Part Six

~

Down in the banquet hall, the CBers were enjoying a nice brunch, the table laden with food from the palace kitchens. They were all chattering excitedly about their plans for the day- They were going to spend the morning doing more sleuthing, then explore the palace in the afternoon.

Near the end of the brunch, Goldie stood up from her seat at the end of the table and tapped a knife on her glass. It didn’t produce a sound loud enough to get the CBers’ attention, which made her frown, so she abandoned the glass and rapped her knuckles on the table. Everyone stopped talking and looked at her.

“Good morning, everyone!” she said brightly. “Today is a beautiful day, so I thought it would be a good time to begin out first activity! Drum roll please…” The CBers responded enthusiastically, drumming with their hands on the table or their laps. “We’ll be having a scavenger hunt! Yay! I thought this would be a good way to help everyone get to know the palace and the grounds. You’ll all be scavenging individually, so come on up and get a list of the items you need to find.” The CBers crowded around Goldie to get the papers, then made their way back to their seats, examining them. “No cheating, please,” Goldie continued. “The scavenger hunt will begin in one hour, when you hear the cannon.”

“There’s a cannon?” Dolphin said excitedly.

“So for now, go on your way!” Goldie said with a flourish, and the CBers began filing out of the banquet hall.

Outside of the banquet hall, the CBers formed a huddle, making sure everyone had put their lists away and no one was going to cheat.

“So what are we going to do for the next hour?” Gracia asked.

“Can we go look for the cannon?” asked Dolphin.

“Please, can we?” Sirfire agreed.

“Let’s split up,” Agent Winter suggested. “Whoever wants to can go look for the cannon, and the rest of us can go look for clues in the kitchen.”

They all agreed that this sounded like a good plan. Dolphin, Sirfire, Emekittycon, and Strawberri split off to go find the cannon, taking the CAPTCHAs with them, and the rest of the CBers stayed put.

“Shall we head to the kitchens?” Bluebell asked

“Is it alright if I run back to the room for a moment?” Dusk asked. “I want to grab the booklight out of my bag, maybe we can use it as a flashlight.”

Winter looked concerned. “I don’t think you should head back alone… I mean, we are investigating a murder.”

“I didn’t think of that,” said Dusk, turning pale. “Will someone come with me?”

“Let’s all go,” Holly suggested. “Might as well.” So the CBers all made their way back up to the rooms. Dusk was the first one into the Tanzanite room, followed closely by Bluebell. The moment they were through the door, the CBers outside heard screams. Everyone rushed inside the room to see Bluebell and Dusk both white as a sheet, staring, horrified, at the body of Alexandria, lying on the ground near the door with a piece of lilac-colored satin twisted around her neck.

“She- she’s dead,” gasped Holly. Gracia crouched down next to the body and rubbed the satin between her fingers.

“This is one of the hangings from the Amethyst room,” she realized. “Whoever it was must have strangled her…” Her fingers unconsciously moved toward her throat, and she shuddered.

“Does this mean whoever did it is staying in the Amethyst room?” asked Evergreen. “That could be a clue!”

