Chapter 1: Emergency Separation
Hi people… I'm planning to publish one whole fic for my end of the seventh grade and the start of the eighth grade. And try my hands at murder stories. I might write more if it turns out well but I'm not that sure. Anyways since this entire thing is published at the same day there are no author's responses. But feel free to review or say something about the story/guess the murderer. Once again, I'm going to use my proudly made 12 OCs as characters and the murderer IS among them. Besides that, to celebrate my happy ending in the first year of middle school I'm going to introduce the 13th and 14th OC in this group, Sabrina Tale and Keegan Heath. If you don't know the 14 of them (Well, Sabrina and Keegan is new but still) I'm introducing all of them again like usual. The stage of the murders, the HSR (High Speed Railway) has quite a few carriages and all of them are quite big, with 14 rooms (Settings for the story, sorry if it's really weird) and some bathrooms, a kitchen/dining room and a few other rooms. Let's just say that it is very, very big and is like a mansion, don't ask how I came up with that idea. But there will be a few staff members (However as suggested by the chapter title, they will be separated, if you want to know how, read on) on board as well. Finally, the answer to a huge question is no, there is no detective. There is only ways on trying to survive with as many people alive as possible. The murderer will reveal themselves at the end of the story.
Lily Rockler, a brown birdo with a pair of fingerless gloves on instead of the usual birdo ring sighed impatiently as she checked her watch, waiting in the lounge room for carriage 4 of the High Speed Railway, a train that has no driving thing and will not stop unless it reaches the destination, even if an emergency happened for some reason, but plenty of staff members will be around. There is a really small chance of accidents happening in a train like this but one accident did happen last year, with that aside, this train runs twice a month, always on the 4th and the 24th. The destination will be reached in 10 days so that is actually a vacation itself as there are group carriages for people that are travelling together. The carriages are huge with loads of stuff on it so there shouldn't be anything to complain, except for a strangely loose security system but the carriages will separate themselves with hard doors if anyone wants to open them, locking people inside for safety.
"Hey Lily, 10 minutes early as usual?" Evan Electro, a yellow blooper with a cap that has a lightning bolt on it asked his friend, she nodded. "Relax sometimes, make sure you don't just arrive early because you teach art classes and you have to be 10 minutes early."
"Meh," Lily replied, "It is a good habit, better be early than late."
Evan sat down in another chair, "You're right about that."
The door slid open. Allen Leder, a purple yoshi with a dark purple neckerchief came into the room. "Hi guys, you packed for today's journey?"
As soon as Allen sat down, Nicole Holly, a pink goomba with a light yellow ribbon that looks almost white because it is so light colored that is not behind Allen too much walked in, hearing what Allen just said. "Don't we go onto this train like, every month or two?"
"Hey Nicole, didn't see you there." Allen said.
Nicole went to the coffee machine and helped herself to some of the hot drink inside the machine. "I don't mind, I'm not that much of a shouting and reuniting person anyways."
The door closed as all four people that are in the room turned to a pink Bomb-Omb, Sabrina Tale, who has an even lighter pink ribbon tied onto her fuse, but the shade is not as light as Nicole's ribbon. "Um, please close the door behind you when you enter the room."
"Sorry, forgot about that." Nicole laughed as she sat down on a chair. Sabrina decided to sit down next to her with a cup of coffee of her own, clearly from a café that she stopped by on her way to the lounge room.
"So, how is going lately?" Lily broke the silence, taking a bite out of her cake.
Allen sipped some of his hot tea, which burned his mouth a little as he quickly placed the tea down. "Nice, but I can't believe that we are onto this train again… Especially after that…"
Silence fell in the room as Sabrina started to shake, Nicole almost spilled her coffee, Lily stopped cutting another bit of cake even though the fork is in the middle of the cut and Evan looked away, Allen quickly covered his mouth. "Sorry about that, I shouldn't have brought that up."
Evan was the first to speak out of the silent four. "It's alright, what's done is what's done."
Nicole put her coffee cup down onto the table, "Please stop on this haunting subject, we got lucky that time, but poor-"
"Don't remind me of that day." Lily interrupted. Nicole nodded before taking another sip out of her tea.
"I feel something that is like, really awkward here…" Steven Idile, a light blue shelled koopa troopa with a red star face paint on his right cheek said as he closed the door behind him. "Don't tell me that you are like, thinking of… that."
Sabrina looked around while being pretty uncomfortable on the subject. "Um, let's change the subject."
"Now students," Allen started, "The history lesson is over, let us get on with math."
Lily gave him a blank look as Steven sat down in another seat. "That joke wasn't even funny, and that wasn't even history."
"How about let's talk about jokes now. We don't want to ruin the mood." Evan suggested.
Vivian Grassplant, a light green capped toadette with green ribbons that are the same color as her cap on her pigtails entered the room, taking a bottle of water on her way to an empty seat. "What is the subject this time?" She asked.
"Um, jokes?" Sabrina asked uncertainly.
Vivian smiled, "You're kidding me, our little group has the weirdest jokes ever, all the way from thanks for the applesauce (applause) to the chain chomp ate my documents and I got fired."
