A/N: So if any of you guys have stuck around for this long, thank you so much for your patients. and if not, well… i guess I'll just be writing to the void from now on. That's fine.

Unfortunately i have a really bad cold, and thus am unable to participate in Halloween like i usually would. So I decided, what better way to remedy this problem than to finally write another chapter of my spooky story? God knows y'all have been waiting long enough. I assure you that none of my fics have been abandoned, even though it might appear that way. I've just been in a funk lately because i both have writer's block and have been stressing about my future since my eighteenth birthday is next Wednesday and—well you guys don't want to hear about that, you wanna read more story! So by all means, let's get to that!

The morgue was exactly how I would expect a place like that to look: cold and unwelcome. Though I suppose that the body bags sitting haphazardly all over the place didn't help with the atmosphere. Still, it was like the room itself was saying 'You don't belong here… yet.'

I shutter, wrapping my arms around myself to keep warm. "Y'know, whoever ran this place did a terrible job of organizing it. Aren't there like, supposed to be drawers the bodies are meant to be in instead of like, hanging out here?"

"I wouldn't know." Taker's voice is kept low, as if he was afraid of disturbing the rest of the many, many dead people around us. "This is the first place like this I have been in. … It does have quite the eery vibes though, doesn't it?"

This brings a little smirk out of me. Taker, though he hasn't known them for long, has been picking up on my Gen Z vocabulary fast. I'm so proud of him.

Esmie peeks out from behind my leg, where she has been hiding ever since we entered this area. "It's sad," She whispers. "They will never rest like they should. They'll be stuck here forever."

I nod, shuttering again. "Yeah, and by the feel of things, they are not happy about it."

I'm interrupted from my musings when Taker strolls casually away from us and begins poking at one of the nearby bags. "Hey! What are you doing?"

"I believe there may be something hidden among all of these corpses." Wow, I can't believe he was able to say something like that so casually.

"Uh, that's really not a good idea," I protest. "I mean it seems like the quickest way to unleash some undead wrath. And even if it doesn't, which I doubt given where we currently are, isn't it a bit disrespectful?"

"You're certainly one to talk, given your little feud with Spooky."

"Hey, that's completely different! Besides it's not just my fight, you hate her too!" I'm pretty much wining like an overtired toddler at this point, but I can't seem to make myself care.

"True, true." Taker amends. "Still, it seems a bit hypocritical to me."

"It's really not, but whatever. If some monster zombie thing comes after us, don't say I didn't warn you about it."

Taker chuckles. Chuckles! "Oh, zoe, you should know by now that some monster zombie thing would come after us regardless of our actions. And if you do not, I question where your mind was during our last wanderings of this place."

I huff. I don't see any point in arguing further, so I don't. Esmie stares up at us in awe. We really should stop arguing and forgetting she's there.

"You fought Spooky?" She asks, voice filled with wonder.

I puff my chest out in pride. "Yup! Well not in the physical sense I suppose, can't really do that cause she's y'know, a ghost, incorporeal and stuff. But we did recruit all the other specimens to beat her, and the members of her ghost army who refused to join us, up. It was awesome!" By the expression on the demon girl's face, she agrees with my sentiments.

"Unfortunately I don't think that'll work with the monsters down here," I say regrettably, more to myself than Esmie. "They seem… I don't know… more aggressive and wild than the ones on the upper levels. Wonder why?"

"It's because…" Esmie starts, and then trails off with a puzzled expression. "I-I don't know. I thought I did but… I'm sorry."

I put my hand gently on her shoulder. "Ah don't worry, I'm sure we'll figure it out."

Taker goes on with his frankly kind of disturbing corpse looting business, and i guide little Esmie in wide circles around all the body bags, much to her shy amusement. Much to my surprise, he does manage to find some things: some sort of badge, and a small bottle of—was that acid? Like turn the paper red, eat your skin off your bones acid? What was that doing in a body bag? what were either of them doing there?

I'm so distracted by this odd discovery that I almost miss the fact that there's suddenly a lack of body bags in the room now. Normally I'd feel relieved at this, but at the moment, all I can feel is dread. "Now you've done it," I say, half joking and half not. "You've made all the corpses so angry by violating them like that that they all ran away."

