"Sparky! I'm home!"

Claire shook her umbrella in the hallway of her apartment complex before stepping inside. Her cat, Sparky, sat on the counter greeting her with a single meow. She could tell he was hungry. After all, it was past his dinner time! Traffic was horrible on account of the rain, and Claire herself was starving after a long day of work.

Setting her umbrella by the front door, she slipped her nylon clad feet out of her high heels and into a pair of comfy slippers. She was definitely a heels girl, but after a long day of having them on her feet it was nice to finally get them off. Her fellow bank tellers were always telling her to switch to more comfortable shoes, but Claire wouldn't budge. Fashion over comfort was her way to go!

Heading into the kitchen she prepared Sparky's dinner for him. Meanwhile, she placed a food delivery order for herself. She was too tired to cook a meal and she'd been craving takeout anyway. Setting Sparky's dinner down on the kitchen floor, Claire shuffled over to the couch and sank into it, stifling a yawn as she did so.

Turning on the T.V. she opened her phone and scrolled through social media while some show played in the background. She really didn't care what was on, it was just nice to have something playing in the background to absolve the silence.

knock knock knock

Claire looked up from her phone toward the door. She then checked the time. Only fifteen minutes had passed since she placed her food order. Was it here already? If so, that was pretty quick! Perhaps she'd order from this place again if it was always going to be like this!

Without thinking twice she walked over to the door and swung it wide open in hopes of seeing a bag of food waiting for her on other side. Instead, she was greeted by two burly looking men clad in black jumpsuits and ski masks.

"What the mmmmmmph!"

They charged inside, scooping her up in the process. One of the men grabbed her arms from behind while simultaneously slapping a gloved hand over her mouth. The other hoisted her legs up and held them tight, both her slippers flying off as he did so.

"Mmmmmmph nnnmmmph!"

Claire tried to break free from their grip, but the men promptly dragged her further into her apartment carrying her all the way to her room. Throwing her down onto the bed, as the one man held her down, the other one who had been holding her legs grabbed her skirt and yanked it right off.

"MMMMMMMPH!"

Claire was terrified now. What the hell was going to happen to her?!

"Relax," the man said, "we're not going to hurt you. Your clothes are just in the way. Can't get you fully secured otherwise. We'll leave your underwear on...don't worry."

Claire was worried alright! But at least it didn't sound like they were planning anything too nefarious. Still, she thrashed around as the man continued to undress her, unbuttoning her blouse next. Just like he promised, they stopped there.

"Ggggnnnmmmmph!"

Claire kicked her nylon clad legs wildly into the air hoping to catch the man with a kick or something.

"Hurry, let's get her gagged so we can get to work!"

"On it!"

Gagged?! Claire stopped struggling so much for a moment as she watched the man digging through her dresser drawers. He returned holding a bundle of her own panties! At least he had bothered to grab ones that were clean. She kept her laundry hamper in her closet, and was grateful she did so. Most likely he would have fished something from there had it been out in the open!

With the undergarments in hand, the man balled one up as he prepared to shove it in Claire's mouth. She resumed her kicking and squirming, but this wasn't her attacker's first gig after all. Sadly for Claire, this was her first time in a situation like this, and as soon as the hand was removed from her mouth she opened it to scream for help.

"Somebody helmmmmmmmmmph!"

In the underwear went as Claire coughed and sputtered into them. Following this first pair, the man shoved in at least two more! Claire's mouth felt like it was about to burst, and with her attention now drawn to the massive wad of panties in her mouth she was much more calm and had almost stopped her struggling completely.

Grabbing a roll of tape from the little bag of goodies they had brought with them, the men wrapped a few layers around Claire's head before pushing her down onto the bed on her back.

"Ggggnnnnnnnmph..."

Claire closed her eyes as she moaned into her gigantic gag. It really had rendered her quite helpless, which the men appreciated as it made tying her up a breeze. Starting from her nylon clad legs and moving up her body they began wrapping coil after coil of rope around it. She could feel 3, no 4, maybe even 5 places where they tied her legs. Her upper body was tied the same, with rope being wound above and below her breasts, and around her abdomen as well. Her arms were left straight down by her side and held in place with rope tied around them and connected to her body. As if that wasn't enough, the men made sure she was really held in place by tying her to the bed using rope connected from her body to the four corners of the bed frame. She was now completely and totally stuck in place.

"Ffmmmm mmmmph gggnnnmph!"

