There's A Place For Us

Chapter 20:Timothy

I hated packing my room up when I was preparing to come here, maybe that was the first sign I wasn’t cut out for university or not in the right classes or something. Now, I was packing faster than Hugo and Aunt Sam could hand me things. The stack of boxes grew higher and higher. Soon my apartment was barren and a shell of what it once was. I was excited to go home, see my mom and dad and go on Aunt Sam’s boat and spend time with Hugo outside this apartment and city.

I wasn’t excited about the conversation I would have to have with my parents when I got back. I knew I had to talk to them, explain what had been going on for the last two months and what I felt for Hugo. I didn’t think the conversation was going to be fun but hopefully, it wouldn’t be too bad.

I pulled Hugo aside later that day and gave him, William’s phone number and my phone figuring he’d want to call and tell him the good news. He took the phone and the number and said he was going to but looked unsure. I left him to his devices figuring he was nervous that he’d pushed William away or made him mad. Aunt Sam left after having supper with us. I and Hugo laid on the couch to watch TV, I was going tomorrow to try and cancel my class and pay the fee for cancellation of the classes. Hopefully, it would go more smoothly this time than last time.

Hugo was going to come with me since he didn’t have to worry about running into Seth anymore. I’d been watching the news and reading social media posts on the whole thing, there were hundreds of people coming forward, Hugo was no longer the youngest, and there were reports of one thirteen-year-old girl in Seth’s middle school who had come forward now at eighteen.

Seth Hunt seriously had something off in his brain, he had the right to a lawyer, I could only imagine what the lawyer’s defence would be for him, insanity maybe, I hoped if it was, he would at least spend the rest of his days in a mental facility and get the help he needed. Hugo got to go to court, maybe he’d hear Seth’s reasons. The reasons were always interesting when people did things like this. Could insanity even be pleaded in a serial r**e case?

The news said his parents were pleading to negligence since Hugo told them what Seth had done and instead of taking the accusation seriously, kicked him out. There were other things they were pleading guilty to but that was the main thing. The news had sent requests to comment to Seth’s birth parents on the matter but they had refused to comment. Sounded like they wanted nothing to do with Seth now that they knew the truth. I wasn’t really concerned with what they were doing, they’d given their child up for adoption and he’d become the Hunts’ responsibility so they weren’t at fault. They couldn’t control what happened to him once he was in the foster system either.

All these victims had hidden their stories out of shame, they all thought they’d somehow asked for it and when Hugo and that other girl, (Emily), attempted to come forward the parents didn’t believe him and there was little evidence because Seth wasn’t in the system and she’d waited a few weeks.

The news was calling him the youngest serial r****t with the largest victim pool in North America. We’d been getting updates from the police officer about basic public information, there were also theories we’d gotten from them, some were dark, and we honestly tried not to think about them. One of them was that he was part of a group online that kidn*pped and r***d teens and young adults for fun, s*x trafficking, essentially. All of them were similar, part of the black market that sold these people or was one of the ones sold and recovered but if he was, that was kept out of his file when he was adopted or the Hunts were involved in the online and black-market schemes.

To think Hugo could have become part of something like that was horrifying, it opened our eyes to how lucky he was to have been kicked out by the Hunts rather than sold off to be used by someone else if those implications were true.

That night, Hugo had frightening nightmares I had to shake him out of. At least now he trusted me enough to stay put in the bed in my arms rather than jumping out and going to sleep on the couch by himself. The neighbours didn’t much appreciate him but I told them we were moving out on Friday so they let it slide for now.

I hoped once we were in Hampton that they’d calm down since he was miles away from Maine and Seth was behind bars. I hoped the therapist Aunt Sam found him helped. It was hard to watch him struggle against something I couldn’t see and calm him down afterward.

We were sleep-deprived the next morning and I was glad I didn’t have classes the next day, I was just going to cancel them, hopefully, the meeting and transaction would be short. We were still up by 7:00 am and on the train to the university be half-past seven. We arrived at 8:30 am and were set to sit around for student services to open at 9:00 am.

Hugo seemed uneasy and jumpy. I didn’t stray far from him because I knew it gave him some comfort to have me near. William had started texting me or rather Hugo, he was happy that the adoption had worked out and I assured Hugo he could get a phone of his own once we got to Hampton. It would make contact with William, his lawyer and social worker easier since I couldn’t stay with him twenty-four-seven and he was going to live at Aunt Sam’s and not in the same place as me anymore.

Aunt Sam said she and Hugo would make the trip once a month to visit William on the weekends. William said when the hearings started Hugo and Aunt Sam could stay with them.

That probably wouldn’t happen for a while with the number of victims, reports and evidence they needed to collect so at least Seth would be sitting in jail for a while, his parents couldn’t exactly post bail seeing as they were facing charges of their own. I just hoped that the time he was sitting around waiting for a trial didn’t get taken off his sentence.

The class cancellation went quickly once the doors were open since we were first in line. Hugo stood back pacing making the receptionist and agent uneasy.

“Can you get him to sit down?” she asked quietly.

“It’s probably better if I don’t,” I reply.

