dreadnaught3200 : 05 - Madwomen Sequel: Four Years Later... (FF/MF)

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dreadnaught3200 : 05 - Madwomen Sequel: Four Years Later... (FF/MF)

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05 - Madwomen Sequel: Four Years Later...
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Sun Jul 11, 2010 1:07 am

Hey Everybody

So! I'm just finishing up the much requested sequel to my last story "Madwomen". Now if you haven't read it, I would humbly suggest that you do read it before starting this one as they really tie together. You can find it here: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7663 Please feel free to comment on it!

As far as this one goes, it is longer, darker, and waaaaaaaay more complex. Though hopefully enjoyable at the same time. So all the usual disclaimers are in effect, mostly pertaining to my editing skills (Or lack thereof) and kinda bulky writing style. And... I think that's it!

So! Here we go again. Hope you enjoy it!


Four Years Later

By: Dreadnaught3200
With input from: Jason Toddman
Featuring Poetry by: Pete Sinfield

I clutched my paper coffee cup in my hand tightly. The steam from its heated surface rose into the air, illuminated by the streaming moonlight coming through the trees. Leaning back against the car I took a long swig. Drinking enough to calm my nerves and slow down the adrenaline. Having taken a minute to myself I looked up to the strong-faced figure standing beside me.

"Alright, you feeling bit better?" He asked, genuine concern in his voice.
"Yeah." I replied.
"Ok, then tell me what happened."

I exhaled loudly and thought back, still coming to grips with my own vivid memories.

"I want to hear it in your words, from the beginning." He said.
"Alright."

And suddenly I was reliving the experience:



Following the fever pitched workweek leading up to Canada day on July first, I'd booked myself some desperately needed vacation time. A whole seven days to rest, catch my breath and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. A few weeks previous I'd seen my Aunt Diane at a family gathering and mentioned my vacation time to her. She offered to let me stay at her cabin on nearby Emerson Lake and I enthusiastically accepted. Finally, when July second arrived, I loaded up my Ford Explorer, strapped my Dad's kayak to the roof and took off. A full day of driving later I arrived. It was exactly what I needed; Aside from a few other cabins on the lake I was in the middle of nowhere, on the shore of a beautiful lake, under the summer sunshine. But more important than anything else: I had the most beautiful woman in the world with me.

Well... I'm sure that many people will dispute me on that one. But as far as I was concerned, she was the most beautiful woman who had ever lived. Her name was Candice and she was my girlfriend. From the moment I met her I got butterflies in my stomach any time I was near her. And as we'd gotten to know each other while going to school, it slowly became apparent that she felt the same. We'd come from very different backgrounds, but there was rarely an issue we didn't see eye to eye on.

Candice stood around five foot five. She was of Spanish descent with dark white skin and beautiful brunette hair that draped past her shoulders, which she usually had pulled into a ponytail. While she wasn't the most athletic girl in the world, she had a moderately muscular build from playing volleyball, and well endowed in the chest.

We'd passed the first two days of our vacation very enjoyably. We passed the time swimming, hiking, kayaking, reading, drinking beer, romancing... hell we even built a sandcastle together. Around two on the third day, I sat on one of the lawn chairs we brought with us on the beach, feeling the sand between my toes. Quietly I worked on a composition I'd been commissioned to write for my choir, while Candice continued adding to the sandcastle we'd started the day before.

Every now and again she would look over to me and chuckle as I raised my hand and conducted to thin air. I had a nasty habit of becoming so engrossed in my work that I would have no concept of how stupid I looked. Candice always said it was cute, but somehow I knew she was lying.

In any case, my pen struck the paper over and over again until a further eight bars were completed. At present I guessed my piece was about four minutes long. About half way complete. Deciding that was enough composition for the day, I folded the music into its binder and put it on the ground. I took a beer from the nearby cooler and drank it thirstily, then I decided to get up and help Candice with the sandcastle some more.

Strangely enough, she wasn't there. I looked around a few times, nothing.

A little perplexed, I sat back down on my chair and sipped my beer leisurely. I noticed a speedboat sitting in front of the opposite shore. Looking a bit closer I saw a group of teenagers on the beach beyond chasing each other around. What could they possibly be doing? Oh well. I was content that I would never know.

Suddenly an object was thrown at the back of my head. Turning around, Candice was walking back down the beach from the cabin, having thrown a bag of chips at me.

"Eat something!" She ordered.

I must admit, I have something of a weakness for chips.

"Your wish is my command." I replied. She just smiled knowingly; Candice knew all my weak spots.

I picked up the chips from the ground and opened the bag, starting to munch away at a few of them. Though, as my girlfriend came closer and closer I found it harder and harder to think about them. As I did pretty much any time she was near me, I forgot about everything else. Without a word she sat down on my lap and leaned in to kiss me. Lost in lalaland, I dropped the bag of chips on the ground and they spilled onto the sand.

The time blurred as we embraced each other. After, well, I don't really know how long- She turned and faced out towards the lake, leaning her head onto my shoulder. Wordlessly we stared out onto the glassy surface of the lake. Eventually she fell asleep, a little while longer, I followed.

When I woke up, however long it had been, Candice was gone. I stood up slowly, hoping to avoid the inevitable head rush before starting back up the beach towards the cabin. Inside, I heard her sweet voice filtering down the stairs from bathroom where she was singing in the shower. Much as I would've liked to, I decided not to bother her.

