Page 54 of Freak Camp
“We don’t have money here,” he said.“I ...do things for the guards.”
She hesitated.“Like ...chores, or ...”
Tobias shook his head.“No, no, I do things ...the others call me whore.”
The other monsters always filled the word with enough venom that he’d twitch in response, but not just because of the word.It was because of the threat and loathing in their voices.He wasn’t sure if they were simply jealous of the skills that earned him his extra blanket and food, or if what he did really was that bad.If in the real world it was really that horrifying and shameful to say yes to the guards—when it was that or getting forced to do it anyway, with a lot more pain—or to ask for it when he could feel himself starving after a day without food.
Head Alley was just a dark corner where they pushed Tobias down and unzipped their pants.By the time he got there the negotiations were over, the bargaining was done, and he no longer had the option of talking his way out of putting out.He just had to hope they kept up their end of the deal.
Most did.It meant the freaks worked harder for what they wanted.
All the monsters got fucked one way or another, but the others hated him for how easily he complied.A real wouldn’t do that.The other monsters still often thought they were reals, or better than reals.
How different it must be to have the luxury to think you deserved more than pain, and death, and shame.He hated them sometimes, that they could think themselves worthy of being human.Then again, he had seen that belief break them over and over, and he was still alive.
“Does it hurt?”she asked.
Not always,Tobias thought.Not now that I know what to do.“Yes, it hurts,” he said.“But it hurts more if you fight.They hurt you more,”and enjoy it more, “if you fight.”
Tobias saw the vampire coming out of the corner of his eye and braced himself, but Kayla jumped when the vampire shoved Tobias into the table.
It hurt, the unyielding metal grinding against his ribs, but it didn’t do damage.Celler knew better than to injure Tobias seriously while Crusher and Lonny Fitzpatrick (who didn’t like getting sucked, but liked to watch) were guarding the mess hall.Celler’s jaw had been permanently wired together after the second time he’d managed to get out of his muzzle.He’d gotten his longer nickname Cellulitis from the raw, red way his skin looked from frying in the sun.(The guard who had named him had transferred to Special Research soon after.Victor scoffed that “the young punk was too smart to be stuck herding the general freaks.”)
“Found yourself a pet, whore?”Celler mumbled.Because of the way they’d wired his vampire fangs to his human teeth, and then to his lower jaw, every word had to fight its way through two layers of clenched teeth.He got his ration of blood intravenously when the werewolves came back from Intensive Containment—if he’d been “good.”The borderline starvation made him even nastier than vamps usually were because of the sun char.“She pay you back yet for last night?”
Tobias wished Kayla would stop flinching.Movements like that drew more attention from the nasties, whether that was monsters like Celler or humans like the guards.He kept his focus split between the vamp and Crusher, who watched from his position leaning against the wall.
“Maybe you just like to put out.Is that it, Pretty Freak?”Celler slid a hand over Tobias’s shoulders.“If you’re so hot to hit your knees, why don’t you buy us all feather quilts?I could hold you down.”
Tobias suspected that Celler was just envious.Vamps couldn’t bargain with their mouths, and unless they could offer a particularly competitive handjob, the other kind of fucking always hurt worse.
Tobias waited until the hand reached his collarbone—no way was he letting a vamp get a grip on his throat; he’d seen shifters with their throats ripped out while a vampire held their mouth under the wound so the lifeblood would seep through the muzzle.Then Tobias slammed his head and body backwards as hard as he could, unbalancing Celler and loosening his grip.Tobias knocked him to the floor with a quick thrust of his elbow.
Celler was up almost instantly, hiss-whining through his teeth—what would have been a scream of rage for any other monster—but by that time, the guards had decided to notice.When Celler went for Tobias’s throat, Crusher was there.
The first blow of Crusher’s club against the back of Celler’s head echoed with a wet crack through the mess hall and slammed the vamp’s head into Tobias’s shoulder.Celler collapsed bonelessly to the floor, where he whimpered through his wired jaw and twitched his limbs.The next three unnecessary blows silenced the moans.
“You fucking with my freak, sucker?”Crusher panted.“He’s too pretty for you.You know what might fuck you?I think I once saw a bulldog ugly enough to fuck your ugly face.”
Celler scrabbled against the floor, arms and legs not quite working right, and Crusher kicked him.“Fucking get up, Celler.You’re in the walkway.Or do you want me to get you up?”
The vampire dragged himself beneath a bench, tucking his arms and legs beneath the table.It seemed to be enough.
Tobias was expecting it, but Crusher’s punch still slammed his face into the table.“You wanna fuck a bloodsucker, Pretty Freak?You rolling that slut tongue at him?”
“No, sir,” Tobias said to the table.
Crusher clenched his fingers in Tobias’s hair and jerked his head up, arcing his neck back.“What you say, freak?”
“No, sir.I’m not going to let them fuck me, sir.”Not going to let anyone, anyone ...
Crushed pulled his face close.“You’re waiting for me, aren’t you?I’m gonna be the first cock in your ass.”He shrugged.“Maybe second.Don’t care if Hawthorne goes first.Long as you scream for me.And you will scream for me, won’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” Tobias said.
“Think Hawthorne will want to watch while I make you scream, Pretty Freak?”
Tobias kept his breathing even.It wasn’t like Crusher hadn’t said it before.“I don’t know, sir.”
