A/N: Writing this was fun!
Rastus had to stop himself from laughing when he saw Serenity enter his workshop. The red dress she was wearing was covered in several creams and sauces as well as bit of food. Her hair was completely covered.
"Didn't go well?" Rastus asked as he tasted the curry he was cooking before adding some more spices.
"I'm gone two seconds and bedlam erupts." She growled as she wiped her face clean of food, using a handkerchief that lay on one of the several workbenches. She sighed as she sat down.
"Maybe this Selection was a bad idea… Or maybe I should have started with one on one dates?" She said as she picked pieces of rice out of her hair.
"Don't bother, you'll bore the audience and you have some 30 guys sticking around. Do you really want to waste a whole month dating? We're already behind schedule." The mage said leaning against the counter, watching Kundala walk around the workshop and peck at Serenity's dress eating the bit of shrimp on her.
"I'll… What?" Serenity said, confused. Rastus grinned mischievously and shook his head.
"Nothing, princess. What I'm getting at is that it's better to go on group dates then on solo dates. With group dates you'll see how your potential love will act with others. Don't wanna marry someone with zero people skills." Rastus reasoned.
Serenity pondered the idea, Rastus had a point, just how many of her Selected put on an act for her? She would have to do a group activity.
"It's only 2 o' clock. I have time for another date. Rastus gather the selected and meet me in the Men's parlor in a half hour." Serenity said.
"Ask Pearce, I deal with them enough. " Rastus said as he took out a goblet and a bottle of wine.
At 2 o' clock Captain Pearce and Argyle had every Selected in the parlor. A few of them chatted amongst each other, a few looked bored. Neil stayed in the back his nose in a book, Sora was also in the back looking bored. Zeke sat in the front, munching on an apple and chatting with Cat. Soraes and Asra sat on a couch talking about art. Everyone quieted down when Rastus and Serenity entered.
Serenity was wearing a red tea dress with some high top sneakers and striped leggings.
"Hello, Alice" Rastus spoke, as he tapped his staff against the floor. Conjuring up a large multicolored wheel.
"Alright you lot, Serenity's date this morning went… bad. She has decided that this cannot stand so she will go on another date. However in order to speed things along 4 of your will be chosen at random to go with her." Rastus said as he waved his staff and names began appearing on the wheel.
"We will be going to an escape room! I like working with others and I hope you are good at puzzling solving." Serenity said with a wink.
"But letting Serenity choose is boring so I, Pearce and Argyle will spin the wheel!" Rastus said as he placed his hand on the wheel and spun it. Everyone watched the wheel spin for what seemed like an eternity before it slowed down and stopped.
"Our first boy is Flint Peabody!" Rastus said. Flint shot up from a chair he was seated in. He walked up next to Serenity, small wings fluttering.
"Here! And it's Pearbees." He said.
"I don't care." Rastus said as he gestured for Argyle to spin the wheel. The servant placed his hand on the wheel and spun it weakly. The wheel barely spun before stopping on a name. Argyle looked at it.
"Asra…" He said quietly. Asra looked up from the conversation he was having with Soreas. He walked up and stood next to Flint with a small smile on his face. He seemed like he wanted to be pluxur
"Pearce…" Argyle said before walking away and out of the room.
Pearce rolled his eyes, a silly smile on his face and spun the wheel. The wheel slowed for far too long before landing on a name.
"I'd like to solve the puzzle. Catalen Ayton" A ding sound came from nowhere and Cat stood up and took his place next to the other selected. Rastus noticed that nobody was left to spin the wheel.
"Well I'm not incredibly cruel so spin the wheel Serenity." The mage said mischievously, bowing to Serenity.
"Can't I just pick my last Selected? It is MY Selection." Serenity argued. Rastus tapped his finger on his chin and thought for a second.
"And let you have control of your own future? Now that's just silly, it's not like we let you have your own choice in seeing people you meet throughout life. Instead having random men come here in some kind of reality show." Rastus said shrugging on the other side of the wheel.
"What are you prattling on about?" Peace said. Rastus looked over and smirked.
"Nothing, really aimless rambling." By the time Rastus had finished his monologue Serenity had already spun the wheel and was now slowing, landing on an orange slice. Serenity read the name, then went quiet.
"Can I spin again?" She asked, placing her hand on the wheel. Rastus stopped her and read the name.
"Neil Connor, our not-quite-half vampire." Neil looked up from his book and threw his head back in a sigh. He stood up and stood opposite of the other selected. Whilst the other 3 looked at least mildly happy. Neil just looked annoyed, he kept reading.
"Not excited?" Rastus asked. Neil looked at the mage.
"Escape rooms are always too easy. I would have preferred something challenging." Neil said bluntly. Rastus was amused by the vampire's response.
