Hi again, time for a new chapter. As always, reviews are welcome, I would realy like to know what you think about the story so far as there are still more to come.

Disclaimer: I don't own W.I.T.C.H.

Will joined her parents just a moment later and Susan was surprised to see her daughter carry with her three thick leathery old books.

"What are those?" Susan said.

"Books," said Will.

"That I could already tell," snorted Susan, "but what kind of books?"

"Annals from the time this was a monastery, they were continuously written until it closed," said Will.

"Annals?" Susan was at loss.

"Annals," said Dean and started to give them a lecture (being in his natural element), "are a form of historical representation which record events, chronologically, year by year. Unlike chronicles, they don't organize events by topics, nor do the tie up knots and conclude like a history books does. I must say, I didn't knew it was that sort of books you would like to look at." He said and looked curiously at Will. But Will didn't say anything or looked at him, she only stared at the corridor in front of her with tight lips and a strange look on her face. Dean was surprised by this, he had almost expected her to complaining at him giving her a history lecture outside school. Instead she seemed to be in deep thoughts, and that look on her face, he would have sworn it was nervousness, but why should it be that? "Is there something wrong Will?" He said.

"What! No." Will answered back a little too fast and put on a very fake grin on her face and smiled back at him. "Why should anything be wrong?" She continued.

Dean eyed her again curious, but said, "Nothing, I just thought it was something because you suddenly become so serious, you didn't see any ghosts in there, did you," he said teasingly.

Will paled, and her obvious fake grin became even worse. "No-no," she said and tried to laugh it off, but only a highly strained sound came out of her throat. "There is no such things as ghosts, right mom?" Will said and looked at her mother as to emphasize the last comment.

"Of course not," Susan said to her teenage girl. "Will you do look sort of pale, do you want to walk outside and take in some fresh air?"

"No, it's alright mom. I will follow you through the rest of the rooms and have a look," said Will. Not wanting to leave them alone (or herself) for a while.

As it turned out, the rooms they walked into were similar to each other; some were only a bit bigger than the other, most of them was either rooms for patients, storage rooms with outdated medical equipment or had served some unknown function. But the more she looked at them, the more Will thought of them as dried up mummies. Aside from the office and the master bedroom, every room were covered in a thick layer of undisturbed dust, and from the walls and ceilings, plaster and tapestry had begun to fall off. Occasionally, some beds or expensive equipment were hidden under white blankets. Her mom and Dean even made a remarked about the strangely dry air inside. They finished the third floor without finding anything special and went on to have a look at the second floor. More rooms for patients and more room for their treatment, and every single room were filled with the ugliest furniture the post-modern society had created.

At one point, Will and her family came to a narrow door that was tightly squeezed in between two normal sized doors.

"What do you think is in there? "Dean asked Will.

"Probably a broom closet," said Will. "Do you want to have a look inside?"

"No, I am afraid I am allergic toward brooms," he joked, but then he put up a dramatic pose and said, "I get some terrible rash if I get to close. If there happens to be stored soap and water there too, I might end up hospitalized for weeks on intensive care with letter and restraining order."

Will giggled and Susan said, "Perhaps you should let Will have a look instead, it would do her good learning what a broom look like."

"Mom!"

"Open it and have a look, Dean and I will be in the neighboring room."

"Ok, mom." Will said and opened the door.

But as it turned out, it wasn't a closet. Inside was a narrow staircase witch undoubtedly led to the attic. Will looked up and saw that it wasn't completely dark at the top, a dim light, probably originating from a roof window somewhere made the outline of another room just visible. One part of her wanted nothing more than step back out and close the door after her, but some morbid curiosity also made her want to know what lay at the top of the stairs. Damn curiosity! Listening, she could hear the voice of Dean and Susan discussing something right on the other side of the wall, so she decided to take a quick peek.

The stairs creaked under her as she tried to climb them as silently as possible while holding her breath. Her eyes never left the empty doorframe at the top.

Will's head slowly emerged from the top of the stairs, looking carefully around. She was looking into yet another corridor, it was narrow, and the light she had seen came from a roof window perhaps as much as thirty meters away. She couldn't really see if the corridor continued behind it, the light acted like a shield that prevented her from seeing further. Suddenly, she caught eye of a light switch on the wall right above her. Will stood up and tried to turn it on to see if it still worked, surprisingly it did. The light turned on with a steady hum sound and lit up the entire corridor.

The corridor continued past the window as she had suspected, but it was nothing more to see, the corridor was empty and led nowhere. There were some doors on the walls on each side and Will guessed it only was storerooms behind them with more scrap she didn't want to see. Badly wanting to reunite with her family again, she turned off the lights, ready to leave.

When the light went off, the only source of light was again the small window. But now she suddenly thought she could see something more…

Right behind the light, at the edge between pitch dark and barely visible, was the faint outline of something that resembled a humanoid figure.

Will reached out and turned the lights fast on again, but there was nothing. The corridor was still as empty as it had been.

"Just great," Will thought frightened, "Now I am scaring myself again. There is absolutely nothing there…"

She took a couple of steps back while staring into the empty attic. Two steps down the stairs, she reached for the switch and turned it off again.

This time there was no creepy shadow standing there. Will stared back into the dark for a split second, then she hurried back downstairs to Dean and Susan, wanting to forget about the whole thing as fast as possible.

