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prologue part 3: cupboard darkness and cups of tears

back after a long ass break !! i apologise 😞 next chapter is where things get real fr

Ery

"Aaaand- action!"

"Hi everyone! This is Emi, coming at you from this totally awesome multi-million mansion! Count this as Day One of Ery and Emi's totally awesome vlogs!"

She takes the camcorder from my hands and swivels it around to film me. I'm no person for the camera — my job revolves around editing videos, not starring in them — so I stick my hands in my pockets and give the camera an awkward smile.

"Hey...This is Ery, excited to be here!"

I finish off with a stiff wave before Emi turns the camcorder around to film herself. "We've been here for a couple hours now. Well, I have. You see..."

She ambles down the corridor, holding the camera to her face and talking about our chance encounter. I met her a couple of hours ago in the storage room of this place. I was looking for somewhere to drop my bags since I couldn't find any bedrooms. Which is weird, judging that this is a literal mansion. Emi was swinging around on one of those ladders with wheels when I saw her, but I have no clue how long she'd been there for. I mean, she wasn't carrying her bags with her, so I assumed that she'd dropped them off in her room.

Turns out that she'd left them at the first suitable place she found, which turned out to be a cleaning cupboard. Which didn't really seem sensible, judging that she can't remember where that cleaning cupboard was. So we've been retracing her steps for the last half hour, trying to relocate her bags. And then she found out I had a camcorder on me, and she wanted to film a vlog...and now, I have no clue what the heck we're even doing.

"Isn't it so fun that this is a competition?" Emi hands back the camcorder to me. I turn it off and slip it back into my bag. "I mean, I wouldn't have minded if it was a solo challenge, but now I can get money and make friends! Score!"

"Are you sure you're getting that money?" I say, and immediately become aware of how freaking ominous that sounded. Emi looks at me with an eyebrow raised. "I-I mean, it's a competition now, right? Who knows how many people are fighting for the money, and who knows what they're gonna do to get it?"

Emi hums. "Yeah, I thought about that! But it can't be that bad, right? Maybe it's like one of those game shows I see on TV, where you have to do those gross challenges like eating leaves and climbing from mountainsides and swimming with sharks!"

What kind of TV is she watching?

"But if it's not, well, how bad could it be? It's not like we're gonna brawl for the cash."

She makes a show of boxing an imaginary opponent, sidestepping to avoid punches. It's so silly that it's funny.

"Hopefully it's something chill, like a quiz show." I could do that. Probably.

"I love quiz shows! Except for when they ask about geography. I hate geography."

We walk up to another cleaning cupboard. Emi crosses her fingers, clasps her hands together and flings the door open.

Empty, as the last eight have been.

Emi groans. "OK, I swear we've been to every cupboard in this place! Someone's nicked my bags, I'm sure of it!"

"Did you have any valuables in there?" In the nicest way possible, Emi doesn't strike me as a person to keep anything too precious in a bag she isn't with. She's a little too... scatterbrained for that. In a nice way.

I sit on the floor. We've been going around the halls for a while, and my legs are starting to ache. I dressed to impress, which means chunky heels and forfeiting any possible comfort. "Let's take a rest. We've been up for a while, haven't we?"