When Sora and his friends finish helping Hollow Bastion from being covered in darkness, Sora, Donald, and Goofy visit Twilight Town once again to check up on their new friends. When they walk into the hideout, they notice that only Hayner and Olette are there. Hayner informs them that there is a new mystery about the town and that Pence is waiting to give them instructions about it over at the train station. The three of them nod their heads and go towards the station. This was a little exciting for them since they always like to help their friends during their journey.
At the train station, Pence waves to the trio and they walk up to him. "Hey. What's going on?" Sora asks. Pence responds "Well it looks like we've found a new mystery. It seems that there is another mansion that we didn't know about and it's supposed to be even more haunted. It sits in a dark swamp near one of the other ends of town. There are rumors about it and no one knows who the original owner was. Maybe you could help us find out more about this new place. You up for the challenge?" Sora nods his head and says "Sure! How do we get there?" Pence turns around and points to a green train that is standing in the back-left corner of the station. He lowers his arm and says "That will take you straight to your destination. When you return, come back to the hideout and let us know what happened." Pence turns around to look at the trio and says, "Good luck!" He then proceeds to exit the station.
Sora looks at the green train with confidence and says, "Maybe we could find Riku or Kairi there too." Donald puts his hands on his hips, looks at the young man with an annoyed face, and responds "But we may not find the king." Goofy pats Donald on the head and says "Cheer up, Donald! We're all in this together and who knows what we might find there." Sora looks over at his two friends saying "Goofy's right! We'll never know anything just by standing here. Let's go see what we can find." The three of them walk into the green train and the doors close behind them. It slowly moves out of the station and begins to move to its destination.
The green train soon concludes its ride at a train stop that looks to be abandoned. The only sounds they can hear are crickets chirping and an owl in the distance. The area around them is a little gloomy and the sky above is covered with dark clouds. One of the train doors open and Donald pokes his head out. He looks around and slowly walks out with the other two exiting behind him. Each of them have worried expressions on their faces. They notice a path next to the train stop and walk in that direction.
After walking along the path for a couple of minutes, they come across a tall closed gate that is standing about 20 feet away from an old white mansion. Sora, Donald, and Goofy look through the gate to see the large house surrounded by a swamp. Lighting flashes in the sky and the trio jump as they hear the quick sound of thunder. The young man takes in a deep breath and walks up the closed gate. He pushes the doors open and walks down a path leading to the front doors of the mansion with his friends following right behind him. Goofy and Donald still have worried expressions on their faces, but Sora's has now become more serious.
When they reach the front of the house, the three of them stand in front of the doors. Sora puts his right hand up as if he is about to knock, but then lowers his arm with a look of confusion. "Aren't you gonna open the door?" asks Goofy. Sora looks at him and responds "Well, this place is abandoned. Right? Who knows if someone still lives here?" Donald looks over at the young man with a teasing smile and asks, "Are you too scared to do it?" Sora responds to him with hesitation and replies "Me? Scared? No way! I'm just trying to be polite just in case-" His sentence gets cut off as they witness one of the doors open slowly. Donald lets out a little scream as he quickly jumps back behind Goofy. The three of them look at the open door and gulp in unison.
The trio proceeds to walk through the doorway and enter a fancy-looking room that appears to have not been cleaned for years. There is a lit chandelier hanging from the ceiling and parts of it are covered in spider webs. There is a mirror that is also covered in spider webs on one of the walls. The floors are made of wood that is still in perfect condition. Each of the walls have a yellowish-white wallpaper. There is a big brown closed doorway on two of the walls. The lighting in the room is not the best, but you can definitely see everything around you.
When the three of them enter, the door behind them quickly closes. They turn to face the closed doors in shock. The low voice of a man speaks to them in an eerie tone saying "When hinges creek in doorless chambers. When strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candle lights flicker where the air is deathly still. That is the time when ghosts are present. Practicing their terror with ghoulish delight!" Sora looks up at the ceiling and shouts "Who are you? Show yourself!" After that, one of the big doorways in the room open to reveal another room that looks to be a little bigger than the one they are currently in.
"Welcome foolish mortals to the haunted mansion! I am your host. Your 'ghost' host." says the mysterious low voice. "Did he just say 'haunted'?" Sora asks as he looks around. The lighting in the other room becomes brighter as the low voice continues "Kindly step all the way in please. I'm afraid there's no turning back now." The voice then lets out a soft chuckle. Goofy looks at the doorway to the other room saying "I guess we better do what he says if we need to learn more about this place." Sora and Donald nod their heads and the three of them proceed to walk through the doorway.
