Innocent Lust

Stage 3

"Stage three will commence in three, two, one."

We shoot out of bed. I throw leggings and a shirt on. Sage put his clothes on. I grab a gun and some knives as Sage grabs his own weapons. When we open the door Carmelo and Marcus are running to our door.

"Do you know what we are doing?" Sage asks them.

"No clue," Carmelo answers.

I look at Sage unsure of what to do.

"Report to room 113. Report to room 113," the voice repeats over and over.

"That's always the haunted room in horror movies," Marcus says in a grumpy voice.

"Are horror movies good?" I ask him. I was never allowed to watch them.

"Some," he shrugs.

Sage holds my hand as we walk. My heart is pounding. If I was set up with a heart monitor the doctors would probably think I am going to have a heart attack.

"We are going to be fine, love. Whatever is in there we will get through," he whispers this to me and kisses my forehead.

I squeeze his hand in return. Carmelo makes a barfing jester with his hand to Marcus who in return hits him with his cane and mutters 'grow up'.

I smile a little at the new family I have made. My smiles though when I remember my parents at home.

I have been calling them daily. I give them updates and tell them about how in love I am with Sage. They always tell me to be careful but I can hear them smiling.

I miss them both.

When I zone back into what's going on in front of me I realize we are standing in front of room 113. A shiver runs down my spine. Carmelo walks in first followed by Marcus then Sage and I.

The door closes behind us and locks. Of course. My one fear (of many). Claustrophobia. I'm screwed.

I take a deep breath. Then another. Sage squeezes my hand, realizing I am uncomfortable.

I look around and see a timer counting down. I gasp as I realize what we need to do. Carmelo and Marcus turn around rapidly to see what I gasped at.

"What?" Marcus asks.

I smile, "It's an escape room! Lucky for you guys, I did a whole lot of these growing up. I spent so much time on escape room apps and in real escape rooms."

I begin look around. The room is relatively bare. There is a bed, dresser, nightstand, and tv. There is one vent and one door other than the one we came in. There are two canvas'. No windows.

I begin to look around. I open up all the drawers in the dresser and find a key. I look around for any key holes but only find one in the nightstand. The door that we did not come in, which I assume leads to the bathroom, had no door handle on it.

I use the key to open the nightstand and find a gun. That doesn't help. I look around for what I might use it for. Nothing.

"Look around for anything that could help us," I tell the boys.

I look under the bed and pillows. I run my hand along the edges of everything. I try removing the canvases but it doesn't work.

I hear a loud thud and a yelp.

"I think I found something Baylor," Carmelo says from...well I don't know where he went.

"Where are you?"

"Down here," he calls out.

I follow his voice to see him at the bottom of a pit. One tile of the floor was a trap door leading to a decent sized drop.

"Is there anything on the ground?" I ask him as I think of a way to get him out.

"Um," he looks around before holding up a screwdriver, "Yes!"

I smile and look at Sage.

"Can you get him out?"

"Yeah."

Sage walks over and starts to pull Carmelo out of the little space he fell into to. Right as Carmelo is lifted off the ground the floor beneath him opens up to a pit of a bunch of spikes. That was close.

Sage quickly pulls him up. I close the trapdoor and put something over top of it so we don't step there.

That was almost bad.

I take the screwdriver and open the vent. There is a book sitting there. I grab it and set it on the bed. I flip through all the pages finding nothing that could be a clue.

My heart rate picks up. What is going to happen if we can't get out? Are we doing to die in here? What if I never get to marry Sage? Or never see my parents again?

"Love," Sage whispers in my ear as he wraps his arms around my waist from behind, "Calm down. It's all okay. We will keep looking."

I take a deep, shaky breath and continue to look around.

I check every tile. Every canvas. Every drawer. Everything that looks like it may have something hidden in it.

I am running out of things to try and open. I check under the bed and the wooden things holding up the bed.

Suddenly, it clicks. A small compartment in the leg of the bed, that is shaped like an hourglass, opens up revealing a key.

The canvases!

"I found a key!" I exclaim.

"Thank god. I thought we were stuck in here," Marcelo gets off of the bed.

I found two key holes earlier. One on the top of each canvas.

I try the key on the canvas that says, "To get in you must be willing to try. To get out you just be willing to die."

It opens revealing a blank white wall. Something clicks. I look around but find nothing has changed. I look back at the wall to find a timer.

"Fuck," Carmelo whispers.

"A bomb," Marcelo exclaims.