About an hour or so during their tea break, Shaco decided that it was time to pack up and move on. He whole-heartedly agreed to travel alongside them through these cursed woods, especially since the light from his lanterns were able to ward away the evil shadows lurking within. This put everyone’s minds at ease, thinking of how lucky they were to encounter someone like Shaco. The traveller used a comical vacuum from his bag of wondrous items, literally sucking up all the furniture and stuff brought out for their tea party. This impressed the party so much they wondered what other fancy-shancy do-hickies were in his bag.

  “Now then, my faithful and endearing friends, let us be off on this quest of yours and locate the source to all this madness!” Shaco announced in a vigorous tone, inspiring the motivation within them all. He hopped onto his trusty stead and grabbed the reins. “Ah, I don’t have a lot of space inside my wagon; only enough for two, the rest of you will have to stroll alongside. I do apologize for the inconvenience.”

  Barry chose not to go inside, wanting to be ready to oppose any threat that happened to come their way, while also feeling the need to have visual sight on Shaco at all times. But surprisingly, no one else felt like riding inside the wagon because it wouldn’t feel right if they all couldn’t sit inside together. Shaco respected their decision and promised to take their journey slow, as to keep them within the protective radiance of the lanterns illuminating lights. Puck asked Shaco if it was alright to sit on the horse with him since there was enough space for him, to which he happily allowed.

  They ventured through the eerie forest, listening to ominous sounds here and there, wispy orbs danced around, dashes of movement whisking from cover to cover; though the lanterns made the party feel safe, they knew not to let their guard down. “So how long have you been trapped inside this forest, Shaco? It must be pretty lonely for you to travel on your own, right?” Luna questioned.

  “Erm…I can’t give an exact number, but it has been quite a long time…” Shaco’s ink-mask shifted to one full of deep thought. “It’s hard to say really, but given the number of people I’ve encountered and upon hearing their lively stories perhaps…years?”

  “Years!?” Ron said what everyone had thought at that moment. “You’re telling me you’ve been wandering around in these horrific woods for X amount of years without going insane!? It’s surprising to see how you haven’t cracked while being contained for so long. I think I might have lost my mind in less than a year if I was trapped inside.”

  “Haha, yes, my life in this prison of confinement has been a very unfortunate experience in my lifetime. The borders of this land appear to be endless; I’ve travelled far out like an arrow for months straight, hoping that the next day I’d make it out.” Shaco’s voice changed to dismay, sounding sort of hopeless. “But alas, as you can see, I am still bound to this unholy place…never reaching the light at the end of this infinite stretch of woodlands…”

  Puck didn’t like how Shaco’s mood was taking a nose dive so suddenly and patted on his pat, consoling his new friend. “It’s okay, we find way out for you, Puck promise! And when we do get out of here, Puck wants to show you lots of cool stuff we can do and have fun! Puck wants to see you happy, not sad.”

  “Thank you, Puck. I appreciate your words of comfort. I’ll try to be more light-hearted than let you all see the gloomy side of me.” Shaco patted the little Kobold’s head, expressing gratitude. He wished he’d always have a pal like him by his side throughout his venture in this ominous prison.

  Luna was the first to ask Shaco about how his lanterns were able to stave away the sinister threats inside the forest. The traveller explained that during his life as travelling seller trader, he helped a shaman by exterminating some rodents that were ruining their harvest. And as a bonus alongside his payment, he received a couple jars of luminous wisp orbs and his staff that were told to ward off evil spirits by their blinding white light. Though, he was told that they’d tire out after a few days of use, requiring a moment to recharge after being imbued with some mana.

  The rest of the group continued to chat and converse with Shaco about various topics from the outside world, Barry hanged back a bit, having a moment to himself to think about something. ‘That book he brought out during our tea party, it was of Unique rarity…his personal journal. If it was any regular old journal, I’m sure my eyes would register the text color to be black; therefore considering it a Common item. But the text color of his journal was purple…am I just overthinking this?’

