The white chapel room was suffocatingly quiet under the tall arch windows. Soft sunlight spilled across rows of empty mahogany pews, hitting the polished white wooden casket resting near the altar. Clara stood over the casket, her fingers white-knuckled around the cold steel handle of a heavy crowbar. She adjusted her red flannel shirt, the small American flag patch on her chest rising and falling with her rapid breaths.
Clara: I'm getting you out!
She raised the metal bar high over her head and brought it down with a thunderous crash. The heavy wood splintered with a sharp crack, the sound echoing through the high ceilings of the chapel.
Victoria: Stop! Somebody stop her right now!
At the back of the sanctuary, the heavy oak doors burst open. Victoria ran down the center aisle in her designer formal suit, her heels clicking frantically against the marble floor. Behind her, two estate security guards hesitated near the entrance.
Victoria: Security! Now! Grab that crazy girl before she destroys everything!
Clara: Stay back, Victoria! Don't you dare come near this altar!
Victoria: You've lost your mind, Clara! That is a sacred funeral service!
Clara: This isn't a service! It's a cover-up!
Clara slammed the crowbar into the seam of the wooden lid again, forcing the metal deep into the crack. Wood fibers snapped and flew across the white floor tiles.
Victoria: You don't know what you're doing! You're committing a federal crime!
Clara: The only crime committed here was by you!
Victoria lowered her dark designer sunglasses with a trembling hand, her eyes wide with extreme shock and horror as she saw the deep gouges in the white wood. She stepped forward, reaching for Clara's arm.
Victoria: I am warning you, Clara! Step away from that box right now!
Clara ignored her, leaning her ear close to the cracked wooden lid. Tears filled her wide eyes as she whispered into the dark opening.
Clara: Is someone in there?
A faint, muffled sound came from deep inside the box—a tiny, raspy gasp that made Clara's heart stop in her chest. She raised the crowbar one last time, her hands shaking with absolute fury as Victoria lunged forward to grab her.