The Lockdown FFF/MMM

[Bandhaniya]

THE LOCK-DOWN

By Bandhaniya

Part 1


Nicola sauntered down the stairs and collapsed next to Huan on the sofa, folding her arms across her red stained white Ralph Lauren hoodie. ‘Reruns of ‘Bake Off '? Again?'
'What? I like it!'
'You and your reality TV competition shows!'
‘They’re much more fun than your boring history programmes!’
‘They’re not boring! They’re extremely interesting and informative!’ Nicola sighed as she contemplated the pastries being prepared. 'What I wouldn't give for a slice of that though!' she finally admitted, as one of the presenters cut into some sort of Flambe. 'I'm not sure I can take any more supermarket food, no matter how good! I think I would kill for something freshly made and done properly!'
'I think I would just settle for the cleaner appearing for ten minutes, just to stick the hoover around...'
'Or to stick some washing in the machine' Nicola said, as she examined the stains on her clothing.
'Morning!' Sonali skipped down the stairs and bounced into the living room of the spacious open plan apartment.
‘Morning’ replied Nicola.
‘Hey’ greeted Huan. Sonali headed for the coffee machine in the kitchen as the other two continued to watch TV. After a few minutes she came over and sat down on one of the empty armchairs, coffee mug in hand 'Ooh. Bake off. Yum...' She took a sip of her freshly brewed coffee. 'Pah!' she spat the coffee out onto the clothes strewn floor. 'That's disgusting! When was the last time the coffee machine was cleaned?!'
'That thing needs cleaning?' Nicola asked.
'Things can't go on like this!' Huan declared after a pause. 'We're three highly successful women living a life of absolute squalor!'
'Well successful or not, no cleaner will pick up the phone, and the restaurants don't look like reopening any time soon. And as for the coffee shops…' Sonali stared into her mug, mournfully.


The lock down had not been kind to the three young women. Highly ambitious and well-off, they had met at the firm where they all worked, before being furloughed on full pay from their respective roles, Nicola in Human Resources, Huan in Compliance, and Sonali in Acquisitions. Although more than capable of living in their own homes, the friendship and bond between the three women found them happily sharing a huge luxury apartment in the
heart of the City. Besides, all three came from different parts of the world; Huan from Singapore, Nicola from Australia, and Sonali from India. They did not want to be stuck out, away from everything, nor would they accept anything that wasn’t spacious, modern and clean. With parking. And a private gym. Although even for these women it was a tall order in this city. Fortunately, a close friend of Huan’s father owned this beautiful, three bedded apartment in the exact right location. The only problem they had with their living arrangements was that there was no one to assist with the kind of daily tasks which were, frankly, beneath the education and social standing of the three women. They had been raised to eschew any form of 'domestic labour', instead striving for excellence in their chosen fields, enjoying the success they rightfully earned and the lifestyle that came with it. To say, however, that they couldn't make an omelette, or iron a blouse, would be an understatement. Unfortunately for them the normal functioning of the labour market had been suspended whilst the country dealt with COVID. The cleaning agency they depended on from keeping their apartment cleaned, to washing and ironing their clothes had ceased operations, furloughing all their staff, and the fancy restaurants and delis the women would frequent every day were now shut too. Exhausting the last of their clean clothes, and their stomach for ready meals (no matter how nice), the three of them were at boiling point.



'What is this?!' Huan demanded as she held a fork of 'The Best' lasagne in front of her.
'It's called 'Squid Game'' Sonali reported. 'Look! They've all been captured and have to do various games and things to win. Or else!' Sonali was glued to the 75 inch 4K OLED, as the 'contestants' in this new discovery of a TV show did their best to prevail in whatever task that was their charge, terrified of the consequences of failure. Huan threw her fork down on the plate in disgust.
'I can't. I can't eat this. I think I'm going to starve to death at this rate...'
'I've been wearing the same knickers for three days now...' Sonali sighed
'Thanks for that' said Nicola, taking a slug of Sancerre. The deliveries of Fine Wine, the only thing dependable at the moment. And the only thing keeping them sane.
'We've got to do something!' insisted Huan. I can't believe three women in our position are reduced to ready meals and wearing the same knickers three days in a row!'
'You try getting someone here to sort this mess out! Nobody is answering the phone and nobody needs to, because the Government is paying them all to sit on their arses at home! There's no need for them to work, no matter how desperate we are!'
'If only there was another way...' mused Sonali, still glued to the TV, contemplating the plight of the unwilling contestants…


‘What?!’ Nicola burst into the room where Huan was standing on the sofa, her arms wrapped around her, trembling. She shakily outstretched her hand towards a corner of the room. Nicola followed her pointed finger before something scurried from behind the curtain,
eventually disappearing behind a bookcase. Nicola shrieked before jumping up onto the sofa, clasping her arms around Huan. Sonali entered the room.
‘M m mouse…’ Huan explained as Sonali, too, in horror, jumped up onto the sofa with the other two. The three ladies huddled together like shipwrecked sailors stranded on a rock.
‘Where is it?’ Sonali whispered in terror.
‘Behind the bookshelf’.
‘Why are you both whispering?’ Nicola demanded, her eyes scanning the area around the bookshelves.
‘Oh my god…’ Huan was panicking.
‘Calm down’ Nicola said.
‘What are we going to do?’
‘We’ll have to call someone. Pest control’ Sonali suggested.
‘And who will answer?’ Nicola pleaded ‘even if someone does, they’ll more than likely just be in a position to offer advice. Nobody will come out…’ she was almost on the verge of tears.
‘OK!’ Huan announced suddenly. ‘Let’s do it’.
‘Are you sure?’ checked Sonali.
‘Yes. Yes! Just…anything! This has to stop. We have to do something. No matter how extreme’
‘It’s going to take some planning’ Nicola recovered herself as the three of them remained huddled together, standing on the sofa.
‘We’ll need to identify some ‘candidates’’ Sonali said.
‘Well get on LinkedIn and do some ‘headhunting’. Before narrowing down a ‘shortlist’ Nicola contributed, her left eyebrow raised.
‘We’ll also need to agree on an interview process. So we can identify the right candidate. We’ll also have to find ways of motivating and supporting the applicants. And I think I may just have the right approach…’ Sonali smirked, looking over to the TV screen mischievously. ‘Don’t worry ladies. We’ll get this place sorted…’


Josh laid down his Xbox controller in defeat and sparked up the half smoked spliff awaiting him on the coffee table he had his feet on, next to the open cardboard pizza box. Working as a sous chef in one of the City's finer eateries had occasioned something of a weed habit, an occupational hazard you might say. Fortunately for the young man, supplies were holding up two months into lock-down (dealers having been denied furlough) and he selfishly reflected with satisfaction on how fortunate he was to be basically paid to smoke weed and game. At least for the time being.


Sonali stared at the iPad screen, her jaw open, eyes mesmerised until Nicola crept up from behind and laughed. ‘You and your blondes! Jeez…’ she gently and jokingly took the
iPad from her and looked at the LinkedIn profile.
‘Look! He’s got over two years experience working for cleaning agencies, as well as beautiful blue eyes!’ Sonali replied eagerly, as her friend considered the candidate.
‘Looks nice and fit. That’s a plus. Not sure if he’ll be any good in the kitchen though. He has got a nice face, I’ll admit. But I still reckon my handsome handyman is going to win, he spent two years in catering before he entered the building trade…’ Nicola passed the iPad to Huan with a cheeky grin ‘what do you think about this one ?’
‘Mmph!’ Huan exclaimed before ripping the strip of sticky black duct tape from her mouth, her eyes closed tight as she did so ‘Jesus….’
‘And that’s just one strip!’ Nicola declared, proudly ‘got the strongest one they had. Imagine wrapping it around six, seven, eight times?’, she continued, beaming, ‘there’s no way anyone is going to hear them. I went with black, as you can see. To match the restraints!’ she began to giggle. Sonali delved into a box and scooped up a clear bag containing a dozen or so black zip ties that she began to rip open and scatter on the floor before picking one of them up for inspection.
‘They don’t look that strong’ she said, a little concerned.
‘They’re just what the cops use’ Nicola reassured her. ‘They’ll be fine, trust me. Besides, that’s not all, right?’ she said with a devilish grin. Sonali delved once again into the box and this time produced a large coil of bright, white rope, one of several. She turned to the other two women and smirked.
‘Who wants to go first?’


Sean crunched up the last of his lagers before dropping it into the recycling bin stationed by his garden gate. He lit up a cigarette and inhaled the acrid relief as he stared up at the pinkish blue sky, enjoying the warm breeze before waving to a neighbour, her too, depositing something into one of the recycling bins to the sound of shattered glass. He turned to contemplate the fence and gate around his garden. His next project would be to treat and varnish the wooden enclosure and probably replace the actual gate itself. It was starting to look a little old and at last he had time to do all the jobs that he had been putting off. In the last two months alone he had painted the inside of his house and re-plastered one of the walls. For once he was now finally spending time on the maintenance of his own home, rather than increasing the asset value of others.


Nicola once more checked her smartphone before looking up into the corner of the barren, stripped room. The red light of a camera fastened to the ceiling beamed back at her. Stepping back she almost collided with Sonali, crouched on the floor, holding a power drill.
‘Oops. Sorry!’ she exclaimed.
‘That’s alright…’ Sonali suppressed the power button and aimed the drill intently towards the leg of one of three wooden chairs she was fastening to the wooden floor. A finely milled yellow spray erupted from the chair leg. ‘There!’ she declared proudly after a minute,
removing the goggles she had been wearing ‘All done’. Huan stopped testing the freshly bolted locks on the door and walked over to the three chairs, which had freshly been positioned in a row, in the middle of the room. She held the backrest to one of the chairs and attempted to move it.
‘Wow. That’s not going to budge! Great job!’ She sat down on one of the chairs and positioned her arms behind the backrest as Nicola gathered up one of the coils of rope, pulling at the ends to test the strength, before positioning herself behind the chair that Huan was sitting in and preparing to lash her friend to the backseat.
‘It makes me wonder…’ Sonali mused as she swept up sawdust from the floor with a dustpan and brush, ‘if we can do all this, why can't we sort out the DIY issues in this place?’
‘It’d never end!’ Nicola countered as she continued to carefully unfurl the coils of rope as Huan adjusted herself in the chair like she was at the hairdressers ‘even if we finally googled and figured out one thing, like the tap, another would take its place. I don’t know about you ladies, but I didn’t get a first and then a postgraduate distinction at Cambridge just to sort out the fucking light fittings! What a waste of talent! At least this way we don’t have to concern ourselves with becoming professional sparkies one week or professional plumbers the next. We can simply focus on just one thing and one thing only - being professional kidnappers! At least whilst the lock-down lasts. Besides, wouldn’t you rather have three hunky guys battling it out for the privilege of being our lock-down slave?’
‘That’s a good point,’ Sonali conceded.
‘This is so much more exciting as well as, I might add, progressive from a female empowerment perspective. And it’s also, if you ask me, much, much more fun!’ Sonali giggled as Nicola rolled up the sleeve of her Tommy Hilfigger grey sweatshirt and, suppressing a smirk, curled her bicep up in a ‘Yes We Can!’ motif, the coils of rope, dangling from her clenched fist. ‘What do you say? Are you ready?’ She turned to Huan, still sat in the chair, now with her arms placed behind her back.
‘Mmmm. Mmmmmm!!!’ Huan murmured, her lips pressed together, shaking her head from side to side repeatedly in mock distress.
‘I think that’s a yes’, Nicola ventured, before all three women burst out in uncontrollable laughter.

‘Na razie’ Lukasz tossed his smartphone onto the settee as he continued to watch the television. As he put one of his legs up onto the coffee table in front of him, a jenga tower of empty Tyskie cans and pizza boxes began to wobble. Lukasz reached out in panic to prevent the disaster. As someone who worked for a cleaning agency servicing office blocks in the City, the cleanliness of his own abode left much to be desired. Although, after often working sometimes fourteen, sometimes fifteen hour shifts it was perhaps no surprise that he neglected his own dwellings, having little energy after cleaning those of others. Whilst lock-down had provided him with the time now, habits and patterns had long formed and Lukasz contemplated the open plan living area in dismay, before once more resolving to give the place a good scrub. Tomorrow. Sort it tomorrow. He cracked open another Tyskie.


Sonali made one final check on the black satchel in her hands as Huan pulled up and adjusted the black COVID mask around her lower face before pulling up and adjusting the hood around her head on the black sweater she was wearing. ‘Right!’ she announced, producing items from her satchel one last time. ‘Check I’ve got everything….’ She pulled out various items, laying them out on the coffee table as Nicola pulled on a pair of black leather gloves. ‘Ok…so…we have the COVID Test Kit. Check. Then the rope, check, the tape….’ she held up a fresh, unused sponge scourer. The type these ladies didn’t use to do the cleaning ‘one of these ... .of course…’ She then carefully produced a ‘zombie knife’. ‘We also have the scary knife for intimidation and, of course, the cable ties’ she spread out about half a dozen or so on the table. ‘And finally…’ she pulled out a piece of black material ‘a hood. For their head! There…think that’s everything….’
‘There’s one thing you’ve forgotten,’ Huan announced.
‘Oh yes, of course’ Sonali remembered ‘how stupid of me’ she pulled out of the pocket of her black cargo pants what looked like a small black device ‘And if they give us any trouble, the Taser!’ she said, menacingly brandishing the device. Huan giggled.
‘So…’ Sonali looked at her two friends, ‘everyone all set?’
‘Absolutely’ Nicola replied, inspecting the contents of her own satchel. Huan gave a black gloved thumbs up.
‘Then let’s do this’ Sonali determined, her hands on her hips.


Sean thrashed about on his gaming chair as Huan approached him, holding something in her hand. Nicola pinned the upper half of his struggling body in a bear hug as Sonali grabbed his tape wrapped face in both her hands. His arms and legs were useless, having been zip tied to the chair. His recently purchased deluxe headset, which now rested on the floor, had failed to alert him to the assailants creeping up behind him in the real world, until a black latex hand had tightly covered his mouth.
‘Hold still Damn you!’ Nicola commanded as Huan grabbed his lower jaw and inserted something up Sean’s nose before removing it and moving over to a chest of drawers in the room along with Sonali. Sean could see the glow of her mobile as she appeared to examine some items laid out. He stopped his struggles for a moment, regarding the three intruders now in his room that had surprised and overpowered him as he gamed. They were all in black, hooded and masked (something that he took comfort from - perhaps they would just rob him?). And they all appeared to be female.
‘You know you really shouldn’t wear that thing on your head. We were waiting outside for over five minutes!’ Nicola admonished the stunned captive in his ear, who tried to swivel around on the gaming chair in struggle. ‘Typical bloke. No good at listening…’ The jibe elicited a muffled response from their victim as he turned his head around and stared furiously at the tall Australian as she continued to taunt him. ‘And as for that so-called lock on the door? Really, sweetheart, you shouldn’t have bothered….’
Sonali leaned into his face, cupping it again with her hands and holding that furious
look in his eyes with her own stare, this one full of excitement and glee ‘Google is our friend!’ she explained in triumph. After a minute Huan turned to the other two.
‘Negative’ she jubilantly announced.
``Congratulations hun’ Sonali said, smiling underneath her COVID mask, as Huan approached with a black hood that she placed over his head.
‘Great’ Nicola said ‘Now, let's get our contestant to the studio’ Huan giggled as Sonali gathered up more zip-ties as Sean thrashed about in frustration and confusion. Studio?



Lukasz sprang up from out of the sofa. For a minute he intently listened out for a repeat of the noise or disturbance he thought had woken him a second ago. After a minute he relaxed and turned his attention towards the can of lager in front of him. He shook it and gulped down what was left before checking the time; 2:00am. Not for the first time during this furlough he had passed out. As he stretched out towards a half eaten slice of cold pizza in a box beside him he heard a banging at the front door window. He froze for a second in puzzlement, before slowly rising and staggering into the hallway of his one bedroom ground floor flat, rubbing his eyes as he approached the front door.
‘Mr Growtowski?’ The young woman in front of him spoke with a south Asian accent and wore a black COVID mask. Her bright brown eyes stared at him intently.
‘Er…yes?’
‘My name is Dr Chopra’ she briefly flashed a card attached to a necklace. It had writing on it, but he couldn’t make it out, she was too quick. "We're just here to perform a COVID test on you. May we come in?’ Before he could even register what she had just said she brushed past him along with two other women right behind her. All were dressed in black. Hoodies and cargo pants. All were carrying black satchels. All wore COVID mask. The last woman closed the front door as she entered Lukasz’s home.
The young man was still disorientated and puzzled. She wasn’t dressed like a doctor, apart from the COVID mask. None of them were. Was this a new thing the government was doing? He hadn’t heard anything. ‘Er…yeah. A test you said…?’
‘That’s right’ Doctor Chopra replied as the two other hooded women placed their satchels on the living room table, knocking a couple of couple of beer cans over, before reaching into them and producing from one, a COVID test which one of the women began to open up, whilst the other woman produced a roll of black duct tape, which Luckasz was still so stupefied to fully comprehend the danger off.
‘Listen ... .I think…You know I think I’m still a little…you know. I’m a little drunk…’ he explained sheepishly as he noticed that the woman who had taken a roll of tape out was now producing black zip-ties, just as the other approached him with something in her hand that she directed towards his nose.
‘Hold still now’ She too had an accent. This time east Asian. He backed away and gestured towards the woman who was now taking what looked like some sort of sponge from her satchel. He began to look nervous.
‘What is she doing? What are those things?’
‘Oh they're just some things we’re going to use to tie you up with.…’ Dr Chopra explained. ‘We’ve got some zip-ties for your wrists and your ankles. And we’re going to gag you too. That’s what that sponge and that tape is for. That’s if you pass the COVID test of course.’ She winked at him. Luckasz could barely believe what he was hearing, the whole situation was so bizarre. ‘Now hold still now, like we said…’ The woman with the test kit approached him again, and again he moved away, knocking over yet another can. ‘Oh dear. You seem like you need some support. Here.’ The Doctor reached into her left cargo pant pocket and produced the taser.
‘What is…Argh. Arghhhhh!’ He screamed as he doubled up in pain, a surge of sharp pins erupted from his right shoulder and spread around his entire body like iron files dispersed by a magnet. He collapsed in agony onto the floor, on his knees, shaking. Sonali regarded him in this helpless state with pleasure for a few seconds before once more stabbing him with the taser and releasing once again the electrical surge that this time finished him off. Sonali pulled down her COVID mask and looked towards Huan with a smile.
‘He’s all yours. I really do hope he passes’ she looked down on his unconscious body with a wicked grin.


Josh suddenly jolted in his duvet. The young man half gained consciousness as he turned around in his bed, the sedating strains inhaled before retiring for the night once more reestablishing their hold over him. He started to drift off again. Suddenly, he felt something cold and sharp pressed against his neck as a gloved hand very firmly covered his mouth. He felt his duvet ripped away from his half naked body, covered only by a t-shirt and boxers. He was then roughly turned on his back, the hand still firmly over his mouth as he felt more hands grasp and pin his arms behind his back, as something put pressure on his lower legs. He began to struggle.
‘Don’t you fucking move!’ a female voice hissed. He felt something sharp and cold pressed against his neck. He froze in terror. It was too dark to see properly but the young man could discern the silhouette of one of the intruders as a cable tie slipped around his wrists and secured. Very tightly indeed.
‘Mmmmm’ he whimpered, panicking at how tight and painful the tie was. He moved his fingers around in alarm as he maintained circulation.
‘Be quiet!’ the voice hissed again. We won’t warn you again’ It had an accent. Australian? New Zealand? The young man complied and suppressed his panic as he felt ties being wrapped around his ankles and strongly secured, like his wrists. His eyes began to adjust to the level of darkness in the room as he felt the weight lift from his lower legs and a silhouette rise up and tower over him on the bed, along with another. They seemed to be admiring their bound victim, who was still hand-gagged by the fearsome antipodean. He could no longer feel the cold metal of the blade against his neck, however, and in a moment of recklessness and desperation, he lashed out at them with his newly bound feet, provoking
one of the intruders to reach out towards him with a black rectangular block. It looked like a mobile phone from the early noughties. He felt a surge of pain engulf him.
‘Ouch!’ He felt the hand that had been suppressing his cries for help release him as he shook in pain on the bed.
‘Sorry!’ One of the intruders exclaimed alarmingly in a female voice ‘Are you alright?’ She too had an accent. Indian?
‘I’m fine, just a little shock. No harm done.’
‘I wasn’t thinking!’
‘No worries!’ Josh’s convulsions on the bed had now subsided as he started to open his mouth.
‘Hel-’ he was immediately cut off by the same hand that had originally clamped his lower face.
‘Gag! Quickly!’ The first intruder ordered from the third, the one who had been pinning his legs with her weight. He could tell from this intruder's silhouette that she too, was female, as she delved into a black bag and produced something that she then directed towards his face. The hand over his mouth started to reposition down to the bottom of his jaw and squeezed his face, opening up his mouth, the blade now at his throat once more.
‘Ooh. I think he’s still a little tingly!’ The third intruder giggled as her black gloved hands worked the sponge scourer all the way into his mouth. She sounded Chinese. He could barely accommodate the sponge and moaned as it invaded his mouth more and more, the abrasiveness of the scouring side, scratching his upper palate. ‘Shh’ the female voice said as she reached for something else, what he could not see. He heard the sound of tape ripping as the woman who had stuffed his mouth now menacingly approached his face with a taught, forceful band which she smothered his face with before wrapping the tape around his face. As she did so he struggled to compose himself. Why the fuck would three women break into his house and be doing this? Only three things sprang to mind. A prank. A case of mistaken identity. Or a burglary. As he realised the first two would be nothing to worry about in the cold light of day he reflected on the third possibility. He started to panic as it dawned on him he had nothing worth stealing and next to no money in his account until the next furlough payment was due. How would these intruders react once they realise this? Will they just leave him tied up? Surely they’ve got the wrong house? He started to relax a little when he realised all three home invaders were masked. Their only identification was their gender. The first intruder continued to wrap his face up with tape, ten, eleven, twelve (?) times before smoothing it around his mouth with a pair of gloved hands, before standing back, hand on hips to proudly survey her work, leaving Josh’s head spinning from the wrapping as well as the weed and the sheer madness of what was happening. For a second he wondered if this was indeed a weed-induced hallucination, that any second he would wake up. But the pain in his wrists and ankles, as well as the crushing pressure on his legs, not to mention being gagged with whatever it was that had been so unceremoniously and unrelentingly stuffed in his mouth drew him back to reality, and the very real fear of what now most certainly appeared to be happening to him. His heart was racing. Perhaps it was some sort of prank? Something that his friends had organised with their girlfriends. Possibly due to the tedium of lock-down. Something which everyone will laugh over. No harm done. He really hoped this was the case as something was placed over his head, covering him in darkness.

