Chapter 3 - Truth

This is the third chapter of the book

          Kenan woke up in what appeared to be a furnished living room in an apartment. On the couch there was a young African American girl who looked no older than ten. She was holding a stuffed brown bear. Her black hair was tied to a ponytail. Her eyes were black. She was wearing a yellow shirt and blue jeans. Kenan tried to speak to the girl, but she couldn’t hear him. Kenan then tried to wave one of his hands in front of the girl’s face, but she couldn’t see it. “Where the hell am I?” said Kenan as he left the living room to investigate the apartment. Kenan went to check out one of the two bedrooms the apartment had. There were Disney princess posters on the walls and a shelf with dolls on each row. Seeing that led Kenan to believe that that was the girl’s bedroom. After that Kenan walked over to the bedroom down the narrow hallway. At the entrance of the room there was a long brown wooden dresser. On the top of that dresser there were envelopes that had an address typed on them. Kenan looked closely at it and the address had Caesar’s name on it as well as a location. The full address on it was one hundred and fifty-three East Cottage Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In that bedroom there was a young African American man with a full head of hair. He wore a checkered button-up shirt and was wearing black jeans. His body was average built. He was sitting on his bed in front of a laptop computer while smoking a cigarette. Since the man couldn’t see or hear Kenan anyway, he decided to look over the man’s shoulder to check out what he was doing on the device. Kenan watched the man scroll through job board websites looking for work. The man had clicked on one listing and said “Work from home” in the title. That drew the man to wanting to find out more about it, so he grabbed his cell phone and called the number in the listing. “Hello.” said a man’s voice on the phone. “Hello. My name is Caesar Blackburn, and I am interested in the work from home position I saw on Craigslist.” said Caesar as he put out his cigarette. “Oh really? What we’re going to do is pay you to send us videos.” said the unknown man. “What kind of videos?” said Caesar. “The X-rated kind Mr. Blackburn.” said the unknown man. “I am in dire need of money right now, so I’ll do anything. Even this.” said Caesar. “That is great to hear. How about you start today?” said the unknown man. “Okay sure.” said Caesar. “Now I am going to need you to get your daughter.” said the unknown man. “How do you know that I have a daughter? I never told you that.” said Caesar. “Because I have eyes everywhere.” said the unknown man. Caesar got up out of bed, walked through Kenan and noticed that there was a drone flying out of the window. That drone was carrying a bag. “What is that?” said Caesar. “One of my eyes. I want you to open your window and take that bag.” said the unknown man. Caesar did what the man had said and took the bag. Instantly, the drone flew away from the building. Without question, he opened the bag and in it were white noise machines and a manilla envelope. In the envelope were pictures of Caesar burying a large duffle bag in his backyard garden during the night. Caesar gasped at the sight of those images and said, “Okay. Before I decide, what is your name?” “My name is Bradley Smith.” said Bradley. “Okay Bradley. What are these pictures for?” said Caesar. “Those are for me to use against you if you ever choose to defy my orders. You can still choose not to do this and remain broke if you want. I will even destroy the photos being the honest man that I am.,” said Bradley. “I said OKAY. I will do it.” said Caesar. “Good. Now go get your daughter. I will be waiting for the first video. Once I receive it, I’ll be paying your first pay instantly through Cashapp. You will send your video to the email address on the listing.” said Bradley as he hung up the phone. Kenan tried with all his might to stop Caesar from leaving his room with his time magic, but it failed. “No. No. No!!! He is not really going to do that.” said Kenan as he followed Caesar to the living room. “Hey Patricia.” said Caesar. Patricia turned the television down and said, “Yes dad?” “I’m going to need you to come to my room with me.” said Caesar. “Okay.” said Patricia as she turned the television off and followed Caesar to his room. Caesar then had Patricia strip down to her undergarments while he shut the curtains on his windows, closed his bedroom door, turned on the white noise machines, turned on the webcam from his laptop computer, and had it facing them both himself and his daughter. “Patricia come over here to me.” said Caesar. “Dad, what is this about?” said Patricia as she held her hands up while slowly approaching her father. “Your bottoms. Take them off.” said Caesar. “Huh?” said Patricia. “I said take off your bottoms. Now!!!” said Caesar as he punched the wall. Patricia began to softly cry as she did what Caesar had said. Caesar pulled his pants down as he watched Patricia obey him. Patricia screamed as Caesar grabbed her, laid her down on his bed and raped her. “Mom!!! Help me!!!” said Patricia. Caesar slapped Patricia as hard as he could across her face and said, “Shut up!!! Your mommy is not here to save you! No one is!!” When Caesar had finished abusing his daughter, he