"Where do we start?" William asked upon entering the room and looking everywhere.

The room was massive for an escape room. It seemed to have everything: a kitchen area with an oven, a stove, a table and a refrigerator, a bed in the corner of the room with stuffed animals, a study area with a big desk and a computer, and that wasn't all. The room was messy, with clothes and random objects scattered on the floor. The boys stared at everything and had no clue where to start.

Ray walked across the room to the other side, carefully stepping over everything, "Guys, there are two doors", he told them. The rest of the guys followed him to check it out.

"Are these the exists?" William asked, knocking and pushing on the doors.

"I think so. This one has a lock, and the other has a keypad. There are four ways to escape, maybe these are two of them", David replied, trying to piece everything together.

"What's that?" Ray pointed. He pointed at this little window near the floor next to the door. No person could fit through that space, so that wasn't an option for an escape route.

Lucas knelt down to look at it closer. The window had a glass door that could be pulled down; Lucas pulled it down and put his hand to the other side. "I can't feel anything on the other side", he told them.

"What is it for then?" Ray asked, tilting his head and looking at it.

"They use this type of thing when they need to give you something, or you have to give them something", Lucas replied. "We might need to give them something for us to escape".

While those three were trying to figure that out, William wondered somewhere else.

"Woah, there's a treadmill", William noticed. He walked towards it and stood on it. He was about to start it until,

"Wait!" David stopped him. "We might need that for escaping. Don't do anything until we have things figured out", he said.

William looked at him, disappointed. "Tch, fine", he reluctantly agreed. "Having Malakai here would've been fun", he mumbled, stepping off the treadmill.

"Why don't we look at different areas of the room?" David said. He quickly took the role of the leader.

The boys separated to search different parts of the room. William went to the area with the bed, Ray went to the kitchen area, David went to the study area, and Lucas found another door. Lucas walked to the door and stepped over objects on the floor. He reached the door and cautiously opened it. To his surprise, it opened. Lucas stepped inside and saw … a toilet. He found the restroom. He walked inside and saw a note stuck on the mirror.

"This room is not part of the escape room. There are no clues inside the restroom", he read out. Lucas disappointedly walked out of the restroom. He thought he found something good.

David saw him walk out. "What's inside there?" he asked.

"A toilet, in case you need to go", Lucas replied.

"Are you joking?" David asked, not taking him seriously.

"I wish I was", Lucas said. "Have any of you found anything?" he asked, looking at the other two.

"There's nothing in the kitchen area, only kitchen stuff and a few ingredients", Ray replied, closing a cupboard.

"I found a guitar", William said, holding it up.

"That isn't going to help", Lucas replied, walking towards him. Lucas looked around the area. There was a bed, a make-up area and a closet; nothing too unusual until he spotted something. "Did you not see the mannequin standing there?" he asked William, pointing at the mannequin in the corner. It was a full-body female mannequin, completely white with no facial features.

"I didn't think it was important", William replied.

"Dumbass. A mannequin is more important than a guitar", Lucas said, picking the mannequin up.

"How?"

"This room could belong to the mannequin", Lucas replied.

William laughed. "You called me a dumbass. How can a room belong to a mannequin?" he asked.

"Escape rooms have a story. You have to figure it out to escape. You don't just find a key and use it to escape. Dumbass", Lucas replied, walking past him. "Have you ever been to an escape room?" he asked William.

"No", William shook his head.

"Have you two been to an escape room?" Lucas asked the other two.

"No/Nope", Ray and David replied.

Lucas sighed.

"When have you gone to an escape room?" Ray asked.

"In high school", Lucas answered, placing the mannequin in the centre of the room.

"With friends?" William asked.

"No, with a girl. It was a date", Lucas answered.

"Of course", David said under his breath.

The boys were having trouble finding something to start off. Everything was all over the place, nothing linked to anything. All they had was a mannequin.

"Does the TV turn on?" Ray asked. A TV was attached to one of the walls, and it was turned off. William walked towards it and pressed a button on the side to switch it on. The TV turned on and showed,

"0 Dollars?" William read out. "How do I change the channel?" he said, pressing the different buttons on the side.

"Don't change it!" Lucas shouted at him.

"It's not changing", William said after pressing every button.

Lucas walked over to William and dragged him away from the TV. "That's another way to escape. Earn enough money to get out of here", he said, pulling him away from the TV.

"You don't know that. You're guessing that", William replied. "That could be a part of the story you're talking about".

"Bro! Can't you be serious? I'm tryna think of solutions", Lucas said, putting his hands on the top of his head. William was stressing him out.

"I think Lu is right", Ray said. "I saw another smaller TV over there with an old games console plugged into it".

"Where?" Lucas asked, quickly turning his head.

"Over there", Ray pointed. He pointed to the left of the restroom door. Lucas went over to inspect it. It was a small old-school TV with an old games console plugged into it.

"What console is that?" William asked, peering over Lucas's shoulder.

Lucas ignored him. He switched the TV on, and a game appeared on the TV.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"The graphics are terrible", William said.

