Issue 17: The Ghost of Balmoral

The Ghost of Balmoral is the seventeenth issue of the Winx Club Comic Series.

Synopsis
The Winx spend their summer vacation on Earth and soon come across the Castle of Balmoral, only to get tangled up in its mystery.

Plot
Now that they are all done with classes, everyone at Alfea is off for a two-week long vacation thanks to some kind of anniversary in Magix. The girls will be spending their vacation with Bloom in Gardenia, though, Musa worries that there might not be room for all of them to stay in Bloom's house. To avoid causing any problems, Bloom proposes that they all camp out instead and that there are a few nice campsites just outside the city. The Winx love the idea and quickly pack their bags for the trip.



Later that day, the Winx make their way to Gardenia by warping into Bloom's house. Bloom introduces Flora, Tecna and Musa to her parents and Mike jokes about them attracting attention and making their neighbors think that there is some sort of fire inside. Bloom leads the rest of the Winx upstairs to her room and they notice that Bloom's room will not be big enough for them to all fit. To solve this, Stella uses her Solaria Scepter to widen the room and assures Bloom that no one will be able to tell from the outside. The Winx decide to stay in Bloom's house for the night and go to the campsite in the morning.

The next day, the Winx catch a bus to the campsite as Bloom insists that it will be as good as any campsite in Magix. Flora notices that there is even a castle near the campsite, where Bloom tells her that it is the Castle of Balmoral. The castle was taken apart in its home country and rebuilt in Gardenia. It is also rumored to be haunted by a ghost. The bus finally stops and the Winx get off at the campsite.



The Winx try to pitch up their tent but seem to not be making any progress. Stella is about to take out her scepter but Bloom reminds her that, since they are not in Magix, they cannot go using magic in public places. Before Stella activates her ring, some boys walk over and offer to pitch up the tent for them. Tecna tells Stella to ease up on the "compliments" but Stella does not really listen. The boy introduces himself as Martin and then introduces his friends as Oliver and Peter. The Winx introduce themselves and thank Martin and his friends for pitching up their tent. Martin seems interested in Stella and invites them to go swimming with him and his friends. Stella declines but Martin invites the Winx to go to a party that will be held down by the beach when night falls. Bloom accepts their invitation and sends Martin and his friends off. Once they are gone, the Winx scold Stella for flirting too much since she is already dating Brandon. Stella insists that she was only being nice and that it is only natural for a woman to be nice as a man pitches a tent for her. She claims that she just "goes with the flow" and heads inside the tent for a nap. The rest of the Winx follow her into the tent and beat her with pillows.

That night, the Winx are hanging out down by the beach, talking about how Earth can be just as great as Magix. Musa puts on a few songs and everyone on the beach starts dancing. While everyone is dancing, Martin approaches Stella and asks if she wants to dance but, before he gets any more ideas, Stella tells him that she has a boyfriend. She still takes his offer to dance but explicitly tells him that they can dance as friends. She meets up with the rest of the girls, where Tecna confesses that she thought Stella forgot about Brandon in order to flirt with random guys. Stella says that she could never forget Brandon and that a few temptations can make the love between two people grow stronger; not make it weaker. Bloom wonders if that can be true and if Sky could be able to resist any temptations that come his way; specifically, if he can resist Diaspro if she makes any more advances.



The next day, there is some sort of cultural intermission happening at the Castle of Balmoral. Bloom and Flora urge the rest of the Winx to come with them to get tickets but, since it is such a nice day out, Stella, Musa and Tecna want to stay put for a little while longer. As the girls tease Stella over being sleepy, despite partying all night the night before, Bloom notices a suspicious-looking man behind them and that he has been watching them for a while now. When the man notices that they have spotted him, he asks them if anything about his attire sticks out to them. Bloom says that he looks like any normal old man and the man introduces himself as Lord Eufelmo of Balmoral: the sole heir to the Castle of Balmoral. Musa tells Lord Eufelmo that he will be able to earn a lot of money with the castle being such a big tourist attraction, but Eufelmo claims that that is the problem. He then explains that the only reason why the Castle of Balmoral is such a popular tourist attraction is because of the ghost that haunts it: the ghost of his little brother, Adalberto of Balmoral, that died a year earlier. Stella asks why the ghost will not appear anymore but Eufelmo does not know. He explains that he had just come back from living in Africa and that, even though he obtained the inheritance, bad publicity has been causing people to steer clear from the castle. There are also some people that want to take the castle for themselves. More specifically, there is a certain company that wants demolish the castle and build a hotel over it. Bloom wonders why Lord Eufelmo is telling them all of this, to which he explains that he thinks they are "special girls" and are the only ones who can help him with his predicament. The girls agree to help Lord Eufelmo but, before they head for the castle, Stella calls Martin and his friends over since they have their tickets. However, Eufelmo gives them special tickets that allow them to wander the castle without needing a guide with them. Bloom asks is the ghost is dangerous but Eufelmo insists that he just jingles chains to scare people and that he could not even hurt a fly. He reminds them that, as long as they are able to make the ghost reappear, then he will be able to keep ownership of the castle.

