Date: Mon, 6 Dec 2010 22:09:37 -0800 From: The Good Pen Subject: Survival (Chapter 1) Survival By Mark The Good Pen The following story is a work of fiction, the characters described in it are not meant to resemble any person living or dead. This is my story and my own words, if you want to post or make a profit on a story create your own. I value feedback especially when I am trying to get a new story off the ground. All feedback welcomed at thegoodpen@inbox.com just please put "Survival" in the subject of the e-mail. My Completed Work on Nifty: Sierra Inn (Gay Male Adult/Youth ) April 20, 2010 Wanting Perfection (Gay Male Adult/Youth) May 7, 2010 Survival Chapter 1 "Dude you can't do that!" my best friend Ryan, whined as he threw down his controller. "What did I do?" I asked him, innocently. "I just beat you is all." It was a late Saturday afternoon in early June. Per our weekly ritual I was at Ryan's house playing "Super Mario" on his Nintendo. We had just finished the sixth grade and I was looking forward to a summer of repeatedly beating him in various video games. "Tyler," Ryan's Mom suddenly called from behind us. "Your Mom just called she wants you to come home." "Okay," I said, as I slowly got off the floor where I had been sitting. "You comin' back on Monday?" Ryan asked me, as he also stood up. "Yeah," I said, quickly as we walked towards his front door. "Good, cause I have to get you back," Ryan said, a smirk crossing his face as he opened the door for me. "Yeah, keep dreaming," I said before leaving my friend's house. Had that day continued normally, it would have more than likely blended in with all of the other times I had gone over to Ryan's house. But the walk home that day changed my life forever. My name is Tyler Ward, and the day that I am talking about was June 6, 1998. I had just turned twelve the prior Sunday and after what would be described as a turbulent first ten years on this earth my life was finally on an upward swing. My life centered around school, little league and the magic box that was the N64. It was the stuff that life was supposed to be centered around at that age. If you saw me, you would think I was just another typical kid which is exactly what I wanted. I was maybe a little tall for my age at somewhere around five feet tall, about eighty five pounds with brown hair which I always wore short and blue eyes. Ryan Smith was my best friend. He had moved to Phoenix from Atlanta in the middle of the year when we were in first grade. The teacher sat him next to me, and by the end of his first day we were virtually best friends. It was that first day on the bus ride home that we realized he lived on the street behind mine. It took three years but when I was in fourth grade I was finally allowed to walk the distance between the houses myself. It wasn't until the end of fifth grade that I invited Ryan over to my house. I didn't want him to know what had gone on there, though he along with a large percentage of the city's population was about to find out. To walk from Ryan's house to mine I had to walk to the end of his block turn the corner walk a short distance down a side street then turn onto my street and walk half way down the block to where my house was. I could do all of this in no longer than ten minutes. Our neighborhood was quiet, and while you didn't necessarily know the person next door to you very well, you knew nobody was a trouble maker. It was a typical southwestern middle class neighborhood with cookie cutter houses, and desert landscaped front yards. On that particular day in June I was day dreaming about the Diamondbacks game my little league coach, Coach Larry had taken me to the week before. It was the first year Phoenix had major league baseball, and that game had been the first big league game I had ever attended. Even though the Diamondbacks had gotten trounced, I couldn't stop thinking about the game. The smells, the sounds, I was in love with all of it. I was walking down the side street that connected Ryan's block to mine when my day dream was interrupted by the sound of a car coming down the street from behind me. My dream was only interrupted for a minute, as I didn't really pay too much attention other than merely hearing the sound of the approaching engine. It was not until I did not see a car pass that I even turned to look in the direction of the sound. Before I could fully turn around I felt a hand wrap around my mouth and my feet being lifted off the ground. I remember a muffled scream coming out of my mouth. Surprise turned into fear as I saw the opened side door of a van getting closer and closer. *** In the summer of 1998, the year I turned 24, my life was finally back on track. I had moved to Phoenix from Los Angeles when I was 14. I was no longer able to stand life with my Dad, the thing I hadn't realized when he shipped me to Phoenix was that life with my uncle wouldn't be much better. I got caught up in stuff I didn't want to be a part of, things I knew were wrong. But my uncle would always tell me, "Jackson this is what we do, it's in your