Slave Chapter 1
~A few hours later~ Danny p.o.v
"Are you sure he's breathing Jorel?" I hear someone ask as I wake up. My eyes felt weird from falling asleep while crying. I didn't recognise the new voice in the room and I certainly didn't feel like moving. "Yeah, I can see his chest moving. Plus, he would not have that skin tone if he was dead," I hear Jorel tell the new guy and then I felt someone's slightly cold finger touch my cheek. I resisted reacting to it in case something happened. "Also, he's skin's warm probably from having his head buried in the pillow for a while," Jorel adds once he was satisfied that I am alive. "Okay so if he is alive then shouldn't we wake him up. It's 11 am and George wants to prep him for later," the other guy tells Jorel who I couldn't really see cause my face is still mostly stuffed into a pillow.
"Yeah, I'm surprised he isn't awake already but he seems to be a deep sleeper," Jorel says and then I feel him shake my shoulder gently. "Danny, wake up," Jorel says and I roll over and rub my eyes before opening them to see Jorel and the new guy. I was a bit wary of the other male although he had a baby face which was very weird to me. They were a bit concerned about my face because it looked like I had been crying which is what happened last night. "Danny, this is Jordon. Don't worry, he won't bite much," Jorel says and Jordon sits down next to me on the bed. "Are you really that afraid of us?" Jordon asks me when he saw up close that I had been crying. "No, you guys have been nice to me. Why would I be afraid of you?" I ask Jordon.
"You've been crying, so I assume something is wrong," Jordon says and I felt safe around them which is something I haven't really experienced before now. I can't tell them yet, I don't trust them that much. "I'm okay honestly. Just last night was a bit much to be honest," I tell them, fully aware that I was lying to both of their faces. I am not sure that they know I am lying to them. Jorel hugged me gently and I hugged him back. "Right, time for some lunch and then George is going to brief you on the job you have to do with him today. Don't worry it's gonna be a piece of cake," Jorel says and I smile at him. He meant that it was going to be easy and I doubt I am going to get cake out of it.
"Okay, I should wash my face first though," I tell him and Jordon smiles at me. He patted my shoulder and then they both let me get off the bed. "Okay, I'll tell George you'll be a few minutes," Jordon says and they both leave the room while I am left to find a bathroom. I don't see a door to indicate that I have an en-suite bathroom in here so there should be one on this floor at least I saw one last night. I quickly found the door which led to one bathroom but I think I saw two downstairs. I wash my face quickly and keep glancing in the mirror until I am confident that it doesn't look like I have been crying anymore. Hopefully no one else knows that I cried last night, I don't think that they would tell the others unless they asked me about it.
"Hey Danny, did you have a good look around this morning before going back to bed?" George asks me when he sees me and I just shake my head. "I didn't have a look around. I just went straight back to bed," I tell him, being truthful. There was a grilled cheese sandwich placed in front of me. "We'll have to give you the house tour when you've finished eating," George says, not sounding the least bit mad that I didn't do what he suggested I do earlier this morning. I took a bit of the sandwich and nodded. At least if they give me a tour of the place then I will know which rooms could potentially be out of bounds to me and which ones I would be able to go into anytime because I am not exactly sure on my position here.
Then I got a tour of the house. George said that they were going to let me go into almost every room in the house which is pretty lenient to be fair. I am going to be doing little things around the house for them in between the gang jobs that they want me to do. I am told that when I meet the Italian Mafia I am to wear a mask which is gold with paint splatters and to call them by the different names. I am getting the nickname Golden Beast because of my mask colour and George is called Johnny 3 Tears when we are doing gang related activities. I will learn the other's names when it is relevant for me to learn them. Because today I am going out with George on my first gang related mission I have to learn his now.
"Danny feel free to relax before we have to go," George tells me as we get back to the living room which is where the tour started about half an hour ago. I didn't go into the other's rooms but I now know which bedrooms are which and they said they were redecorating one for me which again makes this whole thing weird. Yesterday I wasn't allowed out of my room for hours and starved because in his eyes I did something wrong. Now I am being treated like I am actually worth something to people. What fucking drugs am I currently taking? I bet I am going to wake up and be back in that house with more bruises than ever. He might even kill me this time, he must be really mad at me.
