I have a bad feeling that Peri will be the next to go....

Day 3, Part 1:

The next day dawned drearily, dark clouds hanging low in the sky forebodingly. The funeral for Darkvine was quite similar to Reuby’s, meaning that they both were horribly sad and also somewhat off-putting. In just a few days the entire atmosphere of the so called ‘vacation’ flipped from a mildly dangerous but fun adventure to some sort of murder hotbed. Everyone was on edge. Which was probably why Storm got them all up and out of bed first thing in the morning, corralling them in the common room.

“Good morning, my friends!” she said cheerily. “How is everyone doing?”

There was a faint chorus of negative sounding grumbles and mutterings in response. 

She frowned. “Oh come now, that won’t do.” Her tone shifted into something a little less forced, a little more serious. “I know that you all are nervous, what with the tragic circumstances of Reuby and Darkvine’s death. But listen: I am your host here, and it is my job that you all have a good time, no matter what. I promise I’m using everything in my power to figure out what is happening and stop it as soon as possible. You shouldn’t worry.”

Amarillis was worried. She was very worried. “Um, excuse me,” she piped up. “Why can’t you just send us home? Better safe than sorry, right?”

“Unfortunately, that is not within my power,” Storm responded. “But something that I can do is plan a little something fun for you all to do to raise your spirits. Let’s head outside, everyone!”

Amarillis did not at all like how vaguely her question was answered, even more so how quickly Storm changed the subject after. She didn’t know why more people weren’t being assertive about it, but scared people need reassurance sometimes, and maybe Storm was providing them with enough of that to make them feel safe enough to stay a little longer.

The group (feeling still a bit down but now slightly less so) migrated outside, feet thump-thump-thumping down the wooden steps. Now, for the most part we have been inside (with the exception of the funerals), so let me take a moment here to remind you what the island looks like: barren rock mostly, about the size of a few football fields, with vegetation such as short, weathered trees and weeds sticking out from a crack in the stone here and there. The flat landscape was occasionally disrupted by sharp outcroppings of rock bursting from the ground in uneven patterns. Of course, there was the wooden staircase that led down to the beach, but other than that, the edges of the island sloped steeply down into the water. Speaking of which, the sound of the waves striking the cliff faces was overwhelming and ubiquitous, and it took a few minutes for everyone’s ears to get adjusted to it.

“Out here, you will be doing a scavenger hunt. I have hidden fifteen seashells around the island; the team to find the most wins,” Storm said, voice pitched much louder than usual. Her words were overlaid with the screeching of the seagulls wheeling overhead. “The teams are as follows: Echo, Peri, Sterling, and Writing on team one and Hawkstar, Tenebrous, Wildsong, Amarillis, and Pangolin on team two.”

The guests gathered into their teams, now feeling a little excited.

“We’ll have to be faster since we have one less person,” Writing said. “Let’s split up to cover more ground.” The team nodded in agreement.

“Okay, everyone ready?” Storm asked.

There was a chorus of ‘yes!’ and ‘ready!’s from the crowd.

