My story and originally published elsewhere. These were originally two chapters but I combined them into one final chapter.
All characters are of legal age. The first chapter explains that all boys can leave any time they like. Hence, all activities described are consensual.
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LAST STOP OF THE NIGHT
Arriving in the next room -- the last room for the night -- I was stunned with what I saw. There were a a group of men crowding around what looked like two huge aquariums filled with water. The men were betting on what looked like a drowning game. The aquarium walls were glass, so I could see exactly what was happening. In each aquarium, there was a boy in bondage, trying desperately to keep his head above the water. They were on their backs, wearing a weighted collar to make it harder to lift their heads above the water. Their legs were tied over the edge of the tanks and one arm was tied to their side. The other arm was free and could presumably be used to pull themselves up if necessary an important safety precaution. Clearly, however, they were warned that doing so would mean losing the game, and whatever consequences that would come from that.
As such, both boys only had their abs and core muscles to help them up over the waterline and breathe. I had no idea how long they had been struggling to breathe like this but I could only imagine how quickly their abs, even on the fittest boy, would be killing them -- how quickly would their muscles be screaming and feel like they'll just rip apart while the boy desperately tries to stay above water, not swallow water, and not drown.
I looked to the side and there was a soaked boy laying in the corner, still gasping for air, tears in his eyes and his head on his master's lap, begging his master for forgiveness:
"I am sorry, master. I just couldn't last any longer. I had to use my free arm to pull myself up I was afraid I would pass out and drown otherwise."
Some light crying turned into sobbing and begging: "Please, Sir! Forgive me!"
The master hugged his boy and told him it was okay:
"You should never apologize for doing what you felt you needed to do for your safety. I am not angry or disappointed. Quite the opposite! I am proud of how long you lasted in what surely was a very difficult and scary situation."
The boy relaxed a bit and started to control his tears: "Thank you, Sir."
The master continued: "Of course, you still lost the game and you know what that means."
"Yes, Sir! I'll take my whipping with pride. knowing that I deserve it."
Another tender moment followed as the master held the boy close and whispered: "I know you'll take it like a champ, boy!"
It was a beautiful and touching moment and I wondered whether they had been a couple before tonight. They must have been, I thought.
In the meanwhile, one of the boys in the tanks was starting to struggle. He started to grunt and scream when he managed to stay above water, only wasting that precious resource that oxygen is for him at the moment. Both their bodies looked tight and tense -- they were flexing their abs like their life depended on it. The boy who is clearly struggling is sinking below the waterline from time to time, quickly flexing his abs and lifting himself up again. He's contorting his body in his desperation to keep his abs and core tight, where the other boy still manages to keep his beautiful tight posture. When the struggling boy goes under, he spits out water when he manages to come up. The fist few times he sank, he managed to get up again quickly. Yet, a few more minutes later, he started to struggle to get up again as quickly. His grunting started to sound desperate and the men around him were no longer betting on who would win but rather on how long it would take before the struggling boy would give up and use his free hand or, whether he would refuse to do so and his master would have to pull him up by his hair to protect the boy against himself. Some boys just are so desperate to please and obey that they would even let themselves drown. Such boys need to be protected against their own self-destructive instincts.
By now, he was spending more time under water than above. When he did come up, he only managed to keep himself above the waterline just long enough to take a few panicked breaths before sinking again. You could see his hand reaching for the edge of the tank but then pulling back. The boy that now seems certain to be the winner is still staying over the water line for long periods. I watched the soon-to-be loser struggle to use his core muscles to crunch himself up again and failing to quite get there. The tip of his nose just about gets there but he cannot lift it over; he reaches with his hand but once again pulls back. He falls back onto his back without having managed to breathe. His body language is now desperate. His hand keeps reaching for edge of the tank but he was still not quite ready to accept defeat.