hey my Lockaria House friends~

this is very much still alive! i've just been sick all week and in a writing slump as a result, but I plan on getting the next part out shortly. thank you for your patience and comments; it means so much to me. :) 

~Socie/pangolin

Day 6, Part 2

In the basement of Lockaria House, Artemis crouched, frozen, at the bottom of the stairs, hardly daring to breathe. A floorboard creaked directly overhead, dangerously close to the secret door to the basement.

Her mind raced. Both Socie and the murderer — whoever that might be — were equally bad, as far as she was concerned. The murderer because, well, that was self-explanatory. And Socie because she'd probably be mad at Artemis for sneaking around without permission and forbid her from exploring further. If another guest saw her lying about going to the bathroom and sneaking around in secret rooms, they might accuse her of being the murderer. 

No. 

Artemis had just watched her friends and their AEs die — no, not just "die"; "be killed" was much more accurate — and she had just stood by and watched. She had to put an end to this.

So, she stayed quiet, she stayed still, praying to whatever higher powers might be listening that she wasn't discovered.

Floorboards creaked in the direction of the dining room, and then all went quiet.

Artemis let out a sigh and brushed dust and dirt off herself as she stood up. Then, she nearly screamed but managed to let out only a dramatic gasp as a figure materialized in front of her. 

It was a girl, with long dyed-blue hair and giant hawk wings, and she didn't look quite real. Reality seemed warped, as if it were being pushed aside to make room for her. 

The girl was walking with one hand braced against the wall to support herself. "I—I'm fine," she said, turning to look just past Artemis. Her eyes were fixed on something in the distance in such a way it sent a shiver down Artemis's spine. "I told you, Hedera, I just ate something weird. Must've been the popcorn. I'll be fine." 

The girl winced, her knees shaking. "Yes, I'm sure." She doubled over, gagging and coughing. 

"Oh my gosh. Are you okay?" Artemis gasped, running over to the girl. "Do you — do you need help?" 

The girl didn't even acknowledge Artemis, instead collapsing to the floor. She gave one last spasm, before going still.

"Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness." Artemis pressed her hands to her mouth, still kneeling at the girl's side. 

A few moments later, the girl bolted upright again, and Artemis had to stifle another scream. 

"I thought you were dead!" Artemis exclaimed.

"Well, I was. Er, am? I'm a ghost...I think. It's complicated. In any case, I'm Celestial." She stuck out a hand, and Artemis shook it. Celestial's hand was freezing.

"I'm Artemis," said Artemis, because what was she supposed to say when she was talking to a literal ghost who had just reenacted her death scene right in front of her? 

"I'm sorry — I tend to do that," Celestial said, as if reading Artemis's thoughts. "Lately, I've been reliving my...my death more and more often. I don't know why. It doesn't normally happen with another person around, though, so I can understand if you were a little freaked out."

"Believe it or not, it's not the scariest thing I've seen this week."

"Ohhhh," said Celestial, "you're one of...one of Socie's new guests, right?" 

Artemis nodded. "Why, you know her?"

Celestial smiled sweetly. "Of course I know her. She killed me." 

~~~

The Popcorn Kernels had won and were now awarded with free popcorn. Tsuki was a little bitter that Artemis had left the Marshmackers; it put an unnecessary burden on the four other players and ultimately cost them their victory. Besides, it probably didn't mean anything good that a guest was missing when there was a murderer running around.

"So. Artemis," said Tsuki to Silver Crystal and Echo as they made their way through the entrance hall. 

"I mean...everyone else is accounted for, so it's not like Artemis is killing anyone. Or being killed," reasoned Echo. 

"That's a little dark," muttered Silver.

"This whole situation is dark!" Echo retorted. Silver nodded; that was fair.  

"Well, Artemis might be setting up traps for people to fall into later! Or maybe she fell into a trap!" said Tsuki. 

"It's certainly possible. Let's get everyone to look for her after lunch," said Silver Crystal. 

Tsuki and Echo agreed, and then they were lost in the mad rush of Popcorn Kernels running over to Socie's popcorn machine in the game room. 

