Chapter 1
Brian was sleeping in his small slave quarters, trying to make his long, lean body fit the small, ratted mattress his owner had provided for him years ago when Brian had first arrived at Sapperstein's house. He groaned when he felt something poke his ribs and tried to move away from whatever it was.
“Get up, you lazy pig,” an angry voice spat at him and Brian frowned when he recognized the voice as that of his owner Gary Sapperstein.
Slowly opening an eye, Brian eyed the clock on the wall at the far side of the room and saw that it was merely past 8am. Damn, he had been up all night servicing Sapperstein's friends until the early hours of the morning. What did that bastard want now?
“I said, get up! Are you deaf? If you don't get up immediately, you'll be very sorry!” The older, greasy man threatened, holding an electric cattle prod in Brian's direction that unfortunately, Brian was more than familiar with. Every time someone didn't follow Sapperstein's orders as quickly as he'd like, the cattle prod would be used as a form of punishment. It had been used on Brian several times over the years he had been owned by Sapperstein and sadly, Brian had been that man's possession for long enough to know that the cattle prod was still one of the nicer forms of punishments in this household.
Brian quickly got up, not feeling like having another intimate meeting with the device, still remembering how much it had hurt the last time Sapperstein had been unhappy with him for dropping a cup and breaking it and how he had punished Brian by using the cattle prod on his genitals. Or the time Brian had refused to give sexual favours to one of Sapperstein's more disgusting friends and had been punished for his disobedience by having the cattle prod anally inserted. No, he definitely didn't want to think about that and immediately got into the position slaves were to have when greeting their masters: Head bowed low, eying the floor in front of him, hands clasped in front of his genitals.
“Pack your shit and be in the main hall in five minutes,” Sapperstein only snapped, before starting to leave the room.
“Wh-what?” Brian couldn't help the impulse to raise his head and look at his master.
“Excuse me?” Sapperstein turned around and held the cattle prod towards his slave in a threatening manner. “Did you question what I have said?”
Brian immediately shook his head, scared of the punishment he would receive for having spoken up without being asked to.
“I thought so... 5 minutes,” was all Sapperstein said again before leaving the room. Brian could hear the man muttering to himself. “Sad to lose his ass, but he has always been more trouble than he's been worth.”
Brian frowned as he watched after his master, not quite understanding what was happening. 'Lose his ass?' What was Sapperstein talking about?
Ever since Brian had arrived at Sapperstein's four years ago, he had been forced by his master to perform sexual favours to his master's friends. This wasn't just reduced to blow-jobs or anal sex, but included everything the spectrum of sex had to offer. Sapperstein had some sick friends with sick desires and as a slave, Brian had been forced to fulfill all of them, if he had wanted to or not. As a slave he had never had any rights and had to follow his master's commands, no matter how much they might have gone against his own personal desires, inclinations or even his own health. He had been powerless and had been nothing more than a sex slave to a crazy man and his even crazier friends. Could it really be that he might be sold? Could he have understood Sapperstein correctly and he would be leaving his services?
As Brian grabbed his meager belongings and put them in the small plastic bag at the end of his bed, he wondered if he should be scared or not. What if Sapperstein had sold him to one of his sick, deranged friends? What if Sapperstein had sold him to that Stockwell asshole that loved to choke his slaves while he slept with them, not caring if they survived or not? Or even worse, what if he had been sold to that Rickert fucker who enjoyed filling slaves' assholes with all kinds of things that didn't belong into an asshole, no matter how much the slave would be hurt?
Fear grabbed Brian as he thought about the possibilities of what could be next for him and he wasn't sure if he could stomach any of the possibilities that presented itself to his mind. The last four years had been hard enough on Brian and it had already taken him all he could muster to not give in to the urge that so many slaves gave in to nowadays to just end his life. He had contemplated it several times, the last time after the cattle prod incident, but in the end he had never gone through with it, hoping against hope that maybe one day he would be sold to other masters again and would be in households again that were more like the first two families he had served.
Brian sighed as he was flooded by memories of the first two families he had been with and held on to the bag in his hand that held small memories from a better time in his life.
