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Stephanie

Stephanie had been doing just fine for the first hour or two of their run through the estate. Sophia had a bad habit of squealing bits of the Lord's Prayers in Spanish when things jumped out of the shadows at them, but Cindy's steely silence did not falter when things which went bump in the night. When spooky heads where nailed to the backs of doors, she hardly seemed to notice. When a snake-pit fell onto them, Cindy was the only one not wigging out. It was not until Cindy walked around a corner and suddenly disappeared that Stephanie began to worry.

Then... she and Sophia rushed around another corner and...

"GAAHH!!"

"SHIT!"

"Maria!"

"Steph?"

"Tara?"

"Shit, girl," the blond explorer gasped as the two teams began to settle, "don't do that to me!"

"Why you running?" Sophia asked in an ever thickening accent that became more difficult to understand the more frightened she became.

"Green... cackling... witch," Tara's sister Michelle, said as she breathed hard from running. "She's afraid of them."

"Green, cackling witches?" Stephanie repeated. "Like... Wizard of Oz?"

"Yes!" Tara fumed. "The Wicked Witch of the West scared the crap out of me!"

"Far out," Stephanie said as she began laughing.

"Steph?" Michelle finally asked after they all settled down for a moment. "Where's Cindy?"

"I don't know," she was forced to admit. "We took a corner and then she was gone."

"Oh, dear."

"Wait a minute," Stephanie said as she looked around, "wasn't Amber with you?"

"Yeah," Tara said seriously, "we lost her in the library."

"Oh... oh Madre Maria..." Sophia's Spanish continued for a time before a familiar yell got their attention. The group of four moved down the hall just in time to see a secret door slide neatly back into place... and Amber leaned unsteadily against the wall. A great cry of relief emitted from the companions as they closed in on their wayward friend and began hugging her.

"Where have you been?" Stephanie's question finally seemed to register, as Amber looked straight at her with fright bulging in her eyes.

"Where I been? Where I been?! I'll tell ya where I frickin' been!" For a moment, all they heard was Amber's breath as she gasped and searched for words. "I've been to the other side and back again! It's all dead... and dirty... and... and..."

"Whoa, girl," Tara said as she put her hand on Amber's shoulder. "We're here for you. It's alright."

"No, it ain't," Amber said harshly. Stephanie knew this was bad, for the young woman had been scared so bad that the city-street-girl, which she had always carefully hid, was pouring out of her. "We gots ta go... gots ta go... oh no... Molly... she all alone in 'at tower! We've gots ta get her out!"

"Relax girl we-"

"NO! We gots ta go right friggin' now!" There was little more to say as Amber began to stumble quickly down a hallway.

"Amber," Michelle told her, "that way!"

The young black woman stopped dead, turned, and moved in the proper direction without a word. The others simply followed, partially our of courtesy and partially they wanted to see if Molly really was in some sort of danger. As they strode through the halls, a few other teams were discovered. A quick exchange of words caused them all to agree in taking a break and checking up on Molly. Soon, seven out of eight teams were moving toward tower. It took time, and a whole lot of noise, for them all to reach the top, but once there, it did not take long to decide upon the next course of action.

"Anyone know how to pick a lock?" one of the cheerleaders asked.

"I do," muttered a quiet mono-tone voice.

"Well, get pickin', girl!" Amber boomed at her and Stephanie gasped as the other girls all ushered Cindy forward to the door.

"Cindy, where have you been? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," she said without a hint of expression. As she stared hard at the lock, Stephanie could not help but pay attention to how terribly out of place Cindy looked with her ankle length skirt and plane green sweater, she was often called a dozen different names by the other girls. She looked over the rim of her glasses at the lock and, now more than ever, Stephanie felt they all needed to begin treating her better.

"I need some hairpins and a sharp metal file." A moment of hesitation caused a lot of blinking before Amber got angry.

"Oh, shit, girls! I can't believe she knows how to pick-a-lock either, but stop gawkin' and get out your stuff!" Amber's words seemed to break them out of their trance and a brief amount of shuffling acquired the items Cindy had asked for. Once they passed them forward, the quiet girl immediately broke one, much to the owner's protest, then she slid a few of them into the large lock, jammed the metal file into place, then turned it all at once. An audible click declared her victory, and when she opened the door, Amber was the first one to rush inside. "Oh... oh heeellll no!"

"Where is she?" asked another girl.

"I don't see her," reported a third.

"Let me see," Tara said as she pushed her way into the room. Michelle did what she always did, she pushed her way forward to catch her sister. "She's not here?"

"No, she ain't," Amber said with a scoff which Stephanie was pretty certain was there to hide her fear. "Where'd she go?"

"Maybe she's hiding-" Cindy began but Amber turned on her and began to yell.

"WHAT? You been around this place! You know there's secret doors in all the rooms! And... oh look!" Anber shouted as she picked up an article of clothing, "Pajama bottoms! And look! Panties!"

"Oh, wow," Tara began giggling.

"WHAT?" Amber shouted.

"Well she's obviously in on it."

"Wha?"

"I think you're losing all your points right now." Tara's words seemed to make Amber go pale. An obvious debate was going on in her mind as she tried to decide whether to be terrified of the boogie-man or pissed because a haunted house scheme was scaring the hell out of her.

