AN: Wow! It has been a long time since I posted. I apologize to anyone who has read any of this for the long delay.
I actually wrote this chapter back in December (when I posted chapter 8). I try to be at least one chapter ahead of writing, so I have actually taken this long to write chapter 10. I just finished chapter 10 today, so I can finally post chapter 9.
Thanks J. for the reviews. I have always intended on finishing this, but it certainly helps motivate me when I get reviews.
Character's Still Alive:
The Bride and Groom
Christina Evans (Chrissy) - The Bride
Robert Philips (Bobby) - The Groom
The Friends of the Bride and Groom
Emily Stone - The Maid-of-Honor
Victor Ford (Vic) - The Best Man
Allison Little (Alli) - The Athlete
Bruce Kemp - The Partier
Mary Medina - The Sullen
Raymond Cunningham (Ray) - The Go-Getter
Julie Graves - The Outcast
Tom Lane - The Stranger
The Bride's Family
Amy Marshall - The Tyrant
Denise Arnold - The Peacekeeper
Amber Evans - The Tease
Nicole Evans (Nicky) - The Risk Taker
Daniel Marshall - The Mogul
Melissa Marshall (Lissa) - The Flower girl
Joseph Marshall (Joey) - The Ring bearer
The Groom's Family
Allen Philips - The Reverend
Lewis Philips - The Loner
Others
Dorothy Rose - The Stripper
Chapter 9: Kaboom
The killer stood in the hallway, still in their full body plastic gear, considering their next move. Dealing with Lissa and Joey had taken longer then they had estimated it would take and had not gone quite according to plan. The killer would have preferred to simply go to bed. In fact, the killer was not looking forward to the next kill at all. But this kill was important in its own way. The killer may still be able to make up for their mistakes of the evening.
It was still dark out, so as with the children's room the killer had to creep inside this room carefully and quickly. Even in the dark, the killer could tell the figure in the bed was in a deep sleep. The person in the bed hadn't stirred a bit.
The killer took a small rag and a vial from the bag they still carried with them and poured the contents of the vial onto the rag. They crept to the head of the bed and looked down on their victim. The killer knew they could not hover for too long, or their victim might wake from the smell of the rag, but they also knew they had too line this up perfectly.
When the killer was set, they plunged the rag down onto the victim's face, over their mouth and nose. The victim's eyes shot open and they were able to struggle for a few second before the chloroform took effect. The victim was only able to get one weak scream off into the rag.
The killer quickly put the rag into a plastic bag and returned it to the bag. They withdrew a gun from the bag and waited to make sure they did not hear any signs of distress from anyone hearing their victim's slight scream. There was no noise from the hallway, so after a few minutes the killer put the gun into the bag and withdrew a syringe, a small rubber hose, a long piece of nylon rope, and a smelling salt capsule.
The killer tied the small rubber hose around the victims arm and found the vein. They gently injected the solution of pancuronium bromide into the victim. The solution should give the killer at least three hours of complete paralysis for the victim. The killer wouldn't need that much time, but better safe than sorry.
The killer repositioned the victim's body, so that the victim was on their back and the victim's head lolled over the foot of the bed. The killer cut the victim's night clothes from their body and placed a pillow under the victim's lower back. The killer tied the victim's arms to the bed posts at the foot of the bed and the victim's legs to the highest spot on the head board. This made sure the victim did not slip off the bed during the procedure, and caused the victim's body to be completely inclined. It was important that the blood from the procedure flow in a particular direction.
When the killer was satisfied with how the victim was positioned, they retrieved the smelling salts and broke it near the victim's nose. The victim did not move, but the killer knew that just because the victim was motionless, did not mean they weren't fully aware. The killer forced the victim's eyelids open and shown the flashlight into the victim's eyes. The killer was satisfied with tear drops they saw and the slight response of the pupils.
Alli woke to a horrible smell that burned her nostrils. She desperately wanted to plug or rub her nose, but found that she couldn't move her arms. Alli felt tears form in her eyes, but they seemed to just collect in the corners' of her eyes.
Her body felt weird to her, mainly because it was in an awkward position. She also found that along with her arms and the rest of her body, she did not seem to be able to open her eyes. The fear of the situation she found herself in caused her heart rate to jump extremely high.
Alli could hear someone moving around in the room with her, even though it was very quiet. It faintly sounded like plastic rubbing together. Alli felt the person force her eyelids open, and then everything turned from darkness to painful brightness. She was essentially blind for a couple of minutes. When her sight returned she saw the room was still completely black. The figure in the room with her turned the flashlight on a couple of times, but mostly left it off, or pointed elsewhere at her body. With the way that Alli's head was laying off the foot of the bed, she wasn't able to see who the figure was.
Alli tried to speak, but found that she could not. She desperately wanted to scream, but nothing came out.
The figure stood by Alli's head and Alli could feel the killer touching her chest with something that felt sharp and metallic. Then the pain began. It was clear to Alli that the figure was cutting into her, and it felt deep. The pain of being cut into was some of the worst pain Alli had ever felt. The figure seemed to be cutting a deep Y into her that extended from her diaphragm to the tops of collar bones. To Alli's horror, the figure seemed to need to retrace the lines they were cutting to get them deep enough, and the pain only intensified when the knife scraped directly on her bones.
