Escape the Night: An Invitation

A/N: Here's part two of what had been a single chapter originally.

Read, review, and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Escape the Night. I just own any and all characters that I just happen create.

CHAPTER NINE: SEARCHING FOR KEYS PART TWO

"Come on, man," Benny was saying to Shane, who was wheezing and Arthur was holding a napkin to his mouth to slow the blood, "just hang in there a little be longer."

'Please don't die,' Eva thought, silently praying. 'Please, please don't die!'

Joey was getting worried that the others weren't going to make it, and there was still the fact that they didn't know who had poisoned his friend. "Who poisoned him? That's my question."

'The maid, the maid,' Eva thought, quickly glancing at Sarah, who was standing nearby with a cold expression, 'it has to be, she poisoned him, she's going to kill me…'

"You know what?" GloZell asked, pointing an accusing finger at Eva. "It could be you, because you were off with him. You're the only one who had access to him."

"Yeah!" Joey agreed.

Eva's heart sank. She should've known this was coming. She was the last one alone with Shane, so of course she was going to top everyone's list of suspects. Even if she tried to tell them the truth, they sure as hell wouldn't believe her, and since Shane was too sick to speak, he couldn't back up her story. "I was peeing!"

"Peeing with poison!" Joey scoffed.

"Guys, this isn't the time to jump to conclusions," Dawn objected, fixing them all with a stern look to cover up the fact that she was really freaked out by all of this. "And making wild accusations isn't going to save Shane either. Let's focus on saving him from the poison and then try to figure out who would do this to him."

Bart stood and glared at her. "Really?" he challenged. "Sounds more like you're trying to divert our attention."

"Bart, Dawn's right," Benny agreed. "Arguing with each other isn't going to solve anything, and either is making assumptions with too little information."

In the foyer, Oli was trying to get the box out of the box maze, and neither Lele nor Matt were making it any easier, especially since they were running out of time. "Pinch it up, pinch it up," he repeated, as if it was some sort of mantra. They've been working on this box for what felt like years now, and he was honestly getting sick and tired of fumbling around in there.

And from the looks of it, so was Lele. "It can't go up!" she complained through gritted teeth, pushing at the box as if it's a wall she was trying to break down.

At least Matt had finally started helping. He'd got his hand stuck through a different hole, nudging the box towards Lele and Oli in a final desperate attempt to make some progress. "I've got it all the way in the back right now."

Oli had never been so frustrated in his life. He had no idea where this box is going, they need the key, Shane was still dying, and Lele and Matt were rolling their eyes and glaring at each other. This entire situation was a complete and utter mess, and a part of Oli wanted to throw in the towel right now.

'Concentrate,' he told himself, and, by extension, Lele and Matt. 'Keep trying. If we ever want to get this key out, we need to work as a team.'

Back in the dining room, GloZell decided to start accusing Joey instead of Eva, and Bart was backing her up by accusing Dawn, too.

"Joey, you know what?" she snapped, her patience damn near close to the breaking point. "I think you might have done it."

"And I'm pretty darn sure that Dawn helped you do it," Bart added.

Joey and Dawn both stared at them like they had gone nuts, and with how the night was currently going, it was highly possible. "What? Why do you think we did it?"

'Oh, don't you play innocent with me, sweetheart,' GloZell thought. "He has more followers than you," she growled. "You probably tried to kill him!"

"And you probably helped him do it, Dawn!" Bart added, jabbing a finger at the actress. "You've probably kill people all the time!"

Dawn was now certain that Bart wasn't playing with a full deck. "When have I ever killed anyone?" she demanded. "When?!"

"You do it all the time on those shows and movies," Bart stated.

"They're freaking works of fiction!" Dawn shrieked. "I'd never killed a real person in my whole life!"

"You think I'd want to kill Shane?" Joey asked GloZell, dumbfounded since he and Shane were good friends and he was trying to tune out the bickering between Bart and Dawn. "Why would I wanna kill Shane?"

"To take over his accounts!" Eva piped up.

"I don't get access…" Joey stumbled over his words and actually laughed since that was impossible. "The person who kills someone doesn't get their YouTube account!"

But GloZell had stopped listening to Joey's nonsense ages ago. "You are the…the YouTube killer."

And he laughed again. "The YouTube killer…"

"You know what-" Joey began

"Zip-zap-a-doop-bappa-doop-ba-doop!" GloZell snapped, cutting him off. 'My love for Joey is strong, but he is tryin' me,' she fumed to herself as Joey convinced Bart to quit going after Dawn, and soon they and Eva were huddled over Shane. 'He is tryin' our love right now.'

'May you die…in horrible pain…my…cursed…enemy…' the words echoed through Shane's mind as he struggled against the ongoing pain that was consuming him despite the antidote he drunk earlier. 'Come on guys,' he thought, aware that he was fading fast, and if he died, then his mission would be stuck with his friends. 'Don't fight, work together. Please – please-'

He was having troubles focusing on anything now, even the arguing going on above him, and he was feeling like he was floating away from the pain, from everything.

'It's over for me,' he realized when he found himself standing over his body and instead of in it. 'I failed in my mission.'

"No you haven't," said a voice and Shane turned to find two people standing behind him: one was a blonde woman dressed like an Amazon and the other was an Asian male wearing black leather.

"You did what you could, and your friends will finish the mission," the Asian man informed him.

Shane shook his head. "No, not them," he protested, turning to look at his friends and at the wisps of darkness that he could now see coming out of the walls and encircling the others, slowly infecting them – all except for Dawn, who seemed to have a white glow about her. "Dawn…she's glowing. Why?"

"She has an innocence and light inside her that can't ever be corrupted," said the blonde woman. "That light will be instrumental in the battles to come."

'No wonder Dawn keeps playing heroes and protectors,' Shane thought, realization dawning on him as he only knew one type of person who had that kind of light inside them, and he was seeing one of them. "Can, can they really fulfill my mission?" he asked, turning to them. "What if they fail? They don't know about the evil in that house."

"Have faith, Shane," said the Asian man. "Right now, all any of us can have is faith."

Shane nodded, realizing that his part in events was over, even though he was young, and he went with them into a white light. It was over for him, and for his friends, it had just begun.

Deciding that he'd had enough of arguing with GloZell and Bart, Joey poked his head into the foyer to check on Oli, Lele, and Matt. His heart sank when he saw that they were still struggling with getting the key out of the box, and they only had ninety seconds left according to Arthur. 'Come on, guys,' he thought. 'Shane needs the rest of the cure!'

"Ladies and gentlemen…" Arthur began in a solemn voice and Joey spun around to face him, silently begging for him not to say the dreaded words, and yet he could see Dawn's expression, and he knew what the butler was going to say. "Time is up."

GloZell started screaming while Dawn sank to her knees with a stunned expression on her face, and Joey turned and faced his fallen friend. Shane—oh, God, Shane—had stopped convulsing; he was on the ground with his head on a pillow, lying still…too still…

"Shane is dead."

A/N: RIP Shane. Honestly, I didn't expect him to be the first to die. Did anyone see that coming at all? R&R everyone!