The Masquerade

Chapter 9: Not-So-Good Morning

Stella sat rigid on her bed, not willing to get up, but not willing to sleep longer either.

She had no idea who or what made the noise, all she knew was she didn't want to be alone to find out.

She reluctantly got up and walked towards the door, peeking out.

Johnny was stood in the corridor. She stepped out of the room and greeted him.

"Ah, good morning Stella."

Johnny's tone of voice surprised her. It was as if he slept through everything that happened last night.

"Um, have you any idea what happened last night?" she asked.

"The lights? Well, I'm sure it was just a malfunction. I'll have the butler check it later on."

She decided not to question it further.

Just then, Shona and Isla exited their rooms. Shona gave Stella a worried look, which, admittedly, made her heart skip a beat.

"Do you know what happened last night?" Shona whispered to them.

"The scream?" asked Stella.

"We should find out," replied Isla. "But let's wait until the others wake up."

As if on cue, Archie walked out his door, looking as if he hadn't slept at all.

"Whoa, you look rough," said Stella.

"Yeah, well, it wasn't exactly a great night," he retorted.

A few minutes later, Etta arrived.

"Morning. Do you have any idea where Scout is?" asked Shona

"I'm not sure. She probably wanted to sleep in, and to be honest, I don't blame her."

"That's fair enough. We were going to investigate what happened last night, care to join us?"

Etta nodded.

Shona began walking down the stairs.

"Wait," said Isla. "We should split up. We can cover more ground that way."

Everyone agreed.

Stella took a right when she got down the stairs, and began roaming through the labyrinth of the mansion halls.

She had been walking for a few minutes, until something caught her eye.

A footprint of red was painted into the floor. That was odd. There wasn't any artists here, let alone anyone who has the audacity to vandalise the mansion.

She took a few more steps, noticing more of the footprints around the corner.

Something around the corner made her freeze in her tracks. Her eyes widened to a size no one thought was humanly possible.

"Oh my... fucking... god," she whispered, her voice wavering.

Blood was splashed over the wall at the end of the corridor, and beside it lay a body.

Her shoulder length dark brown hair was splayed out around her head. A fountain pen was plunged into her heart, and dried blood was engraved into her clothes, mingling with the ink of the pen to create an unpleasant substance.

Stella had to do a double take to realise it was true; Scout was dead.