Her skin may have given her away, a bright red flush spreading over her face and décolletage at Drake’s words. But, Madame was not going to let him get away with teasing her like that. With anyone else, her response would have them chilled to the bone within seconds. But with him, she could not resist teasing him right back.<br/><br/>Sliding her hand up his arm slowly as she leaned in towards him, holding his gaze intently, she smiled. “Indeed. Many of your dreams would be fulfilled, my dearest Drake, should the temptation ever grow to be too much.” Her fingers reached up and smoothed his hair slightly, lingering just a moment as they stroked the edge of his ear. “But yes, we should give chase.” Backing away from him, just as slowly as she had moved in, she gave him her brightest smile and winked.<br/><br/>Madame then paused where she stood; closing her eyes slightly and appeared to be deep in thought. As her eyes fluttered open, she peered ahead of them and frowned. “Well, we are nearly at the exit to the Funhouse and from what I can tell, the spirit has left this area. I don’t think it is attracted to anything in particular here. Rather it is attracted to the Carnival itself.”<br/><br/>She paused again, as though gathering information and parsing it on the spot. Looking up at Drake with concern, she took his hand and began leading him towards the exit, avoiding the most dangerous pitfalls as they walked.<br/><br/>“Drake, this spirit is ancient. Very old and very powerful. I tried briefly to communicate with it, and it had no interest whatsoever in speaking with me. Normally, spirits incarnate because they have unfinished business here. Sometimes they come back to right a wrong, sometimes they come back because they miss someone, sometimes they come back because they miss being real. I’m not sure which one of these applies to our spirit here, but they definitely have a bone to pick with me or my Carnival.”<br/><br/>She paused to catch her breath, but continued on shortly. “I got the distinct feeling that the spirit was searching for something. I don’t know whether my energy or yours brought it out of hiding. But, it was no accident that it showed itself to us.” Her eyes met Drake’s once more. You could almost see the gears in her mind turning as she searched for clues.<br/><br/>“Now, the Funhouse has always been known to be “haunted,” in a manner of speaking, but not by something this old. Since we know now that it is a spirit, we should turn our attention to any place here that is considered haunted. Obviously, it is drawn to those energies.”<br/><br/>As they neared the exit to the attraction, Madame stopped and turned to Drake, taking both of his hands in hers. “I know that you have agreed to help me, and I appreciate it very much. I just get this feeling that neither of us knew what we were getting into here.” Looking down at his hands within hers, she blushed slightly as she couldn’t help but imagine them on her body. How wonderful it might feel to have them exploring her every curve, every hill and valley of her.<br/><br/>She forced herself to meet his gaze once more. Green eyes met blue-green ones and searched each other openly. “I’m so very glad that you are here, I cannot stress that enough, dear. I just worry that this may be more than we bargained for…” Letting the double-meaning go for the moment, she sighed softly.<br/><br/>“Now, my feeling is that the spirit has left the building, so to speak. Perhaps we should look into the Haunted Dungeon next, as that place is also known to carry a heavy spiritual energy as well.” She grinned up at him and winked. “Unless you had something else in mind?” She giggled as she saw the look on Drake's face shift remarkably. Shifting her gaze slightly, looking a bit lost in thought, she murmured, "Actually, now that we know it is a spirit, perhaps we should prepare ourselves. I do my best thinking on the Ferris wheel here, La Grande Roue. Let's go there and plot our next move, shall we, dear?"<br/><br/>Madame drops his hands suddenly and heads directly for the exit, turning back to him just once to call back to Drake. "Coming?"