The Birthday Massacre

  It was 6 o’clock on the 23^rd of May, the year was 1814. I was in my luxurious 5-story home preparing all of the last-minute details before Reta arrives to take me to go to a nominal dinner party, which my friend, Alice hosts every month on the full moon. The maids and I were busy getting ready. Tonight’s dinner party was an even more special occasion, for it was also my 21^st birthday. My dear beloved friend, Alice, goes all out and plans the most extravagant parties. She is the most excellent and successful party planner in town. Every event she arranges out dazzles the last. As it is my birthday, I can only expect the best! Especially, from Alice Maxwell.

  As the maid brought in my glorious emerald green dress with matching ribbons and lace, we could hear a carriage click-clacking its way up the driveway. As I looked out the window, I saw my friend, Retalia ‘Reta’ Sennedjem, stepping out of her white and gold trimmed carriage. She saw me and waved then yelled out for the world to hear:

“WHAT?”

“YES, IT IS BIG MAY!”

“NO, I’M NOT BEING LOUD.”

“OF COURSE I AM WHISPERING, MAY MCFLY, 21 YEAR OLD TODAY, 654 SAINT PAUL STREET.”

“WHAT?”

“DON’T BE SILLY DEARY OF COURSE I’M NOT EMBARRASSED. THE NEIGHBORS CAN’T HEAR ME WHISPERING ABOUT YOUR RASH FROM YOUR MYSTERY MAN LAST NIGHT!”

“WHAT’S THAT?”

 “FINE, I WON’T SPEAK OF IT AGAIN TONIGHT.” She paused

 “Unless Alice brings it up.”

 The look of sheer terror ran across my face. “Oh dear,” I began. “I hope she doesn’t bring it up.” Reta laughed as she opened the door and walked in.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY DUCKY!!”

She was met face to face with the butler. She grabs her glass of wine he offered to her and tossed him a box as she climbed the stairs.

“COME OUT, COME OUT, WHEREVER YOU ARE!!!”

“Why is she like this. I swear Alice dropped her on her head.” I said as I barricaded the door. “I’m not even dressed yet!”

I turned around to Reta sitting on the edge of my bed, legs crossed, handing the maid her empty cup and replacing it with a new cup in one hand, taking a few cookies in the other hand, and laying them in her lap.

“Happy Birthday sis! Are you ready to go?” She eats a cookie and puts the rest in her pocket for later. Before I could respond she had already shot up as if remembering something valuable.

“Speaking of birthdays.”

She stood and took off to get the package she had left by the front door.

“Happy birthday!”

She yelled as she pushed me into the closet. Stunned, I stood there in the dark staring at the package I was handed. I banging on the door and yelled.

“Reta let me out of here at once!”

Reta was sitting in front of my vanity and started fixing her strawberry blonde braids.

 “I do hope you like it.” She said ignoring my request. “If it’s not the right color or style, then Alice picked it out, not me.”

Rummaging through my drawers, she says politely, “You have so many nice things.” as she slipped a few lipstick and eyeshadow containers into her purse.

A few minutes later, I was sitting on the floor pouting in the dark, Reta left to flirt with the male servants. When she got back, she said, “May, what’s taking so long? You do know how to put on a dress don’t you?”

Angry, I stood up and yelled, “Of course I do! You locked me in here without a candle!” Reta was trying on my jewelry when she said, “Do I have to come in there and put it on you?” “No!” I shouted and opened the package to find a long rough feeling dress. I attempted to put on the dress and shouted. “Fine! There! I have it on now, let me out!”

Reta opened the door as I was banging on it again, causing me to trip and fall out. Reta helped me up and looked at me in the dress, then all of a sudden, she fell down laughing. I started taking off the dress right there. “I hate you.” I mumbled as I was ripping off ruffles.

 Reta still laughing said, “You have it on wrong, May!” She helped turn the dress around, I was pouting as she dragged me to the full-length mirror. “Isn’t it pretty on you?” She asked eagerly. I looked through the mirror at the blue dress I was in. It was truly beautiful with ruffles, ribbons and lace. “It is beautiful.” I said, apologetically.

I looked at the clock, 7:15. “Reta, we’re late!” We ran down the stairs as the butler helped us into our coats. We had just shut the door when there was a loud crash. I opened the front door to find a broken window pane and the butler gawking at the wall in front of us.

He was pale and frozen with fear. I looked at the wall to find a bullet through one of my portraits.

 “Somebody is trying to kill me!” I said stepping back. Reta grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.

“Get a hold of yourself! No one is trying to kill you. It was probably an accident.”

