The Haunted Mansion
A Story By T.S. Wieland
Based on the Attraction By Walt Disney and His Team of Imagineers
Writers Forethought:
Having grown up with my siblings making frequent visits to Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion movie made in 2003 become somewhat of a let down for me. The writers failed to capture the inner story that I believe resides deep within attraction, told by the small artifacts, paintings, and objects found throughout the ride.
Thus, after much consideration, I decided to finally dig my heels in, and explore what that story might have been, resulting in the tale I share with you now. So, without further interruption, I present to you, what really happened to the Gracey mansion, several years ago. A morbid story of loss, greed, and obsession, etched into the walls of a white mansion along the banks of the Louisiana swamps, in 1831...
Chapter 1 - A Fortune To Be Told
The walls opened. Lina ran out from the gallery, with Mr. Reeds chilling laugh echoing across the foyer. She hurried across to the stairs, jumping over the headless body of Madame Leota on the foyer floor.
Rushing up the stairs, Lina fell to her knees as she approached the top step. She looked up.
Mr. Reed was standing at the top, grinning down at her with his morbid smile, dressed in his dark green suit and red waist coat.
"Oh, I didn't mean to frighten you prematurely," he said to her in his low eerie tone.
Lina stood back up and ran past him, covering her head with her hands, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Her footsteps pounded against the wood hallway floor beneath her as she ran. She was out of breath, but had no intention of stopping. She had to get away.
The knockers on the doors all clanged and chattered as she passed. A cold breeze blew through the hallway ahead of her.
The door ahead of her buckled and shot spinsters of wood. Something ominous growled beyond it, trying to break through.
Lina screamed as she ran past.
Mr. Reed stepped out from the doorway ahead of her.
"Every hall has wall to wall creeps, and hot and cold running chills."
Lina slowed down, sliding on the hallway rug.
Mr. Reed put his finger to his lips. "Shhhh, listen."
A high pitched scream came from the doorway next to her. Lina jumped back and stepped away from the door, her heart racing.
She turned and continued to run. Mr. Reed stepped aside, allowing her to run past him down the hall, laughing maniacally.
"When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candle lights flicker, and the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror, with ghoulish delight." Mr. Reeds own words used to vividly depict the happenings of the mansion. Till that night, I refused to believe in such things.
Even now, writing at my desk, I look over my shoulder at the candle on the dresser, flickering in a breeze from a window that isn't open, or even from a breath that isn't close by. I hear whispers in the walls, accompanied by a cold chill, creeping in across the floor. Yet, I've grown accustomed. Of course, I wasn't always comfortable...
It was 1831 when I first stepped through those green double doors downstairs With my family. Being summer, it was a rather cool day in Louisiana when we arrived by riverboat on the Mississippi. Still blistering to the skin, but cool enough for those living in the river city. Growing up in North Carolina, I despised New Orleans from the moment we arrived. I made a deal with Louisiana that year, thinking if I kept my distance from her, maybe she'd keep her distance from me. She never kept her end of the arrangement.
I had never met my grandfather before, nor did I ever plan to. However, I was dragged from the comfort of my bedroom, with it's pink marble desks, and red velvet curtains, to pay my respects to my grandfather, the late Master Gracey, after his passing. I couldn't wait to go home and start my first year of seminary school at the age of eighteen. My sister on the other hand, she couldn't get enough of the place.
"I love being by the river. It's so calm and peaceful," said Meena, stepping off gangplank onto the dock. Her brown and red hair curled and pressed, holding her red umbrella. "I enjoy how humid it is down here."
"Yes," Lina replied, lifting her dress as she stepped onto the gangplank. "It's a wonder people don't drown from breathing."
Lina crossed the wooden plank off the riverboat, watching both sides, afraid one wrong step might put her in the river.
"Are you absolutely sure, George? If they lose my cashmere dress from our trip to Massachusetts, you'll be buying me a new one."
"Yes, yes. I am absolutely sure. They said they would take it to the estate while we browsed around town for a while," George replied, leading Lina's mother, Ruth, off the white river boat by the hand. His face already beginning to sweat under his thick mutton chops and bald crown. Ruth felt the top of her hair partially grey hair, making sure it was still neat for her arrival.
Lina swatted at the mosquito on her wrist with disgust. She wiped the back of her hand off on her blue dress. Meena waited at the edge of the dock, already watching the carriages pass by. She waited impatiently for her parents to hurry up.
"You're all set Mr. Gracey. We'll take your bags there straight away," said the gentleman carrying the last small trunk from off the boat and onto the dock.
