Um...yeah.

This chapter is basically one pun about Comet's username

Also this chapter's kinda long

Sorry 0///0

~~~

The doors swiftly hit Cassie in the back, sending her sprawling to the ground on her face.

Winslow hissed and ran past the rest of the participants into the dining room, mewling loudly.

A couple people stumbled over Winslow as the calico brushed past them, a few got out of his way quickly.

Stacy's had turned towards the doors.

She raised her stone sword quickly.

The doors opening had gotten everyone to think that zombies were here, pouring their way into the mansion.

But...no.

It was two figures stepping inside, rotting flesh on the ground around them, their swords hanging around their belts.

Stacy stuttered slightly.

Cassie stood up, shaking her head, pain pounding through her chest like dull senses of paper.

Two girls entered the mansion, one taller, the other ever so slightly shorter, one with pale skin, the other darker milky cocoa skin.

The one with pale skin, the taller one, had her sandstone tan hair in a bun, with a 1920s dress, a cream cloche hat, and a cream white fur coat, which was mirroring Cassie's attire.

The other girl, the shorter one with darker skin, had her shadow-black hair with tan cinnamon streaks, deep fern eyes, puffy white sleeves, along with a denim blue vest and a big fluffy pirate hat.

Cassie's eyes widened with recognition.

These two were dressed up...

...for the party.

The two had the telltale cream envelope between their numb fingers, fiddling with them subconsciously.

Everyone stood there shocked.

Kendall was the first one to snap back to her senses, followed quickly by Stacy and Lizzie.

"DON'T CLOSE THE DOORS!!" They screamed, running towards the doors, arms outstretched.

However, they sadly couldn't delay the inevitable. The slowly closing doors swung shut inches from Stacy's grasp.

The two newcomers gasped and stumbled to the side as Lizzie pushed them aside, eyes wide.

Stacy grumbled and her back leant against their only escape.

"Verdict?" Lizzie mumbled miserably.

"Stuck," Stacy replied sadly.

The three sighed as the remaining participants snapped back, the two newbies stuttering slightly, bewildered at what had just happened.

"So..." Stacy turned to the two newbies.

The shorter girl smiled and held up her cream-colored invitation, brushing off the fact that everyone had freaked out, shaking it off like snow.

"We got invited here, but we were kinda late," The girl laughed off slightly, handing over her invitation to Cassie.

Cassie's mouth open slightly, scanned the envelope, slightly cut messily by fumbling fingers.

"So," The tall girl asked.

"What did we miss?"

Kendall burst out laughing, clutching her stomach and wiping tears from her eyes, but quickly being silence by Aranna, who's foot crunched deeply on Kendall's feet.

Kendall stopped, snickered.

"What did I say?" The taller girl asked. Everyone glanced at each other uneasily, except for Kendall, still snickering under her breath.

"You have no idea-" Papisuu started, quickly getting cut off by Lizzie, who stuck her arm out, hitting Papisuu bluntly in the chest.

Everyone turned to Cassie, their eyes like webs, stirring with foggy milky curiosity, wondering who these two were. Cassie blushed.

"I uh...invited them here last minute..." The redhead awkwardly looked down, grimacing and locking her fingers together.

She then stood up straight and sighed.

"Well, anyways, I'm Cassie, hi, I'm your host."

The girls smiled.

"Hi, I'm Shez," The taller girl greeted warmly like cocoa, her words popping out, eerily soothing.

She extended her hand towards her host. Cassie smiled, plastered on messily like facepaint, smeared and melting off her face.

Cassie shook the hand, her other one rubbing the back of her neck, sighing slightly.

"That's Kyril," Shez said, pointing towards the darker-skinned shorter girl, who poked around the girl, only slightly taller than Dawson.

"Hi," She murmured absentmindedly. Her pirate hat bobbed lazily as she breathed, looking at the dazzling lights of the mansion. Her navy blue vest just above her puffy-sleeved cream shirt rubbed slightly on her skin, leaving small marks and scratches.

This girl had a different presence about her.

Shez had acted like nothing was wrong, her words like soap, like crisp wind and calm hot cocoa, her face the expression of pure calm, vanilla bean, like ukulele strums and everything cream and copper.

Just...plain calm.

Meanwhile, Kyril had a muddled murky look about her, her composure leaning to the side, like chipped pieces of wood leaning on the foggy popping moss, the gravy grass. She was looking rather confused and unnerved, her fern eyes swirling with deep curiosity.

(...oh gosh this sounds wrong I don't know why...)

The two had come together, but obviously were different. Cassie could sense that they were close, however.

"Well, um...we're about to disable all the Redstone traps in this place, then we'll continue with the..." She stuttered slightly.

"...the, food and festivities, then we'll all rest up, have breakfast in the morning, and continue with the festivities..."

This of course, was a half-lie.

