Frankie sweeps away at the dirt on the floorboards. It's the last task she has to complete today.

She's thankful to whoever abandoned this house. However, it's still a little weird to her. Weird how they left their furniture, and a piano. Everything is practically untouched other than the dust and cobwebs.

It's like they just up and left.

"Who use to live here?," She questions out loud, although the house is empty.

As she moves rooms, the figure from earlier reappears.

"Who knows," it responds, watching as the girl sweeps away the dirt, "if I had to take a guess, I'd say they left because of ghosts."

Frankie laughs a little and rolls her eyes at the statement.

"Is that supposed to scare me?"

"Considering the situation, no. You and I know that ghosts are the least of your worries," it laughs.

"You got that right!," she agrees.

At age 5, Frankie was sold to Dr. Martin Brenner. He bought her for her extraordinary capabilities.

She is able to communicate with the dead, as cliche as that may sound.

Her powers are limited, however. At first, she was only able to communicate with the other side on the last week of October to the first week of November.

Brenner assumed this was because of Halloween and Dias de los Muertos.

Why would this be valuable to Brenner?

Many reasons, actually. The girl could speak to the literal Albert Einstein if she really wanted to. She could give him all the unsolved explanations, and make his job easier.

Brenner wanted to make her stronger. He wanted her to be able to speak the dead whenever she pleased, not just on those specific days.

So, much like he did with his other prisoners, he put her through a series of events in order to strengthen her.

Yes, she became stronger.

Now she can speak to the dead practically whenever she wants. She can also give other people access into the spirit realm.

The way she does it is simple:

She plays a piano solo she's been taught to play over and over, and as she plays, her energy is concentrated into what some people might call "magic".

A person can gain sight into the realm if they are in the isolated room when she plays the solo.

It takes up a lot of energy though.

If she uses too much energy, she could very well die.

The solo also opens the gate that stands between the spiritual realm and the real world. This explains why the spirits always attempt to persuade her into playing the solo more often. Once that gate opens, they can appear as they once were. They can "live" again. At least until she runs out of energy and the gate shuts.

Sometimes she'd open it because she got lonely.

Although she's finally out of that lab, she still feels like she's trapped. As the days pass, her power becomes stronger.

Sometimes it's hard to tell reality from ghosts.

While she was locked in that hell hole, the spirits there had took it upon themselves to teach her everything they deemed necessary.

"You should get enrolled into school," the figure insists.

Frankie laughs.

"Yeah, okay. With what parents to enroll me?," she responds sarcastically.

"You could take one of us! I know it takes a bit of energy to make us appear to others without the piano, but it is the last week of October," the spirit reminds.

"That could work, I guess," she agrees, "so here's the plan: I'll open the gate, and since it's Halloween tomorrow, it'll stay open until November 2nd. You'll all be real until then. So we'll enrol—"

"Yeah yeah, I get it!," the spirit says thrilled, "now open the gate!"

With a bit of a chuckle, Frankie drops her broom and walks back towards the piano. The spirit excitedly watches.

Frankie begins to play her solo.