The cabin was relatively small, the first floor mainly comprised of a barebones kitchen unit with a small table and four strait backed dining chairs, which led into a carpeted living room with a tv, a couch and a lounge chair. There was a door that led to a small bathroom decorated in green, next to the stairs that led upstairs. The upper floor comprised of another small sitting room, bathroom and two bedrooms.

I walked through the sitting room and to a small closet in the kitchen near the front door. Opening it, I had to dig through both our suitcases to get at the solid plastic case underneath. Finally reaching it, I opened it and retrieved the twelve gauge shotgun that my uncle had lent me. He'd taught me how to shoot and had taken me hunting on several occasions. He offered to lend me the shotgun for this trip to do a little hunting on my own. I enjoyed it, so I accepted. Candice wasn't too excited about the idea but she didn't protest.

After checking to make sure the barrel was clean and the shells were still in good order, I closed the case and put the suitcases back on top of it. Probably best to keep it out of sight.

It occurred to me that those chips were probably still out lying on the sand. I should probably clean those up. Casually, I strolled out of the cabin and back down the beach to my faithful chair and spent a little while cleaning up the chips and score paper strewn over the beach. I glanced up as a car passed on the road, but soon looked down to my work.

When the beach was clean I turned around and headed back to the cabin. Candice sat at the table, combing her hair.

"Any idea what you want to do for dinner?" I asked her.
"Do you think maybe we could go to town and eat out?" She replied.
"Oh, you don't like my cooking?"
"Well, no, it's not that..."
"So no, you don't like my cooking."
"No! I mean, yes! I mean... Shut up! You're just trying to confuse me!"

I chuckled.

"I think it would be fun to eat out, that's all."
"Ok, we'll eat out."
"Sweet I think that'll..."

Suddenly we heard a smash at the front door. Dust and splinters were thrown into the air as the door was ripped from its frame. Our eyes shot over in that direction as my heart leapt into my throat. Candice looked back to me worriedly.

"ALEX BEHIND YOU!"

I felt a sharp pain on the back of my neck, as someone or something slammed a hard object onto the back of my head. Immediately I fell to the floor, reeling in pain. The world started to spin, I had no time to think or react before I was overtaken by darkness.

It's a strange feeling but every now and again when you are overrun by a particular emotion, it is enough to make you conscious of that feeling even when you are asleep. Inarticulate voices filled my head, the confusing dreamscape I entered finally started to slip away. I felt myself fighting to take back my consciousness. I tried shut the voices out and concentrate on opening my eyes. What happened? Candice! Who had done this? Candice! They felt like they weighed a ton. Finally I felt my eyes lifting. With one last heave I dragged my eyelids all the way open.

The sun was still out over the lake, my chair was still propped up on the beach. One by one my senses came back. What happened? Who hit me? As soon as I remembered the hit, the soreness of the back of my neck became apparent to me. I tried to raise my hand to massage it. I tried, but nothing happened.

Slowly I looked down, my hand felt a little strange. It was an oddly familiar sensation, almost as if I was... I saw my right wrist tied to the arm of one of the dining room chairs with white rope. Suddenly I started to panic. My arms had been tied to the arms of both chairs at the wrists and elbows. I started to pull all over my body. I couldn't move an inch. My ankles and knees were tied to separate legs of the chair, and a rope had been tied around my thighs, holding them to the seat of the chair. There was a long rope that ran around my chest many times, though as I studied it I realized it didn't wrap around the back of my chair but ran to a second chair.

"Mmmmmph!" A gagged voice cried behind me.

I turned my head as far around as I could. It was Candice. Bound in a predicament identical to my own and gagged with duct tape wrapped around her head. I tried to speak to calm her nerves, but my own voice was muffled. It was only now that I realized I was gagged the same way.

Candice looked to me in fright. I could see the fear in her eyes. As much as I could, I tried to reassure her. But truth be told, I was just as afraid as she was.

Think Alex! Think!

I had to stop and think this through logically. It was probably robbers who had done this to us. I looked around to verify my theory... But nothing was missing. The TV, all the kitchen equipment, our bags, nothing was disturbed. What kind of robber would tie us up, but not steal anything?

But if it wasn't a robber, who was it?

Candice quietly started whimpering into her gag. All I could do was lean my head back and rub it against her slowly. It was the only way I could offer her any semblance of comfort in this hapless situation.

"Hey Alex. Been a while."

The voice sent an icy chill down my spine. It was a voice I'd hadn't heard for many years, but I knew exactly who it was. It was burned into my memory like a brand. Lara. The memories of years previous came flooding back as I recalled how she and her sister had kidnapped me and toyed with my mind. Now, she was back.

I looked over to the stairs, where I heard the voice come from. Quietly she walked down the steps and appeared in my field of view. She had gotten taller since I last saw her. Her hair was longer and much wilder, and she looked generally disheveled. But her eyes hadn't lost any of the icy, menacing ferocity, which had so frightened me four years earlier. Now that I saw those eyes again, I felt the same instinctive fear.

She walked towards me, slowly. Leaving plenty of time for me to think... and fear.

"Nice to see you again." She said.

She turned to Candice. I couldn't see her reaction very well, but it seemed she felt the same instinctive fear that I did.