He had been sold into slavery by his parents at the age of 16 when he had been scouted by a slave agency for being incredibly smart, good-looking, athletic. All his achievements of which he had been proud at the time had only caused his parents to get more money in the end.
His family had always been poor and his parents had always blamed him for the state of their lives. As if it was his fault that Jack was a drunk ass that couldn't keep a job for longer than a week and as if it was his fault that Joanie loved god more than her own family.
They had always accused him of being the reason for all their family's troubles: He had been born when there should have never been a second child to begin with, he had cost them too much money in food, clothes and school supplies when really that money should have gone to Jack, so he could drink more. He should have never been born, yadda yadda yadda. Brian had grown up with those statements for 16 years and had worked extremely hard in school to one day be able to leave that shithole of a home behind, but how had he been supposed to know that all his hard work would become his downfall one day? How had he been supposed to know that all his hard work would only raise the attention of slave traders that would offer his parents money if they sold him into slavery? If they did it before he turned 18, he wouldn't have any say in the matter as he was underage and Jack and Joanie could keep all the money for themselves.
Brian didn't really know why he had expected something else to happen than what had really happened. He didn't really know why he had hoped against hope that his parents wouldn't sell him and use him for the cash cow he apparently was to them. He didn't know why he had expected them to suddenly realise that they loved him when they had never shown any interest at all in him besides blaming him for the state of their lives. He didn't know and yet it had shocked him and he had been beyond hurt when his parents had handed him over to the slave traders and had sold him into slavery, aged 16, with nothing he could have done against it.
The first two years had been kind of okay. Brian had been sent to a “slave academy” where he had been taught the ins and outs of high society life and rules. He had been taught how to behave in certain social settings and had been given one of the best educations the country had to offer. Thanks to his great academical achievements in school, he had been chosen for the life of a tutoring slave, a kind of slave that was mostly sold to rich families to watch over their spoiled kids and make sure they didn't end up in prison and would make it into an Ivy League school.
Brian knew that he had been lucky with that assignment as he had also heard horrific tales about slave academies where you were taught how to be a pleasure slave. Something that sounded far worse to him. If people were interested in his brain, he could live with that. At least they would keep his body alone and he wouldn't become a sex slave that would get raped over and over again.
He had known how lucky he had been when he had been assigned to his first family at the age of 18. A rich Pittsburgh family with two young daughters that needed a tutor and chaperone before they headed off to college two years later. Brian had liked the family, even though the parents had been total pricks, treating him as something unworthy of their attention. They pretended that he didn't exist and when they couldn't deny his existence, they treated him worse than the scum of the world. But Brian had been fine with that, he had been taught not to expect anything else from a Wasp family and really, it hadn't mattered much to him. Still he had been aware of how lucky he had been not to end up as a pleasure slave somewhere.
And it hadn't been all bad. The younger daughter had been really nice and had been really interested in his story and his life. She had been very idealistic and anti-slavery and had often clashed with her father about their opposing views. She had often asked Brian about his life and his years at the slave academy and with time they had become something akin to friends. His two years in that household had unfortunately ended far too soon when she had finally finished high school and left for college. The family no longer needed him and they had sold him to another family in the Wasp network of Pittsburgh.
Brian had been with that family for 9 years and life had been good with them. Or as good as it could have been for a slave. He had been responsible for tutoring and taking care of the family's son and heir to the family business and later, when she had been born, the family's younger daughter as well.
Having been with that family for so long, it had been unavoidable that Brian and the son would sort of become friends. Brian had spent more time with that son than his parents did at times and quickly they had moved on from just being tutor and pupil to being friends. Especially when the boy had moved on to his teenage years and had become confused by growing up and especially his sexuality. He had turned to Brian and Brian had tried to help the boy as much as he could in his position, still remembering how hard it had been for him and his only friend from high school to come to terms with their sexuality.
He knew it shouldn't have happened, but it had only been a matter of time before their friendship had turned into something more. Mostly because the boy had been interested in testing out his sexuality with someone he could trust, or so he had claimed. It had started with innocent kisses when they should have learned Latin and French vocabulary and had turned into full make out sessions a year later when they had been out on a field trip to help the boy on a science project.
