Author Notes: Welcome to the second chapter of 'A Hearty Life'! ^-^

Kittey - Thanks for your comments! I've been very busy lately with my fanfic's (My muses!! They've gone wild!! They keep coming up with new story idea's to write and are forcing me to write them!! ^^;; ) So I haven't gotten a chance to look at your fanfiction, but I will! ^-^

Tom - I am sorry that you think Lynn is a Marry Sue. Personally, I don't like Mary Sue's, but have you noticed that almost every made up character that comes into a fanfic universe somebody always calls them a Marry Sue? That's because the story is focusing a bit more on them then on some of the other characters. To me, that's not really a Merry Sue unless the writer has written so many fanfic's and they are all about her and nobody else.

What really makes a Mary Sue for me is to have the character be perfect, like think of the Lord of the Rings, when people write about it and they have Legolas meet a girl, the girl will have never had shot a bow and arrow in her life, but they make it on her first try, she's great! Which I have always hated. Lynn is nothing like that. She's just a normal girl who knows nothing about being on the ocean or anything about Pirates, really. She's just a regular teenage girl ^^

Elita - Thank you so much! Your so sweet ^.^ I'm so glad you like the story, and I really really hope you like this second chapter ^^

Now that I've bored everybody half to death with my answers to the reviews ^^;;; you can now enjoy the story! (Unless of course you skipped this entire Author's Note.. ^^; )

A Hearty Life

A Skeleton in the MoonLight

By MoonLight Star

"I can't believe this." Lynn muttered for the fifth time in the last ten minutes. "What have I gotten myself into?" She had only been in the haunted house for a total of twelve minutes, and all ready she was hearing creepy noises coming from upstairs.

She kept hearing furniture moving, or the pitter patter of feet running, and every now and then she could hear a man laughing, but it wasn't a laugh of glee, it was a manic kind of laugh which made goose bumps appear on her arms and legs.

Needless to say, Lynn wished she could jump up and run out the door. But, now that she was here if she walked out she would never ever hear the end of it from Toni. So, Lynn was sitting on the couch quietly, timing how long she had been there till her one hour was up, till she could leave.

She figured if she turned a deaf ear to the noises and just sat there, then nothing bad would happen. It was boring, but it was better then running through the house scared.

Lynn jumped when she heard a man scream loudly from right behind her. Her head whipped to the side, looking franticly all around her for the man who had screamed. The manic like laughter was back. A shocked look appeared on her face when she realized that somebody was laughing at her for having jumped.

"Well!" She huffed as she crossed her arms over her chest as she glared all around her. "What nice ghosts!" She couldn't help but say sarcastically. A small smile lit up her face as she realized what she had just said. She couldn't help but laugh at the irony of it all. It was kind of funny, after all.

That was, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

A small surprised cry came out from her lips as she jumped off of the couch and looked to the offending ghost. It was a man. But, he didn't look like she would have thought him to be. He looked as real as she did. At first she had to wonder if maybe this wasn't a ghost at all.

But, then he smiled at her. His mouth was full of rotten and broken black teeth. 'Don't run away..' Not that she could anyway. Her feet seemed to be stuck to the ground.

The man/ghost walked closer to her. His long fingers were reaching for her neck, as his face light up with a wicked smile. Lynn shook her head, her eyes wide as she backed away from him, her feet finally unstuck from the ground. Though her legs were stiff now.

Breaking whatever spell was on her legs, she forced herself to turn and run. But she didn't run to the door, like she wished she could. Instead she ran upstairs. Her feet hitting each wooden step on the staircase could be heard throughout the entire house as she ran. That same manic laugh could also be heard as the man chased after her.

Her heart was beating wildly as she made it to the second story of the house. She ran right, knowing that it didn't matter which way she went, the manic like man would catch her either way.

She ran into a bedroom. It had a four-poster bed, but that's all she had time to really notice, the man was right behind her.

She was backing against the wall now; the man was in front of her reaching for her again. Her back hit the white wall. 'Oh no!' Was the only real thought that she could register at the moment.

It was suddenly dark in the room. The sun had gone down and the moonlight was showing brightly through the window on the other side of the room. As the man reached for her his skin started chipping away and it showed a skeleton.

Lynn let out a scream as the man was now nothing but a skeleton. His bony fingers were now wrapped around her neck. She could feel the hard cold bones pressing in on her.

Then everything went black, and she could no longer feel or see anything.