Amanda staggered down the street, too exhausted to even cry.

The nightdress she wore was in tatters; her bare feet were bleeding from walking on rough ground, as she had had to escape across country.

 She kept tripping over because of the chains; she was also unable to cry out because she was muzzled, which was also leaving her short of breath.

Still struggling to find help, she thought back to how she’d ended up like this...

She’d been told by an agency that she’d been headhunted for a job. The director of the company had really wanted to meet her, that day, so she’d found an excuse to leave and gone to the ‘interview’.

It had been a carefully orchestrated trap.

She’d been lulled into a false sense of security by the praise heaped on her, signed the paperwork and accepted a drink to celebrate being offered the job. She didn’t remember much after that...

She’d woken up on the floor in a derelict building, in the nightdress, chained and muzzled. A man was just ‘finishing up’ with her.

“They bring us the nicest toys”, he said. “I like this one; I might keep her.”

Whimpering, Amanda tried to crawl away, but the man grabbed her and roughly pulled her back to him.

“Where do you think you’re going?”, he asked. “We’ve only just started...!”

Amanda had fought him off as best as she could, but she’d been hampered by the shackles; her mouth was also firmly clamped shut, so there was no way of calling for help. At times, she was glad of that, however, as the man made perfectly clear what he would have liked to do in her mouth...

“I’ll get a nice ring gag for you”, he said. “That way, you can pleasure me at both ends, not just one...!”

It was during the third time the man had sex with her that Amanda jerked and frantically tried to kick him off. By sheer chance, her foot connected, and the man went flying backward.

There was a strangled gurgle, and he went abruptly quiet.

Amanda looked up.

Through tear-filled eyes, she saw the man’s body impaled on a spike sticking from the wall; a reinforcement bar from where the concrete had started to crumble. Blood was running down the wall...

She managed to drag herself upright. Apart from the man, she’d been alone; now he was dead, or at least incapacitated, she had a chance to escape. She’d first hobbled over to the man and checked his pockets, but he didn’t have the keys to her shackles and muzzle. Shuffling out of the room as fast as her shackled legs would take her, she headed over to the stairs.

It took her a lot longer than she wanted to get down the stairs, but she was frantically trying not to trip. Eventually, she got to the ground floor, found the exit and walked out into the open air.

She looked around. She didn’t recognize anything and had no idea where she was. Which way should she go? How should she get help? Arbitrarily picking a direction, she had set off…

Amanda’s reverie ended, and she concentrated instead on putting one bloodied foot in front of the other, forcing herself to keep walking.

She knew she wasn’t going to last much longer in the heat; she had no way of knowing that she had been held at an old ghost town in the desert. Her arbitrary direction was heading her further away from help, not towards it…

Finally, she dropped, exhausted. She was quite certain she was dying, as everything went dark…

She awoke slowly, then blinked to clear her eyes in the bright light…

“Hello, sleeping beauty! Ready to join the land of the living…?”

The six-foot blonde standing over her smiled down at her, then kissed her on her muzzle. To her amazement, she realised her clothing had been changed and her feet bandaged and treated. Why, then, was she still chained and muzzled?

“Never try running off when there’s a GPS tracker in your collar, it’s pointless”, the woman explained. “I don’t mind that you killed Franco; he was a bit of a slob anyway. After all, from what I’ve heard, you’re more my type than his…”

The woman gestured round the room.

“This is my home. This room is now yours”, she said. “I apologise for the mix up; you were supposed to come here straight away, but you got sent to the ‘training centre’ instead. You do have to be chained and muzzled, though; after all, you’re my property now.”

Amanda tried to protest; to her amazement, the woman unlocked her muzzle, allowing her to talk.

“I’m not anyone’s property!”, she cried.

“You are; after all, you signed the contract. You took the job, after all. At least, you thought that was what you were signing…!”

The woman showed Amanda a copy of the paperwork she signed. Amanda went pale…

She’d literally signed her life away by not reading it first and just assuming that it was a standard contract of employment. It was a Master/Slave agreement, and her name and signature was definitely under ‘Slave’…

She’d agreed in writing to whatever the woman wanted to do to her. Then she read the section about a ‘penalty clause’. She would have to be able to pay one million to the woman in the event of a breach…

Sobbing, she slumped back on the bed.

“I can’t do this!”, she cried. “This can’t be my life from now on!”

To her surprise, the woman came over and hugged her.