The figure finally stopped cutting, and seemed to be fiddling with something else. Alli's tears were flowing freely now. Blood also seemed to flow freely. Alli could feel it flowing into her hair and clumping it together, and she could hear it as it ran from her hair and to the floor.
The figure put something long and sharp against her chest and pressed hard. There was a loud crack. To Alli, it felt like she had just been hit with a baseball bat in the chest.
Alli barely had time to recover before the next horror began. The figure put a new metallic object in the middle of her chest. As the figure fiddled with the object, the soreness from the previous cutting and cracking was exacerbated. Then the pain became even more intense then Alli had ever felt before.
Alli could feel her chest being force open. She could feel the ripping and tearing of muscles and ligaments. She could feel the horror of having her quickly beating heart and rapidly breathing lungs be restrained only by the air of the room.
With all of the pain, Alli lost track of what the figure was doing. It was still so dark in her room. Alli barely realized what they were doing before the figure was at the door, which was directly in front of Alli's field-of-vision, and was preparing to exit. The figure opened the door briefly, which allowed light from the hall to shoot into the room. The figure then exited quickly and the door closed quietly, leaving Alli in the darkness of her room.
Alli lost all concept of time as she lay there bleeding, with the pain and discomfort of what had been done to her. She was barely aware she was in the Lighthouse Inn, or that she was here to attend a wedding. She was also barely aware that so many of her friends were so close. She just stared forward as the blood loss finally caused her mind to stop entirely.
Dorothy woke up just past 4 in the morning. She hadn't planned on falling asleep, so she woke in a bit of a panic. She gathered up her things and quickly looked around the room. All of the guys looked like they were passed out in the same position that she remembered them being in when she fell asleep.
She hadn't drunk enough to still be inebriated, but she certainly had a headache. She definitely wanted to get back to her room at the inn because she had some aspirin in her bag there. She walked out onto the patio to find Bruce sitting in a chair with his chin lying on his chest. Bruce had drooled a bit onto his shirt. She considered waking someone up to tell them she was leaving, but decided it was best to let them sleep.
She walked quickly on the trail back to the inn. It was fairly uneventful until she reached a part of the path where there was the distinct smell of feces. She had no interest in finding out what was causing that smell, so she hurried even faster to get away from it.
Then she saw something horrible in the middle of the trail. Even from a distance, Dorothy was able to tell that the thing in the road was a body. She broke into a jog until she got close to the body on the path, then she approached cautiously. Dorothy could tell that the body was female. Dorothy hadn't met any of the other women on the island so she had no idea who this person was.
Dorothy knelt down beside the body and was about to see if the body had a pulse when it moved. Dorothy shot upright and let out a slight scream, then after regaining control of herself she began shaking the unconscious woman.
"Hey! Hey! Are you alright? You need to wake up," Dorothy said insistently. She looked the woman over, noting the nasty looking injury on the woman's head. In Dorothy's world it was unfortunately not uncommon to see woman who had been beaten, and this woman definitely looked like that to her.
After the woman did not come to for a bit, Dorothy considered going to the inn for help, or back to the bar. Just before she was about to leave, the woman started coming to.
"Where am I?" the woman asked.
"You're on Sheppard's Island, in the forest. Do you know your name?"
"Amy," the woman said, and then giving Dorothy a strange look. "Who are you?"
"I'm Dorothy. I'm, er, well I'm a friend of Vic and Bruce."
"I need to get back to the inn. I have to get back to my children," Amy said as she started to get up but then fell back down.
"Careful, you have a nasty gash on your head. Do you know how you got that," Dorothy asked.
Amy put her hand up to her head and felt around the injury, wincing in pain. They sat there for a bit and then Amy tried to stand again and was successful. With Dorothy's help, they were able to make it back to the inn.
They went into Dorothy's room with Dorothy's insistence. Dorothy then went to find a first aid kit, which she found behind the front desk. Returning to her room, Dorothy found Amy washing the wound. Dorothy sat down with the first aid kit and opened it when they both heard a horrible scream.
"Bruce, wake up."
Bruce continued not to stir.
"Bruce, come on, the weddings today and you're going to be late."
That caused Bruce to open his eyes and say, "What time is it?"
"Oh, it's still early, but I think we need to go now if we want to make it in time."
Bruce's eyes didn't seem to be focusing very well, nor did he seem to have much awareness. He seemed to be doing everything he could to stay barely conscious.
"Bruce… Bruce… How are you feeling?"
"I think I'm still drunk," Bruce replied. "I don't think I've been this fucked up in years."
"You need something to wake you up. I think I've got something that will bring you back quick."
"All I need is more sleep," Bruce said.
"No, no, no. No time for that." The person pulled out a glass flask and picked up a glass tumbler. The person very carefully poured about four ounces into the tumbler. "Now, you have to drink this all down for it to work."
"What is this? The fucking magic cure," Bruce chuckled. "Is this shit going to make me throw up or something."
