Proper Planning (M/f)

[Redman]

My latest offering, requested by @DGirl

* * *

"No plan survives contact with the enemy." - Helmuth von Moltke.

That was the thought running through Frank's mind as he sat in his van. A burglar by trade, his usual targets were the wealthier homes where the homeowners were seldom ever home. But something always seemed to go sideways. Usually it was a new security camera that got installed after reconnaissance. Occasionally it was an obnoxious pet next door. On one occasion, it was the neighbors having a late night cookout.

This time was a unique one. After meticulously watching the family's movements, he chose his night based on the mother and father's planned date night that would stretch into the wee hours of the morning, and their kids' planned sleepovers. It was a perfect setup...

And then, the daughter came home.

Frank watched the house with a sinking feeling, realizing that she was not leaving. Clearly, her plans had changed. Which threw a massive monkey wrench into his. Since he couldn't just back out now, he had to adjust. He pulled a COVID mask over his face and drew up his hood, and grabbed a roll of duct tape. His burglary was about to become a home invasion.

* * *

Danielle was relaxing in her room, playing a round of candy crush. She had planned to go to a party with some friends, but her "nemesis" Monica was going to be there. So she changed her mind and went home. At 13, Danielle was about 5 feet tall. She had light brown hair and matching eyes, with a light tan from her week at the beach a month earlier. She wore blue capris and a green t-shirt tonight, and a pair of ankle socks with blue, pink, and yellow stripes.

A commotion downstairs caught her attention, and Danielle perked up. That was unusual, unless her brother had also decided to come home early. She smiled and went to the bedroom door.

"Hi Andy!" She called out.

Silence.

"Andy?" Danielle called out again.

More silence. She decided to walk into the hallway, and go downstairs. It wasn't like her brother to make a noise and then go quiet like that. But she wanted to see what was going on.

"You're not going to scare me, Andy. You know I already heard you come in." She announced as she made her way down the stairs. But something still felt... Off. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it was definitely there.

She rounded a corner into the dining room, and suddenly, a gloved hand clamped over her mouth. She squealed in shock. Especially when the unfamiliar voice behind her hissed down at her, "Don't make a sound."

* * *

Frank gripped the girl's mouth under his gloved hand and pinned her to the wall. Thankfully, she was frozen in place, and seemed too shocked to do anything for a moment after the initial scream had passed. He quickly let go of her mouth, drew her hands behind her back, and pulled a roll of silver duct tape from his pocket.

Quickly, Frank wrapped her wrists in the tape, using 3 rounds to secure her. He tore off a six inch strip and pressed it over her mouth. Then he took Danielle's arm and lead her over to the living room, planting her on the sofa.

"Don't move." He commanded. This earned him a nod, the girl's eyes were wide as saucers.

Frank knelt down and taped her ankles together, using 4 rounds again. Then he stood up, looking down at his captive. "Stay put, Danielle. That way you won't get hurt."

Using her first name was intended to be intimidating. He figured she'd become docile after revealing that he knew who she was. And with that, he went about his intended thievery.

* * *

Danielle watched the intruder walk away. Then she sighed. He knew her name, which could only mean one thing: This guy was a friend, and was playing a game with her. Probably one of her brother's friends. After all, she and Andy played tie up games very often. This was shaping up to be a fun evening.

As Danielle began struggling to free herself from the tape, a sudden thought struck her; She hadn't told Andy she was coming home. So how would he have known to send someone to play a surprise game. Come to that, why wouldn't he have done the job himself?

Furthermore, why do such a shoddy job of the taping? After all, she was loose in a minute. All questions she decided to ask her captor when she found him.

* * *

Frank had found the home office and began flipping through the filing cabinet. Inevitably, people left safe combinations and passwords written down. All he'd need is a little time, and he'd find them.

The door to the office opened, and Frank looked up abruptly. To his surprise, and dismay, Danielle was standing at the door, free of her duct tape bonds. And she was smirking, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.

"You can do better than that," she said. "Andy's gonna smack you for that."

Frank straightened up and grabbed the roll of tape. "I thought I told you to stay put." He growled.

"You did, and I didn't." Danielle said, sticking her tongue out at him.

To Frank's surprise, she didn't move when he walked over to her, peeling more tape off the roll. He grabbed her arm and spun her around, preparing to tape her hands again. This time, Frank wrapped the tape 8 times.

