Another chapter while I still have internet! Thanks for reviews again :)


Kurt flicked the lights out and then climbed back into bed beside Santana. She shifted over to the edge and turned on her side so that he could slide in beside her. Kurt was still quite annoyed with her because of her treatment of Blaine, and he was also a little embarrassed to be sharing a bed with her especially remembering the way he'd cuddled with her the night before. But it was fairly cold that night, and Kurt's sleeping bag was thin, so he ended up curling closer despite this.

There were a few moments of awkward silence where all they heard was each other's breathing, and then Blaine spoke.

"Santana," He sounded as if he were trying not to cry. "I know you- uh- you think I'm actually a murder and I'm killing your friends, so I know how you feel. If I found the killer I'd behave the same way you are. So I get it. I know it seems suspicious and everyone probably hates me-"

"Blaine, no!" Kurt interrupted "No one hates you."

"Just wait, Kurt," Blaine shushed him and took a deep breath before starting again. "So, Santana I'm sorry there's nothing I can do to prove myself to you. But I swear I'm not the killer. I would never do that and it kills me to think that you might hate me for no reason. I-"

Blaine started crying. "I love this Glee Club. At Dalton I was happy and I had good friends, but- but here it's even better. I mean, you guys are like family. And I felt accepted ever since I arrived. And you liked me for me before you liked me for my talent. I want to help protect you, not kill you. And even if I hated you all, I still wouldn't do thing because I- I love Kurt. I love him so much. I just- Kurt, I love you."

His sobbing was getting louder but as Kurt tried to reach out and comfort him, Santana held him back. She hissed "let him finish."

"So I would never do this. I couldn't hurt him like this." Blaine finished. "Santana, please. Let me be near Kurt. Let me be there to defend him."

Santana was silent for a long time.

"I don't want to believe you, Sméagol, but you're convincing." Santana made the change from her Gollum nickname, to Sméagol. It was a little better. At least he wasn't the evil Gollum anymore, but the seemingly redeemable Sméagol. So Blaine realised she might just be starting to believe him. "So maybe I'll let you and Kurt hang out. But I'll be watching you. Remember that."

"Thank you," Blaine said. "Thank you so much."

Santana grunted and scrambled to the end of the bed. With another grunt she pulled Blaine's bed up against her and Kurt's.

"There. Be a part of the family. But I'm still sleeping between you and Kurt." Santana concluded.

Blaine looked a little startled. He was still gripping the sides where he'd held on to keep his balance while the bed moved. He was frozen.

"Th-Thank you," He said at last. Santana climbed into bed beside him and curled close to Kurt again.

"Whatever," She said. "Got to sleep,"

Brittany giggled and all three heads turned to face her.

"I like this much better." She said. Then her face became thoughtful. "And also, I worked out who put the axe in Blaine's bag."

"What? Who?" Kurt asked, jerking up to lean on his elbow and watching Brittany intently.

"The cat!" Brittany announced. She was beaming.

Santana and Kurt exchanged a look.

"Oh right," Blaine agreed.

The two seemed to have come to some joint realisation, but Kurt and Santana looked completely confused.

"Sorry but are you two high?" Santana asked.

"No," Blaine said with a brief laugh. He looked as if he were thinking very hard. "Brittany just means that last night she saw someone in our room. She thinks it was a floating cat and told me about it in the morning. I guessed she must have been dreaming, but maybe it was the killer."

"Damn," Santana breathed.

"Are you sure you don't think that it's a cat?" Brittany asked.

"I doubt it was a cat, Britt." Kurt said with a small smile.

"But maybe the cat planted the axe?" Brittany suggested.

"I think a very sneaky person planted the axe and pretended they were a cat." Santana explained.

"Oh!" Blaine gasped, sitting straight up in bed. "Oh!"

"What?" Santana and Kurt were quick to ask.

"Pretended they were a cat," Blaine repeated. "Brittany, you said that you asked if it was a cat and it said it was. You told me that in the morning."

