The Dinner Party Massacre:
By: Kylie and Elizabeth
She smiled as the dead bodies lay around her. Her work here was done. She stepped over the bodies careful not to let her leather shoes get stained in the blood. While opening the door the cold winter air brought back the memories of how the night began, with everyone alive on the outside, but secrets killing them on the inside.
Daphne turned to her spouse, Gregory; it was almost 6:30 and he hadn't gotten in his tux yet. The Macintosh Manor was cleaned the day before and of course the help was in the kitchen preparing tonight's dinner of Pasta Bolognese and roast beef; Daphne had to make sure everything was perfect. She was a success, any billionaire must be, but she wanted to prove it to her friends. Lately she had the feeling that her friends only viewed her as a good shopper. But she was a good shopper. Her royal blue cocktail gown was perfect for tonight and it matched the dining room decor.
"Honey when are they supposed to be here by?" Gregory asked finally in his tux
"Darling, you look smashing!" Daphne said
"Answer the question dear."
"Well I said 6:30 so they should be here any-" the doorbell rang and Daphne jumped startled. "Why that must be them, dear. Please answer the door I just have to grab something vital from upstairs."
"My this roast beef is splendid, Daphne. How did you learn to cook like this?" Heather asked.
The guests had arrived and sat around the table filling in the 8 placemats set.
"She got it from me heather dear I gave her the recipe last time we all went to the spa don't you remember?" Veronica said.
"No you gave her that chicken recipe I think I helped her with this one." Tiffany jumped in.
"Well whoever helped with this I think it's fabulous." Elizabeth said smiling at the cook standing in the doorway.
"Oh the cook had the night off, I made it all myself." Daphne said knowing that her friends knew she was lying
"It's o.k. dear you just don't have that talent." Elizabeth said patting her hand and mocking her ever so slightly.
"Anyone fancy some more wine?" Gregory asked
"I'll have myself a cup." Charlie said putting his arm around Tiffany. "Can I trust you to drive home tonight?"
"Well if you can let go of your precious Mercedes for twenty minutes, but I don't think that's possible. Gregory, forget about the wine." Tiffany said shooting Charlie a glare.
"Well I know we won't have to worry about having more wine, right dear? Enjay here has to monitor how much he drinks. The doctor thinks too much may be bad for the heart." Elizabeth said
"At least I know when to stop." Enjay said getting flustered.
Daphne rang a bell and immediately the butler and maids began to take the dishes away.
"How about some coffee? Victoria can you come to the kitchen with me and help me bring it out?" Victoria and Daphne elegantly rose from their seats and walked into the dining room. Fifteen minutes later they came out carrying the cups and saucers and a large pot of coffee.
"Victoria why are your eyes red?" Heather asked
"I tried to pour the cups of coffee ahead of time but some flung in my eye. Blast that darn thing!" She set the tray on the table and started pouring cups and serving people.
"Sugar, Gregory?" Veronica looked at the graying man waiting his affirmative.
When he nodded she spooned the sugar into the dark liquid. "Enjoy." She then moved on to the next guest.
They sat talking for a few minutes.
"…and that was like totally rude of her I mean you can't just tell me that! I mean I'm a millionaire's wife! It is sooo rude! Isn't it Greg? Isn't it!" Gregory's hysterical wife tugged on his sleeve. "Greg? GREGORY! Oh my god! He's dead! GREGOREY'S DEAD!" Daphne screamed. The other people in the room jumped to their feet, confused.
The wind howled at the windows and suddenly the lights flickered and went out. Heather, Daphne, Elizabeth, and Tiffany screamed; Victoria stayed calm, "Ladies, ladies! Calm down! It's just a power outage! We need to focus on what just happened!" Daphne started crying, but they all fell silent. "Now, who killed Gregory?" Everyone burst out talking, "I would never kill him! He's my husband.", "He was our best friend!", "He was so nice, always the gentleman!", "It was Daphne! She just wants his fortune!"
"QUIET! One at a time! Daphne, you first; who do you think killed him…and why?" Veronica looked over at the sniffing woman's firelight figure.
Daphne looked over to where Veronica sat by the fireplace, "This is all your fault! You served the coffee; if I hadn't talked to you about…" Daphne burst into tears again. "I- I'm sorry…I know…it's not y-your fault…I don't know who killed him…" Charlie grumbled, "I need to use the restroom…" The four woman sat in silence, Veronica stood. "This is so stressful…I am going to go get my anxiety pills. Be back soon."
