http://www . youtube . com /watch?v=oFdGhIc5nl0

YOU MUST WATCH THE TRAILER IN THE ABOVE LINK. No joke! The ever-est-most-awesome-est daseyrocks made a trailer for this story and I swear, I was about to NOT give you this chapter until you watch her trailer, it's amazing, and she only did it because of the kindness in her heart!!! Thanks so much—this whole story goes out to you, M!!!!!

Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy Drew, Scooby Doo nor anything related to SWAC, or the Suite Life quotes, like one that Murial once said, or the Hannah Montana title of a song, or my friend's title for his poem, OR the Wizard of Oz line.

Also, if you haven't, please check out the pictures related to this story in my profile. There's a picture of Chad IN a pirate shirt, and my sketch of Sonny's 'Sonny-flower' costume and etc.

Dedication to:pinkconchshell for making me writing this so passionately that I couldn't eat or drink until I was done, haha. Thanks!

PS: I was supposed to update tomorrow...but I couldn't wait--and it's still in October, haha!

Today was the day—Halloween was here. But no one cared about how much candy they would get tonight, or who would wear the best costume. No ghoul nor goblin, witch nor monster could stir all Condor stars from their focus of interest—but a ghost could. Unlike an hour ago, the 14 studios were frantic and excited, whispering about how cool the party was, the terror that struck at exactly midnight and the supposed ghost that wandered throughout. Meanwhile, studio 2 and 3 were busy scheming, briefing over facts, over what was going on and why.

"My parents said I could stay," Zora noted as she slipped her mobile into her sock. Even without her quirkiness, Zora still displayed excitement. For what, you may ask?

"There is a ghost and you guys want to spend the night here? Are you crazy!?" Tawni yelled, having earlier been almost threatened that if she were to go home, she could not be in her sketch this week.
"Oh, it's not a ghost," Sonny plainly mustered back, laying belly-down on the vibrant-colored rug as her legs swung up and down. By now, everyone was out of their costume.

"What makes you so sure?" Nico looked up at her nervously, a bit freaked out by seeing the ghost still.
Sonny shrugged. "I'm not. But I've always wanted to solve a mystery when I was little!" she squealed.
Grady laughed bemused. "Ah, I'm guessing you were a Scooby Doo and Nancy Drew fan?" Sonny eagerly nodded.
"Yes!"
"Me too!" exclaimed Grady.
Tawni chuckled. "You mean the Hardy Boys?"
"No."

Suddenly they heard loud footsteps nearing towards the prop house entrance. Each held their breath, seeing as their whole Random group was already there. Who else could be coming at 1am in the morning?
"Oh—" said Marshall.
"AHHHH!—oh," the kids began to scream when realization hit them.
"You kids are staying the night?" Marshall asked, with a bit of a quiver in his voice.
"Yeah!"
"Heh," he dryly chuckled. "How...brave and naïve of you. Anyway—!"

"Hey Marshall, so what's Condor saying about all o'this?" Nico asked, with his hands clasped together on his bent knees.
"Oh, he's mad," Mr. Pike wiped the sweat from his bald area on his head. "Some stars are refusing to work, they're so scared. And you know how mad Mr. Condor gets when someone else has his power. If he loses half his stars by the end of the month..." Marshall looked at his watch, tugging nervously on his collar, "which would be today, the studio may have to close down."

Everyone gasped.

"Heh, I bet he's so mad, if the ghost wasn't dead, Condor would kill him...course, then we wouldn't have a ghost..." Marshall rambled.
"Anyway, I thought if you guys were curious about what's going on, you could look through all these things that deal with the ghost. And I also brought the latest edition of Tween Weekly—it mentions about our party ordeal," Marshall dropped the heavy paper-bags and rolled up magazine near the kids.
"Thanks!" the kids all chimed, eagerly taking out folders and items from the bag. It was then that everyone noticed Sonny's attire.
"Were you always wearing that?" Tawni wrinkled her nose.
Sonny beamed, enjoying the warmth of the plaid long overcoat and the deerstalker hat, similar to that of Sherlock's.
"You like it? I changed when he was talking!"
"Well," Marshall nodded uneasily. "You kids have...fun and I'll miss you if I don't see you tomorrow. I think I'll start looking for …replacements for you guys, just in case."

The kids nodded.
"Now I'm going home and ...sleeping near my mother." And with that last statement, he rushed out.
"Well," Sonny illuminated her megawatt smile, "let's get to work, gang!" She then grabbed a folder in excitement. "Detective Monroe is on the case!"

A shrill wind was heard outside as the friends huddled together, looking through the venerable and worn-down belongings.
"Wow," Sonny whispered as her warm brown eyes skimmed across one specific photograph. "He was really famous. Look at this: he had his own merchandise, his own hotel…"

"And look at all these awards and his own merchandise!" Nico gently set five heavy golden awards down.
"He even had his own hotel!" Zora pointed to the dusty hotel certification.

