CYOA: Escape Room - Chapter 2 (Story) (Patreon)

Nobody said anything for a long moment, the silence stretching on just enough for Serena to start to get antsy. After all this, was their trip going to end here, without them ever actually doing anything? A part of her was excited at the prospect of being the leader, of getting to prove that, after dreaming of them for so long, she was a natural at escape rooms; if it had been only her and Julianne, perhaps she would have done it.

With Alecia here, however... She didn't want her to be the leader, definitely, but she also didn't want to risk making a fool of herself in front of the girl. She knew Julianne wouldn't make fun of her if she made some silly mistakes... She was less sure about Alecia, and if that happened, she might crumble, get even worse, let them all down...

"Okay," Julianne finally spoke up. "You're right, Serena. I have done this the most, so it makes sense for it to be me, huh? I'm sure we can switch, too, once things get going, if you decide you want to give it a shot."

"Okay!" Serena nodded, mentally letting out a giant sigh of relief. "Good plan!"

"Sure," Alecia chirped. "I could take over, too, if we need me to."

Serena barely swallowed a sharp, "We won't," choosing instead to exchange a glance with Julianne, who gave her a tiny shrug. They needed three to do the room, and unless somebody else miraculously walked through the door, this was who they had. There was no way Alecia was going to be the leader, though. That was a step too far.

"All right," Julianne looked around at the other two, seeing that neither had any objections. "Well... Here we go, I guess!" She walked over to the open door, waved, and stepped through. Serena jumped when the door closed by itself, seeing a look of shock on her friend's face just before it swung shut with a click.

"Ooo, automatic doors," Alecia snarked. "So fancy."

Serena blushed, wondering if she was being silly, feeling impressed by it, and a little scared, even. There were definitely goosebumps popping up on her arm, but perhaps they were just from the excitement of knowing it was about to start, that, soon enough, she'd be in the escape room, too.

She almost regretted not volunteering to be the leader now, as she and Alecia waited in the lobby. She wanted to get the most out of this experience, after all; she'd have to interrogate Julianne about exactly what was going on here when they got back to school, and could ditch Alecia. She'd assumed it would only take a moment or two for the leader to get situated, maybe be told a secret or two to help guide the others, but it seemed like it was taking too long for that. Or was that her impatience to get things going talking?

She got her answer when Alecia whined, "Is this it? Does she solve it herself, then, while we wait out here? Why did they need three of us?"

Before Serena could come up with a witty response, or fret too much about how similar her own thoughts were to Alecia's, the door swung back open, as if on cue, the woman standing just inside. "All right, dears," she smiled. "Time to join your friend!"

"Great," Alecia stepped ahead of Serena, who was shivering with anticipation. "I was starting to think this was some sort of scam or something!"

"Certainly not," the woman arched an eyebrow, taking Alecia by the hand, then holding out her other towards Serena, who blushed, feeling like a little kid as she shuffled forward and took it. The door shut again, plunging them into darkness before Serena could even take a look at where they were.

"Are you scared of the dark, dear?" the woman chuckled, giving Serena's hand a squeeze.

Serena shook her head desperately, before she realized that nobody could see it. "N-No!" she insisted. "Th-This is just my first time, and I'm excited!"

"How fun!" the woman exclaimed. "What about you?"

"Sure," Alecia said noncommittally. "I guess I'm excited."

"No, silly," the woman laughed. "Is this your first time?"

"Oh!" Alecia giggled vacuously, making Serena scowl at her in the dark. "Yeah, it is!"

"Well, you two definitely chose the right person to be your leader, then," the woman told them. "Now, I'm going to lead you to the room, okay? Take tiny steps so you don't trip over anything!"

It was odd, but Serena was willing to go with it, to accept that this was how they wanted the room to start; Alecia was less swept up in the experience. "If you turned the lights on, we wouldn't have to worry about that," she pointed out.

"So true!" the woman replied, her tone the same Serena had heard other adults use with toddlers, not that Alecia seemed to notice, or mind. "What a clever girl! You're going to do very well here!"

"I found this place, too," Alecia bragged smugly. "We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me!"

Serena bit her tongue, stopping herself from reminding Alecia that she'd scrolled past the ad at first, that, if it hadn't been for her interest, Alecia would never have bothered to give it a second look.

"I'm sure your friends are very grateful," the woman said, with the same condescending tone. "Be sure to make them thank you when this is all over! Now, then, little ones, the rules are very simple: you have to find your way out within an hour. You can have two hints for free, whenever you like, but after that, you'll have to pay for them."

"Pay for them how?" Alecia asked. "The website didn't say anything about microtransactions."

The woman chuckled. "No, not money, silly. Now, close your eyes for me, okay? I don't want the light to hurt them."

