I took a long, warm bath after breakfast, with lots of bath oils, because I love the way they make my skin feel. I nearly fell asleep in the tub (I hadn't gotten that much during the night), but suddenly felt energized: I didn't want to wait any longer. I dried myself and went into the big front room, still naked, to set things up.

I'd already made some preparations the two previous weekends. The mirror was in place, and the pole was ready, up overhead (I'll get to that). The hook in the ceiling was ready, and the box was already sitting under it. I spent some time getting the key-drop machine situated just where I wanted it.

My heart was pounding as I sat on the box and fastened the leather cuffs on my wrists and ankles. Each one was secured by a tiny padlock, and there was a bigger padlock, the one that the keys went with, to fasten the wrist cuffs to each other. I was so wet that I was sliming the top of the box. I tied one end of the bungee cord to a hinge on the door that led back to the bedrooms, and brought the other end over and tied it to the ring I'd attached to the side of the box. I'd tried it at home, but wanted to make sure it worked here. As soon as I let go of the box it went skidding across the room to smack against the door. I picked up the rope, one end of which I'd finally fashioned into a hangman's knot, and retrieved the box so I could stand on it to reach the overhead hook. It took me about ten minutes to get the noose positioned just where I wanted it.

I was near the end of a little checklist I'd made. I turned off the lights. I expected the whole scene to take place in the daylight (it was only 9 in the morning now), but in case I was still there at nightfall, I loved the idea of being plunged helplessly into darkness.

This was it! Time to get the ice cubes! I'd waited until the last minute to bring those in, wanting them to last as long as possible. I got the six key-holding cubes and dropped them into the tube in the key-drop. The bottom one was perched on the divider. Looking at it, I had a feeling it would drop in the pouch, but I couldn't tell for sure. I had no idea what the others were going to do. It depended on how the ice melted.

I dragged the box back to the middle of the room one last time. On the floor next to it lay a pair of red spike-heel shoes, the padlock for the wrist cuffs, a three-inch chain with padlocks at either end for my ankle cuffs, the string with the magnet at the end, and the red ball-gag. I tied the string to a ring on the right wrist cuff, opened wide for the ball-gag and tied the strings holding it in place. I put the heels on and stood up on the box, and bent over awkwardly to fasten the hobble-chain. I love my feet being bound, but they did need a little freedom to move around: it was going to be hard enough to stay balanced as it was. My heart tried to pound its way out of my chest as I took hold of the noose. I just held onto it and looked at it for a few minutes. I ran my fingers along it, loving the silky feel of it. At last I couldn't wait any longer and slipped it over my head. I carefully positioned it so the knot was behind my left ear, and slid the coils down to tighten it. I'd succeeded in getting it at just the height I wanted: it kept me standing very upright. Without the high heels I would have been standing on my toes.

With one last look around the room to make sure everything I needed was in place, I put my hands behind my back. The padlock was dangling from the ring on my right wrist cuff. I took hold of it with nervous fingers, and hooked it through the ring in the other cuff, but I didn't close it. Not yet. I stood for about ten minutes, knowing it wasn't yet too late to back out. I didn't have to close the lock. I could still just reach up and loosen the noose, take it off my head, climb down and say, well, that was pretty crazy but I've had my excitement for the day. But I knew there was no way I could do that.

I looked straight ahead at the mirror, showing my whole body. I loved the way the heels made my legs look. I looked myself all up and down, as if I was someone else, admiring the naked girl in the sexy red heels, standing with her hands behind her, her feet hobbled in her red cuffs, her speech stifled by the red gag, and her neck caught in a red noose. I wished I was her, and thought "Hey: I am her." Still looking in the mirror, I put a tiny bit of pressure on the ring of the padlock, pushing it slowly, slowly towards closure. I couldn't believe I was doing it, but I always knew I would. It came closer and closer to latching, and I thought about stopping and letting it go, but I just kept pushing. Suddenly I felt a click, and an incredible wash of adrenaline shot through my body. A high-pitched squeak came out behind the gag, and I wobbled and would have fallen, except the rope around my neck kept me upright. I took deep slow breaths and tried to calm down. I wanted to close my eyes but I knew it would make it harder to stand upright, so I focussed on the girl in the mirror, and thought, it's for real! I've done it for real!

The next two hours stretched out forever, but I didn't think I'd trade them for any other time in my life. There is a skylight in the ceiling of the front room, and after about twenty minutes the sun reached the point where direct sunlight started streaming in. It made everything look so clear. I had never in my life been so sexually aroused. There was a constant tingling between my legs, almost as if I had a vibrator in there, and every so often I would feel a sudden little cool touch on my inner thigh, as a string of wetness came down from my pussy.

