Chapter Forty-Six

In Stage 10, Holland and Adam open the chained book only to find it hollowed out with a single yellow pencil inside. Convinced the hunt cannot end there, Holland experiments with the pencil, but nothing appears; the lock Gabe used seems to have been the only magic.

Holland remembers a mysterious call from the coffin and checks her phone. A voicemail from the Professor reveals Gabe shared Holland’s number and that the Professor knows about Holland’s alarming bleeding. The Professor claims she can save Holland if Holland brings her the Alchemical Heart to the Hollywood Roosevelt Halloween Ball that night. Adam urges distrust, but Holland is tempted as time is running out.

Looking for a better lead, Holland studies her late father’s screenplay pages and spots notes written in pencil: “My neighbor next door?” and, on another page, “Be certain you’re going in the right direction before you dig in.” She and Adam interpret this as guidance to dig for a buried clue.

They leave Stage 10 with a shovel and drive the empty backlot to the JME My Neighbor Next Door houses. Under eerie lamplight, everything looks the same, complicating their search. Re-reading the pages, Holland finds a detailed bowling-alley scene with an extraneous note about a woman needlepointing a yellow house. Recognizing it as a signal, Holland identifies the show’s famous yellow house—the one with the wooden swing—as the spot to dig next.