"The rest of you have the day off, same rules as always. No entry into restricted areas, don't bother King Georgios and The Lioness always takes challenges. Also Prince Quinn has left for the day so you're allowed to use the half pipe in his room. " Rastus said as he left. The remaining selected left. Some heading to the Queen's office to challenge her, some following Rastus for some magic lesson and other heading to the gardens.
Pearce escorted Serenity and her selected to a luxurious car. Serenity looked at Pearce in a moment of confusion.
"You asked that we be as inconspicuous as possible." Pearce said sheepishly. Serenity groaned, she wanted to facepalm, but doing so would smudge her make-up. She didn't want to waste Breanna's hard work.
"So a brand new luxury car your idea of inconspicuous?" Serenity said in disbelief.
"The King took Miss Delilah's word over mine." Pearce said. Serenity didn't put it past Delilah to pick luxury over comfort. From all her social media posts she did nothing but travel in luxury. She had met more royals than Serenity, Ophelia, Justine and Quinn combined.
The driver remained silent as Serenity chatted with her Selected. Pearce was following them on his motorcycle.
"I'm sorry that happened to you." Serenity said as she gently stroked Cat's tail. Cat shook his head.
"It's ok, it wasn't your fault." He said, as he leaned back into his seat. Serenity turned to Asra.
"So Asra, you're from Waverly, right? Have you been to the museums there? I've only been there once on a summit with my father." Asra smiled widely.
"I've been to every museum in Waverly. The art there is wonderful, although I'd like to see the museums of Angeles, I've never been to them before but I hear they're amazing."
"They really are, there is the Angeles County Museum of Art. The Getty, MOCA and so many more!" Serenity chirped, he head filled with the art she had seen.
"I'd love to see them with you princess. I'm sure they're wonderful." Serenity nodded.
"We're here." The driver announced. Pearce opened the door and everyone got out. The location looked like a large warehouse painted in highly stylized drawings of various scenarios, that were probably the various escape room. Neil held an umbrella to shade himself from the blazing sun. Cat's tail swished and Asra lifted his wings up off the hot pavement.
"How gaudy." Neil said. Serenity looked at the sign it said NoWayOut Escape Rooms. Serenity entered. It was simple looking waiting area with a few board games. A fairy receptionist sat at the front desk, reading a magazine,her butterfly wings flapping slowly. She put the magazine down when she saw Serenity and her group.
"Hello! Welcome to NoWayOut Escape rooms are you the 3:30 group?" She asked in a sweet but fake voice. Serenity nodded. The fairy handed them all tablet with waivers to sign.
"Alright, and you are here for the "My Beloved" room right? Alright just a second." The fairy said as she disappeared into the hall. Serenity sat down on the plush couch and pulled a game of Jenga, stacking up the bricks.
"Fancy a game, boys?" She said, everyone joined, even Neil allowed himself to play, setting his book down for a second.
Midway through the game another group entered. Serenity heard a familiar voice.
"So I told him, model buildings fine but to waste a perfectly good bottle, I could fill it with gin for thrupence." It was Ophelia who was with two girls, probably from one of her classes.
"Ophelia?!" Serenity said, startling Neil which caused him to drop the entire tower of blocks and glaring angrily at Serenity his expression lightening when he saw Ophelia. Ophelia looked like a deer in headlights.
"Serenity! I thought you finished your date!" Ophelia said as the two girls stood in shock.
"I went on another one, since there was time. What are you doing here?" The selected and the girl stared at each other then the two sisters.
"I was going to do an escape room with my friends." Ophelia said. One of her friends spoke up
"O-Oh we can do this another time. I don't want to bother the princess. C'mon Cheryl let's go." The girl said, grabbing the arm of her angelic friend and leaving quickly. Ophelia wanted to stop them but they were already gone. The younger princess sighed
"Sorry?" Serenity said. Ophelia sighed and sat down, piling the Jenga blocks again.
"It's fine, we'll just reschedule." Ophelia said and greeted each selected with mild disinterest. The fairy receptionist came back.
"Oh, you have another. Well she just has to sign." She said handing Ophelia a tablet. Figuring she would join instead of waiting outside with Pearce she signed.
"Follow me." The receptionist said, fluttering down the hall to a section where the wall was styled like a large old house. She opened the door and let everyone in.
"Alright so the story here is that you're kidnapped by a "secret admirier" who wants to take you away to be together forever. You have one hour to escape before he comes back from finalizing a way to take you away. Please place all your phones and other items in this box."The fairy pointed to a wooden box on a shelf. If you need any tips just call out that you need a tip and if you have any kind of emergency there is a red button next to the door here. Good luck." The receptionist said and closed the door.
When the door closed a voice called out from nowhere, startling Cat and Flint.
