It was a dark and stormy night, and Hercules really didn't want to be where he was, even if Iolaus was with him.

"I don't like this," he complained unnecessarily, having voiced this objection before. "It's spooky. We shouldn't be here."

"Herc, Herc, Herc," Iolaus fussed, jamming the door of the abandoned temple closed as best he could before dropping next to his buddy by the tiny fire. Bumping shoulders, he scooted as close as he could to Hercules.

Iolaus looked around him at what he could see in the quickly gathering gloom. The abandoned temple was in remarkably good shape. True, cobwebs draped the corners like gossamer curtains, and leaves skittered across the marble floors in the soft drafts coming from beneath the door, but there were no leaks in the roof or cracks in the walls. Lovely frescos adorned the walls, and the pillars seemed to be gilded with silver. All in all, Iolaus couldn't figure out why it wasn't being occupied. Usually, if a major god abandoned such a beautifully constructed temple, the minor gods would be drawing lots to determine who would get it next. But none of them ever came near one of Selene's temples. Strange, but typical. The only thing consistent about the Gods was their inconsistency.

The only problem was that Hercules was right - it was damned spooky in here, now that the light was fading and the shadows in the corners were stretching out into the whole temple.

Iolaus mentally shook himself. 'Get a grip, boy,' he 'heard' his father snap in his mind, 'Ghosts can't hurt you! It's the living you have to worry about!' But the only other living soul here was the one person in the world Iolaus would trust with his life.

"Thought you weren't afraid of the dark anymore, Big Guy?" he said softly.

Hercules shivered in reply.

Iolaus found this a bit unnerving. What could frighten a teen-aged demi-god? At Herc's insistence they had throughly searched the temple, but had found nothing except spiders. Big spiders, true, but just spiders. Whatever was scaring Herc wasn't spiders.

'Couldn't hurt to humor him,' Iolaus thought.

"Want to hold hands?" Iolaus playfully offered, and was just a little startled when Hercules took him up on it, gripping the smaller young man's hand tightly.

Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all. But it was raining outside, and Iolaus hated being cold and wet. He had been cold and wet with no place to go often enough to last enough to last a lifetime.

"We shouldn't be here," Herc repeated nervously. "Selene's temples have bad reputations. Strange things are always happening in them."

"Why is that?" Iolaus wondered, poking the fire and wishing they had some food. Even Herc's nuts and berries would taste good about now, though not as good as a nice, roasted rabbit. "Cheiron says Selene was a nice goddess, so why would her temples be haunted?"

"Maybe she's angry that Artemis took her job," Hercules muttered, edging even closer. "I don't know and I don't care. I just want the storm to stop so we can get out of here!"

Iolaus ignored the rumblings of his stomach to tease, "Oh, I don't know, I think it's pretty nice in here. Why don't we stay?"

"Sssttaayyyy.... "

Both young heroes gasped, heads jerking towards the low, whispery moan, but nothing more came from the darkness beyond the firelight.

"Weird," Iolaus commented, telling himself that he was gripping Herc's hand to comfort the Big Guy.

"Weeeiirrrddd....."

Several rock-still, dead-silent minutes later, they both let out the breaths they had been holding.

"Echo?" Herc whispered hopefully.

"NO!" shrieked the figure that leaped out of the shadows right at them. Shrieking themselves, they reacted instantly. Hercules flailed, Iolaus spun and kicked, and connected to - nothing! They were all alone in the temple.

One horrified shared glance was all it took before they both broke for the door at a dead run, dashing out into the storm without a second's glance back. If they had looked back, they would have seen the small, curly-haired form clutching its sides and rolling on the floor, giggling hysterically with glee.

"Oh, Pan, you are so bad!" the 'monster' scolded itself.

"Yes, you are," agreed the pleasantly plump, silver-haired woman who stepped from the shadows, shaking her finger accusingly. "You've ruined the reputation of my temples with your tricks." She bent down, smiled, and fussed fondly, "You're incorrigible!"

Laughing blue eyes gazed up innocently into hers as Pan protested, "But it's part of my charm!"

The End

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