Riley grunted into the makeshift gag as she tried once again to free her hands tied behind her. Sitting on the floor in the living room, arms tied behind her and ankles tied in front of her, she had been struggling to free herself for over an hour now. When that didn’t work she went about asking, then sternly demanding, and then threatening, and then begging the children to release her. The children she was babysitting; sweet innocent Blakley, well she looked innocent for an eight year old, and her younger by two years brother, Jasper, had played this game before with her. The game. Cops and robbers, hostage, pirates, whatever it was, had started in some incarnation pretty much from the beginning from when she was hired to sit for them a few months ago, when apparently their last sitter for Mr. Kane had up and quit suddenly.

She had humored them, and pretty much played the damsel in distress until it was time to put them to bed. She quickly broke out of their sloppy children’s knots and would scoop them up playfully and chase them off to bed, tucking them in, despite their pleas to stay up late and watch more television. Apparently there was a tv show they liked to watch that Mr. Kane had exposed them to against his better judgement and now regretted it. Riley somehow figured the show was the motivation for the tie-up games.

Riley had quickly bonded with the children, she had to since Mr. Kane worked a double shift a few times a week. He was still young and a widower. She didn’t quite know the story, but from the children, she had pieced together that their mother had died in a car accident when they were very young, leaving Mr. Kane to raise them on his own.

Riley had graduated from High School, just barely, and really was just drifting in life; not too interested in college, and really wasn’t too keen on entering the regular workforce. Working retail seemed a little too mainstream for her.

At nineteen, Riley had developed a bit of an alternative sense, sporting an ever changing colored swath of hair, an eyebrow piercing, and she was proud of the one tattoo that she had saved up for herself.

Her parents, never really seemed to notice her, or put much energy into what she did or didn’t do, but the tattoo triggered a family discussion where her parents brought up the bothersome discussion of what she was doing with her life and why she had so much time on her hands that she could afford to go get tattoos with spending money, yet still stayed at home, still slept in, and still didn’t have a job or school aspirations. This babysitting job happened just at the right time for her, and for once, Riley actually felt a little passionate about something.

She heard the television switch channels; she was turned facing the opposite direction, and realized that the children had switched on the forbidden show Mr. Kane had warned her about.

“Mmmmmmpppphhh!” she cried out into the knotted cotton shirt that was her gag for the evening. This was not what she had intended for tonight. With as much strength as she could muster she tried to pull her wrists free of the ropes cutting into her skin.

“What I need is a responsible babysitter that can keep my kids engaged in the evenings when I work the two to three nights a week,” Mr. Kane had said during the interview. He was young. Younger than she had realized. Not really handsome, more tired and weary. She imagined that the years of long hours and taking care of the children by himself probably added to his worn down look. Tall and thin he measured her, trying to see if she would be a good fit to watch over his life, his babies. After the interview and the reference checks she had the job. Things had gone well for the first week until Blakley suggested the game. That first time it was pirates, and she played a captured princess, while Blakley was Blackbeard the pirate and Jasper played Finn the hero to rescue her. Jasper untied her thus rescuing her and ending the game. She had felt the knots, the rope was slack, she easily could have stepped out of them.

The games continued. She of course did other things with the children, fed them, made sure they had bathed, and checked that they did their homework. The plots got more elaborate. There was the time they played cops and robbers; she had to play hostage, while Blakley played the cop that time. Jasper wanted to shoot everyone with his toy pistol. Riley pleaded playfully for him not to shoot her, that she would be ever so grateful. She batted her eyelashes and played up the helpless damsel, which distracted Jasper so much that Blakley made a play for his gun and they spent the next few minutes wrestling while she watched.

This time as the game ended Riley went to slip out of her bounds and found that the knots had tightened up and she wasn’t able to extract herself. Frowning she worked her wrist a little more, shifting her shoulders to try different angles to try to slip out of the wrist tie. When that didn’t work, she turned to the kids and asked them to release her.

That’s when she saw their smiles. Their wicked little smiles. She had been setup! Now she was trapped, arms behind her, tied at the wrists, wrapped around the support pole in the middle of the playroom in the converted den. The kids had wrapped a long laundry line around the rest of her body securing her to the pole standing up from her chest down to her ankles. She was effectively one with the pole now.

Standing there staring at them, she tried a different tact. “Guys, I’m getting very sore here. Can’t you please let me loose? It’s starting to hurt me.”

The children giggled and started to run around her and the pole. Riley followed them with her eyes and soon felt a little dizzy. “Guys?”, she said. “C’mon! I mean it, I’m getting angry here!” They continued to laugh as she started to squirm and yank at her bonds.

