Escape Plan

Deep down under the ground where not even light could reach, Iris was sitting against the wall, frightened and waiting for something to happen. Surely, her kidnappers didn't bring her here to have her starve to death or die of dehydration, right? Her stomach growled.

Even though it hasn't even been that long since she ate dinner, she was hungry again. Was it hunger? Or was it just that she was stressed and feeling random things? Out of the blue, she felt something prick her. 'Ow!' She moved her head around, confused about what happened. Was she hallucinating now as well? "Mmpff..." There it was again. A small pain in her chest area. Were her clothes the problem? Iris shifted around a little to readjust her shirt. A few seconds after, she felt the prick again? 'What?' Was it a bug trying to suck her blood? What was going on here!?

Wait... No, that wasn't it. It was something else. It came once again and this time, Iris pinpointed where it was coming from. It was the necklace. The necklace was pricking her? How bizarre... Why would a necklace be pricking her? It didn't make sense. But even if it made no sense, there it was again. The pain of a sharp needle or the tip of a blade poking her body directly where the necklace was.

"..."

Was the necklace trying to tell her something? It was almost like it was saying, "Use me," or something like that. Could magic get her free from this? Maybe... She had considered using fire magic to get out of this in the first place but decided against it.

Her magic was out of the question as trying to burn the ropes would result in her burning herself. And if the fire spread too quickly, she would end up burying herself in this place. It was far too destructive and uncontrollable to use in this situation. But if it were wind magic... It just might work. She treated the necklace as a mere piece of jewelry this entire time since wind magic was not very strong, but after seeing what hoodie did, it changed her perception of it entirely.

Iris turned her head around slowly, listening closely to any sound. After making sure that there was no one coming towards her or nearby, she began her work. She poured her magic into the necklace, transforming her magic into another form. She aimed one of her fingers upward at where she thought the rope was. This was difficult since she couldn't feel her hands at all since the rope had cut off circulation. If she made a mistake, she would end up cutting her arm. This was risky...

Maybe it was better if she just waited for help... Iris was hesitant about the idea. No, help might not arrive. She needed to steel herself for this. She didn't want to lose her life here and needed to take action to make sure that she survived.

Taking a deep breath, Iris prepared her resolve and started for real this time. The magic rushed to the tip of her finger and she let it loose. A gust of wind hit both the rope and her arm, but it wasn't strong enough to break or loosen it. She needed to make it sharper and thinner, but she had no clue how she was supposed to do that.

Iris could try and try with all her might, but she was pretty sure that something like that would take months of practice to pull off. So that won't work... She needed to think of something else. Wait, what if...

Iris had her magic converge at the tip of her finger again. However, this time it wasn't wind magic. She tried to say the word to trigger the spell but the gag made it very hard to do so.

"Mmpff!"

"Sppff!"

"Sparf!"

It took a couple of tries, but Iris eventually said something close enough to "spark," and a small flame ignited. It was hungry and leaped onto the first thing it saw which was the ropes. The fire began to grow quickly and Iris prepared the second spell to get ready to extinguish the fire before it could get too big. Luckily for her, the wind magic from the necklace didn't require any incantations or trigger words, making this plan practical.

'Any moment now...'

The heat reached Iris' arm and it continued to grow hotter, until... 'Now!' Iris shot a strong gust of wind at the fire, extinguishing it instantly. The ropes were burnt enough so that she could rip it in half with her strength. After breaking the ropes that tied her hands, she took a second to let the blood rush back into them.

Next, she took off the loose cloth that was acting as a blindfold and took a good look at her prison. Unfortunately, everything was pitch black and she couldn't see a thing. She will have to use fire to light up the place. But before that, she needed to get rid of the rest of the things restraining her.

Starting from the top and working her way down, Iris took off the gag and coughed a little. Her throat was dry and it hurt especially. She swallowed some saliva but it didn't help much.

Iris then started on the ropes that bound her feet. Since it was too dark to see, she had to fiddle around with it for a bit before she found where the ends were and untied it. The knots weren't particularly tough, and she freed herself in a jiffy. When the blood came back to her legs as well, Iris stood up, putting her hand against the wall for balance.

Her head still hurt and she was a bit dizzy just from getting up. "Spark." Iris very quietly and carefully created a fire at her fingertip. She moved her hand from side to side and saw the room she was in.

