Apologies to the uber long break before posting this. I just…never got around to doing anything really. XD I ended up playing too much Xillia and then Skyward Sword and this is what happened. Me slacking off on a lot of stuff. *coughfinalscough* And did a lot of slacking during Winter Break.

Also, see what I did to the title there? Disney reference. XD

Disclaimer: Don't own Abyss. Just love the game.

Chapter 18: Haunted Mansion

The sound of my alarm playing Bump of Chicken's Karma went off. I stirred in my bed, trying to ignore the song the best I could. I was so close to dozing off again until someone murmured and stirred from below. Next thing I knew, that someone kicked me from underneath my bed.

I jolted up, nearly banging my head to the ceiling that was a bare inch away from my head. Even though I was sitting up on my bed, my eyes were glued shut. The greatest challenge was to get them opened and then to swing my blanket off my lap, letting the warmth disappear to the cold morning. I wanted to lie back down but a second kick came; this time with more force. I groaned. "I'm up."

It wasn't like the person sleeping below me hit the mattress so hard. It just felt uncomfortable sleeping there with a person more than willing to continue kicking you from underneath.

After tossing my blanket to the side, I swung my leg over the bed frame and climbed down the ladder. I caught sight of my sister, who slept in the bunk below, covering her ears with her blanket, blocking out as much sound as possible. Shaking my head at my sister, I turned around and just stared lazily at the dresser where my alarm clock was still playing Karma. Still tired, it felt like I had put so much effort into stretching out my arm and pushing that little button on the alarm to turn off the song. The minute the song stopped, I stood there, not minding me sleeping while standing. It was so much effort just to climb back up to bed to sleep again. I was down and I might as well get ready. My eyes slowly adjust to the time that was registered on the clock.

8:02.

Joy.

Yawning, I placed my hand on the door but paused for some reason. I remembered having a dream not too long ago but I couldn't seem to recall it at the moment. It shouldn't bother me at all since it was a dream…

But it felt like I was forgetting something.

I shook my head. I had to get ready for work. I knew my uncle would scold me for being late and all.

I bathed, dried my hair, dressed myself and was out of the door within an hour. Half of that time I was spending time on my laptop, checking up on my friends on the forum, then emails and other stuff I do as a daily habit. If I had a car, I would have used that to get to work and spent more time goofing off.

That was…if I had a license and the restaurant I was working in wasn't located downtown. As if parking wasn't hard to find in the first place, I'd rather not pay twenty some dollars per day just to park there and have difficulty getting out after working for only a mere four hours. So, in the end, it was transit for me. Cheaper than driving to work and I felt more comfortable transiting seeing as I transited most of the time for university when I was at school.

But something was missing.

Even when I boarded the train, I still couldn't get rid of the nagging feeling at the back of my head. I know I had forgotten loads of things in the past but I would have remembered what I had forgotten the minute I stepped onto the bus or halfway towards my station.

And even now I still couldn't put my finger down on it.

It was getting extremely annoying. I decided to push that nagging feeling aside and maybe it would come back to me sometime later during the day. It wouldn't make a difference anyway. If I remembered what the item was on the bus or train, it was still too late to get it. So it would be at home regardless.

"Seventh Street West Station," the automatic announcer said in a monotone voice. "This is the downtown train; destination Tenth Street West. If you are travelling north, please disembark and-"

Disembark and transfer to the northwest train, blah blah blah. I still heard all of that even with my earphones in my ear. Blasting music didn't help at all. I was surprised that no one decided to change that monotonic announcer to a hip and happier one. I remember the train driver doing that, sounding extremely cheerful even thought it was six in the morning, but that was a rare event. I got up and left the train before I ended up walking even further for work. Luckily, the station I got off on wasn't too far from my workplace. A two minute walk from it really. I turned on a corner that lead straight to my uncle's restaurant.

The minute I walk to the door, I saw a familiar brunette washing the glass door while humming a soft tune. Her hair was tied back and she had already donned the uniform of the restaurant. Which…only consisted of a shirt with the restaurant's name and wear-whatever-you-want-but-it-has-to-be-black pants.

"Tear~" I called to her. "Morning~!"

She turned around, not surprised, and smiled back at me. "Good morning, Anh. You're early today."

"Not as early as you," I pointed out as I stepped up the stairs.

"It was because of you that I got this job, I had to do my best."

I playfully rolled my eyes. The restaurant opened only a week ago and we were short on waitresses. So I asked Tear to come help me even though she lacked in the speaking in another language department. Hell, I couldn't speak my own native language, Vietnamese, and I still got hired. Then again, I asked my uncle if he needed someone to work for him during the summer so…

Anyways, I just hope my uncle doesn't use too much Vietnamese in front of Tear.

Well, it shouldn't be much of a problem, would it?

My phone vibrated in my pocket, letting me know that someone had texted me. I flipped it open the minute I pulled it out of my pocket, took a quick glimpse at the sender, opened the message and smirked as I read its contents.

"You have a weird smile on you," Tear noted as the both of us enter the restaurant. I dismissed it with a wave as soon as I close my phone. Since I didn't want to say too much about it, Tear simply let it go as if it was nothing.

