by Drew Sera
“I’m not losing you, Anth. I’m sorry I tried keeping you from seeing the stuff on the phone from Paul. I know you love her, too. We’re going to be okay and we’ll get her back. I love you too, Anth.”
Anthony actually hugged Colin back and told him that he was sorry he left that night. Colin held onto Anthony in a hug while Anthony let his forehead rest on Colin’s shoulder as he looked downward. Anthony’s hands grabbed onto Colin’s shirt, pulling it down in the back. The gesture showed how crappy Anthony was feeling. I think they were both damn near a breaking point and were just strong enough to hold the other one up.
“Come on, sit down. You look exhausted and should eat something.” Colin jumped back into the role of caring for others and headed back towards the table. When Colin let go of Anthony, Blake quickly stood next to him and helped steady him. I knew dizziness was common with concussions, and only rest would help him recover. Unfortunately, I didn’t think he was getting much rest.
My dad and Blake exchanged greetings, and Gina brought over two plates. Anthony shook his head slowly, but Blake took the plate from Gina and guided Anthony towards the food. I definitely needed a private conversation with Blake tonight. My dad was getting drinks for them while I watched Anthony’s gingerly movements and Blake’s gentle and cautious demeanor. Anthony’s eyes were distant, and he clearly wasn’t himself. Something was very, very wrong. Each time Blake got close to him, Anthony would take a few steps to the side. He was clearly trying to avoid being close to anyone but Colin.
Colin’s state had vastly improved in just the few minutes Anthony had been here, but something was very off with Anthony. He didn’t want to eat anything, and he kept his hands jammed in his pockets as if he was afraid to touch anything or for anyone to see his hands. Blake set the plates down and put his hand on Anthony’s shoulders while looking him over, and Anthony grew restless and shrugged Blake’s hands off him. Blake didn’t force, it but he did tug Anthony’s collar up around his neck higher. He then put his hand over his forehead as if checking for a fever, but Anthony moved out from under his hand. Blake asked Anthony something so quietly that I couldn’t hear over the conversations at the table. But Anthony shook his head slowly to answer Blake’s question, and then Blake began rubbing on Anthony’s upper arms. Maybe he was cold. He was still wearing his jacket.
“Anth, you cold, man?” I asked him hoping he’d say more than one or two words, but all I got was him nodding his head as a response.
I nodded and continued watching them. The fact that something was wrong and I didn’t know what it was, wasn’t sitting well with me.
“You have to try to eat something. Just take a few wings. You’re going to pass out.”
I stepped in to offer assistance to Blake. I stood on the other side of the island where all the food was spread out and studied Anthony. Something was going on with him, and it wasn’t good. I picked up the plate and held it while Blake put some food on it for Anthony.
“Anth, do you want anything else?” I asked him.
I was hoping he would have looked up at me, but it didn’t happen. He did answer me though and said it was enough food on his plate. Anthony took the plate that had wings and some veggies on it and walked slowly over to the table. I watched him lean against the counter as he walked. He was walking as though each step he took was causing him pain. I glanced at my dad, and I knew he noticed, too.
“Anth, here,” Colin called over to Anthony, showing him the empty spot next to him.
Colin’s dependence on Anthony was evident. Anthony brought him strength and calmed him. The positive impact Anthony had on Colin, in such a short amount of time, was obvious to everyone. Anthony however, still looked like hell. My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out.
“What is it Matt?” Colin panicked.
“It’s nothing. It’s the hospital. Nothing to worry about.” I waved over to them as I read the incoming text from Blake.
BE: Don’t give him a rough time because he is a thread away from a total breakdown. And don’t take it personal...I can’t get close to him either. He can’t handle much tonight and needs to rest.
I understood. Blake knows that Anthony and I love exchanging sarcastic jabs, but even I know when it’s not a good time. I wouldn’t dare push him now. I deleted the text and put my phone back in my pocket, taking my seat at the table between my mom and Gina. Blake was still getting some food and then took the spot next to Anthony. Colin was at least eating, whereas Anthony was just pushing food around on his plate. I did see him eating a few carrot sticks.
