William Sleator, a master of science fiction, has turned to horror, creating a novel with the creepiness of a genre classic and the mind-twists of his best-selling "House of Stairs.
"I'm lying in some kind of box, and I'm paralyzed, I can't move an arm, a leg, a finger. I have no voice, because my breathing is so shallow it's like I'm hardly aware of breathing at all. I feel very cold. My temperature is so far below normal that if I weren't paralyzed I'd be shivering uncontrollably. I have the disgusting sensation that bugs are crawling under my skin, but I can't move to scratch.
And then everything goes black when they fit a cover onto the box. Now I understand: They think I'm dead, and they're burying me in a coffin. I try to scream, to bang on the lid of the coffin as I hear the nails being pounded in, the coffin shaking with each slam of the hammer. But I can't move; I can't make a sound. They really think I'm dead And now they're lowering the coffin into the ground. In a moment something heavy and porous falls down on top of the coffin. Earth. They're burying me alive. I'm doing everything in my power to scream and bang but I can't move and I can't make a sound.
