True Monsters: Thriller and Suspense Novella (Ungoverned Series)

by Shawn Raiford

  “How are you doing Bud?”

  “Oh, hey guys, I’m good."

  Bud walked near my bed, making sure to stay far enough away of striking distance. "What do you say, Chloe?"

  Sighing, I shut my eyes. "Okay."

  Uncle turned to Bud, pointed at me. "Okay, Bud you mad at her?"

  Grinning, he sat on the edge of my bed. He grinned like a retarded orangutan. "Heck no! I understand Chloe is just a little scared. I’ll be gentle,”

  Exhaling, I cried.

  That night was the first night they began renting me out to strange men.

  Chapter Three

  Colored Pencils

  Two years later.

  I went inside after working in the garden for a few hours, planting roses.

  While Henry liked to be a little pig, playing in the dirt and mud, I liked working in the garden. Planting seeds, allowing flowers to grow.

  Grabbing a cup from the cupboard, I drank two glasses of ice water and took a cold shower. I showered fast because the monsters were not home.

  Us children called the Parnells the Monsters.

  The bathroom door did not have a lock, and sometimes they would enter, and spy on me.

  So creepy.

  I got dressed in some shorts and a stained tank top. Feeling a little creative, I pulled out my notebook, markers, and some colored pencils.

  Mama introduced me to drawing a while back—drawing helped me to escape.

  Doodling, I liked to draw curlicues and hearts. My notebooks had all kinds of drawing and doodles. Drawing ugly faces and funny-looking monsters was my favorite.

  Pulled out a black colored pencil and smiled. I loved the moment—creating something which never existed before. My mind creating something entirely new.

  My little brother liked to watch me draw. He liked my monsters and the funny faces.

  He missed Mama so I drew funny pictures of him and me and Mama.

  KNOCK! KNOCK!

  "Who is it?" It had to be my little brother, because the monsters never knocked.

  "It's me!"

  My mouth stretched into a smile. “Come in."

  Henry entered my room, sitting hunched over on the edge of my bed. "What are you drawing?"

  Shrugging, I said, "Stuff."

  Henry perused my notebook. He traced the lines with his finger.

  Didn't appear to have been crying or anything but something was wrong. My drawings often brought laughter and huge smiles but Henry seemed sad.

  "Chloe?"

  "What's up?"

  He shook his head. "Nothing, never mind.”

  Gently grasping his arm, I asked, "What's wrong?"

  Henry couldn't look at me, sometimes he was too shy. "I don't know how to say it.”

  "Just start talking and the words will come out," I told him.

  He threw me a half shrug. "It's embarrassing, I don't know if I can say it."

  I put my pencil down, moved closer to him. I put my arm around his shoulder, touching the bones under his skin. "Henry, you know you can tell me anything. I don't care what it is, just tell me. I'm your big sister, and it's my job to help you and protect you."

  He glanced up at me and smiled. His finger traced the drawings in my notebook. "What if someone did something bad?"

  I exhaled. "What do you mean? Bad? And who is someone?"

  His attention turned to the door as if making sure no one stood at the door. Henry turned back to me and whispered, "I mean what if Uncle did something bad?"

  An electric tingle began in my face, shot down to my chest, out to my hands. "What did he do?" I tried to keep my voice calm and even to not scare Henry.

  His mouth twisted slightly, then he shrugged.

  "Hey, come on, just tell me," I urged.

  His eyes glanced up at me then back down. “What if Uncle touched me?"

  A couple of fingers on my left hand twitched. "You mean he touched you …”

  He nodded. "Yeah, down there.” Henry pointed to his crotch.

  My vision became blurry as tears formed. "Are you telling me Uncle touched you down there?" My voice cracked, and I began crying.

  Henry placed his hand on my arm. "Why are you crying?” He then put his arm around me. "Are you mad at me, Chloe?"

  Through the tears, I chuckled. "No way! Henry, you are my best friend in the whole world! I love you. I can't be mad at you. You did nothing wrong.”

