"¿A qué hora es? No... No, mi amor no está aquí...¿Son las nueve y veinticinco? ¡Ahora no! Si..."

"What do you think you're doing?" Amelia asks, startling the Spanish woman. Naomi is holding a bulky walkie-talkie device, and practically jumps in the air before regaining her composure.

She hurriedly ends the conversation.

"¡Me han descubierto! ¡Tengo que ir ahora!" She flips the device off with a huff and scowls at Mia.

She growls before trying to move past Amelia, but it is futile, as Mia has a hold of her wrist.

"Who were you talking to?"

"¿Lo siento?"

Amelia tightens her grip on the woman's arm. If she wants to play dumb, she thinks, then fine, we'll do this the hard way.

"Dímelo ahora, o nunca saldrás de esta habitación."

Naomi gulps, seeing that Amelia understands Spanish. Not everybody flunks out of the class in high school. Some people, like Mia, actually tried to achieve more than pass the class, and speak fluently.

She is a woman of many talents, as she also speaks fluent French, Hawaiian, German, and knows some Italian. However, she didn't get very far with Russian yet.

Such a pity, knowing that Sasha Volkov may have something interesting to say. She'd have to get back into that, if she made it out alive, that is. Oh well.

"It was a colleague of mine," Naomi answers.

Amelia taps her foot. Likely story.

"A colleague of yours? From where?" Mia is tempted to pull out her choice weapon of her late-grandfather's army knife, but resists, waiting for the perfect moment.

Small beads of sweat form on Naomi's forehead. She's nervous. Good.

Suddenly, there is a loud rumbling sound. Everyone's heads jerk toward Amelia, whose face has now gone red in embarrassment. Naomi takes this chance to get away from Mia.

"Sorry!" She grabs her stomach subconsciously. "I guess I had forgotten to eat breakfast."

More rumbling sounds come from around the room, echoing off the walls.

"Ok, well, I know this is a dumb question, but...Does anyone have anything to eat?" Zuri asks. She scans the room, but Mia shakes her head no, just as the others do.

"I might have something."

Mia whips her head around to see that it is James. Why, oh, why does it have to be James Smith of all people!

He pulls out some packaged crackers and a wrapped up sandwich. "I wasn't planning on sharing, but..." He breaks the sandwich in half and gives it to Zuri. "It seems that you need this more than I do."

The dark-haired girl looks at everyone unapologetically before practically devouring the thing. She could've at least shared.

Mia doesn't know if she should eat things offered by the people in this room. Despite her misgivings, she goes on ahead and asks James for some of those crackers.

"I guess I could give you some, seeing as I am your only hope." James mocks, holding out the package of crackers. Mia takes a few with a roll of her eyes, careful to watch his expression. In her business, she's learned that the face gives everything away—which is why she trained herself to control her emotions.

Mia takes a small bite, and with practiced ease keeps her face from showing how much satisfaction she got from eating something James gave her.

"Speaking of food, there's gotta be a kitchen, right?" Jennifer asks.

"We woke up there, kid. How else do you think James got that food?" Zuri wipes her hands against her legs.

"What other rooms do you think there are? This is a big mansion, so there's got to be a lot of rooms." London reasons.

"It would take forever for us to explore it all together. We could split up?" Amelia catches onto what James is saying.

As much as Mia hates to admit it, she thinks James has a point. Splitting up is a smart move. As long as James and Zuri are separated, that is.

"Zuri and I can be in the same group!" James says, seeming all too excited at the prospect.

"No!" Mia and several others around the room shout.

"Oh, come on! We only fought a few times!" James says.

"It was way more than a few times!" Naomi argues.

"Alright! Everyone!" Amelia shouts, getting everyone's attention, "James, you can go with London and Vivica." She gestures to the two, who are both cringing at the mention of being together. "Zuri, you can go with Samantha and Jason.