"Maybe, but would that be so bad at this point?" The person held the glass out but pulled it back when Bruce grabbed for it quickly. "Be careful now. You cannot spill any of this."
Bruce's eyes focused a bit and he gave the person a smile. Bruce put his hand out slowly and the person carefully put the tumbler into his hand.
"Take it just like a shot, all at once."
Bruce looked at the glass and considered it for a moment, then took the drink down as he had done so many before.
"Wow, that shit buhhhh," Bruce said, his voice giving out on the end of the sentence. Bruce laid his head back, and the person took the glass from him. Bruce continued to sit there for over a minute before his eyes shot open and he grabbed for his throat. He fell off the front of his chair and began writhing around on the ground. He tried to speak, but what he was saying only came out as raspy grunts. The 90% solution of hydrofluoric acid had done enough damage to Bruce's vocal cords to prevent speech.
Bruce continued to lie on the ground clutching his stomach. The he pulled himself into a crawling position and began crawling towards the killer. The killer stepped out of the way just in time as Bruce vomited much of the toxic substance right where the killer had been standing.
Vomiting did Bruce no favors, as it only exposed his esophagus to the acid again. His nose felt like it was on fire because some of the vomit had travelled through his nasal cavity. Additionally, now when he breathed in, the toxic fumes from the acid were entering his lungs. Bruce continued to let out silent screams as he rolled in his own toxic vomit.
Bruce went into shock after about ten minutes. A few minutes later, his heart stopped. Not that there hadn't been enough damage done by the acid to kill him even if he hadn't died from cardiac arrest. The killer watched it all anxiously. This had been a very interesting death to watch, but nerve racking with so many people passed out inside the bar.
The killer dragged Bruce's body off of the patio and laid his body against the building. A trail of blood and vomit led from the patio to Bruce's body.
Ray woke up in a daze, unable to remember where he was or how he got there. His joints and muscles ached horribly, but nothing hurt as badly as his head. He rubbed his head in a useless attempt to make it feel better, and when he brought his hand back down he found that his hand was covered with dried blood.
He was beginning to remember running around on the trail but it took a while for him to remember anything about why he was doing that. Then he remembered the bodies of Hurbert and Pamela. He also remembered Sara.
As much as he wanted to get up and start running down the mountain again, his body wouldn't allow him to. He was horribly dehydrated and hungry, so it took him several more minutes before he was able to pull himself to his feet.
He was very dizzy when he stood up and almost fell back down. He wondered how bad the wound on his head was. He started walking down the path towards inn as fast as he could, but his speed was slow for a walk.
Nicky woke to her alarm. She looked over to Amber, who was in a bed next to hers. Amber had also woken from the alarm, and she gave Nicky a very angry look before turning over in bed presumably to go back to sleep.
Nicky was certainly a morning person. In no time, she was changed into her running clothes and out of her room. She went downstairs to the lobby area to wait for the others. Nicky was not entirely sure who all would be jogging. She was pretty sure that Chrissy was not coming this morning with the busy day she was going to have. Nicky was also pretty sure Alli and Emily were planning on going. Alli had told her that she was planning to be ready by 5, so Nicky made sure to be ready and in the lobby by 4:45 just to make sure she didn't miss out.
Nicky sat in the lounge and waited. Five AM came and went, and Nicky started to get anxious. She thought that maybe they had decided not to go and had just not told her, which frustrated her. Nicky continued to wait till past 5:30, when she decided to go upstairs to see if anyone was up.
The hallway was as quite as when she had come down the stairs. Nicky considered going running on her own, but running wasn't really her thing. She liked more exciting athletic activities. The main reason she wanted to go running was because it was something she could do with Chrissy and Chrissy's friends where she would be in her element.
Nicky decided she would see if Alli was even up. Nicky couldn't see the harm in that. If Alli had overslept, Nicky figured that she would appreciate being woken up. And if Alli and the others had decided not to go running, then Alli would understand Nicky trying to wake her up. Nicky didn't foresee Alli getting upset or anything else bad coming of it.
Nicky made her way down the hall to Alli's room. When she approached Alli's door, there was an odd, squishy sound from under her sneakers. She looked down and saw the discoloration of the hallway's carpet coming from Alli's room. When Nicky stepped on the puddle, a red liquid was pushed out of the carpet around her shoe. Nicky stepped out of the puddle, not really thinking it was anything other than a spill of some sort.
Nicky also noted that the door was not completely closed. Nicky gently knocked on Alli's door but did not get a response. She tried again a bit louder. Nicky didn't want to be too loud since others were still asleep. Still there was no answer and no sound of movement. Nicky considered leaving it, but she was now curious about what the liquid might be and why the door was slightly open. She decided to push the door open a bit.
"Alli?" Nicky said quietly as she opened the door. The scene in the room took several seconds for Nicky to process before she let out a scream that was louder, and unlike any that she had ever produced before in her life.
Tom woke up to the sound of screaming. The screams sounded like a male voice. Tom looked around the room. Bobby was beginning to stir, but there was no sign of Vic or Dorothy.
Tom stood up quickly, causing his head to throb. He felt awful. When he got his feet firmly underneath him, he headed outside.
