The Box

DAY TWO

Nothing had changed as the second day commenced. Everything still remained the same in the still darkness of the box, with only the sound of the oxygen filter hissing being audible. From my point of view, I could hear my breathing and my heartbeat pounding in my chest as the time passed. My heart was still pounding, considering what I had just experienced, and still was questioning if it was real or just some sort of hallucination.

The sight of the red eyes seemed too real to be just a mind trick, along with the humming and giggles I heard clear as day. The thought of being in a seclusion like this with something I couldn't even defend myself against caused my mind to immediately enter a different state of insecurity. I had walked throughout the entire box and found nothing, but I couldn't get it out of my mind that what I saw in the darkness of the box was far from just a mind trick. Was I alone in here, or was that monster in here with me?

I attempted to survey the box, but it was clear that I was only going to see the same sight no matter how hard I tried. All I saw was pitch-black, and nothing more. My breathing increased, as I felt sweat drip from my brow onto the steel floor of the box, listening around for anything in the darkness. I navigated at a much more rapid pace than before, using only the glass walls as my guide, attempting to find if what I had saw was either real or just an illusion of some sort.

As I navigated the box, the amount of sweat upon my forehead had increased massively, along with my level of fear. I wasn't sure where I was in the box, or if I was just going in a circle. All I knew was that my mind had entered a state of panic that I could not just shrug off, and only increased, as I heard another giggle from within the box. The sound of the giggle had caused me to become startled, as I turned in the darkness from where I thought I had heard the giggle. Hoping to catch whatever was taunting me, I abandoned the glass wall, and ran in the direction of the giggle, not knowing what I'd encounter.

I ran as quick as I could, but just as I came to the spot where I thought had been where the giggle came from, another giggle erupted from another spot within the box. Once again, I ran in the direction of giggle, only to find nothing but open space once again. The peaks of my anger and fear were at a dangerous peak, as I heard another giggle, and another, and another. It was then, that I realized that the giggle was coming from everywhere within the box, and it continued echo loudly throughout the box. I attempted to plug my ears, but I couldn't escape the sound that easily. It only became more difficult, as the volume of the giggle increased to where I could barely hear myself thinking.

Anger and fear finally took hold of my sanity, and I broke.

"WHERE ARE YOU!? SHOW YOURSELF!" I shouted, attempting to intimidate whatever was taunting me, but instead the giggling just grew louder and louder.

My anger grew, as I continued to rant my voice out to whatever I had managed to stir to life.

"SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!" I shouted in anger once again.

Again, there was no response, except for the endless audacity of Fluttershy's giggle, as I threw my face into my hands, attempting to shut out the endless echoes of Fluttershy's giggle, but nothing settled. My mind began to spin into a spiral of insanity, as I suddenly heard a voice from among the giggles.

"I'm right here," spoke Fluttershy, caressing my eardrum.

In defense, I threw a punch in the direction of the voice, only to hit nothing except a solid plexiglass wall. My entire right fist erupted with a cracking noise at the collision with the glass wall. My entire hand pulsed with pain, as I quickly grabbed my right fist, immediately feeling something wet and thick. Blood was leaking from open wounds that I could not see, as I resulted to cussing violently, hearing Fluttershy once again.

"Such language! Shame on you!" she exclaimed, as I felt something hit me violently across the mouth.

This was no illusion, as I felt blood leech out of my mouth, and the taste of iron slither across my tongue. There was something else there too, something sharp and hard. It took me a minute to realize it was a tooth fragment, which I spat out, hearing it hit the steel floor.
I was officially in panic mode now, continuing to hold my right fist, knowing I had broken it. The fact that scared me the most though, was that I felt actual pain from what I thought was just an illusion, but now knew it was far from an illusion. I was far from alone in the box, and had many things to fear, because I couldn't see or feel them.

Seeing that everything I had tried to do to fend off the taunting had failed miserably, I fell to the cold floor, and curled into a fetal position, feeling completely helpless.

"Heavenly father, thy lord in Heaven, I'm sorry for what I did to Cheryl! I didn't mean to cause what happened to her, or any of this! Please take care of her! Please let her know, I'm sorry for what I did! Amen! Amen! AMEN!!!!"

I didn't realize it, but I had started to cry in that moment of weakness, and only continued to try and shield myself, as the torture continued.

