Chapter... what am I on, Seven? Yeah, Seven. Thanks so much for the reviews, guys! I can't say it enough : ) and thanks for your advice, Menial- it's a great idea, but we don't have internet at my house XP We will soon though (hopefully!) and then I'll definitely do that : ) I hope you like this chapter!

Chapter Seven: AStab in the Dark

At that exact moment, a lightning bolt struck the mansion, and every light in the house when out accompanied by a loud CRACKpop! sound. Miss Peacock and Tayce T. screamed, Kolorado and Luigi hollered, and Pauline swore loudly (she'd been in the middle of picking out a wine to sample). Their guest in the library screamed, then cursed, hollered to be let out, damnit, and then cursed some more. The only people seemingly undisturbed were Prof. Gadd, who had jumped at the CRACKpop but seemed excited about the darkness, and Bootler who, being a ghost, didn't mind even the darkest of dark.

"Shut up already!" Pauline shouted in ill temper through the small basement, groping for the dusty bottles as Luigi continued to shout. To her satisfaction she took his advice, and quieted.

Luigi dropped slowly to his hands and knees, searching blindly with his gloved hands for his dropped flashlight. He finally found and grabbed it, and began shaking and tapping it, trying to get it to light up again.

Prof. Gadd also had a flashlight, which he took from his pocket now and switched on. Tayce T. was by the door, which was aready half-open. "I'm going to search another room," she explained. "The power might not come back on for quite a while, and we haven't got much time.

"Good thinking. Let's go, then," Bootler said, materializing at her shoulder.

She jumped violently. "Oh, I wish you wouldn't do that," she sighed.

Kolorado and Peacock were already in seperate rooms. They had split up to cover more ground on the upstairs, and now in thedark they weren't sure wether they felt safer finding each other or staying alone.

"If he's the muderer and he goes unchecked," Peacock reasoned with herself as she stumbled around the large ballroom, tripping over chairs and almst running into the piano. "Then I'd rather not find him. But, then again-"

"If she's really not the murderer," Kolorado was telling himself in the Hall (the room that wasn't a hall at all, you'll remember), "Then what if the real killer comes and overpowers me? Not that she'd be any real protection, of course, but-"

"In this darkness the killer might not see Peacock ad Mustard; just two shadows, and get intimidated and leave," Peacock said, her brow furrowing. "This is terribly confusing. I wish the lights would come back!"

The mushroom man had given up pounding and kicking the door, and had sat down with his back against it, glaring at his own large feet and muttering constant obsceneties. He'd been planning on smashing through the window and leaving to call the cops, storm or no storm, when the lightening hit and the power died. Now the only light was coming from the window acros the room from him, and since it was the middle of the night with no electric lights and no moon or starlight, it was pretty freaking dark. He whimpered quietly as a sense of foreboding crept over him. "Why'd I leave my car?"

Pauline had finally found what she'd been looking for by touch; the second to last bottle on the third shelf up, one that was caked with dust and had a date that was written on a yellowed label in faded numbers. She couldn't see any of this any more, of course, but who needed to see? She grinned as she lifted the bottle carefully from the rack, coughing as dust swirled into the air. After all, she reasoned, it's not like we can really search in this dark, right? Might as well pass the time.

Luigi had given up on trying to re-light the flashlight, and was wishing for the electricity to return when POW! In the silence, the sudden loud noise seemed deafening and sounded a lot like gunshot. Luigi hit the floor with a screech, this time all the way down on his stomach with his hands over his head.

She jumped violently, and the freshly opened bottle slid from her slick gloved grip and hit the floor with a smash. "Damn it!" she exclaimed loudly. "You moron! Can you try to not scream for once? You ruined a perfectly good drink!" she shouted angrily.

He sat up, frowning. "How can you even think about drinking at a time like this?" he replied incredulously.

"I'm thirsty and I'm high-strung and I need a goddamn drink," she growled. "That's why."

Peacock had decided at last that it would be better to stay by herself. Col. Mustard admittedly didn't strike her as the killing type, but then, none of them did. The chances were one in six (she didn't count herself) that he was. Instead she decided to search the ballroom as best she could in the dark, squinting as her eyes adjusted and looking under chairs, behind curtains, and even inside the piano.

