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Lori barely got any sleep that night. Only when her fatigue completely overpowered her extreme anxiety did she drift off. Even then it was never for more than half an hour at a time. Ryan slept a little better but nothing like his usual comfortable heavy sleep. The two of them met on the top of the stairs on their way to the breakfast room.
“So you didn’t wake up dead then?” Ryan deliberately got the day off to a light hearted start.
“Apparently not, although to wake up you have to go to sleep in the first place.”
Both of them noticed Shannon coming up the stairs. So they switched into charade mode.
“Hi guys, did you sleep well?” Shannon asked.
“Yeah good enough. Although I always prefer my own bed”– Lori replied.
“Oh I know what you mean. I do like my bed. Breakfast is great, lots to pick from. I’ll see you around today. We can hang out in the games’ room.”
“Well you’ve convinced me.” Ryan managed to sound genuinely enthusiastic.
Over the course of the day Lori and Ryan went out of their way to spend time with all of the other guests. Wanting to either get to know the enemy or try to work out who was on their side and who wasn’t. A large games room was a natural gathering point. Pool, poker, table tennis, chess and table football were all played. Some people spent more time in there than others. But all of the guests spent some time in there during the course of the day. A completely bizarre feeling at times, in that even given the horrifying situation they were in, Lori and Ryan both had moments when they were so caught up in the fun of a game that briefly the only thing they had on their mind was playing that game.
During the day Lori and Ryan set about interviewing all the other guests. They tried to do it as subtlety as they could and without arousing any suspicion. But both of them really wanted to test out everybody’s stories about their lives. The day dragged on. Ryan and Lori, like most people, both had times in their lives when they felt all they were doing was ‘waiting to die’. But waiting to be killed was a completely different feeling. Lori lost count of the number of times that she jumped a little with anxiety whenever there was a sudden movement or somebody appeared behind her. Luckily, it was never obvious enough to onlookers that inside Lori there was rather a shivering wreck.
At half past six in the evening the butler guy came into the games’ room where, Lori, Ryan, Shannon and Lee were. And he told them that dinner would be served in half an hour. Each of the guests went up to their rooms to get ready for dinner. Lori got to her room and found a dress lay out on the bed. It was brand new. And Lori guessed somewhere between expensive and seriously expensive. Also on the bed was a note that read: ‘Wear the dress and the shoes to dinner’. The dress was classy looking satin style material. It was blue, backless, with thin shoulder straps and came down to Lori’s knees. Shoes were a slightly darker shade of blue with a three inch heel.
“Wow, great way to make me feel less than dressed.” Ryan commented as he stood in the doorway to Lori’s room, wearing a pair of black jeans and a T-shirt.
“Not my choice”– Lori said quietly and showed Ryan the note.
“So I guess we can add: ever so slightly sleazy, to the attributes of this guy.”
“He’s managed to make me feel even more uncomfortable, just when I was thinking I couldn’t feel any worse.”
“Still could be worse, he could have made you wear something that looked bad.”
“There is that, any other circumstances I’d be happy to be wearing this dress.”
To Lori and Ryan the dining room had an even more sinister feeling to it than the previous evening. Shannon and Rachel also came to dinner wearing very stylish dresses. Shannon’s was a classic black sleeveless cocktail dress that could’ve come straight out of an Audrey Hepburn’s film. Rachel was in a very figure hugging, red dress that was shorter than the other dresses. In general the image of these two ladies in these dresses would be a very pleasant. But because of the note on Lori’s bed the whole situation had an eerily staged atmosphere to it. As the previous evening Ryan and Lori sat next to each other at the dinner table.
The conversation wasn’t as forthcoming as in the previous evening. It had many pauses with and extremely awkward feel to it. Food went down but wasn’t enjoyed. Just as all of them had finished eating one of these silent moments was broken by a voice from outside the room, via a loudspeaker. Lori and Ryan immediately recognized the voice.
“Well I hope you all enjoyed that meal – especially two of you. Since for you two it will be your last.” The three doors to the dining room were swung shut and locked from the outside.
Ryan and Lori glanced at each other, fearing the worst. But still they did not have a clue what exactly to expect.
“Two of you have swallowed fatal amounts of poison during the meal and will die within the next minute or so. I know who it is. But it’s still going to be fun watching all of you panic.”
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