Luz Rojo

Nightfair

"You don't really believe that crap, do you?"

"Hell, yes! Don't you?"

Ty just shook his head, putting down the Playboy he'd been looking at. It wasn't like he thought his friend was deliberately lying or anything, he just didn't believe the stories were true.

"Look, it's gotta be real," Chris insisted, sitting on the foot of Ty's bed. "Nobody would make up shit like this."

Ty remained unconvinced as he stretched back across the Star Wars bed sheets, locking his fingers behind his head as he settled against the pillow. "It doesn't make any sense. I mean, it can't be legal, and how do you keep something like this a secret?"

"I'm telling you, I heard it myself, first hand, from Josh!"

Ty was visibly shocked. "Josh has been on it?"

"No, doofus! Jeez! Josh is only nine. But his big brother, Billy, is almost 17 and he told Josh all about it, then Josh told me."

"So Billy's actually been on it?"

Chris hung his head a little, "Well, not exactly. But Josh said that Billy said he knew a guy who actually went on the thing. That's how he heard about it."

Ty rolled his eyes, "So you've never really talked to someone who's actually done it?"

"Ty! Guys who've really done it don't talk about it," Chris hesitated, "at least, not to guys like us."

That was true. He and Chris, at thirteen and fourteen years old, were always the last to hear about anything. Especially things that had to do with sex.

Chris took his Penthouse Forum, put it with Ty's Playboy, and stuffed them both back under the mattress.

"Tomorrow's the last day of the fair. If we're gonna do it we gotta do it tomorrow. So, you in or out?"

The younger boy thought about it. "How much?"

Chris hesitated before answering. "Twenty bucks."

"Twenty bucks!" Ty bolted upright, "For one stinkin' ride!?"

"It's not LIKE other rides," Chris insisted. "This is like a totally different thing. A secret, grown up thing."

"Yeah, but… Twenty bucks!?"

"Come on, I know you got it."

Sure Ty had it. Barely. After spending the summer mowing lawns he'd already blown most of his money, and this was only October. All he had left was about thirty dollars. The idea of throwing most of it away on a single ride really didn't jazz him.

"Look, I'm paying for myself, you just gotta cover yours. I don't want to do this without you, man. Come on, you're my best friend. Let's do this together."

"Oh, man…" Ty sighed. He hated it when Chris pulled the 'you're my best friend' card on him. They'd been best friends since first grade. They did everything together, hanging around, playing, swimming, sleeping over. Hell, they even took baths and showers together.

Suddenly Chris sprang on top of Ty, grabbing him by the arms and pushing him back on the bed. He pinned him there. "Come on you dorky doofus! Say it already!" the older boy insisted.

"Chris…?" Ty pleaded as he lightly struggled to get free of the bigger boy's grip. Chris was always doing shit like this, suddenly grabbing him in a head lock, giving him nookies or wrestling him to the floor. Ty kinda liked it, but always struggled against his attacker anyway.

"Come on now, say 'Yes master,'" Chris insisted playfully.

"Ah, Chris!" Ty protested, bucking up and down against the bigger boy as he tried to bounce him off.

"Say it!" Chris repeated.

They squirmed around a little more before Ty finally conceded, "Alright, I'll do it."

"No, not like that! You're my slave, you gotta say 'Yes, sir' or 'Yes, Master,' or something like that. Now come on, do it slave!"

Ty struggled more and the two boys wrestled on the bed a bit longer as Ty feigned resistance. Finally Chris leaned down until he and Ty were touching noses. "Say it…" Chris said, keeping Ty's arms pinned tightly.

"All right," Ty finally said with a sigh, reluctantly conceding, "Yes, Master, I'll do it."

"Hmmmm, No." Chris said curtly, "That's not good enough now. Now you gotta beg me to take you along."

Ty tried to push the older boy off, "You shit!"

"Do it!" Chris said sternly, easily holding the younger boy captive, "Say 'Master I beg you to take me on this great adventure.'"

Ty bounced his hips up and down, trying to throw the older boy off. It was the same as always between them. Chris had to be the boss, it never changed. But this time something was different.

Ty stopped struggling as he caught a strange look in his friend's eyes. Chris always had these serious, commanding baby-blues, but something wasn't the same this time. His friend was looking at him in a strangely hungry way. It made Ty feel funny.

"Yes, Master," he finally said, sounding surprisingly sincere in his pleading. "Please, Master, let me go with you?"

Chris almost looked disappointed that the struggle was over. Slowly he sat up, releasing his tight grip on the boy as he settled back onto Ty's hips.

As Chris put his weight on his groin Ty suddenly realized that, at some point during their little wrestling match, his dick had gotten stiff. He hoped Chris wouldn't notice.

If he did, if he was at all aware of Ty's condition, Chris didn't show it. He said nothing, just stared at his friend with that odd look.

"Okay then. We do it tomorrow."

Ty nodded reluctantly. "Tomorrow," he answered and both boys wondered what they were really getting into.

The lights of the midway sparkled against the gloaming sky as the boys parked their bikes and began looking. All day they had been thinking about what they were going to do. Now that they were actually here neither boy was completely sure he wanted to go through with it, but both were too proud to admit it.

"Geez, there's so many. How are we supposed to know which one it is?" Ty asked.

"It won't be with the others," Chris informed him. "They say it's off by itself in a corner where no one would pay any attention to it if they didn't know what they were looking for."

"What are we looking for?" Ty asked.

"It's supposed to be all blank except for the doors. The doors are supposed to be a really bright pink color. 'Hot Pussy Pink' is what Josh's brother said."

"Shit…" Ty muttered as he looked at the size of the fair before him. "I just hope we can find it before they close – if it's even real."

"It's real," Chris said, trying as much to convince himself as Ty. "Its gotta be real."

The two boys began wandering the grounds looking for any attraction that fit the vague and mysterious description they'd been given. Inside they knew this was the same county fair they'd been to with their parents every year of their lives, but tonight, everything seemed different.

The rides and games were the same as they'd always been, year after year; there were the bumper cars, the Ferris wheel, the merry-go-round and the tilt-a-whirl, all occupying the same spaces they'd been in since they were kids. But nothing felt the same. The lurid paler of evil had descended on the fair and all the colored lights could do nothing to vanquish it from the dark corners where it lurked. Every clown's face was a twisted grinning mask, every barker eyeing them with a smile as if they secretly knew what the boys were really doing here.

The whole thing made Ty uneasy and deep down he hoped they wouldn't find the ride, even if it did exist.

After searching for over an hour they found themselves on the opposite side of the fair, far from the midway. All the tents and displays were dark here, where mostly the agricultural exhibits were held during the day.

Ty was ready to call it quits when Chris suddenly grabbed him.

"Look," he whispered.

There, sitting alone in an empty corner, was a large blank exhibit. It looked like a retired haunted house from the midway, the kind that usually has those cheap little cars you ride. But this one was unpainted. The main façade was practically blank and if not for the old attendant standing at a podium in front, you'd have thought it was unused.

