CHAPTER 1

 

Lisa ground her teeth in fury and then pain as the collar around her neck burst into hideous life, making it feel as if her neck were on fire. She had tried to ignore the ear-splittingly loud screeching from the high in the wall of her steel cell; tried to resist the power of whoever had kidnapped her here rather than meekly obey. Yet she should have known better. She had suffered before, uselessly, in futile attempts to resist.

She had no watch or windows and thus no idea of time but her tired body told her that she hadn't been allowed to sleep for long. Nevertheless, the collar had activated when she had tried to continue sleeping and now her neck still throbbed painfully.

Obediently she climbed from the bed, stretching her lithe naked body. In one of the many rules imposed on her to make her isolation even more intolerable she wasn't allowed to wear clothes in bed; in fact the commands often made her strip naked. She suspected that was purely for the obscene pleasure of whoever the people were who had kidnapped her and it frightened her, suspecting sudden violent rape or worse. Yet nothing had happened so far - apart from, well, with a young girl who had made her ... do things.

How had this happened? She pondered again, recalling driving her friend, Helen, to their usual weekly gym class. That could now have been two or more maybe several days ago; it was difficult to judge how long the journey to this place had taken or her subsequent time here in captivity.

 

Just outside the entrance to the gym complex, just a few miles from her house, amongst a maze of warehouses a solitary figure wearing an all-embracing burka had flagged them down.

"I very sorry, please, excuse but my car break down a little way road." She pointed past the gym complex. "Could I trouble please to take to phone box to contact garage or if you have mobile phone I borrow..." The black eyes blinked at her above the veil.

Although somewhat intimidated by people who wore such garb, Lisa had foolishly ignored her better judgement.

"Oh, OK, sit inside a moment, use my phone." She opened the rear door, not being silly enough to hand over her phone in case the woman bolted off. As she struggled to extract her phone from her bag she felt something cold and metallic painfully pressed against the skin of the nape of her neck.

"No move, no talk, stay facing front, hands on wheel. Neither of you move, be very careful I have gun." The woman spoke very precisely.

Lisa went cold with shock, her brain numb. If she had known it was simply a small length of black pipe touching her she would have leapt at the woman, but she didn't and neither did Helen who sat, ashen-faced, next to her. Lisa could remember the sweat of fear trickling down her side under her tee-shirt.

"Take the phone - and I have money we don't want any trouble - don't ...ow," she yelped as the metallic object jabbed harder into her neck.

"I say no talk, just listen or you both suffer. If you do as told you no get hurt and this over in a few minutes," the woman lied. "Drive one mile further down road then into old quarry. Both smile, act natural, I shall be concealed on floor. And no tricks; I cannot miss with this." She viciously jabbed Helen's neck before again prodding Lisa. "Now drive slowly and carefully and keep smiling in case anyone sees you.

It was a nightmare drive. During the initial stages Lisa wanted to both be sick and use the loo. Then her stomach finally settled a bit. She decided that the cow was looking for somewhere to rob them or steal the car. So be it, she had mentally shrugged. It made her angry but it was better to let the woman have what she wanted rather than risk being hurt.

"In here, slow, now turn left here," she indicated a small side-track. "Good, now pull over by my friend." She indicated another black-clad figure standing beside the rear of a partially concealed van. "Turn off engine, hand me key and again place both hands on wheel."

Lisa nervously licked her lips when the other woman. Or at least she assumed it to be a woman under the burka, opened Helen's door.

"First you, blonde lady!" The woman in the back seat jabbed Helen. "Lean forward and place hands behind you."

"Look, please, there's no need to... haah!" Lisa gasped as her neck was also prodded by the cold metal.

"Do it, don't be silly, then in a few moments this over and you OK; if not, you both get hurt. Now hands back on wheel."

Lisa's shoulders sagged but she obeyed as Helen put her hands behind her.

Click! The person outside had snapped a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists.

"Now you - driver, lean forward and hands behind."

"Please..." Lisa whispered but nevertheless obeying - anything to get this over with. It wasn't dark and, although frightening, she and Helen could walk back even handcuffed if the car was stolen.

"Ooh," she winced as the cold metal painfully pinched and constrained her slim wrists.

"That good, both out of car and kneel on ground, please."

"Ouch." Lisa winced as her knees pressed against the rough ground. She didn't like the kneeling bit. Thoughts of a gangland execution flashed through her mind but she consoled herself that the woman probably thought they would be less likely run after the departing car. She inwardly smiled to herself ... as if she and Helen, hands cuffed behind them, would try to stop an armed woman stealing her car.

