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Ski Lodge;
Ski Lodge;
You are dreaming. You don’t quite know how you know that you are, but somehow you do.
The scene comes into focus slowly, like an adjusting camera lens. The first thing that you see is the rain. It dominates the space, great gray sheets of it slashing down, smashing into the ground you hover above- which you realize is also water. You are floating above the ocean and it’s pouring. All right, not the strangest dream you’ve ever had. If anything, it’s quite boring.
And then the island comes into view. At first it’s just a smoky outline in the distance, a fuzzy mass of land on the horizon, blinking strangely. But without a warning, you are suddenly much, much closer, now hovering just above the rocky shore. You see the terrain all laid out ahead of you, much of it obscured by the still falling rain. It’s stone and rock, mostly. Some vegetation here and there.
But what really catches your eye is the lighthouse. You know it’s a lighthouse because of the white and red candy-cane stripes and the shape of it; it looks ripped straight out of an old photograph. The give-away, though, is the single piercing beam of light cutting through the dark and mist and rain, sweeping in a wide circular motion over and over and over.
You blink, and when your eyes open, the scene around you has once again changed. While you can still hear the lashing rain and winds, they are more distant now, and you realize that you are standing inside the lighthouse, both feet planted firmly on the ground for once. It’s a neat and tidy space, and in the center of the circular room is the light, spinning around and around and around.
There is a young woman sitting there, next to the light. Her dark gray hair is pulled into a tight braid and her eye color is almost black. A splash of freckles across her nose. She would be wholly unremarkable if not for the fact that she is staring right at you.
She leans forwards and beckons you with one hand, and you drift forward, not really able to stop yourself.
You reach her seat, and the girl looks up at you and smiles a small haunted smile. A single strand of hair slips from its tie and falls across her face. She says, “Oh, hello there. Are you looking for a little adventure?”
You wake up.
There is a form for you, sitting innocently on your bedside table, and it looks like this:
Name:
Pronouns:
Age:
Appearance:
Personality:
Useful abilities (magic not allowed):
Biggest fear:
Luggage:
Are you scared of ghosts?:
Is the ocean forgiving?:
Other:
At the bottom, written in little loopy curves, are the words ‘Please come, dear friend, and join me at Wayfarer Island. Adventure awaits you and nine other lucky people. -Storm.’
You are holding a pen before you even finish reading it all. Something deep in your mind is telling you not to fill out the form, but you disregard it.
After all, how much damage could a little adventure do?
submitted by Storm, age Unknown, Wayfarer Island
(April 18, 2023 - 3:01 pm)
(April 18, 2023 - 3:01 pm)
>w< Ooooo this is soooo goood!
(May 27, 2023 - 6:27 pm)
RIP Amarillis! Next part out tomm! Once again thank you to everyone who comments (especially pangolin, your comments literally make my day!!) <333
Also I'm writing the last day right now and it really really doesn't want to be written T-T
(May 28, 2023 - 1:52 pm)
Periwinkle couldn’t sleep. It was technically morning and she was too tired to get up. But, apparently, not tired enough to fall asleep. She huffed out a sigh and turned on her side.
How much longer did she have? It was Amarillis yesterday, but it very well could have been her. She was so, so sure that summoning the dead CBers would work, but it had just ended in disaster. Does she keep investigating? Maybe Amarillis was right, there was no way she could actually figure it out with all avenues exhausted.
Peri sat up, prepared to go down to the common room and grab Tenney and Pangolin to tell them that the investigation was off, but when she moved there was a strange sort of crinkling sound. She frowned and pulled a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket. Oh, it was the paper with the names that Tenney had attempted to get Hawkstar’s ghost to point to. Peri barely remembered grabbing it out of the air and shoving it into her pocket the day before, they had all been so frazzled.
It really was a shame that Tenney’s last minute plan didn’t work, it was a good idea. Peri sighed deeply as she smoothed out the piece of paper and glanced down at the hurriedly written names. She froze.
One of the names was highlighted in bloody red.
Had that been there before? Come to think of it, Peri hadn’t gotten a good look at the names since… well, since Hawkstar had tried to point to one. Peri had assumed that she failed, but what if this was what she was trying to tell them instead?
Peri stared down at the red smeared name with something akin to dread coiling in her throat.
“What’re you looking at?” a voice asked.
Peri startled, slamming the paper face down on her lap. “Uh, nothing,” she said instinctively. And then that fear induced white noise came flooding back because the person standing nonchalantly next to Peri’s bunk was the same name that was highlighted on the sheet. Calm down, Peri. That doesn’t mean they’re the murderer.
“I’m the murderer,” the person said.
“Oh,” Peri said, too stunned to speak any of the words ricocheting around her mind. “Why would you tell me that?”
The person shrugged. “I don’t know. You put so much effort into finding out who I am, I thought maybe you’d like to know before I killed you.”
The words hit Peri like a truck. Being in the same room as the murderer had registered in her mind, but for some reason, she hadn’t quite realized that she was going to die in the next few minutes. She wanted to scream. Instead, for some bizarre reason, she said, “Thanks.”
“Not going to fight or anything?” the murderer asked, puzzled. “People keep letting themself die. I don’t understand it.”
Unluckily for the person in front of her, Peri was not planning on dying. She had not gotten jumped, the murderer didn’t have the element of surprise.
Springing up, Peri put everything she had into slamming her body into the murderer, who stumbled back in a moment of pure surprise. She ran, sprinting to the staircase, mouth open to call for someone, anyone, and to scream (not quite loudly enough). She almost made it, too.
