Victims: Daisy, Luigi, Toad, Toadette, Mona, Wario, Bowser, Kamek, Pauline, Boo, DK
Suspects: Mario, Waluigi, Peach, Rosalina, Ludwig, Lemmy, Wendy, Roy, Morton, Iggy, Larry, Bowser JR, Diddy, Dixie, Koopa, Birdo, Yoshi
This time, Player 2 carried no weapon. It was time to test their strength. Their physical strength and their mental. You had to have a strong will to go through with strangling a 13 year old, as Player 2 planned on doing. Player 2 usually felt nothing except joy and bloodlust in the minutes leading up to a kill, but this was different. Everyone Player 2 had killed before this was over 20, Player 2 hadn't killed a child before. It felt like they were about to strangle a puppy. Maybe they were, maybe they weren't. Perhaps the son of the fallen ruler of the Koopa Kingdom had the attitude of a puppy kicked too often or maybe he was as strong-willed as Player 2.
Whatever the son of the late king was like, it didn't matter. He couldn't overpower Player 2. The killer couldn't be defeated. And if Bowser JR didn't play ball voluntarily, Player 2 had other methods. Those other methods involved bringing out the knife that Player 2 always kept strapped to their leg.
Player 2 slipped through the door, silent as death, the chloroform-soaked glove closing the door behind them. Chloroform would be there to assist the knife if Bowser JR decided he was too clever for Player 2. No one was smarter than Player 2. Player 2 had tricked everyone with twisted wordplay and a false wall of innocence, they were smarter than the lot of them.
They loomed over Bowser JR, watching the twitches of his eyelids as his body sensed he was being watched. His dark, almost black, eyes fluttered open and locked with Player 2's. Instead of a scream, the teen's mouth formed a relieved grin. Player 2 was surprised, any other 13 year old in this situation would have screamed. Maybe Bowser JR just trusted them. All thoughts of Bowser JR being unaware he was about to be the next victim vanished when he mouthed 'Take me' at the murderer standing at the foot of his bed.
Player 2 smiled back at him, what else could you do when you were about to reunite a child with their father in the afterlife. 'I will' Player 2 mouthed back, advancing towards them and wrapping their hands around his neck. As Bowser JR's eyes fluttered closed, the smile still on his face, Player 2 left the lost soul to rest at peace.
Not all deaths had to be bloody, hate-fuelled messes. Some could be relieving. Player 2 had finally absorbed the youngest life into their soul, feeling youthful and as if their life-source had been replenished by whatever angel had been tasked with the job.
Player 2 shoved the gloves into the knife sheath for convenience and crept back to their bed, murderers need sleep too after all. And they had to have time to debate over what they were going to do next to scar the remaining citizens for the short time they had left to live. Decapitation was always a good idea to traumatise someone...
"Junior!" Wendy called, sidling into the boy's room and sitting herself down on his bed. She smiled when she saw he was asleep with a smile on his face, at least he wasn't scared every night like she was. She ruffled his hair and cupped his chin in her hand before tensing up. His body was icy cold. Wendy frantically shook him, hoping to whatever God had some mercy to spare that her brother wasn't dead. Nothing. No mercy was granted. She collapsed as she noticed the dark ring around his neck, hugging the body to her chest and sobbing into his unkempt red hair. Why couldn't he be spared?
Wendy howled, her pain too great to be silent. Footsteps pounded down the corridor after hearing the tell-tale cry of grief. Ludwig Von Koopa stared through the doorway at his sister, surveying the scene and figuring out what the situation was within seconds. He walked to the side of the bed, gazing down at the peaceful body lying in his sister's arms. Ludwig had no reaction, he knew this day would come sooner or later. He wasn't a man of tears anyway.
"Luddy," Wendy mumbled, "Tell the others."
Ludwig said nothing, leaving the room and briskly walking to the shared room of the 5 others. Only Roy was still half-asleep, the others giggling like hyenas and poking each other with their wands. Ludwig knew they were immature, and he knew he was smarter than them.
"What's up, Luddy?" Iggy snickered, waving his wand at the blue-haired composer. None of their wands worked of course, as the house appeared to have been magic-proofed. Presumably to stop the sorcerers such as Kamek and the Koopalings from literally just using their magic to teleport out.
"Junior's been murdered." He said, his voice as monotonous as always. Ludwig couldn't bring himself to care, he was a logical person and knew that Junior would have to die someday whilst they were stuck in this place. The giggling abruptly stopped and Roy sat bolt upright, their jokes and games having been replaced with a shock-filled silence.
