Day 2 Part 3

After The Riddler’s funeral, the CBers retreated outside by the river. The Captchas swimming about, but everybody else didn’t feel like doing much. “What do you think they’ll do to Jarnen?” Key asked, braiding some grass together.

“I don’t know,” said Fireburst. “There’s not a lot of evidence against him. We don’t know for sure that he’s the murderer.”

Leafpool stared at the ground, muttering something.

Elementgirl skipped a rock. “Well, we’ll just have to wait and see.”

“WHAT’S THAT ABOUT WAITING? I HATE WAITING!” Rosalyn yelled, and was promptly shushed by Arwen.

Jarnen was waiting, which Rosalyn would have hated if she were in his place. But he wasn’t Rosalyn, and instead he was mostly worried. I didn’t do it! He thought. What will they do to me? How can I prove that I'm innocent? What would Leafpool do? He didn’t have time to answer those thoughts though, because the door opened, and somebody walked in. When he saw who it was, he hissed. “You!” The figure replied, “Me, Jarnen. Now, how about we get this over with. Let’s see… how about a nice simple poisoning?” They drew a dart gun from their pocket that was presumably filled with poison darts. Jarnen thought to try to run away, but by now his muscles were locked in terror. Okay, he thought. I’ll try to yell or at least alert somebody that I’m being murdered. He tried yelling, but his voice had decided to take a vacation at the worst time possible. What came out was more of a dry, raspy croak.

The murderer aimed and fired. Jarnen managed to yelp once before the dart hit him. Then the murderer ran away.

The Hotel Manager came running, accompanied by Arwen, who had heard her fellow AE yell, and Ms. Tobin. The color drained from the manager’s face. “Oh no,” she whispered. “Not again. Not like last time, no, please.” Arwen, who was puzzled by her statement, was going to ask what the heck she was talking about, but was cut off by Ms. Tobin, who was checking for Jarnen’s pulse. “Dead,” She pronounced. “I think he was poisoned. See the dart?” The Hotel Manager nodded slowly. “I-I’ll go tell everyone.”

“Attention, CBers. Please report to the front hallway.” said the intercom.

Connie looked at Elementgirl. “Mrdr?” She asked.

“I don’t know.” Elementgirl said, giving her captcha a hug. “I don’t know.”

As the curious and scared visitors gathered in the hall the Hotel Manager prepared herself. I don’t want to scare them, and it c-can’t be like last time.  

“Jarnen has died.” She began. Arwen fainted and Leafpool just stood there, staring off into the distance. “We believe he was… murdered. Maybe it would be best if you all went to your rooms until dinner.” The CBers nodded, dumbstruck. And numbly, they walked back to their rooms, with the exception of Arwen, who was still unconscious and was being carried by Serene, Rosalyn and Leafpool.

Charles and Stan stopped in the Hyacinth Room and grabbed The Riddler’s magic bag, Charles hugging one of the limes.

Leafpool helped Rosalyn deposit Arwen on her bed in the Chrysanthemum Room, and then left instantly, weeping as she went.

Scarlet stared at the cover of I am Princess X.

And the murderer? They would’ve skipped down the hallway to their room, but then everybody would know that they were the one who had wreaked havoc. Still, if anybody had looked closely enough, they would have seen a slight spring in his/her step. Of course nobody did.

Unfortunately, the CBers would have many long days filled with suffering and fear ahead of them.

***

I am SO SORRY this took so long.

Thanks, Kate!

Day 2, Part 4

A group of very unhappy CBers trudged down the stairs to the Mess Hall about an hour later. The AEs sadly plodded  over to take the elevator, and the captchas got piggy-back rides from their CBers.

Dinner was somber and  mostly quiet, except for the captchas.

“Ssge piza?” Connie asked Elementgirl.

“I don’t know,” she told her captcha.

“Yumm.” Darkfeather told Fireburst. “Piza.”

Charles said to Stan, “Miss Rdlr.”

PSXtreme, Torstyn, Key and Anna were quietly making a food tower out of pizza, spaghetti and meatballs, four-cheese pierogies and a singular potsticker, which collapsed and fell on Rosalyn. “MY BEAUTIFUL SHIRT! OH, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? MY HAIR IS RUINED BY SPAGHETTI SAUCE!” Rosalyn ran out of the room to go change. Leafpool tried not to laugh, but then she looked at Elementgirl, and they both burst out laughing.

