The Silent Boy [Boy/Boy] (Some characters from I Ran Away to Vegas...) - 2012

Chapter 16: One Cut

The Silent Boy [Boy/Boy]: Chapter 16: One Cut

AJ's POV

               I followed my dad through the office building, blank faces staring me up and down. "Why are they all fucking staring at me?!" I grumbled. 

"Watch your mouth AJ, I swear I will slap you - at work or not." He warned in return. "They haven't seen you since you were eight." I only came here twice as a kid but I couldn't have made that big of an impression. 

"Hey Cam - spawn of Cam." Uncle Devin smiled as he walked up to us. He hadn't changed much since he was my age: his hair was still passed his ears and he never had his fangs removed like my dad had. 

"I'm not his spawn." I sent him a death glare that he ignored. 

"I apologize." He laughed and handed my dad a stack of manila folders. "We got a heap of new cases to file - here's your share." He looked at me again, "You can help him."  

"Hayes - Harper - Back to work!" Their boss bellowed and Dad flipped him off as soon as his back was turned. I smirked at his sudden action. 

Devin's hand came down on my shoulder and led me toward the back of the room, following my dad. "You oughta come by more often and help out your old man - I thought I saw some white hair on him the other day." Devin laughed. "What do you think?" 

"I think you're older than him." I stated back, not really in the joking mood. His smile faded and he left. 

"Do you have to have such a sorry ass attitude?" 

I slumped in the seat next to his desk. "Do you have to have such a 'sorry ass' job?" I mouthed off. 

His hand came down hard against my leg and I bit my lip to hold back a yelp. "Watch it."  

I rubbed the hot skin under my jeans and slunk deeper into the seat. "Why do I have to be here anyway?" 

"Because I wanted you to see what could happen to you." He pulled a folder off his desk. "Many of the people in these folders are abusers and abusees as result of alcohol or drugs. I want you to look at all these pictures because this is where you'll end up if you keep acting like you are - either this or you'll be dead." His last word rang in my ears, sounding so permanent and unavoidable. He pointed at a stack in one of the corners, "There's some of my older cases and there's one in there in there that I'm sure will grab your attention." He sat at his desk and got to work on some of the newer files. I slowly pulled a handful off the top of the stack and sat them in my lap, opening the top one.  

               The victim was a woman, her nose busted and bloodied. Her husband had been drunk and got a little too angry when he came home. He murdered their two daughters and strangled her until she pasted out - she died a few days later in the hospital. He wasn't eligible for parole for another sixty-eight years. The rest were a variation of the same thing - some of them were women as the abuser with men and children as the abusees then there was a file - as promised by my dad - that did catch my attention.  

               The pictures were gruesome and some were distorted. They showed various cuts, scars and bruises but that's not what caught my attention - they were all of Nate. His small face bruised and purple, his eyes and lips swollen to the point he couldn't even open them. His arm had been broken and a tip of the bone was protruding through the skin but that wasn't the worst picture. I pulled the last one out carefully, allowing it to slightly dance on my finger tips. It was of Nate's throat - slashed like a victim of Jeepers' Creepers. A wound like that wouldn't heal without a mark and slowly, it all started to make sense. He always wore long sleeved shirts and turtlenecks to hide all the damage that some asshole inflicted. I flipped through the papers and found he suffered all this at the hands of some low life named Jesse. Jesse - he was in love with his own abuser?! Is that where he was right now?! I tensed and attempted to relax. It was fairly a new case, only two years ago and I scribbled down Jesse's last known address. I shoved the paper in my pocket and folded everything back in the folder. 

               I stacked everything back in their rightful place. "You recognized him - didn't you?" I questioned, focusing my whole attention on my dad. 

"The first night you brought him over - no. It dawned on me when he was with you after the hospital stay." He dropped the folder and stared at me. "Don't you think that boys been through enough? The person that hurt him was intoxicated and had a mixture of illegal substances in his system. A person like that looses connection with everything and I don't want to see that happen to you or anyone else." 

I slowly shook my head but I wanted nothing more than to storm through his house and find Nate - pull him to safety before it happened again. "I understand dad - can I go home now? I really don't want to see anymore." I managed on the verge exploding - with tears or anger, I wasn't sure. 

"Yeah - I can take you home on my lunch break." 

I stood and shifted from foot to foot. "It's okay; I could really use the fresh air." He stared at me incredulously but shrugged and allowed me to leave anyway. 

               I ducked out of the office building and pulled my cell out, pulling up a new search window. I typed in the address and waited impatiently for the fastest route to load. Nate could be dead right now and here I was just standing here like an idiot waiting for a stupid window to load. "Shit - hurry up!" The small red line traced the layout of the streets, leading me directly to Jesse's old address. I followed it, ignoring the berating yells of those I accidentally hit in my haste. My destination wasn't far but it seemed to take me forever, as if my feet were made of lead that took me hours to move in inch. The closer I got the further it seemed. It wasn't until I was two blocks away that I started to recognize my surroundings. I stood at the same corner where I found my wrist band and those guys talking about Jesse cutting his throat...he took Nate's voice from that one cut but I won't let him take anything else.