23. Annoyingly Inconvenient

T urney eyed the fun carnival-type games they were passing. The bubble and duck theme of the hotel continued on into the adventure park, just as it had the water one.

The plushies and other prizes hanging up in the booths, however, were not only duck related, but a good number of them were specifically geared towards Mallard Mysteries. A show he was starting to seriously wish Octavius had never discovered…as good as it was… As he had enjoyed watching it… Just not enough to binge watch it, as unlike Octavius, he needed the thing called sleep.

He sighed. Well…at least they hadn’t been the ones kicked out of the panel this time. Turney eyed the practically bouncing, humming vampire walking in front of him, as the male looked around with bright, sparkling excitement. The smile on his face was definitely a bit smug—the brat.

Turney’s eyes were drawn to yet another game with an entire booth changed to fit Mallard Mysteries. “You know, I’m a bit surprised they changed so much to fit the current convention going on. So many changes would have cost a lot of money, wouldn’t it?” Turney asked.

“What have they actually changed?” Theo, who was walking to his right, asked.

The werewolf was being guided by Sprinkle on a leash, the kitten proudly walking ahead of him. They’d gathered around him and the cat, at Theo’s request…mostly as the park was busy as hell, with hordes of unpredictable children running around. While Theo wouldn’t likely have problems avoiding being run into, due to his hearing and werewolf reflexes, Sprinkle would. Turney had been informed that beyond the intelligence factor, faster healing, and the living forever part, she was just like any other ordinary cat.

“Prizes, booth graphics, and more,” Scarlett mused. She was to the right of Theo, with Min-ji walking in front of her.

Theo’s brow rose. “That would be excessively expensive for only a week-long convention.”

Octavius chuckled. “Well, the convention only lasts a week, but the theme in the parks remains for a month, sometimes two, before changing back to normal, or switching to a new one, I think. They also only change the adventure park to match.”

“They only have one convention every two months?” Turney asked. “Wouldn’t that be a waste of space?”

The vampire hummed. “No, they have multiple, but they don’t always alter the park theme with each new one, just the fun ones, I think. I mean, I’d hardly imagine they’d make a fun duck adventure park chess themed, which is the next convention at the center. There is likely some time between them changing from one theme to another. And if I remember correctly, according to the website, it said they adopt two to three different convention themes per year, in between the normal holiday decorating.”

That…made sense, he supposed. Though…why exactly would one…have a chess convention in a duck themed adventure slash water park? Seemed a bit out of place.

“What exactly are our plans for today?” Turney asked.

“Well, there’s rides and games and more!” Octavius beamed.

The vampire came to a stop when a woman, who based on her smell was human, walked right up to them. “Hello, fellow duck friends, I’m Jesse. Would any of you be interested in playing a little game with me?” she asked happily.

The woman had bob length pink hair, light brown eyes, and was wearing a thick baby-blue sweater with duckies in top hats walking across the bottom of it. The yellow duck shaped name tag that was pinned to her chest, had her name on it. Eyeing her sweater…Turney kind of wanted it.

“Oh, game? What game?” Octavius asked cutely, while Turney tried to pull his wallet out of the pocket of his sweatpants, as he figured they’d have to pay for whatever game it was…but Scarlett pushed his hand back down, eyeing him pointedly.

He glared. She glared back, a wave of disapproval coming right at him. Rolling his eyes, Turney released his wallet and slowly pulled his hand back out of his pocket. She nodded in approval, and he almost laughed at the happy emotions coming through the link before she looked away. But he liked being in one piece…so he was going to ignore it, and NOT embarrass his emotionally averse sire.

“Five dollars to play,” Jesse chimed, before explaining, “I guess five things about you. If I miss one, you win a prize.”

“Ohh! What prize?! What prize?!” Octavius giggled excitedly.

The woman pulled a medal out of her pocket, and he knew instantly that Octavius would want to play. The vampire’s eyes went wide and sparkly as he stared at the shiny, gold duck medal. It wasn’t Ducktective themed, but it was shiny, and the duck had on a top hat, like the park mascot.

“I’LL PLAY! I’LL PLAY!”

“Five dollars, please.” She held out her hand.

Scarlett handed over a five dollar bill.

