PREVIOUS INSTALLMENTS:
Prologue with Chapters I-X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Chapter XIII
Radu-Chapter XIV (A Novel by Patrick Kelley)
Fourteen Pages Approximate
Debbie Leighton knew how to turn on the tears when it was appropriate, or when it was expected. When she was informed that her mother and father had died in the course of a fire at the family farm, along with an unknown and yet unidentified guest, she knew just what to do. She thought back to the day of her First Degree initiation into Joseph’s Vampire Coven of Blood.
She remembered how they attacked her, told her she was a fat, ugly, stupid little whore. As if all that were not bad enough, her pussy stank so bad no one could stand to get close to it, let alone fuck it.
They laughed at her mercilessly, and they beat her. During all of this seven-hour ordeal, during which she had been tied, and whipped, and not permitted to even go to the bathroom, she urinated all over herself, and shit as well, but the one thing she never did was cry-not even when they called her a little girl, a stupid juvenile, and a spoiled, worthless little brat.
Then, after they cleaned her with a hose and detergent, they raped her, all of them. Joseph, Sierra, Milo, Larceny, and Rhino all took their turns with her. Then came, by far, the most horrifying part of the ordeal-they told her she was a useless failure, and she had to die.
They laughed at her as they each drank her blood. They then dug a deep hole, after which they produced a coffin. By now, she was weak from the abuse and the loss of blood, and too terrified to move, or even make a sound. They buried her, and they left her there alone, buried. She felt like she was already dead, and now resigned herself to the realization they intended this all along.
She remained there from the midnight of that night and all through the next day. Her father would probably laugh at her if he knew, or if he ever found out. Her mother would cry, but would say nothing in her defense. She would just agree with her father-she brought it on herself.
When they brought her back up, it was the following midnight. They looked at her and smiled, and then laughed, as each one welcomed her back to “everlasting life”. They all hugged and kissed and, after she partook of their blood, all mixed inside a silver cup, she made love with all of them.
Joseph assigned her to Milo, who was to teach her the different rituals and articles of faith, and with whom she quickly fell in love. In time, however, she tired of him, and aspired to be with Joseph, the groups’ leader. They were all nothing without him, this simple cab driver and son of a Baptist minister, who proclaimed himself the reincarnation of Vlad The Impaler. They worshiped Joseph as an incarnation of Vlad-and God.
Debbie thought it was a lot of crap, but who cared? It was fun to her, and fun was all that mattered. After all, Milo didn’t take it seriously either, nor did Rhino. No one did except Larceny and Sierra, and of course Joseph. Spiral seemed more devoted to Joseph than all the rest, for all the good it had done her. They all stood in a circle as Joseph strangled her for her betrayal of him with another man.
When she and Milo then dumped her body at the Krovell mortuary, they all thought eventually they would hear something about it, yet not only did it seem as though the finding of the body was never reported, but Marlowe never initiated contact with Joseph, as their leader claimed he most definitely would.
This had Joseph in a sour mood for days.
“The motherfucker must be playing a game with us”, he said. “Well he’s playing with the wrong person.”
He knew of Marlowe’s membership in an on-line site known as Sanguinarius, and so he told her to join. After she did so, she initiated private contact with Marlowe, but nothing ever came of it. She eventually told him about her friendship with Joseph, whereupon he replied that she was a little idiot and to stop bothering him, as she had nothing he needed. He made no mention of Spiral Lamont.
Joseph was enraged, and sent him a threatening e-mail, to which the man named Marlowe responded, but still no mention was made of the dead former member. It was almost as if he was not even aware of what happened. It took Milo some time to convince Joseph they had dropped the body off at the right place.
In time, it was seemingly forgotten, and they settled back into their usual routines. Larceny maintained a private loft apartment where she conducted her business under an assumed name. Rhino was constantly working out and training for the day he would finally land a pro-football career, though he now settled for the opportunity to play for the Arena Football team the Blackbirds, having all but given up on the prospect of playing for his beloved Ravens. Sierra continued to sell drugs, tend bar, paint, and constantly talked of a hoped for career as a death metal singer while she fucked her way to the top of her pharmaceutical class.
Milo, ostensibly her boyfriend and tutor, counted the days until he could go off probation and back into the crack and meth trade, but until such time he had to content himself with his ho-hum job at Kentucky Fried Chicken. At least he got free food at the end of his night shift job, which helped not only the group, but also her Aunt Barbara. She honestly seemed to believe that Milo was Debbie’s friend and mentor, and therefore was happy to allow Debbie to spend as much time with him as she wanted-as long as he kept the booze and pot coming her way, of course.
However, Joseph kept the group together. He made good money as a cab driver, but more importantly, he was always finding someone who was in desperate need of a fare, usually a druggie or alcoholic who Joseph manipulated into getting so high, the person always passed out by the time Joseph delivered him to his true and final destination. This was usually a small park area some two miles from the large lake to the north of the city. By the time the person came to, it was time for the fun to begin.
There was something about ripping into a person’s raw flesh, with nails and teeth, and eating them, gorging on their flesh and blood while they were yet alive, that was a more exhilarating experience than any she had previously experienced or for that matter even imagined. There was a sense of power that she herself experienced the first time she engaged in the activity against her own parents on the night of her Second Degree Initiation-her Sweet Sixteen Party. It was even better than sex, and she truly could not get enough of it.
When she said in her Sanguinarius Profile that she wanted to experience the blood of the innocent, she was not joking. Marlowe himself had told her, in response to reading her profile, the blood of the innocent made all others pale by comparison.
