Kerry bolted upright as if awakening from a nightmare. Except in this case, she was not awakening from a nightmare so much as she was awakening back into one. The pleasant fantasy of dreams she had during her brief sleep was crushed by harsh reality. It was exactly as Kerry had feared in the split second before she awoke and her mind screamed a warning to her that something was amiss.
As she focused on her surroundings, all the details of her plight came crashing back in on her all at once. She did not know how long she had been asleep for, but it was becoming clearer to Kerry that at this point that kind of minutia was immaterial. What was most important, and most pressing, was that something had gone terribly wrong. What had started untold hours ago as a simple, impromptu job interview had devolved into her being nothing more than a shapely, helpless bundle, locked between the dead walls of a featureless sponge. The totality of that helplessness, being so tightly strapped into an unforgiving straitjacket, was straining her. Panic began to strip away the layers of composure Kerry was trying desperately to maintain. Quickly, she railed against the straitjacket in all the same ways she had earlier, as if this time ticking off a mental checklist of what movements and positions were of absolutely no use to her to try anymore.
With every attempt at release quickly and dutifully snuffed out by her unyielding jacket, another strand of dignity precariously holding her composure in place snapped away like a worn string. Kerry began to sob intermittently with despair after each defeat. Determined as she was to maintain what little semblance of self she had, she could tell she was actually being tattered by this foolish coat. As absurd as that thought might have been, she unfortunately also knew that it was the cold truth. Just as her increasingly intense desire carried her away to unexpected and risky masturbation earlier, now her anxiety was driving spikes of fear, rage, helplessness and desperation into her mind, and she was beginning to wither from the onslaught.
Finally, she could take no more and exploded both physically and emotionally. She threw herself into the walls of the cell, crashing and screaming for release. She pulled so hard, so completely, for so long against her straitjacket that she expected at any moment the seams to tear and for her to shred the garment like cheap fabric, but the jacket never budged. She fought harder than she ever had before, braced by the elixir of terror, confusion, and anxiety that gripped her. She felt for the briefest of moments to have the strength and determination of ten women and that her release from this monstrous jacket could not be denied her in the face of such extraordinary effort.
Which made the crushing finality of her defeat even more discouraging as this newfound strength fled from her body as quickly as it had come. She collapsed in parts, first to her knees on the floor, then sitting her bottom down on the back of her legs and ankles, followed by learning forward deeply at the waist holding her forehead inches above the soft padding, her hair obscuring her entire face as it fell around her. She could feel her useless bundled arms wrapped together compressed between her belly and her thighs. She felt so small, so helpless. Things were being stripped away from her that she didn't know how to hold on to. She could only...feel it.
She briefly and slowly raised her head for a moment and peered through the tangle of hair in front of her face. Her gaze fell upon the rectangular door of her cell, dirtied by innumerable patients pounding against it vainly for release. Instantly it occurred to her that it didn't even matter if she could somehow free herself from the straitjacket, she was still trapped inside of a padded cell with no way out. As her head drooped back down again, the initial notes of a derisive chuckle at the ridiculousness of this circumstance led to unabashed weeping.
An unfamiliar noise pierced the silence of the stark cell and quickly squelched Kerry's sobbing. As she picked her head up and sniffled back some tears, she could make out a shape moving outside her cell door by peering through the slim horizontal window. Her spirits began to soar as she anticipated the release from her brutal confinement. Her body never ached more than it did in that moment, but seeing the door to her cell swing open and the Doctor begin to enter assuaged all pain. A cheery smile drew across her full lips even as the tears remained wet on her cheeks.
"Doctor Benjamin!" Kerry cried as she shrugged one of her shoulders and attempted to smear the tears off her cheek with the rough material, without being very successful at it. "Thank God!"
Kerry's voice was quivering. She was trying to project a certain control, trying to hide from the Doctor what the past innumerable hours had put her through, but her true state betrayed her. She raised her right knee, planted her right foot into the padding and struggled to her feet, pivoting around to display the rear of her straitjacket to the doctor. She swung her long hair once to the left, and then again far to the right and over her right shoulder in an attempt to get all of her hair out of the way of the buckles and straps behind her. The unbuckling of her straitjacket was a process she was keen on facilitating as best as she possibly could. She heard the light sounds of footsteps and felt the compression of the padding behind her stockinged feet as the Doctor walked up behind her.