Cassie knew very well they weren't going to be celebrating anything for a while, with The White Pumpkin roaming around.

They would, however, still continue to disable the traps hidden and tucked in and around the mansion, then rest and then eat breakfast.

Hopefully, they had all hoped, by then, they could leave, and they could be able to leave when all the mobs would despawn."

"Oh...ok...why are there Redstone traps?" Shez asked while Kyril continued walking around slightly, mumbling to herself.

"Well, you see here..."

Crystal stopped to cough, where Papisuu and Phoenix were snickering, Phoenix covering her mouth, face red, gasping slightly.

"I'm sorry," Phoenix laughed, clutching her chest and snickering, trying but failing to smother her rose face.

"We're uh-guys cut it out-celebrating this Halloween Celebration of 2016, all fancy-like, very nice place by the way Cassie..."

Cassie nodded.

"But uh, there's a murderer on the loose."

Her words were muffled, almost unidentifiable.

Shez and Kyril looked at each-other, and Shez's skin paled, while Kyril seemed to snap out of her dazed expression, her eyes twinkling with caution, alertness, and confusion.

"Ahhhwhattt??" Shez was totally taken aback.

Kyril pffffted, and everyone turned towards the silent-so-far smaller girl, then the girl scoffed and snorted.

"Yeah right, like there's a murderer on the-"

All at once the lights shut off.

The same clicking sound clunked and swooshed until all lights had shut off, and no shapes or faces formed.

"...loose..."

Kyril finished, visibly shaking in the darkness, feeling an empty feeling of space, her breath becoming short and shaky.

"OH REALLY," The deep electronic voice echoed along the corridors, rattling everyone's spines to the bone.

"BECAUSE – HAH, I BEG TO DIFFER...I SEE WE HAVE TWO MORE..." The voice paused slightly.

"...RECRUITS...WILLING TO SUBJECT THEMSELVES TO WHEN THIS MANSION WAS ROARING...ROARING WITH MADNESS. GOOD LUCK NEWBIES, I'LL LOOK FORWARDS TO THE OUTCOME OF THIS...EXPERIMENT..."

Stampy yelled out.

"Stampy, stop," Stacy scolded. Stampy gulped slightly. "S-sorry..."

All lights came back on.

Everyone looked at Shez and Kyril. The two were wide-eyed, mouths open, slightly shaking. Kyril shivered.

"Don't worry, we'll explain everything," Stacy commented, almost amused at their worries.

"We're just going to go disabling all the traps in this mansion here, so that we're safe until morning, and unless you wanna stay here all night with a-"

"Whoa, Cassie! They're traumatized! Let them breathe!" Lizzie commented at Cassie's snappy attitude, her words clam as she placed her hand on Cassie's shoulder.

The Brit gestured to her gut, where she breathed deeply. Cassie sighed miserably and repeated her steps.

Cassie's cheeks immediately colored, warming and spreading like watercolor pastels on her face. Her fists clenched lightly.

"Sorry..."

"Here, I can go get them some cocoa and a blanket," Crystal suggested, Investigator volunteering to help her.

While they were waiting, the youtubers took the time explaining to the newest two what was going on.

They both agreed to help disable the traps while Investigator handed out the fluffy white blankets that matched the blurring fog outside.

Throughout the entire story, Shez's eyes were mingled with curiously and excitement. Kyril's, however, were more murky, deeper, more confused than anything.

The two girls understood perfectly well in how they nodded, looked sympathetic, and smiled, but their eyes were far more connected to what was going on here.

Crystal calmly held up the stirring hot cocoa, small fluffy puffy marshmallows bobbing lazily out of the warm mixture, dipping curiously.

Shez shivered slightly.

"Thanks, this is great," She smiled. Kyril had by that point already downed the entire mug's warming contents, wiping the milky mustache from her lip onto her arm, which moved swiftly.

"No problem," Cassie replied.

"So...should we interview people? Maybe see who might have done what?" Kyril asked, so quietly but still making everyone jump.

Stacy mulled over her response.

She then sighed.

"Yeah but...I dunno...."

Lizzie answered for her, giving her friend a calming and reassuring smile. She then turned towards the new recruits.

"It's just that, we dunno when The White Pumpkin's gonna strike again, and if we interview people, that'll take up too much time."

"I concur fully with my allies here..." Stampy responded with a small nod of his head, crossing his arms.

"Interviewing might have worked when there were only 11 people here, but now we have 22, that'll take up way too much time, and besides..." Stacy stopped and looked over.

Winslow had brushed up against her leg, purring, then looked up at her and cocked his head to one side, lazy but curiously.

Stacy smiled and half-laughed.

"Alright, okay, fine...23."

"So...shall we?" Crystal asked, gesturing towards the giant polished staircase, intent on leaving soon.

There were scattered mumbles of agreement as rain continued to lazily fall on the windows in the quiet cream airy atmosphere.

Stampy stood up and smiled optimistically.

"Well, let's get investigating then...!"

