Before she was brought upstairs, however, Emerson exercised her, making her do jumping jacks, and run in place until she practically collapsed with exhaustion. While she followed his orders, still blindfolded, he encouraged her with the cane. Sometimes his urgings were just light taps against her thighs, to spur her physical exertion. Sometimes he hit with force to get her body moving.
“That’s it, keep it up!” he was heard to say, as the others occasionally listened from above.
He wanted her physically tired and her mind blank from so much input. If she couldn’t think, she couldn’t scheme to get away. He needed her behaving thoughtlessly, like a slavish beast, willing to do anything he asked without a second’s hesitation.
When she was finally in a sweat and exhausted, he attached a le
