Mekong Delta
by Andrew Passey
Chapter 11
The van drove slowly through Ben Tre passing our hotel which was so close we could almost touch it. However with the blackout windows and the doors firmly locked there was nothing we could to alert anyone of our plight. Once we turned onto the main road the driver accelerated and we were soon speeding out of the town leaving Dan's Mum and everything behind.
Dan looked really scared as did I. I knew how bad my uncle was and I'd told Dan about him. He knew we were heading into danger and there was nothing we could do about it. I squeezed his hand and he squeezed it back. He whispered, "We need to delay the journey as much as possible."
I wasn't sure why but I didn't disagree. An extra minute or two with Dan without my uncle being there would be better than being with my uncle. However it just felt like we were delaying the inevitable. There was no way out of this situation however much we wanted there to be.
As we got up to top speed Dan asked the drivers in broken Vietnamese where we were going. He was clearly taking the old approach of pretending his Vietnamese was not as good as it could be.
"We are taking you to Can Tho. Don't worry you'll be made very welcome there! Once we deliver you to the boss then you'll find out all about it. It'll take us a while to get there so don't get too excited too soon!. I hope you like being fucked by men though! A blond white boy like you should fetch the boss a lot of money, and with Phuc here already down to be starting a new life of being a sex slave it's both your lucky day!" The driver said laughing like a drain.
Any fear I had for myself (which was a lot) was nothing compared to my fear for Dan. I'd brought him into this. He had nothing to do with it and any pain and suffering that now happened was on me. He was so beautiful that I started to worry about all the things someone would do to him. I probably wouldn't even be there to support him as we'd both be sold off to seperate people.
After a while Dan said he needed a piss and he was going to piss himself if they didn't stop. After a bit of debate they pulled over and escorted Dan out the van. It was hard to see out the dark tinted windows but I saw him stand there and fiddle with his shorts. It was clearly just a distraction though as he then proceeded to sprint off into the flat grassland away from the car.
There was nowhere to go and it was futile really. The men would catch him eventually . Still it was quite funny to watch them running after him and him wriggling away a few times. He ran the guys ragged for the ten minutes or so it took to catch him. They dragged him back to the car, an angry bruise forming on his face where they must have punched him.
He smiled at me as they threw him in, clearly pleased with himself for some reason. The men were clearly pissed off with him but I guess they couldn't damage the merchandise too much. We continued our drive towards the reckoning we both faced. Twenty minutes or so later the driver cursed and said they needed to refuel. I was surprised at the lack of planning but I guess petrol stations were plentiful on the main HMRC to Can Tho highway. They pulled into the next petrol station to refuel although there was a bit of a queue.
"More delays!" Dan said cheerily. I looked around to see if there was a chance of escaping but the men weren't that stupid. They kept the doors firmly locked, only winding down the window to ask for fuel and to pay. I considered shouting out at that point or banging on the doors for help but what was the point? The vans windows were blacked out and all it would do would annoy our captors. What could a petrol attendant do anyway? It was likely the men were armed. Maybe an opportunity to escape would present itself before it was too late but I wasn't feeling at all confident about that. This seemed to have been a fairly well planned operation and by now we were far away from Ben tre with only the money Dan had with him.
As we pulled they had a phone call with I assume my uncle to say they had captured me. They said we would be there in an hour, and they had an extra special surprise. I suspect my uncle thought it was Dinh with me but I guess he'd be even more delighted when he found out about Dan. It all started to get very real and I felt another wave of panic rising.
"Where are we going exactly?" I asked after a short while. I knew it was Can Tho but maybe they'd let me know exactly where and I could think about whether we could escape.
"Your old home Phuc! Your uncle is so mad at you. If he didn't have a buyer lined up I suspect he'd kick the shit out of you. Don't worry, you won't be staying long," The guy in the passenger seat said grinning at me nastily.
"What's your old address?" Dan asked me loudly. I told him and he said "I couldn't hear that over the car noise, could you repeat it louder!?" He winked as he asked this and I was totally confused. I did as he wished and then we became silent, squeezing our hands together. I was counting down the kilometres and knew it wouldn't be long until we got there. I was all out of ideas though and started to be resigned to my fate. Dan was resourceful as he'd clearly shown up to now but I suspect this situation was out of even his ability to problem solve.
