The group spread out. Matt went over to the nearest box and opened the top, afraid of what might be inside, but luckily there were no clowns or spiders to be found in the box. Instead, there were stacks of old photographs, many of them black and white. Distracted, Matt looked through a few—most of them showing a sweet old couple in various rooms in the house, smiling and laughing. In the photographs, the house looked significantly less creepy than it did now, tidy and cozy, the windows letting in much more sunlight than they currently did, caked over with filth.

Matt remembered the ghost story from the mad libs puzzle, and goose bumps rose over his arms, making the hairs stand on end. If the story had been made up, then why were there photos of people that were like what the story described?

There’s no such thing as ghosts, he had to remind himself.

Meanwhile, Danny went from person to person, filming their searching efforts before moving on, finally landing at the quieted jack-in-the-box. “Where did the Game Master even get this thing?” he asked, making sure to sweep the lens to cover every inch of the deranged clown. With the light on his camera still on, he bent over the edge of the box to try to get a shot of the inside. “Hey, there’s something in here!”

They all rushed over. Matt watched as Becca took a deep breath before plunging her arm into the darkness of the box. When she pulled it back out, there was a green envelope in her hand.

“Got it!” Becca turned the envelope over.

On the front of the it, everyone’s names were written right in a row—Becca, Matt, Kylie, Miguel, Danny, Frankie. Matt couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief that it wasn’t only his name on the envelope.

“Well done, Danny!” he said. “Who knows how long we would have searched if you hadn’t thought to look inside the clown box.”

“For real,” Becca said, turning the envelope over to open it. “And let’s all agree to never repeat the words clown box ever again, shall we?”

Matt had to laugh at that. He made a mental note to never let Becca forget about the clown box.

Becca removed two index cards from the envelope. Matt could see from where he was standing that each card had a question scrawled over it, in the same handwriting that had been used to write their names.

“What do they say?” Kylie asked, and Becca turned them so everybody could see.

The first card read, What is the biggest ant in the world?

The second card read, What has bark but no bite?

Matt released a breath that he hadn’t even realized he was holding. Another clue given without inquiring about his worst fear. He started to feel a little less nervous than he had before.