Bill W

Finding Love

We'd now been in this shack for nearly three months, since I only needed one more hash mark to complete the third row on my impromptu calendar. This meant that by tomorrow we have been here 90 days. Ninety days of being isolated and alone in a hot, little shack that was getting hotter every day. There was absolutely nothing good about this experience, even though Parker's recent transformation was making it slightly more bearable.

Our conversations with him had continued and he'd proven to be quite helpful, especially when he told us some of the things he had done with his friends when he was around our age. It made Tad and me feel better, once we understood we weren't so different from other people, because we had begun to wonder if there was something wrong with us. Even though we'd read stuff in the stories online, we still wondered if we were the only ones or just one of a select few who were doing things like this with each other, but now we knew for sure we weren't.

Some other things changed too. Parker announced he would start giving us extra water every few days, but it wouldn't be bottled water. It would be water we could use to take sponge baths and clean up a little, which we hadn't been able to do the entire time we'd been here. We were looking forward to being able to do this from now on, but our good fortune might not have come soon enough. By this time, Tad and I had already developed some skin rashes, possibly due to the cleanliness issue, so we needed to do something about this problem. The next time Dean came out to deliver supplies, Parker pointed it out to him and asked what he thought they should do. Dean looked at the rashes carefully and said on his next visit he'd bring out some things to treat them with, so this was good news too.

The next time we heard a vehicle drive up, we hoped the day had arrived and we'd finally have something to take care of these itchy rashes. When Dean came into the shack, it took him a few moments to get over the fact that we weren't locked up in the other room and congratulated Parker for having the guts to make the move. Then, he announced the truck was loaded with supplies and he would like some help carrying everything in. He and Parker let us go out and help bring the supplies into the shack, so Tad and I hauled the groceries in, while Dean and Parker carried the large containers of gasoline and a medium size crate. Once everything was stored in the shack, Dean gave Parker some news.

"I'm going to take your place for a while," he announced. "I've quit my job and Bart has agreed to let me split the time with you out here. There are directions in the truck to show you how to get to where you will be staying and Bart will get in touch with you to explain things further. I just need one thing more before you leave. Would you please help me set up this air conditioner, so we won't melt from the heat?"

"Oh, sure. Now that you're here there's an air conditioner," Parker whined. "Where was it when it was just me out here with these two?"

"Hey, you can stay here with the air conditioner if you want," Dean offered. "This was coming out here, whether you stayed or left."

"No. I'll help you hook it up and then I'm gone," Parker stated. "I'm happy to let you stay with the kids for a while."

They quickly set up the air conditioner in the window in the front room of the shack and Dean hooked it up to a surge protector, which had several outlets on the cord that was connected to the generator. With the new surge protector, he would be able to run more than one appliance at a time, although he still had to be careful not to overburden the system. Things were slowly becoming slightly more bearable and not quite as primitive as it had been. After Parker took off, the three of us remained behind under our improved conditions.

As if he had suddenly remembered something, Dean ran over to one of the bags of supplies and rummaged around until he found what he was looking for. He soon returned to where we were and handed us some items.

"Here. These should take care of your rashes," Dean told us. "Here's a large tube of antibacterial cream, a tube of A & D ointment (a vitamin enriched petroleum jelly), a jar of Vaseline and a bottle of baby oil. Why don't you try the antibacterial cream first, and if that doesn't work, then you can use the A & D ointment next. The Vaseline and baby oil are for you to use later, to keep your skin moist and prevent further irritation once it has healed. If this stuff doesn't work, then I'll tell Parker to get some other things the next time he comes out."

"Thanks," Tad said. "We really appreciate this. It isn't bad yet, but it's been getting worse and seems to cover more of our skin every day."

Dean even rubbed some of the cream into the affected areas for us and it began to feel better almost instantly. The itching sensation ceased and within an hour or so the redness started to disappear too. We went over to hug him for his help and he pulled us onto his lap, so each of us was sitting on one of his legs. Then, Tad and I put our heads on his shoulders, because we felt safe for the first time since we'd been here. It wasn't that Parker had threatened or tried to hurt us, but Dean seemed to care about us even more and wanted to protect us. He also seemed more at ease around us than Parker had. I don't know for sure why it was, but Tad and I discussed it later and agreed we'd each felt something loving and protective in Dean's embrace.

"Oh, I forgot something else," Dean said, as he had us get off his lap so he could run over to another bag and fetch something from it. "I know these will be big on you, but I brought out some of my t-shirts for you to wear. It isn't much, but I didn't dare go to a store and buy something in your size. I guess I was afraid doing that would lead to me getting caught, but at least this will make it so you aren't totally naked all the time."

Tad and I both slipped one of the t-shirts on and the neck opening alone covered most of the area between our shoulders and the shirts hung nearly to our knees. The good thing was that at least we didn't have to feel totally exposed to everyone who came there, not that there were many visitors. We thanked Dean again, gave him another hug and then worked our way back onto his lap. I think we all felt good from this little affectionate display and none of us were in any hurry to see it end. We only took a short break from doing this so Dean could fix dinner. After we ate, we watched some television together next and then turned in for the night.

Tad and I still slept in the other room, but Dean didn't lock the door after he shut it. He told us he would give us our privacy, but we'd be able to come out and wake him if we needed anything during the night. That was kind of exciting for us though, because it was the beginning to a new existence.

The ointment and cream healed our rashes after a few days, and we used the baby oil and the Vaseline to keep our skin moist, to lessen the chance of more irritation. Dean let us keep those few items in our room, so we'd have them to use at our convenience. Dean also talked to us much more and even taught us how to play some card games to help pass the time, since he'd brought a few card decks out with him as well. He really didn't seem like such a bad guy and I began to wonder how he got involved with my so-called stepfather. I think if he could, Dean would have helped us get out of this situation and away from Sovie.

Time started to pass more quickly now and Parker would show up once in a while with a 'date' for Dean when he brought supplies out to keep us going. Dean also had him bring out some games we could play together to help us pass the time even better. Tad and I were both becoming attached to Dean, and I think he was feeling the same way about us. He was making our ordeal a lot easier to cope with by being so kind, loving and attentive, but when I said loving, I didn't mean it in a bad way. Dean never tried anything with either of us and was affectionate like a father would be with a child. He tried to keep us busy playing games, cards and doing other things, so we wouldn't dwell on our situation.

During this time, a few other things changed as well. Tad's and my relationship began to mature, right along with our bodies. We both moved deeper into puberty and a nice, but sparse, horseshoe of pubic hair sprouted above our dicks. We also had another surprise one night at bedtime. We were kissing and making out that night when the action got a little heated. Tad climbed up on top of me and we eventually started to grind our hips into each other. We had done this many times before, with our growing cocks rubbing between our bodies, but this time was different and more intense. We were humping away and taking turns sucking on each other's tongue and lips, when we reached nearly simultaneous mind-blowing orgasms. It was better than anything we had ever felt before, but when we climaxed this time, every nerve and fiber of our bodies seemed to be involved. Our orgasm came all the way from our toes and up our torsos, until it erupted from our dicks, but it even took us a few extra minutes to recover from this session.

"Man, that was wild!" Tad exclaimed, once he'd recovered.

"Yeah, it was the best one yet," I agreed.

"Win, look!" Tad nearly shouted, while pointing at my abdomen.

When I looked down to see what he was referring to, I realized why he was so excited. There were little puddles of cum dotting my body.

"Shit, one of us shot a load," I blurted out in shock.

"Yeah, but who?" Tad wondered.

"I don't know, but maybe tomorrow we should do each other with our hand, so we can tell for sure," I suggested. "What do you think?"

"Yeah, I guess we'd find out that way," Tad concurred. "I just wish we could tell who it was now."

We kept looking at each other and down at our bodies, when the answer became obvious.

"It was you, Tad," I announced.

"How do you know?" he wondered.

"Look down at your dick," I offered. "There's some more stuff oozing out from the tip."

Tad looked down and sure enough there were a couple more droplets seeping from the slit.

"Damn, you're right," he announced, beaming with pride until he looked at me. "Maybe we both did. You can't be sure."

"Yes, we can. Do you see anything coming from the end of my cock?" I asked. "No, it's as clean as a whistle, so it was you, Tad. You got hairs first and now you shot sperm first. It's not a big deal to me though, because it will happen eventually."

Tad almost looked sad after we spoke, because he still felt badly for me. Here he should be feeling really great that he had finally cum now, but instead he worried about my feelings. How could I not love him when he was so always so concerned about me? I wiped off Tad's seed with some toilet paper and we cuddled together until we fell asleep. Tad was right though, because I was a little disappointed, even though I had tried to put on a brave face. When I should have been happy for him, I was bemoaning my own inadequacy. If the roles were reversed, I knew Tad would have been happy for me, but I was being a little selfish again. I was just too focused on myself. How could Tad possibly love me, when I didn't think of anyone else but me? The next morning, I was still slightly down when we woke up.

"Win, don't feel bad. You'll do it soon," Tad assured me.

"It's not that, Tad," I admitted. "I just feel bad because I wasn't happier for you. I only thought about me and that was wrong. You're my best friend, so I should have considered your feelings first. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me for being so stupid?"

"Win, there's nothing to forgive, because I understand," he added, showing great concern. "If you had spermed and I didn't, then I might have felt the same way. Come on. Let's go out and get some breakfast."

We hugged and then opened the door to go into the other room. Without the door being locked, we could go out to join Dean as soon as we wanted. Dean knew better than anyone how isolated this place was and understood we'd probably die if we tried to get away on our own. In fact, he actually told us that one night, in an effort to keep us from doing anything foolish, but we realized he had done it just to keep us from getting hurt. We were totally convinced his intentions were purely for our welfare, because he'd shown us many times that he cared about us. For that reason, we would never consider ignoring his advice.

Time was moving much more quickly since Dean had arrived and Tad and I were more upbeat about our situation. We even began to do things with each other without having to cloak them in one of our fantasies. It was just a few evenings later, while Tad and I were in our room alone, that we decided to suck each other off. This was purely for personal enjoyment and had nothing to do with any fantasy. Tad wanted to do me first, so I stretched out on the mattress while Tad went to work. Damn, he was positively marvelous, because he made love to my whole body and not just to my penis. He rubbed, licked and kissed every square inch of me first, before he swallowed my eager sausage.

When he finally did that, his mouth seemed to glide ever so lightly up and down, on my straining cock and I felt as if I were floating somewhere above the physical action. When I felt the wonderful tingling sensations beginning to build in my scrotum, I was beside myself with pleasure. When my orgasm hit, all I could see was a Fourth of July fireworks display going off in my mind. There was a full aerial bombardment of skyrockets that burst forth in a wide spectrum of tints and hues, while flashes of brightly colored lights ignited in my brain, as my body convulsed beneath Tad's talented mouth.

It even took me a little longer than usual to come down from this awesome release, but when I opened my eyes, Tad was kneeling above me with a huge grin on his face. He waited a few seconds for me to sufficiently recover first, before he suddenly stuck out his tongue. His actions confused me, as he stretched it out very rigidly from his mouth and forced into a u-shaped curve. I didn't understand why he did this, but then I noticed the liquid pooled on his oral muscle.

"Shit! You mean that's from me?" I wondered and Tad nodded his head up and down, before swallowing the watery liquid.

"You did it," Tad verified. "I guess I was a little surprised too and swallowed part of it before I was able to save the rest for you to see. So how do you feel?"

"Great!" I confirmed. "I knew something was different this time, because it was really fantastic. I mean, it's always wonderful, but this time it was somehow better."

"I know what you mean," he concurred. "See, I told you it wouldn't be long before you were able to shoot like me."

"Thanks, Tad. You're the best friend a guy could have," I told him. "Now lie back, because I owe you one."

I really had to concentrate on what I was doing to Tad, because subconsciously my mind kept wandering over my latest and greatest accomplishment. I had to force myself to think about Tad's needs and give him the same level of enjoyment that he had just provided me. With the utmost thought and affection, I worked every patch of his wonderful boy form and attempted to give him the maximum pleasure from this attention. By the time I engulfed his throbbing prick, Tad was ready for his release.

I nodded up and down the length of his rigid member, until the sap rose in his young stalk and his syrupy treat collected in my mouth. After he got past the fog of his afterglow, I opened my mouth to display his results, the same way he had done for me. Sure, he already knew he could shoot, but I wanted him to be able to witness for himself what he had done on this occasion. He smiled back his appreciation and then I gulped down his cream. We then cuddled together on the mattress and gently drifted off to sleep.

Dean's presence at the shack was a tremendous blessing and after a while, we began to talk about all kinds of different things with him. Not only did we discuss how we felt now, but I was also able to tell someone else, besides Tad about how I felt when my father died and the problem with my mother. He even gave me some things to think about, because he told me my mother's drinking problem might be an attempt on her part to escape some painful memories in her own life, whether it had been dealing with my father's passing or something else.

He said her turning to booze was probably just a way of coping with her own problems and escaping some of the misery. He said she most likely became oblivious to me, as well as the pain I was feeling, because she was absorbed in her own situation, but it didn't mean she didn't love me. He told me that people can be so wrapped up in their own problems that they can totally ignore everything else, including the people they care about the most. This really made me wonder if he could he be right. Was it actually possible my mother still loved me? Sovie had said she wouldn't let him send me away to a boarding school, so I guess she might still have feelings for me. I would definitely have to check this out when I got back home, whenever that happened.

A few days later, I put the final hash mark down to complete the eleventh row of my daily record and realized something for the first time. During the time we'd been here, Tad and I had both missed celebrating our last birthday. We were both thirteen years old now and hadn't even realized it when our special days had come and gone. Thinking about how long we'd actually been here and realizing we'd both missed our last birthdays depressed me. I didn't know whether or not to tell Tad about this, because I didn't want him to be depressed too.

I did whisper this fact to Dean later though, and he seemed to feel badly that we had missed those special events. Birthdays were usually the highlight of a young boy's life – especially the one when he became a teenager, as we had done. In response to Dean's reaction to my news, I didn't mention this fact to Tad. It didn't cross my mind again until a couple of weeks later, on one of Parker's visits. Suddenly, there was a small cake on the table that simply said 'Happy Birthday.'

"I know this isn't the right day for either one of you," Dean said, with a sad expression on his face, "but I wanted to do something for you. I didn't realize it before that you'd both had a birthday since you've been here and you didn't get a chance to celebrate it. Let's just say I'm sorry we missed acknowledging either one and maybe this will make it a little less painful."

He put a candle on each end of the cake and lit them. Dean and Parker sang to us and we each blew out one candle. I think we all knew what Tad and I wished for… that we'd get out of here as soon as possible, so we hoped this was one wish that would come true. We all ate a piece of cake before Parker left, but as soon as he drove away, Dean looked at us and spoke.

"I'm really sorry this was all I could do for you," he apologized. "I wish there was some way I could get you out of here and take you home to your parents, but I'm not sure I could get Parker to agree to help me do that. Besides, Bart would probably have both of us killed if we ever helped you escape."

"You mean he'd really have you killed… like in dead?" I asked, shocked that he would even suggest such a thing was possible.

"Yes, definitely like in dead," Dean confirmed. "Bart has a great many contacts and some of them are really nasty people. If he thought we had turned on him, I don't think he would hesitate at all to make sure we disappeared… permanently. That's why Parker and I are so careful about not crossing him. To put it bluntly, we're scared of what he is capable of doing to us."

This news gave Tad and me a lot more to think about too. If he were capable of killing Dean and Parker, then would he also be capable of killing us as well? We talked about this later, once we were alone in the other room, and decided that if it had been his intention to get rid of us, then he probably would have done so already. No, he has something else in store for us, but what?

We moved toward the mattress to go to sleep, but as we approached it, Tad turned and asked a question.

"Did you know our birthdays had passed while we were here?" he wondered.

"Yes, I figured it out and happened to mention it to Dean," I confirmed.

"Then why didn't you tell me?" he demanded. "I never even thought about it."

"I only realized it a couple of weeks ago and it made me really depressed," I answered. "Since it made me feel so bad, I didn't want you to feel bad or become any more depressed than you already were by just being here."

"You didn't think I could handle it?" he challenged, while looking as if he were ready for an argument.

"That wasn't it," I assured him. "I just didn't want you to have to deal with it too, because it made me feel horrible. I thought it would be better if we didn't think about things like that while we were here and I didn't think Dean would go and have a cake made and do what he did. I really thought he was going to keep it a secret. It was kind of nice though, to know that somebody thought about us and our birthdays."

"Yeah, it was kind of nice of him, wasn't it?" Tad agreed.

"Yes, it really was," I answered. "I really like Dean and the way he treats us. He's a nice guy, even if he is doing this for Sovie."

"Yes. We certainly could have been a lot worse off with someone else," Tad concurred.

"I don't even want to think about that," I added, and then we both remained quiet for several minutes, before Tad broke the silence.

"Win? Seeing we just celebrated our birthdays, I'd like to give you a special present tonight," he announced.

"Present? What are you talking about?" I challenged. "We don't have anything we can give each other as presents, unless you're going to give me your shirt."

