by Lily White
“Oh, look at poor Alex, strapped down and all alone. What are you going to do now that nobody knows where you are?”
Two more steps and he was standing directly in front of my feet. My chair was tilted back like a dentist’s chair, and although I wasn’t quite lying down, I was still in a position where he had full access to every part of me.
“It’s too bad Terrie couldn’t escort you the rest of the way through the ward, but it’s like Lisa told you in the rec room today: You should be careful about who you piss off.”
My entire body tensed at the sound of Lisa’s name and something Terrie had said to me was at the forefront of my thoughts.
I’ve been feeling off balance myself for the last couple hours. I must be exhausted if the coffee that Lisa made for me wasn’t enough to wake me up.
Understanding crashed over me when I realized that Terrie’s health wasn’t a result of age, but instead, it was the result of something she’d been given to drink.
Joe continued to stare, smiling when it became apparent in my expression that I’d figured out what they’d done. “’Bout time you catch up.” Placing the tip of his finger on one of my toes, he chuckled when I moved my foot as far as I could to get away from his hand.
I opened my mouth and screamed. Joe stood perfectly still, smiling brighter when my vocal chords gave out and my scream was choked out by the torn tissue in my throat.
Holding up a finger, he tilted it back and forth and tsked. “You should save your strength for later. You’ll be screaming even more in a little while. But until then…” He moved beside me, chuckling to watch as I flinched away as much as I could. The restraints didn’t give me much room to move and I was only wasting what strength I had left by struggling against them.
He pressed a button on the machine and a low hum filled them room. Reaching up from the button, he turned a dial back and forth, the sound in the room becoming louder or softer with the movement of his hand.
“You know, out of all the lunatics in this place, you’ve given me the most trouble. I knew your little boyfriend would fuck up at some point. Leaving you in Terrie’s care all the time…” He laughed. “…Took longer than I’d hoped but we finally separated you from your escort, didn’t we?”
My voice shook when I asked, “Who’s we?” I wasn’t sure I was going to live through this because I had no idea what he intended to do. My head was locked down to the chair by a metal halo and I couldn’t see anything besides my body and feet, with Joe and the machinery to my sides. I hoped to keep him talking to not only buy me enough time for Jeremy to figure out I wasn’t with Terrie, but also to gather information to give to Jeremy on the off chance I survived.
“You know who we are. You’ve known all along.” He smiled again and the madness inside him was revealed by the skewed expression on his face and the insanity behind his wide eyes.
Reaching over, he trailed a finger along my leg, starting at the knee and working his way up my thigh. I attempted to move away, but gave up as soon as I remembered I would never be able to break the restraints.
“You and Emerson?” Keep him talking. It was the only thing I could do. My entire body locked up as his finger traveled farther, stopping for only a moment more before he ran it up between my legs. I jumped at the sensation, completely sickened to have him touching me in such an intimate place.
“Look at you, already bucking your hips. You like the dick, don’t you. Can’t wait for a ride.”
“Fuck you!” A choked on the words because I hated this man so much: the way he looked, the way he smelled, every fucking thing about him was disgusting and revolting. I imagined how bad it had been for the other girls at night, chained down and helpless while a man as putrid as Joe had his way with their bodies.
“Oh, you’ll be fucking me, sweetheart. You just wait. And since we have a little time before your boyfriend realizes you’re missing, I decided to have a little fun.”
Reaching above my head he pulled two cloth tipped paddles into my view. When he held them close enough together, a small spark shot in between the two padded wands. My eyes widened as soon as I realized where I was.
“Joe…no, please don’t do this.”
Cocking his head to the side he smiled. “You know, I’ve watched this procedure being done on so many of the patients here. Every time one of them gets upset or starts to hallucinate, Ali prescribes a little zap in order to bring them back to reality.” He ran his tongue along his bottom lip and continued, “ I noticed how their entire body would become tense, every muscle tightening to a point of pain. It would make them so tight and I’ve often wondered what it would feel like to have my dick shoved inside a bitch when she had those jolts coursing through her body.”
