“Kalina Wong!”

Kalina froze like a deer in headlights as Ms. Kraber stalked towards her desk. “Phone out during a test AGAIN?”

Despite cramming the phone between her legs to vanish under her skirt, it was evident that Ms. Kraber had seen it. “No.” She squeaked out before she was hauled to her feet, revealing the phone on her chair.

“To the principal’s office Ms. Wong.” Ms. Kraber said through clenched teeth.

Feeling the eyes of her classmates on her, Kalina hung her head and walked out of the room. The halls of St. Mary’s College, a private all-girls boarding school, seemed to extend in front of her as she began the walk towards the head office. The Asian beauty knew that her slow walking would only delay the inevitable and looked down at herself. She wore the standard uniform at the school, a white shirt, red tie, red and black plaid skirt and black knee-length socks. In a show of defiance, Kalina had swapped out her black shoes for combat boots, which most of the teachers just allowed since there were far worse violations of the dress code so she was the lesser of the evils.

Walking into the office, the secretary waved her through and she entered the office of Mr. Henderson, the principal of the school. “Back again Ms. Wong?” He asked before indicating for her to take a seat in front of his desk.

He was an older man, still well built with thick round glasses but still an air of authority as he picked up her file and skimmed through it.

She nodded. “Cheating on a test, using your phone during a test. My, I thought you would have learned your lesson after the last detention.”

Punishments at St. Mary’s were a little unorthodox. And by unorthodox, Kalina meant near pornographic. Girls were bound and gagged to serve their punishments, depending on the severity it could range from zip ties to handcuffs, cleave gags to ball gags. It proved effective for most of the students, given the strictness of how discipline and authority was expected from the students. “This is your third offence, which means that you will be facing a two day suspension. And you know what that means.” He said as he set down her file and looked at her through his glasses.

Kalina gulped, fully knowing what was coming her way. “Y-yes sir.”

Standing up from behind the desk, Mr. Henderson indicated that she follow him out of the office and down the hall, over to the suspension rack. On full display in one of the secondary halls, the suspension frame was used to set an example, as well as punish, girls serving in-school suspensions. And they served those suspensions literally in the form of girls getting cuffed and suspended with chains.

There were two girls already chained up to the frame that Kalina would soon join. First was Lilah Atkinson, a diplomat’s daughter. Kalina had heard a rumour about Lilah being caught sneaking out at night with a guy from St Andrew’s, an all boys boarding school a short distance away, and it looked like the rumours were correct. Next was Camilla Logan, their year’s resident rebel/slut. Sent to the school to have some order broken into her, she had resisted most of it to live by her own rules. Most of that was evident in how her skirt barely came down to mid thigh, or the knee-high lace up boots she wore. Both girls had leather cuffs secured around the wrists and ankles. The ankle cuffs were connected together while the wrist cuffs were padlocked together and to a long chain that was fed through a ring at the top of the frame and then down behind the girls to a clip that kept each girl suspended in the air. The sturdy frame was built like a large soccer net, thick, heavy, and more than capable of holding up to five girls serving their suspensions.

Both girls had a red rubber ballgag strapped in their mouths, muffling any complaints that they may have. Kalina felt her mouth go dry as Mr. Henderson went over to a locker beside the display frame and withdrew two pairs of cuffs and another ballgag. “Hands in front Ms. Wong.”

Kalina dejectedly held her hands out in front of her, allowing the principal to buckle the thick leather cuffs around her slim wrists. They looked huge on her, but as they were padlocked shut and tugging on them it was evident that they were secure and she was not escaping them by slipping out of them. Another pair of cuffs was buckled over her boots and padlocked together. Next up was the ballgag. Despite the use of bondage for punishments in the school, it was the first time she had been subjected to a ballgag and the instant it snapped into place behind her teeth, Kalina hated it.

The taste of rubber and the way it held her jaws open was very uncomfortable, and the realization that she has to wear this for the next day and a half filled her with dread. The gag was buckled under her hair, the straps pulling her cheeks back and was also locked in place before Mr. Henderson picked up a long chain. Holding her hands out,, she allowed him to lock the chain to her cuffs and lead her over to the frame display frame. Positioning her in the third slot, the principal pulled the chain through the ring at the top of the frame and back towards the anchor. Planting his feet and giving a strong pull, Kalina yelped as she was yanked off her feet and held in the air, her head now in line with Camilla and Lilah. Nodding in satisfaction, Mr. Henderson snapped the chain into the anchor to keep her in the air. “Your clock starts now Ms. Wong.” He said before walking away.

