“There! That ought to keep you quiet!”

 “Hmmppphh!!!” Melissa gave an indignant grunt, but to her dismay it was indeed far quieter then her cries a moment before.

 The 22-year old coed lay on the floor of the small flat she shared with two other students. She was hogtied, tightly with rope and a thick layer of tape covered the lower part of her face. Her cheeks bulged beneath the silver band, on account of the cloth packing the inside of her mouth.

 The short, pretty blonde girl had come home about an hour before, hoping to grab a bite to eat and some TV before the start of her afternoon classes. Instead, as soon as she’d come in, she’d been jumped by two men already inside the house, hustled in to the living room and forced to lie down so they could tie her up. A few pieces of tape, minus the packing, had sufficed to muffle her frantic questions and pleas.

 Any hopes Melissa might have had that this was simply a robbery were dashed as, after making sure their captive was quite helpless, the two men had settled in, obviously to await the return of her two roommates later that afternoon. Why, Melissa didn’t know. Grace’s parents had money, she knew, though she hadn’t known they were rich enough to tempt a ransom. Other possibilities, from serial killers to white slavers danced through her head alarmingly.

 Five minutes before, there had been an unexpected knock at the door. Melissa had gone into action at once, having managed to loosen one corner of the tape during the preceding interval, she’d gotten the tape off and started to scream.

 Unfortunately for her, one of the intruders was close by and was just as quick as she was. In a flash, he was over her, clamping a hand across her mouth to stifle all but the initial yelp. The other man had rushed to the door and, to the coed’s dismay, convinced the door-to-door proselytizers outside it had only been the TV and sent them on their way.

 “You’ll regret that!” He told Melissa and disappeared into the laundry room. He returned a minute later with something in his hands. As he knelt in front of her, that something proved to be two pairs of panties he’d snatched from the hamper. One was one of hers, the other belonged to one of her roommates. Both were soon stuffed deeper inside her mouth.

 As she wretched and groaned at this unpleasant gag, the tape was reapplied and reinforced so a thick cocoon wrapped her jaw, dashing any hopes she might have had of getting free of it now.

 “Now, sit there quiet and don’t cause us any further trouble.” The man told her sternly. “Or we’ll make you silent as the grave!”