When consciousness returned to me I found myself face-down in a small dark place, unable to move my arms or legs. I could hear the hum of a car motor, and had a sense of being sped along. After a few moments of disoriented confusion, I soon realized the handcuffs had been exchanged for ropes, and that I was hog-tied. The next thing to register was that I was gagged--something silky (probably my panties) was stuffed into my mouth and lengths of electrical or duct tape was holding them in place. I figured out the dark place I was in was the trunk of a car.
I was being sped to some new torment and all I could do was lay there feeling the vibrations of the motor, and praying I'd live through whatever was about to happen. I could hear the distant voices of my captors, talking and occasionally laughing from the front of the car. It was so strange...while in this tiny speeding prison, gagged and tied the way I was, I had the most powerful feeling of deja-vu....as if I'd been here before.
* * * * *
"Ok, here's the rules," Chuck was saying to Eric, whose initial protests had been quieted by his raging hard-on over what was happening to me now.
"We can do whatever we want to her, whatever hurts, just no pushing. Whoever makes her fall wins."
"What if she doesn't fall? Do we just play till she does?"
"Oh she will...eventually. But just in case she doesn't, whoever makes her scream the loudest through her gag wins."
I listened in horror as I stood there shivering in the autumn breeze, my jeans having been removed from me while unconscious. All I had on now was the black teddy, the front still shoved down, my breasts still exposed.
We were deep in some woods. I have no idea where, but it appeared we were isolated. The small campfire burning nearby and a few lanterns were the only lights. Other than that, total darkness surrounded us. I mention being chilly, but that was the least of my worries, nor was it the cause of most of my shivering. Did I say I was standing? That's not quite accurate. What I was really doing was balancing precariously on top of one of those stepladders that unfold and have only a few rungs. It wasn't very steady on the uneven ground. Those things tend to be shaky anyway, and this one was doubly so. Balancing on the jittering ladder was made even harder by the fact that I was forced to stand on tiptoes. Hard as it was to keep steady, I somehow managed, for you see, my very life was in the balance because of the noose tightly knotted around my neck. The other end was thrown over a sturdy limb above me twice, then tied securely to a lower limb close to the bottom of the tree we all stood under.
The men who had brought me here were standing maybe three feet below me, discussing the rules of Chuck's new game--a game where the object was making me fall from my ladder. I was sure it wouldn't take much, and my terror was extreme.
Upon releasing me from the trunk, they had freed my feet and pulled me toward the tree they had already prepared. My wrists were still bound tightly behind me. My screams of terror, although gagged, had risen to an impressive level while they dragged me to the tree, where I saw the ladder and the noose. The end had been thrown over the branch only once at that point, and the entire rope dangled loosely, waiting for me.
The sight of the noose filled me with so much terror I hysterically refused to climb the ladder and struggled with every bit of strength I could muster. It took both of them to even get me near it. My frantic struggles only made them have to work harder, but they got me there. Both of them combined were way stronger than me, even if I hadn't been bound. Chuck threw the noose around my neck while Eric held me; a task I didn't make easy for him because of my kicking and thrashing. However, once the rope was tightened around my throat, and Chuck started pulling the other end, it was either climb the damn ladder or choke then and there. Eric guided me up the few rungs, then held me steady at the top till Chuck was able to throw the end over the branch once more and pull out the slack. He pulled till I was forced to stand on my tiptoes--I suppose he thought being able to stand on the bottoms of my feet would be too easy for me. I was also forced to stop fighting and screaming, to stay calm and concentrate all my will on keeping my balance.
So here I stood...on top of that rickety, shaking stepladder, half naked, shivering with cold and absolute terror...my wrists tied behind me, still gagged...my heels unable to touch the shaking, uneven structure that was the only thing keeping me alive. And they were talking about making me scream....making me fall.
I now understood the extent of Chuck's fury at having been outsmarted by me initially. I saw he meant it when he'd shouted that he would kill me. And Eric, the cop from New York who'd foiled my revenge had also sealed my fate. He had nothing against me personally--in fact he seemed to like me. But he had a rape fantasy he'd come to fulfill, and thanks to Chuck, he was discovering an even darker side to himself. Seeing me at the edge of death, helpless, bound, scared beyond comprehension, was exciting him more than he probably would have admitted, even to himself. To Chuck it was personal, and I was a bitch who was going to pay. To Eric it was a fantasy, and I was merely a body--a non-person.
This meant of course, that I was going to hang. I knew when I lost my precarious footing on this ladder there wouldn't be much of a fall, so I would strangle slowly. But first I was going to be the object of some terrible game that could have come straight from a macabre carnival in Hell....I could almost hear a demonic barker shouting "HURT THE BITCH AND MAKE HER FALL....MAKE HER HANG AND WIN IT ALL!!!"