"Ah… I see you awake my sweethearts. I can't wait for us to finally be together forever. I have to do a few things, my beloved. So just sit tight, I'll be back." The voice said. Once it ended everyone looked around except for Neil who sat down on the Victorian style armchair.
"Looks like were in a basement." Serenity said looking at the stairs that led up to a door with 3 keyholes. Asra went over to inspect a desk opening different drawers and taking out an assortment of postcards, old photos, small marbles and a small ballerina figurine. Ophelia looked at a few empty frames on the wall between pictures of landmarks. Cat was searching a collection of furniture in a corner. His fingers pressed a smooth section of the wall and a gramophone popped up from the floor, startling the poor kitsune.
Serenity made her way over to Asra and looked at the postcards. They were different locations around the world.
"...but this doesn't make sense. The postcard is of Saint Paul's Cathedral but the post card says Saint Basil's Cathedral." Asra said. Neil groaned, he had figured it out but didn't want to spoil their fun.
"And this one said The Louvre but the postcard is of Buckingham palace… wait a second." Ophelia looked at the frames and the pictures next to them.
"Guys look at the pictures on the wall there are landmarks of their country. Look there is the Eiffel tower next to an empty frame which is next to Big Ben." Ophelia took the postcard of Buckingham Palace and placed it in the frame between The two pictures. Serenity did the say to the postcard of Saint Paul's Cathedral on the opposite side of Big Ben and next to the Kremlin. Asra picked up the last one and place it in it's last spot. Once all three were in their spot a grandfather clock rang and opened, showing a key dangling from it's pendulum and a in as well.
The voice rang out again.
"Ah, my dear beloved. I couldn't bear to be away from you, but my business is taking more time. I promise that in about 50 minutes I will be home." The eerie voice sent chills up Serenity's spine. She took the key and record and slipped the key in the pocket of her dress.,
"I uncovered a gramophone maybe we need to use it?" the Lycan said, Serenity shrugged and put the record on. It started playing Chopin's Nocturne op.9 No 2. Everyone was so into the music that when the room made a loud crashing sound, everyone except Neil jumped. Neil got out of his chair and head to the desk, where the sound came swept some dust and picked up another record and the ballerina figurine.
"Here." he said handing the record to Ophelia. She thanked him and put it on the gramophone. It started playing Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Suddenly a collection of objects appeared on a shelf; a snowglobe, a ragdoll and a music box. Serenity walked over and opened the box. It was missing a figurine. Neil came over and stuck the figurine in, then went over to the gramophone and flipped the record. The other side began to play Fuer Elise. The ballerina spun and a key dropped from the ceiling onto the ragdoll.
Neil then took the first record and played the other side which began playing another piece that cause Neil and Ophelia to laugh.
"Oh my god!" Ophelia said
"What is it?" Asra asked.
"It's Mozart's Leck mich im Arsch or basically kiss my ass." Neil said, trying to stifle a laugh. The gramophone open a small drawer on the side to reveal a key. Serenity awkwardly took the key and went to the door. She unlocked all three lock, before exiting she asked one of them to change the song.
Cat switched it back to Fuer Elise.
The group was now in some sort of foyer, it was sectioned into two parts a glass wall divide them from the front door. The voice came again.
"Ah-ah I was afraid you might try to leave me, love so I blocked off your access to the door." The voice faded then came again to tell them they only had 40 minutes left.
The foyer was sparsely decorated with a sofa, a few cabinets and a glass case. Oddly the front of the foyer was decorated the same except for two door on their side, one that seemed to lead to the back and one to the right, a few fake candles and a dimly lit chandelier illuminated the place giving it an eerie feeling . Serenity didn't see any difference between the two sections before she called out.
"Hey! Can we have a hint?" She called out.
"Alright, isn't it peculiar that the other side is decorated the same? However it seems your admirer couldn't find enough of the same exact things." Serenity didn't find that all the helpful.
"The plates." Flint pointed out, point to the cabinet on the other side.
"Those plates are different." Cat said, climbing on the cabinet and looking at the plates on their side then the other side.
"The plates on the other side of some old dudes!" Ophelia said. Serenity and Asra sighed at the same time.
"Old dudes? Those are artists that one with the beard is Claude Monet" Serenity said
"That one is Edouard Manet." Asra said
"And that last one with the derby is Pierre-Auguste Renoir!" Both said, staring at each other for a brief moment. Cat picked up the plates on their side and handed them to Asra and Serenity. "You guys are the artists so whose painting is who." Serenity and Asra looked at each for a few seconds before handing Cat the plates in order of paintings according to the artist. The door to the back opened with a loud creak.
"That was… surprisingly easy." Ophelia said as she walked into the next room. Followed by Serenity, Neil, Cat and Asra.
