Joel acted quickly, much quicker than he thought he could.
He brought the shovel up and down with a ferocious speed unparalleled for most twelve year olds.
Maybe if he’d swung a second sooner…
Geoffrey Jones caught the shovel under its base, stopping the plunge in mid-swing. “You dirty little shit,” he said between gritted teeth.
He jerked the shovel in his direction, bringing Joel with it. Then pushed the handle back, cracking the wooden staff across Joel’s forehead. Everything went black for a moment, then fuzzy. Joel lost all his momentum and sagged to his knees. He felt his stomach turning.
“Try to get me by surprise?” He seemed appalled by such an act.
Joel coughed, gagged. He’d failed. He felt pathetic.
Geoffrey Jones shook his head. “I should bust your fucking skull for what you just did.” He slammed the metal end of the shovel into the ground. It stuck, protruding like a shaft that was sowed there. “I think I’ll just kick the shit out of you instead. Then drag you back to the damn house by your little pecker.”
Joel knew it would hurt and braced himself. He was right. The first kick caught him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He fell on his back, an acorn or pecan digging into his spine. That seemed to hurt just as bad.
His muscles and lungs acted confused over what to do. Spasms raked his body while his lungs desperately tried to inhale. It hurt to do either. He swore his chest had caved in. He screamed with the second kick on his side. It felt to Joel that whatever organ was in there had burst, not just popped, but exploded. He was crying now. Bawling.
Geoffrey Jones struggled to stand upright on his bad knee. “Not such a tough little shit now, are you? Want to hit me with that shovel still?” Joel’s answer was a convulsion of sobs. This pleased him. “Didn’t think so. But you know what? I’m not done proving my point. I can hold a grudge for a long fucking time!” Laughing, he leaned over and grabbed Joel under the arms like an infant, then hoisted him up, putting him in some kind of bear hug.
Now, Joel really couldn’t breathe. His lungs were pleading, but Joel was helpless to give them what they wanted. The pressure was intense, paralyzing. He knew he could probably kick him, but doubted it would do much other than angering him even more.
I’m going to die…
Joel was slipping into a void, a sort of tranquil state where the pain wasn’t so bad. And he knew Geoffrey Jones wasn’t going to stop until he realized the error of his ways
after
he’d killed him. He needed to fight. By some means, whatever he could muster, he
had
to fight.
He began to squirm.
“Be still. If you’d just calm down we can get moving and all this will be over. If you keep moving it’s just going to hurt that much worse until you finally pass out.”
Or until he died. Joel wondered how long it would be before his back snapped. Either asphyxiation or a broken spine would get him out of this situation. But his vote lay in the third choice, the one where he came out unscathed.
Squirming like the wind!
Wriggling, twisting like a worm that’s about to be hooked, he managed to free his right arm. This allowed Geoffrey Jones to compress even harder. Like a
boa constrictor, he tightened, slowly applying more strain. Joel’s arm was free, but he couldn’t do a damn thing with it. He was hurting too bad to think straight. His arm just drooped about like a loose piece of grass.
“You ready to give up?” asked Geoffrey with G.
Joel stopped struggling.
Geoffrey Jones was calmer, “That’s a good boy. Now when we get back to the house, I want you to convince those guys that I should take Haley, because I’m not going to give you to them until they agree. If I don’t hurry up and do something about my infatuation with her, there’s no telling what I’ll do next. I mean, I’ve broken into her room, jacked off in her panties, burned down a bookstore, killed her dog, and now I’m about to hand over her baby brother to a pack of psychos just to have her.”
Killed Rusky?
Joel began to bubble inside.
“Maybe…yeah…maybe your death will bring us closer together…”
Joel’s arm suddenly felt rejuvenated. On its own whim it shot his hand up, thumb extended, and jabbed into Geoffrey Jones’ left eye. He pushed inward with ease. Inside the socket was warm and squishy like poking a finger into a fresh jelly doughnut.
Geoffrey shook thunderously as Joel pushed his thumb in as far as it would go. Finally, he was dropped. His thumb ripped out of the socket with a slippery pop. On the ground, he heaved for air that wouldn’t come fast enough.
