Title: A Hauntingly Wonderful Romance ~ Chapter 7
By: Moondreams16
Rating: G
Notes: Sorry it has taken me so long to write this but a lightning storm hit 
my phone line and I couldn't get on the internet. Besides I've been very busy 
with school. I got one thing to say, DEATH TO CHEMISTRY!!!!!!!!! I hate it 
can't you tell? Well any way enjoy! 

	Serena carefully walked down the slippery stone steps. She swung her 
flashlight in front of her but it did little to pierce the darkness. 'What am 
I doing here?' she asked herself knowing she must have gone crazy to even 
think about going down a pair of dark stairs that lead from a trap to who 
knows where.  Well she figured she was going to half to add this to the list. 
Once she was home in the United States, she was going to make a list that 
would start like this, During my junior year in England I did these strange 
things:
1. Fell in love with a ghost
2. Found out that my grandfather had some treasure
3. Made enemies of my aunt, head mistress, and perfects
4. Found out that I had an exact double centuries ago
5. Found a trap door and has currently lost her mind for going down the steps in the dark

	Well that wasn't every thing, but close enough. Would Derek be on 
that list? Serena let out a long sigh. What about Derek? He seemed really to 
really like her. He was handsome, charming, and everything a girl could want 
in a guy. Well except he couldn't kiss very well. Now Endy could kiss. But 
Derek was alive and Endy wasn't. She didn't know hardly anything about the 
pair of them. Did Endymion see the uncanny resemblance that she shared with 
Serenity? Did he just fall in love with her because she looked so much like 
his old girl friend? There were just so many questions running through her 
head. Suddenly the ground leveled out causing Serena to stumble. What was she 
looking for? Serena walked straight foreword just to bump into something. She 
rubbed her smarting nose. A wall certainly wasn't what she was looking for. 
Serena ran her fingers against the wall to find it was made of wood. She 
brought her hand down to waist length to find a handle. She had run into a 
door!

	"She's no where to be found!" stormed Ms. Hudson. Mrs. White looked 
up from grading papers as the Head Mistress stormed in the room. 
	"Who's missing?" asked Mrs. White calmly. Ms. Hudson looked at Mrs. 
White with frustration. 
	"Charity...I mean Serena Tskino. Where is she?" demanded Ms. Hudson. 
	"You needn't yell, my hearing isn't that bad. I have no idea where 
she is," said Mrs. White calmly. Her calmness just added fuel to Ms. Hudson's 
anger. She turned on her heal and stormed out leaving a bemused teacher who 
smiled and went back to checking papers. A cold wind wrapped around Mrs. 
White making her shiver. Endymion appeared before her. 
	"Where's Serena?" he asked desperately. Mrs. White threw her hands up 
in the air. 
	"Why does everyone think I know where she is?" she asked. 
	"Has she been suspended? Did she go to town with the other girls? 
Where is she? I checked the whole building!" said Endymion anxiously. 	"I 
tell you I have no idea where she is," replied Mrs. White with a frown. 
Endymion groaned and ran his fingers through his ebony hair. 	"What's going 
on between you too, Endymion?" asked Mrs. White not looking at her papers. 
	"Nothing's going on," replied Endy quickly. 
	"I somehow doubt that. You practically follow her every where she 
goes..." Endymion opened his mouth to protest. 
	"Don't you dare deny it. Every time I've been near Serena, I feel 
that cold draft that always accompanies you. And Serena goes around with this 
love struck look on her face. And if my guess is correct, it's not because of 
a certain young man named Derek," said Mrs. White who looked straight at 
Endymion. 
	"What is your point?" he asked as he sat down in a chair. 
	"I am saying it isn't natural for a human to be in love with a ghost. 
Nothing good can come of it. Have you ever thought about what would happen 
when its time for her to go back home? You are going to break her heart," 
said Mrs. White. 
	"I'd rather die...well let's just say I would never do that her," 
said Endymion sincerely. 
	"Not on purpose maybe," the teacher replied. Endymion ran his fingers 
through his hair and disappeared.

