"in trouble"
By robblu (https://pastebin.com/u/robblu)

URL: https://pastebin.com/bHjAf4CC
Created on: Friday 4th of May 2018 10:22:27 PM CDT
Retrieved on: Saturday 31 of October 2020 03:13:29 AM UTC


In Trouble -- Part 1

by Cardaniel


"Please, stop, I still don't know what I did," Brianna said through her tears. She sobbed as she trotted down the dim narrow corridor with quick tiny steps, trying to keep up with the guard, the exertion bringing shiny sweat to her naked body, little beads of it everywhere, tickling as they flowed down her back and thighs.

"Please, where are you taking me? What's going to happen to me? At least tell me that," she pleaded, before crying overtook her again.

The sounds of her cries echoed from the heavy concrete-block walls of the prison. The guard was walking quickly, and Brianna was nearly breathless now from her crying and from the effort to keep up with him. Loud clinking sounds came from the foot-long chain that connected the wide metal shackles locked around her ankles. She wore similar wide steel bracelets locked snugly around her wrists, with a heavy padlock serving both to lock the bracelets together behind her and locking them both to a heavy steel chain drawn tightly around her waist. She knew she had no way to escape. The guard was leading her by a leash hooked to the leather choke collar fastened around her neck. Without being told, she was sure that if she held back or fell, he would start dragging her by the neck down the corridor, choked by the collar.

She had hardly had time to think since the police had burst through her door and into her bedroom. Without a word they had hurried her to a waiting car, tearing her nightgown as they pushed her roughly into the back seat. She had not stopped crying and pleading since then, but it was as if the police and guards were deaf.

They had driven her through the streets of town, her torn nightgown barely covering her breasts, and then outward from the edge of town to the enormous prison. Few people from the town had ever seen the prison, and certainly nobody could be found who claimed to have been there. Rumors said it was because nobody ever left it once they had entered.

The car had stopped in front of an enormous metal door at the front of the prison. It opened outward as they hurried her towards it, and at the door the policemen roughly pushed her through the door, not coming in themselves. The guards took over at this point, one of them holding her bare arms tightly while another took a folder of papers the policeman handed him and closed the door. Up to this point she had felt everything was unreal, she felt emotionally distant from the events happening around her, but the door, somehow, seemed very real. It was then that she truly realized it was all really happening to her, and a voice inside her told her she would never see the world outside that door again.

The guards hurried her into a small room where a bored-looking man in a judge's robes sat looking through a pile of papers. She felt a tiny bit of relief: if this man was really a judge, then at last she had found someone she could talk to.

"Please, sir, is this a trial? Are you a judge? I don't know what I've done. I..."

He looked up and cut her off with a gesture. "Silence! You're not allowed to talk in here!"

Her jaw dropped in dismay. If this was a trial, how could they refuse to let her try to defend herself?

The guard carrying the folder of papers the policeman had given him now handed these to the judge. He paged carefully through them for a few minutes.

He looked up at last. "I find you guilty of treason. You are sentenced to death." He looked at the guard standing to her right. "Chamber four." He put down the folder and went back to his papers.

"Treason?? That's just impossible. Just tell me..."

The guards on either side of her converged on her, one of them wrapping a large arm around her from behind and holding his other hand over her mouth, cutting off her protests, while the second guard busied himself locking the metal shackles onto her wrists and ankles. She shouted muffled protests that turned to screams when the guard who had shackled her ripped her nightgown off of her -- she wore nothing at all underneath. He fixed the chain around her waist then, and locked the wristcuffs to each other behind her, and to the waist-chain. He bent and held her feet against their desperate kicking, and fastened the short chain running between the ankle cuffs. Finally he put the collar around her neck, passing one end of it through a ring at the other end to complete the loop, then putting a padlock through a metal-reinforced hole in the leather just outside the ring, to make it impossible to remove the collar. As he clipped the leash to another ring on the collar, the guard who had been holding her let her go, and the one holding the leash led her quickly out of the room, shuffling as fast as she could with the hobble chain.

