The calendar on the wall said it was the second day of March. For Susan Mitchell, this meant she had now been a prisoner of West Valley Academy Headmaster Stephen Krutz for six months. That meant one half year of being physically, emotionally and sexually tortured at the hands of a sadistic madman. Susan knew there was no immediate end in sight. Krutz was never going to set her free. Once he had used her to gain access to the drug cartel's billions that her mother had been slowly siphoning away, he would sell Susan or kill her. Since she had discovered the headmaster's motivation for torturing her, she had tried to imagine a way out, but so far, nothing had come to her. She had become resigned to her fate, which she supposed was exactly what Krutz expected.
The young coed had suffered through a lot of painful and humiliating experiences in her time under the headmaster's control, but she had to admit this week was one of the weirdest. Being a human art installation for the man who called himself simply "The Artist" was strange to say the least. She had become accustomed to being filmed and videotaped in painful and humiliating positions, but she wondered what type of exhibition The Artist planned to show these photos in.
Susan Mitchell had time to stare blankly at the large calendar on the wall because once again she found herself with no place to go and unable to move. She was in the large open room of The Artist's mansion again this morning. The man had positioned a desk against one wall on the room, and supported on that desk were two heavy u-shaped pillars made out of 4x4 pieces of wood. One short end of each pillar sat on top of the desk with the back of the pillar against the wall and the top of the 'U' protruding perpendicularly. Susan was currently sitting, if a person could call it that, on top of those two wooden extensions. Her legs were fully spread and the wood was digging into her thighs. Rope encircled her thighs, binding her to the wood.
Above the young woman's head was a shelf which she was holding up with her arms to prevent its full weight from resting solely only on her head. The Artist had placed several books and a vase on top of the shelf to add more weight. He was currently taking photos of her, and she imagined he was zooming in on her spread legs. She had once again been admonished to remain as still as possible. Her mind dreamed of the idea of throwing the heavy wooden shelf right at the man's head but she knew she lacked the strength (or maybe the courage). And besides, she was still bound to the posts. If she killed him with the shelf, she would starve to death herself. Perhaps that would not be so bad, she thought. But Krutz had kept her alive this far and she knew he could not let her die yet, at least not until she had released the cartel's money to him.
The young woman was relieved when The Artist finished photographing her and came over and lifted the shelf off her arms, untied her, and helped her down from her perch. Her legs were stiff and sore and she was sure her thighs would be bruised from where they sat on the pillars. She stretched herself out while she watched The Artist prepare his next presentation.
He asked Susan to position herself with her back against the wall and he told her to spread her legs a foot or so apart. He made her crouch into a squat position and then placed the heavy shelf back on top of her head and hands and repositioned the books and vase. She leaned back against the wall to support herself in the squat position as she saw the repeated flash of the man's camera. He told her to lift herself from the squat position, but to be careful not to knock over the vase or any of the books. Susan slowly pushed up on the shelf with her hands and head as she unbent her knees and stood upright. The Artist smiled and kept photographing her as he told her to once again return to the squatting position. Susan thought to herself that she really didn't need any exercise today, but complaining would not get her anywhere.
When the man was done taking photos, he lifted the shelf off the girl's head, but the Artist was not done with posing Susan as a human shelf support just yet. He walked her over to the corner of the room and had her lie on her back. He grabbed her ankles and dragged her along the floor until her bare butt touched the corner and her legs were pointing straight up in the air. He bent her legs down and then tied her ankles and knees together and then tied her wrists together as well. He had her put her arms in the air and he placed a short wooden plank between her knees and wrists and tied ropes through two holes on each end to form a little shelf and then placed several books on top. At least this position provided some relief for Susan's aching legs and she was okay with him leaving her there for a while as he moved some other furniture around.