Thank you for bearing with me, readers. You have given me the courage to get this next part written. And, I am sure, you are all in for quite an untraditional part. 😉 And, Tsuki, I can see what I can do in adding you into the next part, but I can't make any garuntees (spelling *sigh*). I will definately try though!

~~~~~~~~~ 

Day 2, Part 3

Dinner that night was not at all pleasant. Arcady had returned only moments before 7:00pm, and all day the Cbers and AEs had been stressed searching for him. Some even blamed him for the death of LG. He had no alibi, could command Wunder in some mysterious ways, and clearly had been holding secrets from them. Riot, Oil, and Dreamii were especially suspicious. 

The three had been observing the other guests very carefully for the last few hours, but none had seen anything suspicious. A few times they had even caught some suspects writing, but none of their words had matched the distinct handwriting of the author of the letter. Arcady never wrote in public.

"I apologize sincerely for my absence today, everyone." Arcady began at the end of the meal. "I had some urgent business to attend to." 

"Yeah, like what? Lynx interrupted. They had just arrived themselves, dirt on their knees and hair frazzled. Alexander was noticeably absent. 

"Just a business matter." Arcady answered. 

"What kind of business? Murderous business?" They retorted

"No!" 

He seemed genuine, but how could anyone be sure? He was Arcady. 

Lynx only responded by violently stabbing the baked potato on their plate. 

"Lynx, where were you today?" Quill chimed in cautiously 

"Wouldn't you like to know…" Lynx mumbled. 

Quill decided it would be best to drop the matter before she ended up like the potato. 

"Well I see I wasn't the only one who disappeared today." Arcady commented. 

"Yeah, you weren't. And Lynx wasn't the only one either." Riot mentioned. 

"Oh?" 

"LG was too. She was the next to…" She paused for a moment, and cut off. She couldn't bear to say it. 

"Dead." Arcady said, matter of factly. 

Riot nodded. 

"That's four now!" Writing shouted angrily. "And it's only been two days!" 

"Yes, it has been." Arcady agreed. 

"So, what are we going to do about it?" 

"I don't know, Writing." 

Everyone looked down in silence, mourning their past friends and their ultimate future. Everyone, that is, except the murderer. 

As much as the murderer wanted to sleep tonight, they knew they had to act again. They had noticed the three snoops that had been observing the CBers and AEs earlier, and they suspected that they were onto something. Maybe, maybe not, but the faster they caused deaths, the more confused everyone would be. And what would be more confusing than a little poison? 

Arcady dismissed the group from the dinning table at 9:00, and everyone was told to go straight to bed, no funny business. Apparently, he was going to set Mat up as a guard, but nobody really believed him. When Writing asked him what was in the soup that night, he answered 'Red' and then went back to staring at his spoon miserably. 

"What do you think it is?" Bean asked Opal on their way back to their rooms. 

"What do I think what is?" Opal replied.

"What is bothering Arcady, of course." Bean responded. 

"Oh, I suspect he knows something about the murderer." Opal said, lowering her voice. "He's way too suspicious to be innocent." 

"Agreed." Bean nodded. "But what do you think he knows about it?" 

"I don't know." Opal answered. "The only thing I would think he could know is 'who dun it', but I don't think that is right." 

"Yes, but…" Bean trailed off as her eyes caught on a table in front of her and Opal. 

"Was that there a minute ago?" She asked, stalking toward the small stand cautiously. 

"I don't think so," Opal glanced toward the table, but didn't move forward. 

"It has something on it." Bean called. "Come look." 

Finally, Opal inched up to join Bean. 

"Cookies? Really?" She picked up a small gingersnap from the plate and lifted it toward her face. 

"Wait," Bean cautioned. "There's a note." 

Slowly, Bean grabbed the short slip of paper off of the tray of cookies and read aloud:

"To apologize for my absence today, Arcady."

"Odd," Opal commented. "Why wouldn't he have given these to us at dinner? And to everyone, not just us? Nobody else is nearby, and there are only two…" 

"Hm," Bean responded. "I don't think we should eat them." 

Opal's eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open. 

"Wha…what?" Bean asked. She knew this couldn't be good. 

"I…I already ate one!" Opal answered. 

For when Opal had first seen the cookies, she had thought they would be harmless, as anyone would. Nobody would suspect sugar to kill. And, with the stress of the day, it hadn't even crossed her mind she should be wary. 

"No!" Bean screamed, scrambling for her map in her pocket. "We've got to take you to the nurse!" 

"I don't think there is one…" Opal commented, kneeling down, her voice fading. 

"No no no!" Bean shouted. "I knew it! Poison!

