12:43 AM
It was unanimously decided that the group would go to sleep before searching through what they'd found. Lynn and Mari led everyone up to the second floor, pushing open the westward door to reveal what looked like a hotel hallway, each of twelve rooms bearing a number from one to fifteen (two, nine, and thirteen were missing) on a sliding wooden door.
"Huh. Never thought it could make any kind of door," Lynn commented, making a note of it as the others scrambled to their rooms.
The rooms were fairly nice on the inside, if a bit small. Each one had a bed, a bathroom, a table and chair, and a refrigerator. Lynn opened her fridge to see that it was filled with several of her favorite foods, but recalling Strix's warning about the food potentially being poisoned, decided to take her breakfast from the massive stockpile Nini and Abigail had mentioned.
This was good. While Lynn and several others hadn't brought back much, there were still quite a few clues gathered on the table in the dining hall. Mari had mentioned a note to "ask No. -1" about something, which Lynn thought was interesting. She'd been searching the second floor, hadn't she? How did Strix manage to send a message through the system of magical doors?
...Maybe Lynn should investigate. If nothing else, she'd get to take some more notes on the second floor. With the note Mari had found, and now this hotel hall, it was starting to seem like there were some aspects of the floor she hadn't even thought of.
But that was for another time. It was almost one in the morning now- Lynn wasn't going to do herself any good staying up much longer.
2:19 AM
"Oh, now you decide to show up."
"Shut up! I had business to attend to. We can't all just go gallivanting off replacing humans whenever we feel like it."
"Oh, make all the excuses you like. If you'd only been here a little earlier, we could have actually taken the brat instead of leaving it to wander as a spirit. The humans could find it! We'd be ruined!"
"Maybe I could have helped you steal the human if you'd actually given me any warning. I have a busy life! I do important things! You should try it some time!"
"I do important things too! I stole a human! And I could have stolen another one if you'd been there while it was still a mortal!"
"Then turn it back into a mortal, dummy. We've got more friends. One of them can replace it, we just need to get it lined up with everything next time."
"Hmmph. Yeah, I guess we can call him. Hey, speaking of which, how are you here now? I thought it closed at 12:01. That's why I let the humans wake up by then. Are you saying-"
"No, no. It's nothing like that. There's a one-minute window from here to there, that is true, but there's actually a twelve-hour window from there to here. You should know, you got out way before midnight."
"I thought the window was two hours! Stop lording your knowledge over me. You think you're so cool just because you work in-"
"Hush. It doesn't even matter, really. To replace a human, we'd need to do it during the one-minute window anyway. As soon as we get to the site at midnight, we do the swap. He comes here, and we send another human back. Then the two of you can live out your time, and we'll all come back heroes."
"You mean you'll come back a hero, and the rest of us will be shoved aside."
"Now, now. There's no sense in holding grudges. Just do what you do, changeling."
"Oh, I will. Want me to tell you what they find out tomorrow?"
"Please do. I'll be here waiting."
11:57 AM - Day 2
Eighty-four hours remain until Strix's deadline.
"We need to discuss... these." Mari gestured to the scattered objects on the table- a pair of identical notes written in Strix's messy cursive, a bag with EXORCISM-GRADE SALT proudly displayed on its side, and a list of book titles. "I understand that a few of you also have other information to give?"
"Wait, wait." Nini held out her hands. "We have a lead, right? We need to 'find No....' Would you pronounce that as 'Negative One' or 'Minus One?'"
Mari sighed. "I'm sure either is as good as the other. Just use whichever one makes more sense to you."
"Yeah, okay. My point is, we literally have a note giving us orders and we're just going to ignore it? I say we send out a search party right away to find them."
"We are going to find them," Mari countered. "We're just going to look through the information we have so that we can make an informed decision on what to do next. We don't even know who this 'Negative One' person is. Or even if they are a person, for that matter, and not some sort of object."
"A ghost, probably." All eyes turned to Lynn, who was fiddling with her pencil. "I mean, think about it. We've all got numbers based on what teacup we picked, right? Mine was number eight, and Holland's was number one. So if number positive one is a living person..."
