Meanwhile, somewhere dark and deep inside the mansion Scarlet approaches a set of ornate doors. On either side stands two ghostly suits of armor…

    “Unngghh?” The glowing suit of armor on the right addressed Scarlet, who due to many years of working with ghosts, understood to mean, “Hey Scarlett! What are you doing here? Don’t you have a tour group going on?”
    “Howdy Lance. Yeah, I have a tour going on, but I got a text from the boss telling me to come see him immediately.”
    “Oh! Well, good luck then,” the ghost named Lance said, stepping out of the way and allowing for the Ornate double doors to open. Scarlett gulped nervously, entering into the poorly lit room behind the doors.

   “You wanted to see me, boss?” Scarlett asked nervously to a masculine figure seated in the shadows.
    “Yes,” The figure responded in a deep voice, “We wanted to check on your progress with the tour group.”
    “Oh! It’s going great, I’ve got them all transformed, so actually getting their parts from them should be a matter of time.”
    “Excellent… however, watching your performance, we’re concerned that you’re not getting the parts in the way required by the contract.”
    “W-what do you mean?” Scarlett asked nervously, completely aware of what her boss was going to complain about.
    “You know the contract requires the pieces of those offered to be retrieved willingly, fairly, or for an appropriate reason.”
    “I know boss.”
    “Well, if you know that then you know that by the law of equivalent exchange a person’s head is much too great for some fortune cookies you had already cooked for a different room.”
    “Yes sir, but-“
    “No buts! You know this operation is too important too mess up with such an minor oversight! You’re lucky that the man, Spencer’s, sexual desires drove him to find a book to enhance his girlfriend that would have left her in a similar state.”
    “See sir! It all worked out… just like I knew it would.”
    “Speaking of books, we thought we forbade you from brining them to the library. What if they were to find our how to break the contract?”
    “Oh sir, there’s no need to worry about. You know as well as I do that we removed any tomes that could actually mess with our plans years ago.”
    “If you say so, but I still don’t want you to take groups there anymore. You know as well as I that Gertrude despises the contract. She may yet destroy our plans.”
    “Got it Sir! I’ll head back as quick as possible and scurry them on to some other room. I already have a plan for how to take something from that Susan girl,” Scarlett said, clearly desperate to get out of the room and already halfway to opening the door.
    “And Scarlett…” The figure said, causing Scarlett to freeze and turn slowly.
    “Yes?”
    “Do this right and you may finally get that promotion you’ve been after.”
    “Yes, Sir!” Scarlett said, quickly exiting the room and exhaling a long sigh of relief.
   
    Scarlett entered what was known colloquially by the residents and workers as ‘the break room’. It was a little bit more than a room with a couch, a fridge, and several cabinets in which various things were stored. It was one of these cabinets which Scarlett opened and pulled out a large jar of the dark blue goo that had been used in the various rooms around the house on the unsuspecting tour members, making her way to the couch and plopping herself down. Opening the jar, Scarlett made quick work of taking some of the goo in her fingers and spreading it around her neck. When it had completely absorbed, Scarlett grabbed her head on either side and easily lifted her head off, placing her head in her lap. She always found it much easier to deal with the stress with her head detached.
    After only a couple minutes in the room, a ghost in a casual business suit named Jim entered. Jim had been a previous tour member, who had come to work for Scarlett’s company. “Hey Scarlett! Heard you met with the boss. What did he want?”
    “Yeah Jim,” Scarlett said from her detached head, “He wanted to check on the group’s progress.”
    “That’s cool. Anything else?”
    “Oh yeah, He said if there’s no more slip ups I can finally get my promotion and get out of this place.”
    “Oh… then you should probably be getting back to your group, asap.”
    “Why?”
    “According to Steve, he saw part of your group just wandering around in the upper part of the mansion…”
    “Really! Oh shit!” Scarlett said, quickly standing up. She grabbed some of the dark blue goo, rubbing part of it on her neck and head before sticking the two back together. Giving a slight tug, she confirmed her head was reattached.

    As Scarlett made her way back to the mansion proper, she passed by the storage room to make sure everything was in order. Quickly ducking her head in, she was happy to see that Echo’s legs, Veronica’s Head, and Lindsey’s arm were all primed and placed on a stone table. “At least one thing’s going right,” Scarlet said to herself as she rushed back to where she last left her tour members.

    What happens next?
    1) A Discovery in the Library (Heather, Lindsey, Spencer, Scarlett)
    2) Horrendously Lost (Veronica, Echo, Susan)
    3) Getting Things Back in Order (Full Cast)