Minecraft Story Mode: Finding a Purpose

by MyLittleScrubs

After defeating the Ancients, Alex gets turned into one and must experience the suffering that they went through. But then, a mysterious being brings Alex back to the past, before she and her friends even met. Now that she was given another chance, Alex will stop at nothing to fix her mistakes and save everyone, no matter the cost. (Sequel to Minecraft Story Mode: Gods Don't Die)

21. Chapter 21: Gothic

It was a quiet and rather gloomy day. Fog and mist was everywhere, monsters roamed the woods, and bats flew through the air. This was almost the perfect setting for a horror movie, or maybe even a muder mystery… At first, there was only silence, which was occasionally broken by the squeaking bats, the rustling of trees in the wind, and the moaning of zombies in the distance. Of course, when the new Order of the Stone is involved, things never remain quiet for long. Out of nowhere, ten people and one black cat popped out of thin air, staying in the air for a moment like you would expect from a cartoon, before falling from the sky and landing in what appeared to be a small cemetery. They all got up with groans of pain, having landed quite harshly on their backs and faces. Jesse stood up in a panic, thinking that he had gone blind, but it only turned out to be a bat that was clinging onto his face and covering his eyes. He shooed away the bat, then looked around at their new surroundings. "Okay guys," he said. "I'm seeing grass, forests, lots of ground in all directions. All good signs so far…" Suddenly, he was cut off when Isaac fell out of nowhere a bit late and landed on top of Jesse with a clunk.

"Whoa!," cried Lucy, quickly running to get Isaac off of Jesse. "Jesse, are you okay?" "Yeah, I'm fine," Jesse groaned, getting back up and cracking his own back. Thomas gave a mocking laugh. "You deserved that, you little pussy," he sneered. Petra bopped Thomas on the head harshly, while Isaac quickly got back up and gave Jesse a slight bow. "Apologies for my reckless behavior, Jesse," he said. "I had no intention of hurting you." "No offense, but your profession kind of says otherwise," said Lukas, rubbing the back of his head. "Dude!," hissed Annie, elbowing him harshly. "Let's do a head count first just to make sure that we're all here," said Kevin, before looking around and murmuring numbers while pointing at each of them one by one. "Hold up," he said after he finished counting. "We're missing someone."

The group looked around and realized that someone was indeed missing. They instantly knew who it was. "Alright, Thomas," growled Angel, looking around frantically. "Where the hell did you run off to?" "I don't get it," said Aiden, scratching his head in confusion. "He was JUST here, I'm sure of it. How the hell did he disappear on us so fast?" "Wait!," cried Olivia, pointing in the distance. "There he is!" The rest of the group turned to look in the same direction, and saw Thomas crouched down a few dozen blocks away, ready to make a run for it. He glanced back at them, tauntingly waved goodbye, and ran away as fast as he could. "After that scoundrel!," yelled Ivor. The group ran after Thomas, but by now, he was too far away. That didn't mean that all hope was lost, however. Lucy suddenly jumped up onto one of the nearby gravestones and began hopping along each of them like a parkour expert, doing flips and rolls in the process. She was easily able to catch up to Thomas, and finally jumped directly onto his back, slamming him face down into the dirt. The rest of the group quickly caught up to the two of them.

"Nicely done, Lucy," said Jesse, impressed by what he just saw. "Yeah! I mean, holy crap, where did you learn to do all of that?," asked Aiden, his eyes wide with astonishment. "She was raised by the Order of the Stone, of course," Ivor answered for her, puffing his chest out proudly. "Of course she would be able to catch a common criminal." Lucy grinned and rubbed the back of her head awkwardly. "Aw, stop it, you guys," she said. "You're gonna make me blush." "Yes, please stop," grumbled Thomas, his face full of dirt. "You'll make my fucking ears bleed with all of that sweet talk." Lucy glared down at him, got off of him, and pulled him to his feet with one hand. "I already told you, Thomas," she said threateningly. "We're taking you back home, and you're going to face the punishment for your crimes by the fullest extent of the law, whether you like it or not. Do you understand?" To everyone else's surprise, Thomas caved in immediately and nodded silently, though he looked far from happy about it. "Wow, you really got him under control, Lucy," said Annie, who would be lying if she said that the sight of Thomas, the person who had abused, terrified, and tormented her for so long, being cowed so easily did not bring her some amount of pleasure. "But he's still gonna run away again once we turn our backs on him," said Olivia. "What do we do about that?" "Simple," said Isaac. "We break both of his legs. That way, he wouldn't even think of running without us hearing his screams of his pain as he tries to run on two broken legs." Everyone else couldn't help but shudder.

"That's…kind of taking it a bit too far, doesn't it?," asked Lukas. "I'll break his legs if you want me to," Annie immediately volunteered, raising up her hand. The rest of the group were a bit unnerved by how eager she was to cause bodily harm to another person, but then again, she HAD suffered quite a bit, and this WAS Thomas they were talking about. "No," Jesse said firmly, shaking his head. "No, we're not doing that. We're not even going to consider that." Annie put her hand back down in disappointment, while Thomas, who had adopted a look of fear on his face, quickly calmed down and was back to his smug self. "Fine," Isaac muttered. "Then I will do this instead." He suddenly took out what looked like a dog leash. Then, he surprised everyone by immediately clipping the dog leash around Thomas' neck before he even knew what was going on. "There," said the hitman, admiring his handiwork. "Now he will not run away from us anytime soon. It is not as effective as breaking both of his legs, but it will have to do."

"Oh…my…BWAHAHAHA!," Annie burst out laughing. Petra, Angel, and Aiden laughed along with her. "Oh man, forget breaking his legs!," Annie laughed. "This is SO much better! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" "You fucking-!," roared Thomas, running straight for Annie, but using the leash, Isaac quickly yanked him back and wound the other end of the leash around his own arm in case the leash ended up flying out of his hand at some point. Realizing that he couldn't even get a few feet away from Isaac with the leash on, Thomas began running around like a madman, clawing at the leash around his neck while straining against Isaac's grip. "He's not gonna break out of this, is he?," Aiden asked worriedly. Isaan shook his head. "Just let him tire himself out," he assured him. "He will get tired of that soon." Everyone else waited as Thomas continued to strain against the leash with all of his strength, roaring in anger and trying to lash out at the nearest person who was just out of reach. But the leash turned out to be incredibly strong, and Isaac was definitely no slouch when it came to strength either. Thomas may have overpowered Aiden pretty easily, but Isaac was an entirely different beast altogether. Finally, Thomas began to slow down, then stopped, breathing heavily. "So, Thomas," Annie said spitefully. "How does it feel to know that YOU'RE the one who's in someone else's control for once, instead of the other way around?" Thomas growled like a rabid dog, but other than that, he did nothing.

"Uh, guys?," asked Jesse, suddenly grabbing their attention. "You may wanna take a look at this." He was staring up at the night sky above them, his eyes wide with shock. Everyone else also looked up, wondering what could possibly be up there to garner such a reaction from Jesse. What they certainly didn't expect was to see, not one, but two moons floating in the sky, both of them nearly identical to the other. "Aha," remarked Jesse curiously. "Verdict says?," said Petra, placing her hands on her hips. "Definitely not our world. You owe me two iron, Lukas." Lukas rolled his eyes and reluctantly gave up the two iron ingots. "Aw come on - can't you hear it?," asked Jesse excitedly, putting a hand to his ear. "Uh...spooky forest?," asked Petra. "Bats squeaking?," asked Kevin. "Wind howling?," asked Lucy. "Zombies moaning?," asked Angel. "Meow," asked the black cat. Jesse shook his head. "It's the sound of a new adventure!," he exclaimed. "I bet this place is going to be awesome." "Jesse," groaned Kevin, facepalming. "What are you doing, man? You can't just tempt fate like that." "Well, I wouldn't exactly say that I'm 'tempting fate' or something like that," Jesse said defensively. "I'm just saying that this might be a new adventure for us." "I like that attitude, Jesse. Adventure!," Ivor exclaimed.

"Tempting fate or not, I hope you're right," said Lukas. "Yeah," Lucy agreed. "I mean, so much stuff has happened in recent times that honestly, a little adventure like this one could be just what we need to finally unwind a little." "Yes, and I for one vote that we not be so hasty to try and get out of here," said Ivor, looking around the graveyard with a greedy glint in his eyes. "Who knows what sorts of treasures this new world could hold? Besides, unless the next portal is disguised as a tombstone I'm not seeing it anywhere near here." Jesse squinted into the fog, distracted by a distant object that looked vaguely familiar to him. "Hey, you guys see some sort of...shape over there?," he asked, pointing at what appears to be a book on a pedestal. "Yeah, what is that?," asked Petra. "Let's find out," said Jesse. They all walked towards the mysterious shape. Even Thomas was curious enough to stop struggling against his leash for now.

Once the group got close enough to the object, Jesse picked up the book, opened it, and began to read from its pages. "It says 'Invitation'," said Jesse. "And then 'Read immediately! Your life depends on it!'" "...well, that doesn't sound ominous at all," Aiden said sarcastically. Jesse cleared his throat and continued to read the book. "Ahem, 'Greetings Traveller-'" He was interrupted from his reading when groans suddenly came from behind them. The group turned around and saw a horde of zombies headed towards them. "Yeah that seems about right," said Lukas in a deadpan voice. Petra ran up to a zombie and sliced it to death with her sword. "Keep reading, Jesse!," said Petra. "We've got your back!" Petra, Lukas, Lucy, and Aiden began killing the zombies with their swords. Ivor, Olivia, and Annie hid for cover since they didn't know how to fight, while Kevin and Angel just pummeled the zombies with their bare hands. The black act was hissing and clawing out the eyes of any zombie that got too close to her. To join in on the fight, Isaac had to quickly tie Thomas' leash around a nearby rock to prevent him from escaping while he went to help his new friends. "Hey, where are you going?!," yelled Thomas. "You can't just leave me here! How am I supposed to fend off the zombies that go after ME?!"

Isaac glanced back at him and shrugged. "That is not really my problem, is it?," he asked, before joining his friends in the fight. Meanwhile, Jesse kept on reading. "I humbly invite you to my mansion for an evening of food and festivity with your fellow adventurers." Then, he had to momentarily stop in his reading in order to jump onto a tombstone and kick a nearby zombie in the face. "That's… Odd," said Lukas, fighting off one of the zombies with his sword. "Yeah. Weird, right-? Whoa!," cried Jesse, surprised by a zombie right in front of him. "Toss it here!," said Petra, fighting another zombie. Jesse threw the book to Petra, who managed to catch it. "Petra!," yelled Ivor, standing on a gravestone while kicking the zombies away. "Anytime now? You can read, right?" "Yeah! I really don't want to rush you, but we're kind of in a pickle right now," said Annie, pushing a zombie off of her. "Hang on, hang on," said Petra impatiently, frantically flipping through the pages, "need to find Jesse's place… Got it!" Jesse jumped over Petra and killed two zombies that were behind her. "Come to my home on the hill, just follow the path." Jesse screamed when he saw a zombie that was about to attack him from behind. Acting quickly, Petra stabbed the zombie before it could strike Jesse. "Please look out for zombies. Sincerely, The Host." "Nice warning," said Lukas, annoyed that the Host failed to warn them of the zombies earlier. "I'm guessing THAT'S the house that the host was talking about," said Angel, pointing at a large mansion in the distance, which could barely be seen through the fog. "Yeah, but how are we going to get past all of these zombies?," asked Olivia. "There's probably hundreds of them!" And she was right. A whole sea of zombies and various other mobs were separating them from the mansion. "We're just gonna have to run for it," said Lucy.

The group ran through the sea of zombies as fast as possible. Somehow, Isaac was able to expertly kill any zombie that got too close, while also dragging along Thomas by the leash with one hand. Jesse and the others knew that if Isaac had found them back in Milo's hideout, they would've been dead for sure. "I must say," said Ivor, quickly running out of breath, "this is the highest concentration of zombies I've ever seen in one place." "You think this 'Host' is going to be legit, Jesse?," asked Lukas. "Boy, I hope so," said Jesse. "Wouldn't mind getting out of the zombies for a bit." "Why don't we make a game out of this?," asked Petra. "I'll race you guys there." "Are you fucking kidding me?!," growled Thomas, feeling like his head was about to pop off with how hard Isaac was pulling at the leash. "You think this is a goddamn game! Psycho bitch!" "Hey, YOU'RE one to talk!," Petra snapped at him. "So what do you say, guys? Wanna do this thing or what?" "Sure," said Lucy, smiling from ear to ear. "I could go for a little game to liven things up." "Hope that fighting worked up an appetite, Petra," Jesse taunted. "Because you're about to eat my dust." "Big words, Jesse," said Petra. "Hey, don't forget about me," said Angel, looking pumped up. "I've been working out and losing a lot of fat, you know. I could totally beat all of you while blindfolded." "You sure got a big mouth there, Angel," Petra taunted with a smirk on her face. "The question is, can you back it up?" "Well, you can count me OUT of your game," said Olivia, huffing and puffing from the exertion. "I'm just trying not to get killed."

"Okay, fair enough," said Jesse. "Are you guys ready? On your mark, get set, GO!" The friends split up and ran towards the mansion on their own chosen paths, dodging zombies and other mobs in the process. Isaac insisted on running along with Annie since he swore to offer his services to her. Ivor tripped at one point, but Lucy was able to help him up and kill a zombie that was about to attack him. Isaac was able to live up to his title, killing zombies left and right as if it was nothing. Finally, the group got to the mansion. Angel was already there, doing a happy little victory dance. "So," she said, watching as everyone else finally arrived at the front of the mansion. "How does it feel to know that you got beaten by the greatest?" Olivia couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Angel dancing, finding it both funny and adorable at the same time. "Okay, okay, you won THAT one, Angel," Petra admitted in defeat, chuckling to herself. "Let's maybe...get inside the mansion before we pat ourselves on the back too much, shall we?," asked Ivor irritatedly. "Yeah, let's," Aiden agreed, nodding his head. The group walked through the front gate and hid behind a rock when they saw a group of zombies trying to barge into the mansion. "That front door's definitely a no-go," said Petra. One of the zombies turned around and saw them, then roared, alerting the others. "Snitch!," hollered Kevin. "Stick with me, guys!," said Jesse. The group ran to the side and around the mansion, looking for another way in, dodging even more zombies as they ran. "There shouldn't be this many zombies, guys!," said Lucy, killing the nearest one with her sword. "Zombies don't spawn so close together." "That's exactly what I was about to say," said Ivor. "Something's fishy about all of this."

Jesse looked up at a window that was high up, and gasped when he saw what seemed to be a menacing figure staring down at him through the window. Since the window was made out of stained glass, it was a little difficult to make out the details, but Jesse could see that the figure was wearing a dark blue jumpsuit that covered them completely from the neck down. But what was even more bizarre was the fact that the figure was also wearing what appeared to be a white pumpkin over their head, with three holes carved into it to form eyes and a mouth. Jesse could also see two eyes glaring at him through the pumpkin's eyeholes, and he could've sworn that the eyes were glowing an ominous yellow. Then, lightning struck, and after the flash of light faded away, the person wearing the white pumpkin mask was no longer at the window.