"I'm sorry honey, you must be a little confused aren't you?" Lara said patronizingly.

Candice started to jerk and struggle and Lara approached her, gently taking hold of her bound left hand.

"Let's just say that your squeeze toy and I have something of a history.... We have unfinished business, him and I."





More to come. Please leave a comment!


Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:06 pm
Part 2.




"Well ain't you a pretty one?" Lara teased her.

Her long spidery fingers released themselves from Candice's hand and her fingertips slowly started running up my girlfriend's arm. Quietly she began threading her fingers through Candice's dark brown hair. I did everything I could to keep looking over my right shoulder to watch the unfolding scene. Lara seemed to feel relatively safe. She leaned her head in closer.

"You have beautiful hair." She commented.

Little did she expect that head of beautiful hair would wind up and go flying full force into her nose. Lara was - understandably - taken by surprise and teetered back onto the floor. By the time she stood up a small trickle of blood was leaving her left nostril. I turned back to Candice again, the fear in her eyes had been tempered by a burning hatred. For a brief moment she and Lara met eyes as I had done so many times, years before. A glow of hatred filled the room, the sort of hatred that only two women can share.

Gathering herself off the floor, Lara stepped forward and blocked my girlfriend's attempts at a second hit by grabbing her beautiful hair and pulling sharply towards her chest. Lara lowered lips right next Candice's ear and hissed:

"You might want to try being a bit less obstreperous sweetie. In case you hadn't noticed you're the one who's tied up, and I'm the one with the knife!"

Knife? What kni... Lara pulled a small gleaming switch blade out of her pocket and flipped on the knife end. She lowered it to Candice's throat. I started screaming and yelling into my gag. My inability to control the situation was maddening. I pulled and pulled and pulled but the ropes binding me showed no mercy. All I could do was watch as the fire in Candice's eyes faded into a whimpering crying mess. I continued to yell indignantly, but Lara gave no notice.

She just poised, holding the knife close enough to frighten us both into submission. The seconds blurred, time ceased to exist. I gave up yelling, I could only merely listen to Lara's heavy breathing and Candice's quiet whimpering. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, our captress withdrew the knife. I laid my head back and breathed heavily.

"Now you won't be trying that again will you?"

I knew Candice wouldn't. But I might.

Suddenly another set of footprints entered the room. I twisted and turned trying to catch a glimpse of the figure. Unsurprisingly, it was Charlotte. She looked both more composed and better groomed than her sister. But wait... One of them had to smash the door while the other clubbed me, what had she been doing in the meantime?

"It's ready." She said.
"Good."

Charlotte approached us. Looking less menacing than her sister but still plenty scary.

"Hey Alex." She said casually. I didn't respond. What could I have done anyway?

Much to my surprise she walked right past me.

"And this must be Candice! It's nice to meet you, I've heard so much about you!"

Wait... How the hell could she... possibly... Had they been watching us? Unlike last time Lara seemed to have a plan and I knew that it was unfolding exactly how she wanted. But she knew we were here, she knew my girlfriend's name... I hadn't even told Aunt Diane about Candice nor that anyone would be with me. But if she knew that... What else did she know? And how did she know it?

Charlotte walked away from us and into the kitchen, helping herself to whatever we had left in the fridge. After a moment Lara went over and joined her, speaking to her sister in hushed tones. I was left with a minute to myself. I looked over to Candice. Our eyes met for the first time since Lara entered the room. In her red-welted eyes I saw furious questions: Who were these girls? What did they want? How do they know you?

To be truthful, I'm not completely sure why I never told Candice about that night, four years earlier. It's not that I didn't trust her. I trusted her with every cell in my body. I suppose it was for an entirely selfish reason. I didn't want to relive it, go through it again. In the months following that incident Lara was with me at least two minutes of every day. I could hear her voice, see her shape menacing me from darkened corners. But by the time I met Candice, I'd come to peace with the event. It was a thing of the past, a thing I'd never forget, but a thing of the past. I didn't want to involve Candice in it, nor did I want to worry her about Lara ever returning. But now she had, and my girl didn't have the knowledge she needed to understand the situation and help herself. And it was all my fault.

"Ok!" Lara announced, snapping me back to reality.

She approached Candice again.

"Sweetie I hope you don't mind, but I need to borrow your boyfriend for a while."

All she got in reply was a cold stare.

"We just have to talk business for a while, that's all. So in the meantime I've asked my dear sister to look after you."

The sister duo sprang into same well-rehearsed dance I so vividly remembered. They surrounded us and undid the long rope holding us together. Each of them took a chair and pulled us apart. Charlotte began untying Candice's legs while Lara took the long rope and wrapped it around my chest. Strengthening my bonds even more. Once I was secure, Lara gave Charlotte a hand untying Candice's arms from the chair and retying them behind her back securely. Charlotte gathered up the ropes from the floor and slung them over her shoulder before grabbing her prisoner and leading her out the broken front door.

"By the way, you have lovely hair." Charlotte commented.

Lara chuckled. Then looked back to me.

"Well, that's better. I always loved our one on one time Lex."

I tried to conjure the most intense stare I possibly could, hoping against hope that I could somehow stare her head into exploding. As you might imagine, it didn't work. She just gave me the same contemptuous glance she always did, and it wasn't long before I flinched under the pressure. Seeing this, she pulled up the chair Candice had previously been tied to and sat across from me.

