“Thank you,” Luna said, packing up their presents. “I haven’t seen it, so I don’t know if it’s true, but Nicole said every door in the Holiday Wing opened except for the white door. The recipe starts with ‘Preheat oven to 314 degrees.’ Serve scrambled atop a pie on a cloudy white day. Three-one-four is pi. It’s a pun. So maybe Pi Day is the white door in the Holiday Wing.” She covered her mouth with her hands, eyes wide as she waited for him to react.

“Soooo,” Alex said, “White Day is March fourteenth in Asia. It’s like reverse Valentine’s Day. If someone you like gives you a present on Valentine’s Day, you’re supposed to give them chocolates on White Day.”

“No.”

“Yeah. It’s a thing. Watch enough slice-of-life anime and stuff starts to stick,” Alex said while searching for the Holiday Wing.

“That’s not what I mean!” Luna said. “In the announcement video, Jewel said it was White Day! She asked if she should give us chocolate or something else. She posted the video on March fourteenth—I was right! Everything really is connected!”

The familiar line of dots marked out the trail using the secret passageways until it forced them to exit out of another crawl space. Once upright they stood next to a door with HALLOWEEN engraved onto a small pumpkin-shaped plaque and affixed to the center of the door.

At the end of the hall, facing out, the white door waited for them. No knobs, no handle, no key code. WHITE DAY had been engraved onto a shiny crown-shaped plaque.

There were six empty squares below the crown.

“I guess this is where we use the tiles,” Luna said. “What word should we try first?”

“Stella said four anagrams,” he reminded her while dumping the tiles in his hand. “SIGNER, RESIGN, SINGER. And cursed or not, a crown REIGNS. I think that’s what Stella was trying to say. Cards on the table—a wild royal flush must reign too.”

“You’re a genius, and I love you.” She took the tiles from him and placed them into the slots, one at a time. The door unlocked with an audible click and began to drift open. “You and me.”

“Me and you.”

“And me,” a voice said.

THE END

Nicole knew Stella stood next to her. A wall at their backs and masks over their heads, the surprisingly tender “Harlow, please. Stop crying” gave her away.

There were others in the room. Feet shuffling against the floor as they walked around. Whispering. Heavy items being dragged, judging by the high-pitched scraping sound. Nicole inhaled, concentrating on the feel of her lungs filling and chest expanding, and exhaled for as long as she could until the tightness begged for more air.