October 28th

6:55PM

Location: Undisclosed


It all started with that thud, the slamming of the briefcase down onto the stretched out table before him. His eyes were already attracted to its black, leather exterior and fine stitching, but when it came in contact with the table and burst open to reveal its contents, well, he just couldn't look away. His bottom lip fell open, allowing a bit of drool to droop down and sink into the center of his lap, leaving an unfortunately placed wet stain. Not that he cared, anyways, the sight of the stacks of big bills, each bundled up tightly with a rubber band, had more than claimed his attention.

"McLean…" That's right, that was his name, part of it, at least. But to him, that wasn't important right now, just that money. He wanted nothing more than to hook it up to his shower head and take a nice cash bath, or maybe just to exchange it for gold coins so that he could dive into them and go for a pleasant swim; the possibilities were truly endless. "McLean," it was a bit louder this time, his name ringing out in his head, that is. Still, he ignored it, as you do when you believe you've just laid eyes upon your true love. It seemed, however, that whoever was beckoning him wasn't going to give in so easily. "McLean!"

"W-what!?" He snapped to attention after the yell came, shaking his head frantically to let his mop of black hair billow around. When he came to focus his black eyes on anything other than the briefcase, he started remembering where exactly he was. It was a pretty small room, nothing but that long table and two chairs, one on either end of it. It seemed a bit unnecessary to any ordinary person, but this man would deem it necessary by all means. If it isn't over the top, then what's the point? He looked ahead at the man that was calling to him, a man that was definitely a nine-to-fiver in some big business, what with his company suit and all. "Dude, are you gonna tell me why you're yelling, or are you just gonna stand there and stare? It's kinda creepy."

"If you were listening before, you already would've known what I was telling you, but that's always too much to ask, isn't it?" The suit groaned, lifting his fingers to pinch the bridge of his nose while the McLean character stared back at him. Much like his aloof attitude, his appearance gave a relaxed vibe, the vibe of someone who didn't stress about anything. Five o'clock shadow lined his peachy jawline, which he gave a good scratch while still trying to figure out what was going on. In contrast to his business partner, he had no suit, no, just a simple, blue, button-down polo, a white, long-sleeved shirt underneath that, a pair of trousers that weren't quite green, but were certainly closer to it than any other color, and an old pair of blue and white sneakers. "The interns."

"The interns…oh, those guys? Yeah, I agree, we could definitely stand to replace them! I don't want longevity in my interns, I want them to all die in funny, out-of-the blue ways!" McLean closed his eyes and nodded his head to affirm his point, but with his suited partner slamming his fist down on the table, it was hard for him to be so nonchalant. "Geez, what's your problem?"

"You shouldn't want the interns to die in funny, out-of-the blue ways, much less to die at all! They're around to help you out for the show, but they won't feel the need to stick around and help if you don't start giving them common courtesy." McLean slowly blinked once at his partner, who groaned, yet again. "Every conversation about business goes like this with you, I swear. This money here is some bonus revenue that we've decided to have you dish out to the interns."

"What!? No way! You can't just drop a briefcase full of cash in front of my face and then tell me it's gotta go off to the interns! Not cool, dude!" With a grumble of his own, McLean reached a hand out to grab the briefcase…well, at least the money that was in it. Unfortunately for him, the moment he got his fingers close enough to the money, the suited man slammed it closed on his hand, bringing out an astonishingly feminine yelp from the man. "W-what gives!?"

"What gives is that this money needs to go to the interns as a sign of appreciation for all their hard work, or they're more than likely to quit working for the show entirely." Again, McLean just blinked slowly; he was truly an agonizing man to deal with. "...And if you have no interns, you'll have no choice but to test out all of the challenges by yourself, Christopher."

"Are you crazy!? That's like telling me to go on a suicide mission, no way, José!" Chris McLean was the name, torturing teenagers and young adults was the game. He shook his head and crossed his arms firmly, the briefcase still latched onto his fingers from when it was slammed before.

"Then you understand why you'll need to give the money to the interns," Though Chris did sigh, a dreadful sigh that would've made you think this is the worst news that he could've ever imagined hearing, he did eventually nod. "Good…and I know just the right time to do it. The company contract that you signed, the very same one that included the gifting of this mansion to the show's staff and crew, had some fine print that I doubt you fully looked through."

"You're probably right about that, fine print is for lawyers and big business schmucks, no offense."

"Offense fully taken, I know you meant it," Chris shrugged his shoulder with a snide smirk on his face, but his business associate moved on. "That fine print listed that the company may still make full use of the mansion for special occasions, and we have one such special occasion planned for just a few days from now: a Halloween Party. You'll attend, as well as Chef Hatchet and those interns…that's where you'll announce that you're going to be giving out this bonus money."

"So, you're telling me that not only do I have to give this money out to those lousy interns, but I've also gotta throw a party for them? You're really pushing my buttons, you know that? But…if it'll keep me from having to test out the challenges, I think I can work with it." Chris grunted as he pried his poor, swollen fingers from the clutches of the briefcase, watching them pulsate once he'd finally gotten them out. "I think I've up and figured out just the way to announce it, too. And I was thinking…you know, just so the audience knows how much we appreciate our staff…we could probably air this! I know we've got cameras all over the place, so we should just take the feed and post it as a special or something!"

"You really think that the Halloween party will be interesting enough to be shown as a special? I thought it would mostly just be banter around a refreshments table with you handing out chunks of the bonus to each intern, but if you think it'll be worth our time, I suppose that could be arranged." A grin crept onto Chris's face as his idea was accepted, the kind of grin that would've had anyone questioning what his intentions were. "Is that all, then? You understand what you're to do and you'll do it without us needing to assist?"

"Oh, I'll be fine! I'll let Chef know about everything and we'll get to work on setting up the whole thing ourselves, won't even need you guys to set foot in the mansion! Just sit back and enjoy the show when it happens!" Chris let out a spout of laughter, jovial laughter that really showed how eager he was for this party.

"Very well…I didn't expect you to come around to the idea so easily, but I suppose you're always full of surprises, McLean." The suited man had a brief sigh of relief as he began walking to the only door that the room had. For how small it was, one would've hoped for a window to be there or something, but no…just a cramped room that was outrageously hot. He twisted the doorknob, pulling it open and stepping out into a hallway, though he did turn back around to look at Chris again. "You're certain you won't need anything further from us?"

"Yeah, yeah, we'll be fine, don't worry about a thing!" Chris rolled his eyes and slammed the door shut, right in the man's face. He stood close to the door, still, placing his ear against it and listening as footsteps could be heard getting further and further away. Eventually, he heard another door opening and shutting, and that was his cue to start laughing wilder than a hyena. "Sometimes they make it way too easy for me to stir the drama pot! Ah, they want me to give this cash to the interns? Oh, I'll give it to the interns, alright! I'll give it to them the only way I know how!" His laughter just devolved into something truly putrid, and it was all contained in that one small room. Just one room…among dozens…dozens of rooms that could be used for anything, all contained within the grounds of one massive property…


October 31st

Location: Small Mud Room; First Floor


"...How dreadful it is out there, but at least the weather seems to fit the occasion." Her words, her tone, her everything, poetically perfect in a way that no one else could achieve. The slender fingers of her right hand wrapped around the porcelain handle of her full tea cup while her left hand stirred the tea with a small antique spoon. Her faux-purple eyes stared out through the window on the door, watching as rain drops pelted against the glass and listening to that "awful" pitter-patter sound they made. It wasn't so much the rain that bothered her, but she happened to associate the sounds and sights with something that did bother her. 17"Tell me…do you suppose our little author friend will, again, forget the very purpose of this room on his way back in? I still recall the last time he was out in the rain searching for 'Bigfoot.' How he tracked his footprints onto the ceiling, I still can't wrap my head around."

"It'll probably be fine to just let him have his fun out there. Well, I say fun, but I'm still not really sure that what he's having is fun." The proper girl didn't look back at all to see the boy who spoke to her, but did, however, adjust her gaze on the window's glass, managing to catch his reflection. Akin to her own, his eyes were purple, but a very real purple…they just held far less confidence to them than hers. Even without confidence in his eyes, though, he still managed to keep himself smiling. "And just by the by, have I ever told you about how I love your eyes? They're so sharp, I think I'm bleeding just looking at them."

"Marty, darling…you never let me forget. Nary a moment near you passes without some flirtatious compliment," she let go of the spoon in her left hand, allowing it to rest against the side of the cup while she brought her hand up to cover her lips. The motion came with a soft giggle, a giggle that got Marty bashfully looking away from her. "Now, I presume you didn't actually come back here with the intention to try and woo me over, there's something else, isn't there?"

"W-Well, Harmonia, you know me, always trying to get more pictures to hold onto. Haven't had a whole lot of rain in the past month, so I figured this would be a good time to get on it." Marty finally managed to bring himself to look back at Harmonia again, loosely holding up the camera that dangled around his neck. It wasn't some cheapo camera from a drugstore, but one that had some clear value from both a monetary and emotional standpoint. As she looked it over in the reflection, she brought her hand back down to her tea. "Since you're back here, would it be okay if I got some candids of you by the window? I think the rain would really pair well with your aesthetic!"

"But of course…I'd never turn down an offer for one of your photo ops," Harmonia returned to stirring her tea, just now turning herself around. Even in that simple motion, she had a sense of elegance that just couldn't be found anywhere else. Marty's fingers fumbled around his camera, as if seeing her facing him had stunned him more than a camera flash ever could. "My, my…how ever will you hold onto that camera if you're so focused on your infatuations?"

"I'll manage, I always get a good shot, you know that!" Marty laughed off the question, which did ease him up a bit, at least enough for him to get a good grip on that camera. He took his time centering around the shot he wanted, all the while dealing with Harmonia giving him that sharp stare and holding a doll's own smile with her lips. "Alright, I think this is gonna turn out perfect!" He took in a deep breath, holding himself still in that position before finally dropping his finger down on the trigger, sending off a flash.


Location: Mansion Backyard


"N-nothing was back there…well, that's a relief, at least…or not." A boy emerged from some bushes and out into the garden of the expansive backyard, running a hand through his hair and taking a deep sigh. The emerald green eyes on his pale complexion looked almost relieved, but an unending anxious feeling ate away whatever relief there was and just left him looking paranoid. He took another glance behind him, trying to see if he had maybe missed something in the shrub-filled expanse, but there wasn't anything. "Just my imagination, as always. I really need to learn to deal with that better."

"I'd say you're better at dealing with it than I am…or perhaps worse?" The first boy practically shot into the sky like a rocket, hitting his head on an overhanging branch before landing back down in the muddy grass below. As he scrambled to spin himself around, he saw another boy leaning over him, an unsettling smile stretching far across his face. "Mitchell…you're out here being the most unpredictable of all of us. Oh, how jealous you make me…it irks me…greatly."

"I-I'm sorry, Jaxon!" Mitchell got himself up off of the ground, nervously taking a few steps back from this Jaxon fellow. While the worried boy looked a bit more extravagant, in part thanks to his dark hair with a single red streak on the left side, the other was just…plain. Brown eyes, brown hair, some averagely tanned skin, unassuming in every possible way. It was, in fact, so unassuming that it was almost creepy. "I can't help being nervous, especially on Halloween! It's the most probable night for some killer to come out and off us!"

"And so…you seek out that killer…? Rather than take haven in your room…you go out…into the most heavily wooded area of the grounds…and look for danger." Jaxon found himself spitting out a brief chuckle as he shook his head, his plain gaze wandering back to Mitchell not long after. "In everything you do…there's either something genius…or something incredibly stupid…no in betweens with you. It must be…nice." He slowly started reaching his hand up, bringing Mitchell to tremble in fear, but it turned out just to be so he could run it through his own, shaggy hair. "Say…have you heard the rumors…? About the…bonus…?"

"The bonus, the bonus…you know, now that you bring it up, I think I did hear some of the others mumbling about that. Well, at least…you know…the one that's obsessed with money. But he's always talking about stuff like this, so it was the one time I didn't actually take his rumor for any merit." Mitchell's glance bounced around a bit, like he was looking for a way out of the conversation that he was currently locked into, but no matter which way he looked, Jaxon's look seemed to follow.

"I've heard that it's…a pretty nice sum of money…twenty thousand dollars to be split between each of us. Maybe…some will get more…some will get less…based on performance, of course. What do you think I'll get…? Not too much…not too little, either…" Jaxon looked Mitchell up and down, still with that everlasting smile on his face. "I'd assume for you…well, you'll probably get something…minimal. You don't actually do much around here…do you?"

"I do my job! Sometimes! Okay, well, I run away from most of the dangerous looking challenges that he has us test, but can you blame me? I might die if I sit through those!" Jaxon didn't look amused by Mitchell's statement, even with his smile. It seemed that the current mood was hatred, but it was truly hard to tell with this guy. "And you do-"

"I do everything that's detailed in my job…nothing more…nothing less…just your average amount of work. Maybe I would strive for more…but we have our…overachievers…that already do that. I could do less…but then…not enough would be done…" Jaxon sighed through his smile, only closing his eyes for the slightest of moments, but still coming to find Mitchell gone from the scene when he opened them again. A quick look around showed that he was booking it straight for the mud room door across the field. "Ah…that conversation was…an average length…just great."


Location: Indoor Movie Theater


"He just stabbed her!" In any other circumstance, hearing that sort of thing being shouted would've been terrifying for all, but these circumstances were just a bit different than the average. The movie theater was quite dimly lit, with the only source of any brightness coming from the massive screen at the foot of the room. It was playing one of those Halloween horror movies, the main killer of this one being some thug with a pumpkin on his head. As the girl's voice had suggested, someone had just been stabbed, and was currently flopping around on the ground like a fish. "Alright, she's having a huge spasm right now, and there's blood shooting out of the stab wound. It's like…woosh sploosh!"

"That…doesn't really sound terrifying when you put it like that." There was a second girl's voice, this one sounding a lot less excitable than the first. It took some looking around in the theater's seating arrangement, but two heads could be made out in the darkness. The first, belonging to the first girl that spoke, seemed to be wearing some type of purple scout beret. Her olive eyes stared at the screen, clearly a bit queasy from all the gore, but she didn't look away. It was like she had some job to do, and she wasn't going to stop doing that job until it was done and dusted. As for the second head, it was one that didn't have its attention focused on the movie. The girl it belonged to had long, white hair that was pulled tightly into a ponytail, with some sort of dull, gray coloring to her eyes. "N-no offense, Sophie, I think maybe you need to work on your horror reading skills."

"No offense is taken, I could always stand to brush up on a few things. I'm just sorry that you have to bring someone along with you to enjoy the movies, Natsuki." The movie did come to a sudden stop, with lights finally turning on to show the entirety of the room. With the blind Natsuki, she seemed to hear the movie ending before Sophie even had time to react, and got herself up from her seat, pulling a condensed stick from her pocket. She gave it a flick, and it extended into a walking pole with a little wheel at the end of it. The light reflected off of her pale skin, almost making her look like a beacon of sorts. Sophie got up with her, raising a hand to tap the freckles on her medium dark skin. "I still can't believe you're so quick to pick up on these cues…the movie barely just ended, and you're already up and ready to go."

"Fine tuning on your hearing and other senses isn't so tricky when you only have four senses that you can use. Granted, I'd usually have my dog with me to help, but since Chris didn't let me bring him, I've had extra time to get better at everything." Natsuki started to move her walking stick around on the ground, feeling around for the floor and any obstacles in front of her. Even with doing that, she was rather quick in her movements, and Sophie had a hard time keeping up with her. "And, again, thanks for coming along with me for this…I'd always wondered what the hype was about that movie before."

"Oh, yeah, of course! Sorry that I wasn't the spookiest narrator and all, but I can improve on it!" Sophie snickered, trailing just behind Natsuki now, as they were getting closer to the door to leave the theater. "I can get the door for you! Let me just-"

"You don't have to get it, Sophie," Natsuki giggled to herself as her walking stick finally tapped against the foot of the door. She reached her free hand forward, feeling around and eventually getting a hold onto the door's handle and tugging it open all by herself. It seemed to perplex Sophie even more as she made her way out into the hallway, continuing to feel her way around. "I'm blind, not helpless, after all."

"R-right, I didn't mean that-" Sophie got all flustered while Natsuki just giggled at her, but she eventually found herself giggling as well. "Well, I'll just say that you're always impressing me, how about that?"

"Sounds fine to me."


Location: Kitchen


"You fucking cabbage!" The aggressive boy's voice was followed by the clanging of a spoon against a wall. The spoon fell to the ground and clattered some more, having a brief bit of silence after, until the silence was broken by his deep exhale. "Just calm down, Nathan…you're only doing the ouer-d'oeuvres, you don't need to get so frustrated with yourself over these silly, easy-to-fix mistakes." Nathan started to walk over towards where the spoon had fallen, scratching at the back of his blond combover with his porcelain hand while he walked. His blue eyes didn't carry any of the standard emotions one would associate with the color blue, instead having intense annoyance behind them. "Deep breaths, remember to take your deep breaths."

"Nathan? Are you alright in there?" A girl's voice called out, and it was followed by the opening of the door from the dining room. There, she stepped in to see the mess that had been made from the throwing of various objects all over the room; it was messier than the bun her black hair was pulled into. Pots with sauce spilling out of them, cracked glasses, bits of burnt food all over the wall– it was a general mess. She covered her mouth with her bronze hand as she looked around with her blue eyes, and Nathan almost seemed embarrassed for his actions."W-what happened in here?"

"Sorry, AJ, I just got a little frustrated. I'm trying to get some potstickers ready for the party, but you know, I keep turning up the heat a little too much. They're burnt, so I'll have to start over." Nathan picked his spoon up and started to laugh while he walked back to his messy work station, "It's funny, since I would never have this issue if it weren't for the fact that we're gonna have the cameras on us tonight. Everything I make has to be perfect, down to the crust on the exterior, I can't settle for something that's a little burnt."

"Nathan, I hate to interrupt, but…fire." AJ raised her hand to point at the stovetop, which was currently ablaze. Nathan started to panic, leaving her as the one to get the fire extinguisher from the wall and put out said fire. There was a great wave of smoke rising from pots and pans that were still there, and if the food wasn't actually burnt before, it was definitely burnt now. Nathan walked over to look at everything, his annoyance growing a bit worse. "Hey, it's okay! Don't need to worry about it too much…uh…oh, I got it! How about I clean up for you while you're cooking? If you don't have all this clutter, it may just help you focus a little bit better, is all."

"You know…I'd appreciate that." Nathan managed to fork up a smile on his face while he looked over at AJ, who was walking towards him and cracking her knuckles. She started picking up some of the messy dishes, bringing them over to the sink with her while he dumped out the burnt food from the stovetop. "This party's gonna be fine, right? Like, you don't think he's gonna pull out some nonsense in the middle of it? I don't think I've got it in me to deal with any of his tricks tonight."

"I'd love to say that he won't do anything too crazy, but then again…it's Chris. You know exactly how he can be," AJ chuckled while starting to wash off the dirty dishes, and Nathan found himself laughing along with her. "Let's not worry about that now, though. You just focus on making your amazing potstickers, and I'll focus on keeping your area nice and neat for you." The two smiled at each other for a brief moment before turning away to focus on what they were doing again.


