Scarlet in Glezentine

Chapter 20 - Trapped

Once I regain consciousness, I have to blink multiple times to let my eyes adjust to the light. My groggy mind remembers the person in my room and a jerk upright.

There are two things I realized when I did that. One, I am already upright. Well, sitting in a chair. Two, I am tied to a chair.

Then it sinks in. I am tied to a chair! My arms and legs moving their own violation, trying and pushing and pulling, doing anything to get me out of the restraints.

"Stop! You're gonna hurt yourself!" The voice makes me jump, but then I recognize it, and I try to turn my head to see if it really is him. Yes!

"James! What's going on? Where are we? Are you OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm tied up, but I'm fine. I don't know much, only that we are in a white and blue checkered room with the door that doesn't have a handle, and a large one-way mirror. Or I assume that's what it is."

"And we're tied to chairs. Why did they tie us to a chair? And why did they have to tie it so tight?!"

"I don't know. I'm close to getting out of this though. I've been collecting tiny water droplets in the air and putting them on a rope so it gets soft and able to break. I've almost got mine, and yours are close to."

I wait not–so–patiently, and keep trying to look over my shoulder to see how he's doing. I notice a difference in the rope, and continue trying to get loose. The material it's made of scrapes my skin, but I'll deal with that after. First, we have to get out of these stupid ropes.

A few minutes past and we're not closer to being out of here. Wherever "here" is. I've stopped trying to free my hands, which had only resulted in my wrists turning red from rubbing. I need to see how we can get out of the room, after we get out of the ropes, of course.

We could try to smash the window with the chairs, we could then try to pry open the door with the splinters of the chairs if that doesn't work. But if neither of those options successfully get us out, what then? There's practically nothing in the room, except for us, obviously. Other than that, nothing. Not a crumb.

I hear James grunt, and it snaps me from my not–actually–helpful thoughts. I feel his chair vibrate slightly as he tugs on his binds, and I do the same. I have a bone to pick with these ropes. The stupid ones I've been in for for what feels like hours. They rub my wrists raw, and now I want some good–old–fashioned revenge on an inanimate object.

With a burst of strength, I pull my arms up with a small grunt and the rope previously holding my wrist breaks. I hear James get it off at the same time, and we both untie our legs, immediately stretching our legs once they're free. Then we give each other a hug, reminding us we're in this together.

"What now?" He asks as I grab a chair for what looks like a mirror. I grunt with all my strength as I heave the chair into the direction of glass, careful not to get in the way of it if it rebounds, just like those tv shows always do. It looks as if it's flying in slow motion, both James and I nervously waiting for it to hit, and hopefully break, the designated object.

It harmlessly rebounds off, as if the glass is bulletproof, except for the tiny crack in the middle of the rectangle. The chair seems to have survived the crash, so James picks it up to try to throw it again. Meanwhile, I walk over to the door to examine it. As I get closer, I see each square on the door has four smaller squares of slightly different shades about blue and white.

Once I've noticed that, I then noticed none of the squares are the same color. All of them are different blues, though the whites are the same four repeating ones.

One square of blue squares catches my attention. The four squares are different sizes. The biggest one looks like it doesn't fit perfectly in the wall. I press on it and I hear a tiny click, and when I release it, it swings open like a door. I gasp in surprise as a tiny button comes into view.