"I've been waiting a long time for this... Though... I know you weren't expecting any more company, but really... when I heard that you were coming to stay at our family's old cabin we just had to come by and visit!"

Their family's cabin? I had never once heard her refer to Aunt Diane or poor old Uncle Alan as their family. Did she mean her birth parents? Then how...

"Though its not like you're short of company really, I'm sure Candice is more than enough for you. She's quite the little fireball isn't she? How you handle her is beyond me..."

It was possible that the girl's adopted parents had come to own this property through legal guardianship of the recipients of the estate. And if that was true, it would explain why she'd might be a bit miffed. But I knew they weren't living with Aunt Diane anymore, so how did they find out I was here? And how did they know Candice?

"Honestly, I hadn't expected you to land a girlfriend so attractive, I mean yeah... You're cute and all, but not exactly enough to keep up with her. Though I'm sure she and Char will have a good time."

I snapped back in. "She and Char will have a good time?" Something about that statement set off alarm bells. I tilted my head over to my captress and stared at her inquisitively. I was the one she was after. She couldn't mean Candice any harm... Could she?

"Oh Alex, I've missed you and your archaic chivalry!" She declared, donning a huge fake smile from ear to ear.

She got up from her chair and sat down on my lap, sprawling herself all over me and leaning her head down on my shoulder. I felt my skin crawling all over my body. Had I not been tied up I would've kicked her right off and run in the other direction. But as such, I couldn't do anything to get her off me.

"You see, this is the beauty of bondage! Right now, if you could, you would tear me apart. But you can't, I can do anything I want to you, or to your girlfriend and there isn't a thing you can do to stop me."

She was starting to sound like a villain from an old movie, but every word she spoke rang absolutely true. I felt like the ropes binding me were containing my most primal urges: Attack, Destroy, Devour. She'd threatened my territory, my mate, and me and if I could, I would've ripped her face off like an animal.

"I mean, I wasn't lying to you when I told you I'd done this to other guys before. Quite a few actually. People don't seem to realize why people like me do the things we do. It's not about violence... It's about... possession. How can you posses a person more than when they are at their most vulnerable?"

She stopped and chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I'm rambling now."

She stood up and walked back to the kitchen and into the refrigerator again, helping herself to a half eaten tub of yogurt. I followed her with my eyes, but all I could think about was Candice. What was Charlotte doing to her? Whether it was chivalry or just pure instinct I didn't know, but I so desperately wanted to protect her. And yet I couldn't. I couldn't do anything. Lara just stared at me. As I discovered last time, she had an eerie ability to read people's minds. For some reason, I knew, she knew exactly what I was thinking. She was staring and plotting like a poker master, observing her opponent's behavior and playing her next card.

Putting the yogurt down on the counter, she turned and walked towards me again. Without warning she took hold of the back of chair and spun it left to face out the eastern windows in the forest along the beach.

"There she is." Lara said. " Your precious girl."

In the forest I saw her, Charlotte had tied her arms over her head to a tree branch and had tied the rest of her body to its trunk. Nearby, she had built a campfire and was sitting warming her hands on a log nearby. Though behind her I saw something that I couldn't quite identify. I squinted harder. Was that a shovel? Sticking out of a pile of dirt. What would she possibly need that for?

I kept watching, Charlotte seemed to be waving her hands around like she was talking. God knows what she was saying. Probably telling Candice some sob story and trying to convince her that she's not actually a bad person.

Suddenly Lara forcefully pulled a piece of cloth over my eyes, pulling it back hard and knotting it off very tightly, cutting off my sense of sight with a disturbing suddenness.

"No more looking." She declared.

That was it. I'd had enough. I began to pull and struggle as furiously as I could. I threw every ounce of strength my body could produce to try and escape from the chair. I knew Lara was watching but I didn't care. I pulled with every limb and threw my wait back and forth. The chair started to rock, and almost felt like it was shuddering under the strain. Suddenly, I threw my wait too much, and pushed the chair right off kilter, sending me crashing to the floor.

The chair landed on its arm, luckily sparing me from absorbing all of its weight, though my head hit the hardwood floor. It hurt. Lara just laughed at me.

"Nothing ever changes." She remarked.

I well remembered knocking over a chair she'd tied me to once before. Though this time she didn't bother to turn me upright, she simply let me lie there sideways on the floor, still tied to this bulky wooden thing. I was still just as helpless as I'd been earlier.

For the first time in a long time, a tear glistened off my eye and fell to the ground. My failed escape attempt caused a torrent of emotions. I was angry, scared and helpless...

No! I can't do that. I can't let her get to me. If I break down, she wins. Candice needed me, I had to stay strong. I could only get out of this if I kept a clear head and waited for my chance to strike. What was she doing anyway?

I'd heard Lara's footsteps walk away from me and back to the kitchen. She started fumbling around in the drawers until she found whatever it was she was looking for. After putting the object down on the counter, I heard a strange electric whirring. A few more seconds, the sounds changed to a long metallic grinding sound. I knew all too well what she was using... A knife sharpener.

My Dad used to be very good about keeping our kitchen knives sharp and so I'd heard that grinding sound numerous times growing up. But it took on a new meaning in this situation. There could be two real reasons why she would sharpen a knife right now. A, to mess with my head like she always did. Or B...

