"All right, partner; it's time to get to work," The detective told Ethan before seeing Cherry. "Ah, is this your girlfriend?"

"What?! No!" Cherry gasped suddenly.

"No, this is my friend, Cherry." Ethan corrected.

"Ah, that's okay, it's always nice to see seeds of romance blossoming," The detective insisted much to Cherry and Ethan's annoyance before getting back on track about the death of Mark. "Judging by the temperature I measured rectally, which is obviously the most accurate way to get the inner body temperature of a corpse: that's a fact, totally procedure. Don't tell anyone I did it. I am sure Mark was killed around 1:30 AM last night. So what were you doing at 1:30 AM last night?"

Ethan recalled being asleep at that time. Cherry remembered being downstairs until later into the middle of the night where she woke up in the bathtub.

"I'm gonna ignore the strange fact that you sleep with your eyes open, but it checks out," The detective told Ethan like he was strange. "So, we need to figure out where everyone was and what they were doing around that time or, at the very least, who saw Mark last. You need to get out there. See if you can piece together the story of what happened last night. I'll stick around with the body and run more... Tests."

Ethan went to check the next room. Cherry followed Ethan, she felt her heart squeeze inside her chest to hear Katie's cries. The detective continued to investigate, it being his job and all. Ethan peeked through the gap. Cherry held her chest with a small pout as she stood beside Ethan.

Ethan put an arm around Cherry. Cherry looked over to Ethan, cringing slightly at the fighting. Ethan hugged Cherry soothingly. Cherry merely cupped her mouth, looking around as she didn't feel quite like herself right now.

"Colonel..." Damien nodded to the man once they came into the next room.

Katie sniffled.

"You mean you haven't heard?" Damien asked as he came inside with a depressed Katie.

Katie sniffled again. "M-Mark's been m-murdered." she said quietly, shakily.

The Colonel looked at them a moment and shrugged. "Oh, well it was bound to happen sooner or later." he said flippantly, trying to play it off. He didn't even seem to react as that comment set Katie sobbing again.

"How can you be so flippant?" Damien glared to the Colonel.

Katie covered her mouth and nose as she sobbed, and fell to her knees.

"Flippant? I'm taking this matter very seriously!" The Colonel retorted.

"Oh, don't give me that horseshit!" Damien argued. "I know you hated him, but, Goddammit, he reached out to you!"

Katie continued to sob.

"Oh, what do you want from me?" The Colonel glared.

"Well, I want you to care!" Damien defended.

"Just because I'm not weeping like a child, or a woman, doesn't mean that I don't care." The Colonel glared.

"I can't believe you," Damien huffed before storming out, passing Cherry and Ethan on the way out. "You come and find me when you pull your head out of your ass! Excuse me."

The Colonel glared and looked away.

Cherry soon also came inside, and saw that Damien had up and left Katie. "Oh, Katie..." she frowned softly to her friend.

"Damien, I don't-! Oh! Ah, good to see you again! You were quite the rapscallion at last night's festivities. But you're probably here to help the detective with his 'investigation of murder'." The Colonel said, making air quotes at the last bit. He glanced as the thunder and lightning happened again. "Anyway, I'll help you; I'll tell you what happened to our dear friend Mark." He said, before mocking Mark. "'Oh! Look at me! My name is Markiplier, now! Forget all my friends or the people who helped me along the way! Just look at my money! Look at my new wife! Oh, I need to pay people to be my friends! Ha-ha-ha! You like me? Too bad. Oh, glug-glug! Oopsie poopsie. I can't hold my booze. Gotta go off to the little boys' room. Who wants to join me? I'm gonna go there upon my stairs. My house has more than one staircase. Oh, look at me and how great I am! Oh, no, I'm falling. Aah, I'm dead.' And that's what happened. Probably, anyway. So, if you need to corroborate this story with anybody else just be on your way and investigate the entire house. Go now, I'll be here with Katie when you're done." He told Ethan and Cherry, as he moved and hoisted the shorter girl up.

Katie was crying, though her sobs had lessened to merely quiet crying. Cherry blinked as that was rather vivid.

"Come with me," Benjamin gestured to be followed as he appeared in the room suddenly. "I need to show you something."

Ethan followed. The Colonel watched Ethan and Cherry go.

"Now, if you're looking for answers, there's really no mystery at all," Benjamin informed as he led Ethan out the door and down a set of stairs. "There's not a single detail of this house that I'm not privy to, and not a single guest that I have not personally vetted. Now I warn you: what you are about to see is not for the faint of heart. A domain of evil this is. But in we must go. You first."

