Escape from Dolphin Street

by David Sharp

  Liev’s voice tuned in, “…tracks on the floor. You know what this means… time to play.”

  Hex’s voice was more mean spirited. “I so hope they are here.”

  Syd’s high pitched voice joined in. “This is going to be fierce.”

  Liev said, “That’s the spirit. You two can handle this. I am going up to see what Hound has sniffed out.”

  Jason backed away from the vent feeling as if he had been slapped. The bubbling in the background grew louder. The hanging plastic rustled as he backed into it. Jason turned and through the backlit plastic saw the beast named Hound in silhouette.

  “Oh my god,” Jason said before a sheet of dirty plastic came down over him forced by the large arms of Hound. Jason inhaled as it wrapped around him. Thoughts of suffocation filled his head and he fought back struggling as the hulking figure tied a rope around his midsection and slammed him hard on the wooden floor. The weight of Hound pinned him down. His arms were useless, bound to his side. Another rope was tied around his ankles and he could only kick like a fish. Jason tried to scream for help, but only sucked in a mouthful of plastic. If only I could get a hand free and clear my face. Thoughts raced through Jason’s mind. The newspaper clippings spread out before him.

  This is not happening. I am not going to be a forgotten story.

  Jason fought harder. Panic and fear reigned until dizziness overcame him. No. I can’t die like this. Please not like this. Jason’s eyes rolled back. He could feel his eyelids flutter, the lashes batted like trapped butterflies. His vision blurred even more than the already opaque plastic allowed. He started gasping, his body involuntarily twitched from the lack of oxygen. In his dulled sight, he saw Liev pull the divider back and stare.

  “Well, well, well… look what we have here.” Liev smiled, extracting a switchblade from his pocket with a sadistic gleam in his blue eyes.

  Jason’s eyes widened. The veins bulged around them as he fought consciousness trying not to black out. It was so hard, with spots forming in his vision, not to let go and let it happen.

  Casually, Liev walked over and sliced the plastic between Jason’s lips. Jason gasped as precious air was inhaled. The spots retreated and he greedily took in more, forcing his lungs to work. Hound flipped him over and his head lolled to the side still gasping. The room had expanded, since the dirty plastic that made up part of the dividing wall was down. Liev watched with fascination taking in the sight of Jason, wrapped in plastic and bound by rope. Underneath the layer, Jason’s pants and shirt were torn different ways revealing a little flesh here and there. Liev smiled again. Jason fought to turn his head to look Liev straight on.

  Liev leaned in closer and said, “I told you your ass was going to be mine.” He cocked his head ready for a reply. Not getting one, he stood and walked to the opening that led to the other side of the room. “Bring him in here, Hound.”

  Hound obeyed and drug Jason by his bound feet across the floor.

  Jason saw with horror what the bubbling sounds were coming from, a makeshift caustic lab of sorts. A lone worker toiled pouring a thick liquid from a vat onto a metal tray. The worker wore heavy rain gear, a red bandana covered his face, and earbuds cranked punk music that could be heard in a muffled way.

  Liev tapped the worker on the shoulder. “Adam, your boy is here.”

  Adam pulled off the bandana and left the caustic work of making meth for the moment. He looked from Liev, to Hound, and finally to Jason wrapped up on the floor. “Goddamn it Liev, I could have taken them home.”

  “You were never going to do that.” Liev laughed.

  Adam swallowed thinking things through. “I was,” he said more to Jason than to Liev.

  Hound dropped a semi-conscious Jason in the middle of the floor. The plastic crinkled as his body settled. Jason stirred under the dirty plastic, freeing more of his face as he craned his neck forward. This all has to be a dream. Adam wouldn’t do this to me. He left me the keys. Maybe, he will help me escape… if this is real. Jason’s vision faltered, the spots grew and made everything orange and black. The swirling grew in his mind. His body felt as if it were falling through fire. The plastic burned away dripping into the void. Jason fell and his tattered clothes rippled in the infernal breeze. Hands roughly tore at him and his head hit something hard and solid. A white light flashed and pain followed. He was naked and vulnerable. The rough hands came again greedily groping his flesh. The space was hot almost unbearable. Sweat poured and he tried to open his eyes without stinging them. His lids were a crack open when he saw Adam’s scruffy face.

