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The Great Escape


“Please stop hurting him! Please!!!”

“You’re going to have to do better than that Brian” Nick’s cries of pain were sickening me; I almost had to put my hands to my ears to escape them. “I’ll do anything but please stop hurting him…God you’re going to kill him”

“Anything?” I nodded, I wasn’t thinking rationally at this point. All rational thoughts went out the window when he started poking at Nick with that knife.

“Yes anything, please stop…please” I had never begged for anything in my life as much as I begged in the last hour or so. Had it only been an hour? God it felt like a year.

“Say pretty pretty please with sugar on top”

“Okay fine…pretty pretty please with sugar on top”

He had Nick in a hold, his arm wrapped around Nick’s head as he faced me holding the knife just over Nick’s bare chest. Blood was already starting to trickle down his stomach from where he had been poking before.

“Tell me you will do anything I want you to do”

I stared at Nick as he shivered in the guys grip. He wasn’t even paying attention to anything now; I would swear shock was setting in.

“Say it!” He commanded as he once again stuck the knife into Nick’s flesh not too deep but deep enough for it to bleed. This time he stabbed him in the belly.

“I will do anything you want me to do” I hadn’t even realized I was crying. Let alone near hysterics, but when I looked past them both and at my reflection in the mirror I saw the terror in my own eyes and the puffiness that existed from too much crying.

“Tell me you swear to God”

“I swear to God”

He stuck Nick again then and he grimaced and let out the worst sound I had ever heard. It was partway between a sob and a scream. Nick was only in his boxers at this point and his feet were curling in as they dangled because he was lifted slightly off of them. “Stop it! I promised!!!”

“Okay fine…why should I have all the fun?” He smiled at me, once again gold teeth shimmering in his mouth as he motioned for me to take the knife from him.


I sat up in bed and sobbed. Seemed like this would forever be my new ritual, no more peaceful sleep because now this is where my memories stayed. “Brian what’s wrong?” I looked up to find AJ staring at me. Kevin decided he wanted to spend the night in the hospital with Nick so he sent AJ and Howie home with me.

I remember after eating my pie I said maybe all of two words before coming back in here and trying to sleep. I had overheard AJ and Howie talking about the guy with the deformed hand, they sounded like they pitied me and I did not like to be pitied.

When I was a child so sick I would see all of those other parents pitying my mother. Oh poor dear having such a sickly child. She said it made her nauseous when they referred to me as sickly or said “Bless your heart” to her. “Never let anyone pity you for anything sweetheart” She had said to me.

Now here were two of my best friends pitying me in the other room and what’s even worse is in a way I pitied me too.

“Nothing”

“Bullshit Brian…you’re crying what’s wrong?”

“AJ I just want to be alone”

“No can do sorry. I have my orders” I laughed he was such a dork sometimes.

“Well Kevin isn’t the boss of me”

“Kevin is the boss of everybody Rok, when will you realize that?”

“So you’re telling me that Kevin is your boss AJ?” I was trying desperately to change the subject, drop what brought him in here in the first place.

“Seriously Rok, what’s wrong? You aren’t going to feel better unless you talk about it”

“Don’t go all therapist on me AJ!”

“Alright I’m sorry”

“It was awful” I squeaked out. Maybe I wanted AJ to play therapist. He came over and sat next to me, “I can only imagine”

“No...You can’t”

“I’m sorry about that guy Brian…I know you thought you saw him in the church”

“It’s okay. I guess at least I should be relieved I didn’t make him up”

“AJ he made me carve the word mine into Nick” It felt like a great purging to come clean with that. It just felt like the right time and place, in the dark next to a good friend.

I worried a little bit when I was met with silence. Maybe I was changing from Rok to some nameless monster. “Please say something AJ”

“I don’t know what to say” His voice was cracking and that made me cry even more, “I didn’t want to…he made me”

I felt his arm on my shoulder, “I promised I would do anything he wanted and that’s what he wanted”

“That son of a bitch” He tightened his grip on my shoulder, “Did he make you carve him everywhere?”

“I don’t know AJ…That I don’t remember”

“I’m a monster”

“No you aren’t a monster Brian…he forced you to do that”

I sat and cried with AJ consoling me. That was an odd picture at best because AJ was not big on helping people work through their problems. He cared, there was no doubt in my mind, but when it came to problem solving and consoling he left that to the big boys as he always said. Now he was being a big boy and I was thankful for that.

Howie had walked into the room somewhere in between my confession and breakdown. He sat silently across from us and watched.

