Chapter 32: Family Secrets Revealed
The girls turned to the corner to see a phantom specter in the form of a house maid dressed in a black dress and white apron, with long curly hair, holding out a feather duster as if it were a sword, scaring them terribly into drawing out their weapons. But the maid did not flinch.
"You're lucky I was here just in time before any of you thought to touch that thing," she said sternly. "Has nobody warned you of the ancient evil that possesses nearly the entire estate?"
"No ma'am," Grace shook her head in response, shivering from the shout. "We only just got here and didn't know you were standing there cleaning?"
"How did you know we were here?" Maggie implied, furrowing her brow.
"We spirits of this mansion have our own ways of knowing," the maid answered. "But no more time to explain, look out behind you!"
Maggie and Grace quickly turned around when they heard footsteps, to find the doll had disappeared from the bed. Panicking, they looked in every corner of the room, to focus on where the sound of running feet was coming from. It wasn't long before something squealed horribly and jumped onto Maggie's neck. It was the same doll in that dark blue velvet dress and those evil red eyes, now opening its mouth wide to reveal tiny sharp teeth, biting down hard into the back of her nape, causing Maggie to scream in terror and agony, drawing a stream of blood from her flesh.
"Get this thing off of me!" Maggie screamed, trying in vain to shake the evil toy off, with Grace and Calloway unable to stop their friend from crashing into the walls and the furniture violently, fearing that using their weapons would only hit the wrong target.
Finally, Maggie sent the killer doll careening into the shadows across the painted corridor outside, where it stood up and exposed its bloodstained mouth, forming a wicked grin as it now clutched a straight razor in its hands and let out a small bloodcurdling scream, running back toward them.
"SHUT THE DOOR BEFORE IT COMES BACK IN!" The maid hollered.
Because Maggie was in no condition to help, only Calloway and Grace could slam the door shut and hold it, feeling thunderous movements of the evil doll trying to get back in, even going so far as to poke holes in the door with the razor.
"Don't let the knife touch you Grace!" Calloway cried out, pushing the door closed. "Keep pushing."
"I'm trying Mrs. C. It's just that the thing outside is stronger than I thought."
The door kept on pounding until miraculously, the thundering came to a stop. The girls were confused and shocked at this sudden silence, but did not trust that the evil doll was gone for good and stayed in their spot.
The ghost maid broke the silence. "You can't stay in here forever. The doll could be coming back with a handful of corrupted spirits. And your friend is severely wounded. There is no time for me to explain, take the secret door inside the wall, quickly."
Wasting no time, the ghost maid vanished into the wall of the children's room, where a square section of it opened up to reveal a corridor lit up by torches.
"I'm not going to take any chances in waiting for that little monster to come bursting back in," said Mrs. Calloway as she and Grace went to help an injured Maggie up who was wincing from the pain in her back neck, still bleeding. "It's alright Maggie; I think we can trust the chambermaid. Just keep your head down and don't move it so high."
Having entered the secret corridor, the opening closed behind them in slow motion. Grace checked the bite mark on Maggie, which was severe and stained with blood.
"We still have some health potions left," She said, worry overtaking her. "I'm sure it will heal your neck."
Maggie could only nod, unable to say anything at the moment, feeling a bit in shock from the attack, partially in pain, and partially from what her mind could not process back there, as if slowly losing it. As she and her friends kept moving down the corridor to hopefully get as far away from that wicked toy, she reflected all that had happened from the very beginning, to how they got dragged down into this world. Before then, Maggie and her friends barely even believed in the existence of ghosts, ghouls, monsters, evil spirits, or life beyond the mortal realm infested with legendary entities. Three days ago, the world was a different place with them being oblivious to the horrors that dwelled in the shadows. Now to witness the grim reality of their situation really did chill her to the bone, and knew if they did get out of here alive, she would never make a mockery of another deceased person. At least, not until someone else in this mansion can tell them about the Grimshaw curse, as Maggie had this other feeling in the back of her troubled mind that there may be something that Willie was not telling them.
