Payback

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Once when I was eleven years old my sister and her friend who were both fourteen were left to babysit me. My sister came into my bedroom smiling deviously. I could tell that something was up. I stared nervously at her. She walked to my bed and grabbed my wrist. "What are you doing?" I ask. "Do you remember last week when you snitched on me to mom about not walking you home from school?" "Y-yeah what about it?" "Mom grounded me for the entire weekend. I had to miss Nicky's party." "Y-you deserved it." "Well, now it's payback time little sis!" She pulls me off of my bed slides my zip-up hoodie off and drops it on my bed leaving me only in my tank top then she twists my arm behind my back. "Walk, loser." I look toward the door frantically. "Don't bother! Mom and Dad already left. There's no one to save you. Now move." she takes me to dad's workshop in the basement. Her friend is waiting for us when we arrive. "What are you gonna do to me?" "Don't worry about it. I won't hurt you, but when I'm done with you you're going to wish I had just pounded you."  she shoots her friend a look and she steps up and grabs my other wrist. I try to resist, but they're too strong. They roughly force me onto dad's workbench. "C-come on seriously let me go." "Sorry, but what kind of a sister would I be if I  didn't teach you this lesson. After all, I can't let you keep being a snitch." They hold me down and use duct tape to secure my arms and legs in an x shape. "Come on guys seriously, what are you going to do?" "Well if you must ruin the surprise I'll give you a hint. Do you remember your old tickle me Elmo doll?" The fear in me comes alive. No not tickling, anything but tickling. I pull against the tape but it's no use. "You won't get away with this. Mom and Dad will punish you." I say as tears fill my eyes. "Well, now they'll only punish me if you snitch on me and I'm about to show you why that would be a very bad idea." "Okay, okay, but please just not my feet that's the worst spot." I say hoping to throw her off. "Ha, nice try loser, but I know your worst spot and I plan on giving it all of my attention." She says, as she lightly, tickles my armpit making me scream. "Now get comfy, mom and dad won't be home for about three hours and I plan on thoroughly enjoying every second of it." "Please, I'll do anything, just please don't do this." she reaches up and grabs the tape from the table. "Oh, I am not going to listen to you whine the whole time." she says tearing a piece off and putting it over my mouth." Then she smiles in a way that makes my skin crawl. "I'll tell you what. I'll give you one chance. If you don't want us to tickle you just say so and we won't do it." She mockingly lifts her hand to her ear as I mumble desperately under the tape. "I can't quite understand you. What's that little sis? You want us to tickle you? Well, if you insist." She motions to her friend and her friend steps up next to me. "You get an armpit and I get an armpit okay? Then after a  while, we'll switch off." Her friend smiles impishly down at me. "You're going to learn a lesson tonight you little jerk." My sister laughs and the torture begins. They tickle my armpits relentlessly. At first, I laugh uncontrollably under the tape, then the muffled laughs turn into muffled screams, followed by muffled sobs as my tears soak my cheeks and hair. They manage to find other ways to torment me while never leaving my armpits untickled. My sister continues to taunt me by asking her friend how long they've been at it and of course, they don't give an honest answer they want to keep me desperately wondering when my torture will be over. This goes on and on, but as torturous as it is I honestly don't know if it's been twenty minutes or two hours. "The itsy bitsy loser opened her big mouth. She snitched on her sister and now she's gonna pay." My sister sings to the tune of the itsy bitsy spider. They spend more than two hours tickling my armpits mercilessly. Then my sister gets an idea. "Come here." she says to her friend. You stand here at the head of the table so you can tickle both of her armpits at the same time. I'll be right back." She runs off leaving her overly zealous friend to continue my torture. "Just think, you have another hour of this. I'm having so much fun. Aren't you?" She says laughing at my disadvantage as she continues to tickle me. My sister returns holding something behind her back. "What's that?" her friend asks. "Feathers from my school project. One for you and one for me." "Aren't you thoughtful," her friend says as they both laugh. They resume their positions one at each side and they get back to teaching me my lesson. They wiggle the tips of the feathers into my armpits and I erupt with a mixture of laughter and broken sobs still muffled beneath the tape. " You know," she says, "If the feathers tickle and our fingers tickle." She gives me a terrifying look. "Then I bet both at the same time would be absolutely horrible." I begin to sob harder than before as they simultaneously wiggle and trace their fingers and the feathers into both of my armpits. After two hours and forty-five minutes of nonstop armpit tickling my sister finally lets me go. "You're free for now!" I slide off the table panting for breath and walk towards the door. "Oh, little sis," I turn and look at her terrified that she has changed her mind about letting me go. "I wouldn't tell mom and dad about this if I were you. I thoroughly enjoyed torturing you tonight. By the way, dad has business meetings all of next weekend and mom has to work late. So I'll be babysitting your sorry self for five hours." She says. "Just imagine the ways I could find between now and then to tickle the living daylights out of you and your armpits." She says excitedly. I turn and go upstairs to my room and climb into my bed with my arms clamped tightly to my sides shaking uncontrollably and sobbing the hardest that I have ever sobbed. A minute later my sister comes in and sits down on the edge of my bed. "Listen. Why don't you just stay in here and let me handle mom? I'll tell her that you didn't feel well and went to bed early and that you're sleeping and she shouldn't bother you. Just think I spent the whole night torturing you and now I'm about to get brownie points from mom for being a good big sister. Isn't it ironic?" She stands up and walks to the door. "Remember, you don't want mom finding out about... Well, you know." She holds her arm up and mocks as if she is tickling herself. My sister turns to leave my room but is met by mom who is home and came to check on us. My mother sees the state that I am in and hurries to me. "Honey, what's wrong?" She asks. I am so upset that I am unable to speak. Mom sits down on my bed and scoots me into her lap. She gently rubs my back while rocking me in her arms. My sister tries to sneak out of the room, but mom knows better than to let that happen. "Wait right there young lady." She says. My sister freezes then turns toward mom. "Why is your sister so upset?" "It's not my fault! I just tickled her that's all. Then she started crying." Mom wasn't born yesterday and knows that something is up. "Go to your room while I get to the bottom of this." She says pointing toward the door. My sister turns silently and leaves the room. She knows now that she is in real trouble. I try to catch my breath as I sob into mom's blouse. Mom continues to rock me and hushes my cries. Finally, she gets me calm and I tell her everything. I show her the marks on my wrists from pulling against the tape. She listens intently to every word then snuggles me into my bed. She pulls the covers over me and kisses me on the cheek. "You get some sleep okay sweetheart. Mommy will take care of this." I normally don't like it when she calls herself mommy it makes me feel like a little kid, but tonight it doesn't bother me. She sweetly brushes the hair from my eyes and smiles at me. I smile back. "Good night, baby. I love you," she says. She smooths the covers and gives me one final kiss on the forehead. Then she calmly walks to the door turns my light off and leaves the room pulling the door shut behind her. Within seconds I hear the same woman who just soothed my fears away by rocking me in her arms absolutely loose it in the hallway. My sisters first, middle and last name are called. I hear her door open and mom's anger rises to a whole new level. I smile as my mother unleashes my sister's punishment. Grounded for two months, and for the duration of that two months she will be responsible for all of my chores on top of her own. Mom says that she will no longer be babysitting me I will be left with my aunt while my parents are away. My sister doesn't like that because she will not be able to earn spending money for summer. I giggle to myself as mom continues to unleash her wrath upon my sister. And I finally realize that it's not so bad being the little sibling. I drift off to sleep as my sister stands silently accepting her fate. Justice is served.

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