House of "SPRAIN"

“Zzzzzpppp”  “Zzzzzpppp”

A light on the ceiling flashes on and off with a zap of electricity.

“Zzzzzpppp”

 “Zzzzzpppp”

“Zzzzzpppp”

 

The light, flashes again and again, eventually it stays on.

In the middle of the room, three young women lay on the ground. As the Light slowly wakes them up they come too.

“What happened?”

“Where am I?”

“WTF?”

 

The three girls all know each other, they attend the same college. Laura is 22, Stacey is 21 and Tammie is also 21. All the three young females are what you might say a 10 out of 10, but also share a trait of leading less fortunate young men into very uncomfortable situation, commonly inviting them to parties only to be teased and tortured and used as the joke of the party.

 

WELL NO MORE...........

 

The three girls stagger to get up, pulling themselves off the floor. The room is basically empty. There is a wooden chair in the middle of the room and a box in the corner. Laura, heads to large steel door that contains them within the room, she grasps the handle and tries to open it. But it appears to be locked from the outside.

 

Stacey and Tammie look around the room for another way out, but the room is lined with concrete walls. Tammie starts to freak out a little, screaming “HELP, SOMEONE HELP US”, but her screams go unheard.

 

“Crackle crackle” a little speaker in the top corner of the room comes to life.

 

A deep muffled voice starts to speak

 

“Welcome, Laura, Stacey and Tammie. You have been chosen to make write all the pain and suffering you have caused me and other people you have hurt. You may recall one party, 6 months ago, when a certain person was invited, only to arrive and get ransacked, blind folded and gagged, and tied to the tree naked. Then they shaved all my body hair and then with high strength adhesive turned me into a human piñata. Only to be still hanging there in the morning feeling abused and shamed. So now it’s your turn to feel my pain, the physical pain and the hopelessness that you have brought onto me and others alike.  There is no point screaming for help, no one will hear you. If you do what is required you will all be home by the morning.

 

Open the box and you will find out what to do next”

“Crackle, Crackle”

 

Laura moves the box closer to the three of them and they all gather around.  Laura rips off the tape holding the box closed. Inside are three smaller boxes, one with each of the girl’s names on them.

 

They each open there box, inside the box is a dress each and a pair of high heels. The girls freak out, when they realise that this is what they were wearing at that party 6 months ago. At the bottom of the large box, there is an envelope. Stacey grabs the envelope and opens it up. Inside she finds a written note.

It reads “If you are reading this you have opened the box and are ready to start. I have been kind enough to give you the clothes you were wearing that night at the party, you must change into these clothes. Now it’s time for the pain and hopelessness. Each of you must sprain one ankle. I have supplied a chair to help you. When I’m satisfied the door will unlock. Time is ticking ladies....”

 

Stacey drops the envelope. “This guy is crazy, I’m not doing it.” She throws her box down on the floor. All three start to bang on the door, “let us out you freak”

 

From behind the girls, a noise begins. It’s coming from behind the wall directly opposite to the door. As the noise gets louder, The wall starts to move towards the door. Tammie screams, “The wall is moving”.

As the wall slowly inches further towards the door, the girls start to panic. Stacey attempts to push against the wall but her attempts are futile. Laura takes charge, “Let’s get our cloths on”.

 

They quickly get changed, and throw all there cloths on the ground. “Has anyone sprained an ankle before”, Laura asks. They all look at each other, “No, No No....”

 

Stacey pipes up, “I think I have an idea. If we jump off the chair it should work”. Stacey moves towards the chair and climbs on top of it. Laura and Tammie take a step to the side. Stacey closes her eyes, and jumps forward off the chair, as she lands her right high heel snaps causing her ankle to roll outwards. She tumbles to the floor, grasping her ankle. “Oh god, my ankle” she quickly slides the rest of her high heel off her foot.  Laura moves close to her and leans down.

“Do you think its sprained Stacey?”

Stacey looks at her ankle, which is starting to throb, then slides the shoe of her left foot. “Help me up to see if I can walk.”

The two girls help her up off the floor she positions her right foot forward and take a step, she grimaces at first, but after a couple steady paces she feels ok, able to bear weight with a limp. “Yes it’s defiantly a minor sprain.”

