EPISODE 7-4

Count Bleck lay there, wondering what had happened. At first he thought that the whole world had blown up; and then he thought that perhaps only the Twilight Trail part of it had; and then he thought that perhaps only he had, and he was now alone in the moon or somewhere, and would never see Timpani or Nastasia or his minions again.

And then the author realized that she wasn't A.A. Milne, and probably never would be; so Count Bleck decided to get up. A quick look around told him he had been sent all the way to Twilight Town. He felt himself all over to make sure nothing was soaked or out of place before getting up entirely.

A curious crowd had gathered around him, looking on, uncertain of what to do. Mayor Dour was standing at the front of it, a look of both concern and intrigue on his face.

"Steeple's gone," was all the Count said.

Mayor Dour nodded. "I can see that," he said. "Are you all right?"

"Looks like it," replied Count Bleck. He felt a little strange, but being exposed to a gas leak and then being hurled halfway across the territory would do that to you. He cleared his throat. "Seen anyone else?" Apparently complete sentences were not in his ability at the moment.

Mayor Dour nodded. "You left one of yours behind," he said. "She's been waiting for you."

Just then, Mimi bounded out of the Mayor's house and over to Count Bleck. She threw her arms around him in a greeting hug, which caused him to wince, and then bounced back two paces. "Hi, Count!" she chirped. "I got the frog out of my hair! He got his toes tangled up and you guys left without me. Good thing, too, huh? For me, I mean."

Good ol' clueless, insensitive Mimi.

Count Bleck nodded slowly. Then he turned to the Mayor and said, "I'm very sorry about Creepy Steeple, Mayor Dour."

The Mayor chuckled. "Well, Count, that just saved me a difficult decision. My workers have been telling me it's in such bad shape we might have to tear most of it down anyway, and rebuild it. Such a shame, it's a historical place. But it's in such a state of disrepair, you know?"

Count Bleck nodded again. "Excuse me," he said faintly. "I need to go sit down. Mimi… see if you can find the others, would you dear?"

"Sure," said Mimi. "Are you okay?"

He gave her an exasperated look. "What do you think?"

When he was inside the Mayor's house, he sank into an armchair and let out a long, exasperated sigh. He wasn't just tired. He was completely sapped of all energy. He was too worn out to think or reason or figure out what to do next. It was all he could do to keep from falling asleep right there, but that just wouldn't do.

The residents of Twilight Town brought back everyone else who had been in the steeple. Nobody was seriously hurt (this is, after all a K+ fic- and a fantasy to boot). Within a short while, they were all gathered in the Mayor's house- Mimi, O'Chunks, Nastasia, Mr. L, Tippi, Dimentio, Doopliss, and Cousin Jen. And, of course, Mayor Dour. It was his house, after all.

"Okay," Cousin Jen said the first opportunity she got. "I just wanted to say I totally didn't intend for that to happen."

"I would never 'ave done anythin' if I knew that'd happen!" O'Chunks voiced his protests over Cousin Jen's, in a fight to keep her from pinning any blame on him.

"It was an accident," said Count Bleck. "It was nobody's fault. O'Chunks could have not thrown Cousin Jen, Cousin Jen could have not turned into something that caused sparks, Dimentio could have not figured it out a second too late… the workers could have not left the gas leak there for us to find. We're just lucky that, with the roof mostly gone, we were in a well-ventilated area, and there should be no damage done in the long run."

He waited a moment to see if anybody had anything to say to that. Nobody did, so he cleared his throat and continued. A monumental task. "Which leaves us to continue to the most urgent part of this meeting. Cousin Jen, what happened to the missing residents of Twilight Town?"

She didn't answer right away. Instead she glanced nervously at Doopliss. Doopliss shrugged. She turned back to Count Bleck, gathered her strength, and said, "They're on a wild goose chase."

"Pardon?"

"I turned into the Mayor and told them that in order to fix the steeple, they needed to find a Great Boggly Wordswhatsit."

"And that is…?"

"The great mystery of their quest," finished Cousin Jen with a smug grin. "Don't worry. They're perfectly safe. Unless, of course, something horrible happened to them on their quest. Which, come to think of it, is pretty darn likely given the places they'd have to cut through to get to the Boggly Woods…"

Mayor Dour stood up. "I'm going to contact the Elder of the Great Boggly Tree and see if she can't head them off and send them back here. Thank you for telling us where they were, Cousin Jen."

"Great, now that this is cleared up, I'll just be on my way." She jumped up in the air and prepared to scurry out of the room.