He rolled his eyes again. Would it have killed her to let him pay for it? It was only five dollars… Turney literally had no other expenses at this point… He didn’t pay rent… Didn’t pay for his own food. Though, he was grateful for that, as brains and supplements were rather expensive.

Turney also didn’t pay any of his various medical expenses, but then again, those were a hell of a lot more in house anyway, and he didn’t exactly need health insurance any more. As for other bills…his phone service had been put into Octavius’ name after Dayan stole his last one. Hell, even his damn car insurance kept mysteriously being paid before he ever saw the bill!

“Okay, five things. First, you are within five pounds of one hundred and sixty.”

Octavius gasped. “How did you know?!”

Ahh…his boyfriend was so cute, and easily impressed. Though the guess was a pretty good one, especially considering the man’s muscles—which likely added a bit to his weight—were hard to see under his full 1920’s suit and thick overcoat.

The woman smiled. “You are a business owner.”

“YES!” The vampire clapped, his eyes seeming to somehow get shinier and more excited.

Eh…the guess was…well, nowadays it was a fifty-fifty chance, with all of the small business owners out there. Based on how Octavius was dressed, walking around an amusement park…it probably made it an easy guess.

“You are someone with deep interests,” Jesse guessed.

“I am!”

Scarlett snorted.

“What?” Octavius huffed. “I am!”

Turney…would say, rather than deep, the man was…more obsessive about his interests.

“You love amusement parks.”

Okay…how was that not a bit cheatsy? They were literally in an amusement park. Turney…supposed, not everyone who came to these places loved them. Sometimes they were just dragged there by their loved ones… But still…

The vampire, however, just nodded rapidly, eagerly waiting for the last guess.

“Last guess, you are attentive, and sometimes, serious to a fault.”

Turney burst out into laughter, with Theo joining first, before the girls did.

Octavius sagged. “Uh…no…”

Oh, the woman had definitely taken way too much meaning from what Octavius was wearing.

“Really?” Jesse asked, her brow raised, clearly surprised.

The laughter had mostly subsided, but there was still snickering, when Turney placed his hands on Octavius’ shoulders, as he said, “Clothing snob? Yes. Serious? No.”

Octavius hmphed, and stuck his tongue out at him.

“Ah.” The human chuckled. “Well then, I guess this is yours!” She held out the medal to the vampire.

The pout on the vampire’s face swept away as he locked eyes on the medal. Squealing, Octavius grabbed it and put it on. “Ahh, it’s so shiny!”

“Okay, now that you have your medal, let’s go find something that we all can do!” Turney laughed.

Octavius frowned, trying to think of what they should do, as he eyed the various fun, duck themed outdoor events going on around them. Where they were had a very camp-ish type vibe going on. Camp-ish, as in, the activities were things one would do at a summer camp.

Not that Octavius had ever been to any summer camps, but he had seen movies. To him, things like hunting, candle making, scavenger hunts, and obstacle courses, were very camp-type activities.

“How about duck hunting? Or rather, Ducktective hunting, I guess,” Turney mused, the man pointing off to the right.

Octavius gasped in horror. “NO! Why would we want to shoot ducks?! Let alone Ducktectives?! It’s rude!”

He glared at the nearby sign that had been altered to say Ducktective Hunting . Underneath were humans with bows, their arrows aimed towards a poor group of detective ducks. Past the sign, in the distance, he could see people shooting arrows, and the sound of them striking wood was notably different from the other noises he heard in the park.

Scarlett snorted. “Rude?”

“Well, wouldn’t you think it was rude of someone to randomly shoot you, just because?!”

“I mean…” Min-ji scoffed. “Back in my day, it wasn’t just because, it was to eat.”

“I’m pretty sure they’ve just put hats and monocles on the wooden cutouts of the ducks. I doubt they’ve used images of the actual characters.”

“Which is insulting! Drake Feathering wears clothes!”

“Okay…” Turney said slowly, looked suspiciously like he was trying not to laugh.

“Beyond it being ‘rude’, I doubt they would let Theo use the arrows,” Scarlett drawled.

Theo chuckled. “Probably not. While I know how, and shoot quite well, they likely don’t have the necessary setup needed for individuals with visual impairments.”

