The Girl

Chapter Fifty One

  "Come on, come on, come on!" I shout, aggravated. My flashlight is nowhere to be found. My hand runs over the same pebbles as it did the last four times.

"Where the hell did it go!" I scream to myself. I crawl back and forth all over the floor, clearing rocks out of my path left and right to find the metal cylinder.

I push myself to my feet, marching back to the wall where I started. Suddenly, my feet get wiped out from under me.

Pain shoots through my body, starting in my ankle and racing up my legs and to my ribcage.

"Mother- wait a second..." I begin to swear but get distracted by the cylindrical device pressing into my ribcage.

I ignore the severe pain from falling on jagged rocks and grab the flashlight.

"Haha! Suck on that!" I shout to the ceiling to no one in particular. I dust off the flashlight from the rocks and debris. I click on the power button and...

Nothing happens.

"You've got to be shucking kidding me?" I scream at it, my anger building up until I lose my mind. "This is all your fault! You've gotten me trapped, you've gotten me in the dark, you've gotten me lost! Everything is your shucking fault! You couldn't just work, you had to break just so that I'll shucking die down here! It was your plan all along! To break right when I needed you! Are you shucking happy? I'm going to die now!"

I stop in my tracks and sink to my knees. Oh my God, I'm yelling at a flashlight. I'm going insane.

"Get it the shuck together, Beth. There's always a chance of survival, even in the worst situation. Stay calm, try the flashlight again..." I talk myself through the encounter. During my tantrum, I throw the flashlight across the room. I walk over to the desk with my arms out, in the direction I threw the flashlight, and begin feeling around. A few skinny cylinder shapes hit my hand, which I assume to be pens and pencils. I feel paper, as well as the splinter giving desktop.

"Gah!" I shout as I slit my skin on paper by accident. I rub it on my pants and keep feeling.

My hand runs over the same cracked and worn desktop time after time. I feel around underneath, on the chair, everywhere. "Don't stress. It won't help anything. Keep going," I continually talk myself through the situation to keep myself sane.

I spin on my heel to walk to the bookshelf across from the desk when I trip over something.

"Please, please, please..." I hope before bending down at the knees to retrieve the object obstructing my path.

Sure enough, it's the damn flashlight. I once again click the button, hoping it works but knowing it probably won't.

Let's just say, I'm pleasantly surprised.

"Yes!" I shout to the heavens as a dim sliver of light beams to life. "First thing's first, take in surroundings. Look at the damage. And try to find my stuff..." I mutter. I shine the light to the opening.

Hundreds upon thousands of rocks are piled on the floor, all the way up to the small opening. I can only guess something collapsed in the maze, creating a concave or earthquake of some sort and forcing a wall to crumble. No light shines in from any cracks, so I assume there are layers upon layers of rocks, not just enough to seal me in here. But that doesn't mean I can't get rid of them. Somehow. Eventually. I mean, even miracles take a little time, right?

If not, I'm going to have to find another way out of here. In that case, I can only hope the bookshelf has a magic book opening a portal.

I kneel down beside the pile of rocks and hold the end of the flashlight with my teeth. I pull and push rocks out of my way to try and get to my bag. I can't even remember where I last had it.

I'm in the middle of shuffling through the rocks when I hit something. It's not hard like a rock, but hard like... like... metal, almost. I furrow my brow and push the rocks aside lying on top of it. It looks like a big metal sheet. I stand up and pull the metal sheet with all my strength. I grit my teeth and pull even harder when it doesn't budge.

"Come on, come on, come on!" I shout angrily through gritted teeth. I tug and kick rocks away and pull more and kick more rocks away repeatedly until the sheet slides. I swiftly kick away the last of the rocks and pull the sheet out the entire way.

And might I say, I'm quite surprised by the outcome of it.