Alice and Friends

by catt dahman

  “Just him? The rest of you are okay?” Alice asked. She needed to know all this. It was good that John was talking because Alice already knew who was the dumbest one.

  “Right as rain,” John admitted, “Everyone was fine but poor Cain.”

  “But it was her sins? Not your father’s?”

  “Yes.” Break time was over, and she was told to get back to her chores; she knew he didn’t want to question things he’d been told. “Women can be sinful.”

  Alice was forced to use rags and cleaner for the floor as she wasn’t allowed a long handled mop or broom. Too bad since one of those would have given her a chance to use something she was familiar with as a weapon. She suppressed a smile at that thought.

  As she listened to John go on about how the harder the training was, the better the chance they had of being chosen for the men, she began cleaning out the refrigerator. While she hadn’t been ordered to do that chore, she wanted to keep John talking.

  John allowed her to help fix the next meal. He cut up ripe, earthy-scented tomatoes for the salad as she tore greens after washing them. He didn’t correct her as she ate a few tomato slices. He added a few radishes and some thinly sliced cabbage and handed Alice some smoky, wonderful-smelling chicken that she had to shred by hand. After he added some boiled eggs that he sliced, he let her add an olive oil and vinegar dressing.

  She thought about the situation, and because it felt so normal and regular, the lesson here might be for her to see how pleasant it could be to prepare a meal beside one of the men. It was nice to eat a bite here and there as they worked. He slipped in casual comments about the food they fixed and how he had tended the gardens.

  This was a brilliant behavior-changing activity for her if she learned from it; well, she was leaning their methods.

  They loaded plastic bowls with the salad, and then she filled more bowls with chicken soup that she had heated. John told her how to do it correctly and smiled and shook his head when she asked if they would get spoons or forks. “I don’t think so, Alice.”

  When it was all on a large tray, he told her to carry it downstairs, carefully balancing on the stairs to keep from falling. The other women saw her slight smile and relaxed as they saw her bringing the food.

  “Enjoy, ladies.” John tipped an imaginary hat and left them, locking the door behind him.

  “Not bad,” Connie said as she ate the salad with her fingers.

  Alice huffed, “This was painful.” She pulled her baggy sweats down and from the crotch of her panties, removed a bunch of wooden toothpicks, holding them up with a wide smile.

  “You hid them in your panties?” Connie looked at her slack-jawed.

  “I had no other place but in my underwear. At least I got them.”

  “For what? Do you plan to stab them to death with toothpicks?” Connie asked. “What were you thinking? You’re going to get us in trouble over toothpicks?”

  “I was thinking that I should try to get something, so I did. It’s all I could manage since he didn’t let me near a knife; the point is that I got them. That means that it’s possible for them not to notice and to make mistakes.”

  Connie stuffed her mouth full and looked at the others.

  “They grew these veggies, and the chicken is one of theirs; the egg is from the chickens. We’re on a farm, and their father, and John, Mike, and Aaron work the farm while the others go to work at a horror carnival on the weekends.” Alice smiled triumphantly at the rest of the women and popped a tomato into her mouth.

  “You learned all that?”

  “Yep.”

  “Wow,” Sadie said. “You did good, a few hours out, and you made a meal, got information, and sneaked out something. That’s impressive.”

  Connie looked at Alice strangely. “I didn’t think of all that. I guess you did accomplish a lot.”

  “Now, if you could just get us out of here,” Tara added.

  Alice was stoked. The small advantages and small achievements might be their ticket to freedom. But then she thought of something else.

  “How did they scratch their names?” Alice asked.

  “What?”

  “Jodie and Robin. Did they do it here together, or did one do it, and then the other saw and did the same? What did they use?” Everyone looked at her as if she were crazy, but Alice ignored it, thinking, “It had to be something metal they used, but they don’t allow metal.”

  “Handcuffs?”

  “Too big. So how did they do it and under what circumstances?”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Yes, Connie, it matters. It’s something unusual and could be very important.” Alice spent some time thinking about it, but finally joined the other girls in playing cards after they had finished their meal and neatly stacked the bowl back onto the tray.