"No, but I do have something else you would enjoy," he stated, as I became more intrigued by his mysterious comment. "Do you remember all of those stories we read on the Internet, before we came here?"

"Yeah, but what are you thinking? What do you have in that mind of yours?" I asked directly. "Are you thinking about doing a special fantasy tonight for our birthdays?"

"Not exactly, but I want you to make love to me tonight, like they did in some of those stories… You know, up the butt," he explained. "That's the most special gift I could give you for your birthday, so I want to do it for you. We have baby oil and Vaseline thanks to Dean, so we've got the one item we would need to do this. You'll just have to stretch me first and then take it slow and easy, but we could do it. What do you think?"

"I think I agree with you that we could do it… but only if you'll let me do the same thing for you afterward," I agreed, while waiting for his response. "That will also be my birthday present to you. Agreed?"

A big smile spread across Tad's face, similar to the one that I was trying to suppress, but eventually I couldn't contain it any longer.

"Yes, I would like that very much," he confirmed. "I love you, Win, and I'm glad you are my best friend."

"Even though our special friendship got you into this mess in the first place?" I countered.

"Definitely. If something were going to happen like this, then I wouldn't have wanted it any other way," he confirmed. "I would never have wanted or allowed you to go through this alone and I don't think either one of us would have survived this long of a separation either, at least not nearly as well as we've survived it together. I think we've only kept from cracking up for this long because we love each other so much. It's not only our love for each other though, because we also have other ways of expressing that love through our little adventures and having sex, so we don't have to think about this place all the time."

"That does help. All of it helps," I agreed.

We didn't say another word to each other for several minutes, because I think we were both choked up. I also think we both wanted to savor the moment for as long as possible, at least until I finally broke the silence again.

"Well, shall we get started?" I prodded, since I was becoming anxious for this to happen.

At this point we were both lying on the mattress and Tad scrambled to his knees, reached into the corner for the bottle of baby oil and handed it to me.

"I want you to do it to me first, seeing I was the one who suggested it," he announced.

I didn't argue the point and watched as Tad moved around to put his rear end in front of me. I thought back to those stories and tried to remember what I should do next, and when I had a plan worked out in my mind, I poured some baby oil into my hand and spread it thoroughly over my fingers.

Carefully, I placed my index finger in front of Tad's puckered opening and rubbed little circles around that winking eye. Then, I spread some more oil all around the edge of the entranceway and between his two fleshy mounds, before I placed my fingertip directly against his anus. Tad flinched slightly when my finger came into contact with that very private part of his body, but he quickly informed me not to stop what I was doing. I applied a little pressure against the opening and my finger slid rapidly past the sphincter and into the tunnel behind. Tad made a little noise, but didn't say anything, so I left my finger there for several seconds before I began to slide it back and forth in his chute.

After doing this for a short time, I pulled the finger out, added a little more baby oil to my hand and then I inserted two fingers into Tad's cavern. Tad's hips jerked spasmodically upward upon penetration, but he quickly controlled himself and relaxed again. He told me to keep going, so I pushed the pair of digits further up his tunnel. After leaving there for a short time, I not only pushed them in and out of his hole, but I twisted those fingers around, so I could stretch his rectum in all directions. One time I pushed my fingers all the way in and Tad jumped and yelped.

"What's wrong? Did I hurt you?" I asked, concerned.

"No, but you hit something in there that sent all kinds of tingling feelings throughout my body," he replied. "It didn't hurt at all. In fact, it felt really neat and made me feel good all over."

After telling me this, he looked over his shoulder and smiled, so I continued to work on his butt a little more, before I asked him a question.

"Do you think you're ready or do you want me to stretch you with three fingers first?" I offered.

"Your penis has gotten bigger, but I don't think it's that big," he teased, which caused a quick feeling of inferiority to sweep over me. "I think I'm ready, so go ahead and do it."

"I'm not real hard yet, so why don't you put the baby oil on my dick and stroke it a little bit, until it gets good and stiff," I suggested.

"I'll do better than that," Tad answered, as he swung around, grabbed my cock and slipped it into his mouth. I became as hard as steel almost instantly, so Tad eagerly added a little baby oil onto my granite-like member. "You're ready now and so am I, so let's give it a try."

Tad swung back around and wiggled his butt at me. That was all the encouragement I needed, so I lined my steely rod up with his channel and moved forward until the two were touching. I felt Tad pushing slightly backward, as he attempted to draw me inside of him, so I met his movements and pushed forward until the head of my pole slipped past his muscular ring. I heard Tad take in a quick gasp of air, but he continued to push back as I pushed forward. Slowly, I entered that sacred nether region, until I felt my stomach rubbing against his ass cheeks. I was enraptured by the feel of his smooth warm lining wrapping itself around my stiffy, like a protective glove. Just being in there was giving me a unique pleasure all by itself, so I paused for a minute or so, mostly to give me a chance to calm down a little, before Tad whispered to me over his shoulder,

"Go ahead and do it," he urged.

That short phrase sent me into action and it was almost as if someone had hit the 'on' switch to a machine. My hips suddenly started rocking back and forth, first drawing my penis almost all of the way out, before I slammed it back into Tad's bowels. My action reminded me of that old oil derrick outside again, when I remembered how the rocker arm of the drilling rig would swing around and force the drill to go constantly deeper into the ground. Here I was drilling Tad's rump in the same fashion.

The action continued for a few minutes before my gusher erupted. I didn't strike oil, but Tad struck sperm, as I pumped my load into him in four strong bursts and coated the lining of his intestines. Panting loudly, we both collapsed on the mattress and remained that way for many minutes, totally exhausted and enjoying the throes of a natural high.

After we'd recovered from our little workout and I'd had time to revel in the wonderful feelings I enjoyed due to my birthday present from Tad, I quickly got on all fours and offered myself up to him, so he could experience the same pleasure. Without hesitation, Tad grabbed the baby oil and loosened me up in the same fashion I had employed on him. As his first eager finger slid into my rectum, I involuntarily gasped and flinched from the intrusion, although I immediately assured Tad I was fine. I was also intrigued by how my body had responded to its own basic instincts and tried to keep the violator out of an area that until now had been a one-way thoroughfare, outgoing only.

After I adjusted to this foreign object being inserted up my buttocks, Tad began to pump his finger back and forth in my dark shaft. When this action became effortless and my resistance to the invader had lessened considerably, Tad inserted a second finger and slowly worked them around my passageway. I was more relaxed this time, so his entry and manipulations within my bowels were much less constricted. Soon, I was stretched to the necessary dimensions, but Tad made a few more energetic thrusts into my love canal with his digital duet before he finished. One of these thrusts struck something inside of me that sent bolts of lightning shooting throughout my body. I involuntarily shuddered and nearly collapsed, but I remained upright as Tad withdrew his fingers.

"What happened?" Tad asked, concerned.

"You brushed against something in there and it sent chills up and down my spine," I confessed. "It was really wild."

"Yeah, that's what I was telling you about earlier," Tad replied. "It was wicked cool, wasn't it?"

"Absolutely great," I agreed. "I don't know how else to describe it."

"I understand what you mean," Tad concurred. "There really aren't words to explain how it makes you feel or what it does to your body."

Tad then hesitated momentarily and smiled, to let me know he was glad I'd experienced it too, before he continued our little conversation.

"Do you think that you're ready now?" he wanted to know.

"Yes, I'm all set," I confirmed. "Here, let me get you prepared now."

I then took the baby oil and squirted a line of the liquid along the length of his penis and then began to rub it all around. Tad's penis started to firm up almost as soon as I began doing this, so by the time I'd finished his hot steely poker was sticking out from his groin, ready for action. I turned around, presented him with my ass and waited for him to begin.

As soon as he saw I was ready, Tad inched his way forward until his stiff cock was pressing against my asshole. He gave a quick thrust and his dickhead penetrated my rosebud, but there was no pain, only pressure when this happened. He continued to gradually push himself into my bowels, until I felt the front of his body touching my muscular mounds. Tad paused at that point, but only briefly, before he began to assault my tunnel of love. Excited by this new experience, he pumped in and out of me fairly rapidly, as he stroked every centimeter of his cock against my virgin channel.

I could hear Tad panting as he made love to me, while my body rocked back and forth with every thrust he applied to my anus. The two of us swayed back and forth in this sexual rhythm, but Tad's initial experience didn't last very long. After only a couple of minutes, I felt his magic wand swell within me, just before he sprayed my lining with several hot blasts of his boy juice. As Tad's last jet of cum filled my no longer virginal tube, he leaned forward onto my back to steady himself. The combination of his body weight and the wonderful sensations coursing through my body at that point caused my four limbs to turn into mush, so I tumbled forward, into a heap on the mattress.

Neither of us could find enough strength to move for a few minutes, so we remained like that for a while. Eventually, I was able to roll Tad off my back and then continued to roll over until I was looking into his face. Slowly, his eyes flickered a few times before they opened, but I don't think he was actually able to focus on anything at that point. His lovely orbs were still glazed over and they didn't seem to be concentrating on anything in particular, as he gazed into space. When he was finally able to take notice of me of me again, I smiled and he smiled back.

"Wow! I can't believe I just did that. Was it great or what?" Tad proclaimed, in a voice that sounded as if had a bad case of laryngitis.

"Yes, it was frigging awesome," I agreed. "Thank you… thank you so much. That was by far the best birthday present I've ever been given."

"Me too, Win, so I want to thank you with all of my heart for this," Tad admitted. "I couldn't have enjoyed myself more."

Since we were both satisfied and sated, we moved into position to cuddle with each other and quickly fell asleep. It was a long, dreamless sleep, because there was nothing left to dream about, since our wildest wish had just been fulfilled. Instead, it was a euphoric slumber, where we each lingered in the warm glow of pleasurable feelings that had so recently engulfed our bodies. We awoke fully rested and in high spirits the following morning, but it was going to be difficult to disguise our uncommonly good mood, so when we went out to join Dean, he spotted it almost immediately.

"My, my. Don't you two seem to be exceptionally happy this morning!" he observed. "What's up?"

"I guess it was just because of our birthday celebration last night," I responded, with as much sincerity as I could muster. "It was nice to have someone else finally recognize our special day and that we're now teenagers."

"Yeah, that was real nice of you, Dean," Tad concurred. "I guess I wouldn't have even remembered my birthday had passed by, if you hadn't done that for us. Thanks a lot."

From the expression on Dean's face, it appeared as if he bought our excuse for our upbeat mood, but he was also choking back his own emotional response to our words of gratitude. After a brief pause, he was eventually able to reply.

"Fellas, it was nothing and I wish I could have done much, much more for you," he admitted, as he shyly accepted our praise for his actions. "I'm glad you guys enjoyed that little surprise and it made you feel so good, because it's nice to see you two smiling again."

If only he knew what had actually caused those smiles he so admired. I wonder if he would still have been happy for us if he knew the truth? I was also glad he'd given us these t-shirts, because I'm sure our dicks were probably bright red, well at least a deep pink, due to the friction resulting from our recent workout. I'm sure that particular noticeable trait would have given us away for sure.

The next few weeks went about the same as they had since Dean had taken over. There were quite a few more slash marks past the full eleven rows now, which indicated we had been here nearly a year, when something new and unexpected happened. One day we heard a vehicle drive up and just assumed it was Parker making one of his deliveries. When the door opened, though, there stood Mr. Sovie. When he saw us standing with Dean, he went absolutely ballistic.

"What the fuck are they doing out here?" he screamed at Dean. "They're supposed to be locked up all the time." He then glared at us, so we raced to our room. "And who the fuck gave them those shirts? They're supposed to be naked 24 hours a day."

"But, Bart, they can't go anywhere," Dean responded. "We're too far out in the middle of nowhere and they'd die if they tried. I just gave them the shirts for modesty purposes."

"This isn't a fucking vacation for them and they don't have any modesty," Sovie screamed back. "You would know that if you'd seen the videos I have of those two little queers sucking each other off. Now get in there, get those shirts and lock that Goddamn door. I was thinking about sending you along when I moved them, but I can't do that now, since I know how weak you are. I'm finally able to do that now, because the heat has died down and the cops have given up on finding them, but I need people I can trust to assist me. You are not only untrustworthy, but you are also weak, dangerously and sentimentally weak."

"Sending them? Where are you sending them?" Dean wanted to know.

"I'm getting them out of the country," Sovie replied. "They're going to be moved tomorrow afternoon and that's all you need to know. Unfortunately, now I've got to find someone else to look after them at the new location. You certainly know how to screw things up."

"Look, Bart. You don't need to find anyone else," Dean insisted. "I'll go with them and I won't let them out next time. I only gave them a little breather after I explained to them that they would most likely die out there, if they tried to run away, so they never did anything like that. They're only kids, Bart. I just wanted to give them a little break."

"Well, I don't need some soft-hearted, fag lover watching out for their interests," Sovie hissed. "You're supposed to be working for me, not them. I told you what I expected to be done, but that's not what happened. If Parker were here, I would have him stay tonight to make sure that things were done as they were supposed to be. Seeing I can't replace you that quickly, you'll have to stay tonight, but your job ends when they get taken to the new location. Be warned, however, that I don't want to find anything out of the ordinary when I return tomorrow."

Dean understood what Sovie was saying, but he still wanted to try to protect us.

"Bart, please let me go with them," Dean pleaded. "This won't happen again. I promise."

"You're damn right it won't, because someone else will be doing this job," Sovie screamed. "I'll get to my connections tonight and I'm sure they'll be able to supply me with someone more reliable for the trip. I'll pay you tomorrow for all services you've rendered, although it won't be as much as you were expecting, because you didn't carry out your duties satisfactorily. Don't bother ever contacting me again about additional work either, because there won't be anything for you."

Having said that, Sovie wheeled around and exited through the door, slamming it firmly behind him. Once we heard the vehicle start up and drive away, Tad and I came creeping out of our room.

"We're sorry, Dean," I blurted out, almost crying. "We didn't mean to get you into trouble."

"You two didn't get me in trouble and I don't care what he thinks," Dean replied. "I'd do the same thing again, even knowing how he was going to react."

"But now you won't be able to go with us and we don't even know where that's going to be," I pointed out. "He'll probably get some ogre to watch over us now."

"You're probably right about that part though," Dean reluctantly admitted. "I wish I could go with you and help you out, but I'll have to try to find another way to be of assistance. I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll try to figure something out. You two just stick together and behave, so nothing happens to you. I won't forget either of you and I'll pray for the best."

"Thanks, Dean," Tad added. "We won't forget you either. You made this place almost bearable and we'll always be thankful for what you did."

We both gave him a big hug to show him our gratitude, but then Tad and I remained clinging to him, as tears streamed down our faces and soaked into his shirt. After a minute, Dean sat down and pulled us onto his lap, so he could squeeze us both tightly. We were all too choked up to speak, so nothing more was said for a long time. Finally, Tad found his voice and began to respond.

"You don't think he'll hurt us now, do you?" he wondered, while looking scared.

"I don't think so. If he was going to do that, I think he would have done it already. I'm not sure what his plans are, but I don't believe it includes harming you." Dean stated, but then he paused for some time before he spoke again. "Guys, listen carefully, but don't tell anyone else what I'm about to say. After they take me back into town, I'm going to find a way to tell the police what has happened to you and who was involved. That way, they should be able to rescue you before too much longer. You can't let on that you know about what I'm planning to do though or Bart will have me killed and you'll never be reunited with your families."

"We won't say a word and it would be great if you could tell the police," Tad replied. "Maybe they could find out where we are and rescue us."

"But won't the police arrest you and put you in jail for being involved?" I asked, since I was concerned about Dean.

"That's a very definite possibility, but I'd welcome the jail time if it meant you two would be safe and back home with your parents," he responded. "I can't promise you how soon I'll be able to do it though, because Bart may have someone watching me for a while. I'll do it as soon as I can, however, even though I won't know where to send them. Maybe they can find that out by watching Bart more closely. Just keep your cool and don't do anything that will give our plan away or we'll all be doomed."

"We won't," we responded, almost in unison.

"We'll be good and we'll also be careful," I continued. "We will wait for you to send someone to get us and then we'll let them know how helpful you've been, so they won't take any of this out on you."

"I don't want you guys to worry about me," Dean stated. "Just do what you have to do to take care of yourselves. I'll be fine and I'll make a deal or something when I let them know about what happened to the two of you. I'll get the Texas Rangers or the FBI on your trail as soon as I can."

We all hugged once more, before Dean sent us back to our room. I also heard the locks click into place behind us, because I felt he was afraid Sovie might return sooner than we expected.

The rest of the day was very long and hard on us, because we wondered what my stepfather was going to do with us next. He said he was going to send us out of the country, so which country was he sending us to? It was obvious he was doing this so the different police groups working on this case couldn't find us, but it was probably so we couldn't find our way home either, if we were able to escape. It certainly left us with a whole lot to think about.

Being back in the room was also hard on us, since we had been able to wander around the shack for quite a long time and had gotten used to having someone else to talk to. The isolation was already getting us down again, but at least we still had each other. I hope that part doesn't change when Sovie sends us to this new location though, because that would really suck.

