Katherine's mother was in the living room reading a book, when Kat got home from school. She dropped her book bag on the floor and collapsed on the couch.

"Rough day at school, honey?" Kat's mom asked, looking up from her book.

"Terrible!" Kat replied. "Worst of it, I'm probably going to be up half the night with all the homework the teachers have dumped on me!" She gave a sigh a dying man probably couldn't match and laid her head back and shut her eyes.

Suddenly, Kat heard her mom scream in fright, followed by a loud crash of breaking glass. "What the-" Kat began, sitting up, than she screamed in fright too. A large man wearing a black ski mask and black fatigues had smashed one of the living room windows and was crawling through into the house!

He stood up, seeming to tower over the two seated women, at least in Kat's mind. In one large hand, he held up a pistol and pointed at Kat and her mother. "Both of you keep quiet now! Not a word, you hear!?! I've never killed a woman before, but there's a first time for everything, isn't there? Now, stand up! Hands on your head!"

Hurriedly, Kat obeyed, getting up from the couch and raising her hands up in the air. Across the room, her mother quickly did the same. Kat glanced over at her mother fearfully. The older woman glanced back, though she tried to look calm for her daughter, Kat could tell she was frightened as well.

Nightmare scenario after nightmare scenario flashed through Kat's mind. Was he going to kidnap them? Would he rape them? Murder them? She shivered in fright with every thought, each more terrifying then the last.   

"Both of you lie down on the floor, next to each other on your bellies. Cross your hands behind your backs and press your noses to the ground!" The burglar ordered. He gestured to an open spot of the living room with the barrel of his pistol.

Kat practically ran to the spot in her fright and knelt. She leaned forward and lay down on her belly. The rough carpet scratched at her bare face as she crossed her hands behind her back and lowered her head onto the ground, then lay still. Kat felt her mother join her lying on the ground beside her.

"Don't worry, Kat. It's going to be…" Kat's mother began, trying to calm her daughter, but she was silenced by a growl from the burglar. Kat glanced over at her mother, and nodded, trying to look calmer then she felt right at the moment.

She heard the footsteps of the intruder as he walked over to his two captives. Cautiously, Kat raised her head and glanced back, trying to see what her captor was doing.

"Head down, girl!" the man growled at her, stepping up beside her. "Press your nose to the carpet."

Kat squeaked in fright and quickly pressed her head down onto the floor. She didn't look up as she felt rough hands grab her wrists. A second later, Kat felt her hands be tied quickly and competently with rough cord. She winced as the rope cut into the bare skin of her wrists.

The burglar ignored her and moved on to tie her feet. The rope didn't cut as bad, Kat's jeans protecting her ankles, but it still felt as if her legs were held in a vice, completely immobilized.

Kat's captor took the left over rope from the cord binding Kat's ankles and pulled it up, forcing Kat to bend her legs back. He tied the rope off to the bindings on her wrists, leaving the young woman hogtied.

The rope was pulled tight, until Kat felt she could almost touch her feet with the tips of her fingers and she was forced cruelly to arch her back to take some of the strain off her wrists, which felt like a thousand tiny needles were jabbing her.

The burglar reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of none-to-clean handkerchiefs.

"You've got to be kiddin-MMMPPPHHH!!!" Kat began, but was cut off suddenly as the burglar stuffed one of the rags into her mouth. He stuffed it deep in Kat's mouth with one hand. Before she could spit it out, Kat's captor had folded the second handkerchief into a band and cleave gagged her with it.

While the burglar moved over and began tying Kat's mother up the same way, Kat struggled to keep from gagging on the cloth packing her mouth. Her captor had stuffed it all the way to the back of her mouth, and it tasted terrible.

Kat heard a soft "mmmppphhh!" from her mother as she got the same treatment as her daughter had. Then, the intruder stood up.

"I hope you don't mind if I take a look around the place while I'm here. Oh no, don't get up on my account, I think I can find my way around the place well enough." he said with a grin. "Don't go anywhere." He called back over one shoulder as he left to go and loot their house.



Kat waited a second to make sure he wasn't going to come back a second later, than began to wriggle around, testing her bonds. They were tight, holding her hands and feet in an unyielding embrace. No chance of slipping a hand or foot free then, not unless she wanted to lose a layer of skin in the process.

Maybe she could untie the knot… A few minutes of feverish work put an end to that idea as well. The hogtie she was in put too much strain on her hands; she couldn't twist them around enough to reach the knot.

By pulling her legs back a bit, Kat could take some of that strain off, and try and loosen her bonds, but she couldn't manage it for more than a minute or two at a time before her legs tired and she was forced back into her previous, agonizing position.

