The D’arc family’s story begins with the famous outlaw, Butch D’arc (commonly known as Black-Hand Butch). Although he came from a good family, Butch went bad during his younger years when he got in with the wrong group of friends. He and his best friend, the Moondance Kid, started out doing small jobs, like cattle rustles. But soon, they’d formed a gang and were robbing trains and banks. After every job, Butch and the Kid would split the bounty. After awhile, they became very rich, and they were tired of being wanted criminals and always running from the law. So, they decided to stage their deaths in an elaborate shoot-out with a sheriff’s posee. Then, they split all their money and went their separate ways. The Kid headed east to Boston and the big cities. Butch, more of a solitary kind of guy, headed west. He arrived in Utah and settled outside of a new town known as Grayson. Everyone there considered him a wealthy gentleman, and he was well-respected. He changed his last name from Black to D’arc. The huge piece of property he owned east of town was known as the “D’arc Estate.”

Butch met a beautiful woman in Grayson named Dyre. But, during their courtship, her family kept a dreadful secret from Butch: a streak of the paranormal ran in the family. Luckily, it seemed to have skipped Dyre’s generation. Being ignorant of this, Butch married Dyre and built a beautiful mansion for her on the D’arc Estate. They had seven wonderful children, but after awhile, Butch began to grow bored with life as a gentleman. About this time, the Moondance Kid showed up. He’d lost all of his fortune in gambling debts, and talked Butch into going back to the robbery business. By day, Butch was the respected Mr. D’arc. By night, he became Black-Hand Butch: wanted criminal. No one knew about his illegal actions, not even Dyre, his wife. Butch and Moondance would rob trains or banks, then bury the loot somewhere on the D’arc Estate until the excitement had died down and it was safe to spend the money without folks getting suspicious.

But what Butch didn’t know was that the Kid was stealing him blind. Every time they buried money, the Kid would come later to dig it up and use it to support his terrible gambling habit in nearby Nevada. So, little by little, Butch’s share of the fortune was being squandered away without his knowledge.

Well, there was a particularly intelligent sheriff in the city of Grayson. At first, he couldn’t figure out who was doing all of these robberies. Then, it occurred to him that maybe it was a seemingly respectable citizen. He started to watch the city’s inhabitants like a hawk, but he never realized that it might be Mr. D’arc, the well known gentleman. The Sheriff did take note of the Moondance Kid, however. He noticed that the Kid left town every morning, to return later in the evening and hang around the D’arc Estate. One day, the Sheriff followed the Kid and saw him spend hordes of money in a gambling hall in Nevada. The Sheriff rounded up a posse in Nevada to chase the Moondance Kid back to Grayson.

The Moondance Kid ran straight for the D’arc Estate. He told Butch they had to make a run for it. Butch started to dig up his money. The Moondance Kid was afraid to tell him it wasn’t there. Frantic, the Moondance Kid begged Dyre to hide him in their house. She’d always been fond of him, so she led him into the cellar. Meanwhile, Butch was digging for his treasure, but not finding it. After a long time of fruitless searching, he realized it was gone and that the Kid probably took it. Butch became very angry. He pulled out his gun and went searching for the Kid. Dyre tried to stop him, but Butch wouldn’t listen. He discovered the Kid in the cellar. The Moondance Kid plead for his life, saying that there was still one cache of treasure left somewhere on the Estate. But Butch was so angry, he shot him before he found out exactly where. This act of brutality drove Dyre crazy (she was just on the edge of insanity, anyway, what with 7 children all under the age of 5, and all in diapers). She sprouted a third eye, right in front of her shocked husband, and ran out of the house screaming.

At the same time, the sheriff arrived with his posse. He caught Mr. D’arc with a smoking gun and the dead body of the Moondance Kid. He immediately arrested Butch D’arc. The children were sent to live with a distant uncle in town who only left his house at night.

Butch hated jail life (he’d never been caught before). He languished away, murmuring “tulip bud” until his death. Dyre D’arc disappeared, as did her children, one by one. Meanwhile, in town, strange stories began to circulate of wolf howls when there was a full moon, and an increase in the frog population. Only 2 of the D'arc children, Samuel and Rosaleen, reached adulthood.

Samuel married and moved into the old mansion on the D’arc Estate. The screams of Dyre were heard often over the empty fields, and there were reported sightings of Black-Hand Butch, searching for his long lost treasure. But the family ignored these ghosts from the past.

They were happy, until one night when aliens landed a ship on the Estate and kidnapped Samuel's wife and child. Samuel was devastated. He walled himself into a room of the house and never escaped. Sometimes, near a blank wall, one can still hear the scratching and wailing of Samuel as he tries to find the way out of his self-made prison.

After Samuel’s death, his sister Rosaleen inherited the house. She was always a little tipsy, and constantly talked of seeing the ghosts of dead family members. She was also very fascinated with fire. When she nearly burned down the house, her son and daughter, Eugene and Louissa, determined to move in with her so that they could protect her. Each of their families took one wing of the house.

But, they did not get along. They started bickering over little things, and it soon escalated into bigger things. Each family acquired a healthy hatred for the other, and a regular feud began. The house was crowded with so many relatives living in it, and things got sticky. Rosaleen was quite old by now and was known as “Madame D’arc;” the matriarch of the family. Then, nasty things started happening.

Aunt Carol used up all the hot water in the house every time she bathed, because she took such a long time. This made everybody really angry, especially those in the enemy family. One day, when Carol started to shower, acid came out instead of water. She became a skeleton in a tub.

All who searched for the lost treasure on the estate were never heard from again. This happened to young Cahoot D'arc, who never came home when his ma called him for supper.

Other strange things happened, and family members disappeared faster than you can count. Madame D’arc was disgusted with her children and their families. She constantly tried to hold family parties and get-togethers to ease the tension between the two families, but it didn’t work. They all just sat and glared at each other.

Then, one night when everybody except Madame D’arc was out of the house attending Culture Night (the families sat at opposite ends of the auditorium, of course), the mansion caught fire. It burned to the ground, taking Madame D’arc with it. Both families were, of course, devastated. They each blamed the other for not watching Madame D’arc carefully enough to prevent the tragic fire.

After that, both families moved into town, one family on the north side, and one family on the south side. The D’arc Estate remained empty and abandoned for many years. It fell into disrepute, and even the old windmill didn’t pump water anymore.

Then, one family member decided to live on the Estate again. Dr. D'arc set up a secret lab in an old trailer on the estate grounds. Unfortunately, he disappeared one Halloween night and was never seen again. His assistant, Glum, blamed it on the giant mutant prairie dog that had been digging holes on the Estate.

Some years later, a stranger arrived in town and bought the old D'arc Estate. He built a beautiful home on it and began to raise a family there. But every Halloween night, his home is warped by the paranormal arrival of some member of the D'arc family. Because of their twisted history, the D'arcs are doomed to haunt this lot until the end of time.