Chapter Text
Disclaimer: I don’t own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.
PROLOGUE: MAKING CONTACT
*****
In the mediation room of the Society Against Evil house, reclining chairs had been set up in a circle with the Life Crystal resting on a table, and lying on the chairs and wearing mediation clothes, along with health monitors strapped to their wrists, were Dawn Hatcher, Joey Graceffa, Oli White, Eva Gutowski, Andrea Russett, Tyler Oakley, Nikita Dragun, and Matt Patrick.
It was nearing nine months since the Everlock mission, and in that time, the survivors of each of the incidents had been working on becoming members of the Society Against Evil since figuring out that they were all connected to an ancient prophecy, and now had a chance to rescue the friends that’d been killed in each of the incidents.
Of course, they had had to deal with other stuff in their lives, which included Jermaine Whitehouse trying to convince the world that the survivors of the incidents, especially Joey and Dawn, were killers, which had lead to the actress getting arrested by a foolish detective before being rescued by Society leader James McCoy, and the former blogger was now on the run from the police.
Right now, they were going to take the final step of becoming SAE members by being hypnotized in order to enter a realm known as The Dreaming.
The lights were dimmed and soft music was playing over the sound system in the room, and Richard Barker walked around the circle of chairs and spoke in a calm voice. “Just stare straight ahead and listen to my voice, become in tune with the sound of my voice, and let your minds drift as you think of the word sleep.
“Just think of that one word and as you do so, you will feel yourself start to relax, every muscle in your body becoming like jelly while you know that you will remain safe and secure in your chair, like you are being kept in place by a safety belt. Your heads and bodies will start to feel heavy, and when I count to three, breath in and when you breath out, let your eyes fall shut and relax.”
Richard counted to three and Joey, Dawn, Oli, Eva, Tyler, Andrea, Matt, and Nikita all breathed in, their eyes closing, and as they breathed out, their bodies relaxed. “Keep listening to the sound of my voice as you go deeper and deeper, becoming more relax as you descend into the dreaming.” He glanced at the Life Crystal, which was starting to glow softly, and he got a confirming nod from James. “Nod if you understand.”
When they all nodded, Richard counted to three. “One…two…three.” And he watched as eight orbs of blue light exited the Life Crystal, floated over to the eight sleeping figures, and then the orbs slowly and gently lowered until they sank and merged into their chests.
It was time for them to enter The Dreaming.
*****
Dawn opened her eyes and found herself in the courtyard once again, only this time, Joey, Oli, Eva, Andrea, Tyler, Nikita, and Matt were with her, and they were all lying on their backs on the ground. Getting up, they looked at each other, surprised that they were wearing white, long-sleeved shirts, dark brown pants for the men while the four women had on short dark brown skirts, and knee-high boots. Overall, their clothing had a 1940s feel to it, and they figured that this was a clue of which era the location was going to be based.
“Is that the museum?” Oli wondered, nodding to the tall building.
“I believe so,” said Dawn, looking around, “and this is where I found myself last time. The mirror’s this way.” And she headed in that direction, feeling the same drawing sensation from last time, and her friends followed, feeling that they were also going the right way.
*****
It didn’t take the group very long to find the archway, which was covered with the same vines from before, and as they got close, the vines began glowing blue, revealing a plaque with words written in silver that was just above the archway. “‘Only the Chosen standing united can summon one of the Fallen’.”
“Well, we’re here, let’s figure out how to activate this thing,” Tyler suggested.
“The question is howdo we do it?” Andrea wondered. “I mean, we’re right here and pretty much united, right?”
Matt reread the message and then he glanced at the black glass surface, getting an idea. “I think I know how we can do it.”
“How?”
“Well, what I think we should do is stand in front of the mirror,” Matt suggested. “With Dawn and Joey in the middle, and the rest of us on either side. Then as we have a hand on each other’s shoulders, Dawn and Joey can touch the mirror at the same time, and that should be enough to activate it.”
Seeing it as their best option, the group repositioned themselves so that Joey and Dawn were standing side-by-side, with Oli, Matt, and Tyler next to Joey while Andrea, Eva, and Nikita were standing next to Dawn.
