#Myla Soliel

[coolcattime]

And Note That There is Only One Key [OC YTTD AU]

Characters: Rupert Delaney, Katherine Delaney, Dr. Braedan Thaxx, Myla Soliel, Medli Mistwalker, Idric Ba'lor

Additional Tags: Abduction, Threatens of Violence, Panic Attacks, Possible Character Death

Co-Writer/Editor: @theiratlas

Three different pairs of people all wake up in the same situation. They wake up restrained to beds. The last thing they remember is being abducted. And a phone call tells them that if they do not escape in time, they will be killed.

As they all realise that this situation is very real, all three pairs have to attempt to figure out the way to escape with varying results.

The First Trial of Your Turn to Die with my OCs.

AO3 Link

“Urgh…”

Rupert Delaney groaned as he woke up to bright light burning into his eyes. He blinked a couple of times, then a couple more, trying to remember when he’d installed a light that fuck-off-bright and how on earth he’d fallen asleep with it left on. He reached up to shield his eyes. Or rather he tried to.

He was confronted with the inability to move his arm. That was worrying enough itself. More so was after he tried to move any other part of his body and found the exact same helplessness. He tried to thrash wildly but even then, the result was the same. Rupert could not move at all.

He was completely restrained. Like a kick to the teeth, he was awake and full of adrenaline or fear or both. He could feel them. Tight restraints on his limbs and head and torso. Attempting to get any kind of grasp on his surroundings, he moved his fingertips across the surface he was strapped to. It felt like a bed? Maybe like a stretcher? Did he get in an accident?

He tried to think back to what he was doing before this, to what he had been doing before waking up here. And a memory hit, sharp and serrated. He remembered. There had been someone in his house. He’d heard a noise and gone to investigate. Then someone grabbed him from behind.

…Shit. That was about the clearest thought in his head. Had he really just been kidnapped?

“...Huh? Wh—?!”

There was a voice to his left. A voice that he instantly recognised, though desperately hoped he hadn’t. It was completely impossible that he’d be wrong about this, but still he hoped to god he was a fool.

“Katherine?” He spoke as clearly as he could despite the lump in his throat.

“Rupert?!” With that panicked reply, his hopes were dashed. As he’d thought and feared, his sister was here with him. He tried to turn to look at her, quickly being reminded of just how stuck he was. Who had grabbed them? What the hell did they want? What could they possibly—?! “No, no, no, no! Not again… This can’t be real!”

“Katherine! Breath, okay, li- listen to me,” He pushed down every screaming thought of his own as Katherine began to panic. He was terrified, obviously, but he couldn’t imagine how terrified she must be. He’d lost track of the number of hours the last few years he’d spent trying to comfort her, trying to make sure she felt safe. Because he wanted to be a good brother. Because she deserved to feel safe after everything. How on earth could he make her feel safe right now? It was an impossible task, he knew. He knew he needed to try though. “Let’s just talk this through. Are you hurt?”

“I… No, I don’t think so,” He could hear her struggling to keep her breathing steady. He'd heard it so many times before, her desperately trying to be calm when she wasn't. How could anyone be calm right now though? He was only barely maintaining any sense of calm because he had to try and help her.

“I can't move, though…” Her voice was meek and like shards of glass in his ears.

“Okay…” Rupert tried to keep himself focused on a task instead of a feeling. Another question. He needed more information to try to figure out if this was a ransom situation or…or something worse. “Do you remember how you got here?”

“I…” She hesitated for half a moment. “I was heading out on a date. I was waiting for the lift and… Someone must've been waiting for me in the stairwell or one of the other flats or just somewhere. I didn't see anyone or even hear anything and someone just grabbed me from behind.”

There was a dawning horror in her tone as she spoke, the speed of her words syllabically-quickening as it did. She was only barely keeping herself from hyperventilating. Rupert regretted asking, he had no words that could possibly comfort her. Instead, he swallowed as hard as he could, trying to swallow his own seethe.

How had the kidnappers gotten inside her building? The place had boasted about its security. She had picked the place because it made her feel safe. How could they dare to say they have any security at all if an abduction could happen like this, within their own fucking walls?! How was she ever going to feel safe there again now that this had happened?

The panicked breathing quickly being mixed with sobs reminded him that he had to stay calm. He swallowed again. He couldn't blame Katherine for panicking, but that's why he had to stay calm. Whatever the hell was going on, he had to stay calm for her sake.

