A shiver ran up several of the younger viewers' spines, and the older viewers were all definitely a bit weirded out by that image onscreen. Even the ones who didn't just outright shudder felt chills shoot up their spines. Jace tightened his arms around Petra in a tight hug, and she returned the hug a moment later.

Notch knows she kinda needed it right about now.

"That's..." Aiden frowned, for once not feeling self-conscious when every eye in the room turned to land on him, "that's a little creepy."

"A little?" Maya muttered, frowning at the screen herself as she rubbed her arms in an attempt to stop herself from shivering. (Gill wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug when he noticed.)

Isa was hugging Benedict while doing her best to cuddle into Milo, who blinked over at her when he noticed that this was happening.

She glanced up at him and moved away a bit when she realized he was now looking at her, cheeks flushing slightly pink. "Er... sorry," she mumbled a bit, cheeks turning rather pink in embarrassment.

Reginald suddenly smirked as he realized what was going on.

So, that's how the cards had been played, huh?

Cassie just frowned a bit, but didn't say anything.

Reuben, Winslow, and Benedict all made their various animal sounds, but no one paid them any attention- not even Jesse; she was just so shocked.

Maybe that was why they were the only ones to notice that gray shadow that had just passed by behind Ivor and Harper's chair.

Onscreen, Petra shuddered a bit, looking rather bothered about this. "Oh, I don't like that. I really don't like that. Guess he already had all the X'ed out ones ready to go," she muttered, regarding the portrait on the wall with a hand on her chin.

"Yep," the spider hybrid mumbled, looking slightly disconcerted about that, turning back to the chests and poking around inside it. "Let's see, besides Petra, we've got Lizzie, Dan, Stampy, Stacy, Lukas, Ivor, and- hey, there's me..." Jesse blinked at that. Then she reached in and pulled out another portrait, frowning at it in slight bewilderment.

"That yours?" Petra asked, leaning over her shoulder to get a good look at it.

"Well, no- that's the thing, it's... blank. Just a background with a white blank space that's shaped somewhat like a person," Jesse mumbled, holding it up to show the audience that, indeed, it was blank. "There's about five of them in there, though the poses vary a little bit."

Soren frowned. "Why would the White Pumpkin make a blank portrait...?" he wondered aloud.

"Ooh, maybe it's like a template?" The two girls turned to see Stampy regarding it with interest from where he was standing. "Maybe the White Pumpkin had all the bodily proportions and stuff already ready with a background done, so then he- or- or she, I guess- could just paint the person in," he explained when he saw their blank looks.

"Well, it would explain why Jesse was so much taller than she usually is in her portrait," Real-Petra mumbled, giving the blank portrait an appraising look.

This got a half-hearted shove from Jesse, but the girl was still smirking a bit at the joking insult.

"Oh yeah. That would explain how the White Pumpkin got the portraits done so fast..." Real-Petra started counting off time. "So, you mentioned that the White Pumpkin was in the window-?"

"Yeah, and then it took about five minutes to run around to get to the back of the house."

"And three minutes to climb into the house," Petra added.

"Right, so then we talked to Sparklez and TorqueDawg," Jesse continued, frowning, "for... about five minutes?"

"Right- and then the trap killed TorqueDawg, taking up another four minutes while we tried to figure out what had happened."

"And then the portraits appeared sometime after that, but I guess we can assume that it was when TorqueDawg's X'ed out por-" Jesse suddenly paused, looking up, eyes widening in realization.

Right at that point, Aiden glanced at Cassie, a thought suddenly having come to him.

Cassie noticed the look, her heart beating even more quickly as her stomach seemed to suddenly vanish from inside her body.

Well crap.

"Wait- did Jesse figure something out?" Stacy asked, eyes widening as she leaned forward.

There was suddenly 100% attention being paid to the screen. Even Cassie was leaning forward a bit, eyes fixated on the screen.

"So... wow, the White Pumpkin got your four portraits done in about 20 minutes." Stampy whistled a bit, sounding slightly impressed against his will. "That's pretty quick. About five minutes per portrait."

