Curtain Call, Part 3

The text projected on the back wall returned to its first question.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

Valerie gestured to Mara, but she shook her head and said, "No, you can go first."

Valerie smiled under her mask. "Please, I insist."

Mara hesitated, but eventually stepped under the spotlight. "My name is Mara," she said to the room.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

"For the money."

FOR WHOM DO YOU TOIL?

Mara tilted her head. "Are you asking who I work for?"

The dim room offered no response, and the text did not change. The tall woman looked to Valerie and Roman, confusion evident in the eyes behind the straw mask.

"Are you sending some of your winnings to someone else?" Roman asked.

Mara nodded. "My boyfriend."

That was apparently the correct answer.

DOES HE DESERVE IT?

When she saw the next question, Mara's body stiffened. "Yes."

The question remained. Mara was wringing her hands.

"Who I give the money to doesn't matter, does it? It's my choice," she said meekly. "I love him."

Valerie and Roman exchanged a glance.

"I love him," Mara repeated. "It's not about whether he deserves it."

Valerie cleared her throat. "They want a certain response from you. It doesn't have to be the truth."

"No," Mara said in a small voice.

WHY NOT?

Her arms fell to her sides, and her head drooped. The room was painfully quiet for a long time. Valerie watched specks of dust float through the spotlight's cone of illumination. She couldn't bring herself to say anything, and Roman just watched with a grim expression.

Finally, Mara began to speak. "Because he's selfish. Because he spends the money on stupid bullshit instead of paying off his debt."

It wasn't enough.

"Everyone warned me. I lost friends over it. He doesn't appreciate any of the sacrifices I make for him. But I still love him."

She lifted her head. "I love him, but he doesn't love me."

DO AS YOU WILL.

The string snapped. Much like Roman's, the chin of the falling mask struck the wooden stage and it shattered. Mara stared down at the broken pieces for a while before reaching down and grabbing the key that had been hidden in the mask.

As Mara retreated from the spotlight, Valerie tried to say something to console her, but she just said, "I need some time to think." She sat against the wall on the far corner of the stage.

"Well," Valerie said to Roman, "that should be it, right? We have two keys."

Roman pointed to the back wall. The text had once again reset to the first question.

"Shouldn't we check the door?" She tried to keep the nervous edge out of her tone.

He shrugged, and the two of them left the stage. Almost immediately, Roman recognized the problem.

"These won't fit, the shape is wrong. The keys in the masks are for something else."

Valerie glanced at the stage apprehensively and adjusted her mask.

"Just think of it like a job interview," Roman said.

"I hate interviews."

They returned to the stage. Valerie squinted under the heat of the spotlight.

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

"Valerie."

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

"Money."

The question did not change.

She took a deep breath. "My dad. I need to pay for the treatments for my dad's illness."

Still no change. Valerie closed her eyes. She had known this was coming, but in that moment, she felt like she was suffocating.

"You're right," she choked out. "My dad died last month. We already had the funeral. He's dead and buried. Is that what you wanted to hear?"

Her eyes stung. She dared not turn to look at Roman.

"I still have money left over from last time, so... I don't know. Maybe I thought I could do this for a living. Maybe this was the most interesting thing to ever happen in my life. I don't know why I'm here."

DO AS YOU WILL.

She felt and heard the string snap and her mask fall, but she had lost feeling in her legs. Slowly, she crouched down and inspected the pieces of the rabbit mask.

"I'm sorry." Roman was beside her.

"For what?" She picked up the brass key.

"I just... I'm not sure what to say. I'm not very good at this."

Valerie stood. She still couldn't look Roman in the eye. "Sometimes you don't have to say anything."

She leaned forward and buried her face in his chest. She listened to the steady drumming of his pulse and the sound of his lungs filling and emptying. She felt all sorts of desires flow freely through her, and she relished the thought of every one of them.

A loud buzzing noise pierced the air, and Valerie flinched back.

The curtain was moving with a mechanical whirr, withdrawing into itself. The wall behind it began slowly retracting into the ground. Roman stepped slightly in front of Valerie, and Mara rejoined them, a strange look on her face.

It didn't take long to realize what was happening. On the other side of the wall, there was a second escape room that mirrored their own—a stage, a curtain, a projector, a closet of masks, and a trio of players. Three men stood before them on the "new" half of the stage.

"Hello, Roman." The man in the middle spoke first. He had sandy blond hair that ran just past his ears and a wicked grin.

"Wyatt?"

"I've been waiting for this day for ten years."

Valerie saw Roman tense in her peripheral vision. The projector in the other room flicked on to display a countdown timer on the far wall. Seventeen minutes and ten seconds remained.

"Let's keep this simple," Wyatt said. "You've got the keys for the door behind us, we've got the keys for the door behind you. Sound right?"

Each of the men was holding a small copper-colored key. Valerie didn't like where this was going.

"Only four of us can leave," Roman said darkly.

"Right, and me and my boys make up three of those." Wyatt pointed to Valerie and Mara. "Whichever one of these two ladies gives up her key first can have mine."

Mara was already moving before he had finished his sentence. She shot an apologetic look back at Valerie as she handed over her key.

"Go. We'll figure something out," Valerie said.

But it wouldn't be that simple. The man with narrow eyes and a hook nose to Wyatt's left grabbed Mara's arm before she could leave.

"Hold on a minute," he said, looking her up and down. "Boss, I don't think we can just let a girl like this walk out of here for free."

Wyatt waved dismissively. "Fine. Just take it somewhere else."

The man smiled and tightened his grip on Mara's arm. She tried to pull away, but he yanked her back.

"Wait. Please don't do this."

Her words fell on deaf ears as the hook-nosed man dragged her off the stage to the other room. Valerie felt a pit in her stomach. She glanced at Roman. His piercing gray eyes were radiating hostility, but he didn't move an inch. Wyatt and the other man were focused solely on him. She would have to let this happen, she realized. There was no incentive for anyone there, including her, to act outside of self-interest. Do as you will.

"Please! Somebody help!" Mara cried as the hook-nosed man pushed her against the wall, groping at her.

Then again, what was left for her to lose?

Valerie turned on one leg, launched herself toward the other side of the stage, and leapt off. She had stopped thinking—it would only slow her down. She reached her target in only a few strides and immediately sent her momentum into her right foot and swung it at the man's leg, driving her shoe into his shinbone.

The hook-nosed man yelped and jumped back, grabbing his leg. Valerie tossed Mara her key. The brunette, wide-eyed, caught it and tried to say something.

"Go," Valerie said.

"Bitch!" the hook-nosed man spat at Valerie. "You trying to die?"

Valerie's petite frame was not made for fighting. She had no illusions about winning a contest of strength against even a man of average height and build. Instead, she lowered her stance and watched his eyes. The best she could do was evade him. How long she could keep that up or what came after were not questions she considered. Her breathing slowed, and her vision narrowed.

The man lunged at her. Valerie dodged left, intending to get away from the wall and give herself room to maneuver.

She felt something grab her ponytail, and she was yanked backwards and fell to the floor, hard.