The only time he let her go more or less at her own speed was when they came to the steps leading down. They went down three flights, at least seventy steps total, and it took all her concentration to walk down; she could barely get her feet from one step down to the next with the hobble, unable to use her hands to steady herself. The guard led her down insistently, staying just the length of the leash in front of her. She believed they must have ended up at least fifty feet below ground level when they finally reached the bottom, and the guard led her off at a trot once more. They stopped one more time, arriving at thick metal door covered with spider webs: it had clearly not been opened in months, maybe years. They had passed similar doors, much cleaner than this one, on the way down. She had seen no other prisoners; maybe they were behind those other doors. They clearly weren't behind this one. She shuddered violently. What were they going to do to her? Only one thing made sense: that they must use whatever was behind this door for a very rarely-used type of execution.

The guard struggled and finally got the door open, and led her trotting down one last corridor. The air down here was stale, unpleasant smelling, and very warm and sticky. There were dim electric light bulbs about every thirty feet in the ceiling, some of them burned out. Without pausing he led her through the door to a cell, about fifteen feet wide in each direction, with a ceiling about fifteen feet high. There were no windows, and the only entrance was the door through which they had entered. There was no bed, no furniture of any kind, in fact. And no plumbing. Obviously it was not intended that she stay here for long.

The cell was lit by a single lightbulb. The only features of the room were several thick chains hanging from ceiling to floor, and a large pile of bones pushed into a messy heap along one wall. They were dark and dry, and clearly human: she could see at least a dozen skulls scattered among them, and more might be hidden underneath.

He led her to the middle of the cell, next to one of the chains, its lower end a disorderly pile of metal links on the floor. He spent a moment searching through the pile on the floor for the last link, found it, and lifted it to her collar, removing the leash and attaching the chain, using a padlock through the hole where the leash had been attached. He turned then and walked to the door. Standing in the doorway, he reached for something just outside the door, out of her sight. She heard a sound like a light switch clicking, but no additional lights came on.

"Please! Tell me what you're going to do to me!" she shouted between sobs.

The guard laughed, and spoke for the first time. "It's already been done. I'll let you figure out what it is." Still chuckling, he reached out and pulled the heavy cell door closed behind him, leaving her standing in the middle of the room with the chain hanging down from her neck. The door had no openings at all, not even a barred window. She heard the locking mechanism click as it closed. After that, nothing.

She had never been in such stillness. Her eyes still brimmed with tears, but she quieted a bit now. She was exhausted, too tired for emotion, and it was clear that, whatever was going to happen to her, it wasn't going to happen quite yet. Her first thought, that they were going to leave her here to starve, seemed possible, but she decided that couldn't be it: the chain from the ceiling must come into it somehow, because she could see no other reason for it.

She could see no reason at all for the chain, in fact, but it must be important, because the guard had spent such time with it. She saw now that it did not simply hang from the ceiling: the upper end of it actually hung out of a metal barrel-like container, and the container itself was then attached to the ceiling. There were several of these barrels bolted to the ceiling, each one with a chain hanging out of it. She continued examining her chain because it puzzled her so much. It wasn't there to prevent her from moving around: it was so long that she found it allowed her easily to walk to any part of the room, even the door. And the chain couldn't be there to keep her from going outside the door, because the door was closed and locked anyway. She tried to find a way to open it, but there was no handle on the inside, no hinges, nothing at all to allow her to grip it. Turning her back to the door so she could feel as much of it as she could reach with her fingers, she found she couldn't even get her fingernails between the door and its frame. And even if she could somehow get it open, there were even thicker doors between her and freedom -- she knew she had no hope of opening those, even if her hands had been free -- with guards she could not possibly run away from, hobbled as she was.

