My Eight Brothers Gave Me a Scary Toy as a Joke… Wait, It Actually Saved Me Chapter 06
Fearless Foundry’s interactive exhibition opened Saturday.
It was called “Little Steps to Brave.”
Not a haunted house. An immersive escape room, built differently.
Every room had a labeled fear level, a visible exit, and a panic
button that paused the whole thing instantly.
No kid went in without a joint screening from their parent and a counselor first.
Every mechanism only triggered within preset safety thresholds.
wanted those kids to understand something.
Fear wasn’t a monster.
It was the body’s way of saying, I need to be safe right now.
The night before the opening, the jack–in–the–box started
rattling hard enough to bounce across the table.
[Someone’s messing with the venue]
My stomach dropped. I called Camille.
We brought the backup surveillance online overnight, synced
all safety data to an independent regulatory system, and had
the tech team sweep every mechanism.
Everything checked out on the surface.
But I knew Sloane wouldn’t let this go.
The next day, I walked into the exhibition hall right on schedule.
Grant was waiting in the hallway before the kids‘ area opened.
He was still walking fine then, and his face still carried the
same entitled fury it always did.
“Don’t push this. Tessa.”
I stepped around him. “Move.”
He caught my arm. “We gave you everything. This is what we get?”
looked him dead in the eye. “Was I family, or was I a toy?”
His expression darkened.
Then the door to the kids‘ experience room flew open.
Someone shoved me from behind.
I stumbled inside,
The door locked behind me.
The lights cut out. Darkness swallowed everything.
Mechanical insects crawled out of hidden panels, their legs
scraping across the floor, close enough to hear every click.
A skull flashed inches from my face.
Then the smell hit me: syrupy, sweet, unmistakable.
Mango.
I hit the floor. My fingers clawed into the carpet.
My heart was hammering so hard I thought it would crack my ribs.
The jack–in–the–box’s voice cut through the dark, sharp and fast.
[Third panel on the left wall. That’s the emergency release.
The one you designed.]
[You built it so scared kids could get out, didn’t you?]
Now use it.]
squeezed my eyes shut and reached left.
My fingertips found the groove.
I pressed it.
The backup safety system activated.
White light flooded the room. The door clicked open.
Camille was on the other side, flanked by city inspectors and police.
They caught Reid’s remote tampering on the surveillance system in real time.
Police pulled the wire records proving Sloane had paid off
one of the exhibition crew.
Grant tried to block the evidence van with his car. He hit a
concrete barrier instead. He never walked again.
Camille uploaded the full footage of me triggering my own
safety release from inside the room.
The whole thing backfired on the Prescotts. “Little Steps to Brave” went viral.
Parents started bringing their kids from all over.
The jack–in–the–box was back to its usual self.
Daily report: you almost died of fright, but you didn’t. Progress.]
[And you handed them a bill they can’t pay.]
(Not a bad day.]