"WHAT?!"

The entire audience pretty much shouted this word in perfect unison, mouths hanging open. Lukas's arm had actually slackened from where it was around Jesse, his blue eyes fixed on the screen in almost comical shock. Jesse had actually sat up straight and nearly conked her head into his chin, while Jace and Petra were looking 'round at Lukas with their eyes popping out of their head. Olivia was smacking Axel viciously to try to get him to release her from the chokehold he just put her in.

Maya and Gill were staring at Lukas with wide eyes, and Aiden had actually flailed sideways and ended up with his head in Cassie's lap. (Surprisingly, she didn't try to shove his head off her lap, although that might've just been out of pure surprise.) Soren's jaw was practically hitting the floor, while Gabriel was half out of his seat and about to fall to the floor. Ellegaard was squeezing Magnus's hand so tightly that she was pretty much cutting off all circulation to said hand. Ivor was actually grabbing Harper's arm tightly, having automatically grabbed the thing nearest to him. Harper didn't complain, either- she was too busy staring at Lukas in shock.

Sparklez was mouthing silently at Lukas, shocked silent. Stampy had fallen off the couch, yanking Dan with him, while Lizzie was looking from Stacy to the screen, then to Stacy, then to the screen, over and over again. Stacy was just gaping at Lukas and gesticulating wordlessly at the blonde boy in pure shock.

Isa was squeezing Milo's upper arm so tightly that he was pretty sure that his right hand was going numb, but he wasn't complaining at her. Reginald was gaping at the screen in silent shock, so he didn't really have any comment to give right now. Em was staring at the screen with a gaping open mouth, while Nell was nearly choking in surprise. Slab, Clutch, and Facemeat were scrambling back into their seats from where they'd just toppled out (and toppled it over) of it. Hadrian was actually staring at the screen, while Mevia looked completely thunderstruck. Otto simply just looked confused.

"But- Lukas- you can't be the White Pumpkin-?!" Dan blurted at length, just looking totally confused at this point.

"Yeah- no, I'm- I'm definitely not," Lukas whispered, sounding completely confused. He looked around a bit, anxiety creeping into his voice when he next spoke. "You- you guys believe me, right?"

"Of course!" Jesse replied immediately, twisting around and throwing her arms around him in a tight hug.

"Yeah, you're too much of a cinnamon roll to actually hurt anyone," Aiden replied, surprising even himself with the comment.

Petra grinned at the comment, despite herself. (The grin widened when she saw Lukas pouting.) "Well, I mean, he's not wrong..."

"See? You're too cute," Jesse told Lukas when the pout grew more intense.

"I swear you're just intentionally flirting with him at this point," Gill chuckled.

Jesse's cheeks turned slightly pink. "... no I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"No I'm not."

"... no you're not."

"Yes I'm- crap."

The younger half of the audience burst into raucous laughter, while the older half just chuckled a bit as poor Jesse turned the shade of a ripe tomato. (Lukas was looking more than a little pink, as well...)

Onscreen, Lukas blinked up at Jesse, a faintly dizzy look on his face. "Hey," he told her casually, a bit loopily but overall still as if he was just asking her if she wanted to go get a coffee or something along those lines.

The spider hybrid crawled off of him, allowing Lukas to stagger to his feet before clearing his head with a good shake and going over to pick up the slashed White Pumpkin mask on the floor. "Give me a second..." he said, unsteadily, as he picked it up, "I'm still trying to figure this one out myself." And he turned back around to face Jesse.

"What happened?" Jesse asked, unsteadily, still looking a bit hyped up on adrenaline right now. She looked as though she wanted to punch something. "I- you were chasing him, you- you were right behind him!"

Lukas made a face at the white pumpkin he was holding in his hands. "Yeah, I was- until, you know, he punched me on the neck and stuffed this white pumpkin on my head..." he trailed off.

Before anything else could be said, footsteps echoed, and they all turned to see Petra literally soar into the room, Ivor charging up the steps a few seconds later as the Blaze hybrid neatly tapped down onto the ground. "What's going on in here?!" the redhead exclaimed, gold eyes wide.

Ivor's dark blue eyes widened at the sight of Lukas holding the white pumpkin head. "No!"

"You caught the White Pumpkin! Grab him! Quick!" Stampy gasped as he came up the staircase, pointing at Lukas in an accusing way.

"Wait- you think that I-" Lukas's eyes widened, and his hand went up to his mouth.

Jesse, who was still in her awkward hugging position, tightened her arms around his midriff in a comforting way.

The YouTubers all winced.

"On it!" Stacy exclaimed, moving towards Lukas. Cassie was coming with Stacy, her eyes hardening in a warning way.

