CHAPTER 3 - THE LESSON
ALEXI

Alexi was tugged by his tie inside the basement like a dog on a lead, and Roach disappeared immediately into the darkness of the corridor, leaving Alexi with Jones. Jones gave Alexi a long look then shoved him up against the wall.

"Wait there. Cause me any problems and I will have no qualms in knocking you for 6," He stated coldly. "Understand?"

Alexi frowned. He'd been in England for 6 months to try going to an English school after his parents had come to visit and taken a shine to the place. He spoke good English, but some of the idioms still puzzled him. Jones shoved him hard again.

"Do you understand?!" he demanded coldly.

Alexi nodded, watching Jones warily. Jones surveyed him.

"Yeesh, who knew a kid like you could cause such problems," He grumbled.

He turned away and wrenched the door shut, wedging the broken locks back together as well as he could.

"Good job that that's the back door," He remarked, then grabbed Alexi by the upper arm. "Come on."

Alexi thought about wrenching his arm away, but as Jones seemed to be the one in charge and he had no inclination to get 'knocked for 6' he resisted the urge. That and it was a whole less humiliating than being led around by the tie. They made painfully slow progress, Alexi shuffling awkwardly. Although most of it was due to the rope, Alexi was being deliberately slow, hoping that Jones might untie his feet long enough to give him a chance to run for it. It was a vain hope, but Jones was plainly getting irritated.

With no warning Jones grabbed him by the waist and threw him into a fireman's lift. Alexi froze in stunned surprise, then started to writhe around, kicking out...

"Stop it or I'll drop you," Jones warned casually. "And the only person that will get hurt will be you."

Seeing the sense in that, Alexi grudgingly stopped struggling, heart loud in his ears.

"Oh, so you can be reasonable," Jones observed, kicking the door to the empty room he'd been tied up in earlier open and walking through it to the other door. "Heaven forbid."

Alexi scowled pointlessly, then gave a muffled yell of protest as he was unceremoniously dumped onto the floor. He looked carefully around the room. It was as bare as the last room, concrete walls and floor, a large green damp stain across the far wall, a puddle on the floor beneath. There was a door on that side, but it was swollen with damp and probably hadn't been opened in years.

There was another door on the same side as the one they'd just come through, and, as it was padlocked shut, he guessed that that had to be the way to the front door. Opposite that was what appeared to be a bathroom, with blackened grouting and mouldy tiles. That was about it, there was a table and 4 mismatched wooden chairs and a couple of double mattresses on the floor, but that was it. Alexi had the horrible impression that these guys didn't intend to stay here constantly, and as they couldn't lug a tied up boy around with them...

He kicked out with his bound legs as Roach reappeared, a coil of rope over one shoulder and his evil grin back in place. Roach just dodged the clumsy kick and Jones cuffed him across the back of the head again.

"Looks like we're going to have to make this guest very comfortable," Roach observed, snagging one of the wooden chairs and setting it down next to Alexi. "I think I'm going to have some fun with this."

Alexi found another burst of strength and writhed desperately, but it was pointless. Roach grabbed him by belt buckled around his chest and heaved him into the wooden chair, slamming him down hard. Before Alexi could slide back off, Roach put his knee on his lap, pressing his knee into Alex's stomach to pin him to the chair while he fiddled with the belt buckle. Alexi waited until he felt the belt loosen and tried to shove Roach away, but Jones caught him by shoulders, and Roach deftly threaded the leather through the back of the chair, belting it as tight as before. Now Alexi wasn't going anywhere, you could see Roach considering his next move.

Alexi cursed him through the gag, but that only made Roach's smile spread at the pathetic muffled sound that came out. Roach played thoughtfully with the rope, then drew a knife from his belt. Alexi froze. He knew they weren't allowed to kill him, but thinking about the plenty of things they could do without killing him, it wasn't a comforting thought. Roach caught the movement with a small grin, and strode towards him.

He dodged Alexi's kick and caught his ankles throwing a loop of rope around them over the rope that was already in place and knotted it off tightly. As he was doing that, Jones withdrew a key from his pocket and unlocked one side of the cuffs. Startled, Alexi didn't have chance to even try to take advantage of this before his arms were grabbed and forced through the back of the chair, posted between the wooden spokes. He struggled desperately against the wood, but it held firm, and he felt the metal bite into his skin around his already sore wrists as the handcuff was locked back into place.

Alexi gave an unintelligible yell of pain as Roach yanked on the rope. He fed it under the seat, around the brace between the legs and then  tied it tightly to the cuffs, dragging Alexi's legs under the seat and his arms down towards the floor. If Alexi yanked on his arms, it would drag the rope on his legs tighter, and vice versa.

"Gone quiet now, haven't you, you little shit?" Roach demanded, straightening up.

Alexi just scowled at him, testing the ropes. But Roach wasn't done. He tied more rope around Alexi's calves, halfway up his shins, then over his thighs, cinching him tightly against the hard wood of the seat.

"Overkill, surely?" Jones asked mildly.

"Where this one's concerned, better safe than sorry," Roach remarked, tying one last loop, this time securing Alex's waist to the back of the chair, ignoring Alexi's groan of pain. "It'll teach him a nice lesson."

"Whatever," Jones yawned. "Now stop playing with your toys and put him away."

Roach saluted him, then circled around to behind Alexi. Alexi tried desperately to look around, see what was coming next. There was the sound of a door creaking open behind him, then with no warning, darkness descended.

"MMMPH!"

Alexi desperately contorted, trying to shuck the fabric hood that had just been forced over his head, but it was pointless, Roach was drawing the drawstring tight around his neck and knotting it off, keeping it very firmly in place.

He flailed against the ropes as he felt himself being tipped backwards, then his whole body was jarred as he was dragged backwards over the uneven concrete. The chair juddered to a halt and was stood back up, and even through the thick fabric and over the sound of his own ragged breathing and muffled whimpers, he heard a door slam, and a key turn in a lock.