Escape the Night

A little competition

Cristina's P.O.V

I darted back over, more carefully than previously and shuffled the clue back into place, which--luckily--was clearly visible from the blackened markings on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Liza demanded, everyone rushing to my side.

"I'm sorry, I didn't intend to, I swear!" I rapidly rambled. "It's in the right place now--it left marks so-"

"But what if it didn't? Why weren't you more cautious after Lilly did that earlier?"

"Okay," Nate interjected, stepping between us. "Just calm down, fighting won't change anything now. The cable isn't long enough to reach the socket. What are we going to do about that?"

"Do we even need it?" Lilly shrugged. "The area marked out by the innermost arrows isn't that much, we could easily just check all of that, couldn't we?" I glanced at the wall. True: all the arrows created a rectangle that stretched a long distance across but only four inches or so height-wise, hovering just above my waist.

"Okay, let's try it," Scott agreed, as we each took up an area, with me taking a middle position in between Nate and Kristen, and began lifting anything blocking our view of the wall. It was around five minutes later when Kristen suddenly had an idea.

"Ohhhh," she gasped, rushing over to the socket, where the splitter remained discarded next to it. Guys, wait we can use this to extend the cable!" She did just that, lighting up the wall in Adi's sector with an electric blue arrow that pointed to the right, leaving only a ten centimetre by ten centimetre square. Alex walked over and without warning punched it. Wooden boards hidden behind the yellowing wallpaper caved in at the force, and upon inspection it revealed a small glass box with a key in it and a keyhole in one corner. A note on the bottom read 'challenge time, beloved guests. Vote two people to return to the stage for what may be one last, final, performance.

"Fuck that," Alex decided, hurling the box directly down onto the floor. It bounced and skidded across ta bit to land at Azzy's feet, not showing any signs of weakness. "Well, shit. Since when did glass survive that?" She bent down and picked it up.

*****

Nate's P.O.V

"It's time to vote," Azzy's voice echoed around the ballroom, and I turned to face her and nodded. The group followed as she went back through to the lounge, and Cris and I took the couch furthest from the door, against the far wall.

------

Liza:

As usual us vlog squad members consulted each other. This time I agreed with Alex that we should start thinking more about survival than revenge. Revenge is why D- *pause* -why David's gone. And David was sorry and... It's time to start working together as a team.

Lilly:

Of course, we're all long-time friends, so we aren't exactly willing to send one another to our deaths, but it's true that Adi generally has been more observant and helpful. Aside from missing the hole in the wall earlier. Only one other person kinda fucked up in their 'alliance', so...

------

"Okay, Scott? Do you want to vote first?"

I watched as Scott got to his feet and made his way over to the table in front of the maid, but as he picked up the pen I felt like I had to say something.

"Wait." All eyes turned to focus on me, and I stared back at them. "I just want to say... I just want to say that if you were going to vote for Cristina, then I beg you vote for me instead." I felt a delicate hand reach mine and I slid my other hand over to clasp it too. "I know you five are still only voting for us four, but please, if you were going to, please don't vote for Cristina."