Afraid New World (Part 3)

Justin was tired. So tired that all he wanted to do was lie down somewhere and sleep for days; maybe forever. But he couldn’t sleep. Not crammed in this old wooden wagon with at least fifteen other people; crammed in so closely that everyone was pressed against each other like sardines. And certainly not with his hands tied in front of him so tightly that he could barely even feel them anymore.

He sighed and tried to ignore the fact that the man sitting next to him was sobbing like a baby. He tried to ignore the fact that the man on the other side of him was digging his elbow deep into his side. Most of all he tried to ignore the fact that he and these other people were all headed toward Medea, the biggest human whorehouse in what was left of the United States.

Instead of letting himself think about these things he kept his eyes and mind on the road. He had overheard the driver and a guard talking earlier and he knew that they were very close to their destination now. That in fact they would probably be arriving there sometime today.

A part of him was actually relieved that they would finally stop traveling. After all, they had been traveling for two days now. And he was so tired.

Another part of him however - a really big part of him - was scared to death. This was the part of him that kept feeling the urge to give in to the fear and cry. But he wouldn’t allow himself to cry. Not now. He would save his tears for the rough shit. He could handle this.

So instead of thinking, he passed the time watching the trees and buildings drift by as they drew ever closer to their destination. And eventually, his exhaustion won out over his discomfort and he gratefully fell into an uneasy sleep.

The wagon stopped abruptly in its tracks, leaving the passengers to fall roughly against one another. Justin swallowed a curse as he fell against the man with the elbow. He righted himself as quickly as he could and looked up, blinking away the last vestiges of sleep.

The driver of the wagon turned around and held out his arm expansively. "Welcome to Medea," he said with a cold smile.

Several of the women in the wagon began to cry at the words. The driver merely laughed at their reaction and hopped down from the wagon. Justin tried not to look at the women that were crying or the men with fear written all over their faces. Because if he looked then he might have to feel something and that was the last thing in the world he wanted to do right now. He forced his eyes to look at the sky, the very blue sky, and for a moment he fooled himself into thinking that everything was normal and right in the world. That moment ended when he felt a clawed hand grab his elbow and pull him up to his feet. He was pushed to the opening at the back of the wagon where another demon was waiting to help him down to the ground.

Once all the humans had been taken from the wagon, they were placed in a single file line and told to walk forward. Justin moved with the rest of the people, his eyes glued to the building in front of them. When he realized what it was he almost laughed.

Almost.

It was a school. A high school judging by it’s size and dimensions.

‘So even demons have a sense of humor,’ Justin thought bitterly.

They were led into the building, and into what had once been the school’s gym. Now it was apparently being used as some kind of human processing center.

Once inside, they were separated into two groups – men on one side and women on the other and the check in process began.

Justin tried to shut himself off from what was happening, noting that check in was little more than an opportunity for these monsters to feel everyone up. He pushed down his disgust at the feeling of searching hands on his body; knowing full well that this was nothing compared to what he would soon be expected to handle.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, his hands were untied and he was ordered to follow one of the demons. He did as he was told, silently walking behind him as they climbed a flight of stairs that led to the second floor and then through the almost empty corridors of the old school. As they walked, he noticed that many of the old classrooms no longer had doors. They looked as if they’d been torn off their very hinges. He wondered about that, and then wondered if he would ever have the courage to ask anybody about it.

After a few minutes, the demon stopped in front of one of the rooms. He pointed to it and said, "This is where you will stay. The human inside will tell you everything you need to know to survive here." He leaned in close to Justin, eyes glittering. "I suggest that you pay attention."

Justin mumbled, "Yes sir," and stepped inside the room. He took it in with a quick glance. The room was small and held very little in the way of furniture. There was a dresser against the far wall and what looked like an old coffee table in the middle of the room. There were also two cots that looked like they had come straight from an army barracks, one on either side of the room. A brown-haired man that looked to be about his age lay on one of them, idly flipping through a magazine.

The demon spoke up, his voice resonating loudly in the small room. "I have a new friend here for you, human."

The man on the cot put his magazine down quickly and looked at Justin.

"Take good care of him," the demon said.

"Of course I will," he replied with a blank look. Justin watched the demon leave and then turned back around.

The man stood up and walked over to him, his hand outstretched, his face friendly. "Hi there, I’m Jack."

Justin put his hand out and the men shook hands firmly. "I’m Justin," he said quietly.

Jack smiled and then walked back over to his own cot and sat down on its edge. "Nice to meet you. Sorry it has to be under such shitty circumstances."

