Chapter Nine
Tight Rope
Jessica’s whole body ached with the effort of keeping herself upright on the small blocks. The edges of the wood seemed to cut into the soft spaces between her toes as she clutched them desperately. Every labored breath that she forced past the rope around her throat seemed to send tremors through her body and threaten to end her precarious balance. She wondered how long she had been like this. Like so many of the torments that had been visited upon her in this place, it seemed to have been hours, though she realized it might have been only a few minutes.
The block beneath her right foot shifted again and she cried out as she felt the rope dig into her neck for a moment. And then she righted the block, but only barely. It had moved enough that only three of her t
