“We should no lynch then. I don’t think we’ll become enlightened by any more talkin. I’m getting stressed and wheezy waitin for the shoe to drop, so let’s get this over with.”

He hugged himself as if he were cold, and then looked at Bertram and Lucine. “This could be goodbye so... goodbye.” He had wanted to say something more meaningful, but he couldn’t find the words.

Bertram grunted, torn between compassion and his usual feelings for Mickey. "Let's just hope it doesn't come to that.

"The way I see it, we have two options. If we don't vote for anyone, odds are in our favour that innocents can achieve victory." Which meant they'd have an extra vote come the answer arc. "If we do vote for someone, then either we end up with 4 confirmed innocents, or we learn something about the witches. It's a matter of deciding which we desire more. Personally I prefer the former." An extra vote seems more useful than potential and ambiguous information. "I will also vote 'no lynch'."

"... Very well then. I will vote no lynch as well." Lucine said. She looked slightly hurt no one liked her idea.

Then she went over to her brother to give him a quick hug and an ominous "Goodbye."

Zachary froze in place while his player was waiting for his electricity to come back on.

"Oh! Um, I know it's a formality now, but I vote not to lynch as well," Zachary stated when he finally started animating again. "So uh, now that we're just going to wait until the next twilight, does anyone have any suggestions for where I'd be most useful with my talent? I have an idea or two; I'd just like to hear what else you guys are thinking."

---

"It seems likely to me that Violet was a witch. Perhaps you could check if she visited Robin?" Bertram suggested. "Otherwise nothing so concrete comes to mind."

"This seems reasonable." Maurice nodded. "I too, shall vote no lynch as well."

"Another thing you could investigate is how many times I visited Billy to see whether he did try to visit me on the second twilight, but Bertram's suggestion also works", he added to Zachary.

---

"If these events really are going to be made known to other versions of us," Bertram began, uneasy with the concept, "then there's little point having Zachary confirm anything that the people involved would happily confirm anyway. Better we check something people would otherwise try to keep quiet about."

“Hey Pops”, ‘Mickey’ began without a proper segue, “The reason I came home was because... there’s something I need to talk to you about. It might not be the best time, but I don’t want this story to end without my story ending.”

"Now? You want to discuss it now?" Bertram asked. He tried to sound incredulous, but at this point was far too drained to manage that much energy. "You made it clear money wasn't of any interest to you, so why was it, then? Why come back after all that time?"

"I was young and stupid when I left. I didn’t realize what I was giving up.” He too sounded weary with exhaustion. “I need my Name back. I need to be Mickey Moonview. Then you'll never have to see me again."

Bertram stared in surprise at Mickey for a few moments. "Mickey, you know that wasn't part of the agreement. You brought so much trouble to our family, you agreed to drop the name to keep it from being tarnished. Think about my side of this; think about your sister's! If you go back out there with your current lifestyle, your misdeeds will just reflect back on us and cause all manner of trouble. It's going to be hard enough as-is to regain some semblance of normalcy after all that happened here."

There was a palpable tension of air, obvious to even the others in the room. ‘Mickey’ patted the head of his sister who was still presumably hugging him. “Yeah, you’re worried about her I get it.”

He urged her back to Bertram, making the division in the family even more obvious. “Pride. Shame. Those are all burdens given to you by ego. But ruining the reputation of the family? Of Luce? Bullshit! I think the thought of us sharing Our Name just makes you sick.”

Then just as quickly, the tension seemed to quiet as he bowed his head. “It makes me sick too y’know. But it’s still my history. No story exists without a proper beginning. Perhaps one day you’ll accept this part of your story too, no matter how much you’ve tried to forget it.”

The Moonview Family Curse

[THEME MUSIC]

The family, or what remains of it, spends several hours in the ballroom. They don't want to leave each other's sight, for fear of what the witches will do them the moment they do.

The rain beats relentlessly against the high windows of the ballroom, providing the only noise any of the five of them hear for several hours.

All of them hope that the end of the storm is just around the corner, and yet hour after hour, it's relentless.

