Weds Brief

It's that time of the week again.  

Here are the prompts from this week:

"Get on your bike and ride!" or "Try peddling your papers somewhere else" or "the ties that bind" or have your character find out that someone they know is pregnant or "ship of fools" or use a broken condom or use voyeurism or exhibitionism or use a flogger or paddle or have a character wear a pair of gloves and then explain why or have a character with a banana fetish or use: motorcycle, wings, tilt

Ben set the alarm and turned back to Tom.

“Who’s doing this to us, Tom?”  Ben felt Tom’s strong arms wrap around him and pull him close. 

“I don’t know, I can’t think of anyone who’d hate us this much.”

The police had taken their statements, and their hate crime division was looking into this.  Until the bastard was caught, Tom and Ben had little choice but to try to go on with their life as usual.

A few days later, Tom and Ben were at the park, riding their bikes.  The firefighters were having a biking event for charity.  Tom had signed them up way before some homophobe targeted them.

It was a gorgeous sunny day, and there were at least five hundred bikers signed up for the 5k event.  The route took them through the scenic park. Ben and Tom had biked here several times before, so they knew the terrain pretty well.   

“Are you ready to go, Ben?”  Tom was sitting on his bike, one foot on the ground for balance, waiting for the race to start. 

“Yeah.”   Ben finished putting his number sticker on his race vest.   He looked around at the crowd nervously.

“Ben?  You know we can leave right now.   I don’t want you to feel like we have to do this.”  Tom tried to reassure him.

“Then he wins, Tom.  Besides, this is for charity.  Think of all the families of fallen fire fighters this race is helping.  We can’t back out now.”   

Tom couldn’t help feeling proud of his fella.  The first time Ben had been to one of these events and listened to the stories of those who lost loved ones,  it really made him aware of just how dangerous Tom’s job really was and how thankful Ben was each day Tom came home to him. 

All the other riders stood together, ready for the start.    “On your mark, get set.”   The sound of a starter’s pistol fired and all the riders took off.

Tom and Ben knew each other’s strides and they had decided they were going to try to stick together.   The other riders weaved in and around the challenging course.  There were some hills and curves on this route.   Most of the faster riders were way out in front.  Tom and Ben were toward the back of the pack.  At one point, they were all alone.

Tom had noticed a rider getting awfully close to Ben.  He had a bad feeling about this guy.  Now that he thought of it, the guy wasn’t wearing a racing vest.  Like being a helpless eyewitness to a horrible event, he watched the stranger hit Ben with his bike, causing Ben to fall.  Tom caught up to him.   

“Ben, are you okay?”  Tom looked down at his husband, who was slowly getting up off the ground.   Tom saw the attacker turnaround and come back; he held a knife in his hand. “Get on your bike and ride!” Ben managed to get on and they took off like a shot.   Tom looked behind him and the guy was following them.  They tried to lose him on a side trail.  Tom noticed a cop on a bike up ahead; they had officers throughout the racing trails for security.   

They stopped in front of the officer.

“Officer, someone attacked my partner and he’s right behind us.”  Tom looked around and noticed the guy disappeared.  “He was behind us.  I guess he saw you and took off.”

Ben had gotten off his bike and sat on the ground.  “Ben?”  Tom knelt down by him and noticed he’d gone all pale. 

The officer radioed for medical help.   Except for some cuts and bruises, the fall from the bike didn’t do much damage; it was the emotional wounds that were the worst. 

“I’m afraid, Tom.”  Ben was sitting in an exam room in the ER of the local hospital.   After the doctor patched him up, he was putting his clothes back on.  

“Me too. I thought I was going to lose you.”  Tom didn’t get shaken up by much. He saw a lot of horrible things on the job.  Having something happen to someone you loved made a world of difference in how you saw things. Right now they were in danger and Tom was frustrated on what to do about it. 

“Too bad Love isn’t an attack cat.”  They thought about the feline member of their family.  

“What are we going to do?”  Ben asked him as he and Tom left the hospital.

“We’re not going to let this son of a bitch win.” Tom led him to his car and they left for home.  

Tom made sure he locked up his car in the garage and locked all the windows and doors and set the alarm.   They both had to be back at work the next day.  They both tried to sleep, but they couldn’t.   When was this insanity going to end, and how?

TBC

my fellow flashers:

A.R. Von  

Shelly Shultz

MA Church  

 Nephylim  

Cia Nordwell

Tali Spencer   

 Victoria Adams

Elyzabeth VaLey   

Julie Lynn Hayes

Andrew Q. Gordon