I do not own Howl's Moving Castle, much to my regret. I would just love to hug and squeal over Michael and Howl and see how Sophie and Martha react.. However, Colin and any other characters I think up do belong to me and are the products of my very large imagination. This is set two years after House of Many Ways (I am going to introduce Charmain and Peter along later in the story..)

When Colin thought of haunted houses, he usually thought of ghosts. Ghosts, zombies, and all those wonderful types of bloody monsters. And, as any ten year old self-proclaimed 'ninja of the mountains', he thought they were fascinating and 'cool'.

That was before his parents died of a mysterious illness.

They lived in a nice village called Mockingbird Valley, right in the crook of Mount Goat and Mount Sheep (really, who named them?) in the Mountains of Montalbino. Colin's father was a hunter, always going off with his buddies to the mountains and bringing home a nice leg of deer or something like that for supper. His mother was a healer and also a powerful witch (which was good for patching up Colin's father every time a deer trampled him), and she brought Colin up quite well. They were relatively well-off, not too rich but not sleeping in the streets, and Colin was always taught to be absolutely polite to everything and everyone as well as to be 'chivalrous, cherished, and an example of chastity'. Colin had no idea what she had meant- he was only six at that time, after all. So he simply assumsed she wanted him to be nice and kind to everyone and skip around singing like in those brightly colored weird picture books.

Colin had lots of friends, and he was happy with his life. He never worried, he never starved, and his parents never hit him. This was, of course, before the problem.

The 'problem', as Colin so eloquently put it, started with his father. He was always in the wild, hunting game, and sometimes the game had diseases. Colin remembered the time he had brought home a deer with rabies- they would have caught it as well, if his mother had not the sense to throw it out to the stray dogs that always lingered near their places. Stray dogs were always quite smart, and were able to sniff out anything, especially diseases.

However, this disease must have been a relatively new one, because not only had the dogs failed to detect illness, they had devoured it rapidly along with his parents- fortunately, he was sick and not allowed to eat or drink anything but broth.

The disease worked fast, and before long his mother and father were plagued with spots- blue spots, not like the chicken pox he had had when smaller. They became frail and weak, and his father died within a week. His mother, being an excellent healer herself, could hold out longer, and beckoned for Colin to speak with her- she had forbidden him to see either of them, for fear he would catch it himself. However, she could feel it finally leaving her system, but with the price that she only had a few days to live. Sighing quietly, for there were many things in life she had wanted to do, she felt Colin come in.

"M-mother?" Colin was white faced and pale, taking in how deathly ill his mother was.

"Hello, Colin." His mother smiled weakly.

"I-is there anything I c-can do?"

Mother shook her head. What a nice kid Colin was becoming- pity she was not strong enough to keep going. "No, but I have one thing to tell you."

Colin swallowed, nodding.

"Once I am dead- and don't look at me like that, you know mother knows best-" she stared sternly, hints of her old self shining through the frail and sick mask, "Go to the mansion, the Haunted House as you would, up in the mountains. I daresay that you've been there before."

Colin's eyes widened, not only by the shock that his mother was indeed dying, like his father whom he had buried this morning, and the incredulous sense that she wanted him to go there, there of all places. If she knew he had been there before (it was for a bet- he was a kid, after all), then she must have known that he had been chased away by the old hag that lived there- she was creepy.

"Then, when you are there, find the old hag you're so afraid of. She an.. old acquaintance of mine. Say this phrase: "A bed of Roses." and do whatever she tells you."

Colin nodded rather nervously, and murmured the phrase. His mother's first name was Rose- was it some kind of code?

His mother looked satisfied, nodding. "Alright, go now. I would much prefer if you didn't end up dead as well."

Colin opened his mouth to protest, saying he wanted to be with his mother in her final days, but she looked at him sternly, and he fled.

Colin stepped outside of the house he had been raised in, and took one final glance around his street. If he was to go to that old hag, even if he wasn't going to be Apple Pie by the end of today, it was still likely the last time he would be here. She lived way up high in the mountains in the many nooks and crannies of Montalbino Mountains (Montalbino was a relatively large kingdom, but more than 2/3 of it was covered in mountains and wilderness) and an old lady- no, elderly woman. Mother wouldn't be happy if she knew he was being so rude. But then again, she had wanted him to go find her, the old hag of the mountains, as she was called around the town.. Maybe the disease had affected her brain.

