Collectibles

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AN: A word on statutory rape: Only David was under age when Max took him in, and it is stated nowhere in my story that they had sex while he was still younger than eighteen. If you choose to think so, that's entirely your thing. Max's other boys were nineteen to twenty-one when he found them, and they all are between twenty and twenty-four by now. I think they should qualify as adults, even if they don't always act their age. ;-)

Max using Lucy to get to her boys is another matter though ...

.:.

2. A Perfect Storm

A week passed with Max and the boys trying to win the new one over in various ways. David had started befriending Michael, inviting him to the cave, and dragging him along for several boyish activities that were probably both stupid and a little bit dangerous. Max had had several dates with Lucy, which were all thoroughly ruined by her younger son, who seemed to highly dislike Max. The summit had been an evening at Lucy's, where Samuel and two funky little friends of his had run several completely ridiculous tests on Max, apparently honestly convinced that he was a vampire. Samuel clearly had fallen in with the wrong crowd.

Max knew those funky boys pretty well. They were the sons of a pair of constantly drugged up hippies who owned a comic book store on the Boardwalk. The boys had run the shop almost entirely on their own since they had been round about ten. They had to be fifteen or sixteen by now. Max highly suspected them to pilfer some of their parents' drugs. In fact, he had seen them smoking weed in the backyard of their shop several times, and once even crack, if he was not completely mistaken. Thanks to his boys, Max was fairly well informed about different drugs and the various ways they could be administered. To tell the truth frankly, he had even experimented a bit under their guidance.

Max was deeply concerned about Samuel associating with the Frog brothers. Those boys were total nutcases, likely damaged from the moment of conception by the drug abuse of both their parents, then even further ruined by those exact same parents being utterly unable to care for their children. Though they had never had to survive on the streets, and their parents were probably too far gone to ever raise a hand against them, they were as suspicious of adults as Max's boys had been when he took them in. On top of that, they seemed to be psychotic, forcing their crazy beliefs on vampires and other supernatural beings on every unsuspecting customer who dared to enter their shop. Max thought that it was fairly safe even for a layman to speak of a psychosis if a sixteen-year-old still believed in vampires and werewolves.

He planned on telling Lucy about the Frogs at the first opportunity he got. Lucy was such a nice person, she didn't need any more trouble, especially not by her fourteen year old son becoming an addict or developing a mental disorder. Max had also reprimanded his boys for introducing Michael to drugs. He could have lived with them sharing joints and drinking alcohol together, but freebasing was a bit too much. He didn't want his new boy to become a cocaine junkie.

There was also some trouble because Star seemed to be planning on switching David for Michael. Like Max, David had no problem with sharing, but he didn't appreciate being ditched, especially not after catering to Star and Laddie's needs and whims like he had done for the last three months.

That night, Max intended on telling Lucy everything. Well, not exactly every thing, but he planned on telling her about Samuel and the Frogs, about Michael, Star, and his boys (well, sort of about his boys, he really couldn't admit the truth to her now, could he?), and how he planned on making them all into one big, happy family. He had invited her to his home, he had cooked dinner, and he awaited her every moment now.

When Lucy finally arrived, she was sweet and enthusiastic as always, admiring his home and paying him compliments, but she seemed also somewhat agitated. After a bit of prodding, she confessed to have a bad feeling about leaving her boys home alone, since they both had behaved rather strange lately. Max agreed to check on them with her, and they made for the lodge in the hills via both their cars.

When they opened the front door, they stepped into a scene that could have been taken right out of a war site. The living room was a wreckage, shards of glass and pieces of broken furniture littering the floor. Max's heart skipped a beat when he saw Dwayne slumped against the stereo, a feathered arrow sticking out of his upper body. Samuel was still clutching the accompanying bow to his chest.

"Oh my God ..." Max breathed, hurrying over to Dwayne. He was unconscious, but his pulse was steady. The arrow seemed to have missed his heart, but it could well have punctured a lung. It also looked like the stereo had short circuited when Dwayne had stumbled against it, seeking hold. Perhaps he had received an electric shock also.

While Max was still checking on Dwayne, lowering him gently to the ground and laying him into the lateral position, Michael stepped out of an adjacent room. His eyes were wide, his pupils huge. He was clearly under the influence of drugs.