Location: Female Intern Room A


"Hey, hey! Can you get my back for me?" An excited girl bounced onto a mattress, meeting another girl that was on there. In the case of the first girl, she had tan skin that had almost been entirely covered in green body paint. Her hair was black and curly, being pulled into twin buns with some pointed, green ears sticking out from the sides. Like the bulk of her skin at this point, her eyes were green, but naturally green. She was down to her underwear, presumably a throwaway pair of tan panties and a tan bra…well, they were tan, but now getting painted green. She held out a pot of mostly empty green paint towards the other girl, a big smile stretched across her face. "You don't mind, right?"

"N-not at all…" The second girl mumbled as she reached out to get the paint from her friend. As for this girl, she had dark, chocolate-toned skin and gray, miserable eyes. She had a look that insinuated that she hadn't really gotten any sleep whatsoever in…well, maybe years, from the looks of the bags under her eyes. Her hair was an assortment of colors, each individual cornrow being either a dark black, a lighter black, or a magenta color. Unlike the other one, she was mostly clothed, wearing an elegant black dress with white accents on it. It was shoulderless, and the frilled skirt went all the way down to her ankles, which just barely had red, rubber boots poking out from the bottom. On the chest of the dress, there was some intricate pattern, indicating that this may have been part of her costume. "J-just…all over your back, then?"

"Mhm! Not like anyone's gonna see my back, but I have to fully commit to the gag if I'm gonna do it at all!" The mostly green girl giggled, and her giggle got a bit more obnoxious as her miserable-looking friend started rubbing the paint into the skin on her back. "H-Hope! That tickles!" She had a hard time sitting still and ended up arching forward a bit, trying to recover from her sudden laughing fit. "O-oh! Just give me a second!"

"Yeah, n-no problem, Anne…" Hope sat there patiently, just staring at Anne's back and blushing a bit. Of course, the moment that Anne got back up and looked at her, she did her best to hide her blushing, clearing her throat and reaching her hand out again. "Y-you ready, now?" Anne nodded back at her, and she got back to rubbing the body paint all over her bare back, trying not to be too rough when she did.

"You're so gentle! I'm not an Anne-fant, it's not like I've got a soft spot on my back that you're not allowed to touch!" Anne giggled, but soon deadpanned, seeming to have a lot more of a serious expression, "I learned about that the hard way, a whole hour of yelling from the neighbors about not attacking their baby. And all I wanted to do was give him a funny hat!"

"A-Anne-fant…" Hope giggled to herself over the silly pun, bringing the smile back to Anne's face. "You're too funny all the time…you could probably do your own comedy show and travel the country if you wanted to do that…"

"Well, you'd have to come with me to every show, considering that you are my number one F-Anne! For some reason, I'm really feeling the Anne puns, today!" Hope got right back to giggling while Anne beamed from the positive attention. She eventually felt the hands come off of her back, and looked back to see that Hope was no longer painting her. "Oh, all done? Well, how do I look? Like a real Gobl-Anne?"

"You look…r-really good…" Hope kept trying to hold in her blushing, which seemed to be a strain on her, as beads of sweat formed on her forehead. Anne snickered and ran over to the closet in the room, digging around for the other pieces of her costume while the former sat on the bed and twiddled her thumbs nervously.


Location: Game Room


"Nothing…looks like you're gonna be getting my paycheck after all," a plump boy had himself sat at a table with a hand of cards while the other hand rubbed his forehead. He had already gotten himself done up in his costume, which consisted of an extravagant green tux with a giant top hat and sunglasses to match. His green eyes matched the color of the suit, with the only sort of plainness to him being his brown hair, but it was primarily kept under the top hat. Some beads of sweat fell from his peach white skin and down to the table, near the pile of money that sat on it. "You'd think I'd learn when to tap out in a deal or a bet, but here we are!"

"Well, you can just let this be a lesson to you! Playing card games is just like an argument, if you know what you're doing, it's easy to make a bad hand go pretty far," the second voice sounded a bit snide, which was saying something, considering that the boy before was pompous on his own. He sat across the table from that boy, his own cards in hand with a smirk on his lightly tanned face. He had sharp, blue eyes that practically stared through whatever it was he may have been looking at and combed blond hair that had one extravagant, hot pink highlight running through it. Like the first boy, he was already dressed up, his costume resembling the form of a demon with pointed horns and ragged clothes. Normally, those types of clothes would be duller color, maybe a beige or gray, but his were definitely more colorful than the typical. "So, you're going to fold then, Tony?"

"Eh, if I'm gonna lose it anyways I might as well play the hand I've got, right? Well, let's see what you've got to ruin my day," Tony groaned and continued to rub his forehead while the other player set his cards down on the table. A five, a six, a seven, an eight, and a nine, each of them being spades. The boy in the green suit groaned even louder than before as he looked the cards over, "A straight flush? Yeesh…you really wanted me to feel the sting of defeat, didn't you, Elijah? Here's my hand…" He finally dropped his cards onto the table, glancing away and scratching the back of his head, with Elijah looking them over.

"No shame in defeat, especially when you only had…a-a royal flush!?" Elijah had to triple take at the cards he was looking at, his prideful heart sinking down to his stomach while Tony smirked back at him. He found himself at a brief loss for words, but eventually he finally managed to choke something up. "R-really sneaky of you to hide something like that, but I guess that's what this game is all about, isn't it?"

"Sure is! That's why poker's always gonna be one of my favorite games, eheh!" Tony snarkily laughed as he scooped the pot into the pocket of his suit, giving that pocket a few taps before he got up from the table. "Maybe take a word of advice from me about this, eh? Don't look so proud of every hand you got, it's a dead giveaway!"

"I guess what you're saying has some sense, but I'm sure I could still easily win against any of the others, and probably you after a few more rounds!" Elijah got up as well, with Tony rolling his eyes at him as the two started to walk away from the table. "The party's gonna be starting pretty soon now, isn't it? Chris said it was at five…that's only an hour from now, last time I checked."

"Yeah, that's what he said, but when has Chris been known for his punctuality? Probably won't have anything actually ready til five thirty, maybe even later than that. Gives me some more time to make deals with the others…Mitchell is always up for a deal if he thinks it'll help him avoid certain death." Tony chuckled, reaching into his pocket to count the same money that he had just put in there before. "I got a really good feeling about this whole day…what with that bonus being talked about by the higher ups."

"Oh, right…you actually haven't stopped talking about it since you heard that we might be getting it," Elijah smirked at Tony, who elected to ignore the jab at his consistency. "Either way, should be a pretty sweet deal…I'd say at least most of us deserve it for all the work we've been doing, maybe not so much for others. I might use some of the cash to buy myself a new podium! Maybe I'll dash glitter on it, that'll be really captivating!"

"Sounds like a waste of good money to me, but whatever floats your pretty pink boat." Tony shrugged, and the two made their way to the exit of the room, leaving their playing cards to sit still on the table.


Location: Male Intern Room A


"It's perfect, you dunce!" The voice was followed by the loud stomp of a pearly white dress shoe onto the creaky floorboards. A glance upwards from the shoe showed a bit more to the elegant appearance, all of it pretty much maintaining that white color. There were the dress pants, a bit ruffled at the the bottoms of the legs, but otherwise free of any wrinkles or bends, the exaggerated tuxedo jacket that had one single button pinning it shut in the middle of his stomach area, the cape– yes, cape. It was held down onto the tux jacket by two exuberant shoulder pads, and it seemed to be billowing in the non-existent wind. Moving on, silk gloves covered his hands and a blue dress shirt with a wrinkle-free red tie sat under his jacket. This all just left the head, where one of his aquamarine eyes had a fancy monocle sitting in front of it. His pale skin matched the whiteness of his attire really closely, the only true dark stick out being his navy blue hair that waved down to the bottom of his neck. To top it all off– literally– was the white top hat, which had a single blue band running around the rim.

"Yeah, I said it was alright," another voice replied, this one having far less emotion and much more…well…dullness. The voice came from one of the four beds, where there sat a single costumed boy. For the most part, his body was covered in a dark blue space suit, the only exceptions to this coloring being some white dots and light blue lining. Of course, at the neck of the suit, his head popped out, no helmet obscuring it whatsoever. Similarly to the boy prior to him, he had rather pale skin, only his was off put by the sheer darkness of his outfit. His hazel eyes stared down at a book that made its home in his hand, a book that looked like it had a space theme to it. This all left his hair, his ratty nest of black hair that he could be less than bothered to try and style.

"Just alright isn't good enough, Benjamin! I've spent countless hours watching each and every episode of Detective Conan, reading each chapter of the manga to perfectly encapsulate the gentlemanly wonder that is the suit of Kaitou Kid! I cannot simply stand here and allow anyone to say it's alright!" The first boy raised his gloved hands to his head, tugging down on his cheeks as he stared back at Benjamin…who seemed to have misplaced all the care he could've had for this little bout. "Pray tell me, if it's only alright, what could I do to change it? There must be something that's incorrect, some minor fallacy that I could reparate before the party begins!"

"Huh…?" Benjamin slowly glanced back over at his overexaggerated roommate, giving him a good look over. It simply wasn't just a little peak at the outfit, though, it was detailed– thorough. He looked to be picking out each strand of hair on the suit, each particle of dust on the top of the top hat– everything. After his more than detailed analysis, he seemed to have identified something, and he merely turned his attention back to his book. "Your hair, Tsu. Kaitou Kid doesn't have navy blue hair…and if he did, it would be significantly shorter than yours. Not to mention that you're a bit too pale to play that part."

"M-my hair? Yes…how could I overlook something so obvious!" Tsu crumbled to the ground in defeat, his gloved hands lightly scraping against the floor while he stared up at the ceiling, his eyes welling with tears. The whole time, he could only get in his own thoughts, biting down on his lip and closing his eyes tightly. "It's horrible, terrible, even! So much time, so much effort, all of it flushed straight down the drain due to an error in the hair department!" He slumped forward, his face initially planting against the floor, at least until he slowly glanced back up and stared at Benjamin's costume. "I suppose it's just a blessing that I wasn't cosplaying as one of my queen's characters…the tragedy that would've befallen me if I were to have made such a mistake there…oh, I might as well have just ended my pitiful existence!"

"...Alright, I don't really know what…" Benjamin stared down at Tsu and waved his hand around him, gesturing to his huddled up position on the floor, "...This is, but I think I'm gonna leave you to it. Your costume is probably fine, so I really wouldn't worry about it too much." He got up from the bed he was sitting on, closing his book shut, but bringing it along with him as he headed for the door. "Party starts soon, so I'll see you then."


Location: Piano Room


"Sometimes you can be rather horrific, you know that, don't you?" The voice this time was vaguely feminine, just put off by intolerable loads of pride. It belonged to a girl that stood near the doorway of the darkened room, a slim girl with a nasty scowl. She had a slight tan, but was otherwise still a bit pale, the paleness of her skin being paired with intense, green eyes and light blonde hair that was pulled into as much of a ponytail as it could've possibly been, likely done to match the costume she wore. The costume itself was pretty intricate, being a light brown crop jacket with some sort of militaristic path on the left side of the chest. The jacket wasn't zipped up, and there was an off-white hoodie underneath it, the hood not up, but hanging behind her neck. The pants of choice were light gray and well-fitted to her slim legs, dipping down into tall, dark brown, leather boots. Aside from all of this, there were several black belts running over many other parts of her clothing.

"It's a room with only a piano in it, I would be remiss if I missed the opportunity to play the Piano Ghost's Sonata." The voice that replied was, in short terms, creepy. It had some likeness that could be found in a young girl, no older than the age of ten, but almost had an echoing effect that had it ringing around the entirety of the room. The voice belonged to the girl that was seated at the aforementioned piano, the girl with spectral, blue skin; she even had a faint glowing effect around her…somehow. Her hair didn't match the blue of her skin, though, being a deep black color and quite curly, flopping down to her shoulders. There were a few curls that had more of a purple color to them, which admittedly fit well with the blue skin and the oddly red eyes. Her face had some piercings, as well…a hoop coming down from her septum, a lip ring on her lower lip, and a skull-shaped stud on each of her ear lobes. Her costume…it was a tattered mess. It may have once been a wedding gown, from the looks of it, but the once-white fabric had grown dull from years of wear and tear…either that, or someone chucked it out of the window going down the highway. She was a tad on the bigger side, but not entirely large, either.

"I'll at least give you that you have somewhat notable piano skills, Ursula. Not that I couldn't do better than you, though." The prideful girl slowly made her way towards the piano, practically shoving Ursula right off of the bench to take her place. She gave her knuckles a quick cracking before setting them up to play the piano, though the first few notes she played sounded awfully shaky, and, frankly, not in tune to the song at all. This had the girl wincing almost immediately, the type of aggravated wince you'd see in a mother that just saw her kid doing something stupid in public.

"It's alright, Phoebi…I'm sure you'll probably get the hang of it some day. It doesn't come naturally to everyone, you know." Ursula gently reached forth to give Phoebi a pat on the shoulder, only to have her hand slapped away from the miserable piano player. She frowned slightly at the rejection, but just accepted it and pulled her hand back. "You know, maybe if you joined me in some of my paranormal outings, you might pick up a bit more on this stuff."

"That just sounds ridiculous…and like a waste of time that could be spent doing anything else." Phoebi got up from the seat, turning away from it while crossing her arms. "Mark my words, I will be far more of a stellar piano player than any of the other denizens in this miserable place by the next time I lay my hands on that shabby instrument. But for now, I suppose it's well about time that we got along to that party…I won't allow for myself to become the laughing stock of the interns for being late to this occasion."

"I don't think anyone would laugh…I'm almost certain that some of the others are just planning to stay in their beds during the whole thing, actually. I was admittedly considering going for another outing during it, but I'm a bit interested to see what's in store for us." Ursula started to follow behind the other girl, just trailing a few feet away from her as she continued to mumble to herself. "Knowing Chris, it's rather likely that he's going to make a mockery of the paranormal during the party…I'd sit here and hope that he doesn't, but it obviously won't do any good."

"You sure do like to talk about ludicrous things, don't you?" Phoebi sneered at Ursula, who wrinkled her nose back at her. "Just leave me out of anything that isn't grounded in science or fact, would you? Thinking about all your ghost stories is going to do nothing more than give me a headache."

"Yeah, whatever you say. Far be it from me to try to be nice to you." Ursula glared as she walked past Phoebi, being the first to leave the piano room, with the other girl just shaking her head and sighing.


5:00 PM

Location: Lobby/Foyer


The room had fallen to darkness as the interns had gathered themselves in the lobby, the room where the party was supposed to be taking place. It was five o'clock on the dot, and it seemed that, as some of them had anticipated, things weren't quite ready yet. Chris was never really known for his punctuality unless it came at the expense of someone else, so when it was for something like this, that was benefiting other people, it only made sense for him to stall it out as long as he possibly could. Some of the group could be heard mumbling amongst themselves, discussing what it was that was actually going on.

"D-don't tell me I got all dressed up for a party that isn't actually happening! I've dealt with one disappointment already today, I don't know if my heart will be able to stand another!" That voice came from Tsu, who still sounded as worked up as before, when he was talking with Benjamin.

"You're getting more antsy than me…I guess that…makes sense. Either more or less…with all of you…oh, how special you must feel." Jaxon gritted his teeth as he hissed his words, making a few of the others feel rather uneasy.

"The party hasn't started yet? I thought it did already…guess I've been dancing for no reason, then." Natsuki sighed as she started to feel around through the darkness, her hand grabbing a hold of something really soft and poofy. "Huh? What's this…it feels so foreign."

"S-so close to grabbing my ass, there! Natsuki, I never expected you to be the type to get right to the point!" Marty fanned himself off while Natsuki quickly let go of whatever it was that she was grabbing, leaving him feeling a bit disappointed. "Guess I'll have to wait for the next opportunity for that, huh?"

"My word, you really can be so crass, can't you, Marty?" Harmonia sounded a bit offended after she heard what Marty had said, with the redness of her face being vaguely noticed through the darkness of the room.

"Heheheh…cr-ass! You know? Cause Marty was just talking about grabbing his butt?" Most of the interns groaned at Anne's terrible pun, give for Hope, who could be heard laughing obnoxiously. "Well, I'm glad at least somebody thought it was punny!" Another joint groan echoed throughout the room, followed by some more chaotic laughter from the one intern that actually enjoyed the jokes. There was little time for anyone to continue in their distaste or, in Hope's case, enjoyment of it, however, as the lights flashed on…though they were abnormal from the normal lighting in the mansion. They ushered in a deep purple light, a light that matched the occasion well. There, just ahead at the top of the stairs on the left side, stood Chris, who had himself dressed up as a mad scientist. He made his way to the bottom of the stairs quickly, holding a briefcase in his hands.

"Goooooood evening, my little pets!" The cocky man laughed evilly, causing some unrest amongst those that stood before him. As he continued to laugh, the man that was on the right side staircase started to head on down as well. He was easily twice the size that Chris was, at least, looking starkly different in every way, shape, and form. His deep chocolate skin was complemented by his piercing, black eyes and the perfectly shaven soul patch-mustache combo that he had on his face. He was bald, but had some sort of headpiece on that resembled Frankenstein's monster…it made sense, considering the rest of his costume was quite akin to the monster's regular attire. "You were waiting for me and ol' Chef, weren't ya? It's only five-oh-one right now, we're just fashionably late! Put the emphasis on fashion!"

"Wait a minute…" Nathan took a good look around the room, frowning as he noticed the lack of snacks and general food items. There wasn't even a table set up for anything like that…the room was just empty altogether, outside of the interns and, now, their bosses. The boy gritted his teeth, but even in his anger, he looked outright silly due to the costume he was wearing. It consisted of matte, black pants, nothing strange there, but going upward it got odd, with a shiny, rubber top that had a sort of silver coloring to it. To top it all off, he had a hat on that resembled the flipper part of a spatula. "Where's all the food that I spent so much time on earlier? Not only that…but where's everything!?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, all that stuff. We weren't actually gonna throw a normal party for you guys…did you actually think that would happen?" Chris snickered as he gazed upon the many interns that were displeased with him. "Keep on scowling, it's only going to make me laugh even more! Anyways…yeah, no, this is far from any sort of normal Halloween party. I'm sure word has gotten around about it already, but if you haven't heard or didn't believe who told you…yes, there is a huge bonus from the company." Chris flicked the lid of the briefcase open, showing off the twenty thousand dollars that were residing in it. Tony nearly fainted from the sight, but managed to keep himself standing up, he just ended up drooling an incredulous amount.

"G-good grief, that's a whole lot of money!" Sophie swallowed a lump in her throat as she took a good look at the cash he was presenting to them. Her costume didn't vary much from something that she would typically wear, still maintaining that girl scout aesthetic that she always had, though the colors were definitely different, containing warm reds and oranges. The excitement that she had, however, soon washed away, being replaced with skepticism. "...Alright, there's definitely gonna be some kind of catch here, isn't there?"

"Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Chris looked almost offended by the accusation, but the eye roll from Chef Hatchet gave it away that this was just a farce. "Alright, alright, you got me! Guess the experience of being around me this long does have some advantages, one of those being the ability to tell when I'm about to do something sneaky." He snickered some more, watching the expressions of everybody in the room worsening. "So, here's the dealio. The company told me I gotta give out this bonus to you guys…twenty thousand dollars. They didn't, however, tell me exactly how I was supposed to dish it out, so for that, I sort of came up with my own plan!"

