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Constantine's Awakening

by Terrance MacDonald

Chapter 1

Hello, my name is Constantine. That picture you saw is from the beginning of my "Awakening Ceremony." Let me tell you the story about that. I guess you can tell that there is sort of a congregation behind me. Well, that's exactly what it is. I guess that needs a little explanation. My parents belonged to a Pentecostal Church in South Georgia. They called themselves Pentecostal anyway, but they had some really weird customs in that church. One of those was a thing they called "The Awakening." It's sort of like a Jewish Bar Mitzvah, but only in that it happens when you turn 13.

I guess that's the only similarity really. It doesn't happen on your birthday, but for a week during the first summer that you turn 13 and you don't get any presents. It's also pretty embarrassing because you spend the better part of a week naked with all the other kids from the church who are also doing their "Awakening" on a camping retreat. You only go with your own gender – boys go separately from girls to a different camp, but all the kids in the church do it. I guess the most embarrassing part is having to strip naked in front of the congregation. That's what that picture is, when I was getting naked there in the front of the church.

The girls come in before the boys and have already left before the boys come in. It isn't considered proper for the boys and girls to see each other naked, but apparently it's okay for all the adults to see all of us kids and the boys or girls to see each other. We go into the church one at a time, strip naked and get a 'blessing' from the pastor. Then we go out and get on the bus to go to the camps. After the girls' bus leaves, the boys start coming in. The girls wear a t-shirt and shorts when they go into the Fellowship Hall, but the boys only wear shorts. As you can see from the picture, when I say 'only shorts' I mean just that. We end up leaving that little bit of clothing in a pile and after the 'blessing' go out to the bus. We don't get them back until we return to the church at the end of the week.

I know what you're thinking, 'That sounds like a pretty fucked up, creepy sort of church.' Well, I guess it was and I've been gone from there for a long time now, but I just wanted to tell someone my story. That's why I'm writing this now.

I guess you can see one of the cameras in the background behind me, and there was obviously one in front of me to take that picture I showed you. Pictures and video are taken of the entire ceremony at the church, the arrival at the camp and some during the week we would spend there. That's pretty weird too, but then there is the blessing. After you strip, you turn around, face the congregation and bow your head. I really wanted to cover myself before I turned around, but they tell you before you go into the Fellowship Hall to keep your hands at your sides after you've stripped. After you turn around, you bow your head and the pastor steps up close behind you. He puts one hand on your head, the other on your ass and says some sort of prayer, blessing or something. I didn't pay any attention to the words he said, my concentration was focused on the finger that seemed to be trying to penetrate my hole.

I just shut my eyes and squeezed my butt-hole shut as tight as I could. It felt like he had some lube or something on the tip of his finger because it kept trying to slip inside, but I just kept pressing my cheeks together as hard as I could and he didn't make it inside. He finished saying whatever it was he was babbling about, took his hand off my head, slapped my ass with the other one and told me to go out to the bus.

I put my hands over my stuff as I hurried out the back of the church to get on the bus. This was the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to me in my life. I knew all the guys around my age at the church and was friends with them all, but the closest was Leo. His name was actually Leonard, but he preferred to be called Leo. Sometimes people tried to shorten my name to Connie, but that sounds too much like a girl's name, so I have always insisted on the full Constantine. I may be gay, but I'm not one of those flaming, effeminate queers. The bus was only about half full and Leo was still in a seat by himself, which I was happy to see, a bunch of the seats already were filled with two people. He was in the last seat in the back of the bus and when I came up the steps into the bus he waved me back to join him.

As I passed through the bus, everyone else was pretty much like me – they all had their hands over their junk. For some reason I just couldn't help looking. When I got back to where Leo was sitting, he wasn't covering himself up. He was sitting sort of diagonal in the seat, leaning back against both the seat and the side of the bus next to the window. One arm was draped over the back of the seat, the other resting on his thigh and his legs were spread slightly apart. He obviously wasn't as embarrassed as I was about the nudity. Leo and I were about the same size, but he was a little more muscular as he was on the junior high wrestling team and worked out a lot to stay in shape for that. He had light brown hair and icy blue eyes that I thought I could stare into forever sometimes because they were so beautiful. I'd never really thought much about guys in a sexual way until recently as puberty started , but there was no way to avoid admitting that Leo was simply gorgeous.

