The four other men just stood near the entrance while the whole scene took place. None of them knew what to do or say.
"Why are you all just standing there?" Evelyn asked, walking towards them, "Out of the way, I forgot to get my bike keys."
And so they did. Evelyn walked out the door and came back inside after a while to see the four men still standing near the doors.
"I asked you to go look around, stop blocking the way." She said and walked further into the house.
After a few minutes, they walked into the place and went in different directions.
James walked into the oversized gourmet kitchen, looking around the wine cellar. His eyes widened when he ran his fingers through a 73-year-old Frech Burgundy. Lucas took time in observing the large paintings that were hung. Ian found himself lost in the hallways. He strode his way from room to room- Indoor sauna, gym room, home theatre, designer dressing rooms- not a single one of them failing to impress him, but nothing caught his attention as much as the Gameroom he found. Vincent made his way down the stairs with an excited smile across his face.
"The Piano in the fourth room on the left, is it used?" He asked, bringing his breath back in control.
"That old thing, it belongs to my dad." Evelyn answered, "Feel free to use it, he wouldn't mind."
"Hello? Can anybody hear me? I'm trapped in here!" A muffled voice of Lucas' echoed through the walls, and that made the remaining look around the house, trying to guess where it came from.
"Now which room do you think it is?" Amelia looked at Evelyn.
"I don't know, the storeroom?"
"If it were the storeroom, then we probably wouldn't be able to hear him."
"Where is he then?" Patrick stood up from the couch.
"You ain't gonna stress your arm. Go lie down there, the rest of us will go look for him."
Patrick tsked, "I'm fine. It's not like I'm gonna look for him with my arms-"
"Watch your mouth when it comes to elders, mister. The more you rest the sooner you'll be better. And don't worry about James, we'll find him."
"The one missing is Lucas."
"Oh right, Lucas. It's gonna take a while for me to remember all your names." She bit her lower lip, "Your friend will help me with that," She grabbed Liam by the arm, "Won't you?" She asked.
"Y-yeah.." Liam replied, caught off guard by the woman's actions.
"Well then, we'll get going." Amelia guided Liam up the stairs.
"I'll go take a look at the camera room." Evelyn walked away.
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Lucas walked down the hallways, observing the impressive artworks hung on the walls.
One caught his attention more than the others. A large frame that showed a middle-aged man seated with a woman who stood beside him carrying a child in her arms dressed in an elegant blue gown and a boy who looked around six-years-old in a tuxedo.
Lucas took a few steps back to get a better view of the painting. It was quite large so he took a few more steps back till his back came in contact with the wall. The painting looked perfect, but something was off. He rested his head onto the wall while trying to put a finger on his thought about the painting. A 'click' was heard and before the wall rotated, resulting in him to fall on his back on the other side of the wall. Lucas groaned in pain and got up on his feet. He looked around trying to figure out where he was but all he could see was a passage that lit up leading somewhere. He tried banging on the wall behind him but to no avail, it only hurt his fist. Left with no other choice, he decided to take the only path ahead of him.
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After looking around for quite some time, Ian admitted that he was lost. This house- or should he say, Manor, to be more precise- was a bit too big for just two people to own and he wondered if he's the first visitor who got lost in there. He convinced himself that if he'd walk around some more, he'd end up where he started. While walking down the hallways which seemed to be endless.
"Gimme a break." He stopped in his tracks, "If they had a place as huge as a jungle, then they must've provided us with some sort of map before asking us to look around." He huffed and leaned onto the wall.
"Ian? Is that you?" He heard a voice echo through the hallway, startling him.
"Who's there?"
"Can you hear me? It's Lucas!" Ian noticed that the voice came from the door beside him.
"Dude, you in there?" He asked, trying to open the door.
"Yeah, it seems to be locked from the outside."
"No, I'm not able to open it either." Ian leaned onto the door.
"Ugh, guess I'm stuck in here for real."
"At least I'm not lost alone anymore."
"You're lost?" Lucas scoffed from the other side of the door, "Who wouldn't? This place is humongous."
"Right. How'd you get in there?" Ian asked.
"I was looking at the paintings, and then this wall threw me into another side." Lucas started.
"The wall threw you?"
"Yeah, it just rotated out of nowhere. And there was this passageway which led me here."
"This manor sure is scary," Ian said, and the latter agreed.
"What do you see there?" Lucas questioned, curious.
"Here? Just a bunch of long hallways." Ian replied, "How about there?" He slid down, now sitting.
"A big library. Looks cool."
"Good for you, bookworm."
"So what do we do now?" Lucas rested the back of his head on the door.
"Wait for someone to find us, what else?"
"Oh well, let me know if someone finds you. I'll kill some time with this book I found. I've been wanting to read this y'know-"
"Yeah, yeah." Ian interrupted, annoyed at the elder.
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Amelia walked up the stairs, Liam followed her. They entered a fancy room with crimson and white interiors. The woman went around rummaging through the drawers.
"Ah, now where did I put that?" She mumbled as she looked through her closet, "Found it!" A smile played on her face when she took out a box decorated with silver plates and white leather.
She then walked towards the king-sized bed and placed it down and took out her gun from her pocket and carefully set it inside. Liam found himself staring and looked away. He felt an oddly familiar scent brush through his nostrils. He tried to make a guess but couldn't tell what exactly it was. So he tried asking the one in front of him,
"Uhm… If you don't mind me asking, what room scent is this?" He asked with an index finger over his nose.
"Oh, are you sensitive to scents? I can turn it off if you want." Amelia said, looking back at him.
"No, that's not it. Just that it's familiar but I can't really tell which one it is."
"Why don't you make a rough guess?"
"It slightly does smell like Rose, but I know it's not it… Guess I've been too used to Chamomile nowadays." He rubbed the back of his nape while he spoke.
Amelia let out a small chuckle at the other's statement, "It's Geranium."
"Ah! I almost guessed that. How could I forget?" He hissed playfully.
"You sound like you're familiar with scents," Amelia stated.
"Not really, just knew a few since my dad liked collecting them."
"Is Chamomile your favorite then?"
"Not exactly, I prefer Bergamot." He said, "How about you?"
"Not a big fan of citrusy odors. I like Cedarwood better."
"You like the smell of more woodsy or warm scents I see."
"That's right. I went for Geranium this time 'cause I've read that it helps with insomnia and stress."
"Sorry to interrupt but aren't you both supposed to be looking for the missing dude?" Evelyn spoke, standing at the door.
"Ah that, I almost forgot. Any luck in the camera room?" Amelia looked at the younger.
"I haven't gone through all the footage but I did find Ian napping at the corridor near the third exit of the library."
"Napping?" Liam asked.
"That's right." Evelyn said, "I came here to inform you about it, but the two of you seem busy talking about Camomiles and Roses."