So . . . at the close of the first summary I said the next would cover Parents' Weekend, but Pete had to work last Friday, so Parents' Weekend was moved up a week, and last session became the Weekend of Morbidity. Why's it called that? Read on!

(This exchange of letters revealed something else that will likely come up again in future sessions. Apparently Tyler didn't just have inadvertant sex with Mel Safford on the Night of Raging Lust; he is, in fact, in love with her, and very confused because he knows that won't last. Apparently, after their sexual encounter, in order to prevent anything further from happening between them, Tyler treated Mel with callous elitism, deliberately sending her running back to Ivan. The full story, however, is known only to the astute outside observer; Tyler told Jasmine these things without actually mentioning the name of the girl in question. So Ivan knows that Tyler and Mel had sex, and that Tyler declined to pursue things further because of his destined marriage. Jasmine knows just *how* Tyler prevented further complications, and that his feelings for some girl somewhere go far beyond mere attraction, but not that the girl in question is her roommate and Ivan's girlfriend.)

So anyway . . . the day after the exchange of letters (a Saturday), hanging out in the TV room for want of anything better to do, Tyler and Jasmine saw a news report on the death of local socialite Patricia McCabe Giovanni, Tyler's great-aunt. Sure enough, upon their return to Tyler's room his Aunt Nancy was there with that news and more. While the stated cause of death was a heart attack, the family knows that Great-Aunt Pat was healthy as a horse, and suspects her husband's family (note that name again). Most likely, Great-Aunt Pat was killed in retaliation for seeking to separate from her husband. The family, however, blames not the Giovannis but Pat's brother-in-law, Tyler's evil, evil grandfather Ryan, who had essentially sold his wife's sister to the vampire clan. After securing Tyler's agreement to attend the funeral the next day, Nancy tried to take the kids' minds off death by treating them to a movie.

The lack of morbid thoughts didn't last long, though. After Nancy left, Tyler called his mom and learned that she was finally making ready to move against her evil, evil father. Though his mom was pretty clear about keeping him out of that battle, Tyler knew that would have to change in the end. He had access to a secret weapon neither his mother nor his grandfather knew about -- the ghost of his Aunt Shannon, murdered as a child some thirty years before, who just might be able to turn the tide in the family showdown. Shannon would need a physical host to get into her father's presence without being detected, and Tyler was the only one who knew about her . . . so clearly he would have to be there. Besides, it was only proper that he, as an Elliot and a newly-minted Euthanatos, participate in bringing down justice on his grandfather's head. Tyler explained all these things to Jasmine (psyching himself up to make the pitch to his mom) and then entrusted her with a copy of his will, made all nice and legal by his mother's lawyers despite his young age. Needless to say, a morbid mood again descended upon the proceedings.

Things only got darker when the late Shannon Elliot herself popped up. Now that her sister was on the move against their father, it was imperative that she get to the bottom of something that had always puzzled her . . . the truth behind her mother's murder and her own. Officially, they had been dismembered by an axe-wielding maniac thirty years before, their assailant then being shot by young Ryan (Tyler's mom) in the incident which Awakened her. As with most bad things in the Elliot family, however, Shannon suspected that her evil, evil dad had been involved somehow.

So, the kids found themselves prodded by an over-eager child ghost onto a train to Ithaca, NY, where they would attempt to get a policeman to tell them the story of a grisly 30-year-old murder. As luck would have it, they came across the very man who had first investigated the case, and who had held onto the evidence despite its official closure. Once Tyler identified himself, the cop was only too eager to explain the mystery. One piece of eyewitness testimony had always been ignored in the official explanation of the case. Young Ryan Elliot had insisted at the time that when she discovered the bodies, she had uncovered her mother's face. But why would an axe murderer, otherwise so heedless of anything resembling common decency, cover his victim's face after mutilating her and her little girl? The cop hauled out a box containing the evidence he'd kept, showing the kids the axe, the gun that had felled the murderer, a bit of bloodstained lace from Shannon's nightgown, and (briefly) the crime scene photos themselves. Nothing helped to resolve the mystery, though, so the kids took their leave.

Outside, Shannon again began bugging Tyler, insisting that one piece of evidence might still remain: her father's journal, which he had always kept hidden beneath a loose floorboard in his study. Despite Tyler's argument that the house had long been inhabited by others and that the book (if it had ever existed) had surely been discarded, the ghost insisted that they have a look before leaving. Opening her laptop and working some computational magick, Jasmine took the group on a virtual 3-D tour of the house . . . and sure enough, there *was* an old book just where Shannon had said it would be hidden. Jasmine, having just looked at a picture of dismembered corpses and beginning to have Blair Witch flashbacks, was none too eager to follow up, but after ascertaining that the house was empty, she finally agreed to blip herself in and retrieve the thing. And so it was done.

On the train back, Tyler and Jasmine pored over the journal. They discovered that the elder Ryan Elliot had truly loved his wife, perhaps the only thing he had ever really cared for besides power. And that was exactly what had doomed the poor woman and her innocent daughter. Already on the dark path and realizing that his attachment to his wife was an emotional vulnerability he could no longer tolerate, he had killed her personally (and covered her face) before arranging for the axe-wielding maniac to cover the crime by mutilating the bodies.

Tyler resolved to give his mother the journal (better to have no surprises waiting for her when she goes to confront her father), and resolved doubly to be present at the old bastard's downfall. And so the kids returned to school and sneaked back into their rooms, eager to sleep away thoughts of death and gore . . . only to remember that there's a funeral the next day.

There. Now, *next* session will be Parents' Weekend. . . .