Festival Of Lights

Author's Note:

This chapter deals with certain violent events by not describing them in any sort of detail.  I also do not discuss the specifics of the injuries sustained by a major character as a result of this violence.  I do however give a clear indication of the consequences to the bad guy, but I keep that as brief as possible.  It is only mentioned to give the aforementioned character some closure to what has happened to them.  I have tried very hard to keep this chapter as non-offensive as I can.  My apologies if it is still upsetting to any of my readers.

Thank you for reading my stories.

Boudreaux

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We had peace for two weeks.  I moved my things into Charles' room and we discussed scooting the beds together, but decided between ourselves that we would wait just a little while for that step.  At the end of our next semester, we would be allowed to live in our own apartment off campus.  We had also already talked to Marta about sharing a two bedroom place near the school.  She was a little leery of staying with a honeymooning couple, as she insisted on calling us.  Now matter how much we tried, we couldn't seem to convince her that our relationship hadn't taken that final physical step just yet.

That doesn't mean that it wasn't torture for both of us.  My first night in his… our room together, I had put all of my stuff away on the empty side of the room, and when I turned around, there he was.  Charles and I had both worked up a bit of a sweat ferrying things from one room to the other in between classes.  When I faced him, I saw that he had taken off his shirt and was wearing nothing but his old comfortable jeans and a pair of either briefs or boxer briefs.  I could see the gray waistband just above the top of his pants.

His bare chest was a new sight for me, and one I had been dreaming of ever since I had first laid eyes on him.  It was definitely not a disappointment.  Then again, nothing about him could ever be a let down for me.  I knew to the very core of my soul that he was the perfect guy for me, and I planned to spend the rest of my life proving that to him.

He was holding out a bottle of Strawberry Wine.  I recognized it from the festival.  I couldn't help myself.  I had to make a comment about me still being on virgin drinks.  I asked if it was alright for me to have alcohol if I didn't deserve it yet.

"You let me decide what you deserve from now on," he said with a smile I hadn't seen on his face before.  It was… well, there was no other word for it, it was seductive.  "I just wanted to propose a toast to our first night as roommates."

"I'll try it for you," I told him.  "I suppose it is a momentous occasion when two people start living together," I added with a grin that must have matched his for sensuality, because he groaned as if I had just kissed him.

I drank one glass of the wine and so did he before putting the bottle back into the little refrigerator he had in the room.  It was the best wine I had ever tasted.  That isn't to say that I would want it on a frequent basis.  It was just better than any of the other liquor I had ever tried to drink.

Later that night, we both hemmed and hawed about getting undressed and getting into our respective beds.  We each tried to avoid it as long as possible, but soon found ourselves nodding off in our desk chairs.  I finally had enough and knew that I needed sleep so I could concentrate on my classes the next day.  I stood up and dropped my pants and quickly climbed into bed.  Charles' eyes were as big as saucers.

"You wear bikinis?" he whispered.

"I suppose this is a good time to tell you," I said with an incredibly strong blush.  "I have a mild underwear fetish.  I love wearing all sorts of different underwear.  It makes me feel sexy," I added in an almost whisper.

"It makes you look sexy, too," he told me.  "I just wear good old fashioned briefs or boxer briefs," he said looking down at the floor.

"You could wear sackcloth and ashes, and I'd still think you're the most beautiful person in the world."

"Sackcloth and ashes?" he questioned.

"It's an old religious phrase, it means burlap," I explained.

"I'm not wearing burlap to bed," he pouted.  My god he was cute when he poked that delicious little bottom lip out.

"Well, I have a confession to make," I told him.  "I don't normally wear anything to bed."

"Don't tell me that!" he snapped.  "I'm horny enough already."

"You and me both," I assured him.  I then watched him drop his jeans to reveal the sexiest, tightest, whitest, briefs I'd ever seen.  He bent over with his incredible butt facing me as he pulled back the covers on his bed.  I groaned in a mixture of frustration, lust, and exhaustion.  He crawled under the covers and a second later those same white briefs sailed across the room.  "That is evil," I told him, but he just laughed at me.  He stopped laughing when my own undies also took flight.  "Two can play that game," I laughed this time.

