Dangerous Savior

by Wulff, Carson

  She can search all she wants. Ethan is nothing if not sincere.

  Beth scoffs. “Love at first sight, eh?” She laughs, seemingly amused. Then she spits on the ground and says, not entirely angrily, “Disgusting.”

  Rage coils inside Ethan dangerously at the fact that she spit right onto the floor, disrespecting Tom’s already basic living space. He has the insane urge to go off on her, to tell her exactly what he thinks of her and her treatment of Tom.

  But of course he doesn’t.

  Of course he can’t.

  Beth’s attention snaps to Tom again. “Better start talking, little brother. I asked you a question before. How many of them have you fucked?”

  Tom’s silent for a disobediently long moment and then says, in that short, straight-to-the-point way he does, “Just him.”

  Beth’s disgust is plain on her face. “You take after Sally, molesting the captives. Only, I guess there’s no repercussions for fucking a man. No extra mouth to feed.”

  Ethan balks at the implication, realizing after a moment that Beth is referring to Daisy, Sally's child. Was Daisy really a result of Sally taking advantage of one of their previous captives? How many fucking people has this family killed and fed to their pigs?

  “You think about fucking some of the others?” Beth asks, probably just to make Tom uncomfortable. “Any of the girls, or just the boys?”

  Tom grunts, almost a snort of amusement. Says, again, “Just him.” He tips his head back to indicate Ethan.

  “Christ,” Beth says. “Always knew you was weird. It’d be weird enough if you just had a hankering for men. But you ain’t never wanted to fuck anyone before this?”

  Tom shakes his head in a firm no. That’s all the answer he offers.

  Beth grunts in acknowledgement. Shakes her head as if trying to shake off a particularly disturbing thought. Eventually, she sighs. “Put some clothes on him. And bring him upstairs when you’re done. You've got some explaining to do. Ma will want to hear about this.”

  They’re going to drag Ethan upstairs to face some sort of tribunal of Tom’s family? Just Beth knowing is bad enough. What will happen to him? What if they decide to kill him? Even if Tom was willing to betray his family’s wishes for Ethan’s sake, Ethan isn’t sure Tom could overpower the three women combined. His sisters are far from dainty things, their bodies muscular in a way that rival Tom’s own.

  “Tommy!” Beth snaps when Tom doesn’t reply. “Do you fucking understand me?”

  Ethan flinches at the sharpness of her tone as her voice rings off the cinder block walls.

  “Yeah,” Tom murmurs, non-committal.

  “Okay.” Beth snorts. “Don’t worry, little brother, anything that happens is for the best of the family.”

  With a smile that is more sneer than anything, Beth turns to leave.

  “Oh,” she adds, “Don’t do anything stupid.” Her warning is icicle sharp as she exits with a swish of the curtains. Her footfalls can be heard trudging up the stairs.

  Ethan’s skin crawls with a spider-leg touch of anxiety and foreboding. When the basement door snaps audibly closed behind Beth, Tom’s silence and stiff muscles only serve to build Ethan’s panic to a knot in his throat.

  Tom’s not saying anything. Not moving. This terrifies Ethan. No reassurance. No vow to protect Ethan from his family. Nothing.

  “Tom,” Ethan whispers, voice full of mourning, “What’s going to happen to me?”

  The overwhelming uncertainty of his own future staunches any tears that might proceed the breakdown Ethan’s teetering on the edge of.

  “Won’t know until we go upstairs,” Tom answers finally, his back still turned on Ethan.

  It feels like being thrown to the wolves. Tom isn’t going to disobey his family for Ethan. Betray them. Not more than he already has. There’s no use stalling anymore.

  Ethan hauls his body to its feet. Gets dressed methodically. His entire being is on autopilot. Like his consciousness has faded to the background, leaving only the mechanical motions he’s used all his life.

  Stand up.

  Get dressed.

  Accept whatever life fate hands him, because god knows he’s not choosing his own path.

  16

  Ethan follows Tom upstairs like a funeral procession. Tom didn’t attempt to bind his hands, though perhaps Beth had intended him to. Ethan’s free wrists only serve as a reminder of how powerless he is compared to Tom and his sisters. They don’t need Ethan bound to overpower him.

