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𝐀 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐘 𝐓𝐎𝐍𝐆𝐔𝐄 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐀 𝐒𝐎𝐅𝐓 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 awoke Penny from the sound sleep she found herself in. Her head lifted from the plush pillow it had been laying on and her hands pushed against the cloud-like comforter beneath her until she was in a sitting position and could better see her new surroundings.

Light spilled through the crack in the sheer white curtains that hung over the windows, illuminating a minimalist room with light gray walls, a black and white checkered rug lying over a shag white carpet, a white wardrobe that stretched towards the ceiling, and a white desk adorned with a single piece of parchment and a quill.

"My room," Penny whispered to herself in shock. "How am I here?"

"Meow," a voice answered her, but it didn't come from a person.

"Wren?" Penny asked, turning to see a cat sitting beside her. Its fur looked like it had been brushed with strokes of brown and black paint in a seemingly mindless pattern. It responded by gently licking her hand.

Penny scratched behind Wren's ears and Wren hopped onto her lap, rubbing her head against Penny's chest. Penny could feel her legs vibrate from the strength of Wren's purring. Wren continued to stroke Wren's soft fur as she looked around her room. She got the sense that something was missing, but the more she focused on what it may be the more it slipped away from her until she couldn't even recall what she had been thinking about in the first place.

"I've missed you, Wren," Penny said as she pulled Wren closer to her chest and nuzzled her nose against Wren's head. Surprisingly, she smelt strongly of roses, vanilla, and mint. Wren responded with a small "meow", which could either have meant that she missed Penny too or that Penny was squeezing her too tight. It was hard to tell.

Penny continued to hug Wren to her chest until a shout from downstairs caught her attention.

"Get out of my house, this instant!"

A muffled response followed for which Penny couldn't understand, but she immediately recognized the owner of the first voice; her mother, Rose.

Penny gently pushed Wren from her lap and tiptoed across the floor to her closed bedroom door. She pressed her ear against it to hear better, frightful of being caught by her mother, who she knew would give her a good lashing for eavesdropping. When Penny heard a "meow" at her feet, she looked down to see that Wren had followed her. Penny pressed a finger to her mouth to signal Wren to be quiet.

"I don't care who you are or what you're part of!" Rose continued to shout. "You could be a Death Eater for all I care, I want you out!"

This time, Penny could pick up bits and pieces of the other voice and she managed to catch the words, "White", "Shrieking Shack", and "A.S.".

Penny couldn't make sense of any of these words, but for some reason "A.S." stuck out the most. She kept repeating the initials over and over in her head, trying to fathom what they could stand for. Her thoughts were interrupted by a slamming of the door which indicated that the visitor had left.

Penny waited a few moments until she slowly pushed her door open and crept into the hallway. She stopped at the top of the stairs when she caught sight of her mother, who was leaning wearily against the countertop in the kitchen, staring absentmindedly at the front door.

"Was somebody here?" Penny asked innocently.

Rose jumped up from the countertop, startled by Penny's presence. She stared up at Penny, and almost through her, before responding, "No. Nobody was here."

"Oh," Penny responded quietly. She bit the inside of her lip as she tried to determine how far she should push things. Her mother was prone to blowing up over the smallest things, but Penny felt the need to inquire. The initials were still bothering her. "I thought I heard voices."

A deep scowl pressed itself across Rose's features and Penny felt the atmosphere in the room change. "Were you eavesdropping?"

"N-no," Penny stammered, subconsciously taking a step backwards. The hair on her arms bristled as goosebumps dotted her skin. "I only heard a few words."

"What words?" Rose demanded. She turned to face Penny with her hands on her hips.

Penny gulped. What had she gotten herself into? "I just heard you telling them to leave...and..."

"And what?"

"And some initials, that's all."

"What initials?"

"A.S.," Penny answered, the letters almost getting caught in the back of her throat. "But that's it, I swear! I don't even know what it means!"

A darkness filled the room once Penny spoke, and a chill cut through her very being. All the oxygen in the room suddenly flushed from the space, dropping Penny to the ground and leaving her gasping for air. Her hands scratched at her throat and her eyes bulged out of their sockets as her body squeezed her lungs out like a rag, looking for any last drop of oxygen.

"You've heard too much," Rose said menacingly. Her voice sliced through Penny like knives, its echoes leaving cuts on her skin as they bounced around the room. Rose's eyes, which were usually a golden brown, now shone black.

"Please," Penny struggled to say, the word coming out in a rasp. She extended her hand towards her mother, pleading for compassion, but her mother ignored it.

"You stupid waste of cells," Rose continued with a sneer. "Having you was the biggest mistake I ever made. You cling to me, like a leech, sucking everything out of me. And even so, even after taking every opportunity away from me, you're still a failure. Still nothing."

"Mom," Penny choked. Turquoise tears brimmed in her brown eyes that matched the blue tint that now coated her skin.

"Your father was smart to run away, to leave you behind. He knew what a disappointment you would be. I should have followed his lead."

"Wren," Penny gasped, desperate for help or to see her beloved pet one last time. But Wren never came. Her vision blurred as she began to lose consciousness and images danced in her retinas. She saw faces of people she didn't recognize but somehow, deep down, felt she knew.

A lanky boy with curly hair and a goofy smile...a stunning girl with shiny, dark hair and golden eyes...a striking boy with sharp features and a suspicious stare...a pale girl with fiery red hair and constellations of freckles...a charming girl with with curly hair and glowing cheeks...and lastly, a trim boy with emerald green eyes and a cunning smile.

Plum. Scarlet. Green. Peacock. Mustard. Wadsworth.

White.

"Stop!" Penny screamed, using the last of her energy to expel a single word. How did she get out of this nightmare? How did she get into it?

Rose turned to look at Penny, her neck rotating at an unnatural angle. "You remember when you asked me if somebody had been here?" Rose asked, the corners of her lips twisting up in a distorted smile.

Penny was unable to answer. She could only lay still in her spot, her mother blinking in and out of existence as the darkness spread across her eyes.

"There was someone here," Rose continued. Her malicious smile had stretched up to her eyeballs, splitting her skin into cavernous cracks along the way.

Penny couldn't speak, so she thought the question she wanted to ask, letting it echo in her skull until it faded away. Apparently, Rose heard her.

"Who, you ask?" Rose said.

Penny's vision had completely gone at this point, but she could still see the grotesque image of her mother's mangled face painted onto her eyelids, and she could still feel her mother's voice slashing every inch of her nearly translucent skin until she was nothing more than blood and bones.

"Professor Plum."

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A/N: Wow, that took much longer to update than I expected! I'm so sorry! This summer has been pretty crazy for me. Anyways, this is the last one-shot chapter, the following chapters will have the gang all back together again! Hopefully I haven't lost you guys yet with my slow updates, because I've got some exciting things planned, including a couple alternate endings!

What do you think happened to everybody?