The patio was covered with bloody vomit. It looked like something out of a horror movie. He followed the trail of vomit to where Vic was sobbing, and immediately understood what was wrong.
Bruce's body was in a seated position leaning again the building. He was clearly dead. At first, Tom wondered if Bruce had drowned on his own vomit, because it looked like it was all around the inside of his mouth, which gaped open. Then he realize that what he was seeing on the inside of Bruce's mouth were burns, awful burns which had caused much of the flesh out his tongue to dissolve away.
"Don't touch him!" Tom said to Vic while pulling him away from Bruce.
"Leave me alone," Vic said, trying to crawl back to where his friend's body.
"I'm sorry, but I think he drank something toxic. Did you get any of his blood on you?" Tom asked, hoping that Vic would listen. Vic looked at his hands, and they indeed had Bruce's blood on them. "Come on, we have to wash your hands off now."
As they came around the corner, Bobby came out of the bar.
"What's happened?" Bobby asked.
"Don't go over there," Tom said firmly.
"Why not?"
"Bruce is dead," Vic said with what sounded like a mix of sadness and anger. Bobby did not heed Tom's command and went to where Bruce's body was. He squatted down next to him and had a look of disbelief. Tom yelled over to Bobby telling him not to touch the body because it may be toxic.
Tom picked up a blanket which had gone unused the previous night and took it out to Bruce's body and covered it. Bobby was still there staring at the body. Tom didn't know what to say to him.
"What do you think happened?" Bobby asked in a distant sounding voice.
"He drank something, must have been toxic. I didn't see anything obvious on the patio. We cannot stay here, though. We have to get back to the inn and call the mainland."
Tom helped Bobby get up and they walked to where Vic was. Vic had stopped crying, and now just stared into the forest.
"What about all this stuff, should we take it back to the inn?" Bobby asked.
"No, leave it. If there's anything we need, we'll come back," Tom said. All three of the men had horrible headaches and were not completely steady on their feet, but they began walking on the trail to the inn with good speed.
Emily woke to the sound of screaming. She had not slept very well with the thoughts and concerns from the previous day keeping her mind going more than normal throughout the night. When she heard the horrible scream, she sat up in bed immediately with a rush of adrenalin. She was quickly out of bed and out of her room.
Emily's room was right next to Alli's, so she saw Nicky standing directly in front of Alli's room as she came into the hallway. Nicky was still frantically screaming and staring at Alli's room.
"Nicky," Emily said put her hand on Nicky's shoulder. Nicky did not even look at her and at Emily's touch Nicky broke into a run to her room which was just a few doors down. Nicky unlocked her door faster than Emily would have thought possible, and disappeared into her room slamming the door loudly behind her.
Emily stepped into the doorway of Alli's room, ignoring the squishing sound from under her feet. What she saw was the worst thing she had seen in her life.
Alli lay on the bed naked and with her chest split widely open. Emily could see Alli's stopped heart and her inactive lungs. Alli just stared forward, her face covered in blood. Emily took in the surreal scene for a few minute before she vomited in the hallway.
Denise entered the hallway, also awoken by Nicky's scream. By the time Denise got into the hallway there were already others there. She had heard Amber and Nicky's door slam shut, knowing it was their room because it was right next to hers. She entered the hall prepared to go to their room to find out what was going on.
As she entered the hallway she could she Julie standing at the door to her room with a highly concerned look on her face. Julie seemed to be looking down the hallway past where Denise was standing. As Denise turned to look in the direction Julie was looking, Mary walked by crying and in clear distress from where Chrissy and Emily were in the hallway.
Denise decided to go quickly to Chrissy to find out what was going on. As Denise reach the two of them, she glanced into Alli's room and knew immediately why everyone was so upset.
Both Chrissy and Emily were crying horribly just outside of Alli's room.
"Chrissy. Chrissy, honey, take Emily into your room. OK," Denise said as she got the two other women to their feet, which took some effort. When they had disappeared into Chrissy's room, Denise had to take a few seconds to suppress her own need to vomit.
Denise thought quickly, and her concern for what had happened went away and was replaced by her concern for who all she had not seen come bolting out of their rooms to find out what was happening. Denise was not completely surprised that she had not woken up next to her husband, because he hadn't been there when she went to bed. But she had expected that he would return at some point in the night.
Her husband, though, was not who she was immediately concerned about. Denise had not seen her parents, Amy, Amber, or Amy's kids. She had heard Nicky, but didn't know if anything was physically wrong with her.
Denise's parents room was the closest too her, so she went there first and began knocking on the door very hard.
"Mom! Dad!" Denise yelled as she knocked, but received no reply. She decided to move on after about a minute. She walked past her niece and nephew's room and past Amy and Daniel's room to Amber and Nicky's room. Again, Denise knocked on the door very hard, but unlike her mom and dad's room, she heard movement from inside the room. Amber opened the door a few minutes later, with tears on her face. Denise could see Nicky curled up on the bed crying.
"Are you two alright," Denise asked.
Amber gave a hesitant nod and then asked, "What happened. Nicky is really upset but she won't tell me what happened."
