A/N: I've removed all reference of Digimon in the first chapter. This is an AU universe where Digimon doesn't exist. :P

Originally I was trying to finish this whole fic before Halloween but that didn't happen. It will probably be a monthly thing now.


Chapter 2

11 of the kids met up in Tokyo and travelled together to the mansion. They brought sleeping bags, toothbrushes, food, drinks, and lots of cleaning equipment. Mimi and Sora had a brilliant idea of cleaning up the place and making it look less scary.

"I'm sure whatever ghosts in there would appreciate the tidying up." Sora said enthusiastically.

"Uh-huh- and if any one of them starts to play tricks on us, they'll feel the wrath of this baby." Mimi threatened with her cute, little portable vacuum cleaner. The vacuum cleaner was a limited edition Hello Kitty design with the cat serving as a nozzle.

The amount of cleaning equipment the kids held made them look like professional cleaning crews. There will surely be lots of noise which would surely make the house less creepy for Izzy.

The front door was left opened yesterday so they didn't have to climb through the window. Izzy had thought about covering up the gap that Tai made yesterday. When he turned his head to observe the window, his anxiety grew again.

Something didn't look quite right. He walked up to the broken window to look at it closer. He was sure it looked different from yesterday.

"Hey Izzy, we can go through the door." Said Tai who was still outside while the others had entered through the door.

"Can you come here for a bit?"

Tai quietly went up to Izzy. "What is it?"

"Look." Izzy pointed to the window gap that his friend made yesterday. Tai looked at it and didn't find anything strange about it.

"What?"

Izzy stayed silent, not giving any clues. He purposely withheld his thoughts so Tai could look at it again without much bias. His silence prompted Tai to look at it again still he couldn't find anything abnormal.

"What is it? Tell me?"

"Do you think the gap looks a bit different form yesterday? Maybe smaller?"

Tai observed it again... "No..."

The answer didn't make Izzy feel any more comfortable.

"I think you're worrying too much." Said Tai, ruffling the smaller boy's hair. "C'mon let's go inside." Perhaps Tai was right. He had read that anxiety could propagate itself and perhaps he was looking for things to worry. He followed Tai to the door.

Inside the hallway, the kids chatted to each other and making comments about the house. "I think we hit the jackpot." Said Matt.

"There's water and electricity too." Tai added with a smirk. "Let's check the refrigerator."

Everyone followed Tai to the kitchen. He was the first to reach the appliance so he was the one who opened it. When he pulled the fridge door open, he chuckled at the cool air gently hitting his face.

"Ah sweet." Matt remarked as he shoved his cans of drinks into the old fridge. The others followed suit with their food. Mimi's contribution caught everyone's attention when she brought out a white box about the size of her head to put into the fridge. Everyone in the room could pick up the lovely strawberry scent.

"Ooh what is it?" Yolei asked.

"It's a cake for Joe." Mimi answered with a wink.

"Can I see it?"

"Yeah sure." Mimi opened the box with one hand to reveal a creamy, round cake with cherries and strawberries laid neatly round the edges. The words "Happy Birthday Joe!" was written on it followed by "Mimi & Co xx" at the bottom right.

"Ooh that looks lovely. Can I have a bit?"

Mimi closed the box away and frowned. "Nope. Not until Joe is here."

She placed the box into the fridge and turned around with a more intimidating look. "Now don't you all dare put anything on top of it." Everyone gulped and nodded.

Mimi's face suddenly changed to a warm one. "C'mon Tai, give us a tour."

Tai swallowed a spit. "Erm.. yeah but we only saw three rooms yesterday so we don't really know about this place more than you do..."

"Hey does the cooker work?" Matt interrupted. He was about to turn one of the knobs but was stopped by a grasp on the arm. The hand on his arm belonged to Izzy.

"No I didn't test it because… erm.. I don't think we should touch it." Izzy gripped on the arm tighter.

"Why not?"

"Erm.." Izzy was careful to word his answer. He knew how bold Matt could be and although he could be overreacting, he had decided that there would be no harm in being overly safe.

"..It could be dangerous playing with the gas."

Matt snickered at the comment. "What if I turn it on just slightly?" It wasn't a question as Matt was about to twist one of the knobs but his arm was stopped again but this time, by his girlfriend.

"I think we should do what Izzy say." Sora pleaded.

While Matt would prefer to stick to his convictions, he could not resist the words of someone he loved. He had tried arguing with her before but most of the time, she gets her way. "Alright then." He yielded for now. He was then rewarded by a hug from his girlfriend.

"The water works." Tai said.

"Huh! Oh sorry." Matt broke the hug.

"Nah I was just saying."

"Erm..shall we check out the other rooms?" TK asked, trying to prevent a possible awkward situation from forming. The others nodded with the same intention.

When the children walked out, Izzy wanted to check out the books again and he suggested going to that 'music room' again. Matt had been observing where the gas pipes lead to from the kitchen which prompted him to suggest exploring the basement.

"For the last time, we're not going to play with the gas." Sora scolded.

"Okay but still, we're gonna check the basement anyway."

"Let's just do what Izzy says." She said before storming off to the room that Izzy pointed to earlier.

Everyone looked at Matt in bafflement.

"What?"

They all exchanged glances at one another. "I know she's been like that to me lately and I don't mind owning up to my faults but she doesn't tell me anything." Matt glanced at Tai, Mimi, and Kari for some possible explanation.

They all shrugged. "Maybe you should ask her." Tai suggested with good intentions but Matt was visibly irritated by it. "I've asked her so many times lately and she doesn't say anything. Perhaps maybe the girls know."

