The Backstory

Not all of this story must be revealed to guests. They may be directly told some aspects via narration, and they may see or be given clues to the rest, but they absolutely do not need to be told or shown or explained the entire story. Historically I have not chosen to use the occult in haunted houses but we have been gifted a fully working Pepper's Ghost Effect by crew member Mark, and I think for once I can follow this in sort of a Winchester House way, despite Mrs. Winchester not really being into the occult like is claimed.

1915

A rich architect named Sebastian Delacroix had a daughter named Isabelle who died in a tragic accident with suspicious circumstances in the house that he built for his family. Sebastian's wife blamed him and leaves him. Sebastian also blamed himself but her exact cause of death was a mystery and he began to investigate ways to communicate with his daughter after death through seances in hopes of finding answers. He built a seance room in his house and had mediums perform seances but he had no luck. Describing his quest to his family friend, magician Harry Houdini who himself ws extremely interested in the occult after his mother passed away in 1913, gave Delacroix a set of occult books. Delacroix was determined to communicate with his daughter at all costs and followed the most damning rituals in the books in the seance room. A relative traveling to see Delacroix found his body in the seance room after an apparent heart attack. His hand was still grasping a torn page from one of the books and his face held a twisted, tormented look.

1943

A new family moves into the architect's house, which has remained vacant since Sebastian's death. The family consists of a father, a mother, and twin daughters. The real estate agent mentions how much the daughters resemble Isabelle, based on old photographs. The agent also shares the grim tale of how Sebastian was found dead in a room filled with strange, occult objects, though reassures them that the room has been boarded up permanently. The family is warned to avoid areas of the house with an occult presence, such as the attic. The mother is skeptical of these warnings but tells the daughters to be cautious. Despite this, she allows them to explore the house freely. Over time, the girls begin playing in the attic, where they discover the occult books and artifacts left behind by Sebastian. One daughter is intrigued by the items, while the other is wary and advises against touching them. Day by day, the curious daughter becomes more drawn to the attic, often playing there alone. She begins to see a strange double countenance when she looks in the mirror of an older man with long grey hair. Her sister, on the other hand, begins seeing a double countenance of herself… or is it her sister, or someone else? Objects in the house rearrange themselves, subtly forming patterns tied to the rituals Delacroix left behind. Clocks stop for an entire hour at a specific time. They are drawn to different parts of the house where they see cryptic symbols glowing faintly on the walls. Sometimes they find intensely cold spots in the house. The curious daughter relishes in these events and slowly becomes the dark daughter while her sister detests them. They argue intensely about the dangers of the things they've seen. After a period of calm, the dark daughter persuades her sister to join her in the attic, promising that she has found something amazing. Upon entering the attic a mist appears, showing the girls what happened to Isabelle. The avoidant daughter is drawn to Isabelle, and becomes curious instead of running away. She fails to see the danger before it is too late. On this day, the girls are gone for several hours. When the mother calls for them, there is no response. She searches the entire house, even the attic, but cannot find them. The father searches for them, but also comes up with nothing. Search parties scour the property, yet the twins are never found. In the days to come, the mother begins hearing their voices, sometimes laughing, other times crying. Sometimes she thinks she sees them out of the corner of her eye. Convinced that they are still in the house, she searches frantically time and time again- but all in vain. As this continues, her mental state deteriorates, eventually driving her insane. The father does all he can, but she won't eat or drink, and continually blames herself for allowing the girls to play in dangerous parts of the house, particularly the attic. Left to her own devices, she does nothing but run around the house scratching at the walls where she thinks she hears them. Feeling he has no other choice, he has her committed. Determined to find answers to what happened to his daughters, the father searches the house again himself and in the attic discovers the hidden occult objects and Sebastian Delacroix's notebook. The notes do not reveal what occurred during Sebastian's final days, but they describe the ritual he attempted. Feeling this may be the only way to succeed, the father begins dabbling in the occult himself. He unseals the boarded-up seance room and prepares to complete the ritual, hoping to discover the fate of his daughters. He hears an older man warn him to stay away from the seance room and to forget about the ritual. He ignores the warning. While inside he shuts the door to the seance room, but never opens it again. He, too, is lost.