He opened his eyes. Feeling the warmth of the mattress and the blanket surrounding him, he was about to close his eyes again. But something felt off and immediately held him off of doing so. Especially, when he noticed the teddy bear staring back at him from the side of the bed. He quickly arose and blinked his eyes, trying to adapt to the dark environment. He was in a bedroom of some sort? He got up from the bed to inspect the room closer. Yes, this was definitely a bedroom.
There were scribbles and drawings which all looked like they were made by a child hanging on the walls. There were multiple plushies on the bed. An unlit candle stood along with some matches on the table and some boxes with toys were scattered in a corner. On the bedside night table was a little lamp and something that looked like a little chest. A small television, likely an older model, was placed on a small table in the shape of a square in front of the bed, equipped with what seemed to be a VHS player. A child's room then?
He glanced out of the only window in the room but there was nothing. No light, no details, just pure blackness. He tried turning on the night light, but it didn't seem to work. So, no electricity then?
He walked toward the door to leave the room, but the door wouldn't budge. It was closed. Just for the sake of having tried it, he also pressed the button beside the door for the big light but that as expected didn't work either. Yu sighed and turned around, observing the room from where he stood. On second thought; This room was extremely hazardous considering it was a child's. He didn't really know how old this kid in question would be but judging by the room décor, it was likely a child in early school age. There were quite a few things that Yu felt were out of place here for a younger child. A candle and a matchbox for example. A lot of sharp corners and hazards that could harm a child a lot if it wasn't careful, possibly even lethal.
Yu tried opening his Appraisal panel to check for his current stats but when he tried to open Appraisal, it didn't work. What? He tried creating Umbranium but that didn't work either. He was very much confused. Was all of that just a dream? But wouldn't that make the current scenario a dream too? Was this some sort of dreamception? Yu sat onto the chair in front of the desk, staring at the wax candle whilst trying to make sense of his current situation. No, this was definitely yet another test. One where his abilities were prohibited and blocked in a way. So, they could do that, intriguing. How would Yu proceed now? Everything was locked. Yu decided to further inspect the things in the room, starting with the desk. The wax candle and the matchsticks he already checked, so he decided to open the drawers of the table. Most of it was just children stuff, crayons, little toys and so one. But there were three things that seemed off in this drawer. For one, there was a box full of tacks in there, not just regular ones but heavy ones that one might see in construction work. That seemed definitely off for a children's drawer. Besides that, there were some pictures, which all depicted a little girl with blonde, curly hair, and blue eyes. Was this her room? There also was a motherboard of some sort that had unfinished soldering in there, with little LED bulbs attached to it. It had a tag on it which read "Emily's First Science Fair Project."
Yu couldn't entirely make out what exactly this was supposed to be but when he spotted the potato besides it, he surmised that this must've been a potato powered LED device, a typical beginner science project geared at kids. That must be it. Just to see what little Emily had accomplished, he plugged the device's multiple ends of the cables into the potato. As expected, the lights turned on. Emily seemed to be a decently intelligent girl if she built all of this herself, Yu thought to herself.
"What… I?"
Yu was startled hard enough that he dropped both the potato and the device on the table. Did this device just speak? He inspected the device when he found speaker grills on the back and a microphone module. So, Yu could speak back then.
"Hello?" Yu uttered, partly frightened, partly curious.
"…What… I… am I…"
Yu wasn't sure how to answer that question. There wasn't really anything more to say than that this seemed to be some sort of stripped down AI built as a science project and powered by a battery.
"It… feels cold…"
Yu's eyes widened.
"…it hurts…"
Yu was overcome with a sense of panic because of the realisation he just made; He immediately checked the modules on the motherboard. There was no AI chip installed.
"You… You're the potato??"
Flabbergasted, Yu stood there frozen. Emily seemed to be a decently intelligent girl? Whatever this girl did, she seemed to be a genius. A genius monster.
