Okay, BIG SORRY for not updating like I said so.

Finals came up (not that I was THAT worried about it).

And I currently have a really bad flu.

So yeah...I'm sick. OTL

Sorry for the inconvenience guys! :(

Chapter 6: Where...?

The group decided to go up the third floor where Wang and Ivan were residing, hoping that they were still there—alive. Ludwig noticed that they haven't ran into any of the strange creatures in the corridors...yet.

"Are they nocturnal?" he muttered out loud. Feliciano tilted his head to the side in confusion, his curl bouncing as they walked.

"What do you mean?"

"Those shadows. We've ran into those weird girls but not those shadows that chased us around yesterday," Ludwig was contemplating.

"I guess it would make sense if they're nocturnal," Francis shrugged. Though they seemed languid when talking, they knew that anything could happen at anytime. Arthur was especially on the edge. He was constantly looking around, staying behind the group, much to Alfred's confusion. The American couldn't help but keep looking over his shoulder to see Arthur looking around frantically, as if he was looking for something. As they walked towards the Russian's room, Arthur stopped in his tracks and froze. He heard something familiar. A child's giggle.

"Arthur." He jolted up from Alfred's touch and looked up at the American's face. "Are you alright?"

"...I'm fine. C'mon, let's go," he walked passed Alfred. Alfred sighed.

"What's wrong with that guy?"

They caught up with the rest of the group and stopped in front of the designated room. Jeanne reached for the door and turned the knob. At the crevice of the opened door was a shining purple eye staring at them.

"Yonda?"

Literally, everyone's reaction was either screaming at the top of their lungs or backing up in surprise to the opposite wall. The Russian chuckled innocently as he opened the door, behind him was Wang, looking quite surprised and trying to stifle a laughter. The Chinese man invited them in the room, Ivan locking the door once they were all in.

"I can see how you guys managed to survive," Francis remarked, chuckling nervously, inching away from the tall Russian.

"Anyways, I'm guessing you know the situation?" Ludwig asked. Wang nodded.

"Yes, we do."

"Oh, by the way, we saw Kiku and Abel outside just a few moments ago from the window. I think they were heading for the gardens, I couldn't get a good view so I can't be sure," Ivan chirped in. Feliciano looked up in surprise.

"K-Kiku?" he asked astonished, "So he's okay!"

"I wouldn't be so—" Arthur then grunted in pain as Francis elbowed him in the ribs.

"Alright! Then let's go and get them back to the library!" the American exclaimed excitedly, throwing a fist pump in the air. As Alfred and Feliciano ran out of the room, the others looked at one another.

"...Those kids..." Ludwig sighed. The others just chuckled. They headed out of the room to see Feliciano and Alfred standing about, motionless. Feliciano then looked towards the end of the corridor with a troubled look on his face, a cold sweat dripping from his chin along with a stifled gasp.

"Something's here..." he kept his voice hushed. Wang slowly walked towards where the young Italian had his eyes fixed to, looking around in the darkness.

"There's nothing—!" the Chinese man was on the floor with a loud thud, a silhouette can be seen on his back. Ivan quickly got out his metal faucet pipe from his large jacket and threw it towards the figure. It disappeared before the pipe could hit it. The Russian rushed towards Wang, getting him up as everybody was tense from whatever is attacking them. Suddenly, they all staggered as something fell behind them. Turning around, they saw a girl in black with piercing red eyes staring at them in a crouched position, about to pounce on them. Ludwig whipped out his pistol and let out a shot, only to see that she disappeared once more.

"Up!" Alfred shouted to see the girl crawling on the ceiling. He took out his double handguns and shot her just in time before she disappeared. Falling to the ground, the girl looked at them before sinking into the ground.

"...Is it over?" Jeanne asked. Before anybody could answer, Arthur turned around just in time, tome in hand, and whacked the thick book at the girl. She fell to the floor with a yelp. Slowly sitting up, she began crying quietly, her face now enshrouded by her curly black hair. Her cry then intensified. Feliciano grabbed onto Ludwig's hand, looking around.

"...There's something else coming...I think it's the girl in white," he said. Ludwig nodded and placed his gun in the holster.

"Alright, then we better head for the gardens." Everybody rushed downstairs, Alfred looked over his shoulder. It was the same girl he saw before. He stopped and continued to stare as she picked her head up, her eyes filled with tears. The sudden feeling of guilt overcame him as he walked towards her but was stopped by Arthur who grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing? We got to look for Kiku and Abel!" Arthur yelled at him. He then briefly stopped. "...Wait...what's that noise?" Alfred looked back at the girl to see something coming from behind her in the distance. His blue eyes widened. He grabbed Arthur's hand and ran the opposite direction, much to Arthur's surprise. Arthur staggered to keep up, resulting in Alfred to pick him up and carrying him over his shoulder. As they fled, Arthur saw the girl in black reaching out towards them in immense sorrow, mouthing something he couldn't make out of.

