By: Faita

Terry and Emily sat in the back of a black limo as it drove down a long highway as it led out of Gotham. Terry had a smile on his face as he watched all the cars pass by him. Emily had a frown on her face as she gazed out of the window, watching the trees zoom behind her. "Emily, why are you so glum?" Terry asked looking over at her. "I'm not exactly thrilled to be going home for Halloween, do you have any idea how many crimes are committed this time of year?" Emily said not looking at him, he frowned. "Well what are we supposed to do, attack every person wearing a mask?" Terry joked, she didn't reply, didn't even give him a nasty look. "Deer, deer, dead deer," Emily said as they past by a herd of deer alongside of the road. Terry sighed, it was useless to try and cheer Emily up, she was too much like Bruce sometimes. Then it hit him. "You don't want to see your family do you?" he asked. She quickly lifted her head and looked at him, he smiled, that was it. "No, I love my family, most of them anyhow. It's just, you don't know them, they're nuts!" Emily said, Terry laughed. The driver laughed too. "Doug?" Emily asked the driver surprised. The driver looked in the review mirror, after moving it to see her. She smiled. "Yes ma'am," he said with a western accent. Terry's eyes widened. "Doug I didn't know it was you, why didn't you say anything?" Emily asked. "I'm just the driver Miss.Emily, I don't talk, just drive," Doug said. "It never stopped you before," Emily said. Doug laughed. "Yes I suppose you're right, you always was a smart," he said. Terry cleared his throat. Emily looked over at him. "Oh! Terry McGinnis, this is Doug Widely, he's been working for us since I was born," Emily introduced. "I beg your pardon Mr.McGinnis, but my hands are a little busy at the moment, driving the car and all," Doug apologized. "It's ok," Terry laughed. Doug turned the car on to another road off the highway. Emily looked out the window and frowned again. "What?" Terry asked her. "We're almost there," she said. "So, is your family, really nuts? I met your dad, he seemed fine," Terry said. Emily laughed. "Dad's fine, Mark' fine, Pat's fine, Tommy's fine, Eric's fine, it's Pete you should be worried about," Emily said. "So Pete is the trouble maker?" Terry asked. "Sorry to cut in, but that Pete Grayson makes more trouble then a fox in a hen house," Doug said, Terry laughed. "Here we are, the great Grayson Mansion," Doug said as he pulled the car up a long driveway. Terry's mouth dropped when he saw the huge mansion loom in front of them. "How big is that?" Terry asked, Emily's eyes widened with happiness when the car passed a huge oak tree. "Three stories, and 75 rooms, not a bad house she is, Miss.Ann sure had good taste," Doug said. Terry's mouth dropped again. "And you grew up in that house?" Terry asked Emily, she didn't answer. He lightly hit her in the shoulder with the back of his hand. She jumped a little and turned around to see him. "What?" she asked. Before he could answer the limo stopped in front of the huge white house. Seven people walked out to greet the car. Two older women, three mid aged men, a mid aged woman, and a little boy. Emily and Terry stepped out of the car, both carrying a bag in their hands. Emily got out closer to the house, so all the people walked over to her as Terry, and Doug walked around the car. When Terry and Doug were standing next to Emily, she made a very difficult choice. "Well, nice to be home. Come on Terry!" she said and grabbed his wrist and pulled him through the crowd. She managed to get past them, but they got a hold of Terry. She stopped walking and turned around and sighed. "Emily, what did you think you were doing, we want to meet your friend here. Not very often you bring a boy home," one of the old women said introducing herself as Kala to Terry. "Yeah Em, you trying to hide your new boyfriend from us?" one of the men joked. Emily stared at him coldly. Terry was busy trying to figure out who everyone was. He knew Ethel from a couple years ago, he was just introduced to Kala, he figure the boy was Tommy and the woman was Pat. The man who just made the joke must have been Pete. "For your information Peter, Dad invited him here. You're just jealous because he's better then any of the guys you bring home," Emily said. Pete glared at her coldly. Apparently the whole Grayson family learned their cold stare from Bruce. Terry laughed nervously as he stepped out from the crowd and closer to Emily. "So you're the new employee, huh? Bruce is losing his sight I guess," Pete joked. Terry stared at him coldly; almost ready to attack him and rip out his eyes. He probably would have too, if Emily hadn't placed the back of her hand in his shoulder. "We've had a long drive from Gotham, and Terry had a busy night," Emily said as the two turned around to walk inside. "I bet he did," Pete joked. Terry and Emily stopped, but not turning around. "Tommy," Emily said. The small light brown haired boy ran quickly over to her. She bent down and whispered something in his ear. A smile crossed the boy's face as he nodded quickly. Emily stood back up. "Let's go," she told Terry as they walked in the house. Now all eyes were on Tommy. He walked over behind a bush and walked back from behind it with a huge stick. Everyone's eyes widened. The boy ran towards Pete, waving the huge stick in the air. Pete yelled and began to run away, Tommy following him. Mark laughed as they all watched the little five year old boy chasing the 25 year old man around the yard with waving a huge stick. "Shouldn't we stop them?" Pat asked Mark. "Yeah probably," Mark answered still laughing, but not doing anything about.