The girls forget about the limited time, as the wall draws closer and closer, the wall has reached the chair and knocks it over, reminding the girls to hurry up. Laura asks if Tammie wants to go next. Tammie looks nervous and scared but nods her head to agree. Laura grabs the chair and stands it back up right, the wall continuing to move. Tammie climbs up on the chair, and closes her eyes, she stands there shaking. “I can’t do it, please I can’t.” The wall continues to move, as it gets closer to the chair there is only about 1 meter of room left. The wall bumps the chair and sends Tammie lunging forward, her left heel breaks and her ankle rolls out as she stumbles to the floor. Stacey helps her quickly, removing her shoes and helping her to stand up, she too can bare weight, a minor sprain. Laura grabs the chair, with little time and room to spare and stands on top of it. Laura closes her eyes and jumps off the chair she lands awkwardly due to the limited room. Laura’s right high heel snaps causing her to lose balance and her right ankle to twist outwards. She manages to stay standing, grasping at the wall for support, she puts some pressure on her right foot, still wearing heels. She manages to walk with a limp.

“Clunk, Clunk, whirrrrrr”

 

The heavy steel door unlatches and swings open. The girls lung out the door, limping to get away from the trap behind them.

Once out the door way they find themselves in a dark and long hallway. Imminent danger seems no longer so they all collapse to the floor. Laura removes her high heels, to inspect her ankle as well. A minor sprain as well.

 

They compose themselves for a few minutes thinking that its all over, they are free to go. Just as they start to relax, another speaker comes to life.

 

 “Crackle crackle”

 “Very good girls you have passed the first part of the test. Now for part 2”

 “Crackle crackle”

 

The speaker goes silent. Laura looks at the other girls, “What’s part 2?”

 Just as she finishes speaking, the lights switch on. The bright light is disorientated at first, as their eyes adjust, they realise they hall they are in is actually about 55 meters long each way with a t-section at both ends of the halls.

Tammie breaks the silence, “is that my sneakers!”

The girls turn around and not more than a couple meters away resting against the wall are the girls own sneakers and socks. The three of them help each other up, and make their way over to the shoes. In between two pairs of shoes there is an envelope.

 Tammie grabs the envelope and rips it open. Inside she finds a letter a single sentence written on it.

 “These shoes are made for running........woof woof...”

 The three look at each other curiously trying to work out exactly what the note means.

 Stacey looks around, and then looks at the letter again.  “I don’t know about you two but id rather be wearing my sneakers than walking around here barefoot, and I think we are supposed to put them on.”

 

They all agree, and sit down to put there sneakers on. None of their minor sprains causing too much grief, and the sneakers will help the situation, initially. Whilst the just finished putting their sneakers on, there is a noise coming from down the half. Laura, “what is that?”

 Tammie chimes in, “I don’t know but I don’t think I want to hang around to find out.”

 

The girls stand up, now wearing dresses and the sneakers and ankle socks. They start to move towards the opposite direction to the noise. Stacey looks back, and sees what appears to be a beastly Doberman, round the hall way. The dog sees them, and stops, positioning its self to attack, growling loudly, and its mouth salivating at the thought of a kill.

 

The girls scream, as the dog starts too bound forward, “RUNNNNNNNN”.

The girls take off sprinting down the hall way, the sound of the vicious dog looms closer and closer. They reach the end of the hall way. The girls stop and look left and right, the right passage has a steel gate obstructing it forcing them to turn left. At the end of the left corridor they see a door that i slightly open.

 

The girls turn left and start running, Tammie and Stacey taking the lead with Laura following behind. The Doberman rounds the bend catching them with every bound. Invisible to the Tammie and Stacey is a low trip wire, hidden by the darkness. As the both reach it they, trip miss placing their feet, jarring there already slightly sprained ankles. They both tumble to the floor like rag dolls clutching at their ankles. Laura steps over the wire and in one foul swoop grabs hold of both the other girls and pulls them up. They hobble along, their ankles hurting more than before. As they reach the door, Laura pushes it open dragging the other two through the door. Laura turns around and sees how close the Doberman is growling and barking loudly, she quickly slams the door closed, and locks it. Just as she springs the lock she a loud THUMP, comes from the door. Laura stumbles backwards landing on her bottom. The Doberman whines a little and then goes quiet.

 

The girls appear relieved, as the sit there taking in a breath.

