Exhibit

by Noir, Stella

  “Denny?” she shouted. “Denny, are you here?”

  Carl was sat on the couch, beer in hand, watching a football game on their crummy TV.

  “What the fuck?” he said, as she flew into the house.

  Jess looked everywhere, but he wasn’t there.

  “Fuck, oh fuck”, she said, and started to cry.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you?” Carl said, unsympathetically.

  “Denny. Have you seen him? Has he been here?”

  Jess was pacing and Carl wasn’t answering. The sonofabitch was enjoying it. He took a sup of beer and laughed at her.

  “Carl, what the fuck have you done?”

  She stood between him and the TV, tears streaming down her face now, completely distraught.

  “Get the fuck out of the way”, Carl said, menace tearing his voice to metal shreds.

  “What the fuck have you done with him?” Jess screamed.

  “I will not tell you again, bitch”, Carl said calmly. “Get the fuck out of the way.”

  Jess lost it then, she launched herself at him, her fists flailing. She caught him on the chest, and felt her fist come down on a soft part of his face, before she was upended, and the whole world went black, melting away in a bubble of blood and pain.

  When she saw his face, at first she thought she was dreaming.

  “Mom, wake up”, he was saying. “You’re bleeding.”

  Jess groaned. She tried to turn towards the voice, but couldn’t. There was dry blood caked into spittle, collected at the edge of her mouth, and the rest of her face was a mess of different colors that resembled an artist’s palette.

  She coughed, touched her face and pushed the wetness around swollen skin, before she opened her eyes briefly, until the still swimming room was too much to bear and she had to squeeze them tightly shut again. A sharp pain at the back of her neck was making her skull feel like it had been removed completely from her body.

  “Mom”, Denny said again, urgently.

  She tilted her chin into the faintest of nods, just so he knew she had heard him. She checked her teeth with her tongue, relieved to find them all intact and then attempted to speak.

  “What happened?” she said, the words coming out like scratches on an old record. Denny leaned in so he could hear her better, but Jess didn’t repeat herself. Instead, she pulled him close to her and hugged him as tightly as she could.

  Several minutes later, when enough strength had returned to Jess’s body, she hauled herself up, with Denny’s help, and propped herself up against the arm of the sofa, her face a mess of blood and spit, and her right eye beginning to close over.

  “I saw him, Mom”, Denny said. “He told me not to tell you.”

  “I’m sorry”, Jess said, and began to cry. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

  “Can we leave now, Mom, can we go?”

  Jess pulled Denny into her, hugging him tightly.

  “This is our home Denny, where are we going to go?”

  “Anywhere”, Denny said. “Away from him, anywhere.”

  “I’ll make him leave”, Jess said, knowing she never would. “Would that make it better? If he left?”

  Denny nodded. He’d seen his Mom beat up before, even scared a few times, but nothing like this. Carl had taken it to another level. Jess was still trembling, and it wasn’t because of the cold.

  “Where did you go today?” Jess asked him.

  “Walking”, Denny said, as though it were the most normal thing in the world. “Down to the river, and around town a bit. I played with a dog and threw stones into the water. I got twelve skips. Then I came back when I was hungry.”

  “Why didn’t you go to school?” she said. “I was worried when you weren’t there.”

  “I don’t know, I was angry I suppose, with him, for what he did, at you for letting him do it. I’m sorry, Mom.”

  “Promise me you won’t run away again!, Jess said. !I can’t lose you.”

  “I promise”, Denny said, but his voice lacked conviction.

  “We’ve got to stick together”, Jess said. “Whatveer happens.”

  She was feeling sleepy, and the words came out covered by a yawn so much that Denny didn’t hear them all. He hugged his mom just that little bit tighter anyway, just in case.

  Chapter 7

  Jess covered up the bruise as best as she could, but she couldn’t do much with the swelling. Her jaw hurt like hell, and her right eye was near enough closed by the time she got to work. Lou took one look at her and shook his head.

  “Don’t send me home”, Jess said.

