Chapter Text
The first he heard was the sound of sirens getting closer. Since he’d lived right in the city centre, he’d gotten used to hearing sirens rattle past, but these were not going past, they were getting closer & there seemed to be a lot of them.
He pulled his stiff body upright & walked round the end of the bed to try & get close to the window. The curtains were closed & the chain round his ankle stopped him just short of the window. He tried to lean closer, tried to work out what was going on as the blue lights from the emergency vehicles lit up the room, but he couldn’t reach to open the curtains, the length of chain too carefully measured.
He sighed & returned to sit gingerly at the bottom of his bed. Despite how tired he was, he couldn’t sleep as usual. He’d had a lot of clients that night & he felt it. His throat was raw, his body hurt to move & he’d bled again. The last couple of clients hadn’t been gentle on him.
The sirens didn’t stop & the room was lit up by more lights. He could hear voices too, but he couldn’t do anything about it, chained to the bed as he was.
He returned to his nest of blankets under the bed, where he tried to sleep. Squeezing himself into the small space where he felt slightly safer, he curled into the foetal position, wincing at the pain inside of him & shut his eyes.
He must have drifted off, as he woke up coughing & the room seemed like a fog had descended. It took him several moments to establish that it was actually smoke that filled the room. He was coughing too, though he hadn’t realised he was until his already sore throat felt like it was being cut as the smoke took hold.
He heard noise & he tried to distinguish the sounds. People shouting, some were screaming & then there was another noise, one that he couldn’t place. He looked at the white smoke that was coming in under his bedroom door & he knew he should have been scared. But he wasn’t. He realised now the building was on fire. And he wasn’t going to get out.
He felt a strange calm settle over him. It was going to be over soon.
He climbed out from under the bed & stood, trying to think about how he felt. He couldn’t go anywhere, couldn’t do anything. No one would hear his shouts or screams. He knew that from bitter experience of how long he’d been kept here. How long was it now? He wasn’t entirely sure, but he thought it was near on 17 months. He hadn’t been beyond the living room & kitchen since. Isolated up on the top floor, in so many ways it was worse than being at his parent’s house.
He sank slowly onto the bed & he turned to look at the cameras that watched him 24/7. He sat there staring at the camera for a few minutes, wondering if someone was watching his last minutes on the other end, or whether it was simply recording them. He looked away, then lay back on the mattress. He didn’t cry & he tried not to think as he waited for the smoke to suffocate him.
~ - ~
Firemen were systematically searching the block. The fire had taken hold in the roof at the end of the block & was spreading quickly with the smoke spreading like cancerous cells through the rest of the building. The other residents had to be gotten out for their own safety & they were systematically searching the flats, breaking into & those that got no answer just in case.
Two of them hammered on the door of number 32. No answer. They hammered again & got no answer, so taking the axe, the larger of the two firemen started on the front door. Jolted out of his foggy slumber, Jamie sat up at the noise. He heard voices as the front door of the flat splintered & the firemen stepped in calling.
They searched the flat, finally reaching the room Jamie was in. The smoke was thicker & the firemen in their breathing apparatus only had another 10minutes of oxygen left. Pushing open the bedroom door, the two men were startled to see a mostly naked young man sitting on the bed, a wracking cough shaking his frame.
The motioned for him to stand up & follow them, but he shook his head. The largest fire officer stepped into the room walking towards him & noted how the guy seemed to shrink back from him. He was only dressed in the tiniest pair of underpants & it was then that he noticed the chain around the guy’s ankle. The officer knelt down & pulled at the chain where it was attached to a bolt in the floor, noticing cigarette burns on the soles of his feet. There was no way it could come unlocked. The officer stood & moved towards the young man who had sunk down on to the bed again, another coughing fit making his thin body shake.
The officer looked at the man’s ankle & inspected where it was attached. They needed the key. He lifted his mask & looked at the young man. “Where’s the key?” The officer asked. The young man looked frightened & even younger, shrugged.
“I don’t know. I don’t have it…” He managed to get out, voice thin & hoarse, before he started coughing again.
A feeling of panic went through the fireman. He’d never had to leave someone before & from the looks of him, the guy didn’t have much longer before the smoke took him. He took off his mask & placed it over the young guy’s face.
“Breathe.” He said, then turning to his colleague he shouted. “We need bolt cutters. Go & get some.” The other officer hesitated. “Go. We can’t leave him.” The officer nodded & left at a run.
Looking around the room, the fireman moved towards the window, but on getting there, found it locked & with bars across it so that it couldn’t be opened. He frowned. The place was like a prison. He glanced around & saw another door. He opened it on to a small en-suite. Taking a towel he ran it under the tap & then wound it around his face. He had to get himself & the young man out of there.
