Catherine looked at her watch � she had been 2 hours!

She was relieved to be away from all the comments and stares she'd received on the street, but was dreading what she would discover was happening to Lynne as a result of her missing the deadline.

As she hurried through the lobby she at first ignored the doorman as he said, �Nice to see you back!� However, he brought her up short by continuing, �The locksmith came just after you left and repaired your door � I've got the keys he left somewhere here.� He scrabbled about on his desk before producing an envelope with some keys in it.

�And, I'm sure you don't mind; I let some delivery men use the service lift to take up your new furniture.� He continued.

Catherine did mind, but was in too much of a hurry to get back to her apartment � particularly now she knew there had been visitors; she had ordered no new furniture and had not asked a locksmith to call.

Having willed the elevator to go faster she opened her front door as quickly as she could using the two new keys. She now had a deadlock on her door to augment the night latch which had been broken when her door was kicked in by the Chief Inspector.

As she pulled the door to, she was surprised to find the lights were on in the middle of the day and, as she took in her apartment she let out a scream.

Her scream was matched by a laugh of delight from Mistress XS, Saavik and Dr Zorhof who were watching her every move from their distant dungeon.

Her apartment, the safe haven she and Lynne shared, had been transformed into a dungeon!

There was no light coming through the double doors onto the balcony because they had been covered with plywood adorned with straps, chains and hooks!

Where her settee had stood there was now a whipping frame; her lounge table had been replaced by a tiny cage; and her shelving unit was now adorned with bondage equipment � hoods, whips, crops, paddles, cuffs and chains.

The hoods were all neatly lined up along the top shelf, stretched over those polystyrene heads, like they use for wigs, and seemed to be staring mockingly at her. She recognised them all as styles of hood used by Group XS, all were evil, unyielding hoods designed to be locked in place and offer the wearer no comfort. The designs varied, one had a funnel coming out from the mouth, another a re-breather bag, a third had no apparent openings other than two tiny holes under the nose, while yet another was a transparent rubber hood with a complicated stainless steel fitting over the mouth.

She shuddered as she saw the line of stained and well-worn hoods, and remembered describing the use of similar hoods to the shocked jury in the infamous Saavik and Zorhof trial. She particularly remembered the jury's reaction of horror and revulsion as she demonstrated the transparent hood and the device to which it was designed to fit�

� onto the underside of a Perspex toilet! The wearer forced to swallow whatever was put down the toilet as fast as they could to avoid the transparent hood filling with the noxious contents of the toilet bowl!

Feeling sick at the recollection, she turned away from them and saw, hanging from the beam she had been tied to not so long ago, a leather bodybag dangling from a length of chain.

Going into the bedroom, Catherine was immediately assaulted by the smell of rubber and leather.

This room too had been dramatically changed. Her and Lynne's bed was still there, although now it was festooned with chains, their bedside tables had gone and there were familiar �storage boxes' there � boxes similar to those the girls had been locked inside for punishment by Group XS.

She opened the wardrobe with a sense of trepidation � she couldn't see where the all-pervading smell of rubber and leather was coming from � and stepped back in horror. All her clothes had gone!

They'd been replaced with a plethora of rubber and leather bondage and fetish clothing! In fact, she could see nothing which represented �normal clothing� save, perhaps for one powder blue suit hanging amidst the outlandish outfits. On the floor of the wardrobe, all of her shoes had been replaced with obscenely high stilettos designed to lock in place!

She left the wardrobe open as she went to her knickers drawer.

�Please, don't let them have been in here!' She thought to herself as she wrenched the drawer open.

They had, of course. Catherine felt violated as she realised that everything of hers had gone form the drawer, only to be replaced with Group XS's obscene versions of underwear. She pulled a pair of red satin panties from the top and immediately regretted it; hidden within the lacy frills were masses of little spikes, and she pulled her hand away quickly. Picking them up more gingerly, she found they not only contained spikes, but also dildos and had locking straps around thighs, waist and through the crotch.