Ghosts of Averoigne

They followed him cautiously, being careful not to trip. The ground was uneven, and covered in debris. In places it was even broken. For a little while it looked almost like Logan’s corridor was a dead end, but then it opened into a larger area. An actual room.

“Look!”

Standing on the opposite wall were two tall bookcases. They were empty now, but they were just like the ones in the hundred-year old photo. Kara approached, holding her phone’s flashlight out in front of her. In the space between them she could see a vague outline…

It was exactly the shape of the mirror.

“Hang it,” said Kara, running a hand over the rough cobbled wall. “Even the hooks are still here.”

Logan did it quickly, like he was anxious to get rid of the mirror. Kara couldn’t blame him either. The glow was bright now, and spooky as all hell.

“The table’s here too,” grunted Jeremy. With a plume of dust, he rolled a wooden table free from one of the side walls. Kara helped him turn it upright, then center it beneath the mirror.

“Holy shit,” said Logan. He coughed out a big bunch of dust. “I can’t believe you found this place.”

One by one Jeremy set up the artifacts, placing each precisely where it needed to be. With the mirror and the bookcases for reference, the accuracy was uncanny. When they stepped back and looked at the photo, it was an exact match.

This is it, thought Kara. She lamented the loss of their recording equipment. Wondered if they had enough time to go back for it…

“What happened after you saw the scrying crystal?” Jeremy was asking Logan.

“It got brighter and brighter,” he replied. “A few minutes went by where I could see it very clearly. I was looking right at it, and then all of a sudden it flared out and was gone.”

Kara tapped her chin. “And what time did you say this happened?” she asked Logan.

“A little after one. Maybe one fifteen.”

One-fifteen…

Another thought leapt into her head, and a good one too. Kara marveled at how much her mind had become a blank canvas. She was thinking crystal clearly.

Five or six orgasms will do that to you…

She whirled on Logan. “What time was the clock in the lobby stuck on?”

He looked back at her somewhat confused. “I— Um…”

“Quick, think!”

He eyes went up as he searched his memory. “One-eighteen.” He blinked, and his expression went wide with the same revelation. “Oh! So you’re saying—”

“That’s the time!” Kara jumped in. “That’s when Northrop performed the ceremony!”

“Botched the ceremony,” Jeremy pointed out.

“Whatever,” Kara dismissed him quickly. “The point is, that’s when it happened. It even stopped the clock! On the morning of winter solstice, a whole century ago, at one-eighteen…”

She pulled out her phone. Stared down at it.

Her phone was dead.

“Hurry, what time is—”

“Mine’s dead too,” said Jeremy.

Logan nodded and held up his also. The screen was black.

“Shit.”