Induction

Copyright © 2024 by Overconfident Sarcasm

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No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except for brief quotations which may be used for the purpose of creating reviews.

The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.

Disclaimer:

This was written after seeing a WritingPrompt in a subreddit I’m a member of. It was an idea, something the OP wanted to use as the preset for a story, but didn’t have the time necessary to work out the details. So, it was given to us.

So, I asked for permission and am now trying to work through the thoughts I had while reading the prompt, and I’m happy to say that he gave it. Hope someone likes it.

This is more of a thought experiment:

What if the exclusion of a supposedly loved family member wasn’t malicious, or some kind of evil plot, but simply a genuine mistake? How could a family hope to mend fences? How could someone get past what had happened?

It struck me as something with incredible potential and couldn’t get it out of my head anymore.

Chapter 01

Induction Night

The rules were simple. Each new family member, who turned eighteen during the year leading up to the big, annual family vacation, would spend the night in the pool house standing before the massive country home that had been in the family’s possession for as long as they could retrace the family tree.

Though, for most of the night, there wouldn’t be much sleep for the new inductees.

Throughout the night, the family members who had already been inducted and were willing or wanting to, would visit the new inductee and spend some very special quality time with them. Only then, after the new member who wished to take part in the family festivities had been thoroughly tested, would they be seen as full members and have the right to participate freely in the following years.

‘Festivities’ was, of course, code for depraved, mostly incestuous, orgies.

It was an important part of their tradition and lineage. When they told their children about it for the first time, they spun big tales about those festivities being a place for love and mutual care, furthering the intimate relationships within the family. A place where everybody was safe to not only let go of inhibitions caused by embarrassment, but also to explore their own sexuality without worrying about being judged or laughed at. The truth was, however, that nobody really remembered how or why it all started anymore. But that wasn’t necessary for them to enjoy it now.

However, that was also the biggest problem, which is why the first rule was established, mandating new inductees to spend their first night away from the depraved and uninhibited ongoings inside the mansion.

You see, despite what young males like to claim when talking with their peers, none of them are truly born sex machines. And despite what young women claim, none of them are immune to peer pressure. If their first sexual experience happens during what can only be described as a massive orgy, it could do more harm than good to their inexperienced and still malleable minds. In order to not cause any harm, the family had to first make sure that whoever wished to join their activities was truly ready for it.

For that, they had to do three things:

First, assess whether or not the members-to-be are even ready to become sexually active. If they only joined because they thought it was expected of them, or because they felt envy over the stories their cousins and siblings related to them after returning from the annual retreats, they could find themselves utterly overwhelmed by the depravity that governed the mansion. And that, in turn, could make them straight up run away or, even worse, develop an aversion to sex!

Second, whether or not the new members have fully internalized the rules which must be obeyed without fail. After all, even if they weren’t sure how the tradition started, it now was about enjoying each other in a safe and kink-positive setting. Naturally, the rules went way beyond the generally known “No means No!”. They also covered things like proper personal hygiene, since the inductees were typically teenagers who might have yet to understand the importance of it. Proper protection they should prepare themselves for their sexual encounters. What areas of the mansion, like the hot tub, were off-limits and not clothes optional. And, most important of all, to always respect each other, even if they get caught in accidental ‘crossfire’.

Third, to make sure the new members could control themselves. After all, regardless of how many cute and endearing terms they found to reference their annual get-togethers, in the end, it was a massive orgy! Something that had a certain effect on people, and even more so on influential teenagers. They were bound to see a sea of naked bodies enjoying themselves in ways they had never envisioned, to then get lost in their pleasure. Some of the new members literally stopped thinking, and that’s never a good thing!

A few years ago, there was an incident involving a string of anal beads that needed to be removed from a woman’s behind in preparation for some backdoor fun. Not realizing that he had no idea what he was doing, a first-time member, who was just as eager to help as he was clueless about those kinds of toys, was asked to help. The boy grabbed the string and ripped the beads out of the poor woman’s butt as if he was trying to jack a gasoline-powered chainsaw, ensuring pandemonium to break loose instantly.

It served as a permanent reminder to make sure the testing during their first night would be thorough. So, in order to conduct those tests, a very simple solution was introduced: The pool house.