  The familiar lips voiced, “Go home,” the words echoed off and the darkness vanished.

  Jason opened his eyes, surprised that he had blacked out. The ropes still bound him within the plastic. Fortunately, his face was free. He wriggled his limbs and found his wrists a little loose, but his legs were bound together like a fish tail with no way of separating them without. Only if I had Adam’s knife, then I could do something. The knife made me strong before and would do so again. The thought, once realized, felt like folly. Even if I had the knife, I probably couldn’t reach the rope. Jason focused on the room. He lay to the side of its center in a spot where the floor was water damaged and soft. Across he could see Hound, whose face was hidden by his long bangs, drying some powder on a glass baking dish. Liev scooped up a finger full and put it to his taut lips. Jason was nudged in the side twice. Adam appeared with a sigh as he wiped sweat from his brow. Jason caught his eyes and saw a look that should have had meaning to him. Is he trying to tell me something? Why would he do this? If I could just get free, I would fight. I did it before. Maybe, I don’t need a knife.

  “He should have never have been here,” Liev said licking his finger.

  “John was bad enough, now this.” Adam stole a look towards Jason.

  Liev followed his eyes and smiled. “It looks like he is coming to.”

  Jason stopped breathing shallowly and took some bigger choked breaths of the pungent still air. He thought of what to say and anger won out. “What the fuck are y’all doing to me?”

  Adam wordlessly kicked Jason in the ribs. Liev backed off to watch in amusement. Jason moved his arm close to where he had been kicked and felt the rope looser than before. Adam aimed another kick and Jason caught the strange look in his eyes again.

  “Adam, don’t do this,” Jason pleaded.

  “I gave you a chance. Hell, I even left your damn clothes in the car, but no. You couldn’t take a fucking hint.” Adam’s words did not match his eyes that seemed to be trying to say something else.

  “We’ll go now. I promise.” Jason tried to understand.

  Liev broke in, “You ain’t going nowhere.” He paused listening.

  Animal noises whispered through the vent.

  “I knew those bitches were downstairs.” Liev smirked and added a sound of his own, one of a sheep baaing.

  “Don’t you dare, touch them!” Jason tried to get up. Rustling in his wrap, he fell hitting his forehead on the floor.

  “The dolphins are for Hex and Syd, they like to play.” Liev took a step forward. “And so do I.”

  Adam kicked Jason forcing him back to the corner. Liev backed off again to watch in sadistic fascination.

  “Adam, come on. I will do anything you want.”

  “I suppose you will.”

  Jason had a realization and his eyes grew large as saucers. “John never left here. Did he?”

  Liev darkly laughed.

  Adam leaned down closer and said, “I guess I should tell you the rest.”

  Adam's Tale 3

  Adam returned to the flophouse through the front. Signs of the earlier struggle with John were apparent, a moved couch and knocked down furniture in the shadows. The candles had burned down lower, but were still giving off a faint glow. Adam walked though half-light into the next room. The back door was open to the night, the overgrown yard, and the crickets. Adam surveyed the scene, the acid still distorting his view of the wo
rld around him. He stared in fascination at the scuff marks and the light trail of crimson drops that led out the open door. Liev startled Adam with his sudden entrance from the dark outside.

  “Did you put the car away?”

  “Yeah, I put it in an abandoned lot a few blocks from here. I will drive it farther when I am not tripping so hard.”

  Liev toyed with his wallet chain and flexed the muscles in his arms. Roughly he reached out and grabbed Adam by the neck. “Are you sure it is safe?”

  “Yeah, what have you been doing?”

  CJ put up a fight… thought he was going to get away from us. “I had to wash up… I’ve never seen anyone bleed like that.”

  Adam tried to relax under the pressure of Liev’s strong grip. He was feeling too weird and unsettled to be so close. Especially, to be held by Liev after he had been fighting.

  “John is gone then, he left… or is he under the house?” Adam looked down as if he could see through the floor.

  “What do you think?” Liev shrugged.

  Adam tried to subtly move, but was stuck. He swallowed and said, “What about Syd and Hex?”