Swaying a bit from the momentum, she watched him walk away before glancing at her fellow prisoners. Her shoulders were already beginning to ache from all her weight being on her wrists and she knew it was definitely going to kill her in the days following her suspension. Forget days after. It hurts like hell right now.

Gagged as they were, the three girls couldn’t communicate much between each other so there was no way to really pass time other than hanging around and thinking about how they got there. Kalina suspected that was one of the major reasons this was the punishment.

After maybe half an hour, she heard a commotion outside the building and then some screams as a couple people ran past the display frame. Kalina’s eyes went wide, glancing at Lilah and Camilla who also had wide eyes, wondering what was going on. Whatever she thought it might have been, a squad of men in black combat fatigues carrying guns bursting through the door of the building far outdid the worst case scenario she had come up with in her mind. All three girls screamed behind their gags, noting how they resembled hanging flesh targets for these men but they were relatively ignored until one of the men stepped forward to inspect them, namely looking at Lilah. “Well well well how about that. Miss Lilah Atkinson, tied up and on display for us. How convenient.”

The man seemed to be the leader of the party, directing other men in black to other parts of the building while he remained with a group in front of the display. Lilah looked absolutely terrified with the attention they were giving her, some of the men making some comments about the girls hanging from the frame.

The terrified girls could hear screams coming from the floors above as the men began securing the building. Camilla beside Kalina was practically hyperventilating behind her gag seeing the men moving around with guns freely out. Soon one of the men ran up to the group. “Buildings one and four secured sir. Teams are moving to two and the dorms, rounding up most of the students in their classrooms.”

“Carry on.”

The leader dismissed his minion before turning his attention back to the frame. “Start on phase 2.” He instructed, pointing to some of the men.

The three girls cried out as four men moved to the corners of the frame and picked it up, causing the girls to sway from their bound wrists. The display was taken up to the top floor through the freight elevator, then several men carried the frame with the girls still attached all the way up to the rooftop door. Kalina swung from the frame as it was carried, using her legs to prevent herself from hitting the walls or the railings before she was blinded as they emerged onto the roof. Seeing some cameras being set up, she was nervous about being broadcasted in such a compromising position but then it became much worse.

The frame was carried over to an inner corner of the building and the frame was positioned diagonally across the two sides, leaving the middle part of the frame where the girls were dangling out over open air. Kalina and the other girls screamed into their gags as the ground beneath them disappeared, leaving them hanging three stories in the air. She felt dizzy glancing down at the concrete well beneath her feet and immediately averted her eyes. If she hadn’t been terrified enough with the men with guns taking over the school, this definitely pushed her over the edge.

More cameras were being set up on the rooftop across from them and she realized now they were going to be filming this. “Ready?” One of the men asked.

“All set, we are live.” Came a response.

Kalina knew it was a hostage ransom demand as the leader stood before the camera behind the girls, laying out his demands. With wind roaring in her ears and swaying in the open air, Kalina felt vertigo building and her head spinning as she stared with wide eyes at the camera on the roof across from her, wondering how much of her it was filming. Anything to keep her mind off of the fact that she was hanging three stories in the air.

She wasn’t paying too much attention behind her so she wasn’t fully aware that the leader had moved from his camera demands until she heard the clinking of metal of chains and turned her head to try and look behind her. She spotted the leader out of the corner of her eye straightening up before his hand opened, releasing her suspending chain that he had been holding.

Kalina screamed in pure terror as her stomach flew up to her throat and her life flashed before her eyes. In reality, she had only dropped about two inches before he grabbed the chain again but those two inches felt like it would’ve been the end. Camilla and Lilah both screamed along with her, watching her jerk and struggle against the cuffs and try to catch her breath from the adrenaline. She heard a click as her chain was resecured to the frame and tears streamed from her eyes, fully captured by the camera. “You have hours Mr. Atkinson.” The man warned. “Their lives are in your hands.”

The cameras were shut down and one of the men indicated that they were done. “Prepare for phase three.” He instructed. “Police should be inbound soon.”

“And the girls?”

“These three stay here and secure the frame. If the wind blows too hard and they go over the edge that ruins our plan.”

Kalina, Lilah, and Camilla all sobbed behind their gags as the men went about their work, leaving the girls to look at the perilous fall that may be awaiting them if Lilah’s father didn’t do as instructed. Kalina took one last look at the ground beneath her boots before shutting her eyes. As tears leaked down her cheeks, she couldn't believe of all the days to be suspended, she would have ended up in a peril like this.