Girl in the Hole

Aiko lay on her back, the thud of the door still imprinted on her forehead. She stared up at the ceiling light, trying to figure out what had happened, or more importantly, how that had happened at all.

She turned over onto her front and gazed at the door, which had rebounded back to its original post. Aiko got to her knees and crawled to the door to see what was behind it. As she thought, there was a device hidden there. It looked like a pressure canister of some kind, designed to be activated to fire the door at the unfortunate soul, in this case, her.

Aiko took a deep breath to calm her irritation. As a Japanese-American, she’d inherited some of the outwardly cool and collectedness from her parents. She wasn’t about to let Roxanne see her lose her temper. Children understood one thing only, and that was control. Getting emotional would only give Roxanne the satisfaction.

Climbing to her feet, she smoothed her clothes down and took measured breaths to get her heart rate under control. She was still determined to win this game.

Gazing up at the staircase, she figured this was her best option. If Roxanne wouldn’t come to her, she would go to her. Perhaps she could even strike her down with a hard talking to.

Aiko began to ascend the stairs. Each step creaked with age. She wondered how old this home was, almost becoming lost in her thoughts.

Then her breath sucked into her throat. The world fell out from under her as her feet crashed through the wooden floorboards. Aiko expected a bang and a whole lot of pain when she stopped halfway up. Her upper body remained above ground, but her lower body stayed somewhere in the NetherRealm.