Chereads / Escaping The Game / Chapter 2 - 02/ The Initialed Chambers

Chapter 2 - 02/ The Initialed Chambers

They all made their way upstairs to see what the key was for. Symphony in front since she was the one who found the doors.

They came to a stop when they were in front of the door.

Alex took the key from Jazlyn's hand and made his way in front of the door. He inserted the key into the keyhole and twisted it. Once he heard a 'click' he brought the key out and opened the door revealing a large room with three beds.

The room was separated into three parts with each boys' name on the wall above their respective sections of the room. Alex's was right in the middle while Xavier's (right) and Luke's (left) were on either side of the room.

Xavier's side was blue with orange and black striped bedding along with sports posters hanging on the wall. In his headboard were trophies and medals. His table was stacked up with a variety of video games which is pretty common for a normal teenage boy.

Alex's red side was better with blue and red bedding and a table filled with poetry books and poems. He had a headboard filled with writing books and even more books about poetry slam.

Luke's side was green like his green and white bedding. His table seemed the neatest as he had books stacked accordingly, trophies placed neatly, and the latest tri-screened computer. He had drawings up on his side of the wall. Evelyn spotted a small picture hidden behind one of his drawings that looked familiar.

"Wicked." The boys exclaimed as each of them check out their part of the massive room.

On either side of the walls was a door. One leading to the bathroom and the other to a walk-in closet.

Symphony nudged the two girls staring at the boys who were acting as if Christmas came early. They looked like kids with giddy smiles on their faces. It was sort of cute.

Alex giggled as he ran towards his bed, jumping on it, happy with the color choices. Luke walked towards his area, staring in awe at his dream bedroom. Xavier full-on sprinted towards his side of the room and jumped and kept exclaiming how much he was in love with it.

"They haven't changed a bit," Evelyn murmured.

Luke was looking through his things, such as his books, trophies, drawings, etc. What intrigued him the most was the painting of his favorite colors, mixed in to form a great piece of art. He gazed at the silver frame, with gems on each corner, and reached to touch it. When he pressed a finger on the gem, a small 'click' was heard and the painting fell off of its place. Luke took a step back from the painting on the ground. Alerted, Alex and Xavier made their way to their friend to check if he was all right.

"You okay, man?" Xavier asked. "Yeah, I'm fine. It was just unexpected." Luke responded.

Alex sighed in relief. When he was looking around his friend's area. What caught his attention was a golden key with a letter on the long end. "Hey, guys, what's that?" Alex questioned.

He reached out for the key and looked at it closely only to see the girls' initials as well.

"Uh girls, you might want to come and see this," Alex said.

The girls walked over to where Alex called them. "We found a key that is similar to ours and I think that it might be yours," Alex explained.

"Oh," Symphony said. Evelyn took the key in her hands and made her way to the door across the boys with Symphony and Jazlyn tagging behind her. She inserted the key and twisted it. She opened the door and found it to be similar to the boys' room except for different colors and designs.

Their rooms were divided into three just like the boys, with the following colors: Blue decorating on Evelyn's side, Purple for Jazlyn on the other side of the room, and White for Symphony in the middle.

The girls rushed over, squealing in excitement, to each of their sides. Evelyn had rows of books and lights hanging above with character posters. Symphony's side was a whole section filled with movies——including posters, books, and action figures about them. Jazlyn had Korean pop music posters and other things about other foreign cultures, along with a bunch of snacks and pillows stuffed on top of her bed.

The boys came over to see when they heard squealing and screaming. They found the girls practically ogling over the walk-in closet.

"Girls." They muttered, shaking their heads. What's with girls and their wardrobe? That sadly is a question, the male population will never understand.

The boys left the room into the hallway and down the stairs, having enough of the squeaky giggles and screaming. The girls continued exploring every nook and corner of their shared chamber while the boys went to find the kitchen.

"Well, this feels strange," Alex said.

"No, kidding, it's like we barely know each other" Xavier said, running a hand through his jet-black hair. It has been two years since that day. The day that ruined a whole seven years of memories.

"Maybe because we don't." Luke quietly said with his head hanging low. Xavier and Alex turned to look at him. He sighed as he pulled his hand back from his pant pockets and brought his hand to a silver ring hanging by a chain that was loosely wrapped around his neck. "It's too late now anyway. Let's go check in there." He said, motioning to a door a few feet away.