"What ya thinking about Danny?" Dylan asks me and I nearly jumped off the couch. "Nothing," I tell him and he rolls his eyes. "You were dude, I called your name three times before you listened to me," he says and I look down. He shuffles up the couch so he is sitting next to me. "It's not a bad thing Danny, for as long as I have known you, you have been thinking up incredible things," he tells me and I sigh. I am a different person than when he knew me. That will become painfully clear to him when they eventually find out what I have been through. "I know but what if it happens and I need to go? I can't mess anything up here," I tell him. I have always been able to talk to Dylan, I don't know why but I feel safer when I talk to him then I do anyone I have met so far. I know he is about 8 years older than me so he has those years more experience than I do at life.
"You're not gonna mess up, George will make sure you a ready to go about ten minutes before you need to leave and we'll probably been chatting away so you might not space out as much," he tells me. Back when he was tutoring me in high school, he would have this very same calm voice when he spoke to me. I wasn't being abused back then but I had severe anxiety which I still have now and maybe over the years it has gotten worse. "Okay but you do know if it goes bad I am blaming you right?" I ask him, trying to make light of it like I usually do when he was being my mentor. "Of course," he says and George walks up to us. "We have about ten minutes Dan," he says and I nod.
"Okay, I'll quickly get dressed and come back. Do you have any shoes that might fit me?" I ask him. I didn't see anything else belonging to me when we were touring the house and he showed me my room. I have a closet with some clothes that fit me in it. "Yeah, we should do, we have a few different shoe sizes in the closet just in case," he says and I hurry to get changed. No one has asked about the cuts and bruises on my skin and I thought they would have by now. I found an outfit easily but the shoes took me longer because I had to find my size and my typical style in the mountain of shoes they have. I got dressed in five minutes and then took two minutes to sort my hair out.
I don't know if they want me to wear anything specific with my mask but I am going to do exactly as George tells me to. He comes to get me and we walk to the van which I was taken in last night. It didn't feel weird actually being awake in it with a lot of stolen goods in the back which we are returning to the Italian Mafia and our masks are in the glove box and we will pull over a minute away from the location to put the masks on. We won't speed to get there because we don't need the police attention on us right now. I have been told that we have thousands of dollars' worth of goods in the back of the van so it's not a good idea to attracted that attention right now. I am not the one driving so if anything happens I can safely blame George.
"Right masks on now Danny, you know what to call me when you see the Mafia guy?" George asks as we pull into the lay by a minute away from the location. "Yep Johnny, I got it," I tell him. I know the Mafia guy is called Miles but he probably wants to be called Mr Decker or something. George smiled at me so I had gotten it right and I wasn't messing up. "Very good Golden Beast you may be a promising student," he tells me and I smiled behind my mask. He didn't have his on when he smiled. He put my hood up and sorted my hair out so it looked okay. "We might have to dye your hair soon and for today pull the sleeves down and hold them to hide those tats. Aron would know by now the stuff is gone and so are you so he is going to start looking," he tells me and I nod and do as I am told.
"I don't want to go back to him," I admit to George as we start the short trip to meet the mafia. I knew my little statement just shocked him and there wasn't really much time to talk even though we were ten minutes early. "Why's that then Danny?" he asks me and I shrug. "I didn't like it there. You kidnapped me and I already like my life better than it was there. I wasn't allowed as much freedom as you have already given me because he always wanted control over my movements so gangs wouldn't get me," I tell him, partially twisting the truth because I am not completely ready to tell him how I really got treated there. I had left George speechless with my admission I could tell that by the look in his eyes.
"Yeah I always wondered why Aron had you because he was a real douchebag while he was with us. I don't think he has actually hurt anyone but one of our original members has been missing for a few years," he tells me. I think I heard about that one because Aron was quite angry that people were blaming him for Matthew's disappearance and the cops came around a few times to talk to him and only found me. They were concerned about me too when they came around but he would always assure them it was because I had a condition where I would fall quite a lot which was total bullshit. "His little excuse for not having people over at his house to hurt him maybe? I don't think he described me well to people," I tell George who nods.