"That old heap?" Ty said, obviously disappointed by what he saw.

"Look at the doors!"

The doors, a heavy pair of swinging metal panels, were the only item of color on the facade.

They were painted pink.

"Hot 'Pussy' Pink," Chris reminded him.

For the first time Ty seriously realized there was a chance the stories he and Chris had heard might actually be true. Stories told only in whispers of a secret ride and the nasty, grown up things that were done inside. Things so dark and sinful that no one who went in ever told what they really saw.

The boy felt a chill shoot down his spine, his dick twitched and grew as he thought about what might lay on the other side of that provocative entrance. For a few moments neither boy dared to move.

"Well," Chris offered at length, "Guess we should go check it out."

Ty didn't want to move. Something about the place gave him the creeps. It was evil, profane, adult… he wasn't really ready to do this.

"Come on," he felt Chris tugging at his arm. "I didn't come all this way just to stare at it. I want to take a ride."

As if in a trance Ty felt himself being led to the small podium in front of the ride where the withered attendant stood silently, reading to himself. Behind the man a small set of portable metal stairs led from ground up to the main platform.

"Hi," Chris said nervously to the man when they reached him.

The wizened old fellow looked up from his reading and eyed the boys suspiciously. Ty swallowed a lump in his throat and looked away. He found himself staring at the large pink letter "M" on the front of the podium.

"Yeeesss?" the man said, drawing the word out beyond its natural length. His voice was low and gravely, his words sounding as if they'd been raked over hot coals in his throat.

Chris, with obvious nervousness, did the talking. "We're… we're looking for, a… a ride… This ride, I think."

The man offered nothing but a stare and after an awkward pause Chris was finally forced to ask, "Is this…" he couldn't bring himself to say the name. "Is this, the, aaaah…?"

"It is," the man answered, the twisted words spreading like a cancer from his throat.

Chris sighed and looked at Ty with a smile as if to say, 'See, I told you it was real.' He turned back to the attendant.

"We'd like two tickets."

The attendant looked the boys over carefully.

Although fully dressed in a T-shirt and shorts, Ty suddenly felt completely naked. The man had a sinister little goatee beard and the most piercing eyes Ty had ever seen. His face reminded him of someone he'd seen in an old movie once, something his mother had rented, some old musical, what was it…? Oliver! that was it. The man looked like Fagin in the movie musical version of Oliver Twist.

Ty felt as if the man could see right through his clothes.

"Are you sure you boys are ready?" the man asked, his course voice seeming somehow British, formal and proper, even as it scraped over his teeth.

"Oh yeah," Chris responded excitedly, trying his best to sound pumped up. "We're totally psyched."

With considerable difficulty Ty managed to find his voice. "Are we…" he faltered, "Are we old enough, to go on this ride?" he asked, hoping for a last minute reprieve.

The man looked him over again and once more Ty got the absurd feeling he could actually see right through his pants. He felt as if the man was checking him out, inspecting his hard, pounding boyhood and counting every sparse follicle of recently acquired pubic hair.

"Oohhhh, yeeesssss," he said slow and cold. "You'll do fine."

The man extended a bony hand. Ty pulled back.

"You know the price?" the man asked, holding his palm expectantly.

Chris had his money out in an instant, ready to go. Ty hesitated, then finally pulled four crumpled fives from his pocket and gave them to the attendant. Their hands touched, ever so briefly, flesh touching flesh as money changed hands, and Ty felt a rash of goose-bumps sweep across him.

Without a word, the man gestured the boys up to the pink double-doors. "Who goes first?" he asked.

The boys looked at each other before Chris finally answered. "We wanted to ride together."

The man shook his head. "No. This journey you take alone. No one rides with another."

Ty looked at Chris and shook his head. He wasn't ashamed to admit it, he was scared. Something about this ride made him feel really creepy all over. Doing it with Chris, he thought he could handle it, but not alone. He couldn't do it alone.

With pleading eyes he looked at his friend, silently begging him to call it off.

Chris looked a bit on edge himself and seemed to sense his friend's meaning. Ty was sure he was about to quit when he turned to the man and said, "I'll go first."

Ty let out a tremor of breath and felt his knees begin to shake.

"Very well," the man continued, then turned to Ty. He indicated a small panel with two indicator lights beside the pink double-doors.

"Wait here until the light turns green, then you may enter, but not before. Understood?"

Ty nodded his understanding as words failed him entirely.

Silently the man took Chris through the doors. The indicator turned red.

Alone on the entrance platform Ty thought seriously about running away. What had he gotten himself into? What was really going to happen to him in there? The stories had been vague, nothing specific. Sex stuff, was all he knew. Sex stuff of a grown up kind, not the childish games little boys sometimes played. Could it be true?

Maybe this whole thing was a trap, yes that was it, a trap, to catch naughty boys and punish them.

Suddenly Ty remembered that scene in Pinocchio, the one where the boys were taken to an island for fun and games, only to be turned into donkeys. Maybe it was like that, an evil, wicked place where black magic was worked against bad little boys who strayed into places they shouldn't and poked their noses into grown up things they weren't ready for.

The more he thought about it, the more he was ready to bolt and run. But one thing kept him from doing it.

Chris was already in there. Whatever this place really was, Chris was his best friend. There was no way he couldn run off and leave him.

It was strange how much he cared for Chris, considering the way he treated him; always pinning him down, wrestling him until he'd give into whatever demand Chris made. Yet until this moment he never realized just how much he really cared for him. The thought of losing his friend frightened him far more than whatever lay on the other side of those doors.

No, he couldn't leave him, no matter what. Besides, what if this really was just a fun 'grown up' ride like Chris said. He'd miss out on it, and he'd already spent his money, and probably wouldn't get it back, so he might as well…

The green indicator lit up.

For a moment Ty couldn't move. He stood frozen like a mannequin on display in a store window, staring at the light. Then, finally, reluctantly, he gathered his courage and thinking only of his friend, stepped through those pink doors.

Whatever Ty had been expecting, it wasn't this.

There seemed to be nothing sinister here, nothing nefarious. The place was bright and clean, a far cry from the unimpressive, rundown exterior. To the side a black, bubble shaped amusement car sat on a track that led through another pair of pink double-doors. It reminded Ty of the cars in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

The attendant was waiting for him. With a gesture he motioned him toward the waiting car.

Ty stepped up and moved into it. Inside the carriage area was a softly cushioned seat, a restraining bar, and some concealed mechanical stuff along the inside walls, boxes and armatures, the purpose of which he could only guess at. Before he sat down the man said, "Wait. Remove your shirt please."

For an instant the boy hesitated. He already felt vulnerable enough without getting undressed, even partially. Finally he decided there was no real harm in it. This was a 'grown up' ride, he'd just have to be as adult about things as possible. After all, he'd come this far.

