"Wait, you mean to tell me someone did this to you?" Geoff asked, his eyes wide at Courtney, who was sitting up in bed now. Awake and alert, as Bridgette (given her medical training) was examining her. 

Courtney swallowed hard, her throat still sore from swallowing all the water "I felt someone grab my shoulders and force my head under the water." she said. Duncan had began pacing the room, a hand to his mouth in thought.

"Who would want to do that to you?" Geoff asked, leaning against the wall.

"Probably Heather..." Duncan growled "I've never trusted her-"

"Now wait a minute!" Bridgette interjected, glaring at Duncan "Lets not just point fingers here. This is a very serious accusation. Besides, Heather was downstairs with the rest of us when we heard Courtney scream,"

"It wasn't Heather," Courtney shook her head "Those hands definitely felt like a man's,"

Duncan ran a hand back and forth through his black hair, and let out a frustrated sigh. 

"This doesn't make any sense! Everyone was downstairs at the time of the incident-"

"Oh, so you're calling me a liar?" Courtney narrowed her eyes at him. Duncan sent her a bland look

"No, of course I'm not! Clearly it happened. Seems how I had to pull you out of the tub and save your life-"

"Which, I was completely naked during, by the way," Courtney sneered at him. Duncan glared at her, crossing his arms over his chest

"Oh, sorry. I didn't really feel like picking you out a cute sweater when you were dying," he snapped. The two remained glaring intensely at each other from across the room. 

Bridgette let out a loud frustrated yell. Causing all of her friends to look at her like she were an alien. Bridgette slowly stood up, and gave each of them a level look

"Enough arguing. We have more important things to worry about than whether Courtney was properly dressed or not-"

"Hey!" Courtney snapped, but Bridgette held up an angry hand to her friend's face

"We have to worry about who the hell just tried drowning one of our friends," Bridgette said. Geoff sighed and looked around the room. His and Duncan's eyes locked, and Bridgette and Courtney's did as well.

A loud scream came from downstairs. 

All three friend's eyes went wide, and they all rushed to the door and downstairs (after Courtney had gotten properly dressed of course)

"What's going on down here?" Duncan yelled, coming to a halt at the the bottom of the stairs, Courtney nearly ramming into his back. 

Heather was breathing hard in the hallway between the kitchen and the dining room, her hands on her knees. Her face as white as snow

"I-I can't find Lindsey or Tyler! I heard her scream and suddenly all the lights went out and they weren't standing next to the fireplace anymore!" Heather said, trying to catch her breath. Duncan shook his head

"But the lights didn't go out upstairs-"

Suddenly a huge clap of thunder and lightning lit up the entire first floor of the manor, before the power blew. Sending the adults into a sea of blackness.

Courtney jumped right into Duncan's arms with a loud squeal, he looked down at her and smirked at her in the light of the lightning. Courtney snorted and quickly jumped back out of his arms, 

"Dude.." Geoff said, sounding bummed "Does this mean the party is cancelled?"

Bridgette reached up and smacked him upside the head

"Ouch! Dude... Harsh," he complained. 

"Where is everyone else?" Courtney asked, stepping forward so she was ahead of the group. Heather swallowed hard and pointed towards the dining hall

"We all ran towards where we heard the scream, but when we got there the only thing we found was a tube of Lindsey's favorite lip gloss on the floor," Heather said. She waved her hand, motioning for the others to follow.

The group walked down the long hallway, following Heather's lead and they turned into the dining hall. It was still dark, the only light coming from Duncan's lighter beside them.

Gwen was crouched down, holding a small flashlight in her pale hand. She was looking at something on the ground. Trent was standing near her, his eyes wide. 

"What is it?" Duncan asked, walking over to the goth. Courtney tried not to stiffen her shoulders at the sight of seeing those two so close again.

