A/N: Special thanks go to the guest reviewer known as Eyyey who left a lot of positive feedback. To answer your question, no this story is not abandoned. I just tend to update it sporadically due to the whole constantly at home thing making me lazy. I'd recommend you create a FFN account (it's free) and follow this fic so you don't miss a single chapter! :D

Ding... dunk.

"Come on..."

Ding... ding...

"Yes, yes..."

Dunk.

"Ugh!"

Ding... ding... dunk.

"These puzzle rooms, I swear! Ugh stop looking at me like that! It's freaking frustrating and you know it!"

Dunk.

"Okay, you know what? That's it. I'm done!" I take a few steps back, bend forward, and ram my head into the mist like a charging bull. There's a sort of glitchy sounding 'd-unk,' then what little resistance there was vanishes almost instantly and I'm stumbling to a stop at the now visible door. "Can't believe that worked," I pant, wiping the sweat off of my forehead, then wiping my hand on my overalls. I take a few seconds to collect myself. My stomach growls, I should really consider eating soon. But not in here. I don't want to be in this room any longer.

"That was quite the show." That voice. That echowey, autotuned voice. Sure enough, Spooky stands in the middle of the next room, her hands on her hips and a judging expression that could give my companion's a run for its money.

"Well, look who it is!" I chirp with over-the-top cheerfulness. Pretty much all of the respect I had for this ghostly gal was lost at this point, but I couldn't let her know that yet. Not if I wanted to stop her. Wait, what? Where did that thought come from? I'll have to think about this more later... Point is, it's best to stick with the oblivious and cute act for now. "As you can see, I've managed to make it all the way here without a single scratch. And, I made a friend!" I gesture towards the clay skull, who has been staring Spooky down this whole time. I guess our feelings about her aren't that different...

Spooky looks mildly surprised, maybe even a little unnerved. But to her credit she holds it together pretty well, cocky attitude and all. "Oh yes, Specimen 9. I thought you were still lurking around here somewhere, but I wasn't sure until now."

"Wait a minute, hold up!" It feels like I have to hold onto my chin to keep my jaw from hitting the floor. "He's a specimen?!"

Spooky nods. "He sure is, the strongest one in fact. Why he hasn't killed you yet is beyond me, but that's not what I came here to talk to you about. There seem to be some... hiccups lately on how the mansion's been running, and I was wondering if you knew anything."

I take a deep breath to steady myself, interrogating the clay sk-I mean Specimen 9 would have to wait until Spooky was done with me. Not that that would have much success, but it would still make me feel better. "Depends," I say during the exhale of said deep breath. "Why don't you tell me what these hiccups you speak of are, and I'll see what I can do."

"Okay, first Specimen 2 has been having a temper tantrum for the past few hours."

"Ha! I should have known that guy would be a sore loser. Next?"

"Specimen 3 is being extremely lazy and easygoing."

"Meh, he's just in a food coma. Don't worry, it'll probably ware off in a few more hours. Next?"

"I've been finding empty juice boxes, baby wipes, and wrappers everywhere."

"Consider them to be mementos of my journey. After all, they're not that different than notes. Anything else?"

"Uh... no. That's just about it. Though I must say it's surprising that you made it this far what with-hey, what are you doing? W-what-"

"You cannot take the Taker."

A/N: Dun dun dun! My first cliffhanger. *laughs evilly* I think this was one of my favorite chapters so far. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing it, and I'll try to get the next one out relatively soon.