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In hindsight it was a good idea, Colin and Daphne had barged into Anthony’s office two weeks before Halloween when the rest of the family were having their Monday morning meeting and declared they were all going to take part in this Haunted House escape room experience on Halloween.
They’d booked and paid for the 8 of them to go and there would be no excuses.
Sophie had tried to argue that Haunted Houses, Halloween, Horror films and the like were not her cup of tea and tried to plead to be excused and for them to take Edwina instead. She had lived enough horror in her life, she didn’t need it for fun, but the puppy dog eyes she got from Ben and Kate meant she didn’t stand a chance and given that Daphne was pregnant and threatened to sit on her (despite her not really showing yet)
Benedict made the biggest point out of them all, the rest were going as a couple and if he rocked up with Edwina and the press saw, they would have a field day. So despite this being Sophie’s idea of absolute HELL, had been pretty much bullied into going and was less than impressed
So everyone turned up at the Spooktacular Haunted Escape House in varying states of excitement and dread.
Kate and Anthony had bickered the entire way up, each sure they were going to work out the clues first and who was going to be the one who gets scared the most.
Colin was giddy and Penelope was desperately trying to keep him calm, Halloween was one of his favourite times of the year, other than Christmas, he was in his element and practically bouncing down the street with his hand in a pic and mix bag as he shovelled more sugar into his body than was wise and Penelope just looked resigned. She startled easily and didn’t really fancy this but when Colin asked her to come with his family with the rest of his siblings and their partners, she felt like she couldn’t say no.
Simon looked unhappy as he was dragged up the street by Daphne who had a backpack on her back.
Simon knew how much Colin and Daphne loved Halloween and when he had refused to host a Halloween party this year because he didn’t want to stress Daphne out, she had talked her mother into having one in a few days time after she had booked this bloody escape room, haunted house experience, so he had been double whammied. He did quite like the idea of an escape room and watching the Bridgerton’s work it out, he was still quite sure that they only have one brain cell between the Bridgerton’s brothers and he was just here for the chaos he was sure was about to occur.
Sophie, on the other hand, was not happy and was almost furious when they arrived. Benedict could sense her trepidation and had promised to make it up to her when they got home. This whole thing was her worst nightmare, all rolled into one. Halloween jumpy scary things and being locked in a room at night.
When Daphne had rocked up with disclaimers they had to sign Sophie had felt sick, she watched all 7 of her compatriots sign without even reading what they were signing, and given that Anthony and Kate were sticklers for terms and conditions having law backgrounds, had willingly signed. Sophie had glanced through them, seeing things about heart conditions, your own risk… the entire thing just felt wrong but the way she was being stared at meant she caved to the peer pressure and signed.
Benedict was excited, they had done one of these years ago and cracked it within what he said was something like 30 minutes and he was sure that this wouldn’t take them that long so he was sure Sophie could cope for a little bit but he got some of her worries.
As the party gathered there was some giggling from Daphne and Colin, both like kids as there was a fair bit of eye rolling from their elder siblings before Anthony looked around “how the bloody hell do we get in? There isn’t anyone here”
Daphne grinned “it’s all electronic, the organisers emailed me a code to get in, the tasks inside then get you the code to get out in the end, each room has a code to get out of the room, and part of the end code as well, it’s all self contained apparently” she grinned happily. “I know most Escape rooms have a games master but this is supposed to be the hardest one in town and the most challenging and I figured we could manage this as a group. It’s an easy enough set up, the online map showed it going through the house, a room at a time. Each room has clues in, that lead into the next room, you work your way through to the end…”
“So once we’re in?”
“We’re in til we’re done” Daphne beamed excitedly. “Isn’t this going to be amazing!” she said, Simon chuckled at his wife’s amusement
Sophie went slightly pale and just held tighter onto Benedict’s practically shaking with excitement as he led Sophie up the stairs with Daphne and Simon in the lead.
Kate and Anthony laughed “honestly between Daph and Col, someone is going to combust tonight”
Penelope was telling Colin off as they followed Daphne up the stairs “Colin, if you eat any more of these sweets you’re going to be sick!” she said with a deep sigh.
“I don’t get sick from food!” Colin said as he threw a few more Haribo’s in his mouth.
Penelope grumbled “yes you do”
“Are we ready?” Daphne asked “as like I said once we’re in, we’re not getting out until we work our way through the rooms” she said.
