I've got one more story to share. I started a version of this a long time ago as a kind of writing exercise, to see if I could write a mystery story that centered on erotic tickling. I abandoned it because it just wasn't coming together but decided recently to start again from scratch. I originally planned to have it done by October to share as a Halloween story, but it's done a little early so I'm posting it now.
As with others I've written, this one is pretty long but I wanted to try to tell a story that is more than just a series of tickling scenes and also depends a bit on who the characters are and what motivates them. You may find that this distracts from the tickling, but I hope you'll agree there is still plenty of tickling there to enjoy.
Be warned that this story involves extreme, sexualized, and non-consensual female-female tickling, so I'd recommend skipping it if that isn't your thing. This one also gets into some heavier themes than one typically finds in tickling erotica, including character death and grieving. Consider this a trigger warning.
If you're still reading, I hope you enjoy it.
3T3
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Class Reunion (ff, very brief mf, noncon, sexual)
Chapter 1: Prologue
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Linda took a moment to enjoy the sight of her five best friends in the middle of one of their play sessions, having the time of their lives. Maddie was the center of attention, naked and spread-eagled, her signature hoodie and jeans in a pile on the floor. Linda was standing next to Maddie, lightly running her fingernails over a couple of spots above Maddie's hips that she knew drove her berserk. Cassie was at Maddie's head, fingernails scratching her armpits while she whispered cruel taunts to her between sensual nibbles of her ears. Betty and Mia each had a foot, Betty giving the left a vicious scrubbing while Mia was teasing the right with light strokes of her nails. Taylor was fiddling with the controls for a fiendish clit tickling device she had concocted, driving Maddie ever closer to what promised to be a titanic climax. Maddie could hardly breathe between hoarse laughter and guttural moans of pleasure. For the Feather Friends, a night didn't get any better than this.
The six college students were a motley crew who no one ever would have pegged for likely friends. Linda was the den mother of the crowd: the most serious of the group, president of seemingly half the clubs on campus, and the one who was always on top of everything. Cassie was the party girl: a fiery redheaded nymphomaniac with a filthy mouth and seemingly endless thirst for new pleasures. Taylor was the group's nerd, although her friends liked to joke that she was a Hollywood nerd: a blonde bombshell with glasses and a penchant for grease-stained overalls. The engineering major was a bona fide math geek, though, and a wizard with anything mechanical. Betty was the jock: a large, muscular, Amazon of a girl with a booming laugh and a bawdy sense of humor who served as captain of their school's women's rugby team. Mia was the drama geek: a larger than life presence with a quick wit and a gift for making herself the center of attention. But it was Maddie who was the real heart and soul of the group. The petite brunette was painfully shy and went through her life in what had become her uniform, an oversized hoodie she could practically disappear into. Her dorm mates had nicknamed her Mouse because of how she seemed to fade into the background wherever she went; she was so quiet you could barely get a squeak out of her. With the Feather Friends, though, she came out of her shell and then some. Seeing Maddie blossom and hearing her magical laugh brought a smile to all of their faces.
It was Cassie who had first recruited the Feather Friends into a little experimentation that had turned into their obsession. She seemed to have a sixth sense for other people's hidden perversions and an uncanny ability to bring them to the surface. She had somehow pegged each of them as a latent erotic tickling afficionado and seduced them into full-blown fetishism. Linda had done the legwork to find the new home where they could pursue their secret obsession: a big, secluded house they rented together, not too far from campus but far enough from any neighbors that they didn't have to worry if things got a bit loud. The home's owner had been reluctant to rent to college kids, but Linda and Mia were able to persuade the elderly widow of how mature and responsible they were. In Linda's case, at least, it wasn't an act. Betty was an able jack-of-all-trades, and with her leading the way they were able to make the house a home, plus craft an enviable bondage dungeon for it. As far as toys, whatever they couldn't buy, Taylor could make --- even if it did lead to a few embarrassing moments at the campus maker space 3D-printing some very suspicious looking parts. Maddie was just a constant presence, quiet but always eager to help. If anyone asked, the six of them were just roommates. But it was easy to guess from the sly glances and affectionate playfulness among them that there was more to it than that.
As Maddie came with a screaming orgasm, the friends around her changed places for round two. Mia moved to the head of the bed, French kissing Maddie while teasing her nipples with a pair of feathers. Taylor had shifted to fiddling with the controls for another of her inventions, a pair of electrified pads that were currently attached to Maddie's stomach and delivering it a brutal tickling. Cassie had moved between Maddie's legs, eating her pussy like she was starving. Betty stayed at the foot of the bed, now moving to grip Maddie's right foot in one hand while dancing the fingers of her other hand over the soles. Linda had sat back to enjoy the show from a nearby sofa while she took a breather herself, just happy to see her friends having so much fun.
It wasn't long before Maddie cried out again in ecstasy and arched her back as much as her bondage would allow. The orgasm seemed to draw out forever before she collapsed back motionless on the mattress.
"Wow!" Cassie shouted, her face poking up from Maddie's snatch. "I think we broke her."
"Geez," Taylor replied. "She actually passed out from that last orgasm. And I was just getting ready to try out some new settings."
"Aw," said Mia in mock disappointment. "I guess we're all going to have to take a breather."
"No way," said Cassie back to her. "It's my turn now. Help me get her to the sofa."
As the others finished untying the limp Maddie, Betty carried her to the sofa and laid her down next to Linda. Linda tenderly ran her fingers through the brown hairs that were now matted to Maddie's forehead with sweat while the others went back to the bed to resume their play. But it slowly dawned on Linda that something wasn't right.
"Maddie," she said gently, lightly tapping the side of her face. "Wakey, wakey!" There was no effect.
"Maddie!" she repeated, with a bit more urgency, shaking her shoulder. The others were occupied strapping Cassie down to the bed. Linda started slapping Maddie's face with some force. "Wake up!" she shouted. There was still no effect.
"Guys!" Linda yelled to the others. "Get the hell over here! I think something's really wrong with Maddie."
The others hastily untied Cassie and rushed over. They gathered around Maddie, some jostling her, others checking pulse and breath.
"Come on, I'm sure she just needs a rest. Who wouldn't after a tickling like that?"
"I don't think she's breathing."
"I can't get a heartbeat."
"Someone call 911!"
"On it."
"Maddie! Wake up!"
******************
There were a lot of questions. Twenty year old college students don't just randomly drop dead. Under Linda's direction, the girls had managed to hide the bondage gear and tickle toys before the ambulance got there and come up with a cover story. Even the paramedics were going to notice that she reeked of sweat and sex, so they had reluctantly left her naked and strategically left out some of the more vanilla sex toys. The story they told the investigators was that Maddie had been in bed by herself, everyone else occupied in other parts of the house, when Linda had popped into her room and found her unresponsive. They had carried her to the sofa in the common room to try to revive her and called for help. They had no idea what she had been doing before Linda found her. Although they all felt guilty about lying, they kept their story straight and no one really questioned it. Even the coroner, who clearly knew Maddie had been "active" before she died, buried the details out of a sense of decency and respect for the dead. No one suspected any of the others were involved. They were just a wholesome bunch of college girls, after all. And when the official verdict came back from the coroner --- a sudden aneurysm, could have happened to anyone at any time --- it seemed to put an end to the questioning.
Even so, the atmosphere of their house was under a pall from that moment forward. Playtimes stopped. They could barely look at each other much less discuss it. No one knew what to say. After weeks of awkward silence, Cassie had tried to restart their tickle sessions. "It's what Maddie would have wanted!" she insisted. But the others just couldn't. The group argued and tears flowed. In the end, it was Linda who pronounced the final verdict:
"I'm sorry, Cassie," she said sadly. "We're going to have the accept that the Feather Friends are finished."
*************
They remained roommates for a time after that, but barely spoke to one another. The awkward silence in the house was torture. When their lease was up, they left the house behind and each immersed herself in new friends and activities. The Feather Friends saw each other in passing now and then over their remaining years in college, but they were never close again. After college, they each went their separate ways.
As the years passed, Linda from time to time heard bits and pieces about each of them through the grapevine. Cassie had found a lucrative career as a pharmaceutical rep, traveling all over to wine-and-dine doctors and convince them to hawk her employer's wares. She had been a biochemistry major and had become something of an amateur pharmacist herself in their college days, at least when it came to party drugs, so there was a certain logic to it. Mia made a go of acting but never got her big break. After a few years, she had settled down with a husband and kids to take up the life of a suburban soccer mom, until she caught her husband cheating and kicked him out. As she settled into single momhood, she discovered her gifts as an actor served her well in sales and had built a successful new career in real estate. Taylor had gone on to get her PhD at a big-name engineering school before immersing herself in a career in medical devices and serial entrepreneurship. Betty was the only one who had stayed in their old college town. She was now the head bartender at the local lesbian bar. Linda herself, meanwhile, had met her husband Dan in business school and was raising a family with him while she climbed the corporate ladder.
Chapter 2: Later
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Linda lay in bed next to Dan, their morning routine just getting underway. He was breathing heavily after some passionate, if quiet, lovemaking so they wouldn't wake the kids. Linda herself was more composed, feeling a familiar slight frustration that he had gotten there and she hadn't, but overall pleased with the start of the day. Dan wasn't much in the sack, but he was a good husband and father and she liked sending him to work with a smile on his face. She'd finish herself off in the shower like usual while he made the kids breakfast.
Later that morning, as Dan hustled the kids out the door to take them to school, Linda idly thumbed through some mail sitting on the kitchen counter. They often got behind on opening their mail between their jobs and all the attention the kids needed. It was the usual assortment of junk mail and bills, except for one letter that caught Linda's eye. There was no return address and her own address was awkwardly hand written. Unusually, it was addressed to her by her maiden name, which she hadn't used in years. Opening the letter, she read:
"Dear Linda,
The Feather Friends have unfinished business. I know what really happened that night. If you don't want the whole world to know, too, then pay close attention. The six of us are having a reunion. Meet October 30th at the dock on the big lake just north of campus. Someone will be waiting for you. The ferry leaves at 5pm. Do not miss it.
Sincerely,
An Old Friend"
Linda felt her blood run cold. This sounded incredibly creepy and unsafe. But that night --- she knew with absolute certainty that it meant the night Maddie died --- was a secret that had been weighing on her and the rest of them ever since. She had not breathed a word of it to anyone, not even Dan. She couldn't imagine it coming out now. She'd lose everything. She could go to prison for lying to the investigators. She trembled and dropped the letter but knew in that moment that she had no choice but to go.
************
It was hard for Linda to get away, especially the day before Halloween when the kids would have costumes to prepare and parties to get to. But she had made her excuses. She had told Dan there was a college reunion she really wanted to attend. She hated to lie to him, but it was kind of true. By then, they were living a few hours drive from the campus, but she promised she'd just be gone a day and back on Halloween night in time to get the kids into their costumes. Dan didn't question it and just wished her a good time.
Linda was the last to arrive at the dock that day, seeing the other four already there awkwardly standing around. They were all a little older but still clearly recognizable from their college days. Linda greeted them politely but coolly. Everyone stood around exchanging glances, unsure what to say. It was Betty who finally broke the ice. It wasn't a surprise to Linda; while Betty could be physically intimidating, she was a huge teddy bear at heart. The big woman grabbed the other four all at once into a giant bear hug and pulled them tight.
"I've missed you guys so much!" she shouted, and it started tears flowing and the first real heartfelt discussion they'd had since college.
Before long, they were interrupted by a grizzled old man who introduced himself as the ferry captain who would take them to their destination, a small island in the middle of the lake. It was a long ride in his small boat, but a good opportunity for the group to catch up on old times. As they headed out across the forbidding lake, the sky was darkening but their moods remained bright. No one mentioned Maddie or their Feather Friend days, but they were all thrilled to hear about the twists and turns the others' lives had taken since they parted ways all those years ago.
During some downtime in the conversation, Linda took the chance to chat with the captain and learn a little about where they were headed. It was a private island that had for many years been home to a rich, eccentric old recluse. She had a mansion built there that was once staffed by a virtual army of servants. When she had passed away, the place had passed ownership to a distant relative who turned it into a high-end Airbnb. People would rent it out for weddings, parties, and the like. Aside from that, the island was usually deserted. The owner paid some of the local ferrymen to bring a caretaker out once a week to maintain the place and to stop by for a security check now and then and make sure there were no squatters. But most days, the remote island just sat empty and silent except for the crashing waves on the beach and the calls of shore birds circling overhead.
Linda had asked the old ferryman who their host was but he claimed to have no idea. It was all arranged by email so he never knew who he was dealing with. All he knew was that someone had rented the place and had hired him to find the five women at the dock, take them there that evening, and pick them up the next morning.
When they finally made it to the island, the ferryman unloaded their bags and pointed them to the forbidding mansion a short walk up a path from the dock. Gesturing to the darkening sky, he told them a storm was coming and he needed to hurry back to port in the mainland. But he promised to be back for them in the morning. Linda took out her phone to try to check in with Dan, but the island was too remote and there was no signal. Not knowing what else to do, the women carried their bags up the path. They found the house unlocked but deserted.
It was a stately old mansion, massive and dark beyond the entryway. The decor was about a century out of date. On a different day it might have looked majestic, but framed by the dark thunderclouds closing in on the party, it looked like something out of a horror movie. No one else could be seen or heard there, but a note on the front door had pointed them to their rooms and informed them of where they could find a kitchen with food for the night. Someone must have been there earlier to place the note and stock the kitchen, the friends assumed, but there seemed to be no sign of them. The only noise in the place, aside from the five friends, was the occasional creak of the house settling. The women followed the instructions and each picked a bedroom with attached bath, stopping to take a few minutes to drop off their things and refresh themselves. It was already getting late and they planned to meet shortly afterward to see what the kitchen held and have a relaxing dinner together. Aside from that, no one seemed to have any idea who had invited them or what their agenda was.
Chapter 3: Cassie
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By the time they started to gather in the kitchen, the storm had broken. The sky had grown pitch dark and they could hear pouring rain outside and the boom of lightening crashes. Linda had come down and found Betty and Mia already poking around, with Taylor joining soon afterward. They had found the fixings for sandwiches in the kitchen, not a luxury meal but by then they were all famished. Cassie wasn't there yet but no one wanted to stand on ceremony. She had never been the most punctual and they figured she'd get there when she gets there. The other four each fixed themselves a meal and they sat to eat and talk.
Reluctantly, they exchanged notes. Each claimed to have received an invitation like Linda's but to have no idea who wrote it. All denied being the author and insisted they didn't know who invited them or why they were there. The spooky setting and the air of mystery was putting a chill on the evening, and Linda couldn't help feeling a growing apprehension at the wrongness of the whole situation. Still, it was good to catch up with her old friends and they all talked and laughed together despite their nervousness. As they finished their meals, it was Taylor who finally asked if they should be worried that Cassie still hadn't shown up to dinner.
"Come on," Mia laughed. "That girl would be late to her own funeral."
"I don't know," Taylor said. "She was telling me when we got here how famished she was and that she couldn't wait for dinner. We should check on her."
"Taylor's right," Linda added. "Even Cassie shouldn't be taking this long."
They all left the dinner table to go to Cassie's room and find out what was keeping her. They gathered around the door. A weird muffled grunting sound could be barely heard from behind it. Linda knocked on the door.
"Cassie," she said. "We missed you at dinner. Are you coming?"
The muffled grunting seemed to become louder and more urgent.
"If I know Cassie," Mia joked, "she probably decided to rub one out before dinner and then couldn't stop at just one."
Linda was growing worried, though. "Cassie!" she yelled more loudly. "Is everything okay in there?"
The grunting continued even louder.
"Okay, Cassie," said Linda. "I'm coming in."
Mia stepped back. "I'm just moving out of the splash zone," she quipped again.
Linda pushed the door open and gasped in shock at what she saw. Cassie was naked on the bed. Her wrists were shackled to the headboard and her feet cuffed to the foot of the bed leaving her legs spread wide. A ball gag filled her mouth. The only covering she had was an odd device, like a metal codpiece, secured between her legs. Her flaming red hair was matted to her head with sweat and her eyes were squeezed shut with tears. It was clear she was laughing herself hoarse behind her gag.
"What the hell is this?" Linda muttered in confusion. The others crowded into the room, pushing Linda in with them.
Linda rushed to Cassie's side. "Cassie, are you okay?" she shouted, unbuckling the gag. "What happened?"