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“Myla, what on earth are you doing here?!”

“Being strapped to a bed.”

Myla Soliel could barely even muster the deadpan tone that came out of her mouth. Of all the people to be abducted alongside. Him, really? And she had been having such a great life not thinking about him. With him not in it.

There were probably things that she should be more focused on. Namely being abducted in the first place. However, with everything that had happened in her life, it was not so unbelievable to Myla that she would wake up strapped to some kind of hospital bed staring up at a sterile white ceiling, with that distinct smell of mould killer filling the walls. What was unbelievable, or rather completely and frustratingly annoying, was waking up in said position in the same room as her ex-employer Doctor Braedan ‘Edan’ Thaxx. Actually, that wasn’t that unbelievable, just those other things.

“Ah, well, yes,” Thaxx fumbled through his response. Did he really think he could act the way he used to with no difference? “Though that isn’t quite what I meant - how did you get here?”

“I was grabbed. By several people. I was headed to a job,” Myla didn’t really feel like going into much more detail. Given that they were both here together, it seemed incredibly unlikely that anything she was currently doing was to blame for her forced summoning. If she was here with Thaxx, her predicament was almost certain to pertain to him. “I assume I was drugged at some point, given current circumstances.”

“A similar incident happened to me,” Thaxx started in a way that sounded almost wistful in a way that he certainly shouldn’t be. “It’s a real shame - them getting into the lab like that has surely compromised some invaluable research.”

“...”

Myla’s lack of response was chosen and pointed. She would be incredibly unsurprised if she was actually dead and this was a form of divine, immortal, punishment. Sure, she wasn’t particularly religious, but at least if this was hell, she didn’t need to think about the why’s of this or a way out of them both. One thing’s for sure however, if this was hell, the divine are some cruel bastards.

After a couple of moments, Thaxx appeared to realise his faux pas. Or at the very least realised that he was not going to get a response.

“Oh, though I’m happy to know that you’ve found further employment,” He said in the way that one does when they have to speak niceties into a topic that they were only half-listening to. Awkward and far too obviously forced.

“Yes, I have,” No thanks to you, she added, internally.

She'd say he seemed surprised, but that would be adding malice that didn't actually seem present. She supposed it was not something that mattered right now. Unfortunately, it seemed this situation was very real. Which meant she unfortunately meant that she needed to actually focus. “Though I don't think that should be the focus right now.”

“Ah yes!” It seemed to only just occur to Thaxx that the two were strapped to beds and were surely in at least reasonably-grave danger. There was a beat of quiet. “Well, you are rather the muscle of the two of us. Can you get us out of the restraints?”

Myla inaudibly huffed. He had gone right back to ordering her around. Of course he had, why wouldn’t he? How could he even consider that she might have changed? Had she?

Myla decided to compartmentalise that for later. Right now, she had an abduction to escape from.

She attempted to move, if even just a millimetre. But all she found with her efforts was that there was absolutely no slack. Now that in itself was informative, if odd. It meant either whoever brought them here knew their precise sizes or had spent a good length of time securing loose ends and extraneous possibilities. Neither was exactly promising for the situation they found themselves in.

“I can't move at all,” She said after a good few tries to gain any freedom whatsoever. They weren't getting out of here until whoever had abducted them wanted them to get out. A fact you never want to be true. “If I had an arm free, I could try pulling things around. But in this rigging, I won’t be, no.”

“Well… erm…” Thaxx flustered and out of depth. He was still utterly unable to process her saying something was impossible then.

She considered asking if he had any idea who had grabbed them. It was, after all, almost certainly people interested because of something he did. However, before she could, there was a loud whipping noise. Akin to one letting go of a heavy-duty tape measure. As if the world had a sense of irony, the restraints on Myla’s right arm were all released.

“So - it seems you now have a free arm.” How is he smug right now?

She was able to resist the urge to throttle him, if only because it was currently impossible. She'd have plenty of time after they were free, she added that to a long to-do list.

Now it was time to test exactly how strong these restraints were.

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“Just one arm. Odd they didn't just leave it free to begin with,” Idric said, stretching his fingertips rhythmically as he regained such a small freedom.

