“What are you doing?”
Carter jumped at her angry tone. “Um . . . taking pictures?”
“Why?”
“For . . . my fans?”
The girl stared at her for a second, then grinned. “Oh my god, it really is you!”
Carter blinked, trying to remember the girl’s name. Vera? Yes, Vera. She was pretty sure. “Yeah. Um, hi.”
The girl stepped closer, beaming enthusiastically. “TheKick It Carter! Solve Specialist! O-M-G, I am, like, such a big fan!”
Her voice had taken on an odd Valley-girl tinge that made Carter extra nervous.
“Really?”
Vera’s smile vanished. “No. You influencers are so full of yourselves.” She lifted the iPad she was holding. “Say cheese.”
Carter barely had time to twist her lips into a semblance of a smile as Vera snapped a photo. She was onThe Escape Game. She was supposed to be with her people. She hadn’t come here to trade in the relative strangers at school for a set of jerks. Jerks with cameras.
If only she had the guts to say as much.
Vera checked the screen and frowned. “Where are your glasses?”
“Glasses?”
“The big round ones?”
“O-oh. My avatar wears those, but I don’t actually need them.”
Vera’s scowl deepened. “I’ll bring it up with costuming.”
“You’re the social media manager, right?” said Carter. “I think you’re the one who shared my memorial video for Alicia Angelos. That got me a lot of new followers, so . . . thanks.”
“Just keeping the show trending.” Vera tucked her iPad beneath her arm. “If it were up to me, I’d be happy to drag that bitch’s name through the mud.”
“You—what?”
But Vera was already walking away.
06
Beck
Beck looked down at the ocean-blue lab coat, then up at the mirror. He liked the effect. The color matched his eyes. The stylists hadn’t done much—a bit of powder, a pencil to his eyebrows, a slick of mousse. He still looked like himself, just turned up a notch.
Plus, the lab coat. Beck liked the lab coat.
He mimed fidgeting with invisible glasses. “The specimen has taken on properties that we could not have accounted for,” he said in his best serious-scientist voice. “It will soon infect us with a flesh-eating virus that will spread across the planet, devouring everything it comes into contact with . . . and there is simply nothing we can do.” He clicked his tongue. “Terrible shame.” The TV on the wall flickered in the reflection. Beck spun around as the blue screen switched to an internal channel to reveal Fitzy, the show’s host, in a linen shirt and faded jeans, beaming at the camera. He might not have been the brains of the show, but his offbeat charm and utter lack of pretension were part of what made it work.
“Welcome to season five ofThe Escape Game!” he said, his Australian accent tasting like salty oysters. “The show where we lock teenagers in rooms full of puzzles, clues, and codes to see who can escape the fastest. I’m your host, Fitzy, and this season, our teams will be competing for the biggest cash prize ever offered onThe Escape Game. The winning team will be awarded . . . wait for it . . . one million dollars!”
The screen changed to B-roll footage of hundred-dollar bills dropping from the sky onto an enormous pile of cash. A gaudy reminder. If Beck’s team won, he’d have a whopping two hundred and fifty grand to call his own . . . for at least five minutes, before he paid off his parents’ bills and told the debt collectors to suck it.
“But that’s not all,” Fitzy continued, and Beck took an eager step closer to the screen. “Because this season, we’re offering an exclusive early-access invitation to Sweetbrier Resort!” Drone footage played across the screen: a glamorous hotel, a lake with an anchored pirate ship at its center, a flag with the logo for Victory Escapades, Inc.tm fluttering over a castle drawbridge. “The team who comes out on top this season will be the first members of the public to explore Victor Cunningham’s highly anticipated playground for puzzle lovers. But we’ve got a lot of escape room shenanigans coming up before we declare our winners, so let’s go over the rules.”
The screen switched to fancy graphics of clocks and flashlights. “Today’s room is what we call our snag round. It’s a chance to see what these teams can do, and it’s the only round during this competition in which no team will be eliminated. However, there’s plenty of incentive for them to do well, as the fastest team to solve each puzzle will earn the Game Master’s highly coveted ‘snags,’ which is our clever word for”—he lowered his voice to a sinister stage whisper—“‘sabotage.’ Unlock a bonus today, and our teams will be able to royally screw over their competitors in future rounds. And you know they’re gonna want those snags, because after today, the team that takes the longest to escape each room will be going home. Now, let’s give it up for the man who’s been working hard to bring you the most brain-twisting escape rooms around . . . the Game Master himself, Louis Augustus Russell!”
