"That is the point though" said Diane "It should be difficult for him, but I don't think she really appreciates that fully. I think she still sees him like a little boy. I can't imagine she'd be shy of whipping his trousers down in company, although I'm not sure she ever has."
"That poor boy, what must he be going through?" said Margaret completely shocked "I mean, he seemed so nice and polite. Do you know his mother?"
"I know Felicity very well, she's the chair of the local Women's Institute, you should meet her. Actually we ought to introduce you to all sorts of people really" said Diane.
"We should start meeting people" said Margaret "I hope we haven't appeared rude, but we've just been so busy what with Keith's new job and the move and so on."
"Don't be silly, no-one's going to think you're rude" said Diane "We'll organise a drinks party or something and invite everyone along. Let me know what day would be best, so that you can bring your husband along. Ben and Amy can come too, meeting some of the other children will be good for them."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ben was startled when he heard someone come through the door outside, and he was apprehensive about who it might be. Amy had returned and was sat playing with the riding crop, but she just looked up excitedly. For a moment Ben worried that it might be Alan returning for some revenge, and he didn't think he and Amy would be strong enough to stop him wreaking havoc on them.
It was Paul who came through the door, though, and Ben relaxed visibly.
"Hi kiddies, what's up?" he asked.
"Nothing" said Ben trying to hide his agitation "Just waiting. Where is everyone?"
"I saw Victoria outside. She was up a tree, she must have a new camera or something" he said "Don't know about Emily and Alison, they'll be along in while I expect."
"I hope so" said Ben with forceful sincerity.
"You getting all excited, stud?" asked Paul and Ben blushed "Don't worry" Paul continued "We'll be here to help"
"What makes you think I'll need help" said Ben, feeling small.
"Everyone needs help their first time" he said.
"I bet you didn't" said Amy.
"I did. We all did. But we had each other" said Paul.
"Who was your first?" asked Amy, ever nosy.
"Emily" said Paul.
"Not Victoria?" said Ben.
"No, she was with us, but they tossed a coin and Emily won. I did Victoria next though" he said with a grin.
"What was it like?" asked Ben in awe.
"Oh Ben, there are no words to describe it. You'll find out" he said with a wink, causing Ben to blush again.
"What about Alison?" asked Amy "Was she there?"
"No. Alison wasn't in the gang then" he said "Can you get me a coke please, Amy?"
"I thought Ben was supposed to be the junior most member" she said.
"He is, but if someone asks you to do something you don't argue, you just do it. Obedience remember? Especially to senior members of the gang. Besides I want to talk to Ben" said Paul.
"So could I tell Ben to do things and he'd have to obey me?" she asked hopefully.
"No, but you could get me a can of coke. They're outside in stream. Or would you rather have me smack your bottom for you?" said Paul.
Amy leapt up and dashed from the room disappointedly.
"Nervous?" asked Paul.
Ben nodded and grimaced a little.
"Don't worry, honestly, it's a piece of cake, and as I said we'll be here to help out. No-one's going to take the piss." He said and patted Ben's thigh.
"What about Amy?" asked Ben.
"Hasn't she learned her lesson?" asked Paul. Ben didn't want to get Amy into trouble so he just stared noncommittally.
"We can send her next door, have Emily or Victoria take her off and look after her if you like" offered Paul.
Ben nodded gratefully.
"We're not going to make a habit of it mind, but it is your first time. In future though, if you're not comfortable doing stuff like that in front of the rest of us then just don't do it." said Paul.
"Okay" said Ben.
Amy rushed back in with three cans of coke, still wet from the cool water of the stream. She offered the first to Paul, the second to Ben, and kept the third for herself. They drank.
"So how did the gang get started?" asked Ben, not wanting the conversation to return to him and his frightening task with Alison.
"Oh God, that was a way back. Um..." started Paul.
"I thought it was only a year ago?" said Ben.
"Yeh, but it's been a very eventful year, I'm just trying to get the details straight" said Paul sitting back and swinging his feet over the arm of the chair.
"It was Alison, really" he said.
"She wasn't in the gang at the start" said Amy.
"No she wasn't in the gang, but... Well, let's start at the beginning" He took another swig of coke.
"Alison got caught smoking by her dad at a barbeque they were having. We were all there and so were loads of other people, including her cousin Arnold. Her dad was mad, he stripped her naked in the garden in front of everyone and gave her a right good hiding" he said.
