Alexandra rolled her eyes in frustration. It had been over ten minutes since the kidnappers had left, and she felt no closer to escape than when she'd had the gun trained on her. As soon as their captors had departed, Alexandra had tried her best to communicate with Cynthia Crane that a calm, reasoned approach would be their best chance of freeing themselves. Unfortunately, her sister captive hadn't seen it that way. For ten minutes now, the strapping redhead had done her best to pull and twist against the rope binding her to the blond reporter. Their difference in sizes (particularly the substantial size differential in the chest area) meant that Alexandra had almost no control over her own movements, as the policewoman continued to thrash about, nearly dizzying Alexandra. In addition to her frantic flailing, Cynthia Crane had persisted in trying to call for help through the packing in her mouth. "Of course," Alexandra thought to herself, "I know that's a waste of time because this is the second time I've had this damn thing in my mouth." She guessed that Cynthia Crane hadn't had much experience trying to speak through a mouthful of panties before. Finally, though, Cynthia's muffled screams died away, and she fell back on the couch, exhausted.
Now, Alexandra lay atop the policewoman. In this position, she was able to breathe more easily. Unfortunately, the ball gag in her mouth was causing her to drool again, and for all the seriousness of their plight, she still cringed in embarrassment as her saliva dribbled down the front of Cynthia Crane's chest. Of course, at this point, Cynthia could scarcely have noticed any more moisture on her skin: her violent struggles had left both captives covered with a fine mist of perspiration. Their captors had certainly done an excellent job of restraining them, but by stretching her neck, Alexandra could see that the knots fastening the rope around their legs would not be completely impossible to reach. Not easy, certainly, but Alexandra saw no other choice-the kidnappers might return at any moment, and she had no desire to spend what would likely be her last moments on earth as the plaything of the woman who had bound and gagged them.
"Ah uhnk Ah ahn eeach uhh otts!" Alexandra couldn't believe how hard it was to communicate such a simple phrase: "I think I can reach the knots!"
"Uuuhhnnfff gid you aayyy?"
"Ah uhnk Ah ahn-ah hell!" That being as close to coherent speech as she could manage, Alexandra gave up trying to communicate and, instead, pulled with her bound wrists. The move certainly surprised Cynthia, as Alexandra was pressed even harder against the redhead's torso.
"Haat aaarrggh ooo oooing?" Alexandra ignored her, and concentrated on pulling herself closer: as she got closer to the redhead, the farther down behind Cynthia's legs she was able to reach. It helped that both women continued to perspire, so that Alexandra found herself almost sliding into position. She stretched her fingers as far as she could, and felt one fingernail hook itself onto a knot behind Cynthia's knee. Unfortunately, the policewoman was either very ticklish there, or perhaps just over-sensitive, as she jerked her legs back just as Alexandra was starting to tug on the knot."
"AAArrrggghhh!" Even if she'd been ungagged, Alexandra doubted she could have put her frustration into words. How could a woman tied so tightly keep moving around so much? It took several more tries before Cynthia Crane realized that Alexandra was working on their bonds. To her credit, once she did realize, she lay still, and let Alexandra get on with her work. The sweat from both their bodies made it a very slippery job, but finally Alexandra was able to undo the knot on a length of cord which had bound their legs together. Once the knot was undone, though, it was clear that they would have to shift positions again to get the ropes unwound from their bodies. It took several minutes, but eventually the two women found that their legs were free. It took even more effort to stand, as neither could easily get purchase on the floor without unbalancing the other. Finally, though, they stood facing each other, still tied together. Cynthia looked questioningly at Alexandra: for all her law enforcement experience, she was clearly deferring to the young reporter's cleverness to get them out of this. Alexandra began to slide her body against Cynthia's, undulating her sweaty torso. The policewoman was startled, then began to move her splendid body in the same way. By pulling and twisting as hard as they could, they were able to get some more play in the ropes binding them together. When they were loose enough, Alexandra slid herself closely to Cynthia once more, and used the extra leverage to pull her bound wrists over Cynthia's head; now, both women had their wrists still bound, but in front of them.
It was quiet in the room for a moment. Though both women had enough play in their wrist bonds to ungag themselves, both set to work first on freeing their hands. Alexandra collapsed on the couch, exhausted. The bright red ballgag was still firmly in place in her mouth; her arms felt too weak even to reach behind and unbuckle it. Meanwhile, Cynthia had untied her hands, and immediately reached for her gag. The knot in the back was too tight to be undone easily, so the policewoman settled for pulling the scarf from between her teeth, and draping it about her neck. She reached in and drew the sodden panties from her mouth. She sat for a moment with her eyes on the floor; then she reached behind Alexandra's head, and unbuckled the gag from the exhausted girl's mouth.
