Page 46 of Playing With My Heart Strings

“What’s on the paper?” I ask, trying to help as much as I can without being able to see what they see.

“Just all of the letters of the alphabet. Not even a code, it’s just the alphabet,” Sage replies, her tone a bit uncertain.

“What numbers do the keys all have?”

“There’s a lot of them, Baylor. I’m not sure…” Sage’s voice trails off. “Well, all of them have three digits except for seven of them. Those ones have seventy-three, fifty, thirty-two, seventy-two, ninety-one, eighty-nine, and twenty.”

“Maybe the alphabet is a code?” Valerie suggests. When she’s met with no response, she explains. “A could be one, B could be two, and so on. It’s a common way to convert letters to numbers.But we’d just have to figure out what letter combinations add up to the ones on the keys.”

“It could take all day for us to figure that out,” I sigh.

Valerie’s probably right, though. I can’t think of anything else that would work. And from the sound of it, it would take just as long to try every single key that’s on the wall.

“Wait, my name adds up to thirty-two!” Sage exclaims. “Try your name, Valerie.”

After a few moments, Valerie confirms that her name adds up to seventy-two.

“It’s gotta be all of our names. What if the key that unlocks Baylor’s door is just her name?” Valerie suggests.

“That’s gotta be right. It’s seventy-three, guys! Come on!” My heart is pounding in my chest, and I can only hope that we have enough time left…and that the other team hasn’t already figured out their clues.

Feet pound from the next room over until a door slams and the steps get closer to my door. The key fits into the lock, and the door creaks open, granting me freedom.

“Congratulations, Baylor, Sage, and Valerie,” Jarrod’s voice booms from a speaker in the corner of the hallway. “Your team has broken out of the rooms. However, your challenge is not over. You haven’t officially won until you are out of the warehouse. The race is still on. And if I were you, I’d act fast.”

“That either means that time is almost up, or the other team is close. We’ve gotta go.” I hope the urgency in my voice is enough to motivate us.

Sage wrings her hands, but Valerie nods, and we all take off running down the hallway. The inside of the warehouse is a maze, full of twists and turns. That’s why we were blindfolded in the beginning—so we wouldn’t have an idea of how we got in.

“Should we split up?” Sage asks, huffing out breaths, as we run into our third dead end.

I shake my head. “No, no, we have to all be out to win. What happens if someone gets lost? We stick together.”

“We need to retrace our steps and remember which ways we turned. We need a map or something,” Valerie mutters.

“Wait, that’s it! Sage, do you still have that piece of paper from the cabinet?”

She nods, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. She digs out the piece of paper from her pocket and hands it to me.

“Come on, let’s go.” I take off running back the direction we came. And when we reach the fork in the maze, I tear off a piece of paper and let it fall to the ground. “Breadcrumbs. That way we’ll know where we’ve already been.”

The plan works perfectly. We hit a few more dead ends, but we aren’t running around in circles anymore thanks to the pieces of paper we’ve left lying around.

We’re close to sprinting now, because this stretch of hallway we’re in keeps going. “We have to be close to the end, guys! Keep pushing!” I encourage them, even as my lungs burn. I amnota cardio girl.

There’s a left turn at the end of the hall, and once we round the corner, street lights shine up ahead.

“We made it!” Sage cheers.

We race out of the old warehouse, panting once we come to a halt. I drop my head down as my hands rest on my knees.

A slow clap begins, and I look up right as Jarrod Stone starts walking toward us. “Well done, ladies. You made it out with only a couple minutes to spare. Now, let’s see if your competitors are as lucky.”

I look around, something I hadn’t thought to do in my exhaustion. A digital clock counts down the time; two minutes and thirty seconds remain.

As the clock winds down, there’s no sign of the opposing team. Only after two minutes since the timer stops do Aspen,Katherine, and Jade emerge from the warehouse. And they lookpissed.

“Ladies, welcome back. I’m so sorry to inform you that not only did the other team beat you out, but you didn’t make it out in the hour’s time.” Jarrod frowns as he delivers the bad news to the losing team. He turns to my team. “Baylor, Sage, and Valerie. Congrats, you have won the team escape room challenge and you are all immune from this week’s elimination.”

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