In a dark room with a single window allowing shafts of blue light to come through, three people were there having a discussion.

A woman with yellowish green hair, gray eyes, and tan skin, wearing an all black leather jacket accompanied by black leather pants and boots. A tall man was also there with pale skin, dark circles and bags under his eyes, black hair with dark blue tips and a reddish brown beard. His eyebrows were the same color as his beard. The last member of this trio however, was not a person, not anymore that is. He was a lost soul, having an orange and faceless head with a black hat sitting atop it. His body was skinny and black with three gray stripes on both arms.

“He has a daughter now…”

The woman looked at the lost soul with surprise and worry in her eyes.

“Wait, what?! With who?!”

“No one, he found her at his doorstep…” he said, slightly turning to the tall man.

The man looked at the worry in the woman's face then looked at the lost soul.

“So, he has a daughter, now... So, what?”

An eye manifested on the lost soul’s head where his face would be. It was yellow with a hot pink iris. It glowed with malice.

“She’s just another pawn for the plan…”

The man looked at him with confusion. He didn't know what he was planning, but deep down, this whole thing didn't seem right anymore.

✽ ✽ ✽

Back on the ship, Derek was still in a daze, not knowing what just happened to him.

He looked around and noticed that Raven wasn't there.

“Raven? Where did she go?"

He overheard talking coming from downstairs. He assumed she might just be at the source of the voices. Getting to the bottom of the stairs, he saw Raven and two other people. One was a female demon, about 173cm, short blue hair, big light brown eyes, pink skin, big pointy ears, big blue, feathery wings, two small horns on her head, and a long tail with spikes on it. She wore a blue and black dress, black stockings with rips in them and blue and black heels.

The other, a male, about 165cm, had fair skin, pretty white hair that stopped at his shoulders and light brown eyes. His face had an androgynous look to it, it was very feminine and delicate, yet masculine at the same time. He wore a white ruffled shirt, white socks, black pants, and shoes of the same color. Raven and the other two noticed Derek.

“Oh! Dad, meet Juana Hyacinth and Wess Greyrose!”

With a big smile on their faces, they greeted him.

“Hello!!”

Derek looked at them, still a bit dazed from the nightmare he just had. “Uh… H-Hello…”

“Dad, are you okay?”

Derek was obviously not okay, but instead, he lied to avoid worrying Raven.

“Yeah… I’m okay.”

Juana, being a very bubbly character, spoke with a hyper and rather adorable tone.

“So, what are you guys doing on this ship? Are you guys new hires?”

“…You could say that.” said Raven hesitantly.

“Someone is trying to get my dad arrested for a crime. We’re part of the crew for now until things calm down.” She left out a few details. Derek quickly added some in.

“What she failed to mention is that I did not commit those crimes.”

Juana was totally oblivious to how fishy that story sounded and thought it sounded fun. Wess, however, was not convinced.

“… That story sounds suspicious. Why would Ezra want to be involved in that?”

Before Derek could respond with a rebuttal, Ezra came downstairs. He was visibly not happy. He looked tired and very irritated.

“Jeez, what’s all the damn noise for? People are trying to sleep.” he said.

Ezra noticed Wess and Juana while raising one of his eyebrows.

“So, you’ve met more of my crew. That’s nice.” he said, giving a thumbs up.

“I’m going back to bed. Keep the noise down.” Ezra said as he was about to head upstairs.

“Where’s this ship headed?” Derek asked.

“Vostar Island. We’re gonna try and find the Red Maiden.”

“What’s a Red Maiden?” continued Derek with a barrage of questions.

“It’s a statue of a woman made of red glass, about 14 cm tall. Her eyes are made of rubies. It’s very expensive and I want it, especially now that I've found out where it is. There are six more maidens, each a different color of the rainbow it seems. I only know where the red one is, though.”

He seemed to pause mid sentence.

"Our… previous captain, my dad, told us about it. He would have wanted us to find it.”

Raven and Derek looked at Ezra in confusion. They had no idea what the hell a Red Maiden was, and in all honesty, they didn’t really care. All they cared about now was to lay low so they played along to earn their keep on the ship.

“In fact, let’s go above deck. Allison Lochlan, our navigator, can tell you more about it.”