She probably assumed that it was from my boyfriend but it was more of a surprise for her. Sortof…

"Van-Anh!" the sharp call from my uncle when he used my full name. I only winced at the loud sound and my uncle appeared from the kitchen. He eyed Tear first. "Where's Van-Anh?"

"Anh just arrived." Tear pointed to me and my uncle just stared at me when I gave him a small greeting bow.

"Oh, there you are. Go get ready." He pointed to the area behind him where the washrooms were.

I sighed, making my way to the washroom before he said another word. Was that the only reason why he barked my name? Ugh, why didn't he just call for me normally and why does he have to act like that?

"He seems to be giving you a hard time," Tear said once I came out of the washroom after slipping on the shirt that had the restaurant's name on.

"I don't know why he does that though," I mumbled, grabbing a black homemade mini apron and wrapping it around my waist. I patted my waist to double check that my notepad and pen were in the pouch. "On the positive side, at least we get free lunch after this."

"Is food all you think of these days?" she asked with a sigh.

"Not true," I huffed setting both of my hands on my hips. "I think of games, internet, food…" I began listing things off, lifting one finger at everything I could think of. My count was stopped halfway when the door opened and the entrance bell rang.

I quickly turned around, smiling at the customers. "Hi! For how many?" I quickly noted the number of people there before they gave an answer. I then nodded and grabbed the menus as another set of customers came in. Tear took care of them as I led the ones I had to a table.

And so the busy day began.

From 11:00 to sometime after 1, the entire restaurant was busy and packed. All of the waitresses, including Tear and I was running up and about, filling out orders and checking up on customers. Occasionally, me, my cousin, or Tear would handle the cashier whenever my uncle decided to act like the manager he was supposed to be. The entire area was so bustling and busy, none of us had the time to stop and chat. Mostly, we just shout at each other when a request needed to be filled ASAP.

When it was close to 2, the business died down to the point where there would be one or two customers still lingering. After that, there wouldn't be any customer except for the occasional customer that wanted take-out.

That was when everybody did their share of cleaning duty. Once that was done, we get to eat.

I sighed, setting myself onto a chair. "I'm so tired." I leaned my head back and it bumped against the wall behind it. I had already placed my order for lunch and it was being prepared at that moment. The smell of delicious beef noodles wafted from the kitchen and that alone made my stomach growl in anticipation.

"Everything tires you out when it includes work," Tear pointed out, finishing the rest of the cups she had to dry as part of her cleaning duty for the day.

My cousin said something in Vietnamese that made me smirk. I grabbed the napkin I was planning to use soon and tossed it at her at the table in front of mine. It floated in the air before floating harmlessly to the ground; completely missing my target. My cousin turned around and laughed at me before returning to her calculations.

Tear's head tilted to the side, confused but intrigued at the same time. "Did I miss something?" she asked taking out the hairpin that held her bangs up.

"Oh, My just insulted me by calling me lazy." I told her with a wave of my hand in my cousin's direction. My cousin and I were pretty close. If I had something to insult her back with, it would be her name. Many people would mispronounce it; Tear included, when they first saw the spelling. Aside from the Vietnamese, no one ever figured out that it sounded like 'me', so it became an inside joke between us.

"You are lazy." Tear scoffed before heading into the kitchen. She came out not too long after, keeping the door opened. "Anh, there's some shrimp salad rolls left. You aunt wants to know if you want them."

"I'll pass for today," I called back to her. "Tell her I'll take some home, though."

Tear nodded and disappeared back into the kitchen. And then poked her head back. "Someone's vermicelli's ready."

"My!" I said around the same time my cousin said, "Me!"

Tear blinked, confused. "So, is it My who asked for the vermicelli or was that you, Anh?"

I grinned again. "My!" This time I was pointing to my cousin who raised her hand to let Tear know. She got up and went into the kitchen to grab her lunch as Tear settled down on the seat across from the table.

"You both are confusing," she sighed.

"I love doing that to you," I teased, leaning forward and resting my chin on my open palm. Tear only sighed back at me.

The entrance bell rang and My was the first one to get to the customer. She had set her lunch on her table and greeted the customer with a sweet 'hi'. From out of nowhere, she went, "Tear! You're boyfriend is here!"

"I don't have a boyfriend," she retorted as I laughed my ass off.

I leaned to the left and looked over my shoulder, at the entrance. Smiling, I waved at the person coming in. "Hey, Luke! Nice haircut!"

He fingered his short red hair; a pink hue lit his cheeks before waving back at me. "Hey, guys. Just stopping by."

"For like the second time this week," I commented. I stood up, letting him take my seat when I took the seat beside Tear's.

He simply shrugged. "What can I say? Your aunt makes good food. Think you can place an order for me?"

"We're still charging you for that." I set a hand on my hip.

He laughed. "Never asked you to give it to me for free."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Rich boy." I turned around and tapped the machine to place his order. "Same one as before, right?"

"Yeah," he said, waving a hand in my direction.

"So what are you doing here, Luke?" I heard Tear asked.

I bit my lower lip when he gave her a weird look. "I texted Anh earlier to tell you guys that I was dropping by." There was a pause before he connected the dots "…Let me guess: she didn't tell you?"