Suddenly, my mind was drawn back to what she'd said earlier. "It's not about violence... It's about... possession. How can you posses a person more than when they are at their most vulnerable?" I'd heard these words spoken before, many years before, on the news. By Ted Bundee.

Had I been in more danger than I realized four years before? And how much was I in now?


Thu Jul 15, 2010 12:48 am
Yeah Jason I figured that out lol. Still, a guy can dream can't he? lol




I don't know how long I sat there, frozen in terror listening to the grinding metallic sound of knives being sharpened, or later hearing Lara leaving the room for whatever reason. I sat and waited, tied awkwardly to a chair laying sideways on the floor. There were a million things to be afraid of in this situation, and I was left to marinate in my own fear for what felt like hours. How long it was I don't actually know, but by the time I heard Lara return, right the chair and pull off my blindfold, the sunlight had vanished and the pale glow of moonlight was just beginning to rise above the neighboring mountains.

"Let's go upstairs for a little while, I could use a change of scenery." She said patronizingly.

Lara slowly started working on untying me, starting with my legs and gradually moving upward. She said nothing as she worked for the most part, contemptuously avoiding my glances. Once I was everything except for my hands were free, she finally turned to me and said:

"I'm going to untie your hands now. If you try anything, and I mean anything, all I have to do is yell one word and Charlotte kills your precious girlfriend. Understand?"

The threat spooked me. Somehow I knew she was probably bluffing, but the knife sharpener had convinced me that it wasn't inconceivable that she would do it. Thus, I offered no resistance as she untied my hands and retied them in front of me. After gathering up the rope, she lifted me to my feet and physically pulled me forward over to the stairs. We ascended to the upper floor and she led me into the second bedroom.

This spare room was not as well kept as the rest of the cabin. The rough floorboards had lost all sense of polish and most had shifted enough that there were visible gaps in the floor. The only furnishings were a decrepit old oaken dresser and a single bed. It was to the latter of these that Lara led me. With no decorum whatsoever she pushed me onto the bed and into the wall behind it.

Wasting no time, she pushed my chest down onto the bed and lifted my bound hands over my head and pulled them through the headboard. She took one of the many pieces of rope on the floor, and wrapped it around the vertical cinching loops of my hand tie and looped it through the headboard many times, knotting it off on the side of the board opposite to my fingers. Next she moved down to my feet, and tied them together in the same fashion as my hands, leaving a fair amount of slack that she tied directly to the footboard.

She stood up and examined me. After a moment she reached down and pulled the bed away from the wall, which seemed to be more difficult than she'd expected. (I'm a heavy guy what can I say?) When she had space, she took another rope and looped it around the bed at my torso. Though she only had enough rope to go around four or five times. She pulled that as tight as she could and knotted it off. Giving herself a satisfied smirk and an invisible pat on the back.

"Now!" She said in a fake southern drall.

She looked around for a place to sit. Or so it seemed. Though the spartan furnishing of the room made her search futile. She thought for a moment...

"Fine, you know what?"

She walked over and sat down on top of me, the best I could give in protest was an angry grunt. She just smiled as she leaned against the wall. There seemed to be a look of strange contentment on her face, and for the life of me I couldn't figure out why. Why could it give her so much pleasure dominating me? Why me? What did I do?

"This feels so familiar for some reason."

She turned to face my head.

"Hmmmmph!" I yelled into my gag. I had a theory.
"What?"
"Hmmmmph!"
"Sorry, I can't understand you."

I finally gave her what she wanted. I pleaded. She would interpret this as a victory. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

"I'm pretty sure you know that no one can hear you except me and my sister. If you start getting on my nerves I'll put it right back on!" She demanded.

I nodded my head vigorously.

"Before I do that..." She said, getting up.

She vanished down the stairs: I heard her tromp down the stairs into the kitchen and promptly return. When she came back within my field of vision, she had the role of duct tape and a pair of scissors in her hand.

"Now I'm ready to put it right back if need be!" She threatened. I didn't care, I just wanted the gag off.

She knelt next to me and placed the bottom blade of the scissors against the side of my head. She slid it underneath the multi-layered ring of tape and cut it as a whole. Taking one end, she ripped the whole gag off in one swift motion. I lurched forward in pain from the burning of my skin and my many missing hairs.

After being gagged for what couldn't have been less than seven hours it was a tremendous relief to breathe unhindered. I spent at least a minute enjoying it, saying nothing to my waiting captress.

"Thank you." I said quietly.
"Yeah." She replied gruffly.

I knew I was too exhausted to sound threatening, but I couldn't waste my short lived use of speech.

"If you hurt Candice I swear to God I'll f*cking tear you limb from limb."
"Oh there you go again, Candice, Candice, Candice."
"So much as one finger..."
"Honestly! Do you think about nothing else?"

I stopped threatening. Now it was her move.

She gave me a thoughtful look and returned to her seat on my chest, once more eliciting a grunt from me. Though there wasn't a thing I could do about it. She simply ignored my pain and sat.

"I think you know you're in no position to threaten me." She started. "You know that, but you're doing that anyway. In so doing you risk aggravating me, which places both you and your squeeze toy in a more dangerous position. Which I also think you know."

How the hell could she read my mind like that?!

"What's most interesting to me," She continued. "Is that would be indicative of a compensatory decision. What are you compensating for Alex?"

