Escape Room Rumble - Ch. 2 (October 2024)

The next room did appear homey. It had been set up to look like an old timey office with real wood furniture, a desk with many drawers, a fireplace (also real, to their surprise) with a mantle, a deer’s head above the mantle, a coat rack, a large bookshelf, and a bar with empty bottles.

            Loid was already thinking sitting at the desk. There were documents and books on the table, but he hadn’t touched them.

            “What’s the theme here?” Yor asked.

            “A detective’s office. We have to find a missing manila folder from this stack.”

            Yor immediately went through all of them. Loid looked like he wanted to say something but stopped short and sighed. Yor dumped all the documents on the table from the manila folders, mixing everything up.

            Loid muttered something as he tried to put them in some kind of order.

            A few of the books on the table were fake and glued to the desk. Yor didn’t realize this and ripped one off with a loud tear. She yelped when she realized the tear in the desk. She immediately placed it back in hopes that the clerk hadn’t noticed through any of the security cameras.

            Loid calmly suggested that she look around the fireplace. Maybe the mantle had a clue – it had numerous model planes and cars.

            The grate to the fireplace was shut, and they had made sure nobody could open it, but the warmth could still be felt through it. Yor removed her gloves and rubbed her hands in front of the fire.

            While she was inspecting the knickknacks on the mantle, her stomachache started to return with a vengeance. She knew deep down that one fart to relieve it all was too good to be true. She grimaced again and moaned a little, rubbing her stomach.

            She looked up at the deer head mounted to the wall. She thought she saw a glint in its eye, so she stood on her tiptoes to reach up. She was just barely out of reach, with the edges of her nails just lightly brushing the eye…

            The clerk shouted over a loudspeaker, “Don’t touch!”

            Yor yelped and turned around. She bowed in apology.

            That was when she let slip a short but loud fart that ignited the fireplace.

            PPPRRRRPPP!

            “AAAAAIIIIEEEEE!” Yor yelled. She fanned her dress before diving to the floor and rolling around, making sure to snuff out the flames as soon as possible. Loid was already over her crying out. The clerk sounded panicked and asked what had happened.

            Yor, disheveled and jittery, stood up and found that thankfully none of the flames had actually gone on her.

            “We’re good!” Loid shouted. He then narrowed his eyes at the ceiling, as if the clerk were there. “I don’t think having a real fireplace is up to code in a place like this…”

            The clerk didn’t say anything.

            “Are you all right? How did that happen?”

            He didn't hear it? Oh thank God...

            Yor, blushing, averted her gaze and muttered, “I-I don’t know. I think maybe just my dress…? That was strange.”

            Loid muttered something, but it had sounded something like, “I can see to it that they change this…”

            “What was that?’

            “Nothing.” He raised a manila folder. “I found the folder.”

            Yor was flabbergasted. “ALREADY? HOW?”

            “Well, it was a simple manner of—”

            Yor’s stomach turned itself upside-down and gurgled a little – the ticking time bomb of the night. She waved her hands dismissively. “That’s okay, you can explain later!”

            Loid shook the folder and a key to the next room fell out. He smiled. “Shall we?’

            Yor let him go ahead while she straightened out her hair. With a grumble, she followed him.