Chapter Eight

“The Fugitives”

“Well?” said Magnus after a moment of uncomfortable silence. “Aren’t you coming?”

“Um -- yes,” said Majestic Mary, and stood up. Everyone else followed her example and got slowly to their feet. Lumi hid From Beyond the Grave under the bedsheets as the group headed out of the door and into the well-lit corridor. There was an unspoken truce between the guests. They would not tell any of this to anyone, not even Magnus.

“Contacting Kitten’s ghost, were you?” Magnus asked, not unkindly.

“Yes,” Mary blurted out. Quill and Lumi gave her shocked and upset looks.

Magnus smiled. “Don’t you worry. We’re nervous about all this too. Lady Ellingham just doesn’t want to seem afraid in front of you.” He turned back to look at the group. Darkling and Spirit were nowhere to be seen. 

“Hullo?” Magnus called.

“Just a moment,” Darkling called. Spirit had stopped at the doorway to the bedroom to examine a tall and ornate wooden wardrobe, and they were holding Darkling up. Darkling wasn’t quite sure what was so special about this wardrobe, but she knew that she wanted to leave the bedroom as quickly as possible. Spirit nodded their head almost imperceptibly and walked out into the hallway, Darkling following close behind. 

The group, now all together, walked in silence for a few minutes that felt like hours.

“Where did you get that pendulum from?” Magnus asked, just as Darkling thought that the silence would kill her.

“Nyx gave it to me,” Lumi said. “The seance was her idea. She said she found it in a broom cupboard.”

“I see.” There were several more minutes of oppressive silence. Soon, the group was back in the familiar embrace of the entrance hall. Into the dining hall they marched single file. Nyx was already there, standing next to her chair and tapping her foot impatiently. Roxann walked out with tomato soup and dinner rolls, and with much sniffling and wiping of her eyes on her apron, the robot served dinner. Magnus excused himself and left through the hall8’s large oak doors as the CBers began to eat quietly.

Does the weather ever change? Darkling wondered as she stirred her soup with her silver spoon. Through the tall windows, she could see the tall grasses rustling in the wind, and the lake eating away at the shore, wave by tiny wave. Everything was exactly as it was yesterday, and everything would be exactly the same tomorrow as well. How many days have we been here? Darkling was sure she didn’t know. You don’t really count time here in days, she thought lazily as she lifted the spoon to her mouth. You count it in… chapters. Yes, more like chapters.

“How was the seance?” Nyx asked Lumi.

“A m-mixed bag.” Lumi was stuttering again. “We managed t-t-to c-contact Kitten, b-but w-w-we were interrupted b-before she could t-tell us who the m-m-m-murderer is.”

Spirit shifted uncomfortably in their seat.

“That’s too bad,” Nyx said. “Maybe you can try again later.”

“M-m-maybe,” Lumi thought aloud. “Wh-where were y-you?”

“Oh, it’s stupid,” Nyx said, waving a hand. “I got lost and couldn’t find my way to your room.”

There was that silence again. It seemed almost unavoidable at this point. Everyone seemed shaken and mistrustful of anyone else. Ellingham Manor was like a set of Russian nesting dolls. There was a mystery inside of a mystery inside of a mystery. The Week of Wonder and Whimsy had turned into the Week of Wonder and Worry. The CBers pondered their situation silently as they ate. Mary was wondering about what had happened to poor Lord Ellingham, and what the “Sardine Incident” was. Lumi was wondering about Agent Winter. Would her ghost now haunt the Manor, too? Spirit was wondering about how to tell their fellow guests what they knew. Nyx was wondering if the murderer would be caught soon. Quill was wondering why Lady Ellingham lived alone. Darkling wondered if Agent Winter was even dead. All of these questions were their own little mysteries, which in turn made an enormous and seemingly unknowable mystery. It was this great mystery that now hung over the guests like a heavy down comforter on a hot summer night.

The servants’ door burst open. Mary jumped and fell out of her chair, spilling tomato soup everywhere. Nyx stood up, shoulders back, as if ready to fight. Lumi screamed.

“It’s only us,” QueenOfWolves sighed.

“Yes,” PygmyOwl added. “Have no fear, fellow guests. It is only us.”

Queen rolled her eyes. “I just said that.”

“And there’s no reason why it should not be said twice. Some things bear repeating.”

“We don’t have time for this.” Queen walked over to the table and grabbed seven or eight dinner rolls off of their fine china dish.

“Where have you been?” Nyx asked, raising her eyebrows.

“Where are you going?” Darkling asked.

“D-d-did you hear about th-the seance?” Lumi asked eagerly.

“Barnaby locked us up in the wine cellar, we escaped and are going into hiding, and no,” Queen said, stuffing the rolls into her pants pockets. She handed a few to Pygmy, who put one into her mouth and the rest into her pants pockets.

“How?” asked Quill.