"Please don't say you're going to put it in the graveyard, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease don't say you're going to put it in the graveyard!" Mitchell whimpered and crossed his fingers, just hoping that it would be something a bit less frightening for his sake. He was dressed up like the others, but his costume was a bit more subtle than what they were wearing. He had some fake cuts done on his face, matched with fake blood. His shirt was a long sleeved, red sleep shirt that seemed to be a bit worn, his pants were gray sweatpants, with his calves looking a bit puffier than the rest of the legs, and he only had gray socks on his feet, no shoes.

"It just might end up in the graveyard! But I guess it could end up going anywhere, really!" This comment from Chris brought some confusion to the interns, and they finally fell silent for him. "Finally, peace and quiet! Anyways…I've decided that I…" The lights suddenly flickered, and when they came back on, the money was missing from the briefcase. "...Am going to hide the money somewhere in the mansion!"

"Oh, Chris, you devil!" Harmonia raised her hand to her lips, covering them as she giggled to herself. She, like Sophie, wasn't dressed too differently from how she normally looked, which was something of gothic lolita inspiration. It almost looked like a school uniform mixed with the aesthetic, and it resembled something from some game or anime or something, but it was hard for the others to remember what it was exactly. "You really do exist just to mess with us, don't you?"

"That I do, Harmonia…that I do. Now, the money is somewhere on the mansion's grounds– don't worry, it's still all together, it's just hidden!" Chris smirked proudly, walking towards the interns and casting the empty briefcase aside before dusting his hands off. "The goal of this is simple…one of you will end up finding the money. That intern will get to do whatever they feel like with it. You could choose to split it up for everyone, you could choose to hog it for yourself, you could burn it for all I care! But only that intern gets to decide what'll be done with it, no one else! But that's not all! Chef, if you would…"

"Yeah, yeah," Chef grumbled and moved to join Chris, reaching into the pockets of his tattered tuxedo jacket to pull out a handful of coins…sixteen of them, to be precise. Each coin had an hourglass etched into one of the faces, with a red light on the opposite face. He flicked one of them to each of the interns, who were still confused. "Each of you is getting one of these 'Freeze!' coins. The 'Freeze!' coin works like how any sort of idol would in the show…you have it and you can use it whenever you feel like. All you do is press down on the hourglass, and it'll start a fifteen minute countdown. For that time, whichever one of the maggot interns you decide you want frozen, will not be allowed to move from where they stand. You move while frozen, you're no longer looking for the cash, do I make myself clear!?"

"Y-yes sir! Well…mostly, sir!" AJ saluted Chef, but she appeared a bit perplexed. She had finally gotten in her costume, and while her mouth was obscured by a green mask, the rest of her face gave away her confusion. As for the other parts of her costume, it was a black and green leotard, no legs or sleeves on it, and tall, emerald green boots that went just past the tops of her knees. "Does…that mean that we can just use the coin whenever we feel like it? Like, can we just press the button for every person we see?"

"Do you think we would just let you press the button every single time you saw somebody else?" Chef leaned towards AJ and shouted at her, some spittle droplets flying onto her face while she just glared back at him in silence. "After you press the button the first time, the coin is gonna short circuit and stop working! Heck, the dang thing might explode, I did put a minimal amount of gunpowder in it." He laughed evilly and rubbed his hands together deviously while Mitchell continued to pray that this whole thing was just a joke. "It's just to make things more, mmm, spicy!"

"And spicy it is gonna be!" Chris butted in, pushing Chef aside so that all eyes were on him again. "For this special night, and this night ONLY, we've decided to allow you in every single square inch of space on the mansion's grounds! Yes, that means you're all allowed to go upstairs, even. But I swear, if any of you dudes mess with my stuff, there's gonna be something to pay!" His cockiness was replaced with a more threatening demeanor for a slight moment, but it came back to him soon enough. "Aside from that…we've had a new room constructed in the main hallway upstairs, a confessional booth! This'll work for you guys to share your innermost thoughts…but that's not the only confessional booth! There's a second one set up in another room, but I'll leave you all to try and figure out where exactly that may be!"

"So then, what's gonna happen if nobody finds the money?" Marty cocked his head at Chris, who finally took notice of him and screamed as if he had just witnessed a murder in progress. The photographer had gotten himself dressed up in a relatively average Halloween costume, but it just looked…so strange, with how he had tried to do it. He had big, floppy rabbit ears poking out of his hair, a puffy sweater that had large, fluffy gloves at the ends of the sleeves, a pair of sweatpants, and rather massive rabbit feet. Oh, and there was, of course, the thing that Natsuki had grabbed before: the puffball of a tail he had attached to his rear. Everything was a white color and had black spots all over it…and even his face was done in white face paint with a pink, button nose, and whiskers. "What's wrong?"

"You, dude! You look terrifying!" Chris shuddered and shielded his eyes as he continued to speak to Marty, who just shrugged his shoulders, "The hunt doesn't end until the money is found or until each of you guys gives up…or, you know, is disqualified for breaking the rules of the coin. Could be a few minutes, could be a few hours, might be a few days, even. I would just try your hardest, or nobody's getting any money at all."

"You can just take the money away if we don't find it!?" Natsuki was incredibly taken aback by this, clutching her walking stick close to her chest. Unlike her usual walking stick, this one was shaped like a sniper rifle. Her costume was another that seemed to be from a video game, one of those goofy, FPS-games on the computer. She had a brown outback hat, a red polo tee that was unbuttoned to reveal a white undershirt, a brown vest that was left unbuttoned on top of the polo, brown slacks, and leather loafers. "O-oh my…this is going to be really difficult, then."

"Incredibly difficult for you…just the typical amount of difficulty for me…" Jaxon smiled creepily at Natsuki, who couldn't see it, of course, though she did take note of the devious tone in his voice. His costume came from a horror manga, and it did fit him…well enough. It didn't look bad on him, nor did it look really good on him. He had on a cream-colored sweater, one that had some red diamonds running around the stomach line and all the way across the back, dark-colored jeans that weren't too baggy or anything, and gray sneakers. There were some unlit candles tucked in his pocket, as well as some nails in a little box.

"Yeah, yeah, we get it, you're really creepy or whatever," Chris groaned at Jaxon, who just shifted his gaze to smile at him instead. "Anyways…if that's all there is for questions…" He gave the interns a quick lookaround, smirking when he saw that no hands had been raised or anything. "...Then the hunt is on! Everybody, do your best to make it entertaining for me! Oh, and watch out for the thirty minute mark…you'll have a little surprise in store for you then!" The interns looked even more confused, but they had had enough of his explanation at that point, and just scattered to each start their search for the cash.


Confessional #1: "He's a lunatic…"

"I don't really know what I expected from this…well, I didn't really think about it that much beforehand, but yeah…this all checks out as something Chris would do." Benjamin held his book close to his face as he read through the pages, sitting on a ghost-themed toilet in a cramped, darkened room. "I'm not too worried about getting the money, admittedly…but I wouldn't complain if I stumbled upon it. I just don't really want to bump into any of the others when I'm looking…especially Jaxon. He's a lunatic…"


Location: Aquarium


"Hey, fishies!" Sophie grinned from ear to ear as she entered the aquarium on the first floor, taking a good look around at the massive expanse of glass tanks, each tank harboring a different set of sealife. There were tanks that had schools of fish swimming amongst each other, just enjoying their peaceful lives, yet in the same vein, there were also tanks full of aggressive fish and sharks that were fighting each other to the death. None of it seemed to be off putting, just the normal type of thing for an aquarium. "You guys are probably pretty hungry, right? I'll go grab your food from the back…who knows, the money might be hidden back there somewhere."

Sophie snickered to herself as she started to wander between the glass tanks, ignoring the fish that were all staring at her as she passed by. She whistled a little traveling tune to keep herself preoccupied, considering that the aquarium really was a massive room. The journey to the back door that she was in search of was decently long, too, about two minutes at a regular walking pace…not that running would help at all in making it seem a little less lengthy, just because of how cramped the room was as a whole.

"Kinda feels like Chris moved the tanks a little closer together…I really don't remember it being this tight of a fit the last time I was in here." Sophie took a look around, seeing that she only had a foot of room on either side of her. At that point, she finally saw that the fish were all staring at her, which filled her with a sense of uneasiness. "Huh…fish are acting kinda strange, too. Oh, you guys are probably just really hungry today, right? I know Chris probably doesn't feed you…so the last time you ate would've been yesterday morning, when I fed you. Well, don't worry, I'm almost there!"

Sophie didn't seem to mind that she was speaking to the fish, even with them not understanding what she was saying, but she did still feel a bit queasy in seeing them all staring at her like that. She did her best to ignore it, finally pushing through the end bit of the glass tank maze and coming across a little, wooden door on the back wall. She smiled as she saw it, taking the knob in hand and twisting it open to enter the room. The room in question wasn't really small, but significantly smaller than the aquarium itself. It had any sort of supplies that the aquarium could've needed, from dried flakes to frozen bloodworms to nets to scoop out the dead fish.

"Let's see…what would be the easiest way to go about this?" Sophie scratched her chin, looking around the entirety of the room before finally snapping her fingers, an idea popping into her head. "Might as well just get everything in buckets! It'll give me a good chance to check for the money back here, too!" She delightfully giggled at her own plan as she wandered to the back wall of the room, grabbing a good deal of feeding buckets."One, two, three, four…how many tanks are there? Twenty? Good thing I have my Grocery One Trip patch!" Again, she giggled, stacking each of the twenty buckets into a neat pile and standing up to crack her neck.

"There we go…just gotta go get the food…then?" Sophie found herself viewing something that she hadn't discovered in her other trips to this supply room, that being another door. Not only was there this other door, but it was significantly smaller than the average sized door that one might find in their household. You'd need to crawl, or at least crouch down to be able to squeeze through the opening. Of course, she felt her explorative curiosity getting the better of her, and she set the buckets aside to walk towards the door. She got down to her knees and just stared at it for a brief moment, trying to make sense of where it came from.

"Well…a new door just randomly shows up in the middle of a big hunt for twenty-thousand dollars…those two things have gotta be connected some way or another. It can't hurt to take a look inside!" Sophie reaffirmed herself, nodding as she pulled the small door open. Through some effort, she was able to get herself inside, though her hips weren't making it easy for her. "Haha, they should give me the Crawlspace Expert patch! Imagine if that was a thing!" She laughed to herself, feeling her uneasiness settling away just a bit as she saw that the new room she was in wasn't horrifically cramped or anything. It was, however, dimmed with red light, making it hard to see anything other than a large tote in the center of the room. Out of curiosity, she approached the tote and looked down into it, her jaw dropping as she stared in horror. "Oh my goodness…"


Location: Meeting Room


"It's really quite simple…it's just a contract to ensure we're both getting the exact fruits that our efforts should yield." Tony had his hand placed down on the table in the middle of the room, his index finger just gently hovering over a small stack of paper that sat right in front of AJ. She stared at it, trying her best to read the words that it spelled out as he spoke to her. "Our issue stems from that Harmonia…you know she's got something up her sleeve to get all the money for herself, and that just wouldn't be fair to everybody else."

"Harmonia can be a little selfish at times, from what I've seen…but this contract here suggests that we split up the money just between us…wouldn't we want everyone to get a slice of the pie?" AJ smiled innocently at Tony, who pulled his hand up from the table to stroke his chin. She could tell that it wasn't something that he cared much to do, which only made her feel that signing onto a contract like this wouldn't be a benefit to her, or any of the others, for that matter. She started to pull her hand away from the contract, immediately garnering Tony's attention once more.

"Ah, just hold for a brief moment there, would you? I'm just thinking of how I could reword what's been written to include the others…contracts are a tricky thing, you know. Gotta be extremely careful with them if you want them to hold up." Tony let out a soft, warm chuckle, the kind of chuckle that put AJ at some more ease. He dug around in the pocket of his green suit jacket before ultimately retrieving a pen from it, holding it up with a smile and tugging the contract towards him. He crossed out the initial line about him and AJ splitting the money, replacing it with "giving a fair share to each of the interns currently under employ." "There! That look any better to you?"

"It does look better…I appreciate that you actually wanted to hear me out there, Tony." AJ smiled as the contract was handed back to her, and she started to sign the line at the bottom of the final page. Tony kept on his warm smile all the while, taking a seat next to her and leaning back a little bit. "There we go…well, it's all signed and ready to go."

"Thank you kindly," Tony lightly nodded at AJ as he took the contract back into his possession, rolling it up and tucking it away into his suit, along with the pen. "Contracts are a thing that won't stand without compromise, so I'm of course willing to make these sorts of compromises when need be. Now, should I try to breach the contract, you're free to pursue me in court!" He chuckled to himself, getting her to laugh along with him, "Or, on the off chance that you breached the contract, I'd be after you! Like that'll ever happen!"


Confessional #2: "The name of the game!"

"It was really a good idea to have AJ meet with me for this sort of agreement, she always was the type to care about everyone else." Tony whistled to himself, unrolling the contract to show that the revisions were fading away from the paper, as well as the initial line about them splitting the money. All this left in its wake was a line about all the proceeds going to Tony himself, should either of the two of them find it. "Disappearing ink really is a nasty thing, but business deals are cutthroat. You've gotta keep yourself open to the darker side of things if you're ever going to get anywhere! That's just the name of the game, baby!"

Confessional #3: "A bit surprising."

"I have to admit, it was a bit surprising to see Tony so willing to change his contract upon my concerns, but I guess it's unfair to judge a book by its cover!" AJ laughed pleasantly, almost looking a little guilty about judging him. "I knew that he loved money, he wouldn't let any of us forget that, but I guess he's like me, in that he has his eye out for all of the others. Well, we'd better get on with our search for the money, right?"


"So, any ideas on where we should check first? I was thinking about heading straight for the upstairs, considering that Chris is just now letting us look around it for the first time." AJ got up from the table, stretching out her shoulders and limbering up as best as she could. Tony had to stop and think about it for a moment, prompting her to think of suggestions. "Maybe if we both took to the second story it could be a good thing? Since we've never been there, and all."

"That…could work…but I almost think it would be better if you stuck to that floor and left me to check the basement level. It's not too big or anything, but getting it out of the way early would be a good thing." Tony cracked his knuckles, "Been feeling a bit wary about that dungeon down there, so can't be too bad to just give it a quick look around. Splitting up like that's gonna get us covering better ground, in any case."

"You're probably right about that…well, I'll head upstairs, then. You can stick to the basement and…I guess we'll converge in the middle?" Tony nodded at AJ, who gave him a smile in return. "It shouldn't be too long before we find that money and everyone gets their fair share!"


Location: Clearing in the Woods


"A-alright, just stay calm and keep your eyes fixed on the road, don't worry about anything that's happening in the woods." Mitchell mumbled to himself as he wandered through the clearing, his flashlight pointed ahead and down at the ground in front of him. His eyes traced the beam of light closely, not daring to even let it leave his sight, lest he fall victim to a panic attack in the middle of the woods. "I-it's not fully dark out, it's just a bit shaded from all the trees…you wander down this path all the time looking for creatures of the night, this is nothing new."

He had started to calm himself down a little bit in his stroll, even feeling the slightest bit more comfortable. Mitchell knew the path well, so he knew exactly when a bend would come; never came a time that he shone his beam into the trees. He could feel his breathing returning to normal after some time, helping him to fully settle down as he took another turn, this one a bit sharper than the previous turns that he was forced to make.

"Alright…just about halfway through at this point, I really don't have anything to worry about. Chef's room has to be worth checking out, anyways." Mitchell had a slight smile crawling upon his face as he no longer feared for his life, but all good things were destined to come to an end, as he started to hear some rustling amongst the bushes along the edge of the beaten path. He gasped, feeling his fingers twitching with the flashlight, as he knew that he so badly wanted to see what it was, yet he hesitated. "N-no! It's just a squirrel…don't pay it any mind and it'll go away."

Another deep breath was taken into his lungs, an attempt for him to return to his equilibrium from before, but it didn't necessarily work out in his favor, especially considering that the rustling was just ramping up even more than before. He clutched onto the flashlight tightly, his breaths quickening as he tried his best to convince himself not to turn the beam of light towards the noises. But as they got louder and louder, he couldn't help himself, and he turned the flashlight, letting out a terrified screech.


Location: Woods


"Hm…I guess it really isn't late enough for any ghosts of the mists to pop up…maybe I should've explored inside a bit more before coming out here." Ursula sighed as she looked around the deep woods, the only light coming from her being that vague, blue light that illuminated from her skin. She pushed through some more trees and bushes, accidentally getting her foot caught in some roots in the process. She started tugging on her foot to free it from the clutches of the roots, but it took a good deal of effort…and made a lot of noise.

"Come on, would you just let go of me?" Ursula grumbled as she finally pulled her foot free from the roots, rolling her eyes and continuing through her journey. She could almost hear some heavy breathing, but it was a bit more faint than anything else, giving off this somewhat eerie vibe that would've turned anybody else off from what they were doing. As for Ursula, she never felt such discomfort or fears in the face of the eerie or strange…and the breathing only managed to intrigue her more.

"Hm…maybe I'm not out here too early for the spirits! Just gotta keep on the path and find out where that breathing is coming from…I think it was that way?" Ursula looked off in a direction, seeing some faint light in the distance. Of course, she took this as a spirit's glow, and even had a smile starting across her face. "I wonder what kind of spirit that could be…I can't wait any longer, I just have to see it already!" She picked up her pace, running through bushes and plants galore, emitting this horrendous rustling noise. Her heart started racing in anticipation as the light got brighter and brighter, eventually being so bright that she could hardly see anything anymore. She stumbled through a bush and heard this horrendous screech, with the light beaming in her face. The noise eventually came to a halt, and the light started to lower from her face, allowing her to get a better look at the "spirit." "...Mitchell?"

"O-oh! It's just you!" Mitchell sounded relieved when he saw Ursula's face, ignoring the fact that her costume still had her looking creepy in the full darkness.


Confessional #4: "So much for that…"

"Here I was, thinking that I was going to have an encounter with the spiritual kind so early in the night…I guess it's shame on me for thinking I'd find something that early on." Ursula sighed to herself, entirely disappointed from her encounter in the woods. "So much for that…well, at least Mitchell calmed down a bit when he saw me. I'm used to everybody getting scared of me just on appearance alone, so it's a nice change."

Confessional #5: "What a relief!"

"Look, I get it, I'm a bit easy to startle…you gotta understand the situation before you start thinking I'm just a wuss! I mean, walking alone in the middle of the woods on Halloween night? That's a recipe for disaster! Not sure why I let myself do that…" Mitchell rubbed his arm awkwardly, feeling a bit stupid in hindsight. "In any case, it turned out to just be Ursula instead of some creepy ghost or forest monster! What a relief!"


"Mitchell, what are you doing out here by yourself…? That just seems like a bad idea and a half, in my eyes." Ursula still had a bleak look on her face, but it had a slight hint of disappointment to it, though Mitchell didn't seem to mind. He was still just relieved that it was only her and nothing else.

"Well…Chris said the money was hidden somewhere on the grounds, so my first idea was to check out the most out of the way area of all: Chef's room! It's pretty much the only thing at the end of the clearing here, so I knew it was the right thing to do." Mitchell had more confidence coming to his face as he stood there, but just noticed Ursula lightly smiling at him. "W-what's that look for?"

"It's not the only thing just past the clearing, Mitchell…you remember what's in the very depths of the woods, don't you?" Mitchell started understanding the meaning behind Ursula's smile, feeling himself getting more and more tense by the moment. "The graveyard…it's spooky enough for the occasion, and there are plenty of good hiding spots to check out. Not to mention the mausoleum…I can only imagine what sort of creepy secrets could lay there for us to discover."

