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She jerked. The belt came up, and snaked across her back again over welts that cracked and bled. And again. And again, until her mind screamed for her to cry out, to beg. He would stop then, and force his manhood into her until he spent himself or he went soft. If she begged too soon, he wouldn't make it, and the pain would go on and on and on. Sue's teeth sank into the greasy mattress and she held her cries, shuddering with every stroke of the suit belt.
Mich was gonna freak when she got back to the bar. She gatta ga nai, like Miho Togara said. I can't be helped.
Benny crouched along one crumbling, scabby wall. When Harrison raised the belt Benny pressed his face into his hands, wincing every time it came down with a hiss of the Judge's growing frustration.
With a happy cry, Harrison dropped his belt and thew himself on her driving her face into the mattress. The tendons in Sue's arms screamed, her hands grew cold, trapped in their silken bonds. From the door her father looked on. JJ glanced at his watch. A whole hour wasted on this no-dick punk.
His erection melted. Harrison gave a thin shriek and Benny felt a laugh kick in his stomach. Maybe the Judge wasn't the he-man he wanted the kids to think. Benny crawled to his feet and spat on the thin, pimply back.
Snatching up the belt, Harrison lashed it at Sue. A small cry escaped her lips and he grinned, his hand working at his skinny groin. He crawled over her.
"No you don't, Judge." JJ slouched in the doorway. "You been here for more than an hour, and the nig at the bar'll be pissed, I don't get her back."
Harrison closed his eyes. Benny's jeers about his lack of manhood went unheard.
Low and mean, he said, "Get out, Hanna. Or I'll take her to Juvvie and you'll lose all that money you make pimping her in Anton's Place."
Whimpering, JJ scurried out. Benny spat at the fleshy, damp back.
Sue began to weep and Harrison thrust once, twice, and collapsed on her. Not bothering to make use of a towel to clean himself, the man dressed in his impeccable clothing and stalked out to the kitchen. Down the hall, Benny heard him cursing and railing at a whimpering JJ. There was a rustle of money changing hands.
A woman who had in her youth been tall and raw-boned stepped into the room. Ama had a paring knife in her trembling hands. She sawed the dull knife against the pantyhose. Sue moaned and let her stepmother rub the blood back into numbed hands and feet.
The withered junkie saw Benny and her trembling eyes widened. Benny yelped and spun, his hands covering his genitals. Why the freek couldn't he wear clothes in these dreams?
An imp riding a rat chittered and ran from under the bed. The old woman utter a strangled cry of terror and backed away from this new horror until her back was pressed against the mildewed wall. The needle scars stark against the grayish brown of her skin, Shaking hands covered her face.
"Mama?" Her stepmother's needs overcame the fire of bruises swelling on Sue's back. Cautious, she had seen too many of her friends beaten or killed by a loved one in withdrawal, Sue crept to Amanda. Her arms went around the old woman until the wracking shakes eased and grew more tolerable.
Under normal circumstances Benny wouldn't have come within ten feet of a druggie, especially one in as bad a shape as Ama. But if Sue wanted to hug the old woman, he would too. A naked Sue made it mandatory. Even from here he could feel his unconscious body reacting to the soft, heart-shaped behind.
"It's all right, Mama," she crooned. "I'm here for you. I love you."
"Your daddy. He D-done t-t-took all my money and my medicine." Amanda snuffled a weak trail of blood back into her nose, flattened by JJ in a drunken rage. "I needs my medicine, baby."
A grinning imp leaped at the old woman. Benny's fist smashed it down. He smiled encouragement at Amanda and his arms went around them both again.
To his disappointment, after only a few moments Sue pulled away.
"I got to go, Ama," she said, her voice soothing and quiet. "Let's go get you a cup o' that ol' Maggie's yarb tea first, OK?" She drew the old woman in the tiny, filthy kitchen, shivering as drafts of cold air chilled her. Pressing Amanda into the only decent chair, Sue turned on the stove and put a cup of water on to boil. She smiled at Amanda, who was wiping the dirt out of a cracked glass mug.
Sue dashed to the bedroom to throw on her clothes. Benny trailed her out, his arms aching for her, empty and cold now.
The blood had become a trickle. With the sleeve of the ragged coat she wore Amanda wiped it away, more annoyed with it than worried. In a gentle, scolding voice, Sue took a clean rag and wiped the blood away. She soaked it in a gush of rusty water from the faucet and made Amanda tilt her head back.
"You hold that there, hear?" Sue's eyes crinkled in a mock frown. "Else I'll make it stay, permanent."
"It wasn't your papa, not this time, baby." Amanda chuckled at Sue. "Just as I need my medicine, is all." Amanda closed her eyes to the naked boy staring so hungry at her stepdaughter.
Moving out of the room, she was gone for a few minutes. Sue brought a cracked white mug to Amanda. Emblazoned on the side was a swastika imposed over the new version of the American flag. Under that in black were the words FOR A BETTER TOMORROW, ALL HAIL. 2013. In smaller letter a note from the president-for-life, thanking his supporters for electing him.
"I know," she said to the scowl on Amanda's face, "It tastes pretty bad. But Etlo:gi
Maggie says it helps with the symptoms."
Amanda nodded. She sipped at the murky tea of cannabis and valerian root. "Lord God," she gasped. "Every time I drinks it, it tastes worst. Like ol' moldy bird nests. Maggie says too much will kill a body. God knows, the taste is enough to do that."
Sue pulled on an imitation rabbit fur jacket, the mark of her trade.
"Sue, you take care, please?" Amanda cast a worried glance at Benny, uncertain if he were real or just another piece of her drug ruined imagination.
Benny covered his groin with his hands and scowled.
Shrugging, Sue nodded. "I will, Ama."
"And my medicine, baby." Amanda's voice cracked and she stared into the cloudy tea, her hands clamped around the mug for the warmth and to stop the shaking.
Leaning her forehead on the splintered doorjamb, sue whispered a sigh.
"I won't forget, Ama. I'll get it from your pusher on my way back with my next john."
"That it?"
The surgeon leaned over the open spine, peering through the laser microscope.
He reached in and withdrew another of the nearly invisible splinters of bone.
"More suction, dammit."
Fighting the sedative, Benny moaned.
"Got it."
Hands slowly manipulating a nano-scalple and tweezers, he opened more of the fibrous nerve tissue and cursed at the minute splinters.
An imp hissed. It inched from the walls, moving closer until its hand rested on the surgeon's elbow. One push, and Benny would be crippled forever.
Hanks looked up from his sweeping down the hall. He scowled. Glancing around, he could see no one in the hall. He reached through to the operation room tackled the imp. Together, they smashed through the far wall.
He kicked free of the imp. It spat at him. Grinning, Hanks/Two Swords pointed down.
It glanced down and shrieked, plummeting two stories into the rank mass of hospital waste in a waiting dumpster. The dumpster lurched, tipped up and into the maw of the dump truck. The minor Guardian driving the truck wore the bright prison orange and shackles of a Servant of the State. Like most warriors, he had a strange sense of humor.
Smiling to himself, Hanks resumed his slow sweeping and stayed alert.
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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