"Take them into one of their rooms," the man said. We walked to the door, and as I looked back I saw that Mum was lying face down on the bed, her sock covered hands crossed and tightly bound together at the wrists and up to all the other ropes, as the leader took another length of rope out of the bag.

JENNIFER’S STORY

By Bind-Her

I stretched and craned my neck as best as I could, trying to take in the sight of my daughters as they left my field of vision. When they were gone, I bit my lip, letting my head fall on the bed as my blonde hair shifted on my face. I tensed as I felt the man gather up my legs by the ankles, the new length of rope stretched out in his hands.

“Wait” I said, but he didn’t. I know he was fully expecting me to just try and plead to avoid the inevitable. This wasn’t the case, and as embarrassing as it was, I continued.

“Look, I need to use the bathroom. Please. I know I am going to be here awhile and I don’t want to……”

My words trailed off, but we both knew the meaning.

Somewhat roughly, the man took me by my shoulders and turned me face up, trapping my bound wrists under me, pressing into the small of my back.

“Look Mrs Craig, You are all done up, and I have no desire to do it over and….”

“Please,” I almost whispered, staring up at the cold eyes of the criminal looming over me

After a chilling pause, he grunted and pulled my bound body up into a sitting position. He then leaned me forward and started to work on untying the coils of rope around my arms and body.

“No tricks, and no hassle when I tie you back up.”

“No I promise. I know what you will have to do and I won’t cause a fuss.”

It takes almost ten minutes to undo the ropes, and by finally I am able to painfully move my hands in front, rubbing the red marks with my soft cotton gloves.

“Ummmm,” I hold up the hands, still covered in the socks.

“Sorry,” he grunts, pulling me to my feet and guiding me to the bathroom attached to our master bedroom. “I don’t have the tape here to put those back. Make do”.

Afraid to push it farther, I nod and go in, starting to close the door.

“Uh huh,” her captor says, “It stays cracked.”

I feel my face warm to a blush, but I nod and, as best I can, complete the task. As expected, he is waiting, rope in hand, at the door. Meekly I let him guide me back to the bed, and I turn my back to him, crossing my wrists behind my back and waiting. It doesn’t take long to feel the rough rope around them again. He is at work immediately, first retying my wrists, then my arms again and upper body. This time however he takes extra care in winding the chest ropes, pulling them tight above and below my breasts.

I feel the red returning to my cheeks as he tightens the ropes binding my chest, forcing my thin pink top to bunch up and stretch taut over my breasts. He pulls the ropes tight and knots the loops in the small of my back. I wince and my heart sinks as I realize that the ropes are even tighter than they were before. In less than a quarter hour, things are back to square one and I am seated on the edge of the bed, as the man gathers up that forgotten piece of rope from earlier. He pauses a minute then, then bends down and crosses my ankles. I know what’s coming but I can’t hold back a wince as he finishes with a cruel cinch. As I look down, he loops more rope on my legs, below the knees, pulling tight against the purple silk bottoms covering my lower body. The words are in my throat and finally I push them out.

“My girls,” I say, “Please tell me they are alright.”

The man doesn’t look up, continuing to bind me, now above my knees.” “I am sure they are fine. We aren’t here to hurt anyone, unless…..”

His words are cut off by the sudden appearance of another of the men. I recognize him at once as one of the ones who took Cassie, Jenny & April off elsewhere.

“You haven’t got that bird tied up yet?”, he says as he walks through stepping into the bathroom.

He comes out with one of my white, terry cloth hand towels. He tears the towel length-wise, making two strips, maybe two feet in length, then ties a knot in the center of each. I know exactly what those are for.

“Please there is no need to gag the girls – they won’t cry out. They are just kids and….Mffffffffffff”.

The man who had been tying me reached up and clamped a rough hand on my mouth. The other one ignored anything that I had said, and simply said, “Better get her gagged,” in a matter of fact tone. As he got to the door, my captor nodded. “Bring me over a roll of that tape when you can, k?” His friend nodded and walked out.

The man glanced back at me, his hand digging into my cheeks. I knew what he wanted to see and gave a meek nod. He pulled his hand off and went back to tying my legs.

I lay there, my mind racing. I was sick at the thought of my family caught up in this. My husband having to comply to keep us safe, closer at hand, April and the girls with their mouths cruelly taped up and their limbs bound just a few feet away from where I was getting similar treatment. I had to keep remembering there was nothing I could do and I tried to shake the images out of my head.

