Hell week

Sophia Vikat talked animatedly over the phone with her children. She made sure they were keeping up with their grades and minding their grandparents. She tried to maintain their routines to keep them from falling into depression. She told herself she needed to give them every moment of normal mothering until she couldn't anymore.

The phone calls were special dispensations provided to Sophie for her good behavior. She'd already had several lively conversations about growing up outside the Central region with her new Death Watch nurse Sarah. She even shared the so called last meal of eggs and grits with her.

She was grateful for Sarah's company, she reminded her so much of her dearly departed socialite sister. In fact, this whole thing started because of her instincts for hospitality. There had never been a stray soul she wasn't willing to help.

Now Sarah was here to help her record her final statements and sign final paperwork over to her parents. She had already expressly forbidden the family from accepting the Witness cards. She wanted to be remembered in a certain positive way. 

When she finished assigning heirs and talking about the memory she wanted to leave behind, Sarah returned with a wheelchair and minimal soft restraints.

“Alrighty Miss Sophie, I'm going to need you to remove your clothing, yes all of it please. Don't worry, I'm a nurse!”

This wasn't the first time since incarceration she'd had to do this but it always felt humiliating.

“We've got a bar over here on the wall, if you would just hold on to it, there we go! Now, no need to feel embarrassed, but you've had kids right?”

“I…yes ma'am, seven total.”

“Oh good, so you're familiar with continence protection?”

“I suppose, but only short term after all the physicality involved in pregnancy and birthing.”

“Well okay this might be a little different. We're going to tape you into this oversized Mega Brief. I chose pink since it's our favorite color.”

Sophie tried not to feel embarrassed as the nurses diapered her standing there. They added a transparent plastic panty over top the bulk and tightened it at the waist and gussets with hidden chains. The diaper was already heavy between her legs but as the chains tightened, it pulled closer and she became extremely aware of the encompassing pressure.

Next they powdered up her skin and slid her into a tight pink and black latex onesie. She assured Sarah she was okay but deep down she felt like a latex baby doll sec toy. It felt obscene. Worst was how tight it all was, the garments making her feel trapped already.

The next step was wrist, ankle, and waist padded restraint belts. But the hardest was the thick neck brace that made it impossible to look down or around. Finally she got a few injections, including a painful one on either side of her jaw. It was a temporary paralytic that caused her to lose control of those muscles. Sarah then guided her much more unbalanced body back to the wheelchair. A nurse thoughtfully strapped what felt like a towel or adult Bible around her neck for the slack jawed drool.

She began to feel like a total invalid as they moved her down the hall. The shame gave way to fear at the sight of the Vault door. Sarah scanned her face and palm before red lights flashed green and the heavy door opened whisper quiet into a smallish rectangular room.

There were three platforms slightly raised off the floor supporting two upright metallic poles each. They faced a floor to ceiling mirror that made the antiseptic smelling room seem much bigger. Nurses were already busily wheeling coveted carts and equipment into the room now that it was unsealed. They seemed focused for now on the farthest stage, the one Sarah guided her towards.

Sophie felt nauseated. Enter the death chamber was like stepping over into the all-too-fucking-real. She waited as they laid a thick black rubber mat between the two poles that stood about 4 feet apart side by side. Then they were moving again. Helping her out of the chair, and down onto her knees on the mat. None of them said much besides easy instructions and none said a damn thing about her humiliating attire. Instead they used small chains to clip onto her ankle cuffs and anchored to each back corner of the platform respectively, then ratcheted them nearly taut.

The rubber mat was forgiving of her knees while she watched a pair of nurses approach from the back and front. She saw a thick metal board with two small half moons and a larger one in the middle, all three along its inner long edge. They had her straighten her back before closing in and guiding the large half moon up to her braced neck, then locked the ends with clamps to either pole. Hands guided her wrists up until her skin just under the edge of her cuffs was pushed gently into the smaller half moons. In seconds the second half slid in from behind completing the moon and trapping her in the horizontal stocks. She felt the back half lock to its forward mate on the poles magnetically. With cuffs above and flush with the surface, she was totally unable to slip her hands from the imprisoning circles. Already her back twinged as she couldn't slouch now even if she wanted to.