That night, Tad and I cuddled up together on the mattress, but this was mainly to comfort one another and not for any sexual purpose. We were both trembling, since we were scared about what was going to happen to us next, and this new uncertainty was making us very uncomfortable. I don't think either of us slept very well or for very long that night, and when we were able to drift off, we suffered through some horrible dreams. On occasion, we'd awake with a start, perspiring and trembling from the unsettling visions. We'd both been lying there awake for quite a long time already, when Dean opened the door to our room to offer us breakfast.

"Come on, you two. Get out here and eat your breakfast with me," he urged.

"But what if Sovie shows up?" Tad asked, extremely concerned. "Won't you get in more trouble for this?"

"Yes, if I get caught, but I don't intend to let that to happen," he answered. "If we hear a vehicle drive up, you two scoot back into your room and I'll lock the door behind you. That way, Bart will never know that you've been out here with me."

We nodded our heads in understanding, but we were still worried about Dean, since we didn't want to have him get into even more trouble with Sovie, which might cause my stepfather to hurt him in some way. About forty minutes later, we heard the sound of an engine, so Tad and I raced into our room. Dean locked the door behind us, before putting our breakfast dishes on the counter. When things calmed down a little, we noticed that the sound wasn't that of a car or small truck and was somehow different. Dean must have realized the same thing, because he looked out the window, to see what it was.

"It's a small plane," he said to no one in particular. "They've got a small plane out there to take you away."

We heard him through the door and I was certain he'd said it like that so we would know what he'd discovered. Before long, the door burst open and Sovie pranced in. He looked about quickly and smiled when he saw we weren't in the main room.

"I see you came to your senses and are now taking care of the boys the way you should have been doing all along," Sovie smirked.

"Yes, I told you I wouldn't repeat my mistake," Dean stated. "Now, will you allow we to accompany the boys to their new accommodations?"

"No, I've already hired someone else for that job," Sovie sneered. "Your job is to pack up the food quickly and take it out to the plane, while I get the boys ready for transport."

Sovie then unlocked the deadbolts and pushed the door to our room open. He immediately strode over to where we were seated on the mattress, grabbed each of us by an arm and dragged us into the main room. He then pushed us down into separate chairs and pulled a small packet out of his pocket. He swabbed my arm and gave me a shot, before doing the same thing to Tad. I wanted to fight him on this, but other people had come into the room, so he would have used them to hold us down if we put up a struggle. Besides, if we fought him on this, he'd probably harm us some other way to get back at us, so we just let him do what he wanted.

After he gave us the shots, a swarthy looking man strode into the cabin and began talking to Sovie. From what they were saying, it was possible he was going to be our new jailer. It soon became obvious that the shot Sovie had given us was some sort of tranquilizer, because Tad and I both began to feel groggy and swayed uneasily in our seats. Tad passed out first and his body slumped forward, as his head smashed into the table.

Tad and I must have been out of it for a long time, so once I came to I had to piece together the various stories I heard, in order to tell you about our ordeal. It seemed the new guy loaded Tad and me into the plane and secured us into place using the plane's seatbelts. He also used another long, flat belt, which he placed around our chests and under our arms before securing it behind the seat, in order to keep us sitting upright. Then, he used three different pairs of handcuffs to keep us secured. He used the first pair to fasten two of our arms together, while the other two pairs secured our other arms to the armrest on our seats.

It appeared as if we were almost to our destination before Tad and I regained consciousness, but we both pretended to still be out of it even longer. We seemed to have independently come to this same conclusion, because we were hoping we might be able to overhear even more about what was going to happen to us next.

"So how long will I be staying there?" the strange, husky voice wanted to know.

"I can't tell you precisely, but you will remain there until I have completed the next set of arrangements," Sovie answered. "I've already got contacts setting up the next phase of this plan, but it will still be two, maybe three months before everything will be finalized."

"And just where did you say this Akah… toucan we're going to is?" the other man wondered.

"It's Acayucan, you idiot," Sovie's high pitched voice hissed, irritated, "and it's in the south of Mexico, between Mexico City and Guatemala."

"What about the Mexican police, the soldiers and the local villagers?" the other man followed. "Are they going to stay out of our business or will I have to deal with them too?"

"No, they won't bother you," Sovie confirmed. "I've given all of their ranking officials enough money so they'll mind their own business and let us do as we wish. You won't have to worry about any of them bothering you or causing any problems and the soldiers and police will keep the villagers in line."

"Have you made contact with your buyer yet?" the other man followed, which piqued my interest.

"He hasn't been available this week," Sovie answered, "but my contact has an appointment to meet with him next week. It's pretty good news though. My contact told me this guy paid a quarter of a million dollars for an Australian kid, so he thinks we'll be able to get at least a half million each for these two. He said he'll start off by asking for 1.75 million for the pair and then we'll be able to negotiate from there. He'll take his ten percent from the final negotiated price, so that should still leave me over a million clear and you'll get paid out of that."

"Isn't that a lot of money for a couple of kids?" the other guy followed, sounding skeptical.

"Fuck, this guy is a multi-billionaire, so a million and a half to him is like one or two hundred dollars to us," Sovie chuckled. "This guy is into boys who are just entering puberty and these two are unlike anything he can get locally. In the Middle East, the boys all have dark complexions and dark hair, so fair skin and blond or red hair is worth a lot more money. Besides, he's a businessman and knows the value of products, because he's familiar with the law of supply and demand. He'll pay the price once he sees the pictures, so I'm not worried. Which reminds me, why don't you take those shots now, just the way they are."

The swarthy guy got up, found the camera and started snapping photos of us nude and tied to the seat. I used this as my excuse to pretend to wake up and Tad followed my lead.

"What the hell are you doing?" I screamed, as he was taking the first snapshots.

"We're just taking some photos for your new daddy," Sovie said with a smirk, "because the guy is going to want to see what his two newest sons look like. Come to think of it, maybe I should have said new wives, not new sons. You're going to become part of this guy's harem and you two little queer boys are going to get all of the cock you can handle. If not from your new master, then maybe you can fool around with the other boys from his stable, the ones that he has set aside to satiate his sexual pleasures. You can fuck your little asses raw from now on, as far as I'm concerned."

"You're not going to get away with this," I screamed. "You're going to go to prison for a very long time when they catch you."

"Catch me? The authorities think you two are dead and have given up looking for you," he mocked. "You are now so far away from anything you know that you have absolutely no hope of ever getting back home. I'll keep you here in Mexico until the guy handling this deal makes arrangements for my payment, and then you're off to a new home across the Atlantic Ocean. I'll never see you or have to think about you again, and all you'll have to think about is keeping your new master's cock hard and satisfied."

"We won't do it and you can't make us," I replied, defiantly.

"I won't have to, he will," Sovie sneered. "You will be his property and he'll get you to do it one way or another, I'm sure of that. Maybe he'll beat the shit out of you if you don't do what he tells you to do, so you'll either do it willingly or you'll do it to keep from getting beaten harder or longer. You may be able to talk big now, but your tune will change once that whip starts cracking on your bare ass and back."

Tad and I just looked at each other, totally shocked. We didn't say anything more the rest of the flight, because it took all the self-control we had just to keep from crying hysterically at our new prospects. I think we were both determined to keep Sovie from reducing us to tears, because we didn't want to give him the satisfaction of seeing us miserable. We might do a lot of blubbering once we were alone, but we were damned if we were going to cry in front of him.

Instead, I just shot him a very hateful glare. If looks could kill or turn blood cold, then Sovie would have either died or become Mr. Freeze on the spot. I'm not sure what Tad was thinking or doing at this point, but I was doing my best to make Sovie as uncomfortable as I could for the rest of the trip. I stared at him and gave him the dirtiest looks I could think of, anything I could do as I tried to make him squirm in his seat. I don't believe he has a soul or a heart though, because nothing I did seemed to faze him one iota. He was probably even enjoying my attempt to bug him, because he had a shitty smirk on his face until the plane landed.

I did a great deal of introspection during the remaining minutes of the flight though, but once the plane touched down, I knew we were hundreds of miles from our homes and hopelessly out of our league. We would have to do something and do it quickly, if we didn't want to be sent to the guy somewhere in the Middle East though. The only problem was, I had no idea what we could do or how we would get away, especially not from where we were now. My fear was far greater at this second than it had been since this nightmare had started. I would do my best to keep my emotions from showing through, because I had to keep Tad from suffering through the same terrible thoughts that I was thinking. I was determined to keep up my macho front, so Sovie didn't declare victory quite yet and to give Tad some hope. I knew what I had to do, but now I just had to find the strength and the courage to carry it out.

Once the plane came to a stop, we were unbuckled and released from the handcuffs, before they dragged us off of the plane and over to another vehicle. This time we were ushered onto what appeared to be a cross between a truck and a bus, without being either. We climbed onto it the same way we would get onto a bus and there were several seats for us to choose from, but this thing didn't have a roof. The sides of the vehicle were about even with our shoulders as we sat in the seat, but it was also quite ancient. I wouldn't have been surprised to learn it had been in use for the past seventy or eighty years. It did get us to our destination though, even though I wished it hadn't, and then we disembarked.

Our new residence was worse than the shack where we had spent the past year plus. This was just an adobe hovel in a small Mexican village, no more than a boil on a dog's buttocks. This place wasn't as secure as the other place, but what the hell, it didn't need to be. We were hundreds of miles from our homes, didn't speak the language, were still totally naked and we had a big, ugly guard, so there was no need for this to be Fort Knox. Since Sovie saw no way for us to escape or inform others about our plight, he was going to spend as little as possible on our accommodations.

It appeared that this place had three rooms, which included a main room and two smaller rooms, which probably served as bedrooms. Tad and I were locked inside one of those rooms, but as we were being led into it, I noticed the locking mechanism was merely a simple sliding bolt that fitted into a notch in the doorframe. Of course, even if we were able to break through it, we would still be in a strange land and have no idea about where to go next, so the effort would be futile.

Even though we were still naked, it didn't bother us at this point, because it was extremely hot here and there was very little air circulating in the hut. There was no window in the room we were in, but there were three small holes in the upper wall, each about three to four inches [8 to 10 cm] in diameter. I assumed this either allowed the hot air to escape or a small breeze to enter, although I wasn't convinced which way it actually operated, but it was our only connection to fresh air.

I quickly scanned the room to see what it had to offer and immediately noticed there was no mattress to sleep on this time. All we were given was a cheap foam slab, which wasn't very thick, along with a couple of blankets. Instead of a bucket to serve as our toilet, we had an old cast iron cooking pot. It was a very large pot though, about the size of a small microwave, only round, but the best part was that it also had a lid. I was hoping that small asset would help to keep the smell from totally filling the room 24 hours a day. There were also a couple of rolls of toilet paper next to it, but that was it for the furnishings. There was nothing else in the room, not even a chair to sit on.

Once I had sized up the room, I turned my attention to our jailer. On our way here we'd discovered his name was Diego, since we'd heard him called by that name several times before we got on the ancient bus-like vehicle that brought us to this location from the plane. He appeared to be a very cold, uncaring person who didn't have much of a sense of humor or any concern for us. We also knew we wouldn't be receiving any breaks from him during our confinement, so this time things would go exactly as Sovie had requested.

After Tad and I were pushed into the room at our new temporary abode and we heard the deadbolt slide into place behind us, Tad began to cry.

"Oh God, Win. I'm so scared," he sobbed, as his chest heaved frantically from the exertion and his entire body trembled almost uncontrollably. "They're going to sell us to some guy so he can molest us whenever he wants and do who knows what else to us, so we're never going to see either of our families again."

"Tad, don't think like that, because we're going to be rescued," I countered, while trying to sound as encouraging as I could.

"I'm not so sure about that," he whined. "They might also keep us from being together once we get there, so what are we going to do? We've got to get out of here and get back home. Maybe we should have tried to escape from that other place… when we were still in Texas. Maybe we ought to try to escape from here as soon as we can and see if we can get help. What do you think we should do and how do you think we should do it? When do you think we should try to get away?"

Tad had been babbling like this since the door to our room had closed and I wasn't even sure if he'd taken a breath at any point during this last rant, before I stopped him by placing my hand over his mouth.

"Tad, calm down," I advised him. "Get yourself under control and we'll think of something. I know we will. No, we shouldn't have tried to escape from the other place even if it was closer to our homes, because even Dean told us we would have died if we tried to run away from there. He was our friend and wouldn't have lied about something like that, because I was convinced he was really trying to help us. We'll figure something out, so just calm down,"

After saying this, I leaned close to Tad's ear and whispered something else to him.

"Let's give Dean an opportunity to find a way to send someone down here to rescue us. Not all hope is lost yet," I offered. "He was going to tell the cops about Sovie, so maybe they'll be able to find out where we are before Sovie has a chance to sell us off to that other guy."

I held Tad tightly against my body and we stayed like that until I could see he was starting to relax and had calmed down a bit. At that point, I reached up with one of my hands and started to run my fingers over the surface of his hair. I wasn't actually able to run my fingers through his hair though, because after all of this time in captivity, our hair was quite long, tangled and just downright disgusting. We hadn't been able to shampoo it since we'd been taken, because we hadn't had a real bath or shower for over a year now, just the sponge baths Dean allowed us to take.

Thinking about this actually made me smile though. Since our hair was filthy and greasy, maybe Sovie's buyer wouldn't want us, once he saw the pictures Diego took of us on the plane. We obviously didn't look our best right now, so those pictures had to make us appear as if we'd been marooned on an island for ages – hell, even worse. If we'd have been on an island, at least we would have been able to keep clean in the ocean.

At this point, I turned my attention back to Tad, because I needed to find a way to alleviate his fears and help him control his emotions. I was trying to come up with an idea to help me to do this, when I remembered something from long ago. I bent forward and gently kissed Tad on his forehead, as I cradled him in my arms. Next, I kissed the lids of each of his eyes, which were closed tightly, before I kissed the tip of his nose and then I finally placed a little angel kiss on his lips.

I did this because I remembered reading about a character in a book having this done to him once. It was the way his mother kissed him before he went to sleep each night when he was little, but it was also the way she kissed him farewell after he'd signed up to serve aboard a ship and before he went out to sea. I just felt this seemed to be a tender, calming type of gesture that I could use to reassure Tad that everything would be fine.

After I finished doing that, I just held him in my arms, since I had done everything I could think of to prevent him from reacting badly to our current situation. I realized he was intelligent, so I was confident he would have eventually come to the same conclusions I had about giving Dean time to do something to save us, but he was right about some of it too. This was truly a desperate situation for us to be in, so if something didn't change in the next couple of weeks, then we would need to come up with our own plan to extricate ourselves.

We couldn't wait forever for someone to come to our rescue, but at the same time we had to remain hopeful. Yes, there was still a chance that Dean might be able to do something to help us, but we couldn't depend on it happening in time, even if he was able to contact the authorities and inform them about our situation. Dean didn't know precisely where we were, so they'd have to locate where Sovie was hiding us first, before they could attempt a rescue. For that reason, it would be to our advantage to give them as much time as we could to do locate where we were, so maybe we should try to escape, so we could hide out long enough to give the cops the time they needed. Since I had come to this conclusion, I would now attempt to come up with a plan to escape, before Sovie had an opportunity to finalize the sale.

I was able to keep Tad calmed down for the rest of the day, but I knew he was still worried. Fortunately, he trusted me when I assured him we would do everything we could to get out of this mess, so we both began to concentrate on how we were going to escape. We did that until we heard Diego unlock our door.

Diego entered our room to bring us our dinner, if you could call it that. It was a plate full of beans with a thick slice of bread and a bottle of water. I knew they'd loaded the supplies from the shack into the plane when we were brought here, so I was not expecting this. Either they hadn't brought that stuff here yet, since I know they didn't put it on the bus with us, or Diego was keeping the better stuff for himself and serving us this crap. If that was the case, then this wasn't a good sign. It also definitely wasn't a good meal.

We went to sleep that evening quite disheartened, but I wanted to keep Tad's spirits up, so I pulled him over to me and spooned up behind him. I put one arm over his side and draped it across his chest, and then he clung to that arm with both of his, like a drowning man clinging to a log. Our sleep came in spurts and we'd only doze off for short intervals at a time, because we'd either awake in a cold sweat or attempting to stifle a scream that resulted from the nightmares haunting our slumber.

By the time our breakfast arrived the following morning, we were still nearly as tired as we had been when we went to sleep the previous evening. As it turned out, it was actually a shame we hadn't been able to sleep through breakfast, because we were served the same meal as we had for dinner the night before. Whoever heard of having a plate of beans, a thick slice of bread and a bottle of water for breakfast? It would appear as if our new chef had a very stunted repertoire of dishes he knew how to prepare, so we were going to have to make do with this unusual fare.

The routine over next few days seldom varied and each of the meals we received were nearly identical. Throughout the day, Tad and I would spend all of our time totally isolated from the outside world, except for when Diego brought in our food, which always consisted of the same things: beans, bread and water. Even though we thought of complaining about the multitude of beans causing us to have a lot of gas, we never said a thing. Since our room also served as the toilet, it didn't really make a great deal of difference whether the smell came from our farts or the kettle repository.