"…what… a… ta- to…"
He checked all of the modules on the motherboard. The way it seemed to work was that the device seemed to translate intent in one way, translating it into human language but also injects a sense of self-awareness by temporarily heightening the attached organisms capacity in "processing power". It didn't take long, and the device shut itself down, frying the potato in the process. Left standing in awe and fear of this girl at the same time, Yu started questioning everything in this place.
After some time processing what he had witnessed, Yu decided to continue his search for a way out. At this point he had looked through most things in the room and made a few deductions. Emily seemed to be part of a family of four, with a mother, father, and younger sister. He also found pages of a diary, of which only some phrases and parts were legible. With those he was also able to decode that the younger sister's name was Mylie. Emily seemed to be a calm headed, rather mature girl for her age whilst Mylie on the other hand seemed to be quite problematic. There were multiple references to Mylie having imaginary friends, which Yu supposed was something that could be seen as normal as that age. What Yu also struck as interesting though, was Emily's description of her parents.
"Today Mother started talking about 'them' again. No matter how many times I tell her they're not real, Mother would not listen. I have been able to identify signs of paranoia, schizophrenia, anxiety, and possibly post-partum depression. It has been quite some time since she has started talking about them, but it has gotten worse lately. Father is also not big on helping Mother see what is happening. He locked himself in his shed again, emotionally unavailable as always. I've heard about situations like these leading to a divorce. I don't really care but I hope for Mylie's sake that they can sort this out before things become critical."
Another one went in detail about Mylie:
"Sister has been acting weird again. As if was not enough that Mother started having clear signs of schizophrenia and more, Mylie was always highly imaginative, artistic, and creative. It seemed natural for her to have her 'characters' she'd regularly talk to and in itself I do not have an issue with that. But she is entirely absorbed within them. Her mind as a writer is immense enough to create characters that are lifelike. But paired with her schizophrenic symptoms and tendencies? I can only imagine it is like actually talking to another separate, fully fleshed out entity. Sort of like a ghost if you will."
Yu was impressed by the amount of intelligence the young girl seemed to possess, especially at such a young age. Considering she appeared to be the same person that created a sentient potato, Yu was intrigued at all the potential this young girl displayed. But suddenly, Yu noticed a specific picture, buried behind all other things. It depicted a portion of the bedroom, specifically the wall with the exit door to the left of the wall. In the middle of the entire wall space was a burning candle, attached to the wall with a candle holder. Yu lifted his head and stared at the wall, trying to spot any signs of the hung up candle. None was to be found, but if this picture was in fact taken in this room, he should be able to find a clue to it. He approached the wall and inspected it closer. Weirdly enough, even though there was barely any light in this room, he was able to see clearly. Was this his Night Vision skill? But why would that work when his Umbranium didn't? He wasn't even able to open the Appraisal panel. But as he tried to continue that train of thought, he found what he was looking for: An indent in the wall, where likely the candle holder used to be. Was he supposed to reconstruct the candle in the picture? He thought carefully about his next steps and whilst doing so, observed his surroundings, trying to spot anything that could aid him. He technically had a wax candle ready and matches to light it, but he needed something to prop it up with. He decided to turn on the TV, hoping it could hold clues of any kind but nothing; The TV displayed the usual static screen when there was no signal. Yu turned his attention away towards the toy boxes. In there he found typical stuff a little girl in fourth grade would like but the fact that this was the case made Yu slightly uneasy. Something about Emily seemed off. She seemed way to mentally mature to only have children's toys that she'd likely not play with if she's written such elaborate statements about her family. After carefully rummaging through Emily's belongings, his suspicions turned out to be correct; Under a layer of regular children's toys, he found things that were definitely out of place in the room of a little girl; Microscopes, test tubes, different reagents and chemicals, different kinds of wires and boards and a lot more. But in the midst of all of that there was just one thing that caught Yu's attention; a VHS tape, labeled "Memory One."
