The Case of the Haunted House--Part Seventeen
by HA

Then...nothing.

Bart opened his eyes, then blinked them. He looked around and saw that everything--and everyone--was still there.

Hiroshi opened his eyes slowly, then looked around. "Uh, am I dreaming, or am I actually still here?"

Marcus reached out and pinched Hiroshi on his arm. "Ouch!" Hiroshi cried out in pain.

"That answer your question?" Marcus said with a smile.

Hiroshi rubbed his arm. "You're supposed to pinch yourself, you know," he said, slightly annoyed.

A wave of relief spread throughout the room. "You did it, Bart," Blake said, bending down to pat him on the shoulder.

Bart looked at the timer, which flashed "0:01" repeatedly. "That was close," he said, breathing a sigh of relief.

Hiroshi stared at the timer. "A little too close, if you ask me, Bartman. Why is it that it always has to be at the very last moment?"

"Why so picky, Hiroshi? We're still alive," Blake remarked.

"You're right," Hiroshi said, beaming. "We're alive!" he shouted in triumph, raising his arms into the air.

Susan looked at Bart and smiled. "Nice work. I'll have to note that in my evaluation of you."

Bart started to blush. "Well, I...mmmmmmmmmmmph!" Before Bart could say another word, Susan leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. When she finally parted from him, Bart's face got even redder and he was unable to say anything.

"Sorry," Susan said, blushing. "I couldn't help myself."

"Um, no problem," Bart said, trying to catch his breath.

Blake smiled. Marcus laughed a little. Lucy grinned at the apparent couple. Even Katrina cracked a smile, albeit a small one. Hiroshi sighed and laid his hand on his forehead while shaking his head. "No wonder Arthur sent me along on this test," he told himself.

Bo laughed a little at the embarrassed Bart until he looked down. Realizing that he was still holding Shirley's hand, he quickly released it before anyone else noticed. Shirley, whose eyes were starting to recover from the flash, gave Bo a strange look.

"Uh, sorry about that," Bo said apologetically, his voice a little shaky.

Shirley arched an eyebrow at her friend. "Are you okay, Bo?"

"Yeah, sure, I'm fine," Bo tried to reassure her.

Shirley crossed her arms over her chest. "So what did you want to tell me?"

Bo gulped. "Um, I just wanted to say..."

Shirley stared at Bo. "Well?"

"That you're the bestest friend I've ever had," Bo said quickly, smiling sheepishly.

"Thanks for the compliment," Shirley said, although something kept telling her that was not what Bo wanted to say.

"We're done here," Katrina said to the others. "We can leave now."

Bart and Susan got up from the ground. Everyone started to walk up the stairs. Blake and Katrina brought up the rear of the exiting party.

"Your friend Bo isn't being honest to her and with himself," Katrina told Blake.

"Tell me about it," Blake said, looking at Bo, then at Shirley.

"You're an unusual person," Katrina said to Blake.

Blake smiled a little, keeping in mind that Katrina was telling him that he was "unusual" and that she was right in a way. "I guess you're right," he told her.

When they all were back in the parlor, Hiroshi came up to Bart. "Hey, Bartman. How exactly did you know which wires to cut?" he asked out of curiosity.

"Well, Susan whispered something in my ear about the man with the dragon mask," Bart started to explain. "I decided that she was talking about the colors on his mask and outfit. After asking you guys what colors he wore, I cut the corresponding wires."

"So why the gray wire?" Bo asked.

"I thought about his hands," Bart said. "Although I only got a brief glimpse of him, I noticed that his hands were claw-like and seemed metallic, so I picked gray because of that and blue and black seemed too dark."

"Okay, so we were saved based on a lucky guess," Hiroshi said.

"Better that than nothing," Blake remarked.

Bart turned to Susan. "Thanks for helping me come up with that idea," he told her. "Your suggestion saved the day, or rather, the night."

Susan was looking at Bart strangely while he was explaining. "Bart, I didn't tell you anything about Number Eight."

"Huh?" Bart was puzzled. "But it was a girl's voice that whispered into my ear..."

"Look!" Blake exclaimed, looking and pointing at the center of the parlor.

