Author's note: I do not own anything, I make no money, I roast marshmallows with flames and make tasty smores. (Who actually flames/gets flamed? I almost never see this.) I do the review dance of joy! Thanks for the encouragement; I'm glad this fun to read. Cookies for everyone!

"Dammit…" He wanted to turn it off and conserve battery, but it was to dark to chance that down in the aquaducts. "Well, how about getting out of here? How do I…"

Death was gone, the bare wall mocked him. It was not a relief.

(Natural light, oh thank God for natural light!) Soma pushed a mossy door fully open and took a deep breath. The moonlight showered down through high arched windows. Floating specks of dust which probably held zombie plague or something danced in the beams but Soma couldn't care less. He was up, he was out, and he could see.

It had taken almost an hour to find his way out of the aqueducts. The lack of torches and the seemingly endless dark water had made it a particularly harrowing trek. Now with those wet stones behind him Soma's spirits rose. (I'd almost given up on there being more to the castle than an entrance hall and the aqueducts. That would have been insane.) He leaned out a window to feel the air move on his face. (Not that this hasn't already been insane in every way I could have imagined, and more. The castle is either broken or its dicking with me.) The aqueducts hadn't been what prior experience had led him to suspect. There had been no discarded gear, no lights, and no monsters.

In fact there had been no supernatural opposition to his passage through the tunnels in any way. No mermen or ice spirits, no traps, and no guardian for the area. Nice as it had been at the time it was unnerving; to go this far and see no monsters… did that happen in real life? Soma tugged at the cotton beneath his neck, his shirt was drying from a second unexpected dip and despite the odds his phone had once again been spared. Battery life was dangerously low though. (Ok, better get my bearings and at least try to pick a productive direction. Where is this? It looks like…) stained glass, marble angels contorted in pain, a pulpit... (No question this is the chapel. That probably means I'm not too far from the main hall, maybe even near a ballroom or the gardens.) Soma let his eyes wander over the colorful windows and carved woodwork. He followed along the carpeted isle, thoughts drifting.

(Why would a demonic castle have a chapel? It's a stupid question I know but one day I've got to ask it. I remember how much this area disturbed me the first time…) A quick glance around, (…it was larger then, it was larger than this the second time too. If fact this is the least impressive I've seen it. Still no monsters…) The alter loomed before him, a massive, honestly garish wooden thing carved like a triptych depicting the three spheres of creation; hell, earth, and heaven. It was cracked along the side as if someone had brought an ax down on it in a repeated burst of violence. (I wonder if they need to be summoned like the lights. If that's the case I'm in luck, passing through will be a breeze. Even better, no monsters means the other passengers are alive and missing, just missing.)

A smile tugged at his lips, sharply out of place in the solemn room. (Go figure, I summoned it and I botched it. Even if I did drop it on the shrine…) a wince. (which Mina will laugh about after she kills me like something right out of a horror movie. And then probably uses my blood in some old ceremony to restore its sacred aura.) Soma paused, shook his head. (Wait that makes no sense at all, blood ceremonies and human sacrifice? I'm thinking too deeply into this.)

He stopped and checked his surroundings again. No changes had occurred; the chapel was still small, and still deserted. (Bizarre.)

Somewhere down the hallway a door shut. Soma jumped, kicked himself for it a moment later. He could hear footfalls coming down the hall and towards his space. (No monsters, yeah right! Was I out of my mind?) He jumped to a platform and ducked behind it just as the chapel door opened.

"I can't help it, I didn't mean it, and he walked into it himself-I will not feel bad! Cease to plead with me!" It was a woman's voice, irritated, oddly accented, distinctly huffy.

"I plead not! But you really shouldn't have laughed, the poor dear; he was so embarrassed as was…" A second woman, she sounded on the verge of laughing herself.

"Well he should have been! If he hadn't been trying to take that much at one time he could have seen where he was walking. Its fortune alone he didn't slide in it and fall."