"That good, you both have been very good. Now one last thing before we go..."

Lisa couldn't see what the woman behind her or the one now behind Helen were doing but her nostrils quivered at a strong, pungent chemical smell. However, she did hear a sound to one side and saw where the woman had thrown the short, harmless pipe which she had been pressing against her neck. It made her begin to turn and get up, feeling more brave - but it was far too late for that.

"Argghhhhh," she had gasped for breath as a rag smelling of the stuff was shoved over her face. "Nooo, grraaagggghhh!" Desperately she and Helen struggled but it was useless with confined hands and against the superior strength of their captors. Inevitably she opened her mouth to suck in air and the fumes made her weak before everything closed in and she slumped to the ground.

She wasn't aware of the woman holding the rag to her face for a few seconds more to be sure. Nor was she aware of her and Helen being carried like sacks to the back of the nearby van, dumped inside and covered over by cloth. And if she had understood the language used by the couple who had overpowered them, she would have heard the woman giving instructions for her companion to drive the car to a pre-arranged location over two hundred miles away and put it into a deep quarry, there to be met by another colleague who would drive them both back.

 

Before the woman drove them off in the van to complete the kidnap, Lisa, if conscious, would also see her and her companion, who happened to be a man, remove their burkas to become less inconspicuous and blend in with their surroundings. The next thing she became aware of was waking up on the floor of the steel prison under the command of anonymous metallic voices.

How she had hated coming to her senses to find the black-clad figure standing before her again with only the glinting eyes visible above her veil. The only indication of the person being a woman was the mounds of her breasts in her costume then her sharp female voice confirmed it. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed since her capture as her watch and handbag were missing. But she guessed it was a while, she ached all over as if she had been carried around for ages.

"Wake up sleepyhead, come on, wake up!" The woman was crouching by her, shaking her almost kindly.

"Ow, get off!" Lisa had struggled to her feet, her face smarting from the woman's slaps. "What's going on, where am I? Who are you? Where's my friend Helen?" The questions tumbled from her lips as she tried to organise her scattered thoughts and feelings into some sort of order.

"I'm afraid I not here to answer your questions, silly girl." There was a hint of sarcasm in the woman's voice. She was definitely foreign, by her accent she could have been Arabic, Turkish or Eastern European. "I here to ensure that my orders are obeyed - and that you obey them."

"Orders...what?"

"I appreciate that all this going to seem a bit strange for you at first but sooner we get you trained the better, I think." Lisa shrank from the woman whose eyes glittered coldly and disdainfully over her, almost undressing her with her eyes. She shuddered, her arms crossing instinctively and defensively over her chest.

"Trained...! What the hell's going on? I am trained; I'm a professional. I'm a teacher; I do the training. I demand..." Lisa's naturally fiery nature was reasserting itself until the woman interrupted her, punching her shoulder.

"Oh dear, the sooner you learn you no longer in position to demand anything the better I think. A teacher you say, well you'll have to learn more quickly. You look as if you've slept for a week in those crumpled clothes - what a state you're in!" Her eyes flicked over Lisa's dishevelled tee-shirt. "So I think that we need you out of those things. Get your clothes off please, Mrs Winter ...everything."

"What!" Lisa's response was as automatic as it was incredulous. She was still slightly woozy from the sedative she had been given and now this woman, who seemed to know her name, wanted her to take her clothes off! She couldn't get her head around it yet. Also there was the chafing of a strange and heavy collar around her neck. Then came an agonizing and unexpected burning pain from the collar, making Lisa throw herself screaming to the floor, her head suddenly and painfully clear. It was an awful, breath constricting pain.

"Now, don't be silly girl, get them off, please." The woman's voice was quite calm and matter of fact as she fingered a remote control which Lisa guessed had activated her collar so painfully. She was trapped. If she didn't do what the bitch wanted she would be hurt - she instinctively knew that. Nevertheless, she couldn't just undress in front of a stranger.

"Look, please...if you tell me what ... haaaahhhhhh," The pain took her again, a circle of fire around her throat. It threw her to her knees, stopping her breathing and forcing her head back in a clenched teeth grin of pain, the tendons standing out like columns in her neck. "Huh, huh," she panted when the current was switched off, her fingers failing to find any way of tearing the hideous pain-filled device from her slim neck.