"It's a white house, with green shutters and railings. You'll have to drive a ways through the trees in order to find it," said George.
"I'm sure we'll find it with ease, sir," the man replied.
"Thank you very much," George replied handing the man a tip.
"Much obliged, sir," said the man lifting the trunk up on to the back of an empty carriage.
Lina wasn't impressed. The putrid smell of the city made her want to gag. A dock worker, with a grey beard and his hat down over his eyes, laid back in his chair. Lina turned her nose towards him to discover where the smell was coming from.
"Buck," said the man tilting the chair back further to wake him up. The dock worker jumped, planting his feet back down on the floor. "Help me load these trunks into the carriage."
Lina watched the boozed smelling worker sway as he stood up. He tilted her hat to her, showing his all of his crooked and missing teeth, before leaning down to help pick up her trunk. Lina just glared at him, offering a pathetic smile.
"How far is grandfathers estate," asked Lina looking out to the street.
"An hour away. Maybe two. Assuming we leave town before the weather makes a turn for the worst," George replied.
"Can't we just head there now?"
"I agree, George. We can see the city another time," added Ruth.
"We won't stay long. Our boat home leaves on Wednesday, meaning we will only have a week here. And I intended to make the best of it, despite the circumstances."
Lina sighed and fanned her face, feeling the sweat under her thick dress start to drip. She swatted the bugs away from her dark brown curls. Looking over to her mother, she seemed just as hot and annoyed.
"Can we go now," hollard Meena from the bottom of the stone stairs near the base of the dock.
"Yes, yes. We can go. Lead the way, Meena," said George.
Lina followed her father and mother, already feeling her feet starting to hurt having only stepped foot in Louisiana for five minutes.
My father was a lawyer of high regard back home. He had grown up in Louisiana, and moved away to New York before my grandfather bought the mansion. He met my mother in New York, not long after he had finished school. Four years later, with their vows under God being said, they moved to North Carolina to have me and my sister two years after.
I never knew the real reason why he never saw, or even wrote, my grandfather. Maybe it was his history, or even the way my grandfather acted towards him. Could have been the reason he was ashamed coming from a family who didn't share his beliefs. Whatever the reason, he didn't have a very close relationship with him. My grandfather wrote letters to him all the time. He read every one, but never sent a reply. But when word came of his passing, my father didn't hesitate to come to the funeral.
"Meena, don't dawdle off! Stay where close by," shouted Ruth holding George's hand as they walked down the French Quarter, with its many street performers and two story buildings, lined with cast iron railings and hurricane shutters.
Lina sauntered along next to her parents, trying her best to keep cool, waving her hand in front of her face. Meena stopped and waited for everyone to catch up.
Running through the tree and hedge filled square, Meena approached Saint Louis Cathedral, staring up at the large wooden doors under its three towers, rising up into the sky.
"Can we go in," asked Meena eager to explore.
"As long as we stay quiet," her father replied walking up.
Meena opened the door. A damp musty smell blew out from inside the church. Lina coughed, already feeling sick from the heat. Meena stepped inside, followed by her mother. George turned back in the doorway, looking at Lina fanning herself.
"You coming inside, Lina," he asked her.
Lina looked around the square, searching for a place to sit in the shade.
"No, I'll wait out in the square," she replied.
"Very well, but don't wander off," replied her father stepping inside. "New Orleans is famous for the strangest of strangers."
"I won't."
George stepped inside the church. The wooden door closed behind him. Lina turned around scanning for a place to sit. All the benches around the square where occupied.
Determined to find a cool place to rest, she started to circle around the edge of small square. Each partially shaded bench was taken by street performers, or other ladies in similar hot dresses.
Rounding the end of the square, she felt a cool breeze coming from an alleyway between two buildings. She hesitated to wander into it, but the shade and cold wind was calling out to her.
The square was still within sight of the cathedral, so she wandered back into it, figuring she could stand there until she saw her family come out of the church.
Walking back into the alleyway, a wood carved, painted sign, hung over a doorway at the end.
Fortunes, Wishes, and Spiritual Guidance
Approaching the doorway, she discovered it to be the source of her refreshing salvation. She stood just outside the shop. Her curls blew in the breeze, and her dress flapped gently behind her. Lina looked back behind her, noticing her parents were still inside the church. She turned back to the doorway, smelling the sweet fragrant scent of perfume from within.
She pushed the red cloth back from the door and stepped inside.
The room was dark, with only a few candles lit around the room. A rounded table, covered in a decorative purple cloth, sat in the center of the darkness, with a clear crystal ball resting in the center. On the tables around the room, at the base of each candle, were books and old relics, with a single bouquet of dead flowers in a clear, blue, glass vase on the table next to her.
