This chapter covers about three parts in HetaOni (I think). Since things start to pick up pace in later parts, the next chapters might cover one part at a time. I've also got an ending planned, so the story won't just cut off where HetaOni does. Yay!

I hope everyone enjoys!

OniStuck

Chapter 1-

Rose shielded her eyes from the sun as she peered up at the looming mansion. Personally, she didn't really find it as interesting as John apparently did. He had been talking about it for hours before meeting up with Dave. Roxy, her beloved sister had tagged along, inviting three of her friends. Rose couldn't complain, though. Having more people for their sleepover (though both John and Dave argued that they were far too manly to engage in something as lame and effeminate as a sleepover; they were merely spending the night with some friends) would be fun. Also, John would be able to better enjoy playing jokes on more than just her, Dave, and Jade.

She was certain that was why John had insisted they come to the mansion, which apparently boasted quite the legend in his town. Rose had no way of confirming this since John was basically the only person she knew in Seattle, but she decided to humor him anyway.

"It certainly seems imposing," Rose noted, sizing the mansion up. The windows were all barred with rusted grates, the ornate scaffolding belonged to a more antique architecture, and by merely staring at it she couldn't help but involuntarily shiver. It seemed to be a lovely place despite its creepy vibes. The mansion was a recluse far outside of Seattle, cozy in a foggier part of the woods.

"Nah," Dave shrugged. "It doesn't seem all that special to me."

"Maybe that's 'cause you're just scared?" John cackled. "You know, you can always go back to the hotel. We can meet up with you again tomorrow-"

"Shut up, Egbert. I'm the one that brought the Skittles. How can His Royal Wussiness survive a scary night in a haunted house without my life-saving provisions?"

Roxy giggled, slinging an arm around Rose's shoulders. Ugh, she still smelled like this morning's dozen martinis. Rose petulantly picked her arm off of her shoulders and stepped toward the house for further examination. She was both relieved and worried that Roxy had joined in Dave and John's conversation. She was finally leaving Rose alone, but she was also acting blatantly drunk around Rose's best friends. At least Jade wasn't here to hear her inebriated sister's ramblings.

As Rose reached for the doorknob, John uneasily spoke up. "Um, are we sure we brought everything? I don't think I brought phone charger, so maybe I should-"

"John, the house has neither electricity nor phone service," Rose pointed out.

"No, maybe he's right," Roxy worriedly piped up, anxiously biting her lip. "I dunno if I packed all my alcohol. I don't want to leave any at the hotel because the maids might take it. You can't trust the maids. They're evil."

Rose testily sighed, feeling a migraine beginning to form. She pushed the door open and dragged her sister inside. Dave whistled as he walked inside. "She's a keeper, Egbert."

John swallowed hard. "…Yeah. So, um, how about we split up and look around the place? We can find some good hiding places so we can scare the others when they get here."

Roxy cackled, punching the air. "Yes! I am so going to scare the short-shorts right off Jakey's butt! I'm going this way, okay, guys?" She took off in a slightly wobbly run. It didn't take long for her to trip and fall, but she was right back at it with a chipper, "I'm alright!"

"I knew I shouldn't have let her come," Rose grumbled. "She's likely to break everything in this house with her stupid tripping. I'm sorry if she ruins your plans, John."

"No, it's okay," he grinned. He nodded to the left. "I'll start over here. Uh, you two can do whatever."

Rose waited until John had turned the corner before sighing. "Does he seem a little odd to you, Dave?"

"How so?" he asked, walking towards the far end of the hall. He opened a door and stuck his head inside. "Whoa. This library is huge. I think I found where you'd want to look around."

She ignored the bit about the library (though it did pique her interest). "I'm not certain, but it is abnormal that would want to stall us outside. Normally, John would be eager to get something like this started as soon as possible."

"I think he's secretly scared but doesn't want to let it show. Maybe ghosts are one of those irrational phobias you swear we have," Dave absently guessed, poking around in a flowerpot. The crusty remains of very dead flowers were settled at the bottom.

"Your puppet phobia is very real, Dave."

"Well, thank God my bro's not here yet. Ooh, cool, I found the kitchen. See you in a bit. And try to enjoy yourself and not spend the entire afternoon worrying about John. I'm sure he's fine. If anything, he's just upset that Karkat and Kanaya didn't want to come."