  The house is just as he remembered it the first time, all flower print furniture and quaint, worn decor. Tom leads him into the living room, which has couches and chairs and bookcases. An old wooden radio but no television.

  Beth has already gathered the family in the living room. They sit waiting like this is some sort of intervention. Tom’s boots stop in the middle of the room to stand before his family, dull wooden floor creaking beneath his weight. Ethan stands behind him, posture wilted into unmistakable cowering.

  He hates that he isn't strong right now. That he isn’t able to stand up straight beside Tom. Like an equal. Like someone confident and fearless.

  But.

  Ethan is nothing if not sincere.

  And he is sincerely terrified right now.

  This whole time Ethan has been so focused on surviving the basement. Surviving Tom.

  He was so caught up in that one goal he had forgotten that Tom was the least of his worries.

  These people. Tom’s family. They’re the ones who created this hierarchy of abuse in the house. They’re the ones who, at some point in the past, decided that strangers who crossed them deserved to die and be fed to the pigs.

  Tom is just following orders. Following the only livelihood he knows.

  The three women sit on the couch, expressions hard. Sally with Daisy in her lap. Ethan’s heart leaps in apprehension at that. Why is the little girl here? She shouldn’t be here for whatever conversation is going to ensue.

  Tom’s mother sucks one cigarette down to the filter. She snuffs it in the ashtray beside the couch, and then immediately smacks a new cigarette out of the pack and lights it. She’s wearing the same knife and gun holsters on her hip that she was that day in the road. Does she always wear them? That seems… paranoid.

  What is the old woman so afraid of? Do they really get bothered by biker gangs out here often enough to warrant the need for always having a weapon on hand?

  Beth sits forward on the edge of the faded couch cushion. She points at them accusingly. “Went down to the basement to find out why Tom wasn’t working in the barn yet. I was surprised to find he still had one of them bikers alive and chained up down there. Shoulda finished butchering them all days ago.”

  Ethan stares hard at the ground. He knows what comes next.

  “Only, it weren’t just one of the bikers who was alive,” Beth continues, a tinge of amusement lacing her voice. As if she’s enjoying this, enjoying instigating whatever fallout will occur at her next words. “Found this one in bed with Tommy, Mama. They was together. Naked.”

  “Tommy,” Ma seethes, shock quickly draining to suspicion, darkening to something knowing. “What you done to this boy?”

  “Fucked him, Mama,” Beth replies easily. She’s definitely enjoying this.

  Ethan wishes the floor would swallow him up. Wishes he could force himself to move, to huddle up against Tom’s large back, hide himself there.

  “How is that possible?” Ma asks sharply.

  “Hell, I don’t fucking know. But I walked in on them in bed naked as the day they was born! Does it matter?”

  Beside the other two women, Sally’s brows knit. “Tommy made that boy touch his willy?”

  Ethan balks at that, suddenly sick to his stomach. The way these people talk about sex like it’s some gross thing. The way they keep referring to him as a boy feels dirty and wrong. He’s a man. A man who wanted to have sex with Tom.

  Worse than the scrutiny, worse than the juven
ile way the family regards sex, is the fact that the little girl, Daisy, is sitting on her mother’s lap, hearing every word of this.

  Ma’s lip trembles with rage, her nose wrinkling in disgust. “You’re just like your daddy, Tommy. Always known you would be. Your daddy couldn’t keep his hand outta his pants neither. Horrible man.”

  “The boy says he ain’t like daddy, though,” Beth says, still calm as ever. “He says he wanted it. That Tommy didn’t just take what he wanted.”

  Ma glares past Tom, straight to Ethan. “Wanted it? Why on earth would you want that from my Tommy?”

  Ethan flinches at the sudden attention. He had been beginning to feel invisible in the room.

  Slowly, after several failed attempts to speak, Ethan answers, “Tom saved me. From the bikers.”

  All three women on the couch just stare at him as if his explanation makes no sense.

  Face flushing red under their stares, Ethan continues haphazardly, “I’ve always… basically known that I was gay. Was never really interested in girls. But there was no doubt when I saw Tom.” Ethan glances sideways at Tom, almost double-taking at the flush spreading across Tom’s stoic features.

