No matter how hard they banged the door, the lock was firmly fastened from outside.
"What's going on?" panicked Shaun. "Why would they lock us in here? It doesn't make any sense. We're here to help them solve the mystery. We mean no harm."
"What if Thao was only joking? What if it was just some savage prank?" murmured Jeffrey, more to himself than responding to his friend. "I don't believe such a sweet girl like herself is capable of doing something so vile."
After Tiffany frantically took out her smartphone, Tiffany wailed hopelessly as she saw that there was no signal and she collapsed on the cold stone floor of the basement, landing with a thud. "What if they're serial killers? They wanna kill us and rob our money! We're all gonna die! I don't wanna die yet! I....I haven't married ma Jeffie yet. OMG! Wait, what if they want to take our kidneys! OMG, daddy! Come and rescue me!"
"Tiffany, will you stop complaining? You know it's not helping!" scolded Jeffrey.
"Guys, I think I've found a clue," said Blythe as she pointed to the open book on the table.
Shaun and Jeffrey gathered around the book, only to discover that it was written in Vietnamese.
"What's it say?" enquired Jeffrey as he stared at the page.
"I've learned a bit of Vietnamese from my Vietnamese friend at uni, but I'm afraid it's not good enough to figure this out," answered Blythe.
Suddenly, Hoa the maid, who had been quietly standing in a corner, glided over and said. "I help you!"
"Wait, you can speak English!" exclaimed Jeffrey. "Why didn't you say so before?"
"My English no very good. My daughter learn English in school. She teach me," responded Hoa in her broken, albeit understandable English. "I no want Madam know I speak English. She think I stupid. She speak English when she no want me understand. Actually I understand a bit."
"Could you help us translate this, please?" implored Blythe. "This is a key to solving our mystery."
"And saving our lives," added Tiffany.
After glancing through the passage, Hoa's expression altered and she began to tremble uncontrollably. Even Tiffany noticed Hoa's change and temporarily stopped her wailing.
"This book very bad," stuttered Hoa. "This book about die people live again. It say need five people, five.....five thing. And night with big moon."
Upon hearing Hoa's translation, Shaun and Blythe glanced at each other knowingly. In fact, the book was writing about an ancient Asian ceremony of resurrecting the dead, which has to be performed on a night with a full moon, and with the blood of five people, which represented the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. There were indeed five people in the room.
Suddenly, they felt extremely dizzy. The room seemed to swirl violently around them as they fell unconscious on the floor, one after another.
Oh no! They are in danger!
~To be Continued~
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