Chapter Eight

"Winnie? You okay?" Wally asked, throughout all this thinking a visible frown was starting to form on Winnie's face.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine…" She said, though her cadence disagreed. "I need to talk to Dennis in private, can you do that for me?"

"Sure!" He said cheerfully, exiting the room. Immediately after, tears started falling down Winnie's eyes.

"Winnie! What's wrong!?" Dennis said, confused.

"Dennis, I messed up. I messed up big time." She said.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Weilan's innocent!" She exclaimed as she cried. "Wally's the culprit."

"Wally's the culprit?" He repeated, as he tried to parse through what she was saying. "But how?"

"He's been sneaking out for a while now, he must've been the one who vandalized the hotel." She said.

"That still doesn't explain how he did it." Dennis said.

"He was eating sugar when we found him, I think that's what made him so hyper." She said. "He must've eaten some of Weilan's candy and that's what made him do it."

"Didn't Weilan confess? It was on the Ninteboy, right?" Dennis questioned.

"He did, but only after I pressured him to…" She said dejectedly as she looked at the ground.

"Come to think of it, has he ever admitted to being the culprit since then?" He asked somewhat rhetorically.

"No, not even recently…" She said. "Dennis, this is horrible. All those things your mother said about me: how I accused an innocent kid, attacked them, broke their Nintenboy…It's all true…" She sulked.

"Winnie, no." He said as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "You were just trying to help. You follow the truth wherever it leads, you're doing it right now! And there's nothing wrong with that."

"What am I going to do?" She said, still crying.

"We need to apologize to Weilan and tell Grandpa Drac to unban him from the Hotel." He said. "This is going to be hard, but it's the right thing to do. You go do that while I talk to Wally."

"A-Alright." She said, as she wiped away her tears. She then left the room to do as Dennis instructed and find Grandpa Drac. Dennis himself was about to leave the room to talk to Wally but before he could the door flew open wide as an upset Wally entered the room.

"Why is my lil' sister crying!?" He asked, visibly angry. "What did you do to her!?"

"Wally, calm down." He said, trying to diffuse the situation. "I didn't do anything, have a seat."

"Fine, but ya better explain yourself!" Wally sat cross-legged on the floor, interested in hearing what he had to say.

"You were here in the Hotel a week ago, yes? What were you doing?" He asked.

"Eh?" Wally said, confused and looking to his side rather than at Dennis. "Nunya."

"What?" Dennis said, as confused as Wally was.

"Nunya business! What's this gotta do with anything?" He countered.

"Wally, just tell me what you were doing back then." Dennis said, now getting impatient.

"I was just messin' around, I didn't break anything!" Wally said.

"Oh?" Dennis said, with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't say you did break anything."

"I-I mean, I didn't do anything last week…" He hastily amended his statement.

"Gee, he's really obvious…" Dennis thought to himself. "I need to prove that he was the one who vandalized the Hotel, is there anything that could help me with that?" He pondered. Then he remembered his superhero mask. "Do you recognize this?" He asked Wally as he took out his superhero mask.

"Yeah! Why do you have that?" He asked, curiously.

"Uhm, it's mine." Dennis simply replied.

"O-Oh? Right… Of course it's yours…" Wally said, looking away from Dennis again.

"You didn't know it was mine, and yet you've seen it before?" Dennis questioned.

"I-It's a popular superhero character! Of course I've seen a mask like that before." Wally explained.

Dennis shook his head. "I don't think that's why you've seen this mask before." He said. "Does the name 'Weilan' ring a bell to you?"

"N-Nope! Never heard of 'im!" Wally asserted.

"He's lying." Dennis thought. Though, the lie brought something important to the forefront. That being despite Dennis's best interrogative efforts, he just doesn't have the evidence to pin Wally down. He'd need to find some other method to get the whole truth from Wally.

"Enough of this!" Wally then exclaimed. "Are you going to tell me why my lil' sis is crying or what!?" He demanded. That gave Dennis an idea.

"Alright, sure, I'll tell you…It's all your fault!" Dennis exclaimed, snapping his finger and pointing it directly at Wally.

"Me!?" Wally said with a confused, exasperated look on his face. "What did I do!?"

"Wally, a week ago, the Hotel was vandalized. Back then we thought the culprit was a kid by the name of Weilan, but it's increasingly looking like the culprit was actually you!" Dennis said with a fiery look on his face.

