DAY 1, PART 3:

moondemon picked up the pair of dice and rolled them across the board. “Seven,” he announced, moving his piece seven spaces on the Monopoly board. He landed squarely on GO and collected $200 from the bank. 

“My turn,” Quill said, picking up the dice. The inhabitants of the Carnelian and Quartzite rooms were in the middle of a game of Monopoly in the Quartzite Room, and they had been playing for around an hour or so. It was the late afternoon, and everyone who wasn’t roped into the game was in the other rooms, reading or drawing. The chairs had been pushed to the side and the board was sprawled out in the center of the room, with Luna, Jewel, Daylily, moondemon, Harper and Quill circled around it. Juni was in one of the armchairs, observing the game. She had gotten out pretty early in the game when she had the worst luck and continuously got sent to jail.

Quill had no such luck as moondemon did. They rolled a five, which landed their piece on Boardwalk, which Daylily owned. 

Daylily grinned, holding out her hand. “That’s gonna be $1,000, please.”

Quill glanced at their money and sighed, handing it all to the AE. “I’m out. I lasted for longer than I thought, though.”

Luna grabbed the dice for her turn as Quill stood to join Juni, but they were both interrupted by the round door swinging open and Bean poking her head in. 

“Anyone want to explore a little bit?” She asked. “I tried asking the people in my room but they felt like resting.”

“Sure,” Juni said, jumping up from the chair. “This place is huge. I bet there’s a ton of places we haven’t seen yet.”

“I’m in,” Quill said. “Anyone want to come?”

“I can’t leave now; I’m just about to win,” Daylily said.

“You wish,” Luna said, moving her piece to one of the properties that she owned. The rest of the people around the board declined Bean’s offer to stay in the game, so Bean, Quill, and Juni left the room and made their way to the Grand Hall.

Juni suddenly remembered the half covered tunnel she’d seen earlier that day on their way back from the Rainbow Caves. “Over here!” she called, leading them to it. 

Quill looked nervously over their shoulder. “Should we ask permission to go in? We don’t know where it goes.”

“That’s the whole point,” Bean said, already peering inside. “Besides, Hope never said we weren’t allowed to go in here, so it can’t be that important.”

Quill relented, and the trio started down the dark tunnel, the light of the Grand Hall behind them dimly lighting the space. Eventually, after five or so minutes of walking (they had gotten to the point where there was barely any light left), they reached a fork in the tunnel. To the left it sloped up, and there was a light that shone bright up ahead there. To the right it went downwards, and the light coming from there was dim and thin. Quill and Juni automatically turned to the left, but Bean started towards the dark tunnel. 

“Why don’t we just go up here?” Juni asked Bean, pointing to the left tunnel. “That other one looks a little unpredictable. We don’t know what’s down there.”

Bean waved her hand in the air dismissively and said, “I’m just going to check it out. Give me two minutes.” Before Quill or Juni could protest further, Bean disappeared down the dark tunnel. She kept going down, down, down, until the floor evened out. It was much, much colder down here. Bean strained her eyes through the dark. To her surprise, the tunnel led into a wide cavern that seemed to stretch up and forward into the darkness. It was made of dark and rough rock with no refinement, and as far as she could see, no one had been there in a long, long time. She couldn’t see where it ended, or whether it ended at all. A bit unnerved, she turned and made her way back up to her companions, who were waiting for her. 

“Find anything down there?” Juni asked.

Bean couldn’t quite shake the dark feeling. “Nope, just a big, dark cave. Let’s try the left tunnel now; maybe there’s something interesting up there.”

The three of them walked through the tunnel to their left, leading upwards. It led out into a large room lit by crystals hanging from the ceiling, but none of them noticed those. Instead, their gaze was drawn to the things taking up most of the space in the room; giant stalagmites and stalactites, thicker than Juni was tall and jutting out from every wall and the floor and ceiling, criss crossing each other and casting dark shadows across the room. 

