Becky's games
"Her... her games?" you stammer.
"Yes," Lydia hastily grabbed your arm. "Come on, there isn't much time. You need to know the rules or you can just as well say goodbye to being alive right now."
"Wait, what!?" you almost scream. "What do you mean by that? Is she... is she really going to kill me?"
"Not if you know the rules! At least, then you have a chance."
Lyida leads you over the paper floor. The sight is devastating - the cage is layed out with old and torn newspapers, like a hamster cage. But that is already the nicest thing Becky has put in here. There is nothing else - no water, no food, no shade. The afternoon sun shines through a window right onto the cage, making it unbearably hot inside.
Only the small hutches stand out, though they are even more depressing. They are built from torn out pieces of newspaper and held up with toothpicks. As rickety as they look, at least they provide a little bit of protection from the merciless sun.
"Okay, go inside," Lydia commands as you reach her paper-tent. The inside is as sparse as the outside. Only a few clothes are strewn on the floor. They looked like doll clothes.
A few others are sitting inside as well. Shrinks, like you. A few women, mostly college-aged, though a few look more in Becky's range, and a few more men. Most of them looked the same age as you, though some of them were significantly older. Still, all of them had one thing in common: the resigned look on their face.
Suddenly, it hit you - Becky had kidnapped your father, hadn't she? So did that mean that...
You get interrupted as Lydia addresses the room.
"Okay, I'm sure all of you heard her say it: Miss Anderson is planning a game when she comes back. She hasn't said who she is going to play with, or with how many of us." She suddenly turns towards you. "Except for you. Miss Anderson always plays with the new ones."
Finally, you manage to wrangle your thoughts into words.
"Play? Can you just tell me, what you mean by play? What's Becky going to do to me?"
Lydia sighes and shakes her head.
"First mistake: you will not call her Becky. She wants to be addressed exclusively with 'Miss Anderson' and nothing else. Do you understand?"
Slowly, your fear turns into anger. What is this, a joke? You have known Becky for ages. Hell, she had always been your neighbour. You couldn't even remember, who lived across of you before her.
You want to give voice to how ridiculous this is, but Lydia interrupts you with a sad smile.
"Trust me, no one here wants to. But if you don't follow these rules, it's going get really bad, really fast."
"You have to understand," she continues, "that Becky doesn't see us shrinks as people. We are toys to her, nothing else - and if we are not fun for her, she won't hesitate to throw you out. And if one of us disappoints her, we all have to bear the consequences. Like this heat. Becky put the cage into the sun just because one of us called her a bitch. Now, we're being cooked alive, while... well, let's not talk about what happened to him.
A woman in the corner suddenly starts sobbing. "She..." the woman stammers, "That fucking bitch ATE him! She just put him into a sandwich and chewed him to death! And she made us all watch!"
Horrified you reel back, searching the faces of any of the other shrinks for a sign of reassurance. None of them give it to you, only staring back with exhausted faces.
Lydia pats you on the shoulder.
"It's alright. This doesn't have to happen. Just follow the rules and we will all be fine."
You can do nothing but nod.
"The second rule is to go along with anything she says. That's what she wants - for us to be fun toys she can command around. If you do what she says, she might humiliate you, but she won't hurt you. And finally, rule number three and the safest way to stay alive: pretend, that you enjoy being her toy."
Your flabbergasted expression isn't exactly subtle.
"I know," Lydia sighs, "but it works. It's something that really gets her going. If you're a good actor, she might even reward you. Like Claudia here," she points at one of the woman in the hutch, "is really good at that. So she often gets extra food or water. Sometimes, Miss Anderson even listens to her and rescinds other punishment. Though it takes quite lot to do that."
"And that's everything," Lydia finishes. "Now, it's best that you rest a bit. You will need all of your energy if you want to get through this day."
You sit down, quietly contemplating your situation. You can't believe it. Of course, Becky had always flaunted it that she had kidnapped your father. But you simply couldn't believe that she abused shrinks on such a massive scale. A shudder runs down your spine and you look around.
Your father isn't here. Even though you haven't seen him in ages, you are certain, that you would remember his face... but he is simply not here. You search for Lydia's eyes.
"Hey..." you say quietly, "do you know someone called Paul Haley?"
As soon as you say your father's name, Lydia grimaces. She turns away. "Yeah, I knew him."
"'Knew'? So that means..."
That he's dead, yes," Lydia snaps, "and before you ask, I won't tell you how he died. Suffice to say that he didn't follow the rules..." Her eyes take on a distant, mourning look. "And it wasn't pretty."
Horrified by this revelation, you sink back to the ground. The scalding heat soon robs you of any sense of time as you fight your own exhaustion.
Then, after what felt like hours, booming footsteps announce the return of your captress. Lydia ushers everybody out, pulling you behind her. With practiced movements, every single tiny marches forward, forming an absolutely straight line. They looked like soldiers, being spoken to by their general.
Becky's enormous form casts the cage into shadow. You gulp, as you look up at her. She had changed into sportive clothing: Tight, black yoga pants and a grey, now sweat stained sports bra. Her was bound back into a messy ponytail, and streaked with sweat.
She grins down, directly at you, and opens the lid to the cage.
"Well, Lydia, you've done a great job. I see the new Haley boy already knows how it works around here." Becky laughs.
"Yes, Miss Anderson," Becky says obediently, bowing before the titanous woman.
"Oh, so much effort. I'm looking forward to it. My whole jog I was thinking about what we could do."
She reaches her hand into the cage. Her fingers loom over you like massive pillars.