  "Uncle told me not to tell anyone but I …"

  I shook my head. "Henry, you did the right thing telling me."

  Henry stared at his hands.

  I rubbed my wet eyes.

  “Chloe?”

  “What?"

  Raised his head, and the pain in his eyes was evident.

  “Kenneth and Miranda were there too."

  Chapter Four

  An Accomplishment

  Two weeks later.

  “I can suck it before that bitch comes home.” My hair wrapped in pigtails, I wore nothing but a bra and panties.

  If you're fishing, you have to use the right bait.

  Since learning about what the Parnells allowed Uncle to do to Henry, I began planning my revenge. It took longer than I wanted, but I had to make sure I had everything I needed.

  Staring at him sitting in his recliner, I figured I had time. Miranda took Henry and Annabelle to the grocery store.

  Kenneth looked like a lost first grader not sure what to say. Not even noon yet, and the monster sat there, almost drunk. He took another swig of Old Milwaukee. He wiped his mouth and burped. Kenneth fingered the hole in his wife-beater that fit snuggly around his midsection. “I uh …”

  I said nothing.

  Of course he would be confused, they did not do it this way, much less with me or Henry. The rule: Kenneth could piddle little girls so as long Miranda got to observe. Never alone. She did not participate in the piddling. Poor Annabelle took the brunt of that situation. There was nothing I could do to help her. The adults had all the power.

  The monsters used the word piddle to sound less perverse.

  They were not allowed to touch me because I made Uncle money, which meant Kenneth also made money off of me. However, Uncle made it clear not to touch me unless he wanted to lose his balls. The deal was, as long as I did what they said, they would leave my little brother alone. A part of that deal was Kenneth could not touch me.

  One day a few months ago I got into an argument with Kenneth and told Uncle he pinned me down and put his finger in me. Uncle put a beaten on Kenneth, and slapped the ugly off of Miranda.

  “So what? You’re a man right? You got any balls or does Miranda have them in her purse?” I stuck my finger in my mouth.

  His forehead wrinkled. “Hell yeah I'm a man!” Half slurred his words.

  “Well, come here!" I motioned with my finger.

  Shook his head. “Nope! Miranda is fucking crazy! You know how she can get!”

  One monster was afraid of the other one. He had a good reason to be afraid; Miranda oozed crazy from her pores. Henry told me once he caught her sitting in his bedroom in the dark, in the middle of the night. Just staring at him.

  However, Uncle frightened him more. Miranda might be crazy, but Uncle could be vicious.

  Moving to the edge of the recliner, Kenneth looked at me.

  Here fishy fishy fishy. “You pussy!”

  “I really want to but she’d cut off my pecker if she caught us,” he said.

  Kenneth liked being tied up and slapped by Annabelle or other loaner kids from Uncle. I knew all about it, because they made me sit and bask in their perversion.

  Although, he was a disgusting monster, Kenneth was a clean freak.

  I did not understand it.

  He took at least three baths a day, and persistently washing germs off of his hands. Also, he and Miranda believed in God. They believed Jesus was their savior.

  I did not understand that one either.

  Guess they skipped over the part about raping children being
a sin.

  I sucked in my bottom lip. “Come on, I’ll tie you up.”

  Standing there a few seconds appearing dumber than a box of rocks, he said, “Okay, but you can’t leave any marks on me. Miranda will see them and shit kittens!”

  “Okay, I promise Miranda won’t find out,” I assured him.

  He pushed past me to go into Heaven. Miranda called their bedroom Heaven because she sensed God’s presence when she had an orgasm.

  As soon as Kenneth noticed the rope by the chair he stopped. He stood in front of the chair to wait to be told what to do.

  Pointing to the chair next to his bed, I commanded, “Take your clothes off and sit down!”

  As he undressed, I felt as if I was waking, after living inside a nightmare for two years. This moment is real. This is MY life and I am in control of it.

  I tied Kenneth’s arms to the armrests and blindfolded him like I witnessed done dozens of times before. Walking over to the dresser, I pulled open the top drawer.