"No, she didn't." She shot me a not so pleased look the minute I snorted.

"I see." Luke gave me his own version of a not so pleased look. Though it looked more amused than anything else. "Anyway, Jade wanted me to let you all know to set this Saturday free."

I set Luke's drink in front of him looking just as confused as Tear was. "Why?"

He shot me an 'it's Jade' look. "Beats me. When does that guy explain things?"

I tapped my cheek, replaying all of the events he had set up for us. Yeah…none of them were explained. "That's true..."

"I'm guessing that everyone else is coming?" Tear asked.

Luke nodded. "Guy already told me that he can come for sure. As for Anise, she said she should be able to come, but only if someone comes to get her and to drop her off afterwards. I think she said she wanted to check some place on the way home. I sent Natalia a text but she hasn't replied yet so I'm assuming she's busy at the moment. And then there's you two."

"I don't have school so I'm up for it." I said. Tear nodded in agreement. "But I want to know what Jade's planning for the weekend."

"He's close to your side of the family, Anh, why don't you ask him?" Tear suggested.

Haha, yeah right. He was only close to my family regarding the business area. I rolled my eyes. "Like he tells me anything…"

Luke laughed. "Well, it's Jade. It's not like him to haul us to the wilderness, dump us there with few supplies and then ditches us and watch the action from a rented cottage somewhere close to there."

There was an awkward silence between us at Luke's suggestion. A gloomy aura had made its way above us, slowly seeping downwards and into our minds.

"He just might do that." I said drearily.

"I think he might." Luke agreed looking completely terrified.

"That suggestion aside," Tear spoke up. "Luke, don't you have a quiz on Monday? Do you even have time to even drop by here?"

Luke blinked a couple of times before diverting his attention to elsewhere; taking sudden fascination to the glass cups in front of him. I mimicked Tear's dark glare the minute he did that.

"Luke…" I said darkly.

"It's not like I need it for post secondary!" he protested. "I don't even know why I'm taking the class in the first place!"

I shrugged. "You might need it as a prerequisite for a course at the university. Who knows what you might take."

"But it's a quiz, Anh. A quiz." He stressed the final word like it was a big deal. "Even if I didn't do so well in it, it's only a small bit of my final mark so why should it matter?"

"High school graduates are so carefree…" Tear mumbled.

I nodded, thinking about after my high school graduation. "Agreed."

She shot me a look. "Anh's too carefree…"

"Agreed." Luke nodded giving me a similar look. "Which reminds me, Anh, you mention about playing a game recently and wanted me to come play with you. What's the name of the game?"

I clapped gleefully. "It's so much fun right now! I'm playing it with my brother but you have to play it too so that we can geek out together! It's called Tales of the Abyss!"

Suddenly, Luke and Tear gave me weird looks like I was the lunatic. I was used to those looks seeing as I did spaz like a geek pretty often. Except this one gave me the chills. The two of them looked at each other and then back at me. I returned their odd looks with a confused one of my own.

"Anh…" Tear started.

"You are in Tales of the Abyss." Luke finished for her.

My expression fell. "What are you guys talking about? I'm playing the game at home. The main character's name is-"

"Luke fon Fabre." Luke said pointing to himself. "That's me, Anh."

I paled. The blood just rushed out of my head as the thing that I forgot came back to mind. "Wait…then. How?"

"It's time for you to wake up." Tear reached out and pinched my cheek extremely hard.

"Ow ow ow ow OW!" I shouted smacking the hand that was pinching my poor cheek. I leaned my head to the side so the sore area touched the hard cold ground beneath me. Even with my eyes closed I could tell I was in a dark room.

A giggle erupted from a familiar voice. "She's awake now, Tear."

"Yes, I can see that."

Slowly, I opened my eyes. They slowly adjusted to the dimly lit room and I caught the sight of two figures. Tear was on my left, so that meant it was Anise who pinched my cheek so hard. I would have had revenge on my mind if the surroundings were a little less gloomy and dark. We were flanked by slimy mossy walls with the only exit to this God forsaken disgusting place was the jail bars in front of us and the pungent smell of something stagnant in the air was making me sick to the core. I took another look around the area and noticed that it was just the three of us in a dungeon like cell. No sign of the guys or Celena.

"Where are we again?" I asked.

"In a dungeon in Choral Castle." Tear explained calmly. "We were knocked out and were brought here. I'm assuming that the others are in a separate chamber seeing that Luke and Ion were the enemies' targets."

"That Gloomietta!" Anise cried out in disgust. "She took our weapons and left us to rot in this dungeon!"

"I find it odd that she hasn't killed us while we were all unconscious…" Tear pondered out loud.

I slowly nodded in agreement. It didn't make any sense why Arietta would leave us, including myself, alive. I mean, wouldn't killing us satisfy her revenge for killing her family? What was the main reason why we were still alive? I hugged my legs closer to my chest as I recalled the incident before being unconscious.

