March Writing Prompts

March 5, 2023

Prompt: Write an opening to a murder mystery in a snowed-in rescue lodge.

Ceilings... plaster. Can't you just make it move faster? Lovely... to be sitting here with you. You're kinda cute but it's... raining har- "What the FUCK! Give it back!"

James laughed as he ran off with Renee's headphones. Sprinting through the halls of the lodge, yelling at each other as they swerved between the people just trying to get to their rooms. "I am LITERALLY going to kill you in your sleep!" She screamed, irritated as he laughed even louder.

Both siblings had been at each other's throats for the past week on their vacation. Their parents brought them to Havaska Snow Resort and Lodge for two weeks each year for their Christmas break, but this year was much worse. Within the first day, they were snowed in and unable to leave.

The lodge was smart enough to have an insanely powerful generator to keep the most important things going. Their parents told them to do their best to keep their phones charged but not use them much. The less power they used meant the less likely they would be to kill the lodge's generator.

But, per usual, James never really listened. The games on his phone, social media scrolled, and calls made to his friends back home drained his battery. This made him charge his phone nearly fifteen times in the past week while Renee had only been using her phone to listen to music in the moments that she was feeling stir-crazy. She'd been listening to all of the new songs from Lizzy McAlpine when James ran up and snatched her headphones off the top of her head.

As they rounded the corner of the next hall, just a few doors down from their room, James slammed right into an older man. Though he looked around their grandparents' age, he didn't budge a bit while James hit the floor hard.

Renee's eyes widened as she sprinted faster to help him up and apologize to the old man, "I am so sorry about him. He's a moron. Are you okay?"

The man's eyes peered down, looking between the siblings as they ushered to get James to his feet. No response, no movement from any other part of his body, sent shivers down their spines. His hands did not leave his pockets as he continued looking over the two.

They paid close attention to his face, watching as his emotionless eyes took them in. Nothing about him was easy to read, which made everything infinitely more difficult to process. His silence alarmed them as he stood there for nearly thirty seconds just staring.

"Sir?" James spoke finally, hoping his question would help the mysterious man find his words. "I'm sorry for running into you. Is everything alright? Are you okay?" Still, nothing. He did not speak and did not move, except for his eyes. His head stayed leveled up while he continued peering down at them for a few more seconds.

Renee and James looked at each other before jumping a bit as they heard the man begin to shift. He remained silent as he shuffled past them down the hallway. The two watched as he almost floated down the hallway. It was terrifying, but Renee figured they were overreacting when she saw that no one else in the hallway even paid him a second thought.

"Well," James huffed, "that could not have been any more weird."

"Weirder," Renee corrected him.

"Do you have to do that every time?" James jabbed.

They continued arguing while they walked down the hall until they finally made it to their room. They had always gone at each other's throats, but the issues almost always subsided within an hour or so. This time was really no different but for reasons they wouldn't have guessed.

Their voices cut at the same time when they noticed the door to their room slightly ajar. Renee's eyes shot open, breath hitching when she noticed a bit of the trim cracked off. She looked over, hoping James would have something to say, something to help her feel better.

Instead, her eyes followed as he burst through the door yelling, "Mom!? Dad!?"

She inched in slowly, praying her parents wouldn't be there. If they weren't there, then it was probably just a robbery, right? Someone had seen what they wore or owned and followed them, right?

Her hopes were higher than ever when she walked in, yelling out after her brother, "Mom? Dad? Are you in here?"

"Renee..." she heard her brother speak softly, barely loud enough for her to hear. It was clear what the tone of his voice was insinuating and the walk past the front hallways showed their worst fears. Both parents were cold and lifeless on their bed while blood pooled out around each of them.

Both hands shot up to cover her mouth as James' jaw clenched tighter. Whoever had been in their room took nothing but their parents from the two siblings. They couldn't help but stare, trying to figure out what had happened, how they'd done it. The fronts of their shirts were soaked and ripped in certain spots. Renee could only assume they'd been stabbed.

"Why... would someone do this?" she began to cry while James pulled her into his chest. Sobbing, she couldn't keep her thoughts together but her brother knew exactly where to go.

"It was that man in the hallway. I know it," he declared. "I'm going after him."

With that, he was sprinting out the door and leaving his sister in the wreckage. Her body had given out, too shocked and depressed to even try to go after him. She didn't even know who he was talking about.

All she could do was curl up, praying that time would rewind. Over and over again she pleaded, "Please, please, please, bring them back," but her pleads were interrupted by a sharp pain in her back that immediately began throbbing throughout her entire body.

Turning over, she knew something was wrong. She turned to see what had happened and rolled right onto the feet of the person who'd taken the life of her parents.

"I'm sorry," they sighed before leaning down with the knife still dripping with her parents blood and taking her life as well.