If Only We Could Be Us

Gem Creek. There has been rumors about it and how horrible it is, but no one actually listens to them. I wish I had. We haven’t even been here for more than a few minutes and I am already scared shitless. I am supposed to be the one that protects my friends, but I can’t do anything. Fear has a way of making you act differently than you normally do. I am currently being pulled around by a huge security guard. Oh, and did I mention that I was in handcuffs? Fun shit.

Prison is the first thing I think when I look at this place. There is barbed wire, watch towers, and a lot of security guards. The security here looks like they eat people like me for breakfast. The seven of us were all pushed into a little waiting room and forced to sit. Each of us was called up one by one.

“Names,” a lady with a clip board looked up at us. For a moment none of us spoke but, Jack broke the silence.

“Forester, Jack Forester,” he said trying to imitate James Bond. Mitch and Munro snickered, but quickly shut up when the lady gave them a stern look.

“Shayne Allistaire,” Shayne growled.

“Asher Aisling,” Ash smiled and tried to be polite. His smile quickly faded when the bitch scoffed.

She turned to Mitch and Munro and my heart broke when I saw them. Both of them had tears streaming down their cheeks and they were holding hands even with the handcuffs on. Mitch opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped and started to hyperventilate.

“I said names. NOW!” she yelled at them. I quickly pushed the body guard that was holding my shoulder down and ran over to my baby.

“Shhhh. It’s okay babe. I’m here. You’re safe,” that was a lie, no one was safe here, “Calm down. I’m here for you,” I slipped my handcuffed arms over his head and held him.

“Give me your names now or you will be punished.”

“Shut up! This is Mitch Mason and that is Munro Skylan. The purple haired girl over there is Liza Allistaire and I’m Louis Raponza. Happy now bitch?” I should really think before I speak.

She looked at the guards, “Send them all to get their uniforms and hair done. After that send them down to the mess hall for dinner and then they will be assigned rooms.” She turned back to us, “If any of you misbehave you will be send down to the dungeon for punishment. You are expected to be on your very best behavior. The rules will be told to you when you get your uniforms. Break them and you will be punished. If you don’t corporate you will be punished. Being late to any of your meals or to roll call and you will be-”

“Punished, we know.” I rolled my eyes.

“Did you just interrupt me?” She pursed her lips.

“Yes I did. And may I say that face you are making looks like you need to take a shit. I suggest you do so,” again… I need to think before I speak. She took a few steps towards me until her face was inches from mine.

“I suggest you apologize.” She said.

“And I suggest you find a mint.”

“Louis,” Mitch whispered, “please stop.”

“You should listen to this little cunt and stop.”

“YOU DID NOT JUSR CALL MY BOYFRIEND THAT!” I yelled before charging her. Before I could touch her I was pulled back by a few body guards, “LET ME FUCKING GO!”

“Take him to the dungeon. After he learns his lesson he can join the others for dinner,” she told them. I struggled against their strong hold, but it was no use.

“LOUIS!” Mitch screamed the panic in his voice apparent.

I didn’t get a chance to say anything else before I was pushed through a door and down a long hallway. I didn’t bother fight them; I just walked along their sides. The hall was very dimly lit and on both sides there were little cells with bunk beds that looked like they were made of cement. I was taken down a few more hallways that all looked the same before I entered into a room.

“Welcome to the dungeon,” one of the men laughed.

They were right to name this the dungeon. It looked like one from an old movie. The door leading into the room was large and medal with many locks holding it down. Light was coming through little holes in the celling, but you could barely see two inches in front of your face. There were shackles attached to the walls and cob webs all over. The walls were all made of stone the ground was covered in dirt and… blood?

“Alright, let’s teach him a lesson,” the other said with a disgusting gravelly voice.

They lifted me up and attached my wrists to shackles that were so high up that I could only touch the ground if I stayed on my tippy-toes. I moved my wrists around to see how mych wiggle room I had only to realize that there were blades on the insides of the shackles. One of the men took a pair of scissors and cut off my shirt and pants so that I was only in my boxers.

“What the fuck are you going to do to me?” The fear was clear in my voice.

“Oh we are just going to teach you to behave,” he flashed a scary smile with his yellow crooked teeth showing. He walked over to the other side of the room and opened a big medal chest. A few items were pulled out before he walked back over to me.

“Now, why don’t we get started?”