I didn’t want to make Hugo feel trapped, if pacing kept him calm they’d have to deal with it. I was glad I hadn’t left him at home by himself, he would have worried himself sick over whether I was alright, at least here he could see me.

She continued to explain the process and payment of cancellation. I just told her I understood everything because I wanted to get out as soon as possible and I knew Hugo did, too. I was waiting for the press to come knocking on our door for an interview, too. Victim and crime stories were gold in the press. They elicited sympathy, tugged at people’s heartstrings, kept them reading and of course purchasing the stories and their updates. I hated priors though as I was sure Hugo did. They tended to want every little detail and Hugo didn’t need to run through those more than the nightmares already made him.

Once we were out, I watched out for the press, as the first victim at the university to come forward, I wasn’t unrecognizable. I could only wonder how the people still attending the university made it to their classes without reliving their experiences, which were way worse than mine.

We made it onto the train without running into anyone luckily. We decided to stop and get an earlier lunch on the way home, this was a mistake. After we ordered our food and were seated comfortably at a back table in the fast-food restaurant, the press showed up. Someone must have called them, or maybe they were following us. All the local news channels had their vans parked outside, their camera flashing through the window and some trying to get in the front door. We abandoned our food and attempted to shield our faces, one of the managers led us through the kitchen area to a back door.

“Thanks,” I replied quietly.

“One of my girls was a victim of that prick, she’s stayed home from classes for the last two days thanks to people like that. No need to thank me,” he explains. “Are you kids okay to get home?”

Hugo was shaken up and looking around, probably watching for the press, they’d find their way back here eventually. I wasn’t sure how far we’d make it on foot before they would catch up with us.

“We don’t want to bother you,” I reply honestly.

“Nonsense,” he replies, he lifts his hand and unlocks his blue truck. “Get in the car, keep low. I’ll be right back.”

I nod and guide Hugo to the truck. He slides into the seat behind the drives and I sit beside him. He rests his head on my lap and I watch out the window after I’ve relocked the doors from the inside. I can see some of the press vans parked alongside the restaurant, I can see flashing lights even though I have no idea what the press would be taking pictures of now.

The manager came back about ten minutes later.

“Okay, let’s get you out of here, boys,” he replies plugging his key into the ignition and starting up the truck.

“My name’s Alex, what about you guys?” he tried with us.

“Timothy and this is Hugo,” I answer quietly.

“Is he okay?” Alex asks.

“He’s just shaken up,” I reply quietly.

“The prick’s in jail, Hugo. That’s what matters,” he tries to reassure Hugo but he doesn’t move or speak.

I attempt to direct him through the streets to my apartment. I was always bad with giving other people directions, eventually, I just tell him the address and he finds it with his GPS.

“Which one of you did the prick go after?” he asked.

“Both of us,” I answer quietly again looking down at Hugo.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to but were you students at the university or before then?” he asks.

“I was at the university, Hugo was one of the Hunts’ foster kids, he was fourteen,” I mumble not sure if Hugo wants any of this disclosed to this random guy.

Hugo doesn’t object, I think he’s grateful he doesn’t have to answer the questions and that they’re at least not being shared with the world.

“Fourteen?” he questioned. “I wish we still had the death penalty, guys like this deserve it, I don’t care if he’s eighteen. He hurt kids.”

The death penalty had been abolished in 1887 in Maine, I highly doubted they were going to bring it back for a serial r****t. There had been a few people who had killed children in the state of Maine and the death penalty hadn’t been brought back for them so why for a serial r****t. The death penalty was usually only given to offenders whose crimes resulted in death, too.

Five in every 1,000 r***s end in a felony conviction, 0.5% otherwise. I understand many, many r***s are not reported but with the volume of victims Seth had and the fact that at least one of his prior victims, (Hugo), had attempted to report him, not to the authorities, but to people he was supposed to trust and who were supposed to help him go to the authorities, hopefully, he wouldn’t get off scot-free. The backlog of evidence would have been bad back then, now, with the additional victims the backlog would be more, and the processing of it all would take a long time, and that was if the officers you handed your r**e kit to didn’t destroy since there were reports of that happening in fourteen states.

“Here you boys go,” Alex says pulling up in front of my apartment building.

“Thank you, Alex,” I reply.

“Don’t mention it,” he replies. “I hope you feel better, Hugo.”

Hugo nods and simply waves to him as he drives off.

We take the elevator up since we don’t feel like climbing the stairs after all the walking we did to get to the university and the scare we had at the restaurant. Hugo lay on the couch since we were in the process of taking apart the bed and packing it up to move this Friday.

“I’m sorry,” I apologize quietly.

“It’s not your fault they found us. Are you okay?” he assures me.

“I’m fine,” I reassure him brushing his bangs off his forehead. He looks up at me with his blue eyes which look less dull now than when I met him, his dark eyes are less severe now since he’s somewhat well-rested.

Another benefit of leaving Maine was in Hampton there would be less press and nobody would know who we were. Life would be so much more peaceful in my small hometown. I hoped Hugo would find peace there, too at least until the trial.