Moving on, the two entered a corridor filled with doors. Sounds of screaming, pounding, and manacle laughter were to be heard while the doors shook, dying to open. A door even seemed to be breathing!
"Some of our guest have trouble getting through,"The Ghost Host laughed rather sinister, which the little girl didn't mind because shivers were already down her spine from the spine tingling screams. Going forward, a wall of paintings hung, including a large painting of a skinny man with a long face. He had white long hair, pale green skin, and one eye was bigger than the other. His nose was long and pointed and he had a mischievous grin like he did something horrible. This painting clearly showed this, because he had a rope tied around his neck, holding the end of it in his fist. In his other hand, he held an ax. His clothing consisted of a white shirt underneath a lavender vest. Over that, he wore a green coat and he wore blue pinstriped pants. But this particular person seemed vaguely familiar...
"Host, is that...you?" asked the child, staring at the picture.
"Yes, my dear. That's what I look like now. You can't see me, so now you know what I do look like," The Host said.
As the tour went on, they passed a demonic grandfather clock that had 13 hours on it instead of 12. After that, they entered the séance room where a woman's head in a crystal ball was reading spells and instruments floated around.
"Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat. Call in the spirits, wherever they're at," the woman incanted.
"Ah, Madame Leota. Still incanting I see," The Ghost Host implied.
Leota stopped incanting and smiled at the two, "Host, who is this? The park closed an hour ago, so why do you carry a young mortal with you?"
"She is an orphan that has been looking for a home. She escaped the orphanage and came here, unknowing this place was filled with spirits. It's quite a long story."
"I see," Leota said, "Well, feel free to stop by once you get a chance."
"Certainly, Madame. We better get going before the little one falls asleep."
The child managed to say, "Goodbye, Leota."
The head in the crystal smiled and nodded as the Doom Buggy carried on. It now entered on a balcony overlooking an old fashioned ballroom. A long table was set and different ghosts were sitting at it, watching a ghost girl blow out candles on a birthday cake. Over to the left, a few ghostly couples in fancy attire waltzed around the room to an off key song played by a ghost on an organ at the far end of the room. On the ceiling, a large chandelier with cob webs hung, while a couple of ghost sat on top of it.
Teresa could not believe her eyes! Real ghosts! The thing that really shocked her was that they were doing things that humans would do: They would party!
A few ghosts saw the Doom Buggy come in and they looked at the little girl with confusion. But their expressions came into smiles and grins. Some even waved at her.
All Teresa did was smile back at them, a little scared, but not that much.
"Would you like to say hello, dear-"
"HEY! I KNOW YOU'RE IN HERE! YOU ARE IN BIG TROUBLE!"
All the ghosts froze and all the music stopped.
The Ghost Host gasped and whispered into the girl's ear, "It's the security guards! Run, Teresa! Don't let them find you! I'll distract them!"
The child was about to protest, but the Ghost Host said a final, "Go!"
Teresa ran out of the Doom Buggy as fast as she could. All she could do was follow the tracks of the vehicles. She could hear running footsteps getting louder and louder. Eventually, she spotted a security guard with a flashlight a few meters away.
"Get back here!" he barked. As Teresa kept running, she was loosing strength. She tripped over the tracks on the floor and fell off the balcony railing! With a gasp, the child fell flat on the floor, motionless. The guard gasped and ran down to where she laid. At an instant he saw blood on her dress, he knew she was dead.
The child groaned as she slowly opened her eye lids. Opening them, she saw that she was resting on a dark purple velvet lounge chair. She tried to move, but she winced as pain filled her abdomen. Her body then felt..weightless. She looked around the room to see that she was in a library filled with books to the brim while a fireplace sat in the center of the room. She could barely make out a figure a few inches away, standing right near a bookcase. It looked as though it was looking at her. When her eyes finally did get clear, she couldn't believe her eyes. Standing there stood the tall figure in the green coat with a rope wrapped around his neck. It was the Ghost Host.
He smiled at her compassionately and walked to her, crouching down beside the chair. The child was not afraid of his appearance because she saw the painting of him in one of the corridors.
"H-Host?" the child said weakly.
He shushed her and put a finger to the girl's lips, his own voice the same but it did not echo, "Do not speak. You still need to recover from the fall. You need to get used to being a spirit now. Still in a bit of pain?"
Teresa nodded a little bit before wincing again, "W-What do you mean 'getting used to being a-'"
She then stopped, finally realizing that she was in fact, dead. The Host looked at her with a sympathetic face.
"But..that means that I...can stay here?" the child asked.
He nodded and smiled gently at her, "Yes. You can. We just have to keep you hidden during the day, or else the mortals will question about a new update on the mansion."
"Does that mean that you can be my..." Teresa felt nervous to say the rest. She pretended not to meet his eyes.
The Ghost Host kissed her on the forehead, which she felt that same cool touch as before, "Of course, my dear. Now get some rest. I don't want you to be tired to death. But that has happened before to a resident..."
The ghost child nodded and positioned herself on the lounge to sleep. The Host had a blanket next to the chair, which he gently laid it on the child. Teresa's eyes slowly closed, her body slowly going up and down as she breathed peacefully. The Ghost Host smiled to himself as he went over to another chair and read a book for awhile, glancing over his book to see Teresa still sound asleep. He soon fell asleep in the chair. Well, spirits do need their rest in peace, otherwise they would be dead tired.