click

One, two, three.

click

Felix awoke to that wretched sound, opening her eyes slowly and moaning in frustration for more sleep. She struggled getting them fully open, like a weight was holding them, and her, down. Even before she was fully aware of her surroundings, it felt inexplicably cold. Some draft probably came through her room from the damned vents (they never worked the way they were supposed to, considering the house they lived in was almost as old as her grandma). Or maybe someone left the window open, letting all that autumn air flow so irksomely into her slumbering dungeon.

Emily tended to do that when their father denied her intentions to go somewhere (mostly to her boyfriend's house or to a low-key party). Last time, Felix, who unexpectedly fell asleep on her bed while she was studying with her face pressed hard against the odd-smelling pages, got the brunt of her sister's punishment for "allowing her to leave," despite the fact she couldn't have known Emily absconded when she was passed out.

Stupid family. They never believed her. Nobody ever did.

Through her slanted, fuzzy visage, she saw nothing but a slew of gray and dull shine from above. Rubbing her eyes didn't rid the odd looking walls, because she was sure this isn't what her room looked like, but as her vision acclimated to the wsetting she inhabited, she noticed how small the place was. It was like a walk-in closet only with enough room to move a step or two in either direction before face-planting into a wall.

"Where am I?" she said.

No answer. None except that fateful click.

The shock of the place sent her scrambling to a sitting position, pushing up against the cold wall. Intense trembles rode down her nerves, one by one triggering the sensitive muscles to spasm uncontrollably. Her numbing hands gripped her shoulders in an attempt to cease the tremulous shaking. Alas, this was no use. The sensations of dread and fear bubbled in her stomach like a seven-month-old piece of cake which looked so delicious in the back of the fridge. Her hands moved and held it tightly and groaned, closing her eyes and pushing her feet frivolously on the ground. Ugh, the monotonous throb continued barreling through her stomach. Again and again, gurgle after gurgle, and oh -- that was a little bit of puke, okay, this is a thing.

click

Would her parents be mad at her if she wasn't in bed? She had school in the morning, was probably supposed to be in class right now turning in the essay she spent so long on last night after procrastinating for weeks. Why was she here instead of in homeroom? Whywhywhy?

Breathe, she thought. The gradual pounding of her head made it a little hard to do that, especially with it hindering her ability to even recognize this place as dangerous. However, her lungs worked of their own volition, speeding up in pace and rhythm until she found herself shaking and shivering more than before, sliding down the wall and into a fetal position. She even felt the childish urge to stick her thumb into her mouth, slowly bite away at the already bitten nail and reveal the fleshy skin lingering underneath.

Why?

click

Tears pooled at the edges of her eyes. Some stray droplets streamed down her cheeks and across her face to the dull floor beneath her. It blurred her vision a little bit, not as much as she woke up, but it didn't blot out the girl lying on her side on the other end.

Her blonde locks shrouded her face, so Felix couldn't get a good look at her. Crawling closer and closer, however, she took notice of the fact that she wore the same grey suit Felix was wearing, except the black lettering right above her left breast was different. Felix's read a plain Cunningham, while the girl's read Tegmark. She was near enough to hear the girl breathing, the regulated sound allowing her a moment of reprieve. The glaring worry churning through her body gave way, and she relaxed, leaning against the wall next to Tegmark.

click

Felix's head snapped to the device emitting that horrid sound. Her hyperventilating seemed to calm when she looked at Tegmark's unconscious body, because the fact that she wasn't alone in this queer and disturbing and scary place gave her a little hope than being eternally locked in this cage to go mad. But when she saw the glowing red numbers on its screen drop from three to two to one, followed by the ominous click which seemed to permeate every facet of her consciousness, she whimpered. Her hands fed amid her hair, tugging at the strands as her puling reached higher and higher levels of volume.

Because the timer was connected to a wire.

The wire was connected to an indistinct explosive charge.

click

"Oh my God," she said aloud. "What -- why?" She looked up, only to be deterred by the blinding light. Straining against the shine, she whimpered, "Why am I here? Where am I?"

After a while of wallowing in her solitude, Felix tried to stand on her weak legs. It was difficult, truly, to manage walking in such a small, enclosed room like this, but eventually, her feet grasped onto the slick floor, hanging on for dear life until balance was once again restored. The cool chill running through her hands as she ran them against the walls felt like making snowballs in winter without gloves, the frigid sensations melting away strong skin and soaking in till it hurt too much to handle. Like voltage striking her limbs and shuddering her whole body. Like lava poured straight onto your hand. She soon avoided touching them utterly, forgetting sometimes how severe the pain they brought would be when she lost her balance. In all, the sickly, ungodly sensation was just too much for her right now, and it was less bearable with all this damn pressure placed on her.

click

Her confidence wasn't strong, but her curiosity didn't care. She strode forward to meet the little device in its imposing position upon the wall. The steady ticking of the numbers and the resounding click was a constant thing -- she never saw it falter or cease in the short time she was here. As to how she and Tegmark and this thing got in here in the first place transcended her thinking; despite this, the sound mocked her, reminded of her entrapment. The tremulous state of her legs came back as soon as she thought the click would set off the explosives, but -- it never did. It kept clicking and ticking and clicking and ticking, so on and so forth, so she opted to sit next to Tegmark and await for her awakening.

She didn't do anything wrong, she thought. The obvious first answer to this whole ordeal was aliens -- it had to be, who else would do something like this? -- but the industrial lantern which hung above them and the dull metal of the walls held a bunker-esque feeling to the environment. Why would they trap her here with nothing to eat, to drink, or to do except think about why she was here? What was the purpose? There had to be something she did, something so bad that it warranted her entrapment, but she had followed all the rules, never argued with her parents, talked out of turn in school -- she didn't do anything wrong.

