Free Snakes Among Sweet Flowers by Jason Huffman-Black

Harold wasn’t giving up. He pushed harder, even though that kind of pressure on his cock had to hurt him as much as it was hurting Cam.
    Cam screamed as he was filled to bursting. The pain was like nothing he had ever felt, and tears streamed down his cheeks.
    “Scream for me, baby,” Harold murmured as he immediately started pumping. “Tell everyone how good I’m fucking you.” Between terror-filled screams, Cam realized no one in the apartment was coming to see what the noise was about. This must be a common occurrence and they were simply glad it wasn’t them this time.
    The next morning, Cam had barely been able to walk, yet Harold had joked and laughed with him like they were best friends or lovers. Something about the attention had Cam making excuses for Harold’s behavior and kept him from leaving the tiny apartment, but Cam never forgot the evilness he’d seen that night. And he’d made a trip to the free clinic to be sure he hadn’t caught anything.
    Other than his stints in prison, he’d lived with Harold and a changing mix of others until his rushed exodus from Atlanta, but early on, he’d decided to stay far away from Harold’s “love life.” Harold had no preference for men versus women. His only mandatory ingredient was pain, and Cam made sure Harold knew he would be gone if there was ever any more of that crap.
    Cam had hopped between jobs, always planning the next scheme. Harold was the ringleader, and slowly but surely became more and more sadistic and controlling, expecting others to follow his lead in all matters, never questioning. He’d been charismatic and Cam had finally come to realize Harold was much like a cult leader in the way he sucked people in and made them believe his bullshit.
    For the last four years, it had been him and Harold and two women, Detra and Cally. Detra and Cally, however, never seemed to learn, and there had been some kind of drama going on in the apartment at all times. Most of it because of Harold’s need to stir the shit and his increasingly violent nature.
    Cam missed Detra the most. He wondered if it was safe enough for him to call her, just to make sure she was okay. When he’d left, he’d begged her to come with him, but she was sure she and Harold still had some chance.
    Cam sighed and wiped his forehead. Thinking about the past wasn’t going to change anything and it was getting hot out. Dragging a recyclables bucket around the yard was becoming harder since the thing was slowly being filled with old beer bottles. Turning in a full circle, he realized how little of the yard he had actually cleaned. Shit! He would be eighty before he got this place in any sort of order.
     
     
    THE LAST notes of “Abide With Me” still ringing in the cavernous auditorium of Hog Mountain First Baptist Church, the congregation began gathering their things and heading up the aisle toward the large double doors in the back. Two of the ushers propped the doors open and the after-service greeting and mingling began. Pastor Jimmy Brown was already waiting in the foyer for at least an hour of palm-pressing and fellowship, the elders and deacons scattered around as well.
    Jackson had found himself having trouble paying attention to the sermon that morning, his thoughts on Ida Evans’s wallet and Camden Sanders. He felt a bit guilty for automatically assuming the ex-con had taken the money, but then again, Mr. Sanders did seem a bit too slick. And if he had taken that wallet, Jackson would have to work hard to hold back his anger. But there was no proof that Sanders had done anything more than help an old couple to their car. But… Camden Sanders was all-fire infuriating, and Jackson had no business having the handsome man on his mind in the middle of a church service, especially with some of the thoughts that had come up. And didn’t that just make him even angrier at the man.
    As he weaved through the crowds, waiting to say a few words to the preacher, he felt a hand