I had been working at a local gas station for only about three months. The pay wasn’t all that great, but it was good enough to help me to afford to make payments on the car and still have a little left over. Also, the station was only a few miles from my home, so I could ride my bike there and get a little well-needed exercise. The only bad part about it was on some nights I had to work late, and didn’t return home until after midnight.
On that particular night, we hadn’t had much business all day. Therefore I certainly didn’t expect anyone to come in when it was well past 11:00 pm. It was lonely after everybody else there had left, so I had brought my portable CD player to break up the monotony. It wasn’t the most exciting thing to do, but it would at least keep me entertained until my shift was over.
I was so absorbed in my music I didn’t hear the door opening. When I heard a click, I finally looked up. There, just in front of the counter, was a man in a ski mask, pointing a gun at me. It startled me so much I backed away from the counter, causing my CD player to crash onto the floor. I backed all the way up into the shelves of cigarettes behind me. A couple of packs fell to the floor.
“Get your hands up,” the man said in a gravelly whisper.
I could tell that he wouldn’t hesitate to use that gun. I was feeling rather faint and my heart was beating up in my throat as I slowly raised my hands above my head. “What—“
“Quiet. Just do what I tell you and you’ll be fine.” There was a short pause. “Nod your head if you understand me.”
Almost terrified beyond the capability for any rational thought, I blankly nodded my head.
The man nodded slightly. “There’s a good girl.” He tossed me a bag. “Now give me all the money in that cash register.”
I took the bag and opened the register… and winced. The lack of business lately made it so that there wasn’t much in the register. Still, I took everything that was in there and put it in the bag. When I handed the bag over to him, I noticed that my arm was shaking.
He looked in the bag. “Is that all there is?”
A squeak escaped my lips. “We… haven’t had much business lately.”
He growled and raised his gun again. “There’s gotta be more money in this place. And you’re going to tell me where it is, aren’t you?”
I felt my throat going dry. “There’s… a safe where we keep all the money we’ve earned in the past week… it’s in the back room.”
The man reached over the counter and grabbed my arm. The sudden movement made me yelp in surprise. “Then we’re just going to have to go get it, won’t we?”
I stared at him with wide eyes. I could feel my throat go dry.
“Won’t we?!” He shook my arm roughly. I nodded.
He came around behind the counter and grabbed me again. “If I don’t get some real money, I’ll be very disappointed,” he said, sounding like a parent talking to his child. He looked around until his eyes rested on the door leading to the back room. He jerked my arm and pulled me over to it.
The back room was a mess; it always has been. It was filled with freezers and refrigerators and boxes filled with products used to restock the shelves.
“Turn the light on.”
I reached over and flicked a switch. Slowly, the light flickered on. “Now,” he growled. “Where’s that safe?”
“In the back,” I barely squeaked out.
We waded through boxes, the robber sometimes kicking boxes aside. I almost told him to cut it out, but I realized that I was in no position to tell him what to do. At last we reached the back of the room. I felt dizzy as I led him over to the safe and opened it up. To my horror, there was nothing inside.
“Well, well… there’s nothing in here.” He turned to glare at me.
I could feel tears welling up. “They… must have emptied it…”
His eyes narrowed through the ski mask. “I’m not leaving this place empty handed… I’ll just have to take something else instead.” He said this almost thoughtfully.
Maybe I could get out of this alive after all. “What do you want?”
“You.”
The word resounded in my ears like bells tolling. My jaw dropped and I could feel my eyes going wide. “No…” I half whispered, half whimpered.
“Quiet!” He pointed the gun straight at me. “Get down on your stomach!”
His words seemed distant… everything seemed to be going in slow motion. Still, I obeyed him and lay on my stomach. A moment later I felt him sit down on my upper legs. Looking to my side, I saw something hit the floor—a backpack he had been wearing. I hadn’t noticed it earlier. I heard the zipper being undone.
“I like to be prepared for any situation,” he whispered. Some Boy Scout he was, then.
He grasped my arms and positioned them so my left and was touching the inside of my right elbow, and my right hand was touching the inside of my left elbow. He then proceeded to tie my arms like that. At that sensation of being restrained, I struggled from under him.
He shook me roughly. “Stop struggling!” he hissed. He finished up tying my arms. That done, he turned around and began tying my ankles together with more rope.
I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. To me, this was always the thing you read about in the newspaper or heard about on the news. And I had always been somewhat attracted by bondage and some of my fantasies have even been a bit like this. But I never imagined that it could ever really happen.
He finished tying me up and turned me over onto my back. I winced at the weight being put on my arms. He took something out of his backpack. “Open your mouth,” he whispered.
So he was going to gag me now. I really didn’t want that. I stared at him, my mouth clamped shut.
“Come on now, open up,” he said coaxingly. Before I knew what was happening, he thrust his hand up my shirt and squeezed one of my nipples. There was no need for the sudden movement; I couldn’t have stopped him anyway, but the touch sent a little jolt of ecstasy through me. Appalled and frightened, my mouth flew open involuntarily to let out a moan of protest. He immediately stuffed a cloth into it.
“Mmmmphh…. Rrrrrphhhh!!!” I moaned into the cloth. The thing was just too big to spit out.
“So,” the man said as he removed a roll of duct tape from his pack. “How much do you think your parents will pay to get you back?” He tore off a few strips and put them over my mouth. I tried to resist, but all I could do was turn my head a little, but that didn’t help me much. The terrible reality of the situation hit me like an oncoming car, and I began struggling and trying to scream through the gag. Hearing my voice muffled like that panicked me even more.
My captor seemed amused by this. “Sorry, I can’t understand you… you’ve got something in your mouth.”
He put the last strip of tape over my eyes. “Sorry about this,” he said, “but I’m starting to get sweaty under this mask.” I heard him remove his ski mask. “That’s better… now, let’s get out of here.”