Permanent Detention
By: JohnBoy

Chapter One

It was Tuesday night at The Sow's Ear, and as usual Derek and me were having a beer up on the roof-top patio. We were the only ones there. Derek had been my one of my best friends all through high school, and the only one from the old crowd that I'd really kept in touch with...

He'd changed a lot more than I had over the years: while I'd stayed pretty fit and youthful-looking, he'd grown a considerable paunch and lost much of his hair, what he had left was tied up in a rather sad-looking ponytail. His beard was already showing a fair bit of grey. But he still had the same handsome face (though in all the years, I'd never gotten up the nerve to tell him I thought so).

We met almost every week at the pub, more out of habit than anything. We didn't have much in common anymore, nothing new or interesting to talk about, but we still enjoyed each other's company. I think we both liked the routine. And I guess it was hard for us to let go of that last link to our adolescence.

It was getting late, and I was a bit tired. We'd been talking at length about the weather we'd been having recently, and I could tell the conversation had pretty much exhausted itself. It was almost time to head home...

"Hey, remember Kevin and Boris?" I said suddenly. I don't know why they'd popped into my head just then. "I still wonder what happened to those guys -- that was weird."

Derek's eyes grew quite wide when I mentioned this. Kevin Hicks and Boris Kotlas had been two of our classmates; they had both mysteriously vanished within days of each other near the end of our final year of high school. To this day, as far as I knew, no-one had ever found out what had happened to them...

"Hey, what's wrong, man?" I said to him.

Derek looked away. "Nothing."

"Then how come you're acting funny?" I could see a strange expression on his face. Obviously I had reminded him of something very intense or painful, though I knew he hadn't been that close to those guys. "Do you know something about that?"

For a long time he remained silent, staring off into the distance, but not really looking at anything.

I said, "Shit, you do know something, don't you?"

Derek took a deep breath and looked me in the eye. "Yeah."

"What? Jesus... what happened to them? I mean, how come you never said anything before?"

"Well, it's complicated." "What does that mean? You weren't... you didn't have anything to do with it, did you? Holy Fuck." I shook my head -- I was stunned. I couldn't believe that Derek had known something about this and not said a word in almost 20 years.

"No, of course not." He took a sip from his beer, and I could see that his hand was shaking a little bit...

I waited. "Well??"

Derek almost laughed. "If I told you, you'd never believe me."

"Hey, come on, man. We're friends -- you have to tell me! You know I'm not gonna leave you alone until you do. What do you know about this?"

"Ben, please. I can't..."

"Were they murdered or something? Kidnapped? Come on, what was it? I can keep a secret."

He seemed to be struggling with his thoughts, trying to find the right words for what he was about to say. He came to a decision... "I've never told this to anyone before. Okay... do you remember Mr. Green?"

Mr. Green had been our grade 12 history teacher. It was hard to forget such an imposing man: he was well over six feet tall and built like a tank, probably close to 400 pounds -- when he moved past you, you could feel how much air got displaced in his wake. He was bald, and his large, round face was framed by a thick, very black beard. I remember how unusually wide his mouth was -- every time he smiled, it kinda gave me the creeps for some reason...

His other notable feature was a massive, round, heavy gut that always seemed on the verge of popping the buttons off his strained-tight shirt. My desk had been right at the front, and Mr. Green usually stood quite close to me as he spoke to the class -- often I could hear all kinds of groaning, bubbling, gurgling sounds from inside his big belly, as if he was perpetually hungry.

Somehow I was attracted to him, in a way... and I didn't like it. Not just because I was struggling with my sexuality at the time, but also because Mr. Green was an asshole. He was loud and arrogant, and frequently tried to intimidate, bully or even humiliate us.

"Yeah, sure," I said, "what about him?"

"You remember what he said that day, after Badinov threw a wad of paper at his ass when he bent over to pick something up?"

I tried to think -- that was a long time ago. "No... can't remember."

"He walked right up to him and said to him, 'Mr. Kotlas, I've been known to eat students who get out of line.' Of course everyone thought it was funny. I did too, at the time."

