I'll bet you can imagine the face I made when Shinigami-sama told us that our mission wasn't complete. But let me tell you a summary of what happened from the beginning:

My name is Maka Albarn, a scythe meister in the Death Weapon-Meister Academy, alias Shibusen or the DWMA. A pianist boy with white hair, red eyes, and shark-like teeth is my weapon partner Soul "the Eater" Evans, and we make practically the best weapon-meister team in Shibusen history, after my parents, of course. My oldest friend, Black Star, a hot-headed blue-haired boy, is also a meister, and he teamed up with his partner, a black-haired, busty shy girl named Tsubaki, only recently after demonstrating she was the only one able to put up with him and his massive ego. We've been taking missions to collect evil Kishin eggs to turn Soul into a Death Scythe—a weapon so powerful that Shinigami-sama is able to use—and protect the world and defend justice and all that stuff while we do so. From the 99 Kishin souls and single witch soul we're supposed to collect, we've so far collected 90 Kishin eggs in a bit less than a semester. Our last mission involved us cleaning a seemingly abandoned mansion up and getting rid of the Kishin Souls that were haunting it, which were an old man that wanted to rape me and an annoying little kid with his possessed teddy bear. In the meantime, Black Star was getting himself into trouble, what with drinking like a beast and partying late, among other things; he and Tsubaki hadn't collected a single soul since they started, though the blue-haired idiot did collect a couple of hangovers and a whole month of amnesia. But that's not the point.

Soul and I were riding on his bike, exhausted after the seemingly endless mission; something still bothered me, nonetheless. I could've sworn I saw a pale girl wearing bloody rags and with messy black hair staring at me as Soul and I left the manor.

"Soul?" I asked.
"Yeah, Maka?" he replied.
"Is it just me, or there really was a girl looking at us from the mansion's entrance?"
"It's probably just you, Maka; that mission left me a little paranoid, too," he answered, taking a quick glance at the house behind us and at me.

Fifteen minutes later we were sighing at the all-too familiar sight of Death City approaching us; Soul accelerated the bike. When we got to the Death Room, Soul boasted loudly, "Here we are!"
"What're you doing here, kids?!" asked Shinigami-sama with a surprisingly disappointed expression.
"We're here to report our mission—" Soul said, but I interrupted him.
"Why do you ask, Shinigami-sama?"
"Your mission ain't over, kids~!" responded Death with a sing-song tone. "Now get your butts moving and finish the mission~!"
"Let's go, Soul!" I answered as fast as I could and dragged Soul out before he could react. As soon as we exited the Death Room, Soul started swearing and saying Shinigami-sama was stupid and all that stuff, but I started to think. There really was a girl in that house, wasn't there? If so, then we have at least one more soul to collect, unless she has a possessed doll or something. "Whichever the case," I told Soul, "we gotta go back to the mansion!"
"God dammit," said Soul, looking down. "I was looking forward to watching the Stryper concert's recording at Black Star's…"
"If it's recorded, then you can watch it later," I replied with a calm voice. Quite honestly, I'd agreed to go shopping with Tsubaki that night, but I wasn't too sure either Soul or I could make it to our appointments in time; Tsubaki won't forgive me for missing out on Black Star's surprise birthday party.

Fifteen minutes later, Tsubaki was confirming my fear as Soul and I raced toward the old mansion again.
"You WHAT?!"
"I'm sorry, Tsubaki-chan! We gotta finish this mission first!" I implored.
I heard Tsubaki sigh deeply before she said, "All right, then. But Black Star's gonna finish training soon and I really want to give him something special…"
"Didn't you give him anything for Valentine's Day last week?" Soul asked; the phone was on speaker.
"W-well, yeah… I took him out to Death Café… But it's his birthday!"
"Well, then, bake him some cupcakes!" I suggested in frenzy because the manor was once again emerging in front of us. "Listen, Tsubaki; we gotta go… Call you later!" I hung up the phone and dismounted the bike as soon as Soul parked it.

