathered in front of the entrance to the mausoleum, asking if this was a safe distance, and DeeDee said it was.

After that, DeeDee crouched and placed her hand on the ground and created a glowing magic circle around Janet, then picked up her own lamp and placed it on the edge of her magic circle in front of the huge blob. With that, DeeDee placed her hand over the glowing dome of her lamp and said, “Come out, ye Spirits of the Darkness, and come to my lamp! As the elder sister of Guardian of the Darkness, I command ye!”

And in the spectral green of her own lamp grew an expanding black void inside of her lamp, leaving a corona of green light shimmering at its edges. And the giant blob before it reacted to DeeDee’s lamp, its glowing red center burning brighter to the pulsing green corona of DeeDee’s blackened lamp. Then she turned to her helpers behind the blob and said, “Celeste, Rowena, are you ready?”

“We are!” they said.

“Then go ahead,” DeeDee said.

With that, Lady Graves and Rowena pushed the giant blob towards DeeDee’s lamp.

The glowing red center of the giant blob flared up in an instant, then imploded into several glowing red tendrils of energy getting sucked into DeeDee’s lamp like a giant red star collapsing into a supernova and entering a black hole as a cosmic singularity. But this singularity formed the thread of Janet’s lifeline, cut short during that awful night inside her mother’s prison cell, till DeeDee brought Janet back to life. Now new life came flooding back through Janet’s body and mind, coursing through her veins and arteries in a rush of ecstasy, filling the empty cup of her soul with something she had never felt before. In the middle of DeeDee’s spell, Janet stood entranced inside the glowing green circle, her eyes staring out into another realm of existence that neither DeeDee nor the others could see, her hand reaching for and clasping something in her fingers.

 

Of course, her bodily motions were in accordance with the actions in her mind. As per DeeDee’s words, Janet heeded her visitor’s request and sat down at a tea table inside a garden of blooming magnolia trees and shrubs all fluorescing in the moonlight. There was a slight breeze around her, wafting the sweet scent of magnolias into her nose, while Janet looked at the empty glass in her hand, then stared up at her buxom hostess standing by the table with a big bottle in her hands. Like DeeDee, this woman wore the long black dress and apron of a maid, yet she was taller with gorgeous raven hair reaching past her hips in luscious wavy curls and a white bow tied behind her head, dark violet eyes twinkling back at her and luscious lips forming into a smile and her lily-white hands pouring something astringent into Janet’s cup.

“Drink up, girl,” she said. “After all these years stone-cold sober, you must be really thirsty!”

Janet looked down at her cup that looked like red wine and said, “I’m not old enough.”

The woman laughed and said, “You’re a funny one, just like your mother.”

Janet sucked in breath: “You knew my mom?”

“Years ago, yes,” the woman said. “Come on, drink up, girl. DeeDee’s waiting for you.”

“Wait a minute,” she said. “You know DeeDee, too?”

“Too much talking, not enough drinking,” the woman said. “Now drink up!”

Janet eyed her hostess: “Why should I?”

“Because you’ve got a lot of drinking to do,” the woman said, pointing to something behind Janet’s left shoulder.

On turning around, Janet saw the big blob of darkness affinity looming over her, shimmering the moonlight with its glowing red center, then said, “Why is that there?”

Janet faced her hostess and waited for an answer.

“Okay, try to think of it this way, girl,” the woman said. “Your astral body is like that empty glass in your hand, and that darkness affinity behind you is like an unopened bottle of wine. DeeDee put that there, but it’s still dormant, you know. You have to imbibe it in order to awaken its powers inside you. Now drink up!”

But Janet said, “What’s your name?”

The woman smiled and said, “Dear me, where are my manners? My name is RuRu Marionette, the Guardian of the Darkness and the second eldest of my seven sisters. Next to DeeDee, of course. I already know your name, so drink up.”

So Janet did so.

“Ah, that’s a good girl,” RuRu said.

Yet Janet pulled a face trying not to choke on the aftertaste, like the most astringent vinegar long past spoilage, as it burned down her throat.

“My God, it’s so bitter!” Janet said.

“Out of the seven recognized affinities,” the woman said, “the darkness affinity is by far the heaviest to bear and has the worst aftertaste. It’s the culmination of all the pain and injustice you and your clones have suffered, but as their living avatar, you must bear it for them.”

“But why me?” Janet said.

“Because you’re the only one who can,” RuRu said. “Trust me, girl, you’re one of the few with the strength to bear the stigma of your affinity. Your mother and Lady Graves had to shoulder it all their lives like a cross, up to their last living moments and into their graves and beyond.”

Janet thought back to Rowena’s garden underneath her mausoleum where she struggled to hold her mother’s darkness affinity in her hands, yet Rowena could handle it like it was nothing. She then looked back at the giant blob of her darkness affinity, its center glowing red, and faced her host again.

