This is a lot shorter than usual, and I am so, so, so sorry. I'm having a dreadful case of..... you guessed it, writer's block. The next part may take a while.

Day 3, Part 4

First the murderer messed with their voice recorder. Unfortunately, they were better at programming and hacking than Ms. Tobin or the Hotel Manager. They worked on hiding a program inside so that they could her what everybody else was doing, and so that their voice recorder would take noises from the other CBers recorders and mash them all together into a believable soundtrack. (Insert evil laugh here.) Then they moved on to dinner.

Poison? Check. Menu that I’m really not supposed to have? Check. Thought the murderer. Let’s see… tonight is a specially themed meal; Breakfast at Dinner. How incredibly stupid! The murderer had never thought much of breakfast at dinner. It was stupid and sickening, one thing trying to pretend to be another.

The murderer hated this place. HATED IT! They wanted to scream, unleash their wrath and destroy everything. But it was only day three.

The murderer counted to one million, took a deep breath, poisoned one of the plates, then went back to the group of visitors.

@The Riddler, Wow! Weird concidence.

@General Waffleson, Maybe you are the murderer.... and maybe you aren't.

Day 3, Part 5

Silverwaxwing was the first kayaker to return.

“There were some huge waves out there and we got separated for a while.” She explained, looking a bit nervous.

“Um, earth to Silverwaxwing?” Key said. “It’s a river. There are NO WAVES, especially not LARGE WAVES, in RIVERS.”

“I know that!” Silverwaxwing said annoyedly. “But there were. And the shoreline is farther off than it looks.” She took off her fitbit. “See? It says I kayaked  five miles.”

“No way is that possible,” said Key stubbornly. She opened her mouth to prove herself right, but was interrupted by Balletandbow, who had just gotten back.

“Therewerewavesonariverthatshouldonlybeamilewidebutisn’tamIinsane?” Balletandbow said very rapidly, with an unusual gleam to her eyes.

“Um, you’re looking at us funny, so yeah. And I mean, I’m an Alter Ego, and we are like experts of insane, and I know you pretty well, so if I think something is wrong, then it might actually be.” PSXtreme said, looking for the first time in her life truly worried.

“Sorry.” Balletandbow said, rubbing her eyes. “It was just so wrong. We went out a mile, I think, and we should’ve made it to the other side, but instead things got really weird.”

“Maybe we should wait for everybody else to get back,” Kitten said nervously. The visitors nodded, and headed inside to change into dry clothes.

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

After the other two bewildered kayakers returned, things were certain.

“Something is definitely up. I don’t think all four of you could have hallucinated the same thing all at the exact same time, and have had Silverwaxwing’s misfit go haywire too.” Leafpool said.

“That can’t have happened.” Rae said, looking nervous.

“But what else could it be?” Lucy mused. “I’ve never heard of something like that happening before.”

“This is stupid, but could it have been a hurricane?” Kitten wondered.

“No. A hurricane is so huge, it can be seen from space. It provides heavy rain and cloud thunder. Winds can reach up to 60-163 miles per hour. Plus, they form over an ocean. If you were in a hurricane, you’d know it.” PSXtreme said.

“Uh, how do you know all that?” Torstyn asked.

“I may or may not have taken a class about weather.” PSXtreme said guiltily.

“Forget classes. How would we not have noticed on the first day that the river was, well, a lot larger than it should have been, and wavy?” Elementgirl asked.

“Maybe… well, I wouldn’t normally bring this up, but this place is so weird that it’s possible… have you ever heard of a glamour?” General Waffleson asked.

“Yes.” Serene said quietly.

“Well, maybe it was a glamour?”

“What the heck is a glam-our?” Rosalyn wondered.

“It’s like an illusion? But magic?” Serene supplied.

“Ilsn Mgic?” Charles asked.

“The Merriam-Webster definition is a spell.” Lisbeth added.

“So supposedly the Hotel Manager or somebody else put a glamour over the river and instead it could be a bay or an ocean.” Key said skeptically.

“It’s possible.” Icy said. “The Hotel Manager has been acting weird.”

Silence followed, everybody wondering what was happening. And silence continued until dinner.

Day 3, Part 6

The Breakfast at Dinner was a feast. It didn’t just include pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. It consisted of waffles, shirred eggs, omelettes, scrambled eggs, sunny side-up eggs on toast, toast (with various spreading options; seven types of jams, peanut butter, butter, jelly and cream cheese), bagels, pancakes, sausage, bacon, egg Mcmuffins, tater tots, grits, hashbrowns, croissants and several types of muffins.

The CBers were shocked by the amount of food, the AEs each grabbed their plates and dug in. The Captchas went crazy at the sight of muffins.

As everyone else grabbed plates, they were all too preoccupied by the amount of food and rivers that were not rivers to notice what their plate looked like. Someone was too preoccupied to notice that their plate was smoking. The Hotel Manager was too busy talking to Ms. Tobin.

Nobody noticed the poisoned plate.

“Mfns!” Connie shouted.

“What type of muffin would you like, Connie?” Elementgirl asked.

“Blbr, lemn and frch vnla.” Connie replied.

Elementgirl grabbed the appropriate muffins, and for herself she choose a raspberry muffin coated with powdered sugar, scrambled eggs, toast and tater tots.

