Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!

THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!

This story is Additional Scenes to It's a Real Circus, a Murder Mystery Dinner, originally posted from January 1 to 6 2012.

This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: One Second of Weakness.

"Orchestrated Chaos"
Brittany, Artie, Sam
Additional scenes to "It's a Real Circus"
Murder Mystery Dinners extra
(all series now listed under the communities tab in my profile)

Even though everyone practically expected to see her character meet her demise, Brittany had been sworn not to confirm it in any specific terms, as much as the other two had; even they didn't know about the other deaths. So when Kurt had given the agreed-upon signal, Brittany – or her character at least – had made her exit into the hall. It was there that she found two others already waiting.

"What are you doing here?" she asked Sam and Artie. "Are you dying too?" she was surprised that there could be this many, especially since Quinn had already gone. Before they could reply, the girl in question had skittered by in her new costume.

"Woah…" Sam blinked when he saw her, and she smirked.

"Why are you…"

"Can't say," Brittany kept him from replying, and Quinn nodded, understanding.

"I should get in there," she indicated the choir room, taking a moment to find a posture and a voice for her flame loving new character. After a moment, Brittany looked back to the boys.

"I'm dying, too," Sam admitted.

"Oh," Brittany gave him a smile before turning back to Artie, asking silently. From the look he was giving her back, she had to think maybe she was supposed to figure out why he was there. Then her face lit and she gasped. "You're the… you're the killer!" her voice had been louder than intended at first, and she'd pulled it down to a whisper afterward.

"I can't be in there right now, obviously," he explained.

"Right, you have to kill us," she understood.

"Both of us at the same time? Does it say why, or how?" Sam asked him, unsure how to proceed.

"We have to decide, the three of us," Artie revealed. "All I know is I'm supposed to eliminate you two and Quinn. The way I see it, you all trust me, so I might use my… big unicycling injury… to get you to come close, like say 'my laces have come undone, help me tie them?'"

"Then we kneel and…" Sam dragged his thumb across his neck, and Artie nodded while Brittany shivered.

"You wouldn't do that for real, would you?" she asked the boy in the wheelchair.

"No, promise," he held a hand to his heart.

"Maybe when you kill me, she comes along," Sam offered, and Artie looked back to him.

"Go on?" he asked, curious.

"Well, you'd have to hurry, before she calls for help, or runs, so how do you get her?"

"Okay, now it's getting creepy again," Brittany frowned, pulling her arms around herself.

"I thought you liked doing this part now," Artie turned to her.

"Well, yeah, but it sounds like you're planning to kill me."

"Not you, your character," he promised. "We'll use the names from now on, okay?" She nodded. "Okay, so we… so Kissinger doesn't want Serafina to call for help after she sees him killing Chuckles," he edited, and Brittany gave her approval. "The laces bait is kind of shot at this point," he turned his wheelchair toward her, trying to put himself into the scenario. Brittany understood and made to look frightened, like she would run away.

"She won't kneel, so he has to make her kneel, any way he can," Sam carried on, and Artie mimed holding a knife, which he thrust at half speed into the girl's stomach. "Then she falls…" he went on, but Brittany just stood there. "Then Serafina falls," he repeated, and she understood, dropping to her knees. "And then he can silence her, like he did the others," he finished, and Artie mimed the slash. Brittany reached to her throat, falling back into a seated position.

"Chuckles, not dead yet, does his best to return to the others, his bloody hand grabbing on to the door frame before he staggers in and falls," Artie narrated dramatically, the director at work. "He tries to speak, but blood loss, and compromised vocal cords, make it impossible for him to do more than try and point back to where the poor trapeze artist is bleeding out…"

"I don't want to just… I mean, Serafina won't just lie there," Brittany spoke up, like she didn't want this one to be so defenseless, wanted her to fight.

"You could drag yourself in, can you do that?" Artie asked, and she nodded. "Okay, then we better get you both ready. You saw the thing on Quinn, right?" he asked, pulling out a small box from his lap and opening it.

"Sort of, not really," Sam shook his head. Artie pulled one of the packs out.

"Come down here," he instructed, and Sam gave him a look like 'you're not going to slash my throat, are you?' "Pull your collar down a bit," he nodded, and when he did, Artie fixed the pack to him. "Before you go in, just give it a little pressure until you feel it break open, just a little, not too much or it'll…" he mimed a big spew.

"Got it," Sam stood back and Artie turned to Brittany. She knelt in turn and he put a pack at her throat. "Okay, now about the second wound," he told her, reaching in his pocket and pulling out a small folded knife. She jumped back on reflex. "Easy, I just need to make a tear in your leotard so I can put in the other pack," he explained.

"Do you have to?" she touched the leotard, and he guessed she didn't want to damage it.

"If we want to do it like we said…" She sighed, coming forward even if she looked like she despised doing it. He unfolded the knife, reaching to the fabric where he had given the pretend stab earlier. He looked back to her, asking permission one last time. She closed her eyes, so he took that as yes. He was careful not to cut her in the process, and then they heard the rip. Artie couldn't help but blink at the suddenly exposed skin, but he got back on task, putting the knife back in his pocket and reaching for the third pack, careful not to press on it and risk rupturing it as he fixed it to her stomach. "There," he pulled back, and she looked down at herself. When she saw the result, she actually smiled.

"We should get in there," Sam pointed out, so they got to it, getting into position. "Wait, you should scream," he turned to Brittany then. "They'll get spooked in there," he indicated the choir room. Artie looked back to Brittany, and she was already gearing up. She pushed out a scream that startled both boys, so close in proximity. Sam took this as his cue, pressing at his throat. When he felt the liquid, he wiggled his fingers so they would get covered and then he swapped hands, taking on his stagger. They watched him grab on to the door frame, and then they were hearing the others in the room react.

"Wait…" Artie whispered to Brittany, then after a few moments, "Go," he told her. She pressed one hand to her stomach, and he could hear her swallow back a laugh.

"Tickles…" she mumbled, getting down on her knees before pressing her other hand to her throat to get it bleeding. She dropped down then, using her first hand to pull herself toward the choir room. Artie watched her bloody trail grow, and he shook his head in amazement. He could definitely get why they all loved doing this so much, and seeing how Sam had gotten into it, he didn't worry about him… He was one of them now.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!