Eryk
The rooms were underground.
Eryk was among the first housemates to notice it. While the others ventured to the kitchen and garden areas to figure out the facilities they would enjoy for some days at least, he went in search of the rooms. He noticed that the room they made the introductions in had a large open floor partitioned into sections by walls which looked detachable, they divided the lounge area from the dining and kitchen area. He bent down and absently rubbed his ankle, he desperately needed to rest and take his medications. The strain he exerted on his legs before the house opened had caused a swelling to form on the ankle of his right leg.
Eryk walked out of the room and paused; to his left was the narrow hallway they walked through and from what he saw there was no extra door there, to the right of him was a wall standing about five feet away from him. A dead end. Where were the rooms? He looked back into the room, the only other door inside led to a garden area, obviously made to make them feel like they had an option to go outdoors. He turned back, positively sure that the hallway consisted of only detachable green walls on either side and a figurine.
Eryk advanced into the hallway, and felt around the figurine for anything. A knob, a switch, maybe a handle that opened a door but there was nothing. The bronze sculpture stared at him until he turned away, the bear's eyes made him uneasy like he was being watched. He walked back to the wall on the right, now sure that that wall held secrets about where he would sleep for the next few nights. Eryk flipped another switch on, and watched as the bulb above where he stood flickered to life slowly growing in intensity till the luminescent white light reached across the hallway.
He looked at the wall and groaned. Sitting a little below his eye level, a brass lever handle jutted out about one inch from the wall. It was perfectly placed for anyone who needed to find it, provided the light was turned on. Eryk moved the lever handle to the opposite side and watched as the wall opened up to reveal a set of stairs leading down.
"Well, this is different." He muttered, pushing down a strong urge to call the others in the lounge. Somehow, he felt everyone had to find the stairs on their own. Eryk felt hesitant to go in with no sort of protection; placing his trust in the organizers challenged him even in their territory, but seeing no choice, he went down. The stairs went straight at first, then started winding down into the opposite direction towards the hallway upstairs. Despite being underground, light flooded the stairs from a high window, the stair railings made from crystals sparkled, and the steps were covered with a rug spreading through to the end of the wide steps. Eryk continued to go down, feeling more confident when he heard familiar voices.
He reached the end of the stairs which stopped at a bigger hallway with five doors, two on each side each opened to reveal beds and one closed door straight ahead. The doors were arranged in a U-shape, leaving a wide space at the centre where two housemates, a guy and a girl stood talking. Eryk ignored them, walked towards the first room on the right and collapsed on one of the beds. He needed to rest, he thought as his eyelids fluttered shut.
Priya
The wolf-whistler discovered the rooms first, he claimed it was easy for him to spot since his uncle had a lot of them in his offices and he was eager to share his discovery with Priya.
"We should be roommates." He whispered as he led the way down, carrying her box with him. She nodded absently, more fascinated by the sight of an underground sleeping area than with a guy who obviously wanted to get under her gown. Priya completely shut him out when he started talking about how his room was larger than the whole top floor, which only confirmed that he didn't need the money. She looked around, gears wheeling in her head. The staircase had its own mini room, with an arched window at the very top. Was it the same window she had fancied when she stood outside the house? Priya glanced back at the guy beside her, she saw his mouth was still moving and she looked away. Why did he come here? For adventure? To get girls? Certainly not to get money, he had plenty of that. He rattled on till they got to the last stair, and Priya looked around widely for a chance to escape him.
No such luck. The guy stopped talking and spun her to face him, as he flipped his hair over his left eyebrow and grinned at her. Hazel brown eyes which flickered between her eyes and lips, a flat nose, long hair that fell into his eyes everytime he turned his head, his extremely bright yellow shirt, she absorbed it all and studied it in her mind. Not her type. Priya lightly pushed him away and turned her face to the side. She preferred something else, something like--- she looked around the hall and fixed her eyes on the guy who, at that moment, walked past them into one of the rooms. Her eyes followed him, she wanted something like that.
