Ok, first of all, top, and second of all, why can I not figure anything out??? I've tried and tried, and even with the number down to six, I still can't figure out who the murderer could be! I'm trying to use process of elimination, but it isn't working. And Secretary, I can't figure out who you are either. Maybe... Dolphin or Gecko? I'm running out of CBers here...

tippity toppity!

Day Ten, Part Two

After searching the third floor of the mansion, the CBers were pooped. They were tired, hungry, and starting to lose hope. It’d been forever since they'd found a big clue, so they went down to the kitchen to make sandwiches for lunch.

“Let’s review the clues that we’ve already found, in the order we’ve found them in.” Cerinthe proposed, through a mouthful of turkey sandwich.  

“Sounds good to me!” Moonshine said.

“The first clue we found was ‘the opal is the key’.” Cynthia announced, “But what does it mean? Is it talking about a literal key, or a figurative key? And if it’s a literal key, then what does it unlock? And speaking figuratively, what does it represent?”

“Maybe… if it’s figurative then it’s talking about what really is going on here at the mansion.” Sirfire offered.

“Perhaps… I don’t really think that clue has any merit though.” Cynthia acknowledged. “If it does, then we don’t know the meaning yet.” 

“The second clue we found was the picture of the coat of arms… but that was only a clue to help us translate the scrambled note. The first clue.” Mary sighed. “I don’t think there's anything else to get from that.”  

“The next clue was from those collars that turned up on our necks… talking about how everything isn’t how it seems and not to trust anyone… but trust them anyways.” Sirfire sighed.

“It also mentioned something about Solis Ros…” Olympia pointed out. “It translated part of her name for us… so her name translates to “Sun Dew”.” 

“If everything isn’t what it seems… then maybe the name is wrong.” Moonshine murmured. “What if it’s the opposite of her name? Maybe… or maybe I’m just crazy.” 

“There's a clue I’ve been holding back…” Cerinthe said guiltily.  

 “Why would you hide a clue from us?!” the other CBers exclaimed.

“I don’t know…” Cerinthe sighed. “It’s kinda useless anyways. It’s just a picture of three columns, with the middle one circled. I’ve been searching for the columns shown… but I haven’t had any luck yet.” 

The CBers frowned at the picture Cerinthe laid out on the table, it did seem very useless.

“Well…” Cynthia said. “Maybe it’ll come in later?” 

“The next thing we have are the blueprints to the mansion, and the hint that everything is clearer at night.” Olympia said.

“Do you think everything is still clearer at night, or was that just a hint so we would be able to see the secret passages on the blueprints?” Mary asked.

“I don’t know…” Olympia said. “Maybe it still holds some merit? But for now… useless.” 

“The last big clue we have is from the morse code… “You cannot use the file, your knowledge level is not high enough yet.” Sirfire said.

“Hmm… well… I guess that’s all.” Cerinthe said. “I think we need to discover some more clues before we can find the file.” 

With nothing better to do, the CBers wander around the mansion and the outside grounds. They stayed up until the sun set and spent some time chatting and watching movies, following the age old idea to sleep on your problems… or in this case to ignore them! 

“It’s late…” the murder said. “I’m going to bed. Good night!”

“Oh, are you sure?”

“Yea, I’ll see you in the morning.” 

“Good night!” 

And so the murder went up to their room, where they sat down at a wooden desk, in a hidden room just for them…

~~~~~~

Oof… I’ve been working on this for about two months. I started at the end of the school year… and now I only have a week before school starts! I might have some troubles getting the next parts done with my school work… but I won’t give up! I’m so close to finishing a story and I’m NOT STOPPING!

Day Ten, Part Three

The murder’s hidden room wasn’t on the blueprints, indeed their was no record of the hidden room in any of the mansion’s blueprints. In front of the murder were a collection of T.V screens, each one showing a different part of the mansion. On the desk the murder was sitting at were a collection of buttons and switches, that controlled the lights, cameras, and the booby traps scattered throughout the mansion.

The murder was fingering a thick file, with a note on the front that read:

“Keep this safe until the time is right for the CBers to find it.”

The note was signed M.F.

The murder set the file aside and watched the T.Vs. The murder was watching as Olympia made her way away from the den, through the hallways, and outside the kitchen door. Out into the rain. The murder watched as she walked to the backyard and stopped, her face towards the mansion.

Does she see it? Does she see the lights on from the mansion’s hidden attic? The secret fourth floor.

She did, the murder can tell, because she rushes back inside, closing the open kitchen door behind her. Back to the den, where she tells her story while dripping with water. 

The CBers looked shocked and are talking, but the murder doesn’t know what they’re saying. The security system has no sound. The murderer sighs and fingers a red button, which they push. 

The lights go off for a second and the murder watches from night vision cameras as Olympia falls down into a hidden trapdoor, which shuts as the lights turn back on.

