Saturday Night Séance

make them look better."

  "Damn it, Jim, I'm a seamstress, not a miracle worker."

  Isabella sniggered and Maryann smiled uncertainly.

  "Get the dresses soon and I'll try to do something with polyester satin," Leah sighed.

  "If you can do anything with that kind of fabric, you are a miracle worker," Nora said dryly.

  A few weeks and a couple of trips to the second-hand stores, and Leah had worked what magic she could on former prom dresses. Maryann's old prom dress was, in fact, pink, and she insisted on wearing it again. Nora had her old prom dress shipped to her and it didn't need even the tiniest alternation, much to the secret jealousy of the others. Plus, the dark blue dress was legitimately fashionable, even if slightly out-dated. Leah wouldn't admit to having gone to prom, so she made a lot of alternations to a second-hand dark green dress. Isabella had given away her prom dress, so Leah did her best with a second-hand, rather sparkly silver-gray dress.

  The night of the Fairytale Ball arrived and the band got ready at Maryann's house because that's where they stored their gear anyway.

  "Look, I found it!" Maryann said as she emerged from her room, fully dressed, and pointing to a rhinestone crown on her head. "I thought I lost it but I didn't!"

  "I'm not surprised," Leah said. "Are you surprised?" she asked, looking at Nora and Isabella.

  They kind of rolled their eyes and shook their heads.

  "What?" the redhead pouted.

  "You just seem really into this, that's all," Isabella replied diplomatically.

  "I love to dress up! If I could sew, I'd make so many costumes for us!"

  "We don't have the budget to make as many costumes as you want," Leah said.

  Maryann looked blankly at her.

  "Yeah, it costs money to dress up."

  She sighed. "You really take all the fun out of this."

  "Sorry," Leah said.

  "You know, Mee-maw gave me this crown. I ran for Homecoming Queen freshman year and I lost. Mee-maw gave me this as a Christmas present and said I didn't have to worry about winning contests because I was always her princess."

  "Now I really do feel bad," Leah said.

  "Well, let's finish getting ready and go play a good show tonight, okay, ladies?" Isabella said.

  The venue was everything they imagined; Maryann was delighted while Leah was dismayed. Isabella and Nora felt only ambivalence. The event was held at the historic Crown Hotel Ballroom. The ballroom was a large open space with oversized crystal chandeliers and mediocre acoustics. It had been renovated to accommodate tables, a dance floor, and a small stage as the venue was extremely popular for weddings and other large events. It turned out that Maryann was not the only woman who wore a crown to the event. Leah rolled her eyes but held her tongue for the most part, although she did quietly curse in Spanish under her breath when she saw the song list. But the job wasn't that bad, even though they weren't allowed to play their own songs. As they packed up their gear, several young men approached Maryann. She got a few dates set up, and the band got help packing up their gear.

  "Maryann is taking a really long time," Leah said as she and the other two waited by the van for Maryann to finish talking to a young man.

  "I thought she said she had to go to the restroom," Isabella said.

  "Yeah, but still, it's been over twenty minutes."

  "Then I'll go get her," she sighed, and went back into the building. She came back just a minute later and without Maryann. "We have a problem," she said seriously.

  "What, did she decide to go home with someone?" Nora asked, also seriously.

  "No. That would be easier. This is weird." She held out a pink, satin high heel.

  "Is that Maryann's?"

  "Yes, yes it is."

  "Should I call the cops?" Leah asked.

  "No, I don't think that will help. Do you mind if I, um, cast a spell on you?" Isabella asked.

  "To do what?"

  "Well, I think there's magic involved, and I thought it might be helpful if you two could see into the spirit world like me."

  Leah and Nora looked at each other with a mixture of confusion and anxiety.

  "Is it really necessary?" Nora replied.

  "I think it would be helpful to find Maryann."

  "Find Maryann?" Leah repeated.

  Isabella nodded.

  "Um, okay, sure, I guess, do your thing."

  Isabella cast a spell on herself and the other two that allowed them to see partially into the spirit realm.

  "That's it?" Leah asked.

  "Yes. What did you think was going to happen?"

  "I wasn't sure. I don't know much about this stuff."

  "Well, follow me. I think you'll be able to see the problem now."