blood." I didn't believe him, I still don't, and I still get sick to my stomach when I remember some of the stuff I did when I was living with my uncle. It took until I was 23 to be able to look myself in the mirror and say "Jackson West you're not a bad person." It was that year when I joined a program that matched adults who had survived some type of abuse up with kids who had also survived abuse. I did it, for selfish reasons. I had to make up for what I had done, even though I was forced to do all of it. Little did I know, exactly how much I would be able to make up for. In the summer of 1997 I was matched up with an eleven year old boy named Tyler Ward. He was a shy kid that July day when I met him at the bowling alley. He thought it was the first time we ever met, I knew it wasn't, but I wasn't about to tell him that. We bowled and I talked, I wasn't sure if he was listening and by the end of the day I thought it was a total disaster. But time went on and he started to open up, and after six months I was actually looking at him like my little brother. Though maybe I didn't realize how much I really did care about him until June 6, 1998. I was sitting on the patio outside my one bedroom apartment, smoking a cigarette and staring at the blank sheet music on my lap. At the time I was a struggling music writer, though now I own my own record company. It was warm, but not hot for Phoenix in June and in the shade it was actually downright bearable outside. I had a can of beer between my feet, and had just finished sighing as I took in my own little piece of paradise when the phone rang. With a groan I stood up and went back into the apartment to answer it. "Hey," I said, into the phone. "Jackson, it's Sarah," I heard on the other end. Sarah Ward, she's Tyler's much older sister. I don't know which one was the "surprise" but Sarah was almost ten years older than Tyler, and thirteen years older than the family's youngest son, Kyle. Sarah didn't trust me around her little brother. She thought that anyone who chose to spend their free time around kids, had ulterior motives. I thought that an ironic observation for somebody who had gone into teaching. Anyway, with knowing that she didn't like me much I was quite surprised to hear her voice on the other end of the phone. "Sarah?" I asked surprised. "Is Tyler with you?" she asked. "No," I said, scratching the back of my head. "Why?" "Well my parents just called me," Sarah said. "They said he was supposed to be home from his friend's house almost an hour ago." "Well I haven't heard from him," I said. "Are you sure?" she asked, suspiciously. "Sarah, I'm telling the truth," I said. "I'm supposed to see Tyler on Wednesday, we're going to the movies, but I haven't heard from him since yesterday when we made those plans." "Shit," Sarah said, before hanging up the phone. I hung up, feeling a little worried. Tyler was not the type to just disappear, if he wasn't home when he was supposed to be something was wrong, and I knew it. Before I even had a chance to step away from the counter the phone rang again. "Jackson, baby what's happening?" a disgustingly familiar voice, sounded on the other end. "Neal?" I choked. "So you do remember me, you little fucker," he said. "How did you get my phone number?" I asked. "I have my ways," he said, with a chuckle. "So you following your Daddy's and Uncle's footsteps yet?" "No," I answered quickly, aware of exactly what he was asking. "I don't know why I should take your word for it," Neal said. "After all I have somebody right here that can tell me everything. And he dare not lie to me, not with the position he's in." "What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked, confused. "I'm finishing your Uncle's business," Neal said. "Him and Livingston never did know shit about what they were doing. The minute they got their cocks wet, their brains would shut off. This slut could have gone for so much more, five years ago. But I guess the offer I got will have to do." Neal Sherman, was one of my Uncle's best friends. Well at least he was at one time. But that changed when my Uncle got arrested in April of 1997. My Uncle tried to throw Neal under the bus, after all Neal had done as much as he had. But Neal was too slick and the police couldn't catch up with him. It was as though he could read the police's next move even before they knew what that move was going to be. To this day he is the subject of most of my nightmares. It took a minute for everything he was telling me to sink in, but when it finally did it was like a ton of bricks hitting me in the stomach. I lost my breath and almost dropped the phone to the floor. He had Tyler! "Sherman, I swear to God, if you do anything to him I'll fucking kill you," I yelled into the phone. "Oops, too late," Neal said. I could hear him chuckling before the click of the phone being hung up. *** "Well he wouldn't admit it," I heard the familiar voice say. The room was dark, everything had been dark since I was carried into that van. I had no clue where I was, or what was happening except for