Mr. Pennyshire’s house was situated at the end of Redfield Road at the top of a small hill, its large silhouette seeming to loom over the entire neighborhood. Every inch of the three-story house was intricately decorated, from giant fake spiders climbing the side of the chimney, to tiny stuffed bats hanging from the trees out front. But even more impressive than the house itself was the long line of monsters winding out from it down the street.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” Noah muttered.

  “I guess this is why Bella told us to come here first,” Jesse said.

  “We don’t have much of a choice,” Alicia said, stepping forward. “Let’s get this over with.”

  As they took their place at the back of the line, Jesse couldn’t help but feel nervous, especially when more monsters came up behind them, sandwiching them in. But their disguises seemed to do the trick as nobody batted an eye at their presence.

  The minutes slowly ticked by as the line inched forward.

  “Hey, Siobhan…” Alicia started suddenly. “I just wanted to apologize for earlier, at the pumpkin patch. You were just trying to help me.”

  “Oh, it’s okay.” Siobhan looked taken aback. “I mean, I probably wouldn’t have believed me either.”

  “I also shouldn’t have blamed you for Ashton going missing. I was just so worked up. But seriously, when you guys realized what was going on, you didn’t have to save us, but you did.”

  Noah grunted in agreement.

  “Who knows what would have happened if you hadn’t come along. So, thanks.”

  Jesse and Siobhan exchanged looks. Neither of them had much experience in social situations and really only talked to each other. Meanwhile, Alicia was one of the most popular girls in school and Noah was so intimidating that even the eighth graders were scared of him. Both were out of their league, and yet here they were, apologizing and thanking them like equals. It left them at a loss.

  Fortunately, they had made it to the front of the line, sparing them from the awkward moment.

  Jesse reached out to knock on the door, but before he could, it burst open. Out came a tall, thin man wearing a fancy three-piece suit, complete with top hat and walking cane. He would have looked normal, save for the fact he had no skin or muscle, leaving only pure white bones.

  “Step right up, if you dare!” The skeleton, Mr. Pennyshire, exclaimed. He spoke with a posh British accent. “Do you and your friends have what it takes to escape from my evil clutches?” He laughed for dramatic flair before focusing on their group. “And how many do we have here?”

  “Uh, four,” Jesse answered hesitantly.

  “Right this way.” He motioned for them to follow him into the house, Jesse reluctantly taking the lead.

  The inside was just as decorated as the outside. Black garlands shaped like bats lined the walls and creepy candles lit their way as Mr. Pennyshire led them through the halls. He stopped in front of an open doorway, ushering them in.

  They found themselves in a cluttered study filled with so much stuff it would have taken until midnight just to list everything. In the center of the room was a lectern, like the kind a preacher would read from, and behind it sat an antique mahogany writing desk facing the door. On the other side of the room, a giant window had its curtains drawn for privacy. Bookcases lined the shelves with old-looking tomes, plush red armchairs nearby for comfortable reading.

  “Wow, this is pretty cool,” Siobhan said and Jesse agreed. For a moment, he forgot all about the monsters and the potion and just enjoyed the care that was put into celebrating Halloween.

  “Why thank you, miss.” Mr. Pennyshire strode into the room after them. “I pride myself on attention to detail. All of the puzzles in this room are themed to the history of Gravewood, so I’d like to think of this as an opportunity to teach outsiders about our wonderful neighborhood. Now, for the fun to begin. Just like any other escape room, I’m going to lock you in here and you have until this timer-” He produced a large hourglass from seemingly nowhere and placed it on the desk. “-runs out to solve all of the puzzles and get the key to unlock the door. Any questions?”

  Noah raised his hand.

  “Please don’t break anything,” The skeleton said.

  Noah lowered his hand.

  “What do we get if we win?” Jesse asked.

  “You’ll get to choose from a variety of fabulous prizes! What those prizes are, well, you’ll have to win first to find out.”

  With his explanation of the game out of the way, he stepped into the hall. “Ready? Your time starts… now.” As soon as the last word left his mouth, the door immediately slammed shut, a soft click telling them they were locked in.

  Jesse turned to the most obvious thing in the room, the podium. There was currently no book sitting atop it, but on the side there was an inscription in the wood: “Gravewood was founded in 1699 by Zachary Grave and Hamish Harwood. But there was another founder, often forgotten by those telling the tale.”

  “1699?” Siobhan repeated. “This place has been around for over three hundred years?”

  Noah whistled. “That’s almost as old as Boston.”

  “How are we supposed to know who the other founder is, though?” Alicia asked.

  “There has to be a clue around here,” Jesse said. “Let’s spread out.”

  They each went to their own corners of the room, searching for anything that could give them a hint. Jesse stood in front of one of the bookcases. Most of the titles didn’t seem relevant to their situation, but with an escape room, you never knew, so he picked a book at random to open up and see if there might be anything inside. Or at least, he tried to, but it wouldn’t budge from its place on the shelf. He tried the one next to it as well, but it was like all of the books were bolted into the wood, not moving a single inch no matter how hard he pulled.

