Everything in the entryway looked normal. And, unfortunately, very bare.
As the other girls started feeling around the walls, I took the letter from Morgan, reading it over.
Izzy called out, “I found a keyhole, but there’s no key.”
Vivian worked silently, which was a nice surprise after Elaine’s spoiled brat routine. She felt behind the mirror on the wall and searched every inch of the table sitting left of the door. I watched the girls for a second, as they fanned out away from Max, and then scrutinized him.
He stood stoically, unable to give a hint or clue, just like Landon in the first room.
Presumably, the next step led farther into the cabin, but still, something about him nagged at me.
I let it go and joined the other girls to search, tucking the instructions in my back pocket.
But ten minutes into searching, we’d found nothing.
“Ladies, you have fifty minutes remaining on the clock.”
“What?” Vivian snapped at Max. “Why are you just telling us that now?”
He shrugged, ignoring our shared glances of unease as the time crunch set in.
I pulled out the letter again, all of us surrounding it to see what we’d missed.
Vivian tugged her book of ciphers out of her back pocket.
“Ooh, good thinking, V.” Angela grabbed hers, too. “Maybe there’s something hidden in the letter.”
I read it again, trying to spot a pattern. My eyes snagged on the first letters of each sentence, remembering that was a common way to hide clues, but they didn’t spell anything out.
Then, I noticed the capitalized letters. “The mat!”
“Ugh.” Vivian covered her ear, shrinking away from me. “Can you not?”
Ignoring her, I pointed out the capital letters throughout the message before marching straight to Max. “Move it, big guy. You’re in my way.”
A hint of a smirk appeared, and he sidestepped to the right. I opened the front door and lifted the welcome mat. Finding a keyandanother clue.
Handing the key to Izzy, I unfolded the letter.
“Wait!” I called out when Izzy went straight to the keyhole. “The first letter said one wrong choice could be the difference between going forward or losing. Let’s not rush and see what this says first.”
Vivian groaned and crossed her arms over her chest, and though I couldn’t see it, the tapping of her foot didn’t surprise me. Izzy nodded at me and waited.
“Patience is a virtue. Haste is a trap. The lights need to be off, if you want to find the map.”
Even though the entryway was already dark, a light under the mirror Vivian had searched illuminated the small space. “Vivian, was there a way to turn that off?”
“A switch on the side.” Then realizing she’d responded without malice or disdain, she added, “Duh.”
She walked over and turned off the light, and we plunged into total darkness. But a second later, another light, either automatic or controlled by Max, turned on.
A black light.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, taking in the symbols appearing on the walls.
A dashed line traversed the entire space. It started at the floor by the doorway where I’d found the key, and ended on the opposite wall. A largeXmarked the keyhole, and it wasn’t where Izzy stood.
I eyed the distance to it. “It’s too high up to reach.”
