The following is a work of fiction. Any similarities to anyone are purely coincidental. The story is intended for a mature audience. It may contain profanity and references to gay sex. If this offends you, please leave and find something more suitable to read. The author maintains all rights to the story. Do not copy or use without written permission. Write Ron at ronyx@woh.rr.com with any comments.
Writing for Joe Chapter 5
"I'm telling you now. If you don't stop snooping around, shit's going to hit the fan." Jessica sternly told Matt.
"Tiffany was serious when she told me to tell you to lay off her brother." She was trying to get through Matt's thick head, but as usual he had made up his mind.
"This is really big, I can feel it. There's a story here, maybe bigger than the one last year." Matt informed her excitedly.
"I'm sure there is, but it can also spell T-R-O-U-B-L-E!" She warned him. "We're talking about Wellston. He's already pissed royally at you for putting him behind bars. It's hard to say what he'll do if you try to throw in prostitution on top of everything else."
"But it's not fair what he did to those kids. No one's talking to me yet, but I have a feeling that there's a lot more to this than meets the eye.
"He wasn't whoring out adults, these were just kids!" Matt was determined to get to the bottom of his investigation. He was sure that Jeremy was involved. Hell, he was just a young kid. If Wellston had used him and other kids in his prostitution ring, he was going to find out-one way or another. He wanted to make sure he stayed behind bars forever.
From what he had learned last year, there may have been close to ten high school aged students, male and female. He had been puzzled why there was never a thorough investigation. It seemed that the road dead ended whenever he thought he had a lead.
He had to talk to Jeremy again. The kid seemed to want to talk to someone. Perhaps the guilt was too much for him to handle. Maybe with gentle persuasion, he could get him to talk.
How though? That was the question.
"You're so damned pig-headed! You know that? You're going to continue snooping around, aren't you?" Jessica was mad, but what could she do?
"These people don't play around. You're going to get yourself killed. I'm surprised they haven't done anything to you yet. You know what happened last year." She reminded him.
Matt had been threatened repeatedly after the police raid last year. Calls were made to the school threatening his life. He had to have his room changed and get a new phone number because of all the harassing calls.
At one point the campus security had to follow him around for a week when he found a note in his book bag threatening to shoot him. Nothing ever came of it, but he looked over his shoulder for months after that.
"Look, I've got a hot story here. I can't just let it go. I'm being really careful about speaking to anyone. Tiffany and Jeremy are the only ones I've spoken to so far." He tried to comfort Jessica.
"Yeah, but they might not be the right ones to talk to. Rumors around campus are that Tiffany is Wellston's girlfriend." It was common knowledge that Tiffany was close to Wellston, and that she visited him quite frequently.
"Alright, Alright. I'll be careful." Matt got up from the table they were sitting at in the student union and stormed away. He loved Jessica, but sometimes she could really get on his nerves- especially when she might be right.
"Listen up, everyone." Joe hollered out to the people in the newsroom.
"We have a deadline tomorrow. I want to see your final drafts on my desk before you leave today." He instructed them.
He walked cautiously over to Matt. "Can you stay after everyone leaves? I need to talk to you about your story."
The room was abuzz for the next two hours. Everyone was typing feverishly. Joe walked around the room giving assistance to those who needed his help.
Matt watched him walk around admiringly. He really had fallen for this black Adonis. He was so confident strolling around the newsroom. He was in complete charge. Everyone admired him and looked to him for guidance.
"Why is he so fucked up in his personal life?" Matt thought. He could control everything in the newsroom, but was a disaster when it came to his emotions. Matt was the only one who had ever been able to penetrate that secret area of his life, so no one else knew the turmoil hidden deep within this externally confident man.
After much newsroom tension and frustration, the last reporter left the room.
"Sit down, Matt. Tell me what you've got." He pointed to a chair sitting beside his editor's desk.
"Nothing I can say is substantive. Everything right now is just a hunch... I talked to one of the boys involved and I've got a feeling I'm on to something big." Matt informed Joe.
"I don't want you to do anything else on this story." Joe ordered him.
"Why, I'm just getting started? I need more time." Matt said in frustration.
Joe pulled a piece of paper out of his desk. It had large letters pasted on it. It looked like they had been cut out of a newspaper.
"Here, read this. I found it this morning shoved under the door of the newsroom when I arrived." He handed him the paper.
