Nightmare Messiah

Tuesday II

         For once, Gage didn’t dream. Maybe he was too battered from his first night with Gideon to even be capable of dreaming. Or maybe he had already had his chance to dream and lost it when it was interrupted by those events. Either way, when he woke up, he was aware that he didn’t remember any dreams. He woke up cold, every last muscle stiff and sore. He woke up with a groan because someone had touched his shoulder with a bit too much pressure. Someone who was whispering to him, likely urging him to wake up for some reason.
         “Gage.” That was a woman’s voice, a familiar voice. He couldn’t immediately place who the voice belonged to, but for some reason he knew he should know her. She shook his shoulder again. “Gage.” He thought he had asked what the person wanted, but it turned out he had only groaned. “God,” said the woman. He felt her hands slip under his arms and roll him onto his back. The entire world lurked and swayed around him. “You look like hell,” she also said. “Come on. Get up.”
         Get up? He groaned again, though he thought he had said that he couldn’t get up because he felt like hell. Just as she said he looked like. He certainly felt like he’d crawled out of the bowels of hell. Oh. Bowels. Speaking of those. His seriously hurt worse than ever before. He winced and decided he didn’t want to open his eyes, but he did anyway.
         He saw long blond hair tied up in a neat but loose bun. He saw eyes that were both green and blue at the same time. Julia was looming over him, sitting on the side of the bed, and slipping an arm under his shoulders to try pushing him up into a sitting position. “Come on,” she repeated. He didn’t have enough strength to fight her. The world around him shivered, and once he was sitting up he hissed. A whimpering gasp of air escaped his lungs, and he trembled. He tilted toward her and she caught him in her arms. “Jesus,” she said, gently cradling him against her bossom. “What’d he do to you, huh?” She sighed the way a mother would sigh when her son came home with a black eye, as if this was something that happened every day.
         He wanted to tell her exactly what Gideon had done to him. He wanted to tell her every last agonizing detail. But he could get out any words, only a broken whimper that he pressed into her breast.
         It had been far worse than he could directly remember. Gage was certain he had blacked out at times and had been roughly brought back into awareness by a fist. He felt fingers brush across his shoulder blade, Julia’s fingers. She was inspecting the damage. Welts and bruises, he could feel those. There were also scratches from fingernails, Gideon’s nails. Or maybe those scratches had come from the accessory he had mentioned when it all started. Gage could hardly remember any of it. He wished he couldn’t remember all of it. That had been the roughest night of sex he’d ever engaged in, and the only one that had gotten any full pleasure out of it had been Gideon Langston. Oh sure, Gage had received some pleasure, physically, but not the full scale of pleasure that Gideon Langston had likely received.
         Julia sighed and he barely felt her kiss his brow. “Come on, sweetie. Let’s get you in the shower and then we’ll get you some breakfast, okay?” Was it still morning? Shit. That meant he hadn’t slept much at all. She helped him slide off the bed, slipped an arm around her shoulders, and helped him walk into the bathroom. Every step hurt. His legs were bruised too, probably moreso than the rest of his body. Except for one place. That part of his body had received the most abuse.
         Since he was still nude, she didn’t need to help him out of any clothes. Julia dragged one of the cushioned chairs further into the bathroom and propped it against the wall next to the shower. It was a glass shower that was nestled into the other corner beside the tub. She carefully lowered Gage onto the chair. As soon as he landed he hissed and almost fell off of it, onto the floor. She caught him and helped him sit at an angle, with his elbow locked and palm flat on the seat, just so he wasn’t sitting flat. Christ. He couldn’t remember the last time it hurt to sit.
         Once she was sure he wasn’t going to fall, Julia stepped over to the shower and turned it on. She let the water run until the temperature felt right, and then she helped the boy back up to his feet and guided him in under the jets. The water wasn’t hot, nor was it cold. She’d set it to a luke warm temperature. Gage tipped against the wall and tried to keep himself standing, just let the water fall over him. Julia closed the door and sat down on the chair to wait. She listened to him whine and curse every so often. It was probably the least relaxing and cleansing shower he had ever taken.
         Gage stood in the shower until the water started to turn cold, and then he stayed even longer. He wasn’t very successful in washing, but trying helped loosen up his aching muscles, as much of a struggle as it had been. Even shampooing and conditioning his hair took some doing. In the end, it did help, a little.
         When he pushed open the door, Julia was standing there with a towel ready for him. He stepped into it instead of taking it from her, and she wrapped him in it. Now that he was more awake, however, he realized that he should be mad at her. Gideon had told him that Julia had recommended him to the man. “Thanks,” he grumbled. “I can get it.” He stumbled toward the chair and finished wrapping the chair around his waist. He lurked and dropped onto it at an angle, sitting more on one side than flat.