  “I aint going to send you home, girl”, he said, turning her head carefully from side to side, “but Jesus Christ, have you seen it?”

  “I’ve had worse”, Jess said, as though she were talking about the soup at an expensive restaurant.

  “You keep letting him beat up on you like that, there won’t be anything left at all.”

  “It’ll go down”, Jess said, pulling away from him to take off her coat.

  “You look like shit.”

  “Yeah well, at least I’ll match the rest of the place now.”

  “Well you aint lost your sense of humor have you?” Lou said. “You know you can go on home if you want to, I’ll pay you just the same.”

  “You gonna pay me my tips as well?”

  Lou sighed. He got up from where he was sat and went over to Jess.

  “If they ask, it wasn’t me”, he said, and let her get on with her shift.

  The bar was dead for most of the night. Jess saw a few regular faces, and half a dozen more that were either on their way to something or back from it. None of the regulars paid her any mind, as though turning up to work with a swollen cheek was like wearing a red jersey instead of a green one. She preferred it that way anyway. Somebody’s problems were there own, and it wasn’t nobody else’s place to interfere.

  It was right before close, as she was getting ready to pack the bar down, when she heard a familiar voice.

  “I’ll have the rest of that whiskey now.”

  Jack was sat at the bar smoking when she turned around. She stepped forward, unashamed of what the darkness was hiding for her in the position she was currently stood in.

  “We’re about to close”, Jess said.

  “What happened to you?” Jack said as he saw her face. “That mongrel been beating on you?”

  “It was a misunderstanding”, Jess said calmly.

  “That’s what a misunderstanding looks like?”

  He tapped ash into the ashtray and rounded the cherry of the cigarette against the edge before taking another puff.

  “I have to get home to my boy”, Jess said, keen to change the subject.

  “I’ll pay for the whiskey and I’ll pay for your time to serve it for me”, Jack said, sliding a fifty dollar bill across the table to her.

  “You already paid for the whiskey”, Jess said.

  “Then I guess you owe me some change”, Jack said and smiled.

  “I don’t have all night”, Jess said, taking the bill, folding it expertly in one hand and sliding it into the back pocket of her cut off jean pants.

  She took the bottle of whiskey and a glass down from the shelf and put them on the counter in front of Jack.

  “You going to let an old man drink alone?”

  “What are you doing here?” Jess said.

  “Trying to make friends”, Jack said and smiled again. He was charismatic, and Jess felt drawn to him. She didn’t know if she liked him, but she felt she could trust him at least. Trust him more than Carl. She took a glass for herself and pulled the stool closer so she could sit opposite him. Jack poured her a shot and she knocked it back. He filled her glass again, and this time she sipped.

  “Why are you really here?”

  Jack took another cigarette from the pack, and lit it with the dying stub of his other one. He offered the pack to Jess, but Jess shook her head.

  “I’m working”, Jack sa
id. “I’m looking for someone.”

  Jess filled Jack’s glass. “You’re looking for someone. What are you a bounty hunter?”

  “Sort of.”

  “Who are you looking for?”

  Jess had finished her drink and Jack filled her glass again. The bar was almost empty. Lou had long gone and left her to close up. She felt safe with Jack. She felt the warmth of the alcohol filling her belly and smoothing away the shit-tonne of problems she had accumulated in her life. She felt like flirting. She looked at Jack and felt like fucking him. She didn’t think about Carl, wherever the fuck he might be, and the only thing pulling her away from losing herself in Jack completely was Denny.

  “I’m looking for someone who shouldn’t be here. Someone who’s been fucking and killing his way through several counties.”

  “You’re looking at the wrong person”, Jess said comically. “I’ve fucked, but as far as I know, I haven’t killed. Not yet at least.”

  She was drunk when they left together. The old bottle emptied, and a new one opened, put aside for another day. Jess was going to walk, even after they’d kissed, Jess pressed up against the cold brick of the outside wall, but Jack insisted. He’d drunk enough to put an elephant on its ass, but he’d been doing it so long the only thing that affected his driving was water. If he wasn’t drunk they’d be in more danger of spinning off the road.