Tegmark stirred in her sleep. The ball she manifested slowly unraveled until she pushed herself from the ground. As soon as her bare hands felt the floor, she shot up, and her hair flew out of her face, allowing Felix to see the equally terrible expression she wore perfectly reflected. "Where --" she started, but the statement was quickly brought down back into her throat when she took sight of the nervous Felix, sitting there so stark and pale that she'd perhaps be featured in an unprecedented Twilight sequel. Her refreshing blue eyes looked like pools of water. Her face was as pretty as a fallen goddess's, down to the once perfect cheekbones, thin lips and beautiful complexion.

Then it twisted. Darkly, it shifted into an indistinct rage, one which fueled her blue eyes like an intensely hot flame. Felix didn't know such a beautiful girl, who looked so innocent and broken when she was lying splayed across the cold floor, could turn so vengeful in the matter of meager seconds.

Tegmark lifted her hand to point accusingly at Felix, who stepped back right into the wall which kept them inside. "What did you do to me?" she asked sharply, her breathless statement shot out like a pistol's bullet. "Who are you?"

The words might have well cut her throat straight through, because Felix couldn't speak. Her mouth clamped up, unable to articulate any words or sounds that didn't sound like gibberish. A trembling finger came up to point to her name.

click

The blonde girl studied Felix carefully, her narrowed eyes scrutinizing every little movement her muscles made, every breath she took. Though her tone was malignant, she held herself frightfully, just as scared as Felix. She was stronger, though, better at holding herself together than the tremulous tomboy tethered to her internal troubles. Tegmark's hands clutched at her sides as she rose to her feet and pressed against the wall, fingers digging into the thick fabric of the jumpsuit. She looked down at it, as if the coarse feeling of the clothes triggered something in her. Her hands ran across the buttons going down her front, feeling the grooves of her body conforming to the shape of the romper. Felix kept a close eye on her with her hands slightly raised, afraid she would attack.

When Tegmark finally glanced up to face Felix, the stark paleness of her face coupled with the sudden look of intermingling aghast fear and fiery anger gave her a ghostly look. It felt like Felix was watching someone who saw death so many times that its purpose wholly escaped them. Then: "Where are we, then?"

click

"What's that sound?" Tegmark asked.

Felix shook her head. She couldn't say anything, her words simply dying out the moment they tried to transfer from her mind to her lips. They were just as inescapable as she was in this here box.

"Hello? Is there a normal human being stuck in that body of yours or are you an alien?"

It took a minute to even compose any comprehensive sentence. "I don't know," she said weakly, her voice barely above that of a whisper.

Tegmark glanced at her curiously, like a man would peer at a dog who barked mindlessly whenever they saw a passing child on the sidewalk. "Don't know what?"

Felix shook her head again.

"Could you at least help me figure out how I got here?"

Breathe, Felix, she reprimanded. A portion of her which always criticized her, amplified the worry churning through her mind at all times, spoke up in its arrogant, indignant voice: You don't need to freak out anymore now that she's dropped the hostility. She's afraid like you. You're both stuck in the same place. You need to remember that. And so Felix breathed, pressing against the wall and briefly reminding herself this was a punishment, perhaps for the both of them to get through and realize the fault of their ways, even if she didn't know what she had to done to deserve any of this. "I don't know how I got here, either. I don't remember anything of how -- I mean, I know who I am, what I've done but --"

"But?"

"I didn't do anything," she whimpered.

"Huh. Neither did I," said Tegmark. She lifted from the wall and turned to the timer near the wall. It ticked, ticked, ticked --

click

"So that's what's making that noise. Can we shut it off?"

"I don't think so. It's connected to a -- a bomb."

"A bomb? What do you mean a bomb?"

"It's -- oh, God. It's an explosive, y'know? Thing goes off, we both go kaboom."

"Oh, how wonderful. We've been put inside a death machine." She sighed, sliding down the wall and pushing her hands through her tussles of blonde locks. They glowed beneath the light of the lantern like woven strands of gold. Then, with Tegmark's blue eyes suddenly meeting hers skeptically: "Wait, how do you know that it's a bomb?" She narrowed her eyes. "Are you sure you're not the one who put me in here?"

"Nonono," said Felix, waving her hands about. "It's just that -- uhm, my dad, right? He was a part of the military."

"And?" She sounded skeptical.

Felix found it hard to gulp air into her lungs. It felt like a flame was set inside her chest, engulfing every portion until none of it worked properly. She had to answer, though. Otherwise -- well, prepare for prosecution and stoning, she guessed.

"His arm was taken off by one of those charges. Well, not that exact on, but something similar to it. It's an Y-19 Odomo, you can tell from the yellow strip and the charge. He taught me how to -- how to recognize the differences. He wanted to prepare me. He wants me to follow in his footsteps, to go into the military and --"

"So it'll go off if that thing keeps going?"

"I don't know anything about the timer, I'm sorry," replied Felix, holding her arm nervously.

"Fuck," cursed Tegmark. She slammed her head against the wall lightly, the frustration coming out in the form of her cheeks, which lit up like Times Square on Christmas. As she sat, she started shifting from side to side. The discomfort continued as Felix watched until Tegmark couldn't take it and lifted herself up slightly from the ground. From the bottom pocket of her jumpsuit, she discovered a small sleek device, its shiny screen reflective of the lantern light.

When the button on its side was pressed, the screen lit up.

click