Chapter 15

I woke up in a cell, head throbbing. Someone was nice enough to let me have the metal bench. The vibrations from the floor, bars and everything else transmitted nicely — if I hadn't been hung over, I'd have still had the headache from hell.

"McElroy?" a voice called and I realized that's what woke me in the first place.

"Fuck off." I muttered and even that was too loud.

I heard the rattle of keys against metal bars and swore under my breath. "Come on. Let's go." I opened my eyes as a fairly large police officer pulled me up and nearly dragged me out of the cell. I wasn't trying to resist him, I just wasn't functional enough to help. He escorted me to a room and pushed me into a chair. He spoke to someone else and they replied and then the door slamming shut echoed in my skull. I swore again and tried to remember what I was drinking the night before so I could add not drinking it as a Rule. Rule #1 no wives. Rule #2 no running no jumping no swimming. Rule #3 no talking in the mask. I had a feeling my rule list was out of sequence, but reciting the rules always helped wake me up so I was trying.

"Alex!" my name was accompanied by the sound of something loud hitting the table I was leaning on.

A woman's voice. "Bitch, I donno who the fuck you are but you do that again an' we gonna have more-n words up in here." I growled.

"Threatening your attorney is not a good way to start your court appearance."

I wasn't focusing well but the words 'attorney' and 'court appearance' cut through a lot of fog. I looked at her directly; she looked vaguely familiar but since both of my lawyers are uncles of mine over 40, I suspected that this 20-something blonde chick wasn't one of them. "You uh whole lot prettier-n my lawyer."

"Compliments after the fact are nicer," She said, "But still not useful. Ok, let's see..." She took a breath and started sorting paper. She started telling me information I was sure was useful but I was damned if I could follow a word of it.

"Hold, hold, hold." She stopped and looked at me. "Who are you?"

"Christy Silversmith. I work for the Cardinals? I'm your attorney? Really, we have met before." She almost smiled. "You hit on me then, too."

It sounded reasonable but I had no memory of it. "OK. Ima just guess I got trashed last night an' did somethin' stupid. Any way I can get some coffee an' aspirin 'fore we get inta how stupid?"

Her lips quirked for a moment. Then she got up and asked the officer outside for the coffee. She had aspirin in her purse. I swallowed the pills dry and drank the coffee without tasting it. "Jesus God have mercy. OK. What I do?"

"Well according to the witnesses, you escorted a minor to a bar and plied her and yourself with mass quantities of alcohol. You then proceeded to drive to a nearby motel, imbibe more alcohol and, if her testimony is to be believed, had — I'm quoting — 'massive, crazy sex' until the two of you made enough noise that the motel manager called the police."

"A minor? Oh fuck!" I banged my head on the table and regretted it. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck..."

"Since it's your first offence and she has quite the record, I think I can get you off with probation and community service. If you can stop doing that." She held my head, preventing me from banging it again. "Do you have any memory of any of this?"

I tried to think. "Chick with a Cardinal carved into her hair?"

"That would be her."

"Her? She's uh minor?"

"Eighteen." My expression must have asked the question. "It's not the sex you were arrested for. It was disturbing the peace and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Drinking age is twenty-one."

"So I can bang her but she can't have uh beer?" My head still hurt so I figured I must have skipped a detail.

"I don't make the laws, I just follow them." She started rustling paper again and I struggled to follow what was going to happen at the arraignment. It seemed to boil down to shut up and look penitent. I could do that.

Twenty minutes later, we were in a car on the way to the courthouse. She let me use her phone to call Uncle Julius; they talked for a while and I caught a few more details of the case. Apparently, the prosecutor wanted to add DUI but they had no witnesses. Just me and my car — first sighted at the bar then at the motel. Uncle Julius gave me a few words of wisdom before he wished me luck and hung up.

Things were still a bit hazy in the courtroom. The pit bull of a prosecutor acted like the girl was eight not eighteen and wanted me locked up for life. Christy managed to keep things more or less reasonable. Not a felony. First-time offence. No history of alcohol or drug problems.