"The heck-?," Jesse muttered. "What? What is it, Jesse?," asked Lucy. "Don't know…," Jesse panted. "Who he was… Some creepy guy in the window. He had a white pumpkin for a head." "White pumpkin?," Ivor scoffed. "No such thing...as white pumpkins!" "Yeah, that's what I thought too!," said Jesse. "But he was definitely wearing one, trust me." "Hey, guys! Let's save the agricultural discussions for inside, huh?," asked Lukas. "Yeah, what Lukas said," said Kevin. "What we SHOULD be focusing on right now is finding a way in there!" But then, the group stopped in their tracks when a gigantic horde of zombies confronted them at the back of the mansion. They were surrounded on all sides, meaning that there was nowhere else for them to run off to other than the inside of that mansion. "Great!," cried Ivor, throwing up his hands in exasperation. "There's no door back here! How are we supposed to get in?!" Jesse frantically looked around for any ideas, then saw the many trees that surrounded them, and a bright idea came to his head. "Trees!," he cried. "We can cut those down!" "Good plan!," said Ivor. "Then we better get to punching, everyone!," said Olivia. "And you are going to help us, Thomas," said Isaac. "What?!," yelled Thomas, crossing his arms. "I'm not doing anything for you bitches!" "Dude, we're surrounded by a bunch of zombies who wanna eat our brains!," Petra retorted. "Do you REALLY want that to happen to you?" Thomas' face visibly blanched at the thought of being eaten alive by a group of zombies. "Fine!," he growled. "But I fucking swear that this is the last time I'm gonna help any of you!" "Fine by us!," said Angel. "Now let's get to work!"

The group immediately began punching as many trees as possible. They used the wood blocks that they had collected to make a set of stairs that led to the window, and also made sure to break the bottom part so the zombies couldn't come after them. "Annnd now my inventory's full of wood blocks," said Petra. "Hey," Jesse pointed out, "you never know when those'll come in handy." They peeked in through the window and saw what looked like the inside of a small kitchen, with the walls lined with multiple stone furnaces that were lit up and lighting up the entire room, giving it a warm and almost homey feeling. "Looks like some kind of kitchen in there," said Jesse. "Man, it looks toasty in there, too," said Kevin. "Then break the window and get us into the blasted place!," said Ivor, nervously looking down at the horde of zombies that accumulated at the bottom of their wooden staircase. "Cover your eyes, everyone," Jesse said. After making sure that everyone was covering their eyes, Jesse punched the glass, shattering it. "Hope the Host doesn't mind us breaking their window…," said Jesse. "I'm sure he'll find it in his heart to forgive us," said Petra. The group climbed through the window one by one and walked into the kitchen, observing their surroundings. "It looks like these furnaces have been lit pretty recently," said Annie. "You don't think that the host is still here, do you?" "Well, I don't know about you guys," said Olivia, slightly shuddering, "but this place is kind of giving me 'haunted house' vibes for some reason." "Hey, don't worry about it, Olivia," said Angel, smiling at her in a comforting manner. "If any ghost tries to mess with you, I'll beat 'em up." Olivia couldn't help but giggle. "But wouldn't your fist go right THROUGH a ghost?," she pointed out. Angel blushed and cleared her throat. "Okay, kind of walked into that one, didn't I?," she asked awkwardly.

"Okay, enough out of you two lovebirds," Kevin joked. "So we broke into some guy's house without their consent. So far, so good. What do we do now?" Suddenly, the group heard a voice coming from the other side of a wooden door. "TorqueDawg, you know I don't care if you took it… Just give it back," the voice said "And I'm telling you for the last time, Sparklez," said a meaner, gruffer voice. "I didn't take the stupid thing!" The door suddenly opened and two people walked in. One was a man with red glasses and a beard. The other was a man with sunglasses, a goatee, and a mullet. "I think we could avoid a lot of unpleasantness if-" They stopped when they saw that there were more people in the kitchen, as well as a cat. "WHAT THE-," shouted TorqueDawg, shoving aside Sparklez. "Hi!," said Jesse, trying to ease the tension. "Oh ha ha ha, very very funny," said TorqueDawg, walking up to them menacingly. "Show up super late, make us all sit and wonder what the heck is going on…" He stopped and stared at them for a while. "This is your house, right?" "We got one of these invitations too!," said Jesse, holding out the book. "What the heck is going on here!" "Darn!," groaned Sparklez, shaking his head. "Sorry for the language." "Wow, if THAT'S considered rude language for him, he's definitely not gonna like MY vocabulary," Kevin snickered to himself. "That wasn't about you getting an invitation - Just that I was hoping YOU could explain things," explained Spparklez, before he proceeded to move on to introductions. "This is TorqueDawg…" "Sup," said TorqueDawg, nodding his head and leaning back against the wall. "And I'm Captain Sparklez. Thought maybe you know that already." The other glanced at each other in confusion. "Uh…should we know who you are?," asked Lucy. "Er…no, I guess not," chuckled Sparklez, rubbing the back of his head.

"It really is awesome to meet you!," said Jesse. "I'm Jesse, and that's Petra, Lukas, Ivor, Lucy, Kevin, Olivia, Angel, Annie, Aiden, and...sorry, I keep forgetting your name. What was it again?" The assassin groaned, "It's Isaac. Isaac! Not a hard name to remember!" "Right, Isaac. Sorry," said Jesse. Ivor suddenly stepped forward with a forced and unnerving smile on his face. "Charmed," he said creepily, raising his hand forward for a handshake. "Uh…yeah, charmed," said Sparklez. "So that's a lot of people you've got there." Jesse looked around at the rest of the group. "Yeah, there are a LOT of us here," he agreed. "I'm surprised that we can even fit inside of this room." "Sorry, but I have to ask," said Sparklez, pointing at Thomas, who had yet to be introduced. "Why is that man on a leash?" "Yeah, why the hell IS that guy on a leash?," asked TorqueDawg, barking out a laugh. "Is he some kind of kinky pervert or something?"

"For god's sake, TorqueDawg," groaned Sparklez, facepalming at his "friend's" behavior. However, just because Thomas was on a dog leash and surrounded by people who could easily beat him into a pulp didn't mean that he had suddenly lost his backbone. He glared right into TorqueDawg's eyes and growled, "I will tear out your fucking entrails with my fucking teeth." A majority of the group were relatively unaffected by that, since they had already been around Thomas for a while and knew what to expect from him. Saying something like that was not at all surprising or out of character for him. But Sparklez and TorqueDawg, on the other hand, had entirely different reactions altogether. Sparklez immediately turned pale as he stared at Thomas in shock, unable to process what he had just heard. Since TorqueDawg was the one who had been spoken to, he had the worst reaction. Even though he tried to hide it by acting tough, he was clearly shaken by Thomas' words, and behind his sunglasses, his eyes were wide with fear as he stared at this man on a leash, a wolf in sheep's clothing. "We're SO sorry about that, you two," said Olivia, quickly trying to ease the tension. "The guy on the leash is Thomas. Sorry, but we HAVE to keep him like this, because…well, he's kind of a bloodthirsty psycho."

"I'll just…take your word for that," Sparklez said nervously, slowly backing away from Thomas. "So you're a pretty interesting group. Hey, I wonder if–" Suddenly, as if he knew that it was his time to shine once again, TorqueDawg pushed Sparklez aside rudely and walked up to Jesse, looking down at him with disdain. "So your name is 'Jesse,' huh?," he asked, chuckling. "Uh…yeah?," said Jesse, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Do you have a problem with my name or something?" TorqueDawg snorted derisively. "That's a girl's name," he said, before looking around at the others with a cocky smile. "And what are you guys anyway? Some sort of Loser Patrol?" Sparklez seemed understandably embarrassed and was facepalming again, while the rest of the group couldn't help but bristle at TorqueDawg's insults. Even Thomas felt insulted, though certainly not on the others' behalf. "Actually, we're the Order of the Stone," said Jesse, placing his hands on his hips. "Legendary heroes. Kind of a big deal." To prove their point, the group of heroes made individual poses. TorqueDawg did not believe it for a second. "Pfft. 'Legendary Heroes,' huh?," he scoffed. "I ain't never heard of you." "Yo, TorqueDawg," said Kevin, grabbing his attention. "You seem like you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Must have a pretty small package down there, 'cause you're clearly compensating for something!" While Petra, Angel, and Aiden were slightly amused by Kevin's insult, the rest of the group felt that he was only escalating the situation. "Kevin," sighed Lucy. "What?," asked Kevin, looking around incredulously. "So he's allowed to insult us, but I'm not allowed to insult him?"

"Kevin, we don't even know where we are or who the host is," said Jesse. "The last thing we need to do right now is stoop down to TorqueDawg's level." Of course, just like everything else, TorqueDawg had to take that as an insult. "My level?," he growled, stomping towards them. "What the hell do you mean by that, little man?" Suddenly, the black cat, which had gone unnoticed for a while, lashed out and scratched at TorqueDawg's ankle. "Yow!," he cried out in pain, taking a step back. The leg of his pants was now torn, and three red scratch marks could be seen on his ankle where the cat had just scratched him. "You little-!," yelled TorqueDawg, stomping towards the black cat, intent on kicking it into the wall. Suddenly, Lucy whipped out her sword and pointed it at TorqueDawg's neck so quickly that nobody else even saw it happening. "Try it. I dare you," she said in a low voice. She wasn't the only one who got incredibly pissed when TorqueDawg was about to kick the cat. Kevin also had his hands clenched into fists and was fully prepared to use them. The former Virus was oddly protective over that cat…

"Whoa!," cried TorqueDawg, quickly backing away with his hands held up defensively. "Hey, listen, I was just joking! I wasn't really gonna kick your pet cat, I swear!" "Uh huh. Sure you weren't," said Lucy, but put her sword away anyway. "...damn, that was hot," Aiden whispered. "What did you just say?," asked Lukas, turning to face him. "Uh, nothing!," said Aiden.

"Ohohohokay, let's all calm down before things get out of hand," said Sparklez, quickly stepping between them. "So now we know each other's names, and we know that we all got invitations to this place. That's all good to know." "What about the zombies?," asked Lucy, looking out the window where the horde of zombies that chased after them earlier was still roaming right outside of the mansion. "There's no way that they spawned here naturally, right? Zombies don't spawn so close together, or spawn in that many numbers." "And you would be right," said Sparklez, nervously adjusting his glasses. "Trust me, we're just as confused as all of you about the zombies." "Okay, so the sea of zombies isn't normal," Jesse noted, nodding his head. "Good to hear." "Two moons is normal though, right?," asked Petra. "Um… The moons…? Yeah," said Sparklez. "Why don't you know about this stuff?," TorqueDawg butted in. "You from, like, out of town or something?" Lucy frowned at him and was about to retort when suddenly, all of the lights went out, leaving the entire room in darkness. After that, everything was chaos. The only thing that could be heard were the sounds of people running around and bumping into each other, screaming in panic. Amongst all the panic, they also heard what sounded like the sound of dispensers activating, the sound of arrows flying through the air, and a grunt, then a loud thud, like someone hitting the floor. Finally, Kevin managed to take control of the situation by using his telepathy to communicate with everyone in the room at once. "Everyone, QUIET!," he yelled. In an instant, everyone stopped in their tracks. "W-what's going on?," asked Sparklez. "Who's saying that?" "It's me, Kevin," said Kevin. "Look, I don't have time to explain to you right now. What I need is for all of you to stay still and shut up. Running around like a bunch of headless chickens is only gonna make this worse than it has to be."

The entire group were still frightened, but heeded Kevin's warnings and waited. Finally, the lights went back on. When they did, everyone couldn't help but gasp at what they saw. Right in the middle of the room, TorqueDawg was lying in front of them, impaled by several arrows in the chest. TorqueDawg slowly looked up, clearly in pain. "Hey Jesse," he groaned, beckoning him to come over. "Jesse, c'mere." Jesse nervously walked towards him and got down on his knees, leaning in. TorqueDawg slowly brought his face close to Jesse's ear. "You've got a girl's name," he whispered into his ear, before finally collapsing and poofing into dust, leaving all of his items behind. "TorqueDawg…?," whispered Sparklez, scarcely able to believe what he had just witnessed. Frankly, nobody else could really believe it either. "Oh, my god," whispered Olivia, covering her mouth in horror as she stared at the floating items on the floor. Angel had her arm wrapped around Olivia protectively, but even she was unnerved by the sudden death of a person that was just in the room with them, even though he was kind of a jerk to them. Jesse and Sparklez were just as horrified as Olivia. Petra and Kevin were both furious that neither of them were able to stop what had happened in time. Lukas and Aiden had their mouths hanging open in shock, while Ivor was strangely calm, more focused on the arrows that had been left behind, or to be more specific, the green substance that was coated on the tips of those arrows. Lucy was also shocked by TorqueDawg's very sudden death, while Isaac was calmly trying to comfort a terrified Annie, since he himself had seen many gruesome sights in his career as a hitman to be bothered by that man's death. Even the cat seemed pretty agitated.

"All those arrows!," cried Sparklez, pacing the room. "His inventory… Everywhere! How did that…?! Who…?!" As Sparklez walked around the room in a panic, trying to come to terms with what he had just witnessed, Isaac caught everyone else's attention. "I am afraid that things got even worse than we realize," he said, and to prove his point, he held up the leash that he used to restrain Thomas. The loop of the leash was now empty, and Thomas was nowhere to be seen, but judging that the door to the room was now wide open, it was easy to guess that he had escaped during the darkness and confusion. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me!," groaned Petra. "You're seriously telling us that he escaped again?! Just how freaking persistent IS that guy?!" "Great, here we go again," sighed Lukas. "But at least this time, he hasn't kidnapped one of us like last time." Lucy stared at the floating items that TorqueDawg left behind, as well as the arrows that killed him. "Do you think Thomas did all of that?," she asked. "Do you think it was him who turned out the lights, shot TorqueDawg with arrows, and escaped by using all of the confusion to his advantage? He DID seem like he wanted to kill that guy." "No, I don't think he actually orchestrated all of this," said Annie, shaking her head. "Not even Thomas can plan that far ahead." Meanwhile, Sparklez was still pacing around the room in a panic, babbling to himself while completely forgetting that there were other people in the room. Finally having had enough, Isaac walked up to the rambling man and proceeded to slap him in the face. Hard.

Everyone else was taken aback by this harsh and sudden action. "What the hell, dude?!," asked Kevin. The assassin shrugged. "He was losing it," he said. "I brought him back to reality." "Still, you could've been a little less harsh about it," said Jesse, frowning. "He just saw one of his own friends die right in front of him." "His friend?," Aiden snorted. "Yeah, they sure seemed chummy together, what with him constantly pushing the other guy around and insulting us right in front of him. If you ask me, he got what he deserved." Some of the others glared at him for his lack of tact, while others just looked rather uncomfortable. "Not cool, Aiden," said Lukas, frowning at him. Fortunately, Isaac's hard slap was able to bring Sparklez back to reality, for now. "Thanks for that," he said. "That was actually just what I needed. Sorry, I just…man, I can't believe that he's really dead." "If it makes you feel better, you're not the only one," said Ivor. "But this whole thing DOES seem rather suspicious to me. I definitely heard the sounds of activating dispensers before the arrows fired. Someone must have set up a trap."

