Elanna and Serenity were huddled together, the sounds of the bizarre prison echoing around them. The Elven Protection Circle had saved them from the mad doctor, but had awakened all the spirits around them. Neither dared make a sound for fear of alerting the spirits to their presence. Each noise had them huddle close together in terror. Elanna only prayed they would last until sunrise.
Gabriel continued to pace back and forth; Audrey had managed to get two locks open and only had one left. Finally after what seemed like an eternity Gabriel heard the lock snap and Audrey meow in success. Together they pulled the doors open, " Just as I thought" said Gabriel, " damn why was I so stupid as not to realize it."
Gabriel took out an amulet and whispered silent words to it. This had cost him a small fortune and prayed it work. Gabriel held the amulet out as the pair started in. The walked past a room filled with rotting book and papers strewn all over, there was dried blood all over the papers. As they watched, the blood slowly became liquid again and began to run. Audrey hissed in fear, " We have to hurry, we've really pissed these assholes off" said Gabriel.
" Elanna!!!" Audrey howled.

Elanna's head jerked up, " Audrey!" she yelled back.
" NO!" hissed Serenity.
" It is my friends" said Elanna.
" He will get them" said Serenity.
" Not those two, nobody could catch them" said Elanna, " Hurry! We're Trapped!"
The started to run towards the sound of her voice, deathly cold wind rushing past them. They came to the operating room and saw him, " Fredric Dache" said Gabriel, " you sick motherfucker."
The ghostly doctor smiled and a bone chilling laugh echoed through the entire wing. Gabriel closed his eyes and hoped this was the real deal. He threw the amulet hard to the ground. The bright purple jewel shattered on impact creating a bright light. The light made the doctor scream and disappear. " What was that?" asked Audrey as they raced up the stairs.
" Dispelling amulet" said Gabriel, " I bought it years ago in case I ever got in trouble in a haunted house, thank god I had it with me."
Gabriel flung the supply room door open and saw the two elves. Their porcelain skin was paler than usual. They both immediately noticed that the other elf had black eyes. " Hello" said Gabriel, helping Elanna to her feet, " your friend?"
" Her name is Serenity" said Elanna, " she saved my life."
" Then you're a friend of mine" said Gabriel, offering her his hand.
Serenity shook her head and got up on her own. " We have to get out of here" said Gabriel, " I doubt that dispel is going to keep something this evil tied down for long."
The four quickly raced out of the nightmarish wing and slammed the doors behind them. They listened as the locks clicked and a long mournful cry echoed as strange symbols began to glow on the door. " What the hell was?" asked Elanna, still shaking like a leaf.
" That was the legendary experimental hospital of Fredric Dache" said Gabriel, sliding down the wall, " this was once the home of the Dache family, a wealthy and noble family of Toulo. Probably a century ago Fredric came into the title of Duke of Dache. But Fredric wasn't interested in just being a noble and sitting around all day drinking wine and sleeping with his mistresses, Fredric thought he was an excellent surgeon that could combine the two fields of medicine, magical and surgical. To that end his men began to kidnap people from the villages in this area. They were brought back here and held in those cells until Doctor Fredric was ready for them. He would try out his new surgical methods on the patients while they were still awake and aware to see how the body would react. Almost none of them survive the procedure, none of them survived more than a few days. Finally one night one of the guards forgot to lock one cell. One patient escaped and freed the rest. They killed the doctor and all the orderlies. But found the large doors were locked and held in with magic. One by one each died at the hands of the doctor's ghost until the last was able to open enough of a space in the bars she was able to escape. The Dache family was marked for death by the people and were forced to flee. The house were so much torment was caused was left to rot until Captain Armstrong happened upon it and made the mistake of hiding the damn statue here."
" Did you find the statue?" asked Serenity.
" Not yet, we were trying but the house decided to strike first" said Gabriel.
" We have to find that statue and get out of here" said Elanna.
" Agreed" said Serenity.
The group hurried back to the room with the giant red boar. " Okay, everybody look around, it has to be close" said Gabriel.
The group started to look around, the house was twice as creepy at night only illuminated by the group's glow stones. " What about that?" asked Audrey, pointing out the window, look at the third window."
The four looked out the window, forty metres across the courtyard was pointed directly at the third window of the opposite side. " Great but how do we get there?" asked Elanna.
Serenity grabbed a stuffed Razor Rat and hurled it through the window, shattering the glass. " Any other questions?" asked Audrey.
" None from me" said Elanna.
The four carefully climbed out of the window and started across the courtyard.