After that, things picked up considerably. The CBers engaged in a debate about which came first, the potsticker or the pierogi. The Alter Egos had a meatball eating competition- the winner was Joy, who ate 9 meatballs in 4 seconds.

“Wow,” said BABTMP. “I never knew you were such an accomplished eater.” Joy beamed proudly.

The captchas were discussing the many varieties of pizza toppings. “Ssge, prni, pnut bttr, pnpl.” Storm said.

Joy, who had been listening in, said, “Oh, but you’re missing all the best ones! Marshmallows, chicken, peppermints, peppers and onions, carrots, cheese, extra cheese, triple cheese,  hotsauce and raspberries. You should really try them.”

Fireburst, who had also been listening, tried to contain her impulse to gag.

After dinner, they attended the funeral of Jarnen, who was buried near The Riddler and Elena.

Afterward, the CBers decided to hold a meeting in the library. Icy sat on a random trapeze, General Waffleson settled into a comfy armchair, and Rae began to stoke the fire.

“Have you noticed anything strange about the Hotel Manager?” Elementgirl asked.

“No,” admitted Icy. “I guess I was concentrating more on suspects.”

“She mentioned another group, then choked up. Remember? When she was explaining the hide-and-seek game?” Elementgirl said.

The CBers pondered this, but nobody came close to the answer.

“Should we ask her?” Lucy wondered.

“I don’t think so. Do you think she was the one who killed Jarnen, The Riddler and Elena?” General Waffleson asked.

“Not really,” said Elementgirl. “Why would she? It wouldn’t make sense- would it?”

“I don’t know,” said Fireburst uneasily.

“Maybe we should just go to bed,” said Icy. “Sleep might help.”

“Yeah. Sleep would be nice. Plus, we have to wake up at seven.”

So, sticking together, they wandered off to bed. And as each of them settled under the quilts, they wondered. Some thought for what seemed like hours, as you sometimes do. Others fell into an uneasy sleep, filled with yells, potstickers, pizza and a freshly dug grave.

Day 3, Part 1

When the alarm clocks went off at seven o’clock am, eastern time, a couple of the AEs groaned. “mmmmMMMMMMMMMMOOOOOOOOOoooooRRRRRRRrrrrrrrreeeEEE sleeeep.” Arwen muttered. “Gotta find the pancakes- LEAFPOOL! You’re in the way of the bucket! I need a piece of the lake*!”

Lucy, with the help of Key, woke her up.

As they walked down to breakfast, Lock, Sketch and Torstyn discussed the many ways to use cheese to annoy your CBers.

“Oh, precious foodie! It has been long since I have last seen you!” Storra said, shoving sausage, hash browns and scrambled eggs in to her mouth.”

“Oh, hush you.” Lucy scolded. “It’s been how long?”

“Eleven hours, two minutes and fifteen seconds.” Rae replied.

The Hotel Manager announced something for like the fifteen-thousandth time- in Rosalyn’s opinion.

“Because of yesterday’s tragic events, me and Ms. Tobin came up with a way to keep you all safe. Each of you will get a voice recorder!”

“Ooh,” said Anna.

“We have taken a lot of steps to make sure nobody can tamper with them.”

Thanks for giving me the idea! Thought the murderer excitedly.

“And, roll call. I guess we forgot about it before.” the Hotel Manager concluded, looking sheepish.

This lightened the hearts of the visitors considerably.

“WAIT!” Lisbeth yelled. “Who won the hide and seek part of the color war?”

The Hotel Manager looked pretty surprised. “Oh. Um, I suppose the blue team did.”

Lisbeth nodded, satisfied with the answer.

Then voice recorders were distributed to everyone. The visitors felt a lot safer, and that they would get to enjoy their vacation after all.

****

*Some of these were things one of my friends apparently said in her sleep.

Day 3, Part 2

Just as the visitors stepped outside to go swimming, there was a loud clap of thunder.

“Huh,” said Serene. “I wonder if-” Her words were drowned out by a clap of thunder and a sudden downpour, drenching them all.

There was a sudden stampede for the front doors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After everybody was in dry clothes, the rain stopped. Then it started. Again.  “Oh dear. I suppose you can’t go swimming now,” the Hotel Manager said when they gathered in the Mess Hall. “But the arcade, pools and movie theater are open. Snacks and Popcorn are free.”

General Waffleson, Balletandbow, Kilp, Rae, Sketch and Kitten went to the arcade. Everybody else went to the movie theatre, where there were several movie choices.

