Keep going ahead towards the house.

It takes a painfully long couple of minutes to decide, but the risks of going back to retrieve the map add to the fact that it's only a piece of paper and, if worst comes to worst and she's truly lost, she can hole up somewhere and wait for someone else to get the prize. The idea of another girl claiming it is almost unbearable to think of, but Shuri knows she has to be practical. She has to save her energy for her trek across the island, and she can't waste it on having to double back and then go forward again. She'll just have to find another copy of the map.

She stows the bottle back into the bag and walks, keeping the glimpse of the house in sight as she uses the stick as a cane again. Maybe it's just her, but the sky seems a little darker than before. Hopefully it's just her. Get the prize, go home, buy the island for Mother or, if I can't do that, give half of the money to her...

Of course, Shuri knows she's going around in mental circles at this point when it comes to what she wants to do with the prize. It's always about her mother, and making her happy, and making her proud, because she needs to justify to herself somehow why she's gotten into this game and why she made her mother cry.

But she'd had no real choice in the matter, anyway. Female straight-A senior students at the prestigious school she'd gone to were always put on the lists of potential contenders for the game as a "reward" for their stellar grades, as part of a deal with the school. If not a single one of said students who passed the virginity testing accepted the offer to be in the game, the deal would be off and those students would be virtually blacklisted by the school from the colleges their grades were supposed to take them to.

So, Shuri had bitten the bullet and stepped up to be the token student who took the offer. If it had to be one of them, it'd be her, wouldn't it? She'd known she was the best, the smartest, the strongest, the one who was likeliest to actually win, and they'd known it, too.

But she can't stand remembering their expressions when she'd spoken up and said she'd do it. They'd looked horrified, they'd looked as if they pitied her. Her! Shuri Chaudhari, pathetic enough to be pitied? Never.

Never. And she isn't going to make her mother cry again, and she isn't going to be deflowered on live television while her mother is possibly watching.

Shuri hopes her mother isn't watching, anyway, but knowing the woman, she probably is if only to see how Shuri's faring.

As she walks, she notices that the forest edges are starting to peter out towards a beach the closer she gets to the house. The sand feels warm underneath her feet as she goes, now almost tip-toeing as she looks back behind her to make sure no figures are on the horizon and glances towards the house.

Now that she can see it closely, Shuri has to raise an eyebrow at how small it is. It isn't even more than three feet wide, and the door looks like an airlock. With a tentative touch and a spin of the wheel lock, the door opens.

She steps inside and closes the door behind her. It clicks shut, the darkness momentarily being lit up, and with that, she moves down the stairway before her.