To break the monotony of this boring existence, we tried to concentrate of formulating a plan to escape from this place, so we could break free from Sovie's control. The problem was, every scheme we came up with had more holes in it than a slice of Swiss cheese. We may not have come up with a workable strategy to break out of our cage yet, but our efforts have still accomplished two things. It has made the days pass by much more quickly, but it also made us feel better, because not only were we doing something to help ourselves, but we also felt we'd eventually come up with an idea that would work.

Diego proved to be an enigma though. He never spoke to us and didn't linger in our presence, so we neither heard nor saw what he was doing in the other room. We weren't even sure if he remained in that room during the day or if he was going out in between serving our meals. We did see him one time, however, when he came in to empty our non-flushable toilet. Other than that single exception, the only time we saw him was when he gave us our breakfast and dinner.

No, it wasn't an oversight on my part when I didn't list lunch, because we were only served two meals a day and couldn't get any extra. We were given the same meal twice a day, every day, so I think Tad and I were beginning to understand how Oliver Twist felt and why he asked for 'more.' We weren't being fed gruel, although that would have been a nice change of pace, but we were experiencing hunger pangs in between receiving those sparse offerings.

About a week after we arrived there, I finally got up the nerve to ask Diego a question. When he opened the door to give us our dinner that evening, I posed my query.

"Diego, can we have the creams and oils that Dean got us to use on our skin?" I asked, since I knew those had been brought along too.

"Bart says I'm not to give you anything except your meals," he responded, sounding like a robot.

"Well, it will probably be your ass when the guy who Sovie thinks is going to buy us decides he doesn't want to pay so much money for damaged goods," I pointed out. "Once he sees our skin rashes from not being able to wash and not having the required stuff to clear it up, then he'll probably cut the purchase price in half or possibly even more."

Diego thought about this for a minute or more before he finally answered.

"Ok, I'll get the shit for you," he relented, although he didn't seem happy about having to do it. "I'll even bring you a cloth and a bowl of warm water every day, so you can wash up a little bit too. The only thing you won't be able to do will be to tell Bart about what I'm doing for you. You'll have to keep everything hidden in your room, and I don't want it anywhere in sight, just in case he drops in unannounced. Do you promise?"

"Yes," we echoed.

Diego went out and came back with our supplies, which told us the food they had brought down with us must have arrived here as well, which meant he was holding it back from us. Tad and I put the various items he gave us in the corner of the room and threw one of the blankets over them, but we also promised that's how it would be kept during the day, once we were up. We could tell he wasn't pleased at having been outsmarted or conned into giving in to us, but I think he knew I was probably right in my assumption. A rash like we had could effectively lower our value to a prospective buyer, so thank God we were smarter than the average bear, or boy in our case.

Not only did these supplies bring us the needed relief from our skin problem, but they also allowed us to continue having sex, not that we had much strength or desire to do anything like that often under these conditions. There were, however, those rare occasions when we either needed or desperately desired that unique connection with each other, so by having the supplies in with us, we could do it whenever we reached either or those points.

I can't begin to tell you how terrified we were because of what we feared was going to happen to us, so making love to one another provided us with a boost to our spirits each time we got to the point where we thought we couldn't bear it any longer. When we made love, we not only filled the other with some of the new secretions our bodies had just begun to produce, but we would also inject each other with enough hope to keep us going for a little while longer. Another advantage was that we usually slept very soundly after a good session, devoid of any bad dreams, so we were temporarily whisked away from the misery, suffering and fear we endured the rest of the time. Our lovemaking also became a hiatus from our stay in purgatory, if not hell itself.

It was a couple of weeks later when we finally came up with a strategy we thought might work to help us escape, even though we didn't have all of the details worked out yet. We went over the plan multiple times, in order to see if we could detect any noticeable flaws, before we decided on a time to implement the plan. We also decided our best opportunity would come when Diego came in to give us our evening meal and Tad would wait behind the door holding the item he would need to assist him.

When we were finally ready to proceed, we got into position. When Diego opened the door, a look of concern came over his face. He scanned the room quickly, trying to locate Tad, but since he was behind the door, he didn't immediately spot him.

"Hey, where's the other kid?" he shouted, as he began to panic.

Thinking quickly, he grabbed the door and pulled it toward him, so he could look behind it. When he did, Tad took the cast iron pot, which was less than half full with our bodily wastes at the time, and sent the contents of the kettle flying into Diego's face. Diego spit and sputtered as the urine burned his eyes and then he immediately bent forward, to allow the waste to drip from his upper body onto the floor. When he did that, Tad swung his body around in a 360-degree spin, with the handle of the kettle clutched firmly in his hands, as he built up momentum and forcefully smashed the kettle into our jailer's head.

As I watched him do this, Tad looked like a guy at a track meet getting ready to throw the hammer, but he never released what he was holding, at least not until it had done what he'd intended. All I heard was a dull thud as the container smashed into bone and Diego stumbled for a second, before collapsing onto the floor. Without hesitation, Tad and I rushed through the door, closed it behind us and locked Diego inside. Then we raced for the other side of the room and bolted through the door leading outside. We were naked and on a dirt pathway, but since we did this when he was bringing our dinner to us, it was also dusk, so this helped to conceal us somewhat. We had no real plan once we were free of our temporary residence and merely intended to locate a hiding place quickly, so we could stay there until Sovie and his partners stopped looking for us.

We hurriedly looked around and made a quick appraisal of our situation, but there was nowhere to go directly in front of us, at least not without being completely visible to others in the area. Seeing this, I told Tad to follow me and we ran around the side of the building and then behind another structure. After that, we continued to weave our way between other buildings, as we continued moving along walls and past other edifices until we could not advance any further undetected. Suddenly, we found ourselves at the outskirts of the village where we were being held, with only a vast openness in front us. There was obviously no place to hide and nothing to conceal our movements, once we cleared the village limits, so we had to rethink what we were going to do.

Frantically, I looked around, hoping to spot a place where we could take shelter, at least temporarily, because it would be dark soon. If we could hold out until then, we could move about more freely, because it would be more difficult for anyone to locate us. That's when I spotted a two-story structure that might have been a barn, a garage or even a simple a storage area, but whatever its purpose, it would serve as our shelter. Tad followed me over to the building and we found an opening through which we could enter it.

Once inside, we spotted a ladder leading to an upper level, so we climbed it rapidly and looked for a good hiding place. Hurriedly, but noiselessly, we moved to a rear corner of the loft where we huddled together behind a collection of discarded and outdated appliances. We remained motionless and completely silent from that moment on, and I don't think either of us even breathed for a couple of minutes, until we were convinced our unauthorized entry had gone undetected.

As I glanced over at Tad's face, I could see the fear in his eyes, so I assumed he was worried about what Diego might do to avenge our attack on him, if he eventually caught us. My heart was pounding within my chest and the sound of the blood pulsing through the arteries in my ears was masking all other noises and prompted me to fear the sound would give us away. I was certain we were both breathing heavily enough to be heard too, after the exertion from our little jaunt to find this place, so I prayed we weren't doing anything loudly enough for others to detect our presence.

We stayed there as the night slowly grew darker and it became more and more difficult to see, because we'd been fortunate in that we chosen an overcast night to break out of captivity. At various times we would hear a slight commotion in the area, but I never heard anyone enter the building or attempt to search it in any way. As the minutes passed into hours, I whispered to Tad that we would need to go down and look for a safer place to hide before morning, because once it was daylight, we would be easy to find if they searched this place. We would have to locate someplace less obvious in order to remain undetected for more than just a few hours.

Once the noises in the village faded into silence and total darkness consumed the land, we climbed down the ladder and exited the building, so we could look around for a new place to hide. We sneaked all around the deserted village, sometimes crawling, sometimes crouching and sometimes making short but quick dashes from one place to another, in our attempt to remain undetected. Regardless of our efforts, we weren't having much success in finding a new safe haven.

Dawn was rapidly approaching and the sky was beginning to slowly brighten, so I was just about ready to suggest we return to our original hiding place when I observed something worth exploring. It was a small wooden hatch that appeared to lead underground, so I hoped it didn't lead into a septic tank or that we'd find something dangerous on the other side. I attempted to lift the wooden cover, but it wouldn't budge. That's when Tad observed there were two small slats of wood nailed to the frame and positioned to prevent the door from accidentally being opened.

Now that I knew what had prevented me from pulling the hatch open, I rotated those pieces of wood so they wouldn't interfere with the door's operation and tried to lift it again. This time, the door rose skyward and I looked quickly inside to see what it protected. It appeared to lead down into a small, root cellar that someone was obviously using for storage. I signaled Tad to follow me and we climbed down the wooden ladder until we reached the dirt floor below. After we entered the area, we pulled the hatch closed behind us and felt our way along the wall until we reached the far corner, where we planned to remain for as long as we needed.

Less than an hour later, the sun rose above the horizon and we began to hear movement in the area above us, as the residents began to scurry about, while carrying out their daily endeavors. Luckily, some of the sunlight filtered through the cracks in the hatch's construction and allowed us to look around a bit. There wasn't much to see, because there were only a few items stored there, so we didn't really have much protection from being seen, if someone were to come down. It was just a small, damp and musty smelling hole in the ground, but at least it would keep us from being spotted by those looking for us above. Eventually we stopped concentrating on its flaws and settled down enough to fall asleep, which we did in each other's embrace.

When we awoke a few hours later, it appeared to be very bright out, so it was probably around midday, and we hadn't heard anything other than the normal sounds of the daily activity in the immediate area. We also hadn't eaten in over 24 hours and our stomachs were beginning to growl, even more than they had normally been doing over the past couple of weeks. Believe it or not, we could actually hear the noises the other's belly was making and wondered if those moving around above us could also hear the sounds of our hunger pangs. After some thought about it, we determined the noises weren't loud enough to attract attention, even though they were loud enough to make us uncomfortable with our current situation.

We felt safe enough to hold a conversation, but we did it in whispers, as we tried to determine what we should do about procuring food and clothing, as well as otherwise improving our present circumstances. We agreed that once it got really dark, hopefully sometime after midnight, we'd go out to look around again, so we could see what we could find. Until that time, we would sit tight and pass the time as best we could, possibly by getting some more sleep.

Once the appropriate conditions presented themselves, we sneaked out of our earthen dungeon and moved about the surface in search of things we could use. After making quite a lengthy examination of our surroundings, we came up with absolutely nothing we could use to meet our immediate needs for food and clothing. It looked as if the people in this village had only the bare minimum of necessities and nothing left over for us to confiscate.

After a fairly lengthy search, we didn't come across any extra clothes hanging on clotheslines or find any food left lying around that we could grab for ourselves. The only excess we had discovered so far were the few worn out and discarded items that had been stored in the loft of the first building we hid in, plus a few tools and containers that were stored in the root cellar. When we began to feel we had been out long enough and were beginning to tempt fate, we headed back to our hideout before it started to get light. Dejected by our lack of success, we climbed down into the root cellar again and spent another day naked and hungry.

Once we were back in our little hole in the ground, we cuddled together and commiserated for a few minutes, before we fell asleep. I'm not sure how long we had been there before we were awakened by the sound of the hatch being lifted and dropped against the ground, so someone could climb down the ladder and enter our sanctuary. We each bolted upright when we heard the noise and strained to see who was entering, as we grabbed ahold of each other for moral support. We remained motionless and speechless while hoping we wouldn't be noticed, as we waited to learn our fate.

After what seemed to be a lengthy delay, we saw a pair of legs, dressed in dirty white pants and sandals descend down the ladder. It appeared to be one of the villagers, possibly even the owner of our hideaway, but he was facing away from us, as he began to pick through the collection of tools leaning against the wall nearest the entrance. When he turned back to climb back up to the surface, he spotted us and his body went rigid from being surprised by the encounter. Tad and I were clutching each other, shaking with fright and holding our breath, because we were uncertain what he was going to do next.

While we waited to see how the man was going to react, I studied his face to see if his expression might give me any indication of what his next move would be. It didn't seem as though he wanted to hurt us or had even been looking for us when he came down here. Figuring he must have found us completely by accident, I slowly lifted a finger to my lips, to let him know we didn't want him to give us away or be afraid, like an adult would be afraid of two naked boys huddling together.

He nodded his head to confirm he understood, but he surprised me when he winked at us, in an effort to put us at ease. Once we seemed to have reached this unspoken agreement, he threw the tools through the opening, so he could climb back up and utilize them in a few minutes. Once he had what he needed, he made his way up the ladder and then closed the covering to our hiding place again, leaving us in peace.

As soon as he was gone, Tad and I looked at each other, but didn't speak for several minutes. Finally, we began to breath again and started to discuss what had just happened.

"You don't think he's going to tell on us, do you?" Tad asked, deeply concerned that the man would lead Diego to us.

"No, I don't think he'll say anything," I responded. "He did nod and wink at us, so I think that means he understands we want to remain hidden."

"But what are we going to do now?" Tad followed. "We need to eat and get something to drink or we're going to starve to death."

"I know," I agreed, as I attempted to soothe Tad's fears. "We'll go back out tonight and look around some more, just as we would have done if he hadn't spotted us. We're bound to find something we can use tonight, so just calm down and get some more rest, because we'll need to conserve all of our strength for later."

He nodded in agreement and we cuddled together again. Unfortunately, we were unable to fall asleep after that and remained awake for what seemed like forever. Then, just as we finally started to drift off, the sound of the door to our hideaway opening once more jarred us wide awake again. We immediately feared our whereabouts had been disclosed by the guy who'd discovered us earlier, so we held our breath as we waited to see who was there.

We watched intently as the same pair of legs climbed down the ladder and put the tools back where he had retrieved them earlier. Then, he climbed halfway up the ladder again, and appeared to reach out to grab something. When he descended the ladder the second time, he was holding a rough sack, which he held onto as he climbed back down. He then brought the bag with him as he approached us, opened it and reached inside, so he could pull out two white pieces of cloth, which he then handed to us. We looked the articles over quickly and realized he had given us two pairs of crude pants that were similar to the ones he was wearing. We slipped them on, but they were much too large for our small waists, so we had to hold them up.

He released a little chuckled when he noticed our predicament and then reached back into the bag. This time he brought out a collection of fruits and raw vegetables, which he offered to us. We didn't hesitate and took the items from him and began greedily devouring various items, not even caring what they were or tasted like, as long as the stopped the rumbling in our tummies. Once we had each wolfed down a couple of these healthy foods, he reached back into the bag and drew out a few more, which we stored for later consumption.

Once he'd handed us everything, he patted us on the top of our heads, before he turned and left again. Those simple gestures let us know he would help keep us safe from discovery and we could relax a little, while no longer imagining the worst. After this, we wouldn't have to go back out tonight to search for items we could use, thus eliminating the possibility of accidentally being discovered. He had taken care of our immediate needs and we could stay put in relative safety.

Remaining in this hole throughout the entire night was more than a little disconcerting though. As soon as the sun went down, the place was extremely dark and we felt as if there were creepy, crawly things slithering about unseen along the floor and walls. We spent a very restless evening; as we kept our eyes open watching for this possibility, so sleep was totally out of the question. I came up with a plan to keep us from thinking about the bad things though and we ended up passing the night by talking about what we wanted to do once we got home.

First, Tad told me about all of the things he wanted to do with his parents, but he made sure to let me know these plans also included me. He also told me there was a great deal he wanted to say to his mom and dad, such as things he had previously taken for granted, but which he had now grown to appreciate, since he had been without them for so long. There were so many little things they did for him, such as the way they talked to him about stuff or the way they kissed him when he went to bed at night. It also included all of the special times they set aside for him and how they were so concerned about his happiness. I could see it in his face, but mostly in his eyes, and could clearly tell how much he missed both of his parents and how he longed to be in their protective embrace once again.

I thanked him for including me in his plans, but explained that doing those things would have to wait for a while. I then told him I wanted to spend some time at home with my mother first, because I needed to find out if I might be able to set things right with her and forge new and closer ties.

"I've heard comments from Sovie and Dean that are leading me to believe that she might still love me," I confessed. "If that's the case, then I want to give it one more try to see if we can really have a mother-son relationship again. I've dreamed about it happening for so long that if there's any chance we can make it work, I will give it my best effort. I know I've said I hated her in the past, but down deep in my heart I still love her. She's my mother and the one who gave me life, so I've got to try, Tad. I can't just turn my back on her and walk away, not if there's a chance she might still love me."

"I understand, Win, and I don't blame you," Tad replied. "If I were in your shoes, I'd do exactly the same thing, but I also want you to know that if it doesn't work out, you still have a home with us. You know, with my mom and dad and…"

Tad stopped in the middle of his sentence when the door to the cellar was lifted open once again. We both looked toward the opening and held our breath, until we saw the familiar pant legs begin its descent down the ladder. In one hand he was carrying two plates as he used the other to navigate down the wooden rungs. He handed us a plate each, before he turned and went back up the ladder without saying a word.

The plates contained some kind of food, although we didn't recognize what it was, but it appeared to be a circular piece of flat dough-like 'bread,' for lack of a better term. It was folded over a collection of other ingredients stuffed inside, but we didn't care what it was, because we were ravenous once again. We quickly lifted it up and took a bite, although some of the filling fell out and landed on the plate. Whatever it was, it tasted pretty good and we ate the whole thing.

