A/N: Alrighty! It has been a hot minute since I've written for this series, but this chapter of the sequel has been in progress since I was writing the first fic in this series, and now it's finally ready to be published! Yay!

Now, you may have noticed that the humor genre wasn't tagged in this and it's supernatural instead, but don't worry. This does not in any way mean there won't be funny moments, but this fic will be a little bit more serious than the last one since we're focusing on backstories and stuff like that. But without further delays, let's finally begin this story!

Turmoil. That's all she had felt since she could remember anything, pain and fear and confusion. But now, something seemed to give. A light at the end of the tunnel, a ray of hope. Had something changed above? She would need to figure this out.

I yawn, stretch, and slowly open my eyes. The light shining through my bedroom windows is extra bright this morning. I go to pull the blankets off myself and get out of bed, then freeze.

This isn't my room! This isn't my bed! Oh my gosh, where am I?! I wrap my arms around myself, taking deep breaths. Now that I look at my surroundings they do seem kinda familiar, although a teeny bit hazy... Oh, yeah! I remember now! I take a moment to mentally go through what happened last night. This morning? Whatever.

This might sound hard to believe, but life was pretty much normal for me since I'd returned from the mansion. Well, besides the extra schoolwork I had to make up from missing a few days, and being held as a local celebrity after being the first one to come out of that place alive and well. Although I knew that wouldn't last long since no one, not even the most idealistic of people believed me about what was going down there. Well, except for one person.

My mom made a promise when I was born. She swore that she would never lie to me about anything, and always answer honestly. She also promised to believe me, as long as I didn't give her a reason not to. When I finally managed to start explaining what happened, she listened very carefully and reacted in all the wright places. "You were very reckless to just barge into a place like that!" She scolded once I'd finished. "We knew that place was dangerous, but that? ... But, what you did probably saved hundreds, maybe even thousands of lives. You were really brave and I am so proud of you! you're still grounded though."

Even though she said this with a playful smile, I knew she was serious. I pretended to be upset, but in all actuality I wasn't too mad. After having such a long and intense adventure away from home, all I wanted to do was lay around the house for a while. And even though I couldn't go anywhere but school unless it was with her, Mom didn't stop me from playing video games, posting fanfiction, and writing letters to my friends, namely Taker.

Ah, Taker. Even though my life hadn't changed much, his certainly did. He was at the top of the food chain, leader of the pack. And he'd made a lot of changes to the way the mansion was run. He'd made changes to the layout of the mansion so it was more comfortable for everyone, and changed the "Specimen Database" to the "Inhabitant Database" which I am a part of! Inhabitant 1! Ohh, how I love the sound of that! If I didn't know Taker saw me as a good friend before, I definitely do now. Although it makes me wonder why he kept his position as 9... meh, I'm sure he has his reasons.

I'll never forget the exchange I had with the mailman the first time I wrote a letter to Taker. "Uh, kid, Are you sure you wrote the write address on this letter?"

"Yup, absolutely!"

"But that's the adress of the abandoned mansion on the mountain."

"And the place I want to send my letter. I don't see what the problem is, sir."

"...You know what? Fine. I'll send the letter there. But don't expect to get a reply."

The look on that guy's face when I got a reply no more than a day later was priceless! I could tell he was barely restraining himself from opening it. He didn't, thankfully, and Taker and I's conversations could remain between, well, Taker and I. Eventually the mailman seemed to grow numb to what was, to him, a weird and mysterious exchange, but I hoped Taker could get some wifi set up in the mansion soon somehow so we could switch to emails or something.

We'd been going at this for about a month when our story begins. Taker had been researching ways of sending Spooky and her ghostly Battalion to the afterlife, where they belonged. Doing it his usual way wasn't working for some weird reason. He wasn't having much success finding an alternative method, so much so that he was desperate enough to ask the blue-haired rebel herself if she had any ideas. As you could imagine, this didn't go very well.

Surprisingly enough though, this story doesn't start from a letter Taker sent me, oh no. Instead, it begins with a shrill, horrified scream which woke me up at 3:00 AM on the dot. I jumped so high into the air that my teeth fell together with a loud click when I landed back on my bed. Disoriented, I lay there in the darkness, shivering as I tried to puzzle out what the heck was going on.

Somewhere across the house, probably in the living room or kitchen, I could hear a muddled conversation. ONe of the voices was definitely my mom, probably the one who screamed. The other was masculine and sorta familiar, but I couldn't quite peg who it was. A few minutes later I hear her footsteps coming down the hall, followed by a knock on my bedroom door. "C'min," I mumble, still half asleep.

Mom opens the door, her body framed by the light in the hallway. "There's ... someone here to see you," she stammers, seeming a bit shocked and nervous. "Says he knows you from the mansion, says his name is ... Ron."

