Happy Halloweeeeeeen! Hope you guys had/are having fun!

Right after dinner Lloyd left for his trip. Or at least he tried to; it took a while to get through all the hugs and goodbyes and advice from his family, teammates, and Sensei.

Finally, though, his golden dragon was a vanishing speck on the horizon. It seemed awfully quiet all of a sudden.

"It better not go to his head," mumbled Kai, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

Cole heaved a sigh.

"C'mon boys, let's get going. We've got some tunnels to explore."

They took a bunch of lanterns and flashlights and headed for the east end of the property. They walked in silence, a pool of light bobbing around the lantern Zane held.

Eventually they spotted a pale white shape near the fence. Zane swung the lantern closer, illuminating a small granite block, surrounded by mounds and mounds of rocks. Cole crouched down to push a few of them aside, squinting at the inscription on the tombstone.

"'In memory of Bob Spinger.' Huh."

A moment of silence.

"You think it's okay to re-use rocks?" said Jay. Cole shrugged and handed up a few stones. They all backed off a little distance and paid their respects.

"I feel like an idiot," said Kai, but offered no further opposition.

It took them a few minutes to find the trapdoor, which was heavily overgrown. They had to work pretty hard to break the heavy door free of the undergrowth and heave it open.

Once the door slammed to the grass, everyone seemed to tense a little. Nothing happened, though. No screaming. No zombie corpses clawing their way out of the hole. Not even the stench of death.

"Wouldn't his skeleton still be down there?" said Jay uneasily.

"Lovely thought," said Cole, grimacing. He clicked on a flashlight and shone it down into the dark maw of the tunnel. They all flinched a little as a blanket of creepy-crawlies scuttled out of the beam of light on the floor.

"Yick," muttered Jay.

There was a rusty ladder bolted to the wall. One by one they carefully climbed down it. Zane went last, climbing with one hand as the other held the lantern. The last rung broke beneath him, and he fell backwards in a whirlwind of swinging light.

"Woah!" Kai caught him by the shoulders and levered him upright. "Easy there."

"Thank you," said Zane, regaining his composure.

They lit all the lights they had. The tunnel was dingy, barely tall enough to stand in, and showed signs of disrepair, but it seemed stable enough. The bugs fled before the ninja's pool of light, clearing the way.

"Is anyone else really cold?" asked Jay uneasily.

"Kinda," said Kai. He stood confidently enough, but his eyes were flicking around the tunnel a little too fast to be casual.

"The cold temperature is only an effect of being underground," said Zane. " . . . I think."

"Well," said Cole gamely. "On we go."

They stayed close together, stepping quietly through the dank, twisty passageway. Here and there it branched off into little alcoves or dead-ends, probably places where the diggers had given up due to hard going.

"Quiet enough so far," remarked Kai hopefully.

Jay gave a strangled sound of distress as he walked into a mass of spiderwebs.

"Get them off get them off getthemoff! Gahhhhh . . . "

"Easy, easy, there's no spiders." Cole laughed a little, helping to peel the sticky strands off the lightning ninja. "And this is the guy who just finished fighting a bunch of invincible Stone Warriors?"

Jay growled, rubbing at his face.

"This freaking Chisean Stone better be worth it."

"This freaking stone better be here," said Kai. "Or we'll have to come up with a whole new plan to get rid of that Devourer venom."

"Do we have to get rid of it?" mumbled Jay miserably. "I mean, who even goes underground in Ninjago City? We could leave the venom alone down there. Maybe it would go bad with time."

"C'monnnnn, Jay," said Cole, walking ahead. "Do you really want to gamble with Ninjago's safety?"

"But it's creepy down here! What if the psycho ghost is watching us?"

"It's not that creepy." Cole glanced back. "As long as nothing is actually attacking, screaming, or oozing up the wall in a ghostly white slime, I'm good."

Jay opened his mouth to protest further, but just at that moment Zane poked his head unexpectedly out of a hidden side passage, his lantern twinkling. Jay and Cole both jumped back, startled; Cole's flashlight flew from his hand and bounced to the floor, its light dying.

"Sorry," said Zane. Jay looked to Cole, his eyebrows raised.

"Okay, so it's slightly creepy," said Cole grudgingly, retrieving his flashlight and jiggling the batteries back into place. "But we're not going anywhere till we find that stone."

"Along those lines," said Zane. "I believe I've found something. I am not sure it's what we're looking for, though."

The others followed him down the side passage and joined him by a small alcove in the wall, carefully carved. A metal pedestal stood within it, and atop the pedestal rested a large, smooth, perfectly round stone. It was jet-black and opalescent, gleaming faintly in the glow of their lights. It could have been a gigantic black pearl.

"You think this is it?" said Kai. "It's set up like it's something special, but . . . "

"Hmm." Cole reached cautiously towards the stone. Nothing happened when he touched it, so he carefully slipped his hands underneath it and lifted it off its pedestal.

"Pretty heavy," he remarked. But still nothing happened.

"Well, now what?" said Jay after a moment. "We came all the way down here, risked the wrath of a psycho ghost, crawled around with the bugs, and all we get for it is a shiny rock that might not even be the real thing. What do we do now, go crawling under Ninjago City to see if we can clean Devourer venom with this?"

"Woah," said Cole suddenly. "You guys."

Balancing the stone in one hand, he held out the other to his teammates. His palm, which had previously been covered with rust and grime, was now absolutely spotless.

"Let me try!" Kai scraped some dirt from the wall and rubbed it all over his hands. Then he pressed his hand against the stone. It came away clean.

"Yep," said Cole, grinning. "This is the one."

"Oh my gosh," said Jay, looking at the stone with a whole new reverence. "Just imagine what this thing could do for laundry."

Laughing, they returned to the main passage and started to head for the exit, forgetting the creepy sensation that had been following them around down here.

They had only gone a few steps, however, before Zane held up a hand.

"Wait," he said, his voice sharp. "Do you hear that?"

Everyone stopped. Silence fell. From behind them came the sound of footsteps.

The ninja froze, staring at each other with wide eyes. The footsteps continued, soft but purposeful. A faint rattling breath accompanied them.

Jay made a break for it. The others were right on his heels. Behind them the footsteps also began to run, keeping pace. Within ten seconds the ninja were back aboveground, slamming the trapdoor shut and locking it.

For a few seconds they panted, exchanging terrified glances. After a moment Cole started to laugh between gasps for air.

"Boy, are we ever brave," he said. "We were running from the echo of our own footsteps."

The others looked at each other and relaxed, chuckling a little sheepishly.

"Guess we won't be able to tell anyone we met the psycho ghost," said Jay.

"Aww, I'm a little disappointed," joked Kai.

Then a bloodcurdling scream echoed up from directly below the trapdoor.

They didn't stop running until they were back inside the school.