The Escape Room

Day One

Ulric's point of view

One thing I know for a fact is, it will be hard surviving this place because why the hell will she just die? She was fine when we came, totally fine! But now, she isn't moving anymore nor breathing. Her friends aren’t helping matters, we have been trying to revive her for the past ten minutes, no response, no pulse, no heart movement.

"She is dead!" Elian announced for the umpteenth time today. He isn’t helping matters either.

"We get man! We get it, so please just shut up," Jack shouted at him from where he was sitting criss crossed, beside me. It sounded far off. Weird! For some reasons best unknown to me, I wasn’t just motivated to move from where I was and do anything, even to preserve my image. 

"Come on man, don't say that," I warned, using the noisy background to my favour.

"Don't, please!" He came off harshly.

"Hartley! Please!" There was a loud piercing cry. This definitely broke the Ey girls' heart, I haven't seen them this distraught since I knew them. They always looked like some fake girls who are fake friends trying to be real by acting. They always had this 'I don't give a two damn about any other Ey than me, I am the only rare gem Ey' vibe.

"It's surprising to see them all cry, it's weird, strange and unusual to see them cry alike, in the same pattern," Andrew said quietly, calling out something that doesn't look right to me.

"Do they practise how to cry or what?" I asked in shock. They were in so much synchrony, touching their noses at the same time as they knelt down surrounding the dead girl.

"They always find ways to draw attention to themselves, now the focus is on their practised tears scene," Maya informed. Her voice sounded too close by, I looked around and definitely that wasn't supposed to happen. She was at a distance and her voice wasn't supposed to sound as close as it sounded. Super weird.

"...of course, it's what they all specialise in. How are we going to keep the dead girl's body?" Someone asked from the circle.

"Keep the body? Why? What for?" Brain asked, looking confused. They were beginning to gather around us.

"Of course! We have to keep the body and find means of opening the door. We can't leave a dead body in the open," Kunl said. 

Nobody was concerned about what the heck to do with the body. Not even the Ey girls, they were more concerned about crying their balls out. I looked towards them and the four of them stood in the four corners of the dead girl.

I don’t know much about the dead girl, I guess her name is Delaney or Finley or something with an ey ending, I heard Hartley not quite long from the girls. Rich! Mean! Bitchy brat five formation idiots, no one is better than the other but unfortunately, one has to meet her end like this, terrible!

“Can someone tell them to tone their tears down?” Jack asked, now, the majority of everyone was in our circle. Who were they looking up to?

“Ulric! Ulric? I think you have to continue your duty here,” Charlotte called out.

“Uhm! Umm… you say?” I asked out of surprise.

“Aren’t you the class rep anymore?” She asked me.

“Class rep? Class like the word says but we aren’t in the class, we are in the unknown, some escape room,” I said to her. So I was the one they were looking up to? Well, wrong! Waste of look and time and whatever they had.

“We have Andrew and Jake!’ I added.

“I am out of here,” I heard them say simultaneously before getting up and walking away together.

“You have no choice, Ulric, you have to lead us. Teach Caroline left us in your hands,” she tried convincing me. “ Besides, nobody wants them,” she added, pointing at Andrew and Jake, who were a few feet from the other door. 

“Don’t say that to their hearing,’ I quickly shushed her, hopefully, they didn’t hear her. “ Well, I was barely a class rep for two weeks, why don’t we let an expert take over?” I said to them. 

“Who?” Maya asked.

“Obviously Saya!” Someone said, that voice was too familiar for me not to know. “Can you brats just shut the fuck up, we all know you aren’t too sad about your friend!” She added, yelling. Mia!

“Mia?” Another familiar voice yelled at her in an attempt to shush her.

“Oh, please, Amy! We all know, they also know that we know they don’t care about the dead girl. I can’t keep quiet anymore,” she said to everyone but more to her sister.

“You don’t know shit about us so don’t say what you don’t know, we have been friends for five years… five years and we just lost her in the most unfortunate place of all places. How aren’t we supposed to grieve for her more than usual?” Jacey or Zoey, who looks like the queen bee or main girl or should I say the leader of their manic group, said in the most sincere  tone I have ever heard from her.

"We all know that bullshit, I see through all this facade you trying to play," Mia said, dropping to sit criss crossed on the ground in the middle of the whole area.

"I don't have to reply to you," was her response before hissing maliciously then gently turned to her friends and as if in practice, they all knelt down in unison and started crying again.

"Ahh!" I gasped.

"They think we are a fool! They don't even know how to act, bad acting Ey girls!" She yelled, now laying on the bare ground.

"Mia, can you please shut up?" Amy and Zoey yelled simultaneously.

"Who knew the bitch would know my name? Well, there is a little bit of hope for you guys," she said giggling.

"Mia? Mia!" Amy won't stop until she has her desired wish which is to shut Mia up.

"Oh please, Amy! There is freedom of speech, sissy," she said to her, smiling. 

She suddenly stood up, startling everyone then walked towards the girls, Ey girls, and grabbed the dead girl's legs then started pulling and dragging her.

"What the hell are you doing?" Everyone yelled at her while I just stared at her in astonishment.

"Putting the dead to rest," she replied, still dragging the corpse as she struggled with her friends who were just swaying at her like bees to honey.

"Can you bitch get off me? We don't have all day! If no one will do it then I volunteer to do it, for humanity kind," she yelled, pushing them away then proceeding with the dead girl. She pulled her towards the door, barely touching the door.

“Are you going to keep her there?” Someone asked her, alarming everyone. 

“Of course, where else can we keep her?” She asked back as she gently walked towards the dead girl’s property and picked her coat jacket and proceeded to cover her with the jacket.

“Guys!” Mia called out, standing a few feet from the dead girl, “we have to go through that door and figure the hell we need to figure to get out of here,” she added after getting everyone’s attention.

“Remember what Teach Caroline told us about this place and I made my own search about this place and discovered that this place used to be an hiding cave, a fun nature filled cave before the people, the Cavils made some experiment and in one way or the other, it became a mysterious escape room but have been long closed to the public except the Cavils who continued to carry out more experiment in this cave,” she tried explaining to us but something caught my attention.

‘What do you mean by ‘have been long closed to the public except the Cavils who continued to carry out more experiments’? What is that?” Maya asked, voicing out my confusion.

“I guess Teach Caroline didn’t know or she just thought it wasn’t important since we were just supposed to study the interior together and spend the rest of our visit outside,” she tried explaining in Teach Caroline stead.

“When did you become Teach Caroline’s personal assistant?” Her sister asked, “you knew how dangerous this place was and you still decided to come? Are you drunk or something?” She added in annoyance. 

“What's life without risk? Life is no fun without risk, you know? You need to live your life without fear, you know!” She admonished her.

“This isn’t a joke, lady!” Kunl said, looking frightened.

“Of course, it could be if you want it to be,” she said, smiling widely.

“No!’ Chris yelled with his thick Australian accent.

“Come on Chris, don’t be a pussy!” She said before grabbing the dead girl’s bag.

“What do you need that for?” Zoey asked her.

“For my service rendered,” she answered before walking off to her sister and lifting her own bag.

“Well, it is time! Day one!” she yelled out.