Stephanie's stare was interrupted by another guest..this one dressed as an older lady. "I don't believe that they would be but I'm keeping my guard up. Name's Stephanie and this cute owl here is Pamina.." She then looked back at the girl who started all this who now was doing something to try to hurt the ghosts? She yelled at the girl, "HEY! lady...leave them alone...this party was just for fun!!"

The ghosts only get slightly louder and more raucous when Kyan attempts to use her sound waves! One of them, in the back, materializes a chain and starts rattling it.

Her fear evaporated at Stephanie's confidence. If the older teenager wasn't afraid, Pamina wasn't about to be afraid! After all, she was an adult, right? And that means she shouldn't be cowering away from ghosts that hadn't hurt anyone. Of course, despite being "not scared" she stayed pretty close to the girl in the Dark Mercury uniform. But that was just in case... of... well, something. Just in case. Not because she was scared.

The small owl smiled shyly at the small grandmother. This other girl seemed pleasant. Even her costume looked comforting.

"Nice to meet you. What's your name?" Pamina said, her voice soft.

At the question about the ghosts, she glanced around again. As Stephanie had noted earlier, they didn't really seem to be doing anything all that bad. She turned back to the girl they had just met when Stephanie yelled at someone trying to intimidate the new phantasmic "partygoers".

"Maybe they're okay? Nothing bad has happened..."

It seemed like nothing was going to destroy nor shut these ghosts up. In fact, they were just getting louder. Kyan clenched her fist around her broom in frustration. If only the ghosts were OoooOooo-ing in phase, then she could have simply canceled out their god-awful wailing!

"HEY! lady...leave them alone...this party was just for fun!!" came a voice in the background. Kyan whipped around to face not one, but three teenage girls.

“...Fun?” Kyan's deep blue eyes narrowed into a piercing glare as she approached them with her broom pointing outward. “How are these dreadful creatures fun, dear? Do you not hear how noisy they are?” As if on cue, one of the ghosts started rattling a chain. Kyan gnashed her teeth together and brought a hand over her right ear. “—My god, make it stop already!” she snarled, slamming her broom against the ground in indignation, unintentionally releasing another series of high-pitched compressional waves.

The ghosts seemed concerned by Kyan's continued attempts to disperse them with her broom. They hover around her, still making their ghostly noises, in a manner that seems as though they are congregating for discussion.

And then a bell tolls in the room, echoing loudly.

The ghosts flutter back towards the doors, which open to receive them, and disappear. As they do so, the rest of the ballroom slowly fades back into focus. The "doors" are just... paper. How did they look so real before?

Fourth Prompt wrote:

Those troublesome ghosts are gone! How does your character react? Do they wish the ghosts hadn't left? Are they happy?

What about the fact that they are now clearly back in the ballroom? Is that a relief? Or is it disappointing?

Try to complete this before EOD (end of day) on Thursday, November 3!

Stephanie checked on Pamina as the ghosts disappeared. She wanted to go yell at the women who caused all this but there was no reason to now. "Pamina are you ok? I kinda wish they could have stayed a bit longer..the ghosts that is.. What do you think?" Stephanie looked at the other guests looking for their reactions.

Pamina turned to Stephanie and shrugged. Her mind whirled with everything that had just happened. The ghosts were gone as quickly as they had come, and now the ballroom was a normal ballroom again.

"It might have been fun if they stayed," the little owl replied quietly to Stephanie. "But I suppose we can still enjoy the rest of the party."

She wasn't sure they'd ever find out exactly what was going on here.

The music continued, there was food to be had, and the staff in the mansion were more than helpful for every single guest. The attendees had a few more hours to mingle, eat, and drink. The mood stayed high, with the ghosts now an easy topic of conversation for everyone present.

As everyone slowly headed out into the night when the party finished, returning to their respective homes, they all could feel like it had been a fairly nice time—even if it certainly wasn't much like what they expected at all!