From Grief We grew (Only On Wattpad)

Chapter 53 Lucah

The door opens as soon as she turns the last handle. “Woohoo we did it!” Teagan exclaims while sitting on my shoulders. I help her down and hug her. She hugs me back for a brief moment and then pulls away. “Shit, we only have 40 minutes. Let’s go!” Taking my hand, she drags me to the next room.
 
   The door behind us closes and the lights come on. The next room barely has anything in it. Only Four paintings done with gold paint hang on the wall in front of us. A fish, a girl, a wolf and what looks to be a beaver. On the floor, there is a carpet by the wall. Teagan tugs my hand and points at two circles drawn on the floor. “I think we are supposed to stand in it.” I nod and we both stand in one.
 
   “Now what?” I ask looking at her. Everything happens so faster after that. One second Teagan shrugs, the next second she is screaming and falling through the floor. The wood underneath her feet opens up and she falls in. I lung forward to catch her but the wood shuts back in my face. I slam my fist on it. “Open!!! What is this!!” There are small gaps between the wood. I push my fingers through and try pulling the wood. “Ugh fuck! Open!” but there is no use. “Frozen apples! Frozen apples!” I yell remembering what the guy said but nothing happens.
 
   “Lucah,” I hear a feeble call.
 
   “Teagan! Teagan!” I quickly throw myself on the floor, putting my ears against the wood. “Teagan! Can you hear me?” only now that my chest is pressed against the wood do I realize how fast my heart is beating.
 
   “Yes,” her voice is more audible now.
 
   “Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
 
   “I came down a slide I think. I’m not hurt.”
 
   “Is there any door there?” I ask. “Or a way out?”
 
   “The room is dark. The lights went off as soon as my feet hit the floor. I barely caught a glimpse of my surrounding.”
 
   I slam my fist against the wood and yell, “Ugh how do I open this!”
 
   “Lucah calm down, please. This is part of the game. There must be a way to get to me.”
 
   I get on my fours. “Okay stay put. I’ll get you out soon,” I yell and jump to my feet. My first instinct is to investigate the portraits. I take them down one by one to see if I can find anything behind them. But there is nothing. I put them back.
 
   “What should I do? What is it?” I mutter as I look around. I feel something under my shoe. I look down at the carpet. I step back and lift it. “Yes!” I exclaim in excitement seeing a padlock over what appears to be a door.
 
   “Lucah?”
 
   “Teagan I found a way. Stay put. I’ll solve the puzzle,” I tell her as I examine the lock. Okay, four digits. There are four paintings. First is a fish. Fish has 4 letters, so I type four. Another 4 and 4 for the girl and the wolf. 6 for the Beaver. The word Error flashes in red and a loud sound is heard. Maybe it’s the number of legs? I type in 0244. Once again there is an error. I slam my fist on the wood in agitation.
 
   “Lucah?”
 
   I lay on the floor and tell her the situation. She asks me to explain the drawings to her. So I sit up and do so. “Okay, so the girl has a spear in her hand. The wolf is howling. The beaver is surrounded by waves. The fish so is the fish. All four are painted or drawn in gold on a black canvas.”
 
    “Teagan?” I yell upon not hearing anything.
 
   “I'm thinking.”
 
   I look at the clock. “T, we have only 32 minutes left.”
 
   “What if the order of the pictures is wrong?”
 
   “What are you suggesting?”
 
   She explains how the pictures may implicate the food chain. “So Fish, Beaver, Wolf, Girl. Mmm, type the number of letters first.” I quickly start typing the numbers again. 4 6 4 4. The Error alarm goes off again. “F*ck. Uh okay, try the leg count.” Following her instructions, I type 0 4 4 2. Once again the alarm goes off.
 
   “You have one last try. If you get it wrong again, you will have a 5-minute ban,” A low feminine voice echoes through the room.
 
   “Lucah!? Lucah?!” she panics.
 
   “I'm here!” silence. “Teagan!” silence. “Teagan can you hear me?”
 
   “Uh yeah. Mmm, wait.”
 
   I look at the time. 29 minutes left. I turn to my side so I can look at the drawings. What can you mean?
 
   “Lucah try 4 6 4 5.”
 
