"It's the sort of door that blocks your way, unless you have the means to open it. And, unless something has changed since last I heard, you need the keys to open the door." She shook her head. "But as I said, I do not mind the door. I keep my house in order. I keep everything where it belongs."

Malcom quickly stepped to the side to avoid being hit by of Cynthia's rogue sleeves. Selena, fortunately, was just far enough back as to not be in danger of any garment lashings.

----

Neal sighed slightly at the lack of information that they had been able to get along with the increasingly erratic and infuriating behavior of one Vegan Lady. Turning to Delia, Decker shrugged before speaking to Glenda again. "Thank you for your time, Ma'am..." He said with a nod and turned to head back to the outside world.

------

At this moment Selena stepped forward and asked the burning question that was annoying her since they arrived at the cottage. "Excuse me, but why does this house have water while the rest of this place is parched?" After a few seconds she hastily added. "Just out of curiosity, if you don't mind."

"Well, at least some of you have manners." She muttered. Glancing at Selena, she answered, "My grass needs water or it would die. I know there must be water here. So, I have water." She shook her head and went back to muttering. "Of all the things to be concerned about, why water?"

"Thought of water... so there's water. Thought of water..." Selena mulled this over for a few seconds before seemingly going to follow their mysterious leader outside. Once standing on the porch, Selena scanned the yard for a hose or water spigot. Noticing one just on the edge of the yard, the young woman speed walked down the path and turned it on.

Water came pouring out of the spigot.

"That's just weird."

---------

Neal eyed the redhead as she hurried past him and went to the very edge of the yard. He watched with some curiosity as she turned a spigot on and off several times, seemingly testing whether there was any water, which there was.

"She's discovered something, I think." Malcom said as he stepped outside.

"Stop that! You're wasting my water!" Glenda snapped at Selena. She dropped her broom and raced over, staring at the small puddle of mud forming under the spigot. "Now it's going to be muddy over here... probably need to water the rest of the yard now, too...."

She let out a sigh. "I told you what I can about your door. I'm guessing you already know how to read your maps. Anything else you care to bother me about?"

"Actually, I'm so sorry to bother you about this, but I failed to eat anything this morning, and I'm becoming positively lightheaded. You wouldn't happen to have an apple, or something, that you could spare?"

Cynthia's eyes widened and she opened her mouth to say something about poisoned apples, then closed it again because it was for Delia. Not that she wanted her to die or anything... but still.

"What a lovely vegan choice for a snack," she said instead.

Selena quickly turned off the water when Glenda came racing over. "Sorry, just testing something out..." She looked back at Malcom and Neal and gave a knowing look.

Walking back to the two gents, Selena lowered her voice while Delia spoke to the old woman. "Thoughts! I think that's what this world is... or at least controlled by. I was thinking about water and there was water. I need to try it out more, but I think..."

"... This could be our ticket out of here." Malcom finished Selena sentence. "That would be great if it works."

"But does it? I mean, beyond getting water or possibly food?" Neal pondered glancing over at Cynthia when he heard her comment on Delia's snack choices.

"Have to test it out. Just not here. I think we've done enough damage for one visit..." Selena sheepishly replied.

Glenda mulled over Delia's request for a moment. "Oh, I suppose an apple couldn't hurt anything." She turned around and stepped inside her house, leaving the door standing open as she did. The house was almost entirely empty, aside from the most basic furniture. There was a bed and dresser tucked into the left corner of the far side of the house, a table along the right wall, and a set of cupboards and fireplace (which was not in use, at the moment) along the left wall. The walls were entirely bare, aside from the cupboards and a set of four key hooks, which were hanging on the right wall above the table. There were two keys hanging on the center two hooks, and two were more sitting on the table.

Glenda reached into one of her cupboards and pulled an apple out of one of her baskets. As she turned back around, though, her eyes passed over the right side of her house... and her expression suddenly turned to one of utter frustration. "Why, that messy--! I don't know how he doesn't forget his own name and where he lives! Just once, could he put things back where they belong?!"

"We should look for it. Maybe it can help us get back to Dittopia. And if not, it beats sitting here waiting for someone else to die," Anna said. She was pleased at the thought of having a goal. The silence of the Mansion and the dead world around it was creeping into the back of her head, making her uneasy.

"Yeah," sighed Kai. She picked up the half-finished cup of coffee that she had left an hour or so ago, and she drank the liquid, which was cold and too sweet by now. "Get back to Dittopia," she repeated. "I mean, I hope that my car..bike thing is still there." She looked up at Anna, who seemed perturbed by something. "Why don't we start looking around?" Kai pusher her chair out, grabbed her cup, Anna's cup, and Cynthia's cup, and placed them by all the other unwashed dishware in the house. Serious work, her parents had said, when describing her future job prospects. Guess they didn't know I'd be in a house with two corpses on some barren wilderness looking for a key, she thought. Yeah, there's some 'serious work.' All the same, she had anticipated returning home by morning, not landing on an entirely different planet where, she noted, her compass needle just sat idle.
"Where do you propose we start looking?" She said with a smile, hoping to make Anna less nervous.