"You can tell me what happened later, right now I'd just like to be out--" Kerry began to speak but was interrupted by the Doctor.
"Looks like you found some slack in this thing after all." The remark snapped Kerry out of her singular fixation on release for a moment.
"What? Oh," she said as she felt his hands fussing with a buckle behind her. As Kerry began speaking, the jingling sound of the buckle being worked sung out to her. A sweeter sound she had never heard, believing as she did that it would lead in just moments to her freedom. "Yeah, I mean I guess I pulled a little through my arms. Not much tho--HEY!!". As she was speaking, the Doctor did indeed unbuckle the strap fusing her arms together behind her, but instead of passing the strap back through the buckle and releasing her, he pulled hard on it, instantly and completely eliminating the small amount of slack that she had worked so hard and so long for. He fed the end of the strap back through it's home on the other side of the buckle as it should be when properly fastened.
"What?..." Kerry gave her sleeves a quick tugging as if to test that yes, in fact, her arms were drawn tighter around her than they were before, "You tightened it! No!" Kerry gasped. She heard some more tell-tale jingling, but it seemed to be a different sound than what she had heard earlier from her straitjacket buckles. These new sounds were higher-pitched. Kerry began to turn around towards the Doctor. "What are you--"
Again Kerry was interrupted by the Doctor, this time wordlessly as she turned to face him. She briefly saw a flash of mostly tannish-brown something and silver in the Doctor's right hand, and immediately this item was slammed against Kerry's face, completely covering her mouth. At the same time he leaned into her, driving her entire body forcefully into the nearest wall of the cell, pinning her between it and himself so she couldn't get away. She could feel something surrounding almost the entire lower half of her face. She could feel the contact with this, this...thing against her cheeks, along her jaw line and under her chin. She felt it rubbing the underside of her nose ever so slightly. Kerry tried to scream but the sound was substantially muffled as her lips were mostly sealed by being pressed against some kind of padded lining on the interior. In this moment of surprise, she could feel one of the Doctor's powerful hands holding the jaw and mouth part of this panel against her face as ribbons of straps and buckles were being brought from the sides and draped over and aside her head.
Again the jingling, a sound she instantly recognized as being most unfortunate for her, and then she felt some pressure at the back of her head. As this pressure grew, two straps at the side of the panel against her cheeks tightened considerably, and the soft padding of the panel that encased her mouth and jaw pressed hard against her. Kerry's eyes widened with fear. She recognized almost instantly that this horrible new sensation was likely only going to get worse. Again she screamed, only this time the full measure of her new peril made itself clear. Not only couldn't a single breath of air escape from her mouth now that it was completely sealed shut with the thick padded muzzle, but the totality of it's encasement, plus the tightness, even seemed to prevent using the space of her mouth as a resonater for her voice. Her upper and lower jaw were crammed together and being welded shut by the ornate panel gag, with only her tongue filling the nearly airless space between. Panicked, she modulated her voice out through her nostrils, but where a powerful scream might have eminated earlier, all that escaped was a considerably weakened, unintelligible squeal. She couldn't project her voice at all.
She tried to make eye contact with Dr. Benjamin, to try and plead with an expression that might replace her stolen voice, but his gaze was intent now on the back of her head. She felt another series of straps, one on either side of her nose, joining together somewhere between her eyes into one strap, then further up and over the top of her head, begin to cinch down. The panel that cupped her face tightened now in a new direction, from bottom to top, completely immobilizing her jaw by clamping everything tightly together. She heard the jingling a couple more times, and felt the pressure of additional straps being tightened around her face and behind her head. Another set on the sides of her face, one set under her chin, encircling around to the back of her neck and locked together with the other straps. The Doctor brought his hand around when he was finished and clamped it over the panel covering her face in different spots, as if trying to press it against areas of her face it had not yet touched. A pointless exercise as every milimeter of her flesh that was sealed into the thick muzzle was being punished by the stiff padding.
Finally, the Doctor made eye contact with her.
"You like that?" he asked. Kerry's heart raced. She knew that this progression signaled a huge crisis for her.
"Nnnff!" Kerry mewled ineffectually through her nose as she violently shook her head no. Even this small gesture insulted her as she felt the free ends of the straps on the leather muzzle slapping against her head as it shook.
