"Now, the rules are, you must draw one match, and find the person with the matching length of matchstick. The two smallest go to the basement, and so on so forth to the attic." Yami said. Slowly everyone paired up; Kagome was stuck with Miroku in the basement, Joey with Mia on the ground floor, Yami would go to the second floor with Sango, and Bakura was paired to go with Tea to the attic. All the while the cook and Seto Body's bodies were in the study and Duke- I mean the motorist- was locked in the lounge.
As the pairs split to go search, Mai said to Joey, "Well we know what's in the study and lounge, we just came from the kitchen…"
"Let's check the billiard room again," Joey said.
Up the stairs, Yami and Sango left Bakura an Tea at the door to the attic to explore the seven bedrooms. Bakura opened the door and turned on the lights. And they stood there.
"Well," Bakura asked, "Aren't you going up?"
"Are you nuts?" Tea asked.
"Well it is ladies first."
"What if the killer's up there?"
"What if the killer's down here?"
"I'll be right behind you."
"That's what I'm afraid of."
"Then we'll go up together." Tea said with a sigh.
"Alrighty," Bkaura answered, and step by akward step they went through the tiny space together.
Meanwhile, Kagome had opened the door to the basement. Miroku crossed his arms as she started into black depths.
"Aren't you going in?" Miroku asked.
"Why?" Kagome asked, suspiciously.
"Well I figured your gaudy outfit would be enough to scare the killer away," Miroku said. In an instant Kagome was smacking him over the head with her purse.
"I'll show you gaudy you pervert!" she cried.
"OW! OW! I'm sorry!" Miroku cried. Kagome stopped and fixed her glasses as Miroku extended his hand and said, "Here, let's shake on it and- OW! OW! OW! What are you hitting me for now!"
"That's not my hand!" she yelled, chasing him down the stairs.
Elsewhere, Mai and Joey were exiting the Billiard room as Mai looked across the hall into the ball room. "Hey ," she said, "The curtains moving." she whispered.
"So?" Joey asked, oblivious.
"So, he might be hiding behind them." Mai said.
"Oh," Joey said, catching on. "Well then- let's go this way," he said taking her arm and heading for the library.
"No," Mai said, wrenching her arm away, "This might be our chance to catch him."
"Okay. You catch em, I'll be in the kitchen, I'm starving." he said, shuffling off.
"Hey wait a minute!" she yelled. Then she covered her mouth, not wanting to possibly warn the killer, and tiptoed into the ballroom. When she reached the fluttering curtains, she yanked them open, and found only that a window had a small break in it. She dropped the curtains and vowed to kill Joey if they lived through the night.
-Transition-
Duke shuffled his feet as he stood alone in the ominous lounge. He spoke to his friend on the phone, "Listen, I don't I have a lot of time. I went that big ugly house on the hill, and I ended up in the middle of this weird party. Now I'm locked in the lounge." Behind him, unknown, the fireplace opened up into a secret corridor, and out of the darkness came a pair of black leather gloves, wielding a wrench which they earlier recovered from the locked cabinet before destroying Yami's evidence, leaving all the deadly weapons out for anyone to take.
"And the really weird part," Duke said as the hands raised high above his head, "is that one of them is my old boss from-" he never finished, for the wrench came down and split his skull, killing him and sending him to the floor with a sickening thud. Then the gloved hands finished their devious deed by hanging up the phone.
-Transition-
Yami stood straight as he inched into the master bedroom, sweating bullets, "If anyone's in here…just look out!" he threatened.
Meanwhile Sango was checking the closets. As she pulled down an expensive looking hat box, a huge weight fell on top of her, and she let an ear piercing scream. "Yami!" she screamed, "Help! Help me!"
Yami heard the Sango's scream and, and suddenly the storm made the lights go out, and Yami ran through a door, yelling, "Don't worry Sango, I'll save you!" as he entered another pitch black room, he felt a knob, "what's this? Another door?" he turned the knob and was squirted in the face with the shower.
As the lights went back on, in the basement, Kagome was hiding behind Miroku.
"Are you done?" he asked.
"Is anyone down there?' she asked, looking over his shoulder.
"Not that I can see. Why don't you look?"
"Nice try. You just wanna grab my butt." she replied.
