"What... what... what's the test?" asked Ben reluctantly, feeling sure he didn't want to know.
"Take off your shoes and socks, and come with us" said Victoria rising from the settee.
Ben definitely did not like the sound of this, but he was trapped. What could he do? He stooped down, and undid the laces on his Reebok trainers, pulled the trainers off then repeated the process with his socks.
"Where are we going?" he asked in a very small voice.
"Next door" said Victoria picking up her laptop, and Ben realised that must be the room he had seen them strip the girl in. But Paul had promised him he wouldn't be stripped. Hadn't he?
Ben followed the girls with his head down, shoulders slumped; scared half to death. Paul followed him.
"Shhh!" said Paul "We're nearly there."
CHAPTER FOUR
The girls had gone in ahead of him, with Ben following like a man going to the gallows. Paul closed the door once he had entered behind Ben. The floor of the room felt smooth under Ben's naked feet, unlike the hallway which had been rough and dusty. He looked round: there were old wooden cabinets in here, which looked like they were still in decent condition, and at one side of the room were a number or old arm chairs and dining chairs, above which was a shelf covered with old and ornate looking wooden boxes; a small table stood in the corner.
As the girls selected chairs to sit in, he noticed that one side of the room had a boarded up window with big gaps in it, which if he had abandoned his small hole and continued around the building the other day, he would have been able to use to get a much better view of the nearly naked captive. A moment's regret gave way to the realisation that he would soon be seeing plenty of naked girls, close up and in the flesh.
He was brought back to the present by Victoria, who broke the silence with: "Alison". Like before, Alison immediately jumped to her feet and this time crossed to one of the cabinets. She pulled open a drawer and fiddled inside for a short time while Ben watched her closely, afraid of what she might bring him this time. She approached him with a large white pill.
"Extra strong mint" she said "Eat it!"
"It's to get rid of the horrible taste in your mouth..." added Emily "...and so your breath doesn't stink."
Ben inspected it suspiciously for a second, then, satisfied it was what they'd said it was, popped it into his mouth and sucked. The flavour of the mint was overpowering, but it did purge his mouth of the taste of piss. He stood, self consciously, not quite sure what to do with his hands, while the others just watched him.
"It's all right..." said Victoria "Take your time. There's no rush."
The four of them studied him carefully while he rolled the mint round his mouth, scouring it carefully, and only too well aware that they were all staring at him. Their eyes flicked up and down, taking in every detail of his body. His fair hair, not quite blond, not quite light brown, was in need of a cut as it straggled close to his collar and nearly covered his hazel eyes, which betrayed the faintest flicker of fear. His slightly flushed cheeks bulged alternately as he shifted the mint back and forth. His nose was small, pointing ever so slightly upwards. His lips were reddish and quite full, sitting above a good strong jaw.
A long slim neck joined his head to his body, covered on the top part by a mustard yellow shirt of thick cotton, with the long sleeves rolled casually back. The bottom part was covered by his favourite faded black jeans, which had already been washed, dried and ironed by his conscientious mother. There was nothing to see at the front of his trousers, the only bulge being supplied by the heavy cotton of his fly. His bare feet, below neat little ankles, were clean on the top, and his toes flexed up and down self-consciously.
While they regarded him, he regarded them. Victoria was the beauty, not only did she have the face of an angel, but under her tight fitting red shirt Ben could see the firm swellings of real breasts. She must have been fourteen, or nearly so anyway, and that top curved down over a flat tummy and took his eyes to the tight blue jeans that swept away between her legs. He almost groaned again.
Emily was beautiful too, just like her sister Alison, but just not quite as much as Victoria. Her breasts weren't as well developed, but still developed enough to attract his eye to her lacy white shirt. Emily wore a skirt, as she had done before. Long enough to come down to just below her knee, and every time she shifted, Ben was treated to a tantalising view of beautiful long golden legs.
Alison wore a t-shirt, a green one that was quite loose, but when she moved, Ben could just make out small swellings on her chest that promised some breast development. Her skirt was shorter, tighter, and showed her curvy bottom off to good effect. He wasn't absolutely sure, but he thought that maybe, just maybe, he caught the occasional flicker of pink knickers as she crossed and uncrossed her legs.
