Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama in any season. If I did then Trent wouldn't have suddenly gone nuts during Action.

Chapter 18: Putting Together the Puzzle Part 1


The elimination wouldn't take place for another hour or two. Tyler was currently moving his items out of economy and into first class. Due to the lack of presence in the plane's largest and most luxurious section, he felt rather lonely while unpacking. That is until Duncan came by.

"So we've finally managed to find a crack in Cedric's almighty shield of douchebaggery. I think this calls for a celebration." Duncan said with a smile on his face as he grabbed a can of beer from the bar and cracked it open "You want a can too man?"

"No. I don't know about you but I'm not old enough to drink in my province." Tyler politely turned down the offer.

"Hey, to each their own." Duncan shrugged before downing the can in only a few gulps, before smashing it in his hands "It's good to have been born in Manitoba."

"So how's Cody doing anyways?"

"Not every good. He can't really move his legs yet, and he's not talking to me at all. Normally that wouldn't be surprising since he's never really liked me all that much, but he seems guiltier this time around." Duncan explained the situation with a somber tone. That is until an idea came into his head once he saw Cody's backpack.

"Um dude what are you doing? Have you suddenly turned into Sierra, cause we don't need any other crazy fangirl pairing us with other guys." Tyler said to the delinquent as he suddenly began to dig through Cody's backpack.

"Cedric is still coming back, and I wanna be able to kick his ass a second time. The pipsqueak knows more about the guy than any of us, so he's probably got dirt on the bastard in here." Duncan speculated.

"Sorry but no. I don't have anything involving Cedric in my backpack." Cody suddenly entered the room with weak legs, giving Duncan a small spook.

"Never do that again!"

"I'm not going to keep any of my supernatural memorabilia in my backpack. Most of it's very real and it very powerful, so I don't let anyone get ahold of it. Especially not with Sierra around to mess with and steal my things." Cody explained, before clumsily stumbling down into what was his regular seat before. What he did next greatly shocked the other semi-finalists.

"Man I'm thirsty. I could really go for a pop right about now." Cody said with exhaustion in his voice, before stretching out his hand towards a pile of Cola cans. Suddenly, one of the cans flew right into his hands which he proceeded to crack open "One of the very few bright sides of Hatter screwing with my soul so much is that it gave me a better connection with my mind. So now I've got telekinesis."

"Why didn't you tell us about that man? In fact why didn't you tell us about any of this stuff?" Tyler asked, sounding a bit hurt.

"There's no way to bring up I've been possessed by a demon in casual conversation. I only tell people when there's no other way around it, like with Harold, Justin, and Trent. If I came in without any proof I'd look crazy!" Cody explained his reasoning for hiding his relationship with the demon.

"And what exactly is your proof?"

Cody sighed for a brief moment of reluctance, before sticking out his tongue to reveal that a glowing purple pentagram had been drawn into it. While Duncan and Tyler gazed at they symbol of evil with shock, Cody ceased it's visibly before continuing "I didn't know Cedric was a demon at first. So he tricked me into making a contract with him."

"Okay enough with all this stupid vagueness and actual tell us what's going on with this stupid contract, and how you even made the contract in the first place!" Duncan snapped as he continued to dig through the back pack before pulling something out "What are these glasses looking things?"

"Those are some x-Ray glasses I ordered from a comic book once. They really work."

"Really? You've been holding out on us pipsqueak." Duncan chuckled with a devious smile on his face as he put them on.

This was something Cody immediately tried to dissuade him from "No Duncan wait!" Unfortunately for the punk it was already to late as he'd turned around to face Cody, getting more of a view then he'd ever wanted too. In response he screamed in horror and retched in disgust.

"They see through your underwear too. Or swim trunks in my case. Same thing actually happened to Gwen back the Amazon's, so I tried a joke to make the situation better…It didn't work." The geek said sheepishly while Tyler chuckled at Duncan's misfortune.

"That was bad."

Wanting to change the subject Cody took a small bottle of coke that looked to be empty for decades, out of his pocket and onto the tables of first class. Needless to say this confused Duncan "And you took a dirty bottle of soda out of your pants, why?"

"This isn't any coke bottle. It's the bottle that started this whole mess. I always keep it on me to remind me of my mistake. The day I first met Hatter." Cody said somberly before continuing his tale.


