Rules For Spanking: MMF Bisexual Romance

by A. Anders

  I was touched. I didn’t think Brad had it in him. Wasn’t he all about self-interest? Or, did he sense a shift in power coming, and this was his way of ensuring that he was on the right side? Yeah, that sounded more like Brad.

  “This is the biggest bunch of crap I ever heard,” Gray announced. “What more do you two want? You said that everyone who gets eliminated dies and then less than a minute later, Thorin walks up. Obviously, we don’t. This is a game show. Nothing more.”

  With Brad behind me, I felt calm. “Are you gonna force Sam to do something that might kill him?”

  Gray’s fire dimmed. “I’m not forcing him anywhere.”

  “Good, then it’s up to him,” I concluded. I turned to Sam. “You know what I think. I think you should stay here. We’ll all stay in eyesight of each other and wait. If in two hours nothing has happened, then do what you want.”

  “What if there is a boat coming for me?” Sam asked hesitantly.

  “Then they’ll wait. If they leave, then you stay here for another day,” Brad said, finding his voice again.

  “Can I do that?”

  “Did you all get a set of rules that I didn’t?” I asked. “Because as far as I can tell, there are no rules.”

  “What’s it going to be, Sam?” Brad pressed.

  All eyes focused on Sam. His eyes dipped, searching for an answer. “Rose, what do you think?”

  That was a good question. What did Rose think? Sam and I weren’t the only ones wondering. Everyone turned to see what she would say.

  “I don’t know what’s going on,” she admitted.

  “It’s what I told you,” I said, suddenly wondering if tonight had guaranteed that I would be eliminated next.

  “I’ve watched three people who have been eliminated die. If you send him out there,” I said pointing toward the dock, “he might not come back.”

  “But, I don’t get it,” she continued. “Wasn’t Thorin eliminated?”

  “I can’t explain it. I just know what I saw,” I paused. “I really don’t think you should send him out there.”

  Rose remained quiet. Her eyes darted around, worried about something beyond what was going on here. “No. Don’t go anywhere. You should stay here.” Rose took a deep breath and looked at me. “For a couple of hours, right?”

  I nodded, yes.

  “Yeah. You don’t have to leave right away,” Rose confirmed.

  Sam’s pawn nudged him to follow it. We were all familiar with that nudge. It was like ignoring a dog that wanted to go for a walk. It was hard to not think about the consequences.

  Sam’s movement became stilted. He was nervous. “No. I’ll stay here.” Sam left his pawn and stood next to Brad.

  The three of us and Rose stared at the other guys. Only one of them had a firm opinion about what was going on, and he hissed at me like a snake.

  “Whatever,” Gray concluded before heading to the closest lounge chair.

  No one else commented. They all just stared at the four of us, expressing different levels of confusion. Eventually, everyone found a chair and got comfortable.

  “I’m sorry,” I told Rose in a hushed tone.

  “For what?”

  “Putting you in that position. I know how you feel about my theory,” I admitted, offering an apologetic smile.

  “No. You’re doing what you think is right. That’s just you being you, right?”

  Rose had tried to sound casual about it, but she didn’t make eye contact with me after that. It was obvious that she didn’t like what I had done. The question was, why not? It seemed like such a small compromise considering that a man’s life was at stake, even if it was just Spiritual Sam’s.

  It didn’t take long before the pawn’s persistence became annoying.

  “Stop it,” Sam said trying to push it off of his leg. “It won’t leave me alone.”

  “They’re programmed to keep trying until they get what they want,” I told him.

  Thorin injected himself into the conversation. “How do you know how they’re programmed?”

  “I worked with a model similar to it.”

  “As a corporate recruiter?” Brad added.

  “No. It was…” I considered how much I wanted to tell them about my life. “…before that.”

  “What were you before you were a corporate recruiter?” Thorin persisted.

  My jaw bounced searching for words. I couldn’t help it. I had a problem evading direct questions. Luckily, Sam’s pawn did something unexpected.

