The Audition

"Next! Miss Katherine Willis!"
Amanda Smith glanced up briefly, as a brunette woman stood up and crossed the room to the door. As the door shut behind her, Amanda turned back to her magazine. She reached up and brushed a few strands of wispy auburn out of her face.  The 22-year old coed drama major sat in a chair in a waiting room. About eight or nine other young women were in the room with her, waiting for their turn to audition for the lead part in The Secret Room.
Oddly enough, Amanda hadn't heard of this new play, at least not until a couple days ago. Out of the blue, she had received an e-mail from the director/producer of this new production, one Joseph McCormick, inviting her to audition for the part of the heroine in the play. Apparently, he'd seen her in the school's production of Much Ado About Nothing and was impressed by her rendition of Ursula.
Amanda had been intrigued enough to sacrifice a Sunday morning to drive into town to the small theatre the e-mail had mentioned and try out for the part. She'd arrived to find a long line of eager women ahead of her. After writing her name down on, about midway down the list, Amanda had sat down in one of the chairs to wait.      
A few chatted amongst themselves; others sat quietly reading magazines or checking Facebook on their cellphones. After about fifteen minutes or so, the door opened again and a man stuck his head into the waiting room. "Next! Miss Jane Baker!" He read off his clipboard.
"Wish me luck girls!" A pretty blonde woman said to her friends as she jumped to her feet.
"Yeah right, I'm saving it for my own audition!" One of them replied as she crossed the room.
"Come in, Miss Baker." The man said, closing the door behind the beaming young woman. Oddly enough, in the three hours since Amanda had signed up for the audition, she'd seen a dozen or so girls go through the door. She hadn't seen anyone come back out; maybe they left by another door. She thought to herself with a shrug.
"Miss Amanda Smith!" The director called out, fifteen minutes later. "You're next!" Amanda glanced up. A smiled crossed her face. She tossed the magazine onto the seat of the chair next to her and stood up. She reached down, brushing a few wrinkles out of her dress and grabbed her purse. Turning, she hurried across the waiting room.
"Right this way, miss." The director said, waving her through the door.
"Thank you, Mr. McCormick." She replied with a nod.
"Please…" the man said with a smile. "Call me Joe."
"And you can call me Amanda." She said, returning the grin. The young woman stepped through the door.
She glanced around as he closed the door behind her. The young woman found herself what appeared to be a large storeroom for the theatre. Most of the space was taken up by odd pieces of broken down scenery, racks of costumes and boxes and boxes of props.  
There was a second door in the wall opposite the one Amanda had just come from. She guessed that was how the other girls had left after their auditions. A space had been cleared in the center of the room. Sitting there were two padded chairs. Joe crossed the room and sat in one of the chairs. He motioned for Amanda to take the other one. "Please have a seat, Amanda."  
"Alright." He said, handing her a couple sheets of paper. "We'll start with reading a couple lines from the play." Amanda nodded, taking the script. "In this scene, your character has just discovered evidence your uncle is behind the disappearances. He's suddenly come in and found you snooping through his papers…"
For the next few minutes, the two of them ran through a couple scenes. After each, Joe smiled, and made a note on his clipboard. Amanda grinned in return. This was the first audition she'd gone to outside the school theatre department. Landing a lead role in this place would look good on her resume…
"One more thing, Miss…" Joe said, taking the script back. "If you get this role, there is a scene in the play where you will be tied up and gagged on stage. Would that be a problem for you?"  
Amanda shook her head, smiling. "Not at all." She said, eagerly.
The older man nodded. "In that case, would you mind letting me tie you up, real quickly. Just so you can get a feel for what it will be like on stage."
"Ok." Amanda said, shrugging.
"Great!" Joe said, a large grin crossing his face. "If you would please stand up, and cross your hands behind your back." As the young woman stood and did so, he ran over to one of the walls, where a number of boxes were stacked. He reached down and opened one of the ones on top. From inside, he took out several coils of thin, nylon rope. Taking one, he quickly looped it around Amanda's wrists, pulling each coil snug against her skin. "How does that feel? Does that hurt any?"
