Do you ever find yourself stressed from the world around you? Do you feel exhausted from all the constant challenges and hardships in your life? Do you need a break? What if I told you there was a way to escape? Go and find it... before it finds you.
It was nearing the end of a painfully long shift at work. My arms and legs ached for a chance to take a breath. Thankfully, two people were just walking through the door to take my best friend's place, as well as my own. Finally, I could sit down for a moment.
I heard my friend letting out a sigh as she plopped down on the seat next to me. She slouched over, giving her shoulders a gentle rub. "So, what are you doing for your birthday next week?" she asked.
I simply shrugged. I was turning twenty-five. I was reaching the point where birthdays didn't really matter to me besides an excuse for getting a free day off. "Not much, I'm probably just going to stay home and orer some pizza."
"That sounds so depressing," she turned to me, laying a hand on my back. "There's this place that does these really cool escape rooms, we should go together."
"I'm not really that big a fan of escape rooms," I told her.
"You mean you've never been to one," she shot back. "Let me take you out, it'll be a fun girl's night out." She stood from her seat and I followed suit. "Just promise me you'll think about it."
She and I made our way out of the building, into the crisp breeze of Autumn, and headed home.
I was hesitant to going to an escape room. There was something about the concept of being trapped in a room that terrified me. I couldn't quite understand how people could find it fun. In my opinion, it's a way for nerds to flex their minds in a scenario that pretends to be dangerous. It just wasn't something I was too interested in. And the next few days, I let it be clear to my friend. She didn't take it too kindly at first, but as the days passed, she appeared to comfortable toward it, to the point that, just the day before, I didn't hear her utter a word about it. It worried me, but also relaxed me.
It was raining as I made my way home from work, thunder following close behind. The splatters on the windshield forced me to use my wipers on a rather quick setting to be able to see the road before me. Of all days, why did it have to storm so bad on my birthday? Finally, I made it home. I parked on the curb just in front of my house. Raising my purse over my head, I ran inside.
After making it inside, I threw off my sopping wet jacket and made my way to my bedroom. I would take care of the damp clothes in a minute, I just wanted to relax. I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my phone. I expected to see quite a few missed messages, but I was instead greeted with no signal.
"Screw this storm," I grumbled to myself. I got out of bed and turned my attention to my bookshelf. There weren't many books there, but the few I had were ones I was in love with. I my favorite book, 'The Hidden Realm' off the shelf and sat back on my bed to read. As I sat down, just over the sound of the rain, I could hear a faint scratching sound. It was constant, like fingernails scraping along an endless piece of paper. I tried to ignore it. It could just be the wind, knocking a stray tree branch against the outside of the house.
I opened my book at the bookmarked page and my eyes went wide. There was a deep cutout in the book, like someone had hollowed it out to hide something inside. Who the hell did this to my favorite book? I was furious. Examining the cutout, there was a key placed inside.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" I thought aloud. Looking the key over, I saw some engraved numbers, '616'. I grabbed my phone from my bed stand and tried moving it around until I could get a signal. I tried leaving my room, thinking reception would be better in the living room, but as I turned the knob, it came off in my hand.
My blood ran cold. This must be some kind of nightmare, I thought. There's no way this is actually happening to me. I looked around the room, hoping nothing else would be out of place. Sure enough, I was wrong. The left and right walls of my room were slowly closing in on my. To my horror, that was where the scraping sound was coming from.
Panicked, I turned back to the door. Maybe there was some kind of way I could put the knob back to get the door open. Upon closer inspection, the knob was fake. It had been completely hollowed out. I turned to the part of the door it had disconnected from. There, to my surprise, was what looked like a black, deadbolt lock. The only peculiar thing about it was the turn dials on the top half of it, like that of a padlock. Three numbers, where did I see that before?
I turned and made my way back to my bed to search for the key. It didn't take too long to find. I made my way back to the door, the walls coming a little uncomfortably close now. I didn't have much time. I stuck the key in the lock and turned the numbered dials, '6-1-6'. I turned the key and-
The door refused to move. I took the key back out of the lock and looked it over again. Had I missed something? Were there another set of numbers? That's when I realized, I must've had the numbers upside down. The walls were getting closer. I hope I'm right.
I put the key back in the lock and turned the dials once more, '9-1-9'. There was a click. My heart began to race as I turned the key and threw the door open, leaving me practically jumping out from behind it. I turned back to the door just in time to see the walls close hard on each other. My breathing turned heavy and my heart sank. Whatever the hell was going on, all of my stuff was destroyed. Everything except...
I felt my pocket buzz. My cellphone? I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the first message that popped up in my notifications. It was my friend, Jamie.
"Happy birthday," she started. "I know you said you didn't want to go to an escape room, so I hired some people to bring the escape room to you. It was pretty expensive, so I don't know how far they went, nor how many rooms they made. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! Love you, bestie!"
There were no words to describe how angry I was at her. Not only did I tell her I didn't want this, but the damage from that room alone was borderline illegal. I had to go out there and tell her off in person. I made my way to the front door and the knob came off in my hand. Whatever was going on here, it wasn't finished with me yet.
