Chapter Two~

- The day before Joseph entered the manor -

(Aesop's POV)

As Aesop was walking towards the big oak door, he stopped then proceeded to fiddle with his makeup box. Afterwards he took out an invitation then went ahead to knock on the door. *Knock knock* After a few seconds, hurried footsteps could be heard behind the door.

The huge door was quickly opened by a friendly looking nurse. "Hello! Are you the new survivor?" The nurse asked. Aesop nodded after hearing her. "A pleasure to meet you! I'm Emily Dyer, The Doctor. Please, come on in." Emily gently smiled as she took a step back. Just when Aesop was about to step forward Emily suddenly cut her off. "Oh yeah! Do you have an invitation?" Emily asked. Joseph just singlehandedly gave the invitation in his hand. Emily smiled sweetly but said nothing. Aesop went inside the house, he looked around to see a woman adjusting her gun, and a man that had a hoodie that was sleeping soundly on the couch. As Aesop was looking around, there was an awkward silence in the room. Emily smiled then turned around to face the girl with a gun. "That's Martha Behamfil, she's the Coordinator. While That guy lying on the couch is Naib Subedar, he's the Mercenary."

Emily paused before speaking again. "They just finished a match and I just finished bandaging Naib up, he's pretty tired too."

Aesop stared at Emily for a long time then said. "You're... Too talkative..." Emily was dumbfounded to hear Aesop speaking but chuckled after. "Indeed I am, sorry about that." Emily said while having an apologetic look on her face. Aesop nodded then said. "My... Room..." Emily smiled then said a series of directions.

Aesop quickly remembered what Emily said, nodded back at her then left.

- 30 Minutes Later -

After getting confused on where to go he eventually arrived in front of a dark oak door. Aesop reached his hand out to turn the doorknob. *Clack clack* It was locked. He was about to reach something from his pocket when he realized. "I... Have no key..." Aesop suddenly remembered he wasn't given a single key. Emily probably forgot about it after his casual remark. "Forget it... I'm just gonna try to find the library."

As Aesop was about to leave he found an unusually weird corridor. "Hmm?" Aesop quickly went to the corridor to take a peek.

What's this? A hidden corridor? Why didn't he see this before? Aesop quickly made up his mind to go see inside, he was gonna be quick tho. He didn't want to find unnecessary problems. Just when he was about to enter, someone called out his name. "Aesop! Stop!" Aesop turned around to see Martha running towards him. "Don't go in there!" Martha finally stopped in front of Aesop panting hard. Aesop looked at Martha, amused. "Didn't you see the sign? It says do not enter!" Martha said as she points her finger towards a sign. Aesop thought. "How am I supposed to know... It's basically hidden..." "That's the Hunters side of the manor." Aesop was surprised, but quickly hid it. "I don't have my key..." Aesop said to Martha while pointing at the corridor where his room was. "Tada! It's right here!" Martha exclaimed while she took out a key from her pocket. "How... Do you have it?" Aesop asked. "Emily gave it to me. She told me to hand it to you since she forgot to give it to you. She couldn't give it to you cuz she's having a match right now." "Alright..." Aesop softly spoke. "Do you... Know where the library is?" Aesop asked while scratching his head. "Are you gonna read? You can take a rest for now, since you don't have a match tomorrow. Besides, the Hunters haven't saw you yet and isn't completely sure about you... Probably..." Martha added. "I'd rather read than rest... It's basically the same thing..."

"You sure?"

"Yea..."

Martha rolled her eyes after hearing Aesop but quickly nodded then said. "Whatever you say. Follow me then, I don't want you going to the Hunters side of the manor... Again... Hehe." Martha said while giggling.

"..." Aesop silently stared at Martha but still followed after her.

- A few minutes later -

"We're here." Martha said while stopping in front of a big intricately designed door. "I didn't know you guys still know how to design." Aesop said sarcastically while smirking. "Well we actually didn't... It was already designed when we came here..." Martha said then added. "I got to go now, I'm in a match after the next game. Go enjoy yourself." Martha waved her hand to let Aesop know she was going. Aesop nodded then proceeded to read books about Everyone else. After a few hours it was already 9:00 PM. Aesop just finished reading the Survivor's books and he just quickly skimmed through the Hunters. Aesop also took a map of the manor as the manor was so big, even if he was here for a few months he would still get lost. Aesop learned quite alot by reading, he learned that Survivors and Hunters cannot have any interactions whatsoever. They also cannot fall in love. Aesop smirked at the thought. How can Survivors and Hunters fall for each other? That was simply absurd. Anyway after skimming through the Hunters books, Aesop decided to get some tea. He took out his map, brought some books and quickly walked towards the kitchen. After walking for a few Minutes, Aesop still wasn't there, it was eerily silent which made one extremely uncomfortable. However, Aesop was used to silence so he wasn't so bothered. After a few minutes (again) Aesop finally arrived at the kitchen. He quickly brewed tea and added 2 pieces of sugar cubes. After finishing his tea he went back to his room and changed to his pygamas, he plopped in his soft fluffy bed and quickly went to sleep. Aesop couldn't sleep well tho, he was having nightmares about his father.

- Time skip to current day (When Joseph was late at the match up) -

Nothing in particular happend yesterday, Emily and Martha just introduced him to other Survivors. But Aesop was extremely annoyed by Vera Nair, the Perfumer. She was extremely arrogant and conceited. But we'll talk about that some other day.

Today was Aesop's first match. He was teaming up with Emily, Martha, and Eli. Aesop was quite fidgety as this was his first match. Emily told him that the Hunters were very aggressive and never gave pity to anyone, and if I was to come across any of them, run. Aesop was kind of nervous until there was a loud blaring sound that said. "Joseph Desaulniers, match will start in 2 minutes. Please hurry to the matchmaking room in a minute if not you will be immediately eliminated." A loud female voice said. Aesop was surprised. Is he a new Hunter? How come I haven't read him on the book? Did something malfunction? Aesop turned to look at the other Survivors looking confused. There were 5 seconds left in the minute he was given. "I guess I won't be having my match today." Aesop sighed. "Hunter has entered the match." The female voice said. They were all surprised. They didn't expect whoever this so called "Joseph" could match up in the last second. "Please get ready to start. You have 30 seconds left." The female voice said. They were all shocked but came back to their senses after a few seconds.

"Match will now start."