"You think that number negative one is a dead person?" Kaiya asked, and Lynn nodded in confirmation. "But aren't there, like, hundreds of ghosts in here? How would you ever-"
"Not hundreds," Skit interrupted. "There are only ghosts in the hallway, dining room, kitchen, and the two towers. Not to mention that all the ghosts are bound to pieces of furniture, so you'd know exactly where to look. If we all split up and assigned each group to a different part of the house, everyone would have to ask like twenty or thirty ghosts tops. Sure, the northeast tower might be a bit of work, but it's not implausible to assume that we could find Negative One before the afternoon."
"Skit, it's the afternoon now," Mari corrected.
"Oh."
Lynn cleared her throat. "Guys. I appreciate your dedication, but you don't have to go through all that trouble. I don't even know if the ghosts in the main part of the house have numbers." She smiled. "But I do know about a few who do."
"The library ghosts," Nini guessed, nodding along.
"The library ghosts," Lynn confirmed. "Strix said Minus One, right? So there's only one ghost you need to look out for, and that's the leader of all the ghosts in this house."
"Then we just need to find that one ghost, right?" Abigail asked. "Sounds easy."
Lynn shook her head. "It's really not. Some of the ghosts, like four, two, and six, are helpful and easy to find. Others, like three and five, are more withdrawn. Then seven... Let's just not talk about Seven. But ghost number one? I've never even seen him, much less spoken to him. Everything I know is just passed down from one of the other ghosts. And you have to convince him to answer some questions for you? That's not gonna be easy."
"Right." Nini nodded. "You want to come with, Lynn? You've been visiting the library for even longer than I have. I could use the help."
"Sorry, but I've got other plans." Lynn tapped the note on which Strix's message was displayed. "I'm gonna go check the second floor, see if anything else shows up up there. I didn't even know Strix could send a message like that- I want to see if she's managed to get anything else through."
Nini nodded again. "Fair enough. Anyone else want to come? Abigail?"
"Sure, why not?" Abigail shrugged. "Might as well try to be of some help. Also, I'm kind of curious as to what this first ghost is like now."
"I'll join, too," Kaiya added. "It seems interesting. Plus it's our best lead at this point, so it would make sense to follow it."
Nini stood up. "All right. Anyone else?" The rest of the gathered guests remained silent. "Okay, that's okay. The three of us can go and report back to everyone once we've gotten our answers."
With that, the trio filed out of the dining hall, leaving the other nine to stare at the doors as they swung shut.
"Right. Now, back to business." Mari straightened the two notes from Strix. "We were going to discuss our findings-"
"Actually," Lynn interrupted, "I was going to go check out the second floor and see if there was anything else up there. Anyone want to come with me? There's something I wanna test."
"I'll go," Addie volunteered. "If Strix could leave one note like this, there might be others. Shouldn't we at least check before we assume we already have all the clues we need?"
Daniel nodded. "That makes sense. I'd like to know what everyone's found, but if nothing seems to be coming together I can join up with you guys later."
When no one else elected to join them, Lynn and Addie left the room, leaving the now noticeably diminished group of guests to sit in an awkward silence before Mari spoke again.
"If that's all, we can-" She cut off, though no one seemed to be interrupting her. "Huh. I suppose that's all the distractions we're getting-" She paused again. "No one? All right, let's discuss what information we have. Skit? I understand you and Kaiya found a couple interesting items in the northeast tower."
Skit nodded. "There was a telescope set up in there, pointed down at the rest of the manor. When I looked through it, I could see the entire inside of the manor, including-" she waved a hand indicating the dining hall- "a golden crack in the ground, right about here. The telescope was also surrounded by a salt line." She tapped the bag lying on the table. "It seems Strix didn't want any ghosts interfering with whatever she was doing. Odd since she normally trusts them."
"Skit, you were carrying two bags when you left the northeast tower, correct?" Mari asked. "What happened to the second?"
"The second was mine," Skit answered. No point in explaining any further. Not yet, at least.
Mari seemed to accept Skit's explanation without further question. "I've already mentioned the note Strix left, so... Marissa? Holland? Anything from the library aside from your list?"
Holland shook their head. "We only got the list of books from ghost number six. If Lynn and Marissa found anything, I wouldn't know."
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"We didn't find anything, either," Marissa added. "All we got was chased around by a flying monocle."
"Hmm. Lissa? Did you find anything while you were outside?"
"No, I..." Lissa hesitated. "I didn't find anything. Maybe there isn't anything important outside."