"Well, don't forget, they had to put it up, too," Petra added. "That probably takes out five minutes."

Stampy crossed his arms, frowning thoughtfully. "Maybe there was a machine of some sort that they had to draw it?"

"Yes, that seems plausible," Ivor murmured.

"But what does it all mean?" Petra mused thoughtfully. "The cats, the- the crossed-out portraits..."

"Yeah, the portraits," and Jesse abruptly stood up from where she'd been frozen in place for a few minutes, turning to face the two with wide eyes. "There was one person who didn't have a crossed out portrait. Someone who was alone with the portraits for a time. Someone who's a known cat person..."

Cassie stiffened, her breath catching a little.

Oh no.

"I think the White Pumpkin..." Jesse looked from Stampy to Petra, her eyes wide in shock, "is Cassie Rose!"

"Wait- what?!"

Several heads snapped around to stare at the real Cassie, who'd nearly turned white in shock.

"Cassie- is this true?" Lizzie asked, frowning at the redhead and pensively edging away.

"I- no- it's- I think Jesse's mistaken-!" Cassie spluttered, face growing progressively paler as her eyes darted around. She looked like a mouse that had been trapped in a corner by the biggest, hungriest cat that ever lived.

"Oh." Jesse blinked at the screen, drawing some attention. "I guess my hunch from earlier might've been correct, then."

It took Lukas a few seconds to realize what she'd meant, when his eyes widened. "Wait- when we were trying to figure out who we thought the White Pumpkin was, and you- you pointed at Cassie... that was actually a hunch?"

The petite girl simply nodded a bit.

There was a long silence, before Axel said, in an attempt to lighten the mood a bit, "'Call it a hunch,' Jesse says. 'Jesse doesn't have prophetic abilities,' Petra says..."

A few people chuckled a bit at this, but most were staring at Cassie uncomfortably, the red-haired girl still staring at the screen with an almost snow-white face, her hands trembling in her lap. Winslow was meowing plaintively, but Cassie wasn't seeing them. That was, she was staring at the screen, but she wasn't seeing it.

"Cassie, it's not true... right?" Lizzie frowned at Cassie. "You're not... you didn't murder TorqueDawg, right? And you didn't set up that trap for Sparklez..." She trailed off. "... right?"

"Hey- stop putting so much pressure on her."

Everyone's eyes snapped to Aiden.

Aiden shifted closer to Cassie, putting a hand on her knee. "Look, if she's a murderer, she's a murderer," he said rather bluntly, making Cassie flinch a bit at how candid he was. "But we're not sure about that yet. If you keep putting so much pressure on her, she might confess to something she didn't even do."

Everyone exchanged anxious looks. "But..." Stacy mumbled.

"I'm not even entirely sure that I'm right, to be honest. I just said that the hunch might be correct," Jesse added. "For all I know, it's actually someone else and that's just the way the evidence is leaning."

"... true," Isa mumbled.

Onscreen, Stampy's mouth dropped open in shock, and Petra had a look at the cats all over the floor. "Oh. Oh yeah!" And her eyes lit up. Literally, her eyes started glowing as her brain started puzzling it out. "How didn't we notice that before..?" Her head snapped back around to stare at the redhead, eyes starting to spark. "We have to go back and tell the others!"

Jesse's red eye started glowing, the spider hybrid's teeth showing slightly as she smiled a bit. "Well. Time to close up this murder mystery once and for all," she said, all of her arms crossing.

The screen blacked out.

"That's..." Hadrian and Mevia glanced at each other, before at Cassie.

They remembered her from... well, a LONG time ago. Especially when her aunt had still been around. She'd been cheerful... sweet... innocent, really.

And now it looked like she might be the culprit of murder.

What exactly had happened to her...?

"I'll go round everyone up!" Stampy exclaimed as he dashed out of the tunnel, before racing out of the room as the screen faded in. Jesse and Petra simply trotted out of the tunnel, watching him go track down Cassie and the others.

