PENALTY MINUTES
By
Norm E.
SIX SIX Although she still felt weakened, Bonnie still tried to pull her arm out of
Reginald´s grasp as he dragged her down the stairs and across the warehouse
floor. His grip, however, remained iron. Nonetheless, Bonnie kept trying.
Her first impressions from the dilapidated look of the warehouse was that it
had been abandoned for close to ten years. She could still hear traffic in
the distance, though, so it wasn´t terribly isolated. If A police cruiser
or concerned motorist could just happen by……..
Reginald forced her into a large holding room right next to the warehouse´s
loading docks. The very first thing Bonnie noticed was that the back of it
was filled halfway to the roof with all different kinds of rope: thin,
thick, knotted, straight, brown, white, black. Several of the kidnappers
were setting up in a row six identical chairs. They were large and
throne-like, with thick brown wood paneling and an ornate back. Both the
seat and the back were cushioned, but as Bonnie realized when she was shoved
into the chair on the far left, cushioning did not necessarily equate
comfort. She felt almost dwarfed by the chair; the back of it rose nearly a
foot above her head, while her feet were about five inches off the ground
when sitting straight up in it.
“Comfy?’ Reginald asked her almost tauntingly, “You´re going to feel even
more comfortable in a moment, Miss Marcliff. Arms on the chair´s arms,
please.’
A cocked machine gun pointing at her left temple gave Bonnie all the reason
to comply. Almost ten of Reginald´s men swarmed over her with handfuls of
white clothesline rope. In quick succession her wrists, forearms, and
elbows were lashed to the chair´s arms. Bonnie took deep breaths to keep
from panicking. More ropes snaked around from behind the chair; her back
was fixed to the back of the chair at her shoulders, chest, and especially
around her waist. Then even more rope stretched diagonally across her body,
first from the right side of the chair, and then the left, secured her to
the poorly cushioned chair back. “Don´t you think you´re overdoing it?’ she
asked anyone who would care to answer, “I´m tired and I´m weak. I´m not
going to put up much of a fight for you!’
“You really expect us to fall for something like that?’ Reginald sneered,
not even remotely believing her sincerity, “No no, you´re going to stay nice
and secure for us, Miss Marcliff.’
The man named Jackson bound her knees and secured her upper legs to the
chair´s seat. Then came a tactic Bonnie hadn´t expected; her lower legs
were stretched to the sides, and her ankles were separately tied to each of
the chair´s legs. “Ow!’ she grimaced at the painful posture, “This really
hurts, you know!’
“That´s what they all say,’ snorted Leon, who´d bound her ankles, “Just
learn to live with it hon; you´re going to be in this chair for a good long
while.’
Bonnie gritted her teeth hard. It was all she could do to keep from crying
out in pain. Her expression went further south when she saw the college-age
boys carrying forward more of the dreaded plastic ties. About five of these
were used to secure each of her legs to the chair´s legs up to the point
where her legs started coming together below her bound knees. The sharp
plastic cut deep into her unprotected skin, and Bonnie had to strain harder
than even to keep from making a scene. The rest of the plastic ties were
applied along the length of her arms that hadn´t been tied down with rope
already, and the last of the clothesline rope was used to bind her thighs to
the chair´s legs.
At this point the kidnappers stepped back to admire their handiwork.
Bonnie found the opportunity to discuss something that had her worried
terribly.
“What happens to people who you decide should disappear?’ she asked
Reginald, who was examining her bonds and smiling in satisfaction.
“Well, my dear, you´ll be taken to an incredibly remote location,’ Reginald
informed her, “Meaning there´s nobody around for at least fifty miles.
You´ll be kept in a secure and locked area in a position where you won´t
have much to do except think. You´ll stay like this for hours upon end for
several weeks. We will feed you about twice a week; no need to completely
starve our victims.’
“And what happens after the couple of weeks are up?’ a terrible feeling was
growing in Bonnie´s stomach.
“It depends if you make it that far,’ Reginald said, “But no need to worry
about that now. We´ll cross that bridge when we get there. In the
meantime, we´ll add some finishing touches here, and then take care of that
pretty mouth of yours.’
“Finishing touches!?’ Bonnie was aghast, “Mr. Reginald, I´m tied up enough
as it is! I can´t move a muscle in my body! There´s no way……..!’