She was so tired, it made no sense to stand. With her back still against the wall, she leaned back and wriggled downward with her fingers and shoulders until she was sitting. Not wanting to block the door in case they opened it, she scooted along the floor using her buttocks and feet, into the middle of the cell. At last she leaned over and fell sideways as gently as she could onto her left arm, and tried to find a comfortable position to lay in, resting her head on the floor. She was much too scared to sleep, but too exhausted to want to move anymore.

Again, the silence closed in on her. She held her breath to make it easier to detect any sound at all. There was a regular thumping sound, seeming loud now; after a few seconds she realized it was her heart. And this sound would stop soon, she knew. One last tear fell from her lower eye onto her cheek.

In Trouble -- Part 2

by Cardaniel


Brianna had no idea how much time had passed -- literally no idea, it could have been five hours, it could have been five minutes -- when she gave a scream of startlement at the sound of the door opening. This must be it. She prepared to plead one more time, but the words died in her throat as her eyes opened wide in astonishment, and she could only manage a single whispered word: "Jenny!"

Jenny was naked and dusty, and shackled in exactly the same way Brianna was. There were smudged streaks from tears down her cheeks; Brianna knew her own face must look the same.

Brianna struggled to sit up. It was very difficult: her hands were nearly useless, and she needed to get her feet farther apart than the hobble-chain allowed her, but at last her grunting effort paid off. She knew she wouldn't be able to stand without help.

The guard was leading Jenny by her leash and pushed her down roughly, and she cried out as she landed heavily on her arm next to Brianna. The guard pulled another padlock out of his pocket and went through the same search he had done for Brianna, looking for the end of the chain nearest Brianna's, in its pile on the floor. Finding it at last, he secured it to her collar with the padlock.

He turned to leave the room, then paused at the door and turned. Smiling, he said, "Nobody will ever see either of you alive again. We'll come back and push your bones aside in a few years." He chuckled and, as before, reached for something just outside the door; again, there was the sound of a switch being turned. He left the room, pulling the door shut. Brianna and Jenny could clearly hear the click of the door locking.

Brianna quickly wriggled towards Jenny, leaned down and kissed her lips. "Jenny, my love! Are you alright?"

Jenny winced. "My arm hurts, but I don't think it's broken."

"Oh, Jenny! Why are we here? Do you know anything?"

Jenny turned her face away and began sobbing. "I'm so sorry, Brianna! I know you can never forgive me for getting you into this!"

"What is it? What did you do?"

Jenny cried harder, gradually explaining between the heaving sobs. "That... briefcase... remember? ... The one... I brought... to your apartment... I asked you if you could keep it a few days... I just needed... a safe place for it... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Jenny lover, what was it? What was in it? It was locked, I couldn't open it. I'm sorry, I tried to peek...."

"Just... papers.... some secret papers.... They couldn't... afford to let them get out... I'm sorry, I got you involved in this... and I never told you how much danger there was... oh, I'm so sorry! We're both sentenced to death, and it's my fault!"

Brianna bent down to try to comfort the distraught girl. She lay down beside her and kissed her lips repeatedly, and her cheeks and neck. "Shhhh, my darling, shhh, it's okay, it's okay. I would have done it even if you had told me. You know I'd do anything for you. I love you! Shhhh, it's okay."

Jenny quieted down, still sniffling. "H-How could you forgive me?"

"There's nothing to forgive, darling. Anywhere you go, I want to go there too. We're together now, and that's what's important. Here, sit up. It's no fun lying on the floor. Let me help you." Brianna sat up and put her foot under Jenny's shoulders, and soon they sat side by side on the floor, looking around the room.

"How long have you been here, Brianna?"

"I don't know. Part of it's... blank. I don't remember much before he brought you."

"Is there any way out? Did you try the door?"

"There's no possible way out. And even if we could open the door..." She jiggled the chain hanging from her collar with her knee. "We could never get anywhere. We couldn't get two steps outside the room, with these chains holding us."

Jenny suddenly cried out, "HELP ME! HELP US! GET US OUT OF HERE!!"