With that, he led the giggling girl out to the dining room and planted her gruffly on one of the chairs. Frank began strapping her to the chair, wrapping tape around her torso and the chair back. He taped her mouth again, and then knelt to tape her ankles.

Danielle was not cooperating, and swung her legs around, giggling behind the tape. Frank grabbed her left leg first and wrapped her ankle, and eventually managed to corral her right ankle, strapping them together very securely.

"Now, stay put this time." Frank growled, tapping Danielle's forehead with the roll of tape.

"Sure." Danielle said with a smirk.

Frank added a couple extra strips of tape over her mouth and stalked back to the office to keep looking for the passwords and combinations.

* * *

Okay, this time it was much tighter. Still, Danielle found the mistake her captor had made. If he had trapped her hands in her lap, and used more tape around her torso, she may have had a problem. But since he had tied her hands behind her back first, and then made her sit down, there was a gap between her body and the chair. This would make her task a bit easier.

Danielle began to thrash around on her seat. The chair legs scraped on the hardwood floor, making her cringe a little. She already could picture the lecture she'd get from her parents about being careful with the furniture. But she couldn't lose the challenge! Besides, she hadn't asked the guy who he was and how he knew she'd be home tonight. And so, she continued her struggles, pulling against the tape.

But she knew it would give eventually...

* * *

Frank found the safe combination fairly quickly. And since the safe was in the same office, it was only a moment before he had it open. As he emptied the contents info his duffel bag, he could hear Danielle scooting around in the dining room. The house may have had an open concept floorplan, but the office was isolated. He couldn't see the girl, and she couldn't see him either. Which paid off, since she clearly thought this was a game. That worked in Frank's favor, since she would be less likely to call for help.

Still, he couldn't be too careful. Frank was just a burglar. Home invasions were way out of his league. So as long as he could get through this job without much trouble, he'd be fine. And he'd read those news stories from the UK about the Games Players, who made home invasions their entire modus operandi, and made the kids feel at ease by making it into a game. One more tool to add to his backup plans.

After the safe was emptied of it's cash and gold coins, (a worthwhile investment,) Frank left the office and went upstairs. Just a quick check of the jewelry boxes, and he'd be on his way. A quick glance into the dining room confirmed that Danielle was still struggling on the chair. She giggled at him when he passed. He didn't say anything, just kept walking. Once he found the master bedroom, he went straight to the dresser to look through the jewelry.

To his surprise, some of that looked incredibly valuable, so he took his time sorting through the diamonds and gemstones. Some would fetch some good money when the heat died down. Others were cubic zirconia, and not worth the effort. So he set those aside.

"What are you doing?"

Frank jumped and spun towards the door. To his shock, Danielle was standing there, free. She still had a little duct tape stuck to her foot, but she was out of the chair! And this time, she looked suspicious of him.

* * *

Danielle had finally managed to get free of the duct tape, and followed her new friend upstairs, eager to continue the game. Only problem was, she found him in her parents' bedroom going through the jewelry. That didn't look too good to her. As her heart began to race, she made her presence known.

"What are you doing?" Danielle asked.

The masked man turned to her with wide eyes. Clearly he was upset. She watched him stand up and drop his duffel bag.

"Why won't you just stay put?" He growled as he stepped closer to her, drawing out the roll of duct tape.

Danielle took a step back as she realized that this was not a game. "You... You're a robber." She said.

The man chuckled sarcastically. "What was your first clue, Nancy Drew?"

Danielle decided not to answer, and turned around to run. She had to get out of the house. She took two, maybe three steps. But the crook was right behind her, and had longer legs. In a moment, he had siezed her by the arm and was dragging her down the hall.

"Let go!" Danielle shouted, kicking her socked feet against her captor. He simply hoisted her up and pulled her to the floor, pinning her with his knee on her back so hard that she could barely breathe. Her arms were pulled across her back, with her hands resting on her elbows. The duct tape was wrapped around her arms extra tightly.

Finally, his knee came off her back and she took a deep breath. The man had moved to her legs and was starting to cross her ankles. She could hear the tape ripping off the roll again. With that breath, she shouted at the top of her lungs.

"HHEELLLPPP!!! SOMEBODY HELMRPH!"

The gloved hand clamped down over her mouth to silence her shouts. He took his hand off her mouth again only to pull the tape over her lips again. This time, he wrapped the tape around her head to gag her.

"Mmrph! Hrmm mm grmmph!" Danielle shouted into her gag.