"He... what!?" said Ben.
"Stripped her, gave her a thrashing" he repeated.
"In front of loads of people!?" asked Ben, incredulous.
"Yep, he was really mad. Anyway..." Paul began again.
"Bugger me!" said Ben "I'm bloody glad our dad doesn't do that sort of thing"
Amy nodded looking equally appalled.
"Shall I go on or are we going to get stuck on this image of Alison all naked and being spanked?" asked Paul winking at Ben.
"No, go on" said Ben, blushing again.
"It turned out that her cousin Arnold had set her up, just in the hope that he might get to hear Alison get a spanking, he hadn't imagined he'd actually see it, but basically it was all his fault. Now that was bad enough, but he kept on teasing Alison about, and when he got bored of that he started teasing Emily too, suggesting that maybe he'd like to see her get the same. We didn't have a gang then, but we did hang out a lot together and of course this got discussed a lot. Victoria was the one who suggested that he needed a taste of his own medicine, but since his parents didn't believe in spanking it didn't seem very likely to happen. We dragged back and forth over the whole thing until we came up with the idea that maybe we could give him the spanking instead. Well we all liked that idea I can tell you, but we knew he'd just run and tell his dad and we knew what the consequence of that would be. We did nearly go through with it anyway, it would almost have been worth it, but Victoria was opposed. Her daddy think she's a little angel and she didn't know how he'd react to her being involved in such a sordid affair. So we thought that we were probably just going to have to put up with him."
"Why didn't you film it, like you did with us?" asked Amy "Then he wouldn't have told."
"Easy when you know the answer" he said "And that's what Victoria came up with. She was always filming birds and stuff and one day she suddenly burst in all excited with the idea of keeping a film of his humiliation and threatening to show it to people if he blabbed. We spent a while discussing whether that would be enough to keep him quiet, but I think we were all pretty convinced really. It took a while to set up, because he doesn't live near here. He just visits with his mum and dad occasionally. Anyway, they returned later that year, and it was easy to lure him into the forest, he didn't suspect anything. Victoria had found this place on one of her weird nature hunts, and this is where we brought him."
"No Alison?" asked Amy.
"No. It would have been fair, given that she was the one who was humiliated by him, but we just couldn't trust her to keep it a secret. I mean, we were intending to do something really naughty, and if we'd got caught - well that would have been a nightmare. So we'd kept our plans to ourselves. We did want to include her, like I said, but it was too much of a risk. Anyway things didn't go to plan"
"Why not?" asked Ben.
"Because when we planned it all out we'd just intended to get him on the floor, sit on him and pull his clothes off, you know, pretty quickly, and then give him a beating until he cried and had had enough. But it didn't work that way. We were all pretty nervous, you have to remember none of us had done anything even remotely like this before. And I think none of us wanted to make the first move, or give the signal, in case we were the ones that got blamed, I suppose. So things were a bit awkward and we must have been behaving a bit strangely and Arnold started to get a bit suspicious. And then, out of the blue, Victoria suddenly started issuing orders. Happy to abdicate the responsibility we did as she said. Anyway, instead of just being stripped off unceremoniously, she dragged it out, one piece of clothing at a time, while he begged us not to, and threatened us and you know - the usual. It took a while to get him naked and by then he was already embarrassed and crying. He must have been thirteenish I guess so he was pretty horrified at being naked in front of two girls. Victoria ridiculed his bits, even though he looked pretty normal to me, and then she started tickling him, until he popped a boner. That's when he got really desperate and he broke down, begging for mercy. I thought we'd probably let him go then, but Victoria had other ideas. We gave him his beating. Or rather Victoria did, and she really laid into him. Then, and I think this is what really horrified us, let alone Arnold, under the threat of another beating she made him wank off in front of us."
"I like watching boys do that" said Amy.
"Yeh, me too" said Paul "But back then it was a pretty shocking experience. I hadn't even done it myself yet. Anyway, we let him go then, but before we did we showed him the video we'd made, and told him what would happen if he ever told. Needless to say he didn't tell."
"So then what happened?" asked Ben.
