The graveyard was deathly quiet.

Every remaining ghost – good and evil – stopped and looked at the corpse of Atticus Throne, which was now smoking on the ground.

Leila was shivering, and noticed for the first time that George was collapsed on the ground.

"George!" she managed to speak, crawling on the ground over to him. She stared at him and the sword, not noticing the swirls of blue mist coming from the body of Atticus.

Leota and the others, however, DID notice.

The ghost of Atticus slowly took shape, and the spirit opened his eyes. Looking down at his decapitated corpse, his eyes grew wide.

He was one of them.

The good ghosts started to close in on Atticus, eyes full of revenge. Leila turned to see Atticus get swarmed by a pile of ghosts, the former warlock screaming in fear.

"There's room for a thousand," Gus cackled, and he, Ezra and Phineas joined in as they pulled Atticus down into the ground.

The last thing she heard from Atticus Thorn was a loud, mournful howl from the earth that she would not soon forget.

Rain began to fall, but Leila didn't even notice – she was now staring at her father. The girl couldn't believe he was here…and that he, as well as the rest of her returned family, had done that.

As she stood up and walked over to her father, he slowly became corporeal. Leila stared at her father for a minute, and, lip quivering, she ran the rest of the way and threw her arms around her dad. The girl burst into tears.

"It's okay honey…it's over. You did a good job. You did VERY good," her father said, stroking her hair as she buried herself in his arms. Sobbing, Leila realized that she was drained of energy, and her legs started to go weak. Ashley helped her to the ground, and the two sat in the rain, nobody saying a word.

Finally, Leota rolled over to Leila and her father.

"I'm so sorry I got you involved in all this," Leota said, "It was all my fault."

Leila suddenly laughed, sniffling and wiping the water away from her face.

"That's okay. Like you could've done anything about it without me?" the girl said with a laugh. Leota rolled her eyes and smiled.

Paul, meanwhile, was coming to a realization.

"So…wait a minute," he said, breaking the moment, "Does this mean I don't have to be a ghost any more?"

Everyone in the graveyard turned to him.

"Yes," Leota said, "It does."

"Oh thank god," Paul said, a silly smile appearing on his face, "I was really starting to miss chili cheese fries."

In a short while, everyone was gathered in the séance room – Leota, Leila and her mother, Ashley, George, Paul, and Ezra, Gus and Phineas.

"So are you sure this will work?" Paul asked, looking at Leota and Leila. Leila replied with a shrug.

"Well, we won't know until we try!"

Leila and Leota looked at the old weathered spell book and read from its pages.

The task complete, the chore fulfilled

Reverse the spell that we've instilled.

Reverse the souls that are askew

And return them to their beings true.

Paul and George suddenly floated up into the air, and a white orb of light appeared between them. It shot out two rays of light through both of them, causing ghost and mortal to start to glow with a bright white light. It sort of reminded Leila of the Beast's transformation in "Beauty and the Beast."

The glow and orb became so intense that Leila had to actually shut her eyes. When she could tell that there was no bright light left in the room, she opened her eyes to see George and Paul slowly floating to the ground. Leila rushed over to her friend's body.

"Paul?" she asked, looking down at him. He suddenly came too, and grinned at Leila.

"I'm a real boy!" Paul said comically, winking at her.

She helped her friend up, and George stood up and dusted off and smoothed out his suit.

"Now, there's one more thing we have to do," Ashley said, approaching his daughter, "Those ghosts are still trapped in their rooms – and some of them have a long overdue appointment in the Underworld."

"Oh no," George suddenly moaned, "Then we won't have 999 'happy haunts' anymore!" Ashley, however, chuckled.

"I'm sure that there are many more lost souls in the world who would LOVE to stay here, Mr. Gracey," Ashley said. A look of realization, then deep thought appeared on George's face.

"Hmm," he muttered, and walked through the wall to his study. Leota called Leila over to the spell book once again, and they read the new spell that Leota had found.

Strong magic winds come blow through here

Rid this mansion of revenge and fear

Release good souls from prisons strong

And banish evils to where they belong.

A strong gale suddenly swept through the séance room, whipping Leila's and Paul's hair about. Running out of the séance room, they watched as the doors in the hallways swung open, freeing the mansion's kinder ghosts, cheering and celebrating as they flew down the hallways to their normal haunts.

Some of the ghosts weren't so lucky.

Withered green hands that had suddenly burst through the floor of the mansion suddenly grabbed Silas, Emmet, and Felicia, for one. Yelling and fussing, the ghosts were pulled into the depths of the Underworld, along with any of the evil spirits in the house. Another hand popped up, waved at Paul and Leila politely, then shrank back into the hole. The broken floor fixed itself immediately.