"Be good girl, I can keep hurting you until you do as told. Now strip - or would you like another jolt of encouragement?" The woman's long fingers hovered by the remote control she carried. "And don't even think about trying to take it off me!" She had seen Lisa tensing herself. "I can easily kick the shit out of you, you a soft Westerner. Besides others are watching from behind the mirror walls. They have similar controls to burn that pretty head from your shoulders if you try to lay a hand on me. Now ... hand me your clothes - right now please."

Lisa remembered sniffing back tears of pain and humiliation. She obeyed her captor and unnaturally undressed before her. It was awful. She cringed with shame, her wide eyed look darting over the mirrored walls of her cell, trying to imagine who might be witnessing her shame. She hated the thought of publicly undressing like this; she was frightened and vulnerable. She tried one more, almost raising her hands in supplication to her tormentor, imploring.

"Please..."

Her captor was totally impassive.

"Now... or you get hurt again. You have no choice, shoes, underwear, jewellery, everything in my hands, I want you stark fucking naked," she snarled, holding out her arms, snapping her fingers impatiently.

Lisa was frightened by her captor's demeanour and the power she held over her, not wanting to antagonise her. Her fingers twitched on her tee-shirt before her shoulders sagged and she tugged it off to hand it to the waiting woman. She then crossed her hands over her sensuous breasts, covered only by her small, revealing bra.

"Hurry up, we all girls together here, I want it all off and right now, or I warm up your neck again." The fingers brushed the hateful remote control.

"No, OK," Lisa didn't want to feel the pain again, she was still sore.

She kicked off her trainers and scrabbled to tug off her white socks, handing both to the waiting woman. Undoing her belt, she took off her tight blue jeans, wriggling slightly as she slid them off, folded and handed them over, regretting losing the comforting weight of her purse and mobile phone in the pockets.

"Just what I expect from a Western tart, what a cheap slut!" The eyes glinted as the gaze travelled contemptuously over her knickers, designed to titillate rather than cover. Each barbed word further dissolved any remaining confidence Lisa had, never guessing that anyone other than her husband Derek would have seen those garments.

Now came the awful moment of truth but the woman snapped her fingers again. Looking down, her hair forming a curtain around her flushed face, Lisa quickly unclasped her pink bra and reluctantly slid off her thong panties. Handing such intimate and still warm garments brought a deeper flush to her face.

"Filth, Western filth!" The woman mocked her knickers, holding them at arm's length. "What a complete tart, but I need everything from you - even that shit. You now no allowed possessions - none - to remind you of your past decadence."

After that watershed it was comparatively easy to hand over her watch and bracelet although she bit her lips when she also had to slide off her rings at the woman's request. Each one held a dear and intimate memory for her. She felt as if her past, her very being, not just her clothes, had been stripped away. Once again she tried without success to remove her newly acquired collar. It was the one thing she didn't want.

"That remain, young lady," the woman announced. "It locked on firmly but if it did come off or if someone try to remove it for you it trigger explosive mechanism which would neatly chop off pretty head." She ruffled Lisa's hair playfully but with obvious sadistic relish.

Lisa stood with gooseflesh on her bare flesh, covering herself as best she could with her arms, bare feet shifting uneasily on the grubby steel floor. She could only see her tormentor's eyes as the woman pointedly and slowly looked her up and down before she scrunched all of her belongings in her arms.

"Remain standing just where you are, don't move until told ... or you regret it. And straighten your back, no slouching, smarten up, that's better!" The woman's instructions were curt and brooked no dissent. "That collar can hurt and either I or one of my associates can activate it from wherever we are; and it will activate automatically if you were ever to leave your cell unsupervised. So be a good girl." Then, without turning her back on her trembling victim, she left with all of her clothes and belongings. The door slid open electronically and locked again with a clang of finality.

Lisa bit her full lips, shivering anew. She was stark naked in that cell with nothing left. Everything familiar, her comforting handbag, phone and clothes were gone to leave her absolutely nude and shaking with fear. One call on that phone and she could have got help, but where was she? Still, the authorities could trace the signal even if she was abroad as she guessed. But she knew that whenever they wanted these people, whoever they were, could practically kill her with that horrible collar. Briefly, uselessly she felt around it again. It was too tight to slide off and she saw from the mirror that it looked impregnable.

She surveyed herself in the mirrored expanse of the walls. Reflected back at her was a beautiful girl of twenty-two with brown hair brushing her creamy shoulders. Below her 36B breasts, which showed scarcely any sagging, was a flat belly leading to a tiny brown triangle and a pert backside from which her long toned thighs led down to her red painted toenails. Regular use of the gym kept her in good shape.

