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 dispatch 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, the two sneak behind a bush.
On the neighbouring lawn, Max’s older brother Rush coyly invites to his house Sandy Campbell. 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 head off for a cycling weekend, Mrs Keegan hands Rush a cheque for babysitter Mrs Gregory.
...
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.
Max produces a flier, which advertises sale, at Sardo’s Magic Mansion, Shandu’s Magic Kit. In exchange for the set, Max, for the weekend, promises to leave Rush in peace.
At the Magic Mansion, Rush notices a wooden chest, brightly adorned with an offer of a prize to whoever opens it. Sardo tells him not to bother - the thing is stuck.
Curious, Rush peers at the chest, touches its lid, and easily prizes it open.
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.
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 starts 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.
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 drags him towards the bed. In terror, Max cries out for help.
Angrily, Max breaks away from kissing Sandy, and storms upstairs. In the bedroom, the skeletal arm is gone. Shaken with terror, Max reports the situation.
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. By the door of a crypt, 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 starts to protest, the voice of Dr Vink, from the backroom, tells him to let the boy go...
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.
Across the sea by the lawn rows a small boat. Max freezes.
On the lawn, Rush 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 beckons the entranced Max, and carries him into the white glow. As the door slams behind them, Mr Noise fades from view.
By the Midnight Society campfire, a thunderclap shakes the air. 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.
- Continuity Nod: Sardo’s Magic Mansion now sells Shandu’s Magic Kit. He also advertises a flask of Popularity Potion, as well as the house speciality of 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 starts 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 start to manifest.
- Talk Like a Pirate: Cutter has a West Country accent; Mr Noise sounds Cockney.
- Undeathly Pallor: The ghost of Ian Keegan has a chilly pallor.
To be continued...