Right at that moment in time Ben would probably have sold his soul to the devil, just to see one of these girls naked. He felt himself swelling as he tried to imagine what they would look like, and realising he was still stood before them, with all their eyes on him, he shut that out of his mind. 'Soon enough' he thought; soon enough he'd see a girl naked. Maybe not one of these girls, but a girl, nonetheless.
Without thinking he began to crunch on the mint, reducing it quickly to hot burning gravel, which he swallowed.
"Finished?" asked Victoria.
Ben nodded, having a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
"Come and sit over here with me" said Victoria, shifting across in the big armchair she was sat in, and patting the space next her. Ben crossed the smooth floor between them cautiously, looking round at the others to see if they were about to jump him or anything, but no-one moved.
Ben sat, perching himself on the edge of the seat defensively.
"Come on, sit back properly" Victoria encouraged. Ben shuffled backwards, and leant against the back of the chair, flinching when she brought her arm round to encircle his shoulders. She gave him a comforting squeeze. He felt the warmth of her body radiating through his shirt, and smelt a sweet, slightly citrus, odour. He relaxed into the blissful sensuality of it and felt himself begin to stiffen again.
"Look, Ben" she said, her arm still around his shoulders and giving him a gentle shake, "We like you, and we want you to be part of our gang. If we didn't you wouldn't be here. Or at least not like this. Okay?"
Ben, even more relaxed now by this reassuring pep talk, nodded, "Okay" he responded, smiling for the first time.
"The last part of the initiation is the test, and it's hard, Ben, I want you to be really brave for me okay?" she said almost purring at him.
He nodded again, a little more slowly this time, the mention of the test making him feel considerably less relaxed.
"We all want you to do well, and to pass, you just have to be brave. Okay? Can you do that for me?" she asked.
"I can be brave" he said "I am brave." He was convinced now: he would have to fight a bear or something; perhaps there really were bears in the forest after all.
"Good boy" say Victoria, and she leaned across slightly and kissed him on the cheek. Ben flushed, and just managed to prevent himself from saying "Errrrrrr!" and pulling away in disgust, but actually it wasn't disgusting. It had felt really nice, and his already burgeoning penis leapt and grew suddenly to full size. He dropped his hands in his lap.
"Paul's going to give you a secret. We don't know what it's going to be, but whatever you do you must not tell us. Alright? Under no circumstances are you to tell us what the secret is. This is the test. We need to be certain that we can trust you with our secrets. Understand?"
Ben didn't understand. It sounded too easy. Paul tells him a secret; he keeps his mouth shut. He nodded anyway.
As Ben looked across at Paul, still sat on the arm of the chair on Victoria's other side, he saw the screen of Victoria's laptop for the first time and his brow creased slightly. There were eight small windows arranged neatly around the screen, and each one seemed to show a view of the hollow from all around the wooden building. Suddenly he realised they must have cameras hidden somewhere, and they must have seen him when he was spying the other day. He already knew that they knew, but he hadn't known how they had known.
"Did you see me, then? Sneak up? The other day?" he asked before thinking.
"Actually, no" said Paul seeing where Ben was now looking, "We were a bit distracted, with the girl and all."
"We saw you run away though" said Emily "I've never seen anyone move so fast."
Ben felt embarrassed by his earlier panic and concentrated his attention on the screen to distract himself from it. And then he saw her. The figure was too far away and the picture wasn't good enough to see clearly, but there was definitely what looked like a girl, maybe picking flowers. She had her back to the camera, so he couldn't tell if she was pretty, or even how old she was, but he was certain it was a girl.
"There's a girl!" he blurted out "Are we going to get her?" he added desperately.
"Not yet" said Victoria "First we have to finish your initiation."
"But she might leave, we might miss the chance" he complained.
"We'll find her. I promise." reassured Victoria.
"And we'll strip her?" he asked excitedly.
"You are a randy little bugger aren't you?" said Victoria "You'd never guess looking at you."
Ben was over the moon, he hadn't expected to be able to take part in his first girl stripping this soon. Things were most definitely looking up.
Paul beckoned Ben with a finger, and Ben climbed off the chair reluctantly leaving behind Victoria's scent and body warmth. He crossed to Paul's side, and Paul bent to his ear to whisper "Halicarnassus."
Ben screwed his face up "What?"
"Halicarnassus" repeated Paul.
"What's that?" asked Ben.
"The secret you bozo" said Paul.
