A Midwinter Kidnapping (FF/F, F/FF) (Part 3 now up! 4/6/24)

[silvertejp590]

(Posted this on DA and thought it wouldn't hurt to share here as well. Hope you enjoy!)

There was still a lot of work to be done this school term, but tonight was a respite for Charlotte. She had the opportunity to see the Göteborg Opera’s production of Verdi’s La Traviata. The production was fabulous, world-class in every sense of the word. She had listened to a few recordings, but nothing compared to seeing it performed live. To use the old cliche, it was larger than life. And just as she’d hoped, there were moments where she felt tears streaming down her face.

“So, was it as good as you hoped?” a voice asked, and Charlotte was startled, nearly dropping her coat, scarf and gloves from her arms. She’d be so sucked up in her own thoughts that she had nearly forgotten her friend, Karin.

“Yes… oh, yes….,” Charlotte said, sounding like someone who had just fallen in love. Her boyfriend, Marcus, was originally supposed to come along, but had suddenly come down with food poisoning (or so he said, that is…). Karin had little taste for opera as far as Charlotte knew, but she didn’t feel comfortable going to this thing alone, so she invited her to tag along, and her best friend had loyally obliged. “I just hope that you had fun, too, I know this isn’t exactly your thing. And, you know, we’re kind of the youngest people here and all…”, she said (this last she made sure to say extra quietly).

“I really liked it!” she responded, as Charlotte began to slip on her coat and gloves. “You’re right, it’s not something I’d probably listen to a lot in my spare time and I may have benefited from reading a summary of it on Wikipedia, but I’m super glad I came with you. It was a beautiful performance. You have good taste”, she complimented. Charlotte felt a huge smile form on her face.

“Do you want something from me? You seem awfully eager to flatter me”, she quipped.

“Well, now that you mention it… a quick coffee, maybe?” she suggested. Charlotte pulled her phone from her purse and examined the time, 11:07 PM.

“Okay. Just a quickie,” she said, smiling. The cold night air bit her face as they stepped outside the opera house to travel a few blocks to the coffee shop around the corner. Activity for the night was starting to die down, fewer people were on the streets, almost certainly opting for the warmth of their homes instead of a night out. A quick beverage to warm their bones would hit the spot.

Neither of them had any clue that they were being closely observed.

***

Jelena examined the contents of the duffle bag one final time: rope, zip ties, bottles of water, wads of cloth, a thick stack of Swedish kronor held together with a rubber band, ibuprofen, ski masks, nitrile gloves, and of course, duct tape. Three big rolls of it. She honestly didn’t know why they bothered bringing any other bondage items, the tape was more than sufficient as far as she was concerned. But it didn’t hurt to have all the bases covered, she supposed. She let her partner Teresa rummage through it as well, who gave her an approving nod.

It was early March., that time of year when you can smell spring ever so fairly when you stepped outside. But winter still held a firm grasp on the night air in Gothenburg, even with a leather jacket and gloves on. Jelena actually preferred the city’s Swedish name, Göteborg; it was just much more melodic sounding. She wished she wasn’t here on business and could actually enjoy herself a little, this seemed like a lovely place to live.

Actually, she wasn’t called Jelena, nor was her partner named Teresa. They’d taken on assumed names as an extra level of protection in case this whole plan went south. If they were caught and imprisoned, there would be only so many things they’d be able to tell the interrogator because they simply didn’t know each other well at all. The less information they had, the better.

Jelena (aka The Woman Who Called Herself Jelena) had had an in-person meeting with an anonymous man—where exactly he fit into the leadership of this scheme, she did not know— who guaranteed that they’d never have to spend a night in jail if they were caught, a lawyer would be there within two hours to bail them out. She later realized that it probably wasn’t very wise to put faith into the promises of a middle-aged man who wore a medallion that sat atop an extremely hairy chest… but for an offer this good, could she really be blamed for taking leave of her senses?

Their assignment was ripped right out of a mystery-thriller: kidnap Charlotte Dahlquist, daughter of Magnus Dahlquist, a wealthy pharmaceutical tycoon and philanthropist. While he wasn’t a donor to any political party, he gave large amounts of his wealth to important organizations (namely those devoted to environmental causes) that ruffled the feathers of certain individuals on the other end of the ideological spectrum, at home and abroad. In addition to extorting a hefty ransom from him, he would be required to cease his contributions to these organizations immediately if he wanted to see his daughter again, or face the consequences.

In any event, none of it mattered a fig to Jelena. She was a mercenary, simply here to do a job and get paid. No foul play involved, her conscience would be clear (she hoped so, at least). Worst case scenario, if they failed the mission and couldn’t find an opportunity to snatch her from the street within a week, there would be no repercussions to face, they just wouldn’t get paid. But if they did succeed, Jelena’s bank account would grow by quite a few euros, enough to finally be able to put this life behind her. Maybe move far away from Europe to a place where her past sins had little chance of catching back up with her, perhaps Australia or New Zealand. She could picture standing on one of those beaches right now, the salt water waves crawling beneath her feet…

There was another factor influencing her decision to take on this little escapade, however: Jelena wanted the experience of being a kidnapper. As far back as she could remember, images of bondage and gags intrigued her. She relished the idea of someone breaking into her home, tying her hands behind her back, slapping tape over her mouth, and carrying her off someplace for an indeterminate period. She may have found being the victim slightly more appealing, but assuming the role of the captor was just as exciting. The fantasy she had of using the stickiest duct tape she could find on a person and taking away their ability to move and speak was utterly thrilling to her. If she could have the chance to gag somebody and reduce their speech to muffled hmmmph’s, she thought she just might die and go to heaven. And abducting a wealthy businessman’s daughter was pure melodrama; that was just as exciting as the bondage part of the whole experience.

They were only given one photo of their captive-to-be (being related to an important public figure, she seemed to have taken great pains to keep her social media presence to a minimum), and wow, Jelena didn’t think they could’ve found anyone better. This young woman was, quite simply, sunshine personified. She had long blonde hair that occupied a shade somewhere between dark and strawberry, and possessed an irresistible smile. She was charmed that this young woman, who was financially set for life and could pursue any vocation she could possibly want, opted instead to be a nurse. Something about that just warmed her heart.

In a way, this was really a spy mission. They would tail Charlotte’s every move 24 hours a day and then pounce when the moment was right (if such a moment ever arrived, that is). They’d snatch her off the streets and take her off to a secluded cabin in the woods about 100 kilometers away from Göteborg, where they would stay until further instructions were given. They wouldn’t be required to contact her family to make the demands, their employer would see to that. For some reason Jelena thought you’d really made it in life when other people did that sort of dirty work for you.

