M A F I A G A M E :: Take Two, Night Five
The smell of blood around house Ciaculli is finally starting to fade.
JILL, for one, is glad of it. She doesn't think she'll be able to sleep at all for the next month or so - and even then, she doubts she'll ever be able to forget what she's seen in the past few days. Blood and death, she'd been prepared for - you don't get far in the business without a bit of both beneath your belt - but all this watching and wondering and waiting - and these murders, all these in-family flayings and scaldings and the thing with the rats, whatever that was, they hadn't exactly been as neat and clean as a few bullets to the spine...
Sick minds. Sick, sick minds.
But, Jill thinks, setting her mouth into a grim line and following the other three survivors into the kitchen, there's one at least that she won't regret. She remembers Yukeh screaming as the cabinet had bounced down the stairs, remembers hearing the crunch of bones and the sound of wet plops as Yukeh's body had hit the sides and blood had started to splatter out of the growing cracks in the wood (probably aided by the various knives, stakes, and nails the four of them had driven into the piece of furniture before shutting her in -)
A fitting death for a traitor.
But she can't help but relax a little, finally letting go of the tense set of her shoulders for the first time in days. Finally, all the people she couldn't trust are gone from the island and it's just her, Tess, Case, and Aisu left -- and she knows she's in good hands. The cleanup after Yukeh had taken half an hour or so, but the afternoon sun is still shining, the skies are still blue, and when she gets into the kitchen, the other three are already discussing their plans to leave the island before the sun goes down.
There's a sense of victory in the air, and Jill can't help but smile.
---
The smell of blood around house Ciaculli is finally starting to fade.
TESS can't say she really misses it. She returns Jill's smile with a big grin of her own, already having insisted to the rest (multiple times, in case they'd missed it) that she'd known it was Yukeh all along, her and that Pao creep. It was so obvious, didn't they see? And Yukeh trying to throw suspicion off herself by killing off Lavie at the end, but Tess had seen through that double bluff so fast she hadn't even blinked, oh, she's just that good -
Or, well, there had been that one night where she'd totally thought it was Case, but man, it had turned out he'd saved her life, good thing she hadn't shot him in the face or something, huh?
But she hadn't, no harm done, and that was the point anyway, and Tess's grin just gets wider as she turns away from Case and Aisu still deciding on details about booking rides back to shore and stretches, glad to let them handle things and even gladder to be free of the paranoia. Not sleeping for days has left dark marks beneath her eyes, and on top of not sleeping, after finding Lavie in the oven, she hadn't even been able to -
"Hey!" Tess says, and bounds over with renewed interest to the refrigerator, tugging it open and peering inside. It's still almost entirely full, enough food for fourteen people for a week - it looks like she hasn't been the only one unable to eat and the deaths have been keeping the larders packed. "Dude! 'm hungry, we should totally have a victory party or something!"
"Sure, that's a good idea," Case says. "I'll cook."
"I'll go call the ferry boat guy," Aisu adds. "And grab a bottle of champagne from the cellar."
"Okay, I'll get plates and napkins and clear off the dining room then!" Jill chimes in, and then they all glance back expectantly at Tess, who shrugs and takes a seat on the counter behind her.
"I'll sit in here and make sure Case doesn't poison the food," she says around the apple already in her mouth.
The four of them look at each other for one tense moment, and then the irony of the situation hits and they all start to laugh.
---
The smell of blood around house Ciaculli is finally starting to fade.
Not from the living room, AISU notes, taking a wide detour around the puddle of Yukeh still seeping into the carpet at the bottom of the stairs, but that didn't matter - they were all going to be out of here soon. Kind of a shame that Miru hadn't made it - she'd been the only one Aisu had really known before she'd arrived on this deathtrap - but just the fact that she's still alive and breathing, well, Aisu knows she should be counting her blessings.
She grabs the phone in the living room and dials for the ferryman on shore, telling him to be there at oh, around eight or nine and informs him that no, they were only going to need one boat this time, not four. Some accidents have happened and their numbers have lessened, I hope you understand - and her tone warns him not to ask any questions. That done, she heads downstairs and picks out a likely looking bottle with a long incomprehensible name in French and returns to the kitchen with it slung over her shoulder, only to find the room empty save for Case.
Aisu stops in her tracks, looking around warily - it looks like the instincts of a crisis don't fade away as fast as she'd thought. "Where are the other two?" she demands, trying to keep the edge out of her voice.
"I killed them," Case calls cheerfully over his shoulder, doing something at the stove that involves lots of pans and boiling and sizzling noises. "And then I kicked Tess out of here 'cause she kept trying to eat the stuff before it was done. Mind grabbing some candles and glasses and stuff and helping Jill?"
It takes a moment for all this to sink in - and some distant crashing noises from the dining room to filter through to the kitchen as proof - and then Aisu's shaking her head, deciding she's never going to get used to the casual way Case jokes about everything. Give her Jill's honest fright or Tess's honest anger any day instead. But then, she supposes that all four of them have something to offer.
After all, they did get through this, didn't they?
"One day that sense of humor is going to get you killed." Aisu snorts - but half-grins anyway - then grabs four champagne glasses and a few candlesticks from the far cabinet and heads past Case into the hall to the dining room. "Or get me killed."
"Hey!" Case breaks into a grin of his own. "I'm on your side, remember?"
---
The smell of blood around house Ciaculli is finally starting to fade.
