Photo: Greyson "Dagger" Belmont, host of this crazy party.

Wyatt and the others walked down the empty corridors, their breaths being the only sound that filled the quiet hallways.

"Hey, look, I found the bathrooms!" Erik cried happily as he bounded over childishly, hugging the door to the men's bathroom. 

"Dear God, thank you," Griffin breathed out in relief, rushing in.

Wyatt couldn't help but smile. 

"We should go soon," Kiara said, glancing sideways at them and clearly not amused. "I want to know the layout of this place as soon as possible. The longer we stay, the greater our chances of death. "

Reluctantly, they all agreed and headed on as soon as the two boys came out of the bathroom. 

Wyatt glanced to his right, noticing a wall of bars blocking their way in that direction. "Hey, look at this!" He peered through the openings, hands holding the bars. There was an obvious stairway, leading up to a second floor.

"What? Why isn't Dagger going to let us around all of the floors?" Isabell asked.

"Oh, the answer is quite simple, my dear guests!"

Wyatt jumped back, startled at his seemingly sudden appearance while Star and a few others screamed in shock. 

"Dagger," Chase said, glowering at the boy, "What are you doing here?"

"Ahahahaha! I was curious, that's all! You really can't blame me! I mean, how would you like to have sixteen people living in your mansion? What if you break something? Then I have to pay for stuff and I hate paying for things!"

"You trapped us in!" Amanda growled. "Not to mention, you jumped on your table so hard yesterday that you broke half of the plates we were eating off of!"

"Minor detail! Anyway," he regained his composure, "I've come to tell you that you have no access to any of the floors at the moment, except for the first."

"How do we get access then?" Damien asked quietly, eyes shifting up to look at him. 

"If I told you then there would be no point in doing this! Figure it out yourself! I mean, based on what I want you guys to do here, it's quite simple actually." Dagger smiled teasingly and walked off once again.

Wyatt sighed in defeat, shaking his head. "Let's just head on and think about that later."

The group moved on to another portion of the manse. They tried the final few doors at the end of the hallway.

The first door led to a library.

"Hey, look, there's computers! And a laptop over here! Maybe we could send a distress signal!" Erik exclaimed. "I know how to do it, too!"

He unplugged the laptop from its charger and opened it up. After a few minutes, Erik sighed and slowly closed the lid. "No dice. There's no connection here," he bent down and unplugged the cord to the charger from its socket. "I'll keep working on it. In the meantime, I'll keep it in my room."

Wyatt nodded, "Good idea."

Kiara ran her fingers over the spine of the books. "These will be useful," she murmured thoughtfully, opening a book. Her eyes scanned through it, flipping the pages quickly before she scowled and threw it down onto the ground. "Damn, it's blank!"

"Not these ones," Star said, gesturing to a pile of them on a desk. "They're all written in a million different languages though. I don't know if you can read it."

"I'll look through them later," Kiara sighed, "I've studied multiple languages. I'm not good at them but I can probably make out what it says."

"As expected from the Ultimate Writer," Griffin muttered, shutting a book closed and letting out a plume of dust.

After finding nothing else useful except for a pack of index cards to which Harmony took, they continued onto the other rooms. 

The second door led to a gym, filled with treadmills, dumbbells, and various kinds of workout machines. Wyatt couldn't help but feel uneasy as he noticed just how large the dumbbells were. 

He slowly sat down on a treadmill, studying the room. He noticed a pile of rags in one corner, piled up next to the bench-press. He noticed Isabell glance at it but look away quickly once she realized how dirty they were. 

"Now that we've looked around... shall we leave? I think there's two more doors for us," Kiara said nervously. She seemed slightly uncomfortable, along with a number of others who had the same look as her, their eyebrows furrowed slightly.

The third door was locked.

Chase frowned. "The hell?"

