By the fire, the Midnight Society huddle against the cold. Andy sneezes. What could be worse than a flu shot - apart from getting sick? What if you found yourself in the care of someone who meant you harm? Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, Vange calls this story "The Tale of the Night Nurse".
...
AJ and Nicki wave farewell to their parents departing car, and are fondly greeted on the snowy driveway by their Grampa. Later, while AJ shovels snow, Nicki flings over a surprise snowball, which hits her on the arm. AJ's gaze is drawn to the nearby pavement. A woman in a tan overcoat and matching hat, accompanied by a young boy in a red bobble hat, each carry a brightly wrapped present. When she next looks, the driveway is empty.
Late that night, AJ wakes to the sound of distantly echoing children’s laughter. She creeps downstairs. Through the open living room door, she sees, in the darkness, the soft glow of a candlelight birthday cake, whose icing inscription reads "Happy Birthday Emily". Bemused, AJ flicks on the light - and sees the living room’s coffee table to be bereft of cake. She turns - and faces the large mirror opposite the open door. In it, crowded around her own reflection, are the reflections of a man, woman, and seven children, all formally dressed.
Next day, AJ, alone in the hallway, sees, descending the stairs, a young girl in a blue dress, carrying a stack of brightly wrapped presents. From the girl’s wrist slips a silver chain bracelet. The girl stoops to retrieve her bracelet - and trips forward. As AJ hurries forward, the girl and her presents have vanished.AJ screams in fright.
In the attic, Grampa explains the history of the Birthday Girl - during a birthday party, a young girl, during her birthday party, fell downstairs. As she recovered, her mother hired a night nurse - following whose injection, the girl died. The Night Nurse claimed innocence until the day of her death - in prison. A trunk, left over when Grampa moved in, contains a newspaper account of the death.
To AJ’s hesitation, the two prepare a cake, set it with candles, and offer it to the spirit of Emily… who fails to appear. They blow out the candles, and start to carry the cake towards the dining room - but their path is blocked by a woman in a nurse’s uniform, holding a syringe. The girls scream, and drop the cake.
In the attic, while Nicki reads the newspaper article, AJ tries on Emily’s dress. As she pulls it over her head, she suddenly finds the attic to be empty. Nicki turns to face AJ - and finds her sister to have suddenly vanished. In this strange version of the house, AJ cautiously walks onto the landing, and approaches the stairs. On the lower landing, a small table holds a stack of brightly wrapped presents. From downstairs comes the happy babble of children. Before the foot of the stairs, a woman carrying a candlelit cake addresses AJ as Emily.
Overcome, AJ returns to the attic. She pulls off the dress - and finds herself once more facing the back of the distracted Nicki, who doubts her story - until appearance at the attic door of the Night Nurse. Nicki swiftly closes the door.
As their fear mounts, AJ has an idea: if she puts back on the dress, resumes the position of Emily, and manages to avoid falling down the stairs, then the Night Nurse will never have been employed, and the threat she poses will have been removed from history. Outside, the Night Nurse reaches for a key.
AJ pulls back on the dress, and once more finds herself in the phantom time of Emily’s party. She returns to the lower landing. AJ takes a stack of presents, and carefully starts the dangerous climb.
...
Nicki pushes a nearby chest against the attic door...
Back in the phantom past, AJ cautiously carries the presents downstairs. From her wrist, a small chain bracelet slips and falls. Suddenly confident, she carefully stoops, and pockets the bracelet.
...
The Night Nurse finally pushes open the door. And steals into the attic. She approaches the chest, and opens it. Nicki screams…
AJ triumphantly reaches the lowermost stairs - and trips, She falls face-forward. Horrified, Emily’s mother rushes to the prone, unconscious AJ. Back in the present, the Night Nurse withdraws from her descent on Nicki.The spectral Nurse blurs, and dematerialises.
In a daylighted bedroom, bedecked with dolls and teddy bears, AJ slowly wakes, to find herself once more at the mercy of the Night Nurse. Emily runs onto the landing. AJ runs, hides in another bedroom, and tries to pull off the dress. The Nurse appears in the doorway. AJ runs into an adjoined room - and finds the Nurse already there. The Nurse throws an arm around AJ’s shoulder, and claps a hand over her mouth.
AJ bites her, escapes - and backs towards the wall. The increasingly vexed Night Nurse demands AJ's acceptance of a shot of penicillin - to which Emily, according to her bracelet chain, is allergic.
The horrified Nurse warns her never to take off the bracelet again - the dose would have been fatal. Stunned with relief, the Nurse helps AJ off with the dress. Back in the present, AJ hangs up the dress. Nicki unearths a framed graduation photo of a young woman, captioned "Emily Jerome Honour Student Class of 65".
...
Andy starts a succession of sneezes. In different directions, the others leave Vange to douse the fire.
This episode provides examples of:
- The '50s: This is when Emily's death happened, and AJ travels back in time there when she puts on the dress.
- Adults Are Useless: Emily's parents in her backstory thought it would be a good idea to let her carry a stack of presents down the stairs all by herself rather than help her.
- Battleaxe Nurse: Downplayed; while not physically brutal, the Night Nurse’s proffers of the syringe are decidedly sinister.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: AJ sarcastically wishes "we could make the ghost appear" when she and Nicki blow the candles out on the birthday cake they made for Emily. They end up making the Nurse's ghost appear.
- Casual Danger Dialogue: Nicki takes the time to throw some snark the nurse's way when she's trying to get into the attic.Nurse: I'm losing my patience.Nicki: Lady, you're losing both your patients.
- Clear My Name: It turns out AJ and Nicki not only have to stop Emily from dying - but also clear the name of the Nurse who killed her; she just injected her with penicillin, not knowing about her allergy.
- Double Take: When the nurse explains that she was going to give Emily penicillin, AJ repeats it and then realizes just what happened that night.
- Failed a Spot Check: Played for Drama. Emily's medical bracelet fell off and was put into her pocket right before she fell down the stairs. Neither of her parents noticed before the Nurse was called, and so she injected her with penicillin.
- Good All Along: The Night Nurse never meant to murder Emily.
- Haunted Fetter: Emily’s dress, when donned by AJ, transports her to a phantom iteration of the time in which Emily was killed.
- Magnetic Medium: Even before donning the haunted dress, AJ attracts a spectral manifestation of Emily’s birthday party.
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Emily’s family and party guests initially appear in the mirror, and then in AJ’s visit to the phantom past. In the present, the Night Nurse appears as she did in life, but on imminent alteration of the past, fades from view.
- Plot Hole: AJ changes history by stopping the Nurse from injecting Emily, and then showing Nicki a picture of Emily all grown up to prove that she lived. Nicki still remembers everything, and their grandfather asks if they're still hunting the ghost - which logically, neither of them should if AJ changed the past.
- Screw Destiny: Inhabiting Emily’s dress in the past, AJ manages to alter events to change history.
- Tragic Mistake: The Night Nurse, unaware of Emily’s penicillin allergy, injected her with it.
- Wham Line: "One little pinch, and the penicillin will make you all better." This is what helps AJ solve the mystery that the nurse ghost wasn't the psychotic killer she was painted to be, and that the "murder" was all a misunderstanding: the nurse only meant to inject Emily with penicillin, not poison, and she was unaware the girl was allergic to it.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Averted; AJ and Nicki's grandfather, while initially reluctant to discuss it, is well aware of the ghost.
