My body jiggled and bounced with every bump in the road. I rested my head awkwardly on the backseat of a car, trying to let the hum of the engine relax me enough to take my anxious mind off of everything that’s happening. Afterall, there wasn’t much else to do except to struggle, but I have already struggled and got nothing but sharp twinges of pain in return. I can try shouting for help, but I already know that it won’t accomplish anything… accept maybe annoy Tyler. Or my pitiful attempts to get someone’s attention might amuse him. It’s hard to tell what exactly this guy wants with me.
My wrists and elbows are bound painfully tight behind my back with some rubbery cord. My knees and ankles are bound with the same cord and level of uncomfortableness. My ankles have been fastened to my wrists and Tyler even went as far as to cross my ankles over each other, I guess to make being able to stand and hop away from him more difficult, as though I’d be able to get out of this hogtie. Simply moving in these restraints sends pain all over my already tender body, so the assumption that I’d muster up the strength to detach my ankles from my wrists and aimlessly hop away, still completely bound and gagged in the middle of nowhere, is preposterous. At least he fastened me in with all three seatbelts.
From the driver seat, Tyler continues to talk to me with the same casual demeanor he had when he was just an Uber driver, before he was the man who kidnapped me. He’s still asking me questions and waiting for a response as if he forgot that he assaulted me and shoved a rubber stress ball in my mouth, then tightly wrapped several layers of duct tape over my lips to keep the stress ball in its new place.
The taste of rubber and mere thought of how many dirty hands squeezed the ball is enough to make me sick, which is part of what I’m trying to take my mind off of. I can’t understand why he’d take such measures to prevent me from speaking, then still try to have a conversation with me. Although, he does seem satisfied with whatever muffled nonsense I could choke out to him or any living soul that can hear me. Maybe hearing protests from me is his way of making sure that I’m not going into complete shock or choking on my own puke. He might also just like the rea
ssurance that I’m still as helpless as I was when he first tied me up.
_______
Tyler was one of about five of the repeat Uber drivers I’ve had in the past three months. I had just graduated college and moved to the area with a friend to look for work. Because I just finished being a student and have taken a while to find adequate work, I didn’t have a car and either hitched a ride with my friend or took Uber to get around. The public transport system in this town sucks. After moving, I eventually realized that the job market over here really sucks as well, which is why I had to settle for a job at a car dealership to make ends meet. Yes, I recognize the irony in the fact that I work at a place for people who can afford to buy new cars and maintain the ones they have when I have never owned a car myself. The dealership pay was alright and I was relieved to at least find some work in this shit town, so I Ubered to and from work every day, which kind of evened out.
With this job, I begrudgingly worked on Saturdays. So after my first Saturday shift, I was so ready to get the hell out of dodge and salvage whatever I had left of the weekend. That was the first time Tyler ever picked me up. He was in about his mid-thirties and kind of surfer looking with light blonde hair, leathery tanned skin, and a muscular build, which was a little odd to see in the Midwest. Tyler was extremely friendly and chatty, and I felt like I was a bad passenger. My brain was fried from work and all I could think about was lunch and a nap, which made me kind of aloof and short with my answers. However, none of this seemed to affect Tyler’s upbeat demeanor and attempt to engage with me. At the end of the ride, he said his salutation and even went as far as to shake my hand, which wasn’t something other drivers have done before, but I was too out of it and guilty for not reciprocating his cheerful attitude to give it much thought.
A few weeks went by, and I grew especially hateful of my job. Since most Uber drivers generally work at the same time, several of the same people would either take me to work in the morning or pick me up in the afternoon. Then Tyler took my request for a ride one morning, which didn’t strike me as anything special because I’ve only ever had one ride with him in the past and was extremely exhausted at the time, so I barely remembered him. However, when he got me that morning, he seemed just as chipper as before, as well as fairly excited to be picking me up. He even spoke to me with familiarity as if we had been long-time friends who have been out of touch with each other. Mind you, we have just had one unmemorable ride with each other before where I barely even spoke to him.
Tyler said that he’s been wanting to pick me up and even roughly remembered what I said my work schedule was when he took me home a few weeks ago, so he can try picking me up again, which obviously didn’t work until now. I found that strange, but let it slide. He made more small talk by asking about my job, and since I was in a better mood than last time, I told him about how much I hated my job and brought up some things that my roommate and I have done in this new town. This prompted him to ask if my roommate and I are “more” than just roommates, to which I replied that we are just friends. Then when he got close to dropping me off in front of the car dealership, he confessed that he was really into me and asked me out on a date. I politely declined and explained that I have a boyfriend a few towns away, but thanked him for the flattering offer. He seemed to take it well because he congratulated me for my relationship and said that if it didn’t work out between us, his offer still stands.