Serena pushed on the handle. Nothing happened. She tried pulling on it. Still 
nothing. Serena shinned her flashlight on the door to find a keyhole beneath 
the handle. 
	"I bet it's locked! Darn!" she swore and turned back to the stairs. 
Disappointment washed over her. She was really hoping to find something. 
Anything that could've helped her with the mystery that surrounded her 
grandfather. She trudged up the stairs and lifted the trap door. A few 
minutes later, the trap door was closed, the bed was back in its place, and 
Serena was reading on her bed. Music from Mariah Carey floated from her boom 
box. 
	"Where were you? I've been looking every where for you!" said 
Endymion who appeared sitting in a chair. Serena leaped off the bed with a 
smile and threw her arms around the ghost. 
	"You'll never believe what happened! Under my bed is a trap door! I 
went down the steps and found another door. But it was locked! What's wrong?" 
asked Serena as her voice changed from excited to worried. 	
"Serena...There's something I have to tell you," said Endymion quietly. 
Serena looked at him with worry. There was something wrong. He looked paler 
then usual. He held a troubled countenance. 
	"Something is wrong! Don't your dare lie to me, Endy! If you were 
alive I would think you were..." but Serena couldn't finish. 
	"Sick?" finished Endy with a small smile. Serena nodded. 
	"Serena I have to tell you something," said Endy. Serena sat down on 
her bed. 
	"I am listening," said Serena. 
	"I am not in love with you, Serena. I thought I was but I am not," he 
said quietly and could not bring himself to look in her eyes. 	"I don't 
believe you," Serena managed to say. Tears pricked the back of her eyes. 
	"Look! I have no idea what happened between us but I am not in love 
with you. You just reminded me of someone I knew when I was alive. I kept 
comparing you to her but you don't even come close," said Endymion harshly. 
Serena stared at him with her mouth agape. She couldn't believe what she was 
hearing. Then the truth struck her suddenly. 
	"I remind you of Princess Serenity," said Serena quietly. Endy looked 
at her in surprise.  
	"Well as I said, you could never compare to her. I've been a fool 
thinking you could," said Endymion and disappeared. Serena buried her head in 
her pillow and cried. 

	For the remainder of the week, there was no sign of Endymion. During 
that time Serena became quiet and pale. During meal times she toyed with her 
food never eating very much. She stayed up late working on decorations for 
the dance. After one of those nights, Serena's telephone started ringing as 
soon as she entered her room. "Hello?" she said tiredly. 
	"Angel? This is Derek. Remember me? I didn't get to see you much 
after our date. I had to go back to school without telling you goodbye," said 
Derek over the phone.
	"Oh hi Derek, I missed you," said Serena with a small smile. 
	"You sound tired. I've been trying to get in touch with you for the 
last hour. Where've you been?" asked Derek. 
	"Working on the decorations for the dance," answered Serena and sat 
down on the bed toying with the curly phone line. 
	"Speaking of the dance, I was wondering if you would be my date for 
the night," said Derek. Serena almost dropped the phone in surprise. 
	"Hello?" came Derek's voice at the other end of the phone after the 
long silence that followed. 
	"YES!" answered Serena excitedly. There was a deep chuckle at the 
other end. 
	"Well see you there then," said Derek and hung up. Serena hugged the 
phone and squealed. She was going to the dance with a date! Things were 
defiantly looking up. 

