I was very disturbed when I left Adam and Nye. It wasn't just what I had seen in the dungeon. It was the way Nye was. He had changed so much I hardly recognised him. Apart from the fact that he had lost weight... he also seemed to have lost his spark, his soul. He was lost and empty and he didn't even know it.
Adam was a bad man. I knew that with absolute certainty. The way he treated Nye, the way he had looked at me. He was an evil manipulating monster. And the way he had behaved in the dungeon... He hadn't been concerned about Nye at all... no, more than that, he hadn't seemed surprised. Had he done that deliberately? What was he trying to achieve? Was he trying to kill him? My blood ran cold and for a moment I completely seized up, frozen. But no, that was just silly. Why would he do that? All he had to do was send Nye away if he was tired of him... but it didn't seem he was tired of him, quite the reverse. Adam was the bloated fat spider at the centre of the web and he was only just beginning to wrap him in the sticky threads.
So what to do? I couldn't keep this to myself, couldn't bear the weight of it. I had to tell someone, to talk it through and get some perspective. But who? I couldn't talk to Mam... she was freaking out about Nye enough as it was... and not the boys, they were too young... no, none of the family, they were too close, they would want to rush in there to save him and the sad truth was... he didn't want to be saved.
In the end I found that I was driving down a familiar street, even though I had not intended to go there. I sighed, giving way to the inevitable. It was fitting after all. No one else outside the family cared for Nye more.
"Miriam! What a surprise! You look wonderful darling. Where's that brother of yours? I haven't seen Aneurin for simply ages. You tell him he's gotta come visit soon."
"Of course I will Mrs Taylor. Is Kane in?"
"Sure thing honey. He's not back at school for a couple of weeks. Go right on up... you know where."
"Thank you."
Kane practically threw himself on me when I stepped through the door. He's like that.
"Miri, Miri, Miri. Where you bin girl? You and that brother of yours. Ain't seen hide nor hair of either of you in weeks."
"I've been around. Busy with work. As for Nye..."
Being a perceptive boy I didn't have to say another word for Kane to pick up on my discomfort and concern.
"What's up? Is he still with that loser Adam?"
"Loser's right. I'm worried about him Kane."
"He made his choice Mir." He turned and stared out of the window, the set of his shoulders filling in all the things he didn't say.
"Hardly. Adam got him in his sights, decided he wanted him and what Nye wanted didn't come into it. He overwhelmed him. Once he got his claws in Nye didn't stand a chance."
"Well, just because we hate him and want to rip out his heart..." He turned and gave a poor imitation of his usual smile. "It's his life Mir. He chose Adam and as much as we think that is a really, really bad idea it's still his decision and we can't interfere."
"That's what I thought... until today."
"What do you mean? What happened today?"
As I told him he flopped down in a chair and got paler and paler. When I had finished he remained silent, staring at the floor.
"You're fucking joking right?"
"Would I do something like that about something like this? Look... I'm sorry Kane. I probably shouldn't have come to you but I didn't know what else to do. I had to tell SOMEONE and... I just couldn't think of anyone else who..."
"No... you did the right thing... absolutely. I would have killed you if you hadn't told me. It's just... Fuck!! That Nye would do something like that... that he would get involved in that scene... I mean if it had been me...!" He tried to smile but failed miserably.
"It would never have been you Kane. You wouldn't have fallen for that..." I couldn't bear to say his name and I couldn't find a word bad enough to put in its place. "I still can't believe that Nye did. I can't believe how much he has changed. It's as if that man has brainwashed him, squeezed all the life out of him and replaced it with..." I had no words. "I'm scared for him. You should have seen what they did to him... and Adam... he didn't even care. I... I... Look this might sound crazy but it... he wasn't surprised. He wasn't fazed at all. I think he did it deliberately. He wanted to hurt Nye."
"I'm not surprised that he changed Mir. In fact it all makes so much more sense now."
"What do you mean?"
"I know about people like that... that scene. They take people and they 'train' them. They groom them like child molesters, make them dependent then introduce techniques, slowly at first, getting them more and more enmeshed and then when the reality hits they can't get out."
My heart was thudding, my stomach roiling and I was cold, oh so cold. "The reality of what?"
Kane shrugged. "It depends what he wants him for. I've done my own digging around and I've heard things about that club."
"What? What have you heard about it? What do you think he might do to Nye? What might he 'want him for'?"
"A whore, a slave, an enforcer..."
"Woah... what do you mean? I don't know..."
"The Club has a number of very exclusive 'members only' sections. One of them goes on upstairs where they offer the... services of certain young men for the entertainment of the guests. In short it's a high class whorehouse. As for the downstairs... there are two kinds of people who go there... people who want to give pain and those who want to receive it. The enforcers are trained to apply various forms of punishment and pain... whips, clamps, cattle prods... you know the thing..."
"And slaves?"
"Slaves are trained to be absolutely obedient no matter what. They are not allowed to show their faces and they are never addressed by name. They are always kept hooded and bound and usually led around on a leash. They take the punishment, anything that the clients want to do to them. Of course the clients more often than not 'do it' to each other but there are always a couple of enforcers and a couple of slaves around at any one time."
"How do you know all this?"
"When I met that Adam guy I got a bad vibe and I did some digging about. It's easy enough to find superficial stuff about The Club and ... stuff... but as for the rest, it took a little more... subversive activity."
"Have you been there? To The Club? Have you been to the dungeon?"
Kane laughed. "Hell no. Oh, I've been to The Club, that's where Nye introduced me to Adam, and I've been back once since, hoping..." he looked into the distance for a moment then shook his head. "But I didn't go downstairs. No one goes downstairs without an invitation... and I wouldn't have dared anyway. I've heard stories about that place."
"I got down there easily enough."
"You are clearly related to the boss's current favourite. No one was going to deny you anything. I would be surprised if you found it so easy next time though."
