Skull Island

by T. Styles

  “I’m not trying to snap on you about getting punked. Just proving a point, relax.” He shoved him with his warm shoulder making Spacey sweatier. “Anyway, them brothers fucking terrorized you back then…and the fucked up shit it was a private school.”

  Spacey saw Howard’s face in his mind. “Bullies be everywhere. Not just in school.”

  “Oh so now you admitting they were bullying you?”

  “You gonna finish telling the story or not?” He frowned.

  Joey laughed and used a hand towel to dabble the sweat off his brow again. “Like I was saying, they were fucking with you and after you told Pops, the next day they were changed. Went from trying to fight to—”

  “Acting like my bodyguards,” Spacey said finishing his sentence.

  Joey laughed. “You can go to Pops about anything and he’ll have an answer.”

  Spacey looked over at Joey, whose eyes were now closed as he took in the soothing sensation of the heat. “You really believe that?”

  Joey opened his eyes. “What?”

  “How you forget what we were talking about that quick?” He paused annoyed he had short-term memory. “Do you believe that if I tell dad anything, he’ll have my back and not look down on me?”

  “The man taught you how to fly a plane,” Joey confirmed. “So I’ma have to say yes.” He took a deep breath and tapped his shoulder with the back of his hand. “Well let me get out of here.”

  “What you think is up with Mason doing Pops like that?”

  “They fight all the time.” Joey shrugged.

  “Not like this. His face is ruined.”

  “The better question is why the Nunez family been walking around like they coming down with something? Falling all over and shit.” Joey continued. “I don’t know if they faking sick for the cameras or if they scheming but they got me noid.” He moved to walk out again.

  “Stay a little longer.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Joey frowned. “You been trying to hang out with me all night.”

  “Ain’t nothing up…I was…” Spacey looked down. It was useless. “Go ‘head. Get out my face then.”

  “I’ll catch you tomorrow. Maybe we can get into a fake fight for these cameras and shit since we been spending too much time alone.”

  Spacey nodded as Joey walked out the door.

  Ten minutes later, he was going to leave too when suddenly the door opened and Howard walked in, a tight towel wrapped around his waist. Smiling, he flopped next to Spacey who moved over an inch.

  Howard slid closer. Their skin connected.

  Placing a heavy hand on Spacey’s thigh he said, “Been a minute since you got me right? Don’t you think it’s time?”

  Spacey swallowed the lump in his throat. For the moment he wondered why he allowed him to do things to him he couldn’t tell a soul. Maybe he felt there was nothing he could do without making matters worse. Besides, Minnie and Arlyndo started a war.

  What would Banks do if he learned a Lou was raping his son?

  But something had to give. The evil in Howard seemed to be as easy as breathing. And Spacey always wondered what caused him to be that way.

  “I’m about to go,” Spacey said standing up.

  “Sit down,” Howard said through clenched teeth.

  “But—”

  “Now!”

  Spacey took a seat and Howard rose. “You know what I want so stop wasting time before somebody come in here.” He dropped the towel, exposing his already rock hard penis. “You want me to say it again?” He slammed his fist into his palm and his dick jerked.

  Howard gave him a few seconds and then Spacey lie flat on his stomach, as Howard raised Spacey’s towel and crawled on top of him from behind.

  The moment he felt his heavy body on his, the weight appeared to squeeze tears from Spacey’s eyes. Howard was brazen by his actions. Anyone could come in and yet he allowed extreme horniness and the hate he felt for being attracted to men, to make him so brazen.

  Spacey would kill him if he could but he felt too embarrassed and too ashamed to react.

  Turning his head to the other side, he tried to close his eyes as Howard tore into him. An animal, he grunted heavily while getting full pleasure all the while violating Spacey in the worst way. But something else happened in that moment.

  Something that neither of them knew.

  Mason had opened the door.

  And seen it all.

  ****

  The high school’s hallway was crowded as Mason walked up to Blakeslee’s homeroom class. When the children had fanned out due to going to their scheduled classes, and he walked up to Mr. Merlyn’s door, it had become obvious that she wasn’t in school.

  Wanting to talk to her because she had been avoiding him ever since Nikki got back with Hector, he decided to play hooky and go on a hunt. His mind journeyed to the many places she could be and then he remembered.

  The last place he saw Nikki and her together.

  Quickly he went to the carry out but to his surprise, Blakeslee wasn’t there. He went to the park later but didn’t find Blakeslee there either.

  He decided to go to their building if nothing else worked because he figured if she was playing hooky, the last place she would be was home. When his search came up short, reluctantly he walked to their building but was halted when he saw his uncle sitting on the bottom step in the hallway drinking a can of beer.

  It was cold outside but Mason was so frightened his forehead immediately glistened with sweat.

  Larry smiled. “Wow, I didn’t expect you home for another three hours.” He looked at his watch before pouring all the beer down his throat. Thirst quenched, he crushed the can in his hand and sat it next to his foot.

  Mason’s heart beat different as he looked at the man who was supposed to be the fun part in his life. An uncle should’ve taught him things like how to talk to girls. And how to ride a bike and even fight for himself with the hands. He should’ve been keeping his most precious secrets. The ones his father would be too angry to listen to reason.