The next room is pretty tall and there is a painting on four of the eight walls. One painting shows a woman holding a flower, the second is a young lady with an umbrella, the third is a man with a hat, and the last one is a guy with a mustache. On each of the corners in the room near the paintings, there are statues of creepy gargoyles holding candles in their hands that are lit. When the three enter the room, the wooden doors slowly close behind them. They look at the paintings and the young man says, "I wonder if these are the people who used to own this place?"
After Sora's thought, the room starts to shake for a couple of seconds. When the shaking stops, the room begins to stretch. The paintings on the walls become longer and more things are revealed in the pictures. The lady with the umbrella is on a tightrope and a crocodile is looking up at her with its mouth open. The woman holding a flowing is sitting on a grave. The man with the mustache is in his underwear and standing on an explosive barrel. The man with the hat is sitting on the shoulders of another man who is also sitting on the shoulders of a third person that is in quicksand. The three have looks of fear on their faces while witnessing the stretched portraits. "Is this room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination? Hmm? And consider this dismaying observation! This chamber has no windows and no doors. Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Of course, there's always my way!" says the low voice.
When the room stops stretching and the low voice concludes its speech, some heartless begin to appear. "Heartless!" Goofy shouts as he summons his shield. The other two make their weapons appear and stand in fighting position. This leads into a short battle between the trio and the enemies that pop up out of nowhere. After the battle, everyone stays in fighting position and look around as they hear the low voice return saying "Oh I didn't mean to frighten you. The real chills come later. Now look alive and we'll continue our little tour."
One of the lower areas of the walls open to show a hallway. The three individuals put away their weapons and Donald shouts "Hey! Are you trying to kill us? What's going on?" The low voice responds "There are several ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here and there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?" The voice then lets out a loud laugh and continues "If you insist on lacking behind, you may not need to volunteer!" Sora looks at the view of the hallway and says "I think he's just trying to scare us. I wonder why the heartless are here though? Come on! Let's see if we can solve this mystery!" The three of them proceed to walk into the next area of the mansion.
The hallway has a couple of windows on the left side and some paintings on the right side. At the end of the hall, there are statues of people's heads that follow the movement of the guests. When lightning flashes from the windows, the paintings quickly show a different appearance than what they originally were. "As you gaze upon these priceless works of art, perhaps you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. It's only a trick of the light! The real beauty of this mansion awaits you further on!" says the low voice. When the three of them walk around the corner, they see a library that is dimly lit, and the book shelves are covered in spider webs. There is also a piano playing a haunting tune, but it seems to have no musician. The low voice once again speaks "Our library is well stocked with priceless first editions. Only ghost stories, of course. And marble busts of the greatest ghost writers the literary world has ever known."
As Sora, Donald, and Goofy go further down another hallway that is on the other side of the library, a floating lit candelabrum quickly flies right towards them. They jump to the side and watch it fly past them. "Gawrsh! This place is really starting to give me the spooks!" says Goofy. They continue walking and hear the mysterious voice say "We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly retreat. Every room has wall to wall creeps with hot and cold running chills. Shh! Listen!" There are then sounds of spooky voices screaming and saying things like "Let me out of here! Let me out!" The trio witness doors along both sides of the hallway begin to shake and doorknobs turning rapidly.
The low voice continues "All of our ghosts have been dying to meet you! Perhaps Madam Leota can establish contact. She has a remarkable head for materializing… the disembodied!" At the end of the hallway, a door opens to show a small room. It appears to a have been owned once by a gypsy. There are different kinds of charms around the floor and walls. A few musical instruments are scattered around the floor as well. In the center of the room, there is a table with a polished crystal ball. When they enter, the door quickly closes behind as the lights dim and the crystal ball starts to glow green. The head of a lady with long white hair appears inside the ball and looks at the three with an evil smile. Everyone jumps with surprise at the sight of a woman's grin.
The lady in the ball begins to look around the room and recites a spell that makes some of the objects in the room levitate. In the spell, she says "Serpents and spiders. Tail of a rat. Call in the spirits wherever they're at! Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween. Awaken the spirits with your tambourine! Creepies and crawlies. Toads in a pond. Let there be music from regions beyond! Wizards and witches wherever you dwell. Give us a hint by ringing a bell!" When her spell concludes, the sound of a small bell rings next to another door in the room that opens slowly. Madam Leota looks at the trio and her head quickly disappears from the crystal ball. All of the levitating objects slowly drop to the floor and the room is properly lit again. "That was weird!" Sora responds as he looks at the empty ball. Goofy turns to look at the open door saying "Ya know I bet ya that we might see who the residents are in there!"