They finally caught up with the group in the kitchen, panting for air.

"Where were you guys?" Francis asked, surprised at their entrance. Alfred was the first to pick his head up from doubling over and promptly stood up.

"We had a contest!—"

"You wanker, there's no time for your comedian sense of humor! That girl is back and she's not far behind!" Arthur yelled.

"Aw...I wanted some pasta..." Feliciano whimpered.

"Seriously, how can you think about that in this situation?" Ludwig rolled his blue eyes. The Italian let out a cheerful giggle. He was just too cute to resist. All the more reason for Ludwig to worry about him—to protect him. "Anyways, we should hurry to the garden." They all nodded.

Upon entering the backyard, they saw a beaten path leading to large hedges of lush greenery in front of them—a maze. How fancy.

"...How should this be handled?" Jeanne asked, examining the tall hedges with roses of various colors blooming about.

"We should still stick together, the last thing we want to do is split up," Francis said.

"Are they even beyond the maze?" Arthur asked.

"It's a high possibility; not much is in the gardens aside from this maze and the forest." Ivan then looked around, piquing Wang's attention.

"What's wrong?" the Chinese man asked.

"...Nothing...I thought I heard something. Must have been the wind," the Russian shrugged, "Shall we go now?" And so they went into the hedged labyrinth. Upon entering it, they were surrounded by dark green bushes; the roses gave off faint luminescent light from the fading sun. Looking around, the group felt as if they were in another world.

"Feels like something from a fairy tale, don't you think, Ludwig?" Feliciano then looked away from the sky to see that he was alone. Sudden fear got a hold of him as he felt tears welling up at the corners of his eyes.

"L-Ludwig? Ludwig!" Feliciano started running about in the maze, screaming out the German's name. "LUDWIG!" The Italian was about to give up, falling to his knees but shook his head and smacking his cheeks.

Got to stay focused!

As he continued to head towards what he thinks is the exit of the labyrinth, he heard shuffling behind him. Quickly turning around, he saw nothing but was tense. The bone chilling giggle echoed in the area. As if that wasn't worst, he could have sworn that he heard a scream in the distance. His walking pace quickly hastening to a semi-run, Feliciano found an opening of the maze. Sudden relief made him smile as he ran towards it before being stopped by two large eyes appearing right in front of him. The girl laughed as Feliciano fell back in horror and surprise, the scream unable to escape his trembling lips. Scrambling to get back up, Feliciano ran back, even running through the thick hedges. It was better than being caught by whatever that girl is. He saw shimmering daylight in front of him, as well as two silhouettes. As they came into view, the voice that was locked in his throat finally came back to him.

"Kiku!"

"Feliciano-san, get down!" the Japanese man said. Feliciano did as told but on accident; the Italian tripped over his own foot, landing on the grass and looked up to see Kiku throw a small rectangular paper towards the girl that was about to lunge towards them. It was attached to her, much to her confusion as she tried to pry it off her arm. The tall Dutch man cracked his knuckles and ran towards her in a zigzag motion, punching her away. She let out a high pitched yelp, along with an infuriated—inhuman—growl that made them flinch. The girl ripped a rose away from the bushes and threw the petals towards Kiku, Abel quickly picking up the slender man and jumping away from the flowers that pierced the ground. The petals started to corrode away as they landed, a strange hissing sound can be heard from them as they melt away. Acid? Septic poison? Either way, it was lethal.

"Feli!"

The Italian looked towards where the voice said his name to see Lovino jumping out of the bushes, a large spear in his hands in the shape of a Baroque cross over his head. The girl was then pierced in the abdomen by the spear. Lovino stared in shock as she didn't flinch. Not one bit. She stared at him nonplussed in innocence before her face being contorted in maniacal rage. Antonio quickly picked the Italian into his arms as the cross vanished and ran towards his brother.

"Why didn't that work?" Lovino muttered to himself as he held onto his necklace. Did his necklace somehow transform into the spear? "You're okay, right?" Feliciano nodded.

"Where are the others?" Antonio asked.

"I-I think they're still inside the maze..." Feliciano said, his voice wavering. Just then, a familiar green light shot from the maze towards the girl as she screamed. As it subsided, she was still there but seemed to be blinded as she continuously rubbed her eyes. They looked to see the others near the maze. Ludwig rushed towards Feliciano, pulling him up.

