A metallic door, with a red (70) across the middle of it. For some time Leo, Piper, and I just stared at it. The silence was broken by none other than the sarcastic comedian of our group.
"Damn, I was hoping the first number would be 69. Ah well, pay up Percy." Leo joked. I wanted to mad at him for joking at a time like this, but I found myself laughing instead. Something about this kid kept me constantly light hearted.
Piper, on the other hand, seemed less than amused with his attempt at humor, and even less amused by me laughing at it.
"Great, they're multiplying" I heard here mumble to herself. I gave Leo a small smile before turning serious. I approached the door and observed the pad next to it.
The pad was nearly the same as the one in the room I escaped from earlier, the only difference being the colors. The multiplication and division symbol were grey while the addition was red and the subtraction was yellow. I turned to Piper and spoke.
"Grey, red, and yellow are the colors on this door. So it looks like it's me, you, and Reyna going through this door." Piper paused a moment before giving a slight shrug.
"You don't seem too bad, though I must admit; I'd rather not go through the same door Reyna." Piper spoke nonchalantly.
"Why, what do you have against Reyna" I asked. Leo also looked confused by her declaration so he evidently didn't know why either. Piper simply shrugged once again and began walking downstairs.
"C'mon guys, it's almost time for us to meet with the others." She called to us as she retreated away from us quickly; completely omitting our question. Leo and I exchanged a quizzical look before following here downstairs.
As if planned, the second we made it back to the lobby the grandfather clock ring twice. Everyone else was already there, waiting on us somewhat impatiently.
"Decided to be fashionably late did you?" Reyna asked coldly. She was glaring at Piper as if she was the only one late. We weren't really late so Reyna's hostility surprised me; did she and Piper know each other before coming here? If so, they apparently didn't get along.
"So sorry Reyna, I wish I could try looking like a homeless bimbo for a change but you just pull it off so well." Piper countered mockingly.
"C'mon guys no time to argue, we need to be working together." I shouted before things got out of hand. I mentally groaned because spending time with the two of them alone will probably drive me insane.
The two girls continued maliciously staring at each other but kept quiet. Piper's insult hadn't been far from the truth, I noticed as I took in what they were each wearing. Reyna wore an extremely baggy red jacket that looked ripped in some parts with black skinny jeans that were ripped at the knee. She seemed to also have a plain white T-shirt under her jacket, a jacket in which she was attempting to take off without Piper noticing; Reyna must have took that insult to heart.
Piper on the other hand wore a plain brown fur coat that complimented her Cherokee-looking skin. Along with the coat she wore plain blue jeans. I could tell she tried to make her look less beautiful than she appeared, but she was failing at doing so.
Jason took over the talking as a Reyna was still fuming at Piper.
"Alright guys, status report. On floor three we found a door with a (18) on it. Unfortunately the color pad only had two colors so only two people are going through that one."
"And they are?" I asked.
"Me and ginger powder over there" Octavian said, speaking up for the first time. Rachel looked didn't look too happy with her new nickname but ignored it for the time being.
"Piper, Leo, and I found a door with a (70) on it on the tenth floor. The color pad had red (me), yellow (Piper) and grey (Reyna)." I updated to the group. Reyna looked furious at the fact she was stuck with Piper but knew arguing wasn't going to get her anywhere.
"So what are we supposed to do, there are no more doors as far as we've seen. And the ringmaster chick said there were ten of them" Leo cried indignantly.
"I don't know twiddle your thumbs for all I care. Percy, Piper c'mon so we can get this stupid thing over." Reyna demanded and began walking towards floor ten without us. Piper stared daggers at her back but still reluctantly followed. I gave a small wave to everyone else and began walking with them.
You ever tried walking with two teenage girls who hate each other? If not, let me tell you it sucks. The tension in the air was so thick I swore I was choking on it. The ten stories of steps we climbed seemed to go on endlessly. Eventually we made to the (70) door and stopped.
