There once was an old mining town, back in the days when able frontiersmen were settling in the American Wilderness searching for gold, named Thunder Mesa. In the old days, it was a small town with only one street, a few houses and shops, a casino and a saloon. Eventually the gold in the area dried up and the settlers were forced to move up north, where the gold was. There proved to be more than enough gold in old Thunder Mountain, and a booming old west town sprung up right around the river - the richest in the old west. The town's new mayor and founder, Mr. Ravenswood, built a huge, glorious manor on the hill high overlooking the town on the south border of the settlement. In this house he raised his young daughter, Melanie, and the opulent family lived happily for many years.
The young girl grew into a young woman, and it came time for her to take a husband and raise a family. She chose a bright young man who was an engineer on the Thunder Mesa Railroad, and a date was set for their marriage.
On the wedding day, a terrible thing happened. While the young bride was preparing in her boudoir, a horrible phantom materialized inside the house. Evil and deranged, he fell madly in love with the bride to be. Seeing the groom so enraged his insane mind that he dragged the young man into the attic and hung him, laughing maniacally.
In the ballroom the bride sat alone. Hours went by with no sign of the groom. The guests slowly filed away, leaving the bride alone in the house with the staff of maids and butlers. "Some day", she told herself, "he will come". And so, having never taken off her wedding dress or dropped her bouquet in preparation of her loved one's return, she wandered the house aimlessly, singing melancholy songs of lost love.
The phantom was still in the house, laughing at her humanly devotion to her intended husband. One by one he invited his dead, demonic friends from the afterlife to fill the house in an eternal party. The shape of the house was slowly transformed surreally by the evil forces.
Years passed.
Inside and outside, the house was decaying. Dusty cobwebs cover every inch, the disheartened staff caring not, for it was rumored that the young bride had lost her mind. She wandered the house for years and years, singing softly to her groom while all around her demons and ghosts reveled and danced. Everywhere she went she was reminded of the wedding. The phantom's eternal laughter still carried through the walls of the house. Outside, the once beautiful grounds were falling apart and crumbling. The gilded staircase and structure was dotted with mold and trees and every plant on the grounds died. As if sensing the evil inherent in the house, nothing living treaded there.
An earthquake cut a huge gouge in the west half of the property and the crumbling ghost town of the old Thunder Mesa. The deserted buildings were rumored to be haunted, and anybody who entered the ghastly old town at night never came back.
Today, nobody knows if Melanie Ravenswood is still alive in that old house on the hill. If she is, then she's well over 100 years old. Although no human being can live that long, her beautiful voice still carries over the town at night, though the walls, and night air. And sometimes, people still see lights in the house.
Some nights, when the moon is full and the sky is clear of clouds, you can still hear the lonely mourning of the bride, the maniacal laughter of the phantom, and the faint tinkle of glass and laughter of party guests. Whether she's alive or not, what is well known is that poor old Melanie never really left the crumbling mansion. She waits for her groom 'till judgment day.
Do you dare enter to see if she's still there or not?