  He gave up on the books, instead turning his attention to a side table sitting nearby. There was a set of scales sitting on top, with fancy glasses on either end, though one side was weighed down by a golden-colored liquid.

  Before he could begin to guess what those were used for, Siobhan called out, “Hey, over here.”

  She was pointing at a large oil painting on the wall of a young woman sitting in a chair, two men on either side of her, all wearing period clothing. While the woman and the man on her left looked normal, the man to her right was painted with brown fur covering most of his face and a long tail sticking out from the back of his pants. His hand that rested on the back of the woman’s chair had long claws where his fingernails should have been, and Jesse got the feeling that underneath the top hat he wore was a pair of pointed wolf ears.

  A plaque on the frame read, “Hamish Harwood, Alice Grave, and Zachary Grave.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  “She must be the other founder.”

  “What a surprise,” Alicia said. “The woman gets forgotten by history.”

  “So now what do we do?” Jesse asked.

  “Her name is Alice?” Noah held up a book. “I found this on the shelf.”

  “How did you get that?” he demanded, examining the title; Alice in Wonderland.

  He shrugged. “It was the only one I could move.”

  “It must have been on the top shelf,” Siobhan said, smirking.

  “That’s rich, coming from you.”

  Before they could continue arguing, Noah placed the book on the podium. At once, it sprang open, and Mr. Pennyshire’s recorded voice came from somewhere within.

  “Once upon a time, there was a girl named Alice,” he narrated, and several pop-up tabs in the book started moving on their own, showing the cutout of a young girl surrounded by trees. She was younger than she looked in the painting, maybe around teen age, though it was hard to tell with the simplistic art style.

  “She could do many great things.” The illustrations showed Alice waving her hands as flowers bloomed around her and insects turned into beautiful birds. “And the greatest thing she ever did was create a protective shield around her home and friends.”

  The page turned to show an iridescent dome covering a small village, happy looking monsters cheering her on.

  “But the shield wasn’t perfect, and sometimes needed tweaking. One horrible day, many of Gravewood’s hungrier residents made their way to the nearby human settlement.”

  A horde of zombies shuffled slowly across the page towards a group of scared humans.

  “Fortunately, Alice, her brother Zachary, and Hamish were able to save the humans and the zombies.” Another tab flipped up to reveal the three of them, standing in between the horde and the humans.

  “Alice realized that the only way to protect both groups would be to alter her barrier one last time.” The final page showed the zombies within the barrier while the humans stood safely on the outside, looking in.

  “Wow,” Noah said. “They don’t teach that in history.”

  The book turned to its final page, where instead of more illustrations or text, there was a large hole. Inside rested a silver key.

  “It must go to this box I found.” Alicia took the key over to the desk, where a similarly silver box was waiting. She unlocked it, revealing a bottle of golden liquid and a note tucked neatly within.

  Unfolding the note, she read, “After the zombie incident, Alice cast a spell to erase the humans’ memories. Then the residents of Gravewood pooled their knowledge together and created an elixir that would quell the zombies’ hunger for flesh.”

  “That would explain why they’re so peaceful,” Siobhan said.

  “Yeah, I was wondering why none of them were trying to bite our faces off.”

  Jesse grabbed the bottle. He immediately recognized it as the same liquid in the glass he found earlier and brought it over to the side table.

  “Carefully,” Siobhan said, as he poured the bottle into the empty glass, making it level with the other, but it was a little hard to concentrate with all three of them hovering over his shoulder.

  When both glasses were filled so that they were perfectly balanced on the scales, a drawer in the table that Jesse hadn’t noticed before flew open, nearly gut punching him in the process.

  “Jeez!” he said, jumping back. “Mr. Pennyshire could give a little warning next time.”

  “How are we doing on time anyway?” Alicia asked, glancing at the hourglass.

  They had gotten so absorbed in the puzzles and the story that Jesse almost forgot they were on a time limit. The hourglass had been steadily counting down the entire time, a continuous stream of black grains that landed in a mound on the bottom that was now bigger than the handful on top. He couldn’t tell exactly how much time was left, but it couldn’t have been a lot.

  Noah grabbed the hourglass and flipped it upside down. The amount at the bottom did not change. He tried a few more times but it always stayed the same, as if it were taunting him.

  “When we learned that monsters and magic and stuff was real, a part of me thought it was cool, but now I take it back. Magic is annoying.”

  “What’s inside the drawer?” Siobhan asked, drawing their attention back to the task at hand.

  Jesse reached in and produced an antique flintlock pistol with the letters HC engraved on the handle, as well as another note.

  “All was well in Gravewood, until the colonies turned against the empire. Some residents took it upon themselves to join the war, and while their contributions certainly helped America win, rumors began to spread of supernatural soldiers. Many monsters never made it back to their loved ones-” He hesitated before finishing, “killed at the hands of their comrades.”

