The first few days after Mike’s stroke were so surreal. I didn’t know how I was still functioning, actually. I wasn’t sleeping and I cried from the minute I left the hospital til the next morning. I kept praying to wake up from this nightmare.

About two days into Mike’s hospital stay, I asked how he was when he woke up from a nap and he said, “I keep waiting to wake up from this nightmare.”

I said, “I know, honey. Me, too.”

As I sat there holding his hand, my mind wandered to thoughts of those escape rooms people do and I wondered if there was one set up as a hospital. Even in real life, hospitals are creepy. When I leave at 9pm after visiting hours, I walk through parts that are dimly lit and empty. I don’t like it.

It got me thinking of escape rooms in general. I’ve never done one and neither has Mike. We talked about doing one in Vegas last year but didn’t have time.

So as I watch him fall back asleep, I started writing a horror story about such a room with Mike and I in the leading roles. (Warning: The ending plays a little dark but that’s how Mike would like it:)

Enjoy.

***

The Dark Room

I’ve been chatting online for a couple weeks with this guy named Mike. So far, he seems cool and we have a lot in common. We are both thrill seekers. Well, to a certain extent. He’s much more hardcore than I am. He’s a skydiver and has over 20 jumps under his belt. I’ve only jumped off a tower in Vegas. But I’ve always wanted to skydive. So he’s going to take me someday, or so he says.

It’s kinda funny but we are already talking about all of these future plans as if it’s a given we will be together. It feels natural, though. I can’t wait to meet him in person. True to form, he wants our first date to be an escape room.

I won’t go to dinner with guys on a first date anymore because of how uncomfortable it is when things don’t go well. And I’m too polite to leave, so then I’m stuck there. This one guy took me to Belini’s in Clifton Park. He was much older-looking (and it turned out he lied about his age on his profile) and very boring. It was torture having to sit there and make meaningless conversation. He could barely make eye contact with me.

Then, on the way out to our cars, he said he had a gift for me and retrieved a box of cookies which were from Hannaford (which just so happened to be next door to Bellini’s). An opened box of cookies. With one missing…

As we parted ways, I swore from that night on absolutely no dinner dates ever again! At least not the first date.

But an escape room? Sure, why not? I’ve never done one of these things so it should be fun. And we’d have to work together to get out of the room. I thought maybe that’s why he chose it. Because if we can do that together, we actually may stand a fighting chance as a couple.

***

As is my usual practice for first dates, I tell Mike I will meet him there. I don’t allow guys to know where I live until I feel comfortable that they aren’t some kind of serial killer… or a fan of The View. That’s a dealbreaker right there. Those mouthy hags are dreadful.

He sends me the address and it’s this weird location. Not a mall like I thought it would be. It’s in a warehouse type location which kind of seems to make sense but also raises a red flag for me at the same time.

As a precaution, I go early and investigate. To my relief, it appears legit. Lots of cars in the parking lot and a sign pointing the way to go to the only section of the complex where the escape room must be located.

Mike and I decide to meet two hours ahead of our 8pm appointment time before venturing into this place. We meet down the street at a pizza place. Pizza is my most favorite food and I could eat it every day, all day. I just love it. Oh, and sushi. I could LIVE on sushi!

Luckily, Mike looked like his pictures online and we both immediately recognized the other evidenced by our matching big grins when we saw each other. We talked as if we’d always known each other. It was such a welcome feeling. Finally, I met a great guy who is checking all of the boxes and seems honest and sincere. And he has the most beautiful blue eyes…

He tells me this escape room is something he’s never done before either and it’s a horror type of room. Giddy with excitement, we look at our phones and realize we may be late if we don’t head over right then.

I follow him there even though I know where we are going, having checked it out earlier. We park side by side and exit our vehicles.

“Redsteno? Nice”, Mike remarks.

I said, “I hope I don’t need to explain it to you like I had to my son, Roman. God love him, but he was confused by my vanity plate. I had to parse it out, Red, I’m a redhead. Steno, I’m a steno.”

