Hotaru relaxed slightly when Usagi stepped in to stop the confrontation, though she was quaking a little. Makoto probably wasn't a vampire, right? 

"M...mm...maybe, w-we could s-search for them in p-p-pairs or threes?" she suggested to the room

With Minako now gone, Michiru couldn't help but worry for the safety of her adopted daughter. Taking Hotaru's hand, Michiru squeezed it gently before addressing Haruka. 

"You need to calm down. Now. You're scaring Hotaru with all of this vampire nonsense. Vampires don't exist, Haruka. I would have thought you were intelligent enough to know that. This is getting ridiculous. If I didn't know any better, I'd say this was all some joke that Rei and Minako devised together. As for searching for the missing girls, I think we should stick together. Clearly when one of us goes off, they end up disappearing."

"Okay..." Haruka let go of Usagi and ran a hand through her hair and tried to straighten herself out. "Okay, okay, I'm okay, I'm good." Haruka mumbled in a somewhat manic tone, feeling guilty that she had scared Hotaru.

While she disagreed with Michiru about Makoto, she had a point. It made more sense to stick together then to run off. Trying to calm herself, she walked to Hotaru and knelt down.

"Sorry, Hotaru, Haruka just got a little scared. Everything's okay now, alright?"

Ami could feel the panic welling inside her as everything quickly began spiraling out of control. First Rei had disappeared and now Minako was seemingly gone as well. Makoto was acting strangely and Haruka looked about ready to take anyone out including one of them. This place was clearly getting to them all. And poor Hotaru, she looked close to tears. 

"We really need to keep moving forward guys. We cant do anything just sitting here," Ami pleaded. 

DM Note:

Venus heard the sounds of hurried footsteps coming toward her. She paused, grabbing her chain in hand and waited in on guard mode. She narrowed her eyes into the darkness and found something reddish coming toward her. And then she heard Rei’s familiar voice.

Her jaw dropped when Mars appeared in front of her, seemingly very much alive and well. “What am I doing here?” she demanded. “What are you doing here? We thought you were dead! First we thought you were eaten by a monster, then we thought you battled some kind of demon or whatever and got defeated. But… but…” Her indignant expression slowly turned into wobbling lips and tearful eyes.

“You’re alive!” she ambushed Mars with a hug, complete with Love-Me-Chain accidentally tying Mars’ arms on her sides as well. But Venus didn’t care. Right now she was just too relieved. “Rei-chan, we need to get out of here right now! Mako-chan’s turning into a vampire, and there are way too many monsters running around! I got dumped here by some trap door, and we’re probably going to be monster fodder or something!”

"Alright, how about we figure out what that banging sound was? Maybe we'll find Minako that way," Makoto suggested. It made sense since that was the direction she had been going in. And if they were in a group, they couldn't all disappear, could they? At least this way, Haruka would be focused on something other than her status as an undead bloodsucker.

Haruka glanced shifty-eyed at Makoto, then back to Michiru and Hotaru. She did have a solid point; even if she were an undead bloodsucker. Haruka returned her gaze back to Makoto, and nodded in agreement.

"Rei and Minako could be facing some unknown dangers as we speak. The sooner we find them, the sooner we can get the hell out of here. However..."

Haruka's eyes grew cold as she crossed her arms. "If this is somehow an elaborate way for you to get all of us in a dead end to devour us, I will make extra sure I'd be taking you down with me."

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? We thought you were dead! First we thought you were eaten by a monster, then we thought you battled some kind of demon or whatever and got defeated. But… but…"

Almost forgotten, Mars remembered the hoax she played on her friends when Venus stood in front of her, obviously relieved to see her. Somehow she felt bad about that as she saw the tearful eyes of her friend - it had upset her apparently.

"Hey, hey," she tried calming her down, her voice soft as she slowly lowered the buckled arms she had stretched out in order to symbolize the reassurance. "Everything's alright, see? I'm still alive. I'm still here."

And then she was in Venus's arms, her hands tied in her Love-Me-Chain. She wasn't too pleased about it but the circumstances allowed it. For now.

"Okay, listen, Minako," she started talking in the hug, knowing that Venus would hate her as soon as she ended the sentence. "I didn't get eaten by a monster nor did I fight one, okay?! Mako isn't turning into a vampire either. Everything is alright. We just need to get out of this underground path, that's everything."

“What?” Venus stepped back in confusion. “What do you mean you didn’t fight a monster? We heard you! There was a speech and everything!”

She put her hand on her hips, demanding an explanation. Something really fishy was going on here, and she was determined to get to the bottom of it. Did Rei know what was going on with Mako, too?

