My personal favorite story that Penny ever wrote. In this tale, Penny and the bulk of the "Inner Circle" are targeted by a serial burglar who seems determined to have everyone in ropes and gags. But just who is the Best Burglar in Town ?
Imagine sitting in your bedroom, dressed in just your pajamas, properly and thoroughly tied to a chair with rope, and gagged with a scarf.This was just the situation I found myself in, after being visited by a mysterious masked figure dressed entirely in black from head to toe.
It was a girl, one of my friends of course, who woke me that June Monday by climbing on top of me and putting her gloved hand over my mouth. Confusion gave way to anger then laughter when my eyes focused on the shape on top of me. Charlette had topped herself this time. Getting me out of bed, the 'burglar' escorted me to my desk chair for my tie up.
She had brought a cloth bag full of ropes and cords to secure me. I put my hands behind me, around the back of the chair so she could tie them. Cotton rope circled and cinched my wrists, in tight coils before she made a heavy knot. A Charlette knot if ever there was one.
A doubled loop of rope came around me, under my bust, pulling me back into the back of the chair. She brought the free ends around me three times before tying it off somewhere behind me. A second doubled loop of rope dropped down, across my waist. This one was shorter, and made only two circles before she tied it.
The next thing she did was to tie my thighs down into the seat. After that, she tied my knees and ankles. Like I said it was good complete, thorough job. Once I was tied up, she went over to her bag full of ropes and pulled out some medical tape, a bandanna and a purple silky scarf. She picked up the tape and showed it to me.
"What?" I asked the silent intruder.
She turned the tape over in her gloved hands, as if she were modeling the features to me.
"You want me to pick my gag?" She nodded. This was a new one on me.
"I'll take the scarf, please."
She nodded enthusiastically, picked it up, folded it into a broad band and tied it firmly over my mouth. Once I was gagged, the would-be mime picked up her bag, grabbed the little jewelry box off my dresser and dumped the contents into it. Then she went over to my cd collection, picked out several disks and put them into her bag as well.
Her robbery complete, she walked over to me, made a courtly bow and left. Since it was summer vacation I wasn't too alarmed about being tied up in my bedroom. There was next to no chance of me being caught with mom and dad working. Charlette had done her usual tight secure job of tying me, but I tried to struggle loose. About twenty minutes later, I heard the front door downstairs open and slam shut.
I panicked. Had mom or dad come home for an early lunch?? The chair I was tied to had rollers so I pushed myself across the floor over toward the closet. If I could just get inside it and hide.....
"Penny ??" It was Debra. I screeched at her through the gag and she came running upstairs. When she saw me, she was shocked.
"Damn, Charlette surely didn't want you to get away, did she?"
Once she removed my gag I told her about what happened.
"How did you know to come over here?" I asked.
"I got a phone call. The voice was weird, like it was filtered or something. They said that you had just been robbed by the best bandit in town."
"Charlette has gone too far this time," I said. Once I was untied, I got dressed.
"What now?"
Before I could answer, the phone rang. I answered it on the second ring. There was evil sounding laugh. It was distorted, like Debra had said.
"Poor little Asha's in a mess. She's just been robbed by the very best..." The voice broke off into laughter.
"Charlette, you're going to pay for this one."
They hung up. I told Debra what the caller had said. We ran downstairs, out the door and got into my car. It started slowly, then we drove over to Asha's house. The door was wide open. The phone was ringing. I ran to Asha's bedroom while Debra answered the phone. The room was empty, but in general disorder.
"Asha?" I called.
I heard a muffled sound, like a baby crying into a blanket. I heard a tapping sound.
"Asha?" I called again.
The tapping sound was louder. The toy chest! I went quickly to it, cleared off the stuffed animals on top of the lid and opened it. Asha was lying hogtied and gagged inside.Like me, she was wearing just her pajamas. I untied the bandanna tied over her mouth and she spit out a small nerf ball.
"Get me the hell out of here !" she said angrily, flexing in the ropes. I was untying her just as Debra came upstairs.
"It was Charlette again. She said: "The finest robber in this town has just caught Lisa with her pants down."
"Damn it, what is she trying to prove?"
"Maybe she's getting us back for the mummy treatment we gave her." Debra said.
"Could be. But she brought that on herself."
"We better get over to Lisa's and get her untied," Debra said.
"Then we can deal with Charlette.' Asha added grimly, grabbing up some ropes.
"Definitely," I replied.
We were downstairs and in the car moments later. The drive to Lisa's house seemed to take forever. The house was in order, or so it seemed. We got out of the car, and Asha knocked on the door. No response. We opened the door and went directly to Lisa's bedroom. I could hear the muffled strains of classical music coming from the closet. A cord ran from her stereo. Debra opened the door. Lisa was dressed in jeans, and a loose fitting gray t-shirt, handcuffed to the overhead bar, gagged with duct tape, a pair of headphones was taped in place over her ears. Hers eyes were desperate over the gag. Her knees were taped in a kneeling position so she was somewhat stretched out. In her haste, Charlette had left the duct tape lying on the floor.
