Fred, Tania, Trevor, Valerie, Sam & Lisa find themselves together in a house they cannot leave.  None of them no each other.  This is the short story of how they discovered their predicament.

                                                                                       

This was all very new to Fred, sitting down to have breakfast with people he’d never met, in a house he’d never entered, in a street he’d never visited, in a town he’d never even heard of.  To be honest, a fish out of water was putting it mildly for Fred.

The thing is, Fred wasn’t alone in his predicament.  There were 6 people eating the breakfast they’d all just cooked and not one of them knew each other.  In reality, none of them knew how they came to be in the house either.

Breakfast was cooked and eaten in silence, Fred guessed because no-one wanted to be the first to speak.

Tania was the first to leave the table.  Not knowing where she was, she didn’t want to stick around.  She went back to her room, picked up everything she thought was hers and walked straight out the front door.  At least, that’s what she wanted to do.  She opened the door ok enough, but took one look outside and closed it again.

Trevor did the washing up and looked out the window at the wonderful day outside.  He was a lonely chap who liked to meet new people.  It seemed odd to him that no-one was talking.  He decided to break the ice, saying hello to Valerie next to him.

Valerie had always preferred to keep to herself and felt claustrophobic in crowds.  She regularly had panic attacks in awkward situations and prefered her little house on the heath surrounded by nothing but the grass, trees and her cocker spaniel, Dune.

The situation at hand spooked Valerie.  For starters, she didn’t feel like she was about to have a panic attack.  She actually felt ok by the time breakfast was ready.  She’d scrambled the eggs and heated the baked beans.  She even allowed herself a wry smile as she helped ready the table.

Valerie had enjoyed the meal and the silence that went with it.  She missed Dune but felt happy that everyone around her seemed to feel the same way.

She was helping after breakfast by drying the dishes and that’s when it happened.  Trevor said hello.  Without warning, she collapsed and went into a panic induced fit similar to epileptic but not the same.

At this point Sam and Lisa jumped up.  They had spotted Valerie was unstable as soon as they’d seen her this walk into the kitchen.  Both were doctors and both knew each other.  They had pretended not to of course, even though they had an inkling Tanya was aware.

Sam was first to Valerie.  As she dropped to the ground, he managed to catch her head.  Lisa brought over the cushion from her chair and gave it to Ted to put under Valerie’s head. Sam checked her airways were clear and they rolled her into the recovery position.  Lisa had already started to time the attack.

Fred looked at the scene and guessed along with everyone else in the room that Sam and Lisa might be doctors.

Tanya came back into the kitchen and announced to everyone that it would not be wise to step outside.  Trevor looked away from the seizure and back out the window.  It looked like a fine day to him.  He questioned Tanya why but she was speechless other than to warn everyone.

Fred looked out the kitchen window and thought it looked a bit muggy but no more than that.

Trevor went to the front door and opened it.  He took a step outside into glorious sunshine.  Just as he put his foot down, Tania grabbed onto him.  His foot went through the ground.  ‘That wasn’t good’ he thought as he grabbed for Tania.  She held onto him and pulled him back in.

Meanwhile, Fred went to the back door.  It was unlocked so he opened it.  He chose not to step outside but instead held his hand out.  He then tilted his head outside to see what all the fuss was about and spotted something that made him draw back immediately.  He closed the door just in time but there was no key to lock it.

At this moment, a puffed out Tania and Trevor came through.  Fred held the door closed as something banged and crashed at the door.  He shouted for them to find the key to the door.  They hunted around but could not find any keys.  Fred checked his pockets and had no keys.  He told the others to check their pockets and then check the entire house.

With the seizure stopped, Sam came to see what all the fuss was about.  He jumped out of his skin when he saw the outrageously huge creature with wings hitting the back window as he come into the back room.  He pulled a key out of his pocket and locked the back door.

Trevor, Fred & Tania couldn’t believe what they just saw.  Sam lives here they all thought.  He must know what’s going on.  They began to bombard him with questions.  Understandable given the situation

Still, they didn’t know or believe that Sam actually had no idea at all how he had come to have the back door key in his pocket.

Someone did though.

That person had sat next to Sam during breakfast and slipped the key into his pocket.  The problem was Valerie was now lying on the floor in the recovery position.  Still, at least she was beyond suspicion for now.