Bertram is sitting by the far wall, when he feels himself be shaken awake. He must have fallen asleep.

Maurice is standing beside him, urgently telling Bertram that they're trapped.

[THEME MUSIC]

Bertram stands up unsteadily and begins to walk towards the door he and his brothers broke into earlier. By some supernatural force, the door couldn't be moved.

Zachary, Lucine, and Mickey are nowhere to be seen. Realizing what this mean, Maurice begin beating against the door, screaming for help, but nobody comes to help them. Whoever's out there, isn't listening.

Maurice goes over to the walls with the window and begins stacking up chairs to reach the window, apparently desperate to escape. Bertram goes over to help him.

The light behind the windows has turned into dark summer night, even if they escape now, they have no idea what's out there.

The tower of chairs is enough to get there, and even though the crowbar is missing, Bertram's gun isn't, and he fires it through the window, sending a spiderweb of cracks across it.

That's when the two brothers hear a door open gently behind them. Not wanting to see who was there, Bertram jumps through the window in pure fear.

Maurice begins scrambling up the tower of chairs when he feels someone gripping his leg. Maurice, not wanting to look back kicks whatever grabbed him in the face and cuts himself on the way out the window.

Buffets of rain smack Maurice in the face when he wanders out into the darkness, looking for Bertram or somewhere to hide,

He feels something beneath his feet, and, looking down, he sees the collapsed form of Bertram, and right by him... a glowing red circle.

The magic works immediately. A wide smile appears on Maurice's face and he begins to feel his senses fade as he is wrapped in a warm golden light. As his vision fades, he sees a shadow stand over him, holding some sort of club...



[The Moonview Family Curse: END]

The day is Sunday, May 24th. Seagulls cry above the gentle forest of Eventide Island.

In the hallways usually filled with Moonviews, not a single person walks. The entire place is truly abandoned.

In the main hall, Twilip, Archer, and Allister lay dead. Outside the front door are the bodies of Asher and Wyn. Up on the second floor balcony are the bodies of James and Basil. Just inside, Gloria's body is under a blanket in her study. Outside the side door, with his hands tied, is the body of Vincent. Up in the attic are the bodies of Robin, Jacqueline, Billy, and Briggs Anderton. In the ball room, her face beaten, is Violet's corpse.

Out on the grounds, in the mud, lie two bodies. Neither has a face, as both have been completely smashed in, making it hard to tell that their jaws were stolen. One is the corpse of Bertram, the other is the corpse of Maurice. Near them, on a large rock, is a magic circle. It's been washed in the rain a little, but, over top of it, in a fresh coat of paint, a new symbol has been placed:

A closed eye.

The others? Who knows what happened to them. They were never ever found.

Strangers + Liars + Witches

[THEME MUSIC]

Twilip stares down the staircase, into the darkness of the foyer below. In the darkness, Archer stares back up at her, wishing her a good evening.

Of course, Twilip immediately spins around to confront whoever threw her from the balcony but nobody is there, just an empty dark hallway.

She wishes Archer a good night and stalks back to her room. When she gets there, there is no magic circle on her mirror, and most importantly, she isn't dead.



After a long and very haunting nightmare, Robin wakes up next to her husband. She has overslept by quite a bit, but as she gets up and wanders around the house, she realizes that she's the first person to awake.

The gloomy weather is undercut by a sudden good mood as more and more of the relatives wake up. Each of them is glad to see that everyone is okay.

Everyone has questions, but there's suddenly a lot more time to answer them. There's a lot more time to search for clues about what's happening. Perhaps some people have been hiding things.

Welcome back to Eventide Island.

Robin's hands shook slightly as she prepared herself some tea. These dreams... they had been getting more and more vivid lately, but that one was especially intense. Perhaps it was time to see a doctor.

She looked out the window.

Well. After the storm blew over. And after the family paid their respects to Gloria.

It was strange. It felt like quite some time had passed since her death - weeks, instead of just one night. Robin was losing her sense of time, her sense of connection to everything.

