One day last spring, my class got an invitation to go to a big house for an entire weekend. One strange thing was that no teachers were allowed to come along. Little did I know that I would be spending it in the cellar of a big house, chained up to a wall in a dungeon!
We went there by bus on Friday afternoon after school. We got there by 5 o’clock, and we were greeted by a man wearing black robes, like a magician. He brought us into a big room, where a bunch of other kids was already waiting. There were two rows of plastic chairs, one row red and the other one blue. He told us to sit down, my class on his right side (i.e. the red side) and the other kids on the left. Somehow, none of us felt like talking.
“Welcome all of you,†he said, with a gravelly voice that sent shivers down all of our spines. No other introduction was made. We all noticed he was always talking in an archaic fashion. “You are here to play a game! Here are the rules: two kids, one boy and one girl from each team will ‘volunteer’ to be taken prisoners and held in the dungeon of this big house. Who it will be, will best be decided by drawing straws. They will then be brought before me, and will be taken from here to the place of your detention. The task of your classmates will be to free you. It may sound simple, but beware; I will be out there as well, and if you get caught by me, you will join the ones already in the dungeon. So your task will be twofold, free your classmates in the shortest amount of time and avoid me! You will have until this time on Sunday to complete this task, so there will be plenty of time. But beware, you will not be allowed to leave before then, even if you have completed the task!
There are four dormitories already set up for you; two for the girls and two for the boys. There are clothes laid out for you in there, in the same colours as the chairs. Put them on, as fast as you can. There will a meal served shortly. Before that, you will conduct the drawing of the straws in your rooms. Now go in silence!â€
We all looked at each other, but quickly did as he said. We all had an eerie feeling that it would not be a wise thing to do, not to do as we were told when we were told to do it. He told the others to wait in the room, and brought us to two rooms. He opened the doors with a set of keys he had in his belt, pointed at them and said: “Boys! In here! Girls! In there!†We went in and found some beds that stood along the walls of the room creating an empty space in the middle of the room. In a pile on one of the beds were the clothes. Each set, consisting of pantyhose and a jumpsuit made out of some coarse material, was neatly tagged with our name and all of them bright red. We once again looked at each other in silence, shrugged, but changed into them. We soon found out, they were a perfect fit. On the table in the middle of the room, lay some sticks, one noticeably shorter than the other ones. One of us boys gathered up the straws, and we proceeded to take one each. To my horror, I got the short one, and the others looked at me with sadness in their eyes.
We went out of the room and went down to the vast dining room. Shortly thereafter, we were joined by the others and we sat down to eat. I can’t remember what we ate. I was too nervous to notice, anyway. It could just as well have been cold refried porridge, for all I cared. During the whole meal, the room was so quiet; you could hear a pin drop. No one said a word. When we all had finished, I along with one girl from my class and a boy and a girl from the other team went up to the man. On his silent command, we turned around and faced the room:â€Behold!†he said. “These are the four selected, for you to try to liberate, during the course of this weekend! Now, say goodbye to all your classmates, for you will probably not see them until this time on Sunday.â€
Having said that, he cuffed the hands of the four of us on our backs and told the others to remain in the room, until he came back.
He marched us down some stairs, and up to four doors, He opened each one of them, pointed at the first one, then at me and said:â€You! Get in!†I went in and he stood me up against the wall. Then he released my hands and told me to raise them above my head. I did as I was told, (as I said, there was not much point in arguing with the man) and he put my hands in cuffs attached directly onto the wall so I could do little else except sand up straight. Then he ordered me to spread my legs, so I would be forced to stand like an ‘X’. Then he said he’d be back in a little while to see how I was doing and slammed the door shut leaving me all alone.