"Yeah, I agree with that, he did lead us to believe you were eight until last night when we took you," he tells me which I kind of guessed because most of these gangs wouldn't touch someone if they had a kid to look after and there was no one else around. Then again, they probably would because they don't care that much. "I think he told me that once but I didn't think people would actually believe him. He isn't really capable of looking after a toddler or a child to be honest," I say and then we have to cut our conversation short as the Mafia van pulls into the location. "It's show time Golden Beast," he says and we both get out of the van at the same time the Mafia do.
They don't wear masks and skinny jeans like we do, they are far more sophisticated than that. They wear the finest suits money can buy and have the best cars and the best shoes. I try not to stare in awe too much. "Johnny, I hope you have the goods as promised," the main man says which leads me to believe he is Miles Decker. "I do indeed Mr Decker," Johnny replies and he allows the henchmen to take the goods from one van to another under the watchful glare of Mr Decker. I was aware that he was scrutinising me the entire time as well but I just stood next to George and kept a calm stance. "I didn't know you were recruiting newbies Johnny, well at least J-dog never told me," Mr Decker said once he had all his items.
"Yeah, well this is a one-time only thing. He used to be what kept people from going over to Aron and trying to knock some sense into him. We thought he would be more use working with us," George says and Mr Decker walked over to us so he could get a better look at me from what he could see under my mask. "He's older than I expected and he has been through a lot. Are they taking care of you nicely?" he says, aiming the first half at George and the last at me. "Yes, Mr Decker. Johnny and the others are being very nice to me," I tell him and I had said the right thing.
"Good, I think you'll do great things working with George and the others," he tells me and then turns to look at George. "Take care of the kid Johnny," he says and then he leaves to get back into the van before George could reply to him so we took that as our cue to leave. Just after we had left we saw a police van speeding in that direction but we had taken our masks off as soon as we had left so we wouldn't get pulled over. "You did amazingly well there Danny. Miles doesn't like a lot of people so to have him like you straight away is pretty good," George says. Mr Decker did mention while business was going on that the payment would be in the gang bank account by the end of today which is cool for them.
"You do realise that technically the reward we got today splits in three right?" George asks me when he called Jorel to say that the deed was done. "No, who else does it go between besides you and Jorel?" I ask him and he smiles at me. "You, since you helped me today make sure that it all went smoothly it's only right that you get a cut of the rewards and we did kinda break into your house and kidnap you as well," he tells me. I am not quite sure what relevance the kidnapping and break in have to do with the money he is giving me but oh well. "Well, uhh thanks I guess. I wasn't expecting you to pay me for just standing there as back up," I tell him. He ruffled my hair while he was driving so he didn't notice the flinch that I did unintentionally.
"Yeah well, gotta give compensation to the little brunette we could have permanently traumatised last night when we broke into the house he was sleeping in, woke him up just to knock him out again and then took him away to a new house with strangers," George says, not being very serious at all. It took me all of a minute before my composure dissolved and I was laughing my head off. It is definitely the first time that I laughed in years without any fear. "I'm not that little. The giants took me on a freaking beanstalk to their castle," I reply and then he started laughing. "I think that is what we are naming the van from now on. I might get it spray painted on the side of the van next week," George says as he arrives at the house.
"You are kidding right?" I ask him as we get out of the van and walk into the house where the others are waiting. "Nope, I am being serious. We are naming the van the Beanstalk from now on thanks to you," he says and the others turn to look at us. Thanks George now I want to go and hide for eternity. "I guess you two had a good mission then," Jorel says and George nods. "Payment by the end of the day and it's going to me, you and Dan," he says and the others didn't protest. Dylan picked me up and hugged me and I was struggling to react to it but eventually I hugged him back and he put me down on the ground again.
"Well done Danny. Lucky, you weren't here earlier, Aron's been searching for you and we don't know if he has gone to the police about it yet," Dylan says and Jorel went to the van and brought my backpack out of it and handed it to me. There were a few of my outfits and the two pairs of shoes I own, one of which need binning because they are that badly worn. "But George told me on the way to the thing that it looks like I left on my own accord at the same time the robbing happened," I say, feeling a bit confused even though I know why Aron has come looking for me. "Obviously it didn't fool him it seems," Jorel says. I felt really scared now but I tried not to show it in front of them. "We need to get some hair dye or bleach for Danny and we will need to get it done sooner than I first thought," George says.
