Page 122 of Specters & Spotlights

The silence on the line felt weightier than expected.

“I knew that bastard would find a way through somehow,” Cici said, finally. “It’s not enough that he took Ellen—now he’s going after Kevin?”

Kevin gave a small, ironic wave at the mention of his name. Elise didn’t even crack a smile.

“What do we do?” she asked. “How can we stop this?”

Cici exhaled. “Specters aren’t like regular ghosts, El. They’re made of dread. Of fear. They don’t pass on—they feed. And if we’re gonna banish this one, it’s gonna take big magic.”

Elise narrowed her eyes. “How big?”

“Old-magic big,” Cici replied. “The kind you don’t find on Pinterest.”

Elise’s throat went dry. “Can we actually do it?”

“I mean,” Cici said. “Probably not without risking our eyebrows. But yeah. I’m cooking something up.”

“Lovely,” Elise deadpanned.

“Hold up,” Cici said, tone shifting, “I’ve been digging through the weirdest corners of magical folklore and cross-referencing with some very cranky Latin translations, but there’s a path. It’s winding. It’s old. But it’s there.”

The room felt quieter. Like even the theatre was listening.

“I’ve almost finished the translation,” she continued. “There’s a phrase—words of power. It’s not just language, it’s invocation. It opens the door, so to speak.”

“Okay,” Elise said carefully. “And once it’s open?”

“We need a powerful circle,” Cici said. “Not just symbolic. Actual containment. Physical boundaries. Something to keep him still.”

Elise exchanged a glance with Kevin. He looked paler than usual, though maybe she was imagining it. Projecting.

“But,” Cici went on, “we also need running water in that circle. It’s the only thing that can sever his tether back to the beyond. It’s symbolic—movement, purification, unbinding.”

Elise blinked. “How would we get running water into a containment circle?”

“I’m getting there,” Cici said. “Because the kicker is this: the ritual needs to be witnessed. Like, publicly. The more people watching, the better. It’s some old-as-hell principle—magic made more powerful when observed. Think witch trials, Greek pharmakos, public healing miracles. Manifestation through collective belief.”

She paused, sheepish. “Sorry. Getting nerdy.”

Elise pressed her fingers to her temples. “How is that even possible?”

“Onstage,” Graham said. Calm. Certain. “During the rain scene. The audience. The lights. We already have the water.”

Elise turned to him in shock.

Cici’s voice crackled. “That’s it. Exactly. We stage it.” Her voice dropped a note lower, like the weight of the next truth needed a quieter place to land.

“There’s one final step,” she said. “We can’t just trap him—we have to summon him first.”

Elise straightened. “You mean… bring him into the physical realm?”

“Exactly,” Cici said. “He’s not fully manifested, but he's close enough to feed. To influence. That must be how he’s pulling on Kevin, how he took Ellen. But we can’t banish him if he’s still hiding in the in-between. We need to drag him all the way in. To trade him back for Ellen.”

Elise closed her eyes for a moment. The thought of Ellen, wherever she was, gripped by that cold presence—it made her stomach twist.

“So… we bait him.”

“And then bind him,” Cici said. “And then banish him.”