Chapter 2 - The Cycle Begins
Brian looked at his watch. Kevin had been gone for hours. All four of the BSB had long ago run out of conversation topics. They alternated between brooding and fidgeting.
Everyone jumped as the dumbwaiter came down again.
“Time for dinner, I guess,” Howie said as he stood up to get it. To his surprise, the tray carried medical supplies of all kinds, along with ice. “Uh, guys?”
The other three gathered around. “Kevin,” Brian whispered.
As if perfectly timed, the steel door swung open. Kevin collapsed unceremoniously to the floor, bruised and bleeding.
“KEVIN!” Brian screamed, running across the room to him.
“What the fuck did they do this for?!” AJ cried.
Howie, being sensible, ran back and got the medical supplies. AJ and Brian gently rolled the oldest BSB onto his back.
“Kevin?” Brian called again. “Kevin, can you hear me?”
“They beat the crap out of him,” Nick said in disbelief.
“They’re not going to help us,” AJ stated in a low, angry voice.
“Then we’ll have to do this ourselves,” Howie said, setting down the supplies.
“Start with the bleeding first,” Brian ordered in a deadly calm.
Nick hovered in the back, nervously. Howie stepped back after the minor bleeding was under control.
“Is he gonna be all right?” Nick whispered.
Howie shrugged in reply.
Kevin moaned, stirring.
“Kevin!” Brian cried, waving at the others to give him room. “Kevin, can you hear me? Say something.”
Kevin’s green eyes fluttered open slowly. “Bri . . .” His eyes closed as all the aches in his body registered in his mind.
“Shh, don’t move,” Brian told him. “Just lie still.”
“Am I bleeding?” Kevin asked uneasily, opening his eyes and trying to get them to focus.
“No, you’re good, cus. We patched ya up,” Brian reassured him.
“We should move him out of the doorway,” Howie pointed out.
The four men looked at each other, then bent down and lifted their friend away from the door.
“Why did they do this, Kev?” Howie asked gently. “Did they ask you questions?”
Kevin shook his head. “No. They just kept saying . . . you’d each get your turn.”
The BSB looked at each other uneasily.
Brian -- more angry than any of the Boys had ever seen him -- marched over to the steel door. He paused for a moment, then starting kicking it repeatedly. “YOU GET IN HERE AND TELL US WHAT YOU WANT FROM US!!!!”
The other four stared at him.
When he continued kicking, AJ went over to him and forced him to stop.
“I asked them, Brian,” Kevin said, trying to sit up. “I asked them a million times. I begged them not to touch any of you, pleaded with them to tell me something, anything. But they wouldn’t. They wouldn’t tell me anything. That’s they’re game.”
“Shh, lie down, Kevin,” Howie insisted, holding him down.
“Knowledge is power,” Nick said. “They’re giving us as little of it as possible.”
Brian shook AJ off and retreated back to Kevin’s side.
“So . . . they’re gonna beat the shit out of all of us?” AJ asked after a long moment of silence.
“I don’t know,” Kevin answered. “They just said you’d each get your turn.”
“We’ll probably find out tomorrow,” Howie said softly.
~~~
Howie was right. The next morning, the man in the trench coat reappeared at the exact same time.
“Who’s next?”
Brian stood up. Nick opened his mouth to protest, then realized it was pointless since they would all have to go sometime.
The four men watched their friend leave. Kevin tried not to imagine what they would do to him.
“They don’t want us dead,” Howie pointed out. “They’re not going to kill any of us. They know we’re too valuable.”
“Unless they’re just killing us slowly,” Nick replied.
Howie sighed explosively. “Thank you, Mr. Optimist.”
The group lapsed back into silence.
“They could at least give us a deck of cards,” AJ complained. “I think their real plan is to bore us to death.”
“I’m not bored,” Kevin answered stoically. “They’re beating the shit of my cousin and there’s nothing I can do about it. That’s a little hard to ignore.”
“Yeah, well dwelling on it isn’t a lot better,” Nick snapped. “Brian’s like a brother to me and I couldn’t stop him from walking out that door.”
“Guys, we can’t start fighting,” Howie interjected.
“Why not?” AJ said. “It’s keeping us from being bored.”
The four of them froze as Brian’s cry echoed through the building. After a shadow of a pause, they sprinted to the steel door and started pounding on it, trying to get Brian to hear them and get their captors to open the door.
They tried for five solid minutes, over Brian’s continued screams. Kevin collapsed; his injuries were too much for him to take standing. Nick slid to the floor, sobbing; his bruised fist pounded lightly against the polished metal. Howie gave up and sat beside Nick, hugging him. AJ started kicking the door, but couldn’t even dent it.
“Why are they doing this?” Nick asked over and over again. Howie tried to soothe him, but the 21-year-old wouldn’t listen.
Howie gave up and went to check on Kevin’s injuries. AJ eventually stopped kicking the door and went to an opposite corner of the room.
“You shouldn’t even have stood up,” Howie admonished the oldest BSB.
“It was instinct and you know it,” Kevin answered, wincing. He looked over at the youngest BSB, still sobbing against the door.
“I’ll take care of it,” Howie told him. “You get some rest. And no more getting up.”
Kevin nodded wearily. He waited until Howie left him to let tears of his own start to fall.