The Winx head inside the castle and Bloom proposes that they split up to look for the ghost. Martin tries to split up with Stella but Tecna cuts in to make sure he does not try anything. Oliver helps search upstairs with Musa and Flora, while Peter goes with Bloom and Eufelmo into the basement.



Stella and Martin make it into a messy room, where Martin tries to kiss Stella by telling her that girls get prettier after kissing somebody. There is a loud crashing noise and Martin immediately gets scared, thinking that it is the ghost, and hides under the couch. It turns out that Tecna accidentally bumped into one of the armored statues and made it fall over. Bloom's group hears the loud crash, but Eufelmo tells Bloom and Peter that it could not have been the ghost because he does not smash what sounded like pots, but jingles chains. So they continue their search.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Gardenia, a cameraman reports to his boss that Lord Eufelmo is looking for the ghost with a group of kids. The boss tells him not to worry and to set up a fake ghost to scare the kids away. The fake ghost will also look like another one of Eufelmo's attempts to draw a crowd to the castle again.

Back with the Winx, they have been searching for hours with no signs of the ghost, which causes some of them to question if the ghost even exists. Eufelmo insists that the ghost does exists and thinks that the ghost may be trapped in some sort of secret crypt. Bloom says that there should be a way to find out if the castle holds secret rooms and suggests that Lord Eufelmo compare the blueprints from when the castle was originally built to when the castle was rebuilt in Gardenia. They follow Eufelmo into has office where he brings out the blueprints and, as the girls and Eufelmo look though the blueprints, Martin and his friends decide to walk around the castle while they wait. The girls notice that there is a room with no windows hidden in the walls of one of the corridors they checked earlier and decide that it may be where the ghost is being held prisoner. Tecna finds it confusing that a ghost would be held prisoner if it can just phase through walls but they decide to check it out anyway.

At the same time, the cameraman and his crew is setting up for the fake ghost in another part of the castle. Various newscasts are arriving after the cameraman's boss tipped them off.

The Winx find the wall where the room is hidden behind and, with no tourists around, Stella uses her scepter to activate the hidden door. They enter the secret room but do not find the ghost anywhere. They explore the secret room until Bloom comes across some sort of old spell book. Bloom finds a spell that claims it can evoke the ghost of the castle and reads it aloud. Suddenly, the room gets colder and a gust of wind blows by. There is still no sign of the ghost but Lord Eufelmo has disappeared, so the Winx exit the secret room to look for him.

Meanwhile, Martin and his friends hear a loud noise and Martin thinks it may be the ghost. They run into a nearby room to hide from it but find the cameraman and his crew setting up the fake ghost scare. Martin and his friends try to run but the cameraman threatens them with a gun and locks them into a closet-like room so no one will find out that they are here. Hearing the various newscasts arrive inside the castle, the cameraman has his crew activate the fake ghost. Just when they think that this must be another one of Lord Eufelmo's tricks, the real ghost appears to expose the cameraman's scheme and convince the reporters.



The Winx hear screaming and go to check it out, but they literally run into Lord Eufelmo; revealing that he was the ghost the entire time. Eufelmo explains to the girls that he had actually died while in Africa and that, when Adalberto did, he lost the rights to the castle. He claims that he had to bring himself back to life using the spellbook in the secret room in order to stop the castle from being sold off to someone else; mainly the company that wants to tear it down and build a hotel on top. Bloom realizes that he was just pretending to be Lord Eufelmo and that he was acting strange because he was not used to being alive again. He agrees and further explains that once he got the inheritance, he could no longer play the part of the ghost to keep tourists from coming. Now that he is a ghost again, he wonders how he will be able to manage the castle until Bloom suggests that he just donate it to the city so that the mayor could take care of the castle as he acts as the ghost. Now that everything has been figured out, Lord Eufelmo goes back to the secret room to read from the spell book and become a human again so he can donate the castle to the city in person. The Winx later find Martin, Oliver and Peter in the small closet-like room and explain what happened. Eventually, their vacation ends and the girls head back to Magix.

Spells Used

 * "Move the walls a lot, with all of the space you got! You have to widen, too, the others will follow soon! Without saving furnish and decorate; make all true to see and contemplate!" - Used by Stella to expand Bloom's room.
 * "Let us see and make clear to all the mystery hidden within this wall!" - Used by Stella to activate the hidden door.
 * "Come, oh ghost of the earl of old. Appear before us and do as you are told!" - Used by Bloom to summon the Ghost of Balmoral.

Debuts

 * Martin
 * Oliver
 * Peter
 * Lord Eufelmo

Mistakes

 * On the cover, Stella's eyes are blue when they are supposed to be orange.
 * On page 2, Stella's top is colored orange when it is supposed to be a light green.

Characters

 * Winx Club
 * Bloom
 * Stella
 * Flora
 * Musa
 * Tecna


 * Specialists
 * Sky (flashback)
 * Royalty
 * Diaspro (flashback)
 * Ghosts
 * The Ghost of the Earl (disguised as Lord Eufelmo)


 * Humans
 * Mike
 * Vanessa
 * Martin
 * Peter
 * Oliver