WHEN THE WORMS TURNED
The Worms Burrow In
It was getting towards lunchtime and, although it was hardly a major meal, it was a chance to eat fresh doughnuts and rather less fresh sandwiches and even fresh fruit for the health freaks. It was also a chance to grab a hot drink for those who wanted it. The main reason for not missing lunch, however, was the opportunity to meet up with friends before getting down to prep or getting the freedom of the town for a few hours.
Obviously we couldn't all go at once all the while there was a danger of someone bursting in and seeing our guests. We weren't so much worried about our prisoners being released but more about vengeance being exacted upon them while they were helpless to a greater extent than was safe. Not that they didn't deserved it but we thought we knew where to draw the line. So it was agreed that I should go first, gab a quick lunch (I wouldn't be allowed to take it away from the 'Fect') and then return to relieve the other two. No one gave a thought about leaving our guests hungry, indeed we were only sorry that we wouldn't be allowed to bring our food back and eat it in front of them.
I'm not all that fond of exercise (except for judo and swimming) but I ran to the lunch "queue" and spent very little time waiting. Kevin was also near the front of the scrum. Now that he'd enjoyed his unexpected freedom, curiosity had eventually got the better of him. He really wanted to know now why Chris wanted to do his litter collecting for him. I told him that, if he scoffed his lunch quickly and came with me, I'd show him. I knew that Kevin had been framed for that graffiti and I had a good idea who was responsible. So did he but there's no way he could dob the culprit in. Let's be honest, getting a detention is no disgrace but dobbing in the true culprit is and letting a innocent man do your time is inhuman. I'd had thirteen years to come to the conclusion that at least one of our guests was inhuman. What a good job it doesn't run in the family.
We chucked our apple cores, undetected, in the approximate direction of the bins and ran back to the Third Year Dorm Block. As we approached the entrance steps, I made Kevin promise not to make a sound and to stand only just inside the door to the Dorm while I closed it and until he was told he could move. I told him it was a safety matter and, in the light of what I assumed he would like to do to my brother, I suppose it was.
Kevin was as good as his word. We entered Dorm 3a and I closed the door. "Have you met my brother?" I asked innocently as I opened the bathroom door. Kevin stood his ground; he was dumbstruck seeing what was obviously John hogtied and hooded on the toilet floor. He failed the other condition after a few seconds and there was then another schoolboy whose parents wouldn't approve of his language.
Kevin was delighted. He approached the squirming bully, knelt near him with his arms spread in amazement.
"Come on, lads, be fair, we can't let a civilian torture our prisoners without a fair trial." Chris was always a spoilsport.
Dave was of an almost equally fair frame of mind. "OK. Is he guilty or not guilty?" Three voices delivered the completely unbiased verdict.
"Sorry, mate, I did try." said Chris disingenuously, clapping my brother on the shoulder. By now John was really giving it some again.
"Allen, why don't you go and open the door? Let's see who else might want a word with these three?"
"You know, you're such a considerate kid?" I turned to do as Dave suggested. John's frantic wriggling and head shaking seemed to indicate that he'd rather that didn't happen. Richard seemed to concur.
"If you don't want to attract attention, then, you'd better shut up." Immediately silence reigned; a silence interrupted only by the laboured breathing of the prisoners and reinforce by an extremely smug silence of its own on the part of the four of us. It was still more than slightly amusing to see the pillow cases alternately hugging the faces of our guests and billowing grotesquely.
"OK, you two, better go and grab some scran. Kev'll help me look after these three."
"Happy to." Kev offered me his right palm. I slapped it.
"OK, won't be long."
"Don't start torturing them till we get back."
"Aaah, as if we would."
"Just don't. That's all." With that Dave and Chris ran off to join the bun-fight.
-----00000-----
Kevin still couldn't really believe what he was seeing. I introduced him to Richard with a stealthy tickle of his belly-button not that it was really necessary and Kevin declared, "Edward Livingstone, I presume" giving each of the rubicund boy's nipples a vicious twist. That did nothing for Ed's "composure".
We left the bathroom to make ourselves more comfortable until Dave and Chris returned. Kev moved Dave's study chair to where he could keep an eye on the prisoners and sat on it. I sat on my bed and I brought Kevin up to date with our plans. Each new proposed indignity met with renewed protests from our guests.
"Y'know that little kid in my Dorm?"
"What? Little Chas?"
"Yeah." Richard's head moved as though he was interested. "D'y' know he got bog-washed four times last week?" All the Fourth Years became noticeably still and as completely quiet as their breathing and their hoods would allow.
"D'y' know who did it."
"I found him on Wednesday crying in the bog but he wouldn't squeal."
"Yeah, can't blame him really."
"That's not all. I found him again on Thursday."