"What's going on?" Stacy asked, looking bewildered as Lizzie, Dan, and the brown-haired girl all came over to Jesse and Petra, looking a bit startled by this sudden turn of events.

"We know who the White Pumpkin is!" Jesse blurted, in a bit of a rush.

"Really?" Stacy blinked at that. "Who?"

"Yeah-" and Jesse started a bit as she turned, the screen doing a swish pan to show Cassie walking into the room, a blankly curious look on her face.

Jesse regarded Cassie with a rather long, even stare. Cassie returned it, eyes narrowing slightly as she noticed the now-missing portrait from the wall.

Suddenly, Jesse stiffened, and the screen zoomed in on her eye again.

"Ooh- another flashback!" Dan leaned forward, interest dancing in his eyes.

The screen zoomed back out to show a sliver of light entering a dark room, little-Jesse sitting up with a little yawn.

"Auntie, are these the hybrids you told me about?" whispered a soft, little-girl voice that made Harper, Hadrian, Mevia, Soren, Isa, and Otto all suddenly straighten up in their seats a bit at.

They remembered that voice.

"Yes, dear."

Jesse looked up to see a tall woman who looked a LOT like Cassie edge into the room, gray eyes looking almost translucent in the dark room. Behind her, a tiny little girl followed her inside, looking rather like she and Jesse might be around the same age- both Jesse AND Jace. She looked like the scientist's younger doppelganger... except her eyes were a sparkling green instead of that gleaming gray.

Real-Jesse's eyes automatically went to Cassie, eyes widening.

Oh.

Oh.

Jesse tilted her head curiously at the little girl, as if it was some sort of novelty to see someone as small as her without extra limbs or furry ear, as the other woman continued in a whisper, "Er, the one staring at us right now is Jesse. But, ah, don't tell anyone, that's just their birth names- I'm not supposed to use it, but they respond to it, so I don't exactly see the harm in using it."

Harper blinked.

Hadn't Ivor named Jesse in that world?

So, so then...?

The little-girl-who-looked-a-lot-like Cassie edged closer to Jesse, who just stared at her unabashedly. "What's your name?" she asked... or, well, that's what the subtitles said she asked. What came out was a slightly strangled hissing sound.

The little girl shrank back a bit in shock. "Auntie, she hissed at me!" she whispered.

"The spider DNA is still getting used to the new body. Jesse's going to be speaking in Spider for a while," the woman told Cassie calmly, reaching out and giving Jesse a pat, before holding out a cracker as well.

Jesse took the cracker after a few seconds of hesitation and started nibbling on it, the little girl watching Jesse before turning to her aunt. "Aunt Cassie, do you think she'll play with me if I ask?"

The woman shrugged, a slightly amused smile coming over her face. "Er, yes, I suppose so, dear. Ah, but we should probably get back to the others, they're probably missing us right about now."

"I don't like Mister... Mister... uh... Mister Purple Suit."

Several audience members just snorted at that, unable to keep it in. Even Cassie smiled faintly, still oddly pale right about now.

Hadrian couldn't help but look down at his purple suit.

Onscreen, Jesse giggled a little at the odd nickname, and the little girl looked very pleased that she'd just made Jesse laugh. "He just keeps calling us 'the Cassies'."

"Ah, he does that to everyone," the woman said, stifling some giggles now. "He's probably going to start calling you 'Rosebud' if I let him find out your middle name. So that's our secret, okay?"

Several people's heads snapped to stare at Cassie.

Little Cassie Rose nodded vigorously, beaming up at her aunt. "Okay, Auntie!"

"Now say bye to Jesse."

"Bye Jesse!"

And even though the little girl didn't look back at Jesse once, Jesse waved her arm furiously until the door clicked shut again.

"Jesse?" Jace sat up right about now, blinking sleepily and a bit fuzzily at what had just happened. "Wuzzgoinon?"

Jesse blinked at the wolf hybrid, whose ears were all fuzzy and whose hair was sticking up in about a billion different directions. "Uh, nothing," she hissed, coming out in a very hissy-sounding English, "go back to sleep."