Sitting diagonally from Anthony gave me a good vantage point to look him over. I could definitely see the leftover concussion he wore on his face. He squinted a lot when he turned to focus on whoever was talking, or he just stared blankly at nothing. He kept his right hand off the table completely and only ate with his left hand. Not that he was really eating. I almost opened my mouth when I noticed the beginning of bruising on his neck, but had enough sense to keep quiet for now. Handprints possibly? What the fuck? Blake told me he had a Pro Dom beat on him some, but hand marks around the neck seemed a bit extreme. His ear was bright red and looked cut. I had to push the urge down to start asking the questions that were on the tip of my tongue.
“Anth, Chris came by today,” Colin said to Anthony.
Anthony nodded slowly and began to talk, but his voice was scratchy. He reached for the water and took a few sips; I could see how his hand shook. The glass started to slip when he tried to set it down, and he brought the other hand up to try to catch it. I was more interested in the right hand than watching the glass go down. His knuckles on his right hand were bruised and cut.
“Dammit!” Anthony quickly stood to contain the water spill, but his hands went straight to his head as he began to sway. His eyes were tightly shut, and Blake caught him by the arm and shirt before he stumbled over.
Blake pulled Anthony against him and held him still. Anthony’s hands were plastered to his head while the right side of his body was against Blake’s chest. Even now, Anthony mumbled that he was okay and tried sidestepping out from Blake’s hands.
“Relax, Anthony. Keep still until it passes,” Blake spoke quietly to him while he rubbed on Anthony’s left arm.
All eyes were on Anthony, and I knew that Colin was going to start asking questions. Hell, I was going to start asking questions and I already had a huge list. Colin stood behind Anthony and pressed his hand on his shoulder.
“Anth, what’s wrong?” Colin asked him, but when he didn’t get a response he looked over at me and then to Blake. “What’s wrong with him?”
Blake and I had been keeping a lot of Anthony’s situation quiet over the past couple of days, because Colin honestly couldn’t handle all of this stress. In the twenty minutes that Anthony had been here, I began to notice how much I was in the dark about what happened. Gina and my dad got the water cleaned up, and Blake guided Anthony to sit back down. Anthony was clearly in pain but he was trying to be strong. I knew he was doing it for Colin.
“Sorry about the water. Hand was slick. I’ve been dealing with a bad headache. If I stand up or bend over fast, it throbs.” He cleared his throat again and looked over at Colin. “Sorry, you were saying Chris came over.”
Colin bought into the distraction Anthony expertly created by asking about Chris, in efforts to keep the focus off him. We’d talk about this soon. I let it go for the time as my parents and Gina were still here.
“Yeah, we talked for a while. I showed him the texts. He said he was going to call tomorrow.”
My parents and Gina stayed to clean up the kitchen and then the three of them headed back home. They knew that Colin and Anthony needed to be able to relax.
“Call us if anything comes up, Matt,” my dad said as they headed out, in addition to his comment for me to keep an eye on Anthony.
When I came back inside, Anthony had shed his jacket and was lying on his stomach on the chaise with his eyes closed and wit
h his hands jammed underneath his torso. Colin sat next to him, and Blake was in the chair next to the couch keeping a watchful eye on Anthony. Before I sat down, I went back to the kitchen and grabbed some waters, sodas, chips, cookies, and a bottle of ibuprofen. Blake laughed when I came back in the room with everything. We needed to keep food and liquids in Colin and Anthony. And at this point, it doesn’t even matter how healthy or unhealthy it is. I looked at Blake and motioned over towards Anthony. Now that it was just the four of us, we could talk freely.
“What did he take, and how long ago did he take it?” I asked while holding my hand over Anthony’s forehead. He felt warm but grew anxious and moved out from under my hand. I frowned because his behavior was uncharacteristic. Even under the current stress of Sydney being gone, this just wasn’t our Anthony. It worried me how hard he was trying to avoid being touched or being close to someone.
