The Escape Room – Part 2: Five Digits

They solved their own room in four hours.

It was strange, being the players. Mira had written the clues, and Jonas the mechanisms, but from the inside, everything looked different. The brass pipes hissed. The dials ticked. The lamplight flickered, as they'd programmed it to, increasing the tension. They read the cryptic riddle on the wall, and Jonas groaned.

"Who wrote that?"

"You."

"I thought it was you."

"It's terrible."

"It's brilliant."

They bickered their way through the puzzles, hunting for hidden keys, turning cogs, moving shelves. By three in the morning, they were exhausted, covered in dust, and strangely happy. Only the padlock remained: five digits, Mira's compromise, fixed to a brass chest.

"The code," said Jonas.

"It's in the last clue."

"What's the last clue?"

"A date."

"Which date?"

She looked at him. "The day we met."

Jonas went still. "You used our date?"

"I thought it was funny."

He crouched, turned the dials, one, one, two, three, four. The padlock sprang open with a click. Inside the chest lay a brass key, a small jar of stars made of glitter, and a card.

If you're reading this, you've solved us.

Mira's hand flew to her mouth. "I didn't write that."

"I did. Months ago. I hid it in the chest, meaning to give it to you someday."

"And the lock?"

"A bug," said Jonas, going red. "A genuine one. I swear. I've been trying to fix it for four hours."

She stared. Then she began to laugh, shaking, and he laughed, and neither could stop.

"Can I ask you something?" said Mira.

"Yes."

"May I kiss you, Jonas? Now that we're free?"

"Yes," he said. "And if you say stop, you must design the proposal room."

"That's a deal."

She kissed him, warm and giddy, a dusty hand rising to his glasses. He kissed her back with a warm, bright, awed sweetness. The brass lamps flickered. The door, with the new key, swung quietly open, and neither of them noticed.

When they parted, both of them were smiling.

"Green?" he asked.

"Green," said Mira. "Very green."

The room sells out every week. The final clue is a date. Nobody has guessed which.

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