Éric

List of Characters | Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

“Yes, this is the right room,” replied Riko as she gently touched Zoe’s arm.

“How can you be so calm? We’re all going to die. I don’t want to die. Why is this happening. Oh god. Oh god. Someone took the bodies.” Zoe started to hyperventilate.

With a big sigh, Sandrine slapped Zoe in the face. “Calm down!”

Zoe swore and punched Sandrine in the nose before turning around and running for the stairs.

“Why’d you do that?” asked Riko.

“It works in the movies,” Sandrine replied as she put pressure on her bloody nose.

Riko turned and ran after Zoe who was running for her room. “Zoe, stop please.”

At her room, Zoe turned to Riko and said, “I’m not dying on their terms. I’ll die on my own. I’m swimming out.”

“We’re in the middle of a storm. Let’s talk about it again in the morning when things have cleared up. Then we’ll see about making a raft or something.”

Looking calmed Zoe turned the doorknob of her room. “Ok, but I need some thicker clothes now it’s cold.” They were all still damp from the rain. Zoe finished opening her door looked inside and screamed. Her scream was cut short by a gunshot.

Riko looked away but couldn’t get the sight out of her mind. She threw herself at the wall next to the door and peeked around, maybe she could get a glimpse of the shooter.

Around the corner she saw a shotgun mounted on a tripod with string and a complicated pulley system; another trap. Riko collapsed against the wall. She felt numb or maybe she didn’t care anymore, she wasn’t sure.

“Zoe. No.” Kate rolled up to Riko and just swore. Sandrine joined her.

“We need to find a place to bunker down and defend ourselves until tomorrow,” Riko’s voice sounded flat, even to herself.

“Then what do we do?” demanded Kate.

“We burn this place and the entire island to the ground.” Sandrine’s eyes were filled with mischief. “If the killer can’t hide or plant traps than they can’t kill anyone else. Plus the fire will get someone’s attention.”

They all sat or stood there, next to the body of their friend and digested the thought in silence. When their phones rang they all jumped.

The eighth pretended to be a reporter but the bribes were more important to her.

“She was a Vlogger not a journalist you stupid…” Sandrine yelled a few more profanities into her phone.

Standing up, Riko said, “We need a place that can easily be defended and we need food.”

“The kitchen is a galley with only two ways in or out. We could easily fortify there, assuming there aren’t any traps already set,” Kate suggested.

“Where are Zane and Blaine?” Riko panicked.

“They’re waiting at the elevator to make sure no one does anything to it.”

“Ok. Go to them and get to the kitchen. I’m going to leave a surprise for the murderer.” Riko waved off their protests.

The shotgun was the double barreled kind that were so popular with farmers in television shows. She knew the kind and had worked with them before. She checked and both barrels were empty. Looking around the room, she found some bits and pieces to block the barrels far enough in that the shells would still fit but the gun wouldn’t fire properly. If she was lucky, it would backfire on the shooter. If she wasn’t, it would still misfire.

She knew there was a chance that the killer was watching everything she did, but if they weren’t, this would give her an advantage.

As she left the room she wondered if Ethan had been lying when he said he hadn’t brought a gun. She hadn’t brought hers since she never carried when she wasn’t on duty, but he always seemed to have a gun.

She unlocked the shared door, pushed it, and moved off to the side. When nothing happened she entered his room. It was a mess. His clothes were everywhere as if someone had ransacked it. She found the hotel safe smashed open on the bed.

There was no way he’d have left a gun in the safe if he thought he’d need it. She went to the washroom and checked under the toilet tank cover. It was the place that most people hid their money or drugs and they would make jokes about leaving each other notes there if they were ever in trouble.

Under the tank cover was a plastic bag with his handgun and a note. The note said, “Just in case I don’t make it. Kill the asshole.”

She laughed, changed, and put the gun into the small of her back. Its weight gave her hope; she knew it was false hope but it was better than nothing.

When she turned the corner to into the kitchen, a knife flew by her head barely missing her. She threw herself down and yelled, “Who’s there?”

“Riko?” Zane’s voice asked.

“Yes.”

“You have to announce yourself girl, you’re way too quiet.” He was drunk. She could tell by the slurring.

When she stood up she saw that they’d made a barricade from one of the metal islands and had locked the door to the outside. They were all in the small galley kitchen on blankets and pillows passing around a bottle of tequila and a few lemons.

“Tomorrow we burn the place to the ground. Tonight we drink!” announced Sandrine as she took a shot.

Riko shook her head when the bottle came to her. She was determined not to let anyone else die and she needed to be sober for that.

“Any coffee left?” she asked. It was going to be a long night.

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List of Characters | Part 1| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Everyone but Riko ran back to the relative safety of the hotel. She just stood there, her tears merging with the torrential flow of rain over her body. The lightning danced over Lake Ontario and each set of thunder mimicked her heartache.

