Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The night was quiet, calm even, which felt strange for such a large college. The occasional sound of a door opening and closing echoed throughout the hallway locked behind a certain dorm room.

A short yet lanky boy sat at his desk, computer open, and pulled up on a slide show presentation, a notebook in front. Headphones rested on messy dark brown hair, a tanned hand scribbling in rapid fire with his pen.

A soft tap on the boy’s shoulder caught his attention, and he paused in his writing to reach up and pull his headphones down around his neck, swiveling around in his chair. 

A much larger blonde man stood before him, a bag slung under his right arm as he smiled softly down at his roommate. 

“Hey Noah, I’m headed out now. Are you sure you don’t wanna come to my house for Thanksgiving? My family would love to see you, and you know my mom makes the best food!” He laughed a bit loudly, adjusting the bag he held as he shifted in place.

His roommate- Noah- hummed quietly at the question, a bit disoriented after being pulled from his little world of studying. He shook his head a few times after contemplating.

“No, I don’t think so. I have too much studying to do. Tell your mom I say hello, and have a good time, Owen.”

“Aww, alright. But make sure to keep your phone on during Thanksgiving! We’re having a group call with Izzy and Eva to catch up!”

“Perfect. I look forward to it.”

Owen reached to ruffle some of Noah’s already untamed mess of hair before making his way toward the door. He called a few more dramatic-sounding goodbyes, receiving a fond eye-roll from his roommate before he disappeared from their room.

Noah sighed aloud, rubbing two fingers to his temple as the start of a headache came on. He’d been at his desk for hours, and that was after a day of classes. College was difficult, and his quantum physics class wasn't helping in the slightest.

He turned back in his chair, electing to ignore the pulsing in his brain as he yanked off his headphones and put them to the side. Twirling his pen around a few times between his fingers, he refocused his attention on the notes he was taking.

“The Quantum Zeno effect, a system cannot change while you’re watching it.” He jotted down after skimming the current slide of information he was referencing. It was an interesting class at least, even if the content was a tad tricky. 

It was only a few more minutes of note-taking before a series of knocks were heard at Noah’s door. He grumbled quietly as he stood up, taking the opportunity to stretch his stiff muscles before trudging toward the door.

“Alright Owen, what’d you forget?” He smirked lightly as he turned the doorknob, eyes narrowing in confusion after pulling open the door itself.

The hallway was empty, except for a singular brown box resting near Noah’s feet.

He tilted his head as he crouched near the item, picking it up as he saw a white label on top, addressing the package to him. 

“Hallie sent me something?” He asked himself as he slammed his door shut, stepping back into his dorm and plopping himself down onto his bed. It wasn’t unusual for Noah’s family to send him gifts or care packages, but they usually informed him before doing so. Overall, it was odd one of his many sisters would send him something without notice.

He rummaged around the room for a minute or so in search of a pair of scissors, returning to open the box as soon as a pair was retrieved. Inside was a strange-looking cube, along with an attached note, his name written on the front in gold.

“For always thinking outside the box.” The words inside read, and Noah held up the black cube to examine it, his curiosity about the gift only growing. Two of the sides had a symbol he had never seen before on it, it appeared to be three triangles almost folding in on themselves.

He slowly ran a finger around the edge of the box, turning it delicately in his hand as he brought it closer to his face. There was something off about it, maybe if he slides in the right area-

Click!

A small section of the box flies up with Noah’s finger, and a wide grin spreads across his face.

A puzzle box. Brilliant.

“A small break from studying won’t destroy my GPA,” He mutters under his breath as he continues to fiddle around with the game that had quickly enamored him. It was suddenly clear why Hallie had sent this to him without so much as a text- it was simply a surprise gift.

It was obvious that the certified genius only needed a couple of minutes before he had solved the cube, opening itself to reveal another note that was previously hidden away. Noah pulled it out, gently setting the now-solved puzzle onto the edge of his bed.

His tired eyes flashed over the writing on the piece of paper, and soon went wide as he processed what it was promising him.

“A gift voucher for a free game with Minos Escape Rooms. Winners get to claim 10,000 dollars.”