“We were all in the Amethyst room before this happened,” Winter reminded her. “It could be anyone. That means we’re back to square one again… and we know the murderer is going to keep killing.”

~~~

Thanks for your patience everyone! Worry not, it's still going! There's more murder to be had.

PLEASE KEEP GOING!!!! IT'S SO EXCITING!!!!!

Part Seven~

The CBers were all quiet as they held a service for Alexandria, burying her next to Pancake. Once it was over, they made their way back up to the palace and converged in the banquet hall, where Goldie tried to lift their spirits.

“Come on, now, I know it’s hard, but this is your vacation! You should be having fun!” No one said what they were all thinking- that ‘murders’ weren’t a part of the deal. Goldie sighed. “Tell you what, let’s still do the scavenger hunt! Have a good time, forget about all of this for a little while! How does that sound?” The CBers looked at one another and shrugged. Some fun sounded like a good idea. Goldie smiled brightly. “Great! The cannon should fire in a few minutes, then you’re free to start!”

The CBers walked out of the banquet hall and formed a group. Gracia looked around, a decidedly concerned expression on her face.

“Guys, speaking of the cannon, did Dolphin, Sirfire, Em, Strawberri, and the CAPTCHAs ever come back?” Suddenly and guiltily, they all realized that they hadn’t seen them. Bluebell put a hand to her mouth.

“They don’t know,” she said shakily.

“We have to find them,” Winter said, but it turned out that they would have to do no such thing. As she said the words, the group in question found them.

“There you all are!” said Sirfire. “We’ve been looking all over for you!”

“Where have you been?” Em asked. The group all looked at one another, unsure who should tell them. Holly stepped forward.

“We’ve been out on the grounds,” she said gently. “With Goldie. There was... it’s... she...”

“Alexandria,” said Gracia, and Holly looked at her gratefully. “Alexandria’s been murdered.” Dolphin blinked slowly, not comprehending. Sirfire looked around as if just realizing they were missing someone. Strawberri’s hands flew to her mouth, and Em’s eyes filled with tears.

“If you were out on the grounds, does... does that mean you already buried her?” Strawberri asked. Gracia nodded.

“Why didn’t you find us?” said Dolphin sharply.

“We didn’t realize you were still gone,” said Alice. “We were so caught up in everything...”

“We have everyone now, right?” Dusk checked. They all looked around, and Evergreen noticed something that made her stomach turn.

“Where are the CAPTCHAs?” she asked.

“With you,” said Em. The group exchanged confused looks.

“No, they aren’t,” said Winter. “You took them with you to go look for the cannon.”

“They wanted to go back and find you guys,” Strawberri said. “Did they not come back?”

“No,” said Evergreen, more than a little worried.

“Should we look for-” Holly began, but she was interrupted by the sound of a cannon firing in the distance.

Goldie walked out of the banquet hall to see the anxious group of CBers still standing there. “The scavenger hunt has started!” she said. “Why the long faces?”

“We’re not sure where the CAPTCHAs are,” said Dolphin. “Should we postpone the scavenger hunt?”

Goldie waved the question away. “Nonsense! I’m sure they’re fine. They probably got tired and went back to their room, you know how CAPTCHAs are.” None of the CBers looked convinced, but they decided to listen to Goldie and begin the scavenger hunt. They decided to partner up, partly for the fun of it and partly because no one wanted to go anywhere alone. Dolphin partnered with Sirfire and Alice, Agent Winter partnered with Evergreen, Gracia partnered with Holly, Bluebell partnered with Dusk, and Strawberri partnered with Em.

As they split off to begin the game, Holly couldn’t dismiss a nagging worry in the back of her mind. She didn’t want anything to happen to the CAPTCHAs, but Goldie made a good point. Xena got tired all the time. They were definitely just back in their room.

Right?

~~~~~~

A little short today, but the next part gets interesting! Enjoy.

Part Eight

~

Bluebell and Dusk walked quickly away from the banquet hall and the other teams, hurriedly unfolding their paper from Goldie. There were twelve items to find. Dusk examined the list and read the first item out loud.

“‘Cannon’,” she read, and laughed. “I guess some of the other teams have a head start, don’t they?”

“Let’s skip that one for now, then,” said Bluebell. “What’s next?”

“‘Library’.”

“Where do you think that would be?”

“There’s only one way to find out!” Dusk and Bluebell stopped as they reached the end of the hallway, where it branched off into two other halls.

“Which way?” asked Bluebell.

Dusk narrowed her eyes, thinking, then proclaimed, “Left.”

Bluebell looked at her. “Any particular reason?”

Dusk shrugged. “It just feels right.” Bluebell had no argument with that reasoning, so they continued down the left hallway. After a while, they came to a door. Dusk opened it, peeking inside. Her face showed surprise, then triumph. She swung the door all the way open and Bluebell saw that they had reached the library.

“Awesome!” she said. She reached over and ticked it off their list.

“What’s next?” Dusk asked, still grinning proudly.

“We have to find a tuba.”

“Sorry, did I hear you right?”

“Yep, a tuba.”

“Where…?”

“I could not begin to guess.”

And so the pair continued. They ended up finding the tuba, after much searching, in a room full of assorted musical instruments. The next item was white roses, which they predicted they would find in the garden. Sure enough, there they were. Bluebell took a sniff, and decided they smelled better than your average roses. She picked one and slipped the stem in her pocket. A chandelier was next on the list, which they found hanging from the ceiling of a grand ballroom.

“Do you think we could have a ball?” Bluebell asked excitedly.

“Or an opera,” Dusk joked, gesturing to the glass chandelier. They left the ballroom in search of a toaster, doubling back to the banquet hall and the adjoining kitchen. There they met Agent Winter and Evergreen, who were apparently in search of the same object.

“Did you guys find the cannon?” Dusk asked as Bluebell ticked ‘toaster’ off their list. “We skipped it.”

Evergreen nodded. “It’s up on the second floor- when you reach the slide, take a right.”

Winter nudged Evergreen, grinning good-naturedly. “Hey! Don’t give away our lead. Did you guys find the library? We couldn’t.”