Sophie wasn’t listening and was seriously wondering if she could just run away but from the way Benedict's hand squeezed her hand tighter, she knew it wasn’t going to happen. She was stuck and she was going to have to get through this the best she could. She trusted Benedict and he said this wouldn’t take long for them.
Everyone else nodded eagerly, Sophie just didn’t move and let herself be tugged in and they walked into a huge spacious entrance room.
As they all moved in away from the door, which Sophie left open, they looked around, the room had 4 doors, all shut and the rickety staircase, nothing was open and there was nothing in the room when the door behind them slammed shut. No one touched it, no-one doing anything which caused all 8 of them to jump slightly. Sophie squeaked quietly and an evil laughter rang out, creepy and caused their hairs on everyone’s arms to raise as the lights flicked off leaving them in darkness.
The room had no windows and all 8’s hearts began to race, Sophie and Penelope tightened their grips on their boyfriend’s and Kate grinned excitedly and she and Anthony began to make their way around the room looking for a clue of some description, something had to show them the way.
A voice crackled in the darkness “beware the things that go bump in the night”
Two lights flickered on the wall, offering the only light in the room.
It didn’t take long for Kate to work out the clue, a black light sitting on the floor which revealed the answer, pointing to the only door that wasn’t locked.
Kate found the black light realising that the lights weren’t even and the black-light was tucked into the light and the message in the wall between the two lights and the arrow pointed to the door leading to a drawing room.
The group entered the room and the fun began. A message rang out from a suit of armour, the clue “ expect the unexpected and look to the skies and the light for the answer”
Anthony, Benedict, Colin and Daphne began arguing about the clue. Penelope and Kate began looking around. Daphne pointing out the obvious “we can’t see the bloody sky!”
Benedict spotted a painting on the wall, settled next to a cupboard “we can, the sky is here” he said pointing to the picture and began studying it.
Anthony rolled his eyes. “Expect the unexpected?” he repeated, shaking his head and looking around.
Simon watched amused as he began walking around the room opening the doors the cupboard he opened caused him to jump back in fright as a rat came scampering out as he let out a squeak of “FUCK”
The room flew into chaos, as people moved to get out of the way of a rat that ran around the outskirts of the room.
The scream Sophie and Kate let out was ear piercing as it scampered right past them. Both girls climbed onto the table terrified. Anthony tripped over his feet laughing at Kate’s reaction whereas Benedict was a little more concerned as the colour drained from Sophie’s face.
“You better work out that fucking clue!!” She screeched her eyes flying around the room wildly to see where the rat had gone. She and Kate clinging onto each other atop the table as Penelope repeated the clue again from her spot on a seat, her own feet off the floor. Daphne sitting up on the table that Kate and Sophie were standing on.
Kate realising the riddle was referring to the lampshade pointed and the code was located and as they entered the cod a door to the side of the room opened revealing what would have been the servants stairway given the age of the house
Kate hopped off the table and ran out of the room quickly, “let me out of here!!” She yelled as she jumped off the table in the most unladylike manner. Rats were not her cup of tea.
“I’ll protect you from the rats” Colin said to Penelope wrapping around her but as Kate shoved him out of the way he let go of Penelope as she burst through the middle of them with a grunt.
“Move!”
Colin stumbled and Anthony gave him a shove and he toppled into a box causing it to shatter and several little spiders and cockroaches escaped. Colin’s scream at the spiders rivalled that of Sophie and Kate’s at the rat.
He jumped up and danced around as Penelope tried not to laugh and was shaking as she brushed the mess from him, Daphne was clutching her husband as they laughed as they walked passed.
Sophie was determined not to move because of the rat but Benedict turned around “hop on and I'll protect you” he grinned at her and as she climbed on and held on tight he carried into the next room in time to see Kate jump out of a wardrobe in an attempt to frighten Anthony.
“You are going to need to try that much harder if you want to scare me” he said a little smugly, not flinching though Kate’s yell did make Daphne jump.
The bedrooms were the easiest tasks, one of the tasks was to find the bedknobs for the beg that sat empty. The box was filled with cobwebs and pumpkin seeds and what looked like eyeballs. The cobwebs seem to freak the Bridgerton’s out and Penelope rolled her eyes and shoved her hand in the box as Colin squeaked at her to be careful.
