"I still can't believe this, I've never won anything in my life," Lucy said to the well dressed but kindly looking older man with thinning gray hair, holding a comically large check for $10,000,000 made out in her name. Her striking blue eyes darted around... trying to take in what was actually happening.
Lucy stood in the entrance lobby of a grand office block, with the name "City Lottery" in huge letters behind the reception desk. She was a petite woman with long, bright red hair contrasted by her black top, covering her shapely and athletic bust. Her slender legs were covered by skinny blue jeans, with a pair of classic basketball sneakers to top it off. Had she known they'd be taking photographs for the paper today, she might have worn something a bit more fancy - but she was still in shock that anything like this would really happen to her.
"Congratulations, again! This is by far the best part of my job," said the man, offering the check to her as they turned to face the photographer opposite, smiling for the picture.
"And just two winners," the man said as he flipped the check over to reveal a different name on the other side - Toby's.
Toby, standing next to the group, was a stocky man - shaggy, dark black hair and stubble. His broad shoulders were covered by a casual red and green check shirt - hanging casually over a pair of loose fit dark black jeans.
He casually took the check as was offered to him, and posed for the photographer as Lucy had.
"Thanks for taking the time for the publicity, we really appreciate it," said the man, "and thank you for coming in - you'd be surprised how many people don't. And I believe your taxi is ready to take you to your winners reception at the Charlston hotel downtown. Yes, here's your driver now."
He gestured to a man who could not have looked more like a chauffeur if he had tried, with a cap with a short brim that covered his eyes and a face mask, who gestured for them both to follow him to his car.
"Enjoy yourselves tonight, it's all on us! Your wealth advisors will be in contact in due course, so relax and have fun!" projected the kindly man with the check as they followed the chauffeur out of the revolving doors to a dark, saloon car.
The chauffeur opened the rear door of the long car and proffered them to enter. Lucy gingerly stepped inside to find a seat, next to which was an open bottle of champagne and two glasses with a sip in each. Toby slid in behind her, taking the next seat.
Lucy buckled herself in to the most expensive car she had ever experienced - feeling rather under-dressed. The car gently began to move off from the sidewalk outside the Lottery offices, down the street.
Toby picked up the champagne glass by his arm rest.
"Well, nice to meet you, and cheers to the rest of our lives I guess?" Toby said somewhat awkwardly to Lucy.
"Uh, yeah, yeah cheers to that!" Lucy reciprocated, taking the glass and raising it. They both took a small sip and awkwardly put the glass back into their arm rest.
"Have you ever been to the Charlston?" asked Lucy.
"Oh, to the bar there once, but I never uh. Um. I never. Did," Toby tried to form a sentence.
"Are you OK?" asked Lucy.
"Yeah, I just, um, yeah it's... ", Toby stammered.
Lucy started to feel the world spinning.
"Whoa, I don't feel so," Lucy managed to say before fainting.
---
Lucy felt numb, her body seemingly moving in the darkness without her input. Groggy in the black, she felt her neck flopping around as she was maneuvered by some external force she couldn't perceive. She heard an echoing drip of water, like a leaky water tank. After a moment, the movement stopped, and she started to regain sensation. Her back was up against some kind of a rest, stopping her from falling backwards. Her arms were by her side, and she felt something cold and metallic on her right wrist.
She assumed this wasn't the Charlston, and that chauffeur was not legit. They had been kidnapped.
She felt a swift movement over her face, and light overwhelmed her vision. She squinted, now just able to move her face. As her eyes became accustomed, she began to make out features in her surroundings. Her hips and legs began to regain sensation - and she realized she was sitting across some sort of saddle. Her thighs felt cold, with her legs dangling in air, and absent from the jeans she thought she was wearing. Her legs felt heavy, and around her ankles were some sort of tight strap pulling them downwards.
Now the full scene was starting to become visible. She was still wearing her white strap top, but from her bottom half she was down to her black underwear. The saddle she sat on was curved up in front of her, cradling her crotch. In front of her, she saw metal bars - she was inside a cage, barely large enough to fit her. Below her, the shimmering surface of a deep tank of water, reflecting a florescent light above. She realized her cage was swaying slightly - it was suspended above the water.
Looking up, she saw the metal frame of another cage, also above the tank. Inside that cage she saw another person - a man with hairy legs, on a saddle like hers in his boxers and a gray t-shirt. It was Toby. His cage was clearly suspended by a metal rope which ran up into the ceiling of the dark industrial room they were both in.
"T-To-by?" she just about managed to say.
Her right arm was handcuffed, she now saw, to a rudimentary metal lever extending down towards the bottom of the cage. She tugged at the restraint, but it was locked tight with a short chain to a loop on the lever.
"wAkE uP," said a distorted, low pitched voice from an unseen speaker.
Toby groggily jolted his head upright, looking for the source of the sinister voice.
"ThAt TaNk Is TwO mEtErS dEeP," said the voice.
Lucy was confused by the relevance of this sentence, but her thought process was interrupted as a mechanical noise erupted from above them, as their cages started to descend slowly and start to enter the water.
