The Sincerest Flattery, Part 1 by SD Scott was fading in and out of consciousness. Between the fatigue from the long period he'd been forced to stand and pain from the hours that he had hung by the wrists, it was neither easy nor particularly sensible to stay awake, but he struggled to do so. He supposed he was better off hanging as he was than standing on the floor of the cell, for he'd become too fatigued to kick away the rats that scurried around his bare, bound feet and had been bitten several times; were he still standing he'd have bled to death. "Maybe I'm not better off", he thought. Now his wrists and arms and shoulders were all screaming. The steel cuffs locked tightly around his wrists left little feeling in his hands, but his wrists ached and the pain was getting progressively worst as the steel ate deeper into his raw, bleeding wrists. Three days before he'd been prowling the clubs looking for likely prospects, just looking for targets, not captures, so he was carrying no weapons or restraints. Then he saw her, Renee she said her name was, and reconsidered his plans. A petite redhead with a great legs and gorgeous derriere, she was a stranger in town, stopping over for the night while motoring to Florida. She'd be gone tomorrow; no one knew where she was tonight, no one expected to hear from her for several days. This was too sweet a target to pass up. He excused myself, then snuck out of the club. It was near closing time, he thought, she probably wouldn't have time to meet someone else, and after being dumped she'd probably leave alone and angry, which meant she'd be distracted, and an easy target. It had seemed that he was correct, she came out alone and started walking to her motel, with Scott trailing her. She even took a short cut through a dark alley. This was just too perfect, he thought as he rushed to the alley, which a quick check revealed to be empty and so quiet that the click of Renee's heels on the pavement was quite loud. This is too good to be true, he thought as he closed in on her. He was right. She heard him closing on her, which surprised him, since he'd been coming up on her quickly but quietly and in his experience they seldom knew he was behind them until the blow to the kidney took the fight out of them, which, quickly followed by a punch in the solar plexus, left them too breathless to speak and too weak to fight. But she turned to face him, and he slowed his approach and smiled apologetically. "Hey, I'm so sorry we got separated. A friend of mine had too much to drink and I had to stay with him till the cab came or he'd have tried to drive home. I was mortified when they said you'd left", he told her. Just a little closer, he thought, and I'll be in range to catch her on the little chin of her heart shaped face. He could see her head jerking back, the red curls bouncing, her bright green eyes going blank as she crumpled, then he'd help his drunken girlfriend to his car and take her home. Yeah, he thought, all the way home. "Oh, I understand", she said. And then his eyes seemed filled with a thousand lights and his whole body went into spasms. As he fell he saw a tall brunette emerge from the shadows, the stun gun in her hand trailing wires to his chest. Then the lights dimmed, and when they came up again Scott was on his side in some kind of van, his hands cuffed very tightly behind his back, his knees bent back, his ankles enclosed in padded leather restraints linked by chain to the handcuffs. As he awoke he saw Renee's thighs, as she knelt by his head. "So you're with us again, killer. Good. Now open wide", she said, as she began sliding a dildo into his open mouth. Too late he tried to close his mouth, but it was already in, and with some effort she forced it deep into his mouth and buckled the strap behind his head. She then checked the wrist and ankle restraints. "Just the way you like them, isn't that right, killer ? Real tight on the wrists so the hands go numb, loose but secure on the ankles so the subject can walk, or dance, and so later the feet can feel the bastinado, right ?", she asked, then slapped his face before applying a blindfold. She then rubbed her hand over his crotch, and told him, "Hold still and be quiet or I'll zap your balls", and the van began to move. Scott lost track of how long it drove. Renee and her associate, Marian was the name he heard, chatted as they drove, but said nothing that indicated where they were going or what was going to happen. How the hell did she know about his preference in restraints, he wondered. None of his victims had talked; most had not even been found. He was sure the police didn't know who was responsible for the string of murders and disappearences in this part of town. But these bitches seemed to know, a thought that made him profoundly uncomfortable. At last the van stopped, and the door was opened and Scott was unceremoniously pushed out of the van and thudded to the ground. One of the women fastened a leash around his neck