  Uncertainty filled Barry, he had other questions regarding Shaco’s background. He then glanced at Anna, currently listening to the group's conversation, and wondered if she found Shaco to be an unusual character herself; especially if she could read ill-intent with her own passive ability. “Hey, Anna…” He whispered to her.

  “Hmm?” Anna switched her attention to Barry, separating herself from the discussion to talk to Barry alone. “What’s up, do you feel lonely by yourself now that Puck’s decided to bond with someone else?” She teased, elbowing his arm.

  Eyes were rolled on Barry’s end. “Haha, very funny. No, I’m not jealous of him being buddy-buddy with Shaco. Actually, I wanted to ask you something in regards to Puck’s new friend.” Curious what he was going to ask, Anna followed Barry by falling back a bit more to give them more privacy. “...do you see any ill-readings from him?” He asked her.

  “Ill-readings…” Anna looked back at Shaco, scanning him now with full intent of catching even a glimpse of red-aura that would indicate whether he was plotting something malicious. But to no avail, saw not even a sliver of wickedness. “No, he’s clean; I don’t see anything alarming from him based on my passive. Are you skeptical of him? Is there something you know that we don’t?” She wanted to know the reason for Barry’s distrust in the person who saved them from the shadow figures.

  “Hell yeah I’m suspicious of him, I thought you’d be too; I mean, come on now…” Barry collected his words to piece together his theory. “This guy says he’s been trapped in this cursed forest for an indefinite amount of time, trying to save others but always failing to do so because his only saving grace are those lanterns; not to mention the fact he has all these fancy-shmancy items. I’d say he takes advantage of this forest in order to dispose of his victims and loot their items. Think about it.”

  His explanation sounded so extreme and outlandish that Anna honestly felt like Barry was being way too harsh on Shaco. “Barry…let me say that I can also be judgemental and distrusting of others when it comes to encountering strangers, mainly because I have a belief that most people have ulterior motives; which is why I think my passive ability is the way it is…” She sighed before continuing to give her input on Barry’s opinion. “However, I think you’re being unreasonable and unfair to Shaco, someone we just met hours ago. So to say that he’s scheming to get rid of us already, just to loot our corpses, is pretty out there as of now. And again, I see no ill-intent from him; trust me, I would've warned us on our first encounter.”

  Clenching his teeth, Barry wanted to argue against her but didn’t want to cause a scene. Instead, he thought about what she said some more and backed off for now. “...you would tell us the moment we met him…fine, I guess I am being overly cynical…” He observed the ongoing conversation in front of them, questioning his own criticism. “...promise me you’ll alert anything suspicious to us if you do see some unusual behavior.”

  “Sure, though, I will admit that Shaco’s personality is already unusual on its own; so differentiating any signs of oddness from his unique character will be…difficult.” Anna found Shaco as someone whose mood-swung between cheerful and self-depreciative. “I guess you’ll have to join in the discussion to get a feel of him yourself. Maybe improve your social skills as well, instead of being such a hardass.” She joked.

  “...” Barry assumed it'd be better to keep to himself since he had nothing to add to whatever topic the rest of the group was talking about. “I’ll stay out of it and watch our backs. Not like I desperately need to work on being a people person…” He then parted from Anna to be by himself, choosing to remain vigilant.

  This act made Anna feel annoyed, wanting to break him out of his self brooding but knew that he wouldn’t like that if she forcefully dragged him in. ‘Whatever you say Mr. Edgelord…one of these days you’re going to be more open and social. I’m betting on it.’ She predicted.

  They all ventured through the land for about another few hours; Shaco remained at the head of the group, leading them onwards until they encountered something extraordinary. “Say…what’s that over yonder there?” Shaco pointed a finger out, aiming at an object slightly concealed by the mist.

  Kat tried peering at what he was referring to, declaring what it was. “That looks to be a…ball?” She was stunned, just as everyone else was; it was a colorful bouncy ball with stripes the closer they got to it. Kat poked it with her staff, hesitating to pick it up at first but quickly realized it was safe to grab. “It’s…just a toy.”

