Up tonight is Kiki, whose story concerns symbols as a means of communication - such as Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. In the sand before the fire, she draws several symbolic images, including a smiley face. Their intent is widely known - but what if you came across an unfamiliar symbol? Might it foretell good or ill? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls this story "The Tale of the Jagged Sign."
At rural retreat Scenic Vista, Claudia arrives to spend a few weeks of the summer with her Aunt Yvonne.
By her room, Claudia hears a soft musical chime. She follows the sound to a quiet, spacious bedroom, and on a table, sees the song to come from a music box, atop which rotate two doves.
From a nearby bed, elderly Marjorie, admires Claudia's hair.
Downstairs, Claudia opens the front door. On the doorstep, a younger girl invites her to a game of baseball. A girl around Claudia’s age steps into view with a smile, and introduces herself, Kate, and younger sister Nikki.
Claudia wonders if the nearby woods have any hiking trails. With the answer a big yes, Kate offers to show her. They head off for a walk in the woods...
They veer from the trail, and up a rocky, forested hill. Near the top, Claudia sees, high above them, a steep rock, upon which lies a white symbol; a horizontal line, each of whose ends rise and fall in a jagged hook, and whose middle rises in a semi-loop.
Embarrassed by the local legend, Kate explains this site’s reputation as some kind of ancient burial ground. Years ago, around here, someone was murdered. Apparently, the sign, in response, appeared overnight. Everyone calls it the Jagged Sign - the mark of the dead man. If you stare at it too long, the ghost wakes to possess you.
Claudia wants a closer look. Kate, afraid of heights, advises against the insurmountable climb. Claudia, with a second glance at the steep rock face, observes the lone figure who now stands atop it: a young man in a white shirt. Suddenly frantic, Kate wheels Claudia around, and urges her not to look at the figure - it’s the ghost.
In the mud on the ground before her, from no visible source, appears an elongated indentation, which, before their very eyes, snakes into an etching of the Jagged Sign.
In bed that night, a curiously fluting wind draws Claudia to the window. On the lawn outside, in the mist, stands the young man from atop the hill. Solemn-faced, he once more makes his beckoning gesture. His body then exudes a white glow, into which he dematerialises. From below the outside window, a dense mist wafts onto the glass, frosting it. A small region of condensation, as if by an invisible finger, is wiped clear, in a gradual etching of the Jagged Sign.
Next day, Claudia discreetly invites Claudia over, and shows, on a paper napkin, a drawing of the sign seen last night. Kate heatedly cautions against looking at it. Claudia doesn’t believe in curses.
Just then, Aunt Lydia calls them over. Marjorie’s nephew has arranged her relocation to a rest home with the medical equipment to care for her failing health. Kate receives the news solemnly.
Later, Claudia visits Marjorie with the dove music box, in search of confirmation whether to save the heirloom. Marjorie wistfully holds it, and suddenly gasps in alarm: on the lawn below stands the beckoning white-shirted boy.
Claudia hurries downstairs...
Amidst Marjorie’s belongings, Kate finds a preserved lock of blond hair, knotted in a blue ribbon. Lydia identifies it as a love knot - a token of devotion from a young woman to her boyfriend.
Lydia recalls the similarity of Marjorie’s youthful hair to Claudia’s hair, and shows Kate a black and white photo of a young Marjorie, who closely resembles Claudia - and stands by a rather familiar-looking young man...
Kate visits Marjorie, and gently offers the photo for inspection. Marjorie fondly recognises the young man, Joshua.
In the woods, Claudia once more sees the white-shirted young man, standing atop the cliff. He beckons her...
To Kate, Marjorie explains the aim of Josh and her youthful self to have met at the cliff to elope.
Marjorie explains having been stopped by her parents from meeting Josh at the cliff. He climbed the cliff to draw on its face the adopted symbol of their love - but, before finishing it, fell to his death. Kate asks to borrow the dove music box...
While Kate runs through the woods, Claudia steps across the dangerous cliff towards the Jagged Sign. She calls for the mysterious young man - and her feet slip from the ledge. With a small scream, she manages to grab a small cluster of branches, and, dangling high above the ground, hangs on...
Nearby, Kate hears Claudia’s yells. Kate reaches the cliff, and starts the dangerous climb - but is seized by her fear of heights. As Claudia yells desperately, Kate reaches the top, and steels herself to edge across a narrow ledge towards Claudia. She finally reaches down to grab Claudia’s hand, and pulls her to relative safety.
By the rock face bearing the Jagged Sign, arrives the white-shirted young man, now more less faint and devoid of luminescence. Claudia asks what he wants. He addresses her as Marjorie, and beseechingly stresses to have waited for her.
Kate explains to them both the resemblance between young Marjorie and Claudia; shows the old photograph, and explains to Joshua Marjorie’s prevention by her parents from coming, and shows Marjorie’s music box, kept as a token of devotion.
A jubilant Joshua fades from view. In his absence, the Jagged Sign is no longer jagged, but a clear, full etching of a dove.
Far below, Joshua, and a young woman resembling Claudia walk hand in hand, turn to wave in farewell, glow ethereally, and fade from view. In Kate’s hands, the dove figurines, and their wooden music box base, metamorphose, with a spectral gleam, into two living doves, who take flight.
Marjorie, closes Kiki, passed away that very afternoon. She looked peaceful, even happy, as if going to a better place - but only Claudia and Kate knew just how true that was.
This episode provides examples of:
- Anomalous Art: The Jagged Sign, drawn on a cliff face, is thought to be in some way haunted. Its spectral artist, a young man named Joshua, announces his presence by invisibly etched engravings of it.
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: Averted with the Scenic Vista, a contented community in a lush, tranquil setting.
- Curse: Invoked with the Jagged Sign, whose drawing, and subsequent sighting, is said to herald death, but averted - its spectral artist just wants reunion with his still-living, elderly girlfriend.
- Face Your Fears: Kate, afraid of heights, forces herself across a steep ledge to reach the perilously dangling Claudia.
- Go Out with a Smile: Shortly after a visit from her long-dead boyfriend, elderly Marjorie, whose health has been failing for some time, dies in a state of noticeable happiness.
- Haunted Fetter: Inverted: Marjorie’s music box, engraved with two doves, on the departure of the ghosts of she and Joshua, transforms into two live doves, who fly happily away.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Marjorie fondly compares her youthful hair to Claudia’s.
- Mistaken Identity: The ghost of Joshua mistakes Claudia for the young Marjorie.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Majorie has shades of this. At one point during the story, she tries to boil soup on a stove using a plastic bowl, which nearly starts a fire. Although no harm has been done, it does indicate how little Majorie is able to take care of herself, and how out of place she is in modern times.
- Scenery Porn: Some lovely shots of the woods and the distantly surrounding countryside.
- Supernatural Light: The ghost of Joshua has a slight pale glow.