"Thanks" breathed Alexandra. She was too tired to say much else, and both women sat for several minutes without speaking. Finally, the policewoman broke the silence.
"Anderson, I…uh…I have to apologize. I still think your interference in this case is making my job harder, but I'll admit that it was my own foolishness that got me captured." She paused. "I-I've never had an experience like that. Being all tied up, I mean. I've been afraid before, of course, what cop hasn't, but I've never felt the way I did when those two were trussing me up and putting that gag in my mouth. They really could have done anything they wanted to us, couldn't they? " She paused. "And I certainly felt a little funny when we were…. You know. " She flushed all over, her skin tone now nearly matching her fiery tresses. "Was that the first time you have been…"
"Bound and gagged?" finished the reporter. "No, not my first time, I'll tell you. Goes with a job like mine: always sticking my nose in where it's not wanted. Still, half an hour or so with a ballgag in my mouth isn't such a terrible price to pay for a major scoop about a princess' kidnapping! I will admit, it's the first time I've ever been tied naked to another woman, though. Maybe some day I'll try and sort out my feelings about that, but for now, I think we'd better get out of here before our friends come back."
"Agreed, but what do we do for clothes?" Cynthia picked up the two moist pairs of panties. "These won't cover much."
"They'll have to do for a start" answered Alexandra, undaunted. "Give me mine." It felt quite strange to Alexandra as she slipped on her panties damp with another woman's saliva. The police captain reluctantly re-donned her own, and they tried the door. The lock was old, and the two women were able to combine their strength to force it open. For the first time, Alexandra was able to see that her prison had once been a workman's break room and locker area.
"They only finished improvements on this floor a few months back. Maybe there are still some clothes here."
Cynthia didn't look enthusiastic about the sort of clothes they might find in there, but having no better ideas, she accompanied Alexandra. In a few moments, both women had managed to find some oversized men's shirts, a little stuffy from disuse, but they had been cleaned and pressed before being abandoned here, so they weren't intolerable. There were no pants to be found, so the two women made their way to the hotel lobby dressed only in the shirts, which hung down long enough to conceal the fact that they wore only panties beneath. The sight of Captain Crane, in particular, draped only in an oversize man's shirt, caused heads to snap around all through the lobby. Alexandra could see the policewoman reddening again, but she pressed on to the desk, called the station house, and in minutes, a police car pulled up, significantly occupied by a woman driver. The two women quickly got inside, and the car sped away. The police captain had Alexandra dropped at her apartment, admonishing her to stay out of police business. Heading upstairs, Alexandra couldn't decide if the Captain was simply trying to be tough for the benefit of the policewoman driving the car, or if she was just trying hard to forget what they had just been through together. Alexandra collapsed on the couch in her living room, deciding that putting the experience behind her would probably be good advice. She rolled over to get up and head for the shower, and felt something hard in the pocket of the shirt she was wearing. Puzzled, she reached in and drew out the ballgag she had worn. She didn't remember putting it in the pocket (in fact, she would have to have had it in her hand when they broke out of the room), but there it was. An odd sort of souvenir, she thought, but this investigation was certainly turning into an odd one, anyway.
Taken to the Princess
It seemed like hours later that she emerged from the bathroom. She didn't know how much hot water her heater could produce, but she had let the shower run until there was no more. She sat at her bathroom mirror, drying her hair and trying not to think too hard on the day's experiences. A good night's sleep would do wonders for her investigative powers. Pulling a brush through her shining golden hair, Alexandra was lost in thought as she returned from the living room. She rolled her head about on her neck to relax her tired muscles; she looked through the silky curtain of her hair, and came up short. Seated on a chair in her living room was a well-dressed brunette woman, pointing a gun at her! "Hello, blondie." Alexandra was frozen in place. The plucky courage she had shown today was gone, replaced by exhausted resignation.
"What do you want?"
"Why, to give you what you're looking for-a story. THE story. The story of the kidnapped princess."
"You have information about her?"
"Oh, much better than that. I am going to take you to her."
"I don't understand."
"It's quite simple, really. I have been working as a 'double agent' inside Simone's organization for some time. I believe you met my 'real' employers this evening. How you escaped from them, I don't know and don't care. My job is to help them find the princess, and I can't get close to her on my own. I need to get someone close to her, and that someone is you."
"What?"