Great, she thought, she might have found somebody cooler even than Joseph, but of course that turned out not to be the case.
She and Joseph, and all the others, shared a bond that few people could hope to understand, let alone share. They had all been together now for over a year and, despite the unfortunate incident with Spiral, she had a deep and abiding love for them all. They were a family, and their times together were all good.
However, it was not the good times of which she thought now, but that horrific night of her initial acceptance into the clan. She found their words and taunts repeatedly sounded in her head, and for the first time, she cried. She was so distraught she almost collapsed. One of the police, in fact, had to hold her up.
When she returned to the home of her mother’s sister Barbara, with whom she had been staying for nearly all the last year, it was all she could do to refrain from laughing in good old Aunt Barb’s face. Barb was of course distraught. Just because she and her sister had fallen out years ago did not mean she was not upset at the grisly fate her and her husband had suffered. In fact, she was terribly upset.
Debbie knew just what Aunt Barb needed. Debbie called Milo.
When Milo arrived he was not in the best mood, but of course, it was hard to tell with him when he was in a bad mood, or merely affecting a petulant persona that demanded appreciation for going out of his way.
Milo brought some beer and pot, but now Barb was insistent that Milo stay and share with her. After all, since he and her niece spent so much time together, surely it was time they got to know each other better. Fortunately, Milo had an excuse-he had to work tonight. Nevertheless, Barb was all but begging him to call in sick. Worse, she demanded that Debbie stay home tonight. In the aftermath of her parents’ death, it was unseemly that she go out to her earlier arranged party.
“Damn, Milo, you have to do something”, Debbie insisted as she took him off to the side in the kitchen.
“You can’t expect me to call in sick on account of that cow”, he said, as he prepared himself a cup of instant coffee. He actually despised the stuff, but that was after all the pretext for entering the kitchen alone with Spanky. In the meantime, Barb was in the process of calling neighbors and friends in search of commiseration over the death of her “favorite” sister.
“Bullshit”, Spanky said. “I’ve got some important shit to do tonight. Just stay with her for an hour or two. I need her to pass out so I can get out of here and do it. Once you start fucking her she’ll forget all about me.”
“You have got to be joking, right?” Milo despised the old drunk who was Debbie’s aunt, though she was for the time being indispensable. All the same, the idea of fucking somebody like her, a woman that fat and repugnant, and obviously stupid, went above and beyond anything he considered to be in the line of duty, even for a fellow coven member.
“Milo, I know it’s asking a lot, but damn, it’s only two years”, Debbie reminded him. “It’s not like you have to do this all the time.”
“Yeah, but what if she starts wanting it all the time”, Milo asked her.
Barb was still on the phone, now with yet another person, repeating the same news almost verbatim, with what even seemed to be the same moans and cries timed to fall in the exact same sequence.
“Just this once, Milo, please”, she begged. “I have to do something about Barnett, or it’s over.”
“And you’re sure this kid will do it”, he asked.
“He’s told me a million times he’ll do anything for me, he loves me and all that good bullshit, and he even said he’d kill anyone that ever tried to hurt me”, she assured him.
“Anybody can talk shit”, Milo warned her.
“Yeah, but you don’t know this kid”, Debbie told him. “He’s even threatened to whip your ass because he thinks you’re taking advantage of me”
Oh, fucking great”, Milo said as he rolled his eyes.
“Kids are always picking on him, and he’s always threatening suicide. I actually saved him once. He cut his wrist and I bandaged him up, then I promised I wouldn’t tell, as long as he promised never to do it again.”
“Yeah, I know all that, Spanky, but still-“
“What the fuck are you two doing in there?” Barb suddenly roared. “Bring me a fucking beer.”
Debbie quickly went to the refrigerator and extracted a 2-liter bottle of Millers, and walked into the living room, Milo right behind her.
They sat and listened as Barb repeated the same bullshit stories that Milo had heard at least a hundred times before. As always, he sat and listened like he had heard it for the first time, as Debbie, pretending an urge to go to the bathroom, after doing so sneaked into her aunts room, then extracted the pistol she kept by the side of her bed in the drawer of a small end-table. It was a Lugar, and more than adequate for the job Debbie had in mind. She tucked it into her panties, and then pulled her jogging shirt down far enough over the matching pants to hide the bulge.
She then made her way to her bedroom and found the ounce baggie of marijuana. She put it inside her purse. Tonight would be the night she would settle many accounts. Her aunt would not stand in her way. She made another stop in the bathroom and checked her make-up. She still had a few pounds to lose, but she was on her way. After tonight, and tomorrow, many people would be sorry that they ever messed with Debbie Leighton.
By the time she returned to the living room, Barb was crying on Milo’s shoulders, obviously on her way to being stoned on the pot Milo had just rolled into the biggest fatty Debbie had ever seen.
Barb was moaning and whining with her hand suspiciously close to Milo’s crotch, as her friend shot her a look as if to say, you fucking owe me big time. Debbie walked out the door quietly. Before long, her aunt would probably forget all about her. When she made it out to the street, there was Joseph, luckily still waiting for Milo.
“He’d better have a damned good excuse for missing work”, Joseph said. “Especially after what’s happened, you really should lay low.”
“So what about Barnett?” she asked. “I’m sunk if the motherfucker turns me in, it will ruin everything.”
“You should have thought about that before you offered to suck his dick after he overheard you making a drug deal”, Joseph reminded her. “Your story that somebody set you up sure ain’t going to carry a lot of weight, especially not with your past record in Virginia. If they start checking around-well, all I can say is you will probably be headed right back to Virginia, and you know what that means. It’s probably going to be a piss test for you when you go to school Monday, so I hope you’ve been staying straight.”