"I'm not going to remember that" complained Ben in what he hoped was a quiet enough whisper that the girls wouldn't hear. Paul smiled at him "All the better, then" and capped it off with a wink. Ben's face suddenly lit up "Oh! I get it." And he nodded enthusiastically, returning the smile.
"Ready?" asked Victoria.
"You bet" said Ben.
"Come back to me then sweety" Victoria said.
Still grinning, Ben took a pace sideways to stand in front of Victoria, and then the smile dropped from his face as he saw her pull what looked like handcuffs from down the side of the chair.
"What are those for?" he asked.
"Give me your hands" she said, still smiling at him in a friendly manner.
"But, what... what are those for?" he asked again, keeping his hands by his sides.
"They're for the test" said Victoria evenly "Unless you want to give us the secret now."
"No I'm not giving you the secret, but what's that got to do with those things?" he asked.
"Come on Ben, you promised me you'd be brave. Now be a brave boy and give me your hands" she said, her voice silky smooth.
"If you don't want to take the test we can always just punish you" said Alison brightly.
"She's right you know" added Emily.
"Come on" Victoria mouthed silently, encouragingly.
Ben raised his hands with reluctance, but he was determined to be brave, and he wanted to get this test over as quickly as possible so that there'd still be time to catch the girl outside.
Victoria snapped the handcuffs round Ben's wrists with practised dexterity, and then she looked up at Alison, "Alison" she said.
Alison leapt up enthusiastically, returning to one of the cabinets, and she pulled out a length of thick nylon rope. Ben watched; his heart rate speeding up. He really didn't know where this was going, but he didn't like it.
Paul got up too, grabbed a dining chair, and met Alison half way across the room. Standing on the chair, he took the rope from Alison and threaded it through one of several iron rings screwed into a beam in the ceiling.
"Come on Ben, over here" said Alison chirpily. Ben looked at Victoria, and again she mouthed to him silently "Go on" and smiled reassuringly. Ben hesitated, not knowing what to do, not knowing what they were going to do. He tried to comfort himself with the knowledge that it couldn't be too bad. Maybe they were going to beat him up a bit. He didn't like the thought of that, but he had promised to be brave. He imagined himself hanging from the ceiling, a black eye, blood streaming from his nose, a thick lip, and him grinning back, spitting "You'll never make me talk" at them, as the girls, eyes wide with admiration, sighed dreamily "You're so brave".
He turned slowly, all ready to play his starring role in this drama, and he presented his cuffed wrists to Paul "Do your worst" he said confidently.
Victoria looked across at Emily and shrugged, raising her arms in a Gallic "What?" gesture. Emily shook her head back, equally uncomprehending.
"That's the spirit" said Paul, threading the rope around Ben handcuffs and looping it back through the iron ring. Alison beamed.
Paul jumped off the chair, moved it aside, and started pulling on the rope until Ben's arms were raised high above his head. Once Ben was pulled high enough that he was forced onto the balls of his feet, Paul tied the rope off.
"I'll be adjudicating" said Paul moving round to Ben's front "Ladies?" he said.
Victoria and Emily rose from their chairs and paced slowly over toward Ben like panthers. Paul sat in the chair that Victoria had just vacated and, once he was settled, he spoke again "My role is simply to confirm if you've given away the secret or not."
"How long does the test last?" asked Ben, expecting the first slap any second.
"That's a secret" said Paul "If we told you that it would make it much easier for you. This way you won't know if you've only got to hold out another five seconds, or another five hours."
"Hours?" exclaimed Ben.
"Well, no, not hours" said Paul.
"Are we going to get on with it then?" said Ben, sounding a great deal more confident that he felt.
"I like this boy" said Victoria placing her hand on Ben's chest "I think we made the right decision inviting him to join our gang"
"We haven't seen what he's made of yet" said Alison, quite thrilled now the real proceedings had started.
"Where shall we start?" asked Victoria.
"Are you ticklish?" asked Emily.
"No" Ben replied sullenly.
Emily brought a hand round his midriff and tickled him gently. Victoria tickled her fingers around the left side of Ben's face and under his left ear lobe. Alison dug her fingers into his ribs. Ben gritted his teeth, and squirmed, swinging slightly on the end of the rope. His breath came in short gasps, sounding harsh as it rattled through his clenched teeth.
Victoria smiled at him again and withdrew her hand from his face. She brought it down to his belt and tugged at his shirt that was slightly tented outwards, pulling it up and out of his trousers.
