ESCAPE ROOM OF HORROR

During a dark snowstorm, Katie lost her dad at a young age and her mom moved on shortly after. She didn't want anyone replacing her dad so she couldn’t stand this new guy being with her mom. Tony kept trying to do things her dad did, but she kept denying him. A year later, Katie and Tony found themselves trapped in a cold, dark escape room with no way out. Tony and Katie couldn’t stand each other in the least. Trapped in the small, dimly lit room, they had no choice but to work together.

Tony searched the room to find any kind of exit. All the doors were locked and had large locks providing no means of escape. Katie began to complain. “Why am I always stuck with the lamest guys,” she said.

“What is that supposed to mean?” he said.

Katie rolled her eyes and just ignored Tony. Being trapped with such an annoying girl who he couldn’t stand being around, Tony stomped around the room looking for clues to his freedom. He found floor to ceiling windows, but they were covered in thick, black steel bars. Tony huffed and kept looking. Katie realized the only way to get out of this horror was to find her own way out. She was not going to work with this old man that she was stuck with for a stepdad. She needed to get free of him. Katie sat on the lush, carpeted floor, thinking of all the possible ways that she could escape. The doors were locked, and the windows were barred, so those were no option.

Tony noticed a glass on the long, wooden table and became thirsty. He walked over to the glass and discovered it was full of ice-cold water. He decided to drink it, then saw a note on the table. Find the door that will set you free.

He didn’t understand what it meant. The doors were locked. Confused, he decided to check the blue door. Just as he thought, locked. He kept trying the different doors. Green, locked. White, locked. The note was a joke. How can a door be the way out? he thought.

Katie rubbed her hands on the thick, red carpet. She saw something odd under the table. She crawled over to it, hoping Tony wouldn’t notice. She reached it and found a skeleton key with a heart on the end. Freedom, she thought. Trying to hold in her excitement, she slid the key in her jean pocket and searched for what the key could open. It was too small for the large doors. What could this possibly open?

She noticed Tony was still trying the doors. This was her chance to get free of her stepdad, but how? Tony stopped trying the doors, as he was getting nowhere.

“There has to be a way out of this place,” Tony said.

Katie was startled by his booming voice. She bumped her head against the bottom of the table, spilling the water on the table, and another key fell in front of her. Then, she noticed the strangely arranged bookcase. She looked at Tony, who had his hands on his head like he was defeated. “Maybe if we worked together, we could figure this out and be free,” she said. There had to be an escape, but she couldn’t figure it out on her own.

Tony knew she was right. “I guess if we want free, we will have to work together,” he said. “I saw a note on the table that said to find the door that will set you free. Maybe, there is a hidden door that we can’t see.”

Katie fidgeted with her jeans, not sure if the keys would help them.

“I found these weird keys under the table. Maybe, it is a piece of the puzzle,” she said.

Tony examined the keys, curious if they went with the note. A door, the keys, were there more clues in the room? They both agreed to work together and began searching for something that took an odd-shaped key to open. Tony checked all the wet papers on the table for something to indicate where the door was. Katie checked the bookcase for clues. As she was thumbing through the books, she noticed an odd black book. It looked like a normal book, but it had the design of a key on the spine in gold. She ran her fingers down the spine. It wasn’t printed. It was a lock.

Katie said, “I found a lock.”

Tony came over to her, curious. Katie pulled the keys from her pocket, slowly inserting the heart key into the lock. “It’s a perfect fit,” she said. Turning the key, the shelf began to move, revealing a red door. Tony checked the door, but it was locked. Katie handed him the second key. Tony tried the key, and it opened.

“Finally, we are free of this horror,” he said.

They both looked at each other and walked through the doorway into a small, dark tunnel. Following the tunnel, Katie realized Tony wasn’t really that bad of a guy.

“Tony, when we get out of here, I just want you to know I am sorry for being such a brat. I just wasn’t ready for my mom to move on so fast,” she said.

Tony felt sincerity in what Katie said. “Katie, honey, I will never replace your dad, but I do love your mom. I know you love your dad, but I hope we can start over.”

After being in the dark tunnel, they finally found an exit brightened by overhead light. They walked out of the tunnel to freedom from the escape room, no longer enemies.

“Katie, we are finally out of the escape room of horror,” Tony said.

Katie dropped to the ground, kissing the floor in relief. “Freedom feels great, dad,” she said. Tony hugged Katie.

Heather Mettke is studying at Full Sail University. When she is not writing, she is spending time with her children and husband, and doing custom designing.