Well, Noah decided sacrificing one day of hardcore studying would be well worth winning such a good chunk of change.

He’ll be sure to thank Hallie tomorrow after he wins.

xxx

The building that Noah was instructed to go to for said escape room the following day was much more intimidating than he had expected it to be. A large concrete building located in a small sectioned-off part of town, practically in the middle of nowhere. He stepped out of his car, slowly looking it up and down.

As he approached the entrance, he made quick eye contact with a rugged-looking man waiting outside. He had a well-styled mohawk, dyed a bright shade of green. It was distracting enough that Noah hardly noticed the shiny silver piercings adorning the man’s lip and left eyebrow.

A cigarette was held loosely in his mouth, a black lighter with a skull design held underneath to light it up, cold blue eyes daring Noah to speak to him. The smaller man offered a slow look of judgment before slipping past. He wasn’t one for smoking anymore, a bad habit he was glad to have quit months ago.

Walking through the glass double doors, Noah approached the lone desk placed off to the right of the relatively empty entrance. An older blonde woman sat with a magazine in her hands, briefly glancing at Noah as she took notice of him.

“I’m here for the escape room?” He tried, raising an eyebrow at the distant attitude the woman was already displaying. Her hair was clearly bleached to hell and back, and her red dress was far too small for her figure. Noah suppressed a scoff as she sneered at him.

“Of course. Hand over your phone then, chop chop.”

“What? Why?”

“Um, because you can’t take pictures of the rooms and go around posting them? Obviously. Give it or no entry.”

Noah hesitated as he pulled his beaten-up phone out of his back pocket, followed by him cringing slightly as he reluctantly handed the device over. The blonde smirked, placing the phone somewhere underneath the desk as she shooed Noah away.

“Floor five. Good luck.” 

Turning around to where an elevator stood, Noah nodded once in thanks before clicking the button to call the machine down. He tapped his foot lightly as he waited, growing slightly anxious at the thought of being locked in a room without his phone.

It’s not as though he was an addict or anything, but it was something he considered a safe item. He was fond of technology, and he certainly wasn’t planning on taking pictures or cheating. But, ten thousand dollars is, well, ten thousand dollars. So he figures he can go on without it for a few hours.

The elevator arrived with a quiet chime, the metal doors sliding open with a slight creak in them. Noah took a deep breath as he stepped inside, whirling around just in time to see a taller boy sprinting at him.

“Hold the door! Hold the door!” He called out as the doors began to close, and Noah quickly slammed on the “open” button, the boy skidding to a halt as he nearly rammed into the wall behind Noah.

He had slightly curled hair, a red headband keeping it neatly out of his bright brown eyes. He had on a matching red tracksuit, the jacket unzipped to reveal a plain white tee-shirt beneath. He grinned a toothy smile at Noah as he moved his hand to click on the button for level five.

“Thanks, dude! Are you here for the escape room too?”

The elevator doors closed, and slowly the two boys began to rise through the building. 

“Yes. Did you not have to give up your phone?”

The question came out suddenly as Noah turned to face the other man, tilting his head as he realized he had just finished handing his own device over before the other boy had jumped in the elevator with him. A nervous laugh came from the boy in red, shaking his head.

“No- no, I did. But after, when I asked where the bathrooms were, that lady- she was kinda rude- told me there weren’t any. So I had to go back outside to find somewhere to, you know,”

“Okay, I get the picture, thanks.”

“Man, I’m just so excited for this- did you know no one had ever escaped from these rooms? We could be total legends if we win- when we win!”

Noah scrunched his nose up at the thought of having to work with strangers, he had been quietly hoping the rooms would be for individual play. 

The elevator came to a halt with a slight jump, and the doors opened once again to reveal a short hallway. The two men entered the only door awaiting them, the room being a decent-sized lobby of some sort.

Three other people already took residence in the room, two women sitting on some of the provided couches, and a third man looking out of one of the massive windows of the room.

The tracksuit boy practically skipped out into the room, a much slower-moving Noah trailing behind him. He paused after a few steps to observe the assumed waiting room, quickly skimming over the new faces he saw.

