Word Approx.: 2,900
Characters: Webby, Lena, Violet, May and June
Title: Three's a Crowd Part 1
"Halloween Slumber Party!" Webby shouted at the top of her lungs as she performed a perfect pile-drive onto a stack of pillows, sending them flying in all directions.
Lena blocked a few with just a wave of her hand, magic sending the fluffy projectiles harmlessly away. Violet batted one away from her book without looking up. May swatted the pillows with an irritated frown but June took one full in the face, then laughed at herself.
Webby was giddy with delight. Not only was this her first slumber party with her clone-sisters, but it also promised to be an extra delightful one with it being during the Halloween season. Which meant telling ghost stories into the night, playing scary games, and eating way too much candy.
However, Webby's plans for her slumber parties never turned out how she wanted them to go. Little did she know that she thought would be a fun night filled with harmless thrills and chills would turn into a slumber party she would soon regret.
"I'm glad that you planned this slumber party," Lena said, digging into her backpack.
"Of course. All my slumber parties are totally excellent," Webby said, trying to remain upbeat for May and June's sake. After all, they had no knowledge of her previous slumber parties. That last thing she needed was for them to know about the money shark, jumping into the Shadow Realm, and the weird shared dream.
"Because I really need to practice my necromancy and it's not a good idea to do it alone," Lena said, bringing out candles, chalk, and incense.
"What?" Webby cried out before laughing. "Oh, Lena, you joker." She nervously glanced at May and June. They didn't seem to notice. "Lena, is this really a good time? Couldn't we do it a different time?"
"But it's a full moon, and it's only a week before Halloween. It's prime spirit communication time," Lena said. "I won't have an opportunity like this until next year."
Webby bit her lower lip. Why couldn't she, for once, have a nice, normal slumber party? Given, because of these weird episodes, she was able to get Lena back from the shadow realm, but still, it would be nice to have one night where the most exciting thing she did was play Truth or Dare.
"Necromancy? Isn't that, like, raising zombies and bringing the dead back to life?" May asked skeptically.
June's eyes widened.
"Technically, Necromancy is magic dealing with the dead. From what I was able to read from Lena's spell books, most of Necromancy is communication with spirits and sending them to the next world. Zombies is high level necromancy, and nobody can bring the dead back to life," Violet said in her no-nonsense way. "Although there is a lot more to it than that."
"Oh, so we're going to play that one game with the magnifying glass and letters and numbers on the board to talk to ghosts, right?" April asked. She didn't seem concerned by the idea, nor did she sound interested. In fact, she sounded bored.
But June looked worried. "Aren't those things dangerous? Don't they summon evil spirits?"
Lena rolled her eyes. "What you're describing is an Ouija board, and, yeah, I have one of those. We can try one out. And, no, we're not going to summon an evil spirit, June. Scrooge has this mansion protected against evil spirits. Plus he has Duckworth, who would keep us safe. We'll only communicate with good spirits. Besides, I can only summon weak ones at my level of necromancy."
April rolled her eyes. "You really are selling us on this party game."
"Party game?" Lena repeated.
"Yeah. It's just a game," April said. "We'll ask the board a bunch of questions, and one of you will move the magnifying glass around and pretend that a spirit has come to talk to us. Let's skip it. We're not that gullible."
June still looked nervous but nodded her head in agreement with her sister. "Yeah, it sounds…silly. Let's do something else."
Webby jumped on that idea. "Yeah, because I have a whole bunch of activities we can do tonight. We don't have to summon spirits. Right, Lena?" She looked at her friend hopefully.
Lena sighed. "Fine. I'll put all this stuff away. I wouldn't want to scare anyone tonight anyway."
"Scare?" May demanded, knowing a challenge when she heard one. "This child's game doesn't scare us, right June?"
June had found a blanket to wrap around herself with only her eyes peeking out. "Yeah. It doesn't scare us."
Lena and May looked at those wide-eyes, not believing that lie.
"Prove it," Lena said, pulling out her Ouija board—a homemade one—and waggled it at May.
"Fine," May said, snatching the board and setting it on the floor.
"Hey, I understand that you want to practice, Lena, but this is a slumber party and it's obvious that not everyone wants to summon spirits," Webby said. "Maybe we should do something that all of us will enjoy. How about we watch a movie?"
"Or we could put it to a vote and let majority rule?" May said. "There's two for summoning spirits—or at least pretending to summon spirits—" She shot a smirk at Lena. "—and two for doing something else."
The four ducklings turned to the fifth member of their party who had remained quiet for the most part.
Violet set her book down. "And it looks like it comes to me to be the tie-breaker. As much as I would like to stop the squabbling, perhaps I could propose a compromise so that there are no hard feelings throughout the night and spoil Webbigail's slumber party."
Lena rolled her eyes at her adopted sister's lengthy explanation.
May looked intrigued.