the fifteen minutes it took for the guy to rape me. I tried to kick my feet, but they were tied to the bed, I tired to scream for help but something was covering my mouth. The voice of the person who was apparently standing over me, was familiar. It was a voice from long ago but I knew it well. I shuddered when I heard him speak, the tone and slightly southern accented voice bringing back memories I had long since buried. "You thought you got away from me didn't you?" the voice asked, apparently talking to me. "You thought telling your coach was going to make everything okay? Yeah well you didn't know who you were dealing with. Now lucky, for me we get to make up for lost time!" the voice said, as I felt the mattress I was apparently laying on shift and warm breath that smelled of marijuana hit me in the face. My lips were pulled away from my face, as the duct tape that was used to cover them was pulled away. "Don't you even think about screaming," the voice said as I once again felt air on my lips. "Now tell me what you do with Jackson." I stayed silent, I was too afraid to talk. I didn't know what he wanted me to tell him. Jackson and I did a lot of stuff, though nothing even close to what had happened in that room only moments earlier. That's why I trusted Jackson, why I liked him. "I said tell me," the voice screamed in my face, after a moment of silence. "Tell me how he fucks you!" the voice yelled, as spittle hit me right on the nose. "He doesn't," I said, meekly as I began to cry again. *** The drive to the Wards' house normally took ten minutes from my apartment. That Saturday afternoon I made it in six minutes that felt like an eternity. I knew Neal, better than I wanted to. I knew if he had his way, Tyler was in a lot of trouble. When I got to the Ward's house there was already a police car parked on the street outside. I almost tripped over myself as I got out of my car. How I was going to explain my knowing who had Tyler, I had no idea. Al and Lisa Ward (Tyler's parents) knew nothing of my past. They did not know, that the same people who had hurt Tyler and his brother, had done the same thing to me. I did not want to tell them that I was related to the man that stole so much from their sons. But that day as I walked up to their front door I knew I had no choice. My embarrassment had to take a back seat, and I was going to have to deal with any wrath they might have for me. "Jackson!" Al Ward said in surprise as he answered the door, his face full of worry. "What are you doing here?" "I know what happened to Tyler," I said, quickly as though I was taking off a band aide. "Or at least I think I do." Al led me into his kitchen where his wife Lisa was sitting across the table from two police officers. I wondered how they had gotten police there so quickly, but Lisa quickly explained that they were friends with a detective from when my Uncle had been arrested. This detective had made sure officers responded, until she, herself could make it to the Ward's house. I sat down next to Lisa at the table and explained everything that I knew, and about the phone call I had gotten. I had tried to star sixty nine the number, but the incoming number had been blocked. The last time I had heard anything about him, Neal had been living in Las Vegas and working as a janitor in one of the casinos on the strip. But that had been in 1994, and I knew he had a tendency to move around. I was expecting Lisa to be angry with me, for having with held information about my past from her. But instead she gave me a hug. "I'm sorry," I told her and Al. "For not being up front about that." "You have nothing to be sorry for," she said, as she released me from her hug. "And you don't have any idea where this Sherman lives now?" the officer sitting directly across the table from me asked. "No I don't," I said, shaking my head. "He moves around so much, and the last time I heard from him was four years ago." "We'll put out an APB," the other officer said. Soon detectives started showing up at the house, I was questioned by two of them. I gave all of the information I could, and as the sun disappeared from the sky I felt totally useless. Al and Lisa grew more worried with every passing second. They knew, as well as I did, if we didn't get Tyler back soon there was a chance we wouldn't get him back at all. It must have been approaching ten o'clock that night and I was standing in the front yard of the Ward's house, smoking. The house had been turned into command central for the cops, but it was clear they had very little to work with. I didn't want to go home, just on the chance something would break over night, but I couldn't stay inside the house either. Al and Lisa were both a complete wreck, the police were running around like chicken's with their heads cut off just trying to figure out how to get a clue as to where Neal and Tyler might be. "What's this guy like?" a voice interrupted my thoughts as I inhaled deeply from my cigarette. I turned around and saw Sarah standing behind me. The street lamp near us allowed me to see her face. Her