Cherry looked a little anxious by that warning. Ethan looked down, then to Benjamin, then shrugged and went down first. Cherry allowed Ethan to go as she wasn't so sure, having a haunting feeling deep down inside of her. Ethan went down warily, glancing around only to see a broken bottle on the ground.

"Avert your eyes!" Benjamin rushed over to clean up the mess with a loud sob. "I'm so sorry you had to see this! Master would be so displeased! If only he were still alive! I just hope that the Mistress can ever forgive me!"

Cherry frowned as she stood around before holding her stomach. Ethan slowly backed away, pulling Cherry along too. He took her to the kitchen.

Chef was chopping tomatoes then noticed Ethan and Cherry, turning around knife and ladle in hand. "I thought I told you to stay out of my kitchen! Oh. You're helping that dick with his little investigation, huh? Well, I might look like a sweet and innocent man, but some people with short lifespans might think otherwise. I can't imagine why, can you? Last night, after I got rid of all of the evidence… Of that delicious meal I prepared, and wiped down all the fingerprints… From those filthy dishes, and sopped up all that blood, I retired to my room at 1:00 AM, and left my little buddy in charge like I always do," He kissed the small version of himself on the cheek. "He sees everything… Why don't you ask him what happened last night?" He suggested.

"Uh... Yeah... Good idea..." Cherry smiled sheepishly and nervously towards the Chef before leaving with Ethan.

Ethan looked at the security footage. Everything was quiet but Mark and the Detective spoke at 1:17 AM. He then looked away and saw he and Cherry were alone, the chef no where in sight. Cherry took a long thought over this as they watched the footage. She smiled sheepishly as she saw herself in the footage, making a goofball out of herself, having a little too much fun, but the main focus was Mark and the detective.

"Let's go have a look outside." Ethan suggested quietly.

"All right..." Cherry agreed as she stayed close with him.

Ethan walked outside with her, looking around, he was surprised to see Damien out there and couldn't help but frown slightly.

"Look, I'm sorry you saw that argument with the Colonel," Damien told both Cherry and Ethan. "I lost my temper, and it wasn't right, and... He must be in shock."

"I guess..." Cherry said quietly.

Ethan nodded once.

"The Colonel's an eccentric; it's his best quality and his worst," Damien sighed as he patted his walking stick in his palm. "But he's my friend, and... So was Mark. I know I'm supposed to be a leader in this scenario, but I can't help but feel lost. I've known Mark for years, since we were kids... And he's just gone? I don't have any answers right now. I just need to be alone... To process all of this. We'll all talk soon, but I need to think."

"Is that why you left Katie in the other room?" Cherry muttered to herself.

"Yeah, you left Katie with the Colonel." Ethan agreed with Cherry.

Damien took a look at both of them and soon suddenly left yet again.

"Partner, get over here, now!" The detective's voice whispered loudly.

Ethan turned and followed the Detective.

"Hurry up! You're not gonna believe this, I can barely believe this," The detective said to Ethan on the way back inside. "The body. It's gone. It's just fucking disappeared. Look."

Cherry just cupped her mouth, she wasn't very talkative for once, mostly because of how gruesome this party was becoming. Ethan looked surprised that the body was indeed gone.

"Who would move the body...?" Cherry wondered.

"It certainly wasn't me," The detective added onto her query. "No, no. Somebody, NOT ME, must have moved it between the time I was the last person alone with the body in the room and then stepped out for a few minutes to take care of some personal business, that you don't need to know about."

Cherry then narrowed her eyes slightly to that.

"Could have been anybody... Except me..." The detective then added.

"You keep saying that an awful lot." Ethan said.

"What the hell happened here?" Benjamin asked as he came into the scene.

"The body's been moved." The detective told him.

"On its own?" Benjamin asked.

"No, of course not," The detective replied before looking to Cherry and Ethan. "Unless it did, in which case we've got way bigger problems than a simple murder."

"Boy..." Cherry mumbled.

"What the hell happened here?" The Chef asked as he came in.

Ethan blinked.

"The body's moved." Benjamin informed.

Cherry glanced back at Ethan before looking back to the men.

"On its own?" The Chef asked.

"We haven't quite ruled that out just yet, but let's not forget we've got a murderer." The detective replied.

Cherry glanced outside as more thunder suddenly came even though it was a bright and sunny day outside, but nearly yelped as The Colonel came back, seemingly from nowhere.

"Bully! Quite a storm out there, eh chaps? What are you doing huddled here in fear?" The Colonel asked with a smirk.

"We have a zombie problem." The Chef said.

