Chapter 2: Kat

Kat stared at the man in front of her. He was sitting down in front of her. He was not moving. He had a hood on his head, so she couldn't see his face. She was tied down to a chair. Her arms were secured to the armrests. She felt groggy, but she was becoming more and more aware by the minute. Her feet were cold. They were bare.

"Please state your full name," a low computerized voice could be heard.

Though he was hidden in the shadow, the voice didn't seem entirely to be coming from him. He was in front of her. But the voice came from above. She shuddered when her eyes began to adjust to the dark.

"Please state your full name. You have five seconds to comply."

Kat was confused. Where was she? How did she get here? Who was asking these questions? And then suddenly, a few seconds later, an intense pain for just a brief second fired up into her legs. It felt like it had originated at her two big toes. It was painful. Extraordinarily painful. It felt as if her toe had momentarily caught fire, and from that nydus a wave of pain and contraction gripped her seizing legs.

She began to panic. More questions swam in her head.

"The next round of punishment will double in length of time. Please state your full name. You have five seconds to comply."

Kat was a slurry of emotions. She was terrified. Confused. And
absolutely furious. Where was she? Who was doing this to her?

"Where am I? Who are you?" She shouted, "Why are you holding me? Let me go! Do you know who I am?"

Another jolt of electricity, but this time lasting two seconds, shot
through her legs. God that was painful! It felt similar to the cramps she would get sometimes after playing tennis for too long with her friends, but instead of one muscle, it was hitting all of the muscles in her legs and feet at the same time. And it was much more painful. And that sensation in her toe. She had been burnt once when hot water from a cup had once fallen on her thigh. This felt like the same burning pain, but several times worse. It was unbearably intense, painful, and uncomfortable all at the same time. It was difficult to describe.

"Once again, please state your full name. The punishment will be
doubled again to a total time of four seconds if you fail to comply. You have five seconds to answer."

Kat was dumbfounded, and in the middle of an anxiety attack at the same time. Confused, dazed. Scared. She had so many questions. But that pain. And that voice. She knew she didn't want to feel that pain again. And that voice seemed to control the pain. Her anger had quickly turned into fear. She knew she needed to give an answer, but before she could, another wave of electricity hit her toes.

"Gahhhhh!" she cried out in agony as the current coursed through her legs.

After four seconds, she gasped for air.

"Katherine Alice Robertson!" she cried out. She began to cry.

"Please state your birthdate and current age."

"I'm twelve years old," Kat said between her sobs, "I was born January 28th, in 2004."

"Please state your address."

Why her address? What did he want to know that for? She was still confused, but she feared another shock. She didn't know if she could handle eight more seconds of that kind of pain. She quickly gave a response.

"I live at 4653 Willowcreek Drive, in a suburb just north of New York City."

"Please give the name of your school and what grade you are in."

"I'm in seventh grade. I go to Haley-Cromwell."

"What are the names of your parents?"

"It's Jessica Robertson and Michael Robertson."

"And what are the names and ages of your brothers and sisters?"

"I have a younger brother. His name is James. And I have a younger sister. Her name is Michelle. James is nine. Michelle is nine, too. They're twins."

"Who is your best friend?"

Kat was confused. Why all these questions? And they were all so
personal. She barely had time to process the purpose of any of them. But she knew the answers. And she did not want to be hurt anymore.

"You have five seconds to respond."

"I... I... I don't have a best friend? I have a lot of friends, but I
don't know if I have one?"

"Name five of your closest friends then."

"Well, uh... well there's Grace," Kat said in between sniffles, "And
then there's Jacky, Jessica, Rebecca, and then... maybe Sam?"

"Do you like Sam?"

"Wait, what? No, well, no... I don't like Sam, he's just... a
friend."

"Does Sam like you?"

"I... I don't know! How would I know that? He's never said anything about that."

"Do you like anybody?"

Kat was starting to feel extraordinarily confused. And embarrassed.

"You have five seconds to comply."

These questions started out fairly personal, but she had given her name and basic information many times. Asking whether or not she liked anybody was not something she felt comfortable talking about. And certainly not to a stranger. But if she didn't answer soon, she knew the next thing she would feel would be extreme pain.

"I... I..."

