Seven

Chapter 9- The Only Way Out

Mario couldn't stop thinking about the book Nine had found. He wondered what was in it, for every player, but mostly for himself. Was he here because of a murder he didn't commit? Or was he here because of Soren?

He couldn't deny he was curious, but he wasn't stupid. Knowing why the other players were here didn't give him any kind of advantages. If anything, it would probably only make him more weary of them. He had already decided that he couldn't trust them, so as far as he was concerned, nothing else mattered other than getting out of this place alive.

And seeing as how he knew he wouldn't do that if he lost the second game, he knew he had to choose a partner. Since Nine was the thief, it seemed the only choice would be Carmen. He didn't know what the next games would be, but he felt like Carmen was a smart girl and would be useful to him in strategy games. And if the game called for brute strength, he would be useful to her.

He got up off his bed, ready to go find Carmen, but he paused when there was a knock at his door. He stepped forward and hesitantly answered, expecting Nine again.

But he was surprised to see Carmen instead. She pushed her glasses up her nose and took a deep breath, as if Mario made her nervous.

"So um...we only have a little while left and...I really didn't want to ask you this, but since it doesn't look like I'm going to have another choice, do you want to be my partner for the next game?" she asked, looking anywhere but at him.

Mario furrowed his brows. Was she really choosing him because he was her only option? He had to let it go, since really, she was his only option as well. He didn't trust Brandi or Damon and Nine was on his way out, in one way or another.

"Fine," he rolled his eyes. "But we play the game and that's all."

"What else would we do?" she scoffs. "Do you want to get it on so all these hidden cameras can watch us?"

Hidden cameras...

That gave Mario an idea. There had to be some place someone was watching the footage. Somewhere Mario could see every nook and cranny of the house. If he could find some kind of control room, maybe he could find a way out.

"Hello?" Carmen asked, waving her hand in Mario's face.

He blinked a couple of times and pulled himself together. "We have a couple of hours before the game starts," Mario said looking to Richard, who was at his usual post, right outside Mario's door. He had to find some way to distract him.

After giving it some thought, Mario came back to Carmen's s****l insinuation. "Why don't we get to know each other a little better," he smirked, taking Carmen by the hand.

She smirked back, seeming to catch right on. "I thought you'd never ask."

He pulled her inside his room and closed the door behind them. He dragged her to the opposite side of the room where the window was and opened it up.

"Do you see this?" he asked, tapping the misleading backdrop with the fire poker. "This wasn't here the first time I opened this window, when I first got here. Which means, somehow, they've trapped us in this house. My first questions is...how did they do it without anyone noticing? My second question...who would be capable of pulling something like this off? I mean, the staff...all of them look over a hundred."

Carmen laughed. "Yeah, you're right. There's no way they did this. So who do you think did?"

Mario looked around the room for a camera. They obviously weren't in plain sight, but if they were hidden, they were hidden very, very well. "We still don't know who this Dr. Vincent is. Maybe he's the one who's controlling everything."

"Do you think he's the guy that was in the video with Jackson?" Carmen asked.

"Maybe. He never showed his face, so it makes sense."

"Do you think it's possible that he knows us? And that's why he's hiding his face? It would explain how he tracked us down," Carmen said.

That was a really good point that Mario hadn't considered before. Someone here had to know the players, in some way or another. It would explain the book Nine found as well.

"Player 7 found a book that contained personal information about all of us. Specially, why we're here," Mario said, still searching for the hidden cameras.

Carmen went stiff. She couldn't have hidden the panic in her eyes if she wanted to, so she didn't.

Mario looked back over his shoulder at her, furrowing his brows. "Don't worry, he only told me about Jackson. I didn't want to hear anything else. I don't care why anyone else is here. Knowing that type of thing won't help me win and it won't get me out of here."

"The book he found...is that what Dr. Vincent was talking about?" Carmen asked.

"If I had to guess. Then again, I don't know what the hell is going on. Just when I think I've figured something out, they change things up on me," Mario shrugged.

"So do you think he gave it back? I mean, he has to know what will happen to him if he doesn't."

Mario paused for a moment to give it some thought. Something told him that even if Nine gave the book back to Dr. Vincent, he still would've been punished somehow. Maybe Nine knew that too. Which meant he was either about to turn himself in and accept what's coming to him, or he was about to make a desperate attempt to escape.

"He'll try to make a run for it before he gives himself up," Mario said, thinking out loud.

"Then we should find him before the next game starts. He could show us the way out," Carmen suggested.

Mario nodded in agreement and the two of them began to search for Nine. They passed Richard in the hallway and he gave them a knowing smirk, as if he knew what the two of them were up to. He couldn't possibly know, could he? After all that's happened, Mario wouldn't be surprised if they could hear everything the players said too. If there were hidden cameras, why wouldn't there be hidden mics too?

