Zoe had just been getting her horse ready in the stables of Oak Ridges Ranch when she heard her best friend Stephanie calling out for her. “In here!” She yelled back.
She turned her attention back to grooming Chestnut as footsteps sounded behind her. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming down here to the stables.” Stephanie complained. “I spent ten minutes looking for you up at the main building.”
Zoe turned and stuck her tongue out at her friend. Stephanie stood in the doorway stable with her arms crossed over her chest, dressed in a white blouse, tan jodhpurs, and brown riding boots. Her glossy black hair flowed down her back under her riding helmet and she wore black leather riding gloves on her hands. “I’m just prepping Chestnut. What did you want?”
“What, can’t you entertain the possibility that I’m looking for you because I want to see you?” Stephanie asked as she looked her friend up and down.
Zoe was dressed in black riding boots, white jodhpurs, blue blouse and a black jacket on top. She snorted. “I can entertain the possibility that there are a number of reasons as to why you are looking for me.”
“Ok fine.” Stephanie admitted. “You know that abandoned barn way out past the forest?”
Zoe had to think for a moment. “The one that is off limits because it’s so old and falling apart?”
“Yeah! I walked off the trail down towards that yesterday and there were cars parked outside of it!”
That caused Zoe to pause. The barn had been abandoned for as long as they had been riding at the ranch. Mrs. Tennyson, the ranch owner, had made it clear that the barn was to be avoided due to disrepair and it was isolated enough away from the trails that none of the girls that rode out of the ranch really cared about it. “Cars? But no one should be near that barn.”
“But that’s what makes it so intriguing.” Stephanie was practically bouncing with excitement. “Come on, let’s go check it out!”
Zoe hesitated but also figured it wouldn’t hurt. “Fine. Let’s make it quick so I can still get my ride in.”
Stephanie let out a whoop of excitement before dashing down the barn to where her horse was. The barn was relatively empty, so Zoe figured most of the girls that were a part of the ranch were here today and out on the trails. It didn’t take the girls long to saddle up the horses and head out towards the forest.
They chatted carelessly as they trotted along the trail, taking some of the lesser used ones towards the southeast corner of the property. Sure enough, as they got closer Zoe could make out some cars through the trees, seeing a couple trucks and a horse trailer. The two pulled their horses to a stop. “See! They shouldn’t be here!”
Zoe had to agree and it made her uneasy. “Come on, we should go take a look!”
She was hesitant. “Steph, we should just contact the police or something if you think somethings up.”
“But how do we know if it’s something that’s worth calling the cops over? We have to scout it out first and if there’s something here we call in the cavalry!”
She debated on it before sighing and dismounting from her horse along with Stephanie. Moments later, with the horses leashed to a nearby tree, the two girls crept closer to the barn and hid behind a fallen tree trunk. “Eugh, my pants are going to be ruined.” Stephanie complained as she looked down at her white jodhpurs.
“You were the one insistent that we come and investigate this.” Zoe reminded her as they glanced around.
There wasn’t a soul in sight. “Ok, how about I look in the small shed out back and take a look around the cars, and you check out the main barn and we go to the other if we find something. Deal?”
Zoe felt that it was a bad idea but nodded her head. “Let’s make this quick.”
Stephanie was already clambering over the log and jogging across the open stretch before the vehicles before she had even finished her sentence. Zoe sighed before steeling herself and creeping towards the barn. The main doors had come off their hinges, one was missing and the other one was broken in half so she picked her way around the wreckage before entering. The front half of the barn looked as expected, dirty, barely any hay on the ground, with dust and leaves everywhere that had been blown into the abandoned building through holes that now existed in the walls. She winced as leaves crunched under her boots, looking down at her feet before she noticed the muddy footprints on the ground beside her. Following them with her eyes, there were multiple sets leading deeper into the barn. Where the intact walls made it dark and much harder to see. That was where the paddocks were, and she heard some strange sounds that could be a person which raised her guard.
Keeping her senses alert, she walked deeper into the barn as the noises grew louder and she approached one of the paddocks, looking over the gate and stumbled backwards in shock. Instead of a horse in the paddock, there was a girl lying on her side with her back to the gate. She had long dark hair and was dressed for riding in black knee boots, beige jodhpurs, white shirt and black riding jacket. Leather straps surrounded her wrists, forearms and elbows, securing her arms into a single useless limb. More straps were wrapped around her upper body, pinning her arms against her back, and around her thighs, above and below her knees, and ankles.
