“ELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJAH!” Dom screamed, his throat hurting from the effort of it; he ran from room to room, trying to locate his, evidently, missing friends. “ORRRRRRLAAAAAAAAAANDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He tripped over the threshold of the kitchen door and stumbled against the bar in the middle of the room, “BIIIILLLLLLLLLLY!” He pushed past the closed door to the adjoining dinning room and looked frantically around, his breath ragged, “VIGGGGGGGGGGOOOOOOOO!”

Pushing into the hallway and beginning to jump the stairs six or seven at a time, he hollered, “WHERE THE BLOODY HELL IS EVERYONE!?”

“We’re in here!” Viggo yelled from down the hall; Dom ran as fast as he could to the only room whose door was ajar. Light spilled onto him as he stood in the doorway, catching his breath. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“I saw,” he gasped, inhaling sharply, “A GHOST!”

Billy snickered, “A ghost? You’re mad.”

“No, I saw it! It was hovering above the ground!”

Orlando looked doubtfully up at him from where he sat comfortably on the bed beside Elijah and a large bowl of popcorn. “We were just about to watch a film. If you can stop making up stories, and whining, you can join us.”

“Or just join us, period,” Viggo said, reaching for some popcorn. “He probably just fell asleep and had a dream. It’s not his fault he’s a sissy.”

“Had a nightmare, more like,” Dom muttered, entering the room and ignoring the derogatory comments that cloaked him. “Why’d you leave me down there to fend for myself in this dratted old haunted castle?”

“It’s not that old,” Billy commented lightly, turning on the television.

Elijah snorted, “Since when is from 1654 not that old?”

“I wish you wouldn’t use finger quotes,” Viggo sighed. “They make you look feminine.”

“He IS feminine,” Orlando replied, smiling cheekily in Elijah’s direction. Elijah scowled at him and pulled the popcorn bowl out of his reach.

“When’d you have time to make popcorn and get a movie?” Dom asked, slipping down onto the floor beside the bed. Billy and Viggo were planted in chairs nearby.

“You’ve been downstairs alone for hours,” Elijah said, handing the bowl to an eagerly awaiting Billy; Billy grabbed it and pressed play on the remote control. Pretty soon the room was filled with the bright light from the television, though the screen was black. “That’s why we said you were asleep. Hey, what’s wrong with the movie?”

“Probably just getting ready to spew some previews at us,” Billy said, shrugging.

Dom sighed heavily, “I think I may go into town and find a hotel for the night.”

Viggo chuckled, “It’s an hour drive to anything from here. You’re fine. You can sleep in my room. I’ll protect you.”

“Stop being Aragorn,” Orlando requested, shaking his head. “He doesn’t need protecting, as there’s NOTHING HERE.”

Dom huffed, looking aggravated, “You go downstairs and tell that…that…spirit or whatever it was that it’s not real, then!”

“Fine. I will.” Orlando hoped off the bed, looking at Dom angrily, before leaving the room; they could hear his footsteps die away and then some pounding sounds as he flew down the stairs.

The black screen was now mixing with white in some sort of psychedelic scene. “It must be a preview for some new stoner movie,” Elijah said, leaning across the bed to get a closer look.

*

“Orlando’s in the hizzouse! I should be a ghostbuster or something!” Orlando yelled jubilantly, coming into the room twenty minutes later; he entered a room with a much different atmosphere than before. Dom, Billy, Viggo and Elijah were all staring at the now blank screen in a darkened room, looking like robotic drones.

“So, I looked downstairs everywhere and there was nothing to be seen that was…spectral or whatever.” His voice trailed off as he surveyed his friends. “Em, guys?” When no one responded with any movement or sound, he crossed to the television and pulled the unmarked tape out. After much thought, he stuck it back in and pressed play. Several seconds of blank blackness were followed by the mixing of the white and then a title to which Orlando screeched, pressed eject and threw the tape across the room, where it hit the wall and bounced onto the bed just next to Elijah, who didn’t move.

“YOU GUYS! This is THE NECKLACE! It’s that creepy horror movie thing that renders you incapable of speech…or something! And then some smarmy bloke calls 15 minutes after you watch it and tells you that you’ve won a million pounds!” He paused. “Oh, wait. Maybe he tells you that you’re going to die in five days? I can never remember.”

“WHAT!?” Dom hollered, standing up. His outburst seemed to bring his fellows back to life, as they all started and stared around looking bewildered. “We’re going to die in five days?”

“Or win a million pounds,” Orlando said, sounding hopeful. “Could go either way.”

Dom rolled his eyes, “Not much of a win-win situation, though, is it.”

“Oh calm the bloody hell down,” Viggo stated rationally, standing up and flicking on the overhead light. “Nobody’s going to die---”

In the distance, they could all hear the ringing of Billy’s telephone; everyone stared in that direction until Billy reluctantly offered to go and answer it. The other four all followed him, not speaking.

“Hello?” Billy answered in his most cheerful voice. “Uh-huh. Yeah. I see. Well…yes. Thanks. I appreciate it. Yeah. Oh, lovely. Good day to you, as well.” He hung up, sighed and turned to face his friends.

“Who was that?” Dom asked fearfully, chewing his fingernails.

“The phone company; some bloke wondering if I was happy with my long distance service.”

Everyone let out huge sighs of relief and Elijah stopped clutching Dom’s arm; Dom thanked him, as it had been throbbing most painfully.

“Where’d you hear about The Necklace?” Viggo voiced the question everyone was curious to know the answer to.

Orlando shrugged, “Oprah.”

“You watch that?” Billy chuckled. “Oh, that’s rubbish. I thought you were going to say you read it somewhere like the Enquirer. At least then we’d know we should believe it. But Oprah. Since when does she have believable things on?”

Elijah’s eyes narrowed, “I’ll have you know she’s a very learned woman! She wouldn’t have said anything about The Necklace if it weren’t true!”

“Oh, God,” Viggo muttered, putting a hand to his head. “You’re all freaking gay, aren’t you? Sitting at home watching Oprah. Honestly. Go out and drink beer and watch sports like manly men!”

Orlando opened his mouth to retort, but the phone rang again which caused them all to fall silent. Viggo reached to answer it, being the self proclaimed ‘brave one.’

“Bonjour. Oh, really? I see. Thank you. Good bye.” He hung up and turned to his friends, “Well, that was the bloke.”

“Have we won a million pounds!?” Billy squealed happily, jumping up and down.

“No, sadly. As it turns out, we’re just going to die in five days. But on the upside---”

“There can’t be an upside,” Dom groaned. “We’re all going to die in this horrible haunted castle in the middle of nowhere because of some stupid bloody film.”

Viggo smiled, “The upside is we can get really, really drunk and forget any of this ever happened! Let me go grab the keg!” He made a move to leave the room, but was held back.

“I don’t honestly think you can fool fate by getting drunk,” Elijah said, sighing heavily. “I’m going to go get some food. Might as well bulk up for death.” He shrugged dejectedly and left the room.

“That’s the spirit!” Viggo called after his retreating back.

Dom whimpered, “I don’t want to die!”

“Hey, hey, now,” Billy said serenely. “You won’t. We can trick death…just look at Orlando, he’s nearly died sixty or seventy times and he’s still here.”

Orlando beamed at them, “Orlando’s in the hizzouse.”

“Oh, do stop saying that,” Dom retorted. “And, by the way, the ghosts will have us dead before the five days is up, ANYWAY. So why don’t we just have a bloody séance.”

“What a marvelous idea!” Billy said happily. “ELIJAH! Get some candles!”