More nightmares. Thankfully, they were much more muted this time around, and faded away before Flaggy became fully conscious, making it a mostly peaceful awakening. Eyes closed, she stretched on the floor, foggy memories of the video games she played last night filling her mind.
Something sharp poked her finger.
She froze. Still half-asleep, Flaggy forced her eyes open and glanced around, seeing the tranquil slumber of the others around her. At least, those which she could see from her vantage point on the floor.
The tiny point of pain pierced her awareness again, and she tried to locate a source. Which finger? Pointer finger, right hand. No no, left hand. She rotated her head to glance towards the couch, where her arm had wandered under overnight. Carefully, the girl felt around and immediately located something cold and hard. She pulled it out into the dim light.
A pair of scissors... bloody scissors. Flaggy's heart sped up until she realized that the blood was dry and crusty - it wasn't fresh, save for the single drop on her finger caused by the poke. But why were they there in the first place?
An ear-piercing scream permeated the room from nowhere, startling everyone else awake. Marshmallow bolted into an upright position and looked around frantically, panic already filling her eyes. Cheesy fell off the couch by accident and almost crushed Flaggy. TV snorted in his sleep, then his head shot up and slammed against the wall, while Bottle simply opened her eyes. Flaggy quickly shoved the scissors back under the couch for now - she didn't want them to see her holding a bloody weapon.
TV rubbed the back of his head, wincing. "What in the world...?"
"Did someone... scream?" Bottle wondered aloud. She massaged her eyelids carefully.
A sinking feeling grew in Flaggy's stomach. She recognized that scream. "Yeah. I... think someone's probably died."
--------------------
The group of five eventually tracked the source of the scream down to the showers, where Bone and Bowling Ball were standing outside. They arrived at the same time as Brain, Suitcase, and WL4, who all arrived from their respective cabins. "What happened?" TV asked. "Is everyone alright? Who screamed?"
Bone replied, "I did." He was leaning heavily against the side of the shower building, one hand over his heart. He looked frazzled. "I'm not hurt, though. A minute ago, I walked into the showers from the other entrance and saw... F-Flower's body." Upon hearing this, WL4 sucked in a breath. "I froze, and then Bowling Ball entered from this door, and startled me... a lot."
Suitcase glanced around warily. "...where's Marble?"
"Inside," BB said. "Flower was taking a shower when she died so she's not... er... decent at the moment."
The door creaked open, making everyone jump. "Y'all can enter now," Marble's voice came from inside. "She's covered up."
Everyone exchanged glances and entered the showers, single-file. The interior wasn't much to look at — just concrete walls and floor, all painted white, with a wooden ceiling. Two opposite walls had four stalls each, for a total of eight showers. On the floor next to the stall closest to the door was presumably Flower's corpse, covered in a blanket with various plants decorating it.
WL4 looked at the covering. "Hey!" he said angrily in Marble's direction. "This is her blanket! You stole it from her bed in our cabin!"
"What? It's not like she needs it anymore," Marble countered.
"It's still extremely rude and disrespectful to steal a dead person's belongings."
"Oh, I'm the rude one here? I know I'm not the kindest around, but that's still rich, coming from you."
"Hey, hey!" Flaggy stepped between them before their conflict could escalate. "Let's get to the point here. Marble, do you know how Flower died?"
Marble shot one more glance at WL4 (who stuck his tongue out at her) before answering. "I believe so. See, that wire there-" She pointed towards a wire that snaked under the room's exit and over the top of the nearest stall's walls. "-was plugged into an outlet on the outside of the building. I think the murderer plugged it in, came through here while Flower was showering, and tossed the live end of the wire over the stall walls and electrocuted her."
Several people winced. "I couldn't see any other wounds, so I figured electrocution was the logical conclusion. She must have fallen over and knocked the stall door open when she died, because she was already on the floor when I got here," she concluded.
Curious, Cheesy grabbed the wire hanging into the stall and pulled on it hard. It, as well as something heavy attached to the other end, flew over and landed in Cheesy's arms. Fittingly enough, it was TV's mechanical arm. "Eugh!" the boy yelled, instinctively dropping the limb before remembering it wasn't flesh and blood. Most of the fake skin had been stripped away, leaving the multiple wires inside for everyone to see. Several had the copper filaments exposed to the open air, with some of them connected to the main wire leading outside.
