Short chapter.

Jake's eyes slowly slid open as he awoke. He sat upright and glanced at his surroundings. He was in some sort of jungle. In the distance, he could make out a mountain. The boy looked back at his friends and noticed that they were slowly getting up as well.

"Why is it so dark?" Matt questioned, running his eyes but still not seeing anything.

Jake gave him a curious glance.

Chris opened her mouth to speak, but gasped and slapped her hands over it when nothing came out.

"Guys, why are you just opening and closing your mouths?" Jake questioned and then gasped loudly when he couldn't hear his own voice.

Chris started moving her mouth, trying to speak, but found that she couldn't. Matt still seemed confused. Why couldn't he see anything? Jake strained his ears. Nothing.

Suddenly, the green fog returned and the old ghost emerged from it. He was smiling.

"I see you've discovered your disadvantages." He sneered.

"Wait, why can I hear you?" Jake wondered out loud.

"Seeing as I gave you the disabilities, it only seems fit that I am immune to its blocking powers." He replied irritably. The three seemed to let that answer sink in. "But I am not here to answer your pathetic questions. As you well know, I have brought you to this place to teach you. You see, you all take one sense for granted. You need to be shown how important that sense actually is. To teach you this, I have designed a quest. To get back home and to regain your lost abilities, you must make it to the base of that mountain. There rests an artifact much like the one your darkly dressed friend smashed. It is the only way to escape. So, I suggest you hurry." He smirked again before leaving in a puff of smoke.

"This would be so much easier if I could use my powers." Jake thought while glancing at Chris. "But there's no way that I can do that with Chris around and I have a feeling that now would be a very bad time to let her know."

Over in her spot, Chris was thinking as well. "If I can't talk, I can't tell Jake that I know! Which means that he'll think that he can't use his ghost powers! And that means we're stuck."

"And I thought that my eyes were bad before." Matt muttered to himself.

The trio panted heavily as they continued walking. They had been doing this for who-knows-how-long. Both Chris and Jake were holding the arms of the blind Matt.

"I think we should take a break." Jake suggested, slowing down after noticing his friends' exhaustion.

The two nodded and they made their way to a small clearing.

"Chris, you really need to find some way to tell him." The techno-geek urged. The Goth girl glared at him even though he couldn't see it. "Maybe you could write it in the dirt or something."

Chris smacked her forehead. Why hadn't she thought of that before?! Quickly, she tapped Jake on the shoulder and then picked up a stick, getting ready to write on the ground. Jake quirked an eyebrow.

"Chris…what are you doing?" He questioned even though she couldn't answer.

She started scribbling down letters. I k…

Suddenly, a gust of wind acted up, blowing away her message. She curled her hands into tight fists and her face twisted with rage, especially when the old ghost showed up.

"Having fun, children?" He questioned with false innocence.

Anger clouded Jake and Matt's faces as well.

"You!" The half-ghost boomed. "Who are you and why are you doing this to us?! It's not like we did anything wrong!"

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself earlier." He apologized, but his voice held no hint of remorse. "I…am the Teacher."

"How original." Jake muttered.

The ghost scowled at him. "As for my reason for doing this," He continued irritably "I could tell that you and your friends needed to be taught a lesson. After all, if you had solved your dilemmas earlier, you would have no trouble getting through this."

"What are you talking about?!" The boy demanded.

"That is a question you will have to answer for yourself. Or you could just ask your friends, they already know." The Teacher responded with a glint of mischief in his eyes.

Jake was about to continue the interrogation, but the ghost disappeared. He sighed instead and turned to his friends.

"What does he mean that you guys already know?"

Chris looked like she was going to rip her hair out.

"Chris…are you okay?" The pale boy questioned with uncertainty.

He knew that he wasn't going to be able to get an answer from her.

"Come on, let's keep going guys." Matt piped up, feeling the tension.

The Goths nodded and each grabbed one of his arms-Chris a little more roughly than Jake.

"Is it me or does Chris seem…ticked?" Jake whispered to his geeky friend.

Matt rolled his blind eyes and gave an exaggerated nod. Meanwhile, the girl trudged through the area, searching furiously for something that she could use to tell him, but eventually gave up on it and sighed. Looks like they were going to have to do this the old fashioned way.

Jake kept gazing curiously at her. Usually she was pretty calm. What was bugging her so much? She was tough enough that he knew the no-talking thing wouldn't cause her to go on this kind of rampage.

An hour later, they were completely exhausted again. They bent over to catch their breath.

"Almost…there." Jake panted, gazing up at the mountain a little under half-a-mile away.

His two friends looked happy…until the green mist formed again.

Meh. This wasn't really good. BTW, I'll be willing to listen to anyone who has a better name for the ghost. So, everyone be warned, his name is subject to change.

I'll try to make the next chapter better, although I can't guarentee that it will be up by next Saturday.