CHAPTER 13 - WRAITH MANOR

There was a ceiling of leaves and branches from all the trees. It provided the perfect protection from the sun that the vampires needed to sneak up on them. A lot of things happened all at once. It was hard for Michaelah to keep track of everything as she ran away with Koji. Before the vampires could get to them, Al, Carl, and Cassy got inbetween them.

The Not So Scary Gang fought the vampires one on one, just like the angry fireballs. Naturally, Carl the Ghost fought Carlisle, the battle over the one true Carl. Cassy fought Seth and Al fought Vlad. They all scrambled around each other, heroes and villains. Michaelah had seen enough movies at home to know not to be around when the fight was over. She’d rather not know who won than know for sure when the bad guys win. If that makes sense…

The woods finally broke to fields, much like the other side of the river. There was one road that zigzagged through the patchy green fields, so they followed it. Scary Territory was actually quite nice in the daytime. Its ashame about night though. Such a beautiful place should not be tarnished by merely one side of time. They would have to find some kind of place to sleep by nightfall. Michaelah had learned her lesson. She would not be caught out in the wild again.

Carl the Ghost came flying down the ridge towards them. He was not out of breath but there was a panic to him. “I found you, good. We must go now.”

“What about the others?” asked Michaelah.

“Its just me, let’s get moving.”

This meant to Michaelah one thing. “Are the vampires gone?” she asked.

Carl stopped to a hover and then turned slightly to look back at her. “No. That is why we must be going.”

Michaelah didn’t waste anymore time talking. They rushed off. She assumed Carl knew where to go. It was only a matter of time before the fields turned into farms. There were all different kinds of strange vegetables and fruits in the farms. Some even gave off black vapors like they were burning. It was the oddest thing. Carl the ghost told them not to touch anything, but he really didn’t have to. After all this time in Pandamonium Michaelah knew better.

After the farms, spooky little quiet towns popped up, even a boardwalk, but they didn’t stop until Carl led them to a house so big, Michaelah and Koji could not see where the sides of it ended.

“The Bogs were Al’s home. The farms we just passed were Cassy’s home. This is my home. Welcome to The Wraith Manor.”

Michaelah didn’t really like the sound of that. From the look on Koji’s face, neither did he. But they had no choice, so they followed Carl the ghost into the haunted house. As soon as they walked in they heard maniacal laughter echoing down one of the hallways. There was a huge spiral staircase in the middle of the room. On the floor they were standing on there were two long hallways going down both sides of the house. The walls were covered with old oil paintings of people long dead, old timey furniture and decor covered in cobb webs line the walls. Did the ghosts rule this place or the spiders?

A specter of light flew through one massive portrait on the wall and up the staircase, into the glass dome roof letting all the sunlight in. Another specter of light blasted through one picture on the wall and into another directly across from it. It hit the painting so hard the frame shook and settled crookedly back on the wall. Michaelah stuck close to Koji who was holding his plunger like a sword.

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“Quickly, this way!”Carl said, leading them down the hall. The room he tried to go into had a door that was locked. He was confused by this. Carl tried to phase through it and that didn’t work either. The door just glowed the same color as Carl when he collided with it. So, he turned around and flew back down the way they came, towards the front door. This time he did not wait for them. Making up for lost time, he flew down the hall and up the spiral staircase.

Michaelah and Koji ran down the hall. All the commotion had really stirred up the specters. They were flying through the paintings frantically. One clipped Koji. Another knocked Michaelah in the back. Right before they made it back to the front door a specter tackled both of them into a painting.

They both fell out the otherside back into the hallway, but now they were back at the locked door all the way down the hall. That didn’t seem to bother them. What stood out the most was their lack of bodies. They both now glowed the same as Carl and didn’t have any legs, just wispy little tails that seemed to steer their hover like the rutter of a boat.

Michaelah couldn’t even enjoy herself. She was worried that whatever just happened to them was permanent and she was dead. Their bodies were nowhere to be found. Maybe if they tried going back through the painting in which they came. Michaelah tried to turn around. Well, she tried to just move. Instead, all she did was start floating upward. When Koji tried to move to help her the same thing happened to him.

They were both floating up towards the ceiling. In just a few moments they would hit it. Carl still had not returned. The specters didn’t seem like they could help. Now that they were ghosts none of the things the wizard gave them could be used. They were running out of options.

The ceiling approached and instead of getting caught up by it they did what ghosts do best. Michaelah and Koji phased through the ceiling into the second floor. She saw each layer of the house’s innards as if her eyeballs were still intact and functional and she was not just a detailed spot of light. They kept floating up into the second floor hallway and saw no sign of Carl. It was going to happen again.

They phased into the third floor and then the fourth floor and still no sign of Carl the ghost. This house was massive. How many more times would they have to do this before they were outside? In Pandamonium, you never know. But Michaelah did remember there being a pointed roof on this house, mostly because she remembers wondering why it was so crooked.

Suddenly, they were in the attic. They heard a stir but it was not Carl. It wasn’t even a ghost. Sounded like a dog or something. It twitched and snarled and altogether sounded angry. So they just kept on floating. Not like they had much of a choice. Its face was too wide to be a dog, but it had sharp teeth, mangy black fur, and was on all fours. He lept at them and she could see its glowing red eyes. Michaelah screamed. The nightmare bit Koji in the arm and actually got him. It started dragging the ghost panda down while Michaelah still floated up.

Michaelah tried everything and screamed in frustration as she left the attic through the roof, and left Koji behind to fight the nightmare by himself. When she got outside it was night time. There, standing on the roof, before the full moon, were Seth and Vlad. They had Carl the ghost in an electric cage and an empty one right next to him. Michaelah freaked out. They were not going to catch her. Not like this!

She tried to fly again. But nothing. She couldn’t run away. She couldn’t fly away. All she could do is float up. Why up? What was so important about going up? Do babies blame crawling when they see adults walk?

Seth jumped up onto Vlad. One vampire handed the empty electro-cage to the other and they started approaching Michaelah. At the rate she was floating they would catch her. She didn’t know what to do to stop herself. She couldn’t push down, back to Koji, nor around in any direction. Just up. Up… Up! Might as well try it.

Michaelah looked up and pushed forward with all her might. Before the vampires could ensnare her in the cage she burst forth above them into the night sky at an incredible speed. Michaelah was ghost-flying so fast she could move and direct herself. All of a sudden, in the act itself, the skills came rushing to her. She could turn down and loop around. Anything was possible. She was getting ready to turn back and save her friends and find their bodies when she flew into the clouds.

Once Michaelah passed through the clouds she found herself to be in a different place entirely.