Not Going Out
The cool
March air was making Honey feel a little cold – but not too much, as she walked
to the house at the end of the street.
She was going to spend the evening in town with her friends Emma and
Tara, and to her mind this was a night to be warm and meet boys.
Honey was
eighteen, and was wearing a white and pale pink sleeveless jerkin with white
fur lining, over a black v-necked jumper.
Her stone washed denim jeans were tucked into a pair of brown suede
boots.
Walking
briskly up the pathway, she was about to ring the doorbell when the front door
opened and Emma’s parents came out.
“We’ll be back late – try to be home before we are,” her mother called
back into the house as they walked to the car.
“I will – is
that you Honey?”
“Yeah it’s
me,” Honey said as she came in and closed the door. Emma was sitting in the front room, pulling
her black high heeled suede boots on over the legs of her faded blue
jeans. She also wore a black cowl necked
jumper, the diamond pattern on the front revealing glimpses of her t-shirt
underneath.
“Tara not
here yet?”
“Give her
time – you know what she’s like,” Emma said as she stood up. “Drink?”
“I’d love
one,” she said as they walked into the kitchen, not seeing the grey van that
pulled up outside in the rapidly dimming light.
“Cheers,”
Emma said as she raised a glass, and Honey returned the greeting.
“That’s
better,” she said as she sipped the beer.
“So where do you fancy going tonight?”
“Jerome’s?”
“I don’t know
– too may tweenagers in there. How about
the boat?”
“That’s a
possibility,” Emma said as she rubbed her finger, “let me think about it.”
“While you do
that,” Honey said as she put her glass down, “I’m going to use your smallest
room.” She left the kitchen and headed
up the stairs, just as the doorbell rang.
Emma walked quickly to it and threw it open, saying “Ready to par….”
She stepped
back, the three women – if indeed they were women – following her in as one of
them closed the door with her grey gloved hand…
Honey washed
her hands and dried them on the towel, flushing the toilet before she walked
out of the room. “Was that Tara,” she
called out as she came down the stairs, but there was no reply. She could hear Emma in the front room, so she
walked in and said “Was that…”
The two women
turned in perfect unison and looked at Honey as she stood in the doorway,
looking at Emma as she drew the curtains across the windows. Honey then turned her head back to look at
the two women in front of her.
At least, she
believed they were women – they certainly had the body shape, but their grey
bodysuits covered their bodies from head to foot, while their grey gloves and
trainers completed the outfit. The only
part of their bodies was the face – the expressionless, white masked faces that
looked at Honey, their heads cocked to one side.
“Oh my god,”
she whispered as she saw the pistol nestled in the hand of one of them, and the
large duffel bag in the hand of the other.
“Honey, for
the love of God don’t try and fight them,” Emma pleaded as she stood by the
window, her hands on her brown shoulder length hair. “Just do what they tell you to do.”
“Who are
they,” Honey said as she stood back, only to feel a small metal disc press
against her back. Slowly turning, she
saw another woman, dressed in exactly the same way, look at her with her white
face before she used her hand to indicate Honey should go into the room.
“Look,” Honey
said as she raised her hands, “Just tell us what you want, and we’ll tell you
where it is.”
“They won’t
do that,” Emma said tearfully, “they won’t say anything to you.”
“What on
earth makes you think that, Emma,” Honey said as she looked at her friend.
“Because I’ve
heard of them – they’re the China Doll Gang.”
Honey slowly
looked at the three women, as they nodded their heads twice. The one with the duffel bag then put it on
the white leather couch, opening it to produce several large coils of brown
rope.
“You’re going
to tie us up, aren’t you,” Emma said, the Doll in front of her nodding once again
before she indicated that Emma should stand in front of Honey.
“OH god –
nothing like this has happened to me before,” Honey said as one of the Dolls
stood to the side of them, her head tilted to one side as the other two
unravelled the longest length of rope Honey had ever seen, doubling it over and
making a small loop in the centre.
“What are
they doing,” Honey asked quietly as they stood behind the two girls and draped
the rope over their shoulders, the small loop placed at the base of their
necks.
