CHAPTER Four
Alan woke up early the next morning and discovered that Jimmy was gone. At first this startled him, but then, remembering about the bike riding thing the night before, he went out to the garage to see if the bike was still there. It wasn’t. Jimmy had gone on another bike ride.
It was about six o’clock.
Probably still nervous about prom, Alan said to himself, his mind thinking the bike rides helped him relax. What will he be like on Saturday?
Hopefully his brother would be able to relax by them and enjoy himself. At the same time he knew just how nerve-racking such a situation would be for him, after all, it wasn’t just his first dance, but his first date and girlfriend. Experiencing all of that during one night - Alan couldn’t even imagine what that would be like. It did, however, bring to mind his own first date two years ago and how much of a disaster it had been.
* * *
Samantha woke weary and tired, her body having been unable to relax enough for her mind to drift away for long periods of time due to the ropes. Every time she did mange to doze off, something would happen that would pull her back. The tug of the ropes was the worst. People were not designed to sleep while standing so whenever her mind would enter the dream world the ropes would yank her back. Of course just relaxing enough to fall asleep was nearly impossible. All her mind could think about was her situation, which kept the fear of having to live the rest of her days tied up like this constant. To make matters worse, every time she did fall asleep and then woke up, she thought Jimmy was in the room with her, his body concealed somewhere in the darkness.
It was also very cold and her body had no way of keeping the heat in, which is why she was shaking when Jimmy did actually appear the next morning.
“Here,” Jimmy said while handing her a wool blanket. He had gotten it from the stack of wool blankets that had been folded and left in the rear corner of the shelter. Before doing that he had untied the ropes from her wrists and told her to sit against the wall.
Samantha nodded a thank you and wrapped herself with the warm blanket. It felt wonderful, despite the itchiness, yet didn’t get rid of the shakes right away. The comfort of finally being free from the ropes, however, made it difficult for her eyes to stay open.
Jimmy uncapped the bottle of water she had drunk from the day before and helped her take a few sips. For the first time in her life Samantha was glad the water was warm.
“Do you need to use the bathroom?” Jimmy asked.
“Y-yesss.”
“Okay, stay here a second.” Jimmy stood up and walked over to the wall with shelves and picked up a metal bucket. He then brought it back. “Use this.”
When he had asked, Samantha had assumed he would take her into the house and let her use one of those toilets since this little shelter didn’t have one. Now she just stared at the bucket with disgust and humiliation. “I ca-can’t go in th-that.”
“If you need to go you can.”
Samantha looked at Jimmy and then back at the bucket, disgusted. How could he be doing this to her? Why was he doing this to her?
“If you don’t use it now I’ll just tie you up so your legs are straddling it. But then you’ll be stuck with the smell until I get back from school.”
“S-school?” she asked. “What time is it?”
“It’s just after six o’clock in the morning.”
As soon as he said it the hunger that had been showing up on and off throughout the night hit full force. She was starving.
“Can I e-eat something?” she asked, hesitation gripping her as her eyes studied the shelf with canned goods.
“Oh, yeah.” Jimmy got up and walked to the shelf. “What do you want?”
Samantha didn’t know what was over there, so she didn’t respond. Anything would satisfy her as long as it put an end to her hunger.
Jimmy turned. “Crackers?”
Samantha nodded.
Jimmy moved a few cans around and took out a box of crackers and then returned to Samantha. “I bet this started out as the Hoods’ Y2K shelter, but then wasn’t enough for the coming nuclear war with Islam they thought was going to occur.”
Samantha wasn’t sure if she heard it correctly, but it seemed like Jimmy was trying to start up a simple conversation. Why would he do that? Rather than answering him, she just waited for him to bring the crackers.
A day earlier, crackers for breakfast would have been a joke unless she was dieting. Now her stomach opened up with just the thought of a single small square.
“Let me see your wrists,” Jimmy said once the box was open.
Her arms felt like they had gone through a heavy workout, and she had trouble holding them out to him.
Jimmy looked at the red marks the rope had left and slowly began rubbing them. He then asked, “What was it like standing there all night?”
Samantha didn’t respond. Last night had been the worst night of her life and now he was asking the question like it was nothing. It could have been a bed he was asking about, and how comfortable the new mattress had been.
“If you want some crackers you better answer me,” Jimmy said, his voice growing stern.
“It hurt,” she said. Her voice wasn’t as shaky as before and now her body actually felt warm.
“I’ve always wanted to know what it would be like,” Jimmy said. “Standing there like that, arms over your head, the bite of the ropes, knowing you couldn’t get free.” He shook his head. “I envy the experience you had.”
