God! I've finnaly updated! So sorry for the wait everybody! Yes, I know. Now (if you even liked my story from the start) it's been so long since you've seen it that you have to go back and read it from the beginning to remember what's going on. Yeah, I hate that too. But I realized about a week before that I started this story like two years ago... o.o And I have only...9 chapters? I suck at getting things done, but yet I don't want this to go unfinished. So here I am. Writing it. Hoping it'll be a good fic. Trying to stay awake so I can watch Kashimashi ep.4 when it's done downloading. And I'm rambling, so on with the story.

Michiru awaited anxiously on one of the floral patterned chairs in her Moon home's common room. She kept glancing at the wall above the kitchen area at the clock. Six twenty, and waiting. Donned in the Moon's traditional kimono, she kept tugging at the strings tied around her waist and readjusting the elongated sleeves. 'He should be here any minute now...' A creak emitted from across the room startled her into attention, only to discover that it was Haruka's bedroom door opening for the first time that day.

"I'm glad to see that you're not holding yourself up in your room..." Michiru called out to her only to receive nothing in reply. Haruka ignored the comment, making her way to the kitchen, and began to rummage around. She was acutely aware of the aqua haired princess's burning eyes in her back, watching her every move. Michiru wasn't surprised to see that Haruka was dressed only in casual wear and not the formal Moon robes. "So I take it you're not going to the festival at all?"

Haruka ignored her still, clinking around in the icebox. Michiru was still watching her.

A knock at the door stole the Neptune princess away from Haruka's attention, and she glanced at the clock again. Exactly six-thirty on the second. She rose from her chair and opened the door.

"Ready, Michiru-chan?" Fwafwa was dressed and ready to go. He held his arm out to her waiting for her to accept the offer.

She took it without word, glancing at Haruka's stillness from the corner of her eye as she spoke. "Hai." And with that, she left Haruka to herself.

Or so she thought.

Minuets passed as Haruka listened to the slow, rhythmic ticking of the clock on the wall. 'One, two, three, four, five...' Seven minutes passed as she waited completely still; that's when she made her move. Silent as ever, with assassin-like skills, she left out the door in pursuit of a hot trail. 'Since when did Fwafwa ever give a damn about Michiru?' The thought kept her going strong, along with a terrible feeling in her gut. 'Or is it just because I'm insanely jealous?' She didn't care either way. She didn't like this at all. The soft patter of her cloth boots continued down the hall. In her unruly speed her path soon started to come across a hard-packed dirt road lined with lanterns hanging from cord strung around wooden poles. This is where the festival began with the easier, more boring, aspect of following.

'Look at them...' her face sneered in an awful scowl. 'Eating takoyaki with my gir-' Her thoughts stopped short and a pink hue spread across her checks all the way to the tip of her ears. 'Since when is she my...girl, anyway?' Her head hung low as she continued to watch. They started moving further down the path of stands stopping at a few here and there with nothing really interesting happening. 'How boring...' Haruka thought to herself. Well, boring until she noticed something more entertaining. Michiru's lips. Memorized by the dark takoyaki sauce covering the corner of her mouth, observing even closer as her tongue quickly licked it clean. Blushing she looked away the other direction waiting until they decided to move onward.

She continued to watch them as the night went on. Minutes passed into hours, hours into what seemed like days. 'This is ridiculous...' She didn't think that Fwafwa could get anymore dry than what he was. 'And I thought his class was boring.' She picked at some dirt stuck underneath her nail while still watching.

"Are you having a good time Michiru?" Fwafwa looked down to his left at the top of her head, his expression anything but pleasant.

She looked up quickly at him. "Hai!" She saw nothing of his face's grim contortion as she looked away. 'Actually, I'm terribly bored...' How was she to have known that Fwafwa was just as boring a person as he was a teacher. I mean, who really could compare to Haruka's company? She popped another hot ball of batter fried octopus in her mouth and blew to keep the hot steam from burning her tongue.

"I'm glad." He looked around. "Do you want to go in the House of Mirrors?" He pointed straight ahead at a beaten path that veered off to the right. An old wooden sign labeled "House of Mirrors" point in the path's direction completed the look of mock horror.

