Escape Room

by Maren Stoffels

  How can such a big fire develop so quickly?

  Cleo wants to murder us.

  Was that her plan all along?

  Did she just want to play with us a bit before burning us alive?

  I see the desk chair up against the door of the boy’s room. Mint has locked Miles up. Quiet Mint, who didn’t dare to talk to Miles last week in the park. Mint, the mousiest girl in school. The same Mint who left Miles in there to bleed out.

  The flames are licking at the walls of the hallway. They’ll soon reach the boy’s room. Does Miles really deserve to die this way? Alone and with a shard of glass in his stomach?

  I know that Cleo’s his sister, and that it’s partly because of him that we’re in here, but I feel sorry for him. I hate it, but somewhere inside me, there’s still a remnant of love. Maybe it will never go away.

  I take the chair away from the door and pull it open. Miles is still lying on the floor. His face is gray. A pool of blood has spread over the wooden floor.

  It’s just like I’m watching a movie, as if this isn’t real. I curse. Miles and I are both bleeding to death, but it’ll happen sooner to him. Alissa pushed the piece of glass deep into his stomach.

  I hurry to Miles and tap his cheek. He doesn’t react, but when I put my fingers on his throat, I feel a faint pulse.

  I put Miles’s arm around my shoulders and struggle to lift him to his feet.

  Miles groans, but his eyes remain shut. I see more blood gushing from the wound.

  How am I going to do this? This would be difficult if I were in peak condition, but with just one good hand it’s almost impossible.

  The whole room is spinning.

  My hand feels as if it’s already on fire.

  I stagger along the hallway, with the flames at my heels. With Miles like a heavy rag doll by my side, I stumble back to the living room. As soon as Mint sees him, she explodes at me.

  “What are you doing?!”

  Alissa moves closer to the wall, as if she wants to disappear into it. I lay Miles on the kitchen floor. He groans again when his head hits the tiles.

  “We can’t just leave him there to die.”

  I don’t want to become an animal in here. I want to remain Sky until the final second.

  Someone starts crying.

  Is it me?

  We’re holding each other’s hands.

  All I can do is look at Miles. It’s like he’s laid out for his funeral, so peaceful and quiet.

  How will I look soon?

  Will Mom and Dad ever go to church again at Christmas? Or will they stop because I should be sitting between them?

  I see our house in front of me, my room. The bulletin board with the photos of Sky, Alissa, and me. I’m always standing kind of hidden behind my friends, with Alissa looking radiant at the front.

  I rub the short spikes on my scalp. Will my mom and dad recognize me like this? Or will I soon be burned so badly that they won’t be able to tell the four of us apart? A sob escapes my throat.

  The smoke curls under the door.

  Caitlin’s gone.

  In the place where I tied her up, there’s just the rope now.

  “Hello?”

  I look around, but no one’s there.

  Where did that voice come from?

  Then I see the receiver lying next to the phone.

  “Are you still there?”

  I put the receiver to my ear.

  “Who is this?” I ask.

  “Emergency services.”

  I flinch.

  There’s a loud bang.

  On the screens, I see people coming into the building.

  They’re coming for me.

  “Hang in there, guys!”

  I open my eyes. The room is full of smoke. My eyes are stinging.

  Is it the intercom? Who’s speaking this time? Lia? Miles? Their mom or dad?

  Is this a new game?

  But I can’t take any more.

  Cleo has to stop.

  “We’re nearly there, Alissa!”

  I know that voice.

  It’s Dad.

  Am I dead?

  But then what’s Dad doing here?

  There’s a bang, loud voices, a strange hiss.

  Even more smoke.

  “Alissa!”

  “Dad?” I croak, taking the dish towel from my mouth.

  “They’re alive!” someone shouts. They’re cheering. Why would they be happy? There’s no reason at all to be happy. I murdered someone.

  “I…” I have to tell them. Everyone needs to know what I’ve done. “Miles. I…”

  Then I’m picked up, and I feel a hard edge against my cheek. It takes me a moment to realize what it is: Dad’s fire helmet.

  The wheels of the gurney fold in as I’m lifted into the ambulance. I only notice now that I’m not holding Mint’s and Alissa’s hands anymore. When did I let go of them? They’re still inside!

  Mint, Alissa…I want to shout their names, but there’s something over my mouth.

  What’s going on? I sit up, but a paramedic gently pushes me back onto the gurney.

  “Your friends are okay.”

  I look around. Miles is lying beside me, with all kinds of wires attached to him and an oxygen mask over his mouth. That must be what I have too. That’s why I can’t talk.

  “We gave your friend morphine for the pain. He’s unconscious.”

  I want to say that Miles is anything but my friend, but then the ambulance starts moving, and a feeling of nausea washes over me.

  “Just keep still,” the man says to me.

  Where’s Caitlin? Is she still with Cleo?

  I pull the oxygen mask off my face. The elastic pinches behind my ears. “Caitlin…”

  “Keep still,” the man says, a little more forcefully this time.