The back room was a large living room. A taxidermied wooly mammoth stood at the end of the hall. A piano at the other end. Bookshelves lined the walls each filled with books. A half finished chess game sat on a table and a spiral staircase led to an upper room. The door to upstairs had 3 gears missing.
Neil went over to the unfinished game and stared at it for a brief moment before sitting down to it. Asra inspected the mammoth, looking under it for anything. Serenity looked at every book in the bookshelves eventually reaching a fireplace. She looked inside and found a half burnt sheet of paper. Serenity sifted more until she found a scrap of paper.
" LB RG" Serenity read. She kept the scrap as she stood up and took the sheet to Ophelia.
"Ophelia, I found some sheet music. You can play the piano right? Play this." She asked. Ophelia nodded and took the sheet. It was covered and soot but still legible. She began to play, it was a slow melody as soon as Ophelia finish a sack fell from somewhere. Cat headed to the sack and opened it. Inside was a blue glass ball painted like an eyeball.
"Someone lose their glass eye?" Cat joked.
"Checkmate" Neil said. Everyone turned it seemed that Neil was playing chess and had the opponent in checkmate. In doing so a gear dropped from the table onto Neil's foot.
"Rude." He said as he picked up the gear. And looked up at the door.
Asra looked at the books, none seemed out of place. Most were texts on the various species of Illea. Angels,demons, kitsunes, lycans, dwarves. Asra noticed a book that looked different. It looked new, too new. He pulled it and found that it was a trigger of some sort. The bookshelf spun and another sack lay on a pedestal. Asra looked inside and there was another glass ball. Green this time.
The voice called out alerting them they had 20 minutes left.
Ophelia looked up at the mammoth. It's mouth was closed and the sockets looked dark. Ophelia squinted and notices the mammoth was missing it's eyes.
Asra, Cat hand me the balls." She said and went up to the mammoth's head. Sticking the blue ball into the mammoth's right socket and the green in the left, nothing happened. Ophelia was confused. Serenity looked at her paper she now realized what it was.
"Switch the eyes." She said. Ophelia shrugged and switched them. The Mammoth's mouth opened and two gears fell from its mouth.
"Two?" Serenity said.
"Oopsie…" The fairy's voice. Serenity just shrugged and went up to the door placing the gears. The door opened up into an attic. The attic was empty except for a series of panels on one wall and a large combination lock on the other end.
Ophelia looked and the panels and flipped some. It seemed she solved something because a click was heard. Serenity was amazed and then turned to the lock. Instead of numbers and letter it had names and items. She was confused and took a sheet of paper that was on the wall and read it aloud.
"At the dinner party were Lady Nabakov, Doctor Huxley, Countess Shelley, Madam Bradbury, and Baroness Burgess.
The women sat in a row. They all wore different colors and Countess Shelley wore a jaunty red hat. Madam Bradbury was at the far left, next to the guest wearing a blue jacket. The lady in yellow sat left of someone in green. I remember that purple outfit because the woman spilled her wine all over it. The traveler from Waverly was dressed entirely in pink. When one of the dinner guests bragged about her alexandrite ring the woman next to her said they were finer in Angeles, where she lived.
So Doctor Huxley showed off a prized padparadscha necklace, at which the lady from Whites scoffed, saying it was no match for her gold bangles. Someone else carried a valuable jade tiara and when she saw it, the visitor from Carolina next to her almost spilled her neighbor's absinthe. Baroness Burgess raised her whiskey in toast. The lady from Paloma, full of beer, jumped up onto the table falling onto the guest in the center seat, spilling the poor woman's scotch. Then Lady Nabakov captivated them all with a story about her wild youth in Fennley.
In the morning there were four heirlooms under the table: padparadscha necklace, gold bangles, jade tiara, and silver medal.
But who owned each?"
"This doesn't make any sense" Serenity said. Each selected racked thier brains trying to figure it out. Neil snatched the paper from Serenity.
"Finally something worthwhile." He said as he inspected the lock and the sheet. The items and names matched he took his time solving the puzzle." He finally was able to solve it after 3 minutes.
"Logic puzzle. Was a little tough" he said proudly. Another lock clicked and a trap door opened under Flint who fell. Serenity rushed over.
"Flint!" She called out. Flint shouted that he was fine but it was dark.
"I can't see and I can't get out!" He called back.
"Don't worry I'll save you!" Cat said jumping in after him. Cat let out a wince
"Ow! I landed on my tail." He said. Then Asra jumped in followed by Ophelia, Neil and finally Serenity. Once they were all in the lights lit up and illuminated a backyard looking area. The fairy's voice sound out.
"Congrats! You won! You escaped your stalker with 5 minutes left!" The fairy receptionist said as she opened the door that led out of the escape room. Serenity smiled everyone had done well in the room. She had fun and hoped her other group dates would go just as well.
A/N: That escape room was kinda based on the many rooms I did.