"For the last time, I didn't do anything a week ago!" Wally yelled out. "I'm innocent!"

"Your sister disagrees. She thinks you're the culprit and she has good reason to think so. That's why she's crying: She's heartbroken that her brother's a criminal!" He said.

"I-It's…T-That's….No! That's not true!" Wally said, tears forming in his eyes.

"Wally," Dennis said, placing a hand on his shoulder, "I think you're a good kid. But you know more than you're letting on, and you did more than you're letting on. For your sake and Winnie's, I need you to tell me the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."

"I-I…" Wally stuttered for a moment, he could hardly string together a coherent sentence, eventually he got his act together. "Fine, I'll tell you." He said as he wiped his tears away. "I snuck out of the house and to the Hotel a week ago. That was my first time sneaking out-"

"That was your first time sneaking out?" Dennis interjected, skeptically.

"I snuck outta the house before, just not to the Hotel." He admitted. "I was pretty nervous, I mostly just hid in the shadows, like papa taught me. Then, I saw a kid wearing a mask."

Dennis shows off his superhero mask once again. "This was the mask he was wearing, right?" He asked.

"Yes. He looked like he was writing something on the floor, I thought that was strange and decided to approach him. And…" Wally said, trailing off his sentence without finishing it.

"And?" Dennis asked with a raised eyebrow.

Wally placed his hands on his forehead as he tried to remember. "I don't know, I got really hyper all of the sudden!" He said. "Next thing I know, I'm in the hall and everything's a mess! I didn't mean to, I swear!"

"Wally, did you eat anything while you were there?" Dennis asked.

"Eh? Yeah, I ate some candy I found." He said.

"What kind of candy?" Dennis asked.

"I dunno, it was just some sweets I found." He said.

"Where did you find them?" Dennis asked.

"Just laying around, I think." He said.

"Do you remember how much candy you ate?" Dennis then asked.

"…A few." Wally said, looking to the side of Dennis again.

"A few?" Dennis said skeptically. "Are you sure?"

"It may have been more than a few…Maybe the whole bag…" He said, sheepishly.

"This guy…" Dennis thought disappointedly to himself. "I think your sweet tooth is the cause of all this. It's fine to have a candy or three once every while, but the whole bag is a bit out of the question…At least without friends." Dennis stated.

"Yeah, you're right." Wally simply affirmed.

"Anyway, from what you've said, it sounds like you're the one vandalized the Hotel." Dennis said.

Wally looked at the ground dejectedly. "Yes, it was me. I vandalized the Hotel." He said glumly.

"Weilan's not out of the woods just yet, though." Dennis noted. "That writing on the floor…What was it made with?" He asked.

Wally though about it for a moment. "Smelled like spray paint." He said.

"Do you remember what was written?" Dennis asked.

"I didn't get a good look at it, I think it started with a 'D', though." He said.

"That all but confirms it: Weilan wrote the 'Dennis Wuz Here' message." He thought. "But why? The Hotel wasn't vandalized until after he wrote the message. What was he planning?" Dennis pondered, eventually, he reasoned it'd be best to get the answer straight from the horse's mouth. He would go see Weilan later. For now, his attention lie with Winie and her brother.

"So what now?" Wally asked curiously.

"We need to go talk to your sister. After that, we'll figure out what comes next." He affirmed.

"Alright, let's do it!" Wally said. The two of them set off to look for Winnie.

Winnie was looking around the Hotel for Dracula. It didn't take too long for her to find him, he was in the main hall. She approached him and began talking to him as Dennis instructed.

"Hey, Uncle Drac." She said, while she had stopped crying a frown had yet to leave her face. She was visibly upset.

"Oh hey, Cutie, what seems to be the problem?" Dracula asked, noticing her discontentment.

"It's just, that…" She went silent for a moment, she didn't want to say it, but she had to. It was the right thing to do. "I made a mistake. Weilan's not the culprit."

"Vhat!?" He said in surprise. "Then who is it?"

"It was my brother, Wally. He had snuck in here and well..ended up causing that mess. I'm sorry." She said.

"And where's Wally now?" He asked.

"He's-" Just then, Wally and Dennis entered into the equation. "Here…"

Dracula then walked on over to to Wally, he looked at him rather sternly? "Is is true? You vandalized the Hotel?"

