Tony’s body twitched as his chest started moving with the shallow breathing that meant he would be coming out of the world in which he had been locked. Tony felt his breathing getting stronger and his body felt the life coming back into it, so he prepared too open his eyes. He knew in his mind that Karen would be by his side or not to far away and she could help him rise back up. His eyes opened and he found himself staring into the darkest black that any human has ever seen. His mind began to race with crazy thoughts and then when his hands moved ever so slightly he touched the satin lining that covered the inside of the coffin. A sudden feeling of fear rushed over him when he realized where he was. If he was in the coffin then he knew he had been comatose for a long period of time, but how long? Days, weeks, months, he had no way of knowing as he lay there gasping for air. His body began to tremble as he tried to calm himself down and get control of his emotions, speaking softly to himself in the coffin. His own voice sounded strange. “Calm, be calm, you prepared for this so take it easy and leave this place.” Moving his arms inside the cramped area he positioned his hands so the palms lay flat against the lining of the coffin lid and then he pushed upwards. It didn’t move so he tried it once again with more effort, hoping that it was just stuck. With everything his feeble body could muster he pushed upwards again, but to no avail for it stayed in place. Panic was taking over as he lost control for the moment. Screaming as loudly as he could as if it would give him more strength, he began to kick with his feet and use his fist striking at the lid, but in the restricted area of the coffin it was useless. “You bastards, you bastards, you lousy no good bastards, when I leave here and fin out who sealed this lid your life will be over!” While trying to calm down, Tony quit struggling, let his body relax, and get his breathing back to normal. He fought to get his thoughts straight in the darkness of the coffin. While moving ever so slightly trying to get in position so he could once again try to attack the lid, his hand felt something on the side. The button, “Oh my God,” he cried out as his panicked mind remembered the most important safety net of all, the button that would begin the ringing of every phone in the house. As he pushed the button his mind and body began to relax and he spoke softly to the emptiness of the coffin. “Now Karen will come as we planned. Soon I will be out of this darkness and back into the light. Once again I have beaten the hell that has tried to destroy me.” Tony pushed on the button and pushed on the button and pushed on the button and pushed on the button. The phones inside the huge mansion began to ring. In every room there was the sound of unanswered phones that shattered the eerie silence of the empty home. Tony had no way of knowing that Karen had left and his hopes to be saved again were about to be shattered. Dan had returned from the Amazon to retrieve the stone chata that Tony had taken from the idol of the Boy King. But believing that Tony had finally died, Dan had also taken Karen away from the mansion so they could start a new life together. The huge mansion that Tony had built to satisfy his ego and impress the town with all its imported items was now just a piece of property that was abandoned and left to rot. Dan and Karen were gone and he was left in the coffin he had chosen and the crypt he had designed. Was it minutes, hours, or was it days? He continued pushing on the button faster and faster and harder and harder but no one came. Tony had no way of knowing how long he lay in the coffin., but slowly the realization that Karen was not coming began to sink into his tormented mind. She had lied to him, was all he thought about as he felt the hatred build up inside him. No one was coming and he’d be locked in this darkness for all time if he could not find a way out. His hand and fingers had become numb from pushing on the button for so long so he just stopped, knowing it was a waste of time. How long he lay still he would never know but suddenly his body began to jerk as he started to sob violently and uncontrollably. Even with all the sobbing there were no tears coming from his eyes for his body did not have enough liquid in it to form them. But during this time he felt his body begin to change and he knew that something was about to happen. Subconsciously, Tony felt his fist begin to tighten and loosen like a fighter getting ready to go into the ring, and then hit. The adrenaline rushed through his body like fire and he began to rip at the lining on the coffin lid trying to reach the wood. Kicking and screaming at the top of his lungs and clawing like a mad man, he made short work of the satin lining. Once Tony reached the wood he never hesitated and with his bare hands he clawed at the hard wood of the coffin lid. It was useless; the coffin he had selected was to strong. First he felt his fingernails being ripped off and then the splinters from the wood tore the flesh from his fingertips.
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