"Y-yeah, I think I'm all good on looking in the graveyard. You're basically just asking me to throw myself at the skeleton monsters at that rate…I'll just look in Chef's room like I was planning." Mitchell started to walk away from Ursula, only for her to reach forth and grab him by the hand, making him stop as he walked.

"It would be a lot of fun…looking into the paranormal is always more fun with somebody else by your side." Ursula's small smile was still there when Mitchell looked back at her, feeling himself blushing just from the contact. "You don't have to tag along, if you really don't want to, though."

"I…as long as you'll make sure nothing comes behind me and tears out my spine, I might be able to handle it." Ursula's smile got a little wider, putting Mitchell somewhat at ease. She started to lead him away from the clearing, with him just nervously looking back at it. He couldn't help but think to himself all the while, "Oh…I really hope that I won't regret this later…"


Confessional #6: "Open your eyes!"

"The paranormal is such an expansive and enthralling subject, I just wish that more people would be willing to open their eyes to how wonderful it is." Ursula lightly kicked her feet as she sat down, that smile from before remaining as a constant on her face. "Mitchell writes horror stories…but he's pretty unique in how he does it. He likes to draw inspiration from real experiences and findings, rather than just making things up and making a mockery of the paranormal. It's…really respectable, actually."


Location: Parking Garage


"This really isn't the first place I would've thought of meeting for our first kiss, but I'm just fine with it if you are." Marty smiled as he took a look around the parking garage, seeing all the four cars that had been set up, as well as some tools for working on the older cars. Aside from these, the room was wholly empty, not much of any room for anything to be obscured. He was standing near the exit door, while Harmonia, who was with him, paced back and forth. "You seem really hesitant about this kiss, are you sure you're ready for it?"

"Marty, dear, I told you that I wasn't bringing you here for romance, but for serious discussion of the money that's up for grabs." Marty frowned slightly as she shot down his flirting, but he stayed to listen to her nonetheless. "You've got your camera with you all the time…right? I suppose you may have taken pictures of the grounds that you may not realize show crevices and hiding spaces that could house the money."

"I wouldn't mind exploring your crevices and hiding spaces, though I can't say that I'd be looking for money." Marty's smile came right back, but seeing the disgust in Harmonia's threatening eyes knocked it away from him again. "A-alright, my bad, forgot that you don't really like that kind of stuff. Uh…yeah, yeah. I've taken a whole bunch of pictures of…you know, like, the ladies' restroom, the mens' restroom…all the restrooms. Oh, other places, too."

"Wondrous…though I think I can do without looking at any of the restroom images. And please, spare me of any profane images. I'd rather not have to rinse my eyes from viewing the filth that I know you've got stored in there." Harmonia's tone was far colder than before, with Marty feeling the full brunt of it. He slowly reached for his camera, looking through the pictures until he happened upon some that he felt able to share with her.

"Here, just press the left arrow and you can look through them. Just try not to press the right arrow too much…you might find some stuff that you don't like too much." He slowly held his camera out towards Harmonia, who delightfully took it in her hands and started walking towards the door to leave. "W-wait, where are you going? I'm gonna need my camera back at some point."

"Marty, dearest…I just need to bring it with me so I can properly look for these spots that are detailed in the images. I promise, you'll get your camera back…and maybe I'll even allow you to hold my hand after I've found the money." Marty flushed with red as Harmonia flashed him a devious stare. "I'll be holding onto it for the time being, however…so I sincerely hope that you can find another way to preoccupy yourself while I'm searching."

"I'm sure that I'll figure something out! Even if I don't have my camera with me, I've got photographic memory, so I can just take pictures of things with my brain! Like how I've got a picture saved of you pegging me! Though, that hasn't happened yet." Again, Marty had forgotten who he was talking to, and Harmonia angrily stomped out of the room, leaving him by himself. "Oh…well, I'll just meet up with her later and tell her I'm sorry! No big deal!"


Confessional #7: "Vile."

"Marty is a vile, wretched creature, truly. I can almost stomach being around the other interns, but I have found myself unable to deal with the very existence of him and I in the same space. It even pains me to speak with him, at times." Harmonia took a sip of tea from the glass in her hands, her cheshire grin shining horrifically. "I'm utterly fine with toying with him, however…it's fun to watch him beg for my attention. And I'm well aware that nothing I do could be enough to get him away from me. He's really the best kind of pet."


Location: Walk-In Cooler


"S-s-so cold in here! This has got to be b-b-below the requirement for a cooler!" Nathan shivered as he walked through the cooler, looking underneath crates of food that he had found as well as inside some of the crates. Occasionally, he would huddle against himself, rubbing his arms to try and garner some more warmth, though the effect that it had on him was pretty minimal, all things considered. He tore the lid off of a bin of questionable lettuce, digging his hand through it until he found a frozen mouse, which he yelped out and chucked at the wall.

"N-nothing about this cooler is up to standard, Chris! That's it, where's the temperature control in here!? I can't just look around for money when there's so many things horribly wrong with this place!" Nathan looked around the walls of the cooler, trying to spot wherever the control was, but coming up with nothing. The only things he really noticed were the door that led back to the kitchen, and the door that led further in, right into the walk-in freezer. He had to pause and think to himself, "There wasn't a control in the kitchen…so that must mean…"

Nathan fixed his eyes on the walk-in freezer door, slowly starting to pick up his feet to carry himself towards it. He almost felt nervous, just on the basis of knowing how cold it already was in the cooler as is…the freezer surely could only have been worse. Nonetheless, he still brought himself right to the door, staring intently at the handle to open it. He reached his hand forth to grab it, but when he started to pull on it, he realized that the door wasn't actually budging.

"H-huh!? Oh, you've got to be kidding me! Just open up already!" Nathan groaned and started to pull on the handle even harder than before, but all this did was rip the handle off of the door. He looked at it in his hands before grumbling and starting to use it as a crowbar to pry it open. It took a good deal of effort, but he eventually got it, the door swinging wide open to reveal an icy, crystalline wasteland. Somehow, he was even more disappointed by this than the cooler before, taking the first step in and feeling the snow– that's right, snow– crunch beneath his feet.

"This is a mockery of a proper kitchen…I doubt Chris would even listen to what I have to say, but, dammit, I can't just let him keep it like this! Chef should at least put more care into the room that he works in the most!" Nathan started to look around within the freezer, but it was dark, and wherever there wasn't darkness, there were layers of ice that were hard to even attempt to look through. "Nngh…that control has got to be in here somewhere…"


Confessional #8: "Disgraceful!"

"The way that the cooler and freezer are set up…it's just completely disgraceful! How could any chef, even if being a chef isn't what they pride themselves in, be able to work in such a horribly kept area!?" Nathan slammed his fists down on his legs, glaring beams into the camera before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself down a little bit. "It's…fine…at least I'll be able to search for the money as I clean up the area…it's not the end of the world."


"Where do I even start in here?" Nathan groaned and felt his way around the freezer, the door handle from before still in his grasp. He found a pretty thick layer of ice near the back wall, immediately deciding to take a swing at it with the handle, cracking it a little bit. He smirked at the crack, and gave another big swing to it, cracking it up even more. He was getting more and more pleased with his work, though not paying attention to anything that was going on around him. With another big swing, the ice cracked off entirely.

"Haha! We're finally getting somewhere!" Nathan laughed proudly to himself, at least until he heard a large slam behind him, and the minimal amount of light that was in the freezer drained away entirely. The door had shut, and he had no idea where it was in reference to himself. He tried looking around, but saw nothing…just the empty, cold void that he had been left in. "Yeah, that's…not very good at all…"


5:30 PM

Location: Lobby/Foyer


Chris's watch screen lit up, a beeping timer sounding off the very second that the time had switched to five thirty. He had mentioned it briefly when everyone was still in the lobby with him and Chef, but there was something special supposedly happening at that time. He grinned to himself, deviously rubbing his hands together to face Chef…his glorious "creation." The burly co-host was covered from head to toe in "Freeze!" coins, much more than anyone might've anticipated him having before.

"Well, my beautiful monster…I think it's high time that you get out there and give those interns a proper scare, don't you?" Chef rolled his eyes at Chris as he started to walk down one of the hallways, leaving the host to himself in the lobby. He reached into the pocket of his lab coat, retrieving a microphone of sorts. He gave the button on the bottom of it a little push and spoke into it, his voice echoing all over the grounds of the mansion. "Hey, interns! Remember what I said about it turning thirty minutes in? Yeah, I wasn't gonna forget about that! So, the whole spiel is…I'm the maniacal Dr. Freezenstein, and my monster, who you know as Chef Hatchet, is roaming the grounds!" The host let out an unbecoming cackle, hoping to garner some fear in the hearts of the weak-willed interns.

"Freezenstein's monster is covered in, you guessed it, dozens– no, hundreds of 'Freeze!' coins!" Chef listened in on Chris's obnoxious voice as he picked up his pace through the long hallway that he had chosen to walk down, still just annoyed by this whole situation. "One touch from him, and you'll be feeling the full effect of the 'Freeze!' coins! You'll be stuck in place for those fifteen minutes…but be wary! He might just come find you again when the timer is up! Mwahahaha!"


Confessional #9: "Makes sense…"

"Makes sense enough that Chris would pull something like this…even in a simple party for the staff, he's bound to want to spice things up." Marty giggled, reaching up to grab his camera, or at least where his camera would normally be, and frowning when he remembered that Harmonia had taken it from him. "That's…right. I'm cameraless…I'm practically naked at the moment…" His frown curved up into a smile after he realized what exactly he had just said, "...It was pretty nice of Harmonia to take my clothes from me like that!"


Location: Upstairs Hallway - East


"And step and step…how many steps has it been? Like…a bajillion? My little Gobl-Anne feet are aching, woe is me!" Anne panted as she trudged along through the halls of the second floor, Hope trailing just behind her. She gave her head a good shake, her curly hair flopping about in a cute way that had her friend blushing bright as she could. "How're things going back there, Hope? Feeling Hope-y? Uh…well, that didn't sound as funny as I wanted it to, but it was a play on the word happy."

"T-that really is still funny," Hope giggled to herself, trying to hide the blushing as Anne looked back at her. The jokester smiled excitedly as she saw how well received her little pun was, turning back ahead and picking up her pace in a little dance. The solemn girl felt her attention sinking lower, down from Anne's back to her rear, though she gave herself a slap in the face after she looked at it, no matter the fact that it was only a brief glance.

"Huh? What was that?" Anne looked back again to see Hope with a faint mark on her cheek from where she had just slapped, bumbling over to her to get a better look at it. "Yeesh…what happened there?"

"I-it wasn't anything, there was just a fly buzzing around me, so…you know, I tried to get it when it landed on my face. I-I think I missed it." Hope started rubbing her own cheek, though Anne moved her hand out of the way to get a better look at it. The jokester shrugged and gave her a little kiss on the cheek, causing her to flush with red once again. "A-Anne!?"

"What? Mom always said kiss things to make them feel better! Do you feel any better?" Anne tilted her head to the side until she got back a soft nod from Hope, bringing a giant smile to her face. "See? Works like a charm!" With another playful giggle, the jokester started to dance back down the hallway, with Hope smiling as she watched her.


Confessional #10: "A long time…"

"Anne and I have known each other for a really long time…the two of us met even before we signed onto the show as interns. We went to school together…she was always making jokes, but nobody really laughed at all. I don't get it, considering all of her jokes and puns are hilarious." Hope looked a little angry for a second, but the anger soon faded, and she was left with a blush on her face. "Anne was the only person in school that ever bothered talking to me…she also let me talk to her about my problems with my…former employer." She got really quiet, gripping onto the frills of her dress with a pained look on her face. "...She's helped me get through a lot…and I want to be more than just friends or coworkers, but I'm just…so scared to ask…"


"Alright, how about we check this room, next? Door is awfully suspicious…I haven't seen any other pink doors the entire time!" Anne laughed loudly to herself as she approached the aforementioned pink door, tapping her finger against the red heart in the center of the door. "Whaddya think is gonna be in here? Kinda reminds me of Valentine's Day, so I would imagine…chocolate! I love chocolate!"

"M-maybe it's just a room with a mirror in it…since Chris loves himself so much." Anne burst out into laughter as she heard Hope's jab at Chris, getting the depressed girl to give a little laugh herself.

"You know, you're probably right about that! I guess there's really only one way to find out, though!" Anne grabbed the doorknob and twisted it to swing the door wide open, wasting no time before rushing in and getting a gander at everything around her. The room had brightly painted, pink walls, with similar red hearts to the one on the door scattered about. There was a TV stand with a massive flat screen sitting on top of it, a little corner that had been put together as a bathroom…just without much privacy. There was even a little kitchenette on the opposite side of the room. This just left the open middle, which had a massive, heart-shaped bed in the center of it.

"Wowee! I never expected to find a room like this…guess it must be something Chris has put together for when he's feeling really lonely, right?" Anne raised her eyebrows up and down quickly as she nudged Hope with her elbow, soon running about the room and frantically checking everything out. This left Hope to shut the door behind them before she started walking towards the center of the room. "There's really not much of anything in here…no money, nothing." Anne sighed as she started walking back towards Hope, who had an odd look on her face. "Hope? Everything okay?"

"Yeah…just…Anne…" Hope fidgeted with her hands for a moment, with Anne staring down at her in question. Eventually, the shorter girl reached forward with one of her hands, pushing it against Anne's shoulder and sounding off a beep. "...Freeze."


Confessional #11: "Why would she do that?"

"Hope just used her coin to freeze me in place…I don't get it! Why would she use it on me, of all the people? I thought we were pretty close…I never would've imagined the money getting to her like that." Anne looked incredibly perplexed by the situation, tapping at her green-painted chin, "M-maybe she's got a good reason for it…I don't wanna just assume that she's doing it so I won't get the money. She would never do that!"


Location: Patio/Pool


"I really don't think there's going to be any money in the pool…was it even worth checking out?" Elijah grumbled while Tsu poked around the edge of the in-ground pool, leaving the debater to sit on one of the patio chairs and grumble to himself.

"I think it's more than worth checking out! You know, there's so much that's going on around this place, it wouldn't be that out of the ordinary for the money to be hidden in a wacky place like the pool." Tsu smiled at his own "clever" idea, looking down into the water and trying to make out what was on the bottom, but it was really difficult to see anything properly. "Hm…might've been a good idea to bring a flashlight, though. It's really starting to get dark already. You don't have a flashlight on you, do you?"

"I'm flashy enough to not need one, Tsu!" Elijah proudly stood from the chair he was previously sitting on, gesturing to his chest with his thumb and sticking his tongue out, getting a dull look back from the expert cosplayer. "I'm telling you, though, it isn't even a clever hiding spot…that pool. The money would simply get soggy, and become irreparable from that point onward. Of course…if you felt the need to debate with me on this, it would be much more interesting!"

"...You really remind me of this one character from one of my queen's stories. He's a boy that loves to argue about anything and everything…ah, the story that he was in was so wonderful." Tsu blushed and rubbed his cheeks with his hands, smiling and cooing like an idiot while Elijah watched and laughed at him. "Clover Warrington simply has a way of storytelling that no one else could ever even hope to match up to! You really should take a dive into some of her works, it's incredibly enthralling!"

"Clover Warrington? Yeah, read some of her stories…nothing really garnered my interest. The plot's hidden undertones weren't really interesting; it almost seemed like the entirety of the books were put together by a high schooler writing a fanfic." Elijah wagged his finger back and forth while the excitement fled from Tsu's face, leaving him with an empty look. "Again, I'm willing to argue on this, but I doubt you'd be able to sway my mind on the matter." As the debater laughed to himself and walked a bit closer to the pool, Tsu kept staring at him.


Confessional #12: "My queen!"

"Clover Warrington is the one and only queen of all things writing and storytelling…she does it all, and the hidden elements are incredibly interesting!" Tsu tugged on his lower eyelids, staring straight into the camera like a madman. "...The need for despair…it all makes so much sense! Life would be plain, it would be miserable without despair! I can bring you despair, my queen! I can, I promise you that! …I believe that the arguer drowned in the end of his story, didn't he? Oho…spoiler alert!"


As Elijah kept looking around into the pool, trying to at least entertain Tsu in some mild manner, while not really paying attention to what the cosplayer was doing. He hardly noticed that the pool cover was starting to close, as he was far too invested in what he was doing. In the same vein, he didn't notice that Tsu was slowly walking behind him, and ended up hovering right behind him. This cast a shadow over the boy, who felt compelled to turn around, only managing to see the very moment that he was shoved into the pool behind him. He went down with a big splash, sinking under the water for a moment before popping up again.

"Tsu, what's your problem!?" Then, a shadow started casting over him again, the cover starting to close up more than before. Frantically, he started to paddle towards the end of the pool, but it was no use, as the cover was significantly faster than he was. It ended up closing over him, leaving him to bang against it with his fists.

"Don't you worry…" Tsu mumbled to himself as he started walking away from the pool, a perverse grin on his face. "Just a little bit of despair will do you well! I'm sure someone will come for you…eventually."


Confessional #13: "What the hell!?"

"What the hell was that all about!?" Elijah was completely soaked from having been in the water, some of faded paint on his skin washed off onto the floor. "I tell him I don't like his favorite author and he shoves me into a pool and closes the lid over me!? Seems a little bit drastic, you psycho!"


Location: Balcony


Benjamin was the only one who had made it to the balcony of the second floor, though he could've sworn that he had noticed Anne and Hope wandering up to the same area not too much sooner than he had. Regardless, he was never the type to really question something that didn't have anything to do with him, and he just focused on giving the balcony a look around– he would return to the backyard when it came time for that. It was a good size balcony, and it overlooked the backyard of the mansion, the same one that Mitchell had encountered Jaxon in some time earlier in the day. He didn't really pay much attention to the ground, just along the edges…or in any cracks he happened upon during his inspection.

"Gargoyles…so Victorian," Benjamin muttered to himself, having taken notice of the gargoyles that were spaced out about five feet from each on the balcony's railing. They all sort of looked the same, maybe some differences in the facial expressions here and there, but it wasn't anything drastic enough for him to notice outright. They all just sort of looked…well, normal. "Those were probably kind of expensive to put together, right? Guess the producers really do like to spoil Chris as best as they can."

Benjamin started walking past some of the gargoyles, no longer paying any attention to them, as they didn't stand out to him. He tried to ignore the fact that he was getting absolutely downpoured on, but he couldn't say that it wasn't bothering him. He grumbled, just being glad that he hadn't brought any of his books out to the balcony with him. He passed by another gargoyle, again, paying no mind to it…or to the fact that it seemed to have a damp sweater on it. As he passed it, the gargoyle slowly started to spin around, revealing Jaxon's horrific smile and threatening eyes staring at the back of his head. The deranged boy took a step down from the railing, quietly moving step by step to follow after Benjamin. It took a good while for the bookworm to notice that something was off, and he eventually turned around to be met with Jaxon's face.

"W-woah!" Benjamin stumbled backwards, slipping on the wet ground of the balcony and hitting his back against it. He let out a soft hiss of pain, doing his best to pull himself back up while Jaxon got down on all fours and started circling around him like a hungry, wild animal. "Jaxon…what are you doing? W-when did you even get out here? I was the only one out here…I thought."