Sarah told her she was still there and helpfully began to braid Sophie's hair out of the way. Her bib was pulled off sometime during the moments she was distracted. She watched the mirror as they hooked what looked a lot like bungee cords between her waist belt and each pole on either side. Now her side to side movement was seriously limited.

Sophie's heart rate increased as she felt increasingly trapped. The clock on the wall ticked away her last minutes as she anxiously flexed her fingers and toes. She could hear a faint jingle of chain as she shifted trying to get some relief for her spine.

A faceless nurse in a surgical mask walked up with narrowed eyes and wiped Sophie's face before carefully sliding a metallic chin cup up under her chin and locking it to the neck brace and table-like board. With her weight and position pressing down on the snugly fit cup, her mouth was forced shut better than any gag. 

For the next ten minutes Sarah watched helplessly as two other younger women dressed like her in slightly different colors were brought in with varying levels of impotent defiance until all three knelt in their stocks and chains. Sophie watched fear and despair become ascendant on each face. The youngest, possibly only 18 or 19, whimpered like a cornered animal.

Sophie lost sight of them as her view was suddenly blocked by pink scrubs. She wanted to make eye contact but Sarah was humming and rubbing something oily into Sophie's hair and head while Sophie stared at the uncomfortably close crotch. 

Changing gloves, Sarah finally placed a heavy metal helmet on Sophie's head. It slid on over the oil but was still very tight. That and it covered her entire head and even had a faceplate with holes for her eyes, nose, ears, and even a small exit for her braid. The weight lessened somewhat as it was locked to her chin cup and brace, but the oppressive nature freaked her out. She both wanted to know its purpose and yet really really didn't.

Sure enough, they all gave her space to go to the next platform and the mirror showed the sci-fi helmet in all its suffocating glory. Her mouth was obscured behind a metal plate and the whole ensemble looked like a mad science experiment. The strangest part was the 6 inch threaded bolt with a large wing nut on top. It was dead center atop the helm but she also started to make out smaller wing nut-like protrusions all over the thing. 

Before her mind could work itself up any more, Sarah said something that sounded far away before the mirror shimmered and they were suddenly joined by a whole other audience chamber full of witnesses. She scanned them with shocked eyes, seeing grim faced professionals and teary eyed families. Then her heart skipped a beat as she spotted her eldest daughter and the girl's girlfriend. No! She'd told everyone to stay away!

She tried to wave off her daughter or call out to Sarah. Her helpless frantic efforts rewarded her with a small wave from Evie. They'd come to watch her die, and already she choked on shame.

The humiliation increased as a line of youngish faces filed in. They looked like a high school or college field trip. At least they dressed up. It wasnt a fucking leisure theater with popcorn after all!

She would've grit her teeth if they weren't already clenched together. Sophie didn't think she'd ever felt such a toxic mix of shame, fear, and self loathing. 

“Ladies and Gentlemen! Thank you for your patience! Before we begin, if you feel you must leave at any time, please remember reentry is not allowed. Okay, we're 2 minutes until 10 AM, and I'll do my best to make sure you get your free lunch in a timely period before crematory retrieval.”

“First off, we have Sophia aka Sophie Vikat. She's here before you today convicted of aiding and abetting enemy agents over multiple occasions. Her sentence is death. Next is Amy Wellings….and Sonya Joan…these women have all been condemned to die before you today. As they pray and repent, ensure you as witnesses take refuge in justice being done today.”

“My name is Executrix Sarah Hayes, and today I will be performing three little known executions called Cranial Impaction. These large helmets are made of separate interlocking panels capable of tightening down with the pressure equal to 5 tons and closing on the size of an orange. We go incrementally tighter until the occupants' brain waves cease. Please watch your holo monitors carefully!”

“ It is now 10 AM, we will begin with Miss Vikat.”

Sarah stepped up behind Sophie and donned mechanic gloves as Sophie's heart beat wildly. Sophie began to whimper like a child as Sarah tightened a few screws seemingly at random until gripping the center bolt. Sophie could feel the steel headband bite into the crown of her head.

She wept and willed her daughter to look away as her bladder nerves gave way and the padding between her legs yellowed and expanded. She expected more but quickly realized Sarah had moved on to Amy. She sucked deep breaths in through her nose as a light headache began at her temples. 