Debbie assured him she had been. Joseph then told her she had better hope she is a better judge of character with the kid than she had been with Barnett, to say nothing of the high school basketball jock she should have known better than to trust to begin with. She explained to him for the fourth time that she had dealt with Grant before with no problem, and as for Barnett, her offer to him was born of desperation. She was sure about Josh.
“I sure as fuck hope you are because none of us can take the chance”, he replied. “We all have to lay low. The reporter bitch that Larceny shot had a partner who identified her, and so she and Rhino are both in hiding. And it wouldn’t take much digging to lead to me, and Sierra, and Milo-and to you, by the way.”
With that, he took her to her intended destination, The Paradox, known more commonly as “The Dox”. Josh would be expecting her there, and was probably distraught by now that she was more than an hour late. Joseph advised her to explain to him the news about the discovery of her parents’ death.
“That will really impress him to think that you still wanted to keep your so-called date with him”, he explained. “It will also give you a good excuse to call it off early.”
Debbie got out not far from the front entrance of The Dox, a popular Baltimore nightspot that, since they had no liquor license, catered to all ages. Although technically you were supposed to be at least eighteen to enter, it was relatively easy to get in with a fake ID, and the one she had purchased proved more than sufficient. She made her way to the half basketball court, where Mark Grant was now engaged in a game of round ball with his friends at their high school. Most of them would be senior squad members of the school basketball team when the season started in the winter, after the regular school year resumed. For now, she and Grant were trudging through required summer make-up classes.
Though she had dealt with him on an irregular basis, she hated him and all his friends, though tonight she would pretend to love them. In fact, she had a very special surprise for them. She waited for him to see her, and when he did, sure enough he made his way over to her.
“Wow, you actually made it”, he said. Debbie smiled at him. She knew exactly what he wanted. She planned to give it to him.
“What, you think I’m going to pass up the chance to fuck the whole basketball team?” she said. “Like I told you before, if I can handle eight drunken sailors on leave, I can sure as hell deal with thirteen high school basketball jocks. I’m looking forward to it.”
“It looks like I had you pegged all wrong, Spanky”, the suddenly excited jock said with a gathering glaze on his eyes. “You really are more than just a nerdy little Goth chick after all.”
“I’m just me, baby, a girl trying to find her way to womanhood in the world”, she said as she reached down and started caressing his swollen cock. “And you are obviously all man. If the other guys are like you this might not be so easy after all.”
She shot him a smile as she turned and walked off toward yet another area of the Dox.
By the time she made it to where her friends waited, Josh was staring at the murals, seemingly in a world of his own. She knew him well enough to know that he was probably aware of everything that was going on around him. She walked up to where the group sat and, smiling, she produced a fifth of vodka from her purse.
“Spanky comes through in a pinch”, Angela said as Josh turned to see her pouring a hefty shot into his large cup of Coca-Cola. She made the rounds, Angela telling her to “make hers a double”.
“Don’t be greedy, Angela”, she said teasingly, and then sat close to Josh, who looked petulant.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“I found out my parents died a few nights ago, the whole house burned down”, she said with a smile. They all looked at her and then all around at each other, as though they were not sure she was serious. Josh just stared at her, and then suddenly, he laughed.
“Did I miss something somewhere between your parents dying and the house burning down”, asked Marty, the oldest of the crowd at twenty.
“Oh, yeah, I almost forgot”, Debbie said. “Boo Hoo”.
She lit a cigarette as the others were asking her for more details, but she did not know anything other than what the cops told her, she said.
“Well, so much for Barnett, huh?” Josh asked. “He can’t mess with you now.”
“Not as far as that part goes he can’t”, Debbie said, but Angela was more concerned with Debbie’s parents and their fate.
“Sometimes I think I hate my parents too, especially, well, both of them, but I sure as hell wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to them. Nothing like that anyway.”
“Hey, it’s not like Debbie did it to them, or even wanted it to happen”, Josh now said in her defense. “But sometimes, what happens is for the best, and may even be fates way of settling scores that you can’t take care of yourself. I wish fate would step in and lend me a hand sometimes.”
“Well, I know what it’s like to lose somebody”, Marty said. “It’s never good. I used to fight with my sister all the time. I thought she was a little bitch. Now that she’s gone I look at things a lot different.”
Marty still struggled to cope with the loss of his sister, Mary, who had drowned just five months ago. He knew that she and Debbie fought constantly, were in fact rivals, but when Mary died, Debbie was the first to call him and express not only condolences, but her regrets over the past enmity the two girls had shared with each other. Something about Debbie Leighton’s actions tonight were more than just a little strange. She called and urged him to meet the group this night. He began to think she only wanted him to ensure the rest of the group had no difficulties gaining admittance to The Dox. Now, she looked at him quizzically.
“I’ve got something to tell you, Marty”, Debbie said. “This is going to really freak you out.”
“Yeah, it’s about Mary, you told me that”, he said, growing ever more concerned. “So, what is it? If you have any idea of how she died, or who is responsible-“
“It’s not so much what happened before she died as it is what happened after she died”, Debbie told her. “I’m telling you, I have no way of proving this, and I really should tell you this in private.”
As they left together, music started to play and the dance floor was suddenly alive, as Josh strained to see where Debbie and Marty had gone off. Without her and Marty in the group, there were now two couples and one other guy, Edgar, an overweight slob who now complained that he and Josh looked gay.
