Ever so gingerly, Carol turned the knob of her bedroom door and eased it open. She’d made sure to turn off the light in the room before hand, both so her eyes would be adjusted to the darkness of the hallway outside and so there was no telltale beam of light to give it away.

The rest of the house was quiet as she tiptoed out of her room and towards the stairs. Her mother was already asleep. Things would have been tricky if her father had been downstairs in front of the TV, watching late night programs, but fortunately tonight he’d gone out bowling with some of his buddies from the plant. Hardly fair, she thought, since he was always so adamant on her sticking to an 11 PM curfew, as if she was still 8 years old and not 18.

Carol’s feet, bare except for her pantyhose, padded quietly on the carpet. Her shoes were held in one hand, a pair of sexy black pumps that would be hell on her feet tomorrow, but she loved how she looked in them. In addition to her dark hose, she’d gone with her standard “little black dress.” Her auburn hair was tied up in a ponytail, nothing fancy but functional, like her makeup. In her other hand was a small handbag with the essentials: wallet, phone, fake ID.

Carol had done her best, to get ready as quickly as possible. She hadn’t had much warning, not thinking she’d be going out tonight, but about fifteen minutes ago, she’d gotten a text from her best friend Amberly, saying she’d got a line on a hot new club and they just had to go there tonight. Some special event or something they just couldn’t miss… So Carol had gotten ready as quick as she could in the twenty minutes or so before Amberly would swing by to pick her up.

Slowly as she dared, Carol crept through the house, expecting at any moment for the light to flick on and for her to get a chewing out from her mother, but she got lucky and made it to the back door without incident. She slipped out into the backyard, pausing just long enough to put her heels on before she snuck across the yard to the gate and let herself out onto the front yard and to the street.

Like Amberly’s texts had said, her battered old van was sitting at the corner of the street, idling, as Carol approached. She could see her friend, little more than an indistinct shadow in the dark window. She waved, and hurried on over, thinking only of how much fun they were going to have that night.

Just as she reached the passenger’s side door, a shadow detached itself from the bushes in the yard nearby. Moving quickly, it snuck up behind the teen girl. Carol had only the faintest of warnings before the shadow struck. A hand came around in front of her face, pressing a folded cloth pad over her mouth, cutting off her startled yelp. Her attacker’s other arm circled around, wrapping around the young woman’s chest, pinning her arms to her sides.

The teen began to struggle, nervously, but her efforts had no effect on the tight grip the unknown man had on her. She gave a frightened whimper, muffled by the cloth pad over her mouth, as he moved towards the side door of the van, dragging her along effortlessly. As they did, the door slid open from the inside. Carol’s eyes went wide, seeing what was inside.

Her attention was immediately caught by the man inside the van, who had opened the door. She could tell it was a man, from his size and bulk, but could tell little else. He was dressed in dark clothes and a ski mask hid his features. But her eyes soon went to just past him, to the van’s other occupants.

There were three of them, all young woman, girls really. They were lying on the floor, on their sides or on their bellies. From the girls on their bellies, Carol could see they had their hands crossed behind their backs, secured with some sort of plastic straps. Identical strap circled their ankles. Carol couldn’t see who they were, the three had cloth sacks pulled over their heads, held in place with more straps around the neck, cinching the rough cloth snug over the captives, so the outlines of their heads could be seen through the material. Muffled whimpers escaped the hoods.

The three were dressed, like her, for a night out clubbing, in nice, skimpy dresses and heels. From their outfits, Carol guessed the one closest to her was Amberly, in the nice green dress she usually liked to wear out dancing. The other two she figured were their mutal friends, Kimberly and Jane. All three squirmed on the floor of the van, quite helpless, sobbing into the hoods.

When the door had opened fully, Carol’s captor started to move again. The teen found herself lifted up, being pushed into the van. She shook her head, not wanting to go into the vehicle with these two, frightening kidnappers, but in the first man’s strong grasp, she had no choice. As soon as she and the first man were in, the second slammed the door shut behind her.

Carol got only a brief look around the van, getting a closer look at her friends’ bonds before she was forced down, onto her belly, beside Amberly. The wad of cloth was forced between her lips, into her mouth. She groaned into it in distress, struggling to push it out with her tongue, without much luck.

Meanwhile, her captor grabbed at her arms. His overwhelming strength went to work. Despite her attempts at resistance, she found her hands twisted, painfully, behind her back. Something was slipped around them and a second later, a zip-tie, like the ones binding the other girls, closed tight around her wrists. She grunted sharply into her gag as the hard plastic dug into her skin.

Turning around, he did the same with her ankles, reducing Carol to the same helpless captive as the other teens. While he was yanking it tight, his partner must have climbed back into the driver’s seat, because a second later, the van began to roll forward, carrying the kidnappers and their frightened cargo quickly away. Carol’s kidnapping, from start to finish had taken scant minutes.

Tears welled up in her eyes as the horror of her predicament sank in. The man grabbed Carol’s head roughly by her hair and pulled it back, up off the floor of the van, just long enough to push the half dislodged wad of cloth all the way back into her mouth.

Then a rough cloth hood, like the ones the other girls wore, was pulled over Carol’s head, plunging her into total darkness. She felt another zip-tie being pulled around her neck. She flinched as it was tightened, but fortunately it stopped just shy of choking her. It had the effect of stretching the cloth tight against her face though. Her panting breath, quickened with terror, quickly made the inside very hot and uncomfortable.

After a quick check over of Carol’s bonds and the rest of the captives, making sure none of them had made any progress towards freeing themselves, the first kidnapper got up and climbed into the passenger’s seats up front. Muffled slightly by the hood, Carol heard the him say in a low voice. “Alright, that’s number four. Which of Miss Party Girl's friends should we text and invite out next?...”