Lisa knew, she had been told by her husband and earlier boyfriends, that she was a beauty. She had heard some of the comments made about her by the boys in the school where she taught. But now she was simply a captive, a frightened, naked captive, held by these people. What did they want with her? Where was her friend Helen?

A minute passed, then ten. She felt silly and frightened standing stiffly in the middle of the cell without any clothes. Her gaze darted around to take in a cot, a tiny kitchen area and a toilet with a shower. Feeling suddenly tired she began to move towards the one chair.

"Aaaghhhh!" She writhed to the floor in agony as the collar exploded into life. Frantically she scrabbled at the silver steel as it burnt and choked her. She didn't care how wildly her legs thrashed as she rolled on the floor or how her boobs bounced. Instinctively but uselessly she tugged at the collar which felt as if it was red-hot and sucking the air from her lungs. When the pain left her she was kneeling like an animal on the floor, sweat shining on her body.

"You under constant surveillance - and you disobeyed an order to remain standing still," a female voice boomed from hidden speakers. "That just a twenty second burst to demonstrate your position. Step out of line again and I make you dance for a full minute, you cow. You will learn to do exactly as told here and do it immediately. Understand, bitch?"

"Ugh, y-yes," she finally whispered through her constricted throat.

"Although you remain totally silent at all times, when spoken to you always address your superiors respectfully as 'Miss' or 'Sir.' Got it?"

"Haaahhh," Lisa threshed again on the floor as the collar briefly flared around her neck as a brief demonstration.

"Well?"

"Er, y-yes Miss," Lisa managed to croak, looking up with pain-filled eyes at her unseen tormentor.

"Good girl. It always good when a bit of Western trash like you finally realise her status." The voice dripped sarcasm. "Now since you don't want to stand, you can kneel, hands clasped to neck, back nice and straight, legs wide apart."

"Wha-oooooow," Lisa shrieked as even the beginnings of her exclamation made the burning flick on and off throwing her to the ground.

"No ifs or buts just total obedience, remember. Do it, girl!" the voice snapped. "Back straighter, legs wider. I've seen it all before, wider. Good, now keep it like that. I tell you when you move, eat, drink, sleep or shit."

Miserably Lisa forced herself to kneel to the cow's explicit requirements. She saw her reflection, breasts uplifted with her posture, heaving, her parted sex lips peeking from her delicate thatch; the sheen of fear etched on her red face. No matter how humiliating or frightening, it was a sad fact was that she simply daren't do otherwise. The pain from that collar was all too real; she couldn't fight it.

Yet despite the forced immobility of her body, her brain raced. What the hell was going on? Did they want a ransom? If so, they must have the wrong person, she and her husband had little savings. Perhaps she had been abducted by terrorists and if so was she even still in England? The journey here, or what she recalled from the brief snatches of consciousness before they put her under again, seemed to go on forever. She remembered reading a book about smuggling people out of the country in boxes or hidden compartments and there were plenty of small airfields around her home. Would they force her to make a film pleading for her life and condemning the Government? That would be so shaming, possibly the last image people having of her as a terrified and grovelling captive. Maybe they were white slavers? If so ... was it... her mind had tried to shut off that line of thought. She was kneeling vulnerably naked and if a man suddenly came in he might do anything to her... Being naked and with the collar she could do absolutely nothing to prevent him.

Her one stray hope was that Helen would raise the alarm, tell someone what had happened. Or had Helen been kidnapped too? There were so many frantic and unanswered questions surging through her mind. The mental pressure constricted her brain, crushing smothering. She felt tired, frightened and thirsty and wanted to use the loo.

Finally after what seemed hours the woman's voice again echoed round the cell. It made her jump.

"I hope that silent contemplation help acceptance of your position. You may have questions but they will be punishable and will still remain unanswered. You will remain totally silent unless spoken to. Only way is acceptance of your situation and obedience to those who now control you totally. You have basic cooking and washing facilities but all can be shut off from outside cell, including the air supply and temperature. If you displease me I make walls ice cold, red hot, or simply deprive you of air. Do you understand so far, girl?"

"Yes ... Miss." Oh how Lisa, who had quite a quick temper, hated this crawling yet she utterly believed that the cow could carry out her threat - and she wanted to live.

"Good. Well, all facilities now remain open for exactly one hour for you to eat and shower, use toilet if you wish - and yes, even the loo can be locked. Instructions on expected good behaviour are on wall of cell, menus and food are in the fridge - which is also presently unlocked. Study instructions whilst eating. You have exactly 60 minutes before your evening exercise programme starts, so move that shapely arse, girl!"