“Where?” asked Mary, who had sat down in her seat again.

“It w-was chilling,” Lumi said gleefully.

“There’s a lot of tunnels down in the basement,” Pygmy explained, swallowing her roll. “All we had to do was break the barrels Barnaby tied us to, find our way through the maze of tunnels, and sneak past Barnaby, who was ironing his tailcoat. After that, it was easy. There was an unlocked door, so we just walked through it, and right across from us was the staircase to here. We plan on hiding in a cupboard. We’ll tell you which one later. Don’t tell anyone where we are.”

“Impressive,” said Nyx, raising her eyebrows. 

Suddenly, there was the sound of footsteps. Roxann, Barnaby, Magnus, and Lady Ellingham’s voices could all be heard talking in hushed tones. Roxann was, unsurprisingly, crying. Barnaby sounded angry. Magnus was just as calm as ever, and Lady Ellingham sounded nervous.

“We need to go,” Queen breathed.

“Just off the kitchen there’s a servants’ staircase. You can take it to any of the Manor’s six floors. The kitchen’s to the right as you head down the basement staircase,” Nyx said.

“Thanks,” said Pygmy in an unusual show of brevity. The two CBers ran through the servants’ door again and closed it just as the big oak doors opened and Magnus, cradling Lady Ellingham in his arms, stepped through, followed by Roxann and Barnaby.

“I’m afraid I have some bad news,” Lady Ellingham said in a wavering voice. “The carriage is in a bad state after the accident on your first night here. It’ll have to be repaired before it can take you all home. I’m not sure how long this will take, so I humbly ask for your patience. Thank you,” she said miserably. Behind her, Roxann and Barnaby had plastered on enormous and obviously fake smiles.

The guests sat in silence as Roxann took away the empty bowls. Barnaby picked up the considerably lighter dish of dinner rolls.

“You all ate a lot,” he muttered to himself as he took the plate through the servants’ door. Darkling watched him leave and wondered where Pygmy and Queen were now.

The guests all followed Magnus to their bedrooms. Most of the guests were simply worried, but Spirit seemed very disturbed. They muttered to themselves all the way to their bedroom. Darkling and Nyx headed to their own bedroom and silently got ready for bed. The two roommates got into their beds and fell into dreamless sleep almost instantly. 

Late that night, a small piece of paper, folded over many times and labeled “READ ME”, was pushed under the door. The piece of paper waited unassumingly by the door, waiting for Nyx and Darkling to wake up and read its contents. It would keep its secrets, scrawled in black pen, to itself until the morning, when Nyx would pick it up, open it, and read:

Lady Ellingham and her servants are not to be trusted. Avoid them as much as you possibly can, don’t tell them anything, and keep a close eye on your possessions.

Ack! I've been caught! 

Well done, Quill! 'Tis I, Bakerloo! AHEM -- I mean Lady Ellingham. Ooo! I'm a fancy lady with robot servants and (REDACTED TO KEEP THE READING AUDIENCE SPOILER-FREE)!  

I know I've said this already, but thank you all so much for the compliments! They really brighten my day. I've been kind of down lately because of various things and being able to read your wonderful, wonderful comments was really helpful... What? I'm not crying! You're crying! *sob* 

First off, I would like to apologize I have not been commenting more. I have been reading, though, I promise.

Second. OH MY GOODNESS BAKERLOO- I mean, Flora- THIS IS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. The reactions to the deaths are so incredibly realistic (I mean, I've never discovered a murdered person, fortunately *shudders* in real life, but that seems like a completely plausible reaction to that experience) which is something I often don't see in other ski lodges (and am trying to recreate in my ski lodge but am having an increasingly hard time doing, so I'm becoming more and more impressed by this). 

I'm so excited for the next part... 

Wowowowowowow this is awesome, Bakerloo! I mean, Lady Ellingham!

I'm sus of everyone... Trusting no one... Especially the residents of the manor. They've always been kind of weird. 

Chapter Nine

“Know Thy Enemy”

With a great effort, Nyx pushed her suitcase off the side of her bed. As soon as the suitcase had burst open and its contents had been scattered across the floor, she jumped down and began to comb through her belongings.

“You’ll break your suitcase if you keep dropping it like that,” Darkling said, rifling through her duffel bag.

“The carriage overturning wasn’t technically my fault. Everyone had a hand in that,” Nyx grumbled, throwing a pile of clothes onto her bed. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before.”

“We’ve all been so busy with the Manor that we’ve barely had time to think about our things,” Darkling reasoned.

“It’s not here.”

“What isn’t?”

“My GoPro. It’s gone.”

“Hm. That’s weird. Are you sure it’s not there?”

“Yes,” Nyx growled. 

“You must’ve dropped it when the carriage overturned.”

“No, I remember picking it up.” Nyx had angrily stuffed everything back into her suitcase.