Kolorado sighed and made his way to the door of the Hall (which seemed to be pretty much a room for odds and ends, almost like an attic). He figured that Peacock probably wasn't the murderer; there was a five to one chance that it was somebody else, and she didn't seem like she'd have the guts to kill someone. There was always safety in numbers, so he tried to find her, bumping into a statue ("Excuse me," he muttered before remembering it was made of stone) on his way back into the hallway.

Satisfied there was no one in the ballroom, the young woman turned to leave. She took a step towards the door and then stopped, squinting. It looked like... there was a shadow of some kind framed in the doorway. Her breath caught when she realized it was a person standing there. She squeaked and took a step back, and to her horror the person came forward...

Kolorado squinted into the dark room, thinking that the person there was probably Peacock but not entirely sure. He took a step forward, and then... she shrieked. "SHHH!" he whispered urgently. "It's me!"

She blinked. "...Oh," she said sheepishly.

Downstairs, Gadd was in the kitchen, looking first in the large freezer and then in the oven, his heart skipping a beat when the door came open. He always expected Mr. Boddy to tumble out, but the late host was in neither appliance. "You'd better not be wrecking my kitchen," Tayce T's voice came suddenly from the adjoining dining room, making the elderly scientist jump. He adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down his round nose and got knocked cock-eyed and said impatiently "I'm not wrecking anything, Missus. I'm looking. Pipe down."

The cook put her hands on her hips and scowled at the kitchen door, but said nothing. Instead she walked around the large rectangular table, one hand trailing along the tops of the chair backs to guide her, and stopping every now and then to squint at something. She never found a Boddy or a killer, but she did find something very usefull; a box of matches. The mushroom woman pulled one out and struck it, producing a flame that seemed dazzling after the dark. Quickly she lit a candle from the table and then blew it ou, taking the candle instead.

Bootler was drifting around the study, examining the desk and small bookshelf carefully. He didn't need to squint or wait for his eyes to adjust; he could see just fine. He didn't find anything yet, but he was being very thorough and hadn't finished half the room yet. He peered at the desk and saw that the drawer had been opened- recently, by the looks of it. He leaned closer and saw that the document on top of the mess in the drawer was Mr. Boddy's will. "I thought he had it in an envelope," he muttered to himself. "Odd..."

The guest had adjusted to the darkness and stood up, resolving to get the hell out of this mad house. All he needed was something hard and heavy to through through the window. He thought a lot of these books would probably do the trick, he though, and groped his way towards the shelves, moving very slowly to avoid the armchairs and desks and lamps and tables that seemed to be all over the place.

In the lounge...

A dark figure crossed the now empty room, guided by the dim light from the last glowing embers in the fireplace. It crouched beside the large safe and, squinting at the tiny numbers, began to turn the dial of the combination lock until it was rewarded by a soft 'click'. The figure produced a shiny brass key, which glinted red in the glow of the dying fire as it was fitted into the lock and turned...

The guest had reached the bookshelf and was pulling them out one by one, searching for the biggest hardcover and throwing the unsatisfactory ones hap-hazardly over his shoulder. He'd just found a huge heavy one, probably four inches thick, and was pulling it off the shelf when he thought he heard the door snap quietly shut.

He spun around, eyes wide. "Hello?" he said nervously. "Is- is anyone there...?" No answer, but he thought he could hear somebody breathing in the corner, where perhaps he saw a person-shaped shadow... "C-can I leave now?" he asked. Still no reply. But the figure stepped closer. Suddenly lightening it up the room, and though the person was still in shadows, he got a clear view of the gleaming blade.

Panicked, the little man turned and bolted to the window, raising the book to throw. Unfortunately, the shadow was quicker.

"AAARRRGGGgggghhhh..."

-insert dramatic music here- The plot thickens! This chapter was very fun to write. And now, another murder! Bwahahaha! I think I'm going to throw in as many cameos as I can without getting stupid, and then kill them all off... Hey, if you've seen the movie you know that more stiffs make the story more interesting! XD so um... that's pretty much it. I can't wait to see what happens next... lol kidding, I dohave a good idea of what will happen next.