An 'X'mas Carol Part Two, Chapter 14
By Jaech Reiter
jaech_reiter@yahoo.co.uk

Copyright 2011 by Jaech Reiter, all rights reserved

A Christmas and New Year's Eve Story Challenge Entry

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This story is intended for ADULTS ONLY. It contains explicit depictions of sexual activity involving minors. If you are not of a legal age in your locality to view such material or if such material does not appeal to you, do not read further, and do not save this story.
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Part Two, Chapter 14

The three younger boys all showed their injuries well; and two of the boys were bleeding. They didn't have to work hard to fake it, either. Ben had been quick but brutal.

Two of the three younger boys were still moaning and flat on their backs when the cops working the Carnival that night arrived, and with the three older boys holding Ben down, it looked like an open and shut case of the-Offender-went-crazy and attacked-three-younger-boys, which is certainly the way Reggie made it out, as he was the first of the three to get back up. Tim had slipped away when no one was looking, so when Ben's friends tried to set the record a bit straighter, Reggie just made it out that they were protecting their crazy friend and made up the story of the fourth boy-victim.

"No, his little brother was here," Sam stepped up.

"But was he being picked on?"

"I . . . ." What happened with Michael had Sam overly cautious. He wasn't so sure he wanted to stick his neck out for Ben. "I don't know for sure, but it looked like it."

"That's a pretty serious accusation young man, especially when the naked boy is the one with a history of bullying his little brother." The police had already scanned the microchip in Ben's collar' dog tag and had all the information on him. He was in Juvie for bullying his brother, was upgraded for being insolent to the judge, made a scene at the indoor shopping mall out in the County (the security gaurds had entered that one. The Nudie Juvie laws didn't make their jobs any easier, and they got no extra pay for their work. Entering this into the official record was their way of getting a small and petty revenge.), showed up late for his appointed spanking, didn't register with Carnival for work like he was supposed to . . . . . it was pretty lopsided as to who to trust.

And Reggie's dad was a successful and well-connected lawyer and businessman. This particular policeman didn't like the Whitaker family, but he didn't particularly want to cross them either. But if the Minder of this Offender was willing to strike out and make the accusation . . . . .

But Sam wasn't. He withered under the stares of everyone. He was only 11 after all. Almost 12. But still 11.

"I didn't accuse them . . . . I just said . . . . . . maybe it looked like it."

Reggie snorted scornfully at the weak response. He got a glare from the arresting officer, but he failed to notice. Meanwhile Ben was standing there in both shame and anger, his arms handcuffed behind him. The police didn't bother with saying 'Hands Up!' or even 'Hands Behind Your Back!' or anything. As soon as his friends moved off him, the police were on him, performed an erment release of the collar-cuff attachment and had him criminally cuffed and jerked upward and onto his feet. But Ben was far from pleased that these punks were getting away with this, and he said so. In fact he had been saying so, until the main officer reached into his pocket and held something up in front of Ben's face.

"You see this? You see what this is, son? This here is a freebie that Fisher Industries handed out to a few of the police that have to deal with Nudie Juvie Offenders, if the need exists, because for anyone Level One and up, there's a standing order to allow us to use it."

But Ben just shook his head. He had read the rules. They weren't supposed to use anal devices. Maybe the punishment sessions had a special exception; he still didn't understand that. But they couldn't just do it out here cause they wanted to. Not at his level. Not for a first offender . . . --- although, technically he wasn't too sure how he counted anymore as first or second offender. But still . . . . . .

This rubbery device, also in the realistic shape of a dick, down to color and veins and shaft and head and everything, was shorter than the Well-Wisher, being only 3 inches long, maybe just a tad under, but it was THICK. Real Thick. It had straps going off the base of it, as well. Ben wasn't sure what those were for, but he was pretty certain they couldn't put that up his ass.

Ben was still staring at the penis-object in the officer's hand and trying to move backward away from it, and he protested: "N-n-no, th-the . . . the r-rules say y-you can't p-put stuff up m-my butt. I'm only a L-level 1a. T-tell'em, Sam! P-please!"

"He's right," Sam finally found his voice. This part, after all, was his job. He was supposed to be Ben's protector as his jailer/punisher. "You aren't allowed to use anal devices. Not even the police."

"I'm aware of that, son," The officer addressed Sam, smiling a bit, because after years of experience he could tell the boy was trying hard to put up a front, but in reality was about to piss his pants. "And I am proud of you for standing up to me on the rules. You're doing a good job as a Minder. But this here isn't for the butt. It's for motor mouth here. It's a penis gag."

"A wha---nngaannghhhh...."

When Ben relaxed his guard to reflexively ask, in a way, for clarification, the officer just shoved it straight in and pulled the straps around back to secure it in his mouth. It completely filled and stretched his mouth, to point he didn't think he could go wider and he could feel the tip of the penis head just hinting at the back of his mouth, teasing the entrance to his throat.

