The White Lady

Grim Tales: The White Lady is the thirteenth installment in the Grim Tales series by Elephant Games.

Anna's great-nephew Billy is away at school, but the school has caught fire and almost burned to the ground. All of the students were evacuated except for Billy and his friend Sarah. There have been sightings of a ghost called the White Lady, and the children's disappearance may be related to this. Billy's father Brandon calls on Aunt Anna to find the children and bring them back safely.

Plot
"Anna Gray? It's your nephew Brandon. My son Billy went missing from Evergreen Boarding School. I'm hoping you can help. Please, come as soon as you can." Anna is at Evergreen Boarding School. Her nephew Brandon needs her help; Brandon's son Billy and his friend Sarah are missing. Evergreen Boarding School almost burned to the ground, and all of the staff and most of the students were evacuated safely, but Billy and Sarah are missing.

Sarah's mother Kate gives Anna a drawing of a lady in white whom Sarah claimed to see. Anna goes back to the past, 12 hours before the fire, and finds out that Billy is helping Sarah find the White Lady, a ghost that haunted the school. Anna searches the school museum and learns the history of the building: Evergreen was the mansion of Gabriel and Laura Mansfield and their two children, but the family was later murdered. The mansion was closed and then later reopened as the school, but the wing where the family lived remains closed. Billy's notes suggest that the White Lady looks like Laura Mansfield, and indicate his plans to go to the closed wing with Sarah.

Looking for the closed wing, Anna sees the White Lady. She follows the ghost to the closed wing, where she finds Billy and Sarah standing in front of a picture of the White Lady with the fire behind them. Richard suggests there's another ghost who caused the fire. Anna puts out the fire, but the White Lady and another ghost appear, pushing her out of the past. Back in the present day, the fire being put out so quickly means that the school is saved, but Billy and Sarah are still missing. After performing another search, Anna is able to use a painting to return to the old gallery, where she finds the children. Richard helps her trap the White Lady, but another ghost appears; this ghost, identified as the Count, takes Billy and Sarah. Anna tries to stop him, but Richard explains that this ghost is too strong even for her.

Anna releases the White Lady, who explains her story. She is indeed the ghost of Laura Mansfield, and the Count is the ghost of her husband, Gabriel. Gabriel was diagnosed with an incurable disease, and wanted to find a way to become immortal so the disease wouldn't kill him. He used his knowledge of engineering and dark magic to build a machine which would allow him to do this, and sacrificed his own children for the purpose. When Laura discovered what had happened to their children, she tried to destroy the machine; this weakened Gabriel, but he attacked and murdered her before succumbing to his illness. Laura became trapped in the house as the White Lady, while her husband became the Count and began searching for a way to return to the living world.

Because the Count is to strong as a ghost, Anna and Richard make a pact with the White Lady to travel to the past, before Gabriel sacrificed the children. They reach the infernal machine and destroy it; the Count tries to stop them but is defeated by the three working together. This saves everyone, and back in the present day, we see Billy and Sarah at the unburned school with their parents.

Bonus Chapter
The story takes place before the events in the main game; the player character is Anna's father, Richard, as a young man. Richard is a student in a magic academy named the Evermoore Institute of Magic. He's talking to his friend Alessia when the school is attacked. Their friend, Gabriel Mansfield, suspects a creature sealed in the basement has broken free. Gabriel and Alessia go to check the basement while Richard goes to find Professor Lamberwick. In his office, Lamberwick is dying. He says someone in the school has released a parasite named Obsess from the basement. Using the memory pool, Richard learns the truth; it was Gabriel who freed Obsess from its imprisonment. He was convinced to do so by Alister Dalimar, one of the founders of the institute who was exiled due to his interest in dark magic.

Richard hurries to the basement. Gabriel holds Alessia captive and convinces Richard to join him before dragging her to the ritual room. Richard destroys Obsess and follows Gabriel. Richard and Gabriel fight, and Alessia is inadvertently killed. Gabriel offers to teach Richard a ritual to resurrect her and in return his memory will be erased. Richard agrees. He revives Alessia and lets Gabriel erase his memory.

Ten years later, Richard is married to his wife Anastasia and they have twin daughters. Richard is seen sitting in his study while his wife and daughters are having a picnic. He wonders how he got the marks on his face and why he can't remember his past.

Characters

 * Anna Gray: Billy's aunt and a private detective. She comes to Evergreen at Brandon's request.
 * Richard Gray: Anna's father and helper. His soul is bound into a skull that Anna carries with her.
 * Brandon Gray: Anna's nephew and Billy's father. He asks his aunt to help him find his son.
 * Billy Gray: Brandon's son. He goes missing after helping his friend finding the White Lady.
 * The White Lady: a ghost haunting the school. Her real name is Laura Mansfield.
 * The Count: another ghost in the school. His real name is Gabriel Mansfield.
 * Sarah: Billy's friend. She's looking for the White Lady with Billy.
 * Kate: Sarah's mother. Her daughter is missing along with Brandon's son.
 * Tommy: Billy's friend. He helps with Billy's quest.
 * Professor Lamberwick (bonus chapter): professor and co-founder of Evermoore Institute.
 * Alessia (bonus chapter): Richard and Gabriel's friend, another student at Evermoore.

Trivia

 * Cartoon-style graphics are used in the series for the first time. However, fans are split on this subject, with many saying that they're beautiful but not as good as the realistic ones.
 * This is the second game in the series using a boarding school as a setting. The first game is one of the fans' favourite, Bloody Mary.
 * Alister Dalimar, co-founder of the Evermoore Institute, is one of the biggest antagonists in the famous Mystery Case Files series. The series belongs to Big Fish Games but various developers have made games for it over the years; Elephant Games was the developer for the installments Fate's Carnival and Dire Grove, Sacred Grove.
 * The game contains a number of typographical errors. Most of these involve misspellings of names. There's also a note in Laura's diary that she married Gabriel in 1932, but their painting in the closed wing is dated 1931.