With Love We Can Be Human By James
Disclaimer
This is a story which deals with sexual/romantic situations between teenaged males. Should you not be of the legal age to read such material, or if you're offended, then please find something else to read. I can be reached at jamesheady1985@gmail.com for those who would like to discuss anything related to the story. Finally, please remember to donate to Nifty, as it keeps these stories and related materials free to the public.
With Love We Can Be Human
Chapter 21
The vans pulled up to the building under the cover of darkness. No one within the center was supposed to know until they were on their knees, guns pressed to their heads and cuffs placed around their wrists. If some or all of them struggled, then they would be shot without hesitation. Michael and his group would show no mercy, just as the child haters showed no mercy for the kids trapped in the current hell scape from which they were being rescued.
Michael got out of the lead van, checked his side arm and let everyone else know that it was clear. After another check of the people inside, he focused on the woman who ran the place. He had heard many things about her, first how she was fired from two teaching jobs for sexually abusing at least two boys in her classes, then fired from a teaching aid job just recently for hitting a girl when she gave the wrong answer to the class. It was only within the last year that she had opened the Healing and Hope Center, and while most of the masses accepted it's ideas of tough love, Michael and his team saw it for the abuse and hate against kids that it really was.
Shortly after the center had opened, Michael had started seeing a boy named Karl for therapy after he had opened up to his father about being at the center. He had been sent there shortly after it had opened by his mother who was divorced from his father. She had sent him there to cure him of being gay, and did it behind his father's back. She told his father that he couldn't come and visit him for their weekend together, because Karl had been grounded for a month. He was at the center for at least two weeks, and when he returned home, he went to his father's house for that weekend coming up, and when he woke screaming from several nightmares that Friday night, his dad slept beside him the rest of the night, then the next day, he broke down and told his father everything. This was the point at which Michael and his team began investigating the center, and a few other survivors came forward.
Finally, after one survivor attempted to take her own life, Michael and his group put aside proper channels, and began the operation to rescue the kids still there, and destroy the center.
As Michael stepped up to the doors of the building, he made sure his team was in position. He pulled out of his belt a small device that would melt the inner-workings of the locks, then as he timed it, he knew that the security cameras were at that moment beginning to capture his image, but with another device, he jammed them, then after the lock was melted, he opened the doors. The woman stood up when she saw him inter, and she started to move from behind it.
"Move and I'll kill you where you stand," Michael said in tones that showed her that he meant it. "You're going to get down on the ground right now. You'll lay down on your stomach, keep your hands where I can see them, and keep your legs spread. You even breathe wrong, I'll empty this whole fucking gun in to you. I'm not just talking about you having a brain full of lead, I'll start from your legs, to your thighs, to your stomach, chest and everywhere else. Do you fucking understand me."
"Yes," she said.
She was trying to keep her tough exterior, but Michael could see that she was afraid. Once by her side, Michael grabbed her wrists, twisted them behind her back, and slid the flex cuffs in place much tighter than they needed to be, but he wasn't worried. This child-abusing Bitch was nothing to him.
"They're too tight," she said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, do they hurt?" he asked as he got the keys to begin extracting the kids.
"What do you think!" she yelled.
Michael grabbed her by the hair, yanked her head back and around to face him.
"Scream like that again," he began. "And I'll fucking gut you here and now. I'll make sure the knife is heated first. You hearing me Bitch?"
"Yeah," she said beginning to shake.
"Now Bitch," he went on. "I'm keeping the cuffs on you, and I'm going to take you with me. We're going through all of this fucking torture center, and you're going to tell me where every single kid in this place is. If not, I'll break every one of your fucking fingers, one for each time you fucking lie to me. Is that fucking understood!"
"Y'''Y'''Y'''Yeah," she said close to tears.
As they went through the first hallway, all of the guards stepped in front of them blocking their way. Michael unloaded on them with his automatic blasting every one of them. The lone survivor raised his pistil, and Michael fired wounding him in the shoulder. The man fell, and faster than lightning, Michael was on him.