  What if he’s part of all this? Am I really in an ambulance, or is this some new Escape Room?

  I try to move my fingers, but nothing happens. All I can feel is a tingling sensation where they should be.

  What’s happened to my fingers?

  I have to drum. I have to…

  “I’m staying with Alissa,” I say to the police officer who wants to drive me to the hospital.

  The woman from the ambulance nods. “Fine, but we need to leave now.”

  I climb in next to the gurney. Alissa’s dad is already sitting by her head. He’s stroking his daughter’s hair nonstop.

  “What happened, baby girl?” I hear him asking.

  Maybe it’s just as well they gave Alissa a strong sedative to calm her down, because I don’t know if she could have answered his question.

  Where should I start? I know the police are going to want us to tell them everything, but I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to talk about this. No one will understand what happened in the Escape Room. No one will understand what the four of us have been through.

  No, the three of us.

  I can’t count Miles.

  All that time, he was part of the sick plan.

  “Mint.” Alissa’s dad rests his hand on mine. “I want to thank you.”

  I’m startled out of my thoughts. “What for?”

  “For being such a good friend to my daughter.”

  You always want all the attention, even at your dad’s expense!

  I swallow. “I don’t know about that.”

  “It’s thanks to you that she’s still alive. Putting those dish towels over your faces was a really good idea.”

  “That was Sky’s idea.”

  I think of my best friend, who’s in the other ambulance along with Miles. I don’t find it reassuring that they’ve knocked Miles out with drugs. I think I’ll always be on guard from now on
.

  “I’m sure it was a struggle for you in there too.”

  Alissa’s dad runs his eyes over my scalp.

  I’d almost forgotten my short fuzz.

  “It was a struggle for all of us,” I say quietly.

  I look at Alissa, who stabbed Miles. If he doesn’t make it, she’ll be a murderer.

  She’s lying there peacefully now, but soon she’ll wake up into this hell. I hope for her sake that she goes on sleeping for a while longer.

  * * *

  —

  “Mint!” My mom’s voice echoes along the corridor in the hospital. Her stiletto heels make a quick tapping sound. She comes running up, with my dad right behind her.

  Alissa’s gurney is pushed away. I feel two arms around me.

  “Mom…,” I say quietly.

  “Oh, sweetheart.” My mom pulls away and her eyes fill with tears. She holds out her hand and strokes my head. “What did they do to you?”

  Another impossible question. If I tell her, she’ll never let me out of the house again.

  I look at my dad, who’s standing there awkwardly. He’s trying not to look at my head, but I can see that he’s finding it difficult.

  “Dad, I…”

  My dad takes a step forward and hugs me to him. Mom does the same. It feels warm. I can’t tell which arms are whose anymore. I can’t move, but it’s completely different from being locked up.

  My mom’s stopped crying, but I know she could start again at any minute. My dad’s sitting silently by my bedside and looking at my hand, which is in a plaster cast. It has seventeen stitches, and it’s broken in a few places too, but according to the doctor I’ll be able to drum again eventually.

  Now and then I fall asleep, but the nurse says that’s a good thing. She keeps repeating how lucky we are. Alissa’s dad and the other firefighters reached us just in time.

  I think of the moment the smoke came curling under the door. I seriously thought I was going to die.

  But every time I see my mom and dad, I realize I’m still alive.

  I made it. She’s right—I was lucky.

  So why don’t I feel lucky?

  The nurse puts her head around the door. “There’s a visitor for you.”

  I sit up a little in my pillows. “Mint?”

  But it’s Caitlin who comes into the room. She has black lines of mascara on her face, and she’s fiddling with the ring on her little finger.

  My heart starts racing, as if I’m back in the Escape Room.

  “And who’s this?” asks my dad.

  “Caitlin,” my mom says. “Sky’s girlfriend.”

  I try to ignore the embarrassment, but I can see Caitlin blushing.

  “Dad, Mom…” I look at them. I can tell they never want to leave my side again, but there’s no way I’m having this conversation with them here.

  “Okay. We’re leaving,” says my dad, pulling my mom out into the corridor.

  As Caitlin sits down on my dad’s chair, I stare at the blankets. I know I should say something, but where to begin?

  “I’m sorry,” we both say at the same time.

  “Huh?” I look at Caitlin in surprise. “Why are you sorry?”

  Caitlin glances at my hand. “That you had to go through that.”

  She’s kind, far too kind.

  “You heard all of it, didn’t you?” I ask, just to make sure. “What was said in there?”

  Caitlin blinks a few times. “I was in the same room as her.”

  “Did she do anything…”

  “She tied me up, cut off a bit of hair, and scared me,” Caitlin says, summing it up. “That was it.”

  “Isn’t that enough?” I can feel tears welling up again. How am I ever going to make it up to her?

  I want to take her hand, but remember too late that I’m supposed to be resting mine and feel a stab of pain.

  “Ow.”

  “You okay?”

  “You have to stop being so nice,” I tell her. “Please, hate me, hit me, but don’t be like this.”