Another current of electricity flowed between the paddles again before he pulled them apart from one another. Looking away from the wands and directly at me, he said, “Of course, I’ll keep it at a low frequency at first. I wouldn’t want to mess myself up in the process. But if it feels good?” His brows rose over his eyes. “Well then I’ll guess we’ll make the jolts a little stronger.”
He returned the wands to wherever he’d obtained them from above my head. One of his hands moved down to stroke his cock over his pants while the other reached inside a pocket to pool out a small utility knife. I jumped when he placed the small bit of steel against my ankle.
“What are you doing, Joe? Let me go.” It was a pathetic thing to say. I had no other option but to beg for him to release me. In the pit of my stomach I knew he would never let me go, but I had to try. I had to do something in order to convince myself that I hadn’t given up so easily.
Looking up at me, he held the knife against my skin. “I’ve already told you what I’m doing. And luckily for me, they could give two shits about the bitches that are thrown in this place. We’re underfunded, Alex, with only outdated equipment for us to use. It’s a shame, isn’t it.
His menacing smile told me he didn’t think it was the shameful situation he claimed it to be.
“With the new shit they have out there, this wouldn’t have been possible. Stupid electrodes take all the fun out of the old ways of shocking the shit out of a patient.”
A cruel smile curled his lips as he grabbed the bottom of my pant leg and used the knife to begin slicing up the material to remove it from my body. I kicked at his hand, still not able to move, but still not able to give up either.
“Watch out, bitch. Kick around too much and you might just cut yourself.” He stabbed the tip of the knife into my calf and I screamed. His sickening laugh filled the room when my cries finally died down and he continued cutting along the material. When he’d slit it all the way to my hip, he moved around me to start on the other side.
Finally freeing the material from my body, he jerked the pants off, slitting the sides of my underwear to pull those away as well. Inserting a fat finger inside me, he laughed as I attempted to escape his touch. There was no use and my continued attempts at fighting were only pleasing him more.
“Does that feel good baby? I’ll make it feel real good in a few seconds.” Pulling his finger out, he licked along his finger, making a popping sound as he pulled the tip from his mouth.
Tears finally broke free of my eyes and I hated them for betraying the fear that was strangling me from the inside out. I wanted to be strong, to finally fight back against the horrible abuse in this place, but I knew there was no hope that I’d be walking away from this room.
Within a few minutes, Joe had removed my top, allowing the knife to slide softly along my skin when he cut the material. I was now exposed entirely to him and my body trembled to be in such a helpless position with a man I hated more than anything in the world.
He grabbed the paddles and pulled them down from above my head, allowing the electricity to shoot between the two pads before placing one down on the nipple of my right breast. I jumped, expecting the sharp pain of an electrical charge to flow through me. When it didn’t happen, I lo
oked at the wand, wondering why I hadn’t felt any pain.
Joe laughed. “You stupid bitch. Don’t you know anything about electricity? Unless I complete the circuit, you won’t get zapped.” He held the other paddle just above my left breast and I trembled beneath it, not able to pull my eyes away from the point where it was position over my skin.
He mouthed the word “Zap” and pressed the wand down on top of me. Excruciating pain flowed through my body and was enough to force my back to arch up from the chair. Every muscle in me tightened to a point where I thought they would tear away from the bone. My teeth slammed together and pain shot along my jaw, the terrible crunch of bone against bone bursting in my head. Something warmed dribbled along my chin and I didn’t know if it was saliva or blood from where I’d bitten the tip of my tongue.
He removed the paddles and my body collapsed against the chair.
“Oooops. That was a bit stronger than I’d expected it to be.” Brushing his cock up against my restrained hand at the side of the chair, he chuckled and said, “But look. You’ve made me so fucking hard.”
