Monica felt her heart race as she pulled into the parking lot. The security guard had checked her ID and let her in. The twenty year old college sophomore had enjoyed her time at Georgia Tech, however, knowing that the Draconian Consulate was so close to campus; it had always been at the back of her mind. Dracon was a unique country, being unabashed in its continual love of slavery. Reclusive though not third world, it was a large country, with a fairly powerful defense force and functioning economy.
It was also the villains on the world staged and they seemed to relish in that. However, it was the same reason why they didn’t have an embassy. Instead, for whatever reason they had been allowed in previous decades to buy a large plot of land outside of Atlanta, back when the suburbs were average sized for an American city. Since the turn of the century however the city’s suburbs had exploded, and while still reclusive Dracon now had to deal with more angry suburbanites who would hold protests on the road leading to their facility.
So why was she here? She certainly was no fan of Dracon. However every year it was known that the consulate, a large complex over multiple acres, all surrounded by a continuous wall, did allow Americans in. Only pre-approved female Americans however. They hosted an ‘extreme haunted house’, the most extreme one in America they claimed. And they likely weren’t wrong. After all, it was more than just a haunted house.
From all the information she had gathered, and videos she had seen it was a haunted house yes, scary rooms, creepy noises, halloween props, people in costumes. Yet it was more than that, it was also part obstacle course, with situations you needed to be able to get out of, meanwhile it was also part escape room, with puzzles, riddles, and other things that had to be figured out.
As she parked she stepped out, she wore a tshirt and jeans, her heart pounding as she walked up to the front of the consulate, there was a reason why the haunted house was for only female Americans, and that they had to be vetted first, mostly just to see how they looked. There at the door was a pair of guards, who openly looked her up and down as she approached.
“Well how you doing there beautiful, you here to have some fun with the haunted house?” He said with a smirk on his face. The woman in front of him was beautiful, dark brown hair that she had straightened, Monica came from a multiracial family and her honey brown skin and sharp features attracted many a man.
She sighed. “Yes, yes I am.” She said as the men looked at each other, smirking. Her heart racing more and more.
“In here and to the left, wait in the hall, someone will be out to have you sign the papers.” He paused as she walked past. “I’d say good luck, but I want to see a pretty thing like you lose.” He said to her, Monica just rolled her eyes as she walked past.
The hallway was pretty spartan, some plants, some paintings on the wall. Not too dreary all things considered, but very simple. Eventually she reached a waiting room outside of another room. She could hear props and halloween soundtracks from the next building over, having to resist have her leg bounce up and down. There were two other women in the room, one looked younger than Monica, but still like a coed, maybe a college freshman, she wore jean shorts that Monica felt was to tempting for the situation they found themselves in, and a sleeveless tank top that left a sliver of her belly showing.
Next to her waiting was another girl. Monica thought she might have been the same age as the other girl, though she looked a tad younger. She like the other girl was a latina, with long brown hair that fell down her back. Her attire was pretty different, wearing leggings for bottoms and a sweater.
Monica nodded as she walked in. “Hi.” She said, her voice nervous. “Monica.” She said, holding out her hand.
The girl in shorts and a tanktop shook her hand. “Hi, Lauren.” She said smiling. “Member of of school's Abolition Club. Was the head of my school’s abolition club at Generic High last year.” She said with a smile. Monica nodded, it was ironic, but easy to understand why she was here.
The girl next to her smiled at her. “Maria.” She said with a smile, and surprisingly a texan accent. “I’m from Fort Worth.”
Monica raised an eyebrow. “Long way away from home.”
She nodded. “Yeah.” She said with a sigh. “Yeah, I heard about it, my mother talked me in into trying it out.” She leaned forward in her seat. “And now Im realizing just how serious the consequences are for not winning.”
Monica nodded grimly. “Indeed.” Lauren said solemnly. “Im nervous, my club pushes awareness to try to get politicians to apply pressure on Dracon. I know what I’m risking doing this. But what is the risk of temporary enslavement when I could free a child if I win?”
Monica nodded. While not part of a group when she heard what the reward was the thought of not taking the risk ate at her. Granted she had learned more details from a Dracon representative visiting her campus. Suddenly a door open, a handsome man in a suit walked out. He looked to be about forty and very fit. His face was shaved and his dark hair styled.
“Hello ladies, our eight pm I see.” He said with a nod. Monica knew that once the girls were approved they were slotted into time slots. “You three can go in together, or one at a time. I will let you decide; before that though I need you all to sign these forms and waivers.” He said handing a packet to the women and a pen.
Lauren looked at it. “Five pages front and back, impressive.” She muttered.
The man nodded. “They are waivers to make clear how this work. You are in Draconian territory, the laws of Dracon apply here. You have been briefed on the rules of our little haunted house experience. If you are captured you become property of the consulate for fifteen days. You will experience pain from tools such as the whip and the crop, and will be expected to fulfill the duties of a pleasure slave.”
Monica took the waivers. “Fancy way to say if we’re caught you’ll torture and rape us for over two weeks straight.”
The man stared at the young beauty not flinching at all. “You can leave now if you’d like. A last chance. However once these waivers are signed and you enter our haunted house you recognize you are in Dracon territory and if captured there will be no lawsuits or efforts to pursue criminal action against the consulate.” He paused. “And we recognize that if you are successful a young slave that was born into and has known nothing but life as a slave in Dracon will be freed and sent to a charity here in your country.”
