"Whoa whoa whoa don't just pull it out!" Sparklez immediately hissed, shoving Jesse's hands back at her and nearly hitting her right in the stomach (which would've been a bit unfortunate), "it's a really, REALLY sensitive topic here!" He was looking about wildly, as if in a massive panic.

Real-Nell frowned a bit at that, blinking at the screen, before leaning over to get a better look at the YouTubers. "Why?"

She didn't have to explain her question.

The five of them exchanged odd looks, before Dan let out a low sigh. "It's, uh... complicated."

"I can see that," Gill muttered under his breath. He subsided when Maya gently elbowed him in the gut.

Onscreen, Jesse quickly put the flint and steel away, blinking rapidly and rather confusedly at him. Sparklez looked around, making sure none of the others had spotted it, before crossing his arms and humming at Jesse thoughtfully. "You know, I had a theory about why you were here... and I think this just might prove it."

"You did? It did?" Real-Jesse asked, turning to look at Sparklez.

Real-Sparklez just looked a bit bewildered, shrugging a bit. "I- I guess? I don't really know what my onscreen-self is talking about?" he trailed off, sounding incredibly confused right about now.

He was not the only one, I can tell you that.

Onscreen, Sparklez walked in the other direction. Jesse and Lukas exchanged a curious look, before Lukas lifted his shoulders in a tiny shrug, and the hybrids (and Ivor) followed Sparklez, who was calling out to the others as they all looked up from where they were discussing things. "Everyone? Everyone!" Sparklez called out, attracting their attention.

Perhaps sensing the sense of purpose in his tone, everyone quickly moved into seats. Dan and Lizzie stayed sitting in their seats at the end of the table while everyone else moved to get one. In the end, Stacy ended up sitting between Lizzie and Stampy, while Cassie stayed sitting at Sparklez' immediate right and Stampy sat next to Cassie. On the other side, Jesse remained standing, while Ivor sat at Sparklez' left side and Lukas sat behind him, followed by Petra.

"We've all been freaking out," Sparklez said to the gathered group in an almost official way, "wondering why we were brought here... why TorqueDawg died..." His voice caught for a second, "and Jesse has uncovered an important clue."

Real-Jesse blinked at that. "I did?"

Lukas smothered the tiny grin forming on his face.

Onscreen-Stampy blinked, looking rather surprised about that. "What? Really?"

Petra glanced at him, a faintly confused look on her own face, before returning her attention to Sparklez.

Sparklez leaned forward, eyes narrowing with a sort of determined look on his face. "Whoever killed TorqueDawg... whoever invited us... they're after the enchanted flint and steel-!"

He was suddenly catapulted backwards with a yell, everyone letting out yells of shock as his seat back slammed into the floor as he tumbled backwards straight into a large hole that had opened up behind his seat.

"Sh!t!" Real-Dan yelled in his shock.

"Sparklez!" Real-Stampy squeaked in fright.

"What the f*ck just happened?!" Everyone looked 'round to see Hadrian pretty much death-hugging Mevia, the pale-blue haired woman looking a little like she was being strangled. Otto was clutching the arm of the armchair, one hand over his heart in shock.

Sparklez was just staring at the screen, face having gone the shade of tea in fear. Dan and Stampy were on their feet, while Lizzie was scrambling to get back in the couch from where she'd pretty much fallen out, and Stacy was nearly about to topple out of the couch herself. Cassie was pretty much strangling Aiden to death in a death hug, squishing Winslow between her and the dark-brown-haired boy, a look of terror fixed on her face. (Had anyone really looked closely... they might've noticed something a bit... off in her expression.)

The gladiators had pretty much knocked their couch over altogether, while Em and Nell were gaping at the screen in shock. Maya and Gill were looking at the screen, then each other, then at the screen again, over and over, in an almost dizzying pattern. Isa was hugging Milo again (he was the closest to her), while Reginald had actually fallen over the back of the couch and was now trying to keep Benedict from running away in fear.

Harper was, at this point, hugging Ivor, who was pressing his back into his armchair with his face having gone even paler than before (if that was even possible). Ellegaard had automatically grabbed Magnus in a hug, and didn't appear like she was going to be letting go of him anytime soon. Soren was pale with fear, while Gabriel looked a little queasy.

