Starfall Point 1
Molly Harper
1. Riley has been living in Florida with her father after her mom died. She got a mysterious letter saying her mom’s sister, Norma, wanted to meet her. After doing some research to make sure the request is legitimate, Riley makes the trek up north to find her aunt. She is on a ferry getting sick when she meets April who had been waiting a while for the bathroom. They bond while Riley bangs on the bathroom door yelling at whoever is inside to be more considerate of the other people that need the restroom. When a man comes out looking unwell and scolds her, she throws up all over his shoes. When Apricot l comes out of the bathroom, Riley goes in and April holds her hair back while she vomits. When they finally make it to solid land, April asks who she is supposed to meet. Riley tells her it is … , who April knows and says he isn’t there. They head to a coffee shops and April introduces Riley to the owner … and a bartender C that just got off of a double shift of dealing with drinks. C and Riley shake hands and everything seems to go haywire. The expresso machine blows, the door flies open, a few lightbulbs burst. Riley helps with cleanup and the women bond. … comes in and Riley can tell he has bad news.
2. Edison was on the ferry coming back from giving a speech. The captain usually puts an “out of order” sign on one of the two bathroom doors so he can hide from the water when he does have to use the ferry. When he came out of the bathroom, he saw it was moved to the other door (he assumes by the school children). Now he is at the library/post office where he is the head librarian. His senior volunteer, Margaret, tells him Mrs. Dutton’s niece has come to town and he should bring her flowers and grovel as quickly as possible. He has been wanting Mrs. Dutton to open up her house, the Shadows, for tours for a long time, but she always sends him away empty handed. He goes down to the law office and all old women in town that normally like him are glaring at him. He arrives at the lawyer’s office where he find out Riley is Mrs. Dutton’s niece. She is still furious over his hogging the bathroom on the ferry. The receptionist tells him to give her a few days to cool down before he tries talking to her.
3. Riley is a bit upset with herself for her reaction to Edison, but continues on with her business with Clark. He has taken care of Nora’s memorial arrangements (cremated and will be scattered where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet). He hands her a letter and tells her Aunt Nora has explained everything in the letter that needs to be opened on the doorsteps of the Shadow House so they make their way there. Clark hands Riley a key, but it doesn’t seem to work in the door. She opens the letter and finds a disk inside. She uses it on the door knob and it pricks her thumb before the door opens. They walk inside, but Clark starts feeling sick and has to leave almost immediately. Riley reads the note. It apologizes for tricking her into a blood contract with the door knob to become the stewardess of the house. She cannot leave or quit the job. She then writes that … will help her get acquainted with the house. She wonders if it is all a joke, when she hears someone behind her telling her where the mail goes. She turns to see a ghost in the hallway with her.
4. Clover explains that he is the intermediary between her and the dead. The stewardess of the Shadow House has the responsibility of helping the dead transition. She doesn’t believe he really is a ghost and puts her hand through him until he tells her to stop because it is very uncomfortable. They go to the office and he tells her to reach into a statue gargoyles mouth to push the tongue back. A drawer pops out to provide her with the key to her desk that contains Nora’s journals. Completely shocked by what she is learning, she asks Clover how many ghosts are in the house and he tells her there are over 2000. The ghosts are not attached to the house, but to the objects in it. She falls into a large fountain and sees a woman who is planning to elope being stopped by her brother. Natalie, another ghost, writes “hi” on the whiteboard she haunts. Clover tells her the Dutton family has always been able to see ghosts. She realizes she had seen them when she was younger and it was probably why they moved houses. Her mom would have tried to get them to leave, but having denied her abilities, the ghosts wouldn’t have been on friendly terms with her. She asks if she is able to leave the house. Clover tells her she is able, but it will be uncomfortable when she does. She asks why she was given the job. He tells her the job belongs to her family though she is allowed to find people to help her. Clover says ghosts generally have trouble controlling objects, but can affect humans, so she will need to be careful. He tells her to find the Codex (the master list of objects) and read the journals. She puts the Dutton coin on her necklace and threatens any creepy toys or other objects that scare her will go in a trash compactor.
5. Edison was from a rich family in California. His parents weren’t happy with his decision to study library sciences in college or that he went back for multiple degrees, but figured he would do something they considered useful eventually. He found a beautiful smart girl and they were engaged, but she died and he left. His parents rarely come to visit him. Edison’s assistant, Andy, is a 19 year-old, but they have a lot in common. While Edison struggles to find a way to properly apologize to Riley, Andy suggests he give her something no one else can. Edison jokingly says a library card, but Andy points out it is their best source of entertainment on the island. Edison gets to thinking.