The next morning we both seemed to regret our excessive flirtation the night before.  He looked as confused as I was about how to get out of bed without any clothes on, and still maintain dignity and control of our emotions and hormones.  He figured it out before I did.  He got up with the sheet wrapped around him like a toga.  He walked over to his clothes dresser and retrieved fresh underwear which he wriggled around and pulled up under the sheet.  He then dropped the sheet and ran for the bathroom down the hall with his towel and shampoo.  That gave me the chance to get up without worries and follow him after I too got new underwear, this time bright red boxer briefs.

If only that wonderful peace had lasted longer.  I still don't remember what happened exactly.  I know that it was the first day of finals week.  I had left Charles to go to the library for a book that I needed for my final paper in English.  I never got there.  Somewhere along the way, I met up with Mr. Pierabon.  The next thing I knew I was waking up in a dark and dusty room that appeared to be a warehouse of some sort.  The second thing I realized was that I was completely naked and strapped to a table.  I looked up when I heard footsteps coming towards me.  It was him, and I knew from the look on his face that I was in for a lot of pain.

I begged for death so many times over the next several hours.  He would just laugh at me and say I would die when he was good and ready for me to do so, and not before.  I was tortured in ways that I never dreamed possible in my worst nightmares.  I can't go into details because they are just too upsetting.  I was with that sadistic monster for two days before Rick and another officer found me.  Charles was in their patrol car, but they wouldn't let him out.  They originally said it was for his safety, but once they saw the condition I was in, they kept him away so he wouldn't panic.  I was flown by helicopter to a hospital a few hours ride from the school by car.

Charles and Marta showed up as soon as they could get there, which was actually a good thing.  It gave the hospital staff time to stabilize me and do some of the work I would need to survive.  Yes, I was that bad off.

"OH MY GOD!!!!" Charles sobbed when he finally saw me again.  "I'm so sorry.  You didn't deserve this.  It's all my fault.  I'll move your things back to your old room as soon as I get back to campus."

"Why?" I managed to whisper but inside I was screaming and crying.  "Am I so messed up you can't love me anymore?"

"No, baby, I will always love you," he answered quickly.  "I just figured you could never forgive me for getting you into this and getting you hurt so badly."

"Charles, you are what kept me alive," I told him.  "I had to stay alive so that I could be with you again.  I understand if you don't want to be with me anymore, though.  The things he did to me, and made me do...."

"I know perfectly well what he was like," Charles cut me off.  "I don't care what he did, I love you and only you until the end of time and beyond.  I was so lost without you these last two days."

"Are you sure about that?" I had to ask.  "The doctors aren't sure if I will ever regain full use of my legs."

"Canes, crutches, or even wheelchair, I won't care as long as you're with me," he responded.

"I will have scars all over my body," I continued.  He turned around and showed me his back which I had never managed to see clearly before even in the dorm room.  He had always kept it turned away from me.  It was marked almost as badly as the doctors had told me I would be.  "Charles, my angel, I will kill him if I ever see him again."

"Too late," Marta said, speaking for the first time.  She had tears on her face as she looked at me in the hospital bed, but her face showed a grim satisfaction as she kept talking.  "Ricky shot him when they rescued you."

"He's dead?" I asked for confirmation.  They both nodded.  "Was it quick?"  This time Charles answered aloud.

"Rick shot him several times, Jeremy," he told me.  "One of the shots hit him in the groin.  The blast destroyed him down there.  It was the one to the chest that did him in, though.  He had time to realize that he was neutered before he died, though."

"Well, at least that's fair," I mumbled.  Charles and Marta looked at me sympathetically, but still a little curiously.  Just then the doctor stepped into the room.

"Jeremy needs his rest now," he said to them gently but firmly.

"Tell him, doc," I croaked as my voice cracked and disappeared on me.  I had lost a lot of fluids over the two days I spent in hell with Satan's son, and I couldn't talk anymore at that point.  I listened as the doctor explained everything that had been done to me, and I watched my boyfriend's face for any sign that he wouldn't feel the same way anymore.  I never saw it.  It wasn't even there when he heard about the extensive damage to my private parts.

The last words I said that night before losing myself to medically induced sleep were, "I guess it's ok for me to drink the Strawberry wine now, Charles."  My beautiful angel laughed and cried at the same time.