Erik stepped forward. "Here, I can try. Being an assassin also involves a lot of breaking in," he mumbled with his lollipop in his mouth, leaning his head towards the door. He shook his head as he fiddled with the lock. "It's not something you can lockpick easily. And there's a weird ticking right now."

Damien gently pressed his ear against it alongside with Erik. His eyebrows turned down in a frown. Then, his eyes widened. In a flurry of panic, he screamed, "Look out!", before pushing Erik back into Wyatt. Wyatt fell backwards into everyone else, the group crashing on top of each other. There was a deafening explosion as the fragments of the door shattered harmlessly on their faces.

"Hahahaha!" Dagger emerged from the room, laughing hysterically. "Oh, that was priceless!"

"Dagger..." Thane growled, wiggling out from under their bodies. "What was that for?"

Dagger merely smiled innocently. "Just a little test. To see how good you guys are. If you're really curious, you guys pass," he smirked, before disappearing once again.

They slowly untangled themselves from each other. Sophie brushed her finger against the wall, her index finger coming away with soot. She studied it. "From the color and the size of it, I'd say it was from a C4. The explosion wasn't that big, and most bombs have a lot more power than that one."

Amanda sighed, "I wish I could find the bombs and blow the front door into pieces so we can run away."

They all nodded in silent agreement before entering the dark room, stepping over the sharp fragments of the door that remained. Wyatt tripped over a large piece that remained of the door, stubbing his toe as he fell forward. His hands shot out in front of him to break his fall. There was a shock of pain up his arms as he landed with a wince. 

Someone cursed and switched on the light. "You OK?"

Wyatt nodded and stood up, scanning the room as he rubbed his wrists. His heart jumped at the sight of the walls.

There were blades and swords of all sizes. Several bows hung from one side of the arena, with quivers filled with arrows of different types.

He heard Griffin mutter, "Wow."

Wyatt could almost feel the hostility in the room. There was an uncomfortable period of silence once again before Damien quickly tried to  push the group away from the room, his eyes wide. "Let's get out of here, it isn't safe."

Almost relieved, the group quickly ran out and to the last door. They slowly opened the last room. Harmony's tear-streaked face immediately brightened as she pushed out into the front. "It's the infirmary! Finally, something that I can help with!"

Wyatt smiled at her happy face, sighing in relief as he felt the tension break. 

Kiara closed her eyes and stretched. 

"We should get out of here," Cody said quietly, "We've explored everything, and I'm exhausted," he yawned.

Almost on cue, an intercom crackled. "It's now officially ten o'clock! You must all be in your rooms in fifteen minutes! All those who don't are in trouble! Good luck on surviving! I'll give you all a nice little hint: nighttime is the best time to murder someone!"

They stared at each other grimly, before the sixteen of them rushed to their rooms without looking back at each other. 

Wyatt shut the door in his room and breathed out a breath he'd been holding while running. He glanced at the door. It was locked, but... what about Erik and Damien? They were masters at breaking in. Wyatt moved his desk under the doorknob. With the double security, he uneasily climbed into bed and fell fast asleep after an agonizing period of tossing and turning in bed. 

-Next Morning-

"Wakey, wakey," someone whispered in his ear.

Wyatt shot up in bed, a feeling of fear knifing through his heart. "Holy shit!" he shrieked as he fell backwards off of the bed. 

He looked up to find a smiling Dagger, who's eyes widened crazily as he laughed. "You should have seen yourself! Your face was priceless!" He bent down and held his stomach, rolling on the ground with laughter. 

Wyatt glanced at the door. He was shocked to find the desk still under the doorknob, everything in place like he'd put it last night. "How did you get in?"

Dagger shrugged as he held his hands up. "Sorry! That's a secret," he taunted, emphasizing the 'secret' part.

"Why the hell are you here?" Wyatt sighed, slowly getting back onto the bed.

"I came here to tell you to wake up! Everyone's already down there! Well, almost everyone." Wyatt raised his eyebrows.

