Chapter XXV - Peril

The first victim was let out of his cage. A flurry of panting escaped the man's mouth. He then darted through the cell door, ducked, and ran to the stairwell in desperation to escape. Panic-stricken, it was the race of this man's life. Striding two stairs at a time, the man confidently set eyes on the doorway.

The man had a contorted anatomy that looked human-like, though his face was composed of just two eyes and smooth skin. There were many people like that: weirdly abnormal, and this told Electro that Horror Hill had always housed the abnormal, ever since it had begun. As his eyes widened, the executioners jumped up the stairs faster than the man could escape. The man turned the doorknob in utter trepidation. Waiting for the click, he looked behind him at the executioner - the axe lay upon the gauntlet. The door was locked, and the realisation hit the man. Sliding down the locked door, the man's time was up. Then, the sudden slicing and crushing of his bones had everyone gazing at the axe swinging in the executioner's hands. Smashing and mushing the flesh like mincemeat, the executioner turned and walked away. No one else was going to dare to escape again. An increased number of people saw their fate, fewer and fewer people made it out alive. After observing pain for hours, Electro hoped he wouldn't be chosen.

The numbers 'one', 'zero', 'one' were called from the executioner, and what looked like a smile appeared beneath the mask.

The numbers seemed to pierce Electro Von Poison's soul, as if he was being stabbed continuously with a syringe.

"I have been waiting for this all afternoon," a voice mumbled from around the corner in the gloom, and the sound thunderous footsteps got nearer. As the Lord approached, he smiled at Electro, who had plucked up enough courage to grip his hands around the grimy, iron bars of his cell.

"Follow along, Electro," Lord Horror Hill had opened the cell and was beckoning him towards the room at the back.

"I am taking a new approach to how we punish people here at Horror Hill, and it involves torture. Your crime warrants a serious persecution... a perilous one. "

Terror had Electro in a vice grip, crushing him from the inside out as he gasped for air, his heart pounding like a war drum.

"I seriously underestimated your urge to wreak havoc in this manor - and what you were capable of. Never did I suspect, even after Dr Lazer had raised it at my office and at the monumental meal, did I think you killed Butler Burns. Then you proceeded to ignore my order to take the casket inside the tent and smashed the Butler's father's headstone at the cemetery. It would simply be wrong to let you off scot-free, "Lord Horror Hill began setting up the electric chair and was fairly thrilled about it.

"The electric chair: a staple device of torture in the 19th century." Lord Horror Hill stared into Electro's eyes and beyond, waiting for a reaction out of him. But Electro Von Poison was paralysed with fear and shaking violently.