Free THE TORTURED by R U DUMM, R. U. DUMM

paused, shook his head, and continued, “Well, let me rephrase that. Strike the last question. You were advised last evening that someone had to die today, and you volunteered to be that person, is that correct?”
    Dana nodded her head.
    “Verbally acknowledge the question, please,” Ryan stated calmly.
    “Yes, I did.”
    “Very well,” Ryan said.
    “I am going to explain some things to you today. They may or may not make sense, but I think you are owed some form of an explanation. Are you paying attention, Dana?” Ryan asked as he placed his elbows back on the table.
    “Yes I am,” Dana responded as she shifted her weight in the chair.
    “Lessons. Life is about learning lessons. The earlier in life we learn them, the quicker we are able to make corrections to our lives. Does that make sense?” Ryan asked.
    With a confused look on her face, Dana nodded her head. She had anticipated coming out of the room as a volunteer, being shot, and her body being thrown in a ditch in the rural area surrounding the city. This question and answer session was troubling to her. She began to wonder if Ryan knew this, and was trying to cause her more grief than he already had. Mentally, she was losing touch with her willingness to die. As Ryan spoke, she began to pray.
    “Very well. Alright,” Ryan spread his hands out and motioned at the contents on the table.
    “As you can see, we have quite an arrangement on the table in front of us. Let me explain, and please do not interrupt. Is that clear?”
    “Yes it is,” Dana said flatly.
    “Very well. I am going to explain a few things first,” Ryan inhaled a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
    “Plenty of Fish. The dating website. You have or shall I say had an account there. You filled out a questionnaire on that site for your profile. It had a few hundred questions. The responses to those questions placed you in several categories that allowed me to carefully pick you from a list of tens of thousands of potential candidates. I was able to separate you by height, hair color, and even your personality and income level. It made the selection of you four candidates very easy. All of you, in physical resemblance, were identical. In personality and level of wealth and upbringing, all so very different,” Ryan took another breath and exhaled.
    Dana sighed, became somewhat embarrassed, and slumped a little into her seat. She wasn’t sure why at this juncture, and for what reason, but she felt guilt from Ryan finding her on the dating web site. She sat and watched him speaking, realizing that something about him caused her to admire him. She wasn’t able to decide if it was his handsome looks, his means of dress, his expressed wealth, or his very matter of fact personality. As Ryan began to speak again, she shook her head lightly and dismissed it as a form of attachment to her abductor she had no conscious control over.
    “You know, I wonder what people think when they fill out those questionnaires. It reveals a considerable amount about a person. It lets people like me hand pick a candidate to fit into a certain slot. I could have told you that either you or Shellie would be the first volunteers. Let me guess, you decided to volunteer because of your closeness to God. Am I right?” Ryan smiled as he finished speaking.
    “Yes, I guess so,” she responded.
    “Exceptional. This is such fun,” he smiled and placed his palms on either side of his face.
    “Well, let’s get to the meat of this lesson. Do you understand the risks associated with the use of such websites, and the things that you divulge when you fill out such questionnaires?” he asked.
    “Yes, I suppose so,” Dana responded as she looked down at the table.
    “You’re extremely calm, this is easier than I expected. You must have a great relationship with God, but I am not going to get into that right now. Options. Let’s go over options. Are you paying attention?” Ryan snapped his fingers sharply as he finished