Despite the best efforts of Jelena and Teresa over the course of the business week, it looked like this endeavor was going to turn out to be a flop. Their main problem was that she seemed to be such a homebody, coming home to her apartment just before late afternoon ended and staying in the rest of the day. You would think that the daughter of a fairly important person would be predisposed to being more extroverted, go figure. They would have to find an opportunity to strike late at night. 11:00 PM at the earliest, but preferably more around midnight or even 1:00 AM. They needed as few witnesses as humanly possible, and they weren’t going to pull that off if she didn’t go out anywhere. Weren’t girls in their early 20’s supposed to stay out late and have fun? Go out dancing and all that jazz?

Guess I’m just out of touch with the youths these days… Jelena thought resignedly.

But it looked like their patience just might pay off. After staking out her apartment for several tedious days, they finally spotted her leaving her unit dressed in formal attire. Jackpot! She was actually going somewhere.

Teresa tailed the Uber which was taking Charlotte downtown this evening, swerving through traffic like a stunt driver on an obstacle course. Jelena could hear shouts of foreign words outside (which she supposed was profanity) as her partner unflinchingly cut off other drivers on the road to keep the Uber in their sights. There was a close call where they nearly lost it, but finally it came to a stop at the opera house. Ah, a classical music lover, how classy, Jelena thought. She was falling more in love with their victim-to-be with every passing moment.

And here they were. Both women sat in the Kia which had been provided for them and waited, keeping their eyes open for that window of opportunity that seemed so close at hand. A custom Spotify playlist of Jelena’s favorite music played over the car’s speakers. It contained artists such as Tears for Fears, Depeche Mode, Björk, and Kate Bush. All songs that she had heard a thousand times, but could listen to a thousand more. Besides, consuming things that were familiar helped to ease the nerves. Anxiety was a luxury that neither of them could afford during this task. That’s how mistakes were made.

She had offered Teresa to add her own choice of music to the playlist, but she politely declined. Jelena couldn’t quite figure out what to make of her partner. Her hair was nearly jet black and she had olive skin, which made her wonder if her partner hailed from Spain or somewhere thereabouts. She also seemed to be a woman of few words. Jelena wasn’t sure if she didn’t have a strong grasp of English or if she was just fairly distant. But given the ephemeral nature of this partnership, her taciturn disposition was probably for the best.

They were parked outside the concert hall, some two hours had passed since she’d gone inside and Jelena was growing impatient. Had they simply missed her? Finally, a throng of opera goers began to exit the venue. Illumination was becoming more spare, but she managed to catch a glimpse of their girl, but she winced a little when she noticed that she had a friend at by her side. A minor snafu, but no problem. They would likely split up eventually. There was a sizable pocket in the lining of her coat, and she inserted her ski mask and pistol inside of it. She opened the door a crack and looked at Teresa for approval, who gave her a thumbs up. It was go-time.

***

Jelena tailed the two young women on foot while her partner crept along side her in the car. It was growing chillier, and even with her gloves on she still had to stick her hands inside of her pockets. A few blocks later, they entered a small coffee shop. She gave another frustrated sigh; they were so close to having her in their grasp and she was anxious for the right moment to come. She took a deep breath and just accepted this as another inevitable obstacle that needed to be overcome. A little extra caffeine wouldn’t hurt either, this was potentially going to be a very long night.

The shop was empty except for the three women. Jelena had to pull off the tricky balancing act, she couldn’t stand too close to the girls or stand to far away as to arouse any suspicion. But it proved to not be too terribly difficult a task, as both of them were quite occupied by the conversation they were engaged in. Despite that it was nearly closing time, the baristas served them promptly and didn’t seem to be rushing them to leave. Jelena wasn’t much of a coffee drinker and ordered the most basic thing on the menu and took packets of cream and sugar to go with them. She tried drinking it black and winced. Damn, Grandad, how did you ever manage to drink it like this for 70+ years…?

She grabbed a newspaper from a rack and pretended to read it while she kept watch over the two ladies with her peripheral vision. Eventually though, she allowed herself to view them with both eyes. She could hear their conversation quite clearly even at this distance, though her Swedish wasn’t very good and she could make out only occasional snippets of what they were actually saying. But based purely on their body language, the friendship they shared was delightfully wholesome. They were all smiles, laughing together and clearly taking joy in being in each other’s company. Witnessing that kind of authentic human connection made Jelena’s heart glad. And a little guilty about what she was planning to do.

Twenty minutes later, one of the girls left a tip at their table and exited the shop. Jelena didn’t care about being rude and neglecting to leave one of her own at her own table, her heart was racing now. The time was so agonizingly close.

She stepped outside and quickly slipped her leather gloves back on. Teresa had the Kia idling by the curb and looked questioningly at Jelena. The streets were probably as bare as they were going to be until daybreak. Jelena maintained her gaze on both women, they hugged and looked as if they finally going to part ways, but they continued their conversation. This was so frustrating by now that it was almost comical. Their window of opportunity was here and this other girl was messing it up for them.

And then Jelena noticed something: one of the streetlights next to the ladies was burned out. That would reduce their visibility at least somewhat. And if worst came to worst, could they just kidnap them both? No, way too messy. If they were fast and clean, which she genuinely believed they could pull off, they wouldn’t run the risk of being identified. Jelena looked at Teresa, put on her ski mask and pulled out her gun. She gave the signal to follow her.

“Hey!” Jelena called as she approached both ladies. They looked at her and immediately recoiled when they realized she was holding a gun. She had a moment to realize that they were officially at the point of no return. They were really going through with this. She pointed at Charlotte and said in the best Swedish she could muster, “You’re coming with me,” she said with deadly authority in her voice. What happened next occurred startling fast, so much so that it was difficult to recount even in the days to come. One thing was certain however, it began with a scream.

“HELP!!!” Charlotte screamed at the very top of her lungs. The Kia was parked right beside them and the back door already open. Jelena made to grab her right there but felt another body tackle her, the sheer surprise of it knocking the wind out of her. She felt a knee kick her in the stomach and gasped for air. For one horrified moment she believed that they were going to run away, but with one final burst of energy she grabbed at another body and rolled around on the pavement. She felt blindingly certain that someone was going to walk away from this with a broken bone. It was just a tangled mass of bodies piled on the ground. Teresa stepped out of the car and intervened. The darkness was total, no streetlight illuminated their movements. Jelena found herself pushing one of the ladies into a row of trashcans lined up by the street and they all fell with a loud crash. Before she even realized what was happening, she suddenly found herself tossing one of the girls into the backseat and Teresa gunning the accelerator before the doors could be closed. All of this happened in the space of a minute.

