In Love and Death

Sam walked along the near-deserted street, schoolbag hanging from his shoulder, lost in thought.

He’d managed to get out of school without running into anyone, which wasn’t all that common. After school, he’d usually be cornered in the bathroom or parking lot and more often than not, he’d get beaten up again.

He hadn’t told Jake, though, because he didn’t want the older boy to worry about him more than he had to. Jake thought it only happened in the mornings, at lunch break or, occasionally, when he was walking down the hallway to get to his next class, and Sam had full intentions of keeping it like that.

That was why he always left the school alone. He didn’t want Jake to be mixed up in any of this more than was necessary, so he’d told him he was getting extra Biology class after school because he sucked so hopelessly at it (which, really, wasn’t very far from the truth).

Talking of Biology…

Sam smacked his palm against his forehead and cursed out loud. Crap. He’d been so focused on getting out of school quickly so that they wouldn’t catch him, he’d completely forgotten about the Biology test first thing tomorrow morning, and he’d left all his books in his locker. And he knew without them he was doomed.

He’d have to go back and get them, then. At the mere thought of going back, he felt a shiver run down his spine. What if they were waiting? What if they caught him this time? He knew what they’d do to him wouldn’t be exactly pleasant.

But if he wanted to pass Biology, he really didn’t have a choice. And besides, it was later than usual. Maybe they’d left already…

With a brief sigh of resignation, Sam turned around and started walking in the opposite direction. All too soon, he was at the gates of the ugly, squat concrete building again. He pushed one of the gates and found it slightly ajar, which didn’t surprise him – they usually left the doors open for a while after school was over, as a couple of the teachers and the cleaners were there.

Once inside, he snuck a brief glance around. There was nobody there. He let a small sigh of relief escape his lips: maybe he was right, and they’d left already. He made his way along the deserted hallway towards his locker and opened it cautiously, in case they’d decided to strategically place all his books so that they fell on him when he opened the locker door (it’d happened more than once). But no. Everything was in order, and while he couldn’t help but feel relived, there was something… unnatural about all this. Sam didn’t know exactly what it was, but something told him he shouldn’t get too relaxed.

Stop thinking like that, you idiot. Can’t you see there’s nobody here?

He stole another quick glance around, but the hallway remained silent and empty.

Sam shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts, and started rummaging through his locker, trying to find his books. He’d never been the tidiest person, and it often took a while for him to find things, but they always turned up in the end.

He frowned, confused. How come he hadn’t found his books yet? He was sure he’d thrown them in the locker with his English books, so they should be pretty close together, right? But there were his English books… and the Biology ones were nowhere to be found.

He was making up his mind to just throw everything out of his locker until he’d found them when he felt something smack him sharply in the back of the head.

Sam’s mouth popped open. He whirled around, heart thumping, certain his worst suspicions were about to be confirmed. And they were.

Seven boys stood there, all of them tall, broad-shouldered and way more muscular than Sam was, who, despite his best efforts to gain some muscle, remained short and rake-skinny. He knew he wouldn’t even stand a chance against one of them, and there were seven… Sam clenched his fists with so much force that the nails dug painfully into his palm. He was dead. That was it – dead.

The one in front cracked his knuckles, and Sam saw a menacing smile spread slowly across his face.

“Well, well, what do we have here?” His voice was mocking, yet Sam could perfectly sense the undercurrent of threat in his tone. “Fancy seeing you here, Sammy boy. We thought you’d left already, didn’t we, boys?” He cocked his head to one side. “You lookin’ for something?”

Another boy grinned, and Sam saw with horror that he was holding his books. “N-no, give them here-”

“Oh, really?” sneered the leader, and Sam cursed himself for the thousandth time for being so weak and defenseless that he couldn’t even stand up for himself. “Well, you don’t reallyexpect us to give them back just like that, do you? We need something in return,” he said, grinning slyly.

Two boys took a step forward, with bad intentions written all over their faces. Sam sensed what was about to happen and tried to run, but the others were faster – one of them grabbed him and shoved his head painfully against a locker. Sam felt his eyes water and struggled to escape his grip, but it was too late. He felt himself being hoisted into the air and onto someone’s shoulder, and he kicked and writhed desperately – but it was useless. The other boy had far more strength than he did, and even though Sam was struggling as hard as he could, it didn’t seem to be affecting him in the least.

Sam had just enough time to open his mouth and utter one last cry for help before a hand clamped roughly onto his face, stopping him from saying anything. “That’s better,” someone jeered. It drove Sam insane to know that all his efforts were being blown back so easily, so he didn’t think twice about it: he opened his mouth again and then bit down as hard as he could on the hand over his mouth.