Even if she could've reached the knots long enough for anything more than a frantic, hurried attempt to pick it, it wouldn't have helped. Kat, unfortunately, kept her fingernails clipped short. She couldn't find any purchase of the tight rope of the knots.

Kat then briefly considered finding something to cut the rope, or call for help with. Despite the strictness of her tie, she could squirm enough to move a couple inches at a time; crawling like a worm over the floor.

Almost immediately, she discounted that idea as well. There was nothing that could cut the rope, at least not in the living room. Kat's cell phone was in her purse, on the couch where the burglar had left it, after going through her things, looking for any money, well out of reach of the tied up captives.

There were knives and scissors in the kitchen, not thirty feet away, but tied up like this, they might as well have been on the moon, it made no difference. It would take hours, crawling on her belly to get there. There was no chance of making it that far before their captor returned. Kat doubted he'd be very happy seeing one of his prisoners trying to escape. The last thing Kat needed was to give him an excuse to make thing worse for her and her mom.
         And even then, if she somehow made it to the kitchen without him catching her, all the knives were high up on the counter, the scissors inside a drawer, both out of her reach at the moment.      
Kat groaned into her gag in frustration.
          Gagged like this, they couldn't even call for help, not that there would be anyone to hear their pleas for help. No one except the burglar and Kat doubted he'd untie them. Quite the reverse, she suspected, if he caught them making too much noise.

         Kat slumped down in her bonds, defeated. She was no closer to getting free then when she's started half an hour ago, the only thing she'd accomplished was to drench herself in sweat from her exertions and rub her wrists raw.

          She wriggled around to glance at her mother, who had made no more progress to getting free then her daughter had. She turned to look back at her daughter. Her eyes were wide with fear and tears were forming at the corners of her eyes.

        Kat understood what her mother was feeling. She hoped, as bad as it was, that their captor had nothing worse planned for them then to tie them up to keep the two women out of his way while he ransacked the house for valuables and made his escape, but what if he had other plans for the two of them?

         Whatever his plans, there was nothing the two women could do. Kat and her mother were helpless to resist their captor, whatever he chose to do with them. The helplessness burned within Kat. It horrified her to do that, whatever her fate was; there was nothing she could do to change it. Her whole life was totally in the grip of her captor. She was helpless.



        As if speaking of the devil, no sooner had Kat thought that then the burglar appeared at the door of the room. In her position, Kat couldn't see anything but his shoes. She struggled to raise her head to look up at her captor as he walked over to the two women.

        He had found a backpack and filled it with his stolen loot. Kat recognized it as her own schoolbag. A voice in the back of her head briefly hoped he'd taken her homework along with the two's stolen valuables.

        He knelt down beside Kat, who squirmed fearfully, but was unable to get away from him. He chuckled and playfully slapped the helpless girl's butt. She cringed at his touch.

        To her relief, he did nothing worse than pull a scarf out from his pocket. Kat recognized it as one of her mother's expensive silk scarves. He must have taken it while looting her mother's bedroom.

        "Nighty-night!" the man chuckled as he pulled the scarf over Kat's eyes. He tied it off behind her head, pulling the material tight, so it was stretched tight over her eyes and the bridge of her nose. If was completely impossible to see through. Kat was left in total darkness.

        She heard him move over and do the same to her mother. Then she heard footsteps. He stopped and spoke. "Well, thank you two for your hospitality, ladies. Now, I'm afraid, I have to take my leave. There are a couple more people I intend to visit today and I'd hate to disappoint them."

        Hope began to rise in Kat. He was leaving? He was letting them go? She almost couldn't believe. She was sure, at any moment, he'd change his mind. Decide to kidnap the two anyway. She heard him walk to the door. He stopped and said, "Oh, and don't worry. I'm sure someone will be along to free you two…sooner or later…"

        Ignoring his captive's gag-muffled squeals of protest, he turned and left, his footsteps getting gradually getting softer and softer until Kat couldn't hear him anymore…

        Kat grunted into her gag. Her captor was gone, she hoped, but she was still tied up and still no closer to getting free. Kat moaned.

        If they couldn't get free themselves, they were stuck here, until Kat's dad got home. Her dad was a workaholic. He tried to get home at six each day, but more often than not, he wasn't home till nearly ten o'clock.
        
        She tried to think. It had been nearly four thirty when she'd gotten home. Since then, she'd lost all track of time. She doubted it had been longer than an hour though. Kat moaned again. She tried to make herself as comfortable as possible and settled in for the long haul…