“Try the Sno-Caps,” said Elementgirl, offering them to Epic Fangirl, Silverwaxwing and Lucy.

“Mm, I prefer the Twizzlers” said Lucy, munching on her popcorn.

“Really?” Epic Fangirl asked, sipping on her soda. “I like the Hershey’s chocolate bars best.”

“Ah, but you do not know the amazingness of GUMDROPS.” Silverwaxwing said.

“Cndy? Forr mmeee?” Connie asked.

“Yes, Connie. I got you some M&Ms.” Elementgirl told her captcha as they headed in to one of the theatres to see Wonder Woman. Fireburst and Darkfeather were already inside.

“I wonder what this is about?” Fireburst said.

The arcade had every game there was, including board games, playstations, apps, Wiis and Nintendo DS’s. General Waffleson and Kilp played Tempest.

“HA!” Rae shouted randomly.

“What?” General Waffleson asked, looking away from level 9.

“Sorry,” said Rae, who was playing Super Mario. “I just beat this one level…”

“Oh,” said Balletandbow,  who was playing Pac Man and being chased by an especially quick ghost.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A couple hours later, a dazed Elementgirl walked out of Theatre B, with Epic Fangirl, Lucy, Fireburst, Connie and Darkfeather following behind.

“Wow,” said Fireburst. “t-that was a lot of explosions.”

“My eyes…” said Lucy. “ c-can’t see…”

“Yeah,” said Silverwaxwing, “m-my eyes are having trouble seeing- is that a plane?” She pointed to a popcorn machine.

“Do you want to go swimming now?” Elementgirl asked dazedly.

“S-sure. Once the world stops spinning…” Epic Fangirl muttered.
Just then, the speaker went off, startling the confused CBers and Captchas out of their wits. “LUNCH is ready!!”

In the Mess Hall, there was a hodgepodge of food on the various visitor’s plates; mac and cheese, watermelon, roasted garlic soup, breadsticks, eggsalad, cheeseburgers, hotdogs, pho, eggrolls, tamales and celery.

“Uh, Scarlet?” Sketch asked. “What the heck is this noodly-looking soup with green stuff and meat?”

“Dunno,” she said, shrugging.

“Oh! That stuff is vietnamese pho! It’s really good!” Rae said enthusiastically.

Sketch cautiously ate a noodle, then began slurping down the soup, pausing only to say, “Yummmmsogoodmore.”

“Tmle good.” Storm said to Silverwaxwing.

“Maac-chse good.” Kilp announced. “Yumm.”

“This is turning out pretty nicely,” remarked Rae to Silverwaxwing. “I mean, I thought that we would all be… murdered.”

Silverwaxwing didn’t have time to respond, because the Hotel Manager had started talking.

“Because the rain has ceased, you could go swimming, or make a mudslide, or climb the cliff.” She said, politely offering choices.

“MUDSLIDE?” PSXtreme said. “I think a MUDSLIDE is the best idea that has ever been thought.” The other AEs nodded.

“CHARGE!” The AEs shouted happily as they ran to change in to their bathing suits. “Oops,” muttered the Hotel Manager. “Sorry about saying that one out loud. TALOS!” She called to her robotic janitor. “I’m terribly sorry, but some very muddy AES will be coming in soon, so you might want to clean the floor when they do. Thank you!”

“You named your robot after a giant metal statue in Ancient Greece?” Rae asked.

“Yeah.” The Hotel Manager said, shrugging.

The CBers and Captchas walked off to go change into their bathing suits so they could go swimming, thinking only of the clear blue water instead of the questions they should have been asking themselves.

*****

Um, to the people who are reading this; could you please comment at some point if you can?

Great story, HM. I'm enjoying it. I wonder what that question is. Is it: do I know how to swim?

Admin

Day 3, Part 3

The Hotel Manager sat in her office, typing up a storm.

“Clackclackclackclackclackdingshuffleshufflepnt.” Went the typewriter, over and over again. What she was typing completely distracted her, and the constant noise obscured anything that might have gotten her attention. She didn’t hear the door open. She didn’t notice when somebody slipped in and took a certain gadget that looked like a steampunk fidget cube, covered in gears, tiny levers, and buttons.

And she definitely did not notice them putting an incredibly similar one in the same place.

