Watchers

Chapter 29: Doors and Windows into the Soul

Daniel and Sasha spend the first few days of the new week feeling shiftless, trying to follow Francie's advice and finding ways to endear themselves to the people watching them through the cameras mounted in every room. They also work on finding an escape route, being as inconspicuous as possible in the process.

"If there really is another door in the Elimination Room," Daniel says, "It must be hidden, disguised like part of the wall or something. Since we can't get in there to test that theory until the next elimination, we might as well look around and see if we can find any other hidden entrances."

"I really don't think we're going to find any," Sasha answers. "If they don't want us to find it, then we won't."

"You're probably right, but I can't just sit around waiting for other people to decide my fate," Daniel says.

So they spend several days running their hands along walls, looking for seams, pressing on things that would pop open if they were in the evil lair of a movie villain, and trying not to look too obviously like they're hunting for something. As Sasha predicted, they find nothing, and on the afternoon of the fourth day, Sasha blows the hair out of her face and says a little irritably, "Can we take a break?"

"Why, do you want to go swim in the pool?" Daniel asks.

He's annoyed, but she knows that they won't find any secret passageways and she also knows they need to keep their strength up for the day when they do get a chance to fight their way out of this house.

"Come on," she says, sliding her hand into his. It still feels a little strange, but it's becoming easier to pretend to be his girlfriend. "I'll make you a sandwich."

She leads him into the kitchen and he sits down at the island while Sasha goes over to the pantry and starts opening cabinet doors. It's always the same food, replenished each night while they sleep, and everyone fends for themselves whenever they're hungry. Most of the house has already eaten by now, and Sasha's stomach is rumbling - she hasn't had access to a pantry this full in her entire life and if she weren't pretty certain that this place was an outer circle of hell, she'd be sure that she was in heaven.

"Turkey or ham?" she asks, opening the refrigerator door.

"I don't care," Daniel says, drumming the tips of his shoes softly against the island. She knows he's testing the panels, trying to find one that sounds hollow.

She gets a package of sliced turkey out of the fridge and puts it on the counter next to a loaf of bread, a bottle of mustard, a tomato, and a couple slices of Swiss cheese. While she's immersed in preparing the sandwiches, enjoying the smell of the fresh bread and the juiciness of the tomato, Taylor comes over and slides onto the barstool next to Daniel.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he says.

"Eat?" Sasha asks.

Taylor nods at Daniel's foot and says, "That."

"Spare us," Daniel says. "Francie already told us we have to be on our best behavior or else the viewers will vote us out of the house."

"It's not just them," Taylor says, and this causes Sasha to stop assembling her sandwich and look at him. He continues, lowering his voice to a whisper, "I have it on good authority that there's an Elimination Game employee in the house with us."

"What, like a spy?" Daniel asks, practically snorting his opinion of this idea.

"Shh," Taylor says, talking even lower. "Yeah, kind of. I was watching Melody the week leading up to her brother's elimination and a lot of the stuff she did to sabotage him was stuff she couldn't have done on her own."

"Why were you watching her?" Daniel asks.

"I was worried about her," Taylor says. "And of course you know now that my sister's here, too, so I had a special interest in how Melody and her brother's story played out."

"Story," Sasha says, "like we're all characters on a TV show instead of real people."

"Might as well be," Taylor says. "Think about it. How many reality shows have you seen where a boring contestant goes home instead of a troublemaker, just so they can continue to cause drama? Any reality show worth its salt is going to fix its eliminations to make sure the most interesting people stay."

"And you think there's someone inside the house making sure that happens?" Sasha asks. "Who?"

"I don't know that part yet," Taylor says. "I just know that what you're doing - looking for an escape route - it isn't smart. It could get you killed a lot sooner than an Elimination Challenge."

He's practically mouthing these last words and Sasha is hanging on every one of them, but Daniel just sits back and crosses his arms. He says, "The way I see it, I'm already at the bottom of everyone's list. I can't go much lower so if you don't mind, I'm going to keep looking for doors because I don't stand a chance otherwise. None of us do."

To reinforce his point, he gives the island another swift kick and Taylor slides off his stool and heads into the living room.

"Do you think he's right?" Sasha asks as she slides Daniel's sandwich across the counter to him.

"I don't know," Daniel says. "He doesn't exactly scream trustworthy, though. For all we know, he's the spy and that was him firing a warning shot. That or he's full of crap."