And then she felt the shock. It caught her mid sentence, and she cried out in a loud voice that lasted nearly the entire length of the shock. All eight seconds of it. If four seconds was bad, eight seconds was several times worse. The pain was so bad she felt like she could not breathe. When it was over, she felt winded. She needed to catch her breath.

"Who do you like?"

Kat stammered, "R-r-roy. Roy Feldman."

She began to cry again. This was getting too personal.

"And who is Roy Feldman?"

"He's a boy. He's actually in the tenth grade. He plays football."

"And where did you meet him?"

"I met him at church, actually."

"What do you like about him?"

"I don't know? He's cute? He's nice, I guess? I don't know. It's
just a stupid crush."

"Are you Facebook friends?"

"Yes."

"Do you have a Twitter account? And email?"

"Yes, I guess. Of course I do. Everyone does."

"Do you go through his pictures on Facebook?"

"Who, Roy? Yeah, I guess."

"What is your Facebook login and password?"

"Wait, what? I can't give you that!"

And then almost instantly a jolt of electricity coursed through her
legs, except it was for sixteen seconds. Those were the longest sixteen seconds of her life. She didn't know if she even breathed during the shock. Her legs were shaking now. Her forehead now dripped with perspiration. Her lips trembled.

"What is your Facebook login and password? You have five seconds to comply."

"I... hold on. I need time to remember it. I can't remember it. You need to give me more time, please!"

Thirty two seconds of electricity coursed through her feet and legs.
When the current ended, Kat was nearly delirious with pain and exhaustion. Her legs were trembling violently now. She could feel a warmth developing in between her legs. She had wet herself.

"You have five seconds to comply. If the login and password are wrong, you will be punished. And the time will be doubled."

"Oh god," She cried, "I'll tell you. Please,"

"The first letter is capital T," she choked in between sobs, "Capital T, then the rest are lower case. T, i, g, e, r, g, i, r, then l. Then the numbers 5, 3, 1, 8, and 9."

"And the password is, 4, f, i, s, h, 1, n, the 'at' symbol, b, a, r, r,
e, l, 2, then 4."

Almost a minute elapsed. And then the voice returned.

"And your Twitter account and password."

Without hesitation Kat gave her Twitter account and password. Another minute elapsed.

"Your Social Security number."

Kat gave that too. It was hopeless to resist. This voice was
eventually going to get everything from her anyways. There was no sense. The pain was too great. And it doubled every time. Kat didn't remember how long exactly the last episode of electricity was supposed to go for. But that last time was too long. Having it doubled for the next round of electricity was not an option for her. She was going to tell the voice anything.

But then questions ended.

"Pay attention carefully to what is said next."

Kat was paying attention.

"From now on, you will do exactly as I say. If you fail to comply
within five seconds of every command, you will be electrocuted. The next round of electrocution will last approximately one minute. Every additional round will be doubled in length. If you try to remove the electrodes from your toes, you will be punished severely. Remove the electrodes on your toes, and they won't go on your toes anymore. They will go in your pussy. They will go on your nipples. And you will be electrocuted for hours. Do not, I repeat, do not remove the electrodes."

Kat froze in fear. Did he just say 'pussy'? Nobody had spoken to her like that before. She knew what it meant. It meant that he was talking about that area 'down there,' or her 'private parts.' Who would do such a thing? Nobody was supposed to touch it, let alone talk about it. She was in total disbelief. That area was supposed to be private. It was supposed to be a secret, a special place. Did he just say he was going to hurt her there? And with the same thing, whatever they were, electrodes, that was creating such terrible in her toes? And did he just say nipples? She was confused. There was too much going on. She hardly had any time to process it. Whatever the case, she got the message. She wasn't going to touch the electrodes on her toes. She was just going to do whatever the voice told her to do. Anything to avoid those shocks again.

"By now, everybody is aware of your disappearance from home. You've been gone for three days. While you were sleeping off your sedatives, everyone has been looking for you. You've made the news. World-wide. Already. See for yourself."

A flat-screen monitor turns on in one of the dark corners of the room. CNN was playing. It's volume was on fairly low, but she could make out most everything that was being said on it. Kat could see her face in the corner of the broadcast featuring the anchorwoman who had been reporting her disappearance. Another monitor turns on. It's FOX news.

