Escape the Night

Falling Hopes

Alex's P.O.V

"Okay, we don't have any time to waste!" I spoke first, shaking myself to stop staring hopelessly at the mess. "I'll take this side, Cristina you take that side," I pointed, "and Nate, take the middle."

My team went along with my plan without hesitation, and I headed over to the large desk, my eyes skimming the top layer of the clothes that smothered the floor; I could see nothing that stood out. Upon reaching the desk, I flung all the jumpers off onto the floor with the rest of them. There was a pad of paper in the centre, laid next to a golden fountain pen. In one corner stood several glass ink bottles, and in the other was a large organiser pot with multiple compartments, filled with pens, pencils, erasers, markers, label stickers, a hole puncher, a stapler... I pushed it all to one side and moved on to the draws, tugging them out one by one, tipping the contents onto the now clear surface before spreading it all out to check each item efficiently. Accepting it was unsuccessful, I swiped everything back into the draw and replaced it attempting to keep some sort of order. After checking all three draws--to no avail--I crouched down to search the bookshelves.

"Have you guys got anything?" I asked, flicking through the selection of books.

"Just a ton of hair accessories here," the female replied from the table diagonal. "Scrunchies, in particular I suppose..."

"Yeah, not anything special here," Nate agreed, "Oh--Wait a sec-"

I turned on my heels to see him reaching behind the headboard of the bed, one knee resting on the mattress. He retracted his hand to reveal a plastic Starbucks' cup.

"Do you think this would be an item? I mean it's the first thing I've found that's not plain."

"Yeah, I think you're right," I grinned. "And I have an idea for who our person is actually!"

"Wow! Really? Who?" Cristina said, surprise evident in her voice.

"Emma Chamberlain. I mean, she's well known for her obsession with iced coffee, and that could make one of the scrunchies an item we need, too."

"Yeah!" Nate beamed at me. "Good idea, Alex." I smiled back before returning to my area.

"What scrunchies do you think it would be, Alex?" I glanced back over to the vanity table, where Cristina was gesturing to a mountain of the hair accessories.

"Erm..." I thought aloud, before concluding: "I have no idea."

"Oh," she laughed. "Well we could be in trouble then." I hummed in agreement, refocusing again on my area after deciding to finish checking it completely before going over to help. Nevertheless I sped up the pace.

I picked through the remaining books then, after Nate's discovery, checked around the back and sides of the structure. Nothing.

I made my way to my group and looked at each of the objects. After considering each of them, I chose one that I could instantly tell was different; it stuck out the most to me. "This one," I decided, picking out a bright yellow one.

"Why that one?" she wondered.

"Erm...look here," I pointed out the small white heart printed on. "It's the only one with any detail, and it just strikes me as the sort of thing that suits her, more than the others at least."

"Wow, good spot!" Nate nodded, squinting at the tiny doodle. "I trust that."

"So did you know Emma?" the dark haired girl beside me questioned.

"David put her in a few vlogs," I shrugged. "Once we put caterpillars on her-"

"Caterpillars?"

"Yeah, she has a phobia of them-" I stopped. "Well... had, I suppose, if she was a previous guest." I paused to think about that. How many people have died here? Are we all going to as well? Or did some of them survive? But then why didn't they speak out about it?