"My advice, you best start sucking on that dick-gag or you'll start coughing on your own saliva. And if we have to pull it out because you were choking, then we'll get special permission from the judge to put it up your butt and THEN in your mouth. Got it, boy?"

Several boys in the crowd that had since gathered started up a chorus of 'ewww' and 'gross', but Ben got it, and he tried to say 'yes, sir' while he figured out how to suck this thing.

"And if I see any teeth marks in that thing, I'll turn you over to the Inductor for a few rounds with the paddle and one of the Encouragers."

"MMNNNMMNNN!!!"

He was trying to indicate 'no' to the officer, please not that, but a boy in the audience deliberately misinterpreted Ben's moans of 'no'.

"Hey, sounds like Scruggs really likes the taste of that dick!"

This got a laugh from nearly everybody. He not only had to suck the thick dick to keep the saliva flowing down the right opening, but to get it clear of his throat, which was a most uncomfortable feeling, one that really threatened to trigger his gag reflex, he had to perform a more complicated maneuver of pushing it forward while still trying to suck down the length of it. This combined with the efforts of keeping his teeth off the penis surface, made it look like he was truly relishing the pickle tickle of his throat, like he couldn't get enough of it.

"Oh, gross dude! Malcolm's right!! Scruggs really does like dick in his mouth!"

Ben wanted to turn red, and he wanted to cry, but he was concentrating so hard on swallowing and on getting use to this thing in his mouth, that even his reactions were distracted. But plenty of other boys found it funny, though just as many found it disgusting and could almost feel their own gag reflexes being triggered.

Jack and Noah were among those boys with disgusted looks frozen on their faces, looking for all the world like they were going to vomit.

"Damn it!" Tom said quietly as the three boys were now off to the side a bit.

"What?" Jack asked him.

"If those little pricks weren't getting away with this, then we could be laughing at Ben, too."

He didn't mean it mean; but Jack still slapped the back of his head.

"What?? I was just saying . . ."

"Are you fucking insane, Tom?" Noah whispered over to the blonder, slower boy. "It's a dick they put in his mouth! He has to suck on it! What the hell is funny about that?"

Tom looked back at their friend, Ben, still working his oral muscles on the artificial stay-in-place intruder. Very quickly the look on his face matched his other two friends, and even he could feel the vomit rising in his stomach. "Oh yeah, you're right, dude. . . . . . it's fucking sick!"

"Besides that," Jack said, "He's getting arrested, Tom. Geez. Start clueing in to stuff, why don't you?"

"Saaah-reee." Tom said sarcastically. "I was --"

"--- just saying." Jack and Noah finished with a sigh.

Tom. You had to love him. He had his moments whenever he woke up out of Tomland.

At this point, the police started leading Ben away, and a sizable portion of the crowd followed them to the front of the Carnival, despite half-hearted attempts by the officers to get the kids and adults to return to the fun of the Carnival, that this particular attraction was closed. Reggie was one of the ones that followed. It was a triumphal march, of sorts, for him. Jack, Tom, and Noah didn't have the heart. They weren't too sure if it was the whole penis-put-into-the-mouth-of-one-of-their-friends that made them lose all their get up and go. It certainly made the three boys a bit queasy.

"Fuck." Tome said. "Damn if I'm not gonna stay out of all trouble now."

"Got that right," Noah seconded.

Jack meanwhile was thinking about that I-Pod Mini that he stole. Well, both of the ones he stole. Even though it had been Ben's idea, and Ben had one of them, it was still Jack that did it. His stomach went from moderately nauseous to cramping up. What if Ben cracked and told the authorities? Holy shit. What kind of trouble was Jack looking at?

"Jack, dude, are you all right?"

"Yeah. I just don't think I'm up for any more of the Carnival."

"Yeah. I heard that." Noah agreed.

"Anybody wanna get some cotton candy before we go?"

Jack and Noah gave Tom looks of wonder mixed with homicidal intent (in the ways that only the closest of friends can).

"Wha--? . . . . . I'm just . . . . . . . . . aagghhh . . . . . . . . . . come on . . . it's cotton candy!"

Meanwhile, up at the front entrance to the Carnival, a police car had pulled up and the officers were about to put Ben in the car when another boy his age stepped forward. He was even in classes with this boy.

"Hey, what happened to Ben? Why is he . . . . . . . why . . . uh . . . . . . where are you taking him?"

"That's none of your concern, lad, unless you feel compelled to join him."

Some of the boys around laughed at Jeremy Gallagher, though not because of who he was, just at the retort of the officer and the off chance that another boy could be stripped and humiliated like Ben Scruggs --- although it also gave each of them a wary, secret fear that it could be anyone of them.

"Come on, Jeremy, stay out of this one," his oldest brother, 16-year-old Keaton said, grabbing the boy's arm and pulling him back.