You’re probably thinking that I made up having a boyfriend to guiltlessly get Tyler off my back, but I wasn’t lying. I did just make it official with my boyfriend about a week earlier after dating for a few months. However, I was unable to spend much time with him since we were about a hundred miles away from one other, I didn’t have a car, and we both had fairly time-consuming jobs. The time we have spent together has been great and his emotional support during this trying time for me has been getting me through these last couple of weeks.
I really was flattered by Tyler’s offer. Even though Tyler wasn’t my type, he wasn’t bad looking. Plus, in the day and age of the hookup app, I have a deep respect for men who have the balls to not only ask me out in person, but also ask me to go on a date with them instead of the vague “wanna hangout?” pickup line or the more to the point “let’s hookup” invitation. When I was single, it was even a policy I made for myself that I would accept a date with any guy who had the courage to ask me out like that, even if I wasn’t into him, just to reward his effort. I was a little creeped out by the casual stalking he was comfortable with telling me about, but the lack of physical attention from my long distance boyfriend made me appreciate Tyler’s gesture. Even though I’m happy with my relationship and my boyfriend is complimentary about my appearance, I sort of miss the flattery and flirting that came with casual dating and hooking up.
I know it’s vain, but I loved getting attention from guys who had fresh, uncomplicated perceptions of me. That lustful puppy love that usually fades with time and life’s complications. What made me miss this kind of attention even more was the fact that I have recently started feeling unattractive because I put on some stress-related weight from my new job and constantly felt unhappy about my situation, which ate away at my confidence and more approachable demeanor. I also ruined my last pair of contacts and haven’t had a chance to replace them, which made me have to wear my thick-framed glasses for the last couple of weeks. I know that glasses have come a long way in terms of people finding them attractive, but I just can’t feel as confident when I go out in them because of how bad my prescription is, which makes my dark eyes look beady.
Not to mention, office attire used to sort of turn me on because I used to feel powerful and attractive with an unshakable confidence whenever I left the house with a tucked in dress shirt, chinos, and Oxfords. But after working in an industry that I didn’t know or care much about made me feel stupid and inadequate in ways that my nice clothes couldn’t boost me up, especially when I was starting to grow out of them. So, long story short, Tyler’s assertive pursuing of me meant a lot at the moment. I wouldn’t have actually considered dating him, but he made me feel like I haven’t lost whatever desirability I had left.
_____
A few more weeks have gone by since Tyler asked me out. He took my request for a ride home from work. In the tracker, I saw that he was at a nearby apartment complex, but taking a while to leave. When he finally arrived, he was just as upbeat and enthusiastic as usual; however, he smelt of some musky cologne and was a bit more dressed up than usual with freshly combed, wet looking hair. This, along with the time it took for him to leave that complex might mean that Tyler just left his house and was primping himself up for something.
He had his dark red stress ball in his right hand. Since a lot of our conversations were about how unhappy I was with my job, he has let me use his stress ball during our trips to help me decompress, but I guess that today is his turn to use it. There was more construction a few blocks down from the car dealership, so Tyler detoured on some street he hasn’t taken with me before. After some usual small talk about work and what-not, I asked about where we’re going because the road we’re on doesn’t seem to be leading to my apartment.
“The detour got me off-route, Ms. Daisy,” Tyler says playfully. “But we’re taking a fun way home!” he added with enthusiasm.
After a few minutes, Tyler’s smile stiffened. Under his breath, Tyler mumbled something about “what he’s going to do” and that “he wouldn’t want to hurt me, but he would if he has to.” His sudden tonal shift was off-putting and his mumbling made me second guess what I think I heard.
“Wha-what was that?” I stutter with a chuckle, thinking that he was doing some kind of bit.
“Dan, I really like getting what I want…” Tyler mumbles, then more audibly asks “Do you know what it takes to overpower a grown man?” He was squeezing the stress ball tightly.
Although this particular subject seems like a red flag, I was used to him bringing up his days as a bouncer and being able to man handle the burliest bikers whenever they’d get rowdy, which he often spoke about proudly. I think it was probably an attempt to impress me with his apparent brawn to convince me that he was a viable suitor. However, Tyler’s abrupt shift back to his usual, cheery way of talking made me think that he might be having a stroke or low blood sugar or something.
“Is everything okay over there?” I ask Tyler, growing a little concerned that he might be having some medical issue while driving pretty far from civilization. Tyler turns his head to me and smiles.