  Yet they shared another truth unwanted by Mason.

  Through him he learned how to have sex. And how to please a man. And so he hated him.

  Mason turned around, his warm hand upon the cool building’s door. He was preparing to go back to school when, “come here!” Larry said, rising to his feet. “Don’t make me say it again.”

  Mason paused and turned around. “I gotta go to class.”

  “Nah. You already AWOL. Let’s go upstairs,” he said gripping himself long and hard. “I need a release.” Instead of waiting, he turned around and trailed upwards.

  It took a minute but Mason reluctantly followed.

  After being raped yet again by his uncle, Mason had to get away. He was sick of being used in such a horrible manner and the longer he got away with it, the more he felt like nobody cared.

  If only he could tell somebody.

  After walking with no direction in mind, he found himself at the bridge. The same one Blakeslee had jumped off that caused her back to be broken. After she was torn away from the love of her life.

  To his surprise, she was there.

  “What you, what you doing here?” Blakeslee asked.

  Mason shrugged and approached her side, his warm hands on the cool gritty railing as he looked below. “I don’t know.”

  She looked down too. “I come here some times.”

  He nodded. “Why?”

  “Because I wonder what…I mean…if I died when I jumped what woulda happened to everybody else?”

  “Shit would be fucked up.”

  She considered him closer. “Why you say that?”

  “Because everybody need somebody to kick it with, Blakeslee.” He shrugged. “Somebody you can talk to about stuff. You all I got or whatever. You may have been dead but I would’ve been fucked up out here without you. You can never do that again.”

  She nodded and squinted. Something was off with him and she quickly
allowed Nikki’s neglect to take a back seat in her mind. What was up with her friend? “Mason, are you, are you okay?”

  Silence.

  “Mason, you good?”

  “I gotta…I got a situation that…I mean…something’s happening and…” Mason felt himself on the verge of crying, which in his mind would’ve ruin his chances of ever being with her seriously. “…Do you think pain ever goes away? Like the worst shit that ever could happen…do you think it gets better, like, with time?”

  Blakeslee looked over the bridge again. “I was sad all day. Like, mad about Nikki and…” She took a deep breath. Already growing tired of talking about her, of wanting her and not having the feelings returned. “…And then you came. And I’m cool now. Maybe that’s all that matters. Maybe things get better when you got a good friend to talk to.” She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  Mason considered what was happening in his life and how although he was experiencing the worst abuse imaginable maybe she was right.

  Maybe that’s all they needed was each other.

  So he stood next to her until the sun went down, neither saying a word.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  Spacey had been isolated in his room ever since Howard sexually assaulted him. When he did leave his safe space, whenever Joey or Minnie tried to talk to him, he would quickly walk away, knowing that the cameras bothered single people rarely.

  The mission was to be alone.

  He also learned that Whoyawanmetabe had noticed this trend and had plans to force people together if the antics continued. Everyone was afraid of his threat, knowing he meant it. Still, for now, staying alone gave him peace.

  So he was definitely shocked when he walked into the room only to see Mason sitting on the side of his bed. He could tell the moment he saw him that he’d been drinking. The scent of liquor wafted in the air like cheap cologne.

  “What you…what you doing in my room, Uncle Mason?” He shuffled a bit. Even if Howard had not assaulted him, Spacey was scared to be around him, especially after what he’d done to his father.

  “Sit down,” Mason said, drinking whiskey straight from the bottle that sat between his legs.

  Spacey pointed at the door with his thumb. “But I was going to the—”

  “Sit down, nephew,” Mason said harder. Although seriousness was in his voice, Spacey also detected compassion despite not knowing why. “Please.”

  “Okay, but we better hurry up,” Spacey said complying. “I saw the cameramen in the hall looking for something to film. If it’s all the same to you I don’t want it to be us.”

  Mason positioned his body slightly to look at Spacey who sat on the mattress next to him. “What I’m about to tell you, I never told anybody. I mean, people may know of the situation, like my brother and Banks but I never gave details about how it made me feel. Until now. Until with you.”

  Spacey moved a little. “Okay.”

  “For most of my life, I was, was raped by my uncle.”

  Spacey’s face flushed red and his chest hitched. Wanting to escape he jumped up and moved toward the door. There was no way he would let Mason rev up what he was trying his best to ignore.

  “Spacey!” Mason yelled rising up. “Please stay. We have a lot to discuss before the cameras come. Because with or without them, I gotta say what’s on my mind.”

  Spacey looked at Mason.

  “Please, man.” He continued.

  His body felt weighted as he walked across from Mason, leaned against the wall and slid down.

  Mason walked over and sat next to him.

  “When I was younger, my uncle used to rape me. Two, three times a week.” His head lowered as he looked down at the floor. “Even saying the words right now…even…even letting them leave my lips makes me dizzy with rage.”

  Spacey exhaled.

  It was the first time he heard that someone else was experiencing what he had most of his life. Sure he knew others might have gone through sexual abuse, but never somebody this close. Mason was one of the most dangerous men alive and if he was raped maybe he, himself, wasn’t weak after all.