eyes were red, her black shoulder length hair was a mess. "Excuse me?" I asked, not sure what she was asking. "This guy you think has Tyler," Sarah said slowly. "What is he like?" "It's better if you don't know," I said, dropping the cigarette on the cement of the driveway and stepping on it. "Trust me." "I want to know," Sarah said. "I want to know what the odds are that we'll get Tyler back." "He's not going to kill him," I said, knowing that Neal wouldn't kill anybody. He'd make you wish for death, but he'd never let you have it. "If that's what you're asking." "So what is he going to do?" Sarah asked. "Sarah, I don't know, I can only guess," I said. "And trust me, you don't want to hear my guess." "You know he was finally happy again," Sarah said. "After all that Blair did, it was like Tyler was finally able to forget about some of it. And now this bastard comes along..." "Tyler's a tough kid," I said, reassuringly. "You just have to keep telling yourself that." "Yeah, I'll try," Sarah said, with a little sigh. I didn't know what else to say, so I kept my mouth shut. I had already given Sarah all the reassurance I could. And I knew Neal. He had been breaking laws for twenty years and never once had even come close to getting caught. He was some sort of criminal mastermind. And it would be very unlike him to just hand Tyler back to his family. Neal needed to play mind games with someone, that's just who he was. Silently Sarah and I made our way back into the chaos that was the Ward's living room. Kyle, Tyler's younger brother, was sitting on the couch watching everything that was going on around him. He must have been scared beyond belief. I couldn't imagine what all that was going on would look like to a nine year old but before I had a chance to say anything to him all hell broke loose when the phone rang. *** The tape that had been over my eyes all evening was finally taken away. I had no clue what time of day it was or how long I had been in that room. When the tape came off of my eyes there was no question left in my mind who that haunting voice belonged to. Neal, was the friend of my babysitter, Blair Livingston. Blair had moved to California from England in the early eighties. His first week in L.A he met Neal. I don't know when or how they discovered their mutual interests, but somewhere along the way they did. By the time I came a long Neal was living in Las Vegas, but would come down to Phoenix regularly. He always wanted to be rough, to inflict pain, and Blair would let him as long as there were no marks left behind. As much as I hated Blair for what he did to me, I never feared him much, Neal on the other hand always had scared the shit out of me. I lay on the bed, my hands tied to the headboard of the bed, my feet tied together at the ankles. I had been left alone for what seemed like a couple of hours, though I had no way to know for sure. Any windows in the room were covered by pieces of wood, so thick no light would come through. The only light came from the light fixture on the ceiling fan above the bed which was the only piece of furniture in the room. I was laying there staring up at the ceiling fan, crying. I wanted to go home, I wanted to get away from wherever I was. Suddenly the door to the room creaked open, I slowly lifted my head to see who was there. It was Neal, and he had a phone in his hand. He came over to me and ripped the duct tape from my mouth. "You want to talk to your parents?" he asked me. Too scared to speak I just nodded my head. He started dialing the phone, but didn't give the hand set to me. "Mr. Ward, I have someone here that wants to say hello," Neal said into the phone after a few seconds, and then put the phone up to my mouth. "Tyler?" I heard my Dad's voice on the other end. "Dad!" I said. "I'm...." "Sorry, times up," Neal said into the phone as he slapped a piece of duct tape back over my mouth. *** The conversation, if you could call it that, hadn't lasted two minutes. The entire time I was looking into Al's face, and in a New York minute, his face went from hopeful to disappointment. It was clear what little conversation had been had was over, but Al stood staring at the phone. Karen, the detective who had arrested my Uncle, gently took the phone from Al and helped him sit back down on a chair at the kitchen table. I stood off to the side, leaning against the kitchen counter, as Sarah and Lisa went over to Al, and he described the phone call. I knew what Neal was doing, he was playing games like he always had. Neal got off on mastering you, taking control of you from the inside out. The more minds he could play with at once, the better. That's how he had been when I was a kid, and I knew he was no different. Wanting to get away from the chaos in the kitchen as detectives frantically tried to trace where the call came from, I went back into the living room to find Kyle still sitting on the couch, he hadn't moved an inch. I quietly sat down next to him and gave him my best reassuring smile. "How's it going?" I asked, thinking that was a stupid question as