I want to thank you guys so much for supporting me all the time while I wrote that story. I had fun writing the story and I will write other stories about Max and Mark soon. You really inspired me and some of your comments found their way into my story influencing it a bit. Thank you again for reading it. I hope you´ll enjoy the last part of the main story. I would love to get some feedback from you guys as always.
Here I did some tagging for those noble creatures who already commented on one of the last two parts:
[mention]Redman[/mention] [mention]ducttape1[/mention] [mention]Red86[/mention] [mention]herbie2[/mention] [mention]Kratos[/mention] [mention]harveygasson[/mention] [mention]TiedupNick[/mention] [mention]bondagefreak[/mention] [mention]MaxRoper[/mention] [mention]The skeleton Beam[/mention] [mention]alkaid_[/mention] [mention]lepangolin[/mention]
Now, let's go:
Final Part (1/2):
Hey guys, it´s Mark again. Before you continue reading this part, I really need to warn you. I´m not proud of what I did after I found Max. As an adult, I should’ve stayed calm and be a leading example for Max and other kids on how to behave in such a situation. Well, as you can guess now, I completely lost control over my emotions. At least, nobody was really harmed… mainly because of Max but you´ll find out about that during this last part.
I guess it´s a little late but I should add here, that, while I was waiting for Max in the previous part, I also got dressed. So if you wondered if I rushed over in just my briefs, I have to disappoint you. I wore a black t-shirt with some red writing on it, blue jeans, some shoes and socks.
First of all, I want to tell you how I found Max. As you already know, I found him tied up. I couldn´t look at the exact way he was tied in that situation because I was just too shocked to focus on that. Mainly I saw how he was tied, while I untied him and from what he told me a few days later but for you it´s better when I describe it first.
When I opened that door, I went completely pale and froze for a few seconds at what I saw there. Max was lying in the bathtub on his back. I couldn´t see it from the doorway but his arms were tied behind his back in a boxtie with ropes. The ropes were tied around each of his wrists and the other forearm right below the elbow. Another rope was tied around both his forearms in the centre and pulled up to a rope which was tied around his bare chest and upper arms (cinched under his armpits). This made it impossible for him to pull his arms down or out of the wrist/forearm loops. The ropework was impressive. It could´ve been tied more neatly but definitely did its job in securing him in an inescapable boxtie.
At the end of the last part, I told you I found his clothes piece by piece on my way to his room. So he was tied in only his underwear or to be exact in the underwear I lend him before. The only part of his clothing I couldn´t find earlier was his socks. I couldn´t find them because they were both forcefully pushed into his mouth and sealed in there with at least 10 turns of black tape around his head, making his cheeks bulge slightly under and around the tape. It seemed like they weren´t motivated enough to tie all those knots because his ankles were tied together with rope but above and below his knees and his thighs were simply taped together with many turns of the same black tape.
At this point, you probably think “What´s wrong with that? There is no reason to freeze in shock at the sight of Max just being tied up.”, right? But I´m not finished here. Another rope was tied to the rope binding his ankles and pulled up to a fixed shower head above the centre of the bathtub (the showerhead is fixed to the wall and extends above the centre of the bathtub). This forced Max to lie on his tied arms with his legs stretched out upwards (in a 90-degree angle to his torso) so his butt could barely touch the ground.
Till here, still, no reason to freak out. But! You already read it in the last part, when I stood in front of the bathroom I could hear the running of water. So, you are right when you guessed that they turned the water on (on its coldest setting) before they left. It´s definitely uncomfortable to be tied like that and hit by freezing cold water all the time, so naturally, he was shivering a lot. (Luckily they turned on the showerhead, where his ankles were bound to, and not the water tap which was located right above his head) This was a reason to worry but not a reason to freak out as I did later. But closing the drain and therefore forcing Max to tense his abdominal muscles in a permanent situp to avoid drowning is a reason to freak out. Especially because he couldn´t get his head higher than the edge of the bathtub. So, if I hadn´t found him, there would be no reason for his mom to hire a babysitter anymore.
The moment I entered the bathroom, the first thing I saw was a savagely uncomfortable tied Max, who was barely able to keep his head above the water and with his eyes wide in fear and tears running down his cheeks. If I hadn´t been so shocked, I would certainly have boiled with rage. Needless to say, I rushed over to him immediately, shouting his name probably loud enough for the whole town to hear.
