The House

Chapter 5

Ava woke up and immediately looked around. She saw that Wayne was still asleep and visibly breathing, and Jeremy was sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He smiled when he saw her looking at him.

"Hey kid." He said. "We made it."

Ava smiled. "Yeah."

Hayden walked over and shook Wayne. "Hey, wake up."

Wayne groaned. "Who died?"

"No one yet." Jeremy replied.

Wayne let out a sigh of relief. "Oh, good. I gotta take a piss." He got up and left the room.

Everyone returned to their rooms to get dressed. Ava was halfway through a bowl of cereal when Alejandra came down the stairs in a lime green bathrobe, and she suddenly realized someone was missing.

"What's taking Wayne so long?" She wondered aloud.

Emily swallowed her last bite of toast and got up. "I'll go check on him."

"Yeah." Jeremy followed her upstairs.

"Wayne?" Emily called out, knocking on the door. "Aisha? Marlon?"

Getting no response, Jeremy tried the door, found it was unlocked, and opened it, the hinges squeaking as he did. "Hey, you okay?"

They looked around and saw nothing, then Emily looked down and saw a pair of feet on the far side of the bed.

"God dammit." Jeremy mumbled.

They walked closer and saw Wayne laying on the ground, bleeding from a hole in the side of his head.

"Fuck!" Emily exclaimed.

They returned downstairs and told the others.

"So basically we can't go anywhere alone." Hayden said, breaking a very long silence. "Not even the bathroom."

Evan shook his head. "Forget it. I'm not peeing with someone else in the room."

Jeremy chuckled. "You want to be the next to die? Relax, whoever goes with you isn't going to look."

"What if they're the killer?"

"How would any of us have killed Wayne?" Emily asked. "We would've heard the door open and close."

"How would whoever put us here have done it?" He countered.

Alejandra raised her hand. "I'm betting they have a secret way in and out. My grandparents' old house had a bunch of hidden doors and hallways and shit."

"Whatever." Evan pushed his chair back and stood up. "You guys do whatever you want."

"Kid, sit down." Jeremy said firmly.

Evan ignored him and walked towards the stairs to the basement.

"The weapons." Emily said, standing up.

"Shit." Jeremy pulled out the 1911.

Emily pulled the magazine out of her pocket. "Any objections?" She asked, looking around at the others.

Hayden, Ava, and Alejandra shook their heads. Emily handed the magazine to Jeremy, who loaded the pistol. He made his way downstairs with the others behind him. Reaching the storage room they had stashed the weapons in, he stepped inside with the gun raised.

"Found him!" He called out a moment later.

Emily and Alejandra stepped into the room and saw Evan crouched behind a stack of cardboard boxes holding the aluminum bat. Jeremy had the pistol half raised.