"Oh, guys, listen to this," Sonny noted, reading from an article. "On Halloween night of 1956, James Esser, the greatest actor of his generation, was found dead in his burning dressing room during his movie premiere for "Losing Lost Love". The movie premiere was also his Halloween party. The death has been categorized as a second degree murder. Apparently his dressing room was caught on fire but there are traces that allude to the fact that Esser was dead beforehand." Sonny stopped reading as she began to grow numb from the incitation.

"Look, there's another one," Grady muttered, finding another article. "And it happened a little bit after Sonny's article: "MURDER IN HOLLYWOOD"…awh, it just talks about the same thing though. But it also says that James Esser is noted for always carrying a 'passion' flower…it looks exactly like the one in Portlyn's room!"

"Here's something," Zora read. "GUSTAVLAI STUDIOS NOW CONDOR STUDIOS: Mr. Hendrick Condor, assistant producer at the time of Esser's death has bought the Gustavlai Studio, which was supposed to be sold to the late James Esser 'James Esser was a good friend of mine," Condor says, while holding his son, little Henry Jr. ("That's must be Mr. Condor now," whispered Sonny) 'I'll be keeping his dressing room as a studio here as a landmark in its same state—' STUDIO 13!" the group exclaimed.
"That means he died right near us!" Tawni shuddered as Nico and Zora began heading off to look at another bag.

"Wow, this guy's made hundreds of movies: "Where Roads Knock," "Why Me," "Best of Both Worlds," "I Once Knew You," and ...haha... "A James Esser Story."
Tawni wrinkled her nose. "'Sounds more and more like Chad!" But then something caught her eye. "Oooh, but look! He even had his own lunchboxes!"
Sonny then grabbed the latest edition of Tween Weekly, quickly skimming through it. "Speaking of Chad, it says here that Esser was the Chad Dylan Cooper of his time…and supposedly he was as hot as Chad!" Sonny grinned, when she met 4 pairs of eyes blinking blankly at her. "Heh," she dryly chuckled. "T-that's what it says here… supposedly he's as hot, pssh!"

Zora picked up one of the movie cases closest to her reach. "When you Wants To'?" She read the movie title's name. "Geez, you'd think they'd have better writing skills back then!" Zora enlightened as she tossed the video to the pile.
"He-ey! These are 50-years old or more and probably worth millions," Sonny muttered. Exchanging glances, Nico and Grady cautiously picketed a few movies, placing them under their arm pits.
"And that does not," Sonny snapped, "mean you guys will sell them!"
"Man!"

"Hmm," Zora muttered. "It says here that right before his movie premiere, he spent a month in India and really enjoyed the culture, but that's all it says."
"Aw, how sad!" Tawni muttered to herself after reading another article. "Listen: One year later after the death of James Esser, investigators have suspected that the late Esser's love Marly Jean had disappeared before Esser's mysterious death. Reports claim they have seen her with another man. 'Not possible,' claims Esser. 'I will propose to her the night of my Halloween party and the movie premiere. She said she will be back for it.' Marly Jean was never seen at the party. "
"Awh, how sweet!" Sonny cooed when her face fell. "And yet so sad."

"No, you guys wanna know what's really sad?" Grady pouted. "I won't be able to sleep tonight, knowing those Falls could prank us at any moment!"

"Nah," Nico shrugged it off. "They're probably too freaked out anyway." Grady nodded in agreement.
"Huh," The fierce brunette suddenly thought of something. "Hey! Do you think this Marly Jean person is the lost love?"
Tawni shrugged. "Sounds like it—she disappeared before his death."

With a nod, Sonny continued searching through the actor's belongings when she noticed a symbol on some of the movie cover titles. "Weird. Some of these movies have some sort of...stamp or something on it. Maybe it's a clue!" By this time, the boys were appearing to be edgy shivering or twitching as they looked around them to make sure no ghoulish substance or anything creepy was near them.

"Sonny, you could make this banana peel as a clue," Nico protested. "But all it shows is that someone ate it—that's all," he pointed out, when he realized, "Man, who ate m'banana!?" Everyone looked around, finding Grady's cheeks blown up with the hidden mush of the banana.
Tawni yawned, stretching out to lie comfortably on the sofa. "I'm tired."
Sonny ignored this. "You guys, we are going to stay up all night," Sonny demanded, "to search out clues. We can't sleep! All night, you hear me!?!"

