Damn, the doorbell. The cheery chime was almost mocking, and Sarah responded with a long groan. She had been staring up at the ceiling for hours, her mood sullen, unable to conjure her limbs into action. It had been like this for days, and little had managed to break her dark spirit, despite repeated visits from concerned friends. The darkness was stubborn this time. Yet the urgency of the ringing doorbell was compelling. She kicked off the thick duvet, already mourning its molten embrace as the cool air settled on her bare skin. She wasn't even dressed yet, so she scanned the room for an article of clothing, spotting a baby pink silk robe hung on the back of the door and snatching it in a flurry. Shrugging it on, she dashed through the living room barefoot to the front of the house.
Sarah yanked the front door open breathlessly, huffing a stray blond hair away from her face and flashing the lanky delivery guy a trying smile. He seemed bewildered by her sudden appearance and had to fight from dropping the enormous package he was holding. An awkward pause dragged on as the man's eyes trailed the figure of the scantily-clad blonde that had appeared in the doorway. She was petite; short enough that his head naturally tilted downwards to meet her eyes. Her curves accentuated all her best features, with round hips, full breasts and slim legs. The girl was practically sparkling, with white painted nails, blue eyes, glowing teeth and pale yellow hair. Sarah cursed the thin material of her gown, barely covering down to her mid-thigh; especially revealing given the white lace trim along the hem.
The only solace she seemed to find from her misery had been self-care, and when pruning or face-masks could help, it was only sleep that could ease her. It was nice to have that work appreciated, but it had gone on too long to be flattering. She tightened the silk around her body and cleared her throat loudly. It seemed to bring him back to reality, prodding at his touchpad and stuttering her name. Sarah confirmed it, although she had no recollection of ordering anything. This did happen on occasion, a hazard in the modern world of ever-available online retail therapy.
It seemed to take most of the tall man's strength to lug the package the short distance to the door, carrying it vertically by the handles built into the side of the box. It was long and slim, like it might contain an ironing board, and Sarah's short stature meant it was nearly taller than she was. He rested it against the door to scan it, then asked her to sign on his pad. When she finished, he turned to leave.
"Wait, aren't you gonna help me bring it inside?" she asked, fluttering her eyelashes instinctively.
"Sorry ma'am, it's against company policy," he said, hopping into his truck, "Have a good day now."
Sarah rolled her eyes. This thing was enormous! What on earth could it be? She couldn't think of anything she had ordered, let alone anything which could conceivably be this large. Testing the weight with a tug, she could tell that getting this inside was going to be a struggle. Everything was a struggle of late, and she nearly found herself succumbing to the familiar apathy that had been clouding her head in recent weeks. The misery was shapeless and of indeterminate source: not born of the unending series of contracts she had to review for work, or the string of disappointing dates from matching-apps, nor the increasing monotony of her wake-gym-work-tv-sleep routine; it had been created through the frustration of their potent combination.
This however was a more acute problem; she couldn't physically close the front door without getting the package inside, and Sarah was beginning to feel a chill. The wind licked the ends of her thin robe, and the threat of exposure only increased her longing for the tedium of her bedsheets.
With a sigh, Sarah planted a foot on the carpet either side of the package, hugging the cardboard to her chest and heaving it up and in through the door. Walking sideways, she was able to drag the bottom of it along the floor, being careful not to bump her toes as she brought it through the hallway. She couldn't manage much further than the living room, wrestling it to a spot where she could prop it against the wall, before going back to close the front door.
Examining the package, Sarah saw no tape anywhere on the box to cut. There was no logo, or any discerning features other than the barcode marked "NEF006123" and some instructions in bold text across the front of the box which read "MUST BE OPENED FLAT, THIS SIDE UP". She groaned at the thought of trying to set the box down on the floor. This was going to be another rotten day, she just knew it. Curiosity was all that was keeping her from retreating back to sleep: the package was in her name, so it couldn't have been delivered in error, but what could she have ordered that was so heavy? With a deep breath, she wiped her brow and resumed pulling the box along the ground. Once it was far enough away from the wall to spin it around, she turned the "face up" side away from her, then hesitantly pulled the top of the package towards her, trying to control its fall for a soft landing. First she tried using her shoulder to take the brunt of the weight, but she was too worried she would get trapped under it, so started using the handle-holes on either side. It took all her strength and she had to rest it on her knee for a moment before kneeling and bringing it to rest flat on the carpet. It landed with a thud and the light clatter of metal from inside.
Before she could remove her hands from the holes on either side of the box, she felt something pressing against her fingers from the inside. It was like a soft pad, but it was pushed firmly, wedging her fingers against the inside of the cardboard. For a moment it seemed trivial, like the contents of the box had shifted inadvertently, but as Sarah tugged and struggled to release her fingers from either side of the box she began to panic a little. The cardboard gave no give at all, she was stuck.
Suddenly, the left and right sides of the box fell open neatly on hinges, and some complex steel and blue plastic rods peeped out. A mechanism extended out of either side of the package, the type that might hold up a desk lamp, adorned with springs and bolts at the joints, but rather than a bulb on the end, there were padded shackles which both swiftly swung around and clasped Sarah's wrists. She was stunned, still and silent in disbelief until all the panic rose up in her at once, fixated on the heavy box with metal arms coming out of the sides like a flat crab, clasping her wrists in pincers. She shrieked, frantically tugging her arms back and forth, but only succeeding in moving the box ever so slightly across the carpet. All the scrambling did was loosen her gown, falling open and slipping a little down her back.
Now the rest of the cardboard canopied open, the top splitting into two down the middle as the complex apparatus of metal and plastic within were revealed. The cardboard seemed to be fused to the mechanisms as if it was an outer shell, now being brought to rest on the carpet to form a foundation for the device as it unfurled. The material certainly seemed stronger than normal cardboard, her fingers now released as the shell dismantled, but her wrists still held tightly in their cuffs. She was forced to watch helplessly and in awe as articulate arms moved with hydraulic choreography.
Underneath the unit were two long metal beams, which began to splay out into an X-shape, with flat metal discs at the ends pressing down into the floor to form a base. It lifted the entire machine up slightly and tugged her hands upwards with it. Sarah was speechless, terrified beyond words at the metal behemoth that was erecting in her living room. She wanted to scream but the sound was squashed inside her, paralysed until she was suddenly tugged forwards. The arms holding both wrists were attached to rails, and the cogs turned in perfect synchronisation, pulling her towards the shifting metal body of the device. Sarah instinctively stumbled up onto her feet as she was brought squatting over the mechanism. Fighting back seemed futile, only moving the device slightly but not doing anything to free her slim wrists from the machine's grip. The mechanical movement stopped, and a second set of cuffs pounced from the sides of the box, this time grabbing for her legs. It caught her right ankle successfully, but she moved in time to stop it getting her second, screaming as she kicked and flailed, only keeping her balance because she was held so firmly by cuffs.