~~~

The murderer was crouched beneath the table the memorial was built on, concealed by the long table cloth. They watched as a concealed door in the wall opened, just a crack, as Artemis looked around to make sure no one was there. They watched as Artemis closed and locked the door behind her, and then slid the key into her pocket. They watched as Artemis glanced in the direction of the dining hall, where everyone was eating lunch and the Popcorn Kernels were eating popcorn. They watched as she took a deep breath, making up her mind, and then ran up the stairs to the second story. They watched until she was out of sight, and then they crept out from beneath the table and followed her. 

~~~

Artemis walked through the second floor of Lockaria House, her head swirling. She couldn't believe what Celestial had said about Socie...yet at the same time, it made complete sense. There had to be a way to make this right. 

There had to be. 

Artemis stood in front of the door to Socie's office, staring intently at the dark wood as if it might reveal all its secrets to her. Artemis tried her key in the lock, and with a satisfying click, it opened. She sighed with relief, but there was something nagging at the back of her mind. 

Why would Socie allow me to have the master key to Lockaria House? 

But that question wasn't the most important right now, so Artemis set it aside. 

Socie's office was quaint and rather old-fashioned. It had a fireplace and two armchairs, wide windows looking out into the forest, a painting of some ragwort — Jacobaea maritima, to be precise, and, right behind Socie's desk, a sword and several other weapons secured in a glass case. 

She wasn't entirely sure what she was looking for, though, so she started with the drawers of Socie's desk. Again, the key fit, and the drawer opened. After rifling through some papers that seemed to contain lots of information on the guests, Artemis scraped the wooden bottom of the drawer. 

Nothing.

She tried again with the next drawer, and the next, but no drawer brought up any new evidence, any new clue as to how to get out of here. 

Finally, she circled back to the papers she'd seen in the first drawer. She looked through them until she found her own name. 

Name: Artemis

Gender/Pronouns: female

And so on. "But how...?" she murmured. 

She vaguely remembered filling out a form to come to Lockaria House, but...but...

She flipped over the paper and her heart nearly stopped when she saw what was written in bright red marker on the back of the paper. 

DAY EIGHT — POISONED

But as she watched, the letters almost rippled, spelling out something new. Artemis couldn't even remember what the words had previously said; all she knew was the reality of the words that remained. 

DAY SIX — STABBED

"What—"

But her question was never finished. The door burst open and the murderer stood there, smiling at Artemis. 

"You're...the murderer, aren't you?" asked Artemis. 

"I wish it didn't have to be this way, Artemis," said the murderer, their voice cool and level. 

"It doesn't have to be," Artemis said. "Please, listen — I know something about Socie that completely changes everything." 

"Exactly. You were never supposed to enter this room and see all...this." The murderer waved a hand in the direction of the papers.

"No, please, wait—"

"You know I can't let you go," said the murderer. And then they struck.

~~~

Alive: 9

Dead: 6 (pangolin, Oliver, Daisy, Eclipse, Kyanite, Artemis)

~~~

I apologize if the concept of ghosts seems too similar to Silver Crystal's amazing ski lodge. Though I planned out my ski lodge before Silver posted hers, I'm worried about this aspect of my ski lodge ending up kind of similar to hers. :/

@Silver, ty! I love reading your theories -- though I won't say if they're correct or not, of course -- and your comments always mean so much to me :)

Day 6, Part 3

Socie shut the heavy dining room door quietly behind her as she stepped out into the entrance hall. She could feel everything beginning to fall apart.

She was so tired now. She could feel her exhaustion weighing down on her, and every movement she made was an effort.

She took a few, even breaths, her hand gripping the wooden banister, steadying her. She smoothed back her auburn curls and climbed the stairs. 

The second floor hallway was empty, and the door to Socie's office was wide open, and she took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. 

She was so, so tired.

Wraith joined her, slinking out from some place, brushing his lean, muscular body against her calf. 

Socie entered her office, where the murderer was kneeling beside Artemis's body, their eyes closed. When Socie entered, the murderer opened their clenched hand to reveal the antique key Socie had given Artemis. 

Socie wasn't focused on the murderer, though. Her gaze had landed on the papers strewn across the desk, and the bright red words scrawled across them. She took three quick strides across the room and immediately began organizing the papers and shoving them back into the desk drawer. 

“I trust you didn't see any of these papers? They're...private.”

“No, of course not," lied the murderer, eyes still turned downward, focused on Artemis's limp face, paler in death, yet as serene as if she were asleep. 

“Good. Now, run along. You've got to hold up your end of the deal.”

What deal? It's not like I had much of a choice, the murderer thought, but nonetheless, they stood and walked to the door. But their hand hovered above the doorknob, and they turned back to Socie.

“One more thing. Why did you let Artemis have the key?”

Socie had been wondering that herself; why allow Artemis to have the key when she could have easily found out the truth about Socie and spread it to the other guests? Then Socie’s entire plan would have been ruined. Well, the logical explanation was that if she had denied Artemis access to the key, Artemis would have known for sure Socie was keeping secrets. Then, Artemis would have told the other guests that Socie was hiding things, and they all would have gone snooping around together, and if they all found out, that’d have been even worse. 

And Socie told herself that was why she had given it to Artemis. It made sense, after all. But there was a part of Socie that wanted to stop hiding things. A part of Socie who wanted this weight lifted off her chest. A part of Socie who wanted this all to just be over. 

She was so, so tired. 

So she looked ruefully at the murderer and said, “There are some things that will be revealed to you at the appropriate time. This is one of those things.” 

The murderer said nothing as they walked out into the hall and closed the door behind them, leaving Socie and Wraith alone with Artemis’s body. Yes, they said nothing, but inside, their mind was racing. 

Something wasn’t right about Artemis’s death. Something had gone wrong, and the murderer could sense it. 

The murderer almost managed to talk themselves out of it. There’s nothing weird going on. You’re just paranoid because Artemis looked through those papers. She’s dead now. What she knows can’t hurt you. 

But something still nagged at the back of their mind. 

They had seen what was written on those papers. DAY SIX — STABBED, they had read. And that was what had happened.

But it still didn’t feel right.

It was as if...

Realization came suddenly. 

It was as if Artemis had changed her fate. 

It should have been impossible. The murderer did not want to think about what it meant, now that the impossible had become — more than possible; it had become the truth. 

No, they did not want to think about that.

They descended down the stairs and entered the entrance hall. There was no one there, save for the faces peering out at them from the polaroid pictures on the memorial. Everyone else had gone off to search for Artemis. 

Everyone would be occupied for quite some time, so with no one around to see them, the murderer crumpled to the ground in front of the memorial, and cried.

And deep beneath the Osorthe Forest, something stirred.

