- A thick, unwelcoming smell of musk was what shook Phaedra to her senses. Up until this very moment, she had been out cold, completely unaware of what was happening around her. So oblivious, in fact, that it took an extra few seconds to realize that something was very wrong.
The first thing she noticed ─ after the wretched smell ─ was that her vision was foggy. Scratches split down the middle, and within a heartbreak, Phaedra realized there was a thick layer of glass pushing against the tip of her nose. Almost immediately, she started to panic, feeling sickly claustrophobic. Her own vision was blurry, though, and she felt abnormally sleep-deprived. Her arms, which felt unusually heavy, pushed outward, and she flinched as a sharp pain surged through both of her wrists; she was in a very confined space. Phae hadn’t ever been good with tight spaces. She felt trapped, unable to breathe, and that exact feeling was surging upward by the millisecond as she squirmed around. Her heart was thundering in her eardrums, and bile rose in her throat. Again, she crinkled her nose in disgust, and began to fist at the glass. Her teeth were chattering as panic wrapped around her tightly, the top row eventually nipping at the soft part of her bottom lip. She could taste the metallic tang of blood as it trickled into her mouth, and she let out a small whine at the thought of a split lip, but that was all wiped away from her the second her mind reflected back on the glass in front of her face. She was trapped. Where was she? What was going on? Yet again, her hands slapped against the glass, watching as it fogged up every time she let out a trembling breath. Her fingers slipped and dropped back onto her stomach. Everything was stifled; even the scream she instinctively let out did nothing more than boomerang back to her. Is this how I die? She sure hoped not; if so, why wake in the first place?
When the fog from her breath eventually cleared from the glass, Phaedra jolted at once, realizing she was no longer staring at smudged colours, but the face of a woman – someone other than her own, faint reflection. Her words were muffled, as if Phaedra had a pair of headphones in. Her mouth was moving, though, so she knew she was speaking. “Help me out!” she cried out, her voice croaky, likely because she hadn’t spoken in who knows how long. “I need to get out!” Warm tears balled up in the corners of her eyes, slithering down her cheeks like rain against a window. Could this woman hear what she was saying, if that wasn’t the case the other way around? In a panic, Phaedra’s bright blue eyes skitted around, even though she could only tilt her head so much, given the compressed area. “A button, is there a button?” Again, it was highly unlikely that the woman could even hear her. Pressing her chapped lips together, Phaedra pushed her hands against the glass again, hoping the action was enough to indicate that something was jammed. She slapped her palm against it for extra effects, though regretted it in a heartbeat; the glass was far too thick for her to successfully do any damage.
“This is not happening,” she muttered to herself, gritting her teeth. She could only imagine how she looked right now; she could sense the dry sweat stained against her back, and it felt like she was dipping in and out of a sauna. Based on the small hairs that flew around her face, Phaedra predicted the bun that pulled the strands back was anything but a bun. She attempted to blow a whisker of a hair back with a puff of air, but it was no use. She could worry about her appearance after. She preferred to get out alive.
She was grateful to note that the raven black-haired woman was pushing buttons, or at least searching for something, on the other side of the glass. Was there an emergency button on her end? How did people even program this thing she was stuck inside? Letting out yet another shrieky groan, she began to kick her legs. Shockingly, an ear-pitching beep sounded from somewhere around her, and much to her relief, the glass lifted upward. In one fluid motion, Phaedra pushed herself upright and gasped, as if it was her first time breathing in the fresh air. She wasn’t sure if it had been her or the woman who was helping that pushed the right thing, but whatever the case may be, she knew now the end of her life wouldn’t take place in the pod she was sitting in. “Girl!” she puffed, wiping the sweat off her brow with the corner of her sleeve. “Thank you, seriously.” Still a bit dazed, Phaedra glanced around. “What happened here? This place is a mess.” Within seconds, she could tell the woman’s eyes were already flitting around; she was distracted, likely by the other passengers, of which Phaedra could only hear at the present moment. “Hey… go ahead, in case someone else is stuck, too. I’ll be okay, I just need a sec to wake up.”