There were boxes and crates lining the wall in front of her and nothing to her left and right. She turned around and looked behind her, finding out that it was empty as well. "What..."

Where was the door? Iris looked up and down at the ceiling and floor. Nothing there either. There was no trapdoor or anything. Maybe it was a secret door then? Iris looked around for a hidden switch or plate but didn't find one.

So that wasn't it either. But Iris didn't despair or give up. The kidnappers couldn't have brought her in here if there wasn't a way to even do so in the first place. Furthermore, the fact that she could breathe and wasn't suffocating meant that there was definitely a gap in the walls somewhere.

Since the walls were of no use, the only thing she could check now were the boxes. They should reveal a clue of some sort to let her out...

Iris stumbled over to the crates and examined them. They were all thoroughly sealed and she had no way of opening any of them. They were also too big for her to pick up so she couldn't shake them either. But ignoring the contents of the crates, Iris had a feeling that the door or exit was behind these crates. With these huge things in the way, it made sense why no one came to check in on her after she woke up. They would have to move these crates out of the way to do so.

She just had to figure out a way to move them quietly and get out. So what was the plan now... Burning them was not an option, that was for sure. She would die from inhaling too much smoke and it would also alert the kidnappers. Breaking them through punching or kicking or any other means was also out of the question as it would also alert the kidnappers.

The only choice she had left was to use wind magic to quietly move the boxes... Wind magic again, huh. It was really a lot more useless than Iris thought it was. She had to admit, she never thought that wind magic would be able to save her. Just like most others, she believed that wind mac was useless since it lacked firepower, but it could be extremely useful depending on how it is used.

Iris lacked experience, but she lifted the crates one by one with the wind magic from her necklace and carefully dropped them to the floor, making as little noise as she could. She felt her magic running out after the third box and had to stop. Luckily, she managed to move the three boxes on the top and a small light shined into the room from behind the crates. The exit was indeed behind the boxes!

Excited, Iris didn't waste any time and started moving the box that was in front of the door. She didn't care about the other ones since they weren't on the way, and since she didn't have the magic too often the boxes or move them with the wind she had to rely on her physical strength to get the job done.

Iris really wasn't cut out for a job like this and adding that on top of her being injured, it made things a lot more difficult. She couldn't push her body hard or otherwise, her head would start ringing. Iris slowly and painstakingly dragged the box blocking the door. She took a moment to rest and then proceeded to the door. She pressed her head against it, listening for footsteps and voices. There were none. The coast was clear... Hopefully.

Iris creaked the door open and peeked out, looking both ways. There was no one. The hallway was empty. Now that Iris was able to see, she was pretty sure that she wasn't in the basement. Instead of stairs leading up to the surface, there were stairs leading down. She had been in the attic, not in the basement. It was weird to see an attic like this, but this wasn't the time to question it. She tippy-toed down the stairs quietly.

Despite there being nothing around her, Iris' nerves were screaming and her senses were on full alert. Something was off. Why was this so easy? Iris expected there to be a guard or at the very least an alarm or something that would go off if she tried to escape, but strangely, there was neither. Iris had a really bad feeling about this. Still, she had to go down if she wanted to leave this place, whatever it was.

Doing her best to be quiet, Iris walked down the stairs. Just as she neared the bottom, one of the steps creaked under her foot.

Iris froze, becoming as still as a statue. Her heart stopped as she anxiously waited for something to happen. She stood motionlessly for a minute. Nothing... Was there really no one here? This really didn't feel right.

Iris was on high alert now. She needed to be more careful. Continuing down the rest of the stairs, she felt the steps out first, to make sure that they weren't old and creaky, but she made a mistake and took too big of a step and slipped. She slid down the rest of the steps, landing on the floor with a loud thump.

"Oh no..."

If the kidnappers didn't hear her before, they definitely heard her now. Throwing stealth away, Iris got up and ran down the corridor, throwing glances at her surroundings, trying to find where the exit was. She found the stairs leading down but chose not to take them. Instead, she ran inside of a room and slammed the door shut, locking it. She then ran to the window, ignoring everything else that was in the room, and opened it.

Iris poked her head out to see what floor she was on and her heart dropped when she saw the height. She wasn't on the second floor... She was on the third. Had it been the second, she could have jumped out, and landed on the floor just fine, but the third floor wasn't going to work. This was bad. Behind her, outside the room, she heard footsteps coming towards her. Time was ticking and she needed to think of something, and fast.

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