"Hey, no, he's not- he's not the White Pumpkin!" Jesse exclaimed, stepping in front of Lukas in a protective way.

Cassie stepped forward, green eyes suddenly awfully cold. "Get away from him, Jesse," she told the spider hybrid, in a voice that could've made hell freeze over, making several members of the audience blink a few times.

"Yeah, it's all out in the open, now," Stacy said sharply, stepping towards Lukas and Jesse.

The spider hybrid's lower arms reached back, taking the white pumpkin from Lukas's hands and flipping it into the air. She caught it in her middle arms, looking down at it with a rapidly-getting-more-upset look. "Lukas isn't the White Pumpkin though!" she repeated, more insistently this time. "You don't have any proof that he is, besides this stupid head, and that doesn't prove anything!" And she rapped on the white pumpkin a couple of times.

"Jesse-" Lizzie began warily, but Jesse abruptly cut her off.

"He's not the White Pumpkin. Because- because he's not the White Pumpkin, he can't be the White Pumpkin," her voice was rising in pitch and anxiety, "not one of my oldest friends, not the ocelot hybrid who purrs like a carburetor every time I pet him or the guy who's always apologizing when he doesn't even have to or the guy who never gets upset about getting the short end of the stick all the damn time, and-and-and I know this situation looks really bad right now but Lukas isn't the White Pumpkin-"

"Whoa..." Petra blinked, glancing at Real-Jesse. "You're getting really worked up about this."

"It's Lukas," Jesse replied simply.

Jesse's voice caught, and she was definitely trembling now. "He can't be, you- you don't have any concrete proof-!"

"Well, you ARE all half-monster..."

Real-Jesse, who had already been looking a bit pale, let out a gasp and turned around fully, burying her head into Lukas's shoulder in fear.

Reuben poked his head out and glared at Real-Cassie, who was now finding herself the subject of quite a few stares. She shrank down a little bit, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. "I- okay, I have no idea why I just said that," she whispered. "I am so sorry."

"Oh wow. Okay, going a little too far, there," the narrator spoke up, drawling sarcastically.

Onscreen, Jesse turned to stare at Cassie, her arms slackening a bit as she gasped, shoulders rising and falling as her breathing started quickening into hyperventilation.

Ivor glared at Cassie with a look that made most of the audience think that the redhead was pretty lucky that looks couldn't kill. Jesse looked a bit as if she had the same idea, and she probably would've vocalized that if she wasn't still gasping for air and staring at Cassie, who now looked rather apologetic and embarrassed and the offhanded comment. "Racist, much?" Ivor growled lowly.

"That's not fair to Jesse!" Dan suddenly exclaimed sharply, making everyone look at him.

Stampy nodded vigorously, putting his hands on his hips. "Yeah, Jesse saved our lives because she was half a googly! Don't be rude like that!" the cat-hoodie-wearing boy scolded Cassie, defensively.

"Besides, Lukas is the one hybrid here that's not even an actual monster- he's half ocelot! Ocelots are peaceful!" Petra chipped in, snapping angrily as she glared around at the rest of the group, literally daring them to say otherwise.

"Lukas was at one of the buttons, though," Lizzie pointed out, "and these horrible things only started happening when YOUR group arrived..."

"That's like saying that I did something because I happened to be at the scene of the crime with some evidence in my hand," Lukas grumbled. "Oh wait- that is what you're saying, my bad."

Lizzie winced apologetically.

Jesse scowled, crossing her arms defensively. "Lukas was breaking through the library door. Petra, Ivor, Dan, and Stampy DID see him, just now, right before we bolted up the stairs, and I'm pretty sure they saw the White Pumpkin bolt up the stairs, too. So- care to explain how he was in two different places at the same time?" the spider hybrid asked Cassie, voice dripping with sarcasm.

Cassie scowled at Jesse. "So explain why he's got the head on him? Anything he says is going to be pretty suspicious after that."

Jesse opened her mouth to say something, paused... and then closed her mouth again a few seconds later. For once, she had nothing- absolutely nothing- that she could say.

"Exactly," Cassie smirked a few seconds later, when Jesse could come up with no satisfactory answer, "I say that we throw him outside and let nature take its course."

"Whoa- what?!" Olivia blinked rapidly. "That's- that's way too excessive."

"Yeah, you didn't pitch Stampy outside!" Petra exclaimed, pointing at Stampy.

"Well- I mean, I know Stampy, he was less likely to be the White Pumpkin-"

"Bullsh*t."