         She must have registered his tone as angry if not simply grumpy, because she sighed and tossed another towel in his lap. “I’m sorry, Gage,” she said. Despite his previous impression of the girl, how enamored he had been with her, he forced himself to forget all that and fashion up a new image of her. She kept talking. “Gideon told you I recommended you to him, I’m guessing. Well, I did. He asked my opinion between you and the other girl, and I told him you were good. That’s all.”
         “Is that supposed to make me feel better?” he muttered. It didn’t make him feel better. It only made him feel worse. How could she not know what Gideon was capable of, being his butler or whatever? He grabbed up the second towel and used it to dry his hair. The rest of his body, as far as he was concerned, could air dry. Trying to towel it dry would have just hurt.
         “Look,” she said, still so calm and even sounding a little sad. “I didn’t know he was going to be that rough with you. He’s never done anything like this before. Usually he brings home a girl from a party, or picks one out of his parties. He doesn’t often pick a boy. In fact, as far as I know, you’re his first.”
         That would explain why the man had been so rough with him, if it were true. Gage sighed and let the second towel fall to rest around his shoulders and neck. How could he stay mad at her when she sounded so sincere? Something didn’t fit in her explanation, however. “Do you usually screen whores for him?”
         Julia gasped, as if she were outraged by the inquiry. That question had stricken her speechless and she seemed to be mulling over how to respond. Out of the corner of his eye he watched her lift her chin defensively, just like a rich snob would. But Julia wasn’t a rich snob. She only worked for one. As far as he knew.
         “Well?” He turned his head to look up at her, practically glared at her. He had his suspicions. He always had suspicions. In this case, he suspected that Gideon had sent the girl out to screen them, to sleep with both of them and report her findings to the man.
         “I never slept with her, if that’s what you’re asking,” she said.
         Gage turned slightly to face her more directly, but he kept his full weight angled. She was holding something back; he could see it in her eyes. “Who did?” He was actually pretty good at figuring people out, reading between the lines and seeing what was there that they were trying to keep secret. It wasn’t often, however, that he questioned anyone about them. But for some reason he had to know with Julia.
         He watched her face turn red, flushed either from anger or embarrassment. He couldn’t determine which. She let out a huff of breath and inclined her chin a little further. “If you must know, Gideon had his gardener sleep with her.”
         “Paid you both a little extra, huh?”
         “Yes. So?” She looked like she wanted to hit him all of a sudden. He saw her fist clench and loosen slowly. She trembled slightly, probably from an estrogen rage building up inside.
         “So he paid you both to sleep with one of us. The same night he invited Isaac to the party the following night. He’s never done that sort of thing before. And you didn’t find it a little strange that he’d ask you to do that?” He wanted to slap her across the face for being stupid. He wanted her to slap him for being stupid enough to sleep with her the night before. He couldn’t even remember the weekend. He only remembered waking up in bed next to her, taking her money, everything that lead up to this point. What had happened?
         Julia gasped again, and this time she took a step back, lifting a hand close to her mouth and gaping. Gage frowned and shook his head, disappointed. No. Clearly she hadn’t thought it had been strange at all. She was probably Gideon’s lapdog, obeyed his every command. The only bonus was that he paid her to work for him and not ask questions. And he had thought she was such a sweet girl. He had almost been attracted to her. Now he only felt sick.
         “You know what? Forget it,” he said. “Just ... go. I don’t need your help or anything. I can take care of myself. I’m used to this sort of thing.” All of that was a lie. Part of him was grateful for her help, getting him out of bed and into the shower. But another part of him was disgusted by her very presence. He wanted to blame her for his entire situation. As far as he was concerned, it was all her fault. All based off of her recommendation that he was a good lay. But was he used to this sort of thing? Not at all. He was more accustomed to a series of one night stands. Meet a person, make a deal, fuck them for a night, get out the next morning with as much money as you can get out of them. A week-long arrangement was something entirely new. A week-long arrangment with a man like Gideon Langston was a nightmare, and it was only just beginning.
         The girl said nothing. It was different seeing her in what appeared to be a business suit with a skirt, as opposed to naked or in a sparkling red dress as he had seen her before. It was a cold slap across the face that he could see how his words had stung her, in her eyes. Julia said nothing when she turned and walked out of the bathroom. Though he heard her call back over her shoulder as she passed through the bedroom. “I’ll have Emily fix you some lunch and bring it up to you.” He heard the door in the sitting room slam shut, and that was the last he heard from her for the rest of the day.