With a quick pull he raised his T-shirt over his head and took it off. Small, boyish nipples grew suddenly firm as they came in contact with the cool air. His chest was smooth and hairless. Not an ounce of fat on him, and every rib stood out visibly from his tanned skin.

"Place it on the seat beside you," the man said and he did.

"Hold still while I strap you in."

The man reached over and snapped a couple of metal bands around the boy's wrists.

'That's a weird kind of seat belt,' Ty thought as he got a good look at them. Each metal band clipped snuggly about his wrist like a bracelet, but wasn't attached to anything except a loose metal cable that ran to the corners of the car.

Without warning the man grabbed his pants. With the skill of someone who'd done it a million times the man pulled them completely down in one smooth motion. Before the boy could react his shorts and underwear were at his ankles, his erect little boy-ware suddenly on public display.

"Hey!" Ty shouted as his dink sprang into the open air, his boyish four-incher [10 cm] bobbing shamelessly.

The man pushed him and before Ty knew what was happening he felt himself folded into a sitting position in the car. 'Holy shit!' he thought to himself, startled at the unbelievable power and speed the old man had shown, 'How could that frail old guy do that !?'

With quick, firm moves the man completely removed his shorts and snapped two more bracelets to his ankles. "Stay seated," the man commanded, as if Ty had a choice.

The restraining bar swiftly dropped into place, just as on any other amusement ride, only when this one snapped shut Ty felt something different.

An odd, triangular shaped box slipped into place over his crotch, completely enclosing his penis and testicles. Ty felt a bizarre sensation as the mechanism seemed to hum and vibrate slightly, adjusting itself to fit snuggly between his legs and around his dick.

Ty tried to reach down but the restraining bar prevented his hands from getting at it. He tried to move, to get out of the car, and felt a sudden pang of fear as he realized he couldn't. He was trapped, naked and totally at the mercy of the machinery.

"Do not attempt to interfere with the 'Sensulator'." The man said, indicating the box like device leeched to his groin. "It is the primary mechanism for the ride."

'A Sensulator!?' – Even as Ty thought what a ridiculous name it was a sudden, terrifying image leapt into his mind. What was it for? Sudden fears of castration and other horrors to his most tender organ danced in his head.

"What is it?" he asked, his voice trembling, "What'll it do to me?"

"Do not be alarmed. The Sensulator acts as both sensor and pleasure stimulator. Its function is to provide you with pleasurable stimulation during the ride while also allowing the machine to sense what most excites you.

"As the ride progresses the program will tune itself more and more completely to your specific areas of pleasure. By the time you reach the end you will be seeing only those things which most please and excite you personally."

The man moved to a control panel and prepared to start the ride. "Enjoy your journey," the man said as he pressed the start button and the car lurched into motion.

"But be warned," he continued as the car began moving toward the sealed double-doors ahead. "You may not be comfortable with what you truly desire."

And with that the car vanished, swallowed into the darkness that lay beyond another set of those 'Pussy Pink' doors.

If there had been light to see, Ty's knuckles would have been white. His fingers gripped the restraining bar tightly. What had he gotten into?

Soft music began, coming from speakers in the car he was riding in. As he looked up an image appeared, perhaps projected on a invisible screen? Ty couldn't tell. It seemed to float ahead of him. It was a woman. A beautiful woman, like the ones in the Playboy magazines he had stashed under his mattress back home. Her breasts were rich and ample and as he watched she moistened her fingers and began to rub her nipples.

Ty groaned softly as he felt the Sensulator adjust between his legs. What felt like soft, warm fur began to stroke across his rigid willy. It felt great, better than anything he'd ever experienced before, and it took him a moment to realize that it was pulsing, gripping and stroking him with the same rhythm the woman was exhibiting in front of him.

He couldn't believe how good it felt. He'd jerked off before, lots of times, but this was nothing like that. It felt like someone was taking a smooth pelt of soft fur and buffing it all over his dick.

After a moment more images began to appear along the sides and soon there were dozens of floating screens, each showing a different erotic scene. Some showed a woman touching herself sensuously. Some showed two women together.

As Ty watched one woman began to gently lick at the nipple of the other woman's breast. Ty found the image very arousing and as if aware of his pleasure a small compartment along the side of the car opened and something extended in front of him.

Even in the near darkness Ty recognized it. A smooth, artificial breast was poised just in front of his mouth.

Watching the screen he knew what he was expected to do. Nervously he leaned forward and began, cautiously, to lick at the nipple, just as the woman on the projected image was doing.

It felt strange to his tongue, soft and fleshy, but not quite real. Ty was glad of that. The idea of something feeling like a real dismembered breast turned him off. This was better. With his eyes on the screen he easily imagined he was in that woman's place, licking and sucking on a real female mammary. He'd never really done that, of course, and he found the experience quite a turn on, but nothing incredible.

It took only a moment before Ty felt totally silly, licking and sucking on some phony 'breastomatic' tit. He couldn't take it seriously and his attention wandered to other scenes.

Instantly the artificial breast retracted as the machine sensed he was done with it. Looking at the other screens another image caught the boy's attention. This screen was showing a scene of a woman with a man!

Something about the couple renewed his feelings and Ty found himself transfixed as the woman began to stroke the man's shaft. In all his magazines he'd never seen a naked man before, just women. And this man… Damn! His thing was huge. Bigger than anything he'd ever seen or even imagined before.

As the woman continued to stroke that enormous man meat the boy found himself increasingly fixated on it. He wondered if all grown up men had gigantic dongs like that. He could hardly imagine that he himself might one day sport something that impressive between his legs.

As he watched he felt the rhythm of the Sensulator adjust its timing to match the image he was looking at, the woman caressing the man.

Almost imperceptibly the other images began to fade and were replaced by other scenes, all of men with women, like the one that held his interest.

'This is great,' Ty found himself suddenly realizing. His fears, though not entirely gone, were at last beginning ebb somewhat, taking a back seat to the erotic stimulation he was experiencing.

His eyes drifted to all the different scenes, taking them in and noting their subtle differences. On one he saw a couple in bed, making love, he assumed. The man was on top, pushing his aroused member in and out as the woman moaned in delight. You couldn't see much of what the man had as it was buried between the woman's legs. Ty found his eyes flitting to a different scene.

Here a woman was on her hands and knees, the man mounting her from behind. 'Jeez,' Ty wondered, 'was he putting his dick into her butt or something?' The way the woman moaned and squealed Ty couldn't tell if he was hurting her or not, but it reminded him of the time he'd watched two dogs doing it on the front yard, just before his dad had turned the sprinklers on. Again, however, nothing of the man's genitals were visible and Ty looked elsewhere.

The next image was of a woman on her knees doing a most incredible thing. She had her mouth on the man's dick, if you can believe that!

"Whoa," Ty found himself saying under his breath. He'd read about 'blow-jobs', where a woman supposedly sucked on a man's dong, but thought it was just a made up thing. After all, no one would really want to put someone's wiener in their mouth, would they? I mean, guys pee with those things, right? Yeech.

