House of 9
First off, here is the list of who is still in the game, no one has died/been taken off..yet.
Lawliet- The mysterious broken orphaned, Weird, Genius (Phew..that was a mouthful)
Jose- The Psycho Solider
Donnie- The Funny Druggie
TK-The Deaf Younger Brother
James-The sufferer of Multiple Personalities
Nora- The Mother-hen
Scarlett-The Broken Orphan (Another one that are no way related.)
Maddie- The Broken Doll
Jane- The Beautiful Schizophrenic Mystery
AN!: A NEW AUTHORS NOTE!: PLEASE READ THIS! HIGHLY IMPORTANT!: This Chapter is 4,089 words long. So I have split it into two parts, HOWEVER, the chapters will be uploaded simultaneously, I didn't want it to be too long. So I split it where I thought it was appropriate. This is the FIRST chapter of the two, the SECOND one is the next chapter, obviously.
The slow steam that rose from the cup at the head of the table hit the young man in his face as he bent his head down to take a whiff of the smell, it smelled of not only coffee, but hope, life, and a hint of sweet vanilla. L looked out amoung the people, he was giving them a few minutes to let reality hit them. When he first woke up, reality had dealt him a heavy blow and he hardly minded, there was one thing that clawed at the back of his brain but he didn't let it show, not now, and most likely, not ever.
He let each mourn in their respective ways, he simply say, waiting patiently to see if perhaps he or another coluld fathom up a plan to escape, of course, the first thing they would need to do would be to thoroughly inspect the house, map it out and take special documentation of each aspect that seemed out of the ordinary or just too ordinary.
Nora brushed a hand across her face as she sniffed slightly, the cold stinging at her tears she placed her palms on the cool glass and sighed out as she wept silently. Suddenly a feeling of human skin brushing her own came colliding into his brain. She felt it softly along her hand, a small touch and then a glide of the human finger.
She looked up to see the young naive TK.
"TK, right?"
He nodded and blushed slightly before grabbing her hand carefully and held in his before flipping it over. She watched slightly confused and then again, afraid. Not of him, but what he was after.
Slowly however he began to let his fingers glide across her palms.
First he made a sort of crescent shape, follow by a circle, and then a bridge, he lifted his finger and brought it down again.
"Wait, what are you doing?" She asked softly, looking into his eyes.
"L-L-eters..."He said slowly as if a child learning to speak, saying some parts of the word in an odd manner as if he couldn't hear himself speak..
"Oh, Oh my, are you deaf?" She asked looking into his eyes.
She noticed he stared at her lips as she spoke, he must of read them as he nodded yes and then repeated the shapes in her hand once more, but this time she could clearly see they were letters, and he was spelling the letters into her hand, he had been trying to say:
'Can you sign?'
She smiled and then nodded. "Oh yes, yes I can sign."
He looked happily at her and then gave a small glint of glee in his eyes to her. She felt it warm her heart and she laughed slightly at his childish ways. She grinned and put a hand on his shoulder as he began to sign to her with his hands.
'Do you understand me?' He asked through his hands.
'Yes.' She signed back to him.
She could almost see tears of relief come into his eyes.
L watched the antics continue as he made a mental note that TK was obviously deaf, but perhaps not his entire life.
Donnie slumped in his seat, hand resting his head lazily on the table as he tried to think of ways to possibly escape and James was practically beside himself in woe. He bit his nails and you could practically see his heart pounding within his chest, he breathed in slowly and watched each movement with a certain fear in his eyes.
Maddie looked around the table but swallowed with her eyes closed, slowly breathing to calm herself and Jane right next to her, looked hestitantly at her, debating wether to console the girl or not. She seemed afraid and distant, but also as though she could deal with being alone.
Then finally Jose stood up, his chair scratching across the polished wooden floor. "We need to do something. We cannot just sit here like we are."
L cleared his throat and sighed in a bored fashion before rolling his eyes and then he continued in his usual monotone voice. "Yes.." He droned slowly, his voice was not deep at all, yet it was not high-pitched, it found a medium that seemed to fill them with wonder, even though it did seem to be have a younger tone then older.
"Exactly, however, we cannot go down the halls in this state, or..rather..all of you lots state. I suggest that we all investiage the food, find some sort of dinner, and then we find respective rooms. When I previously walked around the house a bit, I found that there were a few rooms with about two beds apiece, there seemed to more then enough beds for all of us to share one room with one other, anyhow.."
L paused briefly as he sighed and took a drink of sugar saturated coffee.
"Well...alright, all of you need to find a room buddy, once that's been done, go raid the kitchen and try to get some rest, when you wake up in the morning I will have a clear and detailed map of the entire estate, with notes along the side. If, however, I am not right here at the dining table by the time that clock mounted to the wall," L then pointed to a small circular black clock hung upon the wall.
"..says twelve O'clock PM, then you should know I am dead, come look for my body though on two reasons, one, the house will start to reek after about three or four days, at the most ten, and two, I might have half a map in my hand plus you'll know there are threats inside the house."
Everyone nodded slightly in shock at how passive he seemed to speak about his own death, and slightly in shock that he came up with such a plan in short span of three minutes or perhaps even less.