 “Crackle crackle”

 “Very good ladies, you passed another test. Let’s see how you work as a team.”

 “Crackle crackle”

Stacey and Tammie sit gently rub their ankles which are a little tender after their fall. Laura gets up and starts investigating the new room they have entered. There is a door on the other side of the room. She walks over to it, and turns the handle, but there is deadbolt fitted to the door preventing it from opening it. As she turns back around, she notices some rope on either side of the room. On the left hand side is a rope that goes up the wall to a pulley and extends across the ceiling towards the other side of the room.  There is a key loosely tied to the rope with some twine. She starts to pull on the rope, and the key starts to come across towards the pulley. There is a large knot in the rope preventing her from pulling the key through the pulley. The rope stops hard up against the pulley, with the key hanging in the middle of the room. The other end of the rope is attached to a large rubber strap that pulls against the rope as she pulls on it. When she lets go the rope springs back to its original position.  

The ceiling is around 3.5 meters high so well out of jumping reach.

She sees another larger rope on the right hand wall. This rope is looped through two pulleys extending up the wall across the ceiling to the centre of the room. So lowers the rope and it reaches down to the floor of the room.  Laura ponders the puzzle for a few minutes as Stacey and Tammie get up to see what is going on.

 Laura shows the girls the ropes. “I think I have an idea”, she exclaim.

 

“We need to work as a team. I’m the smallest and lightest here so ill tie the large rope around my waist, then you two pull  on the rope to lift me up to the ceiling. Then while one of you holds the rope and keeps me up there the other has to run to the other wall and pull that rope so that I can reach the key”.

Stacey and Tammie look at the ropes contemplating Laura’s idea. “I think that will work as well”, says Stacey.

The girls put the plan to action. Tammie helps Laura tie the large rope around her waist. Then Tammie and Stacey move over to the wall and start heaving on the large rope, slowly Laura rises off the ground.  The girls pull hard as Laura rises, now able to touch the ceiling.

 Stacey looks at Tammie, “I’ll hold the rope, you run over there and pull the key towards Laura”, Tammie nods her head, “ok”.

 Tammie releases the rope into Stacey grasps, she uses her whole body weight to hold Laura. Tammie runs to the other side of the room and starts pulling on the rope. The key moves towards Laura. Eventually the Knot in the rope reaches the pulley and Tammie can’t pull it any further. “That’s it, it won’t go anymore”.

 

Laura reaches out trying to grab the key she can just touch it with her finger tip but can grab it.

“I can’t reaaaacchh”

Laura tries again and again to reach the key, she start to swing on the rope, trying to reach the key. Stacey is struggling to hold on, “I can’t hold it much longer Laura, and you have to grab it now.”

 

Laura gives it everything thing she’s got to try and reach the key, her fingers just grab it enough to pull it into her hand, as she swings from the rope.  “I can’t hold it, it’s its slipping.”

The rope breaks free from Stacey’s grasp, she fumbles to regain her grip. Laura edges down a meter, and screams> Stacey can hold it. The rope slips through her fingers, Laura hurdles towards the floor.  Her right foot lands first, off balance, her whole body weight transfers to her right foot. Her ankle snaps outwards violently, completely rolling over under the weight of her crashing down.

 

Laura drops the key as she grasps at her right leg, as she tumbles onto her side. She squirms on the ground moaning loudly, the intense pain radiating from her ankle. Stacey and Tammie run over to her. Tammie tries to hold her still to stop moving her ankle, supporting her.

 

Stacey grabs her hand to offer support as well. “Fuck, fuck, my ankle.... it’s bad....” The girls sit there, the pain continuing to radiate from Laura’s severely sprained ankle. Stacey takes a look at her right ankle, which appears to be swelling already. “Do you think we should remove your shoe?” Stacey asks Laura.

 

“No, I think we should get moving though.”

Stacey and Tammie get on opposite sides of Laura and help her to stand. AS they start to lift her up, the pain in her ankle increases from the weight of her shoe.

 

“let me see if I can put any weight on my ankle”

 Stacey and Tammie support her, as she places her right foot down gently. She starts to transfer some weight to her ankle, and takes a very small step. “oohh arrhh, god nooo. My ankle is completely gone. I think I have torn some ligaments.”

