You Handed My Life to a Stranger—This Wedding Is Off

My boyfriend was a prank vlogger.

On the day of our engagement, he had me play along with an escape room.

Halfway through solving a puzzle, I was hit by a sudden attack of acute appendicitis.

I quickly tapped my Bluetooth earpiece for help.

But the voice that came through belonged to his assistant, Daphne Cox.

"Millicent, the stream's really hot right now. If it cuts out all of a sudden, all the work Graham put into it will be for nothing."

My breath caught. Graham knew I was scared. He'd promised he would keep watching me in real time through the earpiece.

How had it ended up in Daphne's hands?

There was no time to think about it. The pain in my stomach kept getting worse, and I begged in a small voice.

"Daphne, then please tell Graham my stomach really hurts. Whatever we lose from this, I'll cover it myself."

Daphne didn't answer me. Instead she spoke to Graham beside her.

"Graham, see, what did I tell you? She really does want to quit halfway."

"Do you want to hear what excuse she's giving?"

Graham let out a cold laugh.

"No need. Whatever she says, don't agree to it."

"Millicent, there are over a hundred thousand people watching. If you quit, it'll do serious damage to Graham's credibility."

"I know you're scared, but please don't be so selfish."

Daphne said it like she held the moral high ground, but the pain in my stomach only grew worse.

Sweat the size of beans slid down from my temple.

I forced back the discomfort and spoke again.

"Daphne, this is acute appendicitis. If I don't get to a hospital, I'll die."

But before I could finish, the sound of the call being cut off came through the earpiece.

She'd hung up on me!

Despair swept over me.

The adrenaline kept my mind clear, for now.

I remembered that earlier Graham had let me bring one bag.

Inside it were the things I'd packed myself, things I thought I might need.

Not just my phone and my smartwatch, but also the medicine I take every day.

I turned my head. The bag was sitting less than ten feet from me.

I lifted my foot and inched my way toward it.

Ten feet, and yet it felt like it took me a century to cross.

Finally I reached the bag.

But when I opened it,

every electronic device inside was gone.

Graham had cut off everything I could have used to reach the outside world.

I slumped to the floor, the suffocating pain in my stomach nearly drowning me.

But I still couldn't give up.

I was my parents' only daughter. I couldn't bear to imagine how heartbroken they would be if something happened to me on the day of my engagement.

I pulled myself together again and, forcing through the pain, dug through the bag.

At last I found the painkillers I usually took for stomach aches.

The painkillers might only ease my suffering, but as long as I could finish the puzzles and get out fast, there was still hope.

I took out the painkillers and swallowed them.

After ten minutes or so, the pain in my stomach began to ease.

I got up carefully, ready to keep solving.

Then the speaker above the room suddenly came to life.

"The streamer really knows how to have fun, pranking his own fiance on their engagement day."

"Love it, so good. Streamer, is there no other prank content besides puzzles? Going easy on her because she's your fiance?"

"No way, the streamer's never gone easy on anyone. There's got to be more coming later. Let's all wait and see."

"Didn't the streamer's fiance just take some painkillers? Is something wrong with her?"

"What could be wrong? It's obviously staged for the show. She's his own fiance. He wouldn't really let her get in that bad a state, would he?"

It was the sound of the live-comment reader.

"The host said he'd let her hear us talking about halfway through, right? Should be about time now."

"That's cold, man. A room that small, the speaker going nonstop, who's supposed to concentrate on solving anything?"

"What's the big deal? His engagement banquet isn't till the afternoon, plenty of time. We've got to feel like part of it too, don't we?"

The speaker blared again, one burst after another.

I was already on edge, and now there was no way to think clearly.

Graham had said it was just a straightforward escape room, and now he'd added the pranks on top.

Five years together, and I never once imagined he'd do this to me.

If I made it out of here in one piece, this engagement was off.

At least I'd done a lot of homework before coming in, so I knew all the usual escape-room tricks cold.

Even with everything working against my train of thought.

I still found the way to crack it fast.

I found a six-digit code. Enter it into the door, get out of the room, and it counts as solved.

But when I keyed the code in.

The display read: incorrect code!

That was impossible!

Panic rippled through me.

The painkillers wouldn't last long. If I couldn't get out within two hours, once the effect wore off, I might never get out at all.

The comment reader was still screaming away.

"The host's fiance has some skill after all, found the code that fast."

"That's not the code, is it? Didn't the door say wrong code?"

"From my years of escape-room experience, this room should only have this one code, so there must be something else on the door to unlock."

"I honestly thought the host would go easy on her. Clearly not."

"This is way too hard my brain's fried."

I clung to the door handle in despair as the minutes ticked past, one by one.

If this code couldn't open the door.

Then every bit of reasoning I'd worked out had to be scrapped and started over.

This kind of difficulty was nothing a rank-beginner escape player could stand up to.

Maybe I gripped it too hard.

The handle suddenly turned a little.

I froze.

I pressed the handle down.

The door opened.

The comment reader went wild.

"No way why didn't I see it! The whole time, this door was fake!"