All the females there shook their head. "Sorry, this is new to me." Yolei said. "Yeah same." Mimi nodded.

Kari nervously stayed silent. She had been spending a lot of time with TK lately and she hadn't thought about Sora much.

There was only one person who could give him an answer and it was his business to find out.

"C'mon let's go." Tai said.

They all made their way to the music room. Matt was the first to come in and spotted Sora standing in front of the record player with her arms crossed. She seemed to staring intensely at it.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked.

No answer was given. She just kept on staring at the old object. Matt turned his view to the record to see what was so special about it.

"I'm sorry for.. whatever I did. I never meant to hurt you." He said.

The record player was just an old music player with an unlabelled record on it. There was nothing special about it. She still kept on staring at it like she was in a trance and at times like this, Matt would wave in front of her eyes and say "Hello, earth to Sora." but perhaps this time, it would be best to be more mature.

He wrapped his arm around the girl.

"C'mon you can't be like this all day. Especially when it's one of our comrade's birthday." He said softly to Sora's ear.

She continued her silence, still gazing at the object.

"Sora?.."

"Let's go upstairs!" She suddenly suggested which caught the blond off guard. "Err.. yeah.."

Sora sprightly walked past everyone and out of the room. Everyone looked at each other and followed the girl. Murmurs and whispers were exchanged behind the girl as they were walking up the stairs. The way she walked, it was like she knew where to go. She didn't display any curiosity to her surroundings and she headed for one of the doors without any hesitation.

Straight away she entered through a door without waiting for the others behind her to catch up. When Matt and the others reached the room they saw Sora staring back at them whilst sitting on a double bed cross-legged.

Matt went to sit beside the girl. Some of the others were more distracted by two of the ugliest portraits they had ever seen. Mimi, Yolei, and Davis stood beside Sora to talk with her while the others went round the bed to take a closer look at the portraits.

One of them was at the opposite end of the bed and the other was next to the window frame opposite to the door. TK and Kari were observing the female one near the window while Tai and Izzy were staring at the male portrait.

"Who do you think this is?" Tai asked to Izzy. Unbeknownst to him, Izzy was gradually entranced in his own anxiety. He had heard the question, but each passing second staring at the odd features of the face made him more paralyzed in fear.

"Hey Izzy? Are you okay?"

Izzy's hands were trembling more visibly. He didn't why or how. The beating of his heart was getting more painful; his forehead sweating; and no matter how fast he breathed, it didn't feel adequate enough.

"Izzy?" Tai shook him firmly which drew the attention of the others on or near the bed.

His anxiety gradually dissipated and he could breathe more easily now. "Thanks.." He inhaled and exhaled deeply "I don't know what got into me." His gaze was still at the portrait but it didn't have as much effect as before.

Suddenly, Kari started crying in front of the other portrait. This prompted the boy next to her to wrap his arm around her back. "What's wrong?" TK asked.

Tai immediately let go of Izzy and went up to his sister. He asked the same question but Kari didn't answer.

Izzy thought she might have felt something similar as he did. He turned back to the portrait of the female again, looking for something that might trigger the immense anxiety he felt earlier.

Now with calmer eyes, he thought the face didn't look much more horrific than some of the extraordinary people he'd seen in documentaries. Diluted brown pupils; flat, uneven nose; big, colourless lips; and extremely white, wrinkled skin.

Judging from the outline of the face, she was probably white Caucasian. Her hair was ginger but more much paler than Sora's. Her hairstyle was a bit reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth but much less hair. The front half was completely bald while the back half had patches of long hair but it looked like those would fall off eventually. She was probably an ill person.

For a moment, Izzy thought there was nothing that could have made him so anxious and he was probably overreacting. But gradually after some time staring at the face, his heart was beginning to beat loud enough to hear, and his breathing was getting more difficult.

Voices from the corner where Tai, Kari and TK were standing were getting inaudible. Somehow he remembered he could look away and he quickly tilted his head down with his palms enclosing his eyes.

The people near the bed were getting concerned. "Are you alright Izzy?" Yolei asked this time.

He turned around, gradually calming himself down. "Yeah.. I'm sorry."

Yolei began to look more observantly at the portrait. She concluded the woman was ugly as hell but it wasn't as frightening as today's special effects make up in films. She didn't think Izzy would be the type to be afraid of odd-looking things. In fact, he would have loved to study it. It was strange.

"I've had enough of this room." Yolei said. The others nodded.

Matt wanted to get out too but then just realised that Sora had been laying down on the bed. Her face was half-sleepy and she was staring at the ceiling like being deep in thought. It was as if she was indifferent to the strange behaviour of Izzy and Kari.

"Aren't you two coming?" Asked Tai who was the only person other than the two still in the room at the moment. "I'm sleepy." Sora gently replied. Matt thought this could be the perfect time to talk to her and he shook his head in response. "I'll stay here with her. I'll catch you up later."

Tai returned with a smirk. His face was actually concealing the increasing worrying thoughts in his mind. Tai didn't brush off the strange behaviour of three of his friends and the others probably didn't too but he couldn't risk ruining this potential good day by succumbing to his own feelings. It was probably coincidence that a few strange things had been going on in this admittedly spooky house. There were still too few evidences to be on guard and suppressing his feelings would be best. As he slowly closed the door shut and left the two alone, he hoped there will be no more strange behaviours from now on. There will be a party later on and it would be a shame if that spirit gets dampened.


A/N: I always get the feeling that this bit don't flow or that bit gets too fast. Criticisms are always welcome.