***

If either Jelena or Teresa believed that the worst part of the job was over now that they had the girl in their clutches, they were in for a rude awakening. It was as if a violent tornado was sweeping through the car’s interior. While Teresa drove, Jelena ripped away her mask tried to pin the girl down and shove the cloth inside her mouth, but she resisted and kept rolling out of her grasp. The screams were ear-piercing, it was so loud that she genuinely feared that someone outside would hear the commotion inside the car and give a vehicle description to the police. As this chaos unfolded, music continued to play through the car speakers and Jelena noticed that the current track cued up was “Orinoco Flow” by Enya. Between the stark counterpoint this song provided and the adrenaline flowing through her veins, she found herself laughing. 

“Shut her up!” Teresa yelled from the driver’s seat. This uncharacteristic outburst startled Jelena; it was utterly surreal to hear her raise her voice like that. She was well and truly scared by this point. She had made sure to prepare herself for the worst case scenarios to occur, but hadn’t expected the wheels to fall off so goddamn fast like this. She desperately worked to get their captive on her back, her energy simply didn’t seem to dissipate. Eventually her persistence paid off, as she finally got a firm grip on her shoulders and forced her on her back. She snatched the wad of cloth that had been left in the cup holder.

“Hush, hush, sweet Charlotte…” Jelena said serenely as she shoved the cloth inside their captive’s mouth.

“N-mmmph grrmmmph!” she grunted as her speech was finally and blessedly stifled. Jelena still had adrenaline pumping through her system and their victim was sapped of energy. She unzipped the duffle bag to retrieve the duct tape, but Teresa made a sharp turn and everything spilled out of the bag, and Jelena hit her head against the car window. Charlotte nearly escaped her grasp, but she managed to exert her body weight against her just in the nick of time and keep her still. She could see a stray zip tie that was just barely visible from the outside light. Using one final burst of strength, Jelena turned her on her back and fastened the tie around her wrists and swiftly tightened it.

Now the hard part was over and the fun could begin. Jelena retrieved the duct tape sitting on the floor and began to wrap Charlotte’s ankles, that loud shhhhhhrikkk noise filling the car.

“Nmmm nmmm hmmmmph…..” their captive whined, her muffled speech sad and pitiful. Between that and the sound of the duct tape ripping, those were Jelena’s favorite noises in the whole wide world. Their prisoner was quite immobilized by now, but she couldn’t stop at just the ankles, she had to wrap up the knees and thighs as well. God, she could listen to that sound all day long.

Oh! But she’d nearly forgotten the best part. Normally she would’ve settled on the traditional single strip gag, but she was a little ticked right now and had to exact the tiniest bit of retribution. She sat Charlotte up and pushed the cloth all the way into her mouth. She took the tape and began to wrap it all the way around her head, stopping at about five turns. That wonderful noise that sounded like fabric ripping was sending her heart off to the races. She had her fully muffled by now, you could practically hear the cloth in her mouth keeping her cries in her throat.

“Lmmm gmmmph plmmmph!” their captive begged, shaking her head, a small tear forming in her eyes. Jelena patted her on the cheek and kissed her forehead. She couldn’t wait to get a better look at her once they reached their destination. She threw a blanket over her.

“Stay under there until we stop. You should be able to breathe”, she instructed. Charlotte continued to buck and squirm beneath the blanket, the crinkling of the tape keeping her bound was audible. Jelena climbed into the front seat. She thought that half an hour had passed since they had obtained their objective, but in reality it had only been ten minutes. The worst of the work was really over now. She didn’t want to doze off, their destination was less than an hour away, but she closed her eyes and the tiredness carried her off.

***

“Are you sure you can’t remember anything about your friend’s kidnappers? Anything at all, even if it doesn’t seem the least bit important to you”, the female detective asked.

Charlotte sat in an examination room in a hospital, she couldn’t have told you which one it was. It was well after midnight by now, maybe closer to 1:00 AM. She still felt dizziness and mild pain, but nothing excruciating. She was dressed in a hospital gown and noticed her clothes in a pile on the floor. She noticed her mother sitting by her side. One moment she and Karin were walking from the coffee shop, the next she was on the ground and a car was zooming away into the night. She had never been so dazed in her life. This all felt like a dream.

“It was so dark, I could barely see anything…” she muttered. And then the words of the detective sunk in, and everything started to fall into sharper focus with horrifying clarity. “Mom, where’s Karin?” she asked. Her mother looked at her gravely. Charlotte burst into tears.

***

The crunching of a dirt road underneath the car snatched Jelena from her brief slumber. The car’s headlights spotlighted a small cabin just ahead. They’d get the girl taped to a chair inside, take turns keeping watch throughout the night, and wait for further instructions.

The cabin they’d found was withered from disuse. A pane of glass in one of the windows had been broken and had to be covered with tape so as to maintain some form of insulation. What little there was, at least. It smelled musty inside, dust coated the table and few chairs which had been left behind. An old timey alarm clock had been left on the fireplace mantle, suggesting that this residence hadn’t been used for quite a long time. They were basically camping out here, as there was no electricity or running water. An outhouse stood a few meters outside of the cabin, and Jelena was sure glad it was pitch black inside of there because she didn’t want to think about what horrors could be seen based on that smell….

They were roughing it, no doubt about it, but they had their prize. Jelena was about to live out her most deeply desired fantasy. When the Kia came to a stop, she switched on the dome lights and ripped away the blanket covering Charlotte up. Only… this didn’t look like her. Not at all. Jelena was in denial at first, and then cold reality set in: they were in a real fucking pickle. 

“No…. oh god, no, no, no….” she said blankly, shaking her head in disbelief. 

“What is it?” Teresa asked, and Jelena silently handed her a picture of Charlotte Dahlquist. Teresa regarded it, and then regarded their current passenger sitting in the back seat. She looked at the picture again, then at their passenger once more. “Aww, fuck.”

It wasn’t Charlotte they had abducted, but the friend she’d been with this evening. Her terror-filled eyes silently regarded her captors, her dark brown hair was disheveled, and her eyebrows were arched high. The duct tape wrapped around her head prevented a single peep from coming out. Only five layers had been wrapped, but her cheeks still bulged out. She made a bunch of unintelligible muffled noises, and Jelena thought that one of them sounded quite a lot like, “What are you going to do to me….?”. She went over possibilities of where to go next with this, and let out another sigh of exasperation.