"And I've decided..."
"Yes," Lydia hastily grabbed your arm. "Come on, there isn't much time. You need to know the rules or you can just as well say goodbye to being alive right now."
"Wait, what!?" you almost scream. "What do you mean by that? Is she... is she really going to kill me?"
"Not if you know the rules! At least, then you have a chance."
Lyida leads you over the paper floor. The sight is devastating - the cage is layed out with old and torn newspapers, like a hamster cage. But that is already the nicest thing Becky has put in here. There is nothing else - no water, no food, no shade. The afternoon sun shines through a window right onto the cage, making it unbearably hot inside.
Only the small hutches stand out, though they are even more depressing. They are built from torn out pieces of newspaper and held up with toothpicks. As rickety as they look, at least they provide a little bit of protection from the merciless sun.
"Okay, go inside," Lydia commands as you reach her paper-tent. The inside is as sparse as the outside. Only a few clothes are strewn on the floor. They looked like doll clothes.
A few others are sitting inside as well. Shrinks, like you. A few women, mostly college-aged, though a few look more in Becky's range, and a few more men. Most of them looked the same age as you, though some of them were significantly older. Still, all of them had one thing in common: the resigned look on their face.
Suddenly, it hit you - Becky had kidnapped your father, hadn't she? So did that mean that...
You get interrupted as Lydia addresses the room.
"Okay, I'm sure all of you heard her say it: Miss Anderson is planning a game when she comes back. She hasn't said who she is going to play with, or with how many of us." She suddenly turns towards you. "Except for you. Miss Anderson always plays with the new ones."
Finally, you manage to wrangle your thoughts into words.
"Play? Can you just tell me, what you mean by play? What's Becky going to do to me?"
Lydia sighes and shakes her head.
"First mistake: you will not call her Becky. She wants to be addressed exclusively with 'Miss Anderson' and nothing else. Do you understand?"
Slowly, your fear turns into anger. What is this, a joke? You have known Becky for ages. Hell, she had always been your neighbour. You couldn't even remember, who lived across of you before her.
You want to give voice to how ridiculous this is, but Lydia interrupts you with a sad smile.
"Trust me, no one here wants to. But if you don't follow these rules, it's going get really bad, really fast."
"You have to understand," she continues, "that Becky doesn't see us shrinks as people. We are toys to her, nothing else - and if we are not fun for her, she won't hesitate to throw you out. And if one of us disappoints her, we all have to bear the consequences. Like this heat. Becky put the cage into the sun just because one of us called her a bitch. Now, we're being cooked alive, while... well, let's not talk about what happened to him.
A woman in the corner suddenly starts sobbing. "She..." the woman stammers, "That fucking bitch ATE him! She just put him into a sandwich and chewed him to death! And she made us all watch!"
Horrified you reel back, searching the faces of any of the other shrinks for a sign of reassurance. None of them give it to you, only staring back with exhausted faces.
Lydia pats you on the shoulder.
"It's alright. This doesn't have to happen. Just follow the rules and we will all be fine."
You can do nothing but nod.
"The second rule is to go along with anything she says. That's what she wants - for us to be fun toys she can command around. If you do what she says, she might humiliate you, but she won't hurt you. And finally, rule number three and the safest way to stay alive: pretend, that you enjoy being her toy."
Your flabbergasted expression isn't exactly subtle.
"I know," Lydia sighs, "but it works. It's something that really gets her going. If you're a good actor, she might even reward you. Like Claudia here," she points at one of the woman in the hutch, "is really good at that. So she often gets extra food or water. Sometimes, Miss Anderson even listens to her and rescinds other punishment. Though it takes quite lot to do that."
"And that's everything," Lydia finishes. "Now, it's best that you rest a bit. You will need all of your energy if you want to get through this day."
You sit down, quietly contemplating your situation. You can't believe it. Of course, Becky had always flaunted it that she had kidnapped your father. But you simply couldn't believe that she abused shrinks on such a massive scale. A shudder runs down your spine and you look around.
Your father isn't here. Even though you haven't seen him in ages, you are certain, that you would remember his face... but he is simply not here. You search for Lydia's eyes.
"Hey..." you say quietly, "do you know someone called Paul Haley?"
As soon as you say your father's name, Lydia grimaces. She turns away. "Yeah, I knew him."
"'Knew'? So that means..."
That he's dead, yes," Lydia snaps, "and before you ask, I won't tell you how he died. Suffice to say that he didn't follow the rules..." Her eyes take on a distant, mourning look. "And it wasn't pretty."
Horrified by this revelation, you sink back to the ground. The scalding heat soon robs you of any sense of time as you fight your own exhaustion.
Then, after what felt like hours, booming footsteps announce the return of your captress. Lydia ushers everybody out, pulling you behind her. With practiced movements, every single tiny marches forward, forming an absolutely straight line. They looked like soldiers, being spoken to by their general.
Becky's enormous form casts the cage into shadow. You gulp, as you look up at her. She had changed into sportive clothing: Tight, black yoga pants and a grey, now sweat stained sports bra. Her was bound back into a messy ponytail, and streaked with sweat.
She grins down, directly at you, and opens the lid to the cage.
"Well, Lydia, you've done a great job. I see the new Haley boy already knows how it works around here." Becky laughs.
"Yes, Miss Anderson," Becky says obediently, bowing before the titanous woman.
"Oh, so much effort. I'm looking forward to it. My whole jog I was thinking about what we could do."
She reaches her hand into the cage. Her fingers loom over you like massive pillars.
"And I've decided..."
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June 3, 2023
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