They got closer and closer to the house. As they did they realised that it was more of a stately home. Ward, now that they had all stopped moving, was starting to shiver again, so he got up to walk around on the top of the cage.
"Can you please stop doing that?" Simmons asked as Ward's movements started to swing the cage.
"Sorry." Ward replied heading to the centre of the cage where he could swing his arms without swinging the cage.
"What floor do you think we're gonna hit?" Skye asked.
"I think we are going to land on the roof." May told them.
"Why do you think that?" Simmons asked, not quite keeping the fear out of her voice.
"It would waste a creepy house if we didn't have to walk through it."
"I hate creepy houses." Fitz muttered.
"We know!" May told him. She was starting to lose her patience with this entire game.
The cage started levelling out and, just as May predicted, headed for the uppermost floor of the house. The cage slowed down to a crawl and inched ever closer to the wall of the house. It stopped with a bump causing Ward to lose his footing. His foot dropped through the square hole up to his knee where it then got stuck.
Everyone else escaped this embarrassment as they were sat down.
Skye and May laughed at the comedy effect of it all while Coulson and Fitz helped Ward free his leg.
Simmons was waiting to pounce on him to check for injuries.
"I'm fine people!" Ward announced as his foot came free. His face was flushed as he rolled himself off the cage and onto the roof before getting to his feet and helping the others from the cage to the roof.
"Which way?" Ward asked looking from one side of the roof to the other.
As if someone could hear him a brightly illuminated arrow appeared above one of the towers.
"I have a feeling we are now safe from the dogs, but I don't want to find out what happens if we now choose to delay" May told them.
"Me either, let's go." Coulson agreed.
May and Coulson led the group toward the tower keeping Fitz and Simmons in the middle and having Skye and Ward bring up the rear. They headed down a dark spiral staircase inside the tower ,and reached a rotting oak door at the bottom. Cautiously May opened it and sneaked a peak up and down the corridor. Seeing nothing she ventured out and waited. When nothing happened she beckoned Coulson and the others to join her. She could see that Ward and Skye were holding hands and filed it away in her mind for later.
The house was that quiet, dark and draughty that they all dropped their voices to a whisper and tried to make as little sound as possible.
"Which way now?" Coulson asked looking around.
There was a door at either end of the corridor. Coulson noticed May nodding to each door in turn and he imagined she was saying "eenie meany miny mo" in her head. He also noticed Ward had shuffled over to the wall and was now investigating the wall with his hands. Coulson was worried about him. They had all had a rough time in the game, but, judging by the state of him Ward had probably suffered the worst.
"Gotcha!" he heard Ward whisper in glee as he pressed a panel in the wall and a secret door opened revealing another staircase.
"How the hell did you know that was there?" Coulson asked him in disbelief.
"Old house. No arrows. Means we have to carry on in the same direction." Ward replied.
He stepped back and allowed a stunned May to pull ahead. She aimed a soft elbow to his gut as she passed him. Once everyone was on the staircase Ward followed and the door shut behind him, plunging them into complete darkness.
"Hey, wait. I've just remembered." Fitz said.
Ward could hear him routing through his pockets and suddenly a piercing light blinded them all.
"You've had a torch this entire time and you didn't think it would be useful?" Simmons scolded him.
Fitz passed the torch to May who continued down the stairs.
At the bottom she came up against the back of something. She pressed on it gently and it gave way in her hands.
"There's a tapestry at the bottom." She warned the others. She knew the feeling of the fabric may unnerve some of them if they weren't prepared for it.
One by one they left the stairway and joined May in a small, comfortably lit and decorated room. There was a bright arrow painted over one of the doors.
"I guess we go this way." Coulson said, taking over the lead from May, who had turned the torch off as their way was now lit.
Coulson followed the arrows and they came to a drawing room.
The team gathered around Coulson and looked towards the glaring warmth of the log fire burning in it's hearth.
"Welcome. I hope you enjoyed my game." They heard their host say, except this was a real voice, not one over a tannoy.
The chair spun around and a small, squat, balding man got out of it.
"I honestly didn't expect you to make it. No one ever does."
"No. They usually fall out the bottom of your cage trap." Ward quipped.
Coulson however had lost what little patience he had remaining. He walked straight up to him and hit him so hard in the nose that their host crumpled straight to the floor.
"Let's get this piece of filth back to the 'bus to play our game." He said to May and Ward who immediately looked for something to restrain him with.
"Here. Try this." Ward said as he handed May a curtain tie back.
"Where are you going?" she shouted after his retreating back.
"To find our weapons." He shouted back from the next room.
A/N: The next chapter is going to be the last chapter on this Fic... They are going to be back on the bus comparing stories (Only Skye knows every challenge) and dealing with certain 'traumas'...