"Good" the Doctor said as he shifted some of his body weight that was pinning her to the soft padded wall away and took firm grip of both of her coccooned arms at the biceps in each hand. As she glanced down at him grabbing her, he stepped his opposite leg in front of hers and then pushed her across it, taking her legs out from under her and throwing her chest first into the cell floor. She crashed down with a dull thud and immediately felt the Doctor scramble on top of her, straddling the small of her back on his knees, once again pinning her down. She wanted to turn her head around and try and get a look at what the Doctor was doing but a powerful hand palmed the back of her head and pressed her face into the padded floor. Sealed as her mouth was, it was impossible for any air to enter, and her face being crushed into the padded floor was now all but sealing her nose, too. Every fiber of her being screamed bloody murder, but she may as well have had her vocal chords removed as her protests were barely audible. With the other hand she could feel the Doctor pulling and brushing away Kerry's hair that was covering the upper parts of the straitjacket. That task complete, the air rushed back into her lungs as he removed his hand from the back of her head.
As she struggled to once again regulate her breathing, she felt the strap of the jacket around her throat being tended to, then a forceful tug in the same area, then more fiddling. Good God, Kerry thought. He's going to tighten the entire jacket! She desperately tried to shake the Doctor off of her, she wailed and whined as best she could, but all her efforts were completely ineffectual. One by one the straps on the rear of the straitjacket were undone, re-tightened, then cinched back down again.
The final strap to be re-tightened was the crotch strap of the jacket. The Doctor slid off her lower back and onto her upper thighs. While this afforded her a little more leverage and movement to try and fight, her efforts were no more effective than before. In fact, all she was managing to do at this time was proudly raise her shimmering, black tights-covered ass up into the air. While it was useless as a means of escape, it was very appealing for the Doctor to watch. He placed both open hands on her bottom, one on each cheek, and felt the smooth material of the tights beneath his hands. Kerry squealed under his touch and tried to take her goodness away from him, but bound as she was with him pinning her down, she really only managed to flex her bottom, which worked just fine for him. He kneaded her perfectly round ass for a moment before moving one hand down onto her thigh and used the other to begin preparations for tightening the crotch strap. After a brief moment and a cruel tug, it was done. The strap was now very uncomfortably wedged between her calypigian cheeks, and crushing against her pussy. She doubted a g-string could have gotten any more up close and personal than the one inch wide rough piece of webbing that was currently lodged between her legs. This was becoming a complete nightmare for poor Kerry. Now done with his handywork, Dr. Benjamin admired the symmetry of the multiple fastened buckles lined neatly up and down Kerry's spine, and noted how the tight crotch strap now couldn't be seen in it's entirety anymore as it circled from the front of the jacket to the back. Several inches of the strap now completely disappeared from view between her cheeks, appearing as if her bottom were in on the escape attempt by trying to chew it's way out.
The Doctor snatched a clump of Kerry's hair near the top and pulled back on it unforgivingly, producing an involuntary audible gasp of shock from her nostrils as he used it to slowly arch her upper torso up off the padded floor towards him. Kerry was practically hyperventilating and thought she might get broken in half backwards as she felt the Doctor lean across her back and position his mouth near her ear. For a moment they both were still as Kerry's wide, panicked eyes darted to the side that she could feel the Doctor's breath against her, trying in vain to locate him. The grip on her hair tightened a little and she responded with a yelp. Then came a moment that chilled her to the bone, as the following words were whispered coldly and deliberately into her ear.
"You will never get out."
And with that he released hold of her hair and her head whiplashed down into the padding beneath her. Stunned momentarily by her heavily strapped head crashing to the floor, she barely registered the Doctor climbing off of her and striding away. She looked back up just in time to see the Doctor's trailing leg disappear out of the room, and then watch helplessly as the heavy, padded cell door slammed shut once again.
Incredulity. Disbelief. Where once earlier in this nightmare day Kerry was filled by the arousal of a hidden passion, and only moments ago reduced to tears by anxiety, now there was only complete and utter shock. Slowly, she drew her knees up to her chest in a first attempt to get herself upright again. Instantly, she could feel the legacy of her captor's idle hands. If at all possible, the straitjacket that she was sealed into had shrunken further, causing discomfort for her to move in nearly any and every direction. She also felt the initial stages of throbbing in her cheeks and jaw. The padded muzzle that was locked on to her was strapped very tight, and Kerry could sense that it wouldn't be long before it was that device, not the straitjacket, that would be her most cruel mistress.