With the gag removed, Cassie was laughing out loud. "My pussy!" she choked out between laughs. "Get it off!"
Linda looked at the device. She couldn't tell what it was, but it was making loud mechanical noises. It was locked around Cassie's waist and thighs. There appeared to be a clasp to release it, but the clasp was locked closed by a small padlock. Linda fumbled with it but couldn't figure out how to get it off. The others were fanning out to the various cuffs holding Cassie's wrists and ankles but also finding them locked shut with small padlocks with no way to release them.
"Shit!" Linda muttered. "Cassie, stay with us! We'll get you out of this!"
As Linda tried to reassure Cassie, she watched Cassie grow silent and rigid in her bonds as her back arched and her eyes rolled back in her head. She let out a mighty grunt before collapsing back to the bed and resuming her hoarse laughter. Linda was pretty sure Cassie had just had an intense orgasm.
"Jesus," Linda muttered. She realized she needed to take charge. "Betty, see if you can find a crowbar or something to break the locks. Taylor, couldn't you pick locks in college?"
"But I don't have my lock picks here," Taylor protested while Betty ran off.
"Well, improvise!" Linda shouted, sending Taylor scurrying.
The others tried once more to find a way to release the bonds without effect, while Cassie lapsed into silent laughter, shaking in her bonds. Her only short reprieves came every few minutes when another intense climax would seize her. Eventually, Taylor returned.
"I found some bobby pins," Taylor muttered, setting to work trying to pick the lock on the device between Cassie's legs. Before long she had the lock open and was able to release the device and pry it off. Cassie collapsed in relief and gasped for breath.
"Get her shackles off," Linda ordered Taylor, taking the strange device from her. She rolled it over in her hands. It had a hard outer surface shaped vaguely like a turtle shell. Inside it was lined with an array of impossibly fine filaments, each whirling and vibrating. A small tube was visible at the top, lined with even finer little filaments each twisting and turning to its own rhythm. Linda touched the tube and recoiled as a firm jet of suction gripped her finger, yelping as the tiny filaments inside the tube tickled the digit to a degree she wouldn't have thought possible. From where the tube was positioned, Linda could guess that it was there to suck in Cassie's clit and subject it to a brutal tickling.
"Christ," Linda muttered, finding a switch inside that let her turn off the device. "This thing must have tickled like crazy. It's a miracle Cassie didn't have a heart attack."
She returned her attention to Cassie. Taylor was fiddling with the locks on the shackles, gradually releasing one after another.
"What happened, Cassie?" Linda said urgently. "How did you get locked in this infernal contraption?"
"It was Maddie..." was all Cassie managed to croak out before collapsing into unconsciousness.
Chapter 4: Betty
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The remaining women gathered around in shock, exchanging hushed whispers.
"Maddie? Did she say it was Maddie?"
"You know it wasn't Maddie. That's impossible."
"What if it was her ghost?"
"Come on, Mia. There's no such thing as ghosts."
"But what if?"
"Cassie was half out of her mind. She was just speaking gibberish. We'll sort it out when she wakes up."
"Well someone did this. And they're still out there somewhere."
The group decided that they needed to investigate. Cassie was in no condition to come with them, but there was only one key to her room so they persuaded themselves that if they locked the door from the outside she'd be safe inside to sleep it off. Linda and Mia made sure she was resting comfortably while Taylor found the key, then they all stepped outside and Taylor locked the door behind them. They huddled around pondering their next steps.
"Wait," Linda finally asked. "Where's Betty?"
As if on cue, Betty's booming voice echoed from elsewhere in the house: "Guys! I think I need some help here!"
"Where are you?" Linda yelled back.
"I don't know," Betty replied. "This place is huge and it's a damned maze!"
"Okay," Linda replied. "Just keep talking and we'll find you."
And so Linda, Mia, and Taylor set off, Cassie safely secured in her room, to follow Betty's voice. It took some time through twists and turns for the group to finally stumble on the source of Betty's voice. They rounded a turn in a long hallway and were surprised to see Betty's torso from just the armpits up sticking out of the floor.
"What the hell happened to you?" Mia asked.
"I was looking for something to break the locks when I saw something strange," Betty said gesturing to an object on the floor a few feet away. "When I went to pick it up, I just fell through the floor. I guess this old place is in worse shape than it looked. I can't seem to pull myself up."
Linda went over to the strange object on the floor and saw it was a decorative picture frame, turned face down. She picked it up and was shocked to see a picture of the Feather Friends, all six of them. In the middle of the picture was Maddie. Linda recognized the photograph immediately. Before she died, Maddie had kept it on her nightstand as a reminder of their friendship. As far as Linda was aware, it was the only photo ever taken of Maddie smiling without her face buried inside her hoodie. Linda hadn't seen that picture since Maddie's death. She hadn't been able to bear to set foot in Maddie's room. She didn't know what had happened to the photo. She would have guessed it must have been removed a few days later when some of Maddie's family showed up to clear out all of her things. Linda just stared at the picture in disbelief until she was shaken out of it by Mia.
"Earth to Linda," Mia said. "Come on, help us get Betty out of here."
Linda turned to see the other two tugging on Betty to try to lift her out of the floor, but not getting far. Linda put the picture back down and joined to help, with Betty awkwardly trying to use her arms to add some force. All four women were struggling but starting to get some movement. But then suddenly Betty shrieked.
"Hey! Something's got my foot!" she shouted. "Someone grabbed my ankle! And the other one!"
The women all felt a strong tug as Betty was pulled back down to the floor.
"Get them off of me!" Betty yelled.
"Shit!" Linda yelled. "I'm going to try to get down there. You two keep trying to get her out of this hole."
Linda ran out the hallway and through the maze of rooms trying to figure out how to get to wherever the rest of Betty was hanging. She managed to find a staircase to the basement and follow twists and turns hoping she hadn't gotten turned around. Finally, she found what seemed to be a door to a disused storage room in what she thought was in the right place. She could hear Betty's muffled shouts from above and behind the door, confirming it would lead her just below where Betty was hanging through the floor. She grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. She tried throwing her weight against the door but it was too sturdy to give. Finally, she thought to look through a keyhole to see what was going on inside. The scene made her blood run cold.
Betty's big frame was visible hanging from the ceiling, her feet dangling a few feet above the ground. A small woman was in the room with Betty and seemed to have secured her ankles with a length of rope threaded through an eyebolt on the floor, preventing Betty from moving her legs. The woman had removed one of Betty's shoes and socks and was just untying the other shoe. The smaller woman wore a pair of jeans and what was unmistakably Maddie's signature hoodie. She was facing away from Linda, although with the hood up, Linda couldn't have seen much anyway. A large bag sat on the floor next to her.
"Hey!" Linda shouted. "Get away from her."
The small woman ignored Linda, proceeding to remove the other shoe and sock. Then she set to work tickling Betty's helpless feet. She started skittering nails over the soles sending Betty instantly into raucous laughter. As tough as the big woman was, the Feather Friends all knew her big feet were her weakness. Light teasing below her toes would have her purring like a kitten. Sharp nails along the arches would have her howling. And her heels were her Achilles heel, so to speak. There was a spot on her heels where light scratching would get her so turned on, it could make her orgasm just from tickling if it went on long enough.
"Shit! Stop! Stop!" Betty's voice boomed from above, as the woman in the hoodie continued her assault. She changed her technique several times, exploring different spots and strokes, each bringing renewed howls from Betty. She shifted to light fingernails on Betty's sensitive heels, prompting a guttural moan from the big woman. This kept up a long while before she went back to more aggressive sole tickling, sending the woman back to howling laughter. Linda pulled herself away from the keyhole to try again to break through the door without effect, while Betty cycled between deep moans, choking breaths, and laughter so powerful it was shaking the floorboards.
"Taylor!" Linda finally yelled. "Get down here! We need your lockpicking skills again."
Taylor came running while Mia stayed above, not sure how to help except to try to comfort Betty while she went berserk with the non-stop tickling of her helpless soles. Finally, Betty stopped laughing, her howls replaced by gasping breaths as she tried to get some air. Linda moved back to the keyhole to try to at least see what was going on. She saw that the form in the hoodie had stopped tickling but was removing two strange objects from the bag at her feet. They were shoes, but not like any Linda had ever seen before. They were made of metal, like something off of a suit of armor. Linda looked on in disbelief as the woman slipped one and then the other onto Betty's feet, secured some latches, and locked them in place with padlocks before releasing the rope holding down Betty's ankles. Finally, she produced a small remote control and pressed a button. Instantly, Betty was howling again even louder than before and kicking madly like she was being electrocuted.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" she shouted between guffaws and strangled breaths. "Get them off!"
It was clear the shoes were somehow tickling Betty out of her mind. Taylor arrived at just that moment and started trying to get the door open. After some fiddling, it yielded, and she and Linda burst through just in time to see the woman in the hoodie running out a door at the other side of the room. Taylor ran out the door after the mystery woman but Linda yelled for her to come back.
"Forget her!" Linda screamed. "Get back here and help Betty. She's going to have a damned stroke if we don't get these shoes off her."
Linda yanked at the shoes trying to open the latches or tug them off Betty's feet, but they were stuck tight. Taylor came back to help but with Betty's mad kicking she couldn't pick the locks.
"Betty, hold still!" Taylor yelled up through the ceiling.
"I... can't," came the breathless reply from above.
Linda tried to hold a leg steady so Taylor could get the lock off but holding Betty's powerful leg still was like trying to wrestle a bull. The whole while, Betty was going wild, sometimes guffawing, sometimes struggling for breath in silent laughter, and increasingly mixing these with deep and very obviously sexual moans. It built and built until Betty's voice broke through with a massive cry while her whole body went rigid. The force of her convulsion was enough to send Taylor and Linda flying. It was clear she had just cum, and cum hard. The two women picked themselves up and just looked on in awe as the orgasm shook the big woman before she finally slumped shaking in her bonds.
"Wait!" Linda finally shouted. "She's stopped moving! Taylor, get those damned shoes off her!"
Taylor jumped into action, but she was too late. Before she could get a lock open, the continuing tickling revived Betty and she once again started kicking like a bucking bronco.
"Okay," Linda said. "We can time this. Next time she cums, we've got to be ready. I'll hold her and you get a shoe off. First left then right."
Taylor nodded. Indeed, Betty was once again being driven between howls of laughter, heaving breaths, and guttural moans. As the moaning took over more and more, Taylor and Linda readied themselves. When the next orgasm came, it seemed even more powerful than the last. As Betty fell into limp twitching, they moved fast and managed to get a shoe off before Betty once again switched to what was ever more hoarse howls of laughter.
"One more," Linda yelled.
Once again, it built up to a crescendo, Betty went through a titanic climax, and Linda and Taylor jumped on the opportunity. Finally, they managed to get the second shoe off. Betty slumped limply from the ceiling, completely spent.
Linda studied the strange metal shoe in her hand. The device was positively evil. It was filled with the same tickling tendrils as the device they had found on Cassie's crotch, continuing to twist and vibrate each seemingly with a mind of its own. They were especially fine and dense over the special spots on the heels that would drive Betty to ecstasy. Rotating brushes were positioned to engulf the toes, varying their speed and directions independently at random in an effort to keep its wearer on her toes, so to speak. Small hard metal bumps were positioned to press into the soles at strategic pressure points and deliver intense vibrations. The shoes were clearly custom-made for Betty, and by someone who knew exactly how to drive her wild. The shoe in Linda's hand looked practically alive, the insides still writhing, spinning, and buzzing on their own. She dropped it with disgust.
Taylor went out to check the corridor through which the hooded figure had fled, but she was long gone. With Betty now subdued, Linda and Taylor rejoined Mia above and they finally managed to dislodge Betty from the hole.
"This floor didn't just give way," Taylor said, examining the hole through which Betty had fallen. "The floorboards were cut. This was a booby trap."
"Let's just get Betty somewhere safe," Linda said. The three of them struggled together to drag the big woman to her bedroom and put her to bed as they had done with Cassie.
"I'll check on Cassie and make sure she's still okay," Taylor said while the other two checked on Betty. She seemed unhurt but was out like a light, utterly exhausted. Mia, Taylor, and Linda met back in the hallway.
"Cassie's still sleeping like a baby," Taylor said. "She's safely locked in again."
"We locked Betty in, too," Mia responded. "She should be safe in there until we figure this out."
"There's something else," Taylor offered reluctantly. "When I chased after the woman who was tickling Betty, she turned around to look at me. It was Maddie. I'm sure of it."
"Oh god!" Mia moaned. "I knew it. She's out for revenge. She's come back to haunt us!"
Linda cursed under her breath. Mia had always been kind of flaky, but it wasn't like Taylor.
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Linda said flatly. "I don't know who you saw or how they know us, but it wasn't Maddie."
The others looked doubtful, but Taylor finally said, "You believe what you want to believe, but I know what I saw. Anyway, right now we need to decide what to do next."
At that moment, the house went dark as all of the power went out. With the stormy night, it was pitch black. Mia screamed as the other two fumbled for their phones. For a long minute, the only break from the absolute darkness was a couple of big strokes of lightening crashing outside, until the three women finally each got a phone out and turned on a flashlight.
"I guess what we do next is figure out how to get the power back on before all our cell phones' batteries die," Linda offered.
Chapter 5: Mia
-------------------
As spooky as the house had been before, the loss of power had made it a hundred times worse. Every creak of an old timber settling had the three friends jumping and madly pointing their flashlights around to see if someone was about to attack them. The big house had so many twists and turns, it seemed like danger could be lurking everywhere and they wouldn't know until it was right on top of them. Still, there was no choice but to go in search of a way to turn the power back on. They guessed there had to be a fuse box somewhere, probably in the basement, and made their way slowly in the dark trying to find it. Fortunately, Mia's work as a realtor had given her an uncanny instinct for where to find all the hidden utilities an inspector might need to see. Before long she had led the way to the right utility room. The door stood open and as Mia shined her flashlight through it, the electrical panel was visible on the other side. It was open and it looked like someone had flipped off the circuit breakers.
"Finally," Mia sighed, rushing forward through the doorway to turn it back on. Before she took a few steps, though, she seemed to stumble and fall forward. It was as if something had grabbed her feet. She dropped her phone as she landed hard on her knees and palms. She struggled to rise and realized she was stuck. The floor was covered with some kind of incredibly sticky glue that held her fast on her hands and knees on the floor. Before the others could react, the door slammed shut in Linda and Taylor's faces. They could hear Mia scream as a heavy bar was secured in place, blocking the door from the inside.
"Shit!" Linda shouted. "There's someone in there with her. Taylor, get the door open!"
Taylor hastily fumbled with the lock, but even with it picked she couldn't open the door with it barred from the inside. The two of them banged futilely on it, but the heavy door couldn't be budged. From inside, Mia was still screaming in terror.
Mia tried desperately to get away, as she pivoted her head side to side to see who was there. A form in jeans and a hoodie sidled up to her, carefully avoiding the glue that Mia had unwittingly stepped into. The figure reached into a bag slung over her shoulder and withdrew some kind of spray can, using it to spray the floor all around Mia. Whatever it was apparently neutralized the glue everywhere except where it held Mia's hands and shins frozen to the ground.
"Please, Maddie," Mia begged. "We never meant to hurt you. Please just let me go."
The figure said nothing, but put down the spray can and retrieved a length of rope from the bag. She cinched one end around Mia's waist and threw the other over a ceiling beam, using it as a pulley to hoist Mia's midsection up before finally tying it off. Mia was now essentially immobile below her neck. Finally, the figure reached a hand on each side of Mia's body and up into her armpits. Mia shrieked anew as those hands started to work into her pits and send her into screaming laughter. Soon they explored lower, squeezing ribs while Mia shrieked in ticklish agony. They undid some buttons on Mia's blouse and reached inside, tickling her exposed belly while she practically choked on her own laughter. For long minutes, Mia laughed helplessly while those two hands worked her over and her friends banged on the door trying in vain to force it open. Finally, her attacker paused and withdrew.
Her relief was short-lived, though, as the woman in the hoodie reached again into her bag and withdraw a pair of heavy fabric shears. Mia was terrified she was going to get stabbed, but could only look on helplessly as the mystery woman used those shears to cut away her top and discard her bra, leaving her naked from the waist up. The attacker then dropped the shears and returned to the bag to produce two large, fluffy feathers. Mia's eyes went wide as the woman brought the feathers to her helplessly exposed breasts and started to tickle the sensitive undersides.
