by Carver Pike
“Fuck her!” Rotten yelled.
“Kill her!” Putrid argued.
“KILL HER AND FUCK HER!” Samuel yelled.
I couldn’t look at them. I could only stare at the carpet next to my bed, ashamed, and disgusted. Then I went to sleep on my couch because I didn’t feel like cleaning up.
The next evening, I decided it was time to finally make it happen. I was a God among men; I had power like no other. I had demons by my side and I’d killed many times. I was in control of my fate. Ava would be mine.
I marched into the coffee shop with a purpose. She was at the counter and the place was surprisingly empty. Everything was perfect. She was perfect. When I approached her she smiled.
“Well hello there,” she said. “Told you we’d see you tomorrow.”
“You did,” I agreed. “Last night I was a little bit out of it. I had a big test to study for and hadn’t slept much. But this time I know exactly what I’m here for.”
“Coffee and an apple strudel?” she asked.
She knows me so well. She’ll be the perfect wife.
“No,” I said. “Well, maybe that too, but what I want is you. I want your phone number. I want to take you out somewhere after work. I want to see you again after that and hopefully again after that.”
She’s blushing. That’s a good thing, right? She’s red. She likes me. She’s going to say yes.
“Um,” she started and with that one noise I knew something bad was about to happen. “You’re super sweet and I’m so flattered that you’d feel that way about me. It’s just that I’m already seeing someone. We’ve been together for a while.”
No, this can’t be right.
“You…you have a boyfriend?” I asked.
I’d heard her the first time but my mind wasn’t working correctly. I couldn’t think of anything to say that would make sense and wouldn’t make me sound like a babbling idiot. She’d played me. She’d led me on. She’d flirted. I’d seen her. She’d smiled at me every day when I entered. She always served me. She did. She always served me. She knew that I liked my coffee black and that I liked apple strudels. She knew me.
“I do,” she said, “and he’s great. His name’s Jacob. He’s going through the academy right now to be a cop. So it’s nothing to do with you. You really are a sweetheart and I’m so flattered but…yeah…”
“Hmm,” I said.
We all fall down.
I was falling down. I’d built myself up to be this courageous knight that would rush through the glass doors and scoop her up into my arms Officer and a Gentleman style and carry her off into our sunset. Ours. Not hers and Jacob’s. I wasn’t only falling down, I was crumbling down. My world was crumbling. First Nikki, now Ava.
“KILL THE BITCH!” Samuel yelled into my ear.
I shook my head wildly while covering both ears with my hands.
“Shut up,” I said.
“I’m sorry?” Ava asked.
“KILL THE BITCH!” Samuel yelled again.
“I will,” I said.
“You will what?” Ava asked.
I didn’t answer her. I spun on my heels and ran out of the coffee shop, vowing to myself to return later that night and slit Ava’s throat.
I’ll put her in the ground with the other worthless scum I’ve snuffed out. Like the Mumbler, the Straw Headed Woman, the Night Watchman, and the Drunk Jock. She doesn’t deserve to live. Or maybe I’ll track down this Jacob too and wait for him at his car when he leaves the academy for the night and then I’ll cut his fucking throat.
Ava should have died that night. I was hell bent on making her pay. I did go to the parking lot that night. I found her car and easily worked my way into it. There I lay in her backseat thinking of how I would rise up behind her dramatically and enjoy the look of terror on her face in the rearview mirror as I brought my knife around to her throat and tore through it right there in the front seat. As she begged me to help her I’d smile and the demons would applaud.
She should have died. She came out to her car, opened the door and sat down in the seat. The smell of her sweet perfume blew over me as the air conditioner kicked on. I felt my cock stir.
“Do it,” Samuel begged. “Sit up now. Watch her cry. Hear her scream. Taste her blood. Do it.”
“No,” Hag argued. “Fuck her doggy style and impregnate the bitch. Her boyfriend will love that.”
I wanted to do both, but I couldn’t do either. She started the car and drove. I lay there behind her the whole ride home, wondering when I’d do it. I could cut her open as she drove and hope the wreck wasn’t bad enough to hurt me. Or I could wait until she got home and do it in the parking lot. Or even better, I could wait until she climbed into bed with this Jacob guy and kill them both in their sleep.
As she parked her car in her driveway, I realized I couldn’t move. She should have died that night but I couldn’t do it. She was saved by some divine power. A miracle. It was the miracle of love. I was in love with her. I’d never killed anyone I loved before. I’d only killed scum, people I didn’t know or have any affection for. I was in love with Ava.
I waited until I heard the sound of her door closing before I snuck out of her car and walked shamefully down the street to the nearest bus stop.
“FUCKING COWARD!” Samuel yelled.
“You will pay for this,” Rotten said.
“Some people learn the hard way,” Putrid added.
Lightning hit me and yanked me off my feet. Thrown through the air, I slammed face first into a tree. My nose shattered and I fell so hard that my back smashed against a protruding tree trunk and I thought I might have broken my back. Then the sharp pain hit each hand and the tops of each foot and the Rottweiler tore into my stomach. I screamed in pain right there on the dark corner where all I could see was the faint light of a Circle K sign and the flickering strobe of an all-night laundromat. Nobody came to my rescue.