It was remodeled to feature a massive glass front, stretching the entire side of the building that faced the mansion’s patio door. While the established family members had to walk around the pool house to enter it and join an inductee, they had a very clear view of what was going on inside while they made their way from the mansion to the pool house, thanks to that glass front. It was the perfect testing ground for the new members. In addition to that, an orgy is not exactly an event where one could expect privacy. So, this way, the family could make sure that the new members were, in fact, okay with having sex in front of an audience while keeping them away from the overwhelming impressions of the orgy.

This year, however, after the family had expanded for generations, there were three boys about to be inducted into the tradition at the same time: Mark, John, and Chris. Though, the contrast between the three couldn’t be more obvious to everyone who cared to look. Not just in their physical appearance, but also in the way they felt about all of this.

At that moment, the three boys stood in front of the family mansion after arriving with their backpacks over their shoulders. Since they were expected to spend the night in the pool house, they didn’t have any rooms assigned to them. Instead of helping the other family members with preparing the mansion, they had spent the time making some alterations to the pool house’s living room that would allow for three separate ‘sleeping’ areas.

Since this was in preparation for them joining the orgies, where privacy was anything but a given, some members had argued that the three boys should just share the living room and have sex right next to each other. But, in the end, this event would always be the first sexual experience for many of the inductees. Losing your virginity during a group-sex session was not that much safer than losing it during an orgy, which was the whole reason why the pool house was being used in the first place.

So, seeing the problem, it was decided that the three boys would hang curtains in the living room. They would hide the boys from each other, but still allowed them to hear and know what was going on with the other two inductees at their sides, while also granting an uninhibited view of all three boys and what they were doing to anyone who walked by or just stood on the mansion’s patio.

Mark and John had athletic builds. They were big, lean, and showed confident smiles as the females of the family started their teasing in what basically amounted to a meat market, as the women more or less silently decided on which of the boys they’d visit. Or which one they’d simply visit first.

Chris, however, was the exact opposite of his two cousins. To his everlasting dismay, he had suffered from chronic kidney disease since early childhood, that had significantly stunted his growth and effectively killed any chance he may have had at joining any of the school’s sports teams. Only at fifteen, three years prior to the day of his introduction to the family tradition, did his left kidney finally give up and had to be removed.

His parents and sister were worried out of their minds when they got the call after Chris collapsed at school. But, to everyone's surprise, the event turned out to be a true blessing in disguise as it actually improved his life!

Most of Chris’s health problems were the result of the doctors’ reluctance to remove the weak kidney as long as he was ‘still growing’, as they put it. If they could avoid it, they’d rather not touch it, they had said. But after its removal became inevitable, his health improved significantly. His right kidney was healthy and performed its task to perfection. He no longer looked like he was perpetually malnourished, no longer had to deal with the cramps that came with the formation of kidney stones, nor the pain when passing them, and could slowly start to live a normal life.

But he was still a lot smaller and weaker than his cousins, even if they were the same age. In fact, he was still smaller and weaker than the cousins who were younger than him as well. But he worked hard to rectify that problem, though it was a painfully slow process with obvious limitations. After all, already being eighteen, he didn’t hope for a sudden and miraculous growth spurt that adds ten inches to his height and made him reach the magical number of six feet. He accepted that he would always be the smallest in a room full of grown-ups.

However, while he acted like a grown-up about it, what that truly did to him was very obviously written on his face as he was put on stage in between his fit and handsome cousins, while the female portion of the family threw air kisses and catcalls their way. Several of the older sisters, cousins, mothers, and aunts even brazenly shouted their intention to ‘sample the wares’, causing his ears to glow red as he studied his feet.

He was reluctant to take a proper look at the people around him and confirm his suspicion, but he was secretly convinced that the brunt of the teasing was directed at his cousins, not at him.

After the ‘welcoming ceremony’ had been called to an end, so the interesting part of the night could begin, the three boys were sent to their ‘rooms’. They shared a nervous grin as each of them vanished behind their curtain. With Chris’s being the middle one, he could hear the other two as they sighed, chuckled, and nervously fidgeted around.

