FRANKENPLOT

It's Halloween, people! Wait, no, not really... It's still September, but why wait? Everyone seems ready for the change in the season. 

It's time for another Frankenplot!

In case you don't know, here are the rules:

A "Frankenplot" is a sort of riddle. It is comprised of the general plot of three different novels. The challenge is to decode the exact three novels the Frankenplot is pointing you toward.

Your guesses can be posted in the messages below, though you may be giving clues to others (be aware of that). You may also email your guesses to the following email:

frankenplot@zohomail.com

The Frankenplot I have written for this Halloween season is exceptionally difficult. 

I don't expect you to be able to solve it.

Therefore, I will not be donating one penny to ABCtales for its solution. Nothing.

...

Instead, I am paying for attempts. I will donate $1 to ABCtales for every guess put forth by anyone here - with no limit on how many times you may make an attempt. 

Not enough, you say?

Well, how's this... I want your scary stories. For every spooky story that appears before the deadline with the following title format: "Frankenplot: [your story title]", I will donate $5 to ABCtales.

Maximum total donation: $100 

The deadline: October 30th, 2026

The correct answer to the Frankenplot will appear on Halloween.

Ready?

Here's the Frankenplot:

"A dying woman makes her husband promise that he will not marry
again for as long as their daughter is alive, and the household
keeps that promise the way it keeps its silver: polished,
displayed, never used. Years later a girl is handed over to the
house in settlement of a debt, pushed forward by her own mother,
who asks only that this one be taken instead of her. She is set
to sorting the papers of a dead man while his grand new house
goes up unfinished in the yard, its rooms measured out for a
family that has not arrived. The daughter drowns during her
fourth birthday party. The doctor writes that it was natural, and
everyone who was at the table agrees that they saw nothing.

Afterwards the widow keeps the girl close, dresses her in what
the dead woman wore, calls her by the dead woman's name, and the
girl begins to answer to it. On the last night the girl carries a
candle up to the widow's room and finds the bed made, the dress
laid flat across it, and her own hands, holding the light, gone
thin and spotted and old."