“You look gay anyway, fuckhead”, one of the other guys said. “Hell, you are gay, so why worry?”
“Hey, no I’m not so fuck you”, Edgar said defensively as the two girls shot him mock sympathetic moans. Josh barely heard them as his attention was riveted on Debbie, and now on Marty, who suddenly seemed distraught, and angry. He was shouting at her, with a look of wide-eyed incredulity on his face, but try as he might Josh could not hear a word of what he was saying. As for Debbie, she just stood there unconcerned, yet adamant in her seeming insistence as to the veracity of what she told him.
Soon, they returned, but Marty did not stay. Instead, he collected his pack of cigarettes and left without a word of goodbye. He was obviously in as bad a mood as Josh had ever seen him.
“You sure as hell have a bad effect on people, Spanky”, Angela said. “What the hell did you say to him?”
“I can’t say right now, but you’ll probably hear about it later”, Debbie assured her. “Me and Josh need to have a little talk, if you all don’t mind”.
“I guess now Josh is going to be in a bummed out mood”, the lone boy named Edgar said. “If you have anything to tell me in private just forget about it, huh?”
“Nothing to say about you nobody doesn’t already know, Edgar”, Debbie said sarcastically. “Except maybe for you”
Josh followed along behind her, curious as to what was said between her and Marty, but more concerned as to what she might now have to say to him. When they reached the approximate spot where Debbie had earlier stood with Marty Evans, he peered into her partially opened purse.
“I hope you brought some pot with you”, he said. “I’m dying to get high.”
“No”! Debbie said this so emphatically, Josh was somewhat shaken, but Debbie then held her hand with her palm upward, looked down, and breathed deeply.
“You know you’re my man”, she said. “And that I love you, right?”
“Wow, that’s the first time you’ve ever said that”, he observed, obviously elated and almost overwhelmed at the surprising pronouncement. “To hear most of these people around here talk I’m about the only guy in Balmer you haven’t screwed.”
“Well, sex ain’t everything, and that’s a lie anyway”, she said. “Besides, it’s just as well, because we might not be seeing each other before long. I might be going away.”
Josh looked stunned to be hearing this from her, and he looked her straight in the eye, and saw the first sign of regret, even sadness, he had ever seen from her. She was usually so strong, so sure of herself. She had always been there for him, when he would come to school after a night or a weekend of his fathers’ drunken rants. Sometimes the usual regular beating of somewhat more or less painful severity followed these. He would then come to school, only to have to face the usual taunts from some of the kids at school. They looked at him as the typical freak, the type that you just knew was dying to come to school one day and blow everybody away because he didn’t have the guts to stand up to any of them mano a mano.
When he tried to slash his wrist, it was more of a cry for help than anything. At the same time, he truly wanted to die, but Debbie saved him, and then swore she would keep what happened between the two of them. He almost died that day, had left his body, floating above it for some time, until Debbie pulled him back into his body, smiling at him with the kind of reassurance that made him know that his life was worthwhile. She actually seemed like an angel to him that day, and over the passing days, weeks, and months, she became his rock. If he lost her, his life was worthless after all.
“Is it Barnett?” He knew of course that teacher had it in for her for some reason he never understood. It was almost as if he knew something about her, something only the two of them knew. Whatever it was, it must have been bad, but that did not matter to Josh.
He’s going to have me kicked out of the school, I’m sure”, she said. “If he does that, he will probably call Social Services on my Aunt, and I will end up in some fucking group home, maybe here in Baltimore, but more than likely somewhere else, maybe not even in Maryland. See, my Aunt is not really my legal guardian. It is all so fucked up. She has a drug record too, and is on probation. It just gets worse and worse. Then I had to fuck up and offer him a blowjob.”
“I can’t believe you offered him a blowjob”, he said. “When the hell do I get one, since you say you love me?”
“Oh, for God’s sake Josh, is that all you can think about? Is that what you really think of me? Do you think I did that because I want to suck the bastards’ dick? No, I want to try to stay here, for you. I want to stay here for us.”
Suddenly, she heard a flurry of movement behind her as Josh’s eyes widened, and he stiffened with anxiety.
She turned to see Mark Grant and four of his fellow basketball squad teammates, all of whom would be the senior starting squad for the school team next year.
“We’re ready if you are”, he said, as Josh could not avoid noting the leering look of expectation on their faces, especially that on the face of the lone white boy, Joey, who said “hell yeah”.
“Whach’ou lookin’ at punk?” the short and seemingly fat yet muscular Mahmoud demanded. “You got sumptin’ to say?”
“He’s a friend of mine”, Debbie said. “He’s going to be helping me with some classes for next week. I will see you later on tonight, Josh, where I told you, all right?”
“Yeah, okay”, Josh said, though he was obviously not liking this development in the least. Debbie walked off alongside Grant, who had his arms around her, as though not even acknowledging Josh’s presence there this night. He watched in a mixture of rage and humiliation as Mahmoud suddenly started pawing Debbie’s ass. He continued watching as he suddenly saw Debbie laughing, her arm now around Grant.
They left The Dox and continued on some four and a half blocks down Russell Street, then doubled back to behind the complex, toward the railroad tracks. They walked on past there for about seven blocks, all of them talking the usual trash talk all the jocks usually talked about when they were around any girls besides their steady girlfriends. One of those girlfriends had been Mary Evans, and she had been the girlfriend of Joey. However, when Debbie fucked Joey, and Mary found out about it, there was a fight in which Debbie ended up on the losing end. She hated to lose fights, and never got over it. Worse, Joey took Mary back, and told her he only fucked Debbie to get back at her over some stupid argument they had about some other guy. He just wanted to show Mary that if she could get another guy, he could fuck any bitch he wanted. Nevertheless, Debbie meant nothing to him, and he spent the remainder of the school year proving it. Because of him, Debbie became known as the little bitch with the stinking pussy who would fuck anything that moved.