  So Spacey looked over at him. Was it possible that he was aware of what Howard had been doing to him all along?

  “So…” his voice went too high and he cleared his throat to find his usual bass tone. “What did you do, Uncle Mason?”

  “I made a decision that made shit final.” He exhaled. “I killed him. And that’s why, that’s why talking to you about this puts me in a fucked up predicament. Because I know what it implies. But I don’t want the rest of your life ruined like mine because somebody taking advantage of you. I don’t want this thing…that’s happened to you…by my…by my own flesh and blood.” He gripped the neck of the whiskey bottle so hard Spacey was certain it would shatter. “I don’t want the rest of your life destroyed by him. Something must be done.”

  So he does know. “What can I do?”

  “Come with me.” Mason sat the bottle on an end table and extended his hand.

  Spacey looked at his fingertips and shook his head no softly. “I don’t want my father finding out.”

  “It wasn’t a request, nephew. Come with me. Now.”

  A few minutes later, they were standing in the bowling alley. A cameraman was following them after seeing them bounce down the hall with purpose. It didn’t matter that he wasn’t sure what sparked the vigor in their steps he just wanted the shot. And Mason was too focused to care if he trailed them or not.

  When they walked into the alley, Howard was waiting.

  “Why you had me stay in here, Pops? I was just about to leave.” He smiled awkwardly, rolling eyes between his father and Spacey.

  Ignoring his son, Mason looked at Spacey. “For you to heal, it starts right here.”

  Spacey’s eyes widened. “What…what you talking about?”

  “I can’t make shit easier for you. Banks can’t make shit easier for you. It has to be you…right here…right now. Finish it and move on with your life.”

  Spacey swallowed the lump in his throat and walked toward Howard. Nothing about his mannerisms said confidence.

  “Fuck you want with me, nigga?” Howard barked confused on what was happening. “You running to my father and telling him I be whipping that ass?” He laughed again as he turned up the bravado for his Pops.

  Doing his best to show off for him something Mason would have thought was cute in the past. Now he realized he had created a monster by making men who took instead of dealing with their issues. Just like him.

  Mason looked at his own son as if he were a stranger.

  If Spacey said anything to Mason Howard hoped it was about the fighting and not the raping.

  Spacey looked back at Mason and then the cameraman who was waiting patiently for whatever was about to go down. Slowly his focus moved on Howard and something dark overcame him. He thought about the first time he made him do oral sex on him at a sleep over. Then again when he was using the bathroom only for Howard to enter and force him to his knees. He had a lot of pain and it needed an escape.

  Why not take advantage of the moment with Mason at his side?

  With everything built up, he hit Howard so hard his body spun around like a top before hitting the floor. Not expecting the blow to land with such precision, Howard quickly rose to his feet, lowered his body and charged; wrapping his arms around Spacey’s lower legs, which brought him slamming down on his back.

  The air was knocked out of Spacey’s chest and halted his breath for a moment. But thinking quickly, Spacey used the opportunity to raise his upper body slightly, which allowed him to hammer on the side of Howard’s face with closed fists repeatedly.

  Howard, dazed and confused due to being struck in the temples, released him and crawled on top of Spacey instead. With this advantage, Howard pounded him repeatedly in the face until using all of his might; Spacey yelled out and jerked his body upwards, forcing Howard off of him like a bull bucks a rider.

  And this is wh
en things grew bloody.

  Spacey thought about each rape and used the weight of the rage to seek his revenge.

  Spacey landed blow after blow, which was so brutal, the cameraman looked to Mason, secretly wondering when he would bring an end to a massacre, which could kill another one of his sons.

  But Mason remained planted. And feet rooted on the ground like a one hundred year old oak tree.

  Because in the moment he was on Spacey’s side as he watched him do what he wished he could have done to his uncle the first time he ever laid hands on him.

  It took some time.

  And the battle was not easy.

  But in the end Spacey was victorious, standing over Howard’s pummeled body as he rocked back and forth, begging for him to get up so he could drop him again. Clenched fists dangling like rocks. He could look down and tell he had weakened him not only physically but emotionally. He also knew that Howard would never come into his room again unwanted, or else he would be waiting to fight back.

  “Never again.” Spacey said mostly out of breath before spitting blood in Howard’s face, which landed on his eyelids. “Never again.”

  Having proved his point, he and Mason walked away.

  The next day Mason was sitting on the beach thinking about it all when Spacey walked up to him, taking a seat at his side.

  “You good?” Mason asked, eyes still on the ocean.

  Spacey nodded. “Don’t tell my dad…about…what’s been happening to me.”

  “Your father doesn’t want—”

  “Please, man. I…he got a lot going on and I don’t want him to know about this. I’m begging you.”

  Mason took a deep breath. “Once you start holding secrets you can’t stop. You know that right?”

  “I’m not holding secrets. You know what happened. That’s good enough for me.”

  Big facts.

  They both took a deep breath, having finally worked through the worst experience in both of their lives, together. Mason had helped a young man who needed to face the darkest of demons, thereby helping to release his past demons too.

  For the moment they both felt victorious.