"L, may I ask you something?" Nora began.
" Alright.." L replied as he took another drink.
" I'm sorry, I know this is off topic but I..I've had this question for some time now,..were you raised in the UK?" Nora questioned as she had caught the very faint undertone of a britsh accent laced inside his speech, it was a bit hard to catch but it was weaved within his monotone words.
L stared at her for a moment, the ticking of clock sounding through the dining room the only sound within that timeframe.
"I lived in England for about five years when I was younger." He replied looking right through her curious expression.
"I see.."She replied as she looked away and finally the silence was broken by some more of the people raising from their seats and finding their room partner or searching for food in the kitchen. It turned out that there actually seemed to be quite a variety and quantity in food, but was there poison laced within the food?
"I..I don't know if we should actually eat this." Scarlett said softly.
"If the sick maniac behind all this wanted us dead, he would of done it already." Donnie replied as he bit hungrily into a ham and cheese sandwhich that he quickly prepared. The other followed suit, some getting cereal and other creating a quick sandwich.
L simply stayed put at the dining table, until he wandered into a desk that was back inside the small sitting room he had been at previously in the day. He grabbed a few pieces of paper and a pen, along with a straightedge and began to create one paper into a lined sheet of paper for note taking and one other paper and gridded sheet for creating a diagram on the floorplan of the estate.
Suddenly a soft clicking sound was heard next to him and as he looked over she saw Nora's retreating figure and then a simple grilled cheese beside him. He looked at her and felt the confusion bubble within his head, he swallowed harshly and blinked a few times too many before breathing in a bit labored.
He felt his breath hitch and he shook his head as if to shake away his pains.
"W-Watari?" He whispered.
"Hm?" TK asked as he peeked over his shoulder.
"Nothing..nothing.."He whispered in slight dazed confusion before going back to mapping out the paper.
Jane suddenly walked through and sat beside him, watching his pen streak across the paper. She looked up at his blank facial expression before standing up and walking towards TK.
"Are you alright?" She asked softly as she noticed the small piece of a scar showing through on his neck, for once not covered by his messy red hair.
He gasped slightly and pulled his floppy cap on himself a bit tighter and the hair practically adjusted itself in his favor.
He nodded to answer her question and she left it at that immediately, she gave him a smile and then put her hands into her pockets. "Well, um, do you want to be my roomy?"
He smiled slightly and a blush began to bloom across his face as he nodded slowly, he took her, shakily, by the hand and formed letters into her hand which she immediately recognized as a way of communication.
'sure, do you sign?'
Her face fell and she shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry.."
As footsteps proceeded up the stairs, the clocks hand began to turn, each hour slowly turning passing by.
Within these long hours, L explored every inch of the house and each victim settled down into their rooms which they found down the hallway of many doors, none of them dared to explore more than what L had showed them to be safe.
At each place, he scaled it out onto a map, the origin of the map, directly in the middle being what he labeled, The Great Room. Which was the place they congregated. Down the stairs and at the dining table. Labeling it the dining room would make no sense as there was not only that, but also the small living room detached to the side, the entrance room in front of the main door, the kitchen, and a small library unexplored by the others as of yet.
Lawliet, had finally completed both the notes paper, the map, and diagram, at five AM, the time that Nora had decided it was appropriate to wake up, along with Scarlett, Jane, and Maddie.
"Lawliet? Uh..Good Morning." Jane murmured as she walked down the stairs slowly.
"...Morning.." He sighed as he put his hand to his head and squinted in frustration at the paper he was reviewing.
"You..finished those?" Nora asked as she also noted his untouched grilled cheese.
"The maps? Yes..I was working on them.." He mumbled as he began to bit his thumb once again.
Nora noted along with the various other things, the bags under his eyes. They were extremely dark. She had noticed them before but..now it just seemed to strike her even more forcefully than ever that he looked absolutly exhausted.
It was but five minutes before Nora had begun to brew coffee and Nora slid cups all around the table full of coffee at each seat. She figured everyone though could drink it, and if they desired not to, they could drink water. As that seemed to be there only options as of right then.
Scarlett, Maddie, and Jane all silently agreed to help Nora with the kitchen tasks as they took the sugar cubes and creamer to the table and then eventually began to help in the preparation of breakfast.
It turned out to be that Maddie was actually a decent cook, Nora was fantastic, Scarlett seemed to not know how to even crack and egg, and Jane was was great at silently cleaning dishes and putting them away as they were before.
All in all, it took only one hour to prepare breakfast for all the members of the house and as they finished placing the last item of food on the plate, the last person to wake came down, Donnie.
"Fills me with joy to see women in the kitchen...working." Donnie said with a small smile.
"Very cute, but not helpful.." Nora replied with a small smirk hidden behind a mask.
Breakfast was served accordingly by Maddie and everyone dug in quickly.
Tk looked across the table at Nora until she finally felt his stare and looked up at him also. He smiled and signed quickly 'Thank You.' before going back to eating.
She smiled and shook her head slowly as she continued her breakfast also.
REMEMBER: This chapter is in two parts, continue to the next chapter to read the rest, Yes, I put up TWO chapters.