Denise put her hands on Amber's shoulders and pulled her close before softly saying, "Alli is dead. Keep Nicky in here and stay with her while I get this sorted out."
"How…" Amber started but was cut off by Denise gently pushing her towards Nicky as Denise closed the door to their room.
Denise saw Julie in the hallway.
"Julie, will you help me?" Denise asked.
"Oh course," Julie said. "Is Alli alright."
"No, but there's nothing we can do for her right now. I need you to go downstairs and get the extra keys to all the rooms and bring them back up here," Denise said with authority. "Can you do that?"
Julie nodded and hurried off. Watching Julie leave was the first time Denise saw the stranger on the stairs. The woman was looking down the hallway. Julie stopped and talked to her for a moment and then gestured for her to go with her down the stairs, which they both did.
Denise tried Amy's room, but had no luck. She moved onto Lissa and Joey's room and found the door not fully closed. Denise pushed open the door and turned on the light. There was no immediate sign of the two children, but the bed caught her eye. She quickly went to it and her heart nearly jumped out of her throat. The bed was stained with blood.
The blood certainly looked to be more then what either of the children would have had for a bloody nose, but it also seemed to be less than a fetal amount. But that was the only hopeful thought Denise could muster from the scene. Denise quickly searched the room for the children, but found no other sign of them.
Denise tried the adjoining door to Amy and Daniel's room and found it to be unlocked. She did not find either Amy or Daniel in the room, or any sign of the kids. Denise returned to Lissa and Joey's room and then she spotted someplace she had not looked.
In the bathroom, the shower curtain was closed, and for some reason that seemed out-of-place to Denise. She quickly went to it and grabbed the opaque curtain, but then hesitated. After what she had seen in Alli's room, Denise tried to prepare herself for what she might find. Having steadied herself as much as she could, she quickly flung the curtain open to find the bathtub empty.
Denise paused for a moment, trying to recover from the flip her stomach had just made.
"Wait," Tom said as they walked on the trail towards the inn. "Do you guys hear that?"
"What?" Bobby asked as he saw Tom walk off the trail into the surrounding forest. Vic quickly followed after Tom, so Bobby did as well. It wasn't too far off the trail that they found both the source of the noise and the source of the awful smell that Bobby was noticing.
Kyle's lifeless body hung from a tree. His hands were nailed to the tree above his head, and his feet were also nailed to the tree. Kyle's abdomen had been sliced open and his innards were dangling from his body accumulating in a large pile on the ground. The three men stared in disbelief at Kyle's body for a few seconds before they noticed Daniel.
Daniel was handcuffed and the handcuffs had a chain attached by a padlock. The chain was wrapped around a tree near where Kyle's body hung. Daniel was being gagged by duct tape that was wrapped around his head, and he yelling into the duct tape gag trying to get their attention.
Bobby rushed over to Daniel and began unwrapping the duct tape from his head. Daniel seemed to protest at this as the duct tape pulled hair and skin off of him. Bobby looked over and saw Tom approaching Kyle's body while Vic was still just trying to take it all in. Bobby watched Tom check for a pulse on Kyle, and then Tom's fingers moved to the string that was tied around Kyle's neck. On the string was a small key.
"Bobby, get me out of here," Daniel said as Bobby finished removing the duct tape from Daniel's head.
"Tom, get that key off of him and toss it over here," Bobby said gesturing to the handcuffs on Daniel. It took a few seconds for Tom to break the string, but he did, tossing the key over to Bobby. Bobby caught the key and then released the cuffs form Daniel's hands.
"Are you alright to stand?" Bobby asked to which Daniel nodded. Bobby helped Daniel to his feet. Neither Bobby nor Daniel noticed Vic charging over to them. Vic grabbed Daniel near his neck and forced Daniel's back against the tree he had been chained to.
"What the hell happened here?" Vic asked.
"I don't know," Daniel said emphatically. Bobby noted how bad Daniel looked. Daniel's face was swollen and discolored from the fight with Vic, and there was a good sized lump on the side of his head. "Kyle and I were walking back to the inn and we were attacked. The next thing I remember was waking up here with Kyle like that," Daniel said gesturing over to Kyle's body.
Bobby grabbed Vic's and pulled him away from Daniel. "Come on, Vic. We have to get back to the inn and make sure everyone else is alright."
"OK, but Daniel leads the way. I don't want that behind us," Vic said.
"Why would I have done this," Daniel said, with a slightly harsh tone.
"I don't know, maybe because you're a complete dick," Vic said with clear hatred in his voice.
"Guys, should we, you know?" Tom interrupted. When Vic and Bobby turned to him, Tom was gesturing at Kyle's body.
"No, we'll have to leave him for now," Bobby said. "We'll come back for him and Bruce later."
Daniel pushed past Vic and Bobby. Vic gave Tom a look that told him to follow Daniel. Vic and Bobby made up the rear. They headed off to the inn at a faster pace than they were on previously. The men didn't really speak. There wasn't much to say. It was obvious now that someone was murdering people on the island and that they were all in imminent danger.
Denise and Julie were going to check all of the rooms, but were interrupted by a hysterical Amy. Denise had to try and keep Amy from having a complete breakdown at the news that her children were missing and the state of their room.