We made it to Choral Castle by midday. Now when I heard summer home that belonged to the Fabres, I would be imagining a beautiful mansion with white, pristine rocks walls, an arch that stood above a metal gate to prevent intruders and all those sparkles and shit. Now take that mansion, destroy some of the walls and add moss and chips, put some cracks and holes in the mansion and add destroyed windows. Put a gloomy atmosphere above the mansion, make it look like the place was out of bounds and that would be Choral Castle now.

The gate was totally inviting us to walk over there and stab ourselves with its prodding prongs.

Guy scratched his head at the entrance and laughed nervously. "I know the gate doesn't look like it would let us in, but there's an alternative entrance."

"You've been here before, Guy?" Tear asked as we all moved away from the gate with Guy in the lead. From behind, I saw him nod slowly.

"I was. Seven years ago. But now is not the time to explain, we're here." Guy stopped at looked over to his right where a large chunk of the wall had fell and crumpled into a series of smaller rocks. Guy went in first by steadily walking up the pile of rocks, testing each one to make sure it was stable before continuing on. Afterwards, when he reached to the top of the pile, he motioned to us to come up. One by one, we followed him step by step. It wasn't that bad. I mean, worst case scenario, we might have to climb the walls. And I wasn't sure my rock climbing skills would be up to it.

After making our way in the courtyard of the mansion, Luke looked around the place and his nose wrinkled in disgust. "This is the place they found me in…? It's falling apart. It looks haunted." He added after taking a good note of the detail.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Luke." Jade adjusted his glasses, looking quite devious. "Rumor has it that if a building was abandoned for a large period of time, monsters would take over the place."

Luke looked like he was already bored of the story. "And?"

"Oh, nothing," Jade shrugged. He tucked his hands into his pockets as he smiled a not so friendly smile. "I was just about to say that some monsters prey on others and the monsters that were preyed might have a strong enough feeling of hatred to reappear as poltergeists."

"What's a poltergeist?" Luke asked.

"Ghosts." I answered in layman's terms.

"Technically, a poltergeist is a phenomenon where inanimate objects animate themselves." Jade corrected. "Though most people simply refer them to as ghosts or spirits, I'd refer to them as poltergeist since, from personal experience, ghosts and spirits actually exist as monsters."

Luke's face paled to the point it rivals mine and Tear's. "So…You mean to say that this place is actually haunted?"

"Not at all, it was simply a speculation."

"Well, from my personal experience, you won't see any ghosts or poltergeists in here, Luke." Guy patted his shoulder in reassurance. "Ghosts aside, does this place brings back any memories? Like when you were kidnapped?"

Luke gave the place one more scan and frowned, rustling his hair in frustration.

"You can't remember anything from your childhood, can you, Luke?" Anise asked, pitying the redhead.

Luke looked at Anise before looking forward again. "Well… My memories really only start from the point I got back to the manor seven years ago."

Anise ran up to him, hugging him around the arm. "That's so sad… I'll help you get your memories back!"

While Luke tried to continue walking and getting Anise to latch off of him. I turned to Tear who was scanning the area very carefully. She was on high alert as if something or someone was about to ambush us. "Tear?"

"Something's not right." She said, gripping her weapon tightly. It wasn't in fear but more like she being cautious. "No one's lived here for ages, but there are signs of recent activity."

I tilted my head to the side and looked around again. She had a point. While there were some random areas where rocks mold like there were no tomorrow, some areas were mold and moss free like something ate it or something. In addition to that, some areas had something that either uprooted itself or was uprooted, leaving the ground a nice patch of brown soil. No mold, no nothing.

Haha…not so creepy what so ever.

"Monsters…" Mieu's squeaky voice said. I saw the cheagle cover his ears as he hid behind Ion. "I can feel them."

"It makes sense since Gloomietta's here." Anise had already unstuck herself from Luke and pulled Tokunaga into her arms.

"Now that we do know that the chief engineer is definitely here," Guy gripped his sheath. "Let's look inside. Everyone should stay ready in case there's an attack. The upcoming battles might be harsher than the ones we've seen before."

"Everyone's so high-strung," Jade commented followed by a sigh.

"No, that's just you being carefree," I returned. Like everyone else, I was prepared for battle. Instead of using my handgun, I had my rifle ready for battle. It felt like a long time since I had used this weapon but it seemed that muscle memory was glad to feel the weight of it in my hands. I turned to Ion who was at the back of the group. "Are you sure you want to come? I mean, this might be an all out battle."

Ion simply smiled. "Please, don't worry about me. Let's not forget, Celena's here as well." He nudged his head towards the person who stood beside him. As quiet as she was when we got here, she hadn't made a single sound. Instead, she was staring at the walls as if she was noting down every single detail of it.

"In any case, if the battles get too complicated, you can always count on Celena to be the first to flee with Ion." Jade smirked at her. The aforementioned person diverted her gaze to Jade and returned her own smirk.

"For once, we agree to something."

"Luke!" Guy's voice rang out with worry. My gaze fell to the front of the group where I saw Luke's figure getting smaller by the second. Not too far from where he was stood, a lone molding statue stood there ominously.

And if memory served me right.

I ran up to him, ignoring Guy's warning to not go ahead, and grabbed Luke's jacket, yanking him back as hard as I could. Luke cursed for a second, turned around and glared at me menacingly before he yanked my hand off of his jacket.