None of the girls said a word as they carried on for some time until they reached the end, entering a different ominous corridor…of doors.
"Now where are we?" Grace whimpered anxiously. "Why would the chamber maid lead us here?"
"I'm not sure Grace," Calloway replied, taking a health tonic out. "But it must lead somewhere." She made Maggie drink it up to heal her wounded neck, which faded away, taking away most of the pain.
"Here's a sign posted on the wall."
The girls read the notice: You are now in the Corridor of Nightmare Doors. Each door holds the key and the answer to every mortal's worst fear. To overcome death, you must answer the name of each phobia correctly. Pick the wrong answer and the nightmare will swallow you whole. Choose wisely.
"What does this all mean every mortal's worst fear?" Grace looked at the hall in confusion.
Growls, screams, pleading voices emanated from behind the doors, as if something was trying to get out of them. The doors were bending as if they were breathing, along with the doorknobs clacking and rattling, and the walls adorned with family portraits…of corpses hung on demon faced wallpaper.
"Don't tell me we have to open one of these doors to solve some kind of stupid riddle," Maggie cried in frustration. "Look at them, they're alive. I don't even trust what is behind them."
"But we got to at least try something?" Grace debated. "It might hold other clues. Let's try the first door."
She looked over at a door painted and coated entirely in black with a skeleton symbol crossed with bones. When Grace used her hoof to turn the knob, she was interrupted too late by Mrs. Calloway who had just recently read something diabolical on the map of where they were now at.
"NO GRACE, DON'T!"
But her warning came too late the moment Grace opened that black door and had only seconds to look up as a monstrous skeletal like creature appeared out of there and shrieked at her. A large icy blue chain flew from its mouth and wrapped itself around her neck and stomach. The monster then suddenly dived at Grace who suddenly became paralyzed with pure fear, her eyes widening as if they were going to come out of her head.
Then her world was suddenly consumed by blackness in a never-ending abyss of solitude, torment, and despair. Looking around with pure terror, Grace just saw blackness with no hope of escape. However, the next thing she heard were voices that sounded so familiar, from memories long ago that she would rather forget.
"No, bring back my baby!"
"Bring her back!"
Grace gasped loudly and reached out to the sweet voice that she thought she heard somewhere before, long ago, a gold light taking on a form. She attempted to run towards that figure, no matter how deep the darkness was to her, yet there was something else holding her back from going where she wanted. Suddenly, several lassos wrapped around Grace's neck and her ankles from behind and attempted to drag her away.
"Let me go! Someone is calling me!" screamed Grace, panic and a desperate need to fight back taking over her mind. "It sounds like…my mother!"
To her horror, the figure of what she believed to be her mother was fully consumed in black flames, her calls lost forever, but repeating in Grace's mind like lost memories. The black flames around the figure suddenly spiraled upwards into the air, and then forming a diabolical shape. To Grace, it resembled a nightmarish creature like no other, like a gargoyle with two giant like bat wings that spread out across the monster's back, and two flaming red eyes appeared on its head. It sneered at Grace as the lassos suddenly transformed into black tentacles, becoming tighter around her neck, causing her to cry out in pain. The monster spoke to her in a deep, dark voice.
"Why couldn't you reach her when you had the chance? You knew that she was calling for your name, but you were too small and weak to find your way back to her. It's no wonder she died of a broken heart, because of you!"
Grace's eyes widened in terror and guilt, losing full control of herself and screamed out in anguish, thrashing about violently to escape the nightmare of this bad memory, but the black tentacles only dragged her further away into the darkest abyss where two red eyes of pure evil and malice waited for her. As Grace continued to struggle for freedom, her ears were filled with the sound of barking. Opening her eyes, Grace thought that she'd be surrounded by a pack of wild, vicious dogs ready to feed on her flesh.
"Grace, wake up!"
The voices of her friends brought Grace back to reality as she blinked and found that the nightmarish vision had disappeared. Maggie and Mrs. Calloway were looking down at her with concerned eyes as she had been lying on the floor, shaking violently from a seizure.
