Panic.
But Anna only had two minutes. She had to move now. But would she kill Sheryl to save herself? She may have been a druggie, but Anna wasn't stupid. There might be chargers pressed against her for killing her best friend. She just couldn't risk it, so she dropped the blade back into the box, shutting it. She was not about to kill someone. Anna wanted to scream. Maybe if she could, she thought, she could yell for help, if anyone would be able to hear her. With all her strength, she tried to pry her jaw open, even with the clamp underneath it. But the agonizing pain didn't do her any good. She had just crushed her own jawbone trying, so Anna stopped.
Blood. Sweat. Tears. Blood.
She dove into the huge dump of keys. How much time did he have left? A minute and a half? It could be less, and Anna couldn't waste a second. X marks the spot… what fucking spot did it mark? In the middle was Sheryl. Was she the spot. No, there must be something else, somewhere in these keys. One of these keys must be able to do something. If not, they wouldn't even be there. Anna began rummaging through the keys in the hope to find a clue. Or the right key, for that matter.
The knife. The knife. The fucking knife!
Kate ran back to the box. That voice in the tape was fucking cheating her. There was nothing in those keys. Nothing special. As the lid swung open, Kate took another moment to think whether or not she should do it. But what the hell - she didn't even have another fucking moment. Anna trudged towards her best friend, whose face was all sewn up. But there was a pulse. There was a heartbeat. But Anna had to live. She just had to.
Metal. Metal. Skin. Grinding. Screeching. Pain.
Anna was aware of the groans that were desperately attempting to escape Sheryl's mouth as the knife deepened into her skin. Blood gushed out wildly but a little cut like that wouldn't do. Anna drove the knife deeper, tears forming in her beady eyes. I'm so sorry, Sheryl. In fifteen seconds the whole ear was off, and Anna's hands were covered in a deep crimson. Anna's distressed fingers delved into the gory ear canal until she felt something hard. Anna pulled out a silver key, coated in blood. She reached over to her back to place the key in her padlock, but the key wouldn't work. Fucking a, why didn't it work. Then Anna's eyes trailed back to Sheryl, and then at the lock resting among those steel chains. No way. No fucking way.
Panic.
The key fit perfectly, and Sheryl was free. But as she stood up, Sheryl crashed into the pile of keys on the floor. Dead.
Shit.
Anna wanted to scream. Holy shit, what had she done! With her hands she rummaged through the floor, hoping to find something, anything at all that would help her get out of that strange thing around her head. Then she found it. A large golden key she hadn't noticed before. The end of the key wasn't just rugged or flat. It had the shape of an X. This had to be it. She reached back over her head, trying to put the key through that hole. But shit, Anna forgot to kept track of one very important, vital detail in this whole deadly game.
The time.
Three. Two. One.
Crash.