Mansion Mystery

Calling In

'Hey Dongmin', Chen Fang slowly crept up on his colleague, 'You alri-'

The gloom of Dongmin's aura made his smile vanish, his arms barely supporting his frame as he propped himself on the table, documents covering the entire area. Some even drifting onto the floor as he walked over to him, 'I uh brought you some coffee', he began, sitting down in a chair next to him, 'Americano, your favourite..?'

'Thank you kind soul', his raspy voice thanked him graciously, 'Nevermind it's a bitch boy'

'HEY!'

Before he could even protest, Dongmin snatched the cup and gulped it down, quenching his tired body and his parched throat. 'So did you find..anything?'

'I found that this has been useless and I wasted my time', he replied calmly, fixing his tilted spectacles, 'I give up'

The words 'give up' echoed through Chen Fang's mind, 'You don't..ever give up', he spoke with concern, 'You're the one usually telling us there's a solution to every puzzle so...who the hell is possessing you?'

Dongmin sighed and removed his glasses, 'I've tried every simple combination known to man', he explained, 'I figured she's smart so she would decipher something or leave behind a hidden threat but...I doubt it now. Either that or she's outsmarted me'

Swallowing, Chen Fang briefly looked over the documents once more, 'From what I can see...nothing is out of the ordinary...in terms of the writing, so that debunks the hidden message within the lines'

'I realize that'

'You know I don't know how we're still in the dark', he sighed, 'We're genuinely this close to the light'

He held up two of his fingers, a small gap in between framing Dongmin's sudden euphoric expression. 'In the dark, the light..', he muttered, 'Turn off the light'

With a flick of a switch and the push of a pen, an ominous sea blue light emitted from the cap of his pen, 'Why do you own that?', Chen Fang judged

'It was on sale', he replied, shining it across each document, 'Plus it's pretty cool'

Shrugging, Chen Fang watched as he scanned each line like a robot, laser focused to uncover what was hidden amongst the uniform letters. He continued until a glossy ring shone around one of the letters. He froze.

'I', he began, 'Write this down'

He obeyed and jotted it down in his notebook whilst his friend continued

'E'

Continuing met them with a string of random letters, Chen Fang felt as though he was staring at a pile of Scrabble letters, all jumbled with no sense of what to make of it.

'I,E,N,S,T,H,T,E'

'Well, that helps', Dongmin sighed, 'Now another puzzle to crack'

'Nah'

He blinked, 'Nah?'

Chen Fang smirked, 'I've played Scrabble at least a million times', he bragged, 'I can crack this one'

'Be my guest'

Focusing, he swiftly rearranged each letter, making a note of the easy words and to Dongmin's surprise, he presented his work in less than 10 minutes. 'Oh we gotta go', he realized, 'Right now'

Peering at the finished product, Dongmin nodded, 'Let's go, then...we can call them for another family reunion'

DeleteCreated with Sketch.

That evening, JiHu swished her now chopped hair whilst entering the room, it's curtain like folds swishing back and forth like a pendulum as she faced another woman wearing a similar slitted black dress. 'Well well, a copycat', she hissed as the other woman scowled, 'What are you doing here Lan Fen?'