"You didn't notice me…does anyone ever notice me…? I'll spare you some time in thinking about it…no…no they don't. How could they…? Just look at me…I'm plain…I'm just a bland chap." Jaxon's head twitched a little as he finished his statement, and he hurried his pace to crawl right up to him, their faces hardly inches apart. "I'll keep this…brief. Your coin…give it to me…as long as you do that…nothing bad is gonna happen…nothing either of us would regret…"

"M-my coin…" Benjamin felt around in his pocket, gripping at the "Freeze!" coin and holding it tightly, causing Jaxon's grin to spread wider and wider. "B-but…I can't give you the coin…I might need it."

"That's silly…you don't need that. You've already gotten everything that you need in life…you've gotten attention…where's my attention? You…didn't even say hi…when you passed by me earlier…didn't even see me." Jaxon laughed, his laugh far more unsettling that Benjamin could have ever imagined in the first place. "Hey, hey…don't look so scared…it's making me jealous. Give me the coin, Ben…give it to me. Once I have more than one…I'll finally stand out from the others…"

"Give you the coin…" Benjamin felt himself growing more and more uneasy, as he started to pull his hand out of his spacesuit's pocket, Jaxon's eyes lighting up excitedly in anticipation. "Y-yeah…I'll give you the coin…" The bookworm gulped, quickly pressing down on the button of the coin and pressing it against Jaxon. The deranged boy sat there for a second, staring down at Benjamin's hand without uttering a single word, not even the sound of him breathing. The bookworm wasn't gonna waste anymore time out there, though. He scrambled up to his feet, running as fast as his legs could carry him, until the only one on the balcony was Jaxon, who was still stunned and looking down.

"Ben…ja…min…" Jaxon slowly looked up from his own chest, his eyes no longer squinted, but fully open with tiny pupils staring off to where Benjamin had just run. His grin got toothy, adding to how horrific he looked. "That was…not a clever idea…oh…oh!"


Confessional #14: "I told you!"

"I-I told you all that he's a lunatic! The one person that I was trying to avoid in this whole scavenger hunt, and he just so happens to come and find me!" Benjamin was visibly shaken as he tried to catch his breath from all of the running that he had just done. He ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath and trying to relax at least a little bit. "It's fine…he's timed out for fifteen minutes…all I have to do is make sure that I get a good distance between him and I by the time those fifteen minutes are up."

Confessional #15: "Payback…"

"Ben…ja…min…Ben…ja…min…" Jaxon smiled and rocked his head from side to side as he repeated the name of the boy that had just frozen him. "That was…evil of you. You just stole…you stole another chance…a chance for me to stick out…to be important…to be a threat. I'm just…the same as everyone else…again. I will…get you back…I will…find you…Ben…ja…min…Ben…ja…min…"


Location: Basement Storage Room


"God, it's so dark down here…I'm sure Chris didn't even think about putting a working light down here. Not that he ever really thinks anything through, anyways." Phoebi groaned as she started to feel her way through the dark storage room, trying to see if there might've been a lightswitch somewhere. After some feeling around, she happened to grab something. It felt like a BB gun from a first glance, and as she felt around it some more, it only made her think that that's exactly what it was. "Who just has a random BB gun laying around in their basement? Actually…I'm sure there are plenty of weirdos that have that."

"E-excuse me…" Phoebi jolted back a bit when she heard the voice of somebody else in the basement, having thought she was all alone. "O-oh, Phoebi, I didn't mean to startle you…it's just…that 'BB gun' is my seeing stick. It matches my costume." It took the smart girl a second to piece together that Natsuki was the one she had just bumped into, and she shoved the BB gun back towards where she had grabbed it from. Of course, Neither her, nor Natsuki, could see where it was, so the blind girl was forced to feel around in the darkness, but she ended up grabbing a hold of Phoebi's arm rather than the stick. "This…is this your arm?"

"Yes, can't you feel it? It feels like an arm, does it not?" Phoebi groaned, slipping her arm out of Natsuki's grasp and placing the BB gun in her hand. "What are you even doing down here, anyways? Matter of fact, why are you searching for the money at all? I don't necessarily mean to offend or anything, but it seems like a waste of time if you won't even be able to see the cash."

"Well…I've just been touching everything I come across. I know what money feels like, so if I feel money, I'll know I've won. It helps that I've got a strong nose…I can smell all the places that Chris has been in the past six hours, at least. Though, that could just be the residual scent of his cologne. It's…well…strong." Natsuki giggled innocently, her statement about the cologne piquing Phoebi's interest. She took a big inhale, trying to smell the cologne.

"That's…I don't smell any cologne. Your nose is really that strong? Huh…that's…somewhat…er…quite." Phoebi couldn't bring herself to finish the compliment that she was trying to speak, as it almost pained her to even think about complimenting her. "I suppose it's a good thing for you that you can't see anything…it's too dark in here to see anything, anyways. You really lucked out."

"I…lucked out by being blind?" Natsuki just got confused as Phoebi got all flustered over in her corner.

"N-now hang on a second, that's not what I meant at all! I just mean that sometimes being blind is an advantage that us seeing people don't have! Y-you know, since you already know how to see in the dark…because everything is already dark all the time for you." Phoebi was getting more and more flustered at this point, a feeling that she absolutely hated having to deal with. "L-look– I mean, just try to see what– agh!"

"Phoebi, it's alright, I get what you're trying to say. I'm really not offended, I promise. People do much worse to me than say something a little silly…I've had people steal my seeing stick before." Natsuki sighed, feeling around with her stick until she tapped it against Phoebi's foot. Using this as a reference point, she reached out her free hand and gave her a slight pat on the head. "I know you didn't mean anything rude by it!"

"W-well…good. Saves me the drain of trying to apologize for something that I didn't even do." Phoebi sighed in relief, starting to walk forward, but ultimately tripping over a box that was on the ground. "Ah! Ughhhh! Chris, why can't you have a light down here!? This is just getting ridiculous at this point!" She started trying to get herself back on her feet, but kept slipping up on things, at least until Natsuki reached out towards her to help her up. "Hmph…"

"If you'd like, could I help you out searching around here? I mean, you said you couldn't see anything, and, well, you know…I have the same issue. But I know a thing or two about moving around when I can't see anything." Natsuki giggled to herself, with Phoebi feeling embarrassed that this sort of thing was even being brought up. "I really don't mind…and I'd hate to have you wandering around in the darkness."

"If you insist, I suppose I'll be fine searching around with you. B-but don't even try to think that I'm relying on you, we're both just searching for the money together, that's all!" Natsuki giggled some more, letting Phoebi wrap her arm around her shoulder before starting to lead the two of them throughout the darkness of the basement.


Confessional #16: "It's no problem!"

"Oh, it's really no problem for me to help Phoebi out…I'm sure that she'd likely do the same for me if I had lost me seeing stick or something like that. Just thinking about the possibility of her getting stuck down in a dark room when she has absolutely no idea how to move around in that sort of environment…" Natsuki got a frown on her face as she stared past the camera, "No, I don't think I'd like that. So, I'll just help her out!"

Confessional #17: "This is humiliating…"

"I can't believe that I need to rely on the blind girl of all people for help…I already hate the thought of relying on anybody for anything, but Natsuki!? This is just…humiliating…" Phoebi stared down at the floor in her distraught state, slowly glancing up at the camera. "I'll just…try not to think about it all too much. It would definitely give me less of a headache if I just thought of it as me sticking by her in case she finds herself in a sticky situation. Yes, I think that's what I'll do…I'm just around to help her for when she eventually needs it."


Location: Lovers' Suite


Some time had already passed since Hope had used her coin on Anne, but the depressed girl didn't flee the room after she'd pulled her trick. Instead, the two of them were seated next to each other on the heart-shaped bed, with Anne still puzzled as to why exactly Hope had done what she had done. The shorter girl twiddled her thumbs, trying to figure out what she should say as Anne stared at her in question, hoping for some answer to come sooner or later.

"Hope…you've just been sitting there all quiet for the past seven minutes. You used the coin on me, but didn't even run away." Anne lightly smiled and reached her hand over to gently rub Hope's back. "You know, if you just wanted to sit down a bit, you could've just told me. I would've had no problemo with that!"

"I know…but it's different…it's like…trying to say something…and I think you're just gonna get mad at me and never wanna talk to me again…so I didn't want you to leave." Hope covered her face with her hands, clearly distraught. "God, I'm so pathetic…I can't even talk to you about what I want to talk to you about, so what even is the point? All I did was waste fifteen minutes of our time…I'm sorry, Anne."

"Hope, you can tell me anything you wanna tell me, you know that already! We're like…um…hm…two peas in a pod? I mean, I wish I had a funnier anecdote, but that's really all that comes to mind. Still a bit frazzled that you used your sabotage coin on me!" Anne laughed, but she immediately noticed that Hope's look worsened. "H-hey, don't worry! I'm not upset or anything, I was just confused, that's all!"

"You don't have to try to cheer me up…I went ahead and did something stupid without even thinking about it." Hope's face sank into her lap and her arms fell to her sides, dangling around lifelessly. "I shouldn't have done it…and even with me doing something so stupid, you're still trying to make me feel better."

"Well…that's just what I'm here for! You laugh at all my jokes to cheer me up when everyone else is telling me they're stupid." Anne giggled a bit, taking notice of Hope, who turned her head to look up at her from her own lap.

"I don't laugh to cheer you up…I laugh because you're genuinely the funniest person I know…and all those people are just…stupid." Hope gritted her teeth as she thought about the amount of people that had mocked Anne back in school. "Just…I'll just sit here…or I'll leave if you want…I'm sorry…"

"Hm…you can wait here with me for the other five minutes! We'll keep looking around after, how about that?" Hope slowly nodded her head while Anne just giggled and continued to rub her back.


Confessional #18: "She's funny!"

"Hope really can crack me up sometimes! I mean, she insists that she's worthless, but she's really not! She's worth a whole lot to me, I'd say!" Anne swiped her nose with her thumb, a huge grin on her face. "Not for nothing, but I've kinda had this stupid crush on her for a little while now…guess that sort of thing happens when you only get positive attention from one person. I could never tell her, though. I don't want her to think of me as some type of creep or weirdo for getting so attached!"


Location: Breeding Room


Sophie just felt horrified as she stared into the tub from before, watching as a monstrosity of a mixed breed of fish struggled to swim through the water. It made her literally sick to her stomach, and she stumbled backwards to fall to the floor. She felt vomit welling up in her stomach, and she even gagged, but managed to keep it down, as she got up and looked back to the doorway, the very same tiny, miniscule doorway that she had crawled through to get into the room in the first place.

"T-this is…this is horrible! How could…how could anybody do something like this? Oh my…I-I…I need to get out of here!" Sophie crawled back through the doorway, stumbling past the buckets that she had set out earlier and booking it straight for the door to head back into the aquarium. To say she was horrified would've been a severe understatement, as the emotion that she was currently in the midst of feeling was something far worse than that. She started to wobble through the hallway that the tanks had made, moving slowly at first.

"W…wait a minute…something isn't right here…what's that scraping noise…?" Sophie looked up from the ground that she had focused on, seeing that the tanks were slowly starting to slide towards each other, making the space that she had to move around far smaller than it was initially. Her eyes widened as her heart sank deep into her stomach, struck with an incomprehensible claustrophobia that she couldn't even describe. All she could do was let out a dreadful scream while she started running as fast as she could.

"Hm…" That voice…it wasn't hers, but a boy. In the very back of the room, standing upon a little platform attached to the wall with a single lever on it, there was Tsu, who still had this perverse look upon his face as he watched Sophie scramble and scream. "I'd say that sounds plenty enough like despair, to me…oh, my queen, please notice this…notice me!" He wrapped his arms around himself and started to cackle like an absolute madman.


Confessional #19: "Claustrophobia…"

"I…I don't…I don't do well in small spaces…" Sophie's breathing worsened as she curled herself up in a tight ball, rocking back and forth where she was sitting. "I don't know who would've turned on the switch to move the tanks while I was in there, though…that's…that's just insane. I really could've gotten hurt…or worse…" Her face started to turn green, and she ended up vomiting on her own lap, looking disgusted of herself while starting to sob. "W-why?"


Location: Downstairs Hallway - West


"Ugh…this just doesn't feel right. I guess I can cross streaking off of my kink list…" Marty groaned as he shuffled through the halls, still with no camera in his possession. There were a hefty deal of Halloween decorations all over the walls, and he wanted nothing more than to take pictures for scrapbooks or to show the others later, but he was powerless to do so. He sputtered with his lips, eventually reaching one end of the hallway, which bent into a corner that headed north from where he was standing. He took a look down it, sighing as he saw even more decorations that he could've captured by now.

"Well…I guess the decorations aren't going anywhere anytime soon…I'll just have to get the camera back from Harmonia whenever I end up finding her later. Where did she say she was going again?" Marty stayed still where he was standing, trying to think back on what she'd said to him in the garage, but only remembering something about pegging in the process. A grin made its way to his face, but the grin didn't last long, as the lights that once illuminated the hallway suddenly shut off. He blinked a few times, the whites of his eyes being the only things that were a source of brightness or light in any capacity. "Huh…that's kinda weird."

"Thud!" The slamming of a heavy boot down onto the floorboards echoed behind Marty, from the part of the hallway that he had just happened to traverse. Not only did he perk up, but his false rabbit ears twitched, his curiosity getting the better of him as he turned back to see what it was that caused that noise. It was too dark, much too dark to be able to properly see anything through, at least. He narrowed his eyes, trying to get so much as a glimpse, but to no avail. That was until lightning cracked outside, the brightness flashing through one of the windows and shining upon Chef, who had a malicious smile on his face.

"Ahhhhhh!" Marty let out a frillish, girly scream, the light fleeing from the hall once more and leaving him entirely in darkness. His aim was to start running further down the hall, but as he was unable to see, he ran face first into a wall, flopping down on the ground soon after. He groaned and rubbed his forehead as he lay there, looking out to see another lightning strike lightening the hall. Chef had gotten so much closer to him at this point, only being a few rooms down from where he was. "H-hey, look! If this is about the time I broke into your kitchen and swapped some of your eggs for chocolate eggs, I'm sorry! A-and I'm sorry for snatching a pair of boxers from your room!"

"Boy, what are you-" Chef's voice was cut off by another loud slamming noise coming through. Seconds after, something fell with a massive thud, a thud that reverberated through the wooden floor for quite some time. Marty found himself at a loss, wondering what had just happened, when the lights finally came back on. There, laying on the ground, was the unconscious body of Chef. He lay just near an open door, which had been slammed into him by a frigid-looking Nathan.

"Nathan? What happened to you?" Marty groaned in pain some more as he got himself up off of the ground, walking towards Nathan, who was chattering his teeth horrendously.

"S-s-stuck in t-t-the freezer! H-h-handle broke!" Puffs of cold air billowed out of Nathan's mouth as he spoke. He slowly shifted his glance towards Marty, showing that his white face had practically turned blue from his time in the freezer.

"Yeesh…how'd you even get out of there?"

"Y-y-you know I have a tendency to s-s-start fires…w-w-well, the door had some loose wiring o-o-on it and…I think that story t-t-tells itself." Nathan was still shuddering to the point that Marty felt bad for him, but when the photographer noticed that Chef was starting to shift in his knocked out state, he grabbed him by the hand.

"We can cuddle to get you warm later, but I think it's about high time that we started running before we get got by the Chef monster!" With great bravado, Marty tugged along the freezing Nathan, dragging him around the corner and bringing him all the way to a staircase that was near the end. This left Chef laying on the ground by himself, but his eyes soon shot open, and he was right back on his feet, ready to chase after those two boys with a fierce glare on his face.


Confessional #20: "Hot, hot, hot!"

"I wish the fire lasted a bit longer so I could've warmed up sooner, but it's just good that I made it out of there." Nathan ran a warm towel over his blued body, hissing as it touched his face. "Agh! Hot, hot, hot! Urgh…you know how sometimes you get so cold that you feel warm? Like a human version of freezer-burned. Yeah, that's kind of what this feels like. Dunno how long it'll be before I'm back to normal, but I for sure am never going in that freezer ever again."

Confessional #21: "A-about that…"

"Chef's boxers? Y-y-yeah, funny thing about that…u-uh…" Marty's eyes frantically searched around the confessional, looking for some kind of escape before he inevitably just dove straight through the door.


Location: Staircase to the Dungeon


"Cobwebs…it's nice to see that Chris hardly takes care of what's undoubtedly the best part of this entire property. Though I suppose it does aid the atmosphere in some macabre manner…" Harmonia stood at the top of the stairs, looking down to see just how unkempt the stone stairs were. She sneered, but turned her attention back to the camera that she had borrowed from Marty, looking at a few of the pictures that showed parts of the dungeon. She smirked at every crack in the wall that she had taken note of in the pictures, "Oh, this is bound to be where he's stashed that money away…thanks Marty for being such a simpleton as to give away his best clue."

"Whatcha doin' over there, Harmonia?" Harmonia jolted up from the unexpected voice that had called out to her. She looked behind her to see Tony approaching from down the hallway, a proud smirk on his face. She grimaced when she saw him, tucking the camera away in a safe hiding space within her lolita attire, turning all the way to face him with a false smile.


Confessional #22: "Of course it is…"

"If there was one person that I hadn't wanted to deal with at all during this little scavenger hunt, it was going to be Tony. The boy's got a nose that can sniff out the best deal…I must admit, he may even have some strengths over myself when it comes to manipulation." Harmonia gave a nasty look to the camera as she crumpled up a picture of Tony in her hands. "So, naturally, it just had to be him that came to find me before any of the others. If he catches wind of the camera, my chance at the money might fall to nothing."


"Oh, I'd just figured that I'd humor the cameras and take a dive into the dungeon. I doubt the money will be stashed there, but people will enjoy the show, won't they?" Harmonia kept her false smile on, something she had grown well-accustomed to doing. It didn't waver, despite the intense anger that she felt as Tony grew nearer and nearer to where she was standing. "It makes me wonder, why would someone of your talents want to search in such a drab place? Is it not too obvious of a hiding place?"

"You know how logic works…they'll want us to think something is obvious so that we'll avoid it. It's why I won't leave any stone left unturned." Tony's salesman grin was something that brought uneasiness to Harmonia, despite the pleasant effect that it had upon everyone else. The two perhaps understood each other better than anyone else did, which had become the very reason that they despised each other so much. "Say, if we're both going to take a look down there anyways…wouldn't it make sense for us to work together?"

"I suppose that would make some sense if I knew that you wouldn't try to swindle the money away from me in the event of you finding it, dear." Harmonia's eyes pierced Tony's exterior down to his core, though his grin didn't waver. In fact, it only seemed to grow wider than before. "I'd say you might be better off searching somewhere else…lest one of us ends up remembering the tale of the Cask of Amontillado."

"Ah, you're just too funny, Harmonia! Come on now, you know well that we'll make a great duo together, despite our differences. Besides…" Tony dug around in his suit pocket to retrieve his coin, which he stared at proudly. "If any of us tries anything funny, I'm sure the other will give them some time to stop and think about the mistakes they've made." Harmonia's smile finally started to crack, slowly replacing itself with a frown. "Looks like you're picking up on what I'm laying down, finally."

"Oh, you do so know how to irritate me to no end, don't you?" Harmonia glared as Tony grinned, turning away from him and starting to march down the staircase with him following her closely. She wanted to check back at the camera to recall those crevices, but with him right there, had no option but to sit there and stew over it. "Allow me to make myself perfectly clear, Tony…the second I find that money, it's over for you. I might even just choose to burn it all in front of your eyes."