  Tom is… embarrassed by what Ethan’s confessing. Embarrassment lighting his skin for his whole family to see.

  “Don’t care where you prefer to stick your willy,” Ma snaps. “It ain’t polite to flaunt it. Things like that ought to be kept to yourself.”

  Ethan’s speechless. Anger flares up in him at how derogatory she made it sound. As if his attraction to other men is about nothing more than sex. It reduces his sexuality to his genitals. It’s dehumanizing. The weirdest thing is that this old woman seems more prudish than homophobic.

  It’s the crass language in front of Daisy that strikes Ethan with a sudden realization. Some part of him has been entertaining the notion of not turning this family in to the police if he ever escapes, just to spare Tom. He realizes now he can’t do that. He has to get Daisy out of this household. There’s something so very wrong about their willingness to speak so explicitly in front of the child on top of grooming her for violence.

  “Tommy ain’t never asked for much before,” Beth points out unexpectedly. “He always done what he’s told.”

  Ma’s eyes narrow. “What’re you getting at, girl?”

  “I think we should let him keep the boy,” Beth says, a crooked grin splitting her face. Ethan can’t believe what he’s hearing. “You always said men have needs that make them dangerous. Tommy ain’t never tried to touch us like you thought he would. Maybe he deserves a toy to play with.”

  Ethan’s head spins, he thinks he’s going to be sick. What the hell is wrong with these people? There’s something about this conversation that disturbs him much more than the blood and death.

  “Tommy’s been good because we kept him in his place,” Ma responds harshly. “Can’t let men have no freedom or they’ll turn into monsters like your daddy.”

  Beth snorts. “So give Tommy a pet to keep the monster at bay. Seems logical to me.”

  As disgusting and devoid of reality as Ethan finds this conversation, he can’t help but reel at the fact that Beth is… advocating for keeping Ethan alive. Keeping things as they are, with Ethan locked up in the basement with Tom.

  It’s what Ethan wants right now, isn’t it? To make it out of this conversation alive, even if it means continuing to live a meager existence in captivity? Alive is better than dead. And…

  Tom.

  Ethan trusts him, in a tentative, illogical way that makes his heart pound in sickening confusion.

  He isn’t ready to die. To leave Tom.

  He wants, more than anything, to find a way out of this mess that leaves whatever bond he’s building with Tom intact.

  He’s lost his mind, hasn’t he?

  “You got yourself a point,” Ma grumbles reluctantly.

  Sally squeals in horror, jumping to attention so fast it rattles the child in her arms. “That ain’t fair! You made me kill my baby dad!”

  ...What?

  Horror seeps like frigid water through Ethan’s veins. So it’s true. Sally… was in the same situation as Tom at one point? She wanted to keep a captive but her family made her kill him? Daisy is the result of that situation?

  Beth laughs, and it’s then Ethan realizes why she’s advocating for keeping Ethan.

  Beth… wants to see her sister Sally suffer.

  Beth’s only siding with Tom as a way to be cruel to her sister.

  “Vote would be even if we took one,” Beth points out.

  “Tommy don’t get no vote,” Ma says.

  “Maybe it’s time he starts,” Beth shoots back.

  This whole conversation only serves to illustrate to Ethan who really calls the shots in this family.

  It's Beth, isn't it?

  “It’s good for all of us if we keep him,” Beth says. “Put Tommy’s pet to work. Ain’t enough hours in the day for Tom to do it all. Laundry and cooking don’t get done most days on account of Tom having too many orders. Put the pet up to it.”

  That…

  Ethan hates it, but hope swells up inside of his chest at that. Because what Beth is suggesting sounds like more responsibility.

  And more responsibility equals more freedom.

  More freedom gives him more chances to escape.

  Ethan just has to bide his time until this arrangement dissolves into normalcy.

  And then he’ll have his chance to escape this place.

  “Alright,” Ma agrees reluctantly, much to Sally’s chagrin. “We’ll let Tommy keep the boy. For now.”