"What are you doing?" asked Ben fearfully.
"This shirt's a bit thick for tickling through Ben, so I thought I'd try some bare flesh." Victoria replied, her hand now sliding inside his shirt, her fingernails tracing themselves gently up his tummy and chest, before sweeping to the side and down his left flank.
Ben let out an involuntary shriek.
"I think this boy's ticklish." said Victoria.
"Let's get his shirt off" suggested Emily "Then we can all have a go."
Ben's mind snapped back to a few days ago. A girl, lying nearly naked on the floor, shrieking, being tickled. They might have said to her: 'Let's get her shirt off.' This was all too close for comfort. What were they going to do to him?
He fought for control, to compose himself, as he felt Emily's hands undoing the buttons at the top of his shirt, and Victoria's equally busy at the bottom. No, this is a test; that was a punishment. She was pinned down on the floor; he was suspended from the ceiling. It was different. This is different. It's not the same. They were just playing with him. It is just a game. They were trying to scare him; they wouldn't take his clothes off. Paul had said so. Ben calmed himself down just in time for Victoria to pull his shirt open at the front.
"Might be easier if we pulled it up out of the way" suggested Emily.
"Good idea" replied Victoria "Paul?"
Paul got up and moved the chair again. Standing on it, he pulled Ben's shirt up and tied it in a loose knot near his wrists, keeping it well out of the way. As Paul returned to his seat Victoria looked Ben in the eyes "You only have to tell us the secret Ben" she said "Do you want to tell us the secret?"
"You'll never make me talk" he replied defiantly.
Victoria smiled at him again "I really do like you" she said, and Ben felt all warm inside, despite the cold draughty vulnerability he felt all over his exposed skin.
"We should each concentrate on a different area" said Emily.
"I like this bit here" said Alison enthusiastically as she drew her fingers across the bare flesh just above Ben's belt, and then brought them around to circle his belly button. Ben's tummy quivered and he tried to pull himself backwards away from this almost painful experience. Emily let her fingers loose on Ben's right armpit, straying occasionally down his flank. Victoria just watched for a little while, studying Ben's reaction. He wasn't the most ticklish person they'd ever played with, but he was ticklish enough. She was sure they could reduce him to a blubbering mess if they were creative and took their time. But they didn't want to do that.
Victoria let Alison and Emily do their work, while she set about a different task. She placed a hand on Ben's chest again, and stroked it, pausing briefly as she came into contact with his nipples. Pausing just long enough to squeeze them gently, or roll them between two fingers. Her touch was sensual, erotic, lingering, and it reached somewhere deep inside Ben, somewhere deeper than the tickling.
He shrieked and squirmed and wriggled around in futile attempts to avoid their tickling, but the warmth of Victoria's hands stroking him was driving him wild. She shifted one hand, from the front to the back, and stroked his shoulder, trailed a finger down his spine, and where his trousers had slipped a little, across the very top of his buttocks. Simultaneously her other hand continued its work on his chest.
Victoria looked down at the front of his trousers, but was disappointed to see no obvious reaction. His jeans were too thick, and his erection likely too small. She felt sad, and even a little angry. She moved round to his rear and looked down at his bottom. It curved out nicely in his faded black jeans and she placed a hand on it gently, just on his left buttock. Ben flinched, bucking forwards, straight into the tickling assaults of Alison and Emily, and he bucked backwards again into Victoria's welcoming hand. The soft warm material of his worn jeans felt very pleasant to Victoria and she stroked it up and down before moving it across to his right buttock to repeat the process there.
"You're definitely right, Alison" she said "He really does have a nice bum"
"Get off" yelped Ben, embarrassed by the attention his rear end was getting. Attention that he'd noticed seemed to be growing more and more common this past year or so. No one had ever really paid any attention to his bottom before then. But recently, just this past year, he had noticed his mother had patted it occasionally and his aunts too, on the odd occasion even his father. He hadn't given it much thought, except that at the time it was a bit embarrassing, but he had never considered his bottom to be anything that might be 'nice'. He wished, desperately that it wasn't 'nice'.
"Stop!" said Victoria suddenly, and Alison and Emily withdrew their fingers from Ben's body, and Ben exhaled deeply, his skin still trembling from the memory of their touches.
"Come on, Ben, tell us the secret and we can be done." Victoria said.
