Volume 01

 of the Bizenghast manga series created by M. Alice LeGrow.

Synopsis
''When a young girl moves to the forgotten town of Bizenghast, she uncovers a terrifying collection of lost souls that leads her to the brink of insanity. One thing becomes painfully clear: The residents of Bizenghast are just dying to come home.''

Chapter list

 * Chapter 01: The Sickness
 * Chapter 02: The Gilded Cage
 * Chapter 03: The Stranglehold
 * Chapter 04: The Coming Storm
 * Chapter 05: The Fairywaters
 * Chapter 06: The Wild Beast
 * Chapter 07: The Angel in Disguise

The Sickness
Seven years prior to the start of the series, 8-year-old Dinah Wherever and her parents were in a tragic car accident. The accident cost her parents their lives, but left Dinah with only minor injuries. Upon investigation, the fire department couldn't find a reason for their tire to have exploded the way it did since it only had a tiny puncture. CPS placed Dinah in the care of her aunt, Jane Addison, who was set to inherit her sisters (Dinah's mothers) property in Bizenghast, MA. The property was once an all-boys school called St. Lyman's School for Boys, but would quickly be renovated into a home for Jane and Dinah.

Fast forward seven years, and the now 15-year-old Dinah is being visited by Dr. Morstan, a psychologist who believes that Dinah is mentally ill. Dinah places a phone call to a young boy asking him to come over and take her away immediately. While the doctor is talking to Jane, it's mentioned that Dinah is refusing to take her medication, but the conversation is soon interrupted by Dinah's best friend, Vincent Monroe. Dr. Morstan asks Vincent if Dinah had been having any "fits" lately, and although she had, Vincent lies saying that she's been perfectly fine.

After Vincent exits the room, Dr. Morstan says that the cuts and bruises on Dinah didn't just appear on their own. Jane passively suggests that it could be ghosts, but the doctor rebuffs that there's no such thing as ghosts. Jane mentions feeling uneasy about Vincent constantly being around, but that the only time Dinah is calm is when he's there. The doctor responds that the loss of her parents is causing the delusions of seeing ghosts and that eventually it will turn into something more harmful. That Jane should consider moving Dinah to a hospital in the nearby Watertown.

Dinah and Vincent then sneak out of the house. Vincent takes her to a dead fawn he found just before she called him earlier. Knowing there was nothing they could do, the two left the fawn and decided to take the long way back to Dinah's home. On their way back, they discussed Dinah's hatred for the decaying town of Bizenghast and how she wishes that she could not only leave, but that she had never been forced to come there in the first place. They come across a pile of Victorian-era junk that Vincent insists wasn't there this morning, and while searching for another path, they find an abandoned mausoleum.

Dinah can feel the presence of ghosts in the mausoleum and surrounding graveyard, but let's Vincent convince her that there's nothing there and that he would protect her if anything did show up. Despite her best judgement, Dinah let's Vincent lead her into the mausoleum where they find a plaque with a strange symbol on it. The plaque reads:

In stone towers four, Hooded watcher at the door, And in alcoves threescore, Let us be.

Behind glass walls we wait, Our deeds meditate, Until some luck or fate, Sets us free.

May you never try to find, What is hidden behind, But if you're still of that mind, Look and see.

To know what lies untold, In chambers grown cold, Let each riddle unfold, To find each key.

At the end of reading the poem, Dinah pushes an image of a key that makes a clicking sound. The plaque swiftly turns around to show another inscription that Vincent reads: Having entered the sunken mausoleum and activated this contract, the undersigned does hereby agree to be owned body and soul until such time as this mausoleum's vaults are emptied of captive spirits or by the undersigned's sudden death, whichever comes first.

To their shock and suprise, it's signed with Dinah's signature. As Dinah tries to flee the mausoleum, she is intercepted by a massive five-legged insect with a human face, torso, and arms that is dressed in a jester's outfit. She greets Dinah, stating that they have been waiting a long time for her arrival.

The chapter ends with a newspaper clipped talking about a mysterious number of death certificates in the Bizenghast town registry that don't match up to any headstones in the local cemetery. Visitors to the town reported coming across a large cemetery in the middle of a field, but can never seem to find it a second time. Images taken of the cemetery always turn out overexposed.