Mike laughs, “Yeah, I get it. That’s funny, though. Kids are great, aren’t they, Teri?”

“Yes, they are.”

Then, I confess, “I checked this out earlier today. Here’s the sign that I saw. I think we’re supposed to follow it to the escape room. It’s not exactly saying that but I don’t see any other sign and it kind of adds to the mystery. It’s a little creepy but this is a horror escape room, right?”

“Right!” Mike says. “It’s definitely creepy. I love it!”

***

We follow the sign and discover the entrance is underground. “Well, that’s different,” Mike says with trepidation.

“Yeah,” I nervously respond. “I didn’t look beyond the initial sign. I don’t know if I like this.”

“Oh, come on. Where’s your sense of adventure? Besides, you’re with me”, Mike quips.

It’s basically an open hatch with an arrow. We look down and see a ladder disappearing into darkness. Mike goes first, then I follow. I am seriously questioning my sanity at this point. And his. I don’t know this guy, I keep reminding myself. Although it feels like we’ve known each other forever and, somehow, I already trust him.

The ladder going down is somewhat creaky and shaky. “It’s a good thing we both are in shape. I can’t imagine many people being comfortable climbing down this crappy thing,” I say with an annoyed tone.

Mike nods in agreement.

I immediately wipe my hands on my pants and swat away cobwebs that aren’t there. But I can barely see and it just is an instinct to do that.

We start down the dimly lit hallway in search of the line of people we expect to encounter or at least the sound of voices up ahead or someone to direct us, really, anyone.

It’s eerily quiet and seems abandoned as far as we can tell.

We get down the first hallway and I ask, “When you got the tickets for this, what did the website say?”

“Well, um, it actually said pay upon entry, no ticket required”, Mike replies.

Since neither of us has ever done an escape room before, we don’t really know what to make of it. But it feels wrong. And we don’t even know if we’re in the right spot now.

As if reading each other’s minds, we both blurt out, “Let’s get out of here.”

We head back to the area where we climbed down the ladder but as we get closer to it, we see the ladder is gone. We look up and the hatch is closed shut.

***

“Now, what?” Mike says.

“This is seriously freaking me out. I want to get out of here.” I start panicking. “I feel sick to my stomach.”

Mike holds me by the shoulders and looks at me with concerned but calm eyes. “Don’t worry. It’s okay. We will figure this out.”

As I stare into his eyes, they are the most gorgeous blue eyes I’ve ever seen. I want to kiss him but we just met and it would be more of a “we might die” kind of kiss than anything else. So I resist the urge.

He takes my hand and we head back down the dimly lit hallway. We look for open doors, hatches, cameras, even garbage on the ground, anything that indicates humans have been here before.

Then, an even scarier feeling comes over me. For all I know, Mike is part of this ruse and there are a bunch of gangbangers waiting for me or it’s some kind of cult where they will sacrifice me and offer me to their false god. I watch a lot of true crime. I know the whackos that are out there.

I start cursing myself. Why did I follow him down the ladder? It felt wrong in my gut. I always go with my gut. Why didn’t I listen to myself?

But I felt so safe and comfortable with him. And we’ve been chatting for over two weeks online and then meeting him at the pizza place, everything felt right.

But, I think, he paid in cash which isn’t common these days. Is that so he won’t leave any kind of evidence when the police investigate my murder?

My inner voice is telling me “That’s what these serial killers do. That’s how they get you off guard. That’s why they can kill more than one person and get away with it. Look at Ted Bundy. Good looking, regular guy, appeared successful and upper class but was psychotic. And Mike is so friendly and handsome and has those beautiful mesmerizing blue eyes”.

“Oh, my God, he’s a serial killer!!! How am I going to get out of here? I have no weapons on me. Dammit! I am so stupid! Online dating is dangerous. I read the stories, I watch the shows. I know this is out there!!” My head is spinning.

