Foreword
The bonds tightened at her wrists.
Her cries had dwindled first to sobbing moans but even they had faded as the awesome hopelessness of her situation became more and more clear to her.
Now, soft whimpers, constant but subdued, echoed throughout the great shadowed basement.
Pipes old and rusted spanned the space above her. The ropes at her wrists were tied to those very pipes.
Her naked body was warm, despite the winter snows that coated the ground outside.
The boiler kept the entire place warm to the point that she was virtually sweltering.
But she knew that would not last.
It was the weekend.
The school was closed.
The heat would be turned off, conserving fuel.
Soon, her naked body would be wracked with horrid tremors, shivering in the cold.
And yet, compared to what she'd just endured, that would be a blessing.
Compared to what was ahead, her worst fears were tame.
She began to cry, and her body tingled with the pain of the beating she'd undergone.