When We Were 8

by catt dahman

  “Why not? You liked Tiffany’s sweater, and I know what you want to do,” Jill talked in a sing- song manner. “Did you think I wasn’t watching you? There’s a mirror angled just so, and I saw it all. ALL of you,” Jill said as she leered and smiled slightly.

  “Yeah?”

  “Been a while since a man looked at me and reacted that way,” said Jill as she forced a giggle.

  “You like what you seen?” Jered tensed his arm muscles.

  Jill licked her lips and didn’t respond. Randy, the older brother, came out onto the porch. He had on tiny cutoffs and looked the women up and down and whistled. “Ummm, nice. What happened to you?” he asked Angel.

  “One of the girls tried to tell me I wasn’t coming here. She bossed me, and we had a fight. No matter. I’m here.”

  “Yeah, you are. And what about the other gals?” Randy asked.

  “I told them to go on home. I don’t care what they do. I don’t like being bossed around.”

  The men told them their names and asked the women their names. Randy laughed, “You’re beat up, but I like the name Angel, and I likes that pretty hair.”

  Angel tossed her hair and smiled.

  “We gotta cousin staying with us. That’s Earl. And we gots a younger brother named Eben, and he don’t have much muscle use, some disease with some big-ass name. Can’t walk or much, but he’s got pretty good arms, and his pecker works just fine.”

  “Oh, yeah?” Angel asked.

  “I aint’ never complained about it anyway. Does good when I have a need,” Jered grinned.

  Tiffany smiled sweetly, despite wanting to puke on Jered when he said that, patting his own butt. Incest, no less. The women expected two men, but there were four although one might not be a problem.

  Tiffany shivered, and it was all she could do to keep from running; the men made her feel sick. Only the resolve and strength in Jill’s face gave her courage. “Cool,” she muttered.

  Randy asked, “What’s womens like you sniffing around here like bitches in heat?

  “Being friendly,” Jill said. “Why not? You wanted us to be friendly, right?”

  “How friendly you plan on being?” Randy smirked.

  “Could be very friendly,” Jill said as she bit her lip and pretended to think. “My husband, he isn’t very much fun. This is my vacation, and I’ll take some fun where I can get it.” Jill had never lied about Charlie, but Jered’s eyes lit up as his eyes widened and his nostrils flared. He was interested.

  “Mine likes it with his secretary more. I never even see the jerk,” Tiffany lied about Joey. Joey’s secretary was matronly and often motherly, so the lie came easily.

  “I just like a man anyway, anywhere, anyhow. I like it kinky and rough; think anyone here can manage that?” Despite Angel’s bruises, her lush, ripe body was like a magnet that drew their eyes to her. She licked her lips and tilted her head back as if posing for a centerfold. She knew how to get attention.

  Jill and Tiffany were play-acting and only wanted the plan to work and the nightmare to end. They saw this as the means to an end, a way to save themselves and the others, and a way to be free. Jill thought Angel wasn’t acting but loved the excitement, drinking, sexual thrills, and the debauchery.

  It wasn’t just all of that, but it was also powerful for Angel. She looked as if she loved being the object of the men’s lust. Knowing these men were perverts and sick didn’t temper Angel’s desire; it might be stoking it even.

  “Maybe we should have gone the other way, looking for some men in town, but since you showed an interest….” Tiffany said. She was nervous about Angel’s flirtations but thought that if nothing else, Angel was believable.

  “Come on in,” Randy said.

  “We like friendly company,” said Jered as he ran a greasy hand across Jill’s back, and her flesh rippled with revulsion, but she faked another giggle. She was only able to go into the cabin because she wanted to avoid Jered’s hands.

  The inside of the cabin stank. Animal hides hung in various states of drying where they were being cured with urine. Dirty dishes were in the sink, filled with rotting foods. On a pallet, lay Eben, the youngest brother. His arms were roped with light muscles, and he was able to raise his head, slinging it so his filthy, unwashed, matted hair flew out of his eyes. He drooled, making his yellow-grey undershirt damp and coating his chin with slime.