"What, bog-washed again?"
"And the rest. They'd made him strip and throw his clothes, except for the bits they wanted to use, out of the window. I found him sitting in just his pants with his ankles tied round the toilet bowl with his tie. He couldn't reach round to undo it because they'd used his own shoelaces to tie his wrists behind him and even to tie his thumbs together. By the time I'd found him, the laces had dug into his wrists so badly I could still see the marks yesterday. Daft little oik didn't want to show me, though.
"Poor little sod. He's even shorter than Chris and scrawnier than either of us." Richard appeared to be trying to make a point. Kev went across to reason with him. After the muffled squealing stopped, Richard settled down again.
Things remained peaceful until Chris and Dave returned and I went for that much needed shower and change. When I re-emerged, I was complaining none too seriously that Richard was taking up too much room in the shower. Being a boarding school the Dorm showers were large and intended for communal use so my complaint about Richard taking up room was completely disingenuous. I had changed into another pair of black trackie bottoms but was still bare-chested as I completed towelling off what was left of my hair after the regulation school haircut. Richard didn't seem to enjoy having been left to drip dry, especially after I had dutifully rinsed the shower with cold water after I'd got out of it.
Kev had shared Chas's story with the other two and the three of them had decided upon a course of action. Even though I hadn't been consulted, their decision was obviously the correct one and, as long as he agreed to it, it had certain advantages for our plans.
Meet Chas
Once I had agreed to the new plan, Kev left us to see whether Chas would agree. It took him about half an hour of reassurances before the little guy would agree to come and meet our guests. He was somewhat reassured when he found out that they were all blindfolded, and Kev told him that he could back out at any time.
Chas was probably the shortest, and certainly the skinniest kid in the year. He had large, dark eyes that always seemed to be on the move and an unruly shock of very black hair that contrasted with his almost translucent pale complexion. We all carefully avoided using his name, not that any reasonably intelligent tormentor would have had much difficulty working it out but, of course, it was much too late to continue trying to disguise our own identities.
As soon as he saw the three bullies bound, blindfolded and helpless, Chas squealed with delight but he still seemed reluctant to approach them. He had certainly recognised his hooded tormentors even though he had still wouldn't confirm their identities when Kev named them. Just his recognition was enough to confirm what we knew.
"It's alright mate, don't be afraid, look." I went over to my brother, gave him a warning scrape right down the length of his left foot with my well-bitten right thumbnail. His reaction was unavoidable and Chas giggled while still keeping very close to Kevin. "My big brother here loves being tickled. See? Chas's delight deepened as the bigger kid writhed completely helplessly under my subsequent tickling assault. "Wan' a go?"
Chas still seemed to be a bit reluctant so Kev put his arm round his shoulders and urged him gently towards the creature that was frantically trying to wriggle away from where he thought I might be in spite of his still being tethered to the loo. "Dave, you're the strong man. Why don't you and I just hold John-Boy still so that my little mate here can have a go safely?"
Dave was certainly not reluctant and soon he was sitting on the floor with Kevin as they put stress on John's legs and back as they held his shins immovably, "OK, mate, come on, have a go." Chas plucked up courage and mounted a concerted ten digit assault on John's undefended soles. Kevin had even better defined muscles than Dave, although he was smaller, and even those two had difficulty holding firmly onto their victim.
"Just lean back a bit, that should stress him enough to make him easier to handle." I was full of good ideas, especially when it came to torturing my brother. It was almost as if he was in a Boston crab again when an increasingly confident Chas straddled his back and renewed his most extreme assault.
"No subtlety, some people."
"No, great, isn't he?"
After a few minutes Chris called Chas off and Kev and Dave let go of John and checked to see that he was still secure.
"OK, Champ, get your breath back." I wanted our man rested before he entertained his next subject. "Which one do you want next?" Chas pointed to indicate his choice. "Aaaalrighteee! Just sit down for a few minutes, gather your strength and we'll get him ready for you." By the way they were behaving, you'd have thought that being silent alone would allow Richard and Ed to find out whose turn it was next. We tried to give no clue as Kev drew a glass of water for the little kid. Thinking back now, that was the first time I had seen Chas so much as smile since he'd joined the school.
-----00000----
"I expect you two want to know who's next." Dave was obviously keen for the torture to continue. He'd obviously worked out his next move quite carefully so that he would get the right decision. "OK Kev, help me get this creature into the shower next to his skinny mate and we'll dip for it." Between the two of them there were soon two boys tied to chairs in the shower. Dave stood behind them and delivered light slaps to their heads as he dipped out, "Eeny, meany, miny, mo . . ." When he got to the ". . . you - are - not - it." he slapped Ed last leaving Richard knowing that he was to be next to suffer God only knew what torment.