~~~

Alive: 9

Dead: 6 (pangolin, Oliver, Daisy, Eclipse, Kyanite, Artemis)

@Tsuki, thank you! :) and don't worry about not being able to comment -- I totally understand, and I'm just glad you like the story so far :) 

@Silver, ty! <3

@Jay, thank you! and it's about to get a lot more ominous and foreshadow-ey...

Day 7, Part 1

Socie awoke with a start. She sat upright in bed, her eyes snapped open, her breathing fast and shallow. Her hand darted to her bedside table, reaching for a knife, but her fingers scratched wood, finding no weapon. 

She hadn't kept a knife by her bed in ages. Old habits die hard, I guess. 

Socie put her head in her hands. She had had a nightmare, but she couldn't remember what it was about. That didn't slow the rapid pounding of her heartbeat, though. 

Socie knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep, so she pushed back the sheets and slid from her bed, disturbing Wraith, who was curled up at her feet. He cracked open an amber eye in protest, and then flipped over onto his back. 

Socie began to go about starting her day. Half an hour later, she stepped out of the hallway, wearing a long muted yellow dress with three-quarter sleeves and her dark reddish hair pulled back into a high ponytail. 

“Good morning, everybody!" she called, knocking on the bedroom doors of each of the nine remaining guests. "The weather today is beautifully, er”—Socie peered out the nearest window—“overcast, and the sky is a lovely shade of...washed out, almost colorless gray.” Her efforts to be cheerful were failing spectacularly. “Anyway, today is a special day, because it's the halfway point of your stay at Lockaria House! We've made it to day seven!”

Hex stumbled out of her room, still halfway through pulling on her black sweatshirt. Had they really been here for a full week? It felt strange — it had gone by so quickly, and yet, so much had happened. Had there ever been a time before she came to Lockaria House? Hex wasn't really sure. 

“And in honor of the halfway point,” Socie was saying, “we'll be throwing a party this afternoon!”

“Oh, hey, I brought party hats!” said Firelily. 

"Goodness, what else did you bring?" Tsuki asked, astounded. 

“I mean, I brought an onion,” shrugged Hex.

“And I brought a box of stickers,” Writing offered. As if to prove his point, he took a frog sticker out of his pocket and stuck it on Ronin’s nose. Ronin scowled.

“Let’s see,” said Echo, “I brought a typewriter, a fountain pen and ink, my phone — which doesn’t even work here — and a dagger.” She ticked each item off on her fingers.

Sterling turned slowly to face her. “Wait. You...packed a dagger.” They decided to leave out the fact that they had, in fact, packed a weapon as well — a bow and arrows, to be exact.

“Well, yeah,” Echo replied levelly. “I'm sure a few of us brought weapons of some sort.”

“Don't you think it's odd? That you just happened to pack a knife, and there also just happens to be a murderer here?” Sterling asked.

“Wait, what? I'm not the murderer, I swear!”

“Let's not jump to conclusions,” Tsuki muttered to Sterling. 

Sterling kept glaring at Echo. “Six of our companions, including my AE, are dead. And you brought a knife. I don't think I'm jumping to conclusions here.”

“Sterling, take a deep breath,” said Firelily. “Half of the deaths weren't even of stab wounds. Besides, plenty of us brought weapons, including you. There's no need to single out Echo.”