Almost everyone who met Mia would have privately said that her best feature was her phenomenal rack. Her breasts were not just big but divinely proportioned. They were her not-so-secret weapon as both an actress and a saleswoman. She delighted in how she could mesmerize people, men and women, just by knowing how to show them off to perfect effect. When she was trying out for a part in her acting days, she'd just have to show up to auditions in a cleavage-bearing top and watch for the director to start stealing subtle glances when they thought she wasn't looking. A practiced dip here and there and pretty soon those glances weren't so subtle and she knew the part was hers. The years since and motherhood had, if anything, only enhanced her assets and she found now that that same "trick" was just as good at closing home sales as it had once been at winning her parts.
What no one knew, aside from the Feather Friends, was that her breasts weren't just her best asset physically, they were also her most ticklish. Her massive mammaries were incredibly sensitive from top to bottom. Light strokes on the bottom and sides could have her shrieking with laughter. And her exceptionally large aureola and nipples were so devastatingly ticklish that a little light teasing could leave her absolutely breathless. Even worse, tickling her nipples was like activating a cheat code for her libido. A minute or two of light tickling there would leave her so desperately horny she would do anything to get off. The Feather Friends used to delight in tying her up and tickling her nipples until she was begging them to just fuck her. Unfortunately for Mia, her attacker seemed to know very well just how sensitive Mia's chest was and exactly how to exploit it.
As the feathers explored around Mia's helpless globes, she was going red in the face from laughter. The whole while, those two feathers circled ever closer to her delightfully ticklish nipples. As they closed in, the woman in the hoodie started to steal a stroke here and there over a nipple, each stroke pulling a shriek from Mia's lips and stoking a growing fire in her loins. Soon the feathers were playing non-stop over the nipples, alternating between light teases, rapid dusting, and brutal sawing of a feather across the sides. By that point, Mia was breathless with silent laughter but also so turned on she didn't want it to stop. Half the breaths she could catch came out as deep guffaws and the other half as passionate moans. It wasn't long before she didn't even care anymore if her attacker was the ghost of her long lost friend as long as it got her off.
The hooded woman finally stopped and dropped the feathers, leaving Mia desperately panting and trying to catch her breath. She couldn't get a word out, but if she had been able to speak, she would have begged the spirit to fuck her brains out. Instead, the mysterious woman returned once more to the bag she carried and produced a strange object: a large metal bra. It was filled with an assortment of tendrils, brushes, and vibrators much like the shoes that had broken Betty. Mia tried to shake her head "No" but the woman simply ignored her, fitting the bra onto her massive breasts, latching it in place and sealing it with a small padlock. This time, she stuck some kind of gum in the lock to prevent it from being picked. Finally, she reached in the bag once more to produce a remote control and click it. In an instant, Mia's eyes practically bugged out of her head as she felt the worst tickling she had ever received in her life. She tore madly at her hands and shins, still stuck implacably to the floor, and shook as much as she could, trying in vain to dislodge the horrible bra.
The mystery woman watched the sight for a time while Mia collapsed in silent laughter, shaking as much as her odd predicament would allow. Then she sidled up to Mia again, reached a hand to her waistband, and unbuttoned Mia's pants. The figure reached a hand inside and started to masturbate Mia while she shook in helpless laughter. What little sanity Mia had at that point just sighed in relief that she was finally getting some stimulation down below. The fingers slide effortlessly into her soaking wet snatch and glided over a swollen clit silently begging for attention. Meanwhile, Mia's breasts were being inhumanly tickled by the bra, tiny tendrils covering every inch while small vibrating brushes swirled around her nipples. Even through the intense tickling, Mia was on the edge of a thunderous climax and the attention to her needy pussy pushed her over it. She came with a massive grunt as her body tensed up. The horrible bra and the skillful hand down her pants combined to draw out the orgasm for what seemed like ages before she finally came down.
They weren't done, though. The woman in the hoodie proceeded to yank Mia's pants and panties down to her knees. A finger on one hand slid back inside her and started to work her g-spot while the other hand started spider tickling her crotch from behind. Between those two hands and the bra, Mia was brought to another titanic climax even stronger than the first, and then to another. The whole time, Linda and Taylor were desperately throwing themselves against the door, trying futilely to get it open. Another climax and then another and finally Mia passed out from the intense tickling and pleasure.
Linda and Taylor couldn't see what was going on, but hearing their friend's hoarse laughter and moaning go silent inside sent them into a panic.
"This isn't working," Taylor said. "You go and find something to force the door. I'll keep trying to get it open from here."
Linda just nodded and ran off, sprinting through the house looking for anything that might work. She finally managed to find an old storage room with some gardening tools, seizing a sturdy shovel that seemed like it might serve as a lever to force the door. She rushed back only to find the door open and Taylor on the floor outside it, seemingly in a daze.
"Taylor, what happened?" she shouted. "Oh my god, are you okay?"
"Yes," Taylor panted. "It's fine. After you ran off, Maddie opened the door. It looks like she's done with Mia. I tried to stop her, but she blew right past me."
Linda helped her friend up and the two headed into the room to check on Mia. She was still stuck on hands and knees, unconscious but breathing. The awful bra was still furiously tickling her chest and, even in her unconscious state, Mia was giggling and grinning broadly. It took a long while to figure out how to get her loose, but eventually Taylor saw the spray can the figure had discarded and realized it could dissolve the glue. After some struggling, they got Mia free. It took even longer for them finally to dislodge the bra. Knowing nothing else to do, they carried the unconscious woman back to her room and locked her in like the others. The two remaining friends finally collapsed and sat on the floor outside the room as the adrenaline that had been fueling them ran out.
Chapter 6: Taylor
----------------------
Linda and Taylor sat on the floor, trying to catch some rest and calm their nerves so they could think straight. After a long while, a loud, ghostly moan coming from somewhere outside the house suddenly caught their attention.
"Look out there," Taylor said suddenly, rushing to a window. Linda followed as Taylor pointed through the window. There was a light visible in the otherwise pitch dark outside. Linda could see that it was coming from a small boathouse near the dock from which they had arrived. She was sure there hadn't been a light there before.
"It must be Maddie," Taylor said. "Who else could it be?"
"Why didn't I think of it before?" Linda said. "They must keep some emergency equipment by the dock. There could be a flare gun there. Maybe even an emergency radio. There'd have to be some way to call for help here."
"We should check it out," Taylor offered.
The pair headed for the front door, ready to make a run for the boat house through the pouring rain. Then Linda paused.
"Wait," Linda said, stopping at the door. "Whoever this is, we've been playing her game for too long. We've let her manipulate us into walking into her traps and she's just picked us off one by one: first Cassie, then Betty, then Mia. This has got to be another trap. We need to flip the script here. Stop playing her game and make her play ours."
"I don't know," Taylor said hesitantly. "We should at least scout it out and..."
"No," Linda repeated firmly. "We're not walking into another of her traps."
Seeing Linda was immovable, Taylor asked, "Okay, what do you think we should do?"
"I've got a plan," Linda said, "although I don't think you're going to like it."
She leaned in close to Taylor's ear and whispered into it, Taylor's facial expressions going from curiosity, to shock, to fear, and finally resignation.
"You can't seriously think that's going to work," Taylor said when Linda was done outlining her plan.
"I don't know," Linda said, "but it's a better chance than we'll have if we keep following this so-called ghost wherever she wants to lead us."
"Okay," Taylor said. "We'll try it your way."
************
A short time later, Taylor was lying on a table in a bra and slacks, her blouse hanging over a nearby chair. Linda was securing some curtain tiebacks they had found to serve as makeshift restraints on her wrists and ankles.
"Let me just reiterate," Taylor said, "that I am very uncomfortable with this plan."
"We've been over this," Linda said. "This quote ghost unquote seems to love tickling and to know exactly how to tickle each of us. So it's safe to assume that she knows your armpits are your weak spot and that she's itching to get her hands on them. So we're going to use that to lure her in. We'll make her think she's got your pits all to herself. I've set up these bonds so they'll look secure but will give if you really pull. You pretend you're stuck while I pretend to run away through the front door, but I'll just loop back around and come back in through a side door. While she's distracted by tickling you, I'll sneak back into the room, then you break free and together we overpower her."
"And what if you're wrong and it really is Maddie's ghost?" Taylor added fearfully.
"Then you can both tie me up and tickle me until I piss myself," Linda responded with a roll of her eyes.
Linda slipped out of the room and headed for the front door of the house, leaving Taylor seemingly bound and helpless. She opened the front door, pausing at the terrible storm still raging outside. She was going to get soaked but it was worth it to catch this "ghost" that was tormenting them.
"Oh, won't someone help me!" she heard Taylor yell out from across the house. "Linda panicked, knocked me out, and tied me up as an offering to the ghost so she could get away! Oh someone save me before the ghost finds me all tied up and with my ticklish armpits helplessly exposed!"
Linda silently cursed the luck that it was Taylor still left conscious and not Mia. Taylor lacked even an iota of Mia's talent as an actress and her performance was cringe-inducingly bad. Still, it was their best hope. Linda rushed out the door and ran around the house toward a side door she had made sure to leave unlocked. As she ran past, she paused in the rain to peer into the window of the room where Taylor was pretending to be tied up. After more waiting and more damsel-in-distress wailing from Taylor, Linda saw the door creak open to reveal the woman in the hoodie. With the mystery woman in the shadows and with the hoodie cinched so tight around her head, Linda couldn't make out a face.
The figure seemed to survey the scene before stepping into the room. She didn't speak but gave a gesture of throwing up her arms then placing her hands on her hips that seemed to say, "You've got to be fucking kidding me." This was followed by an exaggerated shrug, as if to add, "Okay. Sure. Why not?" before she headed into the room and straddled the prone Taylor.
Linda took off in a run, trying to get back before the woman could go too far with Taylor. Taylor could survive a little tickling, but one of her quirks was how incredibly submissive she became when tickled. The normally bold and self-confident woman would agree to pretty much anything if you could get your hands in her prone armpits. Back in their Feather Friend days, Cassie used to delight in slowly tickling Taylor's pits until she had agreed to do all the house's chores for a month. The others would never let her hold Taylor to it in the end. Cassie just loved the adoring look she would get from Taylor, though, gazing up at Cassie like she was a literal goddess while she stroked the tickle-broken girl's helpless pits. Linda worried that if the tickling got too intense, Taylor would be so deep in sub space she'd be pretty much useless for confronting the supposed ghost.
Linda made it to the side door and was shocked to find it locked. "Crap," she mumbled to herself. "I was sure we left it unlocked." Finding it impossible to open, she had to run all the way back to the front door. She could see in the window as she ran past that the woman in the hoodie was on top of Taylor, arms in her pits. As much of a hurry she was in, Linda was compelled to pause for a moment and see how Taylor was holding up. She was a little surprised to see that Taylor was still keeping up the ruse of being bound given how nightmarishly ticklish her armpits were. Thankfully, the woman in the hoodie seemed to be taking it easy on her so far. She would slowly run one index finger down the left armpit, then the other index finger down the right, then a middle finger down the left, then a middle finger down the right, and so on, dragging out the torture as much as she could. Even so, Taylor seemed to be using every ounce of her willpower to avoid pulling down her arms and revealing that her bondage was just for show. Her eyes were screwed shut and her whole body was trembling. It was as if the woman in the hoodie knew exactly how far she could push Taylor before she would lose control and pull free of her bonds. Linda was also curious to see that the two women seemed to be speaking to each other, but between the heavy rain and the window separating them, she couldn't make out what either was saying.
Tearing herself away from the scene, Linda raced on to get back inside and come to Taylor's rescue. By the time she got back inside the house, Linda was soaking wet from the raging storm. She rushed back to the room where Taylor was pinned underneath the woman in the hoodie, ten fingers dancing in her armpits, and burst in on them.
"Now, Taylor!" Linda shouted, charging into the room. Taylor seemed to be in a daze and wasn't reacting, but Linda rushed ahead all the same and tried to tackle the woman on top of her. Taylor chose that moment to pull free of her bonds and try to get up, but ended up just getting in the way, sending Taylor and Linda tumbling to the floor as the woman in the hoodie broke free. Linda struggled to rise, but Taylor was on top of her pinning her legs. Linda realized her opportunity to nab the ghost was evaporating and she knew that they wouldn't get a second chance to pull a ruse like this. She used all her strength to push Taylor aside and reach for the woman. She just managed to snag her hood for a second and pull it back before the fleeing figure yanked it free of Linda's hands and ran out the door. As the hood came off, Linda was very surprised to see a shock of flaming red hair fly free of it.
"Cassie?!" Linda cried in confusion as the figure fled.
Chapter 7: Linda
---------------------
Linda got to her feet as Taylor got up and grabbed her discarded blouse. "Come on!" Linda shouted, grabbing Taylor by the arm and practically dragging her out the door. The red-headed woman was already out of sight.
"We'll never catch her now," Taylor cried.
"I don't think we need to," Linda said, dragging Taylor by the hand back through the hallways to their bedrooms. She stopped at Cassie's room. Trying the door, she found it was locked.
"You've got the key!" Linda shouted hurriedly. "Get it open!"
"Okay! Okay!" Taylor answered back, fumbling in her pockets until she found the key and got the door open. Linda rushed in and pulled back the covers on the bed, finding just a pile of pillows where Cassie should have been.
"Shit!" Linda said. "It was her. It was Cassie the whole time."
"I guess so," Taylor offered. "She must have taken an earlier boat to the island, set all of this up, then gone back to the mainland so she could show up with the rest of us."
"Of course," Linda added. "She could have taken as long as she needed to learn her way around this old mansion and set up all the booby traps before the rest of us got into town. She's been running around pretending to be Maddie this whole time."
"It all makes sense," Taylor said. "But why? Why would she do this?"
"Wait. No," Linda said, a confused look appearing on her face. "It doesn't make sense. Cassie wouldn't know how to set all of this up herself. Plus, we had her locked in her room. Taylor, you checked on her and made sure she was still locked up and out cold when we got back from rescuing Betty. And you swore you saw Maddie. There's no way you would have mistaken Cassie for Maddie. It couldn't have been her. Unless you..."
Linda yelped as she felt a sharp pinch in her thigh. She looked down to see a syringe piercing her skin.
"I'm sorry, Linda" Taylor said. "Cassie came to me almost a year ago and told me I needed to help her. She could be very persuasive. She reminded me of what we had been missing all these years, since Maddie passed away. She reawoke something I thought was buried and showed me how much I've been needing it. I'm sure you'll find that she can do the same for you. We just need a chance to show you."
Linda felt herself going dizzy. "What have you done to me?" she slurred, feeling like there was a wad of cotton in her mouth. She stumbled and fell to her knees.
"You'll see," Taylor said pleadingly. "We only want what's best for you."
************
Linda slowly awoke, still feeling groggy. She tried to move but realized she was tightly bound, spreadeagled on a soft mattress. She saw that she had been stripped naked. She was tingling all over and struggled to focus. She felt lightheaded, almost silly, and found herself giggling for seemingly no reason.
Cassie, wearing nothing but some skimpy lingerie, sat down on the bed beside her. Taylor was standing awkwardly a few feet behind Cassie.
"I'm so glad you could rejoin us," Cassie said with a smirk. "The sedative Taylor gave you was short-lasting and it should be clear from your system in a few minutes. If you're wondering why you still might be feeling a bit off, it's because that syringe also contained a little pharmaceutical cocktail I cooked up. I call it giggle juice. I find it makes a little tickle session so much more enjoyable."
Linda struggled to clear her head. She still felt like she had a mouth full of cotton but slurred out some words.
"What the fuck, Cassie?" she managed to croak out. "You set this up?"
"You're damned right I did," Cassie replied.
"How?" Linda asked with disbelief. "I saw you tickled hoarse and orgasmed into unconsciousness."
"Oh please," Cassie said dismissively. "While the rest of you were turning into boring squares, I was finding new playmates and upping my tickle fetish game. Being tickled hoarse and orgasmed into unconsciousness is a normal Tuesday night for me."
"But why?" Linda asked.
"Why?!" Cassie snapped back. "Because I love you guys. I can't stand seeing you deny your real selves and turn your back on the best thing any of us ever had. None of us were really alive until we found the Feather Friends. And the rest of you haven't really been living since. After we broke up, I found new places to play. But it was never as good as it was with you. It's been torture seeing all of you turn into a bunch of boring housewives and corporate drones and knowing in my heart that you need this just as much as I do. All of you giving up on the Feather Friends is the last fucking thing Maddie ever would have wanted. When I saw Mia's Instagram last Fall and saw her posting cute pics of her kids' fucking Halloween costumes, I knew you all needed me to come rescue you from these plain Jane lives you all seem to have fallen into."