With careful, tiny steps I turned myself to face to the right so I could see myself in profile. My breasts looked swollen and felt tingly. I wished I could touch them -- I usually use one hand to stroke them when I masturbate. I looked down: my nipples were so prominent, the aureolae so dark. Looking back to the mirror out of the corner of my eyes now, I examined myself from top to bottom. I could see the red wrist cuffs now, trapping my hands behind me. I waited until last to look at the most exciting part, and then I couldn't look away from it for the longest time: from this angle I had a full view of the coils of the noose coming down behind my ear, ending in the loop of red rope circling my neck. Its silky caress felt so wonderful. I leaned my head back a little so I could stroke the coiled rope with the back of my ear, closing my eyes and sighing. Its hold on my throat felt so soft, so intimate. No woman had ever had such an attentive lover.

My breasts may not have been within reach, but my clit was. I'd have to come at it from behind, of course, but if I bent back just a little I could reach between my legs with my fingers and stroke it. I verified I could really do it, and one of the hardest things I'd ever done was to make myself stop, and leave it alone. I didn't want to masturbate. I wanted the rope, my lover, to make me come.

There was a clock on the far wall, across from me, showing a half hour had gone by since I'd snapped the padlock shut. I'd put the ice cubes in about fifteen minutes before that. In a little over an hour, the first key would come down.

My legs were starting to hurt: I'd worn heels before, of course, but never stood still in them this long. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other every few minutes. I debated letting the noose take more of my weight, but I knew it wasn't a good idea. I wasn't sure how much of my weight was needed to hold the box in place, but I didn't want to experiment.

It was SO quiet. The cabin was very isolated. It wasn't in a legal hunting area, and my dad liked it that way. He didn't want stray potshots coming through the walls, and he didn't mind traveling a little to get his own hunting done. Not that there was no such thing as illegal hunting, but the place wasn't that easy to get to either, so that never was a problem. I could hear birds outside, including a woodpecker not very far off, but the only man-made sound I was aware of was an occasional airplane. There had been times in the past when I'd heard some gunshots way off in the distance, on very calm days when sounds carried for miles. There weren't any today, though.

My body gave the tiniest start when I heard a clink from the key-drop. It was just a couple of the ice cubes settling. No key yet.

I looked at the key-drop contraption. I was trusting my life to it. That, and the laws of chance. I believed in my own work. Chance was another thing, though. I had absolutely no control over it. I nodded to myself. That had been the way I wanted it: that there be a chance I might not get out of this.

By the time ninety minutes had gone by, I knew it was nearly time. Melting ice, which had begun as rare drips at first, was now nearly a stream. The pouch was soaked, and water was sliding down the chute to make a puddle on the floor. I'd felt pretty calm for a few minutes, so comfortable in the hold of my lover, not thinking much about what was scheduled to come next. But now the butterflies were starting again; my pussy and breasts were tingling again. I would know my fate within another half-hour or so. I took a long look in the mirror at myself, turning slowly in different directions to see everything I could. I smiled around the gag at the sight of the shiny streaks reaching halfway down both my inner thighs.

My feet were hurting as well as my legs, and my lower back was complaining too. I wished this whole scene could last forever, but my muscles were telling me it was time to get done with it.

The ice clinked again, and I saw a slight jerk in the pouch. I could count the keys and see there were five left. The first had fallen on the wrong side, out of reach. I started breathing faster. What if what if what if... Oh God, I can't believe I've done this.

About three minutes later two more keys fell together into the pouch. Half the keys lost. My whole body was shaking now. It had seemed so exciting to put myself in mortal danger, but with the danger really looming now, it felt stupid, it felt crazy. Oh please, let me get out of this.

Suddenly, faster than my eye could follow, a key came sliding down the chute. One corner of the box was facing the key-drop, and the key skidded towards the box a little to the right of the corner, stopping just inches from the side. Easily reached by my dangling magnet.

I had never really considered stepping off the box before catching one of the keys on the magnet. As practiced as I'd become fishing for keys this way, the thought of trying to do it while I was hanging seemed altogether suicidal. I wasn't even sure I'd be able to look down to see where the key was. My intention had been to get one of the keys stuck to the magnet, and then step off the box. I would still have to reel in the string with my fingers, put the key in the lock and unlock the padlock, while hanging. Once my hands were free, I could then reach above my head for the long pole I had placed up near the ceiling, which was held up there on two hooks a few feet apart, hanging from wires. With the pole I could reach out and snag the chair I'd placed on the floor to my left, about six feet away, and pull it over so I could stand on it. This was the part of the plan I'd had to work out first: I didn't want there to be anything nearby that I could stand on, but I wanted to make sure I could get loose once I had my hands free. I loved the element of danger, that there was no way to get free if I couldn't open the handcuffs. It was just as well I'd planned to get the key caught on the magnet first, because it turned out the key was on the side of the box with the bungee cord. When the box started sliding away, it would have taken the key with it.