A short time later, the villager came back carrying a bottle and some golden colored thin rope or thick string. I say it that way, because it was actually too thin to be considered rope and too thick to be called string, so I wasn't sure what it was. Tad then informed me that it resembled bailing twine, which he had seen some of the farmers in the area where he used to live use when bailing hay for the cattle and horses. The villager set the twine down on the ground momentarily, so he could pull the cork out of the bottle. After it had been removed, he handed the bottle to me and pantomimed that I should take a drink.

I took a gulp of its contents and almost spit it back out, because it definitely wasn't water, but I managed not to do that, because I felt he might take it as an insult. It was definitely some kind of strong, homemade wine; at least I assumed it was homemade, because there was no label on the bottle. I warned Tad about it before he took a swig, so he was more careful about his first encounter with this new brew. We both drank it in very small sips and took only enough to help wash down our meal. Once we finished, our Mexican benefactor smiled at our satisfied expressions.

At that point our host reached out his hand to me, and when I gripped it, he pulled me toward him. I had to grab my pants so they didn't fall to the ground, since Tad and I had been leaning back against the wall to keep them up, and we all a good chuckle over that. The villager then reached down and picked up the piece of twine, looped it around my waist, over the top of the pants, and measured an appropriate length. He then pulled a jackknife out of his pocket, cut it off and tied it in a bow, as he made an impromptu belt for me. Once he finished, he patted me on the shoulder to let me know I was all set. Then he motioned Tad to come over to him next and did the same thing for him. Now, we could stand up and walk around without having to worry about losing our britches.

Now that Tad's and my immediate needs had been taken care of, the Mexican pulled me toward the ladder, so I followed him, only somewhat unwillingly. I wasn't sure what he was planning to do next, but I decided to trust him, because he had been good to us so far. He reached up and tugged lightly at my long, golden locks and said, "Sol," but I didn't understand what he meant and must have had a puzzled look on my face. That's when he pointed up through the opening toward the sky again and used his hands to form a circle.

"Sol," he repeated, while pointing upward and then back toward my hair.

"I think he's saying sun, Win," Tad informed me. "I learned a few words in Spanish where I used to live and think he's trying to tell you that your hair is the same color as the sun or that it looks like the sun, maybe both."

I smiled at the villager, nodded and repeated his word. "Sol," I uttered, while smiling at him.

"Si. Si," he said triumphantly.

Then, he walked over to Tad and began to finger his hair, before he ran back to the ladder, climbed up and grabbed a small box he had stashed there. He opened it, extracted a wooden match and struck it against the rough striking pad. When the match lit, he pointed to the flame and then to Tad's hair.

"Fuego," he exclaimed.

"I think he's saying your hair is the same color as the flame or maybe just fire in general," I noted. "Yes, I think that's it. He is saying your hair is the color of fire and mine is the color of the sun."

Tad nodded and pulled a strand of his hair in front of his face, as he held it out toward our benefactor.

"Fuego," Tad repeated to our new friend."

"Si. Si," the Mexican said again. Then he pointed to my head and said "sol", and then to Tad's and said "fuego." He repeated this action several times, in order to make sure we understood what he was doing.

"I think he just named us," Tad observed. "He's calling you 'sun' and me 'fire.' I guess those will be our new names while we are here, since I don't think we should risk having him call us by our real names. If anyone overheard him using those names, it would probably attract unwanted attention."

I agreed with Tad's assessment and we happily accepted our new monikers. In order to let the villager know we understood and appreciated what he was doing, we both pointed toward Tad and said "fuego" in unison, and then we both pointed toward me and echoed "sol." The villager seemed very pleased to see we understood and started dancing around, with a huge grin on his face.

"Si. Si. Sol," he stated while pointing toward me. "Fuego," he added, while pointing toward Tad.

We both nodded and repeated our new names one more time, before he picked up the plates and climbed back up the ladder. He turned and waved at us before he got to the top and then said "adios" just before he popped through the opening. The door was then lowered shut and Tad and I were left alone again.

We sat alone on the ground for a few hours, not daring to move around too much for fear of being heard by someone above. It had been several hours since our friend had left when the door to the root cellar opened again. When we saw his legs come down the ladder, we noticed that he was once again carrying two plates, but he also had something else. He walked toward us and handed me the other item first. It was an old blanket, and although it was made of very course fibers and felt rough to the touch, it would still be better than sleeping directly on the dirt floor. As I took it from him, I heard Tad say, "gracias," since he was more familiar with Spanish than I was. This caused our host to smile and nod in response.

After he had given me the blanket, he proceeded to shove the two plates under our noses. They had the same type food he'd brought to us the day before, but this time there were also some beans, along with the other item. He pointed toward the beans and he said, "Frijoles." Frijoles… I guess that means beans.

Then he pointed at the other item and said "tortilla." Tortilla? Tad and I looked at each other in surprise, because even though it appeared to be vaguely familiar, it wasn't quite the same as any tortilla we'd ever seen or eaten before. He then put his fingers and thumb together, lifted them toward his mouth and said "comer." I think this meant he wanted us to start eating.

He smiled as he watched us consume our food and when we were done said "bueno." He then took the plates from us and turned around to leave, but he whispered "adios" as he climbed up the ladder again, just before he closed the door to our hideout.

It didn't take long after he left before we were once again totally bored, but we knew we didn't dare venture out of the safety of our sanctuary. We decided it would probably help if we played one of our fantasy adventures to pass the time, although we had to remember to do it quietly. Tad suggested we should pretend to be brothers hiding out from Greek or Roman slave traffickers who sought to make a profit from our misery, because it would be somewhat similar to our current situation.

Playing this type of fantasy would also give us other things to focus on and talk about as well, because we could discuss the various Greek and Roman gods we might have worshipped. We could even discuss various situations we'd been placed in or the types of different experiences we might have encountered if we'd been alive during those times. We would also be able to talk about the wars or battles we might have either witnessed or been involved in, since teenagers might have also served as warriors. It seemed like a good diversion and would definitely keep us from being quite so bored.

We kept our voices low and temporarily journeyed to an ancient world in the distant past, at least consciously, thus forgetting about our current situation temporarily. It was actually quite an enjoyable diversion and we spent much of the time telling each other what we thought it might have been like growing up during that period and serving as child slaves before we were able to run away from our master. Then we speculated about what we might have done to avoid detection or what would happen to us if we were captured.

Over the course of our time alone in the root cellar, we came up with many interesting ideas and became more sensitive to what it might have been like living in a much simpler time, with only a primitive technology. Our being brothers during our adventures led to a great deal of touching, hugging and even kissing, since any accomplishment or minor victory seemed to demand some sort of physical contact. We were more than happy to play our roles, but it soon led us to the point where we knew we needed some sexual relief, so I made the first move.

I grabbed the bottle of wine our benefactor had left behind and poured a little into my hand. I then used it to rub around Tad's private parts, in order to cleanse the area much as possible before I tried to take him into my mouth. We were both quite dirty from living naked and sleeping on a dirt floor, so I had to try to get his genitals at least partially clean before we did this. I hoped the alcohol would also kill any microscopic creatures that might have taken up residence there in the interim. I then put some more wine in my hand and pulled back Tad's foreskin, in order to get at the glans and clean it too, since I didn't know for certain what might have accumulated beneath its protective folds of skin and wasn't prepared to take any chances.

As soon this area had been cleansed thoroughly, I bent forward and took Tad's stiffening cock in my mouth. The taste of the mixture of wine and left over dirt was strange, but I didn't let it stop me. It had been too long since the last time we'd done anything like this and we both desperately needed it. Skipping the foreplay, I went straight down his penis until I held it entirely within my mouth. As I lifted up and then slid back down on his shaft, I let my lips drag his foreskin back and forth, so his deep red helmet was continually exposed. After I eventually allowed his foreskin to slide back into position, I stuck my tongue into the opening of that extra piece of flesh and stimulated the tender surface beneath.

Eventually, I slid down his shaft again, pulling his foreskin back at the same time, but this time I let the hood remained retracted. I then stuck my tongue out and allowed it to dart around and across his spongy, sensitive crown, which forced Tad to stifle a yelp he was about to emit, due to the sensations he experienced from contact with this sensitive area. He knew any such noise might lead to our discovery, so even though he was tempted to verbalize this pleasurable agony, he resisted the urge.

Unaware of his predicament, I placed two of my fingers and thumb at the base of his penis and used them to keep the foreskin pulled back, as I bobbed up and down on his mast. I also continued to tongue that responsive area on every upward movement and Tad was really squirming now, as he reacted to my manipulations on his pride and joy. Now, I was focused on letting my lips run up and down the sides of his erection, as my tongue wandered along behind, but I had also begun to suck ravenously on every upward stroke, as I attempted to hasten his release. The fingers of my other hand were now playing his scrotum, as I rolled his marbles playfully around and tactilely stimulated him even more. Sucking on him reminded me of having a candy cane at Christmas, as I tongued and slurped on his throbbing pole, and a sweeter piece of candy I've never known.

I continued to rise and fall on that marvelous stalk of flesh until I heard Tad begin to pant and then I readied myself to receive his creamy filling. A moment later, the first ribbon of cum spurted from his slit, slammed into the back of my oral cavity and easily slid down my throat, just before a second volley coated my tonsils. Greedily, I continued to siphon his hose and took each blast as if it were the very first I'd ever received from him. After swallowing every precious drop he had to offer, I still didn't want to release his penis, even when it could offer me no more of his sweet nectar. Reluctantly, I let it fall from my mouth and then moved up Tad's body so I could kiss him fully and deeply, as I hugged him tightly to my chest.

It took Tad several minutes to recuperate from the lingering effects of his thunderous release, but as soon as that happened, he wanted to do the same thing for me. He also used the wine to cleanse my boyhood, before he plied it with his mouth. Once it was free of the accumulation of filth, Tad took my boner willingly and with great gentleness, as he let his tongue play with the surface of my rigid shaft. He enthusiastically used his lips to toy with the exterior of my shaft as his tongue teased the tiny mouth at the top of my glans. This attention was sending shockwaves all along my mast and jolts of pleasure rippled throughout the rest of my body. If that wasn't enough, he then used one of his hands to pay attention to my testicles and the pleasurable feelings dramatically intensified.

After carrying on like this for several minutes, Tad took my meat between his lips and slowly lowered his head until his nose was nestled in my pubes. My penis was now totally enveloped in the warm, moist lining of his mouth, with his tongue continually sliding around the surface of my rod. I was completely lost in the all-encompassing wonders of the marvelous feelings that consumed my erection, as he continued to bob up and down on my pole. Tad added a powerful suction to this process and I could feel the inevitable tightness building in my groin, which signaled the early stages of my sexual fulfillment.

As the pressure continued to build in my scrotum and the bolts of electrical impulses increased in both frequency and intensity, Tad worked harder and harder to provide my needed release. When I reached the point where I couldn't delay the inevitable any longer, I gave in to my needs and let my penis explode, as it shot bullets of my hot juices into Tad's hungry mouth. They repeatedly filled his oral cavity, but only momentarily, before they disappeared down his digestive tract. This continued until my gun fell silent, after having run out of ammunition.

Tad made certain he'd drained my wand completely and licked my tube clean, before he released it and let it fall onto my thigh. He then moved up beside me, so he could kiss my face and wrap himself tightly around my body. When I came out of my sexual stupor, which had been brought on by such an intense release, I placed my arms around him as well. We cuddled together on the old blanket the Mexican had provided us and fell asleep. It was now long after the last rays of sunlight had disappeared and we found ourselves in a state of oblivion, as we made our nightly journey to a place somewhere between life and death. Another night had ended and we'd endured one more day away from the ones we loved.

We awoke the next morning to the sounds of multiple vehicles driving around the dusty paths above, which was accompanied by the cries of people shouting in Spanish and the echo of whistles being blown from multiple locations. We had no idea what was going on in this little village at this point, so we became extremely frightened, as we considered what might happen to us if our whereabouts was discovered. We backed ourselves into the corner located on the same wall as the ladder, but farthest away from it. Then, we scrunched down and made ourselves as small as possible, as we huddled in the area where the two walls met and threw the blanket over our heads, to hide our bodies. Then, we clung to one another's trembling frame, as we waited to see what was going to happen next.

As the sound of voices seemed to be getting closer to our little hideaway, our fear grew proportionately with their advance. Our hearts were beating furiously in our chests and we could even hear the rhythm of our beating hearts, as the blood flow pulsed through the tiny vessels in our ears. Our breathing was rapid and shallow, so with the blanket over our heads, the collection of carbon dioxide was probably the only thing that kept us from hyperventilating. Our skin was both cool and clammy to the touch, a fact that we discovered when we began to cling to each other. I thought I was going to wet myself, or worse, when I heard the door of the root cellar being thrown open.

Tad and I held our breath, hoping it would prevent the intruder from seeing any movement under the blanket, while at the same time praying our body tremors wouldn't be noticeable either. Through the blanket, we could tell someone was shining a light, probably from a flashlight, on the area where we were and then we heard the sounds of someone climbing down the ladder. We then heard the person kicking things as he moved around, but we could also make out the sound of his boots striding across the dirt floor, as he continued to move closer to our location. Suddenly, the blanket was ripped from our bodies, revealing our presence, and we found ourselves staring up into the face of an armed soldier.

He grabbed a whistle out of his shirt pocket and began to blow on it vigorously. Then, he moved over to the ladder, climbed up until his head was above the opening, and started shouting something in Spanish, before he began to blow his whistle again. Before long there were two other people in the hole with us and several more standing around the entrance, looking down into our current prison. One of the men who had come down the ladder was obviously an officer and he spoke to us in a recognizable form of English.

"You hide very good and cause much problems," he stated. "Come to me."

I believe what he meant was that he wanted us to follow him, because he suddenly turned and climbed up the ladder. The other two men gave us a hand up and then pushed us forward, while indicating they wanted us to follow their leader up the ladder. Reluctantly, we did as they requested and climbed the ladder up into the daylight. When we reached the surface, we were grabbed by two other soldiers and noticed our benefactor being held between another pair of soldiers. The officer then came toward us again and spoke.

"He help you, yes?" the officer said, while pointing at the figure of our former host.

"No," Tad replied bitterly, while shaking his head.

"Where you get clothes and wine?" he asked pointing at our pants and the bottle being held by one of his subordinates.

"We stole them," I answered flatly. "We sneaked up late at night, just before dawn, and stole what we needed."

He eyed us as if he didn't believe what we'd just told him or maybe it was because he didn't understand what we'd just said. Then he moved over to our host and said something to him, but I didn't understand what they were discussing, since they were speaking Spanish. I assumed, however, that he was trying to trick the man into confessing by telling him we'd admitted that he'd aided us. Our accomplice seemed to hold his own, however, and must have insisted that he didn't realize we were using his root cellar as a hiding place. I gathered he must have been convincing too, because they allowed him to leave and go back into his hut.

The officer then barked out something to his troops, before we were dragged out to the street and led down it, until we noticed we were approaching our former place of captivity. Another soldier ran ahead of us and went into the small building, but he soon emerged with Sovie and Diego.

"These are the missing man childs you look for, no?" the officer asked Sovie.

"Yes, these are my stepsons," Sovie replied. "Thank you for finding them for me."

"No, we're not his stepsons," I screamed. "This man kidnapped us and forced us from our homes. We don't want to be with him and we ask that you contact the American authorities to come get us."

The officer looked puzzled, so I wasn't quite sure if he had understood what I'd just tried to tell him. He then looked toward Sovie again for an explanation.

"El Capitan, I married their mother, but the boys do not like me," he stated. "They are unhappy that I brought them down here for a visit, because they didn't want to leave their friends for the summer."

"He only married my mother, not Tad's," I spat out in response. "We aren't down here for a visit either. He stole us and plans to sell us to some rich Arab."

"I'm sorry, El Capitan. The boy is an awful liar," Sovie replied, as he tried to finagle his way out of my comments. "I thank you for your assistance and will take care of them from now on. Here is a little something for your time and effort."

Sovie then slipped the captain a wad of Mexican bills and the man put them in his pocket. Next, he bellowed out some orders and the soldiers began scurrying back to their vehicles. Sovie and Diego then led us into our temporary jail again and closed the door behind us. Nothing more was said, until we heard the sounds of the military vehicles starting up and listened to them fade into the distance, as they drove out of sight.

"You two little bastards have cost me a lot of valuable time and money," Sovie spat out vehemently. "Diego, hold the little assholes while I give them a shot and then you can signal the driver that we're ready to leave. We've got to get moving, so I'll be able to keep my appointments."

Diego grabbed the back of our necks as tightly as he could, so he'd be able to squeeze them and cause us a great deal of pain if we struggled, which we didn't do. While Diego was doing that, Sovie dug a needle and small bottle out of a leather kit, filled the hypodermic with the contents from the bottle and rubbed some alcohol onto our arms with a cotton swab, before he jabbed the needle in. We were soon feeling quite drowsy and neither of us remembered anything else, until we came to in the back of an old truck. For a while, all we could see was the cloud of dust that was being kicked up as a result of our passing, but later we could see other vehicles either following us or going in the opposite direction.