And yet, as gross as the idea first seemed, he couldn't take his eyes off this screen. He watched entranced as the woman worked up and down the man's lengthy shaft and wondered what it'd be like to experience that.

Suddenly he felt a warm, wet sensation between his legs as the Sensulator adjusted to a new mode. Now the rhythm of the device matched that of the woman giving the blow-job and the warm liquid introduced into the orifice made it feel as if she were actually doing him!

"Ohhh," Ty moaned in pleasure as even the tongue action was simulated. Inside the Sensulator something wet and textured wrapped his willy in perfect, mechanical synchronization to what was happening before him.

The stimulation was incredibly arousing and suddenly the boy felt himself about to erupt. His boner began twitching and he knew he would shoot his load at any moment.

Abruptly, the images went blank and Ty was plunged into blackness. At the same instant some kind of ring tightened around his dick and balls within the Sensulator, arresting his orgasm. What the hell!?

His release suddenly aborted, the boy whimpered as the blue-ball effect began to take him, "Aaaaa!"

For several moments the boy sat in total darkness, sexually frustrated and wondering what had happened! Did the power go out!? Had the thing busted? Ty didn't know, but as soon as his arousal began to fade, images began to appear again.

Images came up gradually, one at a time, and as the boy regained his composure he had the impression he'd moved into another room or progressed to a new level.

On the screen in front of him a large, hairy man of perhaps 35 was stretched back on a bed, playing with his enormous meat, stroking it up and down, jerking it off. Ty was stunned. The only adult male he'd ever seen naked (before today) was his father and he'd certainly never seen him playing with himself like this! For a long time Ty had thought he was the only person who even did that shameful and embarrassing thing, until on day Chris had confessed to him that he did it too sometimes. Although Ty had never actually seen anyone else do, he did occasionally fantasize about what other boys, especially Chris, might look like doing it.

But surely only boy's played with themselves in this way. Not big, hairy grown-up men like this!?

Probably they don't really, he decided, it's just another image for the ride is all. But more than any other image so far, he found himself strangely turned on as he watched this bear of a man, a man old enough to be his father, playing with himself like a kid.

One by one other images came up around him and Ty soon found himself adrift in a sea of naked men, all with bigger organs than he'd ever imagined. It was an incredible experience for the young teen and he felt himself powerfully aroused as he took in the sights around him. Inside the protection of the Sensulator, insulated from his own touch, Ty felt his young dink being rhythmically stroked in cadence with whatever image he was watching.

Ty found tried to imagine it was his own enormous manhood being stroked before him. What must it be like to have a huge, hairy man-cock, the boy wondered as he watched men pleasure themselves all around him.

For awhile Ty was so involved in what he was seeing that it wasn't until several moments had passed that he noticed something unexpected. A sudden shocked went through the boy.

There were no women. Each screen showed men: Only men!

The men were of different ages, some as old as his grandfather, others as young as, well, some looked almost as young as him! There were big hairy bears, and smooth skinned baby-faced boys, all around.

Why was the machine just showing him pictures of guys? What kind of boy did it think he was?

It must be some part of a cycle it goes through, Ty decided. Like the two women he'd watched in the first scene. The ride must be programmed to present a variety of different images. Surely it would switch to something else in a moment.

As he watched the images of men around him he was amazed at the size and variety of rods he saw. Some of the men were enormously endowed and wielded their tools like swords unbound. Others were moderate, seeming more what he imagined an average mature penis might look like. A few were actually quite small, no bigger than his own, yet even these he found interesting.

His gaze settled in on a particular scene. This one showed a very young man, a boy really, with smooth skin and no body hair. His pole, though much larger than Ty's, seemed rather smallish compared to the others. That didn't matter to Ty. He thought it looked nice, though he didn't know why.

Again the other images faded and were replaced by all images of young men, smooth, hairless, youthful.

Ty felt his breath increasing and realized, to his own surprise, that he was enjoying this far more than he would have expected. Why? He had no idea, but he couldn't deny that he was fully aroused again, even before the machine resumed its mechanical ministrations on his swollen young boyhood.

His eyes drifted across the scene and his breathing increased. Some of these men looked so young. So very young. It seemed as he looked around that there were ever younger individuals, each pleasuring themselves in some way.

His eyes caressed the many views in front of him and finally came to rest on an image of a boy no older than himself.

Ty didn't know why this boy fascinated him. Perhaps it was merely that he could easily imagine himself, or Chris, as that boy. All he knew was that once his hungry eyes fell upon the sight of this smooth skinned youth he never looked away.

Ty felt his hips moving involuntarily, renewing their pumping action as the boy worked his pike more vigorously and the Sensulator did the same to him. He felt the rise of his own semen, knew he was on the verge of cumming when once again, blackness!

"Oooooooo!" Ty let out an almost painful yelp.

The sensation of a ring tightening around his genitals again cut short his release and the boy whimpered like a whipped dog, almost crying, as the object of his desire was suddenly snatched from him a second time.

This was a torture of pleasure unlike anything he'd ever experienced before. He squirmed and wiggled his hips, he groped desperately for his own organ, but nothing gave him satisfaction. The railing and the device forbade any handling of his own tool. He was totally at the mercy of the machine for his release.

After a moment the sensation passed and the images resumed again.

Ty was thrilled to see that the boy, the one who looked like him, was back. This time however, he had to blink at what he saw. Was it just a coincidence, or did that boy really look exactly like him?

There was no mistaking that the two could have been brothers. Their hair, eyes, complexion, build, all were the same. It was as if the machine had deliberately reached into its memory banks and either pulled a file image of an identical person or, somehow, generated a virtual image from scratch with the intention of making it as much like him as possible. But, how could it do that?

Around the room more images of the boy began to appear, masturbating in different places, in different ways, but always with a self-absorbed vigor and ecstasy. He was in the shower, on his bed, in the bathtub, in a forest, in a lake, in a bathroom, every place you can imagine a boy secretly sneaking off to do it, he was there! Ty felt suddenly uncomfortable, as if someone had secretly recorded this kid, who looked so like himself, doing it in all these places, places he himself often did it, and was now putting him on display.

Ty's dick pulsed to life as he imagined himself as the boy, enjoying those moments and yet feeling so embarrassed, so humiliated, so used as he was exhibited like an object.

For reasons he couldn't consciously understand the thought caused him to feel even more arousal and his boner pulsed in hungry need.

Suddenly something unexpected happened in one of the scenes; two men who seemed to come out of nowhere forcibly grabbed the boy in the midst of his actions.

Ty felt his rod surge in unexpected excitement as the naked boy, his double, struggled helplessly against his handsome captors. The men grabbed at his nude flesh freely, taking hold of him wherever they pleased and dragging the captive youth off.

BLACKOUT!

Ty held his breath as if watching a real life cliffhanger.

What had happened? Where had they taken the boy? What were they going to do with him? Ty's own boyish dick pumped and pulsed in the restraint of the Sensulator as if his peter were also aching to know what would happen next.

