Trapped in a Mansion III

◇ A L E X A ◇

I have been walking for almost ten minutes in the estimation, but no clue of the other's whereabouts. All the corridors are painted black, not a single painting, picture, or a piece of furniture can be seen. The place is dim-lit, making it impossible to see the end of the corridors.

My legs are starting to feel numb, so I decided to take a rest. Seating on the floor, leaning on the wall, my mind wanders to multiple thoughts. Worries about my friends, about what could happen to us here, or if we will make it out alive, filled my thoughts. What happened to them? Are they fine, or in danger? I hope they're alright...

Lost in thought, I didn't notice Ares' presence until he sat in front of him. "Yo," he greeted me and I gave him a questioning look. He is wearing his typical cold look, it reminds me of Naomi. The first time I met her, she was wearing a cold look, but every time an elder approach her, she fakes a smile and greet them cheerfully. Just like me, we both live in a world where we must act nice and perfect all of the time.

"How did you find me?" I asked, looking at his eyes void of emotions. Those eyes that only regain emotions at the presence of Naomi. I was one of the witnesses of his suffering when she forgot some fragments of her memory, but I also witnessed Naomi's sufferings. She suffered too much because of those memories, and I can only assume how much she suffers when she is alone.

Out of all of my friends, Naomi is the closest one to me, because of our similarities and differences. We are both prideful, but she can put down her pride to give chance to others. I wonder, if we only talked to Naomi about her past more, will she still suffer amnesia?

"I just followed wherever my feet brought me, then I saw you, sitting there. I didn't saw or even heard anyone else," he answered, his voice was cold. How does this guy even keep his cold voice? And the fact that he has Elijah and Chase as friends, he was still able to keep his poker face.

"What do we do now?" I asked.

"Let's just stay here and wait. Walking without a clue is useless and tiring," he lazily stated. Sighing, I did as he said and rests on the floor. This will only work if our paths are all intertwined and if they are also looking for us.

Suddenly, we felt the ground shaking. Standing up, we noticed the cracks forming on the ground, and as if on cue, we started running as the ground starts to break. Going to a direction no one knows where we sprinted for our dear lives.

"What the hell is going on?!" Still running and panting, we turned left and right, in the hope to get rid of the cracks that are on our tail. We kept running until we reached a door and closed it the moment we enter. The ground didn't crack apart as we breathe out a sigh of reveal and fell on the floor, panting hard.

"Are we safe?" I asked, still panting.

"I guess so. Everything is calm already, but where are we?" He asked, making me think of the same thing. As my breathing calm down, I let my gaze travel every inch of the room. The room is painted black, like the corridors, and there are three doors painted with bloody red. There are five letters on top of the doors, from left to right; N, I, A, M, O

Standing up, I went to the doors to have a closer look. Each of them is identical, with two sets of mini-keyboard and a mini-screen with blanks on it. The first screen asks for the cipher, which has two words, the first word has four letters and the second has five letters. While the second one requires the key, it has five blanks.

"The answer is pretty obvious. He is obsessed with Naomi and the letters spell Naomi. The question is, what is the cipher used?" He stated, and I nodded in agreement. How creepy, is he that obsessed with her to the point that everything is about her? I wonder, is Naomi feeling creeped out like us? Knowing her, she would answer the creep in a savage cold way. She can handle him, I hope.

"I'm not that familiar with this cipher," I said honestly. There is no use lying and keeping my pride on top. By being honest, I can still keep my pride in my words. Looking around the room, I searched for possible clues.

"What ciphers do you know?" He asked, taking out a pen and paper.

"Caesar, monoalphabetic, homophonic substitution, polygram substitution, polyalphabetic substitution, Playfair, hill, clock, keyboard, and keypad ciphers. That's all I could think of, but I don't really know how to use them. Naomi knows more codes and ciphers than me," I listed out, as he starts scribbling.

He slowly looked up to me, "what ciphers do you even know how to use?" He asked, putting more emphasis on the last word. I smiled awkwardly, he wants to try every cipher to solve it, I think.

"Keyboard, keypad, and caesar ciphers. But only caesar cipher can be used," I answered. Keyboard cipher is like a ratio that stands for keyboard keys, while the keypad cipher has similar concept, but in keypad. Caesar cipher is a type of substitution cipher in which each letter in the plaintext is replaced by a letter some fixed number of positions down the alphabet. It can shift to the right by three letters or other conditions.

A sudden robotic voice erupted in the room, shocking the both of us. "Want a clue? It's simple. A man got mad because of the railroad built by the house fence." The words he said only added to my confusion. Another out of this world clue? He should've just told us the answer if he is going to give us a confusing hint!

"Got it," he said, making me look at him with amusement. I never knew this guy knows a thing or two about things like this. The fact that he is a cold guy who only has interest about anything that is connected to Naomi, this was utterly unexpected.

"The answer is Naomi, and the cipher used is rail fence cipher. I remember Naomi once mentioned this," he said, still looking at me with poker face, his voice still cold. Sighing, I went to the door on the left and registered the answers we got.

Walking in, we found ourselves in another room full of black. If only he isn't a creep, he and Naomi would be in agreement. Seeing how addicted the both of them with black, I'm afraid they might turn the whole school to black.

We heard the door closed, making us both alarmed, then green gas starts to cover the ground, slowly coming up. Green gas...poison gas. Did he intend to kill us here?! Starting to panic, I shot a questioning look at Ares, only to find his poker face.

"I trust them. I trust Naomi, they won't let us die like this. Don't worry," his words were spoken in a cold voice, but the meaning was calming. I entrust my life to you.