You find yourself back in the dining room at the House. Outside the window, the sky is still dark. You glance at the grandfather clock standing against the far wall. It reads five o'clock. So five o'clock in the morning, obviously
“There you are!” says a voice behind you.
You turn around to find a dark-haired, dark-skinned woman standing in the doorway, arms crossed, with a smug look on her face. It’s Inez.
“Well, I found you,” you tell her. “That wasn’t so hard.”
“No, I’m not the Inez you’re looking for,” she says.
“You’re what?”
“I’m the Inez from this morning. I haven’t even written the note yet.”
“Note?”
She nods in the direction of the slip of paper in your hand. “You’re upstairs right now, still asleep. I’m going to wait to leave until after you go to work.”
“But why?" you ask her. "Why are you leaving?” She’s a complete stranger to you, but you find yourself imploring her like the long-lost wife she’s supposed to be.
She grins – the same mischievous smile as the one she was wearing in the engagement photo. “I’m not leaving,” she assures you. “You have to find me. I have something to show you. Something to teach you.”
“Do … do you and I do this sort of thing often?”
Her face suddenly turns serious – stormy – but otherwise she ignores the question. “What did you think of the maze?” she asks instead, her eyes intent.
“Well, it wasn’t much of a maze, was it?”
“Why do you say that?”
You show her the note. “There’s only one pathway through.”
“There’s only one pathway through any maze,” she points out.
“Well … I mean, yes, but there are supposed to be other options as well. Forking paths. Wrong turns.”
“But if you take one of those wrong turns – hit a dead end – then you’ve failed?”
“Of course not,” you answer automatically. “You just head back and take the other path.”
"Right," Inez says. "A maze without dead ends isn't really a maze. It's basically just one long, twisty hallway. Try this one instead."
And she reaches up to touch the key hanging around her neck and she's gone.
"Really?" you ask the empty room. But of course there's no answer.
This one instead, Inez had said. This one what?
It takes you a bit to find it: another envelope just like the first one, sitting square in the middle of the dining room table.
For a long time, you just stand there just staring at it, feeling angry and exhausted and useless all at once. But in another half an hour or so, you know, Father will come downstairs for his morning coffee, and you should probably be gone by then. The last thing you need at this point is to have the same conversation with him about Inez's disappearance that he had with you back when this all started.
There's no writing on the piece of paper this time: just a maze.
You can find the clued word on the Solution Page to find out where to go next. Or you can