Brook tried the door to the bathroom again. It was locked, just as it had been since Sean locked her in there.

“Please!” she called through the door. “Let us go!”

Nothing.

She backed away from the door, once more exploring the confines of the bathroom she was trapped in. A bathtub, toilet, and a double sink. The medicine cabinet was sparse, containing an extra tube of toothpaste and toothbrush, mouthwash, floss. Extra cleaning supplies were under the sink, and the bathroom itself was immaculately clean. She checked the drawers, finding a hair dryer, brush, women’s razors, makeup supplies. Had these belonged to his wife?

Melody.

He’d told Brook about her on their first date.

“I have to confess something.” It wasn’t the worst date Brook had been on, but despite being just as handsome as his profile pic and her feeing like they’d connected pretty well when chatting in the dating app, in person he was a little awkward.

“What is it?” She was apprehensive. He’d taken her to quite a nice restaurant and she was hoping to get dessert before things went south.

“I feel guilty being out with you.”

That could mean a lot of things, but her mind jumped to only one.

“You’re married.” She put her fork down, but she didn’t get up yet. Some part of her still hoped he’d prove her wrong.

There was visible distress on his face. “Well, technically no.”

Brook had gotten up then. “Well have fun cheating on her.”

“No, it’s not like that.”

“What is it like, then?” She had resisted the urge to storm out then and there.

“She’s... She died.”

Brook put her hand to her mouth. People around them were already staring, intrigued and nosy. “I’m so sorry.”

“Thanks. You’re the first person I’ve been on a date with since she passed.”

Brook sat back down, suddenly very conscious of all the eavesdroppers.

“You seem nice, but I don’t want to waste your time. I’m not sure I’m ready to be seeing anyone again.”

“I’m already here, I’m not gonna leave you alone mid meal.” She picked up her fork and took a bite of her salad.

He smiled at her.

And so the date had continued, with the agreement to take it slow.  They chatted a lot and went on a few more dates before she went home with him. That was the first time he made the offer to come stay at his house in the country. Presumably the same one she was now locked in a bathroom in.

He was renting a little studio apartment in the city to be closer to work, and he said the house reminded him too much of his family. For as slow as they were taking things, suddenly he wanted to escalate their relationship quite a lot, and Brook started considering ending things. She was between jobs, and he assured her that it would just be until things got back to normal, but the idea of living with him in the house he had with his family, sleeping in the bed he shared with his wife... Sean might have felt like he was ready, but Brook certainly did not.

What was his plan then? Force her to replace his dead wife? Keep her locked up until Stockholm syndrome set in? And what about her friends? What was he going to do with them?

“Sean!” she called again, banging on the bathroom door until her hand hurt.

He’d carried her in from the car, still blindfolded, gagged, bound and struggling. When he’d taken off the opaque sunglasses they were already in the bathroom and he’d set her down on the sink.

“I’m sorry I had to do it this way,” he’d told her.

“Mmmph.”

He peeled the tape off of her mouth and pulled the sodden cloth he’d stuffed in there to gag her when he’d first told her that he was going to take her with him to his cabin whether she wanted to or not.

“Please, Sean, just let us go.”

“Now why would I do that?” She froze as he pulled a knife out of his back pocket. “Relax, I’m not going to cut you.”

She was keenly aware that he deliberately said “cut” and not “hurt”. She kept still and he reached around her and cut the tape around her wrists.

She rubbed the deep indentations in her skin, tacky from tape residue. “What would your wife think? Would Melody want you to do this?”

She studied his face, looking for any kind of reaction that her words had gotten through to him.

“She wanted me to be happy. I hope one day you will too.”

Brook shivered. He held no remorse.

“What are you going to do with us?”

“I’m going to take care of you. Speaking of, I need to get the others ready. You have time to get cleaned up. There’s fresh clothes for you.” He pointed out a set of neatly folded clothes on the other side of the counter.

“Sean, please.” She was up off the counter but he was already out the door and closing it behind him. “You can’t do this!” The door slammed shut. With a heavy click he locked it, trapping her inside. “You can’t keep us here!”

