Escape her Asylum

“If the walls could talk it would be here! What another wonderful day to try to escape a room. The puzzles and stories it always tells are just so exciting!” Tammy, Jared's boss, claps her hands together and scans her intense eyes over everyone. Jared and his coworkers Jenny and Tanner had all brought someone with them to help play the game. Jared’s fiancé Cherrie, Jenny’s friend Brie, and Tanner’s friend Hunter.

"Even if the story is just where the pirates stole some treasure? Please Tammy, the last time we did the the pirate "booty" we found was a broken tiara. The only thing coming through the walls is seeping grease" Cherrie shook her head.

"They do what they very well can to try and keep places like this running," she defended the old building that used to be offices.

They all walked into the hallway where the escape rooms were held while the assistant introduced himself as Chap, explained what to do, and made everyone put their phones away so that there was no cheating. They all huddled into the Children’s Asylum Room that held toys, drawings, dolls, and books that the supposed child would have played with. Jared was nervous because the last time they all did an escape room together Cherrie got annoyed that Tammy was trying to not use any of the clues and we still had to end up using all three.

“Let’s try to get through this without needing any clues. Just know Chap is always through the walls for us,” she already started directing.

“There is a timer though, and if we are too stuck on something and don’t use the clues, we could just never get out of here. Remember last time! The three clues are there for everyone to use. Would be too proud to ignore them,” Cherrie already started to test against her.

“I was just hoping the group was going to be super intelligent about this, plus maybe Chap has to help us with some freebies anyways,” was what she said when the timer started and she went first to a notebook where disturbing crayon pictures were held that were signed with a made up child's name.

“Natalie,” Tanner read out, “Well Natalie, what kind of mental disorder did you have?”

“Maybe that is what we are supposed to figure out in these drawings, unless there is something in them that leads to a different connection,” Tammy was flipping through the pages while Jenny and Brie went over to the Kerplunk! game that was in a toy box they had opened up. They pulled back and forth on the sticks as the marbles fell down onto the floor, but soon realized some of the colored sticks stayed in place.

“Man, we can’t finish the game! Some of these are glued in. Like four green ones just stuck in here caked with the hot glue,” Brie held up the container awkwardly while Tammy almost tripped over the marbles scattered on the floor to get to where they were by the toy box.

“Yes, it goes with the crayons! There are sections of pages with all one color. The fourth page of green is a picture of a girl holding her ears closed like she doesn’t want to hear or listen to something. What about the other colors?” Tammy starts flipping through the other colored pages.

“Two oranges and one blue,” Brie informs Tammy while she looks through the other toys in the box.

“Orange page two is the girl hugging a doll with hearts around it with an arrow pointing at the doll where it says ‘sister.’ Blue page one is an infinity symbol with the phrase ‘never stops’ on it,” after Tammy finished with the book, a drawer in the wall popped out. Inside was a piece of paper that Hunter grabbed to read.

“List of mental disorders,” he read.

“Ah then we really do have to find out what she was then,” Tanner nodded.

“Well there are two lines of fill in here though, which is what she was diagnosed with and what she actually had."

“Couldn’t be simple now could it?” Tammy tapped her chin.

“Need to use that clue now?” Cherrie giggled.

“Now babe, we haven’t even spent time on it yet, let’s think about this. Like the pictures the girl drew is probably the mental disorder she actually had,” Jared rubbed his Cherrie’s back.

“Here is the list,” Hunter sucked in air and began, “Schizophrenia, Narcissism, Bipolar, Autism, BPD, Depression, Antisocial Personality, eating disorder, and ADHD, and anxiety.”

“Narcissistic because she loves a doll that looks like herself?” Tammy wondered.

“How annoying. Many of these disorders are similar. Clue it is,” Cherrie announced to the walls.

“You really need a clue to figure that out? Seems like the blue picture especially gave it away,” the walls answered back in a little girl’s voice.

“Oh no please, this is getting too scary when you pipe in that voice instead of just being the assistant guy Chap,” Jenny sat staring in fear at one of the dolls in the toy box.

“Well there are no pictures of food, so probably not an eating disorder. No seeing anything out of the ordinary, so probably not Schizophrenia…” Jared started rambling off.

“Something about the infinity symbol. If only I had my phone to look up which one that was. Well guess I still need the clue since you took the only way to the outside world away from me, Chap or... Natalie. Whoever you identify as right now.” Cherrie picked at her nails and sat down on a moon chair that was sitting in the corner of the room.

“Nah, come on now people. The irritation of noises, the empathy to a doll, and saying it will never stop. She was obviously autistic,” Brie told without looking up at any of us because she was still playing around with a pop up book.

“Alright, even so. We have one answer but not another. We now have to go through all of this and figure out what she was diagnosed as incorrectly,” Tammy started tapping on draws and table tops until she found there were magnets sticking out of one of the tables in the room. She pressed one and it made a clicking mechanical sound. “Any magnets around here?”

Everyone started emptying drawers until magnets were found by Tanner who held them up in the air and jumped, “Got them. They have little pictures on them.” The four magnets had pictures of a knife, an angry face, a torn book, and a stack of money. Tanner magnetized them to the table and a screen popped up on the clear glass that was above the table. It showed a little boy stabbing bunnies while a girl sat near and cried at the sight while holding a doll. The words “It was him” showed up at the end of the video and then the panel went back to glass again.

“The girl got blamed for the boy's stabbing of the bunnies?” Cherrie finally made a helpful comment.

The little girl's voice then came piping back in the room from the walls again, “He did it, but I stayed here in this asylum for his sake.”

“Interesting. Either she took the blame or someone wanted to protect the boy,” Tammy shook her head in sadness.

