Day 7, The rest of Part 1

Balletandbow awoke long before the alarm clock went off, her eyes drooping with lack of sleep but seemingly wide awake at the same time. She couldn’t sleep. This was getting too scary. So she packed some of her things, sneaking down to the kitchen to get food and a knife, and walked off across the grounds. She was deep into the forest when she found she could step no farther.

She tried again.

But she couldn’t move. She could vaguely see the outlines of a border- a magical dome.

And then Balletandbow sat down to cry. She had no way to get back. She was stuck, alone in this miserable forest. Sooner or later all her friends would be dead, and one of them, the traitor, might come to seek her out next. She turned, back the way she had come, and nearly sobbed. The forest was thick and she had no idea where home was- but she tried to find her way back. And so she navigated through the forest, back to the mansion, back to safety. She unpacked her things, put back the knife. And as she was walking through the halls, she came across Rae.

“Where were you?” Rae asked.

Balletandbow began to cry, huge sobs with tears running down her cheeks. “I- I tried to go back home. But I couldn’t and I’m scared, so scared. I don’t want to die! Not yet!”

Rae’s face melted, and she gave her friend a hug. “It’s okay. I know. I’m scared too. I’m sure we’ll be okay, though. Maybe this was it, and no more people will die, or maybe the murderer had some sort of vendetta against the people murdered.”

Balletandbow wiped her eyes. “Thanks, Rae. But something odd is up- there’s a barrier around this mansion.”

Rae rolled her eyes. “There’s always something up. C’mon- do you want to get some water? It’ll make you feel better.” And so, the two friends set off to go raid the kitchen for a glass of water.

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When the alarm clocks went off, few of the visitors actually needed to be awakened. The shouting in the library was loud enough to wake almost everybody up.

“You were nearer to The Riddler when she died!” Silverwaxwing yelled.

“Yeah, well, at least I haven’t been acting suspicious this whole time!” Icy retorted, fuming.

“Icy’s right- you’ve been acting odd this whole time.” Elementgirl chimed in.

“Oh, it’s not like you haven’t been suspicious. You and Icy playing detective with those little notebooks of yours- how do we know that you haven’t been planning our deaths?” Leafpool asked, her temper rising.

“I don’t think I can trust any of you. You’re all deceitful.” Stan snarled.

“Yeah, sure. Nice. Do you honestly think that you’re the only one who’s lost somebody?” Arwen inquired. “Or have you been so obsessed with wallowing in self-pity that you’ve been too busy to notice?”

“Give him a break, Arwen. You haven’t exactly been mourning Jarnen.” Epic Fangirl scoffed.

“Oh, spare us the drama, Epic Fangirl. You’ve been too caught up with ‘your sweet little Biscuit’ to notice all our problems.” General Waffleson muttered.

“Dare to say that louder, Waffleson?”

“Oh, come on. It’s not like anybody is to blame for all of this- except every single person in this room!” Lucy yelled.

Everyone fell silent at this remark.

“Honestly, aren’t we all to blame? For not watching Elena correctly? For not noticing when Joy was removed from her bed? For not expecting Key to start bleeding to death?  For not being with Fireburst? YOU CAN’T BLAME ANYBODY FOR THOSE THINGS. Unless, of course, you want to start blaming everybody. And honestly, where do you think that’s going to get any of us? If you want to blame all of us for something, it’s Jarnen’s death- everybody thought he was guilty. There is only one person we can blame- the murderer. And until we know just who they are, we can’t go around blaming people. Got it?!” Lucy finished, her voice harsh.

This stopped the arguing. Everybody went off to do something else- but not without doling out resentful glares at everybody.

Ooh, interesting! I'm not that good of a cool in real life, although it's true that my first dish was scrambled eggs. :)

Sorry for the lateness of this- I've been really busy lately. I'll try to write the next part sooner.

