October 26
Mr. Rydberger pulled himself off the naked cheerleader underneath him, pulled up his underwear and zipped his pants. He reached down and grabbed Susan Mitchell's hand and helped her off the bench. "We need to go inside and get ready for today, Susan," he said, smiling at the girl. Susan looked down at the ground and followed the teacher back into the New Building of West Valley High, where senior students attended classes.
The teacher led the girl down the hall to a back shared hallway and down towards the gymnasium where the school's swimming pool was housed. As Susan walked into the pool area, she didn't know what to make of the contraption the shop class had built next to the pool, but she knew it would soon be used on her. There was a wooden frame with a long pole attached to it. The end of the pole was held up by a chain which ran over a pulley over the frame and down to the back of the frame, where there was a crank.
A group of Susan's senior classmates filed into the pool area and the teacher moved over to address them while Susan stared at the strange chair leaning over the pool. "Today we are going to demonstrate the infamous 'swimming test' for witchcraft," Rydberger said. "In this test, accused witches were dragged to the nearest body of water, stripped to their undergarments, bound and then tossed into the water to see if they would sink or float. Since witches were believed to have spurned the sacrament of baptism, it was thought that the water would reject their body and prevent them from submerging. Per this logic, an innocent person would sink like a stone, but a witch would simply bob on the surface."
The teacher walked back to Susan and told her to lie down on the tile floor adjacent to the pool. He pulled out a pair of padlocks and used them to lock her wrists to her ankles using the metal cuffs welded around her limbs. He tied a piece of rope around her bound limbs. Susan knew what was about to happen next and began sobbing. "No, no, please don't," she cried, hoping for some sympathy from her teacher.
"Do I hear you disobeying a teacher's request," came the voice of headmaster Stephen Krutz from behind her. Susan stopped talking. She knew once she refused any punishment Krutz had laid out for her that it was all over for her. He would know her breaking point and then she would truly be his slave. "No, sir," she said, her voice quivering. "Go ahead."
The wooden arm was swung so it was over her head and the rope was attached to it. Rydberger swung the arm back over the pool so the naked hogtied girl was now suspended a foot above the water. Slowly he cranked the rope down until her body rested on the surface. Susan craned her neck to keep her mouth and nose out of the water. "This would be one of the tricks used against a witch. As you see, it appears she is floating effortlessly on the surface of the water, a sign of a true witch," the teacher said. "Of course, it is obvious to us the rope is holding her up, but you have to remember that the people watching wanted to see what they expected to see so they would all swear they saw her floating on the water."
Susan hoped this would be the end of the demonstration, but she knew better. Suddenly and without warning, the rope released and she plunged to the bottom of the pool. Frantically she began writhing in her metal bonds, moving her wrists and ankles in what she knew was a futile attempt to get free. She held what little air she had inside her mouth for as long as she could, partially praying she would be pulled out of the water and partially praying for this to be the end.
Rydberger re-engaged the crank and pulled Susan from the pool, water dripping off her naked form as her body broke the surface. She was gasping for air, taking in long deep breaths as she hung suspended a few inches above the water. "It seems the devil has abandoned our witch and decided to let her plunge into the murky depths," came Krutz's voice, directed towards the teacher and his pupils. Mr. Rydberger nodded. "But how can we be sure the evil has been driven out of her, Mr. Rydberger?"
The teacher took his cue and plunged Susan into the pool yet again. This time the rope stopped her suddenly before she touched the bottom of the pool so she hung motionless submerged in the water, helpless to even flail much as her arms and legs were bent painfully behind her body. She was lifted again so her head just broke the surface and then plunged below several more times before finally be lifted out of the water and swung back to the safety of the pool deck, where she hung from the wooden arm as a new set of seniors came in for the next class period.
Rydberger began his lecture as if the girl was not even there although all the students' eyes kept looking at the soaking wet girl hogtied in the air in front of them. "Last period, we examined one witch test that involved submerging the witch in water to drive out the evil spirits. Now we will look at one that was designed to force a witch to confess to her evil doings."
The teacher lowered Susan to the pool deck and unlocked her wrists and ankles. She felt the relief to her aching limbs and wished for a chance to just lie on the deck for a few minutes but she was not given that chance. A chair had been brought out to the deck and Susan was told to sit on it. Her wrists were once again locked behind her to one of the chair's slats and her ankles were chained to the legs of the chair, spreading them wide and exposing her once again to her classmates. With the help of two students, the chair was placed on the end of the long wooden pole, mounted with a bracket that attached to the chair's back legs.
Susan's eyes widened and she struggled mightily to get free as the chair and pole were swung out over the edge of the pool. "Behold the 'dunking stool', Rydberger said. "As you can surmise, the witch will be dunked into the pool until she confesses to her crimes." He released the crank and suddenly the nude girl was plunged into the warm water of the swimming pool, face down as the chair pivoted forward. Susan tried to hold her breath as she was held underwater for what seemed like an incredibly long time. Then the rope was used to pull her back out and she gasped for air as her head broke the surface. She was held over the pool for a few seconds, then plunged back in, held there for what seemed even longer this time and then extracted. This punishment went on for quite some time. Susan couldn't figure out the rhythm of the dunkings, or maybe there wasn't one, but she tried to get a mouthful of air every time she was pulled up, to try to stop herself from choking on the pool water. Sometimes, though, she was given little warning or couldn't hold her breath long enough and she would come up coughing and gasping, trying to force out the water and get air into her lungs.
After over an hour of torture, Susan was left chained and sobbing in the wooden chair as the class dispersed. Finally, Krutz returned and swung the chair back over to the pool deck and unchained her. She sat emotionless staring at him, realizing this was the first time she had been face to face with her tormentor this week. "We are going to have a long talk, Miss Mitchell," he said. "But there will be time for that next week, after Mr. Rydberger is done with his Halloween week escapades. He really is quite an ingenious torturer himself. Not quite my level, mind you, but not bad."