The carriage leaves the hallway and enters into a rectangular library with dim lights and filled with floor-to-ceiling shelves, each lined with hundreds of books. The Ghost Host speaks. "Our library is well stocked with priceless first editions, only ghost stories, of course, and marble busts of the greatest ghostwriters the literary world has ever known. They have all retired here to the Haunted Mansion. Actually, we have 999 Happy Haunts here, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers, hmm?" The Ghost Host taunts me again with joining the abundance of ghosts already here. I ignore him and continue being fascinated with the mansion's impressive library.
Phantom hands pull books from the shelves. An empty chair rocks gently back and forth, and a ladder slides to and fro as an unseen force searches for a good read. With hundreds of books to choose from, I understand the frustration. Among the shelves, marble busts of long-dead ghostwriters glare at me as I move along in the carriage.
After the library, I enter a music room. Fantastically played piano music fills the air, making the chills warmer. I want to know who the player is but, when I look at the dusty piano seat, no one is there. I gaze up at the piano keys and they're playing by themselves, I think. My eyes follow the moonlight shining through the window and notice the shadow of the invisible pianist cast upon the floor. The pianist continues pounding the keys as I move away.
The pianist's music follows and grasps for my ears as I traverse onto the grand staircase. This part of the mansion appears to be a void in which the weirdness I already have endured is multiplied by thirteen. This room doesn't just contain a single staircase, but multiple staircases, going in tens of different directions. Right-side up, upside-down, sideways, slantways, longways, backways, frontways, squareways, and any other ways I couldn't figure out. I don't know how, but green light emitted the space, adding to the eerie Bermuda-like atmosphere. The carriage slowly moves forward, letting me fully take in the strange view. I see the ectoplasmic footprints of the mansion's undead residents. And in the background, in the blackness, the wallpaper has demonic eyes, and it was watching my every move. The Ghost Host intrudes. "If you should decide to join us, final arrangements may be made at the end of the tour." My carriage reaches the second floor and my ghostly tour continues.
YOU ARE READING
The Haunted Mansion
Horror"When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls... Whenever candlelights flicker, where the air is deathly still... That is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish de...