"I'm happy with the life I have," Linda said, her head starting to clear a bit. "I don't need rescuing. None of us do."
"I started with Taylor," Cassie continued, ignoring Linda's words. "I had a feeling she'd be the easiest to persuade. And I knew her resources and gift for making tickle toys would be really helpful in getting the rest of you back into the fold. Once I got Taylor to myself, it took just a few hours to break her again and make her my tickle slave."
Cassie fixed Taylor with a smirk. Taylor blushed deeply and looked down, unable to meet the gaze. Cassie turned her attention back to Linda. "You might take a little longer, Linda, but soon you're going to be begging to be a Feather Friend again."
"That's not your decision to make," Linda said. "I left that life behind."
Linda knew a vicious tickling was coming but was determined not to let it break her. She steeled her resolve and clamped down her giggling, despite the drugs still coursing through her veins. The drug cocktail made her so giddy, it was hard to stifle laughter even when she wasn't being tickled. And it left her skin tingling all over and hypersensitive. She felt like she was being tickled just from the air in the room. As Cassie ran her fingernails over a bare foot, Linda clamped her mouth shut and barely held in her laughter. She ran her fingers up Linda's leg, while Linda sucked in her breath. Light stroking over her abdomen nearly broke her, but she held fast. Cassie continued up her body tweaking ribs while Linda squeezed her eyes shut and held it in. When Cassie reached her armpits, Linda had to bite down hard on her lip to keep from laughing out loud, but she held. Cassie continued with light strokes up and down the lengths of her arms while Linda continued to resist. Playful scratches along her neck and collarbone left Linda feeling even more urgently the need to let out her giggling, while simultaneously igniting an unwelcome fire in her loins. But still, she held it in, refusing to give Cassie even a single laugh. Finally, Cassie stopped and gave an exaggerated pout of disappointment.
"This would be so much easier for both of us if you took the stick out of your ass and let yourself enjoy it," Cassie said. "But no matter."
"Taylor," Cassie barked to the woman behind her, snapping her fingers and holding out a palm. Taylor meekly placed a small remote control in Cassie's hand. "You're going to enjoy this, Linda, whether you want to or not."
Linda sucked in another breath and steeled herself for whatever was to come, determined not to break for Cassie. Cassie pushed a button on the remote and in instant Linda choked out her breath and let out an undignified squeal.
"Fuck!" she yelled before a stream of giggles erupted uncontrollably from her throat. Cassie had turned on two tiny devices, one secured over her clit and the other on her butthole, causing them to come alive with stimulating electric pulses. It felt like thousands of tiny insect legs teasing the two sensitive patches of skin. It was immensely ticklish, but also unbelievably sexually stimulating. The sensation ripped right through every ounce of resolve she had assembled, cutting through all her defenses right to the core of her being. She was giggling like a schoolgirl and helpless to hold it back.
"Now let's get started for real," Cassie said with a grin, as she sidled up to Linda and shoved all ten fingers in her ticklish armpits. Her efforts to harden herself to the tickling already broken by the clit and rectal ticklers, Linda laughed and screamed together in one instant, helpless against the assault. Cassie kept up the horrible armpit tickling for more than five minutes while Linda threshed in her bonds, helplessly laughing and trying to babble out pleas for mercy. From there, she moved to Linda's ribs, then her stomach, spidering over her crotch, a long while on her feet, back to her ribs, her knees, her neck, her thighs, and on and on, one merciless tickling assault after another. Linda was in hysterics, hoarse with laughter and trying desperately to beg for mercy but unable to catch a breath.
"Cassie," Taylor quietly interjected from behind. "I think maybe she's had enough."
"I'll decide when she's had enough," Cassie snapped back before launching into another vicious armpit tickling.
Cassie finally stopped her brutal tickling assault, leaving Linda heaving for breath as she struggled to get her giggling under control. Cassie pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bed. Linda could only gasp for breath, before finally managing to get enough air to choke something out.
"I'm... not... broken," Linda finally squeezed out between ragged breaths.
"Oh, you think we're done?" Cassie said with a laugh. "That was just the warmup. You see, I still remember how to crack your Little Miss Perfect exterior."
"Your weakness was always right here," Cassie said, running a finger down Linda's bare pussy lips. Linda was already soaking wet and Cassie's finger easily parted the slit while Linda just trembled under the touch. "I'm going to have you begging to be my tickle slave, just so I'll let you cum."
The whole time Linda was catching her breath, she was still struggling with the clit and anal ticklers that were relentlessly stimulating her. The tickling was maddening but it was also building her arousal up to a fever pitch. Linda could feel an orgasm approaching. She fought to hold it back, biting her lip to try to stifle the moans she could feel ready to erupt from her. The last thing she wanted to do was cum for Cassie. While Linda struggled to hold back the climax that was inevitably approaching, Cassie rose and retrieved a blindfold, tying it tight around Linda's head. Linda wanted to protest but she knew if she opened her mouth to say another word, her moans would betray how close she was to cumming. She could only lie there while the orgasm came ever closer until she was certain there was no stopping it.
Right as the orgasm was about to crest, Linda felt ten fingers in her armpits for another brutal tickle assault. She screamed as the orgasm was ruined before it started. Cassie stayed in Linda's pits for a long while, driving away the climax with insane tickling as Linda could only scream herself hoarse. Finally, she relented, leaving Linda once again panting for breath. With the blindfold on, she had no idea where Cassie was or what she was planning next.
"I bet someone wants to cum," Cassie taunted her.
Linda could only gasp and shudder in her bonds. She knew if she tried to deny it, her voice would only betray how aroused she was. With Cassie no longer tickling her, her attention was drawn back to the relentless tickling sensation on her clit and butthole. She felt the orgasm starting to build once again. Once more, she tried to fight it back, knowing it was a losing battle. The feeling of an impending climax grew and grew until it was ready to burst through her again. Even while she fought the feeling, Linda couldn't deny that she was longing for it as well.
This time, right as she was about to climax, Cassie began a brutal raking of her soles with a pair of brushes. Once more, Linda screamed as the sudden and incredible tickling forced away the impending orgasm and left her howling in ticklish torture. Cassie dropped the brushes, continuing with her fingernails until Linda was in silent laughter, her approaching orgasm now far away again. Finally, she relented, leaving Linda trembling in her bonds. Once more, the relentless tickle in her clit and rectum brought Linda's attention back there as the orgasm she was denied started to build again.
And so it continued through one denied orgasm after another, each time forced away by another savage tickling. Cassie would taunt her cruelly between tickles, asking her if she was ready to cum yet. Not knowing where Cassie was or what part of her body was going to be tickled next made it twice as torturous. Linda silently told herself that she wasn't going to let herself cum for Cassie. But she couldn't deny that her body wanted it more each time it was denied to her. Before long, she was absolutely desperate to be allowed to cum. With each denial, she came to curse the loss of the orgasm just about to wash over her more and more until she was sobbing and swearing under her breath more for the lost climax than for the brutal tickling that robbed her of it. Finally, she couldn't take any more.
"All right! Stop!" Linda gasped out between hoarse breaths after a vicious tickling of her taut belly had forced away yet another orgasm.
"Tell me you remember how good it was," Cassie purred. "Tell me you'll do anything to feel a ticklegasm one more time."
"Anything," Linda panted. "Yes, I want it. Just fucking let me cum already!"
"That's all you needed to say," Cassie breathed into Linda's ear as the tickling in her clit and butthole was once again bringing a climax in reach.
As the climax approached and began to crest once more, Linda tensed in frustration, her body expecting another denial. She gasped as she felt Cassie's fingernails in her pits again, but breathed a sigh of relief as she got just a slow, light scratching instead of the soul-rending tickle torture her body had come to expect. It was enough to set her giggling uncontrollably again, but not enough to drive away the delicious pleasure in her clit and asshole. Linda felt the orgasm keep coming and despite herself she embraced it wholly. When it finally broke, the pleasure was unimaginable. Linda let out a primal scream and arched her back as much as her bonds would allow while her eyes rolled back in her head. The light tickling kept her laughing as her first ticklegasm in years just kept on rolling through her for what seemed an eternity.
"Oh god!" Linda muttered, as she finally came down from the peak. "I haven't cum like that since college."
"I knew you'd see the light," Cassie said. Linda could practically hear her smirk. "But we're not done yet."
As Linda recovered in the afterglow, the clit tickler was already powering her forward again to another climax. She was too spent to fight it, just wanting to luxuriate in the feeling. As it once again began to crest, Linda's body tensed in expectation of another denial. This time her anticipation was met with the feel of a couple of delicate makeup brushes lightly tickling her nipples. She gasped, the tickling setting her giggling again but only enhancing her arousal. When the second orgasm came, it was even more powerful than the first. By the time it had coursed through her and her soft giggles died down, Linda felt like she'd used up a lifetime's supply of pleasure. The third orgasm came with the delightful feeling of Cassie lightly tickling her mound. The fourth with feather-light fingernails tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. Somehow it continued, again and again, the clit and butt ticklers each time reviving her and sending straight into the arms of another ticklegasm while Cassie found another spot to sensuously tickle her through her climax. Eventually, she passed out in bliss and utter exhaustion.
************
When Linda awoke, Cassie was sitting in a chair pulled up to the bed. Taylor was pacing nervously behind her. Linda realized she was still bound, although it felt like she had been cleaned up while she was out. She took a long while to come back, physical exhaustion and the intense afterglow leaving her mind in a haze. But as awareness of her continuing predicament came back to her, her mind started to focus and she fixed Cassie with an intense stare. Cassie looked down on her like a beloved pet, brushing some damp hair out of her face.
"So," Cassie asked with a confident grin. "Are the Feather Friends back?"
Linda took a long while to steady her nerves and formulate a response. "No," she finally croaked out hoarsely.
Cassie's expression changed in an instant from smug satisfaction to anger and disbelief.
"What do you mean, no?!" Cassie demanded. "Tell me that wasn't amazing! Tell me you didn't miss that!"
"It was good," Linda said. "Okay, amazing. But I've got a husband and kids who mean a lot more to me. I'm not going to cheat on him and risk ruining everything that really matters to me for a good lay every now and then."
Cassie was now hopping mad. "You'd throw away the Feather Friends over a fucking man?" she asked in disbelief. She looked like she was ready to explode.
"I can see I was being too nice to you," Cassie continued, the anger palpable in her voice. "It looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way. This time, I'm really going to wreck you. Giving up the Feather Friends for a goddamned husband and kids? I'm not stopping until you're so fucking broken you can't even remember their names."
"Come on, Cassie," Taylor said from behind her. "This is going too far. We'll find another way."
"Fuck off!" Cassie barked at Taylor before diving into a merciless tickling of Linda. This time, there was nothing playful or sensual. Cassie was out for blood, determined to absolutely destroy Linda, and she wasn't holding back anything.
Linda laughed and screamed until she couldn't catch a breath while Cassie tormented her without mercy. She used her knowledge of Linda's tickle spots to find every nook and cranny that would drive her crazy. Linda could only try to endure under the assault.
"Stop!" Linda managed to gasp out between guffaws, while Cassie continued without a pause. Taylor, who had been standing quietly behind Cassie watching all of this unfold, stepped forward and tapped Cassie on the shoulder to get her attention.
"Cassie, you're going too far," Taylor said meekly. "I really don't think she's into it. We'll find another way."
"Shut the hell up, Taylor," Cassie snapped at her, "or you're going to be tied down next to her getting it twice as bad."
Taylor was shocked into silence and just stood there like a deer in headlights.
"Please... Taylor," Linda managed to choke out between heaving breaths. "She's gone crazy. She's going to kill me."
Cassie grabbed a stiff brush in each hand and proceeded to torment Linda's soles until she couldn't breathe. Linda couldn't get another word out. She laughed herself hoarse until she felt like she was going to pass out. She genuinely believed Cassie was going to kill her with tickling.
Then Cassie screamed and dropped to the ground beside Linda, revealing Taylor behind her with a stun gun in her hand.
"I'm so sorry, Linda," Taylor muttered with a sob as Linda, too, lost consciousness.
Chapter 8: Epilogue
-------------------------
Linda awoke to find Taylor next to her, looking on in concern. She realized she was free from the bondage. From the light coming through the window, she could see that it was morning and the storm had broken. Cassie was nearby, tied up on the sofa, fury in her eyes and trying to scream at them through a ball gag.
"Taylor," Linda said with a start. "What happened?"
"I'm so, so sorry, Linda," Taylor said, with tears in her eyes. "I really thought Cassie was right, that if she could just show all of us how good things were before we lost Maddie that we'd choose to be the Feather Friends again. Mia and Betty are fine. They're still sleeping things off. I had a satellite phone hidden in my room and I've called for help. The ferryman is on his way and when we get back to the dock the police will be waiting for us. They'll take care of Cassie. And I'll turn myself in."
Linda was too exhausted to say anything more and just fell back asleep.
The rest of the day passed in a blur for her. The group headed back, somber except for a very defiant Cassie. As promised, Cassie and Taylor were taken into custody. The authorities had many questions, but eventually Linda, Mia, and Betty were able to go. Linda was a little later getting home that night than planned, but she still got back in time to enjoy Halloween evening with her family. Her mind was elsewhere, but she was glad to be there for them.
The wheels of justice ground slowly, but a lot eventually happened over the ensuing months. None of the group wanted everything to come out in court, so the prosecutors ended up giving Cassie a lenient plea bargain for kidnapping and burying some of the more salacious details to keep the others cooperating. She would serve a few years. Taylor was deeply repentant and for her cooperation, and with Linda's support, she got a generous offer of probation with her record erased if she stayed out of trouble. The case files were sealed by mutual agreement so everyone could put it behind them.
************
Linda found herself some time later sitting at a table in Betty's bar, chatting with Betty and Mia in the off hours. The events on the island had at least rekindled their friendship and Betty, Mia, and Linda would get together from time to time to catch up. Things were icier with Taylor, although Betty had been reaching out. Taylor had tried to reopen some communication with Cassie in prison, although the others at that point wanted nothing to do with her. Long-delayed conversations gradually began to happen about the events of that day on the island and the day long before in college when Maddie had died.
"At least Cassie is facing the music for what she did," Linda said.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Betty offered. "Taylor told me that Cassie says there's nothing to do in prison but fuck. She says she's turned half her cell block into tickle slaves. It sounds like she's having the time of her life in there."
"I'm the queen bitch here!" Mia shouted in uncanny impersonation of Cassie's voice and mannerisms, while waggling her fingernails menacingly in front of her.
"That's not funny," said Linda. "Anyway, I'm glad Cassie's off the streets. Hopefully, she's getting some actual help in there. How have you guys been doing?"
"You might not want to hear it," Mia said with some reluctance. "But Cassie did kind of have a point. That night on the island made Betty and me realize how much we'd been missing out on since we dissolved the Feather Friends."
"Mia and I have been meeting up to play again just like old times," Betty added with a hearty chuckle. "We've even been advertising online for other play partners. Mia was an alto in her musical theater days, but I've found a spot on her inner thigh that gets her to a high C."
Betty gave a lustful wink while Mia blushed with uncharacteristic shyness.
"You know, Linda," Betty said, "you're always welcome to join us."
"No," said Linda. "That life's behind me. But I have missed hanging with you guys. I'm so glad we're friends again."
"Always," Betty and Mia said in unison as the three engaged in a group hug.
***********
Linda made the long drive home and was relieved to drop her purse by the door and kick off her shoes. The kids were with their grandparents for the weekend, so the house was blissfully quiet. She found her husband Dan in the bedroom, already waiting for her in bed. It was a relief to take off her tight jeans and top and discard her confining bra and underwear. She had been really nervous about letting Dan in on her kinky side. It was a part of her life she'd never wanted to share with him out of fear of how he'd react. But he was eager to please her and she was pleasantly surprised to find that he was game. It was a work in progress --- he didn't exactly have the sadistic streak for it --- but the truth was that their sex life had never been better and she had never been more in love with him. He secured her wrists and ankles to the bed and produced a feather duster from beneath it. While Linda closed her eyes in anticipation, her husband brushed her hair out of her face, kissed her tenderly on the forehead, and said, "The safeword is banana, dear."