I pull my hand away and pretend I’m fixing my jacket. I don’t offer it back and he doesn’t reach for it again. He doesn’t seem bothered by it.

Finally, he says, “I’m so sorry. I feel like such a jerk. I wanted our first date to be memorable. I guess I got that part right but not in a good way.”

I let out a little laugh and say, “It’s okay.” Actually, he seemed genuine and sincere. But wait, I can’t fall for this act. He could have people waiting behind one of these doors to kill me!

Then, I remember I have my car key! I put my hand in my pocket and open the key, holding it for dear life should I need to use it.

We keep searching and all the doors we come to are locked. Then, one of the door handles Mike tries turns and opens. I grip my key harder. I am consciously aware that I am not breathing.

***

Six months earlier…

Being a court reporter and working for the New York State Unified Court System, I hear a lot of bad stuff. That being said, I’m a huge true crime fanatic. I can’t get enough of it. I’m fascinated by it.

I cover Supreme Court as well as County Court, so I hear everything from nasty divorce cases to gruesome murders. Most of it I’m pretty numb to except when it involves kids or animals. I am still able to do my job but it definitely affects me. It’s hard to get it out of my head. It stays with me for a bit. But luckily, it fades away eventually.

We had a sad case today where this guy was being arraigned for breaking and entering into various homes and businesses in the Clifton Park, New York area. At his arraignment, he was talking constantly against his attorney’s advice. Usually, your lawyer just enters a not guilty plea on your behalf at an arraignment and the Judge sets up a scheduling order for when motions are due and different milestone dates in the case. But as a defendant, you let your lawyer do all the talking aside from verifying your name and date of birth for the Judge.

The man kept saying, “Look, I did it, but I was searching for my kid. I was just looking for my kid. Someone took my kid and no one believes me. No one will listen to me.” His attorney kept telling him to stop talking but the man ignored him.

It was sad. But if his kid was taken, it seemed like the police would help look for his kid so it didn’t make sense to me. But he was clearly in pain. His lawyer kept telling him to not talk. He kept repeating over and over “I need to find my kid” while sobbing uncontrollably. It was heartbreaking.

As we were finishing the arraignment, it occurred to me that this might be related to one of the recent Amber alerts that had gone out just days before. If I remember right, it was a boy, 16 years old, last seen in blue jeans, a white T-shirt and a Yankees cap. Possible abduction but suspected runaway.

I couldn’t remember the kid’s name. So I made a note of this guy’s last name, Chandler, and decided to look up the Amber alert after court to see what the boy’s name was.

When I looked it up, my stomach dropped. The name of the kid from the Amber alert just days before this arraignment was Chris Chandler. It had to be this guy’s son. I immediately said a prayer for this man and this boy.

***

As Mike opened the door, we entered the dark room. There was a horrible smell that hit us like a brick wall. We backed out of the room immediately.

I put my hands up over my face. “Oh, my God, that smells awful. I’ve never smelt death before but I imagine that’s what it smells like.” I became hysterical.

Mike said, “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do.”

I yelled, “You are the one doing this. Just let me out. This isn’t funny. This is sick. And I don’t want to die!”

I started running back down the hallway. Mike yelled, “I swear I’m not doing this. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m scared, too.”

Then, he said, “Besides, you’re the one who pointed out the entrance to me. I didn’t know where the entrance was til you showed me the sign.”

I stopped running and just stood there crying. He was right. It was my fault. I didn’t even know if the sign was for the escape room. Why did I assume that?

He slowly walked up behind me, and gently laid his hand on my shoulder. “I swear to God I am not doing this. I’m not going to kill you. I finally met an awesome woman and now I’ve gotten us trapped down here.”

“No”, I said. “I am partly to blame, too.”

Then, excitedly, he exclaimed, “Hey, wait, our cellphones!”

It was like Christmas morning. Our eyes both lit up and we exclaimed with glee. We eagerly pulled them out and frantically walked throughout the hallway for any sign of a signal.

Nothing.

I said, “Well, we have flashlights at least. We can use them in the dark room.”

