Haunted mansion and Ghostbusters is not mine
Chapter# 9 Another Vision and the History of the Mansion
Sally's point of view
When Garrett and I reached the end of the hallway. We entered a large room. The room was bare except for a table, a lamp and a chair in the corner of the room, a few urns stood lined on the other side of the wall and a line of black cars enter the room from an entrance near where the chair, lamp and table stood.
"Ok." Garrett said as he stopped his chair near the red rope that separated parts of the room. "Where are we?"
"We're in the loading area." I explained. "Where people get in these doom buggies and explore the rest of the ride."
Garrett looked at me for a few minutes. "I see." he said as he wheeled towards to the line to get on the doom buggies. I followed him.
As I walked. I suddenly started to feel light-headed. Uh oh. I thought. It was happening again.
"Garrett." I said. "I..."
Before I could finish. It happened.
I was standing in the loading room, only it looked more like a normal room and the light in the room was brighter then it was before. I blinked against the bright light. Once I eyes adjust to the light. I looked around. Garrett was nowhere in sight, there were no line of doom buggies and I was dressed in a white dress.
"Oh great." I thought.
As I stared at the plain white dress I was wearing. Then I sense a presence nearby. I cringed. It didn't feel like a friendly presence. It felt more like...evil. I ran to the archway on the other end of the room. I ran through the room where some stairs lead to a balcony on the second floor with a floating candlestick; pass the hallway of staring paintings. Through the library that had busts that stare at you as you pass them by. Pass the music room, where an invisible phantom was playing on a piano. Up the stairs to the second floor. Pass the endless hallway and through the conservatory. I stopped when I reached the end of the corridor of doors. I breathed in huge amount of air.
The presence was gone. Ok. I thought. I think I lost it.
Then a voice in the back of my mind said. Something is wrong. You're a Witch who fought a few creatures of the night and never once did you run away. What's going on? Then I felt the presence again. I turned and saw a grandfather clock standing against the wall at the end of the corridor of doors.
But this was no normal clock.
It had the 13 numbers instead of 12 on its face. Gnarled red fingers for hands and the clock looked like a demon. But as I stared at the clock. I noticed the demon tail that was the clock's pendulum was missing. Yet the clock was still running. Running backwards, chiming midnight.
I watched in horror as a huge shadow in the form of a gnarled hand appeared and reached for my throat. I ran pass the clock and reached a door. I grabbed the knob and tried to open the door but it wouldn't open.
"Help!" I screamed.
The same high voice escaped my mouth. I watched in horror as the hand shadow came closer. I kept turning the knob until the door finally opened and I fell into the room. I screamed as I fell into the darkness.
"Hey!" A woman's voice snapped. "Keep it down. I'm trying to contact the spirits!"
I opened my eyes and saw I was lying on the catwalk where the Cast Members do behind-the-scenes tours through the ride. And also I felt sharp pain in my head and my back.
"Oh!" I groaned as I slowly got to my feet.
As I stood up I saw I was in the séance room. In the middle of the room were a chair and a table with a few tarot cards on it and a crystal ball with green mist in it.
"I'm sorry. I..." I stopped when I saw a woman's head materialize in the crystal ball.
The woman had black curly hair, green eyes and pale skin. I gasped when I realized who it was.
It was Madame Leota.
The woman from my visions and the Haunted Mansion's fortune teller. I swallowed when her eyes met mine. She looked like was mad about something. Mad about the room being too noisy.
"Sorry. I..."
"It's alright, my dear." Madame Leota said. Her expressions soften a little. She stared at me for a few minutes before saying.
"You're a Witch-in-Training."
I frowned as I rubbed my sore back.
"Thank you for noticing." I said calmly.
"But can you tell me what's going on and where my parents are?"
Madame Leota nodded.
"I do know." she said. "Come closer and I'll show you."
I leaned over the railing and saw a net stretch over a dark abyss that was between where I was standing and Madame Leota's table. I looked at the 50 or so foot drop and then at Madame Leota.
