(<50) The coffin.

"Simple is good. Get into the box and hope they won't check into it."

That was what Jen did. She removed some smaller boxes and clothes away from the top of the coffin and raised the heavy black lid. Some bandages and tiny pumpkins decorated the 'bed'.

"Better than naked wood, i guess." — Jen thought and jumped inside quickly. The lid closed behind her with a quiet thud. — "It's good that I did not make much noise."

Fifteen seconds later she heard the door of the room open. Jen could not make out the visitors' speech — the coffin limited incoming sounds, so she had to wait until they came closer or started to talk louder.

Jen felt the steps spreading around the room, that meant they were searching. To reduce the nervousness of her situation, she started looking around. The coffin was smaller on the inside than it looked from outside, but was still rather large, not making her feel claustrophobic just yet. The tiny pumpkin decorations turned out to be emitting weak shimmering light, just enough for her to distinguish her hand in front of her eyes.

"Wait... when did I manage to cover it in these bandages so thoroughly?"

A sudden impact against the wooden box **** her out of this dark trance. Someone was trying to open it.

"Something wrong, Dolly? Yeah, come here. She can't open it." — a female voice said.

A third pair of steps approached the coffin and put some effort into opening it as well.

"Well, I figure it's not opening because it's locked." — another female voice was talking now. Jen's eyes opened wide when she said 'locked'. — "My best bet is it's locked because it's active because it's holding someone inside."

"Hah. Someone foolish enough to mess with malfunctioning stuff! I wonder what's it gonna do to her."

This chatter was very far from reassuring. Jen realized that she was indeed using a product from the room labeled 'MALFUNCTIONING PRODUCTS'. She tried to rise from the bottom of the coffin, but the bandages that wrapped themselves all around her limbs did not let her.

"No, no, no! Help me, please! Something, anything!" — Jen screamed, driving the last nail into the lid of the possibility of her disguise not getting blown.

"There's nothing we can do, sweetie! You preferred this to our company all by yourself! All this faulty stuff wasn't put here because it was broken or powered off. They put it here because it was working too well."

Jen tried to say something else, but the bandages got even more aggressive, taking hold of her mouth. Tiny festive pumpkins were the only witnesses of the poor girl's transformation into a living mummy. She felt the entire surface of her body getting wrapped. The bandages were covering her steel swimsuit and boots, becoming her new and final layer of imprisonment, with any possibility of help cut out by the thick wood.

"This room is properly dangerous. Let's get out of here." — one of the voices said. Despite Jen's muffled begging, the steps went away and closed the door behind them, leaving her alone once and for all.

ENDING #48