AN: And here you are, the newest chapter! Here the creeps start - woohoo! I'm not sure how many chapters there will be, but expect several more at the least. I'm having too much fun writing the creeps out ...they're just so creepy! And now that I've used the word creepy in three different ways ...on to the chapter!

Disclaimer: Why do I even bother ...oh, yeah, because Ouran's amazing and I'm torturing them instead of making them deal with complicated love scenarios!

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"Ow! Back off, Ootori, that hurts!" Kaoru yelped. Kyoya didn't bother even looking at him, used to the Hitachiin's occasional childishness.

"Be quiet. Honestly, if you'd just told me right out about your leg, this would've been a lot less painful. And do you know why? Because then I could've treated it earlier and not risked infection." Kaoru grumbled under his breath, and Kyoya didn't ask him to repeat it. Instead, he wiped the discolored blade on what remained white of his button down, staining it to a dark red splotch. He sighed at the utter stupidity of the group as a whole. No matter what they did, they always seemed to cause trouble, if not for others then for themselves. Carefully, so as not to touch a nerve, he inserted the blade around the infected area in the redhead's leg and opened it to let the majority of the infection seep out. In the course of things, it seemed that everyone had been much more injured than assumed, and Kaoru …well, let's just say he was the worst off.

Not prepared to fall through a floor with his arms bound behind his back, Kaoru had cut his leg open on something Kyoya could only guess was an old piece of metal or wood. He only hoped nothing had been rusted over or Kaoru was in a fair bit of danger. The wound was starting to bleed again rather heavily, so Kyoya used yet another strip of suit jacket to keep it from puddling. The dusty blue turned black in the weak lamplight, and Kyoya wordlessly passed a relatively clean patch of fabric up to Kaoru who took it and, following Kyoya's instructions, bit down on it, making a face at the funny taste. Kyoya heard a sharp hiss as he dug the emergency pocketknife he carried back into the wound, and pressed a second strip of cloth to it. They had all scrapped their jackets for bandages long ago, and they were already running low.

"Gah! Get out of my face, Suoh!" Hikaru snapped from somewhere behind them. Tamaki frowned in concentration, moving the lantern closer to see into his eyes.

"I'm just following orders," he told the twin. "Kyoya wants to make sure you don't have a concussion." Hikaru snorted, crossing his arms.

"Like he's one to talk, Mr. I've-got-a-concussion-and-that's-why-I-can't-remember-medical-procedures-correctly-for-five-hours," Hikaru responded, sending Kyoya a glare as he calmly continued draining infected fluids out of his brother.

"If you'd like to take over, be my guest," Kyoya offered, stretching his arm out for Hikaru to take a good look at the mess of a leg Kyoya was working on and the dirtied knife in his hand. Hikaru, understandably, paled, and shook his head.

"N-no, I'm okay," he said weakly. Kyoya knowingly turned back, tying the wound closed with the last of their jacketes. He wished he had some sort of alcohol or antibiotic on hand, because without it Kaoru had a high chance for a second infection. Haruhi pulled away from slinging Mori's arm, scowling across at the boys.

"Will you all shut up?" She interjected roughly. "Picking on each other isn't going to solve anything here, so either think of a plan or keep quiet!" The cavern fell silent. Nobody dared defy Haruhi, not even Honey, though he technically could as he was older and therefore held more authority. There was just no going against her wishes. It went against everything they believed, their very principles, as the Ouran Host Club.

"Erm, Haruhi?" Honey inquired sweetly. "I-I was wondering, you know, since you're not hurt …could you look at me, too? Kyoya's scaring me." Haruhi smiled politely and sat the teen down in front of her.

"Of course. Where does it hurt?" While Honey kept Haruhi preoccupied, Kyoya and Hikaru returned to their cat and dog fight in hushed tones so she wouldn't hear. Tamaki, however, let the lantern fall from his fingers as he shifted to look back the way they'd come, gaze unfocused as he listened. Practically unconscious at this point, Kaoru reached out and patted his arm, startling him. Golden irises asked him silently what was wrong, and Tamaki glanced back.