Boris had been a tall, skinny, blonde guy who was always wise-cracking, playing practical jokes and generally causing some kind of trouble -- we used to call him Boris Badinov. He was one of the few people in our class who didn't seem to be afraid of Mr. Green.

"What does this have to do with..."

"That was the same day he disappeared."

I stared at Derek. "Er, what are you trying to tell me? That Mr. Green ate Boris?" He didn't say anything, he just sighed and stared down at the table, slowly turning a coaster with his finger...

"Oh, come on, man." I probably rolled my eyes.

"Do you wanna hear this story or not?"

"Yeah, but --"

"Then just listen, okay? And don't interrupt me until I'm finished. I know you won't believe any of it, I don't even care if you do or not, but..." he wiped both hands over his face, "man, I've been carrying this around so long, I think I just need to get it off my chest... finally..."

Chapter Two

"Well, of course Boris got a detention after that," Derek began. "I remember passing by the room later, after classes, and seeing him sitting there with Mr. Green standing right up by his desk, looming over him with his arms crossed over his chest, you know, trying to make the guy as uncomfortable as possible... what a jerk. Badinov was just staring down at his desk with a smirk on his face...

"Anyway, that was the last time I saw him. Next day he wasn't at school, and I don't know if you can recall but neither was Mr. Green, we had some supply teacher instead. I guess no-one really thought anything of it -- in fact, Boris's dad didn't even report him missing until something like two days later.

"So okay, it was the next day... at lunch break I was out in the parking lot just having a smoke, thinking about what I was gonna do after graduation. And Kevin Hicks comes up to me, looking all nervous and anxious -- I noticed he'd been acting kinda weird all day, actually..."

Derek paused to take a sip of beer. I took one too -- I thought about Kevin, trying to remember what I could about him. I hadn't known him all that well, but he'd been on the senior basketball team with Derek, even though he was a bit short for it (and kinda heavy, too). Kevin had been the second guy who disappeared.

Now that I thought about it, I could remember that there had actually been a few other students I'd heard about who'd gone missing during my years at Westmount Secondary School. It was really kinda strange...

Derek went on: "He says to me, 'Man, I need to talk to you -- something fuckin' weird happened!' I could tell he was really upset... Jesus, this is all coming back to me so clear now.

"Anyway we went out to the bleachers by the field, Kev didn't want anyone to overhear. He told me that he'd been going through the tunnel the night before... the coach, you know, MacFarlane, he sometimes let him use the weight room after school, he knew how hard he was trying to get in shape and lose some of that flab."

The weightlifting room at our school was in the basement of the annex, which was connected to the main building by an underground tunnel.

"So he says he's about to go up the stairwell when he hears these noises coming from one of the rooms down at the other end of the tunnel, sounds almost like muffled shouts and some stuff falling over, like there's some kinda struggle going on. It freaks him out a bit because he thought he was the only one down there, and he takes off up the stairs...

"But he's too curious about it, so he goes down again about five minutes later to check it out. He started going down the tunnel again, when he hears another sound, a really loud one that echoes off the walls and almost makes him jump right out of his shorts -- at first he wasn't sure what the hell it was, for a second he thought it was maybe some kind of machinery starting up. Then he realized it was actually a burp, like, the biggest burp he'd ever heard in his life.

"He could see that the door to one of the storage rooms down there was partly open, so he went up to it and looked inside. And guess who was in there?

"It was Mr. Green. Kevin said he could see the guy sitting on top of a big crate, and he was completely naked. But the thing that really freaks him out, is... his gut was fucking huge! Like even bigger than it normally was, three or four times bigger, at least. Impossibly big... he said he couldn't believe his eyes.

"Kev can see that Green is all sweaty, and he's breathing heavy -- he's also kinda moaning and rubbing his giant gut all over. There's clothes all over the floor, and two pairs of shoes. And then he said he noticed something else: something was moving around inside Green's belly... struggling, like it was trying to get out." Derek paused -- I could tell that he was having some difficulty recounting this part of his story. "And... and he thought he could hear it too. Like, faint whimpers, coming from inside..."