More smoke was pouring in & there was nowhere for it to go. He turned back into the room & looked around for clues as to what the hell was going on in there. He noted a basket full of condoms, tubes of lube & a load of different sex toys. At the head of the bed were various cuffs & restraints. The fireman shuddered & looked back at the practically naked man who sat very still on the end of the bed watching him with wary eyes. He needed to get the guy out of there. Whatever was going on in the room couldn’t be good. He looked at the young man & said “I’ll be back, don’t worry.” Then he raced out the room to where he hoped his axe still stood by the splintered door frame. Grabbing it, he had to try. He rushed back into the bedroom & the man flinched back at his sudden appearance. “Can you stand?” The guy nodded. “OK, I want to try & break the chain… Stretch it out & make it as taut as you can. I’m going to use the axe on it. It might work.”
Jamie stood & moved slowly towards the bedroom door his body feeling drained of energy, stretching the chain out taut. He watched the fireman raise the axe & bring it down. He felt the force ricochet through the chain towards the metal cuff on his ankle & it made him stumble. He winced, but steadied himself & held still. The axe was brought down again & again, five times in total before the chain snapped.
“Thank fuck for that.” The fireman said. “Let’s go.”
Jamie stood still. He couldn’t leave the flat. Could he? The fireman saw the fear flash across the young man’s face. He was scared, scared of leaving, scared of whoever had him kept here.
Not giving him a choice, he walked towards him & picked him up, throwing him over his shoulder as he left the flat at speed.
The cold hit him as they charged down the stairs, his head flopping against the fireman’s back as he was held lightly in position, secure enough not to fall, but not to stop his body from flapping at the movement. He was still coughing, but the oxygen mask had helped. He tried to notice his surroundings, but it was over-whelming. To be out of there, free.
He held the chain that was still attached to his ankle in his hand to stop it trailing. He wondered what it would be like to have the cuff off after so long. Sometimes it was removed so the skin could be looked at underneath, but it was always put back. He’d worn it since he’d entered the flat. His mind wandered & he drifted off as his body succumbed to the coughing.
The next thing he knew he was lying on a trolley covered with blankets in the back of what looked like an ambulance. Medics were working on him & another oxygen mask was placed over his mouth & nose. The fireman who had rescued him was sat on the step of the ambulance in front of him also with an oxygen mask over his head & he was being examined by a medic as a police officer spoke with him.
Every-so-often the policeman looked up at him & he looked away, embarrassed. They were talking about him, about what the fireman had seen in that room.
He shut his eyes & let himself drift, feeling himself floating on the stuff he was breathing in. His lungs felt tight, his throat was on fire & his body ached. He wanted that feeling when he felt nothing. Oblivion.
Voices flickered around him, probably spoke to him, but he was floating too much, too far away to want to come back. He let himself drift off further hearing strange beeps as he lost consciousness.
~ - ~
He opened his eyes slowly, letting his eyes grow accustomed to the light around him. He had heard noise & it was that that had brought him round, made him wake up. He looked around & realised he was lying on his back in a bed. A mask was over his mouth & nose still & there were various wires going into his arms & pads & wires were fixed to his chest. He was covered in a sheet & blanket, right up to his chin, yet he was still cold & he shivered. A steady beeping noise registered & he turned to his left & saw a monitor which was measuring his heartbeat. On the other side of the bed, sacks of clear liquid were suspended from a hook & fed into a wire that was attached to the back of his hand. He was in a hospital.
“Hello.” A young female with dark brown hair & eyes, wearing a shapeless pale blue top & matching trousers said to him, her voice calm & quiet. “Back with us?”
Jamie didn’t know what to say, so just nodded his head slightly, instantly regretting it as it caused his head to pound. He shut his eyes & winced at the pain. “Is it bad?” The woman asked. Jamie opened his eyes at her & tried to form an answer. “Your head? It’s because of the smoke, the lack of oxygen & you were very dehydrated. Your head is bound to hurt.” She pointed at the clear sack of liquid that was emptying into him. “That’s what that is for. Should make you feel better. I can get the doctor to give you something for the head though.” Jamie went to speak, but nothing came out. He tried again. She smiled at him. “Your voice, it’s the smoke inhalation, it’ll get better. Just rest.” Jamie nodded slightly & shut his eyes.
~ - ~
The doctor had examined the young man in Casualty after he’d been brought in by ambulance. The state of the man worried him, especially when he’d seen the ankle cuff & chain & the burn marks on the soles of his feet. A policeman had followed & the paramedic explained where & how the young man had been found.
His heart had stopped for a few moments in the back of the ambulance, but the beat had returned & had strengthened again. The doctor had rigged him up to the heart monitor & had begun to examine him.
The young man’s body was a mess. Scarred with burns & bruises. Not much of the skin on his torso & upper legs were not marked in some way. He’d clearly been raped too. Blood was in his underwear, the only garment he’d worn & hand marks littered his hips, with more bruises between his legs & on his upper arms. Hand marks that had clearly held him down.
Then there were the marks of restraint on his wrists & even the remaining metal cuff on his left ankle. They were still awaiting someone to remove that. A fireman with specialist cutting equipment was on his way, but the doctor could tell from the skin underneath that he’d worn it for a long time. Someone had been holding the young man prisoner for some time & according to the fireman, from what he’d reported seeing in the flat had been making him work.