It was hard to spot the key where it had ended up, underneath the cord -- I had to lean a little to see it. Easily accessible, though.

With practiced fingers manipulating the string, I jiggled the magnet along the floor closer and closer to the key. I lost sight of the key as the magnet hovered over it, next to the cord, but I knew where it was. In about thirty seconds there was a satisfying click.

I nearly turned my attention away from the key at that point and started working on psyching myself up for the great moment where I'd step off and swing freely, but a tiny voice in my head told me my fingers were feeling a resistance they weren't expecting. I decided to try pulling the string up at least partway to see if there was a problem. There was. A big one.

It seemed to be stuck on something. It didn't seem possible. The string passed very close to the bungee cord, but there was nothing about the shape of the magnet that allowed it to get really caught on anything.

I took in my breath suddenly. I knew what it was! The ring I had screwed into the side of the box, the one the bungee cord was tied to: it was iron, of course! My magnet wasn't stuck to it mechanically. It was stuck magnetically!

I felt angry at myself for not thinking of it sooner. I hadn't practiced fishing for keys anywhere near the ring -- it just didn't register on me. I felt relieved, though. If the thing had gotten mechanically caught on something, I might not have been able to manipulate it free, but if all it was was magnetic force it would come loose if I pulled hard enough.

As I was working out what the problem was, another key came sliding down the chute. This one didn't travel quite as far, and ended up directly in front of the corner that faced the key-drop, about six inches away. If I'd waited for this one, I wouldn't have gotten mixed up with the ring. I saw in the key drop that the last key had fallen in the pouch. I'd ended up with two keys to choose from, out of the six. As soon as I got the magnet free I'd go for the new key, and forget the one under the bungee cord.

I took a firm grip on the string and started pulling. I knew I didn't want to pull too hard. I had chosen the string because of its flexibility, not its strength. All it had to do was pick up one tiny key that weighed a fraction of an ounce. There was only so much tension it was capable of taking. I felt sure it could handle the amount of force holding the magnet and the ring together, but I didn't want to get carried away. I just needed to get it loose.

My frustration mounted as the seconds ticked away and nothing budged. I was sure I could get it unstuck. If I could have reached down and grabbed the magnet I knew I could easily have separated it from the ring. It was just awkward trying to do it from up here, but I didn't have any doubt I was capable of it. The whole thing was just maddening. It was keeping me from a date with my rope.

The most exasperating sight was that other key, easily within reach. If I had just waited! But I'd been so tired and sore from standing there, and wanted to get on with the rest of the show.

There! The magnet came loose suddenly, jumping off the ring into the air. But before I could start raising it, it fell back where it had come from and stuck on the ring again! I hadn't been able to move my fingers fast enough to reel in any of the string.

I was really mad now. I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down. That was another thing I'd learned from my dad: being mad doesn't fix anything. Just stop and think, and solve your problem. I reached as far down as I could with my right index finger and twirled a couple of loops of the string around it. I'd pull with that, and close my hand into a fist the instant the magnet came free. That would raise it high enough that it couldn't get stuck again.

I thought fleetingly about stepping off the box now: when the cord pulled the box away the magnet couldn't possibly hang on then. But I wasn't totally sure there was a key attached to it. I couldn't see the key. It might be on the magnet, or it might be on the floor under the cord. If it was on the floor the box would take it along with it. I could still go for the other key, but I was still afraid to try that while I was hanging. As a last resort, I kept the idea in mind.

I sighed a couple of times, trying to get myself under control, and started pulling with my finger. I knew shaking the string wouldn't help. I'd just pull a little harder, and a little harder, until it finally came loose. Damn it! That was really a strong magnet. I'd wanted to make 100% sure it would do the job I needed it to do. I gritted my teeth on the gag and pulled, feeling the string strangling my finger.

There, got it again! I sighed with satisfaction as tension in the string suddenly disappeared, closed my fist and... Oh God oh God oh GOD! There was no weight on the string! My whole body ran cold. It had broken.

Ohmigod what do I do, what do I do! I can't get a key I can't unlock the handcuffs I can't get out of this!