"S-sure..." She let him lead the way as he started walking again. It seemed strange to her that it would be off the main path of the area, but ignored her instinct.

Haruka looked up just in time. 'Why is she walking that way?' She watching in bewilderment as Michiru followed Fwafwa into the wooded area. 'There's not even anything there...' She didn't think Michiru would be that kind of person. 'She'd never...with Fwafwa?' She threw down the yakisoba she had just purchased from the vender and ran after them. She kept her distance so as to not be noticed.

"Are we almost there yet?" To Michiru it seemed as if they had been walking for hours. Her feet and legs were getting to their end and the way he kept looking back behind them was starting to get on her nerves...and creep her out.

"Almost." He looked back over his shoulder. 'So she was following after all...'

Michiru sighed.

"It's just up ahead..." He stopped, Michiru running into him from behind.

"Wh- what the..." She rubbed her nose from the force of her blunder. Looking up, she realized the mirror house was no where in sight. "F-fwafwa? Where are we?" A nervous sweat broke her brow's skin. The moment dragged on with no change.

Stillness, no noise or movement. It was so silent, her ears began to ring. A high pitch tone that began the onset of a migraine. She was surrounded by complete darkness. The only light she could see was somewhere in front of Fwafwa.

"F-fwafwa?"

He turned slowly to face her, shock and fear kept her in place. She couldn't move a muscle in her body even if she wanted to. The green glowing whites of his eyes and the sick, blood-red color emitted by the rock around his neck was the light cast from beforehand. A horrified scream filled with pain came from the hollow of her throat as his still human hands grabbed her by the sides, pinning her arms down. She struggled to no avail. His hot breath caressed her neck as he spoke in her ear, "Listen to me, do as I say, and she won't get hurt." Michiru held down the urge to vomit her festival food as the scent of his retched breath sent a gag reaction to her stomach. 'She?'

Haruka was still following behind; even she was beginning to tire out. "Shit!" She stubbed her toe on the overgrown roots of the ancient tree she was trying to get around. Looking down to check for any extremes, her vision blurred out and back in. Eyes closed, she shook her head to try and drop the feeling. Her head began to float on air; she struggled to keep her vision clear, still focusing on her foot with the stubbed toe.

"Pisst! Hey!"

She looked around. "Who's there?"

"Heh, down here!"

Her attention snapped back downward at her other foot.

A face had grown on the top of her foot. Except it only had one eye. A huge round blue eye that winked at her when she caught its view. "Boo!"

"What the f-!" Another curse spewed forth as her butt hit rock bottom and the back of her head hit the tree. "What the hell is this?" She couldn't see anything beyond four feet in front of her and everything seemed to have a purple haze to it. Her foot was the first thing she checked. It was back to normal.

A stench unlike any other she had ever smelled in her life came to invade her nostrils and her eyes watered with the power of it. A heart stopping fall backwards in to the trunk of the tree distracted her from the horrendous smell. She sat up straight in an instant after feeling something squish beneath her head and back. "It's rotten!" Maggots. Maggots eating away in the tree's interior. In fact, everything around her was dying. She watched in shock as a flower by her foot lost its petals, wilted, and decomposed into the ground. Eyes were starting to grow on the surfaces around her. Her body shook uncontrollably in shock and fright. She searched frantically around her field of vision in all directions possible, panic was starting to get the better of her. The eyes were everywhere.

At least, right until she heard a terrified scream.

"Michiru...?" The haze disappeared, the eyes closed and sunk back to wherever they came from. She stood up and stumbled into the semi-darkness, rotting forest before and behind her in search of where the scream came from. The smell became stronger as she delved deeper in to the grove of trees.

sigh It seemed so much longer when I was typing it on my computer! But then, when you load it on the site, it becomes so much shorter. :( So how was it? I know it was short, but I was just really excited to be working on my fic again. I hope to update again soon, so keep an eye out! And while you're at it, click that little 'Go' botton at the bottom of the screen and leave me a review. ;) Has the plot thickened yet? Eh? nudge nudge I think about how my story will go everynight before I fall asleep. And I get about a minute's worth of thought everytime. >. So...leave reviews so I know if anyone wants me to finish or not...or...something! Yeah!