Julie asked Mary's help in checking all of the rest of the rooms. Luckily, aside from all of the missing people, there were no other signs of trouble in any of the rooms after Alli's and the children's rooms.
Julie suggested to Mary that they search Alli's room, but Mary wanted no part of it. Julie enlisted Allen's help to search the room, but they found no evidence of who had murdered Alli. The two of them spent some time caring for Alli's body. They removed the ropes binding her arms and legs, placed her fully on the bed, and they covered her with a sheet. Allen said a few prayers over the body. Julie spent most of this time crying.
Allen and Julie had then checked on Chrissy and Emily. Emily had calmed down significantly, but both of them were still crying.
Julie needed a shower after dealing with Alli's room and body. Tom came into their room while she was getting dressed. She had luckily not been downstairs when the guys had arrived back at the inn, because she did not have to witness Denise being told that her husband was dead. Julie had been so worried about Tom that she held him in a tight embrace for several moments.
Tom told her about Bruce and Kyle. He had not wanted to give much detail, but Julie had insisted. She was horrified by what she heard, but after seeing what had been done to Alli, she was not surprised.
"I'm so sorry I brought you here," Julie had said as she gave Tom another long hug.
"I kinda am too," Tom had said with a bit of a chuckle. And then, with a reassuring tone, "We'll get off this island, I promise."
Julie waited while Tom took a shower. Mary had come to her room and told her that they were trying to get everyone together to decide what to do next. Julie told her they would be down as soon as Tom was dressed.
When Tom was ready, they left their room, but did not head immediately downstairs. Instead, Tom wanted to see the children's room. Julie had not been inside that room, but had been told what had been found. Tom suggested that maybe they might see something that Denise had missed.
Everyone else was downstairs, so no one noticed them going into Lissa and Joey's room. The two of them didn't find anything in the children's room that provided any information about where the kids were or who the murderer was. Aside from the bed, there was no sign that anything bad had happened in this room. But the bed was a fairly ominous sign.
After what had been done to Alli, and after what Tom had told her had been done to Bruce and Kyle, Julie assumed the children were dead. It wasn't like they were the only people missing, and it was a fairly safe assumption at this point that anyone missing had been murdered. She just hoped, as she did for all of the missing, that their deaths had not been as horrible as Alli's.
"I don't think their dead," Tom had said after he had studied the bed for a bit.
"Why do you think that?" Julie had asked as hopeful sounding as she could muster.
"Well, the bloods not distributed like I would expect if they were attacked here," Tom explained with authority. "It's all on the bed. Also, it's to evenly spread out. If they had been attacked here, and killed, I would expect large pools of blood. This looks like someone drizzled blood over the bed."
"I really hope your right, and that they are still alive. But if they are, where do you think they went?" Julie had asked.
Tom had refused to speculate, and the two of them left the room and headed downstairs. To Julie's and everyone's surprise, Tom found a likely answer to Julie's question when they arrived downstairs. Tom had been the one to notice the markings on the map of the island that was in the inn's lobby. Tom had also found the letter that was sitting on the table near the map.
Julie looked around at everyone in the lounge.
Chrissy was sitting with Denise, Amber, and Nicky on the couch. Bobby was standing behind her. All of the Evans sisters looked like they had been crying for a while. Not only had the news of Kyle's death and the disappearance of Lissa and Joey, but also that Hurbert and Pamela had not returned to the inn from the hiking trip the previous day.
Denise looked very pale and distant. Tears seemed to fall from her eyes without her noticing. Chrissy was sitting next to her trying to comfort her, but was clearly having trouble holding everything together herself. Bobby was rubbing Chrissy's shoulders, and would occasionally lean over and whisper something into Chrissy's ear. Bobby looked a mess, being he was still in his clothes from the previous night.
Amber and Nicky sat on the other side of Denise. Both Amber and Nicky calmed down considerably when they heard there was a note, but it was still clear they were terribly upset. Amber was still in her nightclothes, as were Denise and Chrissy. Nicky was still dressed for that run she didn't go on.
Lewis sat in the next chair over from the couch. Even though to Julie he looked nervous, he seemed slightly out of place with his dry eyes in the room where so many people were in tears. Even Allen, who was standing between the couch where the Evans sisters were sitting and the chair that Lewis sat in, seemed to have been crying. Julie figured that was due to Cort being among the missing, or just being around all of the sadness. Both Allen and Lewis were dressed.
Emily and Mary were sitting on a love seat opposite of where the Evans sisters were sitting. Mary seemed gloomy and anxious. Emily's eyes were still wet, but she was not openly sobbing anymore. Mary had gotten dressed, but Emily was still in her night clothes.
Vic stood near Emily still in the previous night's clothes. Julie had never seen Vic cry before, but Vic's red eyes and the stains on his face suggest to her that he had been. Now, though, he was looking at each of the people in the room not with sympathy but with rage. When Julie's eyes met his, even she received a look of hatred.
Dorothy was standing off in a corner. Julie had met her briefly at the height of the morning's confusion. Dorothy looked completely on edge and uncomfortable in this room of strangers.