Brianna leaned against her. "Stop, Jenny-love. The door has to be soundproof. Did you hear him walk away after he closed it? And even if a little bit of sound could get out, there's nobody there to hear it. The nearest person is behind two other doors even thicker, far away."

Jenny turned to her, eyes full of fear. "What do we do then?"

Brianna shrugged. "Wait for them to come back. I don't think they'll just leave us here. They're going to do something with this chain, I feel sure of it. They haven't done it yet, so they have to come back. The guard couldn't have meant what he said, about nobody ever seeing us again. He just had fun, scaring us."

"When they come back, I'll tell them it wasn't your fault. They might let you go, at least."

"I don't want to go without you. Maybe something will happen. As long as we're alive, there's still some hope."

Jenny looked at Brianna, her eyes shiny with tears, but they weren't flowing anymore. "Maybe you're right. I hope so." She leaned over to kiss Brianna, and Brianna returned the kiss, for a very long time. They took turns kissing each other's breasts.

Jenny looked at Brianna, her eyes half-closed, dreamy. "Let's lay down and..."

"Wait." Brianna cocked her head, listening.

"What's..."

"Shhh! I'm trying to hear something." She closed her eyes, trying to make sure of what she was hearing. "Jenny, do you hear a hummimg noise? I think I've been hearing it, but it's so soft I can't tell. I could be imagining it."

"I... Yes, there's something. I think it's up there." She was looking at the barrel-shaped containers on the ceiling, from which the chains to their collars hung.

"That's it, yes. Why would it hum... wait, watch. I think I see something moving... no, I don't..." She stared at the barrel, her eyes growing wider. In a voice full of horror, she whispered, "Jenny, watch that link, the first one out of the barrel."

They both watched, and both understood. Neither spoke, not wanting their fear confirmed. But it became too obvious to ignore. Brianna said "It's going up into the barrel, isn't it? The chain. It's getting pulled up into the barrel."

Jenny's voice shook. "Oh! Brianna, remember when the guard stopped and clicked something outside the door? Like he was turning something on. That was it. He was starting the motor that wound in the chain." Tears started down her face again.

They watched in silence as another link disappeared into the barrel. It took about a minute.

"H-How long do we have, Brianna? How much time?"

Brianna looked along her chain, and up at the ceiling, trying to judge the distance, She picked out one of the links. "I think when this one reaches the barrel...."

Jenny counted the links from there. "I lost count. I think 90, maybe a hundred."

They both shuddered together. In about ninety minutes they would be hanged, would be strangled by the choke collars. They had that much longer to live.

In Trouble -- Part 3

by Cardaniel


"Jenny, sit still a minute, let me look at your collar. Maybe we can get them off." Brianna scooted closer to Jenny and bent to look closely. Jenny sat looking fearfully at the ceiling, at the chain that she knew was counting down the minutes left of her life.

Brianna had to push Jenny's hair out the way with her nose several times, trying to see the collar all the way around. She pulled at the side of it with her teeth, hearing the clicking as the padlock bumped up against the ring. At last she moaned. "It's no good. There's no way to pull the end of it out through the ring. The padlock is in the way. When the chain starts to pull you up..."

Jenny nodded miserably. "I know. Let me look at yours to see if it's the same." After a minute of the same exploration Brianna had done, she shook her head. "We're stuck in the collars. Can you get your hands loose?" They both tugged as hard as they could at the wide metal handcuffs, grunting in growing frustration. They both tried to pull the chain around their waists downward, but they were much too tight: they would never be able to push them past their hips. Their hands were going to remain useless, held together tightly against their backs.

Jenny's tears never seemed to stop flowing. Neither did Brianna's. Jenny sniffled and said, "I-Is t-there any way you think they might come back for us?"

Brianna shook her head. "There's no reason they would, they're all finished with us. I think it's like the guard said. You saw how dusty that old door was? Nobody will be back down on this level for years. They'll finally come in one day and push our..." She looked toward the long pile of bones along the wall. She knew they would both look like that the next time anyone saw them.

