"We're going to commune with the dead through a seance!"

"..."

At first, no one said anything, only staring at Kipo, seemingly waiting for her to say 'just kidding' or 'it was a joke'. When she didn't, they couldn't seem to figure out what to say. Kai looked ready to get up and run away.

"A... seance," Tulip finally said, still dumbfounded. "A seance."

"I think it could work," Mabel said, but she still sounded unsure. "Dipper loved seances."

"Why would we do that!?" Kai cried. "Don't they do those things in dumb horror movies and then die?!"

Fei Fei frowned. "What's a... what you said?"

"It's, like, where you get candles and all sorts of stuff and are able to talk with ghosts," Mabel said. "Like a ritual!"

Fei Fei still looked a little mystified, but she nodded like she understood anyway. "Er, is it disrespectful?"

"Uh..." Kipo's mind blanked. Usually, she might think that talking with people at rest and bugging them with dumb questions would be mean (that's usually what she would be thinking during those few horror movies she watched), but right now, she shook her head. "Nah, I think they'd LOVE to help us."

Fei Fei's face changed to relief. "Ah, good. I wouldn't want to make a ghost angry."

"No, no, NO!" Kai shouted. "I don't want any part of this! I'm am going to be the NOT dumb person in a horror movie, I am going somewhere FAR AWAY, you all are going to summon a demon!"

"Kai, it's our only lead," Tulip pointed out. Kai continued to shake his head fervently.

"It's fine," Kipo told her. "You don't have to do this, Kai, but one of us has to. I can do it."

"It doesn't have to be one," Mabel noted. She put up her hand. "I can be the one who gets possessed! I have experience."

"Okay, co-What?" Kipo shook her head, deciding to ignore it for now. "Okay."

"I will also help," Tulip offered. She frowned at her broken leg. "But I'm not quite sure how much help I'll be."

"You shouldn't, you won't be able to run from the ghost when it attacks you," Coraline said, dryly. Tulip scowled while Kipo looked at her, hopeful.

"Coraline, will you help?"

Coraline thought about that. "I should probably say no, but I want to see what will happen. Sure."

"Great!" Kipo turned to the last two members of their group. "Luz? Fei Fei? Remember, it's your choice."

Fei Fei shrugged. "Yes."

While Kipo grinned at Fei Fei, Luz took a little longer to answer, pondering the question as she looked out to the horizon where Six had disappeared.

"...I will," she said, finally. She gave them all a pinched smile. "It sounds fun?"

"You all are insane," Kai moaned. Tulip shook her head at him.

"So, what do you need for a seance?" she asked Kipo. Kipo's mind went blank.

"Uh... Mabel?"

Mabel perked up. "Oh! Well, you need a quiet place..."

Coraline looked at the desolate place around them. "Done."

"And we need people who believe in ghosts..."

Kipo snorted. She wouldn't say she believed in them before, but now that she had actual proof? Yeah, she 'believed' in ghosts now. Now that she had scientific proof, that is.

"Candles, incense, and a spirit board, or something that the ghosts can use to answer the questions we're asking," Mabel finished, listening off things as she counted on her fingers. "Oh! I could make the spirit board!"

"Okay..." Kipo agreed. She looked around. "Now we just need... everything else."

They had barely started their seances and yet they'd already hit a roadblock. Kipo worried at her lip nervously. "Mabel, do we... need candles? Actual candles?"

Mabel was already gone, somehow in a place that left people nowhere to hide. Kipo sighed.

"Well, okay then..." Kipo shrugged at the rest of them. "I suppose we'll just be making do."

A short while later, Mabel, Coraline, Kipo, Luz and Fei Fei were seated around in a circle, their makeshift seance spread out before them. To no one's surprise, they had not found any candles, so they had to make do with some wood, setting them up into tiny little bonfires with fires threatening to go out every single second. They were in the place where they had eaten previously, which was also the only place where the fires wouldn't spread on the floor, and Kai and Tulip were in the next room over, much to both of their annoyance.

Kai did not want to be so close to the ghost summoning. Tulip did not want to miss the ghosts summoning. No one was happy.

In the middle of the circle lied Mabel's very sparkly, very eye-catching Ouija board. It was pink, and Kipo thought that if this doesn't get the attention of the ghosts, nothing will. They were ready to begin the seance. Mabel led them through the actions.

"First, we join hands," she told them, taking Kipo and Fei Fei's hands in hers. Slowly, the rest of them joined up as well. It was rather dark now, and Kipo kept glancing up at the sky nervously, wondering if it was just dark, or if there were clouds up there.

