I know you all have been waiting for the scary stuff to begin, so I know present chapter four of my story, retitled "Haunted". Brace yourselves, because things are about to get paranormal up in here!

Yeah, I know, lame catchphrase, but bear with me. Anyhoo, I don't own anything relating to the Lilo and Stitch franchise. It is copyrighted to Disney.

Chapter Four: Voices in the Dark

The five of them made their way up the dreary tunnel stairs, the yellow beams of their flashlights barley penetrating more than a few feet in front of them. The only other light in the dank tunnel was the green light from Stitch's eyes, caused by the activation of his night vision ability. Their footsteps echoed in the empty blackness, echoing off of the tunnel walls and reverberating with each fall of their feet.

"Whew, it smells in here." Yuki commented. Indeed, the heavy odor of dust and age invaded their nostrils as they climbed. It seemed like forever that they made their way through the darkness before they finally reached another large set of metal doors, their once pristine metal surface now covered in a thick coating of rust, some of which ended up on Victoria's hands when she grasped the handle to open the doors. Once they were opened, the girls shined their flashlights forward, revealing a particularly obnoxious scrawling that referred to someone's mother, written in green spray paint.

"Someone's idea of freedom of expression?" Myrtle asked, staring at the scrawling with disgust. Obviously, some previous owner didn't care enough about the building to keep hoodlums out.

"Who cares?" The rest said. Walking through the doors, they entered a small corridor which appeared to branch off from somewhere, probably another corridor or room. They made their way down this corridor to be confronted by yet another corridor, this one much larger and with open doorways all down the sides. Like the tunnel, the walls of the corridor were covered in graffiti spelling out all manners of messages, from simple phrases like "Hi mom" to much less appealing words. The gang made their way down the corridor until they were confronted by a large set of double doors. When they entered the doorway, a large room that was filled with shadows cast by the moonlight and more offensive graffiti than they had ever seen in their life confronted them. Lining the walls were brand new windows, no doubt put in by the new owners as part of their restoration program. However, not much else had been done. The room was still very dusty, and a large outline that might have been the receptionist's desk was the only indication that this room had had any sort of function.

"What a dump." Myrtle said, a hint of disgust in her voice. The others simply looked the room over. Lilo was the first to speak.

"Well guys, what now?" She said.

"I guess we just wait here until the storm passes." Victoria said. The rest of them all voiced their agreement, and they stepped out of the corridor they were in and entered the large room

What none of them noticed was the shadowy form that glided past the doorway they had just entered.

---

It was less than a half an hour before the storm was upon them. The darkness of the room briefly disappeared with each flash of lightning, casting dim shadows on the walls. The room was filled with a cacophony of sound as the torrential rain pummeled the building, reverberating off of the walls of the now empty sanatorium. The noise of the rain only served to make the clash of thunder sound louder. The building shook each time the lightning its voice, and hurt Stitch's supersensitive ears.

"Man, I hate storms." Yuki whined. Indeed, when she was younger, she had a crippling case of brontophobia, or fear of thunder. Every time a thunderstorm hit, it nearly gave her a heart attack. Now, at ten, her fear was lessened significantly, though storms still made her nervous.

"There's nothing to be scared about, it's just thunder." Lilo reassured her. Yuki nodded shifted around where she sat, trying to get comfortable, which proved to be difficult on the hard floor. Victoria, meanwhile, was playing around on her weather radio, which she had taken with her for just such an occasion. When she finally found the weather station, what she heard didn't sound encouraging. According to the weatherman, the storm was going last for another couple of hours, and several local stations in Louisville were reporting flooding and blocked roads. One thing was for sure; they wouldn't be leaving the old sanatorium anytime soon.

"Guys, bad news." Victoria spoke up. "The storms not gonna let up for another few hours." All the rest of them groaned.

"Ah choota!" Stitch cursed.

"You said it." Myrtle said. Lilo nodded in agreement, while Yuki simply slumped against the wall. It wasn't just the storm that was getting to her. This building, just the knowledge that so much suffering occurred, that so many people died behind it's walls, seemed to cloak the building in an aura of gloom and despair, an aura which filled her with dread. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was enough to bother her very much.

---

It was nearly three hours before the storm finally let up. By the time it did, the ground outside the sanatorium had become a virtual mini-swamp, filled with mud puddles and little rivers of deep brown water. This situation did not deter the girls and Stitch from venturing out of the building to go forward with the previous plan, flagging down a car to help them get back to camp.

That plan went down the drain the instant they got down to the road.

The road was completely covered in muddy water and debris. Tree branches, rocks, even a couple of rider mowers all were clogging the road, preventing any access to the sanatorium. They wouldn't be leaving anytime soon.

"Oh no." Yuki moaned. Lilo patted her on the shoulder in reassurance.

"Don't worry, they'll clean all this up in the morning, and then they'll come looking for us." Lilo said. Yuki nodded, though she was still a little upset.

"I have an idea." Myrtle chimed in. "We should put lanterns in the building's windows. That way, if any comes up to check it, they'll see them and know we're here." The others all agreed, and started to trek back up the sanatorium.