The first woman was a freckled-faced fellow brunette, one leg folded over the other as she sat on a couch with nearly perfect posture. She wore a pretty lavender cardigan, smiling at Noah as he met her eyes. His gaze darted away quickly.

The second girl in the room had much longer, much darker hair than the other. She was leaning back against the couch as she seemingly examined her nails, with what Noah guessed were designer sunglasses resting upon her head.

The man standing by the windows walked toward the couches just as Noah looked his way, eyes widening at the very visible array of scars covering major areas of the taller man’s body. 

Burn scars?

Piercing green eyes were a kind distraction from the obvious damage to the otherwise very attractive body of the man, and he frowned at Noah as he caught him staring. Noah cleared his throat awkwardly as he walked further into the room.

“Hello!” The first girl chirped from her seat, raising her hand in a friendly wave as she vocally acknowledged the new incomers. The boy in the headband smiled at her, waving back excitedly.

“Hi! Are you guys part of the escape room?”

“Well, we’re here to play it, yes. I’m Courtney!”

“Oh okay, cool. I’m Tyler,”

Noah rolled his eyes at the small talk that had been initiated, instead turning to focus his attention on a small closed-off window on the side of the room. He could make out the shadow of a person behind the blurry glass, rapping his knuckles against the window out of curiosity.

“Please take a seat. Someone will be with you shortly.” 

The voice that came out was roughly robotic sounding, and Noah narrowed his eyes in confusion. Before he had any time to think further on it though, the door of the room was slammed open, and a familiar-looking green-haired man came sauntering in.

The girl with freckles- Courtney- instantly had a disgusted look pull over her expression. The rough-edged man simply reeked of smoke, and Courtney pinched her nose as she turned away dramatically.

“Ew! Who smokes before getting locked in a room with other people?” She complains aloud, rolling her eyes as she looks around, supposedly for someone else to back her up. The second woman shrugs, nearly gray-appearing eyes flickering toward the man by the door.

“Whatever,” She muttered, right as the mentioned smoker rolled his eyes down toward where Courtney sat, crossing his arms with clear annoyance.

“Sorry, Your Highness,” He grumbles, walking forward through the room until his eyes land on the other unnamed man. He nearly stumbled back, slapping a hand to his forehead as a bark of laughter erupted from him.

“Whoa, what the hell happened to you?” He asked in surprise, squinting at the now very uncomfortable-looking boy opposite him. Green eyes glared harshly at the rude question as Courtney shot up from her seat.

“Hey! That’s so uncalled for!”

“What, a guy can’t ask a question? It’s not like he’s trying to hide those scars, it’s cool!”

“It is not cool, and it’s none of your business! The nerve of some people…”

Courtney ends her statement with a head shake, moving to stand and turn to face the scar-covered man. He raises an eyebrow at her as she sticks out her hand.

“Courtney, nice to meet you,”

There’s a pause, then the clearing of a throat and a handshake.

“Alejandro,” He states with a clear tone, shaking Courtney’s hand once before tentatively returning her gentle smile. She drops his hand as she turns to Noah, who tilts his head.

“Name?” She says as if it was incredibly clear what she was asking, which it more or less was. Noah clicks his tongue before responding.

“Noah,”

“Okay. You two?”

Courtney glances at the girl on the couch, followed by a scowl toward the mohawk guy.

“Heather,” The girl- Heather- responds just as bluntly as Noah.

“Name’s Duncan,” The last name was revealed with a teasing smile following his words. Courtney huffs at him once before dropping back down onto the couch.

“Great. Now that that’s settled, when does this stupid escape room start?”

Tyler perks up at this, grinning widely as he takes the floor.

“Anytime! Someone’s supposed to come in and explain what we’re supposed to be looking for… I’ve done a lot of this kinda stuff before! We try to solve puzzles and get hints and eventually, someone tells us everything we missed and did wrong! It’s great.”

Heather raises her eyebrow, a look of judgment flashing through her eyes.

“You enjoy… losing?”

“Yeah! It’s about the experience, girl-dude.”

“Ew, never call me that again. Actually, never call me anything, don’t talk to me.”

Noah snorts once, and Heather shoots a sneer at him. He shrugs once before looking away.

“You responded to him. Just sayin’.”

