KevREVEdd Part 19

Kevin was now lying on his side on a dusty shag carpet. His head was still pounding. He saw cigarette smoke rising from a table to his left. A large window was to his right throwing light across the floor and wall behind him. The sun was already setting. Sure he was alone for the moment, he tugged at the tape at his wrists and ankles. They didn’t give, so he reached up toward the tape over his mouth. He would have to bite it off.
Before he could touch it, he felt his upper arm smashed with something heavy. He cried out as he heard and felt his bone break with a sickening crunch. He was breathing hard through his nostrils, and he managed a peek up at his attacker. The guy from the video. The one who had raped Edd. He was a lot bigger in person. He was actually rather handsome, or he would have been if he weren’t wearing a deranged expression of joy, mingled with anxiety and desperation. It wasn’t a mix conducive to showing one’s best side. He had wavy black hair, high cheekbones, a chiseled jawline, and blue eyes that shared the same shape as Chris’s. This must be Dan.
He was accompanied by a hulking figure Kevin recognized. This was the boy that had been bothering Marie months ago. He was hearing Kevin’s hat and he stepped over Kevin and knelt before him. He poked Kevin’s arm and Kevin screamed through the tape again. He smiled. He stood up and moved toward the table. He took a long pull on the cigarette and held it in his mouth as he sauntered back over to Kevin.
“I wanted to talk to you,” Dan said. Kevin wanted glare back, but he was in a lot of pain. He was grabbed by the hair and lifted to a sitting position. The sudden movement sent pain shooting up his arm and he whimpered and slumped to the side.
“I need you to promise me something.” Dan said. Kevin heard others filing in the room. He turned to glance at them and was grabbed by his broken arm. Kevin screamed again, and he was pulled away by someone else, one of the guys who just came in. Kevin glanced up and recognized one of them from the scuffle by Edd’s locker, and another was actually at Marie’s party. He’d hung out with some of these guys almost every day at lunch.  
“Jeez, Man! What did you guys do!?” the guy from the party said.
“We were supposed to scare him, Alan, that’s all!” Kevin heard Chris’s voice. He turned, trying to breathe through the pain.
Dan stood up and sighed. “Isn’t that the same line that got you into this mess last year, Chris?”
Kevin looked up at his temporary ally. Chris was facing his cousin with uncertainty. “You said... that we would just scare him. That we would make him promise not to tell, and we’d send him home. Last time we were all drunk. It’s… it got out of hand.”
“Yeah, Dan, Alan. What are you trying to do? What’s beating him up again going to do?” There were murmurs of assent and Kevin dared to hope. Would infighting really get him out of this? He was trembling. His arm was reeeeeealy hurting.
“How stupid are you?” Alan laughed. There was a sudden crunching thud and a yowl of pain. The second guy fell to his knees beside Kevin clutching his nose. “How did you think we would ‘scare’ him?” Kevin was stuck in the stomach with the bat. He cried out and doubled over. He was grabbed this time by the throat and the bat was tossed aside. The tape was ripped from Kevin’s mouth.
The others backed away, some looking scared, dragging their friend as he clutched his bloody nose. They headed for the door. Kevin didn’t want to be left alone with these two. He opened his mouth to scream and felt ice against his throat, and then he felt pain, as the knife was pressed against his skin. “We need to have a talk, Kevin. A nice long talk.” Alan took the lit cigarette from his mouth and pressed it against Kevin’s neck. Kevin screamed, and jerked away. Dan caught him, pulled up his shirt and held him steady as Alan pressed it against Kevin’s flesh again, this time on his stomach. Again and again on his arms, his stomach, his legs, and with each new wound, as the stench of cigarettes permeated the air and Kevin’s hair and clothes, his hope faded little by little, until there was nothing.
Finally, Alan’s cigarette went out for the last time and he stood. Dan let Kevin fall onto his unbroken arm, tears falling silently down the side of his face. He was trying to speak, but no sound came out, so he gave up, and attempted to focus on breathing. Kevin heard the flick of the lighter, and was horrified to see Alan lighting up again. Alan saw him watching and moved toward him. Kevin flinched, and Alan laughed. Dan watched, smiling also, still in that demented way, like he was going to cry or lash out any second. Alan pulled the cigarette from his mouth and blew the smoke toward the ceiling. “Don’t worry, this one’s all for me.”
“Now, we have your attention though, we really do need to talk. Well, Alan and I are going to talk. You’re going to listen, and agree. Sound good?”
Kevin said nothing, and Dan frowned for the first time. It was horrifying. His face contorted and became something like a Japanese Oni mask. Dan picked up the knife again. And Kevin tried and failed to push away before Dan was upon him.