"Are you kidding?" I asked. "I can't fly."
Madame Leota smiled. "Oh, are you sure about that?" she asked.
I raised an eyebrow. I turned to look at the white faerie like wings that were attached to the back of my sorcery outfit. They were only for decoration. Nothing else. Or are they for something? I turned to Madame Leota. Who smiled at me.
"Go ahead." She purred. "Try it."
I stared at her like she was crazy.
"You can do it, Sasha." a voice in my head said.
My eyes widened. The voice wasn't mine. It was someone else's. Then I remembered it was someone I contacted months ago and has been helping me ever since.
I thought hard.
"Dorothea Stone?"
Dorothea Stone is my spirit guide who helps me with my training or when I need help with solving a problem. Right now I was glad she contacted me. I needed help. Dorothea sometimes appears in person but not this time.
"Yes." she said. "Dorothea, I'm glad you're here." I thought. "I don't know what's going on, I keep having these weird visions, my parents are missing and now this made up fortune teller brought to life is saying I can fly with these fake wings."
I looked at the wings again. They weren't too big. The wings stretched to my shoulders and not many notice I have them and sometimes I forget I have them. Even if they're real and I can really fly. I doubt they can support me.
"She's telling the truth, Sasha." Dorothea said. "You can fly. You've been able to since you discovered your new powers. Now try it."
I looked down at the 50 or so foot drop again. Then at Madame Leota. Who was waiting for me. I sighed. I had no other choice.
"Well." I thought as I carefully climbed on to the railing. "At least there's a net to catch me."
I stood on the railing. Trying hard not to look down or remember how deep the drop was. I wasn't afraid of heights. It was what might happen if I can't really fly and I fall is what's bothering me. As I started to jump. I heard a soft buzzing noise. Almost like a humming bird's wings and I felt like I was a few inches off the railing.
I looked down and panicked as I realized I was hovering a few inches off the railing and I lost my balance. I quickly regained my balance and hovered in the air. I heard Madame Leota laugh.
"Not bad for a beginner."
I scowled at her. "Very funny!" I snapped.
I flew to Madame Leota's table and landed beside the chair.
"Ok." I said, little relieved that I was on solid ground. "What's going on?"
"Sasha!"
Madame Leota and I turned to see Garrett on the catwalk on the other side of the drop. He looked like he saw a ghost. (Pardon the pun.)
"Sasha." he panted. "Don't scare me like that. I thought I'd never find you."
"You were scared?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you said you weren't afraid of anything."
Garrett bit his lower lip.
"Well I..."
"Never mind." To Madame Leota I asked. "Madame Leota is there a ramp or something that leads to here?"
Madame Leota thought for a minute.
"I'm not sure about a ramp." she replied. "The only way to my table is the stairs that go to the storage room. But I have an idea."
She grinned as she said that. I looked at her suspiciously.
"What are you talking about?"
She grinned. "I'll show you."
Before I could say or do anything. Madame Leota closed her eyes and said some words I didn't pick up. I turned to see white smoke materialize near Garrett's waist and engulfed him until he was covered in smoke and disappeared from view.
"Garrett!" I cried in surprised.
"What in the...?"
I turned to see Garrett sitting on the other side of the table looking surprised. I went to him.
"Garrett, are you ok?" I asked.
"I'm fine." he answered. "What happened?"
"I brought you to my table." Madame Leota explained.
She took a deep breathe before she started to speak again.
"Anyway, now that you're both here. I'll tell you a tale of how this ride as you two call it, came to be."
"Look lady." Garrett said annoyed. "We don't have time for bedtime stories, where's..."
"There's lots of time for a story." Madame Leota interrupted. Emphasis on the word 'a'. She turned to me.
"Anyway, my dear, make yourself comfortable in my chair."
I hesitated before I walked to the chair and sat down. The crow cawing in annoyance at me as I did.
"Don't mind him." Madame Leota said. "He's not used to people sitting in my chair."
The crow stopped cawing and glared at me. Then at Garrett.
"Hey, what did I do to you?" he asked offended.