Claire looked up at the men with a pleading look in her eyes. As soon as they had finished securing her, they went about grabbing up a bunch of stuff from around Claire's apartment before leaving without saying another word. Claire was dumbfounded by the whole situation. If all they needed to do was rob her, why the hell had they tied her up so tight?!

"Mmmmmmmmmmph!"

Claire flopped around on the bed as it squeaked and groaned. There was absolutely no give in the ropes. She was going to be stuck like this for a good while.

knock knock knock

Claire looked up as another knock came from the door. Surely it was her food this time.

"MMMMMMPH MMMMMMMMMMMMMMPH!"

She screamed as loud as she could, but with all those panties crammed in her mouth there was no way she was going to get anyone's attention. Her stomach let out a small gurgle as she laid her head down on the bed. It was going to be a very long night...

"And how were you found?"

Kayla sat across from Claire in the very apartment where all this took place a few days prior.

"Thankfully my coworkers are also good friends of mine and when I didn't show up for work the next day without saying anything they made sure to check up on me."

"Those are some good friends," said Kayla as she continued taking notes.

"So you said I'm not the first person this has happened to, right?"

"That's right. There's been at least 5 other cases in the last few weeks."

"And how do you know they're connected?"

"Well, so far all the other victims have reported the same thing: two intruders robbing the home of young single women living by themselves. Cash and other valuables are taken, and the real link is the fact that each victim has been tied up beyond that which is even remotely necessary. So yeah, I think we're looking at a case of serial robberies.

"Wow...well I hope what I gave you helps."

"It does. I'm compiling testimonies from all the witnesses so I can put together a story in the Tribune. I'd like to see the thugs caught before I publish the story, but who knows. These guys seem pretty elusive. Anyway, thanks again for your time."

"Of course! Good luck with everything!"

And so Kayla headed back to the office with her notes in hand. It was a tricky case to be sure. Unless there was any way of knowing who was going to be struck next, she had no clue as to how she'd manage to catch these guys. Still, even without actually catching them it made for a good story. The police were already working on it anyway, and so maybe they knew more than Kayla did.

In any case, Kayla was finished for the day and ready for the weekend! She and Madelyn had plans to hang out and watch a movie together, and she was quite excited to see her best friend. It had been too long since they'd had some good quality time together, but tonight was the night!

Heading home to change first, Kayla slipped out of her work clothes and into something nice and cozy. Black leggings, green socks, and a fuzzy crop top sweater was her outfit of choice. Grabbing her bag, Kayla slipped her feet into a pair of slides and headed out.

knock knock knock

"Oh my goooood!"

She could already hear Madelyn's voice coming from the other side of the door as her friend rushed over to open it. After fumbling over the lock, Madelyn threw the door open before jumping at Kayla and engulfing her in a big hug. Kayla smiled as she hugged her friend back.

"It's been wayyyy too long," Madelyn said, "come on in, I just made some popcorn!"

Kayla stepped inside as Madelyn skipped over to the couch, a bowl of popcorn and a bottle of wine rested on her living room table. Setting her bag aside, and slipping out of her sneakers, Kayla walked over to the couch and plopped herself down. Madelyn was dressed just as comfy as Kayla wearing a white button up sleep shirt, pajama shorts, and a pair of plain soft pink knee high socks.

"So tell me," Madelyn said, "how have you been?"

"Good, yeah...did Andrea tell you about..."

"Oh my god, yes! Kayla, I heard all about it! I can't believe you did that! Going undercover as a flight attendant? Exposing a corrupt drug smuggling operation? Insane!"

"I know, right? I kind of can't believe it myself. But hey, props to Andrea for coming up with the whole thing. She's a natural snoop!"

"Just like us!"

Kayla smiled, "exactly. But yeah I've been good. Haven't been up to much since then. How have you been? You do any recent modeling shoots?"

"You know it! Here, let me go grab some shots from my most recent stuff!"

Madelyn jumped up from the couch and raced to her bedroom. She returned with a folder in hand and tossed it onto Kayla's lap.

"Wow!" Kayla said as she flipped through the photos, "these are gorgeous! Love the outfits too."

Madelyn was such a natural. Kayla loved looking at her modeling photos, it was always such a treat. To Kayla Madelyn was this sweet, carefree friend always smiling and having a good time, but in these modeling photos she came across as mysterious and sexy. Not that she wasn't those things, it was just neat to see how well she could get into it like that. Kayla definitely didn't think she had it in herself to do anything like what Madelyn did.

