The Ghost Kacheek caught his breath for a second before continuing.

“Alright, all visitors please get in line here for tickets. Those who already have them please come here and have your tickets ready!”

The Ghost Kacheek was tired, but he still had a whole day of work left. The Haunted Woods always bustled with activity during the Halloween season, and today was no exception. The Haunted Houses were open from today, so there were more visitors than usual.

“Welcome to the Deserted Fairgrounds! Have a spooky day!”

He repeated the phrase over and over again until it lost all meaning. He desperately hoped for something to break up the monotony of his day and thankfully it came. One visitor in the distance completely stood out amongst the sea of Neopians.

As the visitor got closer to the front of the line, he could see why more clearly.

The visitor stood out so much because…

“Welcome to the Deserted Fairgrounds, Edna. It’s a pleasure to see y–“ the Ghost Kacheek began with a hint of renewed excitement at the familiar face.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it a hundred times standing in this line. I don’t need to hear it again,” grumbled the witch with a wave of her crooked hand. “I’m not here as a consumer, I’m here on business.”

“Oh. My apologies, Edna. What business are you here to complete?” the ticket attendant asked, confused.

“Maurice,” she began, reading the Kacheek’s name tag. “I’m here to address some suspicions that there might be real, dark magic in one of your Haunted Houses this year and you and I both know that that is a danger to all patrons here.”

The line behind Edna went silent.

“W-well… I… I don’t know,” Maurice began, all eyes on him. His ghostly form began to sweat.

“If I were you, I’d ask these lovely Neopians to return tomorrow while we deal with this. Hmmm?” she coaxed, her eyes leering from beneath the brim of her black witch hat.

“O-okay,” Maurice said, shaking his head affirmatively. He cleared his throat. “Please return tomorrow! The Haunted Houses will be closing early today for… for maintenance!”

The crowd sighed and snickered, protesting as they turned on their heels and dispersed.

“Follow me,“ Edna said with a crooked smile. The Ghost Kacheek did as he was told…

He let Edna inside and they walked through the house. The Macabre Mansion was known for its flickering red candlelight, which cast an eerie glow on the walls (which he had helped to spatter red with paint). He could not see much in the fleeting light of the candle, only brief glimpses of shadows thrown by hanging hides, old rickety arm chairs, and the large fake skeletons hanging on the walls. Through dimly lit glass he could see hands plastered on the doors, but he knew that these were fake – having painted many of them himself.

They walked through in silence through the house. Maurice felt his nerves pricking every time they rounded a corner, and as he walked behind Edna, in her shadow – for Edna did not trouble to light her way through the flickering house – he was overcome by feelings of misgiving.

“There’s nothing here.” Edna said at last. Maurice thought she sounded a bit disappointed.

“Well,” Maurice said, with far more bravado than he felt, “let’s go to the next haunted house. The closest one is the Sinister Labyrinth.”

“Lead the way, young Maurice.” Edna replied simply. Even though she had been perfectly pleasant, Maurice almost grimaced at how much her voice, raspy and cold, hurt to listen to.

They crossed the path of the Deserted Fairground. Maurice couldn’t help to note how eerily quiet it was. Normally you had to elbow your way through the crowds to get to the different houses. The silence allowed him to hear the trickle of the river nearby, the wind whispering through the trees. When they arrived at the Sinister Labyrinth Edna stilled, like a Vernax that had scented blood.

“Can it be?” she murmured “that seems impossible…”

Maurice waited as patiently for her to finish her sentence. Finally, he could bear it no longer. “What? What seems impossible?” he demanded.

Edna’s glowing eyes turned to him.

“There is only one way to find out.” she said finally.

The Sinister Labyrinth was completely dark when they stepped inside, and so Edna proffered a candle from underneath her cloaks. “I stole it from the last house, I hope you’ll forgive me.” she winked at him. Maurice gaped at her – had Edna told a joke?

They made their way through the labyrinth in silence. Maurice, who often boasted to his colleagues that he could make his way through the labyrinth with his eyes closed, was pleased to see that Edna was fooled by the many tricks of the labyrinth – the floor-length mirrors, the trap doors, and even the dead ends.

“Yet another haunted house that is completely fine!” Maurice said triumphantly as he felt themselves nearing the end of the labyrinth. “You must be off your game, old witch.”

“Are we near the end?” Edna murmured “I am not so sure. I cannot feel the exit nearby.”

