Seven

Chapter 12- The Final Two

Mario sat up when he heard a knock at the library's door. Who would be knocking, he thought to himself. Surely it's not the staff. Mario carefully pulled away from Carmen, who was sleeping on his shoulder, and got up to answer the door.

He opened it to see Winston standing there, his face as emotionless as usual. "Good morning, Player 6. I have come to let you know that breakfast will be served in the dining room in exactly ten minutes." His eyes moved behind Mario where he saw Carmen sleeping on the plush red couch in front of the fireplace. "If it's not too much trouble, please pass this message along to Player 4."

"Okay," Mario replied as Winston turned and walked away.

"Who was that?" Carmen asked tiredly, sitting up and stretching her arms over her head.

"Winston. He said breakfast will be served in ten minutes," Mario replied, mocking Winston's monotone voice.

Carmen laughed. "Good, I'm starving."

"I can't believe we slept in here all night," Mario said, sitting back down on the couch next to her. "Well, for three hours anyway."

"It's the first time I've slept since I've been here."

"Me too," Mario nodded.

"So what do we do today? Take advantage of the open bar?" she smirked.

Mario almost disagreed with her right away, but he paused and gave it some real thought before he responded. Being drunk in this house, with these people seemed like an idiotic thing to do. He was basically welcoming something stupid to happen to him. But then again, surely they wouldn't want anything to happen to the final three players. It would mess up the final game and Mario had figured out by now that the games being played fairly was more important to Dr. Vincent than anything else.

"Yeah...we should definitely do that," he finally said, smirking back.

The pair made their way down to the dining room, the first to arrive other than the few staff who were busy preparing things. They took the seat with their number displayed on a place card, ending up across from each other.

That's when they noticed there were no other place cards at the table. They shared a look as of they'd figured it out at the same time, but neither of them said anything for fear the staff might overhear. Mario had a grim feeling they'd be finding out what happened to Damon sooner or later anyway.

The staff began to bring out dish after dish of the most delicious breakfast food Mario had ever seen- eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes, muffins. It was a lot of food for only two people.

Mario and Carmen ate their fill, letting their minds focus on something else if only for a little while. The next game was still a  couple of days away, and they had no idea what to expect and therefore, no idea how to prepare themselves. So why not live it up a little? After all, it could very well be their last days on earth.

After they were done eating, the staff cleared the table, but Mario and Carmen were instructed to remain seated for a special announcement. Once the staff had cleared the room, the monitor on the wall turned on revealing Damon in the same room Jackson was in.

You could tell by the look on his face that he expected the worst. He saw what happened to Jackson and he knew he faced a similar choice. Especially when the man dressed in black entered the room. Damon had the same reaction Jackson did- pure terror. Was the man scarred or something? Or just really ugly?

He sat across the table from Damon, keeping his face concealed from the camera. "Player 1, you failed to complete the second game, so I'm here to offer you a choice. Confess to your sins or accept your parting gift."