This is where Monica bit her lip. Everything in her mind was tell her to turn tail and run, yet she knew that she would be forfeiting any chance to see a child go free from Dracon’s clutches. As someone who was in school with the goal of starting a nonprofit she knew she couldn’t run away from this. Granted the risk was extreme, having to lie to her parents that she would be outside of the country and away from electronics for two weeks, just as a cover in case she was captured was embarrassing. The experience she would be forced to suffer through if she was caught was unimaginably worse.
Still though she signed. Dracon was smart. Many pretty girls they brought in where indeed captured. Stripped, tormented, made into sex slaves. Their waivers leaving them with no recourse once they were spat out by the consulate fifteen days later. Yet they let enough girls win so that there were enough heartwarming stories of slaves coming to America for that hope to serve as a light drawing pretty ladies like Monica in. Granted, she knew there was a high risk she would just end up zapped.
Still as she looked at Lauren they both knew why they were signing, so they did. Maria did too, from the look of her she seemed to have a good heart, yet she was surprised that the younger girl was here. Still she too signed.
The three girls handed their waivers back to the Draconian representative who smiled. “Thank you ladies.” He said with a handsome grin. “Now follow me, the next building over is where it really begins. Its three stories tall, has multiple paths, and there is an underground sections that leads to another building. Get through both and you win, you leave the consulate, and updates are given until the freed slave lands in America. If yall lose.” He paused his native drawl hanging in the air, then he shrugged. “I’m sure I don’t need to reinforce the stakes.”
The representative guided the three women through a corridor that ended with a perfectly unassuming door, with nothing to attach any significance to it.
“Oh, I do apologize, but I must ask to collect any mobile phones. So things won’t be too easy for you. They’ll be kept in a locked room until you’re finished. We do hope you’ll understand”. The ladies pulled out their phones and handed them to the representative. That finished, the man fished out a ring of keys and selected one. He unlocked the door and made a sweeping gesture to usher them inside.
“Ladies, best of luck”, he said, and made his exit. Monica thought of testing to see whether or not he locked the door behind him, but thought better of it.
They entered the building together. The first room was lit entirely by black light, with strobe lights flashing and a smoke machine fogging up the room. This external stimuli made it incredibly difficult to accurately gauge how large the room really was. A low thrum of music emanated from somewhere, but it was impossible to guess from which direction. It seemed to exist everywhere and nowhere at the same time. The word “Boo!” was smeared across a wall in glow in the dark paint. This almost made her laugh for some reason, but her urge to laugh disappeared when she noticed something that looked like a noose suspended from the ceiling. The contrast between hackneyed, cliched imagery and violent imagery was especially unsettling. Monica led the ladies toward the door at the end up the room, ready for something to jump out and grab them at any moment. But that moment didn’t come. At least, not yet.
They entered a dimly lit room that was mostly illuminated by the glow of three flat screen TV monitors. Above the door on the other side of the room was a sign which read “Abandon all hope ye who enter here”. It looked like the kind of decoration you’d see during Halloween.
As they stepped through the room their gazes landed on the television screens. One screen displayed a woman tied to a chair with a cleave gag in her mouth, being struck repeatedly in the stomach with a crop. The second screen showed a woman with duct tape around her eyes and mouth, shaking her head wildly. She was attached to an X-frame, wearing only a bra and panties. A black hooded figure was examining her closely, running its fingers all over her. The final screen showed a woman bound hand and foot to a bed, face down, being whipped by someone offscreen. Her back had been beaten raw, with welts appearing all over.
Needless to say, this was a lot to digest. There was no sound coming from the monitors, but somehow that made it worse. The footage looked like it had been filmed with an old camcorder (Monica thought it might be somewhat less unnerving if it had been shot with, say, a GoPro). You could have heard a pin drop in the room at that moment. Lauren and Maria were visibly perturbed. It was excruciatingly difficult to watch that kind of horror inflicted on another human being. Monica could only assume this was what awaited them if they failed.
“This was a mistake”, Lauren said, sighing heavily. Neither Maria nor Monica could think of anything to say in response. A long silence passed between them. Monica placed a hand on her shoulder and tried to smile.
“We’ll try to weather this storm together”, she said, and Lauren almost smiled back.
They entered the next room and to say that Monica was shocked would be an understatement. It was the most beautiful display of stained glass that she’d ever seen. Her first thought was that of a church or chapel, but there was no religious iconography. Just flowers and multicolored kaleidoscopic patterns, casting colorful shadows across the floor. It looked like sunlight was pouring through the windows, but that couldn’t be possible since they were indoors. It looked pretty convincing to Monica, though. The other two women gazed at this marvelous display around them. But Monica just had to wonder: Why? Why were their expectations being constantly toyed with? What kind of psychological warfare was being waged here?
There was a corner they had to turn at the end of the hall. Maria peaked her head around to check if the coast was clear.
“It seems fine to me. Just more windows and a door”, she said. Monica and Lauren reached the corner and the pathway to the door was exactly as she had described. She reached the door and tested the doorknob. It was unlocked. This moment of serenity they had been granted made her extremely fearful of what was to come, but they had no other choice but to move forward. Monica turn the knob and pushed the door open.