"Seems like a waste to me, but if torture is what gets you off, be my guest." Tony gave Harmonia a pat on the back, which seemed to disgust her to no end. He brushed past her on his way down the stairs, though he kept an eye on her the entire time.


Confessional #23: "It's the way the game goes!"

"Harmonia and I are the perfect weapons to use against each other in any sort of game really, just because of our skills when it comes to…other people. See, we don't worry about how our decisions are going to affect other people, and we could give less than half a hoot if anyone's mad at us." Tony stared at his grin in the mirror, watching it sparkle beautifully before chuckling to himself. "Problem is that our magic doesn't really work on each other…now, I'm well aware that the dough ain't gonna be in the dungeon, but with AJ searching around for me, I really just need to keep Harmonia occupied. It's almost too easy!"


Location: Graveyard


"Oh, I'm already starting to regret agreeing to go with you, Ursula." Mitchell whimpered as the duo walked through the many rows of tombstones that had been set out in the graveyard. The locale was somewhere deep within the heavily wooded area around the mansion, but it was a bit difficult to pinpoint the exact spot where. He knew that they were somewhere close to the road, at least by the occasional sound of a passing car, but there weren't any other context clues for him to pick up on. Then again, even if there were, he'd still probably be fixed on the creepy atmosphere around him. "It's so muddy and creepy and spooky and I feel like a skeleton is gonna reach up from the dirt and give me a smack on the butt…or worse."

"It's…odd that the first thing that came to mind was getting spanked by a skeleton, but I guess that would be a little creepy. It would be a pretty good finding for my paranormal research though…I can't say I've ever heard of or seen a horny skeleton before." Ursula gave Mitchell a dry laugh, but it didn't really put him at ease. He just kept staring down at the mud, wary as he stepped around the tombstones. She had felt a little bad for the poor guy, seeing how horrified he was. "You know, I could take you back to the mansion if you're really that nervous. I won't mind searching the graveyard alone."

"N-no, it's fine, it's fine. I would want to have a buddy to make sure I don't get devoured by a nasty spirit, so I'm fine doing that for you…I just hope that we won't have to deal with any spirits at all." Mitchell gulped down a lump in his throat, trying to force on a smile to show Ursula, but it came out looking more terrified than anything else. Nonetheless, she smiled back at him, walking a bit closer to him to try and put him at ease. She took his hand in hers again, feeling just how fast his heart was racing through the contact alone.

"Jeez…you really are scared of this. I'm not gonna let anything bad happen to you, though. I'm pretty sure that any of the others would've denied my offer to search around, so I can't risk losing out on this once in a lifetime opportunity." As Ursula spoke to Mitchell, she could feel his heart rate starting to slow, if only by a little bit. It made her faint smile grow a bit larger than before, knowing that he was starting to feel somewhat at ease.

"W-well, I'm glad to help out. It also gives me a chance to prove that I'm not just a big wuss!" Mitchell grinned proudly, reaching his free hand out and resting it against a stone wall, though his hand happened to push in a button that he didn't even know was there in the first place. He was quick to pull his hand back, letting out a yelp as the sound of stone grinding started to echo around the duo. There, they saw the doors to the mausoleum sliding open slowly, leaving some dust to fall in its wake. Once they were open all the way, the two were left staring at the open entryway, each with astonishment clear on their faces. "W-welp! Guess that's our cue to head back, then!"

"The mausoleum is open for the first time in forever! Mitchell, we have to check it out, who knows what paranormal secrets could lay within that tomb?" Ursula excitedly looked at Mitchell, but seeing how terrified he looked wiped away her excitement. "...Are you sure you don't wanna go back? It's okay if you're scared, I promise you that."

"N-no! I'm gonna keep exploring with you and that's that!" Mitchell steeled himself as best as he could, gripping Ursula's hand tightly and starting to lead her into the mausoleum on his own initiative. Her blueish cheeks started changing to purple from the addition of red, though the expression on her face was plain as could be.


Confessional #24: "That's so different…"

"Mitchell just grabbing my hand and taking me into the tomb…it's really a lot different than how he usually acts. Maybe he's just trying not to disappoint me?" Ursula looked a bit puzzled, her cheeks still that vague purple color from before. "I tried to tell him that I wasn't going to be disappointed, regardless of if he went back or not…but I appreciate the enthusiasm. Not like anyone else is going to take an interest in this sort of thing with me."


Location: Patio/Pool


The banging against the lid that had closed over the pool had grown slower than it initially was, with Elijah having been stuck there for a few minutes now. The boy was struggling to use his strength to keep himself afloat as well as attempt to garner someone's attention. He had typically been pretty good at making himself the center of attention, and this change of pace was certainly unwelcomed by him. He groaned weakly as he gave the lid another good slam with his fist, hoping that something came, but after many seconds passed by slowly, his hope started fleeting.

"This can't be how I go out…this isn't a flashy display at all! I always imagined that there was going to be a huge pop of color when I died, but no one can even see me in this pool." Elijah gritted his teeth, pulling his fist back down to just keep himself focused on staying afloat. He stared at the lid aimlessly, the dull, tan color of it not at all appeasing to him. "This is just miserable…who would've thought someone would feel so strongly about an opinion that they'd do something like this? I guess that's it for me, then…"

Elijah continued to stare at the lid, the color seeming to get fuzzy after some time. He was still floating there, but perhaps the reality had struck him that there was nothing to be looking forward to in this situation. It was the end of his extravagant era in the most drab way imaginable, stuck out of sight and out of mind. He had gotten ready to close his eyes at some point, knowing that there was nothing left for him…until the noise came. It was the noise of the lid's motor turning on and, sure enough, the lid had started opening at the far end of the pool. Wasting no time, he started using the rest of his strength to paddle on down that way, feeling himself getting weaker and weaker by the second. Once he had gotten there, he didn't know if he even had the strength to get himself out of there, but in his favor, somebody grabbed him and dragged him out on their own. They laid him flat against the patio ground, staring down at him until he could make out the worried expression on Sophie's face.

"E-Elijah? Do you need CPR? I'm certified!" The girl scout got down to her knees, pressing her hands against his chest and getting ready to start compressing against his chest, but he was able to pull himself up to a sitting position fairly quickly, shaking off some of her worry. "T-thank goodness…how did you end up under there?"

"Urgh…I was getting ready to debate with Tsu about how his favorite author isn't all that great, but didn't wanna debate and shoved me under there." Elijah rubbed his forehead, his vision still slightly fuzzy, but getting better by the second. He took a good look at his surroundings, and they eventually pieced themselves back together, bringing him some relief. "I take it you must've heard me banging on the lid? I knew I was bound to attract some attention at some point!"

"Well, not exactly…I uh…found something pretty nasty…and then someone started shifting the aquarium tanks when I was trying to get out of there. Oh, I thought I was going to die in there…" Sophie looked frantic and started breathing heavily, but relaxed the slightest bit when she saw Elijah sharing that same worry for her that she had for him. "...The pool was pretty close…and I needed water to wash off my…" She sniffled as she gestured down to her lap, which still had vomit all over it.

"Blech…I mean," Elijah cleared his throat and tried not to gag at the sight of the vomit, reaching his hands back down into the water and scooping some up to wash down her lap. "T-thanks for helping me out of there, either way…seems like our problems might've stemmed from the same person, to me."

"You think Tsu would've done that in the aquarium? Well…if he's the one that locked you in the pool…but I don't get it! He's never been like that before, why would he suddenly start acting all crazy!" Sophie had finally gotten cleaned off, thanks to Elijah's help, but she still didn't feel any better about what had happened.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I'm almost willing to bet that it has something to do with that author of his…he switched the very second I gave my take on her works, so there has to be some connection." Elijah paused for a moment, groaning a bit before finally speaking again. "I hate to say it, but I think we might have to call off our hunt for the money to make sure he doesn't do this to anybody else."

"You're right about that…but where could he have gone off to now? I haven't seen anyone other than you since before the search, and considering that you've been locked in the pool this whole time, I take it you're in a similar boat?" Elijah slowly nodded as he pulled himself up to his feet, offering Sophie his hand to help her up.

"I'm not sure, admittedly…seems to me like he's got something for contraptions, though. First the pool lid closing, then the aquarium tank shifting. If that's the case…the next place he'd be in…" As the two sat there in thought, they saw tremendous amounts of birds flying out from one of the massive windows upstairs. They watched the birds pass through before looking back at each other. "Looks like that's gonna be our next best guess."


Confessional #25: "Plain fellow."

"This whole change in Tsu's demeanor is certainly out of nowhere…before tonight, you'd be lucky if you could even get the guy to talk to you in a normal conversation. Sometimes he'd be talking about whatever new manga he's been reading, but aside from that, he'd been fairly quiet." Elijah stroked his chin as he tried to come up with some reason for what had happened. "...Perhaps there was something more to those undertones that we were discussing? All I remember about them was how boring they were, nothing more. I'll have to take a look back into them…maybe Benjamin's got the books in his stock, as I'm pretty certain that Tsu's got his hidden under lock and key."


Location: Nursery


"This is…quite different from the storage room that we were just in. I don't see why there'd even be a nursery in here in the first place, I've not seen a single toddler wandering through this mansion before!" Phoebi started getting annoyed with the absurdity of the mansion's layout, though she and Natsuki had finally gotten to a room that had some lighting in it, so it wasn't as bad for her as it could've been. The intellectual took a good look around the room, noticing a vast amount of cribs that had baby blankets and toys filling them up to the very top. "...I suppose Chris is going to want us to check in there for the money then?"

"What are we searching in?" Natsuki used her seeing stick to guide herself forward until she had tapped it against the leg of one of the cribs. Reaching one of her hands forth, she got a handful of the plush toys that were in that crib, looking a bit puzzled from the feel of them. "Oh…this is so soft. It sort of reminds me of my childhood, but I'm not sure why. Is it…a baby blanket? It feels quite similar to them."

"It…is, actually." Phoebi was, again, minorly impressed by her visionless peer, who was proving herself to be far more capable than she had ever imagined. It left the intellectual with some mixed thoughts on what she should say next, what words she should formulate together to say to this girl that was just impressing her time and time again. "Natsuki."

"Yes, Phoebi?" Natsuki smiled in Phoebi's general direction, leaving her peer to stare back at her blankly before moving over to the same crib as her.

"There's…a lot of cribs in here. It'll be faster if we work together to dig through all these blankets and toys." Phoebi stared down into the crib, starting to sift through the ocean of plushness and warmth, with Natsuki soon to join her in that endeavor. The two dug around, their hands occasionally bumping into each other's, giving the blind girl a case of the giggles while the intellectual remained quiet.

"S-sorry, it's just kind of a surprise to be digging through all this soft and suddenly bumping into your hands like that. You got really quiet all of the sudden, I figured maybe I upset you with my laughing." Natsuki had a bit of a worried look on her face as she stared ahead of the wall, but Phoebi was quite the opposite. In an almost unthinkable way, she had a faint smile on her face.

"No…you're not upsetting me at all, actually. Just thinking to myself, is all." Phoebi went back to digging, the next time she tapped Natsuki's hand actually bringing her to let out a little laugh of her own. "I guess you're right, it is a little surprising."

"Yeah! I don't know if the money's in this one, though…I think I'm touching the bottom of the crib right now." Natsuki pushed down with a bit of pressure, feeling her hands against the spongy mattress at the bottom of the crib. She pulled her hands back out from the crib to retrieve her seeing stick that she had propped up against the side while she dug. "Well, onto the next one, then?"

"Yeah, onto the next one." Phoebi nodded, almost forgetting that Natsuki couldn't see the gesture she was portraying. She felt outright embarrassed about it, but stayed silent as she let Natsuki lead the way to the next crib over.


Confessional #26: "Tolerable."

"I'm finding that Natsuki just so happens to be easily the most tolerable of any of the other interns…she doesn't have this sense to prove herself or defend herself, she just does those things without trying. I don't get impressed easily, let's make that very clear!" Phoebi held up her finger in a nasty manner as she closed her eyes while she spoke. "In fact, I've seen many people with odd talents that they're marginally good at performing, but I still won't get impressed by them! I can't explain what I'm trying to communicate, okay? This is all just…different for me. To make it simple, I'll say that she's tolerable."

Confessional #27: "A bit different than usual."

"I don't recall Phoebi ever really having a soft side before, it's definitely a bit different than her usual…but I've got no complaints!" Natsuki smiled to herself as her hands lay flat in her lap, "I just like being around other people, so if she enjoys being around me then I'm all fine with it! Hearing her laugh for the first time ever actually made me feel pretty special, too!"


Location: Church of Chris


"What in the world is this place? That Chris really is pretty full of himself, huh?" AJ looked all around the massive chapel that she wandered into on the second floor, taking note of a few things right off of the bat. For starters, there was a massive statue of Chris in an elegant robe at the very far end of the wall, something that caught her eye before anything else did. She wasn't a fan of it, but she had to admit that it had been crafted with some expertise, looking sleek and smooth to the finest detail. The second thing was a table with a bowl of fruit punch on it in the center of the room, where all of the chairs and benches had been gathered around. She cringed as she saw it, which is the moment that she turned and noticed the third eye catching thing. It was a small room in the far corner of the chapel, one that resembled a type of confessional booth.

"Hm…guess that must've been the other confessional that Chris was talking about earlier." AJ shrugged her shoulders and started walking towards the little room before anything else, opening it up and taking herself inside of it to take a seat.


Confessional #28: "Good find."

"I honestly expected one of the others to find this booth before I did, but it's still kind of exciting to have found it on my own. Looks just like a real confessional booth…even has the little stained glass window that would wall me off from whoever I'm confessing to!" AJ laughed to herself as she knocked against the window, "Helloooooo? Anyone in there? Could you imagine if there was?" She continued to laugh, but her laughing came to a halt when a piece of paper slipped under the wall that the window was on. She stared at it blankly, hearing a door opening on the other side. "H-hey!"


AJ burst out of the confessional booth, looking around to see what happened to whoever it was that slipped the paper under the wall, but she was alone in the room. She took a look at the other half of the booth, immediately noticing that the door had been left open, since someone did indeed just leave the room. There was no indication as to who it was, though. Feeling a bit uneasy by the odd occurrence, she returned to her side of the confessional, grabbing the piece of paper and unfolding it to see some words stretching out along it.

"'You seek a cash prize, twenty-thousand in size, but to say it'd be on this floor'd be nothing but lies.' Is this supposed to be a hint…? The money's not on the second floor…" AJ thought to herself for a moment before tucking the slip of paper into her costume, looking around the room and seeing that the fruit punch in the bowl was gone from where it once was. "Santa mierda…I need to get out of here before I lose my mind." She decided to not waste anymore time in the creepy room, stumbling out of it and back into the hallway that she had come from before. When she finally left, both the doors to the confessional booth shut on their own.


Location: Balcony


Jaxon had himself still crouched in the same spot that he had been since Benjamin had first used the "Freeze!" coin on him. He dug his finger into the soaked, stone ground, so much so that at this point the skin was starting to peel off of his finger. Nonetheless, his expression hadn't changed from his signature grin, with him just staring off into the rainy air. He slid the tip of his tongue along his jagged teeth, curling it back into his mouth after he had struck each and every tooth.

"Time is…almost up…you only have…one more minute to hide…Ben…Ja…Min…" Jaxon's smile started to grow wider, and the speed at which he was digging his finger into the ground picked up a bit. "You left me…out in the cold…damp…rain…that's not fair to me…Ben…Ja…Min…" A thunderbolt cracked after the second time Jaxon had said the name of the boy that had wronged him, but it didn't even make him flinch.

"Are you scared…Ben…Ja…Min? I can hear it…ba-dum…ba-dum…ba-dum…your heart is racing. Oh…you poor fool…you're so far away…but…" Jaxon took in a deep breath through his nostrils, letting the air hiss out of his mouth shortly after. "Not far enough…I have to get you back…for keeping me so…ununique. I had a chance…you took that chance…as everybody does…not fair…not fa…ir?"

The thunder came crackling again, but something was oddly different about it this time around. It covered up most of the sound, but there was no fooling Jaxon's ears…there was a tremendous amount of glass shattering. It didn't take long for him to locate the source of the shattering, that coming from a room that was incredibly close to the balcony. He stared as birds started flocking out through the now open window, cocking his head at it slowly. Even among the rain, he could still hear more noises coming from the room, noises of deranged laughter mixed with someone's fearful cries. He took a big inhale once more, this time letting the scent simmer inside his nose.

"Ben…Ja…Min…who are you playing with…in the aviary? They smell of…despair…they reek of it." Jaxon's smile started to waver a bit, and the speed at which he was spinning his finger spiraled upward rapidly. He dug and dug and dug, leaving a bloody stain in the stone without so much as wincing in pain. His smile seemed just about to fade from his face, but then…the coin beeped. His timer was up…with that, he finally pulled himself up from the ground, drops of blood dripping from his finger and dropping onto the stone. The rain washed it away quickly, however…even as it was quick to replace itself.

"No no…who are you…to take this from me? I'm going to take care of Ben…Ja…Min…who are you? Who are you…who are you…" The smile stopped fading and stretched out much further than it ever had before, the corners of his mouth practically reaching his ears while his eyes shot wide open. "You…you…you…!" Jaxon couldn't help but laugh as he started trudging toward the exit door to the balcony, leaving his own "Freeze!" coin behind.


Confessional #29: "Who? Who? Who?"

"Stealing is wrong…didn't anybody ever teach you that…? Who…who…who are you…? You're taking everything…everything I had left. Naughty, naughty…" Jaxon sat atop the toilet in the confessional booth on all fours, his head slowly rocking back and forth as he kept grinning that utterly horrific grin. "I'm going to have fun with you…so much fun…Ben…Ja…Min…you are lucky…lucky, lucky!"


Location: Aviary


Benjamin gasped as he got himself to the aviary…even though it wasn't anywhere far from where Jaxon was, he was counting on the fact that there was a plentiful amount of hiding places in it. It had been built almost to look like a rainforest, with tropical birds of all sorts flying around freely. It definitely wasn't the type of room that the bookworm was fond of, being easily too loud for him to enjoy, but he had to make due with it. He started brushing through some bushes, ignoring the intense humidity as best as he could.

"Okay…it's a disaster in here…Jaxon will definitely give up after some point, right? What am I saying, of course he will…anybody would." Benjamin took a deep breath, trying to relax himself a bit, but an exotic bird flew down to him and cawed loudly in his ear. He stumbled forward, eventually tripping on a loose branch and landing face first in the mud. He got up slowly, mud dripping from his face and costume as he did so.

"M-maybe I should've picked somewhere else to go, right? No…no, no. This is definitely the best place for me to hide. Just…ignore the birds and the mud." Even in trying to give himself a pep talk, there wasn't much that Benjamin could do to alleviate his own worries. Jaxon certainly was a horrific individual, and the very thought of him hunting him down had him fearing for his life. He took another deep breath, a thunderbolt soon crackling outside. Maybe it was just how on edge he was already, but that got him a bit worked up as well, his heart rate picking up.

"It's…it's just the thunder, not the end of the world." Benjamin moved through some more brush to look out one of the massive windows in the aviary, taking note of the flash of lightning that came after the thunder. The lightning gave some illumination to the room, showing the vague shadow of something standing somewhat behind Benjamin, but he hadn't noticed it at all. "You know…the rainy weather isn't so bad when you're watching it from inside…kind of peaceful, actually. Really good day to be reading but…we're stuck doing this bunch of nonsense instead. Oh boy…so much fun."