"I don't think…I don't think anyone can…can help now." Opal spoke, careful lowering herself down to the ground. "It's…it's fast. 

"I'm not giving up!" Bean yelled. 

"But…I don't know what it is…" Opal's eyes started closing. 

"Stay awake!" Bean screeched. 

"It's too late…" mumbled Opal. 

"NO!" 

But it was too late. Opal's eyes rolled back in her head, and a sigh escaped from her lips. Her hands fell stiff next to her body, and her heavy breathes suddenly stopped. The fifth victim had been taken. 

Bean slumped down to the ground next to Opal, speechless. Her friend had just died next to her, alive one moment, dead the next. How could life disappear so quickly? 

As much as Bean wanted to call for help, she was frozen in place. Oh, and it's a shame too, for if she would have left then, she might have been safe. But, the murderer was too smart for that. Someone had to have put the cookies there, hadn't they? Of course, the murderer had been hiding just a door down, hunkered in one of the closets, waiting for the first to drop. Now, they could take care of the other. 

Slowly, the fire inside of them roaring up to their throat, the murderer pushed the door open into the hallway. Their eyes had turned a disturbing black, and their mind had been engulfed by the flames of whatever had gotten inside of them. They couldn't think their own thoughts anymore, and the voice inside had all but taken over. 

"NOW!" it commanded "Quickly, before they scream!" 

And so, the murderer lunged toward poor Bean, a pair of shears in hand. For a brief moment, the murderer wondered why they had been given such odd weapons (they had just found this in their bag that night, as a matter of fact), but the thought crumbled and died in the inferno that had taken over their mind. 

Bean's face contorted into an exasperation of pure horror, but it didn't last long. The murderer stabbed her through the chest with the sharp shears, and right then, she fell lifeless beside Bean. 

The murderer smiled, the flames not dieing this time, but rising even higher. 

They had completed not only multiple murders in a day, not only two days with multiple murders, but an almost unheard of double murderer. 

There was no doubt the guests would feel scared now.

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

DEAD: Hollyshock (Bludgeoned), Raynee (Burnt), Jaybells (Crushed), LG (Cause Unknown), Opal (Posioned), Bean (Stabbed) 

SAFE:  Dreamii, Riot, Oil, Gilly, Writing, Quill, 

SUSPECTS:  Lynx, Skip, Silver, Any Others? 

HOORAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

Time to ramble a little bit~ 

I'm so excited to find out who the murderer is… they're burning through guests fast, so there's not gonna be a lot of options soon.

Arcady knows what's murdering everyone, I think, but not who its host is…  when someone finds their bodies, they'll see the cookies and the note.  They'll probably suspect Arcady more than ever now.

Whoever had the garden shears as luggage, if anyone, probably isn't the murderer.  The murderer "just found them in their bag this morning-" so it hadn't been there before.

Could it be that none of the guests are the murder?  I doubt it was Arcady, but… actually, that seems highly unlikely for someone who lives there to be the murderer.  Nevermind.

Thanks Arcady!  

Hello again, loyal readers! It is time for the next instalment! But, I warn you, a new perspective awaits…and a shocking suprise…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

Day 3

Alexander was the one who found the bodies. He didn't scream. He knew better by now. He was almost used to finding bodies by now, but he didn't dare tell the other guests. His uncle would kill him (possibly literally), first of all, and second of all, they were actually trying to learn. Not that it was actually working. And third of all, well, he can't even confess that reason here. 

"Notty, can you move these bodies? Outside, please?" He asked the walls. He desperately hoped none of the other guests were up. Especially Lynx. His knees were still swollen…

The chandelier on the ceiling above swayed in a way that Alexander figured was a 'yes', and the bodies suddenly disappeared. 

His eyes then wandered to the table with the ominous letter.

"The cookies too, if you wouldn't mind." He added. 

The bones of the Not-Mansion creaked in a sort of moan, but the table soon disappeared as well. 

"There." He whispered to himself. "Now I can…wait, what the heck?" 

Alexander's eyes trailed to a cracked door down the hall across from where the bodies had lay. On its own, it would have meant nothing. But Alexander knew a lot more about ol' Notty than even Arcady did. Nobody slept in that room, even when Notty was in their strangest mode. Most often, it was a closet. And never was the door open. Never. Because…

Alexander shook his head. It must have been a lost guest, it couldn't be Them. They were long gone. 

Even then, Alexander was terrified as he crept toward the jarred door. 

"It's probably nothing," He murmured to himself. "It is nothing." 

Craning his neck around the edge of the door, he peeked into the room. Nothing unusual. Alexander took a step around the door, and put his whole body in the way of the so-called 'closet'.