Samantha couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Was he serious? Could he actually be envious of what he had forced her to do all night, and would force her to do again? He was crazy.
“That and the stocks, or pillory as they are really called; I’ve always wondered what it would be like to stand locked in the pillory all day, the way the girls in medieval and Puritan times were forced to do. I don’t know when that desire started, but I love looking at videos on YouTube of girls at Renaissance Events being locked in the pillory.”
Samantha didn’t reply. She had no idea how to.
Jimmy didn’t seem to care and continued. “One of these nights I might lock myself up with you. I’d tell my parents I was sleeping over somewhere and come here, put handcuffs on, tie them up like yours and just wait until morning before unlocking them. What do you think of that?”
Samantha struggled with a response. She didn’t know what to say but knew he was expecting an answer. “I guess it would be nice to have some company.”
“Was it lonely last night?” Jimmy asked.
“Yes.” Tears began to well inside her eyes again. She wasn’t sure why his comment about being lonely had gotten to her. Perhaps it was everything coming together. The tears did not fall. She wouldn’t let them. She didn’t want him to see her cry.
“Here,” Jimmy said while handing her some crackers. He waited with the water.
It was the most delicious thing Samantha had ever eaten. She had another handful before washing it all down with a sip of water.
Jimmy then handed her the box of crackers and set the water next to her. For a moment she thought he was going to leave and let her stay sitting there all day, but he was only getting up to stretch his legs and look at some of the things the Hood family had brought down.
“I wonder when they made this place,” Jimmy said while examining the concrete walls.
Samantha’s mouth was full of crackers.
“I don’t remember ever hearing about it being built, and no one ever mentioned it, so maybe they didn’t really build it? Maybe it was an old atomic shelter from the fifties that they converted into a Y2K shelter?”
Samantha took a big swallow of water and then said, “My dad talks about it all the time.” It was a lie but one she thought might work.
Jimmy whirled around. “What?”
It had worked.
“He remembers them asking him about concrete and cement and how much would be needed. He owns that construction company you know and so they asked him all about it.” She had tried to sound genuine but then her voice started to waver. “He talked about it with us at dinner a lot.”
Relief suddenly swept over his face.
“You’re lying,” he said.
“No.”
“Yes. I can tell, but just to make sure - ” he started to take off his belt “ - I’ll whip you until you admit it.”
Her eyes went wide. Why had she said that? “No wait, please.” She then thought of something else. “If you hurt me I’m just going to say it’s a lie so you stop.” She could still feel the belt hitting her the day before and did not want that again.
“Tell me, right now. Were you lying?”
Fear coiled itself throughout her body. If she said yes he was going to punish her, if she said no he was going to punish her until she admitted it. It was a lose lose situation.
“Were you lying?”
“Yes,” she cried. “I’m sorry.”
He came over and grabbed her right wrist. She tried to hold back but couldn’t. He forced her to her feet.
“Tell me, why’d you lie?”
“I-I - ”
He swung the belt low and connected with her leg. Samantha cried out and tried to fall to her knees. Never in her life had anyone treated her this way.
“ANSWER ME!”
Somehow she spoke through her sobs and said, “I wanted you to think people knew about this place so you’d take me somewhere else.”
Jimmy calmed down.
Several seconds passed.
Her tears continued.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “Come here.”
He pulled her to the rope. “What are you doing?” she asked.
“You’ve just earned yourself ten minutes of being hung from the wrists.”
“No, please, don’t.”
“If you fight me I’ll make it twenty minutes.” He was no longer angry. Actually, he seemed excited.
Samantha realized she was making things worse for herself and stopped fighting. She wiped away some tears and then held out her wrists. Ten minutes. It’s nothing. Don’t worry. However, she remembered the day before when he had pulled her off the ground and how there had been instant pain throughout her arms and wrists. That had been a few seconds. What would ten minutes be like?
Jimmy wrapped the rope around her wrists several times and then attached it to the one hanging from the ceiling.
“Please,” she tried again. “I’m sorry.”
“Too late for that.”
He gave the rope a pull. Samantha felt her arms rise up, but this time rather than stopping when she was on her toes he kept pulling until her feet left the ground and then tied off the rope. The pain was instantaneous, almost as if someone were putting a ring of fire around her already burned wrists.
Jimmy looked down at his watch. “Ten minutes,” he said.
“Please. I’m sorry.” She gasped for air, her chest feeling as if a giant weight were compressing it. “Let me down!”
Her toes stretched toward the ground trying to find the surface but fell short by nearly ten inches. This desperate attempt to reach the floor caused her body to slightly twist toward the left. It stopped once she was completely sideways and then twisted back.