"You guys know how to open the door because I'm no good at math." Or writing, reading, science, or really anything school related; though I figured they didn't need to know all of that yet. I might as well have been talking to the steel door for all the response I got.
Usually I'd keep asking until I got a response but angering these two teenage girls was not on the top of my bucket list. I decided to take Reyna's advice and twiddled my thumbs.
"Got it" Reyna exclaimed about a minute later. Piper and I looked at her, waiting for her to explain.
If Reyna could multiply and divide and I could add we could get a sum of (70)
(6)(7)(9) = (378)
(378) / (9) = (42)
(42) + (7) + (7) + (7) + (7) = (70)
Reyna explained to us how to get to seventy. I ran the math over in my head and it seemed full proof to me.
"That's right! Awesome job Reyna" If I was left up to figure this out I'd probably die from either boredom or the 10 hour timeline; whichever came first.
"Thank you Percy, now let's put this equation in and opens the door."
We put in the numbers exactly how Reyna said them and stepped back. The pad beeped three times in confirmation followed by a small metallic groan. The door lifted slowly from the floor granting us the ability to see a pitch black room in front of us.
"Ladies first" I offered giving them each a shaky smile.
"Percy go through the door" Piper ordered me in a strange tone. I'd never heard such a tone; it was extremely persuasive I felt myself going through the door, the girls following behind. I made a mental note to ask her about that later.
The second we were all through the door, it snapped closed and the lights in the room turned on. I registered the fact I was surrounded by books before I heard a voice I had been hoping not to hear again.
"Hey guys, it me Ringmaster; congratulations, you made it to the first Room; give yourself a pat on the back. I thought I'd share with you the last two rules of the game. For one, you guys are trapped in the room you go in; there is a key in each room that will let you out. Find the way out and find the (2) card is your goal.
"Also, I feel like being merciful, so as soon as you find a way out, I'll let you come back in the door with whoever you want anytime you want. You may need clues from other rooms to find the (2) card."
Just as fast as her voice appeared, it disappeared from the room, leaving Piper, Reyna, and I speechless. I took the opportunity to get a good look around the room.
The room was perfectly circular; it had a warm brown carpet and a slightly dim lighting, giving the room and overall comfortable feeling. Excluding four doors, the walls were completely covered with bookshelves neatly stocked with large books. My girlfriend may have liked it, she always was into this type of stuff, but I myself was getting queasy just seeing so many books at once.
There was a door in every basic direction of a compass. The southern door was the one we just entered. I walked to the northern door to try and open it. Unfortunately the door was locked, a small key card scanner sat next to it.
I turned around to see the Reyna and Piper had gone to the western and eastern door, respectively. I watched both of them try and open their door with failure.
"Alright guys, I guess we need to find the keys." My voice rang, breaking the silent air. The girls offered me a nod and began searching within the books for some hint. I wasn't sure if I was happy they kept their distance or not. Their arguing is almost as bad as the awkward silence between them. I decided to temporarily ignore them and look for clues.
"I found something Percy." I heard Reyna whisper to me as she bent down to grab a book. She gave me no small start as I thought she was extremely far away from me. I had been so focused on finding something that I hadn't noticed she made her way close to me. It had to have been at least twenty minutes since we started looking and I hadn't found anything as of yet.
She grabbed a book off the bookshelf right next to the one I was currently inspecting. On a row of red books there was a suspicious green book. Reyna grabbed it and began skimming through the pages. The book was title less so I had no idea what the book may be about. After a while I couldn't help but ask her about it.
"So, what's it about?"
"Gestalts Theory it'd appear," she answered without looking away from the book.
"Who's theory?"
"Gestalt's, German philosopher and one of the first ever psychologist, you heard of him?" I simply shook my head; even I paid attention in school I'm sure I'd have never of this guy. Reyna flipped to a page in the book and handed it to me.
