Aaah, amazing! Mysteriously awesome. You portrayed me exactly right--thanks!

Day 1, Part 1

Tsuki woke up moments after the first sun rays burst over the treetops, bathing the Osorthe forest and her bedroom in dazzling golden light. She yawned and stretched her arms over her head, an admittedly cliche sort of way to wake up, but that’s what she did nonetheless. She untangled herself from the patchwork quilt patterned with starbursts, quickly brushed her hair, and pulled on her clothes before heading down the stairs. 

She wasn’t the first one to the entrance hall, nor was she the last. Guests were scattered around the room, waiting around or talking quietly in groups of two or three. They were all well-rested and full of energy, excited for the day’s activities. Slowly, the rest of the guests started to trickle in, and at about eight o’clock, Socie banged open the dining room doors to grace them all with her presence. 

“Good morning! Do we have everybody?” Socie’s brow bunched up, and a look that Jaybells couldn’t quite decipher flickered across her face. “Sixteen...who’s not here?”

The guests murmured amongst themselves as they tried to figure out who was missing.

“Aliza’s not here,” exclaimed Script.

“Excuse me?” the AE shot back from beside Writing. “I’m standing right here.” 

“Um....”

Everybody turned to face Circe, who had voiced the unsure, trembling word. “Guys, it’s pangolin. I’ve never known her to be late for things like this.” 

“Don’t worry,” Periwinkle said, reaching over and squeezing Circe’s hand. “I’m sure she just overslept or is still getting ready. We’ll go look for them.” 

Tsuki, Darkling, and Darkvine all decided to help Peri and Circe search for the missing CBer. 

Tsuki and Peri teamed up to check pangolin’s room, while Darkling looked in the library, and Circe and Darkvine patrolled the halls. 

It was Darkvine who found pangolin. Her discovery triggered an ear splitting scream that reverberated around the house and sent the guests and Socie flocking to her.

Darkvine was kneeling on the bathroom floor when Socie located her, her face drained of color and her hands grasping opposite arms with white knuckles. In front of her, pangolin lay face-up on the floor, unmoving and unbreathing, her rusty hair splayed out around her head like a reddish halo. Her temple was bruised and bloodied, and beside her sat a crowbar, the obvious offender. 

“Is she...?” Circe’s voice wavered as she gazed upon her CBer. She was unable to finish her question, but the other guests knew what she meant anyway.

Gingerly, Darkvine picked up pangolin’s wrist and felt for a pulse. Darkvine was no expert, but she knew something felt wrong. A slight shake of her head confirmed everything the guests needed to know. 

“Oh my stars...,” Shining Star pinched a spot between her eyes, clearly holding back tears. Not even a full day ago, hadn’t she and pangolin laughed as they raced each other up the stairs to the third floor? Hadn’t they all enjoyed themselves in Lockaria House’s large library, not worrying about anything and with no reason to?

“I don’t know what to make of all this,” Jaybells murmured, xir mind trying to disentangle pangolin’s death. Xe surveyed the guests. They all looked pretty shaken up. Circe was sobbing, Tsuki and Peri both at her side, telling her kind words that meant nothing. Avara and Silver Crystal both looked badly shaken up. Darkvine still had her arms hugged close to her body, looking like she wanted to aid pangolin, although the CBer was obviously beyond help. In the end, Darkvine just grabbed a few sheets of toilet paper, wet them, and dabbed the blood off of pangolin’s temple. It was the most she could do. 

“It looks like she could be sleeping, if it weren’t for the bruises,” Darkvine whispered to Writing_in_the_Dark who was standing beside her. “Do you think it was intentional?”

Writing’s face was unreadable. “I’d like to think it wasn’t. But I don’t see how pangolin getting hit over the head with a crowbar was an accident.”

Eventually, Socie told the guests they would get nothing done just standing around, and they ought to head down into the dining hall and get breakfast.

“I’ll deal with the body,” she assured them.

Circe felt sick. She didn’t like her CBer being referred to as “the body.”

“C’mon.” Peri guided Circe down the flight of stairs and onto the first floor. Slowly, the guests started to clear out, until it was just Socie, standing there with pangolin’s limp body at her feet. She stared at the spot where Reuby had just vanished down the stars, her face blank. Then she clapped her hands, and set to work.