"Please God... Help me," I whispered.

No response came.

Hours passed before the laughter of Fluttershy finally faded away, but I had a feeling it would be back in due time, so I didn't get comfortable in the darkness. I was drenched in sweat from a combination of my fear and sadness, as I carefully stood back up, continuing to dress my right fist with my left hand. My entire right fist pounded from the multiple broken bones beneath the skin, while my left hand became sticky from being drenched in blood from the open wounds.

I couldn't move my right set of fingers, nor grip anything with my right hand, making it nearly impossible to do anything. My right hand was my dominant hand, so it only made sense that I was struggling to do anything. I had lost my best resource for defense, and was an even easier target for whatever else was in the box with me, waiting for the right moment to strike. I didn't dare cuss from the pain I felt, seeing I had already paid the price for that, which was a hoof to the mouth by Fluttershy herself, as I thought of what to do next.

I groaned from the pain of my right hand, as I resorted to thinking of a way to dress it the right way. Using my left hand, I brushed my hand against my body, feeling for clothing. I was still dressed in the same thing I had been in at the start of this nightmare, a simple t-shirt and my gym class shorts. I could only imagine what they looked like now, covered in blood from the punishment Fluttershy gave me for betraying Cheryl and my broken hand wounds.

Without wasting any time, I gripped a nice handful of my shirt cloth and ripped the content with a hard tug. I quickly turned to wrapping my right fist as best I could in the pitch black, letting out small groans of pain whenever I hit a sore spot. I tied the cloth around my hand, applying pressure to the wounds, while not doing any other additional damage. As soon as I felt confident I had tied it tight enough, I returned to wondering what to do next. I didn't dare sleep, due to what had happened the last time I had accidentally fallen asleep.

I decided to just remain where I was, knowing that I was near one of the glass walls, and just attempt to find a happy place, despite all that happened here in this hell. I was exhausted, and could tell from my body feeling heavy and my strength being very weak. Standing up straight was hard enough, along with keeping my eyes open, even though I could not tell if they were open or closed. For support, I leaned against the glass wall, trying to keep myself stable. My mentality was slipping away, and I could feel it. I had felt physical and mental pain from something I thought was just an illusion, but it was clear that whatever was here with me, was far from an illusion.

"I need to stay awake," I spoke weakly. "I can't let her get me."

For a moment, I felt comfortable against the glass wall, until I felt a sudden impact against the glass wall, along with a growl that made my blood run cold. The impact against the glass was strong enough to make me fall to floor, and struggle to get back up. However, once I saw what was against the glass, I debated on even standing back up. A pair of hooves scrambled along the outside glass surface, leaving blood with them, but that wasn't what scared me. The noise the unknown creature was making along with its endless persistence to get through the glass is what made me shudder.

The noise was somewhat human, but demented in a twisted manner. I wondered if what I was hearing WAS human or a twisted monster. I couldn't move, as I sat frozen in place by the sight of the unknown being on the other side of the glass. Somehow, I had regained my senses, and quickly scurried as far from the creature as possible, watching as those hooves continued to scratch against the glass wall. I didn't yell or scream, as I continued to listen to the creature. I swore I could hear, "help me" within the cryptic noises the creature made, but it couldn't be speaking human, unless it were...

It hit me, as I cowered once again. Now I knew what happened to the corpses of whoever ended up dying in either the conclusion of the survey or this test. They become pawns in this game of insanity, and never move on. This is what would happen to me, if I didn't make it. I'd become one of whatever had called out to me outside of the box. Over the ambience of the creature and the darkness of box, I passed out again.

A massive surge of electricity is what woke me from my short sleep, as I opened my eyes to darkness and silence. I was angry and exhausted, as I stood up again.

"What was that for!?" I yelled angrily.

No response came, infuriating me even more. I knew that they could hear me, and I wasn't going to be ignored.

"I know you bastards can hear me! Answer me you fucking cowards!"

I was beyond the peak of my anger as I heard no response once again. My breathing was heavy, as I resulted to screaming in anger, and punched myself in the face multiple times, tasting blood each time. No response came, as I fell to the floor on both knees, and continued punching myself violently. After multiple minutes of my outrage, I lost all sense, and held my head tight.

