Chapter 1- Arrival.

"Well it has its own kind of charm I suppose…" said ever optimistic Gabriella Montez as she surveyed the outside of the ancient, creepy mansion that she, her boyfriend Troy, Sharpay, her twin brother Ryan, his boyfriend of 1 year Chad and Gabriella's best friend Taylor would be staying in for the next few weeks.

"Oh just say it, it's disgusting." Sharpay stated bluntly. "Guys I'm really sorry, my parents said that his would be a really nice place to stay. This place is called Geruge plantation; used to be this etiquette school for all these girls till they went missing. It's been in the family for years. Ryan, who was that woman who owned the place?" she asked.

"Uhm… I think mom said her name was Elizabeth, Elizabeth Báthory. She moved here from Hungary in the 1700s. I would tell you the full story, but I don't want to give you guys nightmares." Ryan laughed. This gained the curiosity of all of them, but Sharpay insisted they get settled before they start story time.

They entered the house into the lobby. The room was neglected to say the least. The room had quite a lot of furniture, old as it was. Sharpay ran a finger across one of the antique tables only to have it coated in a thick layer of dust. On the floor was a very large rug with a pattern that showed it to be very old. It covered most of the wooden floor giving the impression that it was there to hide something. The gang dismissed that feeling as simple paranoia and continued to climb the parlour staircase before them; they stepped carefully as it seemed that it could collapse at any moment.

Once they were upstairs they all went to their bedrooms of choice. All of them contained minimal furniture. Most of them consisted of merely a four poster bed and a wardrobe. Each of them dumped their suitcases in these rooms and went back downstairs to the main living room. It was night and fortunately they had found a stock of wood round the back of the house earlier in the day (as it was impossible to gather any wood now due to the terrible storm raging outside), allowing them to light a fire in the ornamental fire place.

"Anyway Ryan, you told us there was a story behind this place. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to hear it." Troy said and the rest of the group voiced their agreement.

"Well let's just say that even our family tree had some black sheep. Elizabeth Báthory was a countess from my mom's side of the family. She came to America to open this finishing school for girls, but she did not come here of her own free will. She was forced to leave Hungary in the 18th century by the citizens of the town she was living near… the malleus maleficarum." Ryan whispered spookily.

Everyone one was on the edge off their seats waiting for him to continue, but Sharpay cut in. "Drama queen!" she scoffed and continued with the story herself. "The malleus maleficarum means the witch's hammer; it was the name of the witch hunts going on there. She fled here to America to avoid persecution. When she came here to America she opened the geruge plantation as a finishing school, just like the one she had had back in Hungary. Girls were sent here to learn etiquette, but not one came back." The group gasped at this and urged her to continue. "No one knows what happened to those girls, but I'm sure you can guess." There were nods around the room. "She was put under house arrest in her tower- I think you can see it through that window over there- and left to die…" They all rushed over to the window that Sharpay had pointed at and indeed saw the tower that she had talked about, but Sharpay once again caught their attention by saying "But before she died she vowed that she would be back one day." Lightning struck and all of them jumped out of their skin. The panic died down and everyone laughed at their foolishness, but their laughter was nervous as they were still shaken by that story.

An awkward silence had descended upon the group and so Ryan broke this with a little more of the family history. "No-one's really looked around here since then, too much dark history. I suppose we might even uncover something hidden away." He laughed but it was short lived as apparently no-one found his attempt at a joke very funny, it only added to the awkward silence that still held the group in its grasp.

"I think I'm gonna go to bed. Troy care to join me." Gabriella asked. Everyone wolf whistled but Troy understood that she just didn't want to sleep alone after that ghost story. They both went upstairs to Gabriella's room and got ready for bed.

"Yeah I think I'm gonna do the same." Taylor declared and walked up to her room, discreetly glancing over her shoulder every few seconds. Sharpay soon followed and went to her room to get her precious beauty sleep.

This left Chad and Ryan downstairs, sitting in front of the still burning fire. "Dude, was that true?" Chad asked, still staring intently at the fire. His face seemed pretty unreadable, but Ryan had a strange talent of seeing right through people and he knew that Chad was scared.

"Well yes it is true, but seriously do you really believe that one of my ancestors would come back from the dead to get us. I mean I know Sharpay can be kind of scary, but I think she got that from my dad's side of the family." They both laughed and got up to go upstairs to their shared bedroom.

"And if she does come to get you, don't worry, I'll protect you." Chad said and kissed Ryan on the forehead.

"Not if I have to protect you." Ryan smiled and they both walked upstairs to bed.

AN: Hi everyone, first attempt at a horror so if it's crap just tell me lol, but oh well, first time for everything. Secondly, I did find out about Elizabeth Báthory through the film "Stay Alive", but Elizabeth Báthory was a real countess living in Hungary about 300 years ago who killed the girls who came to her finishing school and you'll find out a little more about her dark history later in the story; I would just like to say that I may have taken a few ideas from Stay Alive, but this is not a crossover, I'm just using the life of Elizabeth Báthory. Hope you enjoy the story.

Much love,

Samuel x