The cold cage swung gently as the chains squeaked and clicked above. None of the user interfaces worked and there was no way out either. He remained in the cage for hours until finally the door to the dungeon creaked open and footsteps moved toward the column where the chain was wound.

If it’s Stofel, I’m going to murder him.

The cage went down with a whoosh! Then it crashed onto the table, sending dull but powerful force through Matt’s body that caused his bones to ache and his head to ring.

The cage door opened and in came a hand wearing a thick black glove. Within seconds Matt was out of the cage and tied onto a miniature version of a rack.

“All right, Stofel, let’s start from the top, shall we?” a nasal voice thundered above him.

Matt looked up and saw a tall, thin man with hollowed out cheeks and heavy shadows under the eyes. A hawkish nose held up a high brow and pallid forehead set in front of a receding mess of gray hair. He wasn’t physically imposing in the slightest, and yet there was something about him that made Matt’s skin crawl.

“I’m not Stofel,” Matt managed to say as the man’s hand reached for the wheel that would stretch the rack and tug at Matt’s avatar.

The thin man grinned, revealing perfectly straight and brilliantly white teeth set in bright red gums. “Sure you’re not,” he said. “And I am not the auditor assigned to your case.”

The wheel turned suddenly. Pain ripped through Matt’s body as his limbs were pulled to their limits. A moment later there were metal clips attached to the wings and then those were pulled out and under the rack, stretching them and breaking the bones inside.

“AAAAAAAAGGGGH!” Matt’s vision tunneled inward and his ears buzzed. Never in his life had he felt something so horrific. The rack stretched another half inch, which to the diminutive imp body may as well have been a half a foot. Joints were brought to the brink of ripping asunder. Matt’s body quivered, muscles convulsed as if trying to pull against the rack, but it was no use. He was bound and stuck.

“The name of your employer, if you please,” the auditor prompted.

“I’m not a hacker!” Matt said. “I’m not Stofel!”

“All right,” the auditor said just loud enough to cut through Matt’s tinnitus. For a moment he thought the man might release him. After all, the voice was calm and accepting.

The red-hot iron brand that seared his right hip erased that hope from his mind.

“Who is your employer?” the auditor shouted. The brand pressed deeper into Matt’s exposed hip, burning through to the bone.

Matt passed out.

Matt woke to a cold shower as a bucket was poured over him. Though it helped take the edge off the brand, even the icy water couldn’t fully vanquish the stinging burn in his side. As soon as the water ran off his skin the burn redoubled its intensity.

“Please stop!” Matt cried. “I’m not Stofel.”

“I’d advise against making such an obvious play,” the auditor said. “We’ve been at this far too long for me to believe those kind of lies.”

Matt cried out as the rack stretched again. Knees anD ankles separated, popping apart and giving just an instant of relief before the pain set in and Matt started quivering.

“STOOOOOOOP!” he yelled.

The auditor laughed and reached into the leather bag of tools, coming up with a long knife. “This should help...loosen things a bit.”

“I’m not Stofel!” Matt shouted between painful breaths. “I’m Matt, an employee here with E.M. Games! I came in last night to talk to Stofel and he somehow switched my body with his!”

The auditor paused. His gray eyes went from Matt to the knife and then back to Matt. “What’s your employee number?”

Matt started hyperventilating. Each breath came with a rush of hot searing pain that radiated out through his overstretched limbs. Employee number? He shook his head. “I don’t have a number!”

“Everyone has a number,” the auditor said. The knife came down just far enough for the blade to kiss Matt’s exposed stomach.

“I don’t have one, I swear, I SWEAR!”

The auditor took in a breath and sigh as if to let Matt know how bored he was. The knife crashed to the table. “What department are you in?”

“P.R.,” Matt shouted quickly. “I have a ten year contract.”

“Ten years,” the auditor started with a chuckle. “That’s a lengthy term. What? Do you hate life on the outside or something?”