"Everyone stand back," said Jesse. "Lemme see what I can figure out." He walked over to the floating items that TorqueDawg left behind and bent down on his knees. After observing TorqueDawg's inventory for a while, he picked up one of the arrows and looked at it carefully, especially the tip of it, which was covered in a green liquid that was all too familiar to him. It had the same color as the poisonous gas that Thomas tried to use on them, twice. "Guys," he said. "Found something...strange about this arrow." He stood up and showed the arrow around to everyone. Sparklez seemed to recognize it almost immediately. "Oh, is it a t-tipped arrow?," he asked, pointing at it. "Oh, I've heard of those. They're… they're still pretty new." "Back up," said Jesse. "What'd you say that was?" "Uh...tipped arrows?," said Sparklez nervously. "You can, like, put different potion effects on them. Could've sworn I saw someone doing a tutorial on how to make those not too long ago… But my nerves are too shot to remember who right now." Jesse, Ivor, and some of the others in the group watched him suspiciously, wondering if he knew more than he was actually letting on. "Well, let me know if it comes back to you," said Jesse. Suddenly, a trapdoor opened up under the items, and a hopper right underneath it sucked them up. "Whoa!," said Aiden. "You guys saw that, right?" Jesse bent down to observe the hopper. "There's the trapdoor that sucked up TorqueDawg's stuff," he said. "Looks like it's a matched set with that arrow dispenser up there…" He looked up at the ceiling, where the dispenser that shot the arrows at TorqueDawg was placed. "But you saw his stuff - he didn't really have anything worth stealing," said Petra. "Perhaps it was simply to dispose of the evidence...," said Ivor. "It looks like we've got our hands full with this one," said Kevin. "Thomas has just escaped, AND someone is setting up traps around the house. I wonder if the host is behind all of this."

Suddenly, the group heard footsteps, then a voice. "Hello?," called the voice before a woman entered the room, with pink, long hair. "Everything okay in here…?" She saw how many people were in the kitchen and jumped. "Whoa! What's with the crowd?," she asked Sparklez. "I, uh...I was just about to get everyone together to tell them at once," said Sparklez, walking past her and through the door. "Okay…?," the woman questioned, wondering why Sparklez seemed to be acting so strange, before she took another look at the group, and recognition appeared on her face. "Hang on a minute!," she said with realization. "It's you. I recognize you!" "Oh, so you know about the Order of the Stone?," asked Olivia. The pink haired woman squinted her eyes in confusion. "Uh, nooo…," she said. "But I've definitely seen your faces before, not too long ago, in fact." "But how?," asked Jesse. "How is that possible? We've never seen you before in our entire lives." "I'll show you," said the woman. "Follow me." She turned around and went after Sparklez, walking through the door. "Um...okay," said Petra. "We might as well," said Lucy, shrugging her shoulders. "There's no use in us just standing here and doing nothing."

So the rest of the group followed the pink haired lady out the door. They eventually came across another woman. She had red hair, a pair of glasses, and a beret. She was also petting a cat that had orange, black, and white fur. "Lizzie!," she exclaimed upon seeing the pink haired woman. "Hi! Did you see all of these new–" She saw the rest of the group following her, and her eyes widened. "Oh you've got them with you," she said. "You know who we are too?," asked Petra. "Well…kind of," said the other redhead. "It's a little hard to explain. You just have to see for yourself." She noticed the black cat walking among them and smiled. "Aw, cute cat," she said, bending down to pet its head. To her surprise, the cat seemed far less enthusiastic about being petted on the head. She hissed at the redback and quickly backed away, the fur on her back spiking up. The redhead also took a step back, staring at the cat in utter shock.

"I'm so sorry about that," Lucy quickly apologized, picking up the cat and stroking her back to calm her down. "She's usually pretty friendly. I'm not sure why she doesn't like you." "That's alright," said the redhead, quickly calming down. "I'm just surprised because…well, cats usually like me. Isn't that right, Winslow?" Winslow, the black and orange tabby that the redhead had been petting just now, looked up at her and meowed in confirmation. "Anyway," said the redhead, "just follow me. I'll introduce you to everyone else who were invited here."

As the group followed Lizzie and the redhead through the hallway, Lucy brought the black cat to her face. "Bad kitty!," she lightly scolded. "What's gotten into you just now?" Of course, the cat didn't give an answer, but it continued to squirm around in Lucy's arms, clearly agitated by something. "That cat's acting kind of weird," Aiden pointed out. "Think it knows something that we don't?" He said that last part in a joking manner, but Lucy seemed to take it one hundred percent seriously. "It's possible," she said, staring at the cat. "Cats have better senses than humans, anyway." Pretty soon, the group came across another room and gasped at what they saw. The room's walls were covered with banisters that had pictures of people on them. Plot twist: all of the pictures were of THEM. The redhead could already tell that they had a lot of questions and began to explain. "Well," she said, "first it was just the portraits of the people already here, then poof...you guys." "Wait a minute," said Olivia. "Are you saying that they just… appeared out of nowhere? Like, out of the blue? You didn't see anyone else put them up?" The redhead shook her head. "Nope," she said. "Like I said, poof. It's almost like magic."

"Whoa," said Jesse, staring at the portraits. "That's...unexpected." "Yeah," said Petra, "no kidding." Most of them were understandably creeped out that someone had painted pictures of themselves without their knowledge or consent. However, Ivor was more enamored by them than anything. "They're absolutely exquisite!," he cried, staring at his own portrait in complete awe. "Perfect!" Lukas, however, was rather annoyed that someone didn't get his nose right. "Well, not 'perfect'-" "Absolutely. Perfect!," Ivor continued, ignoring Lukas completely. Aiden couldn't help but snicker. "I think it looks exactly like you," he said. "Just need to make your nose even bigger." Lukas elbowed Aiden in the gut for that remark. "This is so ridiculously creepy," Jesse spoke up. "I know, right?," asked Lucy. "It almost reminds me of the time when a fan of ours literally stalked us for days without any of us knowing about it." "Sounds like a story right there," said Annie, raising an eyebrow. "Care to explain?" "Eh, maybe later," said Lucy, seeing that this wasn't a great time to tell a story. "I don't find this so surprising," bragged Kevin, puffing his chest out proudly. "I am a pretty famous guy, after all." Even though the others knew that he was only saying that to lighten the already tense mood, they still couldn't help but roll their eyes. "I do not like that someone drew a picture of me without my knowledge," said Isaac, catching their attention. "It makes me feel...unsafe." The hitman couldn't help but shudder.

"You guys don't think that…Thomas painted all these portraits of us, do you?," asked Petra. "Like, maybe this is his way of messing with our heads or something?" "No way," said Annie, shaking her head. "Like I said, he's smart, but even he wouldn't have planned this far ahead. Plus, this isn't really his style…" "Yeah, and how would he know who all these other people are to paint them?," asked Jesse, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "Something about this doesn't feel right." Then, the group noticed that one of the portraits on the wall had a giant red X painted on it. That portrait was of none other than TorqueDawg. It didn't take a genius to quickly figure out what was going on. "Well that's definitely not a good sign…," said Jesse. "So we're being targeted now?," groaned Lukas, burying his face in his hands. "Ugh, and I thought things couldn't get more intense than that adventure we had back at Sky City…"

Then, Sparklez came back into the room, and following him was a group of different people, each with a unique appearance. "Come on everyone," said Sparklez, "let's huddle up in the dining room." "Wonder if he told them yet…," Petra wondered. "I can't wait to hear the big news!," said a man with goggles on his forehead. "Me neither!," said a woman wearing jeans and a striped shirt. "Ooh, I hope there's cake," said a man in a cat costume, hopping up and down excitedly. "Well, before we do anything else, we'd better introduce ourselves first," said Sparklez as everyone gathered around a large table in the middle of the room. After introducing themselves, they learned that the redhead with the pet cat was Cassie Rose, the pink haired woman was Lizzie, the woman with the striped shirt and jeans was Stacy, the man wearing the orange cat suit was Stampy, and the man with goggles and dyed hair was Dan. "So what's going on here, Sparklez?," asked Stacy. Sparklez cleared his throat. "Guys…this isn't gonna be easy for me to say," he said nervously, "but I'm afraid that I have some pretty bad news. I'm afraid that recently, there's been…a murder." Everyone else gasped and began murmuring to each other nervously, though the people who were there when TorqueDawg died obviously knew about it already. "So who was it?," asked Dan. "It was TorqueDawg," Sparklez explained. "He got shot to death by a bunch of tipped arrows. He got caught in some kind of trap."

When the new arrivals found out that it was TorqueDawg who was murdered, none of them seemed too saddened by his death. It seemed that even among his own "friends," he was not a very well liked individual. However, knowing that one of them was just murdered, and that any one of them could be next, was enough to heighten the tension among them as they grew suspicious of each other. The tension only grew when they also realized that one of the portraits on the wall, TorqueDawg's portrait, was now marked with a giant red X, meaning that whoever killed him was likely not finished yet. "But TorqueDawg was so tough…," said Stacy. "There was nothing that could take him down!" "Other than tipped arrows, you mean," said Aiden.

"So does that mean someone set a trap for TorqueDawg?," asked Stacy, wrinkling her nose in disgust. "That's nasty." "I can't believe TorqueDawg's gone!," said Dan, slumping over the table as though he had a hard time processing it. "Just like that!" "So…what happened to his stuff?," Stacy asked out of the blue. Most of the others stared at her in shock, taken aback by her lack of tact. "Whoa!," cried Cassie, glaring at her in outrage. "How can you say that?!" "What?," asked Stacy, looking around in bewilderment. "It's a valid question!" "His stuff just disappeared," said Jesse. "Went down this weird hole in the floor." "Are we just supposed to take your word for that?," asked Stampy, looking at him in suspicion. "No, Jesse's right," said Lucy. "We were there, too. We saw everything." "No offense," said Dan, "but we barely know any of you guys. Like Stampy said, how could we take anything you say at face value?"

"Guys, they're telling the truth. I saw it too," said Sparklez. "Jesse was poking around in TorqueDawg's stuff right before it got sucked into a hopper." Lukas placed his hands on his hips and looked around at everyone with narrowed eyes. "So I'm looking at this situation and I'm trying to figure something out…," he said thoughtfully. "Is this just about TorqueDawg? Or is there a bigger picture?" "Yeah," said Petra. "Why have our portraits?" "It's probably just some random creep," said Angel. "Maybe they've been spying on us, and that's how they know what we look like." "Yeah, but how would they know we'd come here?," asked Olivia. "There were so many portals back there to choose from. We could've gone through any one of them." Without even knowing it, Olivia had unintentionally let slip about the portal hallway that they got lost in earlier. And yet, for some odd reason, the group of strangers gave each other surprised looks, as though they actually KNEW what Olivia was talking about. However, they didn't say a single word, and the Order of the Stone had no clue that they had sealed their own fates.

"I dunno guys," said Lizzie. "I think you're all making a way bigger deal out of this than you should. Knowing TorqueDawg I think this might just be about him." Everyone else looked at her in suspicion. "You seem to hate TorqueDawg a lot," Jesse noted. Lizzie blinked in confusion. "Well, of course," she said. "I mean, doesn't everybody?" "Maybe," said Jesse, observing her face closely. "But it sounds to me like you've got a grudge against him. And grudges can get out of hand pretty quickly, if you know what I mean." Lizzie, unnerved by all of the attention that she was suddenly getting, quickly backtracked. "Know what?," she said nervously, crossing her arms and looking away. "Forget I said anything." The others continued to stare at her for a little while longer, prompting Lizzie to quickly change the subject, just so everyone would stop staring at her like that. "Well, someone brought us all here for some reason. Including TorqueDawg…," she said, taking out the invitation that had been given to her. "What if we're all in danger?," Dan asked anxiously. Everyone else also began to panic, but Jesse was quick to calm them down. "Hey, come on everyone," he said. "If there's one thing I believe in, it's teamwork. If we all stick together and get through this as a team, we'll be fine!" "Ha. Inspiring," said Dan, not sounding too impressed by his speech. "There you go, guys!," said Sparklez enthusiastically. "Teamwork makes the dream work!" Kevin couldn't help snicker while Ivor just crossed his arms. "Wow," the potionologist said in amusement. "Ooh all of this 'danger' talk has my stomach all queasy," said Stampy, looking understandably distressed about this whole situation. "Someone has gotta be behind all of this," Aiden murmured in thought. "But who could it be?," asked Lukas.

After some thinking, the Order of the Stone suddenly turned to Isaac, who looked around at the rest of them in confusion, having no idea why they were staring at him like that. "What?," he asked, shrugging his shoulders with his arms crossed. "Oh, nothing," said Jesse, though he couldn't hide the suspicion in his voice. "It's just that, with you being an assassin and all, you probably know a bunch of different ways on how to kill other people. Do you happen to be an expert with tipped arrows and dispensers?" Annie frowned at Jesse. "I don't like what you're implying," she said defensively. "Isaac was the one who saved my life, remember? He also helped us clear out Sky City. If anyone killed TorqueDawg, it's definitely NOT him."

Jesse sighed. "Look, I'm not saying that it's him for sure," he said. "But he IS probably the most skilled when it comes to killing, so it only makes sense that–" "Isaac did NOT kill him," Annie said firmly, crossing her arms. "I'll keep defending him until the end of time if I have to. You can't–" Suddenly, Isaac placed his hand on Annie's shoulder. "That's enough, Annie," he said calmly. "Jesse has every right to be suspicious of me, as does everyone else." Then, the hitman cleared his throat and addressed Jesse directly. "I assure you, I did not kill TorqueDawg," he said calmly. "Using traps is not my style. I am more of a hands-on type of person." Everyone else also looked at him with varying degrees of disgust. "Ugh, dude, that is just SICK!," gagged Aiden. "What?," asked Isaac, looking around in bewilderment. "I am merely stating that I prefer to kill my victims up close and personal." Upon hearing that, everyone else at the table finally realized what he meant, and their faces turned beet red. Isaac shook his head in bewilderment. "What on earth did you think I meant?," he asked. Annie scooched over to him and whispered into his ear. Isaac immediately recoiled in disgust. "You all thought THAT was what I meant?!," he asked. "I would never…just what kind of monster do you think I am?!" "I-in our defense!," said Lukas, but his mind ended up drawing a blank. "...actually, I got nothing…"

"Wait a minute!," said Sparklez, suddenly realizing something. "That guy's an assassin? Why's he on your team, then?" The others glanced at each other. "That's…kind of a long story," said Jesse, who then proceeded to explain to the others about what had transpired before, such as how they entered the Sky City dimension, got mixed up in a battle between the Founder and a group of rebels, how they confronted and finally defeated Thomas, and how they met Isaac, who was initially hired by Thomas to take them out, but eventually joined their side after finding out that Thomas had lied to him the whole time. Most of the others looked baffled by what they had just heard, and understandably so, since this was quite a lot of new information to take in at once. "Let me get this straight," Cassie huffed, facepalming. "That guy tried to murder all of you, and only a few hours later, you decide to recruit him into your own team?!" "Trust me, we know how that sounds like," said Angel, holding up her hands defensively. "But Annie's right. He DID help us a ton, and if it wasn't for him, a lot more people would've been killed by those mobs." "Yeah, but…but…ugh!," groaned Cassie, throwing up her arms in exasperation. "You know what? I'm done with all you people," she muttered, standing up from the table and picking up her cat, Winslow, before storming out of the dining room. "Cassie, where are you going?," asked Lizzie. "Yeah, Cassie, come back!," Stampy called after her. "You can't just leave! We need to stay here and figure out what's going on!" But Cassie ignored both of them, and her footsteps grew quieter and quieter until they couldn't be heard anymore. "..well, that just happened," sighed Kevin. "Yeah, this is not turning out great at all," said Petra, shaking her head.

