A Trip to the Amusement Park - Chapter 2

A few moments later, Britney looked around to see Mikey and Brenda stepping out of the rooms to the side. Wanting to see what the harness was like from behind, she began walking over to Mikey. Or, at least she tried to. Britney only made it a couple of steps before something jerked her back.

To Britney’s bewilderment, behind her was a strap leading from her back to the red rail above. It had been pulled quite taught, giving her little room to maneuver. She looked around for Stephanie to get an explanation for this outrageous addition to her restraints but she was nowhere to be seen.

The strap was connected to the beam with some sort of handlebar. Britney reached up and tried to dislodge the handlebar from the rail, but she couldn’t quite figure out the mechanism that secured it. She tried moving along the rail but found that it didn’t budge. She put her phone away, she no longer cared about Mikey’s stupid birthday, she needed out of this harness now.

She looked down, there were two horizontal straps, a wide one around her waist and a thinner one just under her chest. The horizontal straps were joined by two vertical straps. A strap ran from each side of the waist strap to her wrists. Furthermore, two straps ran down her sides to two loops that encircled her thighs. The two loops didn’t seem to serve much purpose other than being annoying.

The waist strap was secured in place with two straps ran on either side of her crotch, connecting the front of the waist strap to the back. Similarly, the chest strap had two straps running over her shoulders. They joined together at the center, between her breasts. Interestingly, there were no buckles of any sort in the front, so they must’ve all been placed in the back.

There were also some oddities with the harness. The strap joining her bracelet to the harness was confusing. It looked like the tether didn’t end, but instead fed into the waist strap. There were a couple of rings around the harness, although Britney couldn’t guess what they were for.

Britney reached her fingers behind her and began pulling at the straps, fiddling around, but she was unable to locate where they were all secured. She tried slipping the shoulder straps off, but they were pulled too tightly around her shoulders.

Brenda was brought over and placed behind her while Mikey was placed in front of her. Finally, Britney could get a good look at the back and began fiddling with Mikey’s harness.

“Hey stop that!” Mikey said, “You’re gonna get us kicked out!”

Britney told him not to worry as she was just taking a quick look. A matching pair of smaller straps also joined the chest and waist straps in the back. There was a large flat buckle at the middle of the chest and waist straps where most of the other straps were anchored. An extra strap went off the middle of the waist strap. It went down a couple inches before splitting off into the two that connected to his ankles. The lead connecting them to the overhead beam came out from the rear middle of the chest strap.

“Hey, look who’s all harnessed up and ready for a day of fun!” Jane said as she and Steven appeared from around the corner, the two dressed in their grey uniforms.

“Hey, mom, I’ve changed my mind on the harnesses. We aren’t little children and this is ridiculous, I’m taking off the harness,” Britney said, trying to hide her frustration.

“I agree, I thought it was just a single strap, this is a bit much,” Brenda said.

“Hey girls, we already booked one of the exclusive restaurants for lunch and the lady at the front said we can’t get refunds,” Steven said.

“But it’s super uncomfortable,” Brenda argued.

“C’mon, it can’t be that bad, Mikey here is wearing it just fine, aren’t you Mikey,” Steven said, to which Mikey nodded, earning him a pat on the head. “Let’s just try it for an hour or so we can get the exclusive lines and if you really hate it then we can just go without the child plus for the remainder of the day.”

“No I want them off now, they’re so embarrassing.” Britney stomped her foot. How dense could their father be?

“Your father makes a good point, you both agreed to the child plus earlier and we paid extra money as a result. You both know that the exclusive lines and deals are worth it so there’s really no backing out now,” Jane countered.

“Fuck the stupid deals.”

“Watch your language, maybe we should try the harnesses for two hours instead.”

“I’m not a fucking child, I’m just going to take this off and just bus home.” Britney threw up her hands, had her parents always been this ridiculous?

“Sure, you can take the harnesses off and bus home, or you can stay and we can enjoy the park,” Jane said, much to Britney’s surprise. The twins immediately shot their hands behind.

