The sun was beginning to set over the large mansion as a certain detective and her "assistant" stood just outside the front door. "On the count of three, okay?" Thea said to her assistant in a hushed tone. Lyra, the younger of the two (or at least they acted younger- Thea didn't know how old they were), nodded. "One... two... THREE!" The pair burst through the ashy brown doors of the mansion. "Hey! We're here to... huh?" The interior of the mansion was oddly empty. Thea had expected a full house, but only five other people stood in the entrance hall, all of whom looked very confused at the duo who had burst through the doors. One, a boy with dark curly hair, dropped the chicken wing he was eating in surprise. The person next to him picked it up and tossed it into the trash can. "Oh, free food!" Before Thea could hold them back, Lyra was already at the buffet table. Thea sighed, this was about what she expected. Looking around, Thea spotted two of the other guests walking back to the front door. Deciding to leave Lyra alone for a bit, she walked over to them to introduce herself. The duo noticed her, one of them turned to her and spoke. "Hey, sorry, we were about to go..." "Oh, it's okay, I just wanted to ask a few questions. My name is Thea, I'm a detective. What are your names?" The taller of the two, who had not spoken until now, answered. "I'm Jenni. This is Star. Nice to meet you." Thea wrote this down in a small notepad. "Alright. Do you know who invited you to this party?" As Jenni tried the door handle, Star spoke up. "Now that I think about it, no. We assumed it was one of our friends, like a surprise party... but I don't know anyone here except Jenni, who I came with." There was a sudden CRACK as Jenni tugged at the handle one last time and it broke off. "Oh," she blinked in surprise. "We're not paying for that." Star deadpanned. Thea's uneasiness only grew. She jotted down the new information and hustled over to Lyra. "We need to go." Lyra was about to respond when the floor began shaking. Worried cries rang through the room. "Simon, what's going on?" the girl next to the curly-haired boy (Simon, Thea assumed) yelled over the rumbling of what appeared to be an earthquake. The girl who wore a nametag reading "AERA" tried to defuse the situation. "Guys, calm down! We can-" The noise drowned her out. Thea felt the floor below her fall away. She looked around in a panic. Everyone was falling. Lyra was right next to her when the floor started shaking, but now they were on the other side of the room. Thea didn't have enough time to process this, however, before she saw the floor rushing up to her. The last thing she saw was Jenni falling next to her before everything went black.
Based on The Nightly Manor by Allenmations (watching that will give you spoilers for this fic but its really good) Featuring: @lychiez @lyraofficial @welsh_baddie13 @je11iyes @AERA-_ @-tallyinghalls- @MissionEnt (the one who threw away the chicken wing)