Rose wasn't convinced, but didn't press the issue further. She stepped in the shadowed library, resolved to find something interesting to read while everyone goofed off.

((((()))))

The first thing Dave did was yank open the fridge, hoping to find some fifty-year-old apple juice.

Unfortunately, there was no apple juice.

Was it bad that Dave then immediately checked all of the cabinets for food? Well, he did, and was quite disappointed when he found nothing more than a thick layer of dust. However, eerily, it looked like someone had smudged letters into the dust. Dave could almost make out the word "help" hastily scrawled. He rolled his eyes. "Got me shaking in my boots, John," he muttered. Most of the drawers were also empty, devoid of silverware and cooking utensils. There were a few plates, however, and one had fallen in the floor and shattered. Dave's face lit up as he picked up one of the bigger shards. He would wake up John in the middle of the night and act like he was about to stab him, and Egbert's shrill scream would be sweet music to his ears.

Speaking of music, Dave wished he had brought his ipod along. He didn't like silence, and the first time someone (read: Jade) suggested they start singing Disney songs, he was sure he would snap and kill everyone. Or probably not, since it'd be pretty ironic to join in with her. Dirk would definitely approve. As he made his way out of the kitchen, he wondered when his bro would arrive with Jade and Roxy's friends. Apparently Terezi and that weirdo Gamzee dude decided to come with them, because Karkat had ranted and raved until Terezi had had enough, and apparently Gamzee had a thing for John's cousin. Poor Jane.

Dave peeked into the library, where Rose had already nestled herself into a comfortable pile of books. He wriggled his eyebrows at her, and she threateningly held up one of the bigger tomes. Laughing, he backed away and left her to it.

He really didn't feel like scouting out the second floor, mostly because he was too lazy to tackle the tall, imposing stairs, and certainly not because he was afraid to go up there alone. Dave thought all of this was pretty stupid, really. Like, seriously. Haunted houses and sleepovers were dumb stuff they did back when they were thirteen. The last time Dave checked, he was sixteen and much too old for this. But it wasn't like he could complain. It had been a year since they had gotten to meet up face-to-face like this. It had been even longer since Roxy, Dirk, Jake, and Jane had been able to come, too.

So whether or not they were goofing around in some old, abandoned house was beside the point, as long as they were goofing around together.

Dave turned into the hallway John had gone to. He paused, eyes falling on the huge, gray figure stepping through the last door at the end of the hall.

Although he wasn't scared-

A scream suddenly sounded from somewhere in the house. Okay, so he was a little freaked now. "Rose?" he shouted, running back to the library. He tried to keep himself from panicking when he found the library empty, her fort of books knocked over and strewn across the floor. "ROSE?"

Dave leaned back against the wall and took a deep breath. "Dang it, John," he muttered. He weakly laughed, shaking his head. "Getting Rose in on this- that was good. That was good." In a shout, he promised, "I'm kicking your butt when I find you, John!"

Angry at himself for falling for their stupid trick, he marched upstairs. The second floor was just as dusty and dark as the first, and just as eerily quiet. Dave peeked into the first few rooms, where only dimly lit antique furniture greeted him. He found it odd that even in the bedrooms there was an interesting lack of beds. Maybe a rich Japanese family had lived here and they only slept on futons? Maybe they had crappy swords. He hadn't been able to bring any of his along to show off since airport security was as lame as always.

The next door he came to was cracked open. He hoped it was John, so he could smack him. Instead of finding his friend, he found a metal door and a vague hammering noise. Dave hesitantly pulled the metal door open.

A disheveled Rose looked back at him. "Dave," she blinked. "A-are you okay?"

He rolled his eyes. John must have gotten some serious blackmail on her if she was putting her acting skills to work. She promptly smacked his arm. "Of course. I mean, it's not like there's some huge guy dressed in a gray suit walking around."

"Obviously you didn't get a good look at it," Rose murmured, stepping out of the shadowy closet. She shut the door before Dave could ask any questions about it. Her eyes next flickered to the bedroom door. "Lock that," she commanded. "Unless you'd like to help me look for Roxy? I believe I may have heard her scream."