It somehow made Chris feel better about himself. Knowing that the other two boys, who seemed so confident just a minute ago, were just as excited and nervous as he was, took away a lot of his anxiety as he waited for the ladies to start their parade.

He knew, there was no fixed order or procedure for what was about to happen. The already inducted family members were simply expected to leave the party in the mansion whenever they felt like it, choose an inductee to spend some time with, and then go back to rejoin the party to possibly share their experience with the other members.

Chris was not just nervous, though. Up until that day, thanks to his weak body, his life had not been very rewarding when it came to the opposite sex. And being the runt of the litter in his own family (and symbolically even in his extended family), who always had to receive special accommodation, did not help him build confidence in his private life, either. So, contrary to his handsome, tall, and athletic cousins behind the curtains to either side of him, high school had been a long string of disappointing life lessons for Chris. Consequently, this day was his chance to finally get some experience before he graduated from high school and, if somehow possible, moved out of his parents’ house.

Thanks to his disease and the year-long recuperation period following his kidney removal, he neither had the grades to apply for any big universities nor the physical stature to properly perform any physical labor. In fact, following the kidney removal, he had to repeat his sophomore year and, somehow, that in itself squashed his grades. All the teachers were somehow under the impression that everyone who repeats a year should be at least somewhat familiar with the subjects, so they graded him a lot harsher than his peers. Consequently, his future prospects were slim at the moment, and this family tradition just might serve as the confidence boost he needed.

“I wonder who will be first,” he thought as the mental images of the female family members ran through his head. More than once, the image of his mother and sister made an appearance.

They were his favorites, though it was to be expected. Ever since he learned about what awaited him during this family retreat, he had been unable to stop fantasizing about how it would go down. And, with his mother and sister being the two female relatives he saw on a daily basis and knew the most, they were the ones bound to fuel those fantasies more than any other female member. Also, the rest of the family had been less of a constant presence in his life, so his mother and sister were the only ones he could imagine to any degree of detail.

He felt the temptation to jerk off as the pressure in his pants grew from anticipation alone, but he resisted. He knew that, very soon, it would be the tender touch of a slender female hand that relieved his aching dick instead of his own. Though, maybe it would be a good idea to quickly relief himself regardless? He badly wanted to be accepted into the family, he craved their company, and could barely contain himself at that moment. So, what if it finally happened, and he’d be done after merely a minute because he would be unable to contain himself any longer? Would they laugh at him? Would they tell the others and then nobody would want to try for themselves? Would they be disappointed in him? Would it mean that he failed the evaluation, deemed not mature enough to join the orgies, and prohibited from returning next year!?

These escalating doubts raced through his head while he nervously picked little balls of lint off his socks until, suddenly, he heard noises.

Laughs, moans, and cries carried through the curtains on either side of him. He hadn’t even noticed anyone walking towards the pool house, despite the patio being completely covered in light, allowing him to clearly see whenever the door was opened and someone walked in or out of the mansion. That’s how strongly his worries occupied his consciousness.

His ears strained towards the sounds as, like an idiot, he quickly checked himself for breath and smell, thinking that, any second now, the mansion’s patio door would open and he’d set his eyes on the first woman to ever share his bed. Or, in this case, share his air mattress.

But, as the seconds turned to minutes, the excitement slowly dampened. With every minute he spent listening to his cousins enjoying themselves right next to him, while he sat alone in his curtained-off area, his worries increased even more. After about ten minutes, his head whipped to the right as he heard a mighty roar, followed by a feminine-sounding giggle, announcing the end of Mark’s first round. A minute later, similar noises were heard from the left, where John had reached the climax of his first encounter.

Now his turn had to come, Chris told himself, thinking that, maybe, one of the women he had just heard spent time with his cousins would visit him next. He sat straight on the air mattress with a wavering but still expectant smile on his face as he heard the curtains rustle. But then the two women appeared in front of the glass front as they walked right back to the mansion, never even looking in Chris’s direction.

His spirit dropped even more.

“Why's this happening?” he asked himself mentally, when, another fifteen minutes later, he had watched three women of the family exit the mansion, walk past the glass front and to the pool house’s entrance door, …to then join his cousins. Two joined Mark at the same time, which Chris didn’t even know was an option! And still, nobody had come for Chris. He still sat on his air mattress, all by himself.

