The Final Clue

Jessica and her friends, thrilled by escape rooms, eagerly tried 'The Alchemist's Lair,' advertised as the most challenging

yet.

Set in a Victorian-era laboratory, the theme was to uncover the secret to eternal life.

The venue, an old warehouse, had an ominous feel with its authentic decor and eerie ambiance.

The game's climax required solving increasingly macabre puzzles, including arranging skeletal remains and concocting potions resembling blood.

With time running out, they reached the final clue: a large book with a passage about sacrifice and

a mysterious lever beside it.

Despite her friends' hesitations, Jessica pulled the lever, causing the floor to shift and the room to rotate,

revealing a stark, modern room.

A man in a lab coat greeted them, revealing the escape room was a facade for a psychological

experiment on decision-making under stress.

Stunned by the revelation, and learning they had unknowingly consented to the experiment via waivers, the group was

compensated and left bewildered.

The true horror wasn’t the themed puzzles but the realization they had been part of a study probing

the depths of human ethics and consent.