THE BONDED SERVANT
Chapter 9: Redemption
Perhaps you don't see it coming or argue with friends that "it can't happen here." But darker things have occurred in history. As hatred and bigotries rise, freedoms fall away. What we take for granted is lost. This final chapter, inspired by Thomas Lodge's excellent The Attendant series, brings us to the year 2030 when religious extremists have taken over the government and courts of many states. Once the Supreme Court ruled that there is no right to privacy, the constitutional basis to protect homosexuals evaporated and Bible-belt states began oppressing young gay men. In this story, some states in America looks more like other countries in the world where being gay is a sin and even a crime.
We arrive at the apartment building and the car is parked. My former father opens the door and actually helps me out. He glances at the dark stain on the seat where I sat and seems to blanche a bit, but says nothing. He does support me as we walk to the non-descript building. I am barefoot. He looks down at my bruised toes and actually holds me a bit more gently. Perhaps there is a dawning, an awareness of how I have been brutalized these past months, but he remains silent. Even if he has an inkling of all that he has done to me, that does not stop him from renting me out to the next client.
This has been my life for almost four months, enslaved by a cruel system that stigmatizes young men simply because they are gay, because they want to love and be loved by another man. In this new, terrifying world- well, actually a sick return to some Medieval worldview - being gay is not just a sin, it is an assault on what it means to be human, on what is a real family, a real man. If you won't produce children, if you spill your seed into another man, then you must be removed from the civilized world as an evil death force. A man who sleeps with another man has lost the right to be called human. In this perverse universe, fucking, debasing, brutalizing, sodomizing a lower-than-the-animals bonded servant is acceptable. Hate the 'sin," the good citizens of my state believe, and hate and abuse the "sinner" even more.
When I was a straight college jock, haughty about my great body and thick, eight inch dick that made my girlfriend Paula moan, I never thought much about homosexuality. Obviously, gay guys were not out and, while I had a live-let live point of view, I would not have knowingly associated with someone who was gay. What a jerk I was, arrogant and insensitive to the suffering taking place in my town, how terrifying it must have been to be gay. Well, forced into unwanted sex with perverts, I now know. I only wish I would have been more compassionate. I will never have a chance to repent from my sin of indifference and complicity. I must accept my suffering as punishment. But my suffering won't redeem me. I am doomed.
So here I am, standing in the street, waiting to be assaulted by yet another man who will pay my former father to rent me out. Whatever is going through his head, this man who once cared for me, taught me to ride and bike, to swim, does not seem to hear or see my pain. Or worse, he sees it, but his hatred and greed are more important than my life, the life of the young straight man who was once his son. I pray that there is some divine justice that will make him pay for what he has done to me.
We reach the apartment building.
Clearly, my former father, who must imagine that there is something terribly wrong in what he is doing, does not know which apartment to ring. In frustration, he hits all the buttons on the intercom. A man answers and instructs my father to let me come up alone (perhaps he was afraid that my former father would recognize him). "Tell your servant to find the door that will be open." My former dad offered the taser, but the man says no need.
He was right. I have been beaten into an obedient, dumb animal. I will follow what is demanded of me by this final pervert. I will bravely face his every command. I have found an inner strength I thought had evaporated, my resolve. This will be my last day as a bonded servant.
My former father leaves me, indifferent to my pain, without looking back. I am alone, unloved, abandoned, beaten into silence.
I slowly, painfully, walk up three flights (bonded slaves are not allowed to use an elevator unless accompanied by their Master), my body aching, my ass still feeling on fire as I search for the right apartment. I am amazed at my strength, somehow rising in me. I am strong, I have found my courage to act. Yes, I will be a strong man. But not yet.
I find the open door and I walk in, kneeling on the floor and lowering my head in submission, just as I have done for so many men these past months.
But I seem to be alone in this strange, empty apartment. I do wonder what about me allows me to be so humiliated, on my knees as always, an indentured, bonded servant. Was I never brave? Did I always lack courage? I was so filled with fear these months that I lost myself, thrown into a world that made no sense to me.
I remind myself that I have been declared a degenerate by the state and despicable by the man who was once my father and who unknowingly pimps me out. I am a cumdump for the kid brother I saved from the hell that I have been experiencing and for his young friends whom he invites over for the pleasure of blowjobs and humiliation. I barely survived the assault of a dozen sexually frenzied men. Yes, this is who I have become in the almost four months of sexual bondage. I am beaten down, no longer the college jock I once was.
I have lost all hope, I have no future. After this last encounter, I will only need the courage to end it all. And I have found that courage. I will get through the day and that will be the end.
The man must be present somewhere, but he has not spoken. The silence is eerie. I can feel him approaching, the air moving. Well trained by months of being the recipient of the most repulsive sexual perversions, I knew exactly what is expected of me.
He is in front of me, I feel the heat, the slight rustle, but not a sound. Head bowed so as not to engage with my eyes, I reach out to pull down his zipper. He pushes my hands away. I think to myself, this is another sicko who wants me to just use my mouth. I press my face into his crotch. Strangely, he is not hard. This is going to take a lot of work to get him off. I get myself ready for the humiliation, the nauseating bodily fluids he will shoot at me, the abuse. I can take it one last time. I am a man, and after what happened to me this morning assaulted by a dozen men, I can withstand anything.
Yes, soon this will all be over.
Even though I want to die, I still can feel the thrust of fear in my chest. Whoever this man is, he hovers over me in silence. Maybe he will fuck and abuse me as all the others have done. Maybe even strangle me, torture and kill me. At this point in my life, death would be the ultimate relief.
I press my mouth against his crotch. There is a soft bulge, no hardness. I think to myself this really is sadistic, making me just use my mouth. Strange that he is not hard. Yes, he will add to my humiliation by making me work hard to get him off.