  “Over there! Look, there’s more stuff!” Luna gestured towards a trail of other mysterious items in the mist. Everyone got closer, Shaco’s lanterns illuminating the area around for increased vision. “Clothes, dolls, even pots and pans? How far out were these people travelling before being snatched away from these evil shadows?” Luna questioned.

  Her answer would soon be given as they tracked down the trail, leading them to another great discovery that made a great shocking impression on everyone. “This is…a town?” Ron was the first to utter their find. Upon reaching the end of the trail, they came across an abandoned rural town. The mist did not cloud this place, never extending past a certain boundary of town that was its edges. Everywhere they looked, it all appeared to be ransacked like the people who once lived here, had left in a hurry. “Shaco, is this your first time discovering this place?” Ron asked him.

  “Y-Yes, I’ve found small campsites before along with other people. But never in all my time of strolling about, have I found anything as peculiar as this.” Shaco sounded in awe as he spoke, clearly in disbelief that it took him this long to find this remarkable ghost town.

  Puck hopped off the horse and rushed up to one of the toys, grabbing and messing with it, as he scanned about. “Those evil shadow people must have taken the people here, Puck no see any bodies around. Maybe Puck and friends should search deeper to find more clues.”

  “Easy there, Puck.” Barry warned, thinking that it’s still unsafe for everyone to be wandering around the town despite there not being any mist in the area. “Shaco, are we able to carry one of those lanterns with us while we scout the area? That is, in case this place happens to get swallowed by the outside mist.”

  “Of course, you all may take a lantern with you for peace of mind. I wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to any of you. Here, I have plenty more with me.” Shaco rummaged through his bottomless bag, bringing out empty lanterns, as well as jars of glowing wisps to fill them. He then started handing them off to each member of the party. “There! Do take caution still, we don’t know how violent and mischievous these woodlands can be.” He advised.

  Everyone agreed, pairing into two groups; the first being Ron, Kat, Anna, and Luna and the second being Barry, Puck, and Shaco. And so everyone began their exploration upon this abandoned ominous town. Barry would consistently scan the area around using his unique vision, trying to spot anything worth taking or piquing his interest. They inspected each deserted building, all of which seemed as though the residents fled in a panic, leaving behind cluttered messes everywhere. No corpses or even signs of injuries such as stains of blood were spotted, there were signs of property damage, indicating that a raid or invasion of some sort had to have occurred. The wicked shadows lurking in the forest must have been what had attacked them, that much the party was able to assume.

  From amongst these forsaken homes, Barry’s search eventually led him to fishing around a small home that appeared to house one or two individuals. He sifted through the belongings of the previous residents, his vision skill making it easier to locate anything worth examining rather than wasting time by physically inspecting them. There were a few things that caught his eye; two of which were books associated with the familiar “Magic Mike” author that he snatched, thinking how popular these books were to wind up here; and the last thing was a book referred to as “Ophen’s Personal Journal” in yellow colored text. From Barry’s understanding, whenever he saw that the title of an object was yellow, it likely meant that it was part of a clue or puzzle in that sense. So seeing a book such as this had to mean that this might contain some answers they were seeking…

  Puck was outside of the house, alongside Shaco, sniffing up for any clues that might solve the mystery of the lost people and the curse befalled on this land. His adventurous side would soon take him to stop at a small backyard shed, its door happened to be both chained and locked, though they were rusted, a telling sign that a lot of time must have passed here. “Hmmm, Puck sniffer thinks something must be inside here. Let’s take a look!” Puck suggested, as he used his draconic flames to melt away that poor security measures. Shaco and Puck would then move in after opening the door.

  Inside the shed was lawn equipment, tools, craft material, and other miscellaneous things that didn’t stand out much aside from a rubber ducky that Puck happily took off the shelf to fidget with as he continued looking. “It appears that there is not a zip here, my little Kobold friend.” Shaco concluded. “We’re not doing so hot on scrounging up any clues on our end, perhaps our friends have better luck on their search.”

