Katie slowly raised her finger to speak, but she couldn't mutter anything out. The lady seemed too deep into reading for Katie to want to interrupt her. The silence did not ask for long though, because as soon as Katie tried opening her mouth again, the blonde looked over to her, and stood up to walk over.
???: "Oh, you're awake! I was beginning to think you were not going to wake up!" She said with a sharp toothed grin
Katie: "I—... H-Hello? Who are you? W-Where are we??"
Elliot: "Elliot McDaniels, my dear! Welcome to my home, I take it that you know my co-worker here."
Katie: "Oh! Are.. You Chase's boss?"
Elliot: "Right you are, darling! He's talked about me? All good I hope! Ohoho!"
Katie: "Y-Yeahh.."
Something about her seemed a bit off putting. Maybe it was the confidence and tone of her voice, or the creepy way she shuffled around and moved her neck. Nonetheless, Katie had felt a bit unsafe. Just as she looked over to Chase once again, he had slowly begin to wake up.
Chase: "Ughh.. Where am—... Oh.. Shit.." He mutters and under his breath
Elliot: "Adkins! Welcome back to the land of the living!" She said as she shuffled her way over to him, leaning over on the bed
Chase: "Yeah— Katie, this is.. my boss."
Elliot: "So, what were the two of you doing out in the Powdered Peaks? Do tell, I am dying to hear."
Katie: "Uhm.. W-We went out here.. To look for my sister, and—"
Chase: "We were JUST about to get back to it! Weren't we Katie?" Chase exclaimed as he slowly began to get out of bed
Elliot: "Oh! You are looking for your sister?"
Katie: "Yeah! H-Have you seen her anywhere?? A tall lady with ruby red hair!!"
Chase: "I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't take her to perform another one of your sick experiments."
Elliot: "Nono, I did no such thing, although somebody else could be! Ohoho!"
Katie seemed to become uncomfortable by this remark. To interrupt the silence, Elliot cleared her throat
Elliot: "..Although, I could easily help you out in your search, if you'd like."
Katie: "R-Really? You would do that?"
Elliot: "Certainly! It has been quite some time since I have gotten out! It could be fun, why not?"
Katie: "Yeahh, fun! Haha..!"
Elliot: "Now, let us go and get you two something to eat! The two of you look quite malnourished!" She said as she walked out of the room, gesturing Katie and Chase to follow
Chase: "...Katie, this is a bad idea."
Katie: "Come on! If she's willing to help.. surely she can't be that bad!.. Right?"
Chase: "... If she does anything funny, we are leaving."
Katie: "..Yeah.. Okay.." She quietly let out as she walked in the direction Elliot went in. Chase soon followed her out
Elliot could be seen in a large dining room, ordering several humanoid figures around. They all looked similar to mannequins. They had very humane movements, but also looked so lifeless at the same time. A few were working in the kitchen section. Katie watched in amazement as she lightly poked one of the moving mannequins in the face. It let out a horrified glitchy screech, almost as if it was frightened just by her very touch. Katie jumped back in fear as Elliot casted the mannequin away
Elliot: "Terribly sorry, I should have mentioned they are.. Easily startled."
Katie: "..Riiight.. Hehe, well.. I'm just gonna.. Avoid those from now on!"
Katie nudged away from the mannequins while they did their bidding. Once the table was set and the food was ready, Elliot snapped her fingers, causing all but one holding the food to disappear. She sat down at the head of the dining table. Chase and Katie sat on the left and right side of her respectively. The food arrived on the table. It looked like Tomato Spaghetti from the Realm of the Fey region. Katie took the first bite, and was a astonished by the taste
Katie: "Wow, this is.. really good! Tell your little servant guys I said thank you!"
Elliot: "No need, they are not actually alive you see. I control them myself, you see! It does get a little difficult to multitask them all at once, but it gets easier the more you do it!"
Katie: "I see, it's a really cool power though!!.. I wish I knew magic like that."
Elliot: "You do?" Her face lit up with genuine eagerness
Katie: "Uhm.. Yeah! I've practiced cleric mage for a while, but it hasn't really gone anywhere."