A full minute passed for Sophie's sore neck, back, and head before Sarah returned. This time the pressure on her skull cap increased downward pressure instead of the sides. She could feel her teeth and facial bones creak. She felt intense claustrophobia in the embrace, and watched as several audience members rubbed their temples in sympathy.

The next minute came and Sophie could swear she could feel her very bones flex as her blood pressure increased to keep up. The headband was terribly uncomfortable now. Show felt like her head was being reshaped.

At the beginning of the fourth minute, the downward pressure increased again and Sophie felt her jaw pop ever so slightly but the resulting nerve pain felt like she'd been hit by lightning. Her questing tongue could feel cracks forming in her once beautiful teeth. Now old fillings were flexing to push out.

In the fifth minute Sophie's vision went partially blurry as her skull did in fact shift shape under the unyielding steel. A migraine wormed through her brain and she became sensitive to the smallest sensations. The lights were too bright and left shining artifact ‘smears’ and ‘cuts’ in her vision, the sound of her pounding pulse alone was torture. Copper soon outdid all tastes and smells.

But it wasn't until the sixth that her impressive endurance caved and her ear canals were pressed shut and her eyes began to physically bulge past her desperately clenched eyelids. Her enamel turned to bone dust and coated her mouth. She could just make out horrified faces before her vision slowly came and went in blinding light. Blood began to drip from her right nostril why she desperately sucked air down a narrowing channel.

None of the three consciously realized it but the whimpers, moans, and screams all devolved into grunting exhalations of air. The full sixth minute ticked by painfully slow for the condemned. 

Sophie's hands had turned into palsied claws that jerked erratically toward the helmet. Blood oozed into a small puddle next to the chin cup and down to the rubber mat. Her hips swayed and bucked violently as the time crawled.

Sarah monitored them closely. She even winced when tiny Amy's jaw broke fairly early. Sophie and Sonya were made of tougher stuff though.

The seventh turn was the first to truly begin to damage the brain. The effects were different for each woman. Sonya actually became more volatile in fighting her restraints. Amy went rigid and defecated loudly into her brief. Thank God the whole uniform latex was a disposable package! Sophie seemed unchanged until her eyes began to drift in two different bulging directions. Sure to cause extreme vertigo if she wasn't blind yet. Either way the anti nausea and adrenaline shots were doing their work!

The eighth turn caused the others to join Amy in total incontinence. Sarah was curious just what was being registered by her patient's but could do little but monitor the brain waves and heartbeat of her spastic charges.

Sophie was all too conscious the moment her teeth shattered and shards sunk into her gums and tongue. That kind of pain transcends mild brain damage. And because of the bloody hell in her ruined mouth, her eyelids sprung wide and she was startled when her left eye exited its socket to hang down the faceplate giving a horrible disjointed view until her right eye simply popped like a balloon under pressure and oozing everywhere.

Many audience members exited as their loved ones visibly defecated, lost their eyes and skulls deformed unrecognizably. Others stayed grimly or even a few fascinated. 

Sophie's mind was agony incarnate. She shamelessly shit, pissed, struggled, and tried to flail. ‘Gosh darn its’ turned to shrieking demonic ‘FUCK's’ echoing around inside. Her vertebrae ground together and every ruined tooth shot electric nerve pain with every pulse in her compressed brain. She growled like an injured she wolf. She humped her hips back and forth trying anything for a sliver of relief. But no. She was forced to wait out her long minute, as procedure prescribed. Even Sarah couldn't diverge that much from allowed tolerances for each turn.

But finally on the ninth, brain matter pushed the remains of Sophie's eyes from her skull. Memories of her children, her first kiss, her sister, all slid down her cheeks, wiping away what made her Sophie and leaving behind a vessel of pain. 

Sonya choked on broken teeth and she simply forgot how to breathe. Amy was luckiest, with her heart stopping when her eyes imploded.

But Sophie's short term memory was all too intact and she remained present as parts of her body shut down. She aspirated blood until the tenth turn shattered her skull and sent killing bone shards deep.

Sarah announced completion at 10:11AM. 

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Hell week day 2 complete!