One of the kidnappers shoved his gun in her face. Bonnie whimpered into
silence. Two more college-age kids stepped forward with rolls of duct tape
and began wrapping it over the ropes holding her wrists to the chairs arms.
After about ten layers were added, they took some more clothesline rope from
their associates and tied that over the tape, then added another thick layer
of tape. It now felt to Bonnie as if welded steel was clamped over her
hands. The college boys also taped over the ropes binding her ankles, but
didn´t add any more layers after that. Then a half dozen kidnappers swarmed
around her chair with large, heavy brown rope--acres and acres of it. Ever
so slowly but surely, Bonnie´s entire body was further bound to the chair.
All that kept her from openly hyperventilating was a struggling sound
outside. Two more kidnappers dragged Susan into the room and shoved her
into the chair next to Bonnie. “What are you doing to her!?’ Susan demanded
as she watched her best friend practically disappear under ropes, “She
hasn´t done anything to deserve this!’
“Look at the bright side, sister, you won´t get it as bad as she will,’ a
fat kidnapper snorted as he starting tying Susan to her chair, “Unless you
start getting difficult, that is; then we´ll give you the same treatment.’
“If it´s me you want, let my friends and the girls from Santa Ana go,’
Bonnie was unable to suppress the abject terror in her voice, “I´ll take
this for them.’
“Not listening,’ Reginald said dismissively, “They chose to get involved,
and this is there punishment.’
His men finally finished their work on Bonnie and stepped away to give
their boss a final evaluation of there work. Bonnie could have told them
they were perfect. It felt like a great weight was forcing her whole body
into the chair. She could barely see her soccer uniform under all the
ropes, ties, and tape. “Very nice,’ Reginald nodded, “Now let´s get her
gagged.’
“Why bother?’ Bonnie made one last protest, “If I´m fifty miles from
civilization, you won´t need to gag me! And I promise I´ll be quiet, I……’
She was silenced as a wad of cloth was forced into her mouth. A second
soon followed, leaving her cheeks puffed out. Duct tape was wrapped around
her lips at least thirty times. “Like I said earlier, I´m a man that
doesn´t take chances, Miss Marcliff,’ Reginald told her, “And since you can
clearly scream well, I´m doing extra duty on you. I wager you´re not going
to be able to even whisper once we get this super number on right.’
The duct tape was finally torn off. Another kidnapper stepped forward with
a wide strip of white elastoplast tape. This was wrapped over the duct tape
(and over her hair, whereas the duct tape had gone under it) about fifty
times, so that when he finished, Bonnie´s face from her nose to her chin was
an expense of white. Then came the handkerchiefs. In quick succession, a
plain white one, a pink and purple splotched one, and the sparkling golden
one were tied over the tape and knotted at the back of her head. This
wasn´t the end of her agony, though. Leon next produced a red one which he
laid over the top of her head and pulled down under her jaw to tie it tight.
Then he pulled out a huge triangular blue one that he pulled over her face
so that the top of the handkerchief covered the bridge of Bonnie´s nose.
She winced as he tied this in a double knot. She caught a glimpse of
herself in a mirror across the room. Her face was now effectively veiled,
as the handkerchief tapered from her nose down to her chest, and her
beautiful hair was now practically hidden. Only her eyes, which were
bulging out of her head in terror, weren´t smothered in cloths. She made
terrified little peeps at her predicament, which she could barely even hear.
“Bonnie,’ came Susan´s voice to her left. She turned to look at her
friend, who was clearly frightened herself but trying hard to maintain an
air of calm. “Bonnie don´t be frightened,’ Susan told her reassuringly,
“This isn´t going to be the end. We´re going to get out of this somehow.
And I´m going to be with you all the way, so don´t panic. Sorority sisters
stick together.’
“Yeah, too bad you won´t be able to say much to each other,’ snorted
Jackson. With little else to do, Bonnie watched Susan try and remain as
calm as she could as she was bound to her chair. True to the kidnappers´
words, she wasn´t tied as severely as Bonnie was--although that was
truthfully a bit of a stretch. While Susan did not have to suffer the
additional diagonal layers of rope to hold her back to the chair, and she
had less plastic ties applied to her arms and legs (unlike Bonnie, she was
lucky enough to be wearing pants, so t he plastic ties clearly didn´t hurt
as much), and only received one layer of tape over her wrists compare to a
tape-rope-tape layering, her bonds were more or less the same as Bonnie´s.