Feeling behind her back, she was able to get a finger onto the buckle by looking at Mikey’s harness in front of her. But to Britney’s dismay, she couldn’t tell how to release them. There wasn’t any button like a normal buckle. There weren’t even any holes that would suggest a key, and prying and jiggling didn’t seem to do anything. Heck, she couldn’t even figure out how to loosen the straps. Try as she might, Britney was stumped.

“Psst, Brenda, how do you get it off?” Britney whispered. Behind her, her sister seemed to be running into similar issues.

“Yeah I don’t know, the lady just put everything on so quickly, I wasn’t really paying attention.” Her usual cheery smile had faded to a frown.

“What the hell is this? Why can’t we take them off?” Britney said.

“Of course you can’t,” Jane smiled, “They’re designed to keep children safe and by their parents at all times, of course the children can’t take the harness off themselves.”

“That’s ridiculous, we’re adults.”

“But you agreed and went with the child plus packages. As far as we, the park, and the city is concerned, you’re a child for today.”

“But…” Britney began.

“No buts, you’re beginning to genuinely sound like a little five year old. If you want to argue more than you can stay in the harnesses all day instead of just two hours.”

Britney opened her mouth to argue but found herself at a loss of words. She couldn’t get the harness off herself and judging by her mom’s words she wasn’t going to get an employee to help her without her parents consent either. Like it or not, she was stuck like this until her parents were going to let her out. The worst thing she could do right now was piss her parents off any more. She would just need to find the first instance to escape and head home. “Fine,” she said finally. Brenda, having probably come to the same conclusion, agreed as well.

“Thank you, let’s help Mikey be happy and all the other children are in harnesses too, so you have nothing to worry about,” Jane said.

“Yeah thank you big sises!” Mikey chimed in. Brenda smiled at Mikey while Britney just turned around and grunted. What if someone they knew saw her in this harness? She would rather die than suffer through that type of embarrassment.

“Your children are almost ready. Would you like any additional accessories?” Stephanie reappeared behind them, seemingly ignorant to the argument that had just occurred.

Britney shook her head, the last thing she wanted was additional accessories, whatever that might entail.

However, Stephanie ignored her, showed Jane a small book. As she passed, Britney caught a glimpse of bracelets like the ones on her wrists and ankles, but they went around the upper arm and thighs.

“We have extra safety bracelets.” The assistant turned to show the parents the book, flipping through the pages. “Some safety goggles for protection against dust and water, although we provide them at our water adventures too. There are several protective face coverings, such as hoods and masks. This half mask in particular is quite popular among for older children because it hides the lower face.”

Britney’s ears perked up. “Can I see that one?” she asked, and the assistant showed them a picture of the mask. The mask covered the nose and mouth, and disappeared around the sides, like the ones people wore when sick.

Upon seeing the picture, Britney immediately asked for one. Anything to help her be less recognizable.

“The mask does come with an integrated mouth guard for —”

“Let me guess, safety,” Britney interjected, “I don’t care about the mouth guard, please mom and dad can we get one.” Brenda nodded eagerly in agreement while Mikey decided that he didn’t want one.

Jane sighed, “if you say so.” She nodded. Two assistants brought over some masks off the shelves and went behind the twins.

“Please open wide for the mouth guard and bite down on it to ensure a good fit.” Britney gladly opened her mouth as the assistants placed the two-pieced mouth guard and secured the mask on her. As it was fastened, it pressed around her lower face a bit tighter than she had expected.

“The mouth guard is a bit big,” Britney said, her speech coming out slightly garbled and muffled behind the mask. She realized there was a piece that extended out, pressing lightly against her tongue, making it a bit more difficult to form words. But at least she was now much harder to identify.

“That’s expected, for your…”

“Yeah, yeah safety.” Britney rolled her eyes. She couldn’t hurry to get the two hours over with so they could get out of the harnesses.

The assistants asked if they wanted any other accessories. Britney stood impatiently, her legs already a bit sore from the standing, but she couldn’t even sit down because of the darn lead behind her. Jane flipped through the remainder slowly, but eventually declined, much to the relief of the twins.

“Well, they’re all ready. Please activate your bands, and then you’ll be all good to go!” The kids watched as their Jane walked behind Mikey and held up a strange looking bracelet up to the buckle connector behind their backs.

“Parent registration detected.” A robotic female voice began speaking from the harness. “Child Mikey is registered to parents Jane and Steven.”