“Go!”

~~~

Dead: 2 (Reuby Moonnight, Darkvine)

Alive: 9 (Tenebrous, Periwinkle, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling, Hawkstar, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis)

~~

Please except this short and relatively uneventful part which is late because I got up super early to make it to school in time for 4+ hours of AP testing which I just got out of so i’m a little tired hahah

this is amazing! can't wait for more!

As soon as they were given the go-ahead, team one split up in different directions, running carefully as to not trip over the uneven ground. Sterling immediately went around to the back of the lighthouse, eyes roving over the landscape for anything out of the ordinary. There- a small flash of pink nestled next to the outer wall of the lighthouse in a dip in the ground. A seashell, perfectly whole and shiny, color reminiscent of cherry blossom petals.

“Yes!” fae exclaimed, stooping down to pick it up. 

On the other side of the lighthouse, Echo and Hawkstar spotted a seashell sitting on a low hanging branch at the same time. They locked eyes and both began sprinting towards it. They seemed pretty even before Hawkstar stumbled on a loose rock and lost a few precious seconds, giving Echo the opportunity to snatch the shell and run away grinning. 

The next twenty minutes were like a mash up between a scavenger hunt and tag; it was a miracle that no one tripped into each other with the amount of running around happening. Storm kept track of the amount of shells collected by each team, and after a considerable amount of time it was tied with seven each.

The nine CBers slowed down, checking and rechecking the nooks and crevices around the island, looking for anything that they might’ve missed. Tenney, who was dressed (unfortunately) in early 2000s fashion, and Echo decided to stay near Storm and wheedle the last shell’s location out of her with a variety of bribes and threats and pleas before ultimately seeing that their attempts were futile and leaving to go search with the others. 

Hawkstar was walking the premise of the island when she spotted something that she hadn’t seen before: a little pathway behind a large outcropping of rocks. It was only a few feet wide, and one side dropped off into the cliffs. It looked a little scary, but hey, if she was careful then she would be fine, right? 

She shuffled down the pathway with her back to the rocks, facing the ocean. Her gaze was tilted up to the sky, knowing that looking down at the drop in front of her would only make it worse. After a few minutes, Hawkstar finally spotted the coveted pink color of the seashell, perched on a curve in the rock. 

She reached out and grabbed it, taking a relieved breath and turning around to make her way (slowly) back to the others and claim the win for her team.

But, there was something blocking the pathway back. A person.

A person? What were they doing there?

They were smiling in a genuinely friendly way. “Oh, Hawkstar! You found the last shell.”

“Yeah,” she said. “Sorry, but I should get this to Storm now.”

“Right, right,” the person said, one hand shooting out and resting firmly on Hawkstar’s shoulder. “You should be careful, you know. It’s very slippery here; you could fall.”

“Oh,” Hawkstar said somewhat weakly. She thought it a bit strange that the other person was still smiling, especially after saying such a thing. “Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. You don’t have to help me.” She tried to shift out from under the person’s hand, but their grip was firm. 

“Can I go?” she asked, and her voice was very quiet now. Like the kind of tone you use to placate a wild animal.

“Yes, of course,” they said brightly, fingers digging into Hawstar’s shoulder. “You’re going alllll the way down.” 

<><><>

Writing was getting quite tired of funerals. Before this, they had only been to a few, and they had felt like important affairs. But these island funerals were shaping up to be a little repetitive. It was the same: body in the boat, dried flowers in the hair (although the color of the flowers varied a little for each person), Storm’s farewell (and regret for putting the last seashell in such a dangerous position, in this case), and crushing silence. It was hard to focus on having fun and adventuring when there was a funeral every day.

Of course, rat felt horrible for even briefly thinking these thoughts. People were dying, for crying out loud, and he could be the next. 

It was early afternoon by the time that they sent off Hawkstar’s body. She looked just as alive as the other two; that is, she looked as if she were sleeping (although there was a strange stiffness about her).

Storm spoke and once again silence swirled through the air. Writing thought their own little goodbye and hoped, with all of his heart, that he would not ever be one of those little coffin shaped boats ever again.

~~~

Dead: 3 (Reuby Moonnight, Darkvine, Hawkstar)

Alive: 8 (Tenebrous, Periwinkle, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis)

I'm dead! Tis' a shame. But it seems I will watch as a ghost. I think Maybe Wildsong or Pangolin?

Periwinkle never really liked not knowing things that she should know. That’s why she never watched mystery movies; they purposely keep you in the dark so the reveal at the end is practically unguessable.

Well, Peri wasn’t in any kind of mystery story, but she still wanted to know what was going on. Storm said that she was working to catch the murderer and while Peri trusted her, it didn’t look like any progress was being made. So, she resolved to do something about it.

But what, exactly? How do you find the murderer of three people whose bodies are already in the cold embrace of ocean water? Each murder scene had been thoroughly cleaned, which Peri was initially very glad for. That red-stained comforter in her and Reuby’s room was never far from her thoughts; at the time she had wanted it gone as fast as she could. But what if there was evidence on there, or some kind of clue? She hadn’t considered it before.

There was the tap-tap-tap of footsteps coming down the stairs, and Pangolin poked their head in the room and said, “Hey, there. Can we come in?”

“Sure!” Peri said, attempting a genuine smile. Pangolin descended the stairs into the room with Amarillis and Tenney right behind her.  “I was just thinking.”

“Me too,” Pangolin said, joining Peri on the bottom bunk. “This whole thing is so messed up, isn’t it? Like, it feels straight out of a novel.”

