“It, uh... It was just a joke,” Edgar said, his grin freezing on his lips as he started retreating towards the door.

“Oh, I have a funny joke for you too. You’ll be screaming with laughter!” She reached underneath the bed sheets and pulled out a knife.

Edgar decided not to wait for the punch line; he turned around and barreled outside the room. He sprinted back through the hallway and down the stairs, taking four steps at a time while praying they could support his weight. Just as he was about to run into the room with the animal trophies, however, he saw one of the rusty display swords on the wall lift up and fly towards him. That damned invisibility of hers again!

He spun around, but the only way left was back up the stairs—the large hole in the ground still blocked the only other direction. He wasn’t about to get himself trapped in a dead end, though. He ran to the hole, quickly hung himself down from the edge, and let go. The ceilings in this place were pretty high, but notthat high—he’d be fine if he landed properly.

Or so he thought, at least, up until the aging floorboards gave out under the impact of his drop, and Edgar fell into the darkness below with a loud scream. This damned ruin! At least the old flooring had slowed him down enough that he didn’t hurt himself.

He quickly got up and looked around the room he found himself in. It was dark—the hole above was the only source of light—but he could see the place was crawling with rodents and insects, and that there was decaying furniture lining the walls.

“First you insult my family,” the ghost said, her voice echoing throughout the building, “then you try to bind me with rope, and now you ruin my house too? I’ll make you regret ever setting your filthy peasant foot in here!”

Edgar regretted it even without her help. He ran towards a door he spotted to his right, flung it open, and stared into pitch darkness. Great. Could ghosts see in the dark? He went forth with his arms stretched out in front of him, hoping that whoever built this place had set the next door directly opposite to this one. And that this room wasn’t a dead end, for that matter. There had to be some kind of an exit, right? People in the past had to get down here somehow. His hands bumped into something ceramic and sent it crashing to the ground.

“Wretched cur!” the ghost shouted directly behind him, making him duck as he heard something whoosh right above his h