"I thought I heard something," he whispered. Kaoru tapped him again, wincing as Kyoya went to work on his strained arm. Tamaki swallowed. His unease didn't go unnoticed, as Kyoya peered up suspiciously.

"What is it?" He asked quietly, filtering out Hikaru's indignant protests at being ignored.

"I don't know. It sounds like somebody's walking really heavily down here with us, like they're stomping or something." He shook his head, knotting his fingers into his hair. "I thought …it was just my imagination …but now I'm not so sure." He then nervously clutched at the collar of his shirt, hands shaking ever so slightly. "It sounds like …like Castor, and he's …humming nursery rhymes." Kyoya, who couldn't hear anything definite, sharpened his gaze. Despite being emotionally wrecked at present, he could almost always count on the half French blond to be correct in what he'd heard. He was a natural listener, and that extended to sensitive hearing as well.

"Then I propose moving on before he catches up to us," Kyoya stated, rising from his crouch. He informed the others of what was going on, and with Hikaru leaning on Haruhi for support while Tamaki glowered, and Mori sportingly carrying Kaoru with his good arm, they set off again. Kyoya curiously looked to Tamaki as they walked, nudging him to garner his attention. "What sorts of nursery rhymes is he humming? I can't hear him." Tamaki shrugged.

"I don't know, they're ones I'm not very familiar with. All I know is that he's coming and that he's going to kill us all and turn us into decorations and he's down here and he's humming, it's like he knows exactly where we are! I'm scared, Kyoya, I just want to wake up and find out this was all a dream and I can play with Rin and never worry about Castor ever again!" Kyoya easily recognized the quivering note of hysteria in his voice, and firmly clamped a hand to his wrist to ground him.

"I'm sorry," he murmured. "It's real. But we will get out, okay? As soon as we can call for help, this will all be over, but until then, we need to stay calm and rational, understand?" Tamaki gulped in a deep breath, nodding affirmingly. Kyoya sighed.

"Good. Say, Haruhi, why don't we try leaving the center hall? If Castor's on our trail then it would be beneficial to leave as little trace of ourselves as we can." Haruhi, who was in the lead, glanced back.

"But we don't know where the other paths lead."

"We don't know where this one goes, either," Hikaru pointed out. While the discussion degraded into bickering, comments flying back and forth and back and forth again in rapid succession, Kaoru's eyelids drooped, and soon enough he was asleep, oblivious to the fighting that continued on as his consciousness faded.

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"Hee hee, look at his funny hair!"

Kaoru couldn't see anyone. It was nothing but heavy, watery grey fog, stretching on for miles and miles. Did it even end?

"Do you want to play, Kao-chan?"

"I have a rhyme to tell you! See saw, Marjory Daw, Jack shall have a new master -"

"Who's there?" Kaoru called out cautiously. A child's voice answered, one he regretfully recognized.

"It's me, Kao-chan! Rin! Do you want to hear me recite? Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick -"

"You can't be Rin, Rin's dead!" Kaoru shouted. A second voice answered instead.

"You wanna see Tamaki's hat? She took it right off his head, and he said she could keep it!"

"Here's one I just learned! Yesterday upon the stair, I saw a man who wasn't there; he wasn't there again today, oh how I wish he'd go away! Did you like it, Kao-chan? It's just like Castor-san!"

Kaoru frowned. This wasn't right, the voices - they were off somehow.

"What do you mean? How is it like Castor?" He asked. This wasn't a normal dream - if it even was a dream. Maybe they could give him some useful information?

"Because, silly, he's there and he's not!" The voice that wasn't Rin exclaimed. "And you're supposed to be our sempai! Aren't you supposed to know this stuff?"