As with others I've written, this one is pretty long but I wanted to try to tell a story that is more than just a series of tickling scenes and also depends a bit on who the characters are and what motivates them. You may find that this distracts from the tickling, but I hope you'll agree there is still plenty of tickling there to enjoy.
Be warned that this story involves extreme, sexualized, and non-consensual female-female tickling, so I'd recommend skipping it if that isn't your thing. This one also gets into some heavier themes than one typically finds in tickling erotica, including character death and grieving. Consider this a trigger warning.
If you're still reading, I hope you enjoy it.
3T3
-----------------------------
Class Reunion (ff, very brief mf, noncon, sexual)
Chapter 1: Prologue
-------------------------
Linda took a moment to enjoy the sight of her five best friends in the middle of one of their play sessions, having the time of their lives. Maddie was the center of attention, naked and spread-eagled, her signature hoodie and jeans in a pile on the floor. Linda was standing next to Maddie, lightly running her fingernails over a couple of spots above Maddie's hips that she knew drove her berserk. Cassie was at Maddie's head, fingernails scratching her armpits while she whispered cruel taunts to her between sensual nibbles of her ears. Betty and Mia each had a foot, Betty giving the left a vicious scrubbing while Mia was teasing the right with light strokes of her nails. Taylor was fiddling with the controls for a fiendish clit tickling device she had concocted, driving Maddie ever closer to what promised to be a titanic climax. Maddie could hardly breathe between hoarse laughter and guttural moans of pleasure. For the Feather Friends, a night didn't get any better than this.
The six college students were a motley crew who no one ever would have pegged for likely friends. Linda was the den mother of the crowd: the most serious of the group, president of seemingly half the clubs on campus, and the one who was always on top of everything. Cassie was the party girl: a fiery redheaded nymphomaniac with a filthy mouth and seemingly endless thirst for new pleasures. Taylor was the group's nerd, although her friends liked to joke that she was a Hollywood nerd: a blonde bombshell with glasses and a penchant for grease-stained overalls. The engineering major was a bona fide math geek, though, and a wizard with anything mechanical. Betty was the jock: a large, muscular, Amazon of a girl with a booming laugh and a bawdy sense of humor who served as captain of their school's women's rugby team. Mia was the drama geek: a larger than life presence with a quick wit and a gift for making herself the center of attention. But it was Maddie who was the real heart and soul of the group. The petite brunette was painfully shy and went through her life in what had become her uniform, an oversized hoodie she could practically disappear into. Her dorm mates had nicknamed her Mouse because of how she seemed to fade into the background wherever she went; she was so quiet you could barely get a squeak out of her. With the Feather Friends, though, she came out of her shell and then some. Seeing Maddie blossom and hearing her magical laugh brought a smile to all of their faces.
It was Cassie who had first recruited the Feather Friends into a little experimentation that had turned into their obsession. She seemed to have a sixth sense for other people's hidden perversions and an uncanny ability to bring them to the surface. She had somehow pegged each of them as a latent erotic tickling afficionado and seduced them into full-blown fetishism. Linda had done the legwork to find the new home where they could pursue their secret obsession: a big, secluded house they rented together, not too far from campus but far enough from any neighbors that they didn't have to worry if things got a bit loud. The home's owner had been reluctant to rent to college kids, but Linda and Mia were able to persuade the elderly widow of how mature and responsible they were. In Linda's case, at least, it wasn't an act. Betty was an able jack-of-all-trades, and with her leading the way they were able to make the house a home, plus craft an enviable bondage dungeon for it. As far as toys, whatever they couldn't buy, Taylor could make --- even if it did lead to a few embarrassing moments at the campus maker space 3D-printing some very suspicious looking parts. Maddie was just a constant presence, quiet but always eager to help. If anyone asked, the six of them were just roommates. But it was easy to guess from the sly glances and affectionate playfulness among them that there was more to it than that.
As Maddie came with a screaming orgasm, the friends around her changed places for round two. Mia moved to the head of the bed, French kissing Maddie while teasing her nipples with a pair of feathers. Taylor had shifted to fiddling with the controls for another of her inventions, a pair of electrified pads that were currently attached to Maddie's stomach and delivering it a brutal tickling. Cassie had moved between Maddie's legs, eating her pussy like she was starving. Betty stayed at the foot of the bed, now moving to grip Maddie's right foot in one hand while dancing the fingers of her other hand over the soles. Linda had sat back to enjoy the show from a nearby sofa while she took a breather herself, just happy to see her friends having so much fun.
It wasn't long before Maddie cried out again in ecstasy and arched her back as much as her bondage would allow. The orgasm seemed to draw out forever before she collapsed back motionless on the mattress.
"Wow!" Cassie shouted, her face poking up from Maddie's snatch. "I think we broke her."
"Geez," Taylor replied. "She actually passed out from that last orgasm. And I was just getting ready to try out some new settings."
"Aw," said Mia in mock disappointment. "I guess we're all going to have to take a breather."
"No way," said Cassie back to her. "It's my turn now. Help me get her to the sofa."
As the others finished untying the limp Maddie, Betty carried her to the sofa and laid her down next to Linda. Linda tenderly ran her fingers through the brown hairs that were now matted to Maddie's forehead with sweat while the others went back to the bed to resume their play. But it slowly dawned on Linda that something wasn't right.
"Maddie," she said gently, lightly tapping the side of her face. "Wakey, wakey!" There was no effect.
"Maddie!" she repeated, with a bit more urgency, shaking her shoulder. The others were occupied strapping Cassie down to the bed. Linda started slapping Maddie's face with some force. "Wake up!" she shouted. There was still no effect.
"Guys!" Linda yelled to the others. "Get the hell over here! I think something's really wrong with Maddie."
The others hastily untied Cassie and rushed over. They gathered around Maddie, some jostling her, others checking pulse and breath.
"Come on, I'm sure she just needs a rest. Who wouldn't after a tickling like that?"
"I don't think she's breathing."
"I can't get a heartbeat."
"Someone call 911!"
"On it."
"Maddie! Wake up!"
******************
There were a lot of questions. Twenty year old college students don't just randomly drop dead. Under Linda's direction, the girls had managed to hide the bondage gear and tickle toys before the ambulance got there and come up with a cover story. Even the paramedics were going to notice that she reeked of sweat and sex, so they had reluctantly left her naked and strategically left out some of the more vanilla sex toys. The story they told the investigators was that Maddie had been in bed by herself, everyone else occupied in other parts of the house, when Linda had popped into her room and found her unresponsive. They had carried her to the sofa in the common room to try to revive her and called for help. They had no idea what she had been doing before Linda found her. Although they all felt guilty about lying, they kept their story straight and no one really questioned it. Even the coroner, who clearly knew Maddie had been "active" before she died, buried the details out of a sense of decency and respect for the dead. No one suspected any of the others were involved. They were just a wholesome bunch of college girls, after all. And when the official verdict came back from the coroner --- a sudden aneurysm, could have happened to anyone at any time --- it seemed to put an end to the questioning.
Even so, the atmosphere of their house was under a pall from that moment forward. Playtimes stopped. They could barely look at each other much less discuss it. No one knew what to say. After weeks of awkward silence, Cassie had tried to restart their tickle sessions. "It's what Maddie would have wanted!" she insisted. But the others just couldn't. The group argued and tears flowed. In the end, it was Linda who pronounced the final verdict:
"I'm sorry, Cassie," she said sadly. "We're going to have the accept that the Feather Friends are finished."
*************
They remained roommates for a time after that, but barely spoke to one another. The awkward silence in the house was torture. When their lease was up, they left the house behind and each immersed herself in new friends and activities. The Feather Friends saw each other in passing now and then over their remaining years in college, but they were never close again. After college, they each went their separate ways.
As the years passed, Linda from time to time heard bits and pieces about each of them through the grapevine. Cassie had found a lucrative career as a pharmaceutical rep, traveling all over to wine-and-dine doctors and convince them to hawk her employer's wares. She had been a biochemistry major and had become something of an amateur pharmacist herself in their college days, at least when it came to party drugs, so there was a certain logic to it. Mia made a go of acting but never got her big break. After a few years, she had settled down with a husband and kids to take up the life of a suburban soccer mom, until she caught her husband cheating and kicked him out. As she settled into single momhood, she discovered her gifts as an actor served her well in sales and had built a successful new career in real estate. Taylor had gone on to get her PhD at a big-name engineering school before immersing herself in a career in medical devices and serial entrepreneurship. Betty was the only one who had stayed in their old college town. She was now the head bartender at the local lesbian bar. Linda herself, meanwhile, had met her husband Dan in business school and was raising a family with him while she climbed the corporate ladder.
Chapter 2: Later
--------------------
Linda lay in bed next to Dan, their morning routine just getting underway. He was breathing heavily after some passionate, if quiet, lovemaking so they wouldn't wake the kids. Linda herself was more composed, feeling a familiar slight frustration that he had gotten there and she hadn't, but overall pleased with the start of the day. Dan wasn't much in the sack, but he was a good husband and father and she liked sending him to work with a smile on his face. She'd finish herself off in the shower like usual while he made the kids breakfast.
Later that morning, as Dan hustled the kids out the door to take them to school, Linda idly thumbed through some mail sitting on the kitchen counter. They often got behind on opening their mail between their jobs and all the attention the kids needed. It was the usual assortment of junk mail and bills, except for one letter that caught Linda's eye. There was no return address and her own address was awkwardly hand written. Unusually, it was addressed to her by her maiden name, which she hadn't used in years. Opening the letter, she read:
"Dear Linda,
The Feather Friends have unfinished business. I know what really happened that night. If you don't want the whole world to know, too, then pay close attention. The six of us are having a reunion. Meet October 30th at the dock on the big lake just north of campus. Someone will be waiting for you. The ferry leaves at 5pm. Do not miss it.
Sincerely,
An Old Friend"
Linda felt her blood run cold. This sounded incredibly creepy and unsafe. But that night --- she knew with absolute certainty that it meant the night Maddie died --- was a secret that had been weighing on her and the rest of them ever since. She had not breathed a word of it to anyone, not even Dan. She couldn't imagine it coming out now. She'd lose everything. She could go to prison for lying to the investigators. She trembled and dropped the letter but knew in that moment that she had no choice but to go.
************
It was hard for Linda to get away, especially the day before Halloween when the kids would have costumes to prepare and parties to get to. But she had made her excuses. She had told Dan there was a college reunion she really wanted to attend. She hated to lie to him, but it was kind of true. By then, they were living a few hours drive from the campus, but she promised she'd just be gone a day and back on Halloween night in time to get the kids into their costumes. Dan didn't question it and just wished her a good time.
Linda was the last to arrive at the dock that day, seeing the other four already there awkwardly standing around. They were all a little older but still clearly recognizable from their college days. Linda greeted them politely but coolly. Everyone stood around exchanging glances, unsure what to say. It was Betty who finally broke the ice. It wasn't a surprise to Linda; while Betty could be physically intimidating, she was a huge teddy bear at heart. The big woman grabbed the other four all at once into a giant bear hug and pulled them tight.
"I've missed you guys so much!" she shouted, and it started tears flowing and the first real heartfelt discussion they'd had since college.
Before long, they were interrupted by a grizzled old man who introduced himself as the ferry captain who would take them to their destination, a small island in the middle of the lake. It was a long ride in his small boat, but a good opportunity for the group to catch up on old times. As they headed out across the forbidding lake, the sky was darkening but their moods remained bright. No one mentioned Maddie or their Feather Friend days, but they were all thrilled to hear about the twists and turns the others' lives had taken since they parted ways all those years ago.
During some downtime in the conversation, Linda took the chance to chat with the captain and learn a little about where they were headed. It was a private island that had for many years been home to a rich, eccentric old recluse. She had a mansion built there that was once staffed by a virtual army of servants. When she had passed away, the place had passed ownership to a distant relative who turned it into a high-end Airbnb. People would rent it out for weddings, parties, and the like. Aside from that, the island was usually deserted. The owner paid some of the local ferrymen to bring a caretaker out once a week to maintain the place and to stop by for a security check now and then and make sure there were no squatters. But most days, the remote island just sat empty and silent except for the crashing waves on the beach and the calls of shore birds circling overhead.
Linda had asked the old ferryman who their host was but he claimed to have no idea. It was all arranged by email so he never knew who he was dealing with. All he knew was that someone had rented the place and had hired him to find the five women at the dock, take them there that evening, and pick them up the next morning.
When they finally made it to the island, the ferryman unloaded their bags and pointed them to the forbidding mansion a short walk up a path from the dock. Gesturing to the darkening sky, he told them a storm was coming and he needed to hurry back to port in the mainland. But he promised to be back for them in the morning. Linda took out her phone to try to check in with Dan, but the island was too remote and there was no signal. Not knowing what else to do, the women carried their bags up the path. They found the house unlocked but deserted.
It was a stately old mansion, massive and dark beyond the entryway. The decor was about a century out of date. On a different day it might have looked majestic, but framed by the dark thunderclouds closing in on the party, it looked like something out of a horror movie. No one else could be seen or heard there, but a note on the front door had pointed them to their rooms and informed them of where they could find a kitchen with food for the night. Someone must have been there earlier to place the note and stock the kitchen, the friends assumed, but there seemed to be no sign of them. The only noise in the place, aside from the five friends, was the occasional creak of the house settling. The women followed the instructions and each picked a bedroom with attached bath, stopping to take a few minutes to drop off their things and refresh themselves. It was already getting late and they planned to meet shortly afterward to see what the kitchen held and have a relaxing dinner together. Aside from that, no one seemed to have any idea who had invited them or what their agenda was.
Chapter 3: Cassie
---------------------
By the time they started to gather in the kitchen, the storm had broken. The sky had grown pitch dark and they could hear pouring rain outside and the boom of lightening crashes. Linda had come down and found Betty and Mia already poking around, with Taylor joining soon afterward. They had found the fixings for sandwiches in the kitchen, not a luxury meal but by then they were all famished. Cassie wasn't there yet but no one wanted to stand on ceremony. She had never been the most punctual and they figured she'd get there when she gets there. The other four each fixed themselves a meal and they sat to eat and talk.
Reluctantly, they exchanged notes. Each claimed to have received an invitation like Linda's but to have no idea who wrote it. All denied being the author and insisted they didn't know who invited them or why they were there. The spooky setting and the air of mystery was putting a chill on the evening, and Linda couldn't help feeling a growing apprehension at the wrongness of the whole situation. Still, it was good to catch up with her old friends and they all talked and laughed together despite their nervousness. As they finished their meals, it was Taylor who finally asked if they should be worried that Cassie still hadn't shown up to dinner.
"Come on," Mia laughed. "That girl would be late to her own funeral."
"I don't know," Taylor said. "She was telling me when we got here how famished she was and that she couldn't wait for dinner. We should check on her."
"Taylor's right," Linda added. "Even Cassie shouldn't be taking this long."
They all left the dinner table to go to Cassie's room and find out what was keeping her. They gathered around the door. A weird muffled grunting sound could be barely heard from behind it. Linda knocked on the door.
"Cassie," she said. "We missed you at dinner. Are you coming?"
The muffled grunting seemed to become louder and more urgent.
"If I know Cassie," Mia joked, "she probably decided to rub one out before dinner and then couldn't stop at just one."
Linda was growing worried, though. "Cassie!" she yelled more loudly. "Is everything okay in there?"
The grunting continued even louder.
"Okay, Cassie," said Linda. "I'm coming in."
Mia stepped back. "I'm just moving out of the splash zone," she quipped again.
Linda pushed the door open and gasped in shock at what she saw. Cassie was naked on the bed. Her wrists were shackled to the headboard and her feet cuffed to the foot of the bed leaving her legs spread wide. A ball gag filled her mouth. The only covering she had was an odd device, like a metal codpiece, secured between her legs. Her flaming red hair was matted to her head with sweat and her eyes were squeezed shut with tears. It was clear she was laughing herself hoarse behind her gag.
"What the hell is this?" Linda muttered in confusion. The others crowded into the room, pushing Linda in with them.
Linda rushed to Cassie's side. "Cassie, are you okay?" she shouted, unbuckling the gag. "What happened?"
With the gag removed, Cassie was laughing out loud. "My pussy!" she choked out between laughs. "Get it off!"