while the other let some more slack into his ankle restraints. Then someone pulled him up by his hair and he felt a tug on the leash as Renee's voice sang out "Walkies", shortly followed by the jab of an electric prod into his right buttock, and he started walking on his knees as quickly as the restraints allowed, which wasn't fast enough to please Renee, who kept jabbing him with the prod. "UHHHNGHH", he bellowed through his gag after yet another jab. "You'll just have to move faster, dear", she said. "You certainly moved fast enough when you were chasing me. I must say I do admire how someone your size can pursue so quickly with so little noise. Of course, with these high heels everyone can hear me easily, but sometimes" she said as she tousled Scott's hair, "that works just fine". Then she jabbed him again. At last Scott was lead into a room. "Now, you be quiet", Renee said just before driving the point of her shoe into his solar plexus, and he doubled over, gasping, fighting off nausea and struggling to remain conscious. As she shut and locked the metal door, Renee remarked to Marian, "That always quiets them". Some eternity later, the door opened again. "There he is, Mistress", he heard Marian say. "Any problems picking him up ?" an unfamiliar woman's voice asked. "No, he was really easy, he came right to us". "That's what happens when you let your loins control you. Well, I don't have time for him now, but I hate a man who doesn't stand on his own two feet, so stand him up, and I'll get back to him later. Oh, and get those clothes off him". "Yes, mistress". Then the door closed again, only to reopen in a few minutes later. He heard what sounded like several people in high heels enter the room, then felt several kicks to the ribs and the kidneys, and while he was between consciousness and unconsciousness he perceived his restraints being undone and felt his hands being shackled in front of him, then he was winched to his feet, though his rubbery legs couldn't hold him and he hung by his wrists. "Now hold still, or you might get cut, and we don't want that - yet", a voice said as knives pierced his jacket and cut it off him, then did the same with his shirt. His shoes and pants and the rest of his clothes were quickly stripped off, and several soft hands explored his chest and buttocks while one person wrapped her arms around his legs, the feeling of her breasts pressed against him registering clearly even in his befuddled state, while someone tied his ankles together. "No, don't do that", he heard Renee say. "But it's standard practice to fasten the legs to an "O" ring", an unknown voice answered. "I know", Renee said, "but I've something in mind for him". Then they left. Eventually he came around and his legs got some strength back, and he was able to relieve the strain on his arms. Then he waited some more. It didn't take much testing to establish that his wrist restraints wouldn't open without a key and his ankles were expertly bound, and Scott didn't intend to duplicate the error of captives who wore themselves out struggling against inescapable bondage. It wasn't long till the door opened again and he heard a woman walk up to him. His blindfold was removed and he say Renee standing before him, with what looked like a carrying case for a dog on the ground beside her. "Nice to see you're awake and aware", she said, as she ran her fingers across his chest. "I've admired your work", she said. "In fact, I wasn't adverse to being caught by you, so long as we could find where you took me within 24 hours. The first 24 hours are for fun, isn't that right ? Just sex and bondage and some light torture. Then it starts gets worse, and somewhere between the third and fifth day she starts to beg for death, which you grant, but only after an additional 24 hours of torture. Hmmmmmmm, yes, that first day would have been fun, but it was too risky a strategy". "I am such an admirer", Renee said. "Well, you know what they say about the sincerest form of flattery, don't you", she said with a broad smile, and opened the carrying case and raised one end, dumping rats into the cell. Renee quickly withdrew to the door, but before leaving she said "You really must give us that delightful recipe you have, we haven't been able to duplicate it", then jumped through the door and locked it. Damned good thing they hadn't, Scott thought as he watched the rats scurry about the cell. They didn't seem very hungry, which meant a waiting game for as long as he could move. Joyce hadn't been able to move. She had begged to die, but when the foul smelling broth of grain and rotten meat was smeared over her and the rats descended on her, she'd decided she didn't want to die after all. He'd used too many rats, she was unconscious after a few terrible moments. Renee seemed to have the right number, they could chew on one for a couple hours before the subject passed out. This sort of flattery he could have done without. End, Part 1. No more has yet been written.