We hit the city limits and I couldn't deny it was strange driving back into Can Tho. It hadn't been that long since I'd left it but it already felt like a different world to me. The streets might look familiar with the bustling life of the delta but it felt alien to me. So much had happened to me since I'd escaped this place with Dinh. I had a brief tonight of him, I wondered how he was getting on. I was relieved that it seemed they hadn't recaptured him. I guess it was hard to find one boy in the metropolis of HCMC, if they even knew that's where he was. I cursed that I hadn't had the balls to escape the delta but then again if I had then I would never have met Dan. Although I'd suddenly dragged Dan into everything.
So here I was, back in Can Tho and heading back to a situation I'd thought I had escaped from. We drove past my old school where I could see kids out in the playground. We went past the turning for the bus station. The place I was so happy all those weeks ago as Dinh and I escaped. The inevitable happened and we arrived. We were there, back at my old place. The driver beeped the horn and the shutters for the parking bay went up. We drove in, they closed behind us and I started to shake with fear.
The men got out of the car and opened our doors. "Get out!" one of them said.
"Why don't you make me?" Dan said with an attitude. Even despite our situation it seemed he wasn't going to make it easy for them. They reached him and dragged him out despite his struggling. This all took a minute or so which they looked annoyed about. It didn't matter though. They'd won. They'd captured us and here we were back in the one place I never wanted to return to.
The old lady came over and gave me death stares as she and the thugs escorted us to the office I knew so well. We were pushed roughly in. Dan's bag was thrown on the floor and the men glowered at us. They stood guard as we stood nervously, still holding hands. Dan squeezed my hand and whispered, "it'll be ok."
I wished I had his confidence but all I could foresee was things going bad for us very quickly. No one knew we were here. No one knew we'd been taken. No one was coming to save us. Even if we somehow got out of the office it would be hard to escape the warehouse. Even if we made it outside my uncle had people everywhere. We couldn't even find a policeman and get help that way. After all, the deal with Dinh had made sure the police were on my uncle's side. I couldn't see any way out of this situation.
"Quiet!" One of the men bellowed at us and we stayed silent. There was so much I wanted to say to Dan. I wanted to tell him how sorry I was to have got him into this. How much I loved him even though I'd only known him a few days. It was almost like this terrible situation had suddenly amplified all my feelings from him. Maybe because I knew that soon we would be separated permanently and sent off to live terrible lives that it was all now becoming clear to me. Was love at first sight a thing? Could you fall in love with someone so quickly? It felt like I could but that almost made it all worse. The boy I loved was facing torture and pain all because he befriended me and got me off the streets for a few days.
I don't know how long we were waiting in the office for. It felt like hours but time was no doubt going slowly. Our impending doom was approaching. I heard the door go downstairs and realised it was the moment I had been dreading. My uncle had arrived. He walked up the stairs and into the office.
"What the fucking hell is this!?" He screamed in anger at the two men pointing at Dan.
"Sir, he was with Phuc and we thought he'd be useful to you! Look he's very handsome!" One of them protested.
"He's a fucking westerner! No one gives a fuck about street boys or boys in general going missing if they're local. A western tourist could bring us trouble!" He said spitting froth as he raged at the men.
He walked around the room and seemed to calm down a bit. He looked at Dan and switched to English to ask him a question.
"Well I suppose this is an unexpected opportunity. What's your name boy?"
"I'm called fuckoffyoucorruptbastard," Dan said. Despite the situation, despite my fear I had to stifle a giggle.
My Uncle smiled at Dan, a predatory smile without warmth.
"Well you've got spirit I'll give you that. That's not a bad thing. Breaking a spirit is something some men will pay good money for. Now pull those shorts down and spin around. I want you to show me what you've got down there."
Dan shook his head, "Fuck off. What's in my shorts belongs to ME. I decide who gets to see it or enjoy it. Not you. And certainly I won't be letting some filthy old perv you try and sell me too near it."