"Hold on a minute," Lizzie said nervously. "You told us that you brought Thomas with you so you could keep an eye on him. But where is he now? Unless he's actually one of you and just hasn't been introduced yet…" "Yeah, Lizzie's got a point," said Sparklez, his eyes widening in fear. "Now that I think about it, I DO remember seeing Thomas, but after the lights went out and TorqueDawg was…murdered…I didn't see him at all!" "You did not notice because you were too busy panicking about TorqueDawg's death," Isaac replied calmly. "But to answer your question, simply take a look at this." He held up the dog leash, and when they saw that there was nobody attached to it, they were quickly able to put two and two together. "He escaped?!," cried Lizzie, horrified by the thought that there was yet another madman running around in the mansion. "But how?!," yelled Dan, his hair somehow having changed color without any of them noticing. "How did he even get away from you guys?!" "He took advantage of TorqueDawg's death," explained Lucy. "Everything was dark and chaotic. We couldn't even see where he went off to."

It was pretty clear that everyone was now in a state of panic, but fortunately, Sparklez managed to keep his head in the game, and proceeded to calm everyone down. "Everyone, calm down," he said, trying to be heard over the commotion. "Guys, calm down. Can anyone even hear me? I need you all to calm down–" Suddenly, Isaac stood up from his chair and clapped his hands together, creating a loud, cracking noise that immediately made everyone else in the room go silent. Then, he sat back down without another word. "Um…thanks," said Sparklez. "Look, I know that things are seriously getting out of hand…" "Understatement of the century," grumbled Stacy, crossing her arms. "But I'm gonna need you all to calm down, okay?," Sparklez continued. "Panicking isn't going to get us anywhere." The others around the table murmured and nodded, knowing that he was right. "I'm really sorry about this, guys," Sparklez said, turning to the Order of the Stone, "but could you give us a moment? This is a lot to take in, you know." "Of course not, take all the time you need," said Jesse. "We understand."

After that, everyone began splitting up, with Stacy beckoning Stampy over, and Dan and Lizzie having their own secret conversation at a corner of the table. The Order of the Stone also huddled together, but for the moment, they were not really sure what to do next. "So let's go over everything that we know so far," said Jesse. "That portal we went through turned out NOT to be the right one, unfortunately." "Yeah, sorry about that, guys," said Angel, wincing. "I was so sure that it was the one that was going to take us back home." "No worries," Jesse reassured her. "Anyway, we also got invited to this crazy mansion by an anonymous host, who hasn't even shown up yet. There are tons of zombies right outside of the mansion, so we're basically stuck in here until sunrise. Plus, we're not the only ones who were invited here." The group glanced over their shoulders at everyone else in the room, who were either on their own or whispering to each other. "Do you really think we can trust these guys, Jesse?," asked Petra. "I think so," said Jesse. "They seem just as scared and confused as we are." "And let's not forget that someone, likely the host, has been setting up fatal traps inside of the mansion," said Ivor. "And they were somehow able to get portraits of ourselves without our consent." "How do you know that there's more than one trap in here, Ivor?," asked Olivia. "For all we know, there's just that one trap - the one that TorqueDawg happened to step into." "You have a point, but trust me, I know what I'm talking about," said Ivor. "What would be the point in only making ONE trap, and in the kitchen of all places? There HAS to be more of them around, which means that from now on, we need to be on our toes. The last thing we want is for one of us to trigger yet another trap."

"And finally, Thomas has escaped again, and I'll bet anything that he's thinking up some other way to get his revenge on us," said Annie. "I just know it." "Not if I have anything to say about it," said Lucy, a determined expression on her face. "He'll change his tune once I get my hands on him again." "Hey, what did you do to Thomas, anyway?," asked Aiden. "He seemed pretty terrified of you ever since you and him fought each other." "Oh, I just scared him a little, that's all," Lucy replied vaguely. "But trust me, if I ever see that little punk again, I'll show him what it's like to REALLY be afraid…" "In that case, you'll come and find me if you ever find him, right?," asked Petra with a grin on her face. "I'll help you kick his ass." "Okay, so that's pretty much everything we know so far," said Jesse. "Hold on for a minute," said Isaac. "Jesse, did you not mention seeing someone through a window at some point?" "Oh, yeah," said Jesse, raising an eyebrow. "I honestly forgot about that for a moment. But now that I look back on it, it must've been my imagination or something. There's no way that I actually saw something like that. At least…I don't think so." "Imaginary or not, such information could still prove useful later on," said Isaac. "Even if you no longer believe what you saw, tell us anyway. Give us as many details as you can remember." Everyone else looked at Jesse with curiosity. "Oh. Okay, we're doing this now," mumbled Jesse, shrugging his shoulders. "So you remember when we were all running for our lives from those zombies that are outside right now?" "How could we forget?," asked Angel. "I mean, that literally happened twenty minutes ago." "Well, while we were running, I happened to look up at one of the second story windows of the mansion," Jesse continued on with his story. "And like I said, I saw someone with a white pumpkin on his head."

"Yes, which I still don't believe, by the way," Ivor huffed. "There are no such things as white pumpkins. Now, I would actually believe you if you had said that the man you saw in the window had a REGULAR pumpkin over his head, but–" "Hold up," said Kevin, interrupting him. "Let's be honest with ourselves for a minute. We've all been through way more shit in the past couple of months than anyone else has ever gone through in their entire lives. I mean, we met the old Order of the Stone, teamed up with them to save the world from a humongous mutant wither that was about to devour the entire world, became heroes ourselves, found out that other dimensions actually exists, saved the population of an entire city from a psycho with a chicken that laid magical eggs, and now we're stuck in a mansion that's littered with a bunch of death traps that could go off at any moment. No offense, Ivor, but I feel like a creepy guy wearing a white pumpkin over his head is just about the most normal thing we've come across so far." "...okay, I see your point," sighed Ivor. "But still, with all of this information at our disposal, what do we DO with all of it?" That was a good question. The rest of the group were deep in thought, but no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't figure out what they should do next.

"I mean, it's not like we're the only ones here right now," said Jesse, gesturing to the other people in the dining room with them. "We could try asking THEM. Maybe one of them knows something that we don't, and we could go off from there." "Well, that's about as good of an idea as any," said Lukas. "It's not like there's anything else for us to do." With the whole group now in agreement, it was time to act. "I'll go around and ask them," Jesse volunteered. "The rest of you just wait here. I'll be back if I find out something that's interesting." "I could come with you," Isaac also volunteered. "I am well versed in the art of interrogation." To prove his point, he cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Yeah…something tells me that would NOT be a good idea," Olivia said in a deadpan voice. "Isaac, I'm not going to interrogate anyone," sighed Jesse. "I'm just going to ask them a few questions. And if they don't want to answer, then I won't force them." Isaac nodded and relented, but he was still in disagreement. "I believe that you are being too easy on them," he said. "But very well. I will wait here with the rest of them."

With that said, Jesse left the group and began walking around the room, wondering who he should talk to first. He noticed that Cassie had come back and was talking to Sparklez while stroking Winslow's back. After looking around, he noticed Dan and Lizzie talking to each other in the corner of the table, and decided to ask them for answers. "Hey there, Dan. Lizzie," he said, walking up to them. The two of them turned to stare at him, a bit surprised that he would come all the way over here. "Oh, uh, hello," said Dan. "Hi there," said Lizzie. Jesse sat down and stared back at them, and an awkward silence ensued. "If you don't mind, I actually had some questions about this…TorqueDawg situation," said Jesse. Dan and Lizzie glanced at each other, though what they were trying to convey to each other through eye contact, Jesse had no idea. "Yeah? Go ahead," said Dan. After thinking for a moment, Jesse finally came up with his first question. "Lizzie, seems like you're not much of a TorqueDawg fan," he said. "What's the deal?" "Oh, come on," said Lizzie, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "You met him, right? Nobody liked that guy - I'm just the only one who will actually admit it." "He, um…yeah, he definitely wasn't the nicest person," said Dan, rubbing the back of his head. "It seemed like people were really interested in seeing TorqueDawg's inventory…," Jesse pointed out. "Any idea why?"

"An adventurer like him? He could have had all sorts of cool stuff," said Lizzie. "Uh-huh," said Jesse slowly. "TorqueDawg was clearly targeted with this trap… Why him?" "Well, he was bragging about having some kind of 'rare item,'" said Dan. "Wouldn't show it to anyone, of course," said Lizzie, rolling her eyes again. "Typical TorqueDawg." This was the first time that Jesse had ever heard something about a "rare item," and his curiosity was immediately piqued. "So this 'rare item' that TorqueDawg claimed to have…," said Jesse, making quotations with his fingers when he said the two words. "What can you tell me about it?" "We don't know exactly," said Lizzie. "Yeah. Sorry," said Dan. Jesse silently mulled over what Dan and Lizzie had just told him, then finally decided that he had no questions left…for now, at least. "Okay…," said Jesse. "Okay that's it for now. Thanks." He got up and left, leaving two rather confused people with dyed hair, and walked back to his group of friends, who were patiently waiting for him.

"What'd you find out?," asked Petra. "It's all tangled up, but it sounds like Torque Dawg claimed to have some sort of 'rare item'...," said Jesse. "Petra, you wouldn't happen to have seen anything like that in TorqueDawg's inventory before it got sucked into that hole, did you?" Petra thought hard for a moment, but she couldn't come up with anything. "I didn't see anything like that in his inventory though…," she said, before turning to face the others. "Did YOU guys see anything?," she asked them. "Nothing," said Olivia. "Nothing but some random items that you could get almost anywhere." "Yeah, and I bet that none of them are meant to be the 'rare item' that they were talking about," said Annie. "Yeah. Something's not quite adding up here," said Jesse, rubbing his chin in thought. "You think that whoever killed TorqueDawg wanted that item for themselves and thought that HE had it?," asked Lucy. "It's as good of a theory as any," said Jesse. "But right now, we still don't know much about what's going on. I'm going to keep asking around some more. Hopefully, I can find out more about this mysterious item."

Jesse began walking around the room again, and after a while, his eyes finally landed on Sparklez and Cassie, as well as Winslow, who was sitting on the table while being patted on the back. "Hey, Sparklez," said Jesse, walking up to them. "And…Cassie Rose, yeah?" "Yep! Hi! That's me," said Cassie, acting a little nervous. "Hey there Jesse," said Sparklez. "Oh, Winslow says hi too, haha," Cassie chuckled, nudging her cat forward. Jesse couldn't help but pause for a moment, not because of the strangeness of someone acting like their cat could understand them, but by the fact that Cassie reminded him of someone from his own group of friends. The resemblance between her and Lucy was almost uncanny. He shook himself out of his thoughts and proceeded with the questioning. "So it looks like you came back," he said to Cassie. "I hope that Sparklez was able to help you catch up on what's going on." "Oh, he did," said Cassie. "It's pretty scary, isn't it? First, we find out that TorqueDawg was murdered, and on top of that, there is a total maniac running around somewhere, doing god knows what." She shuddered. "It makes me shiver just thinking about it." Jesse couldn't help but agree. Thomas was definitely one of the most dangerous opponents that they had gone up against so far. He may not have been as powerful as the wither storm or as smart as Ivor, but he had a tenacity and willingness to cross any line in order to get what he wanted. "Sparklez also told me about how you and your friends are a group of famous heroes," said Cassie. "But it's kind of weird, don't you think? I don't think I've ever heard about you guys before, and neither did everyone else, for that matter."

"Let's just say we're…not from around here," said Jesse, not yet ready to tell them that they came from another dimension. Sparklez and Cassie glanced at each other in confusion, but decided not to say anything for now. "Anyway, you mind if I ask you guys some questions?," asked Jesse, quickly getting back on track. "Nope!," said Cassie, shaking her head. "What're the questions?" Jesse sat down in front of them and leaned in. "Got any guesses why someone would kill TorqueDawg?," he asked quietly. "Oh, gosh. Gosh," sighed Cassie. "He was a little… prickly around the edges, you know? You'd have to ask other people about that. I– I didn't really know him." "Mm-hm…," said Jesse, slowly nodding his head. "I don't want to say anything mean about a guy that's not here to defend himself but, well, you met him right?," said Sparklez, which prompted a nod from Jesse. "'Prickly' is kind of an understatement." Jesse mulled over both of their answers for a while, then moved on to his second question. "Cassie - you seemed pretty upset about people wanting to poke around TorqueDawg's inventory…," he said. "Oh? Was I?," asked Cassie, having apparently forgotten that. "Yeah. Yeah you were," said Jesse. "Why was that?" "Well, it was just so…insensitive, right?," asked Cassie. "It had just happened and she was all curious about what was in his pockets. Just…made me mad I guess." Jesse nodded in understanding. "And if I remember correctly, you were also pretty mad when you found out that we let Isaac, a professional hitman, join our group," said Jesse. "Well, of course I got mad about that," said Cassie, frowning. "Because it was the stupidest thing I've ever heard."

"Aren't you being a little harsh right now, Cassie?," asked Sparklez, raising an eyebrow. But Cassie shook her head. "No, I don't think I am," she said. "Because it's true. I mean, really think about your decision. This guy is a freaking hitman. You said so yourself. That means that he KILLED people before. And the fact that he made an entire career out of that just means he's also very good at it. You literally befriended someone who has killed people before, got very good at it, and could probably kill YOU pretty easily, if he wanted to. I'm sorry, but…that's just dumb. And I guess I lost my temper and decided to walk out of the room so I wouldn't lash out or something. Sorry about that." "It's okay," Jesse assured her. "I get where you're coming from. There are actually some of us who are kind of against the idea, but personally, I feel like Isaac deserves a chance, even after everything he's tried to do. But while I would like to convince you somehow, I still have to ask another question about TorqueDawg. There was drama between Lizzie and TorqueDawg, right? Got any insight?" "Sorry, I'm not getting wrapped up in that," said Sparklez, shaking his head. "Especially now that TorqueDawg is…y'know."

"But it's weird, right?," said Cassie, frowning in contemplation. "Definitely seems like there's some beef. Not that I, um, want to get into rumors or anything like that." Jesse slowly nodded and thought over the answers that he had received. Seeing that he had no more questions, he decided to end it right there. "Sparklez. Cassie. Winslow." He nodded to the cat, who continued picking his own paws while completely ignoring him. "Thanks for the time," he said, standing up from his chair and walking away. "No problem!," said Cassie. "Uh, yeah, any time," said Sparklez, giving a wave. After that, Jesse went back to his own group.