Accompanied with words I couldn't bother reading, was a strange illustration. It looked like someone drew a dog but erased a couple lines of it.
"What does this look like to you?" Reyna asked me, her eyes looking critical.
"Um… a dog I guess. Though I guess some of it is faded."
"No, it's not faded. This is Gestalts theory on perception, that the human eye sees the entire figure before its individual parts."
"You want to simplify that for me?" Reyna looked at me like I was stupid, and I probably sounded like I was.
"In man's eye, the whole is greater than individual parts." Reyna answered after a few seconds.
"So do you think this is a hint or something?" I asked.
"Not exactly, at least not to get out of this room, but it pretty much says what we needed to happen to get everyone out of here."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, let's say Jason's sister was still alive and the player that killed her was working with us, then we all obtain a number two card and everyone escapes. The whole is greater than individual parts.
"The whole is all ten of our goals, to get out of here alive. The individual parts are our own selfish wants to get out no matter the cost. Thaila's killer was operating as an individual part, wanting to obtain the (2) card first, no matter what."
"Hold up, are you suggesting that Thaila's killer knew about the (2) card before us?"
"That's not all I'm suggesting. Thaila's killer has likely played this game before; how else would they know about the (2) card or about the ability to use a number on someone's hand, even if that hand has been… removed?" Reyna's reasoning was true, even if I didn't want to believe it.
"Thaila was a pawn in this person's chess match. Right now, they've got us all in check and are merely waiting for one of us to slip and get checkmate. You know what happens when they get checkmate?"
"Game over," I muttered.
"Exactly, and this game will cost you your life. In that person's eyes the whole is winning the game. Can you tell me what their individual parts are?" I considered her question for a bit before answering.
"The players, all eight of us; they believe winning the game is greater than the life of the rest of the players."
"Bingo, and that's why that person is top competition; they aren't being held back by morals and things of such nature, they're playing to win."
Silence spread between us as we reflected on that. Reyna was right, this player was dangerous and needed to be watched. They already have a one way ticket to door (10) as well as access to two different colors for doors. Reyna and I continued searching bookshelves as we tried finding more hints. I decided to ask her a question I'd been dying to know.
"So what's with you and Piper anyway?" I whispered to be sure Piper didn't hear us. Reyna was silent for a little while before answering.
"I think she's an amorliguan." She answered finally.
"What, no way, how can you tell?"
Amorligua was a formerly secret group of girls who had the power of persuasion. They had some secret ability that allowed them to convince men of almost anything. They were using their gift to gain profit and indirectly own a lot of big time corporations. I originally thought they were all just daughters of Aphrodite using charm speaking but I was never confirmed that. Amorligua does loosely translate from Latin to mean "love speech". The girls were discovered in some foreign country and were immediately tried and killed, though many believe there are still plenty left alive who weren't in that particular country at the time.
"You remember when she asked you to go in this room first?"
"Yey"
"Her voice, in that one moment, sounded just like a voice of a woman who persuaded my dad to divorce my mother." Reyna looked close to tears but I knew better than to try and comfort her for three reasons. That'd draw attention to us from Piper, I barely knew her, and she seemed like a tough girl who would never show weakness; I doubt she even knows there is a tear in her eye. She hung her head down, causing her hair to block my view from her face before continuing.
"The bad part is I doubt she even known's about her gift. Otherwise she'd have every guy here wrapped around her thumb. I'd bet anything she doesn't even know her mom. It makes me feel bad for hating her because she hasn't done anything wrong."
I wanted to talk to her more about that when Piper decided, of all times, to call me over to her. Reyna gave me a shaky smile before pushing me towards Piper and resuming her own search.
A/N (Pretty long chapter but I really didn't want to stop typing. Probably a lot of mistakes but I'll edit it better at a later date. I plan to stuff a lot of crazy theories and conspiracies in this story. If you have any recommendations please tell me.)
