Chapter 5 – Ten of Wands

Eight of Pentacles, The Lovers 06, Ten of Wands

TRIGGER WARNING – This part contains the aftermath of abuse against women and a gay boy, and discovery of a sadistic murder.

Worriedly, Erin King paced in the living room of the house he shared with five others. It was 1am and he couldn't sleep. His textbooks and laptop sat unused on the table. He couldn't study, he was too worried. Neither his foster sister nor their roommate sharing his adoptive grandmother's home had answered any of the text messages from him in six hours. It wasn't unusual during the day but in the evening, on a weekend, when one was ill.

"Hey, why are you still awake?" Nick Ballard's voice startled Erin as he lowered his phone. "I thought we were leaving early to go check on your sister?" He was holding an open bottle of water. Earlier in the afternoon when they were studying together, Nick volunteered to drive Erin to Golden on his way home to Pagosa Cliffs.

Erin looked at his phone again, explaining, "I can't sleep. Something is wrong. Cassie and Shivonne aren't answering their cells or the landline."

Nick finished his water and tossed the bottle at the recycle bin. "Do you want me to take you now?"

"Uhm, I... no, it's fine." Erin sent another text message and waited but his hand shook.

Shaking his head, Nick went into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. He was just pouring coffee in his travel mug when Erin came in.

"You really don't mind taking me now?"

"Nope." Nick put the lid on the travel mug, "I'll get my keys and my bag."

Erin nodded shakily, but when he looked down at his phone again, Nick put his hand on his housemate's arm. "I'm sure they're fine. Maybe there is an outage."

Erin looked down at his hand then back at Nick. Embarrassed, he admitted, "Uhm, when we get there, don't freak out if my sister hugs you. I may talk about you to her... a lot."

Nick's tourmaline blue eyes seemed to sparkle as he grinned at Erin. "I should warn you that my Grandma Fern and Cousin Molly might do the same if I ever take you to the ranch."

"Really?" Erin responded.

"Yep." Nick turned back to the coffee pot and poured coffee in Erin's to-go cup, stirring in two packets of honey before putting the lid on.

Inhaling, Erin asked, "When you get back from visiting your family, would you like to go on a date? A real date, not just us hanging around studying and eating takeout?"

Nodding, Nick agreed, "I would like that very much." Handing over the cup, Nick inclined his head over his shoulder, "Let's go. After I drop you off, I might be able to make it home for breakfast with my grandparents."

Erin sipped the coffee; it was exactly the way he always drank it. That Nick not only noticed but knew how to make it, made his heart beat a little harder. He quickly grabbed his books and laptop, stuffing them in a messenger bag then went out to get in Nick's truck.

"Can you put in the address?" Nick asked as he tossed a duffle back over the seat.

Erin typed it in, then, without a word, Nick began driving. Erin stared out the window for a moment, then inquired, "So, what do you do when you go home?"

"I help at the clinic or check the cattle. My parents loved the ranch but Mom has problems with the altitude, but ever since I was ten I would go to the Rocking M on the weekends to help Grandpa. They moved to Kansas when I was in high school and I stayed with my Grandma Ruby so I could be close to the Ranch and Clinic. It is what I always wanted, to be like my great grandparents and work the ranch with the clan. My cousin Lloyd moved back after he got out of the Marines and has been running the ranch with Grandpa, but he has a lot of personal things that get in the way. He isn't even living on the ranch anymore, so I go home to help. Grandpa has several hired hands, but he still has the clinic to run too," Nick complained.

"You don't like Lloyd?" Erin asked, he missed his extended family.

"Oh, I like Lloyd fine. It's his wife, who happens to be my other cousin Tim's exwife. Grandma Fern, and half the family hate her because she is a gossipy, selfish bitch." Nick spat the last word with such vehemence, Erin glanced at him.

"That bad?"

"She thinks because she is Tatiana's mother, that she is entitled to Tim's share of the Rocking M which she wants in cash," Nick revealed as he exited and merged onto a highway. "After she divorced Tim, we never even got to see Tatiana until Lloyd married her, but even then Tim's got to work out of the country to make enough to pay his alimony and child support. Between you and me, I think Tim makes more than he reports to Tonia's lawyers."

"Why does he have to pay alimony if Tonia remarried?" Erin was shocked.

"Because the judge on the divorce was her uncle, and when she leaves Lloyd, he's going to be paying her for the rest of her life too." Nick squeezed the wheel. "We'd pay whatever she wants if she would just give the family Tatiana, but Aunt Ruby says it will never happen because Tonia likes her thousand dollars a week child support and being associated with the Rocking M Ranch families." He sighed heavily then asked, "What about your family? You only talk about your sister and Grandmother Adeline."

"They aren't my real family, I mean they are my real family, but not my biological family." Erin was hesitant to keep talking but then he decided to just be completely honest with Nick if they were going to start dating. "My mother's family controls the Southridge Fundamentalist Baptist Church, my grandfather and uncle are the ministers. They... aren't good people."