  “They’re trying out Hound’s new batch of trail mix,” Liev let go and brusquely rubbed Adam’s shoulders in control of him.

  “And if his friends come… here looking for him?”

  The grip tightened. “CJ doesn’t have any friends.”

  “But if they do, then what?”

  “Then they are going to wish they were… back, in suburbia. That is the way it has to be.” Liev pushed down with his hands.

  Adam continued to fill in the pieces by jumping ahead to the club parking lot.

  Visions 2

  Adam watched, the lights masking his eyes in moving shadows. A catcall came from a dumpster near the back of the grey club building dampening the mood.

  Liev stepped out from behind the dumpster. He was decked out in skinhead attire from the working class boots to the red braces (suspenders). Dominate in his posture, Liev nodded to Adam making his intent known.

  Wide-eyed, Adam said in a low voice, “I got to go and talk to him.”

  “Adam, don’t.” Jason warned.

  “I’ll be right back.” Adam broke contact and slowly walked over to Liev. He left Jason with a sideways glance.

  “I don’t like this.” Jason nervously rubbed his thumb and first two fingers together.

  Across the lot by the dumpster, Liev and Adam met up and were instantly having a heated debated. The street noise drowned everything else out.

  Liev angrily said, “I thought you were dropping them off.”

  “They won’t go. I gave them some tabs like you said. Look, we can leave the car here so they can get there stuff.”

  “What if they stay?”

  “Fuck, I don’t know. I tried.”

  “You are coming with me to work.”

  “I should tell them something.”

  “Fuck them.”

  “Let me at least tell Jason.”

  ”There is no time for that. Are you ready? We have to make this look real.”

  “But, Liev, he could be one of us.”

  “Are you ready?”

  “Okay. Don’t hit me too hard.”

  Abruptly, Liev slapped Adam, open handed, across the face. Adam saw Jason’s jaw drop. Liev then grabbed him by the scruff of the neck while wrenching his right arm behind his back.

  “I am going to get you for this.”

  “Shut up. You know you like it.”

  Adam struggled under Liev’s firm grip and watched as the punk made direct eye contact with Jason then allowed himself to be maneuvered into the darkness.

  X

  Jason remembered Liev’s cold blue eyes as they found his and the words he had said: Your ass is mine. The horror washed over Jason as Liev demonstrated the headlock he used earlier to pull Adam away into the darkness. Jason also remembered the look of strange pleading that Adam had given him at that moment. And how Adam’s lips had silently formed two words: Go home. Jason tried to understand if Adam was lying or not. It doesn’t make sense.

  Thunder rumbled from outside. Jason shifted his arm and found he could move his hand and touch his opposite wrist with some effort. His heart beat like a hummingbird’s, thumping hardcore in his chest. There has to be a way out. Jason felt he had to say something, opened his mouth, and said the wrong thing. “John is under the house?”

  “Yeah, he is. And soon you will be too.” Liev tucked a thumb into the seam of his tight jeans.

  “No! No! No!” Jason panicked.

  Adam stepped forward. “Hey, he could be of use to us.”

  “Oh, were you not planning on sharing?” Liev dared with his icy eyes.

  “No, I just thought….” Adam trailed off submissively.

  “You think what I tell you.” Liev was in control. “Hound, loosen him up a bit.”

  “Wait!” Jason tried his hands again. They came a little apart, but not enough.

  Hound stormed across the room going from silence to fury without a word. He manhandled Jason tossing him around like a rag doll.

  “Please…,” Jason said, then grunted in pain as he was slammed against the floor. He could feel Hound’s strong hands rip and tear at the plastic that bound him. Hard fingers grazed his skin making it feel raw. Jason’s own hands felt farther apart. He tried to use them to his advantage and failed. Hound was stronger and easily held him down with one large hand while the other reached under grabbing a hold of his waist. Jason looked into Hound’s dark eyes and saw nothing, no anger, no feeling, only a dark void. And that scared him more than anything. He is a monster.

  Hound’s stringy hair swung back and forth above him. His dark eyes did not seem to blink. The hair left wet streaks across Jason’s brow. Hound leaned in and licked him across the face from his chin up to his left eye.