[LunaDog]

Welcome to the forum my friend. What a SUPERB debut! Hope to see a lot more of you, if This is the typical standard of your contributions!

[Bandhaniya]

Thank you so much for the kind words. Yes, I am aiming to post a chapter each week of this story. Not quite sure how it's going to end, but until it does these guys are in for one hell of a ride!

[tillytimber123]

This was a great start! Really looking forward to the next parts )

[KidnappedCowboy]

Nice start!

Sean, Lukasz, and Josh aren't the brightest bulbs in the chandelier!! Love 'em!

[Bandhaniya]

They're idiots lol, and deserve everything that's coming their way! Part 2 early next week...

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down

Part 2

By Bandhaniya



Lukasz awoke to find himself painfully fastened to a strong wooden chair in the middle of a room. The first thing he became aware of was that something was in his mouth, soft in parts, but also abrasive in others. Whatever it was, he could not expel it. Something tight and unrelenting that he could feel around his lower face prevented that. He tried to move his hands, but whatever constrained him to the frames bit hard into his wrists. He looked down in dread. His legs, too, were restrained to the chair at the ankles and just below the knees. Black tape had been wrapped around his legs, at the calves, the tape standing in contrast to the white skin of his legs, for he discovered to his alarm that he was completely naked. The strong tape had also been used to secure his torso to the chair, around the chest and stomach, pinning his arms behind the chair. As he started to panic, thrashing his head around, a barely audible hum the most the gag would allow, he became aware that he was not alone. Two other young men of roughly a similar age were likewise in this terrifying predicament. One each to the left and right of him. They too were fastened to strong wooden chairs that had been bolted to the floor, just as Lukasz was. They too were cable tied and taped and Lukasz could see the bands of black duct tape wrapped so tightly around their faces, reducing their own panic to a barely perceptible hum of distress, the flesh of their cheeks, bulging over the tape. They, too, were naked. It was now that he started to become aware that on each of the two men’s chest was a yellow post it note, fastened with a strip of black tape. Each one had a name; Sean (to his left) and Josh (to his right). He checked with dismay his own naked torso to discover that, he too, had a name badge. His heart started to pound. Their captors knew who they were. They had been targeted. This wasn’t random. His mind raced to gather together the possible explanations as to why he, and these two others might be in this situation. He struggled against his simple, but deceptively strong restraints, but by the look of despair in his fellow captives' eyes he knew it would be of no use. Who were these two other men? And why were they all here? Where was this place? And who has done this.? He tried to recall the events of his capture. The kidnappers had been female. At least the ones involved in his abduction. He tried to think of who might have a reason to do such a thing. An ex perhaps? None of the relationships he had been involved in since arriving here had ended particularly badly, he thought. All were amicable enough. He hadn’t made any enemies during his time in the City, and he certainly didn’t owe anyone any money. On the contrary, his savings were approaching a level where he would finally have enough in order to return home. Another year or two and he would finally be able to give up the backbreaking toil of the last seven, eight years, and buy that house, settle down, and figure out what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. Almost on the verge of tears, he thrashed about as best he could and screamed into his gag. All to no avail.

Josh regarded pitifully the blonde haired captive beside him, as he moaned and struggled, and wracked his brains if he knew him, or indeed the other prisoner. He had known a Sean at school, many years ago, but he was a redhead. He recalled the nicknames. And as for Lukasz, there was a kitchen porter at work by that name, but he looked nothing like the athletically built young man beside him who continued to squirm, the purple tributaries running along his shoulders and arms, ready to burst their banks against the the strong, sticky black bands of tape. He wanted to tell him it was no use. That ever since his own abduction he had been struggling against his own restraints without success. But he, too, was gagged. And he too was trying to think who might want to do this? He didn’t owe his dealer anything. Not that he would ever possibly resort to anything like this. He hadn’t made any enemies as far as he was aware. And lord knows he didn’t have any money. Nor did his family. All he could hope for was a case of mistaken identity.

Sean flexed his fingers, a slight numbness attesting to the severity of his bonds. He too had wanted to point out the futility of struggle to the captive on his right who had just regained consciousness and who apparently went by the name of Lukasz. He exhaled through his nose and continued to scan the room. Stripped bare but for the three chairs and their unwilling occupants, all he could notice was the camera with its red light positioned in one of the corners and also a glistening silver hook hanging from the ceiling beside the bare bulb, the harsh light of which had so blinded him for a few seconds after his hood had been removed, his kidnappers having left the room before his eyes could re adjust. Was this hook already part of the room? Or had it been fastened to the ceiling for a purpose? And if so, for what? He examined the work; it had been drilled into the ceiling securely, he couldn’t have done a better job himself. The same could be said for the chairs they had all been tied to - they wouldn’t budge. As for the windows of the room, they had been blacked out with newspapers using the same strong black tape that fastened Sean and the other two prisoners so tightly to these chairs. How much time had passed since he had been surprised whilst playing FIFA? The blacked out drive in the boot of the car had taken no more than half an hour or so.
After that, he had been stripped and bound at knife point before his assailants had departed, returning maybe an hour or so later with another victim, who was also menacingly warned not to resist as Sean heard the tearing of clothing as well as the ripping of tape. Finally after perhaps another hour or so a final captive could be heard being dragged into the room. This one sounded more pliant, he required no threats, as he heard the three female kidnappers strip and secure him in silence. How long ago was all this? He had lost track. Presumably it was morning now, for he heard birdsong outside.


After a couple of hours footsteps could be heard outside the room. The three men froze as the lock was turned and the door slowly, so very slowly, began to open.
‘Good morning!’ Huan’s head beamed through around the door before the young woman strode in and stood in the middle of the room, regarding the three puzzled and alarmed captives with pride before staring intensely at Josh. Nicola and Sonali followed her, taking up positions in the middle of the room, as if for some sort of presentation. Sonali standing in front of Lukasz, Nicola in front of Sean. All three women were dressed in office attire - black suit and trousers along with pastel coloured blouses, which to be fair, appeared a little creased. Other than that they were all very smart. All designer brands. All very business. They looked powerful, strong, confident. And they all wore their black COVID masks. Totally possessed with an air of superiority, confidence and control, they surveyed their helpless captives gleefully, who in turn stared back at them in confusion and frustration. The three women also wore name tags, dangling from ribbons sloped around their shoulders, with descriptions of their roles underneath. Huan - ‘Office Manager', Nicola - ‘Human Resources’ and finally Sonali - ‘Compliance Officer’. The three captives struggled and grunted into their gags.

‘Welcome!’ Nicola greeted them as the three bound men racked themselves against the strong wooden frame in futile fury, an incessant, desperate, questioning moan emanating from behind their sealed mouths. ‘I can see you are all as excited to be here as we are!’ We do need you to pay attention, however, as we introduce ourselves, and begin with your induction. Er chaps…?’ The three men continued to protest and struggle, as Nicola turned to the other two women and sighed. Huan removed the taser from the inside of her suit jacket and approached the captives one by one, giving each one in turn a small, sharp shock from behind As she did so, each victim sat bolt upright, their eyeballs bulging as the veins along their necks began to erupt from underneath their skin. The three women giggled.
‘Again?’ Sonali suggested.
‘Why not?’ Huan replied as the men's heads dipped down to their chest before springing straight back up. After a minute their torment ceased and their heads collapsed again. The beads of sweat trickled down the ridge of their face, across the layers of black duct tape. After a minute the men began to calm down and cease their struggle. Their incessant moans, now a pathetic, defeated whimper.
‘Excellent!’ said Huan ‘Sorry about that, but we do need to press on with your induction, we have a lot to get through…’ Nicola put her index finger to her lips in a ‘shh’ signal. ‘As you can probably tell…’ Huan continued, ‘this is not a conventional kidnapping. We don’t need money or anything like that. We just need you.’ The three mens eyes bulged.
‘Well, actually, Just one,’ Sonali clarified, smiling.
‘And how well this goes for you is completely and utterly down to you. Not your families or the police or anything like that. First though, the boring COVID bit. Sorry! You have all been tested and found to be in the clear so over the course of this week the five of us are going to be in a bubble. Which means none of you can leave…’ she stifled a giggle before continuing. ‘Speaking of which, let's start with the introductions!’ she said, smiling. ‘My name is Huan, and along with my two colleagues I will be monitoring your progress over the course of this week. I’m like the office manager round here to all intents and purposes so if you have any general questions I’m the woman to ask!’ Sonali giggled.
‘Hi. My name is Nikki, ' Nicola said, pointing to her name badge. ‘And I’m the Human Resources gal around here. I’ll be making sure you're up to speed with sticking to all the processes and practices over the course of the week. As well as managing your individual performance - I’ll be making sure we get the best out of you boys while you're here!’ She winked at Sean, who glared at her in return. ‘As I’m sure you’ve just noticed, we do have recourse to dealing with minor infractions as and when they do occur. As well as further measures to help us address dips in performance’ she sniggered as she caught Sean’s eye who glared back at her in fury. ‘Any questions so far?’ she asked him
‘Mmph. Mgur…uuh..Mmmmfh…mmp!’ he made as much noise as his gag permitted, which was not very much, the spongy packing preventing anything intelligible. Nicola, however, thought she understood what he was trying to say.
‘My my. Such language!’ she exclaimed in mock horror before producing a roll of black duct tape from her outside jacket pocket and casually ripping off a small piece of it. Walking behind Sean she smothered it over his nose and stepped back in front, holding his gaze as he continued to glare at her with defiance. The three women stared at him with amusement behind their masks as his head started to shake, a little at first, then a lot more as he attempted to shake the strip of tape from his nose. ‘Everything alright, Sean?’ Nicola enquired as Sean’s distress became more and more acute as he strained against the tight bonds, his head now thrashing about violently.
‘I think he’s struggling to breathe,’ Sonali observed.
‘Is that right, Sean? Are you struggling to breathe?’ He tried to say something through his gag. The women laughed as the other two captives watched on in alarm. Nicola approached Sean and leaned into him, the thrashing of his head now desperate. ‘You gonna quit with the microaggressions sweetheart?’ His head continued to shake in all directions ‘I think that’s a yes’
‘I’m not sure. I think that could be a ‘no’’ Huan volunteered.
‘What is it Sean? A yes or a no?’ Nicola demanded, pausing for a few more seconds before roughly ripping the tape from his nose. The captive threw his head back, his inflamed nostrils taking in a s much air as possible. As he struggled to regulate his breath Nicola towered above him, a smirk of satisfaction on her face. She stepped back and addressed the other two captives. ‘As you can see, we do have a zero tolerance policy here towards abusive language and inappropriate behaviour in general. Any more microaggressions or transgressions may result in further disciplinaries’ she smirked ‘and persistence in doing so could develop into a gross misconduct charge. And trust me chaps. You really don't want to go there’. Sean whimpered through his gag as the sweat from his brow dripped onto his muscular bare chest and trickled down his body.
‘I’m Sonali! Pleased to meet you all!’ The young woman surveyed the men as they gazed in bewilderment and fear. ‘I'm The Compliance Officer around here and I’ll be in charge of making sure you are all nice and secure during your stay here. And that you can’t leave the premises without prior approval. So if you have any issues with how you’ve been tied up, or a problem with your gag while you are here, I’m the woman to speak to’. This elicited a snigger from Huan.
‘And now down to business!’ Nicola announced. ‘As we mentioned earlier, this is not your traditional kidnapping. You’re not being held for ransom or anything like that. We have a problem. We. The three of us. Us ladies.’
‘For the last two months we have been living in absolute squalor!’ confessed Huan. ‘It’s disgusting! Our cleaning agency has closed, our favourite restaurants have all closed. Our dry cleaning service has well…stopped service. It’s been a complete nightmare for us!’
‘None of us can clean, cook or do anything around the house!’ Sonali explained sorrowfully ‘and with the normal functioning of the labour market suspended because of this bloody pandemic, well…’ she shrugged hopelessly.
‘We’ve been forced into considering something a little more I dunno?…pre-modern, shall we say? In terms of recruitment…’ Nicola confided, a slight grin across her face.
‘Sorry!’ Huan volunteered, also with a mischievous grin. The three men furtively shot glances at each other in panic and confusion.
‘If nobody will come to us, well, we’ll just have to go and get someone I guess!’ Nicola explained ‘and that’s what we’ve gone and done…’
‘But how to provide the correct motivation and support to ensure that we get the right candidate for this exciting new opportunity?’ Sonali mused as the three captives continued to try and make sense of their situation.
‘I don’t suppose you boys watch things like Bake Off and other reality TV competitions?’ Huan asked rhetorically.
‘Of course they don’t’ Nicola assumed with contempt ‘they’re probably into trash like Top Gear. Or something’
‘Or playing their stupid video games…’ Sonali suggested.
‘Well, over the course of this week you three lucky contestants…’ Huan continued.
‘Who have all been headhunted, personally, on your LinkedIn profiles!’ Explained Nicola.
‘Will be playing a game of our own…’ Sonali smirked.
‘Except this one is serious!’ Huan warned them.
‘You’ll be presented with a series of household challenges…’ Nicola continued ’Cooking, cleaning, DIY…’
‘At the end of which, we will decide a winner!’ Huan informed the prisoners. ‘Who gets the role of a lifetime - to be our personal servant over the course of Lock-down! At least until normal service is resumed.’
‘Isn’t that fantastic?’ Sonali asked, looking straight at Lukasz, whose eyes darted around in disbelief.
‘It’s a sort of a Man Friday type position. And, rest assured, the pay will be fantastic! Highly competitive for the right candidate…’ Huan elaborated ‘You’ll basically be responsible for attending to all our domestic needs, six and half days a week. We’ll be providing you with difficult, yet stimulating tasks to ensure we secure the right candidate and provide you all with the proper motivation and support at all times during this economically challenging period’. This elicited a giggle from Nicola as Josh glanced at the other two captives.
‘Now, you boys may be thinking ‘I don’t think I want to do this…’ the redhead said.
‘Or maybe I can’t.’
‘Or thinking ‘why the hell should I?’ I’m already being paid to not work.’
‘Or planning on escaping.’ Sonali suggested.
‘Rest assured, however, that we’ve thought of everything here boys.’ Nicola winked.
‘We’ve been planning this for weeks.’
‘We have measures put in place to help, support and motivate you throughout the contest. Should the need arise.’ The fearsome Australian informed them with a devilish grin.
‘So you can do your very best!’ Huan explained
‘Oh. And the security here has been fully reviewed and tested.’
‘So there’s no way out.’
‘Any questions?’ asked Sonali, with a smirk.

The champagne frothed up and foamed down the neck of the bottle. ‘Opps’ said Sonali as she began to pour out three flutes. After topping up the glasses, she placed the bottle down on the coffee table and passed a flute to each of the two women. She raised her glass. ‘To us’ she said simply, taking a sip.
‘It’s so early!’ Huan protested.
‘Come on! It’s just a toast. Besides, we want to give these guys a bit of time to settle in before we start!’
‘I can't believe we actually did this!’ She exclaimed ‘Kidnap three guys! In one night!’
‘We’re fucking awesome!’ Nicola declared, as she took a sip of her breakfast champagne. Sonali gazed at her smartphone. The live cam feed showed the three helpless men, bound and gagged in the chairs, struggling against the tape and the zip-ties. She observed their plight with amusement for a minute before turning to Nicola.
‘You were really great back there with them!’ Sonali said, admiringly, taking a sip of her champagne.
‘I really thought he was going to pass out there for a second!’ Huan recalled.
‘They need to know who's boss…’ Nicola nonchalantly declared ‘or else!’ The room exploded in laughter.

As the three women celebrated their success, which could easily be heard from the confines of their cell, the three men sat in their chairs, thinking about what had happened to them. And wondering if this was for real? Were they really going to be the unwilling participants in some sort of crazy domestic competition? This had to be some sort of joke. Perhaps some sort of entertainment for both the women and their friends, all sat at home, watching their plight with amusement from their sofas. To relieve the tedium of lock-down. A crazy proposition, to be sure, but who knew what effect this quarantine was having on people? The force of their abduction however, along with the measures taken in response to ‘inappropriate behaviour’, were too serious to ignore however. Along with the way they had been restrained. No matter how hard they struggled, there was no slack in their bonds. All three were reasonably fit, strong young men. Sean especially had the type of physique associated with being a builder, and Luckasz and Josh both did physical jobs that kept them fit and strong. These women had done too good a job in tying them up, and their gags were strong and tight, a low hum was all that they could make in their cries of confusion and distress. The chairs they had been tied to would not move, and the zip-ties bit into them painfully. The black tape wrapped around them, fastening them to the chairs so mercilessly and, assisted by the gags, made it difficult to breathe. All three continuously clenched and unclenched their fists, out of struggle and frustration, but also more importantly to maintain circulation in the fingers, such was the tightness of the zip-ties. It was very uncomfortable. No, there was something deadly serious about this. These three ladies were deadly serious. Whoever they were. The prisoners began to contemplate their dilemma; if escape, for now at least, seemed unlikely, then they would have no choice but to participate in this depraved contest the women spoke off. But if they did, and performed well, there was the risk of ending up as their slave. Even if the three women had promised them payment for their service, there was no way any of the three men wanted such a job, having enjoyed the novel freedom of lock-down for the past few months, without any financial concern. On the other hand, if they refused the tasks these women gave them, then presumably measures would be taken in order to motivate them, as they had just seen. Who knows what else these women were capable of, if they upset or disappointed them in any way? And what would these ‘household challenges’ be in any case? Would they be untied in order to fulfil them? Would that present the possibility of escape? Or would the women be several steps ahead of them, anticipating their moves, always in control? In any case, there was little point in speculating on such things at the moment. All they could do for now was to listen to the noise from the celebrations that continued for several hours from outside the men’s prison. Laughter, music, at one point the breaking of glass on a wooden floor. The three prisoners studied the room, regarding with apprehension the ominous, large silver looking hook drilled into the ceiling above. Had the three of them, in some way, pissed these three ladies off somehow? The newspaper-covered window in the room was fastened with the same black tape that held the men’s mouths from screaming for help, so there would be no chance of anyone finding out what was happening in here, despite the harsh, bare light. Much less hearing about it. And even if anyone could, even if a corner of the window had been left uncovered, allowing someone to curiously gaze in, would they believe the scene within? And then there was the camera; the red ‘on’ light, a constant reminder of who was in control here. Who had the power. And it wasn’t the three men in this room.



TO BE CONTINUED…

[houdinincfm]

Excellent start

[tillytimber123]

Another great part. Looking forward to what the women have in store for the men

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down

Part 3

By Bandhaniya


Sean jolted up suddenly to be confronted with the smiling, smartly dressed figure of Nicola towering above him, taser in one hand, a can of lemon Fanta in the other. The cold, sweet, effervescent liquid she had just poured over his head trickled down his naked body, rudely awakening him to a reality he had hoped had been nothing more than just a crazy dream.
‘Morning sleepyhead!’ she taunted as Sean tried to shake off the soda. He had no idea what time it was, but the three women who all stood in the centre of the room, just as they had yesterday, regarded their prisoners with glee. All were dressed as before, as if they were at the office, ready for business. ‘Wow, what a day…’ she continued ‘sorry about all the noise, things got a little out of hand shall we say…probably shouldn’t have hit the champagne before lunch…’ She took a long sip from the can of soda before holding it up to her head as an ice compress. She let out a long sigh of relief as the men around them moaned. For after over twenty four hours of being bound and gagged, they were all now feeling very thirsty indeed.
‘Shh!’ Sonali warned them all ‘we have a lot to get through today gentlemen. And we are already behind schedule…’
‘That’s right!’ Huan explained ‘Now that you have finished your orientation and settling in period, it’s time to start with the opening challenge…’ she produced the zombie knife from inside her suit jacket, startling the captives, ‘who wants to go first…?’

