Welcome to Poseidon Resort - Part 5

“It was nothing, after all this is a resort.” Said Clemens “Although I kinda have a gift too. I managed to find enough inspiration to draw this.” He handed over a small framed picture.

It was an excellent depiction of Esmeralda and Hubert swimming in the oceans. It was only drawn in black lines but the drawings almost seemed to leap out of the page with their liveliness.

“You drew this?” Asked Hubert as he took the picture, “You have a real talent.”

“I used to do this kinda of thing for a living before coming here. I haven’t really had any motivation recently but seeing the two of you gave me enough interest to break out my drawing tools.”

“Thank you, we would love to stay longer but our ship will depart with or without us.”

There was waving of goodbye on both sides and then the doors to the lift shut and Hubert and Esmeralda were gone, lifted up out of the depths of the oceans and back to the light of day.

Clemens and Sarita stood there just outside the lift in silence for a moment.

Finally Clemens asked, “Do you mind if I continue to stay here? I’ve been trying to figure out what to do next and still haven’t come up with any answers. I would like to continue to remain here but this is your home and I don’t want disturb your life.”

Sarita turned her back to him and said, “I don’t really care either way. You are less annoying then most of the people who stay here so I suppose you can stay as long as you want.”

“Thank you very much.” Said Clemens with a short bow.

“Hmm, no real need to thank me. You just seem like an alright guy so there is no harm in letting you live here to.” She turned and began walking away then she stopped for a moment and looked back, “Oh and when Hubert’s book arrived make sure to find me. I want to read it too.”

“Sure” said Clemens to the retreating back to Sarita.

Once she was finally out of earshot he muttered to himself, “Well, at least that went well.”

Chapter Three - Mystery Abounds

It had been several months since Hubert and Esmeralda had left the Poseidon Resort. The long awaited book had arrived and Clemens was nestled in the library finishing it. He had become fascinated at the strange world in the story which was both similar and different from the one he dwelled in.

It was a world on the brink of ecological disaster where an ideological war was being fought over the future. Some of the concepts were very strange to him and the characters were compelling so he found himself engrossed in it.

When the book was finally done he placed it down on the table and thought about its contents for a while.

His thought process was disturbed by the sight of Sarita approaching. She was still outside the resort swimming toward the Deep Sea Diving entrance. From the viewing platform he could see her approach clearly.

He picked the book back up and approached the window. Once he got to the edge he pointed at the book trying to gesture through the window to Sarita. She seemed to noticed him and swim closer to the window.

She looked at what he was gesturing toward and seemed to nod before starting to swim down to the entrance.

While their encounters since Hubert and Esmeralda left weren’t the most friendly they had interacted far more than they had in the past. Even if it was a brief as greeting each other while they past each other in the hallways.

It took a few minutes for Sarita to join Clemens in the viewing platform. Her choice of clothing was still more swimsuit than actual clothing but Clemens had gotten used to her unusual choice of regular attire.

Clemens had gotten the book several days earlier but Sarita had been out on one of her extended trips and had only just gotten back from it.

“The book arrived I see.” Said Sarita.

He nodded and handed the book over to her, “You were on an extended trip and it arrived while you were gone. Because of that I have already had a chance to read it.”

Sarita looked at the front cover for a moment before nodding, “Thanks. I’ll make sure to return it to the library when I am done with it.” She was about to turn to leave but hesitated for a moment and asked, “Do you like it?”

Clemens nodded, “Yeah, although I feel a bit disconnected from it. Things have changed so much since that time that I’m not certain how to relate. But the look into the people of the past is fascinating.”

Sarita had flipped open the book and was looking at one of the earlier pages, “Dedicated to my daughter. Many thanks to the people I met along the journey to complete this book.”

“Yeah it looks like they are doing good.” He also handed over an envelope, “This also came with the book and it was addressed to you. I expect it is from Esmeralda.”

Sarita took that as well. “Thanks”

She was about to leave then when a synthetic voice came over the speakers, “Eight new guests are arriving at Poseidon Resort. Please remember to treat other guests kindly and continue to enjoy your stay with us.”

Sarita glanced up in surprise, “Eight?”

“Yeah, that is a lot of them. I wonder what reason they all have for coming here?” Said Clemens with a curious tone in his voice.’

“I don’t really care. I’ll probably be out of the resort for a while.”

“If that is what you want.” Said Clemens.

