Last night, to communicate with ghosts they believe are haunting Shiver Mansion, IGEBM, Si, and Storm held a séance. Unfortunately, something went wrong, and evil spirits were unleashed onto the island.

IGEBM, hoping to take his mind off of the events of the previous night, puts on his hoodie and goes for an evening walk in the woods as the sun goes down. He passes by the shack Si found earlier, where they discovered ectoplasm, and hears someone whistling nearby. "Hello?" he asks. "Anyone out there?" He turns right, towards the source of the sound, and finds an elderly man with long gray hair and a long gray beard, around the same height as him, clad in a purple coat and torn dark purple shorts, leaning against a tree. "Are you real?" he asks, seeing IGE. "Uh... yeah?" IGE responds. "Why do you ask?" The man picks up a wooden crook next to him and slowly stands up. "You're the first PMCer I've seen in 12 years!" he cheers.

"You've been here, without human interaction, for 13 years?" IGE asks, surprised. "Yep." the hermit sighs. "Do you have any food? I've been surviving on nuts for 12 years, but I have hankering for meat." "Uh, lemme see." IGE says, digging into his pockets. He pulls out a pack of M&Ms. "No meat, but here's some M&Ms." He hands the pack to the hermit. "I can go back to the mansion and get something else, if you want." he says. The hermit nods as he opens the pack and shakes a few M&Ms into his hand. "Thanks, by the way." he says, clearly very happy. IGE runs back to the mansion.

He walks inside and goes to the kitchen, opening the freezer and taking out a container of microwavable Nugget Factory chicken nuggets, which he puts onto a plate and microwaves for 2 minutes. Once it finishes, he takes the plate out and makes his way back to the hermit, covering it from the rain with his sweater. "Here you go." he says, showing him the plate when he arrives. The hermit has finished his M&Ms and takes the plate out of IGE's hand, eating the chicken nuggets with his hand. "I was gonna go back and get a fork since I just realized I forgot it, but okay." IGE says. "Did you say you went back to a mansion?" the hermit asks. "Shiver Mansion, on the north end." IGE responds with a nod. "Lemme tell you a story." the hermit says. He sits down on the grass and eats his nuggets, joined by IGE.

"12 years ago, on October 1st, 2011, I was invited to stay at that mansion by Mr. Shiver." he begins. "I went to Pier 6, was met by the ferryman at 6:06 PM, and he took me to this island. I waited for him to come back on the 31st, but he never did, and during those last few days, I felt like someone - or something - was watching me. I've been on my guard, hiding in these woods from whatever it was." "So you're saying the ferryman never came to bring you back?" IGE asks. "Precisely." the hermit answers. "You should've never come here. As long as you stay safe, and watch your back, you should be okay. Who knows, maybe the ferryman will come back this year." "Me and my friends'll play it safe until the 31st." IGE says. "If he's not here, then we'll find our own way off this island, and you're coming with us." "There are others?" the hermit asks. "Yeah, want me to go get them?" IGE asks. "Sure." the hermit responds. "I'd love to meet more people."

IGE runs back to the mansion again, and he goes up to the library, where he finds Si and Storm reading. "Guys, I was walking through the woods today and I met a hermit who's been on the island for 12 years." he says. "Come on, I want to introduce you. I have some stuff to explain to you on the way." "Um, okay." Si says, putting a bookmark in his book and leaving it on the table. Storm does the same, and they get up and follow IGE downstairs, outside, and through the woods. It is now dark outside, and the moon is up. When they get to the spot where the hermit was, all that's there is the plate, with some chicken nugget crumbs on it, the empty pack of M&Ms, and his crook lying in a puddle of glowing red goop. "Where is he?" Storm asks. "I have a bad feeling about this, especially after everything he told me..." IGE says, nervous. "That has to be ectoplasm." He points at the goop. "Maybe one of the evil ghosts took him." Si says. "Let's just head home before we disappear too." The trio run home.

TOMORROW - "DISAPPEARANCES!"

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Cast (in order of appearance)
IGEBM as IGEBM
The Hermit
LegendarySi as Si
Stormy as Storm

Mentioned (in order of mentioning)
Mr. Shiver
The Ferryman

Writing began 9-25-2023 at 11:19 AM EDT
Writing completed 9-25-2023 at 12:03 PM EDT
Published 10-8-2023 at 5:00 PM EDT
Written by IGEBM
Cover art by IGEBM

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Fun Fact (About the Hermit)!

I wanted to make this character EccentricEremite, but due to my lore rules about killing characters based on PMCers (they can only be killed if the PMCer they're supposed to be leaves the site) and the Hermit's fate, I couldn't. However, I based his design (shown on the cover) on Eremite's current profile picture a little bit.

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People I'm Tagging So They Can See This
Zibonzi, ShadowZibonzi, Firestar2477278, DarkIce8727742, Aspirin60, GhostlyBit_57, Silabear, Rob333, DarkRob333, TheMcPig, violiie, Greief, Sp3nc3r_, Rakkitatoru, LeLovesJazz, CrownDeluxe, AxolotlArmy, BigFatPotat, ShadowOnTheLoose, WhisperOfTheWild, The Last Kirbalorian, Purpl3_, Elightin_elytra, GoldenScientist, Guts N Pixels, ghostoftheglade, EccentricEremite