“Yeah,” Amarillis agreed, nervousness apparent in her voice. She stayed standing, not daring to venture to the top bunk (the place of Reuby’s demise). “I don’t understand why we can’t just leave.”

“Storm says we can’t,” Tenney reminded her, sitting down on the carpet. “I have no idea what’s going on, but she probably knows better than us. Besides, where would we even go? I just kind of appeared on that boat a little ways away from the island.”

Amarillis nodded, but Peri could tell she was still doubtful.

“Anyway,” Pangolin continued. “I was kind of thinking about actually doing something about it, but I’m not quite sure how. Any ideas?”

Tenney considered. “Well, we should probably start with a suspect list, right?”

“Good idea,” Peri said, pulling out one of her sketchbooks. “Let’s see: us four, Writing, Sterling, Echo, and Wildsong. Reuby, Darkvine, and Hawkstar are dead, in that order.”

“Right.” Pangolin thought for a minute. “Where was everyone during the first murder?”

“Asleep,” Peri replied. She hoped that they didn’t suspect her for sleeping in the same room as Reuby when she was murdered. “I’m a super heavy sleeper, I didn’t hear a thing.”

“No one heard anything with the other murders, so that checks out,” Pangolin confirmed. “But since none of us have concrete evidence to say that we were sleeping at the time, no one gets eliminated.” She said that last part with a slight frown tugging at the corner of her mouth. “What about Darkvine?”

Tenney picked at the frayed hem of her cropped t-shirt, thinking. “Well, that was right after your epic win at Hearts. It can’t be then, because we were all in the room at the time. But after, we all played hide and seek. Since no one was actually found ‘cause Peri discovered Darkvine right away, we can’t really say where anyone was.”

“Well, you know it wasn’t me,” Peri put in quickly. “I was counting out loud in the common room the entire time.”

“That’s true,” Pangolin remembered. “I was hiding under the stairs right outside the common room doors, I heard you.”

Tenney nodded happily. “Finally, we can eliminate someone.”

Peri grinned as she crossed her name off of their list. She knew she was innocent, but now the others knew it too. “Great! Now we just have Hawkstar.”

“That’s hard, too,” Tenney said. “We were all scrambling and running around looking for that last shell. I’m pretty sure I passed or saw everyone in those few minutes. And it really wouldn’t’ve taken long at all to push Hawkstar from the ledge.”

“Wait.” Peri put one finger in the air like she had just had an idea. “We’ve all been so sure that it was a murder, but what if Hawkstar really did trip and fall on her own? It certainly wasn’t safe.”

“Well, there’s been a murder a day since day one,” Tenney pointed out. “It makes sense that Hawkstar’s death would be one, too.”

“Unless,” Pangolin suggested, all warmth disappearing from their tone. “Unless it really was an accident, and the murderer still needs to take a victim by the end of today.”

At that, Amarillis stood up. She had been listening to the conversation in rapt silence before, too unsure to add her input, but that last sentence was the final straw.

“Guys, don’t you think that this is dangerous?” she said, arms crossed. “I mean, what if the murderer figures out what you’re trying to do and it moves you to the top of their list? Or what if it’s one of you?”

“That’s exactly what this is for,” Peri said reassuringly, holding up the sketchbook. “Once we figure out who it is, we’ll all be safe.”

“Figure it out?” Amarillis asked, voice rising. “With what? You’ve already gone over it all and only managed to cross one person off the list. Who, by the way, is yourself.”

Pangolin, Peri, and Tenney exchanged looks before Tenney gently answered, “If this is making you uncomfortable, then you should leave. We don’t want you being even more afraid.”

Amarillis opened her mouth like she was going to say something before abruptly closing it and leaving the room in a flurry of quiet footsteps. Her absence left a strange sort of atmosphere hanging over the three remaining guests until Peri forced a smile and said, “Guess it’s just us now. You guys ready to solve a mystery?”

~~~

Dead: 3 (Reuby Moonnight, Darkvine, Hawkstar)

Alive: 8 (Tenebrous, Periwinkle, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis)

RIP Hawkstar, I loved making this picture :)

Next part out tomm!! Thank you so so much to all the wonderful & thoughtful comments that I've been getting! You all are the best~