He reached across himself with the hand that had been on his thigh to pat the seat next to him and smiled in an invitation to sit down and returned his hand to its previous position. I slid into the seat next to him, but modestly kept my hands in my lap. I glanced over at Leo and couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you a little embarrassed by this?"

He shot me a quizzical look and replied, "What, being naked? Why should I?"

"Um, because we're all going to have to run around like this for a whole week?"

Leo used a line that I remember to this day, and I have used it myself a few times since then. "What's the big deal? We're all guys. None of us have anything the rest of us haven't seen before."

I just shrugged in reply. I couldn't think of anything to say to counter his argument, but that did not quell my embarrassment. I also felt like I was getting a little excited down there, I guess just from sitting next to Leo and how casual he was being about being naked. Leo reached over and lightly smacked the back of my hands with the back of his. "Lighten up and relax," he urged. "You can't keep your hands in your lap for an entire week."

I tensed slightly at the gentle slap, but then relaxed a little. My hands slipped back a little bit, but stayed in my lap. I didn't want to let him see that I was about half hard. That wasn't good enough for Leo. He took his hand of the back of the seat, reached down and gently picked my hands up one at a time to move them away. I don't know why, but I didn't resist. I should have, because that caused an instant surge of blood to rush into my dick. That made it jump to about ¾ hard in an instant.

Leo had been watching my lap while he did that, but now he looked up to my face and smiled. "See, it isn't so bad. You're starting to enjoy it." Without moving his gaze from directly into my eyes, he moved his hand directly onto my shaft. I could feel it jump with excitement as soon as he touched it. His smile widened. He was really enjoying this. His fingers closed around it, and without looking I knew I had just jumped to full hardness.

I had been jacking off for a few months, having discovered the pleasure that could be found in that, despite the church teaching us that such things were a sin. It didn't feel very sinful, it just felt good. But Leo's hand on my stiff dick felt even better. I was so scared that I would cum right then. If he had started stroking it, I probably would have almost immediately, but all he did was hold it. Then he adopted a wicked grin and reached over with his other hand, took my wrist and guided my hand into his lap. When my hand reached his dick, he let go. Unconsciously, I wrapped my fingers around it. He wasn't completely hard when I first made contact, but close to it. It didn't take long for him to become fully engulfed once my fingers closed around it. I didn't really mean to do that, it just seemed to happen. He just kept looking straight into my eyes. It wasn't a staring contest, but he didn't look away at all.

Everyone going had boarded the bus by now and one of the counselors who would be with us at the camp got in, shut the door and the bus started moving. He was wearing just a t-shirt, shorts and running shoes. All were well worn. Leo and I still had the rear seat to ourselves. The movement of the bus distracted Leo and me from what we had been doing long enough to look around, but our hands stayed where they were. The other boys going for the awakening had also paired off together but they all seemed to be sitting very rigidly, facing forward. Not at all like Leo and me. A couple glanced around from side to side and up and down to see what their friends were doing or trying to check them out. It is natural to want to try to compare, right? I mean I did it when I walked down the aisle on the bus to get to my seat.

The counselor driving the bus was one of the guys who grew up in the church, he had gone through the awakening a few years ago, so he was 17 now. When you got older, you could become a counselor for the awakening ceremony like this guy was doing. The idea was supposed to be that they would help guide you through the stuff during the week to follow since they had already done it. Colin was the counselor driving the bus, three others were already at the camp getting things ready for us to arrive.

When I sat down with Leo I had compared in my mind what he looked like sitting there to what I saw in the mirror every morning. Soft, it looked like we were about the same size. I wasn't growing any hair down there yet, but I could see just a few wisps starting to come in right above his dick, they had gotten just thick and brown enough to tell they were there. Later, under closer examination I would see there was a lot more fuzz coming in down there too. Leo assured me that he could see mine starting to come in as fuzz later that week. That made me feel better.

We had both kept our grips on each other's shafts, and now that the bus was moving, the bumping along the road was causing us to rub up and down on the other's shaft whether we wanted to or not. The only way to prevent it would to have been to let go, but neither of us seemed to want to do that. I know I was definitely enjoying both the feeling on my cock and the feeling in my hand. Leo had become stiff as a board too, so he was obviously enjoying it too.