"I'm gonna go to my room for a bit," I suddenly announce and they let me go quite freely and don't really question it. Fuck I am so dead once that dude comes back for me. I don't know what to do. I am going to have to tell them sooner or later that my life is in serious danger. They are looking after me in the first 24 hours than he has ever done for years. I get that I am young and naive but at 24 I don't need to be treated like I was done before I got taken. I don't wanna die. I really don't wanna die.
~two weeks later~ Danny p.o.v~
I sigh as I bolt up from the third nightmare tonight. Now it's 7 am and I can hear voices so some of the guys must be up already. I run a shaking hand through my now very sweaty blonde locks and decide to grab a shower before a bathroom of the four we have are taken up and I don't want to face them like this. They are worried enough about me at the moment and I don't want to give them another reason to panic. I have been barely eating, barely sleeping just like I used to but now there are people who care about me and want me around so I have to show my face at least once a day or they will come into my room and carry me out of it so they can watch me eat something and have me socialise with them.
"I'm worried about Danny," I hear George say to someone right outside of the bathroom. "I know, we all are George but what can we do? It's not like we can force the kid into talking to us," Dylan says and I was in the shower so I thought it wouldn't do any harm to do a little bit of eavesdropping. "Yeah, but we can force Aron. Something was going on when he was at that house and I have reasons to think Aron is to blame for the broken Danny we have," George says and I nearly dropped the bottle of shampoo I was holding. George is so close to finding out the through and it scares me. I know he deserves justice for what he has done to me but I don't know if I want him to die for what he has done to me since I was a teen.
"I'll talk to Danny first, if I can get it out of him then maybe we don't have to go to Aron. He's dangerous when angry just think about what happened to Matt when he crossed Aron's wrong side. We don't want the same thing to happen to you as well," Dylan says and they left before I got out of the shower. I am just going to act like I didn't hear all of that when Dylan does come to talk to me but I don't know if I am going to tell him what happened yet. It's a lot to get my head around and I have only had two weeks of freedom and it is taking me some time to adjust to surviving the abuse that I went through. I am still terrified by the amount of freedom I now have. They rarely see me outside of my room now.
I was sitting on my bed and browsing the internet on my laptop when Dylan walked in with a tray of food. "Hey, I brought you some food Danny," he tells me and he sits on the bed and places the tray in front of me. The food looked tempting but my head was screaming to refuse it. "Thanks but I'm not hungry," I tell him, not looking up from my laptop because I bet if I look into his eyes I am going to start bawling my eyes out and then the whole truth will come out followed by a massive man hunt. "Come on Danny. I know you're lying to me, at least eat one of the things on the tray please," Dylan asks me and I turn to look at the food. There was a sandwich, some chips and a bar of chocolate. It looks like they are trying everything to get me to eat more.
I picked up the chocolate bar and that was soon gone. I looked up to Dylan who pushed the plate with the sandwich towards me. That was also soon gone and so were the chips which proved me wrong and Dylan right but he wasn't relishing in being right. He looked really upset when he watched me eat like I wasn't going to get fed for a while which is usually what happened when I got given food before freedom. "You feeling better now?" he asks me and I nodded. I forgot there was the lightheaded feeling when I hadn't eaten for a while. I decide to sit on his lap and he wrapped his arms around me. "Good, we care a lot about you Danny. We don't want to see you destroying yourself like this," he tells me and I sigh.
"I know, I can't help it though. I have been like this for years, it's not going to change overnight," I tell him and he hugs me tightly. I managed to turn around in his arms so I could return the hug and he started drawing patterns on my back. "Talk to me Danny, maybe if we know what's bothering you then we can fix it and make everything better," Dylan says and I rest my head on his shoulder. I guess it won't hurt to let him know what happened now. "You promise if I tell you that you won't judge me or interrupt until I am done? I don't know if I can tell you all of it though," I say and he was still drawing the patterns on my back. "Of course, I will Danny, if you can tell me then try and tell me as much as you possibly can," he says and I smile.