 

The girls continue to support her, “Well help you hope Laura” Stacey exclaims. The three start to slowly make their way to the door. Tammie places the key into the dead bolt and turns the lock.

 

Tammie pushes on the door, and it opens slowly. They help Laura hop through the narrow door. The room looks long and narrow, but it too dark to see what’s in there. They only get a couple steps from the door, and it slams shut behind them.

 

The room is pitch black once the door closes. The girls stand there waiting for a few seconds. A speaker on the wall comes to life.

 

“Crackle crackle”

“Welcome to the next test, I hope you haven’t torn to many ligaments Laura! Now you must take a leap of faith.”

“Crackle crackle”

The speaker goes silent, and these giant flood lights come to life shinning straight in the girls faces.  As their eyes adjust the move forward slowly, “Stop”, yells Stacey.

The room is 3 wide and about 8 meters long. In the middle of the room is a giant pit that goes down 5 meters. It runs from walk to wall and is about 2 meters wide. The walls are flat and the ceiling is high. They can’t see what’s on the other side due to the bright lights.

 

Tammie starts to freak out, “we are going to die, I just know it.”

 Stacey helps Laura sit down, resting up against the wall. Tammie collapses down next to Laura, and starts to cry.

“I don’t want to die. This is your entire fault Stacey, I never wanted to have anything to do with it. If you never took me to that party I wouldn’t be here”

 

Stacey gets frustrated with Tammie, “Shut up you bitch I never forced you to do anything.”

 

Laura sits there her right leg stretched straight out, the pain radiating from her ankle still.

Laura pipes in, “Shut up you to. Tammie we are not going to die.”

 

Stacey stands up and walks back towards the pit, she try’s to block the light to see what’s on the other side. She looks down the pit, it’s completely black. 

 

She takes and steps back and paces her way back to the door. She stands there pondering for a few minutes. She makes her way back to the girls and kneels down next to Laura.

 

“What do you think we should do Stacey?” Laura asks.

“A leap of faith, I think one of us has to jump over there. Obvious Tammie isn’t going to do it so I will.”

“Ok, do you think you can jump that far?”

“Yeah I think I can get enough of a run up.”

“Ok then, before you go can you help me remove my shoe and sock, my ankle is to swollen for this shoe.”

 

Stacey looks down at Laura’s Right ankle It has swollen to the size of a softball.

Stacey gently unties the shoes laces on Laura’s runner and then she feeds the laces out of the loops, loosening up her shoe as much as possible.

“Tammie, stop crying and help me”

Tammie wipes her tears away, and calms down. “Tammie I need you to lift her leg up while I support her ankle and remove her shoe and sock.”

“Ok”

 

Tammie grabs hold of Laura’s lower leg and starts to gently lift it up, Stacey cups Laura’s foot in her hands as it lifts up. “Ok Laura, I’m going to get your shoe off, this is probably going to hurt.”

“I’m ready, just get it off.”

 

Stacey starts to work the shoe of slowly. “aaahhh, arrrhhh”

Her ankle is so swollen that the shoe is firmly held on. She wiggles the shoe trying to work it off. Slowly the shoe comes off. Laura’s slim size 7 foot, rests in Stacey palm now.

“Oh that feels better already”, Ok let’s get your sock off.

Stacey once again works the sock slowly off. First uncovering her heel and then gently sliding it off the rest of her foot. Once the sock is removed, Laura lets out a loud sigh of relief. Stacey looks at Laura’s ankle. The inside and outside of her ankle is completely swollen. They slowly lower Laura’s Foot back down resting her heel on her sock that’s on the ground.

 

Stacey stands up, “Ok I have to do this, I can do this”.

 

She paces back to the door where they came through. She leans up against the wall, and preps herself to go. She pushes off the wall, and starts sprinting towards the pit. She reaches the pit and springs of her left foot, she flies over the pit, blinded the extremely bright lights being shown in her eyes.  As she nears the other side, she mistakenly reaches with her right foot. As she goes to land, the toe of her shoe catches something on the ground, her ankle goes over as her body weight comes crashing down on top of it. She feels something pop in her ankle. Her momentum sends her tumbling along the floor. When she stops she starts cursing out loud. “Ffffaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrkkkkkk Fuck oh fuck.”

 

Laura looks at Tammie, “help me up please.”