“Do you know how easily I could overpower you?” he asks, but in a way that shows he isn’t really expecting an answer.
“Yeah… you’re very strong. Big bikers… I get it” I say trailing off as I started to realize that we have been driving in the middle of nowhere for about fifteen minutes now. I adjust my glasses nervously. I wanted to avoid thinking about why Tyler is suddenly talking about overpowering me, but the more I tried to, the more I thought about how easy it would be for him to butcher me out here and that I should keep my guard up. Tyler put the stress ball into the cup holder between our seats. Its plumpness kept it from sinking into the cup holder.
“What would you do if I said that I’ve had enough of these short rides and talks with you, and that I’m just going to kidnap you?” Tyler asks bluntly, almost sounding drunk. Not the gross and slurry kind of drunk, but the level of drunk you feel after a second or third beer you have for the first time with a coworker. You know? When you’re successfully loosened up from work for the first time in front of this person, and you’re relieved about not having to hold back your f-bombs or distaste for other coworkers who aren’t there? Tyler is sounding like that. He doesn’t sound like his usual chipper self, but he is sounding more normal and like he’s been holding something back for every other interaction I’ve had with him. I held on to the comforting thought that he’s still joking or doing some kind of bit, but part of me knew better.
“Are you actually talking about kidnapping me?” I ask with a forced chuckle, trying to make Tyler return to his fake-sounding, cheerful voice.
“You’re already in my grasp, so you’re coming with me whether or not you put up a fight,” Tyler replies in his ernest-sounding voice. Those words sent chills of utter terror down my spine, but he continued.
“You’re a cute and classy guy: you’re educated, you dress nice, and I respect you... but if you resist and make me have to hurt you to keep you in line, I’ll be tempted to do other things to you that won’t be respectful…” Tyler states with a stern face. Then, he continues with his voice almost trembling with excitement, “I can get a little carried away whenever I have to use more force on someone.”
My initial thought was to ask if he’s actually talking about raping me, but his sudden candor was scaring me, so I didn’t want to hear the answer I was expecting. Without my saying anything, Tyler proceeded.
“I’ve been so horny lately... It’s been difficult to avoid pitching a tent at work,” he confesses, sounding like he’s expecting me to empathize with him.
“Okay…” I faintly utter, not knowing how else to react to the situation. All I knew at the moment was that he was expecting some kind of response from me because I’ve been completely silent from the tension for so long now.
Against the part of me that wanted to say ‘no’ and ‘let me out of the car,’ I relented. Tyler was driving in the outskirts at a high speed at this point. I was unarmed with an uncharged cell phone and I have never been a physically dominant guy. I have no self-defense training or intimidating physical stature, so Tyler would definitely be able to hurt me. He’s in the driver’s seat in so many meanings of the phrase.
“Good boy!” says Tyler with a smile. Then he adds “I knew you would make the smart choice,” with slight relief in his voice. Even though the last thing I said to him didn’t make sense for the conversation he seemed to be trying to have, my response showed that I was aware of my vulnerability and his power in the situation.
___________
It took a few more minutes of driving before we reached a wooded area with a small path for a car. He pulled into the path. After about two minutes, he turned into a dense spot with trees, a place where people on the road won’t be able to see us.
“Sit tight.” Tyler said as he opened the door and stepped out of the car. He walked over to the trunk and opened it. After a few seconds of rustling around, he walked over to my side and opened the door.
“Ma'lady?” he offers while gallantly gesturing for me to get out. I cringed at the creepy cheesiness, hesitantly undid my seatbelt, and stepped out.
My legs are wobbly from trembling so much over the past half hour, which made me stumble. Tyler promptly grabbed me by my wrist and flung me against the car with my back facing him. He peels my jacket off of me, which still has my cell phone in it, after I have my footing. He holds my wrists together behind my back and looks me up and down.
“Ya’know? I’ve always wanted to be a cop... but I worried that I’d get too excited whenever I got to handcuff handsome men,” he discloses with a grin. As much as that thought chilled me, I forced myself to not think about it too much because I was already trying to avoid thinking about what his intentions were with me after blatantly telling me that he’d be up for raping me under certain circumstances.
Tyler was tying my wrists over each other behind my back with a cord that reminded me of an extension cord, but wasn’t. When he was finished, he tugged at the restraint.
“What do you know? That’s pretty good for my first attempt at this… I looked up the videos on YouTube and everything!” he gloats while trying to sound modest.