She stared strait at me and directly into my soul. I didn't say anything.

"You're threatening me to protect Candice, which places her in more danger, but you still make show of it. How important is she to you Alex?"
"She means everything!" I replied, almost too quickly.
"There you go again! Girlfriends come and girlfriends go, you should know this as well as anybody else."
"Well... I... She..."
"Think about it for a minute. You know I'm serious. You know this could be a life or death situation. How much do you really want to protect her?"

I said nothing.

"Would you be willing to give up your life for hers?"

Again, I was stunned. I'd been so wrapped up in fear and testosterone driven instinct that I hadn't stopped to consider what I was risking. Was I really prepared to go all the way to protect her? Normally I would have said yes without a second's hesitation. But now that I was actually faced with danger, I wasn't sure.

"I didn't think so." She said.

Stop! I can't think like this! Lara was hacking into my mind and reading my innermost thoughts, my only chance was to do the same.

"I don't get it Lara." I said finally.
"What?"
"You're smart."
"Why thank you."
"You're smart, you could get as far in life as you wanted to. Why are you doing this?"

She didn't say anything in reply. I was on to something. She always made sure she was the one who was asking the questions, breaking into their minds and reading their thoughts. Now her own tactic was being turned against her, and for some reason, I could see she wanted to tell me.

After a protracted silence I blurted out: "For God's sake Lara! Who the hell are you?"

"You know who I am." She said quietly.
"No. I don't. Nobody does."
"Char does."
"She won't be around forever."

Suddenly, I saw her giving way. She took a deep breath and began her story:

"I was born the same year you were, in Toronto. My Mom's name was Rose, Char and I got our looks from her, she used to be a model, worked for all the big magazines in the states at one point. One day she decided she wanted out and moved to Canada. She had a lot of trouble finding work, and moved from place to place. She met my Dad within the first year, but when he found out she was pregnant with my sister and I, he ditched. We've never met our real Dad, he ran out on us before we were even born. After that she decided she had to find anyone, anyone who could provide for us. So she moved to Toronto and found our step Dad. His name was Dan, and he already had a son from a previous marriage but he married my Mom anyway. Just a few days before we were born, actually. Dan always hated us. Nate, his kid, hated us even more. Dan was a lousy drunk, wasn't good for much of anything except screaming at us. I guess we were lucky that he didn't hit us much. Just yelled and screamed and made sure we knew how worthless we were. And my Mom never did anything about it. She just thought we couldn't live without Dan and told us that we hade to cope with it. Better yet, she put us in an all girl's Catholic school so we wouldn't have to deal with more men than we had to... Which I guess is ok. We didn't want to have to deal with any more guys tying us up all the time.... Oh right, that was Nate. I think we spent half of our time with them tied up in the basement. It was Nate's favorite thing to do. For any reason... His friends would come over and ask if we were there and he'd say: Oh yeah, just a sec, lemme go tie them up. Dan walked in on us like that sometimes, and didn't do a thing. We'd have to wait till Mom got home most of the time. "

She stopped for a second. As she spoke, she seemed less and less threatening. I felt my hatred being tempered by sympathy.

"When we were twelve, Dan's job made him move to Calgary. There was no catholic school there, so Mom finally put us in public school. We got out of the house on our own for the first time. First time we ever had fun in our lives really. Dan and Nate didn't get any better though. But unfortunately for Nate, we got better and better at escaping from his bindings. A few months after we came to Calgary he moved out. I think we've only seen him once since then. A few months after that, Dan and our Mom were in that car crash, and we went to live with your Aunt."

She stopped talking and leaned back against the wall. I'd forgotten all about the discomfort of her sitting on me. As I watched, I saw a tear glisten off her eye and slide down her cheek.

"My God." I said quietly.
"Yeah."
"Did you ever tell Aunt Diane or Uncle Alan about all this?"
"No. Why would we?"

Frankly, I understood why she wouldn't. The same reason I didn't go to the police after they'd kidnapped me, or tell Candice about what happened. I couldn't put it into words, but I knew. Maybe... Just maybe... She could be saved.

"Where is your brother?" I asked her.
"He's..." She stopped.
"He's what?"
"Dead."
"What happened?"
"He was murdered."
"By who?"
"Don't know."

I got the impression she was lying, though I couldn't be sure. But if she was lying about it, that could mean only one thing. It slowly dawned on me that I could be face to face with a murderer. And much to my own horror, I knew I wouldn't blame her if she had done it.

Suddenly I caught myself, I couldn't be too empathetic. The story she'd just told me, tragic as it was, was a perfect example of how serial killers are born and the fact remained that I was still her bound prisoner and she had made a point of inflicting psychological terror on me.

"So what now?" I asked her.
"Huh?"
"What's your endgame?"

I knew it was preposterous. But she was in an honest mood, I knew this might be my only chance.

"Endgame?"
"The only way you could've known I was here, known who Candice is, was if you were watching me. You apparently have some kind of an interest in me. So what are you going to do now that you have me right where you want me?"

Suddenly, the emotion on her face vanished. Her complexion stonewalled and the fire returned to her eyes. I realized I hit a nerve. What was it about me...

She suddenly stood up and knelt down next to my face, brandishing her old menacing glare and ear to ear grin.

"That's my little secret."




More to come.


Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:17 pm
Ok here's the Conclusion






Hearing her words, my head drooped in defeat. I'd lost my window, she'd walled herself up again.

"Bring it." I declared.
"Huh?"
"Do your worst b*tch!"

She stood up, surprised. I was a bit surprised by myself... What the hell was I doing?!

"You want the worst do ya?" She asked.

I didn't reply.

"What was it last time? Clips, hot candle wax?... What could I do to you this time?"

Once again I didn't reply. I just stared, challenging her with my eyes. The only thing I could think to do next came from the Art of War by Sun Tzu, since I could no longer appeal to my opponent's emotions, all I could do was exploit them. Egg her on until she became so flustered that she would inevitably make a mistake. I knew I was playing with fire, but at this point, my only hope was to take long chances.

"You ever heard of David Parker Ray? Maybe it's about time us womenfolk got some payback on you men."

She started leaning closer to me again. Her left hand fumbled with the knife in her pocket. My head was moving a thousand miles an hour and my heart was beating out of my chest. And it was obvious she was no less excited.

"No." She said finally.
"No?" I replied contemptuously.
"I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to do something much worse."
"And what would that be?"
"I'm going to hurt her."

Oh no. Oh no. Oh sh*t! Lara stood, twisted and stormed out of the room. She went stomping down the stairs and out of the cabin. I hadn't taken Candice into account at all... And I knew Lara was right, watching Candice suffer would be worse than any kind of torture she could inflict on me.

I started pulling and struggling again, but met with as little success as I had before. All I could do was wait. Though, I wasn't waiting long. Within in a minute I heard two sets of feet enter the house and mount the staircase. A few more seconds and both Lara and Charlotte were bearing down on me. Charlotte untied my feet from the headboard and rapidly untangled my feet from the ropes. Her sister meanwhile freed my hand tie from the headboard and yanked the out in front of me. As soon Charlotte had finished my legs she pulled upright violently, mustering as much strength as she could (or so it seemed). Each took one of my arms as Lara undid my hand bindings. With that done they pulled my hands behind my back and re-tied them. Lara made a point to pull the ropes as tight as she possibly could. So tight I started to lose circulation in a matter of seconds.

She pushed me over to the top of the stairs and gruffly sat me down on the top step.

"Get her!" Lara yelled to her sister, who immediately complied, bounding down the stairs and vanishing into the night.

Lara meanwhile took the rope previously used on the footboard and bound my feet with them once again. Finished, she left me on the top step and vanished back into the bed room. Within seconds she came back and I heard duct tape being ripped off the roll. Next thing I knew she took a single long piece and plastered it over my lips from ear to ear.

Saying nothing she walked right past me and tromped down the stairs. All I could do was watch as she marched back into the kitchen and reached into one of the cabinets. To my horror, she pulled out the kitchen knives she'd been sharpening and lined them up one next to the other. I thought she had done that just to scare me. I was wrong... My miscalculation had been catastrophic.

From the outside the cabin I heard two voices. Both very familiar. Charlotte yelling, hurriedly dragging a furiously struggling and mmmphing Candice back through the broken front door. I yelled to her but my cries were muffled to her. I saw her eyes widen to the size of saucers as she gazed on the assortment of knives on the counter. Charlotte rushed her through the kitchen and shoved her down into one of the chairs still sitting in the living room. At the same time, Lara marched up the stairs towards me again.

"Get down here!" She screamed.

She took hold of my foot and yanked on it as hard as she could. The force pulled me off the step and sent me clambering down the stairs, still bound hand and foot. My head hit two or three steps as I rolled.

I landed on the bottom floor with a thud. Groaning from the barrage of stairs I'd taken in the face and over the rest of me. I had no time to rest though, as soon as I'd landed Lara grabbed a hold of my shoulders and yanked me upright again. I found myself looking directly at my distressed girl

As Charlotte stood by, doing nothing more than making sure Candice didn't try to get up, Lara picked up one of the knives and slowly walked over towards her prey. Candice's struggles fell silent. I yelled as loud as I could through the tape. This couldn't be happening! Candice was my love, my charge, my responsibility.

"Death to pigs." Lara hissed.

The knife drew closer and closer to its victim. I struggled so violently and so loudly it felt like I was about to pop out of my skin. Though as I pulled, the tape covering my mouth finally started to come loose. Pushing my jaws as hard, I managed to free both of my lips from the grasp of the tape.

"LARA WAIT!" I screamed.

This got her attention. She turned around.

"Why should I?" She asked.
"Look. She has nothing to do with this! I'm the one you want! Leave her out of this!"

Silence.

"Let her go and you can do whatever you want to me!"

Lara turned and walked towards me once more. Brandishing the knife. She took hold of my shoulder and dragged me to my feet and held the knife against my throat.

"Whatever I want to you Alex? What if I want everything?"
"Whatever you want."
"Didn't you listen to me? Are you really prepared to die for her?"

Tears gushed from my eyes and every limb shook. I found myself looking into the face of the death itself. My soul trembled as I quietly spoke:

"Yes. I am."

Time stood still. It seemed as if the earth had stopped revolving. I was so in the heat of the moment that I lost sense of anything else. Lara, Charlotte, Candice all stood completely still. Almost as if frozen... Until suddenly... Another tear glistened from Lara's eye.

