CHAPTER NINE: THE TRUTH MUST BE KNOWN

"What is the meaning of this? Who is that?" he muttered in shock.

"Her name was Elizabeth," Emma replied.

Jamie came closer to examine the painting. "But… this looks just like Sarah. At least, sort of…" he trailed off, realizing the woman in the portrait was not an exact image of his fiancée. Where Sarah had the slightest concave turn to her nose with a rounded tip, the young woman's was fairly straight and slightly thinner. The portrait's hair was the colour of raw brown sugar; slightly darker than Sarah's own. Jamie noticed their eyes were exactly the same shape which made it uncomfortable to look at the picture; it was like staring into his fiancée's eyes except – "Sarah has green eyes…" he murmured softly, "These are hazel but… God this woman looks almost exactly like her. Same face shape and everything. Who is she?" he asked, turning away from the portrait. It was sending shivers down his spine.

"She was in love with Master Gracie," Emma declared softly. "She was our friend. We loved her dearly."

"Well I mean…" Ezra mumbled.

"Oh don't give me that!" Emma snapped, "You loved her too!"

"I respected her certainly," Ezra replied at once and Emma frowned at him. "Well of course. Of course I loved her, everyone here did but… She was a great conversationalist and she had a great wit and…unspoken charm," Ezra trailed off quietly as he stared reminiscently at the portrait, "And kindness…." he added softly, looking quite sad, "And such a tender heart."

"What happened?" Jamie asked gently.

"She couldn't be with him," Emma murmured. "They were from different social classes. The Master would have lost everything if… She didn't want to let that happen. She killed herself to free him but it only trapped us here. We've been cursed since The Master decided he couldn't live without her and… Oh I can't go on; it was so horrible!"

"He hung himself and we've been trapped ever since," Ezra finished matter-of-factly. "We've been forced to wait for the two to be reunited again and the curse to finally be lifted. And now that Sarah's here we'll all be freed."

"But what if it's not her?" Emma doubted and Jamie agreed.

"It is her!"

"But hold on here I mean just a second!" Jamie exclaimed, "Let me get this straight. This guy is dead and the only reason we were invited here is so that he could make the moves on my girlfriend?!"

"Pretty much. Are you upset?"

"And the house isn't really for sale? Yeah I'm upset!"

"But why hasn't the curse been lifted already? I mean, the two are together again aren't they? They're in the house together; shouldn't that be enough?"

"Honestly I'm not sure. Maybe they need to be physically touching or maybe she must remember who she is. Let's just go to the gypsy woman and find out!" Ezra asserted. "Mr. Evers if you'll kindly show us the direction you came from…"

Feeling apprehensive, Jamie reluctantly agreed. He didn't want to return to the hallways he'd finally managed to escape but he too had to know the truth about Sarah and Elizabeth.

"Madame Leota has been lost for decades in this house," Emma explained as they followed the New Orleans fashioned hallways. "Every time we tried to find her, we'd end up lost."

"Couldn't you just go through the walls?" Jamie asked tentatively.

"We tried that," Ezra dismissed, "But we'd always appear back where we'd come from; we never found some place new. That's why I'm hoping you remember your way Mr. Evers it would be most helpful."

"To be honest I arrived there by accident and when I left, I felt like I was running for my life so… If you don't know the way then I think this was all a huge mistake and I'm going to be trapped down here again and-"

"Shh!" Emma suddenly cut him off. They heard the sounds of Leota's voice coming from a nearby hallway. "We've found her!"

They rushed forward and entered the room where Leota's ball was swirling green around her. "I see that you hath found your path. From gaining allies you have learned and have become concerned and now have returned."

"Yes I'm back," Jamie confirmed.

"I understand you seek the truth whilst the living retain their youth."

"Oh Madame Leota! Is it really her? Is it truly our dear departed Elizabeth come back to us?" Emma asked anxiously.

"It is true. Her soul now wanders these halls seen by you." Madame Leota turned to look at Jamie.

