Warning: This story features bondage.

Context: This is a short story written for Day 12 of Kinktober 2025 using the prompt words Cage and Cold.

“Here we have a genuine intact 14th century artifact. It’s known as a cucking-stool, and no, not the kind of cucking you’re thinking. It was used to punish women who were quarrelsome or sexually promiscuous...”

The tour guide directed everyone’s gaze along the 15-foot wooden beam as he described it. It was mounted on a fulcrum post half-way along, with a chair attached to one end.

Brielle, May and I loitered at the back of the tour group, catching only snippets of the details. We’d signed up for a tour of an ancient castle, trying to make the most of our holiday. It had rooms and courtyards displaying all sorts of preserved and restored pieces of history.

We were regretting our decision a bit now, since the summer heat was sweltering, and none of us were particularly big history buffs in the first place. Even the current large hall filled with implements of corporal punishment and public shaming only did so much to combat our disinterest.

Sluuurrp!

May’s loud sipping on her iced latte earned an angry glare from the tour guide. He was already irritated with us, having chastised us earlier for talking while he was talking.

“Moving on, is anyone here a fan of Iron Maiden? If you’ve ever wondered where their name comes from, follow me...”

The guide strolled towards the door into the next area, ushering everyone to follow. As we were about to walk after them...

“Hey, psst. Hold up a second.”

Brielle was hanging back behind a tall barrel, waving May and I over. We silently and stealthily ducked away from the tour group, letting them leave the area without us.

“What are you up to Bri?”

“Come on, I know you’re as bored as I was. We might as well get some content out of it.”

She shoved her own iced coffee into my hand for temporary safekeeping, then stepped up to the cucking stool. She lowered the side with the chair attached and carefully sat up into it.

“Brielle! We’re not supposed to touch any of the exhibits.”

“Don’t be a wet blanket Nina. No-one's going to know. Here, strap me in. It’ll be fun~”

May complied with a conspiratorial giggle, grabbing the tattered bands attached to the armrests and chair legs, strapping them around Brielle’s arms and legs.

“That’s it! Now lift it from the back. Nina, take pictures!”

I groaned and gave in. Brielle was hardheaded and held grudges. If I ruined her fun, she’d pester me about it for the entire remainder of the holiday. May hurried to the far end of the beam and grabbed on, lifting her feet off the ground to put her entire body weight into it.

The chair and Brielle rose into the air. She squirmed about within it, feigning distress. The straps did actually look quite secure. I snapped a few pictures of her ‘peril’.

“Oh won't someone please help me? I’m being punished for being a naughty girl. I kissed two different men!”

“... and slept with another three.”

May snorted and lost her grip.

THUD!

“AH! Hey! Stop laughing you two!”

While May was unstrapping Brielle from her seat, I posted the best of the snapshots to our wider friend groups’ chat, caption included.

[The only way Bri will sit still long enough to watch a movie]

As the ‘crying with laughter’ emojis flooded in, Brielle huffed at me, but I knew her well enough to understand her real feelings. She was secretly delighted.

“Ok, we should probably catch up with the tour now...”

“Heck no! This way more fun. Check this thing out. Who’s feeling brave?”

Brielle approached a large wooden pillory. She lifted the top half up, and gestured at the three semicircle indents like she was a glamorous assistant showcasing prizes in a gameshow. She pointed at May.

“You there! You’re our lucky contestant for the day. Come on up!"

May sheepishly stepped up beside Brielle and lowering herself onto the edge of the wood, rested her neck and wrists into their notches. Brielle swung the top half back down, dropping it into position above May’s head and arms with a clunk! I spotted a bolt on the side and slotted it closed.

May wiggled her hand and shook her hands, confirming she was indeed stuck. She looked rather cute bent over and helpless as she posed for a few photos. Brielle promptly posted and captioned the best one.

[May misunderstood when her financial advisor suggested getting into stocks]

“I hope no-one splats my face with fruit!”

“Oh I think there’s somewhere else that guys would rather ‘splat’ you...”

Brielle snuck behind May, drew her hand back and...

SMACK!

“AHH! Bri!!”

SMACK! SMACK!

“Bad girl! You didn’t heart my bikini pic yesterday!”

“Oww! Stoooop!”

May struggled and pulled against the pillory that kept her in place and kept her butt sticking out as an easy target for Brielle’s hand.

“Aww, your ass doesn’t hurt too much does it? Maybe it needs an ice pack.”

“What do you meeEEEEYYN!!”

Brielle grabbed the hem of May’s pants, pulled them out, and tipped several ice cubes from her drink down into them.

“YAHH! C-COLD! Mmph?”

“May hush! You’ll get us into trouble!”

I clamped my hand firmly over May’s mouth to keep her quiet. She whined into the handgag as she shook her behind wildly, trying to dislodge the freezing cubes wedged against her spanked bottom.

“Alright fine, you are released from your penance.”

We removed the handgag, bolt and pillory, letting May out. She quickly adjusted her pants to let the cubes fall free out the legs, and rubbed her sore butt.