~~~

Before they got to investigating, Cassie had insisted that the youtubers put on Halloween costumes.

Stacy had almost killed her.

"Do you think we have time for that!?" She yelled as Lizzie and Stampy restrained her by her arms, locking them behind her back.

"Oh don't worry, it'll only take a second," Cassie had soothed nonchalantly, clicking her teeth and winking, flashing Stacy an quick thumbs up and then retreating to the small broom closet.

She came out of the closet with a sailor hat and a white and teal striped shirt, a container of fake blood, and a sharpie.

"Here, this one's for Stacy," Cassie said in a singsong voice, handing her the sailor shirt, the sailor hat, and a small pair of khaki shorts.

"...Why?"

Cassie shrugged. "I dunno, your shirt just kinda reminds me of a sailor or something."

Stacy flushed. Cassie then waved her hand casually and shoved Stacy into the bathroom to go and get changed.

She quickly smeared the fake blood on Cassie's face, causing her to stumble backwards in shock. Stampy drew whiskers on his face.

Cassie was mentioning that since his hoodie was basically a cat, with a face on its hood, he just had to draw on whiskers and he'd be good to go.

Once the three had changed, Cassie smiled.

"Alright then. Now let's get investigating."

~~~

Thunder rumbled outside. Rain was now lashing at the giant windows that were on either side of the hallways, with thunder folding softly but swiftly in the distance, wind shaking the trees like embers from a fire.

The participants all walked along the second floor overlooking the first floor's entrance, all of them edging along the sides of the balcony.

"Be alert," Investigator warned. "There could be traps everywhere."

No one questioned this.

Lizzie's eyes twinkled as she looked at the second floor, ever so slightly different than the first floor.

Instead of prismarine and polished granite, that had originally covered the bottom floor, this floor had soft silk red carpets.

Stretched out, the paintings were shadows against the dimmed marigold tangerine torches burning brightly on the walls.

"Wow, I never knew this place was so big," Lizzie commented, slightly smiling. Cassie laughed.

"Yeah, me neither," Stacy laughed, smiling curiously.

Cassie rolled her eyes.

"You don't even know."

Kyril and Shez had volunteered to guard the steps of the entrance downstairs, their enchanted iron swords drawn.

Stacy now looked all around the second floor, truly impressed at how much Cassie had managed to make it home to her.

Lights shone softly, and the oak – birch like, she had guess – planks of wood melting into each-other like a puzzle.

Cream and copper wood seeped through at the bottom underneath a huge silk carpet sprawled across lazily, like it was staring up at the great skies above.

The long hallway ended in just another room, with balcony wooden railing lining the places where one might fall.

Another staircase, spiraling near the windows in the same red colour painted across the steps, which led to a floor that was the place where Cassie had jumped off: a small circle platform connecting to the platform which only covered a small bit of the floor.

The third floor – well, Cassie had never really considered it a floor – only covered a tiny slab of the mansion, simply connected from end to end, then stopped at the circular platform.

After the group's initial awe, they continued onwards.

Comet all of a sudden gasped. The smaller girl brushed her silver shoulder-length hair to make sure she was seeing clearly.

"Rush!" The girl in her shadow-black pullover hoodie stumbled on the steps, holding her head, eyes glazed and faded.

"Wwhat happened?" Rush mumbled, stumbling, stuttering slightly. Aranna, Phoenix, and Comet all breathed in relief and hugged her.

Rush looked down at the sudden onslaught, her head pounding. She had woken up in the dining room, stomach clutched and feeling both hollow and miserable.

She had heard faint mumbling, and colours becoming less faded, she had stumbled to a sitting position, holding her head. She followed the voices.

Up to now.

"Uh, guys? Can we continue now?" Cassie asked, twiddling her torch in her hand, her eyes lolled to one side, grimacing.

The squad broke up.

"Sorry," Comet mumbled.

Cassie sighed. The group continued down the hall, Pheonix guiding Rush along by the hand.