"Wait, that wasn't you?" Dave hesitantly asked. He cleared his throat. If he gave Rose the impression that he fell for their joke-

"Dave, this is not one of John's tricks!" Rose snapped. She popped her head out into the hall, giving it a thorough check. Upon finding a lack of giant gray monsters, she waved Dave along. "I-I'm not certain what it is, actually," she began, always examining the area. "Maybe some idiot heard we were coming here and decided to try and rough us up a little? Though I'm certain John would never hire someone to attack me. His tricks are stupid and childish, not devious."

Apparently she had never been seen him on April Fools' Day. But like a good friend, he kept his mouth shut and allowed her to continue theorizing. "Anyway, I was sitting in the library, looking at some of the older collections, when the door opened. I expected to see you again so I threw a book-"

Dave paused to cast her a pout. "You would have thrown a book at me? Rose, I believe we need to have the 'violence is not the answer' discussion again."

"Shut up, Strider. As I was saying, I threw a book and hit a hulking mass of gray, naked flesh."

"Whoa whoa whoa! You are not turning this story into one of your wizard pornos!"

"It didn't even have extremities! Besides, I have never, nor will I ever, partake in the writing of wizard porno. I cannot say the same for my sister, however."

"You two are so messed up."

"Thank you. Now let me continue my story. I was perfectly aware this individual was, well, an individual, but I couldn't find any zippers on the suit. There were no buttons, and its skin looked like actual skin instead of a rubber or fabric."

"…So you're saying this thing is, like, some sort of monster out to get us? That has absolutely no relation to John whatsoever?"

Rose shrugged, pursing her lips. "I'm not sure what I'm saying. However, I do know that we need to find Roxy and John before they come into contact with it."

As they searched for Roxy and John in the rest of the rooms on the second floor, Rose and Dave were quiet. They popped their heads into each new bedroom and meeting hall, scoured every inch for any information, then met each other's eyes and moved on. The rooms were nearly as bare as the others, and just as dusty. Only one room, located at the far end of the left hall, had piqued their interest. Upon opening the door, both Rose and Dave shivered for some inexplicable reason.

Dave was ready to give up on finding Roxy and John in favor of high-tailing it outside when he heard a soft click.

"Door on the left," Rose nodded, taking off. Already tensing at the thought of it being the Thing again, Dave hurried after her. Rose bit her lip, reaching for the doorknob. She gave Dave a hesitant glance before turning it. Sighing, she jiggled the locked door, and stepped back to give Dave room to work his magic. He took a moment to examine it- Rose slapped him again- and gave it a solid kick. The door rattled on its hinges.

They heard a squeak from within. Rose could have melted in relief. "Roxy, it's me and Dave," she called, jiggling the doorknob again.

"How can I be sure you're not a minion of Cthulu or something?" the shaky voice replied.

"Roxanne Dolores Lalonde, open this door or I will begin quoting your obscene fanfiction to David."

Dave winced at her tone- and at the usage of David. There was no David Strider. Someone as lame and dorky as that dude would have instantaneously combusted the first time his name preceded the envied and prestigious surname Strider. It was a common fact. That was why his name was Dave, not- ugh, he couldn't bring himself to even think of the horrid nomenclature. What was more cringe-worthy, did he just use the word nomenclature? He had been spending way too much time around Rose.

Rose's threat must have done the trick, for Roxy quickly unlocked the door. She practically dragged them inside and locked the door back behind her. The blonde ran a hand through her disheveled hair and dropped to the floor. "Guys, this house is seriously screwed up. There's this- this thing chasing me. At least, it was. I think I finally lost it. It was gray and stark naked and it had these huge black eyes!" As she rambled, she pulled over her backpack and withdrew a half-empty bottle of wine. Roxy paused long enough to take a swig.

"Give me that," Rose snapped, lifting the bottle out of her grasp. Roxy reached for it but didn't stand. Instead, she sighed, shaking her head. "I swear I am not drank. Durnk. Ugh! Okay, so maybe I'm a little dur…unk, but I did not make this up! There really was a monster running after me!"

"We know. We saw it too," Rose said calmly. Dave was amazed she could still pull out her therapist voice while she was freaked too. But her soothing tone calmed down Roxy enough for her to cease spluttering. Rose sat down on the crispy carpet, gently smiling. She yanked hard on Dave's wrist, pulling him down too. "And it's okay, Roxy. Whoever it is, we can hunt them down later and utterly and publically humiliate them. First we need to find John. Do you know where he is?"