  “Please follow me,” the pawn said in its robotic voice. It was so rare to hear a pawn speak that it grabbed everyone’s attention.

  “Please follow me,” it said again, just as measured and politely as it had before.

  The pawn kept repeating its request in shorter and shorter increments. It was getting impatient. This type of speech wasn’t a part of its default programming. Either someone was controlling it live, or these pawns had been reprogrammed.

  “Please follow me. Please follow me,” it said, increasing the tension in the room.

  “Maybe you should do what it says,” Thorin suggested.

  “No. Stay right here,” I ordered.

  “I don’t know what’s happening,” Sam proclaimed.

  “We’re not giving it what it wants, and it doesn’t like that,” I explained.

  “The question is, what will it do to get it?” Brad added.

  We didn’t have to wait long find out. It began making a loud noise. It sounded like a fire alarm with the voice request still playing underneath.

  “Maybe I should go,” Sam said with his hand over his ears.

  “Don’t move,” I commanded as I also covered my own. “This is it. This is the most it can do.”

  When Sam backed off, trying to get away, I stepped between him and the pawn. Looking down into the shiny dark display, I knew it was all coming to a head. “So, we’re all right here. We’re all watching. What are you gonna do now, huh?”

  The noise persisted, getting louder and louder. We all squeezed on our ears trying to block the sound. The pawn was no longer pursuing Sam. Now it felt more like a general warning. Something was going to happen. But what?

  When it seemed that we couldn’t take anymore, that we would all go deaf if it kept it up a moment more, the noise stopped. Unsure if we should, we all slowly removed our hands and straightened up.

  Sam let out a nervous chuckle. “It stopped. We won.” Sam smiled and looked at me. The relief in his face was inescapable but also premature.

  Sam coughed. It could have been like any other cough in his life if it hadn’t been so familiar.

  I immediately looked at Brad. The expression on Brad’s face said it all. We both knew what would happen next: Sam’s cough would persist until he fell onto his knees. His eyes would become bloodshot, and his face would display the terror that comes as a man realizes that he’s suffocating to death.

  As everyone watched, that’s exactly what happened next. No one rushed to help Sam. It was like they were scared to catch whatever he had.

  I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t move either. Why should I? Hadn’t I been through this horrible scene before? Hadn’t I already tried everything?

  Without the comfort of a warm hand or a friendly touch, Spiritual Sam died on the pool deck of our makeshift resort. It was not the way for anyone to go, but at least they would all believe me now. Maybe it would save their lives.

  As everyone stared down at Sam’s body in shock, I felt like I should have said something comforting. Anything at all, really. I couldn’t, though.

  Something was gnawing at me. It was Thorin. He had come back. But how? And why just him?

  Or, maybe it wasn’t just him. Maybe they would all come back. Maybe there was a new kind of resurrection that I didn’t know about. It could happen. I had been away from that world for five years. Had I condemned this man to die by insisting that he stay here?

  Panic set in as I had an idea about what could b
e happening. First they kill us. Why? I wasn’t sure. But then a boat comes, and they revive us. I needed to get Sam to the dock!

  “Move. Look out!”

  I swooped in scooping Sam into my arms. He wasn’t a small man, but I could handle him.

  “What are you doing?” Rose asked jolted from her silence.

  “Getting him to the dock. I think they’re coming for him.”

  All I heard was a din of voices after that. I wasn’t sure what they were saying. I was focused. I had to get him to the spot where all of the other guys fell. He was dead otherwise. It was his only hope.

  It wasn’t that far from the resort to the dock. By the time I got there, I was exhausted. I carried Sam’s limp body to the far end and dropped him under the light. And then with him down and everyone crowding me, I leaned over to catch my breath.

  “What now?” Brad asked.

  “I don’t know,” I replied.

  “I thought you said you saw this before,” Gray badgered.

  “No.”

  It was all I could say in reply. How could I explain to him that I was shooting from the hip?