“I think
we’re about to find out,” Emma whispered as she felt the rope wind down her
arms, the Doll pulling them behind her as she did so. She could see the same thing happening to
Honey, as their arms were forced behind their backs and bound in a box tie, the
rope then going through the loop as their forearms were forced up their backs.
“Fuck, that’s
tight,” Honey said as the Doll behind Emma looked at her, her head to the
side.
“It looks
it,” Emma said as the Dolls then wrapped the rope around their upper arms and
chest, creating a rope harness on both girls that held their arms firmly in
place, as well as forced their chests out.
“You don’t
think they’re…”
The Doll to
her side looked at both the captives, and then shook her head slowly, before motioning
to Emma.
“You want me
to take you upstairs?”
The Doll
nodded and motioned with the gun in her hand, Emma looking back at Honey before
she was marched out of the room. The two
Dolls with Honey then pointed to the floor.
“You want me
to sit down,” Honey said as she looked at them, seeing them both nod before she
sat on the floor. She watched as one of
the Dolls took a second length of rope and tied her legs tightly together below
her knees, making sure the rope went between her legs, and then fed it down,
using the remaining lengths to secure her ankles tightly together.
“Now what,”
Honey said as she twisted her legs round.
In answer, one of the Dolls reached into the bag and took out two items
– a square of folded cotton, and a brown bandana, rolled and with a knot tied
in the middle.
“Stupid
question,” Honey said, but she knew not to argue, and she opened her mouth,
allowing the Doll to push the cloth in and then pull the cotton know between
her teeth, securing the band around her head.
She watched
as they began to search the front room, but before they could get very far the
front doorbell rang.
In the master
bedroom, Emma looked at the Doll with her, a gloved finger against the mouth of
the mask as she pointed the gun directly at her head.
Downstairs,
the two Dolls looked at each other, and then one stood by the doorway, a gun
pointing at Honey as the other went to open the door.
“Hi Em, sorry
I’m – eeek!”
Honey groaned
as she heard her friend Tara dragged into the house, the front door closing as
the second Doll walked out. “What’s with
the suits and the masks,” she heard Tara say making her call out
“Tsaarbrreeeeddeet.”
“Oh… OH….
Oh my god, that’s tight,” she heard Tara say, before the two Dolls
escorted her into the front room. Tara
was wearing a long sleeved black cotton top with a ruffed front, black chinos
with a metal studded waistband, and knee length patent black leather boots with
a three inch heel.
“OH shit –
this is a real robbery, isn’t it,” she said as she looked at Honey, sitting on
the floor and struggling in the ropes.
The Dolls had already bound her arms and chest – within five minutes of
the door bell ringing – so that the brown rope sat around and between her
breasts.
One of the
Dolls indicated to Tara to sit next to her friend, and as the blonde haired
girl sat down she said “Where’s Emma?
“Pstrsssmwhr,”
Honey mumbled through her gag, watching as the Doll started to bind her friend’s
legs.
Emma watched
from the bed as the Doll systematically searched through every drawer, shelf
and crevice of her parent’s room. She
had already had to watch as they found every piece of her jewellery, and now
they were helping themselves to everything her mother and father owned as well.
She was in no
position to argue with them either – the Doll had folded one of her own silk
scarves up and pushed it into her mouth, and then used one of her own black and
white bandanas to create a knotted cleave gag, the material sitting behind her
teeth.
“Plssdnttkktthm,”
she said as the Doll held up a pair of pearl earrings with a sterling silver
setting. The silent raider just looked
at her, her head to one side, before they joined the rest of the items she had
found into the velvet sack, Emma starting to cry at what was happening.
Eventually,
the Doll turned and looked at Emma, before she picked up the extra length of
rope she had brought up. The nineteen
year old looked at her as the Doll walked to the side of the bed, and rolled
Emma away from her onto her side, the rope around her knees tightening as her
ankles were pulled back and tied to her chest ropes.
The Doll
checked all the ropes, Emma’s fingers waving uselessly from her hands, and then
walked out of the room, leaving her alone with only the bedside lamp illuminating
the room.