"Junior's been what?" Larry stuttered, his wand falling onto the floor with a thud.
"Murdered." Ludwig repeated, half-rolling his eyes.
"How?" Iggy asked, his jokey demeanour now having been replaced with one of seriousness. Ludwig almost chuckled at the situation. His younger sibling, the joker of the pack, was acting seriously. Ludwig had always been the serious one, Iggy had never been serious for a day in his life.
"I don't know, ask Wendy." He said, folding his arms and leaning against the wall.
"Dude, why do you not care at all? Junior was practically our brother!" Iggy said, gently placing his wand on a side table before glaring down the eldest sibling out of the 7. The coldness in his eyes was real.
"I don't care anymore." Ludwig replied, his voice dreamy. A change from the monotone everyone was used to.
"Are you alright?" Larry asked, slightly concerned.
"Maybe, maybe not. What would you know?" he said, the dreaminess still present in his tone. He stumbled a little on his feet and softly giggled. Ludwig didn't know what had gotten into him, but he liked it.
"Luddy, seriously, what the fuck is up with you? You were literally the opposite of this, like, 2 seconds ago. What's going on?" Iggy said, shaking his older brother by the shoulders.
"I don't know." Ludwig grinned, falling into the arms of unsuspecting Morton and smiling up at him.
"Oh God maybe he drank it..." Roy muttered under his breath.
"Drank what?" Lemmy asked, looking at his younger brother with a raised eyebrow.
"Uhhh..."
"Don't tell me you smuggled liquor into this godforsaken hellhole, Roy." Lemmy said, running a hand through his multicoloured mohawk and staring his delinquent brother down.
"You have no proof..." Roy murmured, knowing full well that his stash of alcohol was stuffed into a pillow and that over half of the bottles were empty.
"You fucking alcoholic." Lemmy said.
"Oh you mean those clear liquids that taste fiery and make me feel happy." Morton said, a wide grin on his face.
"Morton," Roy said, "Don't drink that stuff again."
"But-" Morton started.
"Hey is someone going to focus on the fact that Junior is dead, Wendy is alone with his corpse according to our probably drunk brother, and we're talking about how Roy is an alcoholic!" Iggy said, his voice straining as it tried to hold back the screeching tone.
"Oh yeah, that." Larry said, as if he'd just been reminded about an event he'd missed that he didn't really want to go to in the first place.
"I'm going to go check on Wendy, you guys stay here. Keep the raging alcoholic away from the tequila, keep the high blue-haired ones from dying, make sure the one on the autism spectrum doesn't kill something, and you, gay pride hair, do all that whilst I chill out with a corpse. Have fun, fuckers!" Iggy said, cheerily waving before disappearing out the door.
"I am not an alcoholic...I just really like vodka sometimes..." Roy muttered.
Iggy walked down the corridor, his heart pounding in his chest. He was more scared of everything than he let on. He had to be the funny one for comedic relief in dark times like this. He was the mad scientist, the one who laughed at horrific things. It was all fake. But fake had to be done to make it somewhere in the world.
He pushed open the door of the room his youngest 'sibling' had to himself. Junior wasn't really their sibling. They were adopted by Bowser, but it didn't matter to any of them. Junior was the youngest brother that always bugged them. They loved him nonetheless. He sat down next to Wendy who was just quietly sniffling into the body. She was always alone so when Junior hung out with her, she kind of latched onto him. It didn't matter that she was almost 22 and he was 13. They were like best friends. Junior had never been one of the other 6.
"Wendy, are you doing alright? I know this is hard on you." Iggy softly said, gently resting a hand on her shaking shoulder. She glanced up, her eyes teary and her mascara dripping down her face.
"N-no." she stuttered, "With dad gone, it was hard enough. Now with Junior, I feel like my whole world has fallen in on itself."
"I understand." Iggy murmured, flashing back to the night when his father figure's throat was slashed in the pitch black of the ballroom where 4 other murders had taken place. He shuddered at the memory.
"It's too hard to take..." she sobbed, balling her fists and pummelling the headboard over and over again, numb to the pain and blind to her actions. Iggy let her sit there, pounding her knuckles against the wood to drain the grief she felt. Sometimes, pain required more pain to numb it. Iggy understood.
Written with much Bowling For Soup and Stacy's Mom playing in the background
Hint: Player 2 has been hurt by everyone, even if it isn't obvious