AN/ WOW! THOSE REVIEWS CAME IN SO, SO QUICK GUYS, THANK YOU!

IT'S BEEN SUCH A BUSY DAY TODAY, BUT AS PROMISED, HERE'S THE NEXT INSTALLMENT. AS USUAL, AS SOON AS THIS PART HITS FIVE REVIEWS, I'LL POST THE NEXT ONE!

READ AND ENJOY…

After killing an hour in the shops, Cheryl and Toni decided to head over to Thistlehouse.

"You sure we're okay doing this?" Toni whispered as Cheryl unlocked the door.

"Mother's car's gone." Cheryl pointed out, swinging the front door open.

"But where to?"

"To the Maple Syrup meeting, I believe." Cheryl replied, "To be honest, I really don't care where she is TT, as long as she isn't here."

Toni nodded at that, completely understanding Cheryl's elation at her mother's absence. "How long do we have until she gets back?"

Cheryl shrugged her shoulders. "Depends on when she went out. A few hours I guess, but I don't know for sure."

As the pair walked up to Cheryl's room, Toni felt herself get swept over by the darkness of Thistlehouse. Feeling that familiar chill in her spine, Toni reached out and grabbed Cheryl's hand, squeezing it to check that she wasn't alone.

"What's up, Topaz?" Cheryl teased, "Scared of the dark?"

Toni grimaced at Cheryl's words. "Not so much the dark as the things hiding in it."

"There's nothing hiding in here," Cheryl insisted as the she collapsed on the bed, gesturing for Toni to join her. The Serpent obliged, but froze when she heard creaking floorboards above them. She turned, looking at Cheryl in terror.

"So, what's that, Cheryl?" she whispered, suddenly wishing she had just stayed at school.

Cheryl looked just as shocked as Toni, caught between frustration and dismay.

"Penelope?" A voice called from somewhere else in the house. "Is that you back?"

Both girls instantly froze hearing that.

"Cheryl?" The Serpent whispered. "What do we do?"

The redhead was frozen in stunned silence. Who was in her house? Clearly not her mother, and then she remembered… Claudius.

Of course. The mere thought of her uncle made Cheryl's stomach turn. The uncle that had shown up, determined to steal her Nana Rose's third of the business. The uncle that was conspiring with her mother, plotting something bad, for Nana Rose first, then herself. Caught in a blind panic, she glanced at Toni, who was staring at her, her face a picture of concern, waiting for Cheryl to give her some direction.

"We need to go." Cheryl muttered, getting up from the bed, pulling Toni up with her. "We need to go, now," she repeated, moving out of her room as fast as she dared, checking Toni was right behind her, creeping down the hallways until they reached the kitchen. "Through here!" she whispered, all but pushing Toni out of the back door, silently closing it behind her.

The pair ran down the cobbled path in the back garden of Thistlehouse until they reached the woods, only stopping when they were sure the trees concealed them. Sitting down on a broken log, Cheryl breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was a close one." Cheryl whispered, her heart still pounding. "I can't believe I did that – we shouldn't have come back here. I'm –"

"Don't you dare say you're sorry Cheryl Blossom" Toni interrupted, "You weren't to know there'd be someone in."

"I should have. And either way, I shouldn't have brought us back here, not alone anyway."

"Cheryl, what happened last night after I left?"

Cheryl glanced at Toni, looking down at her fingers tapping the bark. Tapping things, whether it be desks, her phone, her leg and now – it appeared – logs, had always been a nervous habit of Cheryl's. Looking up at Toni, Cheryl considered telling Toni what she'd overheard.

"Toni," she quivered, her voice shaking. "What I'm going to tell you now, you aren't going to like –"

"Cheryl, I need to know what's happening: whatever issues they have, there is no way they're allowed to make you feel like you have to run in terror from them –"

"But you have to promise me that you won't get angry, okay? And whatever happens, you mustn't let on – to anybody – that either you, or I, know any of this."

"Cheryl, you're worrying me now. Of course I won't get angry, but I need you to say."

