<strong>Adèle, bound inside a glass coffin</strong><br/><br/><br/>Adèle was trapped. She could not go any further. She could not shrink into any tighter ball. And the rats, encouraged by her immobility, were getting closer, sniffing at the warm yellow liquid that was pooling on the bottom of the cage. Adèle kept screaming to the top of her lungs, although her throat was beginning to be coarse.<br/><br/><br/>Her hands were clenched into white balls of bone and muscles. Her arms were knotted with bulged of muscles as she pulled on her wrist rope with desperate energy. Suddenly she felt something creaking. The panic had given her trained muscles an uncommon strength and the rope was actually breaking! She yanked harder, twisting her arms behind herself, totally ignoring the pain that the hemp was causing as it sawed into her skin.<br/><br/><br/>The nasty, stinking rodents were now touching her body with their wet noses and whiskers. One of them was standing on its rear legs and was trying to climb on her knees, which were folded against her torso as she was packed tightly at the end of the box.<br/><br/><br/>At last the rope broke and Adèle's hand thrust forward. In a wide swipe, she tried to lash the rats away from herself.