I groan a little bit. I thought in the corner of my mind something like this would happen soon, but I didn't think it would be Ron, or Inhabitant 11. The food demon had treated me decently since I'd managed to call him out in my dream, and during the whole rebellion against Spooky. But he'd always seemed mostly neutral about my existence as a whole, so I didn't think he, of all inhabitants, would be the one to visit me. Still it would be nice to talk to someone from the mansion in person, and I would like to know why he's here.

"Tell 'im I'll be out in a minute," I slurr. "Need to get dressed."

Mom just nods, and closes the door.

When I manage to get myself semi-presentable and drag my tired body into the living room, sure enough, there on the couch lounges a familiar red demon. "Heeey," He drawls, smirking. "Sure took you long enough."

It's nice to see you too, Ron." I say with a slight smile, before a big yawn takes me over. "hooooooooo-wum...I hope you have a good reason for waking me up and scaring the crap outa my mom."

"Oh, I do. In Taker's opinion, at least."

"Taker?" Suddenly, i'm a lot more awake. What about Taker? Did something happen? Is he in trouble?" i gasp. "Oh no. Spooky didn't escape, did she?"

"Oh, no. Nothing like that," Ron consoles, though I don't think he's used to doing it cause it comes out a bit funny sounding. He motions to the spot on the couch next to him. "Wy don'tcha sit down, and we'll discuss it."

Mom, still looking weirded out, makes to leave the room. "I'll leave you guys to that..."

"Bring us food, woman! Preferably beef!" Ron yells after her.

Maybe it's because I'm tired, or maybe it's simply the fact I don't appreciate my mother being talked to like a slave, but I'm in Ron's face before even I know what's happened. I'd forgotten about the intense heat he gives off, but it didn't stop me. "Don't talk to my mother that way." My voice is calm and relatively quiet, but there's an edge there that the demon definitely picks up on and thus relents. "Okay, okay, take it easy."

I revel in the fact that I'd just scared a demon before plopping down on the couch.

"So, this thing with Taker you speak of... what's it about?"

"Weeeeeell unfortunately the guy didn't give me all that many details, he never does. It's all business, all the time with him. 24-7, it's always 'Ron! Go get us some groceries!'And then he complains about me getting wheat bread instead of white bread. But how was I supposed to know that's what he wanted? Sure as hell wasn't because he told me. Or what about 'Ron, can you stop using my kitchen and use the one I gave to you?' Yeah, sure, because mine is soooo much better. Or the age old 'Ron! Please move your beef off of my desk! It's gotten blood all over my newspaper!' Seriously, can you believe this guy values crosswords over fresh meat? Seriously!"

It takes all my willlpower to hold bak a frustrated sigh. Apparently, the changes aren't going well for the food demon, and I feel like I might have been a little more sympathetic were it not for the fact that I was tired and grumpy. "Look man, I get that you're having a rough time, but I didn't get up at 3:00 AM to listen to someone complain. So could you please give me the info you do have?"

Ron huffs, but complies. "Fine. So apparently Taker has made some progress in getting rid of Spooky or he found something that'll help get rid of Spooky, I wasn't really listening."

Too busy thinking about how crappy your own life is no doubt, I think grumpily to myself, but decide not to say it aloud since all it would do was delay me from figuring out what was going on even further.

"either way, he wants you to help him with it and I'm here to pick you up. So are we going or what?"

"W-wait a minute, hold on, do we have to go like, now? Because I have school and... and other things."

"Hey don't blame me kid, I'm just the messenger."

I sigh, rub my eyes and stand up. I'm so tired that the room wobbles a bit around me, but eventually I get my barings. "Uh, Mom?" I call out, hoping she's not far away. thankfully she is still in the kitchen, and lumbers back into the living room. When our eyes meet, her gaze is one of knowing, and resignation.

"You have to go back, don't you?" She asks, voice low.

"Yeah," I grumble. "but I shouldn't be as long as I was last time, and it shouldn't be as dangerous seeing as I have like tons of supernatural entities on my side and—"

"It's okay." Mom interrupts, putting a gentle hand on my shoulder. "I won't stop you; I can tell this is important."

"How?"

She shruggs. "Mommy magic?"

I can't help but giggle as Mom pulls me into a hug. "I love you, baby."

"I love you too Mom."

"Try to be back before Saturday. We're going to Dollywood, remember? And, I plan to get passes."

"Oh, yeah! " forgot about that. I still need to decide what i want to ride first. Swings? Scrambler? carousel? Rocking pirate ship? Oh, I know, let's do the Ferris wheel."

"nooooooo!" Mom shrieks playfully, covering her face with her hands. She has a terrible fear of heights; now that I think about it the abyss rooms in The Mansion would be terrible for her.

"ahem!" Ron's harsh throat clearing interrupts our fun, and I scowl at him before giving Mom another hug. "I'll be back in time, I promise."

