[Writing Prompt] You and your cell mate escape from prison after 5 years of careful planning only to discover that you escaped from an extremely elaborate escape room.
Reality TV
Tumblers in the final lock, on the final door, jangled under the pressure of Larry’s makeshift pick.
Harold watched from over Larry’s shoulder, sweat beading on his forehead, dripping into his eyes faster than he could wipe it away. He scanned for the guards again, and then focused back on Harold. They were so close to freedom, Harold could taste it.
Larry, for his part, remained calm. His meticulous fingers worked their magic. He eyed the lock with extreme intensity, as if he could will it open with his mind alone.
Their plan had gone off without a hitch so far. Jimmying their cell door during count so that it didn’t latch shut correctly. Timing the guard change exactly and sneaking out of the block. Collecting the two corrections uniforms, meticulously squirrelled away over years of planning for this exact moment.
After navigating a host of barriers, all that remained was this final door. Once through it, Larry and Harold would simply walk away, just another two guards ending their shift. Just like that, their five year ordeal would be over at last.
Both men swore they were innocent of the charges for which they were convicted. They fought to the bitter end, but it almost felt as if fate itself was against them. Multiple witnesses, people neither men had ever met, came to court and swore they were long time criminal accomplices. The jury was filled with people who hardly seemed to pay attention to the trial and then found the two guilty of murder without so much as five minutes deliberation.
The attorneys almost felt like they were reading from a script. Even the Judge seemed like she wasn’t a real Judge. She basically spent the whole trial hammering her gavel for effect and saying “I’ll allow it” to any objection.
It was the nightmare to end all nightmares. Larry and Harold, pulled from their families for a crime they did not commit, summarily convicted and jailed for life.
But that nightmare was about to end, once and for all.
Larry felt the click before he heard it – that ephemeral tension a lock takes on right before it gives way. With a final flick of his wrist, their was the click and the turn of the deadbolt.
Harold and Larry both took a deep breath and held it, both afraid to breath lest this moment be destroyed. Finally, Larry grabbed the door’s handle, twisted, and pushed.
“Congratulations!!”
The door did not lead to the outside world, but into a kind of black box studio. Arrayed inside it, all screaming at the top of their lungs and smiling broadly, were the host of players who had brought Larry and Harold to this place. There were the witnesses and the jurors. There were the two lawyers eating plates of free finger foods. There was the Judge, waving like an idiot.
There too were Larry and Harold’s families. Harold burst into confused tears at the sight of his wife, and Larry went numb as his daughter, now eleven, ran towards him and fiercely hugged his legs.
The Judge stepped forward as the two men reeled. “Congratulations, Harold, Larry – you’ve won!”
Harold could not talk. He fell to his knees on the ground and sobbed like a mindless animal. Larry managed a word.
“What?”
The Judge, oblivious, smiled brighter. “You are the first winners of The Great Escape! You’re families nominated you for the contest and you’ve proven their confidence in you to be well founded!”
Larry was dumbstruck. Harold stared at his hands through a veil of tears.
Larry’s wife approached, abashed, wearing a frown. “They offered a lot of money Lare, a lot of money. I couldn’t say no. I knew you wouldn’t have wanted me to say no. But now you’re back, and we’re rich Lare. We’re rich!”
But Larry couldn’t hear her – he couldn’t hear anything beyond the pulsing sound of his own raging blood in his ears.
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