Mari leaned forward, thinking. "Perhaps. Or perhaps we just haven't found anything important yet. It was dark last night, and the mountainside is a lot of land to explore. It might warrant further investigation. Daniel? Abigail and Nini aren't here, but you were in the adjacent room. Was there anything important they haven't mentioned?"
"Not that I'm aware of," Daniel answered. "Just a massive food stockpile. Pretty weird, but it's not like it's that big of a lead."
"So we have a note from Strix, every book checked out in the past week, and more food than we would ever be able to eat in one night," Marissa summed up. "What now?"
12:02 PM, Second Floor
One.
Lynn shivered as she heard the quiet voice echo through the second floor the moment she and Addie entered the first room. That's... new.
Addie had evidently heard the voice too, as she shuddered and glanced at the ceiling. "This place doesn't... normally do that, does it?"
"First time I've heard it," Lynn answered. "Come on, let's test this out, okay?" She shut the door to the northeast stairs.
It was a simple test. Lynn wanted to know how the second floor would react when two people tried to walk through the same door at different times. Would they end up in the same room, or different ones?
Addie stepped through the door to their right. As she crossed the threshold, the voice from before whispered, Two. Addie glanced up again, but closed the door firmly behind her.
Lynn waited a moment, then pulled the door open, thinking Show me... a plate of Cheetos. The door opens onto an empty room, a plate of Cheetos sitting on a pedestal in the center and a glaring lack of Addie.
Three, the ceiling voice whispered again. Lynn shook it off, but couldn't help wondering why it was counting each time one of them entered a room. She crossed the room to the northern door again and pulled it open, this time focusing on Addie.
Four, the voice said, but this time Addie was in the middle of the gold-and-white-marble room, standing next to a table and holding a piece of paper.
"Anything good?" Lynn asked, strolling to the center of the room. It looked like a space one might live in, with a bed in one corner and cupboards against the walls. Everything was in some shade of gold, white, or light gray. "What did you ask it for?"
"I just asked it to show me where Strix was right now." Addie held the paper out to Lynn. "And as for the note... maybe you should see for yourself."
Lynn took the paper and gave it a once-over. It was... well, it was certainly on-brand for Strix. What it wasn't was helpful.
A series of loops adorned the top of the page, the pen's ink fading out in spots. Below the loops was written, This pen isn't very good :(. I only took it because it was the same color as the one I used to write my first note- do you know how hard it is to forge your own handwriting?- but for how fancy it looks, it writes like something you'd get for free as a promotional thing. You'd think they'd have better pens here. If you figure out how to send things instead of just receive them, maybe consider dropping off a nicer pen? -Strix
"'Consider dropping off a nicer pen?'" Lynn repeated. "That's what she chooses to focus on?"
Addie shrugged. "Maybe she just couldn't think of anything to say. Or maybe she's trying to leave some sort of coded message. Or there could be information hidden inside something seemingly meaningless." She looked thoughtful. "Maybe everything Strix has said to any of us was secret important information hidden inside something seemingly meaningless."
"Hmm." There's a thought. I suppose it wouldn't be a big surprise if she did that... I mean, she is pretty secretive, but it's not like she's ever hidden anything from me when I asked directly. Oh, except for those lights outside. She still won't talk about those. "Maybe. I'll ask the doors to give me the key to the code for this, just in case there is one."
"All right. Split up and regroup at the northeast stairs?" Lynn nodded, and Addie stepped through the northern door accompanied by a whisper of Five.
Lynn looked back at the note in her hand, then reached for the doorknob. The key to the code on this note. I want the key to the code on this note. She stepped through the door and shut it tightly behind her.
Six.
12:00 PM, Library
The library was just as Nini remembered, winding passages of bookshelves opening up at every angle and height as if she were standing in a literary kaleidoscope. Floating candles dotted the darkness above her like the stars in the night sky. Outside the library, the house was filled with party guests sifting through scraps of paper and mysterious food stockpiles. Inside, it was just Nini and the books. And the ghosts, which were even better than the books. And the other two following her, who also seemed to think that ghosts were even better than books.
"So, where do we start looking for this Negative One ghost?" Abigail asked, scanning the bookshelves. "Is there... I dunno, a ghost hang-out spot or something?"