I didn´t know what I should do in that situation, I wasn´t prepared for something like that. The only thing I knew was that Max was crying and that he was cold and uncomfortable. So, I needed to get him out of there as soon as possible. In reflex, I put my left arm around his shoulders straight away and helped him to keep his head above the water. With my other hand, I turned the showerhead off and tried my best to calm him down a bit by stroking his hair and right cheek, repeatedly telling him that everything is ok now and he should just relax until I freed him.
He looked at me in a way I couldn´t interpret but told me later that it was a mix of being immensely relieved to see me, the shock from what has happened and shame and embarrassment that I saw him like that and especially saw the extent of the bullying.
I opened the drain with my free right hand but continued holding him with my other hand to make him feel safe and less uncomfortable. I started to undo the knot which connected his ankles to the showerhead with my free hand. It took a while but I didn´t want to let go of his shoulders, so I had to do it with one hand. When I finally managed to untie the knot, his legs just hit the hard bathtub floor unbraked. He had not enough strength left to lower them softly which made him whine in pain into his gag.
“I´m sorry Max, I didn´t mean to hurt you. Let´s get you out of here quickly.” – I apologised for not catching his legs. The only reply I received, was some weak moaning into his gag and a faint nod of his head.
I kept my left arm around his shoulders and put my right one under his knees and lifted him out of the bathtub, standing him right next to it. But, when I knelt down next to him to untie his ankle ropes, he lost his strength completely and fell face forward into the direction of the sink. I was barely able to catch him before his head would´ve hit the sink, hitting the sink with my own head instead (but, luckily, neither the sink nor my head suffered permanent damage
).I´m still not sure if hitting the sink with my head, the following pain or the fact that Max wasn´t in actual danger anymore was the reason for me to be able again to think clearly about what exactly happened that lead to this situation. But, in the same moment the shock disappeared, it was already replaced by pure anger. I was still focused on helping Max, but the thought of revenge for what they did, and at the same time making sure that something like that would never happen again, started to become more and more important to me, slowly displacing everything else.
Slowly I laid Max down on his side, knelt next to his head and removed his gag. He didn´t even try to spit the socks out by himself and just opened his mouth for me to remove them. The moment his gag was removed, tears were welling up in his eyes again. He looked at me while he was still lying on his side and I could see that he was fighting his emotions really hard. I carefully put my right hand under his head and used my left one to lift his upper body to pull him closer and let him rest his head on my legs. Then I said to him in my softest voice “Max, it´s ok. No need to hold back. Just let it go.”. After that, it took only about 2 seconds and the emotions, he was holding in for probably more than half a year, just burst out of him like a waterfall. He started crying like never before.
“Why did they do this to me?! Why are they always doing those things to me?!” he nearly screamed in a cracking voice and started crying again. I lifted him further up and hugged him tightly so that he could rest his chin on my shoulder. His arms were still tied, so he couldn’t hug me back, nevertheless, I could feel that he wanted to do it quite badly at this moment. I looked at that sobbing mess that should be my little Max and felt really sorry for him, but this feeling was quickly completely suppressed by another one… pure rage.
I was so engrossed in my thoughts about what I would do to those two when I would find them that I didn´t notice how I started hugging Max a little too tightly. “Ow ow ow! Mark that hurts, you are breaking me apart!” he complained, which woke me up again.
“I´m sorry, are you ok?” – I asked and stopped hugging him so that he was just leaning against my shoulder.
“I´m alive, I guess.” – he said, trying to muster his usual cheeky smile. “But I´m so cold…”- he added and I noticed that he was still shaking the whole time.
I leaned over to the sink, grabbed a towel and quickly started rubbing him dry. At least, he wasn´t wet anymore (besides his underwear of course) but he was still slightly shaking. I started my second try at finding the stupid knot on the bindings that imprisoned his wrists and arms but after about 2 minutes of fruitless searching, he stopped me: “Mark, I´m really cold. I don´t care about the ropes. Can you just help me to lie down in my bed, so I can get a little warmer again, please?”
“Of course, just one second.” – I said and quickly untied the rope around his ankles and ripped the tape on his legs.
Of course, I would help him to get warmer again. I didn´t try looking for the knot again and just picked him up to carry him over to his room. He wasn´t even complaining, even though, he could´ve walked the way himself (at least in theory) after I freed his legs. When I reached his room, with him in my arms, I could see some of the marks from his fight against those two bullies. I guess, I´m really too overprotective but I feel for him like he was my little brother and I just want to protect him. When I saw those scratches, the rage immediately overcame me again. He got quite a scared expression when he looked at my face at that moment. It wasn´t hard to see how angry I was back then.
I put him on his bed and tugged him in while his arms were still tied in that boxtie. Before he could finish saying “Thank you”, I interrupted him quite unfriendly and harsh: “Where do they live?”