“Yeah, true. Not that we want to see what’s in there,” Mike replied.

“It’s probably just a dead animal. I mean, animals get into these buildings all the time, right?”

Mike shrugged. “I guess so. But usually, if they get in, they can find a way out.”

“Oh, I hadn’t thought of that”, I silently whispered.

We walked back to the dark room, as we now referred to it, and just as we were about to open the door, Mike said, “Let’s keep walking down this way and see what else may be open. Maybe there’s another stairway on this end that will bring us out.”

“Okay” was all I could muster. I just wanted to go home.

***

We search the other end of the hallway and there’s nothing else to do but head back the way we came. And the last place to check is the dark room.

We open the door and shine our flashlights on the floor as we enter. We stay together without even questioning it. Being horror movie experts, we instinctively know the first mistake people make is splitting up to investigate.

I have to keep my jacket up over my nose and mouth. I can’t breathe, the stench is so bad.

In the corner, we see what appears to be a bad horror movie prop but it’s not. It’s a person. Well, the remnants of a person. They’ve been there for a while, we can tell. Not too many maggots left and some aren’t moving so that means no living tissue is left. I scream and turn away. Mike utters “Oh, no. Oh, my God, no.”

I say to Mike, “Wait. When we left the room earlier, we never shut the door. We just backed out and tried to go back where we came in. The door was shut just now.”

“Yes, you’re right”, Mike replies.

Just then, the door slams shut.

***

“What the hell?” Mike screams.

He runs over to the door and starts banging on it. “Hey, whoever you are, let us out! What’s going on? Open this door right now!”

I am shaking, I’m so scared. I am crying and screaming, “Let us out, you psycho! People know where we are and will come looking for us.”

Silence.

Mike spends what feels like hours banging on the door and screaming, trying to open the door, kicking it, body slamming it.

Exhausted, he slumps into a corner of the room. I go over and we just hold each other and cry.

***

After a few hours, I say to Mike, “I heard in a show something we should probably do right now.”

“What’s that?” he asks.

“Well, this man was stranded in his car during a blizzard. He couldn’t call out but he recorded on his voicemail where he thought he was and what was going on. It saved his life.”

“Good idea”, Mike says.

We both record voicemails giving the pertinent information to where we are and how we got there. I continued in my voicemail to say, “We are in a room with a dead body. The dead body is unrecognizable as to gender but is wearing a Yankees cap and blue jeans and a white T-shirt. I think it’s Chris Chandler, the boy who went missing six months ago.”

After we record the voicemails, Mike asks me how I know about the boy. I told him about the Amber alert and my court case.

Then, we prayed. And we cried.

***

Mike and I try to talk positive over the next few hours. We talk about our childhoods and our failed marriages, our careers, our children, our faith in God and comment on how great this date would be right now if it was anyplace else. We laugh a little about the irony of our circumstances. We even have our first kiss. And it was a wonderful first kiss.

As we start talking about being rescued and our second date, the door suddenly opens and a man dressed as a police officer announces “Police”. Mike and I jump up and hug and scream shouts of joy! “We are saved!” we each yell.

But suddenly, the police officer takes out his baton and runs at Mike. Catching him by surprise, he cracks him over the head and blood splatters everywhere! Completely in shock, I can’t even scream.

The sound of the baton hitting Mike’s body and bones is so loud and disturbing, I hold my hands over my ears and run out of the room. I finally begin screaming but as I’m running, I hear a loud bang and I fall. I realize I can’t move. I think I’ve been shot in the back.

After a few minutes, as my body is being dragged, all I can think of is I’m glad we recorded the voicemail. Someone will surely find us and Mr. Chandler will be able to know where his son is.

Then, everything goes dark. Am I back in the dark room now? Everything is quiet. I begin praying for the real police to find us soon. I pray Mike is still alive. I pray for Mr. Chandler to have closure for himself and his family. I pray for my children and my family. I pray for…

It is suddenly bright.

I’ve escaped.