Jenny started sobbing more loudly, and Brianna leaned over to kiss her. Jenny kissed her back, her lips clinging to Brianna's. They looked at each other, looking in each other's eyes, their hunger familiar to each other.

Brianna said, "This will be our last time."

Jenny nodded. "But how? We can't hold each other."

"We don't need to. Let's lie down here. We won't be able to lie down very much longer."

Jenny shuddered, understanding that the chain would soon start pulling them up from the floor, but she eased herself down alongside Brianna, facing her. They kissed again, pressing their breasts together, and Jenny worked her right thigh between Brianna's legs. Still kissing, each girl brought her right thigh up to her lover's sex, gently pressing against it and rubbing. Their kisses grew harder and deeper, and their hips moved with rising passion. Each thought of asking the other to finger her clit, but each decided that what she really wanted was to feel all of her lover's body, to press skin against skin, to feel the other's heart beating against her chest and to squeeze the other's leg between both of hers, tightly, desperately. Sweating from the warmth of the room and the heat of their passion, they each felt their need for the other's touch build to a level higher than they had ever known before. Their coming doom never left their minds, but for this short time it didn't matter.

Their hips thrust harder against each other, rocking their bodies in a rhythm that grew faster and more desperate, but their cries announcing their approaching ecstacy were muffled by each other's lips, which they refused to let go of. At last their passions boiled over and they screamed together, a shared orgasm convulsing both of their bodies, shaking them to exhaustion.

They lay limp against each other at last, their hearts breaking at the thought that they would never make love again. They lay with their legs still locked together, their breasts still pushed up against each other's, Jenny with her head resting on Brianna's. Neither spoke; they understood they wanted one last quiet time together.

Suddenly Brianna gasped out a rasping breath. "Jenny," she rasped, "I need to get up. It's choking me. Help me sit up."

Jenny quickly pulled her leg out from between Brianna's and squirmed away from her. She twisted until she had her foot under Brianna's shoulder and lifted. With both of them grunting with effort, Brianna finally managed to get upright.

Jenny was still laying on the floor. She gasped too, but not because of the collar. "Brianna! Why is your chain shorter than mine?"

"Because I got here first. He started my chain before yours. Oh!!! Oh God, no!" Her eyes grew wide in horror.

Jenny tried to speak, her jaws moving uselessly. Finally she managed to wail, "I know why they did it this way! They knew this was my fault. They knew I got you into this. They wanted me to have to watch you die first!"

"I don't want to go without you! We have to do something. We have to die together!"

"There's nothing we can do, Brianna. It's going to be this way. I'm sorry, so sorry, oh God..."

"Stop it, my love, stop. Wait, I think...." She looked towards the side of the room, at the pile of bones.

"What? What is it?"

Brianna started scooting with her butt towards the bones. Before her feet could reach them, the slack went out of the chain and she stopped, choking, and pulled back to relieve the pressure on her neck.

"Jenny, I think you can reach them. You have more chain, and you're closer anyway. Get us some bones. Some of the long, thin ones. I think they're ribs."

"Brianna, you must be crazy. There's no way they can help us get out."

"No, not out. Just get them, please. Hurry, while you can. Get five or six. Hurry!"

"Okay, okay. Help me sit up then." A moment later she was walking her butt towards the bone pile the same way Brianna had. She shuddered as she got closer, forcing herself to thrust her foot towards the dark sticks. She couldn't bear to go near any of the skulls, but she did manage to tease out several ribs with her toes and pull back them towards the place Brianna was sitting.

"Five of them? Okay, that's good. I think that's enough. Let me think how to do this. God, it would be so simple if I could use my hands!

"Okay," she said after a moment, "Help me kneel. I'd have to in a few minutes anyway, so I might as well do it now. I think I know how to do this. Turn around, my love, away from me." After Jenny had swiveled around on her butt, Brianna leaned against her back and put her chin on her shoulder. Pressing down hard, grunting with the effort, she got her butt off the floor, and swung her weight over until she got her knees under her. Breathing hard, she said, "Okay, can you pick up one of the ribs and give it to me? I can't reach down there."