"Wait a minute, safety first." Chris took Dave's place and checked Richard's bindings carefully. With his arms bound to the chair, he hadn't managed to come anywhere near slipping his wrists from the rope this time.
"While you're in there Chris, just undo that hood and check his gag, he was starting to sound funny when he was swearing at me just now."
"OK. I'll just try to find the end of the Sellotape." This was a guy speaking who bit his nails for England. Judging by Richard's vocal reaction, it must have caused him considerable distress while Chris mauled his head and scrabbled around against is neck trying to unstick the clear tape.
"Come on Chris, let me help." Dave was the only one of the three original conspirators with any nails at all.
"Nah, this is fun. Isn't it Rich?"
Richard's reply of, " 'Un' ", was rather more recognisable than it should have been.
Eventually Chris loosened an end and unwrapped the tape as quickly as he could. Richard qualified his original assertion adding an only too recognisable participle.
"Oooo look, who's been a busy boy, then." The Sellotape in Richard's mouth still held but he must have put in a lot of tongue work to squeeze that ball and force it into the cavity formed by the top of his mouth and the constriction provided by the tape. No wonder Chris could nearly understand him well enough to take exception to what he was being called. "Now let's just put that thing back into a more comfortable place." Chris wasn't stupid enough to operate without 'anaesthetic' because Richard could certainly close his jaws enough to bite him quite hard so he asked both me and Dave to help. "Now, open wide."
Dave held his head firmly from behind and Richard thought it would be better to do as he was asked, especially as I had also done what I had been asked to do: I had positioned the heel of my recently replaced right army boot on the front of the seat between Richard's widely spread legs and put just a little pressure on that which was thus exposed with the toe. Richard may have been a thug but he was not a stupid one, that was my brother's job.
With his patient safe, Doctor Chris operated and moved the saturated ball back behind the Sellotape. "Should do until we get finished, shame we only made two proper gags."
"Don't bother taping that hood down again. You know what we said." Chris just rolled the pillowcases down again and left them flapping. At least Richard would be able to breathe more easily now but the, "You know what we said." had obviously not gone without notice.
The Doctor and his Nurses retired and Kev silently indicated that it was time for Chas to take his revenge. He was obviously getting into his role because he realised that if he delayed his assault, it would build up the apprehension in his subject. Richard obviously realised that there was somebody standing over him and almost wished that whatever assault he was to suffer would start. Chas giggled.
You could see Richard tense up. The panther pounced. His fingers were all around Richard's midriff as the chair clanked around the floor of the shower. Chas took a break. Chris pronounced himself satisfied with how he had readjusted Richard's gag. Chas appraised his target. He approached again and deliberately gave a little cough, Richard tensed up again and Chas drew his index fingers slowly up the insides of his thighs until he was touching cloth (as they say). Then he stopped. Richard's recent opportunity to breathe more easily seemed to have been unappreciated. Then the wildcat struck again. Alternating assaults upon the victim's lower torso and upper thighs left him no way of knowing where he would be attacked next. Up 'til then we didn't realise what an evil little git Chas really was.
By the time he decided to take a rest, Chas was cackling like a hyena and Richard was left snorting gently and making that funny noise that is half way between a moan and a sigh as he recovered.
"OK Champ, I think he's had enough." Chas disagreed although he'd still managed not to say anything that might identify himself. He really had it in for Richard. After a few minutes, he stood in front of him again. Richard whined. Chas turned his head to look at us and pointed to Richard's feet.
"Yes, why not" Dave didn't seem to like Richard much either. He tipped the chair backwards. "Go on then, take his socks off first." That previously unknown smile stretched from one of Chas's ears to the other. Dave laid the chair on the floor of the shower and Chas tried pulling both socks off at once. All Richard's attempts to jerk himself free prompted Chris to go and sit on his chest. That pushed his bodyweight and that of Chris against the spars that formed the back of the chair and they in turn were pushed heavily onto his bound arms. I couldn't help remarking that the design the school had chosen could have been made specially for accommodating bullies. Richard didn't seem to appreciate such fine points.
Chas was left kneeling on the tiled floor with a rather nasty, short white sock in each hand. Chris thought he'd just seen somewhere that they'd fit quite nicely. He rolled up the pillow cases again and held up his right hand up behind his head for one of the socks. While he went to work stuffing it into the very tight space that was available to him between the tape and the ball, he asked me to go and get 'that special first-aid kit I showed you'. When I returned with it, he had arranged the other sock across Richard's mouth and was trying to tuck it into whatever space remained.