Immediately, Yu grabbed the tape and hurried towards the television. This was definitely important, Yu thought. He inserted the tape and fumbled around on the VHS player, trying to make it work. The screen then suddenly turned black, followed by a flicker and a picture. In the lower right corner, there was the depiction of a date.
20.09.2020.
"Mo- Mother, why are you doing this?"
"I told you Emily, we need to warden them off!"
Emily's Mother was visible in the picture, standing in front of the wall. The wax candle was lit. Emily, who seemed to be behind the camera, likely holding it, was slightly shaking the camera.
"Mother I've been telling you all this time, there is no 'them', this is just a delusio-"
"DO NOT DARE TO TALK BACK TO ME LIKE THIS, YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THEM!"
Emily didn't respond. Instead, she audibly panted for air, trying to keep her composure. Her mother stared directly at Emily, with an uncompromised, determined and disturbingly scary look.
"The wax may not fall to the ground. Should they fall, then they will come," she hastily muttered, partly to herself, partly towards Emily, "they will come for my babies"
Turning her head towards Emily, she started taking big steps towards her. As soon as the mother was a hairbreadth in front of the camera, she extended her arm, taking the camera.
The screen went black after that, and the video ended. What in the eldritch horror movie was that? Something was clearly off with this family. But he might have gotten an important clue. This was a test after all. Yu got up and grabbed the candle and the matchbox. The key to solving this puzzle was very likely to perform the wardening ritual, as depicted in the video.
'The wax may not fall to the ground. Should they fall, then they will come.'
He knew this entire setup was an experiment. There once was a psychological test, created to test abstract thinking, called 'The Candle Problem'. In it, the subjects were given a wax candle, a box of matches and some tacks. The goal was to attach the candle to the wall, in a way where the wax wouldn't drip off. Many people tried different variations, some tacked the candle directly, but it would break, Some tried to create a sort of 'platform' for the candle to stand on, but the wax would still drip. Yu took the matchbox and emptied all its contents onto the table. He grabbed two tacks and stepped towards the wall, to the exact position where the candle holder indent was. He positioned the matchbox sideways along the indent and aimed for where approximately the indent would be with the tacks. Hammering into the tacks, he then made a makeshift-platform out of the matchbox and the tacks. Walking back, the proudly observed his creation. Many people in that experiment tried different things. The study indeed tested out of box thinking, specifically if the subjects would try thinking outside of the initial use cases for their given tools. No one would really think of using a matchbox as a candle platform, right? Yu picked up the candle and using one matchstick and the outer layer of the box Yu ignited a flame, transferring it to the wax candle. He then placed it on top of the matchbox. But… Nothing happened. Was this not the solution? Yu was confused and he sat onto the bed to think. Did he do something wrong? Or might this not have been the solution? Yu was scratching his head confusion, as whenever he had a hunch like this, he was rarely wrong. What Yu did lack indeed was patience, as he soon saw for himself; The wax candle, which was melted halfway down already, contained something inside. Stepping closer, it seemed like a small key. Just to be safe, Yu waited until the candle melted down to remove the key from the candle. This got him a step further. Observing the key, it definitely wasn't big enough for the door. Yu looked around, trying to find whatever this key was meant to open until he spotted it. The little chest on the night table. He opened the chest, being granted access as he finished turning the key. Inside was yet another key but this one was in all black. Curious, he took the key and walked towards the door, inserting it. Perfect, this one seemed to fit. He turned it and finally got out of the room, into what was a hallway.