Walking down
the stairs, the Doll went into the front room and looked at Honey and
Tara. Honey’s jerkin had opened
slightly, but only as much as the ropes would allow, while Tara was twisting
her legs, the rope and the leather making a loud squeaking sound as they rubbed
against each other. She now had a red
bandana tied into her mouth, the knot visible between her lips.
The other two
Dolls looked at the new arrival, before they moved the two captives so that
they were lying on their sides, facing each other as the Dolls bound their
ankles to their chest harnesses as well.
The three
women then left a sheet of paper on the coffee table, and left as quietly as
they had arrived, Emma and Honey looking at each other as the only sound was
the street traffic outside, and the squeaks as they moved around.
“Swththdweddnw,”
Tara said as she looked at Honey. Her
friend thought for a moment, before she said “Ltmmsssurhnds.”
“Whtt?”
“Rllffrndltmssurhnds.”
Tara nodded
and rolled over onto her other side, as Honey looked at the way her wrists were
tied to her forearms. The rope had the
most intricate of knots, and she could see no way of untying them with her
mouth the way it was.
“Whtrudng,”
Tara said as she felt Honey’s lips against her fingers, looking over her
shoulder to see her friend nudging her gagged mouth against her fingers.
“Cnuhhhktscrft?”
Tara looked
at Honey, and then nodded, as she tried to ease one of her fingers under the
cotton band tied tightly around Honey’s head.
In her
parent’s bedroom, Emma was rolling from side to side, trying desperately to find
some sort of slack in the ropes holding her fast. The sweat was pouring down her face, and she
could feel the dampness in the cotton scarf against her lips. Her mouth felt dry, and she desperately
wanted to be somewhere else.
Eventually,
she lay on her side, panting through the gag as her eye fell on the thin metal
blade of a nail file on the bedside table…
“MHmmmdddyssss
oh God that’s better,” Honey finally said as Tara managed to ease the bandana
from her mouth, and she spat out the folded cloth from her mouth. Tara then rolled onto her back, staying as
still as she could while Honey used her teeth to pull the knotted scarf from
her mouth, and she pushed the cloth from her mouth.
“How… How long did that take,” she said as she
looked at Honey. The young girl looked
at the clock on the wall.
“Too… Too long – it’s ten o’clock already,” Honey
said as she looked at Tara. “Look,
there’s no way I can get those knots untied – but my mobile is in my bag, in
the kitchen.”
“Too far,”
Tara said, “my bag is outside. With any
luck, they won’t have found it. But I
can’t get to it like this – do you think you can at least release my ankles
from my chest?”
She rolled
onto her other side, Honey looking at the knots before she wriggled down and
started to pick at the one at her ankles with her teeth. It took another twenty minutes, but
eventually Tara stretched her legs out and got herself into a seated position.
“Wait there,”
she said to Honey, as she wriggled into the hallway on her bottom her leather
boots squeaking and the rope hitting the hard wooden floor. She could see her large black handbag against
the wall, and moved towards it, turning herself round and tipping the contents
onto the floor.
“Hwhthhhdpndndtre?”
She looked up
the stairs to see Emma sitting on the top stair, her bound ankles tow steps
down.
“Hopefully,
the police,” Tara said as she found her phone, pressed the button on the side
and then pressed on the screen.
“Hello? Police please – there’s been a robbery, and
all three of us are tied up.”
It was after
midnight by the time the police left, and the three friends were sat round the
kitchen table, Emma’s parents upstairs surveying the damage.
“That was not
an experience I want to go through again,” Tara said as she rubbed her wrists.
“Tell me
about it,” Emma said quietly.
“That note
they left,” Honey said quietly, “what was written on it?”
“Do you
really want to know?”
The other two
girls nodded as Emma sipped her drink.
“It said Thank you for your co-operation. The China Doll Gang.”
“That was
it?”
“That was
it,” Emma said to Tara, as they looked into their mugs. “Not much for taking all our valuables, was
it?”
“No – but
we’re unharmed. We can be grateful for
that at least.”
Emma looked
at Honey, and then nodded in agreement as they thought about the night…
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