  Kenneth thought I was grabbing the small whip they used, but I grabbed something else. Although his head tilted towards the floor, and difficult to see his face, I could see him grinning. Not for long.

  Stood behind Kenneth with the very same bloodstained Louisville Slugger I witnessed him use to beat to death stray dogs and cats from around Baytown.

  While living at their house, Kenneth made me use the bat and a machete on dogs and cats. I never wanted to kill anything in my life.

  Gripped the bat and swung.

  CRACK!

  Jeff Bagwell would have been proud of that swing. Kenneth’s head bobbled and fell to the side. I walked around the limp body in the chair. “That was way too easy.” I became angry with myself for not doing this sooner.

  I scarcely felt anything. Ever since the Parnells stole my innocence that night, I had been numb.

  It dawned on me, I accomplished something big. Knocking Kenneth out, was the first step, but a step I performed with little physical effort. Only using my brain. Knowing this made me feel great. I liked feeling.

  “Wow! I did it!” I stared down at the bat.

  Dropped it and ran over, and I reached under the bed for the super glue I hid earlier. Next, I grabbed the shoebox that had special goodies from under the bed, and placed it on the top of the bed before heading to the garage.

  Returning two minutes later, I had retrieved a cage, which held rats. Kenneth’s new friends.

  Chapter Five

  Darkness Came

  Miranda arrived not in a mood for anybody’s shit.

  God damn, sorry ass kids! she thought.

  All they knew how to do was make noise and piss her off. She put her purse and two brown paper bags down on the kitchen counter.

  Told Annabelle and Henry, “Hey you two go outside! I can't take any fucking noise. I got a goddamn headache. Go down the street and play with Sally.”

  "Okay, let's go Henry!" Annabelle said.

  Henry grabbed Annabelle's hand and both ran out the door.

  Miranda reached in the paper bag, she pulled out a brand new bottle of aspirin. She went to the cupboard and grabbed a wine glass. A half-full bottle of wine sat on the counter. She filled the glass. Popped the pills into her mouth, and chased them with a mouthful of red wine. Her eyes remained closed for almost a full minute, enjoying the taste of the wine.

  Wondering what to cook later for supper, she put up all the groceries and took a gander in the pantry.

  With the pound of hamburger meat, she could make Hamburger Helper.

  The kids liked it and her lazy, good-for-nothing husband liked it too.

  Miranda didn't care what they had for supper as long as it was easy to make and no one complained.

  She and Kenneth had learned they had to treat the kids halfway decent or the fucking CPS would come slithering in, trying to take her children away from her. That meant less government money.

  Miranda walked towards the bathroom to store the aspirin in the medicine cabinet. Just before reaching her destination there was crying coming from the direction of her bedroom.

  Damn it! That's all I need, she thought.

  Miranda put the bottle of aspirin in the medicine cabinet in the bathroom.

  She headed towards her bedroom.

  That little bitch sat in the doorway, sniffling. She was only wearing her bra and panties.

  Bringing her head up, Chloe’s eyes glistened. "He made me …"

  Kenneth did something stupid. “That fucking Kenneth! What the hell did he do?”

  Stepping over Chloe's outstretched legs, she entered her bedroom. Her left eyebrow shot up. Her husband sat in her grandmother’s wooden chair with a bandana covering his eyes.

  He was totally naked.

  Wincing, she didn't understand. “What the hell? Why is he asleep in that chair?” Her head slammed forward, and her neck bent like a water hose.

  Taking a step forward, her eyes closed shut from an intense pain in her head. Her brain wanted to exit through her eyes.

  She reached around to touch the point of the pain on the back of her head. Her hand came back red and her vision became blurry.

  Woozy and disoriented, Miranda fell backward onto her butt. Lying down on the floor, Miranda’s head spinning.

  She glanced up at the ceiling and saw Chloe leaning over her. A bat rested on her shoulder.

  "Hi Miranda, how are you?” Chloe smiled.

  A dark halo surrounded the little bitch's head. Miranda reached up, wanting to touch it but couldn't. Tried to answer the question but she couldn't open her mouth to speak. Sleepy and tired, the darkness came over Miranda like a heavy blanket.

