Chapter 4

Sometime later, the man pulled over into another North-bound rest stop. Again, parking well away from both the building containing the vending machines and toilets, there were no other cars here, and very little traffic. Putting the van in park with the passenger side facing nothing but a field, he got out, locking the door. As he walked to the rear of the van, he grabbed the magnetic sign on the side and pulled it off. Stepping quickly around to the passenger rear, he removed that one as well. Rolling them up, he climbed part way up the ladder on the rear door, opened the end of the PVC tube and slid the rolled-up signs in. Closing the tube, he stepped back down and unlocked the rear doors.

Grabbing a small gym bag off its hook, he shut the doors, but left them unlocked. The man stepped around to the side doors and unlocked the padlock, removed it and opened the hasp. He then unlocked the door itself. Ensuring there was still no other car coming down the off ramp behind him, he opened the door, stepped up and into the center cage section and pulled the door closed. He made sure to keep the hasp closed between the doors, to keep from trapping himself, he turned into the interior and flicked the overhead light on.

The girl appeared to still be softly snoring. From the bag, he removed three things, all leather. The first was what might be called a type of ‘gimp hood’. It was a leather hood that would fit over the head of the wearer. This model had no eye holes, but left did have holes for the mouth and nose to remain uncovered. Many models of these hoods also have eye holes designed to have covers attached to the hood via snaps or buckles, but the man like this one, because the victim would be unable to force the eye patches off; there simply weren’t any. It would fit over the head and had a heavy-duty zipper to close itself. There were several buckles to fit it snugly to the head, but he would normally not use them, unless necessary, as it was already quite restrictive, and he preferred to keep any possible claustrophobia as minimal as possible.

The other two items were both almost the same. They were masks that fit over the mouth. Each had a large leather piece, kind of oval and about a quarter inch thick. The sides were slightly larger than the middle, which allowed for a better fit, as the larger sides would fit over the sides of the mouth, and the narrowed top and bottom allowed room for the nose and chin. There were two straps that went behind the head, buckling together in the back. There were also two buckles on either side of the top and one on the bottom, that mated to three straps on the hood. All these straps might seem overkill, but once on and secured, one of these masks would not come off and were secured from sliding up or down as well.

The difference in the two mouth masks were that one was simply the leather mask, with nothing else on it. The other one has a sort of a small protrusion on the inside, with an air valve sticking out of the front of the mask. The protrusion was shaped like a medium sized square of rubber that would fit inside of the mouth of the wearer. If left as is, it would prevent the teeth from closing and keep the mouth open about a quarter inch. The man chose this one and put the other mouth mask back in the bag.