What If You Woke Up in a Scary Escape Room

Whoa... what’s going on? It’s dark and smelly. You’re wearing nothing but pants and a shirt. You’re lying on a cold concrete floor. How did you get here?! Suddenly, the lights switch on, and you see a steel door in front of you and a screen.

It turns on and a man in a mask tells you that you have 1 hour to escape 6 rooms to win your cash prize. You get up and go up to the door to open it, but it’s locked. Out of nowhere, spikes pop out of the walls and start closing in on you. You only have 1 minute to get out before they crush you.

You look around the room trying to find a key. The person in the mask gives you a hint: “The key is inside you”. You freak out, assuming the worst. You check your pockets, but nothing. The spikes are getting ever closer. You start tapping all over your clothes and feel some hard object in the shirt at your waist level. There’s a hidden zipper in the hem, and the key is inside the tiny pocket.

The spikes are only a few feet away from you, so you rush to the door and unlock it. You shut it behind you and find yourself in room number 2. You see a living room and a kitchen, but the entire place is literally upside down. Everything is glued to the floor, which is the ceiling for you. The exit is just across the room, but you need to find the key somewhere. You look around and stand on your tiptoes, reaching for a high stool in the kitchen, tugging on it to detach it. The stool gives in with a pop, and you smack on the floor with it.

As if on cue, things start falling from the ceiling on their own. Small ones at first: some cutlery, a fruit basket. But then you see larger objects start slightly shaking. If that wardrobe falls on top of you... You shiver and scan the room for clues. You grab the stool, run into the living room, and stand on the stool to reach between the cushions of the couch there. Nothing. Suddenly, the couch creaks, and one of its ends detaches from the ceiling.

You fall down from fright and hear a crash from the kitchen — the counter has just collapsed on the floor! You look around wildly and a coat hanger with a jacket on it catches your eye. You run up to it just in time to dodge the couch crashing on the floor behind you. You find the key in the inside pocket. You cross the room, open the door, and slam it shut behind you just as a large wardrobe falls onto the floor, smashing to pieces.

Room number 3 is very hot and humid. You’re in an indoor tropical jungle. Right in front of you is your first obstacle: quicksand. You leap as far as you can to cover some ground and land inches away from the other side. You’re ankle-deep in sand, but quickly pulled down to your waist. You flail your arms in panic, and one of them touches a vine above your head. You grab hold of it and pull yourself out to safety. Phew, that was close!

When you get up, you see you’re at the edge of a shallow canyon with a fast-running river below. There are three vines dangling from the ceiling in front of you. You tug on each of them, but it’s not enough to check if they’re going to hold your weight. You find a heavy rock and tie it to one of the vines. Swing — snap! The vine breaks, and the rock splashes into the water. No more big rocks around, so you have to make your choice. You close your eyes, swing from another vine... and it also snaps, sending you right into the river.

The flow is taking you to what looks like a waterfall! You look around in panic and notice some roots sticking out from the other bank. You grab hold of them in a last-minute effort and pull yourself out of the water. Breathing heavily, you raise your head and see the door to the next room just a few steps away. You walk to it on wobbly legs. It opens automatically.

Room number 4 is filled with hay. You read a sign on the wall that says, “Finding the key is like finding a needle in a haystack”. As you look around the room, there’s a click in the distance, and you trace the sound to a long fuse that just got sparked. Its other end is buried in a large haystack. Once the flame reaches the stack, the whole place will become an oven.

You hectically rummage in the hay. You’re still drenched, and sweating profusely to boot, so the stuff sticks to you like glue. Throwing heaps of it around, you stumble upon something big and heavy. A metal detector! You grab it and start searching.

A couple of minutes pass before you hear the detector’s beep. The fuse is inches away from the haystack. You dig through the hay and get hold of the key. You rush to the door just as the stack catches on fire. A mighty whoosh — and the door shuts behind you. You’re safe. The fifth room is completely dark. You start walking, holding your hands in front of you.

After a dozen steps, a bright spotlight comes on, and you squeeze your eyes tight. You’re standing on a platform made up of nine square panels, and there’s a basketball hoop at a throwing distance. You can’t get closer — there’s a gap between you and the hoop. And lying at your feet are five basketballs.

A display lights up above the hoop, saying 0/3. So you have to get three balls into the hoop to get further. You grab one and toss it. The ball hits the hoop and rebounds into the gap, disappearing in the darkness. Then, a metallic roar comes from behind you, and when you look around, you see three of the panels at the rear have fallen down into the chasm.

You gulp down and take the second ball. A toss — nailed it! The ball falls right into the hoop, and the counter changes to 1/3. The third ball goes right on the mark as well, so you only have one left to make it to the next room. Confident, you throw the fourth ball... and miss altogether. The second row of panels behind you falls into the abyss, and you only have the last ball.

Sweating and shaking, you throw the ball. It hits the hoop and starts rolling around it. You see it as if in slow motion, and then... it falls inside. You’ve made it! The hoop goes down, and more panels rise before you, paving the way to the door that opened on the other side. You collect yourself and walk to the last room. Waiting for you there is an obstacle course.

This time the door is wide open, but a countdown begins, and the door is slowly closing. You muster all the energy you have left and sprint across the course. You ace the monkey bars, jump from panel to panel, crawl through a tunnel and scale a wall. You can’t feel your arms and legs, but you finally make it. You slide down and right into the exit.

You end up in some basement, empty but for a table with a lamp and a thick envelope on it. You open the envelope and find $10,000 in cash inside, as well as a handwritten note. It says, “Thank you for playing my little game. If you ever want to do it again, just call me.”

As you read the last word, the light goes off, and you only hear a hissing noise before you lose consciousness. You wake up in your own bed and startle up, looking around wildly. Was it all a dream then?!

But then you notice the envelope on your bed stand. The money’s there, and the note as well. And on the other side of the note, there’s a phone number. You shiver, but put the note away into the drawer. Maybe one day...