Benjamin sighed, continuing to stare out the window and watch the thunderstorm. It was the only thing that was doing any work at calming his nerves, and his heart rate finally started to slow back down to a normal pace. He patiently waited for the next crack of thunder to erupt…as something whipped right past his head, hitting the window with a thud. It took him a second to realize what it was, just out of being purely startled, but he noticed that it was the same bird from before…its beak now stuck in the glass. Benjamin's eyes widened as the glass started cracking around the bird's beak, and by the time that the thunder came, it shattered wholly. He jumped back a bit to avoid the falling shards, though some did snag his costume and tear the fabric. Just like that, his heart was back to beating like a snare drum. Birds flew past him, making a break through the open window while he helplessly watched them. He gulped slowly, turning to see what was the source of that first bird, but seeing nothing more than the darklit brush. Then, the next lightning bolt came, showing a sight that he hadn't expected at all. Jaxon would've made sense, but it wasn't Jaxon. Among the damp room stood the elegant figure of Tsu, whose tongue was hanging from his lips as he smiled at him. The look was uncanny, almost as if Benjamin had seen it somewhere before, but he could hardly put a finger on it.

"My costume's only okay, right? Right, Ben? Tell me, Ben, tell me!" Tsu started to laugh wickedly, Benjamin taking two slow steps back from him before he suddenly snapped out of his laughter. "TELL ME!" The bookworm was horrified at this point, and hadn't noticed where exactly he was backing up to. That open window was still behind him, just waiting for someone to wander near it, and he was unknowingly getting closer to it. "Oh, poor Ben…did I scare you?" Tsu pulled his tongue back up into his mouth and frowned at the sight of his horrified coworker, starting to walk towards him. "You seem so tense…it's just the kind of reaction my queen wants!"

"Y-your queen?" Benjamin gulped and spoke as loud as he could to his attacker, but even in those few words he was still startled and near silent.

"Myyyyy queen! She'll love to see you like this…that pretty face of yours so drenched in despair!" Tsu blushed and his eyes started sparkling, coming along with more of that wretched laughing of his. Benjamin hated every second of it, as he kept trying to get away from him, but the next step backwards had gotten his foot right on the ledge behind him. The bookworm started wobbling backwards, about to fall until Tsu reached forward and grabbed him by his costume, pulling him towards him. "Are you trying to leave? To escape? No, that won't do at all. Despair is a lasting thing, not so quick to end, you know?"

"W-what are you talking about? Tsu, this isn't…this isn't like you at all!" Benjamin was at a complete loss at this point. Even in his own analytic mind, he couldn't piece together what it was that brought Tsu to act like this. He started frantically thinking to himself, trying to come up with some semblance of a reasoning. "His queen, who is his queen? He reads a lot…what does he read? Who's that mangaka? Think, think…she's…ugh, I can't think of her name!"

"Come on, Ben! Let's dance! It'll be such fun! I get to watch all the funny faces you make first hand!" Tsu smiled widely, moving his hands to hold Benjamin's before dancing him around the rainforest with him, ignoring the next thunderbolt that came crackling. The bookworm could do nothing but helplessly watch, too scared to move his own body away from his attacker's. The lightning finally came, the flash giving a good illumination of Tsu's face and showing that his eyes almost looked like terrifying spirals.


Location: Mausoleum Depths


"Huh…I definitely didn't expect any torches to actually be lit down here…" Mitchell was a bit at ease as he walked down a stone, spiral staircase with Ursula leading him by his hand. He let his eyes wander around, looking at every single cobweb, every little crack in the wall, thinking of what he could possibly do in the event that the duo got trapped in the mausoleum. He looked back ahead to see the sliver of a smile on Ursula's face while she kept leading him further down. "...You really like this sort of spooky stuff, don't you?"

"Oh yes…it's just so vast, there's so much that you can find out from it. I wouldn't ever find myself for a loss of entertainment so long as there are paranormal happenings to look into." Ursula nodded her head lightly, though she didn't look back at Mitchell at all, just kept on smiling. "Back home, a lot of people always thought it was a creepy hobby of mine, but I admittedly was never really sure why that was. I mean, I guess it can be a little spooky, but life's more interesting with something keeping you on your toes."

"I would maybe prefer if life wasn't so frequently horrifying, b-but I guess you're kind of right. I wouldn't really have any inspiration for my stories if it wasn't for the spooky stuff." Mitchell let out a little sigh, and the two finally reached the bottom of the staircase, which just lead to a little hollowed out room. The room was practically empty, give for the single coffin that remained in the center of it. "Well…there isn't much here to look at, is there?"

"Just the one coffin…I know it might be considered trespassing to look in there, but us paranormal experts are always down for a little trespassing!" Ursula sounded a bit excited, even with Mitchell looking at her a bit confused. As the two started moving towards the coffin, the door to it suddenly flung open, letting out a huge cloud of dust. They both stopped in their tracks, staring at the open coffin.

"...Well, this has been absolute oodles of fun, but I think that's a sign that it's time for us to go!" Mitchell pulled his hand away from Ursula and turned to start heading up the stairs, though after a few steps, he realized that Ursula wasn't coming with him. He looked back at her to see that she was just staring at the coffin, excitement abundant on her face. "Ursula, t-this just screams horror movie scene. Something is gonna come out of that coffin and we're gonna get eaten alive!"

"If I get eaten alive, I'll be eaten alive doing something that I love." Ursula giggled creepily as she started walking closer to the coffin. Mitchell's heart sank, as he wanted to keep on going, to leave the mausoleum, but it just didn't feel right to him. He couldn't help but run back to Ursula, grabbing on her hand to try and tug her back with him, but she was…well, significantly stronger than him.

"C-come on, Ursula! Some dusty, old, dead dude is gonna jump out and pick our brains, we need to leave before that happens!" Even with Mitchell's pleas, Ursula still kept pressing towards the coffin. He tried oh so hard to fight back against her need for paranormal exploration, but it was all in vain, as she had gotten the two of them right up to the coffin at this point. Excited, she looked down through the clearing dust to see what was in it, though her excited smile quickly faded.

"...It's…" Ursula reached her hand into the coffin to grab something, pulling it out to show that it was just a piece of paper. The paper had a picture of Chris drawn on it with a word bubble that said, "Haha, Gotcha!" Ursula fell completely silent as she stared at the piece of paper, wishing that it was a joke, that there was something really paranormal there, but coming to the realization that that wasn't the case. She dropped the piece of paper to the ground, slowly sinking down with it and sitting on the ground, cradling her legs with her arms as Mitchell stared at her. "...I should've known Chris was going to do something like this…I'm such an idiot for believing I was actually going to find something."

"Ursula…" Mitchell felt horrible as he saw the paranormal lover sitting there, absolutely distraught by what Chris had set up. It was the perfect sort of thing that she would've fallen for, with the door slowly creaking open, the coffin lid moving out of nowhere, and he knew that well. The paranoid author stood still for a moment before sitting himself down next to Ursula, their shoulders touching as they sat. "...Y-you know…I could always use a hand with m-my search for inspiration."

"Inspiration…?" Ursula didn't look up from the ground, sounding absolutely miserable when Mitchell heard her voice.

"...Y-yeah…I mean, I gotta go out looking for some sort of scary spirit for my books, but I always end up running away…m-maybe we could go together? It could be fun…" Mitchell looked over at Ursula, who slowly raised her head to look back at him. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"...Yeah…" Ursula's faint smile from before starting to come back to her face, "Yeah, I'd like that…" Mitchell's own worries started to leave him be as he smiled back at Ursula, and the two sat there together, enjoying the silent atmosphere with each other.


Confessional #30: "It'll be fun!"

"Mitchell was showing me all of these places that he wanted to check out for his inspiration…abandoned buildings, caves in the middle of forests, just about every type of hot spot that you could imagine for some sort of paranormal activity." Ursula held up a map that Mitchell had frantically circled several locations on, with her lightly smiling behind it. "It'll be a lot of fun for us to check them out…I'm just glad someone actually has an interest in this stuff with me. You know, even if he is a scared baby at times."

"I'm not a baby!" Mitchell popped up from behind the map, though Ursula quickly turned to him and stared into his eyes, which was enough for him to squeak out of fear. "...O-okay, maybe sometimes I'm a baby!"

"Yeah…but you're pretty cute, so I guess it isn't half bad." Ursula smiled as she ruffled the now blushing Mitchell's hair with her hand.


Location: Overgrown Corridor


"Aye…I wish I could remember where the stairs were to get down again…I don't remember going through here at all." AJ looked around as she trudged through a massive hallway that was entirely overrun with plants. She didn't seem turned off by the plantlife, as she was more so invested with finding the money so everybody could get that slice that Tony had promised her in the contract. "It's so dark in here, though…I just wish the lights worked or something. Well, I guess the lightning does help a little bit." Just then, AJ heard a door opening and shutting behind her, and she spun around to see who it was.

"AJ! Oh, I am so glad to see you and your mommy thighs!" Marty let out a deep sigh of relief, with Nathan standing right alongside him and glaring at him from the perverse comment that he had made. Regardless, the photographer ignored the glare and rushed right on up to AJ, who was staring at him in confusion. "We…oh man, so much running…we've been getting chased by Chef this whole time! He's got the freezy coin thingies and he's trying to stop us so we can't look for the money!"

"Chef is…chasing you?" AJ's definitely started shifting after she had heard that, but with her mask covering her mouth, it wasn't entirely clear what the look was.

"Yeah, yeah…see, we knocked him out for a little bit downstairs, but he got back up and came right after us. The running's at least helped me warm up from when I was still stuck in the freezer, so I can't complain about that." Nathan moved to join the other two, brushing some of the remaining ice flakes off of his costume. He and Marty both noticed that look on AJ's face, each of them a bit confused by what it was. "Uh…I can't really tell what expression you've got with your mask on, AJ."

"...You two…have been getting chased by Chef…and he is still chasing you…and you led him here. To where there are three of us. Maybe that makes what I'm feeling a little bit clearer to you two?" AJ grumbled at the boys, who exchanged a miserable glance between each other. Having AJ upset with them was something that no one in the whole building had managed to succeed in other than Chris, up to this point. She just stared at them disappointedly as the door swung open again, revealing Chef Hatchet himself.

"Heeheehee! Looks like I done went and found myself another maggot to freeze!" The burly chef started to laugh chaotically, with the three interns now sprinting towards the other end of the corridor as fast as they could. "Where do you maggots think you're going? Ain't no way out on the other end! You're trapped!" Chef started to follow after them, first moving at a pretty normal pace, but he soon realized that something wasn't right about the area they were in. He took a good look around before his eyes went wide. "U-uh…maggots, I would turn back now if I were you!"

"Why? So you can catch us!? Come on, Chef, that's got to be the laziest way to try and fool us, acting all worried over nothing!" Nathan scoffed at Chef, being the first of the three to reach the overgrown door on the other end of the corridor. He twisted the door knob open before looking ahead, staring into the face of a giant, mutant venus fly trap that was in the next room. He stared blankly for a few seconds before shutting the door again and looking back at the confused AJ and Marty. "You know, maybe Chef is actually onto something, guys."

"Huh? What are you on about?" Marty rolled his eyes and shoved Nathan out of the way to go to the door, but before he was able to open it, it was smashed to bits by the mutant. The three interns, as well as Chef, all screamed loudly and started running back to the other end of the corridor, with that fly trap chasing after them at top speeds. They got to the door fairly quickly, but in their panicked state, it was hard to open the door in time. Chef tried and tried, but his hands were just too wobbly to do it right. "H-hurry up!"

"Boy, I'm trying! I'm under a lot of pressure right now!" Chef kept trying at the door, but the fly trap was getting so much closer at this point. The boys all looked over to see it and screamed shrilly in fear as they thought all was doomed, but AJ stepped in front of them, scowling in a terrifying manner. The fly trap got as close as it could, reaching its head forth to try and bite down on them…but was swiftly slapped across the face by AJ. All parties involved were shocked, except for AJ, who was still scowling.

"You bastarda! Running up and down these halls, destroying everything, trying to eat a bunch of people that didn't do anything to you, you should be ashamed of yourself!" The fly trap slowly opened its mouth again to try and bite AJ, but she delivered another slap to its face, this one echoing throughout the hall. "And you try to do it again while I'm scolding you for doing it the first time? Do you learn nothing? ¡Vuelve a tu habitación o habrá un gran problema! (Go back to your room or there's going to be a big problem!)" It almost sounded like the fly trap was starting to sniffle from being scolded, as it reached a leafy hand up to its face and started rubbing where it had been slapped before slowly turning to head back to its dwelling. "Hmph…some plant monsters just don't know how to behave themselves."

"...Dude I have the weirdest boner right now." Marty's announcement got all of the other three members of the group blushing from second hand embarrassment as they shuffled away from him. "What? Oh, come on, you guys have to admit that seeing AJ do that was pretty hot!"

"You're disgusting, Marty," Nathan refused to look back at the photographer, standing nearby AJ, who was the most disgusted of the three. "...I will admit that it was pretty awesome seeing how you handled that. I never thought I would get so scared of something so easily…especially of something that I could cook and eat."

"Well, I don't much care for people…or things…getting snappy with me. I'd say that monster was well more than snappy." AJ nodded and finally turned back to look at the rest of the group. "Everyone is okay, right?" She got back the nods from the three boys, bringing her a sense of relief. "Good…now, we can keep looking for the money!"

"A-actually…the thing about that is that…uh…you see…you guys actually touched some of the coins attached to me when you were trying to get the door open…so…you know, you're frozen." Chef bashfully smiled as the three interns stared at him in disbelief. "B-but, you know, thanks for not letting that monster eat me and all! Have fun chit chatting for the next fifteen minutes!" With that, Chef left the hallway, leaving the boys there to get glared at by the ever-annoyed AJ.


Confessional #31: "Idiotas!"

"I try my best to be patient with everyone, but they led Chef right to me…ugh, they can be so simple-minded at times. Well…as long as they're okay, that's all that really matters…but I'm still not happy with you two!" AJ glared down at Marty and Nathan, who were shriveled up as they sat on the floor in front of her.

"When you asked me to come into the confessional with you this wasn't really what I had in mind…" Marty weakly mumbled, getting some more disgusted look from the other two.

"Would you please stop saying stuff like that, already? It's vile…" Nathan looked away from Marty again, still blushing. "S-sorry, AJ."


Location: Lovers' Suite


"Well…the timer on the button has been done for some time now. We've just been sitting here…are you sure you can't tell me what you're thinking about?" Hope kept staring at the floor, even with Anne speaking as sweetly to her as she possibly could. "I don't wanna leave until you're able to get whatever it is off of your chest! And maybe something else off of your chest as well!"

"A-Anne!" Hope flushed with red as Anne laughed at her own perverse joke.

"Oh, come on, you know that was clever!" Even with Anne trying to help keep Hope as calm as she could, it didn't really seem to do the trick, she was still just worried as ever. Anne's smile wavered slightly, but she managed to keep it on as she leaned over to rest her curly hair on Hope's shoulder. "Hey, Hope? You'd never get upset with me for telling you something super secret about myself, right?"

"...I don't think I even have the right to get upset with you for something like that. You've been the only person in my life that's actually given half a damn about me for the longest time now. It wouldn't be fair of me to just leave you in the dust for trying to tell me something…" Hope looked over at Anne, blushing even worse now that her head was touching her shoulder.

"That's good to know…I could probably just come right out with it then!" Anne sheepishly smiled while looking away from Hope, who found herself just confused with what the prankster was up to. "Hope, I know you think that you don't really have any positive effect on other people than being the butt of their mockery, but that's just not true. What you think I am for you is exactly what you are for me, actually! You know…the morning pick-me-up, the person that makes me smile, the person that makes me feel appreciated."

"...I don't really know how I could be any of that for you…but I really appreciate it. Even if it's just you trying to make me feel better or whatever it is." Hope started to glance away from Anne, who sprung up in her sitting position again, shaking her head at the miserable girl.

"I'm not medicine, I'm not just trying to make you feel better! I'm being honest with you about how I feel! Well, not entirely honest, cause there is way more to it than that!" Anne started getting red in the face as well, with Hope staring back at her in wonder. "See, this part here is the super secret kinda embarrassing part. I've kinda wanted f-for a pretty long time now to be maybe something more than just buddies. And before you ask, I'm not joking!"

"I don't understand…" Hope still looked confused, her heart starting to beat a bit faster in her chest.

"There's not that much to underst-Anne-d! S-sorry, I can't help myself but make some stupid pun every five seconds." Anne gave herself a smack on the forehead, but confidently looked back at Hope again right after. "Hope, you're smart, you're pretty funny, you've been the best friend I've ever could've asked for and the only person that ever laughed at my jokes, and you're…w-well…you're just drop dead gorgeous! A-and, if it's okay, I kinda want to be make gay jokes about us! …M-maybe I should've saved that bit for later…"

"Anne…" Hope slowly reached over to Anne and placed her hands on her shoulders, trying to somewhat match the confidence that she was faced with. "...T…that's the whole reason I used the coin on you in the first place. I've spent way too much time with you to just waste it all and not ask you to be my jokester. I just…didn't know how to do it…and I thought you were going to be mad at me if I brought it up."

"N-no! I wouldn't ever be mad about that…I think I probably would've died of a happiness overload if you brought it up to me at any point." Anne and Hope sat there in silence for a moment, staring at each other with smiles starting to form on their blushing faces. "...S-so…that's a yes to the gay jokes, then?"

"Obviously…" Hope moved her hands down to take Anne's in her grasp, and the two scooted even closer to each other than before. "...W-well…should we go look somewhere else for the money, A-A-Anniekins?"

"Anniekins!? I wanted to be the first to come up with a cute name…" Anne sighed, but the look on her face made it clear that she was just teasing Hope. "Well, you know…we could go look for the money. Or…you know…just spend more time together."

"...I think that sounds like the best idea you've ever had." Hope gave a huge smile to Anne before wrapping her arms around her in a warm embrace.


Confessional #32: "Eh?"

Nobody could be seen in the confessional, but vague noises of kisses could be heard coming from the floor.


Location: Dungeon


"Sure is murky down here! Bet you're feeling right at home, aren't ya?" Tony chuckled at his own jab at Harmonia, who rolled her eyes as she searched the same dungeon cell as him. She was busy looking under the shabby bedspread that had been set up in the cell, while he was more so looking in between the stone bricks, trying to find out if any of them were growing loose or anything. "Such a good idea, looking down here, I mean. We've been going through all these cells and haven't found the slightest clue, but I'm getting a really good feeling about this one."

"Oh, would you please spare me of your little act? I can see that you think it was foolish to delve down here…certainly the exact thought that someone of your caliber would have." Harmonia pulled herself out from under the bedspread, turning around to get a good look at Tony, who was leaning against the wall with a grin on his face. "You really are so simplistic, thinking that you've got everything in your hands. I know you've got someone looking around elsewhere for you…perhaps it's that AJ? I saw you and her going to the same room before I came here."

"A contract might've been formed between the two of us…we need to have something legally binding if we're going to work together. Of course, she saw the terms and agreed to them…because I know how to treat the people I work with with respect!" Tony seemed outwardly proud of himself as he snickered at Harmonia, "You know, I don't just snatch up their most precious, personal belongings and use it for my own gain. That would just be horrible of me!"