Jesse had her hands to her mouth, huddling down into Lukas's tight hug, the blonde clinging to her like a little boy might cling to a stuffed animal and not letting go, while Reuben was trying to bury himself in Jesse's lap and not doing the most phenomenal job of it. Jace had managed to tangle himself up in the blanket and somehow migrated to hiding behind Petra's back in fear, the redhead's face oddly pale as well. Olivia had a pillow over her head defensively, while Axel was hugging her tightly (perhaps a bit too tightly, if her little squeaks of pain were any indication).

The screen moved back to show the seat back jerking back into an upright position from where it had slammed into the floor, Jesse's red-and-green eyes wide with horror, before the sounds of pistons moving sounded and Jesse's head jerked up to see several blocks of sand plummeting from the ceiling, slamming into the floor where Sparklez had just fallen.

Aiden flinched. Getting impaled by arrows was a nasty way to go... but getting buried alive in sand was the most gruesome death he could possibly imagine.

Real-Sparklez looked as though someone had just run him over with a truck.

"No!" the spider hybrid yelled, starting to move forward desperately- before the lights let out a huge groan, and everything went black, except for their eyes, darting everywhere in shock.

"Oh, no, not again-!" Em groaned, looking pale with shock at the speed and deadliness of what had just happened. With everything moving so fast, no time to mentally prepare whatsoever, it felt as though someone had chucked them all into the middle of the ocean and told them to learn how to swim.

"PANICPANICPANICPANICPANIC-"

"What just happened?!"

"Stampy! Pull yourself together!"

"-PANICPANICPANICPANICPANIC-"

"I can't see!"

"Sparklez!"

"SOMEBODY GET THE LIGHTS!" Jesse yelled, voice cutting over the panicked shouts of the others.

Half a second later, her wish was granted- but instead of the warm lighting the room had previously been, the room was washed in a pale blue, dim, eerie sort of glow that turned the previously warm and cheerful atmosphere incredibly chilling. Well, that and the white pumpkin heads that had replaced the lights.

"White pumpkins again?!" Ivor squeaked, and had the situation been any different, one might've thought it funny to see Ivor practically trying to become a part of the armchair, he was pressing his back into it so hard. Of course, the situation wasn't different, and no one was thinking it funny.

The screen switched to show that the picture of the baby zombie atop the chicken was gone- instead, there was a tall portrait of a jumpsuit-wearing figure raising an axe, gold eyes insane behind the white pumpkin head they were wearing.

"Hey- that's the guy in the window, from earlier!" Jesse shouted over the hullabaloo in the room.

"Notch- Notch- Notch- Notch-" Isa was squeaking. She sounded a bit like a broken record right about now.

"Greetings... adventurers," a deep, gravelly voice rumbled throughout the room, echoing menacingly as onscreen-Jesse looked 'round to see where the voice was coming from, and frantically swiveled at last to stare at the painting, "I... am the WHITE PUMPKIN!"

The screen switched to show Sparklez' inventory floating up through the floor, above the sand.

Sparklez looked as though the truck had backed up and run him over again.

"One of you has the treasure I desire... and I will not rest until it is mine!"

Sparklez' stuff, and the sand, disappeared down a hopper, as the White Pumpkin continued, "even if I have to resort..." The lights flickered out again, before coming back on- to the selfsame figure looming where the painting had been, leering at them menacingly. "TO MURDER."

"OH NOTCH, OH NOTCH, OH NOTCH," Stacy was chanting, at a volume that was perhaps a bit louder than was wise for both other people's eardrums and her own throat, while Stampy was clinging to Dan as if he were some sort of life preserver or something and squeaking "panicpanicpanicpanicpanic" over and over in a, well, panicked mantra.

A blast of thunder and lightning on both ends- and when the lights came back on onscreen, the painting of the White Pumpkin was back in place, more thunder blasting over the speakers as lightning sliced through dark rainclouds, rain lashing the windows.

"They killed Sparklez!" Dan yelled in shock, eyes wide, "they killed Sparklez!"

