SAM, JUNE & PENNY
"June,"
Despite hearing her name, she doesn't wake up.
"June, wake up,"
June groans as her eyes slowly open and her mind comes back to reality.
"What?" she whines.
"Wake up. Something's wrong."
She wearily looks up at the figure above her. Sam.
"What is it?" June asks, stretching out her body.
"I heard gunshots," Penny answers from across the room.
June freezes. Her heart stops for a slight moment at Penny's words.
"W-what?"
"We don't know where they came from, but they can't be a good thing," Sam says, getting up from crouching down in front of June.
June gets up and looks at Sam with fear in her eyes. Sam's face is overcome with that same fear. They both look over at Penny who's in front of the door, looking down at something.
"We were moved to a different room," Sam whispers to June.
Her eyebrows raise in surprise as she checks her surroundings. It was in fact a different room. It's slightly bigger, the carpet is different, and the door is metal instead of wood. Both Sam and June approach Penny and see what she's looking at. A keypad above the door handle.
"We need a code," She mumbles.
June is in disbelief. When had they been moved? Was it last night when they all went back to sleep? Was it before that while they were sleeping before they woke up in the middle of the night? Maybe they just didn't notice. As if she could read her thoughts, Penny turns and answers June's questions.
"It was in the morning. We were all asleep, but I was starting to wake up when I caught a glimpse of a man leaving the room. They used gas after we went back to sleep keep us out." Penny states.
June sighs.
"Well, now what?" June asks, looking back at Sam.
"We need to figure out what this code is. Look around the room. See if you can find anything," he replies assertively.
Just like the last room, this room doesn't have any furniture, so if there is something in here, it shouldn't be too hard to find. Penny then spots something on the ceiling.
"Guys, look," she says to them, pointing at a small piece of paper taped onto the ceiling.
It's folded and looks pretty stuck down.
"How do we get it down?" June asks.
"Isn't it obvious? We climb on top of each other," Sam answers.
Both girls look at him in surprise.
"What? You got any better ideas?"
Penny and June look at each other. It's the only way. After some discussion, they concluded that Sam and Penny would be at the bottom while June tried to grab the paper. They get into position, both Penny and Sam holding their hands out for June. She places her foot into their palm and they lift her up. Her fingers are inches away from the sheet before she feels herself falling. She lets out a short yelp before preparing herself for impact.
All three of them fall to the floor with a grunt.
"Shit," June mutters, trying to lift herself off of the ground before realizing where she landed.
Both Penny and June open their eyes and their gazes meet for a moment. Penny can feel blood starting to rush to her face.
"Crap, sorry. Did I hurt you?" June asks, abruptly getting off of Penny.
Penny lies there for a few more seconds before she gets up and shakes her head. Her heart is pounding rather quickly. What just happened?
"You guys okay?" Sam asks, now sitting up as well.
June looks back at him and nods. She stands up and holds her hand out for Penny.
"I-I'm fine," Penny says, getting up herself.
"Okay, so that obviously didn't work," Sam states.
"I think Penny should be the one to grab it. She's lighter than me," June suggests.
They both look at Penny.
"S-sure," she answers.
The stutter was coming out again. She clenches her fists and digs her nails into her palms, trying to make it go away. Sam and June get into position, as does Penny. She places her foot on their hands and uses their shoulders to lift herself up. She swiftly yanks the paper off of the ceiling and stumbles down before she loses balance and falls.
"Okay," Penny exhales.
She unfolds the paper to find a series of sentences in the form of a poem. She reads it out loud.
"A breeze dances,
Tall and Straight trees form,
Tangled fruits and leaves,
I am but the wind,
Cold and strong and free." She reads.
All three of them look at each other in confusion.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" June asks.
"Well, it's obviously a poem. Maybe it has a hidden message we're missing."
"What part of that 'poem' is in any way helpful to getting out of here?" June asks, crossing her arms.
"Something might be a metaphor," Sam says.
He grabs the paper from Penny and examines it.
"Maybe the amount of words in each line makes up the code," Penny suggests.
"But the code is 6 numbers. This is only 5 lines," Sam says.
"There could be a zero in there," June comments.
Sam shrugs.
"Worth a shot."
He walks over to the door and enters in the first attempt at the code.
"354550," he types into the keypad.
It's followed by two beeps and a flash of red light. That wasn't it.
"Maybe the zero is at the start," Penny says.
Sam goes back to entering the code.
"035455," he enters.
Again, two beeps and red flashing.
"Wrong again," He mutters.
All three of them get back to thinking. Sam repeatedly reads each line of the poem carefully, hoping to find some sort of metaphor, purposeful grammar error, or a hidden important word. June suddenly snatches the paper away from his grip. She holds it out in front of her as far away from her face as possible.
"Lewis doesn't seem like the type to be artsy and make the code have something to do with a metaphor. He's much more straightforward than that," June states.
"We need to look at it from a different perspective," She mutters, narrowing her eyes.
Penny peeks at the paper from over her shoulder and tries to do the same.
"I don't see anything," Penny whispers.
"Shh,"
June tilts her head, then turns the paper on its side. She puts it back upwards and it clicks. She looks at the first letter of every line. Her eyes widen.