  The other two followed the blonde through the back door and to a door near the ballroom that opened to a pair of restrooms and another door to the kitchen. The idea of the door was to hide the restrooms and kitchen entrance from the main area. And that's where there was a problem, but luckily everyone who was around at that hour was busy cleaning up the ballroom and paying no attention to the band.

  "Why is the door glowing?" Leah asked.

  "Because it was recently a doorway into some other realm," Isabella said. "And I'm almost certain that's why Maryann hasn't come back."

  "She went through the door into another world and didn't notice?" Nora asked.

  "Some doors only open one way. If she wasn't really paying attention, the door might have closed before she could have gotten back through. Also, considering I found her shoe, she might have kind of tripped through the door."

  "Yeah, sometimes she's a little clumsy," Nora agreed.

  Leah just shook her head. "This night just got weird. You're saying Maryann just walked through a door into another world."

  "Yes. And what's really weird is that the door is still there," Isabella said.

  "What, you mean we could open that door and end up in another world?" Nora asked.

  "Yes. And that worries me. That makes me think this wasn't some kind of accident."

  "Does that happen often?"

  Isabella looked uncharacteristically grim. "More often than you think."

  "So what do we do?" Nora asked after a minute.

  "We have to go get Maryann. But we need to be prepared for something bad on the other side."

  "What do you suggest?" Leah asked, feeling a bit lost. "I can get the tire iron from the van."

  Nora shot a dark look at Leah. "Why do you think that will help?"

  "Actually, having a weapon might not be a bad idea," Isabella replied.

  Leah looked startled, but ran off.

  "Isabella, this is weird," Nora said while she was gone. She gripped her cross necklace.

  "I know. I'm sorry. Please trust me as best you can."

  Leah went to the van trying to think about what she could bring that might be useful even though she had no idea what was going on. She also changed her shoes from the high heels to her normal sneakers. She thought for a moment and pulled out a backpack. She emptied it and threw in everyone else's shoes and the tire iron. Near the tire iron was the small toolkit that the group kept in the van to repair their equipment. Leah put that in the backpack as well, and then anything else fairly small and light could think of.

  "Why the backpack?" Nora asked when she returned to the hotel.

  "Um, so I'm not walking into a hotel armed. And here are your shoes," she answered.

  "Oh, good idea."

  The other two changed their shoes and Leah threw the impracticle ones into the bag. "So what now?" Leah asked.

  "I'm going to open the door, and then we go in. I'll also close it fully so nothing else can get through," Isabella said.

  "Can we get back?" Nora asked, worried.

  "Yes, I can open it again. Think of it like a door that's unlocked. I'm going to lock it, but I can unlock it and open it. But if I just leave it here un
locked, something from the other side could come through. That might not happen since it's not obvious the door is unlocked, but I don't want to take that kind of chance."

  "Okay, that sounds smart," Leah said. "Then, um, let's do this?"

  Isabella pulled two pieces of paper out of her purse and wrote on it in Japanese kanji. She stuck one to the door. "Let's go," she said, and opened it.

  They could see a stone hallway lit by torches. There didn't seem to be any immediate danger, so Nora hesitantly walked through. Leah followed her, and finally Isabella, who closed the door and stuck the other piece of paper to it.

  "Where are we?" Leah asked in a low voice.

  Isabella looked around. There was nothing distinctive about the stone hallway or the torches. It reminded all of them of a stereotypical Medieval castle. "I'm not sure."

  "How do we find Maryann?"

  She looked around again. The stone hallway terminated in a 'T' intersection. With her spirit sight, the passage to the right looked very slightly brighter. "We'll just have to look. Let's go this way."

  The other two followed Isabella as quietly as they could. They turned to the right and again the long hallway terminated in a 'T' intersection. And again Isabella thought the right passage looked slightly brighter.

  After a few minutes of this, Leah said, "We're going in a spiral, aren't we? To the center of this castle?"

  "Yes. I'm following the magic traces and taking the path that seems stronger."

  "Why?" Nora asked. "Wouldn't it make more sense to go away from that?"

  "Well, I'm kind of going on the assumption Maryann can't get out, or she would have," Isabella said. "So I figure she's as far away from the door as possible."

  Nora looked skeptical but then sighed. "I guess that's as good as any theory for now."

  They continued to spiral towards