When Mary broke up with Joey around last Thanksgiving, Debbie apologized to her, and then commiserated with her. The two became friends. They got high together, and Debbie watched as Mary started putting on the pounds, and her skin became splotchy due to some dermatological condition that she had trouble with since the onset of puberty. She started staying high. Her relationship with Joey was on again, off again. Debbie played the concerned friend, and waited for the right opportunity. She caught her alone one day, and made her move.
She destroyed the little bitch who had humiliated her. Mary was lucky enough to be in a family that was wealthy enough to have an indoor, heated swimming pool, but on this one day, when the two of them were all alone in the house, Mary’s luck ran out along with her consciousness. The two girls got high, and Mary, as usual, passed out.
Debbie never imagined it would be so much fun dumping somebody’s fat ass in a swimming pool. The only downer was that this particular fat bitch never woke up. Debbie left the house that day, before Marty or the rest of the family came home, and washed her hands of the whole matter.
Now, it was time for the next phase.
There were indeed thirteen guys on the basketball team present there that night, almost but not quite the whole team. The entire first-string squad was there, along with some of the next year’s juniors and sophomores. Her only regret was at none of last years seniors being present-or so she thought. By the time they made it to their destination, however, she saw that all seven of them were indeed there. Twenty guys altogether.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Since we’re having a party tonight, I thought I’d invite the whole team”, Grant announced. “You remember Wilkie, don’t you?”
Wilkie was the star of the school team last year, a vastly overrated player who nevertheless somehow managed to finagle a scholarship to play for the University of Maryland the next year. Wilkie spoke as if introducing himself, although he was the one who had fixed Debbie up with Joey to begin with, and then encouraged him behind her back to “just fuck her and forget her.”
“Why, Wilkie, I thought you’d forgot all about me by now”, she said in mock surprise.
“Forget you?” Wilkie responded. “Oh, hell no.”
He then produced a clothespin and pinched it on his nose. The rest of the gathered team howled with laughter. Debbie just looked at him, straight in the eye, and smiled. She knew she was in for a rough night, but if it worked out as she planned, it would be worth it.
She was right. Only one of them lasted more than ten minutes, by her calculations, and only three of them lasted more than five. The rest of them were finished so quickly it almost was not worth calculating. Wilkie, the supposed team star and stud, lasted all of three minutes, then got off and howled in mock agony, as the others took their turns. One guy came inside her practically as soon as he entered.
Mark was the one she wanted to get more even than Joey. Mark was the one who, she was sure, had informed on her at the school, and had turned her in for selling drugs. If not for him, Barnett would never have caught her. Now, here she was lying on the ground as Mark took his turn at fucking her, going out of his way to be as hard and rough as he could. It was a painful experience, and he was the only one who came back for seconds. He was even rougher the second time, though luckily he did not last as long.
Sure enough, one of the other past year seniors mentioned getting their dicks sucked, but Debbie said she had enough for the night, and she had to get home. She stooped to retrieve her purse, but somebody pushed her down face first onto the pavement, while another person grabbed the purse. She had luckily pulled her jogging pants back up along with her panties, and managed to hide the Lugar. Otherwise, she might have lost the gun, which would have ruined everything. As it was, she was not going to get away that easily. They lined up one at a time. Each one demanded she suck their dicks, and she had no choice now but to acquiesce.
“Okay, can I please have my purse back now?” she asked.
“Sure”, Grant said. “Get your skank ass on out of here now. You won’t be needing that fifty, the boys and me are gonna get us some beer. I left you a five spot though. Go get you some feminine deodorant.”
“Damn I don’t think we have to worry about getting that ho pregnant”, somebody else said. “No sperm could survive up inside that septic tank.”
“Let’s see you skip on out of here”, Joey then said as he hoisted a brick toward her feet, barely missing her by inches.
“Alright, I’m going, I’m going”, she said. She walked off slowly and painfully as she heard them laughing. Wilkie let out an Indian style war-whoop.
“Hey, thanks for the pot, skank”, Grant shouted as he waved the ounce. Debbie briefly looked back, and then hurried off as quickly as possible.
It was a long painful walk back toward The Dox, and she looked around for any sign of Joseph, but his cab was nowhere. Here she was in the worse pain she had experienced in months, and the person she trusted most of all was late. She could not afford to wait for him, and so she agonizingly made her way back. Once she made it almost half the way there, she had to stop and throw up. Right as she was spitting the remnants of the puke, and semen, out of her mouth, she heard the familiar voice of Josh, obviously in a state of distress.
“Debbie, what the hell is wrong? What happened?”
“Those bastards, they raped me”, she said. “They raped me and they stole my money, probably my ID as well, just to be even bigger dicks.”
“They did what?” Josh was obviously outraged, yet also still hurt over her seeming betrayal of him. “Spanky, what the fuck did you go off with those guys for anyway?”
“Fuck, when my aunt finds out she’s going to fucking kill me” Debbie roared this out in a rage, but then suddenly almost collapsed from the painful effects of the exertion.
“Damn, I think those fuckers tore some muscles somewhere”, she said. “I’d better go to the hospital.”
Josh was looking at her, both hurt and concerned. Debbie could not help but laugh, but luckily, this caused her some pain as well, so Josh never caught on. So far, so good, she thought.
