Don’t Say A Word

“Alexander James McLean...” The judge started off.

AJ took a deep breath. He could hear his family behind him do the same. And for that split second, a dreadful silence fell over the room, and it only died as the judge finished off his last statement.

“........I find you not guilty of the charges against you. This case has officially been dropped. Court is adjourned.” The judge finalized it with the pounding of his gavel, then he stood up and left his bench. AJ turned on a dime to see his family and friends all rushing toward him at once. The police officer there had to fight through the crowd of his supporters just to unlock the handcuffs. AJ looked down at his wrists and rubbed them, completely enjoying the feeling of freedom.

As the doors of the courthouse opened, AJ was greeted by the bright sunshine and the constant chatter of news reporters asking him how he felt about being cleared of all charges. He didn’t know exactly how to respond to their questions. What he felt was beyond words. In fact, he didn’t know of any word that could remotely describe the feelings rushing through him as he made his way through the crowd, a free and innocent man.

He reached Reneé’s car with Denise directly to his left. He got in on the passenger side, his mother now behind him in the backseat. And it was then that he realized what he wanted to say. He rolled the window down once Reneé started the engine and looked at all of the curious reporters, journalists, and various other spectators in the face.

“All that I can really tell you right now is that I’m extremely grateful that the truth has come out. I honestly can’t put into words how happy that I am to be with my family and friends again. And, I just want everyone to know that I greatly appreciate the support that so many have given me. Lord knows that I needed it. Now... I’m sorry that I can’t say more, but I’m anxious to get home. I’m sure you all understand. Thanks.” AJ received warm smiles just before he rolled his window back up and his ecstatic fiancé pulled off with his friends and bandmates following close behind.

As he looked at the city’s skyline, he felt his mother’s soft hands gently grip his shoulders. He could hear her sweet sobs. He turned back to look at her, and he felt at home already just admiring her warm, maternal smile.

“Oh Alex... I’m so happy.” AJ simply took her hand and squeezed. Her touch reminded him of all the times she’d stood behind him. She was always there, no matter what. Whenever he needed her, she was never far away. He was so thankful to have her. he felt as though nothing could go wrong as long as she was near. In the midst of all the thoughts of how wonderful a woman his mother was, AJ wondered if he’d ever let her hand go.

“Tell me... truthfully... how did you do it? All that time, how did you keep your head?” Reneé asked, pushing down on the break as they approached a stoplight.

“Luckily I had friends. I mean, I don’t think I’d have made it without their help. Being an island in that place is the worst thing anyone could do. If you’re not with a group, then its like you’re prey. There was always someone after someone else. Case, Johns, Sharpe, Kimbro, Greene, Woods, Fields, and Armstrong. They were all I had. From the very first day to the very end, they were there for me. I don’t know why. I don’t think I ever will. It’s funny, I thought that everyone there would be hardened criminals, evil people, no one good. And I must admit, when they first offered their friendship, I assumed it was only because they wanted something from me in return. But they weren’t like that at all. I guess that some people can change. Some people do turn around. I don’t think I could ever thank them enough. Especially Case. If it weren’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be here.” AJ took a moment to think about Case and the last time he saw him.

Flashbacks of Mike charging towards them and Case blocking AJ. Flashbacks of Case’s face, covered with fear and pain, as his thick crimson blood trickled down his shirt.

“Baby.... are you ok?” Reneé asked, touching his thigh and snatching AJ out of his deep concentration.

“Oh, yeah. I’m fine. I was just thinking about all that happened. I’ve always thought that life in the spotlight was hard. But the lives that they have lived... I could only imagine. I’ve seen men who hate people so much that they’d do anything to hurt them, all because those other people are a different color. And I’ve seen men so desperate for power and so sadistic that they would violate other men, just for sport. I’ve looked into the eyes of death, and I’ve looked into the eyes of cold-blooded killers. And I’ve seen real fear, and I’ve felt it. I’ve seen pure rage, and I’ve felt that too. I hated every day I had to spend locked in that penitentiary. I hated every second that I spent away from all of you. But you know something... it’s ironic... I think that the time I served was good for me. As crazy as it sounds, it really taught me something. I appreciate life so much more now. I look at everything with a whole new light. The guys there, my friends, they taught me that. They taught me to live each day as if it were the last. They taught me not to take anything for granted. I never realized how blessed I was until now.” AJ looked over at Reneé just in time to see her wipe tears away from her cheeks.

Later on that day, some time around four in the afternoon, AJ sat on the floor by his favorite bedroom window. He leaned back against the chair in which Reneé sat. He closed his eyes and listened to the soft drip-drop of the rain as she raked through his hair with her fingers. It had grown longer while he was away, and he enjoyed having her play in it. In fact, he’d often wished he could be with her, feeling her fingers in his hair quite often while he was lying still and silent in his cell.

Her legs were on either side of him, and her smooth calves grazed against his upper arms. She was humming, what song it was AJ wasn’t sure of, but it was soothing. He couldn’t believe he was back, finally.

“I’m so sorry, Neé.” He whispered. She leaned over toward his ear and kissed it before answering.

“About?”