I gagged to feel his dick against my hand. Moving the wand lower, he trailed it along my stomach to place one paddle between my legs. “You’re nice and wet down there.” A sick laugh burst out of him. “I wonder how much more painful it will be with your bodily juices help carry the charge.”
Without touching my skin he reached to hold the other paddle at the base of my foot. With a flick of his wrist he placed it against my skin and the full surge of electricity flowed through me. My body arched, my mouth opened into a silent scream and I swore I could feel blood vessels in my body burst inside my skin.
A sweet surrender to the veil of death would have been preferable to the pain he was inflicting on me. My eyes felt like they would pop out of my head and time stopped in a split second as wave after wave of electricity flowed through my body.
Pain held me in a suffocating cocoon, separating me from reality and sheathing me inside a place where I couldn’t see or think, taste or hear. All my senses were destroyed in a matter of seconds and when the pain stopped, I felt my body fall to the chair. I couldn’t open my eyes to see where he would place the paddles next. I wasn’t sure that I wanted to.
Something loud and heavy crashed beside me, but I was in too much pain to open my eyes and look to see what had caused the sound. He could have been crawling on top of me, could have been lowering his pants to free the evidence of his arousal. I wouldn’t have known because I was floating in a safe place, not able to interact with my environment, not able to do anything but stay in a place where I could pretend that nothing would hurt me.
I felt the restraints of my arms and legs being tugged free and the halo strapped over my head pulled away. Eventually I was being lifted from the chair by several hands. Carefully, I was placed down to sit and my head rolled to the side before I finally opened my eyes.
Joe’s loud voice bellowed throughout the room as his body was being tied down to the chair. Lesley and Michelle moved quickly to fasten the restraints while Sally stood to the side of them with an iron bar in her hands.
“You better calm the fuck down asshole or Sally will give you another whack!” Julianne jumped up and down to the side of Sally, laughing and pointing at Joe with one hand while clutching her dolly with the other. His head had a dark stain that grew in size over his forehead. It wasn’t until the liquid dripped from the side of his chin to the ground that I realized it was blood.
My vision was cloudy and the scene wavered in and out of focus as the women continued to strap him down. Once he was secured in the chair, Sally dropped the makeshift weapon from her hand, allowing it to fall heavily to the floor where it rolled along to rest of the base of the chair. She rushed over to me, kneeling down to look into my eyes.
“You still with us?”
I tried to speak but my tongue had swelled in my mouth, making it impossible for me to say a word. I nodded my head slowly, grimacing at the radiating pain the movement forced through my skull.
“She’s fine, ladies. I think we got to her in time.” Standing up, she moved back to the side of the chair and asked, “Should we get her a doctor?”
Michelle laughed. “In this place?”
Sally nodded. “Good point. Let’s do this!”
The women laughed maniacally and their laughter was soon joined by the chorus of electricity thrumming through the wands. Joe screamed, his voice rising up and signaling the torment of a condemned man. Julianne moved to the machine to play with the dial and they laughed as she rotated it left to increase the strength of the electrical current, only to lower it again and start over.
Joe’s body convulsed on the chair as they took turns passing the paddles around. Finally, they allowed him collapse to the chair, laughing to find that he’d pissed and shit his pants.
“Well, that’s almost more fun that it would have been to use him for target practice.” Lesley high-fived Michelle and Julianne bent over to pick something up off the floor.
“Knife!” Holding up the small utility knife that Joe had used on me, she crawled up on his body and straddled his abdomen. “I like knives. They’re useful!”
The three other women stood back, grimacing as Julianne did something that made him scream even louder than he had when he’d been shocked.
“I’m going to be sick.” Sally ran to the corner of the room, bracing her hand on the wall and gagging.
Julianne sat up, holding two bloody orbs on what looked like strings. Spinning them around, she laughed as Michelle and Lesley looked on from the side of the room. Both women cringed, but eventually joined in Julianne’s delight.