	The floorboards creaked beneath her as Serena walked up the stairs to 
the attic. A single light bulb in the middle of the floor lit the whole attic 
except for the shadowy corners. White sheets covered furniture. Boxes were 
piled on top of one another. In one corner, books where piled up to the 
ceiling. The ceiling wasn't very high and Serena had to duck sometimes to 
miss hitting her head on the rafters. She started lifting sheets just to have 
the whole clouds of dust rise to the ceiling. She sneezed uncontrollably and 
decided she probably shouldn't move any more sheets. But she had to find the 
punch bowel for the party. She carefully lifted up another sheet to find an 
old polished oak desk. She removed the whole sheet with awe. Up the sides of 
the desk was carved latticework with flowering vines in laced in it. The 
vines with flowers circled up the drawers and circled at the top. She traced 
her fingers along the carvings. Never had she seen such beautiful work. It 
was such a shame that it had to stay up in the attic. She opened one of the 
drawers to find creamy marbled stationary. On the upper right corner of the 
stationary was a set of monograms that read, NJT. With all her strength she 
dragged the desk down the stairs to the 2nd floor. If her guess was right, 
the desk used to belong to her grandfather. The stationary had his ensiles on 
it. She could find the punch bowel later. This seemed more important at the 
moment. 
	"It's looks just the same as the last time I saw it," exclaimed Mrs. 
White with a smile. She ran her finger on the desk making a polished trail 
out of the all the dusty film that covered it. 
	"Although it's dusty and needs a good polishing," said Mrs. White as 
she wrinkled up her nose. 
	"Yeah, it does need that," said Serena as she moved it against one 
the walls in her room. 
	"Look," said Serena as she pulled out the stationary. Mrs. White 
smiled and looked over it fondly. 
	"Nathaniel James Tskino. I got many letters from this stationary," 
said Mrs. White with a sigh. Serena smiled as she noticed the far away look 
on her teacher's face. If she wasn't mistaken, the relationship between her 
grandfather and Mrs. White wasn't just friendship. Serena didn't see anything 
wrong with it, from what Mrs. White had said, she had been very lonely since 
her husband had died a long time ago and all her children moved out of the 
country. Only Setsuna had come back to England to live with her grandmother. 
 Serena pulled out the drawers and got a rag to clean the dust out of them. 
She was about to put the bottom one back in when she saw a corner of paper 
sticking out between to slats in the desk. She pulled it out and unfolded the 
paper. On it was simply written 'The hands hold the treasure.' Serena 
wrinkled up her nose. What was that supposed to mean? 	"Hey Mrs. White, did 
you know there is a trap door in this floor?" asked Serena. Mrs. White looked 
at the teenage girl with surprise. 
	"What are you talking about?" asked Mrs. White. 
	"I found a trap door under my bed, it leads to a room but the room 
happens to be locked," said Serena. 
	"Well it's probably an old storage closet. I've collected some 
skeleton keys over the years. I'll find them and maybe one is to the door," 
said Mrs. White. 
	"I hope one is. I am dying to know what's behind the door," said 
Serena sincerely. Before Mrs. White could comment a bell rung. 
	"Oh I so do not feel like going to study hall," said Serena with a 
groan as she gathered her books on her bed. 
	"I guess I better plan tomorrow's lesson. Don't forget you have a 
test on Elizabeth 1," called out Mrs. White as Serena walked out of the room. 
As Serena passed Ms. Hudson's office she heard the high pitched voice of her 
aunt, Angelica. 
	"I don't care how you do it, you imbecile. Just do it! When Irene 
loses her job that sniveling brat will go home and get out of my hair!" said 
Angelica as she slammed down the phone. Serena quickly ran down the hall 
pushing past the other girls. She couldn't let Angelica know she just heard 
her on the phone. She was up to something. That was for sure. That night 
Serena got a call from her mom saying she lost her job. Angelica had to be 
stopped before she did anymore harm to her or her mom. 

	"So are you looking foreword to the party tonight?" asked Setsuna as 
she arranged the roses in the vase. 
	"Guess so," said Serena half-heartedly. 
	"Don't sound so excited. What's wrong Serena?" asked Setsuna. 
	"My mom lost her job yesterday. I'll probably have to leave here," 
said Serena. 
	"I thought you wanted to leave Bankstone," said Setsuna with her arms 
crossed. "I do but not now. I don't know! I am just so confused!" said Serena 
with frustration. 
	"I heard you were going with a young man named Derek. So is he cute?" 
asked Setsuna sounding like a teenager. 
	"Yeah," she answered quietly. 
	"So what are you gonna wear?" asked Setsuna. Serena looked at her in 
surprise. 
	"I don't know! I've never thought about it!" said Serena amazed she 
never thought about it. 
	"Well you better get going," said Setsuna. 
	"Thanks Sunny!" yelled Serena as she ran out the door. Setsuna smiled 
as she watched her go. 

