"So what's the plan?" asked Courtney.
"We'll take them head on," George replied, "and we'll do what we do best: We'll scare them." The ghosts cheered and agreed enthusiastically. Myrriah, however, seemed a little doubtful.
"What's wrong?" asked Courtney, forgetting their argument just moments earlier.
"I don't think simple scares are going to work."
"What do you suggest?"
"Sabotage. I just got to find the right person…" She thought about it for a moment and then snapped her fingers. "Phineas. I'm going to go find him. I'll be back." She took off through the crowd to search for him.
Little Leota scoffed. "No one even suggested asking my mother if she had any ideas. No one even thought about inviting her to the meeting."
Courtney watched as the other spirits made their way outside to confront the construction crew. "Hey, Lee-Lee-"
"Little Leota!" Little Leota cried with an indignant stamp of her foot.
"Whatever, look, I need to talk to your mom about something."
The dead denizens of the mansion stared up at the cranes apprehensively. Many had not seen such bizarre, scary machinery. Cranes used to demolish and to dig sat in waiting, rumbling quietly like a purring cat stalking a mouse. Grey clouds gathered overhead threateningly.
"Right, boys," said a man in a stain covered work shirt, grubby jeans, and a hardhat. He wore a nametag that simply said 'Henry'. "Let's get this sucker down before it starts to storm."
"You know," said Dustin, sitting astride a very reluctant Rolly, who seemed to want nothing to do with the whole ordeal, "on this day, we face a more terrifying enemy than we have ever-"
"Get on with it!" shouted Ezra. The other members of their group shouted agreement.
Dustin sighed. "No one cares for a good going into battle speech anymore. Right, yes, well, charge!" He pointed forward with a horsewhip and ghosts rushed past him. Rolly turned and ran in the other direction. "No, Rolly! Wrong way boy!"
"So, do you have what we need?" Myrriah asked Phineas.
"Should have." He opened up his carpetbag and began rummaging around in it. He tossed out several boxes of microwave pizzas, a birdcage, what appeared to be an old movie script, "Meant to get that looked at by Spielberg," and various other junk. "Aha." He pulled out a long tool belt, which was fully equipped with every tool imaginable. "Time to get to work."
They snuck to different machines and proceeded to unscrew nuts and bolts and any little pieces that looked important. One that was unmanned actually started falling apart. Myrriah gave Phineas a high five. "Score," she cried.
Gus had discovered the crane that held the wrecking ball. He stared up at it fascinated. It certainly made his little shackle look puny. He jumped up into the driver's seat, scaring the poor man into jumping out. Gus cackled gleefully and rubbed his small hands together as he looked over the controls. It didn't look too difficult.
"Somebody's driving off with the wrecking ball!" one of the workers screamed. Everyone watched in horror as it took off down the street, with an odd little man driving it who was singing to himself. Several people chased after it, not knowing exactly what they would do once they caught up with it.
"Can't we go in and blow it up or something?" Henry asked a terrified construction worker.
"We can't, sir, there's suits of armor blocking the door."
"Well, just shove 'em aside. They're just metal suits for crying out loud."
"Not quite." The two men looked at the front porch. Brandishing huge axes and swords were two suits of armor. One looked at them, held out its hand and waved back at himself as if to say, "Bring it!"
"How do we get rid of the ghosts?" asked the worker.
"It's not ghosts," said Henry angrily. "It's some stupid illusion, like holograms and robots, like at the Disney parks."
"Do I look like a hologram to you, old chap?"
Henry slowly turned around. Dustin was clutching the horsewhip. He cracked it in the air mere centimeters from Henry's head. "Can a hologram do that?" Dustin asked.
Henry and the other construction worker bolted, with Dustin and Rolly at their heels and Dustin cracking the whip at their backsides. Henry pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and quickly dialed a number. "Get Michael out here!" he bellowed. "Ouch!" he yelped with a jump. "NOW! I don't care if he's in a meeting, we have some serious problems!" The cell phone was smacked out of his hand with the whip.
Meanwhile, Mr. Baker was in the ballroom, sitting at his organ. He was playing Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and cackling evilly. "Fly, my pretties, fly!" he cried as the skull wraiths flew out of the pipes. They soared out of the windows and began dive-bombing the workers, snarling and biting at their necks.