"What's your problem?" he snapped.

"Didn't you hear what Guy said earlier?" I snapped back at him. I darted my gaze to the statue and then back at Luke. No sign of it moving. Yet. In a lowered voice, I whispered to him, "He said not to go ahead!"

"Why the hell are you whispering?" he asked in a louder tone. "There's nothing here!"

"Because!" I hissed. "That thing behind you isn't what you think it is!"

"What you mean this?" Luke jabbed his finger to the statue. He walked over to it and stared at it. He started waving his hand in front of its face seeing if it was going to move. When it didn't react, he drew his sword. I was wincing the entire time and finally closed my eyes when he swung his sword at it. The sound of the sword ringing was the only sound heard. I had to dare myself to peek a glance at Luke who sheathed his sword.

The statue never budged.

I relaxed as Luke walked back to me. "You see? It's just a statue. There's nothing wrong with it."

"You two!" Guy's voice shouted. The two of us turned to him. His eyes were wide with horror as he pointed behind us. He wasn't the only one whose expressions were in horror. Anise, Tear and Ion's faces were getting paler by the second. Guy was now emphasizing us to take a good look at what was behind us. And so we did.

Standing right behind us at a 90 degree angle to the statue that Luke had attacked, was an exact replica of the said statue. Except that it wasn't there the last time we looked in that direction.

"Keep your eye on it and move back to us slowly." Guy instructed in a low tone. "Try not to make too much noise. I think it's sensitive to sound."

Slowly Luke and I backed away from the statue while watching it like Guy instructed. This honestly reminded me of that weird episode on Doctor Who that my sister showed me. Something about moving statues that animates themselves if someone wasn't staring at it.

But it wouldn't make sense since Guy and the others saw it coming to us. Oh god, please don't tell me it was an actual monster that would attack people randomly...!

I whimpered and suddenly the statue opened its yellow eyes. The blood suddenly stopped rushing to my head and all I could hear was some sort of a high pitched sound in my left ear. I found myself unable to move and I lost the feeling in my fingers. My grip on my rifle and it hit the ground. The statue's eyes suddenly focused onto the rifle and slowly moved upward.

"Anh!" Guy hissed. "Keep moving!"

I-I couldn't move. I was too scared to even move an inch. Oh God! It felt like I was in a horror movie and my next move would determine if I would die or not. That kind of decision…I wasn't ready to make.

So I did the first thing I could think of. "Jade! Help me!"

The yellow eyes glowed and dust started to fall off of the statue as it took one giant leap towards me the minute Luke shouted 'Idiot!' before drawing his sword.

Before the statue was able to slam itself onto me, Tokunaga suddenly blurred my line of view followed by the sound of something hard hitting the ground. My knees weakened and I lost the ability to stand. Tear was already at my side, yanking on my arm.

"Anh, you have to move!" she shouted at me. "You can't stay here where you could be hurt. Anh!"

I stared blankly at the battle before me until a white hand landed on my face; smacking me right back to my senses. I blinked a couple of times before rubbing my cheek as a stinging pain made its way to my brain. I stared at Tear with my surprised wide eyes.

"Anh, fall back." Tear told me more sternly.

I look back at the monster that was being handled by Anise, Guy and Luke and I simply nodded at Tear. "R-right." I got up, scooped up my weapon and ran back to the back of the group where Jade, Ion and Celena were. Before I got to them, the ground shook with a large force, making me look back to see what had happened. Half of me thought that that thing had crushed someone but to my relief, it had just split up into the two parts I was very familiar with. The large statue and its moving drawer.

As the large statue was being dealt, the moving drawer was making its way closer to our direction. It wasn't until a blast of energy appeared, knocking the thing back and Guy changing targets that I decided to pick up the pace.

"I won't apologize for what I did." Tear told me when I made my way back and settled myself beside Jade.

I gave her a quick glance before touching my cheek. "Yeah? Well, I guess I deserve it."

"Get ready!" Celena told us. She was already on the defense, looking like she was about to protect Ion at all costs while Jade was casting a spell. I took a spot at Jade's side for a number of reasons. But…only one of them was in the forefront of my mind.

"Sorry," I said to him, readying the bullet without looking up at him. I only caught a glance at Jade's body shifting a little and, at that moment, I bit my lower lip. Shame just ambushed me and settled in my thoughts. Was he upset about what I did earlier? Now that I thought about it, that monster didn't appear too scary after my adrenaline rush disappeared. I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment but what could I do now? It was already over and now there was a battle that needed to be over.

I looked into my scope and aimed for the moving drawer. Since Anise and Luke were dealing with the statue with Jade as their support, so I thought I'd give Guy a helping hand. I figured that since I couldn't hit the statue without hitting anybody else by accident, I could at least disable the drawer. I aimed for one of the legs and glanced at Guy hoping that he wasn't going to move into my line of fire. Guy had already noticed that I was going for the drawer so he made his way around it. That was when I closed my finger around the trigger.

