Chapter 2

It was the sound of the live-comment reader.

"The host said he'd let her hear us talking about halfway through, right? Should be about time now."

"That's cold, man. A room that small, the speaker going nonstop, who's supposed to concentrate on solving anything?"

"What's the big deal? His engagement banquet isn't till the afternoon, plenty of time. We've got to feel like part of it too, don't we?"

The speaker blared again, one burst after another.

I was already on edge, and now there was no way to think clearly.

Graham had said it was just a straightforward escape room, and now he'd added the pranks on top.

Five years together, and I never once imagined he'd do this to me.

If I made it out of here in one piece, this engagement was off.

At least I'd done a lot of homework before coming in, so I knew all the usual escape-room tricks cold.

Even with everything working against my train of thought.

I still found the way to crack it fast.

I found a six-digit code. Enter it into the door, get out of the room, and it counts as solved.

But when I keyed the code in.

The display read: incorrect code!

That was impossible!

Panic rippled through me.

The painkillers wouldn't last long. If I couldn't get out within two hours, once the effect wore off, I might never get out at all.

The comment reader was still screaming away.

"The host's fiancée has some skill after all, found the code that fast."

"That's not the code, is it? Didn't the door say wrong code?"

"From my years of escape-room experience, this room should only have this one code, so there must be something else on the door to unlock."

"I honestly thought the host would go easy on her. Clearly not."

"This is way too hard… my brain's fried."

I clung to the door handle in despair as the minutes ticked past, one by one.

If this code couldn't open the door.

Then every bit of reasoning I'd worked out had to be scrapped and started over.

This kind of difficulty was nothing a rank-beginner escape player could stand up to.

Maybe I gripped it too hard.

The handle suddenly turned a little.

I froze.

I pressed the handle down.

The door… opened.

The comment reader went wild.

"No way… why didn't I see it! The whole time, this door was fake!"

"Look at her face, total disbelief. She clearly didn't know what was really going on."

"The host is a legend! This prank is so good!"

I stared at the far side of the door, dumb as a clown.

Tears of despair slid from the corners of my eyes.

The room I'd racked my brain to solve had only ever been a setup for the real room.

All my effort was a joke, just fuel to pump up the hype on this stream.

Was this the "no prank content at all" Graham had promised me?

This was crueler than every prank he'd ever pulled, and more crushing.

Even if I got lucky and made it out today.

From now on I'd only be a laughingstock across the whole internet.

A stupid woman pranked to tears by her own fiancé.

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and steadied myself as best I could.

The drug was still working. I couldn't collapse now.

The worse they treated me, the less I could afford to give up.

Only, once I got out, I wasn't just calling off the engagement banquet.

I was going to make them pay.