Tense conversation continued to flow around the room for a few minutes- mainly between Courtney and Tyler- it was incredibly boring. Just as Noah was contemplating going to talk to the rude blonde lady at the desk downstairs to figure out what the holdup was, Duncan made a sudden stride for the door.

Tyler frowns, looking confused as he looked toward the door.

“Hey- where are you going? The game hasn’t started! What if we need everyone here?!”

“Yeah, I’m not gonna wait around in here with you guys. I’m going for another smoke.” Duncan grumbled in response, waving Tyler’s concerns off before grabbing the door handle.

Noah watches in slight jealousy as he goes to pull open the door-

Which was followed by the handle breaking clean off.

Chapter Text

“What did you just do?” 

The room fell quiet as Courtney jumped up from her seat on the couch, rushing over to where a dumbfounded Duncan stood. A metal door handle remained in his grasp, decidedly not attached to its proper place.

“I- fuck, I dunno. It just snapped off!” He retaliates as the brunette snatches the item from his grip, glaring at him intensely enough he physically puts his hands in the air to signal a surrender.

Alejandro, the quietest of the six thus far, follows in Courtney’s footsteps, gazing curiously at the broken mechanic as he approaches.

“That’s a truly terrible design then. Are we… locked in?”

Noah raises an eyebrow.

“No shit.” He snarks under his breath, the comment going unheard over a loud gasp released from Tyler.

“GUYS! I think this IS the game!”

Another silence falls over the room, broken by a single “What?” from Heather, launching Tyler into another wordy explanation.

“This- this room! The handle breaking is us starting the escape room! We’re already here, that’s why no one has come to get us!”

Alejandro straightens himself up from his slightly bent position while examining the handle with Courtney, narrowing his gaze at Tyler. 

“So we’re given zero explanation, zero rules to the game? Aye…” He sighs, a hand reaching up to rub the bridge of his nose.

Heather moves from her seat for the first time, standing up and quickly placing a hand on a popped hip.

“We just, like, look around then? What are we aiming for? This just looks like a regular waiting room.”

“Yeah! The clues could be anything… anywhere…” Tyler trails off as he slowly turns in a circle, eyes squinted as he attempts to stupidly look for any “clues.”

Noah has a feeling the man wasn’t exaggerating when he mentioned he’s lost a lot of these games before.

“Right,” He says slowly, watching closely as Courtney crouches low, peering into the slot the door handle was originally occupying.

“Hey- there’s a dial here! It looks like… an oven dial?”

“An oven dial?” Alejandro parrots, leaning down with the girl in purple for a better look.

Tyler jumps for joy at the discovery of what appears to be their first task, and Noah furrows his eyebrows as he begins slowly walking around the room.

He hadn’t quite expected to be actually locked in the room, but since the stakes were so high for the prize money, he could see why whoever was running the game would want it to feel as intense as possible.

He tuned out the rest of the group as he wandered, taking note of each object he laid his eyes on.

A fire extinguisher, a snow globe with a mountain in it, a book,

A book!

He grabbed the familiar-looking book off a nearby table. “Fahrenheit 451.”

“I might’ve got something.” He calls out to no one in particular, turning around to wave his find up in the air for everyone to see.

Heather storms over, snatching it from Noah’s grasp before he can stop her. She reads over the title before nodding over at Noah, something resembling approval in her eyes.

“There's this,” She snaps as she trots over to where Courtney is fiddling with the supposed oven dial, dropping the book by her feet.

“Oh! Maybe we have to turn the dial to 451! Good job, Noah!” Courtney calls with an elated grin, quickly twisting the dial to the proper number.

“This is all we do? Seriously?” Duncan complains aloud just as a small click is heard throughout the room, a frown soon crossing Courtney’s face.

“Okay… it’s stuck now. Did anyone see anything happen?”

Everyone in the room shook their heads, nothing in the lobby seemed to open or pop out of anywhere.

A gentle rumble came suddenly from the walls, causing a few of them to jump as a few parts of the walls around them suddenly lit up a fiery red.

“Whoa,” Noah mumbled, taking a large step away from the now glowing wall he was next to, feeling a considerable amount of heat start pouring out from it.