Roxy shook her head again. Although she tried to keep her gaze locked onto Rose, she couldn't help but wander towards her drink again. Rose placed it behind her back. "Your liver is going to rot before you reach twenty-three."

"I don't care," she muttered.

"Maybe you don't," Rose scathingly said, "but there are others who do care. Could you possibly spare us an iota of thought before you drink yourself silly?"

Dave really did not want to sit through this kind of conversation, especially since stubborn tears were starting to pool in Roxy's eyes. He carefully stood, casting Rose an imploring look. Since she didn't yank his arm off in response, he assumed she was cool with it. The first thing that caught his eye when he turned around was a set of swords hanging on the wall. He was glad Rose was too preoccupied with lecturing her sister to notice his mouth pop open in a gape. She swore that he had an unhealthy love of sharp objects, along with an absurd phobia of puppets (although she may have been on to something with that one…).

Right now Dave didn't care. He reverently picked up the first katana. Its sheath was orange velvet, traced along the sides with wispy chrysanthemums and a coiling black dragon. The blade was spotless- no trace of age of use could be found on its gleaming, reflective surface.

It was on this gleaming, reflective surface that he noticed two very large foot-shaped shadows under the door. "Move!" he shouted. The door violently rattled as something slammed into it. Dave pulled the girls to their feet, dragging them behind him. He threw the sword sheath to the side.

"Dave, you can't attack it! What if there's someone in the suit?" Rose burst.

"Do you seriously think there's someone in a suit trying to kill us?" he hotly retorted. The door shook again, and he snapped his head forward. "I'm going to hold it off. You two run outside and find John. I'll meet up with you in a while, then we can get out of this place."

Roxy shook her head. "We can't just leave you. Do you know what Dirk will do to me if I let something touch you?"

Dirk would not be pleased. No one messed with Dirk Strider's little brother except him. Anyone else suicidal enough to try…. Well, the idiot that picked a fight with him over Terezi last year was still in the hospital as far as Dave knew. Thanks to Terezi's awesome lawyer mom, Dave and Dirk were freed of all charges. But this wasn't a snotty kid with a thing for Dave's hot, blind best friend. This was most likely a giant freaking monster out to grind their bones and snack on their flesh.

Dave kept his blade at the ready, falling easily into his kendo stance. Those ten years of kendo classes with Dirk were really paying off now. Roxy and Rose stood behind him, glaring uncertainly at the door. A moment passed, and there was silence. Dave could still see the shadows at the door, so he knew the monster wasn't gone. They waited longer, holding bated breaths, ready for anything.

The shadows moved away. Rose was the first person to exhale, patting Dave on the shoulder. He stiffly nodded, lowering the katana. "Is it… is it gone?" Roxy whispered, leaning over their shoulders to peer at the door crack.

"I think so," Dave murmured. He retrieved his sword sheath. He then grabbed the other katana, a slightly shorter one in a red sheath. Ignoring Rose's inaudible sigh, he moved slowly to the door. At Roxy and Rose's nod, he unlocked the door.

A huge gray hand swung out at him, slamming into the side of his face. Dave cried out in both pain in surprise, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. His vision swam for a brief moment, but he shook it off and reached for one of the katanas… that had flown out of his hand upon impact. Dave cursed and scrambled out of the way of the monster's foot. It stomped down on the spot Dave's head had been.

Rose pulled him to his feet and out of the way, yelling something Dave couldn't quite catch. His head was still reeling from the hit and his close encounter. He caught sight of the swords, laying a few feet away. If he could grab one, he could easily get rid of this thing. The only problem with his plan was that the monster stood between him and the katanas. He eloquently cursed again. Rose pushed his head down as a chair came flying overhead. "Come and get me, Ugly!" Roxy crowed. The monster turned towards her and the snarky grin wiped off her face. "Oh crap."

Dave made a dash for the swords, diving past the distracted monster. He yanked the smaller sword out and slashed at the monster's back. Dave's eyes went wide to feel how tough the thing's skin was. Although the sword did cut into it, it was too shallow of a wound to actually kill it. Roxy threw another chair, but the monster already noticed Dave crouched behind it. It swung another monstrous hand out, but lithely dodged this one, ducking down low. He stabbed forward, nailing the thing in the stomach. Once again, no blood came out, and the monster didn't make a sound. Dave desperately tried to pull the blade back out before it could smash his skull in, but there was no need. His sword dropped through the monster as it faded away.