The last knot was cinched and he stood back, looking over his handiwork as me, his handiwork, looked back at him. His face was scrunched as if he was trying to see what other ways he needed to secure his prisoner. As he stood there, he reached in his pocket and pulled out a crumbled foil pack, from there plucked out a cigarette, and brought it to his lips. A small lighter appeared and in a few seconds, smoke began to rise over his head.

This somehow inspired him as he pulled out more rope, then looped it around my bound ankles. He pulled it taut and I winced, louder than I should have. My captor ran the end over the bed frame at the bottom, tying it off. It took just a second for me to realize that while I could turn from side to side, I could not even come close to getting off the bed. In a way, it wasn’t so bad and I certainly knew it could be a lot worse.

Apparently satisfied, the man moved around the room, opening drawers and such, mostly out of my line of sight. What I finally did see was one of my long, silk scarves tossed on the bed near my left shoulder. There was no doubt what that was a part of. I heard him in the bathroom and when he came into view again, he was carrying a thick washcloth, balling it in his hand for a purpose that I fully understood. Instinctively, I licked my lips while I still could.

He stops for a second, bending down to turn my face toward him. Unable to avoid the wisps of smoke from the fag gripped in his teeth, I took in the scent, and slowly exhaled. During my college days, I was somewhat of a smoker but marriage and motherhood had put that habit to rest. Occasionally with enough wine, influence from my sister-in-law Cassie, or in times of stress the urge returned – and this was one of the latter. Half out of desire and half out of a way to delay my upcoming silencing, I spoke.

“Do you mind – may I have a bit of a smoke please. I know I’m going to be here, gagged and helpless for hours, it seems the least you could do for me?”

The man looked down and arched an eye brow, then shrugged. He dug out the pack and pulled one out, then held it to my lips. I took it and lifted my head up off the bed as best as I could to accept the flame from the lighter he held. I drew on the warm butt and quickly fought back a cough. The man’s brand of choice was harsher than what I had been used to, but I soon managed to regain my composure.

I stared up at him and drew on the cigarette again, the smoke circling my blonde hair. The man had used the time to wind more rope around my upper body, then after pulling me in to a sitting position, cigarette & all, attached this to my bound wrists. Somehow this made my wrists push tighter toward my bottom, and as impossible as it seemed, I was more helpless. Reaching to my mouth, the man gripped the butt, muttering “One more” and I drew one final time.

Pulling the cigarette from my mouth, he crushed it in my expensive ivory candy dish, perched on top of my dresser, causing me to wince a bit.

“Ok, Mrs Craig, “ he said, balling up the washcloth, “Open wide.”

I was still sitting up, causing the man to reach behind my head to both support me and prevent my turning away from the mass of dry cloth targeted at my mouth.

I looked up at him and mouthed a “Please”, mostly out of instinct. The cloth went in, partially anyway. His thick fingers prodded it past my teeth, poking it evenly into each cheek. Twice in the process, I had started to slightly retch, causing him to stop and wait until I recovered.

Finally it was in place, my jaws stretched nearly to the max. While I tried to adjust to my packed mouth, he picked up the scarf. Like his friend had done before him, he tied three loops that formed a good sized knot in the center. He brought the thing over my face, positioning the knot in the center of my forcibly parted lips. Cruelly he pulled it and I retched again, the washcloth slipping in farther. Roughly, he pushed my blonde hair to one side, and tied the ends of the silk at the bare nape of my neck. It took two tight knots to complete the job.

Again, I was inspected, with him tipping my chin up and examining the gag’s structure. I made a moaning noise that I hoped would assure him of any inability to raise alarm.

At that point, the second man returned and tossed a roil of silver duct tape to his partner.

“The kids are all fixed up. So is the babysitter, but she isn’t taking it well. I’m staying in there with Jimmy and keep an eye on them for awhile.”

My captor grunted and nodded as the man left. He turned back to me, peeling off the end of the roll. I had actually forgotten about the tape and shook my head trying to prove just how well gagged I was.

The man placed the edge of the tape on my left cheek and said “Be still.” Actually in hindsight, I probably would’ve complied, but it was what happened next that sent me into a panic.

The man’s other hand pressed on my jaw, hard, forcing me to bite down on the massive wad and then close my lips around the knotted silk as best I could. At first I was afraid I couldn’t breathe, and tried to pull away. That’s when the tape came into play.