She found herself automatically sitting by the chess table in one of the larger sitting rooms and setting up a game. She sipped her drink and played the first few moves of a game, as both White and Black. It gave her something to do and calmed her nerves a little.

It was with surprising relief that she greeted the others who came by.

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“I had the wildest dream last night.” ‘Mickey’ laughed as he ate breakfast, talking to anyone who’d listen. “All of ya guys were there. It started with us reading some weird-ass book. And then the stuff in the book began to actually happen. But not exactly, but there were still witches. It was weirdly vivid—and Maurice even died as he lived at the end—like a NERD!” He raised his hand up for a high-five as if to say ‘up top’.

"Where is Archer?" Lucine asked, walking into the room. She was still in her pajamas and seemed to have woken up in a hurry. "... I want to see Archer. Where is he?"

Allister had begun cleaning nearby, when he heard Lucine speak. He turned around to face her. It looked he hadn't slept too well.

"Is everything alright, Lady Lucine?" He asked. "I'm not sure where he is right now, but Father should be nearby."

"I'm right here!"

Briggs walked into the room, surely disappointing everyone.

"Just kidding. It's me, butler #2. Anyways, this is quite the surprise, isn't it?"

"Good morning, Allister. I am not alright and I want Archer here right now." she elucidated. "If you see him, please inform him all his other tasks have been revoked and he is now to stay by my side, potentially forever. That is all."

"Ah! Good morning, Briggs." Allister said. "What's so surprising?"



Allister blinked. He was curious, but decided it was best not to question it. "O-Of course, milady." He bowed. "I will pass along the message as soon as I see him."

James walked with his usual forced smile, "Good morning, that dream or should say I say nightmare, was something else eh? I can assure you all that I probably won't poison anyone. However, there's one thing I'd like to know, which is whether a witch can commit suicide using their magic and by the way, in that dream I stole Mickey's power," James decided to go over to the library to investigate.

"...I just feel like I shouldn't be here right now," Briggs smiled to Allister. "But don't worry about me."

"Wait." Robin's face paled. "So... Mickey, you had the same dream I did? And James, too? Wh-what is going on here?"

Did...

Did all of that actually happen?

No. No, that would mean...

...

Robin felt ill all of a sudden.

Vincent walks into the room, looking like he didn't get enough sleep. There were bags underneath his eyes. In one hand was a notebook, and in the other hand was a pencil. He seems to be fuming over something, and it was quite obvious what he was fuming over.

"Argh, this next line in the lyrics that I'm working on for my song... I can't seem to think of anything that would fit the song's theme." The musician said as he rubs one side of his head with the pencil. " Didn't get enough sleep because of that stupid nightmare..."

And that's when he noticed that others were present in the room. He let out a tired sigh.

"Morning, folks..." A grumpy Vincent said half-heartedly. "Sorry, I'm not in a good mood right now. I just need to eat some breakfast before I can try to figure out the next line in the song lyrics..."

"Just what should the next line be...?" The musician said as he fumes over the lyrics to the song he was working on.

"Doesn't sound like it was a dream."

"...You too, Briggs?" Allister asked.



"I-I had the same dream..." Allister said. "This can't just be a coincidence... Can it?"

"It wasn't a dream..." Lucine grumbled, pulling a chair for herself. "It was another cycle, without a doubt. I strongly believe grandmother is giving us a second chance. Or, a third chance, I suppose."

"... And this time, we have to do everything we can to protect Archer. You understand, don't you Allister? I will relieve you of your duties if you will help me watch over him."

"...I had the same 'dream'", Maurice muttered from nearby. It appeared he hadn't slept well either. "What an ending, too... It certainly wasn't a pleasant feeling, to say the least."

---

Wyn struts into the room in her morning gown once more, holding a cup of coffee.

"I knew it, my gut is never wrong." Wyn says, taking a sip. "We're trapped in this curse until we get rid of them for good... Don't you all realize it? How many more times do we have to go through this before enough is enough? I for one have had it, officially."

"...It wasn't?" Allister asked, thinking it over for a few moments.

"You're right." He continued. "There's no way that was all just a dream. I understand, Lady Lucine."