"And were those squeezes made in fear of the dark, Mrs. Peacock?" he asked her, her face blushing red. Again she started smacking him with the purse.
Meanwhile…
Mai and Joey were checking out the conservatory, and as Joey was playing chicken with the Venus fly trap, Mai pressed an old piece of molding on a large set of shelves, and the huge case swung open. "OH!" Mai gasped. Joey turned and the fly trap snagged his finger.
"OW!" he cried, wrenching out and sucking his finger, "What is it?"
"It's a secret passage," Mai said. "I wonder where it goes?"
Joey sighed, grabbed a flashlight form the shelves and said, "Why not? I'll go first. I lived a good life. It was short, but it was good."
"Just go," Mai said, pushing him in. They followed the darkened corridor. Until… They suddenly came out into the bright lights of the lounge, and they looked in horror as they beheld the motorist dead on the floor.
"Oh my God!" Mai muttered.
"Crap," Joey said. Suddenly, the fireplace snapped shut, and they both started screaming.
With their shrieks echoing through the house, everyone can rushing back to the ground floor where Yami, Bakura, and Miroku collided in a huge heap of humanity. From the stairs Sango asked, "Where's that coming from?"
"Where are they?" Kagome asked.
"The lounge!" Yami cried.
"They must be in there with the killer," Miroku observed. They ran to the door.
"Quick, unlock the door!" Bakura urged them.
Yami checked his pockets and said in shock, "The key is gone!"
"What key?" Miroku asked.
"The key to the lounge," Yami answered.
"Never mind the key, unlock the door!" Miroku yelled.
Bakura grabbed Miroku by the collar and shook him, yelling, "He can't unlock the door without the key!" He turned back to the door and shook it yelling, "Let us in! Let us in!"
Behind the door, in the lounge, Mai and Joey yelled back, "Let us out! Let us out!"
"It's no use," Yami said, backing up, "I'm going to have to break it down!" he went at ramming speed, and threw himself at the door, to no avail. The door held and sent staggering back. All the while Joey and Mai were screaming their heads off.
"We're doing our best!" Kagome screamed at the door.
Then, Tea got an idea, "Wait!" she ran to the study, and discovered the cupboard opened, and all it's deadly implements scattered on the counter. She grabbed the gun. And ran out. She aimed at the door knob, but was bumped by the panicking Kagome, and shot the chandelier instead.
"They're shootin at us!" Joey screamed, and leaped into Mai's arms. Outside, Tea shot twice more at the door knob. The door swung open on a troubling scene. The motorist was dead, and Joey was clamped on to Mai.
"What happened in here?" Bakura asked.
"Why were you shootin at us?" Joey demanded, climbing down.
"To get you out," Tea answered.
"You coulda killed us!" Joey yelled. He took a few steps in contemplation, and said, "I can't take anymore of these scares." Suddenly, the cord on the chandelier broke, and the crystal fixture fell and crashed to the floor, making Joey go pale white, and feint dead away. Meanwhile everyone was looking at the gruesome scene in the lounge.
"Which one you did it?" Sango demanded from Mai.
"We found him this way- together!" Mais aid defensivly.
"How did you get in here?" Kagome asked.
"There's a secret passage form the Conservatory," Mai answered.
"Is that what I think it is?" Miroku asked Tea, looking at the gun in her hand.
"Yes," Tea answered.
"How did you get to it? The cupboard was locked." he said.
"No it wasn't, it was unlocked." Tea said.
"Unlocked!" everyone exclaimed.
"See for yourselves," she said, as Joey came too and started following them, Tea throwing the gun aside into the pieces of the chandelier. Indeed, the cupboard was open, as Tea said.
"How did you know it was open? How did you know you could get the gun?" Kagome demanded.
"I didn't" Tea said, nervously, "I figured I could break it open, but it was open already."
"Who had the?" Mai asked.
"Yami had it," Joey said pointing.
"Yes, but I thought I had thrown it away. It's entirely possible one of us took the key from my pocket and substituted it with another."
"That would explain why you didn't have the key to the lounge," Bakura said.
"But now we have another dead person," Kagome said, getting ready to cry again.
"And no closer to finding the killer," Yami said.
Suddenly… the doorbell rang.
