Page 1
The first thing I saw was the ceiling: glaring, hospital white. No glow-in-the-dark stars. No crack above my lamp shaped like a lightning bolt.
This wasn't home.
Cold air nipped at my ankles, and the room smelled of damp walls and fake lemon, like a bathroom that had been cleaned far too many times.
"Jamie?" a small voice wobbled. "What's going on?"
I turned my head. My little brother Eli was staring at me from the bed opposite, his curly hair sticking up in every direction as if even his hair was frightened.
"I… I don't know, Eli," I whispered. My heart was thudding so hard I could hear it.
I tried to sit up.
Clink.
Padded cuffs held my wrists to the bedposts. They didn't hurt, but they didn't budge either.
Eli wriggled and tugged. "Are we… kidnapped?" His voice bounced off the bare walls.
I made myself breathe slowly and look around, the way Mum taught me. Bookshelves full of children's novels. A toy dinosaur in the corner. An old desk covered in scribbles. Two identical books side by side. A lamp bolted to the table. No windows.
It all looked like a bedroom built by someone who had only ever heard about bedrooms.
Then a speaker crackled.
Page 2
"Good morning, boys!" A sugary voice filled the room. "Welcome to the Puzzle Room! You have one hour to escape before your reward… disappears. Let the escape begin!"
"What reward?" I shouted. "Who are you?"
No answer. Only a soft tick, tick, tick from somewhere in the walls.
Eli's lip was trembling. I knew that look. Any second now, he would cry.
"Hey," I said, as calmly as I could. "Remember what Mum calls me?"
He sniffed. "Her pocket detective."
"Exactly. So let's detect."
There was a drawer under my bed. I stretched my leg, hooked it with my toes and kicked it open. A small silver key skidded across the floor. Eli pinched it between his toes and, with his tongue poking out in concentration, flicked it up onto my bed.
In two minutes, we were both free.
The wooden door opposite our beds was locked, but under the desk beside it, a little red light was blinking. A keypad.
We tried our birthdays. Nothing. Our street number. Nothing.
"Jamie, look!" Eli pointed at a dinosaur poster on the wall. Six dinosaurs, each with a tiny number hidden on its belly.
I grinned. "Eli, you're a genius."
We typed in the numbers.
Page 3
Click.
The door swung open, but there was no hallway behind it.
There was a stage.
Curtains swept apart. Floodlights blazed into our eyes. A huge banner rolled down from the ceiling: GENIUS KIDS ESCAPE! Music blasted, and a wave of recorded clapping crashed over us. Giant screens showed our startled faces, ten times bigger than real life.
A man in a glittering blazer bounded towards us.
"They did it! Only eighteen minutes! Ladies and gentlemen, meet our future geniuses, Steve and Bob Martin!"
My heart stopped.
"That's not us!" Eli shouted. "We didn't sign up for this!"
The man's grin froze. "Wait… you're not the Martin brothers?"
"We're the Lees!" I said. "We live on Elm Street!"
He blinked, then laughed a little too loudly. "Ha! A tiny mix-up! We'll call your mum right away. Someone, please look after these boys!"
Two adults hurried us off the stage and into a small room backstage. Someone pushed a juice box into my hand and another into Eli's, and then they were gone.
Eli was thirsty. So was I. We drank.
Page 4
"We just want to go home," I called to whoever might be listening.
The door opened slowly. A man stepped in, smiling. "Don't worry. Your mum's on her way."
But his smile was too perfect, like a picture cut out of a magazine, and it didn't reach his eyes.
He flipped through the papers on his clipboard. Upside down, I could read the name at the top of the form.
Jenny Swatson.
That wasn't our mum's name.
A cold feeling crawled through my stomach. I turned to tell Eli, but the room had started to sway, slowly, like a boat. My legs felt soft and far away. Eli's juice box tumbled out of his hand.
The juice.
I reached for my brother's hand and held on tight.
"It's okay, Eli," I whispered, though I didn't know if it was.
Then everything went quiet.