  “I’d like to hit you,” Caitlin says. “But I’ll do it when you’re better.”

  I notice that I’m smiling, which sends a tear trickling down my cheek and toward the pillow.

  “I don’t want you to see me cry.”

  “I get it.” Caitlin gives my shoulder a gentle thump. “People might think you’re gay.”

  I feel it bubbling up inside me, but it’s Caitlin who’s first to burst out laughing. Then I join in. We laugh way louder than we should. We laugh because we’re still alive.

  * * *

  —

  “Sky.” Mint comes into my room and throws both arms around me. I just woke up. After Caitlin’s visit, I went back to sleep. My mom and dad are sitting by my bed again. They look shocked when they see Mint’s new hairstyle.

  Mint holds me a few seconds longer, and I realize how much I like it.

  “How’s the pain?” she asks when she lets me go.

  “Morphine,” I say. “Miracle drug.”

  “Alissa’s still sleeping,” says Mint. “I’ll go check on her soon.”

  I’d really like to go with her, but the nurse says I have to stay in bed.

  “You bandaged me up better,” I say when I see Mint looking at my hand. “You could get a job here, no problem.”

  “I’ve seen enough blood for now.”

  I give her a tentative smile.

  “I just saw Caitlin out in the corridor,” Mint says quietly. “Everything okay?”

  “Sure is.”

  I want to ask her about Miles, but I don’t dare with my mom and dad there. The police just told them the whole story. When my dad heard that Miles was involved, I was worried for a moment that he was about to go storming into Miles’s room and give him a good kicking.

  “Cleo’s at the police station,” says Mint. “They’re interviewing her right now. And then it’s his turn.”

  Crazy Mint, who always says everything at just the right moment.

  She places a kiss on my forehead. “I’m going to go see Alissa.”

  I look at her short hair. She seems invincible. I hope she keeps it like that.

  Mint goes out into the corridor. She’s the only one who came out of this unharmed. But I know that her real wounds are inside.

  She was called a shadow of Alissa. She was humiliated and threatened.

  On a whim, I put my hand up to my mouth. I don’t care that my mom and dad are sitting by my bed when I yell through the hospital: “Hey, if I weren’t gay, I’d never fall in love with Alissa. It would be you!”

  There’s a stranger sitting by my bedside. When I peer at him out of the corner of my eye, I notice that his jacket is hanging open, and there’s a gun in a holster on his belt.

  I close my eyes again. As long as I pretend to be sleeping, no one will ask questions. Questions about Alissa, about my sister, about all the things that happened in there.

  Alissa stabbed me. I thought she couldn’t do it, but she could.

  I wanted to protect her, but she didn’t understand. She thought I was just as bad as my sister.

  Cleo…Where is she now?

  I don’t know if I ever want to see her again.

  There’s a panicky voice in the corridor.

  “Miles!”

  Julie. I feel a lump in my throat and my eyes fill with tears. What’s she doing here? Why does she still want to see me after all this?

  “Sorry, ma’am. You can’t go in there yet.”

  “Why not? He’s family. He lives with me!”

  “We understand that you want to speak to him, but we need to take his statement first.”

  “Statement?” Julie shouts. “He didn’t do anything. This is all one big misunderstanding!�
��

  I squeeze my eyes even more firmly shut.

  Miles is standing in front of me, with those ice-blue eyes of his.

  He takes a step forward. I stab him.

  There’s blood everywhere.

  On the glass, on my hands, on my face.

  * * *

  —

  “You’re back.” Mint’s face is so close that I can hardly focus on it. “You’re a champion sleeper, you know.”

  Where am I?

  The hospital.

  Still.

  My dad stroked my hair. That was nice.

  Mom cried. Even Koby and Ruben cried.

  And Fenna? Was she there too?

  Maybe Mom and Dad left her at home. That would be good. I don’t want her to think I’m shipwrecked too.

  “Your mom and dad are just talking to the doctor. They’ll be back soon.”

  Mint lays a cool hand on my forehead. I look at her short hair and reach out to her face.

  “I…I…”

  “Yep. You gave me a new do.” Mint nods. “It’ll grow back. Or maybe I’ll leave it like this.”

  “I hurt you,” I say, completing my sentence.

  “I can handle it,” says Mint, but I hear a crack in her voice. All this time, she’s been so brave, but now she’s breaking.

  We’re both crying.

  “Miles is alive,” Mint says through her tears. When I hear his name, my heart rate shoots up. “He’s being interviewed by the police, and so is Cleo. They want to speak to us too.”

  I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to talk about what happened in there. Words can’t explain what it was like.

  “You warned me about Miles, and I…”

  There are so many things I want to say to Mint, but the words get stuck in my throat. I’m crying again. Will I ever shake off this feeling of powerlessness?

  “I’ll never be able to trust anyone again.”

  “Of course you will,” says Mint quietly. “We have each other.”

  I close my eyes. The nightmare comes back: Miles, the glass, the blood…How am I ever supposed to live with those images?