The judge, however, was a dick. "30 days, county lock-up." The gavel landed. It was the loudest single sound I had ever heard in life.

I never even got a word out.

"This isn't over, Alex." Christy told me in a hurried whisper as two officers pulled me from the room. "You will not be in for 30 days. Just hold on, ok? OK?"

What the fuck, I thought. I thought it during transport and check in. While they marched me and some other guys into a cell block. Into a very small concrete room with a steel toilet and three big guys. What the fuck.

None of them spoke. I still couldn't think of anything after 'what the fuck'.

Finally, I just leaned against the bars and wished like hell I didn't deserve to be exactly where I was. Peter couldn't save me. Ame couldn't save me. It had just taken God a little while to catch up with my evil, sick, perverted, twisted ass.

"So that's it?" someone behind me said. "You come in my house and don't speak."

Ah, I thought, that must be my jailhouse girlfriend.

I felt it inside. That part of me that I had managed to keep quiet for the last year. The submissive masochist. That part of me was ecstatic. Locked in a jail cell, nowhere to run. I was going to get raped. I was going to get beaten. I was going to be humiliated in ways I hadn't thought of yet. And they had thirty days to break me.

I looked at the three men around me. Two Black and one Hispanic. I looked back out of the cell. They won't even need thirty minutes.

"Hey! He's talkin' ta you."

I looked at the guys again. Inside, I was shaking. Scared and excited at once. You sick fuck, I thought about myself, you sick twisted fuck. "So am I s'posed ta fight o' just bend ova and let the three uh you fuck me?"

I was not expecting my head to hit the bars.

Leroy, I found out later, was the biggest and often was used to break in 'new guys'. Or celebrities. He punched me a few times just to make sure that I had no intention of resisting him, then taught me how to toss a salad. I nearly cried. He was abusive and dominant in the worst possible way. I would have crawled on my knees for thirty days if he told me to. As it was, he was satisfied banging my ass, spraying his jizz on my face and letting Bubba and Paco — or whatever their names were — do the same. I think the guards walked by twice. When my new boyfriends were done, they told me which bunk was mine and left me on the floor.

If they noticed that I came twice, they never let on.

I think I fell asleep. When I woke up, the whole scene was repeated. First they pounded me with their fists for a few minutes, then they pounded me with their dicks.

Then, the guards let us out for breakfast.

Immediately after, I had a visitor.

I was taken to a room. My legal team was assembled. Christy brought backup.

The first thing I heard as I opened the door was "Jesus God" and "Lord o' mercy." Uncle Charles and Uncle Julius both were coming around the table to me. I didn't want to cry but I couldn't stop the tears at that point. They held me for a minute. Or ten. Then Uncle Julius pulled back, cleared his throat and suggested that we get started.

"How you holdin' up, son?" He asked. "I see they have already attempted to indoctrinate you into the local culture."

"Yeah, my, uh, new roommates." I said quietly.

"We need to move him out the general population." Julius said. It was not a suggestion.

They all started talking fast, Christy, Julius, Charles and two other guys I didn't recognize. I didn't need to be there at all. Slowly, my body began sinking from the adrenalin roller coaster I had been on the previous twenty-four hours. I began ache in places I hadn't ached in years. And the spots on my ribs and abdomen where I got punched were likely bruising. "No offence, but do ya'll need me here?" They ignored me.

Eventually, one of them started asking me questions about my case and my treatment so far. When I tried to crack a joke just to lighten the mood, Uncle Charles snapped. "Ain't no joke, now, boy, yes or no'll do jus' fine."

Life long habit on that side of the family. Peter does it too. When any of the three of them are away from home, they hide the accent. The more stress they're under, the more it creeps in. My Uncles had likely arrived in Christy's office sounding practically Northern. Charles was somewhere south of Richmond just then.

"Were you assaulted?" Some one asked.

I snorted, caught Charles' dark look and stopped. "Yeah. Last night an' uh-gain this mornin'. My cell mates."

