TWITCH {{FINISHED}}

Chapter Two: The Only Stranger in the House Is You

Chapter Two: The only stranger in the house is you

　

In two weeks, everyone from that day in the conference room - that was still alive and breathing - had moved into the mansion that Orazio had spoken of. The place had obviously been built to hold for than just twenty or so people, having had more than ten empty rooms even after everyone had moved in and a few people had claimed extra rooms for themselves or their belongings. The mansion's actual location was a secret but it was also known to everyone that it was far from civilization and that there was no way out. At least, not by walking.

As if to flaunt the mansion's unknown location, flowers and shrubberies that belonged in different climates and regions of the world were all gathered in a grand garden behind the house, and it branched out a little further into a miniature forest that gave way to cliffs of water. It was a fantasy garden for a little kid but a nightmare to the guests who knew nothing about their location.

Julian, who had moved into the mansion immediately after the terrible conference - which most of the guests had dubbed the "Bloody Conference" - knew a few things about constellations and even had a book on where constellations should be seen. A star map, in shorter terms. But Julian saw none of the constellations from the book despite the hours he spent below the star filled sky and after two weeks, he knew he wasn't going to suddenly find a constellation from the book so he put the book away and gave up; settled into his new, permanent home.

By then, others had already made friends and only one other person had had the unfortunate luck to drop dead while carrying his things into his room; a young fifteen year old by the name of Ethan Fuller. When he'd died, no one had noticed the small fact that he'd been the last to interact with Lidia, the speaker of the conference who'd suddenly decided to literally scratch off the face of a fellow virus host. No one had realized he'd been the one to jump into the fight and knocked Orazio down just as Lidia had stopped breathing. No one except Julian, and he kept to himself so well that none of the guests in the house other than Orazio and Deva knew his name and those two had already drifted off to their own circles.

The house had split into three groups. One for those who were like Deva, meek and unsure. The ones who needed others around them to reassure themselves they were strong. And for the meek, there was always a leader; Ian Nunez, an eighteen year-old, high school dropout, ex-junky and very rebellious spirit that thought the only way he'd survive was by having his own entourage. And entourage he had, even if it consisted mostly of teenager's that were ranging through just barely in high school freshman's to college - or should be college - freshman's.

The second group was where Orazio came in. He held most of the older adults, ones with most of the muscles and brawns and less of the brains - though some did look like they could pass for a pressed suit and tie sort of job. Orazio himself had been elected leader automatically because of how he'd stood up against Lidia when no one else would and also for his partial knowledge of what was going on. Though the only real information he'd given out so far was that anyone could drop dead at any moment for no reason other than the mysterious virus they'd all contracted.

Lastly, there was the outcasts. The one's that didn't fit into either groups but fit together with one another in some way. Julian knew he'd probably fit in that group somehow too in his own weird way, but his hate for people, his misanthropy, held him back from getting near anyone. It was just too hard to try and mingle with someone when he had the strongest urge to push past them all and say, 'Screw you. I don't need people in my life.' Yeah, not the best thing to work with.

And so Julian found himself laying in the strange garden the morning of his fifteenth day living in the mansion alone - or as alone as he could be in a house with at least eighteen people. He'd managed to wake up early that day, just before the sun had poked it's way into the world and brought fingers of light that reached across the sky. His eyes stayed looking up at the blue sky but somehow red hair gotten in the way, accompanied by deep blue eyes and a shy smile; Deva.