Everyone turned to stare at Ivor, who was halfway out of his seat with a look that could've been described as absolutely enraged on his face. "You've literally been watching Lukas for the past 6 episodes, do you honestly think that this boy is capable of committing murder?" he growled.

Real-Cassie paused. "Well, I mean..."

One heartbeat passed.

Two.

Three.

"... no..."

"Precisely," Real-Ivor growled, sitting back down on the couch.

"Wait- outside outside?" Stacy asked, looking rather taken aback. Winslow shot the female owner a disapproving stare and a low hissing sound, making Cassie blink down at him in surprise.

"Where all the googlies are?" Stampy asked, voice rising a bit in pitch and looking rather unsure as he glanced out the window, where rain was still pouring down from the heavens.

Lizzie frowned, blinking at Cassie. "That's, er... that's a little too extreme, don't you think?" she asked, hesitantly, fidgeting a bit.

"Look, we might all have our suspicions about Lukas," Dan said, crossing his arms and jerking his head at Jesse, "but Jesse just saved me and Stampy back in the library."

Real-Jesse blinked a bit in surprise. "... all I did was talk to the spiders and go after the White Pumpkin. It didn't really do that much in the end."

Lukas couldn't help but shake his head a bit at that horrible understatement. Jesse would probably deny she was proficient at breathing if someone told her she was any good at it.

Petra and Jace exchanged flat looks, while Stampy and Dan exchanged shocked/deadpan/confused looks at Jesse's overly humble comment.

Stampy nodded at that, looking over at Jesse, the spider hybrid giving the two of them a relieved sort of smile. "It... just wouldn't feel right to throw your friend to the googlies," he finished the thought for Dan, smiling weakly.

"Thank you," Jesse said softly, sagging a bit in relief at that.

Cassie looked around at the rest of the group, all of whom looked reluctant or downright hostile about the idea of throwing Lukas outside, and gave a curt nod. "Fine," she said coldly.

Lukas actually deflated a bit, tail flopping onto the ground with his ears flattening against his head as he let out this long sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said, gratefully.

"Don't go celebrating yet," Cassie responded, in a warning sort of way, as Winslow gave Lukas this apologetic look, "we've still got to do something with you so that you're not roaming around."

Lukas immediately tensed back up, all of his hair rising and standing on end. "What? Like lock me up in a closet or something?" he asked, voice steadily rising until by the end it was a full octave higher.

Jesse blinked, the screen abruptly zooming in to her eye.

Little-Jesse was crouching on the floor, doing a little puzzle, when suddenly a door opened, and Lukas came flying in, flattening Jesse to the floor with a very much cat-like yowl.

"Ouch," Little-Jesse stated, from where she was now plastered against the floor.

This made most of the audience snicker a bit, despite the severity of the situation right now.

Onscreen, Jesse looked up to see that one scientist (Real-Jesse tensed) brushing themselves off, their face covered with thin red lines and their lab coat looking a bit torn to shreds. His face was filled with a suppressed rage.

"I thought you had a test today?" Jesse asked Lukas.

"They are not locking me up they can't make me sit in a little room no no no no no-"

The door slammed shut again, Lukas clinging onto Jesse tightly in a sort of hug as the spider hybrid sat back up, shuffling over with tiny little steps over to a bedpost. Lukas slowly began to release her, dragging his claws rapidly on the bedpost and making an odd scraping sound. His hair slowly started to relax.

"Better?"

"Yeah, a lot." Little-Lukas clonked foreheads with Jesse, making the spider hybrid flop over. "Thanks, Jesse."

"... ow."

Most, if not all, of the audience just snorted at that. Jesse twisted to look at Lukas, pushed herself up a bit, and clonked her head on his before twisting back around and plopping back down into his lap.

The screen zoomed back out, Jesse blinking a few times. "Uh... I think you might just want to keep a watch on him," she suggested, after a few long seconds, "because I don't really think you wanna go around with claw marks all over you. Lukas is a bit claustrophobic."

There was a loud snort from Petra at that. "A bit. Yeah. That's totally not the understatement of the century," she drawled sardonically, a faint grin on her face, although her eyes still looked rather uneasy.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly the biggest fan of small spaces, if you know what I mean," Real-Lukas mumbled, scratching his head awkwardly.

"That's fine. Soren's afraid of flying, isn't he?"

"Yeah, and Magnus is afraid of rats."

Magnus elbowed Soren in the ribs, the ginger architect elbowing him back, as Mevia added, "Yeah, and Hadrian's phobic of potatoes."

Jesse had been yawning a little bit right when Mevia said that (she was pretty tired at this point), but when she heard that she choked rapidly. Lukas stifled a laugh and looked over at Mevia. "Really?"