“Let’s just get her inside”, she said. And with that, the two women grabbed their newly and mistakenly acquired prisoner by the arms and dragged her inside. A chair was waiting in the center of the den, and Karin was forced into it. While Teresa collapsed onto an inflated air mattress in the corner of the room and bundled herself up in a thick blanket, Jelena flicked open a pocket knife and Karin let out a muffled shriek. She put a finger to her lips to be silent, and her captive obeyed, staying still as she swiftly cut away her zip ties and tape bindings.

Her freedom was very short lived, as Jelena pulled out the still full roll of duct tape. She certainly didn’t want to inflict any pain or discomfort, but she was livid at what a disaster this operation had turned out to be, and meant to keep her prisoner immobilized. She thoroughly taped her ankles to the chair legs and her stomach to the back. For some reason she loved this latter part, there was something so intimate about touching someone there. She continued with taping her wrists behind her back as well and wrapping over and under her lap to the chair’s seat. All those bands of silver totally immobilizing her, it was a lovely sight. This mix up was going to take some serious problem solving to make right, but after getting to strap down her captive, she couldn’t help but feel a little better. Having to explain this to their employers was the furthest thing from her mind right now, at this moment she was living fully in the present. Despite the explosive ripping noises of the duct tape, Teresa’s sleep remained undisturbed.

Karin mewled sadly through her gagged mouth, and Jelena felt a sense of pity for her. She’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. So she gave her a tight hug.

“You’ll be fine. We’ll feed you in a few hours, just get some rest and everything will be okay. Promise”, she said, enjoying this dual role of captor and comforter all at once. She draped a big blanket around the girl and patted her on the head. The moon shone bright that evening and reflected off the duct tape around her mouth.

Outside, a light snow was beginning to fall.

[smooth_talker45]

Awesome start, can’t wait to see how theyll deal with their mess up haha

[Caesar73]

Awesome start, can’t wait to see how theyll deal with their mess up haha

Agreed on all accounts. Awesome start. The Mix-up. Well done!

[LunaDog]

Hope you enjoy!)

That's a 'yes' from me. Great work.

[silvertejp590]

Awesome start, can’t wait to see how theyll deal with their mess up haha

Agreed on all accounts. Awesome start. The Mix-up. Well done!

Funnily enough, “The Mix-up” almost ended up being the title I chose for this. But I was afraid that might telegraph the twist a little too clearly

And thank you everybody for the nice words! Might take a little while for the second part to be realized, but this is definitely a project I want to see completed.

[silvertejp590]

As much Jelena kept resisting, her body was begging for sleep. She had never quite outgrown the belief that she could bypass her body’s needs through sheer force of will. If there was a job that needed doing, she would make herself stay awake to complete it regardless of how tired she was, simple as that. But it had been a long, long day. She had woken up about 20 hours ago, and the physical and mental exhaustion of the day was beginning to take its toll. She needed coffee, but the portable gas stove was still in the car trunk and it was too cold for her to summon up the will to make even such a short trek outside. And…and… (hang on I’m from Belgrade I should be used to the cold shouldn’t I ha ha ha we have fun around here don’t we)

Suddenly she felt her eyes shut on their own and her head dropped to her chest, but she immediately snapped out of it and returned to her state of alertness. But it was getting to be too much… she could always ask Teresa to switch with her, but her pride was getting in the way.

And then all of a sudden, she was seeing both their hostage and Teresa, bound and gagged with duct tape, both women squirming and wriggling about on the floor, hmmmmphing for all they were worth and grunting in frustration. They were trying to remove their gags by rubbing their taped mouths together, but it was a useless endeavor. They’d just been gagged too tightly, the duct tape sealing their lips closed. Evidently Jelena had decided that her partner needed some mandatory quiet time, too. It was an unfathomably sexy image, she wanted to laugh at how comically perfect it was.

And just as quickly as it had begun, the vision ceased. It had only been a dream. Jelena was once again surrounded by a dark room, feeling a sense of amnesia of where she was, how she got there and what she was supposed to be doing. And then in an instant her memory was restored.

“Oh shit!” she exclaimed quietly. She frantically tried to find the flashlight she thought was sitting by her chair but couldn’t find it, and then remembered that her phone was just in her pocket. She unlocked it and found the flashlight app, and the white light of the camera’s flash illuminated the room. The girl was still there, taped to the chair with the blanket draped over her. Crisis averted, thank god.

Even as the girl slept, she looked utterly dejected, which Jelena found adorable.
She was still slightly disappointed that they couldn’t get the Dahlquist girl in their clutches; there was something she found irresistible about the idea of kidnapping such a wholesome blonde university student. But this one that they’d accidentally snatched up was a decent substitute. More than decent, in fact. She had lovely dark brown hair, almost black, and slightly bushy eyebrows, which were surprisingly nice. The silver duct tape contrasted nicely with the girl’s navy blue sweater and with the collared shirt underneath, and her skirt and leggings combo.

“Hmmph… mmmph…” she quietly mumbled through the tape muting her as her eyes began to open, the bright light from the phone evidently causing her to stir. Jelena heard Teresa roll over on the air mattress. She looked at her watch, 6:00 AM on the dot. The sun would be coming out soon.

“Hmmmph!” the girl suddenly grunted more emphatically, now fully emerged from the haze of sleep. Jelena got a better look at her and she was shaking her legs (with the limited movement which was available to her, that is). Oh dear, this was going to be tricky.

“Do you need to go to the bathroom?” she asked, and the girl nodded frantically, and gave her a cute “mmm-hmmm” that made Jelena smile. She retrieved her knife and began to cut her free. Thankfully the blade was still quite sharp and the tape hadn’t gotten bunched up, which made it significantly easier to cut through. She was surprised at how swiftly she had worked in such dim conditions and how still her captive stayed for her. She could see that the girl was making to remove the tape from her mouth but Jelena grabbed her hand and shook her head.

“Can’t trust you enough just yet that you won’t start screaming on me. Just be patient, it’ll come off soon enough,” she said. The girl looked baffled by these instructions, but obeyed all the same. Jelena fastened a rope around the girl’s neck as a leash, and led her outside to the privy. The snow had fallen steadily during the night and coated the ground as far as the eye could see, and their boots crunched against it.

“Try to go as fast as you can,” she instructed the girl, and gave her a flashlight so that she could see inside. She slackened her makeshift leash and allowed her to enter.

With her coat MIA at this point, Karin felt very cold inside this outhouse. She wanted to get this done as quickly as possible to get back to that wonderful blanket inside (hopefully there wouldn’t be any more tape…). It took her only a moment to feel thankful that her captor had kept the tape over her mouth while she did her business.

