This is part of my three stories competition. Its pretty simple. Whichever story gets the most reviews is the story that gets an update. I don't know when I'll have time to update, but whichever story is in the lead at that point will get dibs. The other two are Inkspot Stigma (a Legend of Zelda fanfic) and Company in Exile (a Fallout 3 fanfic).

Finn woke up with cold sweat running down his neck. He quickly gazed around the darkened room he shared with Jake. He could feel a… something in the room. Something was watching him and it made Finn uneasy.

The darkness seemed almost liquid, like the sea, as if he could drown in it…

Finn shook his head, dispelling the idea. His eyes ended up landing on a small silhouetted shape resting on the shelf near Jake's bed. The thing was tiny, only a few inches tall. It was completely unremarkable, and Finn had no idea why he had singled it out among the other trinkets that littered the shelf.

He stared at it for a long time, focusing himself completely on the figurine. That's what it was, a small figurine of a ballerina. Finn couldn't make out any colors in the dead black night, only the shape of the thing. Standing daintily, it had one leg outstretched and two arms flung out into the air to either side.

Through pure effort, Finn tore his gaze away from the trinket. Even when he wasn't looking at it, Finn could feel the thing trying to draw his attention back. His eyes, wandering of their own accord, slid back to the tiny dancer.

Finn shook his head again, grimaced, and shut his eyes determinedly. Wiping away the sweat, Finn lay back down on his pillow and set himself to falling back asleep.

Finn woke up bleary eyed to the smell of bacon. He climbed out of bed and shambled toward the ladder, moving steadily as the scent drew him.

As he passed it, Finn's eyes fell upon the figurine for a moment, but he moved past it. Finn could hear Jake singing his bacon-pancake song and the concept put a spring into Finn's step. He leapt down the ladder and flew into the kitchen.

"Hehe, smelled it, huh?" Jake chuckled as Finn approached.

"Uh?" Finn murmured, "Huh, um, yeah! Are they ready yet?" Finn asked. Jake shook his head and Finn asked desperately, "Almost?"

"Just put em' on bro, be awhile. Why don't you go let Flame Princess in?"

Jake chuckled as Finn nearly jumped out of his skin, "What? Flame Princess is here? Why didn't you wake me up? How long has she been here?"

"Relax, relax." Jake said between fits of laughter, "She's not here yet, but she will be soon. I can smell her coming this way," Jake tapped his nose. "And I did wake you up, with bacon!"

"Hehe, I guess so," Finn said, "but hey, what's up with that little dancer you've got on your shelf. It was weirding me out earlier."

Jake turned around and tilted his head, arching an eyebrow, "What dancer?"

Finn sighed and said, "Nevermind," before heading out to find Flame Princess.

"Hehe, and then I told him to grind his own bones, and I kicked him in the toe!" Finn finished, barely holding back the laughter. Finally the dam broke loose and the pair of them fell to breathless laughing wrecks. It was almost a minute before they were able to breathe normally without breaking into chuckling fits.

Eventually, Flame Princess stood back up and said merrily, "Finn, that's got to be the funniest story I've ever heard."

"You should've been there," he said then, catching a whiff of the scent on the wind, he added, "Have you ever had bacon pancakes?"

"Uh... no," Flame Princess said.

"Oh! Well you gotta try some! Come on! Jake's making some back at the house!" Finn said excitedly.

They took off running back toward the tree house, and sure enough, Jake was inside putting bacon-studded pancakes onto plates. Jake looked up as they entered, and went about setting down three plates by the table. There were two chairs already sitting there and he had to stretch an arm into a different room to pull up the metal chair they kept for Flame Princess.

Pretty soon they were all sitting around the table, eating delicious pancakes.

They were so engrossed in the food, that nobody noticed the blue-green tendrils sliding down through the cracks in the ceiling. They didn't notice as the tendrils began to snake along the surface, slipping down the walls and moving to cover the doorways.

