Chapter One: Someone (Not Me) Has a Stupid Idea  

"There's nothing to do," I groaned, swinging in my hammock on the hot summer day. The pavement shimmered.

     "Well, we could check out your Gran's place," Nyssa, my best friend, suggested.

    "No, are you crazy?" I retorted.

    "Please?" Ivy, my twin sister begged. "It'll be fine. Nothing's gonna happen." 

    "Please?" Nyssa echoed. "It's not like your Grandma's going to come back from the dead and haunt you!"

   Those two again. Whenever both of them started to beg, it wore me down!

    "Fine!" I grumped. I tried to act mad, but inside, I felt fear,  

nerves, but maybe... a little excitement, too. "Nyssa, go get your bike. I'll go ask my mom. Ask Aiden if he wants to come. Meet me and Ivy here in ten minutes."

    "Since when did you become Ms. Bossy?" Nyssa replied, but she obliged. She hurriedly turned around and raced down the street, her lo-oo-ong brown hair waving and billowing behind her. 

    "C'mon Bay, let's go!" Ivy exclaimed, pulling me into the house.

    "Girls, is that you?" Mom's voice rang out. She was in the kitchen, laying out sandwiches and cookies. There was cream cheese and cucumber, ham and cheese, chocolate chip and snickerdoodles. It smelled delicious. "Bay?"

    "Yeah," I replied, snapping out of my food trance. "Can we go for a bike ride?" 

    "Sure," Mom said. "But wear your helmets. And stick to the sidewalks." 

"Thanks!" Ivy exclaimed. She looked at me and knowingly grabbed the cream cheese and cucumber sandwich that I had been eyeing and took a huge bite.

    Sisters are evil. 

I looked mournfully at the last resting place of the sandwich, then ran up to my room and swapped my dress with shorts. 

    "Bay, hurry up!" Ivy's voice called. I ran out of my bedroom. "Nyssa's waiting, slowpoke. You took fifteen minutes already!" 

    Ivy was standing next to the front door, wearing her Biker's Best t-shirt and shorts. She had her purple helmet on. I grabbed mine. 

    "Bye Mom!" Ivy called.

    "Be safe!" She yelled back. "And-"

    I slammed the door behind me, cutting off her words. 

    "What are you waiting for?" Nyssa squealed. "Let's go!" 

             Chapter Two: My Best Friend Breaks In

    After a long bike ride through the busy streets, we arrived at my Grandmother's house. It was tall, with heavy, dark mahogany wood planks. The windows were boarded up and dusty, but through it, I could see fancy Victorian curtains made of thick, silky red velvet. The front of the house seemed to grin in a macabre way at all the passersby.

    "So, to Grandmother's place, we go?" Ivy ventured. All of a sudden, she sounded nervous. Maybe that was because of the ivy vines creeping and twisting in the wind like feelers.

    "We're already here. Let's do it." I tried to keep my nerves from my voice. I doubt I succeeded. 

    "Stop," Nyssa whined. "I wanna go in!" She ran up to the 

 front door. "What do you know, it's unlocked!"

     "Isn't this against the law, like breaking and entering?" I muttered. 

  "Not if you're family, which you are," Nyssa responded confidently. She placed a hand on the doorknob and turned. I wasn't so confident.

    The door opened with a creak. We were standing in a dusty foyer. An antique desk was on one side, with a beautiful painting of our city and an intricate vase of dead flowers. Ew. 

    We kept exploring the main floor. The only light streamed in through the cracks of the boarded-up windows. It wasn't much, but it was sufficient. 

    The living room had huge couches, and it was connected to another big room with a grand piano. The ivory keys were a smooth and cold icy velvet. I placed my fingers atop and danced them across.

 The melody wasn't anything I'd played before. It was as if a ghost was sweeping over my fingers and telling them what to play: a sweet, sad tune with a slight sharp edge, like a bitter funeral song.

    "Bay, stop with the piano already!" Nyssa complained. "We still have to be home in an hour. Let's make the most of our trip."

    "Or, you know, we could go home," Ivy muttered. She stared at the floor. To heck with her, the Sandwich Stealer!

    "I'm with Nyssa," I retorted smugly. "Let's check out the basement." 

          Chapter Three: We Find Grandma's Head(s)

    The door to the basement was easy to find. It was latched by a flimsy metal lock, so I quickly unlatched it and off we went. 

    "It's cold in here. And so dark," Ivy complained. "At least there was sunlight upstairs."

    "Don't be a baby," I mocked her. "I'm scared of more things than you are. And you're complaining because it's a bit dark?"

    "I'm not scared of the dark," she spat out. "I'm scared of what's in the dark." 

    "Shut up, Ivy," Nyssa and I exclaimed. She was starting to scare me. 

    We were finally down the stairs after tripping only once or twice. "Okay, I'm not saying I'm scared of the dark, but it would be nice if we could have a little light," Nyssa spoke up, almost reading my mind.

     "True. But the power's probably out on this house. So then what?" Ivy said. That's when I tried to take a step towards her but tripped over something big, round and heavy. It was smooth and the size of a basketball. 

    I moaned in pain, rubbed my shoulder, and grabbed the nearest object to help haul myself up. "Nice how you don't even ask me if I'm okay."

    "We were going to. But you stopped us."

    I pulled on whatever I was holding on to but clattered to the floor in a heap again. Ow. 

    "Bay! Are you okay?!" Nyssa and Ivy said, giggling. "See? We asked!"

    I growled like an angry dog, then got up. It turned out that what I was clutching was a flashlight. I pressed the on the button, and a - 

  piercing flash of yellow lit up the room. 

    As soon as my eyes adjusted, I screamed and dropped the flashlight. Ivy and Nyssa started to sprint up the stairs three at a time, shrieking their heads off. I was right behind them. 

    What did we see? Heads. That was what I tripped on. Whether they were human or doll or what, we didn't bother sticking around to find out. We charged all the way up to the second floor. 

                      Chapter Four: The Musical Mirror 

    We breezed past the next few floors until we reached the attic. It was simple: five bedrooms (including what we guessed was a guest bedroom), six bathrooms, a family room, a balcony overlooking the forest, a ballroom, three walk-in closets, and two shoe closets. Nothing too interesting, although Ivy did decide to swipe a pair of leather cowboy boots. They were monogrammed with an I, so Ivy, being Ivy, took them and placed her old shoes where the boots were.

    When we finally arrived at the attic, we were exhausted. Ivy wanted to go home, I wanted to go home, and I had the feeling that Nyssa kind of wanted to go home too. Or not.

    "Let's do this already," she said eagerly. "Who knows what your Granny's hiding in here! I mean, heads are interesting. But what else?"

 Without waiting for a response, Nyssa barged up the stairs to the attic. Ivy looked at me and I squeezed her hand. I guess I had forgiven her for the little sandwich scuffle. 

    "Woah, cool!" Nyssa's voice rang from above. "You guys, come check this out!' 

    Ivy and I tentatively walked up the stairs. 

    "What is it?" I asked.

    "It better not be more heads," Ivy whispered fearfully to me. We poked our heads through the opening. 

    "What took you guys so long?" Nyssa's muffled voice exclaimed. She stepped towards us. Her head was shadowed by a long feathered hat fit atop a wool winter cap. Her body was obscured by a thick brown fur coat,