Helen lay on her stomach on the floor of her living room, face pressed into the luxurious persian rug, listening to the frightened moans and whimpers of her daughter, Katie, as the burglar tied her up. Helen desperately wanted to help her daughter, to hold Katie and let her know things would be alright but her own hands and feet were tightly bound with rough cord. Tug and pull as hard as she could, her bonds remained fast, cutting into her wrists and ankles with such force, it felt like they were going to cut them off completely at any moment.

Katie’s sobs were stifled, suddenly, replaced by a muffled groan as the intruder forced a gag between her teeth. Helen grunted sympathetically through her own cloth muzzle. The rag the man had packed into her mouth tasted foul and the narrow band of cloth tied between her teeth to hold it in cut painfully into the sides of her mouth, but the gag was brutally effective at silencing her pleas for mercy from the burglar. Bitterly, she sobbed, wondering why this was happening to her and her daughter.

Not ten minutes before, the two had been as happy and carefully as at any point in their lives. Helen was a tall woman of 38, with shoulder length blonde hair and a fit, trim body. She worked as a stock broker for a prestigious firm, a career which allowed her to live in a big house in a nice neighborhood with many beautiful things, the best of which was her daughter, Katie. In her third year of high school, Katie was a close match to her mother in looks and was very fit and athletic from soccer and cheerleading.

It was a Tuesday evening, completely ordinary. Helen had dressed down from the usual tailored business suits she wore into a more comfortable t-shirt and sweatpants. Her daughter was still in the jeans and tank-top she’d worn to school. They were together in the living room, trying to decide what to order in for dinner when in an instant their quiet, peaceful lives were shattered.

Helen looked up from the half completed order of Thai food as her daughter have a sudden shriek of fright. She followed the teen’s outstretched hand to the door to the living room. It had swung open, about halfway, and a short, stocky man was walking through. He was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. A ball cap and sunglasses obscured most of her features but a narrow jaw, covered by several days worth of black and gray stubble.

“Neither of you move! Keep quiet, ladies, and you won’t get hurt!” The man said in a low, rough voice. In his right hand, he held a dark black pistol, large and angular, pointed towards the two women. Slung over one shoulder was an old, navy blue gym bag.

Neither Helen or Katie made any move. They were frozen with shock and terror by this sudden intrusion. Before they could recover enough to act, the burglar crossed the room towards them. Seeing the phone out in Helene’s hand, he darted forward and seized it with his free hand. The sudden movement jarred Helen from her immobility.

“Please! She cried out in a trembling voice. “Don’t hurt us!” She held her hands up, as if trying to ward off the intruder.

The man regarded her with a cruel sneer. “I won’t...as long as you do what I say! Now, get over there!” He gestured with the barrel of the pistol to an open spot on the floor, between the couch and television. “You too!” He snapped at Katie. The teen yelped and moved to join her mother. As she passed the burglar, he confiscated her cellphone as well, much to the girl’s distress. Helen grabbed Katie in a tight hug, as much to ward off her own fears as assuage those of her daughter.

“Move apart!” The burglar growled, waving the gun in a threatening manner. “Lie down on your bellies, now!” As the two hurried to obey the barked command, he dropped the gymbag from his shoulder. It landed inches in front of Helen’s face with a dull thud. She flinched as he unzipped the top and she saw what lay on top: coils and coils of rope.

“Face down, lady!” He ordered, seeing her appalled expression. “Put your hands behind your back! You too girly!” This last order was directed at Katie who stifled a scared whimper. The two glumly complied, crossing their hands, trembling, and waited to be tied up.

“Ah!” Helen yelped as a loop of cord was pulled close around her wrists. “Please! It’s too tight! You’re hurting me!” She begged as the intruder started looping the rest of the rope around, seemingly intent on digging the cord into her wrists with each loop.

“Shut up!” He barked, emphasizing this with a sharp cuff with one hand to the side of her head. Helen bit her lip to keep from crying out as the man finished tying her hands, cinching the ropes even tighter then before.

Helen twisted her bound hands, dismayed by the unyielding ropes which dug into her wrists with every movement. Meanwhile the burglar took a second coil of rope and did the same thing with her ankles, quickly crossing and binding them in the same, inescapable bands.