They proceed to walk into what appears to be a dark dining area. The room is really big and has a long table that is properly set up for some kind of party. In the back area, there is a tall dusty organ with a couple of empty soft chairs near it. A big chandelier is hanging from the middle of the ceiling and covered in spider webs. On the right wall, there is a stairway that leads to a closed wooden door. Above the stairway, there are two paintings of men with top hats. An empty fireplace and rocking chair reside next to the open door.
"The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations and are beginning to materialize! They're assembling for a 'swinging' wake. They're also expecting me. I'll see you three a little later!" said the mysterious low voice. Sora looks up at the dark ceiling and shouts "Hey! Hold on! You're leaving us?" The door behind them slowly closes and all of the candles on the chandelier quickly light up while the organ begins to play a spooky melody. The fireplace and other candles in the room are lit as well. The trio once again jump in surprise as they witness the room quickly lighting up. "How many times is this place going to scare us like that?" asks Donald with a look of fear.
The sounds of laughter begin echoing from different places of the room. The ghost of a lady in a long dress appears in front of them and politely says "Good day to you. Care for a dance?" Donald lets out a scream and jumps onto Goofy's back while shaking in fear. Sora looks at the ghost and says "Uh… I need to rest my feet. We're actually on a tour of this place at the moment." The lady looks at him with a smile and says "Suit yourself!" She then flies away towards the empty floor in front of the organ and a bunch of more ghosts appear. There are four ladies (one of them being the lady that Sora talked to) and four gentlemen. They pair up and start to waltz to the spooky melody playing from the tall organ. A man with a top hat appears in front of the organ's keyboard revealing to be the one playing the spooky song. When he plays each note, a scary face of a ghost pops out of each pipe that is played.
As the music continues to play, more ghosts start to appear. There is an old lady sewing a blanket and sitting on the rocking chair in front of the lit fireplace. Another is a man standing on the chandelier with a cane that looks to be holding him as he swings his body to the organ's tune. A group of people are sitting around the long dining table. One of the men is a king and another is also a girl blowing out candles on a cake. Everyone looks like they are having fun as if it was just a normal party.
Sora looks around and says "You know what? I think these ghosts are just enjoying the fact that they have visitors." "Ya think so?" Goofy asks. Sora looks at the dog with confidence and replies "I'm positive! It looks like they just wanted to meet some new friends. That's all!" Donald stops shaking and jumps off of Goofy's back. "However, I wonder why they still live here?" asks Sora as he looks at the ghosts dancing near the organ. "What if this is just a vacation for them?" asks Donald. The young keyblade wielder looks at the man swinging on the chandelier and says "I think you're right, Donald! It looks like our mystery is solved!" The three of them walk up the stairway and see a wooden door at the top open.
They walk inside and find themselves in a dusty dark attic. The wooden door slams behind them and they jump in fear while letting out little screams. There is no music playing and the room is very silent. A few seconds later, the sound of a heartbeat echoes in the distance. The voice of a lady softly speaks "Here comes the bride!" Everyone looks around in confusion. Donald lets out another quick scream as he sees the ghost of a lady wearing a bridal dress levitate towards them. She stops and smiles at them while letting out a little giggle. A few seconds later, the ghost of a man wearing a top hat appears in front of the wooden door and laughs as well. The trio turn around to see the gentleman. He has a cane in one hand and a hatbox in the other. "Looks like we're surrounded!" Sora says. The Hatbox Ghost lets out another laugh and opens his hatbox. A glowing green cloud of mist surrounds Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The three of them scream as they are sucked into the hatbox by the mist. The lid closes, and the two ghosts disappear leaving the hatbox to sit on the dusty floor of the attic.
This leads into a fight with the Hatbox ghost and bride. It is sort of similar to the Magic Mirror fight in Birth by Sleep, but the battle works a little differently. The environment of the battlefield is a circular room with a greenish-tint color to the walls and floor. There is green mist that hovers around the floor. During the fight, the Hatbox ghost's head pops up randomly and the trio attacks whenever he appears. He counters by biting and spinning his head around rapidly. When he disappears from dealing with a bunch of damage, the bride appears. Sora must cast magic since physical attacks don't work on her. She flies around at a fast pace and swings an axe that is in her hands.
When the fight concludes, the trio fly out of the box and crash land onto a pile of cardboard boxes in a corner of the attic. The Hatbox ghost appears and looks at them with a smile as he picks up his hatbox. The bride appears behind him and stares at the three individuals with an evil grin. The two ghosts let out a loud laugh and vanish into thin air. Sora stands up and scratches his head saying "What was that all about?" The other two stand up and rub their heads from the impact of the fall. They then hear the sound of music playing from outside of the mansion.
