Chapter Seven: Diamond, Pearl and the Horrifying Accusation

"N-no! Bianca!" Ruby covered his mouth but couldn't look away from the lifeless body on the floor in front of him. Red, Green and Silver stared in horror while Diamond was rubbing Platinum's back, trying to prevent her from throwing up.

"I-I don't understand…" Diamond breathed. "She was right there next to me, holding my hand. Right there!"

"The lights were only out for a few seconds!" Red mentioned.

"I hate to say this, but the killer has to be among us," Green said, glancing intently at everyone.

"E-either that or—*Cough!*" Platinum choked. "T-that, or it was…B-Blue…"

"Why do you guys keep accusing Blue?" Silver yelled. "We don't even know where she is! I highly doubt that within the few seconds that the lights were out, she could have sped past us, killed Bianca, then ran off without us even hearing her!"

"Fine, then let's start accusing you!" Ruby pointed at Silver. "You killed Bianca!"

"What?" Silver rushed up to Ruby and grabbed his shirt. "How dare you—!"

"Guys, stop!" Diamond cut in between the two bickering boys. "Someone else is dead! We can't keep fighting like thi—!"

Suddenly, Diamond's Pokétch began ringing.

"S-someone's calling me!" Diamond pressed the top red button on his Pokétch, Pearl's name flashing across the small green screen. "Pearl? What's going on?"

"D-Diamond!" Pearl called out hesitantly. "B-Black is dead! Someone killed him when the lights went out!"

Everyone in Diamond's group gasped. "W-what?" Ruby stuttered. "N-no way!"

"P-Pearl!" Diamond could barely speak. "B-Black is…dead?"

"Yes! That's what I just said! Cheren says he's not sure what to do. Have you guys found Blue?"

"P-Pearl… We haven't found Blue, but…"

"But what?"

"…Bianca's dead."


Both groups reunited again at the south stairwell of the first floor, which was the original plan in the first place, but no one realized that they would be down another two people: Black and Bianca. White hadn't stopped crying since discovering Black's body, but finding out that Bianca as gone as well nearly sent her over the edge. She lost two of her best friends in a matter of seconds and even Cheren couldn't comfort her. She had fell to her knees in tears and it took the efforts of everyone in her group to help her up and finally get her to move downstairs. Now she was holding tightly onto Yellow and Cheren's hands with the intention of probably never letting go.

The remaining thirteen people, with the exception of Blue whose whereabouts in the mansion were still unknown, stood in silence for a few good minutes, the only sounds being choked sobs from White and coughing from Wally.

No one had any idea what to do now. Even staying in a tight group didn't make any difference. Two more people were dead but with this happening, a few more things were evident.

"It's obvious now that, whether Blue is a killer or not, there are two killers among us," Pearl said. "At least."

"Yeah," Green agreed. "There's no way that one person alone could have killed two people on completely different floors within the fifteen to twenty seconds the lights were out."

"Which begs the question, how in the world did the lights go out in the first place?" Yellow asked. "Could it have been the blizzard?"

"Doubtful," Cheren said. "The timing was too perfect. Besides, if it was the bad weather, the power probably would have been out longer."

"So it was timed?" Gold questioned.

"I'm sure it was," the bespectacled boy nodded. "Platinum, do you know where the breakers are in this mansion?"

"Y-yes," Platinum was still shaky after witnessing one of her friends die in front of her. "It's on the other side of the house, near the garage. Shall we all go together?"

"Yes," Pearl said. "As cheesy as this sounds, I think we should all hold hands with at least one other person."

On the order, everyone began linking hands. Cheren and Yellow continued to hold White's hand and Bill held Yellow's other hand. Red and Green held hands, while Gold and Silver did the same. Ruby held Wally's right hand with his own right hand and used his left hand to hold on to the sickly boy's shoulder. Diamond held onto both Platinum and Pearl's hands. The Sinnoh trio took the lead as they walked through the first floor toward the opposite side of the house.

When they reached the breaker room, Cheren and Green checked the main power switch.

"Everything looks fine to me," Cheren said. "My guess was that maybe Blue came down here and flipped the switch herself then turned it back on, but if that was the case…"

"That would mean that there are three killers!" Wally gasped.

"Either that, or Blue's jus' the sneaky accomplice for the other two," Bill commented.

"No, wait a minute…" Pearl inspected the breaker closer. "There's a small wire attached to this main switch."

"Huh?" Cheren looked at where the blond was pointing. "He's right!" Cheren removed the barely noticeable wire from the switch. "It's been yanked off. And there's half of an Iron Ball attached to the end of the wire."

"Look at this!" Red said, directing everyone's attention to a small table under the breaker. "There's a candle here, and something else is melted next to it."

"The other end of the wire," Gold said. "This was set up."

"At some point, someone put a candle in here under this wire, which was also tied to this Iron Ball piece and when the wire melted, the wire with the Iron Ball piece forced the switch down and turned off the lights," Cheren explained.

"So anyone could have set this up," Silver said.

"But wait, how did the lights come back on?" Ruby asked.

"If there's a power outage in the mansion, the backup generator automatically turns the power back on after about twenty to thirty seconds," Platinum reached for the main switch. "So this is actually still turned off."

"P-Platinum?" Diamond stuttered as she flipped the switch. She glanced over at him.

"What is it, Diamond?" she raised her eyebrow. His shocked expression was troubling her.

"Platinum…aren't you the only one who knows that…?" Pearl spoke up. Everyone was now facing the rich girl.

"W-what?" she gasped. "A-are you…accusing me of the murders...?"

"W-well…" Gold frowned. "Who else would know that? Besides, weren't you the one who came up with the idea to split us up into two groups to look for Blue by using cards?"