“If you leave the banquet hall and go straight until the hallway splits, go left and it’ll be right in front of you,” said Bluebell. With words of thanks, the two groups parted.

Dusk and Bluebell followed Evergreen’s directions and found the cannon right where she’d said it was. It was very large, and looked like it had been taken right off the deck of a pirate ship.

“What do you think she has this for?” Dusk asked, running a hand along the side of it.

“I think only Goldie knows that, and I don’t think she’s about to tell us any time soon.”

The next item they had to find was a carriage, which would be, they assumed, outside. They left the palace and walked around the grounds for a while, enjoying the sunlight and not looking very hard. Eventually, they spotted a row of the golden carriages that had picked them up.

Back inside the palace, they searched for a gemstone, starting on the first floor and examining each room.

Dusk sighed. “It’s literally the golden palace hotel- you’d think there would be some gemstones around here.”

Bluebell turned to her, facepalming. “There are, on the second floor! There are gems laid into the doors of our rooms.” They hurried up the stairs and checked off the item on their list once they found the amethyst in the first door.

Bluebell read the next item, and her eyebrows raised. “Skydiving Room? There’s a Skydiving Room?”

“No way, really?” Dusk looked at the list and grinned. “That’s cool. Where do you think it is?”

They ended up finding it on the second floor, after making their way through several intersecting hallways. They walked inside to find themselves standing on a wide ledge over a 50 foot drop. There appeared to be vents on the floor and ceiling that Bluebell assumed were to keep you aloft when skydiving.

“Whoa,” said Dusk. “That is so cool.”

“Looks kind of scary to me…” said Bluebell, eyeing the long drop.

“Do you think we could try it out?” Dusk asked eagerly.

“Maybe another time- we have to get going and find the next item.” They left the room, Dusk feeling a little disappointed and Bluebell relieved.

“So, what’s next?” asked Dusk.

“Volcano,” Bluebell said. “I’m going to hazard a guess and say this one’s outside too.” She turned to head back down the stairs, but Dusk grabbed her arm.

“Wait, why don’t we head up to one of those turrets?” she suggested. “I bet we could see the whole grounds from there, which seems like the easiest way to find a volcano.”

Bluebell considered. “That… sounds pretty logical. Let’s go find a turret, then.”

They soon found a spiraling staircase that led up to one of the turrets. They climbed it, going up and up and up, until they finally reached a door. Bluebell reached for the handle, but found that it was locked.

“What’s wrong?” Dusk asked.

“It’s locked.”

Dusk stepped forward and tried the handle, but it didn’t budge. “That’s odd. Why do you think-”

“Shh,” said Bluebell. “Do you hear…” There! She heard it again. Footsteps, coming from inside the locked room.

“Is someone in there?” said Dusk, wide-eyed. Suddenly, they both jumped back as the door handle jiggled noisily. Whoever was on the other side was pulling at the door handle, trying to get it to open. The door still didn’t move. Whoever was inside evidently gave up, and the footsteps receded.

Dusk and Bluebell stood stock still for a moment, then, after glancing at one another, they raced back down the stairs, away from the mysterious locked door.

Once at the bottom of the stairway, and a little out of breath, the two discussed what had just happened.

“Who could’ve been in there?” Dusk wondered, looking shaken. “And why were we locked out?”

Bluebell shook her head nervously. “I don’t think we were locked out. Did you see, there was a keyhole on our side? Whoever was in there… they were locked in.”

“Oh… Oh. Should we tell Goldie?” Dusk asked. “Or at least the others?”

“I don’t know,” Bluebell said slowly. “I have a bad feeling about it. Maybe we should keep this to ourselves for the time being.”

Dusk nodded. “I was thinking the same thing.”

The two walked away, only half thinking about the next item on their list. Both of them had a storm of questions- where was the key? Who was in the locked room? Why were they locked inside? Did Goldie know?