"You know," Madelyn said, "the offer still stands if you ever want to come to a shoot with me. I'm sure any photographer would relish the chance to capture some good photos of the great Kayla Grace."

Kayla laughed, "no, I appreciate the offer as always, but I'm just not cut out for it."

"How do you know if you've never tried! Come on, girlie, have some confidence!"

"We'll see," Kayla said, "how about that movie though? You ready to start it up?"

"Let's do it!"

For the next few hours, the girls snuggled up on the couch together watching one of Kayla's all time favorite movies, Spirited Away. It was such a comfort classic for her and really brought back memories of when she was a kid growing up watching it. At around the midway point, Madelyn paused it for a quick bathroom break. Kayla took the opportunity to get up herself and wandered over to the kitchen and grabbed herself some water.

She noticed another modeling folder resting on the counter by the fridge. Under ordinary circumstances she would have paid it no mind, but one of the photos was peeking out from the folder and there was something about it that caught Kayla's eye. It looked like...no, surely it couldn't be. Kayla tried everything in power not to snoop, but she just couldn't help her curiosity. She opened the folder and took a look at the photos inside.

CLANK!

Kayla set her glass of water down on the counter hard. She nearly spit out the water in her mouth at the same time, but managed to compose herself and get it down. She was correct in what she had thought she had seen. Inside the folder was in fact recent photos of Madelyn doing a modeling shoot, but it was unlike any modeling shoot Kayla had ever seen. As she flipped through the photos it was the same for each one too.

In them Madelyn was...

"Oh hey, Kayla...whatcha' looking at?"

Kayla slammed the folder shut and turned around hastily. Her cheeks red with embarrassment. She was usually one to keep fairly calm and composed, at least in the sense of not being embarrassed. Today was an exception from that norm given what she had spied in that folder. She could immediately tell from the look on Madelyn's face that she knew that Kayla had seen the pictures. Kayla wracked her brain trying to figure out how to move forward and what to say.

"Madelyn...I was just..."

"I...I was planning to tell you at some point," she said, "I just, couldn't get up the courage to do it."

Suddenly it hit Kayla. This must have been what she was so secretive about a few weeks ago! Yes, it had to be! She remembered it very clearly now. It had been when they were getting lunch together when Kayla was working on that jewelry store robbery case while simultaneously dealing with her new rival, Jennifer. She remembered Madelyn getting all weird when she asked about her recent modeling gigs, and this had to be why!

Kayla took a second to compose herself before responding. She could tell Madelyn was a bit embarrassed by the whole situation too. She had to choose her words carefully here. She didn't want to upset her friend or anything.

"Look, Madelyn, it's okay."

"No, it's not okay. I meant to tell you about all of this. I didn't mean for you to find out this way, I'm sorry."

"Madelyn, it's really okay. I'm not mad. I get it."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I mean, this is big news. I'm just glad it's out in the open now and we can chat about it, you know?"

"So...you're not mad that I kept this from you for so long?"

"Are you happy?"

"What?"

"Are you happy? Does doing stuff like this make you happy, bring you joy?"

Madelyn's eyes started to light up again as a smile formed at the corner of her mouth.

"Yeah," she said, "it does. It's hard to explain...but yeah. I think it's fun."

"Then that's all that matters. I want you to be happy, and if this is what makes you happy then I'll support you no matter what."

"Really?"

"Always and forever."

Madelyn ran over to Kayla as the two friends embraced each other in the kitchen. Madelyn buried her head in Kayla's shoulder.

"Love you, bestie."

Kayla laughed.

"Love you too, bestie. Now come on, I want to hear more about this. Do you feel comfortable talking about it?"

"Yeah, definitely. I want to tell you everything!"

"Cool, well then how about we move over to the couch, and you can tell me all about how you got into bondage modelling."

Moving over to the couch, the girls did just that. Madelyn told Kayla the whole story. It had all kind of started a while back when she and Kayla had been attacked by Peirce's goons while meeting with his receptionist. Madelyn didn't now exactly how to describe it, but having her body enveloped in ropes like that was strangely...comforting. She felt bad about it at first, and because of her and Kayla's constant run-ins with peril she felt super guilty about even the thought of enjoying it.

