Chapter 1

Abigail Williams or Abby as she was known to everyone was the queen of high school. She was the captain of the Volleyball, Basketball, and softball teams. She was a straight-A student and was on the student council. Every guy wanted to date her and every girl wanted to be her and once in a while, she would go on dates, usually with jocks from the football team. Her parents were very wealthy lawyers and spoiled her constantly. She was about 5 foot 10 inches tall and was solid muscle from all of her sports. Her ass was tight enough to bounce a quarter off of and she had large C-cup breasts. Completing the look was flawless skin with a light tan and no tan lines, long golden blond hair, sapphire blue eyes, and long toned legs.

Today marked the start of her senior year in high school and she was so happy. She looked forward to getting out of high school and going to college and finally being on her own. None of her parent’s annoying rules and new guys to check out. She wasn’t sure what she would study yet, but not law. She was thinking of metallurgy because she found the chemistry behind it fascinating and there was always a demand for the profession. So high and mighty that she, like everyone else failed to notice the new kid.

Bryan Thompson was pissed, to say the least. His parents had moved again and so he had to start over again. They moved because they were on the run from the law. Bryan knew this but he kept his mouth shut because he didn’t want to end up a foster kid. At least living with his parents, he had a roof over his head; however, that was about it. He was forced to do all the cooking and it was expected to have food ready and on the table every evening when his parents got home, even though they never ate it. If he didn’t then he was beaten. He had been beaten so many times that he didn’t even feel the beatings anymore. If his parents were called by the school for any reason, he was beaten. If he asked his parents to pick up anything for him at the store, he got a lecture about them not having any money and he was beaten. They didn’t have any money but they would always eat fast food or at fancy restaurants, they always had top-of-the-line clothes, and new cars every year. As he entered his senior year, he stood at 5 foot 10 and weighed one hundred and seventy pounds. He had acme. He had been cursed with bright red hair which attracted attention where ever he went. He kept his long so that he could pull it back in a ponytail. He did this to save money by not going to a barber. Once it got long enough, he would cut it himself with a pair of kitchen shears. His green eyes were glazed over so bad that they looked like old man eyes. The kind of eyes that you only would see in old folks who had experienced unspeakable pain throughout their lives, or the kind of eyes that you would see in pictures of soldiers who had been fighting without hope and had seen all their friends die. Bryan didn’t look forward to anything. For his life was hell and since he figured that he was going to hell anyway he didn’t even look forward to death.

Now he was in a new school with a new group of idiots. He just had to get through one more year and then he would expose his parents and hopefully find out who he was. He knew that his name had been changed several times and he hoped to at least find out who he was. This new school was really big on its sports and that didn’t bode well for Bryan. A school big on sports meant idiotic jocks with no brains and even fewer morals. This meant that he would probably be beaten daily but so was life. He got his schedule and went to class. Of course, he was teased about his hair, his clothes, his face but like the regular beating; he didn’t feel pain of any kind anymore. The fourth period came around and it was a government class. The teacher liked to force the shy kids to participate in class so he had a seating chart. This way he could move the shy kids up front where they couldn’t hide. When Bryan’s name was called for roll, he answered with a monotone “here”. The teacher moved him up front right away for he pegged Bryan as a shy kid. This was the first time that Abby seen Bryan and she was struck by his hair and shy nature.

All through class, the teacher would call on Bryan and when he did answer, the answers were right but very short. Finally, the class was over and Bryan was held over for the teacher wasn’t happy with Bryan’s unwillingness to participate. As usual, Bryan only gave the bare essential in answers. Thoroughly frustrated the teacher let him go so that he could get to his next class.

The rest of the week was more of the same. The teacher would try to get Bryan to open up, but Bryan only became even more withdrawn. From the back of the class, Abby watched with interest. This guy piqued her interest, for she was quite devious and she figured that he would be an easy mark. On Friday, she introduced herself to Bryan. Going in, she figured that Bryan would be rendered speechless by her beauty; just like every other socially awkward boy she had ever dealt with and she would be able to toy with him. When she was in front of him, he looked right into her eyes and it was her that was rendered speechless. There was no life in Bryan’s eyes and they were completely glazed over. He just looked at her and stepped around her to continue on his way. Abby’s current boyfriend had been watching for he loved picking on weaker boys as well.