We finally hit a nice stretch of smooth paved road for a while, but Leo's hand was still making gentle movements. He was definitely starting to intentionally jack me off! His strokes got longer and longer as he continued. My mind was in turmoil... This was something we had always been taught was wrong, so why was he doing it? I didn't complain, it felt good. Then I realized that without even thinking about it, I had started returning the favor. This must be the fornication thing our preacher was always talking about, I was sure we must be going to Hell now if what he said was true. But if it felt so good to do it, why was it supposed to be so wrong?

I could feel myself swelling even more and my balls were starting to tighten up. I knew I was going to cum soon, this was just what would happen when I would wank myself just before I came. I leaned over to whisper to Leo for him to stop. We quite literally didn't have anything to clean up any mess, and to get off the bus with jizz all over me would have been so much worse than just having to get out of the bus naked and maybe even hard when we got to the camp.

Leo really surprised me with what he did next… He sped up his stroking, this was not what I had in mind. I could feel my pre-cum dripping onto my stomach as Leo's stroking got stronger, but before I could say anything, Leo leaned over and whispered, "Trust me." The next thing I knew, Leo ducked his head down and his face was in my lap. His mouth closed around the tip of my penis. I felt his lips tighten and start to slide down my shaft.

I had thought his hand felt good, but his mouth was beyond amazing! His lips and tongue slid up and down on my dick and I could feel him sucking. This was really not going to last long. I tried to warn him. Maybe, just maybe I could just pull my dick out away from my body and squirt on the floor or something... But Leo didn't stop, he just kept on going. The more I tried not to cum, the faster it seemed to be happening. I guess I just didn't understand how to do it right back then. I did eventually figure out a way to keep right on the edge for a long time, but that's another story.

Finally I couldn't hold it back anymore, no matter how hard I tried. I closed my eyes, put my head back against the seat and gasped with my mouth wide open as my load released into Leo's mouth. After I finished pumping, I looked down into my lap. Leo was looking up at me smiling. He stuck out his tongue for just a moment to show my cum coating it, then he closed his mouth and swallowed. When he sat back up he licked his lips, leaned over and whispered as he smiled, "You can return the favor later." You know what? I knew right then that I wanted to. Not right this second, but later, like Leo said, to return the favor.

We turned onto a gravel road and went about a mile or so before we came to a turn-off to a dirt track. There was a gate standing open with a sign showing the name of our church on it. Below that was another sign proclaiming this to be the "Boys Camp."

We drove up the dirt track for quite a while, I have no idea how far we actually traveled in distance, but it seemed to take forever since we had to go so slow as the little bus bumped along. The dirt track we were driving on was so bumpy that I'm glad Leo had finished when he did. I'm sure you get the idea about the effects a bumpy road can have on what he was doing a few minutes before and the potential consequences. When we finally reached the camp, the bus eased to a stop and the doors opened. Somehow the preacher had arrived before us even though he'd left after we did. I found out later that we had taken a circuitous route to allow him to get there first.

Almost everyone was still covering their genitals when we got off the bus. Leo wasn't and neither was I after the bus ride. He had definitely made me more comfortable about being naked. The preacher gave a stern look as the passengers disembarked, causing hands to drop to the side as we had been required to stand in the church hall. As we came off the bus, we were grouped in pairs. This was to determine the sleeping arrangements – we would be in two person tents and the person we were paired with as we got off the bus would be our tent-mate. This was great for me and Leo since we were the last off the bus and it meant we would definitely be in the same tent. Another fortunate thing for us was that this year there was an even number of boys going through the awakening so there wasn't a chance of a group having a third person in the tent.

I looked around after getting off the bus. We had come through a heavily wooded area as we drove up the dirt road, but once to the camp proper, it was pretty clear. There were a few buildings, a covered pavilion with no walls and a bunch of tents spread out across a grassy pasture. The tents were all near the wood line that surrounded the camp. The tents were on wooden platforms so that at least we wouldn't be sleeping on the ground. The pasture ran all the way down to a lake. The water looked really clean, cool and inviting. It was a hot summer day, so I couldn't wait to go for a swim. I could also see that there was a dock at the edge of the lake and some canoes that had been pulled up on the bank nearby. My thought now was, 'This might be a fun week after all!' Best of all, I would be spending a lot of time with Leo.

