One evening in an empty apartment, there was a flash of light and when it faded, there were two humanoids standing in the bedroom looking around at where they had appeared. Determining that there were no immediate threats, the aliens relaxed before they began to explore their immediate surroundings. It appeared to be a bedchamber belonging to an earthen female, with dresses and high heels in the closet and pictures scattered around the walls showing multiple humans.

Picking a photo on the wall, the two humanoids known as M1 and M2 absorbed the image and transformed, gaining the human appearances of a tall, slim blonde girl, and a shorter dark haired girl. The two aliens admired their new forms, dressed in silver long sleeve crop tops, skirts, and knee high boots. They began exploring the room further, coming across a laptop computer that they opened. Accessing the machine, they quickly overcame the security to view what the owner had been reading before closing it. On the screen were multiple blocks of text, which M1 quickly determined was a story about roommates who tied each other up for fun and struggled. “Earthen media.”

M2 stood beside her, also absorbing the story. “Initiate?” She asked.

M1 waved a hand, causing rope and tape to appear on the bed. “Affirmative.”

Another wave caused the rope and duct tape to spring to life, floating towards their human forms. Positioning their bodies with their arms behind them and legs together, M1 and M2 let the floating rope wrap itself around their bodies at the wrists, ankles, knees, and chest. Duct tape strips were torn off the roll in mid-air and pressed over their lips. Satisfied that they were replicating the scenario in the story, he two aliens sat down on the edge of the bed, tightly trussed and gagged and began squirming and testing the ropes before there was a sound of a key in the lock of the apartment door and the door opening.

- - -

Naomi sighed with relief as she reached her apartment door and pulled out her keys. After a mess of a day with a presentation that she may have blown, she was very much looking forward to just kicking back on the couch with a glass of wine and maybe throwing some Netflix on for the night. Dressed in a v-neck top with a blazer on top, black pants, and chocolate brown riding boots, she inserted her key and opened the door. Unfortunately for her, at that moment she was grabbed from behind by someone and shoved into her home, the door being kicked closed behind her. Screaming into the hand covering her mouth, she fought and kicked, lashing out the best that she could but the brute kept a solid grip on her mouth and arms as she was forced towards the couch and shoved onto it.

With her face pressed down into the couch, Naomi struggled to breathe as her flailing hands were grabbed and duct tape was quickly wrapped around her wrists. The sleeves of her blazer gave her some protection against the sticky tape, but the sheer number of bands of tape told her that there was no way she was going to pull the tape apart herself.

She was finally able to extract her face from the folds of the couch, turning sideways to suck in a breath of fresh air and opening her mouth to scream before she felt something press against her neck. Abruptly halting her attempt to cry out for help, she glanced down to see a knife in her attacker’s hand. “You make any sound, you die right here, understood?” He growled in her ear.

Choking back a tear, Naomi slowly nodded her head. “Good girl, now open up.”

Seeing the small rubber ball in his other hand, Naomi did not want to comply but the knife flashed again, forcing her to reluctantly open her mouth as the rubber ball was shoved into her mouth and sealed in place with several strips of duct tape. Her booted ankles were brought together and tape bound them in place causing Naomi to give an angry grunt into her gag at the thought of her boots being ruined by the tape. Now bound and gagged, her attacker allowed her to sit up on the couch and turn around.

Panting, she finally got a good look at her attacker and her blood ran cold. She was expecting someone in a ski mask trying to rob a girl living alone, but instead it was someone she knew. She didn’t even know his name, but he worked in the same building as her a few floors above. He always seemed to be waiting for her, standing in the lobby when she walked in every day. It was creepy and she had seen him at other times which she brushed off as coincidence but now that he was here in her apartment standing over her, she realized he may have been stalking her. “Hello Naomi.” He smiled. “So nice of you to finally become mine.”

She screamed into her gag but he clamped a hand down over her face again. “You have a nice place here, which I will definitely use to my advantage. I’ll be right back.”

He removed his hand and walked over to her purse where she had dropped it when she had first been taken by surprise. Pulling out her phone and pocketing it, he whistled as he headed down the hall towards her bedroom. While he was out of sight, Naomi immediately began struggling, bending over as she strained against the tape. No matter how much she struggled, she wasn’t able to break free. Then she glanced towards the kitchen, seeing the knives on the counter she hopped to her feet and experimentally took a jump towards the counter, wincing at how loud it was when her heels landed on the floor. “Holy shit!”

Naomi’s head shot up, wondering what could possibly surprise him in her apartment. Frozen on the spot for another 15 seconds, her stalker re-emerged from down the hall with a big grin on his face. “Well Naomi, looks like you have some company today.”

