Cast update:
Rachel as Katherine Connolly
Brittany as Cassandra Martin
Artie as David Jansen

"Blunt Spell Trauma"

6. Awaken Spirits

Everyone was quiet as they returned to the bodies, came to stand in a pack, unsure where to go in some cases. Caleb took the lead.

"We'll need volunteers."

"Volunteers for what?" Cole asked, still apprehensive about the whole thing.

"To receive the spirits of those three who died," Caleb explained. "One for each."

"I'll do it," Katherine Connolly stepped up, solemn. "If it will help find who did this to my brother."

"Me too," Cassandra Martin stepped forward. "I'll help."

"We need one more," Caleb looked to the others, the men in particular. After a moment, one came forward.

"Use me," David Jansen looked to Caleb.

"David…" Cole tried to stop him.

"No, I want to. For Sarah," he looked back to his uncle, who nodded to him with gratitude.

"Please join the bodies," Caleb gestured, and the three volunteers did as told. "Everyone else, except Mayor Conrad and Mr. Devereaux, form a circle." They came into place, spaced out evenly. "Close your eyes," he instructed the three in the middle. "Concentrate."

Caleb would lead the charge, everyone doing as he did. To an outsider's eye, in the gym rather than the house on Redfield Road, each of them would be aligned to a light on the ground. One by one they would touch the edge of the light with their feet to turn them on. They would reach in their pockets, or wherever they'd kept them, and they pulled out a magic bomb. They held it in their hands, outstretched, giving the small pouch enough of a squeeze to perforate it before tossing its contents, sending a rainbow sprinkling of confetti over the three with their eyes closed and the three shapes of 'bodies' on the ground. The circle would close their eyes as well, concentrating.

The mayor and his brother-in-law watched the silent group standing there, doing whatever it was that they did. The mayor would look to the shapes on the ground, thinking of the fact that one of them was his daughter, taken from him, and that her killer was likely one of those trying to bring her back. As for Cole, he still looked uneasy about the whole thing, but for all his issues with those people, he was just trying to remember the fact that his dear niece was dead, and they could find her killer.

"Keep it steady everyone…" Caleb spoke up, while the three in the circle collapsed.

"What's happening?" Cole asked. "Are you hurting them?"

"Everyone's fine. Please, this is critical, we have to stay focused. They need to become dormant in order to give way…"

When eyes began to open on the ground, the mayor neared the circle. He searched the girls' faces. "Sarah? Are you in there?" he begged. No one answered. "Why aren't they saying anything?" The circle opened their eyes.

"They'll need a moment to adjust," Caleb promised, observing the trio. The confusion in their eyes told him at the very least they had been successful in the possession. Still he looked a bit uncertain.

"What?" Cole saw this and asked after it.

"I don't know yet, it's just a feeling," he looked around to the others in the circle; they were feeling it, too. The mayor wasn't distracted, turning back to the girls.

"Sarah, sweetheart?"

"Daddy?" the response came from neither Katherine nor Cassandra. They turned to find the pleading voice had been David's. The mayor frowned, confused. "What's happening?" the tone was definitely not David's, and you could imagine the sweet disposition of Sarah Conrad. "What's…" 'Sarah' noticed the change in her voice, reached for her throat, and now so many other things came to be noticed, that she was suddenly a boy, for one… She screamed. This led to the others starting to take conscience.

"What are they doing here again?" the glare on Katherine Connolly's face was all too familiar for some of them.

"Victor?" Elizabeth blinked. "Is that you?"

"Of course it's…" he paused, looking down. "What's…" He saw the body he was in, definitely female. "Alright, what happened here?" he looked around.

"We died." Cassandra Martin had sat up, her back straight, poised, her eyes turned to the covered bodies. She looked back to the other two. "Now we're back," Serena Levy spoke through her.

"I… Is this… Am I my sister?" Victor frowned, touching his stomach, startling when his fingers touched what would be Katherine's breasts. "This is not right!" he didn't know where to put his hands, sticking them behind his back, though this wasn't safe either.

"How do you think I feel?" Sarah looked ready to hyperventilate herself into a panic. "I'm a boy!" She didn't look too sure where to put her hands either now. "Dad?" she turned to the mayor. He looked positively traumatized to look at his nephew's face, recognizing his daughter in his eyes.

"What happened?" he looked to Caleb, who was looking to Sarah/David, too.

"We brought them back, you get what you get," he explained. Sarah went to her cousin, Victor went to his sister, and Serena went to a trusted friend. The important thing is they are here. Now we can find out what really happened."

"Wait… So we are dead?" Victor looked up, now less preoccupied with where he was, more so with why he was there. "How did that happen?"

The others paused, surprised. "You don't know?" the mayor asked.

"No idea…" Victor shook his sister's head.

TO BE CONTINUED (FRIDAY)