There's A Place For Us

Chapter 16:Timothy

I got up the next morning ate with Hugo and kissed him goodbye. I walked to the train station in the dark and got on the train downtown and rode it to the university. I got off and walked across the road towards the university buildings. The snow was falling in giant flakes, sticking to my eyelashes and making my coat spotted. I went inside one of the buildings and walked through it to stay out of the cold until I got closer to the student service building. My mother was still texting me periodically, and one of her texts happen to pop in then and in the process of looking at it, I almost ran into another student.

He had red hair and dark brown eyes. He looked a little younger than me. Something about him was off-putting.

“Sorry,” I apologized quickly wanting to continue on away from him.

“Timothy, right?” he said quickly. “I think I’m in one of your classes.”

I hadn’t done anything to warrant being noticed in my classes, how did he know my name?

It made me uneasy.

“Want to go to a party this Friday?” he asks.

I looked around for help hastily. But the hall was barren in the early hours of the morning.

“I’m busy then, I have work,” I lied listening to my gut.

He stepped closer invading my personal space but also blocking the path of the way I needed to go.

“Come on, it’ll be fun. You need to loosen up. They’ll be booze,” he reasoned.

“I don’t drink, it’s against the law,” I reasoned.

“Everyone does it, nobody’s going to say anything,” he reasons.

I guess this would normally work on most college and university students who wanted to drink but for me, it was just plain creepy, especially since he knew my name and I didn’t know his.

“Thanks, but no thanks, I’m running late,” I try again.

That is when he strikes. He grabs me and pushes me into the washroom in the hall.

“Hey,” I protest steadying myself once we’re inside the washroom.

He locks the door, which I have no idea why it has a lock in the first place when this washroom has multiple stalls with their own locks.

“What are you doing?” I question.

“Taking what I want,” he says with a shrug and a smirk.

“No,” I said sternly.

“You don’t get a choice. You’re locked in here with me. If you shout, no one will hear you because no one is around to hear you, you have no power,” he hisses pressing me into a wall.

“We’ll see about that,” I mutter.

“So, you like it rough then?” he jokes.

“I don’t like it with people I met five seconds ago,” I growl in return.

He laughs at that.

His hand moves down below where I am comfortable, I decide this is enough to charge whoever this guy is with s****l harassment. I kick him where it hurts and he stumbles away.

“You kicked me!” he accuses like he’s innocent of any wrongdoing, really?

“That’s what you get for s****l assault, man,” I comment.

If Seth wasn’t responsible for the r***s on campus, I could peg this guy for it.

Then, I saw something. His name tag from whatever goddamn place employed him, you think as soon as they heard the accusations he would have been out of work. The name tag read: Seth Hunt.

I wanted to punch him but assault charges wouldn’t look good in return on my record. I had to get out. I unlocked the door and fled. There was no evidence of what he’d done to me other than my account and maybe security cam footage of me being pulled into the washroom but that didn’t account for anything really. We could have had a simple argument for all anyone knew, other than my escape of running out, which would look odd. You don’t run after a fight normally. I didn’t even want to go to student services now, I didn’t feel safe if he could just do that in some random washroom of the university.

I couldn’t even call Hugo. I went to health services and they called campus security. Seth had only been suspected in the other r***s and s****l assaults, I could personally identify him by his name tag and appearance.

“Do you want us to call someone for you?” one of the counsellors asked. I gave them my Aunt’s phone number and apparently, she demanded to talk to me. The counsellor held the phone out to me. I took it, realizing how scared I was or had been. I also think I understood the shame Hugo felt now, too.

Campus security arrived a little bit after I got off the phone. My Aunt was on the way, she was going to pick up Hugo and bring him here for me. Security asked me for Seth’s name and a description. They radioed school services to get his schedule to see where he might be now if he hadn’t thought to leave campus. He didn’t seem that intelligent considering he’d visibly worn a name tag and done it in a public space with security cameras. After making sure no physical damage was done, I went with the campus security officers down to their office to wait. They said they needed me to identify Seth as the perpetrator.

It made a shiver run down my spine that I had to see him again after what he’d tried to do to me, after what he’d done to Hugo and all the others. It took my Aunt and Hugo half an hour to arrive at the school. I kind of just sat numbly hugging my school bag waiting for them. I was asked multiple times by the campus security officers if I needed anything, honestly, all I wanted was for Seth to be caught so I knew he was nowhere near anyone who could become another victim.

It was a tragedy really, he had enough potential to get in here and he was throwing it away. But it was his choice to continue. He obviously thought once he got away with it he could keep going so he did. That had probably led to today’s slip-up in public with a name tag.

When Hugo arrived, he spotted me and he ran to me.

“Are you okay?” he asked quickly.

I nodded, and he sat down beside me. I wrapped an arm around his neck and leaned into him. This all started with Hugo and it ended with me. It was weird like fate had directed Seth in my direction knowing I’d turn him in and he’d be caught.

One of the campus security officers took my Aunt aside and explained what had happened and showed her the security footage. I and Hugo just sat quietly on the bench.

“What are you doing?!” I heard someone shout.

I looked up nervously and so did Hugo, we both recognized the voice.

Seth’s fiery red hair came into view along with two security campus officers. One of them was holding his cuffed wrists. He hadn’t noticed us, yet. He was in a different outfit, he’d had the mind to change after our encounter.