“Amanda, please. It doesn’t have to be bad for you. After all, you won’t want for anything anymore.”

“Except my freedom…!”, Amanda sobbed.

“What, so you can go back to that loser boyfriend of yours?”, asked the woman. “Does he even know you’re gay?”

“I’d only just found out myself…”, said Amanda, quietly.

“Really…!”, the woman said, stroking her hair.

She then kissed Amanda, full on. Her hand then vanished between Amanda’s legs…

The sound of moaning merged with the soft chink of chains as Amanda and the woman made love together.

Shortly, the woman got a phone call; she spoke on the phone for a few seconds then hung up.

“Sorry, duty calls”, she said. “I’m going to have to go to this meeting. After all, I need to pay for you somehow. Sorry, but the muzzle is going to have to go back on. I need you to keep quiet here.”

Amanda whimpered and tried to pull away, but the woman expertly fastened the muzzle back on and locked it. Tears ran down Amanda’s cheeks as the woman went out, locking the door behind her…

Looking around the room, Amanda came across a mirror, at the dressing table. She looked at herself in amazement. The muzzle, from the front, looked just like a lace veil; she could have worn it in public with no problems. The gold dress matched the satin sheets on her new bed beautifully and was in perfect contrast to her dusky skin. The only thing really out of place was the chains…

Sadly, she sat back down on the end of the bed. What on earth was she going to do now? Was she just expected to sit in her room until ‘called for’?

As if answering her question, the door opened, and a timid looking maid came in with some food.

“Good afternoon, Miss. I’m here to help you with any meals you may want, as well as to let you know about your daily schedule from now on. As you are the Mistress’s fiancée, you need to understand certain things.”

Amanda’s eyes went wide, and she started shaking her head. No way was she going to marry that madwoman!

“Please, calm down. There’s no need to panic.”

Amanda shook her head again, pointing at her muzzle and chains.

“I know it can be disorienting to start with”, said the maid. “I had to wear them for a month when I started. My training was a bit more ‘intensive’, shall we say, than yours. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Mistress unchains you by the weekend.”

The maid went to help Amanda. Amanda took a swing at her, sending the tray flying.

“Please, Miss! I’m only trying to help!”

Amanda got up, pointed at the maid, then pointed at the door. The message was clear; ‘Get out!’. She then turned away from the maid and went into her en-suite, shutting the door and locking it.

Sadly, the maid shook her head, then tidied up and walked out. “You’re only making things worse for yourself, Miss…”, she said.

Things continued like this for the rest of the week.

“If you don’t start eating, soon, I’m going to sue you for breach of contract”, the woman said. Amanda just ignored her.

“Am I going to have to force feed you?”, she cried. Amanda just balled her fists and carried on ignoring her.

In the end, the woman got two maids in.

“Hold her down and fasten her to the bed”, she said.

Amanda struggled as she was forced onto her back and strapped down. The woman then undid her muzzle. Amanda responded by spitting into her face. “Screw you! I’m doing fuck all for you, until you let me go!”

The woman brought out a baby’s bottle, full of warm Pureed food. She just rammed it into Amanda’s mouth and started squeezing, holding it in place until she was forced to swallow.

“Why do you have to be so damn difficult!”, she cried. “You always pick the hard way of doing everything. There’s no need to; you could have everything done for you!”

Spitting food out into the woman’s face, Amanda snarled “I don’t want everything done for me! Not your way! I want to do things when I want to do them, not when you expect them to be done! I want to go home! I want to go to my favourite café down the road from my home, see my friends, have fun! I want to not have to wear chains and a muzzle!”

“If I’m not allowed to live life my way, I don’t want to live at all! Either you let me go, right now, or I’ll find some way of killing myself! I won’t let you make me live like this!”

Amanda was really breathing heavily after this outburst, glaring at the woman.

Sadly, the woman just cleaned Amanda’s face, then her own, then refitted Amanda’s muzzle and left the room, not saying another word, leaving Amanda sobbing once again…

The woman couldn’t understand the problem; she just couldn’t see what was wrong. She was offering Amanda everything, and she was just throwing it back in her face. Why? Sure, she had to wear the muzzle and chains to start with, but that was only during training. She hadn’t told her that, true, but she had heard the maid tell her.

Perhaps she ought to make that clear to Amanda. She turned and walked back into her room…

She screamed.

She then yelled for the maid, dialing the emergency services as she did so, not caring what they’d think about the muzzle and chains.

