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The mansion they were driven to, was in a very secluded area and had a long winding drive way. Normally it would have the look of a luxurious holiday home. But knowing what they did, Ryan and Lori looked upon the building with great trepidation.
“There’s a bag for each of you in the trunk.” The driver told them just as he parked outside the front door.
“I see. You want me to go along with the pretense of winning a holiday. Very well thought out.” Ryan said but the only response from the driver was a stony glare.
“Not much of a talker then. Fair enough, thanks for the lift.” Ryan’s dominant response in a stressful situation was proving to be his liking for a light hearted quip.
Their knock on the large, old oak door was answered within a few seconds. It slowly swung open and Lori and Ryan were presented with an image of an old man dressed as a classic butler. But he wasn’t all that convincing in the role.
“We’ve been expecting you Miss Jordan and Mr. Walsh.”
Inside, the mansion had a very old fashioned country home feel to it. It was easy to imagine one of those murder mystery weekends, being played out there.
“Let me show you to your rooms.”
They both went up the grand, winding stairs to the first floor. At the top of the stairs a lady was about to make her way down. She looked to be about the same age as Lori and Ryan. And both of them noticed a definite hint of trepidation in her when she first noticed them. After only a fleeting moment of that trepidation, she broke into a big smile. She made a slightly prolonged eye contact with Ryan as if to suggest some sort of recognition on both their parts.
“Hi! You guys must be the other competition winners. You’ll love it here. It’s great. I only got here a few hours ago. But I can promise you that the place is very luxurious. I’m Shannon by the way.”
“Hey Shannon, thanks for the welcome. I’m Ryan.”
“And I’m Lori.”
“I’ll leave you to get sorted and catch up with you later.” Shannon continued with the pleasant smiling and then walked briskly down the stairs.
Lori and Ryan had been shown to their neighboring rooms – both very spacious and luxurious. Another of the residents of the house went into Ryan’s room to introduce himself. He was Mick, another lucky competition winner. He told Ryan he was a Lieutenant in the New York Police Department. He was very keen to know all about Ryan and about Lori when she came into the room. Mick looked to be in his mid-thirties. He said he was divorced. And he had a son. His devotion to his job had caused the split from his wife. Under normal circumstances nothing in Mick’s story would’ve been at all strange or suspicious. But in these extreme circumstances Lori and Ryan were taking everything with a pinch of salt.
There was a knock on the door as it was gently pushed open.
“Dinner’s ready you guys.” Shannon told them. “Come on down and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the group. I see you’ve already met Mick.”
The dining room was luxurious. And the table and chairs looked like they came right out of an English Monarchs residence from the mid eighteenth century. Eight people dined. Eight people, meaning there were seven people that Lori and Ryan were both very suspicious of. Food was plentiful, nutritious and very tasty but still very hard to enjoy for Lori and Ryan. As soon as they had finished eating, Lori and Ryan said they were tired and made their excuses for heading straight to bed. Making their way out of the dining room together it was difficult for them not to cast suspicious glances over their shoulder.
“I would really like to talk to you about all this.” Ryan said quietly to Lori as they made their way up the stairs.
“I think a debriefing session with somebody would definitely help to ease some of the unbearable tension I’m feeling. We can talk in my room.”
Lori lay out on the large bed in her room whilst Ryan sat in a hard backed armchair next to the bed.
“So what did you make of everybody down there?” Ryan asked.
“It’s so hard to make a fair judgment on anybody in this situation. To be honest I’m still suspicious of you. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t trust you as far as I could throw you right now. You recognize any of them from anywhere at all?”
“No, not even a vague hint of recognition. They all seem so genuine. But I suppose if for whatever reason you are part of some grand scheme to fool somebody then you are going to be very good at seeming genuine. You recognize any of them?”
“No not at all.”
“Not even Shannon?”
“No, why do you say that?” Ryan appeared ever so slightly defensive.
“Just when we first met her on the stairs I thought I detected a slight hint of recognition between the two of you.”
“No, well not on my part anyway.”
“Perhaps just the situation makes me super paranoid.” Lori said.
“Shannon seems fine ”– Lori continued. “Based purely on how she’s behaved so far she would be somebody I could easily see myself being friends with.”
“Yeah very easy going, not too mention easy on the eye. Although if you wanted a guy to trust and like a female it would be a good call to pick a good looking one.”
