《Whodunnit ?》Chapter 12 - A Luxury Death
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The next morning had an awkward atmosphere, Alec's death, and Giles's fury both from last night was still fresh in each of the remaining guest's memory.
The atmosphere was even more solidified when Greg & Talia were the only two not at the dining table at breakfast that morning. Silence ran throughout the dining room. Michelle, Jamie, Reynold, Natalie, Nelson, Dan & Brianna all awkwardly picked at their waffles as they waited for either of the guests to arrive at the dining table.
"Anyone hear anything last night? Any screams for help?" Brianna smirked slightly. Which earned a few dirty looks in response.
"No, I slept like a baby." Jamie commented on his sleep last night, the eerie image of Alec being violently thrown backward from the Rue Manor gates defiantly sent the carpenter to sleep quicker than usual.
The guests heads all whipped in the dining rooms door direction as the hinges creaked vehemently, symbolizing either Giles or one of the scared guests was going to walk through. Greg swiftly walked through, with a beaming smile on his face.
"Looks like I survived the night." Greg beamed, the guests each stood up and gave him either a handshake of hug in congratulations.
"You know what the means though." Reynold commented to the group as they all sat down at the table.
Dan gulped "Don't say that."
"Why can't we ever have a nice meal? Like we deserve at least a relaxing lunch." Nelson complained about the unfair nature of the game.
Michelle shrugged her shoulders "That's the game. This killer is an evil person, he or she obviously doesn't know what it's like to have actual decency. Hence why this game was made."
The dining table was thrown into anarchy suddenly as Talia randomly hopped into the dining room, catching everyone off guard "Talia!?" All the guests gasped as they raised from their seats.
Talia & Greg met confused eyes. "What's going on?"
Before the guests had any more time to process anything, Giles walked into the dining room. Immediately pulling a shocked face to see the two scared guests at the table alive.
"I see that you have both survived the night!" Giles pulled a massive smile, thinking that maybe the killer had gone soft.
"Yes, we have." Greg's voice hinted a bit of disappointment, obviously scared that his safety still isn't guaranteed.
Giles smiled again "Well I guess you should enjoy your breakfast because we're all going to have a pool party in the garden shortly!"
Some guests were intrigued, excited to chill out by the pool.
However, others were skeptical about the 'pool party' and just saw it as the next crime scene for the next murder.
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No matter what feelings there was between the pool party, one and a half hours after breakfast every guest was lounging at the pool. The guys were in normal swimming shorts (which all looked pretty similar) whereas the girls wore different bikinis to show off themselves.
The girls all mingled in the sun loungers. While the guys hung out at the pool bar, Sophie & May (the maids) were serving drinks at the bar.
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"Do you think people are looking for us?" Natalie broke the silence between the girls lounging in the sun.
Brianna took off her sunglasses "Why do you say that?"
"Well if you think about it. These two weeks is going to up soon and when we don't come back to our normal lives, people are gonna link us together." Natalie explained.
Michelle looked over at Brianna. "Do you think our parents know what's going on?"
Natalie pulled a worried face. "Our parents have no idea what's going on right now."
"God, I miss my family so much." Brianna sighs.
"Me too." Michelle agreed. "What about you Talia? What are your parents like?"
Talia scoffed slightly. "I've never had parents." The dancer finished her sentence in a blunt tone.
Natalie furrowed her eyebrows "What do you mean?"
"I was an orphan, both of my parents died before I was born. I'm lucky to have survived my risky birth. And not having a family adopt me once I reached my eighteenth birthday meant that I was on my own, I had no family to help me. I just had to survive on my own and I've been doing it ever since I could remember." Talia's story defiantly the other female guests, they didn't expect Talia out of all people to have a tough upbringing.
"Wow." Michelle choked on her words as she let the story really settle in.
Talia played around with her bottle of sun lotion. "It looks like my survival might be up now, however."
"Don't say that!" Natalie sat up from her sun lounger, not wanting to let Talia's doubts come true. Natalie had actually slowly grown to like the youngest guest recently.
"It might happen to-"
"Ciders for the guests!" May's voice interrupted the girl's conversation as a small tray holding four ciders was passed out to the girls individually.
Brianna rose up from her sun lounger. "Finally! Some beer." The kickboxer eagerly necked the cider down in a few seconds.
