“Mmmmhhh…..”

Sofie groaned as she woke.

Where the hell was she, and why was she sitting upright on the floor?

She slowly looked around, still feeling nauseous.

Why the hell am I naked, and how come I was sitting up when I was unconscious…?

Sofie tried to call out, but a sharp pain in her mouth stopped her from doing so.

Trying to reach her head with her hands, she saw the shackles around her wrists for the first time, as well as the padlocks swinging from them…

She tried to stand. It took real effort, as if someone was sitting on her shoulders…

Bending her head forward, she nearly overbalanced as the weight hit her.

She stood back upright, but not before her restrained hands brushed against the collar round her neck…

Standing upright pulled the chain taut down her cleavage, pinning her arms back to her waist.

Looking around the room, she saw a mirror mounted on the wall and slowly shuffled over to it.

A nightmare met her gaze.

To start with, her hair had gone, and her skin was now all tanned a very dark brown, almost black.

She was completely naked; a solid iron metal cage was fastened round her head, with a tab in the cage protruding into her mouth, to stop her talking. The collar she had felt was the bottom of the cage; long metal rods protruded from it, each one sticking out about three feet from her head. It was these that had held her upright when she ‘slept’…

Fastened to the collar in front was a chain. This chain ran down her body, through her cleavage, and through a metal belt locked round her waist. It then looped up past the shackles on her wrists, and down to similar shackles on her ankles.

Sobbing, Sofie fought to get free, but it was no use. Her best efforts had no effect against the iron…

A longer chain ran from the back of the belt to a ring in the wall. It wasn’t really needed; the spikes on her collar would have stopped her going through any doors or windows; someone was just being thorough.

Sofie looked closer, and gasped; earning herself a jab from the spike in her mouth.

Her nipples had been pierced, and little bells had been fastened to them, as well as a chain running between them with a bell in the middle. Her labia had also been pierced in four places, and two little golden padlocks had been used to lock her vagina closed.

She was still trying to get free as a woman came into the room. To Sofie’s amazement, she was leading a group of people, men and women. The woman, seeing Sofie moving, pressed a button on a remote she held.

“Here at the museum, we feel it’s important to remind people of our worst times, as well as our best.”, the woman said. “Welcome to our exhibit remembering slavery and it’s treatment of lesser people.”

Sofie tried to moan and call for help, but she suddenly realised she couldn’t make a sound anymore. She also could only move very mechanically, like an animatronic.

“Our dummy, here”, the woman said, pointing at Sofie, “Is showing us how slaves were treated, until quite recently. Indeed, the ‘costume’ she is modelling was found still being used in one of the third world countries only a few years ago. The bells on her breasts were to make sure she had no chance of escaping quietly, and the two padlocks between her legs are to stop anyone defiling her before she was sold.”

Frozen, Sofie could only stare helplessly back, as the woman came over to her.

“This slave, however, has been exceptionally disobedient, in this scenario”, she said. “The cage on the head stops her from talking, as well as making it very difficult for her to move, as it is made from heavy cast iron. The ring in the top allows her owners to take the weight off her a small amount, without unlocking it, but it wasn’t often used. The long spikes on the collar round her neck stop her from sitting normally or lying down, as well as making it impossible to run away.”

“In exceptional circumstances”, the woman continued, “slaves had been known to be continuously locked into this attire until they starved to death, as it is impossible to eat with the cage on.”

The woman looked Sofie straight in the eye as she said this. Inside her head, Sofie screamed…

The woman pressed the remote again as the group left the room. Sofie tried to attract someone’s attention, now she could move, but the door was already swinging shut…

She was still fighting to get free as the woman walked back into the room, on her own.

“You’ve been very successful, you know”, she said. “You make a good attraction. The animatronic wasn’t going to be finished on time, so we had to think of something…”

She walked around Sofie, looking her up and down.

“The animatronic was going to get worse and worse, as the exhibition went on, showing the effects of long-term slavery, then it was going to ‘die’ on the last day from lack of food. It should be much more realistic watching you do the same thing…”

Beyond terror, now, Sofie screamed and screamed, ignoring the pain, as the woman walked out of the room, locking the door behind her.

The reviews in the papers praised the realism of the animatronics in the exhibition. No-one ever realised Sofie was real…