soon as the words left my mouth. "Neal did this?" Kyle asked, his voice cracking slightly. "Yeah," I said. "You know him?" "Blair used to bring him here," Kyle said, as he looked down at his feet. "I didn't like him." "I know, he's not very likeable," I said. "Did he do it because Tyler told on Blair?" Kyle asked. "I don't know," I said with a shrug. "Is he gonna get me now?" Kyle asked, as his eyes seemed to search me. "Are you kidding?" I asked. "With all these cops here, he couldn't get you even if he tried," I said trying to be as reassuring as I could be. The honest truth was I didn't know if Neal was going to try something or not. Kyle hadn't told anybody anything, so if Neal was truly after revenge Kyle was safe. But if Neal was after something different, which I had the distinct feeling he was, it was very possible Kyle did have something to worry about. *** "Shit," a strange voice said from above me. "You weren't fucking joking." "Would I ever lie to you man?" Neal asked. "No it's like I told you, Caresky will pay the second we get him to Italy." "Well how the hell are we supposed to do that?" the voice asked. "Just trust me on that," Neal said. "But we have to do this first." The room was dark again, there was a piece of tape over my eyes, and another over my mouth. I didn't know what room I was in but I could tell I was on the floor as I felt the carpet against my back. "But you sure he wants us to do this?" the guy asked. "Damn it Lou! I told you five hundred times already!" Neal yelled angrily. "Caresky has a reputation to keep. And he wants people to know who his boys are!" "Well, couldn't he just get t-shirts?" the voice asked. "Lou if you don't do it I will," Neal said, angrily. "But if I do it, you lose your cut." The two men went silent for a minute, the only sound in the room was the buzzing of the air conditioner. Suddenly I felt a hand grab my shoulder and turn me onto my side. "So are you going to do it or not?" Neal asked. "Five hundred?" the voice asked. "In cash," Neal responded quickly. The next thing I knew I felt a burning sensation on my right bicep. The pain coursed through my body, I tried to scream out but the tape muffled any sound. "Was that so hard?" Neal asked. "He's crying," the voice said. "Man you're a piece of work," Neal said. "Come on, I'll get you a beer." I heard foot steps leaving the room leaving me behind hands and ankles bound together on the floor. My right arm where the burning had been started to throb as I began crying harder into the tape that covered my eyes. The way the two men were talking it didn't sound like I was going to be seeing home anytime soon. I had heard the name Caresky before, with my babysitter. I didn't know much about him other than he was rich and lived somewhere far away. And now Neal was talking about Italy. It was at that moment, I realized how bad of a situation I was in, and how important it was for me to try to find a way out, if there was one. Before I could think about anything for too much longer I heard footsteps come into the room and suddenly felt myself being lifted off the ground. *** At some point during the night I had fallen asleep on the Ward's couch. They had never invited me to stay, but they never kicked me out either. When I woke up about five o'clock in the morning there were even more police at the house turning it from a home into command central. I sat up on the couch and looked around at all of the police bustling about, trying to work on all the leads they had been getting. The kidnapping had made the news the night before, and it seemed as though everybody in town was trying to help. Al was sitting on the recliner not five feet to my left, staring at the blank television screen that was in front of both of us. I wanted to say something profound, something that would give him some type of comfort, but I couldn't even begin to imagine what he was going through at that moment. It had been twelve hours of absolute hell, and even with all the leads the police were getting, it seemed far from being over. "I keep thinking this isn't real," he said after noticing that I was awake. "I keep waiting to wake up, or for the movie to end." "I know what you mean," I said. "You know we rented that movie Ransom last year," Al said. "It scared the shit out of Tyler, but we told him things like that don't happen, or at least it won't happen to him. I feel like we broke our promise." "Al there's no way you could have known this was going to happen," I said, reassuringly. "I was mad at him," Al said. "For going to his little league coach about what was going on with Blair. I thought he should have talked to me or his Mom. I guess I was jealous. He knew I was mad at him too, and now I'll never get the chance to apologize for that." "Don't say that," I said, quickly. "We're going to get him back." Suddenly the home phone rang and everybody once again jumped. Al leapt to his feet and darted for the phone which was in the kitchen, I followed close behind. "Hello," he said into the receiver. *** "I did it," Lou said to Neal, as he came