REWRITING!!!!!! PROMISE (Ateez/seongjoong fic)

Chapter 11: Poker

The island was desolate and open other than the mansion in the distance, and the group of men approached it quickly. Much quicker than they originally intended to do.

It's like the mansion was moving to meet them halfway there on their journey towards it. They managed to make it 3/4 of the way there in under an hour. A journey that was supposed to take them a whole evening had passed by thay quickly. The group didn't marvel at that fact for too long, though. The oddities of this Wonderland were starting to grow familiar to them even if there was something new and different at each bend.

The group approached the door of the ginormous home— if you could call it that— with San at the front of the pack. He rocked the knocker against the door. An oddly rustic touch for this future privy house, and waited back with the rest of the boys for someone to come to the door.

The door slowly creaked open, and a petite albino woman popped into view. She was dressed like a 1950s house wife, and her beauty was like something out of the movies. Her violet eyes peaking out from under her swept blonde bang and red lipstick stood out on her strikingly pale face.

"Oh, good! We haven't had guests in such a long time! Come in, come in!" she gestured with her hand for the group of boys to enter her home, "He'll be so excited! He hasn't had anyone to play against in ages! Well, other than me, and I'm no good at poker... I do hope you boys will stay for tea after dinner~" her sweet voice chimed as she ushered them down a long hallway.

The group approached a large set of doors that towered over them. Its dimensions seemed impossibly big, even for the outlandish stature of the building itself. The 5 men silently 'ooh'ed and 'ah'ed when the woman guiding them had a sudden epiphany.

"Oh!" she jumped when she exclaimed it, like the voice leaving her mouth even startled herself. "Absolutely where are my manners? I ought to introduce myself! I said it's been a while since we've hosted anyone, but I didn't think I'd gotten that rusty! My name is Vera. Vera Morter. Humans would say that I'm... married... to the Sir. I don't think that's the best way to describe our relationship, because then you could say that I'm married to this house, too!" she chuckled to herself, as if she had just told some joke everyone else was too dumb to understand. Vera's hands were still gripping the door handles as her shoulders shook from her subsiding laughter.

"Although, the three of us- me, the house, and Him- are all bound together by a promise. A pact, if you will. One similar to the mortal concept of marriage, so that's what we go with!" she said, drying a tear of laughter from her almost white eyelashes.

"That means, just because I can't see doesn't mean that I don't know. As long as your in here, you will be serveilled," her sweet voice dropped to something devious when she spoke, the delicately smile dropped and her brows knit together.

"Well!" she exclaimed, almost immediately cheery again, "He's been waiting long enough, let's go."

The boys knew they hadn't done much talking since they got inside, and that would be changing very shortly. The woman had occupied herself with conversation on the whole journey to the room, so it wasn't like any of them had a chance to say much anyway.

On the inside of the room, there was a large round table, where a large round man sat. His belly was soft, but his arms were thick, and the gray bits of his beard were yellowed, suggesting an occasional cigar.

He sat in the largest chair at the table as the group of 5 approached him. His appearance was equally as old timey as was the woman's. His slightly wrinkled brown skin was flecked with moles. He was clad in a nice pair of trousers, suspenders and an off white button up. His impossibly long locs were pulled back into an elegant half up half down style.