Everyone sat in silence for a little while, looking at each other, and I couldn't help but imagine Tom going through precisely this. Sitting in a room identical to this one and looking at all his roommates, who would turn and slaughter each other in the days to come. I felt my heart speed up when Taylor reached into their bag but they simply brought out a bottle of water and took a long drink out of it, smacking their lips afterwards and peering closely at everyone, as if analyzing literally every move they made. Finally, Molly broke the silence.

"I take it none of us want to die?" She asked, though the question was evidently rhetorical. "I had a thought: what if we made a pact? No killing each other for one full week, seven days. After that time passes, you can go around being a murderer all you like, but until then, no killing anyone."

"I fully support this." Luis commented. "I'm in no rush to kill anyone."

"Nor am I." Frank piped up. "I'd like to keep my conscience as clean as possible."

"So we're all for Newman's idea?" Taylor asked, taking out an empty notepad (the type with the circles instead of a spine, so you can flip the pages super easily) when everyone nodded and made noises of agreement. I felt like they'd automatically taken up the position of leader, something we'd probably need if the situgot bloody. That is, assuming they're not the one bloodying the situation. They took out a tack from they're bag and walked to the wall, where they hung the notepad on the tack and drew a 1 on one side of the page. "Day one. Welcome to the Chiron Complex, people. Now let's go raid the kitchen."

They led the way down the hallway to the kitchen, the only place with a natural light source. We'd never be able to reach high enough or be small enough to fit out of it, but it was a nice reminder that the outside world had fresh air and sunlight, even if five out of six of us would never see or feel it again. The kitchen had a long wooden table with metal legs and six chairs placed evenly around it. There was a large chest pressed against the back wall, just under the window, and cabinets along the other wall. There was a sink, a trash can and a stove, placed basically right next to each other, divided only by half a slab of countertop each. The kitchen wasn't very big.

"Ok McConell, if your brother came here, can you tell us where on earth the food is kept and what the rest of these cupboards are for?" Taylor looked at me, and I was slightly thrown off by them using my last name. How did they remember that? I couldn't tell you what anyone's last name was.

Apparently Luis thought the same thing, but he actually vocalized the thought. "How'd you remember her last name."

"I paid attention, Murray." Taylor smirked and Luis looked at them with wonder in his eyes. "The rations, McConell."

I looked around, trying to remember what Tom had told me. "That cupboard back there is packed with weapons: knives, daggers, a gun or two I think, lighters and lighter fluid, all that good stuff. So the food should be... there!" I pulled open one of the cabinets and, sure enough, there were the boxes of rations, all carefully labelled with the names of the players. I thought 'players' was a sick way to refer to the people trapped in Chiron, but somehow when I stepped foot into the appartement I felt as if I'd resigned to that status: a pawn in someone's sick chess game, a card in someone's sick, twisted deck. "Good job McConell." Taylor nodded at me.

"Are you just always going to use my last name?" I asked. "Do you even know my first name?"

"I absolutely do, Bee, I just prefer to call people by their last names until I trust them. Which, I'm afraid, I never will in this horrible place."

That ended the conversation, and we got our boxes, tearing them open. We all had the same stuff (except Molly, who informed us she was a vegetarian). The rations consisted of multiple cans of rice, some peas, carrots, broccoli and kale, packets of dried meat, instant noodles, some seasoning, pasta, tomato sauce and dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets, which gave off a completely different vibe than Chiron, but I went with it.

"Lovely." Taylor looked at the assortment of foods on the table and clicked their tongue disapprovingly. "Someone better say they're a cook, because I cannot just eat dinosaur nuggets and pasta until I die here." The way they seemed convinced they'd die despite seeming like they could beat anyone's head in if they wanted to was a little off-putting. Like they thought no one would make it.

"We can kill you now, you don't have to suffer." Frank teased.

"Day one, Colombo. I'll suffer through ramen until day seven, then have a blast taking me out."

"Wait." I interrupted. "What day is it?"

"One." Ally answered.

"No, what's the date?"

"Saturday the 12th of August." Luis told me, looking confused.

"Ok, so that plus seven is..." I was about to do the math on my fingers but Molly told me the answer. "Saturday the 18th."

"What's this about?" Taylor asked, leaning against the small amount of counter between the wall and the stove.

"My brother can still tell you how many days it's been since he first went to the Complex, it's actually easier for him than the real date. We can't let that happen. Chiron does this, it messes with your sense of time: the monthly rituals happen every twenty-eight days and we're on year 300 hundred or something, if you somehow find a calendar."

"Clever." Taylor nodded, and everyone looked at them as if they'd grown an extra head. "It is clever. I'm not saying I condone it, but it is clever. Look: if you get the players to lose their sense of time and they freak out because they can't properly tell you how long they've been there. They can tell you the days but not if that's too long or not. Imagine they know it's day 31 but can't remember the date they got here: it's been under a month, unless they were in February, in which case it's been more. How long have they really been gone, trapped in this horrid place? When they freak out, they start messing up, killing too quickly and stuff like that, and either get taken out or come home realizing that it'd been a week and they'd killed five people. The person who made this place..." They looked almost like they wanted to clap or whistle approvingly but restrained themself due to the looks on our faces.

"Who are you?" Luis breathed.

"My mom's a cop and I had an unhealthy obsession with Sherlock Holmes that hasn't completely gone away." They answered promptly.

