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After receiving the invitation, Jasa stared at it thoughtfully. It had come from the Twilight Designs shop, the place she had yet to actually get inside. Algie and Bloo came to mind and she laughed wondering if they would make it to the haunted house. It could be interesting to go and then perhaps even sneak up on them. Maybe she'd even run into Trivii and Nell.

"So what do you think, Ruku? A haunted house?" she asked. "Interested?"

The wisp reached out tentatively caressing the edges of the paper. It seemed neither warm nor cold and so the tendrils explored the invitation fully before clinging to the corner. Slipping over to Jasa, the wisp seemed almost amused that she had to ask.

"The address says that it's in the swamp. Snakes and worse things would be there I would imagine, but if there is a path and we stick to it, we should be alright." the girl mused more to herself than to the wisp now clinging to her arm and working his way up her shoulder.

A short time later she and Ruku found themselves standing at the door of the place. It was definitely the perfect place to have a haunted house. Strangely she remembered driving past this area and there had never been a house here before. Or had there? Shaking her head at her own lack of memory of this place, she opened the door and stepped inside.

The first thing that caught her eye was the large spiral staircase in front of her. It looked as if it climbed to the very top of the house. Up was where she wanted to go and since she saw no activity where she was, perhaps everyone was upstairs. She could hear the oddest music coming from somewhere. It sounded just like one of those old victrola phonographs with the very large trumpet style players. For a fleeting moment she wondered if someone was dancing to the music that was playing.

"Let's go see," she whispered to Ruku as he clung tightly to her pocket. Several tendrils reached outwards as if he were searching around for something.

It seemed like she climbed forever to reach the top and her head was almost spinning from going around and around and around as she stepped higher and higher. But when she finally reached the top and stepped out onto the landing, Jasa tilted her head. The music was loudest here and she moved towards the door. Placing her hand on it, she just waited, listening to what she could hear.

After a soft knock, she called, "Is anyone there?" Tapping again, she asked, "Is anyone there? Is this where the party is?" The music suddenly continued playing as she opened the door, peeking around the side of it. "Oh my!" she whispered as she stared at a second door.

The door itself appeared to be of bronze, a strange carving of a face in the middle. At first she thought it one of those old fashioned door knockers except there was no ring in its mouth. The music played on from behind and she knocked on the second door.

"Is anyone there?" she called again, pushing on the door since there seemed to be no door handle at all. The door grudgingly opened, screeching its objection. Shivering, she stepped inside just as the music stopped playing. A lamp was lit on one side of the room and all she could see were stacks of books. On a table to the left was an old phonograph covered in thick cobwebs. It looked as if it had not been played in many years.

"What is going on? Where is everyone?" she asked softly, patting the pocket where Ruku was clinging. "This is so odd."

Ruku wrapped his shadowy tendrils around her hand. Sensations of amusement and curiousity flooded outwards as he touched a cobweb nearby. The thin filament broke causing a scattering of dust and Jasa sneezed as she stepped fully into the room, closing the door behind her.

"Thanks." she muttered. "But I don't think the party is here."

Jasa glanced down at the candy and laughed. "Well, Ruku, I guess this might be more fun than we expected. Shall we keep looking around and see who we can find next?" There were no windows but the lamp tossed enough light into the place that she could see decently. It also made the shadows flicker eerily as she continued to scan the area.

The wisp had clung tightly to her hand until Mystic spoke. Then he was in the air moving towards the older and larger fiend only to have him vanish. Hovering in the air, he gave off the sensation of being disappointed for a moment. As Jasa spoke and began moving towards the books stacked everywhere, the wisp began working his way through the cobwebs causing dust to fly everywhere.

"It figures.. " she muttered as she sneezed several times in a row. "He would find enjoyment in that." Although she never told him to stop, she knew that eventually he would get bored of doing so and much faster than if she told him. He was like any other child. If he knew it bothered her, he'd continue for much longer than if he got no reaction at all.

So where were the other two she needed to find? "Come out, come out wherever you are!" she said, teasing. Of course it would not be that easy. Nothing ever was. Then it hit her. He had said that they had to collect the other two candies to escape the house?

"Crap!" she growled a bit annoyed. "I should have known there would be some trick to it. Nothing to do now but go with it and hope we run into other people at some point."

Dusting off the old victrola, Jasa glanced down at the title. It was nothing she knew but most likely some old big band music from the 20's. The phonograph looked the age at least with its crank on the side. Blowing the dust off the turntable, she then turned the crank handle several times to get the machine started. It slowly spun a few times then stopped. She turned the crank a few more times and finally it began to spin without stopping. With a smile she put on the record so that it would play.

The music slipped into the air, a delicate light sound of flutes and violins. It seemed to caress the room before it turned to a much harder and rapid beat. Jasa stared at the record. It was nothing like she had imagined the song to be. A faint shudder slipped through her shoulders as the sound of a scream could be heard within. Stopping it, the girl winced when the music continued to play, voices and echoes of years gone by still playing as they did long ago.

She could have sworn she heard an argument in there somewhere over a book that someone had written. As if in answer, a book fell off the stacked pile, thudding on the floor in front of her. At first she suspected Ruku, but he was on the opposite side of her still tagging the cobwebs for dust. He was covered in it and nearly looked like he was covered in gray flour.

"So... do we look or not?" she asked as she reached for the tome. Then she hesitated. Did she or did she not?