It was a quiet fall day in Toronto, Ontario. Birds were singing, leaves were falling. People were going about their everyday business. Little did its residents know this would be the day that would cause the attitude of the city change from one of bustling urban life, to one of paranoid fear. Fear of a mysterious man known as the Mad Hatter Killer.

And at the center of it all was a twelve year old boy wearing a blue hoodie, black shorts and sneakers, currently in the middle of his last period of his seventh grade school day. An English class to be specific. The boy was rather smart for his age, but as opposed to his future self, he was very introverted. He was also the target of bullying at his school. This boy, if you haven't figured out by now, was Cody.

At this moment in time he was jotting down the notes his teacher projected on the board concerning their current novel, Alice in Wonderland "So class, the Chesire Cat dissapears suddenly with only his grin remaining. Now what does Alice say concerning this."

"She's seen a cat without a grin, but not a grin without a cat." The class boredly repeated to the teacher at the front.

"Very good. Now, I expect you all to have read the seventh chapter of the book, by the time we meet again tommorow. The bell should be ringing soon, so please pack up. I've got a note date tonight and I want to be extra prepared." While the teacher once again began to drone on about her personal life, Cody began looking around the room and packing his things.

He stopped when he saw some familiar faces glaring right at him, looking very angry at him. When he saw one of them run their finger across their throat, he gulped as he knew what this meant for him.

The second that the bell rang Cody bolted out the door headed for the exit, not even bothering to get the things out of his locker. However when he made it outside, he found the local gang of his school waiting outside for him. And they had anything but a friendly look on their faces.

"Hey there Codemeister how are you doing?"

"I told you never to call me that Preston." Cody growled while pinching his nose, knowing full well what was going to happen to him in this situation.

"Sorry but I have a bad memory. And so do the rest of my boys here, as seen by are English grades. It just so happens that you've been doing a lot better than us." Preston growled while cracking his knuckles.

"So let me guess, you're going to beat the ever loving shit out of me because I'm doing better in school. Here's the deal boys, I do well because I actually study once in a while. You should try it once in awhile."

"What a loser."

"Why study when you can just cheat off the eggheads."

"This guy's making me mad."

Now Preston inched closer to Cody with an ever more sadistic look "I don't think I like your tone nerd. Maybe you need to be taught a bigger lesson than that cat lady of a teacher could come up with."

"Alright boys, I know your super pissed right about now. But hey maybe we could come up with an agreement. Like we could-"Cody tried to bargain with the gang before pointing up to the sky in a sudden jerk "Look, it's Megan Fox skydiving in a bikini!"

Being hormonal middle schoolers, Preston and his toadies looked around for the attractive celebrity in the air. The geek took this opportunity to bolt and ran as fast as he could in the opposite direction, chuckling to himself all the way "What a bunch of idiots. Why would Megan Fox be doing something like that in the middle of Toronto."

"We're gonna get you, you little shit!" He picked up the pace a bit when he heard the gang of thugs were sprinting after him at a rapid speed. The second he had a chance he turned the corner into an alley, only to find he was at a dead end by a large chain fence covering the wall.

Cody tried to climb the fence as fast as he could, but due to his scrawny frame this was easier said than done. The struggle made it all the easier for Preston to pull him off and begin to hit him hard in the face "Got you know you little dweeb! Maybe we'll forgive you if you give us all your money."

"Get dunked on!" Cody said defiantly which only got him several more punches to the face.

"Wait did you really say 'get dunked on' to that guy"

"Yeah, it was this thing I always used to say. No wonder I didn't have many friends back then."

"I think that might have had something to do with how scary you sounded."

"Ok, ok, let's get back to the story."

After a few more hard blows to the face, Cody collapsed allowing the toadies to begin kicking and socking his sides "Get any money out of the little shit that you can kick out of his scrawny hide!" Preston continued his assault, causing the geek to be bruised and cough up blood.

This continued for a little while longer until a man with flaming red hair and a black vest came by to see what was happening "What are you brats doing? Get the hell out of here!" The man ran towards them angrily. Not wanting to be caught and punished, they all climbed up the nearby fence and onto the urban roofs.

Knowing who the man was, the bruised and battered geek trusted the man lifting him up; the owner of the local pub, Riordan Grillby. This man had known him since he'd been hold enough to explore the city on his own and had often helped him out of tight situations, to the point he regularly ordered meals at the pub.

"You sure have a knack for attracting trouble don't you Cody?"