They went upstairs to where Allison was. She was making sure the boat stayed on course. She looked down and saw a familiar face.

“Raven?!”

Raven looked in her direction and instantly recognized her.

“Allison?!”

Allison ran to her and they hugged. Allison hugged Raven a bit too hard.

“It’s been years since we saw each other!”

“Yeah… When I heard the name, it just didn’t connect with me that it could be you. Also you’re crushing my ribs…”

“You two know each other?” asked Ezra, surprised.

“Yeah! We were best friends in elementary school.”

“You’re still crushing me…”

Allison realized what she was doing and let go of her now stunned best friend. Allison, a human, stood about 173 cm. She had brown hair with purple tips, purple irises, and wore a dark green shirt with light green ruffles around the collar and sleeve edges. She also wore black pants and gray shoes.

“What’re you doing here?”

Allison asked Raven with barely bottled excitement and a smile.

“We’re hiding from royal guards.” she whispered.

“Oooo!~ You're such a bad influence! I love it! Well, I guess you guys will be coming with us then?"

“Yep. Raven and Derek are working for me now.” said Ezra with a very self-congratulatory tone to him.

“Fun! Raven, come steer with me!”

“Okay!”

Raven went up there with her, a bit confused about what she would need to do but thrilled to learn from her childhood friend. The waves were getting calmer and calmer by the hour as the sky was getting darker at the same time.

They had not been long on this voyage before they had gotten close to their destination. The smell of mud and rotting flesh started to fill the air.

“Land Ho!” exclaimed Allison after sniffing, as the foul air filled her nose. She kept herself from gagging. She knew that they'd arrived at the right place. Wess was not feeling too well with the pungent smell as he puked off to the side of the ship into the water.

“Hey guys! There’s Vostar Island!” shouted Juana to the other members as she checked to see if Wess was feeling any better.

“Impressive. I had never heard of such an island before, not even one so close to Bosneria. I would have thought I would at least have seen it on a map before.” said Derek in amazement and in slight horror of the beachside strewn with wreckages of ships and decomposed bodies.

“That's because Vostar Island is not on any maps.” Ezra said, putting his hand on Derek's shoulder.

“Now, come on. There's money to be made.” said Ezra with a greedy glint to his eyes.

They all got off the ship once they reached the shore and started walking through the woods, avoiding corpses and skeletons here and there.

“Aren’t you worried about who or what might have caused the deaths of these people?” asked Derek to the group who all seemed to have just accepted this as a reality of the island.

“Well… now that you mention it…” said a pensive as well as progressively more worried Raven.

“Nonsense, you guys.” said Ezra, wrapping his arm around Raven’s neck in comfort and casually laughing as she pushed him away.

“These people clearly have all disabled everything that could pose any real danger to us. They’ve gotten through everything the island has thrown at them only for us to come in last and take it.” He walked to the front of the group, his dismissiveness clearly on display as he failed to notice how apprehensive the rest of the crew had become as well. The forest on the island was dark and thick. The smell of mud and rotting flesh was still in the air and the sky had a dark, menacing atmosphere.

“Boy, how lucky we are. Still no sign of the guardian.” said Allison.

“Wait, a guardian?” asked a confused Derek while holding tight to his daughter’s hand.

“Every treasure worth its weight has guardians, Derek. What do you think killed all these people aside from, you know, the traps??” responded Ezra, still expelling that same aura of self-serving intent.

“We haven't seen a single trap this entire time.” said Derek, holding Raven tighter.

“God knows what kind of monster awaits us that could have caused this.”

“I don’t care about the guardian, and for all I know, it could be dead or just a myth.”

“And the bodies, Ezra… What about the bodies?” Derek kept insisting, now relaxing his grip on his daughter's hand.

“I don’t know, Estelos.” he said pensively, his dismissive and self aggrandizing motif now gone. “Look, you guys. Whatever caused this could be gone." suggested Wess, finally speaking.

“Could be, Wess. But now ain’t the time to be worrying about that. Sure, Estelos, I understand the concern, we can be cautious and on guard at least. We don’t know what’s there.”