"Well, then… here we are," Soul muttered. "Back to the stupid old horror-movie manor."
"Let's finish this as soon as possible, Soul," I replied confidently. "I really wanna celebrate Black Star's 13th birthday!"
"So do I," Soul responded before leaping into scythe form and into my hands. "Let's go, Maka; it's on you!"
"I hope they can handle us!" I shouted at the mansion in challenge before barging in the front door.

Usually, I don't just break into houses and run around looking for Kishin Eggs, but I really wanted to finish this mission (not to mention I despise creepy girls like the one we were about to hunt). We looked all around the house twice, but the girl was nowhere to be found. Soul kept saying that the girl was bound to be following us; I kept saying they always waited behind doors, like they do in the books and movies. After fifteen minutes of fruitless search, Soul and I sat down in front of the TV in the old living room and turned it on. The last thing I remember before waking up in Soul's arms outside the manor was seeing the TV screen flicker in gray and a white ring appearing before I blacked out…

I can explain that. It was like that horror movie we'd seen in New Year's Day at Black Star's. In the movie, a black-haired girl would crawl out of the TV as soon as the ring appeared. That very same thing happened with us; Maka kept staring at the screen, but I reacted just in time to knock the couch down and send Maka and me toppling out of the living room.

"Maka? Maka!" I shook my partner to try and wake her up, but her eyes were completely blank, as if she had fainted or something. "Dammit; that bitch must've knocked her out or somethin'."
"That's right," said a girl's deep voice behind me. I turned around, transforming one of my legs into a blade to try and slice her while I turned around, and missed her by a hair. "Surprising that you couldn't experience the same, Soul Eater."

I didn't care as to how she knew my name—all ghosts seem to know everyone's name—and grabbed Maka and ran away with her in my arms. I figured that she should be safe while I fought the grudge-holding girl.
As I laid Maka down near the entrance, the Grudge Girl appeared behind me; I swear to Goku that that girl was too damn fast for anyone's good, so I decided to use all of my Mortal Kombat training and a bit of the tutoring that the Star-man gave me to fight her. I started off with a leap over her, transforming into a scythe to try and land with my blade on her head; as soon as I noticed that I missed, I transformed back into Mr. Cool and rolled in front of Maka to cover her before the monster could reach her. The girl let out a screech that sounded like a bunch of saws scratching a blackboard, and I was thrown back into a table full of china vases, two of which crashed on my sides.
The girl looked the kind that likes to play with her food before she eats it, and she walked to me with an ugly smile that showed some broken teeth. I had to show her that cool guys like me smile at monsters, and I showed her my shark teeth. I couldn't believe her face; I mean, seriously, her smile flashed into a look of horror as I stood up and, smiling, walked towards her. The Grudge seemed to be having a mental battle as to whether she should avenge the other ghosts or preserve her Kishin essence; the latter option seemed to be winning. As she kept backing off, she fell down a flight of stairs and landed on all fours before crawling like a spider out of the main hall. I remembered when my brother Wes and I were little and we used to play hide-and-seek avoiding the main hall because my parents usually held their sax-and-flute concerts in the afternoon, and I decided to quickly move Maka out of the house before the girl returned.

Maka opened her eyes slowly…

-

"S-Soul?" I muttered as I recovered consciousness. "What happened?"
"That ugly chick trying to kill us, duh," answered my red-eyed partner with a drooling grin.
"Wh-why're you looking at me like that?"
"I'm just hungry for souls; let's go," replied Soul as he stood up and turned into a scythe once again. The sun was already going down and making the sky look like chili sauce. My stomach grumbled loudly when I thought of this, but I walked back into the house.

"Where d'you think she went?" I asked my partner.
"Dining hall, by the sound of it," answered Soul before I started listening carefully; indeed, there was a clatter that sounded like someone rampaging in a kitchen in desperate search for the gutting knife. "Let's hurry, shall we?"
"Mm-hmm!" I ran all the way to where I remembered the kitchen was… except I think I got lost, because the kitchen wasn't there. "What the—?"
"MAKA, BEHIND YOU!"

