by K.N. Lee
Time had gone and we had a little less than two hours to finish collecting all our items and get the items and head to the Grand Hall to cross check it against the list.
The mansion had three kitchens and Blake and I split up agreeing to rendezvous at the third kitchen even if we found the item.
I got to the first kitchen and checked beneath the microwave and looked in through the glass. There was nothing. I inspected the entire kitchen, looking for something that might be out of place. Everything was spotless and in the proper place.
I was about to leave when I decided to actually look inside the microwave. I opened it and immediately caught sight of what looked to be a metal plate, carefully placed against the left wall of the microwave. I used a knife and gently removed the plate and placed it beside the microwave.
The fourth item was waiting for me. It seemed like a gift certificate to one of the popular restaurants in Rosendale. It was kept in a plastic bag and I retrieved it and raced towards the kitchen we'd agreed to rendezvous in.
I got there and met it empty. It seemed Blake had not yet given up the search. I sat down on the counter and waited. Soon enough, a panting Blake entered the kitchen holding an identical plastic bag. I showed him mine and he arched an eyebrow,
"Found it behind a false metal plate, huh?" he asked and I nodded. We kept it in the bag and made to leave the kitchen.
"Wait. What about the next clue?" Blake asked suddenly and we both paused and turned to the other microwave. I walked towards it and lifted it slightly. Sure enough, the next clue was beneath it.
Blake slipped it out and opened it, reading out loud,
"I help the master look through a wall. My cousin keeps the master in".
I thought for a second and sighed in dismay. What exactly did that mean?
Juan cursed under his breath as Tabitha read out the clue. No doubt the others were already done and waiting for us at the Great Hall. I shook my head.
If only she'd listened to me. Wine cellar, pfft. It turned out that my deduction had been correct and we'd spent an hour searching the wine cellar for nothing. The second clue along with the items had been inside the well, inside a small container attached to a rope tied to the pulley system.
“So, what do you think it means?” Tabitha asked. Since her fail with the first clue, she respected my opinion a bit more and for good reason. I’d deduced the meaning behind all the other clues. Our treasure bag now contained some gift certificates, as well as some miniature collector’s items.
The final clue seemed to have her equally stumped,
“Well, let’s see.” I said, taking the paper from her and reading it for myself,
“I have a ring, but no finger, in terms of height, I couldn’t be higher”.
“Ring, but no finger. So, alarm clock or a phone?” I wondered. A telephone seemed more likely, but then again the mansion was full of those.
“I think we’re looking for a telephone Tabitha,” I said and she nodded, seemingly seeing the connection.
“But which?” she asked and I shrugged and she studied the clue once more. My mind was much too distracted to focus. I was fairly sure that everyone else had finished and we would be the last two to enter the Grand Hall. I’d never liked losing very much. Suddenly, she exclaimed,
“Of course. It makes sense,” she said, looking at me excitedly.
“What is it?”
“‘In terms of height, I couldn’t be higher’. That’s where it is. It’s in of the rooms at the topmost wings” she said and took off towards the stairs. I followed her. If she were right, then at least we would finish on time. We had barely thirty minutes to get to the hall.
The first three rooms we checked turned out to be wrong and we raced towards the master bedroom. As I ran towards it, I smelled a familiar perfume; one I recognized instantly, it was faint, but still slightly distinct. We’d spent the night in a room together, that scent was forever ingrained in my memory.
Faye-Minita had been there. So, two clues and items are hidden in the same place, huh? Tabitha reached the phone first and we reached the room and ran for the phone. Beside it, on the cradle, we found what looked like gold plated novelty phones and a piece of paper with the words ‘Congratulations. Now get to the Grand Hall’ written on them.
Tabitha yelled in excitement and tossed the gold plated novelty phones in the bag and we took off towards the Grand Hall. As we approached the Grand Hall, we heard nothing and I checked my watch, we had twenty more minutes. Could it be? Had we really won?
I raced past Tabitha and threw open the large doors. My chest fell even as a smile spread across my face. Tabitha panted behind me, trying to catch her breath.
From the place where she sat with her partner, Faye-Minita waved at me.
Juan walked over and I watched him in amusement. He looked all around; seemingly surprised that he had made it before anyone at all.
“So you guys were the first back, huh?” he asked when he got close and I nodded, sticking out my tongue. He rolled his eyes and walked back to where his partner stood. Blake and I high-fived.
I’d been surprised when we entered the Grand Hall to meet just the party planner waiting for us. The fifth clue had taken us to the master bedroom as Blake had deduced that the invention that helped one ‘look through walls’ was simply a window and the ‘older cousin’ had to be a door. The “master’ used in the clue told us it was Danielle’s room and once we got there, we found the item and clue and located the sixth item in the dining hall.
The party planner had welcomed us with a smile and inspected our items, marking them off the list. As I watched, Juan got up to take his items to be inspected. Just then, Drayton and Vagner burst into the hall and groaned simultaneously as they saw us.
“How?” Drayton asked, looking at me and I shrugged, smiling and sighed dramatically as his partner went to have their items checked.