The man reached into the bag for a third time, digging past the other ropes. His other hand grabbed a handful of Helen’s blonde hair and, after a moment, suddenly tugged sharply, yanking her head up off the carpet.

“Open wide!” He ordered, unnecessarily. Helen had already begun to yelp at the sudden pain in her scalp. It was cut off, suddenly, as a balled up cloth was forced between her lips. She gagged, wretching at the foul taste of the dirty rag, but before she could spit it out, her captor pushed the wad to the back of her mouth. Without giving her a chance again, the man tied a second cloth across her mouth, yanking the strip deep into her mouth, to keep the gag in place.

“Your turn, girly!” The man sneered, drawing a frightened whimper from the teen. Helen sobbed too, listening as her daughter underwent the same ordeal, but trussed tightly as she was, there was nothing she could do for her girl.

“Alright, ladies…” The man told them, after knotting Katie’s gag off tightly. “I’m going to have a quick look around and help myself to a few things. You just lie there quietly like you are now. I’ll be checking in, so don’t think about trying anything!” He turned the gym bag over, dumping the rest of the rope and cloth out. Taking the empty bag with him, the burglar left the room, leaving his captives to lie on the floor, squirm and sob.

The two lay there for some time. It might have been an hour or two, but it certainly felt longer for the helpless women. Outside, the evening sun slowly set, the room growing darker and darker as night fell. From time to time, they could hear the burglar moving about the house, the occasional thud or crash as he ransacked it. Helen moaned, wondering what would be left of the home she had so carefully built over the years when their captor was through with it.

From time to time, he poked his head into the living room to check on the bound women. When he first left, Helen had squirmed and inched her way over to the side of her daughter. Bound as they were, hand and foot, there wasn’t much she could do to comfort the frightened teen, but just huddling close together was some relief.

When he next checked in, the man shouted “Hey! Both of you, back apart!” Maybe he thought she was trying to pick the knot’s on Katie’s bonds, or maybe he was just exercising cruelty for its own sake, but with a rough shove of a booted foot, he pushed mother and daughter apart. After another stern warning to stay still, the burglar returned to his ransacking.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity to the two, he returned for the final time. “Well ladies,” He said in a mocking tone. “I think I’m finished here. Thank you for your cooperation!” He crossed the room over to them and knelt by the pile of extra rope. “Let me just make sure you don’t get loose before I’ve made my escape…”

Helen moaned miserably. Her bondage already seemed more then enough, but given that, she was helpless to do anything as he took one of the remaining coils and turned to her. A groan escaped her gag as he lashed her elbows together with the same crushing tightness. Another went around her knees, pinning her legs together. Finally, a third was run from the cord binding her wrists to that on her ankles. Helen gave a long, pleading whimper as the man pulled on this, bending her back into a strict hogtie, but he was merciless, not letting up until her wrists and ankles almost touched before knotting it off securely.

As she struggled to adjust to this new and far more demanding position, the burglar turned to Katie and did the same thing. The fit, flexible teen’s hogtie was, if anything, even more punishing then her mother’s and both were left groaning and sobbing by the end.

“Well, don’t you look lovely.” The man teased, stepping back to admire his handiwork. He rolled the two onto their sides, so they lay side by side, facing towards each other and up at him, eyes pleading. Reaching into his pocket, the man took out his phone and snapped several pictures of his captives.

The last of the rope was then used to lash the two captives together, pressed chest to chest. They sobbed, grimacing as the ropes were pulled as tight as possible before being knotted off. By the time he was finished, neither could do more then squirm feebly. More photos were snapped by the grinning man. As he finished, he tapped out a message on the phone.

“I’m just sending these pictures to some buddies of mine.” The man told his captives, in a mocking tone, drawing groans of dismay from the captives. “If you ladies don’t manage to get free in the next coupla’ hours, they’ll be along to take care of you.” He grinned at the moans of fright this drew from the women. Grabbing two of the left over bands of cloth, he quickly tied a blindfold over each of them.

The last they heard of their captor was his footsteps crossing back to the door with a final taunt of “Good luck!” There was silence for a long moment before, muffled through the walls, they could hear the engine of Helen’s expensive sport car starting up and pulling out of the garage. Then all was silent, but for their frantic moans as the two trussed up women struggled frantically in their tight bondage...