“No, Mark you can´t – “ he started to say but I interrupted him again, getting even angrier: “QUIET! Tell me their address right now!” I shouted which startled him. I never screamed at him like that and he never saw me that angry. I guess even I never saw myself that angry before.
“John and Jake Johnson…” he told me their names and address in a very low voice. When he was done, I gently ruffled his hair and stood up walking to his room´s door. But when I reached his door, he had already untangled himself from the blanket and stood in front of me, between me and the door, blocking the door with his body: “Mark, you are not yourself. I´ve never seen you that angry. Whatever you want to do, I´m sure you´ll regret it later and I would regret letting you go right now. Mark please stay with me and calm down a bit.”
“Max! Go back to bed right now, or I WILL tie you to it! I´m not in the mood to fool around like that!” – I said rather unfriendly.
“Then do what you got to do, I´m not moving!” – he said seriously, looking me right in the eyes.
“Ok, have it your way then.” – I said, grabbed him and threw him over my shoulder. Under heavy complaints from him, like “Mark you can´t do that!” “Stop it!” and more, I carried him to his bed and let him drop on it. Quickly turning around, I went to his closet and grabbed two belts that were lying on top of a pile of neatly folded jeans on one of his shelves. Turning back to him, I knelt down on his bed, grabbing his legs in a headlock, and wrapped one of the belts three times around his ankles buckling it tightly. He tried kicking me, but with his still tied arms, there was nothing that would´ve helped him. I wrapped the second belt three times around the first one in between his ankles to form a cinch before I wrapped it around one of the bed´s legs on the foot end and buckled it there. Probably my worst binding until now but I had other things in mind during that moment.
When I stood up, walking over to the door again, I looked back over my shoulder and saw him pulling his legs in an attempt to rip the belts apart with brute force. Of course, that didn´t work. “Mark, don´t…” I heard him saying when I closed the door behind me… „Sorry Max, but I have to do this…“ – I mumbled.
On my way to the home of those brats, I couldn´t get those pictures out of my head… how I found Max, the expression on his face… his tears… I was so angry that I didn´t know what I would do when I finally found them. When I finally reached my destination, I was prepared to fight with their parents if necessary. But, if I would´ve been in a calmer state, I would´ve noticed one little detail that didn´t fit in with those things Max had written in his diary. The house in front of me was… let´s say small and in a bad condition. Without knocking, I just entered through the front door, ready to get in trouble with their parents. But to my surprise… no one was there. When I entered through the only open door on the end of the small entrance, I found myself in the living room… with a snoring man, maybe about 45 years old, and a stench like being in an old run-down distillery. I thought I was at the wrong place, but then I heard the laughter of two boys on the upper floor.
I went up to the upper floor and quickly found their room. On the upper floor were only 3 rooms: one very small bathroom, their shared room and a little storage room, which was even smaller than the bathroom. Their door wasn´t fully closed, so when I hid next to their door, leaning against the wall, I could peek inside and listen to them.
“Hey Jake, remember that rich snob we beat up again earlier. This time, the look on his face was even more hilarious than usual.” – John, a probably 13 year- old announced proudly. Now it was out of the question that I was at the right place.
“Yeah… you´re right, John. He looked really scared… but don´t you think-“ – Jake, the 11-year-old brother, said but got directly interrupted: “No! We´ve already talked about it! You know why we are doing this! You are way too soft. That´s why I went back in… argh forget about it!”
“I´m not too soft!” – Jake complained and I could hear his steps coming dangerously close to the door.
“Hey, where are you going?!” – his brother John complained.
“Toilet, do you want to come with me or what?” – Jake answered annoyed.
I couldn´t hear his reply because I needed to hide as quickly as possible. I knew he was aiming for the bathroom, so I dashed into the little storage room on tiptoes to make sure he couldn´t hear me. Back then I didn´t know why he was so angry but he definitely slammed the door quite harshly before he entered the bathroom. It was the perfect opportunity.
Final Part (2/2)
Before I continue, I need to quickly describe the brothers. Both looked quite similar but John of course a bit taller and stronger. After all, he was nearly two years older than his brother. Both had short dark brown hair, styled quite similar to Max (a little shorter at the sides) but Jake spiked his hair up a little. Both of them wore blue jeans with a black leather belt and black socks. Jake was just wearing a white t-shirt while his older brother wore a brown zip-up hoody over his black t-shirt with some name of a band on it.
