Escape the Room

Ian cracked open the cookie and pulled out the fortune trapped inside. He studied the slip with a grin as if he had uncovered a secret treasure, but his excitement was short-lived and his happy grin slowly faded as he read the words.

“Well…what’s it say?” Danny asked in eager anticipation. He and Mya were standing next to Ian around the large, round table that sat in the center of the otherwise empty room. Darkness in the room gobbled up the light that beamed from their headlamps rendering them all but useless except to illuminate things nearby.

Ian began, “The key to unlocking the truth is hidden beneath the...” He stopped and looked up at Danny and Mya, his headlamp gleaming and dazzling with every head movement.

“Beneath the what?” Mya asked, putting her hand to her eyes to shield out his light.

“I dunno. It just stops there,” Ian shrugged, unsure of what to make of the riddle.

“What? Let me see that,” Danny said. He snatched the paper from Ian’s hand and scrutinized it for himself. He analyzed the little slip thoroughly even putting it to his light to see if the message was concealed beneath some sort of invisible ink. Ian was right. “I don’t get it. Where’s the rest?” Danny said.

“Ugh! I knew this escape room was gonna be wack from the jump,” Mya said as miserable as she was annoyed.

“C’mon, we just got here,” Ian said. “Could you at least pretend you want to be here?”

“No. Because I never wanted to come here.”

“Look, we can go get manicures and facials after, ok?” Ian mocked, twiddling his fingers in front of Mya’s face.

Mya grabbed Ian’s fingers and squeezed.

“Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow,” he squealed as his knees buckled under the pain.

“I’ll let go when you admit that this place is lame and I was right.”

“What!?”

“Say it!” She squeezed harder.

“Ow, ow! Ok, fine. This place is wack!”

“And…”

“Ow! Ok. You were right!”

Mya threw down his hand and smiled, “I know.”

Danny crouched beneath the table fidgeting for what he could find beneath it and said, “If you guys are done flirting, can you come over here and help me look for this key?”

Ian rubbed his fingers and gave Mya a sharp side-eye before turning his attention to Danny. “Why don’t you just ask She-hulk over here to break us out?”

Mya rolled her eyes. “Danny, I’m pretty sure you weren’t the first person to look beneath the table. Why would the fortune be that obvious?”

“Well, where else could it be? There’s nothing else in this room?” Danny popped up from under the table, unable to find anything. He stood and scratched the back of his head. Mya made a good point—why would the fortune be that obvious?

They had only an hour before the game was over. They spent the first forty looking in every imaginable place one could look in a room with nothing else but a table and a broken cookie.

“This is so stupid. Remind me to never hang out with you two losers again,” Mya fussed, trying the table again.

“Hey, you didn’t have to come,” Danny said, across the room, “you only came because of Iaaann,” he teased. Ian was on the other end of the room and smiled to himself.

It was a good thing the room was dark and Mya wasn’t close enough to either of their headlamps, otherwise, her blushing cheeks would have snitched on her.

“I don’t like him!” Mya jumped up and slammed her fist on the table. Immediately the table radiated a brilliant white light and the entire room lit up. What they saw shocked them. Couches, lamps, a rug, wall decor, a bookshelf, and more—all strutting upside down from the ceiling above them.

“Woooahh…”

The three tilted their heads and the room slowly spun from their perspectives.

“Um…guys, is it me, or is that a living room?” Ian asked with his head still cocked.

“It is. So does that mean…”

“…that wasn’t a table I just hit. It’s a chandelier, and we’re on the ceiling…”

“Oh, man! Oh, man! I told you guys this place was legit! Are you guys seeing this!?” Ian exclaimed as he pointed above him. 

They each clicked off their headlamps in the now thoroughly lit room. Ian walked to the center of the room where Mya stood. “Still think this place is lame?” He nudged her and looked up at the cozy layout above. He folded his arms to appear like he was right all along but really, he was hiding his fingers away so she wouldn’t crush them again.

