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How I Got Into It This story is a work of fiction, all characters and plot lines are fictional. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. 4– Punishment “Don’t try to delay it – come here and take your card!” Stefan replied.“Hold on! You may remember that we were six spies and three of us escaped – correct?” “Correct.” Stefan admitted. “But there are four prisoners. Four plus three makes . . . . ?” “Seven?” You could see in Stefan’s face what was happening in his head: first there was confusion, then enlightenment, the result of which was a low “Oh nuts!”, and finally that “I’ll get you for that” look. “And by the way: I’ve been wondering all the time what Dominik was doing here. He’s not a club member, is he?” Leo continued. “Or” he turned to the whole group, “does somebody know something I don’t?” The answer was a general mumble of “Nahh!”, “Not me!” or “I dunno!”. The only exception was Stefan, who stammered “But … Silvio told me …” It was obvious that he realised that things might now get difficult for him, but he was saved by a slim, brown-haired boy, who I later found out was Phil, who exclaimed: “Yes, I overheard that when the game just had started, Silvio talked to Stefan. I don’t know exactly what he was talking about, but I clearly heard the name ‘Dominik’.” “He’s right!” Theo said “I saw them talking as well. I couldn’t hear much, but I noticed that most of the time, Silvio was talking.” A sigh of relief came from Stefan. Then, with a smarmy voice, full of false friendliness, he asked: “Silvio? Can I have a word with you?” Now that’s cleared up, someone might at least untie me, I thought. Silvio, who had meanwhile moved, unobserved, close to the boys who were sat or lay closest to the hut, answered: “Just a second! I’ll just go and get … err …” He was interrupted by a sharp “Get him!” from Leo. He started to run, but he didn’t get far. Unfortunately for him, most of the former hunters still had their ropes at hand; three or four lassos swirled through the air, and within seconds, Silvio lay in the grass, strictly hogtied and gagged, halfway between the campfire and the hut. Meanwhile, with many apologies, Stefan had untied me. “I’m so sorry for that!” he assured once more. “Well, I survived it, didn’t I?” I replied, rubbing some life back into my wrists. “You know, Silvio talked and talked, and in the end, I believed him.” I knew this was the plain truth – I knew Silvio well enough to know that he could talk the Pope into converting to Islam if he really tried. “Now what can I do to make it up to you – to make good at least part of what I did to you?” Stefan asked. “Just two things: firstly, I need something to drink to get that gag taste out of my mouth. And then, someone please tell me what exactly is going on here.” “Mineral water, lemonade, cola or what?” he asked. “Water, please.” He went over to the hut and brought back what I wanted. “As for the explanation you will just have to hold on for ten minutes or so – at least I hope so. I just have to sort out two little things.” “OK, OK, I’ve been trying to find out what this is all about all afternoon; it won’t matter for five or ten minutes more.” In a low voice, so that Silvio couldn’t hear him, Stefan asked: “Any ideas for his punishment?” “Let’s leave him like that all night!” Phil suggested. “Obviously a case for the cheaters’ frame, isn’t it? Third degree, I’d say.” Peter replied. “No, second degree – but all night!” Julian suggested. “After all, he almost cheated us out of the draw.” After some more suggestions, which made it clear to me that punishments could be rather hard around here, Leo said: “Why not leave it to Dominik? After all, he deserves to have some revenge, having been tied up all afternoon.” Nobody objected, so Leo asked me: “What about it, Dominik? Feel like it?” My grin must have looked exactly like Silvio’s when they captured me. “Love to. But before I decide” I asked, “What’s that cheaters’ frame you’re talking about?” “Look over there!” Stefan pointed behind me. There, at the opposite end of the clearing, I saw a device I hadn’t noticed before: there were four posts, around four by four inches, in a row, connected by a bar on top, forming three rectangles roughly the size of door frames. Close to them, I could see some logs thoroughly stacked. “The cheater” Stefan explained, “is tied spread-eagle between two of the posts. In the first degree, he is allowed to stand flat-footed on the ground. For the second degree, he stands on a log when tied up, for the third, on two. As soon as the tieup is finished, the logs are removed. Thus, ‘second degree’ means that he can still stand on tiptoes, while in the third degree, he can scratch the ground with his big toes – if he’s lucky.” Then, a bit louder so that Silvio could hear him, he added: “But so far, we haven’t left anyone hanging in the third degree for more than an hour. But Silvio deserves the honour to be the first one, doesn’t he?” “Yeah!” “Great idea!” “Suits him” the boys shouted simultaneously while Stefan winked at me. “What do you think, Dominik?” he asked while Leo went over to Silvio, untied his feet and put a leash round his neck. He was brought to us the same way I had been brought here, with one little difference! The leash around his neck was of the kind that tightened when pulled, so he was eager to follow Leo very closely and very obediently. Leo handed me the end of the leash. “He’s yours. Tie him up in whichever way you like which of course includes any stress position you might think of. Now what do you think? Cheaters’ frame, or have you got a better idea?” I had. Some days ago, I had found a website about the adventures of a group of English boy scouts in Cyprus who had shown a lot of initiative tying up prisoners, and one of their tie-ups seemed perfect to me for Silvio. But I decided to frighten him a bit. So I winked at Leo and asked him: “Can I get him naked?” Leo winked back. “Sure! Great idea! We can torture him much better then.” When I started to unfasten Silvio’s belt I could see that he turned pale behind his gag. I opened the button of his cutoffs. He looked really frightened now. “On second thoughts” I smiled, “You should at least have a chance to pee your pants.” To his obvious relief, I re-buttoned his shorts and fastened his belt. Then I took him to the pole where I had spent most of the afternoon and made him stand with his back to it. “Get down on your knees, with the pole between your feet!” I ordered. He obeyed. The other boys had meanwhile gathered in a circle, and there was some action with playing cards; I had no idea what that was all about. “Hey! Could one of you come and help me?” Julian came over. I asked him to hold Silvio so that he couldn’t fall forward. Then I pulled back his feet, crossed his ankles and tied them in that position. When I untied his hands, he bent them backwards around the pole, anticipating what would happen next. But he was wrong. “No, no! For you, I’ve got something special.” I said. “Julian, take his other arm, please!” We pulled up his arms above his head and behind the pole. When we pulled them backwards, he arched his back as if he wanted to help us. We crossed his wrists behind the pole and tied them carefully, vertically and horizontally, finally adding a cinch. I stepped back to admire our handiwork. Perfect. His body was stretched like a bent bow, and he looked somewhat amazed. Obviously, he just had tried to move his hands up or down to get into a more comfortable (or rather less uncomfortable) position – and found out that it was impossible. As I said, perfect. “You look great like that!” I told Silvio. His reply was the only one he was capable of: “Mmmmph!” “I understand you like it too, don’t you? All right then, have fun and good night!” Of course I didn’t intend to keep him like that all night, but frightening Silvio a bit more looked like a good idea to me. When we returned to the other boys, I had another surprise. © Copyright Dominik 2007
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