"I heard you guys coming," he said. "I was outside, and recognized your van from wen it was involved in other operations that were on the news in the past. I let all the other guards know."
"We'll have to start using different vans that aren't so recognizable," Michael said. "Where are the kids. We already had equipment in here to check without you guys knowing already, so don't fucking lie to me."
"They're in their rooms," he said. "The more troubled ones are in the basement in the control rooms."
"What are those?" Michael asked as he struggled to control himself from beating this man to a pulp. He was disgusted by the man's tone, as if he was talking about the location of tools in a hardware store.
"It's a set of rooms where we keep them caged until they decide to do what we tell them," he went on. "We also limit their food and water intake."
"So you starve them," Michael said stepping closer to him.
"No," the man corrected as if talking to a small child. "We just limit their food intake so they can see that actions have consequences."
Michael was on him then, smashing his fists in to the man's face, slamming them in to his nose, mouth, and then kneeing him over and over again in the balls. After several kicks to his sides which broke his ribs, Michael turned as Martha tried to make a run for it.
"Back with me Bitch!" Michael screamed, and tackled her to the ground. "I knew you'd try something like this!"
"You have no right to,,,!" she began to yell.
"No!" Michael said as he turned her to face him, and smashed his fist in to her jaw. "You have no fucking right! You have no fucking right to declare war on the young, feed on them, make money on them and destroy them all in the name of your fucked up ideas! Don't you fucking talk to me about what right I do or don't have!"
Grabbing her, Michael dragged her all through the center and as they made it through the first hall of rooms, his team was there with him by this time, and they helped with the extraction. Many of the kids awoke terrified, and it took many minutes for Michael and his team to help them to calm down enough to follow his instructions.
They went all through the four floors of the building, then they got to the basement. They finished walking until they got to the rooms Martha had been talking about, and Michael saw the cages.
"Oh my god," he whispered.
Four cages stood across the room across from Michael, and within them lay something resembling a human body. Three of them were on their backs looking up at the ceiling with almost dead eyes, and the fourth was what would haunt Michael's dreams for years to come.
In the fourth cage was a body that looked like little more than a skeleton with paper in place of skin. It lay half on its side and Michael on first glance thought its eyes were gone, but he made himself look again. Its eyes were so sunken in that he could hardly see them. It let out a moan so thin and soft that Michael had to strain his ears to hear it.
"My god what the fuck have you people done!" he said turning to Martha.
"This is the price they pay for'''," she was cut off as Robin came up to her.
"Shut up Bitch!" he said with the softest and most lethal sounding voice Michael had ever heard him use yet. "Don't fucking talk to me or anyone else in my team about paying the price."
Damion, Patrick and David opened up the three cages, and as they extracted the bodies, they laid them out on the ground. Dr. Smith who was there for assistance checked all three of them. He took a long time, then stood up.
"I truly am sorry Michael," he said. "They're gone. I can't even get a vein. Get the fourth one out, and I'll do everything I can to save them."
Michael opened the fourth cage, and it was only when he saw the name tag around the wrist that was just barely clinging on that he found out who they were. The name tag read Torey Jacobson.
"How long has he been here?" he asked as he turned back to Martha.
"We brought him down here two weeks ago," she responded. "He wasn't listening to us!"
"Not listening to you?" Michael asked. "Good, I'm glad.!"
He turned back to the opening of the cage, and as Robin shined his light more on Torey's body, Michael saw the full horror of what was before him. Torey's hair had since fallen out, the bones of his face were pressed against his skin, and open sores were over most of his face. A thin dusting of hair covered all of his body that was exposed.
"Signs of starvation," Dr. Smith said noting the findings.
As Michael continued looking down at him, Torey made a small movement, and just barely lifted his head. He was trying to focus on who was before him, and Michael saw the struggle to move. Torey tried to speak, but all that came out was that soft barely audible moan again.
"We're going to get you out of here," Michael said as he bent down to pick Torey up.
