Tired

Bang! Bang!

Alex jolted awake at the sound of something hitting the door. He turned toward the noise.

Were they—whoever they were—going to feed him breakfast, after all?

Bang! Bang!

His stomach rumbled, giving him something else to focus on other than the terrible pain he was in.

Bang!

“You awake in there?” came the same female voice from the night before.

“Yeah.”

“Good! You like pounding on the door so much, you can listen to it all day.”

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Alex rubbed his temples. The pain squeezing his skull intensified. He crawled over to the window, trying to get as far away from the door as possible. 

Not that it did much good in such a small room. 

The noise continued. Over and over. 

Were they going to keep it up all day?

“How do you like it?” asked the voice.

Alex groaned, but not loud enough for her to hear.

Bang! Bang!

“I said, how do you like it?”

The noise grew even louder, making his head throb in sync with the pounding.

“Answer me when I talk to you!”

“It’s great!” Alex snapped.

“Glad you like it.”

The pounding quickened. There had to be several people beating on the door. 

Maybe if they kept it up, the door would break and Alex could make his escape.

After a while, it eased but didn’t stop completely. It seemed to go on for hours, but it was impossible to tell for sure. 

Eventually, Alex’s eyelids grew heavy again despite the sounds. He rested his head on his knees and gave into the sleepiness. His stomach still rumbled every so often and everything hurt, but it was all outweighed by his need to rest.

His eyes closed and the noise faded away, far into the background. Sleep enveloped him like a protective cloud. Dreams pulled him away from the awful room and swept him to Ariana’s party, where he wanted to be.