“Maybe we both had to be awake?” Medli suggested the only thing she could think of. Better to suggest blindly and hope than fester and panic, she thought

Her heart was still pounding in her ears. Being grabbed and kidnapped from her home was bad enough, waking up completely restrained was a complete nightmare. Only in her worst nightmares did she imagine anything like this happening. And now there was the possibility that someone was watching them? It made her bones bend and her skin crawl.

Of course, there was the possibility that it had nothing to do with them both being awake. That it was just on a timer. But that wasn't much of a comfort though. Nor did it stick particularly right in her head.

“Someone's watching us, aren't they.”

“Sure feels like it, doesn't it,” Idric said, a mild amount of annoyance in his tone. It felt normal in a way that was comforting to Medli. If Idric was acting normal she didn't need to panic.

She could listen closer, hear the fear he was trying to hide. But Medli needed to pretend he was fearless so she could pretend to be the same. As if waiting for a queue, there was a loud snapping of his fingers. “Well! We've been given some freedom. We may as well use it. Never know where a release button might be!”

“Right! There must be something we can do now!” Medli said, already attempting to squeeze her fingers under the remaining restraints.

She knew she was looking at this far too much like a puzzle, but it stopped her from thinking too much about the whole why of them having been kidnapped. If this was a puzzle, then that was the reason why. A puzzle was better than, like, losing a kidney or a lung.

Unable to pull away any of the restraints, she started feeling along them. She quickly found her way to the edge of the bed. It seemed that the restraints warped all the way around. Logically that meant the releases would be underneath and she definitely couldn't reach that far. So instead, she tried to feel along the edge. There had to be something…

Miraculously, or perhaps the complete opposite, there was! She had found something.

“There's a keyhole! Attached to the restraints on the side of the bed!” Her heart was pounding louder and faster. She'd found a way out.

“That's great! Now if we can just find a key…” Idric went quieter. Medli listened as he clicked his tongue a number of times. He'd know what to do next. She was sure he would. “Can you reach the floor?”

Medli, though confused by the question, still stretched her arm down. She strained to reach as far as she could go. With the rest of her body locked in place, that wasn't exactly very far.

“If I reach straight down my fingertips can just touch it,” She said as she managed to just barely touch the cold tiles. She trusted thoroughly this would be worth the feeling of her ribs behind her teeth.

“So you wouldn't be able to grab anything?”

“No…” Medli felt almost as if she had done something wrong, like she’d failed them. Every anxiety and fear was kneading together. Of the abduction. Of whatever was going to happen to them. Of failure.

A click of Idric's tongue.

“Hopefully one of the keys isn't over there,” He said.

“Wait,” Medli started, once again perceiving reality through a not entirely fear coated lens. So probably a much unhealthier reaction, but she didn't have time nor the inclination to acknowledge that. “You really think the keys will be in here?”

She heard him drumming his fingers against the bed. The sort of thing he did when he was trying to work out his thoughts. She could almost picture him turning to her with a frustrated look.

“You feel it too right, that this is all a bit—”

Before Idric could finish, he was cut off by an all too familiar tune filling the room. It was enough to make Medli freeze as she realised that she hadn't actually checked her pockets.

“Is that your phone?”

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“They missed your phone! They missed it!” Elation flooded through Katherine’s words as her brother's jazzy ringtone filled the air. It was hard to tell if she was laughing or crying but all Rupert knew was it was far better than the rapid breaths that she had been barely passing words through. “We can get help!”

“Help might already be calling!” He finally felt lucky. Not only did he have his phone, he had a hand free to reach it.

He reached down to his phone, having never had a moment where he had wanted to thank God more. He pulled it out of his pocket, attempting to think through how the hell he'd explain the situation to whoever was calling. For the briefest moment, he felt something else in his pocket brush against his fingers. However, whatever forgotten junk he had seemed so unimportant with a ringing phone and therefore a way to get help.

He answered the call without looking, not caring who might be on the other end.

“Hey! Whoever this is, you need to call the police! Rina and I, we've been—”

“Beginning voiced guidance.”

Rupert jolted the phone away from his ear as the speakerphone came on automatically. He didn't recognise the voice, though it sounded like the sort of thing you'd hear on only the most taxing of automated answering service. Not robotic per say, but scripted and emotionless.

Confused to all hell, he raised the phone above his face. Maybe the number would tell him something? And maybe it would've done. But there wasn't a number. All there was, was the words ‘Voice Guidance: Please listen closely.’