Nicola’s finger hovered over the button of the taser as she backed up through the door, watching Josh awkwardly stumble into the living area, accompanied by both Sonali and Huan on either side, holding each arm securely. After being tied up for so long, he found it a struggle. She held the weapon at his neck as they escorted him into the space, unbound, holding his fearful gaze with her own forceful stare, his long, light brown hair, depositing drops of sweat on the tape around his face, for he remained gagged. Bits of black tape still clung to his legs and torso, and his wrists and legs were almost excoriated by the zip-ties that had fastened the poor victim to his chair so cruelly. He surveyed his surroundings, cautiously stealing glances at Nicola and her taser, hoping to find something that might help him, a weapon, something sharp, anything.

‘Remember’ Huan said as the young man was unceremoniously marched into the middle of the living area ‘any funny business and you’ll regret it…’ she lent into his ear and whispered ‘I promise’. Sonali waved her arm across the room, as Josh stood there, totally naked apart from the wrapping around his lower face, his hands sheepishly covering his genitals.
‘As you can see…’ Sonali began, slightly embarrassed, ‘the place is an absolute bombsite!’ She was right. Their poor prisoner regarded the room in dismay as he continued to look for something that could be useful. The whole space was a mess of empty coffee mugs, clothes, plates and papers. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in months.
‘See what we’ve had to put up with here?!’ Nicola emphasised, standing beside the poor lad, the taser, still menacingly held at his neck. Ready to use her power over her prisoner at a moment's notice.
‘But now you're here!’ Huan gently swept his glistening hair away from his face ‘and I know you will make this place brand new and sparkling!’ she said with a smile.
‘You got one hour’ Nicola warned ‘to clean and tidy this living room to the best of your ability, using the items provided here…’ she gestured towards a corner of the room where cleaning items including sprays, sanitisers, polish and cloths had all been laid out for him. Beside the table stood a hoover, along with a dustpan and brush. There was also a digital alarm clock. It was 10:30. ‘We'll be watching your progress from one of the other rooms and will be evaluating your progress throughout. Any attempt to escape or waste time will be deemed gross misconduct and almost certainly will result in a disciplinary. Got it? Good luck!’ she said, as Sonali, who had now positioned herself behind him, pushed Josh towards the cleaning station with the aid of one of her heels on his buttocks. She sniggered as he stumbled into it with bewilderment and panic, almost falling over, before turning around to contemplate the mess surrounding him. He heard the door to the living area shut, and the sound of much laughter behind it. Where to begin?
He nervously glanced at the clock as he continued to spray the pictures that ordained the walls of the living room. The windows had been blacked out, just as they had been in their cell. He had also noticed the two cameras positioned in the room as he scoured the area under the auspices of his task. He glanced at the clock; twenty minutes left. As he continued to half heartedly clean, Josh turned to find himself confronted by the face of Sonali. She was slightly younger, maybe four, five years? She beamed in front of the camera dressed in a blue t-shirt with the logo ‘Mumbai Pehlwani Club 1973’ emblazoned across it in white. Around her neck she proudly held up a gold medal. He sprayed the picture several times, squeezing the trigger as hard as he could, his own gagged face reflected in the glass. The cleaning fluid dripped down from the picture frame.


Sean tried to remain as still as possible as the knife brushed across his tightly taped up mouth before descending down his chest and beginning to cut open the black bands of tape that held him to the chair.
‘Mmmmm…’ he moaned.
‘Shhh’ advised Nicola as she then proceeded to pop off the black plastic band that attached his wrists to the back of the chair, before cutting the zip-ties that bound his wrists together. Josh watched as they rose him to his feet, Sonali holding the taser at his neck, watching him intensely. After Nicola had finished untying Sean, both herself and Huan raised him to his feet. ‘Come on. Up you get.’ Like Josh before him, he was unsteady on his feet 'Woah ... .easy fella!’ Nicola giggled as Sonali held the taser threateningly at his neck, ready to subdue him if he tried anything. They slowly led him out of the prison cell and closed and locked the door behind them, as Lukasz looked at Josh, who was sitting next to him. But Josh was fixated on the door of the room, deep in thought. Lukasz let out a desperate ‘Mmph’ through his gag, before embarking upon yet another session of pointless struggle. Josh slightly unclenched his right fist a little, which was almost swollen with the tightness of the ties and checked to make sure there was no bleeding. Still fixated on the door as Lukasz thrashed about in anguish, he cautiously ran his finger along the small shard of glass in his hand that he had managed to grab and hide during the cleaning challenge. It was sharp enough, just, to perhaps scrape and cut at his ties. He couldn’t believe his luck in discovering the piece of glass, sandwiched between two varnished floorboards, just small and sharp enough to be of use. His captors had been sloppy in not checking his hands thoroughly as they tied him to the chair, and he had managed to conceal this possible shard of salvation between his thumb and palm, as the zip-tie was wrapped around his wrists and tightened. The only question now was when he would attempt to free himself and get out of this terrible, demented situation, crashing through the window perhaps? Although he was unsure which floor he may be on. He recalled that during his abduction his kidnappers had marched him up several flights of stairs. Two hundred and fifty three. He had counted each one, hooded as he had been. That would be too high to escape that way. He would have to try and get out through the door, and out of the apartment, which would not be easy. In any case, he now had a means of getting untied at least. He just had to time his attempt well enough, knowing full well that they were under surveillance. During the night perhaps? When, hopefully, these three insane women would be asleep. He would have to calculate in his head when that might be though, the harsh bright light of the room, and the blacked out room giving nothing away as to the time of day. He looked over pitifully at Lukasz, who was still wasting his energy in struggle, his eyes almost welling up with tears as he screamed into his gag, which allowed nothing more than a faint murmur that even Josh could barely hear, let alone any possible neighbours that might be in the building. He wanted to tell the poor lad that he had a means of getting them all out of here, to not worry. But he too was gagged as ruthlessly as the young man to his left. He looked away.


‘One hour! Oh, and don’t get any bright ideas, apart from making our bathroom sparkle!’ Nicola advised, laughing at her own joke as the door to the bathroom slammed and locked. Sean, unrestrained but still gagged, just as Josh had been during his attempt at the Cleaning Challenge, now glared at the webcam placed at the top of the bath, beside the tap, before contemplating the cleaning products laid out before him with contempt. He surveyed his gross surroundings, before once more looking at the webcam again. He hesitantly reached out towards a bottle of bleach and squeezed the nozzle cap. As he reluctantly resigned himself to his task in hand he glanced at the blacked out window, paper had been taped to the frame concealing him from sight. As he began to scrub the bath, sponge in hand, he wondered if he could use the bleach to temporarily blind one of his captors. Or would they anticipate such a move? And in any case, even if he was successful, it still left two more to deal with, along with the taser. Perhaps he could wrestle the device from one of them. He recalled their warning about resistance, however, and failure would result in ...well, he dreaded to think what perverse punishment these ladies might come up with. The Antipodean had already proved herself to be especially fearsome and cruel; Sean really thought it was curtains when she had taped his nose up. He also reflected on how weak he was already after being tied up for well over twenty four hours. Or so he thought. He had completely lost track of time. For now, he decided to bide his time, go along with this little, sadistic game of theirs. That would be the smart play. Cooperate. Be submissive. Get them to lower their guard. Eventually they would slip up, he thought. People always do. And when that happened, he would be ready. And once he got out of this, he would call the police and tell them what was happening here. And that there were still two more helpless men being held captive in this apartment. Would they believe his story though? Would anyone? He looked at the clock; he only had half an hour left, and the bathroom was still a disgusting mess. Glancing at the webcam, raging with thirst and a little dizzy from hunger, he returned to his cleaning.

‘As a cleaner with…’ Sonali checked the IpadPro in her hand ‘four years experience in this field - this should be your forte!’ She looked up and smiled encouragingly at Lukasz, who stood between Huan and Nicola, who held the taser to his neck, his hands sheepishly covering his manhood. Sonali continued her briefing ‘so we decided to hand you the toughest challenge of the Cleaning Round - the kitchen!’ she grimaced apologetically.
‘But don’t worry!’ Huan encouraged him. ‘You should be able to prevail with your skillset!’ she beamed ‘we’ve provided you with all the products and equipment you’ll need, you’ll have a whole hour, and you’ll be able to move about freely!’
‘You will, however, as you may have noticed, remain gagged. Sorry.’ Sonali shrugged apologetically as she approached and looked at him encouragingly. He froze. ‘But I know you can do this!’ she said, and gave him a ‘thumbs up’ gesture as the women began to leave the kitchen area, backing away cautiously, the taser still pointed at him. As Lukasz watched them leave, Nicola pointed towards the webcam placed in the kitchen area, and then at her own eyes and then, finally and with menace, at him, before closing the door. He heard laughter from behind the door before looking around the kitchen in disgust. Like the other contestants, he had but one hour to somehow deal with the disarray before him, and, perhaps, stumble upon an implement that he could somehow use against his captors and blow the final whistle on this sick game of theirs. He looked towards the blacked out windows and contemplated tearing of the tape and spitting out his gag in order to scream for help. But they had gagged him so tightly, with so much wrapping of the tape that he doubted he would be able to without them barging in en masse to stop him, knowing that they were no doubt watching carefully his every move. And if they did he shuddered to think what his punishment might be. As he approached the kitchen sink in despair, which was overflowing with crockery, he reached out towards the tap and turned it. He thought of removing the gag again, this time for no other reason than to drink, so parched from having been denied any liquid. He was starting to even feel a bit of a headache. This, as the contestants had all been told, was to ‘help and support them all’ during the opening round of the ‘contest’, and he assumed that as a reward for performing well, they would finally be relieved of their thirst. And maybe even fed as well? But what if they disappointed their captors? Failed this ‘challenge’ of theirs? He began to remove the items from the sink, hoping to find something useful as the water from the tap tantalised him. But he could find nothing useful, certainly nothing sharp. And there was nothing in the way of glassware in sight. He opened a cutlery draw. Just spoons. They thought of everything. These women. They were always one step ahead. He resigned himself to the task at hand, squeezing a bottle of washing up liquid.

The door to the cell opened once again as the three captors strode in and took their places in front of the three men, once more tied, gagged and taped to their respective chairs.
‘Evening fellas!’ said Nicola ‘wow, what a day! I hope it’s been as enjoyable for you as it has been for us! And can I just say, that no matter what the result of this particular round, I think I speak for all us women when I say I think you’ve all done an amazing job!’
‘So true!’ Huan contributed ‘I can’t tell you the difference your efforts have made today. The place is finally starting to resemble a space fit for humans!’ she giggled embarrassingly.
‘However unfortunately’ Sonali said ‘the terms of the contest dictate that a winner must be decided on. We’ve spent the last two hours examining the results of your cleaning and also analysed your performance, as recorded on the webcams. We’ve also taken into account your particular skill sets and factored that into our final decision’ she spoke professionally, as if this was indeed some maniacal work appraisal, playing with the name tag ribbon that dangled from her shoulders.
‘And we can confidently say that we think we’ve settled on a winner for this particular round!’ Nicola announced.
‘Now’ continued Sonali ‘we don’t want you to think all is lost if this particular challenge doesn't go your way. We still have two more rounds for you to show us what you can do so whatever happens today, stay positive!’ she beamed encouragingly as the captives looked around apprehensively.
‘So, without further ado…’ Nicola began ‘Josh!’ The young man shot up and froze in panic as he waited on his appraisal. ‘Well, I don’t know about Huan and Soni here, but I have got to say; I was impressed!’ The other two women nodded in agreement as Nicola continued. ‘If even on the face of it the Living Room Challenge was the easiest of the three technically, the size of the area covered, as well as one or two other finer points, presented challenging hurdles in themselves which you generally coped with well, all things considered’ the young man relaxed a little as Huan stepped forward, Ipad in hand.
‘I particularly liked how you approached hoovering, your spatial awareness and just your time management generally…’ She showed him an edited video clip of his recent chores from a series of angles. ‘All in all, pleasantly surprised,’ she concluded with a smile before handing the IPad over to Sonali.
‘However’ Sonali began, regretfully, ‘It would be remiss of us here not to draw your attention to some basic ‘schoolboy errors’ when it came to the Living Room Challenge…’ she selected a clip of his cleaning and showed it to him, a violet coloured nail indicating key moments on the screen. ‘Although by applying cleaning products on surfaces in order to settle before commencing a new task saved you time on this challenge, leaving it too long on the mirrors and other items ultimately resulted in too much smearing. You see? She stepped up to him and sat down casually on his lap, crossing her legs and putting a suited arm around him before showing him his error. There were indeed smears and blemishes on a couple of the mirrors that he had polished, along with a few metal ornaments, just as she had said. He began to whimper in protest through his gag. The windows of the living room had been blacked out in preparation. All he had had to work in was artificial light! It was difficult to see properly! He had given the polishing as much ‘elbow grease’ as he could! Promise!
‘Silence!’ Nicola commanded, pointing the taser at him as Sonali got up and took a couple of steps back, Ipad in her crossed arms, shaking her head. He stopped his barely audible protest. ‘This feedback is important for your development over the course of the challenge!’ she sternly advised him ‘you need to pay attention!’
‘That goes for all of you!’ Sonali warned, smirking.
‘Speaking of which…’ Huan said ‘next up we have…Sean!’
‘Sean…’ Sonali sighed ‘we gave you the Bathroom Challenge and despite being impressed with your work rate and fixing the leaking tap…’
‘Oh god, yes.’ Huan confirmed ‘Thank you!’ She clasped her hands together in gratitude as the captive now braced himself for what would now follow.
‘We did notice, however, a little too much of the messy builder who doesn't clean up after himself properly about some of your work, do you know what I mean…?’ Sonali passed the IPad to Huan who began to swipe at the screen as she approached Sean, and took a seat on his lap.
‘Here…’ she pointed at the screen, a little irritated. ‘And here. Look! In both instances not really paying any attention to detail and allowing simple bad practices to creep into your cleaning…’ Sean looked at his captor in frustration and fury as Huan continued to highlight shortcomings in the man’s performance before playfully squeezing his nose as she got up, Sean’s head thrashed about before the young woman released him, giggling.
‘And finally we have…Lukasz!’ declared Nicola as Huan stepped back from the previous contestant to complete the trinity which now stood in judgement of the bound, blonde haired captive that was sat before them.
‘We gave you the most difficult challenge of The Cleaning Round’ Sonali began ‘as we’ve already explained, and I must say, I thought you performed really well!’ she smiled at Lukasz, as the young man’s eyes cautiously regarded each of his captors in turn as Sonali continued. ‘I was particularly impressed with your work with the coffee machine. I can’t tell you how nice it was to sit down and discuss all your performances over a drinkable cup of coffee! So thank you for that.’ The other two women enthusiastically nodded. Sonali then bowed her head sadly as Huan handed Nicola the IPad who in turn approached Lukasz, standing in front of him, swiping at the screen.
‘Unfortunately…’ she began ‘not everything was exactly ‘Ship Shape and Bristol Fashion’ here, shall we say!’ She presented him with images of unacceptable work one after the other, an exhibition of shortcomings pointed out by a sharp, glistening, red painted dagger that swiped across one failure after another. ‘I gotta say’ Nicola continued gravely, still towering over in front of her captive, ‘I really expected better. I think we all did. Right ladies?’ Huan nodded her head in concerned agreement, Sonali, her head still bowed in disappointment.
‘So’ Huan continued ‘after checking your work, analysing our footage and after much deliberation we are finally ready to declare a winner of The Cleaning Round!’
‘Now the lucky winner of each round will enjoy a nice meal and something to drink. We all know how hungry, and more importantly how thirsty you must all be!’ As for the loser, well, we have a little something to help support and encourage you, and gather your focus for the next round. Something to help keep you on your toes…’ Huan let out a laugh at this. ‘And the winner is…’she paused for a moment as the three men froze in anticipation ‘Sean!’

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down

Part 4

By Bandhaniya




‘Now…’ Nicola was even more intimidating than before as she towered over Sean, her red locks draped over his hunched shoulders as she leaned in towards his left ear. Her eyes, a burning blue above the black COVID mask that covered her face. He shuffled about nervously as best he could, the zip-ties that fastened his wrists behind his back as ever, far too tight. As were the rest of his restraints, the whole roll of black adhesive cloth that strapped him to the chair, a cruel corset constricting his breath. His ripped abdomen, taught against the tape. Meanwhile the zip-ties around his legs and ankles bit hard into the flesh. He wondered if they would leave their mark on him forever. Nicola continued. ‘I’m gonna remove your gag and give you something to drink…’ He started to whimper, his head throbbing now due to dehydration, as were the other captives. ‘If you so much as make a fucking sound, I’ll use these pliers to hold your tongue whilst Huan here boils the kettle…’ he tried to control himself as she brandished a pair of yellow handled pliers from her suit jacket and held them up close to his blinking, perspiring face for close inspection. ‘Up to you mate…nice cold glass of water…or a not so nice hot one. We understand each other, Sean?’ He nodded.

He winced, the eyes welling up a little as Nicola aggressively ripped away the eight or so layers of black tape that silenced the poor prisoner until she pulled out the sponge, holding his jaw as Huan approached with a glass of water which was then poured down his throat with all the ceremony of a waterboarding, the hapless male, guzzling as much as he could, his stomach, bursting against the black dam that held him fast to the chair as streams of water flowed down his body. After his raging thirst was relieved he was given the small, but welcome gift of a glass of beer and a bacon sandwich ‘something we know you’ll enjoy, as your reward for coming first in The Cleaning Challenge!’’ explained Huan, smilingly, before he was gagged once more and the three women turned their attention to Josh. No beer and bacon for him, but he was at least given something to drink, he too, gulping as much down to the point of feeling sick, after being warned against yelling for help, as Sean had been. As ‘rewards’ for finishing first and second , it frankly sucked. It was however, immeasurably better than the ultimate prize for winning the whole competition - enslavement for the duration of the Lockdown. The price of not performing, however, during the individual rounds was uncomfortably clear for both Sean and Josh. For displaying his distress in full view wobbled the pitiful frame of Lukasz, who had been subjected to a cruel punishment, even by the standards of these ladies.

A noose of white rope had been placed around his neck and pulled tightly through the hook which had been drilled into the ceiling, pulling him up onto his toes which were in a battle to establish balance on a tower of half a dozen or so large, hardback books. This was not helped by the black, shiny stilettos his oversized feet had been forced into, to the sound of much hysterical laughter at the time. A large, purple dildo had also been lubricated and inserted into him, then secured around his groyne area with lashings of black tape. His lower legs had been taped up too. As Lukasz struggled to prevent himself slipping, Sean wondered what his cruel captors were forcing the poor lad to listen to, as they had affixed headphones to him, before pulling a pair of black sheer tights over his head in a kind of hood, tying the legs of the hosiery around his neck, before wrapping tape around his eyes and ears, over the nylon and the wireless Bose earphones that now (presumably) tormented him. His tears could not be seen from behind the tights, and his gag kept a vocal record of his suffering to a bare minimum. As he agonisingly shuffled about on the books like a cocooned butterfly, desperate to burst out but prevented from doing so, Sean reflected on the need to avoid such a predicament until he could figure out a way to escape this grotesque hell. As he considered the tormented, taped up torso of the blond haired young man he wondered if Lukasz would hold out. A sudden slip and it would be over for him. Then he had his bonds to contend with, his hands tied behind his back, his arms pinned with black tape. Then there was whatever white noise their captors had selected. He had been too weak to offer anything in the way of resistance as the women prepared him for this long night, all in the aid of providing him with ‘enough support’ according to Sonali, so he could ‘perform better in the next round’, as she explained. Sean recalled how the poor lads eyes had widened in horror as Nicola theatrically held the purple vibrator up to his face and turned it on, and how the room had filled with laughter as she had lubricated it in front of him before handing it to Huan, who stepped behind the panicked, shuffling Lukasz. Sonali had then taken a fresh roll of black tape and had started to wrap layers around his groyne area and buttocks
‘You know. You look like you are wearing a micro skirt…’ Sonali observed with a giggle as she finished, stopping halfway down his thighs, the vibrator fully charged and humming away in unison to Lukasz’s own moaning. Something to keep you on your toes indeed.

Nicola drifted in with a bottle of Marlborough sauvignon blanc held by the neck, her white cotton trousers billowing across the recently swept decks of the living room, which she surveyed with satisfaction before collapsing into the sofa and beginning to unscrew the cap on the wine. Huan remained fixated on the T.V. as one of her best friends and housemate topped up her glass, absently held out in front of her for replenishment.
‘Cheers’ Huan said, still captivated by the screen. Nicola filled up her own glass before placing the bottle on the table in front of her as Sonali strolled in, joining them on the sofa.
‘Have I missed anything?’ Sonali enquired, reaching out for the white wine.
‘Amy’s souffle has collapsed. She’s in tears.' Huan informed her.
‘Oh no! I like Amy…’
‘How’s your other favourite doing?’ Nicola asked with a smirk.
‘Don’t be mean! Poor boy…’ she took a sip of wine, a slight grin breaking through the mock indignation.
‘Well. Hopefully he’ll be fully focused for tomorrow. Won’t he?’
‘What is it tomorrow?’
Nicola reached out for her Samsung S10 + and after a few seconds regarding the live cam feed from the three hostages they were holding, turned to tomorrow's itinerary. ‘The Washing Round’ she announced with a huge smile of excitement and relief.
‘Thank God!’ Huan exclaimed, momentarily distracted from her T.V.
programme ‘We’re finally going to get some fresh, clean clothes to wear. Can’t fucking wait!’
‘Yep. For now though, I’m just going to enjoy this amazing clean living room!’ Nicola declared.
‘And the bathroom!’ Sonali pointed out to the enthusiastic agreement of the other two women.
‘Wonder who will win?’ she mused, taking another sip.
‘Claire’ Huan replied without hesitation. ‘The Sourdough Boule alone will be enough. It was a triumph!’
‘Er…I meant here?!’ the Australian giggled, spraying wine back into her glass.
‘He’s going to win tomorrow. I know it. You mark my words.’ Sonali asserted with a nod.
’Just because he’s a cleaner!’ Nicola teased ‘Didn’t do him much good today, did it…?’
‘He had the hardest challenge!’ Sonali exclaimed in mock indignation.
‘Not to mention now an even harder night’ Nicola continued to gently goad her friend with a devilish grin.
‘I’ve got faith in him. You’ll see…’ Sonali declared defensively as she picked up her smartphone to check once more on the hanging hostage, quivering in the spare room.