"More like trouble has knack for following me wherever I go, whether I want it to or not. Have a feeling I'm going to deal with someone like that in my lifetime." Cody popped his spine back into place with a painful sounding crack "Thanks for the save Mr. Grillby."

"No problem small fry. You look like you've had a rough day. I bet kicking my ass at pool and enjoying a plate of fires will get your mood up." Grillby said as he walked the boy over to his restaurant.


Ever since first meeting Mr. Grillby, Cody always had an affinity for typical pub games such as darts, cards, and especially pool. As a result he was able to beat many of the pub's regulars at the games. Not that this was surprising as Cody always enjoyed games, whether they be classic or electronic. The way he used his intellect to outwit and take out his opponent always gave him a level of joy.

Not that it helped him escape the bullying though, as he wasn't good at coming up with strategies on the fly. He walked into the doors of his century old house and sighed upon seeing that it was once again completely empty. Despite being high middle class, his parents were hardly ever around due to work.

Cody went up to his room without much thought, and pulled his novel out of his backpack. He figured that the sooner he got his homework done, the quicker he could play games until his body forced itself to go to sleep. The chapter seemed to be about one of the more well known scenes in the novel, the tea party with the Mad Hatter and March Hare.

However he found that something was distracting him from his task, as there was an odd tune coming from the attic. From his knowledge, he figured out it was a piece of classical music called Les Toreadors. Cody felt a bad feeling about this, thinking that someone had broken into the house.

That and there was something chilling about the sound as if he should avoid the attic at any cost and call for help. But at the same time there was something oddly alluring that called him. Against his better judgement, he slowly trudged up to his attic, following the strange noise.

The attic was very dusty and ominous with many items of the house's previous owners lost to time. These included an old silk top hat, a cane that concealed a secret compartment Cody was told not to open, and a wool collar jacket. As a result, the geek got a creepy feeling from the floor like he shouldn't be there.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Cody ignored the pit in his stomach and traced the sound to inside the wall. Now even more curious than ever, he used a nearby hammer to break the wall.

Due to the age of the wood, Cody was easily able to break it down using the hammer. This revealed exactly what was making the noise; strangely embedded in the wall was a coke bottle from the 1960's which contained a wispy black substance. The geek assumed it was nothing and was about to move on to continue his search.

That is, until it started speaking to him "Hard knock life ain't it kid?" A high pitched cockney voice suddenly shot out from the thing stuck in the wall.

"Ok, you're hallucinating Cody. Preston just hit you so hard you're seeing things. There is not a talking British soda bottle in the wall right now." Cody tried to reason with himself.

"Hey Beanpole you're not exactly what I've been expecting to come around. I've been in this house since the 80's, you think I'd find someone better to talk to."

"A soda bottle is talking to me. A soda bottle is talking to me…Wait a minute how'd you know I was so skinny?"

"Just because I don't have eyes doesn't mean I can't see you ya know! I can also that your pretty banged up for instance. What happened, did you get struck by a lightning bolt with fists or something." The being asked him. Strangely, he didn't feel afraid anymore and opened up to the being.

"It's nothing really. Just a bunch of meatheads messing with me. I'll probably be through a lot worse in high school."

"Meatheads huh? So in the years since I've had a body people now have meat for heads. Judging by how stupid they were back when I was alive that's not surprising. I mean we did elect Nixon and all." The joke was completely lost on Cody.

"Buddy, I'm Canadian. And US History isn't exactly my forte. More of an English and Math kind of guy…That reminds me of the homework I've got to do so my teachers don't bite my head off." Cody was going to leave this strange encounter behind.

However the being wasn't just going to let him leave "Hey wait a second! You're just going to leave me here? I've been in here for like thirty years, it would be nice to talk to someone for once."

"I can't believe I'm doing this." Cody sighed before doing what he'd later consider to be one of the biggest mistakes of his young life. He pried the bottle out of the wall and began carrying it down stairs "Try to be quiet for now. I've got a lot of work to do."

"Whatever you say Beanpole."

The next half hour or so was fairly quiet for Cody, even with the chatty being nearby as he worked on his school work. After some time had passed Cody had finished reading chapter 7 of Alice in Wonderland. A certain illustration in the book intrigued the being as he watched the geek read.

"Who's that funny looking guy in the hat? He seems like a loon."

"Being crazy is actually pretty normal in the book, but back then it was called being mad. This guy's called the Mad Hatter;he's one of the most famous characters in the book."