I leaned on the wall next to the bathroom door, so the door would hide me a little when open. Then the moment for my revenge finally came. Jake opened the door and when he was about to close it, I was standing in front of him. I don´t know what he thought at that moment, but his eyes were wide in fear at the sight of a strange man he couldn´t know. Before he had even the slightest chance to scream, I dashed forward pressing my hand over his mouth and grabbing his left arm with my other hand. I twisted his arm so that he was forced to turn around and I could pull his arm up between his shoulder blades keeping a steady pressure on it to make sure he couldn´t pull free from my grip, shoving him against the wall at the same time.
“One single word and I´ll break your arm, is that clear?!” – I hissed into his ear, twisting his arm a little further to make a point, which made him whimper a little in discomfort or pain. He nodded slightly to show me that he understood what I said.
“When I take my hand away, you´ll only talk when I ask you a question or give you permission to do so… or else…” – I said, increasing the pressure on his arm again for a second. I knew exactly where the point was that stood between uncomfortable but bearable and painful. That little twist pushed him over to the painful side, making him squeeze his eyes shut and whine again but also nodding violently.
My first question was quite simple: “Are you Jake Johnson?” – I asked when I took my hand away from his mouth.
He answered it with a simple “Yes” and nothing more which earned him a “Good boy” from my side.
“M-may I-i ask you a question?” – he stammered in a low voice, politely asking for permission to speak.
“Don´t forget who is in charge here! One single question nothing more!” – I barked quite unfriendly.
“I´m sorry. Who are you?” – he asked as silent as before.
“Remember what you did to Max?” – I asked looking him directly in the face while he craned his neck a little to see my face. He immediately went completely pale. You could see his eyes widen even more in fear of what I could do to him than before. It was clearly visible how angry I was and since I was referring to Max, it was quite obvious that I found out what they did to him during the past months. “You could say that I´m somewhat his big brother… and YOU and your brother are in big trouble!” – I added finally.
“Pleaargh!” – he tried to say ´please´ but since I gave him no permission to speak, he earned himself a hard twist on his arm. “Please noarggh oww!” – he tried it again with the same result.
“Did I give you permission to speak, huh? Try that again and I twist your arm until it breaks. You are so desperate to tell me something that I´m gonna give you one chance. What do you want to tell me so badly?” – I said.
“Please… do to me whatever you want, but don´t hurt my brother. He is everything I have.” – he pleaded. But I wasn´t in the mood to accept any pleading from a bully who hurt Max… but now that I knew about their brotherly bond, I found an easy way to make him and his brother John suffer for what they did.
“Not gonna happen, but you can try to beg your brother for help.” – I said and marched him to their bedroom door, forcing him to open it while still holding his arm up between his shoulder blades while my other hand held him on his shoulder. He tried his best to resist and begged me to stop, not forcing him to be seen like this by his brother but that fell on deaf ears. There was nothing he could do or say that would´ve stopped me back then.
The moment we entered their bedroom, I greeted John with a loud and teasing “Goooooood mooorniiing John. I got here something that belongs to you.” – I said presenting him his little brother.
“J-john run! He is completely aaargh ouch that hurts! Stop it aargh, you´re breaking my arm! Please!” – Jake tried to warn his brother but got interrupted when a short but sharp pain shot through his arm while I increased the pressure on it again.
“Jake, Jake, Jake my little bully. I can´t remember that I allowed you to speak. You know what that means, right? I warned you before.” – I said coldblooded.
“NO! STOP! DON´T! PLEASE! I won´t do it again! I won´t do it again, I´m begging you. Don´t! NOO! John HELP MEE, he wants to break my arm! JOHN PLEASE!” – he started screaming and thrashing around fighting me with all his strength… but an 11-year-old stood no chance. I was still as angry as before but breaking his arm for real was something that, even in that state, I would´ve never done. But letting them think I would do it was torture enough. That boy was probably scared like never before. But, Max was scared like never before too, after all, he thought he would drown. So, making him think I would break his arm is only fair, isn´t it?
“LET HIM GO! IMME- “ – John started shouting at me, starting to move in my direction. But one dead-serious look in combination with a good threat was enough to make him freeze completely:
“DON´T YOU DARE! One inch closer and I´ll break his arm, one word without permission and I break his arm, even the slightest sign of resistance and I´ll break his arm. Do you understand?!” – I commanded in a dead-serious voice.
His face wasn’t looking as scared as his brother´s but just extremely concerned. He was probably as worried about his brother as I was about Max. I was sure he would´ve done everything for Jake and I would use that against him.
“DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!” – I repeated myself even louder to which he replied with rapid nodding.