“What is that?” Alejandro says suddenly, voice a slightly higher pitch than Noah had first heard it. He stumbled forward as he dropped to his knees, quickly attempting to turn the dial back in the other direction.

“This is so cool,” Tyler whisper-yells from his place near the couches, unaware of the quiet panic Alejandro was now displaying.

“Can we turn that off? Is- is that part of the game? Why is it so hot?” He mutters just loud enough for Noah to catch from where he stands, a subtle look of concern showing up on Heather and Courtney’s faces as they glance at each other.

“There’s a lock.”

Everyone turned to face Duncan, who had taken to leaning on a non-heated part of the wall, right next to the window Noah had noticed upon first entering the room.

Tyler bounds over to the punk, running a finger on the small silver lock near the bottom of the window before yelling to everyone else.

“It’s a keyhole! The key has to be in here somewhere, that’s the next clue!”

“Then hurry up and find it!” Alejandro called back, having slid down fully onto the floor, back pressed to the door. Heather crouched next to him as Courtney rushed over to where the two boys were.

“Or, we could just bust it off,” Duncan offers as his eyes trail to where Alejandro had his hands buried in his hair, quickly reaching to yank the fire extinguisher Noah had noted off the wall.

Tyler froze at this before shaking his head, disapproval clear in his gaze as he moved to block the keyhole.

“No! You can’t- you can’t break things. That’s against the rules, bro!”

Duncan’s eyes narrowed as he held the extinguisher in his hands, suddenly throwing it hard across the room. Noah flinched lightly as it bounced off the ground.

“It’s fake. Plastic. Wouldn’t work anyways,” The green-haired man muttered with annoyance, ignoring Courtney and Tyler’s glares.

“Is he okay?” Noah could faintly hear Tyler ask Courtney, referring to Alejandro as Noah made his way over to the item Duncan had chucked away.

Crouching to grab it, he noticed a small silver key hidden on the tip of the extinguisher.

Without a word, he plucked it off, speed walking toward Tyler and placing it in his hand.

“Here.” Is all he says, stepping away with crossed arms as Tyler smiles.

“Nice! You’re really good at this dude!” He laughed lightly, turning on his heel to shove the key into the lock, breathing a sigh of relief as it turned immediately.

Courtney stepped forward to help pull the glass window up, yelping in surprise as the room behind it was revealed.

“What the fuck is that?” Duncan asked, Noah peeking over everyone’s shoulder to see what they could be possibly talking about.

In the room sat a female mannequin, a very creepy one at that. A landline phone rested on a desk in front of her, although the rest of the area was far too small to hold anything else inside.

A shrill ringing came next, the phone on the desk vibrating slightly as it rang aloud. Courtney looked around nervously before hesitantly picking the device up and holding it to her ear. 

“Hello?” She spoke into the receiver, biting her lip in nervous confusion as she listened to whatever was being said through the phone.

Everyone else went quiet until she had placed the phone back down, turning around and leaning her plans back on the small counter extended from the window, brown eyes flitting around. 

“It said, um, follow the rules, basically.” She muttered, a slight lilt in her voice as her eyes darted toward the window.

Metal began slamming down over the massive windows on the far side of the room, officially taking all light from the room- minus the bright red oozing from the walls.

And suddenly, the ceiling.

“What the fuck? What the fuck?!” Alejandro called out suddenly, shooting to his feet and whipping around to bang his fist on the door keeping them locked inside the quickly boiling room.

“Jesus, that’s- that’s really hot.” Duncan’s voice wavered, clearing his throat as Courtney began unbuttoning her cardigan. Tyler pulled his jacket off in a similar act.

Noah’s gaze was stuck on the glowering ceiling above them, a newfound panic slowly crawling its way through his chest as his breathing quickened.

“It’s too hot. This isn’t safe.” He responded slowly to Duncan, searching around the room for signs of cameras. He took a deep breath as his eyes landed on one in the corner of the room, quickly picking up on at least two more positioned around the lobby. 

His attention was quickly pulled over to where a panicking Alejandro stood, still relentlessly beating his fists against the door in front of him. A nervous Heather stood him, gray eyes shooting to the rest of the group, silently asking for help.

