White Manor

10. William and Eileen

Deeper into the crypt there were fewer and fewer torches to guide the way, but spirits emitted their own glow. Here, far from the tomb of The Stone Lady, oven graves line the granite walls in rows of three. Every now and again one of the stone plates shielding the bones inside would rattle or bang as if the inhabitant were clawing their way out. One or two of these was already shattered, the corpse inside presumably wandering aimlessly in the darkness. Past these new tombs, the otherworldly figures emerged into a large antechamber, round and lacking the graves of the rest of the crypt.

Instead of tombstones and torches, this room was filled to the brim with spirits and ghouls, monsters and horrors. A large fountain dominated the center of the chamber, deep scarlet blood flowing from the lips of stone demons. Whimsy filled the air as the creatures span and sang. They drank from goblets made of skulls and ate a rainbow assortment of raw meat, some of it still clinging to bone.

Freida felt a deep sense of belonging in her burning chest as she saw the large crowd before her.

"My friends!" She shouted, and immediately floated to the center of the action, leaving Constance calling after her.

She passed horned goatmen and dark inky forms. She pushed through a round slime, translucent and neon green, and there she saw a man made entirely of eyeballs, each iris a different shade. Wolfmen and catpeople and even a centaur made merry in the gloom. Freida thought her blue fire may burn out from the excitement of seeing so many new friends, but then she spotted an old one. Not far away was the spectral boy she had met in the kitchen.

"Elfreida," the boy greeted her as she approached. Another azure spirit floated beside him, all curls and bows tinted in her spectral glow. He nodded in her direction.

"This is Eileen, Elfreida. She's been my best friend since I moved to White Manor." The girl, Eileen, seemed to blush at the boy's introduction, but it was hard to tell. Freida didn't care, she was just happy there were more ghosts her age at the party.

"I'm Freida," the touched girl giggled, a sound like static and metal. "And I still don't know your name, sparkles!" This caused Eileen to burst into a laughing fit as well, and it sounded like a radio with no signal.

"He's William," the new ghost girl said when it was clear the spectral boy wasn't going to respond. "We both died in similar ways, so I knew we were going to be fast friends. How did you end up here, Freida?"

Just then Constance appeared from the monstrous crowd, actively snacking on what looked like a rotted chicken thigh, only much too large. If Freida had held on to more of her sanity, she may have asked how a ghost could be doing such a thing, but for now, it didn't cross her mind.

"Elfreida's death is a long, sad story," Constance said through a mouth or rotten meat. "And one we don't have time for now. Maybe around a campfire sometime, if we make it through this awful night. For now, I need you two children to lead us out of the crypts so we can return to White Manor. The Lumbering Horror is blocking the boneyard entrance and I fear for poor Elfreida's safety and sanity if we dare pass below the house."

The children glanced at Freida, who was actively somersaulting six feet from the floor, round and round.

"Maybe not her sanity," Eileen commented, but she grabbed William by the shoulder all the same. "Let's help them, it'll be fun!"

William nodded and said, "We know one way that's safe from the thing beneath the house, but it's a bit out of your way. Follow us!"

The ghost children, now full of energy, floated toward the tunnels farthest from where Freida and Constance had entered the antechamber. The older spirits followed, leaving the howls of the lively party of the dead far behind.