No Ghosts here
On the outskirts of Patch lay a dark and foreboding forest. And at its heart, the dilapidated Schnee manor stood alone. It's proud alabaster walls still stood tall, resisting nature's efforts to reclaim it to the bitter end.
Once upon a time, the Schnees were the richest family in Vale. Immigrants from the frozen kingdom of Atlas, they rejected the city life and moved to Patch instead. Yet instead of integrating with the locals, they had a section of the forest levelled for their manor instead.
Rumours and myths had surrounded the Schnees ever since they appeared. Some said they signed dark pacts with unmentionable beings, others thought they were crime lords on the run from their enemies, and still more believed they weren't human at all but ice spirits fleeing Atlas's pollution.
The Schnees themselves never saw fit to dispel the rumours, they were content to live in their own walled off kingdom to the north. They barely even left their mansion, only heading into town every once in awhile to stock up on groceries and other necessities.
And then over the years, even those trips dwindled away until one day, people realised no one had seen any Schnee in over a year.
Investigations had turned up nothing, no signs of struggle, no graves, nothing that could give anyone a clue into what happened. There wasn't any sign that they'd decided to move either, all the furniture and belongings were still there.
In the end, it was decided that the Schnees had merely left on vacation, or were perhaps rich enough to just abandon everything and move. They were filthy rich, who were the commonfolk to dictate what the wealthy could do with their money?
The decades went by and the Schnees seemingly never returned, leaving their grand manor to slowly fall to ruin. The citizens of Patch left the place in peace, especially after several would-be burglars were found dead at the gates, hair as white as the manor's former occupants.
All of them having apparently died from fright.
Rumours spread about the place being haunted. Some brave souls who dared approached said they saw flashes of white through the windows. Those braver yet ventured in and brought back tales of the inexplicable happening. Pianos that played by themselves, unearthly singing coming from everywhere and nowhere at once, sudden shifts in temperature…
The fact that the woods were slowly reclaiming their lost territory only contributed to the eeriness of the place. And as time went on, a new tradition was born. A test of courage for the young, on a night where the moon didn't shine, they would brave the woods to reach the gates of the abandoned manor.
And there they'd stay for a while, trying to catch any sign of the supernatural before making their way back to town.
But actually entering was never on the cards… until now.
"Yang… I feel like someone's watching us…" Ruby whispered, eyes darting from shadow to shadow nervously.
"Oh, don't be such a baby, there's no one here!" Yang fired back, already halfway up the ivy-covered wall.
"Gimme a boost, would ya?"
"Yang, I'm serious! I don't think this is a good idea." Ruby complained, but nonetheless helped her sister reach the top of the wall.
"What if… what if there're really ghosts here?"
"That's what we're here to find out, isn't it? Come on, no sister of mine is a chicken." Yang grinned and held out her hand. Ruby hesitated for a moment before reluctantly reaching out to grab it.
"And… up!" Yang grunted and pulled Ruby up onto the wall next to her. Laughing at the top of her lungs, she gestured to the Schnee manor beyond.
"See? That wasn't so hard, was it? Look! We're here! We've got to be the first people inside in like a hundred years or something."
"This place is creepy." Ruby muttered. Up close the mansion looked even eerier, the lights were out as expected, and that made all the windows pitch black voids. She shuddered, the imagination already cooking up hundreds and hundreds of eyes staring back at her from the darkness.
A cold wind picked up, the breeze causing the trees to rustle and their shadows to dance, nearly causing her to jump off the wall in fright. Managing to catch herself before she could bolt, Ruby balled her hands into fists to steady herself. "Can we go home soon? I don't like this place."
"Sure, we've just got to find proof of ghosts first… or at least see if the stories are true. There's a piano that plays itself, isn't there? Let's go see it. Eh, it's probably just a hoax anyways." Yang said dismissively, then dropped herself over the wall, landing silently in the tall grass.
"Nrrgh… fine, but I still think this is a bad idea." Ruby made one last half-hearted protest before dropping down as well. She thought she caught sight of a flash of silver in one of the windows, but when she looked again, it was gone.
Yang stepped up to the front door and rapped on it. "Hello! We're here to visit, anyone home!?"
"Yang! Don't taunt the ghosts! They'll come haunt us!" Ruby urged. She could still feel eyes on her, but no matter where she looked, there was nobody to be seen. The only vaguely humanoid shapes in the area were the moss-covered statues.
Between her own nerves and the shadows playing tricks on her eyes, she couldn't tell if they were actually being watched or if it was all just in her head.
"Oh it'll be fine and… hey! It's already unlocked!" Yang grinned as the doorknob turned smoothly. With a gently push, the wooden door opened noiselessly, not a creak to be heard.
"Excuse us! We're coming in!" She declared and took a step through the boundary, Ruby following behind her seconds later.
