CHAPTER 102

Quitter. Jenny's voice was a whisper, yet came from everywhere at once. The lantern flickered above them as if it would go out.

"Yes, I am. But I fear that the others need us. We all have a part to play in restoring the house to its former glory." He adjusted his glasses and hopped down from his seat.

The lantern dropped out of the air, but Beth grabbed it before it could hit the table. Jenny hopped down from her seat and held her arms up, waiting to be picked up.

"I've got you." Beth picked the doll up and cradled her in one arm. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? I thought something bad had happened to you." As she turned, she saw a stack of board games against the wall. Most of them were very old, and she couldn't help but notice that one of them was a burnt copy of Clue. "Jenny, didn't we throw that away? You know that's a banned game."

"Sometimes we must be reminded of our past failures. Jenny kept it as a memento. Besides, there aren't enough pieces left to play a proper game." Reggie walked over to the box and placed a paw on it. "And to think I was so close to figuring out who the killer was."

"Your Majesty, might I remind you that we do not speak of the Clue incident?"

The walls around them groaned, and then Jenny's voice chuckled from the dark corners of the room.

I would have won, she added.

"You were cheating. That's not how we play family game night." Beth carried Jenny out of the room and was followed by Reggie and his rat guard. She started closing the secret door when Kisa bolted out, startling her. It was uncanny how she could forget that the catgirl was even there. Was it a similar spell to the geas? "Also, I think you should know that something escaped from the Vault."

What? The temperature dropped dramatically, and the dimly lit furniture in the room shook.

Beth gave Jenny and Reggie an abbreviated version of events as they exited the attic. Once on the floor, she set Jenny down next to Reggie and had Kisa help her push the attic door back up. Cecilia poked her head through the wall to check on them, gave Beth a thumbs up, then went back to her surveillance.

The group headed to Kisa's bedroom, where Lily sat over Tink. Her face was flushed, and she kept licking her lips. She opened her eyes when they came in, and a bead of sweat rolled down her forehead.

"Everything okay?" Beth asked.

"Yeah." Lily removed her hands from Tink's head. "Just trying to mind meld with a brain-damaged genius who is currently dreaming about being gangbanged by Romeo."

"There's only one of him," Kisa said from behind Beth.

"Not in her mind. She's got an entire reverse harem in there. For example, she has one that lives in the bath and is made of water, one that's a ghost who sits on the porch..." Lily smirked. "I may have gotten distracted getting to know the one with wings and a tail."

"But what about the Vault?" Beth set Jenny down on the record player.

"Hmm." The succubus shook her head. "When Tink realized that the house had been transported, she ran to check on the Vault. You know how all those portals closed? She was worried that the Vault wouldn't be there anymore, which meant it was no longer properly sealed."

"I guess that makes sense. What happened?"

"She saw that it had been opened but was taken out before she could see anything else. The sleeping spell that put her down wasn't a minor enchantment by any means. We're talking Rip Van Winkle caliber shit. She's out at least a few more days. We'll have to figure out how to keep her hydrated."

"Fuck." Beth walked over to the window and looked outside. The mist shifted ominously around the perimeter of the home. She half expected dark shapes to flit around in it. "So it means that someone else was in the house."

"And likely still is. There really isn't anywhere to go." Lily crossed her arms. "But let's address the real issue. Whoever did this was allowed in the house. Romeo hasn't invited anybody new in quite some time, other than Eulalie. And she was in the Library when it vanished."

The implications made Beth sick to her stomach. Whoever was causing trouble inside the house had been there for some time. She didn't think it was her doppelganger upstairs, Slime-Beth couldn't even get out of her tub yet. That meant whoever was doing this was someone that had been in the house all this time.

"Ah, looks like my point is finally sinking in." Lily crossed her legs and leaned back on Tink's bed. "Whoever did this to Tink and opened the Vault..."

"Is still here with us," Beth finished. She looked around at the others. There wasn't a single reason she could think of for anybody in the room to betray them. Jenny was probably the only one who could have gotten away with doing something right under their noses. But despite the Clue incident, Beth trusted the little doll.

Was it Kisa? She could be essentially invisible. But why? It occurred to her that everybody was a potential suspect. Was that part of the intent? To tear them apart while they dealt with the horsemen?

"How do we figure out who did it?" she asked, then met Lily's gaze.

There was a loud splat from the hallway, like mud being dropped from a great distance. Puzzled, Beth walked out of Kisa's room, followed closely by Lily. At the end of the hallway, a large green mass had accumulated at the edge of the stairs and was moving their way.

"Is that... who I think it is?" Lily looked at Beth with concern on her face. Her question was answered when the slime pushed upward and formed into a naked torso. Slime-Beth's features were fixed in exaggerated horror as she pointed up the stairs with both hands.