Love Me To The End

Chapter 13: Crushed Again

I had my return bout with the crusher on Thursday afternoon.

I ended up wearing a knee length black dress with a flared skirt, tights and a deep red faux leather jacket. It was comfortable and not too girly-girly or dressy-uppy, this was an outfit that could even make it into my regular rotation if it survived the crushing. Maise got completely carried away in the dressing room, making me try on everything from fifties poodle skirts to anime cosplays. I reminded her that I was dressing for a test run, not a deathplay performance under an avatar.

"I know, Sexy," she said. "I just love any excuse to play dress-up with you!"

We set aside a few selected outfits for future play.

By this time, I spent most days doing office work in the morning and odd jobs around the studios in the afternoon. I wondered how admin boss Susan would react if she ever found out just how odd those jobs were, but Uncle Morbid set the terms of my schedule so she went along with it and didn't ask questions.

Every shadowy organisation in history must have relied on people like this, mid level managers who could be relied on to unquestionably execute any order from above while shoring up their authority over those they commanded. They aren't evil, they lack the imagination. But they are blinkered. I thought about my automatic mode when carrying out routine admin tasks and reflected that Susan was actually doing something very similar. The differences were that she cared much, much more about her career and while I fantasised about checking out in spectacular ways, her dreams were of enterprise and social mobility.

"You look fantastic," said Chris when he saw me, "just right for what we wanted. You even got a little cosplay in there too!"

Wait, what cosplay?

Hangar 4 was pretty much the same as when I'd last left it, the main addition being a large screen on the back wall to display the feed from inside the car. Chris told me they'd taken on board what I'd said about Winky and to let them know how it felt in there this time. I heard footsteps and looked up to see Scott and Uncle Morbid walking towards us, followed by a third person crossing the hangar floor in a long dress and sunglasses like a catwalk model, long dark hair blowing slightly from the breeze coming through the hangar doors. I'd have known her anywhere.

"Maise!"

We hugged and kissed briefly.

"I took the afternoon off so I could see you getting crushed in person," she said. "I couldn't miss this for the world!"

"Hey, I've got a question. Why does Chris think this outfit is cosplay?"

Maise did the little held in chuckle she always did when one of her jokes came together.

"You don't watch a lot of superhero movies, do you? Sorry, it was such fun winding you up with silly costumes I couldn't resist. And it does look very good on you."

"It's Scarlet Witch, from the Avengers movies," explained Chris.

Well played, Maise, well played. I had to admit, I did like the look.

"Lexie, assemble!" Chris called out as we went to our positions.

So there I was again, strapped into a car about to be crushed into a cube. Last time it had been a ridiculous stunt we weren't sure it was even possible to do safely. Now I knew what to expect, I found it much easier to commit to the deathplay.

The first addition to the experience came as I was being lifted up into position on the crushing plate, looking towards the large video screen showing my reactions in real-time. It was a surreal feeling glancing between the huge hydraulic presses waiting to consume me and my own nervous face staring back. As the car was placed in position I had my giant image on the screen to my right, with Chris looking up at me from the controls on my left. I felt like a ritual sacrifice, prepped and sanctified.