Jones hunched over, cupping a hand over his eye. Blood and another mixture like white paint leaked through the cracks between his fingers.
“My
eye!
” He pulled his hand away. Where his eye had been a few moments ago was now a deep cavity. The left side of his face was coated in blood. He looked like a distraught Viking Warrior. He reared back his head and howled like one.
Joel couldn’t relish the victory a moment longer. He crawled over to the shovel, curving his hands around the wooden pole, and using it as leverage, hauled himself up. He was woozy, but he didn’t have the time to find his balance.
“You little bastard! I’m going to tear you apart!”
Joel stood to the side as if stepping up to the mound on a baseball diamond. The one sport he had ever been good at was baseball. He’d played a few years for his Dad’s team when he was younger. He hiked the shovel over his shoulder like a bat and swung the way the pros did it.
Dad would have been proud.
The metal base cuffed Geoffrey with a G’s face with a loud twang. The drive lifted him in the air, launching him a few feet away. He landed on his back and didn’t move a twitch.
Motionless.
Joel hoped he was dead. Walking around the side of Geoffrey with a G’s body, he kept the shovel ready, expecting any moment for a hand to snatch at his ankle.
One never did.
But that didn’t stop Joel from whacking him again for good measure.
And again.
Another time.
One more, gone.
(I)
Alan rolled over.
Haley clenched her legs tighter to keep him inside of her.
“Where do you think you’re going, mister?”
Alan smiled. “Felt like I was crushing you.”
“Not at all…” She rubbed her hand through his hair, then watched it droop right back into his eyes. “Feel better?”
He laughed softly. “A lot.”
“I’m glad I could help.”
“You’re amazing,” he said. “Did you know that?”
“Amazing?” She pretended to mull over it. “I assumed outstanding, but amazing? Wow.”
“Did I say amazing?”
“You can’t take it back. You said it, no take backs.”
He put his fingers against her side and tickled. She squirmed and squealed.
“Stop,” she shrieked behind her laughs.
He did. “Sorry, just couldn’t resist.” He kissed her on the forehead.
Haley didn’t want this moment to end, just the two of them, caressing each other as if nothing else mattered. It was a false realism, but one that she enjoyed. She sat her head up, and looked toward her door that they’d left wide open while exploring each other. A chill of fear snagged her belly. “I wonder if Joel came home while we were…”
Alan’s eyes widened. “Do you think so?”
“Well…I didn’t hear him, but that doesn’t mean anything…”
“Yeah, we were being a little too loud to notice.”
Her skin went prickly. “A
little
loud?”
“Well,
I
was being a little loud, but you?” He shook his head.
“Stop it,” she said, laughing. “You’re so mean to me.”
“Want me to make it up to you?”
“You better.”
He put his hand on the side of her cheek, and held it there. Then he gently kissed her. It developed into heavy smacks, but Alan pulled away before it went much farther.
“Why’d you stop?”
“Sorry,” he said. “But, I really have to use the bathroom, and now that you’ve mentioned the possibility of Joel having come home, I feel too weird about lying naked on top of your bed with the door open.”
She glanced at the doorway again. “Yeah, I see your point. Close it on your way back in?”
“Absolutely.”
He sat up, shifted his hips, and pulled out. Haley already missed him being there. “Hurry back.”
Smiling, he sat at the edge of the bed putting on his boxers. “Please, I would pee out the window so I wouldn’t have to leave if I knew you wouldn’t think differently of me in the morning.”
Haley laughed. “If you peed on
me
then we might have a problem.”
“Well…the temptation would be there…”
She laughed again. Alan had always had a great sense of humor, and she was glad it was back and he’d been able to abandon his sadness with the rubble of the store.
It’s like they say…sometimes in tragedy, happiness is always there waiting to be found, again.
She wasn’t exactly sure if anyone had ever said that before, but they should. It was a good line.
Pulling his shirt on, Alan walked to the doorway. He peeked his head out. Then he glanced back at Haley. “I don’t see anything.”
“Hurry up.” She bounced on the bed anxiously.