Ruku continued popping in and out of shadows. Finally he went in beside a stack of books and came out in a cobweb above Jasa's head. In amusement, the wisp's tendrils grabbed hold of a few strands causing dust to shower down over her. As she glanced upwards, he hesitated in the shadow.

"You come back here, Ruku...." she growled, reaching out for him. Her hand missed him by a mere second and he was gone. "You little brat..." she muttered when he popped out some distance away from her. His amusement was very apparent as she shook the dust from the top of her head.

With a slight sigh, she walked towards a small bookcase. Her eyes scanned the titles and she finally pulled out a rather strange looking book. The binding on it was made of a pale leather and it had strange symbols that she could not read on it. It was so odd that she picked it up, taking it over to the table with the phonograph. It was odd.

At first she simply flipped pages from the beginning. The words were written in some language she did not know, but there were a few images scattered here and there and she continued to glance through them. Everything about it seemed unusual and she continued turning the pages until she reached the very middle. In the center of both pages was an unusual face. Its eyes were closed and she simply stared at it a few moments.

It was then Ruku chose to pop up in front of her face from the shadows he had been playing in nearby. The eyes suddenly opened as did the mouth. A long tongue whipped out, wrapping around the wisp and then began zipping back as if to eat him. A bit of panic slipped free from Ruku as he began to struggle slightly. Shadows were not helping in this instant either and he could not seem to pop out.

Jasa winced stepping backwards. As her eyes caught sight of Ruku trapped, she jumped forwards grabbing hold of the slimy tongue behind where the wisp fought to get free. "Let go of him, you stupid book! I said let go!" Reaching out with one hand as she tugged with all her might with the other, she poked the book in the eyes as hard as she could. Then she began beating on it with her free fist. "I said LET GO!"

The book let go suddenly, its tongue zipping out of Jasa's hand. She went flying backwards into a nearby stack of books which toppled down over her. Ruku flew forwards in the air but managed to stop just short of hitting the wall nearby. Rather stunned by the sudden change, the girl managed to get to her feet. Slamming the book shut, she mumbled for a moment.

"I don't think that's such a good book to read, Ruku. I didn't understand a thing about it." she stated, keeping it firmly shut as she returned it to the shelf where she had found it. "Let's find something else to look at." She still needed to find two others and get two more candies from them. They had to be here somewhere.

For a few moments Jasa simply stared at the wisp. He was obviously having fun if the amused sensation she was getting was any indication. She nearly growled at him, but then just sighed. How could she remain angry when he looked so cute popping in and out of the shadows.

Ruku remained out of her grasp entirely. If she moved to the left, he moved far to the right. If she moved forwards, he moved backwards sliding into one shadow and out another. Amusement slipped free as he touched the shadow nearby, waiting for her to do something.


"Alright, you brat. We will stay a little longer. But it's your fault whatever trouble we get into." she muttered, glancing around the book stacks. "Where now?" she asked, leaving it up to his choice this time. Her decisions obviously were getting them in deeper than they should. Maybe his would be the right ones.

The wisp hesitated a moment, then popped out near her. He hovered over a book, caressing it lightly with a tendril.

"This one?" she nearly sighed when she read the title. Screamers. Closing her eyes for a moment, she gathered herself and then opened the book as she opened her eyes which went wide at first sight.

This huge ghostly face came flying out of the book. Its mouth opened and then it screamed as loud as it could. Then it screamed again and again.

With all of her might, she shoved the thing back into the book, closing it up tightly. It wiggled for a moment, but she stacked two other books on it to hold it down.

"Okay, that did not work. Let's look for something else." So far they had nearly been fried by a troll, washed away by a tidal wave, teleported out, and screamed at. How much worse could it get?

"Ain't that the truth?" Reyna spoke up from just behind Jasa with a bright, fanged grin on her face. She tapped her on the shoulder, and then reached to hand her a small piece of candy.

"One more to go, right?" she said before darting away with a wave of one hand through a door that mysteriously had not been there before.

When she woke, Jasa glanced around her. "Crap!" she muttered. "I'm back at the beginning again. What is going on in this place? That book must be one that talks you to sleep."

It was then she noticed that Ruku was missing. He was not by her side, nor in her pockets. A bit of panic slipped through her as she got to her feet and began running up the stairs. By the time she was halfway up, she was out of breath and had to stop for a moment.

Rukurai had been hovering and playing in the shadows when he suddenly stopped. Spinning in a complete circle, he moved to where he had left Jasa. She was not there. His tendrils could find no trace of her. Panicked, he moved towards the direction of the door.

Gasping, Jasa finally made it to the top of the stairs, flinging open the first door. As she opened the second door, something came flying out at her. It hit her in the chest, then clung to her. She soon realized that it was Ruku.

"I'm here, Ruku. Let's finish. I'll just have to be more careful. No more books that talk a person to sleep." she grumbled, holding him in the palm of her hand. She pet him a bit, letting her fingers tease his tendrils a moment. "We still have one more to find. And then we are done with this room. Maybe then we can find one of the others. And have some real fun."

Moving back inside, she glanced over at the spot she had been sitting. The book was still on the floor. Slowly she picked it up, but held it tightly closed as she put it back where she had gotten it.

"Now what do we look for?" she asked moving towards a large red tome. It had some sort of cryptic symbol on the front.