"Cut me some slack, I didn't really get out much when I was alive. My mother was a very…domineering person. It was quite a pain in the arse actually." The being revealed nonchalantly, which shocked and chilled Cody to his core.

"bBack when Yyou were aAalive? YyYour a ghost?" Cody stuttered out in fear at what he had found.

"Well I'm clearly not a human if you couldn't tell. I'm literally a ball of black mist stuffed inside a Coke bottle that hasn't had actual Coke inside it for a score of years." The being said before noticing the boy's horror and calming him down "Chill out fraidy cat, I'm not a hostile ghost. I've just been haunting this place for sometime now."

"Sorry, I watch a lot of movies so I'm pretty wary about the supernatural. Never know when something will try to kill you. Especially the undead." Cody said while rubbing the back of his head, embarrassed by his previous fear. Wanting to extend an olive branch with the creature he pulled out a deck of cards.

"So Ghost, do you know how to play cards?"

"Well I do have a pretty good poker face. In that I don't have a face at all at the moment." The ghost joked about it's lack of human features before sticking two tentacle like appendages out of the bottle and began playing a game of Bridge. After about an hour's worth of playing, the game ended in the ghost's victory.

"Wow. I'm impressed; I haven't been beaten in a game of cards in like four years now."

"My intellect is rather high for most people, considering my I.Q is about 195. But I'm still rather curious, how did you get so good at such as young age?" The ghost flattered the geek, trying to get him into his trap.

Needless to say, it worked "Well, a friend of mine taught me a lot about these types of games. Bridge, poker, pool, cribbage."

"You really are an old soul trapped in the body of a prepubescent boy aren't you? Guessing that must drive the ladies wild."

'I actually have a type. Not many girls in middle school fit it though."

"So you're in middle school…That's actually about four years after I died. I wonder what it's been like in the world since I've died. Do you mind taking me out tomorrow and showing me?" The ghost asked, making it's next move.

However this confused Cody a bit "We're not allowed to take outside drinks besides water on campus. They'd never let me bring you in while you're inside that thing."

"Who said I had to be in here? Here's the deal, you pour me down your back and I stick to it. I see how your day goes and you won't even know I'm there, considering I'm just a ball of dark matter at this point." The ghost made his offer to Cody.

This deal made Cody feel conflicted inside. He'd only known the spirit for a few hours, but he seemed like a kind enough soul to place his trust into. But his soul conflicted with what his brain said, as he got a very negative feeling from the being. Almost as if it's entire personality was nothing but pure evil.

However the geek quickly shook off the feeling and agreed "One day couldn't hurt I suppose."


The next day went by as normal for Cody. Same old work, same old projects, same old quizzes, same old lunches, same old tests. The key difference from this day to most other days was that now he had the ghost on his back buzzing into his ears every once in a while. Normally he hated when people were overly talkative, but the ghost had a certain charisma that made him easy to talk to.

Eventually the time came where it was the very end of his English class and the end his day. While he heard the ghost somehow scratching itself from his back, the geek continued to jot down notes as his teacher droned "So why can the Mad Hatter and March Hare never have proper tea time?"

"Because time punished them by making the clock stay at six o'clock forever." The entire class said at once.

"Very good, now the next chapter is where we really get into the plot of the book. For your homework I want you to read the chapter and analyze the relationship between the protagonist and antagonist."

"That's an easy one. They hate each other, that's pretty much the relationship all the time." Cody had to hold in a burst of laughter at the ghost's words, before he spoke again a more serious tone Hey Beanpole, I don't think those guys like you very much."

After the spirit pointed them out, he saw that Preston and his goons were glaring at him intently in much the same way they had the day before "Those are just a bunch of stupid, lazy thugs. Just ignore them till class gets out." The second Cody said that the bell signaling their release from the school day rang out.

"Now should we run?"

"Yep."

The second that he could, Cody ran out the classroom door with the ghost still gripping onto his back. Just as he expected the gang of bullies were already waiting for him outside by the time he'd reached the exit "Same old, same old eh Codemeister? How well did you do on today's book quiz. Because we didn't do well at all."

"Then maybe they should work on their grades some more right Beanpole. But their personality needs some work first." The ghost whispered into Cody's ear, to his amusement.

"Tell me about it ghost, these guys are more one-dimensional than the bullies from It." Cody answered to his companion, which only served to make the gang angrier.