It was nearing the end of a painfully long shift at work. My arms and legs ached for a chance to take a breath. Thankfully, two people were just walking through the door to take my best friend's place, as well as my own. Finally, I could sit down for a moment.
I heard my friend letting out a sigh as she plopped down on the seat next to me. She slouched over, giving her shoulders a gentle rub. "So, what are you doing for your birthday next week?" she asked.
I simply shrugged. I was turning twenty-five. I was reaching the point where birthdays didn't really matter to me besides an excuse for getting a free day off. "Not much, I'm probably just going to stay home and orer some pizza."
"That sounds so depressing," she turned to me, laying a hand on my back. "There's this place that does these really cool escape rooms, we should go together."
"I'm not really that big a fan of escape rooms," I told her.
"You mean you've never been to one," she shot back. "Let me take you out, it'll be a fun girl's night out." She stood from her seat and I followed suit. "Just promise me you'll think about it."
She and I made our way out of the building, into the crisp breeze of Autumn, and headed home.
I was hesitant to going to an escape room. There was something about the concept of being trapped in a room that terrified me. I couldn't quite understand how people could find it fun. In my opinion, it's a way for nerds to flex their minds in a scenario that pretends to be dangerous. It just wasn't something I was too interested in. And the next few days, I let it be clear to my friend. She didn't take it too kindly at first, but as the days passed, she appeared to comfortable toward it, to the point that, just the day before, I didn't hear her utter a word about it. It worried me, but also relaxed me.
It was raining as I made my way home from work, thunder following close behind. The splatters on the windshield forced me to use my wipers on a rather quick setting to be able to see the road before me. Of all days, why did it have to storm so bad on my birthday? Finally, I made it home. I parked on the curb just in front of my house. Raising my purse over my head, I ran inside.
After making it inside, I threw off my sopping wet jacket and made my way to my bedroom. I would take care of the damp clothes in a minute, I just wanted to relax. I plopped down on my bed and grabbed my phone. I expected to see quite a few missed messages, but I was instead greeted with no signal.
"Screw this storm," I grumbled to myself. I got out of bed and turned my attention to my bookshelf. There weren't many books there, but the few I had were ones I was in love with. I my favorite book, 'The Hidden Realm' off the shelf and sat back on my bed to read. As I sat down, just over the sound of the rain, I could hear a faint scratching sound. It was constant, like fingernails scraping along an endless piece of paper. I tried to ignore it. It could just be the wind, knocking a stray tree branch against the outside of the house.
I opened my book at the bookmarked page and my eyes went wide. There was a deep cutout in the book, like someone had hollowed it out to hide something inside. Who the hell did this to my favorite book? I was furious. Examining the cutout, there was a key placed inside.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" I thought aloud. Looking the key over, I saw some engraved numbers, '616'. I grabbed my phone from my bed stand and tried moving it around until I could get a signal. I tried leaving my room, thinking reception would be better in the living room, but as I turned the knob, it came off in my hand.
My blood ran cold. This must be some kind of nightmare, I thought. There's no way this is actually happening to me. I looked around the room, hoping nothing else would be out of place. Sure enough, I was wrong. The left and right walls of my room were slowly closing in on my. To my horror, that was where the scraping sound was coming from.
Panicked, I turned back to the door. Maybe there was some kind of way I could put the knob back to get the door open. Upon closer inspection, the knob was fake. It had been completely hollowed out. I turned to the part of the door it had disconnected from. There, to my surprise, was what looked like a black, deadbolt lock. The only peculiar thing about it was the turn dials on the top half of it, like that of a padlock. Three numbers, where did I see that before?
I turned and made my way back to my bed to search for the key. It didn't take too long to find. I made my way back to the door, the walls coming a little uncomfortably close now. I didn't have much time. I stuck the key in the lock and turned the numbered dials, '6-1-6'. I turned the key and-
The door refused to move. I took the key back out of the lock and looked it over again. Had I missed something? Were there another set of numbers? That's when I realized, I must've had the numbers upside down. The walls were getting closer. I hope I'm right.
I put the key back in the lock and turned the dials once more, '9-1-9'. There was a click. My heart began to race as I turned the key and threw the door open, leaving me practically jumping out from behind it. I turned back to the door just in time to see the walls close hard on each other. My breathing turned heavy and my heart sank. Whatever the hell was going on, all of my stuff was destroyed. Everything except...
I felt my pocket buzz. My cellphone? I pulled it out of my pocket and saw the first message that popped up in my notifications. It was my friend, Jamie.
"Happy birthday," she started. "I know you said you didn't want to go to an escape room, so I hired some people to bring the escape room to you. It was pretty expensive, so I don't know how far they went, nor how many rooms they made. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it! Love you, bestie!"
There were no words to describe how angry I was at her. Not only did I tell her I didn't want this, but the damage from that room alone was borderline illegal. I had to go out there and tell her off in person. I made my way to the front door and the knob came off in my hand. Whatever was going on here, it wasn't finished with me yet.
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