Into a candlelit earthen vault, Ian Keegan, carries a dagger. He approaches a back-turned chair, and dedicates the use of his dagger to those who fell to the sword of Jonas Cutter. He swings the chair around, to find it occupied not by Cutter, but a nautically dressed skeleton. From the shadows emerges a vengefully laughing Cutter. Ian falls back, promises reinforcements, and protests the blood shed for Cutter’s treasure. Meanwhile, a young boy peeks around the door. Cutter denounces Ian a traitor. Meanwhile, the boy takes the fallen dagger, and flees. Ian lays a curse upon Cutter, who happily prepares to despatch a fresh victim…
Two hundred years later, young Max Keegan and friend Tony, on the Keegan’s lawn, with plastic cutlasses, enact a similar scene. Hearing the distant laughter of a teenage girl, Max prompts silence, and the two sneak behind a bush.
On the neighbouring lawn, Max’s older brother Rush coyly invites to his house Sandy Campbell. As Rush takes her hand and they lean in to kiss, Max turns on the nearby sprinkler, giving the young lovers a sudden shower.
Max bounds into view, and lifts his cutlass in triumph. Sandy storms off. Rush angrily pursues Max to the front of the house. Retribution is halted by a call from Mr Keegan.
As their parents approach the car for a several days’ cycling trip, Mrs Keegan hands Rush a cheque for babysitter Mrs Gregory. Sean pointlessly claims sufficient maturity to handle things himself.
As Mrs Gregory approaches the Keegan’s front door, Rush, in imitation of the voice of his dad, announces the cycling trip to have been cancelled, as the boys have contracted measles. Through the letterbox, Max’s spotted hand delivers the cheque to a satisfied Mrs Gregory,
In triumph, Rush and Max high-five. From his weekend plans, however, Rush excludes Max, who forlornly entreats inclusion, and threatens to tell their parents of the babysitting evasion.
Rush attempts to buy Max’s silence. Max produces a flier, which advertises sale, at Sardo’s Magic Mansion, Shandu’s Magic Kit. In exchange for the set, Max promises to leave Rush in peace.
At the Magic Mansion, Sardo attempts to interest Rush in some Passion Potion, a brewing sample of which, on one ingredient two many, gives a small explosion. Perhaps a flask of Popularity Potion? A dubious Rush notices a wooden chest, brightly adorned with an offer of a prize to whoever opens it.
Sardo advises him not to try, as the thing won’t open. Perhaps a sample of comedy vomit? Sardo bustles off in search of some.
Curious, Rush peers at the chest, touches its lid, and easily prizes it open. Astounded, Sardo anticipates from the donor of the chest five thousand doll - dolls. He’s a collector, you see.
Rush asks about the promised prize, which turns out to be what’s inside the chest: a large key, a dagger, and a small telescope, whose lens shows only darkness. Unimpressed, he tells Sardo to keep the items. Suddenly fretful, Sardo urges him to take them, as part of the donor’s deal.
In addition to the magic kit, Rush hands the spyglass to a delighted Max, who claims it to work. The doorbell rings, and Rush shoos Max away.
While Rush welcomes Sandy, Max, in his and Rush’s bedroom, inspects his new magic kit. On the desk, the spyglass begins to vibrate. Max peers at it…
On the couch, as Rush attempts to woo Sandy, Max pops up behind them, and declares, in perplexed fascination, the spyglass to have been moving by itself. Rush testily snatches the spyglass, and peers through it. This time, instead of blank darkness, he sees a distant, darkened cemetery.
Meanwhile, in the boys’ bedroom, the window flies open, to admit a dense stream of mist.
Perplexed at the novelty spyglass, Rush reaffirms it to be busted, and, in exchange for Max making himself scarce, offers not to force feed him the thing.
As Rush continues to woo Sandy, the spyglass falls off the bedroom desk and rolls to Max’s bed. As Max gingerly reaches for it, the door behind him slams shut. From beneath the bed, with a maniacal cackle, a leather-gloved hand reaches to grab his wrist.
Max cries out, and falls back, pulling off the glove. Now bereft of its glove, the fleshless hand of an animate skeleton grabs Max’s ankle, and proceeds to drag him towards the bed. In terror, Max cries out for help.
Angrily, Max breaks away from kissing Sandy, and storms upstairs. In the bedroom, he demands to know what the fuss is about. However, the skeletal arm is gone. Shaken with terror, Max reports the situation.