"I think we should split up, but in groups...because well, if we go it alone, we're all gonna die," Cassie suggested.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Papisuu, Crystal, and Boredom, you guys can search the next floor, the rest of us can disable the traps here..."

Rush looked at the groups. Papisuu's group was only a few couple of people, while their group was like an ocean, a sprawling sea of sea-foam lime and crystal shards spread out.

(...I don't know...)

"Well, Cassie, if it helps, we can check the downstairs and the other rooms that Papisuu's group can't find," Rush suggested.

Cassie thought this over, then sighed and nodded. Stacy quickly glanced at her, a suspicious look dancing in her eyes, then she swiftly looked away.

"Ok, fine, fair enough. Rush, you can go with Silver, Aranna, Phoenix, and Comet. This should make our groups a bit bigger."

"I'll go with Rush's group," Kendall offered, jerking her thumbs towards the group that was now heading up the stairs, sword drawn.

Cassie gave her a look, and Kendall flushed.

"What?" Kendall asked.

Cassie realized the look she had given and looked away, snickering softly, her eyes rolling to the side in a playful way.

"Oh no, no reason, you go on ahead," She continued, nudging Kendall along towards the staircase.

Kendall hopped up the steps, the girl's grey werewolf hoodie shadowed in the torches lights. Rush ignored Aranna nudging her in the shoulder, the dull poke making her colour.

(I'm sorry, blame Aiden if you need to...)

When the group was well out of sight, Cassie rubbed her pale hands together, smiling.

"Ok, I know where some of the Redstone traps are, we can disable those first if you guys feel it necessary."

Kendall's werewolf ears flattened as she headed up the stairs with the others. Phoenix turned and her laugh faded from her face, having laughed at Rush. Now, she stopped, her eyebrows arched up in sympathy.

"Are you okay?"

Kendall noticed that her eyes had trailed down to the entrance doors, longing and sad. Kendall jerked her head away and shook her head.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

She didn't want to admit she felt terrified. Of becoming one of them. The gone. The fallen.

Admittedly, there was only Fangirl, and just thinking of how calm, collected, and patient Fangirl had been, even having sat next to Kendall and gave her a cookie in the dining hall, gave Kendall a pang of sadness.

Fangirl was gone.

"Kendall? You're leaving again." Rush's concerned voice snapped her back, her milky eyes becoming clearer. She coughed.

"Sorry...just worried."

Aranna snorted.

"Aren't we all?"

Kendall wasn't sure why, but this gave her comfort. Well, at least she wasn't the only one seconds of breaking down.

She hoped.

Meanwhile, Papisuu noticed the torches flickering fast. Her eyes widened slightly and she gulped.

Boredom stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"I just...the torches are going out. They're flickering a lot...you don't think that..." Papisuu trailed off, and sweat dripped off the back of her net, damping her dyed seafoam – lime, fern almost – curled cut to the shoulders hair.

Boredom was about to tell her friend that she was worrying too much, but then realized the torches were dancing almost.

The small particles, ashes and embers floating around, crackling ever so slightly, were almost...dying.

And then, without warning, the lights shut off once again. Lizzie felt a seeping pain in her back and yelled in pain.

"Lizzie!" Stacy cried.

Silence.

The lights came back on, and Lizzie, a vacant expression in her eyes, foggy and blank, kneeled over and despawned.

"Lizzie!?" Stampy yelled, running over to where her stuff lay on the scattered shadowed floor.

Lightning struck, rain lashing out at the windows as the thunder rumbled from behind, clouding over the top part of the windows now.

Rush's group came running from downstairs, then stopped near the bottom. Their mouths fell open.

Complete silence.

Stampy and Stacy sank to their knees, and Dawson's mouth opened wide, eyes small and quivering, her legs shaking.

The only sounds were the shuffling of everyone's feet by shifting their weight from one foot to the other, and Stampy an Stacy's silent sobs, mourning their friend.

After a while, they stopped, faces red and Stampy clumping her hands to her mouth, curled up, raw, red, and stained with tears.

"Great..." She stuttered miserably, whimpering under her breath silently, shaking, "...now Lizzie's gone too..."