"No, let me check him first," Dr. Smith said. "I'll need to see if I can even start an IV."
By some miracle, Smith found a vein, started the IV, and began letting fluids flow at full volume in to Torey's body. He didn't allow himself to have hope, but focused on the task at hand. Only after he saw that Torey responded to treatment would he allow himself to hope that everything would be alright.
Torey and the three kids who hadn't made it were the last ones to be evacuated from the center, and as everyone began clearing out, Michael stayed behind and looked down at the three kids who were gone.
"I don't know what your families were thinking," he began close to tears. "You would have been loved and wanted by us. I'm so sorry we came too late. Where ever you guys are at now, I hope it's safe and kind."
Once free of the building, Martha was taken to jail, and as Michael watched the car pull away, he walked back to his van, and saw Robin running towards him.
"We can't find Steve and Greg," Robin said as he stopped and stood there looking at Michael. "They're supposed to be here, or at least that's what the schedule says. They're here at all times unless they're transporting kids here."
"Damn it," Michael said. "You guys did good, but they must have gotten notice of our plans."
"I'll keep looking," Robin said.
"Don't worry about those Bastards right now," Michael said. "We need to get the kids back to the center, and the ones who need medical care, we need to get in to the clinic immediately. Also get Gina Ericson from the Department of Family Services on the line. She's about the only decent one in that organization who will make sure those kids have a chance at having a safe place to stay until we can either get things straightened out with their families, or find placements for the ones who might not be taken back by their families. First of all though, they're not going back to their families, at least not yet anyway."
"I understand," Robin said.
Days passed and Michael sat by Torey's bedside as he continued in his coma. The doctors explained that his brain shut down in hopes that his body could recover, and things seemed to be improving. Michael talked to him while he sat there with him, as well as read to him, and would also sit there while music played softly in the background.
Finally after over a month in a coma, Torey awoke slowly. He worked to get his strength back over the coming weeks, and began eating after the I.V. fluids were slowly decreased. Michael was amazed at the recovery he was making, at least physically. He knew that the emotional side would take longer, and would go on probably for the rest of Torey's life, but things could get better in that regard at some point though.
0000
Brandon
I sat on my bed with Torey beside me and my arm around him as he finished telling me the rest of his story, the parts I hadn't heard yet. I hugged him after he finished talking, and then just held him for a few minutes.
"I don't like the part about how Steve and Greg were never found," I said ending the embrace so I could look at him. "Who's to say that they won't start up their own center for so-called troubled teens? They sound like the types who would do just that at some point."
"It wouldn't surprise me," Torey responded. "I've thought about that. I haven't worried too much about them, I haven't really been able to think much about that, but I probably should. They could be anywhere at this point. I know they didn't like me. I mean, they had no love for the kids in their care, if you can even call it that. That being said though, I know they truly hated me. I haven't tried to figure out why, but I know what hate looks like. I wouldn't be surprised if they try to come after me at some point. You know, to finish what they started."
He seemed to consider this as a real possibility for the very first time, and took my hand holding it tightly for a moment.
He let go, then we hugged and I just held him. We sat like that for a long time just listening to the rain pounding down and the wind blowing harder than usual as the storm raged outside. It was late September by this time, and it was a dark and rainy Saturday. Torey and I awoke that morning, and he was tired from having woken up a couple of times the night before from nightmares. I helped him through it, and my parents had checked on us the first time he woke screaming. The second time was just me there with him, as I had let them know that he'd be alright if it happened again since I'd be there. When he woke up that morning, he was exhausted, and we decided after getting a shower that we would just stay at the house for the day rather than going anywhere. I sent out a mass text to all of our friends letting them know what was going on, but that they could still come over at any point as well as call any time. They wished us well, and once I put my phone down, Torey sat down next to me on the bed and said he wanted to talk about the nightmares he had. After he told me about them, and that they were about him being back at the center, he told me about the rest of his time there, the starvation cages, the rescue and his road back to physical recovery and his struggles that he faced virtually every day to recover emotionally, and psychologically.