"Zach, Elizabeth, Naomi, and Sasha, you four are together. Chase, Jenna, and Otto, you guys can just stay together. Carolyn, Sabine, Ricardo, and Katarina will be together. Emilie and Felix, you two can stick with me. We'll meet back here in two hours." Mia takes this chance to finally get a breath. She is proud of herself for being the only responsible one and taking charge. A few people glare at her, which she doesn't seem to notice.

Several groans can be heard across the room, but everyone seems to be ready to actually do something other than sit around and argue.

"Alright! Let's start exploring!" Jenna pumps her fist in the air.

***

Amelia, Emilie, and Felix are walking down the hall when they find a slightly opened door. With a look between each other, Emilie and Felix walk inside. Amelia follows them, going wide eyed when she realizes where she is. They are in a grand library, filled to the brim with books. There are a few tables scattered around, along with a few armchairs. Papers are strewn across them and a few have fallen to the floor. Seeing the size of the room, she realizes they can't look at everything with them staying together.

"We'll have to split up. There are too many spots to look with only the three of us." Amelia says, gesturing around the room with her hands.

"Alright, then. I'll take the four left aisles, Felix will take the four middle, and Amelia will take the four right." Emilie says, not taking her eyes off Mia. She gets a sense that Emilie doesn't like her all that much, though she trusts her enough to be in a group with her. Big mistake. Mia can't help but let a small grin slowly slip onto her face.

Taking this as a cue, they all split off from each other. Mia makes her way to the right of the library, where she starts walking down the aisles of bookcases.

She runs her hands over the spines of the books, picking heavy amounts of dust up. None of these books have been touched in decades, it seems. As Mia pulls a few books off the shelves, she realizes that nothing pops out to her—though her mind is someplace else.

She's more focused on her plan; her plan to get the de Vanily twins to open up. Her plan to find out as much as she can about them. She doesn't intend to hurt them—physically, at least.

Without intending it, Amelia finds herself at the end of the aisle looking Felix in the face.

Here we go! Mia thinks, frozen to the spot, I guess it's time to enact phase one!

"Felix, I've been thinking about what you've told me and...you're right; we can—and we should—change. Especially seeing how terrible some of the people in this mansion are. To take a life...even if it seems necessary, it isn't right. And I've come to realize that you aren't as bad as you let on."

Amelia wants to gag at the words that just came out of her mouth, but she must get Felix to trust her. It's the only way for him to reveal some of his secrets.

"Wow...I-I don't know what to say...Mia." Felix runs a hand through his slick blond hair, ruffling it up a bit.

He's already calling her Mia. That's a good sign. It means that he's comfortable around her.

"I hope we can change. I know we can if we stick together." Mia makes a great show of shuddering. "I have a bad feeling about this place and these people."

"So do I," he admits. "I'm just thankful that Emilie is here with me."

Ah! Amelia thinks triumphantly. Now we're getting somewhere! She peers over at the blond who is over at the far end of the room. Just out of earshot.

"You two are close, aren't you?"

Felix gives Mia a soft look, "Yes. If anything would happen to her..." His hands ball up into fists and shake as though he was ready to explode.

"You said that she's been through some rough stuff." Mia stops looking through the books and gazes up at him, inquisitive. A look of appreciation passes over his face. Let them know you're a good listener. Check.

"Her last boyfriend, he..." Felix shakes his head. "It wasn't a good relationship."

"Let me guess, she gave him her heart, everything she had. And he pretended to care for it at first, but really just wanted power. Once he had it, he abused it."

Felix gives her a strange look. "Exactly...how—"

"I've been through the same thing, so I get it."

She holds back a smile when she sees Felix eye her as if he's seeing her for the first time. Let them think you are just like them. Check.

"I'm so sorry. I've had to deal with Emilie each time something happened, so I understand what you've been through."

Amelia gives him her most innocent smile, "It's good to have someone who understands you, you know?"

"Yes, I agree." He steps forward, but then Felix looks at his diamond encrusted wristwatch and the moment is broken.

"Shoot, it's about time to meet the others."

Mia offers him her arm, "Shall we?" She gives him a welcoming smile.

His lips slowly turn upwards into a small grin, and as he hooks his arm through hers Amelia considers this a victory.