A couple of urban explorers were working their way through an abandoned factory on the outskirts of town.

They were in the boiler room, which housed all the kit that used to run the giant steam engines used to operate the factory itself. The engines were long gone for scrap, but some of the boilers themselves were still there.

They suddenly heard a faint scratching coming from one of the boilers.

“A mouse, rat or something must have got into it”, Pete said.

“Can’t see how”, Jessie said. “The pipework looks intact.”

“There’s an inspection hatch over here”, Pete said. “I’ll have a look, just in case the poor sod’s trapped.”

He opened the hatch and froze with disbelief.

“Jessie, get over here!”, he cried. “I must be seeing things!”

Jessie looked in over Pete’s shoulder.

“You’re not”, she said. “I can see her as well…!”

Inside the tank, curled up on the floor, was a naked woman. She was wearing some kind of metal helmet and firmly chained up. There was also a long chain from the collar round her neck that had been welded to the side of the tank. The scratching sound was the chains moving faintly as the woman shifted her position faintly. She had no idea the explorers were there; her head was completely covered by the helmet, what they could see of it, and it was keeping her deaf. At that point, however, the woman rolled over…

Her eyes and nose were uncovered; her eyes went wide and she immediately started struggling, frantically beckoning for help and clawing at the helmet. Pete and Jessie searched around the boiler; they found a larger door that had been made at one end. It, however, was welded shut. There was no way in…

Telling Jessie to stay to keep the woman company, Pete raced outside to get a signal on his cellphone. He then managed to call the emergency services. He came racing back in. Jessie had disappeared…

“I’m in here!”, she called. “I managed to squeeze through the inspection hatch. She was really panicking; she thought we were going to leave her.”

“I told them to bring cutting tools”, said Pete. “How is she?”

“Very weak; she looks like she hasn’t eaten or drunk for days. She couldn’t have lasted much longer…”

Jessie’s voice suddenly broke off.

“Jess? You ok?”, Pete called.

“She’s not the only woman in here”, Jessie said, crying. “She is, however, the only one still alive…”

Jessie told Pete that there were three other ‘bundles’ in the boiler, all chained up. They were, however, obviously no longer alive. Looking at them, they had starved to death…

Jessie got no answer from Pete. She did hear a grunt, followed by a thump.

“Pete? Pete, what was that? Pete, are you ok?”

No answer.

To her amazement, the door that she had thought was welded shut then started opening.

It wasn’t Pete that walked in, though. Jessie only had time for one scream…

Pete sat up with a groan. Who the hell had hit him?

He managed to pull himself to his feet; he then called out to Jessie. He heard chains rattle, then a loud moan.

He looked through the inspection hatch and froze with horror. The woman that they were trying to help was still there, weakly struggling; now, however, so was Jessie. She was identically chained up and helmeted…

Pete lost it. He frantically tried to squeeze through the inspection hatch.

“I’m sorry, Jess, I can’t get through! Help should be here soon, though. I managed to get through.”

Jessie was begging Pete to get her out, and to not leave her. The helmet was really tight on her head; she was moaning from the pain. The figure had hit her hard, knocking her out; she’d heard the other woman trying to scream as she collapsed. She’d woken up naked and chained, with an incredible pain in her head from it being squeezed by the helmet.

She heard noises from outside as the emergency services started working on the welded shut door. She had no idea how her attacker had managed to unseal and reseal it so fast!

Her chain fastening her to the wall of the boiler was long enough to let her reach the other woman, so she slid over to her and hugged her. The woman weakly hugged her back…

Minutes later, the emergency crew broke in. It took them another thirty minutes to unchain Jessie and the other woman from the wall of the boiler, and both were taken to hospital. The other woman was fed intravenously in the ambulance, as they could see how weak she was. Jessie had to be sedated, she was fighting the chains so much and nobody could get her to calm down.

Pete sat by Jessie all the time in her hospital bed, refusing to leave her. He still blamed himself for leaving her near the boiler, even though it had been the only way to call for help. Jessie was sleeping, sedated.

He cried as the doctor told him they couldn’t remove the helmet. It was clamped down too firmly on her head; any attempt to cut it would cause life-threatening injuries. You could also see the fact it had been designed to never come off; all the locks were built into the wall of the helmet itself, and there were no keyholes.

“I’m so sorry”, the doctor said, almost crying herself. “She’s going to be wearing it for the rest of her life. She’ll never be able to speak again, eat solid food, or hear properly. At least we’ve managed to get the other chains off.”

“How’s she supposed to live like that?”, asked Pete.

“Well, she can be fed intravenously, like a person on hunger strike”, said the doctor. “She can still communicate by writing or texting, and can use a laptop or tablet, as she still has use of her hands. Hopefully, she’ll be able to tell the police who attacked her.”

As they were talking, Jessie was gradually waking up. First, she was happy; her hands and feet were free! Then she felt the pressure on her head…

Moaning loudly, she started yanking at the helmet…

“Jessie! Calm down, please…”, Pete said, holding her. Jessie just sobbed on his shoulder…

Jessie lived alone; her parents had died when she was a child and, as she was now 23, she’d got her own flat and a job.

The latter, however, went as soon as she turned up for work wearing the helmet.

“I’m sorry, Ms Simons, but we can’t have you working here wearing that. I’m sure you understand. A lot of your job involves communication, and you can’t do this properly, now.”

Disgusted, Jessie had wandered back to her flat.

The severance package would keep her going for a few months; what was she going to do after that…?

Jessie was supposed to have carers helping her; they soon stopped coming, because she wouldn’t let them into her flat. She was still fiercely independent; she gave herself the injections and drips needed to feed her. Pete tried to visit; she wouldn’t let him in either.

She spent all her time on the internet, researching ways of getting her helmet removed. Finally, after some weeks, she ordered some material online; she’d worked out a very risky way of removing it, but timing was going to be everything…

Holding her breath and packing a rag into the hole over her nose and eyes, she sprayed the material she’d bought onto the helmet. It started hissing and bubbling straight away. As soon as she felt the helmet loosen, she ripped it off by holding it with the rag, then threw her head and hands into a bowl of solution to neutralise the acid.

She ended up with a massive sunburn effect, but the helmet was off at last…

She cheered; and was deliriously happy to hear her own voice again.

She then phoned the hospital, to let them know that she had a way of removing the helmet from the other woman, explaining exactly how she had done it. They were able to repeat the procedure, rescuing the other woman from her hell.

She then phoned Pete.

He was straight round; she grabbed him as soon as he turned up and screwed the daylights out of him…!

“Somehow, I think you’re happy…!”, he said, as he came up for air.

“Yep!”, she said, simply, kissing him…

They never identified the attacker.

For some reason, every time Jessie tried to think about them, they just came out as a black blur. No features, nothing. She couldn’t even tell if they were male or female. It just remained a mystery…