“The First Trial will now begin. Katherine and Rupert. Find the key hidden in this room. Then, remove your restraints. If you cannot do that before time expires, the device in the bed will activate… And your bodies will be crushed. With a thud.”

Wait… a what?

Rupert listened in a mix of disbelief and horror. This had to be some kind of joke. He had no time to fully process a better explanation than this being reality as the voice continued speaking.

“By all means, please enjoy this thrill with all your entire body and soul. This trail’s time limit is a healthy ten minutes. And note that there is only one key, so please discuss who will use it wisely.”

The line went dead. There was just silence.

Rupert almost wondered if he should laugh. It had to be a joke, right? He and his sister couldn't have been kidnapped and strapped into a deathtrap like they were in some low-rate horror movie. It was fucking ridiculous.

But he didn't have time to rationalise the situation like that. As his heart began racing, he realised that ten minutes was far too short a time span to do anything other than act.

“Are we—” Katherine’s words caught in her quickening breath. She was more terrified than he had ever heard her. “Are we going to die?”

“No, we're going to get out of here. Both of us, safe, alive and laughing again. I promise,” Rupert truly meant his words. He just wished his throat didn't feel so dry as he said them.

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“And note that there is only one key, so please discuss who will use it wisely.”

The call ended and Myla dropped her phone and let it fall. Immediately she began checking her pockets. If they were meant to find a key while only able to move an arm, it seemed like the best place to start.

“This is a joke, right? I can't be in a deathtrap,” Thaxx sounded more like he was trying to convince himself than legitimately believing such a thing. Myla half wondered if she was supposed to comfort him, but he hardly seemed to even be acknowledging that they were in the same situation. “This can't be real, can it? Surely not, this can’t be happening”

“What reason would they have to lie?” Myla asked reassuring out of instinct rather than care, stopping in her search as she did. Maybe she could have just left him to his denial, but that left him not doing anything to help when the key might be on his side of the room. As harrowing as it may sound, she may actually need his help if she wanted to get out of here alive.

“Well, erm…” He flattered almost immediately. However, his tone suddenly turned harsher. “Look, beds that crush you if you don't escape in time just don't exist. The idea that they were telling the truth is ridiculous.”

“A lot of people would say the same about the research you do,” Myla said bluntly. What did it matter what was apparently possible? The fact of the matter was that they had been abducted. Whoever had done so had a grunge at least a couple of years deep given how long it had been since she her ‘service was no longer required’. Even if this sort of death trap was impossible, they could’ve made it possible with this much time. Frankly, though, it sounded entirely possible.

However, she was mostly just perturbed that Thaxx of all people was citing impossibilities. Every bit of research she had watched over with was the sort of thing a conspiracy theorist would have a breakdown upon seeing treated so casually. Hearing him citing something as impossible was laughable.

“... This is some experiment. We've been trapped to see how we react.”

Myla had no answer to that. She had simply stopped caring enough to give him any comfort. Her eyes glazed over in the humming fluorescents This wasn’t new, it had happened long before she'd found herself locked in a room with him. Thankfully though, she wouldn't need to try any longer, as in the last pocket she was able to easily check, she found what she had been searching for.

“I've found the key,” She said as she pulled it out. It felt like it was made of a far cheaper material than any other part of the trap, but it was definitely a key. She placed it on her stomach as she began to search around for a keyhole. She could reach the floor easily enough, but she'd still prefer to not waste any time having to re-find the key if she dropped it.

“Great work, Myla! Now pass it to me!” Now that far too confident tone was enough to make her pause.

“...Why?”

“You heard the phone, right? There's only one key,” He said as if that was the only possible explanation needed.

“Keep going, please,” She said flatly. It took a lot of energy to not just tell him to fuck off and unlock herself. Yet despite the time limit, she was morbidly curious as to where he could possibly be going with this.

“...and, um, whoever gets off the bed first must have to free the other by some other method. I'm going to take that responsibility for you,” He said. Myla did not like the sound of that.

However, if she was going to figure out this situation, she needed quiet. And unfortunately, he had a tendency to not shut up if his ideas weren't listened to. So, she'd need to indulge him.

“Stick your arm towards me. If we can touch, I'll pass you the key. I don't want to drop it,” She wanted less to actually pass him the key, but losing the key in the middle of them both was the worst scenario they could end up in.

