Lois awoke and was instantly reminded of her twenty-first birthday. Her friends had taken her to a bar and nearly every guy they met had bought her a drink, most of which were shots of Tequila or some type of whisky. The next morning, she woke with the worst hangover in history, spent the entire morning hugging the toilet tightly, and promising God that if he let her live, she'd never drink again.
He had, and she hadn't… much.
Now, with her head pounding and her head feeling like it was ten sizes too small, she wished for a hangover.
She opened her eyes and immediately shut them. It was bright; too bright for her eyes to handle at the moment.
She tried to rub them, but her hands couldn't move. No, that was wrong; she realized. Her hands could move just fine. Her arms were the problem; more specifically, her wrist. She opened her eyes then out of panic. The light was blinding for a moment, but she quickly adjusted. She looked from one wrist to the other and found them tied to the arms of a chair with large, thick, black leathery straps. She tried to push from the chair, but found her legs were also bound. She tried to lean forward and felt another strap restraining her chest.
She was trapped.
Her heart was pounding and she was starting to panic. She looked frantically around the room, searching for an explanation.
There were two large floor lamps a few feet from her, one to each side. They were the type of lamps used on for lighting movie sets and for interviews. In front of her was a small video camera mounted on a tripod. It was pointed at her. To her left was a wall covered in some strange black pitted material. It reminded her of foam rubber substance some people bought to lay atop their beds for a more comfortable sleep. The same material covered the wall to the right. There was more on the ceiling. The wall before her was not exactly a wall, but a mirror that stretched from floor to ceiling and reached from wall to wall. It was broken into four large panels, all placed together nearly seamlessly. In the mirror, Lois could see the wall behind her was the same as the walls to her left and right.
"Sound proof…" Lois thought.
No stranger to waking in strange situations, usually under similar circumstances, Lois closed her eyes and took a series of slow, steady breaths. Her first priority was to assess how bad things were.
She opened her eyes and forced herself to take a long hard look at her surroundings.
She could she herself in the mirror, and only then realized she was nearly naked; only her blue sports bra and black boy shorts kept her from being nude. The chair she was sitting in was non-descript, aside from being made entirely out of metal; steel she guessed. The seat was hard and she was just beginning to register the numb, tingling sensation in her rear and for the first time wondered how long she had been sitting here.
Her hair was a mess; it hung loose and cascaded around her face in thick locks. She also realized that her hair was damp. As a matter of fact, her entire body was moist. She was sweating, and looked as if she had just finished a 5K run. But if she was seated the entire time…
And Lois noticed the heat. The room was warm; hot even, like a small kitchen with the oven on and open. In the mirror, Lois could see the beads of sweat, feel them trickling down her skin. She blinked, and a droplet fell from her eye.
"At least I'm not going to freeze to death…" Lois thought. And then the memories came flooding back.
She was in bed, and Jeremiah had awoken her, told her they were in danger. Told her they had to leave. She tried to warn the others, but he did something to her, stabbed her with a needle, and drugged her.
"That sonova bitch…"
Then she was in the cold. The snow and the wind. It was so cold… Then, the helicopter, looking out the window, unable to move… And then… nothing.
"What the hell happened? Where the hell am I? Where the hell is Jeremiah so I can kick his—"
"I see you're awake." The voice boomed. "Good. We can begin."
Lois's looked from one side of the room to the other. The voice seemed to come from everywhere at once. It was full of base and distorted, the type you hear in those interviews where the people are sitting in a shadow and don't want to be indentified.
"Jeremiah?" Lois shouted. "Is that you?! Untie my so I can put my foot up your—"
The pain was sudden and intense. Lois's entire body went rigid and her every muscle felt as if it were going to tear free of her body. Her head shot back and her eyes closed and she screamed with both surprise and pain.
And just as suddenly as it had come… it was gone.
Lois stopped screaming and her head fell forward. She was breathing heavy, her chest struggling against strap holding her to the chair.
"The chair you are sitting in is connected to electrical wires, making it, in fact, and electric chair. I just sent one hundred volts of electricity through your body for one second." The voice explained.
Lois opened her eyes and looked at the chair in the mirror. She could see the thick lines of wire wrapped around the legs of the chair. The wires themselves snaked towards the mirrored wall and vanish beneath it.
"I am going to ask you some questions, Lois." The voice continued. "If you lie, or if you try to say anything that is not an answer to the question I ask, you will be punished. I trust that what you just felt was rather… uncomfortable. Rest assured that each punishment will be more sever than the last. Every time I shock you, the voltage, as well as the duration, will double.
"Go to hell!" Lois spat.
And the pain returned.
Again, Lois's body felt as if it was trying to tear itself apart. Her nerves felt as if they were on fire, her eyes closed tight, her hands went rigid, her toes curled…
And Lois screamed.
And two seconds later, it was over.
"GO TO HELL!" Lois shouted, her breaths heavy, her chest heaving; a small amount of saliva trailing from her mouth. Tears were beginning to well in her eyes, but she blinked them away.
"Very well…" the voice sighed
And again, electricity shot through her body. The pain was so intense, Lois was unable to scream. Her mouth stretched open wide, but no sound escaped her lips. Her body tensed again and her muscles spasm uncontrollably. For four long, agonizing seconds, Lois, head back, mouth open, and body rigid, twitched and bounced and rocked against the leather straps that held her in place.
And then it was over.
Lois took a deep breath and let loose a gut wrenching yell. She was crying freely, her chest was heaving, and saliva ran from her mouth as she screamed.
"That was four hundred volts, Lois. You know what comes next. I have no doubt of how tough a woman you are, but I must warn you; sixteen hundred volts is more than enough to kill someone, depending on the Amps. Will you cooperate?"
Fear, anger, pain, frustration, sorrow, rage; the all welled inside her small body. She breathed deep and screamed again, and this time, she tried her best to pull and push and tug and yank herself free of the straps. She used every bit of her strength, every once of her emotions, every fiber of her being.
And when her strength faded, she was still trapped.
She sat in the metal chair, exhausted and crying and more afraid then she could ever remember being before in her entire life. She looked at herself in the mirror; at the small pale woman in a blue sports bra and black boy shorts, with a long vale of black matted hair covering her face, her body covered in sweat, her eyes red with tears, her chest, arms, and legs bound to a metal chair; an electric chair, with thick leather straps. A wave of utter helplessness washing over her…
"Perhaps another jolt will make your more cooperative…"
"NO!" Lois shouted, shaking her head frantically. "No… please…" she added, her voice growing soft with tears and fear.
"Then I trust we understand each other." The voice said almost cheerfully. "And to show what a good sport I am, we are going to start all over from one second and one hundred volts. How's that sound? Alright, let's begin."
Lois saw the tiny red LED light on the front of the video camera flash to life.