I looked at the clock. The other teams had just six minutes to get to the hall with their items. No sooner had I concluded that thought when the door fell open and four people poured through the door.
Danielle, Peggy, Ophelia and Bobby stared at all of us already in the hall, obviously realizing that they’d come in last.
Danielle smiled brightly as they all went to go get their bags checked.
The scavenger hunt was officially over and Blake and I were declared the winners. Danielle complained that her clues were too difficult with the exception of the first one, saying good-humored how Peggy had made them check the wrong places thoroughly, three times.
We all laughed and then went to our separate rooms to get ready for the after party.
The party progressed smoothly as more and more party guests arrived. I stared at the people over the top of my glass and did not recognize a lot of them. It was an elaborate party and we all dressed up. I caught sight of Juan, talking with Drayton. Our eyes met then and I waved him over.
He was dressed in a well-tailored tux with a bowtie and I could not get over how good he looked. And different.
“What’s up? You look wonderful” he said, getting to me and I blushed slightly. He waved a waiter over and got a glass of wine from the tray.
“Pretty nice party, huh?” he asked taking a sip.
“Heh…yeah, you could say that,” I said, taking another sip of my drink, staring at him contemplatively. He noticed my look and asked,
“What? Something on my face? I may have indulged a bit in the shrimp,” he said, getting out a handkerchief and wiping at his face. I laughed and shook my head,
“No, you don’t have anything on your face”.
“Oh good. What is it then?” he asked, looking confused.
“Well…” I began, not knowing how exactly to phrase my statement, “Let’s just say I’m really impressed with how we all turned out”.
His eyes widened slightly in understanding and he smiled, shrugging before taking a sip of his wine.
“I mean, look where we are, it’s in such
deep contrast to where we used to frequent as kids, despite it being in one of the same locations”.
He shrugged again, “Well…what can I say. We grew up,” he said, raising his glass to me and I acknowledged it. Suddenly he turned and a puzzled look spread all over his face,
“Danielle?” He said, moving forward.
I turned and saw Danielle staggering towards us. She looked like she’d had more than a little bit to drink,
“Oh hey guys,” she said, slurring her words slightly.
“Okay, I’ll be taking that”, Juan said and retrieved the glass she still held in her hand. I reached towards her to help her stand straight and she shrugged me off.
“Don’t touch me. I want Juan to help me. He used to be into me you know…back in high school. I was the one he wanted, but then you’d come along and stolen him from me”.
I was taken aback by the accusation. What did she mean I stole Juan from her? She and Juan hadn’t even been friends. I looked at Juan and he shrugged, looking as lost as I felt. She was drunk so I decided to let it slide, but she obviously still had a lot to say.
"Yes. You know what I mean, you took him from me. Made me seem like a wannabe because I liked to party with you guys. Faye-Minita, party girl turned big time lawyer. Well, I guess that was the only profession left for you to take. Since you're so good at lying".
I looked from Juan to Danielle and I fell short of words. Already, I could feel anger slowly rising in my chest and a small crowd of people had started moving towards us. I could see Drayton and Ophelia struggling to get to us quickly, puzzled looks on their faces. Danielle was not finished.
"Yes, liar. Tell them" her voice had grown hysterical and she was basically shouting now even as she struggled to stand upright.
"Tell them how you lied about the attack in the forest just to get some stupid attention. Tell them how you faked your scratches and cooked up a convincing story just because you cannot help being the center of attention. Go on, tell them".
I felt scandalized and my anger vanished instantly, quickly replaced by intense shock and the vague sense of sadness. All these years and this was how she saw me? We weren't best of friends but I hadn't known she harboured that much venom towards me.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and I shrugged it off, storming out of the mansion and out into the dark.
How could she talk to me like that? And in front of everybody too. Was that her plan the entire time? To make me come all the way down here just to embarrass me? It seemed like a pretty evil move and I wondered if Danielle was really capable of such a terrible thing.
As I wandered outside, I caught sight of a small building just behind the mansion. Needing a place to sit in quiet, I walked towards it. It turned out to be a chapel and it seemed it wasn't used very often, although it seemed to be constantly maintained.
With a deep sigh, feeling the vague sadness grow, I climbed the stairs that led into the little building and sat down in of off the pews at the back.
My chest heaved slightly as I tried to control myself. I heard voices as people asked what was going on but I didn't pay any attention to them, as I watched Faye-Minita storm out of the mansion.
Juan then turned his attention back to Danielle and the latter looked almost pathetic. She swayed where she stood and her words were slurred, incoherent mumblings I could not make out. What exactly had come over her? Since we'd arrived, she'd at least been a courteous host and comported herself in the way she was expected to. How could she now turn around and carry out this show of shame with very unreasonable accusations?
I'd never been into her, and I wondered where she even got that notion. We'd hardly ever been friends until she started attending raves and organizing some of her own and even then, we hadn't been very close. And what was that about calling Faye-Minita a liar? What proof did she have of that claim?
Without a single word to her or anyone else, I went out in search of Faye-Minita. She did not need to be alone at such a time and I had to make sure she was okay.