Her feelings were confirmed the second time they ran into trouble with Sasha's goons. Everything about the way being bound felt was just so exciting to Madelyn. She started by looking up some pictures online before eventually diving in headfirst and contacting a bondage modelling agency herself. She kept everything pretty low key. She didn't use her real name, and only did a couple of shoots.

In the pictures Kayla had seen, Madelyn was tied up really intricately. It was so much more rope than was necessary just to keep someone subdued for a bit, and after looking over the photos again with Madelyn who helped point things out and describe stuff a bit Kayla understood how someone might enjoy this. There were photos of her hogtied, tied in a chair, and tied in a few other positions too. The photos were gorgeous too. The studio she worked with did a really good job of keeping things tasteful and editing the photos to look very nice. Madelyn was dressed in a few different outfits ranging from super casual clothes to a few where she was in lingerie and stockings. Again, it was all done very tastefully, and god was Madelyn still so good at posing for the camera! At the end of the day, even if Kayla still was not a fan of being tied up, she had to admit that Madelyn made it look fun.

"So...what do you think?" Madelyn said as Kayla shut the folder after looking through all the photos.

"It's great," she said, "yeah, I mean you look super hot, let's just get that out of the way."

"Why thank you," Madelyn said as she flipped her hair in sarcastic fashion.

"But yeah, I mean these are really well done. I take it you're planning on doing more, right?"

"I think so. I'm waiting to hear back from the studio on what they want to do next, but yeah hopefully soon. They set me up for commissioned work too so if anyone commissions some photos or a video from me I'd go in and do that."

"Wow, you're like the real deal already!"

"I guess! Anyway, I'm just so glad you understand and all. I can't tell you how anxious I've been the last few weeks trying to figure out how I was going to tell you. And here you are sneaking around like the renowned reporter you are just ripping the band-aid off."

"Sorry, can't help being a lousy snoop after all."

Madelyn and Kayla shared a good laugh at that before hearing a sound come from the bedroom.

"Wait...did you hear that?" Kayla asked.

"Yeah, something must have fallen in my closet or something."

"No, it sounded like..."

"Don't move!"

Kayla and Madelyn froze in place on the couch as two men in black jumpsuits and ski masks barged into the living room and aimed handguns at them. Putting their hands up, the girls surrendered to the men before being ushered into the bedroom. They were met with a cold draft as Madelyn's curtains billowed in the night wind.

They were ordered to sit down on the bed as the men dug into their duffel bags and started producing bundles of rope. It suddenly dawned on Kayla. These were intruders she'd been after! They had to be. They matched the description all the other girls gave, and to top it off the amount of rope they had come prepared with was incredibly excessive. It had to be them. To think that she would come so close to them, and yet still so far was a bit frustrating. Her phone was out in the living room, and she hadn't been able to call for help or anything. From the looks of it, she and Madelyn were going to be trussed up real good and that would be the end of it.

"We know you're looking into us," one of the men said, "miss Grace, let this serve as a reminder to you that continuing to do so would be quite unwise."

"Is that a threat?"

"Perhaps."

"Save your breath. You won't be able to intimidate me that easily."

The men looked at each other before looking back at Kayla.

"We'll see about that. Now, strip...down to your underwear!"

"What the...no way!"

Kayla was quick to protest, but judging from the fact that the men were still aiming their weapons at them it's not like she and Madelyn really had a choice. At least they weren't being asked to take everything off...

"Look, we don't want to have to hurt you, but if it comes to that, then so be it. We just can't have your clothes getting in the way of our work."

"Are you serious?" Kayla said, "I'm wearing leggings, and she doesn't even have pants on!"

"Just do it!"

Kayla sighed before complying with the men's wishes, tossing her clothes onto the floor as Madelyn did the same. She wasn't in any position to argue with the men.

"Could you at least close the window?" Kayla asked as she shivered with nothing but her bra and panties to keep her "warm" at this point.

Thankfully, the men granted her wish meaning that she and Madelyn wouldn't be freezing cold the rest of the night. That being said, she wasn't all too excited for what was in store for them. She glanced over at Madelyn though and wondered how she was feeling. The mischievous glint in her eye told her everything she needed to know. At least she was okay with this. Kayla felt bad roping her friends into her misadventures, but thankfully now she didn't have to worry about that with Madelyn. It was a dim light at the end of a long tunnel, but hey, she tried to focus on the positives.

After they shut the window, the men set to work making sure Kayla and Madelyn were properly tied up. At first, the men worked on securing Kayla and Madelyn separately. Madelyn was bound in a kneeling position on the bed with her arms pulled behind her back. She was essentially hogtied, but while sitting upright. Kayla was tied very similarly, but her legs weren't tied together. At least they hadn't been yet...