"Well, we were so embarrassed ourselves we avoided each other for a few days, and even after we did start hanging out again we couldn't bring ourselves to mention it. It was as if it had never happened. But we were all thinking about it. We couldn't stop thinking about it. Then one afternoon we were hanging out here, playing cards or something, and Victoria just told us we were all being stupid, we all knew we all wanted to talk about and that's what we were going to do. So we talked about it. And it became clear pretty quickly that we'd all been really excited, and, more importantly, that we wanted to do it again. We didn't want to pick on Arnold again, for fear of pushing him too far, and we didn't really know who else to choose so we left it for then. The next day, as Victoria was giving us a long and boring lecture on the nocturnal habits of tawny owls a boy came strolling along. He was maybe twelve, a city kid, from Birmingham I think, and he was cocky and rude and made fun of Victoria so she just told us to grab him. Again we did as she said, and we ended up back here with him. As you can guess he was about as sorry as a boy could be that he'd ever met us by the time we'd finished and let him go. And that's when we came up with the idea. "
"What idea?" asked Amy.
"Of the gang" said Paul "I mean, I guess we already were a gang of sorts, but we formalised it. We discussed all sorts of options, came up with some rules, and then Victoria insisted on an initiation ceremony. Emily and I said no, there was no way we wanted to be naked and tortured, but she said it was the only way to make sure we'd all stay loyal and not tell anyone else. The initiations would be filmed, you see, and we'd all get a copy, so we all had the same blackmail material against the rest of us. We still said no, though."
"So you didn't do an initiation then, you said you had, that everyone had to do the same" complained Ben.
"No we did, just not then. Victoria said that we had to be safe, that was the most important rule, and without the initiations we'd have to give up the gang. Me and Emily weren't happy at that, but we weren't going to do the initiations so that was that. Until about a week later, when Emily and I came crawling back begging Victoria to allow us to do the initiations" said Paul.
"Why, what had she done" asked Ben.
"Nothing. We were hooked. We couldn't give it up, we wanted to do it again. We needed Victoria, she was a natural, she always knew what to do, what to say. She was lot braver than us, and a lot more imaginative. So we did our initiations, and it was so humiliating. Victoria did hers too though to be fair. And we all got a copy."
"Do we get copies?" asked Amy.
"Not until you're a senior" said Paul "So we refined the rules and procedures from there. We decided we'd only pick on tourists, there are enough of them to keep us supplied, but never pick on any of the locals, because they're around too much and it's just too big a security risk. I mean, given time they could get organised, or maybe even on their own, catch us unawares at some point and get their revenge, with their own video evidence. Then it would get really messy and dangerous. Also, I insisted that we catch girls as well, it wasn't fair Victoria and Emily having all the fun. We made mistakes in the early days, and some of our captives even escaped, but luckily none of the mistakes were fatal. So we learned. We improved our tactics, got more equipment together, got smarter, and so on."
"How did Alison join?" asked Ben.
"That was because of the sex" said Paul "We'd started to get more comfortable together. I mean after the initiations and after stripping loads of boys and girls together, it seemed a bit daft to be shy with each other, and usually after we'd been playing with a captive we were pretty randy. It was Victoria who took the lead, she suggested we play a game she'd invented that was a bit sexy. So we played, and it was basically strip poked except that after you got naked you had to do forfeits instead of take off clothes. The forfeits were kind of sex stuff. Anyway, after a few occasions doing that Victoria said we should have sex, and we did. That was the first time I told you about. After that it's became a regular part of our activities. We all learned pretty quickly, especially because we were all prepared to talk about it and tell each other what we liked and didn't like, and what worked and didn't work. So I got up to speed on how to make a girl happy, and they got up to speed on how to make a boy happy."
"So what's that got to do with Alison?" asked Ben.
"Oh. We got careless. We were at Emily's house, everyone was out, and we were talking about a captive we'd had and were getting pretty excited and we started fooling around. Alison walked in when we were only half dressed and all over each other" said Paul.
"How half dressed?" asked Amy.
"Um... I think Victoria and Emily had their breasts out, and Emily might have only been in her knickers" said Paul.
"Oh man!" moaned Ben.
"What about you?" asked Amy.
"I think my shirt was off, and Victoria had her hand in my trousers" said Paul.
"What did she do?" asked Amy.
"She just stood there, staring, I don't think she could believe what she was seeing. Emily had a heart attack. Alison was still just staring, when Victoria suddenly took charge. She hopped off the bed grabbed Alison by the shoulder and closed the bedroom door. She forced Alison to sit down, and started to talk to her" said Paul.