"Yeah, Jeremy, you should step away from this. Don't know what got in to you," his next older brother, 14-year-old Neal, said, also tugging at the boy, "but let's go ride the Twister again."

As an aside, the Gallagher boys were an interesting bunch worth knowing something about. The Gallagher boys were close. In general, they watched out for each other, played well together, and on the whole would have made the perfect 1950's TV family. They had clean mouths, for the most part; were respectful, virtually always, to an adult, at least. However, they could fight if they needed to, but didn't relish the thought of doing so. They made good grades, loved informal sports and pick-up games, were healthy, trim, and fit, and lived in a six bedroom house with their double income parents and an indoor Bearded Collie named Timber Doodle, which the boys often shortened to 'Timb', or sometimes 'Dood', depending on whether they wanted to call him onto their beds, or kick him off.

The boys were each almost exactly 18 months apart, owing to both a family tradition started by their grandparents and an unusual birth history in which only Keaton was born at nine months; the other three boys all came early at eight months. After Keaton was born, the Grandparents wisely knew that every new set of parents needed a get away after those first few months of total dependence. So they said when the baby started cruising, so would the parents. Keaton started cruising at ten months, and the grandparents took him for five days and sent the parents on a four-day cruise to the Bahamas.

It was hard on the new parents, and they argued some about leaving on a second trip after their second son, Neal, started cruising, but the four day cruise to Alaska was fully refreshing. They felt free again for a brief time. So after Jeremy started cruising, again at ten months, they didn't argue the least about the cruise to Mexico. They had, however, definitely noticed the cruise/pregnancy pattern and decided that vacations didn't seem to agree, for some reason, with her devout birth control regimen. They thought that maybe it was the alcohol interfering with the birth control pills, since she never drank at home – and since they sort of became a bit hedonistic on these cruises. So this time, they took a long a couple packs of condoms for double duty on the birth control.

Well, four 12 packs, actually. But they later found out that alcohol tends to reduce the effectiveness of condoms as well. As in forgetting to use them. And so Luke was born. When Luke started cruising, Michael Gallagher got a vasectomy. And he and Julie went for a whole 8 days through the Baltic on the last cruise. And they fucked ------ a lot!

So now, Keaton was the oldest boy (and most responsible) at 16 years and 3 months. He was moving well into the 'girls, girls, girls' phase of adolescence, shy around them, sure, but secure in who he was. He was followed by Neal at 14 years and 9 months. Neal had the darkest hair of the bunch, and had had the latest onset of puberty, such that he looked closer to 14 than 15, by far; but he was still just as interested in girls as other boys his age. He wasn't as shy as Keaton, either, but also not as sure and secure in endeavors as was his older brother; but he was the more gregarious and popular in the school halls, in a calm, cool, and casual way.

Jeremy was next at 13 years and 3 months. His birthday came just ten days before Keaton, so there was a whole week and a half where the oldest boys were 13, 14, 15 respectively. Jeremy was the steadiest and most predictable of the four and the quietest, though certainly not a wallflower. But, ironically, he was the one most likely to be stirred by singular passions. And he held the highest standard of the boys for fairness, which was saying a lot for the Gallaghers.

Last of the boys was Luke, who was 11 years and 9 months old and often shared his birthday with the second oldest Neal, as the two were born 36 months and 36 hours, to the minute, apart. It was two different calendar days, one on the evening of the 9th and the other on the morning of the 11th, so they usually celebrated the No Man's Day in between. And Luke was the most rambunctious of the boys, though still a well-behaved kid. He was the most popular on the fields of play of all the boys and had the largest number of close friends. Keaton had no 'best' friend, but two semi-close friends that had been constant for years and years. Neal had a best friend since pre-school. Jeremy had several fairly close friends, but also kept it fairly fluid. Luke had 3 best friends from Kindergarten, as well as five or six other semi-close friends that he had kept since second grade (some from each of both of his trips through second grade).

Part of Luke's stronger attachments came from the fact that he had almost died during his first time in 2nd grade. A severe car accident broke 6 of his vertebrae, a hip, four ribs, both legs (in three places each), and nearly every bone in his right hand. The wreck should have killed him. It killed everyone else in the car. Maybe you could call him lucky, but it seems Death wasn't satisfied: the Paramedics couldn't get an IV started, and he almost bled out internally.

Once that was stabilized in surgery, and after they found out that, by a miracle, he wasn't actually paralyzed, he contracted meningitis from a tear in his spinal column near one of his lower back vertebrae. He went into a coma and almost died. Two weeks later, and after making a remarkable recovery, he got a blood infection from one of his lines that was supposed to have been pulled two days earlier; and back into the ICU he went. He went into shock. It took two hours to resuscitate him back to a stable condition, and he very nearly died several times.

