Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle and then a 3rd, all through to a 29th. Now cycle 30!
if you have things you would like to see get written, pleeease drop by the suggestion box. The link is further down!
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"THEY KEEP KILLING BRITTANY"
Brittany
Companion to all the Murder Mystery Games
(A/N: So the title for this story was not only what led me to continue
doing the MMDs after the first one,it also inspired the whole 'tv episode
titles as ficlet titles' cycle. This is taken from the title of possibly
my favorite episode of the series Torchwood, 'They Keep Killing Suzie'.
I held it off, both to get enough MMDs done that the title would matter,
but also so that it would be close enough to the premiere of the new series
of Torchwood.. and now it's just a couple weeks away, depending on where
you live, so... here we are!)
It was starting to make her paranoid. Not all the time, but every so often she would start to look at the facts and wonder… She had been part of Kurt’s murder mystery dinner ‘company’ since the very beginning. She had been in every last one of them, and in all of those, without fail, she was either dead to begin with, or she would die early or later in the game… Not once had she made it through one of those nights without being thrown into a second character because her first one had died. The one exception of course was the time when she’d been cast as Marie Noble, but even then she was a ghost… She hadn’t performed her death, but it had already occurred.
Was there something about her that screamed ‘kill me’? Or did they all just have this secret death wish for her, and short of doing anything for real, this was their only option? This couldn’t be it, right? Right? Sure, she could be difficult to handle sometimes; she knew that. But it wouldn’t mean her friends would turn on her, would it?
On their last game together, the first one where all twelve of them from New Directions were involved, going into it that night she’d known a death was most likely in her cards. She could see the signs of it, right there in the information that was given to her beforehand. She’d gone into things, trying not to let it derail her, but as they’d taken a break, as things were ramping up, she knew now almost without a doubt that it was about to happen again… and she didn’t want it to.
But then Santana came to her, the way she would. She came, and she asked her what was wrong, so of course Brittany had told her. What she’d been told in return, apparently, was just what she needed to hear, to make her see this whole thing in a brand new way. Santana had planted the idea in her that being a victim of the dinners, over and over again, only made her extra special…
It was her revolution, and now it became her calling. If they were going to keep putting her into this position, then she would be the best dead girl they’d ever seen. And so began the death games.
She would sit in class sometimes and, rather than let herself drift away into that muddled world of confusion over whatever it was that the teachers were talking about, she would just… flinch… go limp. She would hold the position, seeming absolutely gone to the world, until a teacher or classmate would call her name, and she would spring back to life like nothing had happened. The best one had been when she’d actually had one of them convinced that she’d at least passed out… That worked, and so began the next phase.
She had already played a ghost once, with Marie Noble, but the thought had occurred to her that this might come up again… a ghost, or zombie, or some other dead and risen creature… maybe a vampire. So began her campaign of marching through the halls of McKinley trying to ghoul it up. This phase found its end when she managed to spook someone, of all people, the same teacher who’d fallen for her unconsciousness acts before.
She knew what she wanted the next thing to be, and for a while it only could take place in the dance studio, or gym, where they had mats… She needed to practice falling. Not just falling, she had to practice dropping, either because she’d been poisoned, or injured, anything that would result in her character’s unfortunate end. It wasn’t too hard, after a few shots, but then she did have mats. She needed to practice without mats, because there wouldn’t be mats in the dinners, would there? Unless the scene took place in a gymnasium for some reason… would it? Maybe? That didn’t matter, not now… She had to do some drops without the mats.
It could have seemed easy, since she was a dancer, but it wasn’t, especially after one drop which left her side sore for a few days. But she had to power through, yes. Odds were Kurt would have another game soon, and she had to be ready to die… With that motivation in mind, she had gotten better, until she could drop dramatically and without pain. That was all good and fine, and she was happy about it, but there was one more hurdle if she was going to consider this phase secured: she had to test it on people.