Jenny picked one up, and said, "I can't give it to you, though. I can't get my hands up where you are. Not unless I was standing. Brianna, I still don't understand, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm going to try to make us even. Okay, can you pick one up with your mouth?"

Jenny made a disgusted face, but bent towards the floor. Halfway there she stopped with a choking sound. Her voice shook. "I can't get my head to the floor anymore. What if I used my toes?"

"Yes, good, that will work. Pick one up in your toes and lift it up to my mouth."

Jenny winced. "Brianna, please don't put one of these... things in your mouth! It's going to make you sick!"

Brianna sighed. "Jenny, I love you so much. There's no need to worry about some germs that might be on it. There isn't anything that will save us. We're both going to be dead in half an hour. I'm just trying to make it so we can die together."

"I still don't see how."

"You will in a minute. Please just give me the rib."

Jenny closed her toes around the nearest one and leaned back on her elbows, shakily lifting her feet in the air. Brianna leaned forward, weaving a little to follow the wobbly path of the rib coming towards her, and finally bit down with her teeth in the middle of it. She looked along the chain that was going to kill her, which now, as she knelt, hung from her collar to a level just below her breasts before turning and running up to the ceiling. Holding the rib in her mouth, she chose one of the links and started trying to push the pointed end of the rib through the link. It took several frustrating minutes -- each time she moved her head towards the chain, the movement of her neck made the chain move too, in somewhat unpredictable ways. Finally, almost by accident, the end of the rib poked through the link. She quickly thrust it through as far as she could so it would stay, stuck tight within the link.

"At least we're the same height, so that will make it easy. Jenny lover, count how many links there are from the rib to my neck. I can't see it all the way to the collar. Count the one the rib is in, and from there to the last one." She waited as Jenny counted.

"Twenty."

"Are you sure? Count them again."

Again a pause. "Yes, twenty... Brianna! I'm going to have to kneel now. I won't be able to sit more than another few minutes."

"Please, I need at least one more rib! No, two more. Pick up two right now and lift them up to my hand. I think I know how I can get them to my mouth later, but I need my mouth free right now." After Jenny had gotten two ribs up to her hand, she said, "Okay, this will have to do. We'll have to leave the rest. I hope it's enough. Okay, now put your head here," she wiggled her arm to indicate the space between her arm and her back, "And I'll help you kneel. I think you'd better do it now." Jenny squirmed over to her and rested her head on Brianna's handcuffs, and pushed down the way her friend had earlier, to lift herself up.

"Come around in front of me, love. Okay, there, I just need to get your chain. Wait," she said, having thought of something. "Get one of these ribs first. In your mouth." Jenny made the same face as before, but bent to bite down on one of the ribs in Brianna's hand and hold it.

"Okay, now I... Damn it! The chain has been rising. Now I can't reach the rib. I'm going to have to stand up." She bit her lip, trying to keep from crying one more time. Being forced to stand told her she was that much closer to death.

She moved her right foot forward until the hobble chain stopped it. "I can't get my feet far enough apart. Jenny, I need to lean on you again." As before, she put her chin on Jenny's shoulder, pushing downward to lift herself to a standing position.

She looked at Jenny's chain. "Hold steady, love. We don't have much time now." She counted links from Jenny's neck, and bent to try to take the twentieth one in her mouth. Her own chain stopped her short.

"Love, I can't get down that far. You have to stand up. Here, like before." Again, Jenny rested her head on Brianna's handcuffs and pushed downward to lift herself.

Jenny's mouth held the rib, and her eyes spoke for her. She, also, knew she would be standing for the rest of her life.