“I made him angry because I tried to escape” I closed my eyes letting the memories come and with it even more tears.

“Brian I thought you were dead…when he hit you with that bat, I thought you were dead and I was going to have to go through this alone”

“I would never leave you Nick, never…okay?” He nodded and then dug his nails into me as the door to the bathroom flung open.

He came in looking furious, “You come with me” He said pointing at me; once again I felt Nick’s nails dig into my flesh. He had no intention of letting go. “Now!” He grabbed at me with such ferocity that I thought my shoulder was going to detach. “No!” Nick screamed, “Shut up kid he’ll be right back…in the meantime why don’t you strip down to your boxers”

“He’s cold you made him take his shirt off already”

“Do what I say or else this will be the last time you see your friend” He said grabbing me even more forcefully and shoving me out the door.

He closed the door and placed a chair in front of it, “Tell me where you keep your money and your drugs”

“Drugs?”

“Yeah kid drugs where are they?”

“What you mean aspirin or something?” He slapped me upside the head, “Do I mean aspirin? How stupid are you?”

“I don’t know what you mean!”

“Drugs...Dope anything like that”

“We don’t have any drugs”

“You guys are pop stars you have to have some kind of stash”

“None of us do drugs” He pushed me forcefully and I fell to the floor, Nick started banging on the door when he heard the crash, “Brian? Are you okay?”

He started to tear through the rest of the drawers, maybe that’s all he was, some kind of druggie in need of a quick fix. Maybe when he didn’t find any he would leave. That’s when I saw it shining from under the bed. I scooted closer to it as the guy continued to cuss and tear the room apart. Nick’s pocket knife was almost in my reach.

I went to go grab it when he turned my way, “Well where do you keep your money then?” I had to think fast, get him to look the other way long enough for me to grab the knife and then charge at him. This was my only chance. “In the night stand, that’s where Nick has all of his money”

When he turned I grabbed the knife and charged at him full force, unfortunately when he heard me approach he turned, just in time to see me coming. I went for his stomach like a Wildman, but he grabbed my wrist and flung me over the bed and onto the floor.

I was still holding the knife though, “Brian are you okay?” Nick was pounding furiously at the door now. “So you want to play rough do you?” He walked over at me with a big smile on his face; I wanted to wipe that smile off and did when I rammed the knife into his leg. He yelped in pain as I stood up and ran for the bathroom door. “Brian?”

“Nick I’m coming hang on” I was just about to move the chair when he tackled me to the floor, I felt my chin hit the carpet as I bit my tongue. The fall shook the knife out of my hand and out of my reach.

“Brian are you okay?” Again he was pounding furiously.

“Oh yeah he’s just fine” Derek Jones said as he limped over to the knife and grabbed me up from the floor by my hair, “He’s just peachy”

I placed my hands up over my head to try to lessen his grip but it was no use, “I suggest you stop struggling. The worse time you give me the worse it’s gonna get for you”

“Why are you doing this?”

He kicked the chair out of the way and opened the door. Nick was ready and waiting and when the door opened he jumped at the guy only to be kicked to the floor. “What is it with you two? I think you boys have watched too many action movies. They have given you guy’s big ideas”

He threw me down next to Nick and once again locked the bathroom door. Before I knew what was happening he grabbed at Nick and wrapped his arms around his head, “So you wanted to have some fun huh Brian?”

“What are you doing?” He took the knife from his pocket and held it by Nick’s chest, “Now you’re going to see how a real pro handles a knife”


When I was done telling Howie and AJ my story I looked up to see their eyes locked on mine. “He was the monster Brian not you” Howie finally said once he controlled his emotions to the point of being able to speak.

“Maybe if I hadn’t tried to escape he wouldn’t have done that to Nick”

“Or…Maybe he would have done something even worse” I shivered at the thought, wondering what on earth could even BE worse than what we went through.

“Brian you should try and get some more sleep” Howie said standing up as a cue for AJ to do the same, “I’ll stay in here with you if you want”

I smiled at AJ, “No, that’s okay…if I need you I’ll yell”

“Hey AJ?”

“Yeah?”

“Has Nick said anything else? Besides my name?”

“No”

“Okay…thanks”

“Goodnight Rok…I love you man”

I smiled, I know that was hard for him to say, “I love you too Bone”

When they left I put my light on dim and the television on low. I had no desire to go back to sleep anymore. I knew if I did I might remember the rest and I didn’t want to.

I didn’t want to.


Be back on Wednesday with chapter 13!