“Wow,” Quill breathed. “Incredible.”

Bean couldn’t help but agree, and the dark feeling was all but forgotten.

~~~

dreamii wandered out to the Grand Hall. The CBers playing Monopoly had told her that Quill, Bean and Juni had gone exploring, and she wanted to join them, but they didn’t seem to be anywhere. She turned around and started towards one of the dark tunnels, which was, in fact, not the one that Bean and the others had gone through, thinking that maybe they had gone down there. Halfway there, her foot caught on something. A wire. She heard a spinning noise and the scrape of rock on rock. 

She looked up.

If only she had run away faster.

She couldn’t even scream.

~~~

Dead: dreamii

Suspects: Who do you think? Comments welcome. 

DAY 1, PART 4:

“Hey, has anyone seen dreamii?” Luna asked. 

“She went after Quill, Bean, and Juni, remember?” Jewel replied. They were cleaning up their Monopoly game after Harper had surprisingly pulled ahead of Daylily and won. Luna and Jewel had offered to clean up, while the others went to wait in the Dining Hall for dinner. 

Suddenly, a sound echoed through the tunnels to the Quartzite Room. A scream. 

Jewel dropped the card she was holding, her face paling in fear. “W-what was that?”

“A murder,” Luna murmered, almost to herself. Then she shook her head in disbelief and wondered why on Earth she would say that. A murder, here? No, that wasn’t right. But something seemed so familiar about it all. A memory skirted at the edge of her subconscious, but she shook it off. 

“What?” Jewel asked. 

“Nevermind,” Luna said, snapping back into reality. “Let’s go see.”

They abandoned the game pieces and sprinted to the Grand Hall. The group of CBers was clustered around a fallen pile of rocks. Nightfall had been the one to scream, and Wreeboo was crying. Luna caught sight of the body, half covered by the rocks, and looking away sharply before her eyes had time to focus on the details.

Juni was staring at dreamii’s body in disbelief. “She was looking for us…”

“Don’t blame yourselves,” a voice said behind them. “It’s not your fault.”

They turned around to find Hope, her bright oranges and yellows seeming so much dimmer in the moment. She looked at the scene with barely concealed grief and shook her head sadly. “I should have checked the area more thoroughly before letting you all in here. Otherwise this wouldn’t’ve happened.”

“It’s not your fault, either,” Castillo said softly. “It was an accident.”

Quill felt something shift at the words. Of course they knew it was an accident… but then why did they feel as if they were forgetting something important?

Hope surveyed the CBers and AEs in front of her in a split second. Most of them were teary eyed or downright terrified, but her eyes caught on Luna and Quill. Along with looking stricken by sadness, there was also something else. Confusion, recognition, fear…

Of course, Hope realized. They’re the ones that have been here the longest. They’ll suspect the most, at first. But the Mystery should keep them from remembering, if all goes well. But the murderer couldn’t hide forever. Hope locked eyes with them and recalled their promise to reveal themselves as a fellow vacationer soon. But for now, they couldn’t risk it.

Hope lowered her voice. “Anyone who still wants dinner can come with me. But I understand if you would like to return to your rooms now.”

The CBers and AEs nodded and split silently into two groups, one headed for the rooms and the other to the Dining Hall. Hope watched as Luna made her way to the latter, still wearing a grim expression, before stopping in her tracks.

“Wait,” Luna called out. Everyone stopped. “We need a funeral.” It wasn’t a question; it was as if she already knew they needed one as soon as she heard Nightfall’s scream.

Hope narrowed her eyes slightly. Luna was remembering more than was anticipated. It made sense, considering her previous Ski Lodges and other connections over the years.

Hope shrugged away the doubt. If Luna was going to be an issue, she would just have to be terminated earlier than expected. 

After all, better sooner than later.

~~~

Dead: dreamii

Suspects: Thoughts?

Oooh. I literally have no clue who it could be! XD