She looked out the broken window and said, “See. No one there.” As she looks back at all the scared people she said, “They won’t get you if we leave.” I agreed then ordered the servants to take care of the butler and to be on guard for anything else. We got into her carriage and as we left the driveway, I looked back at my fading house up on the hill, wondering if it would be the last time I got to see it.

 We were halfway to Alice’s house when Reta looked at me and started laughing.

“Oh my gosh your hair is a mess.”

 She pulled me to her side and braided my hair into a bun. As she curled some loose strands the carriage stopped.

 “Oww” I screamed as she burned my ear with the curler.

“Reta you idiot!”

She grabbed my arm and started to dragged me out of the carriage.

“Forget that, we’re here!” she said excitedly. The coachman opened the door and we attempted to step down gracefully, which was hard with her pulling me.

As the heavy mahogany doors opened, Alice had met to greet us inside with her butler, who was waiting with 5 beautiful cups of tea.

“Good evening ladies.” He said in a courteous and professional matter.

“Good evening.” We said in unison. 

Alice hugged us. She was in a red dress with ribbons and her red curly hair. We accepted our drinks and she led us into her study, books surrounded the walls and there were a bunch of non-matching tables and chairs. It looked more like a library than a study. We sat, drank tea, and talked as we waited for the other guests to arrive.

“Oh, May! I told Reta that dress would suit you. Now look at you! So stunning and charming.” Alice said delightfully, then turned to Reta,

“You didn’t tell her about the S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E now did you?” She asked in a whisper, her eyes in an evil glare.

Reta stepped back acting dramatically brave.

 “Me?”

Break a promise?”

“I have never!” She said with a laugh, then sat down to finish her tea.

 Alice sat next to me, as we talked, I noticed she kept staring off behind me. I kept turning around to find nothing. After the fifth or sixth time, I shouted.

“Enough! What do you keep looking at?”

Apologetically, she pointed at my burn and said, “What the bloody hell did you do to your ear?”

Staring at Reta, I simply said. “The usual.”

She sighed and slouched into her chair. “Of course.”

 She then stood up and walked across the room to ring one of her service bells.

“Well, this won’t do at all. We got have you looking your best on your birthday, after all.”

Moments later, one of the maids had come into the room, Alice gave the orders to fetch a towel filled with ice and to bring it to her room. I was being dragged by Alice, as Reta danced up and down the stairs, laughing and singing. She even managed to slide down the rail once or twice.

As we were heading towards Alice’s bedroom, she paused to look at me, and in her most serious tone she asked, “Did I tell you ‘Happy birthday’ yet?”

 I couldn’t help but laugh. Once I could stop laughing and breath, I said, “I don’t think so.”

She opened the door and said “Happy birthday!” in the most cheerful way she could possibly manage. We walked into the room and left Reta sliding up and down the stairs. I sat in a chair while Alice went to get her medical bag. The maid came in with the ice filled towel and handed it to me. Alice tossed a container of green paste at me to put on my burn before running out to scold Reta after we had heard a crash from her knocking over an antique grandfather clock. I put the paste on my ear and we walked downstairs just as the butler had opened the door for the other guests.

“Welcome to my home!” Alice shouted from the railing and ran down to greet Elaine and Katherine. It is now 8 o’clock, after taking time to catch up and chat with everyone, we had all sat down at the dinner table, everyone watched and listened as I gave my birthday speech. It was going well, everyone was laughing, eating and chatting then all of a sudden, the lights went out. Everyone screamed and the servants scattered to light candles. When the candles were lit, we could see the tablecloth was dripping in a red liquid.

“Did someone spill their wine?” Reta asked.

 Everyone was shaking from the sudden storm. We could hear the rain beating down on the roof. As the table was being cleared, one of the maids screamed.

 “She’s dead!”

We all looked at where the maid was pointing to find one of the guests was lying with a knife sticking out of her back.

 “Elaine!” Katherine yelled; everyone froze in fear. The only sound coming from the rain. Alice stood in her chair.

 “Nobody panic! One of the servants had left to call for help.”

She leaves to retrieve her medical bag from earlier. I looked around Elaine for a sign or clue of the murderer, in her hand was a bloodstained note. The note was smudged and hard to read, it looked like some of the words were washed away from the blood. Struggling to read the note I could make out the words:

“Midnight. One every hour.” I looked up puzzled, “one every hour? What is that supposed to mean?” I wondered.

The clock chimed; it was now 9 o’clock. I looked around for anything strange or out of order. There was a scream from the room Alice was in. The rest of us ran towards the scream. On the way, I saw a black figure down the hall. I chased the mysterious figure into the west end, leading me towards a hallway full of rooms. I started opening the doors one-by-one, getting lost in the process.