"Ah! Homonecrosis: the most dangerous game. Well, if someone needs to put the old lad down again, I'm well up for the privilege." The Colonel smirked.

"Where's Katie I wonder" Ethan mused quietly.

"What do you mean by again, and what do you mean by privilege?" The detective asked The Colonel.

Cherry hummed before she decided to go and see if she could find the mourning Katie.

"I'm just saying, I've got plenty of… Experience." The Colonel said.

"So do I." The Chef admitted.

Ethan looked to Cherry. "Be careful." he said quietly.

"Yeah, that just raises more questions." The detective replied.

Benjamin looked dumbfounded by the conversation.

"Well, I'm off to the grounds to see if I can catch a whiff of the old bag of bones, eh?" The colonel grinned and walked off.

"Weren't you and Mark the same age...?" Benjamin softly asked as The Colonel left.

The Colomel laughed as he left, but then coughed.

"Alright, I don't trust him," The detective said, before getting over-the-top at his dramatics. "Then again, I don't trust anyone. Alright, lock this place down. Secure the front gate."

"Locks won't keep people from getting out, sir." Benjamin pointed out.

"Locks won't, but Chef will." Chef told them before going off to guard the front door.

"Look, you're a real smart son of a bitch," The detective said to Benjamin which seemed to disturb him. "Handsome too, beautiful even, but we don't have time for this. I think we forgot the most important question of all during our arousing game of whodunnit."

Benjamin just glanced at him while deep in thought. Ethan looked around from where he stood.

"Why? Why? Come walk with me," The detective continued before gesturing for Ethan to follow him. "Why did he invited us all here? Why tonight? He said we were celebrating something, but he never specified what. It's almost as if this whole shindig of a hootenanny was just a ruse."

Ethan followed.


"Mark was my friend, had been for years, then he went quiet," The detective told Ethan. "I knew something was wrong, I just never figured out what. Now I guess I never will. Look, I'm gonna level with you. You're my new partner. I've been working with them for years. Now I've been doing this for a long time, and I know something is wrong. There is a murderer-"

Insert another thunder clap here.

"-Here amongst us, and we need to find it, and you look like a trustworthy... Somebody," The detective continued. "I know we just met, but I am an excellent judge of character. Excellent like a fox."

Ethan still followed.

The detective winked back to Ethan, leading him down the hall before he suddenly blurted out in animation. "You don't look like you have any reason to kill him, and if you do..." he then began to laugh to the other man. "Best to keep your enemies close, eh? Wink wink."

Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"So the real question we should be asking is: who stood to gain the most from Mark's death?" The detective rhetorically asked as he walked with Ethan throughout the manor before going to another staircase to go up it. "Now, in my thorough analysis of the corpse's anal cavity, I discovered that in addition to being stabbed 37 times, he was also poisoned, beaten, strangled, drowned, and shot. In that order. Now if you ask me, that's a lot of trouble to go through to knock off one guy and it sure as shit is no accident. No. No, my friend. There's gonna be no simple candlestick in the library solution to this whole puzzle. So, we're gonna have to do the detectively thing and go through the victim's most private and personal possessions. Well, after you." He then said, as he lead Ethan to a doorway that was shut for right now.

Ethan opened the door only to reveal Katie's and Mark's bedroom.

"Oh. It looks rough, but I don't think he was killed here," The detective commented. "Take a look around and see if you find anything, but BE CAREFUL. I've lost three partners before to bedroom booby traps."

Ethan walked in carefully towards the table.

"Make sure you don't tamper with any evidence," The detective continued to order Ethan around. "Let me know if you find anything."

Ethan looked at the photos and found one of the Colonel on his own.

"You find a clue?" The detective asked Ethan.

Ethan lifted the photo up but jumped as the Colonel appeared when he lowered it again.

"You're quite on the case, aren't you? Say, detective, may I borrow your friend here?" The Colonel asked the Detective.

"Yeah, sure," The detective nodded. "Don't worry, partner, I'll handle it from here."

"Bully. Take a walk with me. I thought it was about time that we got to know each other. Someplace far, far away from the prying eyes of… anyone else." The Colonel walked off with Ethan then got into his face. "Come with me. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but you and the Mayor know each other, right? He's a good man, that one. We've been fast friends for as long as I can remember. Now, there came a time when I could have said the same thing about Mark, but… Well, best not to speak ill of the dead." He said as they made their way outside. "Oh! The pool hasn't aged a day." He announced.

The two men were suddenly by the swimming pool and the Colonel seemed to be in swimwear instantly.