  In pure repulsion, Jason said, “Stop it!” Before he could say anything else the rough hands turned him over face down. His rope tied arms were twisted back almost to the breaking point. The bind was not as tight as it was, so Jason dared not move his arms lest that change. To his relief, the rope around his ankles was unknotted and set aside. Hound slobbered over him panting heavily. Jason’s eyes grew wide in realization. A rough hand tried to push his legs apart while another clamped over his face. He saw Adam looking on with a face cracked from a mixture of feelings, and felt another pang of loss, believing Adam would not do anything but watch from Liev’s side.

  Liev was raptly watching too, the switchblade extending in one hand. “Hound, get off him. He’s mine.”

  Hound reluctantly obeyed.

  Jason gasped as Hound removed his large hand from his face. A shiver ran down his spine causing his legs to twitch.

  Liev boldly stepped up and ordered, “Why don’t you go downstairs and make sure no one is nosing around outside? As loud as we are, who knows?”

  Hound grunted, nodded in acquiescence, and slid back into the shadows. The fallen plastic wall fluttered in the draft from the open door.

  Jason wriggled on the floor. He felt dirty and confused. Adam was staring at him. Liev came into focus. The punk was attractive, despite his demeanor, and that was even more disturbing to Jason.

  “Now, we can have some fun.” Raising his shirt above his naval, Liev unbuttoned his skin tight jeans.

  “Please,” Jason said. “Let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

  “It’s too late for that. This is how I roll,” Liev said as his switchblade gleamed in the dim light.

  The shadow of the blade crossed over Jason’s face then Liev was behind him and he could feel the sharp metal touch the small of his back. Involuntarily, he moved away, shifting his hands slightly under the rope. Liev grabbed a hold of his jeans and sawed them. A cold draught of air touched Jason’s behind. Jason looked for a way out and saw Adam watching on in a daze. “Adam, please.”

  Adam eyes were almost sad as he said, “I’m sorry, Jason. It is what it is.”


  The sudden pain was sharp and Jason yelled, “No, get off me! He struggled, bucking like a wild horse, until his scream was cut off by a piece of plastic wrapped tautly over his face.

  “This one’s a fighter!” Liev reveled in the chaos.

  Jason could not breathe and panic set in. The spots appeared again and his body betrayed him. The initial roughness, the pain, had subsided into something else. Shame of his desire washed over him. Like Adam before, he was under Liev’s spell. Jason sucked in plastic. I have to breathe.

  Vision faded and came back. The room was hazy, but he could make out Adam approaching. He could see the outline of his leg and boot and imagined licking it. The blurry figure of Adam moved fast. Liev was off of him and the plastic loose. Jason was slammed with their feet as they fought above. He turned his head trying to free his mouth, when both of them hit the floor on top of him. Adam and Liev wrestled off of him, throwing wild punches at each other. Jason tried to get up, his arms farther apart behind his back, and was halfway there when Liev slammed him like a bull sending him crashing into the wall. Jason bounced off and hit the soft wood. The rotted floor gave way. Jason found himself in an air shaft while the fight continued rough and vicious. Jason’s vision faltered again and he blacked out, tasting the darkness.

  The Damned

  X

  Jason opened his eyes. The world in his vision was grated. The metal lines of the vent cover sliced his view. Water leaked on him from a hole in the roof somewhere above. The wet rivulets trickled into the shaft to flow next to his face and puddle in the duct around him. Jason took in a breath through the vent and could taste the damp air. Vision limited, he focused and saw his friends in a closet below.

  X

  Tanya put her hand over Kelly’s mouth silencing her disquieting murmurs. Deftly, she scooted Kelly back against the wall and shoved a piece of splintered wood under the folding doors. Tight in its center, she pressed harder to jam in her makeshift lock.

  X

  Jason shifted uncomfortably in the cramped space, hands tied behind his back, and he could not find his voice, though it would have done him little good. In the room next to him, he heard the fight between Adam and Liev continue. He tried to turn his head and could not see anything except the metal shaft of the air duct. The ruckus was loud and he imagined the worst, a long UFC styled fight with Adam getting the beat down.