Courtney bit on her lip once again, shaking her hands around in a frantic manner as the room continued to increase in heat. Eventually, she collected herself, a determined glint then shining through her as she turned to Tyler.

“You’ve done this before, right? Help me look around for a way out. Any way out.”

Tyler nodded immediately, running toward the other side of the heated room to begin his search as Courtney took another deep breath in.

“Duncan, try to get the door open. I don’t care if you have to break it.” She continued to command, and Noah was surprised at how quickly Duncan agreed.

She finally turned to Noah, who met her gaze with matching wide eyes.

“Help the other two. Get Alejandro to calm down,”

As much as Noah hated the idea of having to comfort someone, when he glanced back to where Alejandro was now mumbling incoherently in another language, he nodded slowly.

Courtney picked up the phone again as Noah made his way over to Alejandro and Heather, ripping his sweater vest off and tossing it to the ground as he did. Sticky sweat was running down his back, face, neck, anywhere and everywhere on his body. He cringed at the uncomfortable feeling as he approached the duo.

“Help me,” Heather whispered as Duncan pushed her and Alejandro out of the way of the door, whipping out a knife from seemingly nowhere. Noah ignored the new fact as best he could as Heather and he dragged Alejandro further to the side.

“What’s going on?” Noah asked, looking at Heather but speaking to Alejandro, who looked up at him with wild eyes.

“Burning. The room is burning.” He choked out, Noah’s eyes slowly trailing along the scars running down the other man’s arms and neck, the realization hitting him seemingly at the same time as Heather.

“Oh,” She muttered as Alejandro began tugging harshly at the red shirt lying over top of a white tank top. Noah acted quickly, helping remove the garment from him before throwing it toward his own discarded sweater vest. 

“I don’t know what happened to you, but nothing can hurt us here. Imagine the lawsuits,” He attempted to comfort, considering removing his own button-up shirt as the temperature of the room only seemed to increase every minute or so.

Heather’s eyes flew around the room, lighting up as she landed on something. Noah followed her gaze, nodding in approval as he looked toward Alejandro.

“Water. We’ll get you water.” He started suddenly, hissing at the overwhelming warmth of contact as Heather grabbed his arm. She retracted quickly, wincing in an apology as they rushed toward the water cooler she had noticed.

Grabbing one of the plastic cups nearby, Noah held it underneath the dispenser as Heather pushed down the little level to let some water out. Noah stopped her after the cup was about a quarter-way full.

“No more. We don’t know why this is here, it could be part of the game,” He told her quietly, unable to stop a small eye roll from escaping him.

She nodded in agreement nonetheless, the duo walking back to where Alejandro was now sitting, right on the edge of one of the couches to stay as far away from making direct contact with anything as possible.

“Take this, drink,” Heather said quickly, all but shoving the cup into Alejandro’s hand. His nervous breathing hitched for a moment, looking up as his eyes darted between her and Noah.

He nodded wearily, holding the cup tightly in his grasp before downing the liquid as Noah glanced around at everyone else.

Courtney was attempting to yank the metal sheets covering the windows open, Tyler still bumbling around the room like an idiot in search of something, anything to help them. Duncan was repeatedly attempting to use his knife to find a weak spot in the door they entered from. Everyone was panting from the heat at this point.

With nothing left to say, Noah and Heather stood side by side near Alejandro as they waited for some other kind of direction.

It was about a minute later when another loud whirring sound was heard from the ceiling, and the chandelier above the main table in the room suddenly lit up.

Lit up with flames. Actual, literal fire.

“Holy fuck!” Heather screamed out, dropping to the ground in surprise as a large blast of heat was shot throughout the room. 

A multitude of yelling and cursing came from nearly everyone in the room, everyone but Noah and Duncan dropping to the floor in a panic.

“What the fuck is this?!” Courtney cried out, crawling to where Tyler was crouched on the floor. Finally, the jock had a terrified expression all over his face. His hair was covered in sweat, though a lot of the substance was being soaked up by the red headband he wore.