"I… don't think that is the reason." Taker says this as if he were having misgivings about it himself. "Do you feel that? the tension in the air?"

I nod, silently. Esmie has returned to her position behind me (she seems to have gotten quite attached to it after i showed it to her during The Incident That Shall Not Be Named) which I took as a strong indicator that she felt it too. And it was hard to deny the reason for it: we were about to meet the second monster residing in this place. And I hoped with my very soul that it would turn out at least a little less disaster out than our last encounter.

We walk slowly and silently down a long, narrow hallway, which gave me a little deja vu from when I met Taker for the first time. You wouldn't think that almost getting trapped in a beyond claustrophobic death trap and being rushed by a clay skull would be considered a happy memory, but what else could it be for me when I got a pretty cool new friend out of it? A friend with pretty significant issues yeah, but a friend nonetheless.

Thankfully though (or not thankfully depending on how you look at it) this hallway didn't seem to be endless, nor was it getting narrower. INstead, it was lined on both sides with rows of body bags. Unlike the rooms of the morgue before this which were scattered around every which way, this looked so eerily purposeful. So much in fact, that I had a pretty strong hunch that these were the very same bags that we'd seen before, that Taker had violated. Thanks soooo much for that, Taker, I thought drily to myself, but decided not to say out loud. I was too nervous. I could feel my brain getting ready to call for adrenaline and cortisol, my muscles tensing up, getting ready to run. I bend down and softly whisper to Esmie. "There's a monster at the end of this hall, I just know it."

she nods, shivering slightly. "We're going to have to run. Will you be able to keep up, or do you want me to carry you?"

"I-I'm really fast." The girl's voice is thin and wavering, like an early spring breeze tentatively asking the trees if it's March yet. "I've had to be."

That confession hurts my heart, but I decide not to say anything for now even though I'm outraged that anyone would think about hurting her. "Okay, but if I think you're having trouble I will pick you up."

Sure enough, at the end of the hall we find it waiting for us. It's a body bag like all the others, but it's been unzipped somewhat, revealing the ugh… body inside. It's eyes are missing, and it doesn't look like it has a mouth. What the actual heck were the people working in this hospital doing? Or rather, what were they made to do?

"Whoa," i whisper, pretending to be surprised. "It's another body bag. Who'd of guessed that twist? I sure as heck didn't."

"Neither did I," Taker plays along, probably sharing my same desire to get rid of this awful tenseness. What's wrong with us? It's not like we haven't been in situations like this tons of times before. So why does this one just feel different somehow? "Spooky certainly is pulling out all the stops, very creative ideas. What about you, Esmie? did you see this coming?"

Esmie just stands there, gaping. It dawns on me that this is the first time that Taker has directly addressed her, and he doesn't even realize it. Gosh, he can be really oblivious sometimes… i give her hand a comforting squeeze.

"well, come on then." Taker continues, seemingly deciding that this is apparently where our little game ends for now. "Let us get this over with."

I nod and we approach the body bag, fully expecting it to start attacking. What I didn't expect was for my mind to be suddenly assaulted by blurred, frazzled visions.

"Why did you leave your soul behind?"

What? No—I didn't—it's right here! I know it is! I can feel it!

"The worm feeds from you."

As soon as… whatever that was started it was over, and I was suddenly aware of Esmie squealing in fright next to me and Taker shouting. "RUN!"

I don't need to be told twice, I bolt into action. Despite her smaller size and shorter legs, Esmie is easily keeping up and not even breathing hard. curious I take a look over my shoulder, and sure enough the body bag monster zombie thing is floating up off of the ground, chasing after us.

I continue putting on the gas (I'm almost emptied to start making car noises) until we reach a fork in the hallway. "which way!?" I shriek.

"Left!" Esmie yells, it's the loudest I've ever heard her speak. "the right's a dead end."

We whirl to the left only to see Taker has gotten in front of us somehow. "Zoe!" He says seriously, with… is that a sense of dread in his voice? "I am… I can feel…"

I meet his eyes. that darkness is back in them again. Dang it, so soon? i thought grumpily, but I know its not his fault.