Opposite of Yu was another door, with two more following next to it. He tried opening one of the doors, but this also wouldn't budge. Yet again, for the sake of having tried it, he rattled the other doorknobs too but as expected those didn't open either. With that, Yu made his way downstairs, where he entered a living room. The living room looked empty, equipped with the bare minimum of a family home. A regular sofa, a television, some cupboards, and a table. That was more or less it. A sparse living style, in Yu's opinion. He tried finding the exit door of the house but there didn't seem to be any. Yu turned around to examine the rest of the room. There was one more door, right beneath the stairs. Yu approached the door but quickly realised that opening the door wouldn't be happening. Multiple locks barred Yu's endeavour of freedom, four in total. They were all color coded. One was black, just like the one he already had. The remaining ones were jade green, sapphire blue, ruby red and ivory white. So, he needed more keys. This door also had a number pad on it. Yu tried entering a random sequence of numbers, just to check the digit count for the code, which resulted in a count of six and an error message for a faulty code. This must likely be the exit of whatever this place was.
"Time to get searching" Yu sighed.
Facing away from the door, he decided to roam out of the living room. Connected to the living room was an open kitchen. He stepped into the kitchen area and observed the surroundings. It was a typical, neatly arranged kitchen. In the middle of the kitchen was an island table and running along the sides of the walls was a metallic counter. The fridge had various pictures of the family, likely from their earlier years. Looking at them like this, all the disturbing things he saw seemed to be unthinkable. Just what happened to this family?
Right beside the photos was a calendar, with various dates marked. He flipped through it, checking the noted dates. The year it was on was 2019. The date 5th of October was marked, with a highlighted handwritten text saying "16th Anniversary". Oddly enough, Yu couldn't find any markings on the calendar regarding the children. He found birthdates of the parents, certain administrative things but it was as if the children didn't exist in this calendar. Shrugging it off but making a mental note of this detail, Yu diverted his attention toward the rest of the kitchen. That's when he noticed a piece of paper on the table. Yu picked it up to read it:
"To reach the path to their hearts made of stone, may you be scholarly born.
To make a potion potent enough, combine the following with the dragon's cough"
Definitely an intriguing way to start the note. Underneath this ominous sentence was a list of ingredients, similarly written in code.
"A pinch of sour sun
Two dashes of sharp spirit
A whisper of sea's tears
Shall it not be done in time, thy existence shall be the dragon's and mine."
As soon as Yu finished reading that part, he heard a loud thumping sound. Turning around he realised that a literal wall fell from the ceiling, now separating Yu and the kitchen from the living room and with it, from the rest of the house. Yet again, Yu was locked into another puzzle for his life. He heard a loud beeping sound. Turning around yet again, this time he faced the oven. A timer was running, counting down from 10 Minutes. Whatever he needed to do, needed to be within that time frame. He definitely did not want his life to be taken by the dragon. He started surveying his surroundings, thinking about each and every passage individually.
To reach the path to their hearts made of stone, may you be scholarly born.
The "heart made of stone" seemed to be the key takeaway of this cryptic message. Surveying the kitchen, he tried to find whatever this may refer to. The kitchen had an island layout, which meant that it had an elongated kitchen counter space along the walls, with the sink, the oven and more. In the middle of the kitchen was a so-called island-table, where Yu found his note. Oddly enough, the table was not made out of metal, unlike the counter on the side. The kitchen island had a surface made out of what seemed to be marble. Was this the heart of stone? Yu had to assume it was, as there wasn't anything else in this room that could be made out of stone. He moved on to the next order of things, which was checking what ingredients he had. As soon as he opened the cupboard, he let out a loud groan. It wasn't regular cooking he had to do. This was a chemistry puzzle hidden within in the ruse of a kitchen. Yu did not like chemistry much. Or cooking if he thought about it. And now he had to solve a chemical puzzle that could cost him dearly if failed.
Yu inspected each and every element he had in the cupboards. Most of these things he didn't recognise, likely due to his lack of chemistry knowledge, but he did remember a few occasional things from his chemistry classes. After careful consideration, Yu smirked. Thankfully, this did seem to be easier than expected. He refocused on the riddle. Cryptic, yes, but solvable.
Sour sun? That could only be citric acid.