"Where are the others?" Max asked him, his voice trembling. "Lucy, quick, call an ambulance!"

Lucy was at least as shocked as Max, but she hurried off to do his bidding all the same.

Michael had difficulties in articulating himself, but he apparently tried to tell Max that David was in the room he had just emerged from. Max shoved him out of the way, and found himself in what must have been Lucy's old man's taxidermy workshop. There were stuffed animals, hides, forms … and horns. And, oh God, there was David, his beloved boy, pierced by a pair of antlers that had gone straight through him, the pointed tips protruding from his chest.

"No ..." Max whispered. David dead? It couldn't be. But then he saw that his chest was slowly rising and falling. He was severely hurt, but still alive.

Max carefully took David's face in both his hands to lightly caress it. "You'll be alright, love," he said quietly into his unhearing ears. "I promise. Help is already on the way."

At that very moment, Lucy entered the room. She stumbled back almost immediately upon seeing David impaled. "Oh sweet Jesus Christ …!" She shook her head repeatedly, as if she could wipe out what she was seeing by doing so. "Michael … Michael, what have you done?!"

Michael mumbled something incoherent and barely audible, leaning on the door jamb for support. Max shoved him aside once more as he made back for the living room.

"Lucy, please stay with David," he said over his shoulder. "He's only unconscious. If he wakes, see to it that he doesn't move. I have to look for the others. Is the ambulance coming?"

Lucy nodded, looking numb.

"Thank God. I think I'm going to call another one."

That he did, informing the paramedics that there were certainly two, likely four or even more severely hurt persons up at the mountain lodge. When he put the receiver down again, straightening his frame, Star was standing next to him. Her face was tear-streaked, and her hands were shaking.

Max took her by the shoulders. "Star, where's Paul? Marko?"

She motioned towards the stairs, apparently too deep in shock to speak. Max took the steps two at a time.

He found Paul in the bathroom, knocked out and floating in a tub full of ice cold water. Max hoisted him up and laid him down on the white tiles. Paul was not breathing.

Max was still trying desperately to squash the water out of his lungs when he heard the siren of the first ambulance. He called out for help, afraid that Paul wouldn't make it, and equally afraid that David or Dwayne or even both might die if they didn't get professional help immediately. A minute later, two paramedics stormed into the room and took over.

Max rose on shaky knees. Where was Marko? How were David and Dwayne? Why did the other ambulance take so long? And what the Hell, what the Hell had happened here? He stumbled out of the bathroom, away from the struggle for Paul's life, and into the corridor. He had to lean against the wall and close his eyes for a minute.

Perhaps it turned into more than a minute, for he was shocked into alertness by the siren of another ambulance. Max was not a religious man, but now he prayed, quickly and silently, that they would be able to save all of his boys. He went through all the upstairs rooms in his search for Marko, but found no living soul.

Then the paramedics hurried past him with Paul on a stretcher.

"Success! He'll make it!" one of them called to Max in passing, and Max prayed once again. This time, it was a prayer of thanks.

Slowly, Max went down the stairs again and into the living room. There, another pair of paramedics was occupied with Dwayne, lifting him carefully onto a stretcher.

"Will he be alright?" Max asked timidly.

One of the men nodded. "The arrow has punctured his lung; he will have to undergo surgery, but he seems fairly stable. I'm sure he'll make it."

Max could only nod. "What about David?" he asked. His voice sounded weak and hoarse in his own ears.

"The lady of the house just made another phone call for additional help. We checked on him, but couldn't do much more than give him injections to stabilize his circulation and to keep him under for now. We need someone with special equipment to cut those antlers loose. They're on their way."

Max nodded again. He felt slightly dazed as he turned and went into the kitchen. There he met with Star, Laddie, Michael, Nanook, Samuel, and the Frog brothers. The latter three were smeared with dirt and splatters of blood.

"Where is Marko?" Max asked no one in particular, his voice frail with dread.

Although Samuel was apparently only a breath away from a nervous breakdown, his face a sickly greyish color and his whole frame shaking as a leaf, he was the first to answer. "Cave ..." he muttered.

Max did not wait to hear more, but turned on his heel and dashed off to his Corvette. He met the third ambulance on the driveway.

