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“You have one hour to stop the evil wizard’s dark magic and save the world. Your time starts . . . now!” The voice came over a loudspeaker hidden somewhere in the room decorated to look like a wizard’s lair in a castle.
“I thought we already defeated the evil wizard and saved the world,” Flynn said under her breath.
“Yeah, we did!” Reggie held up his hand for a high-five.
“Guys!” Julie drew their attention back to her. “The clock is literally ticking.” She waved her hand at a digital modern clock over the arched wooden door they had used to enter the escape room. They watched it count off a few seconds, and then they all sprang into action.
“Alex and I will see what’s in these books.” Willie grabbed Alex’s hand and dragged him over to a bookshelf stacked with ancient looking tomes.
“Reggie and I will search the apothecary shelves.” Flynn volunteered, indicating a cupboard filled with jars and bottles. They were labeled with words like “eye of newt” and “wolfsbane.”
“OK, Luke and I will open anything else we can find that opens,” Julie said. She grinned at Luke. “You should feel free to ignore any and all boundaries and open everything!”
“Ouch. Jules. That hurts.”
Julie blew him a kiss and began sifting through things on a desk: papers, ink bottle, quill pens, a stamp for a wax seal, and the like. Luke made his way to the fake fireplace with a cauldron hung in it, and he began examining the knickknacks that littered the mantlepiece.
Fifteen minutes later, between them, they’d found a bunch of metal shields that looked like coats of arms and three locked boxes, but no keys. One of the boxes had a series of directional arrows that needed to be toggled to open the box.
“How do we know what direction to set each toggle?” Alex wondered, flipping the box over in his hand.
“Has anyone found any paper with six arrows on it?” Flynn asked. “Or six papers with an arrow on each?”
They all shook their head in the dim light from the reproduction torches (thankfully electric!) on the stone walls.
“What else could be used to determine direction?” Reggie asked.
“Can I see the box?” Willie held out his hand for it, and Alex gave it to him.
Then Alex sank down in a plush upholstered wingback chair that was in front of the fake fireplace. Over the mantle, a series of six paintings of people or animals were hung. The first was a shepherdess beckoning to sheep that were outside the frame to the right. Oh.
“Willie,” Alex said. “Look at the paintings. The way the people or animals are facing could be directions, and there are six of them. If I’m right, the first arrow should go to the right.”
Willie twisted the first dial to point to the right.
“The second should be up, because it’s a boy laying against a pile of hay looking up at the sky.” Luke pointed at the second painting.
“In the third, there’s a cat looking down at a mouse, but the mouse is looking at the cat too,” Reggie said. “What do you think that means?”
“I think I’d go down,” Flynn argued. “The cat is the biggest thing in the painting and mouse is looking more straight ahead, which isn’t even an option.”
“Okay.” Willie twisted again.
“The court jester in the next one is pointing to the left,” Alex said. “And in the fifth, the baby is lying on a pillow looking up at the ceiling.”
“Got it.”
They all paused over the sixth painting of a festival.
“There are lots of people in this one.” Reggie groaned.
“How do we know which one to pick?” Alex asked.
“We could just try each combination,” Luke suggested.
“We could,” Julie agreed, “but look! There’s an archer at the back there. He’s shooting a literal arrow, and it’s going to the right.”
“Go right, Willie!” Reggie shouted excitedly.
Willie twisted the last dial, and they all heard a click as the box opened! “It’s our first key!” Willie held up an old-fashioned skeleton key. “Good job, hot dog!” He bent down to drop a kiss on Alex’s head.
“Yes, good job, but back to work!” Flynn cried. “We’ve got thirty-eight minutes left!”
Working together, they used the skeleton key to open the top of the desk, where they found a clue that directed them to a page in a spell book from the bookshelf. Then following the spell, they found ingredients in the wizard’s apothecary that were in different shaped bottles. Using those same shapes in order opened another box. That box had a clue that directed them to a button hidden in the stonework in the fireplace. They had to use the stamp for the wax seal from the desk to depress the button, which in turn made the whole fireplace slide to reveal another room in the “castle.”
“Awesome!” Reggie said, as he took in the suit of armor in front of him. It was pointing at the only other thing in the room: a sword in a stone.
“There has to be a clue on the sword,” Luke guessed, giving a tug on the handle. It remained stubbornly in place. Luke pouted. “Damn it.”
“Aw, you might not be the once and future king of England,” Julie joked, “but you’re always king of my heart.” She slipped her hands around his neck and pushed up on her toes to press a kiss to his lips.
Luke looked delighted and would have gone in for a second kiss, except Flynn yanked on the back of his sleeveless Rush T-shirt.
“Y’all cute,” she said, “but now is not the time! There are only nine minutes left.”
“Hey, look at this,” Willie said, moving behind the fake rock. “There are indentations here that look like slots for the little shields.”
The others moved to peer at the stone.
“Crap, we left them in the other room!” Flynn exclaimed.
“I’ll get them!” Reggie dashed back to the first room.”
“I guess I was thinking they were just a red herring,” Alex confessed, “since we didn’t find a use for them in that first room.”
“Well, we have a use now,” Reggie said, handing two shields to each.
Using color and shape, they matched the shields to their holds, where the metal stuck as if to a magnet. When Julie slipped the last one in place, the sound of a gear shifting filled the air.
“Reggie, the sword!” Julie cried.
“So cool!” Reggie shouted as he drew out the sword. “Sorry, Luke!”
Luke nodded. “It’s fine. Look there are numbers. Read them quick.”
“Three minutes!” Flynn called out the time.
“Who has the last box?” Willie asked.
“Me.” Alex held it up.
“Forty-two, twelve, twenty-five.” Reggie read from the side of the sword.
Alex twisted the combination lock to match, but nothing happened when he tugged on the lock. “God. Someone else do this. My locker hated me back in high school.” He tossed the box to Luke.
“Two minutes!” Flynn whispered urgently.
“Read ’em again, Reg.” Luke said. His teeth kept his tongue between his lips as he concentrated on the combination lock. Turning the dial carefully to each position.
After the last number, Luke gave a decisive tug on the lock, and it yielded. He whooped and flung open the box. “Key!” he shouted, tossing it to Willie, who was nearest the door.
Willie sprinted back into the first room, and slid the key into the lock by the castle door as the others ran to form a half circle around him. Willie gave a twist and the clock stopped counting, showing one minute and fifteen seconds remaining. The door made a grinding noise and swung open.
“Congratulations!” The voice intoned over the loudspeaker. “You have defeated the evil wizard.”
Reggie grinned at the others and raised an arm in triumph. “Again!”
But before he could get too cocky, the loudspeaker voice sounded again. “Try our ghostly nightclub escape room next. You’ve got nothing to lose.” The words were followed by a low evil laugh.
Reggie squeaked and put his hand down. “Nope. I’m out.” He shouldered Luke out of the way, and ducked under Willie’s arm in his effort to flee the room.
The other five exchanged a nervous glance. Alex grabbed Willie’s hand and pulled him out next. Luke shoved the girls in front of him and ushered them out as well, but not before they heard the voice give the last word. “Come on. I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse!”