This is a combination of my final prompt words and writers choice.

I hope you've enjoyed my short fics as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Prompt words: Bite - Hunger - Passage - Drama - Haunted - Crisis - Dirty - Emotional

Booth coughed and opened his eyes. They felt gritty from the dust that was hanging in the air. He blinked several times, without success, and reached up to rub at his eyes with the balls of his hands. His vision still slightly blurry, he glanced around the dimly lit room. He squeezed his eyelids together once more and opened his eyes once more.

"I'm OK!" he said out loud, his voice echoing slightly. He groaned as he moved. His landing had not been an easy one.

"Booth? Where are you?" Brennan's voice came to him from somewhere above him.

"Bones?" he called.

"Booth! Yes! It's me!" she cried out.

"Just stay put, and talk to me. I'm going to look for a way up" he called. He coughed again, dust coating his tongue. Pulling himself up to a standing position, he leaned against a timber support and took a couple of deep breaths. "OK, start talking Bones."

"What about?" she called out.

"Anything Bones. It doesn't matter. I just need to hear your voice" he answered, mildly frustrated.

"Well, I don't know what to talk about." Brennan said, her forehead creased as she thought about what to say.

"For God's sake Bones. It doesn't matter. Tell me how you're feeling. Tell me about the room you're in. It. Doesn't. Matter" he tried not to yell.

"I found a ladder!" Brennan called down to him "I'll drop it down."

"I told you to stay put! The last thing I need is you falling through the floor too" Booth said, frustration rising, but, at the same time, relieved that she seemed to be alright.

"Look out!" Brennan's voice called just as a ladder appeared from above him.

Booth reached up and grabbed the bottom rung of the ladder and guided it down.

"I have to drop it now Booth" she said.

He looked up and could see the outline of her head in the hole above him. "OK. I've got it Bones."

The weight of the ladder forced his arms down as she released it, but he was able to catch it. He lay the ladder down and looked at it. Fortunately it was an extendable one "She found it. Thank you Jesus" he muttered as he pulled the ladder to it's full length and locked the safety catches into place. It was old, with worn down rungs.

"OK Bones, I'm going to raise the ladder up now" he said, confident that it was going to be long enough. There was no guarantee it would be strong enough.

He walked the base of the ladder forwards a couple of inches and looked up at the top of the ladder, waving above him.

"Bones, is the ladder going to sit securely on the edge of the hole?" he yelled up at her.

"Yes. Yes I think it will be OK. I'm going to hold onto it" she called back. He felt her pull the ladder slightly as she settled it against the broken floorboards.

"Bones? NO! I need you to move back away from the edge of the hole. If the floorboards give way, I don't want you coming down with them"

"But"

"No! Bones. No. Just move away and cross your fingers" he yelled.

He took a deep breath, blew it out and pushed against the ladder, feeling it flex. He closed his eyes and said a quick prayer, crossing himself, then planted his foot on the bottom rung and pushed himself upwards.

Booth had never climbed a ladder as quickly as he did right then. He just wanted to get up to the top and crawl out onto the floor and away from the loose boards that had collapsed and sent him plummeting into the basement.

"Booth!" Brennan reached out for him and pulled him up off the ladder and away from the hole.

He looked behind him at the floorboards which looked brittle and splintered. He turned back and pulled Brennan into his arms. Booth squeezed her as tightly as he could "Oh Bones, I'm just glad you're OK" he said, then pulled back and looked around. They were standing in an old office building. There was wood panelling hanging off the walls. The dirty old vinyl floor tiles were chipped and lifting up in places. There were sections that were completely missing tiles, revealing old floor boards.

"I'm not sure this is such a good idea any more" Booth muttered, shaking his head.

"What do you mean?" Brennan said.

Booth's head snapped up and he looked at her, eyes wide, brown furrowed "Huh? What?" he said innocently.

"You said this wasn't a good idea? What idea?" she asked.

"Oh you must have misheard me. I was just thinking about having an idea. About, why we were given this lead. I was just thinking out loud." he said quickly, looking down at the floor.

A loud creaking sound grabbed their attention and they both turned around, staring at the doorway.

"Did you hear that Booth?" Brennan said, her voice wavering slightly.

"Yeah, just old timbers. It's probably nothing." he said bravely, linking his arm through hers. "Come on, we should have a look around. Do you have your flashlight?" he asked, pulling one from his jacket pocket. He flicked the switch, but nothing happened. "Damn. It must have broken when I fell"

Brennan turned on her flashlight and held it up, pointed at Booth's face, making him squint. "Mine's working fine" she said helpfully.