“I’m flattered to be the first for you to try this on, I hope I’m not your last” I quip after losing enough shock to blurt something out. I don’t think he was expecting such a response from me because he paused for a few seconds. Then he chuckled.
“You really have some wit to you. I like that!” Tyler responds.
He proceeds to wrap more of that cord around my elbows to get them as close to each other as possible. He then presses me against the car and grinds on me for a bit and breathing heavily into my ear.
“My gun is digging into your hip” Tyler says in a low breathy voice as I felt his throbbing, metaphoric gun rub against me through his jeans. I wanted to puke. He then let go of me and moved me away so he can open the back door.
He sits me down, facing him, took my glasses off and set them aside. He began tying my knees and ankles after crossing them. He kept gazing at my crotch, but making himself look away to keep me from noticing even though he’s been extremely obvious.
“Your tight little pants were one of the things that made me look forward to picking you up today” Tyler says, then adds “I never knew how your customers would be able to go on with their days after seeing your ass, crotch, and legs in front of them like this.” He then adjusted the collar to my teal, dotted print dress shirt that was tucked into the dark khakis that Tyler was commenting on.
When he was finished, he turned me over and laid me facedown on the backseat. The binding around my knees pinched as he bent them to tie my ankles to my wrists. When he finished that, he reached for the stress ball that he left in the cup holder and held it towards my face. When I saw what he was doing, I quickly turned towards the seat, trying to bury my face into it.
“I know I know… You’re a funny guy and I enjoy chatting with you, but I really want you out here where I can see you instead of in the trunk and I can’t afford having my cover being blown if you decided to call for help” Tyler says sympathetically as he shoves the ball into my mouth.
As much as I didn’t want to make a muffled sound, a reflex to the discomfort made me grunt as my lips adjusted around the stress ball and my teeth sunk into its squishy texture. To keep the ball in place, Tyler retrieved a roll of duct tape from the floor and stretched out a long strip with one whip. He carefully placed the strip over my lips and part of the ball, smoothed the loose end under my ear, then stretched the other end toward my other ear. Tyler did that for about three layers.
“That wasn’t so bad was it?” Tyler asks and I managed to get out a low groan in response. “It’s a shame that I had to cover up those lips though… although I do like that look on your face” he noted before running a hand through my short, wavy medium brown hair and patting my shoulder now that there’s nothing keeping him from touching me. He proceeds by securing me to the back seat of his car by wrapping the seatbelts around me and buckling them.
Tyler then took my jacket and his other kidnap supplies to put in the trunk, along with my backpack from work that was on the floor by my seat. He gets back into the driver’s seat and drives off.
“Oh yeah! I made the right choice keeping you where I can see you!” Tyler exclaims while glancing at me through his mirror. “I’ve never been much of a bondage guy before, but hogtying you was also a good choice… I now know why men in the 50s were into seeing pinup girls all restricted… because there’s a whole human under all of that who has no choice but to take what’s coming to him” he rambles on as the endorphins from his newfound dominance and power run through his veins.
“At first, I was a little worried about hurting you, but I think I’m starting to like the thought of you not being able to get away from me again… Do you think that your boyfriend would need you to be with him that badly, Dan?” Tyler asks in a husky voice, teasing me.
I groan at him, not because I actually had anything to tell him, but out of impulse from my situation. I’m not a big talker, but I suddenly hated not being physically able to speak.
“Yeah… I could also get used to not having to hear you go on about your dumb job or how you can’t spend enough time with your boyfriend” he retorts.
Several minutes go by and I shift around lightly in the backseat, trying to figure out my restraints to see if there’s any way of getting loose without getting Tyler’s attention. I then see red and blue beams of light flashing through the car. At first, I was stunned by the light, being too lost in the moment to understand what was happening. Then I realized that Tyler is being pulled over, which made the thought of being saved excite and relieve me, so I kicked my tied ankles and called for help as best as I could.
“Ah shit!” Tyler snaps in a shrill voice when he noticed the sirens. His voice quickly returns to being cool and dominant as he says “now now, don’t get too excited because you know what I’d like to do if you made things difficult.”
Tyler’s threat didn’t phase me right away because I was confident that whomever this cop was was going to rescue me. But then, Tyler’s lack of concern was making me think that he had something up his sleeve. Tyler slowed down before pulling into the shoulder of the highway. He sat calmly as he waited for the cop to approach his window.
When the cop finally got to the car, he shined his flashlight into the back windows of the car. He looked well into middle age and had a stern look on his face that didn’t change when he saw me struggling in the back seat.
“What in the hell is going on here?” the cop demanded firmly, gesturing his light toward me from the driver window once he got to Tyler.
