The Princess Edd
Chapter Thirteen

The following morning, Kevin and Rolf headed off into the woods toward the secret entrance to the Pit of Despair. Completely alone, the two were wrapped up in talking to each other.

"Your princess is really quite a winning creature." Rolf walked ahead of Kevin. "A trifle simple, perhaps, but his appeal is undeniable."

Kevin laughed, pleased at how well he had convinced the populace that Edd was female. "I know; the people are quite taken with him." He paused at the tree that camouflaged the Pit entrance. "It's odd, but when I hired Jonny to have him murdered on our engagement day, I thought that was clever. But it's going to be so much more moving when I strangle him on our wedding night. Once Lemon Brook is blamed, the nation will be truly outraged; they'll demand we go to war."

Rolf laughed in amusement before turning his attention to the tree. "Now, where is that secret knot?" He fingered the many knots in the tree. "It's impossible to find." His thumb brushed the correct one, and the tree opened up to reveal the stairs leading to the Pit of Despair.

"Are you coming down into the Pit, Kevin?" Rolf stood in the opening. "Marie has regained her strength, and Rolf is starting her on The Machine tonight."

"Rolf," Kevin always found it difficult to turn down invitations, "you know how much I love watching you work. But I've got my country's 300th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Lemon Brook to frame for it; I'm swamped."

Rolf understood Kevin's stress and patted his shoulder. "Get some rest; if you haven't got your health, you haven't got anything."

The two laughed and parted ways, unaware that a mono-browed man had secretly been watching them, captivated by the size 16 shoes being worn by the blue-haired Count.

Nat Goldberg wheeled Marie toward a large contraption. He had laid vacuum cups to every accessible spot on her body after healing her wounds and was ready to attach The Machine's hoses to them.

Rolf reached The Machine in time to present it to Marie. "Beautiful, isn't it? Rolf spent half a lifetime inventing it." He looked toward Marie, who was having hoses attached to the vacuum ports by Nat. "Surely, you've discovered Rolf's deep and abiding interest in pain. Presently, Rolf is writing the definitive work on the subject, so Rolf wishes that you be totally honest on how The Machine makes you feel." Nat attached the last hose to Marie. "This being your first trial, Rolf will use the lowest setting."

He reached for The Machine's sliding selector bar and pushed it up one notch.

Water started to flow into the intricate mechanisms of The Machine, turning the water wheels, and in turn, the gears began to spin.

Marie felt her body grow tight as the vacuum ports tugged and pinched at her body. The restraints held her twitching body still, exacerbating the effects of the vacuums. Marie fought not to scream, which proved difficult in lieu of sensitive body parts being subjected to direct vacuuming.

After ten long, agonizing seconds, Rolf returned the selector to its starting position.

Rolf sat down at his desk, where a typewriter rested. "As you know, the concept of the suction pump is centuries old. Well, really, that's all this is, except that instead of sucking water, it sucks life. As of now, it has sucked one year of your life away. Rolf may one day go as high as five, but Rolf does not know what that would do to you. So, let's just start with what we have." He prepared his typewriter. "What did this do to you? Tell Rolf, and remember: this is for posterity, so be honest. How do you feel?"

Marie, still sore from the suction pump treatment, could only moan and whimper in pain.

"Interesting." Rolf set about on his typewriter. Subject is unable to speak out of sheer pain.