IF YOU DON'T STOP SOMEONE DIES
Matt looked at the note and gasped. He had seen this type of warning last year. One had been placed under the door of his dorm room and another under the door of the newsroom. That was when he had received police protection for a while.
"Look, Joe." He said. "We saw these last year. Nothing ever came of them."
"I don't give a damn!" Joe became agitated. "Give up this crazy idea, now! If you don't, I'm going to Dr. Olsen. I should never have suggested it in the first place."
"Listen, Joe. Just a couple more days." Matt begged. "These boys need help. No one helped them last year when they should have. For all we know, they still could be in danger."
"Goddamn it, Matt! Give it up!" Joe stood up and looked angrily at Matt.
"I'm telling you now. The story stops here, now!" He spat out.
Matt said nothing. He looked deep inside his dark brown eyes.
What surprised him was that he didn't see anger in Joe's eyes, he saw concern. Joe didn't want to see him get hurt.
He knew he couldn't say anything more. He had already made up his mind that he was going to find out if the boys were in danger and needed someone's help. If he stayed around, he knew Joe would make him promise to give up the investigation.
So he grabbed his notes and started hurriedly putting them in his book bag. On his way out the door he told Joe,
"I'll talk to you in a couple of days." With that, he exited the room. Joe stood and watched him leave, knowing that this was not the end.
Matt was waiting outside the doors of James Madison High School when the 3:30 bell rang. He knew this was the final bell and that students would soon be streaming out of the building.
He waited patiently watching the hoards of excited high school students exit. They were laughing and horse playing around. He could almost tell the students by their grade level. The freshmen usually left playfully, yelling and screaming, occasionally trying to trip someone or steal a book.
The seniors left walking quietly with an air of authority. It had been a few years since he had been in high school. He wondered if a casual observer noticed his change over the years.
After a while, he saw a cute, wavy brown-haired boy emerge through the doors and walk gracefully down the stairs heading off in the direction of his apartment. Matt followed him closely until they were a safe distance from the school and out of range of anyone who might be watching.
"Hey, Jeremy," Matt said, walking up beside him.
Jeremy didn't even turn when he heard the voice. He had figured that Matt, being the news hound that he was, would not give up with one encounter.
"I told you the other day; I've got nothing to say to you." He said with disgust.
"Look. I'm just trying to help you." Matt said pleadingly.
"What's in it for you? Another big story. Huge headlines and the media interviewing you. Then what? You leave me out on a line, dangling." Jeremy looked at him with sad eyes.
"Look, I know Wellston used you. He sold you into prostitution and let others sexually abuse you." Matt was taking a chance. He knew his suspicions had to be right. He was hoping he could bluff this young boy into taking the bait.
"You don't know the half of it." Jeremy turned and began to sadly walk away.
"Then tell me about it, I can try to help." Matt pleaded with the boy.
"I can't. There are people in this town that would kill both of us right now if they saw us talking. We're already probably being watched. My sister saw us the other day." He warned.
"I know. I've already received a threat." He informed him. Jeremy threw him a questioning look.
"Listen, I gotta go. Please leave me alone." Jeremy said with tears in his eyes. He began to briskly walk away.
Matt hollered out to him, "You still got my phone number?"
"Yeah." He replied, not looking back.
"Call me if you need me." Matt yelled.
Jeremy continued walking, saying nothing.
Joe decided to go to Matt's room to try and talk him out of pursuing this story. In the years he had been working on stories, he'd never had a bad feeling as he did with this one.
Even last year when Matt was being threatened, it didn't feel as ominous as this story was. There was a dark cloud hanging over everything right now, and he knew that he had to get to Matt and stop his investigation before something went wrong. He felt guilty for even mentioning the story to him.
As he walked across the campus to Matt's room, he felt as if someone was watching him. The skin on his back began to crawl and goose bumps appeared on his arms. Someone was lurking about; he could feel it.
The sun was beginning to set and the sky was getting dark. He could hear rumbles of thunder in the background as a storm was approaching. All this added to his fear, a foreboding that something was wrong.
As he neared Matt's dorm, someone stepped out of the shadows of a nearby building and approached. Joe felt a sense of terror surge through his body as he looked at the approaching figure. The man was huge! He looked like he had just come out of the ring of a WWF match. He was 6'1 and looked like he easily weighed 350 pounds. The thing Joe noticed immediately was the fact that the man appeared to have no neck. His head sat heavily upon his shoulders. The man's appearance was grotesque.
