My voice faded but Janet’s, “What the hell! Is that the true story or are they messing with us?” caught me off guard. It was just too sudden and unlike her.

Alice replied first, “It doesn’t matter. Let’s get something to eat and then figure out where he put the gold.” Unlike Janet, she was more nonchalant about what happened in the book.

Pam looked thoughtful and hesitantly said, “Maybe in their rooms?”

“Maybe.” I wasn’t sure so gave a perfunctory reply.

Alice wasn’t having it thought and grabbed her friend, “Let’s go. You can reread the book and discuss it while we eat. I’m hungry.” Janet and I trailed behind them as we made our way to the kitchen. It was as peaceful as it had been yesterday. Nobody was screaming or being attacked but judging from the noises of people moving around, no one had managed to escape either.

I didn’t get the cook again because somebody already did. A heavenly scent was emanating from the kitchen and when we entered there were four plates loaded with roast chicken, mashed potatoes, and corn. There was also a mix berry pie sitting next to them. I looked for the cook but didn’t see anybody. I also couldn’t think of anybody that would have been in the mood to cook. It wasn’t that I didn’t think of the possibility of a ghost cooking it. In fact, that seemed the most likely, but the tempting smell of the dishes was like a siren pulling me to the table. Soon enough, I was eating like a pig, and barely managed to stop eating long enough to give my opinion of what I had read before.

There were several clues the others noticed. The first was that the betrayal and murders happened in the dining room. Pam even pointed out three gouge marks on the floor. They weren’t very prominent. In fact, without the back story nobody noticed them, but the three uniformed gouge marks were in a straight line as if he had laid his loved ones in a row before stabbing a sword through them. Those marks reinforced the information that was in the book and Pam and Janet had the idea that the gold may have been placed at the murder scene.

Alice then pointed out that owner had wanted to hear his wife’s voice “fill this manor” and wanted to recheck the music room. I thought about it. Having spent the night there, it wasn’t that I hadn’t looked around. It was that I wasn’t too sure if there were any hidden compartments like the one in the desk. It was possible, so I nodded when she brought it up.

Pam added, “I think we should check out the rooms around the eldest daughters. It said that the noises started around there. We might be able to find clues there.” Alice gave her friend a halfhearted nod, while Janet and I looked awkwardly at each other. Judging from Janet’s look, she agreed with me that it was a waste of time. It was a little after one and with the sun shining through the windows, our unease about what happened last night diminished.

Once we finished eating, we began to explore again. I spent most of my time in the music room while the others went to different areas. But we didn’t find anything, no matter where we looked. Even with the diary, we came up empty. The sun moved across the sky as we investigated, and the once bright house slowly became dark and dreary. We finally grabbed a snack and began searching what we assumed was the eldest daughters room.

Her room was bigger and had more dolls than the room we were in last night. Like everything in this house, they looked new even though they were vintage. I briefly thought about how much they might be worth but as I did, the temperature in the room dropped to the point I could see my breath. With a curse, I wrapped myself in the bed blanket. The others just gave me strange glances as if they hadn’t felt the chill and had begun searching by the time, I felt warm again. Any thought I had about the dolls was long forgotten.

“Maybe whatever we are looking for only happens at night,” Janet hesitantly said.

“If so, how do we check everywhere while remaining safe?” Pam asked.

“We split up; no guts, no glory!” Alice seemed to be excited by the idea. She glanced at her friend and said, “Come on, we have to try for it.”

Pam looked reluctant but finally said, “Ok, we’ll split up. Just don’t attack anything. I promised your dad that I would stop you from doing anything too dangerous.”

Alice gave her an eye roll before saying, “From the diary, we should squat in the music room, dining room, and the girls’ bedrooms. They are the most likely to have the gold and silver. If we can find it, we can probably break the seal that’s holding us here.” I saw the other two nodding at her words, but I didn’t know anything about seals or what gold and silver had to do with them. Because of that, I didn’t contradict her, but I felt like I was in a Scooby-Doo episode as we split up.

I ended up staying in the eldest daughter’s room. Both Janet and I had been in the younger daughter’s and music room during the night so Alice and Pam wanted to give them a try. I let Janet take the dining room because it was closer to the music room. Because nothing bothered us last night, I was viewing it as a safe zone. Even though I was in a girl’s body, I couldn’t put her in more danger than myself. It was a habit I had from when I was big enough to weather any trouble that came my way. Now? I wasn’t sure I could manage the things this world could throw at me. But even though I didn’t have the same confidence I once had, I still couldn’t bring myself to take the “safer” option when my friend might be in danger.

I looked for a little longer before grabbing the blanket and leaned against the wall. The thought of sleeping with a ghost still made my skin crawl. But it was late, and I hadn’t slept well last night. I kept yawning and my head would subconsciously droop. I would catch it with a jerk but wasn’t long before I fell asleep.

A soft moan that was coming from the bed and a gentle touch on my leg woke me up. Whatever it was touching me was small, like a baby’s hand. It slowly brushed against the outside of my leg before gripping on to my thin pants fabric and started climbing onto my lap. I jumped up with a manly war cry, it just sounded like a shriek of fright. The blanket fell away as I stood up, revealing a doll with curly brown hair in a bonnet. It looked up as it tried to keep climbing up my clothes. It’s cold doll eyes seemed to hold malevolence as the cute smile on its face turned into a snarl. There was a gleam of metal from the paring knife, it had strapped to its body with shoestring. The knife pressed the frilly dress close to its body.