"What did she say?" asked Ben.
"She told her that what we were doing was a very special game, and that it was a secret, and she shouldn't tell anyone. Alison just stared dumbfounded, but then said she had to tell her parents because they were being dirty. Victoria said it wasn't dirty and asked her if she had ever seen a boy naked. Alison shook her head, so Victoria asked if she wanted to and Alison nodded vigorously. So she told Alison that if she didn't tell Victoria would arrange it so she could see me naked, and other boys too if she wanted. Alison thought about this for a little while then agreed. We told her we'd have to wait until the weekend. We all got dressed, and left Emily to keep an eye on Alison, and we all lost a lot of sleep worrying that she might change her mind. But, come the weekend, she still hadn't said anything and so we met up here. In the meantime we'd all discussed what to do, and it had been decided to let her into the gang. So when Emily brought her on Saturday, we sat her down and told her about the gang, and told her she could join, but that she had to be initiated. She didn't want to be initiated, and tried to get us to let her join without doing one, implying that she could still tell on us if we didn't agree. Emily and I would probably have given in out of fear, but Victoria flat out refused. But, she did sweeten the deal by telling her what we had done to Arnold, and that if she joined the gang she could watch the video, and maybe they'd even get him back for a repeat performance, so Alison could play with him too."
"What did she say?" asked Amy.
"She didn't hesitate. We initiated her there and then, and afterwards to calm her down - you have to understand that Alison was very innocent, and very shy, back then, so the initiation was tough for her - we showed her what we had done to Arnold. We weren't quite sure how she'd take it, but when we finished she was begging for more" said Paul.
"Did you get Arnold again?" asked Ben.
"Yes, that would have been around Christmas time" said Paul.
"How did you lure him back?" asked Amy.
"Emily did that. They were visiting for Christmas. Emily kissed him under some mistletoe when no-one was around, and what he thought was going to be an innocent peck turned into something a lot more fun. Emily led him on basically. Once she'd got him all fired up she suggested they get a bit more intimate and brought him here, since it was a safe place, far from prying eyes" said Paul.
"Wasn't he suspicious?" asked Ben.
"I guess he was, but Emily had prepared the ground, she'd already told him that we'd all fallen out and didn't hang out together anymore, and the den was long abandoned and no -one used it now, and I don't think Arnold was too bright. Anyway, once he was all fired up and expecting to have a very compliant Emily to play with, he wasn't really thinking with his brain" said Paul.
"Tell us what happened!" said Amy.
"Well, we were waiting for him, and when they arrived we jumped him again. He just wailed and started crying and begging immediately. Alison was over the moon, and of course when he saw her he really started fighting. Anyway, we got him stripped down, Alison had free reign, within limits. She gave him a good hiding. She played with him and gave him a boner, and Victoria got him to whack off again. Alison couldn't believe her luck. She was furious when we let him go, you know what she's like, and we had to give her a stern talking to. I think she would have liked to keep him tied up there all over Christmas, so she could return to play with him over and over. I think she had a great Christmas anyway, because of course Arnold was staying with them, so he had to endure her looking at him and smiling all day and every day. And that must have been torture. The boot was most definitely on the other foot. So Alison's been in the gang ever since" said Paul.
"Wow!" said Ben.
"And that's why we came up with the sex rule" added Paul.
"Sex rule?" said Amy.
"Yes. No-one's allowed to have sex, well let me clarify that a bit, gang members aren't allowed to have sex with each other, except here. We got careless before and caught, it could have been a disaster. So from then on we never did anything like that except when we were here. Trouble is, you might think it's safe, you might think no-one's in the house and you've got loads of time, but things happen, and you can get taken by surprise" said Paul.
"What about with other people?" asked Ben.
"There's no rule about that, obviously you can't bring other people here. But with the gang, it's only allowed here" said Paul.
"Do people go with other people?" asked Ben.
"I don't think so. Thinking about it I'm not sure Victoria would like that very much, we're supposed to a family really, and keep that sort of thing to ourselves. It's a lot safer that way, and avoids people getting jealous and stuff" he said.
There was bang as the front door slammed, and Emily and Alison walked in. Alison grinned broadly when she saw Ben, and as excited as Ben was to see her, he was also, suddenly, terrified.
Continued in Chapter Eighteen