Willa Gaines is a character from the Tales from the Haunted Mansion book series.
Biography[]
Willa is a member of the Fearsome Foursome, a group of middle schoolers obsessed with tales of the macabre. When their treehouse is destroyed, the group finds invitations to the Haunted Mansion in the debris. Meeting Mansion Librarian Amicus Arcane in the Library, he tells them grisly tales about each of them.
Willa's story, "The Witch Bone", tells of how at a slumber party, Willa made a wish on a "Witch Bone" to bring her dead pets, including guinea pig Chubs back to life. She begins having dreams of Chubs coming back as a ravenous undead creature and after waking from the nightmare, notices the vegetable garden has been ravaged by something. She and her friends go monster hunting only to find the "zombie Chubs" is an elaborate prank by her younger brother Billy, who the guinea pig had belonged to first. Things seem well until Willa realizes that while Chubs belonging to Billy stopped his resurrection, that didn't stop the others from rising from their graves and hungering for her flesh.
As the stories are told and the children become more unsettled by them all ending in their horrible deaths, they realize the truth that they've been dead this whole time and join the ranks of the Mansion's ghosts.
Volume II: Midnight at Madame Leota's picks up 10 years later where William Gaines, the fully grown Billy, has become a noted skeptic and paranormal researcher that comes to the Mansion seeking to connect to his deceased sister by seeking an audience with Madame Leota. After being told a variety of stories by Amicus Arcane, he finally reunites with his sister at a party in the Ballroom before waking up in the Graveyard the next morning by her grave.
In Volume IV: Memento Mori, Willa delivers an invitation to Prudence Pock, an author who wrote popular horror books based on the mysterious deaths of the Fearsome Foursome, to participate in Amicus Arcane's storytelling contest that will determine who will take his place as the Mansion librarian. While Prudence wins with the story of her own death, she rejects the position to continue haunting her murderer for the rest of his life and suggests that Willa be appointed as the new Mansion Librarian. Amicus agrees and passes onto the next plane after making it official.