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?
“Alissa?” A voice startles me, a voice that makes me feel warm, deep inside.
Before I can even look up, a weight falls onto my chest. I feel hair tickling my face.
“Fenna!” Mom sounds stern. “Be gentle with your sister.”
But I wrap my arms around Fenna and give her the biggest hug.
Over Fenna’s shoulder, I see Mint smiling. She’s right. The trust will come back. We have each other.
There’s a way out of this Escape Room.
They all want to know why.
The press, the police, and Julie.
I’m not talking.
One day I’ll write a book about it.
And then everyone will understand.
I did this for our family.
For Dad, Mom, Lia, and Miles.
They say my brother’s alive,
but I don’t think I’ll see him for a while.
Julie will do everything she can to keep him away from me.
Miles is the only one I have left.
I didn’t know he was still alive in there.
I really didn’t.
My plan worked.
I broke It.
I hope It never forgets what it’s like to be powerless.
The police officer tells me what’s in store for me.
I look outside.
The sun shines in through the bars.
The warmth on my face is pleasant.
For a moment, it’s like I’m running through the park again.
The sun on my face, and It on the bench.
My brother talking to It.
The opportunity that suddenly presented itself.
It was a sign.
People will eventually come to understand that, won’t they?
Because if you had one shot, one opportunity,
to seize everything you ever wanted
in one moment,
you wouldn’t just let it slip, would you?
My first Escape Room was in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
When we went in, there was one member of the staff who explained the rules to us. He was going to watch everything that happened inside through the camera.
I made a joke and said to the others, “What if he never lets us go?” That joke was the basis of this book.
Escape Rooms have become an addiction for me. I plan to do as many as I can.
Although…
After this book, I’m extra careful.
I tell at least one person where I’m going, and I always say, “If you haven’t heard from me by ten, then come rescue me.”
You know, just to be sure.
Maren Stoffels
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
MAREN STOFFELS published her first book at age seventeen. She likes stories that are based on real experiences. Reading her books makes you feel like it could all happen to you. And maybe it will….
marenstoffels.nl
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Escape Room (Underlined Paperbacks) Page 11