6. Clover helps Riley find a proper room for her to sleep in noting that ghosts are kept out of the bedrooms. Riley starts reading the journals and finds the Dutton family started as mediums back in Europe. As their powers grew, they would banish ghosts from objects or help them move on. They would then sell the objects and amassed a fortune. They came to America and the island of Star Point called to them. They built and rebuilt the house several times and made up the Shadow family as their employers. Nora had written about how her sister Emily had given up her magic to leave and didn’t want her kids to have that kind of life. Riley calls her dad, who says her half siblings (his kids) are starting to visit him again (because she and her mother are gone). She tells him she is learning a lot about her mom and he tells her she should come home. She tells him she will stay a while and he decides she will get bored soon and come home. Riley goes to leave and sees markings on the door from someone trying to break in. Clover says he will ask around and see if anyone saw anything. Riley goes to the coffee shop where Caroline is at the counter drinking the coffee and Petra is behind the counter. Petra’s brother Iggy, the baker, is there as well. Riley has a feeling that Caroline and April are supposed to be at the Shadow house with her. She asks about April and Caroline says she doesn’t get out much and is hard to get to know. Looking out the window, Riley sees Edison staring at her, but he takes off. She goes back home and finds him on her porch waiting for her with a gift basket. He apologizes and so does she. He promises not to be nice to her just to get access to the house. He hands her a package where the post lady has hidden it to keep the porch pirates away. Riley goes to put the package and basket inside, but a ghost pops out of the package. Cover appears and Edison faints from seeing a ghost. He lands halfway inside the house. Riley drags him inside. She feels like Edison wasn’t the one trying to break in to steal haunted objects. She uses magic for the first time to draw the ghost back to his box of silverware.
7. Edison wakes up in Riley’s lap and waits a few minutes before opening his eyes. He can tell she is stressed out and worried . He reaches up to her face and kisses her. She invites him to the kitchen for tea and they go together. She warns him not to touch anything because she doesn’t know what all is haunted. He apologizes for kissing her and she blames it on low blood sugar due to ghost encounter. The start talking about their lives and she asks why he is afraid of the ferry. He tells her about his fiancé dying in a boating accident. She tells him about her mom being hard to get to know and dying recently. He feels bad for all the mean things he said about Nora now that he knows why she didn’t let people in the house. When he gets back to shelving at the library, Andy asks him questions about Riley and the house. The old ladies of town have been gossiping already. Clark comes in to try to make it sound like he and Riley have more of a relationship than they actually do. He gets under Edison’s skin a bit.
8. Riley researches Edison a bit on the internet before going to bed. She feels guilty about kissing him after learning about his fiancé’s death. She wakes up in the middle of the night to a pounding sound. She uses the arrows she taped to the ground to find her way downstairs and to a window. A person in latex gloves and a hoodie is trying to break into her house through the window. She calls the police and an officer arrives by bike in a few minutes. He tells her locals and tourists alike are itching to get into the house and she’ll have to get used to it. He gives her his number and tells her to call him if anything else happens. Riley cannot go back to sleep. So she goes back to reading the journals. She finds that the Dutton family were decided to join forces with the Westing family to try to help the dead by building Shadow House. The Westing family had to take out loans to accomplish this. It turns out the Westing family had the intention of trapping spirits instead of helping them. So they planted binding spells hidden in the construction of the house. When the Dutton family learned of their nefarious plans, they ceased partnership with them. They bought their bank and called in the Westing’a loans. The family disappeared, but are still around somewhere. The Duttons gave out generous loans to build up the island. After a few generations, the locals completely forgot that the Duttons were anything more than the Shadow’s employees. Riley starts wondering what to do with Nora’s ashes that were delivered when she can’t leave the house for very long. Caroline comes over with coffee and says she felt like she was supposed to be there that morning. She returns an old book Nora had leant her. Riley asks her to go to April’s antique shop with her. When they get there, Riley gives April a box to fix. April mentions her grandparents only want items that are in perfect condition, so she heats up her own workshop while they are away to fix things (otherwise they wouldn’t my have any inventory). April is able to get the box open and Riley notices a pair of tailoring shears that are haunted. April says Nora sold them to her grandparents and she felt compelled to hold onto them. When Riley holds them, a life ghost named Bobby comes out and hits on Caroline. Riley starts to draw him back the scissors and when Caroline touches her arm, it help. She tells April to join them and she does. They all make the symbol to bind him and he goes back into the scissors. Riley asks to take the scissors back to her house to contain the ghost, but April freaks out about what her grandparents would do if they lost the one thing they had from the Shadow house. She asks them to leave. As they walk back down the street, Riley sees a ghost in a blue dress. Caroline sees her too and they go to talk to her. She says her name is Abigai. Riley asks if there is anything they can do for her. Abigail says she doesn’t have time for their amateur witchcraft. Riley offends her by pointing out she has nothing but time.