"I suggest we allow Lena to practice her necromancy for a limited time of fifteen minutes and fifteen minutes only, just to see if she can do it or not since there isn't any guarantee that it will work," Violet continued.
Lena folded her arms. "Thanks for the vote of confidence, Vi."
"You're welcome. I, for one, believe that you could if you have the concentration since we all know you're powerful enough to do it," Violet said. "I would love to be able to communicate with some historical figures once you have mastered this branch of magic. However, for the sake of certain members of the group who are uncomfortable with the subject matter, I suggest that some of us go downstairs and prepare snacks and the movie."
"Oh, I could do that," June said, jumping out of her blanket. "I'll just wait in the TV room until you're done."
Webby was surprised with how quickly June had gone for the compromise. "Great, June. Thanks. Do you want any help?"
"No, I got it. I'll just ask Mrs. Beakley if I can't find anything," June said, going out the door.
Webby turned to the others, having found Lena already drawing a protective circle large enough for the board and everyone to sit around it. Violet was getting her phone ready to time the séance so they didn't go over the fifteen minute time period.
"Okay, everyone, sit in the circle," Lena said, putting down the last candle.
"And let me guess, we all hold hands," May said blithely.
"Only if you get scared," Lena said with a smirk. "I have to hold the crystal, so we won't be able to hold hands, but I should only be summoning a low-level spirit, so the protective circle should be enough."
May frowned, looking uncertain. But she sat down on one side of the Ouija board, the others joining her until they formed a square facing the board.
Lena held out a crystal on a chain over the board, the crystal dangling just a few inches over the letters and numbers on the board.
"I thought we had that magnifying glass that we all touch," May wondered.
"Yeah, because that's for a game," Lena said. "This is the real thing. Do you honestly think that a ghost is going to visit a bunch of kids and try to wrestle a little plastic triangle just to write out a dumb message to scare them?"
"Uh…no. Thus the sarcasm," May pointed out.
"Well, this is how a real spirit medium does it," Lena said. "Now before I begin, everyone must expel all negative emotions. We must have positive emotions in the circle. Most spirits are neutral, and our positive energy will make them positive. If a negative spirit answers our summons, positive energy will deflect them. But it is unlikely that a negative spirit will come."
"Based on Webbigail's record for slumber parties, I think that statement is false," Violet said.
Webby's face fell, her worries showing through.
"It was a joke," Violet said, a smile showing through her deadpan demeanor. "I was trying to bring in some levity to help with the positive emotions."
Webby laughed. "Yeah, good one, Violet," she said. The joke actually helped.
"Okay, I think we're ready," Lena said with a smile and started a chant in a language nobody but Violet recognized. After a while, Lena asked, "Is there a spirit here that is willing to communicate?"
Everyone looked to the crystal still dangling over the Ouija board. It didn't move.
"We'd like to talk to a spirit. If there are any nearby, use the crystal to speak to us," Lena said, trying to concentrate on positive energy as well as clear thoughts for the spirit. Both of these things weren't her strongest suits.
She kept asking questions and inviting spirits to come talk to them, but still the crystal didn't move except for a bit of trembling from Lena's hand. It was hard to keep her hand still while holding it out.
"We have two minutes left," Violet announced, glancing at her phone.
"Let me try one more time," Lena said. "I think I sense something, but something is preventing it from communicating. Is everyone thinking positive thoughts?" She shot a glare at May.
May shrugged. "Hey, I have been thinking positive thoughts. I'm positive that this won't work."
Lena gave a frustrated sigh. "Come on, May."
"Okay, okay. Positive thoughts. Kittens and rainbow and marshmallows," May said.
Lena glared again.
"Hey, those were positive," May defended. "I like kittens and rainbows and marshmallows." She was sincere.
"I'm getting something," Lena said, closing her eyes. "If you're there, do you want to talk to us?"
Suddenly, the crystal started to rotate in a circle slightly then it straightened, pointing to the "Yes" on the board.
"Yes!" Lena cheered.
May's eyes widened. "Okay, I'm not going to insult you by asking how you're doing that. I'm just going to swallow my pride. But I'm not scared."
Then the chain jerked to the "No".
"Whoa, what's going on?" Violet asked.
"I'm sensing there's two spirits," Lena said. "They seem to be fighting over the crystal."
"Are they both friendly? Maybe one of them is shy?" Webby asked, not liking how quickly the crystal went to "No" but she was always willing to give people the benefit of the doubt, even ghosts.
"And are there only two of them?" May asked, looking around as if there were hordes of ghosts spying on her.
The crystal moved to the number two and then it went to the one.
"I guess one left," May thought and she shivered. "Did it suddenly get cold in here?"
"The temperature has dropped by twenty degrees ever since the crystal started moving," Violet said. "I brought my equipment to test Lena's experiment, and I've been getting some interesting data. I can't wait to listen to the audio recording I made once I get it on my computer."