He scanned the shelves and found a lemon-shaped plastic container and, beside it, a jar of pale yellow crystals labeled "Dehydrated Citrus Essence."
Sharp spirit — vinegar, most likely.
There was a brown bottle in the fridge labeled "House Pickling Agent."
Sea's tears — salt. Easy.
A ceramic salt cellar sat by the stovetop.
After gathering all the ingredients, he brought them to the marbled table. Glancing at the clock on the over, he saw he had roughly seven minutes left. He needed to be quick about this.
"Combine with the dragon's cough…"
He eyed the gas burner on top of the oven. Of course. Heat.
Yu set to work. He measured three tablespoons of citric acid crystals into a ceramic mixing bowl, added half a cup of vinegar, fizzing slightly on contact. Afterwards, he stirred in a teaspoon of salt, watching it dissolve into the cloudy mixture. The timer ticked past 4:00. He placed the bowl over the burner and lit the flame. The mixture bubbled and hissed, a sharp citrus-vinegar smell curling upward. When it began to steam, he pulled it off. Carefully, he poured the warm solution onto the center of the marble slab. The reaction was immediate. A furious fizz erupted. Bubbles surged and popped. Mist hissed off the surface. The pristine white marble began to pock and sizzle, thin wisps of smoke rising as the acid etched into the calcium carbonate. The marble foamed like it was melting - eaten away by invisible fangs. A jagged crack formed along the seam. Then, with a soft click, a hidden panel popped open - revealing a small, gleaming white key tucked inside.
"Jackpot."
The timer was still ticking though. He had approximately two minutes to figure out how to leave this room, but unlike this first room this one did not provide any doors or notable exits to leave the room. He scanned the wall for any openings or keyholes but nothing. How exactly was he supposed to leave then? A slight panic started to set into Yu, as he observed the timer reach one minute. Was this somehow not the right trigger? Was a different solution required? He decided to check everything thoroughly, even the ceiling.
Even the ceiling...?
Glancing upwards, Yu then saw it:
The ventilation shaft.
It was locked and had a keyhole. Without thinking twice, Yu jumped, kicking off of the marbled table to gain momentum. Yu was now on top of the metal counter, facing the ventilation shaft. He looked back to the timer, seeing that there was about twenty seconds left. He quickly drew the jade key and tried to insert it into the keyhole, which resulted in more of a panicked fiddling. After a few seconds, a click sounded and the shaft opened. Without any further hesitation, Yu jumped into the shaft, immediately closing down behind him, crawling ahead. In that same instance, a loud explosive sound ruptured Yu's ears and a wave of burning heat overcame him.
At last, Yu's life did not become the dragon's.
After crawling around for a while through the linear shaft, he reached a dead end. Well, mostly because the shaft went upwards. There was a ladder though, oddly enough, so it was less of an actual dead end but more of a mysterious path. Whatever this sick escape room was, the intention was clearly to go this way. Yu reached for the first handle of the ladder and slowly climbed upwards, eventually reaching the top. A short crawl later he reached another shaft, that he was able to easily open. He dropped down into the room and tried orienting himself by checking his newfound surroundings. Yet again, he found himself in a children's bedroom. Yu still wasn't over the mini trauma the previous two rooms left him with, so he was not as intrigued or stoked as he was the first time around. Yet, this room was different to the first one in many ways. It was more colorful, with a lot of crayon pictures hung on the walls. It felt more entropic and lived in, with dozens of scattered toys and drawing utensils on the ground. If Yu thought the first room had a lot of plushies, this room had an enormous amount of them. But the most interesting part were the depictions on the drawings; The same five repeated characters were seen throughout all drawings of this child. One of them was a white ice bear with red markings across its face and body of some sort. In small, childishly written letters it said "Akakuma." Another notable figure was a very tall, very skinny man, with a long black coat and a hat. He gave off the vibe of a detective. There was no name to be found though. Whilst rummaging through what he surmised to be Mylie's room, he almost forgot that he was in another escape room yet again. Or… was he? Oddly enough, Yu found something shimmering in the middle of the room. There, casually on the ground, was the red key. Not trusting his eyes, he picked it up. When Yu tried opening the door with it, it just opened. There was no puzzle to solve? Why was that? Dumbfounded, he left the room, coming across one more locked door. The parent's room, very likely. He didn't even want to know what was in there but to Yu's dismay, one of the remaining keys must be in there. With a big sigh, Yu tried opened the door, which was locked on his previous try. To his surprise, it now opened.