“What is this about?” Seth asked.

“Seth Hunt, you’re under arrest for suspicion of r**e and s****l assault,” one of the officers states.

“r**e? s****l Assault? I—” he starts but then he spots us.

I don’t know if he recognizes Hugo since it’s been two years but he sure as hell recognizes me and shuts up in stunned silence as if he didn’t expect me to tattle or for him to be caught. I shrink away from his hostile, accusing eyes.

Hugo looks angry but he’s also shaking. I take his hands in mine. He looks back at me. The other officer not keeping Seth in check approaches us.

“That him?” he asks.

“Yeah,” I reply.

I watch the gasoline get dumped on the fire in his eyes, anger takes hold of him.

“What did he say? I haven’t done anything. It was him,” he accuses.

“Timothy didn’t do anything to you,” Hugo snaps standing up.

I think it’s then that Seth recognizes him.

“Well, if it isn’t Homeless Hugo, you are friends with people who do what you do. Spread lies and destroy lives. I had to spend years in therapy for what you did,” he hisses with venom, struggling against his cuffs, the officer holds him though.

“You’re a monster and you’re going to rot in jail where you belong along with all the other monsters,” Hugo growls.

The officers lead him away to a room. They say they’ve called the police and they’re on their way to collect statements from us and the other victims who have come forward since the beginning of the year. My Aunt sits down on the bench with us and rubs my shoulder. She’s on the phone with the social worker to update her on the situation. Even if Hugo didn’t get adopted by Aunt Sam I’d be coming back to testify against Seth when the trial began so at least I’d be able to visit him.

The police arrive and so do the other victims. They range in age from as young as Seth to about the legal drinking age. Both male and female, I count twenty and those are just the ones who showed up and are from the university. I could only imagine how many there would be if they went through his old high school classes where he’d been for four years rather than only three months.

We don’t get home until 7:00 pm and my classes still aren’t cancelled. I’m tired, hungry and really don’t have the energy to kick Aunt Sam out of my apartment when she starts cooking things. I lay down on the couch with Hugo and watch the flickering screen of the TV. The police wanted me to stay in the city until they had evidence. With this many accusations, it couldn’t be buried this time like Hugo’s was by getting rid of him and blaming it on the status of him being a foster kid. These people were students, some who were known better by the faculty of the school and other students than Seth was.

Hugo fell asleep while I watched the press of the story blow up on the main social media pages of the University of Maine. i********:, Twitter, f*******:. There were people from other universities commenting on their stories of going to high school with Seth and their experiences with him.

“You should sleep,” Aunt Sam replied. She’d put the food she’d made in the fridge, finding I wasn’t hungry and Hugo was asleep now.

I was still looking through the stories. There were so many. His parents couldn’t deny it this time. Truth be told, even though he was in police custody, I didn’t feel safe in my own apartment even though he couldn’t possibly know where it was. He’d known my name though. How had he found out my name? It bothered me.

“I will,” I reply to her.

She smiles sadly.

“I’ll see you, boys, tomorrow, okay?” she continues.

“Okay,” I reply continuing through the feeds of stories on social media. By this time tomorrow, they’d be on the news and this time next week in the newspapers.

An email pops up in my box, and thinking it’s from the school I go to delete it, thinking I wouldn’t need it, it was addressed to multiple people, like a mass email. But I see Seth’s name in the subject. I open it.

From: emilyrose@gmail.com

Subject: Seth Hunt

Was anyone in the class a victim of Seth Hunt? I just need someone to talk to who will understand. It happened 2 weeks ago, I met him at a party and we got drunk and he took me back to his dorm. His roommate was out or maybe he didn’t have one, (who cares) he must have drugged me or something, I felt dizzy and I was fading in and out of consciousness. I recall him undressing me and me telling him to stop but being unable to move to stop him. It hurt, but I couldn’t scream either. I remember coming around and finding myself bare and him asleep. I dressed quietly and left. I went back to my own dorm and locked myself in the bathroom and cried. I was ashamed at first and scared I’d see him again. I didn’t tell anyone at first, but I felt like I was being watched, like he was going to jump me and do it again. My roommates noticed this behaviour and asked me what was wrong. I didn’t want to tell them because of the shame and because I thought they’d be the kind of people to say I deserved it or was asking for it. But they told me to report him even if I didn’t know his full name. They did a r**e kit but they had nothing to compare it to so they couldn’t do much with it. He said his name was Ryan when we met. He lied. My roommates made sure I never left a party with another guy alone again. I’m so grateful to them. I’ve made a group chat for victims of Seth, if you need someone to talk to, too, join us.

She linked the group chat in the email. I clicked on it and there were hundreds of stories, not just from the university students but some of the students he’d gone to high school with who had found their way there, too. I went through looking at the ages and dates. Hugo seemed to be the youngest and first victim. It really did begin with him and end with me from what I could see.

There was a petition to get him expulsed from the University of Maine. That would screw with his plans, it would give him trouble at other schools, too, probably. Not that he’d really have time for school with the time he’d be spending in jail.

I’m safe, Hugo is safe. He’s no longer a threat to anyone. He’s in a jail cell bored out of his mind. With any luck, the other inmates wouldn’t like the fact that he’d sexually assaulted minors and he wouldn’t last long. I wanted him to rot in jail but I was sure Hell would punish him, too. I don’t wish death on people unless they deserve it and he deserved it.