The preacher gave another little speech, which seemed to be what he was best at – droning on about shit no one really wants to hear anyway. The first thing he explained was why we had to be naked during the week of "The Awakening". It had something to do with learning the scripture and going back to the Garden of Eden while mankind was still pure and uncorrupted. I still don't understand even now, years later exactly how that was supposed to work. I guess it didn't make much difference, we were there, we were naked and we would remain that way for the rest of the week. I can't claim that I paid a lot of attention to what the preacher had to say, but when he stopped droning on, we led us down to the lake. He stripped completely naked too and waded out into the water. Then he called us in one at a time for a dunking baptism. At least he didn't try to stick his finger in my butt this time.

After the baptisms were done, the preacher came out of the lake, dried off and redressed. The preacher had a few minutes alone talking to the counselors then got into his car (a BMW 7 series) and drove away. So much for swearing off earthly, secular possessions. Oh, wait, that's for monks. I guess he didn't have to worry about that part after all.

After the preacher left, the counselors had us all assemble at the pavilion and sit at the picnic tables that ran down the middle. Colin must have been the senior counselor, because he was the one who addressed us. "I know you all have your tent-mates assigned, and you don't exactly have any unpacking to do, but you will be issued some things that you will need this week. You all need to go in pairs with your tent-mates to the supply room." Colin pointed toward a shed where another counselor, Avery, was waiting by the door.

As we filed past Avery, he reached into the supply shed and gave us each basic toiletries (toothbrush and toothpaste), a bath towel, a wash cloth, a beach towel, a sleeping bag and a pillow. One electric lantern was issued to each tent. Avery also gave us the number of our tent assignments. It turned out that Leo and I were to be in the tent farthest down in the pasture away from the buildings and closest to the lake. Maybe I have a dirty mind, but the first thing that popped into my head was the possibility of private midnight swims with Leo. We got to the tent and started to unroll the sleeping bags we were given. They weren't very thick and seemed to have already seen better days some while ago, so it didn't look like it was going to be very comfortable sleeping on the wood decking that made up the floor of the tent. I guess that was part of the Spartan existence we were supposed to be experiencing to simulate the Garden of Eden. I still didn't grasp the concept, it just seemed weird for the church to mandate a summer camp where the kids have to run around naked the entire time, but having recently begun to realize and accept that physically I was attracted more to boys than I was to girls, there was some appeal to me in that.

Leo suggested a solution to that which I was all in favor of. "Let's just put them on top of each other, that will give us more padding, and as warm as it is, we really won't need any covers." That sounded great to me, even if I did like the idea of having something covering me while I slept. The idea that Leo and I would be sharing a bed of sorts was most appealing. I was really hoping that we would hold each other while we slept – if Leo was willing to do that. After what he did during the bus trip, I was pretty sure he would.

Since we really didn't have too much to sort out, arranging the tent didn't take very long. We rejoined the group at the pavilion where the picnic tables were located. There weren't to be any more structured activities today other than dinner. We were just sitting around on the benches attached to the picnic tables when Colin and Avery and came out of the counselors' little cabin to join us. They were naked now as well. They had very similar bodies, with the exception that Colin's hair was dark brown and Avery's was blonde. Like everyone else at the camp, they had pretty good tans except where their shorts would cover them. The untanned area on Avery was a lot smaller than everyone else's because he was on the swimming team at his high school, so he normally wore Speedo style swimwear. There hadn't been any sign of the other two counselors yet, so we didn't even know who they were yet.

It was getting sort of late in the afternoon and it had been quite a while since the lunch that was served between the church service and the beginning of the Awakening ceremony, so I know I was getting hungry. Colin and Avery asked for some of us to help carry a couple grills made from a 50-gallon drum that had been cut apart and had legs welded to the two parts down to the lake. We were going to have a cookout on the beach to start our first night. Being ready to eat, I was quick to grab Leo and volunteer us to help. A couple other guys who were getting over their shyness a little better offered to help also.

These things were heavy and we had to stop a couple times to rest. By the time we got them down there, the other two counselors finally showed up carrying trays with burgers, hotdogs, buns and condiments. They too were naked. Of course we all knew them from the church, they were both sixteen. One was Milo, who was I guess what you would call a "strawberry blonde" since his hair was sort of a light red, but sort of blondish at the same time. His light patch of pubic hair matched, but he didn't seem to have any other body hair that I could see – and yes, I looked. The other was Wyatt. Wyatt had light brown hair, what I have heard some people call "mousy". Yes, I checked him out too… He had a little bit of hair on his thighs and a little under his arms, but unlike the others, he didn't seem to trim his pubes.