"Yes. I can see that. Do you mind?" Booth said, shielding his eyes with his hand.

"Oh, Sorry" Brennan said, lowering the light and pointing it towards the floor.

"Let's go this way" Booth said, leading the way towards the doorway at the end of the room.

"What exactly are we looking for Booth?" Brennan asked following him closely.

"Um. Clues. Leads. Evidence" he answered vaguely.

He opened the door which creaked loudly and echoed down the corridor beyond it. Poking his head around the corner, he looked left then right. "Bones, hand me that flashlight will you?" he asked.

He stepped out into the hallway and decided to go left. They walked slowly along the passage way, their footsteps echoing loudy. A growling noise made them both stop.

"Sorry. I'm hungry. I could use a bite to eat." Booth said rummaging in the pocket of his jacket and pulling out a pack of gum. He shrugged and popped a piece into his mouth and started chewing loudly.

Another loud bang made Brennan jump.

"Woah Bones. You're getting a little jumpy. It's not like this place is haunted or anything, right?" Booth said.

"Of course not." Brennan said, then added "It couldn't be, could it? Of course it couldn't." she shook her head.

Booth felt her grab at his arm. He smiled to himself.

"Come on Bones. You don't believe in that stuff. You've told me a million times." He said, pulling her along the corridor to a door at the end. He grabbed at the handle, and rattling it as he tried to turn it. "Locked"

"We should go back" Brennan said.

A deep moaning sound made them turn around. Then, the door behind them opened slowly, making Brennan spin around again, a gasp escaping her throat.

"Booth. I don't know what is going on, but I think we should leave. Right now" she said, her voice pitchy.

"Bones, the door handle was probably just stuck. I must have loosened it and that's why it opened." he said pushing the door completely open.

He glanced over at Brennan who's eyes were as wide as saucers. "You're not scared, are you?" he asked, his voice deepening to add a bit of drama.

Brennan flashed a glance at him "NO!" her voice way louder than it needed to be. "I mean, no. I just think that this is a waste of time." she said a bit too quickly.

"Let's go in, see if there's anything here" Booth said as he stepped through the doorway, shining his flashlight around the darkened room.

He turned around to find himself alone. He stepped outside the room, finding Brennan, her back pressed flat against the wall, one hand pressed to her chest.

"You OK Bones?" Booth asked.

"I'm fine. I think I'm just having an inexplicable emotional crisis, prompted by what I believe is a memory from my childhood, when my father took me to the local fair and sent me into the haunted house sideshow. I. I got lost inside it. And nobody came to get me. He left me in there." Words were tumbling out of Brennan.

Booth suddenly felt guilty. He shook his head from side to side, and called out loudly "Turn on the lights!"

Suddenly, the room they were standing outside of was filled with bright light.

Booth pulled Brennan away from the wall and turned her around to face the doorway. She looked up and saw that the room was full of every character she knew from horror movies. There were Halloween decorations strung around the room, and hanging from the ceiling. At second glance, she also noticed that her daughter Christine was there, grinning at her, wearing something that looked like it was straight out of the Walking Dead. "Happy Halloween Mommy! I'm a zombie!" she yelled.

"Happy Halloween Bones!" Booth said, a huge smile on his face.

Brennan didn't say anything at first. She just stood staring at everyone who was staring back at her with large grins, that were beginning to fade as they realised she was not responding in a positive way.

She turned and stared at Booth, then blinked slowly and said "I completely knew what was going on. I believe I had you thinking I was actually scared" her voice stilted. She stepped into the room and smiled "Very nicely done. Happy Halloween everyone" she said as brightly as she could muster. "I believe a drink might be in order?" she added.

Booth stared at her as she walked into the room and bent down to hug Christine.

Oh Yeah. You totally knew what was going on Bones he grinned widely, taking a step and cringing as his back twinged. Damn it I should have placed a thicker mattress on the floor under that hole. I'm gonna pay for that later he thought, rubbing at his back. The falling through the floor bit had been Hodgins' idea when they were planning this and had hired this old building, and he knew it was risky, but it added to the whole fear factor. Luckily it had worked out OK, and the look on her face was totally worth it.

"Best Halloween trick ever" he said to himself as he joined the party.