  His sheet barely covered him, and they saw his legs were so untoned and flabby that they looked to be melting into the grimy, grey sheet as his lower body slid and sagged down into the thin mattress. His skin was so grey that it was hard to tell where the bed ended and Eben began; both were soggy and mushy. The bedsores reeked as much as the armpit odor, his breath, and his unwashed body. The women struggled to keep from gagging.

  “Earl, looky what we found. Three ladies wanting some man fun. They said they was lovin’ the attention. I knew they was. Why else did they practically beg us to look at them? I told you so,” Jered called.

  Jill shuddered but smiled, “Awe, we were being teases.”

  “I bet we know some men who can be fun, don’t we?” Jered laughed. He pointed to Randy and said, “I knew they’d want us.”

  “Who wouldn’t?” Tiffany giggled.

  Randy rubbed his hands against his shorts, “You’re somethin’ else.”

  “That we are. We are like nothing you’ve ever imagined,” Jill whispered, twirling her hair between her fingers and sighing. She had to do something, or she’d vomit because of stench.

  Jill still didn’t know how they would get them back to the cabin, considering Eben was melting, something beyond disgusting. They hadn’t known that part or been able to plan for it.

  “Come back with us and have a party. All the other girls except one are gone. She won’t care. She might be tempted.” She had to get the men to follow them to the trail where the other women could help them.

  “Wouldn’t be my red-haired girlie would it?”

  Jill giggled as she answered, “It is. Her name is Meg.”

  “Give me a taste….” Jered reached for Jill.

  “I want you back where you first saw me. And I have beer, whisky, rum, vodka, and a little fun thing to smoke,” said Jill as she removed the marijuana cigarette that Cassie had slipped her from Angel’s stash.

  The men hooted and grinned as they eyed the cigarette. They lit it and passed it around.

  As Jill and Tiffany took it, they sucked up smoke but turned to the side so no one saw that they didn’t inhale. They released the smoke quickly. Angel claimed she had already smoked two even though she hadn’t. Jill had three more she shared, and none of the men caught on that the women didn’t inhale anything; they were too greedy to care that they were the only ones smoking the dope.

  “We’ll go, but Eben here, he still has his needs.”

  “Go? Eben?” Jill was stunned. Okay, the men were willing to go back, and that fit the plan although she was surprised they agreed. What they would do with Eben was unclear. She stared at his stinking body and filthy teeth and was ready to call it quits. She didn’t know what to do.

  Angel’s face changed, and it truly was like looking at an actress working. She smiled, flipped her hair, and leaned down so her bosom was close to Eben’s face. His eyes widened. “I want this one. Do you want me?”

  He drooled harder.

  “I said I like it kinky,” Angel said.

  Jill and Tiffany had gone to the door and were about to run; Angel shocked them with her actions, and they both felt sick.

  “You aren’t going are you?” Randy demanded.

  Jill steeled herself. She was able to get control now that she didn’t have to see what was happening. “No, I just always need fresh air when Angel gets so sexy.”

  “Excited?” Randy asked.

  “Oh, yeah. Very. She is a monster.” She saw him grin, thinking she meant it as a compliment, but Tiffany nodded, agreeing with Jill that Angel was monstrous. Period.

  Jill an
d Tiffany licked their lips and begged the boys to come back to their place where they could make drinks and take their time.

  “Let’s go,” Randy said. He, Earl, and Jered gathered on the porch.

  “Go on and find Meg. I’ll stay here with ole Eben a while,” Angel called. “We’re gonna have fun.”

  “You do like your fun,” Tiffany grimaced.

  “She must like him,” Earl said. “I’d think a gal that hot wouldn’t go for him, but….”

  “She’s a real freak,” Jered said. He shook his head with disbelief. “Is she always like this? I mean Eben is a good fellow, but he’s not always the one chicks go for.”

  “She is a freak. She’s a total freak, and I am as surprised as you are. I never can guess what she’ll do next,” Tiffany said.

  Randy slapped Jill’s rear as they walked back down the trail.

  Jill and Tiffany felt strange about leaving Angel in the ratty, stinky cabin, but as they walked together, they didn’t know what else they could do.

  “So how do we want to pair up?” Earl asked.