"Grace?" Maggie spoke. "Are you alright? You were screaming and out of control."
"I think so," said Grace, rubbing her eyes gently. "But what just happened? And what was that thing?"
"You were attacked by a wraith."
The girls turned over to a voice that belonged to a figure standing a few inches from them in the hall. It was a spectral shaven older man with long white hair in a brown jacket, green scarf around his neck, a black hat and a holding a bright, glowing lantern in his right hand. And by his side was a phantom dog, skinny and shivering as if he were out in the cold.
"Never open the black doors in this forbidden hallway," he said firmly. "That creature is called a wraith. Tortured souls of mortals that have committed the most evil of deeds from above this world. Destroyed by the entity that now controls them as its puppets. What they see, the demon of Grimshaw Manor sees into the minds of all that have died here and never escaped."
"Can we destroy them?" Mrs. Calloway asked, wondering which weapon would work against them.
"Yes," the man answered. "But not with physical weapons. Light is one of their weaknesses, the same as magic spells and enchanted weaponry such as a wizard's staff."
"You mean like this one?" Grace asked, showing the caretaker the staff of light that they had retrieved from the cemetery grounds.
"Where did you find that?"
"In the cemetery."
"Then you're in luck," the caretaker smiled. "But let me introduce myself. I'm Theodore Krum. And this is my companion buddy Tobias." He patted his dog on the head. "I don't have much time to explain everything, nor is it too safe to talk about it in this hall. But I will say that you'll need help from someone who knows more about what's behind these doors. If anything happens, do not worry about us. We are already dead and nothing can harm us."
"But what about us?" Maggie asked.
Without answering her question, Theodore Krum opened the first door containing what appeared to be a symbol of a spider embedded in front. Glancing around to make sure there was nothing waiting in ambush, he let the girls in to have a look, ignoring the door closing by itself. With their first step into the room, they could feel that this place was colder than the rest of the house, cold enough to make them shiver. Other than the stale smell, nothing seemed out of the ordinary in this empty room. Except for a sign on the wall which appeared to be a chalk board written with a question: What word would you best use to describe the fear of spiders in the mortal world?
"I hate riddles," Maggie moaned. "Are we supposed to write on this thing or shout out the word?"
Before Theodore could answer that, a sudden chill swept over the girls, overtaken with the uneasy feeling that they were being watched, suddenly seeing spider webs that was not there before. That was when dozens of large black spiders came out of their hiding places, some lowering themselves by the string of the thread. They flooded out onto the floor and swarmed over the creaking boards and walls.
"I HATE SPIDERS!" Grace screamed, jumping back and trying to reach for the bug spray in their inventory while struggling to keep the ugly creatures from climbing onto her.
"Shout out the definition to fear of spiders!" Theodore called out to the girls, kicking, stomping, and brushing away the ugly creatures. "It's the only way to get rid of them. Surely you know what it means."
"Wait a minute, that's it!" Maggie eyes widened with hope.
"What's it Maggie?" Grace cried.
"Every phobia has a name for everything. The fear of spiders is what you call…ARACHNOPHOBIA!"
The spiders suddenly retreated into the dark corners of the room and disappeared. That wasn't all. By the time the spiders were all gone; the chalk board turned around on its own and out popped four soul stones, red, pink, yellow, and blue which the girls added in their inventory.
"Always remember to shout out the name of each phobia before the fear gets out of hand and consumes you all," Theodore advised, opening the door back out in the hall. "Right this way now."
With Theodore's help, the girls were able to overcome and conquer the second phobia room which was the fear of snakes known as Ophidiophobia where they were nearly surrounded and strangled in the coils of different snake breeds that slithered out of cracks and holes, some even poisonous which would have killed them if the word for snake fears had not been shouted out in time. Their reward for this was three more soul stones of purple, orange, and green.