“Oh man! Is that taillight out again? I’ve already replaced it three times in the past year!” Tyler replies, sounding like he’s jokingly pretending not to notice the bound and gagged man in the backseat of his car. When he noticed that the officer doesn’t look amused, he quickly recovered.
“Oh! You’re talking about my husband back there. Well… we like to role play, you see? He’s the uptight professor and I’m the aggressive Uber driver who kidnaps him and picks up passengers to make him feel more exposed and vulnerable… but we don’t really pick anyone up” Tyler shoots out like he has rehearsed this explanation when he actually just adlibbed. “It has really added to our love life…” Tyler continues, but gets cut off by the cop who seems bewildered.
“Husband?” the cop asks, sounding skeptical. I shout ‘no’ as best as I could to keep him from buying into Tyler’s lie.
“Yes, of four years” Tyler responds loudly to keep the cop’s attention while showing him a band on his ring finger. “This is Daniel… he’s a little shy because he isn’t used to having company whenever we do this” he continues to explain my defiance.
I protest angrily through my gag and exaggeratedly tug at my restraints to emphasize to the officer that I’m being held against my will.
“Settle down, sweetheart. He just wants to confirm that you’re alright” Tyler says with a condescendingly ginger voice. The cop looks at my pleading face. He seems confused about how to appropriately react.
“L-look, let me see your licence and registration…” he stutters. Tyler gives the cop what he asked for, then the cop says “I’ll be right back.”
After the cop walks back to his car, Tyler shoots a vindictive smirk back at me. I wanted to keep fighting and trying to tell the police officer what’s really happening, but I was starting to get tuckered out. I wondered why the cop would even consider the bull shit Tyler was telling him without at least loosening my gag to hear it from me. It made no sense! He’s a man of the law who can’t take any chances about leaving an innocent man in danger. I sat and pondered.
I then realized that even though my loudness and frantic struggling is what most people in my position would do, it also could have coincided with what Tyler was telling him about our role playing. Since Tyler said that I get off to a role playing scenario that involves Tyler exhibiting my vulnerability to his passengers to antagonize my uptightness, it is implied that my role would involve playing the innocent victim while Tyler confirms to passengers that I’m just a perverted pig who can’t stop squealing. Therefore, my muffled, frustrated contradictions to Tyler’s story could have been interpreted as my failed attempts to explain to the officer that I’m alright, but my shyness and the gag are preventing me from articulating that calmly. Not to mention, Tyler put on a fairly convincing performance.
To get out of this, I have to give an equally compelling performance when the cop returns. If there’s any chance that the cop suspects that I’m actually being kidnapped, he’ll have to look at me for confirmation when he comes back to the car. Therefore, I’m not going to move, but I will be sure to lock eyes with him and convey my utter fear and desperation. That should convince him that I’m completely helpless and in the grips of a really calculating and dangerous man. There’s nothing Tyler would be able to say to dissuade the cop from removing my gag. After several minutes of running Tyler’s credentials, the cop returned to Tyler’s window. He returned Tyler’s licence and registration.
“I suggest keeping the bedroom play in the bedroom, son. I wouldn’t want you to upset other drivers,” says the police officer, sounding resigned from the situation, but like he genuinely cared.
“Will do, sir. My apologies. Thank you” Tyler replies with deference. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, but thought that the cop might be strategizing how to rescue to me without alerting Tyler and tempting him to hurt me since the cop is on his own and I’m entirely at Tyler’s mercy.
Before walking away, the cop glances over at me. A look of uncertainty was still on face as he locked eyes with me. I raised my eyebrows and pleaded with him. When the thought of how tired and uncomfortable I was, as well as what Tyler might do to me crossed my mind, tears started to well up and my lip managed to quiver even though it is restricted. The police officer then sighed, nodded at me and walked away shaking his head. I wanted to believe that he’s still going to rescue me, but I knew that the last look he gave me meant that he bought Tyler’s story. Tyler merged back onto the highway and drove off.
“Well, would you look at that, we’re married now!” Tyler said tauntingly as he held up his ringed finger, showing me that it was the same ring he wore on his other hand, but must have swiftly moved it when he was pulled over.
Tyler gloated about how brilliant he is for awhile, then quieted down for a bit. His new silence has a cool confidence, like there is no longer an awkward silence because I’m now forcibly quiet and he no longer has the need to keep a conversation going with me. When he says something, he’s just talking without trying to get any sort of definitive information or an answer from me, it’s just because he wants to speak and to remind me that he is in charge. I am reluctantly his.
THE END
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