She sat down next to Connie.

“Iwnt toty rbry mfin!” Connie said.

“Okay, but only if I get a taste of that lemon poppyseed muffin.” Elementgirl told her captcha. She broke off a bit of each muffin, took a bite of the lemon poppyseed and… was fine.

Joy, however was not. She took a bite of her croissant, swallowed, then fell over.

“Joy? Are you okay?” Kitten asked.

Joy did not reply. Instead, she turned blue and started trembling.

“JOY?” Kitten yelled. “HELP!”

“Quick, what did she eat?” The Hotel Manager asked.

“A bagel!” Kitten replied.

Joy’s breathing quickened.

“A bagel… Ms. Tobin, can you scan the bagel?”

“It contains high amounts of Cicuta, also known as water hemlock.”

“Um, charcoal! We need charcoal!” Serene shouted.

The Hotel Manager got some charcoal, crushed it in to a powder, and made Joy swallow it, over and over again.

Joy’s breathing slowed down to its natural pace. She relaxed a little.

And then she was rushed to her bed in the in the Chrysanthemum room.

Yet, because even though Joy will most likely survive this- she got the antidote, after all- there is still a small chance that she will survive until the very end of the last part, because only a couple of visitors actually make it to the very end of the very last part.

I'm sorry. I have completely pushed this to the back of my brain. On purpose. Yes, I am a horrible person. I am working on a new part, and it should be out sometime soon. Sorry for the delay.

Oh no, Joy!!!

Day 3, Part 7

Joy remained unconscious, and dinner was ended. Kitten was given a cot so she could remain by Joy’s side.

After all the other visitors had gone to bed, one remained very much awake, writing in a notebook.

How did Serene know to use charcoal- is SHE the murderer?  But if she is, why would she say the antidote? There was something else about that “river”, something important. And what about the Color War? What about our vacation? What does the Hotel Manager know that she is hiding from us? This is all so messed up!

Then the CBer suddenly flopped over, unconscious and asleep, her notebook floating away on a mysterious breeze.

Day 4, Part 1

“Lucy?” Sketch whisper-shouted as she walked down the hallway.

“Yeah?”

“I knew you would be awake. I’m just so scared- The Riddler, Jarnen, Elena- they’re all gone a-and Joy-”

Lucy patted the floor right next to her and put down her sketchbook.

“I know it’s scary. But we will make it.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I just know so. Sketch, it’ll really be fine. The Hotel Manager and Ms. Tobin will take care of everything.”

“Th-thanks, Lucy. You’re a great CBer. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t go anywhere,” Lucy said, laughing.

Sketch raised an eyebrow, and burst out laughing also.

Lucy gave her Alter Ego a hug, and after sitting in the hall for a little longer, telling jokes, laughing, and talking about Lucy’s drawings, Sketch went back to the Iris Room.

Lucy went back into her room after another thirty minutes of drawing, and opened the doors to the balcony. A fresh breeze hit her, and she could hear the birds singing. The balcony in the Chrysanthemum Room overlooked the river- the river! She ran off to find the Hotel Manager. How could she have forgotten? With Joy’s almost-death, and Sketch’s worry, everything else had been pushed from her mind.

She found the Hotel Manager outside, sitting at a picnic table.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Lucy said as politely as she could, “but, um, there is a thingy with the river, waves and such…”

“Oh.” The Hotel Manager said. Silence followed. Then, suddenly, the Hotel Manager muttered something and waved her hand. Lucy looked at the river, only to find that there was an ocean in its place.

“WHAT?!” She yelped.

“Oh, um, I might happen to be the last member of an ancient scottish family tree who inherited a mansion.” The Manager said sheepishly.

“Uh, don’t you mean a castle?” Lucy asked incredulously.

“No, my ancestors converted it in the 1800’s.”

“And why did you hide this from us?”

“Um, because maybe the members of the family could do magic? And this place has been hunted for centuries?”

Lucy raised her eyebrows as to why anybody would change a long hunted mansion/castle into a hotel, but remained silent. And went back to her room.

When the rest of the visitors got up, they didn’t notice anything. They continued not to notice anything until after breakfast. When they went outside just for the sake of being outside, though, they did notice.

The grounds looked pretty much the same, but the river bank was no longer grassy. The waves lapped at the sand invitingly, and the water was a beautiful shade of light blue. There was a huge garden where part of the forest had been.

“OHMIGOSH! WE’VE ALL BEEN KIDNAPPED!!” Rosalyn screamed dramatically.

“Oh, hush you. The Hotel Manager just took away an illusion that-” Lucy stopped, and blinked. “What was I saying?”

“You were saying- what are we talking about?” Silverwaxwing asked.

“I don’t know, something about pie?” PSXtreme said.

“You always think of pie.” Bryann muttered.

“Don’t fight!” Elementgirl pleaded. “I hate it when you guys fight.”

“So sleepy…” Rae yawned.

“No kidding,” said General Waffleson.

“Logicandnonsense.” Key muttered, then slumped over. And then everybody else did the same.

When they woke up, they remembered everything, except one of the things they had realized.

“Whew,” said the Hotel Manager, who was standing on the balcony outside of her office. She blew the remnants of a spell off her fingers. “That was a close one.”