Plagued: a companion to Whodunnit

The Sixth Day

Vinyl was reading through the paper Valerie found. He was perusing through.

-The Albany missing children are: Haley Whitfield, Devon Baxter, Ryan Dunst, Murphy Silo, and Danica Fitzsimmons-

He took that page and removed it, wadding it up and tossing it into the fire. He placed the newspaper back where Valerie left it.

Cameron was very interested in the insider trading of Garazone Water Stock, which was manipulated by the Cholera incident.

He was still trying to connect the dots to the Prestons. He figured that Preston paid for Jamie to forge the results, but what about the three deaths?

Under an educated supposition, Cam thought that the three deaths were not related to cholera but maybe H1N1 or severe Influenza. It was possible that the examiners wouldn't test for contamination if the reservoir was knowingly contaminated. And the city would shut down the water. But Penny was his main brains. She was obviously behind the whole thing.

Valerie opened the pistol, which was unloaded. She was sitting on her bed. She had two bullets to load it with, but dropped them when trying too eagerly to place them into the revolver. They rolled on the floor under the giant dresser.

"No, no, no."

She bent down and tried to slip her fingers to reach them, but they were two far out of reach. She grabbed the knife, but stopped when a knock came on her door. She looked over in a jolt.

Cameron and Eleanor were in the ballroom, collaborating over a plan. The two of them formed an ally. They plotted against the others.

Valerie opened the door to Vinyl an Esther who were both frantic.

"Come quick!"

They walked to the pool and jacuzzi, and there in the bubbling water face-down was Jamie. A note was sitting on a towel which wrote, "Boil."

Vinyl fished him out, and he was already dead. His skin was burned and scorched, with huge welts and red blotches. He looked inhuman.

"Him? He was who I thought was the killer," Valerie said.

Eleanor and Cam walked in, letting out a gasp of disbelief. Everyone went to the lobby.

"Which one of you is responsible?" Valerie shouted. She pulled out her knife and pointed it at all of them.

"Woah."

"Stay back," she screamed, "None of you come near me! I will kill the next person who approaches me."

She scurried off to the elevator and slammed the button.

The others glared at each other.

She ran to her room and locked the door behind her. She tried again for those bullets. She got one and loaded the gun. Then she saw it: sitting there in the bathroom magazine rack was a newspaper. It caught her eye. She went to it and looked at it closely. It was the same exact paper.

As if in a whisper, she said aloud, "I know who it is."

Then she was giggling and her smile huge. "I know, I know."

Her cabin fever was lashing out at her. Her sanity was breaking.

"Just leave her be. You don't wanna get stabbed anyway," Cameron said.

"Cam's right," Eleanor said to Esther.

"She's gone mad. We all have to stick together and watch each other. I mean, look how many people we've seen die recently."

Vinyl lit up his blunt. He looked over to the others. "Well one of us is a killer. I can accept that. In fact, I care about my own ass than I do justice. Let's all leave. Never look back. No one will ever know who was at this hotel or who is the killer. We can cover it up and let sleeping dogs lie."

"I've already had a massacre hidden under my tongue," Eleanor pleaded, "Two would be too many. Guilt would kill me even if one of you doesn't. Like Penny."

"We can either try and solve this, or we stay here and die. Or we do what I suggested and just sweep it under a rug. We leave it at the grave. Now, I don't know about you," Vinyl said while getting up and heading towards the door, "But I rather have mother nature stab me and twist the knife then let one of you rob my life."

He walked out the door but Eleanor ran after him. Cameron and Esther followed.

"I've got to go. It's time I go reconcile with my father."

"Vinyl-"

"No, Vinyl is dead. The killer got him. But Ryan has been reborn."

"You're talking crazy!"

Esther handed a lighter to Vinyl, "You should go."

"What's this for?"

"Warmth. Goodbye Ryan," and she hugged him.

Eleanor concluded that he could be the killer, but Cameron contested. He stated that the killer would not leave a lamb to be slaughtered. They would not give up until blood poured from all of their hearts. A bitter silence filled in after he said that.

A note was found in the morning and wrote with crossed out letters, "A̶l̶l̶ ̶H̶a̶i̶l̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶K̶i̶n̶g̶."