Ignoring the long forgotten bang from my rifle, the bullet flew right to the leg of the drawer, hit dead on and…ricochet off the leg and indented itself hard onto the wall. Not even fazing it for a second. I peered back onto my scope to see that my bullet had only scratched it.

"Oh, come on!" I cried out loud. "That should have done more damage!"

"No, that was perfect!" Guy shouted before sheathing his sword. "Void Tempest!" Guy pulled his sword out of its sheath with such amazing speed, it impacted on the leg that my bullet had struck it earlier and broke it completely. The drawer heaved onto one side and was out of battle.

As for the other one.

…It had crumbled to pieces and Luke fell to the ground, completely exhausted. Anise jumped off of Tokunaga and it shrunk back to a normal sized doll backpack.

Guy sighed, sheathing his sword. He looked at Luke and then at me. "And that's why I told you both to stay close."

"Sorry…" I mumbled.

"It can't be helped. Keep this in mind for next time." Tear placed both of her hands on her hips. "When we get a surprise attack, our formation was broken and we didn't have enough time to prepare for battle. I hope you both learned your lesson."

Luke tsked at Tear. "Shut up! How was I supposed to know that? And what the hell was that thing, anyway?"

"Perhaps a poltergeist?" Jade suggested with an evil grin. My face paled at the thought of it even though in the back of my mind, I knew full well that it wasn't one.

"E-enough with the poltergeist talk!" I cried out, gripping my rifle closer to my chest.

"No, that's clearly a fontech machine." Guy said, examining the drawer closely.

"That's correct, Guy," Jade nodded in agreement. "It's a fontech doll designed to eliminate intruders. This is a relatively recent model, though it looks like it had seen better days."

"But why would a fontech machine be doing here?" Guy asked out loud. His gloved hand touched his chin as his eyes narrowed at the machine thoughtfully. "I thought our enemy would be simply Arietta and her monsters. I highly doubt she would want any form of assistance from fontechnology."

"It's not Arietta's area of specialty to use fontechnology either." Celena pointed out.

I saw Jade gave the machinery a thoughtful stare and I lowered my own gaze to the machine. Dist was here as well, that was the only explanation why fontech machines would be here. I opened my mouth to say something but an eerie chill ran up my spine as something flew past me from behind. To make things worse, a 'whooo' sound followed by a 'whoosh' sound was the first thing I heard. I quickly turned around to see what was there and found myself staring at the entrance.

"Anh?" Anise poked me on my side. I squeaked in terror and peered at Anise, completely paranoid. She tilted her head to the side, only to grin. "Don't tell me that you're scared of haunted places…"

"I…" Again that shivering feeling came back and Goosebumps rose up on my arms. I rubbed my arm with my free hand, looking behind me completely terrified. "What was that…?"

"What was what?" Ion asked, looking just as confused as everyone else. Ion's expression turned into concern. "Anh, you're growing paler. Is something the matter?"

Again that shivering feeling came back. "W-what was that…?" I repeated, sounding more terrified that I had been before.

"Stop it, Anh." Tear looked around madly. "That's not funny."

"I-I'm not trying to be funny…!" I inched closer to the group, trying to get some comfort. "I felt something fly past me not too long ago. And then these Goosebumps won't stop coming…! I think it's a ghost!"

"Come on, Anh," Luke sighed irritably. "There's no such thing as gh-"

"For someone that was able to kill my brothers and sisters, you sure are pathetic in this kind of environment." A new voice spoke up.

We all turned to the second floor of the building to find Arietta sitting on the weak rails, looking absolutely furious.

"It's Arietta!" Tear cried out as we all readied our weapons.

"Damn! She's at a height advantage!" Guy shouted, glancing to the stairs off to the sides.

"I won't let you go any further!" she shouted, lifting her doll up in the air. "Feel the first beats of time!"

Oh shit…

Realization replaced my fear completely as I tried to warn Tear as quickly as I was able to. "Tear! Force Field! Quickly!"

Tear already caught onto Arietta's intentions and started casting the spell as quickly as possible. But it was too late.

"Fall! Big Bang!"

The center of the entire room glowed a white light before it completely blinded all of us.

My brow furrowed in confusion. Arietta's Big Bang would have knocked us all out completely but what didn't make any sense was why we were still alive. It was already obvious that she would want Ion and Luke to stay alive since they were still needed. Wait…Does that mean that Luke was already kidnapped to open his fon slots or what? Argh! All of this was already confusing me.

Anise was rattling the bars madly. She then gave up and tried again in a different area.

"Anise, I don't think that will work." Tear sighed when Anise tried it again a third time.

"But it doesn't make any sense!" she protested, kicking the bars really hard. "This whole place looked like it could crumble any second now but these bars act like they were set up recently! If only I had Tokunaga with me! I could break this thing down in no time!"

"Our weapons are gone so we would have to make it work with what we have now." I mumbled.

"With what? Moss and slime?" Anise asked.

Tear's eyes widened in realization as she came up with an idea. "No, with our fonic artes. We can use the Field of Fonons to alter one of our artes to destroy the bars."

Anise was just about to say something else but she turned her head back to the bars and moved back towards the rest of us. Tear and I looked at her quite confused until she motioned to the both of us to stay quiet as the sound of footsteps came closer. Light illuminated one side of the dungeon indicating an exit. But the person holding that light didn't come any closer.

