Robbed
A tired dragoness just wants to relax after a long day, only for an unwelcome intrusion to interrupt her when some furs let themselves into her home. She tries to resist, but things quickly spiral out of her control... WARNINGS: bondage, NC, assault, peril, breathplay. Be aware this is heavier than my usual work!
What. A. Day.
Marissa had rarely been more glad to arrive home from work than today. No sooner had she shut her door than she dropped her bag, her purse, her keys, the discarded items leaving a trail towards the stairs that led up to her bedroom. Clothing soon followed: the slippers many digitigrade races wore in place of proper shoes didn't survive even the short walk to the foot of the stairs, and her skirt fluttered to the carpet halfway up the flight. She hadn't worn formal wing-covers to the office today, so they weren't at hand to add to the mess--not that the dragoness would have hesitated if they were, as she was far too wiped out after her day of work to care.
By the time she reached her bedroom she was left in barely more than her yellow and white hide: only her bra and panties remained to preserve her decency, or at least what little decency remained with only her groin and her ample chest covered! But with the lights as yet off in her room and full darkness outside, surely no one observing her would see more than a silhouette in the light that filtered into her room from the upstairs landing... She paused to lower the blinds before switching on the lights and removing her bra, letting out a long sigh when it came off and her breasts could at last settle into a more natural position. Other species, lacking wings, had a variety of good-fitting bra styles available, but the wings tucked against her shoulders and the creative strap arrangements necessary to work around them made it much more difficult for a dragoness like her--or other flighted anthros--to find something that offered her the proper fit and support!
But now she was free of it for the day, and she smiled a little, her tail and wings extending behind her as she stretched out her arms and neck and back. "Mmmmmh! Much better..." The dragoness was so relieved to be home, so ready to spend a few relaxing hours escaping the stress and the cares of her work, that she felt almost ready to purr! She pulled a loose, casual tank top and shorts from her dresser and slipped into them before heading back downstairs: even living alone in the little townhome, even with all the blinds drawn shut over the windows, she rarely quite felt comfortable walking around naked (or nearly so).
At least the late meeting had by some miracle of the gods included dinner, so Marissa wasn't hungry; instead she sought only the comfort of the book she had spent the last couple of evenings immersed in, and plucking it up from her coffee table she settled down to read. At first she kept decent posture, sitting up with her wings spread out and draped across the back of the couch--why did so much typical furniture have to be designed without wings in mind?--but as the pages turned she gradually felt herself sliding more and more into a slouch, her butt growing more comfortable but her wing-shoulders increasingly stretched! So finally she gave in, leaning the book against one arm of the couch and rolling over to stretch herself across the rest of it, pulling down one of the cushions to lean on to keep from smushing her boobs, propping herself up on her elbows and pausing only to find her place on the page again before resuming the story.
Although her arms cramped a little, so much of the rest of her was relieved, her wings able to settle down comfortably, feet and tail dangling off the other end of the soft couch, her back even getting to straighten out once again! The tip of that hanging tail soon began to flick gently side to side as she lost herself in the pages, the lively characters, the charming story... Thoughts of trends and merger rumors and stock prices slipped away until all she had left in her mind was the words on the page.
What a relief...
The dragoness got to enjoy 20 minutes, maybe even a full half-hour of reading without interruption--and though she wasn't sure whether she'd merely forgotten her phone when she tossed it on her bed or deliberately left it where she wouldn't be disturbed by the buzzing that signaled the arrival of more, more, seemingly endless emails, she was glad it wasn't nearby to distract her and possibly make her thoughts return to work either way! No, she told herself when she wondered briefly where her phone was--she had left it on her bed, right?--no, don't think about it, just keep reading--
A bang seemed to sound through the whole apartment, snapping her out of the world of the novel. She looked up in shock to see her front door standing open, the jamb ripped apart--someone had just broken it in, and three masked anthro men barged in before she could even react! "Hey--" she cried out in protest, the suddenness of it making her limbs feel clumsy and slow even as her voice spiraled from yelp to furious roar. "What do you think you're-- Help! Get out!"