  Beth stands and shoves past Tom to grab Ethan by his jaw. She lifts his face until he’s forced to make eye contact with her. “One wrong move boy, and you’ll be nothing more than slop for the swine.”

  17

  “Don’t you have work to do?” Beth snaps at Tom after the impromptu family meeting.

  It’s not a question—it’s an order.

  One Tom hesitates to obey.

  “What, you afraid of leaving the boy under my watch?” Beth sneers, standing up straighter and squaring her shoulders. She has to tilt her head up to meet her brother’s eyes. Despite being a foot shorter, she still manages to look intimidating. “That’s sweet of you, being worried about me—but you ain’t never learned anything if you think I can’t snap this boy’s neck if he looks at me the wrong way.”

  Tom only grunts in response, eyes flicking briefly to Ethan. There’s a flash of concern there. Distaste. He clearly doesn’t like the idea of leaving Ethan at the whims of his family.

  Ethan’s sure Beth knows this and is being facetious.

  Ethan’s stomach drops when, despite Tom’s hesitation, he turns to leave. He doesn’t spare a word for Ethan, not in front of his family. Of course he doesn’t.

  The lack of reassurance feels like abandonment.

  Ethan holds his breath when the front door swings shut behind Tom. He’s off to do farm work or carpentry or whatever his family makes him do. And Ethan… Ethan’s left at the mercy of Beth.

  “C’mon,” Beth says, smacking Ethan on the back of the head hard enough that he lunges forward. “First order of business.”

  Ethan’s jostled as she pushes past him. With one last glance at the sour expressions of Sally and her mother, Ethan follows Beth like a scolded child.

  What else can he do?

  Beth leads Ethan into the basement, where she instructs Ethan to gather up all his luggage, whatever’s left of his possessions. Ethan obeys, packing his strewn clothes back into his suitcase while Beth looms over him.

  He moves quickly, refusing to risk creating any measure of excuse for Beth to scold or hit him. Ethan’s sure that’s what this is all about for Beth—having another person in the house to control and abuse. To build up her sense of superiority.

  Ethan’s thankful the lube and food Ethan had packed aren’t mixed in with his luggage. Whatever Beth’s going to do with his possessions, it�
��s sure to involve destruction. At least it’ll just be spare changes of clothes that Ethan is losing. Those don’t matter. What matters is staying alive.

  Despite his weakened state from his lack of quality food and untreated wounds, Ethan lugs his over-large suitcase up the basement stairs without Beth’s help.

  “Bet you thought you was clever, hiding that cell phone in your luggage before,” Beth says as she leads him through the house.

  Ethan stays silent—what else can he do? Argue with her? Try to convince her of the truth, which is that he hadn’t been thinking about his cell phone at all when Tom carried his luggage into the basement. She’d never believe him.

  “I took care of that. Your GPS will show that you stopped for gas here and were on your way. No one’s ever going to find you.” There’s a trickle of amusement in her voice. She assumes this information hurts Ethan and is pleased by that. It does hurt. “Drove your phone out three towns over and then taped it to the underside of a trucker’s semi. It’ll be God knows where until the battery dies. No one’s gonna come looking here, that’s for sure.”

  An angry, suffocating heat swells in Ethan’s lungs at how obviously proud Beth is of herself.

  “Good,” Ethan shoots against his better judgement. He has no qualms lying to this woman. “My parents are homophobic. Your family accepted me. I don't want to go back.”

  Lies, lies, lies—it’s all a lie. Tom’s family hasn’t accepted him—they just want another person to torture and control.

  And Ethan’s family isn’t homophobic—he never even came out to them to know their reaction, but he’s sure they would be accepting. Probably. They just… didn’t really know Ethan. Never asked. Maybe they were afraid to ask if he was gay because they didn’t want to risk upsetting him if he wasn’t. As if a hypothetically straight Ethan’s feelings are more important than gay Ethan’s feelings.

  It wasn’t an ideal environment to come out since he truly didn't know for sure how they would react… but his household wasn’t openly hostile at all.

  Ethan was just too awkward to talk about his sexuality, something he considers private, to his parents. He always figured he’d have to come out eventually when he got his first boyfriend. But that never happened. Probably because he was still in the closet…