***
Once back inside the (relative) warmth of the cabin, Jelena helped their prisoner to remove the duct tape from her mouth. She winced visibly as the final layer was unraveled from her mouth and it tugged on her face and hair. By now, the inside of the cabin wasn’t filled with the black of night but rather the gray-blue light which characterizes early morning. She reached into her bag and an expression of concern formed on the girl’s face, but it quickly relaxed as she saw the granola bar and orange in Jelena’s hand. She gratefully accepted them both and dug in.

She noticed that Teresa had finally awoken, and was sitting by the table and cleaning their pistols. Jelena found herself trying to figure out her partner once again. Had she been involved in the military or law enforcement at some point? It seemed quite possible. She had a very buttoned up sort of disposition that one often saw in a person who lived a very regimented and structured life. All of the clothes in her suitcase were folded neatly and precisely, as was the blanket left on the air mattress. Her boots were polished, black hair tied back tightly. She was so utterly absorbed in her current task that Jelena didn’t dare to interrupt her. But she realized that was okay for the moment, as she turned to the girl.

“What’s your name?” Jelena asked. The girl downed another bit of her granola bar, paused and gulped, as if she’d forgotten what she was called.

“Karin… Karin Norbäck,” she finally said.

“Karin…” Jelena repeated. The first syllable wasn’t pronounced like “care” but more like “car”. She didn’t want to fetishize any culture or language, but it really was such a lovely name. She thought about providing her own, it would provide a degree of trust needed to make her cooperate with them, but decided against it for the time being. Even giving someone your alias could turn out to be a huge mistake.

“What are you doing with your life right now?” Jelena asked. Karin paused from her granola bar, looking confused as to why her kidnapper was engaging in idle chit-chat.

“I attend university, I’m studying linguistics.”

“Have you a career in mind with that?” Jelena asked, and Karin’s face lit up. Good! That was the intended effect; the implication of that question being that this ordeal would end eventually and she would be able to go back home. And this wasn’t some sick mind game that Jelena was playing to give her false hope, she had every intention of letting her go once the money was in their possession. If not… well, she was a good improviser, she'd figure something out. However, it should be noted that this wasn’t completely an altruistic gesture on Jelena’s part; she also hoped that it would help in making Karin more cooperative.

“I’m not sure yet, maybe study some more and get another degree. Maybe teach school,” she responded, and shrugged.

Karin finished her granola bar and then dug into her orange. She seemed a bit more calm now. Jelena felt a tap on her shoulder and looked to see Teresa behind her.

“Have you updated our contacts on this little… mix up?” she asked. Jelena sighed.

“No, I have not,” she said, and stroked her chin in concentration. “I’ll take care of it. Can you keep an eye on her?” she asked, and Teresa nodded. Jelena slipped on her leather jacket and stepped outside to their rental Kia, she would be able to think better in there. As she was stepping inside, she noticed a scrape on the car door from their quick getaway. Perfect, just one more complication to think about when they returned this rental. But she made herself forget about that, there were bigger fish to fry right now.

She stared blankly at her phone screen about five minutes. Despite having the willpower to commit a serious crime, she could never overcome her phobia of making phone calls. Finally she felt ready to take the dive; it’s not like anybody could strangle her through the phone, could they?. She dialed the number which had been had been given to her, belonging to someone named Victor (she wondered if it was the hairy chested man wearing the medallion whom she had met in person). She dialed it and mentally prepared herself for what she was going to say. The dial tone rang a few times, and she thought that the person on the other end of the line might miss her call, granting her a reprieve. But finally he did.

“Yeah?” the voice said.

“We’ve run into a problem,” Jelena began, and told him everything. Once she finished, she braced herself for the chewing out of a lifetime, but it didn’t come. There was only silence, and then he sighed.

“Okay, I think we can still make this work,” he said. “Just take some photos of the girl and send them to us by 3:00 PM. Don’t fuck anything else up,” he said curtly, and hung up.

Jelena walked back inside and regarded the air mattress. It was time for some proper rest. But first, she reached into her bag and pulled out a crossword book and pencil, along with a small battery powered radio. She tossed them both to Karin.

“Make yourself at home, we may be here for a long time,” she said. Karin sighed at this, but still looked substantially looser now. She picked up the book and began to flip through it. Jelena almost felt bad about having to tie her up again later. Almost, but not quite.

She shed away her coat, leather gloves and boots, collapsed onto the mattress and wrapped the blanket around her body like a shroud. She couldn’t help but think of the icy fury in her contact’s voice: Don’t fuck anything else up. It may seem strange that someone involved in criminal activity could really give much of a sweet shit about what anyone thought of her, but his words were like a knife in her heart. Apparently people who do bad things can be vulnerable too, who would’ve guessed? But then she just thought about the number of zeros which would be added to her bank account and the bondage time she’d be getting with Karin later. Suddenly, the verbal abuse she’d been subjected to seemed like a small price to pay. A smile formed on her face as she descended into the depths of sleep.

***

And just as she hoped, she had dreams of bondage. It was the same one she had earlier of having Teresa and Karin taped up, only this time Charlotte Dahlquist was trussed up alongside them. Oh yes, this was the kind of dream she always hoped to have. Multiple strips of duct tape covered her mouth and were stretched from ear to ear, the outline of her lips clearly visible. Oh yes, that would definitely do an effective job of keeping her trap shut. Her eyes were as wide as saucers above her taped mouth, it was everything Jelena hoped it would be.

But it didn’t end there. She found herself spooning next to her prize. The girl was wearing blue flannel pajama pants and a matching cotton shirt. All the bands of harsh silver duct tape wrapped around the soft materials was such a pleasing contrast. The poor girl continued to squirm and twist about, her ass rubbing up against Jelena, and she gave it a gentle but firm smack and let out a muffled squeal. Jelena knew she was an absolute perv and was proud of it. She planted a kiss on the nape of the girl’s neck and whispered something unintelligible in her ear, and Charlotte shook her head.

“Just be a good girl for me…” Jelena purred. She found her hands in this dream moving between her legs, the chorus of mmmmph’s from her other two captives forming a lovely soundtrack to accompany all of this. And then a surprisingly lucid thought ran across her mind:

All pretty girls need to have their mouths taped up nice and tight, she thought, and found herself laughing maniacally at how diabolical she sounded. As unashamed as she was about her kinks, she knew that discussing them in the open was still fairly taboo and she needed to keep that side of her hidden, and it sure felt good when the primal facet of herself such as this could run wild. The dream continued with her continuing to wrap Charlotte up in Tesa duct tape like a package and felt her up to her heart’s content. It was the kind of night vision that seemed to go on and on forever, and Jelena wouldn’t have it any other way.

