"Well," Ivor said, lightly. Jesse turned to look at the male who was almost the equivalent of her father now, who had an oddly calm look on his face. "I guess I'm next then."
"There's no way in hell I'm letting that happen," Jesse growled angrily, both eyes flashing red.
Petra nodded, eyes heating up. "Yeah. We're not letting that happen," she agreed. Knowing how much Petra was wary of Ivor, this actually meant quite a lot.
Lukas's fists clenched angrily, and he managed a nod through his anger. Jesse could tell he was angry because his tail was twitching quite erratically, and his pupils were literally slits. At this point it would've been more accurate to say he was pissed off beyond belief.
"I'll protect you," Jesse said, gaze softening a little as she looked at Ivor.
Ivor's dark blue eyes also softened, as he stared at Jesse. "Thank you, Jesse," he said, oddly softly, "I just hope that this 'White Pumpkin' isn't beyond both of our abilities."
Lukas relaxed a bit, eyes going more or less back to normal. "Well," he said, almost stiffly, "I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for how the White Pumpkin is doing all of this. I mean, the whole place is pretty much rigged with traps, right? TorqueDawg- trap. Sparklez- trap."
Jesse nodded, a small smile coming over her face as she said, putting one of her lower hands on her hips, "Yeah, we need to figure out what's making these traps tick."
All four of them grinned, before Jesse pointed at the still-open dining room door. "Okay, I'm going to investigate that dining room," she said to them evenly. The actual prospect of going back to the room where someone had died and where a murderer could be lurking was actually kind of terrifying, but she wasn't really letting on, besides the slightest nervous quiver of her voice.
"Cool," Petra agreed immediately, "I'll keep those guys in the hall for now so I can keep an eye on everyone."
"Excellent idea," Ivor conceded, "don't want them messing up the crime scene."
Lukas looked at Jesse, concern reflecting in his eyes. "I'm sticking with you, Jesse- doesn't really seem safe to wander off alone."
Jesse smiled gratefully at her friend, and the two of them walked back towards the dining room, as Ivor practically bellowed, "Okay, people, clear out! This is a crime scene!"
The room was still lit in the tones of blue, except for the fireplace, which glowed red and seemed to cast eerie shadows all over the whole room. Jesse crossed her arms thoughtfully as Lukas shut the door behind them. "Okay, how are you doing this, White Pumpkin?" she hummed, thoughtfully.
Jesse trotted over to the painting, and looked at it. "Hm, this was the spot where the White Pumpkin appeared, but now... it's just the portrait," she said thoughtfully, before her eyes narrowed at it. "Un... less..."
Reaching one of her upper arms back, drawing it back as far as it would go, she then threw her whole weight into the punch, breaking the painting into little pieces almost immediately. The White Pumpkin appeared, and Jesse went tense, upper arm straying towards her sword.
Nothing. Not even a twitch. Jesse relaxed, feeling immensely relieved but incredibly disappointed at the same time. "It's... just a costume. On an armor stand, with a jukebox for the voice. Don't know how it was triggered, of course..." she said, knowing that her voice sounded almost saturated with the relief she felt.
Lukas let out a low whistle, ears perking up. "Wow. The White Pumpkin must have... I dunno, Ellegaard or Olivia level redstone skills to rig up something as convoluted as this." And then his eyebrows descended thoughtfully. "... but why? Must've taken a lot of work to rig up..."
Jesse's lips twisted at this, and she was quiet for a second. "I think it was mostly a scare tactic, but... maybe it was a diversion, from whatever was going on in the room at the time," Jesse hummed thoughtfully, staring thoughtfully at the setup.
Lukas's ears perked up even more. "What, like you think the White Pumpkin was in the room with us?!" he yelped, eyes wide.
"Possibly... but like I said, it's probably most to just to scare the living daylights out of us," Jesse said, giving a slight shrug.
Lukas's ears twitched, looking almost irritated at that. "Yeah, well, it worked," he huffed.
Jesse looked stonily up at the setup one last time, before turning away from it- even knowing it was just a costume, it still creeped her out. "Yeah."
Jesse's eyes fell on the table, and she crossed her arms, walking around it. "Okay, so, this was the dining table where we were all gathered right... before..." Jesse trailed off, and her eyes darkened a little here. "Oh, hello..."
Reaching forward, Jesse tagged the button with her middle arm, and the head seat back flung backwards, a hole opening up in the floor, and sand blocks fell from the ceiling into the floor.
"Just like before-!"
The lights went out, but Jesse knew what was happening, even as the voice started going on about it being the White Pumpkin. "Yep," Lukas said, his eyes narrowing angrily, "just like before."
Jesse crossed her arms thoughtfully, glaring at the costumed armor stand as thunder struck again, the whole room flickering a bit from the lightning strike.
The doors banged open loudly, and Petra charged in. "Jesse!" she yelled, skidding a couple steps, before running towards Jesse and Lukas full tilt.
"He's back! The White Pumpkin's back!" Stampy shouted, waving his arms like pinwheels.
"No no no, don't worry, it's just a dummy," Jesse said quickly, even getting up onto the stand and poking the costume to prove her point, "a White Pumpkin costume on an armor stand."
"Wait- what? Why?" Dan asked, sharply.
Jesse crossed her arms, a shadow crossing her face. "The trap that killed Sparklez, the whole... show, with the White Pumpkin... it was all triggered by a button under the table," she said, almost darkly.
"What does that mean?" Lizzie asked, with a frown.
Jesse crossed her arms, looking up at them. She didn't know it, but right then, with most of her face clouded in shadow except for her glowing red eye, and her black armor, and her extra arms, she looked downright scary. "It means, that the killer sat right at this table."
"Wait- so you're saying that the White Pumpkin- is one of us!?" Stampy exclaimed.
Jesse nodded, her eyes moving over Dan, with his ever-changing hair color, Lizzie, with bubblegum-pink hair and a cheerful air, Stacy, who seemed a bit more cynical, Stampy, who seemed cheerful and random, and Cassie, with her glasses and perfume and her calico cat. "That's right. One of us... is a murderer."
Another loud thunder strike that rather ruined the effect, since Jesse jumped a bit at the loud clap of thunder.
"And he sat right here," Ivor said, indicating a button under the table.
Jesse blinked, shaking her head and looking bewildered. Lukas finished the thought for her. "Wait, but... that's not where Jesse found the button before!" he exclaimed.
Jesse let out a long-suffering sigh and pressed her face into her hands. "Why can things never be easy?" she complained.
"I'll see if I can find all the buttons," Lukas said, and he quickly moved around the table, stabbing arrows into the table in front of the places where he found a button.
"Nice work, Jesse," Petra said, clapping a hand to her friend's shoulder.
"Yes, I must say I'm relieved to know that there's a logical explanation for what the White Pumpkin's been doing," Ivor said, and indeed his face looked less pasty than before.
Jesse gave them a smile that didn't bely how queasy she felt.
Because even though they'd made some progress in the 'case', this whole thing had just gotten a thousand times harder.
A/N: Oh boy- drama!
RapidSammi: Lol, glad you liked it xD
Kaos Ruin: I'll see what I can do (winks)
Choco: Maybe Lukas could find out xD
x.X. A.L. X.x.