"Oh yeah. I think the 'eyes' on the potato bother him," Mevia said, nodding sagely with a grin the size of Kentucky over her face.

"Well, Mevia, why would they name little holes in a potato eyes?! That's creepy!" Hadrian snapped back, shuddering a little bit.

Cassie's expression softened a little bit at this slight banter. "I guess that's fair... but I'm keeping guard first, because I don't trust him."

"Well... fair enough, I guess." Jace shrugged. "I guess what just happened is enough to make anyone a little paranoid- especially what's been going on all night at this point."

"True..." Aiden frowned. "Doesn't mean we have to really like it, of course."

Maya and Gill exchanged startled looks at that.

Jace considered the statement for a few seconds, before nodding sagely. "Very true."

Onscreen, Jesse looked over at Lukas, a question mark dancing in her eyes. "Are you okay with that, Lukas?" she asked, hesitantly.

The ocelot hybrid smiled weakly at her, although his eyes were practically glowing with gratitude- he must really not confinement in that universe. "I mean, it- it's not ideal, but if it makes everyone more comfortable..." he trailed off a bit.

"It's fine, Jesse," and Jesse blinked as Ivor stepped forward a bit. "I'll watch over Lukas as well. Come on, Cassie," and he started walking out of the room with Lukas at his side, Cassie following a little behind the two of them as they trotted out of the room.

"Oh- that was, uh," and Lukas blinked. "... that was surprisingly nice."

"What are you talking about? I am the definition of nice."

Ivor somehow managed to say this with a straight face.

None of the rest of the audience could know that inside, at that moment, he was laughing hysterically, and it didn't seem like he'd be stopping anytime soon. As it was, his lips still twitched up into a little smirk.

"But don't go getting any funny ideas, Lukas," Ivor added, dark blue eyes narrowing at the blonde ocelot hybrid, "this isn't because I like you or anything."

"Of course not," Soren smirked, flashing a smirk in Ivor's direction.

Ivor threw a pillow at him.

Lukas's voice was practically saturated with amusement. "Nooooo. Of course not."

"Quiet," Cassie ordered him, eyes narrowing. "Prisoners aren't supposed to talk."


A/N: Ehhh, shorter than usual. Well, it's finished x3 A bit late, but it's finished.

Ooh, by the way- I have a contest for background characters in Phantasmagoria! If you want to enter, please go to the bottom of the chapter to see how, and to see some loglines for the planned 'books' of Phantasmagoria.

By the way, answer to the RQTC, which very few people actually answered... I just finished the second book, which will be about 53 pages when fully finished.

RQTC: Are you looking forward to Miscegenation? (When I can actually get it out lol)

Responses to reviewers!

Raven: (laughs) Ahhh, do you really? xD / (laughs) / Thank you!

RapidSammi: (laughs) Glad you like it so much, Sammi-kun. / OMG this sudden reasoning made me laugh.

LunarStarsMoons: (cracks up) / Awww :3 I'm glad you liked it! / (laughs) I see... / Ah. / Oh xD / It might've been you. Not sure, actually.

Emily The Avenger: YEP IT'S US / (laughs) / Ohhh, really? xD / YOU'RE WELCOME FAM / (laughs) / Oh haha xD

TheRealRedGaming: (laughs) I meant totally fictional characters, Red. Like Jack (MCSM) or something.

AquaK13: MCSM haters. / (laughs) / (laughing even harder) Also considering what I said about not being able to get it until August 5th... / (winks) / Through the whole of Phantasmagoria? No xD I'm about... 2/7s done? / Ahh, cool :3 / Thank you!

Guest: (laughs)

Darkbeast Dend: Uh, yep :)

Infernius Flashfire: (laughs) / Yes, I do. / No spoilers, fam xD

J.M.M.: PFFFFFFFF OMG did you really xD

RavenBlaze4850: Pfff now I got THAT in my head xD / RIGHT?! / (laughs) No, that's not the feeling I felt. Have you seen Recode Reality yet? / (cracking up) / Technically, I'm the Cliffhanger Empress. Cassie's just the queen. xD / No, I'm only about 2/7ths of the way done. Thanks! / No, just description- I'll figure out the actual character appearance on my own from there. / Thanks!

the indecisive bird: (laughs) / yee :3 / (laughs) / Hahahaha xD / OMG. YES. xD / Hehehe xD

NoItsBecky: Yep! / Lol yes to that too xD

BeliTheGhoti0304: (laughs) Yep. / x3 / 0-0 Nope, not even close. 2/7ths of the way through. / Hm. / (laughs) True. / 0-0 Hint- scientist.

