Total Darkness

Chapter 2

As soon as I enter the house, I get a weird vibe from it...

-Why am I suddenly getting chills?- I ask myself as I enter the house. I follow Ana to a corridor without her noticing me. She enters a room, I assume is where she's going to be sleeping at. She suddenly turns around and jumps "FUCK! Andy! You scared the crap out of me! Don't ever do that again! Jeez!" "Do what?" I say while laughing my ass off. "I was just following you to give you the suitcases that were outside" I keep laughing "That was hilarious though!" She looks at me with a sarcastic smile and hits me with one of her bags. I mock her, then leave the room, but stop halfway through the corridor to think. -Damn, even when she's mad, she has this sweet, soft voice. I love that about her- I walk towards the kitchen. -I better get to know people in here, if not I'll just be declared the 'antisocial one' of the group. Agh, maybe later—     I open the fridge and to my surprise, there's quite a lot of food in there. I then see Ana coming from my right side. "Take anything you want sweety. Christian and I went grocery shopping just for this trip so everyone can eat whatever they please" I raise one eyebrow and smile "You mean, your employees went grocery shopping, right? You guys haven't actually stepped a single foot in a grocery store in like, what? two or three years?" Ana laughs "Oh shut up. Take whatever you want and follow me. I have a surprise for you!" She says then drinks from her water bottle. I take a look at what's inside the fridge and see a bag of marshmallows. I know it's not healthy to eat these but, I can't resist. As I'm taking the bag from the fridge, the doorbell rings. "Andy, hurry up! He's here!" "Who's here?" I look at her, very confused. She then grabs my hand and walks me over to the front door. I stuff about three marshmallows in my mouth. She opens the door and I see Zander standing outside, smiling.

Zander is my boyfriend. Yes, this 17th year old and awkward lad has a boyfriend, and he's older, and cooler, than me. We met at school about four years ago. Been together for three years now. He's also super tall. Just so you know.

"Zander! Love! I didn't know you would come here."   I try to say while trying to down the marshmallows. Somehow he still comprehends what I try to say "Well, here I am!" I manage to swallow the marshmallows and I hug him and give him a kiss. "Ana wanted us to help with a surprise for tonight." "What kind of sur-?" I ask but a voice from outside interrupts me "You'll have to wait and see" I look behind Zander and notice Ana's husband standing there. "Christian! Hi! I didn't see you there" "Of course you didn't. Zander is...quite tall. Always blocking the view" We all laugh. They both step inside and we go meet with the others in the living room.

This house has a surprisingly big living room. The walls are painted white, so the room looks very clean and modern. I decide to sit on a white pouffe, while everyone else sits on pretty sofas and fancy chairs. Ana stands up in the center table. "May I have you guys' attention please?" Everyone stops talking. Christian looks at her, surprised. "Ana, what are you doing? Get down"   He says but Ana pays no attention . "Hi! You all know me already but..." Says kinda mumbling "I'm gonna introduce myself anyways, cause why not? She raises her tone up again and says "I am...Anastasia. As you know, I'm one of the people who helped plan this...stay-in" -Oh right. I almost forgot this whole trip had to do with architecture- "Before this evening comes to an end...I want everyone here to get to know each other. We don't want the rest of the trip to be awkward...right?"   She searches around the room and points at Christian.   "Over here...we have my husband...Christian, honey, say Hi!   Christian raises an eyebrow and looks at her with a 'What the hell are you doing' face.   "Ana, get down from there"  He says in his typical controlling tone. Ana turns around to face the people and searches around the room again. I glance over at Christian and he looks at me. We're both confused.    "She's drunk isn't she?"   He asks, knowing the answer.    "Yeah I guess so. When the hell did she have a drink, and what was it?"    "You have spent more time with her today and I have. You should know"    "I don't know! Somehow I didn't notice anythin....oh shit. The water bottle. It's not actually water isn't it?" I freak out. Normally I wouldn't mind her drinking, but that is at parties. Right now, she's supposed to be giving us a tour of the house and appreciating architecture or some shit like that.   "You know what, that's not important right now, let's just get her down from there. She needs to rest". Christian nods.   -Wow, he actually took an order from me-  He then grabs Ana from behind and carries her to the bedroom. 
If I remember correctly, Ana has a friend who's an architect. I don't remember their name though.   -I think it was Jenny Davis or Jenna...perhaps it could've been Jenn.- "Everyone, please excuse what just happened" I have everyone's attention now. "Is there someone here called Jenn...?" A young woman with blonde short hair, sitting alone, raises her head from her phone and looks at me. "Yeah" The woman says in a soft tone. "Jenn Davis?" I ask. "That's me..." -Score!- "Could you please come here a sec?" I said while trying to keep my voice low to not get attention from the other people. I then look back at the group and smile nervously "Excuse me everyone. Er, sorry, we'll be back in a few seconds." Jenna walks towards me and I explain the situation to her. "I know you're friends with Ana. You're an architect, right?" She nods but looks very confused. "Good, then I'm gonna need you to give these people a tour of the house and explain stuff about it. Got it? Okay." I don't even give her time to think about it. I turn her around to face the group. She suddenly, but surprisingly unfreezes a few seconds after. She introduces herself and do as I told her. -I'm actually surprised. She looks very timid. I though she wouldn't say a word.-

A few hours pass and the house tour is over. Ana and Christian are nowhere to be seen. -I better go check on them. It's the evening already.

(To be continued)