Who cares how loud the silence rings? You'll find me waiting in the wings

“Aww… how sweet.”

Of course, Echo had been watching all of the drama involving Rose with gleeful anticipation.

By this point, given her actions and her general attitude, the audience likely assumed that Echo would be frustrated that her scheme to rattle Rose and turn her against Nick had unraveled and the pair had managed to reaffirm their feelings for one another as a result of Rose’s scarf.

But no.

Echo pressed her fingers together and sank back into the plush black armchair in her bedroom, and smiled gleefully.

“You see, Nick?” She ran her hand along the length of her cane with a sigh. “All you have to do is be more open with the people in your life. Haven’t you gotten that message my now?” She crooned. “It’s not enough to just let things happen to you… if there’s something you want… you have to reach out and take it.”

At this point, Sylvia or Dakota may have checked the feed from the audience to get a sense of their reception to this turn of events.

She did not do so.

Last night, she had casually opened up the feed, just to see what people were saying about the show presently.

“#BringBackDakota”

“#EchoSucks”

“I hate this new host”

“I always knew it Mary was eivl ddeep down.”

“LMAO Mary stans in shambles rn”

“RIP Dakota”

“Echo boasting about that 32% approval rating”

“That high? Damn one third of the audience is cooked chat”

“Flat Mary boring give her boobs”

“Imagine being evil and having no boobs”

“I know who does she think she is Stella or something”

“Echo is just annoying early game Mary in her emo era”

“#GetEchoPreggers”

After that mess she closed the feed and decided there was no point in looking at it again. At least not until she had established exactly why she deserved to be right where she was.

Echo tapped her cane on the floor and rose to her feet. “Lynette.”

“Yes?” The blonde maid appeared immediately, wearing a twisted smile on her pale face. “How may I be of service?”

Echo glanced at her. That broken look in her eye and the demented grin on her lips… it was hard to get a read on her assistant. I accepted her because Mr. S needed to something with her, and I thought she would be a useful piece to torment Dakota further. But I have to keep in mind that she’s far from trustworthy. For all I know, Sylvia could turn her over to their side, like she did in the labyrinth. I’ve gotta keep an eye on this one.

None of those thoughts made it to the surface. All that Lynette got to see was a broken smile that practically mirrored her own.

“I believe it’s time for… a staff meeting,” Echo declared. “While Kim is off enjoying a much-needed break, I think it would be the perfect opportunity to do a little round of ‘Meet the New Boss’ don’t you agree?” She asked.

“Shishishishi! Whatever you say, Miss Echo!” Lynette cackled. Her pale eyes looked past the host like she wasn’t even there. “…Wait, did you mean the faeries? I don’t think they’ll be happy, happy, happy, happy.”

Lynette shook her head, sending her grungy hair bouncing.

Echo sniffed. “Certainly not!” She twirled her cane and walked towards the door. “I have no use for mindless objects. No… I’m only interested in two people at this point. Have Nola and… what was the other one called? The blue girl.”

Lynette shrugged. “I don’t care,” she said bluntly.

Echo rolled her eyes. “You wouldn’t,” she muttered. “Not that it matters. Find them and bring them to me. I’ll be waiting… …Hm.”

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. A quick glance at the structure of the hotel showed that most of the rooms existed to service the contestants or the master. Her predecessors had done all their personal business from their rooms, or barged into the rooms of the people they wished to speak to without consideration.

“My… that’s so rude…” Echo shook her head. “I couldn’t be so… thoughtless.”

She tapped her cane on the floor and sent a wave of power through the hotel. The building shook slightly, not enough for anyone inside to even notice, as a new section was added. Perfect for what Echo wanted.

“…Have them meet me in the Study,” Echo declared. She flung a scrap of paper over to Lynette, and the doll caught it. “It’s one of the rooms on the new floor I just made. You can’t miss it.”