Breakfast that day was homemade blueberry pancakes that should have been a treat to all the guests. But they might as well have been cardboard for how much the guests enjoyed them. pangolin’s death loomed above them like a heavy black cloud, making it increasingly harder to breathe. Although none of them spoke, many questions hung between all of them:

Why would somebody kill pangolin? And, if it was intentional, would they be next?

~~~

Dead: 1 (pangolin)

Alive: 16

@I joined after this started, but, I was wondering if I could join, like as a person who get's lost, and ends up here? Or mabye a person who lives in the Manor, but in the basment, or in a cabin in the woods, and finds her way here. If It's a yes, than I'll add the form later, If no, than I'll just read along.

Oh no--not Pangolin T^T

On the plus side, it wasn't me. 

Day 1, Part 2

The murderer kept to themselves. They did not speak anymore than necessary, they did not call attention to themselves. To anyone else, their behavior may have been mistaken for grieving. Nobody could suspect what they’d done, nobody could accuse them of killing pangolin.

If they were caught, everything would crumble. They could not be caught. 

Why pangolin, the murderer asked themselves whenever they had a quiet moment alone. They never reached a satisfactory conclusion. 

Yes, they had known pangolin. They ached when they thought about what they’d done. They had seen Circe be torn apart by her CBer’s death. Worse, they knew pangolin would not be the only life they’d take. 

Everything had a place in the Osorthe Forest. They knew their place, they knew their task. They might not know what all of this was leading to, they might not know the “why”s or the “how”s, but they knew it was bigger than themselves. And it was not their place to question. 

If they closed their eyes, they could still picture the silent hallway, how they tensed up every time their foot found a creaky floorboard. The cool metal feel of the crowbar in their sweating hands. 

pangolin had crept from her room, sock feet padding on the soft carpet, and opened the bathroom door. When pangolin’s back was turned to flick on the lightswitch, the murderer stepped from the shadows and swung the crowbar. pangolin never even got a chance to scream. 

Perhaps pangolin had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe it was fate, or the work of some higher power. But in the end, it didn’t really matter. 

One down, fifteen to go, the murderer told themselves. Shouldn’t be too hard.

~~~

Jaybells stumbled along the dirt path, while Socie barrelled ahead, talking rapidly about whatever they’d be doing next. Something about a beach? Xyr shoe caught on a gnarled root, and xe stumbled, scraping xyr palms on the dusty forest floor. 

“You good?” asked Silver Crystal, offering her hand to help Jaybells up. Xe brushed xyr dirt-covered palms on xyr pants, and smiled. 

“Thanks.” They walked in silence, but although they didn’t speak, they could sense pangolin’s death in each other’s thoughts. pangolin’s death had affected them both, and they were afraid of what might happen next.

“Hey guys!” yelled Aliza from somewhere ahead in the trail. Silver and Jaybells realized then that they were way behind the rest of the group. “Chop-chop!” The duo ran to catch up, taking care not to trip over any more roots. They rounded a large oak tree onto a sandy crescent-shaped beach. Cool morning mist rolled off the glassy water, obscuring most of a small island out the lake behind a veil of soft gray haze, muting the red and gold and dark green colors of its trees.

Socie was standing at the edge of the beach, the water lapping at her shoes in an almost affectionate manner, her arms spread wide as if welcoming the lake in for a hug. “Welcome, friends and companions, to Alaway Lake.”

Kei surveyed the beach. The sand had a color somewhere between beige and light brown, and a slightly rough texture. An old post and rail fence constructed from light wood marked the border between the beach and the beginning of the forest, and large gray rocks were clustered around the bottom of it. A fine selection of canoes, kayaks, and rowboats were propped up on the side of a boat rack in the sand. A tetherball pole with a faded yellow ball was secured into the sand, and a metal basket full of volleyballs and beach balls rested next to a volleyball net. The lake itself, Socie explained as Silver Crystal fished out a once-white-but-now-yellowish volleyball, spanned 64 acres and was 26 feet at its deepest point. 

“Who wants to be on my team?” called Silver, standing up on one of the gray rocks and looking at her fellow guests.

Circe, Opal, Sterling, Shining Star, and Darkling all teamed up with Silver, while Kei, Darkvine, Periwinkle, Reuby, Avara, and Aliza formed their own team. 

Writing_in_the_Dark sat down on a piece of driftwood and pulled out xyr sketchbook and pencil case, inspired by the lake’s sparkling water and mist. Who knew what secrets lurked behind that fog? 

Jaybells, Tsuki, and Script played tetherball, winner of each two person game playing whoever had sat out that round. 

The day flew by, and laughter and chatter rose above Alaway Lake. The guests were having so much fun, they almost forgot about pangolin’s death that morning.

Almost.

~~~

Dead: 1 (pangolin)

Alive: 16 

~~~

Also, I probably won't be able to get a part out next week, because I'm going to be on vacation until Tuesday-- at the place that inspired Osorthe Forest and many of the locations in this ski lodge, actually (don't worry, I'm positive there are no murderers), and won't get a lot of time to write. :)