ahh i'm excited to see where this will go!

Day Two

Summer was having a wonderful dream involving a jellybean cracking jokes, when she was rudely awoken by a shaft of bright light falling across her face. She blearily rolled over to see Luna standing by the curtains. 

“I’m sorry!” Luna whispered loudly. “I didn’t realize it was quite so bright outside.”

On the other side of the room, Quill grumbled sleepily and pulled her pillow over her face.

Summer rubbed her eyes and rolled out of bed, walking over to Luna and whispering quietly in their ear. “I like waking up early anyway. Wanna go explore the manor?”

Luna nodded silently, and the two of them tiptoed out of the room, stepping exaggeratedly to avoid disturbing Quill. Still in their pajamas and bare feet, the two of them padded down the cold stone hallway, past the other bedrooms, and then down the staircase. By unspoken agreement, they turned away from the front half of the manor, the part they’d been shown on the tour, and slipped into the back side.

The first thing Summer noticed was that it was darker. There were fewer windows, more candelabras. The vibe changed, gradually, from fun-old-castle-ballgowns-dark-academia to creepy-dark-something’s-wrong-here.

“Wanna hear a joke?” Summer asked to lighten the mood. Her voice sounded loud in the dead silence of the halls.

“Sure?”

“How many dead babies does it take to screw in a lightbulb?”

Luna looked at her kind of funny and shrugged.

“Must be more than seven, ‘cause my basement’s still dark!” She delivered the line like it was the funniest punchline ever.

“That’s not funny, Summer,” Luna said, quite seriously. He sounded vaguely concerned.

“You’re right. Sorry.”

The two of them kept walking. They passed several closed doors, all locked, with not even wide enough gaps underneath that they could peek under. Finally, when Luna was starting to think that maybe they should give up on finding anything and turn back, they heard footsteps coming down the hallway in front of them. Summer heard it too. The two visitors froze and looked around quickly, but there was no place they could hide. It’s not like we’re technically breaking any rules, Summer thought to herself. At the same time, Luna was wondering how she’d ever thought it was a good idea to go poking around in the dark recesses of a deep, dark, scary manor that were clearly supposed to be kept away from the visitors.

They both breathed a sigh of relief when the owner of the footsteps rounded the corner, revealing themself to be Finn. The trepidation returned, however, when they saw the expression on Finn’s face.

“What the blazes are you doing back here?” they said, their voice an odd mix of curiosity, anger, and fear.

“Uh, wandering?” Summer said, like it was obvious. Luna noted with some surprise that there was no fear at all in her voice. “Is there a problem with that?”

“Not technically, I suppose, but if you want to stay on my father’s good side I’d highly recommend that you stick to the more friendly areas of the manor.”

Luna nodded a few times, keeping their eyes on Finn. That seemed reasonable. Wait. “Say, what are you wearing?”

Finn looked down at their outfit for a moment, then back at the CBers. They were wearing a plain white t-shirt, soaked with sweat at the armpits, and loose, casual pants. “Oh. Uh. I was just, um, working out. I do that. In the mornings. As one does.”

“Uh-huh,” Summer said, not terribly convinced.

Luna nudged her. “Let’s head back and get dressed, okay?” 

~~~

Breakfast that morning was a wide spread of pancakes, French toast, waffles, bagels, banana bread, and more- in short, every baked good one could think of. 

As Dreamii ate her plain, unbuttered bagel, she glanced around the room and noticed that neither William, Finn, or Juniper were there. Several butlers had come in to set down the food and then left silently, but that was the only connection they’d had with their hosts this morning. Perhaps they were too posh to eat with their lowly guests.

After they’d all finished eating and the food had been cleared away, Juniper came in and clapped her hands loudly. Chattering ceased as everyone turned to look at her. 

“Good morning, guests!” she said brightly. Someone muttered something about sleeping in, which everyone else ignored. “I trust you slept well. Today, I’d like to show you all one of my favorite sections of the manor: the art gallery. I know not everyone likes art, but I urge you to give it a chance- and if you end up completely bored, you’re always welcome to sit in the corner and read a book.” Several people smiled at that. “So! Off we go. Follow me.”

The art gallery was beautiful. The walls were lined with paintings that Silver Crystal was sure would be in museums with captions like “famous” and “one-of-a-kind” and “worth a million dollars.” She pulled her polaroid camera out of her bag and snapped a few pictures to show off to her friends when she got home.

Perry, meanwhile, was having a wonderful time flying twisting loops around the statues dotted throughout the middle of the room. Juniper glanced at him with a vague look of concern, then shrugged and returned to her conversation with Bean about where her father had obtained all the art pieces.

After the art gallery, Juniper took them out to explore the gardens, then back in for lunch (tomato soup and grilled cheese), and then set them free for the rest of the afternoon. 

They came back together in the evening for what everyone agreed was the best part of the day: roasting s’mores in the fireplace in the library. There was only enough room for three people at a time to be in front with their marshmallows, so they drew sticks for who got to go first. Oli, Quill, and Bean won the draw, so they knelt in front of the fireplace with their soft marshmallows impaled on sticks, gently rotating them in the flames. All three had remarkably similar taste in marshmallows: golden brown and toasty on the outside, gooey on the inside. (This is, by the way, the correct way to cook a marshmallow. Argument is not permitted.) They finished around the same time and stepped back to let the next group in, then the next. 

Everything was going just fine until Lynx, who was exasperated with their marshmallow, let it fall into the fire. It let out a searing burst of flame, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

The next thing they knew, in the back of the group, Moth let out an ungodly screech. The crowd turned to see their shaking hands trying to keep a bloody body from falling on top of them.

It was Luna. 

A marshmallow-roasting-stick was stabbed directly into her heart.

--

Deepest apologies for the delay.

I'd be delighted to hear your theories for who might have stabbed Luna so rudely. (Sorry, Luna! The random number generator picked you.)

Is it too late to submit a form? (I joined the CB after this started.)