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by Dominik
This story is a work of fiction, all characters and plot lines are fictional. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
How I Got Into It remains the property of the author. The story or characters may not be reproduced or republished elsewhere without the expressed written consent of the author.
7– Stefan's Bedroom
To my utter surprise, I saw Leo and Silvio laying calmly down between the poles, and soon they lay there staked out and gagged, just like the prisoners had been in the afternoon; they could squirm a bit more, but not much.
“What on earth are they tied up for now?” I asked Stefan.
“The night.”
“Yes, I already thought something like that. But why?”
“You’ll have wondered” Stefan replied, “why the boys all disappeared in the wood for the night, instead of sleeping in the hut, although it’s quite comfortable in there. Well, one reason is of course that it is much too hot in there, the hut being heated up by the sun all day. The other, and principal, reason is that … er … some of the boys think that the night is not only for sleeping. And therefore, many a boy woke up in the morning to realize that he could not get up.”
“Ropes, I presume?”
“How on earth did you find out?” Stefan laughed. “Well, we found out that these two were among the most active ones at night. Although meanwhile all of us had decided to spend the nights hidden in the wood, they found their victims almost every night. So we finally decided to lay a trap for them: I discussed with Julian where to spend the night, making sure Silvio and Leo could overhear us. We went to the place we had thoroughly described in our ‘discussion’; Bobby and Gianni hid in the bushes nearby. It was a bit difficult, but we somehow managed to keep ourselves awake, and indeed, after a couple of hours or so, we heard the two nightfighters coming closer, giggling and whispering. Julian and I pretended to sleep, but the very moment they knelt down beside us, still giggling quietly, we suddenly ‘woke up’; simultaneously, Bobby and Gianni attacked them from behind, so they had no chance.”
“But” he continued, laughing, “it may have been some kind of consolation for them that they hadn’t brought the ropes in vain: for the rest of the night, they watched us sleep, each of them neatly tied to a tree. And gagged, of course; after all, we wanted to get some sleep.”
“Wow! You’re really a crazy gang!” I interjected.
“The next day, when we talked about what had happened the night before, we decided that something had to be done about those nightly sneak attacks. We first considered introducing a rule prohibiting them, but of all the boys, Silvio and Leo objected vehemently, some other boys assisted them, so we found another way to at least reduce the night attacks.” He grinned again.
“Strangely, Leo’s and Silvio’s objections to that solution were much weaker. All right, we had told them they shouldn’t consider it as a punishment – rather as a little help to stay out of trouble, but that cannot have been the reason for their weak resistance. So it was decided that from that day onwards, they would spend the nights like that. And as a matter of fact, they even seem to like it – anyway there hasn’t ever been the slightest attempt from either of them to end their ‘nights in four-poster beds’.”
I wondered what it would be like to be tied up all night, shirtless and gagged, with just the stars above me. I must admit that the idea fascinated me; I was eager to try it myself, at least for one night. (I didn’t realise that my wish was to be fulfilled quite so soon.)
“And the night attacks stopped since?” I asked.
“Well-l, almost. Just one attack every two or three nights.” He put an innocent expression into his face. “I really wonder who might do that.”
“That’s an interesting question indeed.” I replied, trying to look as innocent as he did. “Maybe we should ask Bobby and Martin to help us find out.”
Stefan managed to keep his innocent face.
“Yes, maybe that’s a good idea. But I think we should sleep now, too. Come with me! They haven’t found my secret sleeping place yet, and there’s enough space for a guest. And remember, I promised you wouldn’t be tied up tonight, so you’d better stay with me.”
I realized that I was really tired, so I didn’t object. Stefan took up the blanket, we said “Good night” to Leo and Silvio and took one of the narrow paths into the wood.
We had followed the path for some fifty yards when Stefan stopped. Fortunately, it was a moonlit night, so I could avoid stumbling into him.
“From now on” he whispered, “total silence please! I don’t want some nightfighter to hear us. And get ready to crawl for a bit.”
“OK.”
He bent away some branches, and behind them, there was another path. It was more like a tunnel than a path; it was so low that we couldn’t go upright anymore.
He stopped again, bent some branches again, this time down, stepped over them and went down on his hands and knees. I followed him, and for five yards or so, we crawled below the bushes rather then between them. Then Stefan got up on his feet again.
“OK, here we are.” he whispered, “We can whisper now.”
We had arrived in what was just a gap in the bushes rather than a clearing, about six by four feet in size. Stefan pulled a plastic bag from behind a small tree, pulled a blanket out of it and spread it over the ground.
“Make yourself comfortable!” he whispered. “All right, it may be a bit small for two people, but it will do for the night, won’t it? If you need something to cover you, the blanket I brought is laying by the entrance. Oh, by the way, I hope you don’t snore.”
“Don’t know. If I do, I do it when I sleep, so I don’t notice it, do I?”
“Sounds logical.” he admitted. “Then let’s hope for the best!”
He lay down beside me.
“Good night!”
“Good night!”
Although I was rather tired now I couldn’t sleep immediately. After all, this was the first night I ever spent outside, without even a tent. Stefan obviously had no such problems; after one or two minutes only, his regular breathing told me he was sound asleep.
When I was just dozing off, he suddenly rolled over to me so that his chest and belly were in close contact with my side; his hand came to rest on my shoulder. I first thought about rolling him back, but when I felt the softness of his skin and the warmth of his body I decided to leave him lying like that, just for five minutes. Or ten, maybe …
© Copyright Dominik 2007
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