"Yes," Brittany said. "But it wasn't a cat, Blaine. Santana just explained. It was someone pretending they were a cat."

"No, I know that," Blaine said. "But you heard their voice. What did they sound like?"

Kurt and Santana turned eagerly to Brittany as well.

"Kind of in the middle of low and high. And it was a nice voice, and familiar. But not. As if someone was talking kinda different." Brittany said slowly. She looked a little baffled by the memory. "But then I was quite tired. So I can't really remember. I'm so sorry guys."

"That's okay," Kurt said. "We understand the feeling."

"Are you sure you couldn't place it?" Blaine asked.

Brittany sighed. "No, I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Britt." Santana sighed. "Just get some sleep then."

"Goodnight," Brittany said.

"Goodnight" was the collective reply.

Quinn, Rachel and Mercedes were all quite close. There was only a metre or so of space between their beds.

"Sorry I haven't had the chance to talk to you much," Mercedes said to her two friends. "I'm so glad nothing happened to you, or I would have felt awful. I mean, Blaine could have passed anyone that apple!"

"It's not Blaine!" Rachel said.

"Oh," Mercedes said, surprised by Rachel's protest. "What makes you say that? It seemed pretty suspicious to me…"

"That's the whole thing. Blaine is pretty smart. So I don't think he'd be dumb enough to take out that axe unless he had no idea it was in there. Which means it's not his axe." Quinn said. It seemed she agreed with Rachel on the matter.

Mercedes hesitated. "I don't know… I mean, it was also Blaine who gave Tina the apple." She said.

"True," Quinn said, "But I still think it could just as easily been anyone else."

"I still think it's Puck," Rachel said.

"I still don't." Quinn argued.

"But-"

"No, it's going to be someone really unobvious. Someone we don't suspect! I was starting to think Mike until today." Quinn said. "And it just proves why I don't like suspecting people. We'll almost always be wrong no matter what."

"Blaine and Puck still seem like fairly accurate suspects." Mercedes said slowly.

"I won't give up on convincing you it's Puck, Quinn." Rachel said. "I don't want you getting hurt."

"I'm not getting hurt!" Quinn snapped. "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. Now go to sleep."

The other two sighed. They didn't understand Quinn aversion to guessing the killer. But they respected her wishes and at least attempted to sleep.

All the boys, minus Kurt and Blaine, lay silently for a moment.

"I can't believe it's Blaine." Finn broke the silence. He sounded stunned.

"What? It's not Blaine." Puck scoffed.

The boys were surprised. Puck was the next greatest suspect after Blaine. Why would he deny that it was Blaine?

"Why not?" Mike asked. His voice had gained a lot of bitterness since Tina's death. When they talked about trivial matters, Mike hardly seemed interested. When they talked about the killer he seemed very much in pain. Even though it had only been that afternoon, they had already noticed the marked difference.

"Blaine and Kurt are my boys! I know it's not them." Puck said.

In the moonlight shining through the window Puck could see Finn raise an eyebrow at him.

"Shut up. I know it sounds cheesy." Puck said. "But it's true."

"He had the axe. How could it not be him?" Finn sounded very confused. "And why can't we just grab him and lock him up or something?"

"Because it's not him," Sam said it this time.

Finn turned to face his bed. "You too?"

"Puck's right, I just think Blaine's too smart to get caught. I'm not even that smart but if I was killing people I wouldn't take out the axe in my room in the evening. That'd be foolish." Sam shrugged. "And Blaine's my friend."

"I'm not saying Blaine's the killer, but that's a dumb reason to trust him." Artie said. "You're only really close to Blaine because you told him you like Mercedes and he gave you some advice."

"What?" Sam spluttered. "Who says I like Mercedes?"

"Do you think we're blind?" Artie asked with a smug smile. "We saw you looking at her in the lake and then Blaine going and talking to you. What else would you be talking about?"

