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 Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 9:51 pm
October 19, 6:49 p.m.
Mrs. Darlene Drake walked briskly about her large manor to ensure that all was in order. Servers with large platters were strategically stationed in the grand foyer with its two sweeping staircases and the enormous ballroom, where the night's events would take place. For as long as she could remember, Darlene had hosted the Annual Drake Ball, sending invitations to all the influential and wealthy families in the area. She surveyed her immaculate ballroom once more before heading to the foyer to greet the guests that were beginning to arrive in their finery.
9:42 p.m.
The ball was progressing smoothly with many elegant people dancing and hobnobbing. The orchestra began to play a smooth waltz and the ballroom filled with couples turning and making their way around the floor in careful steps.
Suddenly, an earsplitting scream came from the garden. Mrs. Drake ran to the open french doors where a couple was staring at the rose bushes with horror.
"What on earth is wrong?" Mrs. Drake asked, alarmed. The woman was sobbing too hard to answer, so the man with her turned to Darlene with an ashen face.
"A body . . . In the roses," he stammered. Darlene and the guests crowded around the door collectively gasped. In the roses was the body of a server sprawled on his back. Mrs. Drake's horrified guests made for the door in droves, all trying to get back to their safety of their homes. The front gates that surrounded the manor, however, were locked and blocked in by a number of cars and carriages. The walls that were originally built for safety now held them all prisoner, locked in with whoever had killed that server and left his body for the finding. The only way to survive was to find out who committed the crime.
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[This is going to be kind of like clue, so feel free to join in at any time. A murderer will be randomly selected and notified, but no one else will know, so it's also a bit like the game mafia.]
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:13 am
Tanya Allers was among the many people who saw the body. She was horrified at the bloody sight, and her hands instinctively moved to cover her mouth. She gasped audibly, but didn't cry. She stepped back to make way for the people heading towards the doors. She sat down on a couch lifting her long, elegant gown slightly so that no one would trip on or step on it.
Tanya was only 18 and this was the first ever Ball she attended. She was scared. She couldn't deny that, but she was also taught to be brave. So she sat stiffly on the couch, staring at nothing in particular as people cried and tried to get out.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:03 am
Emerson Chandler, a suave 21-year-old, sat next to Tanya. He had a reputation for being a ladies man, one that proceeded him at most balls. But this murder had shaken him up just as much as anyone.
"It's shocking, that body. You look pale," he said, "Are you alright?"
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:32 pm
Scarlett Tarleton made her way smoothly across the ballroom in her sumptuous gown to see what the commotion was. There was a dead body, but she was more concerned with the blocked gates. Someone had obviously set this up, and she'd be damned if she wouldn't get the whole story.
Scarlett was 20 and belonged to a family who was quite put out by her brains and her desire to be a writer instead of share in their frivolity. If anyone could find out who had locked them all in with a murderer, it was Scarlett
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:27 pm
Emerson's face broke into a lascivious grin as Scarlett breezed past. Scarlett was one of his past conquests and they had on-again off-again flings.
"Scarlett, don't you have time to stop and say hello to an old friend?" he called.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:44 pm
Scarlett stopped. She turned around and was met with the sight of Emerson Chandler, a devilishly handsome man who happened to be nothing but trouble. It was hard not to wrinkle her nose in distaste. Her history with Emerson was bad enough, but for him to call to her like that in the middle of a social setting? Completely inappropriate.
"Then I bid you a good evening, Mr. Chandler, though it's hardly the right time to be exchanging pleasantries. I'll leave you and your lady friend here to talk, shall I?," Scarlett said airily, "And I'll thank you not to address me so familiarly in public," she added in rather a vicious undertone. Then she proceeded to see what all the commotion at the doors was. Scarlett was intrigued by mysteries, and a prime case was sitting there for the solving.
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Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:51 pm
Emerson raised an eyebrow. Scarlett could be distant, but he liked having to work for a woman's attention for once. Perhaps he shouldn't have been so informal as to use her first name in public. He knew she was raised by those rule-abiding but otherwise brainless parents of hers. He figured he could rectify it next time.
He turned back to the girl on the couch.