“About everything. None of this would ever have happened if I had just resisted temptation. What’s even worse is that I was even tempted. I shouldn’t have even looked twice at her. Especially because you are all of the woman I will ever need. No woman has ever made me feel the way that you do. Physically or mentally. And I got myself into this mess. All because I betrayed you. I broke the bond that we had, and it brought us both so much grief. I’m lucky that you even stuck by me, let alone that fact that you still want to marry me.” Reneé sighed. She continued to play in his hair, but only more slowly.

“Honey, I love you. I have loved everything about you since the day we met. You make me happy. You’re all I could ever want in my best friend, a lover, and a life-partner. I couldn’t see myself with anyone else. We’re just right for each other. I know you, just as well as you know me. And I knew the second you told me about Carrie that you were sorry for what you had done. You’re not a cheater. You’re not a two-timer. Yes, I have known you to be quite promiscuous in your single days, but you had never been unfaithful to me before, and I don’t expect you to be again. I was hurt when you ‘fessed up to what really happened, but I trust you. And I trust, with all that I am, that you will never hurt me again as long as you can help it.” To hear her loving words was like listening to music so sweet that nothing else in the world seemed to matter. Carrie no longer mattered. All that mattered was Reneé. And he was determined to spend the rest of his days cherishing her, because she had enough strength and courage and love to stay by his side.

~*~*~*~*~*~


There was a draft in the room. It blew in from an open window and swept through the small room, then it exited right out of through the small space between the bottom of the closed door and the recently waxed hardwood floor. The room was dark, boring, and plain. It only contained a bed, a small table, and a chair. Nothing more. Well, there was of course this window. It overlooked a small area of grass some six stories below. Beyond that grass were tall trees. Many tall trees, none of which were palm.

These were all subtle observations Carrie made as she peered around the room through one eye. Her right eye. Her left eye was covered with a bandage. She didn’t know why at first. She tried to open her left eye even with the bandage on it, but she couldn’t open it. It felt tight, the tender flesh surrounding her eye was so very swollen that she couldn’t blink at all. She tried to reach up and touch it, but she couldn’t move her hands. Her wrists were tightly secured to the sides of the bed with leather straps. She leaned up on her elbows and looked at her legs. Her ankles were restrained as well. This felt all too familiar. And she didn’t like it.

Her chest hurt. It felt extremely sore, and equally as tight as her eye. Soon her upper arms began to ache and she had to collapse back onto the bed. When she collapsed, however, her bruised torso began to hurt even more. She then realized that she was tightly bandaged around her chest and waist. What happened to her? She tried to wiggle her toes, and when she did, her right leg moved slightly and she could feel what she identified as a hard cast on her leg, the entire length of it.

Rodriguez. She did this. All Carrie could remember was being hit, and hit, and hit. She could remember the pain. The noise. The sound of the hard, wooden stick breaking over her rib cage. Obscenities. More hitting. She remembered tasting her own blood flood her mouth. She remembered feeling her warm tears soak her face. Her arms, both of them, bruised and battered from holding them up, blocking the oncoming blows, trying to protect her picture-perfect face. Rodriguez did this.

Carrie felt her insides begin to burn. Her blood boiled. Her skin itched. She had never felt so much rage in her entire life. She wanted so much to break through the leather straps. She knew that she probably could if she had enough time to concentrate. But every time she felt ready, her extremities were still too sore and gentle to really put any effort into freeing herself.

She thought silently for almost three hours trying to figure out how she would get out of that God-forsaken room. It intimidated her. It made her feel crazy. It put her under the assumption that she was being locked away in some foreign asylum. She wondered then what AJ was doing. She wondered if he was free now. She surely wasn’t. She sat there, staring at the ceiling, thinking a thousand ideas every single minute. Wondering what her future held.

For the first time ever, Carrie wished she had never gotten AJ in trouble.

She heard footsteps in the distance. Outside the door, down the hall. They were coming closer. More than one person, she wagered. They stopped in front of the door to her room. She heard the jingling of keys, then the doorknob turned and the room was flooded with a soft fluorescent light from the hall. Carrie turned her head away. She didn’t care who was there, she wasn’t in the mood to see anyone.

“Ms. Newton... you have a visitor.” A man stated. Carrie still ignored them.

“Carrie.......” The sheer sound of Kaitlyn’s meek voice sparked something deep within Carrie. She turned to her left swiftly and stared Kaitlyn in the face. Next to Kaitlyn was Tim. His presence alone made matters worse. Carrie wanted to spring from her bed and take out her anger on the young couple. However, because she was rendered motionless, she arched her back into the air and let out a scream that startled every person on the sixth floor.

Kaitlyn backed away from Carrie’s bed and into Tim’s arms. She still felt so very sorry for Carrie. She couldn’t help but be sympathetic. At the very end of Carrie’s shriek, she began to breathe deep. Labored breathing. She breathed as if she was running out of air. Then her labored breathing turned into deep sobs. Tears welled up in her eye and then rolled down her badly bruised cheek. Her bandaged eye teared up as well, but it couldn’t be seen.

