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Disclaimer: I do not own House or any of the characters. I just make them say what I desire which in turn, is enough for me. P

Note from the writer: I wrote the first chapter during a thunderstorm while playing the Madame Leota song from the Haunted Mansion. I was just surfing for music when I found it and it kind of put me in mood to write this. I hope you all like it, and if you feel like it, go to a site called Project Playlist and type in the Haunted Mansion, it's the second song I think. It's something that has to do with Madame Leota. Listen to that and read it. There's other Haunted Mansion songs that are good to listen to while you read. Try it and stay tuned, I'm writing the chapters as fast as I can. Thunderstorms kind of put me in the mood to write this too, and living in Florida, we're not short on thunderstorms. )

Thanks!

As soon as the lights went out, Dr. Allison Cameron instinctively grabbed Chase's hand. It was a habit she was going to have to kick at work. For she knew that if House found out, he'd be following them to the bathroom just to make sure that they didn't skip their lunch break in exchange for some quick sex in the janitor closet again. Cameron had to admit, this lack of electricity, crazy man on the loose and complete lock down of the hospital had her a bit turned on. In a weird way. She shook the thought loose and instead, smiled at Chase. He smiled back, which of course made her all fuzzy inside.

House however, wasn't thinking about how dangerous situations like this turned him on, he was focusing on Cuddy. What was wrong with her? She had been acting a bit peculiar these last few days. For a while now, she seemed to have given up talking about babies. Maybe she had given up all together. Who knew? What did he care anyway? He didn't. Right? Right.

"Cuddy wants you to lock down..." James Wilson trailed off as he opened the door to House's office.

"Cuddy also wants me to dress up as a vampire and make sweet love to her, but you don't see me doing that, do you?" House interjected.

"She wants you to what?" Wilson asked, his eyebrows furrowing. House just shrugged his shoulders. "What do I know anymore?"

Wilson felt as if a wall had just collapsed in House. This was rare.

"I mean," House began, "Remember when I said that there is no thin line between love and hate, that there is in fact a Great Wall of China with armed-"

"Yeah, I remember." Wilson interrupted, he was in a hurry to lock up his office.

House looked down abruptly, then turned toward his ducklings who were listening intently.

He had forgotten they were there. With the electricity out, he could barely see anything.

"Sick patient, remember? Power out...oxygen machine off in room...?"

"Oh, crap!" Chase said as he jumped to his feet and ran to the patient's room, followed by Foreman and Cameron.

House was amazed suddenly, he'd never heard someone utter the world, 'crap' in an Australian accent.

"You know that oxygen machine has a backup battery, right?" Wilson asked, and taking a seat and looking very relaxed, even though there was a crisis going on. House admitting his feelings for Cuddy was more important than locking up his office where he had nothing to take.

"Yep, just wanted them out of the room so we could talk about Cuddy."

Wilson cocked an eyebrow, "You're not in love with her, are you?" House scratched his forehead and turned around to the whiteboard. Just then, an ear piercing scream rang in House's ears. Running out of the conference room, House and Wilson saw no one. The hallway was still. Too still.

"Ah, someone must have seen Cuddy's ass again," House paused. Wilson whispered not so quietly, "Or the crazy person from the mental hospital just got in."

House turned to his only friend. "Or someone just saw how big Cuddy's ass is."

Wilson acknowledged that House kept mentioning Cuddy, meaning that Cuddy was on his mind. And a lot lately too. He also knew that House was nervous. This was something House couldn't cure, couldn't fix. Which in turn, meant that House was going to be the one that needed to be in a mental hospital at the end of the day.

They were halfway there when Foreman remembered.

"Guys, the oxygen machine has a backup battery. He just wanted us outta there so he could talk about Cuddy...–Without us."

The three exchanged glances. Then, Chase rolled his eyes and slid open the glass door to the patient's room. Melissa Gilbert, the nine year old patient, was silent. Her blond hair and pale skin reminded Chase of a ghost. He told himself it was just the stormy weather theme outside that made him think that, and then covered the girl up better with the covers.

This caught Cameron's eye...

The respirator did not keep the little girl from snoring. She was snoring softly, peacefully.

"You guys nervous about the whole psycho- on- the- loose -and- possibly- creating- havoc- on- the- hospital ordeal?" Foreman questioned, looking up from opening a syringe containing Morphine. Cameron and Chase turned toward him.