None of them were dragons like her--an iguana, a dog, a horse--but they had the advantage of surprise, and of numbers, and of not being stretched out on the couch! The three of them were almost upon her before she gained her feet, and she snarled at them, extending her claws and baring her fangs in warning. She knew how to take care of herself, she was certainly bigger and stronger than two of them, but that wouldn't help nearly as much when they all came at her at once! "Get away-- Get out!" she growled, trying to retreat from them but penned in by the couch and the coffee table--twisting away from one reaching hand, she tried to jump over the couch so she could get something between her and them or get her back to a wall or something, but it was too late, they were too close! All three of them dove atop her and she thrashed beneath the pile of limbs and furred bodies, beating her wings to try to push them away, thick tail lashing back and forth, hind legs kicking desperately. She landed a few blows here and there, even nearly got free once as her trio of attackers grunted and snatched at her flailing limbs in turn, and shouted at each other to grab her here or there or wherever would work! Again she cried for help, and when a hand appeared in her range of vision she tried to bite it, but she was outnumbered and they were on top of her, and then she felt the edge of something far sharper than a claw against her throat.
The knife bit into her neck a little, the horse braying a harsh, "stop fighting, or die!" at her, and at last she stilled, quivering anxiously from the threat and the feeling of the sharp edge digging into her hide. She hadn't lived here long, but she'd never thought this was an area known for crime... She was somewhat wealthy, but didn't buy the sorts of expensive clothing or jewelery or furnishing that would show it, she couldn't imagine something like this would happen to her, she'd never expected..!
Marissa tried not to whimper, feeling a cold pit of dread growing in her belly, tip of her tail twitching, her breath and heartbeat both rapid from the struggle and her fear. "What-- what do you want?" she gasped, the situation putting an unfamiliar high-pitched quiver in her voice.
The iguana struck her on the back, heavily, and she grunted in pain. "For you to shut up already, how about that!" And after a moment they took even the option to refuse to obey away from her, the two mammals gripping her head by the horns, twisting it to the side until she whined from the strain of it, and then she tasted cloth on her tongue, thick and dry and stifling.
"Hnnn. Mmmm, nnngh! Nnnnnn!" she protested, eyes wide, but the knotted cloth in her mouth garbled her words, and after tying the gag tightly behind her head they wrapped duct tape three, four, five times around her snout, pinning her jaws together almost uncomfortably tight and stifling her voice. Her fingers stretched out, clenched, twisted, but whoever had a hold of her wrists had pushed them together at the small of her back, where she couldn't put much strength into trying to wrench them away.
"I told you to shut up!" The reptilian punched her again, this time landing the blow on the back of her head. Her horns slowed his strike, as he had to be careful to avoid them, but even still the pain spread at once throughout her skull, the world spinning around her, sudden nausea combining with the anxious knot in her gut to nearly make her retch. Disoriented, her body went slack, and they heaved her onto the floor where they could better hold her down flat.
A rattling drew her attention, and after a few moments lying stunned and motionless she managed to bring her vision back into focus: one of them had just set a pile of thick plastic cable ties down next to her head. "Nnnnh... nnnmmf...!" she managed to say, groggily, shivering: they were going to tie her up! Did... She couldn't seem to make herself think, either too panicked or too dazed or too shocked by their invasion of her home. Were they going to kidnap her-- rape her-- kill her!? No! No they couldn't-- But they had her held down and gagged already, and the horse still held that knife--
"Where should we put her?" asked the dog, grunting a little as he sat down on her legs and her tail, just in case she tried to fight again. The dragoness trembled, that could mean any number of things, was he talking about right now, or where to dump her when they were done with-- whatever they meant to do-- Her vision blurred a little, nearly crying as she imagined all the horrible things they could do to her, already feeling so powerless to stop them!
There was a short pause: the horse and the iguana were busy, reaching for the pile of zipties and pulling a few of them shut over her wings, pinioning them uncomfortably tight to keep them out of the way. Then the horse said, "maybe the banister?"
"Too fragile," said the iguana.
"Dump her in bed then," the dog suggested, both heaping on all her fears and then relieving them a little--they weren't talking about taking her out of the house, yet anyway! That could be good... or very bad... She didn't know what they meant to do, she couldn't help but think she was about to be killed, let alone just raped or robbed or kidnapped or, or, or! Whining at them, she tried to squirm, but trapped beneath their weight and their grip on her arms and legs there was nowhere for her to go.