The balls of his feet swivelled on the book tower as Lukasz once more moaned in anguish, barely audible from under the strict, tight gag that was, as ever, wrapped around his mouth. The heels the captors had forced him into so cruelly, so humiliatingly, crushed his feet, making an already difficult perch, painfully precipitous. He paused for a second, regaining his breath as best he could,before once more swivelling in torment on the stack of hardbacks as Kim Wilde’s ‘You Keep Me Hangin On'' kicked in again over the Bose wireless ‘over the ear’ headphones, held in place by the tights and the tape, wrapped over the eyes, blindfolding him. ‘Don’t want these headphones slipping off!’ his captors had teased. Over and over the song played at full volume. As songs go, it was a suitably sick selection on behalf of his captors.

‘Set me free, why don't you babe?’
‘Get out my life, why don’t you babe?’
‘Cause you don’t really love me-’
‘You just keep me hanging on!!!’

Lukasz screamed in agony as the intro battered his eardrums once again, the tight noose around his neck, a warning against too much resistance, lest he find himself in an even worse situation. How much he wanted to be set free, he thought to himself. How much he wanted these cruel women ‘out my life’!

As Josh regarded the poor unfortunate soul strung up in front of him, blindfolded and hooded as he was, he cautiously turned his attention to Sean, who seemed to be asleep, and then once more to Lukasz. Although he was relieved to have avoided the poor Pole’s predicament after today’s challenge, he knew it would only be a matter of time before a lack of calories and fluids began to take its toll, not to mention the demanding standards of their captors, and he too would find himself pilloried as the young blonde was, in such a miserable and humiliating way. This, however, was not what most concerned him right now.

Since the moment of their abduction the kidnappers had been masked at all times. This had provided some reassurance, for presumably it meant that once this crazy contest was over they would be released? At least for the two lucky losers. Although these ladies had put exceptionally effective measures to get them all motivated to ‘win’ each round, even the unlucky winner would be released from his ‘contract’ once the Lockdown was over? With a tall story short on evidence. Surely? His heart quickened as the words returned to him Mumbai Pehlwani Club 1973. The young woman's face in the photo had to be one of the kidnappers. The one with the south asian accent. Sonali. In the photo she looked to be about twenty perhaps. The Compliance Officer meanwhile looked to be possibly mid-twenties? It was hard to be sure with her COVID mask. They both had the same big, bright, deep brown eyes however. He continued to reflect on the face in that photograph, how it radiated that triumphant smile of hers with such joy and excitement. Such a feeling of power. And in spite of all they had done to him, he couldn’t help but feel pleased for the beaming, beautiful face in that photograph. Maybe it was the sheer magnetism of her elation. Unfortunately, for him though, he now knew that she had been a member of this ‘club’ (whatever that was) and her likely nationality. Those were two damning details alone that would seriously compromise both the kidnappers and Josh once they had realised their error. His heart sank. No way they would let him go then. No matter how he performed over the course of this contest. What would they do? Keep him tied up like this? Bound and gagged in this room for the rest of his miserable life as a domestic slave of some sort? Constantly provided with ‘encouragement’ and ‘means of support’ whenever he failed to ‘meet targets’? Or would they have something even worse in store for him? To protect themselves? He shuddered. He had searched their eyes during the course of his appraisal, hoping to notice some change in their tone or attitude towards him. Something that might indicate that they had realised he had seen the photo. But there was nothing, as far as he could tell. They were as flippant and teasing as ever, enjoying this cruel game of theirs at the expense of their unwilling contestants. Fortunately for the young man, there was a way out of all this. As he studied Sean’s taped up face, trying to decide if he was actually asleep or not and nervous as ever now of watchful eyes behind the webcam he felt around as best he could, Sonali’s wrist restraints unnecessarily harsh and biting, until one of his fingers found the sharp shard of glass he had hid. Through his nose he breathed a huge sigh of relief, it was still there. Stuck onto a strip of black duct tape that had remained dangling on the chair after they had been cut free for the Cleaning Challenge-how painful it had been when the women had torn the tape off their bare skin! All three contestants' eyes had welled up as their tormentors ripped away, laughing as they did so. It did mean though, that now a piece of the tape was conveniently positioned just where Josh could squirrel away the shard of glass which now took on an even greater urgency in light of the information he now possessed. And if he could untie himself and get out of here, he would have a location and possible identity of one of the kidnappers to go to the police with. The other two captives would be rescued and this insanity would finally all be over. He fumbled around for the shard, after a few seconds managing to prize it away from the adhesiveness of the tape and, apprehensively stealing another glance at the webcam, he began to cut away at the zip-ties that bound his wrists. He hoped that his guards were asleep, for, despite the bright, bare light of their prison, he calculated that it must be the middle of the night.


Suddenly he heard the door to the cell as it started to be unbolted and unlocked from outside. His heart froze as it dawned on him that he may have been set up. That the shard of glass had been deliberately left there for him as yet another sort of ‘test’. One that he had presumably now failed. Or was this late night visit just merely a coincidence? Just a routine check on the ‘prisoners’? That he would still have the means of escape? In a panic, he surreptitiously stuck the shard of glass back onto the rogue, flapping strip of tape, and apprehensively turned his gagged face towards the door as it opened.
‘Hi!’ Nicola whispered as she sneaked in, taser in hand.
‘Mmmph’ replied Josh as she approached him.
‘Sorry…’ she explained, still whispering ‘haven’t come to chat. Just popped by to visit The Golden Boy over here…’ with a hungry look in her eyes she gestured to Sean’s subdued head, slumped onto his tapped up chest. Nicole’s entrance seemingly had not woken him yet. ‘Getting his well earned beauty sleep here. Bless him. Which reminds me. What are you doing awake at this hour? Mmm?’ Josh tried to control his heart rate as he wondered whether or not he had been found out, avoiding eye contact with his captor. ‘Trouble sleeping?’, she enquired with false concern, ‘You know…you really should try and get some rest. Want to be all bright eyed and bushy tailed for tomorrow. Don’t you?’ she asked as she walked over towards the pilloried loser on display, her bare feet creaking against the bare wooden floor as she gestured towards him as he tried as best he could to maintain his balance on the precarious tower of books. ‘Don’t want to end up like this one?. Do you?’ she smirked as Josh 'mpphed’ through his gag, shaking his head in distress and pleading. Did they know about the photo? ‘Here…’ she said ‘let me help you get some beauty sleep…’ he jolted up for a few seconds before a second surge from the taser finally subdued him, his head slumping onto his moist, bare chest. Nicola smirked from underneath her mask, before turning her attention to Sean, who still appeared to be unconscious.

He shook violently on the chair as Nicola towered over him in her red Dolce and Gabbana T-Shirt, ‘Wakey wakey’ she teased as he squinted at the harsh light ‘Sorry about the alarm call’ she whispered from behind her COVID disguise, leaning into his ear. ‘It was only a little one!’ she said, with mock justification as she waved the taser in his face. ‘Need some energy surging through that nice, strong body of yours…’ she said as she playfully dropped the taser into Sean's lap before running her hands up and down his bound torso, over the tape and his muscular, tanned, perspiring flesh as the young man resigned himself to the likely reason for his awakening. He just prayed that whatever was in store for him would be both brief and not too bizarre or perverted. ‘I know you must think I’m a pretty tough bitch, but I’ve got my tender side as well…Just relax…’ She began to massage his member as he squirmed on the chair, lathering him up like a bar of soap. In spite of his exhaustion, deprivation and mental state, Sean found himself nonetheless responding to the red head, becoming easily aroused as she slipped off her knickers. He could see the moist patch on them, glistening in the harsh light before she kicked the black cotton across the room ‘Guess you must be a bit confused by all of this…’ her encouragement became more forceful as Sean moaned into his gag, his cock becoming hard and hot. Nicola mounted him.

‘We were originally planning on just abducting one guy, someone who caught our eye and who we could all agree on…’ she explained as she started to move up and down on him. ‘Then Huan had the idea of a little competition…she loves her reality contests…’ her movements become more and more rhythmic and intense as he tilted back his head, trying to fight the surges of excitement and pleasure that Nicola was providing, until he could hold out no longer and started to relent, giving himself over to her as she rocked back and forth. ‘And it seemed a much more fun way of going about this whole thing instead of putting just one guy through his paces, as they say. I’m a huge fan of competition myself. It’s how we get the very best out of people. Don’t you agree?’
‘Mmmphh’ was all he could say as she straddled him, moving up and down his shaft, her palms pinning his shoulders back as he heaved on the chair. He was angry with himself that he had been aroused by her so easily. She lent into his taped up face as her gyrations became more and more insistent.
‘So. Sorry about this kidnapping business, but we had to do something…’ she winked at him as she continued to pleasure herself. ‘I know it sucks, but not as much as it has for us these last weeks. It is what it is, as they say. We had to…we had to do something ... ..we couldn't go on…..we had to…’ her exertions became more and more powerful. ‘So annoying…everything being shut down…the whole of society… grinding to a halt as they say…’ She started to gasp. ‘Between you and me, you’re the one I’ve got my fingers crossed for. The way you set out your skill sets on your linkedin page. And that profile pic. Wow!’ she moaned with pleasure as he crunched his eyes up in dismay, shaking his head, cursing the time a period of unemployment had caused him to sign up to the aforementioned site. He opened his eyes again to be confronted with the wide and wild eyes of the red head, beaming down at him, perspiration dripping onto him as she pressed hard on his chest with her open palms, her rhythmic rocking continuing apace. ‘Huan and Sonali chose out their favourites as well when we selected our targets!’ she moved up and down on him, enjoying his distress at having surrendered
to her so easily, gasping with pleasure more and more. Sean’s fury and frustration, doing nothing other than to excite his captor until, finally, Nicola began to scream with pleasure and delight, her long red hair, spraying out sweat as she waved her head around in ecstasy. After about ten seconds or so, her head collapsed onto his chest, her pleasured panting, eventually coming to a standstill.


‘I know, I know’ it’s really bad. I usually don't. Not since Uni. But after sex…’she shrugged apologetically as she lit up her cigarette and took a long, deep drag on the Marlboro Gold, the wispy curls rising up into the room, past the towering, tormented figure of Lukasz, who continued to wobble on the stack of books. She giggled as she regarded the unfortunate loser, sat now as she was on Sean’s lap, facing away from him, her disguise lowered so she could enjoy her post coital smoke. She was relaxed, chatty. Sitting on top of her bound and gagged conquest. She raised up her COVID mask suddenly as if something had just occurred to her. ‘Oh I’m so sorry…of course…how rude of me…’ she exclaimed as she turned to face Sean. ‘I forgot you like a smoke too.’ She held up the cigarette to his gagged up mouth for a few seconds. He glared at her ‘No?’ she asked innocently, before something else occurred to her. ‘Oh. Of course! sorry, I don’t do roll-ups. I guess that’s probably what you’d prefer. Isn’t it?’ She stared at him for a few seconds, before looking away again, and dropping her mask to take another drag. ‘You know I must say you don't look very happy Sean! Now why is that? Don’t you like being our hostage here?’ He tilted his head back and exhaled strongly through his nose as she continued to talk and smoke, her head cushioned on his muscular right shoulder. ‘I hope you don’t have an issue with your captors being female, do you?’ she wondered ‘I do hope not. I mean, what difference should that make?. Especially these days, gender equality and all that! You can’t possibly tell me you’d be more comfortable being abducted by three burly blokes?’ she questioned, blowing out smoke across the room. ‘I know it sucks, but not as much as it has for us these last weeks. It is what it is, as they say. Like I said, we had to do something.’ She paused for a moment to reflect before continuing. ‘You know, you might find this ironic right now, but the only way we make progress as a species is if workers are free to move around, responding to their own rational self interest. I’m a big believer in this Sean! I mean, look at the progress of the last few hundred years compared to that of the last few thousand! All because people are no longer tied to the land. Sorry. Bad joke…!’ Sean let out an agonised muffled moan as Nicola continued her tedious lecture on labour.‘But it’s true! We need free movement of capital and labour for society to flourish! Not having to ask permission from a Lord to leave the land. Unfortunately for us, we seemed to have reverted back to such a situation during this whole COVID thing. The bloody government won't let you move, and has made it so that it's not in your rational self interest to do so, which leaves us ladies with a problem. And if the state won’t allow you to sell you labour, well, I guess we’ll…..well, we’ll just have to take it. Now won’t we?’ She pulled up her mask and turned to face his furious gaze. She winked at him playfully, before turning away again and imperiously waving her arm across the room. ‘Think of yourself as tied to this house for the time being Sean. And us as your Ladies of the Manor!’ The young construction worker thrashed about in his chair as Nicola threw her red hair back in laughter, splashing his face with it, as she finished her Marlboro Gold, pulling up her COVID mask and stubbing the cigarette out on her captives taped up torso as he shuffled as best he could in panic, before calming down somewhat, the layers of black adhesive, protecting his skin from any burn. ‘Anyway, nice chatting with you mate…’ She got up before casually strolling out of the room, briefly pausing to collect her knickers and then turning to her conquest one more time with a finger to the lips in a ‘sshh’ command. She closed and locked the door.


Josh shot up in alarm as the bound torso of Lukasz collapsed onto the floor. ‘Good morning!’ Sonali welcomed them all as Nicola regarded the convulsions of the young man recovering on the floor at her heels with some pride. ‘I hope you all slept well…’
‘Well, maybe not everyone, eh?’ Huan giggled.
Sonali mockingly frowned ‘Don’t be mean!’ She crouched down and began to remove both the tape and the tights that had encapsulated last night's loser with the zombie knife, cutting away the nylon and adhesive cloth to the sound of Lukasz’s distressed whimpering. Finally she revealed two eyes that looked like a fresh red grapefruit, cut in half, its juices running tributaries across the black taped landscape of the victim’s lower face. Sonali used the nylon in her hand to gently rub the poor boy’s tears away as Nicola crouched down in order to rip off the tape that secured the purple phallus that had been introduced to him the night before. He moaned as she pulled it out from him before assisting Sonali in dragging him into his chair and starting to secure him to it, the latter ripping off reams of tough, sticky tape from a brand new roll with gleeful, excited eyes. The room sounded like a packing warehouse the week before Christmas. Huan, all the while, vigilant with the taser in hand, scanning for the slightest indication of resistance. Finally, after Lukasz had been tied to his chair, the three women stood before their captives to explain to them what devilish plans they had in store for them that day. As before, they were dressed business-like. Josh cautiously checked to see if he still had the shard of glass he had found. He felt a wave of relief to find it still stuck to the strip of tape dangling from the backrest of the chair he was tied to, before his joy was interrupted. ‘It’s the one I know Nicola has been looking forward to the most…’ Sonali began.
‘Oh god yeah’
‘It’s…’ she paused for a second ‘The Washing Round!’
‘Woo-ha!’ Huan yelled out, waving her hands in the air
‘As I’m sure you boys can imagine, we ladies have accumulated quite a lot of dirty laundry over the last two months or so. It’s been such an issue, I can tell you.’ The other two nodded in agreement. ‘It’s gotten so bad that we’ve been just pilling it into black bin bags and just, well, shoving them in the cupboard underneath the stairs!’
``We can’t even close the door now!’ Huan complained.
‘It’s kept shut with a bookcase slammed up against it.’ Nicola explained, regretfully.
‘For the last three weeks, we’ve just been buying new clothes over the internet when we’ve needed something clean. Underwear mostly. You know, knickers, bras, that sort of thing. It’s been a nightmare!’ The other two concurred with concern. ‘But thankfully now you boys are here to come to our rescue!’ she said with relief.
‘Over the course of today the three of you will be taking turns to wash, dry and iron, where needed, a selection of our dirty laundry’ Nicola explained. ‘You will, as before, be constantly monitored for performance and adherence to standard working practices during your task…’
‘No struggling or resistance of any kind. No microaggressions. Or escaping’ Elaborated Huan, helpfully.
‘And as before, you’ll be untied, so you can accomplish your task. But we’ll be watching your every move. So don’t try anything! Oh and of course, the gag will stay on,’ Sonali said. ‘That goes without saying…’ She couldn’t resist giggling at this. The captives groaned.
‘So!’ said Nicola. The three men’s heads bolted upright ‘Who’s the first contestant?’

The heel on his arse that pushed him into the utility room was firm, but not overly forceful. Lukasz’s legs however, were so weak from the night before that it was enough to send him crashing down onto the tiled, chequered floor to a chorus of much laughter from above.. As the three women approached him, he took care not to accidentally appear to gaze up at any of them. After a second he felt items of fabric drop, almost burying him.
‘Three hours!’ warned Nicola ‘to get as much done as you can. Good luck!’ The door to the utility room slammed shut and was bolted from the outside. As Lukasz began to rise to his feet, shrugging the items of clothing off him, he noticed a webcam in one of the corners of the room, placed on top of a washing machine. The red light radiating out from it, a laser, targeted at him. He regarded the cascade of clothing that surrounded him like a rising tide, before once more looking at the washing machine and slowly wading towards it, his hand reaching out to the powder tray door.

The three captives couldn’t help but moan as Huan unscrewed a frosted bottle of mineral water before slowly taking a long swig from underneath her COVID mask, the chilled water trickling down her neck.
‘Shh!’ Sonali warned. She threatened them all with the taser, her finger placed over her COVID mask, against her lips. ‘We want to know who the winner is here!’
‘Ok then guys…’ Huan began her summary of The Washing Round. ‘This particular round was a level playing field for you all, so to speak, more of a general round, not specifically related to any of your individual skill sets as such…’
‘And yet, we were surprised once again at certain performances…’ reflected Nicola.
‘Sean!’ Huan began.
‘Yesterday’s winner!’
‘Sadly…’ Huan continued as Sean’s upper torso began to struggle against his restraints, his head shaking in refusal as to what would come next. He suddenly shot upright, the sting of the slap spreading out across his gagged face like a shock-wave. Nicola leaned in, wagging her finger at him. No more the hot blooded lover of the night before, who he had found impossible to resist, she had reverted to being the stern, scary, disciplinarian of old. Sean froze in obedience, his startled and confused eyes looked away from her powerful, scrutinising gaze. ‘You need to pay attention to this feedback Sean. It’s for your benefit more than anyone else's' she advised, sternly.
‘As I was saying, whilst the excellent use of time and work ethic we saw on display yesterday were once again on display here, this particular challenge was more than just getting as much clothing washed and dried as possible.’
‘That’s right. It was every bit as much about attention to detail and organisation as it was about scale and volume.’
‘I don’t know what results you were hoping for by washing an Egyptian cotton Versace top with one of my favourite woolly hats, but here both are ruined!’ Sonali admonished, the items of clothing held up, one exhibit in each hand.
‘So disappointing. Especially after yesterday’s performance,’ observed Huan.

‘Josh!’ Nicola began as the young man’s head turned in alarm. ‘Whilst Sean here prioritised volume, you were very much the opposite, focusing on quality.’ She indicated some video footage on an IPad Pro which she presented him with. ‘Here we see you actually reading the label and organising which items should go with which. So well done there…’
‘Unfortunately…’ Sonali continued ‘that was at the expense of perhaps not getting as much cleaned as you could have done, accomplishing only half of what Sean managed to complete. Look.’ Nicola passed the IPad Pro to her friend who proceeded to call up a graph which did indeed indicate that Josh had not managed to clean, wash and iron as much as the other two. Nowhere near. He remained as stoic as possible during this appraisal. Still searching for any clue as to whether they had realised their earlier error. In allowing one of their faces to be seen in a photo. Along with some telling personal information. But if they had, they were giving nothing away. ‘And now finally Lukasz!’ Sonali’s eyes lit up behind her COVID mask. ‘Of all the contestants during this round, you were the only one who struck a nice balance between cleaning as many of our clothes as possible…’
‘Without fucking ruining them!’ Nicola interrupted, angrily.
'Indeed. And I must say how pleased I was to see you pull through after such a difficult opening round.’ She smiled sweetly.
‘We were all very impressed with your colour coordination skills, as well as temperature awareness,'' Huan explained. ‘An excellent performance!’
‘And now all that remains is to declare a winner…!’

