I hear the door click, and I take several long breaths, inhaling the stench of dog urine and newspaper ink, before I snap my head up, breathing deeply as I stare at the door. It's so close, right there, I could reach out and touch it if I had enough time. I close my eyes and suck in my lip, taking in another sharp breath and letting it out slowly through rounded lips, so that it sounds like an autumn wind rushing off to rustle leaves. I hear the footsteps outside the door growing fainter, and when a second, farther door clicks shut, I open my eyes. The doorknob is perfectly round and glistening silver as if it has been recently polished. It's dented on the right side, an indent the size of a large, brawly man's thumb; and I assume that's what it's from. I saw as I watched the man exit the room that the doorknob turns swiftly and allows the door to quickly pull backward so that one might burst through the doorway dramatically and startle those people sitting on the other side. I don't need to do that, though, all I need to do is pull it open enough to crawl out and behind that box I saw, and from there it will be all downhill.
I stare at the doorknob with determined eyes for a moment before closing my eyes and breathing deeply again, coaxing myself like the Little Engine That Could. My eyes fly open and I jerk my binded hands up quickly behind my back, not stopping when they're at the level of shoulderblades. I hear a pop and I scream bloody murder, letting my arms collapse again and panting like I've just run eight miles, tears falling out of my eyes like marbles rolling down my cheeks. My back burns like I've stepped into a furnace and I wonder if I've broken anything. If only my feet weren't also chained down, I could turn and scoot backwards to the doorknob...
I close my eyes a third time and command myself to breath evenly to no avail. I'm about to try to pull my feet out from under me, chain and ball and all, when I hear footsteps again, and the doorknob turns.
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