After separating from our long embrace, we lay down beside one another, and I took him in my arms. We were just in our t-shirts and boxers and I had the covers over both of us.
"I love you so much Torey," I said as he settled in to my embrace. "You're safe with me, and I'll protect you."
"I love you too Brandon," he replied. "More than anything. I'll protect you as well, and I trust you. I know you'll keep me safe, and that's part of what makes me love you so much."
"I feel the same way," I said kissing him tenderly on his lips before he rested his head on my chest as he spread out almost on top of me as I lay half-way on my side with him in my arms.
0000
Todor
I sat with Misho in the restaurant on that dark rainy Saturday finishing my food. He had gotten a Special of the Day which was three tacos and a many burrito, and though called "Many", it was still of a good size. I got an assortment of tacos, and some chips and salsa. We were at a small Mexican restaurant for lunch and it was our third time being back there since we discovered the place back in July. We had plans at some point to bring the rest of our friends there sometime, and I was looking forward to that, so was Misho.
I was interrupted in my thoughts when I felt Misho flick me on my ear.
"Yes?" I replied with a note and a faked annoyed look on my face. "You paged me."
He laughed, then leaned in for a kiss, then his face turned serious.
"I'm not sure if I'm imagining things, but a few minutes ago while we were waiting to be seated, there was a van that pulled up. I haven't seen anyone get out of it, but it's still there," he said. "It's a black van. I don't know why it's still there, and it's weird that no one has gotten out of it yet."
I looked to my right out the window beside me and saw that there was in fact a black van sitting directly in front of the restaurant and I turned back to Misho.
"Worried that they might be government agents coming after you?" I said smirking.
He laughed, but there wasn't much humor in it.
"It really is starting to worry me," he went on.
"It is kind of odd that they're just sitting there parked like that," I agreed.
After we paid our bill, we walked outside and I looked at the van from the side. I stood across from it facing the driver's side. I went to turn around until the window went down.
"Something you need?" the driver said looking at me. He looked right at me as if sizing me up, as well as if memorizing every detail of my face. He looked at Misho in the same way, and Misho moved closer to me.
"My friend can't speak," Misho said. "No, we didn't need anything, we just noticed that you guys had been sitting there for a long time. We wanted to make sure everything is okay."
"Aww," the driver said mockingly. The two little Brothers Karamazov are worried, and want to help us."
"What?" Misho asked more confused than angry. We both knew we were being made fun of, and I didn't know if Misho got the reference, and how it was Racist, but I picked up on it quickly. This prick was making fun of our appearances, and mistook us for Russian.
"We're from Bulgaria," I wrote and held the note so he could see it.
"Sorry you can't speak," the driver said. "You'll be just one more draining society of money and resources when you turn 18, that is if you're not already. Fucking sick of undesirables like you fucking things up for the rest of us normal people."
I turned to start walking away.
"Hey!" he called out. "Tell Torey Jacobson we said hi, and that we miss him! It's too bad that he got away from us so quickly, and so soon!"
Author's Notes
I figured it's time to do a Cliff Hanger. LOL. Seriously though, I did say in the last chapter's author's notes that things would start picking up, and becoming rather dark for the boys. So it's started. I'm sure you guys will just be extremely anxious to see what happens in the next chapter, so you'll have that to look forward to next weekend when I post it.
In other news, this story will go on through the rest of January, and will finish up sometime in February. I have a new story that I'll be working on. The idea has been in my mind for a long time, and so it's time to start on it at some point. I was in the process of concluding this story at some point though, but wanted to have several chapters of the boys spending some time together. I kind of feel like I added more characters in to this story and took longer with doing that than in my other stories, so wanted to get the character adding finished and move on to furthering the plot. All that being said though, I'll give a summary of the new story as this one gets closer to the end.
I hope everyone has a good rest of their weekend, and a good evening. I'll see everyone in Chapter 22.