The murderer smiled. They had it! The device that had the power to control Ms. Tobin, Talos, the cooking automatons and all the other holographic librarians. The Hotel Manager was so naive, compared to the murderer. She would never think of controlling her machines- no! She let them run free. How sickening it was, her petty ideas of peace and prosperity. There was no such thing in a Ski Lodge, and the murderer was going to prove it to her for once and for all. Then they hid the device in their trunk and went outside, having taken a “bathroom break.”

Meanwhile, the innocent CBers were swimming, while the AEs were sliding through the mud.

“YAHOO!” Torstyn yelled, followed by Bryann. The slide was impressive. The AEs had added soap, to make it more slippery, even though most of it was on a steep hill, and the slide lasted about half a mile eventually dumping the AEs into the river.

Leafpool watched sadly. “Jarnen would have loved this,” she said to Balletandbow and Rae.

“Yeah,” said Balltandbowstarted to say, but was interrupted by a splash of water.

“Ohmygosh, sorry,” said Elementgirl. “I didn’t mean to. Me, Silverwaxwing and Epic Fangirl are going kayaking. Want to join us?”

“Sure!” Balletandbow said. “Wait just a moment.”

Leafpool and Rae politely declined.

Serene was a little nervous about the slide. “C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Urged Lisbeth.

“Yeah!” PSXtreme shouted, slinging a pie in to outer space.

“Fine.” Serene mumbled. She ran and then dove on to the slide. Hmm, this is kind of nice, she thought. Then she got to the steep part of the hill. The soap really did not help matters.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!” She screamed, zooming downhill at what seemed to be 95 miles per hour. The slide twisted and turned, but somehow she was unhurt by rocks or twigs. The mud softly (If you could call it that at 95 miles per hour) carried her down the steep hill accelerating faster and faster, to the bottom where she was plunged in to the river. When she surfaced, she gasped.

“Th-that… that was AWESOME!!” She yelled happily.

Leafpool, General Waffleson, Fireburst, Kitten and Rae also went on the slide. Then Darkfeather went.

“Um, is this okay for Captchas?” Kitten asked.

“I’m not sure…” Fireburst said.

“YESS!” Darkfeather shouted, concluding the conversation.

Oblivious to the danger they were in, the visitors continued having fun. And the murderer went away for another “bathroom break”, preparing for the murders that would come at dinner.

*****

I got my own computer, so I can write more often now! 

@Everyone, thanks for commenting.

I sort of forgot I was in this ski lodge! It's really good! That mud slide sounds terrifying but also super fun :).

This is a lot shorter than usual, and I am so, so, so sorry. I'm having a dreadful case of….. you guessed it, writer's block. The next part may take a while.

Day 3, Part 4

First the murderer messed with their voice recorder. Unfortunately, they were better at programming and hacking than Ms. Tobin or the Hotel Manager. They worked on hiding a program inside so that they could her what everybody else was doing, and so that their voice recorder would take noises from the other CBers recorders and mash them all together into a believable soundtrack. (Insert evil laugh here.) Then they moved on to dinner.

Poison? Check. Menu that I’m really not supposed to have? Check. Thought the murderer. Let’s see… tonight is a specially themed meal; Breakfast at Dinner. How incredibly stupid! The murderer had never thought much of breakfast at dinner. It was stupid and sickening, one thing trying to pretend to be another.

The murderer hated this place. HATED IT! They wanted to scream, unleash their wrath and destroy everything. But it was only day three.

The murderer counted to one million, took a deep breath, poisoned one of the plates, then went back to the group of visitors.

@The Riddler, Wow! Weird concidence.

@General Waffleson, Maybe you are the murderer…. and maybe you aren't.

Day 3, Part 5

Silverwaxwing was the first kayaker to return.

“There were some huge waves out there and we got separated for a while.” She explained, looking a bit nervous.

“Um, earth to Silverwaxwing?” Key said. “It’s a river. There are NO WAVES, especially not LARGE WAVES, in RIVERS.”

“I know that!” Silverwaxwing said annoyedly. “But there were. And the shoreline is farther off than it looks.” She took off her fitbit. “See? It says I kayaked  five miles.”

“No way is that possible,” said Key stubbornly. She opened her mouth to prove herself right, but was interrupted by Balletandbow, who had just gotten back.

“Therewerewavesonariverthatshouldonlybeamilewidebutisn’tamIinsane?” Balletandbow said very rapidly, with an unusual gleam to her eyes.

