Locked In

The door closed behind me with a click. My chest felt tight right away. My heart was beating fast like it was going to break the calm I was trying to keep. I came to this escape room on purpose to face my fear of being trapped in spaces. As soon as the door closed I felt like I made a big mistake. The air felt heavier, the walls felt like they were moving in on me. I could feel my breath getting shorter. The waiver had one name printed at the bottom. Cillian. I almost walked out when I saw it. I had seen his name before. On news reports. On warnings.

They said I would have thirty minutes to solve the puzzles and get out. Now with the white walls all around me, thirty minutes felt like forever. I walked over to the table where the puzzle pieces were laid out. My hands were shaking as I touched the pieces feeling each edge and groove. Every second felt like it was stretching out forever. The clock above the door said 30:00. My throat felt tight. Just looking at the numbers felt like I was looking at my ending.

I knelt down at the puzzle. My fingers were fumbling with the pieces. My heartbeat was getting louder and louder. It took me ten minutes, or at least it felt like it did, to get one small piece to fit. My mind was screaming at me to get out to give up, but it was also telling me to just breathe. My body wouldn't let me. I was sweating, my palms were sticky. My chest felt like it was getting smaller. I had never felt this trapped before, not in elevators or in the dark basement of my childhood home. This was different. The walls felt like they were alive, pushing in on me with every beat of my heart.

The timer went off. I saw that I had 20:00 minutes left. My stomach dropped. Ten minutes had passed, but it felt like hours. My chest was heaving and I was trying to slow down my breathing. The lights above were dimming slowly, like I was losing sight by the second. I imagined the walls moving in on me slowly. I swallowed hard trying to get my lungs to work.

I stood up trying to focus on the puzzle. There was a metal key hidden under some cubes. My hands were shaking hard; I thought I would knock it off the table. Ten more seconds passed. My eyes kept looking at the clock. 19:57... 19:56... Each tick felt like a hammer hitting my head. I made myself think: one step at a time. One puzzle. One lock. One way out.

The first puzzle finally opened with a click. I felt relieved and scared at the same time. I grabbed the key. Stumbled towards the nearest door. The walls felt like they were getting closer, every step felt loud. Every second felt like it was stretching out. I had 18:30 minutes left. My heart was beating fast and my hands were numb. My fear of being trapped wasn't just fear. It was like something was gripping my body.

The hallway was narrow. The floor tiles felt cold. I could feel the walls brushing against my shoulders even though I knew they weren't moving. My mind didn't trust my senses. Everything felt alive and scary. The clock was ticking away saying I had 15:00 minutes left. "Halfway through," I thought. I didn't even notice.

I heard a hiss behind the panels like a whisper that made my spine shiver. My hands were holding the key very tight. Every nerve in my body was screaming at me to turn back. I had to keep moving. I had 13:42 minutes left. Every second felt like it was dragging on. My mind was racing, imagining the walls closing in, imagining the air running out. I reminded myself to breathe, to take it one step at a time.

The second puzzle was glowing, with symbols that looked really hard to figure out. My fingers were trembling as I touched the buttons. I had 12:00 minutes left. My lungs were burning, my chest was tight. My thoughts were all over the place. I thought about all the times I felt trapped before. None of that helped me now. This room felt alive. It was waiting for me.

I twisted the puzzle pieces with all my strength. The lights were flickering, casting shadows on the walls. I had 10:03 minutes left. I froze for a second listening to my breathing. My fingers slipped on the buttons. I felt sick. Ten minutes. Maybe the last ten minutes of my life if I failed.

The key slipped out of my fingers. Fell to the ground. I dropped to my knees to pick it up. My chest was burning and I was trying not to breathe fast. The timer was still going: 9:47... 9:46... Every second felt like minutes, every minute like hours. My fear of being trapped was terror pushing against my chest, my lungs, my throat.

I stood up trying to focus on the puzzle. The hallways, the puzzles, the key. They were all I had to hold on to. I had to move, to think, to survive. The walls felt really close now. My palms were raw, and my knees were weak. My vision was blurry from sweat and fear. I kept moving, step by step as the timer kept going.

The hallway seemed never-ending. My lungs were burning, my chest was tight. The second puzzle was almost solved. Then I heard a voice, scary, coming from the speakers.

"You can't escape. You won't leave here alive."

I froze. The voice was calm and mean, and it felt like someone was watching me, feeding my fear. My fear of being trapped got even worse. Every corner felt closer, every shadow darker.

I saw a reflection in the metal panels. It was Cillian, the person who made this nightmare. He was tall and thin with eyes that looked like knives under the lights. He was moving slowly like he was enjoying my fear with his hands behind his back. He didn't need to chase me. The room was doing it for him.

I swallowed hard. Made my legs move. I didn't have time to hesitate. The timer said 3:00 and it was counting down. My vision was blurry. I was sweating. The walls were closing in, I can't tell if it was in my mind, or actually happening. I could hear the sound of danger coming. My fingers were fumbling with the puzzle box. I couldn't breathe. My heart was racing like it wanted to explode.

Cillian's voice came again, this time close to me. "You'll never make it out. Not this time."

I ignored him. I didn't have time to think or be scared. My only goal was to survive. Every step, every twist, every click of the puzzle was a move. The timer was going down: 2:00... 1:45... 1:30...

I stumbled to the lock. My fingers were sweaty, holding the brass key tightly. I was fumbling with the key. My lungs were burning. My vision was doubling. The room felt like it was alive. It was trying to stop me.

I had one minute left.

I pushed the key into the lock, twisting it with all my strength. The lock groaned. I pushed harder. The lock still wouldn't open. My mind was screaming at me to try. 50... 45... 40...

Cillian appeared in the doorway blocking my way out. He was grinning, like he was daring me to fail. "Say goodbye."

I ignored him, focusing on the lock. Sweat was pouring down my face, stinging my eyes. My hands were shaking uncontrollably. The timer was going down: 20... 15...

The lock finally opened with a click. The door to freedom swung open. My legs carried me forward. I didn't look back. The room behind me started collapsing.

I had 10 seconds.

I jumped through the doorway as the walls started falling in. The sound of escaping air mixed with the roar of collapsing metal. My chest was heaving, my legs were burning. I barely hit the ground outside as an explosion ripped through the escape room behind me.

Flames and smoke were everywhere, with debris flying around. The timer hit zero. I pressed myself to the ground, panting, chest heaving, sweat pouring. The smell of metal and burning filled my nostrils. Then it was silent.

Cillian's scream was still echoing from the ruins. It was quickly drowned out by the sound of walls falling down. The man who had been in control of my fear, who had planned out every moment of my fear of spaces, was gone. The escape room, which he had created to scare me, was now a pile of rubble.

I was lying there shaking. My chest was tight. I was having trouble breathing. I was trying to make sense of what had just happened. I had ten seconds. That was all the time I had between being alive and not being alive. My heart was finally beating slower. My body was realizing that I had made it through something that seemed impossible. My fear of spaces was still there, but I had faced it in a really scary way. And I had come out okay.

I got up on my knees. I was still shaking. I was alive. The adrenaline was rushing through me. It was replacing the fear with a feeling of what I had just been through. All the times I had been trapped, all the times I had panicked, seemed like nothing compared to this.

Cillian's last threat had not worked. I had survived him, his machines, and the fear he had tried to use to break me. The surprising thing was not just that I had gotten out. It was that I had looked my fear right in the face and beaten it, even as everything around me was falling apart.