Nicole sighed softly to herself as she finished checking beneath desk in Rachel's mother's office. She struggled to her feet, not an easy task with her hands and feet both shackled.

Rachel was absentmindedly humming an off-tune song a few steps behind Nicole. She glanced at the stop watch she was carrying and commented, offhandedly, "That's an hour. You've got two hours left."

Nicole groaned. Rachel's prediction was so far holding true, since she'd found the first key, Nicole hadn't found a single other key. She'd finished checking the living room without turning up anything.
Not surprising, Rachel wasn't stupid enough to hide more than one key to a room, forcing Nicole to shuffle around at a slow crawl with her shackled feet, eating up her time.

She'd moved onto the next room, then the next, not finding anything. No keys, nothing. Now, she'd lost a third of her time and was no closer to getting free then she was an hour ago.  

"You want a hint, Nicole?" Rachel asked.

"What's the catch?" Nicole asked. Since the loser of their little game wound up the other girl's slave for the evening, Nicole doubted Rachel would do anything to help her in the slightest.

Rachel gave a look of shocked horror that Nicole would dare suggest her of having a catch to her offer. Then she added, "Each hint will cost you ten minutes added onto your time." She grinned.

Nicole did the math. Five keys, five hints, ten minutes each. That was fifty minutes, more or less half her remaining time. And that was assuming one hint would be enough to find a key. Then again, wondering around on her own hadn't worked any better.

"Fine." Nicole said. "Give me the first clue."

"Right…" Rachel paused for a moment, thinking. "If you seek the key, travel up to the sea. If at first it won't show, look down below."

Nicole suppressed a groan. Rachel's poetry left a lot to be desired. Fortunately, Nicole knew what she was talking about. The bathroom in her room was decorated with an undersea theme. The bathroom upstairs, of course, Nicole thought to herself, imagining the climb upstairs with her legs shackled. She sighed, no time to waste then.

She shuffled out of the home office. The stairs were down the hall. Despite that, it still took a couple minutes just to reach the stairs. Nicole grimaced, imagining her time ticking down faster and faster with each hobbled step.

Upon reaching the stairs, Nicole found her chain was just long enough she could stretch up one step. Rachel following close by, clearly enjoying Nicole's laborious progress, Nicole began her assent up the stairs.

Nicole paused at the top of the stairs to catch her breath.

"Come on Nicole," Rachel cheered from below her, "…you're nearly there!" Nicole glared at her and started shuffling. She entered the bathroom and glanced around. What was the second part of Rachel's dumb riddle? Nicole wondered. Look down below? Something like that.

Nicole knelt down and opened the cabinets beneath the sink. After a few minutes searching, she found it another small silver key slipped in the middle of a pile of towels. After trying the key a couple times, it proved to go to one of the cuffs on her hands. She unlocked it, letting it dangle at the end of its chain from her other hand.

"Alright," Nicole said, turning to Rachel. 'What's the next hint?"

Rachel thought for a moment. "If you've got time, let's have a snack. Be sure to look way in the back."

"I thought you said there weren't any keys in the kitchen, Rachel." Nicole said, her mood not improved any by Rachel's poor poetry.

"There aren't!" Rachel protested. "It's in the pantry. That's a totally different room. It counts." She added, seeing Nicole's expression.

Nicole sighed. And the kitchen was downstairs too. Going down the stairs was even harder than going up, though at least with her hands free she could use the railing to steady her slow progress downstairs.

In the pantry, Nicole spent nearly twenty minutes carefully searching among the boxes and cans piled high on the shelves before she found the key. To her relief, it unlocked one of the cuffs hobbling her feet. Nicole was less happy, however, when Rachel announced she had less than half an hour left to find the last four keys.


As it was, she found one more, the second key to the chains on her feet, and was heading towards the next key. She was passing by the front door when Rachel announced her time was up.

"Already?" Nicole asked, incredulously. "Let me see that wa-MMMPPPHHH!" Her complaints were cut off as Rachel stuffed the ball gag back in Nicole's mouth.

"Now, now." Rachel said, tightening the straps again. "Slaves aren't allowed to talk unless their mistress gives them permission." She grabbed the free cuff dangling from Nicole's left hand and pulled it behind her back, to lock it around her right wrist, cuffing the girl's hands behind her back.
She bent down and reapplied the hobble chain to Nicole's feet as well. She stood up. From her pocket, she drew a leash and clipped it onto Nicole's collar.

"Now, let's go up to my room and get you changed. You like this, I've got you the cutest little slave custom to wear…" Rachel said, ignoring Nicole's gag-muffled groans. "…and then you can start on the dishes…"

Suddenly, there was the jingle of keys on the lock from the front door. Both girls froze and turned as the door opened and Rachel's older sister, Sarah, stepped into the front hallway. Her eyes went wide with surprise as she took in the sight of her sister leading her friend, collared and gagged, her hands shackled behind her back. Nicole felt her face flush red with embarrassment.