Then there was the third room where the floor suddenly stretched and rose higher and higher as the group clung for dear life on the platform wobbling, with the ceiling becoming out of reach, described as the fear of heights called Acrophobia. Five more colored stones of magenta color were the reward.
The fourth room hardly even looked like a room, and instead was like an opening to a forest landscape where they were attacked by vicious canines, snarling and foaming at the mouth, showing their sharp, pointed teeth. Some of them had already succeeded in taking a bite out of Maggie's front left leg before she was getting ready to shout out the name of the phobia, so Theodore had to give it to Grace, which was Cynophobia, being the fear of dogs. The reward for this was six to eight colored stones of green, blue, and red. Most of them contained the souls of dogs and cats.
By now the girls learned to conquer the rest of the doors containing the fear of bugs, rodents, cockroaches, bats, clowns, thunder and lightning, dolls, and darkness. And with no more doors to enter, and saving lots more colored stones of lost souls, it was time for Theodore and his dog Tobias to lead the girls down into a new opening, revealed to be a dark tunnel in the walls that he said was the way to Madame Zora's chamber called the séance room.
"Hey Theodore," Grace finally spoke after a long moment of silence in the tunnel.
"Yes, what is it?" Theodore asked, not even turning as he kept facing forward, holding the lantern upward.
"Is there anything you can tell us about the first people that lived in this mansion? Like what did they do for a living before the curse happened, do you remember?"
Theodore shrugged his shoulders. "I'm afraid that I don't know that much about Gilbert Grimshaw other than the rumors passed on. Before then, I spent my days working in the graveyard with Tobias at my side, never questioning the personal affairs of the family as I thought it was none of my business to know what they did behind closed doors. However, I was there when tragedy struck at the time of the mansion's construction. Nobody could explain how it happened with some claiming it to be the work of supernatural forces from a being not of the mortal world that one of us might have angered. I didn't want to believe it, not until I then heard about the rumors from one of the servants that they accidentally discovered a black magic cult deep within a secret chamber behind a door that's hidden somewhere down in the library where Master Gilbert forbade anyone other than himself and these mysterious strangers from entering."
"Down in the library?" Maggie questioned.
Theodore nodded his head. "It was the chamber maid Henrietta who told me this, begging me to quit my job while I had the chance before it was too late. I didn't listen because I wasn't the kind of man to believe in anything without seeing it. She told me that she heard from Master Gilbert that a curse might have been placed upon him and the entire estate, believing they have gone too far with all this macabre delving and conducting ritual sacrifices, and could have possibly awakened an ancient evil from beyond the world of man, blaming it for the misfortunes that have been going on. He believed that whatever was conjured forth had not only claimed the lives of humans, but stole the souls of those that died within the mansion, unable to move on from where they had died because of the curse that won't allow it. Me and Tobias here are one of them, cursed to wander and haunt the mansion grounds for eternity, unless someone from above can help find a way to break the curse. But the chances of that ever happening are a million to one. The thing that dwells in this mansion lies in wait for unwary visitors. It hungers for the blood of the living, and the souls of the dead."
"That sure isn't the kind of campfire story I would want to hear, even at Halloween time," Grace whimpered. "I'm not even sure I can listen to such stories the same way again after this."
"Is that all you know about this Gilbert guy?" Maggie asked, trying to ignore some of the tiny spiders crawling a few cobwebs on the tunnel walls.
"Madame Zora can tell you the rest of the story," Theodore answered. "She knows about the family bloodline more than anyone else who has ever lived here. Everyone should be waiting in the séance room as they feel safer there than out in the halls, in fear of becoming corrupted with dark powers by the demon of Grimshaw Manor."
"Those poor things," Grace said with sympathy. "I can't imagine what they must be going through."
"Believe me Miss, there is more to hear."
The group kept on moving until they reached what looked like a dead end, until Theodore pulled a nearby string from above, and the wall moved aside, making a scrapping sound.
"Ladies first," Theodore stepped aside to let the girls enter into the chamber.
