You ever have a set, solid plan of what you want to do with a story all mapped out in your head, and when you start actually writing it the thing just veers off in a completely different direction? Yeah. This is that story. Except now it's more like jello.

Enjoy!

"Okay, it's a piece of a treasure map," Carlos amended.

Logan scoffed. "We don't know if it leads to treasure, Carlos!"

Shawn scanned the map, noticing that they were both correct-the map wasn't complete, and the words scribbled on the sides didn't make any sense.

"I have failed my father," he read aloud. "Fourteen eyes and fourteen mouths, but heed my warning: do not go up there. Do not go up there."

"What the heeee-ck does that mean?" Gus' attempt to cover his blunder went unnoticed by the boys.

"No idea!" Carlos said with a smile. "That's why we came to you. So? Will you take the case?"

Shawn grimaced. "Are you going to try to pay me with buttons again?"

"Actually-"

"No," Gus interrupted, giving Shawn a glare. "You know we don't like to charge you boys. It's not what a good person would do, right Shawn?"

Ooh, that was strangely pointed. Shawn filed that away for later.

Kendall rolled his eyes and reached into his pocket. "We don't really have any money to spare," he admitted, pulling out five pieces of paper. "But we got you guys some tickets to our show tomorrow, if that's okay?"

Gus squeaked and made grabby, lurching movements towards the papers without actually going anywhere. Shawn stared at him and then took the tickets and plopped them in his hands, ignoring his friend's, "I really shouldn't take these Shawn don't let me take these I don't need these, Shawn, Shawn, Shawn-"

Shawn let out a dramatic sigh, stretching his arms over his head. "Look, guys, I'm gonna have to check the schedule and get back to you-aw, who am I kidding, we're in."

"Yes!" Both Carlos and James leapt to their feet and started jumping up and down on the couch. Logan and Kendall sat trapped in the middle. Logan looked a bit panicked. Kendall looked a bit bored.

Shawn held out a fist behind his back to Gus. He was pleased when his friend bumped it.

"Okay!" Shawn pulled them back to Earth, rubbing his hands together as the boys sat down. "So, first thing's first: where did you find the map?"

Kendall took that one. "We were searching through the broken stuff. It was in one of the picture frames on the wall. The picture had a big ship on it, and it landed on the bed so we picked it up and the paper fell out."

"That's weird," Gus commented, finally sitting on the other side of Shawn. "Has that picture been there since the hotel burned down?"

The boys looked at each other, shrugged, and looked back at Gus. "Dunno," they said together.

Shawn pursed his lips. "And there were no other pictures with hidden map pieces inside?"

Again, the boys were in unison when they chorused, "Nope."

"That's scary," Shawn commented. "Gus, why don't we ever talk in unison like that?"

"I'd rather not know what goes on in that brain, Shawn."

"That's fair." Shawn turned back to the boys. "Okay, so let's just sum this up real quick: your hotel room was trashed and you found a piece of a map behind a picture."

"You did some research and found out the hotel burned down a long time ago, and there was a rumor that the original owner had stashed some gold somewhere on the property," Gus continued.

"And because of a long series of accidents in the hotel, you're pretty sure it's haunted."

"And we only have a day to figure this entire thing out before you guys have to leave?" Gus finished.

"More like a day and a half," James said.

"We are not missing sound check again," Logan said with a glare.

"Technically we didn't miss it last time," Kendall pointed out.

"Whose side are you on?" Logan demanded, exasperated.

Shawn studied the map. It looked like part of a blueprint, but he wasn't sure if it was the hotel the boys were staying at.

"Well," he declared, "first things first: let's go check out this hotel of yours."

They walked, knowing from experience that Shawn invading Gus' Blueberry was bad enough without adding four growing boys to the mix. Gus practically had a heart attack the first time they tried.

It was a cool summer day, a break from the usual weather they'd been having. The sun had tucked itself behind the clouds enough for them to walk without feeling like they were going to melt straight through the sidewalk. Carlos talked about a mile a minute, only Shawn attempting to keep up and maintain the conversation. Logan had fallen back to Gus as they pored over their usual common ground: medicine. Kendall was walking a step behind James, whose mutterings were more focused on how he really should've dressed better if he'd known they'd be hiking through the city this morning.

