My stomach dropped out from under me.
The hum.The heat.The walls.
A sauna.
Panic hit all at once, jarring and absolute.My chest seized, and my breath turned shallow and useless.I pushed up on shaking arms, but my muscles refused to cooperate.The world tilted violently, and I had to grab the bench to keep from face-planting.
Memory slammed back in jagged pieces—
The door.A woman I didn’t recognize.The crack of the taser.Falling—then … blackness.
My hand flew to the side of my head, and my fingers came away damp.Sweat.Just sweat.I didn’t know if that was better.
The air seemed to grow thinner by the second.
Too hot.Too small.My chest tightened as the memory hit—my father locking us in the crawl space, dirt under our knees, barely enough room to sit, winter cold biting through bone, summer alive with things that crawled.Claustrophobia was easy to explain.The fear of heat?That was just survival.I lurched to my feet anyway, legs unsteady, and stumbled toward the door.
“Hello?”My voice came out rough, barely there.“Hey—this isn’t funny!”
The wood burned under my palm as I grabbed the handle and yanked.
Nothing.
It didn’t move.
My pulse roared in my ears, drowning out the hum, drowning out everything.
“Hey!I don’t know who you are, or what I did to piss you off, but this isn’t funny.Open the door!”
The heat pressed closer.Squeezing.Like the room was alive, a snake, and coiling around me.Suffocating.
I hit the door with the flat of my hand, once, twice—then harder.
“Hey!”
Slowly, which had to be for dramatic effect, she came into view, standing in front of me, the dense trees behind her.“I saw you with him,” she said calmly.
“With who?”I pounded my fist on the door.“Let me out.I don’t like the heat.I don’t like small spaces.”
Her smile spread into something you typically only see on the faces of Disney villains.“I knew he liked older women.”
Like a sledgehammer to the side of the head, it hit me.“Kyla,” I whispered.
“He was using you to have his needs met.But I’m back now.You are no longer needed.”
I shook my head, banging on the door and trying the handle.Nothing budged.Frantically, I searched the small dome for a safety latch or security hatch.There had to be a fail-safe escape door, right?There had to be.The floor was solid.The walls were solid and hot to the touch.Every inhale was like hot coals across my lungs.
Anger filled her hazel eyes.“I don’t like it when people touch what doesn’t belong to them.It’s not very nice.”
“H-he doesn’t belong to you.Y-you are a predator.You molested him.You groomed him and raped him.You took his childhood and innocence away from him.”The dry, hot air scorched its way down my throat as my breaths grew shallow.I was starting to panic.
She smirked.“Please.I made him a man.He was just as in love with me as I am with him.Still is.I know it.”
I shook my head.“You’re delusional.He doesn’t love you.He hates you.”
“It’s a very fine line between love and hate.He’s just confused.You’veconfused him.But I’ll set him straight.”
Sitting on the edge of the bottom bench, I started to kick at the plexiglass window, but it just shook, billowed, and stayed intact.“You’re not going to get away with this.They’ll find me.”
