A/N: This is the position Killian and Tessa were in while dancing (except he's much taller ;)) ^^^
Tessa
When we arrive, we buy a room as quickly as we can, excitement itching our bones.
"This is so cool," I whisper, as if I'm in a library or something.
I look around the second we get inside our escape room, hoping I'll get lucky and find a clue immediately or something.
"I see a clue!" Tyler yells, running toward a vanity mirror in the corner.
"No, you don't," Payton says with a click of his tongue. He walks over to see what Tyler's looking at, anyway.
I wander over to the kitchen area to start my search.
This rooms weird. There's a couch in one corner, a kitchen in another, and random cupboards everywhere.
And it's a mess, too. How are we supposed to find clues in here?
Hazel and Killian join me, opening up cupboard after cupboard and even going as far as to search the oven.
But we come up empty handed.
I walk over to the couch and turn over the cushions. I try to look underneath it, but it's too dark to see anything.
"Killian!" I yell, and he's by my side in a second. "Can you lift up this couch?"
I'm already bent down and ready to see, so he goes to one end and lifts it up with ease.
"Anything?" I shake my head and stand up with an annoyed huff.
"This is harder than I thought it'd be," I complain, looking around aimlessly.
He laughs and plays with my hair. "We only just started, you know."
I look up at him and see he's completely focused on plaiting my hair. I smile and squeeze his cheeks.
He grabs my hand gently in surprise and smiles before grabbing my cheeks, too.
I laugh and push him away from me by his forehead.
"Killian! Come help me lift this!" Tyler practically screams, and Killian looks over at him.
He ruffles my hair up and goes off to Tyler, so I go back into the kitchen to help Hazel.
She looks at me with an almost evil smirk and I look at her with furrowed eyebrows, a little freaked out. "What?"
"So, you and Killian, huh?" She says, and goes back to her search.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I ask, honestly confused.
She laughs and looks at me again. "I see the way you look at each other. And yesterday, at the party? You two looked real couply to me."
My cheeks flush instantly, and I stare at her with a wild look on my face.
What? How we look at each other? Couply?
"Yeah right," I scoff, trying to sound indifferent, but I'm not fooling anyone.
I've just...I've never thought of Killian in that way before.
Me and him? It just seems so...foreign. We've known each other since we could speak in full sentences, and not once have I seen Killian in a romantic way.
But is it such a bad thing? For some reason, I'm not completely against the idea of me and Killian seeming couply.
I've never had a proper crush before, so I have no idea what it feels like.
What's the difference between liking someone as a friend and liking them as something more?
God, now I can't stop thinking about it.
I glance over at Killian, who's laughing with Tyler as they struggle to carry a cupboard.
He's not...bad looking, either. God, what am I saying?
Hazel laughs at my confused face, so I glare at her. "What have I done?"
"I don't know, but you've gotta take it back. He'll never see me like that in a million years, even if I did have feelings for him," I say, and whisper the last part.
They're too far away and too distracted to hear me even if I yelled it, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.
I'd just die if someone went and misunderstood our conversation.
Hazel scoffs and looks at me like I'm crazy. "Girl, if anybody likes anybody, it's him. He looks at you like you've both been married for a decade or two."
I stare at him again. Really? Does he really look at me like that?
I've honestly never noticed. My brother's look at me with that much love, too. So I've always just thought he loves me like they do.
But does he really like me romantically? I can't believe it. I just can't.
Maybe I'd believe it if I hadn't disappeared for so long, but I did. Surely Killian found another girl to crush on.
There's no way he's liked me since we were kids, and there's no way he's fallen for me within the last two weeks.
That's just crazy. Right?
"Ugh, I hate you," I say, grabbing my head.
Hazel laughs and we continue looking for a while, until Payton shouts at everyone to come see what he's found.
He's super excited and holding a laminated card with black writing on it.
"It says, 'when the sun sleeps, the world goes dark. When the room goes dark, the person sleeps'."
"Sleeps? Maybe the couch?" Milo says, and we all walk to it.
It's small, could maybe fit three of us, soft and red. We practically rip it apart looking for clues, but it's not there.
We're all tempted to literally rip it open, getting frustrated, but we were told not to destroy anything or we'd be paying for it's replacement.
"When the sun sleeps...the world goes dark. When the room goes dark," Payton mumbles, in thought.
"Maybe one of us needs to sleep," Tyler says, and Mavok punches him in the arm. He punches him back.
"Don't be an idiot. Why would one of us sleeping do anything?" Mavok says in a 'duh' tone.