~~~~~~~~~~~

RIP Olympia, so sorry that you’re gone.

Top!

My captcha says huied. Hide? What do you mean? Oh, right, there's a murderer on the loose... 

Day Eleven, Part One

It wasn’t the same without Olympia. She came from nowhere, one faithful day, and freaked everyone out with her unusual amount of knowledge of what’s going on.

They all stumbled downstairs to the acompanante of pounding rain and the howling wind.

They stopped, astonished. The kitchen was a mess, it was completely overturned. There were strange stains on the walls and the chairs and tables were completely demolished.

“WHAT HAPPENED?” Moonshine yelled, hurt and confused.

Their kitchen was ruined! Their comfy, cozy, kitchen. The table where they sat and ate every meal, the table that held countless notes and pieces of paper, the table that seemed so solid when they were sitting at it! Now, the only use for it, was to use it for kindling. 

The chairs’ legs were snapped off and the stuffing in the cushions were strewn throughout the kitchen. And splattered on the wall was a message made from strawberry jelly.

wHeRe iS It???

“Are you seeing this?” Cerinthe asked.

“Yes…” Sirfire murmured. “It’s a very messily written message.” 

“Who do you think it’s from?” Mary asked.

“The murderer.” Cynthia said sharply. 

“How do you know?” Cerinthe asked, crossly.

“It’s obvious.” Cynthia said. “Only the murder, someone here in this very room, would know how important the kitchen is to us! They purposely targeted this room to hurt us, and to crush our spirits!”

“I suppose you’re right…” Cerinthe said. “But isn’t it enough that the murder is killing off our party members?” 

There was no answer to Cerinthe’s question, so they busied themselves with wondering what the murder had lost.

“Maybe it’s the file?” Cynthia offered.

“You’re right!” Moonshine exclaimed. “I bet you it is the file! There must be some pretty important information on that file…” 

“So we should look for it!” Sifire said. “That’s what we need to do! Just… find it… in this giant mansion…” 

“What about the fourth floor?” Mary asked. “Did you forget about that? We need to find what’s up there, I bet you that’s where we’ll get answers.” 

“I guess it’s time to split up then…” Cerinthe sighed. “One team to find the file, the other to try and figure out the secret entrance to the fourth floor…” 

“Me and Moonshine could search for the fourth floor’s secret entrance.” Cynthia offered. “That is, if you don’t mind, Moonshine.”

“Not at all, I’ll join you!” Moonshine said.

“Well then, I guess the rest of us are on file duty.” Cerinthe said.

And so, with one last regretful look at the kitchen, the CBers split up. Each to search for their own clues. 

~~~~~

School hath started. Posting will be slower now... but don't give up on it! The next part will come out... eventually. 

Day Eleven, Part Two

~~~~~ 

Let us follow Cynthia and Moonshine in their quest to find the secret stairs to the fourth floor. The third floor seemed like the best place to search, so they wandered among the secret passages in the third floor. And when they led nowhere, they searched the hallways and rooms on the third floor instead. When they came up with nothing they moved down to the second floor. 

“You know,” Moonshine said. “I’ve been thinking. Why haven’t we searched the suspect’s rooms?” 

Cynthia paused and stopped looking under a shelf to stare at Moonshine.

“You’re right! Why haven’t we been searching the suspects rooms?” 

“Should we try and search one of their rooms?” Cynthia asked.

“Let’s do it!” Moonshine said, with a grin.

And so they turned into the closest suspect’s room, which just so happened to be Henry’s. Thankfully he was not there… which was very suspicious in itself. 

Cynthia and Moonshine carefully poked around his room, they looked under his bed, under the bathroom sink, and knocked on the walls for secret compartments.  

It was a good thing that they knocked on the walls, because after a few minutes of searching they struck gold. A part of the wall was hollow and when Cynthia pushed at it, it popped open to reveal a secret compartment. 

There was a bag inside and inside the bag was a flashlight, matches, an empty package of peanuts, and a folded up note.

Excited, Moonshine reaches for the note and opens it. Written in cursive was a short note.

Tonight. Do it. Remember, 5 knocks.

It wasn’t signed at all.

“I wonder who this is from?” Moonshine asked. 

“I don’t know… but let’s put everything back. I’m scared Henry is going to come back and find us poking around his room.” Cynthia said.