(What is this?) Soma fought the urge to peak, his face pulled with confusion. (Succubae? No… I've never heard them talk to each other like this. Demon maids? In the chapel? This doesn't make any sense… They sound human but I know they're not from the train. Have more people somehow wandered into the castle?) Whatever they were they were coming closer, the softer voice giggled, the warmer tone sighed as if impatient.

"So close to a campaign and already making a mess, it makes me worry for them once they leave…"

"There's no good fretting Elizabetha, soldiers come and go." It was said easily, a matter of fact. "Nothing will get past our lords. I hear they have gained some renown…"

"I worry regardless. Sometimes, at night, I have the most fantastic dreams about them." The other woman didn't sound comforted, she sounded haunted.

"About them hmm? Or about "Him."

A shocked inhale was punctuated by a scolding "Sara! I disapprove where your mind has wandered! Leon is there as well…"

"And that I disapprove." But it sounded playful, as though she didn't disapprove much if at all.

"Hold your tongue, you say terrible things! It is not that way at all. Villages burn and the battles are fierce. Sometimes… in my dreams, they lose." There was a hush to that voice now, and then a shaky breath, "And I know they are but dreams, but they stay with me even when I'm awake"

The other's tone lost is playfulness, it fell softer as if to conspire with her fellow. "…Is that why you wanted to come here? I did not realize, but you have been troubled…"

"No, it is cool here and hot outside." Gone was the hush, there was warmth again, and some irritation had returned. "I merely wanted a moment to relax it the shade."

(Leon… Elizabetha…) The names tugged at something, a memory, a dream? Soma grasped for it vainly in his hiding space, listened as the women moved further and further into the chapel, closer and closer to him. Curiosity overrode his caution at last and he stood up behind the pulpit.

He expected a trap, to be attacked. His hands were fisted, his breath was braced.
Nothing.

The door was not open and no one stood in attendance down the aisle. The two women had, seemingly, never been there at all. Disbelieving Soma walked down the steps, looked around for any signs of habitation he might have missed. Still nothing, the castle had swallowed them without a whisper. It was the worst thing that had happened yet and the hairs from the base of his neck down the backs of his arms stood high with tension. "…This is ridiculous. I couldn't have imagined that. What is going on here?" The stillness swallowed his words; he would take them back if he could. It didn't feel safe to talk here.

It didn't feel safe to be here. He knew the castle housed many ghosts but in the empty stillness of the chapel Soma felt haunted.

The aura of the small space closed in, became heavy and oppressive. He shook it off as best he could, made his way to the door. (Just have to keep moving, find the passengers, get the hell out of here.) A glimmer of moonlight caught the edge of something metal, flashing its light into the corner of his eye and and heralding a small change of fortunes for the better. (That's more like it!) It was only a short sword, but that was better than hands alone by far. If he ran into a skeleton he'd be well off. (Maybe I'll find some warmer clothes as well; this shirt isn't great for cold castle explorations.) He left the chapel behind, putting the strange voices out of mind. He had other thoughts there now that felt more comfortable to focus on. He needed to reach the furnaces so he could find the other passengers, he needed a map, and he needed new gear.
But distantly the names bothered him still… (Elizabetha… Leon…)

The hallways seemed to stretch on forever; perhaps they did, he had no way to be sure. But the sword felt right in his hand, comforting. Distantly he realized he'd missed carrying around an armament in daily life. The hilt filled his grip like an old habit, like a familiar pair of shoes you didn't feel fit to go out without. It seemed he'd developed a comfort in the cold metal. (Well, considering how often this sort of thing has saved me it's probably normal. I still have no idea where I'm going. Maybe the ballroom..? I don't remember seeing any furnaces in my previous adventures anywhere.) Comparing now to the past was pointless given how the castle was behaving. Soma switched gears, (If I was a furnace… then where…?)

The doors before him opened under his hand and spread themselves across the threshold of an inner garden. (Bingo. It was this or the ballroom. Called it.) A variety of blooms stretched up from the flowerbeds to reach for the moon enfolded between the castles soaring towers. The air was sweet with an underlying waft of rot that made it foul where the mist was thick. Soma breathed through his mouth and resolved to pass this place quickly. Beneath his sneakers the dirt padded his steps, his progress was almost silent, and the sounds of the rustling greenery seemed to increase in volume as he neared the center of the layout. He put on more speed, the smell was reaching him even with his best efforts to block it.

