EDIT: So, I edited out all of the hard-to-understand Shakespeare mumbo jumbo. Hope this makes the story easier to read (:

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I am so very sorry to those of you who did not understand a lick of what happened in the last chapter. In this one I'll reveal the name of the play and a few other things in this chapter so you can go to "spark notes" and figure out what their saying. Sorry I can't help more. Just so you know, I did change some of the details of the speech to fit everyone. Like 'little Indian boy' into 'little Australian boy'.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ghost Hunt or any of Shakespeare's works. Conversations and quotes used from his works are purely NOT mine and only being used for the story.

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Chapter 8: The Play

I trotted out of the house, a wide grin on my face. Why I was grinning, I didn't know. My head was still reeling from what had just happened, but my body seemed to move on its own. Sighing in resignations, I let myself sink into the role I'd been given. I might as well see where this was going to lead.

I slowly walked down the long gravel driveway seeing as there weren't very many places I could go out in the middle of nowhere. A group of six people stood off to the side talking loudly. The group consisted of Jessica, Damien, three men that I thought were probably from their acting group, and a lookalike Naru.

One of the men who had shockingly orange hair and dark eyes jumped out on something someone had said. "In that case, if I can wear a mask, let me play Thisbe too! I'll be Pyramus first: 'Thisne, Thisne!' And then in falsetto: 'Ah, Pyramus, my dear lover! I'm your dear Thisbe, your dear lady!' He pressed his hand to his chest as if he were playing a girl.

I passed as lookalike Naru shook his head saying, "No, you have to play Pyramus. And Jessica, you'll be Thisbe." He pointed to Jessica who huffed in annoyance.

"Well, go on then," the boy said haughtily.

The Naru lookalike glanced down at a piece of paper in his hands. "Robbie Starveling, the tailor?" he asked.

I had a hunch that he wasn't just a Naru lookalike. I wanted to stay longer, but that didn't seem to be in the script.

A tall boy with light brown hair raised his hand, "Here, Eugene Davis."

I wanted to swing around and run to him, but something kept pushing me forward. When I got to the bottom of the hill where the court met the street I stopped. Finally, I was able to spin around. "Gene! I'm going to get you for not telling us!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, hoping he heard me.

When I turned away with a brooding huff I came face to face with Stephanie. She floated there, looking at me with an odd expression. "You're not like the others," she said, circling me, "They all fell into their roles perfectly. They didn't fight against my hypnotism. Their characters have changed drastically to fit their roles, but you, you've only assimilated slightly. You still have your own thoughts. And you're messing up my play."

I looked at her with wide-eyes. "You're hypnotizing us?" I asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it's something I could do when I was alive," she said nonchalantly, coming to a stop. She alighted on her feet in front of me.

"Why are you hypnotizing us?" I asked her.

"Because I never got to direct the play 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. It's my most favorite play ever. I saw my chance to do that with you guys and took it. I'm sorry if I've offended you," she said sounding sincere. Then she shrugged.

I sighed, rubbing a hand through my hair. "Okay, so all you want is to direct 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' using us, right?" I asked.

"You got it," she said with a grin.

"Then if we stay till the end of this 'play' will you move on?" I asked looking up at her.

"Definitely," she told me with a grin.

I smiled back. "So, just wondering, why did you give us each a role that really didn't suite us all that well? I'm glad you modernized the language, otherwise this seems like it would be impossible but…"

"Well, I find it funny that each of you have to step so far out of your comfort zones. That's what good acting is isn't it?" she said with a shrug as if that explained everything.

I nodded like I understood. "One more thing. Am I dreaming?"

She smiled and shook her head as my world went black again. When I awoke for the second time I was sitting up in a tree. I must have been acting as an audience member because I was back in my regular clothes. Beside me sat Stephanie with the book 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. She was staring down into a clearing intently. I turned my eyes to where she was staring and settled in for the next scene.

Madoka skipped in from one side of the woods while a girl from the acting group skipped in through the other. They were both wearing wispy white dresses with fake fairy wings on their backs. "Hello, spirit! Where are you going?" Madoka asked with a sweeping bow.

"I go everywhere. I work for Ayako, the Fairy Queen, and organize fairy dances for her in the grass. The cowslip flowers are her bodyguards. Now I have to go find some dewdrops and hang a pearl earring on every cowslip flower. Goodbye, you dumb old spirit. I've got to go. The queen and her elves will be here soon," the girl said, flipping back her long blonde hair.