" We have to go" said Alexis, packing the length of the deck at record speed, " it is already dark and we haven't seen anything from them."
I agree" said Tanis, " no way Gabe and Elanna would stay in there after dark without sending Audrey back."
" All right" said Sebastian, " Tanis, grab your hammer we are going to knock."
Tanis grinned and hurried back down to his cannon deck and took his hammer off the wall. He kissed the red runes that were inlaid. He hurried up and joined Sebastian and Alexis climbing down the ladder. They reached the ground and waved to Elsenor and Sam who were watching from above. The three walked through the gates, and to the front doors. They were firmly locked, " Tanis" said Sebastian.
Tanis took a mighty swing and drove his hammer into the door. To their shock the hammer didn't even scuff the door, " Ah Tanis, we aren't getting weak in our old age, are we?" asked Alexis.
Tanis huffed and swung again, another thunderous hit, the runes on Tanis' war hammer were glowing brightly. " Damn it" said Tanis, " the door is sealed with magic."
" Can't we open it?" asked Alexis, starting to panic.
" Unless you know magic" said Sebastian, " damn, Armstrong was either smarter than he wrote or twice as stupid to hide that thing here. We can't do much stumbling in the dark, first light if we can't open these doors, lets try the cannons, maybe we can punch a hole in a wall."
" But what about my sister?" asked Alexis.
" She'll probably claw the ghost's eyes out" said Tanis, " come on."

Twang and his captains slowly outlined their plan of attack. A scout blimp had spotted the human airship just at dusk. It was stationary over some old ruined mansion. " Tomorrow we will strike their ship with two parties" said Twang, " one will come straight at them, being humans, they will flee and then we will attack with our larger fleet crushing them between our two mighty forces."
But these humans are clever, and he has all those guns" said one captain, " why not use our sky raiders to attack them?"
" Excellent idea" said Twang, " bring me the captain of the sky raiders."
A tall goblyn with an eye patch entered, " I am Crax" he said, with a mouth of broken teeth.
" When these humans leave that ruined mansion they will have treasure onboard" said Twang, " once they have left, attack at night and kill all on board and steal the treasure."
" Certainly my lord" said Crax.
The captains began to break up to go back to their ships, " One other thing captain" said Twang.
The captain turned and Twang slit his throat. The captain dropped dead on the deck, his blood soaking into the wooden deck. " Never out smart me" said Twang, " Ugarth, we have special meat for breakfast tomorrow!"
Ugarth came in and dragged the corpse out. Twang smiled, the sky raiders would get the job done and get him the prize of a functioning airship, and whatever prizes the humans took from the mansion. Twang grinned to himself, he was a real genius.

