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I'm finally here with part two of Haunted, and after this one, we will move on to something new.

I do not own Ao No Exorcist.

Frozen to the spot, Rin feared what might be standing behind him. One of the others perhaps, yet he doubted it. It was still as dark as a coal tar, so none of them would be able to see him, let alone find his shoulder with such ease. Whoever was behind him would be able to see him, or at least feel his presence. Which could only mean…

He did not get a chance to turn around to see for himself, as something pulled at his tail, making him frantically fly forward. He could feel his chest aching from the shock, completely dumbfounded as he turned around to face nothing.

"Who's there?" the dark haired teen yelled out into the abyss, every hair on his body standing up as he felt hands stroking his arms and legs, yet he was unable to see anything. Why were they invisible? More importantly, how could he make it stop? He tried to move further back, stopping when he bumped into the wall.

"Show yourself dammit! Don't be a freaking coward! Why did you bring me here?" A creak made him turn his head, watching as a door slowly opened a few meters to his left. He tried to reach it, tried to get away from the spirit, yet the stroking hands suddenly grabbed onto him, forcing him to stand in an unpleasant, half-running position before pulling him against the wall. It started with his legs and arms. Then something tangled around him, like two arms hugging him by the waist. Lastly, an invisible hand wrapped around his throat.

Unable to move and at risk of choking to death, Rin felt a warmth grow, one he was becoming familiar with; he was flaming up. It would start as a warmth in his chest, then it would find its way down his arms and legs, and finally his head, making him feel like a living fire, burning up, yet it did not hurt even the slightest, and his skin stayed intact.

The hand around his throat tightened, making him unable to breathe as they started to pull him through the wall. A sudden blow of wind in his ear set him off into a blaze of blue flames. The assumed hands let go of him, sending him face first to the cold hard ground. Rin was quick to get back to his feet, heart threatening to skip a beat or two as he ran towards the newly opened door, whispering voices telling him not to run away. They wanted him to go to Gehenna where he belonged.

Upon reaching the door, it closed shut, leaving him to the fate of slamming head first into it. That was it, he had enough; this one was going down. The young half-demon drew his katana, and pointed it at nothing. The weapon had been stuck at the first pull, but he still managed. Rin could not fight nothing; he needed a clue as to where the ghost was.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he let his ears do the work. This spirit was not quiet; it was rather noisy, at least to his ears. He could hear it move towards him, thanks to the whispers getting louder. It moved left, and then it moved to his right, keeping a pattern, which it did not seem to break. He held the handle tighter, palms sweaty and hands trembling. It was close, very close. The young exorcist in training had just pulled back the sword and was about to strike when the door reopened. He could feel a second presence, and before he got the chance, the spirit in front of him disappeared. Knowing that he could not risk them seeing him like this, he quickly put the katana back in its holster just in time for a flashlight to turn on. After spending a few seconds on controlling his breathing, he turned his eyes towards the newly entered person, only to jump back in surprise upon being face to face with Bon.

"Oi! Don't do that! You crazy rooster!"

"What, is that the thanks I get for saving your ass?! I saw blue lights coming from underneath the door, thought someone might be in trouble." He looked around for clues, yet all he found was flipped chairs and tables. "Looks like you got rid of it."

"Well yeah, of course I did! Easy peasy!" Rin bragged, keeping from telling Bon the truth. That moment was interrupted by Bon's flashlight dying, both of them now in complete darkness once more. They both shivered.

"…We gotta get out of here, the spirits don't like intruders." The half demon stated before grabbing Bon by the arm. "I know where the door to the room is, so uhm, I'll guide you I guess."

"…Uhm, sure? Lead the way."

Once they managed to leave the room, the flashlight came back to life, and the two started walking down the hall.

"Any idea where to go?" Bon questioned upon seeing Rin avoiding one door after the other. "Or are ya just guessing?"

"I'm following my instincts, and that usually works."

"And if it doesn't?"

"Then…" he turned around dramatically, grab Bon's flashlight and let the light shine up on his face. "Then we'll never get out. We'll be stuck here eating nothing but spiders and cobwebs."