"We should be careful what we say," Mario said quietly, looking to Carmen. "If they can see us, they can probably hear us too."

"So...do you want to use code words or something?" she asked.

"I was thinking something a little more simple. Like writing," Mario suggested.

"Writing? So we're gonna pass notes like a couple of kids in middle school?"

"Do you want to die?" he asked her, c*****g a brow.

She gave him a look at first, but then it turned into a smirk. "Okay, so where's the pen and paper?"

"The rule book. We can write on the pages in the book, we just need to find something to write with," Mario says, looking around the hallway.

"There's a fireplace in each bedroom. We can use the charred firewood. It's not conventional, but it could work," she shrugged.

"So you're suggesting we used the soot from the fireplace? How will we do that? With our fingers?" Mario asked in confusion.

Carmen didn't answer him. Instead, she picked up her pace, walking in front of Mario to the other end of the long, dimly lit hallway.

"Where are you going?" Mario asked, hurrying to catch up to her.

"To my bedroom," she answered.

She offered no further explanation, so Mario followed behind her. She stopped in front of a door that had an elderly woman standing next to it. Mario's eyes widened when he saw her, but he quickly hung his head so she wouldn't notice. She smiled at Carmen, revealing her crooked, yellow teeth. Mario tried his best not to stare. His mother always told him to mind his own business if it didn't concern him, and this woman and her...unfortunate face, it was none of his business.

Mario tried to follow Carmen into her room, but the old lady stepped in front of him. Mario took a step back, a sudden sense of dread coming over him, as if he knew something were about to happen.

"No gentlemen in the lady's room," the woman said with a horse, scratchy voice.

Damn, did this woman smoke a pack of cigarettes every day of her life? Her voice was almost...monstrous, Mario thought to himself.

"It's okay, Gerdy. He's my partner for the next game. We're just coming up with a strategy," Carmen said.

Gerdy looked from Carmen to Mario. "I'm sorry, I can't allow it."

Carmen rolled her eyes, sighing in frustration. "Just wait here," she told Mario.

She entered her bedroom while Mario waited for her outside her door, standing next to Gerdy, who he couldn't say he liked very much. She made him feel uneasy, and not just because she was looking at him the way most old, white ladies looked at him. There was something about her that wasn't quite right. Her dress looked like it was made a century ago, which coincidentally, was the last time she saw a toothbrush.

"What are you looking at?" she growled at Mario.

He gave her a look and started backing away. "Nothing."

"You're just the same, all of you," she said, starting towards him with an angry glare. "You come here and you expect to be waited on, hand and foot. Your lust drives you into each other's rooms, your greed drives you to take another man's life. Your selfishness...the very reason you're here..."

"That's enough Mama Gerdy," Richard said, hurrying over and wrapping an arm around her shoulder. "Come, let's get you something to eat."

Richard looked back over his shoulder at Mario as he led Gerdy away. "My apologies, sir. Mama Gerdy's ways are a bit outdated."

Mario couldn't agree more. A lot about this place and the staff seemed outdated. Of course their way of thinking would be too.

"Okay, do you think this will work?" Carmen asked, exiting her bedroom and holding up a few pieces of plastic that resembled the legs of a spider.

"What is that?" Mario asked her.

"It's pieces of my hair clip," she replied, displaying them in the palm of her hand. I grabbed a charred piece of wood and stuck it in my pocket. It's not much, but I think it will work."

"Did you get your rule book?" Mario asked her.

"No. I never found mine," she shrugged.

That's strange. Mario couldn't find his at first either, but then when he did, it was like it was hidden in plain sight and he just overlooked it before.

"We can use mine," he said, turning and heading back down to the other end of the hallway with Carmen following behind him.

"So why is it that you have a rule book and I don't? How am I supposed to know what rules not to break if I don't know what the rules are?" Carmen asked as they walked along.

"Good question. I didn't notice mine at first either. I found it on my bed, but I don't think it was there before. It's like...maybe someone put it there."

"Someone like who? And why are they only giving some people rule books and not others?" she asked.

He gave her an annoyed look. "How the hell should I know? I just know it wasn't there, and then it was. Just like I could see the outside world through my window before and now it's been replaced with some kind of creepy painting."

Mario walked into his bedroom and took the leather bound book off his nightstand. He opened it up, surprised to see nothing but blank pages. He furrowed his brows in confusion, flipping from one page to the next to reveal a whole lot of nothing.

"So...where are these rules you speak of?" Carmen asked.

"They were here...I swear..."

"I believe you," she shrugged. "This house is weird. Nothing is as it seems. Which means...there's probably no way for us to get out alive."

Until just now, Mario would've disagreed with her. He was sure none of this could really be happening and it was all just some kind of joke or magic trick. He never considered that people were actually dying, or that there was no way out. He didn't want to consider it.

The only way out was to die or to win.

And Mario had no idea what it would even take to win these games anymore.