I woke up to the alarm Lucia had set up in the main hall.

I guess it wasn’t just a bad dream, I realized while still dreading every second that I had to spend in the mansion. Complaining did nothing, so I used all the will that I had to get ready for the day. I also remembered that Petra wanted us to meet up for meals from now on, so I headed toward the dining room in the hopes of seeing the others alive.

As expected from me, I arrived last. Petra and Alex had already set the table and sat down while Rose was bringing in the food. During the time I spent getting ready in my room Rose was already preparing bacon and eggs. As much as I felt bad, I didn’t even know how to cook anything, so getting up earlier would at most have been a waste of time.

Like every other time, Petra was the one to break the silence.

“So today we’ll check out the right wing, right?” she asked with her mouth full.

“That’s definitely the best move, we’d lose track of which places we’ve checked if we go to the second floor without completely searching the first,” Alex replied.

He seemed way less worried than yesterday, like he’d already gotten used to the mansion and the constant threat that was among us. We finished our meals and went into the main hall. There were two doors on the right wing, both were exactly the same as the ones on the left wing. One of the doors there went to our rooms, so we didn’t need to check that. After thinking for a little bit, Petra gave us her idea.

“Okay, we only have one door to check on the right wing. Fortunately or unfortunately for us, whatever you consider it, we have the two doors under the staircase so we can split in two groups and still explore the same floor. Basically, we should just go in groups of two again, although we should change partners, having the same two people together will get boring really quickly and it’s important for us to slowly stop being strangers to each other. If we want progress, we should try getting along more!”

She cares about boredom in a place like this? I swear something is up with her.

Petra grabbed my hand without discussing who’ll be with who and we headed through the door under the right part of the staircase and we left Alex and Rose to explore the rest of the right wing.

Before us was a long and tight hallway. It was so tight that I had to walk behind Petra so that we wouldn’t get stuck. Both of us wanted to go somewhere with more space to walk around so we hurried through the corridor, only stopping next to old paintings that decorated the place so that we could see if there was anything hidden behind them.

Finally, we reached the door on the other side. Petra impatiently opened it and we rushed toward the next room.

Wait, this isn’t a room.

“We’re outside!” I yelled out of sheer surprise. Under my feet were grass and dirt and that was enough for me to feel like I’ve achieved something. Sadly, all of my happiness faded swiftly, leaving nothing good behind.

It only took me a couple of seconds to see that this wasn’t a way out.

The entire backyard was surrounded by what resembled a colossal bird cage with the bars too close for me to even get my hand between them. How was something like that even built?

“Calm down,” Petra looked like she figured something out, “The mansion is full of random things. We’ll just find something that can be used to move or destroy the bars!”

Just as she said that, we heard someone’s voice behind us. Both of us quickly turned around and saw Lucia, who broke into laughter.

“Do you actually believe I made those bars that weak? As I’ve said already, the only way out is finding the secret of this mansion, you have to get it through your thick skull.”

“Look who decided to show themselves! What do you want?”

“Calm down missy, I’m not here for any malicious reasons, I’m simply checking on you, I don’t want to treat my guests poorly.”

I didn’t say anything, but I was pissed. Our lives were at risk and she was probably trying to drag us further into despair with her comments.

Attempting to ignore Lucia who was staring at us, we began searching the backyard. There was still a chance something useful was here.

The first interesting thing I spotted was a shed on the other side of the yard and went to take a look inside. It was made out of wood and it was also pretty small. At least there’s not much space that I have to rummage through.

The shed didn’t look like anything special, it just had a couple of gardening tools and a lot of dust. I could also see a couple of spiders in every corner of the shed.

What a disappointment.

I came out of the shed and heard Petra and Lucia talking. I couldn’t make out anything that they were saying until I came closer. I wanted to know the topic of their conversation, though interruption didn’t seem like a great idea.

"Tell me honestly, why did you even trap us here?” Petra asked, “you already know where the secret is, that's pretty obvious, so why make us look for it?"

"Because I'm evil."

"I've noticed that, no need to tell me."

"You are the one who asked."

"I did, but you didn't give me a proper answer. I’m not letting you go with some cheesy answer like that!"

"What do you mean?"

"I’m talking about your true motive. I know you're hiding something, tell me what it is. It's not like I can do much even if I know it. Come on!"

