Everyone in Ravenwood town knew one rule.

Never enter Blackwood Mansion after midnight.

For more than one hundred years, the old mansion stood on the hill outside the town.

Its windows were broken.

Its garden was filled with wild plants.

The wooden doors were covered with strange marks.

And every night at exactly twelve o’clock…

A terrifying sound came from inside.

“HAHAHAHAHAHA…”

A dark laugh that echoed across the entire valley.

People believed a dangerous ghost lived there.

Parents scared their children with stories.

“If you don’t sleep early, the Blackwood Ghost will come.”

Children cried.

Adults avoided the road.

Even brave people refused to go near the mansion.

But nobody knew the truth.

The ghost inside Blackwood Mansion had one big problem.

He was terrible at being scary.

---

Charlie Blackwood had been a ghost for 100 years.

And in those 100 years…

He had never successfully scared anyone.

Not once.

“Tonight is the night.”

Charlie stood in front of an old mirror inside the mansion.

He adjusted his white ghost costume.

His transparent hands moved through the cloth.

“I am going to scare someone.”

He practiced his scary face.

His eyes became wide.

His mouth opened.

His expression looked terrifying.

Then he looked at himself in the mirror.

“Why do I look like someone who lost a fight with a pillow?”

He sighed.

Being a ghost was harder than people imagined.

---

At midnight…

The mansion door slowly opened.

Creeeeak.

Charlie floated toward the entrance.

Someone was entering.

A young woman stepped inside holding a flashlight and a notebook.

Her name was Mia Carter.

She was a mystery writer who loved solving strange cases.

Unlike everyone else in Ravenwood…

She didn’t believe in ghosts.

“Let’s see what secret this old house is hiding.”

She turned on her recorder.

“Investigation Day One.”

“Blackwood Mansion.”

“Local legend says this place is haunted.”

“Personally, I think the real monster is probably bad construction.”

Charlie heard her.

He became angry.

“Excuse me?”

“I am the monster.”

“I have spent a hundred years building this reputation.”

He floated behind her.

Time for his first scare.

He made the lights flicker.

Mia stopped.

Charlie smiled.

“Step one. Create fear.”

He moved a chair across the room.

The chair slowly floated in the air.

Mia looked at it.

“Oh.”

Charlie waited.

She screamed.

She ran away.

She called for help.

Anything.

Instead…

She took out her phone.

“This is amazing.”

Charlie blinked.

“What?”

She took pictures.

“A moving chair.”

“Amazing special effect.”

“I wonder how they did this.”

Charlie dropped the chair.

“Special effect?”

“I am a ghost!”

---

Charlie tried again.

He appeared in the mirror behind Mia.

His face became terrifying.

His eyes glowed.

His hair moved like a horror movie villain.

Mia looked into the mirror.

She saw him.

Charlie smiled.

Finally.

Fear.

Success.

She was going to scream.

Mia raised her camera.

“Wow.”

“Great makeup.”

Charlie froze.

“Makeup?”

“I am transparent!”

“You are very committed to the role.”

Charlie disappeared from the mirror.

He floated into the next room.

“This is impossible.”

“People used to run away from ghosts.”

---

Mia continued exploring.

She opened old rooms.

Checked old documents.

Looked at paintings.

Charlie followed her.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

He appeared directly in front of her.

“I am a ghost!”

Mia calmly looked at him.

“Yes.”

“I noticed.”

“You are not scared?”

“No.”

“Why?”

She looked at him carefully.

“Because you don’t act like a ghost.”

Charlie crossed his arms.

“What does that mean?”

“You look like someone who needs a friend.”

The words surprised him.

Nobody had spoken to him like that in one hundred years.

---

Mia sat on an old chair.

“Tell me something.”

“Why are you still here?”

Charlie became quiet.

For the first time, he stopped joking.

“I don’t know.”

“I died here.”

“But I never left.”

“Everyone thinks I’m a monster.”

“But nobody knows what happened.”

Mia looked interested.

“How did you die?”

Charlie opened his mouth.

Then stopped.

“I don’t remember.”

Mia frowned.

“A ghost who doesn’t remember his own death?”

“That’s strange.”

Charlie looked toward the dark hallway.

“There are things in this house I can’t explain.”

“Sometimes I hear footsteps.”

“Sometimes I see shadows.”

“And every few years…”

“Someone comes looking for something.”

Mia stood up.

“What something?”

Charlie pointed toward the basement door.

“The secret my family hid.”

---

Suddenly…

A loud sound came from downstairs.

BOOM!

The mansion shook.

Mia and Charlie looked at each other.

“Was that you?”

Mia asked.

Charlie looked offended.

“No.”

“I may be a bad ghost.”

“But I don’t explode things.”

Another sound came.

Footsteps.

Someone was walking in the basement.

Mia grabbed her flashlight.

Charlie floated beside her.

“Maybe we should investigate.”

Mia smiled.

“Now you sound like a detective.”

Charlie smiled back.

“Maybe I was always meant to be one.”

Together, the human and the ghost slowly opened the basement door.

Cold air rushed upward.

Inside the darkness…

A voice whispered.

“Charlie…”

The ghost froze.

Nobody had said his name like that in a hundred years.

The voice came again.

“You should have stayed forgotten.”

The basement lights suddenly turned on.

And on the wall was a message written in red paint.

THE DEAD SHOULD NOT SEARCH FOR THE TRUTH

Mia looked at Charlie.

For the first time…

The funny ghost looked truly afraid.

Because whoever wrote that message…

Knew Charlie was still alive