  A frown formed on Puck’s face, disappointed that they haven’t managed to find anything worthwhile. “Oh man, Puck was hoping to find giant clue…” Puck squeezed his ducky, deciding to keep it as a souvenir. But by accident, the ducky happened to slip and fly out of his hand, landing at the far end of the room. “No, ducky!”

  Puck scurried to retrieve it, yet once he did, he felt the floor beneath him was off. “Hmmm?” He looked down at the dusty floor boards, tapping his feet on it a bit, listening and feeling the quality of it. “The floor is…loose? Maybe it’s old…” He then thought about it some more. “Or maybe…” The Kobold's curiosity took over, as he knelt down to try and pry the floor open, managing to find a grand discovery. “Ah ha! Puck knew there’d be something. Look Shaco!”

  Shaco examined what he had unveiled, impressed at his find. “Well I’ll be…you are quite the detective Puck! You’re probably the best there is in this world.” He complimented, making Puck feel giddy inside. There was a small metal box, sealed by another lock requiring a key, likely containing something secretive if the owner went out of their way to hide this.

  “Puck will open it with his fire in a jiffy! Watch.” Puck declared as he picked it up and prepared to melt away the lock.

  “Hold on there, Puck.” Shaco warned, as he was concerned about what was inside. “Allow me to pick-lock it rather than relying on your potent flames. We wouldn’t want to damage the contents inside this box by chance would we?.” Puck considered his advice and handed it off to him, thinking how careless he was about to act if Shaco hadn’t said anything. Shoving his hands inside his coat pockets, he whipped out a colorful and silly looking multi-tool, utilizing it for its purpose. “Click…clack…aaaaaaand my wonder tool does just…that!” He successfully managed to unlock it, impressing Puck. “Now then, what is in- Oh my…”

  “What! What’s in it!?” Puck desperately wanted to know, as he tried hopping up and down to see what was in it. “Puck wants to know, Puck can’t wait!”

  “It’s…It’s…” Shaco prolonged the suspense that was in the air before dramatically taking out what was inside it. “A picture of an adorable puppy! Look how cute it is!” There in his hands, showing to Puck, was a picture of a doggy and an old man hugging it. Puck grasped the picture, admitting that it was a friendly looking dog. “And this here must be its favorite chew toy in the photo.” Shaco then brought out a green squeaky chew bone from the box, squeezing it. “I believe this box must have been very cherishable by the previous owner, I can only imagine that the dog in the photo must have passed away and that has to be why they decided to bury it for safe keeping.”

  Puck then looked at the ducky in his hand, believing that it also must have been the dog’s favorite toy. “Yeah, maybe the owner did want to hide it for personal memories…” He wondered that by digging it up, it was an act of rudeness. “We should put it back, Puck don’t want to steal anything from here.” Shaco shared the same thought, as he placed the contents back in the box.

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  “Hey, sounds like you two found something.” They heard from outside the door, looking back to see Barry standing outside the doorway. He glanced over and saw the box within Shaco’s hands. “What’s in the box? Anything peculiar?” His eyes were latched on to the box, the first thing he noticed on sight was the text title…

  “In fact we did! Though it’s not what we were expecting to find here, sadly…” Shaco shared, replying in a sorrowful tone. “This here is a memorable box of a cherishable pup belonging to the owner of this property. We were just about to put it back where we found it.”

  Barry looked at Puck, then at Shaco, and back at the box. “Is that so…” He pondered about something for a short moment before resuming. “Can I take a look at it? I’m fond of dogs myself, so losing a pet such as a dog can be pretty heart breaking.”

  “Uh-huh, you can look at the doggy picture. Puck would have loved to have met it and the other person too.” Puck thought about how great it would have been to have a pet dog, he had only interacted with the wolves back at his treehouse, missing their soft fur. Shaco approved of Barry looking at the box, handing it off to him before putting it back.

  He observed everything, from the items inside the box, to the container itself. The photo and the chew toy were considered Common items based on what the system was telling Barry, but the box however was intriguing to him the most; ‘Ophen’s Secret Box’ was what it was referred to as, its text color was yellow. ‘Is this really all that was inside this box?’ This thought led to him asking them a question. “Where was this box being kept?”

