Atticus had grown to twice his size. As if he wasn't big enough, Leila thought.
The enormous man stared down at the scene below him: ballroom dancers fearfully split apart, fleeing for safety and refuge. Other ghosts watched from the balcony, terror in their eyes – for the first time since any of them could remember, they could actually be hurt in this situation. Wind blew around Atticus, in a tornado-like fashion. Leila's and George's hair blew wildly, and they blinked from the strong gale; Paul, Little Leota, and the others were completely unaffected.
"You can't fight him here," Leota said to Leila, "He could cause the whole house to come down on us!"
"But where-" Leila started, but Paul interrupted her.
"The graveyard! That's perfect – plus, it's in crappy shape anyways," He suggested brightly. A sour look appeared on George's face, as if to say 'How dare you insult my beautiful house,' but he headed for the nearest way out.
Unfortunately, Atticus was one step ahead of them.
Just as he reached the closest door, Atticus blocked it with a wall of fire. And pointing his finger at the other doors, he quickly shut off all the exits – to both man and ghost.
Leila was about to lose hope when all of a sudden, she heard a rumbling noise from outside. And a few seconds later, there was a giant CRASH!
A old fashioned, horse-drawn hearse…with no horse…had just crashed through part of the ballroom! The driver suddenly materialized, and Paul recognized him as the British ghost he had met earlier.
"Ello, chaps!" He said, tipping his hat towards Leila, Leota and her daughter, "I heard all the ruckus in here and decided to investigate! Of course…" he added, seeing the damage he had just done, "I didn't expect ground to be so slippery and wet…" A sheepish grin appeared on his face as ghosts began to pour out of the new 'exit' he had made.
"Not a problem at all!" George yelled to the buggy driver as he and the others followed the ghosts.
Atticus, however, was starting to get mad. He crashed through the ballroom wall after them, making an even larger hole, and began to pound through the graveyard, pounding headstones into the ground as he stepped on them like some deranged version of "Whack-A-Mole."
As the ghosts fled to safety (and good vantage points), Leila, Paul, George, Leota and Little Leota headed for a wide open space; they didn't want to cause more damage than necessary. Atticus followed them, and soon they found themselves surrounded by a ring of ghosts, every one of them cheering for Leila and George.
"I think it's time to even the playing field," Atticus snarled, turning his head towards the mansion. His eyes glowed a bright lime green, and seconds after they began to glow, green rays of light shot out of every window of the house, filling the sky with a brilliant green aura.
Leila and the others whirled around, watching in confusion as the lights shone brightly in the sky.
Unbeknownst to them, they weren't the only ones to see it.
Atticus' magic shot through the house, snaking through a part of the house that Paul hadn't seen – and frankly, Gus, Ezra and Phineas hadn't wanted to show it to him. This was the part of the mansion that most visitors – if they managed to get past the stretching room and library – would turn on heel and run out of the house screaming.
In this area were doors…dozens, if not hundreds of identical doors, no one knowing what the other side looked like – except, of course, those locked in them. Behind these doors were the evil ghosts of the mansion, imprisoned by Leota to protect not only the house but Liberty Square as well. Each of them would shriek nonstop, pound on the doors, and act innocent and pathetic…but as soon as they were unleashed, they would wreak havoc and mayhem as fast as they could.
And this was just what Atticus was going for.
His magic ensnared each snakelike brass doorknob, and a deep 'click' could be heard in the hall as each door opened, one by one. Hideous ghosts, ghouls and banshees escaped from their prisons, flying out of the house and too the graveyard. One zombie that had been imprisoned in a coffin got up and stretched his legs. His withered hands had been prying at that lid for far too long.
With a sinister grin on his face, he led the other evil spirits out to join the battle.
"Felicia! Silas! Emmet! Here come our reserves now," Atticus said, beaming, as he watched the former prisoners come out on the lawn, "Banish as many ghosts as you can to your former prisons, but leave Leota and her pair of foolish mortals – I want to destroy them myself." With that, he snapped his fingers, and ethereal weapons – swords, bows and arrows, shields – appeared in the evil ghosts' arms. They began to charge at the other ghosts, who were screaming and panicking.
"Calm down!" Leota yelled to them, "Fight back!!" Closing her eyes, she summoned weapons for them, and their fear lessened. The opposing forces clashed all around Leota, Atticus, and the others, and Leila was having a hard time blocking out the screams of spirits and souls as others banished them and sent them away.
"Ghost versus ghost," Atticus said proudly, "Isn't it magnificent? Pity that they'll probably all do each other in…but of course," he added, eyeing Leota, "All's fair in love and war."
And with that, he suddenly shot a blast of magic right towards Leila. She shrieked and threw her hands up, and a magical barrier appeared. The magic energy ricocheted off, and zapped some fighting ghosts back to the mansion.
"Oops," Leila said, her hands flying to her mouth.
"That was a cheap shot!" Ezra yelled, shaking his fist at Atticus. The gigantic warlock rolled his eyes and flicked his index finger at Ezra, Gus and Phineas. They were knocked back, past the fray, and into a dark crypt. Leila could hear them tumbling down it, swearing and cursing as they rolled into the ground.
"We're way outnumbered!" Leila cried as more of the allied ghosts got sent back to the house, "There's no way we can win!" The poor girl was wearing down – she had been firing spell after spell in an attempt to stop Atticus and his minions, but all it did was slow him down.
"George, you nitwit!" Leota bellowed over the battle, "Why haven't you used the sword yet!?" George, who had been slashing off evil spirits with it, suddenly realized what he was supposed to be doing with it.
"Oh! Right!" he said sheepishly. George scrambled over towards Atticus and held it out in front of him.
"I hope this works…" the man muttered, and started to charge for the gigantic warlock.