Gazing over my shoulder again I take another glimpse into its empty eye sockets. They look almost as abyssal and hungry as Taker's do. It's almost like there's some kind of magnetic pull to them, calling me to just let myself get lost in the void, singing in an alluring but terrorizing song without making any noise at all. It seemed to latch into my eyes and into my brain, and as it prodded at memories that remained still hidden firmly by that inner wall, it felt so familiar. Horrifyingly familiar. An awful, disgusting, violating experience.

And I know. Whatever human soul used to be inside this body is long gone, and the thing that has taken its place could not be reasoned with. I nod, slowly but surely, then turn away and grab Esmie and pull her to the side of the hallway, being careful not to touch any of the body bags lining the walls. Not just because they were corpses, but if there was any chance they were like it, I didn't want to risk waking them up.

Taker, though he's seemingly surprised at my assent, doesn't take long to begin the hunt. The body bag still tries to go after Esmie and I at first, but it wasn't for long. Soon it was being held still by Taker's many, many shadow hands. The soul of the security guard must have boosted his power significantly, because they look to be more there than the las at time I saw them, more present.

I really don't want to watch what's about to come next. It had been gruesome enough with a relatively still intact guy, but a rotting corpse? Luckily though I didn't seem to worry because either there was some complication that I didn't understand or he had something else in mind.

Taker held the body bag still in midair for a moment, then he was bashing it repeatedly against the walls, flinging it around like a rag doll. This made both Esmie and I jump, and we huddled closer to each other. It was disturbing to watch, but a lot better than the alternative.

Cailey was running. She didn't want to run, but she wanted to find out what nasty surprise Byron had in store for her even less.

It was all over that stupid book that Bev had borrowed from the library, go freaking figure. Bev had told her not to challenge the guy when he decided that he was the one who should keep the book, but she wasn't having it. As much as she didn't like the sort of stuff her friend was into, she wouldn't allow it to keep her from having her best friend's back. Her only friend, if she was to be completely honest.

"What's wrong, Cailey?" Byron's stupid voice mocked from behind her. "Can't stand the sight of a little blood?"

Blood? no, she wasn't going to think about it, wasn't going to even ponder the idea of it. Just keep running, just keep running, just keep running, running, running.

The wind rustled her long hair as she tore down the road, and her sides burned with pain with every step she took. But she refused to slow down. Isn't someone else around here somewhere, anywhere? she wonders desperately. Somebody's gunna see what's happening and stop it, right?*

Unfortunately she was too busy focusing on running in general and not where she was going, and she suddenly found herself stumbling on the curb, falling into a random person's rose bush. "Ouch!" She cried in dismay, only to feel something warm and sticky splatter all over her seconds later. Then the laughing as Byron and his friends ran back down the block, no doubt to their respective homes to celebrate their victory.

Oh gosh, please tell me this isn't what i think it is. The preteen thought ruefully as she carefully pulled herself out of the bush. It had become a bit squashed thanks to her sudden impact, but she was currently too preoccupied with other worries to care about that. Much to her disgust, she was, in fact, covered in blood. Where and how did those boys manage to acquire it? she hoped that it was at least animal blood and not human, because that would leave her with even more twisted things to think about. She'd thought the guys were bad, but she never thought they'd go this far.

Something rolled from her lap, and she was suddenly aware that she had been carrying the newly dubbed Bessie this whole time. Unfortunately the plushie didn't make it out unscathed, their furr was matted up with the awful liquid. But it seems to be less dirtied than it aught…

"the taste…" The voice came out of nowhere, so quiet of a whisper that Cailey could have mistaken it for the breeze or a passing car. "I have been without for so long… i had nearly forgotten… And you. You must have taken me, woke me up. Or at least she could have, we're it not for the fact that the voice was inside her head.

As she sat there on the ground next to a very abused rose bush, covered in blood and with so many thorns stuck into her that she looked like a human pincushion, only one word escaped her lips. a word that should have felt out of place in this situation, but somehow, it felt right.

"…Bessie?"

A/N: I hope you guys have a very happy Halloween! Consider this your treat from me.