~*~

Sonny laid limp on the fuzzy carpet, drooling as she slept with her mouth wide open. The strong glow of the sunlight through the curtains enticed everyone to wake up minutes later--happily, relaxed (meaning they had slept), until remembering they were in the middle of a mystery.
"It's bright and sunny, there's a mystery to solve," Sonny widely smiled as she stretched setting up from her sleeping bag. "I'm so excited. I'm even—"
"Excited about how excited you are, we get it!" Nico snapped, hate being woken up early. Sonny light joked as she jumped to her feet, still in her detective attire.

"Well someone's a Crabbypants this morning," she used her cute little deep voice.

"You know, I think MacKenzie Falls is just makin' all of this up for attention," yawned Grady. Sonny squealed, "A brilliant deduction, Watson!" and then started scribbling down in her small notepad.
"Well," she grinned, tucking her notepad away, "to get to the bottom of this mystery, I'm gonna have to talk to all the witnesses!"

Excited as could be, Sonny bounced out of the room eager to find more clues. It wasn't hard to find the usually-absent-minded girl—in front of the wall-sized mirror in the MacKenzie Falls lobby.

"Hi Portlyn," Sonny cheerily addressed, as if it were her right to be as happy. The high-class brunette tilted her head in curiosity, her eyes wide as she turned to face Sonny patiently greeting her with a smile. "Are you talking to me?" Portlyn gasped.
"A-actually, I'm asking you questions…which technically would be talking. I-I know you don't usually like us but I really wanna solve this mystery about the ghost and everything and seeing as you're the one who saw the ghost—well, I thought—"
Sonny scrambled with her words hurled by a linguistic whirlwind when Portlyn suddenly and literally clamped Sonny's lips shut.

"Chad was right," Portyln stated like a blond, carrying a wide-eye expression. "You do talk a lot."
"Aww, Chad talks about me?" Sonny cooed before remembering her mission, shaking her head. "Never mind that. What exactly happened when you came to your room, last night?" Sonny asked in a comedic deep voice, pencil in hand ready to jot notes.
Portlyn shrugged "That's the weird part. I came from the party to go look for my access card to my room and some girl gave it to me." Gears started turning in Sonny's mind.

"You don't know the girl?"
"Uh-uh. Never saw her before, weird, right? Cuz I mean, we all know each other."
"Did she know it was your card to your dressing room?"
"Guess so, she gave it right to me." Sonny quickly jot in her notebook--'never-before seen girl found access card—could had done it.'

But now who was this girl and why has no one ever seen her before?

"What about when you came in to the room? Was there any difference?"
"Well, I was pretty much occupied screaming at a ghost and reading that creepy message but after you guys left, we saw that everything was there."
"Huh," Sonny carried her word out mysteriously before her perky demeanor took over. "Well, thanks! Nico and Grady thought you guys did it all for attention."

Portlyn shook her head with a chuckle. "Oh no, we could've never do that."
"Because you're not really attention-seeking jerks?" Sonny assumed hopefully.
"No, we are," Portlyn smugged. "But we would need a script to do it."
"Oh..." Sonny's face fell before another grin showed up. "Well, thanks!"
"You know," Portlyn called out right when Sonny turned to go. "You Randoms aren't' that bad. You're actually kind of cool."
This made Sonny feel even sunnier. "Aw, well thanks! You too!"

Right when Sonny turned a corner and disappear, Portlyn tilted in head. "Who's Nico and Grady?"

~*~

Tawni Hart diligently re-applied her make-up in her side of the dressing room, not caring about anything supernatural at this point. Tawni's door suddenly opened as Josh the mail guy walked in with his mail cart.
"Got your fan mail here, Tawni," Josh meekly stated—he always found fear when he had to approach the tween queen.

"Are there more than 150?" Tawni called out, not even giving the intruder a glance. Why should she? All the pretty was in her reflection!
"Um," Josh quivered, his huge lensed-glasses actually vibrating. "Let me check: 1…2…3…"

Tawni sighed in frustration. "Boredal-ready! Ok, ok, I'll take 'em." She quaintly got up, grabbed the huge bundle and quickly flipped through them. "I really despise those letters that they talk about themselves or our …similarities," she gave a disgusted look as if that word tasted bitter. "You know what I'm talking about?" she asked Josh.
"I-I can't say that I do, Ms. Hart," Josh stuttered.
"Of course not," Tawni waved the idea away. "I forgot you weren't famous." She then spied a large bouquet of flowers in the cart.

"Ooh! Are those flowers for me?" Tawni pulled out the flowers, when she saw what kind they were—the same that she had picked up from Portlyn's dressing room…the same the ghost had left.
"No! Now give those back," Josh whined. "Th-they're…they're for someone else."

She gasped. "He-ey…wait, I saw those before." It then dawned on her. "You're the ghost, aren't you?"
Josh cowered back. "I-I don't think so."
Not being able to trust him, Tawni lightly frowned at him in accusation.