Joe turned and began to walk rapidly away. He could hear the man's footsteps quickly approaching. For someone so large, he could move fast.
Suddenly he felt the man's hand slap down harshly on his shoulder and roughly spin him around. He was looking directly into the face of this grotesque being. His eyes were harsh. He had a huge scar running down the side of his face. He had a military style haircut, and a small mustache. To complete his horrible appearance, he had a tattoo of a cobra on what should have been his neck. On him it appeared to be mashed down, like a clown in a Jack in the Box.
"Don't hurt me; I don't have any money on me." Joe was shaking violently. He knew this man could break his neck with just a twist of his huge, stubby hands.
"Shut up, Pretty Boy. I'm not going to hurt you if you cooperate." This huge man was Cobra, a close associate of Wellston. Tiffany had informed Wellston that Matt was snooping around again and he had ordered Cobra to take care of it.
"I've been here for over an hour waiting for your fag boyfriend to show up." Cobra told him angrily.
Cobra grabbed Joe more violently and began to twist his arm. Joe thought he was going to tear it off. He could feel his shoulder begin to give way, and thought he was going to rip his arm from its socket.
"You tell Blondie, if he doesn't quit snooping around, he's going to be a dead man." Cobra spat, continuing to twist Joe's arm even more.
"Ok! I will! Please don't hurt me!" Joe screamed in pain. It was useless to even try and defend himself. Joe worked out regularly and was in tremendous shape, but he was no match for this mammoth.
Cobra threw Joe to the ground like he was a rag doll. Joe balled himself up, waiting for another assault. It wasn't long until he felt Cobra land a solid punch to his side, knocking the wind out of him.
"Remember what I said, Pretty Boy. If he doesn't stop, Bang, Bang." He pointed his finger at Joe and imitated shooting a gun. He walked over and gave Joe another punch to his other side. Joe let out a loud scream, wincing in pain as he felt the man's heavy fist sink into his side.
Through tears in his eyes, Joe watched Cobra lumber across the street and head to a black limousine. Before getting in the car, he looked back over at Joe and raised his hand.
"Bang. Bang. Tell him Cobra`s watching him." He could hear him shout. Then he turned and crawled into the back of the limo as it peeled off, leaving Joe writhing in pain on the sidewalk.
"Listen, Punk." Tiffany yelled at Jeremy. "I've told Wellston about your little liaison with that fag, Matt."
"What? You didn't!" Jeremy screamed. "Nothing's going on, I swear to you."
Jeremy was getting excited. For a year he thought everything had finally gone away. He was beginning to get his life back together. He was back in school, making decent grades. He had even thought of joining the swim team again.
Two years ago he had lead an average teen boy's life. He went to school and did what was expected. He had dated a few girls, but had realized several years ago that a girl could never meet his needs.
He had not given in to his homosexual urges; that is, until Wellston had forced himself upon him. After that first day, it became a regular ritual. He would meet Wellston in the storeroom whenever he wanted some teen boy ass.
It hadn't taken Wellston long to take his virginity. About a week after their first encounter, he met Jeremy in their usual rendezvous spot. This time instead of pleasuring him orally, Wellston violently threw him again a work table, yanked down his pants, and penetrated his virgin ass.
Jeremy could still feel the searing pain every time he remembered that event. There was no love or intimacy, just raw, violent sex. His swollen ass bled for days after the harsh intrusion. It wasn't long after that when Wellston began to insist that he meet with `clients.' Over the next year he made tens of thousands of dollars. He had a bank account with over $30,000. It was to be his college fund- his way out of the life he so despised now.
"He called Cobra. Cobra's going to take care of things." Tiffany spoke, bringing Jeremy back to reality.
"Dammit, Tiff! Why couldn't you just leave things alone? Nothing was going to happen. Matt wasn't going to get anything from me or anyone else." He insisted.
"I don't care. I told you, Matt was trouble. Cobra will take care of it." She began to laugh. She appeared rather content with herself.
"This shit's going to come back on you!" Jeremy warned. He got up from the kitchen table where they had been sitting and he stormed up to his room.
I hope you're enjoying the story. Write me at ronyx@woh.rr.com if you want to leave feedback. I enjoy hearing from readers. Read my first story posted in the high school section. It is entitled "Apple of Her Eye" posted on March 28.