It was past midday before they finally came down and could take a look at the left wing on the first floor. The wing had a great hall at the far end; it was the old canteen, which served the patients and Will guessed it had served the monks as well. The chairs were neatly placed closed up to the tables, against the walls stood old wending machines that once contained chocolate bars and soda. The floor was colored in an ugly lime green color and Susan commented that it must have made the poor people here seasick on dry land.

Will didn't pay much attention to this. All she could think of was what she had seen in the pictures that laid hidden in her pocket. They showed the gruesome remains of mutilated human corpses that she was sure had been some of the missing patients. Somebody, and she could think of two who that might have been, had found them, despite the reports that none of the missing people ever had been found again. At one level, Will could understand why the photographer didn't want to report it to anyone, having your patients and customers end up like that would without doubt ruin your business. The people in the pictures were nothing more than cadavers. Old and rotten, torn apart, with missing limbs and inner body parts. Yes, Will had seen her fair deal of dead peoples during her time as a guardian. Not everything could be solved with diplomacy and magical tricks, but the dead usually kept their vitals intact or were deposed in a discreet manner. Whatever was on the loose back then clearly didn't care much for the living or the dead. The photos however, did not reveal much more, they were black and white, quite dark and no name was written, neither place nor date. But in the background in one of the pictures, she thought she could see a stonewall so it could be inside a house somewhere…!

In her mind, the unanswered questions piled up, "Where and when were this pictures taken, and by whom? Why was it newer reported, what is this thing that did this, and is it still out there?" She thought and kept glancing at her parents' who was chatting among themselves. If whatever did this, still was here, they might be in danger.

Will decided that when they left later today, she would contact rest of the guardians immediately and tell them what she had found. In the meanwhile, she was going to stick closely to her parents; she didn't feel she wanted to face this monster on her own either.

It was around two o' clock and Susan said it was dinnertime or lunch, but if they decided to stop someplace later on their trip back they could have a real dinner then. Therefore, they went back to the kitchen where Will and Susan made some simple sandwiches again. Due to the lack of warm water Susan did not want to make anything more fancy, Will suggested they could use the oven to heat the water, but Susan pointed out that the oven used gas, and she would not risk trying it in case there was some leakage from it. Dean and William waited for them in the living room, and not before long, the girls had joined them.

While they ate, Dean and Susan discussed what they had seen so far. Both of them saw the possibilities this place had for hotel business if someone wanted to buy it. If Dean said yes to the testament, it meant they would have to pay an awfully amount of money in taxes while they looked for a buyer, and it was always the risk that no one wanted to buy it. Neither of them wanted to keep it, that they agreed on. They had no use for it and the whole place needed a lot of restauration in order to make it livable. However, if Dean said yes and they found a buyer, they could earn a lot of money on the sale. The problem was that the lawyer held all the documents and Dean hadn't seen them yet, if there were restrictions, old debt or anything else that followed this building, it could be a problem. The best was to wait and see what the lawyer had with him and make up their minds then. Will listened to the conversation but only said something when she was asked. Halfway through, she took up one of the books she had taken with her and started to read in it and did not register her mother trying to make contact with her.

"Will," her mother said disapproving, "Are you really going to read that thing while we are eating, can't you put it away until later?"

Will only stared in her book and grunted out an answer that no one understood.

"Will," her mother said again with an angry voice, "Put that thing away when we eat and have a civil conversation with us instead!"

Her daughter slowly turned her head to face her with an annoyed expression before she closed the book and pushed it aside on the table.

"Now as I was trying to ask," Susan said, "What do you think we should do?"

"Do about what?" Will said.

"This house of course," the irritated woman said, "We have seen through almost the entire building and found it way too expensive to be renovated. Should we keep it as it is for now and try to sell it later, or should we reject the testament and say no to the entire thing?"

"I'd say we say no and leave as soon as possible," said Will. Then she stopped and looked at Susan and Dean and said slowly, "What do you mean with almost the entire building?"

"We only have the basement left, and I think it will be just enough time for that before the lawyer arrives. We will have a look right after we have finished eating." Said Susan.

Saying this, Susan saw how both Dean and Will suddenly got nervous and stopped eating. "Is there something matter with you?" Susan said and eyed them suspiciously.

"Nothing!" they both blurted out simultaneously and looked at each other.

"Then way are you behaving like that. Don't tell me you are afraid of a dusty old basement, the worst thing you probably will find there are some fat old rats."

Neither Will nor Dean said anything to defend themselves, all that was on Will's mind was the motive she had seen earlier, grizzly eternalized in the photos. Dean however, was thinking back to last night on the direction the ghostly footsteps had walked…

"If you are finished," Susan said and saw that the other two had stopped eating, "Then perhaps we should go and have a look?" Dean and Will suddenly got a look that told the matriarch that they must have wished they were somewhere else, but Susan didn't bother to comment their childish behavior any more.

Her mother cleaned of the table quickly, and soon they were walking toward the end of the corridor. Susan took care of William this time so Will walked beside her stepfather. When they stopped in front of the door, Susan waited for Dean or Will to open it, but neither of them did.

"Come on," she said, "Stop pretend you are babies, even William behave more adult then you," and looked at the calm three year old in her arms. She fastened her grip of her child in her left arm in order to get her right hand free. Stretched it out, took hold on the doorknob, and turned it around. "Click" it said, and the old door opened slowly with a horrible creak.

Will's fright from earlier came back with full force as she thought with increasingly fear, "I swear, that door was locked last night!"