Day 4, Part 2

Flowing Willow heard Star Princess’ scream and ran as fast as her panda legs could carry her in the source of the noise. 

Star Princess saw Flowing Willow round the corner as the poison darts embedded themselves into her skin. “Starr Prncs!”

“Flowing Willow! Stay back!” yelled Star Princess. The poison seeped into her bloodstream, causing her to become light-headed and woozy. 

The CAPTCHA backed against the wall, fear in her eyes. 

“I know who the murderer is. It’s...it’s....” She trailed off as the poison reached her heart and her body went limp. 

~~~~~

“Oh my goodness,” breathed Tealeaf, seeing Star Princess’ body on the floor. Flowing Willow had run and alerted her, Zealatom, NerdFace, and Summer, who all now stood around the body of their friend. 

“Shhee knnew whhoo tthey aaree,” explained Flowing Willow. “Whhoo thhee mrdrer iisss.” 

“Oh, Star Princess,” whimpered Summer, kneeling down. “How are we going to tell Lady Jubilance?” 

The CBers exchanged glances. Jubi had already lost her fellow AE, and now her CBer was gone as well.

Turns out they didn’t need to tell her: At that moment, Lady Jubilance came running down the hall. 

“I heard a scream, what-” She froze, seeing Star Princess. Then, she broke into tears and ran off the other way.

“Jubi! Wait!” Summer jumped to her feet.

“I’ll go get her,” said Tealeaf, racing after the AE. 

~~~~~

Star Princess’ death came as a shock to Jubi. Sure, there was a murderer running around, and it was only to expect. But she’d never really believed Star Princess - her beloved CBer - would really die. And what’s worse was, when Lio had died, Star Princess had been there to comfort her. To share her pain. But now that Star Princess was gone...who would be there to sympathize with her? 

~~~~~

Tealeaf walked down the hall of the base, trying to ignore the fact that the murderer could pop out at her any second. 

“Jubi? Lady Jubilance?” she called, loudly as she dared. “Where are you?” 

She stepped a little too hard and the metallic floor clanged beneath her feet. She shrieked - although, honestly, it was more of a squeak - then chided herself; she wasn’t usually this jumpy. 

A person stepped out of a doorway in front of her.

“Hey, did you happen to see Jubi walk by?” Tealeaf asked, trying to keep her voice from shaking. 

Too late she noticed they were holding a knife. 

~~~~~

“Another CBer. Dead,” cried Summer, trying to hold in her tears.

“The murderer’s killing off our AEs to make us sad and weak. Now they're singling us out and going for the CBers,” said NerdFace. 

“And how would you know that?” asked NiteSkiies accusingly. 

NerdFace shrugged. “I’ve read a lot of murder mystery novels.” 

“But this isn't a novel! This is real life!” burst out Feline Fantasy. “Things are actually at stake!” 

“Feli’s right,” said Summer quietly. “We can’t keep fighting. We’re just going to...to die here. And arguing with each other for no reason isn’t going to help.” 

“It isn’t for no reason,” muttered NiteSkiies, but otherwise kept silent. 

“What are you guys talking about?” asked Lyron, rounding the corner. 

The guests all jumped. “Someone died,” Summer explained, gesturing to Tealeaf’s limp body.

“Another one?” Lyron said, exasperated. He straightened up. “No matter. You guys go suit up and get back to the spaceship. I’ll take care of - what was her name? Oh, yes - Tealeaf.” 

~~~~~

While all this craziness was going on, Lindel and Quinn had successfully managed to acquire the leftover pie, which they greedily ate under a table, to make sure no one saw them and revoked their dessert privileges. Somewhere around the 5th or 6th pie, the two AEs got sick of eating it, and decided to throw the remaining ones at their CBers. So when they heard a noise in the hallway outside of the dining room, they flung the blueberry pies onto their unsuspecting victim, who just so happened to be Lady Jubilance. She cried out in protest as the purple blueberry juice stained her clothes.

Lindel shrugged. “Well, you abandoned us in our quest for pie, so you will suffer the consequences.” 

“Well, Star Princess died,” she said, her voice cracking. She ran from the dining room before Quinn or Lindel could respond. 

The two AEs exchanged looks. Neither of them had lost their CBers, and they could only imagine what Jubi must have been going through. 

Zealatom, Summer, NerdFace, and Willow, entered the dining room, with Autumn and Flowing Willow trotting behind them. The pair of AEs made to bombard them with pies, but realized they had used them all on Jubi. 

Summer explained that Tealeaf and Star Princess had been killed. Quinn and Lindel could now see that Willow’s face was blotchy from crying. 

The group left, with Quinn and Lindel in tow, to collect the other guests. The CBers, AEs, and CAPTCHAs put their spacesuits on in the front hall, then went outside where NiteSkiies, Kitty Cat, and Feline Fantasy were waiting for them. 

Aquila let them into the ship, and they all flew off towards their next destination.

~~~~~

Dead: 10 (Topaz, Lio, Adrian, Leo, Thorn, Silver Crystal, Firelily, Winter, Star Princess, and Tealeaf)

Alive: 13

Suspects: Willow, someone from the protection team, ??? 

Hey everyone! Just wanted to apologize for not getting a part out today. I'll try to post one as soon as possible!

@Star Princess (and everyone who commented, really), thanks so so much for commenting. I haven't been that motivated lately, and your comments keep me going.