  Tara lay on her side, needing help to get up and only half-heartedly paying attention to the cards. Several times she stopped and cried, and Connie would pat her softly on the shoulder. It must be much worse to have been with someone and have him taken away; Tara seemed haunted all the time.

  The door lock wiggled, and the door slammed open.

  “Hand ‘em over, Alice,” Aaron ordered as he and John stormed through the door. “I am really angry with you.”

  Tara scooted to a wall and huddled on her mattress. Connie stared at the angry men before her and sighed with frustration and a rising fear deep within her gut.

  Alice tried to look calm, despite her thundering heartbeat, but Sadie piped up. “Oh, screw off; you boys are so uptight. What are you blithering on about?”

  Aaron grabbed her by the hair amid her howls and dragged her to the side. “Where are the toothpicks, smart mouth?”

  “Why are you asking me?”

  “Alice, there’s going to be a lot of pain in this lesson unless you hand over what you stole,” John said.

  Sadie wiped blood off her split lip after Aaron hit her. She narrowed her eyes, looking into his face and reached up to gently clasp his testicles, stroking them through his jeans. When he went erect, she used a thumb to rub him. “If you hurt me, I’ll kill you,” he said softly. “Back off.”

  She didn’t move. Aaron gave John a nod.

  John yanked Connie from her mattress and pulled it to the door, then grabbed the other mattresses and piled them up. After he threw them out the door and to one side, he returned with the hose and positioned it to Tara’s face. Using the gun-like part at the end, he held the hose as a weapon, ready to go, and then released the handle.

  Tara held her breath as long as she could, despite the hard jet that hit her mouth and nose, soaking her to the skin again. Pain rushed powerfully up her nasal cavity, and she fought harder, coughing as she tried to get her breath as she choked. She held her breath. Then she gasped again, drawing no air but plenty of water in; her larynx sealed shut, and now she could no longer manage any air. When her eyes rolled back and she fell unconscious, her airway opened, and she breathed normally.

  Aaron used his fists to catch Sadie’s head and to save his testicles from her claws.

  Despite Tara’s being cold and wet, John flipped her over his shoulder in a fireman carry and took her up the stairs.

  Aaron grabbed Sadie’s arm and pulled her along with him. “All of you have almost caused her death. When we come back, Connie, you have the toothpicks, every last one of them, and maybe you won’t get hurt. Think about it. I am getting tired of this whole thing.”

  Sadie and Tara were in the grey room, so when Tara awakened, she almost passed out again from the horrible fear that clasped at her. She shook her head, refusing to accept being there.

  “Better now, Tara?” Aaron asked.

  “No, No, please,” Tara croaked a response.

  “Calm down.”

  “Alice did it,” Tara screamed. “Make her suffer; I didn’t do it. I didn’t steal anything. She did it all.”

  “Yes, she did.”

  “Make her suffer. Why doesn’t she get punishe
d?”

  “We know it doesn’t seem right,” Aaron admitted. “I can’t say it seems fair, but this is what you all have to learn: others suffer when we do foolish things.”

  “This is how it works, Tara,” John was angry.

  John could have taken Tara, and she would have screamed a long time because of the damage Cain had done to her the night before, but he desired Alice. It wasn’t time to choose yet, so he couldn’t lay claim to her, but he wanted her. He watched Aaron with Sadie, wondering what would happen.

  Aaron had her partially stripped with only a little fight and was on top of her, holding her down with his weight, pinching her skin to leave marks. The woman had stopped fighting, going wide-eyed, and although she had sworn to handle the brutalization, she couldn’t handle it. She arched her back up to get away, but couldn’t, so she just lay there and begged, knowing she might have talked big but was just as terrified as Tara.

  John felt cheated. A slow burn was in his gut, threatening to become a raging firestorm.

  Tara bit at him as he cuffed her against the grey wall.