“He had some ibuprofens about six hours ago.”
“Anth, you need to take some ibuprofen.” I reached for the bottle and poured some in my hand.
“Would someone please tell me what the fuck is going on?” Colin said over Blake and I.
The concussion Blake and I had been keeping under wraps was going to come out quickly. Colin has been Anthony’s co-topping and business partner for years, and they’ve been a V with Sydney for a while now. Colin knew this man inside and out and knew something was very wrong. While Blake and I were thinking of what to say, Anthony bumped Colin in the leg with his fist. Colin averted his angry eyes from Blake and I, down to Anthony.
“Hey, have you been crying?” Anthony’s voice sounded hoarse and raspy, and he could barely keep his eyes open. When he did open his eyes, he looked like it was causing him a lot of pain. I dimmed the lights some with Colin’s remote control. It’d help with his headache. “Why were you crying, Col?” he asked again.
Colin rest his forearms over his knees and looked at Anthony. “I was worried Paul wasn’t feeding her. I got upset about it before you got here.”
“He’s feeding her, Col. Try not to worry over that.”
Just like that, Anthony began calming Colin. But I knew the tables were quickly turning because Colin was always very aware of people’s behavior, and he knew something was wrong with Anthony. I began to wonder if it’d work itself out. I’d let it progress for a few minutes and see, but I wasn’t going to make either one of them suffer.
Colin’s cell phone went off, and he quickly reached for it. I could tell from his expression what it was. He started to head to the kitchen with it, but I think he remembered to not hide it anymore from Anthony. He stopped in mid stride, but Anthony had already thought Colin was fleeing to the kitchen so he quickly tried getting off the couch to go after him. I saw him fall before I could react. Blake made it to Anthony just as his knees hit the ground.
I went to the other side of Blake and let him take the lead with Anthony. He has been messing with this for the past day or so. He kept Anthony still, and slowly we helped Anthony to an upright position on the chaise.
Colin watched with his eyes wide and walked over to show Anthony. Since I was right next to Anthony, I saw the text and picture. Sydney was naked and her arms were bound over her head against a stair rail. Her knees were bloody and scraped, and her face was red. She wasn’t in good condition, that’s for sure.
702-555-3448: She screams beautifully. Here, have a listen. Not sure if you’ve pulled this sound out of her.
Under this text was an audio play button. Oh shit. I didn’t grab the phone but held my hand over the screen and looked at Colin. He looked at me and then to Anthony with sad eyes.
“Col, don’t. I don’t think you want to hear this…Please, Col, don’t push that button.” I wanted him to think before he pushed the play arrow because he wouldn’t be able to easily forget whatever was coming. The sounds coming from Sydney would be forever etched in his thoughts, and he’d have difficulty shaking this.
He looked at me for a few moments and then back down at the screen. Colin lowered his head and pushed that damn button. The great room quickly filled with Sydney’s voice as she screamed and begged for Paul to stop. The poor thing even whimpered “red.” Shit, it was terrible to listen to. It sounded like Paul was flogging her, her voice sounded as if she were quivering. Anthony’s head was hung, eyes were shut, jaw set tightly, and his hands were near his ears. The screaming stopped and the room was once again deathly silent.
Colin took the cell phone and went over to pick up his house phone. He dialed the number and waited. I could hear the busy tone that was blaring into his ear.
“Fucking answer, you asshole!” he yelled into the phone. He was about to throw the cordless phone across the room, but Blake took it from him and brought him back to sit down.
I redirected my attention back to Anthony. He was shaking and had resorted to lying face down on the chaise again.
“Col, he will never answer on that number or any number. He’s fucking with us,” Anthony said quietly.
Anthony’s voice sounded rough, and I gave him some water with the additional ibuprofens. He took them without protest but shivered.
“Will you please tell me what happened?” Colin looked up at me, but Anthony spoke up.
