Leif stood, frozen, as the footsteps ascended the stairs, waiting for whoever was stalking them to come into view. If it was Mercy, they would give him the fight of his life - a handicap match against the world's most unlikely tag team.

But even as the steps reached the head of the stairs, no one appeared. They were alone in the hall. Leif held his ground, resisting the gnawing urge to bolt.

Suddenly, the two lanterns at the end of the hall went dark at once, as though snuffed out, and the head of the stairway was plunged into darkness. At his side, Shawn flinched back, and it was the horrible confirmation that they were both very afraid that set Leif running. Shawn followed at his heels.

They fled up the flight of stairs at the other end of the hall, the footsteps once again pounding after them, lanterns extinguishing in their wake.

Hunter followed him through secret passages, up stairs and down hallways. It seemed like Waylon had a story for every room. Some of them, he told with Hunter on his arm like a proper gentleman. Others, with Hunter pushed up against a wall between the ever present lanterns.

He wouldn't be doing that in the room they entered now, Hunter thought, there was no space for it. Lanterns covered every inch of walls and ceiling in the tiny, windowless room. It produced an eerie, beautiful effect.

Waylon urged him forward with a gentle hand at the small of his back. "Why don't you go have a closer look, Hunter? Every one is a work of art."

Hunter approached the far wall slowly, feeling dazed and disoriented by the dancing lights. Then he heard the door shut behind him.

"Waylon?" Hunter spun around and saw, with a jolt of fear, that the door had no handle on this side. He pounded on it, felt for a grip on the edges. "Waylon, open the door!"

"Aw, I'm sorry." Waylon spoke lightly and Hunter could practically see him raising his hands, the way he did when apologizing to a ref for not breaking clean, all casual gentility. "There was no call for me to frighten you, darling, you just sit tight. They'll be along soon."

"Who?" His voice cracked, to his shame, and he kicked the door.

"Not who you're fretting about. My aunt, may she rest in peace, never has had patience for your common haints, you know what I mean?"

"Waylon, let me out this instant!" Recieving no response, Hunter threw himself against the door, but it didn't budge. "You bastard, open the door!" Nothing. He clawed at the edges of the door, frantically trying to catch hold of it. "How dare you? How dare you?"

There was no reply. Hunter rested against the door, heart pounding, and looked at the endless lanterns.

Leif felt like they'd been running for hours. The winding halls of the mansion seemed to go on forever, leading to room after room, stair after stair. Sometimes the lanterns in front of them would snuff out, or a door would slam, forcing them to change their course.

Leif looked wildly around the latest hall. It long and narrow, empty except for a long, dusty rug, the lanterns lining the walls, and a ladder leading up to a trap door. There were no other doors or windows, just a stair at each end leading down.

As they reached the ladder, the lanterns at both stairs flickered and died. Leif heard Shawn give a strangled little moan beside him and scrambled for the ladder.

It was the thunder that woke Fatu. The wind and rain were alarmingly loud as he forced his sleepy mind to take stock of the situation. A car wasn't a terrible place to be during a thunderstorm and there weren't any trees around to fall on them. He hadn't noticed whether or not the house had a lightning rod, but the place was old and it apparently hadn't burned down yet. They were fine.

Curious, he waited for lightning. He didn't have to wait long. Catching a brief glance at Scotty's sleeping face, he barely had time to count to one before the thunder rumbled again. God, what a storm.

As lightning branched across the sky once more, he saw Waylon Mercy, standing perfectly still in front of their car, staring. He was holding a sledgehammer.

Fatu checked the door lock with one hand and reached out to shake Scott's shoulder with the other. "Scotty, wake up. Is your door locked?"

Fatu was already starting the engine as Scott leaned away to check. "Yeah. What is it?"

"Waylon Mercy's about twenty yards in front of our car. He's just standing there, but he has a sledgehammer."

"Jesus." Lightning flashed again. "Oh, Jesus, what the fuck? What do we do?"

"I don't know." Fatu swallowed. "I think he's closer. I didn't see him move, but I think-" Thunder cut him off.

Shawn, Leif, and Hunter were still in the house, but that didn't mean they shouldn't drive off right now and get the fucking cops.

Of course, if they knew where to find help, they wouldn't be here in the first place. Fatu had seen the country around them on the way in, there were no neighbors, no gas stations, no pay phones, and in the dark, in this weather, with god knew which roads washed out, they had no chance of finding any.

Fatu released the parking break and put the car in gear.

Then there was the second car. Hell, they'd followed Mercy here, he clearly knew the area better than they did. Even if they managed to drive a few miles before they got stuck in the mud, that wouldn't even guarantee them a good enough head start to run until morning.

As though they were sharing one train of thought, Scotty gave trembling voice to his own, terrible conclusion. "Hit him."

Another illuminating flash. Mercy was definitely closer this time, no mistaking it.

"Yeah." He floored the gas pedal and waited for the impact.

Before Leif could set foot on the first rung, Shawn grabbed his arm and yanked him back. "It's treeing us!" Shawn looked between Leif and the darkened stair in front of them with wild eyes. "We have to risk the stairs."

As if in answer, another set of lanterns extinguished at each end of the hall. "We have to," Shawn almost whispered, still clinging to Leif's arm.

A slow movement began in the darkness at the end of the hall. It was the rug, bulging as though something under it were raising up, creeping forwards. Leif wrenched his arm free of Shawn's grasp and climbed for all he was worth. The trap door was stuck.

He pounded a fist on it in frustration and it was as though the walls were crowded with the house's victims, all pounding back at him. Desperate, Leif stepped two rungs higher and braced his shoudler against the trap door, pushing with all his might. It gave. So did the ladder.

It was Shawn who kept him from a very bad landing, only half catching him but breaking his fall well enough. The shapes under the carpet were drawing closer, approaching with the darkness, even as the frantic pounding from the walls continued.

"Come on!" Leif yelled. "Give me a boost!" Ashen faced and shaking, Shawn complied.

Leif caught the edge of the hole with his fingers. It hurt, felt like he got about a million splinters, but that didn't even slow him down. He hauled himself up and scrambled into the attic.

Even as he lay, panting, on the floor, he knew something had changed now that he'd reached the attic. Some task had been completed. He pushed himself up to a sitting position, looking down at the hole. He felt different up here, looking down.

"Are you okay?"

Shawn's voice cracked. Leif knew Shawn wasn't really asking if he was okay, he was begging Leif to reach down and pull him up, to get him out of that terrible hallway before whatever it was could reach him.

"Fine," he called down absently.

Leif looked around the attic. The light from the hall lanterns didn't make it far, all he could see was a small ring of dusty floor around the trap door and the dim suggestion of shapes farther away. The pounding from below stopped abruptly and he could hear Shawn's ragged breathing.

"Hurry up, man, give me a hand!"

Leif heard the footsteps again, pounding up both sets of stairs at a furious pace. He was afraid, but not like before. He was up here, now. Shawn was the one in the hall.

"Please, Leif, come on! Please!"

"You broke his heart."

"What?" Shawn looked up at him in confusion. Leif could see the shine of fear-tears ready to fall.

A heartbeat later, Leif could see that Shawn understood. It didn't make him hesitate as he reached out to grab the trap door.