@Kitty Cat, I noticed your post on Chirp at Cricket about changing your pronouns to fae/faer. Would you like me to use them in this ski lodge, or continue with they/them, or something else? Whatever you feel comfortable with me using works!

~Andromeda

P.S. Just to remind everyone, I haven't been guessed yet. ;)  

@Kitty Cat, no, I am not Lumi. 

And, everyone, you may have noticed that there are multiple deaths per day, while in most ski lodges there is only one. I should have mentioned this before, and it is because I really want to finish this before I go to summer camp in a few weeks, but since I am drowning in school work and an expert on procrastination, that may not happen. In any case, I am not intent on letting this die.  Also, if anyone feels I am not mentioning you or your AEs/CAPTCHA enough, please speak up! I do not want to exclude anyone. :)

••••••••••

Day 5, Part 1

“Tealeaf!”

Willow awoke in the darkness of night, calling out her CBer’s name. Tealeaf is gone, she reminded herself. You’re all alone. Although it was common sense - hadn’t she felt Tealeaf’s heart stop beating? Watched as Lyron took the body away? - Willow couldn’t stop hoping that maybe Tealeaf wasn’t really dead. It was crazy, she knew it was. Was she going crazy? Someone would have told her, right? She fell back asleep, somewhat comforted by the thought that a crazy person never knows they’re going crazy - to them, their reasoning makes perfect sense. 

~~~~~

The guests made their way down to the dining hall for breakfast, where Lacerta awaited them with towering piles of waffles at each table. Lindel made a beeline for the maple syrup and poured half a bottle on a single waffle and ate it, much to the other guests' mixed anger/amusement/disgust. Kitty Cat, Zealatom, Jubi, and Quinn joined the AE, while Feline Fantasy, NiteSkiies, and Evan poured a reasonable amount of syrup on their waffles, and Summer, NerdFace, and Willow topped theirs with berries and powdered sugar. (The CAPTCHAs were served separate meals according to their dietary needs.)

Breakfast passed smoothly, until Lindel wondered if waffles would have the same effect as pies if thrown. So Lindel aimed one at the back of his CBer’s head, completely soaking his dark hair. Zealatom mumbled something under his breath, but otherwise kept his calm exterior. “I’m going to take a shower,” he announced, and left the dining hall. The other guests started to disperse, all going their separate ways for the hour of free time before breakfast. 

The perfect oppurtunity for a murder.

~~~~~

The murderer slunk down the hall to the Sun cabin. The door creaked noisily - well, not really, it was barely loud enough for someone down the hall to hear, but the noise made the murderer want to run in the opposite direction. They could not risk getting their cover blown. However, they had a job to do. 

They were running low on their weapon stock. Most of their weapons had been lost, taken away with the body, or who knows what else. And without weapons, they would surely fail their mission. 

The murderer shut the door behind them and started rummaging through the suitcases of the Sun cabin guests. There were not so many things - who would think to bring a weapon on a vacation? No one knew there would be a murderer ahead of time, not even the murderer themself - but the murderer knew how to get creative. 

~~~~~

Evan walked down the corridor to the bathroom. It was this way, right? He wasn’t so sure. Actually, he wasn’t so sure about anything anymore. Just a couple days ago, Adrian was alive and well. Oh, how he missed Adrian. Maybe he wasn’t the best company, but he was his fellow AE, and like a brother to him. And had it only been a couple of days since this freakish vacation had started? It felt like so much longer. Time is a funny thing, Evan thought. You think you had so much of it, when actually, you have none at all.

He couldn’t have been more right. 

~~~~~

The murderer approached their next victim from behind, their weapon clutched in their hand. Evan sensed them, and turned around. That’s when the murderer stuck, sending a fistful of NiteSkiies’ glitter into his face. Evan shrieked as it momentarily blinded him. ‘Momentarily,’ the murderer knew, was the key word here. They needed to work fast.

~~~~~

While all this was going on, NiteSkiies, Summer, Feline Fantasy, Zealatom, NerdFace, Kitty Cat, Willow, Flowing Willow, and Quinn were entering the observatory. NiteSkiies watched them silently as they filed in, too aware of how much their numbers had dwindled since the last meeting. However, she took a deep breath and willed herself to be strong. 

“Hello, everyone,” she started. “It is only the fifth day, and already ten of our fellow guests are gone. They were our AEs, our CBers, and our friends. Worst of all, we know that one among us is responsible for their deaths. And we must stop them!” 

She was about to suggest her ideas for catching the murderer, but at that moment, Jubi rushed in. 

“NiteSkiies- NerdFace- I saw- It’s him- I swear I didn’t do it!” Lady Jubilance stuttered before breaking into sobs. 

“Shh, calm down, Jubi,” Summer murmured, putting her arm around the AE’s shoulder. “Tell us what you saw.”

But NerdFace was already throwing open the trap door and running down the staircase. She couldn’t explain it, exactly, but she knew what had happened. And even before she saw his glitter-covered face and the red marks around his neck, even before she held his wrist and felt no pulse, she knew her AE was gone. But the loss of another AE didn't make her weaker, it just made her stronger. And with the fiery need for revenge inside her, NerdFace devised a plan.

100th Comment!! Woo! 

...Sorry, I just needed to do that. Also, this won't top. TOP!!