“Uh, sure, whatever,” Lynette said, not even looking at the scrap of paper. “Shishishishi… don’t you think that’s a little… stupid?”

Echo’s eye twitched. “Excuse me? Have you forgotten I’m your boss?”

“Shishishishi, of course not!” Lynette cocked her head to the side and started to giggle. “How could anyone forget THAT?” She crooned. “Shishishishi… I’m just saying… making a whole new floor? That’s a little…”

“I’m the host now,” Echo snapped. She struck her cane on the floor. “That means this territory is under MY control. If I want to make a whole new island I can do that with a tap of my cane! Do you understand me?”

“Shishishishi, of course, of course, of course, of course!” Lynette bobbed her head up and down like a marionette jostling on its strings. “But… why did you make it look like a Clue board?”

Echo blinked. “…Excuse me?!”

Lynette unfolded the paper and showed it to her. “A Study, a Library, a Kitchen-”

“Those are all necessary accommodations,” Echo snapped, grabbing the paper away from Lynette and taking a look at the map again just to confirm what she’d added.

“And a Hall in the middle of the building?” Lynette raised her eyebrow.

“That-”

“Do you even know what a Conservatory is?”

“Do you?!” Echo snapped at her.

Lynette blinked. Then she gave Echo a gleeful smile and shrugged her shoulders.

“Then shut your fucking mouth, doll girl!” Echo crumpled up the paper and tossed it in the garbage. “How do you even know about Clue anyway? You’re just a stuffed toy!”

“Exactly, toys know all about other toys, it’s totally normal for us,” Lynette chirped.

Echo rolled her eyes in exasperation. “Fine!” She waved her cane again, and the building reconstituted itself. She didn’t need a whole floor anyway. “I’ve created a Parlor, which is where I will be taking all guests and conducting my business from now on! I hope that meets with your high standards, you fucking doll.”

“Shishishishi!” Lynette didn’t seem to take any offense at being called a doll, in fact, she seemed to relish the term. She spread her lips wide and giggled up a storm, and leaned in, eyeing Echo carefully.

The way she was looking at her actually made Echo feel a little twisted herself.

“As you wish… Miss Echo,” Lynette whispered. “Shishishishi! As you wish, as you wish, as you wish, as you wish!”

And with that, she flounced away, leaving Echo to seethe and brood all on her own.

If only I could get rid of her, Echo thought, inspecting her reflection in the mirror. She played with her hair until it had the perfect level of controlled chaos. Unfortunately for me, she’s still useful, even if she’s untrustworthy, so I can’t just throw her away. For now, anyway… but when that stops being the case… then I… I can… …Huh?

Echo didn’t like the look in her eyes at all. The murkiness in her green eyes made her stomach churn, and she felt an uncomfortable shiver down her spine.

“What am I doing?” She said aloud. “I don’t think this way.”

Was she serious? She had just been about to throw Lynette away because she was a nuisance who she couldn’t trust. She had just been waiting for the opportunity when the blasted doll stopped being useful, so she could justify it.

She hadn’t thought twice.

Isn’t that exactly what Mr. S is planning to do to me, though? Echo thought. She bit her lip. That’s why I’m working so hard… so I don’t get thrown away. But I was just thinking that it’s fine to throw HER away, then?

What a twisted mindset. Echo felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach.

“Aaarggh!” With a furious cry she swung her cane and smashed the mirror in front of her into pieces. “What are you thinking!?” She spat at the shards of her reflection. “You cold-hearted bitch! You can’t just throw somebody away like that! You monster! Ha! Ha! Hahahahahahahahaaaaa!”

Echo fell to her knees and then slouched onto her back. She twisted about amidst the shards of glass as she laughed like a lunatic, cradling her face in her hands.

“I’m not like them… I’m not! I won’t throw anything away… that isn’t who I am! I’m not going to discard or be discarded!”

She was honestly glad that Lynette had upset her so much just now. If not for that, she might have let those callous feelings fester inside her until it was too late to correct her change in mindset.