I spun on the spot and whirled the scythe around to land a solid hit on the girl's shoulder, and she fell at my side. I started spinning the scythe into a string of short-ranged attacks that, though superficial, made the girl scream in intense pain. Finally, I smashed her face with the scythe's handle's bottom before impaling her chest with the blade and letting her soul exposed. Panting in my exhaustion, I said, "Ju-On, for keeping an eternal grudge against innocence and haunting innocent souls, we'll take your soul."
"Finally," muttered Soul before jumping from my hands and snatching the black-haired girl's soul and sinking his teeth into it. Once he finished eating, he looked at me and, leading me out, said "Did ya know she was scared of my cool smile?"
"She probably never saw a boy with teeth like yours," I replied with a small chuckle. Five minutes of walking and small talk made us realize something. "Wait, we were supposed to reach the entrance a long time ago! Why're we still in the hallway?!"
"Oh, I know~!" Soul smiled with an all-knowing expression. "The house itself must be haunted!"
"T-then… how do we defeat it?"
"Hmmm…" Soul looked around and, without warning, transformed his left arm into a blade and stabbed the floor. An omnipresent groan made the whole house shake as if in pain, and Soul shouted "Now, Maka! To the fireplace!" before he started running. I followed unhesitant, with the knowledge of haunted houses having the soul of a victim locked in slapping me on the forehead.

As soon as the house noticed we were going to its weak spot, it seemed to attempt to throw us out as much as it could. As we passed through the rooms, all the portraits flew at us, along with the tables, china vases, and even some mothballs tried to fly at us as we rushed through the seemingly endless hallway. Soul transformed into a scythe so I didn't have to step on his ankles, muttering "I'm gonna need therapy after this…"
"Don't worry, Soul," I responded. "You won't be the only one."

I started to spin the scythe to dodge or deflect the objects that were flying towards me as I ran to the living room, where I remember the fireplace was. I was getting tired, and I could've sworn the hallway to the living room was getting longer and longer the more I ran. Soul shouted at me to keep running, but my legs were sore, so I complained.
"Goddammit, Maka! If you stop running, the house'll take us!"
"B-but if I keep running, I'll never get through the passageway!"
"And where's your willpower?!"

I then realized that, in all the horror books I've read, the protagonist always escaped the haunted house with a rush of adrenaline and a shout of "I WON'T GIVE UP!" So I decided to imitate them.
"I WON'T GIVE UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUPPPPP!"
"That's the spirit, Maka!" I think said Soul. "We're almost there!"
"HAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" I barged through the living room's door and saw that the fireplace was glowing with a hideous red light, emitted by a rather big Kishin egg. "Let's go!"
"SOUL RESONANCE!" we shouted as we attempted a Witch Hunter to defeat the house in one hit. As the scythe turned white and started to glow, I started twirling like a hammer thrower to gain more impulse and… I fell on my ass.

I'm not kidding; that's exactly what happened. Thank goodness the attack was almost ready so, when I fell, the beam went in diagonal and sliced the whole house in half. When I managed to look up, I saw ruins where the house was supposed to be standing, and Soul seemed to be having a banquet, or something.
"Check this out, Maka!" he said, greeting me. "I've been trying to eat this soul and it feels like I'm eating five!"
"W-what?" I stuttered, trying to recover my balance as I stood. "Is that even possible?"
"Oh, come on, Maka," Soul's expression flattened. "And I thought I spaced out in class. Don't you remember that two weeks ago Professor Barrett said—"
"'Some Kishin eggs are much more powerful than the average one, and might count as various souls at once!'" I suddenly remembered. "So then, how many does that make, Soul?"
"Umm…" Soul started counting with his fingers. "I guess that'd make, uh… 96 souls?!"
"Wow! That much, already?" I clapped as I followed Soul back to his motorcycle and mounted behind him. "That just leaves three more Kishin eggs and a witch soul to turn you into a Death Scythe!"

"Yeah," said Soul, and I think I heard his voice crack a little, as if he were about to cry. "I can't believe we've gone this far in a bit less than a year!"
"Aww, Soul," I replied, hugging him from behind as we sped back toward Death City, ready to report the mission complete and celebrate Black Star's birthday as the nearby clock tower chimed ten times.