Count Bleck grabbed her by the scruff of her sheet neck. "Not so fast," he said. "I think you would much rather stay here and set things right… don't you agree?" He grinned at her, that horrible Jack-o-lantern grin that could give anybody the heebie jeebies.

"Come to think of it…" Cousin Jen said with a nervous chuckle, "I bet you guys will need an extra hand or two putting the steeple back together again, eh?"

"I bet our shapeshifting powers would come in real handy," said Doopliss. "And if we're going to rebuild it, we can rebuild it how I want."

"Now, now, now," said Count Bleck. "It's the Twilight Town resident's steeple, too."

"Yeah, but it's my home! Between touring, I mean. I'm about to go with a troop to perform 'Kiss Me, Koop.' I hear it's gonna be good."

"Doopliss," said Count Bleck slowly, "what we need here is a way to share the steeple so you're both satisfied, correct?"

"Yeah," said Doopliss.

"Well, then, how willing would you be to work together with the residents of the town in order to make sure that the new steeple fits both your needs and desires?"

Doopliss made a face. "Not really very willing at all. Have you met those guys? I can't stand to be around them for more than like five seconds."

Count Bleck gave him an exasperated look. Doopless read it, thought for a minute, and said, "Although, if Cousin Jen sticks around, it wouldn't be so bad I guess."

"That's the spirit," said Count Bleck. "I'm going to keep a close eye on you to make sure you're working well together."

"You're going to stay?"

"No, Nastasia is going to stay."

"I am?" This was news to her.

"For a short time," said Count Bleck. "If that's all right with you. I believe you would be very, very good at keeping tabs on them."

"If it be all right with you, Count," O'Chunks interrupted, "I think I'd like ta stay, too. I just feel awful about what 'appened to Creepy Steeple, and it's all me fault it happened."

"It's not," said Count Bleck. "Nobody's at fault."

"But it don't feel like that. Let me do me Warrior's Honor right, Count. Let me stay an' help 'em fix it up."

Count Bleck smiled. "Well," he said, "Your great strength would certainly be an asset to the people of Twilight Town, and would speed up their job greatly. All right. You stay with Nastasia and fix the steeple."

"I assure you," Nastasia said to O'Chunks. "It will be business as usual." But there was a slight grin under her statement- hope after all.

The result was marvelous. Creepy Steeple was rebuilt, using the foundation already there from the previous time. They used the old historical records of it as a guide, so it would look almost exactly the same as before. O'Chunks was a great help in moving bricks and heavy things much faster than the townsfolk could do on their own. Doopliss was cheerful once they agreed to build his tower high enough so he wouldn't hear any of the townsfolk when they came to the Steeple. The missing workers came back, quite angry that they had been sent on a wild goose chase, but happy that they could get back to work.

A few weeks later, after the repairs were finished and everybody was home again, Count Bleck got a letter from the townsfolk on the Mailbox SP.

Dear Count Bleck,

Thank you so much for helping us save Creepy Steeple. It's better than ever, now. Cousin Jen has gone back to wherever it is she came from, saying something about holding the family reunion somewhere else. Doopliss has not terrorized anybody who came to the Steeple so far, although a few people swear they can hear him laughing at them. It's just his way, I tell them.

I'm going to tell everyone what a wonderful job you did. I'm sure that once word spreads, everybody is going to want to help you solve their own problems. Nastasia tells me that you want to make the world a better place. I wanted to make sure you knew that it's much, much better here in Twilight Town. Even better than the last time.

Sincerely,

Mayor Dour and the Residents of Twilight Town

Count Bleck didn't realize he was crying until a teardrop fell on the screen. He pulled a handkerchief out of his sleeve and wiped his eye. For good measure, he blew his nose, too. It was just so touching. His dream was slowly becoming reality.

"Something wrong, Count?"

He wasn't alone. Mr. L was in the room, too. Count Bleck hadn't realized that.

"Count Bleck just got a very touching letter from Twilight Town," explained Count Bleck. "They're very grateful to us."

"Oh, that's neat," said Mr. L. "Guess that makes you happy, too."

"Exceedingly," said Count Bleck. Then, on impulse, he added, "They say it's even better than last time."

"What?"

"Now, the state of their town is even better than last time they were saved from the monster in Creepy Steeple," explained Count Bleck.

"Oh, really," said Mr. L. He tied to sound nonchalant, but inside he was throwing a party. A party with fireworks, cheerleaders, rock music, and a fifty-foot cake. All for his pride.

Mario would be proud.

THE END