Serenity hurled the stuffed Razor Rat through the next window and the four climbed in. They entered into a large bedroom, " All right lets find this thing" said Elanna.
The four broke up and began to search. Audrey starting rummaging through the dresser drawers, opening them and dumping the contents on the floor, Gabriel started looking through the wardrobe digging through an entire collection of moth eaten clothes, Serenity was digging through the rotting bed. Elanna was heading for the washroom when she heard a strange groan from the floor. Everyone stopped, expecting another ghost to rise up through the floor. Elanna took her foot off the board and bent over pointing her glow stone at the floor. One of the floor boards was warped and had pried up from the floor. In addition there were scraps and tool marks on the floor. Elanna smiled, she violently stomped on the floor. The board snapped and threw splinters in the air. The board flipped up exposing a small recess in the floor. Elanna dropped to her knees and pulled a green felt wrapped box out. " Is that it?" asked Audrey.
Audrey undid the latch and opened the box. She suddenly flushed bright red and her nipples started to poke through her shirt. She rapidly shut the box, and let off a little sigh. " I would say absolutely" she said.
abriel let off a long exhale and slumped against the wall, " Thank the gods for that" said.
Everyone suddenly turned and looked in horror at him. Gabriel read their expressions immediately, " Oh shit" he said.
He felt all the hair rise on his neck, the sense of total doom loomed over him. With a lightning quick move he leapt towards the middle of the room. He spun around and saw a pair of hands pushing out from inside the wall that had tried to grab him. The strange lump slowly moved through the wall and disappeared. " Please tell me you have another one of the dispel amulets" said Audrey, her tail rising in the air.
" I never thought I would get into this much trouble in a haunted house before" said Gabriel.
" No what?" asked Elanna.
" Running is a good idea" said Audrey, " we should head back for the entry and beat down those doors."
" The Cataka makes a good point" said Serenity, " we should also stay well away from the walls."
The group started for the window when the hands appeared again and grabbed Serenity's cloak and started pulling her into the wall. Elanna tossed the box to Audrey and pulled Serenity's sword from its scabbard and slashed through one of the hands. Serenity was able to wrestle herself free and the hand disappeared, leaving a large hole in the wallpaper. " Thanks" gasped Serenity, " Elanna, you're pretty good with the sword."
" Mom taught me well" said Elanna.
Elanna gave the sword back to Serenity, they started out the window. They hurried across the courtyard and back into the trophy room. It was there too, it grabbed at Serenity again, this time catching her foot. Serenity was fighting hard but it was winning. Elanna grabbed the fancy hunting spear from the wall and tossed it to Serenity. She managed to spear it into the ground and hang on. She tossed her sword to Elanna and Elanna started hacking at the hands. It finally released Serenity and vanished into the heavily damaged walls. Gabriel started for the hall but he saw the hands slowly circling, damn it knew it had them trapped. " We have a problem" he said, " our helping hands are in the hall. We're going to have to run it one at a time."
" I'll go first" said Audrey, " I'll carry the box."
" Good luck" said Gabriel.
udrey smiled, flashing her teeth and dashed out. The swift and nimble Cataka had no trouble dodging the hands. She reached the entry and began to cheer and taunt the hands that circled the walls but was unable to reach her as she jumped up and down in the middle of the room. " Okay, now!" shouted Audrey.
Elanna bolted out and reached the center of the entry before the hands knew what was going on. Serenity went next, she had shed her cloak so that the hands couldn't grab it again. She dove into the middle of the room just dodging the hands. " Gabriel!" Elanna shouted, " be careful we really pissed this thing off."
" Don't worry about me" said Gabriel, " I have a plan."
Gabriel hurled a trophy of a large wolf into the hall, the hands reached down from above the door and snatched the trophy as Gabriel dashed out. He dove hard on the ground and rode the rotting hallway rug all the way into the middle of the entry kicking up and unhealthy cloud of dust. " Great slide" said Elanna, patting Gabriel on the back, putting more dust in the air, " but couldn't you have found something that would make us a little less of a mess."
" Now how do we get out?" asked Audrey, " those hands are probably guarding the door now."
" I hadn't thought that far ahead yet" said Gabriel.
" What about Sebastian and the others?" asked Audrey, " my sister must be driving them insane by now."
" Maybe, but I doubt that they can get in anymore than we can get out" said Elanna.
The rays of the first light of day began to filter through the moth eaten curtains. " We survived the night" said Audrey, tossing a clump of rotten rug towards the door.
The clump was snatched up by the hands, " But the hands aren't gone yet" complained Elanna.
The four sat pondering their fate when suddenly the entire room shook as a large chunk of the wall exploded showering them in more dust, plaster and little pieces of rock covered them. " Elanna!" came Sebastian's voice, " can you hear us?"
" Yes!" shouted Elanna, " shoot again at the same place! Make the hole bigger!"
The group ducked underneath the rug and another cannon shot ripped the wall apart exposing the second floor. " Let's go for it before that thing gets anymore ideas" said Audrey.
" Wait" said Serenity.
" Not a word from us" said Gabriel, " thank you for saving Elanna."
Serenity pulled her cloak close, " Go ahead, I'll leave after you do" she said.
Gabriel and Audrey started for the gaping hole. Elanna gave Serenity a huge hug, " Thanks for saving me" she said, " thanks."
Serenity smiled, " We have to stick up for our people" said Serenity, " all of us."
Elanna dashed out with Gabriel and Audrey. They quickly sprinted past Sebastian standing by the open gate and scrambled up the ladder. All three kissed the deck and fell over exhausted. " Come on" said Sam, " I made a special breakfast for you three, did you get it?"
Audrey held the box up, " Let's get below and have a look" said Sebastian.
They helped the three up, Elanna turned and peeked over the side. Serenity was slipping out of the mansion and vanishing into the woods. Elanna smiled, I guess all myths are partially true.

The crew looked at the box in awe, " You're sure it's in there" said Sebastian.
" I'm positive" said Elanna, " trust me."
" Well I want to see it" said Sebastian.
Sebastian opened the box, Elanna made sure to turn away. Everyone in the room turned bright red and Sebastian immediately slammed the box closed. " What?" asked Sam, walking into the galley, " what did I miss?"
" Oh nothing" croaked Sebastian.
" Good, then could you help me with breakfast?" asked Sam.
" I'll do it" said Elanna, " the rest are a little occupied."