A few minutes later we were walking down a flight of stone steps, following a light towards what once had been a cellar. Walking behind Eric and Sara, Ron carried my bag and held my hand in his, leading me down the stairs, while Matt helped Yvonne, bringing up the rear.

"Wow. Look at this..." Eric, the first of us reaching whatever was at the end of the staircase, said. 

I jumped as the trapdoor shut on its own accord the moment Eric and Sara entered the next room.

"You are still so easily scared... By now, you should know it's just a game, Maya." Ron said, looking up at me, the wan light reaching us from the underground room illuminating his smile.

"I... hate these games..." I whispered, even as we entered the room too.

It was a kitchen-- spacious, modern, warm and well supplied with food and drinks.

I took a deep, calming breath and made a beeline for one of the six tall-stemmed glasses filled up to the rim with a red liquid, waiting for us on the counter. 'Gosh I need a drink...' I thought, accepting a glass from Ron, who, dumping our bags by the door, reached them first.

I drained my glass watching Matt, who led Yvonne towards us, and offered her a glass of wine while Eric reached for a large envelope lying under an oversized bottle of champagne trushed into a silver bucket full of ice, nearly too large for the marble counter.

"It's all right..." Ron whispered in my ear, his breath landing on the sensitive skin of my neck making me shiver. "Don't worry about anything."

I looked up at him and opened my mouth to ask what he meant exactly, when Sara, taking the envelope from her boyfriend, started to read, even as the door we had just walked through shut. It was the same as the front door of the house, there was no way to open it from this side.

A deep silence followed, as we all realised that, right now, we had no direct way out. It was so... creepy to hear, or imagine to hear the four cameras zooming on us as they turned to our group from the four corners of the room. I put my empty glass down and took the full one Ron passed me, leaning into him instead of protesting when he wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me closer.

"Right, let me start from the beginning." Sara, who had already skimmed through the instructions said after she cleared her voice, looking just about as calm as I did. "Welcome to The Escape House..." I zoned out then, looking at Ron's arm wrapped around me, not understanding it. I only heard a few things of what Sara read-- the cameras were everywhere apart from the bathroom, we would have to find our way towards the three bedrooms and discover a different route to the front door by Sunday. There would only be one winner.

"What exactly do they mean by that?" Yvonne giggled. "You know, I've never been in a place like this before.

She seemed to be... swimming a little in front of my eyes as I replied, trying to suppress a fit of giggles while asking myself, 'Is that a real French accent?' and 'Was there something in that wine?', "They mean that the rest of us will either... disappear in a puff of smoke, or get trapped here forever."

"Maya..." Matt scowled at me, letting Yvonne cling to him as if my words really scared her.

I was about to reply sharply as I saw Matt's hand drawing soothing circles on Yvonne's back but then I felt Ron's warm hand at the small of my back, finding its way under my jacket, and let the subject drop. I looked up at Ron again, asking silently, 'Whatever does all this mean?'

"How about we leave the champagne for when we find the sitting room and the bathroom at least? I wouldn't want to sleep in the kitchen..." Eric proposed. 

"All right. Let's find the next door." Ron agreed, and following Eric and Sara's example he helped me out of my jacket and then took me by the hand, just like our friends did, and led me to the opposite end of the kitchen.

Seeing that Matt was too busy ogling Yvonne to notice me, I did not protest, but as we started to inspect the walls and furniture for some hidden mechanism that would reveal another door, I could not help but whisper, "Ron, what does this all mean?" I knew that whatever we say would be recorded on the cameras, one of which was directly above our heads now, but I needed to know.

Ron sighed, locking his eyes with mine, gauging my reaction, before he replied, "Matt has been meeting Yvonne for a few weeks now. He asked me to bring her here, so you would, sort of, find out without him having to tell you directly..." 

I closed my eyes briefly. I did not... mind, exactly. Matt could take this girl and go to... wherever they wished, the farther the better. But I hated to be dumped this way.

A mirror hung on the wall right in front of me, reflecting my unhappy face, so plain next to the face of Yvonne whom I could see reflected far behind me, the wine glass at her lips. Without thinking I grabbed the mirror and let it drop to the tiled floor, watching as it shattered to thousands of pieces at my feet.

"Maya! You're so clumsy..." I heard my ex-boyfriend exclaim, chuckling, moments before Ron said, "Well done, Maya. Look!" 

I looked at the piece of paper he found among the shards, a note that had been attached to the back of the mirror. A clue to help us find the next door.

"Sara, that's for you." I said, waiting for the brain of our group to reach us and take the note from Ron.

She read it silently, laughed, then made her way back towards the wall where the door we had walked through before was.

"It's too simple! Come on Matt, bring the keys." She said, finding the lock of a door perfectly blended into the wall. 

Matt fumbled with the keys for a few moments but the instant he pushed the right one inside the lock, the door slid open, admitting us into a sumptuously furnished sitting room.

Ron led me in, following in the cloud or perfume trailing behind Yvonne like hers surprised, "Oh là là..."

The room was huge and contained enough books, television screens, small sofas and large bean bags that we could all sleep here should we not find the bedrooms tonight. 

But while the others seemed quite contented with the idea,  Yvonne collapsing gracefully on the largest sofa, Matt fumbling with a small fireplace while Ron observed the volumes sitting on the floor to ceiling bookshelf and Sara, followed by Eric, ran back into the kitchen to bring the champagne and some food, I looked around, determined to find the bathroom and the bedrooms. There was no way I was going to sleep here; I needed to be alone, at least for a few moments.