He needed a break from their reunion and his friends gossiping about them isn't helping. Every time he lays his eyes on her, all the emotions from that come pouring back. The number of times he cursed himself for not doing anything to…

… to regain her trust.

They stopped at a framed glass door. Luke took a second to glance at his friends before pushing the door open by the nob. On the other side of the door, they found a gorgeous kitchen. A kitchen of every mother's dreams. It had marble countertops, a huge refrigerator, another door leading into a pantry, and multiple cabinets on both the top and bottom. The room could fill a whole school full of kids if they tried.

"Where the food at? I'm starving!" Alex exclaimed. He was already running toward the refrigerator before the other two had any time to respond. With such a big refrigerator, there must be a variety of foods waiting for him. Alex may be the nicest of the three, but he sure has a big appetite.

He reached for the handle of the refrigerator and pulled, awaiting food to maintain his hunger. But for some reason, the door didn't even budge. Alex sent the boys a confused expression and continued to pull on the handle.

"Hey! Why won't this thing budge? I want to eat!" Alex exclaimed angrily. Xavier muttered, "weak" and went to help him pull. Though, no matter how they pulled, the door would not even shift.

"It must be locked." Luke finally said. He moved over to the pantry and tried to open the door by the knob, but alas it was also locked. "Check all of them. They cannot all be locked."

Xavier and Alex began to pull on all the cabinet doors while Luke checked the oven. It was just as locked as all the cabinets. "Dammit, all of them are locked. What am I going to eat? Do we just starve to death here?" Alex whined as he kicked the nearby dishwasher in frustration.

The dishwasher shook for the impact and its door fell back open. Luke smacked Alex on the head before crouching down to look inside the dishwasher. It was empty. Looking closer, he saw a small flap piece of paper and the corner. He stretched his arm and caught it in between his fingers.

"Did you find anything yet?" Xavier asked. He was pacing back and forth behind Luke while Alex was sitting on a stool with his head propped up by his elbow. Luke said nothing. He was about to get out when he felt his left leg get stepped on. He banged the back of his head, which was only halfway out, on the top opening ledge of the dishwasher. A sharp pain stung his head Getting out, he rubbed his head while sending a glare—that hardly looked menacing with the corner of his eye wincing—at Xavier who raised his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, man."

Luke rubbed his head with his hand in circles at the spot to ease the pain as he passed the note to Alex, "It was stuck in the corner. It might be another clue."

"Hopefully something to do with food. I'm starving." Alex said, fiddling his fingers with the slips of the paper to open it.

You must be hungry. But rewards must come after work. Riddle me out to complete the task:

I come and go. I'm not always secure, but I connect you to things pretty well.

PS: Keep the map with you at all costs. It may be your only hope in the end.

"A riddle?"

Xavier snatched a note and read it himself. He crossed his arms, "You know, I feel like I'm in a mystery book."

"Not that you would know what it would like to be in a book. Aren't you allergic to them all?" Alex retorted.

Xavier rolled his eyes at him. "Aren't you supposed to be good at riddles? I see you read poems like this all the time."

"Liking them and doing them are two different things. If you think so highly of yourself, maybe you could solve it. Too bad your ego is bigger than your IQ." A harsh amount of air flared out his nostrils.

"What did you—"

Before he had the chance to respond back and possibly start a fistfight, the girls entered the kitchen with new comfortable wear.

Evelyn came out wearing a plain, white cropped t-shirt paired with soft material shorts and a white jacket over her while her off-black balayage hair was pulled into a relaxed side braid. Jazlyn was wearing an oversized, purple grey shirt with the front tucked in her black baggy sweatpants and had her hair in a low bun with two loose strands of hair in front of her face to finish the look. Symphony had on a black tank top underneath a colorful long sleeve with grey leggings and her straight blonder hair in a low ponytail.

The boys fixed their gazes on them, surveying them from top to bottom. Their eyes seemed to enlarge at the sight. Neither one had the gut to look away. Luke cleared his throat when he heard Evelyn stifle a small laugh. All three teenage boys turned their heard in different directions, embarrassed. Seeing this, the girls smirked at each other and started laughing.

Once they calmed down—including Jazlyn who was crouched down with her arm across her stomach— Luke asked averting his eyes to the wall on the side of them, "Where did you get new clothes from?"

"We borrowed them." Symphony vaguely told them.

/Earlier Upstairs/

"Did they leave, yet?"