  They kissed again outside the car, when Jack slid his hand from the nape of Jess’s neck, all the way down her back and squeezed her ass, and they kissed again inside the car, just before they began to undress.

  Jack was as hard as a rock, and Jess wriggled his insistent cock out of his trousers, and into her mouth. He felt warm and she could already taste the saltiness of his pre-cum. She rolled his foreskin up over his glans and pushed her tongue inside the skin, darting it back and forth across the sensitive connective tissue in the way the dancing girls from Lucky Lou’s had shown her their punters liked. She was bent over, and Jack had his hand down her back, pushed inside her jean pants, encouraging her to move further over so he could reach her pussy.

  Jess pulled off him momentarily to help him out, and Jack took the opportunity to slide down his pants. Jess pulled off her top and released her pert little tits, before undoing her jean pants and pulling those down to her ankles, along with her moistened panties. Her pussy was almost completely shaven, and Jack didn’t waste time in putting his hand to it. She went back to sucking him, licking all the way from his balls to his cock hole, while he pushed his thumb up into her pussy and used his finger to explore her ass.

  Jess hadn’t fucked for a while, and the ease with which she was doing it now, excited her. She didn’t know Jack, but she wanted him. She wanted his cock inside both of her holes and his cum filling her up. She wanted him to bend her over and fuck her hard and make her come screaming.

  Jess couldn’t wait any longer. She positioned herself over Jack’s cock and slid him easily into her moistened pussy hole.

  Jack was big, and despite her readiness, Jess had to slide up and down a few times before he was fully inside her, and she could rut against him, pushing his ball sack up into the cleft of her asshole. Jack let her ride him, pulling her close to him and sucking her tits. Biting them sometimes, and playing with her asshole, with which it seemed like he had a fixation.

  Jess could feel it coming. She rutted him even harder, rolling her hips forward so her clitoris rubbed against his pubic bone, and she felt him pressing against her G-Spot up at the front of her pussy. The front seat was squeaking so much it sounded like a box of rats slowly drowning and Jess concentrated on that sound while she brought her hands up to Jack’s neck and began to choke him.

  Jess was squealing with delight with each thrust, and Jack was groaning heavily now too, the end beginning to present itself.

  Jack didn’t give up on Jess’s tits, nor did he stop pushing against the tight muscle of her asshole. As she lifted her ass forward to press her clitoris against his bone, he pushed his finger deeper and deeper into her hole until eventually his entire finger was inside her, and he could feel his cock rubbing against it. With his other hand he began to move sticky goo around Jess’s clitoris, and it wasn’t long before the sensation of all three of those things made her come.

  Jess gripped Jack’s neck tightly, pressed her thumbs into his throat and felt herself begin to float. She pushed her pussy as far down as she could, arched her neck upwards and came so intensely on Jack’s cock and finger, she thought she was never going to stop. She felt her leg spasming, contractions riding through her pussy as though there was a lighting storm taking place in her cunt, and shivers up and down her spine that made her body feel completely weightless.

  It was the lightest she’d ever felt, and the only time in as much time as she could remember when she’d had a moment of pleasure to herself. A moment without worry and concern and doubt. A moment of happiness.

  Jack released her grip on his neck and Jess came back down to earth. She pressed herself into him for a moment, and then tilted herself to the side so Jack could move out from underneath her. She knew what he wanted without him having to ask, and after that, she was happy to give him the world if she had it to offer. She bent across the two seats and arched her back up towards him like a cat. Jack repositioned her, so she was leaned further forward and easier to penetrate. He licked her asshole until he was happy it was ready, and then spat on his hand and covered his cock in his saliva.

  Jess moaned like a bear caught in a metal trap, while he forced his way inside her asshole, digging his cock so deep she felt like it was pressing against his throat. It burned at first, but that pain slowly subsided and melted away into orgasmic pleasure, as Jack began to root her deeply.

