"Ohhh!" the girl cried out as she felt her toes leaving the floor.
"That's enough," Matt ordered as the girl's feet dangled a half-inch above the concrete. She cried and moaned, swaying lightly back and forth with every jerking motion she made.
"She'll keep for a while," Norm commented wryly as he patted her lightly on her reddened buttocks.
"Then there's this one," Matt said, bending down and jerking Jennie up to a standing position.
"Ohhhh, let me alone," the girl moaned. Diane could tell from her tone of voice that she'd already given up hope of being saved.
"Hang her up next to that one," Matt ordered. The men tied the limp brunette exactly as they had tied Annette, hanging her three feet to the right of the young freshman.
"We'll be back. And this time, I don't think we'll have to worry about anybody leaving," Matt said as Art, Chris and Norm started up the wooden stairs. Diane kept her mouth shut until she heard the door slam closed above.
"Jennie! Jennie, what are they going to do to us?" Diane whispered.
"Ohhh! I wish I knew, Diane. I – uhhhh!" the girl groaned with pain as the agony of being hung from the ceiling took over.
"Are they going to kill us?" Diane asked in a hoarse whisper as chills ran up and down her spine. There was something terribly final about this room and about the attitudes of the men involved.
"They never did anything like that before," Jennie said, trying to fight down the pain that seared through her body. "They always just stuck to people who were interested in the same kind of thing they were. But now, I don't know," the girl whimpered.
"What do you mean?" Diane asked, feeling her hair standing up on end.
"They never forced anybody into this thing who wasn't interested," Jennie said softly. "You were the first. I didn't even really know that you weren't just playing along with the reluctant-virgin bit until Matt started really laying into you that night. Then I was too scared to do anything," Jennie confessed.
"You thought I liked it?" Diane asked in disbelief. "A lot of people put on this I-hate-it routine just for jollies. But after a while, I could tell that Matt wasn't kidding when he said you weren't into this trip. When he said he was going to force you to submit to the whip, I thought it was just another kind of fantasy trip. I swear, I didn't know about what was going on," the girl moaned.
"Is that why I found you tied up like that?" Diane asked as she shifted her eyes to Annette. The girl was listening quietly to the two of them. But Diane could tell that she was filled with horror and disbelief from the conversation she overheard.
"I told Matt I wasn't going to go along with him any more," Jennie said as she stretched down her big toe and tried to touch the floor for support. "That's when he got to me and beat me. Oh God, he kept hitting me over and over with that damned whip across my – ohhhh," Jennie groaned as she closed her eyes and remembered what had happened.
"Jennie, what's going on here?" Diane asked again, feeling as if the girl were holding something back.
"It's gotten out of control. I don't know what's happened. But everybody in this group's acting crazy – weird! They're not doing it for fun any more – at least, not the kind of fun I joined in for. I've even heard some talk about Black Masses and sacrifices," Jennie said in a low, quivering tone of voice.
"That girl! That girl!" Annette cried out suddenly with horror in her voice.
"What girl?" Diane asked, turning her head back to the young freshman.
"The one they found out by the north campus parking lot on the other side of the Sculpture Gardens. I heard that they found weird markings on her body," Annette whispered.
"My God!" Diane cried out, feeling her skin crawl with horror. Is that what Matt and the others were into now? Devil worship, and using the coeds as sacrifices for their sick ceremonials?
"Diane, you don't think?" Jennie started to say, reading her answer in the young blonde woman's widened eyes. "Oh God, we don't have a chance," the girl sobbed out.
"Don't give up yet, Jennie," Diane said, trying to comfort the two sobbing girls as she felt panic gripping her own mind.
"Don't give up?" Jennie echoed, laughing hoarsely as she thrashed her body violently back and forth. The sound of clanging chains was almost deafening as the brunette shrieked with hysterical laughter and swayed helplessly back and forth from the ceiling.
Finally, Jennie calmed down and hung limply from the iron ring.
"Don't give up. That's a laugh," she said defeated. "Who's going to save us, Douglas Fairbanks?"
"I told a friend of mine what Matt was into, and that I was leaving him. He was expecting me tonight. When I don't show up, I'm sure he'll suspect that something's wrong," Diane said hopefully.
"Does he know you're here?" Jennie said, her eyes sparkling with hope.
Diane sighed with disappointment.
"No," she said in a low voice. Both Jennie and Annette groaned.
"By the time they find us, we'll be just like that girl," the young freshman moaned.
"Maybe not," Diane said in a strained voice as she pulled up with her right leg. The iron rings holding her ankles seemed rustier than the others were. As she moved her ass cheeks back and forth on the table, pulling her legs first up, then pushing them down, Diane realized that she could work the rings out of the wooden frame of the table.
"What are you doing?" Annette and Jennie asked together as they watched Diane's legwork.
"Ooooofff!" the woman grunted. "Trying to get these things off," Diane growled, resting for a few seconds before she tried again. She could feel the rings slowly rising out of their drilled resting place. Back and forth, back and forth she worked her ass, pulling her legs up and down the leather-covered table until she could feel the rings steadily easing out of position. "I think I've got it," Diane said, resting for another minute, before yanking up with her legs with all her strength. The rings finally gave way with a loud groan.
"She did it!" Annette cried out happily.
"Great! Now what are you going to do? Your ankles are okay, but what about the hands?" Jennie asked wryly.
"One thing at a time," Diane said, gasping for breath. She raised her head as best she could, looking around the immediate vicinity for anything that might help her free her hands.
"The lever! The lever behind your head! You can't get at it with your hands, but you might be able to use your feet if you can get them up that far!" Jennie cried out suddenly.
"What?"
"That's how the rings are locked into the table. It's a lever at the head of the table – push it in to lock in the rings, pull it out to let them go. It's right behind your head!" Jennie said hopefully.
"Oh God!" Diane said, rolling up her eyes as she hauled her legs over her head. "I feel like an ass," she grunted between her uplifted legs as she bent her knees and lowered her upside-down feet to the head of the table.
"Never mind that. Just get free!" Jennie said, watching Diane like a hawk.
"Shit!" the blonde cried out as she ran the back of her toes lightly along the top edge of the table. At first all she felt was the wooden frame, and was going to tell Jennie that she was full of it. On the second try, however, Diane felt something narrow, long and metallic pressed against the wooden frame. "I think I found it," Diane said, moving her right foot back slightly until she felt the edge of the lever with her big toe. Wriggling it back and forth, Diane managed to pry the lever up slightly with her toe.