“I will!” He stepped into the hall, pulling the door shut behind him.
Haley laid her head back on the pillow. She was tempted to get under the blankets, but decided not to. They’d just get in the way when he came back.
How long had it been since she’d had sex? Not counting last night, of course. She thought about it.
Maybe a month after the funeral…
Yes, that was it. She and Carlee had gone out with strict intentions of picking up a guy for each of them, taking them back to Carlee’s apartment, and screwing them. They’d succeeded. Carlee took her choice to her bedroom, and Haley accompanied hers in the guest room.
The guy…Eric or Mike, or whatever, was a decent enough looking guy, but awkward and quick on the release in the sack. She could tell when they had finished that he was embarrassed over his uninspiring performance by how he’d acted so over-sexual afterward. She was polite and went along with it, but her eyes wouldn’t stop gawking at the digital wall clock across the room. She nearly jumped with joy when she heard Carlee and her date in the living room talking.
She was so thankful when the guys finally left. Apparently, Carlee’s bedroom adventure hadn’t thrived any better.
Haley stretched, relaxing her arm across her eyes, and smiled. She planned to see where this relationship with Alan took her. It was obvious he felt the same way about her, and she intended to be there for him through his difficult time. It was something she wished she’d had several months ago. He wouldn’t be going through all of this alone.
He’d probably want to go apartment or house rental shopping in the next day or so, once he talked with his insurance company. She would take him.
Probably need to take him back to the parking lot in the morning to get his car.
Worry about that later.
Was she already falling in love with him?
The sound of the doorknob engaging silenced her variable thoughts. She flicked her toes, excited to have him back in the room with her. “Get it all flushed out?”
He didn’t answer, nor did he shut the door behind him like he’d promised. Actually, the aura in the room felt off balance, not as it had been before Alan left. The new presence with her didn’t feel at all like Alan.
Was it Joel?
She moved her arm away from her eyes. The brightness of the room shocked her, so she rapidly blinked to soften it. She started to sit up. “Alan, what’s going…?”
Her voice hitched.
Fear blasted her so quick and sudden that she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak, nor could she blink. All she could do was stare…stare at the hideous looking man that had entered her bedroom. He was gargantuan in size; his exposed arms reminding her of the superheroes from Joel’s comics. They were so ripped that they didn’t seem real. No way could someone in real life have that much muscle.
The ogre of a man approached her on the bed, cautiously reaching his hand out to her as if she were a snake that might strike. She wished she was something that
could
strike, and even if she could move and stop squeaking when she tried to scream, she doubted she could do much harm to him.
Her eyes fixed on his mask, some kind of hood, and recognition kicked in.
It was Joel’s. He’d made it.
Why was this guy wearing it?
His hand trembled as it reached for her calf. When it touched her, his eyes fluttered closed as if his sensations were being overloaded. She could hear his wheezy, fervent breaths behind the burlap hood.
As scary as this situation was, and as horrifying as it should be, Haley didn’t feel as if she was in any real danger from this man. There was a hint of bashfulness in his movements, in his approach, like a virgin about to have to sex with a porn star.
Bad analogy.
Haley could feel the roughness of his calloused hands as he massaged her calf, moving up to the back of her thigh. She let him, knowing it was pointless in trying to stop him. Plus, she couldn’t move, her body seemed to be locked up like a computer screen.
He polished her a few moments before being interrupted.
“So,
this
is why you’ve been incognito all week?”
The man in the hood jumped. Haley joined him in looking at the man standing at her bedroom doorway, lightly tapping the side of his face with an object that might have been a camera. Another man, possibly dressed in camouflage, stood outside the room. It was hard to tell exactly because her view of him was blocked.
Haley should be hysterical at this point, should be lashing and kicking, fighting her way through these three men, but she couldn’t bring herself to react in such a way.
The one with the camera looked at Haley, cold and stern. “Get dressed.”
Finally, she was able to move, scampering around the bedroom while trying to keep herself covered as she gathered her clothes. With all of them watching, she dressed herself in the clothes she’d already been wearing. She made herself ask him what was on her mind. “Where’s Alan?”