Her protests were ignored, and her ankles were just taped together as tightly as possible. Then she was carried down the hall to her door, labeled with her name and a Hello Kitty sticker. She was dumped on her bed unceremoniously, and the man hovered over her.

"Stay still, and keep quiet, brat." He growled. Then stalked out of the room.

But Danielle neither stayed still, nor kept quiet. As soon as he was gone, she shimmied up, and swung her bound legs over the edge of the bed. She began hopping around the room and making muffled shouts into the tape. She worked her tongue against the glue to weaken it. She also pressed her arms against the bedpost to try to tear the tape. She was making very little progress, so she looked around her room to find something sharp.

The windowsill!

Danielle hopped over to the window and pressed her arms against the corner to try to tear the tape that way. She could feel some progress being made. And the tape over her mouth was weakening! Now she was able to work it down below her bottom lip.

Just then, she caught some movement out the corner of her eye. Her neighbor, Mrs. Jenkins was at her window, staring across their yards. Her eyes were wide and her skin had blanched.

"HELP!" Danielle shouted. "HELP ME! THERE'S A ROBBER IN MY HOUSE!"

Her window was closed, but Mrs. Jenkins' was open. Danielle hoped that she'd been heard. And just then the door flew open. The masked man stormed over to her and grabbed her by the arm, dragging her to her closet.

"You're a real pain in the neck, you know that?" He growled, pulling her striped socks off. He rolled them into a ball and stuffed them into her mouth. This time, the tape was wrapped around her mouth a dozen times. And to make things harder, he also taped her knees together, and wrapped tape around her arms. And finally, he stuffed her in the closet.

"You brought this on yourself!" He growled.

"Mmmmph!" Danielle screamed, muffled by her own socks and the duct tape.

The door was closed, leaving her in darkness.

* * *

Frank cursed himself. He knew better than this! He had the money. Why did he have to go check the jewelry? Always go with the sure thing. People get in trouble when they get greedy. He had it all in the bag. All he had to do was leave.

Instead, he had a witness. Okay, he'd kept his gloves and mask on. There was no way Danielle could really identify him. Still, he should have handled the little pain a little better.

At this point, he was driving away, heading for the highway. Frank decided to just head towards the state border and drive until he was out of gas. Then refill and keep driving. It was a great plan to get out of dodge.

But that's not how it happened.

Because just as he was about to get on the interstate, he saw two police cars pull onto the road, hit their lights, and blare sirens. He nearly skidded back to his lane to go under the highway overpass, but there was another police cruiser pulling out to block the road.

Frank swore out loud, cursing the young pain-in-the neck and her escape skills!

* * *

EPILOGUE:

In the weeks that followed, Danielle grew annoyed with the attention she got. Mrs. Jenkins couldn't even take the credit for the rescue, letting Danielle fall into the backround. No, she had to say how the "brave girl had gotten her attention, leading her to call the police, and watch as the thief rush out and get into his car."

Sure, Mrs. Jenkins rushed next door right away and released Danielle from the duct tape, and waited with her until the police arrived. But why couldn't she just take the attention? Now Danielle was the "Houdini Hero."

And then the adults kept acting like she was traumatized by the whole ordeal! Which, Danielle kept insisting, she wasn't. She'd thought it was a game until the final 15 minutes. Nothing to worry about. She was fine, and just wanted to get back to normal.

Thankfully, her brother Andy still treated her normally. And he only hesitated to play tie up games with her for a few days. All she had to do was explain that their games are the reason she escaped so many times, and they were back in action!

As for Frank, he ended up taking a plea deal, receiving a sentence of 5 to 10 years in a State Correctional Institution. And no, he never looked good in browns.

THE END

[some_wanderer]

Now this is a great story.

I wish it wasn't the end. I hope it spawns a side story between Danielle and Andy.

[TuggyBoundMale]

Amazing story. Loved it

[BBQ-2002]

Now that's a story that is worth to be read and enjoyed. Well done!

I would love to read a second part one day.

[DGirl]

Perfect!

[tiedinbluetights]

Excellent story!

[Redman]

I'm glad you all enjoyed it! Thank you all for the feedback.

Now this is a great story.

I wish it wasn't the end. I hope it spawns a side story between Danielle and Andy.

Now that's a story that is worth to be read and enjoyed. Well done!

I would love to read a second part one day.

Truth be told, I normally don't write sequals. But if you have ideas, feel free to drop them. Maybe something will work out. But Frank won't be appearing again any time soon. (You already know he's getting a hit in 2030! XD)