“At least you got one brain cell that is still working.” – I said plainly which, to my surprise, didn´t trigger a reaction from John but from his little brother.
“Shut up! My brother is the most caring- aaargh- and -OUUUCH- really the –OOOOOWWW ARGH- best brother in t-the w-world.” – Jake was defending his big brother with all his strength while I started to twist his arm probably as far as it could go without inflicting permanent damage to it to finally shut him up.
“JAKE! Stop defending me. He is dead-serious! Just keep quiet and let me settle this.” – John tried to make his brother stop in fear I would decide to break his arm for real.
“Well, well, well, that´s interesting. YOU want to settle this?? By breaking my rules too? It seems like you really love seeing your brother in pain, right John?”
“No, please don´t…” – he tried begging which was cut short when his brother winced and whimpered quickly when I gave his arm a little twist for a split second and said:
“Ah, ah, ah, you broke the rule directly again… you must really hate your little bro.”
“You broke my rules twice and your brother too. Normally I would break one limb for each time you disrespected my rules…” I started to say and could see how he lost the last bit of colour in his face. I got John exactly where I wanted him, completely desperate and helpless. “…BUT! Eventually, I´m willing to forget that you disrespected the rules IF you accept any punishment and finally show your little brother how pathetic you are for real.” – I added.
Of course, he accepted to do everything I would order him to do. I wanted to destroy his pride completely, destroy the image of the strong big brother completely and finally leave them completely desperate and in steady fear that I could ever come back again.
“Strip! Everything but your underwear!” – I ordered. Jake gave me the best I´m gonna kill you look when I ordered his brother to do that but he didn´t dare to say anything. When I told him he has to watch his brother closely because he is doing this just because of him, he was docile again and probably even started to feel guilty.
“Kneel!” – was my next order for the now nearly naked big brother which he did immediately. With that, I could feel the last bit of fighting spirit in little Jake dying when he saw his strong big brother kneeling like that in front of a stranger.
“By the way, bad idea to steal Max´s stuff. But that comes in quite handy at the moment.” – I said smirking devilishly, pointing over to Max´s bag of tie-up stuff he originally wanted to bring over to his house. Jake already knew why I was there but for John, it was completely new. He lost even more colour but other than that didn´t react at all when he heard Max´s name.
Next, I ordered him to collect one pair of normal handcuffs, one pair of hinged handcuffs, a chain and two locks, which he did without saying a word. The locks weren´t closed so he could use them without the keys. I don´t know why I put the keyring in my pocket this morning but I still had it with me. Even if not, I would´ve forced him to tie himself up and left him after I scared and humiliated him even more.
“Cuff your hands behind your back with the normal handcuffs. No, the other ones! THE OTHER ONES!!! Those with the chain… idiot… Make them as tight as possible!” – I ordered.
“It hurts my wrists if I make them tighter than that!” – he started to complain but that didn´t bother me at all.
“I don´t care if it hurts your wrists, you didn´t care when you hurt Max and nearly killed him too!” – I barked coldly.
“Wait a minute! We pulled a mean prank on him and he was probably pretty cold when he got found but that´s definitely not enough to put his life in danger! Maybe we went a little bit too far this time but it was just a cold shower, nothing more! If he would´ve been there for hours, maybe he could suffer hypothermia but we just left him maybe one hour ago!” – Jake started to discuss, straining slightly against my grip.
“So you think that CLOSING THE DRAIN WON´T PUT HIS LIFE IN DANGER AFTER YOU TIED HIM IN A WAY WHERE HIS HEAD WON´T REACH ABOVE THE EDGE OF THE BATHTUB?!!!! – I started screaming at him. How can someone be that irresponsible and not able to think even the slightest bit forward?
“Stop! Stop! Stop! We never closed that stupid drain! When I left the room it was definitely still open! Right, John? John…?” – Jake wanted some confirmation from his brother… but John was just looking sideways on the ground, not daring to make eye contact with his brother.
“I… It was… I just thought that… You know, it shouldn´t… I only wanted… Oh crap, I just wanted him to lie with his upper body in the cold water too! I never thought that… I… I never thought it could turn out like that, I just didn´t think that far ahead!” – John stammered nervous and probably embarrassed that he made such a huge mistake in front of his brother.
“Are you completely mental?! I know that you don´t want to hear that, but lately, it just started to escalate completely! Are you actually really trying to kill him or what? You´ve become more and more like those guys in our last school! This mess we are in now is all your fault!” – Jake started arguing.