“Will I be able to bear mine?”

Janet’s hostess smiled and nodded that she could if she tried, saying, “Drink up now! We don’t have all night.”

Janet remembered the contract signing at midnight, so she bucked herself up and gulped down the rest of her glass, grimacing at the vinegary aftertaste.

“Will I be able to taste anything after this?”

RuRu laughed again, saying, “You’re rather talkative for someone drinking away her sorrows. Tell you what,” and the woman sat down like DeeDee in her invisible-chair position next to Janet. “We’ll make it into a drinking game. For every one thousand glasses you drink—”

“You can’t be serious! A thousand?”

“—you’ll get a perk that you can use with your darkness affinity. Let me see,” she added, looking over at the giant blob looming behind Janet and pouring more from her bottle into Janet’s glass. “My bottle contains one hundred glasses of darkness affinity. Your mother’s affinity pool is around three bottles or three hundred glasses, and Lady Graves’ affinity pool is five bottles or five hundred glasses. Based on those amounts, I’m guessing that your affinity pool has a capacity of around twenty thousand bottles, so that amounts to about two million glasses. That means you’ll get around two thousand perks with your darkness affinity. Sounds good, eh?”

Janet was too flustered to answer. She just stared at her hostess, her stomach lurching at the amount, then looked down at her glass full of the stuff and said, “RuRu, will I become a vegetable after this?”

RuRu laughed again and said, “I assure you, it’s not as bad as that. At most, you’ll have a mild hangover on waking up, and you’ll be a bit tipsy afterwards, but it’s nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix.”

At her words, Janet couldn’t help but laugh, as well, and said, “How do you even know that?”

RuRu pointed past Janet’s right shoulder and said, “Look over there, and you’ll see an even bigger one.”

Janet did so and almost fell off her seat, gawking at the mountain-sized affinity pool shimmering in the moonlight, its gigantic center glowing a deep purple, the whole thing dwarfing her own like a house within a neighborhood. It was so big and unexpected that Janet would have fainted if she had been awake, so she just faced her companion again, saying, “Good God, is that really yours?”

“Yep,” she said. “It’s mine.”

“Does that make you the Guardian of the Darkness?”

“Yep,” she said. “The one and only.”

“What about your sisters?”

“For five of my sisters,” RuRu said, “theirs are the same size as mine, but DeeDee’s affinity pool is the exception.”

Janet gulped: “How big is hers?”

“Bigger than all of ours combined,” she said.

“Good God, are you serious?”

“I know, right?” RuRu said. “DeeDee’s affinity pool is the size of a kingdom, like the Kaden Kingdom or the Schrader Kingdom or the Ballentine Kingdom or whatever other kingdom you could name. To give you some perspective, the affinity pools of Marchioness Fleming and Lady Graves would sit atop this table, yours would take up a small house, mine would take up a few neighborhoods, the combined affinity pools of my five younger sisters and myself would take up a good-sized castle town up to its outermost wall, and DeeDee’s would take up an entire kingdom up to its borders.”

Janet just stared at her in silence.

“Are you gonna drink that?”

Janet looked at her second glass of her affinity pool daring her to drink more of its astringent potency, so she took a deep breath and knocked back another one.

“That’s the spirit!” RuRu said, pouring her another glass. “There’s only one million nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight glasses left to drink.”

Janet deadpanned at her hostess and said, “Having fun at my expense, are you?”

“Okay, okay, okay,” RuRu said, smiling again. “I’ll only count down once every one thousand drinks. How about that?”

Janet breathed out a sigh and knocked back a third drink, squinting her eyes again, wondering how shit-faced she would get after she was through with this ordeal. Then RuRu poured her another, and Janet knocked it back, and RuRu poured her another, and Janet knocked that back, too, and RuRu poured her yet another, and so on and so forth. And that’s how Janet’s routine repeated itself, ad nauseam, like serving probation in Purgatory in the sitting position while downing glass after glass after glass of bad medicine . . .

 

While Janet was binge-drinking, the light show in the cemetery was about to end. Janet’s giant affinity pool had dissipated itself through DeeDee’s lamp, emerging moments later inside of Janet’s lamp as a blood red hue glowing and pulsing inside a shimmering corona of green at its edges. And moments after that inside the magic circle surrounding Janet, blood red streaks of pulsing energy spread out from under her feet and filled up the flashing green circle, till it became a burning red circle with a bright green corona around its circumference. DeeDee took her hand off of her lamp and called Janet’s name, yet Janet was unresponsive where she stood like a statue in her circle. And like a statue, Janet’s body began to levitate above the ground, leveling out flat on her back as gusts of red and green energy swirled around her, rustling her hair and clothes, and kicking up blades of grass and dust. But when the turbulence and debris settled down, a red halo with a green corona shimmered around Janet’s head as her body settled onto a bed of red creeping thyme growing beneath her.