"So you wanna be a detective?" I asked.

"If I make it out of this hellhole, then yes, that would be nice." From their face, I could tell they didn't really believe that would happen. "But until then, I'll focus on not dying."

"Day one, Taylor." Frank mimicked, though he seemed to notice that it was less authentic due to the fact that he didn't remember their last name. "Live happily off ramen until day seven, then have a blast focusing on living."

Taylor rolled their eyes at him but I saw the hint of a smile on their face as they turned their face. Lis took a seat on one of the chairs and Molly and Ally followed his lead. I perched on the table itself and Frank leaned against the wall.

"There is literally no privacy here." I commented. "Like, not even the bathrooms have locks."

"Jeez." Luis raised his eyebrows. "Do they want us to kill people while they're in the bathroom?"

"Yeah, probably." Taylor answered. "Think about it this way: in the bathroom, it's improbable the person is very focused on any part of their surroundings. Whether they're in the shower or on the toilet or brushing their teeth, they're focused on the task at hand. So if you barge in with a knife and shock them, it's improbable their natural reflexes will kick in fast enough for them to properly fight back. Plus, in the bathroom your best weapon is probably the showerhead, which I think you'll agree is no match for an actual weapon." I remembered reading a few Sherlock Holmes books (the first two, maybe) and how all the characters were like 'it would be terrifying if he turned his powers against the law.' That's how I felt about Taylor: they were so smart, basically a real life teenage Holmes, and if they decided they wanted us dead, no one would know until it was too late. It was a scary thought.

"Ah." Ally said with wide eyes. "I do not think I'm ever going to the bathroom again."

"I think it'd be unfair to attack while someone's in the bathroom." Molly piped up. "I mean, if all the natural reflexes stuff is true, which it probably is, you stand literally no chance against an attacker."

"You've got till day seven to poop and shower all you like but after that you're screwed." Frank chuckled.

"But it's unfair." Molly protested.

"This whole game is unfair, Molly." Frank answered. "Do you think any of us asked to come here?"

"Frank." Luis chided. "You know what she meant."

"Yeah, and it doesn't change my argument."

"Colombo, Murray, please be quiet." Taylor snapped doing that orchestra conductor thing to get the boys to fall silent, which they did. "Newman has a point, it's foul play to attack someone while they're in the bathroom. So, let's make it a rule that we won't."

    "Sure thing." I agreed without any hesitation. I was not ready to die while taking a shower. I looked at the others and they seemed to be of the same opinion.

    "It does put anyone who wants to kill at a disadvantage, but I feel it's only fair." Ally commented. "We're all on board, Taylor."

    "Whoa hang on." Luis interrupted. "Why's Taylor in charge? We don't even know them!"

    I sighed and met Molly's eyes. She looked equally exasperated. "Luis, come with me." I said to him and walked out of the kitchen. I heard the scrape of a chair and footsteps following me into the hall.

    "Are you an idiot?" I hissed.

    "No!"

    "Well it seems like it." I grabbed his shoulders. "Did you hear what they said?"

    "Uh... yeah?" He looked confused. "The thing about the bathroom? I mean, it was a fair point but--"

    "Boys are morons." I murmured, then looked him in the eyes. "It's more than a fair point, it was like they were in the brain of the Chiron. Do you want them working against us? They took the natural role of leader and we follow because Taylor is a freaking genius and is currently working to protect us. That's a good thing, Luis, we don't want them working against us. Like, ever."

    Luis looked at me like I'd just pulled a particularly scary spider out of his ear, and nodded. I took it that meant he'd realized what I was saying was true.

    "Can we go back now?" He asked, and I nodded, leading the way back to the kitchen.

    Taylor was pacing the length of the kitchen, combat boots tapping against the floor quite loudly and fingers fidgeting around. I took up my seat and watched them pace for a little while, curious as to what they were up to.

    "How long's this been going for?" Luis asked Ally.

    "Not too long." She answered, eyes still trained on Taylor. "Since you left."

    "And... what're they doing?" I asked.

    "They said there's a flaw." Molly answered.

    I looked over at Taylor as they paced. I took the moment as an opportunity to take in what  they were wearing: black T-shirt and brown jacket, black jeans with rips around the knees that didn't look like they were there for style purposes, black combat boots. Overall not my style but not aesthetically unappealing. They stood up straight and stared at me, which was probably just a coincidence, because it didn't seem like they were actually looking at me.

    "I fixed our problem." They said.

    "We had a problem?" Frank raised an eyebrow.

    "Yes. We had rules but no punishment."

    "And we now have a punishment?"

    "Indeed we do."

    "What is it then?"

    "I plan on telling you if it ever becomes necessary." Taylor shut him down and looked around, as if challenging us to ask them what it was.

    "Well now I'm curious." Molly states, voicing my thoughts perfectly. "And scared."

    "As you should be." Taylor smiled, but I felt like I was being threatened instead of grinned at. "Who wants to get settled into the rooms?" It wasn't really a question, they headed out of the kitchen and we followed.

~~~~~~~~

Word count (not including the author's note): 2209. Probably the most words I've ever put in one single wattpad chapter. Whooo. *wipes brow*.

How are y'all liking the story so far? I know we're only two chapters in and nothing has happened but no worries, stuff gets real real soon so buckle your seatbelts lovelies.

Love y'all,

Starii🌼