"You clown." Marble shook her head. "If I hadn't already unplugged that from the outside outlet, you'd probably be dead."
"How did your arm get in here, TV?" Marshmallow questioned.
"I brought it back to my cabin yesterday and left it under my bed. Someone must have... broken in and stolen it while we were asleep in the lounge."
"Then the most logical line of questioning we should ask next is about the 'game night,'" said Brain. "Marble, Suitcase, and I were the only ones not to attend, correct?"
Bone gave him a sideways glance. "You do realize you just put yourself on the suspect list right?"
Brain shot him a condescending look. "I am not a simpleton. Now, it also seems that everyone who went to the lounge also fell asleep there. Who was the last one awake?"
"Uh, I... think it was me?" Marshmallow offered. "No, wait... almost. Me, WL4, and Bone were the last ones awake for a while, but I fell asleep before you guys, didn't I?"
"Yeah," WL4 confirmed, Bone backing him up with a nod. "Then Bone fell asleep right after you, and I only lasted for a few more minutes before conking out myself."
"Hmm," Brain hummed.
Hesitantly, Bowling Ball spoke up. "When I woke just a few minutes ago, Flower, WL4, and Bone were already somewhere else. Bone I encountered in here, but I don't know where WL4 went."
"I was hungry," WL4 stated plainly. "Besides, if you'd been bunking with Flower for the past couple of days, you'd be automatically waking up earlier too."
"...what do you mean?"
"God." He rolled his eyes. "Every morning, she wakes- er, woke- up at, like, 6 or something, to shower and put on make up and do her hair to 'make sure she's as beautiful as she can be.' And she's so LOUD about it. I haven't been able to sleep in at ALL since I got here."
The others turned to him. "So... you knew about Flower's showering schedule beforehand?" Flaggy clarified.
"Yeah. Why?"
"That means you're a prime suspect!" Bottle claimed cheerfully.
Warioy's eyes widened. Then he burst out laughing, clutching his stomach. "Oh! Oh, you guys think- hah! That's golden." He wiped away a tear. "You guys think I killed Flower? Nice joke."
Nobody laughed, not even Cheesy. WL4's smile slowly began to drop. "...you guys are joking, right?"
Bowling Ball and Suitcase glanced at each other. "I m-mean," Suitcase stuttered, "we don't know everything yet, but-"
"-but that one chunk of information puts you at the top of the suspect list," Brain finished. Suitcase reluctantly nodded agreement.
Marble opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off by WL4. "Well! if we're going to be pointing fingers, then I'm accusing Marble!" She started a little at this. "She's been acting suspicious the whole time we've been here, and she wasn't at the party! She had loads of chances last night to sneak around and kill people!"
"Oh, really? Well, first off," Marble began to counter, "I already explained to you all why I was absent for a while earlier. Second, I'm keeping to myself mostly because I don't trust the lot of you. Thirdly, your out-of-the-blue accusations just made you sound a lot more suspicious. And finally, if you'd please put aside your irrational hatred of me for five seconds, I can point out something nobody else seems to have noticed yet that could save your life."
All traces of malicious intent vanished from WL4's face, replaced by curiosity. "Really? What?"
"Nope. You lost your chance."
"Wh?? Oh come on, give me another!"
She just shook her head again. "Marble, you're being irrational about this," TV tried. "If you really do have an argument to support WL4's innocence, then-"
"Then what?" Marble snapped loudly, finally losing her cool. "Then we can go back to arguing about who the killer is? If all of you shitheads have missed something as simple as what I'm seeing every time someone was murdered, then it's no wonder the killer hasn't been caught yet. And what's more, even if I tell you why WL4 is innocent, we've still got, what — four, five other suspects? We'd basically be back at square one! There's not much we can do other than try and use alibis to figure this out, but even that won't work very fucking well here, because everyone else was probably ASLEEP when Flower was murdered!! Let's face it — we're all trapped in this stupid murder mystery until the murdered off us all one by one."
Everybody was in a shocked silence, the only sound within the room being Marble's heavy breathing. After a moment, Bottle stepped towards the red-haired girl. "Marble-"
"Save it."
"But- WOAH!" Bottle instinctively yelped as Oodle materialized in front of her. "You startled me! Could you stop doing that, please?"
"Fine, next time, I'll walk through the door like a normal person," grumbled Oodle. "Anyway, you guys are running out of time."
