She approached the unfamiliar door and nervously took the key from her pocket. She took a deep breath, unlocked the door, paused, then opened it. To her horror she saw...
two soldiers waiting patiently at the prison dorms exit. They both looked unimpressed yet unsurprised. She froze and nervously laughed.
"Hey, fellas...You would never believe it! So this key just fell into my lap and-" before she could finish her obvious lie, the soldiers snatched the key and shoved her all the way back to her cell. She landed hard on her backside, but jumped back up and scurried to press her ear to the metal barricade that is her door.
"How the hell does she keep doing that?!"
"I don't know, but I can not wait to get rid of this klepto before she escapes and ruins our reputation!"
"Soldiers!" A deep, raspy voice commands.
"Sir, yes sir!"
" It's your lucky day boys!" The sergeant shouts in the direction of the girl's cell as if she were not already trying to eavesdrop on them.
"Your execution has been arranged for this afternoon."
The sergeant bellows his laughter and relief, and waddles away, throwing one last command over his shoulder. "Put her in chains!"
"Th-this afternoon? Bu-but that's like right now." the girl could hear her heartbeat throbbing in her ears and wrung her clammy hands.
She gives a nervous giggle and tries again.
"Don't I get one last request? Or to say goodbye to my family?"
As the girl searched the eyes of the soldier holding her by her arm, she swore she could see pity. Did he know?
"There is no one here to see you."
Silence fell for a split second as she was taken to the so-called prayer room.
"Are you really going to kill me over a lousy loaf of bread? It wasn't even that good. It had seeds on it! What kind of bread has seeds on it?!"
She continued to plead to no avail until her time came.
The soldiers then began to pull at the chains that open the gates to hell eagerly. Gears screamed as they swung open and the girl was blinded by the light of the desert sun that illuminated the colosseum packed with a jeering crowd.
The crowd roared around the stunned girl as she realized how she had been avoiding the severity of this moment, however her humorous and fake confidence stemmed from her own coping mechanism that she acted upon in stressful situations caused the colosseum much entertainment as she dramatically took a bow and waved to the crowd as if her life was unthreatened.
She thought of how she had nothing to lose, no friends nor family when suddenly she was reminded of one thing as her boot shivered and squeaked.
"Don't worry pipsqueak," she whispered, "I'll get us out of here."