"It's… not as bad as I thought it'd be actually." Yang surveyed her surroundings. Dust and cobwebs everywhere of course, but not nearly as much as she was expecting from a house left unoccupied for over a century.
"I still feel like we're being watched." Ruby said, sticking close to her sister.
"It's the paintings. The eyes look like they're following you and… that one looks like a real piece of work." Yang gestured to the paintings lining the walls. True enough, in the dim light it did look like the eyes were following them wherever they went.
But the one that truly contributed to the oppressive feeling was the massive portrait of Jacques Schnee the First hanging on the wall. Despite being nothing more than a still image, it still carried his overbearing aura perfectly. Stone cold gaze glaring down at them as if they were little more than insects, even Yang shivered slightly under it.
"Come on, let's go. I don't like this place either, the piano is uh… this way I think. The east wing, right?" Yang shook herself out of her stupor and grabbed Ruby's hands leading the way forwards and away from all the creepy paintings.
Ruby pulled to a stop at the bottom of a stairwell, eyes darting from place to place again. "Yang, I still feel like someone's watching us."
Yang wanted to deny it, but she could feel it too, eyes boring into the back of her head. It was… disconcerting.
"Yes. Yes, I am watching you two." A haughty voice called out.
Both Ruby and Yang leapt into the air in fright. Spinning around, they found an annoyed girl on the landing above, glaring down at them with icy blue eyes and hands folded. Her striking white hair was done up in a side ponytail that swished from side to side as she shook her head.
"GHOST!" Ruby screamed.
"E-excuse me!?" The air of arrogance surrounding the Schnee vanished immediately.
"H-how rude! You come into my house and you insult me!? The nerve of you people!"
"Y-you live here?" Yang stuttered out.
"Yes! I'm Weiss Schnee! This is my family's home! Who are you people!?" Weiss snapped in frustration.
"I-I'm Yang, this is my sister Ruby, we uh… we live in Patch." Yang said.
"So you live in town, okay. Now why are you breaking into my house!?" Weiss demanded.
"We… we didn't know you lived here." Ruby replied, quailing back when a furious glare scorched her.
"What do you mean you didn't know I live here!? This is the Schnee manor! My family's owned the place since it was built!" Weiss thundered, her pale features flushed crimson from anger.
"We thought this place was abandoned!" Ruby squeaked.
"Aba-aban…ab…ababa…" Weiss sputtered too indignant to get any coherent word out.
"Yeah, I mean have you seen how your place looks from outside? This place is falling apart." Yang added.
"AAUUGGHHH!" Weiss buried her face in her hands and screamed into it.
"Hnnrggaaaah… haaaah… haaahh…"
"Y-you okay?" Ruby ventured.
"No, no I'm not. But you have your answer, this place is NOT abandoned. I live here and so does my family even if they're not around right now." Weiss said through gritted teeth, doing her utmost best to not explode again.
"Yeah um… so… is this place haunted?" Yang asked.
"Haunted? Haunted!? Are you… you must be… AHHRRGGHHH!" Weiss screamed again.
"Of course this place isn't haunted!"
"O-oh, okay… um… sorry, it's just this place… could use some renovations, if you catch my drift." Yang stumbled over her words, trying to get her point across as diplomatically as possible without causing Mt Schnee to explode again.
"Urgh! I know! But my father's too stingy with money to spend on it." Weiss said bitterly.
"Now why are you two here? You didn't break in just because you thought this place was abandoned, did you?"
"We're looking for ghosts! Or answers to the mysteries of this place at least." Yang replied.
"Mysteries? What mysteries?" Weiss tilted her head in confusion.
"Uh, let's see, there were people who said they saw figures in white inside the house, but… I guess that's just your family. Uhm… oh yeah, they said the temperature inside could just suddenly change!" Yang thumped her fist into her palm.
"Uh huh." Weiss looked decidedly unimpressed. Huffing, she reached into one of her pockets and retrieved a small box shaped remote. Upon pushing a button on it, the temperature plummeted instantly.
"Like this?"
"H-how'd you do that!? It's freezing now!" Ruby's teeth chattered and she hugged herself to stay warm, shivering from the sudden blast of frigid air.
"Cold? Ah I forget, you're not from Atlas. Well, the opposite works too." Weiss pushed another button and the freezing cold quickly became replaced by cosy warmth that was just shy of being uncomfortable.
"Holy shit! It changed again! Are you a wizard or something!?" Yang looked at Weiss in awe.
"Hmmph, hardly. This is just premier Atlesian dust engineering." Weiss preened under their awe filled gaze before realising awe was actually confusion and they had no idea what she just said.
"Haah… what I mean is, there's ice and fire dust inside the walls. It's setup so we can cool the house down in the summer or warm up in the winter. There's no magic to it, only science." She explained.