  “Anyway you want,” Tiffany smiled. She forced a giggle and danced away from his clutching hands.

  The men laughed as they walked, weaving and showing the effects of the drugs. Whatever Angel had laced the marijuana with was making them stumble. Jill hoped that everyone was working the plan because she didn’t know how much more of the nightmare she could stand. Her fingers felt numb, and she hadn’t inhaled the drugs, so she knew the men were stoned.

  “My ankle!” Tiffany screamed and dropped to her butt on the trail. She rocked back and forth and screamed when the men tried to see what was wrong.

  Jill rubbed her temples and prayed.

  Chapter 8

  “What the hell?”

  In the cabin, Angel looked at Meg and shook her head. “You don’t want to know. First, they have a cousin with them, so there are three out there with Tiffany and Jill. Second, this is Eben. It was Eben.”

  “What is he?” Nelwynn asked. She could hardly stand the reek of the cabin.

  On the cot was what remained of a man, but the women could see something else was terribly wrong with him besides his being beaten so badly that his skull split. His features were pulped, and bloody and bone shards were all over the mess.

  “He had some muscle disease. Who knows? When the men left with Tiffany and Jill, I was trapped here with him, okay? I fought with him, he raped me and beat me, but I was able to grab this flashlight and save myself.”

  Angel showed them the bloody, battered flashlight; it was of good quality, long-handled, and only slightly bent and warped after being used as a weapon.

  “Isn’t adding rape a bit of over-kill. I mean so to speak?” Cassie asked. “Gross.”

  “Well, if they want tests and it comes to that, we want the story to be airtight, right? I took the hardest job of all. I handled this part.”

  “Tests? What? A rape kit? But….” Nelwynn’s eyes went huge.

  “You didn’t!” Whitney blurted. “Tell me you didn’t.”

  “I did what I had to. I have the bruises, don’t I? It fits perfectly. The plan was weak. This way, you came a little too late and saved me, but I was okay since I defended myself. You were crazy and scared and….” said Angel.

  Meg finished tossing the backpacks in the corner except for a few shirts, and dragged Angel out to the porch. She tossed a shirt into the brush near the cabin to preserve the evidence and pulled out a pocket knife wrapped in a bandana, rolled it free into the dirt and stowed the bandana again.

  Whitney had to stop at the railing and force herself to stop vomiting. She seemed to be sick a lot since being here with the other women. She was glad Meg dragged Angel out, or she would have lost her mind.

  Nelwynn ran out of the cabin seconds after Cassie tipped over the old-fashioned kerosene lamp and set the cabin ablaze.

  “What kept you?” Samantha demanded. “I was scared to death out here waiting.” She had waited nervously for them to come outside.

  “We’ll explain. We had an unexpected extra person in the cabin,” Cassie said.

  “Why’re you here, Angel? You’re supposed to be with Tiffany and Jill,” Samantha continued.

  “Again, we had an unexpected extra person,” Cassie responded. “Give us time. Right now, we have to meet the other girls. Fast.”

  Each woman gave Cassie a nod, letting Cassie know everything was okay, and then Cassie led the way down the trail.

  Behind them, the cabin began to burn hot, warming their backs. The fire might be reported or might not be, depending on who saw the smoke; big fires to clear areas, campfires, and other blazes were common up here near the river and generally were ignored unless they spread.

  The cabin wasn’t very large, and the fire couldn’t spread past the big dirt yard, so it was likely to be unreported. That was what the women hoped for.

  On the trail, the women moved quietly until they heard Tiffany crying about her ankle.

  Jill saw her friends and knew the time was perfect to act. Jered, drugged and sleepy, sat down on the trail and was irritated that Tiffany was crying and had stopped the party.

  Jill saw his eyes were slightly unfocused, so she took a large rock that she had already spied, swung back and forward, and cracked Jered in the forehead.

  Her adrenaline was high, and she was scared and nervous; her aim was perfect, and the blow sent him sprawling, barely conscious. Before he could move, she struck again, ignoring all the action around her.

  Cassie and Whitney jumped on Earl’s back and yanked him over and backward so that Meg could stab him in his throat. Her hand became slippery with the blood, but she kept stabbing until Whitney and Cassie let him go and he crawled away.

