Scarper House

1•9 - What do you know?

9 - What do you know?

We already lost half of us and what? Was that just a foreplay?

We all moved silently to the next room. All looking down, all teary eyed. All grieving.

And just when we lost the Escape Room Addict, we're now inside what seems to be a real escape room. On the other side was a tiny door just the same height as my waist.

Lots of cabinets surrounded the entire room, filled with different kinds of things.

Kuya Sullivan was, again, the first one to move. "It's a normal door. We need to find a key."

"There?" We all looked at Kuya Blade who's looking up.

My jaw dropped. The ceiling is made of clear glass and we can clearly see that there's water above us. If the glass breaks, this room will be a swimming pool in no time.

Attached on the ceiling is also a glass box that contains a golden key. However, the bottom part of the box has a keypad. And damn, everyone knows what that means.

"There's something here."

We all walked towards Kuya Dean who's standing near a corkboard with several polaroids pinned.

It's us. Ten polaroids. One for each of us.

"Where did they get these pictures?" Kuya Blade asked. He then pointed on his picture. "I haven't uploaded this one on any social networking site."

No one could answer.

"Hey, this is mine."

Again, we all turned to find Kuya Chem holding a microphone.

"Are you sure?" Kuya Sullivan asked.

"Oo. Diba, nagamit niyo na din 'to nung nag-karaoke tayo sa bahay?" He raised his hand showing us the familiar white microphone. "Pucha, sinong nagsulat dito?"

"Ha?"

"May nagsulat," he complained like a kid. He really loves that microphone. "Ano ba yan, ayaw matanggal."

"What's written?" Kuya Dean asked, walking towards Kuya Chem.

"Five?" Kuya Chem said, then he turned it upside down. "Parang number five?"

I was about to step closer and take a look at the microphone when we heard cracking sounds. Nervous, we all looked up.

The glass ceiling is starting to have cracks and water started to fall down.

"What are we gonna do?" Kuya Blade asked, sounding worried. "Wala bang instructions?"

"This looks like a real escape room," Kuya Sullivan said. "We'll do the usual thing. Search for clues. No instructions."

"The microphone is a clue." Kuya Dean looked at us. "This might be the key. Try to find anything that belongs to you."

We did. I tried to look around searching for anything that belongs to me. The water level was already upto my knees when I found something very familiar. However, it isn't mine.

I raised my hand as I turned to look at the others, showing them a butterfly hairpin. "This is kuya's."

"Hairpin?" Kuya Sullivan asked. "Sure it's not yours?"