Serena obediently did as she was told, seeing the darkness behind her eyelids brighten up, even though they had stopped walking. Had they already been in the room, and the lights just came on then? Slowly, cautiously, she opened up her eyes again, her mouth falling open at what she saw.

They were in what appeared to be a feeding room in a daycare, perfectly recreated on a giant scale. Everything looked absolutely huge, as if they truly were the size of toddlers, yet it all appeared totally normal as well, showing no signs that it had been built specifically for this escape room, which, of course, it must have been. Nobody made refrigerators that big, after all.

"Oh, my God," Alecia giggled. "What are you wearing?!"

Serena blushed; she'd agonized over what outfit to pick out, not wanting to appear too nerdy and uncool if Alecia was going to be with them the whole time. She hadn't said anything about it until now, though, or even seemed to notice. "The same thing I have been," Serena told her, as she glanced down...

And realized how wrong she was. "Oh, my God!" she squealed, parroting Alecia unwittingly, as the cheerleader reached over, grabbing the hem of Serena's babydoll dress, lifting it up, revealing, in full, the bulky baby diaper underneath.

"Really?" Alecia smirked. "You were wearing that the whole time? Where did you even find it? That's, like, exactly the same kind my baby sister wore, up until she got potty trained. Maybe I should have her give you some pointers."

Serena whimpered, trying to yank them hem of her dress out of Alecia's hand, but the other girl was far too strong for her, no doubt thanks to her time as a cheerleader. What was going on?! How had she wound up in some frilly, pink dress, white thigh-high stockings, pink Mary Janes, and, of all things, a diaper?! When had that happened, and how had she not noticed it?! It was so obvious now, bulging between her thighs, forcing them apart, crackling softly as she squirmed in place, mortified.

She was so embarrassed, in fact, that it took her another moment or two to process what her tormentor was wearing. "W-Well, what about you?!" she demanded.

"What do you...?" Alecia asked, glancing down, her eyes widening. "What the hell?!"

Her outfit was even worse, her baby diaper on full display beneath a pink crop top stretched over her ample chest, lined with white lace, far too short to hide her padding, unlike Serena's dress, which was, instead, just barely inadequate for the task, leaving a sliver of plastic showing, no matter how still she stood. Besides that, the only thing on Alecia's body was a pair of pink, Velcro sneakers and white ankle socks. 

"Now, now," a voice boomed above them. "No squabbling, little ones! You don't want to be sent to time-out, do you?" Alecia and Serena both looked up, and up, at the woman who now towered over them. She'd already been taller than either, though, now, it was like she was ten feet tall, or more, grinning down at them. "You don't have time for that, anyway. You only have an hour to get out of here."

Was this real?! Serena gulped, squirming, searching for a sign that this was a projection, or a very realistic-looking animatronic, but that didn't seem possible, not for the budget a place like this should have... Between the woman, and the rest of this place, it was more like they had been shrunken down to the size of toddlers... But that was even more impossible!

"And I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that naughty word, young lady," the woman bent over, staring Alecia in the eyes. "Because next time it happens, I'm soaping out your mouth, and your bottom." Alecia let out a shocked yelp as the woman gave the seat of her diaper a sharp swat, reaching back to give it a rub. "Now, then, I think you two had better get to work, unless you want to end up like your leader. She went on ahead to show you the consequences of losing." 

She snapped her fingers, and the lights went out again for a moment, and, when they were turned on, she was gone. "Wh-What is going on?!" Alecia demanded, staring down at herself in horror.

Serena was, of course, concerned about that, too, but that wasn't all. "Where is Julianne?" What did the woman mean she'd 'went ahead?!' 

"How am I supposed to know?!" Alecia groaned, not realizing Serena was thinking out loud. "This is all your fault! You made us come here!"

Serena rolled her eyes; Alecia was so immature! It was like she really did belong here! "You were just bragging..." she started to point out.

"No fighting," the woman's voice floated over the air, probably from some invisible speaker. "Time is running out if you want to go back to being big girls anytime soon."

Serena and Alecia looked at one another, and their infantile outfits, and seemingly shrunken forms, taking in the impossibility of their situation, and the fact that they were going to have to work together if they wanted to get out of this.. "We need to look around," Serena said. "Get an idea of what is here."

"Right," Alecia nodded, thankfully not fighting her, at least on this. 

A quick survey of their surroundings answered Serena's question quickly as, in one little nook of the room, she saw a giant high chair, the tray locked into place with a colorful, oversized combination lock. Sitting there, the tray keeping her in place, was Julianne, decked out in pink like the others, though, in her case, she was wearing a bib, a bonnet, and booties. At the very least her diaper wasn't in plain sight for anyone to see, but the way her pink, ruffled diaper cover was bulging made it clear she was wearing one beneath it anyway.