"You…" Harmonia started to get red in the face as she remembered the camera that was tucked away in her costume, but she calmed down quickly, returning to her typical dollish smile. "Oh, you respect your associates, do you, Tony? I suppose you've stopped using invisible ink on your contracts, then? Ah, I remember that one time you tried to get me to sign a contract…but your methods are so obvious. You keep the attention focused on those eyes of yours so the fools you're toying with don't notice that they're signing themselves away to you."

"What can I say? I'm a man that knows business…and how to conduct business so that my deals lean in my favor. It's a dog eat dog world out here, can't be letting yourself get caught out!" Tony still kept grinning, merely shrugging his shoulders as he pulled his invisible ink pen from his costume's pocket. "Guess we're both just pretty terrible, aren't we? Oh, it's so poetic that we would end up going after each other in this mess."

"Agreed…but I'm afraid I've had enough fun with you already. I'd like to get along with checking out some of the other rooms in the mansion." Harmonia continued to smile, retrieving her "Freeze!" coin from her pocket and tossing it gently between her hands. Tony kept his eye on it as she tossed it about, not letting his grin fall in the slightest. "The coin has to touch you and you'll be stuck in place for fifteen minutes. You wouldn't dare to move during that time…you want the money all too much."

"You're right about that! And yeah…the coin's gotta touch me. I don't think you'll be able to manage that, Harmonia." Tony watched as the speed at which Harmonia was tossing the coin from hand to hand started to get much faster. She even started to move her hands around in between tosses, eventually turning it to a blur while Tony continued trying to keep his eyes on it.

"Try me, dear." Harmonia's eyes lit up as the coin launched out from one of her hands at mach speeds, but it wasn't quick enough to fool Tony, who flicked his own coin out of his pocket, causing the two to collide in the air before falling to the ground. Harmonia's eyes then started to bug out, as the coins rolled around quickly before landing in place on the cell floor. Tony, however, was still grinning to himself, not worried about a thing.

"It's quite the gamble to even try touching one of those coins at the moment, isn't it? I mean, I don't even know whose is whose at this point…I doubt you know." Tony shrugged his shoulders and walked towards Harmonia, who was frozen in place in her anger. "What's it going to be, Harmonia? Will you take the gamble on grabbing the coin? Or do you move to some other room? I know what my choice is."

"...Well played, Tony…well played." Harmonia grumbled and the two started to walk out of the final cell together, neither entirely pleased with how their bout went, but both of them dealing with it nonetheless. "It was foolish of me to think I could get you with such a sneaky trick…I guess even one with a mind such as my own would forget herself at times."

"Happens to the best of the minds…happens to the best of them." As the two headed down the path to leave the dungeon, they couldn't help but share a maniacal laugh.


Confessional #33: "We'll call it a draw."

"It would've been smart of me to bring some decoy coins with me to the dungeon, but I guess I just got caught up worrying about if Harmonia was going to still be there by the time I got there. Skipped out on that, and it could've been the point that ensured I got her held up even longer. Win some, lose some." Tony shrugged his shoulders as Harmonia sat next to him, sipping on her tea with a pleasant expression.

"Certainly, but this was much more of a…oh, I despise that I'm about to say this, but it's a draw." The two nodded at each other before looking back at the camera and starting to laugh maniacally once more.


Location: Dusty Corridor


"It's unfortunate that the nursery was a bust…it would've been somewhat clever of Chris to hide the money in there, but I suppose it's equally clever of him to not hide it in there. He just likes to watch us suffer, doesn't he?" Phoebi sighed as she and Natsuki wandered through the dusty hallway. It bothered the genius a lot more than it bothered her partner, who didn't have to deal with seeing any of the cobwebs. "Well…I think this is the last area in the basement before we've checked everywhere. Guess we'll have to go back upstairs after, huh?"

"Guess so, but it's not so bad…Chris hasn't announced that anyone's won yet, so we can still check out a whole bunch of other places. Ah, if you wanted to keep looking around with me after we're done down here." Natsuki giggled innocently while Phoebi reached behind her own head and ruffled her hair.

"I don't really mind it…it's better than looking around with any of the others, I'd say. I can't imagine having somebody like Mitchell down here with me…he'd probably have run all the way back to his mom at this point." Phoebi stretched her arms out as her and Natsuki got closer and closer to the end of the dusty mess they were in, which was far more dusty than the rest. It was almost to the point that Phoebi couldn't even see the door at the end of it. "Uck…what a mess…but there's a room over here."

"Oh, wonderful. I'm glad us walking down here wasn't a waste…I've been inhaling so much dust my lungs are drying out at this point." Natsuki waved her hand in front of her face, trying to avoid inhaling more and more dust, but not really succeeding, as she sneezed when some more got to her. "I can't believe we checked a whole floor together."

"It is pretty crazy…we made really good timing on it, too. Well, here goes nothing." Phoebi reluctantly passed through the mass of cobwebs that surrounded her to get to the door, opening it to find an almost closet sized room. Nothing on the walls, just a singular lightbulb that was hanging from the ceiling to lightly illuminate the area. She looked around a bit, seeing something on the ground and picking it up. "...Well, there's a headshot of Chris in here. Soooooo funny."

"Well…at least we gave it a look and didn't just give up before we made it here. I'm sure some people would've given up before." Natsuki kept on smiling sweetly, using her stick to guide her as she tried to move through the cobwebs as well.

"Yeah, I guess. Well, I'll just see if there's maybe a cracked floorboard or something in this room…can't hurt to check at this point." Phoebi sighed and knelt down to the floor, knocking against some of the wooden boards to see if any were loose. At the same time, Natsuki was sneezing again, the dust still getting to her. "Yeesh, that's twice now…are you good?"

"It's just so dusty…but we'll be done looking around here pretty soon, so as long as we hurry things up it'll be all fine." Natsuki felt a bit grossed out by all the cobwebs that were surrounding her, and started using her seeing stick to swipe at them, garnering some attention from Phoebi. "D-don't mind me, I'm just doing a bit of cleaning…I can't see what's touching me, but it's totally disgusting feeling, I can say that much."

"Suit yourself, I'm almost done in here, anyways." Phoebi whistled, continuing to tap on some of the boards while Natsuki swung the stick around like a madwoman. She was able to mostly keep focused on what she was doing, at least until the stick smacked down on something hard. "Oh no…I really hope she didn't just break her stick," Phoebi thought to herself before turning around to see whatever it was that Natsuki had done. The second she saw what had happened, her jaw nearly fell off of her head.

"Phoebi? What is this?"


Location: Aviary


"What's wrong, Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen? Why don't you wanna dance with meeeeeeeeeeeeee? Pahahaha!" Tsu's awful laugh echoed throughout the aviary, which had grown far more muddy than before with the downpour now coming from the broken window. The boy's once perfect costume was absolutely drenched at this point, being nothing more than soggy rags that mushed against his skin, but he hardly seemed to care about that. He pushed through the mud, allowing the white of his shoes to get sullied as he kept on looking for Benjamin, who had snuck off somewhere. "Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen? This isn't fun! I wanna see your face! Show me your face, Ben! SHOW ME YOUR FACE!"

"Oh crap, oh crap…" Benjamin tried to keep his breaths as hushed as possible as he sat in a fairly large bush that he had found. He had a good view of Tsu from where he was posted, watching the cosplayer as he moved in the opposite direction of his hiding spot. Still, his heart rate was racing something fierce, as he hadn't been so scared in his entire life. He refused to blink, though…his eyes red and dry as he forced them to stare at the madman.

"Beeeeeen! My queen doesn't want to see a game of cat and mouse, my queen wants to watch you despair! Why are you being so mean?" Tsu pouted with his lip, his swirly eyes scanning the room as he did. He found another one of those larger bushes, smiling when he saw it. "Oh! I certainly hope I don't accidentally run into somebody hiding in this big bush! That would be just horrible…aha!" Tsu leapt at the bush, stomping all over it before realizing that it was just a bush and nothing more. He frowned at the realization, looking around again immediately after. "I guess that was just a normal bush with nobody in it! Just as I thought!"

"I can't believe it, but I think I would rather have Jaxon in here right now…" Benjamin kept thinking to himself as he watched Tsu wander the room. His eyes turned to the exit door for a second…it was pretty far from where he currently had been seated. It would've taken him some time to run there…and with the mud being so thick, Tsu might hear him slopping about. "Hm…I'll have to wait until he tries another bush and then make a break for it. Just gotta wait for that moment to come."

"I agree, Mr. Thinker Man, we should sit here and think instead of dancing with our good pal, Tsu!" Benjamin looked next to him to see that Tsu had crouched down right there, placing a hand on his shoulder with his other hand stroking his chin. The bookworm leapt up from his spot in fear, bursting out of the bush and starting to run while Tsu just calmly stood up and stared at him with a big, dopey smile on his face. "Beeeeeen! I just found you, you can't go hide again! That's not how hide and seek works! THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS!"

"Tsu, please! I-is this about those drawings that I found stashed away under your bed? I put them right back where I found them, I swear!" Benjamin shouted as he ran, with Tsu watching him and blushing.

"E-eh!? You found my…oh, you dirty, dirty boy! Those types of drawings are for my eyes only! That's so lewd of you to be looking through those! You didn't even ask!" Tsu laughed perversely and started to move after Benjamin, practically dancing through the mud like an elegant diva. "Most of those are drawn by the queen herself, but there's a fan artist that does drawings that are somewhat decent! You can look up Ro-Sa-Li-Na Ma-Za to find all of her fun, fun drawings, dirty Beeeeeen!"

"N-no, I didn't want to find them, I said it was an accident! Tsu, come on, this isn't funny! Your costume was pretty close to perfect, I didn't mean to insult you earlier!" Benjamin was almost in tears from his fear amping up at this point, tripping over a rock in his running. He reached out to his ankle after he fell, hissing from the intense pain of it before he saw that Tsu was standing over him with that perverse smile on his face still.

"Oh, Ben! You went and hurt yourself running away from lil ol me? You're starting to help the despair out a lot, now! So helpless…oh, my queen is bound to notice me, now!" Tsu started to laugh while Benjamin tried to crawl away in his pained state, though not making it far at a good pace. "You got this, I believe in you! Keep crawling, I'm sure the despair's not gonna catch up to you at all!"

Benjamin could feel his heart pounding so hard that he felt it was about to burst right out through his ribcage. Tsu happily whistled as he pranced towards the bookworm, eventually passing him and crouching right in front of him. Benjamin tried to change course, but everytime he was able to shift his body, Tsu would move to block his path again, making sure that there was nowhere for him to go. After a bit of fooling around, the cosplayer hoisted the bookworm up off of the muddy ground, smiling at him face to face.

"Okay, okay! We've had a whole bunch of fun playing around up here, buuuuuut I think you had a date with that window that I interrupted earlier. Oh, poo…I guess my dancing skills weren't good enough to steal you away!" Tsu giggled, almost sounding somewhat like a child…making it all the more creepy than it would've been if he just laughed normally. "It's okay! I'll drop you off at your date again! It's no bother to me at all!"

Benjamin struggled against Tsu, but didn't have the strength in himself to do so. The cosplayer brought him all the way back to the window, smiling as more lightning flashed around and illuminated the room. He set the bookworm down on his feet, right on the windowsill, his smile growing as he heard the pained groans coming from him. Benjamin's ankle must've been twisted, as it was clear that he was having a hard time keeping himself standing.

"Well…this is it for us, then! It's October, so the perfect month to really enjoy the fall! I feel a little like Anne, making all of these puns! Oooooo! Maybe I should go say hi to her, next!" Tsu did that creepy laugh again, but managed to wave it off as he stared Benjamin right in the eyes. "No need to get ahead of myself, though! Gotta watch you go SPLAT first!" He cocked his head back, laughing outrageously as Benjamin continued to wobble backwards…but the oddest thing happened just then. Some shadowy figure ran through the area, tackling Tsu away from the window, leaving Benjamin all alone. Of course, he had no time to wonder about what that was, as he finally started falling backwards and gasping loudly…

"...Gotcha!" Benjamin stopped falling, something grabbing him by the front of his costume and holding him up. He felt queasy as his head was tilted back to see the ginormous fall that he was presented with, but didn't have the energy to pull himself back up. Luckily for him, whatever had snagged him pulled him up on their own. He fell forward into someone's arms, taking a deep breath when he was finally hoisted upright once more. "There, just…take deep breaths! I've heard they're the best thing to handle stress…though…I'm willing to debate that!"

"Elijah…?" Benjamin looked up to see who had grabbed him, finding the flashy grin of Elijah above him. The debater was still pretty soaked from the pool, and now muddied from running through the aviary, but held onto him, nonetheless. "You…I…"

"Don't think about it too much, let's get you out of here, yeah?" Elijah started to lead Benjamin through the mud to walk out of the aviary, but quickly noticed that he was in tremendous pain. "What's the matter with you?"

"Looks to me like he rolled his ankle…well, it's a good thing I have my First Aid patch! I can get you fixed up real quick!" Not too far from the boys stood Sophie, who was already making a makeshift splint with the branches that she had come across on the ground. She rushed over to Benjamin, getting down on the ground to apply her first aid on his leg while he looked down at her in disbelief. "It's all gonna be okay, Benjamin! We'll make sure of it!" Benjamin was relieved, that was for certain, but even with Elijah and Sophie helping him out of the aviary…well, he felt uncertain about something.

"You guys…you're here but…who tackled Tsu, then?" Elijah and Sophie looked between each other after Benjamin asked his question, neither of them sure what exactly had happened to the guy. Meanwhile…further in the depths of the aviary…Tsu was on the ground, rubbing his forehead while groaning in pain.

"Oh…Ben…I didn't know you brought friends…who is it, Ben? Who is this mystery friend!?" Tsu shot up from the ground, looking all around for answers, but finding nothing in the dark room. The lightning struck once more, lighting up the room well enough to show Jaxon standing mere feet from him, that terrifying smile from before still on his face. "Ohhhhhh~! I didn't expect you of all people! Or maybe I expected you more than I expected some of the others!"

"Funny of you to say that…I would've said the exact same thing." Jaxon cocked his head to the side as he started to circle around Tsu, who was still as confident in himself as ever. "First, the world takes everything…then…Ben…Ja…Min…he takes my shot to stick out…and now…you…Tsu…" Jaxon raised his bloodied finger to point right at Tsu, who didn't care about the awful look of it in the slightest. "I can't even…be the only one…to terrorize him…because of you! You! YOU!"

"Cry me a river…no, please, cry me a river! My queen would love to see you despair over this!" Tsu laughed excitedly to himself, ignoring what Jaxon was doing until he heard a faint noise. He looked ahead to see a large rock had been thrown at him, though he dodged to the side and the rock collided against a tree. "Oooo! You're getting so worked up! It'll make it all the more fun when I'm able to make you despair!"

"Oh…trust me…" Jaxon grunted as he grabbed another large rock from the ground, hoisting it up like it weighed nothing. "...There's no chance…that I'll be the one despairing…you took it…you took the thing that was gonna make me special…the thing…I would be remembered for…and I'm gonna take it back from you…whether you like it or not…!" With another grunt, the madman chucked the rock at Tsu, though the cosplayer danced out of the way again.

"I'd just love to see you try that, Jaxon! Come along, boy! Dance with me! DANCE WITH ME!" Tsu let out that childish laugh as he continued to dance elegantly away from Jaxon, who kept throwing things at him. They did this bout of theirs throughout the aviary, eventually making it back to the broken window from before. But, instead of stopping, the two leapt right out of the window, taking to the rooftops and continuing their chase along there. Eventually, they had fallen out of sight, nothing but the sound of their mixed laughter haunting through the thunderstorm.

"...Yo, interns!" Chris's voice finally came calling back through the speakers that had been set up throughout the mansion's grounds, alerting each and every one of the fourteen that remained there. "I know, I know, you all wanna keep going about your search, but it would be a bit pointless…because the money's already been found! That's right! Everybody can make their way back to the lobby for the big reveal!"


Confessional #34: "Who could it have been?"

"I still…I don't know who it was that came and took care of Tsu…didn't see them, didn't hear them, but if I could, I'd thank them…" Benjamin leaned back against the confessional wall, still exhausted from having to run away from the madman that was trying to kill him. "...This has been too much in one night…I don't even care who found the money at this point…I just want to go home…I don't think I'll be sticking around here anymore…"


Location: Lobby/Foyer


"You guys look like you've all been through it! …And we're missing two interns! Funny how that happens, right?" Chris snickered as he walked past the line of fourteen interns. He passed by Harmonia and Tony first, each of which were pouting tremendously, though no one was really sure why. The next three he passed were AJ, Marty, and Nathan. Nathan was finally warmed up, and drinking a nice cup of hot cocoa while AJ dusted some blades of grass off of her legs. Marty, on the other hand, had finally gotten his camera back, and was taking pictures of anything he could think of. Then came Anne, who had a whole bunch of her green face paint smudged off to expose her tan skin underneath. She smiled, looking all embarrassed, as Chris moved onto Hope, who had green face paint all over her own face with a giant, dumb smile. Natsuki and Phoebi were the next two in the line up, both of them coated head to toe in cobwebs while Phoebi spent her time trying to dust some of them out of Natsuki's hair. Ursula and Mitchell were up next, Mitchell looking relieved to be back in the mansion while Ursula was still holding his hand in hers. And finally…Benjamin, Elijah, and Sophie. The three of them looked a lot more disheveled than anyone else, from almost being dropped out a window, drowned, and smushed, respectively. Nonetheless, they were safe from the man that had attacked them.

"Yeesh…you guys really got put through the ringer…wonder why that was." Chris shrugged his shoulders as some of the interns glared at him, though he completely ignored the looks of hate. "Well, I guess now is a better time than any to announce who found the money! And that is…"

"...Natsuki!" Chris pointed at the blind girl, who had a sheepish look on her face as she reached behind her back to reveal a briefcase. Needless to say, there was quite a good deal of shock coming from the others, specifically from Harmonia and Tony. "I know, right? How does the blind one win the hunt for a bunch of money? You guys should probably feel ashamed of yourself."

"Hey, shut your damn mouth!" Phoebi snapped at Chris, stomping her foot down and making a thud loud enough to startle him into jumping. "Losing to Natsuki in this isn't something to be ashamed of…it's something to expect! She's definitely a harder worker than just about every single one of you! E-even…m-myself…sometimes…" The genius blushed as she admitted that, but still looked peeved.

"Yeesh! Calm down, would you? It was just a little tease…well, Natsuki. It's your money. Whatcha gonna do with it?" Chris cleared his throat to collect himself as he looked at Natsuki, who was both smiling and blushing from Phoebi's compliments.

"I'll…split it with everybody, I think. It's only fair after all of this searching that we each get a piece." Natsuki nodded and opened the briefcase for everybody to see the money. Phoebi stood next to her, keeping a particularly close eye on Tony and Harmonia as they scooted closer to it.

"Ugh…that's no fun at all, but whatever…" Chris groaned and walked away from the interns to stand in front of the camera with a smile on his face. "Well, there you have it, folks! It's certainly been a Halloween night to remember…I'm still wondering what happened to the other two interns! Meh, doesn't matter too much to me…" The host laughed, and the camera slowly panned out of the mansion, granting a view of the massive property. On the very top of the roof, two figures could be seen chasing after each other, illuminated by the lightning that had struck just then. Of course, the light didn't last forever…and all that was left…was darkness.