Emily laughed watching the two run around the yard. She had trained Tommy well, she gave the command, and he chased Pete with a stick. She never got in trouble either. She laughed again as one of Pete's shoes fell off his foot and landed in a mud puddle. Her laugher was interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in!" she yelled as she laughed again. Terry walked over to her, a shocked expression on his face. "This place is huge!" he told her. "I got lost just trying to find my closet! My bed was another different story, you don't even want to know," Terry complained. He looked around her room. There was much more stuff in it then in his, pictures of friends and family on the walls. Only one of Pete, but it had a mustache and horns drawn on it. This must have been Emily's room before she moved to Gotham. This room was bigger then her small apartment in Gotham. She didn't seem to be paying any attention to him, just laughing at something out side. Terry looked out of the same window. He saw Pete laying on the ground, covered in mud, with a little boy whacking him with a stick. He laughed too. That was when Emily noticed he was there. "Oh, hi Terry, I don't know you came in," she said. "Was this your room?" he asked as he stepped away from the window and out into the middle of the room. "Yeah," she said as she smiled looking around. "I thought your room would have velvet everywhere, jewels on every wall. Diamond picture frames of you other rich comrades," Terry joked. Emily grinned. "You just described my grandparents palace, they're royalty and not afraid to show it, frankly that kind of stuff makes me sick," Emily said. "So what happening tonight?" Terry asked her. "Ethel's annual Halloween murder dinner party. We all wear fancy old costumes, pretend like we have never met before. Some one pretends to die, then another, then another, in till one of the alive people figures out the murderer, and that person wins," Emily explained. "Who knows if they're are supposed to die?" Terry asked. "Tonight a maid or butler will give you a costume and a paragraph of your character. You have to play the character, and some say victim, and one says murderer. You're not supposed to tell anyone, not even me, what your card says, and I can't tell you mine. So tonight at eight, I may walk in a murderer, and you may not walk out," Emily said that last part evilly. Terry grinned. "Have you ever been the murderer?" Terry asked her. "I was always to young, she gave me really stupid names. One year I was Lollipop Kissing, the world famous child tap dancer," Emily said. Terry laughed. "It wasn't funny, I was the first to be killed, Pete did it. He hurt me too," Emily said. "I bet you solved all the games," Terry said. "I got killed in most of them. Dad kept getting them all, being Nightwing. Eventually he just stopped coming, I on the other hand have not yet been given that option," Emily frowned. "What if the murderer is not caught?" Terry asked interested. "We play till he or she is. Ethel was never a normal; she either died or was the murderer, mostly died though. She's a big over actor," Emily said. "When does this start?" Terry asked. "The costumes are delivered in about an hour, you have an hour to get dressed and become your character," Emily said. "How do we start?" Terry then asked. "Everything you need to know will be on your card, now no more questions. Tommy's got Pete on the run again," Emily said looking out the window. Terry ran over to the window and watched the little energetic boy chasing his uncle.

