The golden rays of sunlight spilled through the open window, casting shadows of figures hunched over their food in silence. They were all dressed their best—some wearing garments adorned with jewels and luxurious fabrics, others simply putting on their shirts that they would usually wear on a Sunday. Saturdays like these were times to relax; days wear the pressure of work could be taken off your shoulders for just a moment. But on this Saturday, none of the people sitting down at a small dining room table would have expected to be invited to a tea party with a room full of strangers.

They all sat around a table flourished with foods and drinks that they had only imagined to be a luxury once before. Each of them had received a letter that morning; an invite to a party in the high kingdom where royals and rich property owners usually dwelled. While they were each suspicious of the request, they obliged, searching for answers as to why they of all people would be invited to something prestigious as an offer to dine in a hall of riches. The ones invited to dine came from different backgrounds and levels of status—but they were all similar in one way.

Couteroy Blanke was a praised comedian, often used to the odd glances he got from others around his town. The strange way he dressed, his malnourished figure, and his awfully pale skin were some of the things that got him noticed while he was simply walking the streets. He covered his insecurities with stage makeup, very rarely taking it off as if it were a mask he could hide behind.

Lady Johnson was a woman who could only be described as submissive. While she was a very complicated character, most of her personality stemmed from her awful husband: the Duke. He attempted to control her, forcing her to spend time at home with their two year old child while he went off to work every day. Despite their obvious torn marriage, they still managed to keep their relationship in tact for many years before the Duke divorced her and unfairly took all of her belongings. She still kept her ex-husband’s last name, not bothering to mourn over her future and instead focus on the memories of the past.

The Emberly triplets sat apart from the rest, nervously picking at their food and not bothering to utter a word. Although they all looked exactly the same, it was clear how hard they strived to be different from each other. Mary Anne Emberly played with her hair that had been forced into long brunette coils the night before. As beautiful as they were, it was clear that she had wanted her hair to be different from her sisters’ naturally pin-straight locks. Morticia Emberly on the other hand had put up her hair into a simple ponytail that trailed down to the start of her shoulder blades. She wore a majestic dark red dress that stood out among her other sisters’ clothing. Paired with lacey white gloves and a glass of wine, she almost looked older than the rest of her family.

I hungrily scarfed down my meal, not bothering to make useless small talk like the rest of the people sitting around the table. I had already concluded their personalities just based on their looks, figuring out almost everything about each and every one of them. For some of them, it was obvious how they acted just by their attempts to start an awkward conversation or the way they slouched against their chairs. Some of them scraped their eggs and bacon around on their plates with their forks, others devoured their food as if they hadn’t eaten in ages. But really, their personalities didn’t make it easier to figure out their desires—it was perfectly obvious that we were all waiting for the host of the meal to make his way through the door. To explain why we were all here.

Only I knew what was really going on. In their eyes, I could see that none of them were suspecting it. They were focused on avoiding an increasingly awkward situation, not finding out why this meal brought them all together. Only I was the one who knew the host’s true malicious intentions.

After all, who would believe that an innocent little tea party in the richest part of the kingdom would reveal where the third Emberly triplet went?