“What happened Abbs? I’ve never seen you speechless before.” When she looked at him, she looked like she had seen a ghost.

“That guy’s eyes. They were dead Sean. I mean completely dead and glazed.”

“Well, I’ll get the pipsqueak to look alive.” And Sean went off to find Bryan with Abby trailing.

It wasn’t had to find him for his hair was like a neon sign.

“Hey there, Bryan!” And Sean threw Bryan against the lockers. Bryan was knocked down by the assault but he didn’t flinch, he just got back up and continued on his way.

“Hey” This time Sean pinned Bryan against the lockers “You need to apologize to my girlfriend for you scared her with your zombie routine.” Bryan’s face showed no reaction at all and even Sean was shaken a bit by his eyes. Eventually, Sean had to put Bryan down when a teacher came up but he swore that he would break Bryan.

From that day on, Bryan would be beaten by Sean or someone else on the football team every day and as always Bryan never said a thing or even reacted. As Sean’s beating of Bryan increased, Abby began to feel something strange, she began to pity him, something that she had never felt before. It took her almost a month to figure it out. She was starting to have feelings for the guy that never spoke and never fought back. By Thanksgiving, she had enough of her jock boyfriend beating Bryan and she dumped Sean. Of course, by this time, she had noticed that Bryan was extremely intelligent when you could force him to speak. This helped her decide to dump Sean for he was dimmer than a burnt-out light bulb. The break-up was very messy and the whole school took sides. Everyone that is but Bryan for he didn’t give a fuck. As far as he was concerned, it served that ape, Sean, right. Sean, of course, blamed Bryan for him losing his girlfriend; so, Sean planned on giving Bryan a special beating.

The Monday after Thanksgiving, Sean met Bryan at the main entrance.

“You cost me my girlfriend you bastard and now you are going to pay!” With that, Sean started throwing punches and kicks at Bryan. This time Abby intervened or tried to. When she tried, Sean landed a punch on her that had sent her sliding across the floor and left her with a sore ass and a rapidly developing shiner. Sean was so pumped with adrenaline that he didn’t even notice that it was Abby until after he hit her the first time. When he did notice, he moved to pummel her. This would be her punishment for leaving him. As he was raising his hand to smack her across her face, an iron fist grabbed his wrist.

“Leave her out of this” the person connected to the fist growled. Sean spun around and found himself face-to-face with Bryan. Bryan’s eyes were now bright, clear, and full of flame; but they still had the look of death to them. Only now it was dealing it out, not taking it.

“Oh, the red-headed sissy does have feelings after all!” Sean said with a coarse laugh. He drew back to punch again, but this time when he went to punch Bryan, Bryan reacted. He knocked Sean’s punch out of the way and drove the heal of his hand into Sean’s nose, shattering it. Sean was knocked back and when he saw his blood on his hand, he was furious. He charged at Bryan. Bryan just stepped out of the way and as Sean went past, he gave Sean a bit of a push. This propelled Sean head first into the lockers. Sean wasn’t knocked out, but his bell was rung for he had hit the lockers hard enough to dent them badly. He staggered upright and turned to face Bryan. Behind Bryan, he could see Abby hiding. This was the last straw and Sean pulled his knife causing everyone to scream and move back. Everyone but Bryan. He stood his ground, his face showing no emotion, and his muscles were loose. This time Sean didn’t charge, for he was intending on walking right up to Bryan and stab him in the stomach. He would then move to deal with that bitch, Abby. He was going to make sure that by the time he was done with her, that nobody would ever want to go out with her ever again. Sean walked right up to Bryan and as he was pulling back to stab Bryan; felt a sudden, sharp pain and found that he couldn’t breathe. Sean started gasping for breath, he found that he couldn’t speak, he dropped his knife, and his hands went to his throat. Bryan had delivered an extremely powerful and fast punch that hit Sean right in the larynx, crushing it. As Sean collapsed, Bryan just collected his books and continued on his way. Abby caught up with him.

