~Jude~
Awake now, I was curled up in a small, dark space. My hands were tied behind my back with a belt or something like that. I was lurching back and forth, motion sick. The trunk of a car. Rooster's car. A few times he slammed on the brakes, just for fun, I was sure.
Then there was motionlessness and silence, before a burst of light opened up above my head. I saw Rooster leaning over me and then his fist flew down, hitting my temple.
I came to again as I was being dragged somewhere. My head was swimming, but I recognized this place. We were on Pekoe Street.
Stopping suddenly, Rooster let me get to my feet. We were at the top of the stairwell and I staggered. I just had enough time to notice the trash that had collected at the bottom when Rooster shoved me down the stairs.
I blacked out for a little bit and woke up to the stench of rotting garbage and Rooster dragging me toward the apartment door. He opened it with a kick just as I scramble to my feet. I was barely up, hunched over and heaving before Rooster had me in another chokehold and forced me inside.
He tossed me on the filthy floor then secured the door by pushing a washing machine against it and piling some other crap on top. While he was busy, he was giving me another opening. I was on my knees, my shoulder to the floor. I pushed off but with my hands tied, all I managed to do was get back on my feet again in time for Rooster to shove me back down.
Grabbing hold of my arms, he wrenched them back painfully and hauled me toward the wall. A pipe ran along the bottom of that wall and Rooster tied me to it. Fuck. I wasted every chance I had. Now I was his prisoner.
***
~Carter~
Tara was texting as we walked around the bus terminal, then she shook her head. "This isn't right. He didn't answer one text. After he got attacked and you too, Jude wouldn't just ignore me. He wouldn't scare the shit out of me like this. If he didn't at least tell me he was Ok, he knows I'd tear out my hair worrying and then murder him."
I was afraid that she was right. After he had his say, Jude might not reply to me, but why didn't he contact Tara at all? "Maybe his phone is off?"
"No, it rings when I call, and he wouldn't turn it off anyway. What if his mom needed him? I don't like this. With that guy Rooster lurking around here..." she closed her mouth tight then stalked away with an angry stride.
All over the bus depot, Tara shoved her phone in people's faces to make them look at pictures of Jude. She was a lot more aggressive than when we were looking for Dave. I was feeling pretty damn aggressive myself, but I tried to sound calm as I spoke to people. Neither one of us got anywhere though.
We made another sweep of the bus station and showed Jude's picture to a few more people. Then I heard Tara's phone and went over to her. She looked at her phone eagerly as she read a text then growled at the screen. "It's not Jude. It's just Ben. He asks if I've seen Jude. Why is he looking for Jude?" she asked then texted the same question to Ben.
I read the reply over her shoulder. "Tonya said she saw Dave with this guy she called rooster boy a few days ago. I think Jude knows him."
"Weird. Dave is shacked up with some shady guy. Dave was seen with 'rooster boy', and guys don't get any shadier that Rooster," she said, thinking out loud. "That is way too freaky."
"Your friend Dave went radio silent too," I remembered.
"Fuck!" Tara said then started typing furiously. I leaned over and read her one word question, "Where?" As we waited for the answer, an ice-cold hand gripped my heart and wouldn't let go.
Ben replied, "Tonya said Pekoe, south side. Rooster boy hangs out around there."
"Do you have this Tonya's number? Call her. I want to talk to her," I demanded. I hoped I could get something more out of her.
"She doesn't have a phone," Tara said. "That's why Ben is relaying the message. Pekoe Street is where Jude used to live, but his old building is condemned."
"Condemned? Doesn't that make it a good place to hide?" I asked, but Tara ignored me as she headed out of the bus station and to her car.
I caught up to her then stepped in front of her with my hand out. "I'll go to Jude's old place. Give me directions. Let me borrow your car."
"Like hell! I'm driving," she said and tried to get around me.
"Give me your damn car keys, Tara. I need to find this Rooster and beat the truth out of him if I have to. If he did anything to Jude..."
Tara cut me off. "Jude is fine!" she screamed at me. "And if Rooster did anything..." She stopped there and then pushed past me angrily. "Let's just go!"
Back in the car I was thinking about the way Dave disappeared and now Jude. I didn't like how things were stacking up. Obviously this Rooster liked to play it on repeat. Why else would he come back here and go after Jude? That meant that Jude's old apartment building was a good bet. But what if Jude was on his way out of town right now?
"Are we wasting our time?" I wondered out loud. "What if Jude is already on a bus out of here or hitching a ride?"
"Then he's safe, more or less. If Rooster got him or Dave..." she trailed off. "We'll check out the building then we'll see. Rooster knows that place like the back of his hand, not that he ever did any work from what Jude told me. The supers at places like that are always the worst of the worst. Their job is to push the tenants around so they pay up and keep them from reporting them for all the housing violations. So you see what kind of slimy garbage Jude got himself mixed up with."
"He put himself through a lot just to get an extension on rent," I said. I couldn't believe how something like that snowballed.
"Don't you judge him!" Tara snapped at me. Though that's not how I meant it, I didn't argue with her. "Jude was a sixteen-year-old kid, and being homeless is no joke. Can you see Jude's mom surviving one cold minute on the street? Or Jude for that matter. Fuck. He better be Ok!"
***
~Jude~
Sitting on the concrete floor, tied to the pipe running along the wall, I took stock of my options. If I was to escape from the basement, I needed a fast way out. Above my head were mere slits that passed for windows, only good to let in a little bit of light and show the feet of people passing by. If I couldn't get myself out through that door, I wasn't getting out at all.
