Sasume: xaidoxkurapika4x does not own anything at all

THE HAUNTED HOUSE

Ikuto Tsukiyomi, the security guard, drew his gun, took a deep breath, and headed down a shadowy corridor full of plastic cobwebs, fake blood, and recorded screams. It was Ikuto's worst nightmare, a real-life killer on the loose in Hoshina's Haunted House. At least one person was dead, and behind any one of these doors might lay another victim -or worse, the killer - waiting for another victim.

Someone somewhere turned off the sound system and switched on the emergency lights. Ikuto tried the door on the left. Locked. Then the one on the right. Unlocked. He pushed it open two inches, and then it hit something, something that moaned. Ikuto looked down and saw more blood. Real blood.

An hour later and the police had pieced together the basics. There were a total of two attacks and one murder. Tadase Hotori, a 22-year-old employee, had been killed by an ax. Definitely not one of the prop axes, but a real weapon. Utau Hoshina had been luckier. She, too, was bleeding from an ax attack. But when Ikuto found her, barely conscious behind the door, she was still alive.

"It could've been worse," Sergeant Amu Hinamori told her captain. "There were just a few employees in the haunted house. The attacker wasn't seen coming into the building, or leaving, for that matter. But he was seen." Amu checked her notepad. "the person was medium height, in a ghost costume and a full-head rubber mask. We found the costume, the mask, and the ax not far from the second attack scene. The lab matched the blood samples of Tadase's blood and Utau's blood."

"Attacker was not seen entering or leaving." The captain had a way of honing in on the essentials. "That's strange, given the limited access in that kind of attraction."

"Yes, sir. I'll interview the second victim, and then talk to the others."

Utau sat up in her hospital bed and spoke with effort. "We were just opening up. Tadase and Nadeshiko and Kairi were changing into their costumes. Dad was there, too. I turned on the sound system and the mood lights. I was checking the halls for garbage when I heard Kairi shouting-something about a crazy person with an ax. A few seconds later, this thing came around the corner. I knew right away.

"I don't know why I ran into the dungeon room. There's no other exit. This maniac pushed open the door and started swinging. I fell to the floor, then I must've passed out. I guess he thought I was dead, 'cause the next thing I know, the security guard was waking me up." "Was anyone else hurt?"

Utau hadn't yet been told about her boyfriend's death.

Kairi seemed more concerned about Utau than about the death of his best friend. "She's going to be all right," Sergeant Hinamori assured him. "She just had some cuts and bruises. You saw the attack on Tadase?"

"Part of it," said Kairi. "I was changing into my ghoul costume when I heard something. I went into the next room and there was Tadase, fighting off this guy in one of our ghost costumes and an old mask. The guy was swinging this ax, and Tadase was trying to grab the ax and swing back. I tried to jump in, but the guy got in one last swing, then ran off down the hall. I shouted out a warning to the others, then went to help Tadase. He was bleeding so much."

Kukai, like the others, was in his early 20s: short brown hair, an athletic build and slightly taller than average. "I was in the locker room downstairs, changing into my warlock's uniform. I guess I heard some screaming, but I thought it was the tape. I didn't realize anything was wrong until I came upstairs."

Sergeant Hinamori nodded, and then changed subjects. "I hear Utau and Tadase were engaged."

"Engaged? She wishes." Kukai's laugh died in his throat. "I shouldn't be mean. Tadase and Nadeshiko were together for years, ever since middle school. Things were getting a little stale and too serious, all at the same time. Tadase said they should see other people for a while, just to get it out of our systems. That's all Utau was, a little experiment. He told her that. He was going back to Nadeshiko."

This was the third different story Hinamori had heard. According to Utau, they were happy, and Tadase had already proposed. According to Kairi, Utau cried on his shoulder all the time. She was sick of Tadase and ready to leave.

The sergeant caught up with Utau's father at Hoshina's Haunted House. A curious throng stood by the police barricades in front of the boardwalk attraction. "Thank God Utau's okay." Then he chuckled. "I can't figure out if this will be good for business or bad."

"Are you the sole owner?" Hinamori asked.

"Utau and I," said the sad-eyed, middle-aged man. "Utau has an inheritance from her grandparents. I'm the trustee until she turns 30 or gets married. A chunk of her money went into Hoshina's Haunted House. It's a good investment for her."

"Did you see or hear anything this morning, anything at all?"

Mr. Hoshina shook his head. "Ikuto and the kids were all there when I unlocked the doors. I locked up behind them, and then went upstairs to the office. They often joked about a real killer getting loose in the haunted house."

"I'm not surprised."

"That ghost costume came from a storage closet. And the ax..."

"It was the stairwell fire ax."

Mr. Hoshina sighed. "It doesn't look like an outsider, does it?"

Sergeant Hinamori agreed. It was an inside job, all right. And he had a good idea which insider it was.

Sasume: so who did it? If you think you know the right answer, go and put the answer in a review. I will tell the answer later .