But he recovered, and they got all the lines out. He was getting better, and two weeks later was expected to go home from the hospital. Then he got pneumonia. It got worse, and they brought in the big artillery antibiotics. He ended up on a ventilator for 3 days. On the second day, for most of the day, the doctors were fairly certain that he wasn't going to make it. The whole family was called in. Again. But he survived. The goal now was to get him OUT of the hospital before anything else tried to kill him. But over the next week they hadn't really noticed his urine was getting darker and falling off. The antibiotics, after receiving so many, had caused a kidney failure. It bumped up his potassium too high, which triggered an arrhythmia and, this time --- he did die.

His parents were in the Gift Shop with 10 year old Neal and 9 year old Jeremy getting Luke a 'going home' stuffed animal, when the pager went off on a doctor in line in front of them. He turned to his colleague and said, "It's a Code Blue in room 310, East Wing."

That was Luke's room!

His family took out after the doctors and almost overtook them. They never did pay for the stuffed animal.

It was 12 year old Keaton who had been in the room with his little brother when the boy seized up and seemed to have passed out. Keaton started screaming for help, and the first nurse that made it in realized that something was very terribly wrong and started CPR. The Code Blue team shocked his heart back into a rhythm and got his potassium down, but he still headed back to the ICU. After another 2 weeks, his kidneys had healed, his lungs were greatly improved, and he didn't have so much as an IV sticking in him. He also had a following of nurses that kept the absolute sharpest eye on everything this cute little seven year old boy would do. Not a one of them trusted Death to stay away and not try one more time. After all, sixth time's the charm, right? Or however many it was by this point.

But he eventually went home, and with the greatest of physical therapists, and an entire family dedicated at their core to treat him no differently than normal expectations (though that was very hard, at first), the boy healed totally, and completely. In the intervening years, he became a Lefty, became one of the fastest boys in his grade (which was easier since he had to repeat second grade and was thus a year older than all the other boys in his grade), and developed a love of tackle football, which at first deeply jarred and unnerved EVERY member of the Gallagher family. But all he ever broke again was a collar bone; and that completely healed as well.

Since that time the Gallaghers were a normal family, if normal could be said to be loving, cooperative, hard-working, lawful, respectful, happy, playful, laughing, perfectly kept yard and house, and involved from time to time in school and community events. And that was all the way to the core. So . . . . . not very normal. But secure.

Jeremy, however, did not want to be pulled away from his brothers, especially once he saw the smirking, sneering boy nearby that was watching the officers take the muzzled Ben away. Jeremy jerked his arms away from his older brothers and stepped back forward again.

"Why isn't he being arrested??" Jeremy asked, pointing at Reggie.

The officer was already in a bad mood, but for various reasons he was now just getting pissed. He took a step closer to Jeremy and told him, "I'm only going to say this once, and then you may find yourself as naked as this other boy: You better have a good reason, besides this boy being your friend, and I do get that, for continuing to interrupt us."

Jeremy didn't even blink or swallow. He had nothing to worry about. Ben wasn't actually his friend, but they knew each other and were on friendly terms. But that had nothing really to do with it.

"That boy was messing with Ben's little brother earlier, he and two other boys. All of them were bigger than Tim."

He didn't like the fact that the boys were ganging up on a smaller scared kid, but when he asked the little boy's name and found out it was so close to his own dog's name, well Jeremy had gotten even madder. But the officer thought this was just another 'half-witness' to the same event they were already handling.

"I see," the officer said, sighing, wondering if the other friends of Ben had set this up. "And I suppose this all took place about 20 minutes ago?"

"You mean they did it again??" Jeremy asked, his anger rising again.

"Again?" The officer was perplexed and looked back at the arrogant little Reggie. He sure would like to bust the boy. Back to Jeremy, he asked, "Son, what's your name?"

"Jeremy Gallagher."

"And you say this happened when?"

"A couple hours ago, about 6 or 6:30. They were shoving him around and making fun of the little kid."

"And what did you do?" The officer asked.

"I told them off and said if I saw them messing with another kid I would get the cops on them. I can identify the other two boys for you."

The officer nodded and then turned to Ben, while pointing at Jeremy, and said, "You see boy? This is the proper way to handle things. You say only what needs to be said and if that doesn't solve it, you get the proper authorities. Until you get that through your head, you don't deserve clothes again, got it?"

Ben tried to respond, but all he could concentrate on was sucking on the penis gag in his mouth. For which he was still enduring snickers and exclamations of disgust from the boys and girls in the crowd.

The officer turned back to Jeremy. "Was there another witness to this, Jeremy?"

"My little brother." Jeremy said as he turned around to get Luke.

"Oh, no you don't!" Neal's voice could be heard, catching the gradually escaping Luke and pushing him into the small clearing in the crowd.

"Keaton said to stay out of this," Luke protested.

"Well I was wrong," Keaton said, "Jeremy was right. Now tell the officer what you saw."

Luke leaned in and whispered into Jeremy's ear, "What are you doing, Jeremy? I gotta go to school with these kids!"

But Jeremy just pushed him off, unconcerned with Luke's concerns.

