CYOA: Escape Room - Chapter 1 (Story) (Patreon)

I figured it was a new year, so time to try something new. I don't know how well this will really turn out, but I thought it was worth a try, and could be fun if it does, and my plans for how to do it work out. Chapters of this could potentially be fairly short, so I might try to do more chapters in a month to make up for that (though, of course, that means shorter voting times) but we'll see how it goes. 

"Oh, what about this one?" Serena asked, turning her phone around so that Julianne could see it. "Have you done it?"

Julianne set her fork down on her plate, scanning the webpage her friend was showing her. "Yeah, I think so... Look at the pictures?"

Serena sighed, spinning her phone around to open up the gallery, Julianne picking her phone back up to pop another bite of food into her mouth. "It looks familiar," Julianne mumbled. "Next one?" Serena tapped to the next photo. "Yeah, yeah," Julianna nodded. "I remember that!" She pointed at a wall, painted with mystic-looking symbols.

Her friend was disappointed, but also curious; that was why she was going on this search in the first place, after all. "What do they say?" she stared at Julianne, eyes wide, ready for some epic tale that would take her through the whole journey.

"It was a red herring," Julianne shrugged. "I think it was a warning about how dangerous the goddess whose idol we'd stolen was, or something like that? Honestly, if something is as obvious as that, a lot of the time, it isn't going to help you solve any of the puzzles."

"Oh," Serena pushed her glasses up on her nose, cheeks glowing slightly, making a mental note. She felt like that was the sort of thing she should have already known... But how could she, really? She'd read a lot about these sorts of things, yet she'd never had the chance to go to one herself. "So this one's out..."

"I'm telling you," Julianne said. "I'd love to take you, but there are only so many around here, and I think by now I've been to them all."

"There has to be one you missed," Serena shook her head, determinedly going back to her Google search. 

Julianne chuckled. It was charming, seeing how dedicated the other girl was to this, taking it as seriously as the finals they probably ought to be studying for instead. Serena was pretty shy, keeping to herself for the most part, preferring to hole up in her room and read rather than go to parties, or out with the few friends she'd managed to make...

Julianne was two years ahead of her, and only really noticed her when they'd had a class together. Even then, they didn't speak until after the teacher made them do an icebreaker game where Julianne had confessed that one of her favorite hobbies was going to escape rooms. She'd seen Serena, her already big eyes amplified by the lenses of her glasses, staring up at her, transfixed, as she spoke about them, though it was another week or two before she gathered up the courage to talk to her on her own.

"I hope so," Julianne smiled, going back to her supper. She'd promised Serena she'd take her to an escape room before she graduated, but they were quickly running out of time. She hated to think of breaking her word - and always loved finding a new one to conquer - however, by now, she was fairly certain she'd hit, and solved, every one of them in the area around their college. She'd considered lying, taking Serena to one she had done and then standing back and letting the girl do everything... Serena would probably see through her ruse, and it wouldn't be particularly fun for Julianne. The whole point was for them to do it together...

"Hi!" Julianne could see Serena flinch, her eye twitching slightly at the sound of a plastic tray landing on the table beside her. "What's up?"

"Hey, Alecia," Julianne waved, giving Serena a tiny, apologetic shrug when the girl shot her a look. 

Alecia was the opposite of Serena in a lot of ways, as exemplified by the cheerleading outfit she was wearing, in stark contrast to the cardigan Serena stubbornly clung to, despite the weather starting to get a bit too warm for it. She was bubbly, outgoing, loved parties... Her grades were definitely not as good as Serena's, by any means - she had come into the school the same year as Julianne, yet had only successfully completed enough credits to be considered a junior, not a senior - but that, like everything else, didn't seem to bother her.

It wasn't necessarily that Alecia and Serena didn't get along... Julianne suspected they'd like each other if they were each able to give the other a chance. Serena was put off by Alecia's energy, though, overwhelmed by it - to be honest, Julianne was sometimes, too - and Alecia found Serena, and her disinterest in going to the games Alecia cheered at, or the parties she frequented afterwards, boring. Julianne could sympathize with that, to a degree, as well... Serena was a nice girl, but she refused to take a chance on most things she was unfamiliar with, even when Julianne promised to go with her to help her through her first time.

"I-I should probably..." Serena slid her phone into the pocket of her cardigan, setting her nearly full plate and glass back onto her tray.

"Serena." Julianne didn't like using her 'big sister' tone on her friends, but there were times when it was necessary. Serena was a tiny little thing, and she'd hardly touched her food... She couldn't imagine the girl having the guts to go sit anywhere else with it, either, a quick scan of the cafeteria telling her there were no more empty tables. She hated to think of Serena starving herself just because she didn't like Alecia... She also didn't want to banish Alecia, however, when she hadn't really done anything wrong.

"I-I have to finish up my paper," Serena stammered, "a-and..."

"This is our last chance," Julianne reminded her. "If we don't find something now..."

Serena's face fell. "Oh," she pouted. "Right..."

"Oooh, what're you talking about?" Alecia asked. "Do you need a hookup? I know people who can find you pretty much anything!"

"I'm sure you do," Serena grumbled, Alecia, thankfully, not picking up on the barely concealed tone of disdain in the other girl's voice.

"I do!" Alecia bounced in her seat, happy to be helpful - or, at least, think she was being helpful. "What do you need?"

"Nothing you would know anything about," Serena replied harshly.

"I don't know about that," Alecia shrugged. "I've gotten around!"