Shocked, Nick looked over at him, glancing back at the road a few times as the man in the passenger seat slumped. "Oh gawd, I'm sorry. I can't imagine." The news media had made a big deal about the organization and the lengths they went to with the anti-LGBTQA agenda and the 'gay-reversal' treatments. "Did they... I mean, were you?"

"Yeah... I almost killed myself three times in a month. My mother told me she wished I would succeed if I wouldn't stop being gay. She said she would rather I go to hell for suicide than for being gay. A nurse overheard her and called social services. I was thirteen." Erin looked at his phone. "Social services placed me with Cassie's grandmother who later adopted me. She gave me therapy then got me more therapy. Cassie just loved me like a sibling should and even held me when I had nightmares about... rehab camp... Honestly, I'd be dead if it weren't for them."

"Rehab camp?"

"They believe being gay is an illness or like an addiction. It's a defect to be trained out of a person's behavior, sometimes violently, and because they couldn't make me straight, they tortured me to the point I tried to kill myself. Adeline says there is a special place in the hell they believe in for them." Erin sat up straighter. "I forgave them, try not to hate them. I mostly just feel bad for them."

"Have... Have you gotten to speak to anyone in your family since you left?" Nick asked.

"No, and I probably never will. Adeline and Cassie are my family now."

"I'm glad you found a decent family." Nick meant it. He was blessed with a large family who accepted him completely when he came out in high school. He couldn't imagine what it would be like if they had put him through what Erin survived. The stories of the Homosexual Youth Rehabilitation Camp had given him nightmares.

Erin pulled his phone out of his pocket and looked at it again.

"Anything?" Nick asked.

"No." The worry in Erin's tone silenced any further conversation. After ten minutes, Erin asked, "Do you mind if I read the next chapter out loud? It helps me retain the information."

Nick reached up and turned off the quietly playing radio, "Go ahead, mids are over, but there's always another test coming."

Erin laughed, then they started studying. Veterinary School was more challenging than Medical School because Medical school only taught the diagnosis and care of one species, while veterinary school trained students to diagnose and treat a dozen different species.

~~~~

Cassie pressed her ear to the door frame. There was a scratching sound. She cracked the door inward and Miss Priss limped in. Carefully shifting the tapestry that hid the door and muffled the noise, she peeked out. Across the hall, she saw yellow tape x'ed across Shivonne's door as she hung still tied to the ring. During a lull in the loud music, she heard the muffled sound of people talking and laughing. It sounded like dozens of them were downstairs. It terrified her that so many strangers were in the house with her murdered friend hanging over her bed. Glancing around her room, she was shocked to see the fashion mannequins Shivonne used to make theatre costumes on, standing around her bed with one tied to it. At the indiscernible sound of a woman's voice coming up the stairs, Cassie reached out and grabbed her purse from the laundry basket and carefully lowered the tapestry before she closed the door. She pressed her ear to the frame again but couldn't make out what the woman was saying.

Clutching her injured cat to her naked chest, Cassie cried quietly as she dialed 9-1-1.

"9-1-1, what is the address of your emergency?"

After blurting out her address, she whispered as quietly as she could, "Help me... Please, they are in my house, he killed Shivonne and raped me, please... please come. There are so many of them."

"Ma'am, did you say they? How many people?" The voice was urgent.

"I don't know, I don't know... Please, I'm so scared," Cassie begged as quietly as she could.

"What's your name, sweetie?"

"Cassie, Cassandra King."

"Cassie, can you get out of the house? Can you escape?" The 9-1-1 operator asked urgently.

"No..."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"I hid when Miss Priss attacked him. I can't come out. He'll hurt me. He'll kill me. Please come, please come." She broke down into coughing sobs as she pressed her arm over her mouth to muffle the noise.

"Okay, the police are going to be there in just a few minutes... Who is Miss Priss?" The operator asked calmly. "Is she your dog?"

"N-no, she's my cat. She saved me. He was going to kill me like he killed Shivonne. He said he wanted to add me to his collection." Her voice squeaked up an octave in her fear. "Why are there so many people here?"

"I don't know, Cassie, but stay were you are, we are coming. The police are only a..."

Cassie's phone turned off. Staring at it, she shook it, but pressing the buttons only made the screen flash the red dead battery symbol then it stopped doing that.

"No... no... no..." Cassie whimpered but there was nothing she could do, her phone was dead.

She heard a sound and listened at the doorframe, carefully she turned the knob and opened it inward. Below the sound of the loud music, a man and a woman were talking excitedly. She laid down on the floor and lifted the bottom edge of the tapestry. The two people were having sex on her bed. The woman screamed as the man pulled her hair and slapped her buttcheek. 

Cassie quickly closed the door and stood, she put her chair on the desk. Feeling around the small, dark space, she grabbed the heavy wooden desk with her less injured arm and desperately pulled it away from the wall. There wasn't room to turn it. Scooting each end only a few inches at a time, she worked until it partly blocked the inward swinging door and barricaded her in the room. Crowded between the table that held her sound board and the desk that held her computer editing equipment, she had no choice but to crawl under the desk and into the tiny space on the other side. Standing, with her back pressed into the corner, she waited for them to find her and hurt her more. In the darkness, time had no meaning, especially after the music turned off. Suddenly, someone tried the knob, but the door didn't budge, so they started beating on the door and it almost sounded like someone was calling her name. Cassie panted and coughed as she hyperventilated, then she passed out from her fear-induced panic attack.