Creeeak!

Alexander jumped and knocked over a whole stack of brooms – ker-thump ker-thump ker-thump! 

"Ugh!" Alexander muttered to himself. So much for being discrete – but what had made that creak? He had to find out.

When nobody came to inspect the racket of the brooms, Alexander decided to venture farther into the closet. There was a thick layer of dust on the floor, but near the edge of the door, a clean slouch of hard wood was visible. 

"Was that just from me?" Alexander wondered. No, it was not, but he would not learn that for a good time yet.

A dust pan hung precariously on a hook barely clinging to the wall, and a bucket of murky water sat on the floor. Alexander's foot almost nicked it, but after the broom incident, he was being much more cautious. Continuing on, he passed a half-open drawer filled with spray bottles and rags, all with old-fashioned names. A lime green cloth had fallen out and was on the floor, a bright patch in the dark and dingy closet. 

"This place is so…dirty." Alexander spoke aloud as he drew his finger down a soot-covered light switch. He had never seen such a filthy room in Notty since he had lived here, and it struck him as quite odd that it was so disorderly. 

Creeeeeak! Creeeeak!

There it was again! The creaking sound! And this time, it was louder! Alexander was not going to let it scare him again – he was going to find out what it was. 

By this time, Alexander was at the very back of the closet; closets aren't very big in Not-Mansions; and so there wasn't much place to search other than the window. But – oh, no – Alexander hadn't studied the door close enough – it wasn't just any window, it was The Window

The Window. Oh, how Alexander hated the window. As a boy, Marli had told him awful tales about the Haunted Window up in the Forgotten Closet. She had told him that, at night, when there was no moon in sight, the Wundersmith always came to stare in at that window, looking for innocent wandering souls to steal away. 

Alexander didn't believe her, at least not at first. Not until the night he turned 10. 

It was a still and silent November night; no wind rustling the almost-barren branches of the trees outside, no owls hooting in the chimney. It was a perfect night for an adventure. Alexander remembered getting out of bed at 3:04 precisely on the morning of the 13th, on a mission to make mischief. Why not? he had thought, it was his birthday after all. 

He had been planning to mesmer Arcady into dancing the jig in his pajamas, one of his favorite pranks since he was 5. Or, maybe, he could make Marli do it. Serious old Marli doing the jig – how hilarious would that be? He changed his mind – he had to find Marli. 

Marli's room was right next to the Forgotten Closet that evening, almost as if Notty had known he would be looking for late night shenanigans. Alexander remembered glaring at the closet door, it's wood reflecting light at such an odd angle that it seemed to be glowing. How could it be as scary as Marli claimed it to be? 

At a spur of the moment whim, he shoved the Forgotten Closet's door open. For his tenth birthday, he would finally be able to prove Marli wrong!

But no. Oh no. How wrong he had been. 

The very first thing he saw in that room proved Marli was right. For in the harrowing, grime covered window just across from the door, he saw a face. A greedy, hideous, scar-covered face. It was none other than Them. A Wundersmith. The Wundersmith.

"Alexander," It called "My evil little boy," 

Alexander remembered being so stricken with horror that he couldn't move. 

"Come with me. I can give you the life you always wanted," 

No. NO! He would not go! But he was stuck in that wretched room as if he were glued to it. His lips parted, but no sound came out. 

"You are not the one they say you are, and you know it," 

A single, gasping cry escaped from his lips. 

"Alex? Is that you?" A muffled voice answered from the hall behind. Marli. Marli! 

He heard a shuffle as Marli turned to the open closet door. 

"ALEX!" She then shouted. 

Alexander couldn't turn around, but he heard Marli's strong footsteps approaching him and the man in the window. He felt her grip his arm with her sweaty hands. He felt himself being dragged out of the room like a toddler, and he felt the tears streaming down his face. 

Never since had he dared to enter the Forgotten Closet. Never since had he even such as glanced at The Window. And now, now that he saw The Window again, his old fear draped around him like a thick and heavy blanket. 

Because, when he looked in The Window again, he saw the dark and creeping shadows of once-golden Wunder, and the face of the Wundersmith smiling at him again. 

The Wundersmith, he thought, his head ringing with memories of the horrifying face, The Wundersmith is back.

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

DEAD: Hollyshock (Bludgeoned), Raynee (Burnt), Jaybells (Crushed), LG (Cause Unknown), Opal (Posioned), Bean (Stabbed) 

SAFE:  Dreamii, Riot, Oil, Gilly, Writing, Quill, 

SUSPECTS:  Lynx, Skip, Silver, Any Others?