Chapter Text
“Thank you for choosing Wacky World Escapes!”
Pomni happily waved goodbye to the last group of the day. Once the doors closed, her smile dropped and she sighed.
“Whew, what a day. Well, better start resetting,” she muttered to herself, rubbing her forehead.
She loved her job, she really did. Though she’d been doing this for so long, it was starting to get comfortable. Too comfortable. Comfortable meant no challenges, and no challenges meant boredom. She’d just finished running the Time Travel room for the umpteenth time that day, which meant she had to reset it. Again.
This usually wasn’t a problem. She enjoyed interacting with the participants, seeing their excited faces after they successfully escaped whatever was keeping them locked in a room for an hour. There were often high fives and cheers accompanied with her typical, “Great job!” remarks, but also sometimes frowns followed by her standard, “It’s okay. You’ll get it next time!” Then she’d reset the game so that the next group could try it. It was honestly quite fun going into these highly themed rooms to put everything back. She would really study the décor and props, getting ideas for her own rooms. One day she would propose her own.
But not tonight. Tonight, she was on her own. Again. Her coworker called in sick for the 4th time this week, so she had to reset everything and finish closing herself. Luckily it was just the one room. She had reset the others earlier. Well, all except one.
On her way to the Time Travel door, she walked past the hated room and paused. All the rooms at Wacky World Escapes were very well-loved and received rave reviews. Except for one. That one was absolutely hated. It had the worst ratings than any other escape room in the city. And no one knew why.
That was the weird part. Pomni thought it was odd that none of the reviewers could explain why they didn’t like the room. They just didn’t like it. Not even her coworkers knew why. Each of the employees had reset the room at least once in their careers, including Pomni. It didn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. Some folks said it was haunted. Most just said it sucked.
When Pomni had run that room, she didn’t notice anything that strange. The group went in, a bit hesitant, but still determined to solve it. An hour passed, and she went to go open the room. They came out looking defeated and angry. She asked them how it went and what they thought about it, but all the team would say was that it sucked and they hated it. They wouldn’t give her specifics, but she chalked that up to their anger for not being able to escape within the time limit. She had given them her usual comforting parting words and then reset the room. Nothing weird there.
She shrugged and kept walking. The Time Travel room was easy enough to reset. Before long she finished closing the front and left.
===
Her apartment wasn’t too far from work, thankfully. She hated commuting. With a passion. Even though she could sing in her car, she hated driving. Well, she really just didn’t like having to deal with other drivers. Because of her short stature, she also had to move the seat up really far just to see out the front, which wasn’t the most comfortable. So driving wasn’t her favorite.
Dumping her bag by the door, she plopped herself on the couch and decided to order takeout. It had been a long day and she really didn’t feel like cooking. She placed her order with her favorite local Thai restaurant, then relaxed back into the cushions with her thoughts.
Why was that room rarely booked? Why did people hate it so much? And why wouldn’t they give any specific reasons?
Pomni had no idea. It was so odd, yet the room itself seemed like any other. She couldn’t understand it. Literally no one liked it and no one could say why.
Maybe it was the colors? It was a bit bright in there.
Maybe it was because no one could solve it? There was talk of one person years ago who solved it, but they were legendary at this point. This happened long before Pomni started working there. Her coworkers couldn’t remember the solver’s name nor anything about them other than they escaped.
It was just so strange.
She was jostled from her thoughts by a knock at the door. She jumped a bit before taking a deep breath and went to go get her food from the doorstep.
Sitting at her small dining table with her curry and noodles, she thought again about that room.
Maybe I should try it for myself. Or at least investigate it. Then maybe I could fix it! What’s the worst that could happen?
She shuddered a bit, but a little smile crept onto her face. She needed a challenge and this seemed like the right mix of intrigue, fun, and stupidity.
She might be on her own again tomorrow night. That might be a good time to explore. It sure beat hanging around the front messing with the tidbits in the desk drawer.
Maybe it will be fun.
===
Just as she thought, Pomni was on her own again. She made a mental note to talk to her boss about her coworker’s recent behavior and the lack of backup support. She was still getting paid the same, but doing double the work.
“Thank you for coming to Wacky World Escapes!” She sighed, deeply. There weren’t any more customers for the rest of the night, which wasn’t great for business.
Oh well, at least I have time now to look at that room.
Rising to her feet, she shivered. Wait, am I really going to do this? By myself?? What am I thinking? No, stay calm Pomni. I’m just going to look around and explore. Nothing to get worked up about.
She took a deep breath to ground herself and walked along the hallway, making sure she had her phone in her pocket. If, for some reason, she did end up needing help, at least she’d be able to call someone. She slowed as she approached, partly out of nervousness and partly out of fear. She wasn’t sure why fear was there at all; she was not one to scare easily. Before long she stood still facing the hated door.
“’Escape the Circus.’ Such a weird name.” None of the other rooms had names like that. The escape was implied; it didn’t need to be in the name. I guess that’s one weird thing about this room.
She gripped the handle, closed her eyes and took a breath. Slowly she opened the door.
Just as she remembered, the room was filled with bright colors. Red and yellow stripes lined the walls. The ceiling was taller in this room, giving the feel of a circus tent. Blocks were stacked haphazardly along one wall, while toys spilled out of a toy chest along the back. There were several locked cabinets and boxes along the left wall. And a big red exit door off to the right.
Stepping into the room, she noticed the portraits decorating the walls. One showed what looked like a white king from a chess set, but with offset eyes and a robe. One looked like a ragdoll missing one eye. She was waving to the camera and smiling. The one next to the ragdoll showed a purple rabbit with a mischievous grin plastered on the face. Another portrait contained a figure made of ribbons wearing a white dramatic mask. The figure in the final portrait was hard to place, but looked almost like a combination of colorful toys connected together. They all had words written underneath them, but they were so faint that Pomni couldn’t read them.
I wonder if that’s one of the puzzles.
Even though she had run this room once before, she hadn’t actually played it. And because it was so rarely requested, she had not bothered reading the play guide for it.
Walking further into the room, she went over to the portrait of the rabbit and shivered. This one didn’t seem very friendly. It almost looked like the figure was hiding something in that face. Something about the eyes…
She peered in closer to examine the image and the door slammed shut. She gasped and turned towards the sound.
And then everything went black.