The Escape Room

Freedom Trials

When I finally come to, I'm back in my cell laying down on my cot. I'm temporarily numb and then pain shoots up the right side of my neck.

"It's starting to hurt isn't it?" Althea asks me. She's across from me now, not Drake.

"Ow. Yeah. Yours doesn't?" I question rubbing my neck. I finger the string. Stitches.

"Yeah, it'll go away in a few minutes." She answers as I examine the stitches in my neck. The glass is milky and dented in some spots, so my neck is completely distorted. I sit down in front of the bars, the same way Althea was sitting.

"At least we haven't endured a punishment right?" I say, trying to smile.

She widens her eyes and puts a finger to her lips as points to the room next door.

"Who is it?" I mouth.

"Drake."

I roll my eyes in slight frustration. His mouth would soon become the bane of his existence.

"I'm not surprised." I can't help but laugh at her face. The makeup we put on just the day before was smeared all over the place. The black mascara was forming spiders that crawled down the top of her cheeks.

"Yeah, yeah. The whole makeup ordeal. You don't look too hot yourself." She says, smirking slightly.

"Whatever forever." For a moment it's like we're not here and back home. "What's the punishment?" I ask, lowering my voice.

Drake answers before Althea has the chance.

"We have shock chips in. The very thing that delivers the pain in the animal collars. Just a word of experience, no mercy. They enjoy it." I shudder but decide not to answer.

Althea just nods at me from across the cell. I hear other conversations and can pinpoint all the voices except for Ebony. I don't know where her cell was located in relation to mine, but I would still be able to hear her regardless.

I get up and pace my room again. Something in the corner of the room by my sink catches my eye. I get down on my knees to closer examine it.

It was nothing more than scratches in the paint. Tick marks: there were twelve. At the bottom of the marks, there was an arrow that pointed upward at the sink.

"Do you think the surgery is going to be reconstructive?" Aura. There's a shuffling to the right of me and then Blaise's response.

"Your face is the least of your worries. How about you worry about something other than your appearance for once." He snaps. He plops onto his cot.

There's nothing unusual about the sink. I turn both knobs and water comes rushing out. I pull the drain out, expecting a key to my cell but nothing.

There was nothing.

The underside of the sink, however, was a whole other story. There was a bunch of words scraped into the porcelain.

Kat. Exp5. Class 4.

I didn't know what to make of it. I only knew one thing: we aren't the first. Other people, kids, have been here before us.

I open my mouth to tell them, but stop myself before the sound formed. What if it's a test? What if Stone did this to throw me off, to start something I couldn't finish?

A reason to punish me. I held an internal debate on whether I should say something to the others. It would be wrong if I didn't, but I didn't know how much I could trust some of the people in my sector.

Some of them could be the kind of person that would sell you out if it meant saving themselves. I decided for it.

"Guys, do any of you know someone named Kat?" I ask.