Levi, you toss the hoodie over the spotlight, and there is an immediate reaction.

The spotlight fades, and the projector’s film runs out as if the reel was damaged, and you hear it cut out.

And that’s not the only thing you hear.

You hear a sound.

Actually, you hear about one hundred sounds, all at once, things slamming, people -- you-- screaming, banging and ticking and movement and shuffling, but most of all the screaming, the sounds that have been suppressed, all condensed into a single moment of intense sound, and then… nothing again.

For a moment, everything is dark, silent, and still.

[...]

Emily, from where you are, facing off against the ghost, theater-chair weapon drawn, stance ready, you see the boy going in for the move, and knowing he’s about to do something, you get ready to use that distraction to take this thing down.

And your moment comes when the spotlight suddenly vanishes, the spectral form within its beam still glowing, shaking violently, looking unstable without the light from above. And you hear a terrible, awful noise, like a million sounds at once, and for just a moment, you are distracted.

Then you regain your own composure, and move in to strike the ghost with the chair.


The motes of light that made up her form dissipate like embers from a flame.

[...]

Levi, you notice it before Diana down there does.

Music starts to play.

It’s not coming from anywhere in particular, just all around you. It’s like the echo of a band that might have played here years ago, still caught bouncing between the walls.


[...]

The silver screen starts to flicker to life

On that screen is a woman with an ornate costume, white robes and a fancy headpiece, like some sort of a crown.

You both feel like its watching you, even if you are in entirely different parts of the theater.

The woman looks… disappointed. Angry underneath it, definitely, but most of all disappointed.

She moves her lips in utter silence, face otherwise unmoving. Moments later, a dialogue screen pops up.

“It has been a very long time, Beau.”

Levi, you get the feeling she’s speaking to you. And though all you can hear right now is music, you feel as if you can talk again, at long last.

What do you do?

"Listen, lady, I'm not Beau. My last name isn't even Beaumont! Levi is breathing heavily, and now that he doesn't seem to be in immediate danger of dying, tears begin to well in his eyes. "My name is Levi, I just want to go home. Please!"

The woman on the screen frowns.

The screen reads: "You look just like him, you know. He was the love of my life."

She closes her eyes.

"You are his grandson, yes?"

Levi wipes his eyes with the sleeve of his hoodie. "Like... great great great grandson or something..? My dad's a Beaumont but he's never been around. I hope your Beaumont was a better person than mine is."

The screen flickers for a moment when you say that and she clenches her eyes shut even tighter.

It takes a while for her to say anything.

"Beau was..."
...
"well, he did murder me. And burn my films."
"And then dedicate this theater to me to play the part of a grieving widower."
"If yours was worse I would hate to see how."


She opens her eyes.

"Great great grandson... you never even met him, did you?"

Levi can't think of a time when he's felt so many emotions at the same time. Terror, amazement, curiosity, resentment, confusion, sympathy. "No.. I don't think even my grandfather was alive when I was born, at least that's what my mom said." Still scared for his life, he begins to ramble a bit. "Of course she might have been just saying that to make me feel better about them not wanting anything to do with me. ...Sorry about, like, your movies and life and stuff though..." He glances at Emily briefly before looking at the ground awkwardly.

There's nothing for a bit. It looks as if the "film" is just the same frame, over and over again for a while. Then, without any indication of her actually moving, a box of dialogue appears:

"Do you know how my Beau died?"

"Uh.. he stammers a bit, unsure how much to share, "actually, yes, I do. Everyone that goes to high school in Makadewa does. He was driving drunk and drove into Grant Lake and drowned. They show us a picture of his bloated corpse in health class. It's actually pretty fucked up."

The film cuts off entirely for a moment. You hear the projector jam as it does, but it seems to sort itself out.

When the picture returns, she's looking to the side.

"He always did drink too much."
She shudders.
"He deserved that and worse."

She turns back around to you.

Something appears on the dialogue screen for a single frame, and you don't catch what it says. Instead, a new box appears.

"I have nothing left if I don't even have my revenge. The world's moved on without me in it."

"There's one film left, unfinished, uncut, it's in the pile up there with you."
"If you'll take it somewhere else, we can all leave this place."

"Uh.. okay..." Levi glances again towards Emily, gives a little shrug, and then rummages through the pile before finding the film. "The Star That Flew Back? Got it." He turns back to towards the ghost and holds it up. "I bet it was great. ..So.. we can go now?"

[Since it turns out this is whats been nagging me all day as That Thing I Think I Forgot To Do, I'm just going to wrap this up with some narration and info dump. I don't think this part would have been super interactive anyway]

Levi, as soon as you pick up the film, the woman on screen smiles brightly, and the words appear:

"You may leave now. Thank you, child."

You hear the door beneath the balcony open up, as well as a door to the old stairwell on the balcony with you.

[...]

Emily, before you can even turn to see the door, the figure on screen seems to turn towards you. You cann feel her looking right at you.

"At some point, before this place was abandoned by the living and before I became powerful enough to fully awaken..."
"...I remember a young girl in this theater, watching a movie with her family."
"I wouldn't have even noticed, if it wasn't for the shadows that started to gather in the theater."
"She must have been a star for how many eyes were on her."

"The shadows haven't noticed you yet this time around."



"...But they will."

[...]