Chapter 16 – "This Is the Way the Séance Ends"

"Thank you for keeping your promise, Edmund," Lily said to him, smiling.

Edmund, still feeling injured after learning his Pulitzer Prize, was part of the Estate Sale, nevertheless returned Lily's smile.

"Which promise was that, honey?" he asked her.

"You said the séance wouldn't be scary," she reminded him, "and it hasn't been!"

"She's right!" Zift realized. "No wonder I'm bored!"

"It's been interesting and productive," Lily added. "We think we know what the time machine is and where it is. Edmund, if we go looking for it in the Main Ballroom away from the séance table, will you stay as clear as you are now, or will you fade back?"

He had no idea.

"Opal, can you keep Edmund in focus?" Brooke asked her quickly because it mattered to her.

She had no idea.

"You can keep me in focus, can't you guys?" Edmund asked the popcorn kernels. He had a sneaking suspicion about the true source of the psychic power at that table.

"We'll do our best," Zartz telepathed. "After we have some fun of course."

Briefly, Edmund wondered what his fellow aliens considered fun. Then the candles went out. Then the table began shaking. Then it turned over. The curtains danced at the windows as the storm returned with an unrestrained fury that was more than frightening. Winds began gusting inside the room. Over the moans of the wind voices sang "You Can't Always Get What You Want" in three-part harmony.

"Opal, what's happening?" Maria screamed.

"How should I know?" Opal screamed back. "Edmund, what's happening?"

"Make it stop, Edmund!" Lily implored. "Please make it stop!"

"Daddy!" Maddie yelled, completely terrified.

"Stuart, hold me!" Marian pleaded. "

"Don't worry, Marian!" Stuart comforted her. "I won't let anything hurt you!"

"Lily, don't be scared!" Sam called to her. "There's nothing to be scared of! I'm pretty sure none of this is real!"

Pictures started flying off the walls, crashing into furniture. They could hear cupboards clattering open in the kitchen.

"What's going on in there?" Brooke breathed, as they heard cups and plates falling out of cabinets and drawers opening and knives come flying out of them.

"Sam, we should be scared!" Lily told him in no uncertain terms, as a flock of knives flew into the living room and hung in a circle directly over their heads.

"Cut it out, guys!" Edmund instructed the kernels.

"Would you like to rephrase that?" Zetz giggled, as a butcher knife came within a whisper of Maria's heart.

"We're all gonna die!" Opal predicted with an hysterical shrillness.

"Not all of us," Lily managed to gasp as the wind fashioned her long blonde hair into a noose. "Edmund is already dead – Edmund, help me!"

"Daddy! Make it stop! Mommy, I'm sorry! I forgive you!"

"Maddie, I love you! Sam, I love you! Edmund, I'm sorry!"

"Lily, don't move!"

"Stuart, help me!"

"Marian, close your eyes! Imagine we're in a garden surrounded by heather!"

The circle of knives spun crazily overhead.

"Edmund, I will love you for all of eternity!" Brooke said for the record as six knives arranged themselves around her neck like a deadly necklace of stainless steel. "For always and ever, for as long as long is!"

"This is the way the word ends," Galioscian voices misquoted the poet, T.S. Eliot. "This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a whimper but a BOOM!"

A blinding flash of lightening incinerated the entire room and everybody in it.

Could this be the end of Edmund and his friends? Has matter collapsed into antimatter? Will Opal ever hold another séance? What about the Estate Sale? Lots of chapters, lots of surprises still to come! Please read on! Your Review is welcome!