Then Steven walked behind Brenda and Britney again holding up their bracelets. The automated message again repeated for the two children respectively.

“Child Britney is registered to parents Jane and Steven.” A similar message played for Brenda. “Child over thirteen detected. Activating secure mode,” the voice added. All of a sudden, a whirling sound could be heard. Brenda looked around, confused as to what was happening, but soon, she found the cord between her wrists and waist rapidly shrinking. She fought against the force, but found her strength no match for the harness. In a matter of seconds, the cords had shrunk to less than a foot.

“What is this?” she demanded. Struggling to pull her arms away from her sides.

“Mouth guard detected. Activating.” The emotionless voice spoke. As soon as it finished, another whirling sound could be heard. Before she could ask, Britney felt the mouth guard inflating. She tried to bite down against the inflation but the firm material held and quickly filled her mouth. She tried spitting out, but the mask didn’t bulge. In fact, it seemed to have tightened further. After a few seconds, the whirling stopped, the guard now filling her mouth.

“What is this, get it off of me!” Britney yelled, or at least attempted to, as what came out from the other side was a garbled muted mess of syllables. The bulb in her mouth had extended, and aside from stuffing her mouth it also trapped her tongue underneath.

“You two wanted the masks,” their mother said as she patted Britney’s back as she struggled to free her wrists. She tugged against the wristbands but without knowing how the locking mechanism worked, they might as well have been welded shut. She pulled with all her might against the straps. Behind her, Brenda was putting on a similar struggle, prying at the straps with her fingernails. Britney tried that as well, her sharp fingernails dug into the material, desperately trying to rip it to shreds. However, deep down, she realized that this harness had been specially designed to keep children, even large children, securely strapped up.

Only now did Britney realize why she couldn’t spit out the mouth guard, that unlike the normal masks with loops around her ears, their masks had two straps that had been buckled behind her head.

Britney turned around and glared daggers at her mother. “Tath ith off” she spat out and stomped her feet. It was then that she realized that her ankles had somehow been hobbled too with only about a foot of cord between them. Despite having just resigned to the harness minutes earlier, she was now pissed. Very, very pissed.

She twisted and pulled, but the harness remained firmly secured around her body. She tried to pull away from the rail, but it was still attached firmly. She couldn’t believe it. Just a few minutes ago she had been completely free, and yet now she was tied up and restricted like some crazy person. With her speech removed, she couldn’t even properly express her anger.

“Wow these two sure are feisty, are you sure you don’t want the extra mitts and control collar?” Stephanie asked. “The mittens can help prevent damage to themselves, others, and the park from their scratching. And I guarantee you the control collars will help calm down even the most disobedient children.”

Britney furiously shook her head, whatever the control collar was, it didn’t sound good.

“I think they should, they’re being really childish,” Mikey spoke, a tinge of disappointment in his voice. Britney stared wide-eyed at Mikey.

He shook his index finger, “I think big sises should really know better than to throw tantrums,” he said. For some reason, while his wrist straps had been shortened like theirs, his ankle straps hadn’t been pulled in, in fact, they had been pulled upward, making the two split straps run alongside his legs, minimizing any impact to his mobility. Britney could swear his wrist straps were slightly longer as well.

“I agree. Remember, you two agreed to the Child Plus package as well as wanted the mask all on your own. If Mikey here is old enough to understand what you are doing is childish, you two are definitely old enough to know that you need to be responsible for your own actions. Today is Mikey’s birthday and our first family outing in almost a year, we are definitely not going to tolerate any behavior that could ruin the occasion,” Jane said before turning to Stephanie, “Please, put on the mitts and control collar.”

What about her and Brenda’s feelings? Were they not relevant at all? Britney could only stare at her mom in disbelief.

Stephanie gave a nod to the two assistants who were already holding the accessories. Britney stared wide-eyed at Steven, mmphing through her masks for help, but he simply shrugged, stating that they had indeed been warned.

Britney tried to shrug away from the assistant but with the her harness attached to the rail, her arms rendered useless, and even her ankles hobbled, there was nothing she could do to stop the lady as she began to wrap something around her neck. Her breath quickened as the lady began tightening the collar. She swung her arms, jerking every which way against her harness to no avail. She could feel her oxygen supply slowly being cut off. She was going to suffocate. Closing her eyes, she awaited death.

