things get intense mate

i don't even know

~~~

Liv sank to her knees.

Kendall's body was crumbled on the tan colored floor, looking calm and peaceful, but still gone.

"OH MY GO..."

Kyril didn't hear her. Now, dressed back up into her pirate attire with her denim vest and puffy sleeves, she ran past Liv.

In pure anger from Shez and Kendall's deaths, Kyril ran up the cream colored oak steps where the denim blur had ran.

All lights were off in the room, nothing to see.

"Oh good lordie..." Kyril mumbled, deciding to turn back around, mumbling about stupid Cassie Rose and stupid mansions.

Abruptly, the smaller girl felt a weight on her head, clutching it and screaming. She got hit to the side.

She saw cream white around her, two black slits, the smell of metallic blood, dried and splashed onto the side.

Well then.

"HA!" Someone came into view, pulling off the cream sheet that seemed to be over Kyril's head. Her mouth fell open.

"Kyril!?"

"Yes," The denim swirling girl replied casually.

Phoenix growled and stood from the chest of the tall but not girl, brushing herself off, annoyed and abashed.

"That White Pumpkin put his head on yours to confuse you, didn't he?" Phoenix asked as if the two were out to get boba for the day.

Kyril smiled.

"How'd you guess?"

"Well," Phoenix studied the room around the two, light coral rose wool and oak wood as the wall, with a nice cream carpet.

Two living room couches were sat around floor to celeing windows, showing the outside world, which was now a pastel slate blue.

Three paintings lined the walls, and Phoenix swore she could see dust swirl around something before dissolving to the floor.

"Ah-ha!" Came a trumpith but terrified tone. The two turned, Kyril still sprawled on the ground, where there stood Crystal.

Stampy hid behind Cassie's shoulder, who fluffed up her cream fur coat, while Dawson held Winslow, her mouth open.

The calico meowed sleepily.

Behind the three of them were Liv, Boredom, and Investigator, who all looked taken aback as Kyril stood.

Taking the White Pumpkin's mask and grasping it into her cocoa milky shaking hands, Kyril studied it with her calm pale eyes.

"You are The White Pumpkin!" Crystal cried, her light blue hair rather wavy, fluffs and static washing over it like saltwater.

Phoenix shook her head.

"No no, he took the mask and he-he took it over her-" Phoenix stuttered. Crystal's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah yeah, spare us, we should lock her up in a closet, I say," Crystal said, brushing away one stray strand of dirty blonde hair apart from her light blue sea of hair.

Stampy gave Cassie a look.

Cassie snickered.

"No no no, trust me, I've tried, it does nothing," she said offhandedly, shaking her head, smiling.

"You're laughing?" Crystal asked, her pale blue eyes widening in abashment at their host's lack of concern.

"Well, we did the exact same thing when Cassie was the murderer," Stampy said simply, and Cassie surprisingly nodded.

"Did it work?" Crystal asked.

Cassie snorted.

"Hardly."

Her fern eyes suddenly widened, and the girl ran straight past a painting like she was melting and dissolving into it.

Everyone stared at where the burgundy haired girl had been just moments before, and Kyril shook her head in abashment.

"So...where's Kendall?" Crystal asked.

"Dead," Liv replied.

Kyril's eyes seemed to cloud over.

"And Aranna?" Crystal asked, her eyes going soft. The grip on her sword melted, and her eyes became foggy.

"Got pushed off a balcony," Phoenix mumbled.

"Lysa?"

"Drowned," Silver mumbled from behind them all, startling Stampy, who hadn't realized she was there until now.

"Shez?"

"Slit throat."

"Papisuu?"

"Burned."

A small muted gasp melted into Boredom's face, and Crystal's eyes went softer.

"So..I guess we're the last ones still alive..."

The words had barely left the short girl's mouth when there was a sound of a body despawning, and smoke flooded into the room.

Crystal gulped.

Kyril made a quick headcount, and the short quiet girl's mouth fell open, her cocoa coma dissolving almost abruptly.

"...oh my gosh, we left behind..."

All at once Cassie came crashing through the portrait, holding an absurd amount of things in her arms.

She dropped all of the wooden ... portraits, onto the ground, dust swirling up into the air.

"Are those...us?" Liv asked, abashed. Cassie nodded, looking quite sweaty, her eyes milky and softer.

The crumbled portraits lay flat on the carpets, with long straight Xs splashed across each one.

Cassie knelt down.

"Okay, so we have Stampy, me, Dawson, Investigator, Silver, Crystal, Kyril, Liv, Phoenix, Boredom, and...that's it."

The redhead looked around the room at the humans standing in an almost semi-circle around her, and her eyes went foggy.

"Ah crap," She mumbled as her calico snuggled himself underneath her arms, getting an absentminded pet from his owner.

"'ah crap?'" Crystal asked.

"Ah, yes, I see what my ally is trying to do, last time, we found out that Cassie was one of the murderers because she didn't have a pre-Xed out one for herself."

Cassie nodded in his direction, feeling quite a bit better that he thought of her as an ally now rather than not.

"See, they added themselves to the already Xed out portraits because they must've thought we'd check there..." Cassie's foggy eyes went clear.

Adjusting the moon rounded black glasses that sat on her face, the burgundy haired girl started to pace.

Winslow circled around, trying to avoid being stepped on by Cassie, though he trilled, obviously tired.

"So, I think if there's no missing Xed out portrait, either the killer isn't one of us, or this killer is thinking ahead," Stampy thought out loud.

The others agreed, but Kyril's pale grey eyes seemed to become milky, and her head tilted to the side.

Kyril shook her head.

"Anyways, if you're done theorizing over there, we left behind someone," The small girl snapped lightly, her eyes seeming to spark.

"Who?" Cassie asked, absentmindedly sitting and rummaging through the portraits and head counting anyone she could think of.

"Rush just died," Kyril stated.

The others looked to Cassie.

The redhead 20-something looked at her for a brief second, then shrugged simply.

"At least we can still try to find the killer," She stated, tucking the portraits under her arm, brushing herself off.

Investigator spluttered.

"How could you say that!?" The small girl snapped, her ice splashed eyes widening in shock.

Cassie sighed.

"I'm just saying, if we keep grieving, we're never gonna find out who this, 'white pumpkin,' is, okay? That's all I'm saying."

Investigator walked up to her.

"Are you sure about this!?"

Cassie looked at her.

"This! Trying to prove yourself innocent instead of TRYING TO KEEP THE REST OF US ALIVE!" She spat.

"Whoa, hang on here, I'm trying to keep all of you alive by catching this guy! This has nothing to do with me!"

The others shuffled awkwardly, as the torches continued to flicker. Stampy stepped in between the two.

"Isn't this how we almost died last time? Fighting? Come on, don't get greedy, any of you," he stated.

The two girls shot each other glares, and Crystal's eyes widened ever so slightly. Investigator was hardly this violent.

Cassie's hostility shifted to Stampy.

Bringing the brunette's face close to her own, Cassie's fern olive eyes bore into Stampy's, sparking with anger.

"You think you're the peacemaker? You know, any time I can tell these people, any one of them killers, that you-"

Stampy's eyes widened in alarm, and he shook his head violently. He knew he had what the White Pumpkin was looking for, and so did Cassie.

They both knew that the killer was one of the participants, but if Stampy was found out, he would be the first to go.

Cassie walked over, back to the portraits, and Stampy's face went pale. The remaining participants looked to each other awkwardly, unsure of exactly what to do.

"Should we..." Crystal mumbled offhandedly to no one in particular. Kyril rubbed her hands together.

"Here, how about we get some more hot cocoa (several hums of approval from the others) and we'll have a conspiracy theory campout."

Liv licked her lips, smiling.

"That sounds great."