Moving on inside, the chamber was a large circular room of some sort with a large circular table and a high backed chair in the center of the room. Several candles flickered in a far corner; a sweet aroma like strong perfume filled the air. But it wasn't lavender. With a black raven perched upon the back of the chair.
Not knowing whether the creature was real or fake, the sight of it still made the girls creeped out by its slight breathing, as if waiting to pounce on whatever prey passed on by.
"Hello, Madame Zora," Theodore broke the silence, calling out to the raven. "I found them, just like you asked of me."
"Are you talking to the bird?" Mrs. Calloway asked, turning to face the caretaker.
"Bird, who are you calling a bird?"
A high woman's voice startled the girls as they turned to find that the raven opened its eyes, which were the color of red, flapping its wings at a fast pace.
"Did that bird just speak?" Maggie gasped.
"I'm not a bird," the raven snapped. "I'm in the form of a raven. It's a disguise I use so that the evil spirits dwelling in the mansion don't take any interest in and believe I'm one of them."
Before their eyes, the raven flew off the chair and transformed into a blue skinned woman, plump and wearing a handkerchief over her head, having dark curly hair, a long scarlet gown covered with mirrored beads.
"It's about time you showed up Theodore," Madame Zora said sharply, her eyes like a cat's, full of mystery and wonder. "I don't want to wait another year for more victims to join us in these walls." The gypsy woman snapped her fingers, causing a puff of smoke to appear in the center of the table, and clearing away to reveal a magnificent crystal ball, big as a globe and perfectly clear. Sitting on the chair, Madame Zora cleared her throat and adjusted herself comfortably. "I don't need to introduce myself as you three already know who I am. And I do know what it is you seek. I'm rather impressed as you took your sweet time coming all this way since the start of the first challenge in the museum."
"How did you know about that?" Grace felt her eyes widening in shock.
"Madame Zora sees all," the gypsy woman answered. "I can see everything that goes on with the help of the crystal ball, the only way to see what goes on outside the mansion. Unfortunately, I have sadly witnessed the demise of other adventurers that were not so lucky when they met their end and transformed into whatever nightmarish form Willie had chosen. I should have seen this coming before I sold that amulet."
"Amulet, which one do you mean?" Maggie tested, having a feeling deep down that it would be an answer she hated to hear.
Madame Zora waved her hand in protest. "Now hold on. I will get to that soon enough. I figure Theodore over there has told you about the curse of the Grimshaw Mansion has he not?"
Grace nodded in response. "He has, but we heard about it first from Willie outside the gates, about this man named Gilbert who built the place for his beloved wife after they got married, right before mysterious deaths started to happen."
Madame Zora frowned in suspicion. "But did he ever tell you where the mansion was located?"
"Well he did say something about the story happening somewhere in a place called Salem where…"
BANG!
The girls flinched when Madame Zora pounded on the table with her fists in a hard manner.
"That's a lie!" she snarled. "There never was a mansion built in the town of Salem. It's all a lie Willie used to prevent you of all other former gamers from finding out the truth. That's what he does, using lies to cheat his way to victory, which is what happened to the others before you." Madame Zora swept her palms over the glass globe, her fingernails revealed to be long and painted red. "Now ask me the most important question you have, so I can consult the crystal ball."
In desperation, Maggie got in between her two friends to push them gently aside.
"Yes, I got one. If what you say is true and not just one con after another, if this mansion was never located in the town Willie mentioned to us, then where was it built specifically?"
"First I must tell you more about Gilbert Grimshaw for I doubt that no good Willie told you the whole story about him has he not?"
The girls shook their head in response.
"No, I didn't think so. And you won't find the whole truth out in the halls, rooms, and corridors either for Willie made sure of that in case you made it this far. He's never one to play fair either." She cleared her throat and closed her eyes, swirling her palms over the clear glass, swaying back and forth as she muttered something in an unfamiliar language that the girls couldn't make out. Suddenly, Madame Zora sat very still and opened her eyes, peering into the crystal ball. "Aha, now I see it."