“Good thinking,” She could hear his arm move and knew, whether she truly wanted to or not, she had to follow suit. “I'll get us both out of this, I am sure.”

Despite how confident he sounded, Myla felt like she was reaching towards her own death as she stretched out to find his arm well within reach.

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“I found it!” Medli exclaimed as she pulled the key from her blazer pocket. She spoke with a tone that would normally be associated with showmanship, like she had flourished the key in the air with a little spin. But she had the thing in a death grip.

Every clumsy mistake she had ever made was flashing through her head. She couldn't drop the one key. She could picture it. If she loosened her grip even a little, it'd slip out somehow and end up on the floor out of her reach.

“Great! Unlock yourself!” Idric said without hesitation.

“Wait, shouldn't I pass it to you?” She couldn't stop hearing the phone's message in her head. There was only one key. Surely Idric should have it. He was older than her and she knew he was smarter. If the beds could really kill them then he should have the key.

Because Medli knew herself. She tripped over her own feet. She dropped phones, and glasses, and—And keys! She constantly dropped keys! If she tried to unlock herself, she was sure that the key would end up on the floor. Then what? They'd just be stuck waiting for ten minutes.

Then there was a far more terrifying possibility in her head. The one where didn't drop the key. The one where she freed herself and couldn't save Idric. Crushed with a thud.

“Of course not. You already have it, you should get yourself safe first,” He sounded far too calm.

“But they said there’s only one key!” Did he not realise that if she used the key then he’d be stuck? At least if he freed himself, he’d have the chance of getting her free by force.

“Exactly! So, either the key unlocks both of our beds and this whole thing is just to get us to fight, like in Saw V,” He chuckled at his own aside, as if it was more important than the phantom sounds of the ticking clock. “Or the key only works on one bed, but that’s not going to change based on who tries the key first.”

He spoke quickly, galloping through each word with poise, as much as he wouldn’t admit it, he was pressed for time.

Medli squeezed her grip tighter. She understood the point he was making, though she really wished he wouldn't bring up horror movies right now.

“Either way, there's no harm in it.”

“I… Okay,” She couldn't argue against him, but she was still terrified. Maybe it was silly. He made a good point. A key couldn't not work on a lock it was meant to work on. Yet her mind was so far from logic.

It took every bit of focus she had to keep gripping onto the key as she re-found the keyhole. It fit in perfectly. She turned it, but she couldn't get the thought out of her head that she was making a decision she couldn't take back.

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“Please, just try and reach out. You can take the key and unlock yourself and you'll be safe,” Rupert felt his hand shaking as he begged for his sister to just unlock herself. He knew what the voice on the phone had said. There was only one key. So Katherine should use it. He just needed her to reach out and take it.

“I can't. I—” Her voice cracked. It was the sort of panic he'd heard before. The sort that he had spent weeks learning methods to coax her out of. But methods like that only worked if they weren't actually in danger. “It's happening again… you're gonna die— I'll have to watch you die… I can't—”

He took a shaky breath as he heard his sister spiralling. The key felt heavy in his outstretched hand. A horrible numb feeling was settling in. She wasn't going to take it. There was only one thing he could do.

Being more careful than he had been with any task in his life, Rupert unlocked his own restraints.

The loud whipping sound once again hit his ears as his entire body was freed. As fast as he possibly could, he pushed himself off the bed, grabbing the key back from the lock at the same time. Get Katherine free as fast as possible. That's all he needed to do.

Actually standing up made his freeze though. The room was almost completely bare, pretty much just the two beds in it. But there was Katherine. The position she was in was enough to make anything stop dead. Fixed in place by green straps on her head, chest, two points on her legs and two points on her right arm. It was the same position he had been in, except she had her opposite arm free. Actually seeing it was something else though.

She hadn't even reacted to the noise of him being freed. Her breathing was still rapid. Her free hand was attempting to pry away the restraint on her chest. He didn't know how long he stood staring at the horrifying reality before him. Though he hoped to god it was only a second. The moment he realised he had frozen, he pushed through and forced himself to move.

She wasn't going to be stuck for much longer. He rushed the short distance between them. The moment he was close enough, he took her hand. Squeeze for six seconds, loosen for six. He wasn't counting the seconds as he normally would, but he did his best to keep rhythm as he crouched down to better reach the keyhole. Just a couple sixes.

“Rupert. You're—" A steadier breath than before. “You're safe!”