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down

By Bandhaniya

Part 5


Josh’s fingers fumbled around behind the backrest of the chair he had been tied to. A brief moment of panic gave way to the relief of locating the shard of glass he had found during The Cleaning Round. As he produced the key to what he hoped would be his salvation, heart pounding, throat raging, he motivated himself by once more regarding the pitiful site of Sean, now pilloried in front of him, just like Lukasz the night before. He began to scrape away at the band of strong black plastic that bound his wrists, as the loser of the last round wobbled about on the balls of his feet, which had been crammed into the high heels. He now turned to Lukasz, looking to see whether the winner of The Washing Round was sleeping or not; his eyes were shut and his breathing suggested he was in relative slumber. As he tried not to think about what was now acute thirst, his mouth raw and dry from the sponge scourer that filled his mouth, a prickly cactus that prevented any pleas for relief, he scraped away at his bonds, making encouraging cuts into the tight black plastic. His captors had given him a glass of water for coming second in the last round, but he was still so very, very thirsty. He continued to hack away. Enough time and persistence and it might just be possible to be free of this madness. He would then free his fellow captives and they could formulate a plan for freedom. Either smash the window and yell for help, or just wait for their captors to unlock the door and enter. Suddenly he heard movement from outside and the bolts quietly sliding. He froze for a second before surreptitiously sticking the shard of glass back into its hiding place. He then bowed his head and pretended to be asleep as the door began to slowly open.

Lukasz squinted against the bright, lamp-less light as his eyes began to focus. Standing over him in a pair of navy silk pyjamas was Sonali, her eyes lit up with excitement and expectation over her COVID mask. He glanced up at Josh, asleep on his chair, and at Sean, struggling to stay balanced on the books, as he himself had the night before. He looked up once again at Sonali in alarm. She crouched down and held her finger to her masked face.
‘Shh!’ she signalled, conspiratorially, Lukasz had little choice but to comply. ‘Don’t want to wake the others!`` She leaned into him and whispered ‘I forgot the taser!’ she confessed. She turned to Josh ‘he looks dead to the world though. And I know you can't get free…’ Josh continued to feign unconsciousness as he listened out for every movement, every sound in the room. The report that Sonali had left her cudgel behind, along with the now unlocked door, had made his heart skip a beat. Like a bomb diffusing specialist, he once more delicately felt around for his lock-pick. ‘I’m so glad you won today!’ she continued ‘I was so worried about you. Last night.’ She turned to sorrowfully regard Sean, who thrashed about, trying not to lose balance on the tower of books as he moaned against the White Noise tormenting him, as well as the vibrator that was violating him. ‘But…’ she regretfully reasoned ‘I suppose maybe it was all for the best. The greater good, as they say,’ she continued, consolingly ‘ I mean look; you won today!’ she pointed out, encouragingly, gently stroking his gagged face as she gazed down over him, hungrily. ‘Nicola’s idea. She wanted something that would focus the loser's mind for the next challenge. You know, provide some motivation…’ she began to kiss him on his gagged mouth as his eyes darted across to Josh, whose own remained resolutely shut. ‘It’s mean of her. I know. Bet you still have Kim Wilde ringing in your ears!’ She started to softly hum along to the tormenting tune that had been selected the night before, before beginning to reach down towards Lukasz’s groyne area, hushing him as he moaned in protest. ‘And I’m sorry that the restraints are so tight. As you know, that was my department,’ she stated this sheepishly as she gently felt and checked the black ties that tethered his arms to the frame of the chair, running her hands up his muscular arms, up to his tense shoulders. She then stroked his pulsating pectorals as he breathed heavily through the nose. ‘I know,’ she observed, soothingly ‘it’s not very comfortable. But I had to make sure none of you would be able to escape. Or talk. The gag was the most difficult bit,’ Lukasz’s eyes rolled as Sonali reached down and touched him. ‘It’s not like the movies, you know,’ she explained ‘what you see in films never works. Just simply putting tape on the mouth. You may as well not bother. We tried various combinations …’ she giggled at the memory. ‘The important thing is to completely stuff the victim's mouth, before securing the gag as tightly as possible. Tape is really good for that. We got the strongest, stickiest type we could.’ She began to massage his cock. ‘I was going to use old socks or something, to stuff the mouth? Then Huan noticed the unopened packet of sponges by the kitchen sink. So anyway, we decided to try them for the gag. They work really well. Also, kind of appropriate,’ she chuckled ‘wouldn’t you say?’ Lukasz moaned. ‘I know!’ she said sympathetically ‘the whole thing must feel so frustrating. Not being able to move. Or talk. But I had to do it properly. Without cutting off the circulation completely, of course. You do understand, don’t you? The thing is you can never underestimate someone's desire to escape in a situation like this. So you sort of have to double down. If you know what I mean…’ she hushed him as he continued to moan, more and more through the gag. ‘Better safe than sorry,’ she giggled as Lukasz relented in defeat, a sorrowful, resigned look in his eyes as he felt himself starting to get hard. Sonali smirked with satisfaction and briefly turned to Josh. The young man still appeared to be asleep. She then faced Lukasz once again, her hand slowly reaching down to her pyjama bottoms and slowly slipping them off, revealing a black Dioni thong. ‘Plus…’ she continued ‘having you restrained so tightly is as much about our safety as your security. I mean you must be pretty angry with the three of us about all this….’ He moaned as he struggled against his bonds. ‘Shh. Don’t be angry now. There’s no need to be angry. Let’s get you nice and relaxed…shhh…’ she cooed as she began to rhythmically stimulate him, placing a gentle kiss here and there across his taped up face. ‘That’s it. Good boy…’

Josh continued to hack away at his zip-ties, head bowed, eyes closed, breathing measured. He could hear the sharp intakes and outtakes of air through Lukaz’s nostrils as he heard footsteps back away from the helpless winner of the day’s challenge and the sound of material falling to the ground along with the swish of a kick. Something warm, light, soft and wet landed on his face. He cautiously opened his eyes to only a partial vista of one bare leg sticking out from the frame of the chair Lukasz had been strapped to. The leg was writhing, pulsating to the surges of lust that he could hear and also now smell, courtesy of the garment now partially hiding his face. He continued to cut his bonds. Finally he felt the zip-tie pop off. He then began to slice away at the tie that had been used to secure his wrists to the lower cross rail of the chair. That one was easier, now having more movement in the right lower arm. After that too had been cut off to the sounds of pleasure that now began to fill the room, he began to hack away at the tape that lashed his torso to the backseat. Josh continued with his bid for freedom as he keenly studied the partial view of Sonali’s leg, as it slided and skidded around on the floor in ecstatic convulsions, her toned calf glistening with sweat. He now had his arms free, and his torso too. Any minute he would have his legs released, as the gasping and grunting began to increase in rhythm and intensity, matching Josh’s own heartbeat. Sonali’s screams of pleasure filled the room just as Lukasz’s screams of protest were suppressed underneath his gag, She was too ecstatically enraptured to notice as Josh brushed the underwear from his face and began to scrape and hack away with the shard, cutting away at the zip ties that held his legs. He looked down towards his ankles. Sonali’s euphoria continued to blind her to what Josh was up to as she lent her head back and gazed up to the ceiling of the cell in delirium. He continued to attack the ties that secured his ankles to the wooden chair as her screams got louder and louder as the stud she was galloping on watched Josh’s progress intently, urging him on, hoping he would make it. Then suddenly there was silence. Josh froze for a second and apprehensively looked at the exhausted couple, the masked, young woman's head resting against the sweaty shoulder of the alarmed Lukasz, before frantically ripping open the last of the tape that lashed his lower legs to the chair legs, and making a desperate dash for the door, tearing at the tape around his face as he did. Before he could barely make it halfway across the room a pair of arms grabbed his legs, tackling him to the ground. He collapsed, his legs already weak from being tied up these last couple of days, hitting the ground with a thud. He turned and lashed out with the shard of glass at his captor, who recoiled in a yell, clutching her arm. He pulled the tape away from his face, his eyes crunched up in pain as he did so and tore the sponge that had kept him so quiet out of his mouth. As he took in a breath to yell for help he felt a hand clasp tightly over his mouth, muffling his cries as Sonali pinned one of his arms excruciatingly behind his back, using her legs to immobilise him on the ground.

‘Gotcha!’ she hissed into his ear as she pulled his arm up even further behind his back, resulting in muffled cries from behind her palm. He now felt almost as restrained and silenced by the deceptively strong arms of the dark haired kidnapper as he had been before with her zip ties and gag. Worse, as he was in excruciating pain due to her hold on his arm. ‘Nikki! Huan!’ She called out for assistance as Josh heard footsteps approaching with haste and the ajar door opened up fully to reveal the bare feet of his other two captors. He felt arms pin him down on the floor and Sonali now used a free arm, the one that had been holding his arm behind his back, to now strangle him around his throat. With the hand covering his mouth, muffling any distress, he could feel himself passing out as the choke hold became tighter and tighter.


He awoke to the sound of the cell door being unlocked, once again finding himself restrained to his chair, only this time all the more cruelly. In addition to the usual combination of black zip-ties and black duct tape, coils of bright, white rope had now been employed, lashing him to the chair at the chest and stomach, as well as the thighs, just below the knees, and also at the ankles too. A result of last night’s failed bid for freedom. And not just him. Lukasz had been similarly ‘upgraded’ as Sean continued to suffer, strung up as he was. His mind raced back in shame to how he had been manhandled during his failed escape attempt by the compliance officer, who clearly now had martial arts to add to her CV as well. He tried to struggle, but the sheer amount of rope, zip-ties and tape bindings made any movement now impossible. Instead he reflected with dismay at the lost opportunity of last night's bid for freedom. He exchanged a pitiful glance with Lukasz who squirmed against his own bindings. The disappointed look from the young blond haired man said it all as his gag, as ever, muffled his cries of sorrow. Josh now noticed that Lukasz’s yellow post-it note of a name tag had fallen on the floor, having slipped off with the sweat of last night’s exertions with Sonali. The failed escapee looked away in shame. He had blown it. For them all. There would be no more escape attempts. Their captors would make sure of it from now on. Now they were their prisoners again. Now they were back in charge. The only question was what would they now do to him?

‘Morning!’ Huan greeted them cheerily as the three women entered the brightly lit room, again dressed in office wear, like any normal day at work. Huan was holding an iron, which she plugged into one of the power sockets in the room as Sonali and Nicola cut poor Sean down, who hit the ground with a muffled moan. The tights were then ripped off his face with the Zombie Knife, and the headphones removed too, the selected tune of torment still bursting from the speakers. Huan continued. ‘Well, what can I say? What an eventful night! Yes?’ Josh glanced up quickly at Sonali who he found to be glaring straight back at him, massaging a bandaged lower arm. He averted his eyes. ‘But I hope you’re all rested and refreshed for what we hope proves to be another big, exciting and also stimulating day! But first, some bad news…’ Huan said sadly, head bowed.

‘Now then. Josh,’ Nicola began sternly. ‘Look at me. Look at me!’ she insisted as the young man steadied his breathing through his nose before reluctantly opening his eyes and raising his head, which he had been previously shaking in despair, to now finally face his captor. ‘I just don’t know where to start, really…’ she shook her head, at a loss for words. A small tear began to form in one of the young man’s eyes.

‘You surely don’t need us to tell you that any attempt to escape constitutes the worst kind of gross misconduct here,’ Sonali admonished as the tears now streamed down Josh’s fearful face, across the wide plains of blackened tape that sealed up the wellspring of his cries. ‘We now have the unpleasant business of addressing the events of last night…’

‘The use of a deadly weapon as well as harming one of your lovely hosts here and you have to accept that you are in a lot of trouble young man!’ Huan pointed out, sternly, putting her arm consolingly around Sonali who sternly displayed her forearm at Josh - a fabric, waterproof sticky plaster as evidence. ‘Fortunately, poor Sonali here was relatively unscathed with just a scratch, thankfully…’ she shook her head in dismay as Nicola continued.

‘It will go down on your record, which, unfortunately, is starting to concern us all here,’ the Australian red head said gravely, as Josh now appeared to be uncontrollably weeping, much to the women’s amusement.

‘We’ve had a discussion,’ Sonali informed him ‘and even with Huan here advocating for you and asking for one more chance, the fact of the matter is that we just don’t feel that you are completely on board with what we’re trying to accomplish here Josh! Attempting to escape was a mistake, young man. And mistakes need to be ironed out, as they say…’ She winked mischievously at the terrified, helpless captive and walked over to the power socket, picking up the iron, brandishing it in front of him, the warm up light now long extinct, and pressed down on the steam button. The iron let out a hissing sound as Josh’s whimpering began to approach meltdown. Sonali grinned underneath her COVID mask. ‘Hold him.’ Huan and Nicola approached and, with a vice-like grip, held each shoulder back and upper arm steady as Josh thrashed about as best he could given what little strength he had against his painful restraints. He was now screaming into his gag with all his might, which only let out a barely audible but relentless murmur. Sonali approached slowly, directing the iron towards a patch of flesh on his upper chest, menacingly pressing the steam button down again, letting out another horrifying hiss as she got closer and closer. ‘Ready?’


Lukasz quickly tightened the tap with the spanner that he tantalisingly held as he heard steps ascend the stairs and approach the bathroom. He considered the tools at his disposal. Maybe one of the spanners could be used. But it would still be three on one. And these ladies would be ready for anything, of that he could be sure. Especially after last night’s drama. Speaking of last night, he also now had to consider that one of them had been trained in Jiu Jitsu. Or something. Whatever it was, Lukasz, as fit and strong as he was, didn’t fancy taking her on. And if he did, what if he lost? He recalled what had befallen poor Josh, even if it had appeared he had been ready to abandon both Lukasz and Sean during his escape attempt. Or maybe he had planned to return. To rescue the other two. Even Bruce Willis went back for Marcellas. Whatever his intentions were, Lukasz shuddered at what the punishment might be if he, too, failed in an escape attempt. For now, he would continue to bide his time. Glancing quickly at the webcam placed in the corner of the bath, he placed the spanner down and bowed his head as the door opened.

‘And…times up…now!’ Huan announced as the three women entered, armed with rolls of black duct tape and reams of black zip ties. Lukasz shuffled backwards a little as Nicola aggressively grabbed one of his arms, escorting him out of the bathroom as Sonali followed, joyously ripping open the roll of tape with panache and a devilish grin.

Sean looked at the light socket hanging above him as he struggled to balance on the stepladder. After last night’s ordeal, he was unsteady on his feet. As he inspected the tools at his disposal he prayed that there may be something that could help him. He glanced cautiously at the webcam he knew his captors were watching him through before reaching down to pick up a screwdriver. His mind raced between how to possibly use it to escape whilst also employing it at the task at hand, in what his captors had termed ‘The DIY Round’. Although he had been sensory deprived on account of coming last in the last challenge, he had been aware of some commotion in between replays of that awful song at full blast last night. And as he continued to maintain balance on the ladder, he recalled the look in the eyes of that poor lad Josh as that cruel compliance officer approached him. This, apparently, had been the penalty for an escape attempt. He would rather avoid that, as well as another night being strung up. Josh had now disqualified himself for this round on account of last night’s antics, which now left just himself and Lukasz to battle it out for this particular challenge. Desperately thirsty now as well, he continued to attempt to fix the socket as he bleakly contemplated a foreseeable future of enslavement at the hands of these wicked women.

‘Sean,’ Nicola began. ‘We’ll start with you…’ the dark haired man’s blue eyes darted around the room in distress as his appraisal began. ‘Whilst this was arguably the most difficult of the DIY challenges, we gave it to you as, of all the contestants, your background is in this field.’

‘And my word…’ Sonali said ‘it showed!’

‘It’s going to make such a difference not having to use your smartphone torch at night now when you need the bathroom,’ Huan said with relief.

‘And it’s so nice as well to finally have the microwave back working again,’ Sonali explained ‘the oven was taking so long!’

‘So thank you for fulfilling the main part of the task,’ Nicola noted before moving on, a little gravely. ‘Unfortunately some old tradesman habits started to assert themselves during this task…’

‘Such a terrible shame after you had made such an effort to clean up after yourself in the first round,’ Huan observed, her head shaking.

‘Quite!’ said Sonali ‘This task was as much about working cleanly as anything else, and I’m sure I speak for all of us ladies when I say how saddened I was to see all this disgusting mess behind the microwave that you just left after fixing the bloody thing,’ she displayed the evidence of Sean’s inadequacy on her Ipad Pro, pointing at the screen. Sean fought the urge to protest through his gag.

‘In other words Sean,’ Nicola said ‘sloppy’. Sean’s head collapsed. ‘Lukasz!’ she suddenly turned to the blond haired young man sitting next to the dejected builder. "We gave you the medium placed challenge during this round as Sonali noticed a short lived plumbing apprenticeship on your CV and I must say, yet again I was impressed with both your skill and diligence, not to mention your tidiness and all round good working practice. Not only did you complete the task, but you did so conscientiously and cleanly,’ she surmised with satisfaction.

‘We now have a fully functioning tap that doesn’t leak!’ Huan explained joyously. ‘If you only knew how awful it's been these last few weeks getting sprayed with water every time you want to brush your teeth!’

‘You’re a man of many talents!’ declared Sonali, with a glint in her eye.

‘How’s your wound? You poor thing…’ Huan sat down beside Sonali before ripping open a tube of pringles.

‘It’s fine,’ Sonali replied, a little sadly, her single strip plastered arm reaching into the tube.

‘I’m so sorry…’

‘Look it’s not your fault,’ Nicola reassured her.

‘I broke the glass. On the first night. When we celebrated.’ She turned pleadingly to Sonali ‘I thought I got all the shards!’

‘And it was me who checked the living room beforehand for anything they might use!’

‘It’s fine! Seriously! Don’t blame yourselves.’ Sonali reassured them. ‘I should have tied them more securely…’

‘Don’t you bloody start!’ Nicola gently admonished her friend. ‘The way you had them was perfect. No way was he getting free without this!’ She held up the shard of glass that had been Josh’s lifeline.

‘Do you think we were too rough with him?’ Huan looked concerned.

‘Oh come on!’ Nicola exclaimed, with a little exasperation. ‘The lowest setting?! I’ve touched hotter central heating!’

‘But I thought he was going to have a heart attack! His veins looked like they were about to burst!’

‘Well, it’ll teach him a lesson. They need to fear us!’

‘The look on his face!’ Sonali recalled with glee.

‘Serve him right! And as a warning to the others. They don’t know how low we set it, and our failed escapee won’t be telling them any time soon…’ Nicola sniggered.

‘If anything, we were too soft on him!’

‘Well, we need to keep any physical signs of their ordeal to a minimum. We don’t want any evidence of that. Just in case. It’s their heads we need to get into!’

‘Well, I don’t think he will be trying anything now,’ Huan said, before getting up from the sofa and stretching her arms. ‘I think I will go and check up on him though. Just to make sure he is not too traumatised…’ she giggled as she left the room and headed towards the captive’s cell.

‘Have fun,’ Nicola said with a wry smile as Sonali poured out more wine for the two of them. ‘Thanks.’ As she supped on her wine, Nicola casually observed Huan enter the holding cell on her smartphone, past the distressed figure of Sean who was struggling to maintain his balance on the tower of books, before standing over Lukasz, taser in hand. After watching the young blond haired man’s head jolt up and then collapse, she saw her friend then approach Josh and reach out to stroke the part of his chest the three women had ‘branded’ earlier on, before sitting down on the young man’s bound lap. Nicola swiped away at her smartphone screen and began looking at something else as Sonali watched TV. ‘You know,’ she said after a minute ‘I thought you were amazing back there. You really handled him well.’

‘Thanks,’ Sonali said, taking a sip of wine.

‘It’s like watching a bloody boa constrictor or something!’

‘A classic example of the Kasauta,’ Sonali explained, proudly. ‘It was my favourite manoeuvre at the University in Delhi, before moving to England to do my MBA. The ultimate choke hold!’

‘It looks terrifying!’ Nicola remarked, re-watching the footage on her mobile phone. ‘Love the way you kept him quiet as well, till we get there…’

‘I learned how to do that during a match once,’ Sonali recalled as she munched on a pringle.'It was one of the best fights ever at uni; Girls against Boys! One fighter from the boys team versus one from the girls. The ladies team had spent months organising it. And I was the one chosen!’ She lent back and smiled at the memory. ‘Everyone treated it as just a bit of fun and my opponent wasn’t taking it at all seriously, grinning at his stupid friends before the match began. Which really upset me! But I showed them. And him!’

‘What happened?’ Nicola asked eagerly.

‘The fight was supposed to last ten minutes. He tried to tap out after two. But I wouldn’t let him. Whenever he attempted, I pinned his arms!’

‘Love it!’ Nicola laughed with delight.

‘No way was I going to let this boy prevent me from showing the judges everything I could do. Every bit of skill and technique. It was such an important event! Never in the University’s history had there been a match between a female and a male, and there was a huge protest in the weeks leading up to it to try and get it banned. But we got the fight to go ahead! Anyway, when this idiot realised he couldn’t get the fight stopped before he suffered any more humiliation, he tried to call out to the judges. So I held my hand over his mouth so he wouldn’t be able to speak!’

‘Check you out!’

‘I was determined that this particular fight ‘went the distance’ so they say. Not just for me, but for all women. It’s so rare we get a chance to really show what we’re capable of. Especially in more traditionally male dominated arenas!’

‘Literally!’ noted Nicola.

‘The boys couldn’t believe it! It felt so good!’ Sonali basked in the memory.