  “Right here.” Puck pointed at the spot he had found before explaining to him. “It was locked and Puck wanted to melt it open, but Shaco said to let him do it safely. Puck didn’t want to burn anything inside.” It was a reasonable response from Puck, knowing that he wouldn’t want to do anything careless…and so this led Barry to question something about Shaco.

  “...” Barry’s intuition was telling him that something wasn’t right, but also that it was best to keep what he was suspecting to himself for now. He then handed the box to Puck. “Here, put it back and let's go scout out the rest of this town for more clues.” Puck hurried to do as told.

  Barry turned to walk out of the shed when Shaco queried him about his own finds. “Find anything interesting inside the house? I wouldn’t be surprised if there were other hidden stashes in the walls or under the mattress. Haha.” He chuckled to himself.

  “I did find a book that caught my eye, a strange one at that.” Barry replied, the way he said this sparked Shaco’s attention. Barry took notice and produced the book he was referring to out of his inventory. “Magic Mike, a familiar book I’ve seen on my travels but one that I can’t make any sense of. I also think it’s odd how I always manage to find these books in places that I wouldn’t imagine being in.” Barry chose to cover up his discovery of Ophen’s Journal from Shaco with Magic Mike, not wanting him to know the exact truth.

  Another laugh emitted from Shaco, it was amusing to him how there was a book titled ‘Magic Mike’. “Haha, an odd piece of literature that sounds to be. Magic is a weird variable to understand in itself, I just find it pretty convenient to use for my needs and that's all I need to know.” Shaco then dug into his pockets, taking a flute out to play. Puck had finished putting back the box, returning by their side and enjoying the music being made from Shaco.

  ‘Definitely weird…’ Barry held on to his thoughts for later, omitting from saying anything else and leading them on to their continued search of the town. Things were going fine on Kat’s side, so far finding nothing unusual as of yet. She was currently scoping out a shop with Ron, trying to pick out anything useful to take with them if there were any.

  “This town has to have been abandoned for longer than a decade or so…” Ron said, as he wiped off the dust and cobwebs he had touched off the shelves. “If only we could find some records with dates on them, that way we can get an estimate of when the town’s desertion happened.”

  And as Ron declared this, Kat happened upon some documentation of store inventory in a messy office behind the shop counter. “Hey Ron, I might have found something worth looking into.” She announced, bringing them to him and laying them onto a table. “Right here, look, see the date. It’s…wait, um…how many days or months are considered a year for your world.” She felt embarrassed as she asked, unsure herself.

  “Ah, I think Luna asked me that question before. Same as your own world, 12 months, 365 days. But anyways…” He skimmed over the antique papers, drawing his finger across them, piecing together what he was seeking. “So…it appears that my hunch was right. The last time inventory was taken, was 20 years ago. And if that’s correct, then this cursed land had to have occurred sometime from then to now.”

  Upon learning this, Anna and Luna appeared inside the shop after searching the nearby houses, the two bringing a thick binder with them to share what was inside. “We’re back!” Luna greeted, as she placed the binder on a table. “There wasn’t much of anything around here aside from this. It’s a photo album that was tucked underneath a dresser, maybe some clues could be in here…or maybe it can just be something nice to look at.”

  Ron passed on what they knew about the possible time frame the curse event happened before analyzing the photo book. Inside were pictures related to the town when it was lively, people throwing parties, spectacular events going on, just overall shots of what life was prior to the gloomy state the town was like now. “Huh? Look at this photo?” Anna tapped her finger on one, depicting a group of children playing, yet one side of it appeared to be torn off. “Do you think someone purposely ripped some of it off? But why?”

  It was puzzling for them to think about the truth, so they continued flipping through them in order to find more, which they did. “Here’s another…” Luna mentioned; again it was a photo of a group of kids doing something fun and a portion of it was gone. “Whoever’s photo album this is, they must really not like a kid that’s supposed to be included in here. Or it could be that someone keeps photo bombing them on purpose. I don’t know.” She joked; it was a thought that they agreed on.

