We had one more Mortal Masquerade scheduled before we could debut our new avatars, giving Debs a week to finish work on the costumes. I was on angel duty along with Chris, so Maise needed to create a disposable avatar for one week only, a character she could kill off on purpose ready to step into her new role of Adelia the following week. Since this wasn't the time for a feature swansong, the best option was to lose a regular game.

Spirits who played games to lose were known as volunteers. Maise had enlisted a group of them back when she was building up her supervillain avatar Axiala and made a great show of "persuading" them to sacrifice themselves before her. Mostly they were people who were less interested in creating and developing characters than they were in doing deathplays, so they just threw together what they could when choosing their avatars. We had a dressing-up room set aside with generic costumes they could borrow, along with a random name generator for the less creatively inclined. Some just wore a mask and fake name with their normal everyday clothes.

Maise came up with the name Jen-Erica and dressed her temporary alter-ego in a pencil skirt and blouse with a full face kabuki mask. It was a simple look which she managed to make sexy as hell. I asked how she wanted Jen-Erica to be sacrificed.

"You'll know what games are being set up," she replied. "Pick me something good."

On Friday Chris and I helped Scott set up the scenes for the Masquerade. The main game scheduled in the hall was Guillotine Roulette; three French guillotines were set up beside each other, the occupants lying face up, the bascules extending past the lunettes to allow the victims to rest their heads. This meant no heads were going to roll, but the blades would be falling directly over their actual necks and they would see it coming. Of course we fitted blood packs into the stocks – this was a deathplay after all.

There were three coloured ropes attached to each blade, but only one supported it. In each round a question would be asked to each contestant, if they answered wrong they had to choose a rope to cut. If they were lucky, it would be a dummy rope. If not, the blade would fall and they'd be eliminated. The winner would be the last player to keep their head.

This would have been a good way to dispose of Jen-Erica were it not for the random element of the string cutting – we couldn't risk her winning by accident, leaving Maise stuck with an unwanted avatar when we wanted to get started as Larkin and Adelia. I imagined Maise lying there as we tested each guillotine and knew she'd have loved it. Never mind, there'd be other opportunities.

In the cellar was the Medieval Dungeon set where I'd watched Chris get boiled in oil on my first night at the Masquerade.This week's game used the same cages, but with the vats replaced by a moat of lava set down through the centre of the floor. One of Craig and Rebecca's creations, the lava was similar to the "oil" Chris was dunked in, but thicker, coloured orange and with dark pieces of polystyrene rock floating about in the bubbles. We wouldn't be lifting the cages back out this time, at least not immediately – this would be another job for the old placebo tube, whoever got dunked in the lava would be left submerged until we came to get them. The game was the elimination card game Maise had used to dispatch her team of volunteers into the shredder, but played as intended it was still a game of chance.

Option number three for the murder of Jen-Erica was over in the sawmill, involving two large circular saws set above conveyor belts. The two players would lie side by side on the belts facing the saws, feet first, with a cylindrical cardboard cover placed over them from their knees up to their armpits – this was to hide the mechanics of the effect, we also filled it with blood packs for added gore. Between them and the saw were a piece of two by four laid across the belt, then a short log strapped on longways – both of these would be visibly sawn through as the players approached the saw themselves.

The rules were that both players would advance towards the saws, but could halt their belts for five seconds by correctly answering questions set by the host. The game ended when one or both of the saws reached the cardboard cover, cutting into the person beneath and sawing them in half lengthways.

It was perfect.

All Jen-Erica needed was an opponent she could let win.

—-

Maise didn't want me to tell her what I'd picked out for her, but she did have an idea for an opponent. Back when she had conscripted her three volunteers to build up Axiala, amongst them had been a middle aged man by the name of George in plain clothes and basic mask. It turned out the man beneath that avatar was a friend and customer of Debs, whose real name was Rafe. Just like Jen-Erica, George had been a slapdash avatar he'd thrown together specifically to lose on purpose, but apparently Rafe had a passion for vintage theatrical melodrama and happened to also be at the outset of a new avatar.

"If we're going to be a pair of Victorian adventurers, we ought to have a nemesis," said Maise. "How would you feel about Rafe becoming our arch-villain, starting out by killing Jen-Erica in whatever game you've picked out for us? I get to return the favour for Axiala, while Larkin and Adelia get their own Snidely Whiplash to play off of. Then we build up to a showdown just like we did with Axiala and Betsy."

I thought it was a terrific idea. We made a call to Debs, who put us in touch with Rafe, who agreed at once. He already had the clothes and mask to put together a villain costume (of course he did) and was excited to have something juicy he could move forward with. Maise stepped out of the room so I could tell him the game I'd picked out without spoiling the surprise for her – Rafe thought it was very appropriate for the character that his first victim would meet her end via buzzsaw.

"Too bad you don't have any train tracks at Morior," he said.

—–

Because Chris and I were back together on angel duty for this Masquerade Maise came with us early under Jen-Erica's mask. She wanted to wait until the last possible minute to discover what game I had put her down for, but was eyeing up the trio of guillotines set up in the main hall the moment she saw them. Debs and Rafe arrived together with the early guests, Debs under a new avatar dressed in a frilly blouse and full red skirt, as if she'd just stepped out of a pirate movie. When she saw the setup for Guillotine Roulette she put her name down at once, which turned out to be Amethyst Annie – another temporary avatar to last at most until her upcoming swansong.

