"What do you mean?" Eric asked, voicing my question. It had always been one winner only-- the person who solved more clues, opened more rooms or found the way out-- but we always walked out together and shared the prize.

"I mean what I said. Only one of us will walk out, alone."

"What will happen to the rest of us?" Ron asked, taking my hand in his.

"They'll be... removed before, I guess..." Matt chuckled, opening another bottle of champagne and pouring the drink into our empty flutes.

"And... when did you plan to tell us? Did you consider that this might scare the girls?" Ron asked, his voice laced with anger. "You are my friend, Matt, but sometimes I wonder..." he squeezed my hand tighter in his, making me feel like this conversation suddenly wasn't only about this house.

"I'm tired." I said, hoping to interrupt this conversation before it escalated into an argument. I could not picture being closed here for another two days, with people arguing. "Good night everyone."

I reached the door before Ron caught up with me, calling to Matt over his shoulder, "We'll talk in the morning."

We did not need to say it aloud but after hearing Matt's words, Ron and I did not separate for more than a couple of minutes at a time.

Once we were ready to go to sleep we climbed into the bed and drew the curtains all around, leaving as much space as we could between us. The curtains prevented the light and the cameras from reaching us, but the music never stopped, making it impossible for me to fall asleep until I shifted closer to Ron and he enclosed me in his arms. A few moments later I was drifting off to sleep despite the awkwardness of the situation, sharing a bed with my ex-boyfriend's friend, in this house which only one of us was supposed to leave...

I woke up some time later, my heart beating in my throat. I sat up while Ron pulled his watch from under the pillow.

"What was that?" I asked, voice shaking, moving the curtain to the side even as I realised that the music had stopped and the house was eerily quiet. But I heard someone scream...

"I don't know," Ron said, the soft light landing on his face illuminating his encouraging smile. "It's just a game, Maya," he added, caressing my cheek even as another ear-splitting scream exploded around us, coming from everywhere and nowhere in particular, just like the music before.

"It's Sara." I whispered recognizing my friend's voice.

Ron jumped to his feet and pulled his pants and shoes on quickly, then headed for the door. "Do you want to wait here?" He asked.

Reaching him and grabbing his hand before he could leave me alone, I whispered shakily, "No way."

I was expecting that the door would be locked, trapping us within the room, but it opened easily, letting us into the corridor. It was illuminated faintly now, like the bedroom, and filled with a translucent, cold mist. It carried an unusual, but not unpleasant scent I did not recognize.

We reached Sara and Eric's bedroom, finding her sitting upright in the bed, alone.

"We... we watched a movie, and finished that bottle of champagne with Matt and Yvonne last night," she sobbed as I sat down at her side while Ron remained standing next to me, his hand on my bare shoulder. "We were a little... tipsy. Later... I was falling asleep but Eric said he was hungry, so he went to bring some food from the kitchen... it was hours ago... I only woke up now, I heard him scream and look..." her voice broke as she passed me the white t-shirt she had been clinging to the whole time.

"Is this Eric's?" Ron asked, his voice shaking slightly like his hand still resting on my shoulder, as we both observed the large stain of still fresh blood on the white fabric.

Sara nodded, trying to suppress the sobs rocking her body.

"Remember, it's just a game," Ron said, trying to sound encouraging; failing. "I'll have a look in the kitchen." He added then was gone before I could protest.

Matt and Yvonne entered a few moments later and I left Sara in their care, resolved to find Ron. He was in the sitting room, checking the walls.

"The door leading to the kitchen is... gone." He said when he noticed me. "We lost Eric... and also the access to food. We'll have to do with what we have here until we get out."

He locked eyes with me and I nodded, feeling faint.

"It must be that mist, I can feel it too," he said, reaching me and wrapping his arm around my waist to support me.

We walked back to Sara's room and sat on the bed again. Ron told her what we discovered, before he turned to Matt, "You got us into this, now you get us out. Find your phone and try to call that guy who gave you the keys before I..." I put my hand on his thigh, willing him to calm down. This really wasn't the right moment for useless arguments.

Matt only nodded and made for the door but turned back when I called, "Give us the keys, please."

He dropped the bunch in my hand, the jingle of keys hitting each other followed by the sound of his retreating footsteps ricocheting through the perfect silence of the room.

"Shall I go and see what he's doing?" Yvonne proposed after minutes that felt like hours to me.

"No. Let us all go." Ron said, helping me and Sara to our feet.