“I’m sorry, Josh, I just-did what I thought I had to do”, she said, the pain she was in at least obviously not fake, though exaggerated. “I’m sorry if you’re hurt, I just didn’t want to get you involved.”
“Involved in what?” he said. “What made you go with those guys? I told you I’d do anything for you.”
“Yeah, Josh, that’s what I’m afraid of”, she said. “You’re just not a killer. I guess Grant ain’t either. Guess it’s a damn good thing I never told him who it was I wanted him to kill. Now I’m going to have to do it myself.”
“Barnett? You were trying to get those guys to kill Barnett?”
“Only Grant”, she said. “He said if I’d party with the team he’d kill anybody I wanted. God did he ever feed me a line of shit, and boy did I ever fall for it, just like I did last year.”
“So you’re still in love with him, huh?”
She looked at him and saw that he was at nearly the breaking point. She laughed again, and then howled in agony. Yeah, she thought, without a doubt she had tore a muscle, and might have a broken rib as well.
“No, I don’t love him, dammit”, she replied. “I don’t love anybody. All anyone cares about is their damn self. Any feeling anybody ever had for me is just for what they can fucking get from me. Fuck it, I’ve had it. Barnett will probably have me kicked out of school, and then I am out of here. Honestly, I don’t give a rat’s ass any more.”
She was now crying, but made the pretense of trying to suck it up. She had to make him think she was just trying to be brave, that she did not really care. Of course, he was not supposed to believe that-nor did he.
“I’ll do it”, he said. “I’ll get the motherfucker for you, but you have to promise me from here on out, Spanky, no more bullshit. No more screwing other guys. As soon as you can, I want you to get away from that aunt of yours, and I will leave home and we’ll get a place together. We’ll leave fucking Balmer if you want. I hate this cock-sucking place anyway. We’ll go someplace where nobody knows us.”
He had given the same speech before. In fact, she heard this about an average of twice a week, for the last three months. Only now it came with the promise of a preliminary action from which, if he carried through, there would be no turning back. Suddenly, she heard a car approaching, and turned as the headlights of Josephs cab illuminated her.
“Is everything all right, miss”, he asked. “Do you need a ride somewhere?”
“Wait here, Josh”, she said. “I’m going to see if I can talk him into giving us a ride. I think I know this guy.”
“Is he going to do it?” Joseph asked her this quietly as a distraught Josh stood at a distance, not sure of what to do.
“I think so”, she replied. “In fact I know he is.”
“You’ll have to get another cab to take the two of you to the lake”, he said. “If I show up again it will look suspicious. I don’t know though, he must be pretty fucking stupid.”
“Are we going to do the usual?”
“Hell yes”, Joseph said. “We can’t take the chance of him breaking down and confessing, he’ll take you down with him if he does.”
“I can’t wait to see the look on the little fucks face when we get him to the ‘hideout’”, she said with a smile.
“That’s why I wanted you in the group”, Joseph said. “I love your sense of irony.”
Joseph then put the act into high gear, coming out of the cab as he strode toward Josh.
“Did you see who did this to her?” He demanded.
“Yeah, some of them, but I didn’t actually see it happen. I warned her about those guys.”
“Well, I should call the cops, but she’s begging me not to”, Joseph said. “So I’m going to just take her to the hospital, maybe somebody there will talk some sense into her. You might want to come with us. I won’t charge anything for something like this.”
Debbie then asked Joseph for just a few minutes to talk to Josh in private.
“I don’t know what the hell to do”, she said. “If I don’t go along he’s liable to file a report, but if I don’t get to Barnett, he probably is going to Social Services the first thing Monday morning. He already filed a preliminary report with the school, so it’s a matter of time before I’m done.”
“Damn it, I told you I’ll take care of Barnett’, he said. “I know where the fucker lives. I’ll just cut his phone line and break in through his bedroom window. He’s separated from his wife, so he should be alone. Since he comes in to work tomorrow, he should be home by now. I swear it will be easy. Please, Spanky, trust me. Let me prove it to you. I’m not just some nerdy little kid that talks shit. I mean what I say, and I do what I say.”
“What if he has a gun”, she said.
“He’ll be sound asleep. I’ll just break in fast and kill him probably before he’s even half awake.”
“You’re going to have to make up your mind”, Joseph warned. “I ain’t got all night. What’s it going to be, the hospital or the police?”
“Please, Spanky!” Josh begged her.
“Just one more minute, please”, Spanky said as Joseph glared at his watch.
“All right”, she said as she reached into her jogging pants and extracted the Lugar. “Do you know how to use these?”
“Uh, hello”, he said. “I used to go target shooting with my cousins in Virginia all the time. Of course, I know how. It’s been awhile, but you never forget shit like that.”
“I love you baby”, she said. “Make me proud. After you’ve done it, I have the perfect place we can go, a house up near the lake. We’ll stay there for a couple of weeks, then we’ll head to Virginia, and on from there to Florida. Does that sound good?”
“Yeah, that sounds great”, Josh said, but as he said this his eyes were suddenly glazed, and he looked down at the gun in his hands. He now looked toward Joseph. “How many bullets are in this gun?”
“It’s fully loaded, babe, don’t worry”, she answered. “I’m going to go on to the hospital before that guy gets pissed and calls the cops”.
“He’s not going to call anybody”, he said, and then, to Debbie’s horror, pointed the gun at Joseph, who stared open mouthed, his cigarette dropping to the ground as he froze in uncertainty.