I was about to speak up, but he held up a hand. "I'm telling you what Kevin told me. I didn't believe him either, at the time. In fact, I think I laughed at him. But he was really scared. He said to me, 'Derek, I think Mr. Green actually ate somebody!'

"Well, after I realized that he wasn't trying to pull my leg, I spent the next half hour trying to calm him down and convince him that he'd imagined it or something. But no, he was sure of what he'd seen. Then he asked me to come down to the tunnel with him to have a look, he said he was too afraid to go by himself...

"So we went and looked. I mean, I didn't know what else to do. On the way I asked him if he thought Green had seen him, I thought I'd humour him a bit -- but he said he didn't think so.

"When we got there, the door to that room was closed and locked. I asked him if he was sure this was the room and he said yeah. I put my ear to it to see if I could hear anything, but I couldn't, really -- sometimes some of those pipes down there in the basement are pretty noisy anyway. Kevin was nervous as hell, but I was just getting impatient... I told him we'd better get back to class, and that we'd talk about it later. I also told him not to tell anyone what he'd said to me, and he agreed. I guess he knew it sounded crazy.

"Well, I didn't speak to him again that day, I had some shit to do after school and, you know, I completely forgot about the whole thing. I think he did try to call me at home that night, though, but I was out...

"When I saw him next morning in the hall, he looked pretty awful, like he hadn't slept at all, and I remembered the story he'd told me. And the first thing he said to me was, 'Mr. Green is back.'"

Chapter Three

"Well, by that day (I know it was a Friday), some people were really starting to wonder where Badinov was. When we went into history class, Kev was right beside me, staying pretty close to me. He was practically shaking. You even noticed, Ben... you said to me, 'What's with Hicks?' But I guess you probably don't remember that...

"Anyway," he continued, "Green looked like his usual self to me, though he did seem to be in an unusually good mood. I overheard someone say he must've gotten laid last night. I thought - maybe - that his gut looked slightly bigger than before, but I wasn't sure. I mean, I never really took a close look at it before, you know? Besides, with a guy that size, it's hard to tell. But yeah, I guess he did look a little bit bigger.

"Kev was right in front of me in that class, and he kept turning to look back at me, like he was silently asking, 'Well? Well?'

"I ignored him. I saw him writing something and then he tried to hand me a folded up piece of paper. That pissed me off -- I pushed his hand away and whispered to him, 'Don't pass me a fucking note in class, you idiot.' I didn't want anyone to think there was something going on between us, you know?

"Kev turned around to face me and said, 'Can't you see? Look how much fatter he is!' Well, he said it a bit louder than he meant to, and as luck would have it, he said it during an unexpected lull -- everyone heard it clearly, and the entire class just broke up."

Derek scratched slowly at an old scar on his right thumb. I realized that I could remember the incident he'd just described...

He went on: "Green's expression didn't change at all. He waited until the laughter died down, and then walked down the aisle to Kev's desk really slow. I could see Kev just shrinking in his seat -- everyone was dead silent by now, of course. Green was standing there with his gut only a few inches from Kevin's head, glaring down at him. But he was kinda grinning, a really creepy-looking grin. He didn't say anything for a long time... I saw him put a fist up to his mouth to stifle a burp, then finally he says, 'Were you referring to me, Mr. Hicks?'

"Kev didn't say anything, of course, so Green just said, 'I'd be pleased if you'd join me after school.'

"Well, I don't know why, but I got a bit of a chill just then -- all of a sudden I was thinking of Boris, and how I hadn't seen him since his detention. And also what Kevin had said he'd seen came to my mind again... but of course I really wasn't taking it seriously, not yet...

"Kevin was pretty quiet after that, I figured he must've been embarrassed as hell. But I also noticed how pale he looked. Actually, he looked terrified. I thought I really should talk to him again about that weird little story he'd told me, but I got too wrapped up with other things and didn't get a chance to see him again. Not... until later."

Derek sighed. "In a way, I feel bad. If I'd just taken the note, then he probably wouldn't have gotten that detention...