On first glance, the room seemed to be a completely normal bedroom. It had a dark vibe, with scarlet walls and dim lighting. There was a king-sized bed with romantic decor and the pillows and bedwear looked cozy and comfortable. On one of the walls was a big corkboard, with various items pinned to it. At closer inspection, they were all notes or memories with significant personal value.
"The first time she said 'dada' – 9:14"
"Her 5th birthday – don't forget the green cake"
"I still keep her drawing in my wallet"
Around the room were framed family photos. But some seemed to have been tampered with. One, where the family seemed to be at the beach, was cracked. One full frame picture with the entire family on it had Emily's face cut out. Another had Mylie's face faintly scratched out, but the same figures as he saw in Mylie's room were hand drawn onto the picture, surrounding Mylie. Continuing with his inspection, he found a journal on the bedside table. Yu picked it up, flipping through a few pages. This journal was owned by a "Jonathan" as it said here. This was very likely the family father.
Journal pages from Jonathan described his confusion and guilt about the family.
"She stares at the hallway vent again. Says it 'buzzes.' Elena won't let her in the basement anymore."
"She flushed her meds. I told her I'd lock them away. God forgive me, I didn't."
Jonathan seemed to be a rather grounded, logical person. Even so, his methodical mind began trying to correlate Mylie's behavior with power surges, light flickers, or appliance failures. But the last passage in the journal was the thing that caught Yu's attention.
"I always remember by the order of love. The specific times those were invoked within me. That's all I have left."
Now, this was extremely easy. Yu did not expect things to go this smoothly. He turned towards the wallboard and scanned for anything that could match that for which he was searching. And then he found it. A handwritten letter, hung onto a little corner of the board.
"Dear Elena
As you know, I am not the strongest when it comes to talking. Or anything at all. I am writing you this letter to put my thoughts into words. To get out what I feel about you, about how I perceive you.
Ever since I met you at the diner and you approached my dull self, I was enamored with you. I was just a regular, silent guy sulking by his lonesome but you came up to me that Saturday evening and cheered me up. Ever since then, this date had been so very special to me, I've marked it in my calendar. This was the day that life took a turn for me and I surely didn't expect that to happen through such a beautiful, cheerful woman. You've bullied me into feeling better, you've noticed things about me no one ever has and you made me feel like I belonged in this world. Continuing that, every time I've visited, I came for you. It did not take long for me to long for your closeness.
For your silly interactions where you make fun of my emotionally closed off self. You're the one who taught me to write down my feelings. You're the one that taught me that life can go downhill any time but that there is always a way to go up. You have taught me for the first time in my life how it feels to be cherished and loved. That my inventions and work amount to more than just hopeless dreams. You've given me a reason to create.
You've made me feel all of this and my hopeless self can't do anything other than write this letter. I'm too much of a silent chicken to come up to you by myself. I love you, Elena.
Love,
Jonathan"
Wow. Yu was really impressed by this confession. He thought it was adorable. But Yu immediately refocused on the important part of this information. He knew two vital pieces of information that would help him gather the things he needed. First, the location and weekday of a specific date. The second was the occasion and thus the significance of that day. The day that Elena and Jonathan, the family parents started dating.
'I always remember by the order of love. The specific times those were invoked within me.'