But he knew why. He had known his whole life. His school life had taught him the lesson rather thoroughly. Now he started to feel like an idiot for thinking that this would somehow be any different just because they were family.

Dejected, he pulled out his phone, sat cross-legged on the mattress, and started browsing Reddit.

After a while, he heard a ‘Thank you, Mark’ wave over, followed by a laugh. To his surprise, a few seconds later, the sex noises had started again! But then he remembered that Mark had been with two women, which explained the curiosity.

The hardest blow, however, came when the next set of women leaving the mansion were his mother, Gloria, and sister, Natalie. For the briefest moment, hope tried to make a come-back when they reached the glass front and, as they walked past it, locked eyes with him. They gave him a bright smile and even a quick wave. But, just like he had feared, his curtain was never moved to the side so at least one of them could step into his little area.

When the women he had fantasized about the most left, with their heads stuck together to whisper and giggle, they, too, did not even pause for a moment to throw even a single glance at their son and brother, who still sat in between his cousins while playing with his phone.

In Chris’s mind, it was now official. All hope had left him.

After another hour, during which he had heard seven more “thank you”’s spoken to his cousins without anyone even looking in his direction, it was not only clear that nobody would be seeking him out that evening but that he himself was now less than eager to accept if anyone tried.

The three boys might not have been allowed to join the orgy in the mansion, but they all knew perfectly well what was going on in there. It was explained to them, in great detail, when they learned about the reasons for their first night being spent in the pool house. And, after witnessing the procession of females towards his cousins, in combination with how long the family had all enjoyed themselves in the main building, the best he could now hope for was, as ugly as it sounded, used-up sloppy seconds. Or, given the stories he had heard, sloppy ninth, was more like it.

Even if anyone proved him wrong and suddenly came running for him now, it was clear that Chris was nothing more than an afterthought to them. Nobody had been looking forward to doing anything with him.

Now the thoughts that invaded his mind were a lot darker in nature than he was used to.

If the family members didn’t want him, why the hell did they make him sit in this goddamn room in the first place!? Was this their idea of a practical joke!? Did they think they could all laugh about it together when, at next year’s family vacation, they told the compelling tale of “Chris the overlooked cretin”!? Or was this something they had instigated for his cousins’ benefit, so they’d feel manly and desired, knowing that they could get whatever they wanted while Chris was made to sit behind a curtain and jerk himself off while listening?

Was that the reason his mother and sister had such bright smiles on their faces when they waved to him? From their perspective, looking in from the outside, which allowed them to see all three boys at the same time while walking up to the pool house, it must have looked fucking hilarious! From left to right: Mark sixty-nining his mother, Cuckold Chris playing with his phone by himself, and John fucking someone up the ass!

Fuck ‘em!

His eyes started burning. He quickly pressed his hand over his mouth to make sure nobody could hear him as he fought the onset of tears with everything he had, but it was an almost fruitless endeavor. Finally, he decided to simply go home. After three hours of this, staying any longer would only amount to him punishing himself.

There was nothing for him to wait for. Nothing to look forward to. Now that he had trouble keeping his emotions in check, the best he could hope for was someone deciding to throw him a pity fuck, just to then see him cry, and run back inside to tell everyone about his embarrassing display. If nothing else, it would ensure that he’d never get rid of his image as the little, weak boy, who needed people to take care of him to get through the day.

After he grabbed his backpack and put his shoes back on, he left the pool house as quietly as he could to not draw any attention to himself. He didn’t want anyone to notice him leaving, ask what was going on, and then see the pity in their eyes when he was forced to answer. Though, as he snuck out, the fucking to either side of his little abode was going on so strongly and loudly, he’d be surprised if they noticed him starting to tap dance on the hardwood floor.

He didn’t bother checking inside the mansion. He could hear the fun they still had in there as well without having to even walk closer to it. It was clear that the party was still going strong, even with two of the females currently occupied in the pool house, and he decided to not inform his parents of his departure.

Honestly, what could it possibly change? If he went inside to tell them how he felt and why he was about to leave, it would only amount to him running to Mommy and Daddy, complaining about being left out of the fun like a sulking child. And what could they do about it anyways? Offer him the pity fuck he had already decided he neither needed nor wanted? No, he’d just leave and let them enjoy themselves.