Total pandemonium ensued outside as ghosts chased after mortals. Two of the cranes had collapsed and no one knew where the wrecking ball was, (although, knowing Gus, Ezra guessed it was either in a lake or in Mexico). A large van sped down the road and pulled up to the mansion. It had a bizarre, psychedelic paint job, and large, fuzzy pink dice dangling from the rearview mirror. The doors opened and six teenagers, three boys and three girls younger than eighteen, jumped out.
"We demand you stop trying to demolish this house," shouted one of the boys.
Myrriah glanced in their direction and recognized one immediately. "Oh my God. Cody!"
"Yeah," cried Cody. He reached into the van and pulled out several signs and handed them to the others. "It's got as much of a right to stay here as you do!"
Myrriah slapped her hand over her face. "Cody, you clueless hippy wannabe. I hope he doesn't get out the guitar."
Cody reached into the van again and pulled out his guitar. "We're here to protest the senseless demolition of this beautiful mansion!"
"And the graveyard!" shouted one of the girls.
"Right, and the graveyard! This house is historic and you can't just tear it down!"
"Hey, look at all those guys dressed as ghosts!" said one of his friends. "Dude that's awesome!"
"I don't think those are costumes," said Cody slowly as he spotted Myrriah. "'Cause that's my little sister."
With tears in her eyes Myrriah ran to him. "Cody!" she cried.
For a second, he looked terrified, and then he just looked numb. "Myrriah?" he asked. He reached out a hand towards her and then pulled it back. Tears formed in his eyes and he hugged her. "Oh, sis, we've missed you so much. We visit every day, but…"
Visit? she thought. He must mean my grave. "I've missed you too." She didn't try to hold back her tears. "And I miss mom and dad," she sobbed. "And-and I miss the stupid songs you used to play, and arguing over the remote, and- and Cody I'm so sorry!"
"I'm sorry, too." He looked down at her. "Why are you here?"
Myrriah wiped away her tears and sniffed. "All of the ghosts live, uh, haunt here. It's our home."
"It doesn't seem right," said Cody. "You shouldn't be here."
"Courtney and I never tried to cross over and I didn't want to go back home."
"Courtney's here, too?"
She nodded. After looking around, she said, "I don't know where she is, though. Come to think of it, I haven't seen her out here." She happened to glance around Cody's shoulder. "Cody look out!"
He jumped just as a red sports car came to a screeching halt just a few feet away from where he had been standing. A man with reddish brown hair, an expensive suit, and sunglasses stepped out of the car. He looked to be in his early forties and he was in decent shape and was average height. He yanked off his sunglasses and looked down at his Italian loafers. He groaned with disgust at the sight of the dirt that he had gotten on them. "What the hell's going on?" he demanded.
"We're staging a protest," Cody explained, looking shocked. He had expected a "Sorry I nearly ran you over kid." He pushed his blond bangs out of his eyes and scowled. "Who are you?"
"Michael Burton, the owner of this property. So you need to get off it, punk!"
"Mike! It has been so long since I've seen you," gushed a deep voice.
With wide-eyed terror, Michael looked at the speaker. "You! I remember you!"
"I was hoping you would," said Master Gracey with his smug smile. "How have you and Karen been?"
"You stay away from me!"
"I'm honestly curious about this, Mike," said Master Gracey, his tone becoming dark, "how did you come to own my mansion, huh?"
"It doesn't matter!" cried Mike. "The point is, it's mine now and I'm turning it into the Liberty Square Mega Mall!"
"What about the ghosts and the tours? Don't you remember how much fun you had?"
"Fun! I've woken up every night with images of your dead body hanging from the rafters! I hate this place!"
"You can't just…" Before Master Gracey could say anything else, the sky became completely dark as clouds covered the sun. Thunder roared and the wind began to blow and howl. Lightning flashed across the sky and struck the mansion's bat shaped weather vane. Sickly green light filled the house and poured out of the windows. "Oh no!"
"What is it?" Myrriah had to scream to be heard above the storm.
"Leota!"