Jazlyn peaked out of the walk-in closet they were in at the moment and saw no teenage figures other than them. "Yup"

Evelyn sighed in relief. There was so much stiffness between the boys and them that it was close to suffocating her. People say feelings will fade away with time, but to Evelyn it seems as if her feeling will never go away, leaving a burden for life, instead. To forget and forgive, was the right thing to do—she knew—, but how could she forget the day her whole world collapsed. Every time her eyes laid on his, anger burned within her.

"Finally, we get some time to breathe. Is it just me or was the tension between us so thick it was visible?" Symphony exasperated,

"No, I felt it too," Jazlyn called back in the middle of wiggling into an oversized purple-grey shirt she found folded in one of the drawers at the left corner of the closet. "I mean imagine the possibility of us all getting picked for this messed up game. This is what happens when I go anywhere other than my room."

"Well excuse us for wanting you to have some fun other than becoming a couch potato. Plus, it's not like we planned this to happen. I don't even remember seeing them (referring to the boys) at the party last night. At least not with Rowdy's group."

"Was Rowdy and his gang even there? I saw his girlfriend with the other cheerleaders but I didn't see any of them with the guys." Jazlyn asked. Symphony stopped going through hangers to recall any memory of sighting them. But even after a second thought, she shook her head.

"Don't you think our 'situation' feels weird?" The two girls jumped at the sudden voice that came from outside the closet. Jazlyn pulled the drawstrings of the pair of sweats to tighten it around her waist before she walked out of the closet. She found, an already dressed, Evelyn combing her hair to the side, then separating it into three sections and braiding it loosely.

"What's not weird about our so-called 'situation'?" Jazlyn switched places with her and started to brush her own tangled mess. Evelyn failed to stifle back a laugh as she watched Jazlyn struggle to comb through a bothersome knot. Freeing her from any unnecessary pain, Evelyn took ahold of the brush and replaced it with a toothed comb. She then softly untangled the knots along with any remaining others and helped style in into a low bun. Jazlyn admired her work as she pulled out a few strands to frame her face. "Thanks."

"So, what's so weird?" Symphony came out finally dressed. She had her arms up while looping her blond hair into a low ponytail.

/End of Flashback/

Evelyn stepped in to explain, "The clothes in our walk-in closet all seemed new, so we borrowed some. We changed since it's pretty late now. Have you three even looked at the time?" She lifted her left wrist to read the time on her digital clock. "It's nearly 6 pm."

Time seemed to fly today. The last time she checked, it was only three in the afternoon.

"You guys should go changed, too. It's not like we'll be able to get out of here anytime soon." Jazlyn told them.

The boys dusted themselves off and were about to go back upstairs to change when Symphony came in front to stop them. "Hold on." Alex raised an eyebrow and looked at her with a confused expression. Her eyes wander to Xavier's hand.

"What's that in your hand." She said pointing to the piece of paper held in Xavier's hand.

All their eyes darted toward his hand. The boys came to a realization. "Oh yeah, we forgot about that. We came in here looking for food, but everything was locked, except the dishwasher (weird I know). The only thing we found in there was this useless riddle." He explained, handling the paper to Symphony.

She took into her own hands and read the words. Her eyebrow rose, confound. Jazlyn and Evelyn went to either side of her and read it themselves.

"Riddles? Really?"

"We never going to figure this out. Are we supposed to starve ourselves?" Jazlyn cried.

"Jeez, you and Alex are such pigs when it comes to food," Xavier said with a smirk plastered on his face. Jazlyn's face flushed in embarrassment.

"Who are you calling a pig? You son of a b—"

Symphony clamped her hand on Jazlyn's mouth to prevent her from speaking any further. Both of Jazlyn's hands went to try and pry it away, but Symphony kept a steady grip. One of the plus-sides of the countless hours spent, volleyball training.

"Okay. Okay," Evelyn said. She placed a hand on her friends' shoulders telling them to calm down. Once Symphony removed her hand from Jazlyn's mouth, Evelyn turned to the boys. "Well? What are you guys still doing here? Get a move on. We'll figure out something to eat."

The boys glanced at each other warily and dashed out the door, upstairs.

Evelyn looked at the paper in Symphony's other hand and asked for it. She handed it to her. Evelyn took it to the kitchen counter and flipped it. Behind the note was taped another folded piece of paper. The two other girls sat on the stools opposite of her as she gently ripped the tape off and take the paper off the note. Putting the note aside, she unfolded it.

It was a map. The map of the mansion they were in.