Two towering naval guards barricaded the doors on both ends of the courtyard, making sure no one could run screaming from Z’s dungeon of wheels. Elise gulped loudly as the green cyclops gremlin-like creature rubbed his pudgy fingers together. “’Bout time I tell you, gerbils, the rules of the game!”

“Er…I thought we were hamsters,” Tony uttered.

Z pointed directly at the human-turned-fish. “Don’t matter what you are, guv’nor. You’re gonna be running on this bloody wheel til you turn the gauge from red to green!”

He waddled over to the closest wheels and pointed to a large pressure gauge. “See that gauge, you’re not stopping til its in the blinken green! Got it?! Any questions?”

“Er…yeah,” Tony said in his gravely voice. “How am I gonna run on the wheel? I’m a fish if you haven’t noticed.”

Z scratched his double chin before his singular eye brightened. “I guess there’s no bleepin’ way we can do that.”

Tony chuckled happily. “Seems you’ll be lettin’ this fishy off easy!”

Suddenly, Z’s face widened in a sinister, fanged grin. “We’ll put you with the other fish inmates in the meantime. They’re a bunch of piranhas!”

“What are they in fo’?” Tony asked stammering.

“Do I really need to spell it out for ya?” Z said, rubbing his fingers together. “Cannibalism!”

“NOOOOOO!” Tony cried as a singular guard plucked him from Elise’s hands and carried him off towards a large fish tank.

“Any other questions?” Z asked, his face aglow with the torment that he’d soon be afflicting.

Captain Archibell raised his hand. “Can we have one of those big bottles that hamster’s drink from? Ya know, to stay hydrated?”

“Take that up with the Torture Planning Committee,” Z snarled. “Now without further ado, it’s time to go, ya hamstards!”

Guards escorted all of the inmates to the wheels. Several more inmates had shown up since then, and Z’s face widened with delight as his hamsters mounted their wheels. Elise picked one between the two men she trusted most—Archibell and Tito. An old man with a scraggly beard entered the one beside Tito and Sincirce was next to Archibell. “Maybe it’s a good thing they confiscated my heels,” the vain witch said as she prepared to run. “I may be magical, but not enough to run on heels!"

Tito looked at Elise who was nervously gazing at her shoes. “You ready to go, Speckles?” he said in his boyish manner.

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Elise bashfully shook her head. Tito smiled at her. “You ever run around when you play?”

Elise looked up into his handsome chestnut eyes. She slowly nodded. “I do indeed,” she said.

“Just treat this like you’re playing a fun game,” he said with a smile. “Like you’re pretending to be a hamster.”

“Ooh yesh,” Elise said happily. “I can be a hamster! That’s an easy one!”

“Good,” Tito said. “Things are less scary when you pretend they are something else!”

“You’re so smart!” Elise sighed. “My daddy always said to look for a smart boy to marry.”

“What?!” Tito said, taking a step back. “Marriage? Now I got a reason to run too!”

Their moment of warmth was shattered by a loud guitar riff. Z stood at the forefront with a strange red and white guitar that played heavy, distorted chords. He screamed loudly, “ALL ABOARD!” and he burst into laughter. An ominous, tension building guitar chugging followed and the lights flashed brightly like a concert from hell. “AY AY AY!” he went as everyone picked up their feet and run.

Elise already had to admit she was overwhelmed by the heavy rhythms, but she tried to imagine herself as a squeaky, orange hamster named Jessica.

She started jogging at a brisk pace, making sure she didn't fall over her feet. Her little hamster legs were skittering along her neon wheel. She imagined Jessica was merely going for a leisurely run before her owner awarded her with some delicious carrots and lettuce.

Hold the shell phone, Elise thought. Lettuce and carrots? Bleh, I'm a hamster who eats chocolate chip cookies!

Elise imagined the platter of cookies that awaited her when her run was finished.

She gazed at Tito and Archibell and they both smiled at her. Her face eased into a smile too.

As they ran, Archibell called to the bearded elder pirate running along the same wheel. "Hey old man?!"

The old pirate turned his head and wheezed, "Are ya talking to me? Yer one to talk about my age!"

Archibell gave a nervous chuckle. "Er...uh...touche! Anywho! Do you know what's going on here? I didn't expect this place to turn into a dungeon overnight."

The old pirate grimaced as he ran. "That Cornbury ingrate claims to be running a humane prison, but then he brought in that accursed dungeon master and this is what we unlucky sods do at night!"

"But why?" Tito asked. "Why these stupid hamster wheels?"

"I dunno," the old pirate said with anger in his eyes. "Ye'd have to take this up with Cornbury himself…"

Suddenly, Z's voice howled at them. "Enough talking, you bleedin' blokes or I'll knock her blinking block off! It's time we speed this up!"

Z began to play speedy riffage on his guitar and shouted, "No one goes slower than 15 miles per hour!"

The lights above flashed in Elise's eyes as she really scrambled on her hamster wheel.

Elise sweated in her jumpsuit from the speed from her mad dash. The needle on the gauge was beginning to budge, but not by much. Her legs were already so sore from all the running.

Next to them, the old codger was puffing and panting too. All of a sudden, he collapsed. "Go on without me!" he cried as guards carried him from the cage.

After taking in the old man's fall, Elise couldnt focus on being Jessica the hamster anymore. Tears streamed down her face. She didn't want to end up like him. She had to escape Satan's wheel or die trying.