"Stop struggling!" The iguana pushed her arms to the side and rained blows down on her butt, slapping her roughly and repeatedly until the pain made her howl, still unable to squirm away, her pleas muffled by the cloth and the tape, stinging pain radiating out from her rump even after he finally stopped, and said savagely, "you'll do what we tell you, and you'll keep quiet, if you know what's good for you." He thumped his own, less weighty tail against the floor.
Marissa shuddered again, her breaths fast and shallow from her fear and the pain and from the weight of the reptile sitting on her back and keeping her hands in his grip! She didn't want to do as she was told, she wanted to make them go away and leave her alone--but she couldn't make them, she couldn't even beg for them to just take a few valuables and go away, she couldn't stop them if they chose to hurt her more or abuse her or rape her--
The horse said calmly, as if there hadn't been any interruption, "her bed would be too boring! And too comfortable." Again she shivered, that sounded far too ominous! Surely that meant they were going to tie her up somewhere and violate her or hurt her or something horrible, if they wanted her tied up and uncomfortable-- "Ahh, I know." The horse picked the ties up again, and brought the knife back to her neck in case she got any ideas. "Get her up, and no fighting. We could just kill you, if we wanted," he warned her, one of his hoofs stamping.
The unfortunate dragoness whimpered, blinking a couple more tears back as they stood her up. They hadn't answered when she'd asked what they wanted, and she couldn't ask now--they hadn't given her a chance, they didn't seem to want her to know either! With the dog holding her elbows and the iguana still keeping his grip on her wrists, trapping her arms between her wings, the three of them marched her into the kitchen to where a round support column, steel 6 inches thick, stretched from floor to ceiling just past the end of the counter.
"Mmmmm. Good idea," the iguana said as they put her back against the column. The horse pinned her against it, the cool painted metal digging into her spine, and then the two others went to work with the cable ties: they pulled her arms around the pole and looped at least four of them went around her arms, at the wrists, on either side of her elbows, and halfway between, drawn so tight together they forced her elbows to touch on the other side of the column! Almost at once she could feel her veins throbbing in protest as her heart tried to force blood past the restriction of the plastic, and she whined around the gag: it was so tight, too tight! The plastic rattling signaled the addition of a couple more ties, and when she tried to struggle she discovered she couldn't pull her arms away from the structure: not only had her arms been tied behind the column, they'd been tied to it, fixing her in place! She tried to twist her head a little to see, to get a sense of what held her so maybe she'd be able to get out of it, but one of her horns caught against the pole and she couldn't quite turn her head enough to catch sight of her pinned arms.
The horse looked her up and down as the other two worked, and she shivered when his gaze lingered on her chest, the way her arms bent so far behind her leaving her breasts so prominently displayed even beneath the tank top! "See, now we're getting somewhere," he said appreciatively, and even went so far as to squeeze one of them through the fabric, the rough grope making her groan but the tight tie keeping her pinned to the pole preventing her from pulling herself away even an inch! She huffed and moaned in protest, wriggling in place, but he refused to relent until he'd taken the time to enjoy himself a little, and after kneading firmly on her breast for a few moments longer he bent to help his two companions. Once the near-bruising squeeze of her boob faded she realized they were tying her legs, too: the zipties slipped tight around her thighs, above and below her knees, then at her ankles, squeezing her legs tight together, and those were pressed against the column and tied to it directly until she could barely budge an inch! Her tail was zipped to the column in a few places almost as an afterthought, and then the three of them stood up.
"Nice." The dog's tail lifted and wagged as he looked her up and down; with their eyes so plainly and greedily on her bound, unprotected body, she felt more naked even in her shorts and top than maybe she ever had before, and she wriggled again, wanting to get her arms free just to cover herself from their collective gaze! The zipties bit cruelly into her arms, just struggling nearly making her whine again in pain, and though she tried her best she couldn't budge, not her arms or her legs or even her tail, and couldn't do a thing to make them stop ogling her, let alone set her free...
"More houses should have poles like this one," the iguana put in, and like the horse he at once reached out and squeezed one of her breasts, even pinching a nipple through her top. She twisted, she struggled, she shook her head, but she could barely move, couldn't twist away from him at all and soon shrilled in pain as he pinched the sensitive nub between two claws! Only when her muffled voice rose nearly to a shriek did he finally relent, and though his face was hidden by the mask she was sure he was grinning. The dog was a little gentler with her other tit, a slower, almost sensual kneading that made her shiver, and groan from the humiliation of being touched so intimately without permission yet being powerless to make them stop; she remained too frightened to glare at them, but thankfully was too scared to be turned on, either!
