Happy Birthday WDC

Happy Birthday WDC

September the first, twenty eighteen

An extremely loud explosion got their attention. The sparks shooting up from a rotating stage in the center of a very large clearing surrounded by a forest also made them turn toward that explosion. Most of them were mingling with each other in small groups of three to five individuals. Some came out of one of the small buildings that stood on the edge of that clearing. All of them headed for the stage.

MysteryWoman2018 came out of the smoke that the sparks caused. The stage continued to rotate as MysteryWoman2018 tapped the mini-microphone on her collar. “Happy Birthday WDC. Welcome everyone to this week-long celebration of our eighteenth anniversary of WDC.” MysteryWoman2018 said after everyone calmed down.

“I’m so glad to see so many of you accepted my invitation to my celebration party.” MysteryWoman2018 stopped the rotation. She smiled as she started looking around at her fellow WDCers.

They weren’t in rows, but the way they stood together it looked like they were sort of in rows. MysteryWoman2018 started looking at the first row of WDCers and continued to the last one. The last row is right in front of those small buildings. I’m very happy that all of you are here. MysteryWoman2018 thought as she looked at the ghosts there.

MysteryWoman2018 counted those ghosts. She thought, Oh No. There are only seventeen of you. I was afraid of that. That means one of us is going to die within the next few days.


September the second, twenty eighteen

After talking with her fellow WDCers the rest of the day, MysteryWoman201 retired to one of those small buildings. She tried to get some sleep, but she ended up just tossing and turning most of the night. MysteryWoman2018 got up today feeling very tired. That didn’t stop her from continuing to get to know her fellow WDCers, though.

Leaving her building MysteryWoman2018 went to the building three building down and knocked on the door. A ghost stuck only his head through that door. “What do you want?”

“I want to talk to you, ghosts. May I come in?”

MysteryWoman2019 walked into that building after the door opened for her. She nodded at each one of the sixteen other ghosts there. WritingDude walked right through her to join the others. “Is that supposed to scare me?” MysteryWoman2018 asked.

“What do you want to talk to us about?” WritingDude asked.

“There are several reasons why. I’ll get to that later. Right now, I want to hear how you all died.”

MysteryWoman2018 walked up to WritingDude. “I will start with you. After all, you are the first one who died.”

“What do you want to know? If it’s who killed me, I don’t know. None of us know that.”

“That I have already figured out on my own. That’s why I want to know how you died. It will help me figure out who here at this anniversary party killed all of you.


September the third, twenty eighteen

A ghost stuck her head out that door after another knock on it. KelliGrace started screaming. She turned and started running toward her fellow WDCers who had started reacting to those screams. “A ghost. I just saw a ghost.”

KelliGrace started looking around as the other WDCers began surrounding her. She stopped when she saw MissGreenley. “I thought it was your sleeping quarters.”

From the reactions, no one believed her. Just then another explosion from the stage caused everyone to look in that direction. MysteryWoman2018 already stood in front of them by the time they turned toward the stage. “KelliGrace is telling you the truth.”

“At least she is about the ghosts. I invited them to our anniversary party too, and I’m so glad that all seventeen of them came to it.”

“I’m not sure how far this goes up the chain of command here on WDC, but they have been keeping a secret from the rest of us for the past eighteen years. That big secret is that every year during the first week of September one of us died very mysteriously.

Chaos erupted from everyone. “Calm down everyone. I will answer all of your questions.”

After everyone eventually settled down MysteryWoman2018 continued, “One reason I invited you here is that of our eighteenth anniversary, but it’s not the only one. I also invited you here because one of you is a serial killer.”


September the fourth, twenty eighteen

“Why are you the only one besides the killer who knows there is a secret going on with WDC?” WritingProfessional asked. “Maybe it’s because you are the killer.”

“I’m not the killer,” said MysteryWoman2018. “I am the one who is going to figure out who the real killer is.”

MysteryWoman2018 looked around at her fellow WDCers in that building. “I’ve only known about the killing for the last couple of years. I only got involved in it when MyWritingBuddy became the latest victim. If you don’t believe me, you can ask him.”

The other ghosts there all looked at MyWritingBuddy. “Is that true?” WritingDude asked. “Do you know this woman?”

“I do,” answered MyWritingBuddy. “We have known each other for almost thirty years. In fact, she introduced me to WDC six years ago. We still are friends even though I have been dead for the last four years.”

“When he got killed that’s when I learned about the secret,” said MysteryWoman2018. “Of course, I didn’t know about the rest of you at that time. After I started looking into why he died is when I learned the secret.”

