The Conservatory was dimly lit, as faint moonlight filtered in at the far end of the room. Sabrina blinked, adjusting her eyes to the dimness. When did it become night? A large glass dome-like window covered the far end of the room, where the pale blue light shone on a dusty piano, with pieces of sheet music scattered everywhere.

It was too dark to make out the rest of the room's furnishings, but there appeared to be a desk about ten feet in front of her, covered with books and other items. A 'welcoming committee' of clawed ghosts swirled out of the air in front of her, arms outstretched to attack.

Sabrina momentarily panicked, then regained her composure and began showering bursts of light in a wide arc until she could be absolutely certain that the specters were gone. I guess I'm getting used to this thing much quicker than I'd believed. It's not that hard once you figure out the trick to it—it's like casting a spell, but using a different energy source than your own magic. Looking around, Sabrina squinted, trying to make out the location of the switch. Maybe it was near the door, she guessed. As she turned, she nearly crashed into something tall and heavy.

Sabrina let out a strangled scream as she stumbled back. Oh dear God, please don't let it be Thorne!

She dropped to the ground, instantly wrapping her arms over her head. Her hands trembled, the Beacon banging lightly against her ear. When nothing ripped her head off, she dared to turn her head upwards and look.

On a lectern maybe five feet tall was propped an open book. Reminds me of the magic book back home… Sabrina wasn't sure if the similarity to her own magic textbook was what prompted her to look at it, or maybe just the curiosity to see what kind of books existed in this place, but she was not sorry afterwards.

As she touched the book, it seemed to flip open almost of its own accord. The pages slid smoothly to fall open at one particular entry. Sabrina cast a basic 'glow-spell,' gathering energy at the tip of her finger and creating a small light enough to read by. I shouldn't create these too much—I don't want Thorne to know where we are by tracking down my magical energy. As she bent down to squint at the text, Sabrina could almost imagine a voice narrating the cramped, handwritten text. A cold, dry, sardonic voice, made bitter by endless years…

Tome of Shadows

Volume I

Page 734

Years have passed since our defeat. But we do not sleep yet, and the plague has proven quite effective at reducing the Brotherhood's number. Folly it was to believe we were no longer a threat and to lower their defenses. For, as the shadows crawl eastward from the setting sun, so too does the reach of the order—extending to encircle the globe.

A. Thorne

Grand Master

The Order of Shadows

October 31st, 1349 A.D.

Salem snorted. "Power trip."

Sabrina frowned, running a finger over the date of the entry. "Salem, it says 1349."

Salem tossed his head in airy unconcern. "So? …Oh…" His eyes widened as he realized the full import of the date. He shifted uncomfortably.

"Unless there are two men named Atticus Thorne at the head of the Order of Shadows—which I highly doubt—this can mean only one thing." Sabrina slowly let go of the book, extinguishing the glow-spell. "Atticus Thorne is a witch, like me."

Leota blinked. "Pardon?"

"That's the only explanation for the book being written in the 14th century, and for him to be still alive in the 20th century, today. It's the only explanation of how he could have obtained the power to…to do whatever he's done to this place." She sighed, raising a hand to her forehead and rubbing it. "The abnormally long lifespan, summoning some demons, raising energy barriers, placing curses…it all fits."

"Great." Salem seemed to deflate from his perch at her feet. "Just great."

"You're telling me." She smacked her forehead in frustration. Turning around to begin searching the room, she found herself facing a second wave of ghosts. "My day just keeps getting better, huh?" Doubly frustrated, Sabrina began blasting them with no abandon. It was when she spotted the small wave of spiders inching towards her that she…as in Salem's terminology, 'went postal.'

It was only when Leota and Salem began screaming at her to stop that Sabrina realized she'd been shrieking and spraying the room with blasts of light energy.

Rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, Sabrina scooted to the corners of the room to investigate.

Walking towards the far end of the room, Sabrina made her way to the dusty, moonlit piano. She casually flipped through the various pieces of sheet music laid across the instrument. "Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner…" she murmured. "The classics, of course." As she was examining another sheet to determine the composer, she stopped.

Something orange—with way too many legs—was edging along the far left side of the window, and then crawled out of view.

Sabrina bit her lip, and immersed herself in safely placing the sheet of paper back on the piano. "Hey, Leota," she called, trying to distract herself, "how 'bout you ask your ghost buddies for a hint?"

Leota sighed. "You're the detective, shouldn't you be finding the hints?" she muttered. When she received no response, she closed her eyes, focusing on the invisible web of spiritual energy permeating the room.

