Day 1, Part 4

 

 

By the time they got home, everyone was cold and wet.

 

 

“I’m going to go upstairs and take a long, hot shower,” said Sterling. The other guests nodded, and went to their rooms to do the same.

 

 

While everyone was upstairs, Rose made lunch—grilled cheese and tomato soup. Atom went and spoke with her.

 

 

"What are we going to do about Echo?” Atom asked.

 

 

“I don’t know,” was the only response Rose had to offer. “But it’s going to be okay. It’s always okay, in the end. Right?”

 

 

Atom didn’t answer.

 

 

Rose was growing increasingly concerned, but she pushed it away. She was sure she could fix whatever the world threw at her. She would be fine. She was just… In a rough spot.

 

 

Atom, on the other hand, was not nearly so optimistic. He knew there wasn’t much he could do, however, so they went up to their room and did some journaling. He wrote his journal in regular entries, poems, and illustrations, depending on how he was feeling. Usually, he liked to perceive the world in the most realistic, simple way possible. But even they needed an escape from reality now and then.

 

 

Today, he drew two versions of an all-too-familiar-looking girl with blue hair staring at each other, a toucan, and a few of the guests at the hotel, except they had devil’s horns and tails and were laughing evilly as they burned his bedroom to the ground. 

 

 

Pleased with himself, they titled the three illustrations “Echos of Echo,” “Loud Bird,” and “Nightmare.” He nodded, wrote a quick entry about the day, and shut the journal. As they were shutting it, however, a page flew up with an illustration in brown pencil of a rusty watch in the corner. The word “Safari” had been written next to it, then quickly scratched out.

 

 

He paused, and eventually murmured “She’ll be okay.” Then they slammed the journal shut, firmer this time, and bit back a stingy feeling in his eyes that felt a lot like tears.

 

 

 

Back downstairs, Rose had just finished serving the guests lunch. Most of them had gone upstairs to play board games, but Foxwood and Reuby stayed downstairs to take care of their foxes, who were tussling. Reuby’s fox had just eaten Foxwood’s fox’s collar (nobody planned to be around when he barfed it up later), so the two were quite unhappy with each other. Entertained, Reuby and Foxwood laughed as both foxes growled at the same time, then seemed very perplexed.

 

 

“These two,” Foxwood said, scratching her fox’s head. “So ridiculous.”

 

 

“Yeah,” Reuby laughed. Although she was usually quiet, she felt much more content around Foxwood and her melanistic fox. She felt as though she had settled into someplace new, someplace different. Maybe even someplace better, if she was lucky. This hotel wasn’t so bad, even if it did have an obnoxious curfew, Reuby thought.

 

 

Rose entered the lobby, holding a tray of grilled cheese and soup leftover from lunch. “Hey, could one of you do me a favor and bring Fenrir’s food up to her room? She wasn’t down here for lunch.”

 

 

Foxwood nodded. “Sure, I’ll do it.” She took the tray from Rose and headed up the stairs.

 

 

While they waited for Foxwood to return, Rose asked, “Are you liking the hotel so far?”

 

 

“Actually, yes,” said Reuby. “I—”

 

 

Suddenly, there was a scream. 

 

 

Reuby and Rose rushed up the stairs, and by the time they got there, Atom was already in room 22 with Foxwood, and there were a few guests crowded in the hallway. Rose and Rueby worked their way into the room to see Fenrir laying on the bed, her dark hair spread out around her, and her wings wrapped around her body like a sleeping bat—or perhaps like a shield attempting to protect its user—as Atom took her pulse, and slowly, slowly, shook their head.

 

 

 

And although nobody said anything, everyone understood.

 

 

 

Fenrir was dead.

 

 

 

