Chapter 4

POV Miss Scarlet

Three Things Missing

Miss Scarlet skidded to a quick stop as the lights went out again.

"What the heck is wrong with this place?" She screamed back at Mr. Boddy.

"Don't you ever check the circuits? How old is this heap of rotting garbage?" As Miss Scarlet fumed at Mr. Boddy who, she assumed, was walking closer and closer to her, 'he' reached out and grabbed her around the waist.

"NOW JUST A . . ." Miss Scarlet's voice was abruptly cut off by a firm hand placed against her perfectly rounded red lips.

The man, who smelled oddly of fresh meat, whispered to her, "Be quiet and I might let you out of this mansion alive." His breath heated her ear and sent fearful shivers down her spine; she shook her head in the affirmative. What else could she do? They inched their way along the pitch-black hallway while Colonel Mustard called to Miss Scarlet quietly.

'Run for me you fool!' Her mind screamed to the colonel, 'RUN!' Suddenly she was shoved into a door that Miss Scarlet could have sworn was not there only a moment before. The door was closed on her and a cloth was pressed over her nose causing her to inhale a bitter scent.

Slowly, her struggle against the silent attacker stopped, but not before she remembered the murdered fiancée of Mr. Boddy. Stabbed by a butcher knife, blood pouring from her lifeless body.

Miss Scarlet's last thought before she faded into a dreamless slumber was, 'It's him, and I'm next!'

POV Colonel Mustard

Colonel Mustard whispered out in the dark. "Miss Scarlet where are you?"

He heard no reply. "Miss Scarlet are you there?"

Still nothing. Someone bumped into him and immediately he turned and let out a strong punch, hearing a yelp out of whomever he had hit.

Mrs. Peacock fell to the ground with Mr. Green. "Glenn, are you alright?" She asked.

"Someone hit me." He said his hands over his nose, which was bleeding.

Mr. Boddy had run right back into the kitchen and had hid behind a counter fearing for his life. Colonel Mustard backed against the wall fearing that the person he had hit would come for him.

Then the lights came back on. Mustard saw that Mr. Green was on the ground and had been punched and thought 'Oh, great I hit the wrong person'. He hurried over to see if he was all right.

"Are you okay, sorry for hitting you I could not see. Miss Scarlet, where is Miss Scarlet?" The colonel looked around the room not seeing her.

"She was right in front of me and now she is gone." He continued very bewildered. "I didn't hear the front door slam or any door slam for that matter." 'Where could she be?' He thought. Mr. Boddy started to walk out of the kitchen but slipped.

He yelled. They quickly ran into the kitchen to see Mr. Boddy on the ground covered in his fiancée's blood. 'I could have sworn that there wasn't that much blood on the floor before . . .' Mustard thought.

"Do you need some help, Ian?" Mrs. Peacock questioned.

"No, I can get up without your help." He said quite snappily while getting up. Mrs. Peacock gave a shocked look and her face noticeably showed hurt. Mr. Boddy took off his jacket that was stained ruby.

"I cannot bear to see her anymore." Ian said pointing at the lifeless body as he started to walk out into the hall.

"Wait!" Colonel Mustard exclaimed and pointed at the hole in Ian's fiancée. "Look, the knife is missing!"

Mr. Boddy rushed back into the kitchen.

"Who do you think would have taken the knife?"

"Why the murderer naturally." Professor Plum said entering the kitchen.

"Where have you been?" Mr. Green asked in a funny manner because of his hurt nose.

"I was hiding." He replied.

"Oh my goodness! The knife isn't the only thing that's missing. Mrs. White is gone too." Mrs. Peacock said.

"Well once again bad news. Miss Scarlet is gone also." Colonel Mustard said with a frown.

"Well wherever they are I'm sure we will find them." The Professor said.

"Well even though we have two missing we should stay together." Mr. Green suggested.

Mr. Boddy decided to take lead of the group and spoke up, "Okay then follow me to the ballroom."

POV Miss Scarlet

Miss Scarlet slowly swam the murky depths of her mind for consciousness. She moved her hand around her on the hard ground. 'Where am I?' She thought confused. The floor was freezing and the thin material on her dress didn't do much to comfort her chilled body. Finally her hand came in contact with something metal and wet. Wondering what it could be she moved her fingers along it until a sharp pain ripped through her finger. Her eyes flew open painfully as she pushed herself up and her other hand came to her head as it throbbed.

"I was drugged. I remember now but where am I and what is..." Miss Scarlet looked over and discovered that the blood-covered knife from the kitchen had been placed beside her body as she lay on the cold tile of the ballroom. Her temples were coursing with pain, an after effect of the drug and she fought against her body's urging to lie back down and scanned the room instead. After looking both left and right and observing nothing out of the ordinary, besides a knife beside herself, she turned and looked behind her. What she saw wrenched a scream from her other wise unused voice.

"QUICKLY! I HEARD A SCREAM!" Shouted Colonel Mustard as the group marched back through the hallway. At his command they all burst into a sprint and dashed for the double doors at the end of the hallway, they were locked. Colonel Mustard began to pound on the doors, recognizing Miss Scarlet's high pitched and obviously distressed voice from within.

"She is going into hysterics." Professor Plum said dryly.

"Do you happen to have the key Mr. Boddy?" He asked in all calmness for he didn't really care as to what Miss Scarlet's ailment was.

"She's a woman and prone to hysterics Mustard, so stop with the worrying and with that incessant pounding." He emphasized his annoyance by putting his pinky finger in his ear and wiggling it up and down.

"I swear you're going to make me deaf."

Meanwhile inside the locked ballroom, Miss Scarlet was indeed having hysterics but her situation was well deserving of them. Behind her lay the bleeding body of Mrs. White. Miss Scarlet, not being able to see that the wound was not entirely life threatening, went into a panic and had almost fainted dead away when she heard Colonel Mustard's pounding fists. She got up and scurried to the wide double doors as his muffled voice fought to break through the physical barrier between them.

"Miss Scarlet! Miss Scarlet are you all right? Please answer me!" Colonel Mustard cried.

Miss Scarlet warmed at the sound of his voice and was about to shout back when she heard a subdued moan from Mrs. White. Overcoming her aversion to the harlot she hurried over to the once thought lifeless body, her heels clicking on the tile like flooring, and kneeled down to assist Mrs. White.

"IT WAS YOU!" Mrs. White screamed at Miss Scarlet just as soon as her eyes focused on the woman's face.

She tried to force Miss Scarlet away but only succeeded in pushing her off balance enough to raise her head. Looking up, Miss Scarlet sighted a dim figure on the balcony as a flash of lightening lit up the outside world like a forest fire in dry season. She leaped and crashed on to the French doors but just as she was opening the balcony doors the double doors to the ball room burst open and in ran the mostly all of the guest and Mr. Boddy. They all stared at her then Mrs. White and back again making silent, accusing assumptions.

"No..no..NO! It wasn't me!" She screamed her eyes wide with fear and even anger at the injustice of the group.

She knew just what Mrs. White would say having already expressed her opinion on the matter of the guilty person. 'It was you!' blundered through her mind over and over again. She shook her head to dispel the unheard scream and fell to her knees tears falling over her cheeks, forgetting about the figure on the balcony.

'So,' she thought of the dark murderer, 'you have accomplished your goal.'