Sparklez turned even paler than he'd already been at the reminder that, yes, he was dead.

Stampy suddenly babbled something unintelligible and went sprinting away, flailing his arms in a hot panic and bolting past Lukas. The ocelot's tail was bushy in fear, but he whipped around to try to get a proper look at Stampy, alarm in his expression. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hang on! Hang on!" he yelled after Stampy, to no avail.

The screen swiveled around to show Stacy, backing away and trembling like a leaf. "This is awful! Terrible!" she shouted, voice rising into a hysterical pitch as she backed straight into a wall.

"This is nuts!" Petra yelled over the hullabaloo onscreen.

"What the frigg just happened?!" Aiden asked, loudly, still trying to breathe from where Cassie had him in an absolute death hug.

"Who was that guy?!" Onscreen-Cassie near-screamed, green eyes wide with fear.

"And there's no such thing as 'white pumpkins'!" Dan yelled.

Stampy came sprinting back around again, still flailing his arms about in a hot panic. "Tell that to the white pumpkins hanging all over the place!" he nearly screeched at the top of his lungs.

He tore past and making the screen follow him to show that Cassie had curled up into a ball in the corner, rocking back and forth, the very picture of incoherent fear. "I don't like it! I really don't like it!" she nearly bawled.

"I- I saw him in the window when we first got here!" Jesse called out over all of the panicking, her usually steady voice now wavering in a nice vibrato.

"You mean he's been in here the whole time?!" Cassie's voice rose to a hysterical shriek at that news, before she unfurled to her feet, bolting for the door. "I'm so getting out of here!"

"Aren't there like a billion zombies outside?!" Ivor nearly shouted at Real-Cassie.

Real-Cassie had her arms still thrown around Aiden, her entire body trembling like a leaf. "Yeah, well, I'm not gonna stay in a house with a psycho murderer on the loose!" she nearly screamed at Ivor (making Aiden flinch away- man could Cassie scream).

"So you either stay in and get killed off by a murderer..." Lukas said, uneasily.

"Or you go out and get torn to pieces by zombies," Petra finished, frowning.

"Yeah, may I just say," Mevia drawled, trying to gently shove Hadrian off of her to get some air into her lungs, "I don't really like either of these options."

"Does anyone?!"

Onscreen, Winslow bolted after the red-haired girl, meowing loudly as he chased after her quickly.

Not half a second later, a shrill scream rang out from the main hallway, and the gang's eyes widened.

"Cassie!" Lizzie shouted.

"This is a huge mess right now!" Reginald bellowed.

"I don't like the sound of that," Ivor said darkly, before Jesse dropped to all eights and went shooting forward like a bullet. Lukas dropped to all fours and went racing after her, while Petra hopped into the air and then pretty much jet-propelled herself out of there.

Jesse skidded to a halt outside of the dining room doors, looking around frantically. The screen zoomed around to show Cassie backing away from the front doors. It switched to show the red-haired girl from the front, steadily backing away with wide green eyes and an open mouth, terror written into every line of her face. The screen switched once again to show a horde of zombies approaching them.

"Close the door! Close the door!" Maya nearly screamed at Onscreen-Cassie in a hot panic.

"Oh my Notch, oh my Notch, we're all gonna die, we're all gonna die-" Real-Cassie was nearly shrieking shrieking into Aiden's ear now.

He was starting to think that by the end of this episode, he was going to be quite deaf in that ear.

Onscreen-Jesse proceeded to tear across the floor, before shooting upright and proceeding to practically slap the lever so that it flipped, slamming the iron doors blocking the hallway off shut, zombies pounding insistently on the iron door but unable to break their way in.

Lukas skidded to a halt next to her, tail standing on end and still bushy as Winslow meowed piteously. The blonde ocelot hybrid gave a sympathetic meow back, before Cassie leaned over and scooped up her cat, hugging him to her as tightly as she could without hurting him. "So we're stuck in here," she said, voice oddly high-pitched and very shaky, "and if we're stuck in here, we're doomed!"

Jesse was still panting heavily, her hands trembling as the other members meandered through the doorway of the dining room to where the rest of the group was standing.