“Nine minutes to go,” Jimmy said.
The ropes felt like razor teeth chewing on her torn flesh, and her hands, squeezed into tight fists, felt lifeless.
Jimmy’s hand suddenly reached up between her legs from behind. Samantha jerked, but her body wasn’t going anywhere. His fingers began rubbing up and down against her groin. Samantha wanted to protest but kept silent.
Embarrassing warmth began to develop.
The fingers continued to caress her pubic region for several seconds and then stopped.
Samantha felt both relief and disappointment. For a few seconds his fingers had taken her mind off the rope. Now it was back full force. At the same time she was disgusted at how her body had reacted.
“Seven minutes to go.”
* * *
Despite having ejaculated twice the day before, Jimmy had once again grown excited that night when thinking about all the scenes he had watched where women were hanging from the wrists and had developed a craving to see Samantha actually hanging for a good chunk of time, her feet unable to touch the ground. The craving had gotten so intense that he nearly rode his bike back to the fallout shelter again to see her and produce the scene, but then realized how dangerous that would be in the middle of the night, especially if someone saw him and then reported it to the police. Being out at night wasn’t against the law, especially since he was eighteen, but once word of Samantha’s disappearance spread, people would remember the little oddities in everyone around them and might grow suspicious of him. Once that happened he had a feeling people would learn about his interests, which in turn could eventually lead them to Samantha. Or lead to her death if he wasn’t able to get to her for a long period of time due to the scrutiny put upon him, and she died from dehydration.
So, rather than going out to see Samantha Jimmy had opened up his computer and watched a short scene he had downloaded from a bondage site in 2008, one which he legally shouldn’t have been on at the time given his age, yet had no trouble seeing thanks to the simple click of the Yes, I’m Over Eighteen button. The scene had been from a site called Into The Attic which featured amateur girls on the west coast who wanted to try out bondage. Most of the videos didn’t interest him, yet he checked the site regularly just incase something would appear that he craved (same thing with the Kink.com and, more recently, Clips4sale sites). In August of 2008 just such a scene appeared with a girl that called herself Syn that he couldn’t resist. In the video Syn stood on a chair while the owner of the site tied her wrists to a bolt in the ceiling and then removed the chair. She then hung there until she used a safe word to get down, which took quite a while, her toughness and determination making her last longer than most would be able to. BDSM fans probably thought the scene was boring due to a lack of nudity, sexual penetration, or painful implements being put upon her, but Jimmy had loved it and never regretted the thirty dollar membership he had paid just to be able to see that one scene. In fact, Jimmy would have paid hundreds of dollars for hundreds of scene like it, his eyes not caring if there wasn’t any nudity in them because he loved seeing the girls tied up in everyday clothes anyway. It seemed more real that way.
Watching the muted scene and then masturbating to it had stifled the craving that night, and then, after a long hot shower, he had been able to sleep. The craving had returned that morning, however, and now, seeing Samantha hang from her wrists, her feet trying to touch the ground, her breathing shallow due to the pressure the position put on her lungs, was amazing. It was so hot he wanted to masturbate while she hung there, but didn’t for fear that he would spend so much time in the shelter with her that he wouldn’t have time to shower before school and that people would smell the semen once he got to class.
Instead he just watched her, his mind savoring the intense position as her body slowly swayed back and forth, the single strand of rope making it impossible for the weight to find the proper balance to stay still. It was incredible.
* * *
Samantha felt the ground beneath her feet and almost cried out with thankfulness. But then Jimmy’s hand was upon her right breast and she once again felt anger and disgust. Adding to this was the terrible pain that raced into her wrists now that the blood flow was no longer cut off. Her hands screamed in agony.
At the same time there was a strange numbness to certain parts of her left hand, which had seemed to take most of her weight while hanging. Pins and needles covered most of her flesh, with the exception of a small area near her thumb and another right below her pinky. Due to the painful tingle, however, her mind wasn’t too concerned with the lifelessness that distorted her left hand. She gritted her teeth, waiting for it all to pass.
It wasn’t just her hands that were suffering. Her elbows felt as if she had gone through a strenuous workout and wanted to stay straight. She bent them a little and felt her muscles throughout her arms gasp.
Jimmy’s hand continued to work her right breast, his fingers sending shivers of humiliation through her.
Pretend it isn’t him.
Her mind was unable to accomplish this.
The pins and needles in her hands grew worse, almost as if someone were heating up the imaginary torment, which caused her to grind her teeth back and forth.
Jimmy stopped touching her and went over to tie off the rope. Rather than pulling her up to the tips of her toes he gave her a considerable amount of slack. It was almost enough for her to be able to reach down and touch her face, just a few inches short.