"What!" Flaggy protested. "We've barely been talking for five minutes!"
Oodle simply shrugged sadly. "Sorry, Flagster. Them's the rules. You do technically have a couple more minutes, but I figured it'd be good to do a preliminary vote. All in favor of sparing Warioy?"
WL4 raised his hand, of course, and so did Bottle. Suitcase lifted hers hesitantly after a moment. Everyone else's silence revealed their answers. "Welp. That settles it."
The counselor pulled out a new die - this time, it was ten-sided, with everyone's face on one side except WL4's. He threw it onto the ground, where it rolled for what seemed like an eternity until it finally ceased. On the top face was the friendly face of Bowling Ball. "Oh god," BB said, putting his hands on his head. Suitcase just stared at him, desolation on her face.
Oodle held out the gun, not saying a word. Reluctantly, Bowling Ball took it. "Just p-point and shoot, and don't look," Suitcase whispered, trying to help. "It hurts l-less if you d-don't think about it."
That last part was a blatant lie.
Hands shaking ever-so-slightly, BB raised the gun and accidentally met WL4's eyes. They were full of sorrow and innocence, tears already streaming freely down his cheeks. Instantly, BB knew he couldn't pull the trigger. WL4 wasn't the killer, but the decision had already been made. There was no way it could end well.
Except...
"I..." Bowling Ball lowered the gun a tiny bit as a realization popped into his head. "I can end this." Before anyone could react, he swiftly swiveled the gun around until it was pointed straight at Oodle's chest and fired. An explosion of noise echoed around the room as a ridiculous amount of smoke bellowed from the gun's muzzle, obscuring the victim in gray.
Everyone stared at him in shock. "What the hell did you DO?!" Marshmallow yelled. "He was probably our only way out of here!"
"He was also the one keeping us here!" Bowling Ball cried back. "He... oh my god."
The smoke cleared, revealing an unharmed Oodle. He was staring at the ground in surprise, where a flattened bullet lay. There was a hole in the torso of his shirt, but the skin beneath was undamaged. The camp counselor slowly raised his head to look at BB, sadness and sympathy filling his eyes. "Oh, Bowling Ball..." he said softly.
Then he vanished.
Everyone freaked. "Where'd he go?" Cheesy yelled.
"What's going to happen now?"
"Why did you shoot him??"
"Oh god, oh god oh god oh god-"
"Wait, where's WL4?"
That made the others pause. As TV pointed out, WL4 had also seemingly disappeared. Moments after he spoke, though, Oodle returned, minus one camper. His face was solemn. "Where's Warioy?" Bottle complained.
"Dead."
"...oh..."
"It gets worse." Oodle looked BB in the eye. "Bowling Ball, by not shooting WL4 after he had been chosen to die, you broke a rule. Therefore, I had to..." He didn't want to finish the sentence. Bowling Ball thought back to the first day they arrived, when Oodle explained the rules. If anyone breaks a rule... then what?
All the color drained from his face as he remembered. He looked at Oodle and opened his mouth, but no words came out. The man simply shook his head and answered the unasked question. "I'm sorry, Bowling Ball. But I had to kill your family."
TV's eyes widened. Flaggy, Marshmallow, and Bone stifled gasps, but Cheesy made no attempt to hide his. The ever-present smile on Bottle's face completely dropped, and even Marble and Brain looked uncomfortable. "M-mom?" Bowling Ball asked gingerly. "Dad? E-even Basketb-b-ball?"
Oodle nodded. "No," BB whispered, so softly that they barely heard him. "No, no, no no no nonononononooooooooooo..." The words eventually morphed into a harsh, choking sob that oppressively filled the tiny area. Tears also flowed down Suitcase's face, but she just hugged Bowling Ball and wordlessly, gently pulled him out of the room. Marshmallow trailed behind the duo at a distance.
Marble glanced at the remaining crowd. "So, not one of you saw that WL4 and Flower were friends..." She shook her head. "I'd spent less time near them than y'all had, but even I could see it was obvious."
Nobody else said a word as she turned and left. What was there to say?
Hehe, did I getcha with that fake-out at the end of the last chapter?
We're back! Extra chapter today because of the delay, then I'll start uploading them regularly on weekends again. Not that there's very many left...
Speaking of getting close to the end, I'm curious: who do you think the killer is?