“I hate you! You did this to me! It’s all your fault! No one’s ever on my side! No one ever tries to understand!” She shouted, stumbling over her own words, foamy flecks of saliva collecting on her chin and shirt due to the fact that she was speaking with her teeth clenched tightly.

Kaitlyn looked down at her hands. She was scratching at the leather straps so very forcefully that one of her nails broke. It broke so deep that blood dripped from the tip of her index finger to the pure white sheets covering the small bed. She didn’t seem to feel it. She didn’t favor the finger or cover the wound with her other fingers. Instead, she continued to scratch at the thick leather, only causing more blood to ooze out of the torn capillaries in her thin, pale finger.

“We should go.” Tim whispered. Kaitlyn, who now had to turn away to keep from crying at the gruesome sight of Carrie on the bed, nodded in agreement. Just as they turned to go, Carrie reared back up on her elbows.

“Wait....” She called out to them. The couple turned back slowly, unsure of what she wanted. Hoping that whatever she wanted, it wouldn’t shock them. Just seeing her carry on the way she had was shocking enough.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. I’m sorry for everything. It was all just a joke, you know? Just a prank. I didn’t mean for things to go this far, I only wanted to screw around with you. All of you. You have to believe me!” The man at the door, who was Carrie’s doctor, lowered his head. Kaitlyn cautiously approached the bed and placed her hand on Carrie’s forehead.

“Carrie, you’re sick. You’re not thinking clearly right now. But I promise that if you just cooperate with the doctors here, they’ll make you better.” Carrie jerked away from Kaitlyn’s touch. She began to breathe heavily again, and this cause Kaitlyn to back away again, this time farther.

“I don’t need doctors! I don’t need this goddamn hospital! You can all just go straight to fucking hell!”

Kaitlyn turned again, for the last time, to leave. She had seen enough, and she had heard enough. She couldn’t bear to stand in that room with Carrie a minute longer. But just as Kaitlyn reached the threshold of the door, Carrie screamed something that made her heart drop down to her stomach and made her stomach shoot up to her throat.

“Bring me my baby! Please! Someone bring my baby to me! If you just let me hold my precious baby in my arms, I know I’ll be ok! She’s crying! Don’t you hear her crying? She needs her mother! If you walk away without giving my baby to me, you will pay! She’s hungry! She needs to be fed! She’s sick, and she’ll die if you don’t BRING HER TO ME!!!!”

Kaitlyn raced down the hall with Tim but a few feet behind her. Tears burned her eyes as she ran, she just couldn’t believe that Carrie had slipped so deep into insanity. It was all too unreal. Even as they waited for the elevator to reach their floor, she could hear Carrie’s near-demonic screams.

“My baby! She’s crying! Can’t you hear her? She’s so near! Why won’t you bring her to me!?!? You’ll forever burn in hell if you do not bring her to me! Please!” The doctor, who was now by her side, pulled Carrie’s hospital gown up and held her still as the nurse stuck a long needle into Carrie’s thigh and injected a powerful sedative into her bloodstream.

As the cold, stinging solution entered her system, Carrie bit into her bottom lip as if straining would stop the medicine’s affect. She bit down into her lip so hard that her teeth tore the flesh. When she tasted her own blood, she simply laughed it off.

“Hush.... little.... baby........... don’t.... say.... a word.............................”

The doctor locked the steel door and then peered into the small rectangular window to make sure the medicine worked quickly. Carrie’s eyes fluttered a few times before she closed them completely and relaxed every muscle in her body.

~*~*~*~*~*~


The guys rushed through the dark, narrow corridor to the backstage area after a show in Ft. Lauderdale. They were all extremely excited that it was over. Not only had they just kicked off the first leg of their new tour, but AJ was back and their performance was better than ever.

“Terry, don’t! You’ll get caught!” A young girl, by the name of Tatum, called after her friend. But Terry wouldn’t listen.

“I have to! This is my one chance to meet Nick! This is my sweet 16! This is supposed to be the best birthday of my entire life! If I don’t go back there, I’ll regret it forever! And believe me, Tate, I’m gonna make this night worthwhile.” Terry hiked her skirt up to expose more of her perfect thighs. She then yanked her top down a little to show more cleavage. She pouted her lips, let her hair down, and made her way through an exit door--- which was a shortcut to the corridor the guys had just ran through.

Tatum stood by the exit door, trembling, wondering what trouble her best friend Terry was getting herself into.

Security was nowhere in sight, which was strange but in Terry’s favor. She peeked into the first dressing room she passed. The door was cracked, and it was open just enough for her to see someone blonde move across the room. It was Nick’s room! She pushed the door open carefully, and when she saw that he was alone, she stepped inside almost silently.

Nick didn’t notice her until he heard the door close. He looked up, startled.

“Hey... how’d you get back here? You shouldn’t be here.” He stated, in the most polite way that he could. Terry ignored his statement though. She had a plan and she wasn’t going to abandon it now.

She swallowed hard and stepped forward. Careful not to seem too eager or immature, she pushed the straps of her top off of her shoulders and licked her dark red lips.

“You don’t really wanna make me go, now do you?”

The End?



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