Nini shook her head. "The ghosts just sort of wander around. If there's any particular spot they tend to hang out at, I'm not aware of it."
"So we should just wander? I guess if it's our best bet..." Kaiya shrugged. "Should we split up to cover more ground in that case?"
"Not after what happened to Lynn and Marissa last night." Nini's face was set in a grim expression. "We need to stick together. If that monocled ghost is still around-"
A slip of paper fluttered down from a walkway above the group, cutting Nini off. Abigail picked it up and read aloud, "Number Seven has been taken care of. He shouldn't be getting loose any time soon." She looked up. "It's signed with a pair of glasses."
"Some of them do that," Nini explained. "Mostly five and six, though I've seen a couple others..." She looked up. "Hey! Number five! Mind showing yourself?"
A pair of glinting round lenses floated down from the walkway. Another slip of paper presented itself. What brings you to the library so soon after yesterday?
"We got a clue from Strix. She said we need to find the first library ghost. Actually, what she said was 'ask number "negative one"' but we figured it was about him." Nini shrugged. "Any idea where we could find him?"
A silver pen and pad of paper appeared seemingly out of thin air. The ghost scribbled something down before turning the paper so the three humans could read it. He isn't going to just give you information freely, you know.
Nini nodded. "We know. But this is important. It might be the only way we can bring Strix back."
The glasses bobbed once as the ghost wrote another note. Follow me.
The human trio fell into line behind the ghost, following him through the mazelike passages of books. There didn't seem to be any pattern to the path they took, but Nini had a feeling Number Five knew what he was doing. This was going to be easy. They would find Negative One, ask him what the rest of the note meant, and be on their way before long. They would-
"Hey," Abigail whispered to Nini, interrupting her train of thought. "Can the ghosts talk? Because Five only wrote notes, so..."
"Most can't," Nini whispered back. "I think number seven can talk but doesn't. And Steve- that's the fourth ghost's name- said once that number one can talk, but doesn't interact with humans. All the others have to write notes."
Abigail nodded. "That explains why his handwriting is so scarily consistent. I bet anyone would end up like that if they could only communicate through writing notes."
"Actually, I think that's less a library ghost thing and more a Number Five thing. All the others have fairly average hand-" Nini was cut off by the subject of her conversation turning and firmly placing a note on her head. She pulled it off and read, "I can hear you. Kindly stop discussing my handwriting."
"Guess that's that." Abigail shrugged and grinned. The other two girls laughed, and Nini swore she could hear Number Five sighing.
The rest of the walk was silent and uneventful. The passages of books didn't seem any different from the rest of the library- Nini would have expected the corridors leading up to the head ghost's residence to seem different somehow, but they contained the same collection of unrelated books and the same floating candles as any other.
Their trek was stopped by another note from Number Five. This is as far as I can lead you. Whatever you find out... I hope it's what you need. The ghost knocked three times on an unremarkable stretch of bookshelves, and the shelves folded in on themselves to reveal a door, a golden number one taking up most of its surface.
The three girls stood in silence for a moment, none of them daring to open the door. The door, however, seemed to have other plans, as its knob turned by an unseen force and it swung open to reveal a large, round room, its edges shrouded in shadows and its floor bare save for a single table and chair in the center. The ghost was nowhere to be seen.
Kaiya was the first to cross the threshold, and the other two followed close behind, not wanting to be left alone on the other side. The moment Abigail finished passing through the doorway, it swung shut again, leaving them trapped in the dimly lit room.
"Well. It appears that despite orders to the contrary, our dear Minus Five has opted to lead you three directly to me." Nini couldn't tell where the voice was coming from. The ghost was in the room, right?
"You're not mad, are you?" Kaiya asked, her voice trembling. The ghost laughed at that.
"No, I'm not mad. Quite the opposite, actually. I was beginning to worry he'd never work up the nerve to do that. Poor guy tends to let the top three walk all over him." The glint of a pair of golden-framed glasses was now visible on the far side of the room, slowly making its way towards the three humans.
It was Abigail who spoke up next. "You're the Negative One Strix mentioned in her note, right? Do you know what happened to her?"
The ghost sighed. "For the last time, it's not Negative One, it's Minus One. And, yes, I do know what happened." There was a motion on the other end of the room, and Nini could barely make out the shape of a white book. "Unfortunately, I'm forbidden from sharing the house's records with any living person. All I can do is answer a few completely unrelated questions. I'm sure Strix has shared some ideas."