DeeDee entered her magic circle and said, “Janet, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

But Janet remained motionless atop the red creeping thyme, even as DeeDee’s magic circle disappeared.

Then Rowena and Lady Graves came running up, followed by Janet’s friends and clones with their lamps in their hands throwing lights and shadows over the creeping red thyme on which Janet lay. With them all asking if Janet was okay, DeeDee crouched and placed her palm against the girl’s bosom and felt heartbeats. Breathing out a sigh, she said, “Don’t worry, everyone. She’s just sleeping.”

A collective exhalation of breath resounded from the group as DeeDee reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a pocket watch and read the time: 8:45 p.m. Ten minutes had elapsed after the completion of DeeDee’s second spell, yet she felt the residual burning sensation of Janet’s darkness affinity stinging her palm and wondered how a mortal’s affinity could damage the vessel of her body like it was flesh and blood.

Turning from that thought, she focused on another abnormality that had her equally puzzled. As the eldest sister of the Seven Affinity Guardians, DeeDee could influence her younger sisters’ elemental powers when she invoked their names, though she would have to ask for their permissions first. But such was not the case with the Guardian of the Darkness, whom DeeDee believed was a bad influence on her other sisters because of her drinking problem and her sleeping habits. In spite of her faults, though, DeeDee wondered why RuRu’s track record of successful saintess candidates was so bad. Was it all RuRu’s fault? Or was someone pulling strings behind the scenes in order to stigmatize those with the darkness affinity? And if it was the latter option, who was doing it? And why?

(Of course, DeeDee suspected Lady Dorian right off the bat, but she needed to be thorough moving forward. As such, she contacted her younger sister again, saying in her mind, “RuRu, this is DeeDee. Are you there?”

“RuRu here,” RuRu said.

“How is Janet doing?” DeeDee said.

“She’s doing better than expected, Big Sis,” RuRu said. “She’s been knocking them back like a champ! You weren’t kidding when you said she has potential!”

“How long will it take for her to finish?”

“At the pace she’s going,” RuRu said, pausing for a spell, “I’d say about three hours, tops.”

That left a fifteen-minute window for the Ghost Hunting Club to prepare for the signing at Elba House after Janet wakes up, and the time spent beforehand was the perfect opportunity for DeeDee to ask Marchioness Fleming and Lady Graves what they’ve been withholding from her earlier. With this in mind, DeeDee said, “Let me know when Janet’s done.”

“Will do,” RuRu said.

“And one more thing,” DeeDee added.

RuRu breathed out a sigh and said, “What is it?”

“RuRu,” she said, choosing her words carefully, “have you ever wondered why darkness affinity users have it so rough? I mean, it can’t be a coincidence that they’re always equated with witches and warlocks and demon lords, right?”

“I know what you mean, painfully well,” RuRu said. “I’m always thinking about it.”

“You need to stop drinking,” DeeDee added.

“I know, I know!” RuRu said. “But some are born to bliss, while others are born to misery. And misery loves company. Won’t you join me for a drink?”

“Later, okay?” DeeDee said. “But first things first: has LaLa contacted you?”

“Nope,” she said. “She’s ghosted everyone.”

“Have you heard anything new from our sisters?” DeeDee said. “Anything about LaLa?”

“Nope,” she said. “They’re still looking for her. What about you, DeeDee? Anything on your end?”

Now it was DeeDee’s turn to spill, and she had been dreading it the moment she connected Janet’s observation on the missing Rosalie Edgeworth and her missing profile book with her own search for the missing Guardian of the Light, LaLa Marionette. Two absent individuals and two missing profile books, one presumed to be in Rosalie’s possession and the other presumed to be in Lady Dorian’s possession: it can’t just be a coincidence. Furthermore, based on Janet’s observation, Lady Dorian was the linchpin connecting them, a mortal with a grudge and a penchant for messing with matters beyond the human realm.

“DeeDee, are you there?” RuRu said.

“I’m here,” DeeDee said.

“You’ve been rather pensive, lately,” RuRu said. “Is there something I should know about?”

Now was the time, so DeeDee said, “You’re right, there is. There’s something I’m considering, and I need your opinion on it before going forward.”

“Okay, what is it?” RuRu said.

“I want Janet to help us look for our missing sister,” she said and waited for the inevitable—

“ARE YOU CRAZY?”

“Calm down, RuRu,” DeeDee said.

“Have you been drinking from my stash?” RuRu said.

“I’m completely sober, I promise,” DeeDee said. “I just need you to hear me out, okay?”

There was another pause, then: “Okay.”