Despite himself he began to notice odd markings on the ground as he hurried on his way, almost archaic in their complicated line working. (First furnaces, then ghosts that don't attack, then Gothic crop signs... Nothing is the same.)

He'd seen symbols like those along every step he'd made so far, and he'd ignored them, just as he would continue to do now. They reminded him of the seals he'd been forced to use to defeat high ranked monsters in the last castle encounter and if they were as similar as he suspected they were it probably meant trouble.

Relief was instant as he exited the garden, the foul air was held at bay behind him by another door. Catching his breath he leaned on a wall and examined his newest surroundings. Surprise caught and held him; he had run right into a teleport room. It looked different of course, everything did. He didn't recognize the paintings on the walls but the atmosphere had the right charge to it. It zinged the underside of his fingers like a shock of static electricity; that feeling was hard to forget. (I'll have to go back out. This won't take me anywhere until I've found one of its partners.) Soma didn't move from his lean against the wall though, his sword loosely drooped in his grip. (No reason not to rest a moment though, these rooms are always safe.)

Out of the wet, the dark, the haunted and the smelly with a moment to relax the thought of those five messages on his cell phone reared its head. He'd almost forgotten them with all the ground he'd covered.
(Crap! I meant to check that, It could be Genya or Yoko and my battery isn't going to last much longer!) He reached into his pocket and pulled out the phone, entered his voicemail. (…what?) A closer examination revealed that all five messages had been left by unrecognized numbers. Genya and Yoko had called, but they hadn't left anything for him to hear. (but why, what?) It didn't matter; he couldn't call them back from here. The castle seemed to be an uncovered cell zone. (No way to know, I won't have any bars until I get out of here. I can at least see who left these other messages) He entered his password and waited for the first playback to begin.

Before the automated voice could finish telling him when the message had been left the ground rolled beneath his feet. "What the hell!" Soma almost dropped the phone, caught himself because his shoulder was braced on the wall and shook in place the floor continued to move. He couldn't make out the message over the noise caused by the stones grinding and pulling against their foundation. (What is this?! There's no way this thing can be active now, I haven't found..!) The walls began to bulge and strain, rattling their bricks. Soma snapped the phone shut and prepared despite what he knew to be sent to another part of the castle. That was not what followed.

Before his eyes the layout of the room shifted and writhed, individual bricks re-aligned themselves as ghastly indescribable faces broke through, eyes rolling, jaws snapping and snarling at him through the cracks. Hands reached for him as creatures roared and jerked against the mortar. Soma fought to keep his footing but the floor was obviously trying to throw him into the hands of the walls. Escape occurred to him but it was a hope all too soon crushed by the absence of the door, it had vanished behind the sea of moving bricks and grasping fingers. Soma held his sword out before him, braced against the bucking floor, determined to take whatever was coming. And something was coming; he could feel it in his gut.

With sudden violence the floor at the far end of the small room exploded upwards like a great stone boil, the force of it threw Soma to the ground. He tried to catch himself but his hands slid out from under him as he skidded across the ground and into a wall. The shock of the impact stole his breath as his face slammed into the brick. His ears popped and a shock of black filled his vision for a moment but the pain was lucky, the pain was all that kept him aware.

The floor of the entire room was opening now as if that burst of energy had been the giving of a floodgate. Out of the cracks beneath him Soma could feel fingers grasp his shirt, holding him down. Pulling him down. (Why… why is this… happening..,) He was sinking, being dragged into a mass of maddened gazes and cold hands. Distantly he was horrified. Distantly he was in pain. Oddly everything seemed distant now, only the eyes were real, great white milky pupils filling up his vision and stealing even his ability to scream. (This Castle… this place… it hates me, but I… I called it!) Thousands of dead eyes peered into him, dissecting him, spreading his spirit bare. He recognized the danger but he was still too stunned to respond. Underneath the noises of grinding walls and wailing dead he could hear the sound of something dragging itself towards him from the hole in the floor. Blood from his forehead rolled over his brows and tinted his vision red. Deep inside his powers, suppressed by lack of souls, struggled to unfold in their cage of flesh and bones.