CASE wouldn't know about it - it's been years since his nose worked at all - but it's been replaced by the smell of food, plates and plates and plates of it - and the sounds of screams and gunshots have been replaced by the clink of utensils against dishes, at least for the past hour or so. That is, for the past hour or so once he'd taken a bite out of everything first to prove it was safe. But anyway, now the four of them are lounging around the table with full, contented looks on their faces, just waiting for the tell-tale sound of the ferry boat arriving at the dock, when -
"Oh," Case says suddenly. "We forgot about the champagne."
"Oh yeah, I left it in the bucket over there," Aisu says, and then Case is going over, pulling the bottle out of the ice and popping the cork. He fills the four glasses then replaces the bottle to cool, taking two drinks in each hand and presents them to the table - Jill and Tess to his right, Aisu to his left.
"Don't we need something to toast to?" Jill asks.
"How about us?" Case asks, raising his glass.
"Sure, sounds good to me," Tess says. "To us!"
Case watches her clink her glass with the rest - she downs the cup and sits back down with a contented sigh - then has an hand on Aisu's arm, pulling the glass away from her mouth. And then he watches the realization dawn on their faces - sudden terror on Jill's, slow disbelief on Tess's, and questioning surprise on Aisu's - when the three of them notice that only the glasses that belong to Tess and Jill are empty.
Oh, he's been waiting for this moment. Ever since the second day.
"You didn't," Aisu starts, glancing over at him and then at Jill's suddenly pale face, then tosses her champagne glass aside, starting to laugh. "You did, you bastard. You spent an half an hour cooking in the kitchen and then you sedated them with the drinks?"
"Hey," Case says with a shrug, "I was hungry. And you wanted classy. You can't go wrong with champagne glasses."
"What -" Jill manages to squeak before her knees go numb and she sits down hard in her chair. Her eyes are starting to glaze over, trying to focus on Case and failing, and the drink slides from her hand, crashing to the floor.
He ignores her question - and the mumbled, blurred what-might-be-curses coming from Tess - turning to Aisu instead and continuing to chat cheerfully while the two across the table stare, unable to do much more. "So what now? They won't be going anywhere for a while, and we've got about fifteen minutes before the ferry gets here. We could blow the place if you like."
"Blow the place?" Aisu raises an eyebrow. "With what explosives?"
"Remember when Tess was threatening to explode the whole place with everyone in it?"
Aisu nods. "What about it?"
Case is starting to grin again.
"Did you know she brought enough bombs to actually do it?"
---
The smell of blood around house Ciaculli is finally starting to fade.
Though frankly, it doesn't make a difference from here, out at the dock. About all that you can tell is that there's a house at the top of the hill and that there are two people making their way down from there, grins on their faces and looking like it's the best damn day of their lives.
"Hey," ANG waves. "Just the both of you, then? And it's only been six days, too."
"Just the both of us," Case nods. "Lovely island, by the way."
"Glad you think so. I'm kind of proud of it, and the house too - though I hope you didn't spill anything on the carpet, those stains take forever to get out."
From where she's boarding the boat, Aisu glances at the other two. "I don't think you're going to have that problem this time," she says with a laugh.
"I'll hold you to that."
Gesturing to the boat, Ang gets on board. Case follows shortly, and then it's on with the engine and it's home, sweet home for the three of them. Aisu asks about events back on the mainland and is obliged with a tale of betrayal, people shooting each other in the back and general fun and games, nothing that wasn't really unexpected, nothing she's not experienced first hand before. She nods when expected, makes the right noises at appropriate moments and watches until they're far enough away from the island before giving a thumbs up to Case.
That is why, two minutes into their journey, the house explodes.
"...Won't have any problems getting the stains out of the carpet, is that so," Ang says.
Case grins. "Thought we'd give you a hand with that, you know. There's probably not much stain left. Or carpet, but you don't mind, do you?"
In the distance, the dust from what was once a nice, well sized house is clearing to reveal - well, not much at all, really.
"You could have asked first, really."
"Didn't want to trouble you with that, either," Case says, "but look on the bright side, you'll probably never have to worry about carpets or curtains again!"
"Got that right," Ang mutters.
The boat continues to speed off, further away from one island, now houseless and still recovering from the aftereffects of the blast. It'll be quite a while before anyone else will be camping overnight there, that's one thing you can say for sure.
Leaning back against the bow, Aisu finally relaxes, smiling contentedly.
"You know," she says, "I can't wait to go back already."
PLAYER LIST
TESS✟pyrat_xo
VAL✟thrives
MUGS✟ambienteye
CASE✟technophile
AISU✟madelineusher
MIRU✟databomb
TRICKS✟parametric
HANNAH✟ohhfantastic
KAT✟katsumeragi
LAVIE✟signatune
JILL✟gajillion
YUKEH✟yukitsu
PAO✟77ws
the FIFTH NIGHT & the SIXTH MORNING
YUKEH fell down the stairs in a cupboard.
TESS and JILL were blown to pieces when the house exploded.
TWO are alive, and the game is over.
ETC.
TRAITORS post is HERE
DEAD post is HERE
MY NOTES are HERE
ALL posts can be seen HERE
the TRAITORS were [CASE✟technophile] and [AiSU✟madelineusher]
the DOCTOR was [MIRU✟databomb]
the INSPECTOR was [ohhfantastic]
It's over, guys. I hope you all had as much fun as I did- I certainly enjoyed myself a lot. (: Thanks for making this a great game.
Edit: I forgot to add! First three parts of this were written by Case, as per his request.