Matt was too panicked to respond to the insult. He just looked up with tears streaming down his face. “I’m supposed to be the town executioner. I came in, tried to interrogate Stofel, failed, and then tried to talk with him again.”

“And did the hacker give you anything useful?” the auditor asked.

“No.”

“Did he talk about any plans, how he broke into the system, or who he works with?”

“No. Nothing.”

The auditor tapped a gloved finger to his lips and narrowed his eyes on Matt. “And how, exactly, did he manage to switch bodies with you?”

Matt shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“Did you give him anything that could be used magically in the game, s spell book, a crystal, a wand, anything like that?”

Matt swallowed hard. He wasn’t about to admit having soul siphon crystals, let alone giving two to Stofel. “No, nothing.”

The auditor puffed air and shook his head while scratching his chin. “Peculiar.” He turned and paced before the table for a while, muttering to himself too quietly for Matt to understand the words. When the auditor finally stopped and turned to Matt. There was a look of death on his face. “The thing is, Matt, I don’t believe you.”

“What?!” Matt shrieked. “But it’s true, all of it.”

“Oh, I believe he switched bodies with you, although I don’t yet know how. I just don’t believe that you were an unwilling victim.” The auditor picked up the knife.

“It’s all true, I swear!” Matt cried.

“What did he offer you in exchange for his freedom? Money? A position with his company perhaps?”

“There was no deal!” Again Matt was lying, but he certainly couldn’t tell the sadist about the arrangement he had discussed with Stofel. If there was any chance to get out of this situation without experiencing more pain, he had to take it.

“No deal you say? Nothing at all?”

“NO!”

The knife came down and Matt’s left leg was cut free below the knee. Matt howled and blacked out again. This time when he woke, no water was used. His imp avatar had been repaired, and he was now sitting in an iron chair with chains holding him in place. The auditor was no longer alone either. Matt’s compliance manager was present and staring at him with an expression that would have stopped a charging bull.

“We’ve discussed the facts of the case,” the auditor said.

“I told him how you lost a soul siphon crystal the first time you interrogated Stofel,” the compliance manager said hotly.

“Yes,” the auditor cut in with his nasal voice. “I believe you brought more soul siphon crystals to Stofel. That’s how he got free.”

“That’s not what happened,” Matt started.

“Don’t!” the compliance manager shouted. “Don’t even try to lie to us. You said you didn’t have any more soul siphon crystals, yet I found a stash in your quarters.”

Matt’s heart skipped and his mouth fell open. Oh crap! How do I get out of this now?

Before Matt could formulate a plan, a mess of tangled lightning bolts flew at him and coursed through and over his body. The smell of burnt flesh and melting metal assaulted Matt’s nose as his muscles jumped and contracted. When the lightning finally ceased he was left in a sweaty heap, heaving for breath against the sizzling chains holding him to the chair.

“How much did Stofel offer you for the crystals?” the auditor asked.

Matt shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. He just... took them.”

Another bout of lightning rocked through him and took Matt to the brink of unconsciousness.

“I don’t believe you.”

“You think I’d willingly sign up to get zapped in a chair?!” Matt hollered. “You’re freakin nuts man, both of you!” He closed his eyes and took in a breath, preparing for another blast of lightning, but nothing happened. After a moment he slowly opened his eyes and saw the two men talking.

“All right,” the auditor said. “I believe you. You didn’t willingly help the hacker.”

Matt exhaled and felt his body relax for the first time since Stofel had trapped him.

“However,” the auditor continued, “I can’t simply release you either. You need to learn a lesson. Giving soul siphon crystals to a hacker-- or even allowing them to be stolen-- is a grave offense.”

“But I didn’t mean to let him out,” Matt said. “I wanted to prove myself after failing the first time.”