Once they had finished trussing her upper body with copious amounts of rope they sat her on top of Madelyn so that she was straddling Madelyn's bound legs with Kayla's legs on either side of Madelyn's thighs. After this, they wound rope around each of Kayla's legs respectively before securing it to the rope around Madelyn's legs. They tied her this way with rope around her upper thighs, and once more with rope around her ankles so that at two separate places her legs was pinned to Madelyn's.

After this they connected their upper bodies with rope too. Kayla grunted as her they roughly forced her into Madelyn, their chests smooshing up against each other forcing. Kayla had no problem getting "close" to her best friend, but this was taking things to a whole new level! Their faces were now just inches apart. Kayla shot Madelyn a sympathetic glance as if to say: "I'm sorry you always get wrapped up in these kinds of situations with me!" However, she could clearly tell that Madelyn did not mind one bit and was very concentrated on watching the men tie her and Kayla together as if she was taking mental notes of each knot they used and all the places they were applying rope.

Finally, after what felt like forever, the men were finished and stepped back to admire their work. Well, Kayla knew they weren't finished just yet, but she wasn't holding her breath for them to forget the final step...

"Thanks for being cooperative. And like we said. We really hope this deters you from coming after us. We'd hate to have to escalate things you know. It's not really our style, so we would appreciate it if you take this warning to heart."

Kayla knew it wasn't worth it to argue with them. Obviously she would never allow herself to be so rudely intimidated, but she held her tongue for now.

"Would you just hurry up and get this over with," she said.

"As you wish!"

Grabbing the girls discarded socks from the floor, the men prepared to gag Kayla and Madelyn. It would have been courteous of them to remember whose socks belonged to who, but the men could not have been bothered with this. Instead, taking both of Kayla's green socks the men scrunched them up and stuffed Madelyn's mouth with them.

"Mmmmmmph!"

She gently moaned behind her sock packed mouth as her lower face was encased in duct tape

"Hm, probably could have fit more in there...oh well. At least you'll be getting a mouthful!"

Kayla turned her head to see the man holding up Madelyn's pink knee high socks as she gulped.

"I think one should suffice," Kayla said.

"Oh yeah? Then I take it we have your word you'll stop looking into us, right?"

Kayla stared daggers at the man as she gritted her teeth.

"That's what I thought. In we go!"

"Go to helmmmmmmph!"

As the one man held Kayla's head in place, the other jammed in the first sock as far in as it would go, which unfortunately for Kayla was pretty far! Her entire mouth was now filled with the pink fluffy mass as her mouth was spread wide open. The man looked the gag over trying to see if there was room to fit the second sock, but while Kayla's mouth might have been big it wasn't that big. Instead, the man opted to tie the second sock around Kayla's gaping mouth and between her lips.

"There we go. Perfect!"

"Fnchhhhmph mnnnnnmph!"

Finishing up Kayla's gag with loads of tape wound about her head, the men grabbed their things and headed on their way without another word. Kayla shifted around in her ropes seeing if there was any point of give, but they were pretty damn tight! As she worked hard to try and get free, she noticed Madelyn just sitting there purring into her gag, her eyes closed.

"Mrnmrmnnph!"

Kayla tried to get Madelyn's attention and snap her back to reality.

"MRNMRMNNPH!"

Madelyn jolted back and looked at Kayla.

"PHnrrmmmmph," she responded back.

"MMm nmmn phn gmph nnphnmn!"

"MMhnph nnn mnn phnm?"

Kayla grunted as she prepared to try and communicate with Madelyn again. She was trying to say: "we need to get untied" but it was only coming through as muffled grunts.

"N phnnn, mmm nmmn phn gmph nnphnmn. Cnn mnn nnnmrphphnnn mmph?"

But Madelyn wasn't listening at all. Something about the way Kayla's muffled speech sounded and the seriousness with which she was trying to communicate was amusing to Madelyn and caused her to laugh. Madelyn's own muffled giggles were pretty amusing to hear as well and caused Kayla to follow suit and laugh with her. Pretty soon, the bedroom was filled with their muffled laughter. Once their giggle fit was over, Kayla sighed as Madelyn rested her head on Kayla's shoulder. It was going to be a long night, but there was no one in the world she would rather spend it with than her best friend.