"There's absolutely nothing more to it! I cannot explain the joy I feel when everyone is at their lowest, when they lose their hope, when they cry or get angry because of something I did!" she started drooling as she kept talking, "witnessing everyone terrified, praying for a way out. That's why I laughed when you thought about breaking the bars. It's impossible, yet you try to ignore that fact. You cling to blind hope, only for everything to fail in the end. It's so pathetic."

I knew she was lying so she could anger us, yet I couldn't stand there watching her talk about us as if we were her toys, only there to entertain her. Anger completely blinded me.

Forgetting about her insane speed and strength, I ran with my fist in the air with the intent to beat her to a pulp, but, as expected, I missed. Lucia took a step back faster than my eyes could even follow and, as I punched the air like an idiot, she kicked me right in the stomach.

I can’t fight. Why the fuck did I do that?

As my body fell to the ground I wasn’t thinking about anything except getting up and beating the living shit out of her, but that wasn't possible. I wasn’t even able to stand up for a bit of time, I was forced to lie in the grass while holding my stomach.

"This is getting out of hand," Lucia sighed, "if everyone keeps attacking me every time I say something they don't appreciate, we'll never get the game going."

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"T-this is j-just a game to you?" I replied while trying to handle the pain.

"Well, what else can you call it? It's sort of like a treasure hunt, but more intense. Plus everything is set up. I know what the secret of the mansion is, I picked out the traitor. That wouldn't be a true treasure hunt, so it's a game."

Petra already knew that she wouldn't be able to beat Lucia, so she came to help me get up instead, although she was also noticeably pissed as well.

"Well, you two keep exploring the mansion, I'm getting too bored. Farewell."

With that, Lucia decided to leave us alone.

"Jesus, that kick was hard." I said.

"Honestly, I wasn't able to predict that you'd try attacking her. It seems like a mistake only I'd make!"

"Well, I knew I needed to do something, I couldn't just stand there and let her say shit like that."

That was a lie, I attacked her purely because of my emotions, but I was still aware that I needed to take something into my own hands, considering how hard everyone was working to get out. I stood up and went back inside with Petra, though my stomach still hurt from that kick.

I wish I was as strong as Petra, she would've recovered completely by now, but still, maybe this mansion will be my place to shine. I have so many opportunities yet to be taken, there is still hope.

We went straight to the part of the right wing where Rose and Alex were. Maybe they found something, who knows?

Within the right wing, we saw what looked like a small museum. It had loads of enthralling things. Medieval armor, paintings that were way fancier than the ones decorating the corridor between the main hall and backyard, sculptures of famous people throughout history such as ancient Greek philosophers or Roman emperors.

You could easily hide extremely important clues in a place like this and have them be almost unnoticeable. I hope they searched this thoroughly.

The back of the room had a staircase similar to the ones that led to their bedrooms in the other part of the right wing and considering that Rose and Alex weren't here, it was obvious that they were in whatever place was waiting upstairs. I didn't think to search the area I was in considering that they had probably searched it already, so I ran upstairs.

The other room seemed like it was nothing more than a continuation of the room below. It also had various things that would only make sense together if they were in a museum. Both Rose and Alex were in the far left corner, on their knees, staring at something that was on the floor.

I came closer to see what they were inspecting. Firstly, I greeted them so that I wouldn’t surprise them and then took a closer look.

A wooden box? I was confused until I took a look inside. Just rope. Could that be of any help?

It wasn’t anything special, although I had a feeling like it would be needed for something important.

“The box and rope don’t seem to have anything unusual about them, although the way we found them was pretty weird,” Alex began explaining, “we were looking around the room, we were sure we’d find something in a room packed with so many interesting items and then Rose noticed some sculpture that looked off to her. She carefully touched the statue and even with just that the statue turned around by itself.”

Rose interrupted Alex. You could easily see how disinterested she was purely from her expression.

“After that, we heard a weird noise and we noticed the carpet move a bit, so we moved it and noticed that a floorboard was missing and there was this box in its place.”

Intriguing to say the least.

“Well, other than that rope these two rooms have nothing that useful.” Rose said “Any luck for you two?”

“No,” I answered since Petra was occupied by all the interesting objects around the place, “we found the backyard, but there’s no way to get out. There are giant bars stopping anyone from leaving.”

Rose, still cool headed even after hearing that there’s a place where she could go outside, thought for a bit.

“No way to get out? I’d like to take a look at it. I’ll just do that and make lunch for everyone afterwards.”