Elliot: "Well, I could give you access to my library! I have several books and hours of my own research that I think you can learn some magic with."
Katie: "Really?? Thank you so much! I can start tomorrow! I'm sure it'll help us with looking for my sister!"
Elliot: "Right, right. It will be available to you at any time." She said as she collected the group's plates to put them into the sink. Before leaving she took a look at Chase, and leaned over with a head tilt
Elliot: "Why so quiet, old pal? You haven't said a word all dinner!"
Chase: "I'm fine."
Clearly, he was upset. Mostly upset at the fact that Elliot had already taken a liking to Katie, or at least a bit of respect for her; something he believed she didn't have for him, even after all these years of working with her
Elliot: "Mm.. If you say so." She said before leaving to the kitchen.
Silence then filled the room as Katie and Chase were left with no further conversation for an uncomfortable amount of time. To break the silence, Katie spoke up.
Katie: "..Your boss seems.. a lot nicer than you say she is.."
Chase: "I know, she may seem fun, quirky and nice or whatever.. But she is an unpredictable cold hearted killer. One wrong move around her will either have you killed, or used as one of her experiments. That's why I didn't want to get involved with her."
Katie: ".." She was left speechless for a few seconds. "..Look, I-I just want to help as many people as I can.. And if I can get her outside her mansion somewhere that doesn't involve work.. Maybe I can bring some humanity into her life..?"
Chase sat there and thought about what Katie had said, and sighed in submission.
Chase: "..Okay, I suppose that.. couldn't hurt to show her some nonwork related.. human things—"
Katie: "Yay!" She hopped up and ran over to give him a hug "Thank you so muchh!!"
Chase: "Yeah, yeah— It's no big deal, just put me down—" He muttered out, being crushed a bit by Katie's tight grasp.
Katie: "Right! Sorry, sorry!"
Chase just weakly smiled at her as Elliot came back into the room.
Elliot: "Well, now that dinner is finished, why don't I show you two around the place to get yourselves familiar with this place. It is quite large after all."
Katie: "Sounds great!"
She exclaimed before walking beside Elliot. Chase followed soon after. The three walked down a large hallway. There, many photographs and paintings were strung across the walls. The most notable being a golden framed portrait of Elliot, alongside a light brown haired woman with a long red dress. In between them was a young girl, with the same brown hair as the other unknown lady. She wore a yellow sundress and glasses of the same color. Elliot herself in this picture had on a light blue dress. Katie looked at this painting in awe as Chase gestured her to keep walking, which she followed.
The layout of the mansion is as follows: The front door led into the main living room, which held a large TV, a sofa, with one nightstand at each end. Fancy lamps illuminated the room with a warm tint. To the left of the living room was the dining room, which they had already gone inside. To the right however led to three doors, each roughly 15 feet apart. One led to a laundry room, the other a bathroom and the last one, just a hatch in the floor. At the end of the hallway was a window, showing the beauty of this snowy region in its full glory, without the fear of hypothermia numbing it.
Just below the double semi-spiral staircases leading to the second story, was a golden double door, with a snowflake symbol engraved in the center of it. It led to the library. It had books stacked up to roughly 15 feet across the large space.
Up the stairs we see the upstairs area. Two long hallways expand about a hundred feet on each side. On the right side, it led to two doors separated evenly, but Elliot insisted they did not go down that hallway.
On the left were simply several guest bedrooms. Elliot led those two down into one of the guest rooms. Inside were 2 beds covered by white and blue sheets, and an empty nightstand. Overall the room was empty.
Elliot: "The room is!.. Quite bland at the moment, but not to worry! We can get anything you need to make you feel right at home!"
Chase: "Yeah, thanks." He muttered as he walked over to the left bed. Katie made her way over to the right bed and laid down
Elliot: "Good night, you two!"
She then clapped her hands to turn the lights off, and then disappeared into the shadows. Katie just looked at where Elliot once stood before laying back down, and began to drift off. She swore that she could see a transparent figure in the corner of the room, but she just believed it to be her imagination; the eeriness of the mansion getting to her.