Linda looked at the device. She couldn't tell what it was, but it was making loud mechanical noises. It was locked around Cassie's waist and thighs. There appeared to be a clasp to release it, but the clasp was locked closed by a small padlock. Linda fumbled with it but couldn't figure out how to get it off. The others were fanning out to the various cuffs holding Cassie's wrists and ankles but also finding them locked shut with small padlocks with no way to release them.
"Shit!" Linda muttered. "Cassie, stay with us! We'll get you out of this!"
As Linda tried to reassure Cassie, she watched Cassie grow silent and rigid in her bonds as her back arched and her eyes rolled back in her head. She let out a mighty grunt before collapsing back to the bed and resuming her hoarse laughter. Linda was pretty sure Cassie had just had an intense orgasm.
"Jesus," Linda muttered. She realized she needed to take charge. "Betty, see if you can find a crowbar or something to break the locks. Taylor, couldn't you pick locks in college?"
"But I don't have my lock picks here," Taylor protested while Betty ran off.
"Well, improvise!" Linda shouted, sending Taylor scurrying.
The others tried once more to find a way to release the bonds without effect, while Cassie lapsed into silent laughter, shaking in her bonds. Her only short reprieves came every few minutes when another intense climax would seize her. Eventually, Taylor returned.
"I found some bobby pins," Taylor muttered, setting to work trying to pick the lock on the device between Cassie's legs. Before long she had the lock open and was able to release the device and pry it off. Cassie collapsed in relief and gasped for breath.
"Get her shackles off," Linda ordered Taylor, taking the strange device from her. She rolled it over in her hands. It had a hard outer surface shaped vaguely like a turtle shell. Inside it was lined with an array of impossibly fine filaments, each whirling and vibrating. A small tube was visible at the top, lined with even finer little filaments each twisting and turning to its own rhythm. Linda touched the tube and recoiled as a firm jet of suction gripped her finger, yelping as the tiny filaments inside the tube tickled the digit to a degree she wouldn't have thought possible. From where the tube was positioned, Linda could guess that it was there to suck in Cassie's clit and subject it to a brutal tickling.
"Christ," Linda muttered, finding a switch inside that let her turn off the device. "This thing must have tickled like crazy. It's a miracle Cassie didn't have a heart attack."
She returned her attention to Cassie. Taylor was fiddling with the locks on the shackles, gradually releasing one after another.
"What happened, Cassie?" Linda said urgently. "How did you get locked in this infernal contraption?"
"It was Maddie..." was all Cassie managed to croak out before collapsing into unconsciousness.
Chapter 4: Betty
---------------------
The remaining women gathered around in shock, exchanging hushed whispers.
"Maddie? Did she say it was Maddie?"
"You know it wasn't Maddie. That's impossible."
"What if it was her ghost?"
"Come on, Mia. There's no such thing as ghosts."
"But what if?"
"Cassie was half out of her mind. She was just speaking gibberish. We'll sort it out when she wakes up."
"Well someone did this. And they're still out there somewhere."
The group decided that they needed to investigate. Cassie was in no condition to come with them, but there was only one key to her room so they persuaded themselves that if they locked the door from the outside she'd be safe inside to sleep it off. Linda and Mia made sure she was resting comfortably while Taylor found the key, then they all stepped outside and Taylor locked the door behind them. They huddled around pondering their next steps.
"Wait," Linda finally asked. "Where's Betty?"
As if on cue, Betty's booming voice echoed from elsewhere in the house: "Guys! I think I need some help here!"
"Where are you?" Linda yelled back.
"I don't know," Betty replied. "This place is huge and it's a damned maze!"
"Okay," Linda replied. "Just keep talking and we'll find you."
And so Linda, Mia, and Taylor set off, Cassie safely secured in her room, to follow Betty's voice. It took some time through twists and turns for the group to finally stumble on the source of Betty's voice. They rounded a turn in a long hallway and were surprised to see Betty's torso from just the armpits up sticking out of the floor.
"What the hell happened to you?" Mia asked.
"I was looking for something to break the locks when I saw something strange," Betty said gesturing to an object on the floor a few feet away. "When I went to pick it up, I just fell through the floor. I guess this old place is in worse shape than it looked. I can't seem to pull myself up."
Linda went over to the strange object on the floor and saw it was a decorative picture frame, turned face down. She picked it up and was shocked to see a picture of the Feather Friends, all six of them. In the middle of the picture was Maddie. Linda recognized the photograph immediately. Before she died, Maddie had kept it on her nightstand as a reminder of their friendship. As far as Linda was aware, it was the only photo ever taken of Maddie smiling without her face buried inside her hoodie. Linda hadn't seen that picture since Maddie's death. She hadn't been able to bear to set foot in Maddie's room. She didn't know what had happened to the photo. She would have guessed it must have been removed a few days later when some of Maddie's family showed up to clear out all of her things. Linda just stared at the picture in disbelief until she was shaken out of it by Mia.
"Earth to Linda," Mia said. "Come on, help us get Betty out of here."
Linda turned to see the other two tugging on Betty to try to lift her out of the floor, but not getting far. Linda put the picture back down and joined to help, with Betty awkwardly trying to use her arms to add some force. All four women were struggling but starting to get some movement. But then suddenly Betty shrieked.
"Hey! Something's got my foot!" she shouted. "Someone grabbed my ankle! And the other one!"
The women all felt a strong tug as Betty was pulled back down to the floor.
"Get them off of me!" Betty yelled.
"Shit!" Linda yelled. "I'm going to try to get down there. You two keep trying to get her out of this hole."
Linda ran out the hallway and through the maze of rooms trying to figure out how to get to wherever the rest of Betty was hanging. She managed to find a staircase to the basement and follow twists and turns hoping she hadn't gotten turned around. Finally, she found what seemed to be a door to a disused storage room in what she thought was in the right place. She could hear Betty's muffled shouts from above and behind the door, confirming it would lead her just below where Betty was hanging through the floor. She grabbed the doorknob, but it was locked. She tried throwing her weight against the door but it was too sturdy to give. Finally, she thought to look through a keyhole to see what was going on inside. The scene made her blood run cold.
Betty's big frame was visible hanging from the ceiling, her feet dangling a few feet above the ground. A small woman was in the room with Betty and seemed to have secured her ankles with a length of rope threaded through an eyebolt on the floor, preventing Betty from moving her legs. The woman had removed one of Betty's shoes and socks and was just untying the other shoe. The smaller woman wore a pair of jeans and what was unmistakably Maddie's signature hoodie. She was facing away from Linda, although with the hood up, Linda couldn't have seen much anyway. A large bag sat on the floor next to her.
"Hey!" Linda shouted. "Get away from her."
The small woman ignored Linda, proceeding to remove the other shoe and sock. Then she set to work tickling Betty's helpless feet. She started skittering nails over the soles sending Betty instantly into raucous laughter. As tough as the big woman was, the Feather Friends all knew her big feet were her weakness. Light teasing below her toes would have her purring like a kitten. Sharp nails along the arches would have her howling. And her heels were her Achilles heel, so to speak. There was a spot on her heels where light scratching would get her so turned on, it could make her orgasm just from tickling if it went on long enough.
"Shit! Stop! Stop!" Betty's voice boomed from above, as the woman in the hoodie continued her assault. She changed her technique several times, exploring different spots and strokes, each bringing renewed howls from Betty. She shifted to light fingernails on Betty's sensitive heels, prompting a guttural moan from the big woman. This kept up a long while before she went back to more aggressive sole tickling, sending the woman back to howling laughter. Linda pulled herself away from the keyhole to try again to break through the door without effect, while Betty cycled between deep moans, choking breaths, and laughter so powerful it was shaking the floorboards.
"Taylor!" Linda finally yelled. "Get down here! We need your lockpicking skills again."
Taylor came running while Mia stayed above, not sure how to help except to try to comfort Betty while she went berserk with the non-stop tickling of her helpless soles. Finally, Betty stopped laughing, her howls replaced by gasping breaths as she tried to get some air. Linda moved back to the keyhole to try to at least see what was going on. She saw that the form in the hoodie had stopped tickling but was removing two strange objects from the bag at her feet. They were shoes, but not like any Linda had ever seen before. They were made of metal, like something off of a suit of armor. Linda looked on in disbelief as the woman slipped one and then the other onto Betty's feet, secured some latches, and locked them in place with padlocks before releasing the rope holding down Betty's ankles. Finally, she produced a small remote control and pressed a button. Instantly, Betty was howling again even louder than before and kicking madly like she was being electrocuted.
"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" she shouted between guffaws and strangled breaths. "Get them off!"
It was clear the shoes were somehow tickling Betty out of her mind. Taylor arrived at just that moment and started trying to get the door open. After some fiddling, it yielded, and she and Linda burst through just in time to see the woman in the hoodie running out a door at the other side of the room. Taylor ran out the door after the mystery woman but Linda yelled for her to come back.
"Forget her!" Linda screamed. "Get back here and help Betty. She's going to have a damned stroke if we don't get these shoes off her."
Linda yanked at the shoes trying to open the latches or tug them off Betty's feet, but they were stuck tight. Taylor came back to help but with Betty's mad kicking she couldn't pick the locks.
"Betty, hold still!" Taylor yelled up through the ceiling.
"I... can't," came the breathless reply from above.
Linda tried to hold a leg steady so Taylor could get the lock off but holding Betty's powerful leg still was like trying to wrestle a bull. The whole while, Betty was going wild, sometimes guffawing, sometimes struggling for breath in silent laughter, and increasingly mixing these with deep and very obviously sexual moans. It built and built until Betty's voice broke through with a massive cry while her whole body went rigid. The force of her convulsion was enough to send Taylor and Linda flying. It was clear she had just cum, and cum hard. The two women picked themselves up and just looked on in awe as the orgasm shook the big woman before she finally slumped shaking in her bonds.
"Wait!" Linda finally shouted. "She's stopped moving! Taylor, get those damned shoes off her!"
Taylor jumped into action, but she was too late. Before she could get a lock open, the continuing tickling revived Betty and she once again started kicking like a bucking bronco.
"Okay," Linda said. "We can time this. Next time she cums, we've got to be ready. I'll hold her and you get a shoe off. First left then right."
Taylor nodded. Indeed, Betty was once again being driven between howls of laughter, heaving breaths, and guttural moans. As the moaning took over more and more, Taylor and Linda readied themselves. When the next orgasm came, it seemed even more powerful than the last. As Betty fell into limp twitching, they moved fast and managed to get a shoe off before Betty once again switched to what was ever more hoarse howls of laughter.
"One more," Linda yelled.
Once again, it built up to a crescendo, Betty went through a titanic climax, and Linda and Taylor jumped on the opportunity. Finally, they managed to get the second shoe off. Betty slumped limply from the ceiling, completely spent.
Linda studied the strange metal shoe in her hand. The device was positively evil. It was filled with the same tickling tendrils as the device they had found on Cassie's crotch, continuing to twist and vibrate each seemingly with a mind of its own. They were especially fine and dense over the special spots on the heels that would drive Betty to ecstasy. Rotating brushes were positioned to engulf the toes, varying their speed and directions independently at random in an effort to keep its wearer on her toes, so to speak. Small hard metal bumps were positioned to press into the soles at strategic pressure points and deliver intense vibrations. The shoes were clearly custom-made for Betty, and by someone who knew exactly how to drive her wild. The shoe in Linda's hand looked practically alive, the insides still writhing, spinning, and buzzing on their own. She dropped it with disgust.
Taylor went out to check the corridor through which the hooded figure had fled, but she was long gone. With Betty now subdued, Linda and Taylor rejoined Mia above and they finally managed to dislodge Betty from the hole.
"This floor didn't just give way," Taylor said, examining the hole through which Betty had fallen. "The floorboards were cut. This was a booby trap."
"Let's just get Betty somewhere safe," Linda said. The three of them struggled together to drag the big woman to her bedroom and put her to bed as they had done with Cassie.
"I'll check on Cassie and make sure she's still okay," Taylor said while the other two checked on Betty. She seemed unhurt but was out like a light, utterly exhausted. Mia, Taylor, and Linda met back in the hallway.
"Cassie's still sleeping like a baby," Taylor said. "She's safely locked in again."
"We locked Betty in, too," Mia responded. "She should be safe in there until we figure this out."
"There's something else," Taylor offered reluctantly. "When I chased after the woman who was tickling Betty, she turned around to look at me. It was Maddie. I'm sure of it."
"Oh god!" Mia moaned. "I knew it. She's out for revenge. She's come back to haunt us!"
Linda cursed under her breath. Mia had always been kind of flaky, but it wasn't like Taylor.
"There's no such thing as ghosts," Linda said flatly. "I don't know who you saw or how they know us, but it wasn't Maddie."
The others looked doubtful, but Taylor finally said, "You believe what you want to believe, but I know what I saw. Anyway, right now we need to decide what to do next."
At that moment, the house went dark as all of the power went out. With the stormy night, it was pitch black. Mia screamed as the other two fumbled for their phones. For a long minute, the only break from the absolute darkness was a couple of big strokes of lightening crashing outside, until the three women finally each got a phone out and turned on a flashlight.
"I guess what we do next is figure out how to get the power back on before all our cell phones' batteries die," Linda offered.
Chapter 5: Mia
-------------------
As spooky as the house had been before, the loss of power had made it a hundred times worse. Every creak of an old timber settling had the three friends jumping and madly pointing their flashlights around to see if someone was about to attack them. The big house had so many twists and turns, it seemed like danger could be lurking everywhere and they wouldn't know until it was right on top of them. Still, there was no choice but to go in search of a way to turn the power back on. They guessed there had to be a fuse box somewhere, probably in the basement, and made their way slowly in the dark trying to find it. Fortunately, Mia's work as a realtor had given her an uncanny instinct for where to find all the hidden utilities an inspector might need to see. Before long she had led the way to the right utility room. The door stood open and as Mia shined her flashlight through it, the electrical panel was visible on the other side. It was open and it looked like someone had flipped off the circuit breakers.
"Finally," Mia sighed, rushing forward through the doorway to turn it back on. Before she took a few steps, though, she seemed to stumble and fall forward. It was as if something had grabbed her feet. She dropped her phone as she landed hard on her knees and palms. She struggled to rise and realized she was stuck. The floor was covered with some kind of incredibly sticky glue that held her fast on her hands and knees on the floor. Before the others could react, the door slammed shut in Linda and Taylor's faces. They could hear Mia scream as a heavy bar was secured in place, blocking the door from the inside.
"Shit!" Linda shouted. "There's someone in there with her. Taylor, get the door open!"
Taylor hastily fumbled with the lock, but even with it picked she couldn't open the door with it barred from the inside. The two of them banged futilely on it, but the heavy door couldn't be budged. From inside, Mia was still screaming in terror.
Mia tried desperately to get away, as she pivoted her head side to side to see who was there. A form in jeans and a hoodie sidled up to her, carefully avoiding the glue that Mia had unwittingly stepped into. The figure reached into a bag slung over her shoulder and withdrew some kind of spray can, using it to spray the floor all around Mia. Whatever it was apparently neutralized the glue everywhere except where it held Mia's hands and shins frozen to the ground.
"Please, Maddie," Mia begged. "We never meant to hurt you. Please just let me go."
The figure said nothing, but put down the spray can and retrieved a length of rope from the bag. She cinched one end around Mia's waist and threw the other over a ceiling beam, using it as a pulley to hoist Mia's midsection up before finally tying it off. Mia was now essentially immobile below her neck. Finally, the figure reached a hand on each side of Mia's body and up into her armpits. Mia shrieked anew as those hands started to work into her pits and send her into screaming laughter. Soon they explored lower, squeezing ribs while Mia shrieked in ticklish agony. They undid some buttons on Mia's blouse and reached inside, tickling her exposed belly while she practically choked on her own laughter. For long minutes, Mia laughed helplessly while those two hands worked her over and her friends banged on the door trying in vain to force it open. Finally, her attacker paused and withdrew.
Her relief was short-lived, though, as the woman in the hoodie reached again into her bag and withdraw a pair of heavy fabric shears. Mia was terrified she was going to get stabbed, but could only look on helplessly as the mystery woman used those shears to cut away her top and discard her bra, leaving her naked from the waist up. The attacker then dropped the shears and returned to the bag to produce two large, fluffy feathers. Mia's eyes went wide as the woman brought the feathers to her helplessly exposed breasts and started to tickle the sensitive undersides.