"Oh, you're in for it now nerd!" Preston growled as he approached the geek. But to both their surprise, Cody suddenly leapt into the air and landed on the other side of them.

"Wait a minute, what just happened."

"I possessed your leg for a second so you could escape. Now run!" The ghost demanded of Cody. The geek immediately followed and dashed down the sidewalk while Preston and his gang was still hot on their heels "Run faster, or find somewhere to hide! I don't care, just do it fast!"

In response to the ghost's yelling, Cody turned the corner into a very familiar dead end. Out of desperation he tried to climb the fence again only to find he could do so much faster than he could previously and made it to the top of the roof in no time. The without thinking, he jumped for a nearby vent and fell inside the building.

While his head was still ringing from the fall he heard Preston yell from the roof "You can't hide from me nerd! All of you spread out and find him on one of these roofs!"

"That was way too close." Cody groaned in pain before what just happened truly hit him "Wait a minute Ghost, did you just take over my body right now?"

"Actually I just took over your limbs. I hope that didn't cause you too much trouble just now." The ghost said in a faux remorseful tone.

"Are you kidding me? That was awesome! You totally saved my ass back there Ghost. I wish I could stick with you all the time." Now the ghost had Cody exactly where he wanted him.

"You don't say…I actually have an arrangement for something like that. If I you make an exchange contract, I can join to your physical body as long as I get something I'd consider of equal value in return. A little tit for tat if you will."

"Wait, is it like permanent or something?"

"Of course not, we could part ways at any time if we really wanted too. All you need to do is place a contract mark somewhere on your body, and for your part of the exchange…you have to let me possess your body at the library." The ghost said completely deadpan to the shock of Cody.

"That's it? You're going to share a body with me just so I can take you to the library?"

"Yep. I've got some important research to look for in that library and I think that actually having a physical body would be beneficial. Just drink up and remember that we can separate at any time." The ghost lied through it's nonexistent teeth to the geek.

After a couple minutes of thinking, Cody proceeded to do what he'd consider to be the biggest mistake of his life. He popped the cap off the bottle, and ingested the ghost. Then every started to go fuzzy until he eventually blacked out. Cody awoke in area with nothing; absolutely nothing white plainness around him, like the entire world was a sheet of paper.

The geek was prepared to try and explore this new world so as to figure out what was going on, he heard a familiar cockney voice, though this one seemed lower and more jovial than previous "Look who finally woke up. I was beginning to worry I'd accidentally killed you."

"Where are we Ghost…And why are you naked?" Cody asked, revolted upon seeing his friend's naked form. Aside from his nudity he also had short and bush brown hair, jagged teeth, and piercing scarlet eyes.

"First off we're in your mind. Well I guess it's more our mind than anything now." The ghost materialized a cigarette and a holder for it, which he proceeded to begin smoking "And to answer your second question, this is what I looked like when I was your age. With the exception of the hair color, that's from you. And the eyes and teeth are a side effect of being dead. Unfortunately I didn't bring my clothes with me, so it appears I'll have to find something upon return home."

"Speaking of which, how exactly do we get home from here Ghost?"

"Simple, it's your body so just wake up. Of course you'll be experiencing some gaps in memory if I take over for some research." The ghost said before inhaling another whiff of smoke "By the way, I'm getting rather tired of the name Ghost. Think of something else to call me."

"Let see…You're in my body so it should probably start with a C or something…How…about…Clayton?" Cody suggested which got a blank response from the demon "Umm…Caesar? No good…I got it! How about I call you Cedric?"

"Now that's a name I can get behind Beanpole." The newly named Cedric smiled as he saw Cody begin to fade away as he began to wake up "I'll see you later. Be sure to walk to the library and we can switch back out there."


The following couple weeks Cody had a bit of trouble getting used to his new routine of constantly switching in and out of Cedric's form. From what he saw in his head Cedric had taken to wearing some of the old artifacts strewn around the attic, most notably the top hat which shadowed his eyes. The new mark on his tongue especially took some getting used to, but he could make it invisible which was a plus.

Preston and his goons still picked on him and tried to attack him at points, but it had been far less than what it had been before Cedric had come into his life. But that likely had something to do with the recent events around the urban areas of the city.

In the past four weeks a string of murders had been popping up. While it was suspected to be nothing more than a petty criminal at first, mountains of evidence connected the crimes together. That's when investigators realized: they had a serial killer on their hands. A serial killer who had killed 23 people in the span of four weeks.