He nodded. "I'm sorry."

"But why?" Dracula then asked, to which Dennis then interjected. "Sugar." He said. "He had too many sweets which caused him to get really hyper, then he wrecked the place."

Wally then turned his attention to Winnie. "I'm sorry to you, too. I didn't mean to make you cry. I'm not a criminal." He said, starting to tear up himself.

"It's okay, Wally. I know you didn't mean to do any of that. It just pains me to know I broke an innocent person's stuff. I'm the real criminal, honestly." She said, starting to tear up as well. The both of them were highly emotional at this moment.

Dennis raised a finger. "Hold up, who said Weilan was innocent?" He questioned.

"Eh?!" Winnie said, confused. "Wally just admitted to vandalizing the Hotel. What do you mean? How would he not be innocent?"

"While he may not have ended up being the one that vandalized the Hotel, he was definitely planning to." He replied.

"He was?!" Winnie, Wally, and Dracula all said in surprise in unison. "How do you know?" Winnie asked. "Yeah, tell us!" Wally then piped up.

"It's simple: Think back to the crime scene from a week ago. Is there anything, besides the mess, that stands out to you?"

Winnie placed her hand on her chin as she pondered for a moment. "The plate of Deviled Lizard Fingers?" She finally said.

Dennis had an expression on him that looked completely underwhelmed with that response. "Close, but not quite. The writing on the floor."

"Oh, right! The writing. It said something like 'Dennis Wuz Here', right?" Winnie said.

"Indeed, and Weilan's the only who could've wrote it." He said.

"What does that have to do with planning to vandalize the Hotel? Isn't it possible he wrote the message after Wally vandalized the Hotel in order to frame you?"

"Nuh-uh!" Wally interjected. "I saw him write the message, before the Hotel got messed up. I swear, I remember it like was a week ago!"

"Thank you, Wally. Now, it makes no sense he'd write this unless he was already planning to vandalize the Hotel, you see." Dennis said.

"Right, but then Wally came and did his job for him. At that point, it would've been the perfect crime…" Winnie said.

"Had Marshall not caught him at the crime scene." Dennis said, finishing the rest of Winnie's sentence.

"But…Why? Why would Weilan want to vandalize the Hotel and frame Dennis for it?" Winnie asked.

"I…don't know." Dennis simply said, shrugging his shoulders. "We'll have to ask him about it tomorrow."

"So, what now?" Winnie asked.

Dennis shrugged his shoulders once again. "I've done all I wanted to for today. Wanna play outside?" He asked the two of them.

"Sure!" The two of them responded in unison, just as they were about to head out of the Hotel, though, Dracula called Wally's name. "Ehhh, Wally, Just so you know, I'm going to have to tell your parents about all this." He warned.

"Hold it, Grandpa Drac. Do you really have to tell them? You could-" Just as Dennis was speaking, Wally cut him off.

"It's fine, Dennis." He said, before then looking to Drac. "Alright, I understand." He then disembarked with Winnie and Dennis to the outside.

"Wally, I gotta say, I didn't expect you to accept that you'd be punished like that." Dennis said as they were walking. "That was really honest of you."

"Oh? Our parents are pretty lax, how do you think I managed to sneak out in the first place?" He said.

Dennis looked at him disapprovingly. "You were better off not mentioning that…" He simply said.

Eventually, they stopped in a certain part of the forest that was not too far off from the tree-house, and began playing. They played all sorts of games, including fetch, in which Dennis would throw a twig into the air and both Winnie and Wally would compete to see who could take it and bring it back first. It was quite a sight to behold, especially because neither of the two were averse to a bit of roughhousing. Of course, they would also take turns throwing the twig. Whenever it was time for Wally to throw the twig, Winnie would essentially throw the game to Dennis, which annoyed Wally endlessly. Meanwhile when its time for Winnie to throw the twig, Wally played just as aggressively as he would with Winnie, which annoyed her endlessly as well. All in all, though, they had a lot of fun. It eventually became time for all of them to hit the hay, and they returned to the Hotel. They all slept together in Dennis's room. It was a little cramped, especially because both Winnie and Wally have the tendency to move around a lot in their sleep, but they manage to find it in them to have a good night's rest.