A/N: This was written in response to a prompt from the writing community at .net

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My heartbeat thundered in my ear drums, the blackness of my surroundings augmenting the volume. The muscle crashed against my chest, no more able to escape its prison of bones than I could escape my prison of metal. The felt lining underneath me scratched against my cheek and bare hands. Despite my small stature, the compartment was too small to allow my full length to stretch out, so I was folded up like an accordion laying on my side. I pushed once again helplessly against the roof that had clanged down above me, sealing my fate with a single thud.

I tried to remember how many days a human being could survive without water. Although, with no light, I couldn't even tell when days or nights passed so I wouldn't know the difference. Already I was struggling to keep up with the passage of time, and my throat was feeling parched. I tried not to think about if enough air would circulate for me not to suffocate. I wondered what would do me in first. Since I had no food, I gulped down my panic and hoped that would be enough to sustain me.

I should have never listened to Lisa. If I had stayed resolute, I wouldn't have gotten trapped in this desolate tin can. I would be at home, tucked in a warm blanket with a glass of red wine. I licked my chapped lips and longed for the bottle of Merlot that was sitting on my kitchen counter, dreaming of the red gold gliding over my tongue and warming the back of my throat. My chest constricted as my reverie was shattered by the intrusion of the thought that I might never see that bottle again.

I had felt around earlier, (for all I knew it could have been minutes or it could have been days) for tools to help me break out of this cruel box and had come up with nothing. But I couldn't stop myself from searching around me again, fumbling against the wiry felt. The darkness prevented me from seeing the angry marks it left on my skin as it glanced across it. Oh, for the days when irritated skin was the worst of my problems! My hands continued to brave the antagonistic fabric, hoping against hope that I would discover something I had missed before, the key to my glorious and daring escape. Though chances of survival dwindled with each passing moment, I had to hold onto hope. I hugged the image of the sun close to my heart, the warmth of its glow urging me onward, like a loving hand reaching out to guide me home-

Light shot in suddenly, bringing all thought to an instant halt-the sun's loving glow now furiously blinded me and I held up my hand to shelter my eyes. Lisa stood above me, her hand on the top of the trunk with a ring of keys hanging from her finger and a smirk on her face. I blinked. She had brought our roommate Juanita with her, who did not share Lisa's smirk. Rather, she grinned ear to ear and tried unsuccessfully to stifle her giggling.

"Told you," Lisa said with a shrug to Juanita as she gave me a hand out of the trunk.

"Kendall," Juanita said between snickers, "I...what...how…?"

I could feel my face burning, but this time it wasn't from the scratchy felt or from the sun rays beating down.

"It was Lisa's idea," I muttered.

Juanita wiped a tear away as she continued to laugh. "Why?" she wanted to know.

I kept my eyes down as I replied in a barely audible voice, "We wanted to see if I would fit."

With that, Lisa also dissolved into fits of laughter, leaning against the car to hold her up as her legs were no longer doing so. And I, nursing my wounded pride, strode up the driveway past my doubled-over roommates in search of a certain bottle of Merlot.