 

~~~

 

It… Would seem that we need to, um, keep track of who's alive and who's… Not alive.

 

 

 

Oh, Atom, that's awful!

 

 

 

Yes, but it's convenient.

 

 

 

Fine, but it's your responsibility, not mine.

 

 

 

 

Very well…

 

 

 

Dead: 1 (Fenrir)

 

 

Alive: 12 (like, everyone else) 

 

 

 

 

 

***

 

 

@Reuby, how's that little fox scene?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I just noticed that to, I found out about them by a documentery, how bout you. By the way, what's you fox's name?

Day 1, Part 5

The thing about dead bodies is, they take up space, and after a while, they start to smell. 

 

 

Oh, and, also, they’re dead people. People who are dead. And people only die if something—or, you know, someone—kills them.

 

 

That left Rose, Atom, and Echo (well, really only Rose and Atom; Echo was, predictably, hiding in her room) with two problems: one, there was a dead body in their hotel, and they didn’t really know what to do with it; two, there was a dead body in their hotel, which meant someone had died and they had no idea how.

 

 

It was Shining Star who offered a solution to the second problem. With shaky hands, she picked up a jar of jam that lay open on the nightstand. The label read “Blackberry Jam” and was handwritten. 

 

 

“Oh my—Didn’t Fenrir bring poke berry jam?” Rose asked. “I’d put some blackberry jam in her room—I put a toaster in everyone’s room in case they didn’t like the breakfast, and I thought she’d like something to have with her toast—but there was no label on it. She must have meant to label the blackberry jam but accidentally labeled the…” Rose’s voice trailed off, and it was obvious she blamed herself. 

 

 

“It’s not your fault, Rose,” pangolin promised. “You were just trying to help.” Everyone nodded in agreement. Then Atom said, “I guess we have to… You know… B-bury her.” 

 

 

A few people shivered, but what else was there to do?

 

 

The funeral was that evening. Rose had activated EHDT, Emergency Hotel Day Teleportation. The hotel rarely teleported during the day, but nobody was comfortable with the idea of having Fenrir's body in the hotel all night, just sitting there. The hotel chose a forest with lots and lots of trees. The guests picked a tree with red and orange autumn leaves to bury Fenrir. Echo was there. She wore a black turtleneck hand-knit out of thick, wooly yarn, a black skirt, and sandals. 

 

 

Watching Atom and Rose work together to dig the hole brought Echo back. She could remember that voice…

 

 

"We’ll put him right here, underneath this tree. Okay, Echo? I’ll dig the hole.”

 

 

No, Echo thought. Not again. Never again. She closed her eyes. Layla? Are you there?

 

 

The darkness was unnatural.  The internal world was often depicted as a sunny hill covered in sunflowers. Someone had turned off the lights.

 

 

Layla, this isn’t funny, Echo called. Let’s turn on the morning scene again. 

 

 

But I like the moon, came a child’s voice. I’m looking for it. Where did the moon go, Echo? 

 

 

Echo sighed. It’s just a cloudy night, Layla. She pushed her consciousness upwards, reminding herself that she was in control, and a sky full of stars, including Layla’s favorite constellation, Monoceros, and a full moon that illuminated the sunflower hill and revealed the small, purple-haired girl with freckles and big, starry eyes staring at her. The minute she saw the sky, her worried expression shifted into a huge grin. Look, Echo! It’s the moon! And the unicorn! 

 

 

Echo chuckled. Of all her personalities, Layla was the one Echo felt the worst for having created. Layla was just a girl. She did not deserve to be trapped in Echo’s mind. It wasn’t Layla’s fault that she was an accident.

“Accident” didn’t have to mean mistake. 

 

 

Oof, Echo, what are you wearing? It looks so… Sad, came another voice. 

 

 

Echo sighed again. Haven’t you been watching, Aesthete? This is a funeral. One of the guests, Fenrir, died—she stopped when she heard Layla sniffle. 

 

 

Oh, Layla, it’s okay. It’s okay, Echo whispered, lifting the small child and hugging her. She’s in a better place now. Okay? 

 

 

L-like Safari? Layla asked, wiping a tear. 

 

 

Echo paused and exchanged a glance with Aesthete, who had stepped out of the shadows. Aesthete nodded. 

 

 

Yeah. Like Safari. Echo looked up at the moon as she mumbled the words, as if everyone they’d ever lost was up there hiding behind it. 

 

 

I don’t like this. I want it to stop, said Layla. 

 

 

Me too. Echo knew what Layla was about to do, and so did Aesthete. The only difference was, Echo was nodding and Aesthete was shaking their head. It’s not safe! Aesthete cried. 

 

 

It’s not forever, Echo said. Nothing is. But Rose wanted us to be happy. And is it really fair to let the guests’ whole trip be ruined when Layla knows how to help? 

 

 

We both know you’re not doing this for the guests, Echo. 

 

 

There was a long pause as Aesthete allowed the words to hang in the air, hoping they’d make Echo change her mind. But they didn’t. Eventually Aesthete said, fine. If you’re going to make yourself and everyone else sick with illusions that everything’s fine, go ahead. But I’m not going to stick around to watch. I’ll be in my trailer if you come to your senses. 

 

 

Aesthete disappeared back into the darkness, but Layla didn’t seem to notice. She was overcome with grief and fear—but she knew what to do about it. Echo watched as the girl look up at the moon and screamed as the uncontrollable emotion bubbled to the surface and into the sky, creating a terrible storm that raged out of Echo’s body and into the world—

 

 

 

Atom finished shoveling the last of the dirt over Fenrir’s body in the hole. They all bowed their heads in a moment of silence for Fenrir, but all of a sudden…

 

 

“What? What’s going on?” Said Rose. “What are we doing, just standing around? We need to get back into the hotel! It’s getting dark. Come on, everyone!”

 

 

She led the confused guests inside, Echo trailing furthest behind. And when they got back into the hotel, everything was perfectly okay. There had only ever been 12 guests, after all. 

 

 

They hadn’t lost anything.

 

 