Day 7, Part 2: Fraying Edges

Breakfast was a quiet affair with silence only broken by grudging, “Pass the maple syrup, please”s and attempts by the Hotel Manager to get people to speak.

“Um, Fireburst will be buried by the willow after lunch…?” The Hotel Manager announced, but it was more of a question. Epic Fangirl made a face at General Waffleson, who returned the favor with bitter enthusiasm. “And… Ms. Tobin and I thought that it might be nice to take a nature walk?”

“Fine.” Was the only reply that she got.

“Is everything okay?” The Hotel Manager asked, trying for bravery.

“Well, if it weren’t for dear, sweet Rae over here, it might be, but because she exists…” Silverwaxwing said, putting as much venom into her words as possible.

“Excuse me?” Balletandbow asked. “Says the person who spends half of her time with blank, dead eyes… like her victims… I mean, you’ve got to have a cold, dead heart to murder one of your family. But then again, based on your eyes, I’d say that that’s not at all unlikely.”

“Oh, sure. Your AEs are uncultured and wild enough to have murdered Joy, Balletandbow, so I wouldn’t be talking if I were you.” Kitten said, eyes flashing.

“Oh, call us uncultured, will you? You stupid unbelievable dirty little-” BABTMP, PSXtreme and Torstyn said all together.

“STOP BLAMING EACH OTHER-” Lucy cried before she was cut off by Elementgirl.

“What? Scared that somebody will uncover your crimes and that we’ll turn you over to law enforcement so you can rot in prison, you deplorable serial killer!” Lucy’s face was a bright red. She got up out of her chair, which she slammed against the table, and stormed up the flights of stairs necessary to get the Chrysanthemum Room, and upon entering she slammed the door behind her.

“Don’t fight!”” Charles cried. Kilp, Storm, Connie and Darkfeather all nodded their heads in agreement. But it was too late- the damage had been done.

“Good going, Elementgirl,” Rosalyn mocked her. Elementgirl got up and left in a huff. Though not everybody was done, it was evident that breakfast was over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Icy went to cool off with her violin in the garden. Such a calming place might cheer her up, she thought to herself. So she grabbed the violin and walked out, the fresh scent of blossoms hitting her nose.

As she walked, she played a heartbreaking melody that had a hint of honey-like sweetness in it. The flowers, mostly autumn blossoms now, swayed gently in the breeze. And then she saw somebody, who moved slowly through the garden.

The Riddler?

The translucent figure danced as if to the wind or the music. Icy continued playing, drawing ever closer. And then, suddenly, the figure disappeared, running off and moving in between the trees.

Icy didn’t quite know what to think.

Then Silverwaxwing rounded the corner. “Icy!” She said, sounding surprised, and altogether not too happy.

“Silver? Can I ask you a question?” Icy asked. Silverwaxwing nodded, face tight. “Why are we all fighting? How have we suddenly lost all of our bearings?”

Silverwaxwing’s face softened a bit. “I don’t know. I’m sorry that I yelled at you. You didn’t deserve that, I guess. Everything was going so well, you know? And then we lose Fireburst. I think that scared everybody enough to begin accusing each other.

“Maybe. Anyhow, I’m really sorry for what I said. This whole thing is suspicious, not you.” Icy said remorsefully.

“I accept your apology. Friends?”

“Friends.”

“Oh, hey, nice violin. You play really well. Did you bring it with you?” Silverwaxwing asked.

“Ah- um, I might have borrowed it from the Hotel Manager. Without permission. Please don’t tell anyone- I just like playing, and, well, I found this violin, and here I am. In this garden. Talking to you. And holding my violin.” Icy said, nervous. She had kind of stolen the violin, even though she knew she would never take it off the grounds.

“It’s fine-” Silverwaxwing began, but her words were cut off by a siren going off. “What the?” She asked, eyes widening.

“Nothing good. Nothing good at all.” Icy said, and together they raced back toward the mansion.

I hate fighting :(