"I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Emerson Chandler, how do you do?" he said, hoping she would talk some. She seemed rather stunned and he didn't want to leave her alone.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:00 am
Standing amongst other within the crowd a man found himself not bothered by this sudden death. It was rather poetic in his opinion, someone dying in the mist of such a lovely flower. If we could only be so lucky as to die in the arms of a meaning as strong as this one. He raised an eyebrow at the situation not to much paying attention to those around him much less care if anyone else was around. "Perhaps a rose promotes more then simply love, but a love of death." He said somewhat to himself. He snapped the stem of a rose in a nearby rose garden only to bring the rose over to the body. He tossed the rose on top of the body leisurely. "May your soul walk the path of elegance to be set free from a life of pain to an afterlife of eternal happiness." He spoke out loud
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 2:41 am
Tanya looked up, realizing a good-looking man standing next to her. "I'm sorry. Were you talking to me?" she asked. She thought he was very handsome, but was the kind of man who was nothing but trouble. But, she wasn't the type of person to judge before knowing. Her parents weren't very strict about men courting her, as long as the man's family was wealthy and had a good reputation.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:00 am
[Ooh Grim, you're intriguing.]
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:06 am
Emerson smirked slightly. He could tell this girl was a few years younger than he was, but he found it interesting that she wasn't screaming and running for the doors like everyone else.
"Certainly I was, Miss," Emerson said. "Emerson Chandler," he introduced himself again as she hadn't heard him the first time.
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Posted: Wed Jul 15, 2009 1:59 pm
(I try =P)
The man tilted his fedora lower down to cover his eyes a bit more. He fixed his trenchcoat that flowed to the floor barely laying above the ground. He slowly turned around making his way back into the crowd keeping his face tilted down to keep the rim on his fedora covering a slight portion of his face. He bumped into a man talking to some girl. "Excuse me." He said slightly and softly not changing his pace. He shifted his head slightly to look at the man quickly, coinsidentally the angle he tilted his head a shadow from the light shaded his face more. He continued through the crowd until he exited the surrounding crowd.
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Posted: Thu Jul 16, 2009 12:32 am
"I'm Tanya Allers," Tanya replied in the sweetest voice she could manage. She didn't know what else to do at the moment, so she decide to have a little fun. She crossed her legs, one leg over the other, and lifted her skirt a tad bit higher in an attempt to be flirtatious. "It's certainly baffling, isn't it, What happened to that poor man?" Tanya leaned back on the couch, but stuck her chest out, trying to be as natural as possible.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:44 am
Lacey Drakes, daughter of Darlene Drakes, was 23 years of age. She was in her room when the murder occurred. Every single year her mother held this ball. Every single year her mother forced her to put on a beautiful ballgown and curl her long blond hair. Every single year she thought she looked ugly despite her mother's cooing, "You look so gorgeous tonight" or "Every year you blossom becoming more beautiful". In the recent years she refused to go downstairs to the grand ballroom.
Since she was a child her mother told her stories about how she would meet her true love at the ball. When she was around 13, she met her first boyfriend at the ball. He broke up with her after a week because she didn't "put out". The following years she met guy after guy at the ball. All after her for money, sex, and bragging rights. When she was 18, she thought she finally met her true love. He raped her on the night of the ball when she was 20. Every since she thought of herself as the ugliest thing on the planet.
She now refused ever going downstairs until tonight. She was reading when suddenly a scream came from downstairs. This was usually normal for the balls, someone would get incredibly drunk and scream. After this scream there was much commotion. Lacey decided to go downstairs after 15 minutes.
Without hesitating to put her shoes on, she ran out of her room and down the grand ballroom stairs. There were police scattered in the ballroom and police tape blocking off the french doors. She ran over to the french doors looked outside she saw the bloodied man in the rose bush. She took a couple of tentative steps backwards and screamed.
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Posted: Sat Jul 18, 2009 11:30 pm
As Scarlett was leaving, a mysterious man in a fedora caught her attention. He moved like a shadow, making his way through the crowds effortlessly. Despite her determination to figure out what was going on, she felt her focus shifting. She wanted to figure out who this man was and why she didn't recognize him.
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