Nergal finished securing the manacles around my wrists and moves to the wheel. As I watch the wheels shifts in his hands as I feel the chains over my heads shifting as he gradually removes the final few inches of slack.

I can feel my heart beginning to race as Nergal tightens the rack, Click, another notch, Click, another. Inevitably, little by little, my hands inch helplessly higher above my head. Another notch and I feel the sharp tug of the manacles on my ankles, the chains have finally drawn taunt. My anticipation deepens into a darkly masochistic longing as I feel my body beginning to stretch under the slow, inexorable progress of the rack.

Click, the rack tightens to the next notch, I feel my spine beginning to extend, my breasts lifting, my belly hollowing, my armpits and ribcage exposed, but above all there remains that intensely erotic sense of helplessness that only grows with my steadily increasing discomfort.

A few more notches and the pain I knew would arrive finally does. At first it was just my back that hurt. A deep throbbing pain that started in the small of my back and that gradually spread to the muscles of my shoulders and finally my lower back.

After that, it was my arms. At first they merely ached but as usual that didn't last. Soon I could feel the tension of my body having its cruel effect upon the muscles, the joints, the tendons. A dull, deep ache that began at my shoulders and gradually spread up my arms, through my elbows, to my wrists.

Finally, only my legs, locked within the rack's ankle manacles, remained relatively free of pain.

It was at this point that Nergal paused to ask, "Kristine, how are you feeling?"

Turning my head I can just see his eyes as I respond, "Some pain, but I can handle it." I'm already desperately short of breath from the strain on my diaphragm. But I still manage to smile as I continued, "I feel exposed, vulnerable," another short breath, "and incredibly excited."

Click, and darkly sadistic smile appears on Nergal's face as he tightens the rack another notch. The manacles on my wrists cruelly pulled my wrists a fraction of an inch further, while the manacles around my ankles hold my feet in place. Every masochist has her limits, even the limits of one of Ereshkigal's willing pleasure slaves, that subtle point where the intensity of the pain she's experiencing exceeds even her masochistic ability to find pleasure in her suffering. And that last little increase in tension was just enough to push me past mine. That deep throbbing pain I'd been enjoying suddenly exploded into searing white hot agony, flames that raced down my arms, the length of my spine, and down my legs.

Already short of breath, "Ahh..." was all I managed to say as I watched Nergal, the ancient Sumerian god of war and pestilences, the husband of Ereshkigal, and the co-ruler of the Mesopotamian Underworld, walk out of the dungeon torture chamber leaving me utterly, completely helpless.

Deep down, as I watched Nergal walking away, I knew it would be long hours before he finally returned. Only then would the really brutal torture commence. Until then, I'll simply have to wait.

Alone in the dark silence of the dungeon torture chamber, Kristine's eyes closed as dark images of herself enduring obscene tortures began to fill her mind. Unsurprisingly, it only took a few short minutes before Kristine found that she was still capable of deriving fresh masochistic pleasure from the unrelenting torture she was enduring.

Hours later, still lying tautly stretched upon the rack, Kristine felt a fresh wave of terror coursing through her as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching in the distance.

At first she recognized the sound of Nergal's hobnailed boots upon the dungeon's smooth stone floor. Then a sound she'd learned to recognize over the long eons spent in the dungeons of the Mesopotamian Underworld, the sound of the death goddess Ereshkigal's tall and brutally sharp stiletto heels against the ancient stone floor of the torture chamber.

Kristine opened her eyes to see the death goddess staring down at her, the red smoldering glow of Ereshkigal's eyes a starkly fiendish reminder of the hours of merciless torture that still laid ahead. I was still staring into Ereshkigal's eyes when Nergal tightened the rack another notch.

"Ahh..." The pain becomes breathtaking, a hot, burning pain deep in my hips, mirrored in my lower back as the rack pulls my body impossibly tight.

Click, another notch, and a fiery pain fills my hips and lower back, spreading up my spine into my shoulders.

I hear the rack creak as it Clicks into the next notch, but the mechanical sound of the rack is overshadowed by the sound of my own spine popping, as fresh waves of searing hot pain flash up my back and down through my legs. Once again I sense the unrelenting pain is gradually exceeding even my masochistic abilities to derive pleasure from my suffering, and I give an involuntary groan as I feel the pain spreading through my shoulders.

Click, Nergal tightens the rack another notch. The taunt chains drag my wrists a fraction of an inch further, I feel my eyes widen as new breathtaking agony fills my hips, spreads up my back and into my arms where it seeming to spread from my armpits up to my elbows.

Click, another notch and I scream as the pain flares brutally down through my legs and up my spine.

Click and rack tightens another cruel notch. My screams become high-pitched and frantic, my mouth wide, as the searing fire intensifies along my limbs. I can actually hear my joints cracking in succession, and a sickening creaking sensation from my tearing spine.

Nergal pauses, a brief respite to regain my breath. Click, the rack tightens again as fresh waves of agony explode along my legs and arms, it feels as if my abdominal muscles are tearing, my spine breaking apart. I am not even aware that I'm screaming for the first several seconds.

I open my eyes as I feel the almost delicate touch of leather gloved fingertips across my solar plexus. Stretched this taut, I can barely breathe, only my drum-tight belly shifting with each desperate little gasp for air. Ereshkigal's fingertips trail up over my ribcage then caressed the firm swelling of my breast. She smiled as her fingertips paused to idly toy with the gold ring that pierced my painfully erect nipple before giving it a painfully sharp tug.

Click, the rack tightens another notch as a hot, tearing agony explodes along my limbs and down my spine. The agony is incredible, intense, overwhelming, and this time I can't stop screaming until I can't get enough breath to scream and I simply groan in agony. I'm sure that my back is about to break, my hips and shoulders feel like they're being ripped apart.

For a brief timeless moment nothing happens, it seems impossible that my body could be stretched any further without being torn apart. Click, the rack tightens another notch, agony seems to double and I am screaming. An instant later, there is a sharp cracking sensation in my left shoulder and it feeling like a red hot spike been driven directly into my shoulder joint, the pain is so severe that I can't breathe.

A moment later, my right shoulder dislocates. The pain is inescapable and utterly overwhelming, but before I can even manage to scream, Click and the rack tightens again, the unrelenting tension further drawing my dislocated shoulder joints apart, straining the tendons and ligaments of my joints.

"Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh..." I'm screaming uncontrollably, my desperate high-pitched screams echoing off the ancient stone walls of the dungeon torture chamber.

Turning toward her husband Nergal, Ereshkigal smiles as she says, "Slowly Nergal, we wouldn't want to kill Kristine just yet." Ereshkigal's smile grew fiendishly darker as she continued, "With care, I'm sure Kristine is capable of providing us with many more hours of amusement before she dies."

Laying my head back I close my eyes as the truly obscene horror of what Ereshkigal just said sinks in when Click the rack tightened again. "Aahhh..." But even as this next desperate scream escapes my lips I can already feel my hips beginning to dislocate, one or two more notches should surely do the trick, after that my elbows, knees and finally the vertebrae of my spine will succumb before I die. But, as usual here in the dungeon torture chamber's of the Mesopotamian Underworld, death will not come easy, it will take hours.

Nice rack indeed...