But then it stopped. The assistant moved onto something around her waist. Britney took a deep breath. The collar, while snug around her throat, was actually softly padded on the inside. She was in no risk of choking.

Brenda tested her mobility. She’d worn chokers before, but this one was a bit wider. It was relatively stiff, which made looking down challenging. All in all it was more foreign than uncomfortable. She opened her eyes, straining to look down, she noticed the assistant attach a bag to the right side of her harness, just under her hand. An identical one had already been attached to the left.

Stephanie moved behind Britney and she heard something click. She then felt a hand at the back of the collar and another click could be heard. Before she had realized it, the lead to the rail had been swapped from the back of the harness to the collar around her neck.

Once Brenda had her accessories similarly applied, Stephanie began moving behind her. Having saw what happened, Brenda jerked away as soon as the click was heard, but Stephanie was one step ahead of her. She had already held onto a ring at the back of her harness and with a simple yank and a click Brenda found herself once again secured to the rail.

“Control collar and mitts detected. Control collar activated. Mittens activating. Please hold your hands into fists and insert into mittens.” The harness spoke.

“No phuking wayth.” Britney stood, her fingers held wide open. She wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

“Non-compliance detected, initiating punishment shock, level three.” The harness had barely finished speaking when a searing pain shot through the collar. Britney screamed into her mask, jolting before being jerked back by the lead attached to her neck. “Second shock initiating in ten… nine…” the harness began counting down.

Britney quickly came to the realization that she had already lost this battle. Subdued, she clenched her fingers into tight fists and stuffed them into the mittens, yelling every single insult in her vocabulary. Her parents were going to get an earful when she got out. No, she was going straight to the police.

A few moments after slipping into the mittens, she felt something tighten around her wrists. She tugged at them, confirming her suspicions. She could no longer pull her hands out of the mittens, effectively trapping them by her sides. The mittens were padded on the inside and wrapped snugly around her hands making it so she could only unfold her fingers halfway. Her ability of using her fingernails to pry at the harness had now been removed. Soon after, a whirling sound was heard, and the foot of cord between the waist and wrists shrunk, adding insult to injury.

Behind her, Brenda’s seemed to ponder the decision. “… three… two… one… Initiating punishment shock, level four.”

There was a muffled cry from behind the mask as Brenda was shocked a second time. Britney could see she was close to crying. Soon after, her hands were mittened as well. Evidently, level four had been enough.

Jane and Steven walked behind the two older children, seemingly oblivious, or perhaps indifferent, to the pain the two of them had just suffered. Each reaching up behind a child. Somehow, they easily detached the mysterious mechanism that secured the lead to the rail.

Jane held onto Mikey’s lead while Steven held onto both the twins. Together, the family began leaving the room. Mikey pranced along aside their mother, probably happy to finally head into the park.

Britney was bewildered. How was everyone acting like this was normal? While she might be restrained, she was still far from helpless. The collar and mittens had done nothing to stop her from resisting against Steven’s pull. And she was certainly not about to be led out like a dog on a leash. Britney yanked against Steven’s pull on their harness, cursing as loud as she could through the mask. The collar pressed against her throat but Britney didn’t care. She continued screaming insults as Steven struggled to control her. Britney was going to fight him every step of the way. This was about sending a message.

Jane sighed “I had really hoped to not have to use this,” she said. She raised her hand and began tapping on the wristband.

“Leash follow mode enabled. Quiet mode enabled. Shock warning disabled,” the harness voice said.

Britney jerked back, hoping to catch Steven unaware and knock him off balance. However, she was instead met with a searing pain against her tender throat. “Whaa—” Brenda began from behind her, but cut herself off with a jolt. She had clearly been shocked as well.

“As you can see, the collar shocks you guys for disobedience. The follow mode means you get shocked if the lead is pulled taught. The quiet mode means you get shocked if you try and talk. Shock warning disabled means you won’t get any warning for the shocks. I didn’t want to do this but it’s clear that you both need something strict to help you two behave and stop you from creating a bigger scene.”

