The Game

    Jess Udall stood and stared up at the cottage at the edge of the sea. Everyone who had ever been important to his grandfather was in there. Well, almost everybody. He shook the thought away as footsteps echoed up the driveway behind him. Turning, he found his uncle, Rowland Udall, coming towards him. The man was wearing a tailored black suit and sunglasses. One of his servants carried luggage behind him. Jess eyed the bags.     “We’re only here for a week,” Jess remarked. “Why do you need so much luggage?”     Rowland scoffed, lowering his sunglasses. “What a fantastic way to greet your uncle. Good to see you, too, Jess. How was Spain?”     Jess, who was now twenty-two, had spent the last year studying abroad in Spain. It was his grandfather’s wish, and he felt obligated to go. He had just gotten his bachelor’s degree in business, just like everybody else in his family before him. He didn’t owe his grandfather anything but always felt it was essential to make him happy. That was probably the only reason he was invited to this getaway.     “How are you holding up?” Jess asked, avoiding his uncle’s questioning altogether.     Rowland shrugged. “I’m doing well. I saw that you were at the funeral, but you didn’t come to say hi to any of us.”     “I was mourning Grandpa,” Jess answered. “I didn’t want to talk to anybody.”     Rowland pushed his glasses back up his nose. “Right. Come on. Let’s go inside. I think we’re the last ones.”     Jess followed his uncle and his many suitcases into the house. When they got inside, they found other men standing around. They were all dressed formally as if attending a business meeting. The butler ushered them inside and then closed the door. The eyes of the men who had been there before watched the newcomers. Some were familiar to the pair. Others they had only seen once or twice before. Their bags were taken from them and swept away to a room further into the house.     “Well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.”     A young man who couldn’t have been much older than Jess approached them. He was smoking a cigar, and the smoke filled Rowland and Jess’s noses. It took all the strength Jess had not to cough. This man was Jude Christensen. He had been the late Randy Udall’s attorney. He was considered to be the best lawyer in the country despite being freshly graduated from law school. Nobody in the family trusted him.     “Ah, Jude,” Rowland said, sounding annoyed. “Didn’t expect to see you here.”     Jude turned his attention to Jess. “I didn’t expect to see the kid here.”     Jess scoffed. “I’m a kid no longer. And I am Randy’s grandson. I have every right to be here.”     Jude nodded. “Of course. Well, the party won’t start until we all sit down. So, come. Make yourselves cozy.”     Rowland and Jess followed Jude into the main living space. The other men began to take their seats on the three sofas or the armchairs scattered around the room. Jess counted twenty in total. He scanned all of their faces as he listened to the conversations.     “What an interesting cast of characters,” Jude remarked to Rowland. “What is your father up to?”     Rowland shrugged. “Torturing us from the grave, I’d bet. I thought for sure he would just hand the company over to me. That doesn’t seem to be the case.”     No, that wasn’t the case at all. When Randy Udall announced to the world that he had terminal cancer, everybody speculated over who would inherit the company. Rowland was second in charge at the WIC Corporation, but that apparently meant nothing to his father.     After everybody in the room sized each other up, there was a loud clang. Metal doors slid into place, covering the doors and the windows. The room went pitch black as panic began to set into the group. There were sounds of shuffling and pulling on the metal. It was no use, of course. They were designed to keep people in, and they were trapped. Slowly, the lights lifted, and everyone turned to face each other.     Then, everyone’s eyes fell to the letter on the table. It hadn’t been there before the doors closed on them. Everybody was sure about that. So, where had it come from? Not a single soul in the room moved to pick it up. Finally, it was Jess who stepped forward. He grabbed the white envelope off the table, popped off the seal, and began to read.     “Welcome, family and friends.” He read aloud. “I am so pleased that you could join me in this house. It was built specifically for this purpose. I have a task for you. In this house is a mystery. Whoever solves the mystery first will win my inheritance, including the WIC Corporation. However, there is a catch. If you take too long, the group will be punished. Every eight hours, a punishment will be delivered. I wish you all the best of luck. Randy Udall.” Silence fell over the room. Each of the men scanned each other’s faces. They had all been unsure of what to expect out of the surprise vacation. Solving a mystery definitely wasn’t on any of their minds. And what about these punishments? What did the old man have in mind? Jess walked over to a desk at the back of the room. On it was another letter. He picked it up, turning to the room.     “There’s another letter.” He told everybody. “I bet you’re wondering what the mystery is. It’s a murder mystery. I’m sure you all know that my daughter and her husband were brutally murdered, leaving my grandson an orphan at fifteen. Their deaths were never solved. The evidence pointing towards the killer lies within this house. Find the killer, and you win.”