***Chapter 1***

**Aria's POV**

I was freezing, my body still shaking from waking on that cold slab. The doors closed behind the other girls and I knew that I had to walk through the door to my prison. I took a shuddering breath, before opening my door and walking into my bedroom. The room was frigid, even colder than outside had been in the night and I could feel my body begin to tremble at the freezing temperatures.

I took a step towards the bed where I remembered my warm blankets were, but the lights shut off, leaving me in total darkness. I stilled for a moment, afraid to move in the darkness, but with another quaking shiver I moved closer to the bed. A gasp left my mouth as the shocking pain flashed through my bare foot. The sound of the crunching glass driving into my foot mingled with a pain-filled hiss. I tried to find a glimmer of the reflection in the darkness, but I couldn't see where the broken glass ended. Tears welled up in my eyes, I was freezing and my right foot was bleeding from the pieces of glass in it. I moved back a step, bumping into my door when the sirens began. My hands flew up to cover my ears, wincing as I moved away from the door and the siren stopped.

So I couldn't touch the door. My gaze flew around the room before landing on the red light that showed the camera. I stared straight into it, trying to clear my eyes of the tears. I heard a scream from one of the other rooms and instinctively whipped around, causing my other foot to step into the broken glass. I cried out from the pain, now not having any place to put my weight where the glass didn't dig in further. I tried not to move, ignoring the pain and thinking about escaping from this place. I imagined being home with my family, hanging out with the girls, eating Chinese with Ezra, Jason comforting me with his warm embrace. I shivered again at the cold of my room. My eyes opened with the sound of another cry for help coming from one of the other girls. All the images of comfort left at that, I tried to wrap my arms around myself to keep me warm. But my hands were so cold that they felt like ice where they touched my bare skin.

I stayed there for hours, feeling the glass bite deeper into my feet and shaking in the cold. A couple of times, I tried to inch forward thinking that perhaps the glass wasn't that far and I could make it to the comfort of my bed. I barely managed to keep myself on my feet as the hours wore on, every new scream from my friends made me stumble further into the glass. The only heat in my body was where the glass dug into my flesh. I sobbed when my strength finally gave out and I collapsed into the shards. Pain bit into my skin, and I could feel the heat of the glass as it became covered in my blood. I sobbed once, before realizing that it just made the pain that much worse.

I laid there, trying to control the quivering of my freezing body as pain clawed at me. My tears rolled down my cheeks, but I used all my energy to stay still. Even after what felt like forever my body wouldn't give in to rest, no matter how much I begged for darkness to take me. I heard screams while I was collapsed in the glass, making sure not to make a noise loud enough for the others to hear me. I didn't want them to know my pain. I stopped feeling the cold and I knew that soon I would be nearing hypothermia. If I didn't get to something warm soon, I wouldn't be going home to my family. I took a breath for strength, before moving my stiff arms to try and pull myself closer to the bed. The glass dug deeper into my skin, tearing through the flimsy fabric of my sheet. I hissed with pain with every movement. I don't know how long I was on the glass but every second my skin burned and pain shot through every part of me.

My limbs were clumsy from the cold, but slowly I made my way across the floor. Finally, I felt the comforter draped slightly off the bed, so that it brushed the floor. Even then, it took me a couple minutes to haul my torn body into the comfort of my bed. I laid down on the bed and pulled the comforter up, so that maybe I could get warm. Even though the warmth made my body burn, I longed for it to fill me. I let the tears run down my face as my energy left me and I finally fell into the darkness of sleep.

My body was soaked in sweat when I woke up to the sounds of sirens blaring through my room. I jolted out of bed, feeling the glass which was still embedded in my skin tear further and fresh blood poured from the scratches. When I sat up the sirens stopped and I breathed a sigh of relief at the end of the cacophonous noise. The room was like a sauna I realized, noticing that it was such a change from the frigid temperatures I had fallen asleep in. I winced as I felt sweat slide into one of the open cuts on my stomach. I pulled at the sheet dress which covered me, feeling it stick to my skin from where the blood matted on the fabric. I winced at the tugging sensation and the fresh pain it brought. I looked down at my arms, finding them covered in scrapes with pieces of glass visible in several still. I reached for one of the pieces, but it was too small to pull from my skin with my fingernails. I gave a frustrated sigh, realizing that I may have to leave the shards in my skin.

I looked over to the side table, where there was a pair of tweezers, hydrogen peroxide, and rolls of gauze. Next to it was a sign that said "Good girls clean up after themselves." There was also a new set of sheets and a broom and dustpan. I grimaced as I grabbed the tweezers, working on my hands and arms first and pulling the glass out of my flesh. It was slow going, as I carefully pulled all of the glass from my body, ending up with a hefty pile a few inches in size. Once I finished cleaning and bandaging all my open cuts, I grabbed the small broom and dustpan and began cleaning up the broken glass that was spread from the door to my bed across the entirety of my room, so even if I had tried to take a longer route around, I still would have been dragging my body through the glass.

I looked up from my work when I heard another scream sound. I wondered what Charles was doing to my friends, that was making them scream and why he wasn't doing that to me as well. I turned back to my work, cleaning my room up and hoping that if I did what was asked of me that maybe I could get out of this for the most part unscathed. I only hoped that the others were doing what Charles said.

By the time that I was finished cleaning the room and changing the sheets, I was exhausted. I doubted that I had actually slept for very long, and that Charles had probably only given me a few hours if that. I knew if I looked in a mirror that there would be dark circles under my eyes. But maybe it was just the incredible heat that was still coming into the room. I wiped at my forehead, feeling the sweat going down my face. My throat protested, reminding me that it had been days since I had anything to drink. I sunk down onto the freshly made bed, feeling the exhaustion spread through my body. I looked around the room, seeing that it was spotless. Maybe Charles would be happy now. I laid down on the bed, resting on top of the comforter to avoid the sweltering heat. The fabric of my sheet was so stiff though that I couldn't relax, it was also too warm for the boiling room. I pulled the fabric from my bruised and tattered body letting it fall on the floor in a bloody, dirty pile. I moved over to the closet, trying to find some clothes only to open it and remember that it was only a closed off wall. The feeling of claustrophobia came back to me, but I attempted to push it away and headed over to the dresser where there should have been some sleep shorts and tank tops. I pulled the drawers open, finding that there was nothing in any of them, even the underwear that had been stocked before was now gone. I looked down at my dirt and blood coated body, exposed to the humid air. My arms covered my chest, before I pulled my hair to cover my torso and my arms wrapped around my stomach. I looked at the sheet on the floor, it was even filthier than I was and I wasn't looking forward to putting it back on. I grabbed the pile from the floor and took it over to the hamper, which had been emptied of all the clothing. Hesitantly, I dropped the soiled sheet into the hamper before moving back over to the bed. Even though it was boiling hot, I still felt self-conscious being naked out in the open. So I pulled the comforter back and climbed under the sheet so that it covered me from thigh to just under my arms.

I had only laid there for a moment before the lights shut off once more, leaving me in complete darkness. I closed my eyes, not wanting to face the darkness of the room. Tears ran down my face from fear. I shook slightly under the thin sheet, hoping that if I stayed still then Charles would forget about me in here and leave me alone.

The combination of heat and dehydration combined made me feel dizzy, even though I was lying down on the bed already. I felt the room spin before drifting into unconsciousness.

**End Chapter**