Escape the Night (S1): "It All Comes Crashing Down"

Mermaid Tails Part 3

"There is only one portion of the antidote, and the only way to retrieve it is to search your side of the room for three dolls that best reflect the rhymes in your storybook and place them in their proper setting in the house. When you think you have positioned the dolls correctly, slam your storybook against the table.

Whoever completes the dollhouse first will receive a vial. If you have positioned your dolls correctly, the vial will contain the antidote, and you will be able to save yourself from the poison in your veins. However, if you get it wrong, the vial will contain another dose of poison, and you will die immediately after you drink it.

You have thirty minutes to complete this puzzle before the poison takes effect." I read off the back of the note.

"No holding back, ok?" I ask making sure it's clear,i'm fighting. Matt nods. 

"Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks,
And when she saw what she had done,
She gave her father forty-one."

I recoil. I can't believe people used to read these nursery rhymes to their kids. Like, damn, scare the shit out of them, why don't you? Whatever. Doesn't matter. I know this one. There's two blood-soaked dolls—the parents—which he can put together in the study. Add a girl with an axe looming over them, and boom. Done. Moving on.

"Old Father Longlegs
Can't say his prayers:
Take him by the left leg
And throw him down the stairs.
And when he's at the bottom,
Before he long has lain,
Take him by the right leg
And throw him up again."

One doll is about ten inches taller than the others, and he has really long legs, so i'm gonna assume that he must be Old Father Longlegs. I grab him by the left leg and stuff him down the tiny dollhouse stairwell.

"When he's at the bottom..."

"Yo." Matt's voice barges its way into my thoughts. 

"Where did you put your first thing?"

"Don't worry about it, babe." I want to help him, honest I do, but I can't. Too risky. This is a death challenge, and if Matt gets the antidote, it's game over—unless, of course, he lets me have a sip. Which he probably won't. I pick up Old Father Longlegs by his right leg and forces him back up the stairwell. I have to survive. I have to get home. I have to get that antidote. And if Matt goes down in the process... Don't think about it.

"I don't know if these are the daughters," I fret, fidgeting with the scene in front of me. 

"Is that it?" i mutter.

I've spent the last several minutes second-guessing myself, switching out dolls, changing their positions, moving them from room to room like I'm some wishy-washy decorator. Every time I think I got it right, I'll spot another problem, and then it's back to work for another four minutes. Perfectionist? OCD? Maybe. But I have to get this right. If it's wrong, I'm drinking poison again.

"I think I have what I need," Matt remarks. "How close are you?"

"I feel like I'm on the last one, but I could be—" i stop.

"I feel like I'm on the last one, too...you wanna help each other with these? Like, y'know, some Romeo and Juliet type thing?"

I wish. I laugh. 

"I don't think we can do that."

"All right." Matt shrugs. 

"It was a thought." Then, after an uneasy pause, "I think I've got mine right. I really do."