The Next Chapter

Chapter 44

Emery's POV 

We had one hour on us to solve the entire thing and it's been 15 minutes and we're still in the small room. I'm getting frustrated. 

"He said that most people solve this room after 10 minutes. Are we that stupid?"

"You are."

"Hey!" I glare at him.

"Sorry, forgot how competitive you get." He puts his hand up like he's surrendering. 

"Just get back to looking for clues." I tell him. We've found some things and put them all in one place but I can't connect them.

"Hey, I-I think I've found something." He says and moves a painting. "It's four colors."

Colors? We don't have anything- "WHAT COLORS?!"

"Fuck, you scared me."

"What colors?!" I yell again.

"Blue, red, green and purple."

"In that order?" I ask and he nods. "Finally!" I put the colors in one of the locks on a box and it opens. Jake makes his way here to see what's inside. It's a key.

I pick it up. "It's too small for the door." 

He takes the key from me and unlocks another clue we found. "But it's not too small for this... Thing. IT'S THE KEY TO THE DOOR!"

"YES!" I jump in his arms and he catches me with such ease. I quickly get off him and we stand there awkwardly staring at the floor. I snap out of it and open the other door. 

"Okay, we have to focus. How much time did we spend in there?"

He looks at the timer above the door. "18 minutes."

"WHAT?! Hurry, look through everything!" 

He starts laughing. "Calm down, we still have-" I glare at him again. "Never mind. I'll start over here." We both start looking like crazy for clues and once we find some we look at them and put them away in a corner so we have them all in one place. 

We have a lock with three numbers on it that we have to solve, then we have another color combination, a lock with four letters and one more with numbers. How on earth are we going to solve this?

"I think I've found something." Jake says and looks at a paper. "It says something about two people."

"That's it? Doesn't it say anything else?"

"Nope. Just two people and then there's nothing."

Two people? That's what we have to go on? 

"Okay... Put it with the other clues and keep looking." 

After another ten minutes pass, we have nothing. I go over to where we keep all the clues and look at them again.

Two people...

Red...

"Help me with this." I hear Jake say from across the room. "It's a two-person job."

I walk over to him and... I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking at.

"What is this?"

"Don't know yet, but when I moved this magnet over here I heard something on the other side but I can't reach it and move the magnet at the same time. Stand here." He points to a specific stop and I do as he says. We look at it some more and we've figured out that when I move the magnet there's a ball on the other side that moves too. But one person has to stand there and instruct what way to go.

"Okay, I think I know which way to go now." He says. "Move the magnet up till I say stop." I do that. "Now move it to the left, but just a little." 

I start moving it but he stops me. "My left." I scoff and do that too. "Now go down about two inches and go to the left again. My left. It's this way." He gestures with his hand. 

"I know left and right." I say annoyed.

"Is that right?" I catch him smile. "See what I did there? Right as in right but also as in right." He starts laughing hard. "God, I'm funny."

I try not to laugh but my mouth fails me and lets out a chuckle. 

"So you think I'm funny too?" He laughs.

"No, just your joke. It was so bad." I smile. We stare at each other for a while before he snaps out of it and we get back to what we were doing. We solve it about three minutes later and get a small box out of it that has a letter lock on it. Four letters.

"What now?" He asks.

"We keep looking. We need to find letters. Any letters."

"I found an E on the wall over there." He says and points to it. I go over and check and there's an O too behind a painting. So we've got E and O...

"Keep looking. We need two more letters." I tell him while looking through some box we found earlier.

After about ten minutes we still haven't found all letters but we have found two more keys. And one of the keys got us a V. So we have E, O and V.

"I found a box." He suddenly says. "It's a lock on it with four letters and it says something on the box."

I walk up to him to see it. It says 'If you don't have it, you'll search for it. And if you do have it, you'll do anything to keep it'.

Jake keeps looking for clues while I try to connect all the things we've found. There's a couple, the color red and the letters E, O and V. 

What is this? Am I that stupid to- Oh my God!

"It's love, Jake! The couple, the color red and the letters. It's love! Of course, if you don't have love, you'll search for it and if you have love you'll do anything to keep it! God, we're so stupid." Both of us laugh and he puts in the letters L O V E in the lock and it opens. 

"It's a key. But a pretty big one. Bigger than all of the others we've found." He says and looks around when he suddenly stops and walks over to the door. He puts the key in and it opens. We did it! Both of us run out and jump with joy.

"We actually did it. Like for real. The two of us. We worked together. And we did it." I can't stop smiling. Somehow I don't believe that we're actually out. "I thought that we would yell and be angry at each other but we weren't. We did it, Jake."

"We did it, shortie." His smile is so big and genuine, I just want to hug him. And I do. His arms wrap around me with such ease but at the same time with such force. Like he's afraid to lose me. We let go of each other and he leans closer to me. Our mouths are just inches apart, so close yet so far away. 

Our moment, however, is interrupted by the guy who comes walking in. Making me take a few steps back from Jake. 

"So, how was it?" The worker asks.

Honestly? I have no idea how it was.

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Hehe, sorry for that.

Thoughts?