Dynasty! I froze from my position at El Toro, assessing whether the girls' miniskirts were originally sold as headbands. The latest train had gotten stuck on the initial incline, but this happens almost daily. I knew that the guests would only be afraid if it took more than a minute to right itself.

What is it, bro? I usually love to make fun of Falcon's accent, but he sounded urgent, even…frightened.

Where are you? Did a coaster just stop?

Yeah, I'm at El Toro, what's going on?

Look around…

I did, and if I had a heart, it would have stilled. Every single roller coaster in the park was stopped on the incline.

I'm at the merry-go-round, and it slowed down and then started…going backwards. "Madame" Pestis sounded hesitant, confused.

Everyone! Ghoulmaster used telepathy on all of us at once. Make sure the guests are safe where you are, then come back to the house!

Twelve minutes later, with the rides shut down to further activity and guests confused and excited, the situation was sufficiently under control that I followed the rest of my order.

Chester was on my heels, stuttering something incoherently as we almost tripped over ourselves getting back to the fireplace. It took me a long time to get used to his style of communication, but after he grew on me, I can't imagine life here without his innocent frankness and side comments. Ghoulmaster glared downward, pacing in agitation with his hands rigidly by his sides. "Do you two have any additional updates that I should know about?" he questioned without missing a step.

"Not from me—nothing after all the coasters jammed at the same time." Chester nodded as I spoke, wide-eyed in agreement. The arrival of Annabel completed our group, and we all quickly took seats: me, Shadow Falcon, Chester, "Madame" Pestis, Annabel, Norma, and Johnny "Jaywalker," in order of who arrived first in the house. I like to think that I am something approximating Ghoulmaster's right-hand man, as I've been in the house the longest (over thirty years, starting from only a few years after the park originally opened), but no one really knew what went on in Ghoulmaster's head.

"So the coasters, plus the merry-go-round—nothing else, as far as we know?" His voice was raspy, husky.

We agreed. I stole a glance at "the Madame," as I like to call her due to her irritation at the title's connotations. I was tempted to ask her why she did not prevent this situation, as she obviously must have seen it coming from her tarot cards and crystal ball, but I wisely refrained. Despite the evidence of the last few hundred years of her undead existence, she really does seem to think that she has some kind of control over our spirit realm that the rest of us don't.

Ghoulmaster grabbed a chair roughly, turning it around and sitting down. Sparks flew from his eyes. "What do we think is going on here? I have a hard time believing that one of the mechanics with a vendetta is behind all this."

The front door opened and Elissa skidded in, taking a moment to catch her breath before looking around the room. "Where are you guys? Are you all here? We have to talk."

Immediately we all changed into our bodily forms so she could see us. She rushed over and took a seat on the couch. "I'm assuming from your faces that you know about the rides?"

"The coasters and the merry-go-round, yes," Falcon responded.

"Well…there's more." She let out a breath and looked our master in the eye. "You may have been right, and I may have been wrong, that there is more going on here than we realize. The animals have been acting…peculiarly…recently."

Ghoulmaster's eyes blazed as he waited for her to continue.

"We thought they were just skittish or nervous yesterday, like maybe bad weather was coming. But their behavior was more agitated this morning, and then the growls started around lunchtime, and several groups of animals started moving closer and closer to the safari vehicles. Finally one of the zebras started pawing the ground, acting like it was backed into a corner and about to strike…and if even such a mild animal like a zebra was starting to act like that…that was the last vehicle they let through."

Falcon let out a sharp breath and leaned back, crossing his arms.

"Of course, the guests' safety is the most important thing, but there was a very large, very angry group of guests that had been waiting almost three hours to get on that new safari ride, so I was called in to specially deal with that, and it's taken me and a team until just now to placate them with apologies and vouchers and coupons." Elissa rubbed her temples briefly, and I noticed the bags under her eyes. She was used to only working the overnight shift.

"There's something else." Ghoulmaster said it as a statement.

"Yes, there is." She glanced at each of us in turn, uncomfortable but wanting to at least give her news respectfully. "A lot of the park managers are suspecting that you all have something to do with this."

Silence greeted this news, then various noises of disbelief and disgust. Falcon arose and stood behind the couch, restless.

Ghoulmaster held up a hand. "That is certainly a logical mortal conclusion. Everything is happening too quickly, too perfectly for them not to suspect something supernatural."

"Supernatural, yes, but they assume that we're all the same. Why would their own protectors suddenly turn on them unprovoked after almost 40 years?" Falcon snapped at the room in general.

"And it would have been nice to approach us directly about this," Annabel commented dryly.

"But they didn't," Ghoulmaster responded abruptly. He turned to Elissa. "I'm sure you would do us the favor of advocating on our behalf that we were not involved in this, and that we will attempt to find out what's going on and prevent any further events."

"Yes, of course."

Johnny began, "And that plus a dollar will get us a cup of—"

Ghoulmaster shook his head. "I'm aware of that. But now we're put in an awkward position of needing to be on the offensive and the defensive at the same time. We have to get involved and find out what's going on while proving that we are not the ones behind this. For now…Elissa, can you get us the security footage from the past few days?"

She shrugged. "Sure, but not legally. You'll have to wait until I'm on shift and can get away from my colleagues, maybe 1:00 this morning."

"Good. We'll spend the night here together, looking it over and determining if we can find anything that the others didn't. And for tonight…" Ghoulmaster leaned forward, resting his hands on his knees. "Everyone is forbidden to leave this house or this room. We'll turn on our security camera and remain in bodily form so that if any mischief happens tonight, we'll hand over proof that we were all here together, all night."

"What if something happens tonight, and we can't go out and investigate?" Annabel asked.

"That's why we can only stay together in this house at night. No matter what goes on at night, the guests' safety will not be compromised. We'll have to trust the mortal security guards, and keep reviewing footage as it arrives. During the day, we will all have to be at our stations throughout the park."

I looked around the room. Most people appeared to accept this news mildly, with the Madame and Falcon looking somewhat frustrated. Norma had her poker face on as usual. I personally didn't think that the mortals would be impressed with our attempt at an alibi, especially because they tend to forget that we don't have special powers to manipulate rides from afar. But why would any more occurrences happen at night, with no audience? I resolved to focus my hardest while reviewing the tapes tonight. A team of seven ghosts would be a lot more likely to find and interpret supernatural manipulation than a group of ten-dollar-an-hour mortals. Plus Elissa, of course.

"Be back here at 11:30, after we all make sure the guests have gotten out of the park safety," Ghoulmaster stressed. "And be brainstorming theories of what's going on. We have until the footage arrives to discuss each person's opinion."

I went back to patrolling, observing silently that I had never heard Ghoulmaster speak so many words as he did in the last ten minutes.