Thirteen-Year-Old Boy Raped, Beaten

“Frank….” I was horrified. “What is this?”

“Look at the picture,” he cried, his voice saturated with fear and pain. A single tear slid down his cheek.

I skipped over the text and stared at the two hand drawn police sketches at the bottom of the article. I didn’t recognise them, but Frank obviously did. “Frank, is that them?” I already knew the answer.

Frank burst into tears. “Yes,” he sobbed. “They’re here. Oh, God, Gerard.”

I hastily sat up and reached out for him. He folded easily into my arms and I wrapped them around him securely. I think I knew what he meant. In the article it said that the boy had been assaulted on the south side of Princeton. Bluestone was located on the north side of Princeton. Frank’s rapists were here, in Princeton, and Frank was terrified. His terror was so tangible it was rubbing off on me.

Frank’s tears were falling thick and fast. “They said – he said – oh God, Gerard, I can’t. No. Please. No. I can’t. Not again.” His words were a slurred, jumbled mess. I think he realised I could barely understand him because he took a few deep breaths and tried again. “He said – oh God, he was right. Gerard, they’ve come back for me.”

“What?” That was the last thing I had expected him to say.

Frank let out a few more sobs. “He said, ‘see you next time.’ I can’t do it again, Gerard. Please don’t let them. Not again. Oh, God, it hurts so much. No. No. No. Please. No. Oh, help me, please, Gerard. ”

I clutched Frank tightly, grabbing a hold of his shirt desperately. My words were stolen before I could speak them. I didn’t know what to do. I shut my eyes and concentrated on pulling Frank in tighter and tighter. I could feel his nails digging into my back but the pain seemed almost superficial compared to the pain radiating from Frank and falling from his eyes. His entire body was shuddering as he sobbed into my shirt.

“I won’t let them,” I said. “I’ll never let them hurt you. Never.”

I wondered if Frank was right. Did they really know that Frank was here or was it just a coincidence?

“Do you hear me?” I said, speaking loudly over Frank’s sobs. He went quiet for a moment. “You are safe. No one will ever touch you again. Do you understand? I’ll never let them get you. I’m here to protect you. They will never hurt you. No one will ever hurt you again. Do you hear me?! ” I yelled and shook Frank. My emotions were going to get the better of me.

With his head still pressed up against my chest Frank nodded once, twice. I exhaled and slid my hand up his back. I stroked the back of Frank’s head and ran my fingers through his hair. “I’ll never let them hurt you,” I said softly and shut my eyes, listening to him weeping softly.

***

Frank’s eyes were still red and his face was still slightly blotchy when we sat down at our table in the cafeteria. He stared down at his sandwich like it was crawling with maggots. I stared down at my own sandwich. I wasn’t going to eat it. I was ridiculously hungry, but I wasn’t going to put it anywhere near my mouth. I still wasn’t convinced about the cook’s innocence. For all I know he could’ve stuffed the bread with arsenic.

“You not hungry either?” Frank asked when he noticed I had pushed my food to the side.

I shrugged. I wondered if I should tell Frank about my suspicions. It was pretty likely that he’ll laugh, tell me to stop being silly and just eat the damn thing. I didn’t really want him to do that; it would hurt my feelings. But I didn’t exactly want to lie to him either.

“What’s the matter?”

Busted.

“Gerard, what’s the matter? ” Frank wasn’t giving up.

I glanced over at the counter to make sure the cook wasn’t attempting to listen to me. You know, just in case he was evil. I leant in towards Frank and he mimicked me so we were almost touching heads. “I’m worried that new cook is trying to poison me,” I whispered and glanced uneasily at the offending piece of food.

Frank didn’t comment. He just blinked several times, his face unreadable. As I watched him his eyes dropped down to my discarded sandwich. Before I could react he reached out for it and took a huge bite from the middle. I gasped and held my breath. I was seriously expecting Frank to fall over dead. But he didn’t; he just chewed the bread and peanut butter thoughtfully before swallowing it.

“Nope, it’s fine,” he announced and placed the half-eaten sandwich back on my tray. It didn’t look all that tasty anymore. I watched Frank carefully in case he fainted or went green but he didn’t. He seemed fine. Dammit. I was wrong…again. I was never wrong before. However, the results were rather inconclusive. The cook may not have poisoned this particular meal; I still wasn’t convinced.

Frank sighed. “Gerard, no one is trying to poison you.”

“You sound like Markman,” I grumbled.

“Markman is right,” he said. He said it without any hint of sarcasm or surprise.

I pouted and dropped my eyes to the tray. Frank tutted. “Well, you won’t have to worry about it for much longer, right?”

“Huh?” I honestly didn’t know what he was referring to.

Frank looked at me funny. He leant in. “We’re still escaping, right?”

That shocked me. I’d assumed that the whole ‘rapists are in town looking for me’ thing meant he didn’t want to leave the safety of the institution.

“Right?” Frank seemed a little frantic.

I blinked at him. “You want to leave? I thought….”