"Did you witness what your brother said, son?" The officer asked the younger Luke. "Were they teasing a smaller boy?"

"Yes, sir," Luke said reluctantly, only barely glancing at Reggie. He wasn't afraid of Reggie, but he didn't like the idea of getting classmates in trouble with the police, even if they did deserve it. But these boys really did deserve it; he knew that. "But they weren't just teasing the kid. They were tormenting him. They all go to my school. That's one of the others there."

Luke pointed at Caleb Harlan and said the boy's name. The officer recognized the boy as the one that had been moaning on the ground and holding his nuts a short while ago. He was still standing with a bit of a stoop, as if he were still suffering.

"The other kid was Johnny Weems. They're both in fourth grade. Reggie's in fifth grade with me."

The officer look more closely at Luke.

"You're only in fifth grade son? How old are you?"

"I'm 11. Be 12 in 3 months." Luke was about in the 75th percentile height and weight for his age, but 95th percentile for his grade.

"Aren't you a little old for fifth grade?"

Luke just shrugged his shoulders . He didn't know how to answer that one. Was he? Wasn't he? "Just a year, that's all. I had to repeat a grade."

The officer looked at him a bit more critically. Boys that 'had to' repeat a grade often spelled trouble.

"Have you been expelled or gotten into some serious trouble?"

If that was the case, the boy's testimony wasn't worth much. But something else also ticked at the back of the officer's brain. Something was familiar about this kid, and the 'had to' repeat a grade for some reason set off that itch back there.

"No sir. I was in a bad car accident in second grade." Luke answered him.

"Ho-leee . . . . . . . . . are you Luke Gallagher??"

"Yes, sir." Luke was a little nervous that the officer knew his first name. He didn't remember throwing it out.

The officer suddenly reached forward and shook the boy's hand. "Officer James Craigen, son. I worked that accident five or six years ago. That was a BAD accident. You shouldn't have lived, but I sure am glad to see how good you look now, boy! You're a tough son of a bitch to kill!"

The officer was clearly pleased to have run into Luke. This boy's word was gold for this officer. Anybody could have seen that.

"Thank you, sir. I think."

"Oh, you better believe it's a compliment. So you boys are willing to testify?"

"Yes, sir." Both of the younger Gallagher boys answered together, Jeremy confidently, and Luke a bit more reluctantly.

"That's good enough for me," the officer said, walking back over to Ben, who was still sucking on the penis gag, trying to get all that saliva swallowed before it built up to something unmanageable. Reggie and Caleb didn't look so sure and cocky at the moment. The officer pulled the penis gag out of Ben's mouth and asked him if he knew of the earlier incident.

"No, Ben started angrily (after he swallowed a couple of times, gag free), staring fiercely at Reggie Whitaker, "But if I had, I woulda---"

"Careful, boy," Officer Craigen warned, "unless you want me to put this back in?"

He held up the life-like penis gag so that everyone in the crowd could see the realness of the 'dick' and get a great laugh. Ben paled and shook his head 'no'.

"No, sir," he said more meekly, "Please don't do that."

"Officer!!" A woman broke through the crowd with a nine year old boy reluctantly in tow. It was Charlotte Scruggs, pulling young Tim behind her. "If my son is to be arrested, then I want that other boy going in, as well!"

She was pointing at Reggie Whitaker.

"Fuck you, lady," Reggie spat out without thinking; and he very quickly found himself thrown against the police car with his wrists bound behind him.

"I had already decided to take you in, boy; but you really need to learn some manners."

And as quick as that, a complaining 10 year old Reginald Whitaker found himself handcuffed and in the back of the police cruiser. 10 year old Caleb Harlan tried to escape through the crowd, but he was pushed back into the spotlight by several older boys and very quickly found himself in the same predicament in the back of the cruiser with his friend Reggie.

"In you go right beside them, Nudie Boy."

"Fucking Jeremy Gallagher, the prick. He'll get his."

"It's not Jeremy's fault you're in here. It's yours."

"Shut up, faggot, I wasn't talking to you."

Ben clenched his fist and very much felt the urge to walk across the holding cell and pummel Reggie into hamburger meat. But he relaxed and let it go. Just a 10 year old punk, that's all Reggie was. And Ben was almost 14. He didn't look it naked, but he was. He couldn't let Reggie get to him.

The snotty brat went on talking to his friend Caleb about how they were going to fix Jeremy good. He didn't mention Luke's name, and Caleb wouldn't have wanted him to. For many of the boys in their grade, Luke just disturbed them. Rumors had grown over the years, and the officer tonight inadvertently confirmed many of those. It was said that Luke had died at multiple times in his life, but that he always came back to life. And that was just creepy.

Like they would ever get the best of any of the Gallagher boys -- please. The Gallaghers were semi-pacifists to a point, but George Foreman looks like a peaceful man, too. The boys could fight; and every one of them, especially Jeremy and Keaton, could throw a hard punch. Very hard. And Luke could out wrestle most boys his age. Ben just snorted a laugh listening to Reggie fume.

