Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:07:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Pete Brown <petebrownuk@yahoo.com>
Subject: Reluctant Gladiator, Part 30

RELUCTANT GLADIATOR - Part Thirty
A story by Pete Brown (petebrownuk @ yahoo.com)

Read all of Pete's stories at
groups.yahoo.com/group/petebrownseroticstories

Those of you who have done it will know that there's a problem when three
guys sleep together after a bout of vigorous sex.  It's OK with two, as you
can face each other, or "spoon up" to each other, depending on which you
like.  But with three, one of you feels "left out" as the other two tend to
be closer and more intimate.  I guess Luke and me had got used to each
other and he liked to sleep facing me with his head lying on my arm and his
face almost tucked into my pit.  Jamie wanted to sleep like this too, and
in truth I wanted to feel his strong arm around my neck holding him close
to me. But both of them couldn't do it, so I let Luke lie like that until
he fell asleep, then gently Jamie and I rolled him away so that he and I
could lie next to each other.  The only difference between "now" and when
we'd done this as gladiators was that he now kissed me again before
snuggling down next to me - gladiators never kissed: well, not normally,
and one of the faintly shocking things for some of the guys had been to see
Jamie and Darren doing this.

I had a bit of a disturbed sleep - both Luke and Jamie were shuffling
around in the bed, there was a lot of twitching of their arms and legs, and
both of them were making those mutterings and little sighs that you often
hear guys doing who are having very vivid dreams, or nightmares.  When I
finally knew it was time to get up, I found I'd got both brothers sprawled
casually against me - Luke on one side, and Jamie on the other.  I don't
much like sleeping on my back as I think it makes you snore (and in the
gladiator barracks having a lot of snoring guys around wasn't good news,
and we mostly tried to avoid it).  Still, having the two young studs so
close to me felt good, and although Luke seemed to be deeply asleep, as I
watched Jamie's eyes flickered open.  He smiled at me and moved his body to
make himself more comfortable- I could feel his hard dick against my hip,
and he casually moved a leg so that it was over mine (I always like that,
as feeling the warmth of another guy's flesh against my leg is somehow so
sensuous, especially as the hairs rub against each other).  Then, still
smiling as he rested his head on my chest, he reached down and took hold of
my dick - a dick which, of course, was already rock hard not only because
it was morning and I always wake up hard, but because having the two
brothers lying there like that was just so sexy.

He kept is eyes locked on mine and maintained a small smile as he began to
jerk me off - slowly and sensuously, and doing all those little tricks
experienced guys do, like brushing his thumb over the end of my dick head
and letting it "snag" my piss slit as it did.  He stopped after a minute or
so and brought his hand up, and touched his fingers to his lips.  "Mmmmm",
he half muttered, half whispered.  "Pre-cum already - you're desperate for
it already, aren't you?"

Look, I'd fucked him last night because I was angry at the way he was
treating his brother, and to tell you the truth I was feeling a bit guilty
about it as I'd wanted to do it calmly and sensuously, with Jamie's
agreement.  And now I wasn't sure where all this was going - did he think I
was going to fuck him again, now?  But no, evidently not, as his hand moved
down once more and his sensuous stroking of my dick started again, but now
he stopped after every couple of strokes, reached down further and cupped
my balls in his hand, caressing them with his thumb as they lay there.  I
squirmed lightly as he did this, as I'm always worried about my balls - I
mean, you don't have to do much to them to make a guy scream with pain, do
you?  All of us gladiators knew all about that, and it was one of the
reasons why we never really wanted to fight totally naked: even a tiny
"fighting string" makes it that bit harder for your opponent to grab at
them.

It was obvious that Jamie was an expert at all of this, though, as under
his hand my dick got harder and harder, almost painfully so, and I knew my
breath was starting to come in small, shallow gasps as my climax neared.
And then, there it was - I groaned aloud as my balls tightened and I
started to fountain cum out.  Jamie didn't stop stroking me, though, and
the intense pleasure from shooting soon turned into that exquisite mixture
of pure unadulterated enjoyment and acute pain that guys like me whose
dicks get immensely sensitive after they've shot experience.  In spite of
myself I had to say out loud "No, Jamie, no...."