With that, DeeDee proceeded to tell her sister everything she had been doing with Janet and her clones and her peers up until now. In particular, she highlighted what Lady Dorian did in her shop and what Lady Dorian did to her profile books there, what DeeDee herself had uncovered about the deaths of Janet’s clones and Janet’s current situation at school and other complications connected with it, what she talked about with Lady Graves in her office at Elba House, and what Janet discovered about Lady Dorian and Rosalie Edgeworth that had slipped through the cracks of DeeDee’s speculations. Taking these instances together, DeeDee said there’s a connection between the disappearances of LaLa and Rosalie, adding that Lady Dorian was that connection and that Lady Fleming could help.

When she was finished, DeeDee said, “What are your thoughts in light of that?”

Again there was another pause, longer this time, as if RuRu was weighing all the pros and cons, till she said, “I see what you’re getting at, but it’s all still circumstantial. At best, we’ll need her mother’s permission to bring in Lady Fleming, but considering Marchioness Fleming’s history, she’s gonna need a lot of convincing.”

“I know,” DeeDee said. “If I had any other leads, I wouldn’t consider it, but Janet is the only lead we have.”

“Even if it’s just a coincidence?”

“But it’s not a coincidence,” DeeDee said. “I just don’t have the full picture yet.”

“Whatever you say, Big Sis,” RuRu said.)

DeeDee sensed a hint of disbelief in RuRu’s words, so she was about to add something to that—

When Rowena said, “What’s going on, DeeDee?”

“You’ve been crouching over Janet for a while,” Lady Graves added. “Is there something wrong?”

Only then was DeeDee pulled from her telepathic conversation, making her turn her head and peer back at Marchioness Fleming and Lady Graves and Janet’s friends and clones all gathered around Janet’s motionless body lying over the red creeping thyme in the grass. The light of the lamps in their hands gave their complexions and the surrounding area a sickly green hue, and DeeDee noticed her hand still holding her pocket watch, its dial showing 8:57 p.m.

Replacing it in the pocket of her apron, DeeDee said, “Nothing’s wrong. I was just thinking.” Marchioness Fleming and Lady Graves traded quizzical looks as DeeDee stood up and added, “We’re done here,” and she turned to the others gathered around. “Let’s go back to Elba House. We’ve got much to discuss before the signing. Oh, and Celeste, dear.”

“What is it?” Lady Graves said.

“Have you finished drafting the contract?”

“I have,” Lady Graves said. “It’s waiting in my office.”

“I want to review what it says first,” DeeDee said, “because there’s something I want you to add.”

“And what’s that?”

“Later at your office, okay?” DeeDee said, then to Rowena: “You come, too, Rowena. I’ve got something important to ask of you concerning Janet.”

“Which is what exactly?” Rowena said.

“I’ll explain when we get to Elba house,” DeeDee said.

“No,” Rowena said, grabbing DeeDee's hand, yet her hand passed through. “If it’s something important concerning my daughter, you tell me right here, right now.”

“Rowena, please—”

“DeeDee, for God’s sake, tell me!”

Only then did DeeDee compromise and say, “I want Janet to help me find my sister, LaLa Marionette.”

“The Guardian of the Light?” Rowena said.

DeeDee nodded her head.

“But why her?” Lady Graves said.

“And why Janet?” Rowena said, then paused. “Unless . . .”

“LaLa’s missing,” DeeDee said.

“WHAT?” they both said.

DeeDee put her finger to her lips, signifying for them to keep their voices down, and said, “I’ll explain everything when we get to Elba House.”

“DeeDee,” Lady Graves said, “is this why you want me to add something to my contract?”

“Yes, that’s right,” DeeDee said, picking up Janet’s lamp in one hand and walking several paces and picking up her own lamp in her other hand, then turned to the men in the group. “One of you boys should pick Janet up. We’re going,” and she nodded to Lady Graves to do her thing.

And so, while Kevin Sydney ranger-rolled a sleeping Janet onto his shoulders, Lady Graves crouched and placed her hand on the ground, summoning a pair of double doors, then stood back up and grabbed the handles and pulled the doors open into the lighted foyer of Elba House. All the while, Rowena had gone back to the door of her own mausoleum and closed it shut, so that no legend-tripping weirdo would intrude into her domain, then doubled back and had DeeDee give her Janet’s lamp.

With all that done, the whole group entered, single file: first Kevin with Janet over his shoulders; then Ridley Woodberry with Kevin’s lamp and his own lamp in both hands; then Lord Underwood and Mindy Kessler and Jean and Saraya Drevis with their own lamps; then Janet’s thirty-one clones, all of them with lamps swaying in their hands; then the trio of DeeDee with one lamp and Rowena with Janet’s lamp and Lady Graves bringing up the rear; and then Lady Graves turning around and pushing the double doors shut behind her with the thud of a casket shutting over the face of the dead before the double doors disappeared altogether, leaving behind rumors of a ghost parade fluttering on the whispers of a gentle night breeze.

To Be Continued