Thinking about it, he realized that, depending on how long it would take them to even realize his absence from the supposedly happy milestone in his life, it would give him even more insight into why this had all happened.

Quickly opening Google Maps on his phone while standing halfway between the pool house and the mansion on the path leading out of the yard, he learned that the town was roughly a two-hour hike away. A march that, despite his best efforts since losing the bad kidney that had compromised his body for so long, would be hard for him. But, if he managed to hold the pace Google Maps was stipulating for its calculations, he would arrive just in time to take the last bus back into the city. If not, he’d have to wait for an hour before the first night bus arrived.

It didn’t make a difference to Chris. Whether he sat for an hour at a dark bus stop by himself or sat in his curtained-off, dark section of the pool house by himself, it was all the same to him. Only the bus stop held fewer opportunities for his family to witness any further embarrassing displays.

###

At around ten in the morning, the mansion was filled with the delicious smells of breakfast, as the dining room had already gotten noisy with everybody happily talking and laughing whenever they hadn’t filled their mouths with freshly made waffles, bagels, bacon, and fruit salads.

“Mark was magnificent,” said Kelly, a twenty-one-year-old brunette, “you prepared him very well, Kim.”

“Yup,” agreed Kim, Mark’s mother, “but John wasn't bad either. I was very pleasantly surprised at how eager he was to make me enjoy myself.”

Unbeknownst to Chris, who was too occupied with his phone at the time, his Aunt Kim had sampled both of his cousins and could therefore actually compare the two.

“So, where are our boys?” Gloria, Chris's mother, asked with a smirk she saw reflected on her daughter’s face. Nobody expected the three young males to rejoin the land of the living before noon. Experience had taught them otherwise.

“Probably still sleeping. We wore them out,” Natalie, Chris’s sister, laughed.

Gloria laughed as well. Last night, she had spent some quality time with Mark and had planned to then sample John as well, but when she left Mark’s side, John was still with Natalie. Still anything but truly satisfied, she chose to rejoin the orgy in the mansion for the time being, instead of rudely interrupting John’s and her daughter’s fun. But the people in the mansion had just started one of their games, which, by the end, had sated her needs rather well. So, she never went back to the pool house.

“Never mind,” Gloria thought with a sultry smile on her lips and a far-away look in her eyes. “I’ll just try him out when the boys join today’s main event in the house.”

“Good morning!” said Becky, Gloria’s younger sister, entering the dining room and pulling Gloria out of her mental musings. “The kids are still sleeping, it was a 'hard' night for them,” she chuckled. “I even tried to entice Mark into some more fun before I left, but all I got was his half-asleep grunting.”

Her comment caused all the people present to break out in laughter.

For another half hour, they all exchanged notes on their three inductees, plans for the main event that was set to start after they had decided on which of the inductees were allowed to participate, and general gossip from their lives. That stopped, however, when Kathy walked into the dining room and announced that the boys were finally out of their beds. This caused Monica, Gloria’s mother and the matriarch of the family, to address the lot present in a loud voice.

“Alright, everyone! Since our three boys are on their way here, how about we get the official business settled first? Once we know how they performed, we’ll be able to let them know of our judgment as soon as they join us.”

This was met with general approval, even though the men didn’t have much to say in the matter, as the inductees this year were exclusively hetero males.

“So,” Monica continued. “Let’s start with the oldest. Mark. Any concerns?”

“Hell, no! He was great!” Gloria called out while theatrically pressing her hand to her heart, as if to showcase how she was still swooning from the experience, causing another round of laughter.

“I see nobody objecting?” Monica’s eyes wandered around the room as if to dare anyone to speak up. When nobody did, she smiled. “Alright then. It’s safe to let Mark join us in the main event this evening, if he wants to. Next in line is John. Once again, any objections?”

“Nope, none whatsoever!” Kathy called out. “I can honestly say, he has thoroughly internalized the rules regarding EVERY part of our fun!”

“Yeah, after you spent the entire night with him, I’d be surprised if you said anything else,” John’s mother sarcastically chimed in.

