It was Valentine’s Day, 1981. Every Valentine’s Day, the Santa Monica pier would be filled with couples, looking for a rousing adventure at the amusement park. Visiting the Santa Monica pier has been a tradition for the Smiths, since their first anniversary. It has already been thirty years. Now, it serves as more of a getaway from the family, including their three grandchildren. Jessica and Jason Smith woke up at five in the morning, just so they could make it in time to the escape room they booked three weeks before. They drove all the way down from San Francisco to the west coast of downtown Los Angeles.

On the other hand, attending the same escape room, was another couple, the Watsons. Lauren and Larry Watson had many tremendous turns in their relationship. After their first year together, things didn’t work out, so soon enough, they filed for a divorce. Larry’s father has stage one cancer, in addition to his regular heart attacks, so they’ve been keeping it from his parents for a while. Initially, they would both be spending Valentine’s with their friends, but Larry’s father suggested they spend the day at the new pop-up escape room at the amusement park, and so, they did.

Soon enough, they arrived outside the hulking, battered, and largely windowless brick building, its booth poking out. The exterior gave out a slight sort of uncanniness. Ignoring the fact, the Smiths looked into the booth and saw a sturdy but scratched, rotund desk, protruding from the scarred brick face of the building, with only a rusty bell in the center of it to invite them in. Next to the bell was a crumpled piece of paper, saying “Please Ring Bell for Service”. Jason eyed Jessica suspiciously reached down, and finally rang the bell. There was silence, at least in the sense that you could hear the sputtering and drooling of an air conditioner. Gradually, footsteps could be discerned beneath the AC’s death throes, tapping closer.

A pale slip of a man, the booth’s clerk, and a dusty black suit wrapped too tightly over his white torso, appeared. In a husky and sinister voice, the man opened his chapped mouth and enunciated, “Welcome to the escape room. We promise your adventure here today will be exclusive, and one of a kind. Please kindly take a seat while waiting for the other two to arrive.” He pointed to a rustic bench. The Smiths frowned but decided to sit down anyway. Jason reached out and held Jessica’s hand, hoping it could bring slight comfort.

Approximately ten minutes later, the couple heard the sound of a pair of high heels clicking along the stone floor. It was a tall woman in a blue suit dress; then a man about five-foot-eight tall following behind her, trying to catch up with her. “Can you just hurry up? I’m already stuck here doing some lame escape room with you. I have a job to go to, obviously, someone in your line of work wouldn’t realize.” She graced him with an eye-roll. By the time they arrived at the round table, the enigmatic clerk was already waiting for them. Again in his menacing voice, he began, “Welcome to the escape room. We promise your adventure here today will be exclusive, and one of a kind. Today you four will be working as a team to escape from this room. You have a total of 60 minutes. As for the first four visitors, two hints would be provided. Please use them wisely. If you cannot make it out within the given time, you shall face the consequences. Just a jest. I’ll come and let you out by the end of 60 minutes. Last but not least, good luck!” A door spun open, ablaze with bright lights. The man in black let out a small laugh and gave the group a gentle push into the room. Boom! The door slammed shut. It has begun.

“Hi, I’m Jessica and this is my husband Jason. I thought maybe we should begin with an introduction and get to know a little about each other, since you know, we’ll be stuck in this room together for the next 60 minutes.” Jessica said, trying her best to break the awkward silence, and the tense atmosphere she already felt emanating from Lauren and Larry.

“Hello. You can call me Larry. This is... Lauren... we had a history, I guess. It’s my first time in one of these escape rooms, so I’ll be relying more on you guys...haha...” Larry stammered while throwing in a forced chuckle, wiping his brow with a crumpled handkerchief from his baggy pockets.

“Great! So where should we begin? Maybe we should go take a look at the pinboard on the wall, and see what we could evidence or hints we could find.” Jason motioned and began walking towards the pinboard with all sorts of pictures and post-it notes on it. The rest followed him, under all the red lights. On the board, there were pictures of a tremendous stack of crumpled twenty-dollar notes, an airplane, a bomb, and finally a parachute. The photos pinned onto the bulletin board with red thumbtacks. There was also red yarn linking the photos from one to another. It seemed like something you’d find in an investigation of a movie. On the right of the board, there was a bright red button with whipped out, bulky white letters, “Press here!”. Without hesitation, Jason reached out and pressed the button, knowing the reverse psychology in escape rooms.

The red lights shut off, it was pitch black. One couldn’t even make out what was five feet in front of them. “Jessica, where are you? Come here, I’ll hold your hand,” Jason said, trying his best to hide his anxiety and keeping a strong face on. He held his arms up, reaching for Jessica’s hand. Suddenly, a row of lights in front of the pinboard appeared. There was a voice coming from the speaker, “Welcome to the escape room. This is no ordinary escape room. You are currently being held in this room as my hostages. I need you to do me a favor. As you could probably already tell from the pinboard, this is a case involving money, an airplane, a bomb, and a parachute, like the case of D.B Cooper from almost a dozen years ago. I know where he is right now, and I need you guys to report this important information to me at the police station. But you all have to promise to not say a word and keep this discrete. If all this goes as I planned, I will release you, and you will never speak again. If not, you will be held in here for the rest of eternity.”

The four glazed at each other, it was a choice they had to make.