Meadow slowly climbed the stairs to the attic. She was going to be married. This lump in her throat wouldn't go away. She was excited, nervous, scared…but also happy. This was going to be her day…and nothing would go wrong.

When Meadow entered the attic, she saw her wedding dress on the mannequin, sparking in the little sunlight that streamed through the attic windows. The only reason she was in the attic in the first place was because it was the only room with a boudoir, and none of the other rooms had been prepared for her.

Meadow didn't mind though; she loved the attic's quaint, homey atmosphere. Little toys and forgotten antiques rest in the attic peacefully, and as Meadow put on her dress, she smiled at how pleasant this house was.

The prenups had already been written, the guests were arriving, and the ballroom had been prepared. Just as Meadow put her gossamer veil over her beautiful blond hair, she heard a creaking noise.

"Hello?" She called, leaning to see if someone was at the door. It had opened, and now was silently shutting due to bad hinges.

"William, is that you?" Meadow asked, looking around with a little smile, "You know you're not supposed to see the bride before her wedding!"

All of a sudden, a hand clamped over her mouth. A person had grabbed her, and was forcing her towards a corner of the attic. She tried to scream, tried to turn her head, but she couldn't see who had a hold of her. Suddenly, everything went black.

When Meadow regained consciousness, everything was black. She was cramped in a tight space, her legs stiff and cramped. Meadow was in a box of some sort, but she couldn't figure out what. She tried to open it, but it was tightly locked. Screaming and desperately trying to get out for hours, Meadow ran out of air. She died of asphyxiation.

No one knew where she was until a few months later. They previously thought she had jilted William, until someone found her in the trunk. When the housekeepers opened it, they were shocked to find her in there – her beautiful dress stained with blood, her fingers peeled to the bone, clawing marks all over the inside of the trunk.

"Okay, so how do I break the spell, or curse, or whatever it is?" Rick asked Leota.

"You have to get to William himself. But to reach him you'll have to enter his study, which is completely locked."

"What do you mean, 'completely?'?"

"There are five keys hidden throughout the Mansion. Each of them undoes a lock on William's study. Some of them won't be hard to find. Others may be a little more difficult. I have the first one right here." Suddenly, a purple key appeared out of nowhere, hovering in midair. Rick cautiously grabbed it.

"You need to hurry. If Master Gracey finds out you're here…you could meet the same fate as all of those other innocent souls."

"But how do I stop Gracey after I get in his study?"

"Very simple. William has a magical barrier of some sort around that room that I can't penetrate. Once the door is open, I'll be able to use my magic to defeat him once and for all."

"This is ridiculous. I'm not even supposed to believe in all this stuff!"

"Believe it, honey. Or you'll soon be part of it."

"Okay. I can do this. Four keys, that's it! All I need are four little keys, so I can stop a maniacal ghost from killing me, and also saving the soul of a teenage kid in the process."

He stopped, and pulled the little key out of his pocket. It had an amethyst stone imbedded in one end, and the actual key part was a faded purple color.

"I can't believe this. This can't get worse."

But when he returned the key to his pocket and looked back up the hallway, there was someone there.

A girl.

Her scraggly brown hair was in front of her eyes, a la "The Ring." And she was wearing a pink dress. Stained with blood.

"Hello?" Rick called, not able to look at the young girl's face. The girl said nothing.

Rick slowly approached her, and continued talking.

"Can you help me? I'm looking for some keys, and-"

He was cut off when the girl threw her head back, causing her hair to move, allowing Rick to see her face.

She was hideous. One of her eyes was missing, her skin was a hideous gray color, and her mouth seemed to have no jaw.

"What are you doing here. Get out," The girl said, in an unnaturally deep voice.

"Holy sh-" But he never got to finish.

The girl's jaw stretched down to an unbelievable length, down to her waist, and she screamed the loudest and most horrific sound Rick had ever heard.

The girl was a banshee.

Covering his ears didn't help, and Rick fell to the floor, eyes scrunched shut. He felt like he was going to throw up, the noise was that hideous. The girl moved closer to him, and finally Rick pulled one hand away from his ear, reached into his pocket, pulled out his gun, and fired.

The bullet went right through the girl's forehead.

She stopped screaming and with her one eye, looked up at the bloodless wound. She turned back to Rick, gave him a glare, and then fell through the floor, disappearing to another part of the mansion.

Panting, Rick held on to his gun tightly. He knew he got lucky that time – most of the other ghosts would be transparent. He stood up, shaking, and continued through the house.

Soon Rick found himself in the ballroom. It was a huge place, with ornate tiled floors and a large, dusty organ on one side of the room. The whole place seemed to be frozen in time; there wasn't a soul in the room (no pun intended), but it seemed like there had been a party going on, many years ago. Old, dusty food, and a birthday cake were on the table, along with elegant china settings. The cake looked like it had the imprint of someone's profile on it. The setup reminded him of Miss Havisham from Dickens' "Great Expectations."

A clock chimed thirteen somewhere.

Wait…thirteen?...had he counted that right?