We only took a few steps down the mist filled corridor, Yvonne, leading our group, about to step inside her and Matt's room when we were startled by a loud noise and Ron ran to the girl, pulling her back from the doorway seconds before the heavy doors of all the three bedrooms slammed shut simultaneously.

"Matt..." Yvonne sobbed into Ron's chest.

Ron looked at me pleadingly and I nodded, taking Yvonne from him. "It's... It's just a game," I told her, trying to sound sure about what I was saying while Ron banged the closed door, calling Matt's name.

We jumped when Matt exited from the bathroom behind our backs.

"I'm sorry," he said looking at our terrorised faces. "I couldn't find my phone, I thought that maybe I left it in the bathroom last night."

"Did you find it?" I asked hopefully, while Yvonne walked over to him and I shifted closer to Sara, who looked as faint and unwell as I felt.

When Matt only shook his head in response, I moved Sara gently to his side and tried to unlock the bedroom door with Ron. We tried all of the keys, but none worked. The door stayed shut.

"All right. Let's not panic. We still have the sitting room and the bathroom, and the things we left there. Do any of you have a phone or a watch here?" When we looked at each other, shaking our heads as we realised that we left everything in the bedrooms, Ron continued, "I guess we won't be able to tell the time from this moment on, but we know that it is Saturday morning now. The game ends tomorrow night. Then we will be out."

"But what about Eric?" Sara asked.

"The rules said that the game will finish only if we find our way out, and only one can..."

"Shut up, Matt." Ron told him, then he spoke more gently to Sara, "I don't know. I believe Eric is all right, and this all is just a part of this game. I guess Matt is right, we have to continue to play and find the exit. There are three keys we have not used yet. But first, let's see what we have left in the sitting room before we try to move on."

He took my hand in his and led me back towards the sitting room.

We were left with very little. Some food remained from the last night, and two bottles of champagne were all our provisions. Ron found his phone in the bean bag where we had sat the previous evening and Matt picked his sweatshirt off the sofa. He passed it to Yvonne, and she, trembling with fear or cold, pulled it over her pyjamas immediately.

I realised that I was cold too and let Ron drag me towards the small fireplace where he rekindled the fire. Sara and Yvonne joined me and we just stared into the flames for a while, before I turned around in search of Ron and noticed the two men whisper-shouting at each other in the furthest corner of the room.

I stood up, the room swimming around me as the mist creeping into the room from the corridor pooled at my ankles like shallow water.

Reaching the guys I grabbed Ron by the hand to get his attention. His hand felt freezing like the room around us. I shivered and he pulled me closer, grabbing a blanket from the closest sofa and wrapping it over my shoulders.

"The heating is down, what will be next, lights?" He hissed at Matt. "Will you find the way out in the dark?"

"Calm down, it's just a game!" Matt, running his hand through his dishevelled hair whisper-shouted back.

"Fine. Stop this, now. This won't help anyone. Let us eat something and move on." I said, pulling Ron toward the left-over food on the coffee table.

Matt followed us and when we filled a couple of plates he grabbed a bottle of champagne and together we made our way back to the girls by the fireplace.

"Where's Yvonne?" I asked Sara, who was still staring silently into the flames.

"There was blood on his shirt..." she whispered to herself and I had to grab her by her shoulders and shake her before she noticed me.

"Where's Yvonne?" I repeated.

"Yvonne... Bathroom, I think. Did you find Eric?"

I looked at Ron who helped Sara to her feet, shaking his head slightly. The sooner we got out of here and found Eric, the better.

Yvonne was not in the bathroom, we only found one of her pink plush slippers in the corridor. Like Eric, she was gone.

I made Sara eat a little and once she fell asleep next to the dying fire I joined the men who were trying to find the next door. However, we found none, neither in the sitting room, nor in the corridor.

The fire died completely some time later and the lights seemed to be dimming when we decided that it was most probably late and we should get some rest.

Matt sat on a bean bag next to a sofa Sara was lying on, and I shared the sofa placed opposite of them with Ron. I was starting to doze off when one of the screens behind our backs flickered to life. Neither I nor Ron could see what happened on the screen but we saw Sara and Matt's eyes widen with horror moments before the same ear-slitting shriek we heard in the morning sounded from the corridor, and Sara, calling Eric's name, ran towards it followed closely by Matt.

"What...?" I whispered, looking at Ron who took two steps in the direction our friends had vanished, before the lights went out and we were plunged into near perfect blackness, pierced only by the four tiny red dots from the cameras.

"Ron?" I asked tentatively, hardly recognizing my own voice shaking with panic.