Then there was Daniel and Amy. They were standing a slight bit away from Bobby. Amy was frantic and in tears, while Daniel was brooding. Julie thought Daniel may just not be capable of crying. He was, though, holding his wife tightly, which may have been the only reason she was still on her feet. Julie wasn't sure who had dressed the wound on Amy's head, but there was a bandage wrapped around her head. Daniel's wounds had not been washed, and his face was in awful shape.
Tom silently read the note that had been left, and then handed it to Daniel and Amy. Upon reading the note, Amy and Daniel both rushed to the map of the island that was on the wall. They then rushed outside, followed quickly by Bobby and Tom, saying they needed to see if the bus or any of the other vehicles that the inn had were usable.
When they left to check on the vehicles, Tom handed Julie the note. The note had given Julie a lot of hope that the children were still alive, in fact it had stated as much. The note had read:
Dear Guests,
As you have likely already noticed, I have been very busy.
Melissa and Joseph are both alive, but they are not well. The locations on the map will lead you to them, but you had better hurry. They will each suffer nasty fates if you do not rescue them by noon.
Sincerely…
Julie took a look at the map and noted that there were three Xs, marked in blood, and they were each at different ends of the island.
When Amy, Daniel, Bobby, and Tom returned a short time later, Amy and Daniel looked even more frantic. Bobby announced to everyone that the bus, along with a truck and a jeep, had all been sabotaged. Bobby figured that even with a full auto garage of tools available, and all of the parts, that it would take a day or more to get one of them up and running.
Amy immediately started separating the group in the room into three groups to go searching for her children when Vic had stopped her.
"Just hold on a second," Vic had said. "It's very clear this is a trap, and we don't even know if your kids are still alive. Before we go out there, I have a few questions for you. Specifically, why were you out in woods in the middle of the night?"
"We don't have time…" Amy had started to say.
Vic interrupted, "Yes we do. If you want my help, you had better start answering."
"I was being blackmailed," Amy admitted. "Someone has been demanding that I give them money for a couple of months, and I was supposed to give them the money last night."
"What do you mean you were being blackmailed? How were you being blackmailed?" Daniel asked. They were standing next to each other with Daniel holding Amy's hand. It was clear to Julie that after Amy made her admission that Daniel was squeezing much tighter.
"They had pictures of me and a friend that they said they would release them if I didn't pay the money," Amy said, clearly uncomfortable with having to make this confession.
"You fucking whore," Daniel said in a matter of fact way. He let go of Amy's hand. "How much of my money were you going to spend on keeping your cheating a secret?"
"That doesn't matter right now," Vic said. Vic was giving Daniel a very dark look; it was a look that begged Daniel to find out what would happen if he said one more thing. "Did the blackmailer show up?"
"No… yes… I don't know," Amy had said with her head down. She was now crying with renewed intensity. Denise got off of the couch and guided Amy back to sit next to her. "I just remember standing out there waiting for the blackmailer to show up and the next thing I remember was Dorothy waking me up."
"So you left our kids alone to have God knows what happen to them, so you could cover up your affair," Daniel screamed from across the room.
At this, Vic looked ready to tear into Daniel. Bobby had hopped out of his seat and held him back.
"What I want to know is how whoever is doing this has been able to get away with it without anyone suspecting what was going on," Denise said once the room was quite again.
At this point, Emily spoke up. She let everyone know what she knew about her earlier suspicions. Julie could tell that Emily was deeply ashamed for not telling everyone sooner. Julie could also see that Denise seemed to grow angrier as Emily laid all of her information out for the group.
"So we could have known this was happening earlier if you hadn't kept this all to yourself, or I guess amongst your friends," Denise said to Emily with a very cold tone. Chrissy was rubbing Denise's shoulder in a calming way, but even Chrissy gave Emily an angry look. Emily did not answer Denise's comment. There was a silence that swept the room for a few moments, which Amy took advantage of.
"We really need to go, please. Will you all help us look for my children?" Amy pleaded.
"I think Vic was right," Mary said. "Whoever is doing this is just trying to split us up. We would be foolish to do that at this point. I'm going to the docks to see if the boat is still there, and I'm getting off this island."
"I'm going with you," Dorothy said, though no one really paid attention.
"But we cannot just ignore this," Amy pleaded in reply. "If there is any chance my children are still alive we have to go."
"Why would they still be alive," Mary retorted. "You think whoever did that to Alli is going to keep your children alive out of the goodness of their heart." At this, Amy burst into a fresh set of sobs.
"If you think whoever is doing this just left you a boat to escape with, then your dumber then you look," Amber said as she glared at Mary.
"I know our chances are better at the boat then falling into an obvious trap," Mary replied.
"I'll help you look," Allen said reassuringly.
"Me too," Lewis piped in.
"Lewis, I think it might be better if you go to the boat, or stay here," Allen said authoritatively.
"No way. What makes you think I'll be safer at either of those places then with you?" Lewis replied. "I'm going."
"Then lets figure out who is going where," Denise said, her organizational nature clearly taking hold.
"Wait a minute," Chrissy said. "You're not going searching. In the condition you're in, you would just slow us down."