At eight o'clock that night, the doorbell of the mansion rang. A maid walked over to the door and opened it. Three people stood behind it. An elderly man with gray at the temples and a cigar in his mouth, a woman with a fur coat covering a long turquoise dress and a little boy with a cap and brown coat stood there. The maid took their coats and a butler showed them to the fore where he pointed to bottles fill with juices. "Mr. and Mrs. Robert Westing and son," the butler said to know one besides the three in the room. "Remember to say that when there's someone here who doesn't know," the man said and chuckled, the little boy laughed too, the woman motioned for the both of them to stop. They did so. The doorbell rang again and the butler excused himself from the room. He came back several minutes later with a young man standing next to him. "Mr.Jonathon Chesterfield," the butler said. The man had black hair that fell to his ear. A tan coat covering a brown vest and dark green tie, and a pair of brown slacks. The Robert walked over to him. "Robert Westing of Westing Casinos, my wife and son," he said. "I've heard of you sir, it's a pleasure to finally meet you," he said as he rubbed his hand he had just shook with. "Bob please. So Jonny, what is it you do?" Bob asked him. "I write. I'm a reporter," he said lifting his coat to reveal a notepad with pencil. "So I see," the man chuckled again. Another man, not the butler walked into the room, the butler running after him. The butler reached him when the man reached the door. The man placed his hand on the butler's mouth. "I'll handle it jeeves," he said as he chewed on something. "Mr.Reginald Clark," he said. He had light short brown hair, black three piece suit, and was chewing on something with his mouth open, making a sickening sucking noise. He walked past Jonny. "Jonathon Chesterfield," he said extending his hand. "I'm sure you are," he said as he walked over to the juices. The doorbell rang and everyone looked at the door to see whom it was. A gentleman with short black hair and small wire rimmed glasses walked in. He was wearing a dark blue three-piece suit with a gold watch hanging out of his pocket. "Professor Aaron Barclay," the butler said. The professor nodded to everyone, he was about to speak as the doorbell rang again. This time the butler came back with an elderly woman with a young man and lady holding each other's hands. "Miss.Elizabeth Landon," the butler announced as the woman beamed with excitement as she introduced the two people behind her. "This is my daughter Angela Landon," she said as the young lady stepped forward. Jonny's eyes widened. Angela was wearing a long green dress with bows hanging everywhere. It was long sleeved, showed most of her back and the part of her chest right below her neck, where she was wearing a small green collar. He hair was braided behind her, with a small green bow every time hair crossed. "And her fiancé, Christopher Stanton," she said as the young man stepped forward. Jonny's eyes fell back to normal as a sad look fell across his face. "Leon!" the little boy said. His mother quickly covered his mouth with her hand, and then she whispered something in his ear. Jonny figured out who everyone was. Mark was Robert Westing, Pat and Tommy as his family. Eric was the professor, Pete was Reginald, Kala was Elizabeth, Emily was Angela, and Leon was Christopher. Jonny didn't know Leon Drake would be here. They walked farther into the room, talking for a few minutes before a woman wearing the fanciest dress full of jewels and different colors walked. "Excuse me for keeping you waiting. I am your hostess of course, Miss. Veronica Windsor," she said smiling. She instructed all of them into a huge dinning room. Jonny marveled as he walked into the room. Images of lions and knights were carved into the wooden wall. There was a huge fireplace at the end of the room, opposite of the huge table full of dished and flowers. In every corner of the fireplace, was the carved image of a bat. Jonny smiled, tonight he wasn't Batman, or Terry McGinnis, he was Jonathon Chesterfield. The reporter. And Emily wasn't Emily Grayson, or Batgirl, or Blaze, she was Angela Landon, the future Angela Stanton. Jonny shuddered as he sat down in the chair opposite of her; he had the name Emily Drake in his mind. He shuddered again. The two had dated for a while, probably gave each their first kiss, true they broke up under strange circumstances, but they could always get back together. He shuddered again at the thought of the name Emily McGinnis. "Are you Ok?" someone next to him asked. He jumped a little but turned to look at the voice. It was the professor, or Eric. "Yes, yes I'm fine. Just thinking of the price this place must have gone for," Jonny said. Aaron nodded. "The house has belonged in my family for generations Mr.Chesterfield," Veronica said. Jonny didn't even know she had heard him. "I bet it must have cost a mint back then still," Bob said chuckling. Mark was an excellent actor, Jonny thought. Veronica laughed lightly. "Yes I suppose it would have," she said laughing. "It is a most enchanted house Ronnie," Elizabeth said. "It certainly is," Aaron agreed. "Shame you're