The House

Chapter 1

Ava Wells woke up on a couch that wasn't hers in a room she didn't recognize, but she was so groggy that it took her a full 20 seconds to realize it.

"What the hell?!" She blurted out. Looking around, she saw a second 3-person couch, a pair of recliners, and a TV stand with a TV that had no wires.

"Hello?" A man's voice asked.

Ava whipped her head around and saw a white man in his early 30s with light brown hair and hazel eyes.

"Who the heck are you?" He asked.

"Ava." She replied. "You?"

"Evan." He looked around. "I don't suppose this is your place."

Ava shook her head. "I wish. This couch is way nicer than mine."

Hearing footsteps, they turned and saw a woman with very light brown skin coming down the stairs. She had dark brown hair and green eyes and was wearing a fuzzy pink bathrobe.

"Who the fuck are you?" She asked, yawning.

They introduced themselves.

"I'm Ale-" She was cut off by a woman screaming upstairs. "Sorry, I'm Alejandra." She looked and sounded unconcerned.

"Nice to meet you." Ava hurried up the stairs and followed the screams to the last door on the right. She found a short woman with blue eyes and brown hair standing with her back to the wall and a scared look on her face.

"Hey, you okay?" Ava asked softly.

The woman took a deep breath and nodded. "Yeah. Or at least I will be." She looked up. "Emily."

"Ava."

Hearing another door open, Ava turned and saw a person whose gender she couldn't discern peeking out of another bedroom. She heard Emily come up behind her. The person was tall and white and had brown eyes and short blond hair.

"Where the fuck am I?" They asked.

"Your guess is as good as mine." Emily replied.

The person introduced themself as Hayden and added that they were non-binary.

Over the next 15 minutes, three more people emerged from various rooms around the large house; Wayne - a black man with a faint British accent, Jeremy - a shorter white man in his late 50s with grey hair and green eyes, and Ashley - a redhead with a somewhat high-pitched voice. After discovering that all the doors and windows were locked and the windows were seemingly unbreakable, the eight of them gathered in the living room. Ava, Emily, and Ashley sat on one couch, Jeremy and Wayne took the recliners, Evan joined Hayden on the second couch, and Alejandra sat on the floor, leaning back against the TV stand.

"Okay, I'm not sure why, but he looks really familiar." Emily said, looking at Evan.

Ava turned to look at her. "I was about to say you do."

After several seconds of silence, Hayden spoke up. "I guess I'll start. Um, thanks for not panicking. Let's go around and introduce ourselves."

Alejandra groaned. "You make it sound so boring."

Emily raised her hand. "Actually, first, does anyone have their phone?"

Everyone quickly checked their pockets, and they all turned up empty.

Hayden cleared their throat. "Um, for now just tell us your name, age, the last thing you remember before being here, and anything about you that might be relevant to figuring out what's going on here." They turned to the first person to their left - Jeremy.