"Great," Sam sighed deeply. "I hope she doesn't know as well since I'm apparently super obvious."

"Why do you care?" Finn asked. "You've never had a problem telling girls you like them before. You're usually pretty open."

"Yeah I know," Sam said sadly. "I just don't want to get her attached to me when I might die. And I can protect her and stuff without trying to win her heart or anything. I think she just wants to be friends anyway. I mean I'd love to tell her in other circumstances… and I had plenty of opportunity. I can't believe I never noticed her this way before. I feel so blind."

There were some snickers at his heartfelt comments. When Sam fell for girls, he fell hard and fast.

"Gee, we're all so cheesy today." Sam said, grinning. He rolled his eyes as the laughter increased.

"Can we sleep?" Mike asked dully from his bed in the far corner.

It was Tina's bed and the pillow still smelt like her. But it didn't help Mike when he was feeling so depressed. It just made him miss her more.

His sadness broke the teasing mood and there was a pause.

"A-Are you okay Mike?" Sam asked at last. They all thought Mike might feel better after talking about it. But it was hard to know how to bring up the subject. Mike had spent some time that afternoon crying as Ms Pillsbury hugged him, and they knew he'd seemed less horrified with her comfort. They wanted to comfort him too.

"What do you think, Artie?" Mike said.

"I just… wish we could help." Artie said.

"You can't help. If any of you were the killer, you might have been able to help. But instead you ruined everything." Mike's voice was shaking with emotion. "And I will never get Tina back. But I will live for her. And that life begins with me finding out who killed her and getting them behind bars where they will never escape."

"Mike-"

"And then I will become a dancer because she always told me that was what I should do." Mike continued as if Sam hadn't tried to speak. "That's what I'll focus on because I have no one else. And Tina will always be on my mind"

"Mike you're not alone." Sam managed to finish the sentence this time. "We're going to help you."

There was another pause as Mike seemed to choke on his words.

"Thank you Sam." He finally said.

The relief in the room at Mike accepting their help was almost tangible.

That night Kurt woke up to find that the room was boiling hot, and he was curled into Santana's side. He groaned and turned over, rolling away from her. Brittany was on his other side, mumbling something in her sleep. Kurt quickly unzipped his sleeping bag and let the cold air rush in. But Santana was still pressed against his side, and Brittany's bed was just as hot. He was in the exact middle anyway, so moving wouldn't help him escape the heat.

With a sigh, Kurt shuffled to the end of the bed and hopped on onto the floor. Now that he was awake he sort of needed to pee. He ran a hand through his hair. It was gross and sweaty, so he took his towel out of his bag and then left towards the toilets. He closed the door quietly and tiptoed towards the toilets.

"Oh, Hi Kurt," Puck's voice startled him and he let out a quiet scream that didn't really echo loud enough for anyone to hear.

He turned back around to the door he's just passed and saw Puck standing shirtless in his doorway.

"Hi," Kurt squeaked, gulping as he eyed the muscles in Puck's arm. Kurt's voice was stuck his throat and he just stared wide-eyed as Puck shut the door behind him and walked towards Kurt, looming taller the closer he got.

"It's really hot tonight." Puck said in a casual voice, reaching a hand towards Kurt. Kurt's eyes squeezed shut as he cowered backwards.

"Please," He whimpered.

"Woah, dude what's wrong." Puck asked, reaching past him and turning the door handle to the bathroom. Kurt blinked in surprise and stepped backward into the bathroom, putting space between him and Puck.

"Oh right," Puck realised. "You think I'm going to kill you."

Kurt still hadn't relaxed.

"Well, I'm not." Puck said. He walked into a toilet cubicle, unzipping his fly as he went. The tension disappeared from Kurt's body when Puck was out of sight. He realised that if Puck was going to kill him, he would have already done so. "I'm not the killer. So…"

Suddenly a toilet flushed behind him and the door opened.