The Colonel jumped in the pool. "Geronimo!" He shouted.

Ethan looked surprised.


Katie was now dressed, wearing black again, but no make-up. She was sitting, staring blankly at a wall.

Cherry nodded before gently calling out. "Katie? Katie Kat...? It's Nee-Bear...?"

Katie wiped her eyes then turned to face where Cherry was from. She got up and started to approach.

Cherry looked around, then finally found Katie. "Hey..." she gently called.

Katie looked up at Cherry. "Hey." she said quietly, her eyes rimmed with red, and not just her red glasses.

"You doing all right?" Cherry asked. "I know this must not be easy to live through."

Katie shook her head, with a small sniff. "No, I'm not okay..." she admitted quietly, and then held up a very recognizable smallish white stick with blue lid.

"Is... Is that a pregnancy test...?" Cherry asked, a little uneasy, quite shook up from her nerves of Mark's murder.

Katie nodded, holding it out to her. Cherry shakily held out a hand and took the test carefully from Katie's hand to examine it. Katie rested a hand on her stomach, after Cherry took the test from her.

Cherry took a look and shook only slightly with magnified eyes. "Whoa..." she muttered. "Holy Plot Twist, Batman..."

"How can I raise this baby by myself? I can't do it without Mark." Katie whispered.

"Oh, Katie..." Cherry frowned softly.

Katie looked up to her. "What am I going to do without him?" She whispered.

"W-What if I helped...?" Cherry offered softly. "I mean... Uh... I may not know about raising children, much, but... What if I helped you?"

"I can't ask you to do that..." Katie said quietly.

"Well, I have to do something to help..." Cherry replied. "I'll be Auntie Cherry~"

Katie looked up to her and gave the tiniest smile. "Alright, but I'll have to tell the others too." she said quietly.

"Fair enough..." Cherry agreed before gently setting the pregnancy test down for right now.

Katie stood up, wiping her eyes.

"Come here, I'm right here~" Cherry soothed her friend.

Katie hugged Cherry. Cherry gently hugged Katie back, what a poor day this had to be for her. Katie decided Damien should be the first to know, as he was Mark's closest friend there.

"Ah, good day, ladies." Damien greeted them.

"Hello." Cherry waved.

"Hello Damien... I, uh, I've got some news." Katie said quietly.

Cherry stood by for emotional and physical support. Katie had always been there and done that for her for years, so it was now time to return the favor.

"Aw, darling, is this about Mark?" Damien asked, putting his arm around her. "It's all right, it's not the end of the world..."

"I... I'm pregnant Damien, M-Mark's of course..." Katie whispered, trying hard not to cry again.

"Oh... I see..." Damien said softly. "How long have you known?"

Cherry came closer beside Katie for comfort.

"I did the test earlier... I-I've been feeling unwell a few days, and I bought a test just in case and i'm pregnant... Ch-Cherry has offered to help but I can't force her to move permanently." Katie whispered, looking up at him from the half hug she was in.

"Oh, what a darling little vixen you are~" Damien cooed to Cherry before offering a hug to Katie.

Cherry squinted her eyes as she felt odd about Damien.

Katie gave him a hug back. "Oh, there's Ethan." she then noticed.

Ethan was looking at the golf course.

"Ah, yes, very good..." Damien nodded as he decided to go over there. "Excuse me, ladies."

Cherry allowed him to go, but gently patted Katie on the back.

Katie hugged Cherry softly. "Let's go back inside." she suggested.

Ethan jumped as he noticed Damien pop up.

"All right." Cherry nodded, going with Katie back inside of the manor.

Katie leaned against her sister-figure and best friend.

"Tell me if you need anything." Cherry said to Katie.

Katie nodded to her.

"You've helped me all these years, and now, it's my turn." Cherry told her.

"Would you like to accompany me?" Damien asked Ethan. "There's something that I would very much like to discuss with you."

Ethan followed Damien.

"Now, I know you've been assisting our... Intrepid detective with his investigation, but... I have to bring some concerns of mine to the forefront," Damien said as he walked with Ethan. "If we look at this situation logically, we can only assume that the killer who struck down our dear friend Mark was with us last night. And while I would stake my life on the innocence of the Colonel or yourself, can we really say the same of our beloved detective?"

Ethan continued to follow Damien.

"Or worse yet, mayhaps our counting skills aren't as good as we assume to be," Damien continued to Ethan. "And mayhaps... In the shadows of this manor, unseen to any of us, lay hidden... A murderer."

Of course, this summoned the thunder, but there was soon the sound of a bang inside the manor.