She pulled one of the bedknobs out, Kate found the other in a wardrobe with bones and skeletons settled in amongst coats.
Once the bedknobs were placed onto the bed and twisted in the right way, the next door opened. Moving them into the bathroom.
It was more a modern bathroom but the smell made all the Bridgerton’s, Simon and Penelope queasy, Sophie who had to clean the bathrooms at Penwood House, and Kate who had worked in a stable when she was younger, seemed less affected and began looking for the next clues.
Sophie just wanted to get out of there, she wanted out of this house and wanted to not feel trapped. She was in the shower cubicle, and just moved out of the way as the shower turned itself on, bright red water falling.
Sophie screeched and ran out of the way “what the fuck! Who pressed something” she asked glaring at the group behind her, her sleeve wet and now red from the water.
“No one!” Daphne said “we touched nothing” she added as the toilet flushed and red water swirled around, again no one touching this.
“Nope. nope. Nope… Don’t like this” Sophie muttered, closing her eyes and moved back to cling onto her boyfriend.
The red water falling down the shower started to stain the white shower curtain and the walls stained and splatters of blood appeared to be dyed by the water as a voice calls out from nowhere “Mother! Oh God, Mother! Blood! Blood!"
Sophie looked around wildly trying to work out where it was coming screaming as she saw the shadow reflected on the wall, a knife in hand, which caused Simon, Colin and Penelope to squeak and run away from the wall, pressing themselves against the still flushing toilet.
Anthony seemed to realise what it meant and finally shouted “Psycho!!” he called out as the shadow seemed to move closer and further along the walls towards them, their hearts racing as the cries of “ blood” blood” got louder and closer as Anthony frantically tried to type in the name of the film into the keypad
“It’s not working!” he yelped.
“Cause you spelt it wrong!” Penelope called out, shoving him heavily out of the way, her own panic causing her to shake a bit as she typed in the correct spelling and the door opened and the water stopped and the shadow disappeared.
“What the fuck!” Kate said, shaking slightly before dashing out of the room with everyone behind her.
They escaped and headed back down the stairs, walking into the new room, the largest room they had been in so far. It had been two hours since they were locked in the house. Anthony and Kate were still jumping out at one another trying to scare each other.
Simon just grumbled about how long this was taking, and was trying to get through this without setting off his pregnant wife.
“Lighten up mate… at least it's not a costume party!” Anthony said, his bark of laughter ringing through the echoing hall.
As the door locked behind them as they entered the next room, the 4 couples looked around the room. There wasn’t much amiss in this room, a sturdy office, a desk sat in the middle of the room, the lights flickering slightly as they could hear the wind howling outside. Books lined the wall.
And the only clue was “what is out of place? Find it and replace to a new space”
Each of the members moved off to look around the room. Daphne’s whose feet were hurting a little, sat down and put her bags down, which Colin eyed as he moved himself closer to his sister’s bag, where he knew she would have some sweets.
Sophie didn’t like this, the room felt too much like her fathers old office, felt too much like Lady Penwood’s office the day she was attacked… She sunk down on the sofa, sat by the window and just stared into space, trying to hold herself together, she felt trapped in her nightmares.
Benedict had taken himself to look at the paintings on the wall, looking for something out of place as that to him was the logical place to look, as one of them looked like an image of the room.
Anthony was pulling open cupboards with Simon throwing things around with abandon, and Penelope was browsing the bookshelf, muttering to herself as she tried to work out how the books were ordered and began moving them around strategically, like she had already done in the library a few rooms earlier.
Colin managed to steal Daphne’s handbag, rifling through trying to find the sweets she had stashed in there for her cravings. He had managed to eat two sweets before Daphne looked over to Colin “touch my sweets and you will lose a hand” she said, her eyes narrowed as she glared at her brother in a way that froze him to the core and he quickly removed his hand.
Bored and knowing that looking for things out of place was not his forte he began just touching random things around the room with a deep sigh, as anything that wasn’t nailed down he picked up and played with before he moved to the lightswitch on the wall and began flicking it.
“Colin, will you cut that out!” Benedict yelled at his brother as he was running his finger over the painting of a war scene.
“Oh I’m so fucking sorry Leonardo… am I interupting your masterpiece” he said with a sarcastic drawl as he flicked it several more times in quick succession just to annoy his brother.