  The others were stunned into silence. Alicia covered her mouth in horror.

  It made sense to Jesse, in a horrible way. Humans weren’t exactly known for being accepting of others, especially during that time period. Still, it was disturbing to read about, like when he was first taught about the Salem witch trials in school.

  He shook those thoughts away. They had to focus.

  On the wall near the door was an empty plaque, used to mount something for display, and Jesse gingerly placed the pistol on the outstretched hooks.

  The display swung open, and beneath it, written on the wall was, “After the war, most monsters became distrustful of humans, and they were banned from Gravewood. At the same time, more monsters from all over the world flocked to the refuge of the neighborhood.”

  The word “world” was underlined three times.

  “Think it could be referring to that?” Siobhan gestured to the corner where a large globe sat.

  “I don’t see anything else it could be.”

  The globe, like everything else in the study, looked antique. It was parchment colored and suspended in the middle of a wooden pedestal with three intricately carved legs. It reminded Jesse of the globe he would play with in the library whenever his mom would take him when he was little. Across its map were several red lines of varying lengths, crisscrossing the world almost like a spider web, with Gravewood, Massachusetts as its center.

  When he looked closer, he saw each of the lines were labeled with a name. A lot were faded, but a recent looking one that stretched all the way to Columbia read, “Cardenas.”

  “They weren't kidding when they said the monsters came from all over,” Noah said.

  Jesse remembered what Bella told them about there being other communities out there. He’d figured she meant around America, but this map showed they were worldwide.

  “But what do we do with this?”

  “Well, this is Mr. Pennyshire’s escape room,” Alicia suggested. “Maybe his line would have a clue?”

  It took a bit of scouring, but eventually they found his line, the faintest by far. It led across the Atlantic over to England.

  When Jesse ran his fingers over the island country, he felt an indent, and when he pressed down it clicked, like a button. They backed up as the top of the globe opened up, in its center a brass key.

  “Please tell me this is it,” Noah said, as Jesse grabbed it and tried it on the door to the study.

  The key turned easily and when they opened the door, Mr. Pennyshire was waiting for them, a wide grin on his skeletal face. Jesse briefly wondered if he’d been standing there the whole time.

  “Congratulations, you won!” he said. He stepped past them, looking over the room and how they’d left pieces and puzzles strewn about. “My, how eager you all were.”

  “Sorry about that,” Jesse said sheepishly.

  “No need to worry.”

  Mr. Pennyshire waved his cane and at once everything started flying back to their original positions, as if pulled by invisible strings. Even the golden liquid in the cup flew back into the bottle before locking itself once again in the globe.

  “Is that really it?” Siobhan asked.

  “Whatever do you mean, my dear?”

  “I-I just-” she turned red. “I was really enjoying the story, but it ended so abruptly.”

  “You see, that’s the beauty of history,” Mr. Pennyshire said. “The story is never really over. It will continue long after all of us are gone.”

  “But what happened to Alice and the others?”

  “What indeed?” He turned to the portrait and it was hard to tell but, but Jesse thought he saw something like wistfulness cross his skeletal face, before he cleared his throat. “Perhaps I can share that story another time. For now, I do believe you four have earned yourselves a prize.”

  Another wave and a table appeared before them, a variety of strange looking artifacts littered on its surface. Jesse looked over each one carefully, but most of them looked like toys or souvenirs, not ingredients for a potion.

  “Um, is this eye of newt?” he asked, picking up a glass bottle that was filled with little white spheres.

  “Why, no, those are earwig eggs.”

  “Argh!” He almost dropped the bottle trying to put it down.

  “Unfortunately, you were just a little too late. I’ve already given out the last of my eye of newt. It’s a very popular ingredient, you know. Makes the most wonderful stew you’ve ever had.”

  Great, now what were they supposed to do? No eye of newt and nothing else on their list either.

  Mr. Pennyshire must have sensed their disappointment because he continued, “If you’re really desperate to find some, I would suggest asking Hank Harwood. He always keeps some on hand for cooking, and he’s very friendly.”

  “We’ve met him,” Siobhan said. “Remember, Jesse?”

  He thought back to the big lumberjack man they talked to earlier. “Yeah, we know where to find him. Thank you, sir.” He gave a polite nod to Mr. Pennyshire as they turned to leave.

  “Now hang on just a minute.” Boney fingers wrapped around his wrist, halting him in his tracks.

  His heart stopped. His mind raced with worst-case scenarios. Have they been found out? Was Mr. Pennyshire going to expose them to the entire neighborhood? Or would he just kill them himself, right here and now?

  But instead of doing any of that, he placed the bottle of earwig eggs from earlier into his hand. “Can’t have you walking out of here unrewarded for all your hard work. Careful, it’s fragile,” he said with a wink.

  Jesse tried not to look grossed out as he slipped the slimy looking eggs into his pocket. “Thanks.”

  “Good luck out there.” If it was even possible, his skeletal grin widened further as he watched them leave.