"To reach those heights, you'll need a hand; to get some help, just join the band."

What heights? Almost instinctively, she craned her head backwards and looked to the higher corners of the room. There were darker shadows, which could probably be balconies, she guessed.

"What band?" groused Salem. "That's the trouble with these ghostly hints—they're never specific when you need them to be."

Leota sighed. "Like I said before, she's the detective, so she needs to decipher the clues, not me."

Ignoring the conversation that was taking place behind her, Sabrina bit her lip, absent-mindedly tracing patterns in the dust on the top of the piano. Okay, girl, think. 'Join the band.' Band…what band? Come on—there has to be something in this room that would tie in with 'band.' Band…music…um…

Sabrina's hand brushed against a piece of sheet music laying on the piano. The paper floated softly off the hardwood surface, ghosted along her skirt, and fell gently on top of her boots. Almost mechanically, she bent and retrieved the errant document.

With a start, she realized what she was holding. Sheet music! For an instrument! THAT was what they must have meant!

Eagerly, she plopped onto the piano stool, and hesitantly opened the cover. The ivory keys, stained a pale yellow with age, sat in a smooth row, at attention, almost. Although Aunt Hilda's forte was the violin, she had carefully taught Sabrina a few pieces of piano music over the summer.

Gently, Sabrina's fingers plunked out the melody of one of her favorite songs. Carefully (she was NOT the best singer in the world, unlike Salem, who crooned to himself whilst he preened in the mirror), she began to sing along.

"Say you'll share with me one love…one lifetime…say the word, and I will follow you…" she tapered off, her throat burning from trying to match the pitches. Sarah Brightman makes this sound SO easy…

Salem coughed. "Nice…"

Leota briefly considered rolling the crystal ball over his tail, but dismissed it as too much effort.

However, as if the music had awakened some latent spirit inside the instrument, a gentle, tinkling harmony flowed out of the piano. Sabrina sat, spellbound and delighted by the music.

"It's like having one of those player pianos, but not actually," she giggled, relaxing for a brief moment.

"Sa-Sabrina…you…might want to look at this," Salem stuttered from behind her.

Her grin replaced with a quizzical frown, the witch spun around on the stool to see…

Floating books. Lots of them.

"Oh, wow." Sabrina blinked.

"This can't be good," Leota mumbled.

"I didn't do it! For once!" Salem bleated.

Sabrina slowly rose off the stool, and hesitantly approached the books. The books swarmed around her in a cloud, before settling into a platform by her feet.

"Sabrina, I don't think that's such a great idea," Salem whimpered.

"Just relax," she told him evenly. "Let me try this." Carefully, Sabrina swung her foot onto the book-platform. She cautiously pressed her weight upon it. It held. Letting her other foot join the first, she pressed again. The platform held as firmly as before. Shrugging, she stepped forward.

More books flew to make a staircase of sorts in the air. With sudden, reckless abandon, Sabrina sprang forward. As she jumped from book to book, Sabrina found herself laughing, while Leota and Salem watched open-mouthed.

I never thought I'd say this, but this is fun!

The curving trail ended at a platform along the one wall. Reluctantly, Sabrina stepped onto the solid stone surface and looked around. She noticed a violin lying on a table at the far end. Carefully, she made her way over to it, and gently picked it up.

Sabrina had never actually learned how to actually play the violin, despite Aunt Hilda being a violin instructor, but she knew to hold the instrument and the bow, and at least play the scales. Tucking it under her chin, she picked up the bow and laid it across the strings. She gently pulled it across and back, slowly starting up the scale.

An image of Aunt Hilda, playing the same instrument, flashed across her mind. Will I ever see Aunt Hilda again?

As her eyelids fluttered down, a single teardrop slid from her eye. She was too preoccupied to notice a steel spiral staircase unwind from the floor and attach itself to the platform. She didn't notice the violin began to play of its own accord, a soft, sad melody rippling from its strings.

She DID notice the three squeaking spiders on the ground, however.

Screaming, Sabrina flew down the staircase to squish them under her black boots. "DIE!" she screamed, forgetting to blast them with the Beacon.

Salem's eye twitched. "That's it. When we get back, she is going on Prozac."

Her rage fueled by the arachnids, Sabrina flung herself at the ghosts materializing from the ceiling and drifting downwards.

"You know, I almost feel sorry for Thorne when I think about what he's got himself into," Leota grinned, watching the blonde hurl spheres of light at the specters.