"Were you —" the guy hesitated, "- sexually assaulted?"

I opened my mouth and froze. Is it sexual assault when you would have begged for it? They certainly meant to assault me. I'm supposed to be the victim. But, really, part of me wants to go back to my cell now. Maybe they're the victims — I'm the one who took pleasure from the whole thing.

Julius looked up when it became apparent that I wasn't going to answer the question. Julius knew a lot about just how much abuse I could take. He was the only other person who saw the damage I took the first time I got spanked. He was the one who arranged for me to see a therapist. Who said I was ok — if a bit twisted. Who I never believed about the 'OK' part. Julius looked me in the eye and nodded. "The boy chooses not to answer that inquiry at the present time. Hold it ova for a medical exam to determine."

"Yeah, but..."

"I said hold it ova. We not here ta squeeze money out the State. Just get that ruling ova-turned and get the boy outta here. We clear?"

The attorney shook his head and went back to his laptop.

They all continued to read and type. "Can I ask what ya'll doin'?" I figured the guards wouldn't let me stay there all day — even with my legal team.

"Getting the ruling overturned." Christy said without looking up. "I'm in e-conference now with the DA and the Judge. Terry is appealing the bond decision. Rob's ... Rob what the hell are you doing?"

"Hold up." Rob typed for a minute. "Ha-ha! Got it!"

"What?" Everyone looked up.

"He's not being held in GP. He's in the Pit. Those cells have security cams. I've been back and forth with the Department and the PRB to either move him or release the tapes to show he's been receiving safe and humane treatment. The PRB say they don't have an open unit short of solitary so the Department just ordered them to release the tape. Yeah; it's downloading now."

My cell was video taped. My rape was video taped. I suddenly was rock hard and squirmed in my seat. I had to cover my mouth to keep from moaning aloud. You sick, twisted, perverted, fucked-up little shit. No one gets off on shit like this. No one sane, least.

Rob opened the video and they all crowded over his shoulder to watch it. He must have fast forwarded because it was only a few seconds before Christy gasped, then looked sick, then covered her mouth and turned away. I wanted to see the tape. Desperately. But not here. I wanted to watch it some place dark. Preferably in handcuffs.

But Charles and Julius looked mad. Furious. And I thought about how I'd feel watching anyone else in the family on that tape. I'd want to beat the shit out of whomever did to them what was done to me. Suddenly, I was very glad that these were my Uncles and not my Parents. As it was, the mood in the room went a few shades darker. Julius and Christy had a whispered conversation in the corner then she told Rob to forward the download. She grabbed her laptop and she and Julius left the room. A few minutes later, the guards came in and took me away.

I stopped at the door. "Uncle Charles? My Dad. Does he..."

"He an' yo Mom at yo' place. We ain't want 'em here 'til we got you out. Peter an' Gwen be in by supper."

I felt a lump in my throat. I couldn't speak. I just nodded and let the guards lead me out. They took me to the infirmary. I stayed mostly silent, giving just one word answers and following the nurse's instructions. I did not want my Mother to see that tape. Dad, not really but ok. Peter, yeah. Peter would know how much I needed that. But not Mom. She wouldn't understand. She'd just see her 'baby boy' being violated.

Ame would understand. Ame would post stills on the bedroom wall. Ame would just be upset that she wasn't there to watch it. Ame's just as sick, just as twisted, just as fucked up as I am. She just looked better.

The exam was thorough. Samples were taken. I was handcuff to a bed in the infirmary and told — gently — to get some rest.

I lay there for roughly an hour. Then the guards came back and took me to a private bathroom with a door and I shower. They handed me my street clothes.

"I got time ta shower?" I asked. They shrugged. I took it as a no, did what I needed to do and got dressed. They didn't re-apply the handcuffs as they escorted me to the next un-named location but even just being properly dressed, I felt more normal. The masochist was being pushed back into his box and the sane human being who realized that what happened was wrong began to emerge.