“COLIN” came the collective roar from Anthony, Simon, Kate and Penelope and then a loud POP and all the lights clicked off, the power crashing and from the view out of the window, Daphne could see that the power surrounding the house was completely out.
“COLIN LOOK WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” Daphne said turning to glare at her brother, “the fucking power has gone!”
“There will be a fuse box! I’ll have tripped a fuse is all!” Colin said looking sheepish but not as apologetic as he should.
Kate’s attention was not on Colin, though she was furious at him, but her eyes fell on that of her friend who began shaking on the seat, and despite the darkness of the room, it was clear Sophie was as white as sheet now, the light of the moon the only light but it only made the paleness of Sophie’s skin was apparantly and she was almost ghostly.
“Soph?” Kate asked, sounding concerned.
“I really don’t like this! can we just go home now?” Sophie asked in a really quiet voice.
“Soph we can’t just get out of here we have to work out the clues and work our way through the house” Daphne said softly thinking she was saying the right thing. “I thought you knew that. It said it in the things we had to sign”
“Well it’s not like you all let me read them” Sophie snapped. “No one once considered that being locked in a fucking house, or a study might be a fucking issue for me!” she said, her entire body shaking from fear and stress as she got up and made her way back to the door they came through an hour ago and tried it and let out a little scream in both panic, and fear.
“Lets just add in the darkness, and no food and it’s like i’ve been thrown back 2 years and I am fucking trapped !” she said with a choking sound that made Colin feel horrible as she clutched her sides and her stomach as she tried to hold off the panic attack she felt coming.
Benedict hurried to his girlfriend's side, not before slapping Colin across the back of the head and pulled her into a hug as she began to hyperventilate and he took her back to the sofa.
“Sorry Soph!” Colin said, wincing as he was slapped across the head, though knowing he deserved it slightly.
“I know it said something about if you’re not out in 24 hours they do send someone in, it might be all electronically controlled but as the room is still locked though the power is out there must be something letting the controllers know we are still here” Daphne said. “It’s why I brought food… and water and everything with me just incase but I didn’t think it would be this hard”
“Find the fucking missing thing will you!” Benedict hissed at his siblings “we need to get out this room and this house asap, i’m not waiting for someone to come find us tomorrow” he said before turning his attention back to Sophie and whispered quietly to her.
No one had paid much attention to the empty tank in the corner and it was only 45 minutes later with no luck in finding anything and the only progress was that Benedict had managed to calm Sophie down and had gone back to helping the rest of the group. Sophie had staunchly refused to move and was eating some of the food that Daphne had pulled out of her backpack, having remembered to bring some sandwiches and food for the group, in case it was a long night.
Kate made her way to the old antique desk and rechecked the drawers that Anthony had looked in before and gave a quiet squeak as she opened it, her heart racing as she saw the furry leg inside and felt her entire stomach churn as she edged away.
“Hey Honey?” she said, turning to Anthony who was at the other side of the room. He gave a grunt to show he had heard her.
“Did you check this drawer?” she said, taking a step back, pointing at it.
“Yeh it was empty” he said as he turned around.
“Are you sure? Because I am sure you might have missed something ” she said slightly innocently, moving away, seeing what was about to happen.
Anthony frowned and all of the Bridgerton’s moved with Anthony to see what was in the draw, all wanting to see the moment Anthony was proven wrong yet again and beasted by his soon to be wife.
“I am positive. That drawer was empty!!” he practically snapped as he made his way over to the drawer and as all the Bridgerton’s watched and without even thinking that Kate might have been telling the truth Anthony pulled the drawer from the desk and all hell broke loose.
The huge tarantula spider that had made its way into the drawer in the 90 minutes since Anthony looked, escaped and fell on the floor, right in the middle of the Brigderton’s.
The scream that Anthony let out as he clambered onto the desk chair behind him was unmanly. Kate nearly fell over laughing, clinging onto the broken coat hanger for dear life as she laughed at the scared look on his face.
Benedict and Colin both jumped on the table, hating spiders at the best of times but something this size… it was terrifying, which only added to the hilarity of the situation.
Daphne ran to the other side of the office and jumped on the sofa out of the way next to Sophie, pretty much the same place Penelope as Daphne screamed “Get it Simon!”