Finn stood with his empty plate to go fetch some more pancakes and dropped it as he saw the ghostly ooze.

"Oh Glob!" he shrieked, jumping back away from it, "What's that!"

Flame Princess and Jake both looked up from their food and reacted with equal shock.

"Dude!" Jake shouted, leaping from his chair, "It's tryin' ta cover the doors." He started to run toward the front door, but the ooze quickly snapped over the exit and encased it.

Finn let out a wordless cry, then said hurriedly, "Run for it! We gotta find another way out!"

All three of them turned toward the other door out of the kitchen. Flame Princess, who was closest to it, disappeared through the opening. Jake followed quickly after her, with Finn right behind him.

Just as Finn was about to escape, the ooze jumped to cover the doorway. He slammed up against it and was held tightly by the blue-green substance. Through the erratic movement of unsuppressed fear, Finn was able to tear himself out of the ooze's grip and was sent sprawling back against the ground.

He searched around for another way out. The front door was blocked, the other door was blocked. So no doors. The window!

Finn leapt to his feet and turned to dive out the window. He almost made it, but something thick and sticky wrapped around his ankle and yanked him backward. Finn was slammed against the ground and the force of gravity drove his face into the wooden planks. Finn felt his lip crack and a trickle of blood begin to leak from the raw flesh.

"Oh honey…" a disembodied voice began, "Did I hurt you? Never meant to, sorry…"

Finn flipped himself over and stared around, trying to suppress his fear and find the source of the voice at the same time.

Flame Princess dove through the door and her first step met nothing.

With a sudden lurch, she fell through the floor and into another room below it. Even as she fell, Flame Princess could hear the floorboards knitting back together above her.

It wasn't a long fall, and in a fraction of a second Flame Princess has struck the ground. She immediately shot upright. Flame Princess spun around, and again, searching the room.

She was alone, completely isolated in the room. At least there didn't seem to be any of that creepy teal ooze.

Then she realized there were no doors or windows. Flame Princess hurriedly searched the room again and realized that there was no way out. She was alone, and she was trapped.

And ethereal voice made its way through the air. The only adjective Flame Princess could think to describe it with would by shimmery.

"Theif! I will… break you! Theif…" the voice faded away, leaving just the remnant of that last word to hang in the air.

Jake sprinted through the door and leapt over the surprising hole in the floor. As his feet touched down, Jake spun and searched for his friends. His heart sank as he saw the doorway covered in glowing blue-green slime. Finn must still be trapped inside…

Jake looked into the hole and saw only an orange glow in the darkness. That must be Flame Princess. If only he could find a way to get her out of there…

The floorboards began to reform and fill the opening. At first they were sluggish, but within moments the ground was reknitting with ferocious speed.

So it was just him. Finn was trapped, and Flame Princess was trapped.

Jake growled and stepped back from the filled doorway and disappeared hole. Whatever this thing was, he had to get help. Jake didn't know what he could do to fight it, but if he could escape, maybe someone else could do that.

Jake turned to leave via the back door, but froze as he saw the far wall covered in ooze. Jake leapt upward and shrank himself to fit through a crack in the ceiling. He squeezed through easily and found himself in a room completely untouched by the ooze.

Jake sighed and started to think of a plan. He had to find a way out, but how?

"Hello Jake, what is… happening?"

Jake spun around to find BMO standing behind him. The tiny computer looked up at him with an expectant face.

"Come on BMO!" Jake said quickly, "There's… something in the tree house. We gotta get outa here!"

BMO nodded and put on a determined face.

"Where is Finn, and his Fire gal?"

"They got, uh, caught." Jake said, "That something has them. But we're gonna save them!"

BMO nodded and put on an angry face.

In a deep voice he said, "Let's do this!"

If this is intriguing and you want more of it, make sure you leave a review to boost its chances of getting a speedy update.

If you're interested in reading the competition, here are the links:

s/9185899/1/Inkspot-Stigma

s/9185906/1/Company-in-Exile