Jason stood outside in the elaborate hall, his hands in his pockets. He just stood.

"Maybe I should go in." He said to no one but the silence and the paintings. Maybe the walls listened too.

Without going forward, he stooped. His eyes squinted into the open fireplace. Abyss stared back.

"Then again I should hold down the fort." He said, nodding. The cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" Lan said. Her voice immediately started to pitch from high to low. "I-calling-no-"

"Lan?" Jason said into the phone. "Lan? I can't hear you."

"I SAID-" Lan's voice suddenly came through crystal clear. Jason jumped back in surprise. "Where are you?"

"I'm currently keeping guard outside a secret passageway." Jason quickly replied, thinking the connection may be lost again.

"Where's Derek?" Lan asked.

"Uh, he's keepin' guard INSIDE the secret passage." Jason replied, squinting into the entrance again.

Lan almost shrieked, if it weren't to protect her vocal chords.

"You let him go in alone?!?"

"Well, one of us had to be outside. And you know D." Jason tried to reason.

Lan let up a bit. He was right. Derek had this inescapable ability to put himself into any given situation alone. Lan suspected that if he were in a room full of people and there was a freaky link around, and everyone followed him into it, he'd eventually end up in the face of danger alone.

Not that it was a bad thing, I mean Lan had learned not to wear the expensive clothes when she went on one of Derek's cases. But she did wish she got to be there when he got put on his path to discovery…who knows WHAT goes on inside his head?

Meanwhile, Derek was pursuing the unknown, digging for the truth, mining the gold….dirtying Jason's jacket…

Derek squinted at the thought. "Eh well." He said, and then he grimaced. His back was sore from stooping so low and walking like that. He decided to sit down and run a commentary. After all, would it be the same if he did it from his home?

"Hey, freaks. Derek Barnes here, in the secret passage revealed behind the Huddleston Mansion's fireplace. Haven't found anything yet, it's just mostly-"

Derek looked around him, as if he was noticing his surroundings for the first time.

"A lot of concrete-

--Did they have concrete back then?-

"Some rocks, a lot of dirt, and-

Derek looked down at his boots. "Some 6 and 8 legged creatures I'm sure you don't want to see."

"According to the blueprints, the end of the tunnel leads to the outside garden."

Derek sighed. Nothing. Just darkness. He was starting to think he was wasting camera time when he heard a noise.

He held his camera up with renewed, but cautious, interest and shined his flashlight to add more light.

Derek frowned. There was a wall about 6 feet up ahead. He pulled out the blueprints and fumbled around, trying to angle the flashlight to provide light.

--We need to get those that loop around the ear-

Then he shook his head at the cost.

"There's not supposed to be a wall here." He said, shining the flashlight back between the wall and the blueprints.

He moved closer to the wall and shined the light to the corners. He wondered whether the plans that Lan had given him were really the most updated.

Derek gently kicked the wall with his dust covered boot.

Big mistake.

A loud shriek invaded his senses. He saw nothing, he felt dirt blow on him, he smelled something akin to musty dampness, he heard a scream, and he tasted dirt and dust.

He shut his eyes as the dirt stung them. He heard his camera clatter to the concrete. He sincerely hoped that it was still running.

Outside, Jason was at attention.

"What the hell was that?" He looked next to him and watched a folded napkin blow gently. There wasn't a breeze.

And he thought he heard something. What did Derek talk about a few days ago…he was reading up on something…banshees. That was it. Jason shook his head and walked to the entrance of the passage.

"Derek?" He shouted.

No answer.

"Jason?" Derek yelled.

Nothing.

Derek shook his head.

"I think I've been here too long." He said. And then briefly wondered whether he was getting soft. He used to be all gung ho about intrepidly going after the unknown.

He waved it off. The point was, he needed to get out.

He turned around.

And looked into a white face, sneering at him.

Derek gave a cry, jumping back. He grimaced when he hit his head on the low ceiling.

"You don't want to be in here." The face said.

"Are you here for the obvious too?" Derek said, staring back.

Vince Elsing.

"This isn't a place you want to be." He said. "Get out now or else they'll be angry."

Derek coughed as dirt entered his mouth. Something entered his eyes and he had to shut them. When he opened them, Vince was gone.

"Vince?" He said. Nothing.

"Derek!" A voice said.

Derek frowned. "Jason?"

He then saw a little dot in the distance where Jason was. He could see the yellow sweatshirt he was wearing. Or at least the little dot of it.

"Okay, going now." Derek muttered to himself. He wiped the sweat from his forehead.

As he did, his shoe hit something. He pointed his camera down to it and jumped back, his breath catching in his throat.

It was a human skull, and it hadn't been there before.

Derek's first thought was to film it. So he panned his camera as soon as his hand stopped shaking. Then he thought of bringing it back. He needed a new souvenir…Osceola would get lonely.

Derek debated about whether to do so. He sighed and shined his flashlight back on it. He didn't want to look at it.

But then he felt like he was going to collapse.

And it was because the skull had just regained it's eyeballs. They were dark and withered, but they were there. And Derek was sure that they were staring at him.

"Calm down, Barnes." He said to himself.

There was no doubt about it though. Derek just grabbed all his stuff and shoved it into his leather pack. He then ran as fast as he could stooping.