She would remember this dream a few hours after waking and once again feel regret for not snagging their right target. She wanted to realize this fantasy of hers so badly. There had to be a way to get the Dahlquist girl, there just had to be…

***

Coincidentally, Charlotte was having dreams of a similar nature around this exact same time.

It had been decided that she would stay at home with her parents for the next few days to recover from this ordeal (the hospital had provided a vaguely worded sick note to excuse her from classes). Not like watching your best friend being kidnapped off the street was something you could just “get over” like a case of bronchitis, but what else could she do?

It was 3:00 AM by the time she and her mother arrived home. Charlotte practically had to be carried to her bedroom, the physical and emotional stress of the last few hours had taken their toll and she felt like a zombie.

“I know this is all very frightening, but try to get some sleep. You’re safe in this house, no one can harm you here,” she heard her mother say as she guided her to her bed. Charlotte drifted off to sleep as soon as her head made contact with the pillow. Frida Dahlquist may have been correct that her daughter was out of harm’s way now, but as well-meaning as she may have been, she was still quite vulnerable in the world of dreams.

As in all dreams, this one took place in a vague space which Charlotte’s brain couldn’t identify. To her horror, she saw Karin lying on the floor, mummified in duct tape. A figure dressed in black was wrapping it multiple times around her mouth and gradually covering up her entire head, leaving only her nose free.

“Chmmmph! Hlmmm mmmph!” Karin tried to shout in a plea for help. Charlotte tried to scream but felt a gloved hand clasp itself over her mouth, and another pair of hands yanked her hands behind her back and held her fast.

“Get her tied up and shut her fucking mouth,” a gruff voice ordered. “Just be still, pretty girl, and all of this will be a hell of a lot easier,” the voice said. She immediately felt ropes being wrapped around her body, around her ankles and knees, wrists bound behind her back, around her chest (like a harness you might wear when rock climbing), and between her legs. The pattern of knots made her dizzy with anxiety, there was no earthly way she was escaping this. What made her most nervous was the way that the ropes traveled between her legs, there was definitely something that didn’t feel right about this. Charlotte once again tried to scream, but a cloth tied tightly over her mouth prevented her from crying out. She couldn’t open her mouth at all, the only thing that came out when she tried to talk was a muffled “hmmmph!”.

But that wasn’t all. Charlotte felt herself being hoisted in the air upside down. The ropes were now suspending her from some invisible ceiling. She could see the silver mass that was Karin squirming and twisting all over the ground, but one of her captors blocked her from her field of vision, and she was surprised to see that the figure dressed in black was actually a very beautiful woman, with dark blond hair which came down past her shoulders. She produced a pair of blue nitrile gloves and snapped them on.

“Let’s have some fun, shall we?” she said, giving an unfriendly smile, and rubbed Charlotte’s breasts with her rubber gloved hands.

And then Charlotte awoke. She was breathing heavily, almost hyperventilating. She couldn’t go back to sleep, not with dreams like that floating around in her memory. She cued up the audiobook she’d been listening to of Jane Eyre, but she was only kidding herself if she thought that she could maintain any focus on a verbose 19th century novel at such a time as this. Gradually her heartbeat dipped and she began to exit the survival mode she had been in since awakening. And once again, her eyes started to well up with hot tears.

I’m so, so sorry Karin…. I failed you.

[Caesar73]

Excellent tale - the Dreams, the Visions. Very intriguing tale.

[silvertejp590]

Jelena stretched her arms as she awoke. She looked at her watch. 2:22 PM, must’ve been asleep for at least 5 hours. She looked around the room. Teresa was sitting quietly at the old dusty table playing solitaire. The smell of coffee filled the air now; the portable gas stove gave off a little bit of heat. She gave Jelena a surprisingly congenial smile as the made eye contact.

She reconsidered Teresa. She wasn’t really Jelena’s type when it came to people she daydreamed about in her bondage fantasies, but ever since that half-dream she had about her being bound and gagged, she’d been reconsidering a little bit. Teresa’s various tics seemed to lend credence to Jelena’s theory that she had spent time in the military, and yet there was something also something about Jelena’s partner which belied that idea. She had high cheekbones, beautifully tan skin (Jelena was prepared to bet actual money by now that she came from Spain). She just got a strong bourgeois vibe from her, and the counterpoint that formed against a strict and regimented background… well, it was just really sexy to her. She hoped she could play a bondage game or two with her before this was all said and done.

The scratchy chatter of their battery powered radio filled the cabin. Karin sat against the wall with it by her side, her arms wrapped around her knees, the crossword book discarded by her side (no surprise there, Jelena remembered those puzzles being too damn hard). It sounded like a football match was being broadcast on the radio. She decided this was as good a time as any to strike up some more conversation.

“Who’s playing?” she asked. Karin perked up.

“BK Häcken and… Hammarby, I think,” she said.

“You follow the sport much?” Jelena asked.

“A little, here and there,” Karin responded tersely. Jelena felt that awkwardness that comes when conversation between two strangers becomes stilted. She didn’t know whether to continue trying to attempt to get her to open up some more or leave her be. “I follow hockey and tennis a little closer, though,” she finally continued. Jelena was about to build on this last remark, but she noticed Teresa gesturing something to her from the corner of her eye. She was pointing at her watch and nodding her head towards Karin. Jelena looked at her own watch again, 2:30 on the dot now; time to move onto the next phase of this little adventure.

“Well, I might as well just be direct,” Jelena began, “there’s good news and bad news.” Karin was becoming tense again and hugged her knees a little tighter. “The bad news is that we need to tie you up again.”

“No, please don’t do th—“

“Hang on,” Jelena interrupted, putting a finger to her captive’s lips, “you didn’t let me finish. The good news though is that I want to talk to you some and possibly make it less unpleasant, perhaps even enjoyable.”

“But why do you need to tie me up? I promise I’ll just do what you say…” Karin begged.

“Here’s what’s funny: You weren’t the one who was supposed to be abducted,” Jelena said. Karin regarded her with a vacant expression. “No, it was your friend Charlotte who was meant to come along with us on this little cabin expedition. Just a little mix-up, what can you do?” she chuckled, and shrugged. “I know it might not seem fair that we have to give you the full abduction experience— you know, with the bondage and all — since you weren’t the one we meant to snatch up. But that’s the situation and we still want our money. So we’re going to take some of this tape, wrap you up in it and send some photos of you like that to prompt Herr Dahlquist to pay up for the safe return of his daughter’s best friend. And a snapshot of you listening to the radio or solving crosswords isn’t exactly the most effective way to do it now, is it?”