Moonshine nodded and quickly copied the note in her notebook, before they stuck everything up where they found it and left the room.

~~~~~~~

All right! Here's the next part... I'm almost done with it (the ski lodge)! It might be a while for the next part... I actually have to write it... 

I did not manage to get everything pre-written before school started. Sigh  

I know, I know... it's been a while. School's been sucking all my time away...

So, look for my posts on Saturdays, because that's the only free time I have...

So, without further ado, I present to you:

Day Eleven, Part Three

~~~~~~

The CBers met up in the library, next to the kitchen it was the most comfortable room in the house. They were discussing what they found during their hunt for clues, to the comfortable sound of a raging storm outside.

“Did you find the file?” Cynthia asked.

“No… we didn’t.” Cerinthe sighed. “The only thing we found was a colony of dust bunnies under the living room couch.” 

“That’s too bad.” Cynthia said.

“We poked around in Henry’s room.” Moonshine said. “We’re pretty sure Henry is the one who stole the brooch. Because we found his thieving bag? I guess we can call it that. And a note that said “Tonight. Do it. Remember, 5 knocks”. It seems like he was working with someone else too.” 

“I wonder who?” Mary asked.

“We don’t know.” Cynthia said. “Whoever wrote it did it in cursive. But does it matter? It seems pretty clear from what Dolores told us that they all were working together to get the brooch stolen.” 

And so they sat in silence, thinking. It seemed like they were once again stuck. With no new clues, how could they even move on in their search?

And then the power went out. Everyone screamed, but they soon felt silly, after all power outages during storms aren’t that uncommon. And they weren’t in complete darkness, the fire was sending its warm, flickering light over the dimmed room. 

“Well,” Sirfire said. “Uhh… shouldn’t the power be back by now?” 

Indeed, normally the mansion gets the power back on in just a few seconds… but not today. It seems like it was an unplanned outburst.

“Well… I mean…” Moonshine muttered. “I think when the power goes out in big storms like this it usually lasts for hours?”

“That’s true…” Sifire mumbled. “I guess I just got used to the power snapping back on in seconds.” 

“I might go grab some marshmallows from the kitchen.” Cynthia said. “We could make s’mores while we wait for the power to come back!” 

“Hey, that’s a great idea!” Cerinthe exclaimed. “S’mores would be great.” 

“Do you want one of us to go too?” Mary asked. 

“Naw.” Cynthia said. “I’ll be fine.” 

And so Cynthia slips out of the library, lighting her way with a flashlight. Cerinthe, Mary, Moonshine, and Sirfire shuffled their feet.

Maybe they shouldn’t have let her go alone! What if the murderer got her? 

“What if the murderer catches her?!” Mary asked, after they realized what could happen when you’re alone with a murderer on the loose.

“Well… the four of us are all in here.” Cerinthe said. “As long as we’re all in here, the murderer won’t be able to do anything to Cynthia without giving themself away.” 

“The murderer is never around though…” Sirfire said. “What if they have a control panel? And they just smack a button to activate the traps around the mansion. If they had an app downloaded on their phone then it would be really easy for them to activate the traps without calling attention to themself…” 

They looked at Sirfire, pale in the face. She was right. So very right. And then, from somewhere deep in the mansion, the clock struck midnight.

Cynthia had left for marshmallows 2 hours ago. And when the dongs had faded into non-existence, the lights snapped on. They ran to the kitchen and on the table was a note.

Your dear friend Cynthia has been imprisoned by me, the Murderer. Don’t worry she’s not dead---yet. 

You have ignored my warnings to leave this mystery alone and so you left me no choice but to empty my deck. You seek the file, very well, the file shall be given to you.

But first, a little game. Games are fun, don’t you agree? It’s a simple scavenger hunt and at the end of it will be the file and me.

And what would a scavenger hunt be without a prize? IF you win Cynthia will be released and the file will be given to you.

Be warned, though, you have 24 hours to complete the mission. Because tomorrow, at this time, there will be a lunar eclipse. You don’t want to know what happens here at a lunar eclipse. Trust me it isn’t pretty.

Your clue is this:

I follow you all the time and copy your every move, but you can’t touch me or catch me. What am I? 

Guess correctly and the next clue will appear… but if you guess wrong then one of you will die.

Be careful and good luck. >;) 

Come on you old thing, go to the top!

Ahhh this is getting so good. I'll have to think about that riddle... What follows me everywhere?

OH MY GOSH! It's my shadow. My shadow follows me everywhere, but I can't catch it. Duh.