One by One

The Second Floor

     First Person P.O.V - Alex

     I guess I never bothered to look up while I was down in the foyer. If I had, I would have noticed the balcony on the second floor. This seriously limited space to walk around. I bet that one of us would have fallen off for fun or by accident if it weren't for this balcony fence overlooking the downstairs foyer.

     I looked over the fence and saw a giant window across from me. Behind the window, was the forest, train tracks, and no sign of anything else. Strange. I looked up now. Above the foyer, was a giant candelabra that hung from the ceiling with an intricate design. It was sort of like a chandelier.

     I also noticed a third floor above the one I was already on. I thought, Oh great, more floors. What's next, an attic? What's after that? The roof? I quickly contradicted myself as having an accessible roof might help escape but I couldn't figure out how. A more logical guess would be that above the attic was a small compartment of some sorts but the odds were slim.

     I was facing away from the foyer and the front door. To the left of me was a door. Straight ahead was also a door. But to the right, nothing. Not even as much as a bookcase. I would have thought that a building like this would have had symmetry but apparently not. I thought back to the downstairs and realized that wasn't the slightest bit symmetrical either.

    I suddenly realized that I needed to relieve myself. I couldn't go back downstairs because it would have been rude to leave Anya after she invited you to tag along. I decided to find a bathroom up here and go there.

     I looked at Anya and she looked to be taking in her surroundings as well. She finally had said, "So, this is definitely amazing. Has a quaint feeling to it, Alex. This leads us to our first question. Straight, or left?"

     I replied, "Well, I could be fine going with either. You can choose."

     Anya said, "Well, I can't so," I stayed silent. She continued, "your choice."

     We went back and forth like that for a minute or so until I finally conceded and said, "So be it! Left it is!"

     We went to the left door and went through. This room had 4 doors and 0 windows in total. I found it strange because going left from our point would be impossible, wouldn't it? The door surely must be a joke of some sorts.

     Being the curious type I was, I made my way to the door. Anya quickly followed. She seemed to have noticed this anomaly as well. I opened the door. Or, I tried to open the door. Go figure, it was locked.

     After that, I decided to take in the rest of the room. It looked to be a game room. In two of the corners stood potted plants and in the other two stood glass cabinets. In one of the glass cabinets, there were loads of porcelain chinaware and clay pottery of multiple colors. The plates and vases were all white and blue.

     The potted plants looked exactly like the ones downstairs except for the one on the right of the door in which we came from. That one was green and white with green being the dominant color instead of the other ones.

     In the center of the room were couches, seats, and a glass table standing on what appeared to be a large, flat, rock. On the glass table were a cloth and some classic games. There was also a deck of cards.

     Anya finally said, "I may just sleep in here tonight. It's very calm."

     I replied, "Well, just keep in mind that there are no windows."

     Anya said, "I suppose."

     We tried the other two doors. One of them swung open and to my relief, there was a restroom almost exactly like the one downstairs. This was the room on top of the dead bodies of Bill and David.

     I said to Anya, "Excuse me," and promptly went inside, closed the door, and to my horror, I discovered that the door didn't have a lock. I shouted, "Please don't come in!"

     I heard her reply, "I wouldn't want to anyways," and she gave a small chortle.

     I stood up and relieved myself. I realized that it had been more than 16 hours since I did this and thought that it wouldn't be too good for my health.

     This room didn't have a chamber pot. Instead stood a bowl shape with a pipe that led downwards. I finally decided not to give it too much thought and went to wash my hands. I took some wood from the corner and put it in the corner. The matches also did me some good. It looked like this boiler already had a large vat of cold water waiting to be steamed. I washed my hands using only some of it as I wanted my fellow guests to have water, too.

     I left the restroom and joined Anya once more. The final door stood in our wake. We approached and we opened it. Instead of a hallway as you would have expected, this room was a bedroom with two large beds on white firm mattresses.

     On one of the beds stood a piece of parchment that read, "Dale's Bed". On the other bed stood a parchment that read, "Laurel's Bed". I thought, Heh, who knew? The two original sleepers on my train are the ones to sleep in this room. Nice. This was definitely a nice bedroom.

     There were three doors in this room in total. The one where they came from and the other two unknown. Anya finally said, "Well, I should probably leave a sign on my bed like these two did."

     I agreed. I wondered which door we should go through. I asked Anya for her choice and she said, "Right. I want to loop back around."

     I said, "Yes, that's logical and I have the same intention."

     With that, we went through the door on the right and we entered a thin hallway that splits into left and right from our point of view. We decided to go right and weren't surprised at all to find that we were back at the balcony.

     I said, "Well. I'm hungry and fatigued. I'm going to go downstairs."

     Anya said, "Eh, suit yourself. I'll go explore some more."

     With that, I descended the rickety staircase. I looked at the grandfather clock which now read 3:22 P.M. I thought, Well, could be earlier. I just want this week to be over.

     I went to the kitchen and saw all of the food crates. I saw the food crates that were stacked in an odd way earlier during your stay. At the bottom of the pile, I saw a crate labeled, "Crackers". This caught my attention real fast. It was impossible to get to the crate without moving the ones on top of it. I wanted these crunchy treats so I tried to get to the crate. I tried getting the ones on top of it to get off. But, I accidentally knocked them over.

     Around a quarter of the kitchen spilled after that. I saw canned meat, beans, oats, peas, and rice amongst other things that spill out of their respective crates. The crackers remained unharmed. Right before you went to reach for the crackers, I saw a small metal door behind where the oddly stacked crates previously were.

     I went to it. I saw that it had a sideways hatch as a handle. I turned it and the door swung open. Surprisingly, it was unlocked. Inside was a staircase that went down. I started to descend. 

     Suddenly, a scream rang from somewhere in the house.