The lights were shut off as quickly as they had been turned on and I was again left in utter darkness. I painfully pushed myself to a sitting position and scooted backwards until I felt the wall against my back. I pulled my knees up to my chest and encircled them with my arms as I rocked slightly. I sat like this for several minutes as I sifted through all my emotions. The primary one being, of course, fear. The voice's words "You are nothing. Soon you will be less than nothing", echoed in my mind and sent an involuntary shiver up my spine. I didn't know where I was or who I was dealing with, or even what "they" truly wanted, but I knew I was deathly afraid to find out. Hell, I was scared shitless!

The other secondary emotion, the one bubbling up inside me and gaining strength was anger. I was angry at the voice for hurting me and I was angry that I was in a situation that I did not understand and could not control. More than anything however, I was angry at myself for giving in so easily to the voice. Now that the pain was fading and quickly becoming a memory, I berated myself for not standing up to that asshole. I promised myself that I would not give in so easily again.

I sat there in the dark and rocked as the minutes stretched into seeming infinity. I had no watch (not that I could see it anyway), and no way to tell how much time was passing. After a while I laid down and dozed off. My sleep was restless and I awoke several times due to the hardness of the floor and the cool temperature in the room. I was wearing nothing but my pajama bottoms and I found myself wishing fervently for a blanket.

After some more fitful sleep I awoke, not due to discomfort, but to a strange swooshing sound that I heard at the opposite side of the room. I was disoriented for a moment, but soon enough remembered where I was and my predicament. I then heard footsteps and realized that there was somebody in the room with me. I stood quickly and waited silently. Instict was telling me that these guys were not my friends. My muscles tensed involuntarily and I all but stopped breathing. Suddenly I felt hands grab my arms and I began to struggle wildly. I did not know what was going to happen but I knew that I did not want these guys touching me. I swore to myself that I would not go down without a fight. I managed to get loose for a second and brought my fist up as I swung into the darkness. I felt momentary satisfaction as my fist connected solidly with flesh and I heard a grunt of pain. Before I could follow this up with another swing however, the hands again grabbed my arms and pulled them behind my back. Whoever had a hold of my left arm was pulling it up high against my back causing pain to shoot through my arm and radiate through my shoulder. I felt sure that my arm would break. 'So much for not going down without a fight' I thought grimly.

"What do you people want?" I managed to ask through gritted teeth, speaking for the first time since they had entered.

No one answered me and for some reason this completely unnerved me. The men who held my arms brought them forward and I felt cold metal clasped around my wrists. Handcuffs, I guessed. I felt as the metal was connected to something that I could not see and soon my arms were being lifted above my head by an unseen force. I struggled to see if I could move, but found that I could not. My arms were high above my head now and my feet barely touched the floor. I realized that I wasn't going anywhere and forced myself to calm down. A moment passed and the lights came on with blazing force. Again I had to shut my eyes against their brilliance. When I opened them I saw four men dressed all in black. They were all wearing some sort of device over their eyes that resembled a pair of goggles. Goggles? As in night vision? I wondered if that was how they were able to see me in the dark.

'How hi-tech is this operation?' I wondered in amazement.

I looked up and saw that what I rightly assumed were handcuffs on my wrists were attached to a chain that was looped around one of the hooks in the ceiling. I looked back to the four men and waited. In this moment of silence, my mind actively supplied me with a hundred different scenarios of what might happen next and not one of them was good. I began to shiver slightly as the horrible pictures ran through my mind. I looked at them and they looked at me and nobody spoke, nobody even moved. It was almost as if we were kids having an incredibly demented staring contest. As much as I didn't want to be the first to crack, I didn't think I could take the silence any more. Just as I was about to speak, one of the four men stepped forward. As I looked at him I noticed that he had a whip in his hand. My heart triphammered in my chest at the sight of it. He turned away from me and removed the goggles, placed what looked like a ski mask on his head, then turned back to face me. The other three followed suit. One of the them came up behind me and pulled my pants down to my knees, causing my heart to jump into my throat. This was getting uglier by the minute. I found myself praying for the return of the staring contest.

"Please don't," I whispered as I watched him raise the whip. The plea, as heartfelt as it was, did not deter him. The whip came crashing down on my thigh. I screamed as the pain hit me, feeling a hundred times worse than the shocks. He walked behind me and I panicked. Full blown panic. I hated that I was no longer able to see him and could not anticipate where the next blow would land. That mystery was soon solved as I felt it land on my back, as did the next one and the one after that. The next few landed on my ass and the back of my thighs. I screamed with each one. As the whipping continued I began to babble. I hated myself for it but could not seem to help it.

"Please stop, please! Oh god...stop! No more...please!" I yelled in between the lashings. I felt tears on my face and knew I was crying hysterically. I tried to twist away from the pain, but I had nowhere to go.

He's going to kill me,' I thought. 'This psycho is going to whip me to death.'

I was so sure of this thought that I was surprised when he stopped and put the whip down. I looked at the whip as it lay on the floor like a bloody snake. My blood. I could feel it running down my back and down my legs. I slumped forward, my weight no longer on my legs. The chain was the only thing holding me up, and although this made my arms feel like they were going to pop out of their sockets, there was nothing I could do about it. My legs were shaking so hard they could not support my body.

I was surprised when the chain started to lower me and I looked up. The entire panel of the ceiling that the hook was attached to was coming down slowly. When it was low enough the psycho undid the cuffs and picked up the chain and the whip. I dropped to the ground instantly and groaned. My back was fire and ice all at the same time. I took deep hitching breaths and tried to stop the tears that were still flowing from my eyes. I looked up and noticed that the psycho was near me, crouching down to get a close look at my face.

"Why did you do that to me?" I asked in a voice hoarse from screaming.

I did not expect an answer and was not surprised when I did not get one. He merely looked at me with his dark eyes. He then stood up and walked to door. It slid open for him like something out of Star Trek and I again found myself wondering how hi-tech this thing was. Who would have enough money to do this? And why me? The questions floated around my head as I curled up into a fetal position and wept. The lights were turned off again and this time I was grateful for that. I did not want to see reminders of what I had just gone through. I struggled with the pain for a few moments before I finally slipped into blessed unconciousness. -----