Almost everyone who met Mia would have privately said that her best feature was her phenomenal rack. Her breasts were not just big but divinely proportioned. They were her not-so-secret weapon as both an actress and a saleswoman. She delighted in how she could mesmerize people, men and women, just by knowing how to show them off to perfect effect. When she was trying out for a part in her acting days, she'd just have to show up to auditions in a cleavage-bearing top and watch for the director to start stealing subtle glances when they thought she wasn't looking. A practiced dip here and there and pretty soon those glances weren't so subtle and she knew the part was hers. The years since and motherhood had, if anything, only enhanced her assets and she found now that that same "trick" was just as good at closing home sales as it had once been at winning her parts.
What no one knew, aside from the Feather Friends, was that her breasts weren't just her best asset physically, they were also her most ticklish. Her massive mammaries were incredibly sensitive from top to bottom. Light strokes on the bottom and sides could have her shrieking with laughter. And her exceptionally large aureola and nipples were so devastatingly ticklish that a little light teasing could leave her absolutely breathless. Even worse, tickling her nipples was like activating a cheat code for her libido. A minute or two of light tickling there would leave her so desperately horny she would do anything to get off. The Feather Friends used to delight in tying her up and tickling her nipples until she was begging them to just fuck her. Unfortunately for Mia, her attacker seemed to know very well just how sensitive Mia's chest was and exactly how to exploit it.
As the feathers explored around Mia's helpless globes, she was going red in the face from laughter. The whole while, those two feathers circled ever closer to her delightfully ticklish nipples. As they closed in, the woman in the hoodie started to steal a stroke here and there over a nipple, each stroke pulling a shriek from Mia's lips and stoking a growing fire in her loins. Soon the feathers were playing non-stop over the nipples, alternating between light teases, rapid dusting, and brutal sawing of a feather across the sides. By that point, Mia was breathless with silent laughter but also so turned on she didn't want it to stop. Half the breaths she could catch came out as deep guffaws and the other half as passionate moans. It wasn't long before she didn't even care anymore if her attacker was the ghost of her long lost friend as long as it got her off.
The hooded woman finally stopped and dropped the feathers, leaving Mia desperately panting and trying to catch her breath. She couldn't get a word out, but if she had been able to speak, she would have begged the spirit to fuck her brains out. Instead, the mysterious woman returned once more to the bag she carried and produced a strange object: a large metal bra. It was filled with an assortment of tendrils, brushes, and vibrators much like the shoes that had broken Betty. Mia tried to shake her head "No" but the woman simply ignored her, fitting the bra onto her massive breasts, latching it in place and sealing it with a small padlock. This time, she stuck some kind of gum in the lock to prevent it from being picked. Finally, she reached in the bag once more to produce a remote control and click it. In an instant, Mia's eyes practically bugged out of her head as she felt the worst tickling she had ever received in her life. She tore madly at her hands and shins, still stuck implacably to the floor, and shook as much as she could, trying in vain to dislodge the horrible bra.
The mystery woman watched the sight for a time while Mia collapsed in silent laughter, shaking as much as her odd predicament would allow. Then she sidled up to Mia again, reached a hand to her waistband, and unbuttoned Mia's pants. The figure reached a hand inside and started to masturbate Mia while she shook in helpless laughter. What little sanity Mia had at that point just sighed in relief that she was finally getting some stimulation down below. The fingers slide effortlessly into her soaking wet snatch and glided over a swollen clit silently begging for attention. Meanwhile, Mia's breasts were being inhumanly tickled by the bra, tiny tendrils covering every inch while small vibrating brushes swirled around her nipples. Even through the intense tickling, Mia was on the edge of a thunderous climax and the attention to her needy pussy pushed her over it. She came with a massive grunt as her body tensed up. The horrible bra and the skillful hand down her pants combined to draw out the orgasm for what seemed like ages before she finally came down.
They weren't done, though. The woman in the hoodie proceeded to yank Mia's pants and panties down to her knees. A finger on one hand slid back inside her and started to work her g-spot while the other hand started spider tickling her crotch from behind. Between those two hands and the bra, Mia was brought to another titanic climax even stronger than the first, and then to another. The whole time, Linda and Taylor were desperately throwing themselves against the door, trying futilely to get it open. Another climax and then another and finally Mia passed out from the intense tickling and pleasure.
Linda and Taylor couldn't see what was going on, but hearing their friend's hoarse laughter and moaning go silent inside sent them into a panic.
"This isn't working," Taylor said. "You go and find something to force the door. I'll keep trying to get it open from here."
Linda just nodded and ran off, sprinting through the house looking for anything that might work. She finally managed to find an old storage room with some gardening tools, seizing a sturdy shovel that seemed like it might serve as a lever to force the door. She rushed back only to find the door open and Taylor on the floor outside it, seemingly in a daze.
"Taylor, what happened?" she shouted. "Oh my god, are you okay?"
"Yes," Taylor panted. "It's fine. After you ran off, Maddie opened the door. It looks like she's done with Mia. I tried to stop her, but she blew right past me."
Linda helped her friend up and the two headed into the room to check on Mia. She was still stuck on hands and knees, unconscious but breathing. The awful bra was still furiously tickling her chest and, even in her unconscious state, Mia was giggling and grinning broadly. It took a long while to figure out how to get her loose, but eventually Taylor saw the spray can the figure had discarded and realized it could dissolve the glue. After some struggling, they got Mia free. It took even longer for them finally to dislodge the bra. Knowing nothing else to do, they carried the unconscious woman back to her room and locked her in like the others. The two remaining friends finally collapsed and sat on the floor outside the room as the adrenaline that had been fueling them ran out.
Chapter 6: Taylor
----------------------
Linda and Taylor sat on the floor, trying to catch some rest and calm their nerves so they could think straight. After a long while, a loud, ghostly moan coming from somewhere outside the house suddenly caught their attention.
"Look out there," Taylor said suddenly, rushing to a window. Linda followed as Taylor pointed through the window. There was a light visible in the otherwise pitch dark outside. Linda could see that it was coming from a small boathouse near the dock from which they had arrived. She was sure there hadn't been a light there before.
"It must be Maddie," Taylor said. "Who else could it be?"
"Why didn't I think of it before?" Linda said. "They must keep some emergency equipment by the dock. There could be a flare gun there. Maybe even an emergency radio. There'd have to be some way to call for help here."
"We should check it out," Taylor offered.
The pair headed for the front door, ready to make a run for the boat house through the pouring rain. Then Linda paused.
"Wait," Linda said, stopping at the door. "Whoever this is, we've been playing her game for too long. We've let her manipulate us into walking into her traps and she's just picked us off one by one: first Cassie, then Betty, then Mia. This has got to be another trap. We need to flip the script here. Stop playing her game and make her play ours."
"I don't know," Taylor said hesitantly. "We should at least scout it out and..."
"No," Linda repeated firmly. "We're not walking into another of her traps."
Seeing Linda was immovable, Taylor asked, "Okay, what do you think we should do?"
"I've got a plan," Linda said, "although I don't think you're going to like it."
She leaned in close to Taylor's ear and whispered into it, Taylor's facial expressions going from curiosity, to shock, to fear, and finally resignation.
"You can't seriously think that's going to work," Taylor said when Linda was done outlining her plan.
"I don't know," Linda said, "but it's a better chance than we'll have if we keep following this so-called ghost wherever she wants to lead us."
"Okay," Taylor said. "We'll try it your way."
************
A short time later, Taylor was lying on a table in a bra and slacks, her blouse hanging over a nearby chair. Linda was securing some curtain tiebacks they had found to serve as makeshift restraints on her wrists and ankles.
"Let me just reiterate," Taylor said, "that I am very uncomfortable with this plan."
"We've been over this," Linda said. "This quote ghost unquote seems to love tickling and to know exactly how to tickle each of us. So it's safe to assume that she knows your armpits are your weak spot and that she's itching to get her hands on them. So we're going to use that to lure her in. We'll make her think she's got your pits all to herself. I've set up these bonds so they'll look secure but will give if you really pull. You pretend you're stuck while I pretend to run away through the front door, but I'll just loop back around and come back in through a side door. While she's distracted by tickling you, I'll sneak back into the room, then you break free and together we overpower her."
"And what if you're wrong and it really is Maddie's ghost?" Taylor added fearfully.
"Then you can both tie me up and tickle me until I piss myself," Linda responded with a roll of her eyes.
Linda slipped out of the room and headed for the front door of the house, leaving Taylor seemingly bound and helpless. She opened the front door, pausing at the terrible storm still raging outside. She was going to get soaked but it was worth it to catch this "ghost" that was tormenting them.
"Oh, won't someone help me!" she heard Taylor yell out from across the house. "Linda panicked, knocked me out, and tied me up as an offering to the ghost so she could get away! Oh someone save me before the ghost finds me all tied up and with my ticklish armpits helplessly exposed!"
Linda silently cursed the luck that it was Taylor still left conscious and not Mia. Taylor lacked even an iota of Mia's talent as an actress and her performance was cringe-inducingly bad. Still, it was their best hope. Linda rushed out the door and ran around the house toward a side door she had made sure to leave unlocked. As she ran past, she paused in the rain to peer into the window of the room where Taylor was pretending to be tied up. After more waiting and more damsel-in-distress wailing from Taylor, Linda saw the door creak open to reveal the woman in the hoodie. With the mystery woman in the shadows and with the hoodie cinched so tight around her head, Linda couldn't make out a face.
The figure seemed to survey the scene before stepping into the room. She didn't speak but gave a gesture of throwing up her arms then placing her hands on her hips that seemed to say, "You've got to be fucking kidding me." This was followed by an exaggerated shrug, as if to add, "Okay. Sure. Why not?" before she headed into the room and straddled the prone Taylor.
Linda took off in a run, trying to get back before the woman could go too far with Taylor. Taylor could survive a little tickling, but one of her quirks was how incredibly submissive she became when tickled. The normally bold and self-confident woman would agree to pretty much anything if you could get your hands in her prone armpits. Back in their Feather Friend days, Cassie used to delight in slowly tickling Taylor's pits until she had agreed to do all the house's chores for a month. The others would never let her hold Taylor to it in the end. Cassie just loved the adoring look she would get from Taylor, though, gazing up at Cassie like she was a literal goddess while she stroked the tickle-broken girl's helpless pits. Linda worried that if the tickling got too intense, Taylor would be so deep in sub space she'd be pretty much useless for confronting the supposed ghost.
Linda made it to the side door and was shocked to find it locked. "Crap," she mumbled to herself. "I was sure we left it unlocked." Finding it impossible to open, she had to run all the way back to the front door. She could see in the window as she ran past that the woman in the hoodie was on top of Taylor, arms in her pits. As much of a hurry she was in, Linda was compelled to pause for a moment and see how Taylor was holding up. She was a little surprised to see that Taylor was still keeping up the ruse of being bound given how nightmarishly ticklish her armpits were. Thankfully, the woman in the hoodie seemed to be taking it easy on her so far. She would slowly run one index finger down the left armpit, then the other index finger down the right, then a middle finger down the left, then a middle finger down the right, and so on, dragging out the torture as much as she could. Even so, Taylor seemed to be using every ounce of her willpower to avoid pulling down her arms and revealing that her bondage was just for show. Her eyes were screwed shut and her whole body was trembling. It was as if the woman in the hoodie knew exactly how far she could push Taylor before she would lose control and pull free of her bonds. Linda was also curious to see that the two women seemed to be speaking to each other, but between the heavy rain and the window separating them, she couldn't make out what either was saying.
Tearing herself away from the scene, Linda raced on to get back inside and come to Taylor's rescue. By the time she got back inside the house, Linda was soaking wet from the raging storm. She rushed back to the room where Taylor was pinned underneath the woman in the hoodie, ten fingers dancing in her armpits, and burst in on them.
"Now, Taylor!" Linda shouted, charging into the room. Taylor seemed to be in a daze and wasn't reacting, but Linda rushed ahead all the same and tried to tackle the woman on top of her. Taylor chose that moment to pull free of her bonds and try to get up, but ended up just getting in the way, sending Taylor and Linda tumbling to the floor as the woman in the hoodie broke free. Linda struggled to rise, but Taylor was on top of her pinning her legs. Linda realized her opportunity to nab the ghost was evaporating and she knew that they wouldn't get a second chance to pull a ruse like this. She used all her strength to push Taylor aside and reach for the woman. She just managed to snag her hood for a second and pull it back before the fleeing figure yanked it free of Linda's hands and ran out the door. As the hood came off, Linda was very surprised to see a shock of flaming red hair fly free of it.
"Cassie?!" Linda cried in confusion as the figure fled.
Chapter 7: Linda
---------------------
Linda got to her feet as Taylor got up and grabbed her discarded blouse. "Come on!" Linda shouted, grabbing Taylor by the arm and practically dragging her out the door. The red-headed woman was already out of sight.
"We'll never catch her now," Taylor cried.
"I don't think we need to," Linda said, dragging Taylor by the hand back through the hallways to their bedrooms. She stopped at Cassie's room. Trying the door, she found it was locked.
"You've got the key!" Linda shouted hurriedly. "Get it open!"
"Okay! Okay!" Taylor answered back, fumbling in her pockets until she found the key and got the door open. Linda rushed in and pulled back the covers on the bed, finding just a pile of pillows where Cassie should have been.
"Shit!" Linda said. "It was her. It was Cassie the whole time."
"I guess so," Taylor offered. "She must have taken an earlier boat to the island, set all of this up, then gone back to the mainland so she could show up with the rest of us."
"Of course," Linda added. "She could have taken as long as she needed to learn her way around this old mansion and set up all the booby traps before the rest of us got into town. She's been running around pretending to be Maddie this whole time."
"It all makes sense," Taylor said. "But why? Why would she do this?"
"Wait. No," Linda said, a confused look appearing on her face. "It doesn't make sense. Cassie wouldn't know how to set all of this up herself. Plus, we had her locked in her room. Taylor, you checked on her and made sure she was still locked up and out cold when we got back from rescuing Betty. And you swore you saw Maddie. There's no way you would have mistaken Cassie for Maddie. It couldn't have been her. Unless you..."
Linda yelped as she felt a sharp pinch in her thigh. She looked down to see a syringe piercing her skin.
"I'm sorry, Linda" Taylor said. "Cassie came to me almost a year ago and told me I needed to help her. She could be very persuasive. She reminded me of what we had been missing all these years, since Maddie passed away. She reawoke something I thought was buried and showed me how much I've been needing it. I'm sure you'll find that she can do the same for you. We just need a chance to show you."
Linda felt herself going dizzy. "What have you done to me?" she slurred, feeling like there was a wad of cotton in her mouth. She stumbled and fell to her knees.
"You'll see," Taylor said pleadingly. "We only want what's best for you."
************
Linda slowly awoke, still feeling groggy. She tried to move but realized she was tightly bound, spreadeagled on a soft mattress. She saw that she had been stripped naked. She was tingling all over and struggled to focus. She felt lightheaded, almost silly, and found herself giggling for seemingly no reason.
Cassie, wearing nothing but some skimpy lingerie, sat down on the bed beside her. Taylor was standing awkwardly a few feet behind Cassie.
"I'm so glad you could rejoin us," Cassie said with a smirk. "The sedative Taylor gave you was short-lasting and it should be clear from your system in a few minutes. If you're wondering why you still might be feeling a bit off, it's because that syringe also contained a little pharmaceutical cocktail I cooked up. I call it giggle juice. I find it makes a little tickle session so much more enjoyable."
Linda struggled to clear her head. She still felt like she had a mouth full of cotton but slurred out some words.
"What the fuck, Cassie?" she managed to croak out. "You set this up?"
"You're damned right I did," Cassie replied.
"How?" Linda asked with disbelief. "I saw you tickled hoarse and orgasmed into unconsciousness."
"Oh please," Cassie said dismissively. "While the rest of you were turning into boring squares, I was finding new playmates and upping my tickle fetish game. Being tickled hoarse and orgasmed into unconsciousness is a normal Tuesday night for me."
"But why?" Linda asked.
"Why?!" Cassie snapped back. "Because I love you guys. I can't stand seeing you deny your real selves and turn your back on the best thing any of us ever had. None of us were really alive until we found the Feather Friends. And the rest of you haven't really been living since. After we broke up, I found new places to play. But it was never as good as it was with you. It's been torture seeing all of you turn into a bunch of boring housewives and corporate drones and knowing in my heart that you need this just as much as I do. All of you giving up on the Feather Friends is the last fucking thing Maddie ever would have wanted. When I saw Mia's Instagram last Fall and saw her posting cute pics of her kids' fucking Halloween costumes, I knew you all needed me to come rescue you from these plain Jane lives you all seem to have fallen into."
