2
Michael kept his eyes closed, breathing heavily to try to ward away the pain. All he could think and hope was that Milo kept his word and kept Jessa and the group going on the road towards the coast. He didn’t want them to come back for him, even though he knew that he was in a position that would more than likely get him killed in the end. It wasn’t hard to think of where it was all going to go. He had been hit from behind and dragged into their camp. There was no getting out of it.
He had finally gotten to meet the man who had been the center of his vengeful obsession for years. He hadn’t known who he was; all he had known was that he would know when he saw him again. Michael had been searching for years, ultimately realizing that the world was too big, but finally fate had brought them back together. If only his fate hadn’t landed him tied up and in the midst of the monsters. There wasn’t much chance for vengeance this way. He had wanted to catch them off guard, but it appeared that he was the one who hadn’t seen it coming. Michael was angry at himself for letting them get the jump on him, but it was hard not to see that he just had been too consumed with the idea of revenge to pay attention.
Now he was paying for it. It didn’t look like a situation that he was going to find his way out of. There was no way that he could get free, and all the men in the camp were watching him like a hawk. Caston had made him tell him everything. Why had Michael been so reckless? Why was he after the group? Michael had not needed a prod to explain why he was there. He had wanted to confront the man for years. He dreamed about it; replayed it in his head until the little movie was on repeat. But in his fantasies, he had never been the one surrounded and tied up. It had always been Caston in that position.
Caston hadn’t killed him immediately. He seemed to like to toy with his victims and made a big show of thinking about Michael’s fate. The cruel man apparently wanted to keep the anticipation going long enough so that he got something out of the exchange. Not only that, but Michael realized that Caston seemed worried about where Michael had come from and where the rest of his party was. They had gotten the idea that Michael had a woman with him, and there was no way that he was going to dissuade them from it. Many of the men were so desperate for the touch of a woman that it became all they talked about; finding the woman and letting off some steam.
Michael tried to think of where to lead the group of men; somewhere he might actually have the upper hand. He could go back to the house they had holed up in for a couple of days, but he was pretty sure that the gang knew that they came from elsewhere.
Michael took the first round of questioning and their hard-line tactics in stride, but the next morning his arms felt like they were going to fall off. His entire body was sore from being kicked repeatedly the night before. He didn’t know how much longer he had, though there was little comfort in the way the men around him seemed to enjoy dragging out. When Caston came into Michael’s sights, the site where they had laid him up against a tree, the older man was smiling.
“I was hoping that we could have finished this last night, but you are making it harder on yourself. I always get what I want Mike.”
He wasn’t going to get anything from him though. There was no way that Michael would let a repeat of what happened before to his family happen again. There was no way that he would be able to live with himself. Caston was trying a different tactic that morning though. While Michael had been ready for the fight and torture that surely was to come, instead, Caston offered him something to drink. If Michael’s mouth hadn’t been so dry he would have declined. But he was dying for a drink and allowed the man to pour some in his mouth.
Michael wasn’t a fool though. He knew that the man was going to start in on him again. It was just a matter of time before it happened.
“You have brought me back to a time, much in my past. I am not that person anymore Mike, and I wonder why you have held it for so long?”
He looked at him incredulously. Did the man really not get it? “You killed my family. That is not something that you let go of.”
Caston nodded like he understood. “Yet, look where it has gotten you?”
Michael couldn’t disagree. He was in quite a pickle and he wasn’t sure how it was all going to work out. But he had to make sure that Jessa and the others stayed free of the evil of the motorcycle gang. The only thing that kept him going was the idea that they were okay, even while he was hurting, and making their way to the coastline, safe from people like Caston.
“I am exactly where I am supposed to be,” Michael said.
Caston gave him a dirty look, wondering why the man was so calm when he knew what was coming for him. Caston could tell that he was smart, but wasn’t sure what to make of it. Michael was in a heap of shit, but it was the calm manner in which he conducted himself that made Caston nervous. It was like Michael thought he was going to be rescued or something. Caston didn’t understand the reaction. He was always nervous about things that he didn’t understand.
“How are you so calm? You know what we are going to do to you.”
Michael just nodded. The man would never understand sacrifice for another. He was sure that Caston had never loved anything in his sick little life but himself. There was nothing that he could do about it though. Michael shrugged and wished that he had gotten more to drink before he pissed the man off. Just that one movement of his head was enough to enrage Caston, and it was clear that he was having a hard time controlling himself.
In this strange place of calm, Michael was able to look at Caston in a different way. He was not the scary man that he had envisioned. He was a lonely old man that probably had never loved anyone or anything in his whole miserable life. That made Michael feel bad for him, and in his pity there wasn’t much room for fear at all.
Caston started to pace and he pulled out the scarf again. He was going to focus on something else for a time and he enjoyed the way that Michael’s eyes narrowed as he brought out the garment. “I see you care about this. Tell me where she is and maybe I will let you live.”
There was no way that Michael was going to say anything, but he did feel a little worry. He didn’t want a man like him going after Jessa, though he did think that she would have fared better. She was the level headed one, most of the time.
“She is long gone. You will never find her. That’s why I am so calm. Men like you don’t deserve to be around the rest of us.”
Caston was losing his patience and finally hit Michael. He had been wanting to for a while, but Michael gave him no satisfaction. He just looked at him with hateful eyes, the hit not fazing him in any way.
“I wasn’t too worried about it, but now you make me want to find her even more. I will get everything out of you Michael, whether you like it or not. And there’s nothing that you can do about it.”
Michael stopped himself from retorting. There was nothing he could do right then, so he clamped his mouth shut. He wanted to warn Caston of what would happen if he did find her, but Michael was past the point of being able to hide all of his feelings and didn’t want to say more than he should.
“You will tell me what I want to know Michael, and I will make you watch what happens next. As soon as I saw you, I knew you were going to be good luck to me. I just didn’t know how much.”