He heard a cry of pain and someone swearing out loud and, next thing he knew, a large hand flew towards him and slapped him hard on the cheek.

"Worthless fucker," a voice hissed next to his ear. "You'll pay for that, you faggot." The hand over his mouth was gone, but instead he felt someone tie a gag around his face, with a ruthlessness that told him he'd pissed them off. And that was not a good thing. Sam kicked out furiously, but knew it was useless when he heard a scornful laugh somewhere near him.

They started walking in a particular direction, dragging Sam with them, and the only thing he could do was shut his eyes tightly and pray to whoever might be listening to get him out of here alive. The boys' jeers from around him echoed inside his head, reminding him of how sickening, how worthless, how much of a freak he was. But there was one, one in particular, that stuck inside his head and made his insides churn with horror.

"You know what's going to happen with your faggot of a boyfriend once we're done with you, right?"

They couldn't hurt Jake. No, there was no way he'd allow them to even touch him. But he knew that there was absolutely nothing he could do about it, except perhaps do exactly as they told him, allow himself to be beaten up as many times as necessary... then maybe, just maybe, they'd forget about Jake. He clung to that hope, because it was the only one he had left.

With a jolt, he realized they'd stopped moving. And he realized where they were.

They were at that same bathroom where they'd cornered him earlier, the bathroom where Jake had found him... Thinking of Jake made a wave of guilt and nausea sweep over him, and he made an effort to control himself. There was nothing he could do right now.

But his thoughts were interrupted as he was flung, suddenly and painfully, to the bathroom floor. His face hit the hard tile, and he felt a surge of fierce pain run over the bruises that had been left earlier. He scurried to get up and found himself cornered against a wall yet again, with the boy that seemed to be the leader looming over him.

Sam swallowed, petrified.

"You know," the taller boy drawled, clearly enjoying seeing Sam like this, "we've been thinking about this... and we've decided we don't want to ruin that pretty little face of yours." This was immediately followed by another sharp, stinging slap, and Sam let out a whimper which was barely audible through the piece of cloth tied around his mouth. "So you know what? We've though of a way we can all have a little bit of fun."

Sam's heart thumped erratically in his chest. He had no idea what was going to be done to him, but he had the feeling it was going to be even worse than his everyday torture - and that was something he didn't want to see.

Before he had a chance to figure it out, however, he was knocked to the ground again. This time he wasn't able to get up, though, because as soon as he hit the ground he felt something, or more accurately, someone shove themselves on top of him, pinning him down. Sam looked up fearfully into the person's eyes, and saw it was the leader... who was looking down at him with a mock-seductive smile. But beyond that smile, Sam could see his eyes were full of lust... and in a second, it became clear what was going to happen to him.

"No!" he screamed. "No, NO! Get off me!" But, of course, his voice was unintelligible, muffled by the gag tied around his mouth. He felt a stab of icy fear make its way into his heart as someone yanked of his pants with a laugh, and he thrashed, kicked and screamed desperately, even though he knew that nobody would help him, that he was completely alone.

Sam felt his head being pulled back harshly by the hair, and he heard his tormentor whisper venomously into his ear, "Don't be like that, baby." Sam sent him a pleading glance, dark brown eyes filled with tears, but the other boy just laughed cruelly and loosened his hold on Sam's hair, making his forehead fall back onto the tile with a loud crack.

Sam writhed frantically once again, refusing to believe he was going to be raped in the middle of a school. It couldn't be happening. These kinds of things never happened in real life. You heard the stories, but never really considered it could happen to you. But no, it was real, too real, and Sam was reminded of this when he felt his arms being pinned down to the floor and the larger boy entering him without another word.

He screamed, a chilling, blood-curdling scream that was muffled by the cloth over his mouth, as he felt himself being torn inside and agony searing between his legs as he was pounded into mercilessly. He couldn't hear anything apart from his own heart-wrenching screams, which rang in his ears and echoed around the room, and a red haze obscured his vision as the agony intensified and tears streamed down his cheeks. The thrusts were getting harder and harder, and the pain was mind-numbing, permeating every level of his consciousness until he felt he couldn't take it anymore, that he'd rather die than keep up with this.

He was barely aware of the groans from above him or the jeers coming from the boys around him. He just wanted it to end, to finally end... But the thrusts kept getting harder and the agony reached entirely new levels until, with one final, ruthless shove, he felt the boy coming roughly inside of him and sliding out.

Limp, sweaty strands of hair stuck to Sam's forehead, his breathing was irregular and his vision was strangely hazy. He felt himself slipping into a welcome darkness and was barely conscious of someone spitting on him and kicking his side before slithering into unconsciousness.

His last thoughts before succumbing to the darkness, however, were for Jake.