Mabel did an excited little wiggle as the circle joined hands. "I've never done this with more than two people, I wonder what will happen!"

"You... You don't know?" Kipo asked her nervously. Mabel shrugged.

"Usually it was just me and Dipper, and we didn't get many ghosts," Mabel explained. "Now, we ask for a ghost to come, and then talk with it."

"What, no chanting?" Coraline asked sarcastically.

"We can chant if we want to."

"Let's not," Kipo said quickly as Mabel sucked in a breath. "Just ask for the ghosts, Mabel."

"Okay!" Mabel said. Lifting her hands, she closed her eyes. "If there are any ghosts out there, please come out, we need your help! So..."

Mabel trialed off, and Kipo frowned.

"Is that it?" Coraline asked. Mabel opened her eyes.

"Yes...?"

"Oh," Coraline looked suspicious.

"I thought it'd be more... spiritual," Luz spoke up.

"It makes sense, though," Kipo defended. "I mean, if I was dead and still walking around, I'd help someone that needed it."

"Hm," Coraline said, skeptically. She didn't look convinced. "Well, what do we do?"

"We wait for a sign," Mabel told them, settling back. She looked like she expected to be here a long time.

"A sign?" Luz repeated, excitement evident in her voice.

"Yeah, like..." Suddenly, Mabel's face fell as half their candles scattered around them. "That."

They all looked around. In the room next to them, there was voices, but other than that, the silence was deafening.

"So... genius, what now?" Coraline asked.

"Coraline, don't be mean," Kipo reprimanded her, before turning to Mabel. "But... what do we do?"

Mabel opened and closed her mouth, for once looking a little lost. "I've... never really got this far..."

Fei Fei dropped Mabel and Luz's hands, reaching into the center, towards the Ouija board. "With this?"

Mabel nodded. "Yeah! With that! Um... We put our hands on it and then the ghost helps move it!"

'Or gravity and the power of our imaginations,' Kipo thought, but she didn't bother saying it. She was the one that suggested this, after all.

"We don't need everyone," Mabel explained. "So... me and Coraline will do it. We need to sit across from each other."

Coraline didn't look too happy about it, but she shuffled around to face Mabel anyway, copying Mabel's position. Mabel put her two pointer fingers on the triangle on the board in front of her, and Coraline copied her. However, before they started, Mabel looked around nervously.

"Uh... please don't possess me?" Mabel asked nervously to no one in particular. Coraline rolled her eyes.

"You'll be fine," she said, somewhat sarcastically. "What next?"

"Now, we move the piece around the board to warm it up," Mabel told her and Coraline scoffed.

"You can't be can't be serious," Coraline sighed.

"Mabel, is this really necessary?" Kipo asked, skeptical.

Mabel frowned, then shrugged. "Yes? I mean, Dipper knows better than me, but he said that the order of things is really, really important."

"It's better to do it right," Fei Fei agreed. Coraline only shook her head, and together, with Mabel, they pushed the triangle around the board a couple times.

"What now?" Coraline asked, already sounding done with the whole thing.

"We ask a really simple question, like..." Mabel thought for a minute. "'Do you like cats?' It has to be a yes or no question-."

Suddenly, under their fingertips, the triangle started moving, cutting Mabel off. The five watched it closely as it moved towards the yes, and then just vibrated there for a long time.

A big grin split over Mabel's face. "Hey! You must REALLY like cats. Don't worry, everyone, it's a good ghost."

Kipo, still a little taken aback by the movement of the board, shook her head. "Just because they like cats doesn't mean they're automatically good, Mabel."

Luz laughed. "What? No... Well, I guess all the bad guys in movies do have cats..."

Mabel shook her head firmly. "No, no! This ghost is good, they have good energy!"

"Who are you?" Coraline asked, apparently done with the brief conversation. Mabel looked back at her, alarmed.

"No, no, no, we have to thank them first!" Mabel exclaimed. Loudly, she said "Thank for listening and talking to us!"

"Right, right," Coraline said. "NOW, who are you?"

Again, under their fingers the triangle started moving again on its own accord. Wherever it went, it left a trail of glitter, and soon, Kipo worried the whole board would be covered. It was already covering up some of the letters.

A couple times, Kipo thought she saw something else there, moving the piece, but only when she looked just right and only half the time. But even with that, half the time it just looked like Mabel and Coraline were moving it themselves. Sometimes, subconsciously, Kipo wondered if they were.