Sometime later, Tad and I realized we must have been getting closer to a populated area, because the sounds we were hearing were becoming different and we could hear people talking and kids shouting. It wasn't long after that before our vehicle pulled to a stop, the engine turned off and we were dragged from back of the truck. We were now standing in front of what appeared to be a hotel and were quickly rushed inside, led to one of the rooms by our captors and pushed through the door. Diego and Sovie then gave us our instructions.

"The bathroom is there and you have fifteen minutes to wash yourselves or each other," Sovie announced. "I want you squeaky clean and looking human again by the time you come out of there or one of us will take you back in and rewash you. I don't think either one of you will want that to happen, so do it right the first time."

We were then pushed into the tiny bathroom and the door was shut behind us. We immediately began to look around, but there wasn't much to see and no window in the room. I then walked over to the tub, turned on the water and rerouted it through the shower, before we took off our oversized pants. Now that we were naked, we enthusiastically stepped into the tub and moved under the trickle of water, since there was neither much of a flow or a great deal of pressure. We let the water soak our filthy bodies thoroughly before we began to lather up.

Words could not possibly describe how great the warm water felt as it splashed over our skin and began to wash the layers of dirt away, since our bodies had not been cleaned completely or properly for many months. The pure joy we were receiving from this simple pleasure was incalculable and seemed to give us more energy than we'd had prior to coming in here.

As the surface dirt began to rinse off and disappeared down the drain, we took the soap and began to wash each other, as we tenderly removed the accumulation of grunge that stubbornly still clung to our flesh. We continued to soap up and rinse off multiple times, before we could see the pale color of our original complexions again. Now, we focused on cleaning the tangled rat's nest that some would call our hair, and even though we cleaned it as well as we could, it was so snarled and matted that it would be impossible to get it looking good again without shampoo or assistance.

Sovie was soon banging on the door and telling us our time was nearly up, but I felt he had already given us much longer than the fifteen minutes he said we had before sending us in here. I would imagine he knew it would take us quite a while to rid our bodies of the months' worth of filth that had built up over the time he'd held us captive, so his claim of fifteen minutes was most likely just to motivate us to do this as quickly as possible. After we finished our shower, we dried off and exited into the common area, with the towels wrapped around our slim waists. We had thrown the white trousers into the trash once we had taken them off, because we didn't feel they were fit for further use.

"Not bad," Sovie remarked, as he inspected us carefully. "We'll have to do something about that hair though."

Sovie then took Diego aside and whispered something in his ear, before Diego exited through the door and headed outside. I was trying to formulate another hasty escape attempt and was anxiously looking around the room to see if I could spot another way out, since Sovie was blocking the door. I was just about to suggest to Tad that we might try the window on the far wall, when Diego reentered and ruined the opportunity. I actually thought he'd have been gone longer than he was.

"Everything is set and we're ready to leave as soon as you are," Diego told Sovie.

"Terrific!" Sovie exclaimed. "Get these two loaded into the truck again and let's be on our way."

Tad and I were then forced to return to the truck and climb into it, before the truck took off and we were once again on our way to places unknown. We had only been traveling twenty or thirty minutes though, before the truck pulled up and came to a stop at our next destination. It was a small, but surprisingly modern airstrip, although its location was unknown to us. We were then dragged over to a small jet, as apposed to the plane that had brought us to Mexico when we first arrived.

As we moved toward the jet, I noticed my father's corporate logo on the fuselage, which meant Sovie was using the company jet to perform his evil deed. We were then forcefully prodded up the small flight of stairs leading into the cabin and pushed inside. We were then directed to a pair of adjoining seats and told to sit down, after which we were handcuffed together and strapped into place.

The jet continued to sit in that same spot for quite a while and the pilot never attempted to start the engines, but nothing was happening within the cabin either. Then Sovie reentered the jet with a Mexican man carrying two bags. He placed the smaller one on the seat across the aisle from us and set the other one down on the floor. He then pulled out a large barber's bib, wrapped it around my neck and fastened it. He then proceeded to take out a pair of scissors and a comb from the smaller bag, as he began to cut my hair.

I don't believe the comb was doing him much good, since my hair was so tangled and matted, but as he cut some of it off, he would lift the removed hair and drop it into the larger bag, to keep from making a mess on the jet. He ended up cutting my hair really short, probably due to the fact that it was the only way to do it while avoiding the tangles that snarled the bulk of my head. Once he finished, you could finally once again tell the color of my luscious locks and I actually was beginning to look human again. The man then took a bottle out of the smaller bag and sprinkled some of the contents over my head and rubbed it into my scalp. I assumed it was some sort of tonic for the hair or scalp.

Once he'd finished with me, he removed the bib and moved over to do the same thing to Tad. I watched as he cut Tad's hair and was amazed that he was able to do this to each of us without it hurting in any way. I figured that working with the rat's nest on our heads, he might have tugged painfully at our hair as he lifted it so he could cut it or possibly even have nicked us with the scissors. I figured that might have happened accidentally, since he was forced to work with such an unbelievable mess, but it never happened. Tad and I were both extremely thankful that he had been so gentle and professional in carrying out his duties.

After he completed cutting Tad's hair, he collected the bag containing the clippings, removed the bib and placed it on top of the clippings. He then packed up the tools of his trade in the other bag, before Sovie handed him some money. He then exited the aircraft, as the jet's engines began to roar to life, and then the door to the jet was closed and secured for takeoff.

I looked over at Tad and was impressed by how much better he looked, just from having completed the simple acts of taking a shower and getting a haircut. He was once again the boy I had met and fell in love with, who can remember how long ago, although his hair was much shorter now. He was no longer the little savage that we'd both begun to look like the longer we'd been held in captivity and he once again resembled the boy I knew and loved. I quickly scanned Tad's naked body next, since we had to leave the towels in the truck so they could be returned to the hotel, and marveled that he was no longer a mere boy. He had grown, matured and changed in numerous ways, until he had become the young man seated next to me.

Although we were both skinny, you could still tell his chest had begun to fill out and he was taller now, than when we had first been kidnapped. His feet were also bigger as well, along with another part of his body that I was even more interested in. You could also see hair sprouting in different areas of his body, such as the beginning of a faint outline of a moustache forming on his upper lip. There was also a fine down on his face where his sideburns would soon be and a light coating of hair on his arms and legs. There was also hair sprouting in his armpits and the hair that had begun to appear above his dick was now a cute little horseshoe-shaped pubic patch, but still not as thick as it would be in another year or two. I'd almost missed noticing these changes before, probably because of how filthy we were, and wondered if I looked just as different to him.

I didn't have much time to ponder this train of thought though, because the jet's engines revved slightly, as the others sat down and buckled into their seats. Before long, the jet was moving, as it taxied down the runway and got into position for takeoff. We all pretty much knew where we were heading, but I was scared to death, since I feared what was going to happen to us next, so I assumed Tad felt the same way. We were about to be flown to the Middle East, where we were going to be sold to some rich Arab and used like sex toys, so we would probably never see our families again.

My stomach was in knots, my heart was racing and my breathing was quick and ragged. Why wasn't the cavalry storming up to stop the plane and coming to our rescue, so they could take us back to our parents? What happened to Dean and his offer to help? Did Sovie find out about that and stop him… or even worse, kill him? Was Dean ever able to tell anyone else about us? Does anyone know we're still alive or have they all given up hope? Did either of us still have a chance at the future we wanted or must we resign ourselves to a life of being sexual playthings for a very wealthy man?

Before long, the jet sped down the runway, the nose began to lift into the air and we were soon on our way across the ocean. I didn't want to look out the window, since that would only serve to depress me even further by emphasizing we were leaving behind any chance of being rescued. I noticed Tad wasn't looking out the window either, because he was looking down at the floor, but once in a while he would also glance over at me or scan the interior of the jet. I don't know if he thought the posse would storm out of the cockpit to rescue us or not, but whatever he was hoping for, it wasn't about to materialize. Our former lives and dreams were now behind us and an unknown fate lay ahead.

I tried to talk to Tad during the flight, but we weren't able to find anything we were willing to discuss in front of the others, since they could probably hear everything we said. No matter how hard we tried or how much we wanted the distraction, we were unable to think of anything to say that could possibly make us forget about our current situation and presumed fate. We finally settled back and tried to sleep, while realizing this would have been the one time we would have welcomed Sovie giving us a tranquilizer and thus allowing us miss most of the flight. We were not that fortunate though, but we somehow managed to get a little sleep during part of the flight.

I'm not sure how many hours the flight lasted, but it seemed as if it took forever. When I began to think we might run out of fuel first, before we reached our destination, the pilot announced for the others to return to their seats and prepare for landing. We could sense the jet begin its descent, as it slowly dipped below the clouds and headed toward the sandy surface of this part of the world. We continued to descend lower and lower, until we felt the impact of the wheels hitting the tarmac and the jet's engines being thrown into reverse, which was done to stop its forward progress.

Once we came to a near stop, the jet made a turn and taxied over to an isolated terminal, as the pilot moved the craft into position for us to disembark. Tad and I knew there was nothing left for us to do now, but to accept the inevitability of the fate that awaited us.

As soon as the door to the jet opened and the stairs were lowered, Tad and I were rushed off the plane and hustled into a waiting limousine, before Diego and Sovie got in behind us. There was another gentleman already seated in the vehicle and he addressed Sovie as soon as we had settled into our seats.

"Good afternoon, I am Abdulah and I represent the party who is interested in the items you are offering for purchase," he said, as he looked at Tad and me.

His stare sent shivers running up and down my spine. The man had black hair, very dark eyes, a black moustache and a neatly trimmed 'soul patch' below his bottom lip, which was a small, triangular growth of hair between the lip and chin. He also had very white teeth and was dressed in typical Arab fashion, in a flowing white robe, with slacks underneath, and a red and white piece of cloth draped over his head and secured in place with a headband.

"Where is your employer?" Sovie asked, somewhat irritated. "I thought he was going to meet us?"

"No, I am to take you to his residence," Abdulah replied. "You will meet him there."

"Will we complete our transaction at that time?" Sovie pressed, seemingly anxious to get this done and over with

"Yes, everything will be completed after the merchandise has been inspected," Abdulah answered. "We will arrive at our destination in about half an hour, so would any of you care for something to drink?"

Sovie indicated he would like something, so the man opened the bar in the limo and offered us all sodas.

"I'm afraid our religion does not permit the consumption of alcoholic beverages, so I hope these will quench your thirst," he apologized.

"This will be fine," Sovie told him, "since we didn't come here for the refreshments."

As the limo pulled away from the terminal, Sovie and Abdulah began talking about many things, none of which pertained to our current situation. I tried to look out the windows and observe the surroundings, but at first there wasn't much to see. The landscape was fairly barren as we drove away from the private airstrip, but about ten minutes later I could see the outlines of a fairly modern city looming up before us. We didn't enter the city and bypassed it completely, until we came to a large building on the outskirts.

The building was huge and appeared to be a small palace, but there were a collection of fences surrounding it and I also saw armed guards stationed at several strategic points around the perimeter. Once the limo was granted entry into the compound, the driver pulled up in front of the main entrance and several people came scurrying out of the building to greet us. One of them opened the door and we were all helped out of the vehicle, ushered up to the exterior door and then guided inside. Tad and I were still naked and we noticed a couple of the boys who had come out to greet us were hurriedly eyeing us. I didn't know whether to be flattered, embarrassed or upset.

A boy in his late teens or early twenties then led Abdulah, Sovie and Diego off in one direction, while Tad and I were instructed to follow the two other boys who had been eyeing us. We were then taken to a large room that was filled with more boys, with some as young as six or seven and others as old as their early twenties. I guess this was the harem that we were being added to. The boys were mostly Middle Eastern looking, judging by their dark hair, dark eyes and darker skin, but there were a few others that looked different from the rest. They must have also been purchased from different locations; such as we were about to have happen to us. All of them were bare-chested, but they all had their genitals covered. Some wore pants, while a few just had a cloth wrapped around their waist and others had on what looked like a fancy diaper.

The two boys then led us to another area where there was a large pool and they quickly took off their own clothing, before they led us down into the water. They then used real sponges to wash our bodies, before we merely relaxed in the pool for another twenty minutes. When we were finally led out of the water, the two boys dried off Tad's and my body with towels, before they started rubbing scented oils into our skin. It was a wonderful experience and felt really great, although I couldn't truly enjoy it, since I knew why it was being done. I figured they were most likely just preparing us for our new master, so he would find us more pleasing while he was sexually abusing our bodies.

Once this had been completed, we were guided toward a large double-door that opened off of the room we were in. It led to a smaller room, where there was another man waiting for us. He turned out to be a doctor and gave Tad and me both a complete physical. He checked our eyes, ears and throats, as well as inspected our genitals, made us turn our heads and cough and took our temperature. He also took our blood pressure, felt up our arms and legs and made us bend over so he could check our rectums, which he probed with the finger of his lubricated, gloved hand.

When he finished checking us over, we were taken back to the first room and given some fancy silken pants to put on, before the first two boys we'd met started asking us questions. They spoke fairly good English and wanted to know how we had come to be here, so we gave them a very abbreviated version about our kidnapping, confinement and the trip here. Then they led us over to another group of boys about our age and we ended up repeating our story.

Tad and I tried to ask them some questions too, but we were told they couldn't discuss anything about their past, their master or what he did with them, but were advised their master would tell us or teach us all we would need to know. It was kind of nice to be able to chat and interact with other boys around our age, but it wasn't enough to mask the reality of what we were doing here. Tad and I remained depressed and scared, so no small talk or friendly help would change that easily. The two of us eventually moved away from the others and found a quiet corner where we could be alone, so we could discuss things between ourselves. We didn't have long to do this, however, because the older boy, the one who had taken Sovie and Diego in the other direction earlier, reentered the room. He looked around and quickly spotted us, so he came over to where we were talking.

"You two are to come with me," he instructed.

"Why?" Tad asked. "Where are you going to take us?"

"You are going to meet your new master," he replied. "He wants to see the two of you immediately."

"How come your accent is different?" I wondered. "You don't sound like most of the others."

"No, I am from Australia," he explained, "so that is the accent you are detecting."

"How long have you been here?" Tad wanted to know.

"We do not have time for this conversation now, because we must get to the other area immediately. Please, follow me," he stipulated.

He then turned around and moved toward the main door, after he indicated we were to go with him. We followed him down a wide and lengthy corridor, passing several doors on each side of the hallway as we went. At the end of the corridor was a set of double-doors and they opened as we approached. We went inside and there were Abdulah, Sovie, Diego and another man who was dressed in the same type of attire as Abdulah. He was older than Abdulah, probably in his fifties, but the two men were very similar in appearance. All of these men were seated on some very comfortable looking furniture that had been arranged in a circular fashion, but Tad and I were taken to an open area slightly away from where they were seated.

"Ah, so these are the two that you are offering me?" the new man said.

"Yes, Your Excellency," Sovie replied.

"How old are they?" the same man asked.

"I believe that they are both thirteen now," Sovie stated.

"Ah, very fine. What about the examination?" the man asked the boy who'd led us here.

"The doctor reports they are both in acceptable health," the young man answered.

"Then let me see them naked," the man responded.

The older boy quickly approached where we were standing, told us to remove our garments quickly and then pushed us closer to the older man.

"Very nice, indeed, and just beginning to mature," he observed. "Yes, very nice. You may take them over to the other side of the room, now," he instructed the older boy.

We were then instructed us to grab our pants, before he took us to the far side of the chamber. He then told us we could get dressed again, so we quickly slipped the pants back on.

"You two stay alert now, in case there are problems," he told us, which caused us to look at him, both surprised and confused.

The boy continued to watch and listen to the conversation that was going on between the men on the other side of the room and we could make out that they were discussing money. They were obviously negotiating a final price for the two of us and the discussion was friendly, yet heated. Once they finally agreed on an amount, Sovie looked pleased with himself, and the older man stood, summoned his guards to him and then made an announcement.

"Our agreement has been reached and I just have one more thing to say to this gentleman who has brought me these two fine boys," he began. "You are under arrest."

Sovie looked startled and Diego appeared as if he was reaching into his jacket for a weapon, but the guards had already moved into position and prevented that from happening. After they restrained Sovie and Diego and confiscated Diego's weapon, the man buying us had his guards place them in handcuffs, before he approached Tad and me and began to speak.

"I'm sorry I had to ask you to undress earlier and hope you will forgive me," he apologized. "It was a necessary deception to convince him this deal was legitimate and I was who I claimed. Once we got Mr. Sovie to acknowledge he had transported you here to be sold and we'd finally agreed upon a price, then we had enough proof to arrest him and his associate."

He then paused briefly, before he spoke again, and I could see a great deal of sadness in his eyes. He obviously felt very badly about what Tad and I had been through, and that didn't merely mean what had taken place since we'd landed.

"Please excuse my poor manners and let me introduce myself," he eventually continued. "My name is Neb Hage and I work for the FBI, and Abdulah, whom you met in the limousine, is really Ed Abdallah who also works for the FBI. We've been tracking Mr. Sovie and his illegal activities for quite some time and now have enough evidence against him to put him away for the rest of his natural life."