all by yourself," Reginald said coldly. Everyone looked at him coldly. Veronica just smiled, blowing off the rude remark. "When Angel and I get married we're going to get a house like this, possibly bigger," Christopher said placing his hand on Angela's. She picked at the plate of food in front of her with her other hand slowly. "My boy, they don't come any bigger," Ronnie joked. "Then I'll build one, anything for my Angel, right dear?" he asked. Angela quietly glanced at him, then looked at her plate, clearing sad. "Chris's family owns a chain of horse racing tracks, they're every rich," Elizabeth said smiling with pride about her soon to be son-in-law. Jonny looked at Angela, and wondered if she actually wanted to get married. That was an obvious no, but would she do anything about it. Suddenly there was a scream from the kitchen. They all stood up and ran into the kitchen. A cook lay on the floor near the stove, a wooden spoon with a wet end in her hand. Some of the man, including Jonny, ran over to her. Aaron lifting up her wrist then felt her neck. He looked up at the rest of the people. "She's dead," he said. Everyone gasped except Angela and Jonny. Chris turned to Angels, expecting the need to comfort her. She didn't notice him, just looked at the body. "How'd she die?" she asked softly. Aaron looked at the maid all over. "No wounds, poisoning I suppose," he eventually said. Elizabeth gasped again. "Who would do such a thing?" she asked no one really. "A murderer mom," Angela said and headed walking towards the door. She opened them with one hand and walked out, everyone watching her. "So what do we do with the body?" Reginald asked. "Yeah?" Jonny asked quietly watching the door close. Robert hit him in the arm with the back of his hand. Jonny jumped a little, being brought out of his train of thought. Jonny looked at Robert, Robert grinned at him. "So what do we do with the body?" Reginald repeated. Everyone looked at Veronica. "Well I don't exactly have a place to put dead bodies," she said. They heard a scream coming from the dinning room. Everyone ran into the dinning room. Veronica held Elizabeth back. "Kala, I'm supposed to be the next one to be killed," she told her. Elizabeth's eyes widened in fear. The two old women ran into the room. A man was holding Angela's throat, with a knife on her throat. Everyone else stood around the table, not scared of her life. Elizabeth pulled Jonny out of the crowd and into a corner. "Terry, this isn't part of the game. Can you help?" she asked him. His eyes widened in fear. He nodded and slowly walked out of the room. It took him 15 minutes to get to his room on the second floor, five minutes to carefully walk past guards wearing black suits, the other ten to find his room in the maze of the house. He walked quickly into his room, and pulled a bag out from under his bed.

By now everyone one of the party members was aware this was no longer a game. They all sat on the floor in the main hallway. Tommy sitting in Pat's lap, and Mark with his arms around her shoulders. The man still had the knife on Emily's neck. Men with guns circled the group. A man wearing a white suit and black shirt walked into the circle and over to Emily. "Ah Miss.Emily Grayson, you're as loving as I remember," he said with a strong Spanish accent and smiling. Emily had an angry expression her face. "I see you remember me," he said. "How could I forget you Debajo Mundo. Last time I saw you, you where laying on the ground, blood dripping from your mouth, where I hit you I believe," she said. His smile faded from his face. "Yes, I do believe you are right, but that was three years ago, I wouldn't let you do it again," he said holding her chin in his hand. "What about me?" Batman asked. Everyone looked at the top of the stairs. Batman emerged from the shadows on top of the stairs. The players all smiled and sighed in relief. They would all be safe now. Debajo frowned. "How do you always seem to protect her?" Debajo asked annoyed. "Some people need more watching then others," Batman said as he turned on the boosters under his boots and floated down in front of Debajo. The other guards attacked him. Batman kicked one in the stomach, sending him to the floor. He punched a few, kicked a few, they were all down in a matter of minutes. "I do hope you have something more challenging for me Debajo," Batman grinned. "Oh I do, you see, I've had three years to plan this," he grinned. "What did you come up with?" Batman asked. Debajo grinned again. "It has come to my attention that you watch over this Grayson quite a bit. So you must think very highly of her, so, I suspect that the easiest way to get to you, is to get to her. The best part is that you don't know what I will do with her. I might kill her yes, or I might just imprison her," he said. "Like that's going to happen," Emily said. The man placed the knife closer to her neck. "Okay, okay, jeez. You know this is why I never celebrate holidays, something always happened to me," Emily complained. "If there is one thing I never liked about you, it's that nasty attitude of yours," Debajo said to her. She stared at him coldly. "Just let her go Mundo, you know you can't win," Batman said. Debajo