~~~

 

Hey, I'm back! Layla's name isn't a reference to Moon Knight, btw, just thought it went with her character nicely. Sorry it's been a while, I was having some writer's block but I got a good idea so part 5 is here at last 🙂 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2, Part 6

Up in her bedroom, Echo’s eyes opened, and a loud, confident voice said, “Okay, people, let’s do this.” 

 

 

That’s a dumb thing to say, Sonder, came a giggling girl’s voice. 

 

 

“Nope! I’m in control now, Aesthete,” said the person in Echo’s body, who was apparently named Sonder. “You can put your complaints in the suggestion box.” 

 

 

You mean the shredder up in your treehouse? 

 

 

“Uh-huh, that sounds about righ—SAPHROSYNE! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HAIR?!” 

 

 

More giggles in the back of his mind. Sonder sighed. 

 

 

I don’t know what to tell you, Sonder, an accented and annoyingly proud sounding voice snickered. It’s gonna get long. Might as well put some bows in there, too.

 

 

Sonder ran a brush through the messy, evil blue thing that sat on his head, and now had millions of glittery bows. Glitter. Everyone knew that Sonder hated it. Nobody liked glitter, but Sonder despised it. It got in the way, and it was impossible to get rid of completely. It was also pointless. It just sat there, taking up space. They’d all been able to guess that Sonder would be next to appear in Echo’s body, and they had, of course, had to prank him. “I want my own body,” he moaned. 

 

 

Us too, came a chorus of voices.

 

 

A few doors down in her room, Rose got ready for the day, humming happily as she put her hair in a ponytail and chose which theatre-kid shoes to wear today. She settled on her Hamilton Vans, a pair of Vans with a black and white checkerboard pattern. On each black square, Rose had hand-painted a yellow star. On the side of the left shoe it said “IF YOU STAND FOR NOTHING” and on the side of the right one is said “WHAT’LL YOU FALL FOR?” There were many other quotes that were just as haunting, but she had yet to create another pair of Hamilton shoes, so this was the quote she had. She headed downstairs, skipping steps, to make breakfast.

 

 

Atom was already sitting on the lobby counter, eating his peanut butter-Cheez-It breakfast next to… Was that Echo? No, it couldn’t be. Echo never sat on the counter, nor was she ever up this early. It must have been another alter.

 

 

“Look, it’s not my fault I’m stuck in Echo’s body,” Echo’s alter said. “I can’t control when I’m here and when I’m not. You got a problem, just talk to Echo about it.”

“I can’t talk to Echo about it if you’re in the way!” 

 

 

“Oh. Right.” 

 

 

There was a long pause. Then Echo’s alter pointed to Atom’s jar of peanut butter and said, “Can I have some of that? It looks like a genius combination.” 

 

 

Atom felt his ears turn pink. Nobody had ever called them a “genius” before, especially not when talking about his choices in breakfast. They suddenly were much less annoyed. In fact, he was happy. Maybe this alter of Echo’s wasn’t so bad after all. They nodded. “Yeah. I’ll get you a spoon, and we can share.” 

 

 

So Atom followed Rose into the kitchen. “Who’s this new alter?” Rose asked. 

 

 

"His name’s Sonder,” Atom said. “He’s very talkative, and he likes peanut butter and Cheez-Itz. Like me,” said Atom with a dreamy look in their eyes.