He gaped again, dropping the sword. "D-disappeared? It freaking disappeared?" he spluttered.

"Doesn't matter!" Rose burst, tugging at his arm. "We have to leave before it comes back!"

Roxy scooped up the orange katana, running down the hall after them. Rose shot up the steps, dragging Dave along, impatiently tugging at him when he stumbled. The fear in her eyes almost made Dave sick. Rose wasn't afraid of anything, especially monsters and other creepy stuff. She loved horror movies and stories. Dave was sure she was H.P. Lovecraft's biggest fan.

They didn't stop running until they reached the fourth floor and ran out of stairs to climb. The three stood huffing in the middle of the hall, practically collapsing against the walls. Roxy had managed to dislodge another beer during their sprint, and now took a gulp of it. Dave couldn't handle any more of their Lalonde bickering, so he turned Rose away. "Let's look around here. John might have seen it and ran up here."

"Run," she shakily corrected him. "He might have seen it and run up here."

"Dang it, Rose, I'm from Texas. We don't believe in proper grammar down south."

"Obviously," she weakly smirked. Dave still faltered to see her ragged expression, so he kept his eyes trained on either his bright, douchey sneakers or the interiors of the rooms they checked. Again, most seemed to be bedrooms with a large study in the far corner of the floor. Unfortunately, there were no other crappy katanas to be found.

When their search came up empty, they returned to Roxy and an empty bottle. Certainly tipsier than before, she sluggishly waved to them and picked up her bottle. "Imma slug his butt," she cheerfully said.

"You'd probably puke on him first," Rose grumbled. She took one of Roxy's arms and slung it over her shoulders. Dave followed her lead. Their descent to the third floor was mostly uneventful, as Roxy (regrettably) didn't fall down the stairs. At some point, someone had to trip, and Dave would get to quote his comic. He lived to make bad jokes about his comic.

"How about you two hang out somewhere and I'll look for John," Dave proposed. He honestly couldn't take any more drunk Roxy or murderously angry Rose. They poked into a white room surrounded by bookcases. In the middle of the large space sat a lone ivory piano, pristinely bright. Dave half expected John to be here if anywhere, since he liked to play the piano so much. He would never admit it to him, but Dave thought it was pretty cool, even if it was classical music. "You can lock the door in here, so I think you two will okay," Dave said. He handed Rose the red sword. Hopefully she wouldn't have to use it, but Dave was too much of a gentleman to leave them unprotected.

Roxy suddenly slumped over, banging on the piano keys. The noise resonated throughout the room, which had excellent acoustics. The ringing would probably resound through the entire floor, and maybe the others, too.

"Dang it, Roxy," Dave muttered. "Stay here. Don't open the door unless I'm back with John."

"You don't have to worry about me, Dave," Rose sighed, hugging the sword to her chest nonetheless. "I wore my big girl pants today."

He quirked a grin and slid out the door. "Alright!" he began, rubbing his hands together. "Now, if I was a wild Egbert, where would my habitat be?"

Dave heard a muffled shout. He whirled back to the piano room and stuck his ear to the door, panic filling his veins. All was quiet except for the sound of Roxy's snoring. He the muffled shout again. It almost sounded like some idiot was yelling… for him?

"John!" he burst. Dave skidded to a halt at the next door. He banged on the door. "John, are you in there?"

"Dave!"

He could have melted in relief at John's goofy voice. However, he kept his cool and opened the door. Except the door didn't open. It was locked. "You know, John, it's hard to open a door when it's locked."

"Uh… about that." And there was his special John Migraine! John nervously laughed, "Well, I saw this huge monster thing. I guess you guys have seen it too, with all the running you've been doing. Anyway, I ran in here, but forgot to lock the door. It didn't follow me inside, so I thought, 'hey, cool, I lost it!'. But when I tried to leave… the door was locked. The freaking monster trapped me in here, Dave. What if I landed in its trap? It could be coming back to EAT ME ANY MINUTE NOW!"

Dave rolled his eyes. "It's not going to eat you. You'd probably taste like boogers."

"For the last time, it was a slime monster on my shirt, okay? Not radioactive mucus."

"That's what they all say. Anyway, I'll look around for your stupid key. Read a book or something."