She proceeded to walk out and everybody including me followed her to the backyard. I doubt that she’ll be of any help, but what if she actually figures out a way to free us? No, I’m putting too much trust in her. Plus, something about her has been off to me ever since I saw her. I just know that she’s hiding something.

After we got there, she merely stood in front of the bars and grabbed them no more than a couple of times.

“Fascinating. These are truly strong. I’m pretty sure the mansion won’t have anything that can damage them. Thanks for telling me about this, Adam. I’ve realized a lot of things about this mansion. I think that info could help us find the secret before the traitor even finishes with his first murder plan. I’ll tell you guys everything at lunch.”

With that, she left the backyard without checking anything else or saying a word. I considered looking around the area once more, but since I was still hurt a lot, I decided to rest until lunchtime. Hours went by while I just stayed in my bed thinking about everything.

Will I ever leave this place? What will happen? What kind of secret does this mansion hold? What do the people outside think happened to us? I haven’t been home in two days and I live with both of my parents. They definitely called the cops. The others also look to be too young to live alone, so people outside must be worried.

My head was filled with questions and assumptions about the world outside thus lunch time came very slowly. I heard a knock on the door.

“Hey, come out for lunch!” I could recognize the voice, it was Petra.

I stood up and started walking towards the dining room, but just as I was going to open the door and go inside, I heard a loud noise. It sounded like it came from the left room under the staircase, the only place on the first floor that we hadn’t checked out yet. I hesitated as I wasn’t sure what could be inside, but against my justified fear, I went to see what made that noise. Upon opening the door, I witnessed the last thing I expected to see. Strangers, two of them.

I jumped back out of sheer surprise and fear, then got a better look at both of them. The first guy was way taller than me and wore a dark red coat that was oversized even for him. He also had a top hat the same color with a weird symbol on the front. The symbol was a circle that instead of connecting at the end strafed into the circle and turned into a small shape of a fireball.

The other guy looked more normal, but he also had strange clothing. A white robe that covered most of his body and head with the same symbol plastered around the edges.

"Who are you, one that interrupts us?" the man in the red coat asked me.

"I could ask you the same thing. You might be the traitor for all I know."

"So you are a participant of this deadly play, yet how? I presumed that wench had only put four of us mortals to defend our lives."

"That's what I assumed too." I said, too worried to notice the man’s unusual choice of words.

"Well, I deem that you are not to be feared, so I shall introduce myself. I am Dante."

The guy in the white robe joined in the conversation.

"I'm Eden. Dante wanted to do a ritual to help us get out and I was the only one who accepted. There is not much that can be done with our small grasp of knowledge, therefore everything must be tried."

So, he’s Dante’s friend. Maybe they knew each other before being trapped here.

The room they tried to do the ritual in was the shape of a cube, completely empty and, for some reason, the walls were wooden planks, despite the rest of the mansion being way more luxurious.

It looks so cheap and dirty, but I guess the emptiness is good for rituals. I can’t say for sure, spaces for doing rituals never really crossed my mind.

After considering what to say or do next, I got the idea to introduce them to the rest of the group, so that we could collectively decide what to do. I turned around to point towards the dining room, but before I could do that I was surprised yet again. With a loud hit on the door, Rose ran out of the room, one hand on her mouth and the other on her stomach, headed towards the bedrooms.

"What happened?" I yelled out.

Petra and Alex ran towards her with looks of worry on their faces.

"Adam, come here!" Alex yelled as he kept running.

I ran along, leaving Dante and Eden behind. I needed to know what happened and if Rose was okay.

She ran inside her room and straight to the bathroom. I could hear the sound of puking and I was able to smell that disgusting smell all the way from the hallway.

The puking soon stopped. We waited for her to get out of the bathroom, but that didn’t happen.

"Rose!" Alex called out for her in a worried voice.

No response.

All of us rushed to the bathroom. Rose's head was touching the toilet seat and the toilet was filled with puke. Petra got close to her.

"Rose! Rose!" Petra screamed and shook her, but Rose didn't respond. She brought her head closer to Rose's nose and her hand to Rose's heart.

The quickly rising despair wrapped me in its arms, forcing me to accept the harsh truth.

Rose died.

The scene reeked of death, of indescribable coldness that I had never witnessed before. Did it ever have to come to this? Did it really? I screamed internally.

I couldn't even look at the body anymore, it was too much of a curse to bear.

Standing between Alex and Petra, I passed out.