Amanda had managed to find something sharp enough to slash her wrists; she’d found a piece of broken crockery on the floor from one of her ‘tantrums’ that the maid had missed and used that.

The blood was just starting to pool by the bed…

She frantically undid Amanda’s chains and muzzle, then held her hands over the cuts on her wrists, trying to stop the bleeding. She was still there when the paramedics rushed in, having been let in by the maid…

Amanda woke up in hospital a while later, then stared at her bandaged wrists. The woman was sitting by her bedside. Amanda immediately called for a nurse by pushing her call button, making sure the woman didn’t see her do it.

As soon as the nurse came in, Amanda pointed at the woman and shrieked “Get her out of here! She’s the reason I did this in the first place! She was holding me against my will!” She then slumped back, exhausted.

The nurse turned to the woman.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave. I can’t have you upsetting my patient like that”, she said.

“She’s my fiancée! I’m not going anywhere!” the woman replied, crossly.

To her amazement, the nurse called security; she then had her ejected from the building.

“You can’t do this to me!”, she cried. “Why are you separating me from the woman I love?”

Back in her room, Amanda woke up again and looked round, fearfully.

“It’s all right”, said the nurse. “She’s gone. I’ve had her removed.”

Amanda breathed a sigh of relief, then started sobbing.

“She’s held me captive for ages! She had people kidnap me; after telling me it was for a job interview, then she tried to turn me into her slave! She said I’d signed a contract agreeing to it; I thought it was to accept the job offer…!”

The nurse hugged her as she cried.

There was a knock at the door of the room.

Amanda’s mother, Sophie, put her head round the door, saw it was Amanda in the room and came flying in.

“What are you doing in hospital, love? No-one tells me anything…”

She stopped abruptly as she saw the bandages around Amanda’s wrists.

“Oh, no… Sweetie, not again…! I thought you were over that!”

“Mum, it’s not like that! I’ve been kidnapped! That damn woman was keeping me as some kind of pet! I couldn’t cope with it! She had me chained and muzzled!”

Sophie turned to the nurse.

“Was she chained up or muzzled when she was brought in?”

“No, she wasn’t. She came in with the ambulance crew, and another woman came in after and sat with her for ages.”

“Oh? Where is she?”

“Your daughter had her thrown out. Said she was the woman who had been abusing her.”

“What!? What did she look like?”

“Six-foot, blonde hair, all dressed in black with a wide-brimmed hat.”

“Damn!”

Sophie was straight on her mobile, ignoring the nurse’s complaint about using it in the hospital.

“Evelyn! We need to talk, now! I won’t take no for an answer, this time!”

She listened for a second.

“Yes, I’m at the hospital, with Amanda. I’ll meet you in the community café.”

Asking the nurse to make sure that Amanda wasn’t left alone, no matter what, Sophie headed off to meet Evelyn…

Soon, the two women were seated in the café, coffees in hand, intensely discussing a ‘mutual interest’…

“I said Amanda needed some discipline, manners and training; I didn’t say make her kill herself!”, Sophie said, indignantly.

“You didn’t tell me how bloody obstinate the stupid cow was!”, retorted Evelyn, ‘the woman’. “I’ve never met anyone so fiercely independent or so stubborn. If only that could be redirected in the right way, she would be unstoppable. What a waste!”

“You’re the one that made her try to kill herself”, said Sophie.

“But my methods have never failed before. You start off chained and muzzled, then…”

“You did WHAT to my daughter?”, shrieked Sophie.

“Chained and muzzled her”, said Evelyn, matter-of-factly. “She did sign the paperwork, after all.”

“Why the hell would she do that?”

“It’s not my fault she thought she was signing to accept a job offer. She should have read the paperwork before she signed it. She gave me the right legally to do anything to her.”

“You stupid bitch! You nearly got my daughter killed, and you’re still trying to skip out of any responsibility! As far as I’m concerned, you’re not my sister anymore. I don’t owe you anything!”

Sophie just lost it. She walloped Evelyn as hard as she could, knocking her to the floor.

“Stay away from my daughter!”

Leaving a stunned Evelyn on the floor, Sophie stormed off, back to Amanda’s room…

Evelyn, still dazed, pulled herself to her feet. Why was everyone overreacting? All she’d done was what she’d been asked to do; try and train the ‘untrainable’ girl. She thought all of this was Amanda’s fault.

