"Katie?" Matt had his eyes widen as well.

Pidge quickly rushed over towards him. "How did you get in here?" She swallowed, another question on the tip of her tongue. Yet she had a feeling she knew the answer to that one all along. How else could Matt be here at all if he wasn't cursed? "I thought the door was locked."

"I just woke up in here." Matt raised his arms slightly in the air before shrugging. "Last time, I was in a completely different part of the manor. You know how that goes." He glanced about the area. "I thought it convenient obviously." He gestured to the temple behind him. "I mean we are trying to get in there, right?" A grin slowly showed on his face. "Though I already did try the door. It's locked from the inside."

"Of course." Pidge groaned and adjusted her glasses. "Just our luck." She noticed a destroyed building and a pond to her right. Then she noticed what she guessed was a grave or shrine along with another building. She furrowed her eyebrows. "Have you tried that door over there? Looks like it just has a board in place that could be moved."

Matt turned his head and focused on that building. "I haven't been up that long. Just had enough time to try the door and all before I saw you." He bowed slightly with a faint smirk. "After you my la-OW!" He rubbed the top of his head after Pidge bonked him lightly.

"Save that for someone else Sherlock." She teased with a grin before quickly heading towards the door. She really wanted out of the area with the heavy air. Let alone how eerie it was to only see in shades of black, white, and grey. Sure, there were creatures that only saw in such color. Yet they, unlike humans, did not know about color to really miss it. Only the color-blind (and even then it would have to be a serious case of it), would feel such a world as normal. She would not feel that anytime soon.

She approached the board and quickly found herself struggling just a bit. She glared over at Matt, who was snickering. "Haha." She gave it all she got and finally pushed the board off the hooks. Her body tensed at the loudness of the board hitting the ground.

"Good thing the only inhabitants besides us are ghosts. Got a feeling you would have woken up the dead with that otherwise." Matt snickered louder.

Pidge huffed loudly. "That would require there to be something not a ghost to wake up." She smirked at him. "And unless there is a Lance around, I think I'll be fine causing a ruckus." Her smirk dropped briefly at the mention of Lance. Was he also here roaming around the mansion? She pushed that possibility out of her mind. "Let's just see what is inside here shall we?" This time, she bowed and moved out of the way. "Ladies first."

"Oh, I see what you are doing there, Katie. I'm not forgetting that." Matt stuck his tongue out at her. Then they both laughed faintly. "But I think I can hold off payback until we both are out of here." He walked towards the door and pulled the double doors forward. Immediately, they both noticed the destroyed stairway in the middle of the room.

"Well, so much for getting upstairs easily." Pidge remarked as they both entered the room. "But there does look to be a door on the other side." She pointed while seeing Matt nodding out of the corner of her eye.

"Then guess we got no choice but to go that WAAAYYY!" Matt jumped, looking at something at the top of the destroyed stairs.

Pidge looked herself and found herself jumping. If only because neither of them expected some child ghost to be up there looking down at them. Even in her frightened state, Pidge did notice the ghost wearing priestess like grab. A handmaiden perhaps? They both relaxed once the ghost had disappeared.

"Yeah, definitely going to be glad when this is all over with. Never watching another horror movie with ghosts ever again." Pidge brushed her shorts off.

"Same." Matt blinked a bit. "Huh. I don't think that object was over there before. Ghosts around here sure do have a knack for leaving stuff around." He walked over and picked up what looked to be a stone with a colored pinwheel design on it. "I think I know where this might go. But with how large this mansion is, I could be just mixing things up."

Pidge caught up to her brother and looked at the circular stone in his hand. "I can't say I have. Then again, I've tended to have issues needing to hide from ghosts. Not like I can confront them."

Matt smirked. "Well, guess the dashing amazing Matthew Holt is able to save his sister's day!" He pulled out a Camera Obscura. "Totally got a means to make them back off if they get a little handsy!"

"Awesome!" Pidge grinned. "Better than nothing. And I guess I can stand your company for now." She nudged his side with her elbow and Matt chuckled.

"You better or else I might leave you to the ghost fishes!" Matt looked over his shoulder at her and then headed towards the door. He heard it unlock, meaning it was likely locked if anyone had tried from the other side. He pushed it open and Pidge followed after him. The two raised an eyebrow at the change of scenario from being in what seemed like a large temple esque building to an old Japanese style house. But, both of them ended up shrugging at the same time.

The two headed down the hallway towards the large open room. Pidge raised an eyebrow at Matt standing still with furrowed eyebrows.

"Something up?" Pidge asked as she tried to spot whatever was catching her brother's attention. She just couldn't see anything in particular that stood out. There was a second floor balcony and stairs along with a fire pit with doors to other rooms.

"Just reminds me of a place I am looking into." Matt finally answered and shrugged. "I would need to see more of this place to make sure."

Pidge nodded slightly while scowling. "Yeah, but guess that miasma is everywhere now?" She still hadn't been able to see color since they had left the large temple courtyard. The air still felt heavy.

Matt frowned. "It might be. If that's the case, we'll just have to be careful. We don't know all the affects of this miasma yet." He headed towards the room to the right side of the fire pit. "We better investigate the area. Just in case there is something useful."

"Right." Pidge nodded and followed after Matt. Before they got over there though, they heard girls saying something indecipherable. Both looked up to see twin girls looking down at them from the second-floor balcony. Pidge raised an eyebrow at how they not only had a red cord between them, but one had white hair and the other had black hair. She noticed Matt quickly take a picture with his Camera Obscura. But what really stood out to her was Matt paling slightly.

"Matt?" She lightly nudged Matt. "There is something you aren't telling me, isn't there?"

Matt sighed loudly. "I just wasn't sure." He moved towards the stairs now. "But the building's structure and all reminded me a bit of a building I was looking into within a village called All God's Village. Never seen it in person. I could only read through books and accounts about the place as well as reference old maps." He walked up the stairs with Pidge now at his side. "The village was small with only a few families, but each one had provided twins for the ritual in the past. So, we might have just seen the ghosts of the twins used for such."

"What ritual exactly?" Pidge asked as they saw a door on the second floor.

"The Crimson Sacrifice Ritual. It was used to calm down what they called the Hellish Abyss. Not sure if that was the name of an actual gateway, a pit, or some creature. Books that have been about the ritual is few and far between since apparently the village was cut off by a curse. And what few around tend to blot out mentions about the Abyss. So even took awhile to figure out its name." Matt explained and headed towards the door.

"But Shiro told me the village, the place where the abyss lied, is where Kuron died…by his own hand."

Pidge's eyes widened. "What?"

Matt frowned. "Yeah, he hasn't told me much about it…but it was one of the few things he did tell me about the time he was missing. So I've been trying to figure out more so I don't have to make him remember." He explained before sighing. "Don't tell Shiro I told you okay? I don't think he wants that getting around." The frown remained on his face as he entered the room.

Pidge continued to stand outside the room. "Shiro…killed Kuron?" She muttered to herself. She was under the impression Kuron had gone missing after the two both vanished. It was true only Shiro had been found.

But Shiro didn't have a violent bone in his body.

…Right?

She knew the thought would bug her but for now, she pushed that to the back of her mind and followed her brother.

She would hopefully get the chance to ask Shiro about it later.