Share this Update

22 photos; 2:08 video

 “You wanted to see me Jessup?”
            Mister Franks looked impatient as he usually was while he stood in the open doorway to Mister Jessup’s apartment.
            “Yea, there’s something I want to show you.”
            Mister Franks brushed right by Jessup and walked into the apartment like he owned the place, which he did, just like he owned a lot of places.  “Okay, but I don't have much time.  I have other things to do today, you know?”
            Suddenly Mister Franks felt a sharp bee sting on his arm.  “Ow!  What the hell?”
            Mister Franks grabbed his arm and tried to rub the pain away while he turned around to confront Jessup.  “What was that?  What did you do to me?”
            But Jessup just smiled and watched while a strange expression came onto Mister Franks’ face.

            Mister Franks opened his mouth to say more, but instead a small moan escaped from his mouth as a sudden wave of dizziness ran through his body and his vision began to blur.
            Easy now, Mister Franks,” Jessup said in a real friendly way.  “Why don't you have a seat right here?”
            And Mister Franks found that he had no power to resist while Jessup pushed him down to have a seat on a hard chair.
            “There, that’s better, now let me make you more comfortable,” Jessup purred into the confused Mister Franks’ ear.  Then Jessup pulled Mister Franks’ unresisting arms behind his back and then began lashing his wrists together with some rope.
            “What…?  What is that?  Is that rope?” Mister Franks’ speech was slurred and he was having trouble focusing his eyes.
            “Don’t try to talk any more, Mister Franks.  I'll do all of the talking.” Jessup purred some more as he XXXX Mister Franks’ slack mouth open a then drew an old paint rag between the landlord’s teeth.


            Mister Franks tried to resist, but now it was like everything was happening to him in slow motion and he couldn't summon up any strength in any of his muscles.  He could only loll his head back and forth while Jessup tied the rag tight behind the landlord’s neck.
            “Your feet must be tired after climbing all those stairs,” Jessup observed.  “But I can fix that.”
            Mister Franks looked down and watched while Jessup pulled off his shoes and socks.  And then there was nothing he could do to stop Jessup from wrapping and tying some more rope around his bare ankles.
            Then suddenly Jessup grabbed the front of Mister Franks’ shirt and made him look up at him.  “There, now I think I got your undivided attention!” Jessup growled angrily.
            Mister Franks tried pulling his hands free from the tight ropes, but he couldn't do it.  And then he tried to protest into the roll of rag that was dividing his teeth, but Jessup just ignored him.

            “For more than a month now I've been telling you that it is too cold in this apartment, but you don't listen!  Well starting now I'm going to give you a little demonstration.”
            Mister Franks shook his head slowly from side to side and tried to tell Jessup that this apartment wasn't any colder than any of the other apartments in this building.  Oil was getting really expensive.
            But Jessup didn't pay any attention to Mister Franks’ garbled words.  Instead he was not too gentle as he turned Franks’ head to look at a big thermometer that was mounted on the wall.  “You look at that.  Look at it!” Jessup commanded.
            And then right before Mister Franks’ eyes he saw the red marking on the thermometer drop down from 55 to 50 degrees.  And then it began falling even lower.
            “Right now it is fairly warm here,” Jessup told him.  “But that won't last long.”
            Mister Franks’ heart sunk while he watched the red mark reach 45 degrees.


            “So I am going to emphasize my point by letting you see just how cold it gets in here!”
            Mister Franks shook his head frantically from side to side and almost choked on the juicy rag that was filling up his mouth.  He didn't like the cold!
            “I don't want you disturbing the neighbors.  That wouldn't be polite.  So first I'm going quiet that big mouth of yours.”
            Mister Franks shrunk back in the chair, but there was no escape as Jessup tore off a wide strip of green marking tape and then plastered it all over Mister Franks’ rag-parted lips and cheeks.
            “And you don't need to look at that thermometer no more.  Pretty soon your body’s going to know just how cold it gets in here.”  Jessup pulled off Mister Franks’ eyeglasses and set them on a counter.
            Mister Franks looked around with his blurry eyes and hummed behind his ragged and plastered lips that he couldn't see without his glasses.


            “Best you close those eyes now,” Jessup warned.
            Mister Franks’ looked up and saw a blurry band of green tape coming toward his eyes.  Then he closed his eyes just in time and moaned a little in fear as he felt that sticky tape pressing down over his eyelids and eyebrows to seal them closed tight and dark.
            “Now I'm going to get my blanket wrap and my crossword puzzle and enjoy a little peace and quiet.  And that’s what I want you to be, real quiet.  So don't even think about making a sound in here until I come back.”
            Mister Franks squirmed in the chair and moaned into his gag.  Jessup couldn't just leave him like this!
            “Maybe when I come back you'll be ready to tell me that you're going to turn up the heat.”


            Mister Franks heard Jessup’s footsteps going into the other room.  Then it became very quiet until Mister Franks began to hear a strange chattering sound.  At first Mister Franks couldn't figure out where that sound was coming from.  But then he realized that it was his own teeth chattering together.  And then he felt a cold draft running up over his bare ankles and then on up over his whole body.
            And pretty soon the only sounds you could hear in the quiet room were the chattering of Mister Franks’ teeth and the creaking of the old chair as Mister Franks began to shiver and shake more and more.
 

Mr. Frank played by Todd

Photography by Caitiff