WOw.. this update takes a LOOOOONG time, am I right? Anyway, recently I thought of going back to finishing this fanfic after all the craps in life and an artist block coming in. So, browsing through my files I saw this short written chap. Thought it was good enough to upload, so here it is. It's shorter though. But i need warm up after all the looooong pause.

Ghosts and Maze Don't Mix

"According to this scroll," said Mantis, "The seven gates are build in relative to the seven Sins of the World."

Seeing Crane didn't budge from his 'corner peeking' behavior, Mantis continued, "The Sins of the World are orderly divided into Lust, woooh-hooo… Followed by Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and lastly…"

"Pride," Mantis looked at Crane, smiling.

"What?" barked Crane with agitation.

"Oh nothing just reading out loud," frowned Mantis before continuing, "So the gate that just crumbled there, which one was it?…"

It's not that Crane was trying to ignore Mantis of his oblivious behavior, it's just… Crane himself had been feeling uneasy all this time. He was very surprised how calm Mantis is with most of the room covered in darkness, rains showers heavily outside the wall and thunder booming occasionally.

And not to mention that edgy feeling of being watched and followed all this time. What was it? It multiplied the longer they stayed there. He could feel it.

They are not alone anymore. There's no denying it. What was that he just saw? The shadow of a figure hanging by a line at the far end of the hall? Or was it the shadow of a swaying tree. He's eyes are getting tired.

Nevertheless, their presence are getting overwhelming.

"It's the Third Gate from the top right, Crane?" Mantis asked suddenly, nudging the avian out of his focus.

"Huh? Ummm.. what? Oh, right," Crane mumbled, "I think so. Didn't really had a good look."

Mantis frowned, looking at the scroll again, "the gates are aligned from bottom to top, so… That makes it the Fifth Gate…. Which is…"

Suddenly, out of the corner of his eyes, Crane saw a figure standing at the corner of the room. It wasn't tall, about the height of a kid.

"Urmmm.. Mantis," Crane felt a cold sweat down his neck.

"Wrath… great," Mantis curses, "The Gate of Wrath?! Why not the Gate of Lust?"

"Mantis," Crane frozed, his sound trembling, "This place was deserted for centuries right?"

Mantis raised an eyebrow, "Of course, you know that right? A huge draught drove them off. Like Po said."

"Then…" Crane turned his fearful look towards Mantis, "Why am I seeing people now?"

"Huh?" Mantis froze, there's something wrong with what Crane just said.

In fact, he just realized, someone is standing next to him right now, staring coldly at him.

"Po…" Monkey called, tailing closely behind the panda, "I am scared."

"Oh hell you should be…" Po manly said, which soon turned into a whine, "I am too.."

The deeper they went down the hall, the closer and tighter they hug each other.

In the end, they literally grab whole of each other, taking one baby step at a time.

"This is ridiculous.." said Po after some time.

"You don't say," Monkey frowned, "I thought we're having a good time, Po. This feels like dancing."

"No," Po stopped his trail. Somehow, a fuse in his mind gone off.

"No we're not. We're just some unfortunate guys caught in the eye of a huge storm during their field trip, forced to take shelter in a haunted temple and now we've to split up into an even smaller group traveling down a.. a.. some Halls of the Dead packed with hundreds of coffins left and right." Po swayed his hand to gesture the surrounding.

"Just you and me, pal! JUST you and me," Po stared at Monkey with a sarcastic smile.

"Stop being a drama queen," Monkey snorted.

"I guess I am," Po, "because its hard not to under all this creepy atmosphere, and that we two…" Po gestured monkey and himself, "have to take the creepiest path, DOWN the underground we go, lost ourselves in the dungeon full of coffins."

"We are lost?"

"Yes, I admit, we're lost."

"We are?"

"Yes we are. It's a maze. I've double checked."

- End of Chapter -

Any time... now... Hehehheee