West Valley High Day 09: Medieval 03

"Welcome back, Miss Mitchell," Mr. Rydberger, the History teacher said to the young naked cheerleader as she reported to the front entrance of West Valley High as she had been instructed by the school's headmaster. Susan looked fearful at the contraption currently standing in the school's entrance. It looked like a large wagon wheel, six or seven feet tall and a foot and a half wide. It was suspended several feet above the ground on a wooden tripod.

The teacher addressed the crowd of students who had gathered. "Today for our final medieval history lesson, we have the 'breaking wheel'. Our subject will be fastened to the wheel where she can be tortured in a variety of ways."

Susan was ordered to stand with her back against the wheel. The metal handcuffs that were now her only daily attire were removed and replaced with fur-lined leather cuffs attached with a steel chain. This chain was then attached to a sturdy chain running between the wheel's two sides. This chain ran along the slats connecting the two wheel sides and then looped down and wrapped around a pulley on the wheel's center axle.

Rydberger instructed a student to begin turning a crank on the wheel's axle and Susan felt herself being lifted into the air as the chain wrapped around the center pulley, bending her over backwards. The wheel continued to turn and her feet left the ground. The teacher told the student to stop and then placed a fur-lined cuff on each of the girl's ankles and then spread her legs, attaching each ankle cuff to one of the wheel's sides.

"As you can see, as the wheel is cranked, the subject is stretched. One revolution of the wheel would be rather uncomfortable. Two or more and the subject's arms would be ripped from their sockets." Susan hoped the teacher didn't have this in mind for her today, but she soon felt the wheel turning again and her body being stretched painfully as she was arched along the wheel. The wheel completed one full revolution and Susan was struggling to breathe as her limbs were pulled painfully apart.

"At this point, the subject would be beaten until his or her limbs were broken," the teacher said. "We obviously won't be doing that to our subject, but there are other ways of using the wheel," he said.

At this point, four students were sent to bring over a large glass trough that looked like a big fish tank. The students were told to lean the tank in so that it was positioned directly under the wheel. The teacher pulled out a plastic bottle containing some form of liquid and poured its contents into the trough. He then grabbed the crank and reversed it, lowering Susan so that she was now perpendicular to the tank, her nude body visible through the glass. Being lowered released some of the pain on her aching arms and legs, but she feared whatever Rydberger had poured into the tank.

She had good reason as the teacher pulled out a pack of matches, struck one, and threw it into the tank. The liquid, which was an alcohol solution, caught fire immediately. While the flames were relatively small, they burned very hot, and Susan soon felt her skin warming up.

"We are using a relatively harmless flame here," the teacher explained. "Enough to make things toasty for the subject, but not cause any permanent damage. A real torture session might have included a full roaring fire, causing major burns to the subject's skin." Susan wasn't sure she was thankful for the reduced combustion as the heat was still significant, particularly on her bare breasts, which were closest to the fire. She was already sweating profusely and felt like her tender skin was being burned off as she was slowly cooked,

Susan was left there for several minutes while the flames slowly burned themselves out. The crank was then turned and she was lifted back out of the tank, her arms being painfully stretched once again.

A hose was attached to an outside spigot and the teacher now began filling the tank with water. When he was satisfied it was full enough, he grabbed the crank and turned it the opposite direction, lowering Susan into the trough.

The teacher stopped turning just after the girl's naked breasts disappeared into the cold water. "Water torture was a very common way of getting a witch to confess," he explained to the growing crowd. He turned the crank further and Susan's head disappeared under the water. Continuing to turn the crank, the teacher lifted the girl out of the water until she was now hanging upside down, gasping and panting for air.

Rydberger dunked Susan into the tank several more times, occasionally passing her all the way through and sometimes just dunking her head in and pulling her out. The girl was exhausted by the time the wheel was cranked all the way back around to its starting position and some of the pain on her arms and legs was relieved.

The water was drained from the tank but the teacher was not done with his young subject yet. He cranked the wheel clockwise a full revolution and then continued, cranking it until she was now at the very top of the wheel. Susan felt her arms were going to be Susan's arms yanked from her body and she her already labored breathing became more shallow. The sun was beating down on her naked body, which initially felt good as it dried her off, but was slowly just adding to her discomfort.

Susan could not see what the teacher and his students were doing down below. They had rolled in several trash cans and dumped their contents into the tank. The girl was relieved to be lowered counter-clockwise into the tank but her relief was short-lived as her naked body met the smelly piles of garbage dumped into the tank.

"In medieval times, this trough might be filled with feces," Rydberger said. "In our case, kitchen trash will have the same impact on our subject." Susan was trying to breathe only through her mouth because the smell was so bad and she was praying the teacher wouldn't lower her head into the piles of kitchen scraps. But her prayers were not answered as he soon turned the crank and drug her body through the trash, her face and hair soon covered by the debris. The wheel stopped with her once again suspended upside down on the right side of the wheel.

"We could do many other things, like putting hot tar in the tank and then covering Miss Mitchell with feathers," Rydberger said. "But I think we have done enough to show all of you the impact of this device."

With that, he had the students remove the tank and the trash and returned the wheel to its original starting position. He pulled out the water hose again and began spraying the naked girl with the cold water. While Susan didn't enjoy the cold spray, she was glad to have the trash washed off her body.

The crowd of students dispersed and the teacher approached his young subject. "We'll leave you here to drip dry for a little while and then we can talk about some of the other ways this wheel could be used," the teacher said with a wry smile.