Serena raised her eyebrows, Julianne giving her a minuscule head shake to keep her from commenting. "We want to go to an escape room," Julianne said, Serena looking grumpy at her for letting Alecia in on it, as if it were some great secret. 

The other two were both surprised to hear Alecia's reaction, each assuming the cheerleader would find the concept boring, like more homework. "Fun!" she smiled instead. "You know, I saw an ad for one on Insta that looked cute!"

"Cute?" Serena wrinkled her nose. She didn't want something cute, she wanted a challenge, something she'd be proud to make it through!

"Yeah, it was based on that baby cartoon... You know..." Alecia clearly didn't, screwing her face up in an attempt to recall the name. "Well, whatever!"

"I think I heard about that, actually," Julianne said. "It was supposed to be pretty good... I didn't know it was open around here, though!"

Serena's eyes widened. "Does that mean you haven't done it?" she asked. Julianne shook her head, Serena clumsily pawing for the phone in her pocket. "Do you remember where it was?"

"No," Alecia responded nonchalantly. "I thought it was cute, and then I scrolled past."

Julianne saw the frustration in Serena's expression, gently suggested, "Do you think you could see if you could find the ad again?"

"Sure!" Alecia pulled out her phone, too, Serena seeming, almost, to take that as a competition, frantically tapping away, trying to find it first. She didn't have much of a chance, however. "There it is! It's like it was listening to our conversation!"

She offered Julianne her phone, going back to eating cheerfully. "Huh," Julianne tilted her head, staring at the ad. "This isn't the one I was thinking of after all... I think it's some kind of a rip-off of it, though, because it's the same sort of thing..." The more she looked at it, the more intrigued she became. Like what she'd seen of the other one, the room itself appeared to be built on a giant scale, meant to put the participants in the mindset of being toddlers.

If anything, this one almost seemed to do that better. She'd thought it was an interesting sort of twist, one she hadn't seen before, when she'd heard about the original, and while this might be a copy, it was still something she hadn't done herself, which was quite rare. And she knew Serena would be happy to do any. "It looks like they have a slot open for this weekend..."

Serena's eyes lit up. "Can we do it?!"

Julianne chuckled. "I don't see why... Oh." 

"What?" Serena scooted forward in her chair.

"Well... It says you have to have at least three people," Julianne told her, Serena slumping down.

"Why's that a problem?" Alecia asked. "I mean, it isn't, right?" She frowned, pointing at Julianne. "One," she counted, moving her finger to Serena, "two," and, finally, gesturing towards herself, "three!"

Serena turned desperately towards Julianne, silently begging her, with her eyes, to do something. "We need three," Julianne shrugged. "Do you have someone else you'd rather ask, who won't be busy this weekend?" She knew the answer was no before she even asked the question. "And she did find it..."

Serena gave Alecia a dirty look, sighed, realizing it was her, or not doing the escape room at all. "Fine," she caved. "It's better than nothing..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The building looked normal enough from the outside, a fairly nondescript concrete cube, with barely any indication that it was a business at all, though the tiny sign Serena spotted over the door was enough to make her quiver with excitement, and the recognition that, at last, she was about to have the chance to experience something she'd been curious about for so long.

"We're not, like, going to get murdered in here or something, are we?" Alecia asked, clearly viewing the plain building a little more skeptically.

"You can always wait out here," Serena was quick to suggest.

"No, she can't," Julianne corrected. "We need three people, remember?"

The lobby was pretty plain, too, though was a little odd to see that the woman sitting behind the desk was dressed, seemingly, in theme with their room, wearing a long, light blue dress with a white apron over it. Most of these places, from what Serena understood, had more than one room going at a time, or else they'd have a hard time breaking even.

"You must be here for our Tiny Tots experience," the woman smiled at them, standing up. Did she have a different costume for each room, and had to change before each group showed up? That was impressive, Serena had to admit. 

"We are," Julianne nodded. 

"How wonderful!" the woman beamed. "We have everything all ready for you, whenever you want to start... All we need is for you to choose a leader."

"A... leader?" Serena looked to Julianne, a bit pleased to see that she seemed confused as well. Serena hadn't heard about this being a common thing, though, since it was her first time, she didn't really know if it was or not.

"That's right!" the woman replied, offering no further information.

"Well, you've been looking forward to this," Julianne told Serena. "It should be you, right?"

Serena shook her head nervously. "B-But what if I don't know what to do? You've done this so many times! It should be you!"

"What does the leader...?" Julianne turned to the woman.

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise," the woman winked.

"What about me?" Alecia crossed her arms. "I found this place! I could be the leader, too, you know!"

Serena's nostrils flared, barely stopping herself from stomping her foot at the idea. This was for her and Julianne! Alecia was only here because they needed another body! The thought of having to look to the girl as some sort of leader, whatever that meant, made her bristle... At the same time, however, she wasn't sure she was ready for the responsibility, either. 

"I need a decision," the woman said. "I'll tell you what... It's just through there," she pointed to an innocuous looking door. "I'll wait in there, and whoever is the first to follow will be the leader."

She didn't wait for a response, simply strutted across the room, skirts swaying, and stepped through the door, opening and shutting it so quickly that Serena didn't have a chance to get a peek inside.

The three girls glanced at one another, none certain of what to do. "Well, it needs to be one of us," Julianne spoke up after a long moment. "Or we'll never get started. So... Who should it be?"

Serena?

Julianne?

Or Alecia?