"See! I told you!" Ezra exclaimed excitedly.

"But do not be deceived; all things are not as they appear. Much of the supposed verity is insincere. For the curse to be lifted the truth must be known and for the truth to be known you must find the key."

"Key?" Jamie repeated. "If we find this key, then I can just take Sarah out of here like nothing ever happened?"

"The key is the answer to all."

"Okay fine I'm in. Let's get this key –I want to get this over with and go home. What do we have to do?"

"Enter the tomb under the great dead oak and travel deep down under the ground and there you will find the key that must be found. Find the black crypt that bears no name or soon your fate will be the same."

"Okay great well then let's get this key," Jamie declared firmly, "But um there's just one problem: how do we get out of here?"

"Well there's always… um… my way…" Ezra offered slowly.

Jamie could tell by Ezra's bashful expression that Jamie wasn't going to like this. Sure enough, he didn't. He was forced to crawl into the back of an old carriage; an old-fashioned hearse with large windows on both sides and soft velvet lining on the inside. Then, Ezra drove the carriage out through a wall of the mansion with a skeletal horse hitched to the front. They crashed outside and when Jamie opened his eyes he was sure he too had died. It was only when he hit his forehead against the window that he was convinced that he'd survived.

"I thought you said you could drive this thing!" Jamie called.

"I know exactly what I'm doing!" Ezra argued.

"Well could you please keep your eyes on the road then?!" Jamie yelled back as the carriage jolted forward.

"Careful how you're driving!" Emma yelled to her husband, "You're going to kill us!"

"That's where you're wrong!" Ezra shouted back, "Because some of us are already dead!"

Jamie gave a sarcastic chuckle –wondering where Ezra had finally found his funny-bone. It was probably somewhere out in the graveyard he determined with a laugh to himself.

Jamie vaguely wondered if the moonlight which illuminated the two ghosts driving the carriage had affected Ezra's personality too. Ezra seemed to be ecstatic and jovial now that they were on their way as he steered the hearse down the road leading behind the house towards and through the cemetery. Now was not the time to be happy Jamie thought with a shiver going up his spine. They were driving a hearse through a cemetery at night looking for a key to break a "Devil's Curse" so that Jamie and his fiancée could leave the Gracie property. It wasn't the most ideal of circumstances.

I suppose he thought after a moment the plus side to all this is that it's not raining anymore.

As Jamie stared out across the grounds of the property, he began to make out even more glowing figures between the trees and soon he beheld them close to the carriage near several headstones. More ghosts? At first Jamie was astonished but suddenly he began to laugh to himself. Oh jeeze, I see dead people!

At that moment, three ghosts floated past him riding penny-farthing bicycles. Jamie watched as they rode off into the distance. His attention turned back to the many ghosts across the landscape; both near and farther away. "Hey!" he called up to Emma and Ezra, "Why are there all these ghosts still hanging around here?"

"They're all former guests and servants from the manor. When the curse hit, we were all trapped here and when they died, they couldn't find the light. Now they're stuck here so long as The Curse maintains its hold over this place. At least, that's what we think…"

"They're receiving punishment for how they treated Master Gracie I think," Ezra put in, "They're the reason Elizabeth killed herself because they would have further shunned The Master if they knew about the two of them wishing to marry…"

Jamie was silent. A world in which social classes discriminated and segregated people so badly didn't seem as glamorous as he'd previously imagined the past to be. A world in which two people couldn't be in love because of a bunch of rich, snobby people was absolutely horrid.

Jamie suddenly felt very sorry for Alexander Gracie. He supposed the man wasn't completely as non-relatable and hard to understand as he'd thought. Nor was he completely selfish if that's what he'd endured before being trapped in limbo like this to wait for his long lost love to return. Jamie hoped this key would not only free himself and Sarah to leave, but to give Mr. Gracie some sort of peace; some way to move on from his past.

Suddenly, the carriage gave a large lurch forward and then ceased moving. "WHOA!" Ezra exclaimed as he reined in the horse.