Back in her room, Amanda was just waking up again. She was still very weak, so she stayed lying in bed.

The nurse in the room looked over at her.

“Hi, you”, she said. “Glad to see you’re awake again. I was getting quite worried…!”

“At least someone was”, Amanda said. “My mum couldn’t wait to rush off. She always finds something more important than me…”

“That’s not true!”, came a cry from the door. Sophie was back. “Nothing’s more important than you! In fact, you’re staying back with me from now on. I’m not letting that bitch get her hands on you again!”

“Mum, that’s almost as bad as being held by her!”, Amanda cried. “I need to be able to live my own life again.”

“I’ve already reported her to the police”, said Sophie. “I’ve told them I’m worried she’ll make another attempt to get you. She’s unhinged, Manda. She’ll do anything to have you, and she doesn’t care what it is.”

“Please stay with me; it’s only going to be for a while; she’s bound to make a mistake sooner or later, and then the Police can arrest her.”

Reluctantly, Amanda agreed to ‘temporarily’ move back in with her mother.

Sophie picked her up as soon as she was discharged from hospital and took her home.

She let out a shriek as soon as she walked into the living room…

Evelyn was sitting there on the sofa.

“I told you that you couldn’t get away from me”, she said.

Sophie came charging in.

“What the hell are you doing here, sis?”, she asked.

“Sis!?”, cried Amanda.

“Come to collect my property, which you have stolen”, said Evelyn. “my solicitor has assured me that my contract is quite legal; Amanda signed it while not under duress; indeed, she was eager to get started…!”

“I thought I was getting a job, not being turned into a slave!”, cried Amanda.

“I told you to leave her alone…”, said Sophie, menacingly…

Amanda, terrified, hid behind the sofa as Sophie and Evelyn fought.

The battle was quite one-sided; but not in the way Amanda thought it would be…

Evelyn was lying in a heap on the floor in no time.

Sophie got her in an arm lock, and lifted her head off of the floor.

“Two choices”, she said, calmly. “Either you let her off her contract, or you go without the use of your legs from now on…!”

She gave a hard tug on Evelyn’s neck.

“Ok! Ok!”, Evelyn cried. “I give in!”

Evelyn went to her phone, Sophie’s arm still round her neck, and dialled a number.

“Pete, it’s Eve. Cancel number 42, please. Right now. Send the paperwork to my phone, for printing here. She’s turned out to have too much baggage…!”

The paperwork arrived quickly; Evelyn signed it, as did Amanda (this time reading it carefully).

“There you go. You’re free to go. God knows I wanted to keep you; I do really love you, you know. I’ve had my eye on you for years…”

Things then took another left turn…

“Mum, drop her. She’s done what we asked”, said Amanda.

As soon as Sophie did, Amanda scooped Evelyn up in her arms and kissed her.

“I’ve never had sex in bed like that session I had with you”, she said. “I want more. Now you don’t ‘own’ me anymore, how about doing things on an equal basis…?”

Evelyn’s mouth dropped open in astonishment, as did Sophie’s.

“You mean….”, said Evelyn.

“Yes, you idiot!”, said Amanda. “If you hadn’t come on so strongly, I’d probably still be with you now. I care for you, too…!”

“Have I got any chance?”, asked Evelyn. “After all the things I’ve done…?”

“What do you think…?” said Amanda, with a giggle, putting her hand between Evelyn’s legs…

To Sophie’s absolute amazement, Amanda then towed Evelyn into her old room and shut the door. The sounds that then echoed from the room let no doubt as to what was going on…

 “That’s why I really need the muzzle”, Amanda whispered into Evelyn’s ear, causing them both to giggle…

“You promise me you’ll never hurt her again, Sis, and I’ll let you keep seeing each other”, said Sophie to Evelyn, later. “Honestly, I had no idea she was gay.”

“She didn’t either, really, to start with”, said Evelyn. “She was only certain of it the first time we slept together. She’s an easy person to like; that’s why it hurt me so much when she didn’t co-operate to start with. If only she’d been sent straight to me like she was supposed to be, none of this would have happened. Talk about a shipping error…!”

Amanda came out of the bedroom, smiling, and wrapped her arms around Sophie and Evelyn.

“Nice to see you two getting on with each other. Now, do you promise to play nicely from now on? Also, where the hell did you learn to fight like that, mum?”

Sophie chuckled.

“Where did you think Evelyn learned everything from…?”