I peeled off the gag and she spit out the keys to the handcuffs. One of Charlette's favorite tortures.
"Get these things off of me!!" she screamed. I grabbed the keys and went remove the cuffs.
"No, I meant the earphones, I hate opera!" Laughing, Asha pulled the tape loose and took the earphones off while Debra and I got Lisa un-cuffed and un-taped. Lisa told us what happened.
Charlette had come into her bedroom dressed as a burglar and had put her in the closet, handcuffed, taped and gagged her tight. She was robbing Lisa, taking her cds and other stuff but when she didn't find Lisa's new Garbage CD, she decided to torture Lisa with the opera music.
"I would have told her that Carol (a friend) had borrowed my Cd but I was gagged with tape. She just turned the volume up louder and left me there. She said she won't rest until the best burglar in town was tied and taped us all."
"That means I'm next," Debra said quietly.
"Don't worry, she won't try anything with all of us together, " Lisa said, "I'll get the weapons."
She got out the nerf guns and tossed me one. Asha and Debra fetched the duct tape and some more rope and stuffed them into a bag Lisa offered. Thus armed, we went to car and drove over to Charlette's house.
"I thought you spent the night at Charlette's house," Debra said to Lisa.
"I was going to, but her mom canceled it at the last moment. Something family came up."
Nothing more was said of it. We pulled into the driveway, armed with guns ropes and tape and prepared to enter the stronghold of our tormentor. Debra knocked politely then rang the bell. No one was home, it seemed. Charlette was probably hiding inside, waiting for us. I opened the door and we entered.
"I think we should split up and look for her," Lisa said.
"No need," Debra said, her ears perking up. We all listened. Music. My Britney Spears CD!
"She's dead," Asha said, and headed for the stairs. We all followed her lead up the three flights of stairs, Lisa trailing behind. The door to her bedroom was cracked open, the lights were on. I assumed the lead position since I had the gun. I envisioned Charlette sitting in front of the door, or hidden not far off, her gun ready to blast us all. I thumped the door open with my shoulder and strode in boldly. No one. The room was empty. The other girls entered the room, confused, Lisa in the rear.
"What the hell?" she said scratching her head.
Debra saw it first. Charlette's bed is a huge thing, capable of sleeping three people easily. There were gauzy lace curtains all over it, they were drawn closed. Debra looked and saw a lump under the bed covers and headed over to it. I joined her. Charlette was feigning sleep obviously, trying to play innocent. We yanked back the curtains and threw back the covers.
Charlette was in bed, lying bound, gagged and wrapped from her shoulders down inside a thick woolen blanket. More rope was used to tie the blanket up around her like a package. Charlette groaned into her gag, squirming in her excessive bindings.
"Uh... guys??" Asha said from behind us.
Asha had her hands up, Lisa was pointing her gun at us. I fired instinctively. No shot.
"Your gun is empty, doofus. Mine isn't," Lisa said, grinning fiendishly.
"You have GOT to be kidding," Debra replied, raising her hands.
"Nope. I'm the best burglar in town," Lisa said. "Drop the gun and raise'em high, Penny."
I obeyed.
After untying Charlette from her bundle, Lisa had us all strip down to our underwear before she got to work securing us. We had houghtfully provided her with all the ropes and duct tape she would need for the job. Our hands were tied behind our backs.
"You can blame Charlette really," Lisa explained. "She came up with the idea. The best burglar in town, tying and robbing all of us. I liked the idea so much I decided to do it. She was the first. I got her late last night."
"Penny you were the second, bright and early this morning."
"I wondered why 'Charlette' didn't say anything," I said. "She usually can't resist bragging while she ties you up."
Charlette glared at me.
"It's true," I replied.
She stuck out her tongue at me.
"So you tied yourself up in the closet?" Debra asked. Lisa nodded.
"After Asha, I had to make sure you believed that it was Charlette who was getting you all. The voice part was the easiest, Charlette has this cheesy toy microphone that alters your voice when you push a button."
"But you almost gave it all away," Debra said.
"How so?"
"You said that Charlette was bragging about how she was going to tie us all up and rob us AFTER she had turned up the volume on the opera. How could you have heard her with the music blasting that loud?"
"I hadn't thought of that." Lisa said thoughtfully," Oh well..."
She paired us off. Me with Charlette, Asha with Debra. Standing, we were tied back to back down to the waist. We were made to sit on the floor so she could tie our legs and feet together. That done, we were gagged with duct tape and cloth strips.
"I'm off to rob Debra's room. Have fun!" Lisa said spritely, closed the door and left us there. We were still securely tied when she returned, a new bag full of loot. Un-gagged we managed to talk her out of most of her ill-gotten booty, provided of course we declared in a loud steady voice that she was the "Best Burglar in town."
Lisa untied us and left to use her new property for the standard two weeks as in any other ransom. Charlette and I shared a look.
"She's going to pay for this!" we all said simultaneously. Asha and Debra threw their lot in with us as well. We would all make Lisa pay...
The End