"Guys," she said at last, voice low so that only the gang could hear her, "I'm... I don't want to say this, but..." She glanced at a still-shaking Cassie.

"She could be wrong," Petra said, her own hands trembling a little bit as she hovered back to the ground, trying to steady herself. "We- we don't know what the White Pumpkin really wants, but-"

"That's..." Jesse trailed off, before shaking her head, slowly. "Guys, I'm scared that Cassie might be right."

And suddenly, with another mechanical groan, everything went black again.

"Are you freaking serious right now-?!" Em's voice had just risen to what one might usually call a 'hysterical' pitch, when suddenly a voice rang out.

It proceeded to say... well, a lot of not-so-nice things.

"Becky, language!"

"THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE WORRYING ABOUT RIGHT NOW?!"

Everyone swiveled to see a bunch of blue figures swarming through the living room. They recognized most of them; although a few were a bit of a blank to them. It was a little hard to get a proper glimpse of any of them, since the living room was now a flurry of glowing blue activity.

The doors flung open, and a glowing blue figure shot through before slamming it shut again, slumping against the door.

"Ariza!" Gommie ran over to her friend, who appeared to have a rather large knife embedded in her shoulder, breathing shallow. There was a lot of dark stuff all over her shirt front, and it took the whole group a couple of seconds to realize that it was blood.

Ariza shot Gommie a weak grin. "Oh, hey, Gom," she said, through shallow pants, although her voice was still oddly casual.

Perhaps it was out of shock.

She reached into her pocket, pulling out a bottle with green liquid sloshing around in it, and downed the whole thing in a few gulps, letting out a relieved sigh as her arm dropped back to her side.

As if it was an afterthought, she glanced down a moment later and pulled out the knife. She blinked at it absentmindedly, before waving it a bit, being careful not to accidentally whack anyone on the head with it. "Does anyone want this?"

Gommie smacked the knife out of her hands. It went spinning across the room before landing in Toni's hands, the boy blinking down at it before opening the door, looking around, and chucking it out of sight before slamming the door shut, pressing his back against it. "These stupid zombies just won't quit, will they?!" he grunted angrily.

"Are you stupid?!" Gommie snapped angrily at Ariza. "What on earth made you think running outside while there's like a billion zombies invading the house was a good idea!"

"I never said it was a good idea. Besides, I was just mainly grabbing some healing potions I threw into a chest in the basement. It's not like I was trying to single-handedly fight all the zombies off or anything." Ariza shrugged, apparently not seeing much of a problem as she emptied out her pockets. "Besides, it's not like I tried throwing a redstone bomb out the window and then nearly let a billion zombies in here."

"I thought it would work!" Red protested angrily, as Ariza set the contents of her pocket on the floor carefully.

... there were quite a few healing potions in there.

One of the figures that Jesse didn't recognize groaned as she skidded to a halt, frantically rifling through a chest. "Well, next time would you be more careful? Sammi's already down for the count, we don't need more people getting knocked out of this fight- we need all hands on deck right now." Seeming to have nothing useful in the chest, she slammed it shut with a swear.

"It's not like I was trying to get a knife stuck in my shoulder, Lunar- it was kind of an accident." Ariza's face grew more serious. "How's Sammi?"

"Sammi's Sammi," another one of the figures that they didn't recognize replied, brushing a wave of dark hair that faded to a paler shade out of their face. "She'd say she's fine even if she was impaled with a sword- oh wait- she was." And the figure glared at Sammi, who was lying on Aiden and Cassie's couch, on the part that Cassie had just vacated.

"I mean, it's not like Ariza doesn't have healing potions right now, Emily," Sammi replied, although her voice seemed to be losing its strength and there was a lot of dark blood all over her front.

(Em blinked as she remembered that dream Ariza seemed to have been having earlier- was this the 'Em' she'd been talking about?)

"Potions aren't a magical cure-all, Sammi-kun, they don't work like that!" Ariza made her way over, although she seemed to be limping a bit. Closer inspection revealed that her pant leg seemed to have been shredded, and it looked like a dog had bitten her leg and tried to get its teeth in her, if the slight gashes and teeth marks didn't make that obvious enough.