“Alright then. John, too, will get to join this evening, if he wants to. Now, last but not least, …”

“My little Chris! How did he do?” Gloria interrupted her mother, shouting that question with audible glee in her voice.

She had avoided asking the other women about her son until now because she had planned to tease him a little about losing his V-card that night. And, for that, she wanted the information she got regarding her darling’s sexual prowess to be as fresh and raw as possible. As she looked around the room, the glee that had been audible in her voice was now also visible in her downright sparkling eyes, but, the more faces she looked at, the more her smile wavered.

Somehow, nobody spoke up. Nobody made any comment regarding Chris’s conduct or performance during the previous night.

“What!? Don’t you all start talking at the same time!” Paul, Gloria’s husband and Chris’s father, chuckled, though it was clear that this chuckle was more an expression of nervousness and confusion than amusement. When there still was nobody willing to volunteer any information, he fixed his daughter with an encouraging look, thinking that she surely would have something to say about her own brother.

“Uh… don’t look at me, Dad. I didn’t go to him last night,” Natalie explained hesitantly before letting her eyes wander around the room. She now felt the uneasiness her father just expressed as well.

It couldn’t be! She knew that her mother also never visited Chris, as the two of them had planned it this way and entered and left the pool house together, but… they were sure everybody else would have!

Gloria’s happy expression had now fully vanished when she saw every single female in the room look at someone else, as if in search for anyone who had been with her boy the previous night. She blinked as the realization hit.

“Wait… did nobody…?” Monica didn’t have to finish her question. Instantly, all the women wordlessly confirmed her worry as they, in unison, shook their heads.

“Oh boy,” Paul sighed uncomfortably, before awkwardly looking at the other males in the room. “What the hell do we do now!?”

The other men understood what Paul was actually asking. This was no longer about whether or not his son would have the approval to join their orgies going forward. In fact, as they all realized what must have really happened to Chris last night, their eyes grew wider and wider. While the women in the room merely acted embarrassed about the revelation that one of the inductees had, apparently, been overlooked, the men in the room imagined this happening to themselves. And they did NOT like the implications.

However, they also had no idea how to handle this unprecedented situation, as something like this had not just never happened before, it was downright unthinkable! Which is why, despite the room growing remarkably silent, nobody acted on it.

Gloria, however, was growing upset. She couldn’t believe this happened! She was so sure that her boy would experience the night of his life, with all the women in the family lining up to try out the new inductees, and now she learned that nobody had been with him!

“How is that even possible!?” she suddenly called out in frustration while throwing her arms into the air, startling everyone else in the room. When her arms dropped listlessly into her lap, her shoulders slumped as well as she dejectedly looked at the table and spoke quietly, more to herself than the others. “There are fourteen women in this family allowed to sample the new members, but not one of them…”

“Well,” Kathy suddenly said in a defiant tone that surprised the others just as much as Gloria’s sudden outburst, even folding her arms in front of her chest in a defensive gesture, “you didn’t visit him either! Neither did Nat!”

“Nat and I talked about it beforehand,” Gloria shot back heatedly, “We live with him. From today onwards, he can have us whenever he wants, so we decided, for his first time, he should have all the other ladies he can’t have all year round first. At least we thought that’s how it would be. What’s with the tone, though? Do you have a problem with Chris?”

“N-no… of course not!” Kathy replied, though it was clear that something was off. Gloria wouldn’t call it a lie, but there was more to it than Kathy was willing to admit. A stern look from Kathy’s mother, Becky, caused her to break quickly. “Okay, look, I love the guy. I truly do! But… I’m just tired of always having to hold his hand whenever we want to do something fun! We always had to wait for Chris to catch up, always had to look out for Chris to not collapse in exhaustion again, always had to…” She paused to sigh. “I just wanted to enjoy myself for a change. And I wanted to get fucked by someone who wouldn’t get winded after two minutes.”

As Kathy went on in her explanation, her voice took on a whining tone, as if being with Chris was some kind of burden she had to shoulder, and now protested the unfairness of it all. Gloria couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Before she had a chance to protest, though, her daughter did that for her.

“He was sick! It’s not like he had a choice, you bitch!” Natalie called out angrily with moist eyes. “And he’s doing a lot better now!”