Her gag was also basically the same, with only two handkerchiefs tied over a
duct-then-elastoplast tape job. The kidnappers were quite efficient; Susan
was completely bound and gagged in only about five minutes. Reginald nodded
over her bonds as well. “Send down the others one at a time,’ he called
upstairs.
Susan exchanged glances with Bonnie. The brunette tried to convey
reassurance in her eyes, but Bonnie could sense fear there as well.
Nevertheless, she did feel reassured by Susan´s promise that everything
would be all right, and she did feel better that they´d be going through
this ordeal together.
“Take your hands off me!’ came the wild cry as Elizabeth was dragged into
the room. She kicked crazily in every direction, “This is going way too
far! You can´t drag us out to the middle of nowhere to rot away and…….!!’
“Gag her now, and gag her good and tight,’ Reginald ordered the men with
her. Immediately Elizabeth´s mouth was packed completely full and wrapped
with an obscene amount of tape. For further effect, her belt was removed
and buckled over her mouth before the handkerchiefs went on like Bonnie and
Susan´s. This did not deter Elizabeth, however. She continued to roll her
head wildly from side to side and make strange grunting noises as she was
bound to the next chair in line. And this was time consuming as well;
Elizabeth struggled hard enough so that it took almost eleven minutes before
she was completely tied up.
Next into the room was Annie, who was also struggling hard. She, however,
apparently thought screaming was futile, for she remained largely quiet as
she was tied up. “You think you´re really going to get away with this!?’
she did have the courage to challenge Reginald about midway through the
ordeal, “For your information, we´ve called the police! They´ll be here
soon, and if you don´t let us go, I´m prepared to press full charges!’
“Oh no, I´m really scared,´ Reginald said mockingly, “You really think
that´s going to worry me? If you´d called the police, they would have come
here and not you.’
This prompted Annie back to silence. She still resisted, though, taking
about eight minutes to be fully restrained.
Next was Shawna. She looked frozen in terror. As such, she sat pretty
still in her chair and was completely tied up in only four minutes. Finally
Felicia was hauled in. She was crying at the thought of having to be tied
up again. “You don´t have to take us to nowhere!’ she pleaded with Reginald
as she was roped to the last chair in the row, “You can just leave us here!
No one will find us here!’
“My mind´s made up,’ Reginald shook his head, “It´s the middle of nowhere
for all six of you.’
“I don´t want to disappear!’ Felicia broke down, “I have friends, a family
that loves me! You can ransom us off, we don´t have……….!!!!!’
The kidnappers accompanying her gagged her. Thank you!’ Reginald lauded
them, “Anything to stop the slobbering! I hate slobbering!’
Felicia continued to sob, however, even after the final veil gag was
applied to her face. She was too distraught to struggle, and was all tied
up in five minutes. With all their hostages firmly secured, the kidnappers
took one last look at them then turned their attention toward the loading
dock itself. Bonnie followed their gaze. Several large packing crates,
perhaps used for livestock of some sort, lay against the far wall. Her
heart sank; they were going into those things!?
“Miss Marcliff first,’ Reginald pointed at her. Three kidnappers lifted up
Bonnie´s chair and carried her toward the nearest crate. She was set down
in the middle of it, and locking devices of some sort were fastened around
the chair´s legs, making sure she couldn´t tip it over. Bonnie was so
intent on watching them lock her down that she was caught off guard when
tape was wrapped over her eyes, followed by another handkerchief. She
shrieked at being blindfolded, but could hear nothing through the harsh gag.
“Get used to it, toots,’ Leon told her, “You´ll be wearing that blindfold
for a while. All right, let´s get it up and nail it up.’
Bonnie heard the front of the crate being lifted into place, followed by
the hammering of nails. “OK, that looks good,’ came the voice of an unnamed
kidnapper, “Let´s go down the line and put Miss Rivers in next.’
One by one, Bonnie listened to the rest of her fellow hostages being loaded
into other crates. Elizabeth was still putting up a fight, as she was
almost dropped while carried to her crate, but the rest of them seemed
resigned to the fact they were going for a ride. A sentiment Bonnie herself
now shared. Her head sagged in sorrow. Where was her friend when she
needed him? And where was this “middle of nowhere?’ they were going to be
taken to?