"Is it just me or is the atmosphere a bit awkward here?" Katty Starbub, a white luma with fluffy white wristbands came in. Her boyfriend, Andy Void, dry bones with a black short sleeved t-shirt came in with their suitcase as they sat in the couple's seat moments later.
Lily quickly thought of a subject, not wanting the get-together with her friends to get too weird. "Katty, I heard that you do gymnastics." Great job Lily, you just totally made this place awkward-er. She thought as she mentally facepalmed.
Katty nodded and was about to say something before the door opened, Flona Willie, a light grey boo with grey ribbons on each side of her head came in. "Sorry, did I interrupt anything?" She asked.
"Nope, everything is alright." Lily lied to get rid of some awkwardness.
Jenny Aquarink, a blue noki with bangles on her wrists came in after Flona. "Am I late?" She wondered.
"There are still a few people that haven't shown up yet." Vivian replied, mixing the milk and the coffee with a spoon.
Jenny sat down with a sigh of relief. "And I thought I was late, who isn't here anyways?"
Everyone looked around before Evan spoke up. "I'm pretty sure that Frank and Parker are yet to arrive."
"Did someone say my name?" Parker Steelix, a grey shelled paratroopa with a black waist bag came into the room.
"Nice, Frank is the only one missing then." Vivian concluded.
Parker sat down in another seat, "I think I saw Frank a while ago at a small restaurant."
"Doesn't he always have his watch set 10 minutes late?" Nicole wondered.
Allen glanced at the clock, "And the train is having its 5 minute boarding in 5 minutes as well…"
Lily jumped up from her seat, "I'm gonna go and get him, no one leaves this room, I'll be back in five minutes!" With that, she rushed out of the door, slamming it behind her.
"I hope that they are going to be on time…" Katty sighed, "Anyways, isn't it today that we have the one year anniversary of that event?"
Everyone in the room fell silent again, "Can we stop mentioning about that like we promised?" Vivian asked, "I don't want to think about it."
Flona sighed, "But there is nothing we can change, you know, the one that was in the same-"
"Stop it, Flona." Andy held his head in his hands. "I don't want to remember."
"So is it all agreeable that we stop talking about that?" Parker asked as everyone else nodded.
"I sense something awkward going on." Frank Flare, the final member of the group, a fire bro with red wristbands on stepped into the room, Lily following behind him.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for the five minute boarding of the High Speed Railway, please step into your carriages and go into your rooms or do whatever you wish to, we hope that you will have a fun time aboard, thank you."
Vivian stood up and grabbed her suitcase, "Guys, let's go." She stepped onto the carriage that she is supposed to be in.
Everyone followed behind her without a word, but a single member of the group grit their teeth so hard that they made some noises.
"You okay?" Another member asked.
The member smiled, "Yes, I'm fine."
Unbeknownst to the other 12 members, one member is seeking for revenge, that member smiled as they boarded the train casually, ready for a few days of killing.
A toad came to them with two toadette following him. "Good day, ladies and gentlemen. I am the one responsible for this carriage. They are the two waitresses that will be travelling in this same carriage." He introduced the waitresses as they both bowed, "However since carriages are separated from the others, the only doors that works needs one of the worker's cards to do it. And there are no spare worker's cards in this carriage. Now, please head into your rooms and leave your luggage there." He pulled out a list of rooms that everyone will be staying in and a map of the carriage with a small layout of the train on it.
Room 1: Ms. Lily Rockler
Room 2: Mr. Allen Leder
Room 3: Ms. Flona Willie
Room 4: Mr. Frank Flare
Room 5: Ms. Jenny Aquarink
Room 6: Ms. Vivian Grassplant
Room 7: Mr. Parker Steelix
Room 8: Ms. Katty Starbub
Room 9: Mr. Steven Idile
Room 10: Mr. Andy Void
Room 11: Ms. Nicole Holly
Room 12: (Empty Room)
Room 13: Ms. Sabrina Tale
Room 14: Mr. Evan Electro
"Please go ahead and do whatever you wish, the three of us will be in our separate quarters." The toad smile as he left with the waitresses.
After they are gone, there was a bit of the silence, but Vivian decided to speak first again. "Let's just retreat to our room for now, let's gather in 10 minutes in the living room like usual?"
Soon after, all three of the staff members are in the living room with the group, having fun and serving those drinks and food.
"Mmm, this place's food is always the best." Frank said as he stuffed another piece of cake into his mouth
Sabrina took another bite out of her pancake stack. "Um, this should be pretty easy to eat but…" She struggled.
Vivian looked at her curiously, "Don't tell me that you don't know how to eat these."
Sabrina smiled sheepishly, "Um, I actually don't really eat pancakes that much." Vivian sighed and told Sabrina about the way to eat pancakes.
Andy, Katty, Steven and Parker are playing cards on the other side of the room. "Ha, take this!" Andy put down another set of cards.
"Yay, you won again." Parker said with sarcasm.