Frank’s face had gone very white. “We can’t stay here,” he said, his words heavy and emphasised. “They’re going to take you away. They want to take you away from me. You promised you would protect me. How are you going to do that if you’re in jail, Gerard?” Frank’s voice was laced with fear.

I nodded fervently. “I won’t let them hurt you. I’ll find a way. I promise.”

Frank wrapped his arms around his abdomen tightly. I had no idea how I was going to get us both out of this place without being detected. A couple of nights ago I had snuck out of my room and tried to get through the glass door but the code had been changed since I’d passed through it all those months ago. Unless I could figure out the code in the next 24 hours I would have to find another way. I wasn’t even considering the visitors entrance. The only way to get in or out via that door is if you were buzzed through by a staff member at the reception. The staff entrance was also impossible to get through. The staff door could only be opened after the person swiped their ID card and keyed in the correct code. Considering I had neither the code nor a valid ID card I was screwed.

I thought Bluestone was meant to be a minimum-security facility. Yet, it was damn near impossible to get out. Even if, somehow, Frank and I managed to escape the building, there was still the pressing issue of the fenced perimeter and the possibility of patrolling guards. I thought it was insane that a small, minimum-security mental facility had patrolling guards. It was like they were trying to prevent us from getting out, or someone from getting in.

I was so caught up in my futile planning attempts that I didn’t notice a slip of paper flutter down onto my tray. Frank was the one who noticed it and picked it up. He raised an eyebrow at me and opened it. I glanced around and saw Bob and Ray hurrying away. Frank and I exchanged a look. It was a look that quite plainly said: ‘oh please, what now?’

Frank cleared his throat and read out the note. “Meet us at Percy at 3:30pm sharp. Make sure you are not followed. X.”

“X?” I repeated and chuckled.

Frank grinned, a welcome facial expression after this morning. He glanced at his watch. “12:50,” he told me.

I didn’t have time for this. I had many more important things to do today. Despite telling myself this several times I found myself walking outside with Frank at 3:30. Bob and Ray were waiting for us at the severed tree stump that used to be known as Percy. Frank and I exchanged a pained look and walked over to them.

“Were you followed?” Ray demanded.

Frank and I both looked over our shoulders. There was no one behind us or even within a twenty-metre radius. Ray nodded, satisfied and told us to sit down. We both hesitated but Ray’s fierce look forced us to our knees within three seconds.

“I hope you liked your piece of newspaper,” Ray commented shrewdly to Frank.

Frank went red. “Sorry,” he muttered. He knew how obsessed Ray was with his comics.

“I want it back,” Ray said bluntly.

Frank turned to me and took a deep breath. “I don’t have it, Ray,” he said, displeased.

Ray threw his hands up in frustration. “Well, now I’ll never know what happens to Ruby!”

“Is that why you wanted us here?!” I said angrily. I had so many better things I could be doing. We did not need to be interrogated about the whereabouts of a fucking comic. I didn’t understand why Ray liked Spiderman that much.

Bob held up his hands. “No, it’s not,” he said and shot a calming look at Ray. “We have something we need to share with you.”

Ray frowned at Bob. “But I need to know!”

I made a loud noise of infuriation from my throat. “She slips off the ledge and falls the twenty stories but Spiderman catches her just as she’s about to hit the ground.” Why the fuck did I know that?

Ray’s eyes grew wide. He grinned triumphantly. “I knew he wouldn’t let her die!”

Bob smiled at me and patted Ray on the knee. “Can we tell them now?” he asked.

I was only mildly interested at this point. I don’t know if there was anything that they could say to me at the moment that would change anything.

“We want to help you escape.”

My mouth dropped. How the fuck did they know about that?! This was bad. The more people who knew about what we were planning to do meant the more likely we were to get busted. I looked to Frank. He was equally as horrified. We both turned to look at Ray and Bob. I was so close to hitting Ray in the face. I was convinced that he must’ve been spying on me or at least listening in to my conversations.

“We’re not escaping,” I lied. I had to try and convince them otherwise.

Bob and Ray both laughed. “It’s okay!” Bob said. “We won’t tell anyone. We want to help you.”

Oh, great.

Frank shot me a worried look. He knew that this could only end badly. He may not have known Ray as long as I had but he knew enough to know that Ray was incredibly unstable. I started thinking about how I could bribe Ray and Bob into forgetting we even had this conversation. I picked unconsciously at the grass and twirled it between my fingers.

“Gerard,” Bob said firmly.

I glanced up. “What?”

“Don’t do that.” He nodded at the shredded grass between my fingers.

Oh, that’s right. I dropped the grass and rolled my eyes.

Ray cleared his throat. “Shall I tell you what happened?” He didn’t wait for my answer, he just barrelled on. “Well, it was a while ago, Gerard, you might remember?”

I doubt it.

“Remember?! I asked you if you were planning to escape?”

Holy shit, he was right. Fuck me.

“But you said no?”

Well, I wasn’t, at the time.

“Anyway, it turns out that my cereal was accurate, it was just wrong about the time. Gerard, my cereal predicted that this would happen!”

“Should I be clapping or something?” I said sarcastically.