~*~

Little wacky Zora was going about her day, riding her scooter about the commissary to find anything suspicious when one of the creepy life-like dolls randomly floated in the air, coming near her. Usually, a doll such as this would make you relive some stories from Goosebumps, but these type of extraordinary actions did not fret Zora.

"Awe, how cute!" she innocently grinned when suddenly, 4 feet of pure evil happened around the corner—the vicious Dakota Condor.
Zora gasped. "EVIL!!!"

"YOU!" The even littler-girl demanded, causing Zora to jump back in fear with her eyes widened. "Get out of the way!" the 9-year-old tried shoving Zora but it took all of Zora's strength to hold steady. She then heard light buzzing.
"What's in your pocket?" Zora narrowed her eyes.
"Wouldn't you like to know," Dakota sneered.

As Dakota tried getting around the older girl, Zora unsuspectingly tripped Dakota. When Dakota fell, Zora looked about as if nothing in the world has happened, least of all someone falling from a trip. And Zora would have continued walking by had she not seen what fell out from Dakota's pockets.
She bent over, grabbing the air-tight jar, filled with angry wasps, scurrying spiders. "What are you doing with them?!" she cried, feeling pity for the tiny creatures.
Automatically, Dakota's ego dropped. "N-nothing," she muttered shaken up, before she grabbed the jar and sped away.
Zora kept her narrowed eyes on the girl until her figure disappeared. "Evil…"

~*~

"First we place the modulator here," Grady enlightened as the two boys sat in the Prop House working intently on their Candy Multiplier Machine. As soon as he clipped in the wires, a whirring sound came to be.
"And the bowl here," Nico added, pressing in a contained bowl with a small opening to the battery.
"And the time machine here!" Grady beamed, smacking his self-made wooden clock onto the pile of items.
Nico looked at him dumbfounded. "Dude, that. Is. A . Clock!" he insisted. "How many times I gotta tell ya, man?"
But he was answered by Grady's wiggling finger. "Uh-uh-uh! That is where you are mistaken! See the big hand?" Grady modeled. "When you insert candy where it says 'insert candy,' the big hand'll spin back in time, thus, multiplying the total amount of candy!"

"Huh, impressive," Nico pursed his lips into a smile as he nodded suavely.
"Now," muttered Nico. "Let's see if dis'll work." But quaintly, Grady slapped Nico's hand away from the 'On/Off' switch they had taken off from Tawni's hairdryer.
"No, we still need some more tools. C'mon," Grady waved over. "Let's go see where we can find some."

As the two walked out the door talking to each other, turning corners, the two came across Condor's office when Nico pulled Grady back to the wall to be unseen.

"He-ey," quickly hissed Nico. "Look a'that."
Grady looked over to find Murphy, the studio security guard, cautiously looking about beside Mr. Condor's closed door. "Murphy's got new shoes!" Grady exclaimed.
"Not that," Nico hissed as he backhand slapped his pal. Just then, they witnessed Murphy quickly walk into Mr. Condor's office, closing the door softly.
Seeing as Murphy wasn't coming out any time soon, the two boys eased, unclamped themselves from the wall. "What's a security guard going into the big guy's office for?" Nico asked suspiciously.
"Yeah," Grady agreed. "Ya see him? He was all…shifty-lookin'," Grady emphasized his hands to his eyes.
"Weird," stated Nico, still narrowing eyes at the door before the two continued.

~*~

Sonny walk towards the girls' dressing room when she hear blood-curling scream from within. The skin on Sonny's flesh instantaneously turned into goose-bumps, a feeling of dread overcoming what was going on. Just then, Tawni emerged from the door—in the worst state possible: numerous of yellows and furry blacks and fuzzy browns and slimy red covered the tween queen inch-by-inch. It wasn't until Sonny looked closer that she realized they were insects...living ones.

"Wasp, spiders, earthworms... running amuck in our room!" she quivered, crying insanely.
"Oh my!" Sonny gasped in horror, her eyes wide as Tawni jingled, shrieking as she tried flicking off some spiders.

With Tawni now running away as fast as she could, Sonny had full access to look into their room—to find countless of insects on nearly every square foot of their room. Spiders scurried across all the girl's belongings; wasps and hornets buzzed near Zora's vent; nearly hundreds of fleshy pink earthworms squirmed everywhere else. The wasps began rampaging towards the open door, towards Sonny. Before she screamed, trying to slam the door shut, she could had sworn she saw something glitter on the floor—a golden lid, next to a small glass jar and a purple passion flower—signifying that the ghost of James Esser had indeed intruded upon them.

Chapter 3 will be updated October 16 in order for Chapter 5 to be updated on Halloween. And also due to brief curiosity, in your review, please say what's your favorite Halloween DCOM! Like mine would be 'Under Wraps', 'Hocus Pocus', and Halloween Town (the first movie).