He held it into place while I opened the small cardboard box that I'd retrieved. You know, it would have been much more effective if Richard could have seen what was inevitably about to happen to him. Never mind, you can't have everything. Chris had 'obtained' about a two foot length of that really sticky fabric-based, dark pink Elastoplast. (You must remember, this was before the days of all this hypoallergenic nonsense that doesn't stick to bugger all.) He suggested that I be his guest so I stripped the backing strips off of the first few inches. Dave knelt and squeezed the unfortunate kid's head between his knees and I carefully applied the tape by the point of his jaw. I smoothed it into place as the plaster reached his lips, stripped more of the protective backing free and smoothed it over his well-stuffed mouth. It's a good job that Dave has strong thighs! A further application of pink plaster left Richard taped from ear to ear. I couldn't finish the job unless someone gave me a pair of scissors or unless Dave released Richard's head.
A short committee meeting decided that Dave should be allowed to get up off his knees so Chris leaned forward and grabbed our victim's ears through his hood. It's a good job that Chris had no nails. He pulled Richard's head clear of the floor and complained that the hood didn't allow him to hold on to the short hairs on his temples, you know: the ones that really cause pain when you twist them. In spite of that handicap Chris held the head still enough for me to plaster the Elastoplast round the back of Richard's neck and to overlap it in front once more.
"Just keep hold a minute, mate" As Chris continued to secure my target, I made sure to rub the plaster firmly against the short, dark hairs at the back of his neck. That would hurt when he tried to remove it. Chris released his hold allowing Richard's head to fall back again but I did make sure that my hand was behind it; alright, I wanted to hurt him but not to concuss him. "Tell me how kind I am. Oh, that's not very polite. OK, Titch, over to you."
I got up and stood with my foot on one of the back legs of the chair that was restraining our guest and Dave secured the other one. With Chris still more or less comfortably seated, that chair was going nowhere.
Just as well!
The rattling against the floor, snorting and eventual subdued screaming must have gone on for ten minutes before Chas announced himself satisfied. He still didn't speak, merely gave us a double thumbs up.
Chris dismounted and Dave and Kevin righted the chair again. It was tempting to check to see that Richard was alright. Well, not all that tempting really.
-----00000-----
Chas sat on the free study chair and Kevin massaged the "Champ's" shoulders and cooled him with a towel (- MY towel!-) just as if he was a boxer between rounds. Chris produced a celebratory Tizer bottle that had somehow resisted the predations of his Dorm-mates (He was getting sneaky!) and passed it round. The sweet, bright red fizzy confection was certainly well received. "Well, if you two hadn't filled my locker with rubbish, I wouldn't've had anywhere to hide it, would I?" Our good humour grew with the sugar hit, a hit that was reinforced by our enjoyment of the Jaffa Cakes that 'someone' had liberated from our guests' dorm.
Dave soon got itchy digits again. "OK, Livingstone, looks like your turn now." But Chas held his hands out in front of him, palms forwards and shook his head. Four other Third Year pupils looked puzzled. Chas beckoned Kev to listen to him and whispered in his ear. Kev nodded.
Once he had closed the bathroom door, Kev spoke very quietly, well, I suppose it had to happen sometime, "Chas said that Ed wasn't involved except in his first, simple bogwash on the first day and he thinks, in the tradition of the school, that he was fair game what with it being his first day and all." We all agreed that that was reasonable. "He just thinks that it isn't fair to torture Ed for no reason."
We looked at Chas as though he'd just told us that the Christmas Holidays had been cancelled. He hunched his narrow shoulders and held out is hands in a 'what more can I say' gesture. "My little mate, you've got a lot to learn." Dave saw absolutely no reason that mere innocence should stop Ed being tortured and anyhow to let him off wouldn't be fair on the others. Kev, Chris and I couldn't fault his logic.
Dave opened the bathroom door again and Ed had obviously realised what was about to happen. It would have been coarse to point out the increased tightness of Ed's swimmers in the circumstances - so obviously we did. Ed moaned.
The way that Dave had tied the athletic kid meant that any move he made with one part of his body put extra stress on some other part. At least it wouldn't be too easy to get access to the insides of his thighs. Dave settled on the floor behind him and reached under the chair to grab the rope that was pulling his feet off the ground. He asked me to hand him the toothbrush that the mysterious 'someone' had taken from the bathroom in Dorm 4c and left on the shower floor against need. He scraped the end of the handle cruelly down each of his soles before subjecting each of them to a protracted scrubbing. He didn't even neglect the 'inter-toe' areas.
"Take it easy, mate, it looks as if he might be enjoying it." Ed squealed and jerked around uncontrollably. I still don't believe that he really thought the humiliation was worth the guilty pleasure, especially now that his secret was out. Dave eventually had mercy and abandoned his subject to his embarrassment and exhaustion.
Now we had to decide whether our original plan for the continued entertainment of our guests was still feasible.
TO BE CONTINUED