The corpse in training slinked down the halls of McKinley, innocent, leaving everyone unsuspecting until she could make her drop. She had gone for a simple ‘I’ve been poisoned and I’m losing air’ bit of a stagger that would land her somewhere by the trophy case. She started off with a pass of ‘I feel odd and I can’t breathe’ throat patting and grabbing, her feet starting to trip up as she went along. Then she stepped it up, going for ‘something is really wrong’ frantic eyes, panting, looking for air, almost tripping but catching herself. Out of the corner of her eyes she could see people stopping, looking at her… good, now she had an audience, time to drive it home. One cough, two coughs… Wait, where was the trophy case now? All this staggering, she wasn’t sure where she was anymore… Oh, there it was, time for the big finish… She grasped at empty air like it had a helping hand for her, took two more steps, then her body went rigid and she plummeted, laid out just under the trophy case. Head to the side, face partially covered by her hair, she held her pose, hearing the swarm of people around her… She’d done it, she’d really done it, she had them!
She’d done it… she’d really done it… in a whole other way. Eventually the nurse had been called, and the principal, and Schuester, and Coach Sylvester… Now she wondered if she’d taken it too far, if she’d get the club in trouble. What if they never let them use the school for their games anymore? It had been so good, the last time, especially for not having to carry Artie up and down the stairs to Kurt’s basement anymore… Okay, so she had to think… She wasn’t really dead, they’d be able to tell, right? She didn’t think she could hold her breath that long, and either way she didn’t want them to think she was dead, that’d be too sad… No, she had to just find a way to make it look like she’d felt faint but she was fine. This wasn’t figured out just yet though, and in this time ‘unconscious’ Brittany had been carried to the nurse’s office in the arms of her Glee Club director and deposited on a cot. She felt a finger pressed at her neck, her wrist, hand on her forehead… voices, lots of voices… Oh, what if the others heard about this and they thought… What if Santana heard?
Her eyes fluttered open, searched the room, carefully, like she didn’t know where she was… Thankfully, it soon became clear everyone was just relieved to see she looked fine. Schuester looked like he’d nearly had a heart attack… she’d have to find a way to apologize to him without telling him what had really happened. Coach Sylvester looked concerned, too, though she also looked like she was trying to keep it in. Principal Figgins looked like he’d just been prevented a lawsuit. And then the nurse, she had to guess, looked at her like she wasn’t fooled. But she didn’t breathe a word of it; she’d have to thank her, too.
As she regained the halls, Brittany could see a number of people staring back at her, probably because they’d seen her little show. She heard words left and right of what had gone on since her drop, most shocking being that the teacher she’d fooled twice already was now in Figgins’ office asking for time off on account of a nervous breakdown.
The club did hear about it, too, though since she was fine now, none of them looked nearly as worried as they might have if it had been earlier. But her training was done now; she was ready. And it was a good thing… because the envelopes would arrive in the morning.
THE END
* IN CONSTRUCTION! *
PREVIOUS DAYS
[Cycle 01] [Cycle 02] [Cycle 03] [Cycle 04] [Cycle 05] [Cycle 06] [Cycle 07] [Cycle 08] [Cycle 09] [Cycle 10] [Cycle 11] [Cycle 12] [Cycle 13] [Cycle 14] [Cycle 15] [Cycle 16] [Cycle 17] [Cycle 18] [Cycle 19] [Cycle 20][Cycle 21] [Cycle 22] [Cycle 23] [Cycle 24] [Cycle 25]
[Cycle 26] [Cycle 27] [Cycle 28] [Cycle 29]
[Cycle 30]
[610] [611] [612] [613] [614] [615] [616] Suggestion Drop Off Title: "They Keep Killing Brittany"
Pairing: None; Brittany
Rating: G
Summary: After a handful of Murder Mysteries, Brittany is starting to wonder if she'll ever make it out alive.
Spoilers: None