"I'm happy with the life I have," Linda said, her head starting to clear a bit. "I don't need rescuing. None of us do."
"I started with Taylor," Cassie continued, ignoring Linda's words. "I had a feeling she'd be the easiest to persuade. And I knew her resources and gift for making tickle toys would be really helpful in getting the rest of you back into the fold. Once I got Taylor to myself, it took just a few hours to break her again and make her my tickle slave."
Cassie fixed Taylor with a smirk. Taylor blushed deeply and looked down, unable to meet the gaze. Cassie turned her attention back to Linda. "You might take a little longer, Linda, but soon you're going to be begging to be a Feather Friend again."
"That's not your decision to make," Linda said. "I left that life behind."
Linda knew a vicious tickling was coming but was determined not to let it break her. She steeled her resolve and clamped down her giggling, despite the drugs still coursing through her veins. The drug cocktail made her so giddy, it was hard to stifle laughter even when she wasn't being tickled. And it left her skin tingling all over and hypersensitive. She felt like she was being tickled just from the air in the room. As Cassie ran her fingernails over a bare foot, Linda clamped her mouth shut and barely held in her laughter. She ran her fingers up Linda's leg, while Linda sucked in her breath. Light stroking over her abdomen nearly broke her, but she held fast. Cassie continued up her body tweaking ribs while Linda squeezed her eyes shut and held it in. When Cassie reached her armpits, Linda had to bite down hard on her lip to keep from laughing out loud, but she held. Cassie continued with light strokes up and down the lengths of her arms while Linda continued to resist. Playful scratches along her neck and collarbone left Linda feeling even more urgently the need to let out her giggling, while simultaneously igniting an unwelcome fire in her loins. But still, she held it in, refusing to give Cassie even a single laugh. Finally, Cassie stopped and gave an exaggerated pout of disappointment.
"This would be so much easier for both of us if you took the stick out of your ass and let yourself enjoy it," Cassie said. "But no matter."
"Taylor," Cassie barked to the woman behind her, snapping her fingers and holding out a palm. Taylor meekly placed a small remote control in Cassie's hand. "You're going to enjoy this, Linda, whether you want to or not."
Linda sucked in another breath and steeled herself for whatever was to come, determined not to break for Cassie. Cassie pushed a button on the remote and in instant Linda choked out her breath and let out an undignified squeal.
"Fuck!" she yelled before a stream of giggles erupted uncontrollably from her throat. Cassie had turned on two tiny devices, one secured over her clit and the other on her butthole, causing them to come alive with stimulating electric pulses. It felt like thousands of tiny insect legs teasing the two sensitive patches of skin. It was immensely ticklish, but also unbelievably sexually stimulating. The sensation ripped right through every ounce of resolve she had assembled, cutting through all her defenses right to the core of her being. She was giggling like a schoolgirl and helpless to hold it back.
"Now let's get started for real," Cassie said with a grin, as she sidled up to Linda and shoved all ten fingers in her ticklish armpits. Her efforts to harden herself to the tickling already broken by the clit and rectal ticklers, Linda laughed and screamed together in one instant, helpless against the assault. Cassie kept up the horrible armpit tickling for more than five minutes while Linda threshed in her bonds, helplessly laughing and trying to babble out pleas for mercy. From there, she moved to Linda's ribs, then her stomach, spidering over her crotch, a long while on her feet, back to her ribs, her knees, her neck, her thighs, and on and on, one merciless tickling assault after another. Linda was in hysterics, hoarse with laughter and trying desperately to beg for mercy but unable to catch a breath.
"Cassie," Taylor quietly interjected from behind. "I think maybe she's had enough."
"I'll decide when she's had enough," Cassie snapped back before launching into another vicious armpit tickling.
Cassie finally stopped her brutal tickling assault, leaving Linda heaving for breath as she struggled to get her giggling under control. Cassie pulled up a chair and sat down next to the bed. Linda could only gasp for breath, before finally managing to get enough air to choke something out.
"I'm... not... broken," Linda finally squeezed out between ragged breaths.
"Oh, you think we're done?" Cassie said with a laugh. "That was just the warmup. You see, I still remember how to crack your Little Miss Perfect exterior."
"Your weakness was always right here," Cassie said, running a finger down Linda's bare pussy lips. Linda was already soaking wet and Cassie's finger easily parted the slit while Linda just trembled under the touch. "I'm going to have you begging to be my tickle slave, just so I'll let you cum."
The whole time Linda was catching her breath, she was still struggling with the clit and anal ticklers that were relentlessly stimulating her. The tickling was maddening but it was also building her arousal up to a fever pitch. Linda could feel an orgasm approaching. She fought to hold it back, biting her lip to try to stifle the moans she could feel ready to erupt from her. The last thing she wanted to do was cum for Cassie. While Linda struggled to hold back the climax that was inevitably approaching, Cassie rose and retrieved a blindfold, tying it tight around Linda's head. Linda wanted to protest but she knew if she opened her mouth to say another word, her moans would betray how close she was to cumming. She could only lie there while the orgasm came ever closer until she was certain there was no stopping it.
Right as the orgasm was about to crest, Linda felt ten fingers in her armpits for another brutal tickle assault. She screamed as the orgasm was ruined before it started. Cassie stayed in Linda's pits for a long while, driving away the climax with insane tickling as Linda could only scream herself hoarse. Finally, she relented, leaving Linda once again panting for breath. With the blindfold on, she had no idea where Cassie was or what she was planning next.
"I bet someone wants to cum," Cassie taunted her.
Linda could only gasp and shudder in her bonds. She knew if she tried to deny it, her voice would only betray how aroused she was. With Cassie no longer tickling her, her attention was drawn back to the relentless tickling sensation on her clit and butthole. She felt the orgasm starting to build once again. Once more, she tried to fight it back, knowing it was a losing battle. The feeling of an impending climax grew and grew until it was ready to burst through her again. Even while she fought the feeling, Linda couldn't deny that she was longing for it as well.
This time, right as she was about to climax, Cassie began a brutal raking of her soles with a pair of brushes. Once more, Linda screamed as the sudden and incredible tickling forced away the impending orgasm and left her howling in ticklish torture. Cassie dropped the brushes, continuing with her fingernails until Linda was in silent laughter, her approaching orgasm now far away again. Finally, she relented, leaving Linda trembling in her bonds. Once more, the relentless tickle in her clit and rectum brought Linda's attention back there as the orgasm she was denied started to build again.
And so it continued through one denied orgasm after another, each time forced away by another savage tickling. Cassie would taunt her cruelly between tickles, asking her if she was ready to cum yet. Not knowing where Cassie was or what part of her body was going to be tickled next made it twice as torturous. Linda silently told herself that she wasn't going to let herself cum for Cassie. But she couldn't deny that her body wanted it more each time it was denied to her. Before long, she was absolutely desperate to be allowed to cum. With each denial, she came to curse the loss of the orgasm just about to wash over her more and more until she was sobbing and swearing under her breath more for the lost climax than for the brutal tickling that robbed her of it. Finally, she couldn't take any more.
"All right! Stop!" Linda gasped out between hoarse breaths after a vicious tickling of her taut belly had forced away yet another orgasm.
"Tell me you remember how good it was," Cassie purred. "Tell me you'll do anything to feel a ticklegasm one more time."
"Anything," Linda panted. "Yes, I want it. Just fucking let me cum already!"
"That's all you needed to say," Cassie breathed into Linda's ear as the tickling in her clit and butthole was once again bringing a climax in reach.
As the climax approached and began to crest once more, Linda tensed in frustration, her body expecting another denial. She gasped as she felt Cassie's fingernails in her pits again, but breathed a sigh of relief as she got just a slow, light scratching instead of the soul-rending tickle torture her body had come to expect. It was enough to set her giggling uncontrollably again, but not enough to drive away the delicious pleasure in her clit and asshole. Linda felt the orgasm keep coming and despite herself she embraced it wholly. When it finally broke, the pleasure was unimaginable. Linda let out a primal scream and arched her back as much as her bonds would allow while her eyes rolled back in her head. The light tickling kept her laughing as her first ticklegasm in years just kept on rolling through her for what seemed an eternity.
"Oh god!" Linda muttered, as she finally came down from the peak. "I haven't cum like that since college."
"I knew you'd see the light," Cassie said. Linda could practically hear her smirk. "But we're not done yet."
As Linda recovered in the afterglow, the clit tickler was already powering her forward again to another climax. She was too spent to fight it, just wanting to luxuriate in the feeling. As it once again began to crest, Linda's body tensed in expectation of another denial. This time her anticipation was met with the feel of a couple of delicate makeup brushes lightly tickling her nipples. She gasped, the tickling setting her giggling again but only enhancing her arousal. When the second orgasm came, it was even more powerful than the first. By the time it had coursed through her and her soft giggles died down, Linda felt like she'd used up a lifetime's supply of pleasure. The third orgasm came with the delightful feeling of Cassie lightly tickling her mound. The fourth with feather-light fingernails tickling the sensitive skin of her neck. Somehow it continued, again and again, the clit and butt ticklers each time reviving her and sending straight into the arms of another ticklegasm while Cassie found another spot to sensuously tickle her through her climax. Eventually, she passed out in bliss and utter exhaustion.
************
When Linda awoke, Cassie was sitting in a chair pulled up to the bed. Taylor was pacing nervously behind her. Linda realized she was still bound, although it felt like she had been cleaned up while she was out. She took a long while to come back, physical exhaustion and the intense afterglow leaving her mind in a haze. But as awareness of her continuing predicament came back to her, her mind started to focus and she fixed Cassie with an intense stare. Cassie looked down on her like a beloved pet, brushing some damp hair out of her face.
"So," Cassie asked with a confident grin. "Are the Feather Friends back?"
Linda took a long while to steady her nerves and formulate a response. "No," she finally croaked out hoarsely.
Cassie's expression changed in an instant from smug satisfaction to anger and disbelief.
"What do you mean, no?!" Cassie demanded. "Tell me that wasn't amazing! Tell me you didn't miss that!"
"It was good," Linda said. "Okay, amazing. But I've got a husband and kids who mean a lot more to me. I'm not going to cheat on him and risk ruining everything that really matters to me for a good lay every now and then."
Cassie was now hopping mad. "You'd throw away the Feather Friends over a fucking man?" she asked in disbelief. She looked like she was ready to explode.
"I can see I was being too nice to you," Cassie continued, the anger palpable in her voice. "It looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way. This time, I'm really going to wreck you. Giving up the Feather Friends for a goddamned husband and kids? I'm not stopping until you're so fucking broken you can't even remember their names."
"Come on, Cassie," Taylor said from behind her. "This is going too far. We'll find another way."
"Fuck off!" Cassie barked at Taylor before diving into a merciless tickling of Linda. This time, there was nothing playful or sensual. Cassie was out for blood, determined to absolutely destroy Linda, and she wasn't holding back anything.
Linda laughed and screamed until she couldn't catch a breath while Cassie tormented her without mercy. She used her knowledge of Linda's tickle spots to find every nook and cranny that would drive her crazy. Linda could only try to endure under the assault.
"Stop!" Linda managed to gasp out between guffaws, while Cassie continued without a pause. Taylor, who had been standing quietly behind Cassie watching all of this unfold, stepped forward and tapped Cassie on the shoulder to get her attention.
"Cassie, you're going too far," Taylor said meekly. "I really don't think she's into it. We'll find another way."
"Shut the hell up, Taylor," Cassie snapped at her, "or you're going to be tied down next to her getting it twice as bad."
Taylor was shocked into silence and just stood there like a deer in headlights.
"Please... Taylor," Linda managed to choke out between heaving breaths. "She's gone crazy. She's going to kill me."
Cassie grabbed a stiff brush in each hand and proceeded to torment Linda's soles until she couldn't breathe. Linda couldn't get another word out. She laughed herself hoarse until she felt like she was going to pass out. She genuinely believed Cassie was going to kill her with tickling.
Then Cassie screamed and dropped to the ground beside Linda, revealing Taylor behind her with a stun gun in her hand.
"I'm so sorry, Linda," Taylor muttered with a sob as Linda, too, lost consciousness.
Chapter 8: Epilogue
-------------------------
Linda awoke to find Taylor next to her, looking on in concern. She realized she was free from the bondage. From the light coming through the window, she could see that it was morning and the storm had broken. Cassie was nearby, tied up on the sofa, fury in her eyes and trying to scream at them through a ball gag.
"Taylor," Linda said with a start. "What happened?"
"I'm so, so sorry, Linda," Taylor said, with tears in her eyes. "I really thought Cassie was right, that if she could just show all of us how good things were before we lost Maddie that we'd choose to be the Feather Friends again. Mia and Betty are fine. They're still sleeping things off. I had a satellite phone hidden in my room and I've called for help. The ferryman is on his way and when we get back to the dock the police will be waiting for us. They'll take care of Cassie. And I'll turn myself in."
Linda was too exhausted to say anything more and just fell back asleep.
The rest of the day passed in a blur for her. The group headed back, somber except for a very defiant Cassie. As promised, Cassie and Taylor were taken into custody. The authorities had many questions, but eventually Linda, Mia, and Betty were able to go. Linda was a little later getting home that night than planned, but she still got back in time to enjoy Halloween evening with her family. Her mind was elsewhere, but she was glad to be there for them.
The wheels of justice ground slowly, but a lot eventually happened over the ensuing months. None of the group wanted everything to come out in court, so the prosecutors ended up giving Cassie a lenient plea bargain for kidnapping and burying some of the more salacious details to keep the others cooperating. She would serve a few years. Taylor was deeply repentant and for her cooperation, and with Linda's support, she got a generous offer of probation with her record erased if she stayed out of trouble. The case files were sealed by mutual agreement so everyone could put it behind them.
************
Linda found herself some time later sitting at a table in Betty's bar, chatting with Betty and Mia in the off hours. The events on the island had at least rekindled their friendship and Betty, Mia, and Linda would get together from time to time to catch up. Things were icier with Taylor, although Betty had been reaching out. Taylor had tried to reopen some communication with Cassie in prison, although the others at that point wanted nothing to do with her. Long-delayed conversations gradually began to happen about the events of that day on the island and the day long before in college when Maddie had died.
"At least Cassie is facing the music for what she did," Linda said.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Betty offered. "Taylor told me that Cassie says there's nothing to do in prison but fuck. She says she's turned half her cell block into tickle slaves. It sounds like she's having the time of her life in there."
"I'm the queen bitch here!" Mia shouted in uncanny impersonation of Cassie's voice and mannerisms, while waggling her fingernails menacingly in front of her.
"That's not funny," said Linda. "Anyway, I'm glad Cassie's off the streets. Hopefully, she's getting some actual help in there. How have you guys been doing?"
"You might not want to hear it," Mia said with some reluctance. "But Cassie did kind of have a point. That night on the island made Betty and me realize how much we'd been missing out on since we dissolved the Feather Friends."
"Mia and I have been meeting up to play again just like old times," Betty added with a hearty chuckle. "We've even been advertising online for other play partners. Mia was an alto in her musical theater days, but I've found a spot on her inner thigh that gets her to a high C."
Betty gave a lustful wink while Mia blushed with uncharacteristic shyness.
"You know, Linda," Betty said, "you're always welcome to join us."
"No," said Linda. "That life's behind me. But I have missed hanging with you guys. I'm so glad we're friends again."
"Always," Betty and Mia said in unison as the three engaged in a group hug.
***********
Linda made the long drive home and was relieved to drop her purse by the door and kick off her shoes. The kids were with their grandparents for the weekend, so the house was blissfully quiet. She found her husband Dan in the bedroom, already waiting for her in bed. It was a relief to take off her tight jeans and top and discard her confining bra and underwear. She had been really nervous about letting Dan in on her kinky side. It was a part of her life she'd never wanted to share with him out of fear of how he'd react. But he was eager to please her and she was pleasantly surprised to find that he was game. It was a work in progress --- he didn't exactly have the sadistic streak for it --- but the truth was that their sex life had never been better and she had never been more in love with him. He secured her wrists and ankles to the bed and produced a feather duster from beneath it. While Linda closed her eyes in anticipation, her husband brushed her hair out of her face, kissed her tenderly on the forehead, and said, "The safeword is banana, dear."