“Did you take it out of your suitcase since then?”

“No, I...” Nyx’s eyes became steely as realization hit her. 

“I should’ve guessed,” she muttered.

“I noticed that it was gone the night we arrived,” QueenOfWolves said. “I told Magnus about it the next morning, and he said he’d keep an eye open. I haven’t heard anything from him since.”

“Hmm. Extremely dodgy,” PygmyOwl said from inside the dumbwaiter. After escaping from their hosts, the two detectives had set up shop in the roomiest cupboard they could find. There was a broken-down dumbwaiter, a dim light-bulb, and two rickety chairs much like the ones they had sat in after Kitten was murdered. The dumbwaiter could fit the two of them with room to spare, and Pygmy had been working on repairing it since the girls woke up; she knew that it must lead to the kitchen, and if they could use the dumbwaiter, there was no need to risk being seen on the servants’ stairs.

“You haven’t had anything go missing, have you?” QueenOfWolves asked anxiously.

“I’m afraid I do not know, seeing as I have not made my regular visit to our dormitory,” Pygmy said. “You know, we’ll need some construction implements to get this method of conveyance into good working order.”

“In English?” Queen sighed.

“We need tools to fix this dumbwaiter.” Pygmy said, disappointment in her voice.

“And do you know where to find those?”

“No.”

“And we’ll need to leave here to find them.” Queen was growing more and more discouraged by the minute.

Spirit turned the knob on top of their binoculars until the fuzzy outline of the wrecked carriage became clear. She could now see Lady Ellingham, who was running around with an oilcan, and Magnus, who was standing patiently off to the side sorting screws and nails into separate piles. I didn’t know Lady Ellingham could walk on her own, much less run, Spirit thought to themself. They were standing in a dark, cold corridor on the Manor’s ground floor. Spirit had never been on this corridor before, but it was an excellent place to spy on Lady Ellingham. There was a rustling noise. Spirit turned around to see that Quill had just stepped through the tapestry of several young men hunting wild boar that hid the ground floor entrance to the servants’ staircase.

“Hullo, old friend,” Quill quipped.

Spirit nodded.

“This staircase is pretty useful, huh? Great way to avoid Roxann and Barnaby, they hardly ever use it. I heard Barnaby in the kitchen on the way down, grumbling about how Queen and Pygmy escaped,” Quill said in one breath.

Spirit was less excitable. “How did you find out about the staircase?” they asked.

“Lumi told me about it.”

“Hm.” Spirit did not take their eyes off of Lady Ellingham and the carriage.

“Did you know about it?”

“Yes. Mary told me this morning.”

“Did you get that weird note about not trusting Lady Ellingham?”

“Yep.”

“Cool.” Quill, still smiling, finally left Spirit in peace.

The servants’ staircase had suddenly become rather busy. Mary’s discovery had spread through the manor, and as Barnaby and Roxann were yet to be seen, all the guests were now using it to get from floor to floor. Everyone was talking to each other, about the note, about the items that they had realized were missing, about who the note was from, and so it seemed to Luminescence that there was always someone running up or down the stairs. 

“Breakfast hasn’t even been served,” Majestic Mary moaned, rather ungracefully. “It’s too early for this.”

“You g-got the note, d-d-didn’t you?” Lumi asked as the two of them walked up the stairs, trying to find PygmyOwl and Queen’s hiding spot.

“Yes,” Mary yawned. “But we haven’t even had breakfast yet!”

Lumi shrugged. “I heard that w-we shouldn’t even g-go d-d-d-down to breakfast. R-roxann might try t-t-to poison us.”

“Who told you that?”

“No-one. I j-just heard someone s-s-say it.” Lumi opened the door to the third floor and stepped through it. Mary continued on until she reached the fourth floor -- the girls had agreed that Lumi would take odd-numbered floors, and Mary would get the even-numbered floors. Mary yawned loudly; she thought she had the staircase to herself.

Suddenly, a chill ran through her body, an instinct telling her to run. 

There’s no need to run. Everything is fine, a voice said.

Mary found herself running faster and faster, passing the door to the fourth floor. Now she was passing the door to the fifth floor. What would happen when she ran out of floors? 

Sixth floor. The last one. The stairs met the ceiling just after the door. Mary stopped. There was not a sound. Everything’s fine. You just panicked.

Mary turned around and gasped. A boa constrictor -- a mechanical boa constrictor, the one from the menagerie, was now twisting itself around her neck, squeezing every last bit of air it could from Mary’s lungs.

This is fine. Just breathe. Mary’s vision blurred.

Just keep holding on. Breathe. Just keep holding on. Things will be fine. What would Miss Manners do?

“Not again,” a voice said.

Whose voice? Whose voice? Keep holding on. Will I be a ghost now? I don’t think I want to be a ghost. It seems very unpleasant.

With that, Mary closed her eyes.