Steven sighed, "Like, let's play another game, maybe Andy would be like, stomped at that."
Katty laughed, "I think so too, it's not fun if he just wins all the time." She punched Andy playfully on the arm as they changed a game to play.
"Ouch!" Flona shouted as she tripped over a table leg.
Jenny rushed to her side. "Are you alright?"
"Err… Not really." Flona replied, "I think I hurt my arm."
"Yeah, you fell right on your right arm." Jenny sighed.
The toad came over, "Is everything alright miss? Do you need something to drink and some bandage on your arm?"
"Yeah," Flona smiled, "Bandages would be lovely."
The toad told one of the waitresses to get some iced tea that Flona requested, which she need to go to the main kitchen to get as Flona followed the other waitress to get some bandages on her arm.
"I hope that she's going to be alright…" Jenny said quietly.
Evan walked over, "Yeah, you two are best friends, right?" Jenny nodded.
"But that isn't too much, it is just a small bruise anyways, not too much of a problem." Jenny replied as she sat down in another chair.
The toad gasped at the time, "Sorry passengers, I have to go to a quick meeting for the main staff of each carriage. When the two waitresses get back, they can serve you."
After he went out of the carriage via worker's card, Flona came back, but the waitress isn't following.
"Where is the waitress?" Nicole asked, curious.
"She said that she needs to respond to an emergency in the storage carriage." Flona replied.
After a few minutes, everyone decided it would be a nice idea to stop waiting for the waitresses or the toad to get back as they started to do these things on their own. Vivian, Nicole and Sabrina decided to make dinner for everyone as they head into the kitchen, Allen and Steven decided to help out moments later as well. Frank, Andy, Katty, Flona, Jenny and Parker decided to play a 6 people card game, Evan and Lily both head back into their rooms, Evan said that he wants to finish off some documents for work and Lily said that she suddenly felt artistic and decided to try to paint some pictures she brought along and put them into paintings.
They waited for the staff to come back, but no one came, minutes turned into hours soon after. Dinner was finished, they decided to try to open the doors and call for them. However something unexpected happened.
"Huh?" Parker wondered, "The door didn't budge…"
Lily tried the doors as well, "I heard that they are soundproof…"
"Hey!" Katty caught everyone's attention, "Look! The announcement thingy's wires have been cut!"
"Does that mean… Something unexpected happened and we never heard the announcement? No wonder why!" Vivian realized.
"So what did happen?" Nicole wondered.
"Whose joke is that?" The train conductor slammed his hands on the table, "There are some smoke bombs that went off inside the storage carriage, cut the wires connecting to Carriage 4 and block off any sort of communication between them and us!"
"Sir," The toad that was supposed be in carriage 4 stepped up, "When I tried to get back, the place is locked for some reason, and I found out that the storage carriage's door that connects to the outside has been hacked for some reason."
The two waitresses where discussing among themselves as well at the back.
"So no more communication to Carriage 4 and it has been blocked off completely, right?" The conductor asked. All three of them nodded in reply.
Everyone was in the living room, deciding to let the problem drop by for now as the door will open when they reached the destination (The train will stop if there are notifications, but since nothing is heard from Carriage 4, the train is still running and the carriage doesn't seem to have anything wrong with it besides the lack of communication).
"Do you want to go back to our rooms and just relax for the night?" Allen suggested, "I mean it's getting late and I would definitely like to go to bed now."
Everyone else took a glance at the clock. "Sure, why not, I'm pretty tired." Parker said as he went back to his room, Steven went back to his own room as well.
"I want to sleep, it would be better to call it a night now." Flona said as she went back into her own room.
Jenny, Nicole and Sabrina went back to their own rooms as well moments later, followed by Allen and Frank.
"I'm gonna go to bed now." Vivian said as she left 10 minutes later.
Lily, Evan, Andy and Katty decided to stay up a little longer and play cards before all going back to their own rooms.
Andy Void woke up early in the morning like usual, a bit too early to be honest because he needs to be on time or much earlier for his job as a TV reporter. He got ready and glanced at the clock, 4:50 AM.
A habit he has on the train every morning is to go into the living room and watch the TV shows that are on the TV show channel until everyone else wakes up. Today is no different, he walked out of his room and sat on the couch before turned the TV on and turning it down to a very low volume to not wake the others up.
A figure clenched their teeth with their door wide open, Andy not noticing. They approached the unsuspecting dry bones and got the fishing wire ready. When they are close enough, Andy turned around at the noise of footsteps.
"Good morning, I didn't think you'll be up this early." Andy smiled without any suspicion. "But why do you have that-"
The figure threw the wire over Andy's head and fastened it around his neck, the dry bones tried to get it off but before he could do so, the figure has already started strangling him.
A smile went its way onto the person's lips as Andy's dead body fell onto the ground before they went back into their room, threw the fishing wire out into the nearby river and went back in bed for more sleep.
The TV show that Andy had been watching kept on going with its laughter and talking, however the one that is in front of it that was previously watching it has turned into a dead body.
1 down, 11 to go, the murderer couldn't wait to finish their revenge.