“Prob—” Octavius stumbled forward as someone bumped into him. With a raised brow, he spun around.

“I’m sor—” The apology the rather tall human man was about to give him was cut off on a blood laced gurgle when an arrow burst through his neck, blood splattering onto Octavius’ face.

“Ah, hell,” Octavius rasped softly.

His words were covered up by Turney yelling, “Fuck,” as the human toppled to the ground and a blood puddle started to form beneath him.

“Someone just died again…didn’t they?” Theo sighed when the screaming started.

“Fucking hell,” Turney cursed again.

He eyed the man as he breathed in, smelling a whole lot of things, yet nothing at all. The arrow had no scent. Octavius met the human’s deep brown, and very fear-filled gaze and winced as he watched the life fade from them, before going out completely.

“Very dead,” he drawled.

“This can’t be a coincidence,” Scarlett stated blankly.

Octavius glanced over at her. “Well, it has to be! Because I’m not doing it!” he snapped, before firmly saying, “No, Sprinkle!” when she neared the edge of the blood puddle, and was about to paw at it.

Huffing, the kitten slowly backed up and plopped onto the ground with a loud Meow . Theo followed the leash down and quickly picked her up, tsking, “Bad kitten.”

Well, he supposed, curiosity was better than being traumatized…

Turney dramatically groaned. “Whether it is or not, the police are definitely not going to buy it this time.”

“Yeah…one death is fine, but three… You have to admit, it’s a bit suspicious.” Theo shrugged.

He didn’t care that it was suspicious, as he didn’t do anything! Octavius looked at Min-ji, glaring. “What happened to your so-called danger runes, Min-ji?!”

The witch shrugged, seeming unaffected by his glare, which in his opinion was rude. “None of us were in danger.”

Octavius scoffed. Likely story!

“Octavius, we know you aren’t doing it.” His zombie bun cutely stated the obvious, but then ruined it by adding unnecessary nonsense. “But I feel it would be ignoring the issue if we don’t at least assume that you are being targeted at this point.”

“An arrow would hardly kill me.”

“Yes, but a human wouldn’t know that,” Turney argued.

“Yes, but I didn’t smell anyone near any of the things that went wrong. Well, I don’t know about the slide per se, but I didn’t smell anyone besides me and the person who died in there at the time. And same with the guillotine, there was no one. Humans leave a scent.”

“That doesn’t mean someone isn’t responsible for all these deaths,” Scarlett drawled.

“But, why?! And what does it have to do with me? I don’t know anyone here!”

“Do you think you pissed that panelist off enough for him to want you dead?” Theo chuckled.

“I hadn’t even met him before the first incident! And he doesn’t know about the glitter thing. I only…I mean, he only got himself kicked out of his own panel like less than an hour ago. So, like, what exactly would he be getting revenge for on those first two days?” With a hand on his chest, he cried out, “Also, the one who deserved to have their revenge is me! I was the one kicked out first, just for telling the truth! So, no, this is just a series of unfortunate accidents!”

This couldn’t have anything to do with him! It couldn’t! Octavius refused to even consider it!

Turney sighed. “Let’s hope the police buy our innocent routine…”

“They should, as it’s the truth!”

“Well, we will know in just a moment.” Min-ji nodded up ahead, where two familiar faces were pushing against the fleeing crowd—Detectives Robins and Banks.

“They sure got here fast,” Scarlett stated.

“Probably…” Octavius huffed. “They were probably here already, investigating the other two incidents.”

“Three,” Turney corrected.

He frowned. “Two.”

The male zombie scoffed. “Three, because if someone else had been in that damn water death trap with us, they would have probably died.”

“Are you going to let him arrest you, Octavius?” Scarlett asked, sounding slightly amused now.

“For what?! I didn’t do anything!” He huffed. “I’ll…cooperate, but…maybe I should call my lawyer? Though…he isn’t in the state.”

Turney grimaced. “Wouldn’t it be better to just mind control them away?”

“Too many witnesses and too many incidents. I doubt it would hold,” Min-ji murmured, before adding, “Judging from the directions of their glares…I doubt Octavius will be the only one they bring in…”

“This is stupid.” Octavius groaned.

So very stupid. Not to mention, annoyingly inconvenient…to his vacation fun time…