"Anyway, after practice that night I think I was supposed to meet you and Nick and some of the guys for a burger, but I never went. I was hanging around the school, waiting for Kevin. I guess I was worried. Whether I was worried for his sanity or for his safety, I'm not sure.

"I decided to go in and stop by the history class, see if he was still in there with Green. But the room was empty, the lights were out. So I headed down towards the tunnel... I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I felt kinda stupid, actually. All the lights were getting turned off now -- I passed one of the janitors in the hall, I just told him I'd forgotten my gym bag in the weight room.

"So I went down into the tunnel..."

Derek paused again. He was breathing unevenly -- obviously, once again finding it difficult to continue. I said nothing, I just waited for him to regain his composure. I could see where this was leading but decided to hear him out.

"I could hear someone with a deep voice talking," he went on. "There was someone in that same storage room. The tunnel was pretty dark, but the door to the room was open just a crack and I could see lights on in there. I heard the voice say something like, 'It's risky for me to take two guys so close together, but you leave me no choice.' I thought that sounded pretty weird. I was fairly sure that it was Mr. Green talking, but I had to get closer to hear better...

"Then... I heard someone else. Someone trying to cry out, but it was all smothered like there was a hand over their mouth. I just froze -- I knew it had to be Kev. I heard Mr. Green speak again, and this time it was very clear: he said, 'I'm putting you on permanent detention.'

"And I heard a short scream, but it got cut off suddenly. Next I heard these sounds. It was... it sounded like... huge slurping, gulping sounds, almost like... fuck, I said to myself, Green must be forcing the poor guy to suck him off! And I could just barely hear Kevin, his voice was all muffled, but..." Derek swallowed, closed his eyes.

"I stood there for awhile, listening to that, too scared to even move. I was really starting to flip out, I couldn't believe these sounds I was hearing. I thought, Christ, Mr. Green must have a fucking huge one. But I knew it didn't sound right -- deep down I guess I was really thinking about something else. Or trying not to think about it. But I couldn't stand it anymore, I had to look and find out what was going on. So I went up to the door and pushed it open..."

Chapter Four

Derek took a deep, shaky breath. "Ben, you won't believe what I saw. Green was naked, sitting on a big, wooden crate. And he had Kevin right down his throat, I mean, he was eating him alive... he was actually swallowing the guy whole! I'm... assuming it was Kev 'cause all I could see was his legs sticking out...

"Green's head was tilted right back, and his mouth and throat were... well, stretched. I can't find the right words to describe it -- it was horrible. He was holding onto Kev's thighs and forcibly pushing the guy further down into his gullet, I could see his mouth working, trying to gulp him in as fast as he could. Kev was kicking and thrashing around for all he was worth, his foot smashed one of the lights in the ceiling and a big shower of sparks came down over Green's head... but that didn't slow him down, it was no use... Kev was sliding in pretty quick. Green was just too strong for him." Derek could not even look at me as he described this.

"The worst thing was, I could still hear the poor guy. He was trying to cry out from inside Mr. Green's body. God... I couldn't even do anything, I should've grabbed his feet and tried to pull him out, but I guess I was paralyzed with fear.

"Well, in no time Green had managed to push him all the way in -- he closed his mouth around Kev's toes, and then with one last, huge gulp, he just swallowed him down, and I saw Green's big, hairy gut bloat out even bigger as Kev's whole body slid down into it. Then Green let out this big, satisfied 'Aaahhhh...'

"I couldn't take my eyes off his belly. I could see... Kevin squirming. I could see the bumps of his knees and elbows trying to push against the inside of the stomach. And," Derek's voice almost cracked, "I could still fucking hear him, too. I think I said something out loud then, I can't remember what, I was probably just babbling."

Even though I didn't really believe what I was hearing, I was sitting practically on the edge of my seat. And I was somewhat disturbed to realize that Derek's story was giving me an erection...

"When I looked up at Green's face," he continued, "I saw that he was staring right at me, and he was smiling. A huge, hungry-looking smile. I just about pissed in my pants then, because I figured I was going to be next. But I still couldn't move. And then... he started to get up, I don't know how with all that weight in his gut, but he was standing up and starting to stagger towards me. His mouth opens and out comes this enormous belch, even from six feet away I could feel the wind from it.

