"How's it been going in here?" Lukas asked, looking a little concerned. "It is just nonstop whispering and rumors out there."
"Kinda rough," Jesse sighed, "these people have so much drama going on, it's worse than a soap opera." Lukas smirked a little at that. "It's hard to tell what's about the flint and steel, what's about the White Pumpkin..."
"Well, I know you can do it."
Jesse looked over at her ocelot hybrid friend with a start. Lukas was giving her one of the most sincere smiles she'd ever seen, his ears perked straight up, his tail swishing the floor neatly.
Jesse smiled back slowly, her eyes crinkling up. "Heh, thanks Lukas."
Lukas nodded, reaching out and giving her shoulder a squeeze with a warm smile. Jesse returned it.
"Jess?"
Jesse stirred in her cocoon of blankets. It was so comfortably warm she didn't really wanna move. "Mm?"
"I had a nightmare."
Jesse turned her head sleepily to see her brother sitting there, tail tucked between his legs, big green eyes filled with fear, his already rather pale skin almost pure white. His hair was standing on end, and his ears were flattened against his head.
"C-can I sleep with you?" he whispered, pleadingly.
Jesse was sleepy, so it took her a three-count to respond. "Sure, Jesse." And she managed to untangle some of the blankets enough to let the male slip into the cocoon.
"Thanks, sissy." And he crawled into the blankets, wrapping his arms around her and giving a slight squeeze. "Love you."
Jesse felt a sleepy smile come over her face as she turned to wrap her arms around him in a hug, squeezing back gently. "Love you too," she hummed.
The last thing she remembered before drifting off once again was the way his tail was wagging happily and thwacking gently against her legs in a comforting, metronomic beat.
"Jess?"
Jesse blinked, and Lukas was looking at her with a bit of concern. "You okay? Just kinda... drifted off, there."
Jesse waved a bit with one of her lower arms, smiling a bit. "Ahh.. haha, it's nothing. Don't worry about it."
"'F you say so. We should probably head back, then, huh," Lukas hummed, looking past Jesse at the door.
Jesse chuckled and gave him a pat on the back. "Sure thing, suspect."
Lukas very maturely stuck his tongue out at her, which made her laugh.
Walking back through the doors, Stacy immediately walked towards Jesse, green eyes wide. "So? Have you decided?"
"Yes, who do you think the White Pumpkin really is?" Stampy asked, curiously.
Jesse put her hands up in a 'slow down' way. "Okay, hang on, hang on, everyone. First, thanks for answering my questions. There's... still not 100 percent proof of anyone, but-"
"But?" Dan cut in, making everyone look at him.
Ivor nodded, looking at Jesse. "Yes, where are your suspicions leaning, Jesse?" he asked, in a softer voice than usual.
"Jesse was definitely questioning Stampy the longest," Lizzie spoke up.
"What!? No!"
"Dan was in there way longer," Stacy put in.
"Hey, not cool!" Dan snapped back.
"Guys, guys, come on!" Cassie exclaimed.
Jesse put her hands up in another 'stop' motion, staring from each key suspect (excluding Lukas) to another, giving them all an even look. "Okay, well, having talked to the key suspects, I think... well, I think it might be..." And she drew her topmost arm back and pointed- right at the boy wearing the orange hoodie. "Stampy Cat!"
"No!" Stampy protested, eyes wide as Jesse put her arm back down, "that's crazy talk! Absolute crazy talk!"
"Of the suspects," Jesse said, raising her voice a hair louder and giving him a rather apologetic look, "he's one of the only people with the redstone knowledge to make all of these traps."
"No no no, you can't really believe this, can you?" Stampy asked pleadingly, giving Jesse a desperate look.
"I did it."
The scientist looked at Jesse, a masklike look on their face. "YOU were the one to destroy the lab?"
Jesse swallowed, lifting her head up, forcing the lie out of her mouth. "Yes."
Of course, her brother was not one to just take this lying down. "What? No! Sissy, it was my fault! Why are you telling him it's yours-" he protested, his tail wagging more furiously.
"Don't lie, okay Jesse?" And Jesse gave her twin a shaky, reassuring smile. "You don't need to protect me."
Jesse shook his head furiously, but before he could say anything more the scientist raised his arm and struck her.
Jesse found herself flat on the floor, stars swimming through the air and the entire right side of her face feeling numb as her brother cried out.
"Next time you do something of this magnitude, don't expect to get off so lightly," the scientist's cold voice echoed, and then he was leaving, she could hear the footsteps.
"Jess!" And her brother was crying now, and she didn't want him to cry. Why was he crying? She was okay, right? Seeing the stars was normal, right?
"I'm okay," she said, dazedly, looking up from her position on the floor into her brother's desperate eyes, his lips trembling in worry at his twin sister, his twin sister who'd just lied to protect him, his twin sister who would do anything and everything to keep her brother safe. "I'm... okay..."
Jesse's hands were shaking, and she forced herself to look away from Stampy as Dan said, crossing his arms, "I'm thinking we lock him back in that library. Hold him there till morning."
"Sounds like a good plan!"
Stampy stared at them all, mouth hanging open in dismay, as Cassie took him by the arm. "Sorry, Stampy, but we can't take any chances here."
"Oh come on!" Stampy protested, "I'm Stampy Cat! Mr. Stampy! I'm no White Pumpkin!"
"Well," Ivor said, putting his hands on his hips, "that was certainly some excitement."
"Yeah, no kidding," Lukas added.
Jesse stared at her hands, the memory still echoing through her head, the desperate look her brother had given her still imprinted in her mind permanently. Why had she never seen him before? Why was the memory so blanked out of her head?
Where was he?
"If the White Pumpkin is still roaming around, though," Petra was saying, "they might be trying to set up more traps. We need to figure out how these things work. Like, we know that the Sparklez trap was triggered by those buttons under the table- but what about the trap that turned TorqueDawg into a pincushion? If we figure out how these things work, we might be able to find more proof about who the White Pumpkin is, how they're operating..."
Jesse forced herself to put the memory back away, for further scrutiny in a quiet moment. "However the White Pumpkin did it... he must've done it from the kitchen."
A/N: No new reviews :(
But on the bright side, we see a couple more memories of good ol' Male Jesse. :)
I'm really looking forward to Episode 7 and 8- that's when crap's gonna go doooowwwwwn.
x.X. A.L. X.x.