He rushed the Corvette out to Hudson's Bluff as fast as she could go, not caring whether he ruined the paint job on the gravelly road. Hurriedly, he climbed down the steps and slithered down the slope of the cave's mouth. He was frantically searching for one of the self-made torches the boys kept close to the entrance when he heard a weak voice from out of the shadows.

"Who's there?"

Max's head snapped around. He saw the dim light of a candle further down in the dark.

"Marko! Thank heavens … It's me, Max!"

"I'm glad ya could make it, Max. I'm feeling truly and utterly terrible."

At long last, Max found a torch and kindled it with his lighter. Then he made his way over to the huge four-poster bed where the lonely candle burned. Marko was lying huddled into the sheets, his face pale and scrunched up with pain.

"Marko, my boy … Whatever happened to you?" Max inquired as he carefully extended a hand to first touch Marko's brow, then caress his face.

Marko closed his eyes and leaned into the touch. That alone told Max how upset the boy was. Marko usually brushed such displays of affection off with a wriggle and a joke.

"They … those kids …" Marko began slowly, hesitantly. "They came here and attacked us while we were sleeping. We were partying last night and still pretty much out of it, ya know … Michael was with us – last night, I mean –, but he left before sunrise. I dunno for sure, but I think Michael sneaked Star and Laddie out. Not last night, this afternoon. I dunno why, though, I really don't. If she wanted to leave so badly, why the fuck didn't she just tell us and go? But we never saw Michael, so perhaps she left on her own, taking Laddie with her … It's going to break Dwayne's heart, he loves the little nagger … Paul as well …"

Marko paused, only now opening his eyes and looking at Max in the flickering torchlight. "So I dunno 'bout Michael, but his lil' brother was here for sure, and those freaky comic commando kids. I'm not sure, but I think … I think they actually tried to kill me with a sharpened stick while I was nodding on the couch. They only succeeded in ruining my jacket and piercing me with the fucking thing though. It hurt like Hell, and I think there's still splinters in the wound. I woke from the pain, and the others woke from my screaming. David went after the kids, but he came back to check on me when he had chased them out for good. They dressed my wound up as best as they could, and then they left me to seek ya out. That's all I know."

So the boys had tried to get his help before they went to confront Michael and his brother. They had obviously missed him, likely going first to his house because he had told them that he would dine there with Lucy tonight, not finding him there because he and Lucy had been held up at the shop, then perhaps going to the store when he and Lucy had just left …

What a mess.

"Max? What's wrong? Has … has something happened to them?" Marko was biting his lip nervously.

"They'll be alright," Max reassured him. "There was a fight, and they were hurt, but they are going to be alright."

If only he could believe it himself …

Marko looked at him searchingly. "Hurt … like, badly hurt?"

Max closed his eyes for a moment. "Yes, Marko. They are badly hurt. Paul had to be reanimated; David and Dwayne both had their lungs punctured and are undergoing surgery right now."

Marko's already large eyes became even larger. He shoved the covers aside and made to stand up, wincing with pain. Max helped him onto his feet and supported him on their way out of the cave. Climbing the steps was a hassle, but they eventually made it to Max's car and sped off towards the hospital.

On arriving, Max first inquired whether all of the boys were still alive and reasonably well. After gaining confirmation, he saw to it that Marko's wound was cleaned (yes, there were splinters in it) and bandaged professionally, staying with him all the while in spite of the boy's protests. The other boys had only poured some alcohol onto the wound and wrapped Marko's torso in stripes of cloth that appeared to be torn t-shirts. When Marko was patched up, they went together in search for the others.

As it turned out, they were all still unconscious, David and Dwayne both in intensive care after surgery. Max had to bribe several people to gain access to them, for he was not a family member, and neither was Marko. He sat with each of them for a while, telling them that the others were okay, and that they needn't fear. Marko watched with huge, worried eyes. By now, the boy was totally beat and barely able to stay on his feet.

After nearly two hours at the hospital, Max drove Marko to his house and tucked him into bed. Then he phoned Lucy. It was almost one o'clock in the morning, but the receiver was picked up after the second ring. It was not Lucy who took the call though, but Michael ...

.:.

To be continued ...