That wouldn’t do. No, that wouldn’t do at all!

Echo was working hard to keep from being thrown away like garbage.

What sort of monster would she be if she did the same thing to Lynette?

“Just because she’s a doll, that doesn’t mean I can just get rid of her,” Echo spat, rising to her feet. She dusted the remnants of the mirror off of her and straightened up her dress. The holes and rips actually added to the appeal, in her opinion.

“No… I won’t do that,” Echo promised. “Lynette, Lynette, Lynette, Lynette… dear, sweet, treacherous Lynette… don’t worry, my dear one… I won’t discard you like the producer tried to. You’ll be my little dolly forever… won’t you?”

She threw back her head and cackled madly into the void.

“Welcome!” Echo held court in a parlor designed to her strictest specifications. A wide shelf of books stretched the length of the wall behind her, filled with countless mystery titles and almost as many erotic works, placed right beside one another as though there were nothing wrong with that.

The rest of her room was styled in homage to some of her favorite works from the era of mystery. She had meticulously sculpted everything from the chairs to the desk to the portraits on the walls, even the plants, they all were plucked right out of her imagination of what crime scenes and settings from the golden age of detective fiction might resemble.

Of course, the meticulous attention to detail that Echo had undertook went completely unnoticed by her three guests. She was sitting in a perfect replica of the chair Roger Ackroyd had been murdered in, and they didn’t even notice!

“Philistines,” Echo muttered under her breath as Nola, Serenity, and Lynette approached her desk.

Of course, Echo had not always been so appreciative of such works of greatness, so she could sympathize with the hoi polloi in front of her. Back when she was Mary, she very vividly recalled sending Nick a 2,000 word diatribe about how unfair the book was to even the most trained aficionados of the mystery genre, due to its “twist”. And then, she’d also confronted him in person the next day and let him know how she felt directly, just in case he hadn’t gotten around to checking his email yet.

Ah, yes. Those were the days. But Echo had changed. Since becoming a new woman she had reexamined all of her prior beliefs. And while she was still quite a fan of the mystery genre, she had become more critical of it as well- and less so, in certain ways.

Now she felt a great deal of affinity for a certain Dr. James Shepperd, and she couldn’t wait to engage her other self in a rapt discussion about just how wonderful she found the novel!

Maybe she could even goad Mary into losing her temper and getting violent. Wouldn’t that be something?

“Nice place, Miss Echo,” Lynette complimented her, looking around the Parlor. “Shishishishi… it really looks very… how do I describe it…”

“Not torn apart by scissors?” Echo asked, raising her eyebrow.

“Yes! That’s it exactly!” Lynette’s face lit up. “Shishishishi! …Anyway. I brought them, just like you asked. Now, may I go? I was hoping to go pay a visit to mother in her cell… she gets so lonely without me there, after all, shishishishi…”

Lynette cradled her sunken-in cheeks as redness overtook her pale complexion. She started to shake and her tongue darted out to lick her lips.

Echo gave her a frosty stare in response. “No, you may not,” she coldly replied. “This concerns you as well, Lynette.”

She beckoned the maid over, and directed her to sit down at the empty chair between a nervous-looking Nola and a bored-looking Serenity.

“I set out three chairs for a reason, you know,” Echo chided her single-minded employee.

Lynette certainly didn’t look happy about it. But then, Echo didn’t expect her to be.

What she DID expect was for Lynette to comply. So even though it was clear that the doll girl wanted as little to do with this place as possible, she staggered over to the desk and sat her butt down in that chair, just as she was asked.

An awkward silence filled the room. One that was particularly agonizing for Nola. The pink-haired leprechaun kept shooting Echo nervous looks, which was exactly what Echo wanted to see from her right now.

“Nola, please, relax,” she crooned, batting her eyelashes at the flustered girl. “There’s nothing for you to worry about, I promise.”

