“Guys, remind me to never suggest anything again!” I wail nervously as I’m being led by a man called the “GameMaster” holding a candlestick into a pitch dark room. We’re wearing “blindfolds” in the form of light-resistant glasses, and my fingers are clasped around the electric candlestick’s thin shaft as my fellow bazaarites follow me, each of us connected by a single hand on our shoulder, leading each other like the blind mice. What did we get ourselves into? I’m about to find out.
Let’s backtrack a little. A while back, myself and a couple of friends decided to try Kuwait’s premiere escape game haven Trapped Inn at Symphony Mall. We were four people and had a whole lot of fun, and as soon as I went back to work the next day, I couldn’t stop talking to the rest of the team about how this would be a great experience for us! “Think about all the team-building and bonding we could do here, guys! It would be an amazing way for us to strengthen as a team!”
Ever the supportive team-members, the bazaarites enthusiastically obliged, and this issue, we finally found ourselves in this dark room. Why was the room so dark, and why weren’t we allowed to see what was going on leading up to it? Trapped Inn is all about the element of surprise, and as a company, their policy is to reveal as little as possible about their rooms – that way, everyone can ensure that no fun will ever be spoiled. Another thing to note is that their eight rooms are rated according to levels of difficulty. Being ever the cocky bazaarites we are, we opted for a room called ‘Lost’ that would accommodate five of us, and wanted it to be challenging, and scary. However, we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into once we arrived to the Trapped Inn lobby and requested the “super scary” feature. Sure, it’s all fun and games until somebody starts screaming uncontrollably.
Our GameMaster greeted us at the lobby and summarized the plot of our room’s puzzle. “On the night of the 13th (let’s assume it’s an imaginary Friday,) you were apparently asked to babysit a little girl. When you reached the house, you entered a completely dark room. You tried to escape, but all the doors were locked.” I wasn’t expecting this to be the plot of our escape game. With a name like Lost, you’d think we’d be circling the same end of the woods until we found a path out! But then, in my mind, the words “super scary” and “little girl” suddenly clicked. There’s definitely nothing scarier than a little girl.
It took us a minute to regain our composure before being led into the game room by our GameMaster, a nice young fellow who hastily allowed me to bring in my water bottle in case of an anxiety attack. He suggested to us that we change our initially requested number of 5 hints to unlimited. This made sense, as we’re known to be an argumentative bunch, and flash forward to ten minutes later, the rest of the team were using up our hints like water, much to my dismay.
After purposely freaking each other out got old, we did find that we worked very well together. We each had a moment to be proud of where we were able to figure out a very vital clue that would lead us to our victory. And in just shy of the allotted hour we were given to figure it out, (approximately 57 minutes, to be exact) we were free!
Lessons learned from this experience?
- When you think you need them, unlimited hints can be your friend. But next time, I’ll opt for a more constricted number like their 2 or 5 option, only to feed the competitive beast within.
- “Super Scary” is code for unnecessary sound effects, like screams, thuds against the wall, and the alarming sensation of a door slamming behind you.
- I scare very easily.
And 4. Whenever a little girl is mentioned in a story, it’s always going to be a creepy one.
Trapped Inn is located in Symphony Mall next to the Symphony Style Hotel. Follow them on Instagram @trapped_inn for more information, and be sure to call in advance at 2577 0518 to make your booking in advance!