‘I bet our friend here couldn’t believe it either when you took him down!’ Nicola remarked, still watching footage on her smartphone screen.

‘I expected more of a struggle to be honest,’ Sonali admitted before continuing with her reminiscence, now with a tinge of sadness. ‘Anyway, that was the one and only time a female was allowed to take on a male. They never allowed it again. It’s so unfair. Just to maintain the bloody fiction that men are stronger…’ She was almost tearful.

‘I’m so sorry…’ Nicola attempted to console her friend.

‘I have a photo somewhere, after my team won a national championship…’ She walked over to a box in the corner of the living area that had been taped up with the duct tape the ladies had been using and started to tear it off, the strips of cardboard peeling off like flayed skin. She started to riffle through the framed pictures that had been placed in the box as Nicola watched on in anticipation. After a couple of minutes Sonali stopped in confusion. ‘At least I thought I had…’

‘Is it in your room maybe?’ Nicola ventured.

‘No. I’m pretty sure it was in the living area. You made sure we collected all the pictures of ourselves, didn’t you?’

‘Uh-uh,’ confirmed Nicola. ‘No incriminating photos!’ Sonali sat cross legged by the open cardboard box deep in thought before getting up and walking around the room. After a minute she stopped dead in her tracks.

‘What is it?’ Nicola said as her friend stood motionless in front of a shelf unit in one of the corners of the living space. Sonali raised her arm and picked something up from one of the shelves before turning to her friend.

‘This is it,’ she said apprehensively. The room filled with silence. ‘I thought you said you got them all?’

‘I never noticed that one! I thought I collected everyone! Fuck. Fuck fuck fuck…’

‘Don’t worry,’ Sonali said after a pause. ‘It’s just a photo!’

‘Yeah, with a location and a date on it! Fuck…’

‘Look, calm down,’ Sonali suggested. ‘We just need to come up with a plan…’

‘At least we now know why the little bugger tried to escape!’

‘Maybe he didn’t see it?’

‘It’s just as smeared as the other pictures he tried to clean during the first round. Look! Even more so…’ Sonali examined her victory photograph with a frown. ‘He has a face, a date, a city. And if he’d have succeeded in his little escapade last night he’d have known where we all live too,’ Nicola continued. ‘He’s too much of a risk now. And he knows it. We can’t let him go…’ she looked at her friend sharply.

‘What do you mean?’ Sonali said curiously.

‘Just what I said. We can’t let him go. We can’t take the risk.’

‘That’s so unfair!’ Sonali objected. ‘We’ve only had three challenges, Josh has only participated in two, plus he now has a gross misconduct charge on his record and you want to already declare him the winner?’

‘Not exactly,’ her tone was ominous.

‘No!’ Sonali exclaimed after a pause. ‘You can’t be serious?!’

‘It’s the only way.’

‘Woah! Kidnapping is one thing. But what you’re talking about…?’

‘Right now I’m more focused on keeping our arses out of jail!’ Nicola countered. The room again descended into silence. The only thing that could be heard were the faint cries of pleasure coming from the holding cell. After a minute Sonali turned to her friend.

‘What about Huan?’

[tillytimber123]

Had the chance to read your story. Really enjoyed all the parts and looking forward to the next ones if you have them planned.

[Bandhaniya]

Thank you for the kind words. I'm glad you have been enjoying it thus far. My apologies for letting it slide a bit, but am now back on it, and have the next four/five parts planned. Am hoping to post them all up within the next couple of weeks.

[Bandhaniya]

And here is Part 6. I hope you all like it!


The Lock-down.

Part 6

By Bandhaniya


‘Shh now…’ Lukasz could hear the sound of tape ripping as he continued to feign sleep, layer after layer removed until the last couple remained. The room filled with a prolonged muffled moan. He then heard manic guzzling before a tantalising breeze of raspberry icing swept over him. He struggled to keep his eyes shut as each inhalation became more and more tormenting than the first Lukasz hoped the captive tied to the chair beside him would finish his treat soon, sounding like a pig in a trough that had been filled with Haribo. ‘Got to keep your energy levels up…’ Huan grinned ‘I knew you’d be a fan of the Glazed Raspberry…’ she continued. ‘Me, I’m more of a Chocolate Custard kind of girl. Or Cookies and Kreme. Yeah…I like that one too…’
Lukasz, despite the reward of Pilsner and Pizza for winning the DIY round, couldn’t help but reflect on the relative injustice of one of his fellow contestants receiving such preferential treatment, especially after a case of Gross Misconduct. Such jealousy was further lit up by the smell of lemongrass and pine which now began to fumigate their cell as he continued to listen in, his envy now subsiding as he recalled the fear in his rivals eyes as the ladies delved out their punishment. No way was Lukasz going to risk such torment by misbehaving.
‘We took it from your room! The night we kidnapped you. Hope you don’t mind!’ Josh’s captor informed him as the young man inhaled the palliative strains with welcome relief. ‘It’s not really our kind of thing. I think it can kill your ambition in life. Nicola likes a bit of cocaine, and we all love a glass of fine wine. But I felt sorry for you, poor thing…must be so hungry. And thirsty!’ But don’t worry…I know you are going to come good! I told the others it was just frustration and unhappiness with your performance that led you to do what you did. I know you really like being here…’ Ungagged, and in spite of Huan’s kindness, he wanted to scream in despair. But instead he bit his lip; the shot across the bows earlier for attempting to escape that had almost given him a heart attack left him in no doubt that any more misbehaviour would be dealt with mercilessly. The look in Sonali’s eyes had burned into him, even if on that occasion the iron had not. He closed his eyes, as Huan planted wet moist kisses on his frightened face and chest, which was red and a little sore, but not seared. There would be no physical scar. His punishment for attempting to escape was, it seemed, to amuse his captors with his terror as Sonali approached him with the iron in hand. It took several seconds of skipped heartbeats before it dawned on Josh that the iron was lukewarm at best, that the whole thing was a sick joke on the part of his kidnappers. For now at least. ‘Try that again, and next time it’s for real…!’ Sonali had hissed in his ear as he calmed down upon the realisation it had been but a warning for a ‘first offence’.
He was now even more terrified of the trio and their sadistic power, even if one of them had undoubtedly taken a shine to him. Perhaps this too was all part of their psychological torture as he felt Huan’s hand reach down. ‘I’m going to get the others to agree to you participating in the DIY round. So you can show us what you can do. I’m sure you’ve learnt your lesson. For now though, just relax…’
Lukasz tried to block out the smell and the sounds that filled the room, longing for the cries of pleasure from the young woman to finally come to an end. His wish appeared to be granted, as he once more heard the familiar sound of tape ripping ‘Come on now, be a good boy…’ Huan’s tone was soft as Lukasz heard the tape being wrapped around Josh’s face. He could hear Josh moan as each layer became tighter than the last. After a minute or two the door closed and the sound of the lock turning before opening his eyes and exchanging a look of despair with Josh, his exhausted torso dripping with sweat, the relief of the Marijuana temporary respite from the misery of his situation. The blonde haired young man rested his head on his chest, hoping to sleep, and above all hoping for some way out of all this.

‘Lukasz. Lukasz!’ Sonali whispered into his ear ‘Wake up!’ The young man’s eyes blinked to see Sonali standing over him, a huge grin on her face. complied, pretending to wake from slumber as his beautiful captor grinned down on him from above, the silk from her peach coloured pyjamas caressing his bare skin. ‘How are you doing?’ she asked.
‘Mmphh?!’
‘I’m so happy you won again today!’ she confessed. ‘Was so worried after the opening round. Would hate to see you strung up again. She kicked out at the book tower, briefly disturbing the stack which made Sean hop about in panic, fearing for his balance, having (to the Judge’s surprise) lost out on the DIY challenge to the young Pole. Sonali let out a malicious, satisfied laugh before sniffing the air and momentarily frowning. ‘Seems like someone’s been having a nice time….’ she glared in the direction of Josh, who appeared to be sleeping, before once more turning her attention to Lukasz and beaming once again as she sat down on his bound lap, reaching down towards his penis, and grasping it with one hand, beginning to stimulate him as she continued, smiling ‘but now that’s two victories on the bounce!’ she reminded him ‘and I just know you're going to win this competition. I know it!’ Her stimulation became more and more energised, his member more and more hard as Lukasz moaned through his gag which only encouraged Sonali more and more until he became satisfyingly hard for her.
‘Mmmmm.’
‘Shh now’ she held his tape gagged face in her hands as she mounted him, beginning to gyrate on his erect shaft. ‘You have no idea how glad I am…’ she whispered ‘I had a feeling you would be the ‘one to watch’ as they say…’ she grinned as the young man prepared himself for yet another night of exploitation ‘Hope you’re as pleased as I am’ she slided herself onto him and began to rock back and forth, moaning with pleasure as Luckasz tilted his head back as much as he could and closed his eyes.

The room erupted in hysteria as the floor shook with a loud thud. After the giggling had died down Luckasz opened his eyes to the harsh unprotected light he started to make out the poor abused body of Sean, his taped up lower area securing the violation of the night before, his eyes weeping as the headphones were torn off. The bombastic chiming of the eighties classic filling the room. Luckasz stretched his fingers in and out for circulation. ‘Wakey wakey!’ Huan giggled as Josh was unceremoniously untied and pulled to his feet, before being dragged off by the three women, leaving Lukasz lashed to his chair with the writhing torso of Sean, rolling about on the ground, the vibrator still inside him, vainly continuing to struggle with his bonds, grunting into his gag with fury. As Lukasz looked towards the door, which was closed and locked, he wondered what the three young women were doing with the poor lad. Surely he had already been punished for his escape attempt last night? The penalty for which sent a shudder down his spine. He clearly had no idea what these women could be capable of if provoked, and it made his heart sink with dread.

Josh finished tightening the last screw on the hinge before checking the door would open and shut satisfactorily, before placing the screwdriver back in the toolbox and stepping away, his hands crossed across his genitals, his head bowed. Huan approached the sofa, holding two coffee mugs in hand. She sat down beside Nicola, who put the Ipad Pro down on the coffee table in front of them both. Huan, sitting cross legged, blew into her brew and gestured towards the pathetically paused figure on the screen.‘Well?’ she asked.
‘Yes. Okay. He’s pretty good at DIY. What else do you want me to say?’
‘That he’s got lovely long hair?’
‘Not really a requirement for this particular round!’
‘That’s cleaning he can do, as well as fixing things. And the best is yet to come. I know it!’
‘He seems to have learnt his lesson at least’ Sonali noted from one of the armchairs, exchanging a look with Nicola, before returning to her phone.
‘You see!’ Huan declared enthusiastically. I knew all we had to do was simply iron out a few problems with his attitude!
The room, once more, exploded in laughter.

‘And welcome! To the fourth and final challenge (and the one I’ve been looking forward to the most) - The Cooking Challenge!’ Huan clasped her hands in excitement as the captives quickly looked at each other in alarm.
‘As we’ve previously mentioned’ Sonali reminded the contestants as she waved the Zombie Knife in their terrified direction ‘the three of us can’t even make toast without the fire brigade turning up and we are sick to death of ready meals, no matter how luxurious and expensive, even if we can’t seem to prepare them without completely bloody fucking them up!’ she shook her head in exasperation.
‘In any case, there’s just no replacement for a freshly prepared and cooked meal’ Nicola explained. ‘Each one of you will be asked to prepare us three gorgeous ladies dinner!’ she informed them. ‘The winner will be rewarded, and as for the loser, well…’ she gazed mournfully at the hook that protruded from the ceiling ‘So!’ she suddenly turned to the captives ‘no time to lose like the present, and I don’t know about you two…’ she turned to Sonali and Huan ‘but I’m famished and very much looking forward to a meal fit for a queen!’ the other two nodded in agreement ‘Sean! You’re first!!’ The plumber gazed up in despair, bound and gagged on the floor as he was and screwed his eyes up as Sonali began to rip away at the tape around his waist and thighs, as Nicola crouched down in front of him menacingly, slowly putting on latex gloves with a smirk as the base of the purple vibrator was revealed underneath all the black tape. Huan stood above him, taser at the ready.

The tears streamed down his face as he rubbed his eyes, knife in hand. Yet again Sean looked at the reflection of his taped up face in the blade and contemplated another use for the knife in his hand, before changing his mind and turning his attention once more to the onions on the wooden board. Barely able to stand after last night, and weak from hunger and thirst, he was more tempted to rip his gag off and eat than confront his kidnappers. Besides, what if his attempt ended in failure? Three against one. A knife against both a taser and someone trained in combat. Not to mention the fact that the women had left his ankles tied and taped, as well as just below the knees, leaving him to hop around the kitchen in humiliation like an enslaved bunny. He could hear the laughter from one of the other rooms as he did so. For now he returned to the mise en place.

Lukasz gazed at the clock in panic as he once again opened the oven door to check the chicken before deciding to throw caution to the wind, removing the roasting tray and dropping it on the kitchen work top, his eyebrows contorted in a show of pain as he burnt one of his wrists, prevented as he was, from letting out any cry of anguish. He ran it under a cold tap, burning and tender from the excoriating bands of zip-ties that had been used to restrain them all. The rope that had now been employed in restraining the hapless hostages had also left its mark on him, criss-crossing his chest and stomach, around the yellow post-it note name tag, as ever held in place by a strip of black tape. He checked the meat was fully cooked before turning once more to the radishes that were waiting for his return, half of them sliced and ready for inclusion into the salad. He once again, alarmingly, checked the time as he reached for a bottle of olive oil and unscrewed the cap, another stolen glance in the direction of the webcam that he knew was watching his every move.

The fillet was frying up delectably as Josh recalled just how each of his captors was expecting it. After a few minutes he carefully escorted Nicola’s medium rare steak over to the plate, beside a mini jenga stack of potato wedges huddled next to a jar of decadently rich brandy and peppercorn sauce and a refreshingly verdant rocket and pine nut salad. He checked the steak once more, before positioning the plate next to the other two for inspection before hopping back, almost losing his balance. His head bowed. His face gagged. The door opened.

‘As I said at the beginning of this round, this was the one I was looking forward to the most and for the most part, you didn’t disappoint’ Huan began with a joyful smile as the other two concurred ‘there was perhaps one glaring issue from one of you, but we’ll get to that later’ the contestants began to exchange worried looks ‘but other than that - well done! The biggest challenge of this round will be finding a winner!’ she grinned mischievously. As ever, the three women were power dressed. Huan, in a two piece white linen trouser suit with a pale blue blouse and sandals. Nicola in a simple black blouse and trousers, with heels. And Sonali in a green satin blouse, a mini skirt. Black tights and heels.
‘It may have been the deprivation of the last couple of months’ Nicola explained ‘but being able to finally taste a proper home cooked meal was, simply, incredible. Usually we would have a professional prepare our food at whatever well reviewed and trendy restaurant was the talk of the town. But the lockdown put a stop to that unfortunately, and even though only one of you is a chef by trade, all of you managed to delight all of us with an amazing plate of food!’
‘So without further ado, let’s begin!’ Sonali announced.
‘As a working man, Sean’ Nicola began as the builders head bolted up in alarm, ‘I’m assuming this presented you with the greatest challenge, and to be honest, when I saw what you did, I wasn’t impressed…’
‘Spaghetti Bolognese?!’
‘I mean dude. Seriously. Come on!’
‘But that was until we tried it…’ Huan consolingly countered.
‘Got to say. It was probably one of the best plates of pasta I’ve ever had!’
‘And this is a lady that eats at Locanda Locatelli!’ Sonali advised.
‘Really took me back to my childhood’
‘I couldn’t agree more.’ Sonali confirmed ‘The spaghetti was cooked perfectly and the ragu just melted off the tongue, the flavours perfectly balanced.’
‘Even if it wasn’t the most adventurous of dishes, I loved it. Well done! Huan?’
‘I thought there was perhaps a bit too much oregano…’ Huan began doubtingly ‘but all in all fabulous effort. We were all pleasantly surprised!’
‘Bellissimo!’ The three ladies sniggered.
‘Next up is Luckasz!’ Sonali smirked as the three captors turned to the young man in question.
‘Your chicken salad was quite simply to die for!’ Sonali declared with satisfaction ‘the chicken was flavourful and moist, the salad vibrant and crunchy, the dressing zingy and punchy. I loved it!
‘So did I’ agreed Nicola.
‘Me too.’
‘The only slight criticism. And it is a slight one…’ Sonali offered ‘was the inclusion of perhaps a little too much dill. It can be quite pungent, shall we say, and even though it was fine for me, it may have been a little overpowering. But that really is picking holes. All things considered, your chicken salad was a triumph! Congratulations!’ The three captors now turned to their third hostage who braced himself for their verdict.
‘Now. Josh.’ Nicola began ‘As the only qualified chef amongst the contestants we had high hopes! Which is why we purposefully gave you something classic, yet special to prepare for us!’
‘A 21 day aged fillet steak, with all the stops!’ Huan gushed ‘something I’ve been dreaming about for weeks!’
‘I think we all have’ Nicola agreed ‘and as we expected, it was prepared and cooked perfectly. The chips, crispy and almost caramelised at points on the outside, fluffy and sweet on the inside.’
‘The salad, cleansing and crunchy at the same time, the pomegranates along with the pine nuts really elevated it to a whole new level. It worked so well!’ Sonali gushed.
‘And as for the actual steak itself, as good as in some of the finest restaurants in town. Quite simply awesome. From the seasoning to the actual cooking’ Huan said, gratefully.
‘However’ Sonali said gravely, as Josh began to use what little strength he had to shake his head in protest. Nicola lent into his face and aggressively hissed a ‘shhh’. He froze. Sonali continued. ‘Before the challenge we gave you clear, explicit instructions as to how each of us liked our steaks. Myself and Huan medium. Nicola, medium rare. Very simple.’
‘Instead we got one medium and two medium rares’ Nicola explained ‘which is a bit of a black mark, I’m afraid…’
‘Not to take anything away from the actual cooking of the steak itself’ Huan said consolingly.
‘Just not what we ordered, shall we say?’ Nicola said, disappointingly ‘If it had been a restaurant, it would have been sent back and if you hope to become the winner of this whole contest and serve us three ladies, it’s errors like that that need to be ironed out eh?’ she smirked as Huan playfully tutted her. Emotional as he was through hunger and fatigue, Josh shook his head at this news, pleadingly, then shut his eyes as he felt the tears begin to well up, which only occasioned more giggling from his tormentors as his head collapsed in despair.

‘Shhh!’ Huan raised a finger to her masked face as Josh adjusted his eyesight to the light. As he focused he saw his dark haired captor beaming down at him with her big, bright, brown eyes as he sat defenceless, tightly bound and gagged on the wooden chair. He let out a deep, resigned breath through his nose as he mentally prepared himself for what he now knew would follow. At least he was feeling better after some spicy, coated chicken wings, washed down with Pepsi - his hunger had been so intense he barely noticed the pain as the tape was peeled off from his face, ravenous as he was. Perhaps after she had finished with him she would allow him the relief of a relaxing smoke, just as she had done the night before. Huan was wearing nothing but a short, light blue satin dressing gown, the belt from which she was beginning to undo, eventually displaying her breasts at her captive. ‘Sorry to wake you up!’ she said as she reached down towards his lower half, eliciting a groan as Josh closed his eyes in resignation as she began to rhythmically massage him until erect, erupting in a huge wide hungry smile after a minute.
‘Mmmppphhh. Mm Mmmppphhh!!!’
‘Shhh. That’s it. That’s it….Just relax…almost done. Need to keep you standing to attention…as they say…’ she giggled as she tore off her dressing gown completely, kicking it away, up into the air, before it came down like a parachute on top of the tormented Lukasz, who didn’t react, struggling as he was against the noose, the dildo and the white noise. ‘So happy you won today…’ she continued as she guided him into her ‘And so pleased with what you made us. Can’t beat a good steak. And you cooked it like the pro you are…’ the young captive moaned. ‘Yes you did! It was soooo good. Got me hungry for more…’ she rhythmically rocked back and forth, grabbing Josh by his shoulder length, brown hair with a sweaty palm, her other hand pressed down on his chest.
He was surprised. After his error in how his captors had wanted their steaks cooked, he had been resigned to another night of Kim Wilde and a struggle to stay alive. As well as being violated with the large purple dildo. He shuddered at the thought. However, this error had been overlooked in the context of just how much the ladies had enjoyed his efforts. Or perhaps they just felt sorry for him. Never having won a round. Was that possible? That these ruthless tormentors were capable of compassion? As he drifted in and out of consciousness against the insistent, thrusting demands of Huan he dreaded the day of decision that his captors promised would come tomorrow as they declared a winner of the entire contest. He didn't expect to ‘win’. Not only had his performance during the whole of this depraved contest been frankly dismal, there had also been his escape attempt to consider. What would happen after that would be anybody’s guess. Would they really let two of them go? He had no idea where they were all being held, except it was presumably an upmarket, desirable part of town. Their captors had remained masked throughout, even when using them at night. How could any of them go to the police with such a wild accusation? Their kidnappers had thought of everything, and had been in complete control throughout. Even when Josh had tried to escape, they had dealt with that with ease. Who knew what other cards these kidnappers held up their sleeves?The best possible outcome for at least two of them would see them returned to their dwellings with no option than to put this whole sordid, sorry affair behind them, and move on. And of course try not to think of the unlucky winner of this whole crazy, depraved ‘contest’. As dreadful as his predicament would be. Hopefully, the winner’s ordeal would, in time, also come to an end. Once the Lockdown was over and the economy started functioning normally again. At least his own performance during this contest gave him hope that it would all be over for him soon. He did have the obvious desire of one of his kidnappers to consider however. Would this Huan simply keep him tied up? Bound and gagged as her personal sex slave? He shuddered at the thought of this possibility.