PoptartCrumbs: (smirks)

Toni42: (laughs) That's one way of describing it.


Oh, if you don't know what loglines are, by the way, they're short summaries of a comic, TV show, book, movie, etc., stating the main central focus of the story with a little 'hook'. I'm still working on the overall one, but let's see what I've got so far!

Book 1: The Phantasmagoria Hotel
The Phantasmagoria Hotel; a luxurious hotel where the rich, famous, talented, and dead hang out. 17-year-old Verity Cohen, one of the few people in the world who have the cursed gift of the Sight, and her school's 11th grade history class are planning to stay there for a week to experience the history of the Phantasmagoria and their sleepy town of Islesbury. You know- just a regular field trap. Oh- did I say the 'dead'? Yeah, I did, didn't I... well, anyway. Welcome to the Phantasmagoria Hotel.

Book 2: The Shadows in the Hallway
After a strange day in the Phantasmagoria Hotel, Ri and a new "pal", Jesse, decide to have a look-see at the hotel to see if they can figure out what's with all the paranormal activity. Little do they know, they just broke one of the unspoken rules of the Phantasmagoria Hotel - don't leave your room at night. So now, Ri and Jesse are going to have to deal with the shadows in the hallway.

Book 3: The Ghosts
*This logline contains slight spoilers. To avoid any detriment to your experience when reading the final product, we have decided to leave it out.*

Book 4: The Murder
The Phantasmagoria is definitely not just lively anymore- it's deadly, too. When a mysterious murderer makes their presence known in the hotel, one of the school's own is going to get murdered, secrets will be told, and fingers will be pointed. Ri and her new friends have decided to team up and figure out who the culprit is- but will they be able to finger the right suspect, with so many suspicious figures among their own? Without outside help, will anybody be able to solve the murder?

Book 5: The Suspects
Secrets and alibis will be revealed through interrogations, and clues indicate the likely suspect. But nothing is ever as it seems here at the Phantasmagoria, and no secret is going to be revealed without a struggle... and there might just be another death before this murder mystery is tied up. Let's have a lineup of the suspects.

Book 6: The History of the Phantasmagoria
When an unexpected betrayal ends with Ri out of the way, it turns out that this might actually be the right time to figure out exactly who this 'Obsidian Assassin' is, which of their own is the guilty culprit... and if everything in this story is really as cut-and-dry as it seems. The only way we'll be able to find out is if Ri takes a look at the history of the Phantasmagoria.

Book 7: The Last Stand
Magic tricks, seances, and phantom pranks weave together in the elaborate finale of Phantasmagoria. But the Obsidian Assassin might just not be as black as their name and actions have made them out to be... and there might just be an apology or two before this whole murder mystery is wrapped up. Welcome to the last stand.

Did you guys like the loglines? Do you want to be in the comic that they're is endorsing, or at least have your name mentioned?

Then I've got a contest going for background characters! And I do mean background characters, they are just there and will most likely never have a speaking part, except for the top 3 OCs that are deemed the best. (Those will be decided based on personality, quotes, and a few other factors.)

Now, I actually need quite a few characters- originally 100, but then I realized that that was a little too many and so took it down to 40. So, feel free to advertise it to as many people as you want!

Actually, please DO advertise it. Like I said, I need 40 background characters.

Here's the form to enter your character in the contest!

Name:
Age: (16, 17, or 18)
Appearance:
Height:
Weight:
Personality:
Quotes: (Two or three things the character would say)

Please send the forms either via my website, arizalucaphantasmagoria . wordpress . com ; dA (DeviantArt), or through DM on Twitter. You can also send it to me via messages on Quotev or on Wattpad. If you don't have an email... you can also comment on the video trailer on my YouTube account, or ask someone who DOES have an account to message me.

Now, there are a few rules.

1. NO copyrighted names, or quotes. I'm planning on selling this comic eventually, and possibly animate it, and I would really like to not get sued by a company.
2. NO inappropriate things in their appearance and etc. Again, I'm planning on selling this comic eventually. Yes, there'll be blood and death, but that could fit into a T rating if I play it right. I'm trying not to get what would be an ESRB M rating.
3. No superpowers or superhuman things about this character. There ARE ghosts in the series, but I've got plenty of them- these are actual humans.
4. You can only submit up to TWO characters per person. And believe me- with some people, I WILL be able to tell who's submitting more characters than stated here.
5. This is NOT first come first served- there's a reason there's personality and quotes in the character form. I will be ranking them from 1-40.

Rules will be updated in future chapters when they come up! There also might be teasers from other people on different sites- so keep an eye out for that!

x.X. A.L. X.x