“Uuuum? Apparently a big ass mansion!” exclaimed Allison as she had tracked farther than the group.

“What?” asked the gathered group in unison as they ran towards Allison to see this new discovery.

And just like she had said, a vast building stood in front of them with a gorgeous courtyard in the middle and a fountain with a figure on top, gushing water down below. The door opened, almost as if it expected willing visitors for a high-class ball.

“Okay… That’s suspicious as hell.” said Allison.

“Agreed.” Derek responded.

“Should we go in?” Wess asked timidly. This whole thing seemed wrong to him, more so to himself than the rest of the crew.

“Well I don’t see where else the maiden could be. We should approach this very carefully.” said Ezra.

Allison made her way to the front of the group nearing the eerie manor, it was very ancient and dusty. Derek could note whoever built this must have done so a long rime ago. Much like Wess, he also felt something was wrong about this house. As they continued towards the large house, he put his arm around his daughter and took their first steps towards the porch of the residence.

“Who will go first?” asked Juana.

The group eyed one another, hoping someone would volunteer first.

“I will then, I guess. Dad would have wanted me to do my best after all.” Making way for the young werewolf, Derek gently pulled his daughter and moved himself out of the way.

Getting on the porch then going towards the open door, he tried taking a look inside. It seemed fairly normal and yet uncanny in some wicked sense. He scanned the sides of the passage carefully, hoping not to activate any traps.

Sure of himself that nothing suspicious was afoot, he puffed out his chest and walked inside the building. Nothing happened, everything was as still as they had found the manor. With a sigh of relief, Ezra thought to himself how lucky he was. “See? Nothing to worry about. Just some regular old house.”

With their spirits raised by their captain’s show of courage, they gave a collective sigh of relief. Derek let go of Raven, nodding to her as they all made their way to find the red maiden. Not far into the mansion, barely a few moments of walking inside, the group began to hear sounds. Little by little they started to notice that the inside of the mansion appeared to be changing from within.

Nature appeared to be reclaiming the house. The further they proceeded, the thicker the leaves and bushes on the ceiling, floor, and walls of the building became. Voices could be heard by each one of them but something prevented one another from telling the rest of their companions about the mysterious occurrence.

Derek heard of how he would surely be able to lift all charges and prove his innocence, and even ascend to the throne. All of the good he could do with that kind of power and give an even better life to Raven. Ezra was told of how he would not only find the red maiden, but in fact, all of them in this very place. That the old crew of his father would come back and it would be just like old times. Allison kept being reminded of the freedom she would achieve once the maiden was finally sold. How much freedom she would attain with that kind of wealth she once had. Finally being able to live freely, away from her family’s suffocating rules. She'd be able to do what she desired at last.

But only if they were to deviate from their paths that they were taking. The three then separated from the assembled group, not being able to fight against the voices.

“Um, guys? Where are you going?” asked Juana.

The three, enamored by the promises of glory and success, were completely unresponsive and slowly walked off course, going deeper and deeper into the living walls of the mansion through narrow corridors. Raven grabbed Derek by his arm, trying to hold him in place but couldn't hold back such a large man. With this act of deterrence, she noticed those hypnotized by the living walls immediately bolting into their own respective directions.

“Dad!” She proceeded to flare up her wings and hold her dad in place with sheer force of will, utilizing her magic to keep him in place. He kept trying to run towards the source of the voices that promised so much. Wess quickly sprung into action, tackling Allison to the ground. His ribcage contorted along his torso’s skin and formed a cage around his target. His chest having been completely split open, spine and organs visible and held together by some invisible force.

Raven almost struggled with her concentration in trying to stop her father at the sight of something so horrifying and gruesome.

“WESS WHAT THE HELL?! Are you alright?!?!” asked Raven.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” he said, hastily closing his open torso; He would need a new shirt after this.

“Sorry, no time to explain, I've gotta find Ez.”

“Hey, wait!” she shouted, but by that time, he was already long gone, off into the likely direction Ezra had taken. He proceeded to pull his skin back and shoot pieces of his arm bones as projectiles as he advanced through the maze, leaving a trail behind for when he would find Ezra.