“It’s- it’s just super real-feeling. It’s not actually real. They can’t hurt us! That’s illegal!” He laughed nervously, pulling himself to his knees as he looked around the room like a lost lamb.

Noah dug his fingers into his forearms, breathing hard as the fire lowered toward them, just slightly. 

His eyes darted around the room, attempting to slow his racing brain enough to use it.

“There’s has to be something, there has to be, there has to be,” He muttered to himself, over and over again as he flicked some of his soaked hair away from his face. He saw Heather pull her own long hair back into a makeshift ponytail, glassy eyes giving away her tears threatening to fall.

Alejandro was a mess at this point, head buried in his hands as he tugged hard on his hair, a mixture of sobs and pleas falling from him as the panic seeped deep into everyone’s bones.

Noah looked at the table, and finally, finally saw a pattern.

“The- the coasters,” He managed to force out between his heavy breathing, falling to his knees to get a closer look.

There were six coasters on the table, one for each person it seemed. Each one had the strange symbol that was on the box he had been gifted, the one that led him here.

Courtney’s head shot up at his words, watching as Noah squeaked quietly in pain, pressing his fingers onto one of the burning metal coasters, gasping as it was pushed onto the table.

“The wall!” Duncan called, everyone turning their attention to where Tyler was currently, seeing a vent open, one that had blended into the wall perfectly. 

“Tyler! Help Noah and me! NOW!” Courtney screamed out, loud enough for Tyler to instantly jump into action. He fumbled his way back to the table as Courtney pressed her own hands on two of the coasters.

“Take the other two! Noah, press the other one next to yours!” She ordered, both boys immediately following her directions. Noah closed his eyes and thanked whatever God was up there when the vent in the wall opened itself fully.

“Okay, okay that worked. Someone- anyone- go see where it leads!”

Duncan took one look at his knife before running toward the vent, waving it to everyone as he jumped to hop inside the shaft.

“I’ll go, I’ll try to use this if anything’s in the way,” 

“Hurry!” Heather yelled from her position next to Alejandro, returning to whispering what Noah hoped were reassuring words to the collapsed man on the ground. Duncan crawled into the vent without another word.

Noah grimaced as his hands continued to burn from having them pressed so hard against the metal coasters. He looked toward Courtney slowly as something dawned on him.

“We can’t do this and all get out. We need something to hold these down.” He told the brunette in a rush, who seemed to begin panicking slightly at the thought. Tyler nodded from across the table.

“We need something- something with weight then. Something that would fit on the coasters!” Courtney managed to call back at Noah, almost pulling a hand away to wipe some sweat from her brow.

The three around the table began frantically looking around yet again, not seeing anything of value for their predicament.

They want us to get out, or there wouldn’t be a way. What do they want us to use?

“The cups!” Heather gasped suddenly, dragging herself over to Noah. She nodded at him frantically, pointing her hand to where the water cooler sat.

“Water- we need to fill cups with water.” He immediately answered, catching onto Heather’s train of thought immediately. She gulped loudly before weakly pushing herself up, nearly tripping over her feet as she pushed herself toward the water to begin filling a cup.

“Duncan!” Courtney cried out, turning her head toward the vent said the boy had disappeared into. A faint yelling was heard back, Noah having to strain to hear the response.

“It’s a way out! I’m unscrewing the vent keeping us in! I’m almost done, so get in here!” 

Heather came back with a half-filled cup, Tyler quickly removed one of his hands for her to place the water down onto. 

Unfortunately, nothing happened.

“It has to be full, it’s a weight sensor,” Noah told her, a flash of frustration crossing her face as she took the cup back. Tyler groaned as he put his hand back on the coaster, having had a moment of relief from the pain. 

Heather ran back to the water cooler as Noah glanced back down at Alejandro. He seemed to have given up at this point, staring blankly at the vent in the wall.

“He goes first. Get him outta here,” Noah grunted to everyone in the room as Heather returned, this time with a full cup.

Courtney cried out in relief as the water was enough to cause one of the coasters to be held down, nodding toward Noah.

“You, me, and Tyler will get the water. Heather, get Alejandro out of here before we start gathering it. Now, right now,” 

“Yeah, yeah okay.”