One quick wind of the roll around my head, hard against the mouth, made sure my lips stayed put for the moment. The man quickly continued winding, hurrying as fast as he could, thinking I’d try and pull away. Unfortunately, this meant my hair remained in place and soon was trapped against the back of my head by the tight grey bands. Wind after wind, seven in all, he tore the end off and pressed it hard under my right ear.

He stood back and watched me for a moment making sure I could handle the muzzle. I regulated my breathing and other than an occasional toss of my head due to my trapped hair, made no further effort to get free.

Roughly he pushed me onto my back and made one more check on the knots, then left the room.

Alone, I took air in my nose and tried to use my tongue to block the washcloth from slipping into my throat. With effort, I eventually found my least uncomfortable position and then went about straining my ears, hoping to hear something from elsewhere in the house. There was no sound. My stomach twisted at the thought of Cassie and Jenny being gagged cruelly into silence.

Time passed and I had to wonder if the men had gone. Then in the door came the one who was supposedly guarding the girls – and he was pushing along a frightened looking April.

The girl was still bound from the waist up. The expected gag had been added since I had last seen her. Her mouth was covered in winds of tape, but under it was a pale blue band of silk that I knew came from Jenny’s dressing gown. April looked down at me, trussed and silenced and her eyes went wide. The man holding her acted as if I wasn’t lying there.

“Ok” he said, “turn around,” and he began to work on the ropes around the girl’s arms & chest. My captor then appeared, crossed in front of April & took her gagged face in his hand.

“So you get a bathroom break here, but no funny stuff. When you are done you get tied up again, got it? “

April nodded as best she could. The man loosening her ropes asked his associate, “What about the gag?”

“Take it off, we need a better one anyway,” and April made a soft moan, but I wasn’t sure if it was from gratitude or anticipation of her next muzzling.

In a minute her hands were free, including the sock gloves which lay at her feet. Her trembling hands were hanging meekly at her sides while the tape and silk was pulled from her mouth. It was a cruel gag, especially one for someone who hadn’t experienced such before. The tape revealed a small bulge at April’s lips and I have to say I was a bit shocked to see the man fish out a wadded hanky, damp and balled up. Apparently it had been stuffed in over and against the band of silk, before the girl’s face was bound in tape.

Once ungagged, April worked her jaw a bit, turned to me and softly said “Are you ok?”

Before I could make a gesture reassuring the girl, she was pushed into the bathroom. Again the door was cracked open and a somewhat embarrassed April soon emerged. Without a word, she was spun around and her hands gathered behind her and the two men addressed the job before them.

When her arms & wrists were bound, one of them picked up the roll of duct tape and encased her fingers, replacing the job that the socks had done.

“Gag”, the second man said and his partner quickly fetched another washcloth from the bath. April looked at it with wide eyes, and started to say something, but the sound never got past her shaking lips. Again working in tandem, the men silenced their prisoner.

One gripped her head firmly, hands tight just above her ears while the other stuffed her mouth full. After the mass was in place, he picked up the tape, but his friend said “Wait”.

He picked up the belt from Jenny’s gown, tossed on the floor. A knot was added and soon it was wedged deep into April’s parted lips. They didn’t make April close her mouth, and I doubt if she could have, but with the number of winds of tape that soon covered her from nose to chin, I had to wonder if it would really make a difference.

“Take her to one of the other rooms, and hog tie her,” the man who had tied me said. “I think the kids will stay settled more if she isn’t in sight to agitate them.”

April was trundled out as I raised my head and gave the best reassuring grunt I could muster.

The remaining man stopped and looked down at me, picking up the tape roll. He started to peel off an edge and I just collapsed, letting my head fall back to the bed in defeat. Satisfied, he left for what would be the last time.

Saying time dragged on is an understatement. My mind raced from thoughts of the girls, John, April and what might become of all of us. Sheer exhaustion took me finally, and I drifted in and out until….

I heard a sound at the door. John? The men? I craned my neck and grunted, trying to see when my sweet Cassie bounded into view. The little darling was trussed from head to toe and hopping to the bed, her eyes wide and twinkling over a cruel tape gag. As she got closer, she bounded onto me and we both almost laughed. I could see her face had been taped as I feared, and it was obvious further gagging was behind the grey winds. Hopefully nowhere near like what had been done to me or April.

“Mfggg” Cassie said and I replied with what I hoped was a reassuring ‘Bbfff”. The sweet child somehow managed to get to the far side of me and scooted up very close to me, her head resting on my chest as she looked into my eyes. We soon both drifted off into a deep sleep, waiting for rescue.

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