Coraline was getting a little bored of this. Not that checking every single painting in the room (which was in the hundreds, Coraline noticed) wasn't barrels of fun, but she'd like to move this along. But by the time they were a third through the room, everyone else would be done with their floors. That'd be embarrassing.

Coraline finally decided to speak up. "Are you really planning to check every painting in here?"

Tulip looked over at her. "...Not all of them, I guess."

"Isn't there any way we could speed up this process?" Coraline asked. "What exactly are you looking for anyway?"

"I'm not sure," Tulip admitted. She glanced towards the uncovered hole; her eyes narrowed. "All I know is that that thing is really suspicious, and I have a hunch it's important somehow."

"Do you really think it's a grave?" Coraline wondered. "I mean, it's pretty morbid, but that's what I thought of when I saw it. I didn't want to say it, though."

"No, I was thinking that, too," Tulip replied. Suddenly, her frown deepened as a thought occurred to her. "You know, there might actually be a way to make this go faster, now that I think about it."

Coraline was relieved. "Really? How?"

Tulip reached up, taking a hold on one of an edge of one of the paintings depicting an older, but still very dignified lady. "Here, help me with this."

Coraline, a little confused, still did as she was told, taking hold of the other side, and together, they lifted up the painting, setting it down on the floor. Obviously, the painting was a painting, and it couldn't feel anything, but Coraline could practically feel how unimpressed the painting was with them. She shivered, and stopped herself from checking if its eyes were following her as well.

Tulip ran a hand over the place where the painting had hung, a myriad of emotions crossing over her face before Coraline could decipher them.

"Fine anything?" Coraline asked her. Tulip bit the inside of her cheek.

"Maybe. Just a second."

Tulip stepped away, going over to the side and picking up the base of the wooden sign Kipo had tossed away earlier. Coraline watched her, eyebrows drawn together in confusion as Tulip came back to the part of the wall they had uncovered, lifting the long piece of wood like a spear.

Before Coraline could ask her what on earth she was doing, Tulip rammed the end of her makeshift spear into the wall, making Coraline flinch. The wall broke under the force as easily as if it was paper, probably because it was. When Tulip drew the spear back, there was a neat little hole in the wall, and she dropped the wood to tear the paper away, revealing a hole that looked almost identical to the one behind the previous painting.

"Oh," Coraline said. Tulip nodded, looking surprised herself.

Curiously, Coraline peered into the hole. And immediately regretted it. She jumped away, gagging. Tulip blinked at her, before turning to the hole herself. Coraline saw her go white.

"Oh," Tulip whispered. "Oh no."

"They... They ARE graves," Coraline realized, and felt her stomach drop again at the realization of what that meant. Both she and Tulip glanced around at the other paintings, piled high all around them.

"Maybe, maybe not," Tulip replied, her voice strained. She backed away from the hole, scrunching up her nose, but it didn't help. The stink from the hole was even floating over to where Coraline was standing, and she was a fair bit away, near the door to get out of this place. "We haven't checked."

Coraline nearly laughed at that. "You want to?"

Tulip winced, looking equal parts irritated and horrified. "I guess not."

"Well, we figured out what that hole was," Coraline said. "Maybe we should just go and get out of here."

"We haven't figured out everything," Tulip corrected, motioning towards the first grave. "We still don't know why that one's empty."

Coraline's eyes went wide. "Oh."

"It either means that that guy is still alive," Tulip said, her face grim. "Or no one buried him."

Coraline made a face as Tulip turned to her.

"You're probably right, we should go look in other places," Tulip noted, she walked over, opening the door. When Coraline looked through, she saw it led to a hallway. "Hey, I heard you have some experience in evil castles."

Coraline scowled, following her through. "Some would be an understatement. I spent three months in that place. I-...It probably doesn't matter. This place is nothing like that one."

"How so?"

"One, no... that," Coraline told her, nodding to the room they just came from. "And two... fewer people."

Tulip grinned at her. "Is that better or worse?"