All eyes were there. Standing in the parlor was a little girl in a white dress. She seemed to be glowing.

"Uh, Shirley, isn't that...?" Bo started to ask.

Shirley did not reply. She was too busy staring silently at the apparition with Blake and Bart. The little girl stepped forward and stood in front of Bart.

"Thank you, Bart," the glowing girl said, then with a final wave, she faded away.

For a moment, no one spoke, especially Shirley and her friends. They were still trying to comprehend what just happened. Shirley turned to Lucy and the other members of the Strangers' Club, who did not look so surprised. Apparently they were used to seeing ghosts.

"Let's get going," Lucy said.

* * * * *

Everyone got out the back way after Hiroshi blasted the door with his sonic boomer. "You know, I could've used this to help us get out before the bomb could've exploded," Hiroshi remarked.

"And let Maxson win?" Lucy shook her head. "I don't think so, Hiroshi."

"I think letting the house get blown up would be considered a bad thing by your group," Shirley said.

"Hey, it was just a thought," Hiroshi said with a shrug.

"Hmmmmmm, thinking and Hiroshi. Not a good combination," Marcus joked.

As they made their way to the front, Bart walked with Susan. They were talking about the ghost when he spotted something ahead. "Isn't that Damian?" he asked, pointing out what he saw.

Susan looked in the direction Bart was pointing at. "Yeah, it is. I wonder what that big pile is next to him."

When everyone got to the front, they found Damian standing guard over a heap of unconscious muscular men. He was also carrying a large garbage bag. "I see you had your own problems out here," Lucy observed.

Damian faced the others while placing the garbage bag on the ground. "Maxson sent them to blow up the house and make it look like an accident. Apparently he did not have too much faith in the people he hired to do the job."

"I think he should've had a lot of faith," Bo commented seriously. "That guy he hired had us trapped in there with a bomb."

Hiroshi looked at the men Damian managed to defeat. "They're alive, right?" he said half-jokingly.

"I do not kill," Damian replied.

Blake counted the number of men in the pile. "You took out ten men by yourself?" he asked, astonished.

"Whoa," Bo remarked. "Good thing you were out here."

"I wanted to get into the house, but I could not due to these gentlemen," Damian said, gesturing towards his fallen foes. "They were rather persistent."

Lucy studied the men. "Good job, Damian."

Damian nodded. "I take it your mission was successful?"

Bart stepped forward with Susan and Hiroshi. "We're fine, Damian, thanks to everyone's help," Bart said.

"That is good to hear," Damian said. "What happened in there? How did it go with the ENIGMA agent?" When Damian said "ENIGMA," Shirley could have swore that there was a trace of emotion, something that was not characteristic of him.

Hiroshi took it upon himself to explain what happened in the house. "Oh, we got locked in the house by some guy in a dragon mask who was really a hologram. Then we had to free Bart and defuse a bomb that would've..."

Damian suddenly marched up to Hiroshi and faced him. "A man in a dragon mask? You saw him?" he asked him.

"Well, his hologram, really," Hiroshi said nervously, feeling intimidated by Damian.

"What was his code number?" Damian demanded, nearly losing his cool, sometimes cold demeanor, which surprised everyone present, especially the members of the Strangers' Club. Shirley saw that only Lucy, Katrina, and Marcus were not surprised at Damian's unusual behavior and wondered if they knew anything.

Hiroshi searched his brain for the answer. "It was Number Eight, I think. Yeah, that was what he called himself. Number Eight."

"Are you sure?" Damian asked.

"We're sure," Lucy said gravely. "The agent was Number Eight."

"I see." Damian calmed down, much to Hiroshi's relief. He looked at the garbage bag thoughfully.

Shirley eyed the garbage bag. "What's in there?" she inquired.

"Trash," Damian answered. "I did some cleanup around the area."

"Your trash is leaking," Bo told Damian, pointing to the bag.

Shirley saw a liquid leaking from the bag. She was about to take a closer look when Damian snatched up the bag. "It is just trash," he told her, sounding defensive.