He didn't stop, though, and I wasn't in a good position to make him do so -
Luke's sleeping body was effectively pinioning one arm to the bed, and
Jamie lying on the other one was doing something similar.  I tried to raise
my arm and make Jamie stop, but there simply wasn't enough power there and
Jamie, seeing what I was trying to do, kind of "bore down" on me to prevent
me making any progress.  He was laughing now, his eyes still locked on
mine, as I began to moan and almost shout, calling out to him to stop,
please to stop....

Finally, he did, and I lay there gasping for breath.  "Pretty good, wasn't
it, Steve?", he asked me, sounding all innocent.

"You young bastard!  I asked you to stop..."

"Aw, come on, Steve!  Getting jerked off's pretty boring if it's just like
you'd do it yourself, isn't it?  You need another guy to do it to you so he
can drive you past what's comfortable for you.  That's what sex, really
good sex, is all about, I reckon - being taken out of your comfort zone,
beyond your limits.  That's what Darren and I do all the time, that's what
keeps it so fresh for us...."  As he spoke, Jamie's mood suddenly turned,
though. And instead of that lovely languid smile, he started to look really
sad.

"Are you missing Darren?", I asked quietly in that intimate way you only
can when another guy's naked body is lying all against your own.

"You're fucking right I am, those bastards, the way...."  Jamie's voice was
loud and angry and he cut off in mid sentence as we both realised that he'd
woken Luke, who was now blinking his eyes and stretching his body in the
way that guys do when they wake up.

His hand reached out as he was doing this, consciously sweeping across my
belly.  "Ugh!", he exclaimed.  "There's something all lover you, Steve...."
He too stopped in mid sentence as he realised what it must be.
"Oh.... Sorry....", he muttered, and I could almost feel his skin heat up
as I knew he must be blushing furiously.

"OK, guys.  Come on, into the shower!  We've got things to do today.  You
two go first, and don't be long, and don't waste all Jon and Ann's hot
water - shower together, like gladiators do: show your brother how it's
done, Jamie.  And no messing about, either - just shower, and quickly, as I
said."

I lay back and watched the two men get out of bed.  Both were rock hard,
and Jamie didn't mind at all - he stood there for a moment, giving his dick
a quick stroke and scratching his balls, as a lot of guys do, before
turning and moving towards the bathroom.  Luke seemed very embarrassed,
though, and made a feeble attempt to shield the sight of his erection from
me with his hands - pretty stupid, really, as we'd been sleeping in the
same bed for the past couple of months, and the sight of his hard dick was
no stranger to me.  Still, perhaps it was having his brother there that did
it, so I said nothing, and he too moved towards the bathroom.  It was
astonishing how alike they were from the rear - both had long thighs, a
slightly flaring butt, then a narrow waist leading upwards to broad
shoulders.  Jamie was a whole lot more muscular and an inch or so taller,
obviously, but there was no doubt in my mind that given time, and some
proper training, Luke could become a skilled kick fighter just as his
brother was.

They did shower together, and I heard a few complaints from Luke, followed
by a couple of curt comments from Jamie, and perhaps a short, light slap as
Jamie "emphasised" some point or other, then the both came out, still
rubbing themselves dry.  I always think there's something specially
sensuous about the sight of a naked guy towelling his hair in front of you
- somehow, as the towel covers his eyes, it makes it seem special in that
you can stare at him for a moment totally unobserved.  "Next time, you two,
one towel only!"  I told them.

"That's gross...", Luke began.

"Listen, Luke, you need to think about saving money - it costs more to
launder two towels rather than one.  And what's wrong with sharing a towel
with another guy, anyway?  Think about it - you only do it after a shower
or something, so his body is perfectly clean."

"That's what I said", Jamie chipped in.  "At the school three or four of us
would use one towel.  You didn't want to be the last one, of course, as it
was pretty wet by then.  I told you Steve would complain, but you wouldn't
listen."

"There was no need to slap me like that, though...."

"Hey, Luke, cut it out!", I snapped.  "If Jamie told you to use one towel
and you didn't, he was quite right to slap you.  Young guys need to learn
how to behave, and at the school us experienced gladiators were the main
teachers - better a slap or even a punch from a fellow gladiator than a
touch of the taser, or the strap, or the whip.... Jamie was only trying to
help, and I don't want to hear any more complaints like this.  Do as he
tells you - he's as experienced as I am, even if his behaviour last night
left a lot to be desired."

"Hey, Steve, what do you mean?", Jamie cut in.

"At the dinner table - your manners.  And you were almost rude to our
hosts, not making conversation and being generally surly.  If you're like
that tonight, I'll take you over to the couch and spank you."

Jamie glared at me, and half smiled.  "Do you think I'm joking, Jamie?", I
countered.  "Well, behave properly tonight - and at breakfast, for that
matter - or you'll soon see that I mean business."

The two guys then went to pull on their shirts and shorts, but an argument
broke out as they couldn't sort out whose was whose.  "For fuck's sake, it
doesn't matter!" I told them.  "Stop squabbling and get dressed - what does
it matter which pair of shorts you wear?  They're both the same."  As I
said this I swung out of bed to go and shower, then remembered that the
hair on my belly and chest was glistening with my cum - and where the
sheets had scraped over me as I'd moved, they too now looked damp from it.
I guess that's one of the reasons why shaving your chest and pubes has
become so popular for so many guys - it's then really easy to get the cum
off you.  But it wasn't the "fashion" for gladiators who only had their
pubes trimmed so they could wear the brief uniforms as I've told you, as
Straughan thought that gladiators should look like "real men", and that the
crowds liked to see body hair.

I bent over to look at the sheets more closely.  "Fuck!", I exclaimed.
"Anyone looking here can see that there's been sex going on."

"So?", Jamie said, rather truculently.  "So there's been sex going on.
Three guys together - what would you expect?  It would be fucking strange
if three horny guys didn't have sex, wouldn't it?"

"We're not in the school now, Jamie, and different rules apply."

"So it's not OK to have sex?  It wasn't OK for you to fuck me last night?"

"Yes... No... What I mean is that it's OK to have sex, of course.  But it's
not OK to talk about it to other people, or to leave the sheets like this
so that it's obvious what was going on."

"Fucking hypocritical, if you ask me..."

"That's as may be - but whilst we're staying here we'll follow the rules of
polite society, and if you and Luke are fucking, or jerking off, or
whatever, make sure none of the cum spills!  And, whilst I think about it,
Jamie, watch your language!  You use 'fucking' as an adjective far too
often, and polite people, like our hosts, don't like it."

"You wouldn't have had half as much fun this morning, Steve, if I'd been
worried about that...", Jamie countered, and then went on "But get a
fucking move on, will you?  I want my breakfast!"

"Jamie!  What did I say about using 'fucking'?...."

Jamie smiled quietly, and retorted "I thought you said we should get a move
on.... Now it's you holding things up."

I showered as quickly as I could, then realised I needed to shave too - at
the school we'd only done it about once a week as Straughan considered that
a lot of '"five o'clock shadow", even quite thick stubble in the case of
guys like me with thick dark hair, made gladiators look more "manly".  But
since I'd been free, I'd realised that "outside" people expected me to do
it every morning, so I stood there and soaped up, and as I did I got that
lovely feeling you get as the tip of my dick rubbed against the sink, and I
reached down and stroked myself a bit, as you do.

"For fuck's sake, Steve!  Didn't you get enough earlier?"  Jamie was
standing there behind me, I saw from the mirror.

As casually as I could I reached for the razor and began to shave.  "You'll
find out, Jamie, soon enough - there are a lot of little pleasures from the
soft life here.  I guess you must have forgotten a lot of things about life
outside, having been in the barracks for so long."

Jamie simply stared at me, and gave a little shrug.  "I like the hard tough
life, Steve.  When I was enslaved and sold and taken to Philips' Fighters
it seemed somehow kind of right for me - I'd always been a bit wild, but
then I found out that with all the other guys around and the Spartan living
conditions.... Well.... It was kind of right for me.  I don't want to go
all 'soft' as I've spent a lot of time and energy in toughening up my body,
and if life is too easy, I'll lose all that...."

"I wouldn't worry about that, Jamie...."

Jamie reached around me and took a small pinch of my belly between his
fingers.  "See, Steve?  At one time, you were pure muscle there.  And
now.... Well, you're not fat, not like most of the patrons who come to see
our bodies, but it's not lean and hard like it used to be, is it?"

I swiped his hand away and told him to stop messing around as, in truth, I
knew he was right.  I knew my hard body was beginning to soften, and I
didn't much like it.  But what can you do?  However much time I spend
exercising it wasn't enough - you need the strap of a trainer to drive you
to do the "extra ten percent", I reckon: all those guys I saw working out
in the gym were fooling themselves, really, as without a trainer to "drive"
them they were not doing it as hard as they possibly could.  And, of
course, the food was a constant temptation.

As I pulled on my clothes I tried not to think about the fact that they
seemed a little tighter, and told Jamie and Luke to mind their manners at
breakfast.  We all went out of the bedroom together, and Jon and Ann were
already in the large open kitchen/eating area.  The smell of coffee was
delicious, and I accepted a big mug, but when Ann went to pour one for
Jamie and Luke, I told her to stop as they were not used to it and they
should drink water. Jamie glared at me as I did this, but didn't protest
verbally.

Ann wanted to ask the them what they wanted for breakfast, but mindful of
my own eating I cut across her.  "We'll all have plain cereal, with no
sugar.  I'm worried about Jamie's diet after the healthy living we had at
the school, and I don't want to get him into bad habits.  That didn't stop
her cooking pancakes for Jon, though, and I think all our eyes watched
every delicious forkful, dripping with real maple syrup, as it made its way
into Jon's mouth.

I'd been thinking hard about what to do now I had Jamie and had a plan, and
now seemed as good a time as any to reveal it.  So as I drank a second cup
of coffee I said casually "We'll be out of here this afternoon, Ann.  Thank
you for putting up Luke and me for this time, but it's time we made a
move... There's a bus heading west and I've got tickets...."

"So soon?", Ann asked, sounding almost shocked.

"Yes.  I reckon the sooner the three of us learn to live our new life, the
better.  And you and Jon need your privacy - you can't have three guys
sharing this place with you.  And with the baby coming... Well, you and Jon
will want that time together...."

"You don't have to do this, Steve", Jon added.  "You could easily stay
until after the baby's born, see..."

"No!  I don't think that's a good idea.  He's yours, and Ann's....."

Both Ann and Jon looked at me and sort of nodded, and something inside me
almost snapped with the sadness of the thought that I was never going to
see my son (well, I guess I was assuming it was going to be a son!).

"But so soon?  Stay another few days...."

"No.  I've got tickets, and we've got no packing to do - well, only a bit
for me, nothing for Luke and Jamie as they only have their slave
uniforms...."

"No!".  We were all startled, as Jamie shouted this out at the top of his
voice, banging both his fists down on the table at the same time, causing
all the cutlery and tableware to jump and rattle.  "No fucking way!  No
fucking way are we leaving here without Darren...."

"Jamie! "  I got to my feet and lowered over him, I was so angry at his
behaviour. "I've told you about your language already this morning.  And
stop being stupid - there's no way I can afford to buy Darren and take him
with us."

"Steve, You can fuck off wherever you want, and take Luke.  But I'm staying
here, even if I have to live on the streets, to be near Darren...."

"Shut the fuck up, Jamie!".  I was getting even more angry now.  "Shut the
fuck up and see sense - it's not your choice.  You're a slave, my slave,
and there's no way you can simply decide to stay here, and live on the
streets.  I need to find a new life for all three of us, and you're coming
with me, and that's that."

"No I'm not."

I was fuming with rage now.  I didn't tolerate the young gladiators
disobeying me at the school, and there was no way I was going to let it
happen now I was a free man and they were slaves.  And, I suppose, I was
concerned about Jamie - his reacting in this way showed that he hadn't
understood, or hadn't accepted, or both, his new life.  I leaned towards
him and grabbed the front of his slave T in my hand, bunching it up to half
pull Jamie towards me.  "Listen, and listen well, Jamie.  I won't tolerate
this.  You'll do as I say, as you used to at the school.  You know what
happened there to gladiators who disobeyed the senior ones - they got hurt
- and the same is true of slaves.  You'll do as I say, or I'll thrash you
with the punishment cane..."

"You can try! But I doubt you'll succeed, as you're not in condition..."

"Listen, you young idiot, I don't have to use force if I don't want to.
All I have to do is make a simple call to the Slave Police, they'll be here
in two minutes, and they'll take you off to the Municipal Punishment Centre
- and we both know how much that hurts, or have you forgotten?  I'm your
owner, and I can order that.... Now, calm down.  And then we'll pack, and
say goodbye...."

"No, Steve.  Please... I can't leave without Darren...."

"And I've told you there's no other choice.  I can't possibly afford to buy
a trained fighter like Darren.  And, anyway, with you out of the way, won't
he become the kick boxing Champion?  You don't want to deny him that, will
you?"

"No, Steve, he won't!  That's the problem!  That bastard Jason sold
Darren...."

"Sold him?  No, he was a good gladiator, a real asset..."

"No, not to another school.  But shortly after you left a group of fucking
rich bastards came and said they wanted to spend some of the bonus they'd
got for some big deal or other in the city on a custom fight.  They'd all
been drinking, and the men were trying to impress the bitches...  Straughan
took them for a heap of cash, and they said they wanted to take their pick
of the gladiators, and they liked kick boxers and wrestlers.  So Darren and
me and the others had to line up so they could choose."

Jamie paused for a moment, as if trying to control his anger.  "We all
stood there, and the men and the bitches walked up and down.  Then one of
the bitches whispered to one of the men, and there was a lot of
giggling... And the man said something to Straughan... And the next minute
he told us all to step out of our uniforms as the customers wanted to see
all of us!"

"It was so fucking humiliating.... Well, none of us has anything to be
ashamed of, as you know, but there was a lot more giggling and someone else
whispered to Straughan and he then told us to arrange ourselves in order of
the length of our dicks!  We had no choice, of course, as Jason stood there
with his taser.  I mean, sometimes we compared ourselves with each other in
the showers, but it's one thing to do that when you're joking around with
your buddies, and quite another to be forced to do it to amuse some
half-drunk bitches, isn't it?  If there was any justice in the world we'd
have been allowed to set on them and fuck their brains out..  And the men,
too."

"Jamie, language...!, I cut in.

"Oh Steve, you're such a prude.  I hear far worse than this in the Courts
every day", Ann said quietly.  Then "Go on, Jamie..."

"Well they walked up and down us then, and one of them said to Straughan
"Oh, Mr Straughan, I think you've misunderstood.  We wanted to see them in
order when they're...  When they're.... Excited."

"Straughan looked at us - there were the eight of us who were kick boxers
and wrestlers lined up there - and ordered us to stroke ourselves to an
erection and then to line up again.  Well, I ask you - can you imagine it?
It's bad enough to have Straughan and Jason see you hard when it happens
accidentally when you're training or showering or being massaged after a
match, but you get used to that in the school.  But there were these guys
and bitches standing there, watching.... We didn't want to do it, and Jason
gave one of the guys a light tough of the taser to make sure we got the
message... So we had to stand there and start to stroke our dicks as the
men watched and the bitches all sniggered and laughed at us."

Jamie was sitting there now looking terrible, his eyes down, as he went on
"They still couldn't decide, even then.  And they got Straughan to make me
and Jamie face each other and move forward so they could 'see the longest
dick judging from which one first made contact with the other slave's
body'.  It was terrible - Darren and me, well, we were kind of used to it,
as we're, well, you know, Steve...."

"Darren and Jamie were lovers", I explained to Ann and John.  "And had been
ever since they arrived at the school.  And I suppose that's the sort of
game the young gladiators play."

Ann nodded, and I could see Jon licking his lips rather unconsciously as
his brain digested the thought.  Jamie continued "Well actually, as you
know, Steve....."

He paused, starting to flush with embarrassment, and sat there looking
down.

"What he's trying to say", I added, "Is that Darren was known for having a
'horse cock' - probably the longest amongst them all, but a bit on the thin
side.  Whereas Jamie's is thicker and more in proportion...."

"I don't think we need all the details, Steve", Ann said with a tiny smile
on her face. "You're embarassing Jamie."  She looked at him, and said
calmly "So they selected Darren?"

"Yes, ma'am."  I heard this in astonishment, as Jamie seemed to be showing
some proper manners.  Perhaps he was grateful to Ann.

"They selected Darren, and then Straughan asked them which of us they
wanted to fight him.  I assumed it would be me, as the next biggest, and I
wasn't looking forward to it much - it's not fair when they make you fight
other gladiators from the school as you have to go on living with them
afterwards, and normally Straughan is pretty good about that kind of thing,
and we always get matched with guys from another place.  But I could see
that they wanted to see a fight there and then, so Darren was going to have
to fight one of us, probably me, and that would be really tough - I mean,
can you imagine what it's like to ask two real buddies, really close
buddies, to beat the shit out of each other?  And to have to do it for the
amusement of a bunch of drunk bitches and men, if you can call them that?"

Jamie looked really dreadful then, his voice lowered, and if I hadn't known
him better I'd have thought that he was trying to hold back tears.  "But it
was worse than that, far, far worse.  Straughan asked them to pick one of
us, and the lead guy said calmly 'Oh no, we don't want a normal fight.  We
could come to a show at the arena for that.  We want something special,
really special.  We want to see a gladiator hurt, really hurt: I know it
happens occasionally in the arena, but we want it see it here and now - a
spectacular injury, with this gladiator getting maimed...."

Jamie's tone was rising now as his sadness turned to anger.  "Straughan
tried to argue with them, saying that the enjoyment of a fight was in the
skill of the gladiators, and that although injuries did happen, that wasn't
the primary purpose. The lead man shrugged and told Straughan that in that
case the deal was off!  And then, of course, Straughan said that perhaps it
might be possible, but that he'd need 'additional compensation' - normal
injuries in the arena were a regular business risk and factored into the
business plan, but to have a gladiator injured deliberately - especially a
fine gladiator like Darren, in his prime, with a long earnings career in
front of him...  Anyway, the lead man looked at Straughan and said 'So if
it is only a matter of paying more...' And that was that.  We didn't hear
how much more Straughan asked, but it didn't seem to matter to those
fuckers - they were happy to hand over some of their bonus for the
excitement of seeing Darren beaten to a pulp."

"You're assuming Darren would lose, Jamie.  He was really good - not quite
as good as you, but number two...."

"Steve, let me finish, will you?  Anyway, I was standing there with my
erection subsiding, knowing that I was going to have to really hurt Darren,
and wondering how I could do it just enough to satisfy these fuckers
without doing permanent harm, when that bastard Jason told them that in
order to ensure a really violent exhibition with a very high probability of
injury Darren would have to be matched not with another kick boxer or
wrestler, but with one of the 'bruisers'..."

"He means like me", I told Ann.  "I guess that meant they'd use Mike?", I
added to Jamie.

"No.  Mike had gone by then.  The Champion was a big nigga, a really evil
fucker who they'd bought in when they sold Mike.  He had no sense of how a
gladiator ought to behave - he and his buddies terrorised all the younger,
weaker guys...."

"They sold Mike?"  I was astounded, as I'd assumed that after our bout and
after I'd left, Mike would revert to being Champion.

"Yes, Steve.  They sold him after he carried on losing. It's a long story.
But let me tell you what happened to Darren.... Straughan called in the
niggas, and they had to strip, too.  And get erect.  And you could see that
the white bitches - and the men - were getting really excited at seeing
them."  Jamie paused, looked at Ann, and said quietly "Ma'am, you know what
they say about niggas.... Well, in the gladiator world it's kind of
accepted that however good a fighter he is, a nigga is only accepted as a
gladiator if he's showing the proper characteristics that the public
expects of niggas.  It's kind of self-perpetuating: the public expects
niggas to have big dicks, so gladiators are only accepted for training if
they've got big dicks, so the public only sees niggas with big dicks,
so...."

"Quite, Jamie!", I cut in.

"It's OK, Steve!", Ann told me, then she reached out and touched Jamie's
arm lightly.  "So what you're saying is that even amongst well endowed men,
like you three all are, these n...., these black gladiators were
exceptional."

"Yes, ma'am.  And Straughan negotiated an extra fee so that after the bout
the men and bitches could all watch the nigga fuck Darren.  It was
understood that Darren was going to lose.  And even if he managed to avoid
a really bad injury in the arena, afterwards the nigga would probably rip
him apart...."

Jamie's voice was shaking now. "It was so fucking unfair!  I reckon if
Steve had been there, or even Mike, they'd have protested and Straughan
might have backed off and insisted 'like fights like'.  But the niggas were
all laughing at the thought of really tearing into white meat.  If we'd all
acted together, we might have been able to prevent it.... But the nigga
went over to Darren, grabbed him by the arm, and rubbed his dick
suggestively up and down Darren's ass, saying how much he was looking
forward to it.  And that was that."

"Go on...  What happened?"

"At the fight?  What do you fucking expect, Steve?  Darren did his best -
he got a lot of good blows in, but the nigga was so muscular it did no real
damage.  Then when he managed to grab hold of Jamie, it was a foregone
conclusion - he squeezed Darren in a bear hug so that all the breath was
forced out of him, then picked him up and threw him down onto the arena
floor, and whilst Darren was lying there trying to recover, the nigga threw
himself down onto Darren and started to pummel the shit out of him."

Jamie was really close to tears now.  "We were all lined up at the bars of
the arena watching as usual and we were all booing the nigga and calling
him to stop, but we didn't matter, did we?  The lead guy in the audience
called out 'finish him - we want to see real damage'..... And....  And the
nigga picked Darren up and kind of snapped him over his knee.  We all heard
the bone break, and the howl of pain from Darren....  Darren couldn't stand
- his leg was all at the wrong angle.  But that didn't stop the nigga - he
rolled Darren over on to his belly, threw himself down on to Darren again,
and started to fuck him.  It was terrible.  Darren's cries of pain from his
broken bones - and now of course the nigga was raping him, and that added
to it...."

"You don't need to go on, Jamie", Ann told him, touching him again to
console him.  "It's barbaric!  I always thought gladiator combat was
brutal, but such injuries as there inevitably are were caused by normal
fights.  But this.... Deliberately setting out to main a young man, and
then raping him...  Utterly barbaric.  The law ought not to allow it."

"Gladiators are slaves", I reminded her.  "And I reckon there are equally
'barbaric' things going on all the time on the plantations and so on, and
the law does nothing about it...."

"I don't think we have time to debate the morality of slavery", Jon cut in.
"So tell us what happened next, Jamie."

"Well after he'd been raped Darren was just lying there.  They all wanted
to see the nigga, and he paraded before them with blood all over him from
Darren's wounds - and on his dick of course from where he'd torn Darren.  A
couple of the guards came in ad dragged Jamie's body out of the arena, and
all of us gladiators were driven down into our quarters and locked in.  We
could hear Darren screaming in the background for some time, then it went
quiet, and one of the guards told us that the veterinarian had been called
in and that he'd given Darren something strong to stop the pain."  Jamie
stopped again, then, looking really tearful now, his voice low and
quivering as he fought for control.  "The next day we saw Darren - they'd
spliced his broken leg up with plaster and stuff, but it was still at a
funny angle, and he told me that the veterinarian had said that the
fractures were compounded and that this was the best that could be
done... He'd never be able to walk properly again."

"Yes.... And.....?"  I asked, as Jamie was sitting there now, head down,
trying to blink tears away.

"I never saw him again, Steve.  Later that morning they came from the slave
dealer and took him away.  Straughan had sold him as there was no future
left as a gladiator for him."

End of Part Thirty