A Lesson in Privacy (m/f)

[caquernham]

Intro Thread: http://tugstories.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1470

The basement of our house had always been an oasis for the three of us. Our dad avoids stairs due to an infirmity, and laundry was the only reason our mom ever came down, so the twins and I had the basement rec room to ourselves. We would retire there to play or to talk in private, and its privacy, along with its proximity to the ropes and rolls of tape stored in the utility room, meant a great many of our tie up games took place there. We considered it our turf.

So, when the opportunity arose for me to move down there when the twins started middle school, I jumped at the chance. The plan had been for Jennie to move into my old room, but that arrangement didn’t last a week. The two of them couldn’t stand to be separated. I would never turn back, though. My dad’s unused tool room became my bedroom, and our basement became my basement.

The twins were always welcome, of course, but I didn’t ever let them forget that they were guests. So when I got home from work one day to find Gracie in my room, something needed to be done.

She was leaning on the end of my bed, looking at her phone when I came in. She was dressed in a dark t-shirt, a maroon tracksuit jacket, and black leggings. Her hair was down and her sleeves were bunched up, exposing her skinny white forearms. She didn’t even look up when I came in.

“Grace! What are you doing here?” I asked pointedly.

“Hi, Tim,” was her sarcastic response.

“I asked you a question,” I stated with emphasis. She stuck out her tongue at me.

This rudeness, along with her flagrant disrespect for my privacy, enraged me. I decided I needed to teach her some manners. Plus, she was obviously hiding something.

“I’ll give you one more chance to tell me why you’re down here, and I won’t ask again,” I yelled, trying to make myself as intimidating as possible. She ignored me, continuing to thumb through her phone.

I had enough. I grabbed a wool scarf off of a hook on my wall, and lunged toward her, reaching to pin her down. The thing about Gracie is that she is a little more ambivalent towards being restrained than Jennie is, so she usually fights back. She is stronger and more flexible than Jennie too, so she is almost as much of a pain to keep from escaping as she is to tie up. She ended up being the one who did the tying just as often as she was the one who was tied. Since I’m nearly twice her size, though, when it came to a fight, I usually came out on top.

She dove to one side and tried to get around me to the door, but I grabbed her around the waist. I pulled her back toward the bed and tried to throw her on top. She was twisting and pulling to get free, trying to dart below my reach to get out of my room. We ended up on the ground, in the narrow space between my bed and the wall. There was barely enough room for us to roll over, and I was on top.

I adjusted my grip to her upper arms, and she tried kicking me repeatedly in the stomach and groin. I dropped myself on her knees and pinned them to her chest. She rolled herself over to try to get out. Big mistake.

I used the leverage I had on her elbow to pull it behind her back and pin it there. She was now flat on her stomach, with little to do besides squirm and kick. I fought for a while to pull her other arm behind her back, and she eventually gave up trying to stop me. I wrapped the scarf around her elbows, tight enough to immobilize them but not tight enough to hurt her shoulders. I knew the wool scarf would slip off of her smooth tracksuit jacket if I let go, so I needed a plan B.

It took some effort to pull her onto her feet and lead her through the rec room to the utility room. We would probably have still been wrestling at this point if any attempt to break free didn’t twist her arms uncomfortably.

“Careful struggling in here,” I told her when we got to the utility room. “You wouldn’t want to ‘fall’ face first onto the concrete.” That got her to stop struggling for the moment, but she continued to verbally taunt me. I was too focused on my task to remember what she said.

I grabbed a couple coils of white cotton clothesline hanging from a shelf. I dragged Gracie back into the rec room, picked her up and laid her gently on her stomach on the carpet.

“Not strong enough to hold me, huh? Need rope to do all the work?” She jeered at me. I continued to ignore her. She tried to blow her wavy dark hair out of her face as I pulled her wrists together parallel and cinched them with rope. I ran the excess rope up to her elbows, wrapping it around and tying it off in the middle so I no longer had to worry about my scarf stretching out. I wrapped the scarf mockingly around her neck.

I moved on to her ankles, tying them together with another coil and cinching them as I had done with her wrists. I jabbed the back of her knees to unlock them and pulled her feet up behind her, tying them off to the rope securing her elbows and hogtying her rather tightly. I lifted her up and carried her back to the bedroom, and dropped her on my bed.

I noticed that I had inadvertently bound her in such a way that relaxing her lower back would cause her feet to pull her elbows down and together, twisting her elbows and presumably causing excruciating discomfort. Any attempt to struggle would only make her more uncomfortable. I made note of this, but a cold, defiant look still registered on her face.

