Invited Guests

Chapter 4: It Wasn't the Ice

FEAR

As she found a comfy spot on her chair, she had lost her grip on the glass, making it fall to the ground, breaking and shattering to a thousand tiny pieces. Emily's eyelids had readied to give up as she felt rest circulating all over her body. She drifted off into her peaceful land of dreams and for once, never had this 'Emily' ever felt nor thought that the idea of death would be so inviting, unknowing she was never going to feel what tomorrow might have been like.

Later, though fear was still held captive in the hearts of the two young 19-year-old twins, they had no choice but to fulfill their duties and serve food to the guests in the mansion by dinner. Getting up from their beds so unwantingly, they treaded carefully, weary to keep a keen eye for any funny shots someone might try to pull off as they both headed to the kitchen to prepare dinner.

After cooking whatever was on the menu for that evening, they hurriedly placed all the dishes on the metal food cart, creating a few clanging noises as the expensive porcelain plates hit against the cold metal surface of the food cart, and rushed it towards the dining area. The aroma of freshly cut meat, steaming hot roasted chicken, and all the great meals you could have ever imagined filled the long empty hallways as the twins speedily trot along the velvet carpeted floors of the corridors.

However, by the time the twins had sharply turned the last corner to the dining room, they found themselves following behind Victoria as she was now nearing the dark brown mahogany doors of the dining room, and across her, from the other end of the hallway was the infamous Dr. Adam Roscoe.

It seems they've all just arrived outside the doors at the same time. Everyone except Emily. Or "Emily" rather, since she was, after all, a fake. They all glance at each other, establishing eye contact, and as if to pass on a signal, Victoria nodded and placed her firm grip on the large cold golden door knobs installed securely to the heavy mahogany wood, and slowly, she pushed the doors wide open, creating a loud eerie creak in the midst of their unsettling silence.

CREEEAAAAK

The door was wide open, a gush of wind caressing gently against their skins as the cold evening breeze blew past them from the huge window facing north that was still kept open up until this time. It was seven o'clock, the night was wide and the skies were clear, the light of the bright moon seeping in through the thick curtains, trying to dance around what now was a huge dark room.

The lights had mysteriously been turned off, contrary to how they remember they left it - which was on, and as if on cue, everyone had tensed up. As Victoria tried to feel for the walls and navigate herself through the dark room, she sensed a figure of something positioned by the now cold fireplace.

Looking for the light switch and turning it on immediately, Victoria tried to quickly adjust to the sudden brightness that had blinded her and see what that figure was. Only, when the lights had finally shone throughout the room and mixing in with what little illumination the moon had preciously offered through the curtains, it wasn't a 'what' that caught everyone's attention, but rather a 'who'.

By the now dead and unlit fireplace, warmth lost in the cold air, sat comfortably a lifeless "Emily Von Geisler". Shattered pieces of glass decorated the spot beside her, along with a few sips' worth of rum and remnants of what once was ice. She seemed so peacfully asleep, like a resting child in the middle of the cool night; but as they approached closer, the doctor - Roscoe - took the initiative to conduct a little check up on her for verifying purposes.

As he lifted his hand, index and ring finger gently closing in the gap between his skin and the side of Emily's esophagus, his face paled into a look of fear, eyes wide and mouth hung open. His reaction was more than enough to tell the rest of the company how Emily had turned out. "She's gone." the doctor uttered as gasps of knowing disbelief and fear escaped the others' mouths.