‘Really got my fingers crossed for you Josh…you were my choice...from all the other contestants….’ Josh opened his eyes briefly and furtively glanced in Sean’s direction. He appeared to be asleep. Huan let out a moan as she began to ride him more and more vigorously ‘even if you did upset me earlier with that escape business…’ he began to moan from underneath the gag ‘it’s okay baby…’ she reassured him ‘I’ve forgiven you…not sure about Sonali though, poor girl. But I know that you just didn’t believe you could win. After such a bad start ... .and you lost faith in your own abilities…but it’s important never to give up…I didn’t become as successful as I have by giving when things didn’t work out…’ her exertions were becoming more and more powerful ‘never doubt yourself….always have your eyes on the prize…’ the young man clenched his eyes shut, the beads of sweat dripping down his face as well as being splashed by Huan’s perspiration as she beared down on him ‘And look…you finally won a round! I’m so pleased for you…I knew you would come good eventually…’ she winked and let out a giggle as she began to climax, letting out a long, loud moan of pleasure against the muffled moaning of Josh before her glistening black hair cascaded onto the helpless victim, her head coming to a rest on his chest for a minute before she abruptly rose and got up, striding over to Lukasz’s writhing body and grabbing the satin dressing gown from it’s hook. Her exertions, loud as they were, had failed to awaken Sean. Perhaps he was feigning slumber. ‘Big day tomorrow though…’ Huan said matter of factly as she pulled on the short, silky gown ‘We declare who the winner is! I don’t know about you but I can’t wait! I hope it’s you…’ she said, turning around and blowing him a kiss, before leaving the room and locking the door. As Josh heard the sound of the lock he glanced over in Sean’s direction to find him looking anxiously right back at him.

[LunaDog]

Keeping up the VERY good work, i see. Well done.

[houdinincfm]

So good!

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down


Part 7


By Bandhaniya


The door opened to looks of alarm from both Sean and Josh as the three women strode in. It was the day of judgement. Power dressed as always with their name tags hanging around their blouses, this morning they were all dressed in black suit jackets and very short skirts. As always, all three wore their black COVID masks. They surveyed the helpless victims who diverted their gazes out of fear and apprehension. Turning to the tormented Lukasz, who was paying the usual price for coming last during yesterday’s Cooking Round, Nicola placed her heel on the stack of books that prevented the poor young man from hanging. She held her sheer black, nylon clad foot there menacingly for a moment as the two other captives turned in terror towards the gallows. After a pause she kicked the books away with a devilish grin, to the sound of horrified moaning, broken only by the sudden thud on the floor of the taped up body of Lukasz, who had crashed onto the floor. The noose had been loose, the terrifying predicament had been but a bluff all along, the realisation of which now elicited howls of laughter from the ladies as Sean and Josh collected themselves and steadied their breathing. Sonali presented the knife from her jacket that she then used to cut the tape and the tights away from the terrified face of Lukasz as he rolled about on the floor, screaming through his gag.
‘Shh’ she cooed as she removed the headphones, the music blasting out as always, before coming to an abrupt halt at the finger of Huan, her smartphone in hand. Sonali then deftly, with the assistance of Nicola, began to use the noose around Lukasz’s neck to wrap around his already zip-tied and taped up ankles with the loose other end in the cruellest of hogties. ``Sorry, but we need you to have your head up for this bit,’ Sonali explained, giggling at her own witticism as she checked that the rope around Lukasz’s neck was nice and tight. She then got up, much to his relief, before stepping back and surveying her victim below with satisfaction, her shiny Dolce and Gabbana heels, squeaking against the wooden floor boards.
‘Well, what can I say?’ Nicola began ‘It’s been a crazy, but I hope you boys will agree, nevertheless exciting last few days…’ the contestants were as still as they could be, nervously awaiting the verdict that would in theory mean freedom for two of them. At least that was what they hoped. In this depraved competition, the ‘winner’ would be the real loser, and each one prayed it would not be him. Nicola continued. ‘However, as fun as it’s been, it’s now time to declare a winner and unfortunately say ‘adios’ to two unfortunate contestants.’ Huan looked a little downbeat, which gave Josh, bound and gagged in the chair as he was, grounds for optimism. He tried to conceal the hope in his eyes by diverting his gaze away from her. ‘We ladies have been up late into the night trying to decide who deserves this position the most. And it hasn’t been easy. As you know we all had our favourites. However, we have all had to set aside personal feelings in arriving at a professional decision on who deserves this role.’ Huan gave out a little sigh as Nicola continued her preamble ‘I do want you all to know though, that no matter what the outcome of today all three of you can be proud of yourselves during the course of this contest. But I think that finally, after much deliberation, we’ve come to an agreement as to who our winner is…’ The three captives began to stir and murmur before calming down as Sonali produced the taser from her other jacket pocket and waved it at them menacingly, with a warning finger to her lips.
‘Before we begin with announcing who the winner is…’ she offered ‘I’d just like to take the opportunity to conduct a little ‘gag -test’ if that’s alright?’ Sonali announced to the other two.
‘Be my guest’ said Nicola. Sonali put the taser back inside her suit jacket and produced a roll of tape from her other jacket pocket, before approaching Lukasz once more and gracefully sitting down on his back, splaying her nylon clad legs out over his shoulders, her black heels digging into the floor on either side of her trussed up victim. Lukasz tried to remain calm as the noose around his neck tightened even more as Sonali’s weight pressed down on the rope that tied his neck to his ankles. ‘We just need complete silence before we announce the winner. I know how exciting today must be for all of you. And we do need your complete attention at this stage. You understand. Don’t you?’ She smiled sweetly as she rested the roll of tape on Lukasz’s sweat covered back and turned her attention to his bare soles. ‘I never asked…not ticklish, are you?’ she laughed as she began to tickle his feet playfully as he rocked about on the floor. Then suddenly she stopped. She let out a sigh before tucking her hand under his torso and began to twist his left nipple. First playfully, like the tickling, then a lot harder, before finally ratcheting up the squeezing as hard as she could, twisting and pinching, now on both nipples, with both hands as he rocked, then thrashed about like a fish out of water to a chorus of giggling. After about a minute of this torture Sonali suddenly rose with a satisfied look on her face ‘I think you’ll do’ she assured him before casually walking over to Josh, who moaned, shaking his head in dread as she approached. ‘How are we doing here?’ she enquired, towering over him as he sat helpless, looking up at her in fear. ‘Happy you finally won a round yesterday?’ He nodded vigorously as she saddled him, producing the knife again from inside her jacket. He froze as she ran the blade across his neck as sweat poured down his face, dropping onto the steel as Sonali smiled at his distress. With her free hand she grabbed his balls and began to squeeze, much to Nicola’s approval.
‘Mmmmm. Mmmmm!’
‘Shhh.’ She sat there for what seemed like an eternity for him, sniggering as he crunched up his eyes in agony, doing his best to stay still, the blade still at his throat. She then suddenly got up and diverted her attention to Sean, who gazed up in alarm. As before she subjected Sean to the exact same same torture, as he tried to stay still against the steel at his neck, moaning in misery. She got up and placed the knife back in her pocket. ‘Just you and Josh by the sounds of it’ she said gleefully as she ripped open a wide band of black tape with aplomb, wrapping more layers around the two young men, suppressing their distressed objections more and more. After a few minutes she bit off the last orbit around Josh's face, smoothing the tape across his fearful face as he winced. She got up and took her place beside her two friends, crossing her arms, the roll of black tape, still in hand.
‘Josh!’ Nicola said sharply, with a slight smirk as the young man jolted to attention, his eyes bulging, sweat still trickling down his face. He quickly stole a glance at Huan, who looked back at him sadly. His gaze was commanded back by the clicking of Nicola’s fingers. ‘Hey! Over here!’ He quickly turned his attention towards the redhead. ‘I’m still dreaming of that divine piece of meat you prepared for us last night, which even allowing for the difficulty of the challenge, as well as your cheffing skills, still exceeded our expectations…’
‘Even if you did fuck up on how we wanted it’ Sonali sneered.
‘It was still an impressive effort, to say the least. Oh, and we also loved the care and consideration you demonstrated during The Cleaning Round…’ Huan contributed, encouragingly, although not without a little resignation.
‘Unfortunately…’ Nicola said as his spirits began to rise against Huan’s obvious disappointment and Nicola’s tone ‘you did closely lose out to Sean here during that particular round as well as poorly performing during The Washing Challenge. And as for the incident the other night? You’re lucky poor Sonali here wasn’t scarred for life. It was unacceptable.’
‘And remains on your record, I’m afraid’ Sonali informed him, shaking her head in disappointment ‘which we have to take into account during this process…’ The poor victim started to moan, the extra layers of tape sealing his distress even more than before as he wondered what exactly she meant by this. He was silenced curtly by Sonali, who threatened him with the taser that she suddenly produced and pointed at his gagged mouth. The three judges now turned their attention to Sean.
‘Now. Sean!’ Sonali announced, placing the taser back in her jacket as the three judges regarded their next helpless hostage.
‘Of to a very strong start by winning the opening round, which I must say, surprised us all!’ Nicola gleefully remarked ‘unfortunately you never really hit those heights again during the rest of the contest.’
‘Except coming close during the DIY round!’ Huan noted.
‘Which we’re all really grateful for’ said Sonali, encouragingly.
‘What we’re not so impressed with was your disastrous performance during The Washing Challenge’ Nicola’s tone now dropped completely ‘anyone taking up this position really can’t be ruining our clothes like the way you did, not reading labels, mixing and matching the wrong items…’
‘It’s an area all three of us felt needed improving upon’ Huan agreed.
‘Fraid so. You do make amazing spaghetti though, Sean!’ Nicola concluded on a positive note, as the other two nodded. They all now turned to the final contestant. ‘And now Lukasz!’ He looked up as best he could at his captors.
‘After a poor start you really picked things up throughout the rest of the challenge, amazing us three ladies with your skill, dedication and passion’ Sonali gushed.
‘You never really looked back after that disappointing first round, surprising us with your knowledge in a wide number of fields’ Nicola continued. ‘You displayed versatility and focus. You managed to impress us all, particularly during The DIY Round, and I think Sonali in particular is very pleased with your all round performance during your time with us’ she observed as Sonali gave her a playful kick with her heel. ‘Ouch!’ Nicola cried out jokingly, as Huan frowned.
‘Even though you came last during The Cooking Round, as we all can see…’ Sonali couldn’t help but release a little snigger before recovering herself ‘we felt it was the close, and we are all ultimately looking for the best all round candidate here.’ The other two ladies nodded in agreement. Lukasz’s face turned to stone.
‘All in all it’s not been easy’ Sonali admitted ‘but we think we are now in a position to finally decide who the lucky winner is…’ The three captives braced themselves.
‘It was close. It was very close. For all of you’ Nicola informed them positively.
‘And we don’t want to think our decision here today reflects too harshly on anyone’s performance during the last few days,’ Huan said consolingly, but still a little downbeat.’
‘But the fact remains that there is only one position available.’
‘And we absolutely have to choose the right candidate,’ Sonali explained.
‘And that candidate is…’ Nicola paused, dramatically.
‘Lukasz!’ Sonali erupted gleefully as the three women began to clap and cheer in a chorus of delight, as the hogtied young man rolled around the floor as best he could in panic. Sean and Josh recovered their breathing in cautious relief. For them at least, the last few days were finally coming to an end, or so they hoped, and both regarded the unlucky winner with pity. Along with this disastrous news, Lukasz also still had the purple vibrator inside of him to contend with. Josh closed his eyes and prayed that now this sordid ordeal would be over. That he would be delivered back to his abode where he could get on to his dealer, catch up with contacts and finally put all of this madness behind him. Like it had all been just a bad dream.

[Bandhaniya]

The Lock-down

Part 8

By Bandhaniya.


Huan sloped into the living area and nodded to Sonali, who looked up from the sofa, MacBook Pro on her lap. ‘Hey’ Sonali smiled sympathetically as her friend inserted airpods and began to tap her smartwatch.

‘I won’t be too long. I guess when I get back we’ll drop them off’ she said, sadly.

‘Sure, I’ve got a few emails to deal with, then myself and Nikki will start to get them both ready.’

‘Okay.’ She turned as Nicola entered.

‘Off for a run?’ The redhead enquired.

‘I’ve told Soni I’ll help with the transportation once I’m back.’

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s okay’ she shrugged and tried to smile before exiting the living area. As she ambled along the corridor, towards the front door, she paused for a moment at the spectacle of two heavy looking garden spades, stacked up besides each other in the left corner. Still wrapped in clingfilm, they looked brand new. Thinking nothing of it, she opened the door and left the apartment.

As they both heard the door shut Nicola turned to Sonali ‘Ready?’ she asked.

‘Let’s go’ she replied, getting up from the sofa with determination and took hold of one end of the coffee table along with Nicola, who took the other.

‘I’m surprised she has the energy for a jog’ the Australian noted as the two women moved the table to one side of the living area, before turning their attention to the Persian rug that had always laid under it. Together, they began to drag it away from the sofas and armchairs. ‘She must have been at it all afternoon. I couldn't get a look in!’

‘Don’t worry, once we’re back you can have a quick session with Sean.’

‘Easy for you to say. You’ve got your boy now whenever you fancy.’

‘How long do you think she’ll be?’

‘She’s usually about forty minutes. Forty five?’

‘We better get a move on then. Come on!’

As Huan jogged along the desolate, paved streets she removed the air pods from her ears. This evening she was not in the mood for music, and she put them into the pocket of her black Emporio Armani Core Lady stretch-cotton tracksuit. She tried to take her mind off the disappointment of the day by stepping her running up a gear, pounding the pavement as she exhaled heavily into the cool spring air. It was beginning to get dark. She observed the lit windows of the other apartments along the streets she jogged along and the silhouettes of the captives within and wondered quite how long all this would go on for. And when it was finally all over, what kind of world would await the occupants once they were free? Would things ever really return to normal? As for herself, she was beginning to doubt it. She shook her head, the sweat dripping from her short, black hair as she tried to banish the image of the young man's shoulder length light brown hair and his beautiful blue eyes. There could be no more contact after tonight. And even though she knew where he lived, she could not risk another encounter. They had made a pact, the three of them. And even though she had argued (she had thought quite soundly) that Josh had been the best all rounder, she had to concede that he had only managed to actually win one of the rounds. And even that had been tainted by an error with the steaks. There was also, of course, that unfortunate business with the escape attempt, which if she was honest with herself, had hurt. As she continued her evening run she wiped the sweat away from her face, only to realise that it wasn’t sweat that she was now wiping away.

Sonali crept up to Nicola, who was standing on the Persian rug, incredulously fixated on her smartphone screen. ‘Boo!’

‘Jesus!’ Nicola exclaimed in fright, which elicited a giggle from Sonali, who stood before her friend, carrying the spades that had been left in the hallway, one in each hand. Bits of cling film still draped from their shafts as she laid them down on the rug, still smiling at her little joke. She looked up at her friend.

‘What is it?’

‘No nothing’ Nicola paused for a few seconds. ‘Have you checked your bank balance recently?’

‘Why would I need to do that?’

‘I’m just a lot more flush than usual. I mean a lot more.’

‘Of course. What do you expect?’ her friend explained. "We're on our full salaries, we’ve not been spending money on cleaners, fancy restaurants, going out, cabs home. We don’t even have to pay for our bloody travel cards. Let alone expensive holidays to the Maldives or Caribbean! And it’s only going to increase thanks to the UK government, they’re handing out billions! To Her That Has Shall Be Given!’ Sonali declared proudly. ‘Also don’t forget we have no rent to pay, courtesy of Huan’s Uncle. Which reminds me. Maybe we should…?’ she grimaced.

‘Oh yeah. Of course,' Nicola said, before turning to her friend again. 'Perhaps we should invest in something with it all…’

‘Perhaps. We can have a think about it later on.’ She pulled on her black COVID mask and then took the taser out from the back pocket of her Brunello Cucinelli wide leg jeans, testing the charge. ‘Ready?’ she asked.

Nicola too put on her mask and clasped her hands together, cracking her knuckles. ‘Let's do this’ she replied, a little forebodingly.

As Huan continued to run along the deserted streets she found her vision yet again compromised by a film of water, oil and mucins. As she raised her tracksuit arm yet again to wipe them away she felt the ground suddenly sweep away from underneath her and then a painful blow to her right knee. She lay crumpled on the pavement for a few minutes in agony, her mind taken away from her inner torment, clutching her knee, until she finally regained herself and rose to her feet. She noticed that one of her palms was grazed and slightly bleeding. She sucked on the wound as she looked around the empty street, up at the windows of the houses and apartments around her, more out of fear of embarrassment than anything else before massaging her kneecap and beginning to limp back in the direction of the apartment.

‘Christ he’s heavy!’ Nicola exclaimed as they dragged the rolled up Persian rug along the living space and out towards the corridor, the two women taking an end each. The rug had been secured at three places, one at each end and in the middle, with coils of tight white rope.

‘The rug doesn’t help,’ Sonali panted as they entered the hallway, which was strewn with cling film. ‘There’ she said as they released the rolled up rug and regained their strength ‘I’ll go grab the spades and then we’ll do the heavy lifting part.’

‘Okay’ Nicola confirmed a little doubtfully.

‘Don’t worry. We’ve got this’ she headed back into the living space.

As Nicola waited she once more brought to life the screen of her Samsung and opened up her banking app once again. She stood there in the hallway, in deep contemplation until suddenly she heard the sound of the front door unlocking. She froze as it opened.

‘I had a fall. I think I’ve grazed my knee. And my hand!’ Huan announced as she entered, a little self pityingly, before noticing the rolled up, tied up, Persian rug laying on the floor. ‘What is this?’

‘Um. You remember my friend Laura? From Goldman Sachs? Well, her boyfriend works at Sotheby's and…and he reckons he can get this cleaned up. By someone he knows. It’s just…it’s just I wanted it done professionally. By someone who knows what they’re doing. Rather than leaving it for Cleaner Boy in there. It’s worth a fortune. He might fuck it up.’

‘Oh.’

‘Yeah. Um…me and Soni were just going to leave it outside. Outside her place, bound up like this. On the way to dropping the losers off. It’s not raining, is it?’ Nicola’s heart was pounding.

‘No. No it’s not raining out there…’ Just then Sonali entered the hallway, holding the garden spades. Upon seeing Huan she dropped them both onto the floor, making a loud crashing noise.

‘Hey.’ she said, a look of panic in her eyes.

‘Hey. What do you need those for?’

‘We need them for…for…’ as Nicola struggled for an explanation the rug beneath her feet began to move. ‘Fuck!’ she exclaimed and kicked it with one of her Burberry Wellington boots. ‘Shh!’ she warned.

‘Mmmm. Mmph. Mmmmmph!’ the rug replied.

‘What is going on?!’ Huan demanded as she crouched down to examine the end of the rolled up rug that was closest to her. Nicola and Sonali bowed their heads sheepishly in resignation. As she noticed the light brown, long locks of Josh lying within she rose and recoiled in horror, as the young man inside began to struggle more and more as he regained consciousness. The rug now thrashed around on the wooden hallway floor, as much as the ropes that constrained it would allow. Distressed ‘Mmphing’ sounds emanating from one end of it. ‘What the hell are you doing?!’

Nicola crouched down on the floor, her head in her hands and mumbled. ‘Burying the evidence.’

‘Evidence?!’

"That's right," Sonali explained. ‘He knows who we are. Well, he knows who I am. Or can find out, at least.’

‘Or rather the Police will,’ Nicola clarified, shamefully.

‘I don’t understand. We’ve been masked. The whole time. They don’t know who we are. Or where we live. We blacked out the windows. We thought of everything-’

‘We left out a photo of Sonali here,’ Nicola cut her off. ‘A photo with the name of her wrestling team on it. It would only be a matter of time before they joined the dots and identified her. And us!’

‘But I collected all the pictures and photos of us. I stacked them all in a box!’

‘Well I guess you forgot one,’ Sonali explained, a little admonishingly. ‘And he saw it. We know because he cleaned it. Or tried to.’ She approached the other two at the end of the hallway, by the door, kicking the struggling and moaning rug with one of her Canada Goose walking boots as she did so. ‘Shut up!’ She yelled menacingly. Huan gasped, covering her mouth with her grazed hand.

‘He’s probably finding it difficult to breathe in there!’ Huan pleaded.

‘Believe me, that’s the least of his worries’ Sonali said, staring down at the rolled up rug, threateningly.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Nicola was now completely sat on the floor, her legs laid out in front of her. She removed her COVID mask. ‘It’s why he made a bolt for the door. He saw the photo. He knew he’d be compromised once we realised our mistake’ she explained before looking sharply up at Huan. ‘Look, it’s him or the three of us. It’s as simple as that. We may have thought of everything, but we slipped up here, and he knows it. We can’t let him go. Period.’ Sonali too pulled down her mask.

‘So what exactly are you going to do with him then?’ Huan asked apprehensively.