Britney looked up, everyone in the room seemed to be staring toward them. She felt her cheeks flush as heat rose to her face.

She glanced toward Brenda and their eyes met. A look was all they needed to confirm that they were thinking the same thing. They had lost. Whether they liked it or not they were now completely at the mercy of their parents. In fact, even with just the basic harness they would have been, yet they had dug themselves a deeper hole, a far more restrictive and painful one at that.

The two turned their eyes toward their parents, begging to convey their message. They wanted to tell their parents that they admitted defeat. That they would gladly obey and accept the harness for the next couple of hours if they removed the cursed collar and other accessories.

But alas, it was too late. Neither parent could read what was on their minds. Gone was their ability to form intelligent words, and even if their parents could understand them through the masks, they could no longer even attempt to speak without getting shocked.

The rebellion now over, Jane turned around and the family continued moving into a dimly lit hallway. Britney followed along without another word, her singular focus was now making sure slack remained in the lead between her and her father, fearing another punishment shock. The hobbles between her ankles forced her to take short, quick steps in order to keep up.

Brenda also walked quietly behind Steven. As they neared the end of the hallway, the sounds of screams and carnival music began growing louder. As they stepped out of the dim hallway she was bombarded with a grandiose display of colors from all around. Laughter and chatter came from all directions. The smell of cotton candy and hot dogs filled the air.

In any other situation, the cheerfulness would’ve brought a smile to her face. Instead however, Brenda hung her head in shame and trudged along. Rather than look toward the bright and cheery sky, right now, Brenda found the cool floor underneath her socked feet more comforting. Brenda could feel her cheeks burning. What if someone she knew saw them? A nineteen year old in cute overalls stuck in a harness and being dragged around on a leash like some untamed animal.

Brenda was still pissed at her parents as they clearly knew more than they had let on with the Child Plus package. She was even angrier at the fact that she was chained up like a prisoner and no one else batted an eye. But the look from Britney had told her what she already knew: even though they were angry, there was nothing they could do now but calm down and obey.

She resigned, Brenda knew that she would have to wait a few hours until lunch where her parents would inevitably have to remove the mask for them to eat. She would apologize and politely ask that the harness be removed, or at the very least the accessories. At this point, this was her only option, and Brenda hoped that she would be able to enjoy the remaining time at the park even if she still had to keep the ridiculous harness on.

She sniffled from behind the mask, fighting back tears. Why had her parents done this? Why did they treat them as child who needed a harness with all these restraints to be kept in check? Was this some sort of sick joke?

However she knew her parents were not the type to pull such a messed up prank. Were they being punished? Certainly the extra restraints were punishment for the behavior in the changeroom, but why had they been harnessed to begin with?

“Mom, mom, what ride are we going on first?” Mikey tugged against Jane’s sleeve hopping around.

“It’s a surprise,” she replied. This only caused Mikey to be even more excited, begging for her to reveal the secret. He skipped along, looking all around with a face of awe. A smile beamed from his face. Despite also being far too old to be in a harness, he seemed to have no issues it at all.

Brenda surveyed her surroundings. It was still early in the morning, but people were already buzzing about. Families headed around in various directions. The younger children were all harnessed. Several tugged against their leads, but it wasn’t out of frustration or anger, rather most tugged with excitement, pulling their parents toward the next ride.

Many of the older children were harnessed as well, particularly those in families with younger siblings. Some were as old, or perhaps even older than her. Despite their limited freedom, most of them strolled around with a smile on their face, chatting happily amongst themselves.

Not everyone was happy. There were some with masks and control collars, and various other accessories Brenda didn’t really understand. They were predominantly used on the older children. They, like Brenda and her sister, usually had their heads hung, likely trying to remain inconspicuous. However, Brenda realized that even they blended in, and that no one really paid any individual much attention.

The ones that did draw attention were those that tugged and resisted against their leads, making a scene. However, with the harnesses, additional accessories or not, their guardians always had the final say.

Realization dawned on Brenda. Her mom had mentioned that the many changes that had rolled out over the year had resulted in additional restraints becoming commonplace to help keep children safe. The leads would certainly help parents not lose track of their kids, and probably helped keep lines in order. This was the new normal. Brenda just hadn’t realized it affected her age group as well.