"Get anything out of them?," asked Petra. "Found out this group has a whole lot of secrets they're keeping from each other…," said Jesse. "I am not surprised by that," said Isaac, looking at the other people in the room. "Each of them has something to hide from the other. I can tell just by reading their body language." "Really? You can do that?," asked Angel, her eyes wide with amazement. "That's so cool!" "If you can read people's body language, can you figure out which one is probably the killer?," asked Annie. But Isaac shook his head. "I am good, but I am not that good," he said. "Well, regardless, we now know that these people have something to hide. That's definitely something," said Petra. "And it looks like there's only Stampy and Stacy left to question," said Lucy, pointing at them. "Do you think they know something that the others don't?" "Only one way to find out," said Jesse, before walking towards them. However, when he got halfway to them, Kevin suddenly hollered, "You got this, Jesse! Pump the information out of them like how I pump the milk out of your nipples in my twisted, disgusting fantasies!"

Kevin had hollered so loud that his voice echoed across the entire dining room, and every single person in the vicinity heard him loud and clear. Jesse was completely frozen in the middle of the room, petrified by the numerous eyes that were on both him and Kevin. His friends couldn't really see his face since his back was facing towards them, but if they could, they would have seen that his face was as red as a tomato. After a long and awkward silence, Jesse slowly continued walking towards Stacy and Stampy without even looking back at them. Meanwhile, everyone else in the dining room eventually went back to their private conversations, though not without giving Jesse a few looks of pity and amusement. "Sorry, guys," Kevin snickered as the others stared at him in bewilderment. "I couldn't help it. I just HAD to." "...you are the strangest and most disgusting man I've ever met in my entire life," said Ivor, shaking his head.

After what felt like forever, Jesse finally made it to Stacy and Stampy, who had been staring at him the whole time. "Hey guys. Stampy and Stacy, right?," asked Jesse nervously, his face still tomato red. "Oh! Um, uh, hello!," said Stampy. "Hey Jesse," said Stacy, giving him a look of pity. "So what was up with that? Me and Stampy were just talking to each other, and then all of a sudden, the guy in the white hoodie just shouted something about…milking you? I really hope I heard that wrong, but…" Stampy's face suddenly turned green and his cheeks puffed out, as though he was about to throw up. "I-it's not like that!," Jesse said quickly, wanting to clear this up as soon as possible, while also wanting to stop Stampy from puking all over them. "Kevin has never, and I mean NEVER, done…the things that he said he's done." Fortunately, Stampy was able to get his lunch back under control. "I'm terribly sorry about that," he moaned. "But I can't handle even hearing about things like that. I have a weak stomach, you know."

Jesse had his face buried in his hands. "I'm so, so, SO sorry about that, guys," he moaned. "Kevin's just the type of guy who would think up the weirdest and grossest thing he could possibly think of, and just say it." "I know how you feel," said Stacy, patting him on the back. "I've met plenty of people who were like him…though I'll be honest, none of them were as…blunt as he was just now." Jesse didn't say anything, and continued to hide his face. "You know, we could just pretend that the guy in the hoodie DIDN'T just yell out about how he has fantasies of pumping milk from your nipples," said Stacy, cringing at her own words. "Would that make you feel better, Jesse?" "Oh, yes, PLEASE!," groaned Jesse, finally looking up from his hands, his face still red. "Okay. So, what's up?," asked Stacy, leaning back with both of her arms crossed. Needless to say, Jesse was extremely grateful to Stacy for pretending that the recent "events" didn't happen. "I know things are a little nuts right now, but I've got some questions," said Jesse, quickly getting back on track. "Oh? Really? What?," asked Stampy, whose face was no longer green, though he still looked a little pale, which was pretty understandable.

"Stacy, you seemed pretty curious about what was in TorqueDawg's inventory," said Jesse. "What's up with that?" First, Stacy thought hard about what she wanted to say. "Well, TorqueDawg was a pretty notorious thief," she said. "I was just curious what he had. That's it." "Mm-hm…," said Jesse, nodding his head, though deep down, he didn't quite believe her. Back then, after hearing about TorqueDawg's death, she didn't seem as shocked or saddened as the others, apart from maybe Lizzie. She was also very quick on asking about his inventory, which Jesse found rather strange. After all, no normal person would be so interested in someone's inventory right after they died…unless the deceased had something that they wanted.

Jesse decided to move on to his next question. "Seems like Lizzie and TorqueDawg really didn't like each other…," he said. "Know anything else about that?" "Oh that!," Stampy said, shaking his head. "Real shame. Real shame." "He broke into her house and stole a bunch of stuff from her," said Stacy. "She was super upset about it." "You don't say…," said Jesse. So it looks like we have another motive for the murder, he thought to himself. It's possible that he was not killed for whatever item he supposedly had, but rather, because someone else was holding a grudge against him. I don't think it's Lizzie, though. It seems too…obvious. "Anyone you can think of that would want…something bad to happen to TorqueDawg?," asked Jesse. "Um, well. I never had that big of a problem with him, personally…," said Stampy. "But I know other people did? Quite a few actually. I don't know if you noticed, but…he was a bit of a griefer." "Yeah… And a thief," said Stacy. "Thief, huh? Interesting," said Jesse, nodding his head. After talking to each person, he was slowly learning more and more about TorqueDawg, and not a single one of them really showed him in a good light. In the end, was it any wonder that he ended up getting killed? "Thanks, you two. This has been…enlightening," said Jesse. "No problem," said Stampy. "Yeah. No problem," said Stacy. "And…don't worry about what happened earlier. Sure, the guy in the white hoodie was pretty loud, and sure, everyone in the room heard exactly what he said, and sure, he may have embarrassed you so much that you'd want nothing more than to bury your head in the sand and forget that it ever happened–" "Is there a point to all of this?," Jesse asked impatiently, his face turning red again upon being reminded of that. Stacy thought for a moment, then just shrugged her shoulders. "I guess not," she admitted. "Just…don't worry about it." Easy for YOU to say, Jesse thought to himself. After all, YOU'RE not the one who was just embarrassed in front of your friends because someone decided to yell at the top of their lungs that they had fantasies of MILKING your NIPPLES. I mean, what the fuck, Kevin?

"Well, thanks for that. Really appreciate it," said Jesse, even though he didn't really mean it. Then, he walked back to his group of friends, and noticed that Kevin was still snickering about the stunt that he just pulled. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up," sighed Jesse. "Come on, get it out of your system." "Sorry, Jesse," said Kevin, not really sounding sorry at all. "But I couldn't resist. I just had to do it. You know, things were getting kind of tense, and I thought that it would lighten the mood." "But calling out something like…that?," asked Lucy, wrinkling her nose in distaste. "I mean, seriously? I know that your sense of humor has its low points, but geez…" "Ouch. You wound me, kiddo," said Kevin, holding a hand to his chest in mock pain. "We're serious, dude," said Petra, crossing her arms. "I understand that things are getting kind of tense right now, and you needed to lighten the mood, but I feel like you could've done that WAY differently."

Kevin looked around at the others and finally realized that his "joke" had bothered them way more than he had anticipated. "Oh, come on!," he groaned. "It was just a joke. A little troll. You know, 'it's just a prank, bro?' Why are you guys having such a hissy fit over this?" "Dude, I used to be a troll," said Angel, crossing her arms, "and even I thought that you went too far this time. I mean, there was nothing funny about it. It was just nasty…" Kevin threw up his hands in exasperation. "You too, Angel?," he groaned. "Ugh. Look, I'm sorry, okay? I didn't know that it was gonna bother you guys so much, or I wouldn't have done it. But hey, at least there's no hard feelings between us, right?" "That's not really for us to say," said Lukas, frowning. "If anything, it's Jesse that you should be apologizing to. He's the one who got hurt by your 'joke' the most, after all." "Are you serious?," sighed Kevin, but when he realized that they were indeed serious, he sighed again and turned to face Jesse, about to pull a half assed apology out of his…well, ass. But then, he saw the look on Jesse's face, and suddenly, he felt a wave of guilt wash over him. Even though he was trying not to show it, Jesse was clearly hurt by what Kevin had done, although the former Virus did not really mean to. "Kevin…I don't usually say this about other people, especially when it concerns my own friends…but can you just grow up?," he asked, a look of disappointment on his face that made Kevin feel like he just got stabbed in the heart. "...sorry," said Kevin, now feeling genuinely remorseful. "I didn't mean to…I just thought…I only wanted to lighten the mood…" Jesse nodded in understanding. "I get it," he said softly. "Things are stressful right now. But what you did seriously crossed the line. How would you feel if Lucy yelled out something embarrassing about yourself in front of a bunch of strangers?"

Instead of answering right away, Kevin thought long and hard about it. "Honestly, I'd probably feel super pissed off," he said, "and also kind of…betrayed? And humiliated?" "There's no way that I would do something like that to Kevin!," said Lucy, shaking her head. "Of course you won't," said Jesse, reassuring her. "That was just an example. But you get what I'm trying to say, right Kevin? Your 'joke' wasn't funny, and it definitely didn't make anyone laugh. It just made everyone feel super uncomfortable. In fact, the only person here who got a kick out of that was yourself, and that's not really something to be proud of." Kevin slowly nodded, looking down at his feet in shame. "Yeah," he said. "I'm really sorry about that, guys. I didn't know that I would push so many buttons…" "Hey, it's okay," said Jesse, patting him on the shoulder. "Just don't do something like that again, alright?" Kevin nodded again, and now that he was properly chastised for the stunt that he recently pulled, it was time for the group to get back on track.

"Well, since we got that out of the way," said Lukas. "Did you find anything out from Stacy or SturdyCat, Jesse?" "I think you mean 'Stampy Cat,' Lukas," said Jesse. "Right right," said Lukas, clearing his throat. "So you find anything out?" "Apparently TorqueDawg was a well-known thief," said Jesse, lowering his voice so that no one outside the conversation could hear him. "A thief, huh?," said Lukas. "That might have something to do with it, don't you think?" "Agreed," said Jesse, nodding his head. "Hey, that could be a potential motive, right?," asked Olivia. "Maybe the murder had nothing to do with the rare item. Maybe it was just someone who had a grudge against him." "It must've been a pretty serious grudge in order to justify MURDER as a solution," said Angel, thinking for a moment. "If that's the case, then we don't really have anything to worry about anymore. TorqueDawg is already dead - as callous as that sounds - so doesn't that mean the person who set up the trap has no reason to kill anyone else? Wouldn't they just…stop?" "That is a possible answer," said Isaac. "But there are two things that we have to consider. First, we have to remember the portraits of ourselves that are still hung on these very walls. Considering that whoever made these portraits also painted a red X on the one that died, it is more likely that all of us are being targeted, not just TorqueDawg. And secondly, even if whoever killed TorqueDawg has satisfied his thirst for vengeance and sees no use in targeting the rest of us, that does not necessarily mean that we are out of the woods yet. Thomas is still loose inside this mansion, and he could very well be more dangerous than the killer."

"Yeah, you got that right, Isaac," said Annie. "Hell, I've been living under the same roof as him for years. I know exactly how dangerous he can be…" Jesse turned away from them in order to think. "So TorqueDawg was a thief, and he supposedly had something rare…," he said to himself, rubbing his chin in contemplation. "But… it feels like there's still a piece missing. No one will tell me what this 'rare item' is." "Yeah, and where do we even go from here?," asked Aiden. "Are we just supposed to search every inch of this mansion? That would take forever, and by the time we finish, we may already be dead." "Excuse me," said Sparklez, suddenly butting in on their conversation. "Hi, sorry to interrupt. See, I just happened to be nearby, and I couldn't help but overhear your conversation with each other. I, uh...I think I can shed some light on that situation, actually… You see, I know exactly what the rare item is." "You do?," asked Petra, raising an eyebrow. "Yes, I do," said Sparklez, nodding his head. "Though I doubt any of you have heard of it, though. It's…heh, 'rare' doesn't exactly do it justice, if you know what I mean…" "Well, what is it?," Ivor asked impatiently. "Yeah, are you ever gonna actually tell us?," asked Lukas. "I will, I will," said Sparklez. "But I'm gonna need you guys to brace yourselves first, because this is pretty mind blowing stuff. In fact, I still remember the time, back in my early days as a youtuber, when I first heard about this item. Let me tell you, I was so shocked that I almost didn't even believe it! But trust me, what I'm about to tell you is a hundred percent real. You may think I'm lying or exaggerating, but–" "Oh for- Argh. Just tell me what this thing is already!," cried Jesse, already losing patience. "Yeah, I think we'll believe you no matter what you say," said Lucy, putting her hands on her hips. "We've seen our fair share of crazy things in the past few months alone. I'm pretty sure we can handle whatever rare item this is."

"Okay, okay," said Sparklez nervously. "I'm going to, I'm going to. There's a temple. Way out in the middle of nowhere. No one knows who built it but it's been there forever. People have been trying to track down the temple's location for ages because they want this treasure that's supposedly deep in its basement. Now, it looks like just an ordinary flint & steel, but it's actually super rare - it's got this enchantment on it and-" "Hold on, let me guess," said Jesse, holding up the palm of his hand to stop him. "This flint and steel can also open portals to other worlds, am I right?" "Exactly!," cried Sparklez, before suddenly doing a double take. "Wait what?!" He turned towards Jesse in shock, narrowing his eyes at him. "You also know about the enchanted flint & steel?" Jesse nodded. "You remember when TorqueDawg asked if we were out of towners?," he asked. "Or when I told you and Cassie that we were not from around here?" Sparklez tried to process what he had just heard, and once he finally came to the conclusion, his eyes widened in shock. "No…," he said. "You're seriously telling me that you guys are from another freaking dimension?" Jesse nodded again and took out the flint and steel. Once his eyes landed on it, Sparklez immediately panicked. "Oh geez put that away!," he cried. "You can't just pull that out here!" Jesse quickly put the flint and steel back into his inventory, fairly alarmed by Sparklez's reaction. Sparklez took a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Okay… You know, I had a theory about why you were here… and I think this might just prove it," he said.

Then, Sparklez walked to the front of the room. "Everyone? Everyone!," he called out to grab everyone's attention. Everyone in the room sat down at the dining table and looked over at Sparklez expectantly. "We've all been freaking out," said Sparklez, "wondering why we were all brought here...why TorqueDawg died...and Jesse has uncovered a very important clue." The others gasped and stared at Jesse and his friends. "What? Really?," asked Stampy. "Whoever killed TorqueDawg," Sparklez continued slowly, leaning in forwards with both hands on the table, "whoever invited us… They're after the enchanted flint & steel-!" Suddenly, before he could even finish his sentence, Sparklez's chair moved back on its own and tipped over, causing him to fall into a recently opened pit behind him. Everyone else watched in horror as a hole suddenly opened up in the ceiling, and numerous blocks of sand fell from thehole and filled up the hole that Sparklez had just fallen in. Then, all of the lights turned out as everyone once again ran around and panicked like a bunch of headless chickens. The Order of the Stone tried to calm everyone down, but it was very hard to do, especially since they felt just as terrified as everyone else. After a few seconds, the lights finally turned back on, but they were dark blue and dimmer, which gave the entire room a haunting environment that only made everyone even more scared than they were before. Looking up at the ceiling, they realized that all of the lights, which were once normal lanterns, had been replaced with white jack-o-lanterns. A deep, terrifying voice filled the room. "Greetings, 'Adventurers'," it said. "I...AM THE WHITE PUMPKIN."