"What's so funny, birthday boy?" Reggie said in a Han Solo-like challenge, but keeping his distance on the other side of the lock-up.

"You. You're pathetic."

Reggie's eyes narrowed, but he didn't have a reply. That one cut. It was a truth most bullies couldn't take. It was, ironically, where Ben had been heading in life. And in some ways had arrived, though the last few days had seen a major backpeddle. They sat there in silence staring each other down (Ben won), before Reggie came back with something to say.

"At least me and Caleb will be getting out of here tonight. Our dads can actually afford to pay bail. And yours . . . . . . . oh yeah . . . . . . . you don't got one."

Ben clenched his fist again.

"Hey, fart face," Caleb wasn't very original; he was definitely 10. And only by two months. "I bet your mom tries to pay bail with you guy's food stamps."

It wasn't particularly funny, but the two younger boys laughed and fist bumped. Ben suddenly jumped up and Reggie and Caleb scrambled back against the bars, calling frantically for the on-duty officer. Ben just laughed and sat back down.

"What's going on in here?" The officer bellowed as he came in.

"He's trying to beat us up again!!" Reggie squealed out as both he and Caleb pointed at Ben. They both looked quite a bit worried; except Ben was seated comfortably and had relaxed his fists and facial muscles. He didn't particularly look like he was about to do anything. He just looked at the officer and shrugged. The officer let out a sigh and told the two younger bullies to get off the bench, that their parents were here for them anyway.

"Guess food stamps don't work here," Caleb sneered at Ben, as the two boys left with the officer. Ben had had enough and immediately jumped up.

"I would advise against that, Benjamin." He heard a more authoritative voice call out, even as the two ten year olds flinched again. It was Judge Breeze. "Go on, Officer Fields, Get these other two back to their parents, while I talk with this other Offender."

"Yes, sir." The officer left with the boys, both of whom gave a backward look of superior disdain to poor Ben left in the holding pen.

"Ben Scruggs . . . . . . . you disappoint me greatly, boy. I am not happy with you in the least," Judge Breeze said. "Do you know where your mother is right now?"

"Trying to come up with my bail money?" Ben asked, miserably and somewhat ashamed.

"Bail money?" The judge said quietly to himself before laughing. "Oh . . . . you've been watching too much TV."

Judge Breeze came in to the holding cell and sat down next to Ben, still smiling and laughing a bit to himself, not that this made Ben feel any more comfortable.

"Oh, that's rich. Bail money . . . . . . Ha! No, Ben, you don't have to place bail. You're a minor for one, and you didn't commit any felonies. I also don't think you are stupid or cruel enough to run away. No, you're free to go when you're mom finishes the paperwork."

"So . . . . where is she?"

"Are you asking for yourself? Or because you are concerned about her?"

Ben stopped. It was a good question. How often did he think about her? He was trying harder, but this certainly didn't show it. "I guess both. Maybe more about me than I should, less about her than I should. Is she OK?"

Judge Breeze nodded – not to indicate that she was OK, but just that he was considering the boy, trying to see where in his assessment he should really place Ben.

"She'll be OK. Right now she's taking a private moment, blaming herself for your behavior problems."

"That's not fair!" Ben jumped up angrily, as if he had to defend her anew, "It's not her fault!!"

"Oh, I agree, Ben. It's not her fault; but I wish you could see yourself the way I do right now. To look at you. To see how you react with anger. Anger that you cannot control. Anger that you will not control. Does it remind you of anyone?"

Ben scowled and a dark foreboding came over his countenance. "I'm not like him."

He sat back down, but the darkness that had crept in stayed.

"Are you sure? I bet at one point in his life your dad was a sweet kid, or at least could have been. I bet he had plenty of opportunities to choose the right path. Maybe you're more like him than you realize."

Ben scowled even more. "I am not."

"Maybe," the judge said thoughtfully and gave the boy a few moments to let his emotions recover. "Do you think it's his fault you're like this?"

Ben wanted to nod 'yes,' but he found himself shaking his head 'no;' though in the end he simply shrugged his shoulders.

"I would be willing," the judge started, "to place much of the blame on your dad; except that he doesn't get to choose for you how you will respond to your punishments. You do that. He doesn't get to choose for you what kind of man you will become. You get to do that. He doesn't get to choose for you how you will treat your mother. You get to do that. And how do you think you will do making all of these choices when you cannot control your anger?"

Ben shrugged again. He guessed he was doing poorly after all.

"I asked you a question, Ben. That means you respond. A shrug is not a respectful response."

Ben looked up at the judge. "Sorry. . . . . I don't know. I guess not very good."

"Not very well. And I agree. So, in a way, you should be thankful that you have received this community correction."

"It's kind of hard to be thankful for all . . . . this . . . . uhm, your . . . uh . . . . ."