"How are you coming along with that, by the way?" she asked.

I told her about my conversation with Uncle Morbid and what we were setting up with the oven baked loaf. We were hoping to do a test run this coming week, with me in the oven.

Debs was amazed.

"You mean I'm going to be actually baked in a loaf of bread?" she gasped. "Wow, that's incredible! I can't wait for that."

She smiled as she looked me in the eye.

"I hope the run through goes well. I quite like the sound of Sliced Lexie Loaf".

Rafe meanwhile had dressed as a classical melodrama villain in tuxedo, opera clock and bandit eye mask. Debs introduced him to us.

"May I introduce Mr. Elbert Makabra," she said.

"At your service," said Elbert Makabra, in a voice dripping with polished creepiness. He turned his attention to Maise.

"And you must be the lovely Jen-Erica," he said. "Charmed to make your acquaintance. Briefly, of course."

Jen-Erica offered her hand for him to kiss.

"Good Sir, if you believe I will roll over for you I am afraid you are mistaken," she said in an exaggerated accent. "Be assured that you will find me a formidable opponent."

"I certainly hope so," he replied like a snake contemplating its meal. "I shall see you later on... in the sawmill!"

Maise gave a start and looked at me. Her mask did not allow for much expression, but her eyes were alive with excitement.

"Which way?" she whispered to me.

"Lengthways, up the middle".

"I love you."

"I know."

——-

Guillotine Roulette was a popular game at the Masquerade, so there was no problem in filling up the slots with angels. In fact we had enough to run a few games through the course of the evening, so Chris and I changed into stagehand uniforms in order to assist onstage. Amethyst Annie's opponents were Axl, a tall, muscular man in biker leathers and a ski mask, and Kitty, who wore a 1950s poodle girl outfit and half face cat mask. We helped them get into position on the tables beneath the guillotines, securing their necks into the stocks. We also strapped down their legs and torsos, to prevent excess movement. All three were now staring straight up at the blades suspended above their necks. Uncle Morbid asked the questions, Chris and I assisted by cutting the chosen rope with a large pair of shears.

The first rounds of questions were fairly easy, although players could always play to lose if they wished none did in this case. We were a few rounds in before the first incorrect answer came from Kitty, who now had to choose to cut either the red, yellow or blue rope. She chose yellow.

Chris took the honours with the shears, placed the blades either side of the coloured cord and waited for the cue to cut. Kitty stared up at the suspended blade, licked her lips and nodded for Chris to make the cut.

There was a slight wobble as he did so, but the blade stayed put. Kitty was still in the game.

Axl became the next player in harm's way, incorrectly answering a geography question. He chose red, settled back and waited for the outcome.

The red rope was pulled taut just as they all were, but I knew as soon as I touched it that it was bearing the weight of the blade. As I closed the shears, the rope broke with a pinging noise giving way to the dreadful scrape as the huge blade began to fall. As if in slow motion, I watched Axl stare up in alive excitement as the blade accelerated towards him, crashing into the stocks around his neck with a shower of crimson. As it landed, Axl's body shook with the impact, then was still as he lay back to play dead.

One down, now it was between Kitty and Amethyst Annie, who got her very next question wrong. Knowing Debs as I did, this had to be deliberate – she is ridiculously skilled at quizzes, but loves moments of drama. She also picked red, which turned out to be a dummy rope. This left both remaining players on two ropes each.

Three more rounds passed with no incorrect answers, until Amethyst Annie flubbed a simple question once more. She now had a 50/50 chance of being guillotined.

She chose yellow and stared at me with smiling eyes as I prepared to cut the rope. She wasn't even looking at the blade, just my reaction. Fine, I thought, let's do this. I snapped shut the shears, the rope fell away and the blade remained in position. She gave me a wink and the game continued.

It was ironic that Miss Kitty cat mask was up against Debs, who treated every game like a cat batting around a mouse, even when playing to lose. And I was her toy mouse even when not her opponent.

For the next few rounds Amethyst Annie put the screws into poor Kitty, confidently and quickly answering every question, pressuring her opponent to make mistakes. When Kitty inevitably made that mistake she gained a stay of execution when the blue rope turned out to be safe, but now it was certain that the next wrong answer by either player would result in decapitation.

Amethyst Annie was out for the kill now, piling even more pressure onto her opponent. I'd seen this side of Debs in Aunt Betsy and knew there was no way she was throwing this. She didn't mind losing to chance and would deliberately take games to the wire – that was the thrill of the gambler – but never to an inferior opponent she could control.

Kitty did her best but was flustered and panicking. It was almost a relief when Uncle Morbid asked the final question that broke her.

"I don't know, I don't care, just do it!" she cried.

She then composed herself a little, turned to her opponent and, with a brave smile, added, "Well played!"

She turned her head upwards to face the blade. Chris got into position with the shears, she nodded to confirm she was ready and he cut the rope. The guillotine blade slammed home into her neck stocks, the blood packs splattering either side.

Amethyst Annie was released to celebrate her victory and we rolled Axl and Kitty into casket trollies to be taken up to Limbo.

"Next stop the sawmill," Debs whispered to me as I passed. "Don't forget to change back into an angel."

I wondered what she was up to.