October put the weird message out of his mind as he got to Xavier's shed. It looked like Xavier had drawn more monster pictures since the last time he had been in the shed. "Did you draw more pictures of monsters?"

"Some, yeah," Xavier said. He motioned to a picture of the gates.

"At least it looks more like gates. It actually looks more like what Wednesday tried to draw. Plenty of offense to her," October said. Xavier chuckled. "When did you draw it again?"

"A couple days ago," Xavier said. "I started having those dreams again."

October asked, "Again?"

"Yeah," Xavier replied, "Like before."

October asked, "Did the monster appear in them?"

"No, but I could feel it in the shadows," Xavier replied. "You know kind of lurking in my mind."

No, October did not know. Well, maybe, because he couldn't remember what happened the night the monster slashed his face and neck. Actually, that probably wasn't the same thing.

"Maybe Wednesday knows what you're talking about on that," October told him. "Do you know where that's at?"

"Yeah," Xavier said. "It's the old Gates mansion. I pass it when I go running."

October turned and looked at him, "Oh."

"I mean, probably not as obvious as the 'hot' nurse who apparently 'works out'," Xavier told him, using air quotes.

"Do you want to talk about Bianca instead? She could easily crush you," October told him. "Honestly, surprised she didn't with the way you talked to her."

"Let's talk about Enid. She could probably give you matching scars on the other side of your face with those claws of hers," Xavier countered, holding up his hand mimicking Enid's claws.

October wanted to counter, but he saw Enid's claws. "Yeah, you're right, she easily could."

Xavier asked, "But why do you want to know about the Gates' mansion?"

October had a funny feeling he knew why. It looked like there's going to be some breaking-and-entering fun with his sister. "Does anyone live there?"

"No, it's been empty for years," Xavier replied. "Why?"

"I think I overheard the sheriff saying that a neighbor had been seeing lights in on the Gates mansion," October told him. He turned to look at Xavier, who was standing a little to close to him. So, October looked at him. Xavier was staring at him.

Oh, it was a staring contest. Having staring contests with Wednesday had prepared him for this moment, so he stared back at Xavier.

Xavier stared back.

October can do this all day. Actually, he had a few times when he had staring contests with Wednesday.

It seemed like Xavier had gotten closer, but October didn't move away, looking at Xavier's face. He tried not to look at Xavier's lips, which he failed at, and tried to make it look like he looked at a drawing. He was sure that it didn't look as smooth as he wanted it to.

He looked at Xavier again, noticing that he was definitely closer, a little too close.

October wondered what Xavier was going to do. He expected him to do something that would make him blink, like hit in the face or something, like Wednesday would sometimes do so she can win, but he was not expecting Xavier to kiss him.

He told Wednesday about Gates mansion, and when the sun started to set, they set out to the mansion.

They got to some gates and Wednesday held up her picture to compare with the real gate.

October asked, "How did Tyler not recognize the gate when Xavier did?"

"Like you told me, Xavier runs past it every time he goes running," Wednesday said.

"Except Tyler lives here," October said.

"Shut up," Wednesday told him. "I want to figure out why Goody showed this to us."

They went to a tunnel and Wednesday found a door. She tried the handle, but she turned, shoved October and started running, so October followed after her. They hid behind some dried out shrubbery.

The mayor was leaving the mansion, "Sheriff, pick up your damn phone, it's Noble."

"We need a distraction," Wednesday told Thing.

Thing got off of Wednesday's shoulder and took off.

"Listen, I might have figured out who's behind all of this," the mayor said. He looked off in a direction. "It's a long shot. I'm gonna have to lay it out for you. We'll do it over pie at the Weathervane, just like the old days."

Wednesday nudged October and they ran to the SUV. Wednesday opened the back of the SUV and they got in the back with Wednesday closing the back.

The mayor got ran over by a car. October didn't see it happen, but Wednesday did. Trying to explain why he got into the back with his sister was interesting.

So, he sat across from Sheriff Galpin in the Weathervane, next to Wednesday.

"I'll take you both back after I get your statements," the sheriff told them.

"We gave them to the deputy," October told the sheriff.

"Blue Cadillac with no license plates," Wednesday added.

"Yeah, I know," the sheriff said, taking a recorder out of his pocket.

It must've been for his talk with the mayor, October realized.

"I want a better one," the sheriff continued, turning it on and sliding it towards them. "What were you two doing in the back of the mayor's SUV?"

"We saw him coming out of the Gates mansion," Wednesday said.

"The Gates mansion?" asked the sheriff. "What the hell were you two doing there?"

"House hunting," Wednesday said.

"And we happened to overhear the voicemail that he left for you," October replied.

"And we were intrigued," Wednesday finished.

"Back when the mayor was sheriff, he used to have a lot of wild theories on cases that he couldn't solve. So...we'd dissect them over pie, sitting right back there in that booth," the sheriff explained, thumbing at a booth. "Most of the time they went nowhere."

"Call me old-fashioned, but when someone is run over on their way to give the police key information, it usually means they were onto something," Wednesday stated.

"And right now it seems like all signs are pointing at the Gates family and their mansion," October added.

"The Gates family?" the sheriff replied, "How? They're all dead. Every last one of them. And I don't believe in ghosts."

"I wouldn't put it past the Gates to have a really distant relative somewhere in their family tree to suddenly want to whack the mayor off to keep something buried." October said, "Or maybe for a childhood friend."

"And maybe you should believe in ghosts," Wednesday told the sheriff. She turned off the recorder and slid it back to him.

She pushed October to get out the booth.

Weems demanded, "How do you two end up at the center of every terrible thing that happens here?" She was pacing furiously.

"Incredible luck," Wednesday stated.

"As of now, the school is on full lockdown and both of your off-campus privileges are revoked until further notice," Weems added.

As if they were the one driving a blue Cadillac with no license plates?

It seemed like Weems was overreacting a little too much over what happened. Although he was sure that at this point, a few more missteps, she'll be expelling them.

Wednesday took off, dragging October with her.

They went separate ways and when October went to the dorm room.

He said, "Okay, we got our off-campus privileges revoked. And I'm sure after a few more missteps, she'll end up expelling us both. We just need to figure out what it was that the mayor figured out before he got ran down. Lucky guy, I wanted to get to get run over by a car with Wednesday watching. That's on our bucket list; although she can cross that off, though, since she never specified who."

Ajax asked, "But he's still alive, right?"

"Yeah, barely, according to the sheriff," October replied. "The mayor figured out something while he was at the Gates mansion. The problem is figuring out exactly what it was that he found out."

Ajax asked, "And what? You're going back to the mansion tonight?"

"Not tonight, no." October replied, "Maybe tomorrow."

"How are you going to get out tomorrow? The school is on lockdown," Ajax told him.

"I can pretend to have an allergic reaction to meat and you can 'take' me to the nurse's office," October told him.

Ajax asked, "Wouldn't they check in on you to make sure you don't need an ambulance?"

"That's a good point," October told him. "We'll figure something out."