  “Everyone, look for a boat,” I ordered.

  We all peered into the airy darkness. The night was still. The salty warm breeze hung thick. Water burbled as it hit the concrete seawall. We were all focused on what was coming, so when the dock collapsed out from under us, we all fell back without warning.

  Screams rang out. I reached back as I slid forward. Sam’s dead body rolled into the water, and I slid with it. I didn’t stop until I jammed my fingers between the collapsed planks. By then, I was already waist deep in the water.

  I looked up at the people above me. Rose, who had been directly behind me, had stopped her fall by grabbing onto Bob’s leg. Brad, who was the next back, gripped tightly onto the dock where it cracked. Everyone was safe.

  Suddenly the dock shook again. Something big hit it from the side. I looked around and saw a fin. Before I could move, the shark snatched Sam’s body dragging it under. I expected it to spit him out like it had before, but the only thing that resurfaced was his torso.

  Something brushed my leg. I looked down. It was another shark. I was hanging off the submerged dock, and it was trying to maneuver its teeth into me.

  With my heart racing, I kicked at it. It was all I could do. My fingers weren’t high enough to pull myself out. I needed help.

  I looked back up. Brad was again standing. I looked him in the eyes, and he stared back blankly. He didn’t move to help me. What was he waiting for? Was he planning on letting me die?

  “Grab my hand,” I finally heard.

  It wasn’t Brad who said it. It was the guy who I thought hated me the most, Victor. I didn’t know why he was helping me. I just took his hand and pulled my way up.

  Again on my feet, I leaned over to catch my breath. I was standing behind the crack in the dock, and staring down, I noticed something: hinges. The dock hadn’t cracked at all. It was designed to collapse.

  “Get back,” I yelled. “Off the dock!”

  Everyone moved without question. They didn’t stop until they were safely back on the island.

  I looked out at the fallen dock and the water illuminated under it. Bits of clothes and flesh surfaced only to be dragged under again.

  It was now clear to me how the other bodies had disappeared. With the guarantee of an easy meal, I also knew why the deep-water sharks were so close to shore.

  One last surprise was in store for us tonight: the fallen dock returned to its standing position. It happened as the sound of a winch switched on. When it was again seamlessly connected, the water that covered it looked like nothing more than the remnants of a big wave.

  I turned around, staring into the faces that stared back at me.

  “It was you,” Gray said out of nowhere. “You’re the one who did this. You’re trying to kill.”

  “You were the first one to tell us about this,” Bob remembered.

  “And you were the one who brought him here after not letting us look at the body,” Thorin said.

  The mob took a step toward me as I took a step back. They had darkness in their eyes and it felt like I didn’t have a friend among them.

  I considered running, but I didn’t. I saw only one way out of this. It was crazy, but at this point, why the hell not?

  Chapter 7

  I had survived worse odds than this. So, what was seven against one in hand-to-hand combat? Didn’t they see that I was the hero of this show? Had any of them seen a kung fu movie, ever?

  “Stop,” Brad said putting himself in between me and the mob. “It wasn’t him. He was the one who tried to warn us. Maybe if we listened, Sam and Freddy wouldn’t be dead.”

  I was not expecting Brad to come to my defense. I thought that I had lost him. Wasn’t he willing to let me fall to the sharks just moments ago?

  With seven against one, most people would have put me on the losing side. So why did Brad, the ultimate survivor, side with me? I was starting to think that I didn’t know Brad at all.

  Regardless of his reasons, Brad’s appeal worked. Everyone, except for Gray, stopped.

  “Maybe you’re both doing this?” Gray spit.

  Rose stepped in front of him. “And maybe it’s you, Gray.”

  Gray’s mouth dropped open in surprise. He didn’t know what to say. It was one thing to make me an enemy. But he clearly wasn’t ready to do the same with Rose.

  “Rose is right,” I said, removing her from this uncomfortable situation. “It could be any of us, and it could be none of us. I personally think that it’s the people behind the cameras.”