"She has," Nini confirmed as the ghost drew nearer. "So we can ask you about the note, right?" There was something off with this ghost. What was-
And then the ghost took a few more steps and everything snapped into focus. Not ten feet from the table stood a figure with pale skin and dark red hair pulled back into a short ponytail, a few strands loose to cover one eye. His eyes scanned the pages of the featureless white book he held in one hand, and Nini could make out the glint of a few golden earrings behind his hair. All in all, he was far more human-looking than the stories about him might suggest.
But... he was one of the library ghosts. He wasn't supposed to look like anything at all.
"Well," Minus One said, smiling, "what exactly were you planning on asking me?"
12:25 PM, Second Floor
Ten, Lynn could hear from the ceiling as Addie passed into another room. The voice hadn't stopped counting, but it hadn't done anything else, either. It was just... watching. Lynn still didn't know if she should be worried or relieved.
This wasn't how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to be searching for clues about where Strix might be. But instead Lynn was just... standing here. She hadn't gone into a single room after this one, choosing to simply reread the second note from Strix.
The code had been difficult to figure out, but once the first few pieces fell into place, everything afterwards was actually quite simple. It was still a bit frustrating that Strix couldn't leave her an actual hint as to what to do, but...
Twelve, the voice said, cutting off Lynn's train of thought. Again she wondered what it was counting for. And... had Addie really been doing all that work on her own, while Lynn stood in one spot and stared at a couple slips of paper?
Almost without thinking, she reached for the western doorknob and opened the door. She didn't know what to expect, what the second floor thought she needed, but it wasn't what she found.
There was a perfect replica of the northeast staircase in the room, save for the fact that the stairs came to an abrupt stop at the floor and ceiling. A figure with skin the color of paper and wavy green hair stood next to the stairs, their eyes closed. Probably a statue, Lynn guessed- the rooms couldn't make living things, after all.
Then the figure opened blank green eyes and smiled. "Unlucky number thirteen. Time's up."
12:58 PM, Dining Hall
The clues had fit together, for the most part, like puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, they were pieces for a puzzle whose box had been long missing. Strix had checked out the cookbooks to prepare all the food- but why did she need so much? She'd used the telescope to keep watch on the mysterious crack in the dining hall, which must have been involved with whatever she'd wanted to show her guests, but why was the rift there in the first place? And why on earth did she seem to suddenly distrust the ghosts?
The biggest breakthrough was when Holland, trying to rescue the bag of salt after accidentally knocking it off the table, discovered a crack in the floorboards beneath Strix's now-empty chair. Skit had confirmed that it lined up perfectly with the one she'd seen through the telescope. It didn't answer all their questions- they still had no idea why the crack was there, or what Strix had been planning to do with it- but it was a start. Little by little, they were piecing together the few clues they'd been given.
Until, that is, an out-of-breath Addie burst into the dining hall, two pieces of paper clutched in her hand.
"Lynn is... missing," she panted. "Only... found these." She spread the pages out on the dining table for the rest of the guests to see.
The notes were in Strix's handwriting. One detailed her frustrations about a pen, while the other...
You want what? There is no code in my other note, Lynn. Not in all my time on this world have I encoded a message into a note about poor writing utensils. That is far too serious a complaint to dilute with code and you know it. But you know what? I'm willing to make up a code for this note and my first one, since you asked so nicely. It's no trouble. Not like I'm in a hurry here or anything.
2.6.1; 2.2.5; 1.2.8; 2.2.7-2.3.8; 1.2.21; 2.3.1; 1.3.2; 2.6.1; 2.2.5; 2.7.3; 1.2.33; 1.3.1; 1.3.5; 2.8.6
Lissa looked up from the note. "That's it? There isn't a clue to what the numbers mean or anything?"
"I think they're meant to make some sort of message out of the two notes, but other than that..." Addie shook her head. "Nothing. And no matter how much I search, I can't find Lynn anywhere. When I ask the second floor to help me, it just gives me an empty room."
Mari nodded. "Then we'll help you figure it out. Is there anything else you noticed while on the second floor that might be of help?"
Addie hesitated, shooting a glance towards the ceiling before responding. "Well, there was one thing..."