David Vanishes

I could almost here the excitement dripping from her words. They wanted to see me try to escape. Suddenly I realised -- of course, the camera would be running. This would be a new thrill for the paying customers: to see the hapless victim desperately fumbling to escape, before being inevitably dragged, kicking and screaming, back to his prison. Well -- I wasn't going to give them the satisfaction. I just stood there.

'Time starts....now' said Sophie, but I didn't move. 'Oh dear Boy' she tutted. 'Don't you want to play along? I promise you the game is real -- we won't play it again though. This is probably the only chance you'll ever get to make it out of here.' She leaned in close to my ear, and whispered. 'I mean it -- after today, you're never leaving this room again.'

And then something inside me snapped. I thought of the pictures of Emily, crying on the TV, and of my family, and suddenly I was filled with the same massive urge to get out of here that I had thought was gone forever. I wasn't defeated -- I could get out of here. I'd show these evil, evil bastards. I span around, shakily, and stumbled forward.

Immediately I lost my footing and fell over, to peals of laughter. I snarled into the gag and picked myself up, half crawling, running my fingers over the floor, looking for the key. I bumped into the wall and hurt my head -- more laughter but I didn't' care, I kept crawling along the wall, until I found the heavy metal door. I pulled at it -- definitely locked. I heard Sophie from across the room -- 'Keep going Boy, you're getting warmer....'

Desperate now, the thought of freedom so close I could think of nothing else, I searched frantically, bumping into things, falling over, being pushed and shoved by anybody I crashed into. People were spanking me, spitting on me, kicking me on the floor as I became frantic in my movements, moving and snarling more and more like a caged animal until suddenly, unbelievably, as I was scrabbling around near my frame, I felt something cold and metal -- the key. They had left it right under my frame -- a sick joke, I suppose. My head spinning with elation and excitement, I scrabbled back to the door.

'Oh my' said Sophie. 'You are doing well.' I rushed to fit the key to the lock and dropped it, to more laughter. I was almost laughing with delirious pleasure as I picked it up again, found the lock, pushed it in and....

BZZZZZZZZZZZ

Everything went blank and I found myself sprawling on the floor, suddenly the door was gone, the wall was gone, I was on my back. What the...

BZZZZZZZZZZ

A second time, the sound, and the stinging, numbing pain in my side. I could make out laughter through over my own screams.

BZZZZZZZZZ

Again -- oh god. It was the tazer. I tried to lift my hands to cover my face in protection but suddenly they were upon me, god knows how many of them, tazering my sides, my chest, my legs. I was twitching and howling and wailing on the floor in seconds, crying bitter tears of frustration, realizing that the entire episode had been designed to lead to this, and hating Sophie, and hating the film company, and hating myself most of all.

'Poor darling' I heard Sophie say. 'And he was so close.' And then that awful, evil giggle.

As I writhed on the floor and screamed in fury like a trapped animal, they dragged me, kicking and thrashing, back to the frame, and locked me securely back in. After the first few straps were locked down, I was barely able to move, and yet they kept on pulling more straps, thinner and tighter, over my limbs, every 'click' of a lock asserting that my life was over, and that freedom was impossible. I knew then that I wanted to die, that I would have willingly killed myself before I spent another minute in this wretched prison.

I wept and wept. And then Sophie, still smiling, move in front of me and sat down in her chair. Staring at me intently, she began to press her fingers between her legs.

'That was really the most delicious scene' she purred. 'You really thought you might escape didn't you? Didn't you? Mmmm I know you did. But you never will....never.....you know that now, surely?' She bit her lip as she came, and then blew me a kiss before leaving me alone, again, in my depthless agony. This was my life, I realized, for the rest of time.

One day she'd go too far, and I would die. I prayed for that day to come quickly.

Epilogue

I was lying in bed with some disgustingly rich American, toying with the idea of marrying him for his money, when the Doctor called. He told me the Boy was not doing well -- after 6 months, his poor abused body was finally starting to show signs of real lasting damage. I had suspected as much. In the last few tapes, his efforts to resist had been noticeably reduced. He didn't scream nearly as much as he used to. And last week's sales figures were down again, for the third week running. I knew my customers -- hell, I understood their thirst for authentic suffering intimately -- and of course they were going to be less interested in a victim who didn't put up a fight.

I smiled to myself as I thought back to my first encounter with the Boy. He had been so innocent in a way, so full of hope and ambition and life. The last time I took his gag out he couldn't even talk. It was too, too cruel, what I'd done to this one. I pitied him, really I did -- he never had a chance.

Once sales fell off, he was just another useless piece of meat though. I didn't want to have them get rid of him, not yet. I enjoyed playing with him far too much, and I told the Doctor not to take any drastic measures until I'd had another chance to see him. What we needed was something new, some new tortures, something to reawaken his sense of agony, something to excite the viewers again. It would be a challenge, but I was confident I could dream up something. If I couldn't, well...all good stories have to come to an end, I suppose.

The End