Heather, somehow in her weaker state, managed to haul Alejandro up from the floor. He yelled in a panic as she dragged him along toward the open vent, another call coming from Duncan to start sending people through, as there was an exit.

“Alejandro- go, I’m right here. I’m right behind you,” Heather reassured as best as she could finally managing to get Alejandro and herself up into the vent. As they both crawled inside, she turned around slightly. 

“Move quickly,” She whimpered, blatant fear on her face as the vent nearly fully closed over her, as they only had one water cup holding a coaster down.

The remaining three in the room took a moment to shake their hands, attempting to rid themselves of the pain shooting through their nerves as Courtney stood.

“Tyler, fill the cups. Noah, bring them to me carefully. I’ll put them down.”

They did indeed move quickly after that, trembling hands moving wildly as Tyler began filling up water cups as high and fast as he could. Noah sped toward Courtney every time he was handed a cup, stopping every few seconds to make sure nothing spilled.

The fire above them had descended further than they had noticed by the time Courtney had slowly placed down their fifth cup, heat exhaustion threatening the possibility of fainting as Tyler raced back to them.

“No- we need one more! That’s not full enough!” Courtney explained, seeing the still slightly empty cup. Pale as a ghost, Tyler shook his head.

“The water is gone.”

Panic erupted harshly into Noah’s chest, attempting to keep his eyes glued to the table in an attempt to not look at the flames above, closing in on them. 

“Go,” Tyler said quickly, pushing past Noah to slam his fist onto the last remaining coaster. The vent opened up again fully, just wide enough for them to squeeze inside.

“Guys! C’mon!” The faint sound of Duncan’s voice came echoing through the open shaft, and Courtney and Noah exchanged panicked looks.

Without a word, Courtney sent a thankful, yet pity-filled look toward Tyler before throwing herself into the open hole, screaming for Noah to follow her.

“Dude, go. Seriously, just go.” Tyler cried from where he sat, desperation bleeding into his words as he groaned in pain. 

“No, no there’s a way. There’s a way.” Noah exclaimed, surprising himself in his uncertainty of leaving the idiot behind, prying the boy in red’s hand from the coaster and putting down the nearly full cup.

Liquid, we need liquid.

He ran his eyes along Tyler, and stopped at his head.

“Your headband. Your headband, it’s collecting your sweat.” He gasped as he reached to yank the accessory from the other boy's hand, gagging lightly at the soggy material of the sweatband.

“Oh!” Tyler said as Noah gripped it in his hand, holding the band over the last glass carefully before squeezing as much sweat as he could out of it.

“Cmon, cmon cmon CMON!” He screamed in frustration, rapidly looking between the cup and the wall as he prayed it would be enough.

The coaster slowly lowered into the table, just as the fire above them began moving at a steady pace.

“It worked!” Noah yelled, ignoring the thrumming of his heart and the pain in his hands as he grasped Tyler by the sleeve of his tee shirt, nearly taking them both down as they attempted to run toward the vent.

“Noah, go, go first,” Tyler demanded, quickly helping the smaller boy up into the vent. 

He was relieved to feel the metal inside wasn’t quite burning, pushing himself around until he was backward, reaching a hand down.

“Get in!” He called, Tyler yanking on his hand to haul himself inside as well.

Never having moved so quickly in his life, Noah turned around one last time before crawling through the vent. There was a sharp turn, and voices calling for him and Tyler grew louder.

A faint roar was heard from behind him just as he found an opening in the top of the vent, pushing his head through before he felt a pair of hands grab onto his shoulders to drag him up and onto a hard floor.

“Tyler!” Courtney cried as Noah lay with his eyes closed, hyperventilating slightly as he heard an echo from below him.

He shakily sat up just in time to see Duncan yank Tyler out of what appeared to be a fireplace. They both scrambled to move away from the area as the roar Noah heard before became deafening, flames shooting from where he had just been.

The fireplace lit up with a gentle warmth, and everyone fell quiet, not including the heavy breathing pouring from Noah and Tyler in particular.

Noah watched weakly as Courtney backed up until she hit a wall, eyes blowing wide as saucers.

“What in the actual, literal, FUCK, was that?”