Neither had long to wait.

Still in darkness Ty felt the metal cables attached to the bands on his wrists and ankles suddenly pull taut. His legs were spread wide apart as if to expose his rock-hard boy thing, though the Sensulator still covered it. His arms were stretched back in either direction above his head until he found himself both naked and spread eagle within the confines of the car.

Ty tried to fight back, pulling with all his might against his restraints, but there was no slack, no give, no chance of getting loose. An utterly new and indescribable sensation seized the boy unlike any he'd experienced before. He knew no word for it, had no way to explain it. There was fear, yes, fear was definitely part of it. He felt exposed, naked, vulnerable… All of those feelings were present. But, despite all of that, he found himself sexually aroused beyond anything he'd ever experienced in his young life, beyond anything he'd imagined possible. He was trapped, a prisoner, totally at the mercy of some unseen power, but for some reason he could not explain, and this frightened him more than anything, he was incredibly turned-on by the sensation of being someone's sexual captive.

Slowly an image began to reveal itself on the invisible screen before him.

There was the boy, looking even more like Ty than before. He was on a bed in a dark room, arms and legs tied, spread-eagle, just like Ty. The boy breathed nervously, as if frightened, and Ty realized it matched the frantic rhythms of his own desperate breaths.

Around the boy's erect organ was a kind of leather strap, like a studded dog's collar, snug around his shaft and bag.

On seeing it Ty realized he could feel something similar in place around his own equipment and he imagined it must be the same. He didn't know what it was exactly, but he felt he understood its dual purpose. It indicated ownership. He was now tagged as someone's property, an object to be used. He also knew it served a real physical purpose as well. It was to prevent him from cumming, at least until whomever wanted him to.

The Sensulator itself remained dormant. No new stimulation was being applied to his rigid young dink. Like the boy on the bed he was motionless, untouched, and yet he could not imagine having ever been more aroused in his life.

The men returned. They were dressed differently now.

When they'd taken the boy they'd been dressed normally, only the boy had been naked. Now they wore strange, revealing leather garments the likes of which Ty had never seen. Studs and straps crossed their chests, leaving more skin exposed than covered. Something like leather jock straps barely contained their frighteningly enormous man bulges. Ty struggled and pulled at his bonds, just as the boy on the screen did the same, and Ty suddenly realized how vulnerable he actually was.

This was too much, he thought to himself. When he'd come here he'd been frightened imagining the pictures of naked women he'd be seeing, but this… What the hell was wrong with this machine? He didn't like this kind of fag stuff! (Did he…?)

He tried to reassure himself. Obviously the machine has made a mistake. No, this wasn't the kind of thing he was into. Not men! What did they think he was? And yet…

In spite of everything he told himself, everything he believed about himself; despite all his fear, resistance and determination to look away, Ty found his eyes glued to the scene before him, unable to gaze anywhere else and totally unable to account for his own incredible arousal. There was an inexplicable pleasure he felt watching, experiencing, being part of what was happening.

He'd never been so horny. Within the confines of the Sensulator his erect boyhood throbbed, harder than it had ever been.

On the screen the boy looked at the men, pleading in his eyes.

"What… What are you going to do to me?" he asked, almost as if reading Ty's mind. It was the first time anyone had spoken in the scenes and Ty was again shocked at how much the boy's voice sounded like his own.

The two handsome men didn't answer and instead placed a gag over his mouth. At that same instant Ty felt something extend from the walls of his travelling car and his mouth was also covered with a soft, cotton cloth. Next the men produced a black silk blindfold which they placed across the boy's eyes. Instantly the scene went black as Ty felt a soft, silky material, cover his own face.

Ty knew he wasn't in any real danger. He couldn't say how he knew, he just knew. This was a game, a ride designed to excite him like some sort of erotic roller coaster. But just like a roller coaster, he was frightened by what was happening. All the knowledge that he was safe, just like on any other amusement ride, did nothing to prevent his heart from racing and his emotions from running rampant.

Mouth gagged, eyes covered, he felt a touch on his nipples. Instinctively the boy flinched. For an instant he imagined someone was in the car with him, but he knew the size and design made that impossible. Obviously other attachments had extended themselves to simulate the feel of human hands on his firm little tits.

Ty jumped as another sensation took him. Something wet was moving over his body.

It felt like a human tongue, licking its way across him, up his chest, over his nipples, around his neck, his ears. Then there were two of them, roaming freely over every part of the boy's exposed body. Ty sighed at the pleasurable sensations, then gasped as he felt something like a human hand suddenly grab his erection inside the tight confines of the Sensulator.

It was as if the men were pawing at him, licking at him, touching him all over.

With no visual input Ty easily imagined the men he had seen on the screen were actually in the car with him, fondling every part of his smooth young body. Even knowing all the things he felt had to be mechanical simulations his imagination had no problem filling in the blanks and letting him believe the experience was totally genuine.

He felt one of the men move across his upper body, stroking his neck, licking his nipples, fondling his cheeks, as he felt the other man move down, lick his abdomen, stroke his thing. He felt the man's tongue move across his boy meat and, for just a moment, stop to suckle his tender organ. Ty moaned in pleasure as the man's wet mouth enveloped him in the darkness, even though deep down he knew it was only the Sensulator at work, giving the illusion he was being touched.

The man moved lower, working his tongue between the boy's spread legs. There was a brief pause, then Ty jumped as he felt something wet making circles around his anus.

Some hidden panel in the seat must have opened to allow the probe to reach him there and Ty squirmed at the moist, erotic sensation. Like a tongue it made tiny movements around his hole, using warm, wet strokes in a way, Ty felt certain, no real human would ever do. How disgusting, the boy thought, to lick someone's butt hole! Thank god it was only, ohhhh…

The boy sighed at the pleasurable sensation of being rimmed, then squirmed more, pressing his anus against it as the 'tongue' probed deeper into his opening. Thank God it was only a machine doing this, he thought, less disgusted at the whole idea then he would have been.

But once more the boy found himself imagining what it would be like in reality. Would someone ever really do this to him? Would he ever do it to someone else? Somehow, as he felt himself being turned on by the deep, moist probing of his own hole, he didn't find the thought nearly as disgusting as it had first seemed.

Suddenly he felt something brushing against his hand. Something soft and firm, long and hard. It was one of the men's things, Ty realized with a start.

Without thinking he tightened his fingers around the shaft, feeling his first adult organ. Surely this too was merely a simulation, but how real it felt.

From the sensations on his body Ty imagined the man, his mouth down between his legs, his manhood poking out the leg of his leather thong and being pushed into the boy's eager palm.

Soon he felt another in his other hand as the second man followed the lead of the first. Ty rubbed, stroked, pawed at the erections he couldn't see, only touch, as the men continued to tongue him.