Putting their hands on each other shoulders with Joey putting his left hand on Dawn’s left shoulder, which she covered with her left hand, and then the two of them reached out with their right hands, touching the cold surface of the mirror.
Moments later, the mirror began glowing blue and they were glowing blue, too. This surprised them, but they didn’t move, not wanting to break the connection .
*****
At the Museum of the Dead, there was an outside courtyard, where eleven display cases were set up in a circle, each holding a YouTuber that’d died, some more recently then others, and they were all dressed differently…saved for one.
One of the YouTubers was still dressed the way she had been the night that she’d died: she had brown skin, dark eyes, black hair done up in a bun, and she was dressed as an explorer with a white blouse, white pants, a white button-down jacket with white frilly cuffs, brown knee-high boots, and a white kerchief around her neck.
She was Liza Koshy, and until her death at the claws of a harpy in a mansion that’d been locked in the Victorian era, she’d been a YouTuber. Right now, however, she was part of an exhibit, and something unexpected was about to happen.
In each case was a glowing orb that showed how each YouTuber had died, and there were vines running from each case to a central dais, which was shaped like a tree stump, that had a glowing orb inside it as a power source that was keeping the YouTubers in a form of stasis and locked within new personas that they’d been given after being yanked out of the safe area.
Just then, the power source started glowing blue as arches of energy arched out of it several times, and some of the blue energy flowed down a bundle of vines until it reached the base of the display case that held Liza. The secondthat the energy came into contact with the orb, it shattered, and the glass shattered as well.
Liza gasped and dropped to one knee, wheezing as her lungs struggled to remember how to work, and she tried to process what’d happen to her, vaguely recalling that she’d been somewhere else – and then she remembered.
‘I’m no longer in the safe area,’ she thought, straightening up and gasped, for she saw the other display cases, and ten of her friends. ‘We’ve been taken! But…where are the others?’ She was confused since the only YouTubers on display were Justine, Timothy, Benny, DeStorm, Tana, Gabbie, Colleen, Esther, Alex, and Ro, and they were all dressed differently.
Liza was about look for something to use to free her friends, when she heard footsteps, and she scrambled behind the stump, hiding herself just as two guards, dressed like Egyptians, entered the area with golden eyes glowing.
She was relieved when they left, having failed to have seen her, and she got up, looking around once again. But she couldn’t see anything that she could use to free her friends. ‘I don’t want to leave my friends,’ she thought, looking at the cases, ‘but I need to if I’m going to find something that will help me free my friends.’
“I’ll be back,” she whispered, “I promised.” And she hurried into the museum.
*****
Liza found herself in a circular room that had a mounted lion, a dinosaur, and other things on display, but she didn’t pay attention as she hid herself behind one of the displays as two more guards entered, clearly searching for her, and when they were out of sight, she bolted through a doorway and down a hallway.
She ran until she found a pair of doors that were opened and she ran inside, pulling the doors shut to keep from being found, and she turned to find herself in a strange and dark alcove. There were vines growing everywhere, an oddly familiar-looking staff was planted in the ground in one corner, and then her attention was drawn to a glowing green jar that was on a table near the middle of the room.
“What the hell is this place?” she wondered, moving over to the table to examine the glowing jar that seemed to be made out of jade, and when she squinted at it, she gasped, recognizing what was floating inside the green liquid.
“Shane?” Liza whispered, staring in shock and confusion as the face of Shane Dawson appeared and then fade away from view, and his wasn’t theonlyface that she recognized, she also saw Lauren, Jesse, Safiya, and Manny’s faces appear and disappear. ‘Oh crap! Did she put the others into this jar?!’
She was all ready to grab the jar and open it to free her friends when a tall dark mirror began glowing blue, and she turned toward it, seeing eight shadowy figures clustered in the surface, and it looked like two of them were touching the glass.
Feeling drawn, Liza approached the mirror and reached out with her own hands to touch the surface. It rippled and then the surface cleared, and she found herself face-to-face with Joey, Dawn, Oli, Eva, Tyler, Andrea, Nikita, and Matt, who were all looking surprised as she was feeling.
