Angels Fall First (boyxboy)

ch.2 - Madness

“Don’t you have anything to say, little birdie?” With his voice crashed the all too familiar wave of dread over my mind. Every moment was a fight not to curl up into a ball screaming at the top of my lungs. You’d think you get used to it.

You just don’t.

“I’m sorry,” I breathed obediently, struggling to remain conscious despite the lack of oxygen.

He snorted and threw me across the small room, not leaving me time to catch my breath. His foot met my chest and remained there, crushing the air out of my lungs painfully.

“I’m sorry, what was that?” he growled, looking down at me with his haunting grey eyes.

“I’m sorry, master,” I corrected, wincing as he pushed even harder against my chest.

“Sorry for what?”

“For being a bad boy.”

“You remember what happens when you’re a bad boy, don’t you Swan?”

I nodded weakly, unable to get any sound through by that point. A sadistic smile spread on his lips and he stepped off my body, grabbing me by the hair and pulling me back up standing. A silent cry of pain burned my throat but I held it in. No need to already heat him up. He dragged me through the dirty corridors, the dim light tracing contours of the faces of the other kids behind the bars, looking at me with knowing smiles, eyes filled with pained sympathy.

We entered the dreaded room, already filled with men and women. In the middle of the wide space stood the instrument which I feared so badly. Walking towards it slowly, I looked at the bloodstained cross, hearing echoes of the screams of agony of the old yesterday, mine and those of so many others. The crowd cheered at my appearance, eyes hollow of any feeling but perversion and lust, filled with anticipation at the thought of what was going to follow. Humans claim they evolve when truth is as time flows, our hearts and minds only sink deeper and deeper into perversion. With every new step our quest for pleasure takes us, we are shot backwards. They used to watch the Gladiators show off their strength, fighting until death. Yesterday, they watched people pay the higher price for their crimes. Today, they will watch a child be tortured simply because that is what they want. Because that is what we are evolving towards. They cheered even louder as my already naked body was pushed against the wood sticky with dry blood. Knowing already all too well what I had to do, I spread my arms across the structure, my eyes fixated on the bestial faces, waiting for the pain to strike. The first stake slowly stabbed into my hand as the people went wild, an inhuman scream piercing through their savage cries.

It always took me a while to realize I was the one screaming.

Seeing through a clouded haze of pain and tears, I watched those men and women watching me with lust, waiting impatiently until they could be the ones to ravage me. Except one. There was a boy sitting among them, his eyes as hollow as a dead body. I was suddenly taken by his presence. Who is it? Through my blurry eyes, I gasped as I recognized his face. Tommy. That wasn’t right. Somehow that wasn’t right. Tommy should have been caged like all the others. No, that’s not it either. Tommy was…

No. Tommy wasn’t there.

Tommy was dead. I looked down at his motionless body, covered in blood, his face still contorted into a mask of agony. I shook my head, whimpering. Tommy. My friend, my only friend. He let out another pain filled scream as they ripped into his stomach. I thought we’d be able to do it, I really did. But he got caught. This was all my fault. I was a bad boy again.

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, D’YOU HEAR ME, BRAT?! YOU KILLED HIM, BIRDIE!! WE’LL FIND YOU, AND THEN YOU’LL PAY JUST LIKE HIM!!”

I almost screamed in fear but I couldn’t. Or else everything would’ve been ruined. I looked at Tommy besides me. He gave me a reassuring smile and pushed me forward.