  The next best thing to taking Alice was making Tara scream. The first lash from his belt made her gasp with a bright, clear, clean pain that made her open her mouth and not make another sound but the single gasp. “We don’t steal toothpicks or anything else, Tara,” he said as a way to explain his fury. “We don’t abide those who steal.” He hit her, but that was all because he wasn’t yet able to like being with the woman he wanted.

  He mused over the long, red mark that ran across one butt cheek. The next blow was along one set of ribs and ran to the other where the belt wrapped, stinging and bruising the tender flesh. Tara made an “Oh, Oh, Oh” sound now. It was her fault he couldn’t have Alice yet.

  After seeing what was done to Tara, or maybe the reality of this happening to her, made Sadie close down and look to the side with eyes that were no more aware of anything than those of a doll might be.

  Sadie made the same noise, whining at each nasty pinch that bruised her flesh, which made John swing harder the third time. And fourth. And fifth. It took much longer than he had figured to make her back bleed, but it did in time, thin lines of blood that were more red than the raised welts and purple shadows rising on her back and buttocks. She did scream a while but passed out, which didn’t really ruin the enjoyment he got from beating Tara.

  He was pouring sweat from all his work.

  Aaron was in a mood and was rough in his verbal abuse until Sadie stopped reacting and only lay back in a stupor, crying; she couldn’t take being in the same room, seeing Tara beaten; it ruined her bravado as she cried helplessly.

  “I haven’t even begun to hurt you,” Aaron whispered to her. He waved to dismiss John and Tara. “You will act right. We need you to behave.”

  She couldn’t take anymore. The light began to leave her eyes as her heart rate went down.

  Connie dutifully handed John the six toothpicks when he brought Tara back.

  “Good girl,” he said. He laid Tara face down on the cold, wet, blue sheet and nodded at the shivering. “You all brought this on, so you can suffer the consequences of sleeping on the cold floor with wet sheets. She may not make it; we’ll have to see, but no matter. The boys promised new girls.” He left them there.

  They never saw Sadie again. Some people lost the will to keep fighting and living.

  Alice knew that giving in had been a mistake; they had to resist. She ached and tried hard to focus on other things.

  They bathed Tara again, very gently cleaning her wounds with soft strokes of the washcloth, but she whimpered the whole time until they couldn’t touch her anymore. Her back was a mass of bloodied, torn skin. When she was somewhat clean, they took turns in the make shift tub to clean themselves, carefully tilting the tub to run the used water down the drain in the floor. Alice tried not to see the looks the other two cast her; the hurt, the pain, and the betrayal they felt showed in their faces.

  Alice knew it was her fault Sadie had suffered and was now gone.

  If she had another chance, she wouldn’t steal lousy toothpicks but would go for a knife or nothing.

  Tara cried in her sleep for her dead husband Nate, for her parents, and for herself. Connie carefully rubbed lotion on the wounds, and they set the driest sheet against her back, but it would stick if they left it, and nothing could be done for the cold they all felt. Tara’s lips were faintly blue.

  John brought down a big bag of hot popcorn for their dinner and said they could just survive on that; he was still angry about the toothpicks. He had plastic cups that he set out and added a big pot of the mulled cider before he left. The popped corn didn’t even have fake butter flavor or much salt, but it was good.

  The aroma was intoxicating.

  John wordlessly brought down some pills, and Connie managed to get Tara to swallow pain relievers with her cup of cider; they all drank for the warmth, but it tasted delicious.

  It hadn’t been long, but Alice craved a fast food: a burger and fries or a cheesy lasagna, a real bed, and people who liked her. She was so damned tired. As she drained the cup, Alice mentally tried to kick herself as she felt the warmth build and her head go foggy.

  Oh no. It wasn’t fair to be drugged again. Not fair.

  4

  The scents were incredible, making Audra’s mouth water as she sniffed at the air, discovering sweet-smelling candied apples and cotton candy, spicy meat with onions and peppers, savory hot dogs and burgers, and fried funnel cakes. She ignored the sawdust and the sour smell of beer.

