Solitirium

Elana, Damian, and the nameless stranger guiding their way trekked through the trees in the pouring rain, Elana and Damian shivering from the cold and wondering when their journey would finally come to an end.

I'm not sure stopping would be a good thing... Elana thought, fearing the worst. By the look on Damian's face, she could guess that he was experiencing the same feeling that they would not live through the night. They climbed over rocks and fallen trees and through puddles, and they crawled through bushes and got stuck by thorns until finally they came to a clearing in the trees. Muddy and soaking wet, Damian and Elana stared skeptically and fearfully at what stood before them. There was a small wooden house in the middle of the clearing in the middle of the woods in the middle of absolutely nowhere, looking as if it had been abandoned years ago and left to rot.

Their kidnapper approached the shack and opened the door. "Go in."

"Why?" Damian spoke from Elana's side.

The man remained standing there, holding the door wide open. He stared at Damian and Elana, his icy glare giving both of them chills, "Just go."

The two glanced at each other and shakily made their way into the little wooden house. "I hope you like it in here," the man said with a smirk across his face, "Because I'm locking you in."

Silence echoed in the room for a moment, the only sound coming from the rain hitting the roof like bullets.

"You're what?" Elana said incredulously.

"I'm locking you in," he stated matter-of-factly, in such a calm voice that it was like he was telling them the sky was blue.

"You can't do that," she warned, shaking her head.

"Oh," he laughed, "Yes I can." With that, he gave a sarcastic smile and a wave, and closed the door. Damian and Elana rushed to push it back open, but a "click" told them that they were too late. They were trapped.

"Well...What now?" Elana questioned.

"We break out."

"How?" She looked around. The place had no windows, two doors--one locked and leading outside, the other open and clearly leading to a bathroom, an old couch pushed against a wall, a cabinet in the far right corner, and a small table next to the couch. Nothing else. There was no convenient key ring, no heavy object with which to break down the door, nothing.

"We're so fucked," Damian said upon noting the same things as Elana.

Wondering what was in the cabinet, Elana approached it. She saw that it was firmly bolted to the wall. She opened the doors to find that it was completely empty except for a black metal box with a digital lock on it and a note, neatly typed and signed in a scratchy signature. But by the time she read the name at the bottom, she had been frozen with fear. She felt like her heart had suddenly stopped, while at the same time it was beating at a million miles per second.

"Damian!" she shouted, although he was only on the other side of the small room, "Come read this!"

He strode over to her and took the paper from her shaking hands, proceeding to read the words aloud:

Hello,
I hope you enjoy your stay here, because your time is limited.
In exactly one week, that black box will release a deadly gas.
If you wish to live, either open the box and disarm it, or find
a way out of this house before one week is over.
Don't lose track of the days, and try not to lose your minds.
-Chris

"You've got to be kidding me," Damian said, just staring straight ahead, "You've got to be fucking kidding me. How in the hell are we supposed to figure out the combination to this thing? 'Don't lose track of the days'? We don't have a clock, and there are no windows!"

They knew they would have trouble opening the box and staying alive. But they knew they would have an even harder time not losing their minds.