Muttering to herself she tried to methodically work through a process to escape the laundry line, first inhaling as big a breath as possible and then exhaling and wriggling the slack lines around her slightly chubby body. This felt like it worked but at that rate she was going she would need a week to achieve any result that would matter. And this wouldn’t even address the biggest issue: her wrists. The little buggers, funny how they were angels just a little while ago, had certainly learned quickly how to immobilize her wrists.

Riley sensed a quietness in the room. She had been too engaged in breaking free for the last few minutes and now looked up to try to see what she had sensed.

Blakely and Jasper were staring at her. “Guys?” It was at that moment that all three of them sensed the monumental power shift. She was no longer in charge. She knew it and with a growing sense of dread she realized that now they too knew it as well. With as much bravado as she could muster she looked them both square in the eye and tried to keep the panic out of her voice. “Guys, I need you to untie me RIGHT NOW!” That got no response. “I’m serious! I’m not playing anymore!” Still nothing. They just watched her with a bemused look on their faces. The ropes bit into her skin and she was getting a little tired of standing up with her back so rigidly straight strapped to the pole. Grasping at straws, she pulled out the big guns. “Listen to me, if you don’t come over right now and untie me, I’m going to have to tell your father!” Jasper, the younger of the two gasped and started to take a step forward. Blakley grabbed her brother and pulled him back. “Remember last time Jasper?” Blakely reminded him. Remember last time what? Riley wondered. What the hell was going on? Jasper brightened and fell back in with his sister. They turned and left, leaving Riley to call after them. A few moments later she heard the television in the living room come on. It was past their bedtime. Riley continued to call after them and threaten them with everything she could think of, but it was no use.

Frustrated she set back to trying to release herself from the laundry line, which seemed to just tighten up and grab into her more and more.

“Grrrrrr!” she muttered as she struggled in a fit of frustration. In one last futile attempt she flung herself into a fit of frenzy, struggling with all her might, straining until she was panting with exhaustion. “You two are in SO MUCH TROUBLE WHEN I GET FREE!” she screamed and then collapsed into her bonds. Breathing hard she stood there tied to the pole alone and listening to the sounds of the television from the next room. The kids seemed to have at least settled down and were not in any danger or trouble, but what she heard from the television made her a little uneasy. It clearly was a mature program, and seemed to mirror the games that had urged her to play with them!

Resigned to her fate and with the children seemingly okay, she had little choice but to stew in her own sweat and bonds. Her mind drifted as she started to float about. Her focus seemed a little off, until she realized that Mr. Kane would soon be home and would most likely discover her tied up to the pole.

In a panic she struggled again to break free, but she had used up pretty much all her remaining energy in her last thrashing. In alarm she called back to the children. “GUYS!” she screamed. “Your father will be home soon! Please come untie me before he comes home. I’m sure you don’t want him to discover me like this!”

There was no response.

She screamed louder, repeating herself and heard one of the kids get up off the couch, footsteps coming closer to the room. She saw the door to the living room close shut! The heard the footsteps paddle back to the couch and the television sound was turned up loud so that they could drown out her cries!

“GUYS!” she screamed, but it was no use. She couldn’t be heard through the door and over the tv.

Now stuck to the pole, tightly bound there, after all the struggling, she noticed that her top had ridden up a little showing her belly. She was a little self conscious of her extra weight and with the added realization that Mr. Kane was going to discover her trussed up helplessly to the pole, the normally pale skin on her body began to brighten to a dark red in embarrassment.

Riley fidgeted. She had given up hope of escaping and now tried to prepare herself for the consequences of discovery, but the more she thought about Mr. Kane coming in and discovering the helpless tied up her, the more excited she became.

This confused her. Above all else she wanted free of these bonds, and she vowed to herself she would never play this stupid game with Blakely and Jasper ever again, and yet right at this moment she seemed to feel so alive! Just ten minutes ago he body from the tightness of the laundry line had felt tired and numb, but now every nerve seemed raw and open to stimulation!

Each shift in her body weight seemed to send a charge through her. Her muscles tightened and expanded and it caused her to quicken her breath. This was a new feeling for her and it startled her.

She played out how Mr. Kane would react. Would he be angry! She imagined him yelling at her and firing her right on the spot! What would she tell her parents! They might kick her out of the house! She was old enough now, so it was possible...

Maybe Mr. Kane would punish the children! A chill ran through her. She never saw signs that he hit them. She quickly put that out of her mind, but a random thought popped quickly in to replace it: maybe Mr. Kane would punish her!