smirked. "Meet my new invention," he said as a man walked over to him carrying a small collar. The man handed it to Debajo. Debajo opened the back of it and turned to Emily. He grabbed the collar already around her neck and ripped it off and threw it at Batman's feet. Batman looked at it, then looked back at Debajo. He slipped the collar around Emily's neck, placed his hand under her chin, and kissed her on the lips. Batman took a step forward, grit his teeth, and balled his hand into a fist. Emily just stood there, arms at her side, looking at Batman with sad pleading eyes. This was the first time in the three years Batman had known her, that he pitied her. Debajo pulled away from her, turned around, and looked at Batman, grinning. Batman ran up and punched him in the jaw, knocking him to the ground several feet away. The women on the floor gasped, and Pat covered Tommy's eyes. Batman walked to Debajo, looking at him on the floor, blood dripping from his mouth. "I should kill you," Batman threatened him. Debajo grinned, wiped the blood off his face with the back of his hand. "What's stopping you?" Debajo asked. "I'm the good guy," Batman said. Debajo laughed. "And that would make me the villainous monster," Debajo said standing up. "Your words," Batman said coldly. Debajo chuckled. "And since I am," Debajo said as he pulled out a small remote from his pocket. He pressed a red button on it. Emily grabbed the collar around her neck and fell to the ground, moaning in pain. Batman quickly looked in her direction, then back at Mundo. "Stop," Batman demanded through grit teeth. Mundo did nothing. "I said stop!" Batman yelled. Mundo still did nothing. Batman ran over to him and grabbed the remote out of Mundo's hands. Batman threw it to the ground and stomped his foot on it. He looked at Emily. She was still on the floor, moaning. Batman looked back at Mundo, he was grinning. "That was the only thing to make it stop, you've just sent her to her grave," he said. Batman's anger rose from his body and out threw his fist. He punched Mundo in the stomach. Mundo flew feet in the air and landed on the floor, blood spilling out from his mouth and nose. Pete quickly grabbed a gun from one of the fallen guards. He stood up and ran next to Mundo. He pointed the gun at Mundo's head. "Stand down if you value his life," Pete said to the standing guards. They looked at each, then threw their weapons into the middle of the floor, and took several steps backwards away from everyone. Batman ran over to Emily on the floor. She was trying to get the collar off, but the pain didn't make it easy. Batman tried to help her, but he wasn't much help either. He was running out of options, Emily was getting weaker. He gripped his hands around the collar the best he could. He used all his strength, the collar was tough. He could feel pain in his hands that touched the collar. He eventually broke the collar in half and removed it from Emily's neck. She breathed heavily as Batman threw the collar away from them and helped her to her feet. Everyone else jumped to their feet and walked over to them. They took Emily out of Batman's arms, Mark ran to call the police, Eric walked over to Batman. "Thanks Terry," he said and walked to join the others. Batman walked over towards the stairs, passing by Pete still holding a gun on the unconscious Mundo. "Thanks Bats, we owe you one," Pete said. "Will you stop picking on Emily?" Batman asked. "Don't owe you that much," Pete said. Batman ran up the stairs.

"I'm really looking forward to going back to Gotham," Terry said as he sat down on Emily's bed. "I have been," Emily said as she closed her suitcase and walked over to Terry. "I just hate that we didn't get to play the game much. I was assigned to die, make me feel at home right. I did kind of want to know who the murderer was," Terry said rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Emily pointed her pointer finger at him with her thumb in the air and her other three fingers curled in her palm. "Bang bang," she said. Terry smiled and laughed. "You were the murderer," he said. "Yup, first time, and I only got to kill one person. I was looking forward to killing you though, and Leon, and Pete. That would have been fun, not that what did happen wasn't fun," Emily said. "Emily," Ethel said walking into her room. She was surprised to see Terry there too. "The car is here, I'm sorry you didn't get to kill your brother, I know you must've been looking forward to it. It's a good thing the Batman showed up, who knows what would have happened if he hadn't," she said walking out of the room. Terry pointed to Ethel as she left and gave Emily a questioning look. Emily shook her head. "Let's go," Terry said standing up and grabbing his suitcase that was at the end of the bed. They walked towards the door, Terry in the lead. "Terry," Emily said. He turned around to see her. "Boo!" she yelled wearing a black furious lion mask over her face. Terry screamed. Emily laughed as she took off the mask and threw it to the floor. "Happy Halloween Terry," she said still laughing. "Oh be quiet," he said as he turned around and walked out of the door, Emily following him, turning off the light behind her.