The four girls drank their cider in silence. Each admiring the view of the Los Angeles Manor for the first time really. The silence was interrupted however as Talia randomly ran back into the manor.
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"What's wrong with her?" Natalie queried to the other girls.
Brianna shrugged her shoulders "Who knows."
"This is probably the first time she's opened up us lot. She's probably overwhelmed with emotions right now." Michelle gave a good point as of why the youngest guest suddenly dashed into the manor.
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"I stayed up all night," Greg commented to the four other male guests as he took a sip of his cider.
"Really? That must be exhausting. I've never been scared so I've never known that feeling." Reynold found it astonishing that Greg was supposedly awake all night and yet still looked vibrant.
Jamie scoffed "How do you think I felt? I had two scared cards in a row."
Nelson nodded "That must have been grueling."
Jamie gave Nelson a wide-eyed look "You have no idea."
"So who do you think the killer is over there." Dan points over at the girls. The sudden comment shocked the male guests.
"Umm,." Nelson scratched his head. "I'm not sure."
Truth was, the charity worker wasn't suspecting a girl at all. He was suspecting the doctor sitting right in front of him.
"I can tell that Brianna is a very cunning player." Jamie observed Brianna's actions for the past few days.
Greg peered over at the sunbathing Brianna and shook his head. "I think we're all forgetting Natalie here. She's never had a scared card before and she's actually smarter than we all think. I mean she's been smart enough to beat out a Lawyer!" The Texan had his suspicions with Natalie.
Reynold sighed. "Well, I just hope, even if the killer is sitting here. That he or she or whatever the killer is is fucking proud of them. Who makes a game where people play life and death? it's repulsive."
The males all agreed with Reynolds statement as they carried on watching the view, all the guests did it in fact until the sun started to set. It was finally at five PM that the guests decided to return back to the inside.
"I can't believe we've been outside for seven hours!" Jamie exclaimed to his alliance as he rubbed his wet her with a towel in the great room.
"I know!" Natalie agreed in her black bralette bikini.
"Do you know what I'm more shocked about?" Dan asked his group. "That the killer hasn't killed yet. What's going on? I thought He or she would have struck this morning."
Nelson invaded the conversation. "I know what you mean. It's strange, something isn't right."
-
It was now 8 PM, there was no word of dinner given to the guests. They were all left in their rooms from the times they arrived back from the pool party.
Letting his impatience get to him, Greg wasn't having any of it and knocked on Michelle's door. They both decided to go down to the kitchen to see what was going on.
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"Giles?" Michelle called out Giles name once they both got to the kitchen.
"Where is he?" Greg asked. "Why hasn't there be any word about dinner?. There hasn't been a kill either, nothing is making sense."
Michelle scratched her head. "Surely Giles would have given us a clue for something."
After ten minutes of searching. Michelle and Greg had no hope of finding Giles or even the maids and called each of the guests down to the kitchen, Talia was the only person to not answer her front door.
"Where the hell is Talia?" Nelson asked, walking up and down the kitchen in a mix of confusion and worry.
Jamie laid out his hands on the kitchen countertop. "We just need to find a clue maybe? Maybe we've all been too vain?"
Drop
The water drop which landed on the kitchen countertop confused Jamie. Looking up in the direction of the water droplet, he saw a massive damp mark circulating the kitchen ceiling.
"Guys!" Jamie altered the group to look upwards to the damp mark.
Dan gasped "Why is there a leak? It's not even raining."
Nelson squinted at the damp mark "I don't think that's a damp mark because of the weather. I think the room above this kitchen is leaking."
"Well, then what room is above this one?" Natalie questioned.
"It's the spa isn't it?" Reynold remembered the layout of the manor while he had nothing to do.
The guests all scattered from the kitchen and ran up the staircase to the first floor. Anxious to find out why the spa was supposedly leaking.
"You know that this isn't a good sign," Greg whispered to Michelle as they approached the spa door first.
Michelle just gave Greg an understanding look before opening the spa door.
Water immediately rushed out of the room as the door was opened, drenching all of the guest's ankles as they stood gingerly in the doorway. It didn't take a genius to see that the water was coming from the hot tub, and floating in the luxury hot top, face down was Talia Hanson. She was the fifth victim of Rue Manor.
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