"Simple. I will capture you and take you to Simone, telling her I caught you trying to rescue the princess. I will show her these slippers I found in the hotel garage, and say that they are the clue that led you to us. She will then place you in captivity along with the princess, not realizing that you will be wearing a homing beacon. Once you are in place, we step in and take the princess for our own uses."
"And what becomes of me?"
Her response was a cruel smile. "You might get lucky and just get dumped in the river. My guess, though, is that my employers will find more amusing things to do with you. Enough of this. Time to travel. I really don't think you need to change your clothes." Alexandra burned with humiliation, since she hadn't yet had time to put on any clothes at all. "Now, what do we have here?" The woman picked up the ballgag. "Well, we're quite the kinky one, aren't we, blondie? Oh, I forgot, this must have belonged to my employers. Well, I guess we can return it to them when we're done, can't we? Put it on."
The gun didn't waver as the woman used her other hand to toss the ballgag to Alexandra. "I said, put it on."
Alexandra had no choice but to obey. She opened her mouth, and slid the hard rubber ball between her teeth. She allowed it to rest on her front teeth as she drew the straps behind her head.
"Now, now, blondie. That goes all the way inside. If you want me to do it for you, I'll be glad to, but I doubt you'd enjoy it."
Reluctantly, Alexandra complied. She used the straps to pull the gag farther into her mouth, and felt it snap into place between her back teeth. She pulled the straps up under her hair, and did her best to fasten the buckle without catching too many of the silky strands inside it. The familiar foul taste filled her mouth. Finished, she glared at the woman who was watching her predicament with such glee.
"Very well done. You might have made a useful kidnapper yourself. Now, turn around."
Alexandra obeyed. She knew the woman would have to do something with the gun. As she felt her captor draw nearer, Alexandra decided to take a bold chance. She lashed out behind her with one leg, and felt it make contact. Her plan had been to execute some sort of elegant martial arts move and disarm the woman, but her survival instincts took hold. Before the woman could react, Alexandra had bolted for the door of the apartment. It was still open from being forced, and Alexandra dashed through.
What do to now? Which of her neighbors could be counted on to help a naked ballgagged blonde running down the hallway? She heard the woman running through the apartment door, and Alexandra simply took off down the hall. She tried to undo the ballgag, but found it was too hard to run while doing so. She abandoned her effort, and began to bang on doors. She tried to scream, but was able to produce little but humms and gurgles. Finally, just as she had decided to risk stopping long enough to remove the gag, the door she was banging on opened.
"What do you--- what the hell??" A fortyish woman goggled at the sight before her. She turned her head back to the room behind her. "Ed, there's some bimbo at the door that seems to be playing some kind of sick sex game. If this is someone you know from work, you've got a hell of a lot of explaining to do!"
"EEEEaaagggghhhh!" was the closest thing to speech Alexandra could manage. Breathing heavily through her nose from exertion, drooling helplessly around the gag, she nearly began sobbing in frustration. She reached up to undo the gag before the woman could slam the door in her face, when she felt her hands grabbed.
"Now, now, Alex, you know I don't want to share you." The eyes of the woman in the doorway grew even wider as the naked blond in front of her was seized by a well-dressed brunette, who swiftly pulled the girl's hands behind her and cuffed them.
"Sorry for the disturbance", said the brunette, "but my girlfriend here can get a little overdramatic when we play."
Alexandra tried to pull away, but the woman had a strong hold on the cuffs.
"You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" snapped the woman, and slammed the door.
Alexandra sagged against the door in frustration, but was brought up sharply by a terrific pain in her scalp. The woman had tangled her fingers in Alexandra's silky hair, and pulled her up.
"Not smart, blondie. I had been thinking of letting you get dressed, after all, but now I think I'll just take you the way you are." With that, she gave a vicious yank on Alexandra's hair, and pulled her down the hallway. As Alexandra was dragged away by the hair, she began to weep tears of frustration. Kidnapped again! And this time, there was even less chance of her being found. She tried again to ignore the saliva running down her chin and scream through the gag, but her captor gave another cruel tug on her hair, and Alexandra subsided. The two women emerged into the darkened parking garage. The woman used a button on her key ring to open the trunk of a large, dark sedan. Using her grip in Alexandra's hair, she forced the blond reporter to lie in the trunk. The lid was slammed down, and Alexandra's captor started the car and drove off. Inside the trunk, Alexandra tried to fight off her fear and tears. No matter how bleak it looks, she would be closer to the princess, and might yet find a way to escape!
In the chapters ahead, the identity of the woman who just kidnapped Alexandra shifted back and forth once or twice. Feel free to pick a character of your choice.