Arc II, Chapter 73: Hard Mode Initiated

On-Screen.

“So let me get this straight,” Isaac said as we stood outside the Geist Mansion, “We’re sending them to a place we know the Die Cast is going to strike because we think Roderick will be skulking around outside with the flask because the psychic who got us into this mess believes that throwing the flask into a river will stop the Die Cast from being summoned?”

“That’s the long and short of it,” I said.

Isaac sighed. “And we’re here because you think we can… what, be lookouts?”

I shrugged my shoulders. “I don’t know how much help we’ll be, but at least we’ll get to watch.”

My Savvy ticked up a bit. It wasn’t much, but the buff wasn’t even the point. Isaac’s trope for summarizing the plot would help buff our plans in general, and frankly, we needed all of the help we could get.

A line of fancy cars paraded slowly down the mile-long driveway. A valet would take their keys and give them a receipt. Their cars would be parked, and they would elegantly walk into the mansion after showing their invitation.

They were all dressed in tuxes and fancy dresses and having the time of their lives.

“And I don’t think it’s fair to say the psychic got us into this,” I said. “We did this. We’re getting everything we deserve.”

Isaac shook his head. “Speak for yourself. It wasn’t too long ago my family would be invited to parties like this. It’s the Geists’ fault we weren’t. They could have played fair. Geists aren’t going to be happy until everyone in Carousel is their employee. You’ll see.”

I laughed. “All the clarity that comes with dying, and you still hold a grudge.”

“Sometimes grudges need to be held,” he said somberly. “There’s Kimberly. Why is she coming with the dog walker? I thought she and Antoine were a package.”

“Antoine has a bad history with the family after the lawsuit and all. Luckily, Bobby knew a secret way in,” I said.

~-~

We had done all of the setup we could for this scene. Second Blood was upon us. We had shot a scene in which we contacted Cassie from beyond the grave to inform her that Roderick Gray was behind all of the attacks and that it wasn’t just the Spirit of Vengeance gone haywire, as our characters had previously believed.

We explained it as best we could. The Die Cast was a loose cannon. Every time it was summoned, it became more willful and violent. Until it had killed all of the Geists, it would continue to get wilder and more dangerous until, eventually, it wouldn’t need to be summoned from the flask.

We had patched its lore together, and I was 80% sure I understood it. If we had a scholar to do proper research, I would feel much more confident.

They had their group meeting, Bobby included and decided to ambush Gray at his next target. Bobby had done some decent improv to explain that he knew there were secret passages in and out of the mansion. Apparently, one of the Geist granddaughters would use one of them to come visit the horses late at night (as rich horse girls do), and he knew where to find it. Given that he was a Geist employee, that sounded like a clever explanation for how we knew about the passage from the Paupers’ Grave to inside the Geist mansion.

We didn’t have a great reason for Bobby to be in our group, per se, but we were not shooting for a perfect run. He helped because he was a nice guy who might be in danger.

Now, we stood outside the party that we knew would end in disaster.

“You know,” Isaac said. “It probably is weird for Bobby to be arriving with Kimberly, given that he works for the Geists. They’ll think it awfully low class.”

“If they want to look down on him, they’ll look down on him. The reasons are just pretense,” I said.

I jumped as I stared in through the window and saw a face I recognized, though it had not looked like this the last time I had seen it in person. Lillian Geist was walking down the stairs like an angel descending from the heavens.

She really was pretty. As I stared at her, I recognized something in her that I usually only saw in the mirror—a profound loneliness. She hid it behind a smile and sparkly makeup of some kind, but it was there.

If we couldn’t save Carlyle, then we certainly couldn’t save Lillian. Getting to the true ending was the goal. Heroics were for other genres.

Just thinking of Carlyle filled me with a dark guilt. It wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t my script. Why did I feel guilty?

“She had such a crush on me,” Isaac said, following my gaze, “You know, back when I had money and power and standing. I should have married her then, and I would still be alive today. I’d be wearing a tux and drinking one of those blue drinks.”

He looked into the window longingly. He was doing his best to act like his character, but he was having difficulty not laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. His character was a punching bag, so he might as well lean into it by acting like a tool.

“You thinking you would have taken her last name?” I asked. “I hear they pay men to change their last name to Geist when they enter the family. Some go for it.”

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“If that’s what it took,” he said.

I laughed. “Never change, pal, never change.”

You didn’t need the red wallpaper to sort the NPCs from the Geists. It was easy. The Geists were the happy ones. Some NPCs knew what was coming, and those that look like when you walk into a room and forget why you’re there.

We were Off-Screen, so we walked through the walls of the mansion and took in the ambiance.

Kimberly had a huge crowd around her. She was famous, after all.

“Is this going to work?” Isaac asked.

“I mean, only Antoine and Kimberly have to survive. Literally, everyone else here is going to be joining us very soon.”

He wasn’t satisfied. Being a ghost might have helped dull his sense of impending doom, but it certainly didn’t eliminate it.

“You know there’s something strange about these Geists,” I said.

“Just one thing?” he asked.

“The spouses,” I said. “I thought all of the spouses were going to be NPCs, but look at Bensen’s wife.” I pointed to the shrew-faced woman standing next to Bensen. “She’s labeled as a Geist on the red wallpaper.”

Isaac took a moment to soak in the implications. “Gross. Are you saying they kept it in the family?”

“What?” I asked.

“Incest. She’s a Geist.”