Escape Room

It didn't immediately register to me that I was looking at blood. For a second, at first glance, it looked beautiful. The way the red contrasts against the white linoleum had a simple beauty to it. But slowly, my mind came to a realization. That beauty was the essence of life. Seeing Jackson laid out with a meter-wide red polka dot under him was not beautiful at all. Instead, it was hysterical. Not hysterical as in funny, but hysterical as in I don't know how to control my reaction. I remember looking over at Suzy, who just stared back at me, dumbfounded as we realized that this seemly simple escape room was much more than that. It was a death trap. And it was all my fault we were here at all. 

About a week before my birthday, I texted Suzy, Krystal, Jackson, Jay, Mark and Jessica to ask if they wanted to do an escape room. I'd never been to one yet, but I've heard that escape rooms are fun, especially with friends. They were all more than happy to play a few rounds for my birthday. After a quick Google search, I reserved a couple escape rooms for us to play on the day after my birthday. 

Finally, the day had come. 

"Hey, Ronnie! Happy birthday!" exclaimed Krystal as she walked into the dingy building where I was waiting with Jackson and Suzy. 

"Thanks. Did you see Jay and Jess outside? They said they were". I replied. Just as Krystal was about to answer me, Jay and Jessica walked in. 

"What's up, Ronnie. How's it going?" Jay said. 

"Mark still isn't here? How is he late every time?" Jessica asked, annoyed. 

"You know him. No matter what, he will arrive fashionably late". Suzy said with a smirk.

"The face of the party is here. And only a couple minutes late". Mark announced, walking over to my side to put his arm around my shoulders.

"I mean, it's my birthday, but okay, Mark," I said with a laugh. "Since we're all here now, are we ready to start?" I continued.

"Let's get going," Jackson said while cracking his knuckles. "I'm ready." I walked over to the front desk, where just one man was seated. 

"I have two rooms reserved for today, and we are ready to start," I explained to the employee, but he just stared at me while he chewed a piece of gum. Eventually, the man slowly turned around in his chair and hit a button on the wall behind him. A door that was locked before now swung open. A different man came out of the shadows that were in the room behind the door. We all walked into the room, and I felt something odd as I walked past the man in the room. I looked back at the front desk and the man who sat there was gone. I thought that was strange, but no one else seemed bothered by anything, so I chalked up the weird sensation to just my nerves as this was the first escape room I had ever done. 

The room was so bright compared to the waiting room. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I looked around. The seven of us were in the middle of a giant ballroom with a skylight.

"This is beautiful," Krystal uttered, completely in awe. "I've never been in an escape room that didn't look like the place was falling apart." 

"Ronnie, what's the theme of this room?" Jay asked, looking over at me.

"I don't remember. Something about escaping a ballroom that's under attack or something like that. All I remember is that the first escape room is supposed to be really easy as a warmup." I replied. At that moment, the man from the waiting desk appeared from a dark doorway across the room. However, instead of the dirty escape room uniform, he had put on a crisp, black suit and was walking towards us while speaking. "You are correct, Veronica. On both parts. The seven of you were invited by a billionaire to this ballroom for a dance party. Because of that, I have an outfit you each have to wear." The man turns around momentarily and pulls out a clothing rack with four fancy dresses and three suits. "Please put them on. I will finish explaining once you are dressed." After a quick glance at everyone, we walked towards the rack to select our outfits. 

The dresses were absolutely stunning. Made of intricate lace designs on silk and satin, I was confused why they would allow us to wear clothing that, without a doubt, was extremely expensive. Krystal, being the extra one in our group, picked the ballgown. It was light purple, almost lighter than lavender, and the top was bejewelled with lace trailing all the way down the skirt. The baby pink mermaid dress that was covered in lace detailing was worn by Suzy. Jessica picked the white mini dress with black floral accents. The final dress was the one I chose. The seemingly pure gold trumpet dress shimmered under the ballroom lights. The suits looked like they were made of the same expensive materials that our dresses were made of. Jackson chose the simple white tuxedo while Jay decided to match with Jessica and wear black with white accents. Mark also picked a black suit, except he had intricate gold detailing on his. 