“I got a concussion. I hit my head on the floor in my condo. I’m okay. Just takes a little time to heal with rest. My problem is that I keep standing or sitting up fast, and then I get dizzy. I’m okay, Col.”
Colin stared blankly at Anthony and then he looked at Blake and I. He looked angry that we hadn’t told him, of course, and I think he got a pretty watered down version of what happen from Anthony.
“How the hell did you get a concussion?”
Anthony told him how he tried replacing the pain he felt over Sydney’s absence with rougher, physical pain from a Pro Dom. Anthony briefly described hitting his head.
As Anthony recalled the events, I glanced at Blake. Something wasn’t adding up. Maybe he was confused. I knew he was dead tired, because even as we sat here, he dozed in and out of sleep. But I was trying to piece this together. If Anthony was just paying for a physical session on a specific area like his back, how the hell did he end up on the floor? Did it get that intense? What was negotiated? I was more than concerned about the hand marks on his neck. It sounded different than a Dom calling on a sadist Dom to relieve some tension. Blake sat rigid in his chair and was gripping the armrests.
“Anth, you were leaning on the back of your couch while he hit you?” I asked him.
“Yeah.”
“Did you slip and fall?”
“No.”
“How did you hit your head?” I asked.
“He punched me hard in the chest when I was on my knees. The belt…it hit on a sensitive spot on my lower back, and my knees gave out,” Anthony explained with a tired voice while his eyes were closed.
What? Anthony let the asshole use a belt on him? That wasn’t sitting well with me, especially knowing that Anthony’s step-father beat him with a belt. Did the sadist know he was hitting Anthony just over the kidneys or was it an accident? That could be very dangerous.
“Anth, how did your wrist get cut?” I carefully asked. I didn’t want to make it sound like I was suggesting that he did it, but I also had to hear it from his mouth that he didn’t do it. Anthony pushed his arms underneath his body again to hide them.
The word “cuffs” came from Anthony with a groggy voice.
“Cuffs? What do you mean cuffs?” I asked but didn’t get a response. I crouched down next to the chaise and saw that Anthony’s eyes were closed. I think he dozed off again, but I still nudged him, making him frown. “Anthony, your wrists. You said some cuffs broke the skin.”
“Cuffed to the leg of the couch…said my wrists were too big.” Anthony barely managed to get that out as exhaustion was taking over.
Someone cuffed my little brother to the legs of his couch. This was fucked up. I felt sick and looked over at Blake. He knew what I was worried about and
now I knew why Blake was so worried over Anthony. Colin was too stressed to have paid complete attention or to put the scene together in his head. But when he does, oh shit.
“Blake, what did the doctor say?” I asked quietly as I sat down gently on the chaise near Anthony. He needed to rest, but I had a very bad feeling about what happened. I wanted to look him over. Things were making more sense now with how he was behaving, aside from Sydney being abducted and from having a concussion. “Col, hand me that blanket.”
Colin tossed it over to me, and I draped it over Anthony. I think he needed comfort right now, and I knew that a blanket could provide a world of that. Blake had mentioned that the doctor looked over his chest, stomach, and back wounds and confirmed he had a concussion. That was it?
“Did he do a full or thorough exam?” I asked with concern.
Blake shook his head and explained how difficult it was for Anthony to let the doctor look at his chest and back. Blake indicated that Anthony would freeze every time he tried to touch him and then would get very restless. I saw a bit of this when my mom hugged him, when my dad put his hand on Anthony’s back, and when I tried to touch him. But he was fine with Colin touching him. Anthony basically sunk into Colin’s arms when he got here. And it’s no fucking wonder after the weekend he’s had.
“What else, Blake?” I looked up at him and urged him to think. “Like, how was he at your house? Did he eat much? Sleep much?”
I put my hand down on Anthony’s back, and he jumped. His whole body froze and tensed. Jesus. “Just me, Anth.” I knew that the doctor Blake took him to probably barely got through a concussion exam with him. I could have taken care of him. He wouldn’t have been so jumpy or uneasy with me as opposed to a stranger poking at him.