Simon squeaked and ran away as this spider started scurrying around.
Sophie looked around the various states of the people in the room. “We are not going to get anyway with this fucking spider on the floor” she snapped.
“Honestly, you four are ridiculous ” snapped at the men all cowering from a spider, she expected that sort of reaction from Penelope and Daphne but Simon and Anthony were 6”2 former rugby players, Benedict was 6”3 and Colin was over 6” and this tiny bloody spider had them all cowering like teen girls.
She got up from her seat and strode over to where the spider was. She had seen enough spiders in her times, read about them in books to know this was Pink Toed Tarantula and wasn’t as skittish as some of the others.
Knowing that no one else was about to do this, she made her way over to wear the spider that was scurrying along the wall. “Careful babe it could be dangerous!” Benedict said, his voice a little higher pitched than he would have liked, he knew he should have been a little embarrassed that his tiny girlfriend was the only one not currently terrified of the spider and watched as Sophie scooped up the spider in her bare hands carefully.
“Honestly, you’re a bunch of babies. You are more scared of it than it is of you… These are very docile when handled gently and infrequently and are kept as pets” she said with a grumble as she made her way over to the tank, the one thing she realised was out of place in here and was missing the spider. Hoping it was in fact a spider tank she placed the spider in the tank and closed the lid.
“Pathetic the lot of you now will you…” the rest of her tirade was broken by the click and opening of a next door.
There was a loud hooting from the Penelope who cheered as Sophie glared at the Bridgerton’s “you fucking idiots” and she stalked from the room, passed a still laughing Kate, who was holding her sides and wiping her eyes.
Anthony rolled her eyes at her and shoved her into the room.
The room was a small room, which obviously led into the kitchen as the next room.
They had covered most of the rooms in the house now, in the 5 and a half hours they had been there. Including the library, which had needed books organised in a certain way, which Penelope saw and sorted straight away. Kate was still taking credit for the lampshade clue and Penelope had worked out one of the clues was written on the ceiling in the bedrooms, they were sure they were nearly at the end of the house now.
Daphne had found the answer to one of the earlier clues by sitting down on a bench and releasing a mechanism and working out the old TV set was actually full of static and was not connected to the actual power in the house and was related to poltergeist, as the house was still paved in darkness, and had helped leave the living room.
Anthony and Colin had to stop Benedict from falling in a missing step on the stairs as he went first down the stairs as they left the art gallery room where Benedict had worked out the clue from the paintings, rearranging them to spell the word Gage from Pet Cemetery.
The whole house was starting to get to everyone now, the darkness, the things that had jumped out at them, they felt on edge. Sophie was nearly breaking either Kate or Benedict’s arm. Whoever she was closer to she clung onto.
Kate had screamed when a coat of armour had moved next to her as she walked past it.
Benedict and Simon had both screamed as they passed a mirror in the hall and the reflection of a woman stood over their shoulder as they walked with Anthony chuckling about Bloody Mary.
“Surely we’re nearly done?” Sophie asked quietly looking around the room. “If this was an old house, this room would have been the servants quarters… and then the kitchen would be through there, with the wash room here” she said pointing to where there were some holes in the floor and in the walls. It was quite a bit bigger than the room back at her father’s old house and she made her way back to Benedict and he put his arms around her with a kiss to her head.
“It looks like it” Kate said “but is almost impossible to see in the dark”
“Oh wait!” Penelope said rummaging in her own bag and getting out her phone, none of their mobiles had signal but she turned on the torch feature and it allowed a little light.
Each of them, kicking themselves for not thinking of this earlier, Kate found the card and read out the clue “ there are three keys that open three locks… but beware… there are more keys than locks, and more than just keys in each box”
They looked around the room, there were boxes stacked, some with small holes in them big enough for hand.
“We need to stick our hands in the boxes to find the keys?” Simon asked, shuddering a little.
“Sounds that way,” Anthony said.
Penelope hung her light over the hole “you can’t see what’s inside, there is a liner in the way”
“I’m not putting my hands in anything, '' Daphne said, moving away. “I could catch something!”
“Simon should” Colin said, “he’s the only one who hasn’t done anything”
“And other than eating most of the food and blowing the power, what have you done?” Benedict asked his younger brother.
Colin stammered.