Dagger rushed to the door. "Come! Come! There are people waiting!" He moved the desk away before unlocking the door, throwing it open.

Wyatt had no choice but to follow as he yawned, trudging down the hall. The dimly lit hallway did not help to wake him up either. At the entrance to the dining hall, Dagger spun around on his feet. "See you later!" He waved as he ran back down the hall. 

Wyatt bit his lower lip. He slowly pushed the door open, entering the room. He squinted against the bright lights.

"Finally," Griffin muttered, stabbing his fork into a pancake without looking up. "We thought you died or something."

Wyatt smiled sheepishly. He glanced around, smile immediately faltering. "Wait. Where's Cassie, Kiara, Cody, and Damien?"

"Cassie is in the bathroom. Kiara is in her room. Cody just left for the bathroom, too. As for Damien..." Star glanced over at a corner, where Damien was crouched, mumbling something.

"Didn't Dagger get everyone here who slept in? Wouldn't he go fetch Kiara?"

"Trust me, even Dagger didn't want to mess with her."

"And where were YOU, Wyatt?" Chase spun around to face him, his hands absentmindedly playing with a crystal ball.

"I... I..." Wyatt stuttered, surprised at the sudden outburst. 

"Save it," Damien said, standing up shakily. "I'm a bit worried about Kiara and Cody. Cody's been gone for a while."

"Shall we go check on them?" Harmony asked, standing up and finishing her drink before she walked over. 

Wyatt nodded with the rest of the group, before they headed off down the hallways together.

Harmony knocked on Kiara's door. "Hello?"

Slowly, the door opened just a little. Kiara studied them with one cold blue eye peering through the small crack. "What do you want?"

"It's breakfast time," Isabell said, "At least join us for food."

Kiara sighed in exasperation, before opening the door completely. "Fine."

They heard water running in the boys' bathroom as they slowly approached the door. 

"Cody?" Star called out. 

"I'm here," he responded, the voice faint. Wyatt glanced over to Chase. The boy glared at him, his fingers twirling the crystal ball, almost in an agitated manner. Strange. The noise seemed to be from that ball. Wyatt shook the thought off as a hallucination. 

They went over to the girl's bathroom, and Cassie stepped out, putting the knife away in her pocket. The knife seemed shiny, like she'd washed it. "Hey," she said. "I'm done."

Wyatt and the group headed back to the dining hall, where everyone helped themselves to the abundant supply of food on the tables. As Wyatt continued to eat his waffle, he grew more and more worried. "Don't you think Cody should've been here by now?"

Star shoved a piece of an omelette in her mouth. She chewed slowly and thoughtfully before setting her knife and fork down. "Yeah, lets go check." 

"I'll come with you two," Erik pushed his plate away. "I ate too much earlier in the morning."

The three of them walked back into the halls, shuffling side by side. 

"Wait... isn't this a boys' bathroom? Aren't you going to be a little... awkwardly placed if we barged in like that?" Wyatt asked Star.

"When you are a detective, you can't be uncomfortable. I've been through a lot of these kinds of situations," Star explained.

They stopped outside of the door. "Cody? Are you still in there?" Erik asked. 

No answer.

Wyatt attempted to push the door open, eyes widening in panic when he realized it wouldn't move. "It won't budge!"

The three of them immediately began to frantically throw themselves against the door, finally breaking it open. Among the broken pieces of wood and the bent hinges, Wyatt saw something pink, mingling with the water flow from the doorway. It led into the hallway and stained the wooden floors. His eyes widened as he stumbled back once he realized what it was. "Blood. Oh, God..."

Erik walked into the room and let out a loud scream, crumpling on the floor. Star jumped back at the sight, face pale. Wyatt swallowed back the lump in his throat as he forced himself to walk in, legs almost unwilling to go further into the room. 

Once he was inside, he could do nothing but stare in shock at the bloody mass of Cody's dead body.