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Sue shivered and tried to step away, but he owned her.
Her master had arrived, and she trembled at the marble-cold touch and the reek of
too much cologne.
“Hello, Susie. How is Daddy’s little girl
today?” He smiled, and his words were thick with desire and furred from too
much Irish Rose. “How is my kitten today?” He blinked, whispering for her
ears alone, “How I love you. You’re a drug that seethes in my veins, and I am
insane for you. Please, run away with me, and I’ll find an apartment for you. A
real home in the Enclave. Hot water when you want it, however much you want.
Meat to eat. Real meat, not soy-steaks or rat. Venison, beef, chicken, shrimp,
salmon and tuna. Real eggs, Susie. When did you ever taste an egg that came from
a shell and not a carton? Milk, not soy or peanut.”
He was shaking, tears filling his eyes.
“I love you. I love you. I love you. We could be so
happy. I’ll get tutors, and once you’ve an education no one will mind you
came from trash. My little guttersnipe. They’ll all be so jealous of me.”
She was trembling, the sack crushed
against her stomach. Scars on her back burned, and she started to weep.
As the faint crinkling of the sack filled a strained
silence, Harrison glanced down, frowning at the sack.
"You do know, “ he said, his words measured and
verging on severe, “You are not to leave this house except for school or to
work. You were so restrained by a court order.” A gentle smile came over him,
and any hint of rage smoothed away. Gently, he pulled the sack from her
unresisting arms. Harrison shook his head. “Susie, Susie. Were you running
away from home?" Rage flashed on the bland face and then was gone. “From me? I had so hoped, dear, that things could be different. No more
need of a whip or the chains of law. No more beatings when you are oh, so
bad.” He ripped the sack open and screamed, “Now
you have to pull this bullshit?” He threw the clothes in her face and
swung from the hip.
The fist came out of nowhere, and the clothes blocked
it only a little. She sprawled back, over the table and crashed to the floor,
stunned.
Shudders of hate and pain raced through Harrison’s
body. Ama and JJ faded back from the wild eyes and tension. He reached down for
Sue, and Ama screamed, stepping towards him.
“JJ, get that stupid old whore out of my sight.”
JJ grabbed Ama, dragging her into the streets and
dumping her there. Except for Harrison’s three body guards surrounding a
limousine, the street was empty of life. One guard turned a black helmet towards
JJ.
In the house Harrison was kneeling on the floor and
cursing himself and weeping over Sue.
“I love you. Why do you make me hurt you? By all the
might of Woden and Baal, I only want to help you, Susie. Do you want to go stay
a few nights in the White House? And the gov in Harrisburg, he’s a dear friend as well.”
Terror running through Susie-the-rabbit’s body sent
a shock through Benny so bad the hair on the back of his head stood.
A knife flashed, and Harrison bellowed. He clapped a
hand to one ear.
“Get that bitch out of here.”
Ama, though, was already gone. One guard was down, air
bubbling through a neck wound. Down the street a pack of TG’s stood in
silence, just watching, hoping to pick up what might be left.
A guard swung a laser in JJ’s direction. The big man
yelped and scurried away into the dark. A door slapped open, and JJ was gone.
Harrison chuckled and laughed. He turned to Sue, and a
knife lay in her hands.
A smirking Ama lay a damp cloth of the black and blue
marks left by Harrison’s fist.
“Good thing that nig’s the delicate sort. He hits
you any harder with that fist and this here eye would o’ been swelled shut,
honey.
“And killed us both,” Sue whispered. She tried to
push away the rag. “It stinks.”
With a low chortle, Ama took her hand and gently
pushed it away.
“It is a might stinky. Astafida. Just you be still,
girl. That old witchy-woman, Maggie, she says it’s just the thing. Hush.”
Her stomach turning over for the third time, Sue went
still, muttering in a quiet grumble at her stepmother.
“Jesus lord, Ama, the cure is worse than the
pain.”
“Be still!”
Sue lay there for another few minutes before she could
stand it no more. Pulling away, she muttered, “I got to git to Antone’s.”
Ama froze. She sighed and backed a step for Sue to get
up.
A little something to cover the bruise and something
more to cover the reek of the astafida, and she threw the coat over her
shoulders.
“G’ night Ama,” she whispered.
“Baby . . . Please, just leave.”
“I can’t. Harrison wants to kill you.”
“Go,” Ama whispered. “Run. We got kin –”
“That would die, too.”
Benny nodded. Harrison was a regular at the Manse. The
creep murdered a couple of boys and a girl and still walked, still was a Juvvie
Court judge.
He frowned. The women were fading, and he felt
something on his feet.
Military boots?
Benny heard a chair move. Drill Instructor Harper
tipped his chair back to the wall. All around Benny, nurses and patients moved
with some purpose. They flowed around him and through him, and he frowned, trying
to listen to Harper-the-Harpy.
The Harpy sucked down part of a cigarette. He grinned and flicked it at some kid trying to run a
broom down the hall. The kid turned and Benny frowned, then blinked because he
was the kid and using two eyes instead of one.
He stomped a bare foot on the butt and ground it to
crumbs and hot ashes. Then it was swept away.