 

 

Rose laughed. “Oh, Atom.”

 

 

"What?” Atom said. He seemed to realize what Rose was thinking, and their whole face turned bright red. He quickly grabbed a spoon from the drawers. “Okay, it was nicetalkingtoyouIwillbegoingnow,” they said, suddenly in a hurry to leave.

 

 

Rose turned to prepare a buttermilk pancake, strawberry, and Nutella breakfast for her guests, still chuckling. 

 

 

***

 

After breakfast, all of the guests crowded in the lobby, just as they had yesterday, and Rose took attendance. Everyone on her list was present. “Great!” She said. “Let’s see what the hotel has in store for us today!” 

 

 

Outside the doors was a long, wooden, and untrustworthy-looking bridge kept together with string. If it had an end, the end was not visible. And the guests were completely surrounded by sky. It was beautiful and fascinating, but it got twenty million times cooler when suddenly a large black dragon swooped up. 

 

 

“DRAGONS!” Darkvine, who’d been pretty quiet up until now, was suddenly very enthusiastic as she jumped off the bridge (a very risky move, considering the ground was so far they couldn’t tell if there even was a ground) and onto the dragon. 

 

 

“WOHOOOOOOOOOOO!” 

 

 

A smaller dragon with lavender scales came up, and Flamarestii and Shining Star decided they’d ride it together. Darkling, ever the daredevil, decided they’d use an umbrella from the lobby to hover down like Mary Poppins to a white dragon hovering just below the bridge. Foxwood and Reuby happily chose a fiery orange dragon. Eventually, every guest was having a great time riding the dragons. Even Rose had hopped onto a black and white striped one with green eyes that reminded her of Beetlejuice. 

 

 

That left Atom and Sonder on the bridge, both watching the dragons in awe. Eventually Sonder asked, “Aren’t you going to ride one?” 

 

 

Atom chewed their lip. “I don’t know… It doesn’t look very safe.” 

 

 

Sonder laughed. “You’re funny, you know that? C’mon, we’ll do it together.” He grabbed Atom’s hand (Atom’s face turned bright red again as this was happening) and pulled him onto a beautiful sapphire dragon with huge, enchanting amber eyes.

 

 

“See?” Sonder said. “Risks can be wonderful, if you play your cards right.” 

 

 

They all rode the dragons until the sky had turned orange and pink. Nobody really wanted to leave, but they were all hungry and they knew it had to end eventually, so one by one, they hopped off the dragon and headed inside for dinner. 

 

 

Burgers (a veggie burger for Writing and Rose) were served for dinner and creamsicles for dessert. Then everyone was free to do as they pleased in the hotel for about an hour. The guests went down to the basement for air hockey, board games, and an Owl House marathon (Writing and Tsuki had convinced a few of the others to try it). 

 

 

The evening passed by without much event, other than the occasional dragon swooping by a window. Then everyone headed to bed.

 

 

The part that was most interesting was that all of the guests were wondering what the next day held. But nobody seemed to be concerned over what could happen during the night.