Kate looked at the gentlemen “All four of you should do it. You know, being the gentleman” she smirked at them.
Anthony glared at her but nodded “fine! But you girls are fiddling with the locks” he said.
“Seems fair,” Daphne said.
Simon walked over to the box “if I scream, you all have to promise not to laugh at me”
Anthony snorted “after the laughs on the spider… mate you’ve got no chance”
Simon took a deep breath and plunged his hand into a box and gagged.
“What is it?” Penelope asked.
“I don’t know but it's wet and squidy” he said shudderingly rummaging around.
Sophie was looking at the locks on the door, trying not to feel sick still, “we need little eyes, they will be modern ones as these are modern locks, then one big one for the main door” she said.
“Got something,” Simon said, pulling his hand out of the barrel, his arm covered in red.
“I hope that is fake blood!” Daphne said, looking slightly green.
Simon put the key on the table and Kate looked at them “I think it is, it’s not… gloopy enough to be real?” she said.
Sophie peered “nah it's too bright, it’s food colour in with corn syrup...do not get it on your clothes as it’ll never come off” she said as Simon went to wipe his hand on his pants and stopped just in time.
“That key isn’t going to work, it's not small enough,” she said, tossing it back on the floor.
Colin put his hand in a box and and withdrew it immediately “something moved!” he squeaked
Penelope rolled her eyes “I am sure it didn’t, or if it did it isn’t likely to bite you!” she said.
“But!” he said looking at his girlfriend
“Put your hand in there and get the key and you can have the rest of my sweets” Daphne said.
Colin looked torn, he wanted the sweets but he also didn’t want to put his hand back in the box.
Penelope siddled over to him and whispered “do it and i’ll do that thing you like when we get home”
The flush on Colin’s cheek made his older brother’s snort as without a moment's hesitation he started rummaging around in the box muttering “please do not bite me, please don’t bite me”
He managed to retrieve the key and it was used to open the locks. Benedict went next and chose a box that seemed to have worms in it, he gagged as he moved his hand around in it, pulling out an old looking key which was no good.
Anthony’s box of cockroaches seemed to yield similar results.
Simon’s next box was equally as gross, this time it was warm and it was still red and syrupy but seemed to have a distinct smell of rotten fish coming from it and he spent the next twenty minutes gagging as he kept getting hit by the smell as he tried to find his key.
This was retrieved and as Anthony was too busy laughing at Simon’s gagging, he stuck his hand back in and grabbed a handful throwing it at his friend but hitting the four girls instead resulting in Simon getting an earful of swear words from the four now terrifying women.
It took 40 minutes to find the keys with the last being found in vat of what looked like cold pea soup sat on the countertop with the soup splattered up the walls.
They were finally free and moved into the kitchen.
The room was practically empty save for one spot at the table and an old early 19th century stove sat at the end of the room.
The table was set, a bottle of wine sat next to a plate of cold food, flies sitting atop of a piece of cooked meat. Colin walked around and leaned over and looked at the food ignoring the stove and the pan sat on the top of the stove, flies buzzing around it.
“It’s a Chianti '' he said, sounding vaguely interested as he picked it up.
Kate grinned “ It puts the lotion on it's skin, or else it gets the hose again.” she said in a creepy voice which caused Penelope and Daphne to shiver.
Sophie looked confused. “Silence of the lambs,” Benedict explained.
“You’ve never seen it?!” Anthony asked “it’s a CLASSIC ”
Sophie glared at him “oh I am so sorry, I haven’t exactly had the fucking watched movies that scare the living shit out of people i was too busy in my own personal hell did I” she snapped.
Anthony grimaced “shit sorry” he said holding his hands up.
“Can we just work out the fucking clue please!” Sophie said, looking around.
Benedict rubbed her arms soothingly, but everyone knew that Sophie wanted out, she never swore and she was swearing a lot now.
“Think outside the box people!” Anthony called sounding only a little condescending.
Anthony and Kate started quipping quotes at each other as everyone looked around the room trying to work out the clue, there was nothing visible, nothing written down to suggest what it is.
“I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.” Kate grinned and Sophie gasped.
“What?” Kate asked looking at her
“Asides from the fact that is fucking gross… did he cook them?” she asked
“Huh?”
“Did he cook them before he ate them?” she asked again as it was obvious.
