When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a plain white card.
Intricate, swirling lines decorated the front, the dark ink a stark contrast to the paper itself, and in the middle, a single word was typed in curly font: Jones.
The second thing he noticed was the sharp pain in his body from having slept in a chair.
Alfred groaned, picking his head up from the dark wood table in front of him. He took a moment to stretch, joints popping loudly, before his gaze once again fell on the room in front of him and his mind finally caught up with the situation.
Where the hell am I?
The room was dark, and he soon realized that was because the only light came from a few candles on the table and the dying fire in the fireplace. The flames cast eerie golden shadows that swam around the room and across the faces that surrounded him.
His heart leapt in his chest.
There were others here.
Who were they?
The person closest was directly across from him, and Alfred noted that he had a bedhead of blond hair, thick eyebrows, and sharp features. He was rubbing sleep from his eyes.
He glanced down the table. It could have sat about fifty people, but there were only around fifteen in the room. Each person was spaced a few feet apart and had a card set in front of them.
"What's going on?" someone asked. The accented voice, still drowsy from sleep, boomed in the silent room. Alfred thought it sounded German.
Slowly, people began to rouse around him. Chairs scraped across the floor as they leapt to their feet, and soon nervous chatter was all that he could hear.
Alfred stood too. His eyes flit around the room with apprehension. The glow of the fire didn't reach very far; he felt as though he was caught in the middle of a black fog, only able to see a few feet in front of him. Beyond that was a haze of darkness.
The furniture in the room matched the dark wood of the table. Bookcases were filled with books that had to have had a thousand pages each. The glass chandelier above him glinted menacingly.
"It's so cold," someone whined. Alfred's gaze shifted to his left, where he could see two vague figures huddled together. One appeared to be comforting the other.
"Does anyone know where we are?" the first voice, the German, asked. Alfred watched as he walked to an open area to the side of the large table, and his question was met with silence.
The candlelight revealed the German had slicked-back blond hair and piercing blue eyes. His face was set in a deep frown.
"The last thing I can remember is driving," someone to his right said. Alfred quickly spun around, noticing the man beside him for the first time. He had long, dark hair tied in a ponytail and played with the hem of his sleeve worriedly. "I was driving home from work... And I woke up here."
Alfred blinked. "Hey, me too!" he blurted. "I was going out to get something to eat and ended up here!"
The German made his way over to them. "Now that you mention it, so was I," he murmured. He then raised his voice so everyone could hear, "Was this the case with everyone?"
A chorus of various yes's erupted around the room, and the German called for silence.
"Okay, now that we all know what we were doing before we got here, we need to figure out how we ended up here, and why. I recommend we wait until morning until anyone tries to leave. It has to be past midnight and we still have no clue where this is."
He let out a large sigh and his eyes drifted shut as he shoved his hands in his pockets, only to fly open again. The expression on his face was unnerving.
Alfred watched as he pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it and read, and with each sweep his gaze made across the page, the more his expression darkened.
"Everyone, come here," he demanded, tone urgent. Alfred had no choice but to obey as he stepped closer to the other blond, and soon everyone in the room was huddled in a circle.
Something in his chest suddenly felt incredibly heavy, like dread gnawing at him.
The German read.
"Ludwig, you think of yourself as a good leader. Can you ensure safety for yourself and for those in this room? If you wish to get out of here, you will have to make a series of choices, and oftentimes you will be forced to decide whether you value your own life over the lives of the other guests. Any wrong choice may end in death.
Each guest will find a set of instructions in their pocket. Follow these instructions, and you may make it out alive.
You will find a computer somewhere in this manor. Each guest has a folder on it with their name, accessible only with the password you will each find in your pocket. This is how I will update your instructions in the coming days. Make sure not to share your password with anyone."
The room was filled with the sound of crumpling paper as everyone around him searched their pockets for the instructions Ludwig had mentioned. He heard frantic whispering, and as his own hand brushed against the foretold paper, that feeling of dread only grew.
Alfred,
The fire will soon go out. There are no matches in the manor.
You will find a wooden shed in the forest. Turn on the generator and bring power to the manor.
It is not safe to be alone in the dark. Will you risk your own life to find the generator, or will you wait until the candles burn out and have everyone suffer the same fate?
He felt a lump in his throat as his gaze flew to the window. It was dark like someone had covered the glass with black paint.
He had to go out there?
Alone?
"Mine says to find the computer," the man with the ponytail said.
A very tall man with light-coloured hair and a scarf around his neck stepped forward. "I will come with you," he said, his accent Russian.
"Before we do anything, we should introduce ourselves," Ludwig cut in before the two could leave. "As you've already heard, I am Ludwig."
Alfred's gaze went from person to person as they all said their names. Yao, Ivan, Kiku, Francis, Matthew, Elizaveta, Natalya, Feliciano, Lovino, Lilli, Michelle, Antonio.
"Arthur," said the blond that had sat in front of him.
All eyes fell on him, the only person who hadn't answered yet. "Alfred," he said, staring back at Arthur. He may have been imagining it, but he could have sworn the green-eyed blond's face paled at that.
Ludwig sighed again. "Alright, it appears now we should just do as the instructions say, and maybe we'll find clues about whoever put us here."
"I have to go outside and find a generator," Alfred said. Ludwig nodded, glancing at the window just as he had done.
"Do you want someone to come with you?"
"I'll go," Arthur said quickly.
Alfred shook his head. "I think I'm supposed to go alone."
"Be careful," Ludwig said.
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Soon enough, he found the front door, and then he was outside.
The manor was enormous. He had no idea how they were supposed to navigate it later on, but that didn't matter for now. Alfred's focus was set on the miles of forest ahead of him.
"Jesus," he muttered. How the hell was he supposed to find that shed?
He slowly walked down the path before him. It didn't take long for the trees to thicken around him. Grass tangled at his ankles and he had to take each step with precision so as to not trip over a root or rock or... something. It was too dark to see what littered the ground.
The further he went, the darker it got. He wished he at least had a flashlight, but if there were no matches in the manor, as his note had said, then he doubted the person that had put them there had been kind enough to leave them a flashlight.
A twig snapped behind him, and then Alfred was running.
He couldn't see the path anymore, or the trees, or anything.
It was pitch black no matter which direction he turned.
And it was suffocating.
"Fuck, I'm lost, aren't I?" he demanded, a crack in his voice, but the empty air around him didn't reply. His eyes stung and he wiped at them frantically. There was no use in crying.
He could feel blood pounding in his ears. His heart drummed against his chest so painfully he wondered if he was going to have a heart attack then and there.
He shouldn't have gone alone. He shouldn't have left the manor at all. Whatever was awaiting them there was surely better than this.
He was trapped between miles of trees by himself.
Or not, he thought as another twig snapped. And that was worse.
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Eventually, Alfred noticed that he could see what was in front of him. Either his eyes had adjusted to the dark, or the trees were beginning to thin out.
By now, he was so exhausted from running that he could taste blood in his mouth. His chest heaved, and he allowed himself to slow down to a walk as he approached a fork in the road.
The path split to the left and right.
Glancing down the left path, he could see a glow in the distance, as though there was a building with the lights on. Down the right path, there was only darkness.
Another twig snapped.
Should he turn left or right?
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If you chose to turn left, go to chapter A1: TURN LEFT.
If you chose to turn right, go to chapter A2: TURN RIGHT.