Even more twisted, was his motif of leaving a card of 10/6 near the corpses of his victim; an action that gave him the nickname of The Mad Hatter Killer. From what Cody could tell Cedric had heard of the news, but had chosen to keep it out of their usual discussions. The news of the emerged serial killer terrified residents of Toronto as they seemed to have no specific target for how they chose their victim and their DNA didn't match any Canadian records.

This was one crime spree that wouldn't easily be solved. It even got to a point where Cody's parents banned him from going outside after dark until the killer was caught. His mind wasn't exactly on that though as the bell had just rang and his class had once again been released.

It was a Friday that day, which entailed that they'd get their tests back from the day before. Cody normally dreaded these days as while he typically aced these tests being the geek he was, that usually entailed angry confrontations with Preston. However his already flippant behavior with the bully had increased now that he had a back up and could escape Preston's wrath with no injuries.

As expected he met the gang out thugs outside the normal spot of the front exit "Hey there nerd. Guess what we got on yesterday's test!"

"Let me guess, you all got zeroes because your too stupid to study!" Cody made fun of his former tormentors before suddenly losing possession of the body.

Now Cedric was in control with Cody's appearance instead of his own, and unlike Cody he had no filter on what he would say to Preston "Hey there jackass. Been a while since I've seen you. Wanna be a werewolf." Cedric mocked them by dropping Cody's pants and mooning them.

While they reeled back in the disgust from the sight, the spirit took the opportunity to run "Catch me if you can dickheads!"

"Don't just stand there you morons! Get that loser!" Preston ordered his thugs to chase after the pair in me body, to which they followed as normal.

However considering they were chasing an entirely different person now, they were having a much tougher time chasing him down. Cedric easily climbed up the chain fence, leaving them in his dust as he ran past the vent and across the roofs. Not helping was the debris he constantly threw at them.

Eventually the only one left chasing him was Preston "You're not going to get away from loser! You'll never be better than someone like me, when you're just an antisocial egghead!"

"I can see why you hate this guy Beanpole. He has the personality of a neutered alley cat." Cedric whispered to his other half, who chuckles in response.

"Tell me about. Before you came around the only way I could get around him was through sarcasm."

For his next and final move against Preston, Cedric suddenly jumped through the open window of a nearby apartment. Preston, being the stubborn delinquent he was, followed. Cedric ran through the room without causing some much as the slightest disturbance. Preston wasn't so lucky and was hit over the head by the old woman living there.

"Excuse me police! This delinquent broke into my home!"

"Guess we're not going to see him for a while." Cedric said with a smug smile on his face, before letting Cody take back over.

"I always thought he'd look great in an orange jumpsuit. Come on, I don't have any homework this weekend, let's hit Grillby's." Cody said he walked around the corner to visit his favorite place, only to find it was covered in police tape "What's going on here?!"

Upon seeing his most frequent, non-drinking regular, Mr. Grillby walked up with a somber look on his face "Bad news Cody, my pub is gonna be shut down for the next six months till they finish investigating."

"What happened here Mr. Grillby?"

"The Mad Hatter Killer happened. He took the body of a pregnant woman he killed and put her in my freezer. She had frozen to death by morning." Grillby explained in a dark tone before shooing the boy away "Go home Cody, this is no place for a child. I'll be alright."

"This is not good I never thought somebody else with the shining could be in this town!" Cedric said a faux horrified tone.

"The shining. That's a Stephen King book from the 80's!"

"Not that shining you doofus, the real one. Some people have a telekinetic power that sticks with them even after they die called the shining, and both you and I have it. And from the looks of it this Mad Hatter guy has it too. And it's much stronger than either of us combined."

"I'm telekinetic?" Cody asked, shocked by this revelation.

"Duh how else do you think I contacted you when we first met. The most I can draw from his shining residue is that his name is Von Túfeice. It looks like I'm going to need to focus my investigation onto this guy instead of voodoo. Listen up Beanpole, now that you know of your power, you have to practice it. I'll need your help in this investigation."

"G-got it man." Cody managed to stutter out to his only friend he could see at the moment. While he was an avid fan of horror movies like he was film in general, he was shocked he was getting so deep into one of the biggest crimes Toronto had ever seen. Little did he know he was much deeper into it than anyone else could ever imagine.


