Flash Friday #69 'The Escape Room'
Original flash fiction: A fun day out may be more than it seems...
Welcome to ‘Flash Friday’ where every week I share some of my original flash fiction.
This week’s story was inspired by the writing prompt: ‘Dodging the laser beams, he reached for the jewels…’
So this prompt immediately sounded to me like the start of a slightly ropey Mission Impossible-style story. I mean, we’ve all seen the scene where Tom Cruise descends from the ceiling, right? It’s the sort of scene which people would love to have a go at recreating, so I decided to run with that thought. I have also massively enjoyed completing escape room challenges with friends (a medieval castle-themed one was especially hilarious). So I decided to combine the two ideas when working with this prompt.
I hope you enjoy reading this one, and please leave a ‘like’ or a comment below if you’d like to share your thoughts - I’d love to hear what you think.
Dodging the laser beams, he reached for the jewels, when suddenly the alarms went off; at the last minute his sleeve had just brushed one of the sensors. Hysterical laughter erupted behind him and Gary turned to face his friends, a rueful grin on his face.
“Sorry guys, that last one is really tricky!”
With reassuring claps on the back, his mates shared commiserations that none of them had been able to come close to completing the final task.
Time up, the doors unlocked and the escape room staff member greeted them all cheerfully.
“Tough one, isn’t it?” She chuckled, after being met with a chorus of:
“How does anyone do that?
“That was so hard!” and “Did we miss something?”
“You’ll have to come back again sometime and give it another try.” She called after them as they drifted away down the exit corridor, grumbling good-naturedly.
Once the coast was clear, the young woman re-locked the doors and returned to the small observation office. Several screens were mounted on the wall showing the series of challenge rooms from different angles. The last one focused in on the glinting display of gem stones. From the corner, a slightly rasping male voice commented from an easy chair,
“That last boy. He got closer than anyone ever has before. Careful. Meticulous. Observant. He could be useful.”
The woman nodded, handing over Gary’s registration form and signed disclaimer,
“Shall I give him a call, sir?”
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