It felt so very good. So incredibly, indescribably irresistibly good! Unable to stop himself Ty wriggled his butt against the moist anal actuator, aroused practically to the point of madness. He was going to cum, he knew it. He could feel it building, even with nothing touching his hard little boyhood, he was ready to pump. The motions were starting, the sensations unmistakable. He was gonna cum! He was gonna c…

Everything stopped and the noose was again tightened around his private parts, choking his climax.

"AAAAAAAaaaaarrrrrrrrrr!" Ty screamed through his gag as he pulled at his restraints, snapping at them, desperately struggling to break his unbreakable bonds. It was no use. He was held fast, unable to do anything about his condition except endure the incredible delight of it.

How did it know? How did the machine know!? How could it detect his every sensation!? And why did it stop? What was the point of bringing him to the verge the most powerful orgasm of his life and then stopping!

But inside, even as he pulled and struggled in vane to touch his swollen, hungry rod, Ty knew why. As much as he fought it, as much as it pained him to be denied, he knew he'd never known a more powerfully erotic torture. One more part of this amazing ride.

Despite that knowledge Ty felt tears of frustration welling up in his eyes. He so wanted to cum, was so aching for release, and now yet another orgasm had been denied him, constrained in mid eruption. He didn't think it was possible. He could never have done it to himself. Even now he could barely stand it, barely retain a shred of sanity, but the machine knew him, knew his needs, knew what he wanted, better than he knew himself.

And that was the most terrifying part of it, for through everything that was happening, Ty was discovering things about himself he didn't really want to know. Learning what really excited him. He was confronting himself at his most primal level and was not sure he was happy about what was there.

But this was just a ride, Ty repeated, trying desperately to reassure himself. It's not real. It's just pretend. It doesn't mean this is what I really want.

The blindfold came off and on screen the men stepped away from him. For the first time he saw their naked things, hanging from their leather thongs, looking just as big, firm and delicious as he'd imagined them to be when he touched them.

"Your Master is coming, boy," they said and stepped back into the shadows.

For several moments, there was only silence as the view changed. The boy on screen vanished and only the image of the door and his body remained, as if Ty himself were now the boy, staring at the door down the length of his own naked, enslaved body, waiting to see who would come through.

Ty knew this would be the final part of the ride. For each person, he imagined, someone different would come through the door, someone assembled from all the data the machine had gathered on the journey to this point. What would it be for him?

Some kind of woman dominatrix, Ty thought? He'd read stories in Penthouse, seen little cartoons in Playboy. Maybe that's what his ultimate fantasy would be.

Or maybe, he thought, in would be a man to dominate him? Perhaps a big strong man. The idea excited him. But that couldn't be. No, a man coming through that door would mean that he was…

Ty shook the thought, still unable to accept it as a possibility. He wasn't that way. He wasn't!

Was he?

As he thought about the man coming for him, and realized how the thought aroused him more than the idea of a woman, he began to wonder if perhaps he really was one of 'them'.

Throughout the ride he had preferred men, the images of men, the fondling of men, being used by men, all of what had happened to him on this ride that had involved men. He HAD enjoyed it. Maybe, whether he liked the idea or not, maybe he really was…?

Ty was unable to wipe away the tear that ran down his cheek. His arms were still pulled up behind him in the spread-eagle position, his legs still pulled wide, his small, naked body exposed and vulnerable to whatever fictional person would walk through that door.

He didn't want to be gay. He knew that. It would make him an outcast from his friends, if they found out. Chris would disown him, the boys at school would taunt him. He'd have to hide it or suffer the consequences. He didn't WANT that, but deep inside he began to realize where the ride had brought him.

Now he wondered, as the machine culled the data it had gathered, what would it show him?

The door began to open and Ty felt himself tense up.

Slowly a dark figure stepped forward from the shadows and into the revealing light of the room. A face took shape. When he saw the image coming at him he began to shake with fear.

It couldn't be, it wasn't possible… How could the machine have gotten this image. But it did.

"Hello, Ty," the fourteen year old boy on the screen said to him. "Enjoying the ride?"

Ty struggled and pulled at his bonds. This had to be a mistake, this couldn't be. There was no way this was right.

Chris smiled as he came toward him wearing nothing but a tight boy's jock strap.

This was impossible, Ty thought to himself. Obviously the machine had miscalculated. Chris was his friend, his best friend, not a sex object in his fantasies. How could the machine have made that kind of mistake? How could it generate this kind of image? How could it be so wrong!

Ty stared at the figure in disbelief as he struggled, unable to believe what he was seeing. Looking down the length of the boy slave's naked body, his own virtual body, he could see his dink, tiny and boyish, poked rigid in the air as he lay strapped to the bed by his wrists and ankles. His friend, his BEST friend, stepped closer, looking over his exposed legs, thighs, organ… with hungry eyes.

"Oh, you look nice. I've always wanted to have you like this, Ty. Always wanted to make you do what you're going to do now."

Again Ty tried to break free, to shout out at his friend, but the bonds held him fast and the gag prevented any sounds beyond his muffled cries. This wasn't Chris. Not the real Chris. It was an illusion, a fantasy Chris. One more image created by the machine, an image stolen from his mind, his longings. It was a deep, subconscious wet dream, somehow given form.

Ty was helplessly at the mercy of his own unconscious desire!

Chris looked over Ty's naked body and smiled. With one hand he reached out and Ty felt a matching touch moving up the inside of his thigh.

The thirteen-year-old stopped struggling as the feel of fingers move up between his crotch and across his testicles.

"Beautiful balls," the phantom Chris commented as Ty felt a gentle rubbing on his scrotum. "Nice, pretty, big for a little boy like you."

Ty shook his head, unable to believe what was happening.

Chris climbed on top of him, his crotch straddling the boy's pelvis as he reached forward and held Ty's arms down. It was just like the real Chris had done to him the day before in his bedroom only this time Ty was naked and bound and the phantom Chris wore nothing but a jock strap. He began to grind his hips, rubbing his contained cock against Ty's own naked erection.

"You like this, I know you do. It makes your little dick get hard, doesn't it slave?" Chris said.

Ty tried to pull back as the machine simulated weight on him in all the right places, shaking his head, trying to deny it.

"Come on! You think I never noticed all those little stiffies you got when we wrestling?"

Ty froze, stunned. Chris just smiled. "Admit it, slave. You've always wanted me to do you just like this." Chris leaned back and tore off the jock revealing his hard, fourteen-year-old boy-thing.

Ty tried to pull away again, tried to deny it as tears slipped from his eyes. He could hardly face the truth, but it was there, eating at him deep inside.

As Chris pumped against him, dry humping boy-cock to boy-cock, he found himself unable to lie to his phantom tormentor. He began nodding, responding honestly to the simulated image before him. Ty faced the unbearable truth; he really did want this.

"Well now you're going to get what you've always wanted – and so am I!"

Ty had seen Chris naked over the years, especially during the many times they'd showered and taken baths together. Recently he'd even caught his friend getting a boner a few times, but never said anything about it. He'd have rather died then let Chris find out the sordid truth, that sometimes, when Ty masturbated, he thought about his best friend.

