Chapter 3

My father tried to hold down my mother using brute force, but she suddenly exploded with strength as she resisted violently. Joe tried to help my father hold my mother down, but he held back in fear of hurting my mother.

All he could do was cry desperately, "I'm begging you, Mom! Give the key to Dad!"

Just as my father was about to take control over the situation, my mother suddenly screamed like a madwoman and managed to free one hand to take out the key from her pocket.

"Give me the key, Sharon." My father reached out, but my mother suddenly smiled gleefully and swallowed the key while my father and Joe looked on in horror.

Gulp!

My mother swallowed and opened her mouth to show my father and Joe, tauntingly, that it was empty. "Look, I've swallowed the key. If you want to save her, go ahead and kill me to dig the key out of my stomach!"

All of my hopes were dashed at that moment. I closed my eyes in despair and slowly curled into a ball. My tears, which were mixed with the dirt in the coffin, streamed down my face.

"You're mad, Sharon!" My father was trembling with anger as he kicked the furniture around him. After that, he ran off to find tools to cut the lock while tearing up.

Time passed slowly. It had been several minutes, and my father had not returned. I was slowly losing control of my body as I was claustrophobic, and there was a lack of oxygen. My bowels were the first to go, and the dirty liquid drenched my pants and shirt.

The coffin was filled with the stench, and my consciousness teetered on the brink of life and death. My life started to play in my mind like a movie as I remembered the beatings I suffered for the trouble Joe caused, and the permanent look of disgust my mother had for me.

…

I smiled bitterly. I could no longer make another sound. This was probably the last time I would be used as educational material to discipline my brother. Just as I was about to close my eyes, a loud voice pulled me back to consciousness.

"What are you doing?! Are you trying to destroy this place?"

It was the voice of the escape room owner, who had rushed downstairs to check on the situation. Joe felt a surge of hope as he quickly grabbed onto the man. "Sir, my sister has been locked up inside the coffin. Please save her. I'm begging you!"

The owner was scared out of his wits as he turned pale and yelled at my mother. "Madam, that coffin is made of solid wood and is completely sealed. Even the vents have been sealed up! You can't put a live person in there! Someone might die!"

My mother refused to believe him. She had one hand on her waist as she pointed at the owner's nose with her other hand and yelled back, "Stop your nonsense! You're just trying to con us out of our money by scaring us about your coffin. I'm warning you not to poke your nose into our business. I'm an education expert and I'm disciplining my daughter. An outsider like you shouldn't concern yourself with any of this. I'll bear all responsibility for what happens to her!"

The owner realized the severity of the situation when he saw how stubborn the mad woman was and realized that there were no longer any sounds coming from inside the coffin. He knew that a life was involved, and if anything happened in his place of business, he would not only have to abandon the escape room and quit the business, but he would also be unable to escape from the responsibility of harming another human life.

He took out his phone without hesitation. "Hello, is this 911? There is someone…"

When my mother saw him making the call, she lunged at him and bit his arm, and the pain prompted the owner to release his phone. My mother snatched the phone and smashed it against the cement floor, breaking it into pieces.

That was when my father dashed into the basement, covered in sweat, with a fire axe in his hand.