Madame Leota rolled her eyes. "Now it all started in the year 1943."
As she began her story. Madame Leota's head disappeared and was replaced with a scene of a mansion that looks a lot like the Haunted Mansion ride itself. The sky was darken by thick storm clouds and lightning danced around the mansion.
"This story takes place in Louisiana. A few miles in the swamps outside of New Orleans. This ride was based on what happen a century ago. But not many know about it. The legend was lost after the events of 1943. Anyway, it was late winter of 1943. I was here in this séance room. Trying to contact my daughter Little Leota. She died in the year of 1942 and I've been trying to contact her for months. With no success. I finally had enough. I knew why I couldn't reach her. She was upset because her father wouldn't accept her as family."
"That's not true. It was all a mistake." Garrett and I looked around for the source of the disembodied voice. But found nothing.
"Hey, where are you?" Garrett called. "And where are you?"
"I'm George Gracy. Master of this mansion. To you, I'm known as the Ghost Host."
"Can't you show yourself?" I asked kindly.
"I'm afraid not, my lady." the voice answered. "I can't materalize in this room."
"Keep quiet!" Madame Leota's voice snapped. Making everyone, (Well almost everyone) jump.
"I'm telling these two what happened."
The voice said nothing. Garrett and I just sat there looking at the mansion in a swamp in a thunder storm scene in Madame Leota's crystal ball.
"Now, where was I?" she said. "Oh yes."
The scene in the ball change to show Madame Leota as a woman with long curly hair, green eyes, dressed in a blood red dress with black trim sitting at her table in the séance room. She looked frustrated. She groaned in frustration as she got up and left the room. The scene change to show Madame Leota walking down the halls. Her eyes filled with raged. Was she walked towards a door. It swings open on its own accord. Revealing empty rooms that were decorated in stuff only the rich can afford. When she found the room was empty. She stormed off to the next room. She searched and searched until she reached a door that wasn't as well-kept like the others. It was worn down and dusty. She smiled and her hand. The door opened. To reveal a room filled with junk that was covered in dust and meldew. She went into the room. The door closed behind her. She looked around the room, calling Master Gracy's name. Then she shouted.
"Come out, you fool! You can't hide from me! I knew you're here!"
Slowly a man with black hair and sideburns dressed in a black tux stood up from behind an open trunk near the window. He tried to look brave but I can tell he's afraid of what Madame Leota might do to him if he gets her angrier then she is now.
"Now Leota..."
"Don't now Leota me, Gracey!" Madame Leota snapped.
Some objects in the room started to shake and fall to the ground but a supernatural force.
"You know why I'm up here! Our daughter can't come here because she's upset about you not accept her as family. Why did you shun her like she was trash, Gracey? Why were you ashamed of our child?"
Master Gracey blinked in confusion. "I don't know what you're talking about." he said. "I don't remember much about that night."
"Well I do!" Madame Leota growled. Then Madame Leota's head appeared in the crystal ball as the scene disappeared.
"We argued for an hour until Gracey opened a trunk near the window and found the corpse of his last wife. That whore Emily."
She said that with hatred in her voice.
I winced as she said that. It felt like she was yelling at me for interrupting her chanting.
"Ooohh." Garrett said. "I smell jel..."
"Garrett, no." I warned.
Madame Leota smiled. "Wise of you to silence your friend."
"We're not friends." I said.
Garrett looked at me confused.
"What do you mean by that?" he asked.
"We don't know each other much." I said. "We just met a few minutes ago outside the restroom."
"Well, he was worried about you when you disappeared and while we were looking for you." Master Gracey said.
I stared at Garrett confused. "You were worried about me?"
Garrett blushed a little. "Well, yeah I was." he said nervously. "I mean, someone was controlling you and I thought whatever got your parents and my friends had got you."
"Do you what's going on Madame Leota?" I asked.
Madame Leota nodded.