“Shut up! Both of you! I don´t care which one of you did or didn´t do that! You´ve got more than half a year to think about what you are doing to him all the time! And now it´s time to pay for that!” – I barked as unfriendly and cold as all the time since I came to their house. At least, they knew now why I was that angry but also that I would make them pay for what they did. Their eyes lost all their fighting spirit. They probably just clung to their hope that it wouldn´t take too long and be not too painful.
“John, take those other cuffs and –“ - I started to give John a new order but winced when their room´s door was suddenly harshly slammed open.
“What the f*** are you doing?! Stop that! That´s completely ridiculous! It´s not gonna help anyone, when you´re becoming a bully yourself, Mark!” – a sweaty and panting Max shouted, standing in the doorway of their room, dressed in his jeans, a t-shirt and shoes. He got dressed in what he could grab quickly right before running over here as fast as he could, not caring that he wasn´t wearing a belt or socks. It was more important to him to get as fast over here as he could.
“What?! How did you manage to do that? I´m pretty sure I tied you to your bed before I left! And by the way, it´s definitely gonna help! I´ll make sure that those two are never daring to bully anyone again in their entire life. Even if I have to break their arms and legs for that. I don´t care about that at all! Enough is enough!” – I unfriendly shouted at him which seemed to startle him a bit.
“Are you still hearing what you are saying? That´s just not you. You´re are not yourself right now! Please, Mark, stop that nonsense.” – Max started begging.
“No, I won´t! Someone is definitely going to pay for what happened!” – I said plainly.
“Ok, then it´s me. I´ll take their punishment. I won´t let someone suffer just because of me and I won´t let you become a bully because of that either!” – Max said.
“Slowly I´ve had enough of your ´I want to save everyone and nobody should feel bad because of me´-attitude. You CAN´T save and protect everyone! If you can´t understand that, you have to learn it the hard way! Go on, try to take their punishment but you know that you won´t be able to bear that! You know that as much as I do! You can probably guess what I wanted to do to him, or better force him to do to himself. So, do it, you brave guy!” – I said rather harshly.
I don´t know exactly why it made me so angry, but it just happened that I got angry at him because he wanted to help even his bullies. Normally I should be proud that he acts like that, but at this very moment, it made me angry.
He simply gave me a resolute look, went over to John and took the other pair of handcuffs (the hinged ones, since John already wore the normal ones), the chain and the locks that were lying next to him. Next, he went to his bag looking through all his stuff. It took a moment until he realised that John already wore the cuffs that he would need. But, he was determined to help them, so he took a pair of speedcuffs out of his bag instead.
He wanted to start by cuffing his ankles when I stopped him:
“You forgot something.” – I said and nodded over to John, who was still only wearing his underwear.
“Really?!” – he answered annoyed and just dropped the cuffs and other stuff he was still holding and quickly took his shirt off.
“Max… You don´t need to do this – argh –“ Jake started to say while Max continued undressing but a quick twist on his arm reminded him to stay quiet.
“Mark, stop that! You got the wrong one anyway. Without Jake, I would´ve spent a whole weekend in my wet shorts, cramped into my locker. He let me out after his brother was gone. So, I´m basically just doing the same for him right now. Just stop hurting him, I said that I take their punishment. That way I´m also finally even with him.” – Max spoke in a very serious way. John gave his brother an angry look but didn´t react to that at all.
“Ok as you wish, I won´t hurt him anymore as long as you take their punishment.” – I said and loosened my grip on Jake´s arm a little bit which he reacted to with a sigh of relief.
In the meantime, Max was completely undressed only wearing his boxer briefs. He sat down and started cuffing his ankles together with the speedcuffs. Then, he wrapped the chain one time around the middle part of the hinged handcuffs (that he would later use on his wrists) and locked it with one of the locks.
“W-what exactly is he doing there and why does he know what you´ve had planned for us?” – Jake said slightly worried. It seemed like Jake wasn´t as bad as I thought but he was definitely one of the two bullies, so my sympathy for him was limited.
Watching Max sacrificing himself for those two, somehow started to bring my normal self back. At least, I could think clearly again. I didn´t want to tell them that Max likes to play those games, even though I already might´ve said too much earlier when I told them that this stuff was all his. So I simply said, which is true even though it´s not the whole truth: “Because I´m his babysitter and a tied up kid is a lot easier to babysit than a free one. I might have gone a bit too far yesterday and put him into a position which hurt him so much that it made him cry, which is basically the first time ever that I saw him cry.”
“Wait! You made him cry?? Max? I´m trying to do that for half a year now and I´ve never accomplished that. I can´t believe that rich snob would do something to himself that actually had already made him cry once and additionally in front of us and especially for us.” – John said, which would´ve probably made me do things to him which I would regret later if he would´ve said something like that a few minutes earlier.
