Chapter 6

POV Colonel Mustard

Plenty Of Boddys To Go Around

"What do you mean she's been poisoned?" Mr. Green shouted.

"Somebody must have done it at dinner or in the lounge in her drink." Professor Plum stated.

Barney confused at all of this thought, 'Boy has this been a night, a murder, people being stabbed and poisoned, and it's all in a millionaire's mansion'.

"Okay folks, let's all stay calm and think rationally."

"How did you come to a conclusion so quick, Erica?" Plum asked.

"I checked for signs . . ." 'Oh no their blaming me again . . . it always seems to be Joey who tries to blame it all on me.'

"Bull, nobody, not even I, could diagnose someone that had been poisoned so quickly."

"Just shut up both of you! We don't have time to argue!" Colonel Mustard screamed, making them jump.

"He's right, we need to let Barney go to his car and call for backup and an ambulance." Mr. Boddy said.

"I want all of you to stay here and I'll go to my car, but first, I need you to unlock the front door, Mr. Boddy." Barney said.

"Oh yes, come along."

Then Barney and Boddy started to walk out the door and then down toward the hall. The colonel started to slowly follow.

"What are you doing? He told us to stay here." Mr. Green asked who was still holding Peacock.

"Do you always listen to what you're told?" And with that he continued to pursue the other two. Then followed by Plum and then Scarlet until all of them were out in the hall. Mr. Boddy heard Miss Scarlet's high-heeled shoes on the tile and turned around.

"I thought Barney told all of you to stay in the Ballroom."

"He did." Mustard said and that's all he could come up with.

"But I thought this would be my chance to escape, out of this mad horror house from . . ." Scarlet yelled and Boddy interrupted.

"Nobody is leaving this mansion alive!"

"Well if that's the case." Scarlet said while reaching for and pulling out her gun from her purse, which amazingly, she had kept with her all this time. Barney reached for his too.

Everything seemed to go in slow motion for the colonel. 'I have to do something.' He thought.

"Erica, no!" He ran to her and pushed her down. Barney's bullet barely missed him and Scarlet's flew up and hit the chandelier. "It's going to fall!" Everyone jumped out of the way just as the lights when out for the third time and then the crash of the chandelier, glass flew in every direction.

"Everyone stay calm." Barney's voice cut through the darkness. "Just stay where you are, Mr. Boddy? Mr. Boddy? Mr. Boddy, where are . . ."

A slight grunt came from him and then a body fell to the floor.

"Someone's killed him." Mustard whispered to Scarlet who was holding on to him for dear life.

"Yes, I know, but who?"

"I just had to get rid of him you see, all of this would ruin my reputation. I couldn't let that happen."

"Mr. Boddy!"

"Yes, I killed Barney and if all of you keep . . . whoa, something flew by my head . . . and then another swing . . . somebody is trying to kill me . . . help! . . . the person is right by me I can hear them breathing . . . don't do it . . . I'll give you money too . . . please just don't . . ."

And yet another blood curdling groan.

"Follow me." The colonel whispered to Scarlet. "We must make slow, quiet movements."

Scarlet and Mustard slid along the wall and went into the first door. By the dimness of the fire they could tell it was the Lounge. The colonel grabbed a candlestick that was sitting on a nearby table.

"Stay here, I'm going to go check on Jennifer, Glenn, and Jillian . . . and Joey wherever he went, but whatever you do don't make a sound and lock the door, don't open it for anyone and if someone starts to come in with a key, put out the fire and hide." He turned to leave. But he went back and as he stood in front of Scarlet he leant forward to give her a reassuring kiss. She happily accepted the colonel's show of protection.

"I love you."

"I love you, too." Scarlet replied.

"Stay here." Mustard reminded her again, she shook her head in the affirmative. Then he was off.

She shut and locked the door and sat in the closest chair.

'Whatever you do . . .' She thought. 'Please be safe, I'm not sure what I would do if anything happened.'

POV Miss Scarlet

Scarlet heard the door suddenly quake and quiver on its hinges. A fearful sweat broke out all over her body. 'How I wished I had never pulled that gun,' she thought, 'But everything had just hit me, like a ton of bricks. I felt like I was in a tunnel that kept getting smaller, or in an elevator that just wouldn't open and everything feels suffocated. I had to get out.'

The door rattled again.

Her attention brought back to the present as she scrambled up to grab a weapon and hide. She left the fire burning since putting it out would be much too obvious, and grabbed a poker from the hearth. Then she situated herself between the couch and the chair hidden from immediate view of the infiltrator.

The door shook.

Scarlet waited.

