Sixty years ago, Miss Lilian caught them playing in her cellar and locked them in as punishment. However, later that day, Miss Lilian suffered a stroke and was taken to hospital, leaving the children trapped. By the time she returned home, they had starved to death. Miss Lilian left the bodies hidden in the cellar and pretended to have no knowledge of what became of the missing children. For decades afterwards, the children's ghosts torment Miss Lilian as revenge for killing them until she, too, died and became a ghost who pursued and tormented the children who once tormented her. The children managed to trap her ghost in the parlor and made strict rules to prevent her from ever being freed. Lissa tells her father to search the cellar, where he finds Diana and Georgie's bodies. The bodies are at last given proper burials, while Diana and Georgie wonder what will become of them now. They are soon found by Miss Lilian, who wants to punish them for revealing her terrible secret. Diana realizes that all of them are bound to the Old Willis Place by the terrible grudges they hold for things that happened long ago and that unless they can forgive one another, none of them will ever leave. The children forgive Miss Lilian for leaving them to die and apologize for tormenting her in her final years, while Miss Lilian, in turn, expresses remorse for her role in the children's deaths. A beautiful silver light descends, and from it, the ghosts of the children's parents arrive to take them into the afterlife. The children's forgiveness allows Miss Lilian to join them there. Lissa, witnessing the whole scene in secret, is happy for her friends and takes comfort in the idea that her mother also resides within the beautiful light, waiting to reunite with Lissa once again. The Old Willis Place: A Ghost Story