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Hearing the thin scream of a whip, a sound Benny knew too well from his days at the Manse, Benny hunched over and slipped into the shabby bedroom. He scowled at a thin, naked man.
"You lightening son of a bitch," Benny shouted and hurtled himself at the pale back of the man who wield the lash over a weeping body.
And passed right through him.
The man paused. He cast a scowl about the small room and stared for a moment at the doorless opening.
Ready to do battle, Benny clambered to his feet.
And back peddled away to huddle along the far wall.
Harrison? What was Harrison doing here? Benny shivered in uncontrollably fear.
"Please -" Benny heard it and jerked as the whip descended on the bloody back of Harrison's victim. "Please Judge, no more."
"Sue?"
Benny raised himself slightly. Was it Sue? Benny gasped, frozen and not daring to move. She was bloody and streaked with lash marks. He had to do something to stop this. He tried, but his limbs refused to move. Benny was forced to watch the sadist use the girl in ways that would have made old Conn ill.
Finally done, Harrison wiped himself off with her panties.
Harrison leaned over the welted and bloody back. He pressed his lips to the exact spot that corresponded to Sue's heart. Pushing himself up, he licked her blood from his lips.
"My Susie," he whispered into the darkness, "Does my little Susie love her big man?"
Unable to believe what he was hearing, Benny cowered deeper into the corner. Man, this dude was whacked in the brain. He had never had to take a male client, even Cindy wasn't that warped, but he had heard plenty about this 'partner' of hers. The Judge sold Chris and a bunch of other kids to the PROJECT and expected to use them at his leisure.
The washed blue of Harrison's eyes grew chilling. Benny cringed away.
Taking up the black, blood smeared quirt, Harrison lashed it down a few more times. It was like hitting clay for all the response he got. Sue was somewhere beyond him and reality at this point. With a philosophical shrug Harrison pulled on his clothes, clothing that would mean a mugging at the very least in this neighborhood to any but Juvenile Court Judge Harrison, and stuffed the quirt into his shorts where it nestled around his groin.
He took a ratty, moldering blanket from the floor and shook the roaches and the rat pellets from it before laying it with parental gentleness across the lacerated back. Sue's head hung from the bed, her long, softly curling hair pooled on the floor. Harrison tucked the blanket in and smiled. The bed creaked and sagged as his weight settled onto the side of it. Everything was as it should be. All was right with the world.
"You get a good night's sleep, honey, and Daddy will be back to see you tomorrow. We'll play again, then, OK?" He patted the unmoving back. "Daddy has to go now. Love me?" He smiled again and said in a whisper, "Of course you do."
Minutes passed after the Judge had left the room and still Benny didn't feel safe enough to leave the scant protection of the wall. Sue . . . oh, God, not the Judge.
The Judge brought new meaning to the term 'used and abused,' He took kids from Juvie Dentition and claimed they were runaways. those that survived wound up in a place like the Manse, where they couldn't survive. The Judge took no chances with those he 'loved.'
And he was in this nightmare. Yeah, nightmare! Man, was he whacked as the Judge? It was only a dream. None of this crap, the room, the girl, none of it was real. Only the Judge was.
Benny shivered and crept from the wall and into Sue's bed, being careful not to shake the cot. He lay next to her, offered everything he had learned at the Manse in a desperate attempt to bring her back to her mind. Not even in these dreams had they done it, those he tried, even if it meant getting picked on for having wet dreams. Sue . . . man, but she was every guy's dream. Maybe some day he'd meet a woman like her.
"Mom would love you."
A snort came from a blue and gold cloud slowly shifting up from the splintering floorboards.
Benny scowled at Sue's Guardian, Shorty. The amazon shrugged. Her sword, macana Talk-a-Blue-Streak, trilled at Heart-a'-Fire and Guardian Two Swords.
"You got to be strong, Grey-Wolf, for her sake." Shorty smiled a bitter flash of ivories at Benny. "She needs you, Warrior, or she'll die. Believe what
Ana:Waya, your mother, tells you. My kid is as alive as you are."
The Guardian watched Benny for a few moments. Seeing only anger and a growing disbelief on the young dark face, Shorty groaned and went to her knees.
"Please? Come home, Benjamin Wya Grey. The Old-Woman is calling you. Why won't you listen to Him? You have to come home and rescue her from this." A hand swept around the room, encompassing far more than a mere dwelling.
Benny shook his head in a fierce denial. He closed his eyes to the pleading face of the eight-foot woman. His hand stroked the long golden hair. So soft, like silk beneath his hands. He crooned to her, "It's all cool, babe. I'm here."
Eyes wild with fear and determination Shorty took a step closer. She would force him to help. Her charge was dying. Sue needed Benny.
A hand grabbed her arm as Talk-a-Blue-Streak cleared her scabbard.
"Dohi:yi, Warrior." Two Swords held Heart in a cool and composed way, unthreatening. His voice was tranquil and sedate. "It is forbidden, Sun-Person Shorty. He is a mortal and may not be harmed nor forced into action." The formal speech broke down into a low mutter, "Think, what'll Ma say?"
Shorty trembled and melted into his arms. Two Swords patted her on the shoulder and rocked her back and forth, his eyes bright and sad on Benny.
"What a crock," Benny said. His eyes flashed at them. "Who am I to rescue anybody? I'm dead, or might as well be." He finished bitterly, "Right now I couldn't fight my way out of a wet paper bag, let alone save anybody. Just let me alone, OK?"
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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