sean_harby_was_a_zombie

And then, all of a sudden, Charmaine shook her limbs, shuddered, and said, 'I see a new spirit! One who has just recently passed. One who is known well to more than one of us.'
Diane squeezed my hand tighter and let out a little 'oh'.
'Speak, spirit! Tell us why you are here.'
But the 'spirit' did not speak. At least I didn't hear any spirit speaking.

Charmaine was shaking and quaking. She'd utter little guttural noises that did sound rather creepy. Then she took a deep breath and shouted, 'He is here!'
She slumped forward as if in great exhaustion.

We all started looking around the room.
All I could see were the people gathered around the table. But, I must admit, I did feel spooked.
Then the annoying Max shouted, 'Look behind you! Look at the mirror!'

A large ornate mirror was fixed to the wall directly behind where Diane, Tommy, and I were sitting.
I turned around to look.
There, in the mirror, I could see our reflections of course. But, just above our reflections, appeared the shadowy figure of what looked like a ghostly man.
Diane screamed.
'He is here!' Charmaine crowed triumphantly.

It was all too much. Everyone started to panic despite Charmaine's attempts to keep us in the 'spirit realm'. We all got up. As we moved away from the mirror, I looked back. I could still see that shadowy figure.
And that was it.
We all ran out of the 'séance' room like it was a scene out of The Towering Inferno.
Except for Charmaine.
'I must finish the ritual!' she shouted after us. 'With or without you!'
It was going to be 'without you'.

As we ran down the stairs, Tommy noticed Sean was not with us.
'Where is he?' Tommy asked as he rolled his eyes.
Against all my better instincts, I went back upstairs to help Tommy find Sean. We went back into the room. Charmaine was sitting there with her eyes closed and intoning something silently. I dared not look back in the mirror.
Sean was just sitting there and staring out into space. Tommy went over and punched him in the arm to get him moving. But he still would not move. We both had to grab him under his arms and drag him out of there.
He was as stiff as a shop window mannequin.

We went back to Diane's tent. I don't know where 'Super Max' or 'Staring Bradley' went. I guess back to their camp.
We put Sean down on one of the cots. He was like an ironing board. To me, it looked like he was literally 'scared stiff'.
We actually had to place him down flat with me holding his head and Tommy his feet.
As we did so, Diane said, 'That was the scariest one yet! I told you! She talks with the dead!'

Tommy was poking Sean and trying to get him to come around. But Sean did not respond. We even got a cup of water and threw it in his face, but he neither blinked nor moved.
'Stop farting around!' Tommy shouted. 'You're embarrassing me! This is why I don't take you nowhere!' and he continued to poke at him and shout at him, but it had no effect.

After some more attempts by Tommy to rouse Sean, Charmaine and Ingrid entered the tent. Charmaine looked drained as if all the energy had been siphoned from her. Ingrid helped her to sit on the other cot.
'That was a powerful apparition,' she gasped. 'That's the most powerful one I have ever summoned.'

Diane then pointed out Sean's 'frozen stiff' situation.
'He's not aware we're even here!' she said to Charmaine in a panic.
'He's been like that ever since we left the house!'

Charmaine struggled to her feet and walked over to where Sean was lying. She reached down and felt his forehead.
'Ice cold,' she said.
'His spirit has been captured. I have heard of such things before.'
And Tommy said, 'He's just goofing around.' And with that, he pinched Sean's arm for all he was worth. But Sean just lay there oblivious.