  He held onto her hip with one hand and steadied himself against the roof of the car with the other, while his powerful thighs motored his cock into her softened hole.

  She knew it was going to come before he announced it, from the sounds gargling out of his throat, and the sudden swelling of his cock head inside her.

  “Fuck”, was all he said, before his junk exploded, and filled her red hot asshole with several squirts of his thick salty semen.

  Jess felt like gold warming in the sun. She felt like she was lying on the beach in the summer with the waves licking her toes. She could have stayed there for an eternity and never come back down.

  Jack pulled away from her and she felt like she was having a part of her own body removed. As soon as he was gone from her, she felt the cold of the night clawing in. Suddenly she felt very sober and even more unsure of herself. Jack sat in the driver’s seat alongside her and she looked at his still erect cock and then up at his face. He smiled at her.

  “I think I want to go home now”, she said.

  They dressed and Jack rode her out along the highway, back towards her house. Each bump on the rutted road loosened the cum that Jack had stuffed deep into her ass, so when she got back to her front door, her panties were soaked in his creamy load, and she could feel it running down the inside of her leg.

  She didn’t kiss Jack goodbye, so he just left and said he’d see her around. Just before she went inside, she prayed for three things, that Denny was alright, that Carl wasn’t there and that he was the man that Jack had been hired to find.

  Chapter 8

  Denny was waiting for her in the darkness, wrapped up in his makeshift bed with the blanket pulled tight up to his neck like a protective cloak. When the door opened he yelled her name, like a lost lion cub calling to its mother, in the baron unforgiving wilderness that he called his home.

  Jess went to him and scooped him up into her arms. A moment later he could feel her salty tears dripping down her still puffy face.

  “Is he here?”

  Denny shook his head.

  “Why aren’t you asleep?”

  “I was waiting for you”, Denny said and then buried himself even further into Jess’s neck.

  “Sleep with me tonight”, Jes
s said.

  “What about him?” Denny said, a lilt of worry snapping his voice in two like a fallen twig under a size nine boot.

  “Shush”, Jess said and smoothed the back of his head. “You need to sleep. If he comes, I’ll move you back into here.”

  Jess spent the whole night awake, her head thick with sleep but too scared to succumb to it. She lay rigid in the bed with Denny snoozing at her size, her jaw flashing bolts of pain all the way down her neck and into her spine, her heart quickening at every unusual sound that might indicate the return of the man she now considered to be the devil himself.

  The first signs of sun broke through the window at six, and by seven thirty the room was flush with light. Denny stirred a few minutes later, and she let him sleep for a quarter of an hour more until she wriggled out from underneath him and got him awake.

  Denny pulled the covers up over his head to try and hide from the inevitable, but Jess pulled them back and they fought a little over the fabric, laughing to each other, before Denny relented and did what he was asked to do.

  At the breakfast table, Denny struggled with his bowl of oatmeal, made thick with water and sweetened with a sachet of sugar taken from the cafe. It looked horrible and it tasted even worse. Jess drank old coffee and passed on the food. She could feel sleep pressing at her temples like big stones trying to squash apples.

  “Maybe he’s gone”, Denny said excitedly.

  “I wouldn’t count on it just yet, little man”, Jess said. “It aint like Carl to up and leave without taking as much as he can to go with him. Besides which, all of his things are still here.”

  “Well, I hope he’s gone.”

  “Eat your oatmeal”, Jess said. “You’ll be hungry later if you don’t.”

  Jess watched her son as he spooned the grainy liquid into one corner of his bowl and began to shape it into a mound instead of ploughing it into his mouth like you’d expect someone to do who survived on one meal a day, and that one not anywhere near big enough to satisfy him. She was too tired and too bust up to complain, too happy to see him happy to stop his game. Denny had been through more than she had, and this kid was bright, happy and optimistic. She was so proud of him. Again she found that she was crying and wiped away the tears quickly from embarrassment.