"No" said Ben quietly.
"We might have more luck if we could tickle his legs as well" suggested Emily. Victoria nodded.
"Let's take his trousers down" said Alison enthusiastically.
"No!" said Ben quickly "You can't do that"
"No, I think that would be very embarrassing for him" said Victoria, in Ben's defence.
"He'll have underwear on" complained Alison, as if that resolved the issue beyond any doubt.
"True" said Victoria "You have got underwear on, haven't you?"
Ben's face turned redder at the talk of underwear and trousers coming down. His eyes were lowered towards the floor, towards the bare flesh on Alison's and Emily's shins. He nodded.
"What kind?" asked Emily.
Ben screwed his face up and remained silent.
"He's embarrassed" said Victoria, with a sympathy that sounded patronising "Poor thing." She tickled him under the chin gently, then reached a hand around the back of him and slid it carefully down the back of his trousers. She grabbed the waistband of his underwear and tugged it upwards. Ben tried to jerk backwards but he couldn't escape her grip.
"Boxer shorts" Victoria announced, releasing her grip and letting the waistband snap back into his trousers.
"That should be alright then" then Emily "He'll still be decently covered"
"No different to being at the swimming baths" added Alison.
"Alright then" conceded Victoria "But be careful not to pull his pants down at the same time."
"No don't, please don't. It's not the same. It's not the same at all" yelled Ben, tugging his wrists against his cuffs and the ropes in desperation. He knew though, there was no escape. Whatever they chose to do to him, he couldn't prevent it.
"Sshhh!" Victoria said "Be brave. You'll be all right" tickling him under the chin again.
"No I don't want to, what if... I mean..." he spluttered.
"What if what, sweety?" asked Victoria "What if your pants come down by accident? They won't, we'll be careful."
"But... what if..." Ben whined, trying not to cry.
"What if we pull your pants down on purpose?" Victoria asked. Ben didn't respond, he just shut his eyes tight. Victoria stroked Ben's cheek affectionately, remaining silent for the time being, to let the idea hang in the air for a little while.
"Paul promised" said Ben eventually.
"What did Paul promise?" asked Victoria.
"That you wouldn't... that I wouldn't have to be naked or anything" he said finally.
"Paul?" asked Victoria "Did you?"
"No, I didn't." said Paul firmly.
"You did... you bloody liar, you did, you... bastard!" shouted Ben.
"Ben calm down" said Paul "I didn't say that. I said you wouldn't have to strip. I didn't say anything about anyone else stripping you."
Ben's whole body welled up with terror and he shook violently with the force of it. Being naked in front of Paul alone would be terrible, but the girls, the three girls, that would be unimaginable, inconceivable.
"No... " he yelled "Let me go, I don't want to play any more." He struggled as violently as he could, trying to break free, trying to escape from the steel grip the cuffs maintained around his wrists.
"Ben, Ben, Ben, listen to me" said Victoria gently "Calm down. Come on."
"I don't want to calm down, I want to go home." he said pathetically.
"Paul didn't lie to you. He just didn't tell you the whole truth. He may have misled you, but he didn't lie" she said, trying to placate him a little.
"I couldn't tell you the whole story" said Paul defensively "I couldn't give away any gang secrets."
"He's right" said Victoria "You know we can't tell anyone gang secrets"
"I don't care" shouted Ben "I want to go home"
"Ben, I told you this was going to be hard, didn't I? You have to be brave, sweety." said Victoria, then after a short pause: "I'll make you one promise. None of us is going to pull your pants down, and you're not going to have to either. Alright? That's all I'm promising though."
"Us? Who's us? You three? What about him?" shouted Ben nodding violently towards Paul.
"Him included, he's not going to either" said Victoria.
"There is no going home" said Emily "There's only passing the test or failing it. You can stop at any time, just give us the secret and it's all over."
"Then we can punish you, and we'll definitely take your pants down" said Alison hopefully.
"Alison, be quiet. He's not going to give in he's going to be brave. Aren't you?" said Victoria encouragingly, stroking Ben's cheek again.
"You promise?" asked Ben.
"Promise what darling?" asked Victoria.
"What you said" he replied.
"Yes, it's a promise. But remember Ben, that's all I'm promising, nothing else. It's still going to be hard, and you're still going to have to be brave." Victoria said.
"Are you ready?" Emily asked.
[Continued in Chapter Five]