A hand crept out from the shadows, hanging over Lina's shoulder.
It grabbed her.
"Out of the mist, and into the swell. You come here for answers, only Madame Leota can tell."
Lina looked back, startled. A woman with flowing white hair, wearing a multi colored scarf around her neck appeared. Lina tried to step back out the door.
"No, no. I was just looking for a cold place to sit," Lina replied.
"The chill in the air, the one you seek, is the spirits around us, wanting to speak."
Madame Leota pushed Lina along, past the vale around the table. Lina sat down in the chair. Madame Leota walked around the table and lit a wooden match on the gas lamp hanging from the wall. She lit the two candles on each table around the room, opposite Lina. She removed an incense from a drawer and lit the end before placing it on the middle table. She blew the match stick out, and placed set it down.
She adjusted her collection of necklaces, and took a seat in the wooden chair at the other end of the table.
"Will your leave, or will you stay? Questions on your finger tips, but only your palms will lead us the way," said Madame Leota putting her hands out up on the table for Lina to take.
Lina hesitated to take hold of her hands. She wanted to get up and go back outside, but a nagging wonder of curiosity motivated her to stay.
She reached out, and placed both her hands up on top of hers. Madame Leota gently grasped her hands. A black crow flew in from out of the darkness behind the fortune teller, and perched itself on the back of her chair.
Lina gasped as it flew past, staring up at the crow. It gazed at her with it's faint red eyes.
"The loss of a loved one, someone distant I see. Neither close, nor friendly, but wealthy, and noble indeed."
Madame Leota gazed forward into her crystal ball. She squinted. Lina's eyes looked down at the ball, expecting to see something. Leota leaned back, and looked up at the ceiling through her thick shadowed eyes.
"Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat, call in the spirits, wherever they're at."
A series of faint voices echoed in the room. Lina felt an uncomfortable chill hearing the voices. Leota listened to the voices.
Feeling a cold breeze blow across her face, and around the table, Lina pretended the voices were probably just the wind.
"A mansion of troubles, filled with pain and dread. You will find no other salvation, than comfort from the dead."
Lina looked at her. Her hands were starting to shake.
"A dragonfly, of pale white and bright green, hold it close to your heart, to keep your soul pure and clean."
Madame Leota looked down at the crystal ball. She stared into it, taking in the visions before her.
"Darkness, screams, voices that weep, beckoned by a man, who speaks from the deep."
Lina's looked into the ball. She saw nothing. Only the warped reflection of the table and fortune teller in front of her.
"A body approaches, coming to take you away, dragging you to the mansion, where forever you will stay."
Lina's heart started to race. Madame Leota gazed up at her, peering into her eyes through her thick shadowed eyes. She grinned.
A bright light pierced the darkness from behind Lina.
"Lina!"
Lina jumped in her chair. She let go of Madame Leota's hands.
Meena stood at the curtain.
"There you are. We've been looking all over the square for you," said Meena walking in.
Meena smiled at Madame Leota, who softly smiled back without saying a word.
"Come on. We have other places to see before the carriage arrives."
Meena stepped back out into the alleyway, passed the curtain. Lina stood up from her chair, and pushed it back into the table. "Uh… thanks for the reading. It was a pleasure meeting you."
"Tread carefully, young Lina, take each step one at a time. For we will meet again, as the clock starts to chime."
Lina listened to her last words, before turning and walking out of the room. The crow hopped down on to the table. Leota reached over and gently began petting it on the top of the head with her many fingers covered with rings.
Stepping back into the hot sun, Lina saw her sister waiting for her.
"What were you doing in there," asked Meena.
They started to walk back down the alleyway to the square.
"I was trying to find some place cool to wait, and she made me sit down," Lina replied.
Meena looked back at the doorway. "What a strange women. What did she say?"
"Nothing. She talked in rhymes and gibberish the whole time," Lina replied.
"Let's hurry then. The carriage to the mansion should be arriving in an hour, so we must hurry if we are going to see anymore of the sights today."
Meena took off in a run. Lina followed her, still puzzled and thinking about what the strange fortune teller had told her.
As I said, I never believed in ghosts, spirits, or voodoo magic. I was young, enjoying the last of my youth. Had I known what was to come, I would have listened to her more closely. Maybe even spent more time listening to what she had to say. But what little I did remember, I committed to memory. I wonder now if I had never gone in, perhaps I would have ended up like everyone else; blissfully ignorant.