Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
CHAPTER ELEVEN: HARP OF LAZARUS
*****
When the group exited the doll shop, they found one of the twins lying motionless on the ground with the knife lying next to it.
“What happened to it?” Manny wondered as they walked past it and back toward the arcade.
“Once we cleansed the artifact,” Safiya reminded him, “he’s a goner.”
“Oh, my God,” Manny gasped, “you’re right.”
Nikita, who’d been carrying a baby doll from the doll shop, dropped it next to the dead twin. “Nighty-night, bitch.” And she kept walking as the twin dissolved into black smoke that quickly disappeared, and it was clear that it happen to the other twin in the jail cell, too, not that any of them were going to go to the police station to check.
*****
Returning to the lounge, Dawn went to the display cases and put the Night Killer doll in the case next to the one containing the Serpent’s Eyes. “Five down and five to go.”
Joey nodded and took the Lazarus coin out of his pocket. “But there’s also this.”
“Yeah,” Dawn agreed, taking her coin out of her pocket. “We still have the Lazarus box, and Matt’s theory.”
And as they got their coats off and placed them on the couch, Safiya removed the coin from her pocket before she and Manny picked up the Lazarus box and carried it over to the table, setting it down. They were all hoping that something good would come from opening the Lazarus box, given that they were all losing hope, and they really needed hope.
“This better be worth it,” said Nikita as Joey, Dawn and Safiya prepared to place the coins in the three slots on the box lid.
“Only one way to find out,” said Joey and he looked at both Dawn and Safiya. “On three. One, two…three.” They set and pressed the coins into the slots.
The lid of the Lazarus box glowed gold and opened on its’ own, making the group gasp a little with amazement. The box had open!
Joey reached into the box and pulled out a small brown harp while Safiya, pushing her hair behind her ears, took out a note. “It’s a harp.”
“‘The Harp of Lazarus only has one song left to play’,” Safiya read to the group as they gathered around, “‘before its magic is gone. Its music has the power to bring one of your friends back from the dead’.” She glanced at Joey and Dawn, who were gaping in shock, and she guessed that this was a first for them. “‘Name them and strum the harp three times’.”
“Oh, my God!” Manny gasped, putting a hand over his mouth. “I just got chills!”
“You’re not the only one,” said Curtis, shaken by this twist of fate.
Both Joey and Dawn were floored. Matt thought that there was something in the Lazarus box that could revive those who’d died since coming to the town, and in a way, he’d been right. Using the Harp of Lazarus, they could actually bring back one of their friends for the first time ever. But who were they going to bring back?
Safiya hushed her friends and read the rest of the note. “‘The three who found the coins, will make the final choice on who returns’.”
“We have to decide who comes back,” Joey said, knowing that it was up to him, Dawn, and Safiya since they had found the Lazarus coins.
“This is big,” Dawn said, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “This is really big. A real first.”
“Please choose wisely,” Nikita requested of the trio before going to sit down on the couch with Manny, Ro, Curtis, and Esther.
Joey, Dawn, and Safiya moved a few feet from their friends to figure out who they were going to bring back with the Harp of Lazarus. They knew that it would be among those who died recently, and that meant they had the option of bring back either Jc, Roi, Teala, Matt, or Colleen.
“I think there’s definitely one person in my mind,” Joey said, and it was an obvious choice as far as he was concerned, especially after everything that’d happen recently, “that I want to bring back for sure.”
“I’m thinking of one person, too,” Dawn agreed, “and I have a feeling it’s the same person you’re thinking of, Joey.”‘Yes, I’m angry at Joey, but we can agree on this one.’
Safiya nodded, and she also had a feeling that she was thinking of the same person that they were thinking of. “There’s one person in my mind as well.”
Once they were certain that they were thinking of the same person, Joey, Dawn, and Safiya whispered the name, and he stroked the harp three times, making it glow gold with gold sparks flying off of it as the magic was activated.
“What do we do now?” Ro asked once the harp stopped glowing, and she noted that Dawn had stopped glowing around the same time, almost as if the Light had been waiting for the harp to be used.
“We wait to see if it works,” Joey guessed, and that was all that they could do for the time being.
*****
The magic of the Harp of Lazarus flowed out of the lounge and through the arcade, where certain items from inside the men’s restroom disappeared, and then the magic flowed out of the arcade, going outside into the town. A certain body disappeared from where it’d been lying for the past hour, and then the magic entered another realm.
*****
In the World Between World, a figure stood before a certain church with two others, and the figure felt something calling to him. The other two told him to go, for it was his time, and he turned, heading down a path and toward a golden portal that was forming before it, calling to him.
He was being called home.
To Be Continued…
*****
I have so many, so many regrets.
So many lies, so many broken ties.
I wish for my old life.
Wish I could fix my strike.
Cause no one truly escapes the night.
Oh, won't you help me escape the night.
Oh baby help me escape the night.
Escape the night.