“Yep! Safe and alive. And you're going to be safe too in just a—” Rupert's voice died in his throat as he tried to unlock her. Tried because the key didn't fit.

He let go of her hand to try and force it. It had to be stiff. Or he had the wrong angle. Or! Or!

He stared at the lock. The key was so clearly too big for it.

And note there is only one key, so please discuss who will use it wisely.

He had used the one key on himself. He could've insisted harder, but he didn't and now she was going to—

“Fuck!” He threw the key at the wall. The impact was nowhere near hard enough for how much he'd fucked up.

“What's wrong?!” He had to tell her. He knew that he had to tell her. But he wasn't even sure if he could say out loud the god awful reality he'd put himself in.

“I used the one key on myself and now…” He felt nauseated. He knew he had to say more, but he didn't want to. Saying the words felt like he was cementing them even if they were anyway true. “Now it can't unlock you. I'm sorry, Rina. I'm so sorry.”

“That's…” He couldn't read her emotions as she spoke and immediately hesitated. He couldn't bring himself to look at her when he'd messed up so badly. “That's not how keys work. It must have always just unlocked you. Maybe the keyhole on my bed is just a distraction. What else is in the room?”

It was the calmest she had sounded since waking up. Her words managed to jump-start Rupert's mind past his own frustration and fear. She was right.

He looked around the room, actually trying to take in the few objects there were other than the beds. There was another solution somewhere here. There had to be.

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“So it fits your lock… How expected.”

Myla had absolutely no idea why Thaxx had decided to voice that particular thought. Especially now that she wasn't restrained and very much could crush him herself if she wanted to.

She decided not to give into that thought. As tempting as it was, passing the key back and forth had probably wasted about half their time. That technically wasn't a concern for Myla as she pushed herself off the deathtrap, but she didn't exactly feel like dooming Thaxx. So it was time to try and figure out the way to unlock him.

As she stood up, she surveyed the room. While the beds took up most of the room, there were still some other notable things. The numbers 1374 written on the wall. A piece of sandpaper hanging from some cord. A panel on the far wall that looked like some kind of combination lock. Not a lot, but alongside the key and her phone, it made for enough possible solutions to eat away at her time.

The restraints, now she could actually see them, she realised were red. The same colour as the key. Thaxx's restraints meanwhile were green. A bit of a sarcastic clue for who the key unlocked given that she couldn't have possibly known the colour of either of their restraints until now, but that was at least confirmation that the key was always meant to unlock her.

“I believe there's a puzzle. I need to complete it for us to leave,” Myla said, deciding it was better to not leave the man completely in the dark. If he knew she was working, he'd probably keep his mouth shut anyway.

“Ah! Describe the room to me. I'll figure this out for you,” Now there was something she hadn't asked for.

Y’know what, if he was going to insist on continuing to order her around.

She gave a brief description of the room and all the items she had noticed. As she did, a solution clicked into place on her head. Thaxx, however, seemed to be taking a little longer to consider. She watched his face change, wondering if he had been listening when they were told this situation had a time limit.

She supposed that getting the correct solution did now matter a lot more to him than it did to her. Still, though, in a situation where his life depended on it, you'd think the man would think a little faster.

She considered giving out her solution.

“The combination lock, can you input numbers?” He asked. She hadn't actually checked that. She trudged past Thaxx's bed to the far wall and actually get a close look at the thing.

“Yes, it's made up of four number tumblers,” She said as she got into view of the thing. She gave each a test spin. “Seems like the standard zero to nine.”

“One. Three. Four. Seven!” He said plumbing each syllable the way one might at a pub quiz.

Myla did as he said with a heavy eye roll. Obviously, she couldn't have figured out such a thing without the input of the genius doctor. Thank god he was here.

As she turned the tumblers into position, she wondered how long it would be until he realised the pointlessness of her doing this.

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Idric wouldn't say he was worried per say as Medli had fallen silent and he remained stuck on a death trap. At the very least he knew she was safe, though that didn't put his mind at nearly as much ease as he'd like it too. Mostly because partway through describing the room to him, she had suddenly run over to something and now all he could hear was the sound of scraping plastic.

“I know I said I trust your judgement — and I do — but could you explain exactly what you're doing?”

