“Follow the books to the higher ground,” Matt repeated from the message that had played on the TV. He tried to think what the second part of the clue could mean. “Maybe there’s something on top of one of these bookshelves?” But when he checked with Becca’s help, they turned up nothing except more dust bunnies.

“I’m not sure if this is relevant or not,” Kylie said, from where she stood in front of the architectural drawing on the wall. “But it would appear that this drawing is actually a blueprint of a house. This house, to be precise.”

Everyone went to take a closer look. Kylie was right; Matt was able to see the living room, kitchen, basement, and even the backyard, all on the old drawing. He took his finger and hovered it over the area with the library. “So that means we’re in this spot right now.”

“Can’t get much higher ground than the second floor,” Kylie said. “But I’m still not sure what exactly that’s supposed to mean, or how it could help lead us to another clue.”

“There has to be a clue hidden in this room,” Becca said, looking back toward the bookshelves. “Maybe it’s in one of the books.”

Matt stepped back from the drawing, only to see that the table directly beneath it also had an old piece of parchment paper on it. The paper was so old and stained that it’d camouflaged perfectly into the table—he wouldn’t have seen it at all had he not backed away.

“Look,” he said, pointing to the sheet of parchment on the table. “Did anybody else notice that?”

“Ooh,” Kylie said, looking down and seeing the paper for the first time. “Now this definitely looks like a clue.”

“What is that written on there?” Becca asked, peering down at the parchment. “It almost looks like a message, but there are words missing.”

“It looks like each missing word has a label in the blank,” Kylie noted. “It either says noun, verb, or adjective. I guess those are the types of words you’re supposed to use. Apparently, the game is about to go full English class.”

“I know what this is!” Frankie said excitedly. “It’s a mad lib!”

“A mad lib?” Matt asked, confused. “What is that?”

“It’s just a passage of some sort,” Frankie explained. “It could be about anything really—my sister used to find them in her magazines from time to time—and you have to fill in the blanks with your own answer to get a unique finished piece.”

At the top of the mad lib there was a hand-drawn GM symbol. “This is it, then,” Matt said, unsure of how to proceed. “Somehow this is the next game. But how are we supposed to know what to say? How are we supposed to make up the answers if we don’t know what the Game Master wants?”