I couldn't believe there was no one home. Even when Leona vanished Mama and Daddy and Emily there was somebody around. But now, when I called out, no one answered me. I walked from room to room, calling out, hoping that someone would hear me. By the time I screamed myself hoarse, somebody answered me.

"Christy? Is that you? Are you there?" that was Lettie, obviously.

"Yes," I croaked. Finally, Lettie found me in the library. She looked at me expectantly.

"All right, go ahead and ask me."

I looked at her in disbelief. "What?"

"Ask me where everybody is. I know."

I ran over to her and clutched her eagerly. "Where is everybody?"

She smiled sadly. "You don't remember anything about yesterday, do you?"

I shook my head and she nodded to herself, as if I had confirmed something she already knew. She put her hands on my shoulders and pushed me into a chair.

"You've been acting weird all week Christy. Don't deny it. The second I saw Scott here I knew something was going to go wrong. Then, I heard from your Mama that Michael wasn't coming back. I knew Mama would use that against you and she did. She got Scott to pretend that he cared about you, you confided every insecurity you have and yesterday, they got you to read a spell at your Mama's birthday party so now everyone's gone and she and Scott basically have free reign over the whole mansion."

I felt myself go cold. "They have run of the mansion? What about the Everses and Uncle Edward and Elizabeth?"

"They're still here as well as Aunt Leota. They were inside the whole time. Only the people outside got hit with the spell."

"Is there any way to make everyone come back?"

She sighed. "I don't know Christy. I don't know."

Then, she faced me directly. "I want you to go away from here for a bit Christy. Don't go to Jack and Melanie's. Go back to Tara and do that Phantom Hitchhiker thing that you do. It will help calm you down a bit. I'll stay here and try to smooth things over."

I nodded shakily. "All right, I'll go." And I disappeared, not knowing what I was leaving behind.

When I arrived at Tara, I found a surprise waiting for me. My grandparents have an old wooden swing on the side of their house, and as I crossed to the door, I noticed a small, neatly wrapped box sitting on it. That could only mean that my mother's brothers had come to visit.

My mother has three brothers. Charlie is the oldest followed by the twins, Brent and Stuart. Mama was the baby of the family. I grabbed the box and shook it lightly to see if it was anything breakable. When I didn't hear anything alarming, I took the box into the house and sat at the kitchen table.

When Granny saw me, she smiled.

"Why, Chrissy-Lily, long time no see. Your uncles just arrived about ten minutes ago. They're out in the back having a smoke."

Then, she put her teacup down and marched to the back door, threw it open and yelled.

"Boys, Chrissy-Lily's in the kitchen with the box. Don't y'all want to come inside and see her open it?"

In less then five minutes, three sets of footsteps came running into the house.

"Sorry, Mama," Uncle Charlie said. "We didn't hear her come in." then he looked at me and a wide grin broke out across his face.

"Hey there, darlin! Will you look at you! You've grown a bit since I saw you last!"

Then, he picked me up and spun me around once. Then, he handed me off to his brothers who did the same thing.

"But I'm not too big for presents, apparently," I said, nodding at the box. They all three shook their heads.

Uncle Charlie looked a lot like Michael except for his moustache and brown eyes. Brent and Stuart were fraternal twins. Stuart looked like a green-eyed version of Mama, but Brent was a redhead and his green eyes were often as full of challenge as they were of light.

They looked at me expectantly and I ripped the paper off the box, and was stunned by what I saw inside. It was a silver locket that was shaped like a heart. The edges were lined with alternating red and clear stones,

When I opened it up, I found a young picture of Mama and them on one side and a picture of me and them on the other. I felt my heart swell.

"We know that's a bit late, Chrissy, seeing as your mama's back and everything, but we figured better late then never."

I looked up at them and felt the tears escape. "No, that's all right. It's wonderful."

That night, when I was sure everyone had gone to bed, I took Lettie's advice and went out to the lonely stretch of road I usually haunt on Halloween. I stuck my thumb out and waited. Despite the fact that it wasn't raining, it was chilly and I had no trouble looking helpless.

I didn't have to wait long. Pretty soon a guy in a pretty expensive car stopped to pick me up. He had a nice face, dark eyes, and curly dark hair. When he smiled, his teeth were white.

"Thanks for picking me up," I said as I got in.

"No problem." He shut my door and jogged around to the driver's seat.

"Where can I drop you off?"

"At Tara. Do you know where that is?"

He nodded. "Of course. It's right near the house I just inherited."

He drove and neither of us talked, but as we got closer to home, I began to feel strange. I looked down at my hands and saw them slowly starting to wrinkle. I looked at the side mirror and saw I was becoming an old hag just like in my picture. But it didn't stop there. It kept going and soon, I saw bone peeking out from under my rotting flesh. Finally, the boy looked over at me and screamed and screamed.

And why not? I looked awful. Just when he turned his eyes away from the road, the car skidded on a patch of ice on the road. I materialized out of the car immediately. But the boy wasn't so lucky. The car ran into a ditch and exploded into a fireball.

I threw myself down on the road and cried. I'd killed someone, and I didn't even know his name.

Meanwhile, at the Mansion, Lettie was having her own problems. She was sitting on a window seat, staring out the window when she saw something distressing. A crowd of people was coming up the walk and all the ghosts were all gone!

She ran to the foyer where everyone was and hit the wall a few times to get their attention.

"All right people, we have a problem. There are people coming up the walk and all the ghosts are gone. We are still open, so we're going to have to do the best we can. Edward, I want you to be the Ghost Host, Elizabeth, you go to the Attic and be the Bride and Aunt Leota come with me and we'll call up everyone from the Louisiana place and then try and stop Mama and Scott."

"Wait a minute," Uncle Edward said.

"Yes?"

"I've never scared anyone on purpose in my life! I can't do this!"

Lettie narrowed her eyes at him. "Yes you can. All you have to do is show the people around and tell some corny jokes occasionally. It's not hard. Try it."

"All right," Uncle Edward cleared his throat. "Welcome everyone, and I hope you have a good time at the-"

"No, no, no! That's all wrong!" Mr. Evers interrupted. "The line is 'Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host. You're Ghost Host.' Then you chuckle all manically."

Uncle Edward groaned. "I don't think I can do this."

Lettie came to a decision. "Evers family, I want you to get paper and write down everything Edward is supposed to say. Then, I want you to coach him. Got it?"

They nodded. As Lettie and Leota left the room, Lettie muttered to herself, "no wonder Christy ran away to the circus after running stuff for three years. Being in charge is hard!"