The redhead took a deep breath in, carefully contemplating her next words. Trying to what little composure she had left, Cheryl opened her mouth to speak. "After you left, I went to the kitchen. To get a glass of water," she stammered, "And they were there; in the lounge."

"Who? Your mother and Claudius?"

Cheryl nodded at Toni's interruption, gulping as she prepared to tell her the next part. "They were talking, at first about the Lodge's. Claudius: Claudius said he was going to get his own back on them, to get them out of the way."

"Well, we knew he was shady –"

"But then my mother cut him off. And what she said, what she said was terrifying TT. She said it had to wait. She said, it had to wait, because they needed to deal with Nana Rose first, then me."

"What do you mean, 'deal with'?"

"Exactly what you think I mean."

"Who the fuck do they think they are?" The Serpent blurted out, seething. Toni suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to march right back to Thistlehouse and give Claudius a piece of her mind. She found herself desperate to tell Penelope Blossom exactly what she thought of her, and stand up for her girlfriend, who – quite clearly – was too scared to deal with them head on. Seeing red, Toni stood up and walked away from Cheryl, her fists clenched. There was no way those two cowards were going to threaten her girlfriend like that and get away with it. Not while Toni was around, anyway.

"I can't believe it. That bitch is actually crazy. She's psychotic. She's prepared to hurt you and your grandmother? What kind of mother does that? Hang on, what kind of mother constantly treats her daughter like crap, I hate her Cheryl. She's going to pay for what she said, I'm not going to let her hurt you. Just wait 'till I see that bitch, the second I see her stuck up, snobbish face, that's it, I –"

"Toni, you promised," Cheryl whispered, noticing how Toni's posture had suddenly become tensed, as if the Serpent was preparing herself for a fight. "Please, calm down," she pleaded, walking over to Toni and placing a soothing hand on the girl's shoulder. Seeing her words hadn't had any effect on the Serpent, she begged "Toni…"

Hearing that, Toni turned to look into Cheryl's eyes; Cheryl's deep brown eyes. The eyes that, in this moment in time, were concealed by fear and a blind panic, eyes that looked like a doe's, like the eyes of the deer the moment it gets caught in the headlights. Looking into those eyes, Toni saw that Cheryl was scared by her outburst, and Toni knew that her reaction was not something Cheryl needed to see. The girl was already living in terror of her family; she needed a soothing and supportive presence in her girlfriend.

"I'm sorry." Toni whispered, immediately ashamed for how she was acting. "I'm sorry. I'm just so angry that they'd consider doing something like that –"

"It's not just an idea," Cheryl confessed, and seeing the way Toni's eyes narrowed, she elaborated, "I think they're putting it into motion. I think they want to kill me, Toni."

Toni stood in silence, mulling over Cheryl's words. "That's why you've invited everyone over tonight, isn't it?" she asked, looking at Cheryl for confirmation.

The redhead nodded silently.

Extending her hand to the redhead, Toni helped Cheryl up, pulling her close. "You are a genius, Cheryl Blossom. You are a genius."

"I didn't think they'd try anything if there were guests in the house."

"I doubt they will either." Toni agreed, wrapping her arm that much tighter around the redhead's waist. "It's bought us some time to think, to get something figured out."

"What do you mean, get something figured out?"

"Cheryl, you are not going to spend another night alone in that haunted house of doom on my watch. I'm going to break you out of there, I promise."

"Toni…" Cheryl hollered, but whatever she was planning to say was interrupted by her phone buzzing. Toni looked at Cheryl, eyebrows raised in suspicion. "It's okay," Cheryl announced. "It's just Betty saying they're coming over now. We'd better head back."

Neither girl had realised that they had been outside for almost two hours, hiding in the woods.

"Let's go." Toni said, and the pair began to walk back through the trees, carefully navigating the twisting path back to Thistlehouse.

Three hours later, the five girls were sat on the floor in Cheryl's room, completing the age-old tradition of hair brushing at a sleepover. Absentmindedly running her fingers through Toni's endless curls, Cheryl knew it was time to break the news to the others. She'd seen their expressions earlier, and knew that they needed some explanation for why they'd all been told they were sleeping at Thistlehouse that night.