There was a card on her door as Serena approached her room. She frowned and opened the red heart shaped card. It read, 
Roses are red, 
Violets are blue, 
You stole Derek away from me, 
Now you're through

Serena groaned as she turned to find Elizabeth and some of the bullies of 
Bankstone beside her. 
	"Gee Elizabeth, I am impressed. I didn't think you could even read. 
Let alone write," said Serena and broke out in a dead run. 
	"Get her!" Elizabeth's command pounded in her ears. 3 bullies and 
Elizabeth could do a lot of damage if they caught her. Elizabeth was angry 
enough to not even think twice about beating Serena up.  If only she could 
get out of the building, then she would have a better chance of escaping. But 
that didn't happen, the doors were all locked and the group had her trapped. 
	"Prepare to pay, charity girl," said Elizabeth fiercely. Serena 
turned dead white knowing there was nothing she could do to stop them. 	
"Endy, help me..." whispered Serena as she squeezed eyes shut. She opened 
them as she heard screams. A vase was floating in the air. The girls went 
white as their eyes followed the very movements of the vase. With a load 
crash it dropped on the floor shattering in millions of pieces. The door 
Serena had been leaning against suddenly opened. 	"Thank you Endy," 
said Serena quietly and ran outside. The door slammed shut before the girls 
could follow her. 

	"I can't believe she got away!" yelled Elizabeth furiously as she 
applied some makeup on her face. 
	"Well maybe you should just leave her alone. She's quite nice," said 
one perfect that was fixing her hair in another mirror. She gulped nervously 
as she caught Elizabeth's murderous gaze. 
	"Have you been borrowing my perfume again?" asked Elizabeth as she 
studied the perfume bottle. 
	"Not me," protested the other perfect. Elizabeth shrugged and started 
spraying herself. The other perfect sniffed the air and made a face, 
	"I think that perfume has gone bad," she commented holding her nose. 
	"What are you talking about, French no. 7 doesn't go bad. It's the 
most expensive perfume on the market!" yelled Elizabeth. 
	"It smells like rotten eggs," said another perfect as she gagged on 
the smell. From one corner, an invisible Endymion watched the scene with a smile on his face. The only evidence of his prank was the empty test tube 
marked sulfur that was in the trash can undiscovered by the girls who were 
holding their noses and escaping the room. 

	Serena flopped down on her bed. She had no idea what to wear for the 
dance. She looked at the desk to find a keychain full of odd-looking keys. 
Some looked very old while others looked new. Beside the keys was a note 
which read, Here's all the skeleton keys I could find. Hope one unlocks your 
door. Mrs. White. Serena smiled and grabbed up the keys. About 5 minutes 
later, Serena was heading down the steps with her flashlight in one hand and 
the keys in the other. She held out her hand in front of her to keep from 
running into the door again. She reached and tried key after key. Finally the 
second to last key fit into the lock perfectly. With a deep breath Serena 
turned the key. The door clicked and swung open silently. Serena blinked as 
the bright light of candles greeted her. It was a bedroom. A light film of 
dust covered every thing. Serena never saw a room so beautiful in her life. 
Silken bed sheets covered a four-post bed. A polished wardrobe covered one 
wall. Out of curiosity, Serena opened one of its doors to find rich but very 
old fashioned clothes in it. 
	"I've been waiting for you for centuries," came a voice. Serena 
turned and screamed. 

To be continued...

Next chapter is going to be the dance! E-mail me and tell me how you like it. I'll take anything, flames, money, praises, anything. I would love to hear from you! Smile more and God Bless =o)