"Okay, so when you guys kidnapped me two weeks ago you technically saved my life. Aron hasn't been as nice to me as everyone thinks he has. He took me from my home when I was just fourteen years old and he has had me ever since. My mom has tried looking for me but never found me and when I got a phone I texted her to let her know I was okay but I couldn't come home just yet. I need to go see her at some point. Anyway, he didn't really treat me very well while he had me. I barely ate because he never fed me. I could only leave my room while he wasn't home," I tell him, pausing to catch my breath and stay calm. Dylan was listening to every word and I know he has questions but he was keeping them back so I could finish.
"That wasn't the only thing Aron would do. He would get mad at a lot of the things he found annoying about me. If I was caught doing something he found wrong then he would beat me for it. If he was angry at someone then he would take it out on me and if his day went bad then he would also take it out on me. I nearly died a few times but he never really cared," I tell him, getting too upset to tell him anymore and then Dylan cuddled me tighter and I started to cry on him. "Aw Danny, he's not going to be able to hurt you anymore. I will love and protect you like a I dunno a lover would do," he tells me as he is trying to calm me down. I just realised a minute after he said it that he just confessed to loving me.
I pulled out of the hug so I could luck into his eyes. I swear the butterflies from Johnny's tattoos were inside of me. I was just going to say I love him back like I wanted to since high school and he tutored me. "Are you okay Danny?" he asks me and I nod. "Yeah, it's just been a weird month. I love you too," I tell him and he smiles. I managed to give him a genuine smile and he gently pressed his lips onto mine. I kissed back almost straight away because it just felt right, it felt like we are meant to be. It was like that kiss was him asking me to be his boyfriend and me kissing him back was me saying yes. It was that unspoken but very obvious bond between us. "Wanna get some sleep? You look pretty tired," he tells me.
"Yeah, but I keep having night terrors that are really bad," I tell him and he hugs me gently. "Well I am here to take those nasty night terrors away," he replied and I smiled. I always felt safe around him so I guess sleeping in his arms won't do any harm. I sat by the pillows as Dylan went to clean the dishes he brought up with him. "Did you manage to get him to eat all that?" Jorel asks from outside the door. "Yeah, it took a minute to convince him but he was really hungry so he couldn't stop himself. I'm just gonna clean this and then he said he was tired so I was gonna see if I could get him to drink something then fall asleep," he tells Jorel and I heard footsteps head down the stairs and then I heard my door creak open.
"Hey Danny, how are you feeling now?" he asks me when he sees I was awake. He spoke quite softly to me like he did when I first woke up in this room. My own bedroom here hasn't been done yet and soon there might not be any point in it. "Yeah, I am really sorry for worrying you guys. These last few weeks have been hard for me I guess," I tell him, and he gives me a sad smile. "That's okay Danny we forgive you. We know the transition will be tough but this time next month you are gonna be just fine trust me," Jorel says as Dylan walks in with two banana milkshakes. "Thanks Jorel," I say and he hugs me. I hug him back and he walks out of the room. Dylan handed me a milkshake and then started drinking his own so I drank mine. It was very good, best milkshake I have had so far.
"Thanks Dylan that was amazing," I tell him and he smiles at me. I smiled back and I decided to crawl under the covers because I was really starting to feel exhausted. Dylan decided that he should join me and he wrapped his arms around me. I was starting to doze off in his arms and he kissed my temple. "You're welcome Danny, now just close your eyes and ley's hope you have some good dreams for once," he says and I close my eyes like he told me too. He had started drawing little love hearts on my arms now which felt really relaxing so I easily found myself falling asleep in his arms and finally feeling safe. He was going to protect me from Aron from now on I can just feel it and the others will too.
~One hour later~ Dylan p.o.v
Danny is sleeping in my arms and he just looked so adorable. His hair was quite messy and like he had a shower and just not bothered to style his hair. I saw his eyes move in his sleep like he was in the rapid eye movement part of sleep which happens sometimes but he looked peaceful like he was having a good dream. His face is pressed against my chest and his lips were ever so slightly parted and he wasn't snoring. I stopped drawing little hearts on his arm after I knew he was deeply asleep because I didn't feel like it could help him much. When I talked to Danny it was about 8 o'clock in the morning and now it is about 11 o'clock in the morning. George walked in and sat next to me on the bed, watching Danny sleep for a few moments.
