Chapter 2 - A Night at the Watchtower
© 2018 By Pitch Black
Edited by Dannysuling (dannysuling.deviantart.com)
Left all alone, a wave of hopelessness rose like a dark tide in her mind. Overcome by desperation, her chest felt as if it were crushed by a heavy boulder. Even though the surrounding darkness had rendered her visual senses completely useless, she was still aware of the oppressing tightness of the small cell space around her. But for the discomfort that made her tormented body ache more and more, she would have become overwhelmed by a dismal feeling of misery and dread that hammered unceasingly against the wall of her sanity. At first the pain had mostly radiated from her drawn-back shoulders, but it had spread out and increased with every minute she was subjected to this most uncomfortable bondage. The early ache had turned into stinging jolts of pain that coursed like pinpricks through her fettered arms and feet and set each and every one of her nerves on fire.
The tight grip of the noose around her neck made her situation even worse. Forced into the hogtie and lying on her belly, the only possible way to escape the strangling hold on her breath was to arch her back and lift her neck high enough from the ground. But without any other support available, her limbs inevitably got tired and started to tremble and quiver from the exertion to draw herself up. Although she tried to stifle this ever-growing strain for as long as possible, it was only a matter of time when the strength finally left her drained muscles and her breasts sagged limply back to the ground.
As soon as this happened her neck was pulled back by the taut rope slung around it. She choked as the rough hemp rope pressed tight against her windpipe and her chest was wracked by convulsive coughs. It took some time before her body stilled and she could brace herself to raise her body for another round.
The continuous cycle that exposed her to recurring kinds of malicious torture chipped relentlessly all of her endurance away and strained her body and nerves to the bitter end. Each fatiguing struggle to keep her body up in the air failed at some point, once the waning strength of her muscles was used up. The subsequent collapse caused her chest to drop exhaustedly to the ground and unleashed the ensuing strangulating attack on her throat. Despite the coldness that seeped chillingly out of the muggy stone walls, her skin was coated in sweat, and small drops trickled from her forehead down over her cheeks towards the ground. Subject to the repetitive attacks on her respiration, her breathing had become heavy and wheezed through her open mouth and flared nostrils.
Inside the small room, the ragged panting accompanying her struggle reverberated from the surrounding stone walls. Shrouded in darkness, it was impossible to keep track of the passing time. There was a faint sound of water dripping down somewhere from the walls of her narrow cell. Yet she was so occupied with her fight against the unyielding bonds that she couldn't muster the attention to use the noise for something trifling like tracking the elapsed time.
Desperately she thought about how to escape that dreadful torment; otherwise she would have gone mad or even suffocated before the end of the night. The constant struggle didn't leave her mind much room to develop a detailed plan. She simply tried to belly-crawl nearer to the wall to get more release from the treacherous sling around her throat. Feverishly she used every ounce of sufficient strength to shift her body into the presumed direction. Flexing every one of her available muscles, she was able to slide a short distance forward, a little at a time, before she had to give in and wait until she had gathered enough power to continue on.
The oppressive darkness didn't allow her to recognize how much progress her endeavor had made. A growing feeling of fatigue accompanied her feeble crawl towards salvation. With each rocking move the tight ropes chafed the skin around her wrists and ankles, causing a sore and burning sensation. The stinging jolts of pain that were brought on by the hogtie tormented her whole body as well and increased with every feeble attempt to draw herself like a snail towards the wall.
She thought she had labored on for hours, when finally her chin touched a rough stone in front of her. Her final remnant of power was spent for her last move forward. Exhausted, her head fell forward with a flounce. Her hair flowed sweepingly around her face while some tresses still stuck to her sweat-covered forehead. She could feel tears mingle with the sweat covering her skin, as a hot feeling of relief rose like an all-engulfing wave from her chest up to her throat. Although she was still trussed up helplessly and without any hope of escape, she could rest her head against an outcrop in the stone wall without any further threat of getting strangled.
Her elation didn't last for long. The nagging pain in her fettered limbs urged her on to find some relief from the gruesome predicament her captors had subjected her to. But her feeble wiggling and stretching was all in vain: the torturous bonds that compelled her arms and feet together wouldn't yield. Her tears started to flow once again, but this time they were driven by a growing sense of hopelessness and despair. At first she cried out softly, every single sob accompanied by a whining sound pressed out between her pursed lips. When the full weight of her frustration set in and overwhelmed her wrought-up feelings, she burst into a flood of tears. The salty liquid streamed like a flood over her cheeks and down onto her breasts, spilling onto the remnants of her bodice.
When she felt the dampness soak into the tucker beneath her outer garment she tried to stifle her sobbing. As her tears dried slowly, a leaden tiredness settled over her body. Her swollen eyelids felt like they were weighed down by heavy stones. Wrought up by her dismal emotions, she wasn't able to fight anymore and cried herself into sleep.