A leather bit like the type used on horses was strapped into her mouth and a matching padded blindfold blocked her sight. Zoe could see a leather collar locked around her neck with a padlock and a chain running to the stall wall, chaining the girl in place. A chill ran down her spine as she checked the next stall. Another girl sat bound, bit-gagged, blindfolded and collared. This one was a blonde, in brown riding boots, navy jodhpurs and brown jacket. A quick run through the rest of the barn confirmed her fears that the rest of the stalls also contained bound and gagged girls except for the last two. What the hell is going on here? She wondered. There hadn’t been any reported disappearances or kidnappings recently that she had heard of.
It suddenly dawned on her why the ranch was so quiet today. All the girls that had gone out to ride had been kidnapped and were now here, even two of the adult instructors. Zoe could feel adrenaline kicking in as she realized this was huge. They had to call the police on this. She looked back towards the barn entrance. She had to find Stephanie and they had to get out of here, but she also couldn’t leave her friends like this. Seeing no sign of her partner, she opened the stall and crouched down in front of the captive. “Hey.”
The bound girl immediately flinched and screamed behind her gag, trying to squirm away from Zoe. “Hey hey, I’m here to help.”
The girl stopped struggling, an almost hopeful whimper emerging from behind her gag. Zoe inspected her bonds, wondering how she would get them off. All the bonds seemed to have a padlock on them, locking them painfully tight. Even the gag was locked deep into the girl’s mouth, pulling her lips back. “Damn.” She muttered as she looked at the straps.
After a minute, she gave up trying to take any of the restraints off, as it was clear they were not coming off unless she had the key or a very sharp knife. She decided to pull the blindfold straight off of the girl’s head first. It seemed to be the only thing that would come off without a key. “I’m going to work this blindfold off, okay? Hold still.”
She slowly nudged it up and off the girl’s head, exposing wide brown eyes and Asian features. Zoe’s eyes widened as she recognized the girl as Kyla, one of the other girls in her riding group. “Hang on, let me see if I can get this gag off.”
Her fingers fumbled around the leather strap for a buckle. “MMMMMPH!” Kyla suddenly cried out.
“I know I’m hurrying!” Zoe responded, feeling around Kyla’s head faster and under her hair.
“Bhhhd ooo!”
“What?”
Zoe had been so focused on undoing Kyla’s bonds that she had failed to notice a man enter the barn and walk into the stall containing the two girls. Kyla, however, had noticed and tried warning her would-be rescuer as he crept up behind Zoe and grabbed the oblivious girl from behind. “Well well, what have we here?”
Zoe shrieked as a massive hand clamped itself over her mouth. Another arm snaked its way around her waist, pinning her arms against her body as she was yanked backwards away from Kyla, who could only watch with tears in her eyes. Zoe tried to kick her attacker’s shins but he simply lifted her off the ground, causing her booted legs to flail uselessly in the air. “MMMMMPH!” She screamed into the handgag.
She was thrown down into the hay on the other side of the stall, landing hard and knocking the breath out of her. Before she could recover, a knee was planted in the middle of her back, pinning her in place. “Quit struggling.” The voice was cold and emotionless and sent chills down her spine.
The man was far larger than her and she had no hope of being able to throw him off, so Zoe could only watch as he reached up and grabbed several leather straps off of a hook attached to a post. It took a moment for him to grab her flailing arms, but pinned as she was there was only so much she could do. Her wrists were pulled together and wrapped with a leather strap, which was pulled tight and buckled. She yelped as her elbows were then crushed together and wrapped in another strap, causing her shoulders to ache and her chest to be thrust out. “Hey!” She cried before the handgag came back.
“Lllmmmm mmmrrrr grrrr!” She shouted as loud as she could, but the huge palm crushed her cheeks and muffled her screams.
With her wrists bound, she knew that she was caught and she had no hope of escaping this man but she tried to resist the best that she could. He reached over to grab something else and let go of her mouth long enough for her to draw in a breath before a leather bit was forced between her teeth. She gasped and gurgled as the leather rod pulled back the corners of her mouth Lifting her hair, he buckled the strap at the back of her neck and turned his attention to her legs. Her booted feet caught him with a glancing blow to the chest, but it only slowed down the inevitable. A muffled complaint was audible as he grabbed her booted ankles and yanked, then he wound a strap around and pulled it tight. A second strap soon followed at the top of her boots and a third around her thighs.