"Uh…hi, sis." Rachel stammered. "You're back early… Look, I can explain everything…" Suddenly Rachel turned and ran for the stairs, leaving Nicole trying to hobble out of the way as fast as she could as Sarah chased after her sister, shouting, "You won't be able to explain anything after I gag you!..."

Nicole stood in the hallway as the minutes passed by, unsure of what to do, or even what she could do, helplessly bound and gagged. From time to time, she could hear muffled thumps and bumps and screams as the two sisters fought.

Eventually, Sarah reappeared, victorious, heading down the stairs. She had a black duffle bag over her shoulder. Her other hand held a short leash. Attached to the leash, hobbling behind her captor, was Rachel. She was gagged as well with another ball-gag and collared. Her hands were bound behind her back, presumably with rope as more rope had been used to bind her arms to her sides, and to hobble her.

Rachel glanced at Nicole and gave a miserable groan. Nicole could only reply with another gag-muffled grunt.

"You know," Sarah said, grinning. "If you wanted to use my things, all you had to do was ask. Of course, if you're playing with my toys, you'll have to play by my rules…" She reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to Nicole, picking up her leash as well. She tugged on the two leashes, forcing her two captives to walk over to the front door.

"It's lucky I had to run home to pick up a few things. Of course now, it looks like those things will include you two." Sarah said as she opened the door.  Nicole and Rachel both groaned angrily into their gags, until Sarah gave a sharp tug on the leashes, reminding the two they didn't have a choice in the matter. Glumly, they shuffled outside after their captor.

The sun was starting to set as Sarah led the two girls down the walk to her car. Nicole glanced around, but luckily, there was no one else out to see them, or at least she didn't see anyone…
Sarah opened the door to the car and helped Nicole and Rachel slid into the two backseats. She pulled the seatbelts snuggly over the two, pinning their already bound hands between the seats and their backs.

Nicole glanced at Rachel, she wasn't happy, not in the slightest, but didn't look scared. That was something of a relief. Nicole didn't think her friend's sister would put the two of them in any danger. Still, she had a feeling that, whatever Sarah had in mind for her captives, the two probably wouldn't enjoy it very much.

Sarah dropped the black duffel bag on the seat between the two and opened it up. From inside, she pulled out a pair of black bandanas. "Don't want to spoil the surprise, right?" She said. She pulled off Nicole's glasses, before tying the first over Nicole's eyes. She groaned into her gag, the only response she could give.

She heard Rachel grunt as she got the same treatment. She heard the door slam shut, then the driver's door open and shut as Sarah got in her seat and started the car. The car ride seemed to last an eternity. Nicole's face was red with embarrassment at the thought that everyone on the road was able to see her blindfolded and gagged like this.

"Well, at least with the blindfold no one will be able to tell it's me." Nicole thought, trying to make the best of things. Beneath her embarrassment, however, she had to admit she was finding the whole thing thrilling. Here she was, a helpless bound and gagged captive, being driven to who knows what fate?

Nicole wondered what Sarah would do to them. She'd only played a couple tie-up games with Rachel's older sister and most of them had been ad hoc affairs, when she'd decided to join in on the fun, usually by jumping Rachel from behind and trussing her up before either girl could complain. She'd never gone as far as to kidnap the two of them before.  

Suddenly, Sarah turned off the main road, and after a few more turns gradually coasted to a halt. Nicole heard a door open and slam shut, then Sarah opened the door next to her. "We're here!" Sarah said, cheerfully, unbuckling Nicole and helping her blind captive out of the car.

Nicole stood nervously, as Sarah helped Rachel out, wondering where she was. She couldn't see anything of course, but the ground beneath her feet felt like a gravel parking lot. She could still hear cars, of course, but the sound was muted, so she guessed they were off the main road, probably behind a building somewhere.

She was interrupted by a sudden sharp tug on her leash, forcing her to hurry forward to keep from being pulled off her feet. Unable to see, she bumped into Rachel more than a few times as the two were led, helpless to wherever Sarah was taking them.

She hear a door open and a second later felt cool air conditioning on her skin as they were taken inside. "Watch your step, there are stairs here." Sarah said. Despite the warning, Nicole nearly tripped over the first step. Nicole didn't have time to feel her away around as Sarah gave her leash a sharp tug. Nicole hurried forward, climbing the stairs as fast as she could.  

The next few minutes were an endless procession of invisible steps, going up forever; it seemed in the unseen blackness of Nicole's blindfold. Twice, they paused and turned at landings, so they must have gone up at least two stories.

Sarah opened another door and dragged her captives through it. They were led down a long, straight hallway to another door. Inside, Nicole could hear voices talking, and what sounded like a TV on in the background. She heard a man call out, "Hey Sarah, what took you so long? We've been waiting for you!..."