Mya rolled her eyes. “Whatever. So how do we get up there?”

“I think you mean down there.“ Danny said.

“I don’t know; maybe hit it again?” Ian encouraged Mya.

Mya hit the chandelier and the light snuffed out like a blown candle. Again—and the room was lit. “Well, at least we know how to turn the lights on and off.“

Danny examined the chandelier’s round shape. His face scrunched with a puzzled expression while his mind hatched an idea.

“Whatcha thinking there, buddy?” Ian asked.

“I might be crazy, but what if…?” Danny walked to the chandelier, stretched his hands across, and clasped the sides. With a grunt, he began to turn it like a kid on the Mad Tea Party ride in Disneyland. “Guys, help me out!”

Ian and Mya rushed to his aid, mustering the strength to spin the chandelier’s flat, LED top. It turned until it clicked and a loud metallic clank sounded around the room.

“Did we just break it—” Ian could hardly get the words to slip through his lips before the room began rotating like the sides of a Rubik’s cube.

“AHH!” They screamed as they tumbled down the ceiling and onto the side of the wall. Mya tried to rise to her feet saying, “What in the—“ and again another metallic clink reverberated throughout and pinwheeled the room. “AHH!” They yelled again, rolling down the wall until they crash-landed into the living room onto the couch. Ian fell on top of Mya and Danny onto Ian.

“Get off of me!” Mya groaned, shoving the boys off onto the rug.

Ian moaned on his stomach as he lay on the floor, “Yeah, this place is definitely getting five stars.”

Danny checked his wristwatch and then jumped to his feet. “Guys, we have fifteen minutes left before the game is over. That key has to be around here somewhere. Mya, you check the bookshelf while Ian and I search around here,” he instructed.

“I’m sorry…but are we not gonna talk about how the room just whirled us like a dryer?”

“No time!” Danny said, helping Mya to her feet. He began tossing pillows and cushions in the air, desperately searching for the key.

Ian began searching behind the paintings on the wall. Nothing. He turned to the tall lamp and stuck his hand beneath the lampshade, fondling for something, anything. Time ticked along and the key was still nowhere to be found.

“Wait, guys, I think I found something,” Mya said. She was standing with a book in her hand. It had a latch with a small lock on it and the title TRUTH was plastered on the face of the leather cover.

“Oh!” Ian said as he remembered the fortune paper, “The key to unlocking THE TRUTH,” he empathized. “That must be the truth!”

“Good job, Ian!” Mya said in a tone used for puppies who learn new tricks.

“Don’t patronize me,” Ian sneered, squinting his eyes in disgust.

“Ok, great! So we have ‘The Truth,’” Danny air quoted, “but we’re still missing the key.”

“I couldn’t find it behind the paintings or lampshades.”

“And I doubt they would put the key next to the thing it unlocks,” Mya said.

Danny checked the time again. Ten minutes and counting down. “Maybe we’re not thinking creatively enough. I mean, I wouldn’t have guessed that ‘The Truth’ was a literal book or that the room was upside down when we started. Maybe we need to start thinking like the room.”

Mya speculated. “The fortune said that the key was hidden BENEATH something.”

“Yeah, somewhere BENEATH the ceiling we just fell from. I thought that was obvious,” Ian said.

“Or maybe it’s more specific,” Danny replied. He put his hands in his pockets and paced the floor thinking aloud. “The key to the truth is hidden beneath the…what? What makes the most sense?”

They each pondered for a moment. Danny checked his watch and saw they had seven minutes left.

“…the lie,” Mya blurted. The epiphany was so blatant they could almost see the idea bulb shining over her head. 

“Huh?”

“The key to the truth is hidden beneath the lie!”

“Of course!” Danny said, snapping his finger. “The truth to anything is usually hidden behind lies.”

“So all we need to do is find the lie. Maybe it’s another book,” Ian said running over the bookshelf. He pulled out a book then another and another.

“Or maybe it’s not a thing we’re looking for, but an action,” Mya said.