Coraline frowned, wondering how she should answer that. In the end, she decided on 'truthfully'.

"I thought it is safer, with more people watching my back," she admitted, quietly. "But I now know a lot more dead people than I did before."

Silence followed Coraline's confession. She got the feeling that Tulip didn't want to respond to that. But right when Coraline opened her mouth to backpedal, Tulip finally spoke up.

"Yeah... I guess I get what you're saying," Tulip replied, slowly. "But, uh... isn't that a statistical error? I mean, if you weren't with anyone before, then there was no one to die, right?"

Tulip grinned back at her, letting Coraline know that she was joking. Coraline rolled her eyes.

"True enough," Coraline admitted. "It's still a shock, though."

"Yeah, I bet," Tulip agreed. "You know, when I was first... 'mysteriously put here', on this world, I... okay, this is embarrassing, but I kind of thought it'd be more fun."

Coraline tilted her head at the older girl, taken aback. "More... fun?"

"W-Well, okay, I guess that sounds a little weird," Tulip said, blushing. "Before I came here, I was stuck in another place, this... infinite train, kind of. And, no, I don't get it either. But on that train, there were so many cool rooms to explore and to check out, and I was never bored. I was scared sometimes, because even though the train was a therapy train of sorts, it was still kind of murderous, but I never felt like I was constantly in danger. It... actually fun sometimes, when I wasn't running for my life."

Coraline listened as politely as she could. She was still stuck on the 'infinite train', though.

"Maybe it was stupid, but I kind of thought this place would be like that, too," Tulip told her. She hugged herself, now looking straightforward and not even daring to look back at Coraline. "I enjoyed looking through the puzzles in the mountain, and I met a lot of new friends... and even though I didn't understand this place, it definitely wasn't the train. I thought maybe it was a train stop or something... well, it doesn't matter. The most important thing is that I relaxed, because no one was trying to kill us here, right?"

Coraline could practically feel Tulip's grimace. "And then Adam died, and Mira was so, so torn up, and then Dib died and then everyone else... it all happened so quickly. I wish... I wish for I lot of things. I don't know what I want."

Coraline didn't respond. She stared at Tulip, wide-eyed. That... Coraline hadn't considered that. That was horrible.

"Ah HA!" Mabel cried out suddenly. "A third bathroom."

Luz nodded, no longer even trying to drum up the same kind of enthusiasm Mabel was presenting. In fact, she was barely even looking through the rooms anymore, and she and Mabel had just taken to skimming through them.

For a castle that looked cool and mysterious from the outside, inside it was... really boring. Luz assumed that they had been looking around for about an hour now, and all they had found was a bunch of bedrooms. Huge bedrooms, but still, after the eight on, the novelty wore off.

"Find anything?" Luz called to her friend, but the answer was the same. It was always the same.

"Nope, still empty!"

Luz sighed, and waited for her friend to come out. When she did, Luz thought she looked just as disappointed as Luz did, her smile strained. So, Mabel was starting to get bored as well, huh?

Almost immediately, Mabel confirmed her suspicions.

"Okay, I'm bored," Mabel admitted. "I don't want to do this anymore. I wish Dipper was here, he'd probably find this fun. He'd probably FIND something, actually."

"I don't think there's anything actually here," Luz pointed out.

"You can't say that!" Mabel argued. "We haven't even looked for secret passages and stuff!"

Luz internally cringed at the thought of having to look over each and every wall along with looking in every room. Possibly even the floor and ceiling, too.

Hastily, Luz tried to change the subject. "Hey, what was your brother like?"

It was a genuine question. Luz had only heard about him and never formally met him. And she never would now, because he was probably dead.

Conflicting feelings crossed over Mabel's face. Luz could see a war of emotions on her face. Clearly, Mabel wanted to talk about Dipper, but she didn't want to think about the fact that she might never find him again.

Luz wondered if she should change the subject again, but before she could try, Mabel spoke up.

