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Chapter 3
Amanda lie naked in the back of the car, blindfolded, gagged, and bound, alone with her thoughts and fears. She knew that she wasn't "alone" in the strict, technical sense, as her parents were in the front seat, but she could just as well have been a bag of groceries as a girl. She could not fight because she was bound, and she could not protest because she was gagged. She could only lie there, whimpering, in a fetal position, shivering in response to both the cold and the fear.
What bothered her as much as anything else was that her parents would not tell her why she was being turned in. It wasn't that it was uncommon for a man to turn in his daughter; it had happened to several of Amanda's friends. Amanda, however, had always assumed that it had been motivated by some horrible misdeed on the girl's part. Failing grades, sneaking out of the house, smoking a joint -- these were the things that in Amanda's mind justified turning a girl in. Amanda may not have exactly been at the top of her class, but she did all right. And she would never dream of sneaking out of the house or doing drugs. Occasionally, her mom would complain about some triviality like playing music too loud or forgetting to do the dishes, but never anything big. What could she have done to make her deserve to be turned in?
Amanda wanted desperately to ask what she did that she was being punished for. She wanted to beg for forgiveness -- to express a willingness to do whatever was needed to redeem herself. But the gag denied her that opportunity, and deep inside she knew that by the time it was taken off, it would be far too late for any reprieve.
The car stopped and the door opened. Keith and Nora each grabbed one of Amanda's arms and dragged her out of the car. She cried and whimpered, but did not otherwise resist. With her wrists tied together behind her back and with her ankles restrained as they were, she knew that escape was quite impossible. So, she simply allowed herself to be led, naked, through a the parking lot of the store to which she was about to be sold. Though she was blindfolded, she imagined that hundreds of eyes must be staring at her nude body as it was being half led and half dragged toward its doom. In fact, her imagination reflected reality only in part -- her body was easily attractive enough to draw attention from passers by, but the sight of a bound, naked female being dragged through this particular parking lot was not the least bit unusual.
Keith and Nora were met at the door by a rather muscular man in his mid thirties, dressed smartly in a suit and tie and wearing an affable expression on his face. "Welcome to the FemBoutique," he said as Keith and Nora walked in, dragging Amanda behind. "My name is Bradley and I will be helping you today. And this," he pointed to Amanda, "looks like something you're turning in."
"We'd like to trade her in on a house slave," replied Nora.
"Indeed," said Bradley, "why don't you bring her up to the counter and we can take her in for processing." As he said this, his eyes spent more than the customary amount of time surveying every inch of Nora, from her face to her feet, and every point in between. This might have made Nora uncomfortable, but she did not comment. After all, a woman with the kind of natural beauty that Nora had was used to that kind of attention from men.
Keith and Nora dragged Amanda up to the sales counter, and Bradley followed. The counter was located at a corner of the showroom not far from the door, and immediately behind it was an opaque wall with a large sign bearing the FemBoutique logo, which extended up to the ceiling. Three clerks, all male, each stood at a computer terminal behind the counter. To the left of the counter was an opening, about two meters wide, through which a person standing behind the counter might walk onto the sales floor. Behind that opening was a corridor, which extended behind the wall and made a sharp turn to the right, apparently leading to the area behind the FemBoutique sign. A thick yellow line had been painted on the sales floor extending across the opening. Bradley led Keith, Nora, and Amanda to the yellow line, but they stopped before crossing it. Bradley then addressed Keith.
"First of all," said Bradley, "I can tell you right now that this girl of yours is going to fetch a really good price. We'd need to to a complete work-up on her to give you a solid cash price, but I can guarantee you enough store credit for at least a 50% discount on any girl in this place. Cash price will be at least three thousand -- maybe more once we've examined her."
"I suppose that's all right," said Keith, "at least as far as the store credit goes, but three thousand sounds kind of low for a cash price. Some of these girls go for twenty thousand."
"That's just for guys who don't turn one in," said Bradley. "I mean, after all, we've got to keep our stock up, and it's kind of hard getting girls to volunteer. And in any case, the three thousand's just a minimum. Once you've turned her in and we've examined her, the price almost always goes up."
"Fine, lets do it," said Keith. He made to hand Amanda's wrist to Bradley.
"Sorry, sir, but I'm afraid it doesn't work that way," said Bradley. "Right now, she's a free woman, and I can't legally enslave a free woman."
"But you just agreed to buy her," protested Keith.
"So I did," said Bradley, "but title cannot pass until she looses her status as a free woman, either by her own voluntary act or by being turned in, and I can't be the one to turn her in."
"But I'm turning her in," said Keith.
"You haven't yet. But if you would like to, then I think it would be appropriate to first remove that blindfold. This is a truly momentous occasion in a girl's life, and she needs to see everything."
Keith shrugged, and untied the blindfold. Amanda was at first blinded by the sudden intrusion of bright light into her world of darkness, but after a few seconds, she came to and saw the sign that was hanging above the opening in the counter. As she read silently, Bradley read it out loud.
NOTICE
ALL FEMALES WHO
CROSS THIS YELLOW LINE
WILL BECOME THE
PROPERTY OF
THE FEMBOUTIQUE
"Until she crosses that line, she is a free woman. She may be tied up, gagged, and scared out of her wits, but she's still technically free. But one toe across this line," Bradley indicated the line with his foot, "and we can do business."
It was then that it dawned on Amanda that there was one faint glimmer of hope. She was still a free woman -- all she had to do was keep her parents from making her cross the yellow line. The grip on her wrists had loosened as her parents were both paying attention to Bradley, so with a sudden burst of more strength that she ever knew she had, she was able to break free. She ran for it.
Unfortunately, even with great determination and adrenaline-induced strength, running is not very practical for a girl whose ankles are bound. Amanda tripped almost as soon as she ran. Even more unfortunately, she fell in the the wrong direction, and found herself lying flat on her stomach, with half her body on the other side of the yellow line. Two of the clerks behind the counter grabbed her, and dragged her into the corridor, and behind the wall. Keith and Nora never saw their daughter again.
"Good," said Bradley, nodding with approval. "Now that that's settled, would you like to browse our merchandise while we examine and appraise our newest acquisition?"
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