Laurie touched a wall of the ballroom. How did I get here?

One moment, she was outside a replica of a doll house in the Forest of Horrors section of the carnival. She had crouched down to peek inside, and a translucent face had darted in front of one of the windows. Without warning, her body twisted, and she no longer felt the ground beneath her feet. Her stomach lurched, she closed her eyes, and now, she was in someone’s house.

Not just any house.

Laurie turned and darted to the window, pressing her hands against it. Outside was a tree, not unusual, but the trunk was more massive than the Redwoods she had visited as a child. The tree was mammoth and stretched into the sky. Laurie took a step back and bit her lip. 

Confirmed. She was in the dollhouse.

Music sprang from nowhere, and Laurie rotated, crouching into a jiu-jitsu pose. An old phonograph in the corner scratched a tune from a century ago. But how did it start? She was the only one in the room. Unless…

Unless.

Laurie took a deep breath. She rushed for the exit and stepped out of the ballroom into a foyer with a front door. Across from the ballroom entrance were open doors to the other side of the house leading to a laundry room and a garage. Laurie’s mouth went dry. This residence matched the layout of Creech Manor where Alice had met and defeated Evelyn.

Not defeated. Alice had escaped with the little girl, Carolyn, leaving the poltergeist behind. Unlike the rest of the Final Girls, Alice had never truly vanquished the ghost.

Laurie put her hand on the front doorknob. “Time to go.”

She wrenched open the door and stopped.

Wait. You’re the size of a bug.

Laurie squared her shoulders. She refused to allow a malevolent spirit to lock her inside this dollhouse. Alice’s story was terrifying, and Laurie wasn’t about to repeat it.

The outside lawn spread out before her. The chirping of crickets and flashes of light from fireflies greeted her as she stepped toward the porch. But a force halted Laurie’s progress. A transparent barrier, as if someone had installed a pane of the clear glass, prevented her from moving forward.

Alice had mentioned this. Until she found Carolyn, she couldn’t leave. She had thought about going outside to call the police—no cell reception inside, of course—but the poltergeist wouldn’t let her leave.

Everything is hard.

Laurie stepped back and fiddled with the buttons on her shirt. One, she was in Alice’s territory with Alice’s adversary. Laurie had to shift her thinking as Evelyn was no Hans the Butcher. Two, unlike Alice, she was tiny.  She had to think of a way to restore her size. Three, the only way out of the house was to defeat Evelyn. She’d have to find items like Alice had to fight her. And four—

A book out of her peripheral vision, struck her shoulder blade.

Fourth, she had to contend with a dangerous ghost while searching.

Laurie tried to discern where the ghost was standing. At the last moment, she spied an object aimed at her head. Jerking her body backward, Laurie avoided a glass figurine. But the book had come from the other side of the room.

What had Alice typed to them when explaining her encounter with the poltergeist? Yes. Evelyn was abnormally fast and always on the move.

The foyer led to stairs going up to Creech Manor’s multiple floors. If she hoped to survive, Laurie had to distance herself from Evelyn. She sprinted to the stairs and had almost reached the bottom step when a painting swung from the wall and hit her in the face. Stunned, Laurie reeled back a step as the painting fell to the floor. She slid to the bottom of the staircase when a table upended and flew toward her.

Ascending the stairs moved her out of the path of the flying table. Laurie dashed upward, taking two steps at a time until the air around her didn’t feel right. Her body jerked as what felt like an electric current passed through her on the staircase, and a sense of dread filled her. Evelyn was at the top, ready to push her down!

Laurie pushed on, screaming a battle cry. But she stopped suddenly, almost a sixth sense warning her, and a light fixture from the ceiling came crashing down in front of her feet. She skirted around it and continued upward, hearing light bulbs pop above her as she climbed.

Distance from Evelyn wasn’t working. Her experience at Camp Happy Trails—running  away from slow, plodding Hans and shooting arrows at him—wouldn’t help her here. She had learned enough about her stalker and understood his ways at the end to defeat him. In many ways, she had been his perfect adversary. This “Razorface” must have known pairing her with Hans would result in the same ending. Instead, have Laurie square off against Evelyn where all of the teen’s athleticism and campground knowledge couldn’t help her.

I need to think. Survive.

A knick-knack on a table in the upstairs hall lifted off the ground and shook violently. It flung itself at Laurie, who dodged it. Fortunately, her agility was helping her. Alice had struggled, and yet, she had won. How?

Laurie weaved her way down to the end of a hallway. Alice had told her she had found items that had helped her in the upstairs closet. Had Alice’s knowledge defeated Evelyn? Not really. Finding various trinkets connected to Evelyn’s past had assisted in her escape. But what was it about Alice that had helped her survive?

Laurie was at the closet door. She reached for the knob and opened it when it had wrenched free and closed on its own. Curse this ghost.

Alice, how did you win?

Alice. Of the Final Girls, she was the youngest, the weakest, most skittish. Even her deafness put her at a disadvantage against Evelyn. And yet, she was an essential part of the Final Girls. Why? When Laurie’s school friends hadn’t listened to her about Hans’ supernatural strength, who had been there for her, supporting her? When Laurie had felt like she couldn’t face another day, who had sent words of encouragement? Wasn’t it ironic that the deaf girl had the most sympathetic ear?

Alice had thought of Carolyn before herself. Though blocked from exiting, Alice hadn’t pursued another means of escape for herself. Her first thought was to guard the little girl. Alice believed Carolyn’s pure soul would render Evelyn less powerful. And hand-in-hand, Alice and Carolyn had jumped out of the window.

I have to find Carolyn. She must be somewhere in the house.

Acting like she was going to turn away from the closet, Laurie moved backward and then forward, hoping to confuse her invisible attacker. She succeeded in opening the closet and rushing inside.

In less than a heartbeat, she turned on a light and surveyed the items stored away. Clothes, discarded shoes, and boxes she didn’t have time to go through. On the shelf lay an old map, a padlock, even a knife—useless. Alice had said she found a stuffed animal toy here that had worked wonders on Evelyn, but—

Wait. The padlock.

After Alice had escaped and told her harrowing story, Laurie had researched Evelyn and Creech Manor. A disturbed child, Evelyn’s parents had padlocked her in the attic to keep her away from the other children. Another owner of Creech Manor had once reported she kept the padlock on the attic entrance to keep the ghost from bothering her.

Hope stirred within her. She could lure her to the attic and lock Evelyn up there.

Laurie swiped the padlock and exited the small space. A vase aimed at her head missed her by centimeters. Laurie ducked and dodged her way to the staircase. She had to maneuver around the third floor and to the highest level of the building.

While chaos erupted around her, Laurie didn’t falter, reaching the attic access. She slipped the curved prong of the lock around the handle, readying it for when she exited. Then, Laurie heard sobbing coming from above, and her shoulders sagged.

Carolyn must be in the attic.