The next thing we knew, a bag landed right in front of the bar with a loud thump. The three of us exchange glances at each other before the next set of items fell. Namely our weapons and Tokunaga. Followed by a set of keys. And then a lantern that extinguished itself when the candle holding the small flame flipped upside down.

I scrambled to my feet and ran to the bars. Looking around the corner, I caught the sight of someone walking away from us with long hair and a tall height. Anything else, I wasn't able to see. It couldn't be Arietta, Dist or Sync since, being the ones here, none of them would have any reason to release us. And it would make sense for Van to hide himself from us plus his hair was tied up and this person's hair was down.

…Was it Asch then?

"…Or we could try to grab those keys and make our way out of here." Anise suggested breaking my train of thought. I looked in front of me to see the keys in front of us. Well...it was something.

If only the keys weren't so hard to reach for.

I didn't even spare a second thought to ask who wanted to grab the keys. I ended up doing it myself since I was already at the bars.

"Just…a little closer." I encouraged myself, ignoring the pain on my shoulder as I reached out for the keys. My fingers were able to touch a small fraction of the keys but they weren't able to pull it closer. I grimaced as I pulled back. The pain on my shoulder was starting to hurt a lot but now that I know that I could get those keys, I wasn't about to give up now.

"It's okay, Anh. We can just destroy these bars with fonic artes." Tear told me but I refused to back down.

"No, I can get it." I said, reaching out for the keys. "Besides, if we make some noise, it would alert everything that moves in this place. At the very least, we have an option to give the enemy a surprise attack."

Come on, self. Ignore the pain. Just a little further and…

"Got it!" I shouted in relief when my fingers got a good grip around the key. I pulled it forward before releasing it and reached out again to grasp it in my hand. I got up and quickly handed them over to Anise. While Anise fumbled though each and every key to find the right one for the cell, Tear was in position to heal my shoulder but I pulled back. "It's all right, Tear. It doesn't hurt as bad as you think it does."

Tear's eyes narrowed in suspicion but she nodded. Reluctantly, I might add. "If it hurts, let me know."

"Gotcha." I managed a fake smile at her. When Tear turned around to check up on Anise, I gripped my shoulder and winced at the pain of just touching it. I could feel the throbbing pulse that was being emitted from it and gritted my teeth to suppress it. Sorry Tear, but I wasn't planning to faint anytime soon. At the very least the pain should keep me wide awake.

In theory of course.

I picked up the bag and first thing I did was searched through it for a pair of glasses. Since whoever it was that dragged me, Tear and Anise down here, they took the liberty to make me blind again. I knew I was blind since, even though it was dark, people were fuzzy.

Whoever took my contacts was a bit too nice.

…Waaaay too nice.

Once I found my spare glasses, I put them on and threw the bag over my shoulder before picking up my rifle. Then I realized a huge setback. Using my good arm to pick up the keys was a biiig mistake. I relied on my right arm for support and firing and it was my right shoulder that I decided to bust.

Genius.

"Let's go," Tear said, readying her weapon. She had already lit the lantern. "We have to find the others and regroup before rescuing the chief engineer."

Anise let out a whine. "But that's going to be harder than you think. Let me remind that this used to be a vacation home to Luke's family so it has to be a ridiculous size for a home. In this huge building, it would be easier for the enemies to find us before we find everyone. None of us, aside from Guy, knows the layout of this place."

"It's better than nothing, really…" I mumbled. "I'd rather try instead of rotting here until Arietta figures out what to do with us."

"True…" Anise's hand rested on the side of her cheek as she tilted towards the right. "Plus, I want to find Ion as soon as we can. The Lieutenant should be with him but I want to make sure he's okay."

"We're wasting time here," Tear pointed out. She lifted the lantern up towards the direction of the stairways. "Every second counts. Also, this candle is not going to last very long. Let's make good use of it while it still burns."

Anise and I only nodded before all of us made it up the stairs. With the light illuminating the path in front of us, I could see all of the moss that was growing out of the walls. I was too afraid to actually touch the walls since it might feel slimy with all of the moisture that might have been left in the air. The sliminess reminded me that I had to take extra caution on the stairs since that, too, would have moss growing and other stuff growing all over the place.

After a few minutes of walking up the stairs we reached the doorway. Tear's eyes narrowed suspiciously at it before she handed the lantern to me and tested the door. It quickly opened with a loud creak but that was all it did.

"Well…" I spoke up lifting the lantern to illuminate the hall. "Considering the person that handed us the keys, he or she wouldn't have bothered locking the door on us."

"Yes, well it appears to me that whoever had given us the ability to escape, it would make sense for them to be an enemy of ours." Tear walked through the door first and glanced around the hallway. "I anticipated an ambush but it looks like they acted on their own accord. In any case, let's check out the rooms here."

"How about a locked room?" Anise suggested. Tear and I turned to Anise who held a door opened with one hand and in the other held the set of keys. "Any door that was locked might have a clue on where the guys are. Or a map at least."