  They found a couple more through the album, the progression of the photos leading up to the kids being in their pre-teen phase and that was when the photo collection ended. “Well…” A disturbed feeling flowed through Ron as he spoke, pondering what the torn of photo pieces could have been. “This was a rather…eerie find, Luna. Thanks.” Everyone shared the same notion.

  Suddenly, a gust of wind entered the building, the pressure was enough to knock the items off the shelves, cluttering the floor. Chills went down their spines, it was as if the air around them suddenly went cold. Anna’s sixth sense was going off, telling her something bad was happening outside, and the first sign of potential danger was the sight of low mist creeping into the town. “The mist, it’s entering the town now. Stick together and clutch your lanterns close; let’s try to find the others.” She advised, everyone prepared to move out.

  Anna led the way out, all four doing their part of watching all directions. The mist was only at foot level, yet still they hurried on their search, unsure of whether it would cloud up the entire town soon. Together they called out the names of the other three, tracking back to where they had split off too. Five minutes had passed and the mist was already up to their knees, creepy cries of all sorts within the forest bordering the town were produced. They increased their pacing, rushing to regroup as fast as possible.

  “Barry! Puck! Shaco! Where are you guys!” They all called out but no response was given back. Eventually the mist reached their head level, obscuring their depth of vision ahead once again. Still, they clumped together with their lanterns, hoping that the mist wouldn’t whisk them away somewhere else in the forest.

  “We’ve searched at least half of this town for them; what should we do if we get separated from them?” Kat questioned, hoping the worse didn’t happen.

  And just as she said that, a familiar voice echoed somewhere around them. “Hello!? Friends!? Where are you!?” It was Shaco shouting, his voice helping guide the group towards him as they answered back in reassurance.

  A radiant light emitted within the mist, soon finding out that it was Shaco holding his lantern as he stood by a house. “Shaco!” Luna greeted first. “We’re so glad we found you. But where’s Barry and Puck? Weren’t they with you?”

  “Ah, it’s a relief to see you four. I was worried for you all.” Shaco pretended to wipe some worry sweat from his mask. “As for Puck and Barry, unfortunately I have lost them to this spooky mist after scoping the area. Fortunately they still had their lanterns on hand before they disappeared, so let’s have hope they’ll be alright till we see them again…” His eyes then wandered to the photo album that Luna was carrying in hand. “Say, what’s that in your capable hands there, Luna?” His tone, full of interest.

  “Oh this?” Luna raised the book up to him, offering him to take a look-see. “I got this after snooping about in one of these homes; apparently it holds memories of what life was like before all this spooky stuff happened to the forest. There’s even some photos that are purposely missing some pieces. Have a look.”

  Shaco took her up on that offer, admiring the photos and seeking out the pictures they were referring to. His ink mask shifted, it was hard to discern what these changes on his mask were but they could only assume that he was just as puzzled as they were about the torn photos. “Spooky is the right word for these photos, hmm…” He agreed, taking a moment to himself in deep thought as he continued flipping through the album. “...was there anything else you grand investigators discovered?”

  “Yes, we did, actually.” Ron replied, deciding to bring up the info about one of the store documents. “After sifting through one of the store’s inventory dates, we’ve come to the conclusion that this curse had to have occurred about 20 years ago or so. Which honestly isn’t that long ago, at least to me that is.”

  “Astonishing, absolutely stunning.” Shaco said; he sounded proud of how the four were able to dig up this much info in such a short amount of time. He closed the album shut, and playful nudged a corner of it at each of them. “I’d like to believe you were all private investigators in your past lives. Thorough, vigilant, and keen. Talented individuals you all are. Haha!” His praise riled them up positively, renewing their resolve to solve this curse. “I’ll hold on to this album for safe keeping. My coat is capable of holding a lot of nick-nacks without wearing me down.” He then stowed it away, shoving it inside his apparel. “Now come; let us resume our search for Puck and Barry. Let’s hope they aren’t in any danger.”