In the meantime, Max had already cuffed his wrists behind his back and was lying on his belly starting to wrap the chain one time around the speedcuffs on his ankles while holding the other lock in his right hand.
“Well, you know not much about Max, don´t you?” – I said quite calmly in a slightly comforting voice. I definitely was my old self again now.
“He´s a rich snob who abandoned his friends. Just because his dad is going on business trips all the time and his mom got suddenly a leading position. With all that money, he wasn´t needing his friends anymore and started to believe that he is better than everyone else! He started to avoid those ´inferior low-class scums´!” – John explained his definitely wrong image about Max which triggered a scared look from Jake up to me in case I would take that provocative statement as a reason to finally break his arm. But, I wasn´t that angry anymore, at least, not enough to harm them in any way now. I just wanted to show them Max´s real character.
Max was starting to grunt in discomfort before I could answer John´s comment. He had already pulled the chain taught and it looked like he was trying to make it even tighter than I did when I accidentally made him cry at the beginning of our story. John, with his hands still cuffed behind his back, looked at him in disbelieve that he would go that far for them and Jake even tried to persuade him to stop:
“Max, stop that! That looks REALLY painful. You don´t need to go this far! It´s our fault and we have to pay for that, not you!” – Jake said which earned him some concerned look from John that said as much as ´I certainly don´t want to go through this, so just be quiet!´.
After a quick “clicking-sound” from the lock, Max answered: “I -argh--won´t let anyone -ouch- suffer because of me! Never! I said that I -ow- would take your punishment, and… ow ouch it feels even more painful than last time… and I won´t get back on my word!”
Even though Jake tried to suppress it, he had to giggle about the last sentence and said “Did you just stole that phrase from Naruto?” which made Max blush a bit and looking in another direction.
“How long does he have to stay like this?” – Jake asked me rather worried while I was still holding his arm loosely behind his back.
“He wanted to take your punishment and I planned on leaving you like that until someone would find you, so I guess he stays like this until that drunk guy down there is going to wake up and help him.” – I tried to say as coldly as possible. It seemed not to worry Max, he had already decided to take the punishment no matter how painful it would be or how long it would take.
John on the other side wasn´t believing that Max would really go through this to help them and said: “Never! He would never go through this for us. He is surely just trying to show off right now. He would never sacrifice anything for anyone else. I´m sure of that.”
“It seems like you know a lot about Max… did his ´friends´ tell you this?” – I asked, indicating quotes around the word “friends” with my free hand.
“His abandoned friends.” – he added.
“Okay, I guess I´ll have to tell you something about Max which you and his so-called friends don´t know about him… and his dad.” – I said which immediately caused heavy protest from Max.
“NOOO! Mark, NO! You´re not going to tell them anything about it! Mark! I swear! I went through all of this because I didn´t want–“ – he tried to complain but got interrupted by myself:
“Oh come on, it´s enough now. You´ve hurt yourself enough with that. You kept that secret long enough and I´m sure it´s not gonna harm you or anyone else when they find out about the truth. I even believe it´s going to help all of you. --- Jake, don´t move, is that clear?” – I said to Max and commanded Jake to stay still before I let go of his arm and went over to Max´s bag.
I went to Max´s bag, grabbed his ballgag and quickly forced it into his mouth, buckling it tightly and even locked it with a small lock, before he had the chance to protest any further. Finally, I added the words: “I guess, you´ve earned the right to remain silent.”
“MMMMMMMMPPPHHH MMMMPHH-MMMPH!” – Max screamed shaking his head.
“Back to business” – I said going back to Jake, who willingly put his hand behind his back again, but there was no reason anymore to hold him like that, so I just stood behind him and continued: “I´ll give you a short version because I believe that Max won´t be able to take that position much longer and I´m sure you´ll see him from another perspective after that. Max´s dad isn´t on business trips, he died a few years ago and Max didn´t abandon his friends, he was just worried that they are feeling bad or are trying to help him too much if they would know that, so he never told them the truth…” – I explained them in about 5 minutes the whole story. In the beginning, under heavy protest from Max, who started thrashing around like an animal who was about to get slaughtered but after a while, he accepted that he couldn´t stop me from telling them the truth and just lay there trying to bear the slowly increasing pain in his wrists and back. While I told them the whole story, you could see how the colour left their faces and they became nearly as pale as ghosts. Their gaze wandering between me and Max who got more and more uncomfortable in his self-inflicted way too tight hogtie.