He ignored me. “I was so disappointed at the time that I decided to swear off eating cornflakes. I was so sick of them being wrong. But that’s the thing! They weren’t wrong! As soon as I realised this I knew that I had to have them again. And they told me exactly how you were going to escape.”

I cannot believe that we were talking about future predicting cornflakes.

“How?” Frank asked.

“Fire alarm,” Ray said knowingly.

I felt so incredibly stupid. I felt betrayed by my brain. Of course! The evacuation point for the institute was the staff car park. Once we were outside all Frank and I would have to do is slip away from the group and make a run for it. It was remarkably simple and I was frustrated that I hadn’t thought of it.

The hope on Frank’s face was beautiful. It made me want to kiss him. He turned to me. “Will that work?” he asked, his eyes lit up like the stars.

“It’s brilliant,” Ray interjected and looked between Frank and I.

I ignored him and addressed Frank. “It’ll work,” I said honestly. I was silently spewing that Ray had gotten one up on my brain. “But –.”

“But what!?” Ray interrupted. “Gerard, it’ll work. The only thing is…you’ll need to leave tonight.”

To my right, Frank nodded.

***

My heart was beating at an anxious 110 beats per minute as I laid in the eerie darkness of my room. This was all moving too fast for my liking. After Ray announced that if we wanted to leave we needed to leave tonight everything seemed to move in double time. I’m not saying I didn’t want to leave, I’m saying that I didn’t want to get caught because the plan sucked or wasn’t thought out properly. I had serious doubts. The window of opportunity was so miniscule it was almost non-existent. Fuck.

I flexed my left arm and winced. Despite my protests, straight after my meeting with Ray and Bob I was dragged in to have my blood test. Yes, it did help slightly that Frank was there but I still shook so much the nurse missed the vein and had to stab me two more times. I swear all the staff in this facility were incompetent.

The institute was so silent at night that I had been worrying needlessly about hearing my cue. I leapt to my feet at the sound of Ray’s voice echoing down the corridor. I clutched the t-shirt in my hands tightly as I crept closer to the door. I heard the light thudding of shoes as the two orderlies on duty hurried to Ray’s room. I took a deep breath and cracked my door open. I peered through the crack down the corridor. Upon seeing it was deserted I slipped out and shut my door noiselessly. I could still hear Ray carrying on and I knew that I had no time to waste. Ray could conjure drama out of anything and tonight he certainly did that.

I walked briskly down the corridor, away from Ray’s room, and towards the cafeteria. It must’ve been a full moon tonight because the cafeteria was lit up brightly as I crossed. From the cafeteria I headed towards the corridor that was home to the only fire alarm. I was familiar with this corridor; it was where Markman’s office was located. We weren’t normally allowed down here unless we were seeing someone. I spotted the small glass box halfway down the corridor, next to a door labelled, ‘Dr. Jared Leto. I drew up in front of the alarm and began to wrap the shirt around my fist. The instructions on the glass read, ‘Break Glass In Case Of Fire’. That was exactly what I planned to do.

Just as I was about to punch the glass I heard a noise from down the corridor. I hesitated and glanced in the direction of the offending noise. I think Markman was just as surprised to see me as I was to see her. She froze halfway through locking her office door. She abandoned the door and began to walk towards me.

“Gerard,” she said in a low voice. “What are you doing?”

I raised my fist again. I wouldn’t let her stop me.

The moment she realised what I was going to do she stopped several metres away from me. “Gerard, you don’t want to do that.” She was ridiculously calm; I was sweating profusely and my heart was thumping loudly. She took a step closer but I moved my fist back menacingly. “You know very well that there are several individuals in here that will react very badly to the situation you are about to create.”

That’s what I wanted. We needed the chaos. Without the chaos we would be declared missing almost immediately. We needed cover.

“Gerard, tell me what you are thinking?” Markman asked and took another step closer. “Why do you want to do that?”

“Stop it!” I hissed and glanced nervously between Markman and the alarm.

Markman was staring at me very intensely. Fucking hell, I’m not about to kill anyone. “Gerard, why do you want to do that? Is it for attention?”

“Stop it!” I repeated. I didn’t need her working her shrink abilities on me at this precise moment. My time was running out. I needed to pull the alarm or it would be game over.

“Gerard, you really won’t benefit from this. In fact, I would strongly advise against getting into any more trouble. Or….”

I clenched and unclenched my shirt-covered fist anxiously. That was it. “Don’t you understand?” I growled. “Did you really think I would just wait here for them to come and take me away?! I can’t just wait here. I know I did a bad thing and I’m sorry but I can’t leave him. He needs me. I said I would fix him, but I need more time. I can’t let them take me away from him.”

Saying Markman was surprised would be an understatement right now. “You’re doing this for Frank,” she clarified, softly.

“I love him,” I whispered wretchedly. It was the first time I’d ever admitted that to anyone. It was the first time I’d even said those three words out loud. Ugh, how pathetic.

With the words still on my tongue I turned and punched the glass as hard as I could. The glass shattered loudly and fell to the ground around my feet. I wrapped my shaking fingers around the red lever and pulled.