into the room. "That place is swarming with cops, I don't know how the fuck I went un-noticed." "All that matters is that you did it," Neal said, as he stood up from the bed. "I gotta give you credit man, you're growing a pair." "Yeah well the beer helped," Lou said. "So what now?" "I make a phone call," Neal said. I heard shuffling around the room, then the sound of a phone being dialed before I felt Neal sitting back down on the bed next to me, and the duct tape that had been covering my mouth being yanked off of my lips. I began to hope that I would be able to talk to my Dad or Mom again. I wanted to hear their voices, I needed that type of comfort. I hadn't slept all night, Neal wouldn't let me. Anytime I would start to doze off he would smack me across the face to wake me up. My entire body was starting to hurt, and it felt as though I had been sitting on a cactus for hours. "Mr. Ward?" Neal asked as I felt the bed shift again. "I have to tell you I am having fun with your son. If you want to know more I suggest you check your mailbox. Have a nice day." *** "He said to check the mailbox," Al said as he hung up the phone. "I'll do it," Karen, who had been sitting at the kitchen table next to Lisa, said. "You stay here," she added as she got up from the table. "Did you talk to him?" Lisa asked, Al. "No, he didn't put Tyler on this time," Al said, shaking his head. "You think he's..." Lisa started but stopped herself mid sentence. Before I really had a chance to think about what was going on, Karen came back into the room. In her hand was a large envelope which she had already opened. Once she got into the kitchen she reached in and pulled out a video tape. "Let me watch this first," she told Al and Lisa. "You may not want to..." "Whatever it is," Al said. "I want to see it. I need to know what's happening." "Are you sure?" Karen asked. "Yes," Al said, quickly. Maybe it was the feeling that something could break, that maybe there could be some type of clue in the video that I would be able to pick up on since I did know Neal some. Whatever the reason I felt compelled to see what was on the tape. So I followed, Karen, Al and Lisa into the living room where Al took the tape from Karen and put it in the V.C.R as he turned on the television. The tape started playing with just fuzz at first but it quickly came into focus and when it did my heart sank into my stomach. The screen showed Tyler sitting in a chair, his hands tied behind his back and duct tape pressed so tightly around his mouth the skin on his cheeks were bright red. After a minute of just showing Tyler, Neal appeared in the picture and kneeled next to the chair where Tyler was sitting. Just when I thought I couldn't take anymore Neal started to speak. "I am going to make one thing perfectly clear," Neal said, as he looked straight into the camera. "I am not demanding a ransom, I am not giving conditions for returning him. You should know who you are dealing with. The cops have been trying to catch me for the last twenty years, and haven't even gotten with in ten miles of me once. I know you've already gotten the police involved, but don't get your hopes up, that doesn't scare me. Blair made a business agreement, before he was ratted out. Now it is up to me to make sure that his end of the deal holds up, and that is what I am doing. So you should take this opportunity to say goodbye." Neal stood up and the camera focused on Tyler again for a minute before turning to fuzz. Lisa immediately got up from the couch and ran down the hall towards her bedroom. Al stayed on the couch just staring at the fuzz on the television set in shock. I actually wished I had known about the agreement Blair had made, that way maybe I could have helped the police find Tyler. But by the time Blair had been arrested, I was three years removed from having anything to do with him. Not knowing what else to do, and wanting to get away from the screaming police officers who were trying to figure out how the envelope had ended up in the mailbox without anybody seeing anything, I staggered outside and sat down on the curb. I put my face in my hands and began to cry. Tyler didn't deserve anything that was happening to him, not even close. He had such a good soul, even though it had been beaten and battered so many times. He had hopes and dreams that for him were actually obtainable. But at that moment it seemed like all of that was gone. He was destined to become the hollow shell I was, and there was nothing I could do to change any of it. *** "I want to go home," I whined, as Neal dragged me out of the bathroom. "Shut up!" he screamed at me. For the first time, since I had been pushed into the van I didn't have tape on either my mouth or eyes. My hands were still tied but my legs were free as Neal pushed and pulled me down the hall to another room, I didn't think I had been in yet. "Please stop!" I begged, as he pushed me into a room with no furniture in it. "I said shut up!" I heard him say, and suddenly everything went dark. To Be Continued... Comments welcomed: thegoodpen@inbox.com