~~~~

Erin was shocked to see dozens of police cars and ambulances in front of the house. They were taking a covered gurney to a city coroner van. Nearly forty people were sitting on the grass as police surrounded them. He jumped out before Nick could park and sprinted for the Coroner's Van.

"My sister, is that my sister?!"

A police officer intercepted him, "Son, you can't go over there. Who are you?"

Nick rushed up as Erin tried to get past the City of Golden officer, and hugged him from behind, holding him back because the officer's hand was on his taser. "He's Erin King, he lives here. Is that Cassie?"

"And you are?" The officer demanded without answering.

"Nick Ballard, his... boyfriend. Is that his sister Cassie?"

"Hold on, I'll get you the detective." The officer walked away, and Erin wept in Nick's arms.

"I'm Detective Stonewall. Mr. King, your sister called 9-1-1, she said there were people in her house, and someone named Shivonne was dead. The Coroner is taking Shivonne Malory away now. Can you tell me what you know about this evening? Where were you?"

"Ohgawd," Erin shook then he turned and vomited.

"We just drove down from U.C., we are in the Veterinary Medicine program together. Shivonne is his sister's roommate. Cassie didn't come up this evening because she said she was sick. Is she in the hospital?" Nick demanded desperately as Erin stood up, wiping his mouth.

"What happened to my sister?" Erin yelled at the detective.

"We don't know." The man looked back toward the house. "We can't find her. She called 9-1-1. We came and found her roommate deceased. There was a house party going on. Those who got the notification for an erotic carnival themed rave here had no idea that one of the props was an actual person. We have searched the house, but we can't find her. She told the 9-1-1 operator that she hid and couldn't leave but... Where are you going?"

Erin rushed into the house with Nick and the detective following. Sprinting up the stairs, Erin rushed into her bedroom and pushed aside a tapestry hanging on the wall to reveal an inset door. He turned the knob and pushed on it, but the door didn't open.

"Cassie!" Erin began to pound on it. "Cassie, move the desk!"

After a few desperate moments, Nick pulled him away from the door. He looked over the old wooden panel door then kicked the edge of the panel as hard as he could. The thinner part of the door splintered in half. He kicked it again and his boot went through it. Nick and Detective Stonewall pushed on the broken wood until the whole panel gave way.

"Don't hurt me." Cassie cried from inside in terror.

Nick grabbed the desk chair he could see on the desk and dragged it out, then bent to one knee so Erin could step up to climb in through the hole.

"Cassie, I'm here... I'm here. It's going to be okay." Erin chanted as he scrambled into the room, knocking her computer off the desk. After several moments of Cassie sobbing and Erin reassuring her, he helped her climb out but when she looked around and saw all the police officers staring at her, she screamed in panic and tried to crawl back into the hole, despite her broken wrist. She collided with Erin who pushed her back, insisting, "Calm down, Cassie. It's okay."

"It's okay, Darlin', it's okay," Nick pulled her back so Erin could finish climbing out to her.

"You're safe, you're safe. Cassie, calm down, please," Erin begged as she fought to get back into the closet. "Nick and I won't hurt you."

"No, no, no! They're going to hurt me like he did." Cassie shrieked between coughing fits, "Make them leave, don't let them hurt me, Erin."

"Everyone out!" Stonewall ordered as they tried to calm her. "She's overwhelmed."

Begging hysterically, Cassie continued to struggle until a paramedic injected her with a sedative. Nick caught her as she collapsed in slow motion, then he picked her up and carried her down the stairs as Detective Stonewall ordered the paramedic, "Tell the E.R., I need a rape kit and include her hands. I'll send a Special Victims Liaison to talk to her in the morning."

Erin looked across the hall when the CSI in Shivonne's room called out, "Detective Stonewall, you need to see this." She held out a paperback book in a bag and spoke to him in a low voice.

Erin stuffed some clothes for Cassie in a bag, went downstairs then came back with a cat carrier. Bending, he picked up Miss Priss and loaded her gently after he examined her. "I need to get Priss x-rayed. She's hurt."

"Your sister told the 9-1-1 operator that her cat attacked her attacker."

Erin looked around at the staged room, trying not to look across the hall as he demanded, "Detective Stonewall, what the hell happened to my sister and her roommate? Shivonne is dead. Priss has bruised or broken ribs and Cassie has never been afraid of people or crowds, but she's completely freaked out."

"We don't know, and Miss King is the only one who can tell us."