"Attic!" she shouts out.
Penny and Sam both look at her like she's crazy.
"Look!" she says, pointing at each first letter.
"A-T-T-I-C. Attic," she clears up.
Sam grabs the paper from her and looks at it himself. Holy shit. She's right. June crosses her arms and shoots him a subtle glare.
"What? You think I can't read or something?" She asks, a bitter tone in her voice.
Sam looks back at her and gives her the paper.
"Okay, so it says attic. How is that supposed to help us?" he asks in his own bitter tone.
June scoffs.
"You're obviously upset I beat you at figuring it out," June raises her eyebrow.
Sam rolls his eyes. Penny suddenly gets in between them.
"Both of you, shut it. We need to figure this out. We don't have time for your bickering," she says.
Despite her being the youngest out of the three of them, so far Penny has proved to be the most mature in the room. She was entirely right. They didn't have time to be "arguing" over the tiniest things.
"You're right," Sam and June both say at the same time.
June takes a deep breath.
"Good. Now let's figure this out," Penny states.
BROOKE & APRIL
April and Brooke are both sitting on the floor in silence, fiddling with the carpet and their hands. Brooke lets out a deep sigh and abruptly stands up.
"Alright, that's enough. We can't just sit here and mope around for the rest of the day," she states.
"Why not? There's nothing better to do," April mumbles.
"Yes, there is! We have to get out of he-"
"How are we supposed to do that Brooke?! Look around! There's nothing here! Our friends are probably dead by now and we have absolutely no idea how to get out! Just accept defeat already!" April shouts, standing up right in front of Brooke.
Brooke is taken aback. How could she say that? How could she say they were all dead?! In a sudden fit of anger, Brooke raises her hand and slaps April in the face. April stands there in shock.
"What the hell?!" she shouts.
"Yeah, what the hell?! Why would you say that?!"
"Because it's probably true! Face it, Brooke! We're dead and you know it."
"That doesn't mean we stop trying!"
"Why not?!"
"Because my fucking brother is out there, April! Our friends of years are out there! How can you sit there and say we should do nothing about it?!" Brooke finally shouts.
April stands in silence as she stares at the ground. Her fists are clenched at her sides and she's digging her teeth into her lower lip. Brooke sighs heavily and rubs her temple in frustration.
"I'm not giving up. If you want to, fucking go ahead. Be my guest, but I'm not just gonna sit here and give up on all of our friends."
She walks past April, purposely bumping into her shoulder as she heads back over to the envelope that had the key in it. She crouches down and picks it up, taking the key back out.
"There's no way that this is just a useless key that he gave us. There has to be a reason we would need it whether it be now or later," Brooke thinks to herself, as she examines the key.
She's hoping to find any sort of possible purpose for it right now, but she can't seem to think of anything. I mean, it did open the drawer, but it had nothing in it. Wait, it did have nothing in it, right? Brooke stands back up and walks back over to the drawer, desperately hoping she had maybe missed something. Maybe there was writing on the inside, or maybe there was a false bottom. She opens the drawer back up, April slowly inching toward her from behind. Brooke tries lifting the bottom up and looks in every possible place there could be something.
There's nothing. It's completely and utterly empty. She lets out a frustrated sigh. What the hell does Lewis want them to do?! She slams the drawer shut, causing the whole table itself to lose balance, tilt over, and fall.
"Brooke.." April starts.
Brooke swiftly and angrily turns around.
"What?! What now?! Are you going to tell me to calm down?! Are you gonna tell me to give up again?!" Brooke shouts, gradually taking steps closer to April.
"Are you gonna tell me that I'm being dramatic or that I need to just stop?! You think I don't know we're screwed, April?! I know we're completely and utterly fucked! I know we have absolutely no way of getting out of here and I know that there's a high possibility that everyone out there is dead! I know!" Brooke shouts, finally at her breaking point.
April digs her nails into her palms. She doesn't know what to say now.
"Oh, now you want to shut up," Brooke scoffs.
She runs a hand through her short hair and exhales deeply. Brooke walks back over to the envelope she left on the floor and picks it back up, looking for hope.
"I'm sorry," April says quietly, Brooke barely being able to hear her as she narrows her eyes, still looking at the envelope.
"I know I'm not being helpful. I just.." April stops herself when Brooke suddenly turns around and rushes over to stand under the light.
She holds the envelope up to the light and looks at it carefully.
"Oh my gosh," she whispers.
April stands next to her and looks up at the envelope. Both of the girl's eyes widen. A word. There's a word on the envelope, only visible when held directly under light. When realizing what word is on the envelope, their subtle excitement quickly dies down.
"Pillow," they both say at the same time.
Now what the hell are they supposed to do with that?
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HIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!! I feel like it's been forever 😭. I've been working very hard on making all of the chapters and I'm proud to announce that I have half of the book planned out now 😌. But, my brain is fried 🥲. The updates are gonna get a little bit slower from now on, BUT DON'T WORRY! I'm not abandoning you. Just giving myself enough time to give you guys a good story. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and are prepared for the rest of this book, cause I sure as hell am. Thanks for reading!
🫶