"The Final Interview" is the third story in Haunted Mansion #6.It was written by Dan Vado and illustrated by Drew Rausch. The story continues the tale told through "The Interview" and "The Follow-Up Interview."
Synopsis[]
Steve, Sarah's boyfriend, arrives at Gracey Manor to prevent his girlfriend from killing herself and joining the 999 happy haunts in eternal jubilation. At the same time he enters the mansion, Sarah arrives at the mansion by taxi.
Upon seeing Steve's car, Sarah calls out to him only to be surprised by caretaker Dick and his dog Boney. Dick tells Sarah that when his wife fell gravely ill, he was informed by a nurse about the manor and its magical graveyard. Told that he would get to see his wife everyday if buried on the mansion's grounds, Dick reluctantly agreed; the next day, he went to his wife's grave to deliver flowers and upon realizing that he had nowhere to go, he sat down and nodded off. After waking up to the cold night, Dick heard his wife's voice behind him saying, "you should go home and get warm, dear". He is soon offered a job by the maid, to which he agrees in exchange for living in the tool shed and seeing his ghostly wife everyday.
Sarah tells Dick that she wants to live as a ghost in the mansion, only for Dick to almost immediately object. He tells her that talking to his wife's ghost is a poor substitute for the real thing. As Dick tells Sarah that she must have someone to live for, Steve enters the Stretching Room inside Gracey Manor. He is terrified at the sight of the Ghost Host's laughing skeleton, the floating Candelabra, a possessed Knight with a large battleaxe, and the trapped coffin ghost. He is chased down the hall until he clutches his chest, undergoing a fatal heart attack.
Meanwhile, Sarah changes her mind about committing suicide after realizing that she does have someone to live for. She is greeted by the maid of the manor, only to hear her boyfriend screaming her name (his final words). Having been literally scared to death, Steve becomes ghost #1000. At first, the mansion's residents are surprised or in the case of Madame Leota, overjoyed. As the Devil Clock hits the number 13, the Ghost Host replies, "number one thousand......oh my". Suddenly the manor is sucked into the ground with all 1,000 screaming ghosts, leaving behind a massive empty hole.
Staring into the hole are the only four survivors -- the maid, Sarah, Dick, and Boney. The groundskeeper finally replies, "well.....I didn't see that coming".
Trivia[]
- In a possible continuity error, the caretaker is named Dick in this story, while in earlier stories (namely "The New Groundskeeper") he is called Horace Fusslebottom. The former is likely taken from the name conjured up for the caretaker ("Dick O'Dell") by the writers of the Ghost Gallery fan-created work.