  Brad shifted toward me. “You mean the people who are probably watching us right now?”

  “Yeah,” I said, acknowledging the gravity of the situation.

  That seemed to send a chill down everyone’s spine. Everyone looked around for the cameras that none of us had seen since we had gotten there.

  “Everyone needs to share what we know,” I continued. “And the person who should start, is Thorin.”

  All eyes turned to Thorin. Perhaps I shouldn’t have called him out like that. Let’s be real, though, he was the only one who didn’t die after getting eliminated. If people weren’t thinking that he could be involved, then they should have been.

  “Me?” he said looking even paler than usual.

  “You were the only one who got eliminated and lived. That can’t be a coincidence,” I declared.

  “How do you know that?” Thorin said defensively. “I’m just the only one to come back so far. We don’t know anything about what’s going on. I could just be the first one. And if I knew what was going on, why would I have followed you all here? I didn’t know what would happen to Sam. I’m just like the rest of you all, scared for my life.”

  “But why would you be back?” I pushed.

  Brad interjected. “To be fair, bringing back a contestant who has been eliminated is standard in these types of shows. I was once brought back. Yeah sure, it wasn’t a show where people were dying, but the fact that someone was brought back isn’t that unusual.”

  I stared at Brad, not knowing who I was looking at. First, he had defended me, and now, he was defending Thorin. It was enough to raise my suspicions about him. However, if I started accusing everybody, I wouldn’t have anyone left to trust. And I was going to need help if I was going to get everyone off of this island alive.

  “Ok,” I conceded. “Then just tell us again what happened.”

  “I told you. Jarvis…”

  “Who’s Jarvis,” I interrupted.

  “That’s what I call my pawn. He took me to my room to pack my stuff. I did, and then he led me to the dock. I waited for about ten minutes for the boat…”

  “Didn’t you think that was unusual?” I asked.

  “You mean how long it took?”

  “Yeah.”

  “No. I just thought that they were getting shots of me looking disappointed about leaving
the island.”

  “But the boat came?” I confirmed.

  “It did. And I got on it and left. The lights on the boat were on the whole time, so I thought they were getting more footage.”

  This time, Brad interrupted him. “Have you been on a show before?”

  “No. But I’ve seen them. Whenever someone gets eliminated they have those interviews as they’re leaving. You know?”

  “But they didn’t ask you any questions?” I asked.

  “No. They just left the lights on. Anyway, I got back to the dock on the mainland, and Dan, the producer who had prepped me for the show…”

  “Prepped you?” I asked.

  “Yeah. You know; told me the premise of the show, explained to me how to do interviews, told me what to expect. Didn’t everyone else go through that?”

  I looked around at everyone. They were all nodding their heads “yes.”

  “No. I didn’t,” I said.

  Gray finally broke his silence. “So, you were the only one here who didn’t get prepped for the show?”

  “It’s not exactly an advantage,” I explained. “I had never even seen one of these shows before. A little prepping would have helped.”

  I wasn’t about to share Ian’s theory with them about how I wasn’t expected to survive the first elimination. Or my theory about how Kurt was meant to survive and not me. I couldn’t imagine how Rose was feeling about all of this craziness, but I wasn’t going to volunteer information that could potentially make her feel worse.

  “Anyway. Go on,” Brad encouraged.

  “That’s really it. Dan had me fill out some paperwork and told me that they needed me to stick around for a few days. I hung out in my room, watching vid feeds and ordering room service. The usual stuff.

  “A few days later, Dan told me that I was coming back. He gave me an hour to pack and then walked me from my room to the dock. I got on the boat and about two hours later, Jarvis was waiting for me at the dock. Now, here I am. That’s everything.”

  The gurgling waves filled the silence that followed. I again thought about how I was the only one not to get prepped for the show. Had it been so clear to the producers that I wouldn’t last? What could they be thinking now that I was still here?