The items that were in Sparklez's inventory floated to the surface of the sand for all to witness. "One of you has the treasure I desire and I will not rest until it is mine!," the voice continued. "Even if I have to resort…" The lights turned off again, but when they turned back on, the painting at the front of the room had been replaced with a figure wearing a white pumpkin, just like the one that Jesse saw in the window. "...TO MURDER." Once again, the lights turned off, and when they turned back on, not only was the painting back in its original place and the mysterious man with the white pumpkin over his head was gone, but the jack-o-lanterns were now normal lanterns once again, bathing the entire room in its warm, orange light. However, that was not enough to calm everyone down. "They killed Sparklez!," cried Dan, looking like he was ready to tear out his own hair, which, strangely enough, was dyed differently again. "They killed Sparklez!" Stampy began spouting gibberish and ran out of the room, followed by Lukas. The whole room was filled with a cacophony of terrified noises. "This is awful! Terrible!" "Who was that guy?!" "And there's no such thing as 'white pumpkins!'" "Tell that to the white pumpkins hanging all over the place!" "I don't like it! I really don't like it!" "We're all gonna die!"

The only ones who weren't panicking was the Order of the Stone, who were staring at the hole where Sparklez had died. "Man… Poor Captain Sparklez," said Jesse as he solemnly looked at the hole where Sparklez died. "Yeah," agreed Lukas, "trapped by sand, that's a...rough way to go." "Someone made this," growled Olivia, angrily clenching her hands into fists. Jesse and the others looked at her in surprise, since Olivia rarely ever got angry. "Whoever made this trap knew a lot about redstone," Olivia continued in an angry tone. "And what do they do with that knowledge? Use it to kill innocent people?!" She was visibly shaking from head to toe in anger. "Olivia, calm down," Angel said softly, placing both hands on her shoulders. "It's okay. We're gonna catch that guy. I promise." Fortunately, that was enough to slightly calm Olivia down, though she was still clearly upset over Sparklez's death. "She's super passionate when it comes to redstone," Angel explained to the others. "She thinks that all redstone should only be used for good, and should never be used to hurt or kill people." "Don't worry, Olivia," said Petra. "We'll catch that guy." Olivia nodded and smiled gratefully. "I really hope we do," she said, a lit fire in her eyes that was definitely not there before. "Because now, it's personal."

Meanwhile, everyone else in the room had been arguing and accusing each other, as well as wondering which of them was going to be next. "Well, I'm not gonna be next!," cried Cassie. "I'm out of here!" She ran out of the room, followed by her cat, Winslow. "So much for a nice dinner party…," groaned Petra. "Wait, what about the zombies?," asked Aiden. Everyone else stared at him, before realizing that he was right. "Augh! Oh no!," Cassie screamed from the other room. "I don't like the sound of that," said Ivor as he and everyone else ran in the direction of Cassie's screams. They saw Cassie backing away from the front door as numerous zombies walked towards her. "Shut the door! Shut the door!," yelled Jesse, running towards Cassie and pushing her aside before pulling a lever that was right next to the open doors. The iron doors slammed shut, preventing the zombies from entering. "C'mere, Winslow…," Cassie said, picking up the cat and cradling him in her arms. "Don't be scared…" Seeing Winslow reminded Lucy of something that she had forgotten, and as she frantically looked around, she realized what it was that she forgot. "Wait a minute!," she cried. "Where's my cat?! Where did she go?!"

"Are you serious right now?," asked Dan. "We just saw Sparklez die right in front of us, a bunch of undead freaks almost got in here and killed us all, and you're worrying about a dumb cat?" "She's not just a dumb cat!," Lucy retorted. "Yeah!," Cassie agreed. "She's not a dumb cat! Apologize to her right now!" "You're kidding me, right?," asked Dan, raising an eyebrow. "I'm not apologizing for anything– Ow!" Suddenly, Cassie walked up to him and kicked him in the ankle, causing him to howl in pain while hopping up and down on one foot. "Apologize!," she said, still holding onto Winslow like the cat was a life preserver. "Okay, okay, geez," muttered Dan. "Lucy, I'm sorry that I called your cat dumb." "Good," said Cassie, nodding her head. Then, she noticed how everyone else was staring at her in confusion. "What?," she said, shrugging her shoulders. "He shouldn't have insulted his cat." Meanwhile, Lucy was so worried about her missing cat that she was literally wringing her fingers in worry. Over the past few days, she had grown extremely attached to that cat. Jesse noticed how worried she was and tried to comfort her.

"Don't worry, Lucy," he said. "We'll find the cat somehow. When was the last time that you remember seeing her?" Lucy thought long and hard for a moment. "Well, she was definitely with me when we first got to the mansion, so she can't be outside," she said. "And she was here when we met everyone else. I know that because I remember her hissing at Cassie when she tried to pet her…" Cassie seemed to bristle upon hearing that, but nobody else noticed. "...but after that, I can't really remember," said Lucy. "Maybe she ran off and…" She gasped. "Oh my god! What if she got caught in another trap by accident?!" "I wouldn't worry about that," said Aiden, trying to comfort her. "Cats have nine lives, you know. If it did get into a trap, it'll still survive, though it would also have eight lives instead of nine, which…is also kind of bad. But hey, at least it wouldn't be dead, unless it somehow gets caught in eight more traps, in which case…yeah, I'm not making it any better, am I?" "No, you're not," sighed Lukas, facepalming while shaking his head. He became friends with Aiden for many reasons. Aiden's brains…was not one of them. "Also, don't you know that cats don't really have nine lives? It's a myth." Aiden slowly turned to face Lukas, before suddenly laughing out loud. "Yeah, right!," he said. "Next, you'll be telling me that the moon isn't made out of cheese!" Everyone else stared at him. "Just how sheltered are you, exactly?," asked Kevin, causing Lucy to elbow him harshly.

"Hey, I'm not THAT sheltered!," snapped Aiden. "...okay, I'm a little sheltered, but give me a break! I grew up in an orphanage - yeah, stop with the pitying looks, I get enough of them already - so I'm not the sharpest knife in…wherever you put the knives. But…really? Cats don't have nine lives? Are you serious?" "It's a myth," said Cassie in a deadpan voice. "And I should know. I'm a cat expert." "...so my whole life was nothing but a lie…," whispered Aiden, staring off into space. "...oookay," said Annie. "So that just happened." "Look, I'm sure he…or she…will be fine," said Stacy. "Cats run off on their own all the time. Don't worry, it'll come back soon." To their surprise, it was Stacy's reasoning that was finally able to calm Lucy down. "Okay," she said, taking in deep breaths. "Okay, thanks. I needed to hear that. But still, I can't help but be worried about that cat. I know it's weird, given that I only had her for, like, two days, but people can get very attached to their pets!" Don't I know it, Jesse thought sadly, thinking back to the good old days when Reuben was still alive. "Yeah, it would suck for that cat to die, especially before you even gave it a name," said Aiden. "Dude!," Petra scolded, slapping on the back of Aiden's head. "Can you just shut your mouth for once? You're making things worse!"

"...oh crap, you're right!," groaned Lucy, facepalming. "The cat's lost somewhere in the mansion, I have no idea if she's dead or not, and this whole time, I haven't even given her a name yet! Ugh, what the hell's wrong with my brain?" "Why don't you just name her Midnight?," asked Cassie. Lucy and everyone else stared at her in confusion. "...Midnight?," asked Lucy. Cassie nodded and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah," she said. "I think it's a good name for your cat. Her fur's black, she's got that mysterious feline aura around her, and her eyes look like they have tiny little stars in them. I think 'Midnight' kind of fits, don't you think?" "Wait, wait, hold on," said Dan. "How do you know all these little details about a CAT? And did you seriously come up with that name just now?" Cassie couldn't help but blush a little. "Okay, so I MAY have been paying attention to Lucy's cat more than usual, and I MAY have come up with my own name for her because…well, why not?," she said. "Heh, yolo, am I right?," asked Kevin, offering her a fist bump. Cassie just stared at his outstretched fist in confusion. "...yolo?," she asked. "It's a saying where I come from," Kevin explained, lowering his fist awkwardly. "It basically means…aw, you know what? Forget it." "Hmmm…Midnight, huh?," murmured Lucy, having mulled over Cassie's suggestion the whole time. "I like that name. I think I'll take your suggestion and call that cat Midnight from now on…if I ever DO see her again…" "Oh, you'll see her again," Cassie assured her. "I'm sure of it." I may be willing to murder all of you in order to get the key out of this place, she thought to herself, but I'm not so monstrous as to let a cat die from one of my traps. Don't fear for Midnight's safety, Lucy. If anything, you and your friends should fear for YOUR safety instead… "Can everyone please stop talking about the cat for one second!," Dan groaned. "Yeah, as much as I love animals, I have to agree with Dan here," said Lizzie.

"Okay, let's just stop for a moment and go over everything that we know so far," said Jesse, quickly taking charge. "We're trapped in a mansion that is filled with deadly traps, it's surrounded by zombies that won't go away until sunrise, Midnight ran off and we have no idea where she is or whether or not she's alive, and to top it all off, there are TWO murderers inside of this mansion with us. One of them is someone that we already know: Thomas, a complete and total psychopath who would stop at nothing to get his revenge on us. The other one is someone that we know almost nothing about, other than the fact that he wears a white pumpkin over his head, somehow knew that we were going to come here, and has already killed two of us with his traps." "The man in the white pumpkin has already made it clear that he won't stop at just one person," said Ivor, continuing from where Jesse left off. "He's going to systematically pick us off one by one until he gets this supposed 'rare item' that he wants so badly."

"So that means we're stuck in here with two total psychos who want to kill us all," said Lizzie, her face turning pale. "And if that's the case… We're all doomed!" "Yes, that is a very likely possibility," said Isaac, nodding his head. That only made Lizzie and most of the others feel even more anxious. "Ugh, Isaac, couldn't you have been a LITTLE more optimistic about it?," groaned Annie. "Seriously, why do you have to be so cynical all the time?" "Excuse me for being honest," Isaac grumbled, crossing his arms. "Let's just go back to the living room," Olivia sighed. "All these zombies standing right outside the door is really giving me the creeps."

Everyone else agreed, and the group quickly went back into the living room, where all the paintings of them were hung, staring down at them like hawks that are trying to decide which one of them to pick off first. The group sat back down around the large table and continued to converse with each other. "I thought I heard Sparklez say something about flint & steel?," asked Stacy. "Oh, please don't bring that up again," Stampy moaned, remembering how he watched one of his friends being suffocated in a pit of sand. "Well obviously TorqueDawg didn't steal it," said Lizzie. "Okay, but WHO then?," asked Dan. Then, Lukas happened to glance up at the portraits on the walls, and when he did, he realized that there was something different about one of them. "Uh, Jesse?," he said, tapping him on the shoulder to grab our attention. Jesse and all of the others looked up at the paintings and saw that the one with Sparklez on it was painted with a red X, just like the one with TorqueDawg. "I don't get it," murmured Angel, scratching her head in bewilderment. "How was someone able to switch that portrait out so quickly? We were out of this room for, like, five minutes or something!" "And that's not the only thing we have to worry about," said Kevin, pointing at the portrait that was right next to Sparklez.

Upon closer observation, it became apparent that there was some sort of pattern in the line of portraits. TorqueDawg's portrait was the first one in line, and after that was Sparklez's portrait. Since TorqueDawg was killed off first, then Sparklez, it seemed that the mysterious killer, the White Pumpkin, was actually targeting them according to the order that their portraits were in, and to make matters worse, Ivor's portrait was next in line. "Well," said Ivor. "I guess I'm next then." There was no fear or hint of sadness in his voice, as though he had already come to accept his own fate. However, that was something that Lucy could not abide. "Are you kidding me?," she asked hotly. "There's no way that I'm letting that creep get his hands on you." "Now, Lucy," said Ivor, trying to calm her down. "I know it's hard, but you'll have to face the possibility that I might not come out of this mansion alive. If you just–" "What is wrong with you?," asked Lucy, her voice suddenly becoming so cold and harsh that it caught Ivor, as well as everyone else, off guard. "How could you be so calm about this?," Lucy continued, glaring at Ivor. "How could you act like a killer going after you isn't a big deal?!" "Lucy?," asked Jesse, concerned by how angry Lucy was suddenly acting. Lucy ignored him and continued glaring at Ivor. "He is NOT going to come after you, Uncle Ivy," growled Lucy. "Because if he, or Thomas, or anyone else tries to hurt you, I'll…I'll kill them. I'll fucking KILL them!" If nobody had stopped her at that moment, she probably would've gone on and on, but thankfully, Isaac put a stop to that as soon as possible. "Lucy," he said softly but firmly. "Stop." With only those two words, he was able to calm Lucy down, though she still seemed rather pissed about Ivor being so casual about his own possible death. "...just don't say something like that ever again, okay?," asked Lucy, her former anger now replaced with melancholy. "I don't know what I would do if you…"

After that, there was an awkward pause. None of them really knew what to say or do in this type of situation. "Let's…move on," said Lukas, trying to get them back on track. "I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for how the White Pumpkin is doing all this. I mean, the whole place has gotta be rigged with traps, right? TorqueDawg - trap. Sparklez - trap." "Yeah," said Jesse, nodding his head. "We need to find out what makes these traps tick." "Okay, but how are we supposed to do that?," asked Aiden. "I'll go investigate that dining room," said Jesse. "Cool," said Petra, nodding in agreement. "Me and the rest of us will keep those guys in the hall for now so we can keep an eye on everyone." "An excellent idea," Ivor agreed. "Don't want them messing up the crime scene." "I'm sticking with you, Jesse," said Lukas. "Doesn't seem safe to wander off alone." "I'll stick with Ivor," said Lucy. After what had just happened, it was pretty obvious as to why she chose to stay with her uncle. "Lucy, you don't have to do that just because–," Ivor started to say before Lucy held her finger up to his mouth to shush him. "I'm staying with you," she said firmly. "End of discussion." Ivor sighed, but nodded anyway. Then, he turned towards everyone else with his famous trademark scowl. "Okay people, clear out!," he announced, as though he was some kind of police officer. "This is a crime scene!"

Jesse and Lukas walked into the dining room by themselves. "Okay…how are you doing this, White Pumpkin?," asked Jesse, looking around for any clues. Upon first glance, this room didn't seem any different from the others in the mansion. In fact, it just seemed like a normal room where people could hang out and eat together. "Okay, so this was the dining table where we were all gathered together right before…," said Jesse, walking around the table to see if there was anything strange about it. And fortunately, there was. Under the tabletop, hidden by one of the chairs, was a single button. Anyone sitting on that chair could've easily reached down and pressed that button without anyone else noticing them doing so. "Okay, let's give this a shot…," said Jesse, pressing the button. And as expected, the chair at the front of the table, the same one that Sparklez had been sitting in not too long ago, suddenly moved back and tipped over, while a hole in the floor opened up. A hole in the ceiling also opened up, and blocks of sand fell out of that hole and filled up the hole in the ground. "Just like before–!," said Lukas, staring at the contraption in shock. "Greetings, 'Adventurers,'" boomed a voice, which was the same voice that they heard before. "I…AM THE WHITE PUMPKIN." "Yep, just like before," said Jesse, slowly backing away nervously. "One of you has the treasure I desire and I will not rest until it is mine!," the voice continued. "Even if I have to resort…TO MURDER."