"Well... he's a really big dork," she said, laughing quietly to herself. Her eyes were staring straight ahead, on the verge of tears despite the smile on her face. Conflicting emotions fought on her face, caught in the middle of reminiscing, and mourning. "All summer long he was carrying his big dumb nerd book around from his nerd uncle, and we went on a bunch of adventures together. They were pretty cool, I saw a unicorn once, but she turned out to be a jerk."

"At least you actually saw one," Luz muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Oh." Mabel continued on with her story. "Dipper was-is-pretty cool, and really smart, too. And even though he's kind of weird and not very strong because of his weak nerd arms, he always helped me out when I was in trouble, even if it hurt him in the end."

Mabel paused for a second. "He always did that. He always chose me over himself, no matter what. Sometimes I wonder if that makes me selfish, because... I never did the same thing for him. I... I wish I could be better to him. I wish he was here. I..."

Mabel trailed off, looking miserable. She buried her face in her hands. "Am I a bad sister? I... I..."

Luz laid a hand on Mabel's shoulder, feeling awful for her friend. "Mabel, that's not it! I haven't known you for very long, but from what I can tell, you're brave and you don't take any crap from anyone. I think you're pretty cool; I mean, the way you dealt with Arlen was really impressive. And are you standing up to a bird-person-thing powerful enough to destroy our town? Are you kidding me? That's amazing!"

Mabel sniffed, looking up at Luz with tear-filled eyes, just on the edge of spilling over. Luz's soft smile fell. Mabel didn't look convinced in the slightest.

Mabel turned away, wiping at her eyes. "Ah-I'm sorry, Luz. Thanks, for what you said, but those times, I was just angry instead of scared. Is that bravery? I could have died both those times... but Dipper would do something really smart and save the day. He always did that... but all I did was ruin things for everyone for him."

Luz tilted her head. "Hey, you didn't ruin anything. And you were the one who opened the portal, right? You DID save us. You saved me, Kipo, Coraline, and Kris, at least."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Luz knew it was the wrong thing to saw. Mabel's eyes crinkled up, and she turned away, but not before Luz saw a tear roll out of her eye.

"But Kris is dead now..." Mabel pointed out quietly, and Luz cringed, horrified at herself.

"Y-Yeah," she said, turning away, too. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything; I don't really know you, I guess."

'I thought I did,' Luz thought, frowning. 'But I guess I also thought I knew Six.'

They sat in silence for a few seconds, until a new sound suddenly replaced it. It was quiet, and definitely hard to hear, but in the silence, it was starkly obvious.

Mabel and Luz straightened up, looking at each other, both wondering if they both heard that. Clearly they did.

It was a subtle wailing that echoed throughout the empty halls. Someone here was crying and it definitely wasn't either of them.

"Is that-?" Mabel asked, her voice a harsh whisper, but as soon as she said those small words, the crying cut off suddenly, and very strangely. Luz frowned. The only thing that would have made that more natural would be if that cut-off sound was accompanied by a record scratch.

They both exchanged a look.

"Ghosts," Mabel guessed, her voice whispered. Luz nodded.

"Probably," she whispered back. Mabel jumped up. Though her eyes were red and her nose was running, she looked excited and eager, ready for whatever would happen next. And Luz was, too, scrambling to her feet next to her friend.

As Mabel had done, she tried to leave her negative doubts on the floor where she could ignore them, but it didn't work. They stuck with her, like horrible leeches, and Luz felt herself grow heavy.

Mabel looked around, not seeming to notice. "Where did that come from? Hey, ghostie! Where are you?! Come out, come out, where ever you are!!!"

Luz pointed down the hall. "Over there!" she cried. "I think it came from over there! But it was echoing, so I don't know."

"I believe you, let's GOOO!" Mabel cried, throwing Luz for a loop as she ran off, her tear stains still clearly visible. Luz watched her go for a couple seconds before a small smile grew on her own face, running after her friend, their footsteps echoing off the walls as they raced down the hall. They WERE still friends after all, even with all their problems.

That's what Luz could count on, if nothing else.