The third day is when Nora finally mustered enough courage to knock on Michael's door. She had put the weird voices and warnings out of her head, choosing to ignore them. 

"What?" Michael's voice said from inside. He sounded annoyed.

"I'm really sorry to bother you. I was just wondering if you wanted me to clean your room? It won't take long," Nora said, trying to sound as polite as possible. 

"You're still here?" Michael's voice now sounded confused, and a little worried maybe?

"Of course I'm still here. It's only been three days," Nora replied. 

"I know. Normally the maids are gone by now. It's kind of weird honestly." Nora's mind flew back to the day before, next to the flowers. Had the other maids gotten the same warning? And had they all listened? Should she have listened? Michael's door opened.

"Well I don't know anything about that," Nora said, probably too quickly because Michael narrowed his eyes at her. "Do you want me to clean in there or not?" Nora said, changing the subject. Michael stepped aside and let her in. "I guess not," Nora said as she beheld the room. Everything was exactly in it's place. The bed was made, the desk was orderly. The only thing out was an open sketchpad and a couple pencils.

"I like things clean," Michael said, seeming to get a little defensive. Nora walked over to the sketchpad and looked at the work in progress. It was really good. The drawing was a near perfect likeness to Emma. The only difference being this drawing looked almost evil, and Emma was anything but. 

"Wow," Nora breathed, reaching her hand out towards it, longing to look through the rest.

"What are you doing?" Michael asked shortly. Nora drew her hand back to herself.

"Nothing. It's just really good," she said, turning back towards him. 

"It's just a hobby. Anyway, as you can see I don't need any cleaning in here. You can leave now." He ushered her out and closed the door without a backward glance at her.

"Well that was friendly," Nora muttered to herself as she went back down the hallway. Her mind almost immediately went back to the day before and the voices. Should she have listened to them? She didn't know, but she intended to find out. Emma seemed so nice, and yet when Michael drew her she looked anything but, and Michael's reluctance to her looking at the rest of his drawings. There was something going on in this house. Something that she wasn't meant to know about. She walked outside to the flowers and peered at them closely. "Hello?" she whispered. No voices came and no more warnings were spoken. She shook her head and looked around. When she was sure no one was looking, she reached her hand into the bush, feeling along the back wall. The voices couldn't have been coming from nowhere, which means there should be... aha. Her hand closed around a small nob, and she was just about to twist it when a voice spoke up behind her. 

"Beautiful aren't they?" Nora snatched her hand back and whirled around, coming face to face with Emma. Her heart was racing. "I'm sorry I startled you," Emma said sweetly.

"That's okay. I just didn't hear you come up behind me," Nora responded, moving subtly to the side to block where her hand had been. "They're very beautiful," she said. 

"Yes. Lilies of the Valley. It's taken a lot to get them to grow so well in this climate," Emma said, as pleasant as ever.

"Really? Where do they normally grow?" Nora asked.

"They prefer colder climates," Emma replied, reaching her hand out to one of the flowers and stroking it lightly. "They're highly poisonous you know," she added, a hint of what Nora thought of as glee entered her voice.

"Really? How interesting," Nora said, hoping this conversation would soon draw to a close so that she could get away. 

"Yes. Isn't it? Anyway, I can see you're eager to get back to work. I'll leave you too it. As always I'm around if you need me," Emma said. Nora breathed a silent sigh of relief.

"Thanks," she said, smiling at her. Emma smiled back and walked away, humming something that sounded like it belonged to a nursery rhyme. There was definitely something odd going on here. Could anyone really be that pleasant all the time, or was there something dark hidden underneath? One thing was for certain, she needed to know what that handle did, but right now it seemed there were too many eyes on her. 

Thanks for reading.

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If you have any questions please ask them, and know that I will definitely answer within a day or two.

There will be another chapter out tomorrow.     

Hope you enjoyed. 

xoxo.

-Sierra <3