Then, just like before, the lights went out, plunging the entire room into pitch black darkness, and when they came back on, the painting at the front of the room was gone, and the figure of the White Pumpkin stood in front of them. Lukas quickly took out his bow and shot an arrow at the figure, but instead of killing him, the arrow only embedded itself into the figure's chest, while the figure himself remained motionless. "It's just…a costume," said Jesse, his eyes widening in realization. He looked closer and realized that the "White Pumpkin" was only an armor stand with a pumpkin and a blue leather outfit on it. There was also a jukebox right above the armor stand, which was where the booming voice was coming from. "On an armor stand, with a jukebox for the voice," said Jesse. "No sign of how it was triggered." "Wow," said Lukas, staring at the contraption in awe. "Olivia was right. The White Pumpkin must have some pretty amazing redstone skills to rig up something like this. But why?" "I think it was to scare us," said Jesse. "A warning." "Well… Mission accomplished," said Lukas, shivering slightly.

Suddenly, the doors to the dining room slammed open, and everyone ran into the room, some of them with swords at the ready. "Jesse!," yelled Petra, ready to help him fight against whoever the White Pumpkin was. They all looked up at the armor stand and gasped in horror. "He's back!," cried Stampy. "The White Pumpkin's back!" "Don't worry everyone," said Jesse, quickly trying to calm them down, "it's just a dummy. A White Pumpkin costume on an armor stand." "What? Why?," asked Dan. "The trap that killed Sparklez, the whole show with the White Pumpkin… It was all triggered by a button on the table," explained Jesse, pointing at the button that he had just pressed. "But...what does that mean?," asked Lizzie. "It means that the White Pumpkin sat at this very table and pushed the button," Jesse answered. "Wait!," cried Stampy, his face growing pale. "So you're saying that the White Pumpkin...is one of us?!" "That's right, Mr. Stampy," said Jesse. "One of us...is a murderer." "My...this just got interesting," murmured Isaac. "So who was it?," asked Lucy. "I'll tell you who it is!," Ivor announced dramatically, going over to the dining table. "This whole time, the killer has been sitting among us, mocking and laughing at us behind our backs! But now, we know the true identity of the so-called White Pumpkin, and he sat right...here!" With a dramatic flourish, Ivor pointed at a nearby button that was inconspicuously placed under the table top. The only problem was…it was not the same button that Jesse was referring to. "Wait, but that's not where Jesse found the button before-!," said Lukas. "There's more than one?," asked Jesse, shocked by the revelation.

"But how many buttons are there?," asked Annie. "Hold on, I'll see if I can find all of them," said Lukas. He began walking around the room, stabbing arrows at places where there was a button. After finishing, he walked back to the rest of the group. Everyone stared at the several arrows that Lukas had placed down on the table. "So…how are we gonna do this?," asked Kevin. "We can't just accuse all of them to be the killers. We need to find out which of them actually did it." Jesse glanced at the group of suspects, each of them looking extremely nervous about the predicament that they were in, which was understandable. Being targeted by a mysterious killer was one thing, but knowing that the killer could be one of their friends was an entirely different beast altogether. Before, they could've stayed together - strength in numbers and all - but now, they didn't even have THAT luxury anymore. "Alright everyone, let's all huddle together," whispered Jesse, keeping his eyes on the suspects. "I don't want any of them to hear what we have to say." The others agreed and huddled together in a group, whispering amongst each other. Meanwhile, everyone else in the room were either staring at the Order in confusion, or glancing at each other in suspicion and paranoia. "Nice work, Jesse," Petra congratulated. "Yes," said Ivor, "I must say I'm relieved to know that there's a logical explanation for what the White Pumpkin's been doing…" "Yeah, that's good and all, but now what?," asked Aiden. "We've now got our list of suspects, but how are we supposed to figure out which of them is actually the killer?" "Hold your horses, Aiden," said Jesse. "We can't just rush into things right now. Instead, we need to evaluate what we know so far. So now we have some idea of how the killer operates and we also have a list of suspects to go off of. I say that the first thing we need to do is to line up the ones who sat at a button and question them. If one of their stories ends up conflicting with everyone else's, then chances are that THEY are actually the White Pumpkin."

"Okay, good plan, good plan," said Lukas, nodding his head. "And what if we still don't find out anything after questioning them?" "Look for more clues, of course," said Isaac. "We cannot have our entire investigation revolve around a few buttons. Also, we need more concrete evidence to back up our claims once we DO find out who the killer is." "Good point," said Jesse. "So far we've found those tipped arrows, and these traps - meaning that the White Pumpkin is a great brewer and a redstone expert." "So he's Ivor and Olivia combined," said Angel, nodding her head. "Good to know." "I still hate how he's using redstone to kill people," Olivia grumbled. "Redstone shouldn't be used for that…" "Don't worry, Olivia," Petra assured her. "We're gonna catch him." "And we better not forget about Thomas," Annie reminded them. "Or Midnight," said Lucy. "Right, got it," said Jesse, nodding his head. "So we've got a ton of stuff to do. But hey, we're the Order of the Stone. We were able to beat the wither storm before we even became heroes, so catching a killer should be a piece of cake for us." "I like that attitude!," said Kevin, grinning from ear to ear. "Hey, since we're in the mood, why don't we put our hands together and raise them up while shouting 'Go, team!' You know, like how they do it in those cheesy high school football movies." "I have no idea what you mean by 'football' or 'movies' but I like that idea," said Jesse, putting his hand forward. "You guys ready?" The others smiled and followed suit, placing their hands on his. "On three. One, two, three…" "GO TEAM!," they all shouted, raising their hands up in the air. Everyone else in the room stared at them in bewilderment, wondering why they were acting like that, especially in a situation as grim as this.

After finishing their secret conversation, the Order separated from each other. "I'm gonna gather everyone up," said Lukas, before doing just that. "Okay, that's all of them," said Lukas, walking back over to them. "If you could all please take the same seat you were at before...," said Jesse. Everyone began sitting down in the seats where they sat when Sparklez was killed in that sand trap. "Four of your seats are marked - these are the seats that had a button to activate the trap," Jesse continued. "That means that the White Pumpkin could only be Dan, Stampy, Lizzie, or...Angel." Sure enough, there was an arrow right in front of Angel, who was actually not that bothered by it. She already knew that there was no way her friends would see her as a suspect just because she happened to be sitting in front of one of the buttons, so what did she have to worry about? "Wait you're accusing us?!," yelled Lizzie angrily.

"Hey hey hey I'm not accusing anyone… Yet," said Jesse. "Sure sounds like you're accusing us, stranger," said Stampy, crossing his arms. "And I don't care for it!" "Look, I'm taking charge now," said Jesse, trying to make himself sound more authoritative, "and I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I want everyone separated - I'm going to talk to each suspect one by one so I can find out who's telling the truth...and who's lying. I've got a whole lot of questions, and I want nice little matching answers for each and every one of them. Understand me?" "Loud and clear," said Stacy, playfully saluting. "Yes. Crystal clear," said Stampy. "And anyone who lies…," said Isaac, cracking his knuckles, "...will have their hands broken in over one hundred and one different ways." All the suspects grew pale and started sweating nervously, including Angel, who usually liked a good scrap, but didn't favor her chances against a professional assassin. "Dude," murmured Annie, bumping his arm. "Too much." Isaac sighed, but relented anyway.

"I'm sure that we can get this interrogation over with, without any trouble," said Jesse. "Do you guys agree?" He didn't really mean to sound as intimidating as he did, but the stern look on his face, combined with the sight of Isaac staring at all of them through his visor, was more than enough to scare the suspects into cooperating. Jesse eventually decided that the questioning should be held in a completely separate room, which was a small room that was somewhere at the back of the dining room, which had a little fireplace, some bookshelves, and a single chair for the suspect to sit in. The first one to go into that room was Dan, who suddenly found himself being pulled along by Petra. The two of them entered the little room, where Jesse was standing in front of the fireplace with his hands behind his back. He turned around and gave Dan a look. Dan quickly walked up to him, eager to prove his own innocence.

"I'm telling you, you've got the wrong guy," said Dan. "Honest. I would never hurt anyone, you've got to believe me." However, it was rather clear that Jesse needed more than that to be convinced that Dan wasn't the killer. So Dan, looking around the room as though he was afraid that someone could be listening in on their conversation, finally spilled the beans. "If anyone's been wronged here, it's me. That enchanted flint & steel everyone's talking about? I found it! It's mine!," he admitted. "Least it was before someone stole it." Jesse and Petra exchanged quick glances with each other. This was the first time that either of them heard who had the flint and steel in the first place. "That's why you invited everyone here," said Jesse in an accusing tone. "To find out who stole it." "What?!," cried Dan, appalled by the accusation. "No! No. I didn't invite anyone, that's not what's going on! I was invited here, same as everyone else." "Uh huh…," said Jesse, slowly nodding his head. "I'm NOT the White Pumpkin," Dan cried out in exasperation. "You've gotta believe me. What can I tell you to convince you?" Jesse first thought about which question he wanted to ask Dan first. "So. How'd you rate your redstone knowledge?," he asked, remembering the contraptions that killed Sparklez and TorqueDawg. "Me. Phoof. Not much?," said Dan. "You wanna know more about that stuff you should ask Stampy - He was the Tri-Block Champion." "'Tri-Block Champion?,'" asked Jesse, since this was the first time that he had ever heard about something like that. "Yes! For three years running!," said Dan eagerly.

"Huh. Good to know…," said Jesse. Then, he decided to move onto his next question. "Know anything about this?," he asked, taking out a poison tipped arrow, the same one that killed TorqueDawg. Dan stared at the arrow, and even though there was a glint of recognition in his eyes, he was quick to deny it. "Oh wow. I've never seen anything like that before," he said, noticeably avoiding eye contact with Jesse. "No?," said Jesse, narrowing his eyes. "Tipped arrows not ringing a bell? Made using potions?" "Nuh-uh," said Dan, shaking his head. "But you wanna know about stuff with potions, I'd ask Lizzie. She's way better with that stuff than I am. I always go to her with potions questions." "Noted…," said Jesse, then moved onto his third and final question. "Out with it. Who stole the flint and steel?," he asked harshly. "Oh well Lizzie, obviously," said Dan, crossing his arms with a scowl on his face. "She was jealous. Never got over the fact that *I* found it first." Jesse slowly nodded to himself without saying a word, as he absorbed this new information. "You can go now, Dan," he said, waving him away. "Thanks Jesse," said Dan, getting up from his chair. "Thank you." After Dan walked out of the room, Petra asked, "Who's up next?" Jesse thought for a moment before making his decision. "Can you bring in Lizzie?," he asked. "Right," said Petra, nodding and walking out of the room. A few moments later, she came back inside with Lizzie, who seemed much calmer than Dan was. Jesse silently gestured for her to sit in the interrogation chair, which she did so.

"Jesse, listen," said Lizzie, sighing a little. "There's been a lot of talk being thrown around today. I don't know what people have told you, I don't know what you believe, but I'll just admit it: I want that enchanted flint & steel as much as anyone. Probably more than any of them. I've been searching for it for YEARS." "Wow. Would you kill someone for it?," asked Jesse, going straight to the point. But his attempt to catch Lizzie off guard failed, because unlike Dan, who was appalled by the very thought of him killing TorqueDawg and Sparklez, Lizzie was very calm about it and took the questioning in stride. "Nah, I wouldn't do that," she said, shaking her head. "Starting to get real irritated with this White Pumpkin fella though. Listen, I just want to get out of here and get on with my day. What do you have to hear to be convinced that the White Pumpkin isn't me?" "I'm just gonna be straight," said Jesse. "Who do you think stole the flint & steel?" Lizzie thought for a moment before she answered. "Well it wasn't me, if you're curious - If I had an enchanted flint & steel I'd be off exploring some other world with it," she said. "I wouldn't put it past Stampy though. He'd love the chance to explore other worlds." Jesse inwardly sighed, since he had a feeling that the suspects were going to start pointing fingers at each other, but he didn't say anything about it. Instead, he decided to move onto his next question. "You like using redstone?," he asked. "Ever make traps with the stuff?" "I'm fine I guess," said Lizzie, shrugging her shoulders. "I can make lights and doors and stuff. You wanna do advanced stuff, you gotta talk to Stampy. He was the Tri-Block Champion." "So I've heard…," said Jesse.

Then, Jesse took out the same tipped arrow that he showed Dan. "Know what this is?," he asked. Unlike Dan, Lizzie admitted to knowing what it was. "Tipped arrow," she said in a tone that sounded more like it would come from a potions professor. "Kinda shoddy work though. Definitely not one of mine if that's what you're wondering. Some noob made that thing. Stampy asked me once about how to make those - Could be one of his. Plus, I taught Cassie and Stacy how to make those a while back." Jesse found it a little suspicious that Cassie and Stacy would ask Lizzie how to make tipped arrows, but since neither of them were the ones who sat at one of the buttons, Jesse didn't pay it any more mind, which would turn out to be a huge mistake in the near future. "Thanks for your time, Lizzie," he said, waving her away. "That's all for now." Lizzie nodded and got up from her chair, then left the room. "Want me to send in Stampy?," asked Petra. "Yeah. Send him in," said Jesse, nodding his head. After everything that he had heard so far, Stampy seemed to be the most likely suspect, despite his rather timid demeanor, but then again, that could very well be a facade. Either way, he had a lot of questions for him. Petra nodded and left the room, and when she came back in, Stampy was following her, clearly nervous about the whole situation. Jesse turned around from the fireplace silently gestured for him to sit in the chair, which only made Stampy even more nervous as he sat down.

"Jesse I'm telling you, this is just crazy," Stampy began ranting. "Absolutely crazy. Total misunderstanding. I don't even WANT that flint & steel thingy. Not, um, not as much as the others at any rate. Did I hear someone say it does something to portals? I don't have any interest in portals no sir not for ol' Mister Stampy thank you." From the get go, it was pretty obvious that Stampy was the most jumpy out of all of the suspects, which Jesse hoped it meant that Stampy would unwittingly reveal useful information that could help him in cracking this case. "I gotta say Stampy, you seem nervous," said Jesse, leaning in towards him. "Everything okay? You comfortable?" "Ummm… What? No," said Stampy, nervously leaning back in his chair while frantically shaking his head. "I'm not nervous. Nope. Totally comfortable. I could fall asleep right here, right now. I'm that comfortable. Honestly. Please. Just tell me what you want to know." Jesse nodded and proceeded to ask his first question. "Okay. That's enough dancing around," he said. "Who do you think took the flint & steel?" Stampy appeared to be deep in thought for a moment. Then, all of a sudden, a strange glint appeared in his eyes. Petra had no idea what that glint was, but Jesse did. It was the same glint that he had in HIS eyes whenever he came up with a bright idea. "I don't think it was ever actually stolen," said Stampy.