Priya picked her box and headed in the direction of the same room, determined to be roommates with the guy but before she got to the door, her new 'friend' grabbed her arm lightly. "Let's go there instead." He motioned, pointing at the room opposite the one she wanted to be in. In her mind, she laid out her options; she could abandon this self-absorbed creep and move forward into the room she wanted, or she could follow this guy to the room he wanted. If she left this guy, she might lose an ally who could be helpful in the games but she might gain a new one with more benefits. Priya nodded and let him drag her to the opposite room, sighing wistfully. Better to be with the devil you knew than the angel you didn't.
"By the way, Priya, you can call me JP. It's what everyone close to me does." He winked and opened the door for her, letting her go in first. Priya didn't know if she ought to be flattered by his nice gesture or run in the opposite direction. Wasn't the guy supposed to enter before the lady if they were in unfamiliar territory? No matter, there was nothing scary about the room. Three beds stood separated from each other with a curtain around each for privacy, each bed also had am arched window similar to the ones upstairs, but smaller. At one side of the room, two extra doors opened up and she strode into them, one was the bathroom while the other had three small wardrobes for their belongings. Priya walked back into the main room where her new roommate stood patiently waiting, and as she stared at him she had a flash of memory, his name was Jasper.
Chiara
By the time Chiara got around to figuring out where the rooms were, only two beds were left unoccupied. She stared at the door of Room C, the names of its current occupants were written boldly across it on a white board, and a black marker lay at the top of the board, waiting for her to pick it up and add her name. She wrote it down, it was either this or Room D and she didn't particularly like the letter.
Chiara opened the door and dragged her large suitcases into the room, instantly noticing that her roommates had half the luggage she did. Infact, she suspected she brought the most among all the housemates as some of them, including the girls brought one suitcase each while the others had smaller bags. Luckily, one of the girls she spoke to earlier was her roommate and together they helped her settle in and unpack her belongings. She had just freshened up when an intercom in the underground hallway announced that dinner would be served upstairs. She put on her night clothes and stepped out of her room while her stomach grumbled, it seemed like everyone had gone already, apparently she wasn't the only one starving.
Upstairs, the other housemates sat around the dining table while the masked men who had come earlier carried plates around the table. Chiara sat on the only available chair, and tried not to look disgusted when she was served. She detested only three things; the smell of smoke, trying to get her baby brother to eat his breakfast, and Chicken parmigiana. The third on her list sat before her in a white ceramic plate, along with cutlery of various shapes and sizes on each side of the plate. Chiara was not a fussy eater, her father had once said, very nicely, that her mouth was like a garbage can which could take anything. Anything except parmigiana, especially when served alongside spaghetti which currently decorated the right half of the plate. The taste had never appealed to her, it just never looked quite right, and whenever she tried it with spaghetti she vomited everything thirty minutes afterwards.
She looked around, everyone else looked happy and satisfied as they noisily ate. One guy even asked for a second helping, and she nearly offered hers' but her stomach decided to grumble again.
"Do you still want it?" Lola asked her. Her roommate held her plate towards her, trying to stare her down and make her give it up. She sighed, her stomach wouldn't let her rest through the night if she did.
"Oh, what else is there to do?" Chiara mumbled and picked up a fork carefully transferring all her spaghetti into the girl's plate. She wouldn't dare to go all the way, she still had a reputation to hold on to and it was not in her plans to become tonight's entertainment. The masked men waited till everyone was done eating, and cleared away the used plates taking them as they exited the house.
"Good evening housemates. I hope you all enjoyed the meal." Chiara grimaced in response. She hadn't enjoyed it one bit, it was a relief she didn't feel like going to the toilet yet. Maybe her intestines were in good spirits today.
Mr. Han's voice from the intercom continued. "The meal was a treat from the organizers to congratulate you on reaching here safely. From tomorrow, however, you'll have to make food for yourselves with the inventory made available in the kitchen." Chiara couldn't be more happier than she was at this moment, finally her chef-in-training skills would pay off and what she endured this night would not be repeated.
"The organizers have decided to let you interact with your fellow housemates for one more day, so the first game will begin two days from now at noon. Goodnight and good luck."
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