She shuddered again. They couldn't actually penetrate her like this, at least--so what did they want? Did they mean to just molest her? Or hurt her a while--and then kill her, or cut her off the pole and rape her, or drag her outside to a van or something-- She watched them with wide, anxious blue eyes, fearing the worst, almost expecting it of the anthros, the dread roiling her belly and making her whimper almost without meaning to make the sounds!
The three of them just watched her squirm for a few moments before the horse grabbed the hem of her tank top in one hand and yanked it up out of the way to let the boobs they'd been molesting spill free. The dog whistled; the horse muttered, "damn," and then began to roughly squeeze both of the exposed breasts, one in each large hand. Marissa groaned, she clenched her fingers and yanked on the tough plastic that bound her limbs, she twisted this way and that trying to figure out a way she could get loose and make them stop, but the zipties held her painfully tight, her fingers starting to tingle from cut-off circulation and her poor breasts already growing sore from the repeated over-firm handling. And just when she thought things couldn't get more humiliating the iguana pulled her shorts, then her panties down as far as the ties would allow, two fingers working between her thighs so he could fondle the cleft between her legs!
"Nnngh. Nnnn! Mmmn nnn, nnf, nnn mmmmmm!" she cried, fighting harder than ever, her voice rising from a muffled whine to a squeal when he located and squeezed her clit! She bucked against the column, she struggled, trying to plead around the gag for them to let her go, but her whines fell upon deaf ears, one hand groping her sex while two more abused her tits, and every squirm seemed to make the zipties dig more painfully in against her hide. The humiliation and pain mingled with the equally unwelcome but more pleasant sensations of their gentler touches, so that every breath turned into a whimper or whine of desperation. And when she tried to yell through her duct-taped muzzle the horse pinched both her nipples, then lifted them, forcing her to try to stand herself up taller to relieve the pinching, tugging pain, if only the zip ties didn't hold her so strictly against the pole! She yowled in agony, unable to lift herself enough for any relief.
At last he let go, leaving her gasping and shivering in suffering and fear and only the faintest possible arousal, too overwhelmed by her other senses to notice. "All right, that's enough fun. We've got work to do," the horse said, though despite his words he seemed to be having trouble looking away from her bound, exposed form, and there was a noticeable bulge at the front of his pants.
The iguana cackled, taking a bandana from his pocket, and ignoring her continuing muffled whines of protest he fit it over her eyes and tied it around her head, the blindfold leaving her in pitch darkness. She thought perhaps at last they were done, but then something pressed against her throat, hard and cool and narrow: another cable tie! Pressing the back of her head against the column, he drew it tighter, tighter, the feeling of restriction bringing a new surge of panic--was he about to choke her, what if he pulled it too tight and she couldn't breathe, what if he meant to do that, and though she yanked her hands as hard as she could away from the pole she was tied to they refused to budge an inch, she couldn't stop him! "Nnn mmm mmmm! Mmmmh--mmccllk--!" she tried to protest, but when the plastic drew tight enough to start squeezing her throat a bout of coughing stopped her, trying to clear an airway that was now restricted!
The tightness let up a tiny bit, but no more, and she could feel a claw tugging it, testing, here and there. "Oh relax," he said, and pinched one of her nipples again--the surprise of it, coming unseen out of the blackness around her, making her flinch violently, and pull against the new ziptie around her neck, and feel it immediately go taut around her throat! Still she wanted to make him stop, the pain not letting up, but now that any struggling seemed to choke her she was afraid even to move, when it might cut off her air! She whimpered at her unseen tormenter, timid and desperate--how could she possibly relax while tied to this pole, molested, with them surely about to ransack her home, and now having to fight just to breathe! But that just got her other exposed breast teased too and drew another flinch from her, already beginning to gasp from how hard it became for her to breathe when she tried to struggle. "You have enough room to breathe!" the iguana said, not at all reassuring when she struggled to do so! "Well, barely. I suggest you hold still... And stand up straight! I don't think the ziptie will slide down the pole, if you do."
"Nnnnn! Lllnnnn... llnnnf..." she begged at him, nearly sobbing now in terror. Did they just mean to leave her tied up like this? Surely she couldn't stay this way for long, surely something would lose circulation or grow tired or-- They couldn't leave her this way! "Lllnn mm gmmmm!"