“You little fuckhead, what the hell are you doing,” Joseph demanded. Josh had the gun cocked, and aimed straight between his eyes.
“Don’t try anything, I’m warning you”, he shouted. “I know how to shoot this, so turn your ass around-now!”
“Josh, for the love of God, what the fuck are you doing”, Debbie said as the sudden adrenaline rush due to this unexpected turn caused her pain to flare up worse than ever. So sudden and intense was it , this came out as little more than a whisper, as she frantically wondered what she would do, or if she could do anything. Josh was obviously crazed at this point, and seemingly desperate.
“Kid, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m telling you now, you’d better point that thing somewhere else”, Joseph said as he tried desperately to maintain his composure and to exert a sense of calm command.
“Josh, please”-, Debbie begged. “You’ll ruin everything.”
“No, I think I have to kill him now for sure”, he said as tears started streaming down from his eyes. “If he makes you go to the hospital, they’ll make you say what happened. Or they'll get their DNA and might find them that way. Then those guys will tell about you wanting them to kill somebody. Even if you never told them who you were wanting to kill, it’s going to be obvious when Barnett ends up dead. Besides, I’ve robbed cabs before, this ain’t that much different. And we do need some money.”
He then addressed Joseph as Debbie suddenly realized everything she and Joseph had planned was spiraling completely out of control.
“Hand me your money, motherfucker”, Josh now demanded. “Every fucking dollar of it!”
“What?” Joseph was now incensed, but still at a loss as to what he could do. The kid was stupid, desperate, and armed-which was a bad combination from twenty feet away.
Debbie was begging him to put the gun down, but Josh was shaking so badly she started to fear the gun would go off by accident. He seemed to be getting crazier by the second.
“We can take his money and his cab too”, he was saying. “We can get away from here real fast”
“We can do that anyway, Josh, without this”, Debbie said. “Please, baby, I don’t want the death of an innocent man on my conscience. Mr., you won’t make me go to the hospital, will you? You’ll just take me home, right? That’s probably all I need, to just lay down and rest and take some of my Aunt Barb’s pills. She’s got some wicked pain pills, and some antibiotics too, left over from where she had her appendix removed seven months ago. If that don’t clear it up I’ll go to the hospital and tell them I don’t know who attacked me.”
“Yeah, that would work”, Josh said.”The DNA would be gone by then. But what about him? Do you think he’s going to forget about this? Hell no, he won’t. I’m sorry, but I have to do this. Sorry, Mr., but I ain’t got no choice.”
By now Josh began crying outwardly, but at the same time drew back with the posture of someone who, Joseph realized, knew how to fire a pistol. Spanky, in desperation, was looking for something on the ground to knock him over the head with, which would be just as well. Unfortunately, that would leave nothing of their plans to salvage. Joseph tried one last, desperate ploy.
“Look, kid, I don’t know what you’re problem is, but I’ll tell you what mine is”, he said. “I want to live. Because I want to live, I’ll make a deal with you. You put that gun away, and I’ll get in my cab and leave, and we’ll forget this whole thing. I’ll take your girlfriend home if that’s what she wants, and neither of you will ever see me again.”
“How do I know I can trust you”, Josh demanded.
“Look at me, kid”, Joseph replied. “I’m one of you. Just a few years ago, in fact, I was you. A few years from now, you could be me. Hopefully, you’ll have a better future than driving some beat up cab around Baltimore to make ends meet. If you do what you’re planning now, though, you have no future. You’ll throw everything away.”
Josh looked at the tall, thin man with the black hair, with the shoulder length sides dyed a crimson red. He had seen him before, he thought, but wasn’t sure. He seemed cool, though understandably nervous now.
“Baby, please, listen to him”, Debbie said. “Like I told you before, I know this guy, and I can reason with him.”
“Is he another guy you’ve fucked?”
Debbie was unsure as to how to answer this, so decided the truth was as good a chance as anything was.
“Yes, because I needed a ride.”
“Great, just what I need”, Joseph said. “Now I got to worry about some kid knowing I fucked an underage girl. It just gets worse and worse.”
“You know I love her, right”, Josh now asked. “I can’t let anything come between us. I know you don’t understand this, but if she goes to the hospital tonight-“
“I understand, kid”, Joseph said. “Josh, right? Look, I know how it is. She explained this all to me before. She’s worried about a teacher that might have her taken by Social Services. I get it. Hey, believe it or not, I know what that is like. My parents had me put in a group home when I was fourteen, because they couldn’t deal with me. My parents, the good Christians, couldn’t handle their one child. On top of that, my dad was a preacher. He used to pass around the plate every Sunday, and preach hell fire and damnation. He used to lecture his church members on parental responsibility. Ain’t that a laugh?”
Joseph waited for a response, as he noted Spanky had a rock in her hand and was creeping up on the kid, who had his attention riveted on him. He shot Spanky a glance, then tugged at his right ear, then propped up his upper lip with his index finger. He then shook his head vigorously once from side to side, and then laughed a bitter, sarcastic laugh in an attempt to disguise his signals, but just as much at his memories of his time at the group home, where he had in fact met Milo, and started his long journey into the heart of darkness.
“It was dog eat dog in that place”, he said. “I fought my way to the top of the pound. You had to if you were going to survive. Do you really think I’m going to be responsible for someone I care about being sent to a place like that? No, Josh-I don’t know what you’re planning, but whatever it is, you go and do what you got to do. I am not your enemy. Save those bullets for whoever is.”