"B-but, what about the other killer!" Platinum said. "If I'm one of the killers, who is the other? Can you really just prove that I'm a killer just because I knew about how the breakers work in my home?"

Everyone nervously glanced at one another. No one spoke up.

Platinum began to tear up. "Diamond, Pearl...I'm disappointed in you guys. How could my best friends accuse me of murder?"

"We're all beginning to turn on one another," Ruby said solemnly. "It's hard not to when at least two of us are murderers…"

The room fell deathly silent. Wally began coughing and didn't stop.

"W-Wally?" Ruby glanced at his best friend. "Are you okay?"

"Let's move to the kitchen and get him something to drink," Yellow said. "And I'm sure we could sit down and take a break."


Per Yellow's instruction, the group made their way to the kitchen. Platinum grabbed a glass and filled it with water from the sink for Wally. Cheren paid close attention to Platinum as she filled the glass.

"What?" Platinum took notice of this and voiced her discomfort toward the bespectacled boy's stern glance. "Do you think I would slip something harmful in his drink to kill him?"

"I'm just keeping a watchful eye," Cheren said.

"If I wanted to kill Wally, why didn't I just do it when I murdered Emerald? Huh? Since you guys seem to think that I'm one of the murderers and all," Platinum was obviously very upset, even glaring at Diamond and Pearl. Then she turned her attention back toward Cheren. "What about you? You and Green have been pretty bossy since all of this started. I may have had the idea to use cards to split us into groups, but I didn't choose them directly. You guys didn't end up in the same group. Could you two possibly be the killers?"

"What?" Green flinched. "That's absurd!"

"Is it now?" Silver jumped in. "You keep accusing Blue of being a murderer, but you could be saying that just to keep the spotlight away from you!" The Exchanger then spun around to face Yellow. "And what about you? You've been pointing fingers at her as well. Isn't she your best friend? But maybe you're better friends with Green than I thought. Neither of you were in the same group, either!"

"W-what?" Yellow gasped. "S-Silver! I-I—"

"But you seem to be defending her so much," Gold remarked. "Crystal and Lyra are dead, but you only seem to be concerned about Blue! With her missing, the both of you could have done this!"

"Are you serious, Gold?" Silver stepped closer to the Breeder. "I can't believe you're pointing fingers at me! You said you saw the murderer twice, but was that really the case? You were the last person to see the murderer when they were killing Crystal and Lyra…or maybe you murdered them yourself and then hurt yourself on purpose in the bathroom so that we could find you!"

"Why you—!" Gold suddenly threw a fist at Silver, the redhead narrowly ducking the punch.

"Hey!" Red lunged at Gold and pinned him to the ground while Green grabbed Silver's arms from behind.

"Get off of me, Red!" Gold flailed beneath Red, but the Battler refused to move.

"No!" Red yelled. "This is not the time to be fighting! Calm down!"

"Dammit…!" Silver said through gritted teeth. "Get off of me!" He shoved the Trainer backward.

"I'm done, just let me go!" Gold stopped moving, prompting Red to finally get up. Red offered to help him off the ground, but Gold slapped his hand away.

"Guys, us fightin' isn' makin' things any easier…" Bill slumped his shoulders and frowned. "This is pointless."

"It's hard to stay focused on much else when we know that at least one of us is a killer," Ruby said. "I don't know what to say about Blue. And I don't need any death glares from you, redhead." That last sentence had been directed at Silver, who had glanced at Ruby at the mention of Blue.

"Well, I'm not sure if there's any point in asking what we should do now…" Yellow yawned.

"What time is it?" Wally asked.

Pearl glanced at his Pokétch. "Close to three."

"I'm so tired…" Yellow slumped to the floor, White sitting down next to her as they were still holding hands. Cheren had let go of the brown-haired girl's hand when she sat down.

"Without knowing where Blue is and the idea that there are two killers left in this mansion makes the idea of sleep impossible," Diamond said. "Unless at least six or seven of us stay awake and maybe switch off in an hour or something."

"I'm not tired," Green said.

"I'm staying awake," Silver said. "All night if I have to."

"Same here," Red said.

"Since I was accused of working with Green, I'll be on the shift opposite of him," Cheren said.

"Yellow and White need sleep the most," Bill said. "Who else is really tired?" Wally, Diamond and Platinum all raised their hands. "Okay, so Yellow, White, Cheren, Wally, Platinum and Diamond will sleep first. That leaves Red, Green, Gold, Silver, Ruby, Pearl and I to stay on guard. Are we gonna jus' stay in here? I reckon it won' be comfortable…"

"I don't want to be the one to suggest anything else, because I really don't want anymore fingers pointed at me," Platinum sighed, "but we should stay in my room. It's one of the biggest rooms in the house, and there are plenty of blankets and pillows so we can relax and be comfortable. We need to remain in one place until morning."

"That's fine," Cheren said. "Lead the way. And hold hands with someone else."

Because of the previous arguments, the hand-holding groups changed. Cheren, White and Yellow were still together, along with Ruby and Wally and Diamond and Pearl, but Platinum was now holding hands with Gold, Red held Bill's hand, and Green reluctantly held Silver's hand. Platinum's room was the last room on the south side of the mansion and the only bedroom on the first floor, besides her father's room down the hall.

"Okay, we're here," Platinum said. She reached for the doorknob and turned it. The group stepped inside while Platinum flipped the light switch.

There was no time to relax. Yellow may have been tired, but her eyes widened upon the grisly sight before her. White screamed beside the Healer.

Sure, they found Blue. But not alive. She was killed in a similar fashion to the others, this time with a knife through her heart.