See? I said I'd update on Thursdays.

Erik: It's hard to believe you, considering you said Promise updates would be fast

One fic at a time, Erik! This time I'm serious about an update a week

Erik: I know, I know

Britian: Nony doesn't own anything aside from the plot and the Creature

If anyone is interested in a drinking game, (which I should have done in the first part,) take a drink whenever the trio does something stupid or perform a horror movie cliché.

(For any Homestuck fans who may be reading this, yes, the Creature has the same speech pattern as Gamzee. It was to tempting)

"..kas. Lukas. Wake up. Please wake up."

Arthur.

My eyes slowly open to the strong beam of Nicolae's flashlight. I lay my arm over my face. Or at least try to. Every movement pains me. I moan.

"He's okay!" I hear Nicolae happily cry.

"What happened?" I croak, attempting to push myself into a sitting position.

"Careful. Your wounds look pretty bad," Arthur warns, helping me slowly. "You don't remember?"

"I remember going upstairs," I begin, trying to jog my memory. "I heard the creaking. I turned around and this...thing was behind me. I tried to run. There was a crack and the rest is a blur."

"You fell through the floor," Nicolae finishes.

"Seriously?" I question, skeptical.

Arthur and Nicolae glance at each other, turn back to me, and nod.

"We were so worried," Arthur explains, binding my injuries with a torn sweater and forming a make-shift sling for my arm, which wound up beneath me.

They assist me back to my feet. Unfortunately, I can barely hold my own weight and have to rely on Nicolae to support me. We attempt to head back up, taking it slowly for my sake and for our overall safety by testing out each stair before stepping on it. Once on the main floor, we find the largest room to make a make-shift camp, also known as putting the sheets we brought on the floor.

"Maybe we should have stayed downstairs," I comment. "No worries about the floor collapsing."

"It's fine," Arthur insists.

"Or maybe we shouldn't stay in one place."

"It's fine."

"That thing could find us if we stay in one place."

"It won't."

"How are you so sure?"

"It won't come here."

"How do you know?"

"I just do."

"Arthur-"

"We get the point, Lukas," Nicolae cuts in. He settles down beside me. "It's not a good idea to stay in one place, but we need our rest." He claps his hands together. "I know! We'll take turns keeping watch. If anyone sees the Creature, he'll wake up the others and we'll either fight or run." Noticing my and Arthur's faces, he corrects himself. "Fine, we'll run."

"You make it sound like a bad thing," Arthur tells him.

"Well, considering the condition Lukas is in-"

"Don't use me as an excuse!" I interject.

"Sorry, but you can barely move."

"Shut up before I shove you through a meat grinder and feed you to that thing."

Nicolae falls silent. We try to tell a few fortunes with Arthur's tarot cards, but most revealed misfortune, so we give up. I guess it can be stupid considering that Arthur can't find one of the cards. I snag one of Arthur's cards just to taunt him. Petty and pathetic, I know.

After Arthur offers to take the first shift, I lay down and try to sleep. After who knows how long, said blonde Brit shakes me awake.

"What?" I moan at being awakened before I can have my coffee.

"Nicolae's gone."

Say what now?

I let out a gutteral snarl.

"That idiot."

I struggle to stand up. Arthur helps me up and we begin to search for a certain idiotic Romanian. We wander around the house, but we can't seen to find him.

"Nicolae!" Arthur calls.

I shoot him a glare.

"Arthur," I snap. "Are you a moron? That Creature can be anywhere."

Arthur sighs. "How else do you expect to find him?"

"I don't know, maybe actually looking around so that freakish thing doesn't know where we freakin' are!"

Arthur holds up his hands defensively.

"Calm down, Lukas," he tells me. "You're in no shape to get so overworked."

"I'm fine."

Arthur rolls his eyes. He indicates for me to follow him up the stairs to the second floor. The same floor I'd busted a hole in when running from that freakish creature. Once at the top of the stairs, I collapse to the floor, my legs tired. Great, one more thing for Arthur to comment on.

"BuNa ZiUa," comes a heavily accented, Count Dracula-esque voice.

Arthur and I turn to see Nicolae standing at the end of the hall. A crazed smile decorates his face, his hair obscuring his red eyes.

"There you are," Arthur sighs, visibly relieved. "Let's head back down, ol' chap."

A sinister chuckle escapes Nicolae's mouth. It gradually becomes louder and louder, until it turns into an all out maniacal laugh. Brushing his hair away from his eyes, my heart skips a beat and Arthur pales. Instead of their usual crimson hue, his eyes have taken on a black color.