The audience honestly had to wonder what had bitten her.

"I'm not going to be around forever to make potions for you guys, you know."

"Oh, we know," another figure said quietly, chucking their shoulder against the door. It was a bit hard to tell if they were a girl or a boy, honestly, with their dark eyes and slightly messy-looking dark hair.

"Mason-?" Cho asked, frowning in concern at the ominous comment, but 'Mason' shook their head, a bit solemnly.

"I don't think the rest of us will be around for much longer, either."

The moment the last word was spoken, the door thumped- and then splintered. Toni let out a scream of shock as a rotting hand thrust its way through the door. And then another.

"Red, Red-!" An arrow went pelting past Mason's nose, barely missing it, before impaling something beyond the hole in the door. There was a strangled groan, and the hand proceeded to disappear from where it had just thrust through the doorway. "Thank you."

Ariza looked over her shoulder at the zombies, healing potion in hand, worry shining in her eyes, before she turned and stared directly at the other occupants of the room. "If this is the end... well, I'm glad that I at least got to end my story with you guys."

"Ditto." "Yeah." "Same here."

Choruses of agreements rose from the rest of the group, before Gommie yanked out her sword, eyes shining with something akin to determination. "Well, if we're going down... we're not going down without a fight."

Another blast of thunder and lightning, making the entire audience jump and flinch as a blinding blast of white light flooded into the living room.

When the light faded again, the screen was back on. The vision had dissipated. All of the glowing blue figures had completely gone.

Although it seemed that this time, 'gone' was a little more permanent than they could've imagined.


A/N: Gdi I just can't seem to make these chapters any longer.

[HISHEGENATION]

Letters have been correctly guessed by LittleAngelbun, DarkPrincess2001, and AquaK13.

RQTC: How busy would you say you are?

On a scale of one to ten, 13.

Craft: Wow, that does seem really long.

LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) Nice, dude. / (smiles) thanks... / Yes, that would be nice xD / Cool :3

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: :3 / Lolol no spoilers / No spoilers xD / Cool! :3

RapidSammi: But she doesn't know that she's going to be found out as a murderer. Besides, if she started acting nervous, she'd probably just attract suspicion on herself. She might just be hiding it. xD / Never read 'em. / Thanks!

LittleAngelbun: x3 / Correct. :3

DarkPrincess2001: You are correct; however you are only able to guess one letter per chapter. I took the correct answer this time, but you have to only pick one letter in the future.

the indecisive bird: Ahhhh xD / (laughs) Very true. / Lolol / (cracks up)

You Know Who: 0-0 That... uh... that didn't turn out too hot.

Emily The Avenger: (laughing) / Incorrect, sorry xD

AquaK13: Very true~ / Cool! / Lol fun fact, the voice of the guy narrating is my ex xD / Thank you! / :3 I'm glad you like it... / Ahhh, T has already been guessed, but correct anyway xD / x3

sailor . mikuchan: Cool! / Incorrect, sorry.

RWBYSTRQ: Dull end... xD

Raven: Ah, did it really? xD / Thanks!

BeliTheGhoti0304: Yep~ / I'm glad you both liked it! / (laughs) / Nope, incorrect xD You're the third person to guess 'r'.

Kaos Ruin: (picks up an apple) Okay I'm ready

PoptartCrumbs: (grins) Ah, I'm glad you like it! I don't think it's nearly as good as a professional's, but I'm so glad you enjoy it!

BendyStrawBerry: OMG I KNOW RIGHT? / (laughs) I'm glad to see your priorities are in order xD

RavenBlaze4850: Lol, very true, they will need it xD / Thank you... I'm glad you liked it :3 / Yes! / Sorry, incorrect. x3

InsaneAcrobat: It's fine, don't worry x3 / Bloopers will be so fun to write after this whole story is over xD / No, it's not like an anagram. You guess letters and I fill them in as you get them correct. Basically Hangman xD / I ain't spoiling nothing~

Rabbits rule: (laughs) Ah, I see. That sucks.

NoItsBecky: :3 Thanks, Becky :3 / I'm glad you liked it. / I guess not xD / Incorrect, sorry x3

x.X. A.L. X.x