"That was cool," Paul started to say, but was interrupted by the Hitchhiking ghosts tackling him and Leila.

"You did it!" Phineas cheered as Ezra started up a rousing chorus of "Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead." Gus whirled his giant metal ball around in the air as if it was a party favor, but after a few swings it slipped from his grasp, and the poor ghost unceremoniously flew through the conservatory window. Everyone flinched as they heard a loud CRASH outside.

Leila turned to Paul as Ezra and Phineas floated through the wall to check on Gus.

"Thanks for putting up with all this," she said.

"Aw, it was nothin'…besides, it was kind of fun."

"Fun?" Leila said, "How?"

"Well, I-" Paul started, but stopped. Someone was coming down the hallway behind Leila. And at the sight of her, the boy turned white.

"Uh, do you hear that? I think Leota's calling us!" he said, and pulled her into the séance room, quickly shutting the door behind them.

Paul listened at the door as Sophia passed through the hallway, saying "I swear I just saw him here a minute ago…", and as soon as she was gone, he let out a sigh of relief.

"'Fun', huh?" Leila said, crossing her arms.

"A-heh" Paul managed to get out as Leota and Ashely chuckled.

"So you have to go back, huh?" Leila asked as she, her mother, Ashley and Paul stood on the front steps of the house.

"Yeah. Someone has to guard all the dark spirits in the world…especially since two the Brotherhood members have been…eliminated. But don't worry – I'm always watching over you." Ashley kissed his daughter and his wife, and then thanked Paul for his help.

The three mortals watched as Ashley walked down the steps of the Haunted Mansion and slowly disappeared under the twinkle of stars.

"Happy Halloween," Leila said to Paul with a grin.

Almost two months had passed since Atticus had been defeated. Things had certainly changed around Liberty Square. For starters, people started exploring the old Gracey Mansion. George was all too happy to give guided tours to curious mortals. The other ghosts had fun with it as well, delighting in giving good natured scares and meeting the living citizens.

George and Sophia were patching things up. Sometimes, if Leila looked out her window around midnight, she could see the ethereal forms of the couple as they walked down the street, arm in arm.

Leila and George made it a point to visit the ghosts at least every other day after school. The young witch trained with Leota whenever visitors weren't around. Paul did his part by holding up targets and cheering Leila on. He'd only been singed five times and teleported to another planet twice.

Holiday decorations, mainly cardboard cut outs, adorned the walls of the cafeteria. Today was the students' last day before winter break. Most of it had been spent watching taped specials the school library had.

Sipping imitation eggnog, Leila watched Paul as he bit into a round, ornament shaped cookie. A look of disgust washed over his face and his spit out the bite he'd taken into a napkin. Something about him had changed. He was more assertive. He walked with his head back and chest out, no longer slumping his shoulders and staring at his feet. Even the bullies had noticed. They no longer picked on him.

"Cookie's stale," he mumbled.

"Huh?" Leila asked distractedly. She had been staring at his mouth. It was so odd to see him without his festively colored braces. But at least his teeth looked straight and even.

"The cookie's stale." Using a fingernail, he scraped away at the red frosting, revealing old orange frosting underneath. "Ugh! Growdy! They just colored over the old pumpkin cookies!"

"At least the meatloaf is fresh."

"As fresh as last Tuesday's leftovers can be." He put down his treat. In the past couple of months, he'd started to feel differently toward Leila, but he didn't like to think about that. Oh, who was he kidding? Of course he did! Just like how he liked to think about how her hair shone in the sunlight, or how her right eyebrow arched when she knew you were spouting complete B. S. or how electricity seemed to crackle around her when she was mad.

"Paul," she began, making him perk up and sit up straight "I've had a weird feeling lately and I was wondering if you felt the same way."

His heart leapt. "Oh, I'm sure I have!"

"Well that's not good." Before she could explain anything to the befuddled Paul, three very familiar specters materialized at her sides. "WHA'?"

"I'm the ghost of Christmas past!" Ezra intoned.

"Present!" Phineas moaned.

"Future!" Gus crowed.

"All right," Leila rolled her eyes. "What are you jokers doing here?"

Phineas took off his hat and nervously fidgeted with the edges of the brim. "Uh, well..."

"Well what?"

This time Ezra tried to explain. "Leota found a new spell to try out..."

"What kind of spell?" The weird feeling surged up.

CRASH! The cafeteria doors burst open and a hoard of zombies staggered in.

"Have fun!" Ezra waved, and his two friends vanished in a swirl of ghostly smoke.

Grinning at Leila, Paul shouted, "Let's rock!" The girl sprang up, hands glowing green. Thanks to Leota, life was going to be pretty exciting from now on…