"And then he says to me, 'Good thing I skipped lunch.'

"Well, something just snapped in me then. I was outta there, running like you wouldn't believe -- bouncing off walls and almost falling over myself. But somehow I ended up going the wrong way. I was halfway up the stairs to the annex before I realized it. I knew the exits up there would all be locked.

"There was no way I could go back, though. I had to kick open one of the doors... believe me it wasn't easy, it took awhile. All the time I was sure I'd see Green coming up those stairs after me. But I finally busted the door partway open; I cut my hand as I pushed my way out.

"I ran non-stop all the way home, even though my car was right there in the lot. I think I just spent that whole night shivering in bed. I didn't sleep at all, of course. "In the morning my mom freaked out when she saw all the blood, but I just told her I fell down or something. I was supposed to go to a birthday party for one of my cousins that day, but I just stayed in all weekend, I never left the house... I felt pretty sick.

"When Monday came around, I couldn't bring myself to go to school. I didn't know what the hell I was going to do -- I was terrified of seeing Mr. Green again. I thought about going to the police; I wanted to tell someone, anyone, about what had happened, but of course I knew no-one would ever believe me. There was no way to prove it. There was probably no evidence, I'm sure Green would've gotten rid of the clothes.

"I didn't go in the next two days either. But I knew I couldn't just stay home forever. What was I gonna do, drop out two months before graduation? So... finally, I went back. I mean, what else could I do?"

"Everyone was talking about Boris and Kevin disappearing. There were a lot of rumours, you probably remember -- stuff like, they were lovers and had run off together. You know, to this day I'm amazed no-one ever saw a connection -- both of them vanishing right after their detentions with Mr. Green.

"I guess with what was going on, you and the other guys probably didn't notice how paranoid I was acting. I was constantly looking over my shoulder, watching for him. I didn't know what I was going to do or say when I saw him...

"Well, later on, I was having a drink at the water fountain by the library when suddenly I realize there's someone big standing right behind me. I knew it was Green.

"I heard him say to me, 'Mr. Ward,' like in a friendly voice. My heart was really pounding, man, it felt like it was gonna just burst. I wanted to run, but my legs felt all rubbery. I slowly turned around to face him...

"He said, 'You haven't been in class lately.'

"I tried to tell him that I'd been sick, but it probably just came out as a croak.

"He looks both ways down the hall, there's no-one else around. Then he goes on in a low voice, 'I'm sure I don't need to worry, do I? You're reasonably intelligent -- surely you must realize how ludicrous it would sound if you told anyone.' I just nodded my head. I couldn't even look him in the eye; I think I was probably looking him in the mouth -- thinking about that mouth opening up and swallowing me. It's all I could think about.

"'Normally, I wouldn't even give you the chance,' he says, 'but so soon after those other two, well... I can't arouse too much suspicion, now, can I? Hungry as I am.' And as if on cue, I heard his belly give out a loud growl just then, and he grinned at me.

"He stepped forward suddenly, and pressed his big gut into me, squashing me against the wall, almost knocking the breath out of me... his face bent down closer to mine, and he grabbed my jaw in his hand, squeezing my face... I could feel his breath on me. I had to close my eyes, I was scared shitless, man.

"And he said, 'But just so we're clear on this: if you ever do decide to tell anyone, believe me, I'll come after you.'"

Chapter Five

Several minutes passed in silence, and I realized he was finished. "Well, Derek, that's some story," I said finally.

"Yeah."

"I... I guess I don't know what to say."

He took a deep breath. "You don't have to say anything. It's alright, Ben, I understand -- if you'd told it to me, I wouldn't believe you either."

"Yeah, um..." I felt uncomfortable. "Well I guess that's true too... but listen, I believe that you believe it, if that helps. And I'm glad that you, you know, felt you could trust me enough to tell me. I mean it."

Derek wouldn't look at me. "I just needed to tell someone..."

"Okay. Well... then... it's pretty late, buddy, I really should get going." I stood up.