"This is different than any other day?" Chase said, smiling. Cameron smiled, but she was secretly scared out of her wits. Foreman chuckled. "I'm just sayin'..."

"And I'm just sayin' too. We've put up with a psycho creating havoc on this hospital for how many years now? This isn't any different."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Oh my god! Someone help me! There's a man..."

The three doctors turned suddenly and opened the sliding glass door to let in a screaming nurse.

"Jenna?" Foreman asked, holding the nurse up from falling onto the floor.

"What is it?"

She was gasping for air, "There's a man out there...I think...I think it's House...He's ashen and...oh my gaaaawd!" She turned and ran out suddenly. When Chase turned to ask Cameron what they should do, he was met with air.

Cameron was sitting in a chair by the patient's bed, her face white with terror. She was quiet.

"Cameron, we've got to go...Come on!" He grabbed her arm, but she would not move.

"Cameron? Cameron!"

"This isn't funny House. If you did something..."

"Oh, stop it! Why would I dress up as a maniac and scare everyone in the hospital?" House asked, shouting the best he could in a whisper.

"Well, you've got the maniac part down and secondly, you already scare everyone in the hospital."

House just rolled his eyes and kept walking...err...limping down the deserted hallway. He'd left his cane in his office and hadn't gone back to get it. They were watched by doctors and nurses peeking through blinds and windows from sealed rooms. They were probably wondering who the real maniacs were now. The one that had escaped and broken into the hospital, or the ones looking for The Maniac.

"Where are we going?" Wilson whispered, constantly checking behind himself.

Just in case The Maniac was about to pull a knife on them or something like that...Because who worried about those things?

Not House.

"We're going to check the main intercom system. I'm sure someone just screamed into the microphone to scare everyone." He didn't sound so sure of himself.

"Then if you're so sure about that, why are you whispering?"

House stopped and turned to Wilson. Looking behind Wilson and then behind himself he shrugged. "If there's a crazy psychotic person from a nearby mental hospital somewhere on this floor, make yourself known!"

Wilson was freaking out now. "Shhhh...you want him to get us?"

"How do you know it's a he?" House said, in a normal tone. "That miniature house killer on CSI was a woman and she's a psychotic nutcase."

Wilson brought his hands almost over his ears, "Okay okay, just keep your voice down. It's better than us getting killed!"

The continued down the hall, and everyone once in a while House called out again, asking for The Maniac.

"You ever feel like you're being watched?" Wilson questioned, whispering still.

"Shut up." House scoffed back.

After a few more moments of silence, and a few grumbles from House who was now officially lost in the dark, unable to make out the direction signs on the wall with the emergency lights, House asked, "Have you ever seen those Jason movies?"

"Oh, House...Shut the hell up!"

"I mean...with all the blood and stuff...Or those Predator movies. Predator always makes this kind of purring sound that sounds like this." House made the noise perfectly of course, which made Wilson's skin crawl. "Oh, wait. Your exwife made that noise didn't she?"

A few more steps later, House turned fast, which was a strange feat in itself, for a cripple.

"What?" Wilson was nervous.

Arching an eyebrow, House said, "I know what you did last summer..."

"Will you stop it? It's hardly the time to make stupid jokes like this!"

House froze, suddenly turning and looking around a corner. He wasn't moving. Wilson blinked sweat from his eyes. Now what?

"What is it? What do you see?" He asked, wiping his brow. He was moving from foot to foot now. "House?"

House turned to Wilson, his face white, his eyes such an icy blue that they seemed to freeze Wilson's body. House smiled and walked toward Wilson, who was now backing up.

"House? What the hell?" He held his hands out in front of him.

House smiled a cold icily. Wilson was forced to recall watching Spiderman 3, and how Topher Grace looked when he was Venom and smiled at Peter Parker. His teeth all jagged and long. Just like House's now.

"House...this isn't funny. Stop, stop gawddamnit!" He was shaking now and would have let out a scream, if House hadn't jumped at his neck.

"Wilson? Wilson!" House barked at his only friend. "Wilson!"

Wilson had been lying on the floor for over ten minutes now, sweating, panting, and mumbling in his sleep. Foreman, Chase, and very pale Cameron, raced into House's office. Just when they were about to ask why Wilson was lying on the floor he said, "Looks like an epidemic."

"He's hallucinating?" Foreman asked.

"Yeah, and this is the third one." He looked up from Wilson to them, actual concern seeping slightly into his eyes. "Which means that The Maniac is a disease."