“You’ve totally lost it. Come on, guys, let’s get out of here.” Marty beelines for the front door.

“Rule number one, any attempt to leave will result in your immediate death and the game will be over.” Alyson’s words stop Marty in his tracks. Alyson continues, “My gran, the one who informed me of how to pull off this little switch-a-roo can also cast a mean trapping charm. Interesting side effect - it blocks all cell signals.”

Marty exchanges a worrying glance with Jillian.

“Now you three, grab a candle and come join us.” Alyson’s losing her patience.

Jillian, Marty and Veronica all walk over to a table that has three candlesticks and a box of matches. “She’s obviously still hurting from losing her sister. She’s not in a great headspace. What do we do?” Jillian whispers. “We can overpower her, lock her in a room or something and go get help,” conspires Marty. “Your math is as bad as your ideas,” says Veronica matter-of-factly, “There’s only three of us and four of them and they’re not running. They’re probably all in on it together.” Jillian and Marty consider this. Veronica strikes a match and lights her candle “I say play along, hear what Captain-crazy-pants has to say.” She waves the match out and walks over to join the others on the floor.

Jillian leans in to Marty “No wonder Alyson doesn’t like her.” Marty lights his own candle, then lights Jillian’s candle from his. “Thanks” Jillian smiles. Marty, sheepishly blows out the match and escorts Jillian to the floor. The seven of them sit in a circle. As they join the group, they notice the other three Shadyside High kids are Trey, his sister, Monica and that new girl, whose name nobody was sure of.

Alyson grabs something from a satchel on the floor, “Rule number two, everyone take a piece of paper and a pen.” She hands out six pieces of paper and six pens, everyone passes them around.

Alyson pulls out a small, antique, wooden box. It has special carvings all over it. “And finally rule number three; I’m going to pass around this box. I want you to look inside and then write down what you see. But don’t show anyone, keep it to yourself. Then at the end everyone will reveal.”

Trey raises his hand.

“I see we have a question,” chirps Alyson, quizzically. “Marie isn’t in the box, is she?” Trey’s eyes dart from person to person, seeing if anyone else shares his concern. “Well as the box is only slightly larger than the size of my hand, no Marie isn’t in the box because apart from being dead, she can’t fit in the box. Are there any other idiotic questions or shall we get started?”

Silence.

“Good. So, who wants to go first?” Alyson looks around, expectantly. Nobody says or does anything. “I’m game,” quips Veronica, hand outstretched.

Alyson hands the box over to Veronica. Veronica runs her fingers over the carvings and carefully opens the box and looks inside. All eyes are on Veronica, but nobody can see what’s inside, except Veronica. Whatever she can see is causing her to take a closer look.

Veronica then closes the box, running her fingers along the carvings again. Veronica places the box in front of her and quickly writes down her answer, careful not to let anyone see. She hands the box over to Marty. He has a similar experience, looking deep within the box turning his head side to side. He quickly writes down his answer and hands the box over to Jillian. For a moment their fingers touch.

Jillian takes a deep breath, then opens the box. As she looks inside, the first thing she notices is how deep the box is, it looks much bigger inside than it is on the outside. Then something catches her eye. There’s a little scene playing out in the box, flickering, like an flip-book or one of those old  black and white movies.

A tiny dot, moving towards Jillian’s face. It’s getting bigger and bigger as it moves along. As the dot gets bigger, it takes on a different shape, an animal, that kind of looks like a lamb. The lamb gets bigger and bigger. The lamb’s face begins to change. It’s cute, the little lambs’ eyes turn completely black. It opens its mouth to reveal giant, grotesque teeth. As the lamb’s mouth gets bigger it begins to turn inside out and envelope the lamb into a ball, a tiny dot. Then it begins all over again. And again, repeating. Continuously.

Everyone is looking her. Jillian’s eyes move around the room and settle on Marty. He nods, encouragingly. Jillian nods back and closes the box. She writes on her piece of paper and hands the box over to Trey.

Jillian passes the box along to Trey. Trey and the others all take turns looking in the box and jotting down their answers before the box finally makes its way back to Alyson.

“Now for the moment of truth,” Alyson announces. “On the count of three, everyone reveal your answers. One, two, three.”

Everyone reveals their answers. As the papers flip over there is a noticeable trend. Every single person has written the word “Nothing” on their piece of paper. Everyone except Jillian, who’s written “Lamb.”

Suddenly every candle flame goes out except for Jillian’s.

Alyson smiles, “Ding, ding, ding - we have a winner."