But relief wouldn't come that easily. Although her body craved for a sound sleep she soon woke with a start. Was it the pain in her unnaturally stretched out shoulders that had faded during her short sleep a bit, yet still added to her discomfort? Or had she heard a scary sound out of one of the corners of her tiny cell? Wide-eyed, she craned her neck and tried to penetrate the impervious darkness in search for a possible intruder. But although she thought she had recognized a short flashing of animal eyes, nothing further happened. She shifted uncomfortably, but there wasn't much room to gain or opportunity to change into another posture. At least a bout of fatigue made her limbs heavy and closed her eyes once again shut.
The fitful sleep that followed was a jumble of exhausted periods of unconsciousness, altered with shreds of dreams, struggles against her fetters, and intervals of being kept awake from the pain in her aching body. Sometimes they blended all together, plunging her into a semi-conscious netherworld that felt like a dismal, silt-filled swamp that sucked her into its murky depths, drowning her beneath its festering surface.
Her imagination started to overwhelm her struggling mind and crept slowly into her dreams, transforming them more and more into nightmarish experiences. Once she thought she was pulled down into abysmal depths of inky black water to be never seen again. To her horror, her body didn't react to her desperate commands to swim towards the surface, but instead felt entwined by unyielding bonds that made her sink deeper and deeper like a heavy stone. In her dream she thought that the increasing pressure of the surrounding water pressed even the smallest ounce of air out of her heaving chest. Gasping for air she woke abruptly with a coughing fit while the muscles of her arms and feet spasmed in the aftermath of her struggle against the ropes that held them tight in their relentless grasp.
Still overcome by the terrors of her latest nightmare, she stared wide-eyed into the surrounding night. She felt chilly from the cold sheen of sweat that covered her whole body due to her futile struggle against the rigid hogtie. It had partially soaked into her clothing, making her feeling dirty and soiled. She desperately wanted for sleep to return, but feared what her frail mind would conjure up next to torment her dreams.
The distant and almost inaudible chime from a clock tower somewhere up above the dungeon caused a shiver to run down her spine. Just midnight, yet she felt already utterly spent and wasted! How would she endure the coming hours until dawn? she asked herself with growing frustration.
To make matters worse, she recognized the start of a soft pressure that was building up in her bladder and indicated her growing need to pee. Her prone position added more to this urgent feeling, but she was too afraid to roll on her side. Away from the stone wall her head would lose its support, and she would have to suffer again from the strangling noose around her neck. She tried to shift back and forth to get some release from the pressure, but there was not much she could do to quell the growing discomfort besides tensing up the muscles in her nether region and squeezing her thighs firmly together.
Eventually, her growing exhaustion led her once again into the realm of sleep. Although she returned to the engulfing waters and black depths of the drowning sea there was now another theme that occupied her dreams more and more. This one led her on a desperate search for a place to relieve herself. But once she found a toilet or a place behind a bush or tree, someone appeared and stepped purposely into sight of her hiding place. Mostly it was one or sometimes all of her captors, who came for her from all sides. Wicked grins on their lips and cruel ropes in their hands, they tried to encircle her, ready to ensnare and truss her up helplessly.
The following return to reality found her bladder bulging. A burning ache spread out from her urethra and made her muscles quiver. Crampy spasms jerked through her thighs, and she had to gather all of her strength to ride out the seizure. Her resistance to give in to the temptation of letting go dwindled with every following minute of the maddening pressure emanating from her cursed bladder. But she wouldn't allow her captors the triumph of finding her in the morning like a toddler ready to be swaddled after fouling herself, and so she continued fighting through the sensation. After a seeming endless period the pain receded to some extent, and she could allow the muscles around her belly to relax somewhat, at least enough that she could let her mind drift away into the blessed blankness of sleep....
"...Annie! Annie, where are you?" her mother called from the door of her little farm, "Come back, girl, time to eat!"
She had spent most of the morning running through the open woodland beside the river and over the flowering meadows, listening to the vernal wind rustling the freshly sprouted leaves, the humming of the bees and the excited chirps of the busy birds. The lace-trimmed hem of her light summer dress flowed around her ankles, grazing every one of her playful steps. She basked in the feeling of happiness and freedom only a girl could feel, as the gentle spring air allowed her to leave the oppressing tightness of the small farmstead for the first time after winter. Freed from the need to stay inside the dusky house, she stretched every one of her muscles, springing and dancing like a graceful fawn through the newly awakened nature.
"Look, Mother, what I've found!" she exclaimed, when she arrived at the door waving a bouquet of carefully collected flowers.
