They didn't play the game at midnight.
Instead, the house swallowed the time whole.
The group gathered in the living room, sprawled out on sleeping bags, mismatched chairs, and the floor. The lights were dim now—just the string lights and a flickering lamp in the corner. A storm had rolled in, distant thunder rattling the old windows like bones in a chest.
Mindy checked the time: 12:17 a.m.
"Well," she sighed, lying upside down on the couch with her legs over the top, "so much for drama. I was hoping the walls would bleed or something by now."
"Maybe the house is as bored as we are," Derreck said, sipping from a can of warm soda. "We could play Truth or Dare. That's still technically dangerous with this group."
"No more games," Joseph muttered, still watching the windows. "At least, not tonight."
Elli was crouched near the fireplace, quietly drawing symbols into the dust with her finger.
Karrie noticed.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
Elli didn't look up. "Just remembering."
"What?"
Elli looked up now, her face unreadable. "What it felt like. When everything changed."
A long silence stretched, heavy.
Then Lorenz cut in. "Did you guys know people used to call this place The House That Screams?"
"Nope. And I'm good not knowing," Olivia replied flatly, arms crossed.
"It's in this forum I found. There's a thread from 2009—some guy claims he broke in, stayed one night, and saw his reflection blink when he didn't. He said the house talks back if you talk to it."
"That's comforting," Sophia said, voice tight. She was curled next to Mae, both of them wrapped in one sleeping bag like a two-headed blanket monster.
"You think the game is real?" Mae asked, voice so soft it nearly disappeared.
"It's just words," Joseph said quickly. "It doesn't mean anything."
"Spoken like someone who doesn't believe in anything," Elli said.
That stung. But Joseph didn't reply.
Later, in the hallway, Olivia cornered Mindy near the bathroom.
"You're really not gonna tell them?" Olivia asked, arms folded.
Mindy raised an eyebrow. "Tell them what?"
"That your uncle went missing three days after he came back. That no one's seen him since."
Mindy's smile faltered for the first time. "He left. That's all."
Olivia's eyes narrowed. "You sure about that?"
Mindy turned away. "Drop it."
Upstairs, Karrie couldn't sleep. She sat by the window again, sketchbook open on her lap. She wasn't drawing anymore, just staring.
The house groaned. Not like the wind. Not like settling wood. This was... different.
A sound like a low whisper in the walls. Like something pacing behind the plaster.
She glanced at the door. It was open a crack.
She swore she had closed it.
Back downstairs, Sophia was whispering to Lorenz.
"You don't think it's a little weird how Mindy keeps pushing the game?"
"She's always been a chaos goblin," Lorenz said. "But yeah. Something feels off."
"I think someone's lying about why they're here," she said. "Or what they know."
From the corner, Elli's voice came: "Everyone's lying."
At 3:14 a.m., the power flickered for the first time.
Just once.
But in that moment, as the lights went out and came back on—
—the portrait above the fireplace had changed.
Only for a second.
But it was enough for Mae, still awake on the couch, to sit bolt upright.
She didn't scream.
But she didn't sleep again either.
By morning, the house was shrouded in gray. A dull, liminal light seeped through the cracks in the boarded windows—the sun's brief appearance before vanishing again.
The group looked wrecked.
Lorenz was still awake, scribbling things down on a legal pad. Joseph sat in the corner, staring at the blank TV screen. Olivia re-tied her bun for the third time, annoyed at a knot in her hair.
Sophia was curled beside Mae on the couch, gently braiding a strand of her girlfriend's hair. Their closeness had shifted—no longer secret, but not loud. Just soft. Like a comfort they could no longer afford to hide.
"You okay?" Sophia whispered.
Mae nodded. "I just… I don't think that painting changed. I think I imagined it."
"You didn't." Sophia's voice was calm. "I saw it too. Their mouths were... open. Like screaming."
Mae leaned into her. "Then why didn't you say anything?"
Sophia hesitated. "Because if I say it out loud, it's real."
Meanwhile, in the upstairs bathroom, Elli stood at the mirror, brushing dust off her dress.
Derreck slipped in quietly behind her, locking the door with a faint click. "You've been avoiding me."
Elli didn't turn around. "We're in a haunted house with nine other people. It's called discretion."
He stepped closer, a crooked grin playing at his lips. "So what? No morning kiss?"
Elli finally faced him, her expression unreadable. "You smell like expired cola and overconfidence."
Derreck laughed. "You're such a weirdo." He leaned in anyway.
She let him kiss her, but it was quick—tight. Not like last week in his truck. Not like when it had been safe.
"I don't want them to know," Elli said as she pulled away. "They won't understand."
Derreck crossed his arms. "Understand what?"
"That I like being around someone who doesn't need me to explain how I work." Her tone dropped. "But they'll twist it. They always do."
He softened. "You know I'd fight any of them for you, right?"
Elli smiled thinly. "You will."
Downstairs, Joseph sat across from Karrie, both of them sipping stale instant coffee from chipped mugs. The silence between them was comfortable.
"You always this quiet?" he asked.
Karrie nodded. "I don't talk unless it matters."
"Okay. So what matters?"
She paused. "Something's wrong with this house."
Joseph raised an eyebrow. "Other than the fact that it looks like the Amityville set?"
Karrie didn't smile. "The windows face the sunrise. But no light came through them today."
He looked at her.
She looked back.
Then: "Mindy's lying about something."
He nodded slowly. "Yeah. I'm starting to think so too."
In the kitchen, Olivia was watching Mindy from across the room as she dug through drawers looking for a lighter.
"You look guilty," Olivia said.
"I always look guilty," Mindy replied, not turning around.
Olivia narrowed her eyes. "You didn't tell them about your uncle. You didn't tell them you brought something with you."
Mindy froze.
Then turned. "You need to drop it, Liv."
"What is it?" Olivia stepped closer. "A book? A ritual? Something you found in his stuff?"
Mindy didn't answer.
But her hand went to the inside pocket of her hoodie.
By late afternoon—the 30 minutes of gray sun already gone—the group regrouped in the living room, restless. The energy was off. Jokes died faster. People flinched at creaks in the floorboards. Derreck sat closer to Elli than usual, though no one noticed but Karrie.
Sophia leaned in to whisper something to Mae, and Mae smiled. For the first time since arriving.
Lorenz finally spoke up. "We should talk about the game."
Joseph shook his head. "No. Not until we understand what it is."
"You don't get it," Lorenz said, rubbing his temples. "It's not about understanding. It's about surviving it."
Mindy smiled faintly, watching from the corner.
"You already started it, didn't you?" Karrie said suddenly. Her voice cut through the room.
Mindy didn't answer.
But her smile deepened.
And Elli, beside Derreck, whispered something in his ear that no one else could hear.