(I called it, had power over it. Is it fighting that…?) The creature from the hole had long, long arms with long, long fingers. Its head was making the journey between those great limbs to him and Soma struggled to make sense of the monstrosity through his own blood in his eyes. (Is the castle trying to destroy…) Soma's glazed eyes widened (Me..? Him..? It's trying to destroy… him? It hates him? It hates him!) The beast had reached him, its face hovered above his face. Its rancid breath wheezed over him and it stared down at him great, empty, shark like eyes. Its jaws spread and spread as its hands reached for him…
Soma snarled, lips curled back in a subconscious attempt to bluff. For a moment they breathed the same rank air, for a moment they held gazes. The room screamed, the stones moved, the fingers pulled and nails scratched his skin. Dead eyes gleamed in the darkness and the faces twisted their expressions with wrathful victory as for a moment, just a moment, Soma considered that this might actually be the end of everything. This bizarre scene might be the last thing he saw before he died.

And at that thought, despite himself, he laughed.

The sound rose unnaturally among the chorus of discord and the wails and snarls tapered off as they puzzled the change. The eyes of the creature above him widened, showing a great white ring; Soma laughed harder. The blood dripped down his nose and off of his chin and even that sound seemed to swell, become louder and louder. He felt numb. He felt alive. Underneath his ribs his heart felt too big his lungs strained in their cage as Soma barked and roared with dirged mirth, grinned with bared teeth at the horror above him and stared through the abyss to the other side. He knew what needed to be done without knowing. Raw power would suffice, and that he had, so he let it rip through him to seize the throat of the monster above him and draw it in closer. The hands that had held him twitched and jerked, fought to be free of him, above him the unspeakable thing shook and croaked its distress as it tried to shimmy back the way it had come.

Eyes glowing, bloodstained and dripping, lips snarling around the end of a chuckle, his friends would be hard pressed to recognize Soma now. He rose from the floor and cast the creature off of him with the backhand of his will. The little light in the room, cold and misty, swept across his face making ice chips of his eyes and turning his smile into a jagged line. Step by step he moved against the force of the castles malice and met it with his own cold burning rage. The walls screamed as stones ground frantically back into place, reaching hands pulled back, became placating, and woeful faces averted their gazes as bricks and mortar covered them. Beneath his steps the ground locked and gaps disappeared, pulling their grasping fingers down with them.

Soma felt as though he was caught in a dream, that he was falling and unafraid. He spread his arms to embrace the void and saw across that void another was falling towards him as well, arms open to catch him. If they met now, if they met at last…

But Soma hit the wall of the room first, Fingers splayed across disobedient stone and there wasn't time to fall further. The air was charged, waiting for the lightning to strike. Soma breathed a word, "Submit."
The room shuddered. The faces wailed no more. The arms were gone. The monster was gone. The stone settled. Whatever it had been it seemed to be done and all that remained was a teleportation room and Soma himself.

His breaths coming in shaky pants, palms slick with sweat, he slid down to land on the floor. Slowly thought returned, full sensation returned. Soma shivered and grabbed his knees to keep his legs still (Hates him… hates him…) He tried to still the shaking that seized him but failed, it was too cold suddenly… the floor was leaching away his body heat. One hand rose to brush the blood off of his forehead, out of his eyes. (I've got to, to stop… hitting my head… that's the second time tonight...) Limply his palm fell back to the floor leaving a streak of red against the stones. (Have to stop… before I…) His eyes were shutting, he fought against it. (I…) The world swam up and faded away. Darkness descended. Soma saw no more.

Beside his prone form the blood smeared across the stones dripped into a crack and ran straight and true into a seal upon the floor.

In the distant clock tower under Death's watchful glare the bells began to swing.