Rust chafed at my wrists, and I wondered if the pipe might be weak enough to break. Then what? My eyes darted around, taking in everything I could possibly use as a weapon if I managed to get my hands free.
Filled with trash and broken odds and ends of discarded furniture, paint flaking off, the place was familiar even in its current state. With Rooster there, I didn't see the difference. The place was a rat hole either way. Finding myself in his power again, I was afraid that history was going to repeat itself and maybe turn out much worse for me this time.
With my backpack between his knees, Rooster had settled across from me. Sitting on a folding chair with ripped canvas that had been repaired with duck tape, he looked pretty much the same, maybe stockier. His shaved hair was growing out and not doing a good job hiding his bald spot.
He was rifling through my things but not finding anything to interest him. I saw my phone in there. I knew it wasn't in my back pocket any more, but I thought maybe it just fell out.
"What the hell do you want from me?" I asked Rooster. I sounded pissed off, but it was really my fear speaking.
Rooster's eyes snapped to me, angry at first. He kicked away my backpack, but then he took in the sight of me and smiled, pleased with what he saw. His anger forgotten, he leaned back and leered at me.
"You must be tired of living to talk to me like that," he said. He picked up one of the apples that rolled out of my backpack, took a bite and spit it out. "What I want is to ream your ass for a couple of hours, then go back to beating your ass. How does that sound?"
"Fuck you," I said. Nothing I said would get me out of this anyway.
Rooster tossed the apple in one hand then threw it against the wall where it splattered. "We have unfinished business. An outstanding debt that needs paying. We got interrupted last time. Don’t you remember? I got my face caved in by that hard-ass, sugar daddy of yours. Lost a couple of teeth. Had to have my nose fixed so I could breathe right. And one of my broken ribs nearly punctured my lungs. Not to mention my damn hand." Rooster narrowed his eyes at me like he was promising that I would pay for every single one of those injuries. "How is the old man doing these days? That's right. I hear he's sick. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy."
"He should have finished the job," I said.
"He can't do shit about it now." He laughed.
The way he was crowing about Scott disgusted me. "Now that the man is sick and dying, you got brave."
He shrugged but the look in his eyes told me I would be sorry for mouthing off to him soon enough. "By the by, did you like how I ran your hunk's crappy car off the road or did you like it better when I sent you both diving into a ditch after that party. That was too fucking funny."
I had forgotten about that time after the party. "That was you?"
"Well, sure," he said with a derisive laugh. He loved to brag and hear himself talk. He used to say I was a good listener. That was because I didn't have one fucking thing to say to him, except to go to hell. And back then I didn't dare.
Hanging from an overturned crate, something caught the light. I focused on it and recognized it with a start. It was a charm bracelet Dave wore. It had a clunky silver chain, badly tarnished so it had turned purple. Four leaf clover charms were hanging from it, as many as he could get his hands on, all different. People were always giving them to him. I even gave him one. That bracelet meant that Dave had been here.
"You recognize it?" Rooster asked smiling like the bracelet was a trophy.
"Yes, I do. Where is Dave? What did you do to him?"
Rooster laughed. He liked to think of himself as a big, bad man, a born predator taking down helpless prey, but he was just a pathetic scumbag preying on desperate kids. That Dave might have been one of those kids scared the hell out of me.
"Ahh, sweet Dave," he said with a lewd smile. "I saw him lurking outside that house where you're staying so nice and cozy. Waiting for you, I guess. I was waiting for you too, so me and your buddy, Dave, got to talking. We hit it off and he came home with me. He didn't like it here much at first, but I fed him a pill or two and then he liked it fine. Don't worry. He was just keeping the spot warm for you."
"What did you do to him?" I asked again, louder this time.
"Just the usual. Sweet sixteen, but he didn't quite hit the spot. He talked too damn much. So I gave him a few bucks and he went on his way." Now Rooster seemed cagey, evasive, not his usual bragging self.
"And he went without that?" I said nodding toward the bracelet.
Rooster chuckled but looked uneasy. "We traded for it."
"I don't think so."
Now Rooster got somber as he fingered the charms. "Your friend Dave was real fond of it. A good luck charm. Must be defective. I ditched your buddy in Hanover Marsh. Don't worry I picked a pretty spot for him." Rooster had a weird look on his face as he stared back at me.
"Ditched him?" I was afraid to know what he meant by that.
"He ODed. But it's no big loss. He wouldn't settle the fuck down. He kept running that big mouth of his. I wanted to shut him up, so I might have given him one too many. Couldn't wake him up. What can you do?"
Rooster shrugged, and my blood boiled. Dave was dead. My heart hammered in my chest, a dull, loud beat. I wanted to kill Rooster.
Dave was just a kid. I was filled with so much sadness and helpless, burning anger. My sense of self-preservation was gone. Wildly, I struggled against the belt that tied me, letting it shred my wrists while I screamed at Rooster, "You killed him. You pathetic sack of shit."
I didn't care if he killed me too. I was insane with rage. He threw Dave away like garbage. Dave was just a kid who wanted to be happy, wanted to be loved.
Now he was dead because Rooster saw him hanging out outside the wrong house. They crossed paths because of me. Realizing that, I dissolved into sobs.
"That's better," Rooster said while standing above me. "If you kept thrashing around, I was gonna have to pummel you some more. You already look like shit. I beat on you any more, and you won't even be worth fucking in the dark."
As I looked up, Rooster started to unzip his fly.