This meant to Yu's understanding, the dates that his love for the three started blooming. For the children it was very likely their date of birth. For his wife, Elena, this was most definitely either the day they started dating or the day they got married. Yu smiled. For an emotionally closed off father, Jonathan seemed to be more sentimental than one might think.
Keeping the newly found information in mind, Yu tried finding more clues around the room. Trying to find any sort of personal calendar resulted in a failed search, as there was nothing of that sort to be found. Maybe that was found in another room. He opened the cupboards of the night table, hoping to find something, when he stumbled across what seemed to be a birth certificate. Specifically, it was Mylie's birth certificate. Mylie's date of birth, according to the certificate was 6th of May 2013. So had one of the three down. All that was left was finding Emily's date of birth and the specific date that the parents started dating. Yu decided to take a look at the corkboard again, flying over some of the notes. Specifically, the post-its grabbed his attention. Some of the clues were there but he couldn't fully piece those together yet. Trying to think hard about how to piece these things together, Yu then suddenly noticed something. The corkboard was slightly off-angle. On one corner it revealed a little patch of color different to the scarlet walls. With care, Yu slightly lifted the corkboard to find a hidden compartment behind the board, with a sole notebook on there. This seemed to be another journal. Yu wondered, why it was hidden. He grabbed the notebook and opened it to the first page.
"Entry #1 – 08th Of December 2005
Today is officially the day we got married! I can't believe that someone like her would even remotely associate herself with a person like me. But she has. It led me to the most wonderful day of my life. She's been as playful as ever, with a smile worth everything to me. Since her advice with writing down my feelings went so well so far, I decided to keep a mini journal about our lives."
Yu smiled at what Jonathan wrote down. Yu's initial picture of Jonathan was a grim father, who was emotionally distanced and unavailable to his wife and children but this seemed to be a completely different person. Had something happened later down the line? Yu skimmed the following entries for any intriguing passages.
"Entry #45 – 15th of February 2008
I can't believe I am writing this. As of today, the 15th of February, I am officially a father. Elena just gave birth to Emily, our cherished daughter! I can't wait to show her the ropes of engineering, but Elena said I should let her choose herself what she wants. I quote, "what if she wants to be a diva like me?" Unbelievable this woman. I love her so much."
Emily's date of birth was the fifteenth of February. With that, he got both date of births of the children and the day of their marriage. Yu still had to figure out, what combination of this info was the code and especially, where to input it. But what confused Yu the most was, when he realised the state of the journal he was holding; Half of it was teared out. The last entry was the following:
"Entry #89 – 6th of May 2013
Today is yet another cause for celebration! Our loud and proud five year old Emily officially gained a new sibling, and her name is Mylie! I sure hope they will become the type of siblings that get along and don't start a fight because of a chocolate bar. On a side note, Elena does not seem to be doing all too well. She already showed some signs different to her first pregnancy but she is currently in hospital custody. Tonight, I'm going to visit her again. I hope she is doing alright."
This was the last entry, about midway through the journal. Whilst the outside from of the other half of the pages were there, they seemed to be holed out. Within that holed out space was yet another key, shining in a sky blue color, This was the sapphire key. Yu, not yet fully grasping that this was just part of a bigger challenge, stood there, in slight irritation. He took the key, realizing he had all but one. What were those codes for? This room wasn't just for show. Neither wasn't Mylie's. So, what was exactly happening here? He glanced around. The only other accessible room would be the bathroom…
And the basement.
Yu walked out of the parent's bedroom, still thinking about why this entire place was structured this way. This didn't seem like much of an intelligence test. He clearly remembered ARC telling him, that they've tested intelligence enough. He followed up with a physical skill test in combat. So, after all that, would it really make much sense to put him into an escape room, one this elaborate even, to test more of his intelligence when ARC seemed to have run enough tests already? This was more than that. Why else would they cook up such an elaborate story, just to make an entertaining escape room? Yu now stood in front of the bathroom. Deciding to check it out before heading to the basement, he opened the door to see a dimly lit bathroom, combined with a toilet. Now that Yu thought about it, he hasn't been on the toilet for a while, has he...?