When I woke up, he was there beside me holding my hand.  His head was leaned onto the pillow beside me and he was snoring softly like a little kitten.  I stretched as much as I could and managed to brush my forehead against his.  His eyes instantly popped open and looked into mine.  He leaned forward and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips.

"You came back to me," he whispered.  A tear rolled down his cheek.

"How long," I started to talk, but my voice just wasn't strong enough.  He understood though.

"You've been asleep for two days," he told me.  "They kept monitors on you in case your heart stopped."

"I haven't felt my heart beat since we went to the festival," I said still looking into his perfect eyes.  "It isn't mine anymore to feel.  It belongs to you."

"Then let mine keep beating for you," he returned.  "It does anyway."

I suddenly thought of something.  I tried to ask him, but my voice was gone again.  All I could get out was one word.  "School?"

"They are giving you an incomplete in all your courses, until you can take your final exams," he told me.  I shook my head and pointed to him, still unable to speak.  "I've got a similar deal going.  I have to leave today and go back to take mine.  I hope you don't mind, but I've been using your car."  I frowned sternly and shook my head harshly.  His eyes widened in surprise for a second.  "I only did it to be close to you, Jeremy.  I won't do it again, I promise."

I grabbed his hand tightly as he tried to stand up.  "Ours," I coughed out.  He looked down at me in puzzlement.  "Our car," I corrected again.  His smile would have blinded anyone else, but for me it was the most needed medicine I could get.  "I love you," I told him with a little stronger voice.

"I love you too," he wept as he grabbed me in a kiss.

"Bad boy," I scolded him when he finally let me go.  "Not supposed to get excited," I added pointing down the bed at my body.

"Sorry," he blushed.  That did not help calm me down at all.  Luckily, just then Marta walked in.

"Shift change," she called out.  "Charles, go take your finals.  I'll watch the wounded.  I'll even put up with his whining because I thought we would never see him again."

"Love you too," I croaked in her direction.  I then looked at Charles and pouted with my bottom lip.  "Can't sing," I told him.  He grinned from ear to ear, and then started singing Barney's theme song.

"Go take your tests, Charles, or so help me I'll put you in here with him," Marta growled.

"I do have to go now," Charles told me sadly.  "Promise me you will still be here when I get back tomorrow night?"

"Well, I was hoping they would release me, but if you insist, I'll stay here for you," I whispered.  I found I could say more quietly than I could in a normal tone.  It was still loud enough for Marta to hear, though.

"Release you?" she laughed.  "You still make Frankenstein's Monster look like a GQ cover model.  You won't be going home for a while."

"Marta!" Charles exclaimed angrily, but I just stuck her tongue out at her.

"Just jealous cause she's Bride of Frankenstein and got passed over for my angel," I whispered.

"Aaawww!" Charles cooed happily.  "You're so sweet."

"Eeeewww!" Marta retorted.  "You're so sick."  By now Charles understood that she was picking on me as well, so this time we both stuck our tongues out at her.  "You're also really mature.  NOT!"

Charles finally left for school after I had to practically beg him not to throw away his semester on me.  He tried to argue that I was more important, but I told him that I intended to make sure that this didn't ruin my school career, and I wouldn't let him ruin his either.  My final words to him as he was leaving started another round of teasing from Marta.

"Take care of our baby," I told him.

"See there, I knew you two were doing it," Marta practically crowed.  "You got him pregnant."  I rolled my eyes, but Charles blushed an adorable shade of pink and took off out the door.

"What no comeback from him?" Marta mused as she watched his departing figure.  "He's been up to something."  Shortly after she said that we found out what when the nurse came in to take care of me.

"Well, your cute little fella isn't here this morning," the woman observed when she walked in.  "I guess I'll have to get your bath this morning."

"Charles has been bathing me?" I asked.

"Oh yeah, honey," the nurse confirmed.  "Blondie turned into a regular tiger over it.  Said nobody would see you but him and the doctor.  You are one lucky boy to have one fight over you the way he did.  The charge nurse threatened to throw him out of the hospital and he still wouldn't back down.  He told her he'd almost lost you once, and she could verify that hell froze over herself in person before he left you alone with a stranger."