"Juli!" Serena shouted up at her, and she could see her friend glance down, cheeks red. She wasn't about to say anything, however, or do much besides kick her feet uselessly, because the tray was filled with baby bottles, and jar after jar of baby food in various colors, a plastic spoon resting in each, one flying out seemingly at random, jamming itself into Julianne's mouth as soon as it was empty from the previous one, the bottles taking their place now and then.

"Is she over..?" Alecia asked, hurrying over, halting and gawking at the spectacle before her. "We have to get her out of there!"

She scurried up to the chair, stretching up, too tiny to even reach the footrest, her pitiful attempts at jumping only making the lights on her sneakers blink mockingly.

Serena took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, to push aside her panic at the insanity of what was going on. This was an escape room... That meant there had to be some way to escape. All she had to do was figure it out.

She made herself look away from Julianne, at the rest of the room. The walls were brightly colored, cheerful, like the ones she'd expect to find in any daycare. The only way out was through a doorway that was blocked by a huge baby gate, far too high for them to climb over; unlike the high chair, she didn't see any obvious lock on it, but getting it open had to be their ultimate goal.

Had the woman brought them in through there? Serena didn't recall hearing it open, or close, or stepping over it, and it didn't seem to be in the direction they'd entered from, but, in the dark, it was hard to tell for certain. If they hadn't come through it, then there was probably another way in, and presumably out... Although, considering everything else that had already happened... Well, it was difficult to say for sure what was or was not possible.

There was the refrigerator, which was covered in magnets of different letters, scattered across the surface. Were those a clue? Or were they supposed to look inside the fridge? The handle was high in the air, out of her reach for now, though she could see a footstool off in one corner. With it, it might be possible to reach the handle, or get onto the high chair.

There was a sink, too, surrounded by empty bottles, turned upside-down to dry. There was a cupboard underneath it, as well as some above, though the latter seemed far too tall for any of them to get to, even with the footstool's help.

The floor itself was brightly colored, covered in shapes of all different colors. It was also covered in piles of picture books and pots and pans, turned over and ready to be banged on, to entertain the occupants of the daycare while they waited their turn to be fed. 

"What do we do?" Serena shook her head, feeling overwhelmed at the sight of it all. "Julianne, where do we start?!"

But her friend couldn't tell her that; she was too busy being force-fed baby food and juice, flailing uselessly in the high chair. "All right," Serena closed her eyes for a moment. "Alecia, we need to look around," she said again. "Can you..?"

"We need to get her out!" Alecia pointed up at Julianne.

"I know!" Serena glowered at her. "We're going to need the combination to the lock to do that."

"Well, where is that?" Alecia demanded.

Serena shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine."

"Maybe we can get her out without it," Alecia said. "Look! There's a footstool! I bet if I..."

"That's not how it works!" Serena snapped. "They aren't going to have a lock there if we aren't supposed to open it." Alecia pouted, not happy about being yelled at by an underclassman, Serena unable to keep herself from thinking how well this all seemed to suit the girl, how natural she looked in her new, babyish outfit, how much she wouldn't mind leaving her like this... But she had a feeling that wasn't going to be an option. They had needed three people, after all.

"Listen," she tried to sound a little more patient. "Why don't you...?"

"I'll do what I want!" Alecia huffed.

"Fine!" Serena sighed. "As long as you're doing something..."

Alecia stuck her tongue out, Serena wondering if she was playing into it, if she knew how childish that was making her look... Or if, maybe, this place was already starting to get to her. 

"Okay," Serena whispered to herself. "This is it... Where do I start?"

Should Serena...

Check under the sink?

Check the sink?

Look at the magnets?

Try to open the fridge?

Look at the picture books?

Look at the pots and pans?

Examine the baby gate more closely?

See if she can find another, hidden exit to the room?

Or ask for a hint?

And should Alecia...

Check under the sink?

Check the sink?

Look at the magnets?

Try to open the fridge?

Look at the picture books?

Look at the pots and pans?

Examine the baby gate more closely?

Keep trying to get onto the high chair to help Julianne?

Or ask for a hint?

As a quick note, if the girls both decide to do the same thing, then, of course, they will do it together, except when it comes to asking for a hint, in which case, they'd each ask for one, using up both of their free hints at once. There may be an element of randomness to some of this, with each of the girls more suited to different tasks, and perhaps a few dice rolls to determine their success or failure with things, though I haven't decided for sure on if I'll do that, or just have it be determined entirely by their stats, which I'm keeping hidden for now, which can be changed, mostly by going down, depending on what happens to them during their time here. If they work together to do something, they're almost guaranteed a success... But if it turns out that it's a red herring, then they'll all suffer any potential consequences, too.