“There was sandpaper. I'm sanding down the key,” Medli said, not looking up from her task as she worried if she stopped for even a moment she wouldn't get it done within the time limit. She knew that if anyone could see her, she'd look insane, but Idric's life depended on her doing this. So she needed to keep focusing on it. Bloodied up index finger aside.

That or she had fixated on completely the wrong thing. And she'd figure that out too late and Idric would— No! No, this was the right thing to do. She was sure of it. This was worth it. It had to be.

“I know I can't really see the room, so maybe I'm missing something, but didn't you mention a combination lock?” Idric asked. Medli bit her lip. He sounded frustrated. Or maybe he was anxious? Anxious made sense in this situation and wasn’t an emotion she heard from him too often. Maybe she was just mixing them up.

She should probably try and explain her thought process. It was just that she was never really much good at that.

“It isn’t connected to anything. Like yes, it’s there. But it isn’t actually there. You’d see it the same if you could, uhm see it. It’s just all dangly. Don’t even worry about it” She said, her usual hyped-up tempo and candace made her sound almost nonchalant despite her stressed clung up sternum.

“Good to know you’re confident,” Idric breathed, he trusted her, he just couldn’t find the words. Trying desperately to laugh as he normally would, it got caught. It sounded hollow. Medli felt herself shaking.

“No, like I mean it. It isn't physically connected to anything. Nothing that a key might come from or into or even anything to show it's connected to the beds at all,” The more she tried to explain it the less confident she felt. It had made so much sense in the moment but now she felt terrified that she was missing something.

“So why the sandpaper?”

“The voice on the phone said there was only one key. So it has to work on both locks, but it's too big for your bed. So there has to be a way to make it smaller, and it felt kinda odd, and there was sandpaper… So sandpaper!” She could feel her explanation rattle out of her throat, the vultures picking at it as she spoke. She knew her logic wasn't flawless in the first place but saying it out loud was making her feel stupid. So stupid. Was she too focused on trying to sand down the key? Maybe, but inputting codes into the wall wasn't going to take nearly as long. She could try that second if this really was just her taking a giant leap in logic.

But this wasn't a waste of time. She was sure of it. Why would there be sandpaper if she wasn't meant to use it?

“Okay, Meds, I trust you,” Idric actually sounded relaxed. At home almost. Finally.

Good. That was good. If he didn't trust her, Medli had no idea what she would even do.

She was not going to let him die. She… she had no idea what she'd do if he did.

💀 💀 💀

“Why hasn't it done anything?” Rupert smashed his fist against the panel in a frustrated attempt to get it to actually work. It had made a noise when he had first input the number. It had to have done something. But apparently not as nothing in the room had actually changed.

So he was stuck racking his brain for anything he might have missed. Maybe he was meant to put in the numbers in a different order. Or maybe it was maths. Or maybe there were some completely different numbers he was meant to input. There were thousands of possible combinations. How was he supposed to guess the right one?

“Maybe it just doesn't do anything?” Katherine suggested. Though she was far calmer than earlier, she didn't sound exactly sure in her words. The code panel has seemed like the obvious solution, especially with numbers written on the wall like that. Now though it was pressing at her mind that it was too obvious. “Maybe it's just meant to distract us.”

“It has to do something. There's nothing else here!” The room was so empty. If the panel did nothing, then what in the room could possibly be the solution? “It's this panel, the key, my phone, and some sandpaper!”

“Sandpaper?”

“Yeah. There's a piece of it hanging in the corner,” Had he not mentioned it when originally describing the room to her? Possibly not, it still didn't seem important to him now. But that didn't stop his nerves from building as he watched his sister take in the information.

“Why on earth would there be…?” Katherine murmured before going silent. Rupert waited a moment to see if she would speak again, but she seemed lost in thought.

He'd found her increasingly hard to read since he'd gotten free. She wasn't actively fighting a panic attack, which was definitely a good sign. Still though, he couldn't tell if she was actually calm or more just scared beyond expression. He wasn't even sure which he'd prefer given the situation she was stuck in.

He just wished that she would say whatever she was thinking. Maybe she could figure out what he couldn't and then she'd be safe. But he couldn't just rely on her. There had to be something that he'd missed. It didn’t make sense that their abductor would put so much effort into a game just to kill her.

In desperation, he went back to the key. Maybe there was a code written on it that he'd missed or something. It looked like he'd thrown it hard enough to damage it, as a couple of tiny red chips felt from it. It didn't feel nearly as solid as it had before either. Slightly confused, he shifted the key in his hand. It felt like something was shifting inside.

