History Recap / AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason2TheTaleOfTheWhisperingWalls

Through the trees, most of the Midnight Society hurry to the clearing. Tonight, warns David, is full moon on leap year: the spirits are free to take innocent victims. Frank scoffs. On the edge of the clearing, they abruptly halt. Before the fire is a black-cloaked, hooded figure. It turns, revealing the stark white face of a skull. Whatever this is, Kristen has had enough, and prepares to bolt. The apparition lowers its mask, revealing the face of Betty Anne. This mask, she explains, is for their protection. Every four years, on the night of a full moon, so goes the old superstition, the spirits hunt: as they do in her story. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls it “The Tale of the Whispering Walls.”

At the Whisper Inn, Louise stops the car for directions. In the deserted, wood-panelled pub, a voice angrily demands the door to be shut. Stood by the bar, a long-haired man in a black suit explains his loathing of drafts. Louise explains herself and her charges to be lost. The man, Raymond, cryptically says they’re right on time. He advises them to take a nearby dirt road through a wood.

Meanwhile, Andrew applies his propeller fan to a hanging set of wind chimes. A further glance at Raymond shows him to have very quickly relocated to behind the bar. As they leave, he ominously chuckles…

Up a flight of stairs, they find a long corridor, rowed with empty picture frames. The two follow the chimes of a music box to a room, still shaded, but merrily adorned with drapers. A table, set with a carousel-themed music box, is set with dishes of banana split. Unease gives way to delight, as they suppose this to be a surprise party planned by Louise.

As Claire tries for some of Andrew’s banana split, the dish is knocked to the floor. The ice cream begins to smoke and dissolve, leaving a dark hole in the floor, in which the glaring face of Raymond laughs mockingly. With a gloved hand, he grips the edge of the hole. In fright, the siblings run for help.

Back at the Whisper Inn, a jukebox plays a sweeping instrumental, to which waltz a young couple in 1920s party wear. A bald, bearded man and a young man, both dressed in tweed, linger respectively at the bar and jukebox. A middle-aged woman in a white Victorian dress, Violet, brings drinks to a table. All have a slight, faded pallor.

The young jukebox attendant dismisses all need for worry: on sundown, all herein will live again to party. Claire asks who lives in the nearby house. The question is, he replies, who’s the house living in?

The man at the bar says the house belongs to Master Raymond. And with that, he opens his case, and invites them to buy a brush.

The siblings run back to the front door, which is stuck. Andrew suggests he stay here, while Claire searches. She entreats his assistance, and earnestly admits his knack for distinct insights. Cheered, he follows her upstairs.

In what appears to be a nursery, on a creaking rocking chair, Louise hums, and cradles a small, swaddled shape. She reassures them that when the baby falls asleep, they can all go. Andrew notices something odd about the swaddling, and hastily retreats. Louise’s voice suddenly deepens to that of Raymond’s. “Louise” passes the “baby” to Claire, who screams in fright, and puts down the swaddling - which holds not a baby, but a constrictor snake.

In the hallway, a frame ignites with the image of Violet, who again mournfully compares her daughter Jane to Claire, who screams and runs to the end of the corridor. She calls for Louise, whose distant voice answers. Between two candles, mounted in brackets shaped like human hands, a frame holds a protruding sculpture of a face. Its lips move, and the voice of Louise calls for help. Claire pulls at a candle, and the wall swings forth, taking her into a secret room.

Down in the hallway, the open front door swings shut, and Raymond steps seamlessly through it. Andrew aims his propeller fan...whose batteries seem to have run out. At a gesture from Raymond, the device flies out of Andrew’s grasp. With a command from Raymond, both Louise and Claire fall back under his spell. As Raymond dismisses Andrew, Violet steps seamlessly through a wall. She opens the front door, and before a breeze, Raymond fades to fog.

Some time later, on the same spot, another car grinds to a halt. The driver gets out, consults his map, and looks resignedly at the house…

* TheCavalry: One of the imprisoned spirits, Violet, [[spoiler: incapacitates Raymond by opening the front door]].

* CompellingVoice: Raymond seems able to entrance people by the power of his voice.

Back at the house, in the murky hallway, numerous disembodied voices whisper for release. The clearer voice of Louise calls to Claire and Andrew. They follow her voice to the living room. In a mirror, the face of Louise urges them upstairs. She then fades, to be replaced by maniacally laughing Raymond.

On a drive home from [[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfLaughingInTheDark Play Land]], Claire and Andrew Dickens are coaxed away from bickering by babysitter Louise with a prospect of banana splits. To one last jibe from Claire, Andrew responds with a breeze from his battery-powered propeller fan.

* GigglingVillain: Raymond has an insidiously soft laugh.

On a drive home from [[Recap/AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason1TheTaleOfLaughingInTheDarkPlay Land]], Claire and Andrew Dickens are coaxed away from bickering by babysitter Louise with a prospect of banana splits. To one last jibe from Claire, Andrew responds with a breeze from his battery-powered propeller fan.

On a drive home from Play Land, Claire and Andrew Dickens are coaxed away from bickering by babysitter Louise with a prospect of banana splits. To one last jibe from Claire, Andrew responds with a breeze from his battery-powered propeller fan.

* GeniusLocci: Infused with the energy of trapped souls, the house is [[{{Poltergeist}} animated by the will of its master]].