As I made my way towards the door leading outside, the entire house went dark as the lights went out. I slowed down slightly to allow my eyes to acclimatize to the darkness. I had heard talk of backup generators and knew they would kick in at any moment.
I made my way out the door, walking out into the dark and leaving the equally dark mansion behind me.
"What's happening? Why haven't the generators kicked in? They are functioning, right? Vagner and I saw them only this morning,” Drayton said into the darkness as the waiters showed up with candles and placed them at strategic locations in the Grand Hall. Already, guests were getting antsy and some of them were leaving.
I caught sight of Ophelia, but Juan was nowhere to be found. I hoped the blackout would want to make him return, but it obviously didn't. I'd seen him walking towards the door before the lights went out. I sighed deeply and went to my Fiancée. She was speaking with Blake and Tabitha.
"Honey, I'm going to go find Juan and Faye-Minita, will you be fine here?" I said, and she turned,
"I'm coming with you. Blake and Tabitha claim to know where the backup generators are. They want to see why it's no longer working".
I nodded and took her hand as we walked towards the door that led out of the mansion.
The creature glared at her from its place in the shadows. Its yellow eyes regarded her with scorn and slight frustration. What a silly girl, coming out alone here, unaware of just how much danger she was in. Too bad her luck had guided her to a good location.
As it stared at the chapel where she sat in, he could sense the pulsating energy that surrounded it. The old woman's decision to build a domicile of pure energy behind the mansion had proven to be a thorn in its flesh.
It growled in frustration. If only she'd stayed somewhere else, somewhere he was not forbidden from entering from the laws and powers he had less than zero control over. The chapel was for pure souls, something it most definitely was not.
Not to worry though, it had another threat to take for it. One that was not currently guarded by forces greater and more ancient than it.
There would be time for this one later.
The torchlight coursed over the generator and Blake peered at it. He’d always been good with machines and I had no doubt that he would find a way to fix whatever was wrong with the generator. But we had to find it first, thought Tabitha.
He checked some wires and inspected the engine. It all seemed to be in good condition. Then, as I moved the flashlight slightly to the left, he whistled out loud and I paused.
"What is it?"
"There's the problem,” he said, pointing.
I didn't notice anything, and he rolled his eyes and pointed again. Then I saw it.
The generator was missing a lever.
"Without that lever, this generator isn't coming on anytime soon" Blake said, rubbing his forehead and I sat down on a bench, wondering what could have caused the power outage in the first place. The mansion was old, but the electrical fittings were up to date and well maintained. And it didn't seem like a storm was coming.
I looked up at Blake and at that moment, he seemed to have realized something,
"Hey. I think I have something that might work in place of the lever back in my car,” he said excitedly, already going to get it.
"Stay here and wait for me,” he said over his shoulder and I nodded, waiting.
The generators were located in a structure that had been built to join the mansion and was like a basement. I felt a slight chill as the wind picked up and I wondered what could be taking Blake so long. He knew this mansion as well as I did and I knew his car was not parked very far away. I rolled my eyes as I looked around the room with the aid of the flashlight. It seemed like some equipment had been dumped down here after they stopped working. I noted an old lawnmower in the corner; it looked like it was a more recent addition in comparison to the other equipment littered around the room.
Suddenly I heard a sound from
behind me and turned sharply. A quick look around showed that there was nothing and I breathed a sigh of relief. As I settled back down, the noise came again. It sounded like a sentence but I couldn't make out what was being said. What was happening?
The answer came to me as quickly as I thought of the question.
Blake.
He was playing a prank on me. Silly boy, he was always pulling the cruellest pranks and jokes on people. I was not going to fall for this one, however.
“Run Tabitha”.
I looked around the room, surprised. The voice seemed to have come from somewhere behind me but there was nowhere there.
“Run Tabitha. Run or die!”
Before I knew what was happening, my legs reacted of their own volition and I found myself racing towards the stairs that led out of the room. As I reached the foot of the stairs, I looked up and froze.
My heart beat wildly in my chest as I stared at what seemed to be a monstrous creature, staring at me.
"Blake? Blake this isn't funny" I tried to sound less scared by keeping the tremor from my voice, but I couldn't.
The creature did not move. I realized that I had dropped the flashlight in my haste to leave and I could not make out the creature's face properly. It looked completely inhuman and stood staring at me with its teeth bare. Teeth that seemed sharpened to points.
Why was it just standing there? I looked down and noticed that the creature’s arms seemed to have been carved from wood and I was suddenly angry.
How dare Blake try to scare me with a wooden dummy? I looked at the creature's face, what little I could make out. The creature looked just about ready to attack.
"Blake?" the creature made no attempt to move.
"Screw you asshole", I screamed suddenly and pushed past the wooden dummy, jogging up the stairs. It might've been a dummy, but it did seem rather real.
As I got to the top of the stairs, still lost in thought, I slammed into a solid figure.
I reached out in time to hold her steady as Tabitha collided with me at the top of the stairs. She looked at me with what looked like surprise and anger. Had I taken too long getting the lever? I wondered. It hadn't been where I kept it; I'd forgotten that I moved it. Surely that couldn't be why she was upset.