Poe Party (Rewritten) - Heliot

Chapter 7: Mesmeric Revelation

There was a scream from the kitchen.

Ernest was there in a moment. "It's that hippie witch!" Lenore and Oscar followed close behind and Annabel, Charlotte and Edgar came through the kitchen's other door.

Ernest felt for a pulse and then let Krishanti's arm drop to the floor. "She's dead."

"Everyone, look around for clues - a, a weapon, anything!" Annabel said.

"I'm taking a page out of your book, Ernie," Charlotte said, holding up a glass of wine.

"Careful, he won't have many pages left," HG said. "Heyyy!" Lenore held up her hand for a high five and HG accidentally slapped Oscar instead, who slapped him back.

"Alright. We'll work on that," Lenore sighed.

"Where's Emily?" Annabel asked. Everyone turned to look at her in confusion.

"Who?" Charlotte asked.

"Emily Dickinson."

"Who?"

"Is that a cat? Do you have a cat?" Ernest asked.

"She just-" Annabel frowned. "She was just in the room with us."

"Oh. Is this it?" Edgar asked, gesturing to the woman lying half across the doorframe on the floor.

Oscar gasped and ran to her side. "Oh, Emily!" He stopped. "Oh, no. That's a different Emily."

"I'll fetch her things," Charlotte said. "I'll come with you," Annabel chimed in.

"We'll follow forthwith," Ernest said. Better to keep moving, keep his mind occupied.

"My, we are becoming adept at this murder game, are we not?" Charlotte paused in the doorway to ask.

"Yes, indeed, Miss Brontë. Yes indeed," Edgar said solemnly. Ernest and HG carried Krishanti out of the room.

Ernest and HG carried Krishanti down the hall draped between them. "Are- Are you... alright?" HG asked nervously.

"What do you mean?" Ernest asked skeptically. They got to the stairs to the basement and carried her down.

"I mean with... all of this... and Mary Ann," HG grunted, trying not to let the woman fall. She wasn't heavy, just awkward to carry.

"Oh." The question took Ernest aback. Was he alright? "Um."

"Sorry. I shouldn't have." They let the lifeless woman fall to the ground alongside the others. Ernest didn't look at them. They began to go back upstairs and heard another scream. Without so much as a glance between them they ran back to the kitchen with Annabel and Charlotte on their heels.

"Emily," Annabel said.

"What, we leave for one second and a dead person gets remurdered?" Ernest asked frustratedly.

"Okay, we all left the study. Any one of us could have killed Miss Krishanti or Miss Dickinson," Annabel said.

"If I had to guess, Emily witnessed Krishanti's murder when she came to accompany her," Edgar said carefully.

"Yeah," Ernest agreed, "but who here had the motive to kill the jingle-jangle witch?"

Oscar gasped. "Lenore! You have weird ghost powers. And she could never bring back your boyfriend."

"That's balderdash!" HG responded. "I'm the one who suggested seance-ing!"

"Seance-ing's not a word," Lenore said softly.