Brenda was still furious, but now, she was the most angry at herself. She was angry at herself for not noticing this sooner, for getting herself into her current state, and for almost ruining Mikey’s birthday.

She looked to her side and caught a glimpse of Britney, who was also surveying the crowd.

The two had always shared a connection where they could talk to each other through glances. And right now, as they made eye contact, they exchanged the same conclusion. They had messed up and now they were going to have to pay the price. With that, the two went back to trudging behind their father, hanging their heads in shame.

As they trudged on, Brenda grew bored of the scenery and her thoughts began to drift. She had originally been so excited to run off into college, away from her parents who were always a bit too careful, never letting her so much as see another boy. However, college was lonely. Her few close friends had gone off to different schools and after several nasty experiences, she came to find dating was not nearly as fun as she’d expected. Many a night she spent in her small isolated dorm room, reminiscing of her childhood days back at home, playing together in the backyard and laughing around the dining table. Now, she finally had a chance to spend with her family, yet it had started off with such a mess.

Brenda’s thoughts were interrupted by a painful shock around her neck. She yelped in surprise. She was jerked back into reality as she felt herself propelling forward. Time slowed to a crawl, and somehow, she realized she was falling. She must’ve tripped on the hobble between her ankles. Instinctively, she moved her arms, trying to catch herself, o realize they were still pinned tightly to her sides. She screamed, closing her eyes, bracing as best she could for the impact.

But the impact never came. Instead of the cold hard concrete, she fell into a soft warm embrace. She opened her eyes to see her father gently helping her back into balance.

“Hey, are you alright, angel?” Steven asked.

Angel. That was a term Brenda hadn’t been called in a long time. Steven knelt down in front of her, dusting off her knees that had barely touched the ground. He looked up at her, a face full of concern.

Brenda didn’t know what hit her, but tears she didn’t even know she had began streaming out. Her father said nothing, instead putting his arms around her, holding her closely. Brenda closed her eyes, unable to stop as she began sobbing. She tried to keep quiet, afraid of what the others would see, afraid of getting shocked.

Her father put a hand on her head, resting her head against his shoulders, wiping her tears with his sleeve and gently combing her long hair. “There there, my baby angel, you’re okay, your mom and I will always look out for you.” For the first time in a long time, Brenda felt genuinely cared for. She felt safe, she felt comforted. She let out all of her emotions from not only the day, but also from the past year.

The rest of the family remained quiet, even young Mikey didn’t make a sound. After a while, her breathing finally began slowing down. Her father wiped her tears with the inside of his sleeve and brushed the hair that had stuck onto her face.

Eventually, he retreated his arms and stood up, Brenda wanted to reach out and pull them back around her but the harness forbade such movement. “I know you two must not like these restraints. You feel like you’re too old for them. But, like your mom and I mentioned earlier, a lot of rules have changed around here recently. The harnesses are for not only your safety, but everyone’s. As I’m sure you’ve noticed, there’s even people older than you wearing the harnesses proudly, there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

“Furthermore, your behavior definitely was not appropriate for your age and so the extra accessories were necessary.” The two girls hung their heads. “That being said,” their father continued, “It seems that you two have learned your lesson a bit. Perhaps we can remove follow mode and tone the shocks down a bit.” He looked toward Jane.

She nodded. “However, we expect your best behavior otherwise they’ll go back on immediately.”

The two nodded as best they could with the collars encircling their throats. Steven tapped along the screen for a bit. Soon, the familiar whirling sound could be heard. The cable between their ankles began lengthening, increasing the hobble. At the same time, the cable connecting the hobble to the back of the harness shortened, pulling the hobble up so the girls could walk normally without fear of tripping.

“Shock level reduced to level one. Leash follow mode off.” The voice confirmed. Brenda tried to smile in appreciation, but realized the mask and gag were in the way. She hoped at least that her eyes could convey her thanks.

“Now, can we go to our first ride, already?” Mikey asked cheerfully. Jumping up and down in his harness.

“Careful Mikey, you don’t want to end up like your sisters now do you?” Jane warned. Mikey toned it down immediately but his excitement continued to poured out of his wide smile.

“Also don’t worry, we’re actually already here.”