MysteryWoman2018 sighed. “It has taken me this long to save up enough money for me to do this. This is the year I’m going to find out who killed all of you and why.”


September the fifth, twenty eighteen

“This is the day that one of us is going to die. All the other deaths have happened on the fifth of September,” said MysteryWoman2018 as she looked out at her fellow WDCers standing in front of her on the stage.

“That is why I have gathered all you together today,” said MysteryWoman2018. “It will make it harder for the killer to kill one of us”

Verbal chaos started up again. Only that time it was all directed at Mysterywoman2018. They all had loud questions, but MissGreenly spoke loudest. “Why do you think one of us is going to be killed?”

“Yeah, right. It could be anyone in WDC,” said The Mystic Warrior. “If there even is a dead. What makes you so sure it’s going to happen here on this Island.”

“It’s true it could happen anywhere,” said MysteryWoman2018. “I think it will happen here. There are only a few WDCers from the first year who could have done them all, and most of them are right here.”

Just then someone screamed in the crowd. Everyone began looking around them. MysteryWoman2018 included. In fact, it is MystryWoman2018 that saw something first. She shouted, “I see legs.”

MysteryWoman2018 pointed at those legs as the others around him parted so all could see him. “That’s WritingManiac. How did the killer kill him with all of us here?”


September the six, twenty eighteen

“It’s been almost twenty-four since WritingManiac has died,” said MysteryWoman2018 as she walked among her fellow WDCers. “We still don’t know how the killer did it.”

“I have talked to each one of you, and none of you can tell me how WritingManiac got killed without anyone seeing it.” MysteryWoman2018 stopped walking and stood in front of MrCopper. “You were the closest to him when he died.”

MysteryWoman2018 continued a few seconds later. “What did you see?”

“Like I have already told you several times, I saw nothing. One second he was listening to you like the rest of us and the next second he was screaming.”

“Then I died,” said WritingManiac. Everyone looked in the direction of WritingManiac’s voice and saw him standing in front of the other ghosts in front of their small building.

WritingManiac stepped forward. Except for MysteryWoman2018, everyone took a step back as the other ghosts walked up to stand behind WritingManiac. “You said you have asked all of us how I died and who killed me, but that isn’t true. I haven’t been asked about it yet.”

MysteryWoman2018 looked shocked as she walked right up to WritingManiac and the other ghosts. “Do you know who killed you?”

“No, I don’t know that.” WritingManiac looked at the other ghosts before he answered MysteryWoman2018. “I do know how I died, though.”

“How did you die?” MysteryWoman2018 asked.

WritingManiac smiled. “I died the same way the others died. It was a time-released poison.”

September the seventh, twenty eighteen

MysteryWoman2018 walked among the ghosts there. Every ghost watched her wherever she went. “I know who killed almost all of you.”

The ghosts all started asking the same question but in different ways. MyWritingBuddy was the only one who didn’t. “If you know who killed us, why have you come to us instead of the police?”

“Because I’m not going to tell the law who the serial killer is,” answered MysteryWoman2018. “WDC wants to keep it a big secret. So, they aren’t going to admit to who the killer is. It not only hurts them and future membership they don’t want the world to know it. Especially since this killing spree is over with.”

MysteryWoman2018 turned to face WritingManiac. “You lied to the alive WDCers about all of you dying the same way. Almost all of you were killed like that, but one wasn’t.”

Turning toward WritingDude MysteryWoman2018 pointed at him. “Why have you been killing your fellow WDCers?”

WritingDude didn’t say anything for several minutes. He just looked at the other seventeen shocked ghosts. Finally, he did speak, “That first-year StoryMaster and StoryMistress had their first contest going on. I’m not sure if all the other WDCers knew about it or not, but they were going to give a cash reward for the best Writer of the Year.”

“I should have won that money, but I didn’t.” WritingDude continued. “That’s when I killed myself. I wanted them to be blamed for it, but they covered it up.”

“When the second year came up, and nothing happened to them, I decided to frame them again. Only I wanted it to be a mysterious death so that the law would get involved. That didn’t work either.”

WritingDude sighed. “I got mad. That’s when I started on my killing spree.”

“I’m kind of glad that you figured out it was me,” continued WritingDude. “It means the killing spree is finally over.”

MysteryWoman2018 looked at MyWritingBuddy. “I Just wish I could have done it sooner. As for the law, it doesn’t do any good in turning you into them. After all, you can’t be executed twice since you are already dead.”

Word Count = 1,772