A camera was set up in front of me and one of them stood behind it and operated it. The other man pulled out a long whip and ran it over my bare chest before bringing it back behind his head and slashing it against my skin. You hear the sound of a whip in movies, but nothing is as bad as hearing it in real life. I cried out in pain as he continued to whip me.

“AHHHHHHH!!!!” I screamed at the top of my lungs in between hits, “Please- STOP!”

“Oh I don’t think you have learned your lesson yet. This video is being sent straight to the mess hall for all to see what happens when you don’t behave. I bet your friends are having such a hard time watching this. I want you to beg them to help you.”

“NO!” I screamed as he whipped me again. I could feel the blood running down my chest. My legs couldn’t hold me up any longer and soon I was just dangling from my wrists with the blades hitting my skin making them raw.

“The sooner you beg, the sooner this is over.” another few lashes hit me as he said this.

“Please!” I said.

“Please what?”

“Please help me guys!” I cried out, “Please stop the pain!”

“That is a little bit better, but I would like you to apologize to your masters.”

“I’m sorry!” I screamed out in pain.

“I’m sorry who?” One of them laughed.

“I’M SORRY MASTER! I AM SORRY FOR DISRESPECTING YOU! I AM SO SO SO SORRY!!!!”

“Good,” the whip dropped to the ground, “One more thing before we leave.” He walked back over to the chest and pulled out a large pole with the numbers ‘2182’ red with heat on the bottom of it.

“What is that?!” I tried to pull my body away from them.

“Haven’t you ever seen a cow branded before? We need this to keep track of you delinquents.”

My eyes widened in fear as he came closer to me, “Please, no!” I screamed, but it was too late. As soon as it touched my already raw side I cried out. It felt as though my skin would fall off from the intense heat. They kept the metal against me for what seemed like hours before pulling it away and splashing some water on it.

“There, that wasn’t too bad was it?” a wicked laugh echoed off of the walls, “Now that you have learned your lesson why don’t we get you your uniform?”

He grabbed onto the shackles and unhooked me. I immediately fell to the ground and clenched my wrists. I shut my eyes and tried to hold the tears back, but the pain was just too much.

“Awwwe the faggot is crying!” the man said with fake sincerity, “Now get the fuck up!”

I must have taken longer than he liked because soon enough I was being kicked.

“I said GET UP!” He kicked between every word. It took every ounce of strength that I had left to get up.

A smirk appeared on his lips and he pointed the camera right at my face, “I’m so glad that everyone got to see this. Do you have anything else that you would like to say?”

“Yah I do, fu-” I stopped midsentence and thought of the punishment I had just received, “Never mind.”

“Good boy. Now let’s go get you cleaned up.” The two men grabbed me by my shoulders and guided me out of the room and into the long set of hallways once again. Every step I took stung and made me cry out in pain.

*******

I was sent to the nurses before going to the dressing rooms. They had cleaned my cuts and bandaged them up. Normally you would expect nurses to be old, gentle, and sweet women who just want to make you feel better, but the nurses here were nothing like that. They all had bitter looks on their faces and did nothing to comfort me. I was in and out of there in a matter of minutes.

In the dressing room I wasn’t treated much better. An old man measured me and quickly threw a pair of black pants, a white dress shirt, a striped tie, combat boots, and a jacket with the Silver Creek logo on its pocket. I looked into the faded mirror that hung on the wall and sighed. Besides the boots I looked like a fucking idiot.

“Louis Raponza?” I turned to see a short girl standing in the door way. Her hair was bright red and she wore a huge amount of eye-liner. Just looking at her face someone would say that she looked like a normal rebellious teenager, but her uniform said otherwise. She wore a white shirt with the same tie as I had. Her skirt was pleaded and plaid. Her knee high socks were mostly covered by combat boots.

She cleared her throat as I stared her down.

“I’m sorry,” I snapped back to reality, “Yah I’m Louis, who are you?”

A small smile was visible on her lips, “Call me red.”

“Okay Red, what can I do for you?”

“I was sent down here to bring you to the mess hall. Normally a guard would bring you down, but they made an exception for me. I have my ways of getting the things I want here. I’ve been here for over a year and I have never seen someone take a beating as well as you just did,” Red motioned for me to follow her as she exited the room.

“Thanks? I think.” I limped behind her. It was a struggle to keep up with little Red.

“It’s a compliment, take it.” She stopped in front of a door and turned to face me, “Okay so this is the mess hall. Considering that your beating was broadcasted around Gem Creek, expect all eyes to be on you.”