There was no clock, and her phone was back in their house, but he’d been able to keep her there for what she was sure was at least an hour. She’d listened intently with her ear pressed up against the door, she’d called for him, for Sara and Kelsey, but she’d gotten nothing.

What was he doing with them? Had he taken them just so as to not leave witnesses? He barely knew her roommates.

“Hey!” she screamed again, her voice growing hoarse.

He’d told her to get cleaned up. She’d used the toilet out of necessity but there was no way she was going to strip down and shower for him. And the clothes he’d laid out for her, while not atrocious, she would never be able to shake the feeling that they belonged to his dead wife.

And he’d said she would have wanted him to be happy. He was a kidnapper!

Rage was starting to build in Brook, not just at Sean, but at herself. How had she dated this man for a month? Surely there had been warning signs. She should have noticed something was off about her boyfriend.

Ex-boyfriend, she supposed. She hadn’t gotten the chance to make that official before he’d gagged and abducted her, but given the circumstances, it was safe to say that their old relationship was over.

Brook scanned the room again. Breaking the mirror briefly occurred to her, but she went for the towel rack. She pulled on it, wrenching with all her might until she managed to pry it out of the drywall. It was lighter than she had hoped, but it was pretty sturdy and it still had the base with two-inch screws sticking out of the ends.

She gave it a few experimental swings. On the third one, one of the screws flew out on the backswing, clattering into the tub.

Despite screaming and pounding on the door earlier, the idea that he had heard and would be ready for her attack gnawed at her. She turned on the shower, letting it run, and then moved into position by the door.

Slowly, steam started to fill the bathroom. Fog descended down the mirror, obscuring the reflection of the tall redhead holding a broken towel rack over her shoulder like a club.

The minutes ticked by. How long was he going to leave her there? How long was it going to take him to do whatever he had planned with Sara and Kelsey? At the thought of her friends, Brook tightened her grip around the chrome rod.

She heard footsteps coming from outside the door. Brook held her breath. Jangling and metal scraping on metal came from right on the other side of the door. A key in the lock. Brook’s heart was racing in her chest.

The handle slowly turned. She wiped sweat and condensation from her brow.

The door creaked open. The steam whooshed out the opening.

“Brook?”

She didn’t answer. Her knuckles were white from gripping the bar so tightly.

“What are planning Brook?”

Her heart raced faster, pounding in her ears.

“Are you going to try to hit me with that towel rack?”

Before she could even begin to try and process how he knew, he was on her. He threw the door open and rushed around it, grabbing the bar from her hands.

“No!” she screamed, trying to hold onto it, but he wrestled it from her grasp.

“I’m very disappointed in you, Brook.” He grabbed her arms, holding them above her head as he pressed in close, pinning her against the wall.

“Let me go!”

“I’m not going to let you go. You need to learn that I’m in charge now.” He switched grip, holding both her wrists above her head in one hand while his other hand grabbed her dress. “When I tell you to get cleaned up, you need to listen.”

She fought, but he was bigger and stronger. He yanked her dress up over her head, leaving her in her purple bra and panties. Even though she’d been planning on breaking up with him, she still had chosen one of her nicer dresses and worn her sexy Victoria’s Secret matching underwear. She told herself it was just nice to have an excuse to actually get dressed and put on something nice, but even this morning, she still wasn’t 100% set on ending things with him. What a difference a few hours made.

“When I set out clothes for you, you are to wear them.” He grabbed her bra. The straps stretched as she tried to cling to her modesty. One of them snapped under the strain, and with a startled cry she let go and the garment was ripped clean off.

He’d seen her naked before, but that had been a different person to her. A guy she quite liked, a guy who seemed a bit shy and was still mourning his family. She didn’t know this new guy, and she shielded her bare breasts from him.

Those weren’t his target though, and she was too late to try and stop him from grabbing her panties. They stretched as he pulled them forward, the thin fabric straining and finally tearing at her hips. She squeezed her thighs together, but the flimsy undergarments slid through them, undeterred.

“Please!”

“Hush.” He forced the torn panties into her pleading mouth.