"Yeah!" The Rin voice chimed. "I thought Tamaki-niisan only said you weren't smart because he thought you actually were! You're very confusing like him, Kao-chan." Kaoru sighed. He smiled into the fog, scratching at his hair in the same habit Hikaru had taken to when they were little. When his hand came away, it looked smaller, softer. Perhaps he'd shrunk himself to a child in the dream. This was a dream, he was sure, it had to be. The childish voices might be more willing to share what they knew if he talked to them as a child himself.

"Sorry, Rin-chan, I didn't mean to sound that way," he spoke, his voice as high pitched as it was long ago, back when he was seven. "I just forgot is all. Could you remind me, please?" Rin's voice giggled, then took on the air of someone excited to teach their younger sibling.

"Okay, Kao-chan! It's like Castor because he's not real. None of this is. Do you remember now?" Kaoru felt his blood run cold.

"Not yet. What do you mean, it's not real?" The other child's voice drifted over to him, like it was fading away.

It's like Rin-chan said. We're gone now, but Castor doesn't exist, not really. Of course, we're still dying; that's still real. There's no mansion and there's no Castor, and definitely no human dolls. That's gross. But be careful, Onii-san, because whoever's killing us isn't going to let you leave that easily."

"That's right, Kao-chan," Rin added, her voice also fading with the fog. "Believe us, everything you see is an illusion. Don't trust your eyes. If we never leave, then we have to at least make sure you do. Be careful. Oh, and Kao-chan?"

"Yes?" This time, there was a kinder, sweeter note in her tone, much more like the Rin Kaoru remembered so vividly.

"Tell Tama-niisan that I love him."

"I'll tell him. He loves you, too, Rin."

"I know. Thank you, Kao-chan. I'll miss you. All of you." The heavy fog lifted. There was nothing left but a gentle, warm light. Rin, and the other child with her, were gone. Somehow, Kaoru knew they wouldn't ever be back.

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Hikaru poked Kaoru again, just to be sure he was really asleep, and sighed. Honestly, he was sick of this so-called conversation and wanted someone else to talk to. Mori was an option, but he didn't exactly seem to be in the mood for talking anyway. They'd been walking for so long already, did it even matter which path they took? He sighed, falling behind some to avoid being dragged into the conflict. Yeah, he hadn't minded the normalcy of the pointless bickering before, but now it was just annoying. Maybe he was simply tired, but he didn't even want to open his mouth, let alone join a vocal fight. He sighed once more. This was normal, he just had to wait it out.

"You'd better be right about this curved one! It feels like we're walking in circles!"

"Yeah? Well we weren't getting anywhere going straight, either!"

"We're already lost, who cares what path we take as long as we get out of here?"

"Haru-chan's right, it doesn't matter as long as we leave! Takashi's with me, aren't you?"

"Mm."

Hikaru sighed. Wasn't Haruhi originally against them straying from the center path? His throat was sore just listening to them. He attempted clearing it subtly, hoping the itchiness would dissipate. What he wasn't expecting was the quick coughing spasm that stopped him dead in his tracks. When he looked up again, still coughing into his elbow, he was surrounded by pitch blackness. Alone. Great. How quiet had he been for them to not notice that he'd fallen that far behind?

"Would you look at that, I didn't have to do any work to separate one of you, it happened all on its own!" The voice was so close behind him that the air on the back of Hikaru's neck felt warm from the puffs of breath. Before he had time to experience more than the growing twinges of panic, something sharp pricked his exposed skin by his shoulder, and the next thing he knew he was falling to the ground. "Night night," was the last he heard before all his thoughts ceased.

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AN: Question: am I crazy? Why yes, yes I am. Why else would I make the hosts deal with all of this for mine and yours pleasure? Ahem ...anyway, I hope you enjoyed! As I was writing this, I said to myself, "hey, wouldn't it be great to throw someone for a loop if Rin's ghost showed up out of nowhere?" So she did. She's such a stinker, not telling Kaoru what he wanted to know right away. By the way, the nursery rhymes they were singing were the ones Castor was humming. No horror story can be a horror story without the occasional creepy nursery rhymes! Please review if you liked it!