She only got both her already-aching boobs squeezed again, for a long few moments, the unwelcome sensation, impossible to escape, making her shudder and moan so powerlessly, unable to even see her tormentor, let alone resist! "You heard the boss. Having fun with you is tempting, but we have things to do! Oh well, I'm sure you'll have fun with or without us."
That was the last they said to her; from what she could hear, that was the last any of them came within 10 feet of her. Heart racing, her hands and feet both starting to go numb already from how tightly they had bound her, she could only stand there and listen to the three of them stomp through her house, thumps and rattles and even a few crashes of something falling to the floor and breaking: they were robbing her, and not only that, they'd done so when they surely knew she was home! For the fun of tormenting her maybe, or... She'd never get to find out, not unless she not only somehow worked her way free, but managed to get the police to track them down!
The heavy thuds of one of them descending the stairs made her nearly too petrified to move, whole body tensing up at the thought of hands snatching at her out of the dark, groping, or spanking, or somehow finding a way to bind her even tighter! Her hands twisted in helpless denial of her blindfold, kept in blackness but having no trouble imagining eyes turned greedily towards her bound, exposed body, coming over to torment her some more, to choke the life out of her, to mock her as she fought against her bonds-- But the footsteps didn't approach her, and she realized after a moment that she was gasping against the neck-wrap, cursing the blindfold for amplifying all her deepest fears of what the men might do! At last when she thought she was unwatched she began to struggle again, slow and cautious and trying not to put any pressure on her throat. Her arms were pinned together from the elbows down, impossible to wrench apart, and the ties showed no sign she could feel of weakening against what little of her strength she could apply to them, virtually no leverage available when she couldn't move and she couldn't twist them away from the far side of the column! She had a thought of trying to pull forward and see if she could use the pole like a wedge, but she had to stop trying the moment she started: even arching her back while trying to keep her head still threatened to cut off her air and she had to push herself against the support again, sides heaving as she tried to suck in a breath. Legs, wings, even tail were similarly trapped, zipped together and to the column with no freedom of movement, the plastic too tight and too strong in too many places for her to work anything loose.
Marissa whimpered again, to no one, torn between need to escape and need to breathe. She knew the numbing inching its way up her limbs was a bad sign, that she was tied too tight and her fingers and toes weren't getting the blood they needed, that she needed to escape, but already she was too frightened of asphyxiating to want to try any harder to pull herself free! With no slack to work with, she couldn't even seem to find a position that let a little more blood through to her extremities, and she tried to fight another bout of panic, short rapid breaths making it feel like she was suffocating and the tightness of the zip tie around her neck keeping her unable to tell whether it was from the restriction or her hyperventilating!
In so helpless a situation, blindfolded, gagged, rigidly bound and listening to three burglars steal from her, it was near impossible not to succumb to panic. Howling into the saliva-sodden knot of cloth, she began to thrash, yanking her arms back and forth, bucking against the pole and trying desperately to pull free. The pressure on her throat grew but she was nearly beyond the point of noticing, and this time it didn't stop her: she had to get out, she had to get out, she HAD TO GET OUT! Heedless of the pain of the plastic digging into her, heedless of her increasing dizziness, she fought as hard as she could against the restraints, muscles bulging beneath her hide as she twisted and tugged and let out a choked howl of terror and distress. Her heart thudded in her chest; her sides heaved; then her senses began to dim as all her straining used up her air and pulling her head even the tiniest bit away from the column kept her from drawing in any fresh to replace it.
Her panic only grew, but her body was no longer up to the task, weakening, slumping--no! No, she had to escape, she had to breathe, she couldn't, she couldn't breathe... she was trapped...!
If anything, it was how tightly she was tied to the pole that kept her alive, unable to slump too far downward, and when her muscles relaxed it was easier to lean her head towards the pole than away from it. Blindfolded, it was impossible to tell how long it had taken her to regain her senses, but by then the house around her was quiet: for a while she feared they might still be waiting nearby, watching her in silence and utterly unknown to her with the cloth cutting off her eyesight, but as the minutes passed and she heard no sound other than her own gasps and whimpers she grew more certain that the men had gone. Still her lungs ached for air, and she forced her neck as close to the pole as it could possibly go and breathed with all the strength she could find, moaning in relief when at last a little more fresh air made it past the cable tie and down into her chest.