"I do." she said. "After Gracey found Emily's body. We had another argument. I tried to cast a spell but it backfired after Gracey hung himself in the attic. I became trapped in this crystal ball. I'm still able to contact the spirits, but I'm not as powerful as I was before. Anyway, a few months later. I was contacting the spirits when she came."
"Who came?" I asked.
"Petra." Madame Leota said with venom in her voice.
"A demon searching for her mate. That was the demon that was imprisoned in the clock in the hall."
I cringed as I remembered the vision I had a few minutes ago. How scared I was when I sensed the evil presence near the clock. Then I noticed something. The clock was missing a pendulum that it looked like a demon's tail and remembering reading a fan fiction about this ride a long time ago. But is that just a story?
"The clock that's missing a pendulum where the corridor of doors meets with you séance room?" I asked nervously.
"Why yes." Madame Leota answered. "You saw this in a vision right?"
I nodded.
"So, what happened after Petra appeared?"
"She demanded I release her mate, but I refused. She possessed a local teacher and got her to release Nelson. The demon in the clock. I couldn't let them leave the mansion. So I cast a spell to confine them to the mansion and its grounds. They tried to attack me. The teacher's daughter, who was a Voodoo Priestess, came to the mansion searching for her mother. When discovered her mother was possessed, she cast a spell to free Petra from her and trapped the demons in the clock. That night, a prophecy was made. Saying the demons will be free again and only the Helper of Humankind can save us."
I stared at her. Completely breathless. The dreams, the visions, they were real warnings and I didn't listen. I felt horrible. Dreams often tell what may happen and I didn't listen. I felt like a fool.
"You're not a fool, Sasha." Dorothea's voice in my head said. I frowned.
"How can you say that? Dorothea?" I asked telepathically.
"I didn't listen to my dreams and visions I've been having and now my parents are missing. I'm worthless."
"You're still in training, Sasha." Dorothea said. "Everyone makes mistakes. It's part of learning. Now listen to Madame Leota, she knows what to do."
Then she disappeared.
" So then if Sasha is this Helper of Humankind." Garrett spoke up. "Then why is she being controlled by this...this thing?"
"This thing is a ghost." Madame Leota corrected. She closed her eyes.
"Female, around late teens, early 20s and is somewhere in the ride. I can't tell who or where she is though."
"And what does this have to do with the ride?" I asked. Madame Leota opened her eyes.
"The mansion was dismantled brick by brick a few years after the events of 1943. In the 1970s, this ride was build, using the bricks and wood from the mansion Gracey family and I used to live and decorated with the same furniture. Including the clock. Everything was quiet until you and your family came here a few years ago and the demons inside the clock were awakened by your presence."
My heart sank.
"But it wasn't your fault." Madame Leota said reassuring. "You didn't know about the supernatural back then. You were a little girl. Too young to understand and now you've grown into a lovely young woman, who's studying Wicca."
I blushed. "Thanks." I said.
Garrett spoke up. "So what does this prophecy say?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you." Madame Leota said. "The prophecy was written on a piece of cloth in the attic. Go there and you'll find the answers you seek."
"Ok then, the attic it is." Garrett said as he turned his chair around and wheeled away. He stopped when he reached the edge of the floor and looked down. He stared at it before he turned around.
"Uh, one of you give me a lift?"
I grinned and stood up.
"Thanks for the help, Madame Leota."
"Anytime, my dear." Madame Leota said. She turned to Garrett.
"I'll give you a lift." she closed her eyes and said a few words.
A white mist surrounded Garrett and he disappeared. He appeared a few minutes later on the other side of the drop in the catwalk beside the doom buggies.
"Thanks." He called.
"Wait up." I said as I spread my wings and flew across the drop and landed beside Garrett. Garrett stared at me with his mouth hanging open. I grinned
"Ready?" I asked as I walked passed him. I stopped when I reached the door that leads to the ballroom. Waiting for Garrett to catch up. But he just sat there, staring at me breathless.
"Come on, Garrett." I called. Garrett jumped and wheeled towards me.
"Maybe I shouldn't have flown across the drop." I thought as Garrett and I left the séance room.