9. Edison reads up on ghosts, but hides his Ghosts for Idiots book inside the dust jacket of A Tale of Two Cities. He hides the book when Riley arrives. They start flirting, and she sees the book. She opens it up and promises to get him a better book from the house library to help him learn. They decide to go for ice cream. The shops on the island are all locally owned because the community tries to avoid chain stores. They go into an old fashioned ice cream shop. The lady behind the counter, Rita, asks Edison if he wants his usual Superman flavor. He says yes, feeling a bit embarrassed about the childish preference. After sampling a few flavors, Riley decides on the purple house special. They talk some more and he asks about her fiancé, Ted. She tells him the relationship wasn’t great, but she was desperate for family. The worst part was losing his family who had seemed to accept her, but dropped all contact within a week of the breakup. He tells her he wants to date her and they make it official. He walks her home and they kiss on the porch knowing the rumors will spread quick enough.
10. There is a griffon statue in the atrium. She uses the falic shaped object found in the box Alice was able to open to open it. She finds a book inside and is relieved to find it is the Codex. Caroline arrives and says she could sense Riley wanted to talk to her. She explains she has never left the island for more than a day because people in her family that do, tend to come to an untimely death. She had interviewed for college and gotten in, but a bus bumper grazed her jeans and she went back to the island. She has taken online courses, but hasn’t really been able to leave the island since. April shows up begging Riley to take the shears from her. When all three women enter the house, a wave of energy goes through the place. Alice is shocked into dropping the box with the shears and Bobby pops out. He is scared back to his shears when a dark ghost slithers along the ceiling. Riley saw it the night of the attempted break-in as well. She asks Clover about it, but he says he doesn’t know what it is. He suggests they put the shears in a special cabinet Nora had for containing especially dangerous or annoying ghosts. Riley puts them in there. They start talking about Abigail and Alice tells them the story of how she worked for the realtor in town. The old woman would make Abigail take off her engagement ring to draw in male customers. One night while celebrating a sale, Abigail tripped down the stairs while carrying a tray of champagne in glasses. The glasses broke and stabbed her in the throat. She bled out in the office. They decide Riley will to go to the office under the pretense of potentially selling the Shadow House. Riley pretends to lose her scarf and while the old realtor looks for it, Abigail shows her where the ring is hidden in her desk. Riley is able to get it and the. Reveals the scarf is in her bag. The inspiration in the ring says it was from Dutch. Abigail said he was a junior and hated his name, so she gave him the nickname. Caroline recognizes the name and they go to his house. They say the ring came into the shop and April felt it needed to be returned. He takes the ring and closes the door before he starts crying. Abigail is able to move on and the three witches make a symbol to help her. Riley says she is grateful she has them to help her. They go for a drink.
11. Edison does what he can to help Riley with her duties as stewardess of the Shadow House. Riley is not happy with Bobby there. Nora had passed the haunted object on to April to test her powers. Riley wonders about banishing spirits. Clover tells her she is doing well and to continue following the instructions in the journals. Riley offers to help Clover move on, but he insists he likes the work. Edison touches Riley and Clover is not happy with their flirty behavior. He questions if his dead fiancé is a ghost somewhere, but Riley says it is just as likely she moved on. She offers to slow down their relationship, but he insists he wants to go forward with it. A few days later, they were going to The Rose to get a drink with Caroline, but end up deciding to have sex instead. They go to the library and have sex in his office. His parents call and he tells them he is seeing someone. They insist he stop wasting his life there. He explains he likes his life and they have not even seen how he lives. They decide they will come out to visit and inevitably help him start packing.
12. Riley’s coven continues to work on helping ghosts move on by completeing their strange requests. The codex hasn’t been much help. They find ghosts that are willing to go, but not in it. Riley records the story of each ghost they help move on. They consider banishing a ghost, but are unsure what happens to the ghost if they do. Caroline suggests Bobby. Bobby appears and gets angry at the idea. He flings his scissors at Riley and cuts just below her throat. They banish him together. They get a haunted supply hit and Caroline and Alice help her clean it up. Edison arrives and Riley doesn’t want to tell him about it, but her friends point out she has a giant bandage on her neck.
13. Edison is freaked out by the scissor incident. He is worried about losing her. He also worries about the codex items not being found. Alice notices the desk has six legs, which is odd for the style. There is a false one with a note in it. Nora says the codex is fake. She couldn’t keep everything in one place. The false one was to get her to know the island and the people who should help her. Riley gets angry about her time being wasted. Edison tries to get a Riley to calm down and suggests she focus on something else. He thinks she should get a job outside of the house and the. Free the ghosts in her spare time. He points out that Nora had a more passive approach to the job. Riley and the girls are taken aback. They try to tell him that he doesn’t really see what all they do there. He counters that Riley will burn herself out and get bored, but she won’t be able to move onto something else. She is stuck there. Riley says she is scared, but she can’t just give up and hide like he does. Edison stirms iut wishing he could go back and apologize. He ends up out front of The Rose with Andy. The kid is sad about the approaching holidays without his deceased mother and Edison agrees to sit and talk with him.