"But can you arrest him here, seeing we aren't in the US right now?" I asked, since I wasn't sure if they had the legal authority to arrest him in a foreign country.

"Yes, we absolutely can," Mr. Hage answered. "The US has been cooperating with the local governmental officials and they have allowed the FBI to set up this sting. We were loaned this marvelous building to carry out the deception and the boys in the room you were in first were recruited locally. They are from various families where one or both parents work at a diplomatic embassy, either the US embassy or that of one of its allies. The boys are either locals or from the countries assisting us, but the older boys, or should I say young men, are actually in the early stages of their law enforcement careers or training. They had all been briefed, in depth, on how they were to act, what they were to do and what types of things they could say to you."

"But they washed us and got naked to do it," Tad blurted out, since he could believe that was part of the ruse.

"I know and those two boys volunteered to do it," Mr. Hage replied, "after they first heard your story and before you were brought into that room. What you might not know is that was an actual bathing area and they thought it would be nice to do something special for you, after all the bad things you've experienced."

Tad and I looked at each other, even more confused now than before.

"But what about the doctor and the physical?" I wanted to know.

"Oh, he's a real doctor and is also one of ours," Mr. Hage stated. "We wanted to make certain you were both in good health after the ordeal you've been through, and even though he informed us you are slightly malnourished, he assures us that overall you are fine. I received his report through the earpiece hidden by the headdress I am wearing."

"How did you know that Sovie was bringing us here?" I continued. "How did you have time to set this up?"

"You boys can thank your benefactor when we get back to the States," he assured us. "One of your former captors, a young man named Dean Jacobs, went to the Texas Rangers with information about you and they contacted us. The Bureau immediately began to put together several plans to rescue you, all at various stages of your captivity. In an effort to get Sovie and his associates to lower their guard, we had the Texas Law Enforcement Agencies call off their searches for you and announce you were presumed dead.

"When Mr. Jacobs first told us of your whereabouts, we made a hasty plan to rescue you from the shack where you were being held captive, but Sovie had moved you before we were ready to act," Mr. Hage added. "It then took us quite a while to locate the spot where he moved you next, but we finally discovered it when we followed him down on his last trip. Unfortunately for us, while we were staking out that location we discovered the two of you had run away and no one knew where to find you. Since Sovie had bribed the military and local law enforcement officials, we couldn't go to them for help and didn't have enough time to rescue you, once they discovered you hiding in the village.

"We'd had also begun to set up this plan up from the start, once Mr. Jacobs provided us with enough information about Sovie's plans that we could infer his intentions," Mr. Hage explained. "We then began to track his phone calls, text messages, emails and other activities until we figured out precisely what he was up to. Once we knew that, we contacted the local government here to set up this operation and they acted very quickly to assist us.

"The local officials raided and arrested the owner of this location and interrogated him about his plans to purchase you, since he was the one Mr. Sovie had originally contacted," Mr. Hage added. "Once they had that information from him, they loaned us the use of this facility and allowed us to take his place and continue on as Sovie expected, in case our other plans failed. Once Sovie contacted us to finalize the deal, we put everyone in place and lured him into our trap. All of what happened today was recorded by hidden cameras, so we'd have solid evidence of the entire transaction, from the time the jet landed and until the arrests were made."

"Thank you so much," Tad told him. "This whole thing has been horrible and I'm glad it's over now. When do we get to go back home?"

"There are some details that still need to be taken care of, but we should be able to fly out of here some time tomorrow," Mr. Hage told us. "We'll fly directly to Dallas and notify your families to meet us at the airfield we'll be using."

"I can't believe this is over," I said in relief. "I told Sovie he was going to get caught and spend the rest of his life in prison. He did all of this just because he was greedy."

"You don't know how right you are about that," Mr. Hage told me. "I must admit that we've had him in our sights long before he kidnapped the two of you though, but unfortunately it wasn't a direct surveillance. If it had been, we might have been able to prevent what he did to you. Instead, we were merely monitoring his financial transactions and correspondence, but nothing we came across indicated he was planning to do anything to you.

"Mr. Sovie first came to our attention," Mr. Hage added, "when he began smuggling exotic and endangered animal species into the country and was selling them for outrageous amounts of money. He used his veterinary practice as a front for his illicit business and purchased most of the animals in other countries. Along the way, it was suspected that he murdered several of his suppliers and effectively eliminated the middlemen, so he could increase his profits by not having to pay them."

"I suspected he was really dangerous from what Dean had told us, so I was afraid he might try to kill us too," I interjected, drawing a nod from Mr. Hage.

"Indeed he might have, if he felt he couldn't profit from you some other way," he agreed. "Anyway, we'd already had reports from three or four foreign governments about the murders he'd been suspected of committing, because he had been directly or indirectly linked to each of them. Even though he was the prime suspect in each case, no one had any solid evidence to connect him to those crimes, so they were afraid he'd get off if he were arrested. Every time it looked as if we might be able to nab him, he would change locations or move on to some new scheme to make money.

"In this case, when he could no longer change suppliers," Mr. Hage continued, "he had to make another change. That was because he had either killed his suppliers or the others wouldn't deal with him any longer, since they also suspected or had heard about his involvement in those deaths. Once that happened, he moved to Dallas and changed what he was doing, thus managing to slip through our fingers yet again."

"So you couldn't arrest him and send him to one of those other countries to stand trial?" I wondered.

"Some of those countries didn't have extradition agreements with the US, while others didn't have enough evidence to convict him either," Mr. Hage explained. "So after that, Sovie began to launder money for other people through his veterinary practice, while taking a percentage of it for himself, but then he began to launder even larger sums through the Randall Corporation, once he married Win's mother. He also had his eye on Win's mother's private wealth and it was the reason he decided to marry her, but that also meant he had to get Win out of the picture first. You'll be told more about that when we get you back home though. For now, you can go with Ian, he's the young Australian gentleman who was looking out for you while we were arresting Mr. Sovie, and he'll take you back to wait with the other boys. Try to enjoy yourselves, while we take care of things here."

Tad and I both thanked him again and then followed Ian back to the first room we'd been in. When we entered, the boys all came rushing over to greet us and were eager to find out what had happened. After we gave them a quick account about what went down, Tad and I thanked them for what they'd done for us. They each spoke, one at a time, and apologized that they hadn't been able to say anything earlier, because they'd been under strict orders about what they could tell us. Since they didn't want to risk ruining the FBI's chances of nailing the bastard, they did as they were told. They were all very nice and Tad and I told them we appreciated everything they'd done on our behalf.

Tad and I then singled out the two boys who had bathed us and thanked them personally, but they just smiled shyly in return.

"The FBI told us a little bit about what had happened to you and we just wanted to do something special, hoping it would make you feel better," one of them explained. "It's something an honored guest in our country might have done for him, but the people bathing him might be women or other men. When we asked Mr. Hage if we could do it for you, he said he thought it would be fine."

"Weren't you guys embarrassed having to get undressed, so you could get into the water with us?" Tad asked next.

"No, not at all. It is not uncommon for boys or men within our culture to see each other naked when they bathe together," the other boy explained. "In fact, group baths and nude swimming among the same sex is very common, so we gave no thought at all about being naked with you. We just wanted to do something nice on your behalf and merely wished we could have done even more."

"You've already done more than you'll ever know," I responded. "Just the fact that you were willing to help us and you were also part of the group that rescued us, that's all we could have hoped for."

"Are you sure?" he countered. "If there is anything else we can do for you, just let us know and we'll be happy to help."

"Well, I am a little hungry," Tad told him.

After he heard that, one of the boys ran over to one of the older boys, said something to him and the older boy left. The first boy came back to where we were standing and rejoined us.

"I sent Jack off to see what he can find," he stated with a smile. "He should be back shortly, but until then, why don't we go over there and sit down."

We followed him over to where a bunch of cushions were spread around on the floor and sat down on them. We talked a little more and found out a little bit about this pair, as well as some of the other boys. Many of them were from local families, but their parents worked for either American or one of our other allies' embassies, so they all spoke English quite well, although some had a British or Australian accent. They were all very nice and we had fun chatting with them.

After a while, Jack returned with some food that he had the kitchen staff prepare for us. Tad and I gobbled up the meal quickly and were given a soda to wash it down. God, it seemed good to be able to eat and drink something good and not have to sit naked on a dirt floor while doing it. After we finished our impromptu meal, we then turned back to the other boys. Once of them must have walked away while we were eating, because he suddenly came running back to where we were sitting.

"I just talked to Mr. Hage and asked him if you could stay with us tonight," he explained, while pointing between himself and the other boy. "After I begged him, he said it would be ok, so you're going home with us tonight."

"You two live together?" Tad asked.

"Yes, we're brothers," he explained. "I'm Hakim and this is Mahomet. I am fourteen, and my brother is twelve, nearly thirteen."

"I'm Win and this is Tad," I countered, since I wasn't sure if they knew our names. We then shook hands, now that the formal introductions had taken place. "Now, we will take you to meet our parents, before we help you relax and have some fun."

We ended up leaving in the pants we'd been given to wear when we arrived and rode on a bus to the nearby embassy, where we met the boys' parents, Mr. & Mrs. Akkabar. They seemed very nice, but they were also somewhat surprised by their sons' news that they'd invited us to spend the night. I hoped the boys hadn't overstepped their bounds and prayed it wouldn't cause family problems, because they all spoke in Arabic for a few minutes before Mr. Akkabar turned to us and spoke in English.

"You are more than welcome to come to our home and spend the evening with us. Hakim and Mahomet have explained your predicament and we would be honored by your presence. The boys have said they will take care of all of your needs, because my wife and I must attend an embassy function in a few hours. Our home will be your home until it is time for you to leave."

We thanked them for their generosity and then followed the family out to their car for the ride to their home. When we got there, Tad and I became aware of the fact that this family was fairly well off and had a very nice home. They even had a cook and a maid who took care of the daily chores. Shortly after we'd entered, the cook informed us that dinner would be ready in about twenty minutes, so Hakim and Mahomet used the time in between to give us a quick tour of their home, before we went back to eat. I'm not sure what we had, but it was quite good, although much different from what we were used to. By the time we finished eating, their parents were almost ready to leave and the cook was cleaning up the kitchen. We went with the boys into a common area where we sat and talked for some time.

Once it cooled down a little outdoors, the four of us went outside and kicked a soccer ball around for a while, before we eventually decided to play a little two-on-two game. It was Hakim and Tad again Mahomet and me. It was fun and we had a good time, even though Tad and I aren't very good at this sport. Afterward, we went back inside and the boys suggested we all take a bath together to cool off and clean up after our recent activity. They explained they frequently took baths together, in order to save water, since it was a valuable commodity in this region of the world. We agreed with their suggestion, seeing we'd done this together with them once already, so they led us to their rather large tub. We all got undressed and got in, before I asked the question I had wondered about earlier.

"Hakim, may I ask you a question?" I began, hesitantly.

"Certainly, my friend. I will tell you whatever you wish to know," he agreed.

"I see you and your brother are both circumcised and I was surprised by this fact," I stated. "I expected most of the boys in the world were uncut, like Tad."

"My family believes in the teachings of Islam and members of our religious sect practice the custom of circumcision," Hakim replied. "All males are circumcised by the time they are ten-years old."

"Ten-years old?" I questioned. "You mean it isn't done when you're a baby?"

"For some of the families it is done that way, but not for us," he explained. "I was nine years old when it was done to me and Mahomet was circumcised at nine also."

"Didn't it hurt?" Tad inquired.

"No. We were given an injection to numb the pain," he replied. "Our doctors do not use stone knives to do this with."

"We didn't mean to suggest that," I countered. "It's just that Tad and I were curious because of your age."

"We take no offense," Hakim answered. "We just praise Allah by sacrificing our foreskin to him, according to our Islamic tradition."

"Thank you for making that clear to us," Tad added, once Hakim had finished.

I think Tad was trying to make up for any insult he might have inadvertently made earlier, although I don't think that was the way the brothers took it. Playfully, we washed each other's bodies and then dried off. Once we had finished, Hakim and Mahomet offered to massage our bodies and rub them with oil again, so Tad and I eagerly agreed.

The brothers had us lie belly-down on a towel they had placed over the cool tile floor and then began to massage our necks, backs, buttocks and legs, but this time without any oil. When they finished doing that, they started at the neck again, but this time they rubbed the sweet smelling oils into our skin. It was wonderful and they even oiled the soles of our feet. At this point, they had us roll over on our backs so they could do our fronts.

Tad and I were already sprouting wood from the marvelous jobs they'd done on our other side, so we were slightly embarrassed as our wands flopped back and forth in the air. The brothers smiled at each other when they saw them and then began to massage our chests and worked their way down the rest of our bodies. When they came to our stiffies, they began to massage them too, but they only rolled them between their palms. I think Tad and I were both shocked when they did this, but it felt so good and the brothers were smiling so sweetly that we didn't object. We let them work their magic, before they grasped our cocks with one hand and their fists started to fly up and down on our rigid shafts.

It was actually quite pleasant to feel another hand doing this, because their techniques were slightly different from our own. I could hear Tad moaning, even though I was making enough noise myself, and after several minutes of this intense pleasure, Tad and I both erupted, sending ribbons of our creamy sperm shooting onto our chests. The brothers pumped our dicks a little longer and then quietly cleaned us off. While we were coming down from our post-orgasmic high, they continued to massage our legs and feet. Once they finished doing that, they started to retrace the same path with the oils. They began at our necks, moved down to our chests and then moved on to our legs and top of our feet. Once they finished doing that, they came back up our body and oiled up our penises as well.

Almost instantly, Tad and I became hard again, which caused the brothers to look at each other and smile again. They put lots of oil onto our cocks and then stood up, straddled our waists and sat down on our rods, as they let them slide into their own boy chutes. Tad and I hadn't been expecting this, since we had been lying their enjoying the massage with our eyes closed. When we felt this happen, we opened our eyes quickly and confirmed what they were doing, but then we just laid back and enjoyed their efforts, once we saw the contented looks on the brothers' faces. They began to raise and lower their bodies on our poles and were making as much noise showing their enjoyment, as Tad and I had done when they jerked us off.

Mahomet was riding me and his hole was wrapped so tightly around my penis that it was a better grip than he had used when masturbating me with his hand. Even though I had cum just a short time before, I could already feel my juices beginning to bubble, which let me know my cum was anxious to spurt up the shaft. After just a few more lunges up and down my mast, I blew my load into him, like a boiler that exploded after having built up too much steam. My pearly custard was violently spraying into Mahomet's gut and he appeared to be loving it. He kept riding me until I started to go soft and then he collapsed forward, onto my chest. I hugged him deeply in appreciation and then I kissed him. Mahomet didn't hesitate and he kissed me back.

We continued that for a short time before I looked over toward Tad and saw that he and Hakim were embracing each other too, in appreciation for what they had just enjoyed together. It had been wonderful and seemed to erase some of the bad memories of past few months from our minds.

As soon as Tad and I had rested up from the 'massages' the brothers had just given us, Tad and I insisted they allow us to return the favor. Hakim and Mahomet smiled at each other again and quickly rolled over, belly down, on the towels. We began the same way they had done with us and started the massage at their necks and worked our way down their bodies. We worked our fingers into the flesh and muscles along their necks, backs and those delicious muscular mounds at their waist, before moving down their legs to their feet. We were enjoying doing this to them almost as much as we had enjoyed having it done to us. It was a real rush, especially when we went back up and applied the oils to those same areas.

When we finished their backsides, they rolled over and we repeated our efforts on their fronts. We kneaded our fingers all over their chests, but spent some extra time playing with their nipples, before we reached their waists. They were both fully aroused and their cocks were nearly as hard as diamonds. As we wrapped our hands around their stiff poles, you could see a look of contentment sweep over their faces, which confirmed they were as ready to enjoy this simple act, as we were to do it for them.

With a great deal of gusto, we began to flail away on their joysticks and pumped vigorously up and down, as Hakim and Mahomet began to moan and squirm from our manipulations. Other than playing with each other, Tad and I had never touched another boy's dick and this was a new and exciting experience for us as well. We were really enjoying the reactions of the two brothers too, as they approached their release, and were happy we could bring them so much pleasure in such a loving way.

It was fun to watch them as they wiggled, panted and cooed as we played with their stiff cocks. We watched their faces intently, as they switched from showing expressions of pleasure, ecstasy and then finally scrunching them up into sort of a grimace, just before shooting their loads, even though Mahomet wasn't able to produce as much and it was more watery. Both boys were panting very hard by the time we'd finished and their faces were flushed from the exertion. Once we released their pricks from our grip, we let them lie there for a few seconds and recover, while Tad and I cleaned the ejaculate off of their bodies.

We then finished massaging their legs and feet, before we began to apply the oils. Starting at their necks again, we slowly worked our way down their torsos and coated them with a generous supply of the fragrant liquids, as we rubbed it deeply into their skin, until we reached their toes. Then, we moved back up to their groins and did the same thing to their penises, just as they had done to us. Once again they became rigid, and as soon as that happened, Tad and I positioned our bodies above their stiff masts and began to lower our butts onto them, the same way they had done earlier.