"Shut up, I'm trying to think," Hugh hisses, looking beyond annoyed.
"This is impossible," Milo complains.
"Tyler, I think it was a great idea. I think you should test it out," Hazel teases, patting the couch with a smile.
Tyler sticks his tongue out at her and I smile at them.
She tells me all about how couply me and Killian seem, but look at her and Tyler.
"When the room goes dark," I whisper to myself, looking down in thought.
I slowly walk back over to the door and turn the light off, which gets a few shocked shrieks from everyone.
But bright red lasers shoot from mirror to mirror, and we all admire it for a second.
"You're a fucking genius, Tessa!" Payton yells, giving me a tight squeeze. I laugh as he lifts me off the ground and kick my feet in the air.
Everyone cheers and we follow the lasers until we reach the end of it.
It's pointing to a vent high in the wall. I turn the lights back on as Payton pulls the air-vents barrier off.
He reaches inside it and pulls out a box.
After some inspection, we find a lock on it, with a code needed to open it, and a small piece of paper stuck to the side of it.
"What does it say?" Killian asks.
"It's directions. Starting from the door," he walks over to the door, looks at us all, and then beckons Hazel over. She happily stands up against the door, ready for further instructions. "Okay, walk four steps forward."
"Okay," she says, and does as he says.
"Three steps to the right," we watch as she steps, and follow her across the room. "Eight steps forward, then five more to the right." We're in the kitchen now, looking around in hopes of finding the clue before the instructions lead us to it. "Six steps back, and then...four up?"
She takes six steps back and we finally notice a small ladder nearby. She steps up onto it and goes up the first four steps.
She reaches up and grabs a thick letter from the top of one of the kitchen cabinets.
She opens it excitedly and pulls out a folded up piece of paper.
We all follow her to the kitchen table as she unfolds it and smooths out its creases.
"It's a crossword puzzle," Hazel says, still inspecting what she found. "About general knowledge questions."
We all groan, but get to work anyway. We're finished in about ten minutes, and we all stare at our work.
"I don't get it," Tyler says, tapping his finger on the table impatiently.
"Where's the pen and paper we were given in the beginning?" Hugh asks, looking around. Mavok passes the small notebook and pen to him.
He writes down each of the crossword puzzles answers in order from 1 to 5 down and 1 to 5 across.
He writes down how many letters are in each word and grabs the box we found earlier.
Slowly, he puts in each number, and when he gets to the last one, the suspense grows rapidly.
We watch as it clicks in and the lock opens, and with a big cheer, Hugh opens the box and grabs the small key inside.
We all run to the door and try the lock, but it doesn't work.
Some of us groan, but I'm glad it didn't work. I want this to last as long as possible.
"Okay, start looking for places this key could go," Payton says, and we all go our seperate ways.
I follow Payton into the kitchen and we start looking around together.
I try to move the red couch away from the wall, but it's too heavy.
Before I can call for help, Payton practically flicks it away from the wall.
He's so strong. I wanna be that strong. Seriously, if I was a boy, nobody would beat me in an arm wrestle.
"I'm gonna beat you in an arm wrestle one day. I swear on it," I mumble, narrowing my eyes at him.
He laughs. "Well, if you swear, then..."
I smile and slap his arm playfully, before scanning the wall and the cupboard it was up against.
I see a small keyhole on the bottom right corner of the cupboard.
"Hey, I found a key hole!" I yell, bending down to inspect it further.
Hugh comes over with the key and passes it to me.
I try it and, thankfully, it fits and turns. A small door springs open and I reach inside, pulling out a piece of paper.
"It says, 'my words are small, but I'm not little. Women are my subject, I tell the story of sisters and love'," I read aloud. "Maybe a book?"
We all head over to the small bookshelf near the vanity mirror.
We search for a while and after a few minutes, Killian say, "oh, it's Little Woman."
I look over and see Killian holding the book 'Little Woman' open, and it's hollow inside. He pulls out a small torch and turns it on.
"What do we do with a torch?" Hazel asks, looking at it with the same confused look we all have.
Killian tries shining it around the book, but nothing happens.
"It's an invisible ink torch," Mavok chips in, and we all agree he's right.
"Little woman...oh, I saw some small statues of little woman earlier." Tyler leads the way to one of the cupboards near the door.
He opens it up and shows us the little woman he saw earlier. Killian shines the torch on them and small writing appears underneath their feet.
"You smarty pants," I say, putting Tyler in a headlock and rubbing my knuckles on his head.