The murderer was faster, propelled by something not quite human, and they grabbed a handful of Peri’s blue hair and pulled, knocking her off of her feet. She landed on the floor with a muffled thump and stared up for a split second with wide eyes.
The murderer, with that signature grin, saw that Peri was dead.
~~~
Dead: 6 (Reuby Moonnight, Darkvine, Hawkstar, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis, Periwinkle)
Alive: 5 (Tenebrous, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling)
~~~
This and the next part are a little shorter but I want to keep some suspense :))
(May 29, 2023 - 6:55 am)
The suspense is so good! I want to see who it is, but at the same time, I don't want it to end! Great writing!
(May 29, 2023 - 10:14 am)
Have I really not commented on this at all? Wow, I'm a terrible person. The suspense is so gripping and I can't wait to see what happens next! I think me or Wildsong could be the murderer, but I dunno...
(May 29, 2023 - 11:54 am)
Aaah the suspense is killing me (figuratively, though it's literally killing Peri)! This is so good! I can't believe there's only five people left already :0
I kind of suspect Echo, honestly. I don't really have any concrete reason, though. Either Echo, Tenney, or myself, I think... I don't really know.
But the seance worked! Hawkstar was able to tell Peri who the murderer is! I wonder if one of the others will find the list of names? I don't know.
anyway, I love this ski lodge so so much! <333
(May 29, 2023 - 3:08 pm)
PROPELLED BY SOMETHING NOT QUITE HUMAN
SOMETING NOT QUITE HUMAN HAS KILLED ME
eeee this is so exciting I'm not even upset I'm dead this is just- wow-
(May 29, 2023 - 5:09 pm)
oOoOoOoOoOoOooooo
(May 30, 2023 - 8:54 am)
:0 oh my goodness this is beautiful! If only Peri had looked at the paper a little bit earlier... RIP Peri. Maybe they'll find the paper on her body? But the murderer will probably take it first, they're far too careful for that.
(May 31, 2023 - 9:06 am)
RIP Peri! Your investigative efforts were valiant.
(May 30, 2023 - 10:33 am)
Ah very pretty <3
(May 30, 2023 - 8:22 pm)
The murderer finished with Peri quickly, watching as life fled from her expression. This part was always exciting. Finally, more guests dead than alive. The murderer felt relief (because their job was close to being over) mixed with anxiety (because it would be harder to keep their identity hidden).
They never wanted this for themself, but they supposed that they weren’t really themself anymore, were they? No, not with that invisible leash wrapping around their throat and the marionette strings jerking their limbs around in an endless carousel.
Whatever. They were done agonizing over it.
The guests were all still asleep, and hopefully no one had awakened. As the murderer made their way up, up, up the stairs through the other rooms, they discovered (thankfully) that no one had been roused by the noise. They made it to the light room, squinting against the intermittent brightness, before climbing the ladder into Storm’s room.
Storm was awake, because she rarely slept at all, and when she heard the creaking of someone entering she turned around, shoving a familiar piece of jewelry into her pocket.
“Hello,” Storm greeted, sounding exhausted. “Is it done?”
“Yes,” the murderer said. “Peri’s gone. Just in time, too. She basically figured it all out.” They handed Storm the paper that Peri had been holding, the one with the names.
“Good, good,” she said. Her eyes flicked up and then down, and she asked the question she had asked what felt like a million times since day one: “Are you sure you can’t kill more than one per day?”
The murderer’s mouth thinned into a tight line and gave the same answer they always did. “I’m sure. Only one per day.”
“Shame,” Storm hummed. “It would be so much easier.”
The murderer felt that familiar disdain that they often felt when talking to Storm. Maybe it was the way that she spoke with such little emotion. Maybe it was the fact that without her magic as a noose around their neck, they wouldn’t have had to kill anyone in the first place. But their voice was not their own anymore, so they just said: “She figured it out because of that book you gave her.”
“Yes, I’m aware,” Storm replied, somewhat annoyed. “I didn’t think it would actually work, obviously. I barely had enough time to stop Hawkstar’s spirit from revealing anything, although it looks like she did manage to get something out.” She narrowed her eyes at Peri’s paper before folding it into quarters and tucking it into a drawer. “Keeping all these ghosts at bay is exhausting.”
“Is there anything else?” the murderer asked.
“No.” Storm was not looking at them. She hated making eye contact with them. “You’re dismissed.”
The murderer retreated, back down the ladder to their bed, lying down but not able to sleep. They would wait a few minutes before getting up regularly with everyone else. At least today’s kill was already taken care of.
The thought wasn’t nearly as reassuring as they needed it to be.
~~~
Dead: 6 (Reuby Moonnight, Darkvine, Hawkstar, Writing_in_the_dark, Amarillis, Periwinkle)
Alive: 5 (Tenebrous, Pangolin, Echo, Wildsong, Sterling)
~~~
Been waiting to put this part out for a while :)))) Thank you to everyone who has commented so far!! It means so much to me <333
(May 31, 2023 - 6:08 am)
oh my gosh oh my gosh this is so good!!
whoa so Storm's in on it? and her magic is somehow making the murderer kill?? but why?? does Storm have a *gasp* mysterious past? or is she somehow connected to the ski lodge and making it function?
aah, this is so well done! I love this ski lodge and your writing style so much! <333
(May 31, 2023 - 6:21 pm)
Whaaaat
This is so good!! The plot is so exciting and the writing is *chef's kiss* and just like omg I love this I can't wait for the next part
(May 31, 2023 - 6:45 pm)
This Ski Lodge is so beautifully written! (I've been following along this whole time and regretting that I didn't join before the spots closed)
Storm sounds suspicious...
(May 31, 2023 - 7:05 pm)