“Of course we’re at the end of the labyrinth! I know this maze better than anyone!” Maurice replied. They had entered the final fork in the labyrinth.

“There!” he said, pointing to the left. “This is the exit!”

Edna stepped out to the left. They rounded the corner – Maurice was almost jogging at this point in his haste to get out of the house – before he almost ran into the sorceress. She had stopped abruptly and was holding her candle aloft.

“Where is the exit?” Maurice asked her, bewildered. “It’s supposed to be right here!”

Edna turned around to face him…

Fear and confusion weighed down the Kacheek’s ghostly body. “I must have just been distracted and took a wrong turn…” Maurice trailed off as he turned to start heading back to find his mistake.

He was stopped when Edna grabbed his arm. Edna’s eyes locked onto his, her eyes piercing and serious and with a hint of alarm. “This house’s presence made itself known before we even stepped in. Don’t you see, it has welcomed us? The haunt has opened its tangled web, and we must continue to unravel until we find the true end. I must admit, I’ve only seen this once before, and last time it didn’t end so well… but I have a feeling we will have a better outcome this go around.”

Fear chilled through Maurice’s core. “H-how is that reassuring!? What do you even mean? It’s just a mirror…” he said, looking again at where he knew the exit should be. The lone mirror seemed to stare blankly back at him.

“Have trust… Come, follow me,” the sorceress said as she took a hold of his paw and stepped through the mirror without looking back…

He gingerly stepped one foot through the mirror, and flinched when it landed on solid ground. Okay, he could do this.

Steeling himself with a deep breath, he plunged through the mirror with the rest of his body. Still alive! He was still alive. He exhaled in relief.

"Open your eyes, boy," Edna's voice said from beside him.

Maurice hadn't even realized he had screwed his eyes shut in terror. Gingerly he opened his eyes. He was both confused and relieved to find that the mirror house appeared exactly the same as the one they had left.

"See, there's nothing strange here. Let's go on back and..." Maurice's voice trailed off as he turned his head to speak to Edna.

The sorceress was still standing beside him, her hand still clamped like a vice around his wrist. But now Edna was...

That was the only explanation Maurice could think of. There were less wrinkles on her eyes, she looked less grumpy, and even the green of her fur seemed to have more of a sheen to it.

"E-Edna?" he said slowly, watching the Zafara examine herself in another mirror on the wall. "Um, you look...you're..."

Maurice gasped when he saw himself in that mirror, too. It wasn't a ghost Kacheek staring back at him, but...a Yellow Kacheek. With his mortified expression and his wide eyes, pointing in shock right back at him.

He couldn't even remember the last time he was a Yellow Kacheek. That was...that was...

"What's happening to us?" he cried.

Edna raised her hands as if to clamp them over her ears and sighed as though the answer were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Remember what I said about this haunted house being a tangled web?" said Edna impatiently. "Well, the tangles stretch into space and time. We have now entered the haunted house's past. Look, boy, down this hall. Don't you notice anything?"

Maurice tore himself away from his reflection long enough to take in his surroundings. What was supposed to be another section of the labyrinth was...

Maurice reached out to feel the smooth planks of wood in front of him. Normally you would risk a splinter by brushing your hand along the timber.

"It's like a memory of the labyrinth by someone who knew it years ago!" said Maurice.

"My thoughts exactly!" Edna whispered. "I bet there is a old spirit around here somewhere who has suddenly awoken after a very long slumber."

Maurice trembled. He had been employed here for a while, but whatever time this "spirit" was from, it didn't match with his own memories. If the house had ever looked like this, it was well before he was around.

Edna reached up to run her fingers along the wall. "It is very solid for an illusion, but I've witnessed similar in my time."

"An illusion?" Maurice wondered aloud. "How can this be, it is so real!?"

Edna appeared to be getting impatient. She looked Maurice straight in the eye.

"I detected it's presence from over at my tower. It's influence seems to be restricted to this section of the Woods for now. The real question, however, is what triggered it to wake up?"

Maurice quickly realised he was out of his depth. He thought about sprinting back through the mirror and out of the labyrinth! He only hoped the entrance was still where he was expecting it to be!

Edna gave him a funny look like she just read his mind.

"We may find something useful at the entrance on this side of the mirror." She said, and immediately hobbled off down the corridor.