"You... you... will..." She stammered.
"Yes."
"But... what do you want from her?"
"I want her to live."

The knife in Lara's hand shook, then dropped to the ground. Her tears welled up until she broke into uncontrollable sobbing. Frankly... I didn't know what it was. But something about what I'd just said, destroyed her. All I could do was stare, dumbfounded.

She collapsed onto the ground in a sobbing heap. Had she not been ready to kill me not more than ten seconds before, I would've wanted to give her a hug. Lara, who I'd always known as a paragon of malice and mental fortitude, had been reduced to a whimpering sobbing mess.

"Let her go Char." She said finally.

Charlotte seemed as dumbfounded as I was.

"But... Lar, we can't let her go! You know what'll happen to us!" She said.
"Just let her go."

Lara turned around and looked her sister in the eyes and suddenly they understood each other. Without another word Charlotte turned around and untied Candice's hands, and set down to work on her feet as Candice pulled the duct tape off her face. With that done, she took her first free steps since the beginning of her ordeal and slowly walked towards the broken door. Not sending me so much as a glance.

At this point my heart had slowed, but I still didn't know what was to become of me. Lara had told her sister to let Candice go, but not me. Was she still planning on taking me up on my offer?

Suddenly I heard the closet door sliding open. Memories came flooding back. My logical mind snapped back into gear all at once.

"What are you doing?" Charlotte demanded.

Suddenly as she saw what Candice was reaching for she started to charge. Mustering all my strength, I hopped across the floor and propelled myself forward, knocking her to the ground along with myself. Again my body was defenseless as it crashed to the ground. Charlotte kicked and clawed to get me away from her. I simply tried to hold her down for as long as I could. Until Candice could...

I was nearly deafened by the roar of a gun shot the rang through the building. As my ears rang afterwards I looked over to Candice who held the shot gun, having blown a huge hole in the ceiling. Charlotte froze with fear.

"Untie him! I'm calling the police!" She declared.

I won't belabor you with the details, but Charlotte did as she was told and untied me. I then ran to the phone and called the cops who arrived within minutes. As soon as they arrived, they took the deep red welts on our hands as evidence that we were the victims of the situation and Lara and Charlotte were immediately taken into custody.

Around an hour after the police had been called, I found myself sitting on the trunk of one of the many police cruisers which had arrived on the scene. A middle aged officer approached with me with two cups of coffee in his hands. I slid onto the ground and gladly accepted it.

I clutched my paper coffee cup in my hand tightly. The steam from its heated surface rose into the air, illuminated by the streaming moonlight coming through the trees. Leaning back against the car I took a long swig. Drinking enough to calm my nerves and slow down the adrenaline. Having taken a minute to myself I looked up to the strong-faced figure standing beside me.

"Alright, you feeling bit better?" He asked, genuine concern in his voice.
"Yeah." I replied.
"Ok, then tell me what happened."

I exhaled loudly and thought back, still coming to grips with my own vivid memories.

"I want to hear it in your words, from the beginning." He said.
"Alright."


When my story was complete the best he could offer was a strong yet reassuring pat on the shoulder. He said that was all they needed for the time being, but would probably need to interview me again and I would certainly have to testify in court. As he turned around and walked away, I had to stop him and ask where "she" was. He replied that she'd gone to sit on the beach. And that suddenly became the one place I wanted to be.

I walked around the small house and onto the beach which had offered so much comfort in the previous days. Candice was sitting on the sand, her toes sitting in the calm water. Silently I approached and sat down next to her. As soon as she saw me, she leaned over and collapsed into my chest.

"I'm so sorry Candice." I said quietly.
"I know." She replied.
"I should have told you about them, I should've, but I was too selfish."

She didn't reply.

"Did Charlotte tell you about what happened?"
"Yeah."
"I can't imagine she gave you a very good impression of me..."
"What did Lara want with you?" She demanded.
"She... Well... She came from a pretty tough background. I don't think she's ever had anyone... well... certainly never a guy in her life who really loved her. So she took it out on them."
"But why you?"

That was a good question. I never really thought about it. No matter what she had done to guys before she met me, I was the only one she chased. The reason became obvious to me....

"I was the one that got away." I decided not to tell her the truth... Though it wasn't totally a lie I don't think.

Candice thought for a minute.

"Was she really a killer? Would she have really killed us?"
"Honestly, I don't know. The first thing I learned about her was that nothing was ever as it seemed. She made sure of that. I don't know if she really wanted to hurt us, or if she was just trying to scare us or what. And I don't think we're ever going to know for sure."

For some reason it reminded me of an old song:

The wall on which the prophets wrote is cracking at the seams.
Upon the instrument of death the sunlight brightly gleams.
When everyman is torn apart with nightmares and with dreams,
Will no one lay the laurel wreath, when silence drowns the screams?
Confusion will be my epitaph.

Candice and I took a hotel in the city that night and returned home the morning. It took her a long time to forgive me for what happened. Sometimes I still think she hasn't gotten over it. To my knowledge I will only ever have to seen Lara one more time, when I testify in court about both my encounters with her, for which she faces three counts of kidnapping, battery, assault and assault with a deadly weapon.

Now that I think about what happened in retrospect, there's so much about her I don't understand. And it's obvious now that I never will, there are secrets that she will take with her to her gave. I guess she really was beyond saving.


Thanks for reading everybody.


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