  Together, the group wandered onwards through the town for about 10 more minutes when they suddenly heard a shout sound off in the distance. “Hello!? Anyone!? Puck is all alone and needs help!” It was their little Kobold friend, Puck.

  “Puck we hear you!” Shaco responded back with urgency in his tone. “Don’t worry buddy, we’ll come help you! With haste everyone, I believe his voice came this way.” Shaco prompted, before storming off into the mist on his own as fast as he could.

  “Wait, Shaco- Agh…” Anna was too slow to get him to hold back; this left them with no choice but to sprint and catch up to Shaco’s dim glow from his lantern. The four did so and stuck close, matching one another’s speed. A few minutes afterwards, they arrived at a gated manor, the dark and ominous surroundings and visual effects provided it a sinister appearance. “Damn it all, just when we thought we’ve seen it all. I bet this manor is just as cursed as this forest…” Anna was despising this curse more and more; she had assumed that this was where Shaco must have entered inside based on her last sighting of his lantern’s glow.

  Gathering their courage and determination to rescue their friends, the group plunged themselves into the potential horrors lying within. Entering pass the creaky gates and following along the cobblestone path leading to the harrowing manor’s front door. “Ack!” Kat jumped in fear upon stepping on a noisy floor board, sending shivers down everyone else’s spine from Kat’s fear alone. “O-Oh, it was just the f-floor, hehe…” Her cheeks were flushed red from embarrassment, as she tried to calm her nerves.

  Having their lanterns alone to guide them through the darkness, they took caution walking down the corridors, covering each other's backs. “I hate how things turned out this way…” Ron commented, as he kept encountering multiple cobwebs, hoping there weren’t any spiders crawling on him. “This day just keeps getting horrible by the minute; look at us searching through a haunted manor for our friends. Lovely…”

  “Hey, don’t say that.” Luna deflected. “I’ve watched too many paranormal and horror movies to know where this could be going. So let’s keep the pessimism to a minimum and not split up; that’s the fastest way to get picked off one by one.” She was a movie fanatic at heart, though Luna was still fearful of horror media at times despite watching a lot of them.

  Suddenly, they experienced an abrupt thud quake throughout the floor they were on; apparently coming down their current hallway. The four looked at each other, quietly deciding to investigate further into the matter. Slowly they arrived at the room entrance of where the noise possibly happened; which was a study room filled with shelves of books. Upon entering, the four took quick notice of one the shelves knocked down. “Well…that has to be the cause of the tremor.” Anna assumed. “Shaco? Puck? Barry? Is anyone here?”

  Some shuffling was heard in the dark within the book shelves. “A-Anna?” It was Puck’s voice calling back to her, his tone sounding a pick afflicted.

  “Puck! Puck we’re here!” Kat responded in reassurance. “Stay where you are and we’ll come get you. Keep talking to us to make things easier for us.” She then waved to everyone, signalling to proceed with recovering their beloved Kobold. Puck did as instructed, producing a soft whistle as a way to guide them to him.

  And as they approached closer to Puck’s place of origin, Anna was the first to spot Puck’s silhouette in the distance from their lanterns glow. “Puck, is that you? What happened to your lant-” Her sentence was cut off due to the shelves around her shaking violently. “Wha-” Puck’s figure rushed off into the unknown, no longer to be seen again. “Puck wait!”

  Books began spewing out of place, falling down on top of the group as they tried to shield themselves. Kat saw that the shelves were about to collapse on them if nothing was done and so she took it upon herself to blast them away with her black magic; thus breaking the shelves into smithereens and creating space. “I-Is everyone alright-” And just when she thought they were safe, Kat stopped talking due to the strange occurrence of books and pages floating in the air. “U-Uh…”

  The atmosphere went cold, the air around them picking up in a whirlwind, swirling every object in the room like a vortex; this eerie phenomenon raised uncertainty of what was going on. “I knew it, I knew this place was haunted.” Ron regretted being right all along.