~~~

Lightning slashed at the windows, as the marigold torches lit up several of the participants lying on the ground.

Liv and Silver were done their hot cocoa, going over to the corner and discussing conspiracy theories.

Standing up, they went over to talk with the theorists.

Dawson was lying on the floor, counting cracks in the ceiling from past traps, accompanied by Boredom, as the two talked about how much food they would be able to have once out of here.

"We're such losers," Boredom commented at one point, and the two laughed.

Kyril snoozed by the sides near the paintings, once again nursing a hot cocoa coma.

Everyone else sat on the couches, making conspiracy theories about anyone being anything; alive, dead, or the killer.

Liv and Silver joined.

Stampy's eyes were soft, and her hands were twirling around each other absentmindedly.

"Hey, you okay?" Silver asked in a surprising motherly tone, not at all like the annoyance or spark anyone else had seen earlier.

Though, in all fairness, not everyone was acting like themselves tonight, considering this mansion had its certain..charm.

"I just miss everyone," Stampy mumbled awkwardly, looking down at his shoes sheepishly.

Liv was about to say something.

Then there it was.

"Well, you don't have to!"

Everyone stopped, staring at the small part in the yellow orange carpet where the noise had come from.

"The crap?" Boredom asked to no one in particular, shaking her head as if to clear it.

"I'm not the only one who heard that, right?" She asked, turning her head. Crystal shook her head.

"Did the carpet just talk?" Investigator asked dryly, her eyes narrowed coolly. A lighter voice took over.

"You bet!" The light and awkward voice sang.

Stampy gasped.

"Lizzie! That's Lizzie's voice!"

Mumbles rippled along the group like a river, Boredom and Dawson stood up, Kyril stirring at the commotion.

Cassie, slightly shocked still, went over to the carpet and pulled a hidden lever beneath the floor, hidden in a small compartment.

Abruptly, the sand just below the carpets descended, falling into an endless spiral of darkness. Cassie peered in.

Stampy ran beside her, his olive eyes looking down into the dark abyss, dreaming that his friends were okay.

"Hey Cassie, you're traps aren't so secure, aren't they?" A feminine but slightly deeper voice joked.

"Stacy!" Stampy cried with relief. "A-are you okay?" He asked curiously, his voice wavering and stuttering slightly.

"We're fine, just a bit unoriented," A lighter voice stated, but her voice was laced with pure clean relief.

"Who's all down there with you? How d-did you even survive!? Oh, I have so many questions," Cassie mumbled, more to herself.

"Oh, just us two, we've seemed to fall through the trap, we're pretty bare here without our weapons though..." Lizzie commented offhandedly.

"Well, right now we've got Crystal, Investigator, Boredom-" As she counted them off, the participants began to huddle around the rectangle hole in the floor.

"...who else? Oh yeah, Stampy, me, Liv, Dawson, Kyril, and Phoenix..." Cassie finished, a little winded.

"Okay, so, here's the thing, yeah," Lizzie said. "Stacy knows who the-" And she was cut off.

...with her own scream.

"Lizzie?"

The sound of a body despawning.

"LIZZIE!"

And then a swooping motion in the corner of Cassie's eye caught her attention, a swirl of black filling up her vision.

Abruptly, Cassie told out her own diamond axe, shining a deep ocean cyan blue, sparkling and shimmering at the blur.

Her axe meant nothing, and Cassie felt her stomach drop as screams spiraled around her from others, and she was consumed by the dark.

Cassie fell through her own trap.

(ahhh im sorry for not updating...iv'e just been trying to work out how to write these chapters. I feel like I'm not letting the characters talk enough? Am I doing okay?)