Once we were done putting on our fancy outfits, we headed back to the middle of the ballroom. Almost at once, the employee walked out of the shadows and into the light. "As I said before, you seven were invited to a dance party hosted by a billionaire. That being said, this billionaire, John Berri, was in some trouble with authorities after he went abroad and threatened the President of Laos while on vacation. It just so happens that..." he paused to look around before continuing.

"...on this night, the Laotian government decided to attack Mr. Berri after he repeatedly refused to apologize for his poor behaviour. Your mission is to escape John Berri's mansion without being sighted by the Laotian military. Otherwise, you will be killed. Unfortunately, Mr. Berri knew the attack was coming one day or another and purposely placed locks to prevent others from leaving. Only he knows the keys and codes, but thankfully, he has set up clues and puzzles in case he ever forgets them. As soon as I leave, you will have no more than five minutes before the invasion begins, so I suggest you start planning your escape route, NOW!" And with that, the man vanished into the darkness once more.

"That is the most in-depth theme explanation I have ever gotten in an escape room," Krystal said, surprised. 

"Yea. It almost seems..." Jay paused for a moment. "...too real."

"Well, you heard him. We've got less than five minutes to pick a direction and start going. Jackson, pick." I said, looking at the three hallways in front of us. 

"Hmm... Let's just go straight ahead. How bad can it be?" Jackson said before he led us into the room. This room wasn't as fancy as the ballroom, but I still looked good. I assumed this was John Berri's office, seeing as there was a mahogany desk placed on a red velvet carpet. On the alluring dark desk, there was a large globe. In the middle of the office, there were two beautiful leather couches and a glass coffee table. Pushed against the wall at the opposite end of the room was a chair and an ottoman. Moreover, there was a door on the other side of the office as well. Turning around to look back at the brightly lit ballroom, I noticed the number 2 written in gold, calligraphy font on the back of the door.

After what I can only assume to be five minutes, a blaring alarm goes off.

"Mr. John Berri! This is the Laotion government. You refused to meet us so, we came to you instead." declared a loud recorded voice. 

"We should probably get started on the first puzzle," Suzy said, glancing around the room. 

"Oh, There's a lock on this door!" exclaimed Jessica, standing beside the door.

"It's four numbers! Look for clues with four numbers!" Jay shouted, looking over Jessica's shoulder at the lock. The first thing I did was move the chair and the ottoman off the side. Thankfully I did because there was a post-it note on the wall. On that note was a circle with the names of two countries, Russia and Canada, written in it. Other than that, there was another word, date. I showed the clue to everyone, and Mark immediately went to get the globe off the desk. Looking at the mini earth, we realized that there was no writing anywhere on the sphere, and the countries were somewhat faded away, to the point where only the outlines of Canada and Russia were visible. Each of those outlines had a number in it, 71 and 94, respectively. Recognizing the fact that 71 matched with Canada and 94 matched with Russia, I knew that those had to be the numbers that opened the lock. But I didn't know which order. Luckily, Suzy noticed the word 'date' on the clue. 

"Maybe we have to put a date relating to each country in order?" she asked. 

"Canada was founded before Russia... Why don't you try that?" Krystal recalled. Jessica put the numbers 7194 into the lock. 

"It worked! God bless Krystal and her knowledge of history," she exclaimed happily.

Just as we were about to enter the next room, we heard loud popping coming out of the ballroom. Jackson, being the fearless one, walked into the middle of the ballroom. "Hey, guys! Come look at this! It kind of looks like actually military officers in the skylight!" Suzy, Mark and I exchanged a look of annoyance as we walked towards the entrance to the ballroom. Just as we made it to the doorway that led to the ballroom, we heard another loud pop that stopped me in my tracks. This time I knew that sound was a gunshot. And it was a gunshot aimed at Jackson. 

It didn't immediately register to me that I was looking at blood. For a moment, at first glance, it looked gorgeous. The way the red contrasts against the white linen and linoleum had a simple beauty to it. But slowly, my mind came to a realization. That beauty was the essence of life. Seeing Jackson laid out with a meter-wide red polka dot under him and staining his tuxedo was not beautiful at all. Instead, it was hysterical. Not hysterical as in funny, but hysterical as in I don't know how to control my reaction. I remember looking over at Suzy, who just stared back at me, dumbfounded as we realized that this seemly simple escape room was much more than that. It was a death trap. And we could die if we don't get out in time.