Ty had never let himself believe it meant anything. It just helped him do it faster, that was all, thinking about Chris standing naked with him in the shower, touching one another in private ways.

But now, here was something closer to the real thing than he'd ever imagined he would have. Something he never realized how much he wanted.

With a lecherous smile the older boy slid his hips forward until his dick was right in Ty's face.

"You like it, don't you boy?" he began, taunting him.

A simulated penis extended from the car and pressed itself in front of Ty's face, matching the actions of the boy on screen.

With one hand Chris removed Ty's gag and instantly Ty felt the material retract from his mouth. Ty rubbed the head of his hard penis across Ty's soft lips.

"Suck it, you sweet thing you. Come on, you've always wanted me, now's your chance."

Ty shook his head weakly. "No, Chris, please… Don't make me do this?" the youngster pleaded with the machine simulation in front of him. It was so real, so totally convincing he had no hesitation in calling to it. "I'm your friend."

The phantom Chris got a very sad look on his face. In his eyes Ty could swear he saw compassion. (But how was that possible in a simulation…?) And yet, there was no mistaking the change of attitude as the boy leaned back.

"Please… I don't want to do this, Chris. Not with you. Please," Ty repeated his plea, hoping he was getting through to something.

For a long time Chris said nothing, just sat on his haunches, looking down at his young friend as if in disbelief. When at last he finally did speak his voice was different, soft and understanding, not harsh and demanding, as it had been. It was so real.

"You dorky doofus," he said, sounding exactly like the real Chris, "Of course you want it," he added softly. "If you didn't, I wouldn't be here."

Ty closed his eyes. He knew it was true. Inside he really did want to suck on his friend's handsome tool, but he couldn't admit it. Why?

Because, he suddenly realized, he couldn't risk humiliating himself in front of his friend, no matter how much he secretly desired it. How would he ever live it down? What would Chris think of him if he did this?

He didn't want his friend to know, he didn't want anyone to know, that what he desired, what most turned him on, was Chris. He couldn't risk losing the most important thing in his life, his best friend, by letting the truth out.

"Come on you cock-sucker, who do you think you're fooling?" his phantom friend derided in an almost fun, joking way. "You've always wanted me. Well, now you can finally have me, I'm all yours, and no one will ever know," he smiled deviously. "No one. Not even me."

The revelation hit Ty like a truck.

This was just an illusion, a dream, a simulation given the pretense of life solely for the sake of making his fantasy come true. Whatever happened here now, whatever he did, nothing was real. Chris need never know the truth. He could have his friend as a sex object, a dominating master to service and suck and kiss and caress… And not put his friendship in jeopardy.

Although it was genuine in so many ways, in a practical sense, it was no more than a dream.

At last the full realization began to dawn on him – it's only fantasy – and Ty relaxed, finally understanding the truth his 'friend' was telling him. He lowered his pretense and let dream take over.

"Yes," he told the phantom Chris proudly. "I want this. I want to suck on your big cock…. Master," he said determinedly, at last getting into the fun of the fantasy. "Oh, please, Master Chris," he begged passionately, "Let me suck your cock."

A smile returned to the face of the illusion and without hesitation he began dragging his long, smooth teen-pole across Ty's rosy cheeks.

"That's better slave. Now, don't argue. Do as your Master says. SUCK IT!"

Ty hesitated, still feeling a slight twinge of guilt at what he was about to do.

"Do it!" the phantom Chris commanded as he lightly slapped his thing across the younger boy's face. "Suck it you horny little slave!"

Taking the mechanical boy-cock into his mouth, Ty began to lick and suck on it.

"Oh, yeah…." the image before him reacted, as if it could truly feel the effects. "Oh, yeah… Damn, Ty, you're a good cock-sucker. Oh yeah, you're great man."

Ty couldn't believe how 'real' the thing in his mouth felt. He'd never had a real one, of course, but somehow it felt, tasted, even smelled exactly as he imagined it would. It was as if he actually had Chris' wiener under his care and the experience was entirely real to him.

The thirteen-year-old loved the sensation and felt an inexplicable sense of pride as his friend complimented him on his skill as a cock-sucker.

On screen the other boy reached down and began to stroke Ty's exposed shaft. The Sensulator, in perfect sync, mimicked the movement and soon Ty found himself pumping his hips in rhythm to the gentle stroking of his friend.

"Now it's my turn," Chris said, and the boy quickly repositioned himself into a 69. Ty moaned in pleasure as his friend took his tender morsel into his mouth. God, how could anything feel so good?

"You like this, don't you?" Chris paused for just an instant to ask.

Ty nodded blissfully. It was heaven. It was ecstasy. It was unreal.

"I've wanted to taste that beautiful little dink of yours ever since the first time we took a bath together back when we were just kids," Chris said. Taking Ty's little prick back in his mouth Chris' tongue worked up and down Ty's sweet young shaft and the boy realized this was the most 'fantasy' part of it all.

No way, he knew, would the real Chris ever do something like this. Not his friend, no way. And even if he did, he doubted Chris would be the expert at it that this phantom counterpart was.

Closing his eyes the boy imagined it was all real. That he was back in his bedroom, that Chris really was doing him, as he was doing Chris. The illusion was complete.

Suddenly he felt a finger rubbing against his anus, making tiny circles. Soon another hand was on him, and a tongue, and another tongue.

Opening his eyes he saw the two men had emerged from the shadows and were again working over him. As Chris continued to suck on his dingy and rub his balls while pumping his own boy meat in and out of Ty's willing and eager mouth, the men started to work him over. Every part of him was being touched, caressed, fondled, licked, massaged, stroked and kissed. His whole boy body was an object to be pleasured by this group of handsome males.

Ty squirmed, pulling at his restraints. He was still bound, spread eagle, and the constant caressing was bringing him to the point of insanity. He felt his balls tighten and his hips began pulsing to the rhythm of an approaching freight train, his own coming orgasm, at last about to arrive at its long overdue station.

Chris began to breathe heavily and he felt Chris' dick pulsing in his mouth.

"I'm gonna cum," Chris announced suddenly. "You swallow it, understand. Swallow it like a good, cock-sucking slave. You got that?"

Ty could only nod and whimper his agreement as his friend gave the order and he felt his own juice rushing to the fore.

'Please, don't let it stop this time,' he prayed mentally as the sensation began to overwhelm him. He felt his balls tighten and his shaft pulse, building toward an explosive load as he sucked on his best friend while getting his own meat sucked in return. Men worked over his entire body in a sensory overload of delight.

He pulled at the restrains as the erotic excitement of the moment pushed him ever further down the road to insane rapture.

Chris seemed to sense his approaching moment, "Do it, do it!" He paused barely long enough to get the words out. "Go all the way, Ty. Show me how you can come like a man!"

Ty pumped and writhed and twisted his body as his tongue worked its way up and down his friend's fantasy phallus. He felt something mildly salty, Chris' pre-cum, entering his mouth.