By that time I was red as a stop sign and crying.  The nurse noticed and patted me on the shoulder.  "Honey, don't you be embarrassed by that, and don't cry neither.  Why I'd give my eye teeth to know my man loved me like that."  As she turned away she added, "I'd give a whole lot more if he was that good looking."  She stuck the thermometer in my mouth and kept talking.  "That's always been my trouble.  If they good looking, good to you, and good for you, they either already married which means it's all a lie, or they're gay."

"Ain't that the truth," Marta agreed.  All I could do was shrug my shoulders at the two of them.  After the nurse left the room, Marta said she needed to talk to me.  I knew it was serious if she warned me ahead of time.  "The word is out now about you and Charles.  He's been here with you, so he hasn't been around campus to hear it, but you two are the talk of the school."

"Good or bad?" I questioned.

"Both," she answered.  "It's to be expected of course.  This is the Deep South.  Some people just aren't ready to deal with open homosexuality.  They may never be.  The good news is that there are also some out there who had never thought about it before, but now that they can connect it to someone they know, it's made a difference for them.  I think you'll be surprised to hear who some of those people are."  I raised my eyes in question.  "Your old roommate is the leader of that group," she told me.  I know my mouth fell open in surprise.  "He's put the word out that any of the jocks that mess with either you or Charles will answer to him."  At that point, I coughed in shock.

"I would never have figured Hog to be one of my heroes," I murmured.

"He says he knows that you aren't some sick pervert that stalks straight guys, because you had plenty of chances to molest him, and if you could turn down a body like his, well, you must be really devoted to Charles," Marta continued.  I nearly choked I was laughing so hard.

"His body?" I gasped.  "All those bodybuilder muscles bulging out all over him like that?  He reminds me of the frog I dissected in high school."

"Hey, he's worked hard for those muscles," Marta defended a little too quickly.

"Marta, don't you dare fall for him," I warned her.  "You don't know what he's like with women."

"Maybe not, but I know what he's like with me," she snapped back.  "He's been a perfect gentleman.  He even gave me a ride up here today.  He's waiting in the lobby for me."

"He doesn't have to wait in the lobby," I told her.  "He could come up."

"No, he can't," she corrected.  "He has a thing about hospitals."

"Oh, well thank him for me when you go back down there," I told her.  "Is Charles okay with all of this?" I asked her suddenly.

"He's been with you the whole time, Jeremy," she answered.  "He's not going to leave you because you've been hurt."

"I don't mean that," I explained.  "I don't want him to blame himself for what that monster did.  Pierabon was a sick twisted psychopath.  He made his own choices and decisions.  Charles is not responsible for that."

"You're getting to know him pretty well," she smiled at me.  "Yes, of course he's trying to blame himself for what happened, especially to you.  He thinks that the two of you getting together made you a target.  He's right on that, of course, but it isn't anything that either of you or anyone else could have prevented.  Speaking of that sicko, there's something else you should know about."

"Did he do something to me that I haven't been told about?" I wondered aloud.

"No, well, yes, but not directly to you," she said cryptically.  "It impacts Charles more than you."

"What are you talking about, Marta?" I demanded.

"Pierabon had made a will a few years ago that he never changed," Marta began.  "He left everything to the one person he would love for all time," she said quietly.

"Oh my god," I whispered.  "He left it all to Charles, didn't he?"  She just nodded.  "Does he know this?"

"Rick found out and told me," she answered.  "He said he would go see Charles tonight and tell him in person."

"Didn't the Pierabon's have any children?" I asked.

"Not a one," Marta informed me.  "There's not one living relative to be found anywhere.  Ida Mae would have fought it tooth and nail if he hadn't killed her.  The house and everything in it, all the bank accounts, everything goes to Charles.  Your boyfriend is now considerably well off."

"Wow!" I whispered.  I lay there wondering how many more shocks were coming my way since my near death experience.  I wasn't sure I was ready for any more.

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Author's Note:

I hope this wasn't too graphic or upsetting to anyone.  I didn't want to go into any detailed descriptions of the injuries Jeremy received, but I had to let you know that he was messed up pretty badly.  From time to time in the future chapters some passing remark may be made about his experience or his recovery from some aspect of what was done to him.  It will never be dumped on the reader all at once though, and I may never reveal everything that happened.  If Jeremy were a real person, he wouldn't want all of those details spread across the internet, so the character wouldn't either.

Please understand this and I hope you continue to read and enjoy the story.

Boudreaux