"Sure, man"

It was very awkward -- I felt I should say something else, but didn't know what. I just wanted to get away from him. "So, uh, see you next week?"

"Sure..."

Driving home, I rolled Derek's story over and over in my mind. It was disturbing, and for some inexplicable reason, also strangely arousing -- I think that's why I was so anxious to get out of there. (That was something I needed to figure out later...)

Of course the whole idea was ridiculous, but somehow I wasn't ready to totally reject it yet. I had to admit that certain details fit in with some of the events that I could recall from that time.

For one thing, I remembered that he had indeed missed some school about that time, because I'd gone to see him at his house: he'd seemed really depressed, and his hand was all bandaged up. At his request I'd driven his car home for him.

Now that I thought about it, he had ditched history class quite a few times after that. And there were some other little things as well...

Why would he go to the trouble of constructing such an elaborate fantasy? What could he gain from it? Nothing that I could see. I didn't believe this swallowing business, but I had a feeling that maybe Mr. Green was involved somehow. I needed to look at this from another perspective.

The next morning I had an idea.

I got out the phone book. Sure enough, his name was in there: Albertus Green, it had to be him. 1558 Stenson Road -- he still lived in the area. By now he was probably a frail old man with a white beard...

As I walked up the driveway, I saw a large figure crouched over in the garden strip along the front of the old Victorian house.

I cleared my throat -- I was nervous as hell, I'm not sure why. I said, "Ah, excuse me."

He got up and turned towards me, and I felt dizzy for a moment. Even after nearly 20 years, I still recognized him immediately. His beard was grey now, and there were some deep lines around his eyes, but there was nothing frail-looking about him -- if anything he looked even more powerful and robust. He looked bigger too, and if it was possible, somehow taller...

"Mr. Green?"

"Yes." His eyes suddenly lit up, and he smiled. That same, huge, creepy-looking smile. "Why, Ben Chamberlain, is that you?" He started towards me.

I was dumbfounded. "Er, uh... yeah! How did you know??"

He wiped his hands with a rag and reached out to shake my hand. "You haven't changed a bit."

It felt weird to see him again, to be this close to him again... to touch him. "But... wow, you remember me? After --"

"I can remember every single one of my students," he chuckled. "And you were one of my best. Nice to see you again."

"Yeah, you too... thanks." He was gripping my hand still in his big, rough paw. And although he was smiling, his dark eyes seemed to be examining me with a fierce intensity that was rather unsettling...

Finally he released me. "So what brings you out here? What have you been doing with yourself?"

"Oh, well... not much. Actually," I took a breath, tried to steady myself mentally, "yesterday I was just, y'know, talking about the good old days with one of the guys, maybe you remember him... Derek Ward? He was in the same class as me." I watched his face closely -- I thought I could detect a faint flicker of... something. But I wasn't sure.

"Yes of course."

I plunged on, "We were thinking about those two students, the ones who disappeared not too long before graduation. That was pretty strange, wasn't it? I think their names were... Boris Kotlas and Kevin Hicks? Remember that? I'm sure you must. Anyway, Derek had a pretty interesting theory on what happened."

"Oh?" Mr. Green's nostrils seemed to be flaring.

"Actually, it's really kinda crazy, but... well, he thinks one of the teachers had something to do with it."

And I waited to see what his response would be -- I expected surprise, disbelief. But he was just staring at me, his face a blank. He seemed to be taking too long to answer... I noticed something then: near the top of his forehead there were several small, whitish dots. They looked like scars.

He said calmly, "Now that is interesting. Well, I would certainly like to hear this. Why don't you come in, maybe we could have a coffee and you can tell me all about it?" Mr. Green smiled again, and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Uhh... okay." Something was tugging at my memory...

"Wonderful. And we'll get a chance to catch up." He started leading me up towards the front steps.

Something about sparks... what was it?

"You know, you were always one of my favourite students, Ben."

"Oh..." I started to get a funny feeling deep inside my gut...

His big hand tightened on my shoulder -- I could hear his stomach growling. "Listen," he said, "I was just about to have my lunch. I'd be pleased if you'd join me."

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