Barbie Adventures - A Site for Barbie Aficionados

Every Halloween, somebody in town had a party. This year, Nadine decided to outshine them all by throwing a party at Ruby Manor, the notorious haunted house.

The evening started out great as the first guests filtered in. “Welcome to my party!” Nadine exclaimed.

"Help yourselves to some food, guys,” she told Kevin and Jason.

Others started showing up, all in costume—Erica as an Olympic skater, Brad as a 70’s disco owner, Zoe as a hula dancer, and Taylor as Cousin It, to name a few.

Perhaps the most interesting costume belonged to Allen Johnson, who announced that the party could start now that he arrived.

Even Tessa attended the party, sporting a mermaid costume, although she was a bit wary of the house after her last experience there not too long ago. Her uneasiness heightened when she saw Todd and Liz, dressed as a cowboy and cowgirl.

“Todd,” she said, “you look just like the previous owner of this house, Mr. Penderbrooke.”

“Really?” he asked, curious.

“Yeah.” Tessa retrieved the book that told the history of Ruby Manor, flipping to the page with Mr. Penderbrook’s picture.

Todd had to agree that in his costume, he bore an uncanny resemblance to the former estate owner, as shown in the photo.

Later on, as the party continued, Todd started to get a strange feeling, like he was being watched.

Then his hat unexpectedly flew from his head, as if someone knocked it off. But no one was behind them.

“Maybe we should get ready to go,” Liz suggested.

Meanwhile, Erica went into the bathroom to straighten her hair.

 

In the mirror, she noticed something was behind her—a ghost?

But before she could scream, the ghost-thing seized her and threw her to the ground with incredible strength.

“Ow, my leg!” she cried. For a wannabe Olympic skater, Erica was rather weak.

The ghost did not have a very difficult time restraining Erica as it pulled out a pillow and smothered her with it.

The ghost stood over Erica’s lifeless body, smirking proudly.

Back in the receiving room, Nadine noticed that the food was getting scarce. She pulled Kevin aside and asked a favor of him. “We still have plenty of chips, but no more cheese sauce. Would you mind going down into the basement and bringing up another jar? It’s in the cabinet down there.”

Kevin said it was no problem, and headed for the stairs.

“Just watch out for rats!” Nadine called after him. “I heard scuffling earlier, so I suspect there may be a few down there.”

The basement was dark, chilly, and creepy overall. Kevin did not want to spend more time in that room than he had to. “Cheese sauce, cheese sauce,” he murmured to himself, quickly scanning the shelves of the cabinet.

Much like the attack on Erica, the ghost crept up so quietly that Kevin only heard a noise when it was too late.

The ghost stabbed him over and over without mercy.

Once Kevin was dead, the ghost-thing chuckled. “Here’s the cheese sauce, you idiot. It was right in front of your face!” The ghost then proceeded to dump the sauce over Kevin’s body.

Nadine’s suspicion was right: there WERE rats in the basement. Very large ones.

After awhile, Nadine began to wonder what was taking Kevin so long. She went to the basement, horrified by the sight of Kevin being devoured by rats.

“Call the police!” she screamed, running upstairs. She ran smack into Zoe, who was running out of the bathroom. Zoe herself was in shock, but she managed to explain to Nadine that she just discovered Erica on the floor, dead.

Most of the guests left as Nadine waited for the police to arrive. In the meantime, she thought about why Kevin and Erica were targeted. Then she remembered seeing them together earlier, looking awfully cozy. “This might be a crime of passion,” she mumbled thoughtfully.

Brad suddenly rushed over with a piece of information. “I saw a ghost walk out of the basement door just a few minutes before I heard you scream. I think that’s who killed Kevin.”

“A ghost?” she replied skeptically.

“Yeah. I mean, someone wearing a ghost costume,” he clarified. “And it looked like the bottom of the sheet he was wearing had a cheese stain on it.”

The wheels were turning in Nadine’s mind. “Hey, you knew Erica pretty well,” she said to Brad. “Did she have a jealous boyfriend or something? A jealous ex?”

“She only dated Matt Wood,” Brad replied. “And he’s in California right now, happily married to Holly.”

Nadine instead approached Jason, Kevin’s best friend. He was very distraught over Kevin’s death, but managed to answer some questions.

“Was Kevin dating anyone? Someone who might have been really jealous to find out that he and Erica were hooking up?” Nadine asked.

“I don’t know.” Jason struggled to remember, while wiping his tears. “He was dating a girl a little while ago. I don’t remember her name, and I never met her. But I think Kevin said it didn’t last because the girl went totally psycho, so he dumped her.”

The ghost, its work now done, escaped to the third floor bedroom to change clothes, so it could slip out of the party unnoticed. But the “ghost” did not expect to come face-to-face with a REAL ghost. One carrying her own head!

The ghost in costume fainted from fright. The guests downstairs heard the thump, and thought the killer had struck again.

Nadine took the stairs two at a time, followed by Tessa, Brad, Allen, and Zoe. They were surprised to find the ghost-figure lying on the floor. Nadine pulled back the sheet.

“Skipper!” they shouted in unison.

They found the bloody knife in a pocket of the costume—the one that had stabbed Kevin to death, confirming that Skipper was the culprit.

“But what happened to HER?” Brad asked, bewildered.

Tessa felt a presence, the same feeling she got when she had spent the night at Ruby Manor. “Helena Penderbrooke was here,” she realized aloud.

So a real ghost had come back just long enough to confront someone impersonating a ghost. Skipper remained unconscious until the police arrived and hauled her off to jail.

 

~The End~

 

 

Alternate ending: The Barbies decided that prison was too good for Skipper, so they threw her to the ferocious cat-beast.