Clue: The Mystery Mansion

The Mansion

Emma

The mansion stood before me, dark, eerie and arcane, it's secrets hidden within its shadowy grasps, beckoning me to come closer. I straightened my white dress and slowly made my way up the creaky stairs to the door.
I checked my card again.

13th Woodstone avenue, Cryple road
7pm.

Don't be late innocence

On the back was a bizzare emblem of some sort with the word protection written on it.

I was in the right place. Taking a deep breathe, I knocked on the door.

A young women, who looked like a she could be a model or movie star, opened the door, her wavy strawberry blonde hair sweeping up a storm. She studied me closely, looking me up and down. Instinctively I held my arms akimbo; shielding myself yet still trying to look confident.

" Got a card did you?" the younger Brittany spears asked.

" Um, yeah," I flashed the card at her. " Can I come in? It's cold"

" Sure be my guest," she said, almost as if she was mocking me.

" I am your guest right?"

"I'm sorry?" she gave a weird look.

" You are the one who invited me here, right?"

"Honey, none of know why we are here," she smiled, it almost looked malicious.

We? I thought to myself.

I entered what looked like a lounge, except it was old, musty and looked like no one had cleaned it in years. The only things were the from this century were the 4 people sitting around a coffee table and young Brittany spears behind me, looking at each other and me awkwardly.

"I'm Em...Emma," I managed to stutter out. The house was making me feel queasy.

"Ri..Richelle " younger Brittany spears pointed at herself, mocking me.

"Morgan," the other lady in the couch said, her faced half covered by her jet black hair, blue eyes staring me down, matching her blue shirt.

"And he's my brother Hunter," Morgan pointed to the man sitting farthest from everyone, who looked me up and down, before looking away. He looked like a rich obnoxious jerk.

"He's just shy," Richelle said, a coy smile playing on her lips. " He's Hunter Hayes you know? Owns that company?"
Hunter looked at her and smirked.

"Anyway... I'm Keith" another man said, oblivious to the sultry flirtation happening before him. He was donned in a mustard shirt, and had a charming smile. I felt like I recognized him from somewhere.
"Your the newscaster guy, from Mustard news aren't you?" I suddenly said, sure he was that guy. I saw him cover the news last night, something about fire.

"Uh, yeah I am" Keith replied, his smile faltering slightly. He perked up again when younger and uglier Brittany spears smiled at him. God did this girl have any self respect?

"And I'm Richard" the last man said. He was wearing a tattered purple coat sporting multiple stains, his hair parted down the middle. He didn't look like he had money at all,but seemed like a decent guy, caught up in his work, brief case safe in his lap.

"Great, now that we all know each other, what the hell are we doing here? What's this stupid card," ugly Brittany spears asked, flinging a red card onto the table.

Keith picked the her card and read aloud.
"Flirt and beauty eh? Mine says ice and strength," putting a yellow card onto the table.
" Hmm, you are strong," Richelle touched his biceps.
Brittany Spears was a perfect nickname for her, the girl was full of BS. Though calling her Brittany was an insane insult to the amazing women herself.

I questioned my instant hatred of the girl, but she seemed like the type of person that didn't do a days work in her life, yet still lives managed to live in a mansion and get all the guys.

"Innocence and protection" I interrupted whatever they were doing, placing my white card down.

"Brain and knowledge" Richard added on, a purple card in hand.

"Should have said "Know it all"and "Dick" Morgan whispered under her breath.

"What?" Richard asked. I had a feeling I had missed something.

"Nothing. Mine is curious and keeper" she held up a blue card.

"And mine," Hunters deep voice filled the room, as he spoke for the first time since i had arrived,"Says recluse and fight. Now, does anyone know why we are here. How these cards got into my house?  I found mine in my bedroom. If any of you are responsible for this I can sue you for trespassing"

"If I left it in your bedroom, would you sue me?" Richelle asked. Everyone ignored her, to my immense satisfaction.

"As the billionaire in this group, shouldn't your house have camera and a security system?" Morgan asked.

"Your a billionaire?" Richelle said in amazement
Hunter glared at Morgan and went back to ignoring us.

A few seconds of silence passed.
"Look guys, I have better things to do than sit in a haunted house with 6 strangers. I'm going home" Richard finally announced, as he stood up. He gave us a mock salute and walked out into the hallway.

I saw Morgan mouthing 'Thank god'

"You don't even want to know what this is about?" I shouted after him.

He ignored me and continued on. I sighed a looked around the room and the 4 other strangers faces.

"Did I miss something?"

" You missed his  invigorating half hour lecture on how we were all ruining a building that needed to be saved by chemicals and.. yada yada. I would have ignored it if he hadn't insulted all of us in the process," Morgan rolled her eyes.

"Okay. So, what do you think this place.."

"AHHH" a scream interrupted me, filling the damp mansion, footsteps thudding on the wooden floor as Richard ran back into the room, panting.

" There's.. something there," he said in between breaths, his eyes wide with terror.

Suddenly, the door to the room shut with a bang.

Richelle ran over. "It's locked!"

"It can't be locked, it's probably just jammed" Keith said, going to Richelle to help pull the door.

Then, the click of the lock filled the room. We stood in silence, tension building.

"Well, now it's locked" Hunter remarked. Morgan hit his head hard.

Richelle stared at all of us in horror. She started banging on the door loudly.
"Let us out! LET US OUT. What do you want?"

The radio in the room, next to a still panting Richard, flickered on, making us jump.
We waited in trepidation.

A boxy, chilling voice filled the air.

" Welcome, Heirs of Zouck. I have invited you all to my humble residence, to test you, and see if you have what it takes. You have been chosen from your houses, to battle and see if you have what it takes. This is your first task: find the key to the door to get out of the room. Once you do so, your next clue will arrive. Beware houses, for every 3 hours you spend in my home, one of you must pay the price for my hospitality. So long my heirs.

~hickory dickory dock, the mouse ran up the clock~"

The 6 of us sat there in silence, all of us at a loss for words.
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What do you think Zouck is?
Thanks for reading:)
Comment and feedback if you can!
Peace~suzy