So entranced by Joseph’s story was Debbie, even though she had heard it once before, she almost forgot to drop the large rock with which she fully intended to knock her stupid so-called boyfriend over the head. He was now crying, sobbing, and put down the gun, as he apologized profusely in the hopes the cab driver would be further encouraged to keep his word, even if he had no intention of doing so from the start. Joseph walked up to the young man, who stood there frozen. Joseph embraced him.
“I’ll take her home now”, he said. “I’ll leave you alone with her for a minute.”
Debbie hugged Josh, and told him if he didn’t want to kill Barnett, she would understand, but Josh was adamant.
“Did you hear what that guy said about how life is in those places? Hell yes, I want to do it. I won’t wuss out. I let him off because I knew he was just trying to help. Don’t worry, Barnett won’t have time to beg, and even if he did it won’t do him any good. Trust me, babe, I can do this.”
As he said this, he put the Luger down in his pants, as Spanky thought it was a wonder the stupid little bastard didn’t shoot his dick off.
“Come to the house after you do it, and we’ll get the hell out of here for good”, she promised him. “We’ll go somewhere else, just like you always wanted, and start a brand new life, where we don’t know anybody and where nobody knows us.”
Josh was suddenly alive with a fresh hope, and smiled through the tears that still flowed. He hugged her and kissed her, until she finally pushed him gently away.
“I’m going on home now”, she said as she turned toward the cab on which Joseph now leaned, deeply dragging off another cigarette. “I have some pills I need to take.”
“I love you”, he yelled after her as she headed from force of habit toward the front passengers door.
“I love you too”, she said as Joseph open the back door where he indicated she should get in.
He watched them leave, and after they pulled out of sight, Josh made his way toward the Dox. He could take a cab from there straight to Barnett’s house. He would have to stiff the cabbie, but what the hell. All he would have to do is show him the Lugar, get out and run to behind Barnett’s house, cut the phone line and go in through his bedroom window. He would then shoot that bastard, Barnett, and then call a cab to take him to Spanky’s aunt’s apartment. He just had to hope the same damn cab driver did not come to pick him up, but what would be the likelihood of that? Hey, come to think of it, he could just take Barnett’s car. Hell yeah, why depend on a cab, they could have their own set of wheels to take them to Florida. Barnett had two cars, a Chrysler and a Ford. Since he usually drove the Ford to work, he would steal the Chrysler. Nobody would ever suspect a thing.
He started walking. He did not want to go back to The Dox. He might run into Angela, Edgar, and his other friends, and he was not in the mood to have to try to come up with an explanation as to where he had been and where he was now suddenly going. He kept walking, in the opposite direction. He would find somewhere else from which to call a cab. He kept walking.
After about twenty minutes, he heard a moan. He had no reason to be afraid. After all, he had the Luger.
“Who’s there?” He shouted this with a firm voice of command, but suddenly he saw the figure of Mark Grant, as he suddenly rounded the corner of the vacant building, holding himself up, his eyes glaring.
“You!” Grant said.
“Yeah, motherfucker, it’s me”, he said. He checked and saw the Luger had more than one bullet. In fact, it was fully loaded.
“Please, help us”, he then heard Grant say.
“After what you done you want help?”
Suddenly Grant fell flat on his face with a thud, and was moaning in agony.
He looked around the corner, and there they were, all of them. The senior from last year, the star and captain, the one named Wilkie, was heaving, throwing up blood, his mouth foaming like some rabid animal. Then, he started twitching in a violent onset of convulsions. Some of the others seemed to be in worse shape, while others made no move at all.
He went back to where he saw Mark Grant, and demanded to know what happened.
“Bitch paid me-ounce of pot-to kill somebody-and party-with us”, he said, as he seemed to struggle painfully from the effort. “Shit poisoned. I think-probably rat poison. Oh God, please help us. Phone-in pocket.”
Suddenly Grant started convulsing as he rose, his eyes widened in terror, as his body seemed to rebel against the foreign substance he had ingested. Suddenly, his eyes went back in his head as he exhaled one last, deep breath, and Josh knew that Mark Grant, and most of the others here, were dead. Horrified at what he was seeing, Josh controlled his sickness and, gasping and crying, extracted Grant’s cell phone from his hip pocket.
He sat and cried, waiting for the cops to arrive for what seemed like at least thirty minutes. As he sat there, he remembered something. Why would Spanky agree to leave Baltimore with him? The whole purpose of killing Barnett to begin with was to enable her to remain in Baltimore. If they were going to leave anyway, what would be the point? Suddenly, nothing made any sense.
The guy, Joseph. Why did he let him off the hook so easy, and change his mind so quickly?
When the cops arrived, Josh simply told them he was walking from The Dox and found them like this. All but two of them were dead.
“I know that fucking smell anywhere”, one of the cops said. “Embalming fluid, probably soaked into whatever pot they smoked.”
“Yeah, that’s what it is”, another one said. “Holy shit, I’ve never seen it this bad.”
The only two who survived so far, provided they lived, would probably be brain damaged for the rest of their lives, one of them was saying. They would likely be unable to walk as long as they lived. In all probability, they would never have control of their bowels or their urine flow.
Suddenly, more sirens sounded, and soon what looked to be half the city’s ambulance service arrived. Josh wanted to throw up. He was visibly upset when one of the cops asked him if he knew any of the young men.
“I know all of them”, he said, and proceeded to give their names. The cops then offered to give him a ride home, but they would need to take a statement from him downtown. He looked at them as he then produced the Luger from his pants. He held it out to them with the barrel pointed toward the ground.
“What the hell”, one of the cops exclaimed.
“There’s something else I think I’d better tell you”, Josh said.
