Not My Brother's Keeper

Chapter 15: Never Again

            I woke up in a brightly lit white room to the realization that everything that had occurred wasn't a nightmare. It took me a few tries but I managed to sit up and that's when I noticed the small pool of blood that had collected underneath me. I touched my forehead and immediately felt a stinging pain. The kick to the head I received in the moving van must have caused a gash. After getting past my own selfish existence at the moment, I realized I wasn't the only person in the room.

"Stephon," I called out as I noticed him slumped over a few feet away from me. "Stephon!" I hurried over to him and shook him as I continued to call out his name.

His eyes opened and he coughed a few times before asking, "Cam, what are you doing here?"

"They brought me here just like they brought you here."

"They who?"

"Kappa Sigma Phi."

"What? The fraternity from school did this? Why would they kidnap us?"

"Stephon, they killed Tommy."

His eyes grew wide as he asked, "How do you know that?"

"The signs were right in front of me the whole time. All of it makes sense now. Tommy was digging into their dirt and they got him. He knew too much and they got him."

"I don't understand, Cam. Tommy never bothered anyone. What made them do him like that?"

"They're murderous homophobes, Stephon. I'll explain it all to you later but right now, we have to get out of here. There has to be a way out of this room."

"I've been here for a while, Cam. There is no way out but that door. They slide a tray in here with a sandwich and juice on it every now and then. Do you know what day it is?"

"It's the fifteenth. Last night was Valentine's Day night. Well, I think it's the next day. I'm not sure anymore. There are no windows in here."

"We're gonna die, aren't we?"

"No. Stephon, we are not going to die. Do you hear me? We are not going to die!"

"I wouldn't be so sure of that," said a man's voice through a speaker attached to the wall. The person laughed before continuing, "Cameron, this can all go one way or another. You could all leave here alive and well, but only if you cooperate. Are you willing to cooperate?"

"What do you want from me?" I asked.

"We're sending in our negotiator right now to tell you. Brace yourself."

The door unlocked on its own as if it was being controlled by the person speaking through the speaker on the wall. I backed up with Stephon against a wall as the door opened. After a brief moment of silence, Derrick walked in smiling from ear to ear.

"I knew it," I said as I managed to stand to my feet. "I knew you were working with them! Derrick, how could you?"

"I already told you, Cam," he said to me as he stepped further into the room. "Sometimes, it's all about the connections you make. Let's be honest here, I wasn't going to get a job after college without the help of the fraternity. When they approached me with an offer, I simply couldn't refuse. You wouldn't believe how many connections these pretty boys have in the real world."

Tears rolled down my face as I shouted, "Tommy was our friend! He loved you! He trusted you!"

"He put himself into this situation, Cam. All he had to do was leave it all alone and he couldn't. Hell, you couldn't. You just had to go and start it all back up."