  Women called children back who had strayed, the rides made swooping, whooshing noises, barkers challenged people to win, win a prize, make the little lady and kiddies happy with a prize, and people screamed with fear and delight from the rides. Excitement was in the air.

  Audra admired Brenda’s cowgirl boots worn with a flirty, short denim shirt, which twirled about her when she spun, and the sexy, shiny, blue, haltertop. When she complimented her friend, Brenda rolled her eyes and said her feet hurt and that Audra had been clever to wear the sneakers, denim shorts, and flirty little top. Whatever, but she was freezing cold and wished for a jacket.

  Brenda carried a little scruffy bear that was worth a quarter and had cost her ten dollars to win and the last of a caramel apple that was eaten almost to the core. Audra took a last bite of the stick of cotton candy and showed off her blue tongue after swallowing it.

  “Hey!” Brenda snarled at a teen, who had brushed past her, causing her to drop the rest of the apple onto the ground.

  “You’re clumsy.” The boy laughed, kicking at the dropped apple with the toe of his boot.

  “Get some manners, idiot.” Brenda wagged her head dramatically back at him.

  He laughed again, elbowing his friend. “Oh, sorry, Ma’am.”

  The other boy eyed the bear. “Did you win that?”

  “Yes. I got it by shooting baskets,” Brenda snapped back.

  “She’s a play-ah.” The boy quipped while his eyes took in Brenda’s sizable breasts, braless in her halter. He grinned at her with crooked teeth.

  “What have you won?” Audra asked. “Oh, that would be... nothing,” she and Brenda said in unison, laughing.

  The boys laughed with them.

  “I’m Josh. This is Neal. Who are you?”

  Brenda told them, acting unconcerned if they tagged along, but she was aware of how boys always noticed her and liked the attention. She didn’t seem to care that the boys were a few years younger than she and Audra were. They were eighteen. Both boys chattered, asking them silly questions and pointing out various shows and games.

  “Wanna ride the Double Hammer with us? My treat?” Josh held up a huge roll of tickets.

  “Okay,” Brenda said, beginning to chat with Josh, leaving Audra to walk behind with the fat, buck-toothed friend.

  Audra sighed and tried to listen as the other boy, Neal, spoke and asked mundane questions.

  In the long line for the
ride, she watched Brenda dance to the loud rock music that blared from speakers and nodded a few times as Neal talked. So boring. Brenda seemed to be having a good time as she danced and listened to the screams from the riders.

  Of course, when it was their turn and they got into the cages, Audra was left to sit with Neal. She pulled the big chest bar down, pulled the bar up so it locked in place, and then wiped her hands against her shorts, imagining the germs.

  The carnie who ran the ride, his greasy long hair in a ponytail, slammed the door closed, leaving them in the claustrophobic cage that smelled of body odor and oil.

  When the ride began, they swung like a pendulum up and back, up and back, going a little higher each time so that the dread and excitement could build.

  Finally, they went flying up into the air, hung upside down for a few long seconds, and then went around and around. After a few times, the ride shifted, and the process began again, to fling them around and over backwards.

  Audra screamed with excitement and because everyone did. Neal grinned at her as they swung and felt a second of fear when she slid down further in her hard plastic seat so that she was barely sitting in place.

  Josh invited them to ride the Ferris wheel next. The wheel itself was lighted up, and the lights flashed colors as the music played. The boys rocked the round car, and the girls laughed and whooped with them, daring to hold their arms and hands overhead, instead of holding onto the bar. The lights of the fairground were pretty from way up high.

  The young women walked along with the boys.

  Audra watched children who were whisked from the line they were in, one by one, and set on ponies who walked around a circular track. Looking bored and tired, the little horses never stopped walking and never reacted as the riders were put on them and removed, and new riders added.

  The carnie took each child from the back and set him on the horses, and as Audra watched, she noticed that with the little girls, the man’s hands went up higher on the ribs, almost as if he tried to feel for breasts that weren’t there yet.

  At another ride where cars spun wildly, a carnie used a water hose to spray away vomit and tossed some pine-scented chemicals to cover the stench.