Brianna bent to take the twentieth link of Jenny's chain in her mouth, and tried to get it onto the rib thrust through her own chain, but all her movements made the rib jiggle around, and it was impossible to catch it. "Jenny lover, I know you've already got your mouth full, but is there any way you could pull it back a little farther in your mouth so you can steady this one with your lips? That's the only way I'm going to get it." With Jenny helping, she finally got the link to slip onto the rib. Sighing with relief, she nudged it farther, pushing both links more firmly onto the rib.

"Could you take that one in your mouth and push it through the next link below these ones? Put it in from the other direction. I don't think one bone is going to be strong enough. I want to use two to make sure. I'll hold this one steady with my mouth." With Brianna to steady the chain, Jenny took only about a minute to thrust the rib through the links of their two chains just below the ones the first rib was holding together.

Brianna kissed Jenny's quivering lips. "We'll go together now."

"How long, Brianna?"

She looked at the chains. "I think about fifteen minutes."

"We're not going to use the last rib?"

"We can't. There's no way to get it up that high now. But I though of something else I can use it for."

Jenny's eyes widened in shock. "You mean... you're going to kill us with it?"

Brianna kissed her hard, deeply. "Lover, those beasts can kill us, but there's no way I could ever kill you. As for killing myself with it, the only thing I can stab is my butt. No, I think I can use this for something... special. Jenny... " Brianna looked into her eyes, with all the love she felt in her heart. "In a few minutes I want us to stand back to back. Until then I want to look at you."

"Oh, no, Brianna! I want to be facing you when we die."

"No you don't. We have something more important to do. Be quiet now, love. Let's look at each other. It will be the last time." They both stood quietly, briefly kissing each other from time to time, but mostly just running their eyes over each other's face, one final look at the beloved features.

The chains, now equal for both of them, barely hung to the top of their breasts. Brianna looked down at hers and sighed, shivering. She whispered, "Kiss me one more time. Then turn around, love."

"I can't, Brianna."

"Yes you can. You'll see why. Turn around and back up against me."

They kissed, and turned their backs to each other.

"Lover, squat down a little, and put your handcuffs under my hands. Then bring them up between my hands and my butt."

"Why, Brianna?"

"Do it, please, Jenny? We don't have much time. In a few minutes you won't be able to squat down anymore."

"Okay, okay." Both their voices were shaking.

"Now I'm going to try to put this last rib through the padlocks holding the handcuffs together. I don't know if I can. Stand very still. It's to keep our hands together when we're... lifted. I don't want us to start twisting." She concentrated, holding the rib, catching both padlocks in her hand, trying to line them up so she could push the rib through both of them. "Got it!" The lowest part of the chain now hung at about the level of her shoulder.

"Okay, love. I'll show you what to do now." She reached downward with her fingers, but could not quite reach. She sucked in her stomach to try to let the waist chain drop down as much as she could, and then tried reaching down again. Her fingers slipped down along the cleft between Jenny's buttocks, trying to reach farther, almost there... there. She smiled as her fingertips found Jenny's warm sex lips, already starting to get wet as they felt her lover's fingers approach. She rubbed the swelling lips, and pushed her fingers farther in, her middle finger just able to reach Jenny's clit, rubbing it gently the way she knew Jenny liked.

Jenny shivered. "Ohhh, my God, Brianna."

"Do it to me too, love. Please, please, oh please..."

She felt Jenny's hand inching down her own butt, stopping short. She told her, "Lover, you're going to have to pull your stomach in, like I did. You won't need to breathe much longer anyway."

She could feel Jenny's fingers reaching lower, lower still, getting closer... there, perfect!

They both closed their eyes and rubbed each other, sighing with pleasure, feeling the sexual tension blossom and unfold.

Brianna whispered, "Jenny, through it all, no matter what happens, keep doing this. I promise, I swear to you, I'll keep doing it too. Okay?"

She heard Jenny dreamily whispering back, "Yes, darling."

The chain was pulling upward on the padlock now. Brianna tried to keep her breathing calm. "In a few minutes you'll need to take as deep a breath as you can. You'll know when. Keep breathing evenly until then, if you can. Slow and deep, not shallow sips. You need to be caught up on oxygen when the time comes." She felt Jenny nod, the back of her head pressed against Brianna's.