Justin wasn’t sure how to respond to that so he just nodded half-heartedly.

Jack waved a hand at the empty cot. "Have a seat. That one’s all yours."

"Thanks," Justin said as he walked over to the other cot and sat down on it. Although it wasn’t the most comfortable thing in the world, it was a hundred times better than a hard, wooden wagon.

Jack leaned forward. "So…you doing ok?" he asked with true concern.

Justin nodded despite being anything but ok. "Yeah, I’m just…this is all so…" he trailed off, finding that he didn’t have any words to describe how he felt.

Jack nodded solemnly. "Yeah, I know. It’s hard at first. Especially the first few days. But you learn to deal."

"How do you do it?" Justin asked, suddenly desperate to know how this man managed to seem so normal.

"How do I do what?"

"Deal. How do you deal?"

Jack shrugged. "There are ways. I’ll show you if it looks like you’re going to stick around."

Justin slumped, somewhat disappointed in the answer. "Can I ask you another question?"

"Fire away."

"How long have you been here?"

"Since the beginning almost. Going on four months now, I think…It’s really easy to lose track of time here."

"Oh God, I’m so sorry," Justin said. He couldn’t even imagine having to do this for four months. He simply couldn’t see that far ahead.

Jack shrugged as if it really didn’t matter. "It’s ok. Like I said, you learn to deal."

"Yeah, I guess," Justin said softly. He looked down for a minute as he tried to steady himself against his new reality. When he looked back up he found that Jack was looking at him curiously.

"Is something wrong?" Justin asked.

"No, why?" Jack responded.

"Because you’re staring at me," Justin said.

Jack laughed and blushed slightly. "Dude, I’m sorry. It’s just that…you look so familiar to me. Have we ever met?" he asked.

Justin suddenly felt uncomfortable. He knew damn well why Jack thought he looked familiar and, for not the first time in his life, he wished that he would not be recognized. Especially not now. Now more than ever he just wanted to blend in. "No, I don’t think so," he answered simply, hoping that was the end of it.

"No, I’ve seen your face before. I know I have."

Jack was openly studying him now; his face set in concentration. Justin tried his best to seem casual about the scrutiny, all the while praying that the man would not realize who he was.

Finally, Jack’s expression lightened and he sat back. "Well, it’ll come to me."

Justin stayed silent.

"So you want me to go over the rules with you?" Jack asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Yeah," Justin said as he straightened.

"First thing you need to know to get along here is to do what they tell you, when they tell you."

Justin nodded. "I can do that."

"And talk to them with respect. Yes sir, no sir. That kind of shit. They like that."

Justin swallowed and nodded again. He could do that. He’d been brought up to address his elders that way. He could do that.

Jack continued. "The daytime is yours to do what you want. Although there isn’t much to do. If they’re happy with you, they’ll give you books to read, candy, shit like that." He shrugged. "It passes the time. And you can always sleep. Nighttime you’re theirs. We all get cattle-called down into the old lunchroom. The demons will come in, and if they choose you, you go with them to one of the bedrooms and do whatever the fuck they want. If you piss anybody off or fuck up, they’ll kill you."

Listening to the other man speak, Justin wasn’t sure what unnerved him most; the words that Jack was speaking or the fact that he spoke them so dispassionately. He wondered briefly if he would be like this after four months.

"Oh and there’s one more thing you need to know to do well here," Jack said with a bit of a mischievous smile on his face.

"What’s that?"

"The demons…they’re ummm…hermaphrodites."

Justin’s eyes grew wide with surprise "What? Isn’t that…?"

"Yup. They’re both male and female down there. So, sometimes you get to be the top and sometimes you get to be the bottom. Makes for an interesting job, don’t it?"

Justin was speechless as he tried to digest the new information.

Jack laughed at his reaction. He was used to it; he’d seen it many times before. "So would you like a tour?" he asked.

Justin blinked heavily, trying to rid of the vision that that piece of information had placed in his mind. "I…yes. A tour would be good."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Justin stood next to Jack in a line of about thirty men and waited for the night’s customers to come in. He had never been so frightened in all his life. As he stood there, he could almost hear his heart beating loudly and erratically in his chest.

‘Remember to breathe…remember to breathe,’ he told himself over and over. ‘And don’t you cry. Don’t you dare fucking cry.’

Suddenly he felt a hand grip his and give it slight squeeze. He looked down at his hand and then up to see that Jack was looking at him with an intense gaze. "You’ll be fine. You can do this Justin," he said encouragingly.

Justin managed to produce a weak smile; grateful that Jack was here.