“Who?”
“My…” She debated what to call him, then decided on, “boyfriend.”
“If you’re talking about the guy lying halfway out of the bathroom over here, I’d say in a world of pain.”
Haley began to cry.
When Haley was almost to the bottom of the stairs, she felt a shove at her back. Trying to keep her balance, her feet tousled together, and pitched her forward. She missed the remaining stairs and fell straight to the floor. Hard. Her breasts felt as if they’d been jammed through her back.
She slowly rolled over.
The guy she thought was called Buddy grabbed the one in the green shirt by the shoulder. “What the hell was that, Carp?”
“She tripped.”
“Tripped my ass. Did you push her?”
“Nope.”
Haley wanted to tattle, wanted to say, “Yes he did push me!” but knew it was best she keep her mouth shut. Besides, even if she tried to say anything, there was no way she could actually do it through her wheezing.
Buddy, who wore a mask on top of his head like a hat, turned to the one who’d been feeling her up before they were interrupted. He stood at the back with Alan draped around his shoulders the way snobby rich women wore mink wraps. “Face, did you see anything?”
The oval shape of burlap shook from side to side.
“You’re on thin ice with me, Carp. Don’t let it happen, again.”
Carp nodded, but when he turned around, Haley could see the cocky sneer on his face. She knew he was going to make it his duty to torment her. He’d already done a good job so far. Her chest felt as if it had fissured and cracked.
“Go get the bags from next door,” said Buddy. We can start getting set up while we wait for uh…what’s his name to bring back the kid.”
The one in burlap whipped his head around.
Buddy leered at him. “Is that concern I sense, Face? Worried about the kid?” Face stood there, motionless, as if he’d been planted there.
Haley was also worried about the kid. Where was Joel? Who had they sent out there to fetch him?
“Put that guy down,” ordered Buddy.
Alan’s limp body plummeted to the floor with a heavy clunk. Haley had feared he might be dead, but he started to groan, and it was the most wonderful sound she ever thought she could hear.
Putting his hands on his hips, Buddy turned away from the one he’d called Face, and stared at the floor. His bottom lip was clamped under his teeth. His wild blue eyes were forming tears.
Carp had been on his way out, but he’d come back to join Buddy, sharing in the disappointment.
Haley glanced at Alan. He’d resumed motionlessness on the floor. She wanted to help him up, hug him, but all she could do was watch this awkward confrontation.
Buddy looked Face over. “Got new threads, I see. And, you’ve bathed recently. A new mask too?. Looks good. Did you do that yourself?”
Face shook his head.
“They were gifts?” A nod. “From that kid?” Another nod. “Well, that was nice of him, huh? Guess that explains why you haven’t come back. Been busy getting your ass spoiled here.”
He’s speaking like an upset parent,
she thought.
Face’s wide shoulders slumped as if his posture had suddenly gone bad. His heavy feet towed him reluctantly closer to Buddy while his fingers fretfully clicked across his thumbnail.
“We thought you were either locked up somewhere or fucking dead. Did you not think we would be worried? Or confused?”
Face was now standing directly before Buddy, towering over him. Buddy had to jet up on the tips of his boots to smack him across the burlap. Haley flinched as if she’d been the one hit. She expected to see Face strike back, but he did nothing. Just stood there and took it. He also took the much harder, second slap as well.
Haley sat up, propping herself up on her elbows to watch.
“What were you
thinking
, Face? You’re not stupid! I can’t even begin to imagine what the hell you’ve been up to with this kid. Playing with matchbox cars? Going one on one on some video games? Did the two of you stay up all night eating pizza and swapping funny stories about summer camp? The kind of shit that I
hate!
The shit that
you
swore you hated just as much! This American waste of decency!” His eyes were relentless, feral as a lion in the jungle.
“You need to help me understand, Face. Three days ago you left to dispatch that whore we found camping up in the hills and never came back. We found her floating down stream and you’ve been here cozying around with a goddamn kid! Have you been teaching him to do what you do? Showing him the ropes? Giving him pointers on how to kill? To hunt?”