“Bryan, thank you.” Bryan’s eyes had glazed back over already. He just glanced at her and continued on his way without saying a word. Sean would spend months in the hospital and he would never again be able to speak correctly. After he got out of the hospital, he was sent to prison for assault and attempted murder. There he was raped daily. Now Abby’s campaign to get Bryan to open up to her went into high gear but time and again, she failed. No matter how hard she would flirt with him, he just ignored her. She didn’t get angry though. She had grown to see this as a challenge and one that she was determined to win at all cost. If only she knew what it would eventually cost her. She spent the time until Christmas observing him and taking notes. She had asked her friends who had him in some of their classes to do the same for her. They didn’t agree with her, but they did anyway for she was extremely popular and very charismatic. If she was going to crack this guy then she would need intel on him. Just before Christmas break, she finally found out where he lived and she was shocked. It was a very nice home with very nice cars in the drive. His parents wore nice clothes and were friendly with everyone, but Bryan never had nice clothes and he walked everywhere he went. Abby would spend her Christmas vacation doing research online, bouncing ideas off her dad, and coming up with a game plan.

Abby had always been very close with her dad for he was supportive of her and rarely set hard limits on her as her mom did. His theory was that if she got in trouble with the law then she would have to take the consequences. He was the one who knew that Abby was sexually active and had secretly got her on birth control for her mom would have flipped her lid if she knew that her baby was on birth control never mind her having sex.

It tended to get very cold in this area after Christmas and this year was no exception. This was critical to Abby’s plans. On their first day back to school, she drove by where Bryan lived and sure enough, he was walking to school with a coat that was far too thin for the conditions. Abby was deeply concerned for his safety for the conditions were bad enough that frostbite would be a very real possibility and she knew that he had almost a half an hour walk ahead of him.

She pulled over and rolled down her window:

“Hey Bryan, can I give you a lift to school?” When he looked at her, she swore that she was looking at a dead person for he looked much worse than he did before Christmas. Without thinking about it, she jumped out of her car and ran around to Bryan. He of course tried to sidestep her, but she wasn’t having it. By forcing him to step the right way and very smooth-talking, she managed to get him into her car. All through the ride, she tried to get him to talk but he never said a word, but when they finally got to school, he just sat there.

“You want to know, don’t you?” he asked suddenly.

“Yes, I do. I want to know why you never fight back, why your eyes are so glazed over, and most importantly why you defended me again my ex. Please, Bryan.”

“For your sanity, I’m telling you right now, you don’t want to know about me for you would be terrible nightmares for the rest of your life and they would probably drive you to suicide.”

“Damn it, Bryan! Yes, I want to know. I want to know all about you!”

“Why?”

“Why? Because you fascinate me. I have never met anyone like you before.”

“Oh, so I’m just another experiment for you.”

“No! You just fascinate me and I want to help you. That’s all.”

“Don’t. I’m beyond your help or anyone’s help for that matter. Just please leave me alone.”

Abby stopped talking to him. She was stunned after all what could Bryan be hiding. Another reason she stopped was that they would be starting swimming that afternoon and she knew that she was irresistible in a bathing suit and to turn up the heat, even more, she had a new one-piece that clung to her and highlighted every curve. Bryan was the last to come out of the locker room, when everyone in the class seen him, they gasped. A couple of the girls fainted for Bryan was covered in multiple layers of scars, bruises, and burns. A number of them were very fresh, maybe only a couple of days old. The scarring was so bad that Abby couldn’t even tell if he had any muscle tone. As he came closer, she could feel tears streaming down her face. Now she just had to know and if he was in trouble, she would do anything in her power to get him out of it. Bryan of course never even acknowledged her.

That day after school, Abby confronted Bryan about his injuries:

“Bryan? She asked almost crying.

“You want to know, don’t you?” she nodded.

“Trust me when I say that you don’t want to know. I say this not to avoid telling you but to protect you.”