One of the flashes of light was reflected by something on the beach near her. She walked towards in zombie-like in her grief. She’d crossed the beach before she realized how stupid she’d been. There was no way to tell if the killer had placed more mines.

When she found what was reflecting, she gagged and sobbed simultaneously. It was Ethan’s father’s watch. Cracked down the middle and stopped at the time of his death. The watch was still attached to his arm. She assumed it was his arm. It was burnt beyond recognition and not attached to the rest of his body.

There were various other body parts strewn, as if by a careless child, all over the beach. Her first instinct was to collect all the pieces. She didn’t. Instead she turned around and walked towards the hotel in the same fugue like state as she’d walked onto the beach.

His dying words to her were that he loved her. She hadn’t known. She’d loved him since they’d been paired together two years ago.

The others had congregated in the ballroom. When she walked in, Zoe went over to her and gave her a towel. She was shaking but she wasn’t sure if it was the cold or the trauma.

“Sit down… I’ll get you a hot chocolate,” Zoe rushed out of the room.

Riko guessed they’d gotten over their fear of being poisoned and let out a little giggle. They all looked around awkwardly, none of them meeting her eyes. Curiosity pulled her from her grief and she asked, “What’s up?”

“Sandrine has a theory but you’re not going to like it…” Zane looked almost guilty.

“We have enough of the killer playing games… what’s your theory?”

All their phones started ringing and the screens around the ballroom roared to life. The showed the growing, gruesome, and irritatingly vague poem:

Twelve naughty kittens all trapped on an island; they’re all going to die for certain.
The first betrayed love for cash; now she’s ash.
To violence and hate the second clung; now he’s hung.
To gossip the third fixated; now she’s been asphyxiated.
The fourth preferred those who were incapacitated, now it’s his turn to be penetrated.
The fifth was a jerk who loved a good burn, now in a ball of fire it’s his turn.
The sixth was a model citizen, a spy; and not Canadian but Russian.
The seventh wasn’t what he seemed; he was but a dream within a dream.

“That was written by someone who doesn’t understand poetry, or truly hates it.” Zoe said it, probably intending it to be a joke.

“Sandrine, what’s your theory?” Riko asked. She didn’t want anyone else to die and she didn’t want to die. Her survival instinct was paired with a pang of guilt, should she really be thinking about this sort of thing when so many others had died? Shouldn’t she be in a state of shock longer? She pushed away those feelings and concentrated on trying to save everyone.

“I don’t think he’s dead!”

“What?”

“Ethan… I think he faked his death.”

“Why?”

“The poem says ‘Twelve Naughty Kittens’ but we were thirteen. That means one of us isn’t part of this or one of us is the killer.”

“Ok, but why Ethan?” Riko tried to hide the defensiveness in her voice.

“As a cop he has the training, he wasn’t always with the group, and there’s no way to make sure he died.”

“I saw his body. At least parts of it. His arm was still wearing the watch his father gave him…”

“It still makes sense to me that it’s him. I can’t imagine anyone in this room could do it; it has to be someone who faked their death. Ethan was the only one who wasn’t supposed to be here.”

Zoe sighed and said, “It can’t be Kate, unless she’s faking her paralysis. The boathouse isn’t accessible. I can’t believe you’re behind it.” She pointed at Riko.

Kate nodded. “And let’s be real. There’s no way in hell Zane and Blane would kill everyone. This is way too tacky for them. Same with Zoe.”

They all looked at Sandrine who lifted her hands up and said, “Hey. If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t go through all this trouble. There’s also no money to be made here. It makes no sense.”

“Jonathan died so far at sea that we couldn’t see him,” Zoe said, her face paler than normal. “What about him?”

“Maybe,” Sandrine said. “I don’t think it’s Arun. We saw him die.”

“We didn’t see Abe die but it would be hard to fake. Maybe Alison?” suggested Zoe, moving a cup towards Riko.

Riko reached out and took the cup that Zoe had been holding in front of her and took a drink. It was mostly liqueur with a little hot chocolate. It made her feel warmer inside. She said, “I don’t think it’s Abe. That would be too hard to fake.”

“Bodies!” exclaimed Blane. “The bodies.” He looked around like everyone was being dumb. “We can eliminate anyone who’s still dead upstairs.”

In an almost choreographed movement, the six moved towards the stairs and elevator.

Stopping in front of the elevator, Kate shrugged. There was no other way for her to get up to the first floor in her wheelchair.

“We’ll go up with her,” offered Zane despite Blane’s horrified look.

Sandrine, Zoe, and Riko walked up the stairs. Riko took comfort in the warmth of her drink. She was still wet. The hotel seemed even more eerie, if possible, than it had before.

They reached the door to the makeshift morgue and Riko opened it. A blast of icy air flowed from the room making her shiver. She fumbled for the lights.

The room was pristine, not only were there no bodies but there was no smell, and the room had been made up perfectly.

“This is the right room… Right?” asked Zoe, the familiar sound of panic entering her voice.

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