“Well, I’m sorry. I meant it when I said I love the guy… but I just thought, this time, someone else could take care of him.” Kathy shrugged her shoulders.

Hearing that, Paul looked around the table and, to his surprise, saw the eyes of every single female in the room, safe for his wife and daughter, widen in recognition. He swallowed.

“Wait a minute. Are you going to tell me that ALL of you had the same thought?” he asked into the round before pausing for a second to give them the chance to prove him wrong, which nobody felt compelled to do. “You ALL thought ‘I love him, but let someone else introduce him to the family tradition’!? And, somehow, none of you noticed that he sat all alone in that room, flanked by his two cousins who did get to have fun, even though all of you must have seen it plain as day every time you walked up to the pool house!?”

Silence. Nobody protesting answered his question.

This time, even his wife and daughter looked uncomfortable. Though, Natalie almost broke into tears when she remembered the way she waved at her brother last night, when she clearly saw him lying back on his mattress… all by himself… and playing with his phone. Never in a million years would she have thought that this was actually what had happened. When she waved at him, she thought he was just taking a break. Like he always had to. Like she was used to from him. …Just like Kathy had just complained about. And Natalie had even told her cousin off for saying this about her brother, even though she had thought, and treated him, the exact same way.

Before the situation could escalate even further, though, they all got startled once again when the big double door to the dining room opened, so Mark and John could join them for their belated breakfast. Their steps faltered a little when they finally noticed the mood in the room portrayed by the expressions on everyone’s faces. But the first one to speak was Paul.

“Where’s Chris?” He was more concerned than confused now. His son choosing to not go along with the other two as they joined the rest of the family felt like a confirmation of his worries.

Mark and John exchanged a surprised look before John spoke for both of them.

“We thought he was already here?” Hearing this, Paul felt his heart drop into his stomach. “He was already up and gone when we woke up half an hour ago.”

As if John’s words were some kind of starting signal in a race, all the men of the family looked at each other in concern, seemingly simultaneously understanding the meaning behind John’s words. And, again as if it was choreographed, ran out of the room, leaving the female portion of the family in confusion before the sheer urgency of the men’s mannerism caused them to jump out of their chairs and follow behind.

“It's empty,” confirmed Paul after ripping the curtain off the ceiling and placing a hand on the air mattress, testing its strength. “This wasn’t even slept on! It’s cold and hasn’t lost any air whatsoever. His backpack is gone as well.”

Gloria was dismayed. She should have been the first one to introduce her little boy into adulthood, but instead had spent her time with Mark and the others in the mansion. She had truly thought Chris would be well cared for by the others, so she had decided to indulge herself in her nephews’ hard bodies. Right next to her baby, who didn’t get to indulge in anyone’s body. Because she, too, rather spend the night with someone more… attractive. She, too, thought that she could let someone else sleep with Chris, even if she thought she had a sound reason for it.

Her knees almost buckled as the realization hit. She hadn’t lied about her and Natalie wanting Chris to enjoy the others for as long as he could, and then have fun with him once they got home. But now, that she finally understood why her husband was acting almost panicky, and finally understood why all the other men were showing more anger towards the women than pity for her son, and finally understood how her boy must have felt the entire night, she didn’t want to even imagine in which state her little boy must have snuck off the property, all alone and forgotten.

Frantically, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and hit #1 on her speed dialing list. Yes, her son was the very first and most important entry on that list. After fifteen years of regular check-ins with her boy on any given day to calm her worries, his number was the very first one that came to her mind whenever she set up a new phone.

But it just kept ringing until, ultimately, his voicemail answered the call. He didn’t answer. She hated it when he didn’t answer! After fifteen years of worrying about her sick child, which culminated in a call from the hospital because of kidney failure, him not answering the phone immediately caused an eerie feeling to creep into her stomach, whether it was still warranted or not.

“He’s not picking up,” she told Paul with a worried expression.

“Well, can you blame him!? If I was in his shoes, I’d be less than excited about talking with any of us right now.”

“But what if something happened? If he left for home all by himself… the car is still here, and reaching the next town by foot would take hours!” she implored her husband, who now seemed to share her worries.

That was a preview of Induction. To read the rest purchase the book.

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