“Damn it, Bryan! I don’t want to be protected! I want to help you!” He gave her a sad smile.

“You know that you’re the first person that’s said that they want to help me.” Abby was crying so hard that she could barely believe him.

“What?”

“Yep, you’re the first person who pretended to care about me. Now I need to get going for I can’t be late getting home.”

“Bryan, I do care about you. At least let me take you home. Please?”

“NO”

“I’m not going to let you leave for you will freeze to death out there.”

“So, what if I die? Nobody would miss me or even know that I’m gone.”

With that Abby started crying again:

“Bryan, I’ll miss you! I’ll know that you’re gone!”

“That’s sweet of you, but we both know that’s not true.”

Now Abby had enough. She grabbed Bryan and steered him to her car and more or less shoved him into the passenger seat. The ride back to Bryan’s house was silent with the only words that Bryan said were the directions. When they got to his house, Abby begged to come in with him.

“No. It’s that I don’t want you to come in, it’s that I don’t want my parents to catch you for it would not be good for either of us. Please just trust me.”

“Can I just come in for a minute, please?” She batted her eyes at him.

“I really shouldn’t but you can come in for a minute as long as you move your car down the street some. This way if they do come home early, they won’t see your car.”

Abby was confused but she did as he asked. He waited for her to get back and he opened the door. Inside, Abby was stunned for the house was beautiful. There was expensive artwork on the walls and beautiful hardwood floors. Bryan stepped around her and told her to follow him. He led her up the stairs. Upstairs the look of the house changed. Everything was extremely spartan and cheap. He finally opened a door and stepped in. Abby followed him and she was amazed for everything in his room was second or third hand and very cheap. He didn’t even have a bed; he slept on some covers on the floor.

“What???”

“My parents don’t believe in spending any money on me.”

Abby rushed up to Bryan and hugged him tightly. She had no problems now seeing why he didn’t want to be around anyone. Bryan was amazed at how good Abby smelled and how soft and smooth her skin was. He slowly put his arms around her and returned her hug. They stayed embraced for a while. Neither of them knew how long they hugged each other. Suddenly Bryan heard the front door open and Abby was amazed by the look of sheer terror that went through his eyes.

“Get in the closet NOW!” he hissed. “And no matter what happens, don’t make a sound. If they discover you here, it WILL be the end of your life as you know it. Don’t argue please I’m begging you, just believe me and do exactly what I tell you. Stay in there until I come to get you.”

“What? Wait?” Abby was thoroughly confused.

“Shut up, get in the closet, don’t make a sound, under absolutely no circumstances come out until I tell you. What is so hard?!?!?”

When Abby heard his parents yell, she became terrified and did as Bryan had begged her. From her spot, she could hear Bryan’s parents ream him out for not having dinner on the table and for there being dirt on the floor. She could have sworn that she heard the sound of a whip against flesh. She had to bite her tongue to keep from gasping when she realized that Bryan was being brutally whipped and that she was the cause of it. She then swore that she would never return to this house.

Slowly the hours ticked by until the sun set. Abby started to get worried for she had figured that Bryan wouldn’t have been gone this long. For the last couple of hours, she had to sit there and listen to his parents yell at him for everything. Finally, the closet door creaked open and Bryan came into sight. Abby launched herself up and wrapped her arms around him with fresh tears flowing down her cheeks.

“What all happened out there?”

“Same shit, different evening.” Replied Bryan

“I feel so bad for if I wasn’t here then you could have had dinner on the table and they wouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“Oh, you poor, misinformed, little girl. If they hadn’t yelled at me for that, it would have been something else. Now come on. I have to get you out of here before they find you.”

“One of my best friend’s parents are both cops and I’m going to talk to them about you.”

“NO!!! don’t do that!!”

“But??”

“No butts Abby. If they get arrested now then I end up in state care where if I wait a little while until I turn 18 then I am legally an adult and I can get a job and live on my own after they are arrested.” Seeing the look on her face “please, if you care about me at all then you will not tell anyone what you have seen or heard here tonight and let me complete my plan.”

