Earlier today, I assured myself that everything was ready. I waited until sunset, then slipping on my red high heels and a short silk robe, I went back downstairs to the basement to make my final webcam appearance.

Sitting down, I logged onto my website, set the broadcast time for sixty minutes, and switched to my close-up camera, “Good evening to all my avid pervy fans, and welcome back to ‘Keira’s Wicked Games.’ Tonight will be my show’s final episode, the grand finale, and involves a fate I’ve only imagined in my darkest erotic nightmares.”

With that, I switched the live feed to the primary camera, revealing the gallows and the dangling, empty noose. All that remained was to light the candle and get on with the show. Picking up the restraints from the table, I dropped my silk robe to the chair and, lighting the long wooden match, walked to the bottom of the steps, using it to light the candle, leaving a mere inch or so of wax between me and eternity.

Stepping onto the raised platform, I knelt and secured my ankles in the chain-linked restraints. Then standing back up, I placed the noose around my neck, clinching it snug before using the remaining restraints to secure my wrists behind my back.

“Tonight, there are no special effects, no CGI, and there’s no chance of a knight in shining armor coming to my rescue. Tonight, it’s all fatally real. In a few minutes, that candle will burn down far enough for its flame to reach the rope. At first, the rope will begin to smoke, but as the candle continues to burn, so will the rope. I’ve tested this method several times, so I can confidently say that the time between lighting that candle and the rope burning through is only about ten minutes.”

I kept glancing over at the burning candle until I noticed the first whisps of smoke starting to rise from the now smoldering rope. I knew the candle’s flame would burn through the rope in just a few minutes, releasing the heavy weight hanging from the death trap’s activation lever to pull it down until the trap door fell from beneath my high heels.

I could already smell the rope starting to burn as I turned back to the camera, “Well, here we go, so pay attention. I’m only going to do this once.”

I could feel my heart racing as the rope finally burned through, releasing the weight, pulling the activation leaver downward. Less than a heartbeat later, I heard the sharp metallic click of the support rods retracting, freeing the platform to drop from beneath my feet.

As planned, when the platform swung open, I only dropped about a foot, not far enough to break my neck but just enough to draw the noose tighter around my throat.

As the long, painful minutes passed, the noose drew steadily tighter, making breathing harder and harder. I desperately struggled against the inevitability of my death. Or, at least as much as the restraints on my wrists and ankles would allow. But, the platform and steps remained beyond the reach of my desperately stretching toes.

I knew from my research that in a short drop hanging, with the hangman’s knot placed precisely behind her right ear, and a woman could survive for almost thirty minutes before the noose finally tightened enough to end her life. As it turns out, my research was correct. I lasted for twenty-eight utterly terrifying minutes. However, it failed to mention just how painful a torturously slow death by hanging was to endure.

Keira’s audience watched her body convulse one final time as she died. Her lifeless body hung motionless for another twenty-two minutes before the computer timer expired and her last webcam appearance ended...