“Meanies!”

“You were just too spankable! I’m sorry cutie.”

Brielle pulled May into a tight hug. Her grumpy expression softened and broke into a reluctant smile. Her eyes lit up on spotting something else in the room.

“I think I see our implement of punishment for round three.”

She pointed and redirected our gaze towards an object tucked into a corner: a rather small metal cage.

It was a cube, approximately two to three feet long along each side, with thick iron bars running in horizontal parallel lines. Some of those lines had circles partway along.

“Your turn Nina.”

“What? There’s no way I’m getting into that thing.”

“We both did one. You have to! Come on, it’ll take literally one minute and it'll make a fun memory.”

Upon inspecting the cage closer, I saw that the circles in the bars were just the right size and positions for the occupant’s head and limbs to fit through, requiring them to get on their hands and knees inside it. Brielle opened the top panel and motioned down.

“In you get.”

I was rather hesitant to enter the small space. While the holes meant I wouldn’t need to curl up into an uncomfortable ball to fit, I’d be stuck in a fixed position. Then again, so were the other two during their ‘predicaments’. They weren’t going to let me get away with chickening out.

I sighed and stepped over the side of the cage, lowering myself down into it while trying to awkwardly guide my legs into the holes at the back.

The metal circles all had a hinged upper half, much like the pillory, allowing Brielle to snap each one closed once I was through it. I got even more nervous when she used a metal key on all of them, locking them closed.

In short order, I was resting on my knees and elbows, with my feet sticking through the cage at the back, my hands trapped in two metal rings near the floor at the front, and my head poking out at the front of the cage with a circle in the bar holding my neck.

“Ugh. This is not comfortable.”

“It’s a cage silly. You’re supposed to feel trapped not comfortable! Also there’s one bit left. One that’ll put a stop to your complaining.”

“What do you mean? Huh? Mmmhhh!!”

Beside the head-hole, there was a thin metal pole with a leather wrapping around it attached to the cage. Brielle swung it across, forcing the horizontal bar inside my mouth. It was an integrated bit gag! The end clicked into a receiving slot on the other side of my face, which Brielle also locked closed.

“Ghhd dssh hwd vh mh mwphh!”

“Say cheese!”

Once she finished her photographing, typing and sending, May gleefully showed me the group chat post.

[Nina after misreading the assembly instructions for her new shelving unit]

I groaned at the mockery of my (admittedly subpar) DIY skills.

“LHMMH HWD NHW!”

“You’re getting a bit heated in there Nina. Maybe you need to... cool down.”

Brielle rattled her mostly empty iced latte cup.

“Nnngh! Nnnnngghh!!”

I was held too still to do anything. Brielle took her sweet time to reach into the cage, tug my yoga pants back, and drop the remaining ice cubes straight down them.

“MMMGHH!!”

I couldn’t even shake my ass as much as May could earlier to shake them loose. The freezing cold cubes lodged between my buttcheeks, making me jerk against the cage with bit-gagged yelping. I could already feel the chilled meltwater dribbling down between my legs.

“Alright calm down. I’ll get you out now.”

As Brielle leaned down, slotting the key into the lock on the neck circle, I say May looming up behind her with her own iced drink in hand.

Please, not when I’m about to be freed of all times!

“MMPH!”

I couldn’t warn Brielle. I watched as May slipped a single cube down the back of Brielle’s top.

“EEEK!”

SNAP!

“Mayyyy! You sly bitch.”

“Well you were the only one who didn’t get iced. Now we’re even~”

“Fine, you got me~”

Brielle giggled as she shook the cube loose. How I wished I could do the same with the ice freezing my ass off. Brielle’s smile faded as she lifted the key back up to resume unlocking me.

There was only half a key in her hand.

Her face paled as she realised the key’s top-half had broken off during her recoil and was now stuck inside the cage's lock.

“Ok... please don’t panic, but uhm...”

She lifted the key. May gasped out loud. I was already silently shaking with dread and rising outrage. Our stunned horror was interrupted by a shout from outside the room. It was the tour guide’s voice.

“HEY!! What the hell are you girls still doing back here? Catch up to the others right now! If you damage anything in here then it’s the police you’ll be answering to for destruction of property charges.”

The other two girls shared a look. He couldn’t see the cage or me from his angle, only them. Brielle dropped her empty cup and the broken key into a waste bin as she walked away, giving me a departing whisper.

“Sorry Nina. Don't want to get in trouble. You’re on your own.”

May hesitated a moment, but then did the same.

“I’m sure they’ll find and help you during the next tour.”

“Mpphh!”

Just like that, my two friends left me alone, helplessly locked in a cage, squirming and gag-shouting out with no-one around to hear it. Even when I was eventually found, I'd be the one held accountable for the damage.

Worst of all, the tours paused for two hours around lunchtime. I wouldn't be found for three hours! All the while sweating in the heat, with only the melting ice soaking my ass for relief.