"King Monk is having a party here tonight. Just make sure the queen doesn't come anywhere near him, because, well to put it in leman's terms, he's pissed. She stole an adorable boy from an Australian king. She's never kidnapped such a darling human child before, and, well, Monk's a bit jealous. He wants the child, but the queen refuses to hand him over. Instead, she puts flowers in the boy's hair and makes a fuss over him," Madoka sneered in a way that only Madoka could, "And now Monk and Ayako refuse to speak, or see each other. They always argue, and the little fairies get so frightened that they hide in acorn cups and won't come out." She pouted, her bottom lips sticking out, and stamped her foot in agitation.

The other girl narrowed her eyes at Madoka. "Unless I'm mistaken, you're that mischievous and naughty spirit named Madoka Mori. Don't you go around scaring the girls in the village, screwing up the flour mills and pissing off housewives? Don't keep beer from foaming up and cause people to get lost at night, while you laugh at them? Some people call you other things like 'sweet Puck' and you're nice to them. You do their work for them and give them good luck. That's you, right?" the girl asked.

"That's me, the playful wanderer of the night," Madoka said proudly, puffing out her chest. "I tell Monk jokes and make him smile. I do many things all in the name of fun! Sometimes an old woman with a story to tell tries to sit down on me thinking I'm a three-legged stool. But I slip from underneath her and she falls down, crying, 'Ow, my butt!' and starts coughing, and then everyone laughs and has fun." She paused in her gloating, looking over her shoulder "Get out of the way, fairy! Here comes Monk," Madoka announced, stepping aside.

The girl jumped around crying, "Oh no, and here's Ayako. I wish he'd go away!" She glared pointedly to Madoka who stood with her hands on her hips.

Ayako entered from where the girl had. She had her own set of fairy wings and wore deep red robes accompanied by a gold crown. Monk entered on Madoka's side wearing heavy blue robes accompanied by a silver crown and a pair of fairy wings. Both were followed by a small group of females and males wearing the same wispy clothes and wings as Madoka and the girl.

I tried to stifle my laughter. Stephanie glanced over at me, giving me a confused look. "They look ridiculous all high and mighty like that with fairy wings strapped to their backs. They are never going to live this one down," I explained to her, but she only rolled her eyes and returned her attention to the scene she was directing below.

Monk groaned, "Oh, fantastic. How nice to see you, Ayako."

"What, are you jealous, Monk?" Ayako asked with a conceding smile, "Fairies, we're leaving. I've sworn I'll never sleep with him or talk to him again." She turned on her heel to leave, but Monk's next words stopped her.

"Wait just a minute, you brazen hussy. Aren't you supposed to obey me, your lord and husband?" Monk asked.

I flinched. Ayako stopped dead in her tracks. She whipped around, glaring daggers at Monk. Had he really just called her a hussy? If Ayako hadn't been stuck in a role, she would have already been kicking the holy hell out of him. Good thing Monk would never call anybody something like that under normal circumstances. I couldn't even imagine him ever calling anybody, let alone Ayako, that.

As Ayako's temper started to rage I turned to Stephanie. "Did he just call her what I think he called her?" I asked.

"Yep, isn't that a kicker?" she asked, watching the scene progress quickly.

"B-but this is Monk! He'd never call Ayako something like that!" I cried, staring back at the two who were still a clearing apart.

"And your bed bunny isn't so affectionate, yet during this whole thing he can't seem to keep his emotions to himself," she pointed out looking at me, "Why do you think that is?"

I made a disgruntled noise in the back of my throat because I knew she had a point. "It's because he's in character," I told her with a sigh. John had stepped out of the woods on Ayako's side with light blue robes and a small crown on. "Why's John there?"

"He's the Indian boy, well Australian boy in this case, that the fairy king and queen are fighting over. And you're right about the other thing," she told me, tilting her head to the side, "They seem to be very accustomed to fighting."

"They fight 24/7," I told her with a grin.

"I can see that," she murmured.

We watched quietly as Ayako swooped out of the clearing. Monk started talking to Madoka with a very serious tone. He sent her off to find a flower called 'love-in-waiting'. He was leaning against the trunk of a tree when Yasuhara and Masako stumbled into the clearing.

It looked like they were already halfway through their conversation. Yasu was yelling at Masako who seemed to be pleading with him. I ignored their conversation, not wanting to see two more of my friends fighting even if it was only because they were being directed to. It wasn't until they ran back out of the clearing that Madoka floated back in.

She handed Monk the stem of a flower with two flowers growing out of it. It looked like a purple pansy. He tore the second flower off and told her to put it on the Asian boy's eyes.

"Don't worry, sir. I'm at your service," she said, saluting him and running off with a dancing quality. Monk sighed and went on his own way.

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Okay, I lied. Looks like I won't be elaborating on any of the left out scenes. The only scenes that will be in the next chapters are ones with Mai in them. And also, would you guys like me to go back and change up the language to make it easier to understand? Review and tell me which you prefer please (:

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