"Did the other ghost leave?" Lena asked.
The crystal went to the "Yes."
"Where did the other ghost go?" Webby asked.
The crystal jerked again, this time going to a letter, then another, spelling something out. The girls spoke each letter as the crystal pointed to it.
"H. E. S. W. I. T. H. J. U. N. E."
"He's with June?" May spoke the words once the crystal stopped moving. Her eyes widened. "June."
She raced out of the circle and downstairs, calling for her sister's name. She didn't know why, but she felt scared. She hadn't felt scared all night, but she did then. She first checked the TV room, and finding it empty, went to the kitchen. She shoved the door open and shouted her sister's name.
June was standing by the back door that was wide open and was waving. "Bye, Auggie. Thanks for your help." Turning around, she looked at May curiously. "Oh, are you guys done already? Wow, time sure flies."
"June, are you okay?" May asked, going to her sister.
"I'm fine. It's not that hard to make some brownies," June said. "I just barely put them in, so they won't be done for a while, but you can start the movie without me."
May looked to the open back door. "What were you doing? Who were you talking to?"
"Just a boy. Auggie," June said, confused. "He stopped by and helped me make some brownies. Why do you sound angry?"
"I—I'm not. You just shouldn't talk to strangers," May said, closing the door.
"He said he knew Scrooge McDuck," June said. "I thought that Auggie was Huey, Dewey and Louie's friend. He was so nice, and he knew his way around the kitchen, so he must know the house."
"It's not your house. You shouldn't invite strangers in," May said before realizing how loud she was talking. The look on June's face was enough to make her realize that she was yelling.
"I'm sorry," June said.
Webby stepped forward. She, Lena and Violet had followed May but kept back until now. "There's no harm done. Everything is fine."
June wiped at her eyes, clearing away any tears before they could be seen and nodded. "I'm sorry. He was just so nice, and I promise that nothing bad happened."
"It's okay," Webby said again. "It's just…we contacted some spirits and…we think…"
"We think that they were just trying to scare us, and I was afraid that one of them would try to scare you," May jumped in. "But you're fine, and the spirits are all gone, so everything is fine."
Webby was surprised by May's lie, but she kept her beak shut.
"Oh," June said. "Then I'm glad Auggie was with me. He made it so I wasn't scared. And I bet that if a ghost did appear, he would have protected me." She then hummed a bit, happily.
May cast a glance at Lena before saying, "We're going to go get the movie ready. Violet, could you help June with the rest of the snacks."
"Sure," Violet said.
May then pushed Lena and Webby out of the kitchen.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were being too bossy," Lena quipped.
"Are those ghosts gone?" May demanded of Lena.
Lena shrugged. "I'm not sure. You left the circle so suddenly that I didn't have time to end the ritual. But more than likely, the ghosts weren't powerful enough to stay. The mansion's protection should move them along. Not unless they have an emotional attachment to the area."
"But you could do something else to make sure they don't come back, right?" May asked.
Lena nodded. "Sure."
"Could you do it now, please?" May asked, her bossiness dropping. She looked more concern.
"Yeah, I'll get to it now," Lena said. "Don't worry. The ghost was just a kid. More than likely, he won't do your sister any harm."
"Yeah, okay," May said, folding her arms.
After Lena left, Webby said, "I feel kind of sorry for Auggie."
"The ghost? You feel sorry for a ghost?" May asked.
"Well, he's just a kid, like us," Webby said sadly. "He died so young. It doesn't really seem fair."
May's face slipped to sorry. "Yeah, that is kind of sad."
"And since he's a ghost, there's probably not a lot of ghosts his age around. He's probably lonely," Webby continued. "I bet he just wanted to spend time with June. She's really nice and likes to make people happy."
May knew that June was a people pleaser. She always had. She always sought out approval to anyone around. To May. To Bradford. To Red Heron. And they had all demanded so much of June. Even May demanded things of June.
At least they had Donald and Daisy and all these new friends. With the kindness and attention that they were giving the clone sisters, June might eventually learn that the only person she had to please was herself.
"At least he seemed to be a friendly ghost," Webby said. "Don't worry about it."
But May did worry. But perhaps the boy wasn't who she should worry about. What about the other ghost? And were there truly only two ghosts? Could there be more?
Bad things come in threes.
Could there be a third ghost?
May felt a chill go down her spine which she shook away. She had been thinking too many dark thoughts. Lena was going to wiggle her fingers and say a few magic words, and all the ghosts would be gone.
And that would be the end of that.
(Author's notes: I apologize for breaking up the story into parts. I intended to write very short stories for the month of October for Halloween, but this one went longer than I thought. It might take me a few parts to finish. I also plan on writing a few more stories before the second part gets posted, so I apologize for that, too. I don't know where Three's a Crowd is going, and I don't want to stop writing while I think it through.)