Saliva dripped beyond her shirt-gag and pooled onto the carpeted floor just a few inches above her face. Staring down at it, she grudgingly had to marvel at the advances the children had made in their bondage techniques from the last time.

It had been two weeks since the pole incident and she had been firm with the children: no more tie-up games, ever! She had spent the day out in the sun, which always made her sleepy, and must have nodded off for a few minutes on the couch while watching the kids, because the next thing she knew, she was awake with her ankles and wrists bound! Now she was livid. This was no longer a game and she called to them, only to see them come back into the living room dragging a black duffel bag. “Look what we found in Daddy’s closet!” Blakley exclaimed. Jasper struggled to help with the duffle bag as well. A shadow of dread fell over Riley, as she shook the grogginess out of her body. Now fully awake, she was aware that things were going to escalate pretty quick unless the children were sloppy with tying her bonds. Quickly testing her wrists, her hopes fell. No such luck there, she thought. “Guys, this is no longer a game we play. Untie me NOW!” she said sternly. Blakley, the little instigator, just shook her head. “Riley fell asleep on the job! You have to be punished!” she giggled and bent over to unzip the ominous duffel bag that no lay in front of her.

Riley curiously peered into the dark hole of the bag as Blakely reached in and pulled out coils of colored rope! OH MY GOD! THAT’S BONDAGE ROPE! Riley thought to herself. Her mind shifted gears suddenly as she now suddenly was unsure about Mr. Kane and what type of man HE was. Who was he, to have a bag full of bondage gear? Who indeed?

Riley snapped out of her thoughts when Blakely approached her with the red “pretty” coil of rope. “Back away! You are NOT getting any more rope on me!” Riley threatened. She maneuvered herself on the edge of the couch sitting bolt upright and kicked her legs out at the approaching Blakley. Blakley tried a few feints to each side to then try and slip in behind Riley’s guard, but Riley had her size and speed as an advantage. “Back off!” Riley warned. She may have had her ankles and wrists tied, but she was far from helpless! Blakley was momentarily flummoxed however she now smartly enlisted Jasper to the mission. “Jasper! Go around behind her!” she said. Jasper smiled. The game was on! “No!” Riley said. Jasper went behind the couch, and Riley twisted backwards and forwards trying to keep an eye on both children at the same time. Jasper started to climb over the couch towards her back, while Blakley probed for an opening in front of her. “No!” They closed upon her, like predators. “NO!” Riley struggled and kicked frantically. “BANZAI!” Jasper leapt onto her back pushing her to the floor and that’s when Blakley pounced.

Riley had spent what seemed like an hour alone tied to that accursed pole before Mr. Kane came home. He did not in fact punish the children that night when he discovered her still tied to the pole her face beet red from embarrassment. He didn’t fire her on the spot either. In fact, he was full of apologies, as she was one-part grateful and two-parts humiliated as he slowly untied her.

Unwrapping the long thin laundry line, she slowly could let her body and posture slacken, and she felt the rush of blood flood back through her body. She had dropped like a sack of rocks when he had loosened her enough, catching her at the last minute, and lowering her gently to the ground, rubbing her limbs to get the circulation back.

Letting her regain her composure, he ushered the children to bed after making them give sullen apologies to her, explaining to them how dangerous it would be if something were to happen to either them or Riley and she was unable to help or take action. Blakley and Jasper nodded. “Let me go tuck them in, and then I can deal with you,” Mr. Kane said. Riley was left with her thoughts. “ ... then I can deal with you...” he had said. Riley ran that through her mind over and over again as her strength returned. She dreaded his return, but knew she had to face whatever awaited her. The children were her responsibility and she had failed. Was he going to yell at her? Oh god, maybe he was going to fire her? What would she do then? She had only had the job for a few weeks. Maybe he wouldn’t fire her, he was pretty desperate for a sitter. Maybe some other form of punishment. Her mind floated and then fixated onto a spanking. That was ridiculous, and she laughed that off immediately, and yet ... Her brain wouldn’t put that image out of her mind. Mr. Kane spanking her for being a bad girl. For allowing the children to capture and tie her up and her not being able to escape. She was a BAD babysitter for allowing that to happen. Her breath quickened at that outrageous thought. He wouldn’t.

Would he?

She heard footsteps approach and she looked up to find Mr. Kane enter to den. She was still on the floor, leaning against the infernal pole, right where he had lowered her. She held her breath in nervous anticipation. What was she in for?

“Riley, I must apologise again for my two little ones.” He grabbed her hand and helped her up. “I accidentally exposed them to a tv show a little while ago that go them onto this damn tie-up game kick they are on. I was hoping it was a phase and they would have forgotten it, but it doesn’t seem to have been the case.”