He laughs and playfully pushes me off him, which makes me laugh, too.
"What? It's just gibberish." Milo's got furrowed eyebrows and a frown on his face.
"It's not gibberish, dumb ass, it's Italian," Hugh says, "anyone know Italian?"
Nobody speaks, and I groan. "How the hell are we supposed to read it, then?"
"Wait, I think I saw an Italian dictionary on the bookshelf," Payton says. He walks over to the bookshelf and finds the dictionary.
He quickly comes back to us and looks back and forth from the book to the few words written on the cupboard.
"Four..." He flicks through the pages, "Thirty...eight."
This clue takes us ages to figure out. We all go back to searching and thinking and searching some more.
Finally, after we'd just about given up, Hazel comes running to me with a wall clock.
"What if it meant 4:38 as in the time?" She asks.
"Worth a try." We maneuver the clock hands to the Roman numerals of 4:38 and a lock clicks. "Guys, Hazel's a genius!"
She laughs and everyone rushes over, excited.
Hazel flips the door to the inside of the clock open and we find another lock, but this time it needs a number combination.
There's a sheet of paper next to it, and when we turn it over, we all groan.
"Seriously? They're gonna make us do math?" Tyler whines, and I laugh.
"I'll do it," I say, grabbing the sheet. "I'm good at math."
I smile cheekily at them all and take a seat at the table.
The questions start off easy but get harder and harder the further I get down the sheet.
Still, I finish it in about five minutes, which gets me a few claps and cheers.
I laugh and read the number out for Milo to click in.
The small door flings open and Milo pulls out a key.
Slowly, and with a lot of suspense, we walk over to the door. Milo takes his time putting the key in the lock, and it reminds me of the first night I came home.
When I was annoyed at Tyler because he was slowly opening the door.
When he finally did open it, and I froze, terrified.
When I saw everyone I could ever love waiting for me on the other side of it, and I was the happiest I'd been in the last four years.
I stare at everyone before me, huddled around Milo as the lock clicks, and watch as they cheer.
My eyes are watering, but I have such a huge smile on my face you wouldn't even notice.
I love each and every one of them so, so, so much. It kind of hurts, because I have so much love and I don't know what to do with it.
I want to scream and cry and laugh and be with them all forever and ever and ever.
My family. My friends. All the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful people in my life.
I don't even care about Viper. I don't even care about what he did to me. I don't even care about the scars and the left-over pain and the horrid memories.
Because I've already got everything I could ever need. They're mine and they're not going anywhere.
I won't let them. I won't let them go away. I won't let them be taken.
I'll do everything in my power to keep them, even if it kills me.
Because I adore all of them so, so much, and for the rest of my life, I won't need anything more.
They're it. They've always been it. All I'll ever want.
My people.
"Tessie!" Hazel squeals, hugging me tight. "That was fucking awesome!"
I laugh and hug her back just as tight. Our hug may end, but I'll never let her go.
I'll never let any of them go.
We all walk out of the room happy and smiling, talking amongst ourselves.
We're loud and boisterous and probably obnoxious, but none of us care.
Why should we? We're on top of the world!
"Dad texted me a few minutes ago. They're at the park across the street with a picnic set-up for lunch," Payton tells everyone, and I smile big.
We all cross the street carefully and run through the park toward dad and Carl in the distance.
Tyler and Killian race each other, and me and Hazel chase after them.
"Papa!" I yell, and tackle him with a hug. He laughs and squeezes me back.
"Did you have fun?" He asks me after we finish hugging. I nod wildly and sit next to him on the large blanket him and Carl have laid out.
There's four baskets no doubt full of delicious food, and we dig in as soon as everyone is seated.
We tell Carl and dad all about the escape room and how cool it was. They promise to go with us to the next one, and I tell them I can't wait.
Me and Hazel get to know each other a bit more, but eventually 3:30 rolls around.
We all help pack up and carry our stuff back the car.
I walk Hazel up to her house and hug her goodbye.
Killian heads home when we get back to the house and I hug him goodbye, too, before going up to my room and dropping onto my bed with a happy sigh.
Everything's so perfect. My life is so fucking perfect right now.
I can't help but feel like nothing will ever go wrong ever again, even if deep inside, I know that's not true.
Still, I'll pretend it is. I'll listen to my heart instead of my head.
Just for a little while.
~~~
Written: 18/10/23
Words: 2927
What do you think about Hazel's suspicion? Do you think Killian and Tessa seem couply?
Remember to comment and vote!
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