Sarita looked at the book and letter in her hands before saying, “Well, maybe. I’ve already been out for a while and wouldn’t want to risk the book to the waters. I’ll made a decision once I am done with it.”

—

Clemens had headed down to the main hall where the new guests would soon arrive. As one of the two current guests already here he wanted to give them a good first impression. Still eight guests was a lot of guests. There was enough rooms and space in the resort for many more than that but because it was normally so quiet it seemed like an abnormally large amount of people.

When the doors to the lift opened the small crowds of people poured out. They were a strange eclectic mish-mash of people Five men and three woman with a whole host of baggage. They were all adults but the range of ages was everywhere from the late teens to quite old.

Nothing immediate seemed to tie any of the people together. It was like they all decided seperately that is particular was the perfect one to visit an obscure resort in the middle of nowhere.

Clearly that wasn’t actually true as one of the middle aged men stepped forward leading the group. He was wearing some weird plaid hat that flopped in the front and the back. As he stepped forward he said, “Alright everybody. First think is first we all need to check into our assigned room. Once that is done we can all meet back up in this central area to freely enjoy ourselves before tomorrow.”

The seven other people began to pull their luggage out of the lift. Each of them had brought quite a lot of belongings like they are all expecting to stay here for an extended amount of time.

As the last of them was finally making their way out of the lift the leader of the group noticed Clemens approaching.

“Hello there.” Called Clemens as he got closer, “What brings such a large group out here of all places?”

“You must be one of the other guests.” Said the leader with the hat. “Wait, just stand there for a moment. Ah, yes, lets see.” He looked Clemens up and down before finally stopping and saying, “Ah ha, you must be from Devintar. Am I right?”

Clemens looked a bit taken by before finally saying, “Yes, well, basically. I was born there although I haven’t been back more around a decade.”

There was some clapping from some of the other people while the leader smugly tipped his hat, “Ah the place of your birth. One can never escape it completely. I had some suspicion from your accent but upon further examination of your choice of clothing and hair style I was able to pin it down definitively. Another brilliant deduction if I do say so myself.”

Clemens looked around at the other guests with a confused look on his face trying to figure out what just happened to him.

He was saved by an older woman wearing a provocative dress who stepped forward and said, “Don’t let Quincy bother you with his deductions. It is just one of his hobbies, one partially shared by all of us. You have already acted why we are here but I’m sure you find our odd mixture of people unusual yet?”

“Yes, that is true.” Said Clemens uncertain if he was just going to walk into the same thing that Quincy had done to him.

“Well, you see we are a murder mystery association. Once a year we get together for a big event and this year we have chosen the Poseidon Resort, renowned for its isolated location and few guests which is perfect for our little get together.”

“Yes, indeed!” Said Quincy who nodded along with the older woman, “We are hosting a murder mystery event starting tomorrow. You and the other guest are free to join us if you want. Maybe it will ignite your love for murder mysteries!”

Clemens was still a bit taken back by everything that was happening, “A murder mystery event? What sort of event is that?”

“Very simple.” Said Quincy, “One of us here is secretly the murderer who will have planned a devious murder that will kill one of our number. The rest of us must discover the identity of the killer before the event it over or we will have to suffer the most devious of penalty games.”

“I’m afraid I still don’t quite understand.”

“All in good time, all in good time. But first we must bring out bags to the rooms, come on everybody let use prepare for a good murdering time.”

With that the crowd of people began to head off toward the rooms leaving a fairly stupefied Clemens behind in the main hall trying to make sense of what he had been told.

——

Sarita had been listening in from around a corner. A murder mystery event was something that she was almost interested in. Esmeralda had recommended watching a movie about a detective and they had watched it together. It sounded vague interesting to her except for the whole deal with other people issue.

She held the book to her chest trying to draw encouragement from it and the letter from Esmerelda. Maybe she wouldn’t participate directly but she could at least hang around and listen to how everything played out. She thought she could probably accomplish at least that.

Still getting back to her room with the book while hidden would be a problem so she instead headed off to one of the side private study rooms. There were a handful of them around the resort and they were almost never used since there was almost never anybody else here.

——

The leader Quincy had arrived back in the main room before any of the others and had recruited Clemens to help him arrange a bunch of chairs in a circle. Ten chair have been placed in the circle, enough for all the members plus the two current guests of the resort.

They had then gone off to where catering could be requested to get some refreshments for the members since they would have to wait until after the meeting before going off to eat.