The central characters of Poltergeist: the Legacy do not belong to me

- they are the property of Trilogy and MGM – I’ve only borrowed them

for a while. All other characters are created by me. Hope you enjoy …

POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY

THE CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT

December 21

“Can we do it? I mean, is it even possible? I know it’s a brilliant idea but – ”

“Brilliant?”

“Okay, it’s a very good idea, but if we can’t figure out a way to actually pull it off … ”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Yeah. I am sure.”

“You should have a back up plan, in case it doesn’t work.”

“Okay. But can we do it?”

There was a moment’s pause for consideration.

“It’s never been tried before.”

“I know that. If it had, we’d know if we could do it, wouldn’t we?”

“I suppose we would.”

“So ..?”

“Do we include the child?”

“No. She stays out of it.”

“It still leaves four.”

“Yeah. Four. In one hit, on the same night.”

“Hmm. Let me try something.”

Another moment of silence.

“Y’know, that’s really very impressive.”

“And a little disconcerting.”

“Well, we got a few days. Practice.”

“Okay.”

“It’s your choice, in the end. You’ll be the one who actually does it. If you don’t feel you can – ”

“You want this to happen. I’ll find a way to make sure it does.”

“Thank you. I appreciate it. It will be worthwhile, I promise. Maybe not for us, but for them … You’ll see .. the next day.”

“It’s work on my day off.”

“Big deal. Live with it.”

“When?”

“There can only be one time – at the stroke of midnight.”

A third moment of silence.

“I’ll need a disguise. They must not recognize me. I’ll only do this if I can remain anonymous.”

“Okay. Be whoever you’d like to be.”

“I .. don’t know how to be other than what I am.”

“Practice. You can change sex. Hair color. Eye color. What you wear.”

“Name. I’ll change my name.”

“Excuse me?”

“They’re bound to ask me what the hell’s going on. The whole point is to give them a special gift, not scare the crap out of them. I’ll disguise my appearance .. and have a different name. I’ll be … ”

“The Ghost of Christmas Past, Present an’ Future.”

“And be accused of breaking copyright? Plagiarism? No, thank you. And, anyway, the book deals with only the holiday. Our excursions will be much more far-reaching.”

“All right, change your name. You seem to have developed a taste for the dramatic so .. what names will you choose?”

“The … The Phantom of Past Decisions. The .. the Shade of Present Times and .. oh, this sounds good. The Specter of Things to Come.”

“What about changing your voice? Hide your face, sure, open your mouth, you’ll give it away.”

“I can do the voice.” A throat was cleared. “I am the Phantom of Past Decisions.” A pause. “How did that sound?”

“Try it with an accent.”

“Which one? French? Italian? Spanish?”

“English.”

“That’s a tough one.” The throat was cleared again. “I am the Phantom of Past Decisions. Better?”

“Practice.”

“I can see I’m going to be busy the next few days, all this rehearsing.”

“You’ll cope. You always do.”

“And what exactly do I have to do on the night?”

“Easy. Search thru their memories till you find the place where they made their choice. Then .. take ’em back to it and .. let them choose differently. Give ’em a little nudge. See what happens.”

A final pause.

“It’ll be intriguing to witness.”

“Oh yeah, that’s for sure.”

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