Samantha took several deep breaths while he did this.
Jimmy returned to her side.
Samantha stared at him.
The pins and needles were fading and her breathing was returning to normal. Her fear, however, wasn’t dissipating. What was he planning to do now?
Without warning, he reached out and began to unbutton her jeans.
“No,” she gasped. “Please don’t!”
Jimmy ignored her plea and struggled with the button. His fingers were not experienced at undressing another person and it took him several seconds to break the connection. He then pulled down her zipper exposing her panties.
She hopelessly struggled, her mind unable to come to terms with the moment she had been dreading since the abduction. She did not want him to rape her. She did not want him to be the one who would take her virginity.
“Stop,” he said.
She didn’t.
“Stop.” He grabbed her legs while staying this and forced her to stay still. Her struggles were no match for his strength, but this didn’t mean she was going to give up. She continued to fight against his hands until he said, “I’ll hang you again and then whip you hard.”
Her struggles ceased.
In the end he would have won anyway. Nothing she could do would stop him from raping her.
“Lift your legs,” he ordered while pushing her pants down to her ankles. Her panties were now completely exposed.
The ropes tightened on her wrists as she lifted one leg. He pulled her jeans from that one and then from the other.
Samantha felt completely vulnerable, even with her underwear still in place. It was humiliating.
Jimmy carefully folded the jeans and set them next to the stack of blankets. He then returned and reached for her panties.
A chill raced through her as his fingers went beneath the fabric and brushed up against her pubic region. No guy had ever touched her there before. There was no pleasure. His hand felt dirty.
Her panties came off quicker than her pants had.
The vulnerability she had felt before multiplied itself several times.
Why me? she pleaded. Why did he take me?
Tears began to well in her eyes again. She didn’t want him to have her. Not like this. Not ever. Panic erupted.
Jimmy didn’t rape her.
Instead, after looking at her nakedness for a few seconds, he went over and grabbed the bucket, which he then set next to her bare legs.
“If you had listened to me earlier I wouldn’t have to leave you like this.” He shook his head. “You’ll have to go eventually and I don’t want to clean your clothes.”
Samantha looked down at the bucket. Disgust at having to use it should have filled her, but it didn’t. Instead she was relieved that he wasn’t planning on raping her. Unfortunately the thought that he probably would eventually didn’t go away. There would come a point when he would want her and then there would be nothing she could do about it.
“I’ll be back tonight,” Jimmy said.
* * *
Alan was eating a bowl of cereal when Jimmy came back from his bike ride. A second later the shower downstairs was on and Jimmy in it.
Fifteen minutes went by before Jimmy was finished and came upstairs to eat something before school.
“How was your ride?” Alan asked.
“Pretty good. You know, I never realized how nice it is in the morning like when it’s still dark out. Everything is so peaceful and the air smells nice.”
“Oh,” Alan said. Jimmy was speaking quickly, which made Alan wonder if everything was okay. Something didn’t seem right, but he couldn’t put his finger on what it was. He had never before seen his older brother like this. Could it all really be because of the prom or was something else worrying him?
After a quick search of the kitchen Jimmy settled on a bowl of cereal just as Alan had. He ate fast. It was almost seven twenty, which meant the two had to leave soon.
“I wish I could just go out and ride all morning, from like three to seven, without anyone else out there,” Jimmy said while finishing his cereal. “It’s just so peaceful. I love it.”
“You just ride around, nothing else?” Alan couldn’t understand why this was something so great. It seemed boring. Though, he would admit, a nice stroll through the woods was cool every now and then, but every morning. Nah, that would get old quick.
“Yep. I go down the trails through the woods and out onto the edge of the soybean fields. Watching the sun come up over those fields is one of the most beautiful things you could ever imagine. I wish I could go back in time to when the country was all woods and prairie and just walk for miles. Ever wonder what that would be like?”
“I guess,” Alan said. In his mind he thought, Jimmy, you’re getting weird.
* * *
Actually, Jimmy thought to himself while talking with Alan, I wish I could go back in time and build a house way out in the woods far away from any civilization that anyone knew about with a secret dungeon in the basement that no one could find and bring dozens of girls that I kidnapped from farms there.
It was a fantasy he had had for a long time, one which would never become a reality even if he was able to find such a place in this day and age because in his fantasy he left girls tied up in the woods hanging from their wrists, their bodies subject to whatever nature forced upon them. In his fantasy no one would ever be able to find them, but in real life there was a chance someone would stumble upon them, even if he was hundreds of miles from civilization. It was just too risky.