‘What does it look like?’ Sonali replied, gesturing towards the two garden spades that now lay on the wooden hallway floor.

‘You can’t be serious!’ she shrieked.

‘Keep it down!’ Nicola warned.

‘Are you both fucking crazy?!’

‘What are we supposed to do?’ Sonali confronted her friend ‘Just let him go and wait for the Police to turn up?’

‘I don’t know! But there’s got to be another way…we could…we could declare him the winner! Instead of Lukasz!’

‘But Lukasz won! Fair and square. Why should this idiot take his place because you fucked up collecting the incriminating photos?!’

‘Are you saying it’s my fault?’

‘Well it was your job,’ Nicola countered.

‘And I told you I got every one. I swear!’

‘Evidently not!’

‘Well…well…why don’t we just…I don’t know. Just..keep him?’

‘What? Forever?! Like some gimp in the basement?’

‘Well, maybe…yeah…’

‘Oh I bet you’d love that,’ Sonali said sharply.

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Huan stepped over Nicolas' legs and confronted Sonali.

‘How do I know you didn’t purposefully leave my wrestling picture out so we would have to hang on to your favourite here?’ The two friends were head to head.

‘How do I know you didn’t put it back up there so you would have an excuse to eliminate poor Josh from the contest in case he won?’

‘In case he won? Are you joking? ‘Poor’ Josh was the most useless of all them!’

‘No he wasn’t! He was the strongest all rounder!’

‘Ah don’t start with that one again…’ Nicola wearily objected.

‘Lukasz won two rounds, that makes him the winner!’ Sonali proudly declared.

‘Actually Sean was the best all rounder if you ask me. He was good at everything. And he was the best looking and fittest of all three.’

‘Says you!’ Sonali objected. The rug by her feet was now in a frenzy of struggle and distressed moaning. Sonali stamped on him repeatedly with her walking boot ‘Will. You. Shut. Up!’

‘Leave him alone!’ Huan demanded.

‘Or what?’

‘Or…or I’ll make you!’

‘Go on then! Let’s see you try! I’ll squeeze the bloody life out of you! Just like I did with your boyfriend here!’ She said contemptuously as Huan glared at her, fists clenched.

‘Will you both stop! Please!’ Nicola had risen to her feet. ‘For fucks sake look at us. Fighting amongst ourselves over a goddamn guy! Of all things! What the hell has happened to us?’ The other two paused their stand-off and reflected for a few seconds at their friend’s observation, then backed away from each other in shame. The hallway was silent. All three women collapsed on the ground and sat there, against the wall, deep in contemplation.

‘All I wanted was some clean clothes’ Huan said sadly, after a minute.

‘And a decent meal’ Nicola remarked.

‘And for the bathroom light to work,’ Sonali sighed.

‘And no one would help us. I just…I just never thought it would escalate into something…well, something like this.’ Huan began to sob.

‘It’s either this…or a prison cell for the rest of our lives. Kidnapping. Physical and mental abuse. Enslavement. Attempted…’ she trailed off, unable to mention the word.’ She put her arm consolingly around Huan’s shoulder.

‘We’re even more fucked than our guests have been these last few days.’

‘We’d spend the rest of our lives in prison!’

‘There has to be another way. Another solution. Please.’ Huan tried to control her sobbing as she gently pleaded with the other two.

‘Can you think of anything?’ Sonali asked her softly.

‘I dunno. Maybe we could just…just talk to him?’

‘And how do you think that will go?

‘We could get him to promise not to say anything. Give him some money for his trouble. No hard feelings…’ she ventured, desperately.

‘Once we take that gag off, he’ll agree to anything, trust me. Anything. And the moment he’s free he’ll go straight to the Police.’

‘Surely they won’t believe such a story?’

‘They’d be duty bound to investigate the complaint.’ Sonali let out a little giggle before recovering herself. ‘Sorry.’

Nicola nodded. ‘They’ll find Lukasz if they search the place and we’ll be in jail for the rest of our lives, like you said. What’s worse, the whole world would know what we did. We’d be infamous. Unless we let the winner go of course, get rid of all the evidence. Then it would be their word against ours. And the Police would believe us over them, I’m sure. But then the whole thing would have been for nothing. And we’ll all be back to square one. Dirty, hungry and hiding from mice.’

‘And there’s no point giving him, or any of them money’ Sonali observed. ‘Remember, that was the problem to begin with. The bloody government’s already paying them not to do anything. There was no incentive for any of them. That's why we had to do what we did…’ The room was silent again. The three women sat sorrowfully on the floor, heads bowed. The rug remained still with trepidation. After a minute Nicola’s head rose up, deep in thought.

‘Maybe there is a solution after all…’

[Bandhaniya]

Hello! Apologies yet again for not keeping up with this story. New job and Xmas, things have been hectic. A big thank you to all those who have been enjoying it thus far and also posting encouraging responses to the instalments. Speaking of which, here is another. The final part! Thank you all again for your patience and support. Enjoy!


The Lock-down


Part 9


By Bandhaniya


Josh winced in pain as his buttocks slammed hard on the wooden seat, before his mind was diverted by coils of rope carving into his flesh, from stomach to chest, Thighs to calves, tighter and tighter, adding to the criss-crossed scars that his naked body already bore. Testimony to his harsh abduction which, as Sonali and Nicola continued to tie him to the chair, showed no signs of ending. He gazed pitifully in Huan’s direction, but she was preoccupied with sticking up large sheets of paper on the wall in front of the captives, the same kind that had been used to black out the windows. When she had finished posting up half a dozen of these she turned to Nicola.

‘OK?’ she asked.

Nicola turned around and looked up at her friend, briefly pausing from tying Josh’s legs to the chair and replied ‘Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks.’ Before returning to her rope work. Sonali continued with his upper body, tying the last knot before cupping her hands in Huan’s direction, who in turn tossed the roll of black duct tape she held in her hand at Sonali, who caught it with a smile before ripping a reel off.

‘Thanks’ she said.

‘No problem,’ Huan replied, before looking down at Josh with a big, wide smile underneath her mask and giving him the thumbs up. He looked back in fear and confusion as bands of strong black tape constrained him more and more, the tearing sound filling the room. In a way, he shouldn’t complain. Anything was better than being wrapped up in whatever it had been. A carpet? It had been almost impossible to breathe. And as Sonali’s tape-work almost brought tears to his eyes, so crushingly tight as it was, he had to remember it was better than being kicked and jumped on, even if the blows had been cushioned. Had the two that were tying him up now really had plans to get rid of him? And had Huan really come to his rescue? Or was this all just a continuation of their little game? And what the hell was all this now about? He looked at Sean and Lukasz, who, tied up as well, looked back in puzzlement. Surely the women had announced the end of their cruel contest and the unlucky winner. Lukasz, who had had his head bowed in resignation and despair for much of the day, now appeared a little more animated. As for Sean, he had been hoping to finally get out of here and put this whole crazy experience behind him, even if, in some strange way, he would miss the fiery redhead who had taken such a shine to him. The only thing Josh knew for certain at this moment in time was that the women had indeed discovered their error from earlier, just as he had feared. They now knew the threat he posed to them all. He looked up again at Huan, who continued to smile encouragingly back. Once Sonali had finished with the tape, patting down the bands on Josh’s chest a little too forcefully, she passed the roll down to Nicola, who gleefully accepted it before attacking Josh’s bare legs with it. After a couple of minutes, she rose up from her crouching position and tossed the now almost spent roll into one of the corners of the room, and adjusted the seams of her suit jacket. Taking her place before the three captives along with the other two kidnappers, who stood either side of her, she cleared her throat.

‘Now,’ she began, ‘at the beginning of this contest we explained to you all the issues we three ladies were facing during this challenging time.’

‘And the difficulty we had trying to get help in remedying them,’ Sonali recalled.

‘That’s right. Essentially the problem was one of how to provide the right level of encouragement and motivation in order to, well frankly, compel an otherwise unenthusiastic workforce from coming to our aid.’

‘That’s you!’ Huan said, helpfully.

‘With the state interfering it meant that you haven’t needed to sell your labour these past months. It also meant that we needed to create a little market mechanism of our own, shall we say. In our own home here.’

‘That’s what this contest has all been about from the start!’

‘You’ve simply had no reason to work or compete with your fellow man in a normal, healthy, functioning labour market,’ Sonali clarified ‘the government wanted you to sit on your arses at home playing video games, so the virus wouldn’t spread, even as we three ladies suffered. A complete breakdown of sane, normal economic relations!’ She shook her head in disgust at the paradigm.

‘All that money that’s been flushed out into the economy though is going to end up biting you on that arse,’ Nicola continued. ‘Let me explain…’

As the three prisoners sat there bound and gagged, they had no choice but to listen to Nicola’s predictions on how once the lock-down was over and COVID no longer proved a crucial threat to an under-invested health service, the money now awash in the economy would accumulate much more in the hands of the very rich, who, frankly, were already rich and didn’t really need it anyway. This in turn would lead to inflation as they used all this extra new wealth to do things like buy up more houses, for example. And it would be the three hapless hostages here who would end up footing the bill for all this as rents and the general cost of living skyrocketed. Not only that but they predicted that many businesses would close or go bankrupt as a result of the debts incurred during the pandemic, as well as the new economic realities they now found themselves in. Restaurants would be particularly vulnerable Huan informed them, with a sly look at Josh. At least that was the gist of what was being said. The young men found it difficult to follow the complicated mathematical formulas Sonali scribbled on the paper Huan had stuck up with the aid of a marker pen. As well as all the technical jargon Nicola employed during the course of her lecture, which was frankly incomprehensible to the three captives.

‘Any questions so far?’ the fiery redhead asked with a grin.

‘Mmph!’ a confused chorus replied, the hapless hostages groaning with frustration, confusion and more than a little apprehension as to where all of this was leading.

‘I’m sorry. Couldn’t quite catch that!’ The tied trio continued to groan in frustration, their naked bodies, straining against the tight restraints.

‘I think that might be a no?’ Sonali ventured.

‘Good! Now we’re all on the same page. I hope you’ll all agree that what we’re about to say will prove to be mutually beneficial for you all. As well as us!’ Nicola addressed the captives.

‘Oh I’m sure they will!’ Huan announced gleefully.

As Nicola continued she explained that as a result, the three ladies were now in a position to make the three prisoners an offer that would hopefully appeal to their individual self interest and also act as an economic motivator for each of them. Without the need for keeping any of them in captivity any longer or coercing them to do their household chores. To demonstrate their good faith in what Nicola described as this ‘New Deal’, the three of them stood in front of their bound and gagged hostages and slowly lowered their black COVID masks, revealing for the first time their faces as the hostages froze in their chairs, the look of confusion and apprehension giving way to an involuntary mesmerisation at the sheer beauty of the three faces that now confronted them. Smiling down, regarding the three young men with an expectant, confident gaze.


‘When did you start?’ Huan took a long sip of the Cloudy Bay Sauvignon they had all been enjoying before replacing the framed picture of Sonali where it belonged and slumping back down on the sofa.

‘I was eight.’ Sonali explained. ‘Two older brothers. Ten and twelve. You can imagine.’

‘And you were state champion by the time you were fourteen? Wow.’ Nicola adjusted the belt of her dressing gown as she shuffled to make herself more comfortable on the sofa.

‘Then national two years later!’ Sonali said proudly ‘But then I went up a weight class and only came runner up two years in a row. Then I went to university and my studies came first. I still competed at university though. And I took on the boys as I told you!’ she reclined on the sofa, basking in the memory.

‘Took on this one here, too’ Nicola reminded her, approvingly.

‘You were so amazing!’ Huan gushed ‘I watched the footage over and over. It was like a Marvel movie!’

‘I’m no Black Widow, I can assure you.’ Sonali replied modestly.

‘Well, you could have fooled me. You should get back into it!’

‘Unfortunately there is no club or any kind of organisation here in this country. Well, there is, but…’

‘Let me guess. Just for the guys’ Nicola said with contempt as Sonali topped up her glass before passing it to her friend.

‘I tried to get something going here. For girls. So they could feel empowered. Confident. Like I became after taking it up. But work was just too demanding and I just didn’t have the time’ she recalled, sadly.

‘Fucking typical. All laid on for the men, but us women have to struggle and fight. Like always!’ Nicola said indignantly before taking a good long sip of the wine.

‘Do you think they’ll go for it?’ Sonali asked after a minute.

‘Of course! I mean they’re not too bright but they can’t be that stupid! It’s a great deal!’

‘We’re taking a huge gamble. They’ve seen our faces. They now know where we live too!’

‘They’re just as likely to go to the nearest police station than return back here.’

‘And who would believe such a ridiculous story? Plus they’d be in trouble themselves for breaking lock-down rules. Besides, we made them sign those consensual agreements before we released them. The police are bound to believe our side of events.’ A silence descended over the room before Huan couldn’t help but let out a little giggle before Sonali, too, began to join her until finally Nicola herself succumbed to the unintentional witticism, filling the living area with uncontrollable laughter until the three young women collected themselves. ‘Don't worry’ Nicola reassured the other two. ‘I continue to have faith in the rational self interest of human beings. Even men! They’ll come round. Trust me. You’ll see.’




Josh ascended the stairs of the tube exit and, putting on his shades, started to amble along the street as others rushed past him. As he made his way along the pavement a police car passed him and turned into the station that was coming up on his left. He stopped suddenly, much to the annoyance of a fellow pedestrian behind him who almost crashed into him from behind. ‘Sorry’ he mumbled as the middle aged, suited man passed him with a snarl that Josh barely registered. He continued to stand there, the Police Station just in front of him, lost in thought. After a few seconds he reached into the left side pocket of his blue denim cargo pants and produced a few pieces of paper. As more and more people passed him on the street he put down the laden plastic bag he had been carrying with his other hand and examined the pieces of paper before letting out a sigh of relief and, picking up the plastic bag, continued to make his way along the pavement and past the Police Station. He had remembered to get a receipt for the Wagyu. Thank God. As he continued to stroll along, basking in the afternoon sunshine he came up to his restaurant and stopped again, gazing into the window. The tables and chairs that had been there two days ago had now all been swept away, leaving a desolate, empty floor which had once been crammed with demanding diners. The ‘For Let’ sign was still hanging from outside the frontage. He smiled to himself as he set off again, turning a corner into a leafy residential street. In no way did he miss the place. The summer reopening last August had been chaotic and stressful to say the least, what with all the pent up demand after lock-down rules had eased but new safety procedures had been introduced. Not to mention the new shift patterns and terms and conditions instituted by the management. To say it had been full of aggravation was an understatement and as he continued along the pleasant, sunny, tree lined street he thanked his lucky stars things had turned out the way they did.

Sean walked up the gangway, plastic pint in hand, and squeezed past the supporters who had already taken their seats with a mix of excuses and greetings. As he took his own seat and a gulp of his ridiculously priced Moretti the loudspeaker announced the players as they took to the field. This was the life, he thought. A fan since he was a boy, the waiting list for a season ticket unfortunately stretched to the moon and back. And that was if he could actually afford it. That was until his new employers had made a call or two. Now he was in the best tier with the team enjoying one of their best starts in decades, the late summer sun, warming his face. The expensive lager, cooling his builders hands as the whistle blew for kick-off.

Lukasz inserted the pod into his lovely new Nespresso Gran Lattissima, pressed the start button and waited. At over £300 it had been an indulgent purchase, but what a difference having a proper coffee in his own home made! Before the Nespresso he had been making do with Nescafe and popping out to the local coffee shop managed by a friend whenever he had the craving for the real thing. Well, that coffee shop had now shut, the ‘special deal’ Lukasz enjoyed courtesy of his friend was no longer an option, and the joys of modern technology had been introduced to him by his new bosses. They, of course, had a far superior bit of kit, but he was nevertheless very happy with his own equipment which now had delivered an almost perfect brew as he collapsed into his sofa and checked his schedule for next week. Monday and Wednesday only. The current economic climate had meant that the cleaning agency had cut his shifts significantly, along with the continued working from home practices that had become established during COVID. But it mattered not. For now he had more than just a ‘side hustle’ cleaning for private clientele who not only cared what days he turned up as long as the work was done (he had a key to their apartment) but paid him so well that he could, if he wanted to, easily sack off the cleaning agency gigs that were now becoming few and far between. He saw it as extra, however. A little top up that made that house back in Poland a little more closer. As well as providing luxuries like the coffee machine he had purchased. Perhaps when he finally did return home he would open a cafe of his own. But that would mean leaving what was a very lucrative job, which he was free to do at any time now lock-down was over. But it would also mean of course leaving his new ‘girlfriend’. Although not serious (they were both free to see other people) and although they led very different lives and came from widely different backgrounds, if he was honest it had become more than just a fling and he had to admit that he had developed serious feelings for her. When she was on a business trip, or returned home to India to visit family and friends, he had to admit he missed her terribly. Even if their initial introduction had been less than conventional, if not a little scary. And even if some of the things she had wanted to do in the bedroom had proved to be a little eye opening at first.

Sean basked in the latest victory in the lounge bar as he made small talk with one or two of the other supporters that he had made the acquaintance of since the start of the season. He always had a couple here as the rest of the crowd made their way out. The queue for the tube was simply awful and it was much nicer to wait it out here, even if the beer was outrageously priced, a consequence of the ongoing gentrification of the game that continued to price out ordinary working class supporters such as himself. He could afford it however, what with the extra work that had come his way since COVID, maintaining a property in a well to do part of the city that not only barely took up any of his time as a self employed man, but also offered incredible extra benefits like this season ticket. Not to mention also the after hours fun now and then with one of the residents of the apartment whose tastes and desires he had come to not only tolerate, but actually enjoy. As he thought about her piercing green eyes and flowing red hair he had to admit he felt a longing in his heart. Even if she could be more than a little intimidating at times, as well as somewhat formidable in the bedroom.

Josh approached the grand looking iron gate that led into the courtyard of the private apartment complex and entered the code. After a second the usual positive beeping sound gave way to an opening and he made his way towards the main entrance, along the cobbled pathway lined with potted plants, the ingredients for this evening's meal in hand. It was rare for him to be working on a Saturday night these days, something that he was very grateful for now. Before COVID he couldn’t remember the last time he got a Saturday off. Or a Friday. On these evenings however, his clients preferred to go out to dine, now that everything was open again. Well, those establishments that hadn’t gone bankrupt. As his permission to enter the main door to the complex had been granted and he pressed for the elevator in the reception area, he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of this before. Being a private chef for wealthy clients. It was such an easy gig! He supposed it was something that was difficult to get into. Otherwise everyone would be doing it, rather than slaving away in a traditional restaurant kitchen and having no life. You had to know someone or have a contact. Well, now he did, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Even if his initial introduction to his new clients had been somewhat unorthodox.

As the elevator rose up to the penthouse he checked again to make sure he had everything; the beef, the bok choy and shiitake mushroom, the Holy Basil and coriander, the chillies and fresh ginger and of course the Shaohsing rice wine. And of course all the receipts for the above, which he would be reimbursed for. The rest of the ingredients, along with his chef’s knives, were in the apartment. As the elevator came to a standstill the doors opened to reveal the luxury and splendour of the penthouse apartment, something that always astounded him, along with the beautiful cityscape vista. The sun was setting, bathing the buildings around with a stunning grey-orange as the windows of the other apartments began to light up like stars. ‘Hello?’ he called out. ‘I’m here!’ The apartment was eerily quiet. Usually before ‘shift’ the place was roaring with laughter and pre-dinner drinks, but the living area was empty. He shrugged and walked over to the open plan kitchen and placed the plastic bag on the worktop. As he began to unpack the ingredients for this evening's meal he felt a presence behind him and stopped. He turned round to find Huan standing before him, one hand behind her back and dressed in nothing but a startling Paris Green Meng short silk floral Kimono. He grabbed the worktop behind him, stunned as he was both by the surprise but also the sheer beauty of the woman standing before him, a beaming smile on her face. ‘Where…where is Soni? And um…Nikki?’ he finally managed to say after a few seconds.

‘Both out’ Huan replied matter of factly. ‘Nicola is at Le Comptoir Robuchon on a work do and Sonali is in New York for the weekend. She lent in towards him and whispered conspiratorially ‘so it’s just us!’ she winked.

‘Oh. Okay’ he replied. ‘There’s a lot here. I thought I’d be cooking for three…’

‘That’s fine’ Huan replied, playing with one of the cords that hung from his hoodie with her free hand ‘Just put it in the fridge. They can try it later. When they get back. I’m sure it will be lovely!’

‘I’ll..I’ll make a start then…’ he sheepishly tried to turn and reach out to open one of the cupboards. She stopped him with her free hand that had not let go of the cord and turned him around to face her.

‘First though, I want an entree!’ she declared, letting go of the drawstring and raising his chin up to face her with a finger.

‘Sure. What did you-’ She cut him off with a finger to his lips before once again grabbing the cords of his hoodie with her free hand and leading him into the centre of the living space, her other arm still behind her back. She then gently pushed him onto the sofa. As he sat there helpless and speechless she revealed the roll of black duct tape that she had been hiding behind her back all along and, picking at the end with her gloriously painted nails, began to rip away a long, strong strip with a sound both alarming and exciting at the same time.

‘Ready?’ she asked with a grin.



THE END

[tillytimber123]

Great story! Glad I kept up with it. I'm looking forward to new works if you have any planned.