“Why were you in here?” I asked as I closed the door.

“I thought you weren’t asking again,” she told me, in a mocking tone.

That was it. I drove my fingers hard into her ribs. All three of us are unbearably ticklish, so it was a surefire way for me to make my point. She writhed and convulsed, rolling from side to side and screaming through the laundry chute for Jennie between labored breaths.

“She’s not going to hear you,” I mocked. “At least, I hope she doesn’t. Because if she does, she’ll end up in the same predicament as you…”

There came a point in many tie up games where, if I was the one doing the binding, I went mad with power and threw reason and moderation to the wind. I sometimes startled myself with how harsh I could get, but the twins were more excited than frightened by this. They often made a point to egg me on, especially if they could direct my madness onto each other. In this case, Gracie’s mocking had brought me to this point uncommonly quickly.

She finally reached the point where the line between gleeful laughter and desperate pleading was blurred. Her face was beet red, and tears streamed down her face.

“Headphones!” She blurted.

“What was that?” I asked, relenting.

“I misplaced my headphones so I came in to steal yours.” She gasped for breath.

“Where are they?” I continued my interrogation. She was breathing too heavily to answer. I didn’t care. “Where Are They?” I shouted, running a fingernail along her sole.

“POCKET! Pocket!” She screeched. “Jacket Pocket!”

I frisked both of her pockets and sure enough, there were my earbuds.

“Now how do I know these are actually mine, and you aren’t lying to escape your torture?”

“Check the drawer, *gasp*, Where you keep them.”

I opened my dresser drawer, and the place they were usually kept was empty.

“Now what were you doing in there?” I strode menacingly toward her.

“STOP! Stop tickling!” Her verbal command, made in earnest, had to be obeyed if our tie up games were to continue. I needed to find another way to keep her talking. I looked around the room for any persuasive devices. The first thing that stood out were her black ankle socks. I considered that pressing them into her face might just coax the cat out of his bag. Then I realized I had something better. I reached down for my own sock, especially fruity after a long shift at work and a sweaty tussle. Her eyes widened and she squirmed in vain as I stepped toward her, balling up the sock in my hand.

“I’m sorry! It won’t happen again! I swear! What more do you want?” Her change in tone was refreshing.

“Your story doesn’t add up,” I said, brandishing the sock before her eyes. “Why were you really down here?”

“I TOLD YOU! I told you! Please, PLEASE!”

It was too late. I pressed the sock over her nose and mouth, holding her head still with my other hand. Her eyes were wide and glassy with tears, and she wasted every remaining ounce of her strength trying to shake her face clear of the stinky menace. She grunted and snorted into the sock, howling with laughter.

“You really just came in to take my headphones? That’s it? No noisemakers? No stink bombs? You weren’t releasing crickets? Just the headphones?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes!” She cried. I could hear the sincerity in her voice. I pulled the sock away. Her face fell into the bedspread. I knew she couldn’t have kept up a lie through the torture I put her through. The truth had to be something she couldn’t articulate under pressure.

“Why did you linger after you got them, then?” I asked, feigning suspicion. She mumbled something into the blanket. I rolled her head over.

“Because I’m stupid.” She sighed, exhaustedly.

“No,” I said, brushing her hair out of her face. “You wanted to get a rise out of me. You thought you’d get a kick out of seeing me react.”

She nodded gently, eyes shut tight. Her arms twisted in their bonds and her legs kicked subtly.

“Well, you got your reaction. Was it worth it?”

A smile crept across her crimson, tear-streaked face. That was the only response I needed.

“I ought to lead by example and leave you alone, like you should have done with my stuff!” I scolded. “But…” I tugged on the knot binding her ankles to her elbows, then slowly untied her as she lay still on my bed. “The sock goes in your mouth next time. Got that?” I said, punctuating the lesson.

“Next time.” She repeated, with a sardonic grin.

Some people never learn.

[Canuck100]

I like your writing style and the tone of your stories. And I particularly enjoy stories where all participants are clearly having fun, so reading this was a treat! Good job!

[caquernham]

Great to hear! I've said it before, but it's always more fun for everyone when everybody's in on the joke.

More stories are coming soon. I've got more in my memory than I have time to write them down.

[JohnnyRockets]

Your stories are very vivid, and the interactions between you and your siblings are great! Thanks for taking the time to compose and post your stories here.

[rash357]

Great story! You’re a very talented author and looking forward to hearing more! Sounds like you and your siblings had a lot of fun growing up!