“Ok, but if you need anything just let me know.”

“Thanks, but if my parents catch me with anything that they didn’t buy, all hell will break loose.”

“Still”

She was amazed when Bryan gave her a warm smile. Slowly she felt a hand softly running along her jaw and her body automatically reacted. She leaned forward as she felt his fingers going through her hair and when their lips met, she could have sworn that her heart skipped a couple of beats and she instantly got butterflies in her stomach. Never before had she ever had this kind of reaction to kissing a guy and this confused her for Bryan was far from her ideal guy, but then again. She was finding that he was extremely brave, absolutely selfless, extremely intelligent, and very wise.

“Ok sweetheart, you have to get going. My parents are going to be in here in a little bit to beat me for something else.”

“But how?”

Bryan went and opened his window. When she looked out, she didn’t see anything and she gave Bryan a questioning look. Bryan smiled as he moved a loose piece of drywall to reveal a coiled-up rope. He grabbed one end and threw the rest out the window and over a nearby tree limb. He had tied a heavy weight to the end of the rope, so the rope swung around the limb and returned to him. He then untied the weight and fed the rope down to the ground while holding onto the part that circled over the tree limb.

“Here take this and hang on. I’m going to push you out the window and you’ll swing out to where you are under the limb. From there you can slide down the rope until you’re on the ground. Let me know when you’re down so that I can get the rope back up and put it away before they show up. Once you’re on the ground run back to your car but stay out of the light and watch your step for they are plenty out there for you to trip on.”

Bryan didn’t give her a chance to argue, for he thrust the rope into her hands and pushed her out the window. As he had told her, she slid down the rope and whispered up when she was down.

He had just got the rope put away and closed his window when his parents burst into his room for it was time for his nightly beating. Abby stayed in the shadow of the tree for a few minutes and watched and listened. Finally, she couldn’t take anymore and she took off. Twice she tripped and fell on the way out, but she eventually got to her car and left. When she got home, she was so sick that she spent a couple of hours just throwing up and dry heaving. ‘How could anyone treat a kid like that?’ ‘Why did Bryan put up with this for he could get his parents arrested at any time?’ ‘What was he planning anyway?’ Her mom had heard her throwing up and had come in to see if she was ok. Abby flat out lied and told her mom that something she ate at the food court wasn’t agreeing with her and that she would be ok as soon as she got it out. That night was extremely rough on her for she had constant nightmares about what she saw and heard. Images of Bryan being beaten filled her mind and all she heard was the sound of the whip against his skin. She also had a couple where she was caught by his parents and while they were vivid nightmares, they were nowhere near as bad as her life would have been if she had been caught.

For the next week, Abby would pick Bryan up before school and drop him off afterward. After that first day, she didn’t dare go into that house and she made sure that she drove him straight home. She was determined not to make the same mistake twice. During that week she also noticed a gradual shift in Bryan. Slowly he was becoming more open with her. The strange thing was that the more open Bryan came with her, the more closed off she was with her friends. It was almost like he was drawing her into his world instead of her drawing him out.

Then one Monday in late January, everything came to a head. Abby was on her way to pick up Bryan when she was stopped by a police officer. He was stopping everyone that was going toward Bryan’s house. She explained to him that she was picking him up for school and that she had been his ride since after Christmas.

“Then you had better come with me for the detective has a couple of questions for you. Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble.” He said after seeing the concerned look on Abby’s face. The cop took Abby to meet with the detective.

“So, Abby, did you know what all was going on in that house?”

“No, I do know that Bryan was beaten constantly and he didn’t want to tell anyone. He even begged me to keep quiet. Where is he by the way?” The detective smiled at her obvious concern for Bryan.

“Don’t worry for he is currently being checked out in that ambulance over there. Right now, I won’t tell you all the horror that went on in that house, but I will say that even after thirty years of seeing the worst of humanity; I have never seen anything like it.”

“Will Bryan be, ok?”