"Uh oh, I've lost track of this!" Mabel cried. "Someone keep track!"

"I am-," Luz started, but Mabel didn't hear her.

"Um... M-E-I-S-S-T-A-R-B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y!" Mabel shouted out, but then she frowned. "What does that say?"

"...I lost track when Mabel started yelling," Luz admitted.

"I got it," Kipo told them. "It said... My name is Star Butterfly. I think."

Kipo suddenly frowned, thinking it over. "Maybe I read it wrong?"

The piece started moving again, and this time, it went to 'no', then back to the letters, repeating them. "ST-A-R-B-U-T-T-E-R-F-L-Y."

"Huh," Kipo said, still a little confused.

"It's not as weird as Kipo," Coraline pointed out.

"I never said it was weird," Kipo defended. "Just... unique. Like my name."

Before Coraline could say anything back, the triangle piece moved again, spelling out a new sentence.

"I-C-A-N-H-E-L-P-Y-O-U," Star Butterfly wrote. "I-M-E-A-N-I-C-A-N-T-B-U-T-I-K-N-O-W-W-H-O-C-A-N."

Luz frowned. "It's harder to figure out the bigger sentences."

Kipo hummed, nodding in agreement.

"They said they know someone who can help us," Coraline told them. She frowned. "Who?"

"I-C-A-N-T-T-E-L-L-Y-O-U."

Kipo winced. "Please, we need your help. You're one of the one's who came before us, right? One of the sixteen? I don't know exactly what happened to you all, but I can guess. And the same thing is happening to us. There's only seven of us left... please help us."

The triangle piece moved again.

"I-C-A-N," Star Butterfly said.

"L-I-S-T-E-N-C-L-O-S-E-L-Y."

Immediately, the small group snapped their mouth shut, and Kipo couldn't even hear their breathing. The only sound was the sound around them, and the slight murmur of voices from the room next to them.

Satisfied. Star Butterfly moved the piece again.

"B-R-I-N-G-T-H-E-B-O-A-R-D"

"F-O-L-L-O-W-M-E."

Kipo's brow furrowed, and for a moment, she was confused. 'Follow me'? What did they-?

Suddenly, she heard it. Small shuffling noises, so very faint that Kipo was halfway sure she was imagining them. But as the others jumped too, hearing them as well, Kipo knew she wasn't.

Or, that she was, and they were all crazy.

'Follow me' Star Butterfly said, so with great reluctance, Kipo got up, following Coraline's example. Luz gathered up the board, then followed suit with Mabel and Fei Fei. The footsteps were hard to follow, especially with them all making so much noise as they followed. Soon, with her advanced hearing, Kipo had to lead them, closing her eyes as to focus on the noises better, feeling in front of her for any debris in her path.

Luckily, they didn't go far, and when the footsteps stopped, Kipo opened her eyes, expecting... well, she wasn't sure. But whatever it was, it wasn't this.

They had wandered a little bit away from the community center building, sure, but the place they had ended up in seemed completely random. Why had Star Butterfly led them here?

Kipo looked to the others, but they looked just as lost. She suddenly felt guilty. Had she led them to the wrong place?

"Should we look?" Fei Fei eventually spoke up.

"For what?" Coraline asked. Fei Fei shrugged.

"Um, no, she's right," Kipo spoke up. "We should look around."

The others didn't argue. The spread out around, shifting through debris around them. Kipo looked around at the scene around them. She had the distinct feeling she was being watched, and shivered, but she knew it was probably the ghost.

Why had the ghost wanted them here? Was whatever they wanted to show the living group always here in the town? If so... what was it?

Kipo continued looking. Where were they? Of course with the town levelled it was practically impossible to figure out where they were, but... Kipo thought she had a good guess.

"Hey... isn't this where Kai's house was?" she pointed out. The others paused, and looked around. Coraline frowned, and picked something up off the ground.

"I have been seeing a lot of bolts and all that around," she pointed out, holding one up.

"Didn't Kai's house have the basement?" Mabel asked. "I always wanted to go down there but Kai was never up here to ask."

"Yeah, you're right," Kipo agreed. "So, we look for the basement?"

"Do we know where that is?" Coraline asked. No one answered, and she sighed. "Great, more looking."

"It shouldn't be that hard," Kipo said. "It's a big hole in the ground. Shouldn't even have a door anymore."

Coraline just shook her head, and they all spread out, once again search up debris and broken wood. And, Kipo was right. In under five minutes, they had found it.