He was a pretty young man, the doctor could see that. Fragile looking & not just because he was so thin. An elfin face, with high cheek bones & long black eyelashes that sat against pale skin. His dark wavy hair, tied back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck with elastic made him look young. Too young. He could certainly see why the young man would have been popular with clients. Not quite so easy to understand was why those men would abuse him so.
Ribs protruded on his chest, all of them visible & the vertebrae on his back could be counted. He was far too thin & the test results were due back on his liver & kidney function, plus all the other things that needed to be checked to ensure there was no long term damage done. His teeth were ok, just one had had to be removed for the poor condition it was in. His gums were poor, bloody & receded in places, but time & treatment would improve those. It was the young man’s mental state though that would be the concern. How did anyone cope with what he’d obviously been through?
The doctor sat by his bed, writing up the notes & looking up to watch him every-so-often. He felt a strange paternal instinct with this young man who had been brought in so ill-treated 9 hours before. He couldn’t help but want the boy to wake, which he’d only done briefly since he’d come in. The nurse had reported him being awake briefly, trying to speak before falling asleep again. Police were waiting to question him & there were things the doctor wanted to ask him too. They didn’t even know his name, whether he was British, his age. Too many unanswered questions surrounded the fragile, broken creature that lay in that bed.
~ - ~
He woke again & jolted before instantly stilling his body, nervous about where he was. It took him several moments before he remembered where he was, that he wasn’t in the flat with a stream of men coming in to use him. It was dark though & the quiet of the ward was interrupted with the quiet beeps of the machine he was still attached to. He turned his head to watch it & realised it was a heart monitor. He was mesmerised by the regular bleep as the pattern flitted across the screen.
He swallowed & winced at the pain that it caused, desperate for some water. Struggling with the sheet & blanket that covered him, he tried to sit up & briefly shut his eyes as the world span a little in front of him. It was only then that he noticed the tube in his nostrils & he rubbed at it distractedly, puzzled as to why it was there.
He must have knocked a pad in his struggle to sit up as the beeps on the monitor changed & moments later a nurse appeared at his side. She smiled at him, a woman in her late 40s perhaps, blonde hair scraped back in a plait & wearing the same shapeless tunic that the other nurse had worn when he’d been awake last. Her hands whipped the blanket back & quickly repositioned the pad on his chest, before she flicked a switch on the heart monitor & watched it for several beats. “That’s better” she said turning back to him, her voice low in the dark of the ward. “How are you feeling?”
“Aarrghh” was all he could manage as he tried to speak.
“Thirsty?” He nodded. She smiled again & went to the other side of his bed & poured a tiny amount of water into a plastic beaker. “Drink it slowly.” He tried to lift his hand to take the cup, but his arm shook & he didn’t have the strength to lift his arm or even grip the beaker. She smiled at him again. “Let me.”
She pressed a button on the bed beside his head & it moved so he could sit up more, then she stepped closer & held the cup to his lips. Even though he’d visibly flinched as she’d stepped closer he relished the liquid when he took some & tried to greedily drink more. She pulled the cup away. “Slowly, little one or you’re likely to bring it up again.” She watched him nod & lick his chapped lips, before holding it out to him again. “I’m Hannah, on duty tonight until 7am.” She said quietly, letting him sip from the cup. “What’s your name honey?”
Surprised he looked up at her. Did they really want to know? What was it he was called these days? Whore? Slut? Hole? Pussyboi? Cockwhore? Cumdump? Did he even still have a name? He paused at that thought before he answered, avoiding her eyes. Could he tell her those names?
“Jamie.” He whispered eventually.
“Hello Jamie.” She smiled at him. “You’re safe here. You know that don’t you?” She watched as he bowed his head at her words. She let him ponder those words as she put some more water in the cup before she offered it to him. “More water sweetheart?”
He nodded, confused at the use of the endearments. He hadn’t heard words like that in years, not since he’d last seen his gran. He looked up at her from under his lashes & she smiled at him, holding out her hand with the water in it. He nodded & she moved the cup to his lips & held it there as he drank from it slowly.
It broke her heart to see the way the young man reacted. It was if he didn’t know what it was like for someone to be kind to him, to treat him well. Then she supposed, he didn’t.
The cuff had finally been removed a few hours ago & the skin underneath was scarred & beginning to rot in places. It was treated now, but he’d worn the cuff for too long & the skin hadn’t been cared for. How well it would heal was debateable.
He was like a frightened rabbit, who peered out from beautiful long lashes, trying to hide. He was scared & broken. She wanted to wrap her arms around him & hold him, make him feel better, offer him comfort that he’d clearly been lacking. But she knew she couldn’t, she knew he’d retreat like he did if she moved too quickly.
She watched him struggle to hold himself steady as he drank, before sinking back into the pillow behind him, his eyes wary. She smiled at him. “Why don’t you get some more sleep? I’ll bring you something to eat in a bit.” He nodded at her & she watched as he pulled the sheet & blanket protectively around him as he winced & turned on his side away from her. Sighing, she put the plastic beaker on the side & left him to rest, her hands resisting the urge to soothe or comfort him, knowing it would bring him none.