“Wh-who’s worried?” Nola stammered. “Me? Worried? I’m not worried. Why would you think I’m worried? Because I’m talking really fast? I always talk fast. It’s sorta, like, what I’m known for? People always see me, they tell me, ‘Wow, Nola, you really talk fast!’ and I know sometimes it annoys people, but that’s just who I am, and if you don’t like it I’ll try to stop, but I just want you to know that it REALLY isn’t about trying to be annoying or upset you or anything like that and it’s just something I do, so if you could understand that, that would really be great, and… oh my gosh I’m totally doing it right now, aren’t I?! I’m so sorry, really, I don’t mean to, it’s just that I-”

“Nola.” Echo put a stop to that nonsense with a voice that was direct but firm. She stared intensely at Nola as the other girl started to tremble.

“Y-yes?” Nola squeaked out, looking nervously at the woman who was technically her boss.

“I honest could not care less about any of the inane drivel that comes out of your mouth,” Echo said bluntly.

Nola went pale and sank into her seat again. “O-okay…”

“To tell you the truth? I don’t even know why you’re here,” Echo admitted with a shrug. “I mean, you used to be a host, isn’t that right?”

Nola gulped. “Uh… yes’m,” she nodded slowly.

“But your season was cancelled, and you were going to be thrown away, isn’t that right?”

Nola winced. She struggled not to let her emotions out and tried to remain professional as she nodded slowly. “…Yes,” she admitted.

Echo rose from her seat and walked around the desk. Nola flinched when she saw her approaching, not sure what was going to happen.

“You poor thing.”

Before Nola knew what was happening, Echo was hugging her.

It was the most awkward hug she’d ever been a part of. She sat there rooted in her seat while Echo stood over her, hugging her and patting her on the back.

“You should never be afraid of getting thrown away for not doing your job,” Echo crooned into Nola’s ear. Her voice was saccharine like sugar. “All you want is to regain your position as host again, isn’t that right, my dear?”

Nola was thoroughly weirded out by this display of compassion from the other woman. She nodded slowly as she tried to process Echo’s bizarre behavior. Meanwhile, Lynette was just trying not to laugh at her.

“Well, I can’t make you a host.” Echo let her go and leaned back to look Nola in the eye. “But I can promise you this. Whatever you may think of me… I have no intention of throwing you away. We’re in this together.”

She gave the leprechaun a winning smile.

“Wouldn’t that be for the best? Let’s bury our old grudges now that I’m in charge, and try to have a relationship as equals, who have mutual respect for one another!”

A mutual respect of zero, perhaps, but mutual respect all the same.

“Um… okay?” Nola still had no idea what was going on. But it sounded like Echo hadn’t called her up here to fire her? (With literal fire. And snakes.)

“Great!” Echo hid her lack of care for the girl in front of her behind a smile, and turned to the real problem child of the bunch. “And as for you…”

Serenity turned to Echo and opened her mouth. She hissed at the host without hesitation, showing just what she thought of her.

“…Well, that certainly wasn’t pleasant.”

“Yeah, uh… she… she isn’t very talkative,” Nola stammered, fully aware of the irony in her statement. “I mean… it’s not, like… a huge deal… it’s just, well… uh… that is, I mean… um… oh gosh…”

“No, I know,” Echo said with a sneer. She drummed her fingers against the head of her cane. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t get along, does it?”

Serenity coldly regarded Echo with her golden eyes. Her glare was answer enough, in her opinion.

Whatever. Echo could live with that.

“How about… a gesture of goodwill, then?” Echo suggested. “To show that we’re on the same side here, and you can trust that I’m just trying to do right by everybody here?”

Serenity stared incredulously at her. Like she could trust anything that the other woman had to say? She opened her mouth, ready to finally speak and tell the usurper what she thought about her, when Echo raised her cane and unleashed its power. Black light swirled from the head and engulfed Serenity before she could even attempt to dodge.

Then the light faded, and Serenity let out a gasp.