There appeared a vision of an elderly man wearing full masonic regalia, looking like a ruthless monarch coldly surveying his conquered empire.
Madame Zora began her version of the legend. "Long ago, Gilbert Grimshaw was the Grand Master of the cult movement that called themselves The Dark Knights, an ancient race of beings that have dwelled the earth for a thousand years, holding ceremonies of ritual chants and sacrifices that would allow communication with the world of the paranormal. Their goal was to seek ultimate power over the land of the dead and use that to alter the land of the living in their own way, spending ages searching for and collecting mystical objects they believed to be keys to other worlds. Some of them were even descendants of the accused women during the age of the Salem witch trials, fleeing that town to avoid getting captured. Before the construction of the mansion, Gilbert had heard the legends and myths surrounding the land where shadows dwell, better known as Phantom Gulch."
The girls were shocked, remembering what they had forgotten before the start of the games.
"Phantom Gulch?" Maggie blurted out. "I almost forgot. It's from the same story I told my friends here. But are you saying that…" She was at a loss for words.
Madame Zora went on with her story. "I'm afraid so. Gilbert decided that he would build the mansion at the epicenter of Phantom Gulch, right where he sensed the spiritual energy at its strongest core, on top of a hill overlooking the river and the abandoned boomtown that used to be there until the gold ran out. With this mansion, he and his cult would form their secret meetings down below, believing nobody would ever find out of their true intentions, each member given their own key to the chamber without having to rely on only one key. Local natives and town elders warned that Phantom Gulch was the resting place of an ancient evil that lied deep below the earth for centuries, and was believed to have the power to command the shadows and all that died there, be it man or beast. To construct anything on the land of impurity would surely enrage the dark, evil spirits and threaten the very existence of any man that dares to enter that realm and become cursed as a wandering, restless spirit. It was this ancient evil that haunted the hearts of the natives followed by the age of the pioneers. Gilbert Grimshaw being the blindsided fool he was chose not to heed these warnings and went along with the construction."
Madame Zora took a deep breath, the image in the crystal ball showing the mansion, brand new and constructed. "As the years went by, Gilbert and his wife Rosetta had a son and daughter named Alistair and Clarissa. But they were never a happy family. For you see Gilbert's fascination with the occult and obsession for knowledge and power showed him to be a bitter, cruel, dark man and was increasingly possessive of his daughter while trying to make his son the future heir to the Dark Knight leadership. Never did Gilbert approve of the suitors that pursued romance with Clarissa and his psychotic behavior led for him to arrange for the sacrificial deaths down in the forbidden chamber, hidden deep below the mansion where the Dark Knights gathered on the eve of each new moon to conduct blood sacrifices after the study and performance of long forgotten rituals, having gathered incantations from forbidden texts and ancient scrolls over the past several decades. It was through their arcane rites that awakened the same evil force that dwells throughout Phantom Gulch, who silently watch and waited, biding its time to make its presence known to the Dark Knights. When it finally made contact with them, it leads the cult members to believe that they had finally communicated with the good spirits. But it was this blind faith that prevented any of the members from seeing through the deception that used the cult to take advantage of their beliefs and do its bidding. Whatever order they were given, the Dark Knights would believe anything they were told and that was where the blood sacrifices started…with animals, appeasing it's thirst before it then demanded human sacrifices. If Gilbert had been any wiser than he was before, he would have stopped and sealed the forbidden chamber, disbanding the Dark Knights. But he didn't. His ambition and lust for power had grown and there was no stopping it, not even when his target for human sacrifices would involve the suitors that he would not allow to take Clarissa away from him. However, one day before Gilbert had the chance to sacrifice the last romantic heir, he had retreated to the secret chamber and never emerged, sparking rumors among the mansion staff about the events surrounding his disappearance. And as far as I know, his wife Rosetta fell dreadfully ill and died long after Clarissa left the mansion with her beloved husband, free of her evil, controlling father, shedding no tears for him, but only for her mother.
