I turned and faced the stranger that had spoken. Thankfully, he was human. At least, he looked like one. For all I knew he could've been a strange unnatural creature in disguise. With how things were going so far, that wouldn't be surprising.
"The Game of Life or Death?" I repeated. "What unoriginal title is that? If I'm going to be fully intimidated by this challenge and nonsense, I'd like to see some creativity and imagination. How many times has someone said something was life or death? You could've made it sound more interesting."
"What's more interesting than your life depending on a game?" he asked calmly, though he looked taken aback that I wasn't running around screaming my head off and begging for mercy. Hey, if I was going to die, I didn't want to seem pathetic about it.
"Maybe you could've made it a little more vague and less detailed," I suggested conversationally, "and didn't let your victim automatically know for sure that this is life or death. You could've made them curious about this whole thing. That's the key to drawing people in."
He sighed in exasperation. "I'm the one that supposed to be doing the talking, not you, young miss," he said. "Aren't you at least curious to know how I got your name without asking?"
I shrugged. "It would be weirder if you knew my full name including my middle name. That would be impressive and unsettling. For some reason middle names are the things hardly known about people."
He blinked at me as if he'd never had to deal with a victim like me, which was probably the case. "No wonder the mistress requested you be given the more interesting and difficult challenges."
I raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean? I can't handle simple things? Or are you and this mistress you're talking about complimenting me?"
"I guess . . . complimenting you," he said slowly. "You've definitely got observation skills, and clearly creativity. You seem to know other people well, assuming you analyze them just as well with other things as their curiosity taking over their senses."
I shrugged. "I also like mind games that make you think," I added. "It's fun to be given a real brain teaser, especially when the answer is so easy and obvious but you're so used to things being difficult that you don't notice it right away. It tests your brain to see how much you notice and how much your mind takes in."
"How old are you?" he asked, studying me closely. "The mistress said you're turning fifteen in a few weeks, but I've never met a teen as young as you with so much talent. And choice of words."
"Then you haven't been gathering the right ones," I snapped, feeling offended. Sure, there really weren't many people in my generation that were intellectual, but that didn't mean that they were all idiots. There were some very educated ones. "Anyway, what's this first challenge you mentioned?"
"Ah, yes." He smirked, his eyes gleaming. I stepped back, my stomach tightening. I had a feeling that the name of the game wasn't enough to prepare one for the challenges they might receive. At least, not someone like me who was going to have to endure extremely difficult challenges and possibly even risky and maybe fatal too.
"Your first challenge, Miss Nora, is to solve a crime case that no one has been able to even come close to solving yet. It's a murder case, and it all happened in this mansion. And where it all started was here, in this very room."

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