“Yes?” came the answer from the four Bridgerton’s and Kate.
Sophie moved to the stove and pointed at the pan. “That, unless I am mistaken, is a piece of liver… and mushrooms?” she said.
“Yeah, that's what he cooked the liver with,” Benedict said.
“Anyone got a lighter?” Kate asked.
Sophie rolled her eyes “can none of you start a fire without a lighter or matches?” she asked.
Everyone shook their heads and Sophie sighed “get back and get out of my way” she said as she made her way to a cupboard, closest to the stove and opened the cupboard, carefully not wanting anything to jump out at her. She grabbed the fire box that was there and began working lighting the stove.
There were no matches so she began rubbing some sticks together she found in the log basket, and after 10 minutes she had a fire going and lit the stove. “See piece of… fuckkkkk” she screamed as the door on the oven flew open and something touched her leg causing her to scream loudly and stumble backwards and fall onto her bottom on the floor.
The scream caused everyone to jump
An arm seemed to fall out of the oven and a skull rolled to the floor and stopped in front of Sophie’s feet causing her to scramble to her feet and climb onto Benedict’s back keeping tight hold as the door clicked open.
“GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE” she screeched at him, her heart pounding.
The desire to laugh was high but they knew it wasn’t the time and the rest did their best to school their features, as their own heart rates returned to normal.
They made their way into a little room, a cauldron in the middle of the room, a book settled on a stove, a black cat statue sitting staring at them.
Benedict went to put Sophie on the floor but she wrapped her legs around him tighter “don’t you fucking dare” she hissed.
“This looks like the witch's home in Hocus Pocus” Penelope said looking around “right down to the candle” she said.
“Good job none of us virgins and can’t realise the Sanderson Sister’s” Colin said with a chuckle to himself which got him a swat across the head from Anthony.
“Not funny Col…” Anthony said as he tried the door “locked” he added as Kate rolled her eyes
“No shit sherlock… I am assuming we have to do something here to get out of here?” Kate said.
“Maybe we have to light the candle?” Simon said.
“Maybe?” Daphne said, looking back, the door to the kitchen hadn’t shut behind them like the rest of the doors, and there had to be a reason why.
Finding some old rag she picked up a stick and wrapped it around the stick and walked back into the room and held it against the small fire and wandered back in. “Who wants to do the honour?” she asked.
Anthony rolled his eyes and took it from his sister and walked over to the candle as Kate smirked “well we know you are the least likely to release any witches” she chuckled, Anthony smirked at her with a lurid wink.
Benedict snorted a laugh which got him a finger from his brother as he carefully lit the candle.
Nothing seemed to happen for a few moments as everyone just stood there before the floor plates began to rattle and there was loud MEOW which caused everyone to jump as the cat statue seemingly moved and it’s tail based the cauldron and the book that was sat on the stand, the eye opened and looked around at them all. Sophie squeaked and held onto Benedict tighter “babe… you’re choking me” he muttered as they moved a little closer to look at the book.
“Maybe we have to make this?” she said
“You’re the best cook,” Anthony said, looking up at her.
“If you think I am getting down from here you’ve fucking deluded. You and Pen can cook, I am staying up here” she said.
Anthony and Penelope sighed and began giving instructions out.
Daphne lit the fire which seemed pointless. She was sure they weren’t actually making any form of potion but went along with it.
Colin leaned over and read the potion ingredients “ Bringeth to a full rousing bubble, then add two drops of boil and a dead man's toe. Next, add a dab of newt saliva, dash of pox. Stir thrice. One final thing and all is done: add a piece of thine own tongue … surely not” he said shivering as he felt his tongue.
“No, there is a vial here that says its own tongue weirdly” Simon said, grabbing the vial from a self, Shuddering as he was sure he saw human eyes in one of them.
“God I hope this isn’t real tongue” Daphne said grimacing.
Anthony and Penelope put the ingredients in and the water flashed green and bubbled then…
The heavens seemed to open as the sprinklers in the little room went off and soaked them all, as the door flew open letting them outside, with a scream and squeal at being wet, Kate, Penelope and Daphne dashed through the door, the men and Ben and Sophie followed suit with the door shutting behind them as they exited the house into what looked like an overgrown garden.
“We’re free!” Sophie said finally getting down looking up seeing the stars and the full moon of the night, breathing in the fresh air
“Well not quite…” Kate said, looking at the sign with a groan.
