It was a couple of days after Christmas.
John looked down at his sister Ashley, sitting in a chair in the TV-room. She had big, brown eyes and black waist-long hair; thick, straight and shiny, at the moment put in a long, heavy braid.
She was dressed in an ankle-long, red plush dress, with wide, white lace ribbons around the cuffs and neck and a zipper in the back, tight-fitting from the neck to the waist, with several layers of white wool petticoats, and white, wool pantyhose, red plush gloves sewn onto the tight-fitting sleeves, but no shoes.
Her wrists were crossed and held together behind the back of the chair, and her legs to the chair’s legs, by generous amounts of brown duct tape. The lower half of her face were covered in a wide strip of wool cloth and, again, generous amounts of the same type of tape, securely sealing a bunched up handkerchief inside her mouth. Tape had also been tightly wound around her, from hips to chest.
He was dressed in a tight-fitting red, plush jump-suit, also with wide, white lace cuffs and neckline, and a red zipper in the back. He wore white, knitted wool socks, red plush gloves sewn onto the sleeves and was without shoes. As his sister, he had thick black hair, his being shoulder-length and combed back.
“Are you comfy like that?” he asked.
She shook her head.
“Are you sure you’re comfy?” he innocently again asked, just to tease her.
She glowered angrily at him.
“Are you absolutely, positively, sure you’re comfy?”
“AAAHH!” she managed to roar through her gag.
“I’m SO glad you’re comfy,” John sniggered, “because you’re going to be sitting there for the next hour or so!” If he had his way though, it would be more like two maybe, with a bit of luck, even three.
At that moment, there was a knock on the door and John went to open it. When he came back, he had his arms in the air. Behind him a man and a woman walked, the Man holding a very real-looking, very big gun in his hand.
“My, my, my,” the Woman said, in a glass-shatteringly shrill voice; “what do we have here; Santa and his little missus playing tie-ups? Looks like you’ve done half the job for us already, Santa! Now, where’s the rest of the stuff?”
“It’s over there on the table,” John told her.
The Man walked over and got a roll of tape, another strip of cloth and a handkerchief, while John sat in a chair beside his sister. Within minutes, he was taped and gagged the same way she was, and then the two intruders/captors began looking around the house.
“You haven’t got much stuff, have you?” the Man noted, his deep voice seemingly coming from his toes, somewhere. “Have you just moved in; or what?”
The red-dressed siblings just looked at him, not knowing which question to answer.
“Well, of course they have!” the Woman snapped. “We helped their parents carry the stuff in; remember?”
“Oh, yes you’re right; so we did.” the Man said, looking sheepish.
“So kids,” the Woman said. “How do you want to do this? Do you:
A, want us just to take pictures of you and then leave you alone, and try to get free on your own?
Or B, want us to take pictures of you, wait here till just before your parents come back in a couple of hours, before leaving you alone and leave it up to them to get you free?
One nod for option A, or the quickie-version; and two for option B, the safe-version, please.”
The first time, Ashley nodded one time, (because she wanted to get out as soon as possible) and John twice (because he wanted to stay taped up for as long as possible). The second time around Ashley shrugged before nodding twice, as her brother had done both times.
“O.K,” the Man said, “as you’re going to be sitting there for quite some time, I think I have to make sure, you can’t get free on your own!” He grabbed the only untouched roll of tape, and told the kids to make fists, which he then covered with tape.
The Woman took out a camera and started taking pictures, from just about every angle. When she was finally done, the Man turned the siblings’ chairs towards the TV-screen and turned it on. The camera was hooked up to the TV, and they all looked at the photos.
Afterwards the Woman asked if they liked what they had seen, and they nodded. She joked and said she was going to put the pictures on her website. When she saw their horrified reactions, she only laughed and said she had been joking, but Ashley thought she saw the two grown-ups exchanging glances.
The Woman put a DVD in the player, and turned it on. It was an almost two hour long film and not one of their favourites, but because they were so firmly taped to the chairs, they had no choice but to watch it anyway.
Just as the film ended, their parents came back home and found a note on the inside of the front-door, written by the Man, which explained what had happened. Horrified, they grabbed a pair of scissors each, and rushed into the TV-room. There they cut the tape off from their kids’ mouths, ankles and wrists, and were about to start on the tape on their torsos, when John stopped them by saying he’d like to be taped to the chair a little while longer. Ideally, he would like to have his wrists and ankles taped the way they were too. At least till bedtime.
Ashley said she too wanted to be taped to the chair a little while longer, but not just yet; she badly needed to use the bathroom.
Just as she came back, their dad put a handkerchief in John’s mouth and was about to tie a bandana around his head