"Chrissy is right," Amy said. "You, Amber, and Nicky should go to the boat."
"I'm going out searching," Amber said quickly.
"Me too," Nicky added.
"Amber, Nicky, I…" Amy started before being cut off by her too youngest sisters. The Evans sisters quickly became engrossed in their debate about who would search and who would go to the docks. Mary used the opportunity to press the others.
"So, who else is going to the docks? Emily? Julie? Vic?" Mary said as she looked to each of them.
"I'm staying and searching for those kids," Emily said.
"What? Why?" Mary said, genuinely shocked by Emily's response. "You don't have to do that just because you feel guilty. None of this is your fault."
"I would do this whether I felt some responsibility for this happening or not, Mary," Emily replied assuredly. "We are those kids' only chance, and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do something."
"Fine, whatever. Julie?" Mary said looking at her.
"What do you want to do?" Tom asked. His arm was around her waist, which she found so comforting even considering the situation.
"Stay," was Julie's only reply.
"Then we're staying," Tom said matter-of-factly.
"Vic?" Mary asked with a new urgency in her voice.
Vic looked at Emily, then to Mary, and then back to Emily. "I'm staying," Vic said.
"Vic, you don't even think those kids are still alive," Mary said.
"I'm staying Mary, and that's that," Vic said to Mary, but his eyes never left Emily.
Mary and Dorothy had agreed to wait on Denise while she got changed before heading out to the boat. They were the only two still in the lounge. They sat next to each other in silence.
Amber and Nicky had won their fight to go searching for their niece and nephew. The next big trick was figuring out what people would be in what group.
Emily, Julie, Tom, and Vic had decided to form one group. Emily had quickly gone upstairs to change clothes. Julie and Tom loitered in the lobby while Vic did one more search for weapons of any sort. They had already done this more than once this morning, and found the kitchen cleaned out of knifes or anything else that could be used as a weapon. Whoever was doing this had been thorough. They had taken any obvious weapons and disabled the vehicles. They had even destroyed the radio in Janice's office. Vic returned to the group in the lobby empty handed.
Daniel had refused to search with Amy, so his group was difficult to decide. Allen said that Lewis and he could go with Daniel. Nicky decided she would also go with this group, which caused Amy to protest.
"Amy, I'll be fine. Anyways, I got the most men in my group, so I should be safer," Nicky said to her sister. "You have to wait for Chrissy and Amber to change, but everyone in my groups already ready to go."
Amy could only fight an issue like this for so long at this point, so she quickly gave in.
"We'll find them," Nicky had said as she gave Amy a hug goodbye. "They're going to be alright."
"You stay safe," Amy whispered to Nicky.
"Come on if you're coming, Nicky," Daniel said. Nicky broke the hug with her sister and ran out the front door of the inn to meet up with Daniel, Allen, and Lewis. The location they were going to check had them taking the left hand trail away from the inn. They went at a quick pace.
Ray was completely unaware of the time, or how long he had been making his way down the hill. He was wearing a watch, but he hadn't bothered to check it since he had woken up. He was too out of it to care what time it was. He knew he had to be getting close to the inn, at least if he didn't make it there soon he figured he would pass out again.
Ray came around a clearing and smelled a terrible scent. It was overpowering, and caused him to recoil and stop his forward progress.
He thought about just moving on, but he had a suspicion of what the smell was. It was an awful suspicion to have, but he thought if anything smelled of death it was this. He walked a short ways into the clearing and found his suspicion to be correct.
Ray's heart sank lower than it had ever been. He had never been one to burst out into tears, or to be overcome with emotions of any kind, but seeing Sara's horribly disfigured body caused tears to fall quickly down his faces. He buried his face in his hands and yelled for several seconds.
Ray should have walked on. There was nothing more he could do for Sara here, and this wasn't the way he should remember her. He felt compelled, though, to stay with her. He felt he had to hold her one last time.
Ray fell to his knees beside her. He could care less about the fact that her body was in such bad condition. He carefully placed a hand underneath her body and brought it close to him.
Ray hadn't noticed the fishing line that ran from Sara's body to a nearby tree. He didn't notice the sound of the pin being pulled from the grenade that was sticking precariously from Sara's pants pocket as he pulled the remains of Sara close to him.
It took seven seconds for the trap to come to fruition.
In that seven seconds Ray knew of nothing but sorrow. His dreams of a happy life with the woman that he loved had been destroyed. No one ever understood what he saw in Sara, but Ray saw something amazing and beautiful in Sara that no one else in the world could see. That was something that made their lover so special. And now it was gone. He rocked her body back and forth as he wept.
Ray didn't think about how everything might have gone differently if he hadn't gone down the wrong trail or if he had decided not to go to the top of the hill. Luckily, Ray didn't really have time for regret.
Deaths:
Allison Little (Alli) - The Athlete
Bruce Kemp - The Partier
Raymond Cunningham (Ray) - The Go-Getter
AN: The last chapter I ended by saying I would have the next chapter by the end of that week… That didn't happen, so I am not going to promise anything more than the next chapter will be soon.
Next Chapter is Chapter 10: Click.