“Um, you’re looking at us funny, so yeah. And I mean, I’m an Alter Ego, and we are like experts of insane, and I know you pretty well, so if I think something is wrong, then it might actually be.” PSXtreme said, looking for the first time in her life truly worried.

“Sorry.” Balletandbow said, rubbing her eyes. “It was just so wrong. We went out a mile, I think, and we should’ve made it to the other side, but instead things got really weird.”

“Maybe we should wait for everybody else to get back,” Kitten said nervously. The visitors nodded, and headed inside to change into dry clothes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the other two bewildered kayakers returned, things were certain.

“Something is definitely up. I don’t think all four of you could have hallucinated the same thing all at the exact same time, and have had Silverwaxwing’s misfit go haywire too.” Leafpool said.

“That can’t have happened.” Rae said, looking nervous.

“But what else could it be?” Lucy mused. “I’ve never heard of something like that happening before.”

“This is stupid, but could it have been a hurricane?” Kitten wondered.

“No. A hurricane is so huge, it can be seen from space. It provides heavy rain and cloud thunder. Winds can reach up to 60-163 miles per hour. Plus, they form over an ocean. If you were in a hurricane, you’d know it.” PSXtreme said.

“Uh, how do you know all that?” Torstyn asked.

“I may or may not have taken a class about weather.” PSXtreme said guiltily.

“Forget classes. How would we not have noticed on the first day that the river was, well, a lot larger than it should have been, and wavy?” Elementgirl asked.

“Maybe… well, I wouldn’t normally bring this up, but this place is so weird that it’s possible… have you ever heard of a glamour?” General Waffleson asked.

“Yes.” Serene said quietly.

“Well, maybe it was a glamour?”

“What the heck is a glam-our?” Rosalyn wondered.

“It’s like an illusion? But magic?” Serene supplied.

“Ilsn Mgic?” Charles asked.

“The Merriam-Webster definition is a spell.” Lisbeth added.

“So supposedly the Hotel Manager or somebody else put a glamour over the river and instead it could be a bay or an ocean.” Key said skeptically.

“It’s possible.” Icy said. “The Hotel Manager has been acting weird.”

Silence followed, everybody wondering what was happening. And silence continued until dinner.

Day 3, Part 6

The Breakfast at Dinner was a feast. It didn’t just include pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon. It consisted of waffles, shirred eggs, omelettes, scrambled eggs, sunny side-up eggs on toast, toast (with various spreading options; seven types of jams, peanut butter, butter, jelly and cream cheese), bagels, pancakes, sausage, bacon, egg Mcmuffins, tater tots, grits, hashbrowns, croissants and several types of muffins.

The CBers were shocked by the amount of food, the AEs each grabbed their plates and dug in. The Captchas went crazy at the sight of muffins.

As everyone else grabbed plates, they were all too preoccupied by the amount of food and rivers that were not rivers to notice what their plate looked like. Someone was too preoccupied to notice that their plate was smoking. The Hotel Manager was too busy talking to Ms. Tobin.

Nobody noticed the poisoned plate.

“Mfns!” Connie shouted.

“What type of muffin would you like, Connie?” Elementgirl asked.

“Blbr, lemn and frch vnla.” Connie replied.

Elementgirl grabbed the appropriate muffins, and for herself she choose a raspberry muffin coated with powdered sugar, scrambled eggs, toast and tater tots.

She sat down next to Connie.

“Iwnt toty rbry mfin!” Connie said.

“Okay, but only if I get a taste of that lemon poppyseed muffin.” Elementgirl told her captcha. She broke off a bit of each muffin, took a bite of the lemon poppyseed and… was fine.

Joy, however was not. She took a bite of her croissant, swallowed, then fell over.

“Joy? Are you okay?” Kitten asked.

Joy did not reply. Instead, she turned blue and started trembling.

“JOY?” Kitten yelled. “HELP!”

“Quick, what did she eat?” The Hotel Manager asked.

“A bagel!” Kitten replied.

Joy’s breathing quickened.

“A bagel… Ms. Tobin, can you scan the bagel?”

“It contains high amounts of Cicuta, also known as water hemlock.”

“Um, charcoal! We need charcoal!” Serene shouted.

The Hotel Manager got some charcoal, crushed it in to a powder, and made Joy swallow it, over and over again.

Joy’s breathing slowed down to its natural pace. She relaxed a little.

And then she was rushed to her bed in the in the Chrysanthemum room.