Not understanding what he meant, she stood still as he sliced through the tape binding her ankles before frog marching her down the hall to her bedroom. Glancing worriedly at her captor as she was shoved through her bedroom doorway, she turned back towards her bed and her eyes nearly popped out of her skull. Sitting on her bed, bound with rope at the wrists, ankles, knees and above and below their breasts with duct tape plastered across their mouths as gags were her friends Skylar and Faith. This confused her greatly, since Faith was supposed to be out of town on a business trip and Skylar was working late tonight, unable to meet Naomi for dinner as was originally planned. The two girls were also wearing matching outfits that seemed rather out of place, wearing shiny silver knee boots, shiny silver skirts, and a tight silver cropped top with long sleeves.

Naomi was stunned, wondering why her two good friends were sitting tied up in her bedroom in what looked like budget sci-fi film outfits. Both girls stared back at her with unblinking eyes over their gag, which unnerved Naomi. There was something wrong with them, and not just the fact that they were bound and gagged somehow. “I found them just sitting here tied up, so nice of you to have some kinky friends to share with me.” Her stalker laughed before shoving her down to the ground at the feet of her friends. “I’ve got to go grab some things to make tonight more...enjoyable. Don’t go anywhere.” He grinned at his three captives, giddy with what he could potentially do with three victims even though he only had his eyes on one.

Naomi whimpered fearfully as he left the room, closing the door behind him. She immediately began struggling, squirming around in her bonds as she looked for some way to break free. Looking around, there wasn’t anything she could really use. A high heel dropped on the floor behind her wasn’t sharp enough. Then her head shot up and she remembered she had scissors on her desk. Slowly pushing herself until she was on her butt, she braced her back against the bed and slowly stood up. Her friends simply stared at her as she began hopping across the room, making her way towards the desk. With a cry of triumph, she spotted the scissors, thankfully they were real kitchen scissors and not the child-safe kind that couldn’t cut shit, and seized them, going to work on her tape bonds. It took her a minute to flip the scissors around with her bound wrists and close them, cutting through the tape and freeing her wrists.

With a gasp of relief, she reached up and pulled the tape off her mouth. A few grunts of pain accompanied it as she spat out the rubber ball, which rolled across the ground until it stopped against the high heeled boot of Skylar. The girls continued to stare at her as she reached down and cut through the tape binding her legs before rushing over to her friends. “I’ll have you free in a moment.” She said as she began cutting through the numerous coils of rope around Faith.

The scissors made quick work of the cord and Faith’s arms dropped to her side after being freed while Naomi cut through the leg ropes. Moving on to Skylar, she sliced through all the ropes as well. “Hurry, we have to escape and call the cops before he comes back!” She hissed as she finished cutting the bonds holding her friends.

To her surprise, neither girl moved. Instead they both tilted their heads to look at her in sync which was very creepy. “E….scape?” Skylar asked.

“Yes, escape!” She hissed. “We need to get out of here!”

Naomi concluded based on how they were acting that they were definitely not her friends, although she had no idea why they looked like Faith and Skylar, or who they really were but it didn’t matter too much to her given her level of panic and fear. “Come on!”

She beckoned Not-Skylar and Not-Faith towards the door, turning towards it only for it to open towards her and her stalker stood in the doorway with a duffle bag in his hand. “What the-” He said in surprise as Naomi stumbled backwards, falling backwards onto her butt with a grunt. “How did you girls escape?”

Not-Skylar turned slowly towards the stalker, who had drawn his knife and was rapidly approaching her. “Now be a good bitch and get down on the floor, quietly.”

She didn’t move until he grabbed her by the arm, at which point she looked down at the offending hand. “Escape?” She asked.

“No, you won’t be escaping.” He stated. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Threat.” Not-Skylar said, before whirling faster than any of their eyes could process and slamming a hand into his chest.

There was a flash of light and the man screamed as he disintegrated on the spot until there was just dust where he once stood. Naomi shrieked, scrambling backwards on the floor away from Not-Skylar until she hit something and realized it was the legs of Not-Faith. “Threat?” Not-Faith asked in the same monotone voice looking down at Naomi, who was now absolutely terrified.

“Negative. Prepare to evacuate.”

Naomi trembled as the two “girls” walked over beside each other and turned to face Naomi. “Evacuate.” Not-Faith said and in a flash of light, they were gone.

“What...the fuck.” Naomi muttered to herself, looking at where her stalker had vanished and where the two aliens she assumed had also disappeared. “What the fuck is today.”