"Almost," Salem drawled as he stretched and curled up around the ball. No matter where one was, it always behooved one to take a brief, refreshing nap.

Leota chuckled, and swiveled around to track the girl's progress. Sabrina had climbed the stairs back up, and was maneuvering another flying book path across the room. This one was a bit trickier, Leota surmised, with moving platforms and books that suddenly dropped out from under your feet.

Sabrina leaped onto the opposite platform, wiping some sweat from her eyes. "It's a good thing I spent so many hours playing Super Mario," she grinned, "because I never thought I'd encounter a platform game in real life."

She paused and looked down. A spider was trying to wiggle its way up her boot, with two more of its friends waiting next to it. The blood drained from her face.

Salem briefly opened his eyes, and then shut them as Sabrina screamed and began stomping more vigorously than before. Leota yawned while the Spirit Detective began flailing wildly.

Finally, the evil spiders had met a rather painful demise.

Sabrina blinked, faced with a rather large cello propped in the corner. "Okay, I have absolutely NO idea how to do this," she groaned, rubbing the back of her head.

"Try it the same way as the violin," offered Leota.

Maneuvering herself behind the behemoth, Sabrina squatted. I feel like an idiot. She began to slowly work the bow across the strings like the violin, and was relieved to hear an up-tempo, almost jazz-like tune pour forth.

A matching staircase on the other side of the room wound its way to the library platform above it. The enchanted books flew across to form a final path. This one was more complicated, with a flurry of books moving like a curtain that she had to dodge. Once she leaped onto the final platform, she sighed with relief to see the light switch just within reach.

Lamps attached to the ceiling flickered, then burst into light. Oddly, the otherworldly music slowed and faded away. Two spiral staircases sprung from the sides of this platform, which was actually above the door. Puffing her chest out with pride, Sabrina made her way triumphantly down the stairs.

A small army of spiders was scurrying across the floor. "SPIDERS!" Sabrina screamed, blasting away with the Beacon.

Leota and Salem laughed nervously as she prowled around the room, searching the furniture. A scrap of paper fluttered from the last vase she checked, and Sabrina quickly scooped it up.

Fascinated, she watched as the pieces seemed to fuse together, and she could make out a picture. "Leota, what's this?" she asked, bringing the piece of paper to the psychic.

The square of paper showed a man dressed like a character from Gone with the Wind. Clenching a pistol in his fist, he was peering around a curtain, a look of complete suspicion and determination etched on his face. A door in the background was flung wide open, white light illuminating a dark figure with an outstretched pistol.

Leota sighed. "That's Colonel Sartoris' Death Certificate, all right. These show their memories of how they died," she explained, in a gentle tone.

Sabrina's lip quivered briefly. "So he was shot from behind. How horrible…" her voice trailed away in contemplation.

Leota sighed again. "He's an honorable one, all right…never could stand any form of injustice, or went against his honor code." She set her jaw. "HE would never have shot an opponent from behind."

Sabrina's fists clenched for a moment, and she angrily finished collecting the wayward spirits that remained.

The odor of decay slipped out of the room, and suddenly, five ghosts materialized in the middle of the room.

"Hey, fellas? FELLAS?" a ghost holding a trumpet exclaimed in a nasal tone. "Can we try it again?"

"Aye!" A potbellied ghost carrying bagpipes agreed. "Le's start o'er, lads."

"What about the cow bells?" whined a third carrying a harp. "I think there should be more cow bells."

The ghost to his right, dressed like Paul Revere, nodded, jabbing his fife in the harpist's direction. "I'm with him. It could use more cow bells."

"All right then, let's start from the top," boomed the ghost at the head of the ring. He picked up his drum, attached it to his straps, and began a steady beat. "Tap your feet if you can't get into the rhythm!" he reminded them.

"Such a strange song," mused Sabrina, listening to the slightly eerie song drifting from the musicians.

Salem yawned, stretched, and leaped onto her shoulder. "When's naptime?" he murmured before settling into the bag with Leota.

Sabrina shook her head, laughter bubbling gently out of her throat.

Time to face the next room…

Author's Note:

Yes, I'm quite a fan of Phantom the Opera. (Fans of it will notice the little references in this chapter. I thought it was only fitting, being a music room.)

And Sabrina's arachnophobia is, indeed, being exploited for comedic purposes.

The six main ghosts that we're talking about-Leota's friends-weren't given actual names in the video game, just titles. I thought that was silly, so they will have actual names here.