  “That was harsh,” Cassie said.

  Meg smiled crookedly. “Not really. Look what they did to us. Give me another, and I’ll do the same. Don’t mind slitting them up.”

  “I can tell,” said Cassie, frowning, “but I thought it would be less personal.”

  “It’s always personal,” Meg said and kicked at a rock. “When isn’t it? Be real.”

  Jered stood in place, his face a mask of confusion, as he tried to understand what was happening. He looked at his brother and cousin and then at the women. He looked very afraid of Meg. “Hey, wait a second.”

  “Why?” Angel asked.

  Tiffany, Nelwynn, and Samantha stood around him.

  “Is this about us spying on you?” Jered asked.

  “Maybe,” Tiffany said, “and it’s about everything else. It’s about you perverts and worthless shit, too.”

  “Yeah, it is,” Meg called.

  “We just looked and did a few things. You came to us,” Jered said.

  Nelwynn shrugged as she said, “They did, but it’s how things are. I’m sorry you had to see the other guys like this. You know you’ve been in trouble for messing with women anyway.”

  “You killed my brother and....”

  Nelwynn agreed and shrugged again. “I think they probably never saw it coming, really, and it didn’t last long. Sorry, but it would’ve been easier for you if you’d not tried to talk this out.”

  Jered lunged at Tiffany, trying to push past her, and he knocked her down, backhanding her across the face. He stumbled. Angel ran behind him, catching up easily as he stumbled over rocks and blundered into the brush on the side of the trail. She used a long, sharp filet knife from the cabin to stab him.

  “Not in the back,” Samantha yelled. She used her body to push at Jered and blocked his path, “and not here.”

  “Right. Walk back there to the rest,” Angel waved the knife at Jered, glad she had gotten it back from Cassie. She wished she had had it for Eben because her arm was sore from the beating she gave him. She grinned and motioned Jered to go back.

  Jered hung his head and stumbled again, but instead of complying or falling, he jumped at Angel, grabbing her wrist and squeezing. In a split second, she dropped her knife, and he sc
ooped it up.

  Samantha was closest to him as he whirled, and he raked the blade across her stomach. The pain was white hot, and she screamed, slapping her hands against the rush of bright red that poured from her wound.

  Nelwynn and Angel jumped back.

  “Now, you bitches get outta my way,” Jered yelled.

  “We can work this out,” Angel smiled brightly.

  “Work what out?” Jered turned as Samantha cried out again, claiming she was bleeding to death. “You started it.”

  Cassie hit him from behind, and Whitney was close, pinning him as he slashed at her. Whitney’s arms bled as she fought him, and he sliced her. She roared as she fought.

  Angel stomped down on his wrist as Cassie pinned his arm. The knife fell away.

  Instead of using the filet knife, Meg pulled out her side arm and fired once into Jered’s chest. Then, Meg slumped down on the ground, watching him die and daring him to get up, her face unemotional.

  “We said no guns,” Cassie yelled.

  “I don’t go anywhere without my sidearm, Cas. What is more believable? That we happened to be out walking with half the kitchen’s cutlery in our belts? It makes more sense that I had my pistol,” Meg huffed. “The plan changed, and we’ve adapted.”

  “Give me anything you have. Sammie’s not hurt that bad. But she’s bleeding,” Jill said. Bandanas?”

  Whitney held up her bleeding arms, “Well, this works out perfectly, but it hurts like a bitch.”

  Cassie looked at the deep gashes. “You need stitches.”

  “We don’t have the luxury, do we?” Whitney said. “So Samantha and I are clear. We’re done.” She gave Cassie a knowing glance and raised her eyebrows.

  “I have my bruises,” Angel said.

  “Meg?” Cassie asked. She looked at the other women. This was part of the plan and a part they hated.

  “Go on and do it. Make it quick,” Meg closed her eyes and waited as Nelwynn gave Cassie a nod and walked over to Meg.

  “We said no guns. I’ll gladly do it. You never could just go along with anything, could you? You always have to do it your way,” Nelwynn grumbled. She hit Meg on the cheek, knocking Meg flat.