Karin’s vacant gaze had gradually morphed into one of horror. She could read between the lines quite clearly: her captor enjoyed doing this. Immensely. Jelena could read her body language, though, and slung her arm around her shoulder.

“How did it feel being tied up earlier?” Jelena asked. Karin gulped and thought carefully; she was definitely catching onto the fact that one of her captors was into bondage.

“Pretty tight… I couldn’t move at all,” she said. She was playing along, that was a good start, but Jelena wasn’t satisfied yet. She wanted to hear more from the girl.

“Had you ever had your mouth taped before?” she followed up.

“No, can’t say that I have….” Karin said, sounding almost a little annoyed, but Jelena remained undeterred.

“I’ve been tied up many times before. It can be scary at first, even terrifying. But eventually I came to love it. I always wanted to be in exactly the position you’re in: abducted, helpless and at another person’s mercy,” she said. “Sometimes when I try to talk with a gag over my mouth, it gets me excited in… other ways, if you catch my drift,” she said.

Karin considered all of this and decided there was only one possible option: She bolted for the door.

Jelena, who thought she was starting to get Karin in the palm of her hand, was startled at this impulse. She managed to tackle her to the floor before she could so much as twist the doorknob, but the girl continued to buck and squirm all over the floor and evaded any sort of firm grip Jelena could put on her.

“SOMEBODY PLEASE HELP ME!!!” Karin cried out, even though no one could possibly hear her now.

“HELP ME OUT HERE AND GET THE TAPE!” Jelena called to Teresa while she wrestled Karin to the floor, but it turned out that her partner was ahead of the curve. Teresa was already towering over them both with the roll of duct tape in hand and violently peeled away a long strip with a massive CHHRRRR-RRRRIIIIIP noise.

Time seemed to stop in that moment for Jelena, she wished she could have a physical photo of this image to relish forever. She looked like the textbook dom with that big roll of tape in her hand, and wearing her brown leather jacket and tight pants. It felt so sexy ganging up on this poor girl and keeping her restrained. She just wanted to do this with Teresa again and again and again, tape up beautiful young women and keep them captive. She had to see her wield a roll of tape like that again.

There was no denying it any longer: she was falling in love.


***

Charlotte had no more tears left to shed, there was only numbness now. In about the last 12 hours, she had come about as close as one possibly could to becoming a living, breathing husk of a person. She had been lying in bed all day, because what else could she do when the uncertainty of Karin’s fate resided at the forefront of her mind? She had no way of knowing if she was even still alive.

The police had been contacted that very night and sprung into action immediately. One witness questioned had reported seeing a Kia speeding away from the scene, but hadn’t been able to identify the color (it had been too dark) or jot down the license plate numbers. Charlotte was not especially encouraged when she recall the statistic that the best chance of bringing a missing person back home alive was to find them within 48 hours. From her limited vantage point, they seemed perilously far behind the curve.

In the meantime, they could only wait. Her mother brought her a sandwich at about 1:00 in the afternoon. Charlotte stared at it with indifference, ate it to humor her, but it had no taste. Sleep provided no rest, television, music and books provided no pleasure or distraction. She grew up reading Harry Potter as a child and remembered the Dementor’s Kiss, which left an individual robbed of their soul, a fate worse than death. This is what she imagined that might feel like.

She was making one of her rare appearances from her bedroom to use the bathroom and heard her parents speaking in hushed tones downstairs. That was enough to make her uneasy, but there was one lone word she caught which really sent chill down her spine: “ransom”. She didn’t want to know more, and yet she couldn’t go back into her room and let her imagination run wild. She crept down the stairs, which lay adjacent to the kitchen. There she was able to hear their conversation a little more clearly.

“Shouldn’t we tell the police about this?” her mother asked.

“I don’t know, Frida, I really don’t know,” he replied.

Her father’s tone of voice immediately made her afraid. There was something about hearing him address her mother by name in this context that made what they were discussing sound especially grave. He had an appearance which one might describe as bookish, but he always seemed to know the right thing to say and the right way to say it.

“The text I received told me I had to answer the call at 4:00 PM, or… suffer the consequences, as they put it,” he said. Charlotte pulled her own phone from her pocket and examined the time, 4:01 PM. She was such a bundle of nerves that she jumped out of her skin when she heard a phone ring. She saw her father look at the screen, take a deep breath, and put it to his ear.

“Hello..? Yes, this is he,” he said. “Hang on, can I have a moment to get a notepad? Okay, okay, no problem, sorry. I’m listening,” he said apologetically. For the next few seconds he was silent and occasionally nodded his head. “No… no, I won’t. I promise. Can we at least speak to her?” he said. He then sighed loudly through his nose and wiped his glasses, and Charlotte nervously bit at her fingernails at this. “Okay, I’ll check it,” he said deferentially. He held the phone to his ear for a few more seconds, and then pulled it away as the call was disconnected, looked at the screen as if it could give him any answers on how to navigate this situation, and set it down gently on the table.


“They told me to check my email,” he said. Charlotte’s mother didn’t say anything.


Charlotte could see the homepage of his email account and felt her heart slamming against her chest. She heard the mouse click several times, and a few seconds another window opened up, and her mother gasped and clasped her hand to her mouth.

“Oh, Jesus….” her father said.

“Magnus, we need to call the police now.”

“What is it???” Charlotte burst out finally, and rushed to see what was on the computer. Both of them jumped out of their skin at her surprise outburst.


“Charlotte, please, don’t look at this!” her mother implored, but it was too late. It was an image of Karin, bound with duct tape around her ankles, knees, chest, arms behind her back and several strips covering her mouth, looking visibly frightened. Her father immediately shut the laptop, but the damage had already been done. Charlotte crumpled to the floor as if all the bones in her body had suddenly vanished. She tried to cry, but couldn’t. She tried to speak, but couldn’t do that either. Her mother knelt down to pick her up off the floor, and finally a few weak words escaped from Charlotte’s lips.

“Please… do something… anything….” she said absently.

***


It had been quite a struggle to get Karin bound and gagged once again. Harder than the first time, in fact. Their struggle carried over to the table, where her thrashing about scattered the playing cards about in disarray. The ripping noises filled the air, how Jelena loved that. That coarse, swishy noise turned her on so damn much, that’s all there really was to it. And the muffled noises she made when a sock was shoved in her mouth and the duct tape slapped over it. As much fun as it was for Jelena, she needed a nap after they managed to get her taped up again.

