As Luka looked around at their work, she felt a flicker of hope that this would work.

A trap was ready for the ghost. A snare was waiting on the ground for some unfortunate soul to step in, and a half finished salt line wrapped around it. The plan was to lure the ghost out, and then finish the salt line when he walked into the circle and got snared.

"This isn't going to work." Luka sighed, crossing her arms.

"Nah, it'll be fine!" Miku said. "Now, how do we lure out the ghost?"

"Yell something about James! That'll lure him out." Tei said, hiding behind a couch with Len.

MIku nodded. "Great! Okay, c'mon Luka! Let's hide!" She dragged Luka behind the furniture and turned to the other two. "Okay, on the count of three, we all yell 'Hi James!' and duck down, okay?"

Everyone nodded.

"Okay… One... two… three…"

"HI JAMES!" They screamed and ducked their heads down.

Elsewhere in the house, a certain blonde turned his head towards the loud noise. "James?" He said. "What are they trying to do, lure me over there?" He sighed. "Oh well." He turned and started walking towards the shouting.


Teto jumped at the loud rumbling noise growing closer to her, accompanied by crashing of what she could only assume to be trees. She screamed as a huge machine came into view. The engine suddenly shut off and Rin poked her head out the front of the vehicle. She grinned.

"Hey Teto!" She yelled down. "Climb in! We're going Len hunting!" Kaito poked his head out of the other window.

"She promised me ice cream."


"I don't think he's coming." Len whispered. It had been about ten minutes, and absolutely nothing had happened.

"Just wait a sec!" Miku whispered back. "I'm sure he's- shhh!"

They all peeked out to see the boy walk into the room. "Hello?" He called. "I heard you people shouting, do you need-" He screamed as the snare caught his leg and hoisted him into the air, his hat falling off and landing on the ground. Miku jumped out and closed the salt line, standing triumphantly next to the gasping blonde.

"I told you it would work!" She said, placing her hands on her hips.

"Miku, I don't think that's a ghost…" Luka said, stepping out from behind the furniture. "We should probably let him down."

"I can't breathe!" He gasped.

"Yeah, we're letting him down now." Luka bent over and undid the knot on the snare, sending the boy smashing down onto the ground with a yelp.

"So… He's not a ghost?" Tei asked.

"A… Ghost?" The blonde asked, fixing his hat. "I'm not a ghost! I'm looking for my bird!"
"Wait… This bird?" Len pointed to his head where the finch was still perched.

"James!" The boy cried. The bird looked up and flew over to him, perching on his hat. He beamed.

"So if you aren't a ghost, who are you?" Miku asked.

"I'm Oliver." He said. "I just came into this house to find James."

Oh. James was the bird.

Tei and Len walked out from behind the couch. "So… You're alive?"
"Yes, last time I checked."

Luka sighed and crossed her arms. "See, I told you, there are no ghosts."

"Hey, where's the other guy?" Oliver asked, looking around.
"What other guy?" Len said.

"There was another man, he was wearing a tuxedo, I think. Do you know him?"

Miku went pale.

"Miku? What's wrong?" Luka asked.

Miku pointed behind her. "G-Ghost!"

They spun around to see a man standing there, wearing a tuxedo just as Oliver had described. "Who are you people?!" He yelled angrily. "Get out of my house! I'll kill you!"

They all screamed. Luka grabbed Oliver's hand and yanked him up as they took off running towards the doors, Tei lifting Len off the ground and carrying him, and James holding on for dear life to Oliver's hat. The man was right behind them, yelling angrily while everyone else screamed and ran. Finally, they reached the door.

"I'm not letting you leave that easily!" The ghost screamed. Miku tried the door, only to find it locked.
"It won't open!" She screamed, panicking.

They turned to the ghost and screamed again, running to the side.

"OUT OF THE WAY!" A shrill, but muffled voice shouted as an engine roared outside the door. The walls smashed down as a yellow machine plowed through what used to be the door. Was that…?

"The road roller?!" Luka yelled. Sure enough, there it was. The yellow machine was sitting in a cloud of dust, Rin sitting in the driver's seat with a huge grin on her face, Teto and Kaito as the unfortunate passengers.

"Get in!" She yelled. They didn't waste a moment, clambering into the road roller as Rin backed up and drove off through the mostly knocked down forest. The ghost screamed in fury, but he didn't follow them. They all caught their breath, glad to finally be out of the mansion.

"Sorry about that, but I thought a dramatic entrance would be cool." Rin said. There was a creaking sound as the entire house collapsed in a cloud of dust. "Oops."

Teto hid her face in her hands while Kaito took another bite of ice cream.

"Anyways, who's band- aids over there?" Rin jabbed her thumb at Oliver.

"Oh, that's Oliver." Said Miku. "We thought he was a ghost and caught him in a snare, but them we found out he was just looking for his bird, so now he's here."

"He looks like Len."
"No he doesn't!" Len shouted.

"Well, James thought you did." Oliver said. "He seems to like you."

Len groaned. "Rin, do you even know where the campsite is?"

"No idea. So I packed you guys's suitcases and arranged for us to stay with some other guys."

"We're just gonna leave them?!" Luka yelled. "Are you crazy?!"

Rin looked up at her. "I just trashed a haunted Victorian mansion with a construction machine. What do you think?"
Luka hid her face in her hands. "Why? I did nothing to deserve this." She groaned.

Heeey second update today!

So since this is the end of the camping trip/haunted mansion arc thing, I'm gonna take a few days off. Don't worry, I'm not abandoning you! I recently reread the story and found a ton of errors, so I'm gonna fix all that, and I need to come up with ideas for the next part. I already have a few, but it'll take a bit to get them into a story format.

Also- THANK YOU! There have been so many reviews, and it makes me so happy! The idea for Rin going looking for Len in the road roller was suggested by a reviewer who was a guest, so I can't credit them for it, but thank you to them!

Also, the people who guessed Oliver was the ghost- enjoy your cookies!

Expect the next chapter sometime this week. Until then, thank you so much for reading!