"Nicolae," I gasp.

"YoUr FrIeNd Is No MoRe," he informs, his voice sounding echoed. "AnD sOoN, yOu CaN jOiN hIm. UnLeSs YoU lEaVe."

"What did you do to him!" Arthur demands. I can hear the panic in his voice.

"NoThInG. NoW gO aWaY."

"Not without him!" I growl. "Let him go."

"No. NoT wItHoUt...A pRiCe, PeR sAy."

"What's your price?" Arthur questions.

"LeT's SeE...hOw AbOuT yOu LeAvE?!"

Nicolae waves his arm, sending the dust blowing around us. Arthur and I try to block our faces, but dust still manages to get into our lungs, causing a harsh coughing fit. One the air clears and our hacking subsides, Nicolae has disappeared.

"That thing took over his body..." Arthur states, clearly in shock.

"No duh, Sherlock," I retort. I take a deep breath. "We need to come up with a plan to save Nicolae."

"What? Like using salt and talismans?"

"Something a little more conventional." I pause, thinking for a moment. "Unless you happen to have salt on you anyways..."

"Not this time," Arthur sighs.

"Wait, you seriously keep salt on you?" I inquire.

Arthur nods like my hair just turned purple.

"Yes. Why? You don't?"

I should really start thinking twice about who I become friends with.

I sigh.

"No," I reply. "And this time, we'll have to split up to look for Nicolae." Before Arthur can protest, I continue. "Don't say one word about my condition. I'm fine and we don't have a choice at this point. Something is up with this house, and we have to get out of here before one of us winds up dead-"

"But that Creature said that Nicolae-"

"That thing could easily be lying. It wants to intimidate us. It wants us to be afraid and leave. We have to show it that we're not afraid of it-"

"I'm afraid of it-"

"And that we're not leaving here without Nicolae-"

"But-"

"And we have to split up and find Nicolae and that thing if we're to get out of here. You head downstairs, I'll look here and the attic"

After a moment of silence, Arthur pipes up, "I hate your plans"

"I know, but you have to learn to man up and deal with it."

On that note, I get up and head down the hallway. I can hear Arthur's grumbling as the stairs squeak beneath his weight. Thoughts get shoved out of my head as I pull my mind to focus on the one task at hand: Find Nicolae.

I wander through the corridor, peering into the rooms in hope that one will be holding the possessed Romanian. Checking room after room, door after door, everything ends in a bust; no sign of Nicolae anywhere on this floor. I find the ladder leading to the attic.

This should be fun, I think, rubbing my probably broken arm with my good one.

I exhale sharply before holding on to the highest rung I could reach. With a strained grunt, I use what little upper body strength I've always lacked to pull myself up. One rung. Yep, one measly rung.

With (great) difficulty, I manage to pull myself up the rest of the ladder to the attic. I flop down onto the floor, panting, my shirt and face drenched in sweat. I'm not a girl, but I must admit, it feels gross.

I glance around to get my surroundings. Moldy, dusty, disgusting boxes litter the floor and-like every other place in this freak show of a house-dust covers the floor and cobwebs hang from the ceiling.

"Nicolae?" I call. "Are you up here? Nicolae?"

No response.

Grumbling and swearing under my breath, I get back to my already unsteady feet. Something slips beneath my right foot, nearly sending me back on my butt. I peer down to see the purple back of a familiar looking card.

I pick it up, not caring about the ridiculous amounts of dust now on my fingers. I flip it over. My heart nearly stops. A tarot card identical to the pack that Arthur owns and brought now sits in my hand. Examining the card, I notice faint lines of symbols and a childish drawing. Of the Creature.

These symbols. They're a spell. A curse. The card is cursed. I wrack my brain for the information on what I've read. It must have brought the Creature to life from the drawing.

I reach into my pants pocket to find a card inside. I'd forgotten about the card I'd taken from Arthur's pack of tarot cards. Upon careful inspection, I find similar faint markings on Arthur's card. More incantations. Arthur once said that his brothers bought him the cards from a garage sale and that he'd never known the whereabouts of one of the cards.

The missing card.

This must be it.

I have to be holding it in my hand.

This can't be a coincidence.

Two cards with spells on them.

"Arthur's deck is cursed."

& the moral of the story is, if you want to spend the night in a haunted house, make sure no one brings tarot cards