Five days ago:
It was late at night. Duke was standing in front of a fire barrel under a bridge, whistling the 'Sweet Dreams' tune. It was one of those windy October nights. He was wearing his favorite black leather jacket.
He was holding a few items in his hands and his lips were curved into a perverted smile.
The items were Kevin's personal belongings that consist of a set of keys, a black leather wallet, a black wristwatch, a pair of sunglasses, an iPhone 7 and earphones. Duke first threw the keys into the water stream under the bridge. Then he dropped all of the items into the fire one by one except for the wallet.
He opened the wallet and what he found inside it made his perverted grin grow bigger. He stopped whistling when he took Kevin's University ID card and stared down at his photo.
Duke was alone under the bridge, but there was a voice with him saying, 'Look atchu smiling like that. Oooh, you're thinking what I'm thinking, am I right?' The voice sounded similar to his own voice, but with a naughty, rough, and loud tone.
Duke gazed straight ahead and chuckled, "I can't help it. Have you seen the guy?" He shook the card at his hand, looking at it again, and continued, "He's gorgeous!" Then he threw it into the fire.
The bad voice screamed in excitement, 'Yeah!' Then he added, 'Somebody's getting laaiid tonight! Haha!'
"Hey. I get laid all the time. Like every other night," Duke raised his brows feeling offended, while reaching for another item from the wallet.
'You know what I mean,' the voice argued, 'This one's different. You had your eyes on him for a while now!'
"I have. And now I know he's worth it," he said while throwing some cafe punch cards at the fire. Then he raised his hand up questioning, "I mean, did we ever catch someone who managed to even scratch me on the first day? Huh? Or any other day?"
'Grace did,' another voice responded. This one had a quiet and friendly tone.
"Don't you dare mention her name again," Duke threatened while staring at the fire barrel. His eyes fueled with so much anger, reflecting the fire in front of him.
'She was a coward! A sneaky bitch!' sneered the bad voice, 'She didn't do a thing on her first day except screaming like a pig, begging for mercy.'
Duke snapped, "Don't talk about her like that!"
'I liked her,' said the friendly voice expressing his sadness.
Duke stared down and closed his eyes in grief, "None of you talk about her ever again. Ever! Understood?"
'Hey, now. Don't ya ruin the mood on us,' said the naughty voice. Then he tried cheering Duke up again by asking, 'Think about tonight. You excited?'
Duke opened his eyes and sighed, "Yeah." Then he jerked his head and raised his voice, "Hell, yeah! Especially since he's reeaally tired right now."
'That's the spirit! Mmhm. You do like them tired alright. Can't blame you. There's something about them when they're helpless and scared.'
Duke was grabbing a bunch of dollar bills out of the wallet, smiling again, when the friendly voice responded, 'There's a name for that. It's called: Sadistic Rape.'
"'SHUT UP,'" both Duke and the other voice yelled out.
'Duke, put the earphones on. Someone's coming. You don't wanna look like a freak talking to yourself, do you?' a third voice, that had a strong and angry tone, demanded while Duke was putting the dollar bills in the pocket of his jeans, irritated a bit.
Duke was surprised when he heard that voice. He quickly and nervously snatched the earphones from his pocket and wore them on, compelling to his commands. It wasn't a reaction of fear, but a reaction of trust and obedience to that specific voice. It only talked during times of danger or when something was going terribly wrong. It always knows what to be done.
A man in his 50s with ragged, dark green clothes and dirty, white beard walked toward the fire, seeking its warmth. He stood in front of Duke from the other side of the barrel. Duke huffed then the angry voice told him to, 'Get rid of him!'
Duke reached his hand behind his back to pick something while giving the man a death glare. The man was cold and shivering. He paid no attention to Duke. All he wanted was to get his hands warm and get closer to the fire to get his body warm too.
Suddenly, the man found a hand in front of his face holding two 20 dollar bills.
"Here. Why don't ya get yourself a meal or something," Duke told the homeless man.
The man's face brightened as he gratefully looked at Duke, took the money, and bowed his head to say, "Thank you, sir. It was a tough night for me. I lost everything, but you made it better."
Duke placed his wallet back and said in complete lack of empathy, "Yeah, at least you still have your freedom. Now scram."
The man's smile faded. He walked away in shame.
Duke continued examining the wallet. He pulled out a photo and said, "Huh. Lovely old lady." Then he tossed it into the flames.
'Aw. That was a sweet photo of him and his grandma. I wish you kept it.'
'I wish he kept the mmmm, hot, delicious. sex object ID card!'
Duke pulled out Kevin's Visa card then grinned, "I know. He's very attractive, but there's something more about him." He pulled out a Starbucks gift card and continued, frowning and shaking his head, expressing how impressed he is with the boy, "He's tough. He hasn't cried nor begged not even once this whole time he was hanging." He burned the cards at the fire then added, "Even though I know that he's terrified, he did a good job hiding it."
'And on top of all that, he challenged you!' said the second voice, admiring his attitude.
"Yup. There's that," said Duke while trying to pull out another photo from Kevin's wallet, "That guy may look cute, but.."
'He got guts,' the naughty voice finished that sentence. Then he added, 'Too bad, though. All that trouble just to have him for one week?'
But Duke assured him, "Nah. This lil guy's gonna stay longer. MUCH longer."
The bad voice was thrilled, 'Oh, you're planning some FUN. I like it!'
Duke laughed briefly then looked at the last photo, clasped his brows, and said, "Hmm. His sister looks sick. Her eyes are puffy and her skin is too pale."
'He looks sad! I think his sister didn't make it. That's why he's keeping her photo,' sympathized the caring voice.