"How is he? Did he tell you anything?" George asks me. He is looking out for Danny and he has been since I mentioned a little while ago that Danny doesn't really need to be around a person like Aron if it was the Danny I was thinking of. I know now I was right but I am not happy that I was right because my little Danny got hurt in the process. "He told me everything that happened to him while he was with Aron and it wasn't very good. He was basically more of a slave with him than he has been with us. Aron has been abusing him the whole time so now we are basically helping Danny rebuild his life," I tell George who rubbed Danny's hair. We initially thought that taking Danny would hurt Aron but it turns out to be completely different.
We saved Danny's life and might get Aron in a lot of trouble in the process. It will take Danny a while to adjust to not being abused anymore because we have to undo ten years of damage and it has only been two weeks. It's gonna be tough but since he has me and the rest of the gang to support him and he'll be better in not time. I watched as Danny tried to snuggle into me more but there wasn't more of me too snuggle. "Don't worry Danny. I am not gonna let him hurt you again," I tell him and even though he wasn't awake at that moment I think he heard me because he became more relaxed in his sleep. "You're right Dylan, no one in this house is going to let Aron lay a finger on Danny," he tells me and I smile.
Then Danny starts to toss and turn in his sleep and he was mumbling a lot of things that I didn't think were words until I heard "No" being spoken quite clearly. Whatever he was having a nightmare about was bad and he was definitely afraid. "Danny, wake up," I tell him and I rolled him onto his back so if he did bolt up no one would be hurt. Danny didn't wake up and he was now tossing and turning in his sleep and we could see the sweat building up. It was upsetting me to see him like this but I was going to do my very best to comfort him when he does wake up. "Come on Danny, wake up mate," George tells Danny and then he suddenly wakes up and then the tears start to fall down Danny's face.
"Don't worry Danny, it was just a nightmare. It's okay calm down," I tell Danny and take him into my arms. Danny started sobbing into my arms and I just rocked him back and forth a little bit to help calm him down and it didn't take too long because he really needed it. "It' was so real, it scared me," Danny tells me and he sounded like he was about to stutter. I rubbed his back and I let him rest his head on my shoulder. "Do you want to talk to me about it?" I ask him and then he saw George for the first time since he woke up. "I don't know if I should," he tells me and he definitely stuttered that time. "It will help you Danny because we can help you stop being afraid of whatever you had the nightmare about," George tells him.
"It was about Aron, he somehow knew what I look like now even though I am more tattooed and my hair colour is different. My eyes were blue in the dream like someone had given me contact lenses to hide my identity. It started at the shop we can walk to from here and I was getting something but I couldn't see what. Then it was the walk home where I noticed Aron was following me so I picked up my pace and so did he. It ended with him sprinting after me but he caught up with me and was just about to kill me," he admits to us before a fresh round of sobbing began. I did the same thing as before to calm him down and it worked. "He isn't going to hurt you anymore Danny we promise," I tell him and George nods. "If anything, we will throw that mother fucker in jail for hurting you," he says and I see the start of a smile on Danny's face.
"Thanks for saving me," Danny says and he places himself onto my lap again which I just happily accepted. "You're welcome Danny. We will always protect you," I tell him and then we decided to go down to watch a movie as a group. I carried Danny and he just let me, he had a really tight grip on my t-shirt so I don't think he really wanted to be apart from me which was very cute. Oh, man I have fallen head over heels for this little cutie patootie. Jorel just watched us with a raised eyebrow as Danny snuggled into me and I wrapped my arms around him. "So, uhh, when did this whole thing happen?" Jordon asks us because no doubt it was obvious to all of them that we are in love and dating now.
"About an hour ago," I tell him and I get a high five from him and Danny gets a gentle hug. I wasn't really up for sharing the Danny love but it was heat of the moment so I will let him pass for now. "Congratulations you two, you surely don't need to know what will happen to you if you mess this up," George tells me and I nod quickly. I will get my ass handed to me on a silver platter if I dare hurt Danny or break his heart and I know I am not going to do either of those things so I am in the clear. Danny hadn't really woken up from the nightmare so I knew about halfway through the film he was going to fall asleep. He had hold of my hand the whole time and it was the cutest thing ever. I am so glad we saved his life.
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