Anna shook her head, attempting to dispel the worrisome thoughts (and her sister's latest complaints) and focused on Kai's question.

"We need to be thorough, so it would make the most sense to start at the very top and work our way down. Does the Mansion have an attic? I've never actually been here before."

"Neither have I. Death seemed weary of having us wander around, but I guess she's outside now, so," Kai looked out a window and was lost in thought for a moment, "It doesn't really matter. I don't know if there's an attic, but we can check. It might be nice to see the mansion, too. though it's not really the best time for sight seeing. My great great grandfather was a frequent visitor to Ditto Town, and he left a lot of stories about what you have. Though, being from the future, it's a little antique to me." Kai walked outside of the kitchen and located some velvety-stairs with oak banisters. There were paintings of important-looking people and platypuses on the walls. She started ascending and looked at Anna. "What do you do for a living, back in Ditto Town?"

Glenda's sudden outburst drew the attention of the trio discussing the water situation. "What now?" Neal muttered as he turned to see what had caused the old woman to get so miffed suddenly.

"I think I'll go stretch my legs a bit. That woman is starting to give me the creeps..." Selena said eyeing the open door with a distinct level of unease.

"I'll go with you. Better not to wander off alone here." Malcom offered giving his companion a reassuring side hug.

"Don't wonder off too far. Hate to lose both of you at the same time." Decker called to the pair as they walked down the path.

"Eh, mind yourself." Lawrence called back with a good natured wave of his hand.

--------

Keeping with protocol, the couple from Burg kept within sight of the small cottage. There still wasn't much to see outside of the oddly placed house. Everything else was still dead and the place was still eerily silent save for the occasional rustling of dead grass which itself was unsettling given the absent of any wind or seeming cause.

Not having much to talk about, Malcom and Selena had drifted off from each other and were examining their surroundings... since there wasn't much else to do. It was at this time that Lawrence noticed something in one of the trees. There was a crack running horizontal along the trunk of one of the dead beech trees. Upon further inspection, the interior of said tree seemed to have been hollowed out as if to make a storage area. Carefully placing his hand inside, Lawrence felt around the interior. Nothing but dust for the most part, except.....

"Selena! Go get the others. I think I've found something...."

With a curt nod, the young miss Browning hurried back to the cottage. "Oi! Lawrence has found something." She said to Decker once he had gotten back to the cottage.

"Found what?" Neal asked turning to face the young woman.

"I don't know, just something. He told me come get the rest of you." Selena said in an exasperated tone.

"Okay, okay... coming." Decker replied as he put his fedora back on before following the redhead .

-----

As they neared where Malcom was last seen, something was clearly wrong. The figure of the billionaire was slumped over next to one of the dead trees and his complexion was a ghastly reddish hue.

"Mal! Mal!! What happened?" Selena said running to her friends side. Dear heavens, what have I done??

"... Selena... you clever, lovely girl... It's alright." Lawrence said in a raspy voice with obvious difficulty. Reaching up to brush away a strand of her red hair, Malcom gave a weak smile then closed his eyes.

With a last sigh, Malcom Lawrence the Billionaire of Burg passed from this life.

((( Please don't have anyone else following after Neal and Selena. Thanks!
- The Management )))

Apples, they didn't make any sense at all. They shouldn't exist here, with all the dead trees and such. That's why Jeff followed Delia into the kitchen like a little lost puppy dog. That's when he noticed the keys, what initially caught his eye was that two of the four were out of place.

The keys. They all looked like the pictured one in his pocket.

And then when she started screaming about them, there was no way he wasn't going to ask. "Excuse me ma'am, if you don't mind me asking, what are these key's for?"

Glenda was so frustrated that she must not have noticed that Jeff had followed her in. "Three of the keys are mine; the fourth one I found in the yard one day. I let him borrow my house key for a day, and THIS is the thanks I get! Not a single key left where it belongs!"

While the four keys were shaped identically, they were clearly made of different metals--one was brass, another bronze, a copper one, and a steel one. Looking at it from left to right, the steel key had been hanging from the second hook, and the copper from the third. Glenda swept both of them up, then set them on the table, arranged next to the other two keys. She started arranging them, muttering about their placement as she went.

"Let's see... the bronze key and the copper key don't belong next to each other. And the steel key was right of the bronze key.... The brass key wasn't on an end hook. The bronze key was next to... either the brass key or the steel one, but not both...."