He kept running. He had always been faster than Ezra. As a ghoul, this was just a given. He could hear the rapid footsteps, so rapid that Wess assumed he was on all fours as he was being pursued. Whatever kind of invisible force had been there to cloud Ezra’s mind must have been something really powerful. He finally spotted him after a sharp turn on a corner that almost made him slip and fall. There at the end of it, was the red maiden.

✽ ✽ ✽

Ezra seemed beyond himself as he proceeded to grab the maiden with just as much speed as he had been running to find it. Wess approached carefully, not willing to let Ezra be aware of his presence. As Wess sighed out of relief that no harm had been done to his friend, he suddenly saw Ezra become extremely desperate, shouting in denial and fear as the little statue vaporized in his very hands, turning to dust and falling to the ground.

Still not wanting to believe what had just happened, he kneeled next to the dust pile trying to put it together to no avail. Tears and screaming of disappointment were all that could be expressed from Ezra. His whole reason for coming here was to help his family, his crew, all of the ones who stuck with him through everything, the only ones who didn’t abandon him after his father’s untimely demise.

He wanted to be the pirate captain that would be good enough for them and after all of this, all of it was for nothing. His thoughts were amplified by the house’s wicked influence; He had failed. He could never amount to the man that his father was either and as these feelings of regret and self doubt washed over him, so too did the living walls of vines. They slowly planting themselves around him while leaves began covering him like a blanket. Wess had never seen anything like that. He eventually came to the conclusion that the house appeared to prey on people’s ambitions, then break their spirits with utter failure.

Ezra and Wess could only grunt as the moving vegetation began choking the life out of them. Wess’ thought process was to immediately sharpen his recently regenerated ribcage to hack and slash at the murderous vines and bushes.

The staggering amount of moving foliage proved to be quite a challenge for the young ghoul. And as he continued his tireless fight, he suddenly began to hear a voice, one that promised him peace, tranquility, a means to a reality in which he no longer would need to ever worry about anything. One in which he could finally rest and all he had to do was just to stop fighting.

“Embrace the vines…” the voice said over and over.

He would know true bliss and happiness if he were to just stop fighting. Wess was almost persuaded by the idea but he had been in that situation before, being considered a freak of nature, an outcast. He had plenty of opportunities and even once almost succeeded in taking his own life, but now was not the time to do that. If anything, definitely not the time to die to some maniacal mansion.

The voice’s appeared to have no effect. Its attempt at demoralizing Wess’ spirit, which had known far more heartbreak than any of the crew, failed. His heart's rhythm became even faster, at which point he then shot out a rib bone from his back which grabbed Ezra’s wrist by growing around it. He proceeded to run back the way he came. In doing so, the entire maze descended on him like a wave of violent herbs as he continued cutting more and more vegetation.

Coming across the still struggling Allison and Derek, Raven looked in disgust at Wess once again.

“Run!!”

Following up to the desperate plea, the wave of plant life followed suit. Wess’ first ribcage, still pinning Allison, followed Wess, dragging her on the ground which could have been painful if she was conscious. Raven did not take a second of time to wait, levitating her father and running alongside Wess’ grotesque rescue of the very saddened Ezra. Juana ran after them as well. The chase was beyond relentless. Nevertheless, when they finally reached the entrance of the house, they immediately jumped to the outside. Allison, having been dragged by the rib cage, got thrown out as well as the bones pulling her shattered on the entrance’s corner. The door instantly closed as they got out with a loud crash. The party was beyond exhausted. Raven and Wess could barely stand after so much effort. The first to come to his senses was Derek.

“What the hell just happened?"

“Haunted… house.” said Raven, taking long pauses to catch her breath.

“Cursed… you mean… I did not… see any… ghosts.” retorted Wess as he laid on the ground.

“Goddamn. What the hell happened? Why do I have so many bruises on my body? Ow…” Allison asked as she gained her senses.

“It’s gone…”

“What?” asked Allison.

“The maiden it… it's gone…” resumed a very miserable Ezra. The house had truly broken his spirit with that display. Wess got up and looked at the once spry and energetic Ezra, now turned into nothing short of what he had felt during most of his life. He could not help but console his ailing friend, embracing him from the side.

“We’ll find another way...”

“There is no other way, it's gone..."