It clung to my body like a spider monkey from hell and once it regained a firm hold, let go with one hand to grab at the knife. But that’s not what freaked me out. No, it was the ghostly girl that was looking right at me. Her body was emaciated and decayed, but that just made her bloated stomach stand out even more. The very pregnant ghost rubbed her belly as she stared at me. Her face was rotting, and I could see dark green things squirming inside the places where her skin was missing. They were like maggots that were eating away her incorporeal flesh. But there was enough left to see that her face was extremely similar to mine. It made me pause.

Distracted, I felt the knife stab through my pants and into my hip. The pain made me react subconsciously. My hand hit the porcelain doll causing it to fly into the nearby wall. But its hard shell made me grimace in pain. I was shaking away the pain in my hand as the little bitch got up, tidied her dress, and darted under the bed with a childish giggle.

I wanted to check out my wound, but I noticed that all the dozen or more dolls in the room were nowhere to be seen and the girl on the bed began to move. She jerked and twisted as her eyes began to emit a dull green light. It was as if she was angry that I hurt her doll. With a scream, her limbs twisted unnaturally, and she fell to the bed. She landed on her hands and feet. Her belly was facing the ceiling making her look like a bloated tick.

I moved to the door as I started casting. I wasn't sure how to fight a ghost. Anything physical looked like it would go right through her. I also had to worry about the house attacking me if I hit it and not her. My 'Fire Dart' spell seemed useless. Judging from her appearance, I couldn’t be sure my 'Stone Skin' spell would stop her from just reaching into me and crushing my vital organs. I finally settled on "Black Chains'. There wasn't much thought as to why. If I had to pick a reason it was because they had the same hazy appearance she did. She scurried off the bed and rushed at me. Her speed forced me to speed up my chant.

Chanting spells were like tongue twisters, easy to do slowly, but they became more and more difficult the fast you say them. It wasn't because the words were hard, but that the inflection of each word had to be in the right spot. Some people could do it with ease, but I could only go so fast. She leapt at me as two chains shot from over my shoulders. With a click, click the two chains encased her wrists but her forward momentum carried her body to me. Her arms bent backward but her face kept coming ever closer to mine.

She stopped less than an inch form me and the stench of rotting meat filled my nostrils. She struggled to bridge that small gap. Her teeth snapping as if she wanted to take a bite out of me. I flexed the chains and pulled her further away as she screamed in frustration. As she did, dolls began to appear. One popped its head out from behind a curtain, another wiggled out from beneath a pillow, and so on. A tiny, adorable army of killer dolls was slowly forming up.

But unlike the ghost they were solid, and I wasn't worried about them. I kept casting as I held the specter at bay. I first hardened my skin so they couldn't hurt me and then with a stomp, crushed one that got to close under my foot. There was a soft cracking noise as I ground down on it and then with a pop, it broke apart. The teenage ghost that was chained up went berserk, so I failed to notice the quarter sized silvery ooze that had appeared when the doll broke. It silently slinked away as I focused on trying to hold her in place.

She was thrashing about causing the chains to pull taunt. For all their movement they made little to no sound. But when she failed to break free, she began to shake her head from side to side. I felt a sense of crisis as the hazy green maggots, that had been happily digging into her skin, were flung in my direction. Thankfully, I had been watching her and not the dolls, so I wasn't caught unaware. I leapt to the side, rolled, and half-crawled, half-lunged for the door to get out of the room. While they hadn’t hit me, some had landed on the smoke like chains that held her in place. Tiny pieces began to vanish as they consumed the links they had landed on. It was time to go. I opened the door and with a limp, ran down the hall. I wasn't sure how far I'd get before the chains broke, but I was going to put it to the test.

My crimson blood was slowly soaking through the light pants fabric as I hobbled my way to the room two doors down. It was the younger sister’s room and where Alice should be investigating. I barged in without a knock and saw her being held down. A teddy bear was holding her head in place while four dolls were holding onto her arms. But it was the tiny female ghost that straddled her chest that seemed to have her pinned in place. The ghost that could have been my twin looked at me and in a dull voice said, “You’re too late.” Then bent over, holding her tight, and whispered something into Alice’s ear.

Alice’s skin was pale, and she was shivering as if she was in an ice box, but she was alive. I saw her eyes widen as the ghost spoke to her and I charged over to pull her free. It was just that I never got the chance. Alice and the ghost seeped through the floor as if it was water and vanished from my sight. The bear and dolls turned to look at me as their little hands freed up. But without the ghost to back them up, I smashed and ripped them apart like the toys they were. When I finished with them, I quickly cast ‘Mend’ on my wound before rushing downstairs.

I was in such a hurry that I missed the gold and silver ooze that came from the dolls. In seconds, it slipped through the wooden floor and out of sight. But I was already rushing down the stairs looking for Janet. I maintained my stone skin spell and ignored the pain in my waist. While I wasn’t bleeding, Mend only sealed the wound. It didn’t fix the damage. I just wouldn’t keep bleeding. It was just that Janet was nowhere in sight. Was she in the music room?

I turned to check when there was a crack of thunder, the lights went out, and screams came from around the house as a sorrowful piano tune began to play.