No. Colin mentally shook himself. He was not going to think like that. Mother had told him to do it, and one should always respect another's final wishes- especially if that another is your mother. Colin sighed. Oh well- maybe she would be having a good day and turn him into Shepherd's Pie, one that Colin had always liked. Maybe it wouldn't be to bad to end up as a Shepherd's pie in an old hag's stomach..

He set off.

The mountains of montalbino that were near Mockingbird valley weren't particularly large, rugged mountains- they had worn old and eroded by time, and it was easy to hike in. However, the Haunted Mansion was a few mountain peaks away, and it took nearly the entire afternoon to get there. Once he had, however, Colin stared at it in surprise.

It wasn't as old and decrepit as before- in fact, if Colin seriously doubted there were two large and strange mansions hidden in the mountains, Colin would have mistook it for a different, slightly more taken care of mansion. Instead of the dark and gloomy house it was- everything was white. White with tints of gray- and it was grand. Big, large, and grand- it even had one of those fancy column things from Romania or something!

Colin gawked at it for a moment, then reminded himself that it was probably just an illusion spell- but a lifetime with a strong witch for a mother made Colin almost feel the kinds of magic, and this wasn't it. In fact, the old mansion, the one all dark and shabby, felt more like an illusion than this.

Colin told himself to stop staring. The old hag would be the same- maybe she had actually hired some workers to repair it. Yes, that was it.

Sucking in his breath apprehensively and preparing for the worst, Colin reached out a hand and knocked.

And knocked.

And knocked.

Finally, after fifteen straight minutes of just banging on the door, Colin gave up. Maybe the old hag or whoever lived here was out shopping. There was nothing to do but wait. And wait. And wait.

Colin gave up trying to do that, either, and finally decided to just open the door and be with it. It was rude, but dark was settling, and mother certainly didn't want him to die of cold, as it often was with tourists in the mountains. Besides, if the hag and her were friends, than she probably wouldn't get too mad..

There was that shepherd's pie idea again. Colin shuddered, trying the knob.

Surprisingly, it swung open.

Then again, he reflected, it had swung open before when it was old and decrepit- maybe it really was a spell.

The inside was just as grand as the outside might have suggested- Colin's mouth dropped open before he could help himself. It was a grand marble hallway, with assorted doors leading off on the left side- the right was taken up by a huge, huge staircase, all white and shiny. It was exactly how he had pictured a fairy tale castle would look like when he was small. Whoever had done this had serious skill with a hammer and nails- or magic and illusions, whichever.

However, he must have stood there for a long time, for footsteps suddenly started coming from the upstairs.

"..should make the doorbell ring louder, takes forever for the sound to travel.."

Colin's eyes widened. It must be the hag, coming to punish him. In a fit of panic, completely forgetting everything his mother had told him, he let out a small gasp and swung into the nearest door- which turned out to be a coat closet. Fortunately, it was a rather big coat closet, even if there were only a few heavy winter coats in it.

"..hope they didn't go away, been some time since I had visitors.."

The voice was getting louder now, until it was right outside the door. Colin held his breath, heart pounding.

The main door swung open, and Colin could almost hear the voice frown. Surprisingly, it was a young voice, not at all the kind he would have expected an old hag to have. Maybe the hag had died and she had inherited it or something. It would explain the renovations, at least.

"Huh. I could've sworn I heard the doorbell ringing-"

The voice stopped abruptly. Colin hardly dared to breath.

"I can feel you there, you know." The voice sounded irritable. "Absolute rudeness. Ring the doorbell and run away, you little monsters. Or are you one of the spies for Thayack? I told you, I didn't have anything to do with your king!"

Colin squeezed his eyes shut, hoping this would make him disappear.

It didn't work.

"I say, what are you doing here?" Sudden light flooded the closet as the door was flung open. Colin had been caught.

Typical.