The Haunted Mansion

The Ghostly Party

The three of us pressed onward, Climbed up a staircase and through a doorway. We could hear music and chatter coming from the other end of the passageway.

"Oh boy," Zeke said. "I wonder what the heck we're gonna run into next."

We walked from the dark passageway and opened the door onto a balcony overlooking a grand hall. What we saw next, words from our own mouths could not describe alone.

There were ghosts everywhere.

"Woah!" I shouted. "Guys, word alone cannot describe this."

Everyone was gathered around for a birthday party unlike any I'd ever seen before. One of the strangest parties we had ever seen. Some ghosts were coming in through the walls as if arriving as party guests. Several ghosts were gathered around the long dining table covered with rotten food and decayed flowers and plants. Cobwebs were all over it.

When the ghostly birthday guest blew out the candles on the cake, all the other ghosts disappeared and then reappeared whenever she inhaled again.

Right near a fireplace, sat an elderly woman in a rocking chair.

A few ghosts were above them playfully drunk dangling on the chandelier. On the other end, across the way, there were two portraits of gentlemen with their backs turned to each other, each one having a pistol in their hands. The ghostly specters of these two men appeared every few seconds from within the paintings and turned around firing their shots at each other.

Directly below them were a group of ghostly couples waltzing to the refrain played from the pipe organ as the organist played away performing the tune echoing across the room.

"Well, this is one hell of a party," I said. I turned to Zeke. "Seems like your kind, huh, Zeke?"

"Are you crazy?!" He shrieked. "I said famous people, not scary peoples! Why did we ever come in this house?!"

"Well, if anything, you never know, I could make a book about this," I said. "You think it would scare the kids?"

"Forget the kids, man," Zeke said. "There is stuff here that would give the parents nightmares."

Zeke began to grimace and groan. With a brief shriek he sped off down the balcony. Liberty and I chased after him.

Zeke opened the door and entered the doorway as we followed him.

We chased him until he was out of breath.

"So now you believe in the paranormal, Zeke?" I asked.

"All my life I never believed it to be real. Any of it. Just stories made up to frighten children," He confessed. "I was afraid of them when I was young. But my father....he never believed any of it himself."

"But we've known each other since we were kids in school," I told him. "You must've found me slightly odd for my interest in ghosts and the supernatural."

"I did, Thomas. A bit. But I was never one to judge. I remember you used to go on the ghost rides at the carnivals and fun parks and stuff. Those were your favorites. Bloodmere Manor, Gore Mansion, Hill House, tower of terror and so on."

"This is like a dream come true of a living nightmare though," I said. "All my life I waited and waited for a chance I could come in here. The first real haunted house of it's kind. All those times I spent at the amusement parks haunted houses have nothing on this."

"there's no way it could've been mere luck that the gate was unlocked," Liberty said. "It had to be something more."

"Maybe we'll find out soon enough," I said. "When we get out of here, Liberty. I never asked this before. But can you help me? My uncle Mike seeks to speak with the spirit of his late wife, Carol."

"I've never used my powers for much before as I knew very little of them," Liberty replied. "But maybe I can try it. Yes."

"Very well, But we need to get a move on. The longer we're here, the less chance we're gonna have of getting out alive."

"But I thought you wanted to see the ghosts. Now you want to leave?!" Zeke questioned.

"Well, I got what I wanted, but you heard what that Ghost host said. There's always Room for one more. And I don't want to be that number 1000. Not yet anyways."