Shirley bent down and stuck her finger into the small puddle made by the bag. The substance felt slimy and she saw that it was greenish in color. She rubbed the mysterious goo between her fingers, confirming its sliminess. "What is this stuff?" she asked the dark-clothed boy.

Damian ignored the teen detective and turned to Lucy. "We must go back into the house," he said, sounding urgent. This and the look Damian and Lucy exchanged did not escape Shirley's watchful eye.

"You might want to get rid of the booby traps," Bo suggested.

"It will be my pleasure," Damian stated.

"We'll go back in to investigate and recover some items, Damian," Lucy reassured him. "But we need to take Shirley and her friends home. It's really late, and I doubt their families are as lenient as ours."

"Got that right," Bo said. "If I'm late, my parents'll ground me for the rest of my life."

"Don't worry, Bo. You'll be home before your parents realize that you left," Lucy told him reassuringly.

"What'll you do with these guys?" Blake asked, pointing to the pile of knocked-out men.

"We'll just toss them into the house after we deactivate all of the devices used by our 'friend,'" Marcus replied. "We'll tie them up and we'll leave our calling card." He held up a Strangers' Club symbol card. "Something to remember us by."

"Also, it's a clever way of connecting Maxson with the crime," Lucy added.

"So how are we getting home?" Shirley asked after rubbing the goo on her fingers onto a handkerchief and placing it in a plastic bag.

Lucy looked to Katrina, who closed her eyes. "Hope to work with you again, Shirley," Lucy said, shaking Shirley's hand.

"Likewise," Shirley said, returning the handshake. "It has been an...interesting experience."

"Definitely," Bo said in agreement.

"Absolutely," Blake added.

Susan faced Bart. "Bye, Bart. I hope to see you later."

"Same here," Bart answered. Susan came up to him and hugged him, and Bart hugged her back.

When Susan let go of Bart and stepped away, Lucy nodded to Katrina. "Begin now," she told her.

"Begin what?" Shirley asked.

Bo looked around himself. "Uh, Shirley? Better look at me."

Shirley watched as Bo started to glow, then Blake, Bart, and finally herself. She looked at her hands, which started to glow brighter. "What's happening?" she asked Lucy.

"Don't worry. It isn't painful, although you might feel a little disoriented after the first time," Lucy said calmly. "Everyone just relax and focus on the place in your home you want to be in right now."

The members of the Strangers' Club waved goodbye to Shirley and her friends. Despite the glow surrounding her, Shirley waved back, then felt herself disappearing as the glow around her increased. Soon, she and her friends were gone.

* * * * *

Shirley looked around her and blinked. The light was gone, but she was no longer at the old Harrison estate. She was back in the Holmes' attic by herself. Clutching her head, she was still gathering her thoughts when she heard the door open downstairs. After that, there were footprints, then voices.

"I must say, I must feel really sorry for old Fezziwig," Shirley heard her father say. "Poor chap didn't want to retire, but he's reached that age."

"I can't believe he's been at the Embassy for so long," her mother remarked.

"If you ask me, that man's got a few more years of work left," Gran commented.

Leaving the plastic bag containing the slimy handkerchief on her table, Shirley managed to make her way out of the attic and down the stairs. Her parents and grandmother were dressed in formal wear for the occasion. Watson was fast asleep at the foot of the stairs.

Gran was the first to spot Shirley. "Why, Shirley, you're still up?"

Shirley smiled sheepishly. "I was looking over some things for school."

"Including what you picked up from Blake's?" Dr. Holmes asked.

"Huh?" Shirley did not understand the question until she saw the note she left for her family in her mother's hand. "Oh, yes. Especially that."

"It's rather past your bedtime, eh, young lady?" Mr. Holmes asked his daughter. "In fact, why aren't you in your pajamas?"

"I just wanted to make sure I got everything right." Shirley yawned a little. "I guess I'd better turn in. Good night, Mom, Dad, Gran."

"Good night, Shirley," Gran said to her granddaughter.

"Good night, Shirley," Mr. Holmes said.

"Sleep tight. Don't let the bedbugs bite," Dr. Holmes teased.

"I'll see you in the morning," Shirley said as she climbed up the stairs to her bedroom for a well-deserved sleep.

END OF PART SEVENTEEN