"No." Amanda said, testing the ropes. "A little tight, though."
"Perfect…" Joe said, grabbing a second length of rope. This one went around Amanda's chest, running above and below her large, round breasts, pinning her arms securely against her back.
"Do you have to tie this so tight?" She asked, squirming in the ropes now cocooning her upper chest as he pulled the final knot securely.
"We want it to look as realistic as possible." The man replied. He knelt and quickly bound her feet together. "Will that be a problem?"
"No, not at all!" Amanda said hurriedly, not wanting to hurt her chances at getting the part.
"Good." Joe said, offhandedly, returning back to the box. "Now, we need to gag you…" From inside, he pulled out a pair of handkerchiefs. "Open your mouth please…"  He wadded one of them into a loose ball and stepped behind Amanda and pushed it between her teeth. Rolling the second handkerchief into a band, he pulled it between her teeth and tied the ends off behind her head, careful not to catch her long hair in the gag.
"There…" He said, stepping around to admire his handiwork. "How's that feel? Everything ok?" Amanda nodded. "Try talking with the gag on; see if you can call for help."
"Oooo-aaaah…" Amanda said, nodding. Her wounds were rendered unintelligible by the cloth packing her mouth. "EEEELLLPPPP!!!" she cried out, as loudly as she could. Her cries were surprisingly muffled by the cloth.
"Alright, now try and see if you can get free. Struggle a little bit for me." Amanda complied, hopping around on her securely bound feet, wishing she'd worn flats instead of heels. She squirmed, trying to loosen the ropes. Despite her best efforts they remained snug and tight around her body.
"How are the ropes? Still tight?" Amanda nodded, grunting affirmatively. "And do you think you'd be able to free yourself without any help?" She shook her head, wondering when he was going to untie her. Her arms were starting to fall asleep. "Do you think you could call for help if you had to?" Again, Amanda shook her head, no.
Joe grinned. "So, in other words, you're completely helpless…" Amanda nodded, wondering where he was going with this. She wriggled, hoping he would take the hint and start untying her. "Perfect…" Amanda squealed in surprise as the director suddenly stepped forward and grabbed her. The young woman squirmed in his grasp as the man lifted the young woman and threw her over one shoulder.
Ignoring the girl's confused grunts; Joe carried his bewildered captive across the room, to the second door. Amanda's eyes widened in shock as he opened the door. It opened into a small room, about the size of a large closet. The otherwise bare room was filled with a dozen or so young women, the women who'd auditioned. They were all tightly bound and gagged, the same was Amanda was.
The captives looked up, eyes wide with fear, squirming helplessly, as Joe set Amanda down between Miss Willis and Miss Baker. "Sit tight ladies…" He teased, standing up. "Got a lot more girls waiting to audition." With that, he turned, shutting the door behind him, plunging the prisoners into pitch black darkness…

Joe grinned as he shut the door. It never ceased to amaze him how easy it was to fool some of these girls. Without a second thought, they let him tie them up, gag them and it was only when they were completely helpless did they realize their mistake. The soundproofing he'd put in on that room was good, even standing right next to the door, he could barely hear the frightened cries from the fifteen captive women just on the other side of the wall.
Turning, he quickly tidied up the room for the next "audition". Amanda Smith's purse was tossed in one of the boxes, along with the rest of the other women's belongings. Making sure he still had plenty of rope, he checked his clipboard, for the name of the next wanna-be actress.
As he walked towards the waiting room, Joe glanced at his wristwatch. "Need to pick up the pace." He thought to himself. "Still got a good number of ladies to see to." In a couple hours, a truck would arrive to pick up the helpless captives, and take them someplace far away…someplace where they would fetch quite a lot of money for Joe and his associates.
"Miss Lauren Todd!" He called out, opening the door. A moment later, a pretty, young brunette stood and skipped over. "Right this way, Miss Todd," He said, ushering her through the door.
"Tell me…" he said, shutting it behind him. "Have you ever been tied up?"