"I think... It blood," Gwen mumbled, looking up at Duncan. She shined her flashlight over a small puddle of dark red liquid smeared on the ground

"It's on her lip gloss too," Trent said, handing the piece of plastic carefully to Duncan. Duncan took it, and sure enough, the red liquid was smudged across the label as well.

"Oh please!" Heather said. Turning everyone's attention to her, she had a look on her face that read "oh my God, I can't believe we didn't realize this before"

"What?" Courtney snapped, Heather rolled her eyes

"This is all Chris!" Heather said, throwing her hands into the air "I can't believe that asshole is doing this to us again!"

"Um.." Duncan raised an eyebrow "Hate to break it to you, but Chris is in jail. Remember?"

"Um, in case you've forgotten, Chris is a master manipulator! He can trick anyone, no matter what!"

"Gee, sounds like someone else I know," Gwen muttered, making Duncan chuckle.

Courtney narrowed her eyes at them.

"Don't you guys remember the Horror Theme Challenge in TDA? When Chris made us trick The Killer Grips into scaring them out of the Cafe tent? That blood looks exactly like the blood Duncan made! Its fake, all fake! I bet you Chris has cameras all over the place laughing at us as he watches us freak out in a small TV in his cell!" Heather growled and looked up into the air

"You hear me Chris! I'm on to you!" 

Courtney and Bridgette shared a look, and Courtney swallowed hard. Deciding not to tell everyone that she was almost successfully murdered upstairs. 

And that most certainly was real. 

"I know fake blood when I see it, and this... This isn't it." Duncan shook his head. Dropping the lip gloss on the ground and rubbing his hand on his pants. Gwen stood up

"Yeah, I've seen enough horror movies to know corn syrup and red dye when I see it," Gwen said, taking her place next to Trent. It was the first time Courtney had ever actually seen Gwen freaked out.

"Ugh, you're all idiots," Heather sneered, Alejandro swallowed hard

"It is kind of hard to explain them disappearing." he said. Heather glared at him, and he shrugged.

"I have a bad feeling about this guys," Cody shivered a little, and Noah hugged him close. 

As another flash of lightning lit up the room, Gwen and Courtney caught eyes. 

"Should we call the police?" Owen asked, holding a wide eyed Izzy at his side

"I already tried," Gwen said "But of course, the storm blew the servers out. There's no service,"

"Of course not, because Chris has this all planned!" Heather said, putting her hands on her hips. Alejandro growled at her

"Why else would he just give you his Manor for the party? Chris isn't exactly the generous type," she said, looking at Bridgette in the light of Duncan's lighter and the lightning. Bridgette sighed

"It was part of the case settlement! He agreed to give me his Manor for a few days if I request a few days taken off of his sentence," she explained. Courtney raised an eyebrow

"Why on Earth would you do that?" she exclaimed. Bridgette shrugged

"I wanted a cool party," she said. Courtney rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest

"Um guys," Trent said, loud enough to get everyone's attention. "Lindsey and Tyler are still missing, remember?"

"They aren't missing-"

"Oh hush!" Gwen snapped at Heather, cutting her off. Heather opened her mouth to give a snarky come back, when a loud booming noise sounded just below the floorboards. Making the wooden floor shake, followed by a haunting scream. 

Courtney felt chills run up her spine "I-I thought this was the bottom floor.."

Another loud noise sounded, but this time Courtney noticed the books on the bookshelf shake a little. As curious as a cat, she slowly walked over to the book shelf. Examining it.

"Wait a second..." she murmured, and reached up "This book isn't as dusty as the rest of them-"

As soon  as her tan hand grabbed the old leather bound book, and pulled it forward, a loud creaking sound came from behind the book shelf. Courtney jumped back as the bookshelf seemed to fall off of the wall, opening like a door.

As the dust settled, the group slowly looked down into the dark room to see a set of winding stairs into darkness. Dust and cobwebs crowded the chamber. 

"So..." Noah swallowed hard "Who's going first?"