Clue: The Mystery Mansion

Room 2

Richelle

The underground pathway was disgusting. This coming from a girl who has been photographed while covered in beetles. It was for a nature shoot, and I'm still not sure why I agreed.
The walls were slimly and mushy and the air smelt of dead bodies. I could even hear the scuttling of lizard and other creatures who liked to live in the dark.

"Hey!" someone climbed  down and landed next to me, hand on my waist. I jumped in shock.
"Relax its me Keith. Can't believe you had the guts to come down first girly, you aren't just all looks I guess," Keith said. I couldn't see him too clearly, but I could almost make out a smirk.
The whole night I had wasted some time to be flirty and sexy with the 3 pretty good looking guys here. But here, in the dark where I could pick my nose and no one would notice, I realized that I was just playing my "I'm a pretty girl" stereotype, especially for that girl Emma who looked like someone died under her nose every time I flirted with the boys. Irking her and getting reactions from the boys was what I was looking for, and nothing else.

Pretty soon, we hear 4 more thuds as the rest came down into the tunnel. Richard lit a fire into a lamp.
"Found it in the room, thought it could be useful here"

And so we started. The path was one way, very narrow and short, but within 5 minutes we had reached a door on the ceiling. As I was the first in the line, I climbed up the stairs and opened the door to enter.

We were in a white room, with nothing else but white walls. Once all of us were in the room and the trap door was closed, if we didn't know it was there, we would have never realized it.
This was the first room in the house that didn't look like it was a hundred years old. There was a door in the corner of the room.

"So what was the clue again? " Morgan asked.

"It was a quote, something about change by durkin or someone," Keith said.

"Darwin. It was Darwin. And he said that the species that is most likely to survive is not the strongest or the smartest, but one most adapted to change," Richard lamented out in one breathe.

"Who the hell is durkin?"

"Darwin. His name is darwin. He's a scientist who studied evolution, which is how animals change and adapt over time,"

"Okay know it all, what does that mean for us," Keith asked.

Richard stayed silent.

"You know there is a door, we could just try to, I don't know , break it down?" Hunter suddenly said.

"Dude yes! Why didn't we think of that before man, c mon brainiac, let's do this," an overly excited Keith ran to the white door.

While the boys huffed and puffed trying to push the door down, I looked around the clean and spotless white room. There was nothing else in the room. The white of the room was almost overwhelming, and if the door wasn't there in the corner of the room, it would have been impossible to tell which wall was which.

There was nothing. Nothing at all. Except white.

"Hey isn't your card white Emma?" 

"Um yeah it is. And, I'm also an animal rights activist so, you know Darwin is sort of an animal scientist..."

"Not really," Richard interjected, grunting loudly as they tried to pry open the door. " He's not exactly an animal scientist."

"And Richelle, I don't think this is Emma's room," Keith said, as he pulled of one part of the door frame.

I curious, slowly made her way to where the 3 men stood. The door was falling apart to reveal a brick wall. And on that brick wall, was a streak of red paint.

As the men tore off more and more of the white door, the red streak soon become a part of an elaborate drawing. It looked like a sunset, one seen from on top a hill. The only difference was, the sun itself was represented as a symbol, a beautiful red swan, who's neck was arched into a circle. It's wings were extended as if they were about to fly.

"That's.. that's the symbol on my card."

"Okay, so by experience," Keith looked at Hunter, " this means something in this room means something to you, right?"

"Guys... I don't think it's just her room,"'a voice came from the other corner.

Emma walked out from the corner of the room, opposite to the doors, pointing at the white walls behind her.

"There's another door there, smaller, but still a door. And it has another symbol on it. A yellow symbol," she said, looking at Keith.

"Does it look like a lion?" Keith asked.

"Yeah, a yellow lion," Emma replied, her hands on her hips as she studied us. "Did you guys know each other before or something?"

"No." Both Keith and I said in unison.

"Rochelle, what's your job?" Out of nowhere, Morgan asked me.

"Um, I take photos. I mean, people take photos... Of me."

"So your a model?"

"Yeah I'm a model."

"So both you and Keith are in the entertainment business.. sort of," Hunter said, looking at me.

"Modeling's not entertainment to you?" I asked snidely

"It is, it's just... Different." He replied.
I didn't agree with him. Of course, that didn't change my mind about my lack of enthusiasm for modeling, but still, it wasn't a bad industry.

"Look, I know most people think what models do is frivolous and redundant, but we're sales people, you know? It's not as glamorous as you think. In fact, it's actually really hard work. " without realizing it, a tear fell from my eyes.

I wish I could break my contract, so something else with my life. What I really wanted was to be a photographer, and not be the person being photographed.

"Rochelle, do you... Not like modeling," Keith  suddenly to my side, his arm grazing my elbow.

"No, I mean, it's fine I guess. "

"Change! That's it. You want to change jobs. And you Keith? Do you want to change jobs? Why wouldn't you, it's entertainment, not really much value is it? Richard suddenly blurted out, excited.

"What? No. I happen to like my job," Keith replied, looking almost offended.

" No, no Richards got a point! Keith, Rochelle, you both want to change jobs?" Emma asked.

"I said I liked mine!" Keith yelled, frustrated.
Richelle looked crestfallen.
"It's just a job," she whispered, mostly to herself.

Everyone stared at each in other in silence.

"CLANG" something fell into the centre of the room.

To be continued