`“Liza!”`
“Oh my gosh!” Liza gasped, staring at her friends with a surprised and delighted expression. “Joey, Dawn, Oli, Eva, Matt, Andrea, Tyler, Nikita! You’re here!”
`“Yeah, we are,”` Joey confirmed, happy to see her, but wished that there wasn’t glass between them. `“Liza, where are the others? Are they ok? We lost contact with you nine months ago.”`
“The Collector managed to break into the safe area and snatched us all up,” Liza explained, trying to remember how she’d ended up in a display case of all things. “I don’t really remember much – most of my memories are hazy – but my next clear memory was there being a flash of blue light and finding myself kneeling on a platform of what used to be a display case. I saw ten of our friends in similar display cases and then I had to run since these creepy, but handsome, Egyptian guards with glowing eyes showed up.”
Dawn shared an uneasy look with Joey before looking back at Liza. `“Ok, so there’s security at the museum?”` she asked and their friend nodded. `“Ok, where are you right now, Liza? And do you have any clue of where the rest of our friends could be?”`
“I’m in some kind of large room with vines everywhere,”` Liza told them while looking around on her side of the mirror. “There’s other stuff, and on a table is a jade jar that has-” She suddenly stopped and looked behind her at the doors, which were now glowing red, before looking back at her friends, fear filling her face. “There’s someone coming, I gotta go. Guys, you can save us, this is your chance! Come and save us!”
The mirror went dark and Liza turned away to face the doors as they opened, letting in a tall, imposing woman with a long face, harsh eyes, a tall black hairstyle, an elaborate headpiece, a red/gold that was clearly African in origin, a spear in her hand, and an aura of powerful peril all around her.
‘This has to be The Collector,’ Liza thought, doing her best to mask her fear.
The Collector glowered at the little brown girl. “What are you doing outside of your exhibit?" she demanded coldly. "There will be punishment.”
“What have you done with my friends?” Liza demanded angrily, nodding to the glowing jar that she’d wished she’d been able to tell her friends about while she had a chance.
The Collector glanced briefly at the Soul Jar and then smirked. “There wasn’t enough room in my collection to hold them all,” she explained smugly, "but I doenjoy feasting on souls when I'm hungry.”
The Explorer felt a chill go down her spine at those words. “You are not going to eat the souls of my friends,” she declared defiantly. “You will be stopped, and I have other friends on their way to do just that.”
“You mean the Light-bearer, I assume?” the Collector guessed, amused by the girl’s surprised expression. “Oh yes, I know all about her, and I know about the prophecy as well. The prophecy that won’t be fulfilled.”
Before Liza could respond to that, The Collector suddenly stabbed her in the stomach with her spear, and she gasped as a jolt of pain shot through her body as she clutched at the spear. “No…no…” ‘Not again…I don’t want to die again!’
“Don’t fight it,” The Collector advised with a sneer, and she raised her hand as it started to glow red, along with the ruby in the middle of her headdress.
Liza gasped and screamed, feeling her soul being forced out of her body through her mouth, and she watched helplessly as it, now green, flew through the air, and went into the Soul Jar. ‘Help us, guys,’ she thought as she died for a second time. ‘Please…please…help us…’
The Collector removed her spear and the girl dropped to the floor, motionless and lifeless before glowing green and disappearing from view. ‘Just how did she get out of the exhibit?’ she wondered, glancing at the mirror, and she scowled. ‘Dammit, the Chosen must have found the mirror in the Dreaming!’
Well, she was going to do something about that right away, and she went through the mirror to enter the Dreaming and deal with the threat. Seconds later, she was back in the alcove, annoyed that the Chosen had managed to escape when she’d been closed to ending their lives.
‘They won’t be successful,’ The Collector vowed. ‘They won’t!’
*****
After being pulled out of The Dreaming and sharing what they had learned from making contact with Liza, the group became full members for the Society Against Evil, learned that the twelve bloodlines of the Light-bearers were all inside Dawn, and they were surprised to learn that Captain Jack Harkness was a real person and from a parallel Earth where Doctor Who was real.
They now had their mission, and the time was coming to travel to Purgatory to save their friends.