The Evil Eyeball Void of Doom began to suck harder. Nick shrieked in a pitch that Mena previously thought was unavailable to men as the void pulled his khaki pants over his shoes and off spiraling into the void. Beneath his khakis, he wore heart shaped boxers. All he could do was stare into the void repeating the phrase “Big eyeball. Big brown eyeball…”

“Oh no!” Janus cried as her bony arms cracked. “I forgot to oil my joints!”

Janus’ arms detached themselves from her wrists, leaving nothing but bony arms attached to Mena’s legs. The young witch let out a terrified scream as her allies spun towards the void with the same trajectory as Nick’s pants. She shut her eyes for fear of never seeing them again, but instead of hearing the kind of pop sound when a body gets sucked into an interdimensional void. She heard a thud.

“Oof,” Janus said, “Right on my funny bone.”

But the pixie reaper quickly added, “Mena. The void stopped working for some reason!”

“Wowie zowie!” Mena exclaimed, opening her eyes and looking back at her friends.

The eye in the void remained closed for a second, before it opened again, inhaling everything in its path. “Oh nosie,” Mena said, closing her eyes again.

Once again, there was a thud sound. But this time, for fear of safety of her friends, Mena kept her eyes shut. What was going on?

“Hold on a sec,” Janus said, as she removed her hands from Mena’s thighs and reattached them with a click.

“Mena !” Janus exclaimed as Nick whimpered the background. Janus helped Mena up and then, the pixie reaper asked, “Mena? Open your eyes for a second.”

Mena did, and the void’s closed eye opened again, pulling a terrified Nick closer to it.

“Quickly, close em!”

Mena did, and Nick dropped to the ground.

“Mena,” Janus said at last. “Keep your eyes shut. For some reason, the void’s eye reacts to your eye.”

“Oh,” Mena said inquisitively. “It seems there's there more to this than meets... the eye."

Janus was dead silent, until Mena giggled, "I'll show myself out."

"Don't worry," Janus said at last. "I won't need to reap your humor sense of humor, it's already dead. Anyway, I’ll grab that lampshade and we can get outta here!”

Nick continued to cry, but Janus said. “Nick, snap out of it. Why did a bit of wind get you so upset?”

Nick whimpered and was unable to choke out any words. “Come on,” Mena said. “Those boxers weren’t THAT embarrassing. Everyone wears those in their embarrassing dreams. Though I must admit this is the second time I’ve actually seen someone wear them in real life…Ok.. that kind of is embarrassing.”

Nick merely whimpered in response.

“Wa-la,” janus said a chipper voice as she walked back to Mena. “I stole the lamp and made no bones about it. Well actually, I did since I am bones. But anywho, let’s get outta here.”

Janus helped guide Mena out of the eye-void room, and at last she opened her eyes. Janus clutched a powder blue table lamp in her arms. It looked completely undistinguishable from regular homeware aside from the fact it was emblazoned with a singular eye.

The three of them took off for the first floor with Mena hoping they could get passed the veil and save whoever it was. But when they reached the fork in the lower hallway, an icy wind tugged at her collar. When Mena peered around the corner, Penwell was entering the room that housed the shadow veil.

Ghostly wails and sobbing echoed down the hallway chilling Mena’s ears. And this time, Nick quivered and Janus’ bones rattled. They could feel it too, it seemed.

“Change of plans,” Mena said to her cohorts. “From Plan A to Plan G.”

“Plan G?” Janus asked

“Plan Get The Heck Out Of Here!” Mena exclaimed, hiding behind the wall.

She peeped out again, and this time, Penwell was facing the door. “Quick, go,” Mena said, waving her friends across.

Janus and a nearly catatonic Nick shuffled across. Now it was Mena’s turn to go. Penwell’s head still turned towards the door.

“Here goes nothing,” Mena whispered and sprinted across.

But she continued to look in the direction of Penwell and right when she crossed the fork in the hallway, Penwell’s head turned backwards with an unnatural click. There was a terrifying shriek like that of a gorgon ready to encase its prey in stone. Mena’s body stiffened for a second; but with all her effort from her heart barrier, she broke free of Penwell’s petrifying gaze. “Go!” Mena shouted to her friends and together they escape out the unlocked exit.

The three reached the outside where May and Auntie Grizabella awaited. May gasped when she saw them. “What’s wrong?” her spectacles magnifying her wide eyes. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Janus threw her skeletal hand forward with a wry expression. “Psshaw, that’s a daily occurrence for me.”

May gestured at Nick who simply muttered to himself. “Big eye. Big brown eye.”

“No, I mean him,” May said, slowly backing away. “And why isn’t he wearing any pants?”

Janus giggled with dark humor. “"Let's just say, there were a few sights that scared the pants off him."

Mena and Janus then explained to a confused May about the lost souls of the girls, the Evil Eyeball Void of Doom, and their creepy encounter with Penwell.”

“Oh m-m-mummy,” May shivered. “That could’ve been me. Why would Penwell do such a thing?”

Mena did not answer. Her shoulders shuddered as she looked at the blacked-out windows of Love Ink. She heard crying off in the distance again.

***

The trio bid Nick farewell who was so catatonic he could barely tell them goodbye. Whatever he saw in that void, Mena thought, it must have been horrifying. Everyone insisted he get some bed rest while Mena and Janus worked the graveyard shift again.

This time, they had been reduced to dishwashers since the livid sous chef would not let their “greasy child hands” anywhere near the food.

Afterwards they suited up in their frilly maid outfits, and as they dusted the lobby, they were met with an unexpected visitor. Dressed in a snow-white tuxedo with a blood red tie decorated in Clearmind Insignias, a freshly permed hair-cut and dashing good looks to burn, a revitalized Nick Clearmind stood in the doorway.

As soon as she saw him, Mena’s heart pounded in her chest as a pink streak traveled from cheek to cheek. “Hubba hubba!“ she exclaimed with her hands to her chest. “It’s a good thing I’m wearing a maid outfit because I might need to clean up my dirty thoughts later.”

A shock from the ring coursed through her veins, causing her feather duster to frizz and smoke.

“Never mind your racy teenage puns,” Nick exclaimed leaning on the doorway with a bedside manner. “Mena, how would you like to meet my father?”