John knocked at the door- probably kicking it or face planting into it. "I've been stuck in this library for, like, two hours, Dave. I'm tired of skimming through old English."

"Then find something else to keep you occupied. I know you can be creative if you put your thinking cap on!"

John muttered something about how he was going to smack him with his thinking cap as soon as he got out of this stupid library. Dave chuckled and promised to be back soon. Before he left for the first floor library (which had been the first location to pop up in his head), he went back and told Rose that John had been found.

The walk downstairs was quiet and uneventful. There was no sign of the monster anywhere, which made Dave unsure of whether or not that was a good thing. It had to be intelligent if it had tricked him and locked John in the upstairs library. It was fully capable of ambushing him, so Dave kept on-edge. When he had arrived at the library, the door was shut. He couldn't quite remember, but he had a sinking feeling that he hadn't shut the door after discovering Rose was gone. Tentatively, he lightly turned the doorknob. He then kicked the door open and slashed. No giant gray hands tried to smash his skull in. Dave allowed him to sigh in relief. Maybe it had decided to go to lunch or something? Hopefully it really wasn't a man-eating monster. It would really suck if John had been right. Dave shook his head, trying to shake the thought out of his mind. Whatever was going on, he was sure they'd be okay. There was still the possibility that this was an elaborate trick gone wrong. For all he knew, someone could have slipped him some acid and he was just imagining all this. Probably not, but it was more feasible than a stark-naked gray monster running around trying to kill them.

The library was dark, only barely illuminated by the twilight streaming through the door. Books lay scattered across the ground from Rose's first encounter with the thing, strewn haphazardly in his path. Dave unceremoniously kicked them out of his way, paying them little mind. It wasn't like any of these were really important. None of his friends- besides Rose and maybe Kanaya because of Rose- would ever consider leafing through moldy tomes like this.

He made himself focus on finding John's key. There were no secret keys hidden in the shelves, but Dave did manage to find a few ancient volumes of manga. They were all in Japanese and the art was vintage, so he decided to keep them for Dirk, who actually knew Japanese and preferred the older stuff over the new. His old Sailor Moon manga was worn and beaten, while most of the manga Dave kept throwing at him on Christmas were still in pristine condition.

Dave moved on to the desks, trying to look faster since he was losing more and more daylight to work with. The first desk held nothing but old ink pens and a few crispy, meaningless papers. The next held the same, but in the back of the bottom drawer there was crumpled origami bird and tube of bright red lipstick. The final desk appeared to be the same case as the formers, but the top drawer was jammed. He tugged harder on it, finally yanking it out. It was almost impossible to see anything now, so he had to rely on touch to look for anything. Right as the door slammed shut behind him, his fingers grazed something metal and key-shaped.

He grabbed the key and swirled around, sword tight in hand. He strained his ears, listening for the heavy footsteps of the monster. For a moment, there was silence. Then, he heard a book drop. Dave bolted, running towards the door. He wildly swung out his sword, hoping to either ward the monster off or at least further injure it. Dave scrambled, feeling the back wall, trying to find the door. The footsteps lumbered closer after him, each step making his heart beat faster. He was sure he was on the verge of a heart attack when he finally found the doorknob. He ran outside and slammed the door behind him. Wasting no time, he ran upstairs, stumbling as he went. Thankfully he wasn't the idiot that would fall down the stairs.

He was out of breath but thankfully not as freaked out when he reached the third floor. "John, you owe me your life," he huffed, jabbing the key he had found in the library door. He wasn't a religious man, but he thanked God anyway that he had somehow found the right key. John flew out the door, tackling into him in a hug. Dave pushed him off. "Dude. No."

"I'm just glad you're okay!" he burst in that idiotic way only John could pull off.

"'Course I'm okay," Dave muttered. "Now come on, Rose is probably freaked."

"Rose? Freaked?" he asked incredulously. "No way. You would freak out before Rose would."

Dave didn't want to mention that everyone was pretty freaked at the moment. Well, everyone except John. Even before, he hadn't sounded too scared, though he was locked up and trapped like a fly in a spider's web. Speaking of spiders, Dave vaguely wondered where they all were. Not once had he seen a spider since they arrived. He hadn't found any cockroaches or other usual occupants of an abandoned house. Maybe they didn't like sharing with a giant monster? Dave didn't blame them. This place was spooky as heck. As soon as they got out, Dave swore he would strangle John for taking them here.