  Chapter Six

  Misery

  It didn't take me long to find it.

  A machete.

  My blade.

  It was on the workbench, laying like a long, metallic viper, ready to strike. I lost count of the number of times I used to it to spill blood.

  The workbench was stained with various shades of red and black. Kenneth killed countless animals on the bench, but many more in the kill room, positioned below the garage.

  Poor animals.

  Over time I got used to killing.

  Kenneth took me many times out to the woods to trap all kinds of animals.

  He taught me to do things, sick and painful things to the animals we trapped. We trapped all kinds of forest animals like: deer, opossums, raccoons, and rabbits.

  He would put two or more animals in a cage after starving them. There was always one that killed the other, and the winner typically survived a day, or more, by eating on the loser’s carcass.

  Watching the animals fight to the death, always made Kenneth laugh. He never made Henry or Annabelle, but he forced me to watch them as they tore each other up.

  Dogs were pitted against deer, cats were pitted against raccoons or all kinds of animals in the same cage at the same time after not having anything to eating for over a week.

  Kenneth pulled out teeth or claws with pliers. He stabbed animals in their bellies, or flayed a leg, or used a hammer on their snouts. All made him laugh.

  At first, I hated to kill them, but I got used to torturing animals, hearing the wailing, not really feeling their pain. Awful business, but over time I learned to disconnect from the horror. The first year I had killed dozens of animals.

  Because of Kenneth, I caused a lot of pain and misery in my short life.

  Chapter Seven

  Eat The Worm

  Kenneth squinted, blinked in the brightness of the room, waking.

  God!

  His head hurt like a son of a bitch.

  He couldn't remember the last time his head hurt this bad. He might've had a hangover that hurt this bad but not in recent months. He drank but not like when he was younger.

  It had been a decade since he and his cousin Dewey drank a fifth of tequila. It was the kind of tequila with the worm at the bottom of the bottle.

  He and Dewey went down to Laredo, M
exico. Dewey had dared him that if he could drink enough to eat the worm he would get Kenneth a pretty young one. He drank enough to eat the worm, and Dewey got him a fourteen year-old girl.

  He dealt with a hangover for the next two days.

  The pain in his head equalled that Mexican hangover. Not helping matters, the light burned his retinas.

  When his eyes adjusted to the light Kenneth realized he wasn’t wearing any clothes.

  When he surveyed the room, he saw his wife occupying a chair next to him.

  God she was pasty.

  It reminded him of when he and Miranda first got together. It'd been close to fifteen years ago. He and a buddy were drinking at a honky tonk when Kenneth spotted Miranda. He asked around if anyone knew her. His friend Wayne told him that she hunting for a husband. At the time he did not want to get married.

  After asking the bartender what she drank he bought one and moseyed over to Miranda. He gave her a drink, and told her his name. It took him two hours and four more drinks before she finally agreed to go home with him. They had drunken sex that night. It was awkward, because it was his first time with a female that old.

  Kenneth and Miranda dated for a few months before he caught Miranda checking out the young girls whenever they were shopping at shops and mall. A few days later Kenneth found a few young girl clothing catalogues next to her bed. Upon further search, he found three more boxes of the catalogues.

  He asked her about them and she told him about her urges. They got married a few months later.

  Kenneth glanced up at the girl. Her gaping eyes aimed at him. He shuttered, and wished he'd never met her. Chloe was a strange little girl.

  He realized time had not been Miranda's friend. She may not be the stunner she used to be, but Kenneth still loved the woman.

  Miranda screamed, sounding like a dying bulldog. It hurt him to hear her screaming but he couldn’t move, couldn't help his woman.

  His left hand stuck to the chair. The right arm was tied at the elbow and at his wrist to the armrest.

  His back stuck to the chair. He figured super glue. A rope looped around his neck, holding him.

  Taking in a couple of deep breaths, Kenneth peered down at his chair, and frowned at his hard-on. A rubber band choked the base of his penis, which was a deep crimson.