"Oh?," said Jesse, tilting his head in confusion. "Yeah," said Stampy. "So. Dan got to it ahead of Lizzie, right? And she was pretty angry about it. *I* think he made up the story about it being stolen so she'd think he didn't have it anymore. Classic Dan move." Even though Stampy tried to make himself sound as convincing as possible, Jesse did not believe him one bit. You're planning something, Stampy, he thought, staring at Stampy with such intensity that it made him squirm around in his chair nervously. I saw that look in your eyes. Whatever you're planning, I'm going to find out what. But in the meantime, however, Jesse decided to move on to his next question. "What do you know about redstone?," he asked. "What's your skill level with the stuff?" "Well, well…you know," said Stampy, glancing around nervously. "About average…average level? Moderate? I dunno how these things are graded these days." Aha! I got you now, Stampy, thought Jesse. "That's funny…," said Jesse. "Because I heard you know all ABOUT redstone." Stampy's eyes widened in fear upon being caught in a lie, while Jesse continued on. "Everyone says you're the best at redstone," said Jesse. "Something about being 'Tri-Block Champion?'" Stampy groaned into his hands. "Okay. Okay okay okay," he admitted. "Fine. You caught me. I know redstone. I'm technically even an 'expert'... But I would never kill anyone I SWEAR. You have to believe me! Honest!" Jesse remained silent, then finally decided to move on to his final question. "Know anything about this?," he asked, taking out the tipped arrow that he showed to Dan and Lizzie earlier. Just like Dan, Stampy pretended that he was looking at something that he had never seen before. "Oh wow, what is that?," he asked, trying to sound amazed. "Some sort of…magic arrow? No, I've never seen anything like it before, honest. You know who would love to see something like that though? Lizzie. She's wild about potions and brewing and all that. She's way better with that stuff than I am." "Good with potions, you say?," asked Jesse. "Very good!," said Stampy, smiling nervously. "Could probably even teach a class!"

Jesse nodded in silence, even though he had caught Stampy in yet another lie. Lizzie had mentioned earlier that Stampy came to her, asking how to make tipped arrows, and yet here he was now, pretending that he didn't even know what tipped arrows were. Thinking back to all three of the interrogations, Jesse could only recall the suspects pointing fingers at each other, blaming each other behind their backs, and purposely withholding information to save their own skins. None of them seemed to want to tell the truth. Instead, they just told him half truths, or even flat out lies. It hurt Jesse's head just thinking about it. "You're excused, Stampy," he said, rubbing his forehead tiredly. "Thank you for your time." "Oh thank goodness," sighed Stampy, getting up from his chair. "This room's making me very nervous." He quickly walked out of the room nervously. Not a second later, Cassie barged into the room while tugging Angel by the arm. "Ow! Hey, easy with my arm!," said Angel, wincing in pain. "Hey, you had a button too!," said Cassie. "Fair's fair." She let go of Angel's arm and turned to look at Jesse. "It's your buddy's turn next," she said, before walking out of the room. Jesse walked over to the fireplace and looked into the fire with his arms behind his back. "Ahh, my final suspect," he said in a dramatic voice. "Here to point more fingers and blame more people I'm sure." Angel couldn't help but burst out laughing. "That was pretty funny, dude," she said, slapping him on the back. "It's good to lighten the mood every now and then, especially in dark times like these." Jesse chuckled, but there was a melancholy tone that Angel was immediately able to pick up on. "Okay, come on, Jesse. Spill it. How bad was it?," she asked, sitting down in the chair. Jesse sighed. "It was pretty bad," he said, then proceeded to explain everything that had happened in the past three interrogations, with Petra also putting in her own two cents every now and then.

After Jesse and Petra finished, Angel just sat there with her arms crossed, seeming to be deep in thought. "So instead of telling you guys anything, all they've been trying to do so far is to point fingers at each other and try to take the blame off themselves?," she asked. "Yeah, pretty much," sighed Jesse, pinching the bridge of his nose. "It's all just so…frustrating, you know? I mean, what could they possibly be hiding that they don't want anyone else to know, even after TWO people just got murdered?" "It could be lots of things," Angel replied calmly, which surprised both Jesse and Petra. "Maybe it's something that's super embarrassing for them. Maybe they're afraid that spilling their secrets would only incriminate them even further. People have tons of reasons to hide things, no matter how dire the situation is. Now I'm in the same boat as you are, Jesse. I also wish that those guys could be a little more open with us. But you gotta remember not to let that cloud your judgment. Just because they seem to be hiding something doesn't automatically mean that they're involved somehow. Listen, I don't really know all that much about detective work, other than what I read in mystery novels, but I think that the next best thing to do, Jesse, is to try and see things from their perspectives. Ask them more questions, but try not to sound like you're accusing them. Make them feel more comfortable so that they would be more ready to share some things that they didn't want to before. I think you'd be pleasantly surprised by how effective it could be to just change your tactics a little bit." Jesse and Petra could only stare at Angel in surprise. "What?," asked Angel, crossing her eyes. "Is there something on my face?" "No…it's nothing," said Jesse, shaking his head.

The reason why Jesse and Petra were so surprised was because, even after getting used to Angel's "changes" for some time, they still couldn't help but be surprised by how wise and insightful she could be. This only further cemented how different ANGEL was from AXEL. The old Axel would never have been this insightful. He probably would've encouraged Jesse to get a little more violent in order to squeeze more information out of the suspects. But that wasn't because Axel was BAD or anything like that. His old mindset was simply, "What would Magnus do?" But now that Axel - now named Angel - no longer copied Magnus to a T, she was allowed to finally think for herself and become her own person, rather than a caricature of one of her former role models. There were still times, like right now, where Jesse and Petra had forgotten how much Angel had changed in the past year alone, but that didn't make her any less of a friend to them. "Thanks for the tip, Angel," said Jesse, smiling up at her. "I'll keep that in mind." "Yeah," said Petra, nodding her head. "Who knew that there was actually a brain under all of that long hair?" Angel laughed and rubbed Petra's head like she was a little girl. "Ha! You little jokester," she chuckled. And that was something else that they liked about Angel. Despite how much she had changed, from her physical appearance to her mannerisms, deep down, she was still the same Axel that they all knew and loved. "So how's life as a girl treating you?," asked Petra, deciding to catch up with her. "Do I need to know about any new boys that I have to chase off with a stick?" "Hardy har har," Angel laughed sarcastically, rolling her eyes. "You do know that I JUST went through gender reassignment surgery, right? I'm still trying to figure out the basics of being a woman, let alone worrying about dating a couple of guys. Plus, how do you know that I'm not also attracted to girls, hm?" "Yeah, good point," said Petra.

Angel let out a sigh and slumped down in the chair. "It could be better, I guess," she said, staring up at the ceiling, which was covered in flickering shadows caused by the fireplace. "I feel like I'm finally getting used to my new body, and most of the people back in town have basically accepted me for who I am…but as you guys know, there's still a couple of assholes who see me as a freak. You remember when I told you about the brick, right?" "Oh, yeah. We remember," said Jesse, frowning. Just thinking about the fact that someone actually threw a brick at one of his best friends was enough to make his blood boil. "Well, I've been experiencing things like that for a while," Angel confessed. "Not the brick being thrown at my head, that was a first for me. But there are some people who have more…subtle ways of showing their disgust. They don't really walk up to me and say it to my face, but I've caught a few people who…glared at me when they thought I wasn't looking. And there are some people who wouldn't even sell anything to me in the marketplace. They'd pretend that they're out of stock, but once I leave, they would immediately sell the things I wanted to the very next customer in line. There's a little more than that, but I don't really want to get too deep into this." Once again, Jesse and Petra were both surprised and angered by what they heard. "So THAT'S what you've been going through this whole time!," Petra growled, glaring into the fireplace with her hands clenched into fists. "But I don't get it," said Jesse, shaking his head. "Before we left town, you told us that other than the brick thing, everything was going great." Angel shrugged sadly. "I didn't want to ruin the mood," she said. "You guys were super excited about this new treasure you found, and I didn't want to ruin it by talking about my own troubles." "Well, you should've," Petra huffed. "We could've gone after those guys and taught them all a lesson that none of them would ever forget."

"And that's another reason why I didn't tell you guys," sighed Angel. "I knew that if I did, you were going to take justice into your own hands and come after those guys. I mean, all I had to do was MENTION the guy who threw the brick at my head, and you were all more than ready to shed blood. I'll admit, the thought of these guys getting their just desserts is a little appealing to me, but…what would that change? Absolutely nothing. They won't change their minds just because they're threatened. They'll just keep doing what they're doing, only they'll try to make it harder for you guys to find out. Look, it's not a big deal, okay? Don't worry about it."

Even though what Angel said was rational and made sense, Jesse still couldn't help but feel like he NEEDED to take action. After all, what kind of friend would he be if he just let them treat one of his friends like that, especially after knowing about it? But after looking into Angel's pleading eyes, he finally sighed and relented. "Okay, you win," he said. "We won't go after them." "What?," cried Petra, staring at him. "Jesse, you can't be freaking serious!"

"Petra, we're heroes, not vigilantes," Jesse reminded her. "What kind of example would we be setting up if we just went after every single person who made us angry?" Petra opened her mouth to argue, but realized that Jesse was right and closed it back up, grumbling under her breath as she crossed her arms and looked away. Jesse turned back to face Angel. "I won't go after them, but I also can't do nothing," said Jesse. "Once we get back home, I'm going to make a speech in front of the whole town and tell them that you're one of MY friends, and that if any of them have a problem with you, then they would have to answer to me." Angel winced. "I mean, I don't really want you to do THAT either…," she said. "I'm doing it. End of discussion," Jesse said firmly. Angel thought about it for a moment, then sighed and got up from the chair. "I still don't agree, but I guess you know best," she said. "And hey, who knows? Maybe your speech will actually work and they would all finally leave me alone." "That's the spirit," said Jesse, smiling up at her. "Does Olivia know?," asked Petra. "...eh," said Angel, making a so-so gesture with her hand. "She knows about some of it, like the brick, but I haven't told her everything that's been happening. I didn't want her to worry about me either." "Hey, we're friends, Angel," said Jesse, reaching over and gently squeezing her hand. "It's our job to worry about each other."

Angel didn't know why, but that one sentence alone was enough to bring tears to her eyes, even though it was so simple. She smiled and squeezed back, quickly wiping the tears away with her other hand. "Thanks, guys," she said shakily. "It's just been so hard for me, and knowing that you guys have my back…thanks." All three of them huddled up together for a group hug, with Angel being able to wrap her arms around both of their shoulders.

After that heartwarming moment, the three friends walked out of the room and back into the living room where everyone else was. Olivia noticed the tear tracks on Angel's cheeks and looked at her worriedly, but Angel just smiled at her. "I'll explain later," she whispered. Olivia was relieved that Angel was actually in a good mood, and nodded. Then, every single person in the room grouped up together and stared at Jesse. "So?," asked Stacy. "Have you decided?" "Yes," said Stampy, "who do you think the White Pumpkin really is?" A bunch of other people also began to ask questions, but Jesse quickly held his hands up to stop them. "Now hang on, hang on everyone," he said calmly. "First of all, I want to thank everyone for answering my questions. There's still not 100% proof of anyone, but…" "But?," Dan questioned. "Yes," said Ivor, "where are your suspicions leaning, Jesse?" "Jesse was definitely questioning Stampy the longest," said Lizzie, crossing her arms and giving Stampy a suspicious look. Stampy spun towards her with a look of betrayal on his face. "What! No!," he cried. "Dan was in there way longer," Stacy accused. After that, everyone other than the Order of the Stone began accusing each other left and right. "Ugh, here we go again," groaned Aiden, facepalming. "I thought they were friends," said Lucy, looking around sadly. "What kind of friends would turn on each other so quickly?" "I don't know, but all this arguing is giving me a fucking headache," growled Kevin, plugging his ears with both fingers. "Can someone PLEASE get them to shut the hell up already?!"

Fortunately, that was exactly what Isaac proceeded to do. "QUIET!," he suddenly boomed, his voice echoing across the room. In an instant, everyone else went silent, scared to death by how loud he was. "Whoa," gasped Annie, staring at him in shock while her ears were slightly ringing. "How did you do that?" "I have great control over my vocal chords," Isaac said. "Jesse, you may continue." "Uh…thanks," said Jesse, waiting for the ringing in his ears to slowly disappear. "Okay, this might not be what you guys want to hear from me, but…I actually don't think there's evidence to accuse ANYONE yet." "What?!," Stacy yelled, angered that after all this time, this was the only answer that she was going to receive. "Yeah that seems surprising," said Petra. "I'm sorry," said Jesse, "but I don't want to accuse anyone unless I'm 100% sure. And I'm not." "Wow," said Cassie, unimpressed. "Way to take a bold stance, Jesse." "Hold on, Cassie," said Lucy, trying to defend Jesse. "We can't just go around and accuse people who we THINK is the murderer. Not until we're totally sure." Cassie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Look," she said, "all I'm saying is that the longer we wait, the more in danger we are. The White Pumpkin is in this room right now, plotting our deaths, and let's not forget that we've got ANOTHER psychotic murderer running around and doing god knows what. We don't really have the luxury of time here, if you know what I mean." "Well," said Dan, pushing the others aside, "I for one am not comfortable being surrounded by possible killers so, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to barricade myself in the library for my own safety." He walked out the room without looking back.

Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone else had the same idea. "Fine. Suit yourself." "Yeah. I'm more in the 'safety in numbers' camp myself." With that said, everyone apart from the Order of the Stone walked out of the room. "Well," said Ivor, clearing his throat awkwardly. "That was certainly some excitement." "Yeah no kidding," said Lukas. "If the White Pumpkin is still roaming around though… They might be trying to set up more traps," said Petra. "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 Torque Dawg into a pincushion?" "Perhaps it was triggered nearby," Isaac suggested. "Yeah, good point," said Olivia, nodding her head. "Redstone is good for long distances, but it can only go for so many blocks before it loses its power. The most likely place would be in the kitchen, where the trap itself was activated." "Sounds like we need to investigate near the trap then…," said Ivor. "You guys go on ahead," said Lukas. "I'm going to stay here and keep an eye on these other people...I don't want them trying anything when we're not looking." "You sure you can keep an eye on all of them on your own?," asked Angel worriedly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine," Lukas assured her. "Thanks Lukas," said Jesse, nodding his head. Then, everyone apart from Lukas walked out of the living room and back to the kitchen, where this whole mess basically started. They looked around.

"Back in the kitchen…," said Petra. "Doesn't look like anything has changed, does it?," asked Aiden, looking around the kitchen with his hands on his hips. "Nope, nothing," said Jesse. "Regardless, we still have to keep our eyes peeled. Any clue, no matter how small, could help us crack this case." "So what are we looking for exactly?," asked Petra. "Yeah, Petra's got a point, dude," said Kevin. "We can't exactly find what we're looking for when we don't even know what that thing is." "There are too many loose ends flying around - A lot of evidence that doesn't add up," said Jesse. "We need to find some definitive, concrete evidence." "Got it," said Petra, nodding her head. "I'm on the lookout." "Me too," said Annie. But as they proceeded to look around the kitchen, they didn't know that someone with very sinister intentions was spying on them through the eyeholes of a nearby painting…and it was NOT the White Pumpkin.