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I

The loud thump of metal against metal woke my body, which had been lying in a dead-like position for a time I didn’t care to count. Down my mind several possibilities of the where I was going flowed, taking me away from the coldness I had been wrapped in.

The tapping by my feet continued, and I soon believed that maybe they were about to get me out. Get me where? I didn’t know what to expect and I certainly didn’t know if I was ready for what’d come from now. Deep, deep down I hoped to be back again in some kind of jury, I wished that when the box opened my eyes met with Alix’s.

Apparently my misfortune wasn’t over just yet.

The harsh beating suddenly stopped, and then just a few thumps were heard. I readied myself, if I needed to run my legs must respond in time. I moved my ankles round and round, same with my wrists and with frustration I discovered again that there wasn’t enough space to move any body parts.

I discovered my breath had been quick and forced for some time, as if my lungs weren’t getting enough air. I felt my fingers and my feet heat up a bit, and then ants running up to my knees and then to my waist, and then suddenly I was sweating through every pore on my skin, and the air smelled bad, and my muscles contracted so tight that every millimeter of me started freezing in frustrating and non-stopping pain.

Then, when I thought I was about to pass out, just a little, tiny window opened by my feet, and I felt fresh air slide sweetly from the outside towards my thirsty nostrils. A few drops of water fell on my feet. Was it raining?

My muscles relaxed, remembering how glorious it felt when little kisses of water touched my shoulders and the top of my head. If I was going to get out in a horrible, unknown place, I was glad that at least it was raining.

Though, only a few drops were the ones that reached my skin. There wasn’t any kind of noise outside, not even water pouring onto my metal jail.

Some instinct told me that the best idea was to stay as still as my shaking body allowed me.

And with a loud and fast noise the window fall closed… and I was trapped again.

A second, and then two, and then a minute passed. And then two minutes slipped by, and the window kept closed, and the tingling returned. Then three minutes, with one, two, three, four, five, six seconds. Get me out. Get me out now. Warmth filled my eyes to the point in which they burned, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten seconds. Eleven, I tapped the metal beside my right hand with a finger. Twelve, tap, thirteen, tap, fourteen, tap, fifteen, I crashed an open hand to the wall, and waited for the echoed noise which never came. Sixteen, eighteen, I hit the wall with my knuckles, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three. Get me out of here! I don’t belong here! Pain spread up my arms, and I found myself crying out loud, spitting non-sense. My body twitched and turned, my head hit the wall again and again. Thirty? Forty, forty-six. Seventy-two, eighty, one, two, three. “Out! Out! Now!”

Tap. Tap. Tap. My arms had stopped pushing and hitting, as the fire ants overtook my insides, and then only the inconsistent tapping of my nail was to be heard all around. Taste of iron, I found my teeth digging deep into the inside of my lips. Again, a warm liquid ran out of my veins and mixed with sweat.

My fingers were alive until I wasn’t anymore.