  Together they were on guard, preparing for the worst to happen but that did not matter at all; because the next thing that followed was utter chaos. Kat and Ron were the only ones able to try and deflect the wave of items and furniture from them, utilizing their abilities but soon they’d be overwhelmed by the masses. “Look out!” Anna shoved Kat to the side, narrowly avoiding a chair from striking her head. She then saw Luna about to be struck by a table and teleported to rescue her, holding her sister close as she dove. Her sights then fell on Ron, teleporting to protect him from a school of flying literature. “We have to get out- Kat!”

  “No!” Kat cried out, as she was swept away off the ground, wrapped up in a carpet like a burrito and kidnapped by the unknown force unleashed upon them. “H-Help! A-Anna…” Her voice trailed off, taken away, leaving fate for what it had in store for her.

  “Anna!” Next was Luna calling out to her, quickly getting her attention as she witnessed her sister get divided by a wall of pages. Anna did not hesitate to make an attempt to save her, blinking past the wall and darting her eyes around to locate Luna, only to see her for a moment before getting concealed and pushed back even further by more poltergeist phenomena. “Anna help! Please-” Luna too was swept away, once again losing each other.

  Frustrated and filled with worry, Anna despised whatever was causing this unfortunate circumstance to befall on them. She thought about Ron just then, not hearing anything from him. “Ron! Tell me you're here!?” No response, the whirling objects around her slowly died down. Now with full vision of her surroundings, she realized that it was just her. “Damn it.” Fear of losing everyone flowed through her, but so did her anger of the cause for the madness. ‘Keep calm…I’ll find them again.’

  And when she managed to settle her mind down, a familiar voice reached her keen ears, presumingly coming from out the same hallway she had entered from. “Hello…friends…anyone there?” It was Shaco, relief and renewed hope filled her inside. “Oh kettle and tea cups, someone please be close by- OH! BACK AWAY I SAY! BA-”

  Shaco’s shout cut off, triggering Anna to make haste and hopefully reach him in time to save him from whatever was terrorizing them. “I’m on my way Shaco! Stay with me!” She called back, as she sprinted, her lantern clanking on her waist. Anna swiftly took quick peeks at each passing room, till eventually her eyes latched on to something glowing in the dark of one room. “Shaco! You in here!?”

  She stormed inside and followed the glowing light, finding one of Shaco’s lanterns tipped over behind a couch. Anna picked it up, discovering another item close by…one that looked to be…Shaco’s ink mask? “Shaco…” Anna grabbed it as well, wondering what could have happened to him. ‘What could have happened to him to have lost his mask…’ A thought of what Shaco truly looked like behind his mask manifested in her mind. ‘...what does he look like actually…’

  And just as she pondered on that thought, the door to the room slammed shut. “No.” She swiftly darted to it, attempting to turn the knob but watched as it snapped off the handle. “You gotta be fucking kidding me.” Anna then tried to see through the keyhole so that she could teleport on the other side, since her teleportation relied on visual sight. But when she did, what happened after sent her recoiling back in total fright. “AH WHAT THE FUCK!” A large grotesque eyeball stared back at her from the other end; shivers and quivering nerves coursed through Anna’s body. “T-This c-can’t be happening. W-What is-”

  Suddenly, both lanterns on her began flickering, a sign of them dying out. “N-No. No, no, please don’t fucking go out!” The wisps inside the lanterns gave out, leading Anna to be consumed in darkness on her own. “Shit! Please turn back on! Please!”

  And by some miracle, as if the gods watching her decided to throw her a bone, her own lantern radiated its precious light once more. “Oh, thank you, thank…” Anna stopped talking, as she felt her heart freeze. Two familiar looking shoes belonging to someone she knew had appeared in front of her…

  Her sixth sense was going off like crazy, as Anna slowly lifted her head up when she really shouldn’t have. And that was when she regretted expelling out the loudest blood curdling scream she had ever emitted in her life. “AAAAAAAAAH!”

  “I was expecting this reaction. I liked you all, I really did…but unfortunately you all played detective a bit too well. And so now it must come to this…” The figure replied in an irritable and disappointed manner.