Claire was blinded by darkness. She tried rubbing her eyes, but to no effect; everything was still dark. “Jesus Christ, what is happening” Claire said out loud. Just then, she started to have a throbbing headache and held both her hands to her head to try to soothe it. As quickly as the headache came it disappeared. “What the hell, what the hell” Claire thought. Rubbing her eyes she slowly regained her sight.

Claire looked around and immediately realized she was not in her house anymore. She was sitting up in an antique bed under heavy plush blankets. The room looked like something you would see in a Victorian era painting. There was a heavily carved desk in one corner, a night stand next to the bed, and a wooden armoire in the room. The room was illuminated with what looked to be little bowls on the wall filled with some sort of glowing liquid. There were three windows, all on one side of the room. One of the windows was open. Looking out of the window Claire could see other houses and a street nearby with the lights on, it was nighttime.

Claire got out of the bed and noticed she was wearing a very strange silk pajama set, that did not belong to her. She looked out of the window trying to find out if she knew where she was. Nothing looked familiar, the houses next to her were made of brick and stone. Looking down, she noticed she was on the third floor of the building. “I seriously must be dreaming” Claire said out loud. She did a reality check, a technique for lucid dreamers to see if they are dreaming, and noticed she still had five fingers. “Well this is definitely real” Claire thought. She decided to check her surroundings before attempting to leave the room. One thing she noticed was a distinct smell of oranges. “Where was that coming from?” She thought. She shrugged and starting investigating the room. She went through the wardrobe and found nothing but antiquated clothes and some thin blankets. Next she went to the desk in the corner, but found only writing materials and books.

She leafed through the book titled “The Wilderness: Myths and Legends” and found it to be a children’s book with fairy tales inside. She scanned other books, but they were not very useful. Next, she investigated the bowls filled with glowing liquid that were lighting the room. She gently stuck one finger in one of the bowls and the liquid inside was warm to the touch. She took her finger out and some of the liquid lingered on her finger. She wiped her finger on her pajamas and the spot she wiped now had a faint glow on them. Claire noticed she was wearing a necklace. She never wore any jewelry or earrings in real life, it felt really foreign for something metallic to be on her skin. She grabbed the chain of the necklace up and found the charm at the end. It was a miniature red castle. “The name of the game? The Crimson Castle?” Claire thought. She checked the other places around the room for any more clues on where she could be, nothing under the bed, nothing under her pillow, no real clues.

“Well, if this is an escape room, it is a tough one.” Claire thought. Wait, I haven’t even checked to see if I’m locked in. Claire slowly walked up to the one door in the room, twisted the handle… and the door came open easily. She peeked into a hallway. It was lit in a similar fashion to her room. On the wall hung beautiful landscape paintings of places she had never seen before. Should she try to run away? Was she in any actual danger? She tiptoed outside of the room she had appeared in and entered the hallway. She tried to make the least amount of noise as possible. While continuing to tiptoe down the hallway, she turned a corner and bumped into a person, they both screamed at the same time.

“You really gave me a fright, what are you doing out of bed?” It was Mel.

Claire hugged Mel so intently Mel had to step back a few steps to regain her balance.

“Mel what is going on? Where are we?”

“What are you talking about? We are in our house. Are you okay?”

“What are you talking about? I’ve never seen this house before in my life, I’m dressed up in weird clothing, and so are you for that matter!”

Claire’s mother carrying a lantern appeared at the opposite end of the hallway and spoke. “What are you two doing up? It’s way past both of your bedtimes. What was the screaming about? Is everything okay?”

“I honestly don’t know mother, Claire is acting very strange.” Mel said worriedly.

Claire ran over to her mom and gave another strong hug. “I don’t know what is going on mom, I’ve never been inside of this house before, I’m so glad you are here though.”

“Here, let’s go into Claire’s bedroom to sort this out.” Claire’s mom, Susan said.

Susan entered Claire’s bedroom and was followed by Claire and Mel. “Why is that window open?” Mel said once she entered the room. “You told me you don’t like the draft.” Mel continued. Mel went over to close the window. Once she was done she turned around and started sniffing. “It smells like a potion over here” Mel said. Mel turned her nose towards the nightstand, and noticed something on the ground, hidden partially by one of the nightstand’s legs. She picked up what looked to be a scientific vial. It was approximately 4 inches tall with a diameter of about an inch. She intently stared at it for a second before she opened her mouth in surprise. “Oh my goodness, mom come here.” Mel said.

“What is it Melissa?” Susan went over to the window, along with Claire. Susan took the vial from Melissa, intently stared at it and let out a scream, louder than Claire’s and Melissa’s scream from earlier combined. “Oh my sweet child!” She hugged Claire tightly. Claire’s dad, Will, now rushed into the room. “What’s going on? is everyone alright?” He asked, very concerned. Susan turned to him, sobbing almost hysterically and said between bouts of tears “Call the royal guard! Someone has used an amnesia potion on Claire!”