My uncle nodded at one of the men who went behind Dan and roughly pulled his shorts and pants down releasing Dan's dick. They spun him around slowly for my uncle. Despite the situation I couldn't lie that it was nice to see Dan's dick. Maybe the familiarity of it calmed me slightly. Still, it just showed how much I had fallen for Dan. A flash of dick at an inappropriate time still caused stirrings in me.
Dan blushed at the attention as he was quite intimately examined by my uncle. His arms were held behind him so he couldn't stop him pawing all over his dick and balls. Eventually my uncle said the shorts could be pulled up.
"Well you're a pretty impressive boy. Very attractive. Loads of attitude as well, I think you'd definitely make me lots of money!". After saying this to Dan my uncle walked around the room quietly with his hands on his temples clearly thinking about what to do. He looked like he was about to speak a few times but seemed unsure. This seemed to go on for ages but I guess it was only a couple of minutes or so. Then he clearly reached some sort of decision as he removed his hands, shook his head slightly and looked at Dan again.
"But no. I think it's too risky. I could make loads of money off you. But at what cost to me? Someone might come looking for you. Are you a tourist? Do you live here? The men said you spoke Vietnamese."
"I barely speak it. I wanted to learn it for my holiday here. I'm here from the UK with my Mum for a couple of weeks. You could just let us both go?" Dan asked, hopefully pushing optimism to the limit. I wasn't sure if my uncle would see through his lies about being on holiday either.
My uncle shook his head theatrically. "That won't be happening. If I don't sell you I won't be releasing you. To be honest it would be easier just to kill you and dump you in the Mekong," He said to Dan who went white and started protesting he'd do anything he wanted him to. I think Dan was now realising the gravity of our situation. I interjected and begged my uncle not to kill Dan. He turned to me with rage in his eyes.
"YOU! You ungrateful little shit. After everything I did for you you repay me by running away and escaping!"
"You were going to sell me off! You made Dinh get fucked by the chief of police's son every day!" I angrily replied.
He snarled at me, "You were both MY property to do with as I wish," he said.
"You were supposed to look after me! You told my dad you would help me enter the family business!" I protested.
"Well that's true. I run the business and you will be entered into it. I've got a buyer for you. I won't make as much now you're probably slightly damaged goods. However I guess if I promise them they can make you bleed as much as they like then that will help them pay what I want. What do you know about sex and pain Phuc? Because this man knows it all and he will teach you." My Uncle said before he started to outline in great eye wincing detail what his "client" would do to me.
I was petrified as he explained it all but my worry was for Dan more than me. I'd handled misery in my life before. There had been a lot of tough times. There hadn't been many good times. My time with Dan was probably the happiest I'd been and now he was in danger too. All because of me and the thought that he would be mistreated because of me broke my heart.
"Will your client ask for a refund when I bite his dick off?" I said with venom. I wanted my uncle to see I wasn't the scared little boy he thought I was. Even though inside I was more scared than I'd ever been.
"You wouldn't dare! I'd have you tortured and mistreated in ways you wouldn't think were possible. You need to face it. You are going to spend the next few years being fucked repeatedly before my client probably gets bored of you and drowns you in the Mekong. As for your friend here, I need to make some phone calls. If he's lucky he gets bought and lives out the next few years like you will. If not then...." my Uncle made a throat slitting gesture at this point and left the office leaving me and Dan looking at each other white as sheets.
Authors deserve your feedback. It's the only payment they get. If you go to the top of the page you will find the author's name. Click that and you can email the author easily.* Please take a few moments, if you liked the story, to say so.
[For those who use webmail, or whose regular email client opens when they want to use webmail instead: Please right click the author's name. A menu will open in which you can copy the email address (it goes directly to your clipboard without having the courtesy of mentioning that to you) to paste into your webmail system (Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo etc). Each browser is subtly different, each Webmail system is different, or we'd give fuller instructions here. We trust you to know how to use your own system. Note: If the email address pastes or arrives with %40 in the middle, replace that weird set of characters with an @ sign.]
* Some browsers may require a right click instead
