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𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐖𝐈𝐙𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐓𝐘 𝐂𝐋𝐎𝐒𝐄𝐓, studying the darkness for any indication of where Thomas had gone or who had let him out, but they found nothing but brooms and buckets.

"Who opened the broom closet?" Luc demanded, his brows furrowed and his mouth set in a straight line.

"It couldn't have been one of us," Madelynn answered innocently. "We were all in the kitchen."

"But the lights went out," Penny pointed out. "Providing an opportunity for one of us to sneak out of the kitchen, unlock the broom closet, and sneak back in without being noticed."

"My foot!" Jackson shouted, once the realization hit her. "Somebody stepped on my foot when the lights went out!"

"And somebody shoved past me..." Luc added. "Probably the person who let Wadsworth out!"

"I heard Professor Plum, Miss Scarlet, and Mr. Green when the lights went out so it's likely not them..." Willow pondered, pacing back and forth across the hallway with her pointer finger pressed firmly over her mouth as she thought. "Which leaves Colonel Mustard and Miss White."

"Don't forget yourself," Penny snapped after hearing her name. "None of us heard you."

The two girls stared daggers at each other until Jesse broke the uncomfortable silence. "Colonel Mustard did talk a lot about how she felt bad for keeping Wadsworth locked in the closet..."

"Hey, I didn't do it!" Madelynn scowled at Jesse.

"Then who did?" Luc snapped.

The group's arguing was cut short by a loud thump coming from the second floor and the witches and wizards immediately rushed for the stairs to see what it was.

"I think it came from down there," Willow whispered once they reached the top of the stairs, her finger pointing towards the last room at the end of the hallway.

The group quietly tiptoed to the end of the hall, their heavy breaths filling the dense air. Jackson placed one hand on the doorknob and counted down with the other. Once she put her last finger down, she twisted the knob and pushed the door open, allowing the rest of the group to immediately crowd the doorframe.

They expected to find a dead body lying on the floor soaking in a pile of dark blood, but instead what they found was Thomas attempting to jimmy the window open with a wooden ruler and failing. The second he saw the rest of the group, he immediately dropped the ruler and pushed himself against the wall. "I'm not going back in that closet!" he shouted.

"Who let you out?" Penny asked after Thomas calmed down a bit.

"I don't know!" Thomas answered, slowly scooting along the wall away from them. "It was dark! The door just flew open!"

"What do we do now?" Jesse asked. "If we put him back in the closet whoever is helping him could just let him out again."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Thomas cried, slapping his hand against the wall in rhythm with his words.

"You guys, there still might be another body," Willow reminded them, edging towards the door and gesturing for them to follow. "We can figure out what to do with Wadsworth later."

"This time, no splitting up," Jackson informed the group. "We all stick together."

The witches and wizards decided to start from the basement and work their way up the Shack, searching each and every room together. However, their search was short-lived when they arrived at the stairs to the basement and saw a pair of feet sticking out from the darkness.

"Well, that was easy," Jesse said.

Madelynn grabbed a torch from the hallway and led the group down the stairs, the creak of each step echoing in their ears. The group circled around the body as Madelynn held the torch over it so that they could all see. At this point, they weren't even fazed any more. Stumbling upon corpses had seemingly become the norm.

"This one is...older," Jackson pointed out.

A woman who appeared to be in her late twenties was lying on the cement floor, a bright red axe protruding from her chest.

"I'm just going to save you guys the trouble since I know you're all thinking it," Luc sighed as he looked down upon the body. "Yes, that was the axe in my present. No, I didn't do it."

"So who is she?" Madelynn asked, leaning down to take a closer look but still maintaining a safe distance.

Thomas dropped to his knees beside the woman and began carefully checking the pockets in her clothing.

"What do you think you're doing, Wadsworth?" Luc snapped, grabbing Thomas's shoulder and shoving him back from the body.

"I'm checking for any clues about her identity," Thomas snapped, glaring up at Luc as he pushed himself back into a sitting position. "What do you think, that I'm going to murder an already-dead woman?"

Luc pressed his mouth firmly shut as he watched Thomas resume his task.

"She's an auror..." Thomas informed them as he pulled a badge from the woman's inside jacket pocket.

"An auror?" Madelynn gasped. "What's an auror doing here?"

"Maybe she's investigating the Shack?" Jesse offered.