The room continued to spin around me, coming in and out of view as my eyelids lowered over my eyes. I could barely breathe past the pain I was in. Noticing my distress, Michelle ran over to me and sat down, pulling me against her so I could rest my head on her shoulder. “Don’t go to sleep just yet, babe. You’re not going to want to miss this.”
Flinging the eyes from her hands, Julianne climbed down from the chair and laughed. “Balls!”
Joe screamed again and the sound was the most terrifying I’d ever heard. With quick strokes, Julianne cut his testicles from his body as Lesley looked on and laughed maniacally. Julianne moved back up to his face, shoving his testicles into the now vacant holes in his face. “Try seeing with those, bitch!”
I was going to be sick. Between the effects of the drugs still coursing through my body and the horror I was being kept awake to watch, the adrenaline in my veins was churning my stomach and pumping its contents slowly up my throat.”
Lesley’s eyes were lit with vengeance, and in a malevolent tone she exclaimed, “It’s time to end this, ladies.”
Taking the knife from Julianne, she tore through the skin of Joe’s chest. Julianne retrieved the iron bar that Sally had been holding previously, using it to break apart his ribs, giving them access to his heart.
Michelle and Sally urged her on with their excited screams of encouragement. “Do it! Do it! Do it!”
Looking up, Lesley smiled. “I always wanted to be a doctor!”
She held the paddles over Joe’s chest, holding her body back to ensure she wasn’t touching his skin. Nodding to Julianne, she said, “Full power please.”
Julianne moved to the machine, twisting the knob as far as it would go.
Finally inserting the paddles into the cavity of Joe’s chest, Lesley screamed, “Clear!”
A thrum of electricity pierced the air, Joe’s body arched into an inhuman angle, and the electricity in the room, now overpowered by the full power use of the machine, was short circuited.
The women laughed while Joe screamed, his death coming on hard as light bulbs burst above our heads, showering us in broken glass and bathing the room in darkness.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
"All is a riddle, and the key to a riddle...is another riddle."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The const
ant and rhythmic beep in the room bothered me. A high pitched sound that came and went, bringing me out of a deep sleep only to disappear and allow me to slip back into oblivion again. Rising and falling, I struggled to climb out of the dark and lazy stupor that held my body captive.
Warmth moved over the skin of my arm, a strong hand gripping mine, covering my fingers and squeezing to let me know somebody was there. It wouldn’t have mattered if the hold had been tighter, the pain could have never competed with what I was feeling all over my body.
“Alex?”
A deep voice, the cadence and tone soothing me into a state of comfort. A feeling of safety came over me and I pushed harder to open my eyes and regain awareness of my surroundings.
A light kiss on my hand and he spoke again. “Come on, kid. I know there’s a fighter in there. Open your beautiful eyes and look at me.”
My lids fluttered and closed, feeling weighted down by some unmoving force. I struggled against it desperate to see the person I recognized was sitting by my side. Opening my mouth, I tried to say his name, but something filled my mouth and prevented me from speaking.
“Shhh. Don’t try to talk, kid. I’m not going to be able to understand you because of the bandage on your tongue.”
I felt his knuckles lightly sweep over my cheek and hair being pushed away from my face. Finally forcing my eyes open, I squinted against the light in the room, groaning from the pain that struck me with my newfound awareness.
“I’ll tell the nurses to bring her more pain medication. It’s been long enough since she’s had her last dose.” It was a deep voice that spoke, one that had the undertone of a Southern drawl. My body lit up to hear the sound and my heart beat a little faster to know who else stood beside me in the room.
Turning my head, I cringed when the headache knocking against my skull pounded harder. I couldn’t bring my vision into focus, but I still recognized my brother’s beautiful eyes.
“Hey. It’s about time you wake up,” he joked. “I’ve been sitting next to you all day.” He moved around in his chair pretending like he couldn’t get comfortable. “My ass hurts from sitting here for so long.”