Bon snarled and pulled it out of Rin's hand. "Stop fooling around you moron! This is serious! We have to get out of this dammed place! No way in hell am I gonna die in here!"

Rin shrugged "Relax dude, we'll get out, you'll see." Truth be told, he wanted to get out as soon as possible. The building was draining him, all the energy he had when he entered was wearing off, leaving him lightheaded and tense. The whispers from earlier still echoed in his ears, telling him to turn around or to enter certain doors. Knowing that the spirits knew who he was, he took those as warnings rather than advise. He knew he could not tell Bon that he was hearing voices in his head, so instead he covered up by calling it intuition.

He finally stopped at a door that looked exactly like the rest of them. He turned to look at Bon, who glared back. "So what? Are we gonna enter this one? Or do you want me to hold ya hand?"

"Heck no!" Rin snapped back and pulled the door open. Inside a staircase appeared. Nodding to each other, they headed down, bracing themselves for what they might face at the bottom. To their surprise, the lights were on. Convinced that they were alone, both of them let their guard down.

"So where to no-AGH!" The rooster squealed when something jumped onto his back without a warning, and he almost threw it off when he realized who it was.

"Bwahaha! You scream like a little girl!"

"Shima! Why did you do that? I could have killed you!"

"Relax! It was just a joke, and you fell for it!" Shima jumped off and joined Rin in making ghost sounds at the now embarrassed Suguro.

"You two need to grow up! Oi Shima, where are the others?"

The pink haired teen rubbed his hair nervously, feeling the atmosphere thickening. "Uhm, about that… I might have sorta, maybe lost them… But hey! I found you guys! That's gotta count for something, right?"

No one answered, and the group of three continued walking. They were getting closer to ground level, which meant they were closer to freedom. What about the others? Were they getting close as well? They might be out already and annoyed at the three of them for taking so long…

Rin was about to break the silence when something flew right past him and smashed a light-bulb a few centimeters from his head. Shocked tremendously, he flew back and into a hall table. It all created quite a ruckus, and the back of Rin's head started to bleed. Bon, being as serious as always, ordered him to stay down until he stopped swaying.

Taking an order for once, the son of Satan stayed put as Shima, while complaining, but pressure on the wound. Suguro asked him how many fingers he was holding up, much to his annoyance.

"Guys, I'm fine! I just hit my head on the edge of the table, nothing I'll die from. We have to get going!"

"He's right, we can't stay here. Someone just threw a… ball at us?" Shima questioned upon feeling a soft object colliding with the back of his shoe. Perplexed, the pink haired boy reached for it with his free hand and squeezed it. "Heh, seems harmless to me."

Before Rin had a chance to warn them, the floorboards underneath them disappeared. They had been sitting on a trapdoor, one that was no more, and the boys began to fall.

The ground had been much closer than they anticipated, though Rin had seen it coming, so while Bon and Shima landed butts first, Rin landed perfectly on his feet like a graceful cat.

"Oi! You two gotta be more careful! I thought you were exwires!" He could not help but tease as they groaned and rubbed their sore behinds. He placed a hand on the wound, satisfied to find that it already stopped bleeding. He knew they worried over nothing.

They were somewhere different, somewhere unlike the rest of the building. The walls were white and dirty, and the ground did not creak beneath his feet. It seemed to be solid rock or bricks perhaps. Maybe even concrete. That and the awful smell of rotting paper mixed with a distinct smell of drainage water, as well as the faint fluorescent, white light coming from tubes on the walls. Could it be…

"Guys… I think we're in the basement."

"Say what? No! How do we get out? We can't be down here; basements are the perfect place for bugs to breed!" Shima cried out and hurried to his feet. "Out. Now."

"Don't think it'll be that easy." Bon stated upon standing as well. "We have to figure out what part of the basement we're in, and how to get out. I doubt it's as easy to find the right doors down here."

"Yukio warned us about this part, something about the exit being almost impossible to find. That and Goblins. Maybe we need something else to get out, like a key or a code. A key code?" Rin was about to touch the wall to try to find a button of some sort, but at the memory of what happened last time, he quickly stumbled back. He was not about to make the same mistake twice.