“You guys really are too easy aren’t you?”
“At least I’m honest about it. I’m still not sure about your cute young lady in distress with asthma tendency. It is obvious to me and it tempts me to think it could be a double bluff.”
“Anyway back to Shannon: She says she’s a computer programmer with a talent for that job but very little enthusiasm.”
“Well that’s certainly believable. I’m sure there are plenty of people with jobs like that. And they’ve got least enthusiasm.”
“If it was a cover story though, it’s quite an easy one. It doesn’t attract too many questions. And it’s probably easy to play the average Joe.”
“Mick seemed very inquisitive. Although to be fair, if indeed he was a cop, then that could be a hazard of the job.”
“Yeah, there was a genuine quality to him. His divorce story seemed so real and not at all glamorized as it might have been, if it were fake.”
“Getting the picture of his son out, to show us, did seem a little clichéd though.”
“Yeah that did seem a little like he was trying too hard to prove he was genuine. Lee was quiet. But it’s so hard to interpret that as being genuine or suspicion worthy.”
“Whilst his demonstrations clearly showed he was indeed a karate expert, it was also a little easy to then back up his story of being a karate instructor for a living.”
“Again, though his story does fit, no obvious holes in it. Rachel wasn’t quiet at all. She was quite a rambler in fact. Maybe she was even a little bit dizzy but in a pleasant way if I was being honest.”
“She actually seemed nervous to me. Much as I’d like to think it was in a first date sort of way. And she has a massive crush on me. I really wasn’t getting that sort of vibe at all. She actually seemed nervous about something more substantial. Although I suppose once again that could be playing on that whole vulnerable female image in my mind.”
“Did I come across as nervous?”
“Probably. Although nothing that would have looked like anything more than being in a room full of strangers.”
“Rachel was a bit vague about her work. Although to be fair, a lot of young girls drift from one menial job to the next. And they spend the money on frequent night outs.”
“Oh dear, the youth of today. Michael and Bill actually knowing each other before this whole holiday competition did seem for the most part strange.”
“Yeah but they didn’t try to hide it at all. Although I suppose that could be a double bluff situation. This is hopeless. Every one of them could be bluffing, double bluffing or triple bluffing.”
“Triple bluffing? Wouldn’t that just be bluffing?” Ryan checked.
“My mind is way too scrambled to summon the mental energy to check your logic.”
“I tell you what though: Michael and Bill certainly increased the average age of the group.”
“Yeah I would say Michael was in his early fifties. And Bill was maybe ten years younger. Both of them did look like they are in the jobs they claimed to be in.”
“Yeah Michael the Judge and Bill the lawyer! Again in any normal circumstance I wouldn’t have any problem believing that. Plus it fits well with how they know each other.”
“This really is pointless. There’s no way we are going to know who’s trustworthy or not. Until one of them kills us or gets killed.”
“None of the voices sounded like the guy on the phone.”
“Definitely not! So what do we do now? Just go to bed and hope we don’t wake up dead.”
“Wake up dead? How would that work, then?” Ryan looked at a complete loss and with a smile at Lori.
“Did I mention about my mind being unclear? I actually do feel very tired. But I’m not sure I want to go to sleep.”
“If you’re really struggling to sleep I could try to explain cricket to you, that might do the trick.”
“Maybe some other time.”
“I’ll hold you to that. Look! The way I see it, somebody has complete control of this situation. If they want to kill us they will do any time they want. So there’s nothing we can do about it. Therefore we may as well continue this charade as long as we can. And hope that somehow some way we can get out of here alive.”
“Easier said than done. Plus that wasn’t exactly the most inspirational speech.”
“Sorry. I’ll work on a better one tomorrow night.”
“I just hope I’m alive to hear it.”
Down the corridor Shannon was trying to get to sleep in her room. When she finally got to sleep it was a very uneasy sleep. Shannon was tossing and turning quite dramatically. She mumbled and was clearly in some distress. She was completely awake in an instant as she jumped up into a sitting fully upright position, letting out a short, sharp scream. Her breaths were also short and sharp, as if about to go into a shock. She managed to get some sort of control of her breathing. It was then she noticed that her entire body was covered in sweat. It was the same dream or more accurately the same nightmare she’d been having for weeks now. Horrible screeching sound, it was that horrible sound that always made her wake up.
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