   5? I look at the last drawing of the girl. Wait… Oh! Woman! I type in the numbers. The is loud boom noise and the floorboard flies open. I peep through the big square on the floor and see Teagan. “Lucah we did it!” I sprint to my feet and carefully climb down the ladder that leads to her room. I don’t even wait till my feet touch the ground, as soon as my eyes meet the new surrounding and I see Teagan, I jump off the ladder and pull her into my arms.
 
   “You scared me.” I kiss her head. “I was so scared.” I hold her face and kiss her forehead. “No, leaving me again,” I tell her in a strict tone. Every part of my body begs to kiss her lips but I hold back and kiss her cheek instead.  
 
   “Ugh I wanna hug you too-“ I pull away and that’s when I notice her hands are cuffed. “but they put this bloody thing on my hand.”
 
   “We’ll find the key. Are you hurt?” I brush my fingers through her hair noticing how wild it looks. Must have gotten upset when she fell. She smiles and nods. I look around the room. The walls are painted white and the room is empty. One thing in the room is the orange slide that Teagan fell through.
 
   “There's a door,” she says pointing at a door on our right. I nod and hold her hand. As we walk I notice Teagan limp. So I stop and bend down. Placing my hands behind her, in one swift movement I carry her and start walking. “Lucah what are you doing!” she gasps looking at me.
 
   “Being a team,” I simply say. She stays quiet and grips my shirt.
 
   The next room is a narrow passage filled with Laser lights. At the end of the room, there is another door. “Uh gross are those worms,” I hear Teagan say. In front of us stands a pit of mud with live worms crawling through it. She buries her face in my chest and mumbles, “I-I don’t like worms.”
 
   “I could carry you,” I tell her.
 
   “But how will you carry me through the laser lights? I’m sure they will go off.” She frowns and looks back.
 
   “Good question.”
 
   I place her down on her feet and she quickly steps back. Teagan looks at the worms in disgust. I chuckle and she looks daggers at me making me burst into laughter. She then pouts and whines, “It's not funny!” I shake my head and look back at the lights. I squat down and grab some mud. I hear Teagan saying, “Ewwww.” I chuckle and stand up. I fling the ball of mud at the lights to see what will happen. Nothing does. Mmmm. I take out my hoodie and swing it at the light. Still, nothing happens.
 
   “Must be fake,” she says and steps forward. She waves her hand in front of the red beam. Immediately a siren goes off and a black mass falls in front of us. Teagan yelps in surprise and we jump back together. I look at the mud and see cockroaches on it. Teagan clutches my arms. “I hate those more,” she whimpers and hides her face in my arm.
 
   I pat her head.  “Okay. We now know it’s human sensitive,” I announce. I starch my chin as I look around and wonder what to do. I notice a bag hanging above the door on a nail. I nudge her and point at it. “The key might be in it. We need to get that.” She nods.
 
   I gently pull away from her and ask her to give me her flip-flops. She gives me one odd and I use it to scoop the mud with it. “Ew, what the heck?” she says in disgust. I shake my head with a smile and walk over to the lens closest to me. I carefully spread the mud over it without it sensing my hand. The light from that particular lens cuts off. Stepping in the mud, I frown feeling something crawl over my feet. I ignore it and start sealing all the lights.  
 
   “Lucah! It’s working!”
 
   Once I seal everything, I go back for Teagan. I rub the mud off of her slipper and place it in front of her to wear. “Sorry about that.” She shakes her head and gives me a quick kiss on my cheek making my heart skip a beat. “Nah uh. That was brilliant!”
 
    I carry her through the mud and she holds onto me. Once we get to the door, I lift her higher helping her to grab the bag. I carefully put her down and she starts rummaging through the bag. In the bag, there is a ring with a bunch of keys on it, a rope and a black marker. “Why might need these,” Teagan says and puts the rope and marker back in the bag. She tucks the bag in her pants and then holds out her hand.
 
   Luckily one of the keys does end up freeing her hands. As soon as the cuffs fall off, she clings onto me. “Thank you! Thank you!” I nod and pull away. She grins looking at me. She takes my hand in hers and lifts it,  “One last room. Let’s do it!”