"Mercedes?" Kurt asked as she stepped out, He hadn't even noticed that she was here.

"Hey Kurt," She smiled and continued jokingly. "I see Puck hasn't killed you yet."

"Ha. Ha." Puck said sarcastically from his own stall, before flushing his toilet as well. "I wouldn't kill you anyone, and I hope you guys know that."

They nodded, though they didn't actually look convinced.

When Puck came out to wash his hands, Kurt went to the toilet himself. The three of them had a brief conversation, asking Puck how Mike was feeling.

Then Kurt disappeared into a shower with his towel, Mercedes teasing call of "How many showers do you have?" was answered with a defensive "It's hot okay. I need a cool shower," before Kurt was left alone in the bathroom and Puck and Mercedes went out the door to go back to their rooms.

When Kurt stepped out of the shower with his towel again, it was to see Finn walking in.

"Oh hi little brother," Finn said. "Puck told me you might still be in here. He woke me up and now I need to pee."

"Hi Finn," Kurt smiled. "How're you doing? I haven't talked to you for a while."

"I'm holding up." Finn said. "You?"

"I'm alright. Just as upset as anyone," Kurt was looking at his feet. "It's hard. You know."

Kurt blinked hard as if he was holding back tears.

"Come on dude, give me a hug." Finn said, holding out his arms. Kurt smiled and stepped into them. Finn still smelled like their home. It was comforting.

"I'll let you go pee." Kurt said. "Goodnight Finn."

"Goodnight," Finn replied. "I'll be looking out for you."

"Thank you," Kurt said. He opened the door and slipped back out into the Hall.

In front of him Rachel was shutting her own bedroom door. She checked around her and started when she saw Kurt.

"Good, it's only you." She said as she recognised him.

"Hello Rachel," Kurt stifled a yawn. "What're you doing up?"

"Um… Mercedes woke me when she came in." Rachel glanced back behind her. "So… I'm going to the loo. She said Puck might be out here, so I was a little scared."

"No he went back to bed when Mercedes left." Kurt assured her.

"Well good, I'll go pee then." Rachel said.

"Goodnight," Kurt said, a teasing smile gracing his face. "Don't spend too long kissing Finn, you need some sleep."

"Finn's in there?" Rachel's face lit up. "Okay, goodnight Kurt!"

And this time she strode purposefully down the corridor. Kurt walked on to the next door over from Rachel's, chuckling as he reached his own room.

When Will woke up, he clutched his head and sat up slowly. The room was very dark, and so he reached out for the light switch of his bedside lamp. As he fumbled his fingertips reached crackling paper.

Mr Schue sat straight up in bed and quickly flicked the light on, wide awake all of a sudden. He unfolded the paper and read as quickly as he could.

Once Upon a time there was a beautiful princess named Cinderella. She was kind and sweet and caring in disposition, perhaps too much for her own good. In fact, Cinderella's nurturing and motherly qualities were bound to before an annoyance eventually. It was especially bad when your Cinderella didn't turn out to be nearly as much of a nervous wreck as I expected she would be in this situation. She had to go really.

So one night Cinderella was out in beautiful gown and she forgot the time. But Cinderella should not have been out after midnight. And when midnight came, she didn't have the time to run away. And at twelve on the dot, she fled, losing her slipper as she ran. But unluckily for her, midnight was already past.

It was too late.

The End.

Will quickly tossed the paper aside and flung his dressing gown on.

"Emma, wake up!" He called to the lump in her duvet where Emma had curled up the night before, determined to get her rest. "Someone's dead again!"

And he flew out the door and down the corridor, pounding on the doors of the cabins and calling for a meeting in the Hall. He was about to find out who had died that night.

He wasn't going to forgive himself when he saw who it was.


And there you go :) This chapter has been a little shorter than the others, but I hope you'll still love it and review! I'd love, as always, to hear guesses on who the killer is, or friendships and pairing you want to see more of.