"Nnnngh. Mmmmmnnn... Hhlllnnnnnff mmmm!" she said, almost experimentally crying for help, but the dragoness knew it was unlikely to work: she was in the end unit, and the neighbors on one side were on vacation for a few more days, not around to hear any of what had transpired. Not that she could even cry loud enough for her voice to be heard from more than a few steps away, with her snout taped so firmly shut and the cloth gagging her and breathing so difficult! Perhaps a neighbor might notice, in the morning--if the thieves hadn't closed the broken-in door when they left... Otherwise she might have to hope for the mailman to try to put something through her mail slot--if she actually had any mail--whenever he came by to deliver--!
Her heart still pounded, no matter how much air she had lost to the choking zip tie, and when she tried to flex her fingers she found them stiff, only unwillingly bending and not seeming to have their full flexibility. Not good... At least her toes didn't seem as bad off, but having to stand up for however long it had been was tiring her, and she could feel her calves trembling a little. She couldn't stand up forever...
Neither could she free herself, though. More measured, careful twisting of her arms was even less useful than her earlier thrashing had been, the plastic feeling as rigid as the steel column she was tied to and equally unlikely to relent under what strength she could muster against the bindings. Her head drooped forward, making her cough and immediately jerk back upright, but it was nearly enough to send her into fresh terror. She couldn't breathe--!
Marissa only narrowly managed to hold herself still, not losing her breath for more than a few seconds and heaving a sigh of... relief? Relief that she was still alive, perhaps, but tied tight to the column, nearly choked, with her top pulled up to expose her breasts and her shorts and underwear down to reveal her sex, there was little else to be relieved about! She blushed thinking of someone looking through the window at her so tied up and with her most intimate areas on display--but no, someone seeing her would hopefully mean rescue, and that was unlikely considering she was quite certain the blinds were drawn over the windows!
She almost didn't notice when her senses once again began to go dim; unable to see anything to keep herself oriented, she was slower to realize any dulling of her awareness, and only when her head lolled to the side did she realize she must have fraction by fraction leaned away from the pole and drawn the ziptie on her neck too tight again! Jerking back to full attention, she wedged her neck back and inhaled, as much as she could: it helped, the dizziness retreated, but she knew it wouldn't last. Eventually she would tire, eventually her body would give out, whether it was her back or her thighs or her neck, and then she would start to choke and wouldn't have the strength to recover. If only she could reach up and feel for a tab to press on to loosen it, or just saw through it with her claws! But her fingers were useless, bound cruelly tight against the column and each other, unable to reach the tie around her wrists or the one holding them against the pole. What could she do?
Exhausted as she already was, the dragoness couldn't bring herself to just try to stand there and wait for rescue. Once again she tried to struggle, fighting the zipties, wrenching herself back and forth and trying to find a way to bring her strength to bear against the tough plastic, howling at the top of her lungs as she did, praying to the gods for someone to hear her, and come to her rescue, and save her from this slow horrible suffocation--! But though she tried as hard as she could, she tired faster, her breath caught even more quickly than before, and her limbs felt weak and heavy in their bonds. Recognizing the signs after her first few attempts, she tried to catch herself and recover her breath, but her legs were so very tired, she couldn't seem to find fresh air, and just pushing her neck back wasn't helping so much this time! It couldn't--it couldn't have tightened, without something to pull on it--
Again she howled, more muffled than ever, chest heaving and lungs starving as her lack of air sent her into fresh uncontrollable panic. But her body was no longer up to the task of the powerful thrashing of her previous attempts and this time she was only able to wriggle against the pole, her fingers spreading and clenching again as what she could sense of the world spun around her, spots flaring up in her previously pitch-black vision... She knew she had to hold herself somewhere if she wanted to breathe but she could no longer tell quite where that was, and she kicked helplessly against the zipties that bound her legs in place, slipping a little lower against the pole, straining to bring her hands up to her neck to relieve the sharp pain and restriction that choked her but unable to make them budge an inch no matter how hard she fought. Spasms ran along her bound tail as she uselessly gasped for breath; she could almost feel her body giving up, mind blank with terror and lungs aching for fresh air, limbs numb and useless and increasingly weak in their bonds as consciousness threatened to slip away from her. Marissa was trapped, she couldn't get free, she couldn't breathe, and if someone didn't find her soon it would be too late...