They'd kill her first! That thought made the young woman scream through the foul rag once more and squirm uncomfortably in the front seat. Oh, if only she could get one leg free she'd step on the gas pedal and send them all hurtling off the road. At least than she'd have a chance of escaping!
'Hey, take it easy, baby. It ain't gonna be good for your health you keep actin' up like that. Got nice legs. Be a shame to have burns all over 'em, get the drift?'
Candy looked wide-eyed at the driver. He took his eyes off the road for an instant, staring at her, his thin lips curled up in a sadistic smile. She shivered, knowing that at least for a while, she was helpless.
CHAPTER FOUR
They drove for what seemed like hours, the two men up front pawing the young woman, sliding their hands up an down her thighs, tugging at the elastic material of her bikini bottoms. All through this ordeal Candy kept thinking of her mother, of her home, of Chuck and the gentle way he caressed her during their fucking. And now she was kidnapped, dragged into this van and taken to God-only-knows where! Oh, why had she made such a rash move and run away from home?
'Left turn there,' Kevin muttered to himself, swinging the van off the main road to a smaller gravel one. Debbie felt faint with terror. The end of the ride was at hand. What awaited her now?
They bounced along the road for fifteen minutes, stopping finally near a clearing. Peering to the right, the blonde teenager saw a large, two story, wood frame house surrounded by trees. Several outbuildings fanned out behind it some fifty feet away. From the broken fences and sagging roofs, Candy guessed no one had lived in the place for some time.
'Man, my old man used to beat the shit outta me in there,' Kevin said, pointing to a smallish building to the right of the main house.
'Come on, let's get inside before somebody sees us,' Ben said nervously, coming out from behind the curtains that separated the rear of the vehicle from the front cabin.
'Man, ain't no one around here,' Kevin said, laughing at his partner's uneasiness.
'But Ben's right,' Jack said, smoothing down his long black hair and scratching his beard. 'You never know when somebody comes around and spots this van. Shit, it's been in enough robberies to…'
'All right, all right,' Kevin said impatiently starting the van up again and swinging it around to the main drive.
Robberies? Candy squirmed uneasily in her seat. She'd been kidnapped by thieves!
'Let's get the little number outta here and inside. Got the key some wheres,' Kevin said, fishing around in his pocket while Jack hooked one arm around the struggling teenager and dragged her out. It was cold. She felt the loose gravel crunching under her shoes as she walked toward the large home. Several windows in the second floor were broken. Above her the stars twinkled brilliantly against the black sky.
'Inside,' Kevin said, his voice growing dry as they stepped into the empty, dusty old house. The four of them moved into what must have been the living room, stopping near the broken handrail of a stairway leading to the second floor. Candy watched Kevin's face change the moment they walked inside. It had grown taut, angry, while his eyes seemed to sink inside his head. The girl grew more and more terrified.
'Man, this place ain't been lived in for…'
'About ten years… yeah,' Kevin said, running his fingers over the handrail and looking around. The bright moonlight filtered through the dirty windows, illuminating everything with a strange silver light. No one said anything for several minutes, everyone feeling strange in this situation.
'Think we got some Coleman lanterns in the cellar. I'll fish around for 'em,' Kevin said, letting out a long breath of air as he wheeled around and disappeared through a doorway to the left.
'Says his old man used to tie 'im up and beat 'im,' Jack whispered after his buddy was out of ear shot.
'Yeah?'
'Yeah! The old man was a real weirdo… had to be put away or somethin' finally. He was into chains and all that shit… probably worked over his old lady before she died,' Jack said, shooting a glance at Candy, then resuming his conversation.
The girl was too terrified to ask them what they wanted of her. Their tentative pawing in the front seat of the van told her that. But there was something more… something she felt when Kevin stared at her just before he went to look for the lanterns. It was a look that excited her as much as terrified her.
The tall, blond gang leader had been gone for nearly twenty minutes. Jack and Ben talked of looking for him when they heard him banging around in the kitchen.
'Get the lamps?'
'Yeah… two of 'em that weren't broken. Got a lot of other stuff too,' Kevin said, panting as he dragged in an armful of what Candy first thought was rope. When he dropped, the bundle with a clanging thud, she knew it was chains!
'My old man used to tie me up in 'em… my old lady too, and have a ball while he beat us,' Kevin admitted for the first time, staring down at the tangled links of half-inch chain.
'Light?' Ben asked, staring uneasily at the half opened bundle.
'Oh, yeah, here,' the blond said, handing the two lanterns over to his buddies, then dropping to his knees and spilling out the contents of the burlap sack. Candy felt her flesh crawl. There was everything there straight from a prison… various lengths of chain link, what appeared to be cuffs of some sort, pins, pincers, neck braces and other items Candy didn't know.
'Kinda creepy,' Ben whispered, lifting one of the glass covers off the lantern and lighting the dirty wick with his cigarette lighter. Jack did the same and in a moment the low-ceilinged living room was dimly illuminated.
Candy stood next to Jack, hugging her body tightly, looking around at the cobwebs, layers of dust, broken furniture that remained scattered about the large room. She could only imagine the screams, moans, shouts of pain and unholy lust that echoed off these walls when Kevin's father ruled. What a terror he must have been!
'You know,' Kevin began thoughtfully, running his fingers over the chains and cuffs almost lovingly, 'I wondered what it would be like to be on the giving end of this kinda shit. Never tried it. Came close, but never tried it,' he said, rolling up his eyes and staring at Candy. The girl felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. She stepped back, closing her eyes and fighting down a scream stuck in her throat. The girl could almost feel the cold metal of those chains around her ankles!
'Yeah, why not find out?' Jack said, turning toward the teen and licking his thick lips.
'Sure, we got time,' Ben said a little more uneasily than the others. Of the two of them, he was less sure of Kevin's judgement now.
'Oh please, no, no,' Candy said in a tiny voice, shaking her head from side to side.
'Hold 'er,' Kevin said, looking through the pile and finding two metal bands connected by a sixteen-inch link of chain. The girl cried out when she felt Kevin fit one cuff snugly around her left ankle. She jerked from side to side, terrified of every move he made. The cold iron made her flesh crawl as the young man fastened the second cuff around her other ankle. There was a frightening finality when Candy heard the clicking of those bonds! She was being used to play out a psychological drama, Kevin's way of dealing with a horrible past. The chains around her legs now were just the start of that drama.
'Come on, honey, try walkin' a little. My old man used to make us climb those stairs in 'em, playin' with himself while laughin',' Kevin said, his voice growing thick and hard.
Candy whimpered. It was a strange, humiliating sensation. Her first two steps were a stumble. The young woman pushed her hands out in front of her, fighting for balance as she shuffled first her right foot out, then the left. The clanging sounds of the chains rang in her ears, making her brain spin around.
'Not bad. Should make her run up and down the steps. Okay, the hands.'
Other links were dragged from the pile of iron on the floor, attached to cuffs around her wrists fastened there first, then linked together. Candy couldn't believe this was happening. It was as if she were in prison. Ben and Jack seemed to be getting into this little bit of psychodrama, laughing and breathing harder and more unevenly as they bound her body up in chains.
'Try walkin' now.'
