After meeting Madam Sombra de la Muerte, Ernest knew how to try to get money for his car. Looking online, he found a website of seance and studied everything to perform a ritual of the dead. He laughed as he wrote notes. “Like taking candy from a baby.” He took a towel from the bathroom and wrapped it into a turban and put heavy dark curtains in the family living room. His mother never minded his antics, but this ranged on the extreme for Ernest.

“What are you doing?” said Evelyn. She wore a blue business skirt, a button down white shirt, and held her purse.

“Don’t worry, mom. You really need to get going to work.” He wondered if she’d call off after realizing how the living room looked.

“Whatever you do, just don’t burn down the house. Love you, I’m running late.” She rushed out the door leaving the sixteen year old to his dark living room.

After she left, he checked through the front window on and off. Finally, a Fire Bird pulled into the drive way. He put on his bath robe and rushed to the door.

After a knock, he opened the door to a blonde woman in a dark veil and black dress. “Senior Shadows? You look awful young.”

He posted online that he could speak to the other side, and she wanted to speak to her dead husband. Jackpot.

“Yes, my child. Please, come into the liv… I mean room of divination. We will be speaking with your husband shortly. Did you bring a few of his personal items, Cynthia?”

She held out a tobacco pipe and a pair of bifocals as she walked into the living room.

At the table, they held hands with the pipe and bifocals between them, then Ernest arranged some notes he’d taken from the internet and started.

“I am calling to the other side! I wish to speak to… now say his name.”

“George.”

“I wish to speak to George! The dead husband of Cynthia Gardens! Let us hear you George! Speak! Speak! Speak!”

Ernest took the bifocals and pipe, then put them in a bowl and set them on fire with a match. Taking her hands again, he noticed that a wind began to encircle them. Pictures, magazines, and other loose pieces of living room furniture flew like leaves carried in a spring breeze. A lamp flew through a window.

“Is this supposed to be happening?” said Cynthia.

Ernest started to sweat. This didn’t happen when he was in the circle with the other medium. He began to realize that he might have actually called to the other side. He tried to think of a way to stop it, but his notes had flown along with the other goods.

“Don’t worry! I have everything under contr—“

Before he could finish, they began to float. That’s when he started to cry big tears, and Cynthia cried, too.

“What have you done! Make it stop!” she yelled.

“I can’t!” he cried.

“Aren’t you Senior Shadows?”

The table began to fly back down. The swirling stopped. A voice called as if from above.

“A soul for a soul, or I run wild.

What will you do, child?”

“I don’t want to die!” he cried.

A giant thud came from outside the house. Ernest and Cynthia stared out the window. A giant hove came down from the sky and crushed her car. They stared on in terror as a gargantuan winged boar on two legs with arms of a man walked down Kentucky Street, smashing the other residences.

Ernest’s jaw dropped in terror. As he looked around, Cynthia had left. He stood alone in a house with broken windows, and was helpless as he watched the creature walk off into the sunset.