Only a moment later, the first customers of the night began to filter in through a door on the other side of the room. Justin watched as some of the demons wandered over to the section where the women were, while others began to make their way over to where he and the other men stood.

He took a deep breath and tightened his hands into fists to stop their shaking.

He looked over at Jack and noticed that for all his earlier ease, he seemed very tense now; his body stood rigid and his face was unreadable stone.

He faced forward again, only to see that one of the demons was walking directly towards him. He watched as the demon advanced until he stood only two feet away from him.

"You’re very pretty," the demon said with a crooked smile. The demon reached out a hand and began to stroke his cheek.

Justin managed to suppress the shudder that the touch evoked. "Thank you sir," he said softly.

"Yes, very pretty." The demon grabbed one of Justin’s fists and forced it open so that they were holding hands. "You come with me tonight," he said as he began to lead Justin away.

Justin began to follow then quickly turned his head to get one last glimpse at Jack before he was dragged off to God knows where. He was hoping for a smile or a nod of encouragement or perhaps just to be able to gain strength from Jack’s own.

But Jack was already gone and Justin knew that he would somehow have to find his own strength to survive this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Justin stumbled into the candlelit room to find that Jack was already there. He stood there for a moment, swaying slightly on his feet, until Jack stood up and gently led him to his cot. Justin sat gingerly, wincing as a bolt of pain traveled through his body.

"How many?" Jack asked as he kneeled in front of him.

Justin instinctively understood what the question meant. "Three. Three of them," he said quietly as he bowed his head.

Jack nodded grimly. "Are you ok?"

"It hurts…"

"Yeah, I know. I have some Tylenol you can take for the pain."

Justin lifted his head and instantly regretted it when the entire room seemed to lurch violently. "Don’t feel so good Jack," he groaned.

"Gonna throw up?" Jack asked.

Justin put his hand over his mouth and nodded. Jack ran to the other side of the room and grabbed an old bucket that sat in the corner. He hurried back to Justin, putting it under him just as he doubled over and began to throw up the little food he had managed to eat earlier.

Justin clutched desperately at the bucket as his body tried to purge itself of the feelings of shame, impotent rage and disgust.

It lasted for a long time, and every time he thought he was done, he would relive the touch and smell of the demons and his stomach would spasm all over again.

Finally, when there was nothing left in his stomach for his body to get rid of, Justin leaned back and put his hands over his eyes, signaling that he was done. Jack took the bucket and placed it far to the side, then he helped the other man to lay down on the cot.

"I’m sorry," Justin said, although he wasn’t really sure what he was apologizing for.

"It’s ok, Justin. It happens. I did the same thing my first time," Jack said as he ran his fingers soothingly through Justin’s curls.

Justin stayed silent and accepted the unfamiliar caress. It felt so good to have someone show normal, human kindness. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on that rather than the pain radiating throughout his body or the residual shame lingering in his soul.

"Ummm…Justin?" Jack ventured after awhile.

"Yeah?" Justin whispered.

"I know you’re not going to like this, but I need to check you. Make sure they didn’t hurt you too badly."

Justin looked up at him, uncomprehending for a moment until it dawned on him what the other man was talking about.

Sensing Justin’s discomfort, Jack spoke again. "You can trust me, Justin. I won’t hurt you."

Justin hesitated. After what he’d just been through, the last thing he wanted was for somebody to touch him. But as he looked into Jack’s eyes, so green like his friend Lance’s, he knew that he could trust him. Even in the dim lighting he could see the kindness in those eyes.

He let out a shaky breath and then nodded.

"You have to turn over," Jack said.

Justin bit back a groan as he painfully turned over onto his stomach. He let Jack take off his pants and then pull down his underwear; inhaling sharply as he felt the other man’s hands on his skin.

Jack pulled away after a moment. "You’re bleeding a little bit, but it’s nothing that needs stitches or anything." He helped Justin get his underwear back on and covered him gently with a blanket. He then sighed and stood up. "I’m going to get rid of this bucket and get you some water. I’ll be back in a few minutes, ok?"

Justin didn’t have the strength to reply. He listened to Jack’s retreating footsteps as they echoed through the mostly silent corridor, then he curled up in a fetal position and wrapped the blanket as tightly around himself as he could.

He wanted a hot shower, he wanted to turn back time so that he would never have to experience this, he wanted to go to sleep and never have to wake up again. Instead he settled for a sleep that he would have to wake up from, because that’s all that he had.

And as his eyes began to close, he finally allowed himself to cry.

Afraid New World, Part 4

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