Goofy turns around to see that the wooden door of the attic is open and says "Hey! We're free! Let's get going!" The three of them run out the door to see that the ballroom is now empty. All of the candles are still lit, but there is no one to be seen. The music from the organ has stopped playing as well. "I guess everyone went outside," Sora ponders as he and his friends look around. Donald notices that there is an open doorway near the fireplace and points to it saying "Look!" Sora and Goofy turn to see what the duck is pointing at. They nod their heads and all three of them proceed to run through it.
The trio stop outside the doorway to view a graveyard with many ghosts dancing and singing a song about spirits awakening to socialize. There is a band playing many musical instruments and a few cats are meowing to the tune right next to them. Four marble busts of men are singing the melody together like a barbershop quartet. A mummy is sitting in an open coffin and singing the song to an old man that is holding an ear trumpet. A skinny king and a fat queen are swinging softly on a seesaw to the beat of the music. There is a masked executer holding an axe and a headless knight (who is holding his own head in his right hand) singing the melody together like best friends. The final ghost to be seen is a woman in a roman-like outfit and singing the song loudly with an opera voice.
Sora notices a path next to the graveyard and points at it saying "Over there! Our way out!" The young man and his two friends run towards it without hesitation. It takes them through a grassy field that leads to the front gates of the white mansion. As the trio is about to head to the train stop, the mysterious low voice speaks from the doors of the gate saying "Ah! There you are!" Each individual stops and Donald looks at the direction of the voice shouting "What do you want now?"
The low voice replies "There's a little matter I forgot to mention. Beware of hitchhiking ghosts!" The voice then lets out an evil laugh as three ghosts appear in front of the trio. One of them is tall and skinny. Another one is chubby and holding a suitcase. The last one is a short guy with a beard. They stick out their thumbs and move their arms as if they are hitchhiking on the side of a road. The low voice continues "They have a little souvenir to give that will haunt you until you return. Thank you for visiting our home." A large-sized treasure chest pops up in front of the hitchhiking spirits. The three spirits let out a little laugh and fade away. Inside the chest is a leather bracelet that has a chain-like pattern around it. On the center of the bracelet, it has the head of a demon that can also been seen on the sign of the mansion.
When Sora is done obtaining the item from the chest, he runs back to the abandoned train stop with his friends following right behind him. The green train is still sitting there waiting for someone to board. They see one of the doors open and each of them quickly jump inside. Sora, Donald, and Goofy take in deep breaths as they sit down. The train closes its door and moves forward out of the abandoned train stop. It takes the passengers straight back to Twilight Town.
The green train moves into the station and stops in the same place where it was first seen. Donald pokes his head out and looks around. He jumps out with a smile on his face and shouts "We made it!" Sora and Goofy walk out with calm expressions. The young man looks at the front doors of the train station and says, "Now we have to report to the others." All three of them begin to walk towards the exit, but Goofy stops halfway and asks, "I wonder how long those ghosts have been living in that mansion?" Donald stops a few feet away, turns to look at Goofy, and shouts "Who cares! Let's just report!" The dog shrugs his shoulders and continues to walk with his friends.
As the trio enter the hideout, Pence walks up to them and says "Welcome back! How'd it go?" Sora spends about ten minutes explaining to Hayner, Pence, and Olette about what happened at the mansion. After the story, Hayner looks at Sora with excitement saying, "That would be great to write down for our homework assignment, but I don't know if anyone would believe us." Sora stares back at the blonde young man with confusion and says "Wait! This was all for a homework assignment?" Olette replies "Yeah! It's for extra credit and your names will be included as appreciation for helping us." The keyblade wielder responds, "At least we get credit for our job." Donald puts one hand on his face and quietly says "This was a complete waste of ti-" Before he concluded his statement, Goofy covers the duck's bill with one of his hands and says, "What Donald means is that we're always happy to help our friends!" Donald then summons his staff and hits one of Goofy's feet. The dog lets go of the duck's bill and jumps around as he screams in pain.
Sora looks back at Pence and asks, "Is there anything else we can do for you while we're here?" The boy in the red shirt replies "Not that I can think of. We may need you again later when the time comes to explore the other mansion. Until then, come back and see us whenever you'd like!" Sora nods his head and responds "Okay. We'll see you later!" He walks out of the hideout with Donald right next to him. Goofy is sitting on the floor looking at his own feet saying "Ya know, Donald, you didn't have to hit me THAT hard!" He looks around to notice that his partners have already left the room. Olette lets out a little giggle and says, "I think you may want to check outside." She points to the exit of the hideout as Goofy stands up. He runs out the door shouting "Hey! Wait for me!"
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