“What do you mean…”
“That’s a maze” Kate said pointing to the over 6 foot hedges that were at least a head above Benedict.
“ The bid for freedom is nearly complete, before you lie 5 paths, 4 will lead to safety, the 5th is obsolete. Choose Wisely, choose precisely or be cursed to wander forever nightly ” Penelope said with a crumple of her nose.
“One each for the couples? First one out wins?” Anthony said, looking smug.
“Wins what?” Colin and Daphne asked at the same time
“£100 from each couple?” Kate suggested.
“You’re on!” Penelope and Simon,
“Can I add a caveat? That if we win '' she said gesturing to herself and Benedict “that I never have to do this shit with you again” she said. “Cause I am never ever doing this with you lot again. We’ve been here 7 fucking hours at its 2am and i am tired and DONE ”
The three other couples nodded “that seems fair”
There was discussion between the couples as to which way they would take and Sophie just shook her head at Benedict and pressed a finger to her lips and watched as each of the couples disappeared down a route. Kate and Anthony bickering but running determined to get out.
“Why have we waited” Benedict asked his brow furrowed as his siblings disappeared Into the darkness
“Get down on your knees please” Sophie said, not answering his question.
“What…”
“Just do it please” she said pleading with him.
He did as she said and got on his knees and was confused when Sophie put her legs over his shoulders “now stand” she said as she held on carefully.
Benedict carefully stood and then laughed as he saw that Sophie could see clearly over the top of the hedges “Sophie Beckett I fucking you you! you fucking little genius!” he said grinning up at her.
“I want out of her quickly… no one seemed to think of this…” she said as she looked over the hedge.
“Which way?” he asked.
“The one just in the middle next to the one Kate and Anthony took” she said and Benedict took off not at a run as with Sophie’s guidance they didn’t need to run, she was able to guide them through the maze with ease avoiding the little traps and triggers she saw dotted about.
They passed each of the couples who saw Sophie peering out over the top, and she heard the yells from each of the Bridgerton’s about cheating but she didn’t care, she flashed Kate and Anthony a figure and yelled back “think outside the box!” They laughed at Anthony’s swearing.
“Look out up ahead” Sophie shouted back.
It was a few minutes later that Sophie heard Anthony and Kate both scream and terrified running was heard as they turned around.
“What is it?” Benedict asked as Sophie chuckled
“Someone in a werewolf costume I think, there was a Vampire up ahead to the right which is one of the dead ends on this path, there is a scarecrow 8 rows over” Sophie said as she glanced around.
Kate shoved Anthony out of the way and into a hedge as she had ran up the maze and down two more before she collapsed in a heap “I told you it was LEFT here not right!” she snapped, and they had an argument before she stormed off, Anthony only following because he was sure he had heard the buzz of a bee and she had the car keys.
Benedict and Sophie got out first and were home a good hour before the messages from his siblings started, first Anthony and then Daphne both refusing to pay up stating they cheated.
Sophie pointed out in a reply “nothing was said about it and therefore technically we did not cheat”
Kate and Simon had to admit it was genius.
By the time Penelope and Colin replied it was the next morning…
Penelope who had listened to Colin and ended up lost in the maze, chased by the werewolf, a Vampire, the scarecrow, a zombie and some bloke covered in fake blood holding an axe as they had gotten totally lost and made their head back the way they came to the beginning and headed down the route Benedict and Sophie had taken and were chased twice more by a differnet Vampire and it was 10am before they got out and by this point Penelope was very much in Camp Sophie with “never again” and it took her 3 days to recover from all the running, and a further week to forgive Colin for refusing to listen to her in the maze and for throwing up on her shoes.
It had taken Simon three days to get the smell out of his clothes from the boxes so whilst all the Bridgerton’s had loved it, their spouses absolutely refused to do it again and the following Halloween, Kate, Sophie, Penelope and Simon sent them along with Eloise and Francesca off to a new escape room and they disappeared for a Bridgerton Spouse dinner with Michael and Phillip and left them to it… and without their spouses to help them, it was nearly 48 hours before they ended up being just let out as they had spent most of the time arguing amongst themselves and were only half way through the house.
After that, Violet Bridgerton banned her children from partaking in an escape room type event ever again.