I simply shrugged. "A map would be nice." Peering into the room, I saw regular room with a desk, cupboard and all that stuff. Off to the side were a set of armour and weapons that had already rusted. Everything in the room had dust and huge-ass cobwebs hanging all over the place and that alone just gave me the chills. Taking a step out, I turned around and tried to flee. "How about look in another room? Ones with light and prettier stuff?"

Tear quickly saw my intent to flee and grabbed my arm to prevent it. Anise had my back and the two of them dragged me into the room.

"Oh, come on, Anh~" Anise chirped. "It's just a few cobwebs and dust~"

"Yeah, well, if you haven't noticed, those are huge cobwebs!" I protested trying to resist the pull. "You don't know how big those spiders would be to create those! O-or know what's lurking around the corner!"

Tear sighed. "There's no hidden corner in this room, Anh."

"You know what I meant!" I shrieked. Suddenly the door behind us slammed shut, and my internal fear meter skyrocketed. I jabbed towards the door where Anise made her way there to reopen it. "See! Now who said that ghosts don't exists!"

"No one that was in this room, I assure you." Tear told me calmly.

Anise rattled the door and then gave up. "The keys don't work either. Ah, well, you know what that means."

"We're doomed!" I cried out.

Tear shook her head. "No, this room has a mechanism that can unlock this door from within. It's not an uncommon thing to see."

"All we have to do is look for it." Anise continued for Tear. "Either that or someone else opens it from the other side."

"It's better if we didn't wait for someone else to open the door from the other side." Tear pointed out. "Let's look around. There has to be something to reopen the door."

Tear and Anise immediately got to work, looking around for something. I stood in the middle of the room…holding the lantern. I stared at the desk that was right beside me. A part of me wanted to help them look but the cobwebs that was sitting almost everywhere on the desk said otherwise. I winced at the glance of the cobwebs but slowly, really slowly, I inched myself closer to the desk. Setting the lantern down, I pulled my sleeve up to my palm and used that as a duster. I covered my nose with my right sleeve. It was a little painful to even lift my shoulder but it was a bearable thing to get through.

Something glowing to the right caught my attention. I moved to the right and found an old mirror resting there. I didn't see anything when I looked through it but I blame the dust that was still covering it. So I cleaned off the dust only to see something floating that was being reflected on the mirror. First thing that went through my head was SHIT! I turned around hoping to warn Tear but I ended up seeing nothing.

"Oh, there's something written here," Anise spoke up cheerfully. "Hmm…It says not to look at 'it' in the eye. I wonder what it means by that."

Blood basically rushed out of my head because I knew what they meant.

Trust me, Anise, you'd rather not know. Cause I think I just found it…!

I moved away from the mirror since that was where I last saw that thing. Time to move somewhere else. Like a cupboard. Just...not a mirror!

My sixth sense told me something was staring at me and to emphasize it, I received Goosebumps and a shiver that worked its way up my spine. It was deja vu all over again when the sudden 'whoo' sound from behind again. Past experience had me seeing nothing the last time that had happened. Instead, I found myself staring face to face with a one-eyed creature floating in the air. Its single ruby red eye searched the room mindlessly before it settled onto mine. I took a step back, probably sweating like crazy right now, and I waved to Tear.

"Tear…" I whined but it probably wasn't loud enough since there was no response from her. The creature then smiled. Freakishly, considering that it only had one eye and that smile spread from one side to the other. And it slowly opened its mouth revealing an unnatural set of teeth that was dripping with saliva. "No…NOOOO!"

I dropped the lantern and ran to a corner, huddling there with my knees to my chest and my hands covering my head. "No! Don't come here!"

Anise and Tear were right at my side, trying to pry my hands apart. I heard them mumbling along the lines of 'calm down' and 'what's the matter' but I couldn't help but sob hysterically; pointing to where I last saw that thing. It didn't help my case cause that thing had disappeared so Tear and Anise only saw nothing. They looked at me thinking I had gone nuts.

"I saw something!" I cried out. "I-it was big! And…and…I don't want to do this anymore…" I huddled back into my crotched position, tucking my head in my arms.

"Here we go again." Tear sighed.

The door to the room suddenly rattled with a strong force. I would squeak in fear if it was possible but Tear's hand on my mouth kinda made it impossible to do that at the moment. The shaking continued and Anise's hand was added on top of Tear's to send me a message of 'keep quiet!'

The sound stopped and we all relaxed. For a time being. Tear slinked away from the two of us and picked up her weapon with a lethal glare at the door. As if she was expecting something, the rattling of the door changed to pounding. I grabbed Anise and buried my face on her shoulder as she lightly patted my arm hopefully in reassurance.

One muffled grunt from the other side of the door and the door sounded like it burst opened. Tear shouted a battle cry to face the intruder but by the sound of metal clashing together, it sounded like she faced some form of resistance.

A few more metal clashing into each other and suddenly…

"Tear…?"

I realized that this would have been a good opportunity to post this on Halloween but…darn my lazy butt and all. XD

Happy one day late New Year! It's uber late but I got it done! :D

Next up!

"Shut up, we're the four-eyed duo now."

"So you're saying it's my fault?"