 

Tammie helps Laura up, she holds her delicate foot, and severely sprained ankle just off the ground as she slowly hops towards the pit.  “Stacey, what happened? Are you ok?” Unable to see past the bright lights, Tammie and Laura can’t tell what happened.

 

“Stacey?”

 

Stacey finally replies, “I’m Here, I have fucked my ankle. It felt like something popped in my right ankle.”

Laura knows that Stacey has severely sprained her right ankle as well.

 

Stacey lays there holding her foot and ankle for a few minutes, as the pain settles to a deep throbbing, she start to look around. There appears to be several timber planks spread all over the floor. It was this that she landed on causing her to injure her ankle.  She knows she has to get up.

 

“Laura, there are large planks of timber over here. I think they are long enough to reach the other side. I will try and move them, stand back.”

 

Laura takes a few small hops rearward, and Tammie stands next to her for support.

Stacey composes herself, she knows this is going to be excruciating but she has no choice. She pulls herself up of the floor onto her knees, then using her left leg she slowly stand up. As she stands the pain increases in her ankle, as the blood flows to her foot. She composes herself again, “you can do this Stacey, you can do it.”

 

She tries to reaffirm to herself that she is strong enough o do it. She takes a step on her right foot, pain radiates instantly up her leg and through her foot. “Aarrrhh” she grimaces loudly. She manages to move around by applying a little pressure on her ankle and also slowly hopping. She lifts up the first plank, and rests it on its end and then pushes it towards the other side of the pit. The plank falls through the air and goes crashing down on the other side. Laura calls out to her, “That’s going to work Stacey.” Stacey painfully keeps going there are 5 planks on the ground. She picks up the second one and slowly moves it the pit, and drops it into position. The third goes the same, lading safely across the pit. She picks up the fourth, as she is very slowly moving closer to the pit, she applies a little too much pressure to her ankle, and she crumbles in pain. “Aarrrhh, fuck my ankle.” Dropping the plank, it tumbles down into the pit. She clutches at her now swollen ankle. Stacey takes a moment, as the pain from putting too much pressure on her ankle takes over her thoughts. After a minute she pulls herself together, and manages to stand back up. Only able to hop now she slowly moves around, grabbing the last plank. She manoeuvres it into position, and sends it falling. It crashes down onto the other side of the pit. Seconds later Stacey sits down crippled by the pain radiating from her ankle. 

 

Tammie does her best to arrange the planks into some sort of bridge. To narrow for two people to cross side by side, and to weak for two people to cross as once.

 

Laura looks at Tammie, “you go first and help Stacey.” Tammie does not think twice and quickly scurries across the wobbly bridge.  Laura knows she won’t be able to hop across the bridge afraid that it may move and she will tumble into the pit below.

 

She extends her right foot forward and places it on the ground she transfers her weight and takes a small step. “Aarrggh...” Every step more painful than the last she slowly makes her way across the bridge. “Almost there, almost there”, she repeats to herself as she moves forward only a matter of inches every step.

 

“Five more steps, Four more steps, three more steps, two more steps, one more step.”

She reaches the other side safely. By the time she gets there Tammie has helped Stacey remove her shoe and sock, Stacey’s ankle now just as swollen as Laura’s.

Tammie helps Stacey up, she hops holding her right foot just off the ground. Laura and Stacey now both using Tammie for support they slowly move toward the door, Tammie swings it open, they enter the room, slowly. The lights come on, and the girls take a seat on the ground Laura and Stacey comfort each other both in a fair amount of pain from walking on their badly sprained ankles.

 

“Crackle crackle”

“Very good ladies, one last test and you’re on your way home. Tammie seen as though you are the last person standing, literally, you now have to make a choice. In the cupboard is a hammer. You can choose to break your own ankle and share in the pain your friends feel, or be the selfish person you are and break your friend’s ankles.

 

Stacey and Laura look at each other, while they share the same thought. Surely Tammie will do it to herself and not to them.

“You can do it Tammie, you can break your ankle”, Stacey exclaims.

Tammie, walks towards the cupboard and opens the door. Sitting on the middle shelf is a brand new hammer. She grabs the hammer, her brain in over drive in what she is going to do. She moves back towards the girls and sits down. She moves her left foot in front of her, and moves the hammer up and down as if she is going to do it.