stopped the recording on his computer and sent it to Bradley by messaging as agreed. In a matter of minutes, Caesar received a message from Bradley. The message said, “Good work Caesar. The video was done very well. I just sent you the money as promised. Fifty thousand dollars. You earned it. Send me more and it will double with each one.” Despite Patricia still crying from being sexually and physically abused by Caesar, he smiled and laughed at the sight of the notification of receiving the money. “Daddy!! Why did you do that?!!!” said Patricia. “Shut up!! Just shut up I say!! Go to the bathroom to clean up!!” said Caesar. Patricia stopped crying, got up to her feet and did as Caesar had said. Kenan tried to punch Caesar as many times as he could but failed. Kenan began to hear a voice in his head while trying to hit Caesar. “Do you see now that Caesar is scum and doesn't deserve protection?” said the voice. “Psyche. Is that you?” said Kenan. “Who do you think it is?” said Psyche. “Why are you showing me this?” said Kenan as tears began to come into his eyes. “To teach you a lesson. This is my way to do it. That little girl who Caesar is traumatizing is someone I once knew.” said Psyche. “I know where I am now. I am in your head!!” said Kenan. “Yep. You’re seeing my nightmares through my power of memory manipulation. You’re not leaving until I say you can go.” said Psyche. “Okay then show me more.” said Kenan as he wiped the tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his suit. At the same time, time in Caesar’s bedroom began to fast forward like a movie. In that passage of time, Kenan watched Caesar rape and beat his daughter and recorded videos of it all on his laptop. Caesar laughed like a maniac every time he received more and more money for every video he sent to Bradley. Kenan screamed and begged for the depravity to stop. When Psyche had enough of showing these memories to Kenan, she had placed him in the back seat of Caesar’s car being driven by him. Kenan sat alongside the traumatized Patricia. “Where are we going?” said Patricia. “We are going to a special place. We are going to meet a friend of mine.” said Caesar. Kenan tried to embrace Patricia, not even caring if she couldn’t see or hear him. “You poor child. You didn’t deserve any of that.” said Kenan. Caesar had parked his car at Boston Harbor. On the harbor was a large metallic cargo container. Beside the container was a group of men all dressed in business suits. “Okay Patricia. Now when we get out of this car you will remain silent. You say one word and you will get slapped. Understand me?” said Caesar. “Yes.” said Patricia in a frightened way. And with that, Caesar and Patricia got out of the car and approached the men. “It’s great to finally meet you in person, Caesar.” said one of the men. “I am guessing you are Bradley.” said Caesar. “Yes. That is right.” said Bradley. “So why did you want to meet in the first place?” said Caesar. “Out of all my senders you have sent me the most videos. You are the first to send over a hundred in under a year. I want to offer you a promotion.” said Bradley. “A promotion? What kind of promotion?” said Caesar. “I want you to work closely with me. You will be paid a fortune in this.” said Bradley. “That sounds great. What do you want me to do?” said Caesar. “Open the cargo!!” said Bradley. Without question Bradley’s men had done as he said, and they opened the cargo container. Kenan gasped at the sight of children of various ages screaming and crying. The children were dirty, and it appeared that they hadn't eaten in days. One of the men hit them with a whip to silence them. Not even one of these prisoners could speak English. “Who are these kids?” said Caesar. “Victims I kidnapped from various countries in the far east. They’re now our product.” said Bradley. “I see. So, what do you want me to do with them?” said Caesar. “I want you to help with delivering them to our buyers as well as collecting payments.” said Bradley. “Great. I will do that.” said Caesar. And with that, Caesar and Bradley shook hands. “Welcome aboard.” said the other men as they pat Caesar’s shoulders. When Patricia had heard enough and grew tired of everything that Caesar had done to her, she pulled out a kitchen knife from her back pocket and stabbed her father in the right leg. Caesar screamed from that moment of pain as he bled out from the blow. Patricia then tried to run away but was quickly grabbed by one of Bradley’s men. And with that, Kenan screamed and woke up back in the real world being clutched by Elysia recovered from the beating she took from Psyche and Ember. “Elysia honey. I am awake.” said Kenan. “Oh, thank heavens. I was so worried.” said Elysia. “What happened to Bradley?” said Kenan. “I don’t have another way of saying this. He is dead.” said Elysia. “I see.” said Kenan. “Kenan, what are we going to do? Psyche and Ember are too powerful. Maybe we should just give up.” said Elysia. “Didn’t you tell me not to do that? I refuse to surrender.” said Kenan. “Okay then I will ask again. What are we going to do?” said Elysia. “We are going back to Blackburn Industries.” said Kenan as he whistled for Priscilla to come to him. “Okay.” said Elysia as she mounted Priscilla's back. And with that, Kenan mounted Priscilla's and flew back to the Prudential Tower now knowing the truth about Caesar Blackburn.