It is hard to emphasize just how difficult life was in Piedmont Factory. The kids went through 8 hour work days, 6 days a week under safety conditions that would be considered suicidal by today’s standard. All this while most of them were still mourning the loss of their families. But this of course, was only the icing on their miserable cake. Fear of cruel and unusual punishment by the adult overseers, who were essentially hired to be bullies, always weighed over everyone’s mind. Mere beatings and being sent to bed without supper were the best outcomes one could hope for. In truth, it is understandable, if not perhaps even justified, that the ghosts of Piedmont bear such horrible hatred against adults.

Down in the basement of the dorm is a chamber with four closets; each the size of a locker and blocked with a wooden bar. These are the slammers. Kids who irritated a particularly grouchy overseer, may see themselves dragged down here and thrown into these coffins. So small that many of the older kids could barely fit, they are forced to stand in the pitch black darkness for as long as the overseer sees fit. This could be hours and oftentimes be overnight. The weeping, exhausted child was of course expected to work the next day, plus make up any missed hours or they could expect another night in this dungeon. The cruelest known use of the slammers was after the first attempted rebellion by Rheena.

Rheena’s attempt to stand up to the adults came to a quick end after she was brutally whipped in front of the other kids with a nailed belt. They wanted to throw her into the slammer as well, but so bad was the whipping that they were afraid the bleeding girl might survive. So they grabbed her best friend, Ruby and locked her up for the entire weekend.

The cruelty of the slammer is still sees use today. The ghost of Ruby maintains this nightmarish room. The walls weeping with mold and rust and the doors now reinforced with welded metal plates are now too heavy for most mortals to open or close. Under Rheena’s orders, unfortunate intruders who caught her in a particularly nasty mood can expect to be thrown in these prisons. Too small for even children, adults often need to have a bone or two broken to be made to fit and unlike in life, no one is coming back to let them out.