Battery Life

I awoke, very much like the majority of my mornings, with a hangover. I clutched my forehead and moaned in dizzy agony as I slowly but surely opened my tired eyes. But something was different, in fact, not just something, but many things by the looks of things, Or, lack of things. Blackness, utter blackness is what I awoke to as I tried to fumble for my lamp switch, only to roll over onto a cold steel floor. I blinked in the dark, before fumbling in my suit pocket for my phone.

10% Battery. Damn.

I shone it around, to find that I was certainly not in my grubby as hell apartment, but in something far, far worse. Don’t get me wrong, the apartment I stay in isn’t exactly well kept, but the room I awoke in was so devoid of anything it made it looks like a damn palace. Black, brown and god knows what else stained the steel flooring as I stumbled to my feet, shinning the light everywhere I could, to get a clear view on things. No windows… no light… no vents… not even a door was in this unpleasant box.

9% Battery.

Confused, I tried to think back to what had happened the night before. there was drinking, of course, there was gambling, but there was something else… something sinister, I thought to myself, scratching my brow. Aha! It hit me. I had had a run in with a debt collector. Being a gambling man, I guess it made sense that I probably owed money to all sorts of people, but I didn’t expect someone the size of a bull would stop me outside of the casino, after a fruitless few rounds of poker, drag me by the collar and throw me in a van and drive off god knows where. I guess I feel asleep. Or maybe it was being punched in the face after I heard the door open…

8% Battery.

I sat down again. Waiting for some form of human contact. I had been in these situations before; I knew what was going down. Some clown in a fancy suit was gonna come down here and beat me senseless and throw me outside, nothing new, I thought. But of course, that would be too easy. Click. Whrrrrr. Something was moving outside the box, something like a vehicle, I thought, still blissfully unaware of what was to come next. what was going on? I thought, as I leaned against the walls, but before I knew it, I felt like I was slowly being pushed forward. I jumped away from it, pointing my phone at the walls. It hit me then, a crushing realisation. It wasn’t a vehicle that was moving, no. It was the walls themselves.

The centres of which had large, red, sickening stains.

7% Battery.

If there was any way out of this, I needed to find it fast. I felt around the walls as fast as I could, frantically slamming my hands onto the metal walls as I fruitlessly scrambled across the room. I stopped, paused, took a breath. The walls were at least ten meters away from me, I had time. I had time to find a way out, to escape. I was sure of it. Collecting myself, I took a breath before taking back my phone and shone it around once more.

6% Battery.

Come on, come on, I thought. There has to be something! Anything! I screamed for help, for dear life, as I felt and slammed against the walls madly.

5% Battery.

I sat. And did the last thing any sane man would do in this situation.

I laughed.

I laughed like I had been told the funniest joke in the world, like I had been gassed or something. I screamed to the deaf walls. ‘Out of all the things!’ I shouted, still laughing madly, ‘Out of all the things you could have used to intimidate me, this takes the cake! Very funny!’ I yelled, ‘Very funny! Trapping me here to teach me a lesson, I get it, no more gambling, no more money lending! I know you’re just joking, just please, please let me go!’ I waited for a response, for the walls to stop making their groans, for them to stop moving, as if my brash screeches would make an effort. ‘I know you’re not going to kill me! You might as well stop now!’

4% Battery.

After a few seconds of nothing, I screamed louder than ever, no laughter this time, just pure, hot blooded rage as I pounded furiously against the walls, which still homed in. I shot obscenities left and right, kicking and punching the black darkness like a toddler in a tantrum. Before long my fatigue got the best of me and I sat down, defeated. Spent.

3% Battery.

The walls were close. 5 more minutes and I would be a modern art master piece. What else was there to do? I thought as I panted, thinking hard on weather there was any way out. I decided to do the only thing I could do. ‘If you let me out, I’ll pay you back! I’ve got the money!’ I pleaded, weakly, ‘I promise, I’ll pay you back! With interest! Just let me go, and you’ll get your money, please!’ I waited, with baited breath for a response, and, against all odds, the walls stopped. I was dumbstruck.

Had my pleas worked?

I waited, in the dark, now noiseless room. But sure enough, to my utter terror, the whrr of the walls came back into motion, as they started to crawl towards me once more, now over halfway to me. There was no hope for me now, no hope at all.

2% Battery.

I sobbed. Babbling like an infant as tears streamed from my eyes, as memories of friends, of my life, flashed in my mind. I had so much to live for! Why did it have to be me? I wallowed in my self-pity for a time, before it seemed that the wells of tears had all but dried up. I wiped my sore eyes before I went back to my phone, flicked through my contacts to possibly make a few last minute texts, apologies, mostly.

1% Battery.

Ex girlfriend… nah. Dad… nah. Momma… yeah, I decided. I wrote a new text to her, and typed some simple last few words.

‘Sorry for being an ass.’

Hah. She’ll giggle at that, even if it is a bit morbid. . Closed my eyes. I was ready for this. I guess I kind of deserved this, considering how many lives I’d ruined, and how much of other peoples time I’d wasted. I guess this was a fitting kind of end, and it beat some of the dumb ways some other gamblers went. i waited in the dark box, for death to come. For the time to run out.

Beep.

And then the phone died.

By GentlemanWalrus