Sterling muttered something about how their bow and arrow couldn’t have been responsible for any of the deaths; Oliver’s death had clearly been the result of Pangolin’s stolen poison-tipped arrows. 

“Wait a second...why did we bring weapons?” asked Echo. 

“What?”

“This was supposed to have been a vacation. There was no need to bring weapons. But some of us did. We couldn't have known...we couldn't have known there would be a murderer, right?”

“Aaand I'm going to stop you right there, Echo,” Socie cut in. “It is way too early in the morning to be having such discussions! Today's the halfway point. We're going to have a party, for goodness's sake. Can't we just forget about this...less than optimal situation, just for today?”

If only it were that easy. 

~~~

Beneath the carpet of crisp red-gold leaves, beneath the dark soil, beneath the woven tree roots, beneath the very earth, it rested.

And yet, it was restless.

It could feel them, crawling like spiders across its skin. And it could feel them, weaving a gossamer from wisp-thin silk, unconsciously trying to catch their prey, but tangling the fragile, glittering strands.

They were CBers. They should have been insignificant to it — mere drops of water in a vast, cerulean ocean that it watched crash violently on shore.

But no, these water droplets had the power to erode the rocks, to transform them into fine sand, to shape the landscape on which it stood.

These drops of water had the power to drown it.

These CBers had the power to tear everything apart, if it let them.

And so, deep beneath the earth, an ancient power opened its eyes.

~~~

Alive: 9

Dead: 6 (Pangolin, Oliver, Daisy, Eclipse, Kyanite, Artemis)

~~~

The last bit of this part was sort of confusing, sorry! And thank you for reading :)

@Silver, aah thank you so much! And thank you for keeping this thread topped; I really appreciate it <3

@Jay, indeed~

Ack, I'm not very proud of the writing in this part -- that's what happens when the only time you have to write is in the mIDDLE OF MATH CLASS :')

Day 7, Part 2

After lunch, or, more accurately, brunch (which was an assortment of pancakes, waffles, toast, eggs, fresh fruit, and an assortment of other generic breakfast items), Socie shooed all the guests upstairs, insisting that she needed them out of her hair in order to set up the party. 

The atmosphere before the party was mixed. Some guests were absolutely thrilled, trying out different hairstyles and shoes, and chattering excitedly about what food they thought would be at the party. Other guests, meanwhile, took refuge in the library in a desperate attempt to avoid socializing if at all possible. When Socie walked through the second floor hallway at around three o'clock, informing everyone that it was partytime, the former group ran down to the first floor excitedly, while the latter group hid in the library until Wraith scouted them out and meowed loudly to alert Socie of their location.  

"Come on, you guys! The others are waiting." 

~~~

Socie had outdone herself. 

Both the entrance hall and the front of Lockaria House was decorated  with twinkling fairy lights, and the lawn in front of Lockaria House was to be the dance floor. A long table was covered with a white tablecloth and set up with refreshments — sparkling cider, apple cider, burgers (both veggie and otherwise), soft pretzels, pumpkin pie, strawberry rhubarb pie, and at least twelve types of cookies. Electronic dance music played from a stereo somewhere. 

Tsuki, Reuby, and Hex went over to the refreshment table to get beverages, Silver Crystal, Firelily, and Writing began to dance, but Echo and Ronin stood off to the side, watching everything unfold from a distance.

"Come on, Ronin," Writing begged, tugging at their AE's hand, urging him to dance. 

"Fine," said Ronin. "But only if you'll come with me to ask Socie to play My Chemical Romance."

Echo, meanwhile, couldn't enjoy the festivities, because her mind was someplace else. There was something that just didn't add up.

Last night, Socie had said that she had found Artemis dead in 6her office. But...Socie didn't allow anyone to enter her office. 

Echo somehow found herself by the refreshment table, filling a glass with apple cider. She had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even remember walking over here. She grabbed an oatmeal raisin cookie and ate it as she worked through Artemis's death in her mind. 

If Artemis was found dead in Socie's office, then that meant both Artemis and the murderer had entered there at some point, which meant—

Echo inhaled sharply, slamming the glass of apple cider onto the table. The cider sloshed angrily against the rim, threatening to spill over.

—which meant Socie was working with the murderer. 

There was Socie, over by the speaker. There was Socie, wearing a butter-yellow dress with a sweeping skirt. There was Socie, talking to Writing and Ronin. There, there, there.

Could Socie really be helping the murderer? She seemed as upset by the deaths as any of them, but then again, she didn't seem to be doing anything to protect the remaining guests.

But if Socie was in league with the murderer, then that meant...

No. 

They had all been brought here to die, hadn't they?

~~~

Alive: 9

Dead: 6 (Pangolin, Oliver, Daisy, Eclipse, Kyanite, Artemis)