A last will and a ... game?

With their two hastily packed bags Roger and Becky leave the rented car beside the others. Now up-close Roger gets even more confused as to who these ‘friends, family, confidants and true believers’ are. Sure, some of these cars were brand new and one of them even had a sticker from the same rental service he and Becky had used, but others were … less pristine. Pickup trucks with local plates or none at all.

“Do you smell that? It smells like a pig sty”, Becky says nasally, trying to hold her nose shut.

Roger looks onto the back of the closest truck and smirks.

“Well, ding ding ding, that’s 100 points for the lady in red.”

“Haha, very funny Roger. Let’s hurry up and get inside, it looks like rain.”

And so they make haste to the front door. The massive dark wood of this portal looks ancient and still Roger feels like it will still stand after the rest of the mansion has crumbled to dust. A shiver runs down his spine.

“Is everything alright? You look a little pale honey.”

“No, no, it’s fine. I just thought –“

The door opens and a bald man in a black tailcoat stands before the couple.

“The great nephew Roger Carmine and his wife I presume? He has awaited you. Please come in and take place in the main study. We should begin shortly.”

With that said the man turns in one swift motion and leads them deeper inside the manor. They walk through the main foyer, under the point where the stairs to the upper level meet, along a couple of doors left and right and straight into the well furnished study. The room is a strange mix of british colonial office and catholic chapel. The walls are adorned by tribal masks and strange paintings and the space is filled with people seated, all looking to the far end of the room. Rightfully so. The rooms end demands attention, Robert is sure of that. A bright mosaic lights the study. The masterfully crafted glass shows a man standing in front of the sun itself, arms spread wide and a smile on his face. The man is clothed only in a white rag, stained by the blood. At the mans feet two women knell and worshipfully look up to him. Upon closer inspection Roger would guess them to be women, it’s not that clear. The window is framed by symbols impossible to decipher.

Roger is still marveling at this display when Becky pulls at his arm and ushers him to the last free seats. Broken out of his admiration for the rooms decor Roger realizes the people have turned and look at him impatiently. These people really are a group of misfits, women and men, tall and small, a lot of ethnicities. Although strangely there are no children and the butler seems the oldest person in the room. And that in the front row looks like his aunt Beatrice. Roger hasn’t seen aunt Bea in a long time, not since he was a child, but she looks exactly like he remembers her. Like she hasn’t aged a day.

“Ahem, if I could ask you all for your undivided attention. We want to thank you all for coming here today. Our all beloved maior patruus, some of the newcomers might know him by his previous name of Sebastian Carmine, has left us.”

The butler had taken a stand behind a pulpit in front of the mosaic and now reads from a speech he obviously prepared in advance.

“He passed on and has now entered a sphere we can all just hope to join one day. What can I say about the deeds of this oh so great man, that we don’t all know by heart. He was by far the greatest of us all and even though he surpassed us in every way, he never looked down on us, but took our hands and raised us above ourselves. Over the course of such an eventful life the patruus could collect a variety of earthly goods that he wants to give to you, his dearest and most trusted.”

A whisper goes through the crowd and only at this moment does Roger comprehend how many people are in the room. He’s in the fifth row from the front, five seats each, plus the bunch of people in the corner… Him and Becky included that’s about thirty.

“So he wanted me to invite you all from close”, he motioned to his right where a group of six sat in what looked like farmers clothes, “ and far”, his hand turned to Becky and Roger.

“I am supposed to bring you all together, open this house to you and test your faith. You will all be handed an envelope containing an individual clue. Whoever is still here at the end of next week and stood faithful, will inherit the maior patruus possessions earthly and otherwise.”

The whisper grows louder at this, except for the farmers, those men and women are awfully quiet, Roger notices. Their hands seem folded in their laps and some of them look like the are sobbing.

“What does he mean Roger? 'And otherwise'? And what is this talk about faith? I got a bad feeling about this, maybe we should leave this place. Take the car, see some of the countryside and just head back home.” Becky seems uncomfortable and looks at Roger pleadingly.

“I don’t know, maybe we should give it a shot. What’s the worst that could happen?”