Simon grabbed onto my hand and I quickly yanked it away from him. It confused me how he could see me when no one else could, but that didn't mean I was about to let him treat me like his babysitter. He looked up at me with his eerily bright blue eyes.

Almost all of the room had been engulfed in green flame, and a swirling vortex had opened up in the middle of the floor. Lydia was clutching onto a cupboard handle and screaming loudly.

The table where the orb and staff had been was floating, and on it Edgar stood, staff in hand, and his eyes were bright red lights. His mouth opened and hundreds of voices pored out. The orb was glowing and pulsing like a heartbeat again.

"A DoOR to ThE oUTsiDe haS BEeN oPEneD." The voices said in unison. "BuT A saCRiFice IS nEEDeD." Edgar's eyes rolled and fell upon Lydia. "aH, A FemAlE! PeRfeCT!"

A scaly hand reached out and grabbed Lydia. She screamed even louder. "Edgar! Save me!" But Edgar was being overshadowed, that much was obvious to me, and it was a very strange overshadowing. It seemed like he was being overshadowed by thousands of ghosts at once.

The hand pulled her easily into the pit.

The vortex closed with a hideous screech. Simon was clutching my hand again. The table fell to the floor with a thump and Edgar collapsed onto it. His scepter rolled onto the floor but didn't break. Simon released me and ran over to his father.

Suddenly screams filled the room as hundreds of ghosts pored out of the floor and into town. None of them glanced at me as they flew past. Then human screams began as the ghosts were unleashed onto the world.

The scene faded into blackness and I realized that I was still holding the scepter. I opened my hand to release it but to my surprise it was stuck to my hand. What surprised me even more was that I didn't really care.

"Where am I?" I said as I looked around. Then I almost screamed as a voice answered me, seeming to come from nowhere.

"You are in-between. Not in the present, and not in the past. The question 'what could have created such a powerful device' has been answered. What is your next question?"

"What are you?" I asked. There was a soft sound almost like laughter.

"I am the Scepter that has been passed down through generations of Sinclairs, the one that you now have in your hand. I am here to answer any questions that you might have about my creation and life. Ask your next question"

"Fine." I answered. "Why could that whelp see me when no one else could?" The soft almost laughing sound again.

"I'm assuming you mean Simon" The blackness faded and I was standing in the workshop again, only this time it wasn't on fire or covered in soot.

Edgar Sinclair was working on a potion and a young human child of about three or four was standing beside him. "This will bring back your mother Simon." He said in a shaky voice. He added in a whisper, "Or at least I hope it will"

Simon looked around the workshop with tears in his brown eyes. An alarm went off in my head. Weren't they blue earlier? Or should I say later, because I was now even more in the past.

Suddenly there was a large explosion, and the liquid that Edgar had been working on exploded and splashed into both Edgar's eyes and Simon's eyes. Most of it went into Simon's. They faded almost to white and then became blue

The room faded again and I expected to be back in the darkness, but instead I watched as the scene fast forwarded and then stopped. Edgar was leaning over what appeared to be a chalkboard, and then he turned and spoke to Simon.

"The explosion gave us the ability to see ghosts, but if were distracted it goes away." He seemed to fade into himself. "Ghosts are real. What if we could control them? Use them for good?"

Then I was back in the darkness.

"Your question has been answered. What do you wish to know now?"

Curiosity pressed at the back of my mind. "What happened to Lydia?" And then I was in the Ghost Zone of the past, at exactly the moment where Lydia was pulled through the vortex by the ghostly hand.

A large ugly demon smirked as it held Lydia. "Time for the sacrifice." He said in a gurgling evil voice. His face was like a snake's, and he had hundreds of sharp fangs.

He lifted his other hand and a single curved claw unsheathed itself from his fingers. He inserted it into Lydia's body and she instantly became limp. He withdrew it and to my surprise a ghost form of Lydia was on it.

He lifted her body and ate it in one bite. Then he glowed strangely and spun one hand in a circle. A portal to the human world appeared, and the ghosts screamed and flooded through it.

Lydia's ghost floated silently. She watched the ghosts flee the Ghost Zone and waited till they were all gone. The silence was eerie. Finally she floated through. I followed her and found myself in the basement of Edgar's house. Lydia flew up and phased through the ceiling and I followed.

We were back in Edgar's work shop. Simon was trying desperately to wake his father up, but nothing seemed to be working. Lydia silently floated over and put a green hand to Edgar's forehead. He sat up quickly and stared at her. "Lydia?"

She nodded, but said nothing. I wondered if she had become a mute. Then she pointed to the scepter on the floor and Edgar lifted it up. "What's going on?" he said. Again Lydia said nothing. She pointed outside and floated away. Edgar followed her, and I followed Edgar.

Ghosts were flying around everywhere and destroying buildings. I watched as Lydia placed her hands on Edgar's. She lifted them into the air. Edgar held up the scepter and yelled, "STOP!" The ghosts all stopped and stared at the scepter.

"Return to wherever you came from now!" The ghosts stared at him, and then finally left, all flooding back to where they had come from. Lydia stayed where she was, and so did I. Edgar turned to Lydia and said, "You're not susceptible to the scepter. Why?"

She put a hand over her mouth and shook her head to show that she couldn't talk. She floated back inside the shop and Edgar and I followed. Simon was staring at her. Lydia didn't seem to notice and floated over to the chalkboard thing and began writing.

"I am here to guide you and all of Sinclair's that come after you. Until the bloodline ends, I am trapped as a ghost." She wrote.

Then everything faded to black and the strange voice of the Scepter said, "What is your next question?"

Something had been bothering me since the beginning. "Why are you showing me this?"

All that answered was the soft laughter, only now it really was laughter, and I could hear the sound of evil in it, of alternate motives, and dark secrets.