The three sat in silence, then Elizabeth sighed, "Life is so fragile…I mean, one moment you have it then the next…It's just gone…Like this rose." Here she pulled a golden rose from the table decorations, and smelled it. "It is beautiful and full of life one day; then the next it is-" The sentence was cut off in the middle by Elizabeth's coughing.
"Elizabeth?" Tiffany put a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Elizabeth? Are you okay?" Elizabeth sat down hard in her chair her hands flying to her neck.
"HELP! SOMEONE, HELP!" Heather screamed out; Veronica came careening into the room.
"What is happening here!" Then Veronica heard Elizabeth's gurgling attempts for breath, "Move back! Tiffany, Daphne! Lay her on the floor." When Elizabeth lay on the marble floor Veronica took full control, "I am going to give her CPR; she seems to be choking." The other women nodded demurely and let Veronica do the work.
Minutes later, Veronica looked up, "Girls, I'm sorry…I wasn't able to get whatever it was out of her throat…" Tears gathered in Veronica's eyes and she looked down; Daphne, Tiffany, and Heather moved around her to comfort her.
"What's happening here? Is this all some mistake? A dream perhaps? Was it an accident or was it cold-blooded murder?" Heather questioned
"This isn't murder, it can't be. We are all friends. Why would we kill off each other?" Daphne said
"Maybe it's not us. Where's the help?" Veronica asked
"They left tonight to go to the guest house which is about four acres away from here. The power is off and I think we may be snowed in." Daphne said
"Well, do you think one of them could have stuck around and is hiding now killing us all off one by one?" Enjay asked.
"I don't – I mean I've known them for so long. What would they want to kill us all for." Daphne asked
" Darling think about it. We are rich and successful and with lifting a finger we make one hundred dollars an hour. They make eight dollars an hour after slaving over us. And isn't it true that the butler always does it?" Victoria said
Suddenly the lights flickered one for a brief second then off. "The power! I'm calling the police! This is out of our hands now. I can't take any more deaths." Tiffany said unplugging the telephone and the trying to re-plug it.
"Tiffany sweetie, don't do that! If the power suddenly comes back on you could get an electric shock!" Daphne said
"I won't I think I almost have it in." she said cramming the cord into the phone jack.
Suddenly a spark then a burst of light happened. Tiffany was thrown across the room and lay on the floor not moving.
"TIFFANY! TIFFANY! CAN YOU HEAR ME! HONEY, SWEETIE! NO IT ISN'T TRUE! IT CAN'T BE MY DARLING SWEET TIFFANY. NO!" Enjay cried rushing over to Tiffany's motionless body.
"It—it can't be true. Tell me this is all a dream a horrid dream. A dream in which I will wake up suddenly and hear Tiffany's soft breathing beside me. Oh how I loved her! We didn't show it but I loved her. Who is this one called god to take her from me!" Enjay wept
"No- not, not again. Not again! This isn't happening. Why- why is someone punishing us? Why!" Daphne said slamming her fist down on the nearby coffee table.
"Tiffany- she, she, she's dead. Almost everyone I love is dead. Oh my god! Charlie! Charlie! Come quick!" Victoria yelled sobbing
"Where is Charlie?" Heather asked. "He must have heard the screams. Unless, unless something happened to him!" They all rushed up the spiral staircases and to down the fourth hallway. Victoria knocked on the bathroom door.
"Charles? Charles are you in there? Do you need help! Can you breathe are you o.k.?" They waited thirty seconds but still there was no answer.
"Daphne get a spare key I think something happened to Charlie!" Heather yelled.
"Was it that stomach ache he complained of earlier? Maybe he had food poisoning. Maybe that's what this all is. I think your right Victoria the cooks are behind this. All of this. I mean who else made the coffee touched the food and laid out the decorations?" Enjay exclaimed
"The maids or perhaps the cook too. But the real question is where they are now!" Heather yelled
"Enjay you and me will go search for whoever is doing this." Victoria ran down the hall and Enjay followed behind her. Heather waited for Daphne's return but after five minutes of waiting Heather began to get anxious.
"Where is she? What if the killer caught up to her? No, no that's silly she probably couldn't find the key and tagged along with Enjay and Victoria. There must be a set of keys here. Charlie hold on I'm coming I just need to find a key and then let's hope that this nightmare will end." Heather opened every drawer in the hallway but no key was found. "Where could that darn thing be?" Heather said. Suddenly she noticed a slit between the mirror and the slate that kept it plastered to the wall.
"Is this an opening?" Heather took her nail filer out of her purse and cracked open the mini door. The key lay on a small rusted shelf.