 

~~~

 

Wohoo! Next part! Death count's gone because nobody seems to remember Fenrir's death or presence… *nervous and slightly evil laugh* Sorry these parts are becoming more and more delayed, they'll probably be out more often when it's summer. 

 

 

Do you people think it's believable that Atom likes Sonder and that they could possibly end up together? I'm not sure so I want your opinions!

Day 3, Part 7

 

It was just past midnight, and everyone was asleep. 

 

 

Well, almost everyone. 

 

 

The murderer crept down the hallway, preparing to make their next move. Slowly, they opened the door to their victim’s bedroom, holding the poison in their hand. The room would be dark, but if they were correct…

 

 

And there it was. Beautiful star-shaped string lights had been hung around the room, illuminating it just enough for the murderer to see the candles sitting on the nightstand. Ah, yes, this was it.

 

 

Carefully, the murderer poured the poison they’d created into one of the candles. There was a fifty-fifty chance of this working, but fifty-fifty was enough. They pulled a matchbox out of their pocket, lit the candle, then crept away.

 

 

***

 

Shining Star awoke with a horrible headache. She didn’t usually get them. Oh, and now she felt light-headed… She decided to try splashing some water on her face. She attempted to slip out of bed and walk across the room to her bathroom. But suddenly up was down, and down was rapidly approaching her, and something hit her, then—nothing. 

 

 

She never even had time to notice the lit candle in her bedroom as it burned out.

 

 

Flamarestii, sleeping just a few doors down from Shining Star, heard a thump from her room. Concerned, she decided to go check on her. 

 

 

She tip-toed down the hallway and knocked on Star’s door. “Star? You in there? Is something wrong?” 

 

 

The door creaked open. “Star?” 

 

 

The beautiful string lights reflected off of the windows, and Flamarestii suddenly saw a figure, collapsed on the ground. 

 

 

“Star!” 

 

 

It was Shining Star all right, freckled face and brown hair. But something was wrong. Terribly wrong. Star’s eyes were squeezed shut, not like a person who’s sleeping or a person who’s fainted, but like a person in pain. 

 

 

Flamarestii tried to stay calm. She’d get Atom and Rose. They’d know what to do. She hurried down the hall and to the elevator—no time for stairs, and headed up to the floor where their rooms were. She decided she’d knock on Rose’s door first.

 

 

Rose answered, looking groggy. “Flamarestii? What’s wrong?”

 

 

“Something happened to Star. It’s like she fainted, but worse.” 

 

 

Rose no longer looked tired. Just very pale. “I’ll go get Atom. Stay downstairs with Star.” 

 

 

Flamarestii took the elevator back to Star’s room. Star was in the same position. Flamarestii crouched next to her and waited for Atom and Rose, who came down a second later. 

 

 

Rose gasped at the sight of Star’s face, and quickly looked away. Atom seemed like he wanted to do the same, but instead they leaned down and took Star’s pulse. He was quiet for a long time, moving their fingers around like he was hoping they just couldn’t find the pulse. But they all knew eventually. There was no pulse.

 

 

Shining Star was dead.

 

 

***

 

 

The funeral was the next morning. Rose and Atom had tried to break the news to the guests carefully, but it ended with Rose bursting into tears and Atom having to tell everyone what happened, which was problematic because sensitivity was not his strong suit.

 

 

All of the guests dressed in black. The hotel had already chosen an oddly familiar looking forest, and they all decided they’d bury Star under a lovely plum tree.

 

 

Atom and Rose dug a hole. Everyone was staring solemnly at the ground. Nobody noticed Echo in the background, eyes shut.

 

 

Sunflower hill was beautiful in the mornings, but nobody was happy. 

 

 

Somebody is dead. Dead, said Metanoia. I can’t believe it. Syne attempted to comfort her sister, giving Metanoia a squeeze. 

 

 

Layla approached them from the bottom of the hill. What happened? She asked, eyes wide with fear. 

 

 

Sonder ran his fingers through his hair. W-well, Layla, someone has died. 

 

 

What? Layla said in disbelief. Oh, that’s awful! This is terrible! I—I don’t want this—I—

 

 

A storm was building up around Layla. 

 

 

Layla, this isn’t safe! Aesthete cried. But it was too late. The storm raged out of Echo’s body just as it had before.

 

 

Everyone felt as though the wind had been knocked out of them. While they were all busy catching their breath, something seemed to happen—the scene around them changed, and they were back in the hotel. 

 

 

Rose was the first to snap out of it. “That’s funny,” she said. “We’re all matchy-matchy today! We look like we just came back from a funeral!” 

 

 

~~~

 

 

I guess we need to keep track of who's, um, dead… 

 

 

Dead: 1 (Shining Star)

 

 

Alive 11 (Reuby, Writing, Silver Crystal, Sterling, pangolin, Flamarestii, Darkling, Tsuki, Darkvine, Avara, and Foxwood) 

 

***

 

Simple, mini-ish-part. Feels a little unfinished but when I tried to continue it it felt a little… Too finished? So this is what you get for now d: also I have officially decided how many personalities Echo has! Thought I might have more but for Satom (which is definitely happening now) I needed to make sure it was a small enough number for Sonder to be in Echo's body a bunch of times. Death count's back but it will likely be useless as it keeps on changing and disappearing (sorry) 

Hello Writing! You are pretty important in the next part (you're not dying yet I promise) and I have a question for you that I should have asked a while ago. On your form you put that you use both xe/xem/xyrs and they/them/theirs pronouns. Does this mean you want me to alternate between the two or do you have a preference? I'd seen a post where you said preferred xe/xem/xyrs, so I just kind of assumed, but I now see how rude and disrespectful that was and so I apologize! Sorry!