"Look at her face, total disbelief. She clearly didn't know what was really going on."

"The host is a legend! This prank is so good!"

I stared at the far side of the door, dumb as a clown.

Tears of despair slid from the corners of my eyes.

The room I'd racked my brain to solve had only ever been a setup for the real room.

All my effort was a joke, just fuel to pump up the hype on this stream.

Was this the "no prank content at all" Graham had promised me?

This was crueler than every prank he'd ever pulled, and more crushing.

Even if I got lucky and made it out today.

From now on I'd only be a laughingstock across the whole internet.

A stupid woman pranked to tears by her own fianc.

I wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and steadied myself as best I could.

The drug was still working. I couldn't collapse now.

The worse they treated me, the less I could afford to give up.

Only, once I got out, I wasn't just calling off the engagement banquet.

I was going to make them pay.

The puzzles kept coming.

The second room was laid out nothing like the first.

This cramped little space had a full ten doors.

And the puzzles inside were complex to the point of cruelty.

I forced myself to stay calm.

No matter how hard the puzzles were, they all pointed to the same end in the end.

As long as my train of thought didn't get cut off, I could finish before the painkiller wore off.

Maybe it was the anger and fear tangled together, but my mind felt unusually sharp.

In under half an hour, I was already eighty percent through.

The comments noticed, still scrolling past.

The streamer's trash, but the fiance's actually impressive. Even this didn't break her.

She's solving so fast this round, feels like she's about to get out any second.

Fake, obviously. The two of them are putting on a show!

Even if it's fake it's still impressive, okay? That many puzzles, I couldn't memorize them even if you let me rehearse in advance.

Knowing how this streamer usually operates, I've got a feeling it's not that simple!

Holy crap, what's that thing crawling around on the floor in the next room?

That last line, and I was tense all over again.

Graham had actually sent something in to stall me and drag out the runtime?

Before I could think it through, my stomach started to ache again, low and dull.

The painkiller was almost gone.

I stared hard at the door to the next room. A faint scraping sound came from that side.

It didn't sound like anything an animal would make.

Maybe it was a live NPC.

The thought of that actually settled me down.

The thing that had crushed me most was having no way to reach the outside.

If it was a live NPC, I could try to get out through him early.

A figure in a horror mask came into view.

He was flat on the floor, inching forward.

I wasn't afraid. I just spoke up.

How much do they pay you a day to play the NPC in here?

He seemed to freeze for a second.

After fiddling with something I couldn't see, he answered quietly.

Three hundred a day.

His voice came clear and cool, and I let out a breath.

As long as it was a real person, as long as I could talk to him, that was the best I could hope for.

I'll give you a thousand. Get me out right now.

I've got acute appendicitis. If I wait any longer, it'll kill me!

The words came out fast and ragged.

The color was draining from my face, bit by bit.

He saw it through the mask and crawled over faster.

Once he'd confirmed my state, he pulled the mask off.

A boy of about twenty. He looked a little familiar, but I didn't think I knew him.

You look really bad. I'll get you out right now.

He'd just hauled me onto his back.

The comments that had been jeering went quiet.

When sound came again, it was Daphne's voice.

Jasper Harding, don't forget our nondisclosure agreement! You want to pay the penalty?

I called out toward the speaker, forcing the words.

Graham, my stomach's killing me. It's acute appendicitis. If you can hear me, let me get out!

Daphne gave a cold little snort.

So a second ago your heart was bothering you, and now it's acute appendicitis?

If you ask me, you just don't want Graham to blow up. Scared some other woman's going to steal him away?

Graham had been wavering.

Then he heard Daphne, and it turned to blame the moment he opened his mouth.

Millicent, are you done making a scene?

The more fans I get, the more we both benefit!

I know you want me all to yourself. I promise, after the engagement I'll spend more time with you. Just hold on a little longer. Finish playing this out for me, okay?

Playing it out? Ha. So it turned out every wretched moment of mine was, in his eyes, nothing but a carefully written script.

Every bit of pain I was carrying didn't even outweigh one lie from Daphne.

I didn't want to waste another word on them.

I turned to Jasper.

Don't worry about what they said. If there's a penalty fee, I'll cover it for you. Just get me out, now.

My stomach hurt worse and worse. All I wanted now was to live.

But I hadn't imagined they could be this shameless.

To keep us from getting out, they'd gone and locked every single door.

Jasper looked at how pale I'd gone and pointed at a low crawl-hole near the floor.

This is the NPC access route. They can't lock it.

I gave a bitter little smile. Forget an NPC route, even if it were a real dog's hole I'd be crawling through it now.

I crouched behind Jasper and dragged myself along the ground.

But Jasper had barely gotten out when someone landed a punch on him.

Graham had come around.

He saw the wretched state of me and didn't feel a shred of pity.

Millicent, have you lost your mind? Crawling through a dog hole just to wreck this stream?

Daphne stoked it from the side.

The whole internet's seen you crawl through a dog hole now. You've humiliated Graham completely.

I was shaking all over with rage, swaying like I might drop.

Graham, the engagement's off. I'm not playing this out anymore!