Then for a brief second, he saw it. The tiniest hint of green poking through the red. It clicked into his head in a sudden horrible flash.

He turned on his heel to reach and pull down the sandpaper. Practically sliding into place, he knelt by the lock on Katherine’s bed. Every part of him was focused on sanding down the key. He didn't even acknowledge the confused questioning from his sister.

He had to still have enough time. He might be a goddamn idiot for not realising the solution earlier. He'd take that. But he had to still have enough time left to save her.

💀 💀 💀

“There must be a combination we missed! Try them again!” Thaxx's impatience was very quickly turning into desperation and derision as he realised that his solution wasn't working.

Myla huffed a little too loudly as she turned back to the panel and began to shift the tumblers again. She wasn't even sure missing a combination was possible. The panel didn't have a confirmation button, so just turning to the right combination would be enough.

Assuming there was a right combination, of course.

“I'm pretty sure that I've done every combination of the digits on the wall,” She said, hoping to finally move on. It didn't seem like quite a likely thing for him to do given how he had been the whole time. But she wanted to make her stance clear at least.

“Then… then the numbers on the wall must be a red herring,” Oh, so he'd finally gotten it. “The code must be a significant number to the both of us.”

Or not. She stood in wonderance of what number he could possibly mean given that this was the first time they'd met in three years.

“Ah! Try the date of the first job I gave you.”

Myla stood in silence, perplexed. Was he actually being serious?

“You remember that date, don't you?”

“Yes,” She wondered if he did. Probably not given that he didn't tell her the exact numbers to put in. Though admittedly she was not exactly in the state of mind to be giving him credit.

She turned the tumblers to the date. Nothing happened. For half a moment, about a dozen dates filed through her mind. Each night had the potential to be the reason the two were here. However, she quickly shoved them to the back of her mind. If it was anything to do with one of those jobs, they'd be clues in the room to make sure they knew why they were here. There wouldn't be this kind of guesswork.

Briefly, she turned her gaze towards the sandpaper. She carefully considered her options as Thaxx continued listing off numbers for her to try.

💀 💀 💀

Medli stared at the key in her hand trying to see if any red pieces were still stuck to it. She was acutely aware that she didn't have time for perfectionism, but she couldn't shift her anxieties. Still after three checks over, she couldn't see any of the red coating left on the part of the key that would actually go into the lock. With an intake of breath, she pushed the key onto the keyhole and turned.

Loud whipping noises filled the air. She breathed out. She'd done it. Idric was safe.

She slumped. As Idric stood up and off the bed, all the energy suddenly left her. She knew she didn't have time to rest. They had all been abducted by people who had shoved them into a death trap. They shouldn't stay in this room.

But she wanted to just curl up and cry. Her school uniform felt uncomfortable in a way that made her want to scratch her own skin off. She was shaking, trying to catch her breath despite how she hadn't realised she had been breathing so rapidly until this very moment.

A gentle hand squeezed her shoulder.

“You alright?” Idric asked, offering his other hand to help her off the ground. She didn't take it, scrambling up herself with a sudden burst of energy.

“I should be asking you that! You could've died!” She couldn't believe him. He shouldn't be trying to comfort her right now. That was what she was meant to do! She'd literally had his life in her hands! He gave her a smile.

“With you working to free me? Nah. Was never going to happen,” He said with such confidence that she laughed. How did he believe in her so much? She felt like she was on the verge of a breakdown. Like she had been moments away from getting him killed.

Her laugh faded into tears as every bit of focus she had forced into the task died away into fear. She nearly collapsed to the ground, but Idric pulled her into a tight hug.

“It's okay kid. We're both okay.”

They were both alive. They were both safe. Now they just needed to get out of here.

[coolcattime]

My Your Turn to Die hyperfixation has become strong enough that I actually managed to sketch every one of the twelve participants in my OC au - frankly a miracle considering I had not drawn five of them before and gave two a heavy redesign compared to the other times I've drawn them.

Will I fully digitally do all of them??? Hopefully but there is twelve of them and I don't have the best attention span.

If you haven't yet checked out the fic I wrote in this au, you can find it here: https://www.tumblr.com/coolcattime/756504465249550336/and-note-that-there-is-only-one-key?source=share

I think it's great and would love if people checked it out!