We all hung out at the beach and some of us swam in the lake while the counselors cooked the burgers and hotdogs. After dinner, volunteers were recruited to help with the cleanup, but the grills were still hot, so they had to stay where they were for now. During dinner even the shyest of the group going through 'The Awakening' stopped holding their hands in front of them. It is sort of difficult to eat burgers and hotdogs and keep your hands over your junk… Yes, okay, I admit it – I looked around. Most of us kids were about the same size, most of us circumcised, and varying stages of pubes growing in. A couple guys didn't seem to have any yet, but I couldn't really go up to them and ask to get a closer look.

Leo caught me looking around, checking the other guys out – especially the counselors. He nudged me a couple times to bet my attention away from them. One time he even leaned over and whispered in my ear "You better focus on something else, you're boning up." And he was right, I was. I started thinking about anything that wasn't exciting for me down there… My grandmother, my second grade teacher who was about the same age as my grandmother, the preacher from the church – that one was especially repulsive to me.

At 8:30 we were all gathered together at the pavilion for vespers. That amounted to the counselors reciting some scriptures and prayers that looked like had been prepared for them and then telling us that we needed to go to our tents for 'daily reflection and prayers' before washing up and lights out. Lights out was scheduled for 10:00. I know what I was praying for, but I don't think that was what the church had in mind. I wanted to get Leo's dick in my mouth and return the favor he had given me on the bus.

When we got back to the tent after vespers and laid down on the sleeping bags we had laid out earlier. Even with the two bags on top of each other, it still was not very comfortable. Leo had another idea. He had me pull the top bag off, and then he folded the bottom one in half. He had me do the same with the one I was holding. That didn't leave a lot of surface area for us, but the extra two layers of sleeping bag did make it more comfortable. It did also mean that we would have to sleep a lot closer together. I was all in favor of that...

We tested out our possible sleeping positions. It wasn't difficult to decide that the most comfortable was spooning. Laying on our backs was okay, and we had to be very close together, which was nice enough, but spooning was much nicer. When I finally thought it was the right time, I got Leo to lay on his back so I could suck his dick as he had done to me. I was pretty sure I wasn't as good at it as he was, because he had to remind me a couple times to watch my teeth before he finally showed me a trick with my lips to keep them off his shaft; I had never even given his teeth a second thought. Later I thought maybe it was because he'd had more practice at this than I had at the time – which of course was none.

I guess I got the hang of how to do it correctly because it wasn't long before he started thrusting his hips up to meet my lips on the down strokes. He warned me that he was about to squirt and started speeding his thrusts. I guess that was my cue to pull away if I wanted to, but I didn't. Leo started to squirt into my mouth. It got full really quick and even though I intended to anyway, I couldn't help but swallow it. I don't know if it was because there was too much or if it was because the tip of his dick was all the way in the back of my throat. Either way it didn't really matter, I'd been able to get a taste, and I loved it.

The continuing story

This was submitted as a short story originally, and is being judged as such for the contest. However, the author is submitting further chapters. The completeness of this tale may be ascertained from the author's index page, where the status is made clear. ~ Webmaster

Voting

This story was submitted just too late to be a full part of the 2016 story challenge "Inspired by a Picture". The other stories may be found at the challenge home page. Please read them, too. The challenge period of 20 February 2016 to 14 March 2016 is when the voting is open, even for late comers. This story may be rated, below, against a set of criteria, but, because it was too late for the challenge itself, may not be rated against other stories on the challenge home page.

The challenge was to write a story inspired by this picture:

Of which nightmares are made
Please rate Constantine's Awakening with the impressions it left you with

Either while reading this story, or afterwards, I found it to be/had/made me (Tick all that apply)

Romantic
Erotic
Sweet
Gentle
Surprising
Realistic
Inspiring
An emotional read
Written with rhythm and pace
Thought provoking
Well laid out (paragraphs etc)
Technically well written
Written with good use of grammar and syntax (this does not mean pedantic use)
Easy to read
It invited me in
I could not put it down
Cheering (made me happy)
Uplifting
I identified with at least one of the characters
It felt like it was about me. I know it wasn't, but it felt like it
The plot was tough to read. (a tough [good] experience, not hard to read)
Not just prose, but almost a 'tone poem'
Interpreted the picture well


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