"Tara," Michelle finally said as a string of nervous giggling made its way through the onlookers, "do you really think this is all just a joke?"

"What," Tara said sharply, "you think the ghosts got her? Come on!" The laughter turned nasty, but Stephanie knew that the younger sister was like this and took a deep breath to shake it off.

"Well, I do," Amber finally said when the laughter died down. All faces turned from amusement to concern. Amber was a staunch non-believer in God, ghosts, aliens, and anything else she could not see, taste, or touch.

"You're scared?" Tara said with her eyes bulging out.

"Yeah," Amber shot back, "yeah I am!"

"How can you be afraid?"

"Because I went somewhere when I fell through that passage! There was a chamber... and a book... and... and..."

"You had an encounter?" Tara asked, her scorn turning to excitement once more.

"Has anyone seen Rachel or Gina?" Stephanie suddenly asked. Silence passed through the crowd as they all looked around with worry.

"Oh-ho!" Amber shouted. "So now we've lost a whole team! All three of them are gone! Just poof! Gone!"

"Stop it Amber," Stephanie said as her voice began to raise, "you're freakin' me out!"

"Perhaps you should be afraid?" the voice of Haley suddenly said as she made it to the front of the crowd.

"Don't go messin' with me right now, girl," Amber huffed, as Haley's unnerving grin sent a shiver down Stephanie's spine.

"I told you the story, and now Molly's gone." Haley looked around a moment the picked up a pair of panties off of the floor and gave them a sniff. The reaction from the crowd was a mixture of amusement and revulsion. "Smells like she was excited before these hit the floor."

"Girl! That's not right," Amber said, taking a step back.

"Oh, I believe I'm absolutely right," Haley said then offered the panties, "care to check them yourself?"

"Oh... for fuck sake," Tara finally said as Amber stood frozen like a deer in headlights. Snatching the panties, Tara sniffed the crotch, coughed, then giggled. "Yep, she was liking it."

"Man," Amber said with a shiver, "you girls are just all kinds of wrong."

"If you are so concerned," Haley told her, "then you could go and look for her during your next round. I'm sure if you can find her if you look in all of the wrong places."

"Fuck, no," Amber said through grit teeth as she glared unblinkingly at Haley.

"Behave yourself Amber," Haley said with a touch of warning in her voice. "You're already on probation for that kind of language."

"Shut-it bitch!" Amber snapped as a bit of her ebonic accent betrayed her fear. "You got us all in this creepy-ass house and now some folks go missin'! Now your talkin' about splittin' up an' lookin' 'round? Bull-shit! I've seen this movie! The token black guy always dies first! Only there's no dudes here so it falls to me! Well I already outlasted three white bitches and I ain't testin' my luck! Molly's a nice girl, but I don't like her that much! You girls can stay here and do whatever creepy-ass-shit you want, but I'm bouncin'! I'm bouncin' right out this place! Any o' you white-girls wanna come with?"

An eerie silence fell over them as they all looked around.

"Amber," Mary finally spoke up, "I know you're afraid... but-"

"Don't you pull that we're all fine if we stick together crap on me," Amber cut her off.

"Don't you pick on her!" Haley snapped as her temper began to show.

"I'm not pickin'," Amber stated ti Haley, and then she turned toward Mary and forced a certain amount of calm into her voice. "Mary, you're a nice girl. You're a better person than most of us here, but I'm not staying. I'm gonna walk out that door and follow the road until I find some bars on my phone. As soon as I can call, I'm callin'. Then I'm gone. Whose with me?"

"I am!" shouted Emily, from team five.

"Me too!" agreed Jackie, from team seven.

"Yeah, let's get outta here!" agreed several others. Then, more voices chimed in and before they knew it, five teams had crossed the line and followed Amber to the front door. As they dropped their bags of coins and gathered their coats, Haley began to laugh.

"Well, I guess we know who a real Delta Omegas are!"

"Fuck your D.O.!" Amber bellowed. "I got yer D.O. right here, bitch!" A sturdy middle-finger fired off in Haley's direction and soon, Amber was leading two-thirds of the group out the door.

"Amber!" Mary shouted and she appeared to almost lost her nerve when the dark skinned girl turned her powerful gaze toward her. "Remember to take the left path to the road. Look for the gargoyle with the chipped tooth and remember to turn the fence posts counter-clockwise."

"You're a good girl, Mary," Amber said after taking a deep breath and giving her a knowing smirk. "If I see ya around, you're welcome to hang with us any time. Come on girls," she said as she headed out the door. One-by-one, the cowardly girls filed out. Stephanie felt a strong urge to go with, but Molly was her friend, and she felt guilty for abandoning her to Gina and Rachel.

"Alright, Delta's," Haley said with a large grin on her face. "All of you are going to be officers just for sticking around. Amber's got guts, standing up to us all like that, but you've got courage too, and I want to thank you all for that. Now, I think Amber's right on one thing, we shouldn't go out there alone. I don't think there's any monsters out there, but it's creepy enough without being alone in the dark. So, you all pick a partner and stick with them. If you get hurt or lost or whatever... this is where we'll meet. Alright?"

Haley's six remaining subordinates gave general nods of approval, but their enthusiasm had dwindled. It was obvious they were all afraid, but they had taken a stand, and sticking around was what they were going to do. Now all they needed to do was find the others and hope nothing bad had happened.