"You'd better be, else I might have to extend your grounding. Bye deetle-deetle!"

"Bye, Mommy! agh!" I shriek, because suddenly I found myself being grabbed by a very impatient demon and phasing away, my mom's confused expression the last thing I see before I'm transported to what I assume to be another dimension.

"Ewww!" I moan in disgust at the warm squelchy meat beneath my bare feet. the stuff is all around us now, forming raw red tunnels that seem to be pulsating ever so slightly. "Is this... raw beef?"

"Indeed it is," Ron boasts, his mood having improved greatly after arriving here. "My meat tunnels are crafted with one hundred percent beef. the best way to travel!"

"That... is highly subjective. Yuck." I try hard not to puke and just focus on moving forward, eyes glued to Ron's back. One foot in front of the other, right, left, right, left. Don't think about the weird noises or the pulsing, don't think about when Nana made you put your hands into this stuff while making meatloaf which turned you off the food completely. Don't think about it, don't think about it, don't, don't, don't!"

"roooooon?"

"What?"

"Are we theeeeere yeeeeeet?"

"Oh, don't you dare start with that!"

After what seemed like an eternity but was probably only five minutes, our surroundings warped again and I found myself standing in the foyer of The Mansion. "Taker!" Ron shouted, startling Goopboy who was trying to learn how to use a hula hoop nearby. It fell to the floor, causing said slime monster to wheeze in annoyance. Don't know how he got into hula hooping, but props to him for trying to learn something new, I guess?

Ron, being the apathetic jerk that he is, ignored Goopboy's plight and continued shouting. "I've got a delivery for yoooooooou!"

"What is it?" An all too familiar voice asked, growing louder as Taker approached. "is it the shake and bake I asked for two weeks ago?"

"Uh, not quite."

It must have been at that moment that Taker saw me, with my messy hair, bloodstained yellow bathrobe, and an expression that said that I was completely done with everything. then: "Holy—"

"Watch it!" Ron snapped, not making the situation any better for himself in the long run.

"What the hell, Ron! What did you do?! Did you snatch her from her bed or sOmething?"

"No, not at all. It was completely consensual, honest!"

I decide that now might be a good time to intervene, so I try my best at a smile (though it probably looked more like a grimace) and mumble "Hi, Taker."

"Hello, zoe. I'm so sorry about this."

"Nah man, it's cool. but could I maybe have a place to get cleaned up?"

"and go back to sleep," He adds. "What I'm planning can wait for a more decent hour." He looks accusingly at Ron as he says this, who becomes indignant.

"What do you mean!? 3:00 AM is a perfectly decent hour!"

"for you and some other supernatural beingS, perhaps. Not at all for adolescent humans, much as some of them like to think otherwise..." He then turns to me again. "come on Zoe, I will show you to your rooms. You can clean up and get some rest while I have a talk with Ron."

Whatever irate response said demon had to that was lost to me, as I had already taken Taker's hand and was far away. It didn't sound nice, whatever it was.

I can't help but gawk at the incredible area Taker had made for me in the mansion for a while. It was done in bright yellows, blues and reds, my favorite colors! the bed was more of a huge fluffy nest than a bed, covered in various warm fluffy things. There were shelves full of books (mostly fantasy) toys, games and other cool stuff, a fridge filled with my favorite foods and drinks with a companion microwave, and even one room that was nothing but a gigantic trampoleen! But what I was most interested in at the moment was the hamper to put my dirty clothes in, and the large bathtub that was almost exactly like the one in the prefects' bathroom in Harry potter! But this one was all mine!

I had an amazing time getting myself cleaned up and playing with the bubbles and assorted tub toys, until the warmth of the water made me doze off. Not wanting to drown (how dumb would that be after my previous exploits here?) I climb out and allow the water to drain away. I then put on a soft pair of pajamas that seemingly appeared from nowhere, and snuggled into my nest. It was heavenly!

i think the feeling of just having a bath and then climbing into equally clean sheets is one of the best feelings in the world. With a huge smile on my face, I'm out like a light.

I'm smiling in almost the same way as I remember these events. It's very relieving to know that that's what happened, and I didn't get kidnapped or anything like that. Well if you don't count the incident with ron, anyway. And now, it's probably time to get up and see if I can find Taker. He probably wants to get started on whatever it is he wanted me for.

I stretch again, climbing out of the amazing bed. I don't bother making it as I don't really see a reason to, and instead look for some clothes.

I succeed in finding what looks to be a brand new pair of overalls and yellow t-shirt. Ron must've been ran ragged getting all of this stuff, I think with a small laugh as I get changed. Once I've done that and ran a brush through my hair as well as other various morning toiletries (excluding makeup because I like the way I look naturally just fine) I'm finally ready to head out. As I stroll out of my lair, I wonder what's in store. What has taker found that he wanted my help with? guess there's only one way to find out...