Just then, Archer silently enters the room everyone seems to be in with a cart carrying a pot of tea, some crackers, thinly sliced meats and cheese, and some small little tea cakes. As soon as both him and the cart are in the room, he bows.

"Greetings, everyone. I believe the next meal may be somewhat delayed, so I thought I would satisfy everyone for now with some small little snacks."

Twilip fumbles into the room and puts her back against the wall. She looks around at the group of people gathered in the room.

"So what are we gonna do this time? Other than not let the others force you off a balcony of course."

"Archer! There you are!" Lucine said. "Sit down here. Now. This is an order."

"Allister, thank you for your help. I suppose we will need to serve ourselves from now on, since Mr. Briggs turned out to be a career thief..."

"...Oh, dear. That was revealed in the 'dream' too, wasn't it?"

Briggs eyes looked shifty as he tried to find a place to hide in.

Archer blinked a few times in surprise. "I- What?" Archer tilts his head slightly in confusion. "Very well..."

Awkwardly, Archer approaches Lucine like a robot and sits down, on the very edge of his seat. "Is this enough, Milady...?"

Zachary awoke as the bed was disturbed from Robin getting up. He'd been sleeping very lightly, though 'sleeping' was a loose term. He wearily went through his morning routine, got dressed, and made his way downstairs. He headed towards the sound of people talking, the voices very loud in his exhausted ears.

As he shuffled into the sitting room, he greeted the others with a sigh, "Morning, everyone." He indeed had had the same 'dream' as everyone else. His face lit up a bit when he saw Robin, relieved that she was alive and had a completely intact jaw. He plopped down in the chair across from her, attempted to study the game she was playing, and gave up immediately because it was just too much for his mind right now. He yawned and shook his head in a desperate attempt to dislodge the cobwebs of sleep deprivation.

"What is going on . . . ?" he mused, trying to piece together the events from both the story and the 'nightmare.' "I guess I should mention that just before I woke up, I decided to visit Maurice and Violet. They never interacted as far as I could tell. Ugh, I feel like I'm not doing enough, but maybe that means something to someone who's a bit more awake." His tired eyes attempted to focus on the form of his distressed wife and he reached an arm out to pat her shoulder in a feeble attempt to give her some comfort. Deciding that wasn't sufficient, he used her shoulder for support to stand up, move closer, and wrap her in a weak hug.

That's when he couldn't hold it in any longer, beginning to weep against Robin's other shoulder. "Wh-Who is doing this to us? Why do we keep having the people we love taken away from us, only to have them all returned to life just so it can happen again? I've-I've just about had it." He hiccuped and pulled back to look his wife in the eyes. "I'm . . . I'm sorry for unloading on you like that. How are you holding up, dear?" He looked around at the others, noticing many of them also seemed to not have slept well.

His gaze returned to Robin. " . . . Do you still trust me . . . ?"

---

Uncle Billy high-fived Mickey as he walked in to join the others, having overheard most of the conversation.

“Yes, I had dream too. Or nightmare to be more accurate,” Uncle Billy remarked, “Kinda scary when Asser walk up to me holding knife, say ‘Welcome to the family, bastard,’ and cut throat open. Not painful though, I’ll give him that.”

“Anyway, this whole endless cycle hellish nightmare, but I feel like potential there too. They should make a movie like this, but with less witches. Maybe put in Bill Murry, I dunno.”

---

"Oh, right... that. A disappointing moment, but at least I went out with the grace and beauty I am known for. I knew I'd be back, anyways." Wyn says with a small shrug.

"Bessides, something tells me the third time's the charm. This time we should be...much more careful with who we get rid of." She states. "All of you are lucky you're being given yet another chance."

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"Thank you." she said, even cracking a small smile. "From here on out, you are relieved of your duties, at the very least until all five witches have been tried and killed and potentially forever. Please relax and stay safe."

She quickly started pouring Archer a cup of tea before he could protest, bringing up some light conversational topics: "... And so, we have much to discuss. I suppose we can confirm the existence of at least one witch between me, brother, and uncle Zachary, correct?"