Knowing that the boy's parents would definitely not approve of their blossoming friendship and relationship, they had tried to keep it secret and had sneaked around, trying not to raise any suspicions. That had worked fine for them for about six months until one fateful afternoon the boy's father had caught them having sex in the boy's room where they should have been studying for his SATs.
They had thought the father would be at work and hadn't expected him to come home early and had been utterly surprised when he had entered the room and had caught them in a more than compromising position.
That afternoon had been a turning point in Brian's life. That had been when his whole life had changed and his life as a tutoring slave had come to an end. The boy's father had been enraged, had been beyond angry and had violently attacked Brian in punishment for 'infesting' his precious son with his gay ideas as he had called it at the time. Brian could still remember the pain of that punishment, but it hadn't been the worst pain in his life. It had only been the beginning of years and years of pain that were to start for him.
After Brian had healed from his punishment, he had been sold to another slave trader under the condition that he would become a pleasure slave, as his previous owner had claimed that that was the only thing he was good for. Brian could still remember his six months at the academy and all the training he had received to become a pleasure slave. He snorted when he considered the term 'training'. In reality it had been a camp for perverse psychos that would rape the new trainees over and over again, trying to break them until they would willfully submit to all kinds of sexual practices that would be required from them.
Brian had hated every minute of his time there. It wasn't necessarily that he had a problem with sex or having sex with people he didn't know, it was the not having a choice in who he would have sex with and what the sex would look like. He had learned quickly that pain would become a daily part of his life and that no one cared about his feelings or health. He was a pleasure slave and as that would be used for as long as his body allowed it.
Once his training had been over, Brian had been sold to Sapperstein and had become a pleasure slave for his sick, perverse group of friends. Sapperstein would host daily parties at his compound that would be attended by the who is who of Pittsburgh and all those fuckers would live out their dirty, sexual phantasies, knowing that the pleasure slaves would never be able to turn on them or tell on them. It was a great system for them and if a slave died every once in a while at one of those parties or killed himself or herself because they couldn't stand what their lives had become any longer, well... nothing that money couldn't fix, right? You could just buy a new slave.
Brian angrily shook his head, trying to clear his mind and trying to shake off those dark thoughts. He just needed to be positive and had to hope that he would be sold to a good owner. Someone that would actually care about him. And if it turned out to be one of Sapperstein's sick friends, well... he would still have the chance to kill himself before they would be able to lay their hands on him.
Grabbing the small plastic bag that held all his personal belongings, Brian left the small chamber that had been his quarter for the last four years without giving it a second glance. He would not miss this place. Not at all.
He made his way to the main hall as Sapperstein had requested and frowned when he saw a small, slender woman with short hair looking at him expectantly.
“Brian Kinney?” She asked in a voice that sounded friendly enough.
Remembering his slave training, Brian quickly lowered his head and assumed the correct position for a slave, nodding his head in reply.
She turned to Sapperstein and handed him a piece of paper that to Brian looked like a cheque. At least from what he could see from the corner of his eyes.
“I think that should conclude our business satisfactorily.”
Sapperstein nodded and handed her a manila folder. “All the documentation as requested. Ownership has been signed over to Mr. …,”
Just as Sapperstein was about to say the name of his new owner, the woman interrupted the older man impatiently. “You don't mind if I check that everything is correct? My client wouldn't want to bother you unnecessarily for any further changes or adjustments if we can already solve them right away.”
Sapperstein only nodded and watched as the woman read through the paperwork he had handed her. “Why him though? I have so many better slaves that would be better suited...”
“I am sure you have, but... my client's motives are his and his alone. I believe compensation has been more than fair for your loss,” the woman answered in a cold voice and Brian couldn't help but wonder who her client was. It didn't sound as if it was one of Sapperstein's friends. Surely a friend's lawyer wouldn't take this tone with the man, would they?
Brian stayed silent, just watching the proceedings around him. After a couple of minutes the lawyer nodded at Sapperstein and then beckoned for Brian to join her.