---

Placing the lanterns wasn't as easy as they all had thought. Waverly Hills was a five-floor building, and though it had elevators, they building had no power, so the staircases were the only way to move from floor to floor. The corridors were also all alike, making navigating and remembering which floor one was on confusing at times. The three of them, them being Lilo, Yuki, and Stitch, had to keep careful count of which floor they were on in order to keep from getting lost.

Yuki had been tasked with setting a lantern up on the fifth floor, the highest point in the building. She huffed as she climbed up the last flight of stairs to the fifth floor. There wasn't much to see, except for a couple of rooms, only one of which had it's label, "502". She switched her lantern so that both bulbs were on before entering the room. Immediately, she was hit with a sense of gloom and dread, as though the room itself was depressed. She tried to shake the feeling, but it was no use. She decided that the sooner she got out of this room, the better. She gingerly mad her way over to the windowsill, but as she went to place the lantern on it, she heard it.

Footsteps.

Dull, heavy footsteps sounding in the hallway outside. Yuki froze, fear beginning to form within her.

"Myrtle, Victoria, Lilo? Is that you?" She asked, her voice quavering with fear. The footsteps were getting closer to the room, and their heaviness was increasing. It was almost as though a man were walking around outside. It clearly wasn't any of the others.

Yuki backed toward the window, shaking ever so slightly from fright. Her shivering quickly got worse as she was suddenly washed over with cold air. She had never felt a cold like it before. It penetrated her body all the way into her heart, invading every last fiber of her being. Her shaking became violent, and her breath rose in a mist in front of her, and the whole time, the footsteps were getting closer. Finally they stopped, just when she expected someone to appear in front of the door. However, all she saw was darkness in the doorway, her field of vision blurring slightly from all of the shaking.

And that's when she heard it.

"Get out." A deep, clearly male voice, barely a whisper, said to her. Yuki stood rooted to the spot where she was standing, unable to move out of sheer fear, her arms wrapped around her body from the penetrating cold.

"GET OUT!" She heard the voice speak again, this time in a loud and vicious, almost demonic, shout. Yuki didn't have to think twice about doing whoever, or whatever, the voice belonged to wanted. She immediately tore out of the room as fast as she could and raced down the stairs, wanting to put as much distance between herself and whatever that thing was as possible.

---

"Whew, that was some work." Myrtle said as she and the others met in the third floor corridor, where they had all decided to meet after setting up their lanterns. They were all exhausted from climbing up the stairs to the fourth floor. They felt sorry for Yuki, who had to climb up to the fifth floor to place hers. Myrtle and Lilo sat down against the wall near a patient room to catch their breath, whilst Stitch just stood, having hardly broken a sweat during the climb. Myrtle took notice to the fact that Yuki had not arrived yet.

"I wonder what's taking Yuki so long?" She said. Lilo, who had also noticed that Yuki was not back, looked up the stairs. She shrugged her shoulders.

"She should have been back by now." Lilo said, her voice betraying her concern. Myrtle was about to say something when they heard running footsteps coming down the stairs. As they watched, Yuki came tearing down the stairs, skidding to a halt in front of the three. Lilo was shocked by the expression that she saw on Yuki's face. It was one of pure terror.

"Yuki, what happened? You look like you've seen a ghost!" She gasped. Yuki took a moment to catch her breath before answering.

"I was upstairs getting my lantern set up, when something told me to get out." She said, her voice shaking with fright. Myrtle looked at her with a confused look on her face.

"What do you mean 'something'?" She asked.

"I was placing my lantern in the window, when I started hearing footsteps coming toward the room. Then, the room got really cold, and then I heard this voice yell at me to get out, so I ran." Yuki was starting to tear up from fright at this point, so Lilo wrapped her arms around her in comfort. Myrtle was about to say something, when they heard more footsteps coming, this time coming up the stairs. Victoria came tearing up the stairs, stopping only momentarily to catch her breath.

"What's going on? I heard Yuki panicking up here." She said.

"Yuki hear voice." Stitch said. Myrtle shook her head.

"It was probably just her imagination." She said. Lilo turned to look at her.

"I don't know, Myrtle. She looks really scared." She said. Victoria and Stitch both voiced their agreement.

"C'mon you guys, we all know there's no such thing as ghosts." Myrtle said. Yuki shot an angry glare in Myrtle's direction.

"I did hear something up there!" She shouted, catching them all off guard. "I know what I heard, and I heard voices!" Myrtle shot her hands up. It was so unusual for Yuki to have such a sharp voice.

"Look," Victoria cut in, "It's been a long day for all of us. What you say we get some sleep?" The others all nodded in agreement, and decided to crash in one of the empty patient rooms. Victoria headed downstairs to grab their stuff, whilst the others waited in the room.

None of them knew it, but their predicament was about to get much, much worse.

That's it for chapter four of Haunted. I apologize for the shortness of this chapter. I promise the next one will be longer. Read and review everybody, and remember, no flames!