Incredulous, Rush storms back downstairs, to find Sandy gone. Still seriously worried, Max suggests they call the cops. Rush angrily asserts indifference to any of Max’s concerns, hatefully dismisses him, and storms upstairs. As a storm picks up outside, Max fearfully covers himself on the couch…
That night, Rush dreams of wandering through the graveyard as shown by the spyglass. He approaches the door of a crypt. From behind him, a voice announces having expected him. Rush turns to face a long-haired man, whose blurred, faded, deathly pale body glows spectrally. He imparts a cryptic word of advice. At a sound from the crypt behind Rush, the ghost of Ian Keegan fades.
As Rush makes to leave, animate vines wrap around his legs, holding him in place. From behind, a skeletal hand falls on his shoulder, and mockingly challenges him.
Rush wakes with a yell of fright. He picks up the spyglass, which now shows a clearer view of the graveyard. Moreover, a second glance shows a close-up of the crypt, towards which walks Max.
Shaken, Rush returns the spyglass to Sardo, angrily tells the shopkeeper to keep it, and storms back out. As Sardo begins to protest, the voice of Dr Vink, from the backroom, tells him to let the boy go. Assured of the boy’s eventual return, Dr Vink produces a hefty bundle of banknotes, dangles them before Sardo, and directs him, on Rush’s return, to send the boy to him.
That evening, alone in the bedroom, Max sees the window to be once more open. He heads onto the lawn, and on a tree stump, finds the spyglass.
Rush enters the hallway, and calls for Max. From inside the bedroom cupboard, he hears a rattle.
Across the sea by the lawn rows a small boat. Max freezes.
Max opens the cupboard. Embedded in the inner door, the blade of a dagger holds a yellow piece of parchment, which reads: “This is no dream...the boy is mine.”
Worried, Rush runs onto the lawn, and finds Max standing in a trance by the sea. As the boat halts by the shore, Rush warns its hooded, backward-facing rower of Mr Keegan’s arrival. Rush whirls the rower to face him - and the hood falls away, revealing a rotted skull.
Rush backs away in fright. Across the bone, reddish sinew flows into place, followed by the seamless arrival of skin and features, which form the one-eyed, toothless leer of Mr Noise.
As Rush leads Max into the hallway, Mr Noise bounds into view with a cackle.
From beneath the door behind the two boys exudes a white glow. The door flies open. From the glow beyond strides Captain Jonas Cutter. He calls on Mr Noise, who holds Rush in place. Cutter gloats over the juvenility of his anticipated challenger. He beckons the entranced Max, and carries him into the white glow. As the door slams behind them, Mr Noise fades from view.
Out on the lawn, the two pirates, with their prisoner, row away into a descending mist, and vanish. From the sand, Max picks up the dropped spyglass - and sees the crypt door slam shut.
By the Midnight Society campfire, a thunderclap shakes the air. Sam anticipates a wet disruption. Betty Anne urges swift narration. As Gary and Frank continue, lightning flashes, and the heavens open. Gary, to Tucker’s vexation, hastily closes the meeting.
This episode provides examples of:
- Ankle Drag: Suffered by Max, courtesy of a skeleton under his bed.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted. Apart from Max’s fairly innocuous prank of squirting Rush and Sandy with a garden sprinkler, he comes across as a fun-loving kid who genuinely wants to be friends with his brother.
- Body Horror: Across the skull of Mr Noise, sinew flows into place, followed by skin and features.
- Call-Back: Sardo’s Magic Mansion now sells Shandu’s Magic Kit. He also advertises a flask of [[ Are You Afraid Of The Dark Season 2 The Tale Of The Dark Dragon Popularity Potion]], as well as the house speciality of Are You Afraid Of The Dark Season 1 The Tale Of The Super Specs comedy vomit]].
- Crystal Ball: With its magical revelation of a distant location, the spyglass somewhat evokes one.
- Dem Bones: Cutter and Mr Noise variably manifest in skeletal and flesh form.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Cutter has a severe one by his right eye; Mr Noise is missing an eye.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: All of the ghosts appear in the clothes they wore in life.
- Moment Killer: Max’s tendency to disrupt moments of intimacy with Sandy begins to try Rush’s patience.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: Only Rush, by virtue of descendance from its original owner, is able to open the chest.
- Summoning Artefact: On Max’s examination of the spyglass, Cutter and Mr Noise begin to manifest.
- Undeathly Pallor: The ghost of Ian Keegan has a chilly pallor.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Cutter has a West Country accent; Mr sounds Cockney.
To be continued...