"Honor." Judge Breese smiled.

"Your honor. I mean . . . . being naked. Getting beaten. Being made fun of . . . . . ."

"Do you think you would have made any good changes in your life if we hadn't imposed these rules? Granted you came forward on your own, but initially without this punishment, what you have done?"

Ben had to think about that. The judge didn't know the real reason he had come forward. He didn't know about the spirit of Elias Marley, how the spirit showed him what he had done to his little brother, showed him, as well, how he had bought into the falsehood of his dad --- just because he was too scared to look into the truth --- and of course how the spirit extracted the heavy price of his nuts and dick until Ben agreed to the punishment. It was true that Ben wanted to change for his little brother and that that really had been the major driver in his willingness. But it was also true that the longer he waited, the smaller his dick and balls got, the smaller he got, and the less anyone around remembered him ever being pubertal. He may have agreed to postpone the restart of his puberty in favor of saving his brother, but to say the shrinking balls didn't play a 'big' role would be a patent lie.

But he definitely couldn't unfold that little bit of background to the judge. Not unless he wanted his anger problems to be attributed to a general psychiatric disorder, one in which his nakedness would be covered only by a straitjacket and a diaper. No thanks.

"I guess I would have just gotten worse."

"So are you thankful for your punishment?"

A cold shiver went through Ben that he just couldn't suppress. "I . . . . . I . . . . . want to be . . . . sort of . . . . . but . . . . . ."

Another shiver went through him as he thought about what had been done to him in just the last 12 hours.

"I'll accept that for now. But you have put me in a very awkward position, one in which I am most unhappy. And I fully blame your inability to come to grips with your anger issues."

"What awkward position?" Ben wasn't so sure he wanted to hear this, but then he suddenly thought of something else. "Wait, I thought you were away fishing?"

"Ahhh, so now we can actually quit feeling sorry for ourselves long enough to notice that other people have lives." The Judge said, and Ben blushed in shame that it took him this long to notice. "I was fishing, and relaxing, I might add, until I got a call that demanded my attention here."

"What call?" Ben sure hoped he wasn't the cause of this.

"A certain Martha Trent called me back to town. You remember her?"

Ben nodded. "Mr. and Mrs. Trent run the Old Curiosity Shop over in the open mall. They're giving me a job. She's really nice; is she OK?"

"She's a bit worked up. Well more than a bit. I told her I was fishing and that Judge Krum would take care of a certain matter, but she suggested that she would rearrange my . . . . . . . uh . . . . . fishing schedule . . ahem . . . if I didn't high-tail it over here and take care of this matter personally."

Ben half smiled. He had fairly good idea of the rearrangement that the Judge had censored.

"What got her so upset? I hope she's OK. I really like them both. At least I'm pretty sure I will, even though I . . . .uh . . . . have to do my work for them . . . . um . . . naked."

And he shivered again, even as he said it.

"And you got off easy on that," The judge said. "If I find out you held anything else back, don't think that even Martha will be able to save you from me, Ben. I didn't appreciate your lack of full honesty in my court by not revealing that stolen merchandise. As it is, though, what got her so upset was a certain 'attraction' at the fair. She didn't like what she saw initially, and she tried to ignore it, even though her and Neil's booth were not far from the Fisher Industries stage. She tried not to let it bother her, that is, until she heard your name called. Once she saw what they were doing to you, she immediately got on the phone to me."

"She did? For me?"

"She likes you. She believes you have promise; I might believe that, too, but you still have yet to prove it to me. At any rate, she let me know that if she didn't see me within the hour --- and it's a 90 minute drive to where I was at --- then she would come out and there and drag me back. And she would have, too."

"She did that . . . . for me . . . . ." Ben was still amazed. In awe that someone, someone besides Michael Dorritt, although that one was pretty much shot for now, actually believed in him, believed he was maybe even fully redeemable.

"She did. And when I got back, I saw just how much had gone awry with the program, in just a short time. I was upset with the Marley's for pushing to have you inducted, upset that you actually got inducted --- even though, despite the obvious reason of protecting your brother from having to watch, though I do get that, I might have actually given you a small induction for arguing with me, but definitely not used the Encouragers. And you should never have had an anal device inserted, though I was OK with a boy your age spanking you. There were a few other things that I would like to say I'm sorry had happened, but then you had to go ahead and ruin it and let your anger take over."

"I was protecting my brother!" Ben protested, though he took care to do it as respectfully as he could.

"No, you were not! If you had simply stepped between your brother and the other boys, you would have been protecting your little brother. If you had called him away to join you and your friends, then you would have been protecting him. If you had asked the manager of the hot dog stand to intervene, then you would have been protecting Tim. But you did not do any of these things, did you Ben?"

"No, sir."

"You took matters into your own hands, didn't you?"

"Yes, sir." Technically, his hands had been restricted to his collar, at least until he got wrestled into proper handcuffs by the police. But Ben knew what the judge meant. Now wasn't the time to be a smartass.