After a short relief, he decided to inspect the bathroom. There was one more key missing after all. But the bathroom seemed entirely normal, as you would find in any other household. Nothing was out of place, everything seemed to be ordinary. Yu, now standing in front of the mirror, then opened the drawers beneath the sink and there it was. Bottles and bottles of pills. An enormous amount at that and all different kinds. He checked the prescriptions and they all seemed to correlate with certain things he's made note of so far.
"She flushed her meds. I told her I'd lock them away. God forgive me, I didn't.
This was one of the passages he read previously. Yu tried getting all the pieces in order.
This was a family of four. The family father, Jonathan, was an introverted, rather emotionally distant family father that didn't know how to socialise and express himself. He shut himself in most of the time and worked on inventions and other types of tinkering. His wife, Elena, seemed to be a lively woman in her younger years. She developed post-partum depression after the birth of Mylie, to such a rate that some sort of paranoia developed with it, making her believe and perceive exaggerated threats. They had two children, Emily and Mylie, both genius minds in their own right. The elder, Emily, was a young girl with a brilliant mind, seemingly taking after her father when it came to tinkering. Developing never before seen incredible things at such an early age like a device that gives a potato sentience was not to be taken lightly. Mylie, the younger girl on the other hand seemed to be an imaginative girl, who would make a brilliant storywriter. Though, Mylie also seemed to be plagued by some form of psychological disorder, namely Schizophrenia according to Emily's observations. Paired with her incredibly imaginative mind, to Mylie, her 'friends' probably seemed extremely lifelike. The birth of Mylie seemed to be a cataclysmic event for the family, as things seemed to go downhill, separating Emily and Jonathan, who both seemed to be much more on the sane side compared to Elena and Mylie, who both suffered from a psychological disorder. Elena believed that some sort of force came to take her children away from her, which deteriorated her mind seriously. But what came after?
Realizing there was not much to observe here, Yu left the bathroom and made his way downstairs yet again, into the living room. There seemed to be only one way left for him to find his key. Entering the living room, he glanced over to the kitchen, where he nearly escaped death, shuddering at the thought of it. The wall closing off the space has opened to reveal a a fully desolated kitchen. The flames were gone, instead leaving ashes and blackness, combined with the smell of burned chemicals. Yu walked toward the door underneath the stairs. Taking out each key out of his pocket, he entered and turned each one into the corresponding colour. Now only the number code barred his way out of here. He first thought about the possible combination to the basement. He tried various combinations but none of them worked. Was the sequence wrong? No, the order of love must mean chronologically, Elena, Emily, and Mylie. So, was it a mix of dates and years? Or months? As things got more and more confusing, Yu then realized something. He glanced over to the destroyed kitchen, not to spot anything but because that was where he found the conflicting information that made him realize something. When Yu first entered the kitchen, he checked the calendar, which stated that in the year 2019 Jonathan and Elena had their anniversary of 16 years. That would mean that the 5th of October 2003 was the day they got married. But in Jonathan's journals, he clearly stated that the date of their marriage was on the eight of December 2005. That could only mean one thing. Yu smirked.
'I always remember by the order of love. The specific times those were invoked within me.'
Jonathan's love for Mylie began the day she was born, the day she came into his life. His love for Emily began the same. So why would this be any different for Elena? Not the day she was born; The day she reciprocated Jonathan's feelings. The day they became a couple. That made it clear to Yu.
Fully calm, he hovered his finger above the number pad. He entered the pin:
"030213"
A green light flashed across the screen on the pad lock and the door opened automatically, revealing a flight of stairs, leading down into a dark abyss. With a big sigh, Yu stepped through the doorframe, down into whatever awaited him down there.