“Hmmmph….” Karin sighed sadly and wriggled more in her bindings, the tape crinkling. She was exhausted now from rolling about on the air mattress. It was getting late now, she’d been taped up like this for nearly three hours. They had let her out once to use the bathroom, and had only removed the tape and sock from her mouth to feed her. The sock put a strain on her jaw and she looked forward to the next meal simply so she could have a break.

“Hey pretty girl….” Jelena cooed. “Sorry we had to go a bit crazy with the tape, you were just a little hysterical there.” For the first time since this all began, Karin looked genuinely angry, and she scowled through her tape gag. Jelena smirked at this act of defiance. She began to stroke the duct tape keeping her prisoner restrained, loving the feeling of it against her fingers.


“As long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated with this stuff,” she said, as she felt Karin up. She noticed from the corner of her eye that Teresa was watching them both now, wearing an expression that was simultaneously puzzled and amused. “A long time ago when I was sick from school, I was browsing YouTube and saw a clip from, of all shows, Wallander,” she said, and smiled darkly. “A fairly dopey show, no offense to your wonderful country’s cultural exports. But it had no shortage of things which were of… great interest to me. The clip I saw consisted of a hapless woman getting duct tape wrapped tightly around her head with a huge roll, just like this one in my hand,” she continued, as if this was just a funny story and one of the most normal things in the world to talk about. “I kept replaying it in my mind… I wanted it so badly. I wanted to be that woman, as well as to be the captor who was taping her big mouth shut,” she said. “Sorry, I hope I’m not creeping you out or anything. And you want to know something random? I just love how in Swedish duct tape is called “silvertejp”. I don’t know the first thing about translations, but there’s something just so simple and direct about it that I just find funny,” she said.


To say that Jelena was hot under the collar at this moment would be a gross understatement. Her heart was fluttering like hell, she was delirious with excitement at verbalizing these things which had resided only in her mind for the longest time. And she couldn’t help but get a sick enjoyment out of having a captive audience (quite literally) listening to her wax poetic about bondage. She could go on as long as she wanted without being interrupted.


Karin sighed and let out a series of unintelligible mumbles. Once again, the sock shoved in her mouth kept the words in the back of her throat. Jelena decided that it was time to do another trust-building exercise. It would be a gamble, but would hopefully pay off in getting her to cooperate.

“You know, I might as well introduce myself: my name’s Jelena,” she said. Teresa had been sitting at the table playing another solitaire game and she could see her give a start from her peripheral vision. Jelena made eye contact with her and gave her a Trust me, I know what I’m doing glance.

“Karin… that’s such a pretty name…” she reflected, as she stroked her captive’s hair. She rubbed her hand around Karin’s crotch, who began to give muffled whimpers of fear.

“Shhhh, just be still….” she soothed. Jelena was getting secondhand butterflies from touching her there and imagined being touched like that herself.

“Plllmmm lllmmm gmmmph….” Karin begged and shook her head, but she was beginning to feel safer now in her embrace and touch.

“Just enjoy it, I’m not going to hurt you”, she tried to reassure her, and found her legs wrapping themselves around her captive, her hands now moving onto her breasts. She thought removing Karin’s clothes might be a step too far, but it was something she still couldn’t help desiring…

From the corner of her eye, she noticed the roll of duct tape sitting on the dusty wooden floor and another brilliant idea came to her. She grabbed the roll and tore off a wide strip, and plastered it over her own mouth. She tried to talk and laughed at how strange she sounded. Three more strips followed, each one smoothed on more tightly than the last. Her face began to heat up. She tried to talk more and loved hearing her muffled speech. Karin’s beautiful brown eyes looked even larger with the duct tape over her mouth. Jelena was now being carried away by the throes of passion. She grabbed Karin by the back of the head and planted her taped lips against hers in a prolonged gag kiss. They rubbed their mouths against each other and mumbled incoherently. Jelena’s free hand moved all over Karin’s body, exploring her crotch and gradually moving to her butt. It felt so amazing, it was almost alarming how addicting this was becoming. She needed this every night, a pretty girl like this and a fat roll of tape.

And unknown to Jelena at the time, Karin was starting to enjoy it a little bit, too.

***

Charlotte heard a light knocking on her door.

“Yes?” she answered. She didn’t bother to turn her head, but could recognize the sound of her mother’s gait as she opened the door.

“I’m taking a ham over to Mr. and Mrs. Norbäck,” she said.

“Why are you acting as though Karin is dead?” Charlotte asked. She knew she was being hurtful by saying that and didn’t care.

“You know I’m not doing that. They just need someone to be with them and let them know that they’re not alone in this,” she said. Charlotte sighed and grabbed her bed pillow in a tight embrace. She was already regretting lashing out at her mother.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“It’s okay. This is hard on all of us,” she said, and sat on the bed and put her hand on Charlotte’s shoulder. “We want Karin to come home safely so badly, you have no idea,” she said, and her voice began to tremble and break the slightest bit. “We’ve watched you both grow up together in this house, she’s like a second daughter to us,” she reflected. “Just get some rest. The police are working around the clock on this to make sure it gets handled properly.” She kissed Charlotte on the cheek and made her exit.

Often a person is unable recognize that they’ve experienced something profound when they’re in the moment, but this was one of those instances which proved to be the exception to the rule. Charlotte could feel the love and compassion radiating from her mother so strongly, perhaps more than ever before.

But even so, the situation looked so bleak and dire that she didn’t have the capacity to trust that the adults were going to make this situation right. Kidnappings were rare to be sure, but kidnappings with happy endings seemed to be even rarer.

And then a lightbulb went off in her brain: At 22 years old, Charlotte was an adult. More importantly, she was an adult in close proximity to a great deal of wealth. She couldn’t really intervene in this in any meaningful way, could she? The more she ideated on it, the less outlandish it seemed. Her parents would quite possibly disown her for the scare it would give them, but nothing else mattered to Charlotte if Karin couldn’t come home safe. If she had to put herself in harm’s way, so be it. It just might require the tiniest bit of financial fraud.

She flipped through her scrapbook and looked at a recent photo of herself and Karin at the seashore. Charlotte told herself that she would sleep on this plan of hers, but this was only an exercise in self-deception. Her resolve was already set.

Just hang in there, Karin, help is on the way.

[LunaDog]

You've fully continued the very standard of this story. Making it fun to read. I've fully enjoyed doing so.