"Tristan, come on!"

"Joey, shut up! Ya wanna get caught!"

"No, so come 'ere!" Joey pulled his friend into a thickly carpeted room, where their hurried footsteps made little to no sound. The only sound they could hear now was the distant chime of the clock—Midnight.

Tristan shook his arm free. "Man, she was right behind us! If she comes in here we're dead."

Joey was already building kind of a fort out of the pillows, blankets and dusty furniture in what had obviously been an old bedroom. "Not if she don't see us." He stepped back from his fort. "It may not look like much, but we'll be covered."

"You're just lucky the stuff in here was so messed up anyway…"

The sound of footsteps coming nearer caught both of their attention.

"Quick, in here!" Joey whispered, pushing Tristan into a pile of blankets in the corner. He then dove behind an old dresser under the thick comforter that had once been on the bed.

The door opened slowly, and Korimo's black head poked in.

"I know you're in here…" she said softly. "You know I'll find you…why don't you just come out now? There's nowhere to hide!" She shot a ball of bright, white light from her hand, which flittered around the room, lighting up every corner before returning to her and going out. Joey and Tristan held their breaths as the light passed over their heads, but the blankets were thick enough to hide them. "Damn…" Korimo started to curse beneath her breath, and left the room, leaving the door open behind her.

Once the sound of her sandals had faded away, Tristan burst out of a veritable quicksand of blankets and gasped for air. Joey got up with difficulty (the comforter was very thick and soft) and closed the door.

"Whew, that was a close one."

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Tristan brushed dust off of his shirt. "What now?"

"Think she'll come back in here?"

"Probably not for a while."

"Then we can stay, can't we?" Joey also brushed himself down. I'm takin' a nap, wake me if ya need to.

"Hey, I'm tired…too." Tristan hung his head in defeat; Joey was already snoring.

0-0-0-0-0

The clock struck one.

Korimo kept wandering the same halls, following whatever leads she could find. Not that there were all that many. Korimo jerked her head angrily, throwing her hair behind her. She'd underestimated them. And overestimated Fukamito, of course. And now the whole plan was crumbling around her.

She could hear footsteps up ahead. Not exactly close by, by the sound of things, but not so far that she couldn't take another hostage. She sped up.

I know their kind, she kept repeating to herself. They won't leave one of their own here. All I need is one…

She turned a corner, finding herself in yet another dead-end hallway. There was only one door to check. A grin spread itself across Korimo's face.

"Don't be shy now, I won't hurt you. Yet." She threw the door open.

It was a guest bedroom. The dust on the furniture and mirrors was almost twice as thick as in the rest of the house. Never been used. There was even dust coating the carpet, with no footprints. No one had so much as opened the door to this room in years.

Furious, Korimo allowed herself a shriek of anger. Alone, being outwitted by fools, without a servant and now hearing things. Even she was beginning to doubt her chances.

0-0-0-0-0

Duke and Serenity stopped right in front of the clock when it stuck two. Serenity actually jumped at the noise.

"Serenity? What's wrong?"

"Nothing Duke," Serenity took her hands away from her ears as the chimes faded away into nothing. "I just haven't heard anything so loud all night."

Duke stood hunched over, hands on his knees, catching his breath. "Well, last clue we had she was like a mile above us, so I think it's okay to stop here for a bit."

Serenity found a tall, regal-looking armchair pushed against the wall and gratefully sank into it. "Where are we, Duke? D'you think we'll be able to find our way back?"

"I don't know," Duke said honestly, sitting on the floor next to her chair. "We did take a lot of turns. Not to mention that jump…" he rubbed his shoulder, stretching it out. "I dunno if my arm's gonna forgive me for that one."

"Oh! Duke, why didn't you say something before?" Serenity slid out of the chair and inspected his arm.

"Would have slowed us down. It's fine now, don't wo-OW! Worry." Duke flinched as Serenity poked the sore shoulder.

"Oh, this is bad…I should have brought the first-aid kit…"

Duke's head snapped up at the sound of someone walking almost directly above him. He stood quickly, pulling Serenity up with him. "No time now. Don't worry about it, let's just get out of here."

Serenity nodded, though she was still visibly upset. "Right…"

They took off down the hall, taking every staircase they saw leading down.

"Duke," Serenity said through panting breaths, "What if…that was one…of the others?"

Duke was panting much more heavily, but managed to choke out an answer. "If it….was…then we're…okay. But…if it was….her…couldn't risk it."

"Oh…." They reached the bottom of a staircase, and Serenity stopped, sitting on the bottom step. "Duke, I don't like this! I don't like it at all! What if they needed help?"

Duke sat next to her, placing a comforting arm around her shoulder. "It's alright, Serenity. It'll all be over soon."

0-0-0-0-0

Ryou and Tea had gotten along very well through the night, each alternately sleeping and keeping watch. But when Tea woke Ryou at the strike of three, they both heard a single pair of soft, angry footsteps coming close to them.

"It sounds like she's right above us!" Ryou whispered urgently.

"Then we gotta get out of here!" Tea grabbed his wrist and pulled him out the door. The two ran down their hallway until they found stairs going down.

"If all we do is go down, we'll get boxed in on the last floor," Ryou cautioned. More footsteps echoed along the corridor, coming closer.

"Well we'll go up again later! For now let's go!" Keeping her weight on the toes of her dancer's feet, Tea descended the staircase barely making any noise. Ryou, however, wasn't so well-trained. His sneakers thudded on every step, and the approaching footsteps sped up.

"Oh, she heard you…this way!" Tea again pulled Ryou behind her, taking a small side hall instead of the main one.

"Why are we going this way?" Ryou asked between breaths.

"Look at the floor there, some of the others have already been here." Tea indicated two pairs of footprints in the dust before they turned a corner, and the main hall went out of sight. "I bet they've been gone a while, but maybe she won't see ours."

Korimo's voice drifted through the corridors. "Now that's interesting…which way…" her footsteps faded away—she'd taken the main path.

Both Ryou and Tea breathed a sigh of relief.

"We should go back up, maybe a few floors," Ryou suggested. "We could just go the way we came, now."

"Right." Walking now, not running, they re-traced their steps to and past the room where they'd hidden. Wandering for a little while, they found another bedroom a few floors up.

"I think this room's already been searched," Ryou commented rather unnecessarily. There were blankets and pillows in a heap in one corner, and footprints all over the dusty carpet. "I think it's safe to rest here a while."

"Good, I could use a nap," Tea yawned. "First thing I do when I get home is sleep through the night. That'd be nice." And with nothing more than that, Tea fell asleep on the pile of blankets, again leaving a dejected Ryou to keep watch.