She retched, trying to stop them, but he kept forcing, cramming them all the way in, shutting her up. She managed to slip one of her wrists free and she tried to push him back, but he just pulled a set of handcuffs out of his back pocket and latched them around both of her wrists.

“Now, let’s get you cleaned up.” He spun her around and pushed her towards the shower. She balked at the edge of the tub as he pulled the curtain back, releasing a fresh gust of stream and a hot spray of water across her naked body. A slap on her bare ass got her moving. The terrified redhead tripped over the edge of the tub, and she would have fallen had he not grabbed her from behind.

Brook glanced back. Sean had already taken off his own shirt. This time she wasn’t admiring his broad chest or taut abs. She whined into her panties as he grabbed her cuffed wrists and brought them up over the showerhead, trapping her in place. He undid his belt and whipped it around, drawing it between her teeth to hold her gag in place.

She pulled against the showerhead, but it was sturdy, holding her weight until the pain of the cuffs digging into her wrists was too much.

Behind her, Sean had shed his pants and climbed over the tub wall into the shower behind her, fully nude. His fully erect penis rubbed against her backside.

“Mmmmmph!” She was braced for it, every fiber of her being braced for the moment she dreaded.

The moment when he would rape her.

He wrapped his arms around her, grabbing her breasts.

“Did you not take a shower because you wanted to wait for me?” he whispered in her ear.

“Nnnnph!” she whimpered, shaking her head.

“I suppose I can forgive you if that’s what you did.” He poured shampoo over her head and started to massage her scalp.

It would almost have been relaxing despite the circumstances, the hot water, his surprisingly gentle fingers rubbing her scalp, were it not for the gag. She screwed her eyes shut to keep out the soap, but the thick leather belt kept her jaws open, and soapy water gushed into her mouth, soaking her torn panties.

“Pmmmph!” she pleaded.

“You tried to attack me.” He started scrubbing her body with a soapy loofah. “You didn’t listen to me, you damaged our house, and then you tried to hit me. I know there’s going to be a transition period, but you need to understand that some things are unacceptable.” His scrubbing got more and more vigorous as his tone got more aggressive.

Brook hung her head, whimpering. How could she have let his man into her life? She felt him start scrubbing between her legs. She squeezed her thighs together in an attempt to thwart him, but a wet slap on her ass got her to behave.

“We have to make sure every inch of you in clean.”

“Mmmmph.”

She kept waiting for the violation to go further. She could feel his dick behind her, even when it wasn’t touching her directly she was keenly aware of its looming presence. Nothing further happened though, and when he seemed satisfied that she was clean and had rinsed her off, he turned the water off. Brook glanced back at him as he threw the shower curtain open and reached for the now missing towel rack.

“I’ll have to fix that. Stay there.”

With no choice but to obey, she stood in the tub, dripping wet, while he got out and gathered up the towels off the floor. He wrapped around himself before lifting her cuffs off the showerhead and bundling her in the other towel before lifting her out of the tub. She gasped in surprise, choking and spluttering as she sucked soapy water out of her gag.

“Did you learn your lesson?” He paused toweling her dry to spin her around and look down into her eyes.

“Nnnhnn.” She nodded, cowed.

He spun her around again and undid the belt strapped between her teeth. She retched out her ruined panties.

“What do you say?”

“I’m sorry...” she spoke tentatively.

“For?”

Her heart was racing again. Suddenly allowed to speak, the pressure to say the right thing was crushing.

“For trying to attack you?”

He smiled and resumed drying her hair. “I know you are. But not as sorry as you’ll be if you try anything like that again.”

She gulped audibly and nodded, her handcuffs jingling slightly as she shifted nervously.

“The world is a dangerous place.” He spun her around again and took her chin in his hand, lifting her face to his. “I’m going to take care of you, but you have to obey me. All of you.”

Kelsey and Sara. She’d been so caught up in her own plight she had momentarily forgotten about her friends, her fellow captives of this madman she had brought into their lives.

“What did you do with them?” Her voice was barely a whisper.

Sean chuckled. “You’ll see.” He kissed her. It was soft, tender.

It was a thousand times worse than the aggressive assault she was bracing for when his lips met hers.