I was going to hang...ohgod, oh yes indeed....but first I was going to suffer...
I watched helplessly as they cut small branches from nearby trees; some with leaves still clinging to them, some without. As kids, most of us called these switches...used by parents before everybody got all PC to swat us with when we misbehaved. I'd never felt more afraid of a switch than I did at that moment.
Chuck approached me first with his switch, and was taunting me with it....trailing it down my body gently and speaking to me with soft menace.
"Ready Bitch? Stay focused, now..."
His arm raised, and it was a great effort to not flinch away. I bit into the gag and tried to prepare for the pain, but when the blow landed across my thighs it was all I could do to remain still. The fiery sting whipped through my nerves--making me jerk despite the necessity to remain as still as possible. I couldn't help crying out.
When Eric stepped up for his turn I looked him in the eye, but he looked away from my gaze and chose to land his blow across my butt, made bare after he pulled my teddy down further. Again I cried out and shuddered violently, but again I managed somehow to keep my footing. The noose, so tight around my neck was a constant reminder that I had to keep still, no matter what they did to me.
"Asshole, you hit like a girl!," Chuck was laughing. He then whipped his switch across my bare breasts. That hurt so bad I wanted to curl up into a wailing, wounded little ball, but of course all I could do was make my feet stay steady, move as little as possible, and howl my pain into the gag.
This went on for what seemed like forever, and very little of my flesh was spared. When they tired of the switches, they removed their belts and hit me with those. Many times I very nearly overturned the shaky ladder, my feet scrambling madly to keep it from toppling. One of those times was because of a terrible cramp in my right calf. As if I wasn't enduring enough pain, my own body added to it. Having to stay on tiptoes was straining my calf muscles to the limit, so a cramp was inevitable. Hoping my left leg wouldn't cramp up at the same time, I was forced to shift my weight entirely to the ball of my left foot while I flexed my right foot upwards in a desperate attempt to make the clenching muscles loosen up. Luckily it was Eric's turn when the cramp hit, and he waited till it looked like I had the agony in my leg under control before he delivered his blow. To his credit, and Chuck's scorn, he didn't hit me as hard that time. To make up for that, Chuck hit me extra hard when his turn came around.
My whole body felt on fire from the constant beating, and every muscle felt strained to the limit with my efforts to keep from falling. I knew I couldn't last much longer, and once I even considered cheating them by simply stepping off the ladder and ending the unbearable suffering. The only thing stopping me was my will to live. I didn't want to die that way. I didn't want to die at all. Still, there was only so much pain I could stand and still keep myself from writhing enough to fall from my unsteady perch.
"Chuck, I don't think she's gonna fall," said Eric after they'd lashed every part of me that was already stinging from the switches, "why don't we quit, ok? I'm about to burst here."
Chuck was lighting a cigarette as Eric was speaking, and he moved close to me again. Looking up at me with an evil grin, he blew smoke at me and replied.
"Yeah, ok. We'll stop. But first I want to try one more thing..."
With that, he lifted the cigarette to one of my exposed and welted breasts, but slowly...making me flinch back despite the danger. I shook my head frantically, wailing and trying to plead with him wordlessly not to do it. When the smoldering end of the butt finally touched the side of my right breast the explosion of pain was too intense to stay still.
Shrieking madly, my body reacted to the pain of fire by instinctively twisting violently to escape it, despite the frantic warning from what remained of my rational mind. My agony was finally stronger than my body's ability to endure it and remain still. I'm only human.
My screams rose in panic when I felt the ladder finally tip beyond the reach of my feet to retrieve it. Then all cries were cut off cleanly when my tumble was stopped short by the rope snapping around my neck.
I was only dimly aware of my body turning at the end of the rope....of my feet kicking frantically to find some purchase, and of Eric shouting "SHIT!!!" in a high, frightened voice. Mostly what I was aware of was the enourmous pressure in my head, like it would explode, and the horrible pain in my throat and neck from supporting my whole body. It was amazing how swiftly both my screams and breath were cut off. My kicking was only tightening the rope more, but I couldn't stop.
These things happened in only a few split seconds I suppose. Before my body had turned in a complete circle, the pressure from my neck and head lifted somewhat when I felt strong arms about my waist lifting me quickly. I could hear my rescuer shouting but his voice sounded very far away because of the dull roaring in my ears as the blood trapped there tried to flow again.
"Chuck HELP me Goddammit!! Give me your knife!"
Eric was holding me aloft awkwardly, shouting for Chuck to help after he'd tried unsuccessfully to loosen the noose with one panicky hand. His other arm was around me to keep me from hanging again. The noose had become terribly tight when I'd briefly swung from it. The worst of the pressure was off my neck, but I still felt like I was strangling.