Three months. Three months had passed since he first found Cedric jammed into his wall and two months since they'd begun their investigation into the mysterious Mad Hatter Killer, von Túfeice. So far the had little luck. Cedric just couldn't seem to get ahold of his shining and Cody had trouble getting hold of information on the man.

On the bright side though, his own telekinesis which greatly improving as of late as he could now lift small object such as cans of soda and game controllers. Not that it really helped in investigation of course. Over the last couple of months, the Mad Hatter Killer had upped his kill count to 75 people. This had made him the most prolific serial killer in Canadian history.

After months of no leads, Cody finally found a breakthrough in their investigating. He heard from a rumor in school that traffic cameras had caught a brief glimpse of the Mad Hatter Killer as he led away his most recent victim. As a result of this, Cody looked them up the second he got home.

"Alright, I hope that it's got at least halfway decent resolution on the photos. Maybe Cedric can use his shining to recognize the guy. I think we've finally caught hi now." Cody said as he searched the web before finally hitting a specific link. What he saw shook him to the core.

The person in the photo was about his age, with sunglasses covering their eyes and an innocent look on their face. But that wasn't what disturbed him. It was the fact that they had messy brown hair, a cane topped with a red gem with a hidden compartment, a large sharp smile, a wool collar coat, and a silk top hat with a 10/6 card stuck in its rim.

The Mad Hatter Killer held an uncanny resemblance to Cedric "This is a weird coincidence. I mean it's not like Cedric could be the…" Cody stopped when he had a disturbing realization. The times of the victim's deaths all corresponded perfectly with the times he let Cedric take over his body.

The geek felt his entire body get weak and his vision get blurry from the horror of this realization. Unable to hold his stomach, he ran over to the trash can in the corner of his room and blew chunks. After he finished vomiting he tried to reason with himself "This can't be real! I've gotta talk to Cedric about this!"

Letting himself slip into unconsciousness, he awoke in the same white nothingness he always ended up in inside of his mind. Meanwhile Cedric was there just playing solitaire to himself "Any news on ol' von Túfeice Beanpole?"

"Yeah, there's something I've got to talk to you…" Cody paused when he saw the rim of Cedric's top hat was slightly frayed "What happened to your hat?"

Now Cedric began to laugh. But it wasn't the warm friendly laugh Cody was used to, but a low and threatening one "Well look who finally caught on to what I really am!" Cedric howled as he pulled out a card with 10/6 written in blood red, which he placed into his top hat's rim. There was no denying it now; Cedric and The Mad Hatter Killer were one and the same.

"You killed all those people. You're von Túfece! You're the Mad Hatter Killer!"

"Wrong! We're the Mad Hatter Killer! Contraction being we are. The both of us, together. I used your body, so you helped me kill my victims with your own hands." Cedric mocked the geek.

"Shut up Hatter! Is there anything else you've been lying to me about?" Cody demanded of the mad hatter.

"Let's see here…I'm a demon not a ghost, there's no such thing as the shining I just accidentally gave you telekinesis, we're stuck together permanently till one of us dies, and you can never beat me at cards."

With thee exception of the last one Cody felt himself get queasier upon every reveal before he dropped to his knees, sobbing his eyes out "It's all my fault. 75 people are dead because of me!"

"Now buck up Beanpole, it's not like the world ever gave you anything to begin with. You just need to understand the value of chaos and anarchy so you won't feel bad about it anymore. Join me and help out with my plans, and I can teach you that value."

"No! Get dunked on bastard! Cody refused and tried to punch the demon, only to be immediately frozen solid.

Not caring about what he had just done, Cedric lit up another cigarette "Now I have to use a shade to replace him. Unnecessary waste of resources. Might as well turn myself in and move on the to next part of the plan. Wonder how many people I can kill before then."

Cedric then left the frozen soul of Cody behind in the white void of their mind. The geek's consciousness would go untouched for another month, when he and his now archenemy would meet again for the final time in six years.


(A/N): Well that would be an interesting bedtime story if I actually released these at night. But I don't. So I guess it's a moot point. We're entering the final stretch now, with only two more chapters to go in the story. How Duncan met Cedric in juvie, and the final battle to take down The Mad Hatter. I'll try to get these at quickly as possible for you, cause I guarantee you won't want to miss the. I don't have much to say this time around so I'll just let you off here.

Be sure to review, follow, favorite, and do the same to Lord NV's stories Voodoo's Disciple: Peanut Gallery and Total Drama Eden.

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