Rose and Roxy, awake and irritable, greeted them at the door. Rose smiled to John, relieved to finally see him. He cheerfully waved to her and burst into story mode. Rose didn't bother to tell him to shut up, even though he was making noise to attract the monster and she had already heard the story from Dave. He figured she was just glad they were all here and ready to leave.

John suddenly stopped at the top of the stairs. "Uh… I doubt this is the best time, but… we kinda can't leave."

Rose stiffened. She slowly turned with an impossibly calm face. "…Excuse me?"

He flinched at her voice, quickly looking away from her. "The front door is locked. I tried it when I first saw the monster. I messed with the lock, but it wouldn't open, no matter what I tried. I think it needs a key to work."

"A key for the inside of the front door?" Dave asked.

John shrugged. "I guess it's possible! I mean, if there's a monster walking around in here, why can't it magically mess with the door and lock us in, too?"

Roxy let out a soft whine. "We're stuckin the house? With no cell phone service? While the others apparently just decided to ditch us?"

Dave and Rose's eyes widened. That's right… it was way past time for them to arrive. If the front door was locked, surely they would have been suspicious, right? They would have tried to break in and look for them- at least, Dirk and Jade would have. Did they really decide not to come anyway? Dave was glad they hadn't gotten themselves into this mess, but it also meant they had no way of getting out without finding the front door key. They would have to scour the entire mansion looking for it. There was no telling how long it would take.

John was the first person to speak up again, quietly saying, "We shouldn't stay out in the hall like this. We need to go to a safe room. I have a key for a room on the second floor, so… maybe there?"

"It'd be best," Rose finally determined. "The monster doesn't seem able to break down doors, and the key would be extra protection, I suppose. I think the only locked door on the second floor was the one at the end of the hall, right, Dave?"

"Yeah, across from the weird room," he nodded in affirmation. He led them downstairs to their new safe room, hoping that it would actually be safe for the night. Actually, that was a bit of a problem. "Do you really think the door will hold the thing back? I mean, if it does manage to break in, it can kill us in our sleep."

When no one piped up, only giving each other nervous looks, Dave put out his fist. "Whoever loses stays up and guards the door," he quietly proposed.

They silently played Rock, Paper, Scissors. John and Rose both chose rock to Dave's scissors, but Roxy had paper. The older Lalonde made an utterly repulsed and terrified face. "Nuh-uh," she snarled. "Best two out of three!"

"Relax, Roxy," Rose sighed. "It's not like anything is going to happen. It's just a precaution."

"B-but," she stuttered, watching as Dave and John started unpacking John's hiking backpack. They had stuffed their sleeping bags and flashlights in it. Rose held the snacks and water bottles in her smaller backpack, and Dave had earlier mentioned he had brought the candy. They were hardly prepared to stay in the house longer than two days. But they tried to think about that as they readied to settle in for the night.

((((()))))

All of Roxy's twittering was ignored as her sister, Dave, and John settled in for sleep, all huddled in the corner of the room together. The sun had officially gone down, darkening everything. Roxy wasn't about to lie and mentally assure herself she wasn't scared. She was terrified, sitting in the dark, staring at the door. She had turned on her phone to give her some light as she stayed up alone, but it wasn't helping matters. The house was too quiet. She couldn't hear anything going on outside, either. The glass on the barred window must have been thick enough to block out noise. Through the dirty glass and metal bars, Roxy could see the moon. It was a little comforting, but it didn't dissipate her fear.

She nervously took another swing of her wine. The alcohol clouded her mind little by little, helping about as much as the moon did. Still, it wasn't like she wasn't going to drink, so drink she did.

A couple hours had passed according to her phone when she finally heard something besides Dave's snoring. Roxy went rigid, grabbing the Swiss army knife John had packed in his huge hiking backpack. She edged towards the door, swallowing hard. The knife shook in her quivering hands. The footsteps grew louder as they inched closer and closer to the door.

Roxy steeled her resolve, forcing herself to stop pulling a Chihuahua and protect her friends. The same stupid courage that had bubbled out of her during the first with the monster came back. When the door rattled, Roxy swung open the door, slashing at the figure with the knife.

"Thenk agin, shtupid monster!" she drunkly cried when she noticed she had drawn blood.

Psh, she could totally do this.