"Inner circle, Cousin Betty," Cheryl began, deciding now was as good a time as any to speak up, "I didn't just bring you to Thistlehouse for a girlish slumber party." Pausing, she contemplated her next words before continuing. "The truth is, I'm terrified of being alone here: there's a stranger in this house, my Uncle Claudius, he's as mad as the sea and ever since he blew in I feel like I'm in mortal peril."

Not realising that Cheryl was deadly serious about telling the others, Toni questioned it – because Cheryl was normally so guarded about her fears with other people. "Wait, I'm confused, is this real or are we playing a game?"

"All too real, TT," Cheryl replied, with a reassuring glance at Toni that silently told the brunette that she needed the others to know this. Breathing in, she continued. "I fear they're plotting against me and Nana Rose. Mumsy cultivates esoteric herbs in the conservatory, Tanis Root, jimsonweed, I'm afraid to eat for fear of being poisoned," Cheryl blurted out, noticing the way Toni's eyes narrowed as she said this, instantly understanding what Cheryl was getting at.

However the other girls, Josie in particular, weren't as easily convinced. Disbelieving, Josie interrupted the redhead's spiel. "Cheryl," the Pussycat began, "Are you sure you're not… imagining things?"

"Well if she is Josie," Betty interjected, "then maybe I am too." The gazes of the other four girls all focused on Betty, their collective eyebrow raise demanding that the blonde continue. "There's a stranger in my life too," the blonde elaborated, "Chic. With him lurking behind every corner, my house feels…"

"Dangerous." Cheryl stated, finishing Betty's sentence because she could relate all too well to how the Cooper girl felt. Noticing how Betty looked at her, a look that told her she'd got it exactly right, Cheryl continued. "Deadly." Betty nodded at her. Overwhelmed, and relieved that there was somebody else who could understand just even slightly what she meant, Cheryl gave the blonde a soft smile, a gesture rarely seen coming from the redhead. "I sympathise."

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes after that, as all the girls tried to digest what Cheryl and Betty had just told them. What little fun this sleepover had before their confessions had evaporated from the room, leaving a sinister, almost tense atmosphere. To Toni, it was as if the darkness of Thistlehouse had begun to work its way inside of each and every one of them, getting deep into their bodies, burying itself in the back of their minds, at the bottom of their spine, in the pit of their stomachs, leaving a lingering sense of fear, desperate to make at least one of the girls crack.

All of the girls had one thought, and that thought was exactly the same in each of them. They were all desperate for this night to be over, desperate for morning to come, because when the sun rose, they could leave, and return to their own houses; houses where they didn't have to live in fear of strange figures haunting the hallways, houses where they didn't have to sleep with one eye open because they didn't know what would happen next. They were so desperate for morning to come in fact, that when Veronica declared she was exhausted, Josie jumped straight in and said she was in dire need of sleep; that perhaps going to bed was a good idea.

There was no dispute to this from any of the girls, despite it only being half nine.

Betty, Veronica and Josie were sprawled out on the floor of Cheryl's bedroom, fast asleep, leaving Toni and Cheryl awake in Cheryl's bed. Both girls united in their fight against sleep, but both fighting unconsciousness for completely different reasons. Cheryl, paralysed with fear, her gaze fixated on the doorknob, watching it in terrified anticipation, waiting for whoever roamed the corridors last night to attempt to break in again. Toni, restless with anger, diverting her gaze anywhere in the room except the door and the girl lying in bed beside her.