“Go on…” said Ian.

“What’s something in this room that lies?” Mya asked.

The three searched for a clue and, as if their brains synchronized together, their eyes fell on the rosette medallion fringed rug simultaneously. They glanced at each other and then dashed for the floor tapestry. They grunted and grumbled as they tried to pull up the rug. It was velcroed to the floor, but after a brief tussle, that sweet, satisfying crunch ripped as they peeled it back. They stumbled backward, noticing the small hole in the floor and the key inside.

Ian’s heart fluttered with excitement. “I knew it!”

“No, you didn’t,” Mya said, sucking her teeth.

“Hurry guys, we don’t have much time,” cried Danny. Quickly, he reached into the hole and grabbed the key. Mya had the book ready and together they unlocked it. Inside was another fortune cookie and Ian broke it open like the last.

His eyes skimmed across, “Oh, c’mon!” He yelled.

“What!?” Danny asked.

Ian began, “The key to your escape sits above your…”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Mya said.

“Welp, I guess that’s it then,” Ian said as he balled up the little slip, “there’s no way we’re getting back up there, finding the key, and escaping in time.”

Danny sighed. “You’re right, we have about three minutes left. There’s no way we’re beating this.”

“Great. So we wasted an hour of our lives that we’ll never get back.”

“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t have fun,” Ian said, plopping comfortably on the couch, “Even though we lost, you gotta admit you had a good time.”

“I had fun,” Danny said. 

“Admit it, Mya, you had fun too.”

“Fine. I’ll admit it wasn’t as lame as I thought. But we still lost.”

Ian yawned and stretched his arms wide. “Yeah, well, you can’t win ‘em all,” he said. Ian looked to the side of the couch and saw a recliner lever. He pulled on the lever expecting his feet to fly up in comfort. Instead, a metallic clank sputtered loudly. 

“Uh, guys—?” The room turned on its side and then again, rolling them like dirty clothes on the spin cycle. They landed back on the ceiling.

“Ok, first time was fun… second time… not so much,” Mya said, groaning, rubbing their head as she stood up.

“Guys look!” Ian shouted. The lever on the couch broke off in his hand during the spin. It was the key—disguised as a lever. “Of course! The riddle! The key was sitting in the chair that’s now above our heads.” Ian said looking up at the now topsy-turvey living room. 

“That’s great.” Danny said with a hint of sarcasm, “But we’ve got ten seconds before we lose so let’s use it and get out of here!”

Ian, Mya, and Danny ran to to door on the side of the room. Together, with four seconds left to spare, they jammed the long key into the hole and twisted. An unlocking click caused the door to fling open and they jumped out, just as the timer went off.

The lady with the Escape the Room uniform was waiting with a smile. “Congratulations on escaping the room!” She said. 

“Yes!” Mya screamed. She leaped and hugged Ian before quickly pushing him away. “Ahem,” she cleared her throat, “I mean…whatever…it was cool, I guess.” 

“Great job guys,” Danny said high-fiving Mya and Ian. “I didn’t think we’d pull it off but, Ian… my man… you really came in clutch back there.”

“Ehh, what can I say? It’s what I do.” He shrugged. 

Their photo was pinned on the Wall of Winners and they each received a little gold key as a souvenir. As they left out of the building, Danny whipped out a list of escape rooms and scratched off the first.

“So, which one are we going to next?” Mya asked eagerly, throwing her arms around Danny and Ian’s necks. They shook their heads and laughed.

“I knew you wanted to come,” Ian said.

“Whatever.” She rolled her eyes and smiled.

When the room was reset, it was time for the next group to enter. A father and his teenage daughter strapped on their headlamps and entered the dark room. The door slammed shut and locked behind them. Finding a fortune cookie on the large, round table, the man broke it open and saw the words: The key to the truth lies hidden beneath the…. With his headlamp gleaming in the dark, he looked up at his daughter. 

“Well, Dad, what’s it say?”