Jace squinted at her, before grabbing her arm and pulling back into the blankets, burying his head in her neck in a tight hug. "'Kay."

Jace and Jesse exchanged sideways glances, sadder looks coming over their faces.

That was...

That looked very nice.

Real-Cassie's fists tightened.

Jesse and her...

Might've been friends, back in that world.

It was too bad that after what she'd just done, there was just no way that it could happen here.

Onscreen, Jesse shivered violently as the screen zoomed back out, before she looked up and stared at Cassie. An image of the little girl from before flashed over the current one of Cassie, the screen glitching slightly, before going back to Cassie- although long enough for the audience to see that if they weren't the same person, they sure looked it. The hair was the same shade of red, the eyes were the same color- heck, if you compared the facial structure it was scarily similar.

"Couldn't find Cassie, but- oh!" Stampy jumped in surprise as he re-entered the room, Lukas and Ivor coming up behind him.

"So, what's going on?" Cassie repeated, a bit harder than before.

Jesse regarded Cassie for a moment, her expression changing to one of slight confusion.

"I don't think Cassie recognizes Jesse," Gabriel whispered to Soren, who happened to be the nearest to him right now. "Judging from the reaction..."

Soren thought about it, glancing at the screen, before whispering back. "It looks like it's been 12 or 13 years since they knew each other... so I'm not entirely surprised by that."

"I, ah... I have reason to believe that I know who the White Pumpkin is," Jesse said at last, turning back so that she was looking at everyone in the room again, and not just staring at Cassie curiously.

Lukas's eyes widened. "You do?!" he exclaimed, sounding a little startled. Definitely somewhat excited.

Jesse glanced at Lukas, and gave him a little nod as Winslow padded into the room, sitting on the floor and giving Cassie a funny sort of look.

"So? Who is it?" Stacy asked, looking extremely curious.

Jesse took in a deep breath, all four of her lower arms dropping to her sides rather limply. "The White Pumpkin..." she said, slowly, trailing off a bit.

And then she raised her right arm, drew it back, and leveled her finger in a dead point right at the culprit.

"Is Cassie Rose!"

Cassie's hands curled into even tighter fists in her lap, nails digging into her palms so hard that they might just be drawing blood now. Her eyes hardened as she stared at the screen intently.

Here we go.


A/N: GOD I'M SO HYPED UP FOR THIS AAAAAHHHH

Welp. Phantasmagoria is going on a one week hiatus... because I'm going to be updating HCM like mad until it comes out.

Let's see how far we can get in one week, hm?

RQTC: When do you think shit will start going down in 'real life'?

:3

... GUYS.

AT THE TIME OF WRITING THIS CHAPTER, WE HAVE EXACTLY 2000 REVIEWS.

2.

THOUSAND.

REVIEWS.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! Seriously, thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll have a gift coming out... soon :3

Sorry for a shorter chapter, by the way, I just didn't know what I could possibly do for reactions this one.

Responses to reviewers!

S4SH4L4SH4theGaMeR101: :3

sailor . mikuchan: Yay :3 / ? Uhh... Hybrid?

LunarStarsMoons: (laughs) / Hahahaha xD / YAY!

LittleAngelbun: (laughs) / Yay! / Yeah, HCM will be coming out with 'daily chapters'. Possibly more than just one a day, if I can manage it. The stuff for the countdown is on DeviantArt. :3

Toni42: Yeah, Hevia doesn't make too much sense. / YEAAAAA

RapidSammi: Aw, thanks :3 I think xD

RavenBlaze4850: (laughs) / Ah, yes. xD / (blinks) Hahaha xD / I'll reveal my plans for the comic once I've actually started drawing it lol xD / Ah :3 / x3

LegoGirl794: Yee :3

Emily The Avenger: 2000!

NoItsBecky: Oh, I am. I'm just a pre-college program for the summer lol xD / Yay!

x.X. A.L. X.x