Seeing the confusion in Venus's eyes, Mars realized once more how easy it was to seriously fool her.
"My gosh, Minako," she slowly raised her voice, waving her arms into a position that should emphasize the obviousness of the whole situation. "I never fought a monster, okay?! I mean, didn't you wonder - just for a second - why there weren't any monster-like noises in the background? Didn't you wonder why I was the only one talking the whole time?"

She gave her a few seconds to think, waiting for an epiphany on her part, before she eventually continued. "It was a hoax, okay? A hoax, a joke, a ploy - call it whatever you want. But there never was a monster, okay?!"

"Haruka-san, please. I know this is a tense situation, but we need to work together," Ami implored as the group moved down the hall way. Standing outside the closed door, Ami couldn't help but feel nervous. 

"So...who want to go in first?"

OOC:

“I don’t know, Rei-chan, I was too busy panicking about your life,” Venus gritted her teeth in annoyance, although she began to get a creeping feeling of suspicion. Did Mars actually mean to say—

And when she finally spelled it out, Venus swore she was the one with the element of fire, because her eyes sure blazed with flames and she could almost feel smoke coming out of her ears. All the stress from that day and… for what? A stupid joke?! She grabbed Mars and shook her with every word. “Do you mean to tell me you made us think you were dead as a joke?! I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF! You made Usagi cry!”

Michriu inhaled and exhaled several times before deciding to speak again. At this point, she just wanted to find Rei and Minako and get out of this awful place. Even she was starting to get goosebumps now. And Michiru wasn't sure how much longer poor Hotaru could hold out. 

"Excuse me," Michiru said, her manners breaking through her nerves as she stepped forward and close her hand around the doorknob. "There isn't much to be afraid of. We're all senshi, remember? If push comes to shove, we have a way to fight back." Without waiting for anyone to try and stop her, Michiru opened the door.

Haruka tensed up as she watched Michiru open the door. She fumbled for her lip rod in her pocket, and gripped onto it tightly.

If anything were to pop out and attack her lover, she'd transform this time-no questions asked.

When Michiru stepped forward to open the door, Ami couldn't help but hold her breathe. The door opened slowly, its hinges creaking horribly as it opened to reveal an absolutely empty room. After checking out the entire room and finding nothing, the group decided to move on. 

They cleared the rest of the floors in the wing they were in, finding nothing out of the ordinary each time. Heading down to the landing, they were faced with the decision of checking out the main floor, basement, or the north or south wings.

It wasn't until they were talking animatedly amongst themselves that Ami noticed something was wrong. 

"Where's Hotaru?"

----

Meanwhile, in the hidden corridor  Rei and Minako were in,they suddenly heard a loud scream, what sounded like a young female. Before they could move to even figure out where the noise was coming from, the scream was joined by what sounded like more voices, both male and female, young sounding and old sounding. Wailing, screeching, yowling. 

The noise was so loud that it would hurt both of the girls ears.  

As quickly as the screaming started, it stopped, leaving a deafening silence behind. 

Just as the girls thought it was all over, a new voice boomed so loud, the walls around them shook with its force:

GET OUT, GET OUT AND NEVER COME BACK. 

The voice was deep, tortured, growling at them, sounding like a demon possessed person from all the american movies Minako had seen.

Makoto wasn't sure if she should be relived or even more terrified by the empty room. Just where was everyone disappearing to? Just to add even more problems, Hotaru had also disappeared sometime between them checking the room and the rest of the floor. 

"This is getting ridiculous! Where could they be going?" Makoto asked, scratching away at her bandage again. In her irritation and hidden panic, her neck itched once again, though she tried not to pay attention to it. She was honestly worried about Minako, Rei, and Hotaru. What could be strong enough to capture them? "Maybe we should go down to the main floor and see if our host knows what's going on..."

When she heard the loud scream, Venus shrieked in response, clutching onto Mars tightly. Then more voices that were both so loud and so terrifying she had to clamp her hands onto her ears.

It suddenly disappeared, and with her heart thumping loudly in her chest, Venus cautiously looked around, lowering her hands. And then another voice boomed, this time giving them a clear message.

Venus cursed. “I know that voice and it never means anything good. Are you still saying there’s no monster here?! I have had enough of this! I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE! You think I like hanging around here? You think I chose to be stuck in this awful torture dungeon of yours?!” she yelled at whoever was listening, her frustration reaching its peak.

Where in the hell were they and how the heck were they supposed to get out?

“Mars, just burn down this entire castle or something!”