"C'mon, we're going back to the library!"

They all made it back to the library before nightfall, hearing incoherent gurgles from the other side of the library door as the moon was waning for the large windows. Alfred walked away from the window and towards the group huddled in the middle of the spacious library, sitting down next to Arthur and Francis.

"Those shadows are patrolling around lately tonight...I think it's best we stay in here for now," he said.

"But what about the others? We're still missing Gilbert, Elizabeta, Matthias, and Lukas," Wang said.

"They'll be fine," Abel scoffed, flickering his lighter on and off.

"Says the druggie," Arthur retorted. Abel gave him a deadly glare. Don't mess with the Dutch.

"Only four people are missing...not bad, but it would be better if we were all here," Ludwig said. He then looked up towards Lovino and Antonio, "How were your investigations in the forest?"

"We made it towards the end of the forest—we could see the ocean from the horizon—but there seems to be a small entrance way at the bottom of the cliff that's blocked off by some strange...force," Antonio explained vaguely.

"Right, when we tried to enter the cave, we were pushed away from some force. Something is definitely there though...it may be linked to the basement too," Lovino explained further. The Spaniard nodded.

"Lovi said that there's the same feeling of dread from the basement emitting from the cave...only more powerful."

"How so?" Kiku asked.

"Before we could get to that, I'd like to go a little off topic," Ivan interjected. Everyone stared at him but nodded. "I realized that we've mostly been grouped into two, such as Wang and myself. That aside, it seems that one of the two is a...spiritual mediator in a way as the other is channeled to him or her."

"...What?" Alfred was confused.

"To dumb it down for you, let's take you and Arthur for example; Arthur has the ability to sense and, surprisingly, defend himself from the shadows via magic. You on the other hand, are able to attack the shadows with your guns because Arthur is near you and is somewhat channeling his spiritual power to you."

"Ah, I think you mentioned this before, Antonio," Ludwig addressed the Spaniard as he nodded.

"Yeah," he merely said as he looked towards Lovino who was starting to doze off from the meeting. He chuckled quietly.

"EEP!" Lovino squeaked suddenly as he felt something in his pocket vibrating. He sat up from Antonio's shoulder and got out his cell phone. "...It's working?" He stared at the screen to see the caller I.D. It was from Emma. He quickly unlocked it and pressed the answer button, pressing the phone close to his ear.

"H-hello?"

"Oh! You finally picked up! I was worried! Where are you guys? I've been trying to contact all of you after the meeting but it seems as if all of your phones have been jammed..." the feminine voice blabbered in evident worrisome. Abel let out a small smirk and extended his hand towards Lovino. He handed him the phone.

"Yo. We're fine, just at some haunted ass vacation home of Francis'."

"Haunted vacation—what are you talking about?"

"Like I would know; paranormal shit is going down right now."

"Well, are you guys okay?"

"As of now, yeah, we're all fine...except we're missing four people from the group of poor tourists."

"WHAT? Who?"

"That albino dude, the pretty Hungarian, and the two Nordic guys," Abel then saw Antonio asking for the phone. He gave the Spaniard a, 'Are-you-fucking-kidding-me' look but complied, "Hold on, the Spaniard wants to talk to you."

"Emma? Thank goodness we still have communication from the outside now...Can you call the others?"

"Others?"

"I don't know...Roderich, Vash, anybody!"

"I'll try...But you guys better make it back alive—" the line was then cut off. Antonio slowly slipped the phone away from his ear and stared at it before handing it back to Lovino.

"That's strange...our phones weren't working before," Lovino remarked.

"And they're not working now," Jeanne stated as she showed them her screen. It was blinking the 'no signal' symbol. Sighing, the group decided to call it a day, resting as the growls of the paranormal were right outside the large double twin doors.

Sorry for the short chapter! OTL

I'm actually thinking of putting Curse of the Spider Lily on hiatus too...

New APH fanfic in mind that grawrgrawrninja is BEGGING (okay, not really but you get the idea) for me to upload.

I think she mentioned it before in her recent chapter of Band Geeks (read it...NOW); It's called House of Cards.

I'm debating whether I should or shouldn't. XD

A little tidbit on it; It's a fantasy style of APH basically with the usual angsty situation. The fanfic is also split up into four arcs and I'm planning for a sequel! (If I ever get the time)

After all, it was a fanfic I typed on my cellphone during nights I can't sleep... OTL

Oh yeah, little update-thing: I won't update chapters unless I get 10 new reviews! (Idea by grawrgrawrninja; also due to the fact I upload my chapters late at night so I think I don't get that many readers...)

Well, medication is taking affect...G'night people!

Also...MERRY CHRISTMAS!