A light began to flicker and make strange sounds, which immediately caught their attention. This was not a power failure or objects smashing into light-bulbs, but a medium sized bug trying to fly into the light tube. The sound came from the stubborn bug, soon to be accompanied by another bug, slightly smaller than the first.

The sound of something, or many things crawling above them made them look upwards. Hundreds of bugs mixed with a few small Goblins came crawling through a hole in the ceiling, and when a beetle fell and landed on Shima's forehead, the boy cried out in panic and quickly brushed it off.

Deciding that it was time to make a run for it, the three exwires headed off into unknown territory, the flickering lights behind them working as a warning, a sign to keep on running as if their lives depended on it. Bon was yelling at Rin, telling him to pull the damn sword and kill off the bugs, to which he replied that there were too many. He could not use his flames with Suguro and Shima there with him, so the only logical thing to do was to run.

Once the flood of bugs had surpassed, they found themselves under the same trapdoor that they fell through a moment ago. Were they going in circles? Or perhaps…

"Suguro, give me a leg up, I'm gonna try and climb this." Rin boosted of confidence, believing that he had cracked the code. "If we get back to where we came from, then we can continue from there. If we knot our ropes together, then I can throw it down once I get to the top."

Though the idea seemed flawed, it was worth a try. They knotted the three ropes together and handed it to Rin. Bon then gave him a boost, the ceiling not being that far from the ground. To his luck, the walls were made of brick, and they were possible to climb. Surely, this did not make him seem like a freak who could climb walls.

It took a while, but after hitting his toe for the third time, he finally found his way to the surface. Now all he needed was to tie the rope onto something that could hold their weight. That suspiciously placed brick post near the staircase should do just fine. He hurried to tie a good, solid double knot, and then threw it down the hole in the floor.

Then he waited.

"Rin?" the boy almost fell into the trap a second time upon hearing his name. Turning around, he came face to face with "Shiemi! Are you okay? Did something happen?"

"No I'm fine, but I got lost trying to find you. Are you alone?"

"Nope, just waiting for Bon and Shima to climb the rope."

She nodded and looked into the hole as well. Faint groans could be heard, a sign that they were on their way.

"Did they fall down there? Are they hurt?"

"No they're fine, I fell in too but managed to climb back up. We ended up in the basement."

Soon enough a yellow Mohawk came into view, followed by pink hair and gasps for breath. How did he survive this long?

They continued onwards, three becoming four, and once they climbed down a second staircase, hope began to rise. They were not that far from freedom. Yet Rin was meeting his limits. Drained off all energy, and he had gained a killer headache after hitting it earlier. Dragging his feet, he did his best to keep up with the rest of the group, yet seemed to lag behind. It was not until he fell over his own legs that they stopped and turned their eyes towards him. Why were they looking at him like that? Were they suspicious? Did his tail accidentally show itself? Out of all the ways this could happen, it had to be the most uncool one. Tripping over your own feet, how stupid was he?

"Hey, you okay?" Bon stood right in front of him with a worried look before giving him a hand. "You did hit your head earlier, maybe you gained a concussion?"

"I doubt it-oi! Put me down!" Rin cried out as Bon gave him a piggyback ride that he had not asked for. It fell on dead ears. As humiliating as it was, he had to accept defeat.

He could still hear the whispers that no one else seemed to hear, and as much as he wanted to tell the others about it, he knew he could not do so. It was something he had to keep to himself for the sake of keeping his identity hidden, which he was getting tired of doing. It was hard enough to stay out of trouble when he was a normal human being, he did not need the game of life to be harder.

It was night by the time they finally found their way out, Konekomaru and Izumo both sitting on the stone stairs by the entrance. They had not been waiting for long, therefore there was no mocking or yelling. Not that anyone had the energy to pull it off in the first place. The fresh air and smell of wet grass gave Rin newly found energy, and Bon finally let him down.

Not a single soul stayed awake on the bus ride back to True Cross Academy.

Hope you liked it and will leave a review. There are more to come.