“Why did we decide on matching mansions,” I asked myself.

When I made it back to the room Alice and the others were already gone. The butler was dead, lying on the floor with a knife sticking out of his back. I thought of the note and looked around.

 “I think the murderer did it.” I said to myself, “but who could it be?”

I walked myself into the parlor where I was reunited with Katherine, Reta, and Alice. They all ran up to hug me.

“Where did you go? I thought you were dead!” Alice cried.

 I looked up at the rest of the group, frightened. Holding the note in my hand I said, “I think, the culprit, he’s going to kill each of us at every hour unless we stop him!”

Reta looked at the clock and shouted, “That’s fifteen minutes away! What are we going to do? What are we going to do? I don’t want to die! Mr. Murderer if you are out there taking these two instead!”

As she pushed me and Katherine towards the door, I grabbed her wrist and threw her into the wall.

“Calm down! We can’t put any attention on ourselves!”

 I scolded Reta for a few minutes. Afterwards, I turned around to find that Katherine had disappeared.

“Shit!” I said under my breath, I grabbed Reta and Alice by the arm and ran out of the room. “We have to find Katherine before the killer does!”

Reta pulled away, “Maybe we should split up.” She said as she opened a door.

 “Are you crazy? We can’t split up! Two people are already dead! He can’t get us if we stay together!” We froze as the clock struck 10.

 “Alright” I nodded. “We have to find Katherine before the killer does.” And with that we split up.

I ran down the halls calling Katherine’s name. Alice checked the downstairs while Reta looked above. We looked all around the house when I passed a closet door that had a pool of blood flooding out from under the door. I didn’t have time to call out for Reta. I opened the door to find Katherine, the same type of knife as the others was sticking out of her chest. I screamed and ran. looking for the others, I called out their names. I looked in every room. When I found her, she was hanging from the ceiling. The clock chimes, it is now 11:00. “I’m next.” I said, terrified.

I fell to my knees as a knife flew from behind me and broke the rope Reta was hanging from. Alice ran in with the rest of the guests. They were still covered in blood. Katherine still had the knife remaining in her chest. Alice checked Reta’s pulse then kicked her across the room.

 “YOU IDIOT!” She shouted, “That wasn’t part of the plan! What are you trying to do? Scare us to death?”

I sat there in disbelief, watching as my friends, I previously, had seen dead, standing in front of me, perfectly fine. Elaine and Katherine helped me to my feet and led me to a chair. Alice glanced at me and said, “Oh my god she’s so pale! Reta, you went too far this time!!”

Reta apologized to me and ran out of the room, Alice chasing after her taking off her shoe to throw at her. Trying to understand what had just happened I yelled out

“What the hell just happened here!?”

 Elaine and Katherine looked at each other, then looked at me and started explaining.

“It was a prank.” Elaine began.

“Reta went too far though and ruined it.” Katherine continued.

 I stared at them trying to pay attention, Alice and Reta occasionally ran past the door screaming.

 “Wait. Let me get this straight.” I began.

 Reta let out a blood curdling screamed, a few moments later, Alice was dragging her back to the room by the ear.

“Apologize for ruining the party!” Alice scowled as she pointed at me.

 “I’m sorry for ruining the party.” Reta looked down at the floor, rubbing her ear with one hand and taking a cookie out of her pocket from earlier. She sat on the sofa across from me and pouted like a child in timeout.

“Let me get this straight.” I repeated.

“All of this was a prank?”

 They all nodded, there was an awkward silence then Alice explained.

“All it was supposed to be was a little murder mystery game. Reta was supposed to tell you if you didn’t figure it out in the end.”

Reta stood up and exclaimed, “I wanted to be a part of the victims!”

 Everyone glared at her and she sat back down.

 “Anyways…” Alice continued. “Happy birthday!”

They all hugged me, I was stunned and speechless.

Realization sets in.

 “Wait a minute… What about the butler? Was he part of the prank too?”

 Everyone looked at Alice. She looked down quite embarrassed and spoke.

 “No, that was an accident. I was helping him when the clock chimed so I got him to go along with it.”

Just then the butler came in with a dessert cart.

 “Happy Birthday May. I deeply apologize for the scare.” He said as he opened the lid to show a beautiful birthday cake. He handed each of us a slice of cake and before we knew it the clock struck twelve.

“Midnight.” I said cautiously, looking at my birthday cake. There was a long silence, everyone questioned if the cake was safe after the stunt Reta pulled. As we ate. I looked up and with a bit of anger.

 “If this was a prank then which one of you shot my window and frightened my servants?”

 Everyone looked at each other confused.

“What are you talking about May? You know none of us owns a gun.”