One by One

The First Floor

     Third Person Limited P.O.V - Alex

     It had to have been the most extravagant interior Alex had ever seen. To the left of the front door were three coat and hat hangars. To the right was a potted plant in a blue and white vase. To the far left, he could see the dining room and to the far right, he could see the living room. Straight ahead appeared to be a piano. The piano was facing away from them and behind the piano was the seat. He assumed that to their left of the piano was a kitchen. 

     Alex could only see all of this because all of the doors were open for some reason. Then, without a word, the Nina woman immediately rushed to the piano, moved the seat in place, and started playing one of the most beautiful Sonatas he had ever heard. He had recognized it as Moonlight Sonata Op.27 No.2 Movement 3.

     Before the piano and after the doorway stood a rickety old staircase with an elegant red and yellow carpet. The staircase contrasted everything else he'd seen in the house. Alex had also assumed that if you went into the living room and turned left, you would go to a game room. He tested out this theory and found out that turning left directs you into a bedroom fit for one person. He also noticed that the couches looked comfortable enough to sleep on with their fluffy cushions.

     The dimly lit candles and lanterns provided some light which Alex was grateful for. He'd also noticed that there were matches and matchboxes if they ever needed them. There was another door attached to the living room other than the two that led into the foyer and the bedroom. 

     When Alex opened the door, he found a bathroom inlaid with white marble and quartz. It apparently didn't have indoor plumbing. But even the chamber pot was amazing! The bathtub was inlaid with wood rather than the rest of the scheme of the bathroom. The disposable water was also good. It required wood but there was enough of that in the chest next to the sink.

     When Alex went back out to the foyer, he noticed there was a giant grandfather clock next to the potted plant. The time had read 12:09. He figured that he'd spent a lot of time exploring. When he went into the dining room, he saw everybody except for Dale. He expected that he was sleeping upstairs somewhere. In the center of the table, there were some loaves of bread. He wondered how they were going to eat for the week. He walked into the room to the right of the dining room and sure enough, there was a kitchen. The distance separating the kitchen and the dining room was a hallway with doors on both ends. Alex recalled not seeing a hallway on the journey from the living room to the downstairs bedroom.

     It wasn't too much of a kitchen. It was just a bunch of crates labeled with foods such as bread, milk, honey, corn, beans, et cetera. Alex's thought it was nice. He noticed that some of the crates were stacked up in an odd position but he decided not to question it. The crates were easy to open as they weren't boxed off or anything. He grabbed 3 ears of corn and made his way back to the dining room. He sat down. There were ten chairs at the table. Each one was labeled.

     The chairs read Alex Wilson, Anya Crim, Laurel Pine, Bill Wood, Dale Tucker, Tyler Green, Chloe Evans, Nina Doyle, [Blank], Rubin Lee, and The Host. Dale's chair was obviously empty as he was sleeping. The host's chair was also empty. Alex sat down at his respective chair but was confused about the chair that was labeled "[Blank]"

     Alex asked about it and the person sitting in "Tyler Green"'s chair replied, "Yeah, I think that chair belongs to David Meer. He got his invitation two weeks before today but he wrote a letter and returned it to the 'Return to Sender' address," Tyler paused for a short moment before continuing, "He died the next day from what appeared to be poisoning in a bar."

     This sent worried looks up everybody's faces until Nina finally replied, "Wait, Wait, Wait, Hold up! So does this mean that we're all eventually going to die?"

     Bill replied, "Honestly, probably. I hope this doesn't mean that the host is one of us and is plotting ways to kill us all right now. Most likely, the house is rigged with [Death] traps."

     Alex hated to admit it, but Bill was probably right. Alex finally finished eating his corn and decided to explore the first floor then go to sleep. He figured there might be a few more rooms. There was another door connecting the dining room to something other than the kitchen or the foyer. The door was locked but since Alex was so tired, he forgot that he had a key and promptly exited the dining room, went through the hallway, went into the kitchen, and tried going to the piano room. The door separating the piano room and the kitchen was for some reason locked.

     Alex decided to go the long way to reach the dining room again. As soon as he closed the door leading into the doorway behind him, the door to the foyer slammed shut and the one lamp lighting the dining room was distinguished. Some people like Anya and Nina screamed. Alex was mainly scared because this room had no windows. You heard something metallic bump into something metallic. Then, some sort of liquid splashed onto him. It smelled like rust. As quick as that, the lamp relit but the door to the foyer stayed closed.

     Alex looked around. Around a third of the people there looked like they had just seen a ghost. The others either kept their composure or were terrified out of their wits. There was one person who was unresponsive to all of this. He was keeling over the table and his facial features were covered by the dining table cloth. He was sitting in the chair labeled "Bill Wood".

     Alex saw blood, lots of it, pouring out of a wound on the back of Bill. There was no doubt that Bill was dead.