"Full disclosure," Cheryl whispered, turning her body over so she was facing Toni, desperate to seek some form of comfort from her girlfriend in the darkness. The two were laid face to face, with only a few inches distance between them. "I didn't want to invite all the girls tonight," she said, her fingers tracing an absentminded pattern on her legs. Toni looked at Cheryl expectantly, already knowing what the redhead was going to say next, "but I knew my hideous mother would never allow me to invite just you." She paused, taking into account Toni's knowing smile, noticing just how close they had gotten. "Just what I craved…"

The two looked at each other with a shared understanding, both riding the same train of thought. Instinctively, the pair moved closer, eagerly anticipating that moment when their lips would finally meet. They were so close now that Cheryl could feel Toni's breath on her face, and edged that bit closer to bridge the distance once and for all. Feeling her lips graze Toni's, Cheryl's eyes widened in anticipation as she leaned in closer, only to jump apart when she heard a massive clatter coming from outside the bedroom…

Within a heartbeat, Cheryl seemed to have jumped out of her bed and have left the room, running through the hallways of Thistlehouse, desperate to locate the source of the sound. Toni followed in hot pursuit, leaving the other three – in their disorientated, sleep muddled state – to clumsily navigate the passages of Thistlehouse, trying to piece together what could possibly have happened to inspire such panic.

Flying on to the landing, Cheryl glanced over the banister and froze, letting out one long, shrill, bloodcurdling scream.

Veronica glanced down and her jaw dropped in horror, as did the jaw of every other girl.

Cheryl couldn't control the way she screamed as she stared at the body of her beloved Nana Rose sprawled out on the floor, as still as a statue. From the way the old woman was lying, it was clear that the clatter had been her, and that Rosanne Blossom had taken an unprecedented trip down the steep stairs of Thistlehouse. But the question that begged to be asked, as Cheryl fled down the stairs to her Nana Rose's side, wasn't a question of if her beloved Nana was okay, it was who had done this, because Cheryl had a sneaking suspicion that this was a prime example of Penelope Blossom's foul play.

Everything that happened after was a blur. Penelope pushing past the girls, Claudius hot on her heels, as they discovered Nana Rose on the floor. Veronica dialling 911, and hurriedly demanding an ambulance. The shrill siren of an ambulance making its way up the winding driveway, its red and blue lights bouncing off of the dark, oppressive walls of Thistlehouse. The paramedics rushing in, pulling Nana Rose away from Cheryl, gently placing the old woman onto a stretcher, checking her vital signs as they pulled her into the ambulance, in a desperate rush to try and restore some life to the woman.

Standing outside, Cheryl didn't know what to do.

"A fall like that should have killed her." The paramedic announced to Penelope and Claudius as the team prepared to take Nana Rose to hospital. "She's a lucky woman."

"Yes, that she is," Claudius replied, with a slight edge of bitterness to his voice.

Hearing that, Cheryl felt herself being flashed back to breakfast that morning, to when Nana Rose had told them that she wasn't dead yet, and to wait until then to start thieving her third of the business like butchers. That bitterness reminded Cheryl of the look the pair had shared, and gave her a nasty suspicion that the two events were linked.

"She always loses her sense at nightfall," Penelope drawled, watching the other paramedics' gesture that it was time to go, "classic sundowner's syndrome."

Cheryl stood frowning at that exchange, deadly certain that her mother was lying through her teeth.

Cheryl's frown and ice cold glare did not go amiss by Toni, who noticed the way her girlfriend was stood, arms crossed, watching the conversation giving the pair with the paramedic a look that was downright murderous.

"Cheryl," Toni began, her voice flooded with concern. "What is it?" she asked, hoping the redhead would open up.

"He's wearing my father's pyjamas." Cheryl muttered through gritted teeth, shaking slightly when Penelope looked over and made eye contact with her.

"What?" Toni inquired, completely confused as to why Cheryl had pointed out that detail in particular.

"My uncle Claudius." Cheryl paused, carefully thinking about her next words. She had no way of predicting how her girlfriend would react to them, but right now, she needed someone else to know. "Toni, I think they pushed my Nana down the stairs. I think I'm next…"

AN/ WELL, WASN'T THAT A DRAMATIC END TO A DRAMATIC CHAPTER… I'M GETTING CHILLS! OKAY GUYS, I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED READING THAT AS MUCH AS I DID WRITING IT, AND DON'T FORGET TO DROP A REVIEW SO I CAN POST WHAT HAPPENS NEXT! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING!