Date: Tue, 13 Jul 1999 13:22:43 EDT
From: Phaedrus57@aol.com
Subject: Isle of Refuge, Part 8--Young Friends, tt/bb

Caveat: This is a story of love and adventure among a group of teenaged
boys.  It contains scenes of sexual activities between boys.  If this
offends you, do not read the story.  Please go to some other site.  If the
laws of your country or locality say that it is illegal for you to read
this type of story (i.e. that you are too young to have erotic thoughts or
sexual questions and your innocent little mind shouldn't entertain such
possibilities as are portrayed in this story), you should obey the law.  If
you read this story nevertheless, don't get caught!  Hide your downloads
and delete your history.

For obvious reasons, the characters in this story do not practice safe sex.
Remember that they are fictional products of my fevered imagination, but
the dangers of unprotected sex are real.  In this respect, I hope that
readers will not follow their example.

Enjoy the story, which will go on for many chapters.  I hope that it will
appeal to your minds and hearts.  It isn't primarily a sex story, although
it has its erotic moments.

Comments are welcome and strongly requested.  Flames will be ignored.
E-mail me at phaedrus57@aol.com.

This story is dedicated to the memory of my beloved foster son David, who
died of AIDS in 1992, a week before his twenty-ninth birthday.

			      Isle of Refuge
		     Chapter IX: The Deserted Village

	Joey, Angelo, and Terry had left the beach behind.  They entered
the unexplored region toward the northern end of the island.  After
breakfast, they had persuaded a reluctant Richard that they should spend
their holiday by themselves on a trek to the territory which none of the
boys had yet visited.  They argued that they could look for new sources of
food and perhaps find evidence of previous human visits.  They convinced
Richard that there were no dangers that they could not deal with, and they
promised to be back at Tommy's Falls by late afternoon.  They carried
canteens of fresh water and one of the machetes.  They were excited at the
prospect of an adventure all their own.

	The thick vegetation protected the flat land from the usual sea
breeze, and the heat was intense.  They often had to use the machete to cut
their way through the undergrowth.  They sometimes had to backtrack to find
the dry ground and avoid the numerous marshy pools.  They found many more
insects swarming around them than they were accustomed to in the more
familiar parts of the island.  They all received some annoying bites.  They
saw and heard many lizards and other amphibians, some very large,
slithering in and out of the water.  Their progress was slow and
uncomfortable.  At the same time, they enjoyed being alone together.  They
felt very brave and grown up as they pushed forward through the thick bush.

	The ground rose gradually toward the middle of the island and
eventually grew dryer.  As they gained a few feet of elevation, the boys
could feel a slight breeze.  Suddenly Joey, who was in the lead, shouted,
"Look!  Someone's been here before!"

	Joey had emerged into a faintly discernable clearing in the trees,
and was pointing at the ruins of a hut.  As Angelo and Terry ran up to join
him, they could make out the remains of two or three other huts nearby,
completely overgrown by the tropical vegetation.  In the center of the
abandoned settlement was a circle of stones that might once have been a
fireplace.  As Joey poked around with the tip of the machete, he uncovered
the very rusty head of an axe, its handle rotted away.

	"Who were they?  What happened to them?" Terry asked.

	"How long ago were they here?" Angelo wondered.

	As the boys looked further, they found other artifacts: the blade
of a shovel, a rusted knife, broken pieces of pottery.  Joey stepped into
the ruins of one of the huts, and screamed.  Terry and Angelo ran to his
side, and looked down in the direction of his trembling forefinger.
Staring back at them were the empty eye sockets of human skull!  They threw
their arms around each other and huddled together.

	After a few moments of stunned silence, Angelo whispered,
"A-a-re there any m- m-more?"

	When they were able to move again, they boys scraped away enough
dirt and vegetation to uncover the rest of the skeleton.  Further searching
revealed two more skeletons in the hut, one smaller than the other two.
"This one must have been a little kid," Terry speculated.

	The boys expanded the scope of their exploration.  Not far from the
huts they found a number of wooden stakes, some standing upright and other
fallen over.  Their arrangement indicated that they probably marked graves.
They counted ten stakes.

	"They musta all died.  The ones in the hut probably died last,
an' there was no one left to bury them," Joey whispered.

	"They musta caught a disease, an' it killed `em one by
one," Terry said, also in a whisper.

	The boys tried to imagine the last terrible days of the little
settlement.  They felt sad and frightened, awed by the suddenness and
finality of death.  Tears ran down Angelo's face as he hugged Terry and
Joey.  "I wish Richard was here to say a prayer," he said softly.

	Angelo's tears brought a lump to Terry's throat.  He
couldn't speak.  He wanted only to hold Angelo close and ... kiss his
tears away!  He wanted to tell Angelo how much he loved his warm,
sympathetic heart, how much he loved ... him.  He hadn't found the words
to express them even to himself, but Terry's feelings about Angelo had
been changing.  The three thirteen year olds were very closely bonded.
Their love for each other was obvious from the way they treated each other
and the almost psychic level on which they communicated.  They didn't
try to verbalize their feelings about each other.  They didn't wax
sentimental or romantic.  Their interconnection usually operated on an
unconscious level.  But lately, Terry, the most mature of them, had
experienced an intense attraction toward Angelo.  Today his longing to be
close to Angelo threatened to overwhelm him.

	 Terry had become obsessed with Angelo's body.  He wasn't
sure when this fascination had begun, but in recent days he had found it
difficult to keep himself from touching and holding Angelo constantly.
Angelo had not consciously noticed the subtle change in his and Terry's
relationship.  The three boys were accustomed to constant physical contact.
They bathed together, slept together, and masturbated together.  Terry
especially needed to touch and be touched.  Angelo was neither surprised
nor distressed to find Terry's big, light brown hands more and more
frequently on his back, arms and shoulders.  Angelo had a great need for
physical affection, and enjoyed Terry's attentions when he was aware of
them.  Terry found Angelo beautiful.  He loved his smooth olive skin, his
slender, muscular frame, his shy smile, and his deep, dark eyes with their
long lashes.  He couldn't stop looking at Angelo's smooth back, with
the muscles moving beneath the skin, his broad, well-muscled shoulders, his
lean, sinewy buttocks, and his long, hairless thighs.  He found himself
thinking constantly about Angelo's perfectly shaped, dark gold colored,
uncut penis.

	This morning he had suggested that Joey lead the way, so that he
could walk behind Angelo and drink in his beauty without his awareness.  As
they had made their way through the forest, Terry had been completely
preoccupied with the boy in front of him, with the way his sweat made his
olive skin glisten, the play of light and shadow on his back and buttocks
as they walked beneath the trees, the movement of his muscles.  Terry's
heart ached.  Could anyone in the world be more beautiful?  Could he tell
Angelo how he felt?  He didn't know how, but he thought that he would
die if he didn't find a way.  Was this what people meant when they
talked about falling in love?  He certainly felt as if he were falling and
falling!

	As the boys held each other and contemplated the tragedy of the
ruined village, Terry's feelings reached the boiling point.  Overwhelmed
by impulse, he put both of his long arms around Angelo's body, pulled
him as close as possible, and kissed him on the lips.  He began to kiss
Angelo's eyes and lick the tears from his cheeks.  Putting his mouth
next to Angelo's ear, Terry whispered, "I love you so much I can't
even tell you!  Please don't cry!  I just wanna hold you forever!" He
began to sob as his big hands caressed Angelo's back and sides.

	Angelo was startled.  Displays of affection didn't bother him,
and he enjoyed the feeling of being surrounded by Terry's large, strong
body.  Terry's kisses surprised him, but they made him feel good too.
But the intensity of Terry's words and feelings caught him off guard.
Of course he loved Terry and Joey and he knew they loved him.  They were
his real brothers, his best friends in the world.  But Terry obviously
meant something more.  He sounded like Richard talking to Kevin or Mike
talking to Francois.  Angelo, Terry, and Joey just lived together from day
to day.  They knew and accepted everything about each other.  They took
care of each other and had fun.  They trusted Richard to make the big
decisions.  They didn't think about "love" or "forever".
When he used those words, Terry had introduced a new dimension into their
lives.  Angelo wasn't sure how to respond.

	Angelo's instinct was to comfort and reassure his friend.  He
could sense Terry's torment, and he wanted to calm him down and make him
feel better.  He reciprocated Terry's kisses and hugged him close, while
still keeping an arm around Joey's shoulders.  "I love you, too,
bro'," he said softly, "You two guys are, like, my real family.  I
love you more than anyone!  I hope we can always be together!"

	Terry, still sobbing, took a few deep breaths.  When he could
speak, he said, "I mean, like, I'm in love with you, like, I'll
die if we can't be together, like, I wanna be part of you and you be
part of me.  I wanna make love to you right now!" Terry sobbed again and
kissed Angelo passionately on the neck.

	Angelo stroked Terry's back and said, "It's okay, bro',
its kewl.  Everything will be alright.  But I don't think I wanna fool
around near all these dead people.  And what about Joey?"

	Joey was feeling left out.  He knew that something important was
happening, but he was baffled.  He felt his world changing in ways he
couldn't understand or control.  He kept his arms wrapped tightly around
Angelo and Terry, fearing that if he let go of them, he would be alone.
Terry and Angelo were his world.  He couldn't produce semen yet, but he
loved their sexual play.  He always felt warm and relaxed, surrounded by
care and affection, when it was over.  He lived for the day when he could
ejaculate rivers of spooge as Terry and Angelo did, and he looked forward
to sharing that momentous event with them.  He was grateful that they
didn't make fun of him or exclude him because his body hadn't quite
caught up with theirs.

	With great reluctance, Joey said, "If you dudes wanna go
somewhere and do it, I can wait here for ya and see what else I can find.
Just come back for me when you're finished."

	Terry grinned broadly, hugged Joey tightly, and said, "Thanks a
whole lot, bro!  You gonna be okay?"

	Joey smiled and said, "I'll be kewl.  Just don't take too
long.  This place is kinda creepy!"

	Terry could feel his heart beating faster.  His penis stood at
attention.  He was burning with lust and infatuation.  As Angelo grinned
shyly, Terry took his hand and led him out of the ruined village.  They
followed an overgrown path leading uphill.  Several hundred yards from the
village, they came to another clearing.  The sun, almost directly overhead,
shone down through the openings in the treetops.  Birds sang.  There was a
gentle breeze.  Terry was almost oblivious to the beauty his surroundings.
He was completely wrapped up in his desire to become one with Angelo.  His
dreams and fantasies of recent days were about to become real.  The most
beautiful boy in the world would fill the aching emptiness in his heart.
He stopped and took Angelo tenderly in his arms.  He felt the silken warmth
of Angelo's skin and the hardness of his muscles.  He felt Angelo yield
and respond as he kissed him passionately on the mouth.  Their tongues
touched and danced.  Terry was in ecstasy.

	Angelo had been torn by doubt about the entire situation.  He loved
Terry and wanted to make him happy.  Above all, he didn't want to hurt
Terry's feelings.  He loved Joey too, and didn't want to leave him
behind.  He wasn't sure what Terry meant by "making love" or what
it would mean if they did so.  How would it change the relationship among
the three of them?  Angelo had found more love and security with Terry and
Joey than he had ever known before, and he didn't really want anything
to change.  He knew that Terry desperately wanted something from him, but
he didn't know what it was or whether he could provide it.  He felt
Terry's tenderness and desire and responded to it.  He decided to let
Terry have his way.  Perhaps that would clear everything up.

	"Let's lay down here, baby," Terry said softly.  They
stretched out face to face on their sides and continued their kiss.  "I
love you so much, more than anyone or anything ever!  You're so
beautiful!  You feel so nice!" Angelo didn't answer, but Terry heard
him sigh and saw him smile and lower his eyes.

	Terry began to kiss and lick his way down Angelo's neck and
chest.  Angelo moaned as Terry's tongue found his left nipple.  He
giggled as Terry's mouth came to his armpits and licked them each in
turn.  Angelo lost himself in the pleasures Terry was giving his body.  He
suspended his doubts and confusion and surrendered to the moment.  He felt
Terry's tongue in his navel.  It felt wonderful!  Then Terry licked and
kissed his painfully erect penis and took it in his mouth.  Angelo moaned
and whimpered.  If this was "making love", he wanted more!

	Terry felt as if his body were on fire.  His penis was harder than
it had ever been.  He wanted to explore every inch of Angelo's smooth
golden skin, to know every part of his body.  He felt Angelo shiver as he
ran his fingers along the inside of the smaller boy's thigh or kissed
his lower belly.  He heard Angelo moan as he moved his mouth up and down
his penis.  He took Angelo's dark brown testicles in his mouth one at a
time and bathed them with his tongue.  He lifted Angelo's legs and had
him pull them toward his chest so that he could lick his crack and his
anus.  He began to open the hole with his tongue.  Angelo trembled and
moaned.

	When Angelo felt Terry's tongue on his anus, he initially
experienced intense pleasure.  Then memories came flooding back and his
heart wen cold with fear.  He saw the leering faces of his older brothers
as one of them held him while the other raped him.  He remembered the
burning pain of the first few times, compounded by the painful blows of his
brothers' fists on his face and body when he tried to resist.  He
remembered their contempt when he stopped resisting.  He had felt helpless,
hopeless, and betrayed.  He had wished for death.

	Angelo started to cry silently, as he had so many times in front of
his brothers.  When they saw his tears, they would call him "fairy"
and "faggot" and assault him even more brutally.  Angelo felt Terry
slicking his anus with large amounts of saliva, and watched in horror as
Terry positioned his penis to enter his rectum.  He tried to scream, but
nothing came out.  Terry's eyes were closed.  He was lost in a world of
lust and sensation, aware of the boy beneath him only as an image and an
object the possession of which could quench his overpowering desire.

	Joey had felt utterly forsaken as he watched Terry and Angelo walk
away.  He had been afraid that he would lose them if they saw him as an
obstacle to the fulfillment of their newfound romance.  He had stepped
aside, and now he felt that he had lost them anyway.  Joey had been lonely
for most of his life, so long that he hardly even realized it.  The last
few weeks with Terry and Angelo had been the happiest time he had ever
known.  Now he felt like crying.  He didn't cry, because he had learned
long ago that the price of his tears was usually a beating from his uncle.
He fought back the tears, and began to poke around the village with the
machete.  He didn't find much of interest: a broken mirror, a rusted
cooking pot, a coin inscribed "Republic of the Solomon Islands 1990."
At least the coin helped to date the settlement and indicate what country
they were in.  Overcome with misery and boredom, Joey sat down on the
ground, pulled his knees up against his chest, and rested his head on his
folded arms.  He felt small and vulnerable and alone.

	After a few minutes, Joey began to worry about his friends.
Hadn't they had enough time?  What if something had happened to them?
What if there were unknown dangers at this end of the island?  He began to
feel frightened.  He got to his feet and started to walk along the faint
path Terry and Angelo had followed.  He had been walking only a few minutes
when he heard Angelo's voice up ahead.  It sounded as if he were crying.
Then Joey heard Angelo saying, "No!  Please stop!  Please, Terry,
you're hurting me!  PLEASE don't fuck me!"

	Joey began to run.  He tripped on a root and fell, cutting his leg
on the machete.  Unconscious of the pain, he got up and ran again, leaving
the machete where it fell.  He reached the edge of a clearing.  He could
see Angelo lying on his back, his legs waving in the air, crying
desperately.  Terry, on his knees, had his large penis in Angelo's
rectum and was moving it rapidly in and out.  His eyes were closed in
orgasmic bliss.  He seemed indifferent to Angelo's distress.  Joey ran
to them and began pounding on Terry's back.  "Stop it, you
asshole!" he screamed.

	Terry opened his eyes and looked at Joey in astonishment.  He
turned and hit him in the face with his fist.  Joey reeled back.  He
charged at Terry again and leapt on his back, wrapping his arms around the
bigger boy's neck.  Terry suddenly grew still.  He looked down at
Angelo, now crying hysterically beneath him.  His rapidly deflating penis
fell from Angelo's anus with soft plopping sound, dripping with semen,
feces, and blood.

	"Oh my god!  What have I done?" Terry cried out, looking down
at his beloved Angelo, now wracked with pain and fear.  Terry's eyes
filled with tears and he began to sob.  "Did I hurt you?  I couldn't
stand to hurt you -- I love you!  Please say you're okay!"

	Angelo was beyond words, but Joey wasn't.  With a hard edge on
his voice, he shouted, "Of course you hurt him, you stupid son of a
bitch!  You raped him!  Now get the fuck off him!"

	Crying uncontrollably, Terry stood up and covered his face with his
hands.  He kept repeating, "I'm so sorry!" over and over again.
As Joey rushed to comfort Angelo, Terry turned and ran off into the trees.

	Joey knelt beside Angelo and put his arms around him.  "It's
okay, bro.  He's gone!  Did he hurt you bad?"

	Angelo was slowly regaining control of himself.  "He said he
loved me, then he treated me just like my brothers did," he said
dejectedly.  "I trusted him!  He was my bro!" Clinging to Joey,
Angelo started to cry again.  Joey held him and stroked his back.

	After a few minutes, Joey asked softly, "Can you walk, bro?  We
should find some water and get you cleaned up."

	"Yeah, I can walk okay.  I mean, like, I been through this
before.  He didn't really hurt me so much.  He just made me feel
bad," Angelo answered.  Just then he saw the cut on Joey's calf.  The
blood had clotted, leaving an ugly smear of black on Joey's pale, smooth
skin. "What happened to you?  Did he do that?"

	"Naw!  I was running with the machete in my hand, and I tripped.
Now Richard's gonna yell at me.  `I told ya not to do that!'
he'll say." Joey and Angelo smiled at each other, suddenly reassured.
Now they were eager to get home to the treehouse.  Richard, even angry,
would restore order and safety to their world.  He would take them in his
arms and tell them that he loved them even if they had been naughty and
foolish.

	They found the water source for the deserted village, a
clear-running spring with a pool of water about ten feet across, drained by
a brook that ran down toward the sea.  They bathed in the pool and splashed
each other playfully.  Gradually they began to feel better.  Joey finally
said, "Let's go home!"

	"What about Terry?" Angelo said.  "We can't just leave
him here."

	They had no idea where Terry was, so they began to call his name.
After twenty minutes, they had gotten no response.  Joey said, "We
better go.  Terry can find his way back." Feeling empty and incomplete,
Joey and Angelo started back the way the three of them had come that
morning.  Now it seemed a lifetime ago.

	Sitting listlessly against a tree, Terry had heard their shouts,
but he did not answer.  He felt that he couldn't face them, or anyone
else, ever again.  Numb with guilt and shame, he hoped that death would
take him as it had taken the residents of the deserted village.  He
belonged here, alone in the wilderness, in this place of desolation and
death.  He kept picturing Angelo's beautiful face contorted with pain,
his eyes filled with fear.  How could he even ask for forgiveness?  He had
nearly destroyed the person he most cherished, and now he deserved to be
destroyed in turn.  A great weight settled upon him.  Darkness seemed to
descend although it was mid-afternoon.  He could not imagine that he would
ever move from this spot.  At last he heard Joey's and Angelo's
voices as they walked away toward the beach and the treehouse.  He found
that he had tears left after all.

	Hand in hand, Joey and Angelo walked back toward the beach and the
campsite.  They felt lost and incomplete, and they did not want to lose
physical contact even for a moment.  When they stopped to rest, Angelo felt
tears well up in his eyes.  Joey took him in his arms and whispered,
"It's okay.  We'll be home soon.  Everything will be alright."
For most of the journey, they said little.  They didn't have nor need
the words to express what they felt.

	The sun was low in the sky when Joey and Angelo walked wearily onto
the beach.  They saw Mike and Francois lying on the sand, talking and
laughing, their arms wrapped loosely around each other.  As soon as Mike
saw the two dirty, tired, bedraggled thirteen- year-olds, he jumped up in
alarm and ran toward them.  "What happened to you guys?  Where's
Terry?" he asked.

	As soon as Mike reached them, Joey and Angelo threw their arms
around him and started to cry.  They clung to Mike desperately as he tried
to calm them.  Francois hobbled over on his crutch to offer comfort as
well.  When they could finally talk, Joey and Angelo blurted out their
story in jumbled fragments.  Mike and Francois gradually pieced together a
somewhat coherent account of the disastrous day, and Mike said, "We
better go tell Richard about this!"

	Joey and Angelo could hardly wait to get back to the comfort and
security of the campsite and the treehouse.  They had carried the burdens
of maturity and independence until they could bear them no more.  They
fantasized that Richard, with godlike wisdom and strength, would heal their
aching hearts and find some way to undo the horrifying violence and
destructiveness that Terry had unleashed.  As they trudged up the familiar
bank of Kevin's Brook and heard the roar of Tommy's Falls, their
spirits were buoyed by the conviction that Richard could erase this
terrible day sothat they could be children again.
 
     
COMING SOON: Chapter X--"The Lost Sheep"