"Years afterward, when Gilbert disappeared, his son Alistair inherited the mansion and its macabre secrets, becoming the next Grand Master of the Dark Knights to find out what happened to his father. From there he went down into the crypt and was fixated upon his occult activities and obsession with knowledge and power, growling crueler and diabolical as Gilbert, neglecting his entire family.
"Neglected by their father, Amos and Bettina were never allowed to leave the mansion grounds, denied the right to make any friends their age, and were refused entry into the library without an escort, causing the two to find friends with only Henrietta the chambermaid and Nathan Nelson the butler. Every night as the two children slept, an unknown voice whispered to them, reciting the same nursery rhymes in the book that was kept in between the two beds, filling their young heads with twisted thoughts and playing upon their weaknesses, as if using a specific form to gain their trust and summon them over to the library against their father's wishes.
One day while the chambermaid and butler were too busy to spend time with the children, Amos and Bettina snuck into their father's study to take the key to the secret chamber and entered the library where they had found the vault behind a bookcase. And by the evil one's demand, the two seemed to be under some kind of hypnotic trance, having been followed by their mother, Rosetta who watched in horror as her two children ambled listlessly toward this gigantic, monstrous abomination, moving their arms upward as if to embrace it. Their mother screamed and ran to stop them from getting any closer, holding onto her children protectively."
"What would the monster want with those poor children?" Grace asked, edgy from the dark history of the Grimshaw bloodline and the occult.
"It was believed that the dark entity was the same thing that was conjured forth by the Dark Knights accidentally," Madame Zora answered. "And it was hungry for the blood of the siblings, possibly having manifested their dreams and nightmares, waiting until the little ones were most vulnerable enough to deceive them into thinking it were harmless and innocent, wanting nothing more than to be their playmate. That is how evil spirits work. They make their move once the target is vulnerable to use a form of manipulation to do their bidding.
"Alerted by the commotion down in the chamber, Alistair rushed down to find his wife and children encountering the horrifying abomination, which left him terrified out of his wits to realize too late what he had done, and tried to save them from the vile force, fearing that they had been chosen for the next sacrifice and attempted to use one of the scrolls to send it back to the netherworld. But one look at that monster, and Alistair thought that it had the face of his father, Gilbert. Only he was no longer living, and no longer human. If it was Gilbert he saw, there was no doubt he must have somehow become one with the evil spirit and merged on the day he disappeared, going into a dormant sleep-like state since then.
"Before Alistair had the chance to perform the exorcism on the beast, it was too late. Strange shadows began to rise from the spot where Rosetta still held onto her unresponsive children, encircling them as they remained helpless and screaming, completely covered. Within seconds, his wife and children had disappeared before his eyes. Next the demonic Gilbert made its move onto Alistair, snapping his neck and clawing his face deeply, before the black shadows engulfed his body into dust.
"And that's where I, Madame Zora came in, a traveling gypsy fortune teller contacted in secret by one of the chambermaids behind Alistair's back when they had discovered by accident what had been happening below the mansion. It was too late for me or anyone to save Master Alistair and his family by the time I had rushed down there. But it was not too late to perform an entrapment spell and hopefully save the entire household from meeting the same grim fate as the last of the Grimshaw bloodline. With a copy of the scroll Alistair failed to perform, and by holding out a ruby talisman from my jewelry collection, the beast was sucked right in, trapped and entombed by the spell. To hopefully put the nightmare behind us, I volunteered to take the talisman far away and toss it where no man would ever find it. But on my mission, I met Gold Tooth Willie…and sold the talisman to him."
AN: Well it looks like the truth comes out with the Grimshaw family bloodline and their dark, macabre history that lead to all this mess with the hauntings, the spirit realms, and the existence of Phantom Gulch. Not only that, but we finally learn the origins of the ruby talisman and how the demon got in there. But it's not over yet, so stay tuned for the rest of the tale to what should be learned with Willie's curse. By the way, most of what is written had me inspired and paid tribute to the Haunted Mansion at Disney parks and other spooky albums having to do with haunted houses with the legends behind the hauntings.