Dazed, Kerry inched herself into a sitting position and set to work on trying to find a way to alleviate some of the pressure from the panel harnessed across her face. She folded a leg up towards her chest, and after a moment of dealing with the discomfort of her new position, bent forward at the waist. She began to rub the sides of the leather panel against her knee in a vain attempt to jar it or loosen it somehow. This had no noticeable effect, as the smooth outer of the leather just glided along against her tights. She turned her head and bit and tried to see if perhaps she could force the straps holding the panel to her face up and over her head, but this also proved useless. While she was occasionally able to actually find purchase against one of thin straps binding the gag on, they were either fastened too tightly to budge, or they were bundled in with her hair causing such pain that she could not push through. Despite her efforts, Kerry instinctively knew that even if she could have torn every hair in her head out, she almost certainly would not have been able to coax the muzzle off anyway. With the puzzle of straps cinching it to her head from every angle, there was no possibility for the stiff panel to be simply forced off.
Just then she heard noises again coming from her cell door. Kerry turned nervously towards the door, acutely aware now of how helpless she was to prevent anything further from happening to her. So enfeebled was she in this moment, that simple awareness of her surroundings was literally her only defense. She began to slide herself as far away from the door as possible, rubbing her shoulder against the padding of the cell wall as she tried to bury herself in the far corner.
The door to her cell finally opened, and in walked Rebecca. Kerry's anxiety abated for only a moment, for as she searched Rebecca's face for reaction to her predicament, she didn't notice anything resembling concern, fear, or shock. As her friend padded across the cell floor, carrying a clipboard and dimpling the cell floor with each step of her white-stockinged feet, it was becoming more and more apparent that she was in fact an accomplice, not her salvation. Rebecca wordlessly strolled up to Kerry's side and looked down at her. After a moment, a cruel smile cracked Rebecca's glossy red lips. Kerry quickly looked away from her "friend", enraged at her heartless betrayal.
"Aww, hey sweety..." Rebecca cooed as she reached out with her left foot and gently rubbed her stockinged toes up and down Kerry's thigh in short strokes. Kerry tried to move away, but she had already backed herself into a corner of the cell, greatly limiting her mobility. After a moment, Rebecca stopped rubbing with her foot and squatted down beside Kerry. "You look incredible in that straitjacket. It fits you twice as well as it fits me." Still she received no reaction from the bound and gagged woman.
"Hey..." Rebecca said as she gently put her fingers in Kerry's hair. Immediately Kerry grunted disapprovingly and shook her head free of Rebecca's hand. Kerry glared at her captor, who appeared to be enjoying every moment of her ordeal.
"Well, I was going to tell you why you were here. What's going to happen to you..." Rebecca teased. "but I can see you're too upset for that." Rebecca began to rise, and as she did Kerry tried to get her attention. She didn't want to have to deal with either she or the Doctor lording it over her and insulting her in the state she was in, but she definitely wanted some answers about what was happening to her. She did her best to vocalize through the muzzle and get Rebecca's attention before she left, but she ignored Kerry. Seeing perhaps her opportunity to have her situation explained to her walking out the door motivated Kerry to really exert herself. She tried to quickly crawl on her knees towards the cell door while mumbling as best she could. Finally, Rebecca stopped just as she reached the door and turned around stopping Kerry cold in the center of the cell.
"'Mmmn', sweetheart? Is that it?" Rebecca mocked, rudely imitating her gagged speech, "That thing must really be as effective as it looks" she said, making a motion with her index finger swirling around her face. "Does it hurt? It looks like it hurts". Kerry could do nothing but glare and silently endure her friend's cruelty. "Wow, look at you looking at me. If looks could kill, huh?". Kerry kept her gaze fixed upon Rebecca as she moved from the door and knelt down next to her in the middle of the cell. She seemed so enraged Rebecca was half-surprised that a jet of steam didn't accompany each exhale from Kerry's nostrils.
"I suspect you're wondering why you're still here, why you're all strapped up like this, yes?" Rebecca asked. She didn't wait for any acknowledgement from Kerry, if one was ever forthcoming. "You're here because I'm afraid you're irretrievably insane" Rebecca turned to face Kerry who was vocalizing something like 'No!' and shaking her head, "Yes, yes you are my dear. You are dangerously unhinged and will spend at least the next several months of your life here in--"
Upon the utterance of the word months, Kerry snapped. Her attempts at speech became more loud and desperate, while she half-struggled, half-denied Rebecca's claims with her body language.