"Could be. However, I don't know if he's sad or pissed, but I know that I'd rather kill myself than wear that uniform," Duke snorted before he tossed the photo into the burning barrel.
Duke slid his fingers into the wallet to grab the last item. He pulled it out and it was Kevin's driver license. "I guess we're done," he said while throwing the wallet into the flames.
He glanced at the driver license.
Duke smirked and loudly said as if he got a hold of an entertaining information, "Oh, look. He already registered himself as a donor. What a relief!" As soon as he finished that sentence, he tried to suppress a giggle, but he threw his head back and started laughing wickedly.
The naughty voice joined him echoing his laughter.
He recovered from his laughter and he was about to throw the license away when suddenly he stopped and his eyes widened. He gazed back at the license just to make sure that what he saw was true. His mouth left ajar.
'Is that his date of birth?' said the good voice, concerned. 'This is so wrong.'
Duke started to sweat and had trouble breathing.
The bad voice happily repeated, 'Oh, yesss. Oh, holy shit. Yaassss! Holy shit! HOLY..'
Duke finally spoke, "Shit!"
'YOU FUCKED US UP!'
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Later that night, Kevin's tired voice was heard coming out of the small room in the basement, saying, "Seventeen and a half."
In that room, Duke stood up away from the bed and held his head in shock, thinking, NO! HE DID NOT JUST SAY THAT! He's 17. I just sold the organs of a 17 years old kid.
'Keep your shit together. Sit down and keep it together!'
Duke sat at the edge of the bed in shock and scolding himself, This was a mistake. What should I do?
'Keep your shit together. That's what you'll do,' the strong, controlling voice was dominating this time.
'He's 17 and a half. There's a difference,' the bad voice always tried to take advantage of any bad situation.
'Poor kid,' said the nice voice.
The voices were jamming inside his head. He didn't know who to listen to anymore. He tried to concentrate on the strongest voice. The one that gets him out of these kinds of troubles, but every voice had different opinions and solutions to this problem. Everyone wanted to contribute.
'So what if he's 17 and a half? He only has 6 months 'til adulthood. It's gonna be fun!'
'But he's still a kid. We don't hurt kids!'
'Keep your shit together, man. I can feel that you're sweating.'
'He looks weak. Just end his miserable life. Not until you bone that ass, though. Mmm.'
'You can't. He's still just a kid.'
'He's not just a kid! For fuck's sake. Age is just a number.'
'Not to us, you know that. And no swearing, please.'
'Don't talk. Don't let the boy hear you.'
'poor kid. What have you done to him?'
'He's not a kid. He looks pretty damn grown up to me!'
'Take care of him.'
'Don't sound crazy. Just hear us. No talking out loud. Let me think for a moment.'
'Yeah. don't scare the kid. Don't talk out loud.'
'Scare the crap out of him. He's your prey now. Enjoy it. Hahaha.'
'Don't listen to them,' a new voice was heard, the supporter. Its tone was calm, confident, and soothing. This voice was heard when Duke has trouble listening to the voices. Real trouble.
'We can fix this. Keep it together. Give us time to think.'
'Pfft. Are you still listening to that shit?'
'Hug him. Make him feel safe.'
'Fuck him!'
'HEY! Don't you dare open that mouth,' the controlling voice sensed that Duke was on the verge of losing it. He was about to talk out loud. Duke was struggling to hear all of the voices when what he should be doing is hearing the only one that matters, his own voice.
'Think, Duke. Think for yourself,' that's what the supporter was trying to accomplish. To set Duke free from the voices and let him act by his own decisions. Even if he was indecisive sometimes, at least he's trying to find his own voice in the jam.
'Fuck him GOOD.'
'Don't do it! You'll scar him for life!'
'DID YOU HEAR ME? I SAID KEEP IT TOGETHER!'
'Come on! It's all you've been thinking about!'
'Don't hurt him. He's not an adult yet.'
'Do it! Mmm. Sexy!'
'Keep him, for now.'
'Use him, now.'
'Take care of him.'
'What do you wanna do?'
"I..," Duke spoke, but stopped himself before he got too loud. Kevin didn't hear him talking this whole time. He only saw that he was sitting there thinking and staring at nothing like a crazy person.
That little sound that was released from Duke's lips angered the already angry voice, 'DON'T TALK OUT LOUD, FREAK! JESUS!'
Duke replied inside his head, I don't know what to do with him.
To his surprise, all the voices agreed on one thing:
Just whatever you do, don't let him go!
'Yeah. You keep him safe.'
'Even I have to say, letting him go is a bad idea.'
'That's the dumbest and most fucked up idea ever!'
'Don't you even think about it! Got it?'
The supporter asked an interesting question, 'The real question is, what if you decided to keep him? One day he'll turn 18. An adult. What would you do then?'
I'll think about it later. I will keep him here for now, and that was his temporary decision. Until a better solution would come up.
The conversations inside Duke's head seemed to have stopped when a sound behind him was heard, "Grrr."
That left the good side of him arguing with the bad side. These two voices do that a lot:
'What's that sound?' asked the good voice.
Duke turned around and took a look at Kevin's stomach. Then he looked at the kid with a miserable expression on his face.
'The guy's a lil hungry, that's all,' answered the bad voice.
'Oh, poor kid. Ask him what he wants to eat?'
'For fuck's sake, he has a bowl full of biscuits! Don't be a softy!'
'No swearing!'
The supporter voice settled this argument by saying, 'Don't listen to any of us. Just do what you wanna do.'
Finally, Duke put the thoughts in his head to rest and decided to do what he wants to do. He asked Kevin, "What do you want?"
The kid replied painfully, "I wanna go home."
Just whatever you do, don't let him go!