 |
|||
|
|
Chapter 3
Sharpay and Taylor no longer had the comfort of each other's warm bodies, the Siberian made sure of that. Taylor hung from her ankles, her wrists tied behind her, and her head dangling above an ice water bucket. Sharpay stood a few feet away, facing her helpless friend and trapped in her own bondage. She was standing barefoot on the cold floor, her feet chained to it. Her wrists were also chained, but the were connected to a chain that disappeared into the ceiling, and it had some give to it. The Siberian explained their situation.
"Sharpay, Sharpay... don't cry," She was steadily shaking from both fear and the severe cold. "You have the ability to save Taylor from a lot of pain and suffering." She could only stare at him terrified, teeth chattering constantly all the while.
"See, I'm going to drop Taylor into the bucket like so..."
The man moved a tiny leaver in the wall and Taylor dropped a foot lower, enough to submerge her entire head into the incredibly freezing water. Weakened and bound, the slim black teen could not pull herself out; she could only writhe in terror and agony. Sharpay looked aghast at the horrible site.
"Sharpay, all you have to do to save her is to tug on that chain your hands are connected to - it's that simple."
Sharpay looked at him in disbelief, but his facial expression was impossible to discern through his arctic mask and hood. She looked up at the chain and tentatively pulled on it until she felt some gear in the ceiling shift. And sure enough her friend's ankle chains began to retract and pull Taylor out of the water. She was still freezing and miserable, but at least she could breathe.
But just as Sharpay began to breathe a sigh of relief, she was startled to feel ice cold water pour down on her.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh Oh MY GOD STOP AAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHH IT HURTS AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHUUUUUAAAAAA!"
The Siberian let slip a chuckle as he watched her wriggle and stamp her feet, anything to try to dodge the water. But the spray shower head above her got her wherever she moved. And in the midst of her flailing, Taylor fell back into the bucket! She must have pulled the chain again while trying to dodge the water, retriggering the mechanism attached to Taylor's ankle chains.
Just then the shower spray ceased, and Sharpay, although still freezing horribly, was able to control herself. But she panicked seeing her friend drowning yet again. She looked at the Siberian imploringly, knowing all too well what the situation now was.
"See I told you, you have the power to save her. And all you have to do is stand a little cold water on your back. You wouldn't let your friend die for that, would you?"
Sharpay stood transfixed by her friend's suffering, making the cold calculation of how long Taylor could breathe before she would have to let her out of the water again. The sharp, stabbing pain of the ice cold water was no better than if broken glass had been showered all over her. She shivered in terror, her body not responding to her attempts to pull the chain and save her friend.
"For Taylor, I must..." She pulled with all her willpower, knowing that she had just triggered her own torture.
Taylor took a deep breath and grimaced in pain from the freezing sensation around her face. Through the haze of a powerful oncoming migraine, she was caught off guard by Sharpay's renewed screams of agony.
"Ahhhh, Taylor, it will only stop if I drop you in again. I'll try to hold it but it -- Auuuuuuuuuughhhhh! AH AH AH! It hurts so much - AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Talking to Taylor was the only thing keeping her mind from snapping from pain.
Taylor was speechless, and did all she could to brace herself for another plunge. And it wasn't long in coming as Sharpay released Taylor after just 20 seconds of suffering the freezing shower.
"Tsk, tsk, Sharpay. Your friend is going to need longer than that." The man willfully toyed with her mind and feelings. He enjoyed breaking people, watching them become weeping children before him.
Sharpay could only look on in horror as Taylor gyrated in her bonds, in obvious pain and torment from the deep cold and asphyxiation.
"She is doing so much more than you. You only have to deal with the cold, but Taylor has to deal with drowning, too. Are you really so weak and selfish?" She didn't respond in words, but the tears streaming down her face told him that his words had humiliated her. He knew of course that the ice cold shower was probably worse than the ice bucket submergence, and that the position Sharpay was in was impossible to win, but she didn't know that. She really thought that Taylor was suffering because of her weakness. And that Gabriella had made a sacrifice for her as well.
And so she forced herself again, with closed eyes and gritted teeth, to pull on the cable once more to trigger Taylor's chains to retract. And again, the ice water poured down on a screaming Sharpay while Taylor gasped desperately for air and relief from the cold. That time Taylor had been under for a very long time, nearly a minute, and was afraid she wouldn't be able to survive the next one.
“Sharpay, Oh God, Sharpay, please,” Taylor pleaded, “Don't drop me so fast – huuuuh –“ she gasped for air, “I can't breathe, huuuuuh.” Taylor had to yell as ice water dripped down her face and into her eyes, trying to plead with a tortured Sharpay to hold out a little longer.
She tried as best she could, squirming and arching her lithe, teen body, trying to overcome the mind shattering pain. Her whole body was dripping with ice cold water. Her wet blond hair itself an object of torture, sucking the heat from her upper body. Her lips were a deep shade of blue; her teeth chattering violently from the cold. Even her body showed a faint blue hue, giving testimony to the truly awful state her body was in.
She held on long enough this time, releasing Taylor and shutting off the cold shower only at the very last moment that she could manage. But she was afraid that at this point she would be unable to do this again. Her body would no longer respond to her commands – the survival instinct was so powerful that it would not allow her to bring harm to her body any longer.
“If you let her die,” interjected the Siberian, “We will subject you to all the tortures she is scheduled to go through, on top of the ones already waiting for you. Do you really want to find out how 200 bamboo cane strokes feels?”
Sharpay had no idea, but the whole idea of being tortured several times over scared her shitless, and she once again found the resolve to raise Taylor from the bucket.
Now, as Taylor gasped for air and pleaded with Sharpay for more time, the Siberian pulled out an ice pick from his winter coat. He approached the captive black girl and said,
“I think it's time to make this more interesting...”
|
|
|