Shawn had managed to glean some more information from Carlos during the half hour trek. The Latino boy bounced around, full of pent up energy that never seemed to dissipate.

"The owners are super old," he announced, fiddling with the straps on his helmet. "They're brother and sister. They inherited the hotel from their dad. And guy's, like, super grumpy and rude. He's like Mr. Bitters that one time when James stole his toupée and accidentally dropped it in the pool." He nodded, solemn. "It clogged the pool filters. His face was red for, like, three days."

"That was not my fault!" James piped up from behind them.

Carlos shrugged. "Anyway, we tried to ask them some questions. The lady was nicer. She likes Kendall."

"Oh does she?" Shawn tossed over his shoulder with a grin.

"She thinks I need a haircut." Kendall shuddered. "She wants to do it herself."

"That's how we got to talk to her." Carlos regarded Kendall for a second. "Kendall, you're like a key!"

Kendall face contorted in horror. "Carlos, if you're thinking what I think you're thinking-"

But Carlos had already moved on. "She told us that even though it's hard to get people to stay there anymore, the building is paid off? She said that it's been in their family so long, they own it now and they can't just sell it." Carlos took off his helmet and scratched at his head before replacing it. "She says that she wants to sell it, or turn it into a store or something, but her brother refused."

"Interesting," Shawn mused. "Think they know about this treasure of yours?"

Carlos nodded enthusiastically. It's a wonder how he kept his head on all the time. "Milfy's the one who told us!"

Gus choked. "Milfy?"

"Milfred," Logan explained, patting his shoulder. "Don't worry, we all had the same reaction."

Carlos didn't seem to understand what the fuss was about. "Anyway," he said loudly, "Milfy told us that's the reason she wants to turn the hotel into some sort of historic location, because it had a bunch of stories surrounding the treasure and stuff. But Manny-her brother-he said he'd die before 'grubby tourists take our family's treasure.'"

Logan looked about at the end of his rope. "Maybe he was being sentimental about it, Carlos. You ever think about that?"

"Logan," Kendall interrupted, "sentimental is the exact last thing that man is."

Carlos stuck his tongue out at Logan, the other boy throwing his hands up and almost whacking Gus in the face.

Shawn resisted the urge to pinch his nose. He always felt old hanging around the boyband. "Hey, you guys aren't staying alone in this hotel, right?"

Kendall answered that one. "Actually, we're just touring with Gustavo and Kelly. My mom and sister stayed back at the Palm Woods, since this is only supposed to be a week and a half long."

"Gustavo and Kelly are staying in the room down the hall," James offered. He frowned. "He kicked us out. Kelly said he needs to "detox" from us."

"I know the feeling," Gus muttered. Logan hit him in the arm.

"Oh look," Carlos announced, interrupting what looked to be an impending slap war between them. "We're here!"

The hotel itself was three stories, but it was wide, taking up half the block with its bulk. It was old, very old-mostly built of sturdy, dark brown wooden beams and bricks to reinforce the foundation. It had obviously had some work done-the windows looked new, at least, and the parking lot had evidence of being evened out at one point. Even in the morning sunlight, it loomed above them, and Shawn could easily imagine this place being haunted.

In other words, he loved it.

"That's our room," Logan said, pointing up at the third story at the right hand corner.

Shawn frowned at it-there were two windows on either side of the corner.

Before he could make further note on that, however, the front doors of the hotel slammed open and a man stormed out. He was ancient, although that may have been the excessive frown lines aging his face, the wrinkles almost swallowing his beady brown eyes. His hair was long and stringy gray, thinned at the top but hanging towards the back, and though he was dressed in an ill fitting business suit, he looked like he cared even less about his appearance than his frightening demeanor.

His eyes fell on them and, if possible, his scowl deepened. He sped up, stomping towards them with all the force of a herd of stampeding rhinos.

"That's it, you Big Time Brats!" he hollered. "This is all your fault!"