“Antisocial personality is the other blank then I guess,” Hunter started to write down the answers, and as soon as they were filled in, another piece of paper was pushed into the drawer. It was two acrostic poems:

Access to empathy

Understanding

Takes steps back

Interests abound

Social misunderstandings

Tuned to logic

Is the star of the show to share

Change is difficult

Avoids empathy

Needs attention

Tuned to logic

Is the star of the show for you to look

Social games

Offers little understanding

Cares for self promotion and steps forward

Intense

Always moving

Loves change

“I guess trying to say they were similar but different, right,” Jared thought aloud, “Wait, I saw a bunch of symbols on that locker over there. What if that relates. Maybe press the symbol that makes sense for this?”

“Let me see the symbols,” Jenny walked over and looked at all of the arrows, eyes, swirls, dots, and other drawings until she finally pointed at the ying and yang symbol, “This! Two things that are alike but different!” she clicked on the symbol and the locker swung open. Inside was a straight jacket.

“Which one of you will put on the jacket to join me?” the voice asked over the intercom, while the door by the glass slowly opened.

“Someone has to separate from us and be alone?” Cherrie shook her head at Jared like she was trying to tell him not to be a hero.

“Whatever, just give me it!” Hunter grabbed for the straight jacket and went through the door and it slammed shut before anyone had processed what exactly was happening yet.

“Alright, now find a way to get your friend out. Use the exact amount of volts to open the door. Too little and it wont open. Too much and my brother will electrocute your friend,” the walls informed while the glass panel lit back up again and showed Hunter sitting in a chair.

“Hunter, get out of the chair. Can you hear me!” Tammy yelled, “This is getting too scary.”

“Relax, it isn’t real. Let’s just get the right answer now, okay,” Jared tried to calm her.

“I guess now we know the real psychopath was her own brother?” Tanner half asked.

“The toy train,” Jenny pointed to the toy train on the floor that had a box to type in a number.

“The right volts on the train means the right volts on the door then I guess,” Brie tried to pick up a makeup box from one of the tables but it was glued down. She then opened it and found bottles of nail polish. “This color looks just like your nails, dolly.”

“Wait, those nail polish bottles have numbers on them that look like they would match the volt meter,” Tammy walked over and examined all of the colors. There was a pretty pink, a yazzy yellow, roaring red, and electric blue.

“Electric blue, huh? Too easy,” Jared plugged in the numbers for the electric blue nail polish and the train started up while the door opened and Hunter was freed.

“Electric blue is my favorite nail polish,” the walls spoke again. The glass panel then lit up with another video that showed the apparent girl Natalie taking the fall for what her younger brother did and then going to the asylum where she thought she eventually would be taken out with the help of her brother, but he just left her there. “I now need revenge on my brother so what to do to get out of here and face him once and for all?”

“This probably means we are on the last step!” Tammy jumped.

“Too bad she didn't realize he wouldn't help her back in the same way, huh?" Cherrie still hadn’t budged from sitting, "There is nothing else really in here right besides the dolls and books, right?”

“We should still keep looking though,” Tammy informed. After a while of looking, they still could not find any answers from anything even while trying to come up with several solutions. “I finally give up and say we need a clue then,” Tammy sighed.

“Clue!” Everyone shouted while the glass screen popped up with what they were supposed to do. “You have access to a new room now.”

“Oh great, the answer was obvious,” Jared laughed.

“We are supposed to go in that room now? Oh I thought it was just that electric chair,” Tammy quickly went through the door of where Hunter sat and there was a cage full of bunny stuffed animals.

“Oh yeah I guess I should have told you guys there were weird bunnies in here,” Hunter admitted.

“You think? Made us use a clue when we didn’t need it!” Tammy was upset.

“Just admit that sometimes you need help,” Cherrie walked in after her and started sifting through the bunnies. “The bunnies are wearing collars with letters on them.”

“We have to descramble,” Tanner started trying to piece together what the letters could be. After a while of staring at the letters in confusion, he finally realized it was a name. Andrew something,” he orders the name Andrew in place.

“Now time to know what Andrew and Natalie’s last names were,” Hunter helped Tanner until they finally got the name McClarey.

“Andrew McClarey!” everyone shouted while the escape room door burst open and they all fled out in triumph.

“Wow, good job! I only had to give one hint. Amazing!” Chap clapped for the group. “You figured out that diagnosis quicker than most people. Usually they all need a hint.

“Well good thing Natalie gave some extra help,” Tammy winked at him.

“Yeah… Am I missing a joke here?” he was confused.

“When you kept talking to us as Natalie,” Tammy laughed awkwardly.

“I mean I showed you those videos but don’t think a voice was in them... They were silent right?” Chap gestured to the room and everyone started back at it warily.

“Oh, I was just getting too much into it, that is all. I gave Natalie a voice and everything. The story seemed so real," Tammy blushed.

“Oh it is based on a true story actually, that’s how we get our inspiration on what way to set up the rooms sometimes.”

“Oh wow, history lessons,” Cherrie rolled her eyes as everyone thanked Chap and took a picture saying they found a way to escape and then piled into their cars to head to the restaurant they agreed to eat at afterwards.

“Was I maybe really about to be electrocuted by a ghost?” Hunter asked while slurping down spaghetti.

“Guess the ghost found out they were using that story and started haunting that room?” Tanner wondered.

“But other people had a harder time getting out which means they didn’t have a little girl talking to them throughout,” Jared suggested.

“Why choose us then?” Brie tilted her head a bit.

“I don’t really know but I hope it doesn’t follow us. Next time we have a coworkers day out, let's just go to the fair,” Tammy’s eyes darted around as if trying to find Natalie McClarey in the restaurant, “Someone let me know if they ever hear or see her or her brother again.”

“Agreed,” they all nodded around the table and tried to enjoy their meal.