When I finally finished the short story, there was some awkward silence until John said in a slightly cracking voice: “He… he rather let himself getting bullied than making others feel bad because of him or even worry about him? T-that means… we… we bullied him all the time for something he never did? F-fo-for half a year?”
“Yep, you did exactly that. And you went even that far that he thought about jumping right in front of a bus.” – I added and already made my way to their door. They just stood or knelt there looking at Max in complete helplessness and confusion, still trying to process the information they just received while Max was trying his best to endure that uncomfortable position.
“I guess I leave you guys alone for now. See you later, Max.” – I said. I never planned on just leaving, I definitely wanted to free Max before or give them the keys to free him but I wanted to see their reaction and if they changed after knowing the truth.
“Wait! You can´t leave him like that!” – they said in unison.
“I guess, I can. HE wanted to take your punishment. It wasn´t my idea, so I AM definitely not freeing him. But, if you really want to help him, do it yourself. You have to talk anyway.” – I said and threw the keyring over to Jake who caught it and ran over to John to free him first but, to my surprise, he declined: “No, not me. I´m not important right now. Help me to get him onto my knees to get the pressure off of his wrists and then look for the keys for those stupid locks.”
I just had to smile a little bit at the sight of the former bullies caring about Max like that. Max on the other hand had a look of complete confusion visible all over his face. I went out of the room and leaned against the wall right next to their room, listening to them for a while and getting sure they really won´t continue bullying him right after I left. After they freed him from the hogtie and the handcuffs on his wrists, he tried to get the ballgag out immediately, but with the lock it was impossible. John told him, he would remove the gag, but Max had to wait until he was finished with talking because he didn´t want to get interrupted. To get sure Max wouldn´t just run away, he forbid his younger brother to remove the cuffs around Max´s ankles until he was finished.
John continued explaining to him that he was really sorry and explained their own background, not as a justification but he wanted him to know why he did it exactly. He told him that his dad lost his job, because of that he got divorced and their mother had no interest in them at all and just left. She originally married their dad only because of his money, she never really loved them. In their previous school, they were quite popular but the only thing that mattered there was how much money someone had. So after they couldn´t afford the latest fashion and styles anymore they got mercilessly bullied. John couldn´t take it anymore to see his brother suffer that much and finally found a way how they could switch schools. On the new school (Max´s school) they pretended they had a lot of money but in reality saved money wherever they could, only to keep that faked image alive. After someone told him there, that Max was just a rich kid who abandoned his friends because he now owned a lot of money, he got immediately reminded of everything that happened to Jake and him and started to bully Max.
After they were finished talking, they started to look for the key to unlock Max´s gag and the collar. In the meantime, I went downstairs to wait for him in front of the house. I started to get scared that, after I told them everything, he would never talk to me again but when he came out of the building, carrying his bag of stuff, he just said: “Thank you, Mark… you really saved me.”
Then he gave me a tight hug but before we went home he added “But! You told them my secret so you are carrying my bag and you owe me something in the future.” It was ok with me, he would get whatever he wants when the time comes.
During the next month, many things happened and changed. First of all, John visited Max´s class and together with his brother apologised to Max in front of the whole class. They then told Max´s classmates (even though most of his classmates knew that already) and his class teacher what they did to him over the past half-year. They were suspended for three weeks but Max prevented worse, so they were allowed to stay at that school and had not to switch to a special school for kids who are difficult to educate. After some persuasion from his former bullies, Max told the truth about his dad and the whole story of how he felt all the time in front of his class. I was correct in assuming that he really told nobody about it, even his class teacher didn´t know anything about it and seemed quite shocked. They even visited Max´s mom and told her that they bullied her son for a long time and apologised to her too. On my advice, they left many details out which was definitely better for them and for Max. In the end, Max even managed to convince her that everything was mostly based on the fact that their dad lost his job. After some long talk between them and an even longer talk between her and their dad, who wasn´t that bad when he wasn´t drunk, she helped him find a job in the same company she worked for. Also, during that month, nobody tried to touch Max again and their attitude towards him changed a lot… somehow two well-known bullies in his school seemed to have announced that everyone who would harm him would get bullied by them mercilessly… I even saw Max one day when he was just saying goodbye to Jake who had visited him. Maybe they become something like friends in the future? Who knows? The only thing I know is that I´m still playing some games involving ropes and other stuff with Max and I still owe him a favour…
THE END
Next Story about Mark and Max
Stuck at home
. Given that this story had its sad moments, you nailed the ending. I was pleased to see Max's bullying come to an end and for the bullies to own up to it like they did (even if they had to be persuade a bit). 
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