Stampy wiped at his eyes.

Cassie's voice had been stolen. She couldn't move, but her legs still shook, her throat feeling dry all of a sudden.

Her eyes misted softly, and she felt herself step forwards.

"S-Stacy...? S-Stampy...? I...I am so sorry. I really am, just....wow.." She couldn't bring herself to speak any longer.

Stacy wanted to yell right then and there, scream until no sound could come out, until she collapsed. But she didn't.

She was too worn out.

Instead, she just sniffled miserably as Stampy pat her back, looking equally as sad. Cassie stepped back, hanging her head.

Kyril and Shez came rushing up the stairs suddenly, looking at Lizzie's stuff scattered and the body gone.

There was a moment of silence.

"We should keep moving," Kyril finally suggested. Everyone else nodded in agreement, and were about to move when Cassie stopped.

"Hey wait a minute, where were you two when Lizzie died? She died like 5 minutes ago, a thought you guys were guarding the stairs."

Shez coughed.

"I um...well...I went to go get some cookies."

"I fell asleep," Kyril mumbled.

Cassie facepalmed and sighed.

"You know what, it's fine, let's just keep moving."

The groups dispersed and melted, continuing down the hallway, and Silver noticed Kyril's costume.

"Hey, weren't you a pirate just a minute ago?" She asked, gesturing to Kyril's new outfit.

Kyril looked down at herself.

What once the puffy sleeves, navy blue vest, and fluffy feathery willowy pirate hat, now was replaced with something else.

Kyril now had black shorts on, much like the ones Dawson had been wearing earlier, an over-sized blue sweater, the zipper unzipped and revealing a big white shirt, plain and simple. Her cocoa legs stretched down to a pair of big baby blue slippers, although no socks. Kyril also had white face-paint mixed around the edges of her mouth.

A skeleton.

"Wait, are you Sans now?" Dawson's ears perked up and she strode over to the two. 

( I don't entirely know how that would happen unless Dawson was a frickin' fennec fox but...)

Kyril snorted.

"Now? I was always in this costume." She continued on, and Dawson and Silver shared a confused look with each other.

As the group moved on, apersonofboredom dug out one of the flowers that was placed in her hair and put in the mix of Lizzie's stuff.

She sniffed slightly.

"New policy. Whoever dies, we put a flower, okay?" The group turned towards her, then towards Stampy and Stacy, who were both still kneeling.

Stampy replied, smiling sadly.

"I like that idea."

Stacy just nodded silently, feeling like she was drowning in salt-water, stinging her and making her feeling numb.

"Should we keep going?" Stampy asked. Stacy nodded and the two stood.

They had only walked a little bit when Comet felt her stomach drop. She screamed and everyone turned, alert.

Rush's eyes lit up.

"Comet!!" She lunged towards the smaller girl and grasped her hands, but they slipped out and Comet went tumbling to the ground.

Her back hit the bottom of the first floor – hard – just underneath the stairs, and lay there unmoving. Rush stepped forwards but her arm was grabbed by Aranna, who moved her backwards.

"No, I need to make sure she's okay!" Rush exclaimed, and Phoenix whimpered. "Maybe she's not..."

Aranna felt a pang of mourning before returning to being analytical. "Think about it, she's not moving, one of us could be next."

As if something in the air shifted, becoming denser to the foggy forest surrounding the mansion, the place seemed to hear her.

Comet despawned.

Aranna, Phoenix, and Rush all sank to their knees in astonishment. Kyril gasped and Boredom shook her head,

"Common guys, we need to get moving."

The three slowly got up, feeling empty and hollow, yet so many oceans stirring up their emotions like rainclouds.

As they continued, a bit more urgent this time, Stacy stopped.

"Hey, you know...Rush's group was upstairs along with Papisuu's group..."

She stopped for a second in pure silence.

Then she started to pace. Everyone watching her intently.

"...if they weren't there when Lizzie died, then...then I know who did it! It was..."

Then the ground beneath them shook.

"Move! Go! Quick!" Stacy screamed and was suddenly crushed by a sandstone Redstone trap from above.

The sand came barreling down, crushing her.

"STACY!!" Stampy and Dawson yelled.

The ground shook vigorously.

And then it began to fall.