"Yeah, Ty… I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna shoot!"

Ty was so enraptured with lust he never felt the subtle vacuum pump working on his dick, camouflaged as it was by the illusion of Chris' sucking on him. The taste in his mouth was his own, salty pre-cum being siphoned out and recycled up to the mechanical rod in his mouth.

All Ty knew was that he was about to cum and this time, no force on this earth would be able to stop him.

"Yeah! Yeah, Ty! Here I cum! Take it man, swallow my load!"

At that instant Ty shot his own wad! On screen Chris moved his mouth away while continuing to jerk the boy off with his hand. A powerful geyser of creamy white boy juice shot out from his simulated dick on screen in perfect sync with his actual spasms within the Sensulator.

White boy cum went splashing across Chris' face while more ran down Ty's shaft, making Chris' fingers slick with the natural lube. Each pump of his own was matched by the perfectly synchronized fountaining of the boy slave's erection, pumping on screen.

"I'm cumming. Swallow it! Take it all, boy!" Chris shouted, his face soaked with Ty's pleasure pus.

The Chris on the screen suddenly bucked and Ty felt the delicious taste of real semen (his own actually, pumped up from the Sensulator) shoot from the thing in his mouth.

"Swallow it!" Chris ordered him, "Swallow my load!"

Ty had no intention of resisting the command. In a sexual frenzy he took it all, swallowing the juice as it came into his mouth.

"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah….!"

The phantom Chris bucked, face fucking his friend for a few moments longer, before at last, settling back.

Slowly both boys began to subside and the men stepped away. All the pleasuring stopped and for a moment the two boys lay intertwined.

Looking at Ty, the phantom Chris smiled, then turned himself around and Ty felt the mechanical dick retract as Chris put his face up beside him. Ty looked at him, still wet with the eruption of his pleasure and the two boys grinned at each other as only best friends can.

"I always knew you'd be a great cock sucker," Chris said, leaning nose to nose. For a moment, they just lay there, smiling in the afterglow.

Finally, almost sadly, Chris pulled away.

Standing off, he turned to leave. Suddenly, Ty remembered that this was only a ride. He hadn't really done any of this with his friend. It had all been just an illusion.

Although it was the reality he'd wanted a pang of sadness gripped him as he realized this dream was coming to an end and could never, ever, happen again.

On the screen before him, the phantom Chris walked toward the door, then paused unexpectedly, and turned. Chris moved back to him with a motion so spontaneous, so smooth and swift, that Ty thought even the machine had not known he was going to do it.

Without a word the phantom Chris stepped beside the captive Ty and looking down at him, smiling, leaned over and gave the boy a deep kiss on the lips.

There was no mechanical counterpart. The kiss was as if in a dream, an image only, without substance. It made Ty feel all the more that the machine had no control over what the simulation had done. It was as if, for a brief instant, the phantom Chris had truly developed a life of his own.

Looking into the sad eyes of his friend, Ty could scarce believe that this was only an illusion. There so seemed to be life there, to be warmth, to be love.

The phantom smiled and as he walked to the door, the image faded to black.

Ty felt the cables release and his arms and legs were free again.

The car began moving (had it ever really stopped?) and he was taken through darkness to a final room.

Ty felt his eyes squint as he passed through the final doors into a brightly lit area. The car came to a stop, the ankle and wrist bands unbuckled automatically and the restraining bar rose, leaving the boy free and naked in the harsh fluorescent light.

He was alone. Neither Chris nor the attendant were present. For a long moment Ty didn't move. He just sat there, thinking. Then he started to cry for what he now knew he would always want, but could never really have.

He hadn't known who he was, when he'd arrived, now he did. How was he going to live with that? How could he go on with his life knowing the secret he must carry? A secret he must keep, most of all, from the one he most wanted to share it with.

Wiping the tears from his eyes Ty picked up his clothes and dressed quickly before stepping from the car. As soon as he exited the ride moved along, vanishing through another pair of double-doors. The exit was in front of him. He swallowed hard and stepped out into the real world.

The sky was black. The light of the midway, on the opposite side of the carnival, was gradually fading. It was over, the rides were closing, the fair pulling up stakes to move to the next county.

Looking back at the ride he'd just left it looked even more bland and empty than before. The attendant was gone, as was his podium; the stairway was folded up, the ride closed and ready to move.

It took him a moment to notice Chris.

The fourteen-year-old was standing a short distance away, his back to the ride and to Ty, lost in his own deep thoughts, staring silently at the ground.

Ty grimaced, not sure how he was going to face his friend after what had just happened. Though Chris would have no way of knowing what he'd done Ty felt certain that something, the look in his eyes, his voice, his manner, would betray him and let the truth slip out.

Slowly he moved to him.

"Chris?" he said, his voice cracked and broken.

Chris jumped at the sound of Ty's voice. With frightened, startled eyes he looked at Ty as if he were a total stranger. There was a look of fear on his face, a look of shame. It was as if he too didn't know how to be himself after what had happened.

For a moment the two boys stared in perplexed silence. Then, slowly, Chris seemed to regain his composure, realizing his own secret, like Ty's, was safe. Ty couldn't possibly know what he'd seen.

"Hey…" Chris finally managed, his voice shaky. A long pause followed. "That was… some ride, huh?"

Ty suddenly grew curious. Until now he hadn't even wondered what Chris might have seen on his journey, but as he looked at his friend he suddenly realized that Chris' experience, whatever it may have been, had been no less traumatic than his own.

"Yeah… Some ride," Ty finally managed to answer. "Guess we know why nobody ever talks about it, huh?"

Chris didn't smile at first, then forced one, desperate to cover his face before it revealed too much. "Yeah. Guess we do."

The two boys stood silently for a moment as more lights turned off in the distance and the fair grew ever darker around them.

"How 'bout we ride back to my place. We could stop at Ben & Jerry's for ice cream on the way, then maybe, you could spend the night?" Ty asked.

At the mention of spending the night Ty saw a flash of panic in Chris' eyes, then the boy shook his head.

"I… I don't think… Maybe that might not be such a good idea," Chris stumbled, looking oddly uncomfortable.

Ty had an impulse, one he didn't think about or he wouldn't have done it. Without considering it, Ty reached out and put his arm across his best friend's shoulders. Chris tensed, then finally relaxed, sensing it was an innocent touch.

"I'd really like you to," Ty told him. "I really," he swallowed awkwardly, "I'd really like you to stay with me tonight."

Chris looked into Ty's eyes, a mixture of fear and uncertainty showing.

"Okay," he finally nodded. "But I spent all my money. Can you spot me for the ice cream?"

Ty smiled. "Sure." He only had ten dollars left to his name, but Ty couldn't imagine a better way to spend it.

As the boys started across the fair grounds, heading for their bikes, Chris slowly raised his own arm and placed it comfortably across his friend's. Arms around each other, the two boys went off together.

The End