14. Riley runs her fingers along the picture games in the hall. She stops at one and notices stone sin the moonlight which was a lot like the book Caroline returned. Something ripples behind the wall. She focuses on it and pulls it out of the wall. She finds one of the locks with the strange symbol in it. She finds a note with the ceremonial object from Nora. She tells her this was the first one they found. She is counting on her to find eight more and figure out how to destroy them. She isn’t sure what to do . Caroline and Alice arrive because they could feel she needed them. The door was locked, but the house let them in. She shows them the ghost lock and explains what they have to do. A dandelion dress floats out. Her mom, Ellen, is in it. Ellen says she stayed hidden to keep from distracting her. She tells Riley she is good at giving people what they need. She is proud of her and ready to move on. Riley isnmt ready for her to go. Ellen was trying to protect her from all of it, including her own emotions. Riley says she feels like she belongs there. Ellen says that is why she is ready to go. Riley asks if her dad knows. She says she chose him because he didn’t know and was a man of science. She promises to be out there listening. Alice asks if she needs help leaving. Ellen says he wasn’t tied by an object, but resentments. She goes and the girls try to comfort Riley. Riley misses Edison and finds it hard to focus on her work. She goes for a walk. Margaret stops her to yell at her for chasing Edison off. He interviewed for a job in Boston. She says he is staying at a motel by the airport and she should go stop him. Riley goes to the Rose to find Caroline and Alice talking about her. They convince her she isn’t destined to be alone, she just tried to dump Edison before she could get hurt. Caroline has the nana grapevine send people over to get someone to take Riley over the frozen lake. Dutch offers saying he owes her.
15. Dutch takes Riley across the lake on a snow mobile. As soon as she steps on land, she feels off. She goes to the motel he is staying at and a ghost points her to his door. She knocks and he opens the door. She apologizes and says he would be better off without her. He admits he was afraid of losing her, and pushed her away. He pulls her close. She tells him he has people that care for him now. She tells him she will support him if he feels he need to go to Boston. He laughs and says he was just going to a conference in Green Bay. They get back in the island and to the house. All the lights are on, which worries them. Caroline and Alice come up to the road to meet them. They all wonder who is inside. The go around the back and find a hooded figure in latex gloves in the parlor. She sees he has two of the a Welling locks out of the floor. Alice suggests they give him an object with a hostile ghost that might chase him away. Riley goes in the kitchen door and Clover says he is hidden from the intruder, but he can feel him. Riley uses the white board to tell him to gather friendly ghosts that will help them. She grabs an object and heads towards the man. She tells Edison to hide in the pantry. She finds Nora’s urn smashed on the floor and Riley is pissed. Kyle is there and apologizes. He says the swellings told him they would help him talk to his mother again. Clover appears and tells Kyle he has a message from the spirits of the house. He tells Kyle to get out. The match girl lights a box of matches and dumps it on his head. Charles launches his silverware at him. Kyle says he just wants to take the bricks and leave. He threatens to slit Edison’s throat to be able to talk to his mom again. The ceiling ghost slithers across the ceiling and starts unscrewing the chandelier. Riley tries to get Kyle out from under it. The three girls try to banish it, but don’t have any luck. The chandelier drops on Kyle and he drops to the floor in a bloody mess. He throws his map of the locks into the fire. A haze starts to lift from his body and they have to banish him to keep him from letting the Wellings in and hurting even more people. They have to allow the police in and the ghosts are scarce. They say Kyle had broken in to steal antiques. Kyle is taken away and Edison realizes he will have to make all of his funeral arrangements since he doesn’t have any other family. Alice and Caroline ask about the ceiling ghost that seems to be able to control an object it isn’t attached to. Alice drags what is left of Kyle’s paper out of the fire. The letterhead matches Clark’s letterhead. Alice says Clark’s parents are from somewhere else. They find out the silver mail tray is Clover’s object. She promises to keep it around a long time because she likes having him around.
16. Natalie shows up by her whiteboard. She and Clover have been writing out a to do list and house rules. They are planning on Edison moving in with her. She isn’t sure they are ready for that step. Edison walks in and asks if he is moving in. Riley asks for some privacy and they discuss it. He thinks it makes sense for him to move in and suggests Alice could take his place to get her away from her grandparents shop. They use bankers boxes and wheelbarrows to move Edison’s things in. Caroline offers her clients $20 off their tab to help. Caroline and April surprise them with champagne to celebrate. Riley is shocked and throws an object out of instinct. Clover gasps and Riley uses her power to stop it from smashing.
EPILOGUE
Clark has been working for the Welling family for a long time. He has been too focused on the Shadow House too long. He uses his burner phone to talk to his boss and is told to fix it immediately.