"As if you weren't famous enough already... It's been a few months since you've been on the big screen. But this time the whole world is going to see a different side of you. Katherine, the star of the show. Or is it Kat? I can see that's how your friends have been addressing you through your messages with them. How interesting. Kat, then. A perfect face, a perfect body, with perfect talent, from a perfect family, living in a perfect world..."

Kat's head started to swim. The man in front of her moved quickly to remove the table in front of her. He undid her wrist restraints. He grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her up to stand, and then he removed the chair from behind her, leaving the room shortly after. She was all by herself now. She was shaking. She had never been this scared before. The boomed again from above. It wasn't coming from the man in front of her. It was coming from someone else. And they were looking through her accounts.

"Well you're certainly going to perform for us again. Are you ready? I've set up TV monitors on the wall in front of you so that you can see. Some of them are playing the news, others are showing your live Twitter feed. This one though, and because I want you to pay attention to it, it's right in front of you, next to a playback of the live feed. It's showing live anonymous comments. I've set up a link next to your streaming video so they can comment on it anonymously. This way you can see that you're being watched. A million eyes or more are on you now. Look at all those comments, streaming in already! The public is certainly showing their concern. I bet they're anxiously awaiting news that you're OK. That you're alive. What better way to show them you're still around by posting your first tweet in days? But look. There it is. A link to a live streaming video that I posted a few minutes earlier. Want to see what happens if I click it? No? Well too bad. Let's click it anyways."

A video of her appeared on the screen in front of her, to the right of the monitor showing her Twitter feed, and just below it the screen showing anonymous comments. It was like staring into a mirror. On the other side of the live video feed was CNN, reporting live on her story. It was prime time for news. And she was the center of attention.

Hold on, she could hear the anchorwoman say quietly in the distance. 'More breaking news to this story. I'm being told that the missing actress has just posted a tweet. It appears to be a link to a video of some sort. This is live, breaking news, folks. We're being told the video is showing the young girl standing alone in a room. She appears to be safe, thank goodness.'

Kat could hear everything that was being said. Her head was spinning. This wasn't really happening. Was the whole world really watching her like this?

Suddenly more lights in the room turned on. Her pale skin accented against the dull grey background of the room's walls. Kat closed her eyes to protect them from the sudden increase of light.

She looked down at her feet. She could see a loop wrapping around both her toes, and wires that traveled from her toes to the front of the room, disappearing into a hole at the bottom.

"Look into the camera," the voice commanded from above.

Kat looked ahead and spotted a semi-spherical camera just above the monitor displaying the live video. It had a dark reflective lens and a blinking red dot on its side. It was attached to a hydraulic
multi-segmented arm. In fact, now that the lights were on, she noticed four more cameras at the top corners of the room, all with blinking with red lights.

"You will look into the camera and state your full name. And this next part is important. You will then say the words 'I know I am being watched.' And then. Are you ready for this? And then, you will take off all your clothes. Do you understand?"

Kat felt herself slipping. Was this a dream? This was all happening so fast. It was one thing to answer all those personal questions. It's a totally different thing to take off all her clothes. She had never been naked in front of anybody before. Well, except her mom. And maybe the doctor. This was unreal. She was in pure disbelief. Was she really being filmed right now? And was the voice being truthful? Was the whole world truly watching? Everyone. In the world. Was going to watch her undress?

"Do you understand, Katherine Robertson? You have five seconds to state that you understand."

Kat took a quick breath. She remembered what would soon happen if after five seconds she did not do as she was told.

"I... I... think I do."

"Do what?"

"Understand. I think I understand," Kat's voice trembled softly.

"Then repeat what you are to do once I tell you to do it."

"You want me to," Kat said quietly, tears welling up in her eyes, "You want me to say my name. And then you want me to say that I know I am being watched. And then... then... you want me to take off my clothes. In front of the world."

Tears were streaming.

"Good girl. That's exactly what I want you to do. And if you don't,
you know what happens next. Are you ready?"

Kat stared dumbfoundedly ahead. Everyone was watching. Everyone all around the world. She didn't believe it.

"You may begin. Time starts now."

Kat stared at the camera blankly. A red dot began to blink on the side of the camera.

Everyone.

Was.

Watching.

"My name is Katherine Robertson."