TRAPPED

“Damn it,” Karin muttered as she yanked on the icy handle of the walk-in freezer door. “Yeah, keep yanking on the door that’s clearly frozen shut. Just face it, we’re trapped until someone realizes we’re missing and comes to save us,” I said leaning against the wall with a sigh of frustration. She shot me a quick narrowed glance, rolling her eyes before turning back to the door.

“Thanks for the brilliant insight, Professor Lexi,” she replied, her tone heavy with sarcasm.

We’ve been trapped in the walk-in freezer at our job, Margot’s Ice Dream for about a while now, our manager left out early, leaving Karin and I to close the store. We used to be great friends but, she’s hated me ever since her boyfriend got wasted and hit on me last summer. I pushed him off me and ran to tell Karin, she got mad and started a fight with me in the bar.

The icy freezer air was starting to pierce my skin. What if no one notices until it’s too late? I thought to myself.

“Shit! Hey Lexi, why don’t you get off your ass and come help me!”, Karin hissed. I whipped my head around ready to rip Karin a new one when I noticed her hands.

“Uhm, Karin can you feel your fingers?” I asked.

“What the hell are you talking ab-...” her voice drifted off. She stared down in her hands with a petrified look on her face. Her hands are completely numb, and it seems like they’re becoming too stiff for her to move. She started to have a panic attack. “We’re never going to get out of here!” Karin cried.

Puffs of frosty white air escape our mouths as we exhale. With every breath I feel my body getting colder and colder, the air of the walk-in cutting through my skin like daggers and chilling me to the core. Karin and I are now cuddled up right next to the door, the area in the room that was furthest from the vent that was constantly pumping cold air into the room. Our bodies are shivering so hard that you could hear our teeth chattering between the hums coming from the vent. I can feel my toes starting to go numb.

The familiar sound of the alarm signaling that someone has entered the store. Karin and I both made eye contact. “Did you hear that?” she asked. I nodded, we both jolt from where we were seated, hands nearly frozen, we began banging and screaming on the freezer door making as much noise as we could.

Then we heard it, the beautiful sound of the locking mechanism clicking and the door opening. There stood Margot, completely frozen with shock and disbelief. “Wha- what on earth?!” she exclaimed stammering over her words. Margot grabbed her phone from her bag and began dialing 911.

Karin collapsed into Margot’s arms; her icy skin sends shocks throughout Margot’s body. “Oh, my goodness! How long have you girls been in here?” she asked while wrapping us in her big winter coat. I couldn’t give her an answer, I was blacking out…

When I came to, I was lying on my back my eyes were immediately flooded with a bright light. Once my eyes focused, I realized they were hospital lights, I looked over and saw my mom, boyfriend, and surprisingly Karin waiting for me. They explained everything; the door to the freezer has an electronic locking mechanism that just so happened to malfunction while we were both inside subsequently trapping us.

Karin also apologized to me, she explained how she was just drunk that night and overreacted. She felt terrible about the whole thing after she talked to one of our mutual friends about it and they confirmed my story. But by then I wanted nothing to do with her, so she decided to hold onto the grudge. I don’t know if this experience brought an old friend and I back together, however I’m glad we made it out alive.

Gloria Frazier is a student at Full Sail University.