"Aha! Gregory always hid keys just in case someone broke into the house." Heather unlocked the door and saw Charlie bent over the toilet with blood dripping out of his mouth. That's also when she heard the scream…
Heather rushed down the stairs and knocked into Victoria who was shaking and covered in blood.
"Holy ****! What happened is it Enjay? Where's Daphne is she o.k.? No no not again. Not again. I just saw Charlie and he's dead too and now- not again dear god not again."
"I-I, I think the horrors all over now. Enjay went missing and I looked for him. I walked in on Daphne. She slit her wrists. She was bleeding really badly and she kept saying. 'I'm sorry I'm so sorry'"
"Did you find Enjay?"
"He-he was locked in the freezer. Daphne was behind all of this. She killed almost everyone except you and me. I-I trusted her and I guess she couldn't take the pain anymore because she killed herself. She-she's dead. Its over- I think it's all over."
"No, Daphne. She's dead? And she killed all of us?"
"Think about it. Who has unlimited access and all the time in the world to set up this stuff. Who knows all of us better than anyone else? Daphne! It was all Daphne. It always was just all Daphne!"
"So what do we do now?" Heather asked still shaking after having the knowledge of everything.
"We can't call the police. Not yet. The power keeps going on and off so any call we make could be needed at any time. I say we wait a while for the telephone to work. Then we can call. Now we should take an aspirin because tonight we shall never forget." Victoria went to the kitchen and returned minutes later with two fizzing drinks.
"I feel weird just sitting and drinking while our friends lay dead among us." Heather said.
"What else do you suggest to do? Thinking about it will only get us more upset." Heather took a sip of her drink.
"Almonds.' Heather said.
"Excuse me?" Victoria asked
"Cyanide potassium that's what you used to kill Gregory and that's what you're using to kill me!"
"What! Don't be absurd. It's been a long night but you don't have to point-"
"I'm not pointing a single thing at you. I am telling you. Champagne does not taste like almonds. You did this you did all of this! Why! How!"
"Thank you, captain obvious. Wow now I realize why you were never at the top of your classes. I mean really you just found that out now…"
"Tell me about Elizabeth. How did you kill her."
"She's allergic to oranges. I put orange zest on the rose."
"How did you know Elizabeth would sniff the rose?" She asked
"You know Liz just as well as I do. Every funeral where someone close to us dies, she pulls the same old crap story about how life is like a flower. Since the only flower I saw here was a rose well I just took a lucky guess."
"How did you know which rose?"
'I didn't. I laced them all."
"Is that what killed her then."
"No but it was a good beginning. See when I ran off I put a film with the poison on it over my lips so she would get it when I preformed my CPR act."
"And with Gregory how the hell did you manage to kill him.'
"Easy. Daph asked me to take this poison, said she wanted to commit suicide. I don't know why she couldn't have done it herself but all I know is she wanted me to poison her and make it seem like Greg did it so he would go to jail when she's dead. I guess I just used the wrong cup. Whoops!" She smiled.
"Why do you want us dead?"
"You all only care about money and clothes and appearances! You wasted your life on that. Now you won't have any more life to waste…"
"And Charlie the only thing he ate was the oranges. If it had any poison wouldn't he have died around the same time as Greg?"
"Not if I only gave him enough for him to slowly die. Like giving him enough to make a stomach ache turn into a closed up artery."
"And Tiffany. What did you do mess around with the wire?"
"No. That was God giving me thumbs up sign. That was the grim reaper collecting his share of souls for the night."
"You're not trying to tell me that it was an accident, right."
"Spot on honey. Any other mysteries you need to solve because your clock is tick, tick ticking."
"Enjay?"
"Locked in the freezer.'
"Daphne."
"She couldn't handle thinking that she gave me the opportunity to kill everyone. She grabbed a knife off the kitchen counter and slit her wrists."
"You made it seem like she stabbed herself because she was the killer."
"I had to get you to trust me enough to drink this drink that will lead you to your death."
That's when Heather collapsed her head lolled to the side and accusing eye stared at Victoria.
"Bye-bye dear." Victoria said. She smiled as the dead bodies lay around her. Her work here was done. She stepped over the bodies careful not to let her leather shoes get stained in the blood. While opening the door the cold winter air brought back the memories of how the night began, with everyone alive on the outside, but secrets killing them on the inside. She still had the glass in her hand. She took a sip smashed it against the wall. Within five minutes she fell to the ground dead, with that menacing sucre sweet smile still plastered on her face.