The auditor glanced at the compliance manager and then sneered back at Matt. “I already know that you were warned about soul siphon crystals after your first encounter with Stofel. A good employee would have turned the crystals in, not foolishly filled more and carried them back to the hacker. Your foolishness and arrogance have cost this company a great deal. It took us six months to capture Stofel the first time, and now that he knows our methods, it will be even more difficult to find him the second time.” The auditor folded his arms and wrinkled his nose. “Assuming the little wretch hasn’t already fled the game, that is.”

“He won’t flee,” the compliance manager said. “I bet he still has a mission to carry out.”

The auditor nodded thoughtfully and waved a finger in the air at Matt. “For your naiveté and stupidity, you are sentenced to death by execution.”

Matt blinked. “You mean... execution in the game right, I’ll still be alive in the real world?”

“Of course,” the auditor huffed. “What kind of barbarians would kill you in real life?”

Matt laughed nervously.

“You will await the new executioner, and then you will be punished publicly for all the town to see.”

That’s not so bad. At least I can respawn and move on afterwards. Matt nodded, accepting his fate. “And after the execution will I be sent back to the main lobby to choose a new character?”

“Why?” the auditor asked.

Matt frowned, not understanding the auditor’s question. “Well, because if Stofel is in my original avatar, then I assume the game will need to purge my character and give me a new one, right?”

“No,” the auditor replied. “By the time your sentence is complete, you should be able to reassume your avatar and your role here in Falchor.”

“But...” Matt tried to reason within himself and formulate the best way to ask his question without increasing the likelihood of getting another lightning bolt to the face. “Won’t it take a while for you to catch Stofel?”

The auditor grinned widely, the corners of his mouth turning up and pulling his hollow cheeks back to show far more of his red gums than necessary. “You misunderstand. Your sentence is to be executed. You will await the new executioner of Falchor, be beheaded, and then you will respawn in the dungeon of some other city. After a day or two of sitting in a cell or being interrogated for show, you’ll be executed there and then respawned somewhere else. You will repeat this cycle for two years.”

Matt’s heart sank to the floor. “But you said you knew I was innocent!”

“I said I believed you didn’t willingly work with the hacker. It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a hefty punishment for the damage you have already caused, and for the additional damage you might bring about by allowing Stofel to escape. Two years. Try to escape, and I’ll add on a year for each attempt. It doesn’t matter to me if you spend the rest of your ten year contract having your idiotic head removed from your shoulders.”

“Ten years,” Matt whispered. “I...”

“In the meantime, your compliance manager will check in on you from time to time. If he reports good behavior, then perhaps I will reduce your sentence by six months, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.” The auditor turned, placed a hand on the compliance manager’s shoulder, and gave a resolute nod. “Put him back in the cage. I’ll assign a new executioner as soon as possible.”

“Of course,” the compliance manager replied.

Matt sat in the chair, trying to scour his brain for some sort of argument. He knew he couldn’t appeal to their humanity, for they had none, and he knew he couldn’t tell them about the deal with Stofel. That would just restart the torture. He had no useful information to give them about the hacker with which to bargain. If only he’d been able to get a name or something he could use to barter for his freedom.

When the door opened and a bit of torchlight brightened the far corner near the front of the dungeon, Matt caught a shimmering form. He squinted at it, but couldn’t quite make out what it was, other than the fact that it appeared to have a human shape. The door closed and the torchlight was gone, allowing the shadows to swallow the shimmering man once more.

Was it another auditor perhaps? An unseen person to try and keep an eye on Matt to see if he was truly being honest?

Matt sat still as the chains binding him to the iron chair were undone and he was placed back inside the oversized bird cage. The cage door closed, and then the compliance manager exited the room, locking the door from the outside.

“What have I gotten myself into this time?” Matt whispered.

After many minutes of silently contemplating how he might try to escape, there was a soft tap at his cage. Matt looked up, but couldn’t see anything from inside the sealed cage.

“All right, good cop, I’ll help you out,” Stofel whispered from beyond the metal hatch.