Suddenly the door gave and opened to a large figure hunched over in the frame of the broken door. The firelight flicked on his face and she knew him to be Mr. Boddy. Scarlet got up and ran to him.

"Mr. Boddy! What happened, who did this to you?"

She received no answer. He fell into her arms, blood trickling steadily from a massive head wound. He carried a wrench in one hand that tumbled to the floor as he fell, both blood covered. Scarlet towed him as much as she could into the room and prayed the murderer didn't happen by the open door way.

"What a scene," she said. "Mr. Boddy's head in my lap, bloodied and spilling every which place, and the so called murder weapon in my hand."

Scarlet rolled her eyes at the irony of it and attempted to staunch the bleeding before Mr. Boddy bloody bled to death, pun completely intended. She sat there on the floor; eyes watching the distant and silent dark of the hall knowing that somewhere in that room, lay either a dead man or a prospective murderer. Not all that comforting a thought.

A quiet rustling, a groan, both grew from the silence of the blackened hall. A few less than appropriate yet choice words rose to sputter fearfully from Scarlet's mouth including a little bit of bile ripped from her clutched stomach. She tried to reach again for the fire poker but couldn't quite get it with Boddy's weight upon her knees.

"What to do, what to do," she whispered to herself. "If I remove the pressure he could die. If I don't I could die. If I don't and someone comes and I die…he'll die anyway. It always has to be one of those lose-lose situations doesn't it? I'm never going to a dinner party again. I don't blooming care how rich the man is."

She risked Boddy's death, considering he'll die either way, and grab the poker immediately placing her hand against his head again. She decided to move if she had to but only when it is absolutely necessary.

"Besides, if they have a gun it won't matter much either way what I do with Boddy or this poker, I'll be dead." Scarlet said quietly, trying to boost her own moral.

'No wonder I was never a cheerleader in high school.' As that last thought left her mind, she saw a head suddenly immerge from the silence in front of the door, crawling brokenly to the dim fire lit room. Sweat broke out over Scarlet's body again and she was afraid to see the face of her murderer. Afraid to see the person who had killed so many of them already and now, knowing it was her turn she quivered in fear. A scream spilled forth from her redden lips. Scarlet's face turned as white as a sheet as the head of the unknown assailant slowly began to rise, to look at her.

Barney's eyes stared out of a blooming collage of fine bruises. Erica literally wept for joy.

"Hush Scarlet. It's only me. Is that the buggar who nearly took my head off? If it were me madam I'd let him bloomin' bleed to death."

Scarlet knew he was only angry and she could see the hazy expression in his eyes. He was struggling to stay awake. If he had a concussion Scarlet knew sleep wouldn't be a good idea at all.

"How do you feel?" So it wasn't the most intelligent question, what do you want? She'd nearly wet herself and was soaked with sweat, it was the first question that came to mind.

He gave her a look that spoke volumes.

"Oh just dandy miss. I feel like having a picnic right here in the middle of this pitch, black as death hall. While we're at it why don't we invite the blooming murderer that's been hanging around? Sound like fun? I would suggest plastic utensils though, one can never know with those murderous types."

A giggle escaped Scarlet's mouth and Barney just rolled his eyes at her, but he did look much better from the short monologue. "Can you make it into the room all the way?"

"Well I'm certainly not going to stay out here in death hallway long am I?" He glowered at her.

Scarlet laughed again and it felt nice. Laughing always makes people feel good and she's no exception. Of course part of it was nervous laughter. She was worried about the darkness in the hallway, that hide things, but most of all Scarlet couldn't stop worrying about Kenny. She hoped he was all right.

"I suppose not," Scarlet responded smiling despite her thoughts.

She saw it flash and watched the impact before Scarlet knew what was happening. Out of the dark had come something silver and it had smashed into Officer Barney's head. She couldn't scream. She couldn't cry. She couldn't move. Scarlet was frozen. She watched more blood than she had seen in some time flower across the wooden flooring of the hallway, livened by the firelight. Scarlet watched as someone dragged Barney away, and she never really saw anything. She could have gotten up. She could have walked to that door and discovered who it was, but

Death was frightening. He was coming for her, Mr. Death and Mr. Killer, but that didn't mean she wanted to meet him any sooner than she had too. No, Death and Scarlet would meet soon enough. Let him come to her. If she has to die by his hands, he might as well work for it. She clutched the poker in her hand, Scarlet's fist flushing white with the strength of her grasp. 'This is it' she thought, 'To kill or to be killed . . . survival of the fittest.' But for all of her Amazon warrior talk, Scarlet's final whisper told on her.

"Oh where are you Kenny, and where's that bloody gun."