“Better not catch you smoking, Grey,” the old DI
hollered. “Against the rules, y’ know.”
“You do –”
“’Cause I’m retired an’ ain’t nobody what
cares. ‘Sides, mine are PC, gov made, not that rollie crap with the real
thing.”
The broom handle bent in Benny’s hands. He swept the
crumbs away under a pack of feet.
“Why am I the only one that got to police the
area?”
He lowered himself along the wall next to the Harpy.
“I ain’t the only un, man.”
With a low chuckle, the Harpy muttered, “You was the
only one what got caught-caught, is all.” He scratched the end of another PC
on the leg of his pants and it began to smolder. He took a puff and a guarded
look came to his eyes. “Captain’s getting real put out, Grey. He wants them
discharge papers signed, like, pronto. Hell, take it. Ain’t much, but a little
something comin’ in. You could homestead in any city with that paper. Get you
a house and good lot, or maybe a aquaponics farm and the right to use the
sewage.”
A sly glee came to his eyes. He took a hard hit on the
PC, then flicked it out onto the floor.
Rising slowly, Benny sighed. He stepped away, hooked
his toes behind the back leg of the chair and kicked.
The Harpy yelped, crashing to the floor. Bellowing curses, he leaped to his feet, but the boy
was gone, man. A small grin ticked on and off of his face.
“Good kid. Smart and mean. But oh, my, is he gonna
pay for that.”
A man smiled at the fallen chair, and the Harpy
snarled.
“Sum bitch,” he shouted. “What you looking at,
boy? Got nothing better to do? Hey, I got something –”
The man scurried away, and the Harpy grumbled to
himself. He pulled a third cigarette, scratching it on the seat of his pants and
scowled as he began to puff.
“Damned nasty imitation crap.”
The kid lay still under a worn sheet. He was smiling,
and Kat grinned. He wasn’t nearly so ugly when he was smiling. A hoarse
whisper of laughter came from Benny.
“Must be a pretty good dream,” she said, her voice
low, but her eyes watching the reflection of several men in black that were
standing outside the door.
One was a Harvester. The other two had the stench of
government all over them, and people were giving the three a wide berth.
Sipping a flat soda pop, Sue sat opposite a drunk. The
tourist was dressed in an orange and gray plastic suit tailored to look like a
convict. On his wrist was a black band that appeared to be a con’s wrist
guard, but no con wore one outside of prison, or it would blow up.
“What’s pretty li’l thing like you doing in a
dive like this?” the tourist asked. A string of drool wandered down from the
corner of his mouth.
She glanced at JJ sitting on a stool near them, and
said in a laugh, sweet voice, “Why, suh, if you must know, I’m a-working to
support my poor ol’ daddy there. That’s the paunchy elderly gent in the torn
shirt and Blazing sneakers.”
JJ swung around with a gasp. He snarled, leaping from
the stool and swinging at her.
“You stupid whore.”
His fist caught her on the arm as she tried to shield
her face.
Antone leaped the bar and caught JJ with a punch on
the back of the neck, pile-driving the big man to the floor. One foot on JJ’s
back, he leaned over, helping her to crawl out from under the table.
“You OK?” He glanced down at a shivering JJ.
“Yeah,” she said. Sue took her seat and held out
her hands to the tourist.
Taking JJ by the back of the neck, Antone dragged him
to the storeroom and propped him against the wall to finish what he started. When
JJ slid down into a quivering heap, Antone spit on him.
“Told you, JJ, I ever seen you strike that child, I
was gonna kill you.”
He pulled a knife and leaned over JJ.
As the steel touched JJ’s neck, JJ shrieked and
clawed away on all fours, then bolted for the door.
Antone moved back to Sue. She cringed from the stark
hate on his face.
“Please, Mitch. Don’t make me go back on the
streets –”
“What?” He blinked and tried to smile. “No, it
isn’t you, girl.” She was so thin, so weak. “Go on to the kitchen and get
a bite,” he snapped. “Man don’t like skinny woman.”
As she ran towards the kitchen, Anton gave a huff of
laughter. The drunk choked. He glanced at the man. The drunk cringed.
“What the hell is your problem, road-rat? You wanted
to see a little blood and actin and now you got it.”
Benny applauded Anton and whistled.
Yo, man. Tell
the whoosy-boy. He threw a warm glance at Sue, already gnawing on a hoagie. Babe,
I know all you are is a dream, but you got to grow some balls.
Sue came out of the kitchen chatting in Spanilingo
with an older woman. The hoagie was washed down with a fresh soda pop, and the
tourist staggered to his feet, gesturing for her to come.
Sue hesitated, then moved to him, a big grin on her
face.
“Will you be my li’l ol’ sugar daddy tonight,
big man?”
Something dark and unholy drifted from the floor to
follow them. Benny scowled. It was snake-shaped and all ugly.
Asgoli asgina? Here, this time of year? Benny shuddered right down to
where his socks should be and gagged. The demon was hunting, and he was
following Sue. Benny glanced towards the ceiling and whispered a small plea for
the nightmare to not get worse.
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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