Her sex was tingling, spreading warmth through her body. It would just take a few minutes more, she knew -- all the time she had.

Brianna could feel the collar starting to close, its end tugged by the chain. She and Jenny both rose onto their toes, relieving the pressure for the moment. Shooting through the sexual arousal was a wave of fear of unexpected strength. She knew that, in the back of her mind, she had still held hope for rescue, and she knew that hope was gone, now. She rose as high as she could on the balls of her feet, her toes bending and sending shooting pains through her foot, up her legs. She could feel the backs of Jenny's heels pressed against hers. Their fingers were still rubbing each other, giving each other chills of pleasure.

"Jenny, this is it. I love you, forever. Goodbye, my darling."

"I love you always, Brianna. Goodbye." The last word was a harsh whisper as the collar tightened around her neck. She could go no higher on her toes.

They both let their lungs expand, taking in air, as much as they could.

Brianna's collar grew still tighter. The pressure on her neck became pain, she felt the collar lifting her. Her toes slipped slightly along the floor. The balls of her feet lost contact, and she pointed her toes down, desperately seeking the ground. The back of her big toe slipped a few inches and then lifted clear of the floor. She knew she would never touch it again. Her head was pushed to the right at a painful angle. She tried to straighten it, to relieve her straining neck muscles, and could not.

Instinctively she kicked with her legs, making the hobble chain clank, needing relief from the squeezing of her neck, needing to feel support under her feet that would take the pressure off. She knew she was farther from the floor with each passing second, but her body told her she had to find it somehow.

Her heart skipped a beat when she heard a sharp crack, thinking at first it was her neck, then realized in horror it was something worse: one of the ribs, holding their two chains together. She whispered silently to it oh please hold, please don't break, oh please oh please... She knew the consequences if the ribs broke. Their chains would separate. Brianna would suddenly be swung like a pendulum, back and forth in a great arc across the room, and Jenny... poor Jenny, with her longer chain... after a short swing away from Brianna, her feet would slam into the floor, and she would be able to stand again -- knowing that in just minutes she would have to go through the death agony again, knowing exactly what it would feel like, and meanwhile watching Brianna die before her eyes. And they would lose each other! Please, please, don't break, let us die together!

The rib cracked, but held.

Jenny was kicking too; several times the backs of her heels banged against Brianna's. Brianna tried to breathe and couldn't; the collar had grown tighter, now shutting off her windpipe. Her eyes could see that her nose and cheeks had turned red. Behind her she heard one last choking sound from Jenny, then nothing. But Brianna could still feel Jenny's fingers rubbing her swollen sex lips, teasing and brushing her clit. She continued stroking Jenny, knowing what it always did to her, knowing just how to do it. The feeling of helplessly strangling, her naked body hanging, seemed to be sending her to still greater heights of sexual excitement. The feeling in her sex competed with her desperate need for air. Jenny's fingers, oh those fingers... she was so close now... she felt her clit was about to reach out and grasp Jenny's fingers, saying stay with me, I need you so much... it was coming closer, coming closer.... it was HERE! HERE!

Brianna's body shook with spasms that weren't related to the lack of air, an incredible roar of pleasure exploding all through her body. Behind her she could feel Jenny's whole body suddenly jerk, her buttocks, her legs, her back banging against Brianna's, going through spasms identical to Brianna's. Brianna knew Jenny's orgasms as well as she knew her own. I'm so glad, my love, you got there too, she thought again and again. She tried desperately to breathe, and her efforts prolonged her orgasm longer than any she had ever known. There was a loud buzzing in her ears, a rosy tint filling her vision and starting to overwhelm it, and still her body shook with waves of excitement. Her life's last conscious sensation, felt above the bliss of the slowly fading orgasm, was Jenny's hands tightly grasping hers. She squeezed back, hard.