Zoe felt like a worm with her arms and legs welded together. She stiffened as she heard several clicking sounds and realized that each of the straps binding her had just been padlocked. “There we go, almost ready.”
Her captor walked out of the stall, leaving Zoe alone with Kyla who looked at her with tears in her eyes. “Mmmmph.” Zoe tried to speak but instead she just drooled over her breasts.
Footsteps announced the re-arrival of her captor. Zoe flinched as she saw the thick leather collar in his hand and tried to inch away from him. He closed the gap in two strides and strapped it around her neck, not too tight but tight enough that she felt it pressing on her throat. Another padlock ensured it was not coming off anytime soon. Zoe whimpered as he stood back up, turning his attention to Kyla. Kyla shrank back as he approached her with the discarded blindfold and strapped it back around her head, depriving her of her sight. After checking the rest of Kyla’s bonds to ensure they were as strict as ever, he walked back over to Zoe and picked her up.
Zoe gave a squeal as she was lifted into the air and carried out of the stall and down the row to one of the last ones that was empty. Grabbing a chain off the wall on his way in, he dumped her none too gently into the corner and attached her collar to the wall. With the final click, the fight left her body and she slumped in her bondage. She was now a captive until her captor decided to free her. “Good thing we had extra.” She heard her captor mutter as he inspected her bonds.
“Zoe? Where are you? ”
Zoe’s head shot up as she heard Stephanie’s voice and it did not go unnoticed by her captor. He grinned down at her. “Friend of yours?”
She glared defiantly at him before he backed away against the wall of the stall, hidden from sight if someone was standing at the stall door. “Strrrrrm, RMMMN!”
The gag in her mouth did a very good job of muffling her cry but at the moment all Zoe wanted to do was to get Stephanie away from here. Unfortunately, her scream did the exact opposite as her friend sprinted to her paddock gate once she heard the noise. “Zoe co- OH MY GOD!”
“Lfffffff mmmmmmph!”
Stephanie scrambled to open the gate to the paddock and stepped inside, but only made it two steps before she was grabbed from behind and lifted into the air. The petite girl was dwarfed by the man, who easily manhandled her into a kneeling position with her arms behind her. Picking up one of the belts from the pile on the ground beside him, her captor went to work. Soon, Stephanie was bound, gagged, and collared in the exact same way Zoe was on the other side of the stall. Leather squeaked as she struggled against the unyielding leather, her boots rubbing against each other as the man stood back up. “One last present.” He said, holding a pair of leather blindfolds.
The tears in Zoe’s eyes were soon covered up as her world became dark, with Stephanie receiving the same treatment. They heard their captor exit the stall and close the door behind him before his footsteps faded away. “Mm shhrry.” Stephanie tried to apologize through her gag as drool seeped around the leather bit and down the front of her blouse.
Stephanie continued to try and struggle but Zoe knew it was hopeless. Considering the only sound in the barn was the padlocks on Steph’s bonds jingling, the other girls here knew it as well and had given up struggling long ago. They could only wait, feeling her arms and shoulders beginning to get sore from the strict bondage as time seemed to pass excruciatingly slowly until they heard voices coming back into the barn. Soon, three men stood at the paddock gate, looking down at the two new captives. “Very good additions.” One said. “We have enough, let’s get them loaded up.”
Zoe could hear the paddock opening and heard some clicking of padlocks but was completely unprepared and let out a yelp as she was thrown over the shoulder of someone, possibly her original captor, and carried out of the barn. Footsteps on wood could be heard and soon she was placed down on her stomach on a hay covered floor which was probably none too clean. Not that she had much of a say on where she was being placed as another click signaled her collar being chained to an anchor in the floor and another length of chain was locked to her ankle straps, pulling her legs back into a hogtie as the other end was attached to her wrist bonds. She immediately hated it, feeling her body beginning to cramp from the strenuous position but the leather and metal held strong. A moment later, a grunt sounded beside her as Stephanie was dumped onto the floor beside her before metal jingled to secure her into a tight hogtie as well.
The three men repeated the process until all ten captives were now inside what Zoe realized was the horse trailer she had seen outside earlier. A clunk startled all the captives as they realized the back had been sealed up and car doors could barely be heard slamming. Once the vibrations were felt from the engines starting that every captive in the trailer could feel running through their bodies, they collectively cried out into their gags, realizing they were being taken away for good this time. Zoe and Stephanie could only sob in despair as the vehicles pulled away from the abandoned barn with their load of captives, ready to take them to new lives.