"Oh, I know sweetheart," Rebecca cooed condescendingly, "I think it's terrible that you should have to be in here so long, but hey, you signed the papers, so you know what's best for you." This last statement confused Kerry even more than she already was. She stopped struggling and was silent, searching within herself and her friend's face for an idea of what she was talking about. Seeing her last remark had the desired effect, Rebecca continued speaking to her now subdued, curious cell-mate. "That's right," she smiled. "You voluntarily committed yourself to this hospital for a period of months with no hope for release. Do you not remember? I know sometimes you people have trouble with your memories" she said derisively.
Rebecca then let the clipboard she had been carrying drop flat on the cell floor in front of Kerry's knees. Instantly Kerry recognized it, and a feeling of dread pooled within her. Attached to the clipboard were pages from the log book she had signed before entering the inner hospital with the Doctor and Rebecca. Looking over the page again, she could see all the names signed on each line above hers, then hers at the bottom on the last line.
"I'm sorry," Rebecca said reaching down towards the clipboard, "that's the visitor log." What happened next chilled Kerry to the bone. Rebecca placed her fingertips on the sheet of paper on the clipboard and pushed upwards. The sheet of paper containing all the names from the log book moved and lifted away. Kerry's name at the bottom did not. The log book page had been cut off at the bottom, so that the bottom of a page underneath it could be seen. This is what Kerry actually signed, the paper underneath, right on the dotted line, which the rest of the "visitor's log" was styled to mimic. As the log book page was torn away, she began to tear up as the impenetrable blocks of legalese hidden beneath stared back at her. Glancing over the document as she was, shifting her gaze from paragraph to paragraph, she could see that it was in fact a voluntary committal form, and that her signature was emblazoned on the bottom in black and white. As her heart sank into the depths of despair with this latest revelation, Rebecca cackled at her misfortune.
Kerry slowly turned tear-filled eyes towards Rebecca, moaned pathetically and shook her head in denial. This couldn't be happening. She was no lawyer, but it certainly appeared that whatever she had signed was legally binding in every way. Even if she weren't bound and gagged as she was, she would still be a ward of the hospital for the next several months, after which a review of her case would determine further treatment or release. At that moment, Kerry had an idea how that eventual review would go, if she could even make it that long. She was utterly trapped in a private asylum, and nobody knew she was there except for two people, the same two people who tricked her into her straitjacket in the first place.
"You know," Rebecca said as she regarded her friend, tears slowly and silently running from her eyes to the top of the muzzle, and then away, "I almost envy you." And though Kerry could not explain it, she actually believed Rebecca was being sincere in this moment. "Railroaded and bound. You have no say about what happens to you. You'll be fed, cleaned, clothed, and all you have to do is be you. Just wake up in the morning." She tenderly placed an open hand against the muzzle and wiped at one of the trails of Kerry's tears with her thumb. She sighed wistfully. It occurred to Kerry that Rebecca was the one who needed a straitjacket.
Rebecca grabbed the clipboard, rose, and again headed for the door.
"Get your rest now, sweetheart" she said. "The good Doctor and I will be back soon enough to start your--" Rebecca's face broke out in an evil smile "--therapy."
And just like that the door to her cell had slammed shut once again, only this time, there was a permanence in all the things surrounding her that wasn't there just moments before Rebecca entered the cell. Before, what was happening to Kerry was chaotic and unknown. She was just as likely to be released in a few minutes as not, and that premise, however flimsy, had been buoying her spirits. Now that it was explained to her that she was in fact a prisoner, that she had been duped into committing herself and that her captors planned to hold her there against her will for an extended period of time, with unlimited access to things like cells, institutional restraints, and drugs, she finally felt the terror of her circumstance. A question in her mind that moments ago might have been, "When will I be released?" now turns to "Will I ever be released?". The thought of having to spend extended periods of time, days, perhaps even weeks, in this cell, bound with straps, cuffs, or a straitjacket, became overwhelming and panic inducing. She couldn't live like that! It occurred to her that she might literally be driven mad by whatever Dr. Benjamin and Rebecca do to her, and that even if she was released from their grasp someday, she might just end up in somebody else's cell and straitjacket.