"O-oh, I see." Ruby nodded. The explanation made sense, more sciency less spooky was always good in her opinion.
"Hnnrgh, alright! Since you're here already, let's just go over all the mysteries. Then you can go back and tell everyone else that this place is not abandoned and definitely not haunted!" Weiss thundered.
"Alright! I always wanted to go on a tour of a haunted house!" Yang grinned
"Not haunted!"
"Next up is… yeah, the piano that plays itself when no one is around."
"Rrgh… fine, this way please." Weiss sighed and led the way forwards.
"Woah… that's a big piano." Yang whistled appreciatively. She wasn't a musician by any means, but even she could appreciate the piece of art in front of her. The grand piano stood on an elevated platform, demanding the attention of all who walked in. Even in the dim light, its ivory frame and gold trimmings seemed to shine with an almost ethereal quality.
"And once again, your mysteries are nothing more than a product of superior Atlesian engineering." Weiss said. Walking up to the piano, she fiddled around with a switch on it, and then to Ruby and Yang's surprise, it started playing by itself, right in front of them.
"It's playing! It's actually playing by itself!" Ruby yelped in shock.
"Mmhmm, it's called a player piano. Its entire point is that it can play itself, so you can appreciate the music even when you're not interested in playing at the time." Weiss explained.
"Huh… can't you just listen to a recording then?" Yang asked.
"You can. But does it come close to this quality?" Weiss raised an eyebrow in challenge.
"…No, I guess not." Yang admitted.
"Wait, wait! What about the singing then?" Ruby piped up.
"Singing?" Weiss frowned.
"Oh yeah, people say they hear singing coming from out of nowhere too." Yang said.
"Hmm, that one… might be me. Sound does travel in this house and I like to practice in empty rooms." Weiss shrugged.
"You can sing?" Ruby was sceptical immediately. In her expert opinion, Weiss was more of the screechy kind of person, more banshee than siren as it were.
"Are you… challenging me?" Weiss's frown deepened and her glare sharpened.
"Uh…" Ruby trailed off, looking to Yang for help. Unfortunately, her sister was too busy snickering to help her out of the grave she dug.
"Hmmph! Hearing is believing I suppose." Weiss muttered. Clearing her throat, she started singing on the spot, matching the piano's tune.
The two sisters' jaws dropped. Weiss's singing was otherworldly and both of them were quickly spellbound by the impromptu performance. When Weiss finished and fell silent, both of them felt as though the world had darkened ever so slightly, that reality was the lesser for not having Weiss's melodic voice contributing to it.
"So? Still think I can't sing?" She folded her arms and tapped her foot impatiently.
"N-no! You can sing, you can definitely sing!" Ruby hastily placated, shaking her head so fast it was little more than a blur.
"Yeah, no kidding. Hey, you ever thought about performing? You'd be legendary." Yang chimed in.
"Hmm hm, thank you but no. I'm not interested in performing, I sing only for myself." Weiss shook her head in refusal.
"I see… pity." Yang sighed and let the subject drop. It was a real shame more people wouldn't get to hear Weiss sing, but she wouldn't force the issue. It wasn't any of her business after all.
"So, any more mysteries I have to shed light on?" Weiss asked.
"Just one to go. Um… so there have been burglars in the past and…" Yang trailed off.
"What happened to them, huh? The guards apprehended them and kicked them out." Weiss answered.
"Guards? But we don't-"
"See them?" Weiss finished for Yang. She chuckled and strode over to an antique set of armour standing in a corner. It was a perfect replica of the dozens they'd seen elsewhere in the manor.
"These… aren't just for decoration." She said and rapped on the suit.
"More Atlesian technology?" Ruby spoke up.
"Indeed. These are Atlesian Knights, normally they do nothing. But if an intruder tries to harm us or steal anything, they activate and deal with the problem." Weiss said.
"So… if we were actual burglars…" Yang glanced at the suit nervously.
"Then these would have thrown you out by force."
"R-right, got it."
Weiss glanced at a clock on the wall, eyes widening slightly at the time. "Goodness me, it's already this late. If that is all, I would like to rest now."
"Oh! Sure! We'll uh, we'll be going then, and we'll tell everyone this place isn't haunted after all." Ruby nodded cheerfully.
"Thanks for having us. Umm… do you mind if we come visit again?"
"Haah… I suppose not. And next time, don't break into my house." Weiss growled.
"Got it!" Yang saluted and started pushing Ruby towards the exit.
"Come on sis, let's go. Ooh… the guys back in patch are never going to believe this."
"I'm going! I'm going!" Ruby protested.
Weiss watched them go and shook her head, sighing once they were out of sight. Really, what had the world come to? The Schnee manor abandoned? Haunted?
"Haunted hmmph! Preposterous. I've lived here for a hundred and seventy years and never seen any ghosts." Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed again, slowly fading from view.