I waited to see if he would get up. I refused to believe that the gunshot was real. When I finally recognized that he wasn't getting up by himself, I almost rushed into the ballroom. Thankfully, Mark held me back.

"Don't go. Jackson was shot because he was seen, just as that man said. I'm not trying to have you die today, Ronnie." he explained calmly. I couldn't even say anything. Instead, I just hugged him while tears threatened to fall from my eyes.

"Suzy! Ronnie! Mark! Let's get going!" Jay called out to us. Wiping my tears away, Suzy, Mark and I shut the door to the ballroom and walked quickly to the next room.

"Did anyone else notice the two on the other door? This door has the number one. Maybe it means there is only one more puzzle until we can leave?" Suzy pointed out.

"We can only hope," I said, glancing back at the door to the ballroom and Jackson's limp body on the other side. "I don't want to be here for another second." 

This room seemed to be the foyer of this enormous mansion. With double doors leading to the outside, I knew we were so close to escaping this mansion of death. To the left of the doors was a white leather couch with a small couch side table beside it. The table had a bouquet of white hibiscus and white baby's breath arranged in a matching white vase. Opposite the couch was a console table with a mirror on the wall above it. The console table had a gold, uneven balance scale placed on it. Knowing we had to work quickly and quietly unless we wanted to end up like Jackson, we all started searching the room for clues. Jay and Jessica began to examine the couch, digging their hands into the cushions and looking around the vase. Mark and I looked at the console table and the scale sitting on top of it while Suzy glanced around the foyer for anything else that could help us escape. Surely she too must have noticed the heavy footsteps and clanking of armour that came from the room we were just in. Krystal looked at the lock, which was preventing us from leaving. 

"Another four-digit lock," she stated. "Look for four numbers." 

"There's a note! It says, 'nature keeps the world in balance," Jessica read. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"There are flowers in this vase and a balance scale. Maybe we need to put flowers on the scale until it's evenly balanced?" said Suzy. 

"It's worth a shot," I said, grabbing the white flower vase and carrying to over to the console table. 

"Wait, you dropped another note," said Jay, grabbing a piece of paper that must have dropped when I took the vase. "One H = Three B."

"Well, these are hibiscus, and these are baby's breath. How much do we put on each side?" Jessica asked, pointing to the flowers.

"This has 2H engraved on one side, so two hibiscuses and six baby's breath?" Mark guessed after examining the scale. I did just that, and a drawer on the console table popped open. Inside the drawer was another balance scale. This time 9B was engraved on one side. Following the same pattern as before, I placed three hibiscus flowers on one side and nine baby's breath on the other. 

A hidden drawer was revealed with a four-digit code written on the inside. 

"9128!" I shouted at Krystal. She put the numbers into the lock. It opened, and we were out of the mansion in no time. 

Luckily we opened the door at that moment because the gunmen just opened the door to the foyer and were searching for us. All of us were breathing heavily, relishing the fact that we made it out alive. I looked up at the sun and was thankful the six of us were alive. Then I remembered Jackson. I looked through the little window in the door and saw Jackson's limp body being dragged away by other shooters. Mark must have noticed my expression while I was looking through the window because he came up to me to comfort me. 

"There was nothing we could do, Ronnie," he said soothingly, as he hugged me from behind. "You didn't know it would turn out like this."

I turned around and shakily replied, "But-but it's my fault we came here in the first place..." my voice cracked as I continued with more guilt drowning my every word. "Jackson would still be here if I didn't book this stupid escape room."

"Ronnie, it's not your fault," Jessica said, walking up to Mark and me. "You didn't choose for him to...go." 

"It's my fault he's dead! He was shot because I wanted to come here!" I shouted. I was angry, angry at myself for allowing this to happen to one of my best friends. Then I broke. I couldn't hold it in any longer. I burst out with tears streaming down my face.

"It's my fault. It's my fault," I repeatedly cried as my knees gave way and I collapsed to the floor. "Jackson is dead because of me."

"Let's go, Ronnie. Come on, guys. We should probably leave now." Mark said softly, picking me up off the ground. 

Just like that, we left the escape room that would eventually haunt my dreams every time I thought of Jackson or looked at the fancy dress that now sat in the back of my closet. The six of us stayed together for years to come, perhaps closer than ever before, after experiencing that nightmare together.