Slowly, we impaled ourselves upon their spears of love, until they were fully inside our bodies. As soon as Tad and I were comfortable, we began to bounce up and down, like a child on a pogo stick, while squeezing our rectal muscles around their boners on each upward lunge. Soon, the brothers were panting, with their mouths were hanging open, and their heads were swaying from side to side, as the pressure of their impending releases began to build. When their bodies could take no more stimulation, they groaned, thrust their pelvises upward and hosed our intestines down with their rich lotion of love. We bucked a little while longer, until their erections began to deflate, and then we leaned forward and kissed them lovingly on the lips. We remained like that for ten or fifteen minutes more, as they slowly came down from their sexual high.

When Hakim and Mahomet had recovered from their orgasmic bliss, we began to talk about what had happened between us.

"Man," I began, "I was really shocked when you did that to us. Since you are so religious, I didn't think your faith would allow you to do such things."

"Actually, Islam does not allow what we just did," Mahomet confirmed, "but it was not always like that. Until around 1700, Islam was very accepting of most types of sexual relations, as long as it did not harm the parties involved. After that time, our faith was influenced by the other religions, mainly Christian and Jewish sects, so the Imams began to condemn acts between partners of the same sex. All the members of our faith do not agree with this, however, and exceptions permitting this can be found. A person breaking this law could be put to death for such acts, but that requires four witnesses to the act who are willing to speak against him. That is why there is only a slight danger in this, at least in our country. Besides, boys are given more latitude in this type of behavior and are not judged as harshly for youthful indiscretions and experimentation."

"I'm sure glad to hear that," Tad chimed in. "I would hate to think that someone would kill me now, especially after finally escaping from Sovie." We all nodded in agreement.

"Hakim and Mahomet, you two have been so wonderful to us," I confessed, "and I wish that there were some way we could do more to repay you. Maybe we could have you come and stay with us for a while in the States, after things settle down at home."

"We would like that very much," Hakim answered, while looking at his younger brother for agreement, "and I think we could convince our parents to let us do this too. Please keep in touch and possibly we can take turns visiting each other. I would like very much for us to remain friends."

"We would like that as well," Tad concurred, after he looked at me and I nodded my head in agreement. "I think our families would agree as well, especially after they learn how kind you were to us."

The brothers flashed shocked expressions after Tad finished speaking and we immediately understood their confusion.

"No, we won't tell them about the sex part of your kindness, of course," Tad added quickly, to eliminate any misunderstanding or temporary panic this might have caused.

The brothers let out a sigh of relief after Tad said this, since they now realized no one else would know about what happened between us. We then got up and went to their bedroom, where we all slept together. None of us bothered to put any clothes on, after they informed us no woman would ever enter their room uninvited, including their mother.

It was somewhat sad for all of us the next morning, however, when it neared the time for our departure. We'd said goodbye to their parents before they left for work and then the four of us spent the remainder of our time together, while Tad and I waited to be picked up. By the time Mr. Hage and Mr. Abdallah arrived to take us home, the four of us were already fast friends and had pledged not to let the distance interfere with our closeness. We exchanged hugs and kissed each other's cheeks before Tad and I departed, as was the custom of the people of this area, and then we waved at each other as we were led to the limo. Each of us had tears in his eyes as the limousine pulled away from their home.

When we finally reached the airport, the limo pulled up beside my family's corporate jet and Mr. Hage explained we would be returning to the States in it. There would be Tad and me, Mr. Abdallah and Mr. Hage, along with Mr. Sovie and Diego, who were both in handcuffs, which were attached to leather belts around their waists, and leg irons. There were also four other FBI agents to guard Sovie and Diego, in order to keep them from trying anything stupid.

Before long, we were in the air and headed back to the USA. Tad and I looked out the windows for some of the time, but we got bored when there was only water beneath us, so we took a short nap, seeing we didn't get a lot of sleep the night before. During the last part of our trip, the FBI agents asked us all sorts of questions about our time with Sovie, from the night he first drugged us and took us away until we landed overseas. They used a video recorder to tape all of our discussions, so the recordings could be added to the collection of evidence.

We were still awake and looking out the windows again when we approached the US coastline. It took us a couple of hours more before the jet touched down at a small airport in Dallas and then it pulled up to a small terminal, where we would disembark. As we stepped off of the jet, still clad in those same silky pants, Tad's parents came rushing out to greet us. As soon as we saw them, we raced in their direction, so we could hug them both. Then, I began looking around.

"I can see my mother's not here," I noted, with more than a little sarcasm in my voice. "I guess I wasn't important enough for her to come here after all."

"No, that's not it, Winthrop," Mrs. Driscoll corrected. "It's just that she couldn't come this time, but I'll explain the reason why later. Let me assure you of one thing though, and even if you might choose not to believe me, your mother proved to me many times since you've been gone that she loved you very much. She was very upset after you'd been abducted and were no longer in her life, but she was also very sorry she hadn't done a better job taking care of you and showing her love earlier. Don't you ever doubt her love for you though, but I'll tell you more about that later too."

Tad's parents then led us over to another limo and the four of us got in and headed home. The FBI agents took Sovie and Diego in another vehicle, so I suspect they were headed to a prison or jail for the time being. I knew they wouldn't be going there permanently until they either pled guilty or were convicted at a trial, so I had a feeling I would end up seeing them again before this was finally over.

As we rode back home, I began thinking about what Mom D had said about my mother and was anxious to find out more about the things she had hinted at. While I was doing that, they were busy asking Tad about what had happened after Sovie took us, since we had been gone nearly a year and a half. So far, they had only been told bits and pieces of the story, but I felt I just had to interrupt their conversation.

"I'm sorry, but I need to know why my mother couldn't come," I stated, while looking at Mom D and using my eyes to plead with her to answer.

"Win," she began, while looking toward her husband for moral support, "I don't know how to tell you this, because there is no easy way, but your mother is no longer with us, dear."

"What do you mean no longer with us?" I asked, confused. "Did she move away or what?"

"Winthrop, dear, I'm sorry to tell you that she died," Mom D clarified, to my shock and chagrin.

I was floored by this news and sat there speechless for many seconds, with my mouth wide open and my eyes popping from their sockets.

"I don't… understand. How… did she… die?" I wanted to know.

I was in tears now, so my last question had all came out between sobs. Even though we had our problems, she was still my mother and I loved her, even though I had tried to deny it for a long time. I mean I had just learned that she still loved me, so I could no longer hate her, but now there was no way for me to erase the past and ease that pain. Not only that, but now both of my parents were gone.

"Although it was suspected to be a suicide at first, since it was made to appear to have been caused by an overdose from a combination of pills and alcohol, it's now believed that Mr. Sovie killed her," Mom D explained. "He will be standing trial for that too, although I'm sorry to say it won't bring her back."

By this time, I was bawling hysterically and Mom D reached out, grabbed me by the arm and pulled me onto her lap. She then wrapped her arms around my chest and tried to soothe my sorrow and confusion with a hug. When I finally calmed down, I began to speak again.

"Please, tell me what happened. I want to… no, I need to know," I stated next.

"Win, after you and Tad disappeared, we all spent a great deal of time together," Mom D went on. "Mr. Sovie, your mother and the two of us tried to find you and bring you back, although at the time we didn't know Mr. Sovie was the cause of the problem. Your mother stopped drinking completely and I got to know her quite well. She told me an awful lot about herself and I began to understand why she had been the way she was. Your mother did not have a very easy or a very pleasant life, except for a brief time after she married your father and up until he died. She took his death very hard and that is why she started drinking so heavily."

"But we were never that close, even before my father died," I countered.

"I know, Win, but she explained that to me too," Mom D added. "She told me she regretted that part of her life most of all. Your mother explained that she'd experienced a very unpleasant childhood and had been mentally, emotionally and physically abused, so she didn't know how to relate to others and didn't know how to show her love. For that reason, she felt it would be better for you if she kept her distance, because she feared she would end up treating you the same way as her own parents had treated her. She loved you, Win, but she didn't know how to show it as a parent."

Mom D paused at this point, so she could give me another hug, since I had started sobbing again. I was finally beginning to understand why my mother treated me as she had and it had absolutely nothing to do with my behavior or that she didn't love me.

"Later, after your father died, she tried to drown her sorrows in the booze," Mom D added. "She admitted it was the liquor that caused her confusion and indifference to you from that point on and it was not about anything you had done. She felt extremely bad about all of this and didn't want you to blame yourself for any of it. She knew the problems between you two had been caused by her alone, so she was hoping I could teach her how to be a better mother, because she wanted to have a chance to make it up to you. I'm sorry that Mr. Sovie's actions has made it so that will never happen."

At this point, the tears were streaming down my cheeks and I think, for the first time, I began to understand a little bit about my mother. I could relate to what Mom D was telling me and realized that she really did love me the whole time.

"How, exactly, did she die then?" I asked, since I felt I needed to know more about what happened.

"Your mother was very upset after you disappeared and became quite depressed, but even more so after she realized what she'd done to you," Mom D explained. "After several months of trying to deal with this on her own, Mr. Sovie forced her to go to a doctor and then he proceeded to tell the doctor how depressed your mother had become due to your disappearance. Mr. Sovie seemed to know exactly the right things to say, so the doctor prescribed some medications for her to treat the depression. It was those same strong anti-depressants that were involved in her death.

"Although Mr. Sovie tried to make it look as though she had taken the pills on her own and used alcohol to wash them down, we no longer believe that was the case" Mom D continued, "Most of us now believe he crushed the pills and put them in a glass of juice before he gave it to her, since she had given up the booze by then. He also doused her body in liquor, including pouring some into her mouth, to make everyone believe she had been drinking. However, when the coroner tested her blood-alcohol level, it proved otherwise, because her blood-alcohol level was zero. Along with that finding, the FBI and Texas Rangers told us they were able to collect enough other evidence at your house to confirm, such as the residue in the juice glass that he hadn't bothered to wash, a more accurate interpretation of the facts.

Anyway, once your mother died, and since you were her only other heir, Mr. Sovie gained control over the estate. He would retain control until you were either found or legally declared dead in seven years. Once the Texas Rangers let it be known that they now presumed you boys were dead, Mr. Sovie felt he now had complete and absolute control of everything. Of course the Rangers told us in private that they didn't believe you were dead, but that's the story they spread so Mr. Sovie would think he had fooled them and now had control of your mother's money and your family business. The FBI hoped this would be enough to get Mr. Sovie to tip his hand and do something foolish, and obviously it worked."

"But what about now?" I demanded.

"Win, dear, all of the family fortune is now yours, as it should be, because you've inherited everything," she replied. "The house, your mother's bank accounts and other investments, along with your family's corporation, which she inherited upon your father's death. Even though it is yours, you won't be able to make any decisions concerning those things until you come of age, and they will temporarily be controlled by an executor."

"I don't care so much about that stuff," I stated. ""I'm an orphan, like Oliver Twist, so what's going to happen to me now?"

"Win, after we got to know your mother," Mom D explained, "she asked if my husband and I would agree to be your guardians, if anything should ever happen to her before you were found. I'm not sure if she suspected something or was just being cautious, but we agreed. We told her we would be happy to take care of you if anything happened to her, so she had her will changed shortly thereafter to name us as your legal guardians. You will now come to live with us until you're old enough to be on your own and control of your own future."

I was overjoyed by this news and hugged her neck forcefully. In fact, a little too forcefully, so she finally had to ask me to relax my grip, because I was hurting her.

"And who is this executor person you mentioned before?" I followed, once I released her.

"With the support of the Texas Rangers, the court has agreed to allow my husband to act as executor," Mom D explained. "He will take care of everything and act in your best interest. He will continue doing this until you have reached the legal age and can manage your own affairs."

"That's great!" I shouted. "You will be my parents now and help me with all of the money stuff, so I won't have that to worry about. Even though this is great, what's even better is that Tad and I will be brothers now, right?"

"Yes," Dad D explained, "I guess that pretty much sums things up."

I was happy and excited, but somehow still not complete. I thought about this until we had just about reached home, when I asked them one more question.

"Would you please take me to see my mother's grave before we go home?" I asked. "I'd really like to see where she is now."

"If that's what you want," Dad D quickly agreed.

"It is," I confirmed. "Where is she buried?"

"She's in your family vault, right beside your father," Dad D told me. "We went to the funeral, so I know exactly how to get there."

"Thank you for going, but I wish I could have been there too," I replied. "I'd glad you're willing to take me there now though, because I feel I need to do this, now that I know she still loved me."

Since we hadn't reached their house yet, Dad D asked the driver to go to the cemetery instead and gave him the directions on how to get there. Once we drove in, he pulled up in front of the mausoleum where the family vaults were and the rest of us got out and went inside. Dad D led me over to where she was and Tad held my hand for support. I could see her name attached to the marble slab it in gold letters, along with her vital dates, and it was right next to the one with my father's remains.

After standing there with them for a few minutes, I asked Tad and his… I mean our parents if they would mind waiting outside for a few minutes, so I could be alone with my mom and dad. They readily agreed, but Tad and Mom D both kissed me before they left, while Dad D squeezed my shoulder. Once they were gone, I stood alone in front of the markers, while trying to form what I wanted to say in my mind. When I thought I had it figured out, I slowly began to utter the words.

"Mom, I'm sorry I felt the way I did about you, but I just didn't know about all the bad stuff in your life," I began. "I wish we could have been closer and you could have known I really loved you too, but I'm glad I learned you really loved me too. I want to thank you for making the Driscolls my guardians and I will never forget you or what you tried to do for me in the end. I want you and Dad to be happy together now, and maybe someday we will all be together again.

"Dad, I miss you too," I continued, "more than anyone will ever know, and I want to thank you for making sure I have what I'll need when I grow up. With the house, all of the money and the family business, I should never have any worries. I also hope you two will understand the things I might do in the future with the things you've left for me, but I will not waste them. I just want to use them to make the others whom I love happy too.

"And please don't hate me for calling Mr. and Mrs. Driscoll 'mom' and 'dad.' They will be my parents now, but that doesn't mean I will ever love the two of you any less. In fact, I think it will only make me love you both more. I will visit you often, so I can let you know how I am doing, but I know you will always be watching over me too. This is not goodbye and it's only another opportunity to stay in touch, but I promise I will make you both very proud. I'm going to leave now, but I will never forget either of you."

I then kissed each marble slab that covered my parents' final resting places and left to rejoin my new family. Tad and his parents were waiting for me in the limo, so I hopped back inside and the driver slowly began to drive away from my past.

"Could we make one more stop?" I asked nervously. "I'd really like to go back and see my old house too, before we go to yours."

Dad D nodded and informed the driver of our new change in plans, and then several minutes later we were pulling up in front of the Randall mansion. I got out, but I asked them all to join me and we went inside. Some of the staff was still there, since they lived on the third floor, and I showed Mom and Dad D around. I knew I'd done this before with Mom D, but this time I told them about the various memories I had about the different places in the house and then I led them outside, so I could take them back to see my play area in the back yard. Tad and I excitedly explained how it served in some of our adventures and about the many good memories we had there.

"What's going to happen to this place now?" I asked, since I was concerned it might get torn down or taken over by someone who didn't know about or appreciate the history of the place.

"It will be maintained for you until you come of age," Dad D told me. "Then you can do with it as you please. It's such a magnificent old house that I'm sure you'll want to keep it."

"I do, but I'd like it even more if we could all live here together," I explained. "You could sell your house and we could live here. My money would pay to keep the house going and pay the staff, so please can we do it? You've done so much for me that I want you to let me do something for you. I'm sure you'd love it here, because it really is a nice home and you could have the master suite. The staff would do most of the work, so you'd have even more time to spend with Tad and me. Please. Please let me do this for all of us. Then Tad and I can play our adventures like we used to do and we'll all be so happy together. It will also give me some more good memories about this place and erase all the bad memories I have from Sovie living here."

Mom and Dad D looked at each other and smiled, so I had the feeling I knew what their answer was going to be.

"If that's what you want," Mom D advised me. "We certainly wouldn't object to living in this lovely house, but what do you think, Tad?"

"Yeah, I think it would be great too," he agreed. "Even though Win and I didn't have many really great times here after Sovie showed up, I'm sure we will now, so I wouldn't mind living here at all, especially with Win."

We all laughed a little at his last statement and then Dad D informed the staff of our plans. They were delighted, since it meant they would all have their jobs and things wouldn't change much for them. So it was a winning situation for everyone. Dad D even agreed to contact our old butler to see if he wanted his job back.

Within a month we had moved in and got settled. Tad and I shared my old room, but we didn't take the security system or cameras out. Instead, I just made sure the controls were locked up and tightly guarded from that day on. I was also a very happy kid, because I was part of a family again and still had my old house, along with the memories of my parents. It had been a rocky road for all of us, filled with many bumps and potholes along the way, but we'd endured.

Even though I had not realized a lot of things before, so I wasn't able to benefit from them, such as about my mother's problems or her love for me, there were many other things that I could take advantage of. I'd also found something during this time, too. After years of feeling unwanted and unloved, I now had a family and boyfriend who were willing to take care of me and I had finally found love.

The End