Game On

Chapter 10: Hide and Seek

I instantly run towards the front door, only to finding it locked. Surprise, surprise...

Not wanting to waste invaluable seconds, I run deeper into the house instead. I start running of a corridor, and open all the doors I see on the way. Some of them are locked, and I don't have the time to take in the appearance in the other rooms, all I am looking for is a door leading out, knowing that the windows are sealed.

As I feel my muscles tense and stretch out, my question replays in my head over and over again.

What's the catch?

I open another door, this one at the end of the corridor, and steps into a big room with bookcases and a few tables, chairs and armchairs. It looks like a library, but most important, it looks like a library with a double glass door leading out.

I instantly run past a few decorative vases with green plants and push down the door handle. To my surprise, the door opens with ease and I frown. I had prepared myself for smashing the door open, shatter the glass into thousands of pieces. Could it really be this easy? I ask myself as my feet keeps moving forward and leaving the door open in the hurry. My eyes quickly glance through the new surrounding.

A few meters in front of my is a big, squared pool with a trampoline and a few loungers, and on each side of this backyard, in the corner of the mansion, goes a gray fence that disappears into the woods about a hundred meters away.

It is in the middle of the day, and the sun shines straight in my eyes and I have to put my hands in front of me to be able to see the tops of the fence. It's lined with barbed wire. Great.

Instead of immediately running towards the thick woods, I run to the fences and stretch out my arms in front of my to shake the fence, see if it gives in a little bit. Before I manage to slip my fingers into the gaps between the fencing, I feel a pain shot out from my fingertips and launching through my whole body. I scream at the shock and then line up a few curses as my whole right arm tingles in an unpleasant feeling. The fence is electrified, and not only with a few volts.

There is no way I'm able to climb the fence, and something tells me the whole place I'm in right now is enclosed by the fence. Running off into the woods will probably be as useless as trying to break a window or climbing the fence. Pointless, with other words.

Suddenly realization hits me like a punch in the stomach.

There's no escape. This is just a test.

They tricked me. I can't get out of here, not now with them in the kitchen, counting, and the electrified fence out here.

I bet they do this to all of the girls, as a test, or a game. And I bet they think I will run off into the woods, which is exactly why I won't.

I don't know how far they've gotten with the counting, but I do know that they will be done at any time now if they aren't already.

As my whole brain scream no, I force my legs and feet to take me back inside, still leaving the door open. I tiptoe over to the door that leads from the library back out to the corridor, and as I can still hear them counting, simultaneously shouting "54", I make a quick decision and open the door as quietly as I can, not bothering to close it as I slip out. They will probably search the woods no matter if the door is open or not.

I continue tiptoeing past a few doors and slipping into the third as I hear them all shouting "58". I'm trying to be as quiet as possibly as I close the door again, silently thanking the guys for counting slow, as I watch what kind of room I've ended up in. Everything in here goes in black and white, as in the kitchen, and I immediately understand what kind of room I'm standing in as I notice a washing machine and dryer, and even a white rectangular box that looks like a drying cabinet. I'm in the laundry room.