They- in fact, all of the palace’s guests- would learn the answers to each of these questions in due time. That time, however, is not now. Now, the scavenger hunt continues, with the majority of the CBers blissfully unaware of the mysterious locked room… and the tragedy that was about to befall them.

~~~~~~~

Oooh, suspense! Thanks for your patience and for topping this thread! Everything's coming together... if we get to the end of this, it should end up being very exciting! (Just a little teaser for you :))

This is so AMAZING!!!  I can't wait for the next part!!

Thank you for your time! 

TOP

Part Nine

~

The last item on the scavenger hunt list was Goldie herself, which led to all the teams ending up back outside the banquet hall, lists in hand.

“You found me!” Goldie said, beaming. “Let me see your lists, did everyone find everything?” Everyone handed their lists to Goldie, and she scanned through them.

“We weren’t able to find the cannon,” said Gracia. Bluebell looked over at Evergreen and gave her a thumbs up. Ever grinned back.

Holding the lists aloft, Goldie announced, “Well, it looks like everyone else found all the items, so I proclaim you all winners!” Cheering ensued, and Goldie nodded graciously. “Now, now, settle down. As your prize, we have ice cream in the banquet hall!” More cheering, even louder this time. Goldie led the way into the banquet hall, where indeed, an extravagant ice cream bar was set up on the wooden table. The CBers stared at it, dumbstruck, until Goldie instructed them, “Dig in!”

And so they did. Goldie had laid out a wide array of flavors and toppings, most of which were soon scooped liberally into bowls. Once they were all settled, they sat down to enjoy their frozen treats.

Gracia spooned ice cream into her mouth and smiled, her expression blissful. “Cookie dough ice cream is the best thing on the face of this planet.”

“Cough-mint-chocolate-chip-is-better-cough,” said Winter, badly disguising her words in a coughing fit.

Gracia narrowed her eyes. “I will fight you on this, Winter,” she said, deadpan. Winter, grinning, grabbed a handful of mini-marshmallows and flung them at a shocked Gracia.

Gracia stood and scooped up a handful of chocolate chips. “Oh, it’s on!”

A food fight of epic proportions ensued. Ice cream toppings flew everywhere as the CBers took sided based on their ice cream preferences. Goldie did nothing to stop this, rather she looked on, amused. Marshmallows, chocolate chips, rainbow jimmies, gummy worms, cookie crumbles, m&ms, beef jerky (Goldie had some strange flavor combinations), you name it. All of these were flying through the air as the CBers laughed.

The food fight ended when Gracia dumped an entire bottle of chocolate syrup on Winter’s head. Laughing and sputtering, Winter put her hands in the air in a gesture of surrender.

“I yield, I yield!”

“I thought you might,” Gracia said with a smirk. The CBers surveyed the room, which was, to put it plainly, trashed. The table and floor were covered in various toppings, and the CBers themselves weren’t much better. Winter especially. There was an awkward silence as they all looked at Goldie.

“Should, uh…” said Dolphin. “Should we clean up?”

Goldie waved the question away. “Of course not! This is your vacation. We have staff to clean up this room. Meanwhile, why don’t you all go get yourselves cleaned up? Then you can enjoy the rest of your day.”

The CBers, thinking that sounded like a good idea, trooped upstairs to clean up. Near their rooms, there were showers, which sounded fantastic at that moment.

While everyone waited to shower, the murderer slipped away from the group. They’d been waiting for a good time to carry out their latest plan, and it seemed as good a time as any. No one would notice. Even so, they were cautious as they hurried down the hallway. The murderer reached the small door with the blue gem and pushed it open, looking over their shoulder again. They’d set up what they needed earlier that day, so all that was left to do was set a timer. They looked at the three wriggling forms, tied up in the corner, and allowed themself to feel a tiny bit of pity. Only for a moment, though, and they were soon setting the timer and closing the door. The murderer crept back to the showers, and sighed imperceptibly. What’s done was done.

Once all the CBers were showered and changed into fresh clothes, they met up in the Amethyst Room to discuss their plans for the rest of the day. Sirfire wanted to go on a walk and explore the grounds more and Em wanted to stay indoors and explore the palace. Dusk suggested they go outside that day, since it was nice, and explore the castle when the weather wasn’t as good. They’d just agreed on that when they heard a loud noise come from down the hall, accompanied by the palace shaking.

“Is that another earthquake?” Strawberri cried.

Holly shook her head. “Definitely not. It sounded like it came from down the hall, let’s go look.” She was the first one out of the room, but stopped in her tracks immediately, gasping. She stepped aside to let everyone else out, and they all had the same reactions. A little way down the hall, smoke and dusk was coming out of the Sapphire Room, the door to which was in pieces. Sirfire ran forward and looked inside. Her face paled. The wreckage continued inside the room- it looked like it had collapsed in on itself.

“The- the CAPTCHAs-” stuttered Holly, and Sirfire shook her head. She had already seen the unmoving bodies trapped under the debris. Winter put her arm around Dolphin, who was sobbing, and Holly turned and cried into Bluebell’s shoulder. This was hard on all of them, but especially for the two who had brought their CAPTCHAs. The other CBers could only imagine what it was like.

“Someone should go notify Goldie,” Gracia said softly.

Alice nodded. “I’ll go.” She left, and the other CBers crowded in to comfort their grieving friends. None of them knew what to say.

~~~~~~~~~~

Thanks for keeping this topped and for all the encouragement, you guys are amazing!!