 

“No i can’t do it” AS she swings the hammer she aims for Laura’s left ankle. Laura is too quick and moves her left leg out of the way, as the hammer bashes into the concrete floor. Laura lurches forward and grabs hold of the hammer. Tammie and Laura wrestle for the hammer, as Stacey gets up and hops around to grab the hammer. “Get the hammer Stacey”, Laura shouts. “If she won’t break her ankle we will do it for the selfish bitch.”

The dark side of Tammie now exposed, the girls wrestle for the hammer. Stacey manages to grab pull the hammer from Tammies grasp, but it goes flying across the room. Stacey turns to hop after it, but Tammie trips her with her leg. Stacey goes crashing down on the floor.

 

Laura breaks free and pulls herself away from Tammie. Tammie grabs her sprained ankle and starts to squeeze it. Laura screams, in pain as Tammie twists her ankle more and more. “’Stop Stop”. Stacey drags herself up and starts to crawl towards the hammer, Laura tries to break free but the pain from Tammie twisting her severely sprain ankle is too much. She gives in, and goes limp. Tammie releases Laura’s ankle. Laura grabs her ankle, in tears the pain radiating more than ever.  Tammie gets up and hurry’s over towards the hammer, Stacey sees her coming and makes one desperate lung, grasping the handle in her hand. Tammie too grabs the hammer, and they wrestle on the ground. Stacey can see Laura starting to move closer out of the corner of her eye. Laura drags her severely sprained ankle along the ground as she moves closer. Stacey breaks free and slides the hammer onto the ground before grabbing hold of Tammie. Tammie and Stacey wrestle as Laura draws closer and closer to the hammer. Tammie grabs Stacey’s sprained ankle and with one fast motion, twists it violently. Her ankle lets out a loud pop, another ligament has completely snapped. Stacey crumbles into tears, grasping her ankle.

 

Laura grabs the hammer, Tammie turns around. Stacey grabs Tammie holding her still. Laura swings the hammer high and brings it down crashing towards her left ankle. Tammie tries to move her foot up and out of the way, but the shaft of the hammer catches her leg. The force of the swing pushes her leg outwards, her toes connecting with the concrete. The force from the hammer pushing against her leg, her bones are too strong the pressure is transferred to her ankle. Enough force that her ankle is forced out of its socket and dislocates. Her left foot now pointed sharply inwards, Tammie screams as she realises her ankle is dislocated. Laura throws the hammer across the room before collapsing in pain from her own ankle.

 

The girls are so pre occupied, that haven’t realised that the room has slowly been filling with gas. They start to cough. Stacey tries to crawl towards the door, but within a few seconds they all pass out.

 

 

A FEW HOURS LATER

“Everyone over here I think I have found them”

 

 

THE NEXT MORNING

Laura’s eyes start to flutter, as she awakens. Her vision blurred, her senses impeded. She slowly comes too as she awakes to find herself in a hospital bed. The Nurse sees her awaken. Stacey and Tammie slowly start to wake as well. All three girls are in one room together.

 

They are all confused and dazed, not sure what happened. Was it a bad dream? Laura tries to move her legs when she is met with a very sharp pain in her right ankle. She sits up a little to see her right ankle bandaged and encased within an air cast. She looks around, Stacey too has an air cast on her right ankle, and Tammie has her leg raised in a sling with what looks like a plaster cast.

 

“What, What happened”, Laura curiously questions the nurse.

 

“Oh honey, don’t you remember anything from last night. You three girls where at a party, when you wondered off into the nearby woods with a bloke, he said you started running and got separated. He returned to raise the alarm when he couldn’t find you. They found you this morning. All three of you were within 100 meters of each other. You and Stacey have severely sprained ankles, and Tammie has a dislocated ankle.  You have torn your ATFL completely and Stacey has torn her ATFL and CTFL. You will both be on crutches for several months and require physio therapy. Tammie dislocated her ankle and has torn all the ligaments, and is scheduled for surgery next week. You are all very lucky. The boy that raised the alarm left you some flowers this morning.”

 

The nurse points to the flowers next to Laura’s bed. Laura pulls herself up enough to grab the little card attached to the flowers. She opens the card and it reads, “Treat others as you wish to be treated.”

 

The End