"Just be careful not to touch the..."

“Why not?” Maurice asked.

“If the glass of the mirror is a doorway between here and the real world, think of the mirror’s frame as the door. A complicated, magic door. If you mess with it the wrong way, the door closes and the pathway is sealed off. We could get stuck here.”

“Stuck?!” Maurice tucked his paws in close to himself, to lessen the risk of touching the frame by accident.

The frame appeared to be made of carved wood, painted to look metallic. It didn’t look anything out of the ordinary to Maurice.

Edna’s hand hovered a few inches away from the frame, and she closed her eyes. “The air is warm around the frame.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Maurice said, unwilling to get any closer.

Then Edna opened her eyes, pulled her hand away, leaned towards the frame and sniffed. “Smells like… cinnamon.”

“Cinnamon?” Maurice asked. “Why would it smell like cinnamon?”

“It’s a common ingredient in spells, usually used to enhance the strength or duration of the spell.” Edna tapped her chin with one of her claws. “I think the spirit we’re looking for is a magic user like myself.” She gestured for Maurice to follow her, and started down the hallway away from the mirror. “Come on, we’ve learned as much as we can from this mirror for now.”

Maurice practically had to drag his own legs to start following her, leaving the comfort of the mirror behind. “How will we know when we’re getting closer to finding them?”

“Things in this section of the Labyrinth look newer, but pretty much the same,” Edna said, gesturing around them. “I’m betting that we will know when we start getting to the parts that aren’t only newer than when we’re from, but also different. They can’t have kept every single room and trap the same for this many years. You said you knew every inch of this place, so keep an eye out for anything unfamiliar, and we’ll start there.”

Maurice nodded. “Okay, I can do that.”

The task of cataloguing every decoration and trap that they passed turned out to have a calming effect on Maurice. His nerves started easing the closer they got to the centre of the Labyrinth.

As they passed through an intersection of the Labyrinth, Edna paused and asked, “What’s this way?”

Maurice, who was already walking further down their current path, waved dismissively. “Another dead end.”

“But it is not,” Edna said firmly.

Maurice backtracked to join her and see for himself. To his surprise, where there was usually nothing but a blank wall, there was…

The Kacheek suddenly understood Edna's certainty that something was amiss in the house. He also wished he was a Ghost again--fear didn't sit well on his Yellow fur.

"There's a maintenance room behind that wall," he explained. "In the real Sinister Labyrinth." There was no way to get to that room from the inside--he and the other caretakers had to loop around back to the rickety old door there to access to storage room of paint and other supplies.

For a moment, Edna considered the door. She stepped back and forth, first standing in front of one mirror, then the other, all the while tapping a finger against her lips and muttering phrases about magical reagents and spellwork that Maurice was glad he didn't understand.

"I can't figure it out," she said at last. "This is definitely the right spot. I can feel it. Whatever spirit or sorcerer is doing this is behind one of these mirrors. An illusion within an illusion. Clever, really. Too clever. The other mirror is a trap. A rotten one, by the smell of it. Very dangerous. But I can't tell which is which."

Maurice glanced between the two mirrors and realized he'd seen them both before. In the maintenance room, propped up against the wall in the dusty back corner, their glass cracked. One of them, he recalled, had a strange name scrawled on the back. The kind of name the Brain Tree asked about--someone so long gone they could well be the spirit Edna feared was haunting the Sinister Labyrinth.

He explained as much to Edna, then stepped up to the mirror on the left and examined the frame closely. They hadn't been exactly the same, the two mirrors, and he was pretty sure he could tell which one bore the ancient name.

Maurice examined the other mirror. He tried to remember all the details, but the maintenance room was so dim and dusty and...

He reached for the mirror to pull it away from the wall a bit, so he could peek at the back, see which one bore that scrawled, ancient name.

"What are you doing?!" Edna cried.

Maurice opened his mouth to explain what he was thinking. He didn't realize what she meant until his Yellow paw came in contact with the mirror's frame, and magic surged into the air around him

"What have you done!?" Edna said.

The air around them shimmered. Maurice had the distinct feeling he was being pulled deep into something, dragged somewhere he definitely did not want to go. The hallway around them seemed to stay the same--walls, door, mirror, labyrinth stretching back behind them--but everything felt different. Off. Wrong.

And then, a heartbeat later, the door in front of them swung open, revealing...

How will this story end?