First time shackled

I’m wearing leather cuffs on my wrists, locked and joined by a pair of steel wrist cuffs. Attached to the chain joining the cuffs is a steel cable, about two feet long that falls vertically about two feet where it meets the horizontal chain of my steel leg cuffs. I’m hobbled, wrists locked, and unable to lift my arms above mid-chest height.

The keys to the cuffs, and to the padlock securing the cable, are safely locked away inside a steel lockbox. The lockbox is then locked with a single heavy padlock. the keys to that padlock are hanging up, out of my reach.

That’s a mesh bag filled with ice. the top is threaded through a heavy steel ring, and the keys are clipped to the ring. When the ice melts, the heavy ring, along with my keys, will fall to the floor, and then I can free myself.

Until then, I’m locked up, like a complete fool.

These are my wrists

And my wrists are connected to my ankles……

It’s been two hours, and the mass of ice doesn’t seem much smaller than it started. It’s difficult to adjust to having your legs shackled. You have to take very small steps and exercise frustrating amounts of patience just to walk from one place to another.

The ice is melting though. I can hear it. Every few seconds a drop of water leaks out of the bottom and *splats* on the towel on the floor. It’s a very satisfying sound….each time I hear it I feel a little bit closer to freedom.