"I'm not crazy! I'm not crazy! I'M NOT CRAZY!" I exclaimed, feeling myself fall to a new level of insanity.

I stared at the glass wall, covered in blood from the creature, seeing a reflection of myself.

"You need to calm down," spoke the reflection.

"How can I be calm, when I'm being watched by monsters!?" I exclaimed.

"There's nothing here. You just believe there is, when there isn't," assured the reflection.

"What the fuck do you know!" I exclaimed.

"You are losing it! Exactly what they want! Can't you see that you are falling for their scheme!"

"I'm losing it... I'M LOSING IT! I'm not losing it! YOU ARE! You are just here to make me believe that there's nothing here! I've seen it! I've heard it! I've felt it! This isn't fake! THIS IS REAL! YOU AREN'T REAL! GET OUT!!!!"

The reflection shook his head, as I continued to lose grip on reality.

"I'm what you've lost, and unless you get a grip, you'll lose full grip on reality! You'll never survive here, unless you LISTEN TO ME!"

It felt like my mind was spinning, as I struggled to hold myself together, feeling tears form in my eyes. The reflection's words continued to repeat in my mind, as I finally resulted to screaming so loud that it shook the room and shattered the glass walls protecting me from the outside threats. I panicked, as I heard something approach from the darkness, and quickly pin me to the ground. Whatever had me was strong and massive in size, as I felt the breath of the creature blow against my face. Out of the darkness, the face of the creature manifested before me, and what I saw made me nearly collapse to tears.

Before me was a monstrous creature, but the eyes were all but familiar, as I recognized them as Cheryl's eyes.

"C-Cheryl?" I questioned.

The creature just smiled a row of jagged teeth, before it lunged down at me with it's mouth wide open.

"PAYBACK!" shouted the creature, before it took it's first bite out of my face.

My eyes shot open, as I struggled to regain control of myself, hearing the intercom erupt above me.

"Day two complete. Day three has begun," spoke that same robotic voice. "Congratulations human, you've made it farther than any other victim has."

My anger grew at the sound of the voice taunting me, seeing I was just a suffering animal in a cage to them.

"One day remains, before I take you down for good," I spoke angrily.

The robotic voice laughed at my confidence.

"I can assure you that you will never make it past the third day, human," taunted the voice. "Your body is slowly breaking, and you've already lost all grip on reality. Besides, the body can't survive without a critical resource past three days."

Suddenly, I realized what the voice was referring to, due to my throat feeling like I had swallowed sand.

"So, humans have no chance at surviving at all, seeing you just leave them without water for four days! That's a cheap win!" I spoke angrily.

"No, human. Little do you know that your resource exists within the box, but only if you are smart and bold enough to perform the needed actions, will you find the resource."

I thought hard about what the voice meant, but once I found where the resource existed, I immediately fell to panic.

"I see you've figured it out," taunted the voice. "Are you willing to puncture your own flesh and drink your own blood to survive, human? Even if you do, you must be careful on where you puncture, for it can end fatally."

I swallowed hard, realizing that the voice was right. I needed water, and 90% of a human's body weight comes from water within the bloodstream. Could I do this? No... I HAD to do this. With as much boldness as possible, I took a deep breath and bit as hard as I could into my left arm that I had been forced to carve into with a knife, being careful not to go too deep or puncture an artery. I screamed, as I heard the flesh tear, and the taste of iron began taint my tongue. It tasted disgusting, but I had no choice but to do this, as I bit deeper into the flesh.

Blood was all I could taste, as I pulled my teeth out of my flesh, and pressed my mouth down on the open wounds. I sucked the blood from the open wounds as if I were drinking it through a straw, feeling the hot, thick, and bitter content slither over my tongue and down my throat. I quickly adapted to the taste of the blood, making it easier to drink, and almost immediately I could feel a difference in my body's strength. I hadn't drank anything in three days or ate anything, so this was my first serving of something in a long while. I did my best to enjoy it, expressing a look of disgust at who or whatever was watching me.

The intercom fell to silence, as I continued to drink. One day remained. Just one day. Little did I know that "one day" was farther away than I could ever imagine. I had already fallen to insanity, and whatever would follow in the third day was going to test me beyond any bit of sanity that I had left.

I had lost every bit of sanity I had.