Lucas stood back up. "We're wasting time!" he said, trying to get his message across.

"Yeah. We've been here for 15 minutes, and we haven't found anything", David said.

"Did you find anything?" Lucas asked David, hoping for something.

"Nothing. The computer needs a password", David replied.

"Have you tried password?" William asked.

"No..." David slowly said, thinking William might be onto something.

"I have to do everything around here", William sarcastically said, walking to the computer. He sat down on the seat at the desk and tucked in the chair. He confidently typed in password and,

'Incorrect password'.

The three of them looked at William like an idiot.

"Guys, I didn't use a capital p. Let me try again", William nervously said. This time, he typed in Password.

'Incorrect password'.

"Get out of the seat", Lucas told him sternly.

"It usually works, though", William mopped, standing up.

"Check the back of the computer. The password may be written on the back", Ray suggested.

Lucas looked behind the computer and found no password but pulled out a book. "A diary", he said. He opened the first page. "Complete to-do list. The to-do list is on the computer. Fuck sake!" he raged, forcefully closing the diary.

"Don't close it. Check the rest of the pages", David said, not losing hope. Lucas shook his head and opened the diary again. He flipped through the rest of the pages, but they were mostly empty; some had little doodles at the bottom, except the last page. The last page was filled with writing.

"Woah, that's some nice handwriting", William commented.

Everyone ignored him and read what was written.

"What is this?" Lucas asked after skim-reading it.

"A poem, maybe?" Jay tried guessing.

"More like lyrics to a song", David said. "Will did find a guitar earlier", he put two and two together.

"Try finding the meaning of the song. Maybe that's the password", William said. Everyone gave him a look. "What did I do this time?" he asked.

"Nothing. You actually said something good for once", Lucas replied a little shocked.

"I did?" After a moment of realisation. "Yeah, I did. How did none of you think of that?" he boasted.

"Well done, you did one good thing. Now go do something useful. Let me try and decipher this", David said, shooing away William with his hand.

"Let me stay here, it's better if two people try to figure it out", Lucas said.

"Okay", David agreed. "Ray, try to find more clues", he instructed.

"Sure", Ray listened and walked away with William following him.

"Should we play on the console?" William quietly asked.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea", Ray replied, scanning the room. "Let's search everything. We have to make sure we haven't missed anything", he said.

William rolled his eyes. "There's nothing else to do, so I guess I have to".

About 15 minutes passed.

SLAM!

Lucas slammed the diary on the desk, "Where's the password!" he said, clearly frustrated. He stood up and walked away from the desk.

"So, the password is not any of the lyrics?" William asked.

"No, we tried everything. It's just a stupid song", Lucas replied. "Have you found any clues?" he asked William and Ray.

"No", they both shook their heads.

"Have you checked in the guitar?" Lucas desperately asked.

"Yup, there's nothing in there", Ray replied.

Lucas looked defeated. He walked to the kitchen and rested his head on the table. "Why can't we find anything?" he said. No one could hear him, though, as his head was rested in his arms.

"Lu, when you went to the escape room, what did you do when you got stuck?" David asked, leaning back on the chair at the desk.

Lucas lifted his head, "You could ask for a hint", he answered.

"Oh", everyone knew they weren't getting a hint.

"Everyone's stressing too much", William said. "We all need to relax a little", he said, throwing and catching a basketball.

"Where did you find that?" Ray asked, confused about where he got a basketball from.

"It was hidden in the closet", William replied. "I do have some bad news. It is flat", he said, pressing the basketball with both hands, showing that it lacked air.

"Is there a hoop anywhere?" David asked while asking for the ball with his hands.

"Nope", William passed him the ball.

"The heck?! This is flat", David threw the ball back to William. He was disturbed by how flat it was. David loved basketball; out of the group, he was the best at it. Benjamin was a close second, while Ray was third. Lucas and William were about the same, and Malakai, well, he is British, so basketball isn't his cup of tea. The last time we all saw Malakai play basketball, he kicked the ball like a football (soccer ball) into the hoop.

William caught the ball, and his intrusive thoughts spoke out,

"Do you think the password is in the ball?" he said.

Lucas looked at him like he was a hopeless idiot, but Ray looked at him optimistically.

"It could be", Ray said with a lit-up smile. He went to the kitchen, opened the drawer, and picked up a knife.

"Woah, woah. What are you doing?" David asked with concern, seeing Ray quickly pick up a knife.

"Opening the basketball", Ray replied. "Here", he handed William the knife.

David stood up from his chair and was about to stop them before they got hurt.

"David let them", Lucas stopped him. "It's not like we've got any other ideas", he said, watching them with no hope.

David sighed and walked over to them to make sure William didn't cut himself.

"Here I go", William excitedly said with the knife in hand. He placed the basketball on the floor, held the knife with both hands and pushed down the centre of the ball. The basketball cut easily, and the cut was visible. William pushed the knife deeper and then pulled the knife out. The rest of the air escaped the ball. William ripped the cut a bit more with his hands, so his hand could fit inside. Once the cut was big enough, he placed his hand inside and said,

"What's inside".