“He will need to see a shrink for a while, but he is extremely strong mentally for it was him that tipped us off. Oh, one last thing for you Abby, this is more of a theory than anything else. He might have been waiting until he turned eighteen before he came forward. That way he would stay out of the system.”

“Thank you, detective, and yes I know. He told me.”

Abby could see Bryan’s parents in the back of a patrol car and they were not happy. After everything that she had heard and seen, she hoped that they would rot in prison. She went over to the ambulance that the detective had pointed to and knocked on the door. The door was swung open to reveal Bryan and Abby started to climb into the ambulance. One of the paramedics tried to stop her, but Bryan put his iron hand on the paramedic’s shoulder saying:

“She is my girlfriend and I want her in here with me. After all, if anything happens to me, I want her to get everything that I own.”

Abby was both warmed and stunned by his statement. Warmed for he finally referred to her as his girlfriend and was stunned that he would want to leave everything he owned to her. After all, what all could he own. She would be stunned once she realized just what Bryan had meant but that would come later. Abby was allowed to board and they shared their sweetest kiss yet. This time it was Bryan that was trying to suck Abby into his mouth and this surprised her for usually it was the other way around. When they finished, Bryan asked the paramedic to step outside just for a minute. He had something that he wanted to tell his girlfriend in private. The medic was hesitant but with the hell that Bryan had been through, the medic told them that they had one minute.

“Thank you so much” Bryan called out.

“Abby, I called the cops because my parents saw you picking me up in the mornings and they wanted you. They were going to use me as bait this morning to kidnap you. They would have then raped you repeatably with me being forced to watch. Once they had got tired of you; you would have been sold on a worldwide sex slave market. With your looks, you would have probably ended up in Africa or the Middle East for that is where most Americans that are sold into the sex trade end up. I called the FBI late Friday night and sent them enough evidence on my parents for them to get a warrant. Let me put it this way; they are going to be in prison for the rest of their fucking lives and with everything they have done to children, it wouldn’t surprise me to hear they are killed in prison. I hope they are before these “justice reform” fuckheads get them out of prison.”

“Oh Bryan, Thank you.” She gently leaned down to hug him. “One question through, are you going to tell me what all they did to you?”

“NO, NEVER! Believe me, Abby, when I say that it will be far better for you not to know what all happened to me.”

“But...”

“No, you are not anywhere near strong enough to handle the truth. Hell, I lived through it and I can barely handle it. I trust you completely so just please don’t pry. Please? I’m begging you, don’t pry into what happened in my past life.”

Before Abby could respond the medic came back in so Abby settled down where she could hold Bryan’s hand. Finally, Bryan was allowed to leave the back of the ambulance, but only after he refused transport to the hospital.

“I need to get to school for now I have a reason to live again.”, turning to the detective.

“Detective, can I go in and get a couple of changes of clothes, and then can someone take me to a cheap motel within walking distance of the school please.”

The detective thought for a second:

“Ya, come on, let’s get you some of your clothes.” Then Abby butted in.

“And don’t worry about taking him to a motel for he is coming home with me.”

“But...” Bryan started, but Abby cut him off.

“But ... nothing Bryan. I can be just as stubborn as you and you are coming to live at my house and not in a crappy motel!”

Bryan’s face became as red as his hair and the detective next to him had to stifle a snicker, even as he gently elbowed Bryan. This only deepened Bryan’s embarrassment. Bryan then went into his old house and packed all his possessions in a duffel bag while under the detective’s watchful eye. Bryan had asked for this, along with the detective documenting everything Bryan packed, just in case his parents tried to use that in some way to get out of prison. Bryan was paranoid but the detective didn’t blame him one bit.

Finally, everything was done and it was almost ten in the morning. Abby had called her parents and told them that the police were at Bryan’s house and that she had been asked to give a statement and the Bryan was going to be living with her. Her mom wasn’t happy about this, but she knew just how stubborn Abby was and just how much Abby cared about Bryan.

Since it was after ten in the morning already, Abby and Bryan decided to skip school for it had been a very long night for Bryan and he was extremely tired. When Abby got them back to her house, Bryan slowly looked everything over, not missing anything.