"Ben, I hope you can understand what you really did. I hope you will understand that you weren't protecting anyone. You let the situation stir up the remorse and anger of your own failings in life, and you used those emotions to attack three boys who are all over three years younger than you. What does that sound like the definition of?"

Ben shrugged, he was already feeling ashamed of himself, something he hadn't considered before. Perhaps because he had been too . . . . . . angry? "I don't know, sir."

"A bully, Ben. You were being a Bully. You were acting with anger from your own unresolved issues in life and using that to attack three weaker and younger boys. That's what a bully does."

Ben looked down with shame and more than a little defeat. He hadn't gotten very far in his attempts to shed this aspect of his life.

"Are you a Bully, Ben?"

"No, sir." Ben said quietly, but he felt the Judge's eyes boring into him, and he knew in his heart that not only was that not the answer Judge Breese was looking for, but it was also not the right answer. Ben started to cry as he changed his answer to: "Yes, sir?"

"Yes, sir, what?" The judge asked. "Tell me in a complete sentence, the way the rules of the JACKED code specify."

The Juvenile Act of Community Kouroi Examples Discipline that governed the NUDEP laws in Hampton County spelled out that truthful answers were required of offenders whenever they were questioned, and truth had to be stated in full sentences with all evidence or admission, especially if such was degrading or embarrassing to the offender.

"Yes, sir," he choked out, "I am a bully."

The boy cried even more then, and the judge gave him awhile for his tears of remorse and shame.

"But you don't want to be a bully, do you, Ben?"

"No, sir. I don't want to be one."

"Do you think some more time in the program would help you learn that?"

Ben felt the fear flowing through. More time in this horrid nightmare? Where he was barely able, even now, to continue through it standing up and staying conscious? Where his arms and mind ached after only the first two hours of the day, just by the effort he had to exert to keep from covering up, to keep from dying from humiliation on the spot?? More???

But he knew what the Judge was expecting. What his mother was wanting. And what these Christmas spirits, of whom he had still only met one, were most probably requiring. And, in truth, though he very much did not want it to be so, he knew what he himself needed. And that ached and frightened him the most.

"Yes, sir," Ben said quietly. "I think I need more time."

"More time naked, like this?"

"Yes, sir." Ben swallowed hard. He felt the fright of his answer charge his body and push it to that edge of needing to, but unable of, passing out. "More time like this. More time . . . n-n-n-- . . . . . . [he swallowed again] . . . . more time n- . . . naked."

"I agree. That's why, despite my being upset with the way things were handled when I left, and despite my initial misgivings that perhaps you have already suffered more than you were supposed to for the offenses, I am sentencing you to an entire week as a NUDEP offender."

Ben looked like he was about to pass out. Again.

Seven more days!!!????!!! That would mean . . . . . . . . at school . . . . . . .

"However, given what has happened so far, and given you initially consigned yourself voluntarily – though make no mistake, I believe you very much did belong in this program – I am willing to count your seven days as starting from Thursday morning when you stripped down at the bus stop. Of course, that will still mean several days at school."

At least it wasn't AS bad, but Ben still blanched further and weakly got out a "yes, sir." He wanted to ask what would happen to Reggie, Caleb, and Johnny for their part in tormenting his brother, but he wisely figured that this wasn't the time or place for that.

"I'm going to go a little further with this, Ben. As the point of this system is to encourage good behaviour as much as it is to punish bad behaviour, I'm going to give you something to work toward. If you get through tomorrow and Monday at school with no problems, whatsoever, then I will amend my verdict to be a school 'week', instead of a calendar 'week'. That means your punishment would end Tuesday morning, once you get on the bus, instead of Thursday. Deal?"

"Yes, sir!" He would still have to be naked all day at school on Monday and all morning at the bus stop on Tuesday, but he just couldn't think about that right now. It was, at the least, better than naked all day Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday!

"There is one other thing, however; and my hands are tied on this. Fighting on school or community property or at school or community events while under offender status, requires an automatic minimum increase of one sublevel. Two sublevels are the minimum, if blood is drawn or bones are broken. And you definitely drew blood. Since you started this morning as a L1b Offender, then you will be made a L2a Offender tonight and for the rest of your sentence."

Shit.

Ben's countenance fell again.

"Oh, and I should mention, an Alternate Punishment Area visit is mandatory beginning with Level 2a. Lucky for you, Sid Carton is already taking his son, Kyle, up to Seibert County to make use of their facilities tomorrow. Even though it's merely 'encouraged' for Kyle, Mr. Carton is treating it as mandatory. And Seibert County is a fairly harsh one to start off in. You'll see when you get there; you're going up with the Carton's, but Sam Marley will be your Minder, again. Let's go get you outfitted with your new bracelets."

Ben could barely move. But he knew better than to just sit there, as Judge Breese led the way back to the front of the station.