“Great.” I said with sarcasm.

“Don’t worry,” She grabbed my hand, “You have me,”

Red pushed open two large doors and walked into the mess hall. For a second everyone was talking and eating their meals, but that changed very quickly. Everyone turned towards us and stared. There was a lot more students here than I thought there would be. I couldn’t see my friends in the sea of people. Right now, all I wanted was to be with my Mitch.

“Common,” Red pulled on my arm, “Let’s get you some food. We can find your friends later.”

“But-” I tried to protest.

“Shhh. They can wait a few minutes. You need food.” She grabbed two trays and handed one to me. We walked over to lunch lady’s and waited. They stared at us with bitter looks on their faces before taking a scoop of food and throwing it down onto my tray. The food looked like it was already eaten and thrown back up.

“What the fuck is this?!” I asked in disgust as we walked away.

“Chili.” Red said quickly. She led me to two large doors and then stopped, “I saw the new kids that came here today and I’m guessing they came here with you. They came into the spare lunch room. There is a few spots that they let us eat and I think they wanted some privacy.”

“So they are in there?” I asked and she nodded her head, “Well what are we waiting for?”

Her eyes widened a bit, “You want me to come?”

“Of course.” I smiled down to the girl.

“Thank you!” She squealed, “Almost no one talks to me here! I don’t know why, but whatever! I think they may be a bit scared of me.”

Who would be scared of her? She was so little.

“Don’t mention it.” I said before taking a huge breath in and pushing the doors open. Inside the room were six people all facing away from the doors, but I only recognized three. Jack and Munro sat in the corner of the room on the ground hugging Mitch. Mitch was a mess. He was hyperventilating and rocking back and forth.

“I- I need Louis. He- he needs to be okay!” He managed to say these words before tears began to pour down his face.

I frowned at this and placed my tray down onto the table.

“Mitch please stop crying. I’m here, we are going to be okay.” I said. All heads turned towards me and Mitch’s eyes were bugging out of his head. He pushed his friends out of the way and ran towards me as fast as he could.

“LOUIS!” he screamed before launching himself at me. I winced in pain as he slammed into my many cuts. “Oh thank god you’re okay! I saw the video and- and- OH MY GOD!” He buried his face into my chest and began sobbing.

I pushed the pain to the back of my mind and stroke his hair, “Shhh its okay, were okay.”

Suddenly I felt multiple arms rapping around my body. I opened my eyes to see everyone around me.

“AWE!” Red screamed, “GROUP HUG!!!!” she quickly joined in.

“Okay, this is nice, but it also hurts like a bitch! Please-ow- get off!” I screamed in pain.

Everyone jumped back except for Mitch. He held onto me as tight as his little arms could hold. I smiled at him before looking up at Jack.

“Where is everyone else?” I asked.

“Who else?” He asked confused.

“Shayne, Liza, and Asher.” I said.

“Louis, were right here.” I turned my head to see a two blonde boys, one with Munro snuggled up to his side, and a blonde girl with a short haircut. I squinted my eyes before realizing that these were indeed my friends.

My eyes widened as I looked at them, “What happened to your hair?! Ash, yours was lime! And Shayne and Liza, you guys had purple hair!”

Munro sighed as he snuggled into Shayne’s side, “They said that they didn’t like them having individuality so they used some weird thing to get rid of the colors. Do you see my boyfriend’s head?! He is a blonde! And they took away his nose ring and a few other piercings… including one that I didn’t know about on his dick…”

“MUNRO!” Shayne screamed, “That was supposed to be private!”

A small blush appeared on both of their faces.

“Wait, than how is your hair like that Red?” I questioned.

“I told you, I have my ways,” She smiled.

“Uh… who is she?” Asher asked.

“Oh! Hi! I’m friends with Loui! Don’t worry, all of us will get along perfectly! Oh and by the way, you can call me Red.”

“Red?” Liza asked, “Is that really your name?”

“No, but no one here knows my name and I plan on keeping it that way.”

“Okay than….” Munro scratched his head before turning towards me, “I’m just glad your okay.”

“So am I,” Mitch whispered with his face still pressed against my neck, “I’m so glad you’re okay. I love you.”

“Love you too.” I smiled, but flinched when he moved. His arm pressed against a few of my cuts, but I didn’t want to ruin this moment, “I love you too Mitch. So much.”