“Mr Sapperstein, I would say it was a pleasure, but it wasn't. Have a nice day!”
With that she opened the main door of the house and left. Brian looked between her and Sapperstein and in the end left the house without a second glance, following the woman to her car. She opened the passenger door for him and urged him to get into the car as she got behind the wheel herself.
Brian was curious and had so many questions running through his mind, but he knew better than to ask them. A slave was not supposed to ask questions. He was supposed to serve and that was it. He had no control about any aspect in his life and that included being sold. If an owner wanted to sell a slave they could do so at a minute's notice. As long as the paperwork was okay, nobody cared and it certainly wasn't as if the slave could speak up and complain. Brian had learned that the hard way when he had been sold from his second posting to the slave academy. Nobody but the family's son had cared about his feelings and nobody but him had tried to help Brian.
At the time the boy had only been 17-years old though, so there really hadn't been anything he could have done, even though he had promised Brian that he would save him.
Having been a slave long enough, Brian had known better than to trust anything an owner said and had just waved those declarations away, knowing that no one could save him. Not as long as laws allowed slavery and people were allowed to own and buy and sell other people just to their heart's desire.
“Are you okay, Brian? Are you in any physical pain? Do you need a doctor?”
Brian frowned when the lawyer addressed him and he was confused by the kindness in her voice. Why did she sound so caring? She didn't even know him. Not knowing how to react to that, he merely shook his head in reply.
“Brian, you can talk to me. You don't have to be afraid of me.”
Brian continued to stare ahead, not looking at her, refusing to believe that her kindness could be true. He had been through too much as a slave to still believe that anyone cared about him.
“If you need a doctor, please let me know. I will call ahead to arrange for one to be present when we arrive at your new home. We only want to make sure that you're okay,” she continued, her voice still sounding nothing but caring which confused Brian.
“We?” he couldn't help but ask and his hand flew to his mouth when he had realised that he had actually spoken that question without being allowed to. He knew he would be punished for that and cursed at himself for having been that stupid.
“Don't worry, Brian. Nothing will happen to you. We're your friends and … whatever you've been through, it's over now.”
Brian slowly turned to look at the woman and eyed her with a confused frown. “Friends?” He dared to ask. He was going to be punished anyway, so why not try to at least get some answers to make the punishment worth it.
“I can't tell you too much as I've promised...,” Brian watched as she stopped herself from saying something, maybe a name and then continued carefully. “I promised not to, but I think you'll understand when we get to your new home. Just... just know that you don't have to be scared. Everything will be alright,” she tried to assure him and smiled at him kindly.
Not used to that kind of behaviour being directed at him, Brian only turned his gaze away from the lawyer and looked out the window, watching as they made their way to what looked like downtown Pittsburgh.
After another ten minutes that were spent completely in silence, they stopped outside an old stone building that didn't look like too much. Brian felt the apprehension in his stomach and wondered what the rest of the day would bring.
The lawyer left the vehicle and urged him to follow her into the building. There were no names displayed on the outside of the building, so Brian still had no idea about who his new owner might be or where he was. They entered the building and entered an old, rackety elevator that took them to the top floor at an agonizing slow pace.
Once there, they left the elevator and the woman banged on the metal door in front of her. “It's us!” She only announced and then turned to Brian, handing him the manila folder which he knew contained his sales contract and all the paperwork involved in his sale.
“I'll see you around. It was nice meeting you, Brian.”
With that she left down the stairs and Brian could only stare after her in utter confusion. Why had she left him on his own with the paperwork of his sale in hand? Why hadn't she made sure he would arrive safely in the hands of his new owner? And why would he see her around if she was merely his new owner's lawyer? Brian was utterly confused, but didn't get to think about that much more when the metal door slid to the side and revealed the one person he had never expected to see again after he had been removed from his family's service as a tutoring slave after they had been caught having sex together.
“Brian, you're finally here,” the young blond exclaimed from shining blue eyes as he walked over and enveloped the older man in a crushing hug.
All Brian could do was hug the younger man back and whisper his name in utter disbelief. “Justin.”