"But how would she have known about it, or even gotten in, for that matter?" Penny asked.

A couple moments of silence passed as the group contemplated the possible answers to Penny's questions until Willow gave the group a new one to ponder.

"Why didn't we hear her scream?" Willow asked. "Or any of the others, for that matter? It's a big house, but I doubt that we would miss someone screaming bloody murder."

"Literally," Jackson murmured quietly.

"There's only one answer that makes sense for all of this," Thomas declared. He was a bit surprised when everyone turned to look at him, awaiting his answer. He hadn't expected them to actually listen to him. After a few moments of dramatic silence, Thomas finally answered, "Magic."

Luc immediately rolled his eyes and made a move towards Thomas. "All right, I've had enough of you. We've found the body, now we lock Wadsworth back up."

"No, please!" Thomas begged, trying to back away from Luc. "I can help!"

"Just hold on, Mr. Green," Willow said, putting a hand up and pushing herself between the two. "He may be of use in our investigation of the host."

"How?" Luc scoffed.

"The host gave Mr. Wadsworth a different role than the rest of us, so he likely had more contact with them. Wadsworth may know something about the host that we don't."

Everyone turned to look at Thomas and he quickly nodded his head up and down with an anxious smile.

"What are you hiding from us, Wadsworth?" Luc demanded, taking an aggressive step towards Thomas.

"I've never talked with the host in-person," Thomas answered, keeping a careful distance from Luc. "But I do have these."

Thomas pulled two slips of folded paper from his jacket pocket and slowly handed them over to Willow. The rest of the group crowded around Willow as she unfolded them and held them out under the torch light for everyone to see.

"That's the invitation we all received," Jackson pointed out upon examination of the first page. It read:

Dear Wadsworth,

I am inviting you to attend a gathering at the Shrieking Shack on the weekend of October Twenty-Ninth through the Thirty-First. There are serious matters which we must address and as such, your attendance is imperative. On the night of your departure, you will find a broom awaiting you beneath your bed, along with further instructions.

P.S. I know your secret.

Sincerely,

A Friend

"'Further instructions'?" Madelynn asked with furrowed brows after reading through the letter. "My invitation didn't say that."

"Mine either," Jesse seconded.

"Nor did mine," Penny agreed.

"Second page," Thomas explained.

Willow hastily unfolded the paper in question and quickly scanned through it. The first half of the page featured a list of tasks to complete, including bringing the trunk up from the basement and checking on the gifts in the dining room, as well as a list of the order in which the guests were expected to arrive. The second half of the page got a little more interesting...It read:

Once all the secrets have been purged, I will arrive at Midnight on October the Thirty-First to meet with the last witch or wizard standing to give them a gift.

"I normally love presents, but I don't want any more gifts from this guy," Jesse said, his teeth chattering as a shiver ran down his spine.

"What do they mean, 'once all the secrets have been purged'?" Jackson asked with a frown.

"On the invitations, the host said that they know," Penny answered. "Perhaps they want us to all share our secrets?"

"Not happening," Luc said firmly.

"Got many, do you, Mr. Green?" Willow asked with an arched brow.

"Those who lead an interesting life often do," Luc retorted. "But you wouldn't know anything about that, benchwarmer."

Before Willow could come up with her own witty response, Madelynn caught the group's attention by pointing to the corner of the page.

"Hey, there's some sort of markings in the bottom left corner," Madelynn pointed out, drawing the group's attention to some faint scratches. "Almost like the host wrote on another piece of paper that was on top of this piece of paper and some of the ink bled through."

A confused frown grew on Thomas's face and he quickly snatched the paper out of Willow's hands to see for himself. "How did I not see this before..." Thomas muttered to himself. "It looks like initials."

Willow grabbed the paper back from Thomas with a scowl and investigated for herself. "A.S.," she read out loud.

"'A.S.'? Who's A--" Jesse began to ask, but before he could finish, the torch light went out and the group was plunged into darkness for a third time.

A few moments later, the torch magically rekindled itself, but now it was lying on the floor...

Next to the group of unconscious witches and wizards.

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A/N: So sorry for the delayed update! My finals have begun but I was thankfully able to finish some of them a little early, giving me time to publish a new chapter. It may be a little bit before the next update as well but I'll try to get it up as soon as possible! The upcoming chapters are going to be a little different, but I'm very excited for them and I hope you guys are too!

Who do you think A.S. is?