Chapter 6 – Kevin
I hated school. So many questions rolled through my brain but I didn’t have the guts to ask them. Sitting in stadium seating with over a hundred classmates and a tiny little professor down there at the center is not really the ideal circumstances for someone with a heavy stutter like myself. Plus, I’ve always been known to ask stupid questions. I tend to ask things sometimes that have nothing to do with what the main topic of the discussion is. For example, if you were to tell me you were stranded on a deserted island until a ship passed nearby and you swam for your life to get to the ship and you were rescued, my question would probably be something like, “Were there bananas on the island?”
To most people that’s a stupid question. But to me, that’s important. I love bananas and the fruit is loaded with nutrients and they’re cholesterol free. And if there are bananas, maybe the island has monkeys and monkeys are hilarious.
No question during any lecture warranted me asking about bananas.
School was good for one thing though. It brought me close to Mrs. Rebecca’s house. I’d promised Ivory that I’d never go visit the woman but it wasn’t a promise I could keep. Besides, he was locked up and I was doing my best to survive on my own on the outside. So I went to see her. She’d never left the house we’d all lived in so many years ago.
At first, approaching the house was strange to me. I was much older now but once I got to the front lawn, I felt like a little kid again. I lost all control and felt nervous, like I was doing something wrong, but I needed to see her. I’d always loved her. As my feet stepped onto the sun-withered front lawn, memories came flooding over me.
It was the first night she visited me. I was a young teenager and my younger brother had been invited to a classmate’s sleepover party that night. The rest of us watched movies in the living room, scary ones as usual, and I sat on the couch next to Mrs. Rebecca. The others were on the floor with their blankets and pillows, where they’d surely pass out for the night. Two of the younger kids, George and Charles, had already fallen asleep next to each other in a sleepin
g bag.
No eyes were on us as Mrs. Rebecca scooted closer to me. I couldn’t help staring at her boobs. They were big and she always showed off her cleavage. I’d never had a girlfriend before and had only recently started to have sexual thoughts. My dick got hard a couple of times when I heard Mrs. Rebecca moaning in her bedroom. She did that a lot, even when she was alone.
I was staring at Mrs. Rebecca’s boobs when she saw me and laughed. She pulled my head down so that I could rest on her chest like a pillow.
“It’s ok,” she whispered into my ear. “It’s normal. I’m an attractive woman. You should look at me. I’d be worried if you didn’t.”
That made me smile and my head was so comfortable that I stayed that way through the rest of the movie. When it was over, all the other kids were asleep.
Ivory and I shared a room together. It was the only room with two twin beds. I don’t remember leaving Mrs. Rebecca that night but I know I was excited to be alone. Being so close to her boobs turned me on. I stripped off my clothes and lay there in bed, gripping my erect cock. It throbbed and the pleasure was intense each time I grabbed it. I squeezed it and let go. I squeezed it again and a bead of liquid formed at the top and then ran down me.
I was like that when the door crept open. I threw a blanket over myself, embarrassed that one of the younger kids might have walked in and seen me like that. The door clicked as it was locked.
“It’s okay,” Mrs. Rebecca said in the dark room.
I couldn’t see her but her voice was as lovely as ever. Still, I wasn’t going to remove the blanket. She was a woman and I was a young boy and she might yell at me if she knew what I was doing in the room. I thought she was probably only checking on me since I was sleeping alone and we’d been watching scary movies.
It was she who removed the blanket. There in the dark, I was exposed. Naked and with a throbbing cock, I was nervous but excited at the same time. I was in love with Mrs. Rebecca. I suddenly knew that. She’d never been anything but generous to me. She’d given me a life that I actually enjoyed and she showed me attention I’d never gotten before.
“Let me show you,” she said.
I didn’t know what that meant but I kept my arms at my sides and let her show me. She cupped one hand gently under my balls and dragged her fingertips softly across my skin. It tickled and felt incredible at the same time. With her other hand, she wrapped her fingers around my cock. Another bead of pre-cum ran down.
“Mmm,” she said as her face lowered and with her tongue, she licked me.
“Oh my God,” I said. “Wha…wha…what are you…”
“It’s normal,” she said. “You’re a young man and I’m a woman. Let me show you. You can use this experience later in life with other women. I’ll teach you.”
How could I argue with that? I wanted it. I wanted her. In my young mind, there was nothing wrong with it and as her mouth wrapped around my cock, I loved her more than I ever had before.
Standing at the edge of her lawn, I thought about entering. I thought about what I might find. Would she look the same? Would she remember me? Would she try to seduce me like she did when I was young? Or was she beyond that? Had she changed?
There was only one way to find out. I stepped to the front door and I knocked.
“Who is it?” her voice called out, and it was the sweetest sound I’d ever heard.
So many years I’ve waited to hear that sound again.
I couldn’t answer her. Yelling out my name seemed wrong, like a bad way to reunite. So I simply waited, knowing she’d eventually come to the door. She did. When she opened it, I was blown away. She looked as stunning as she did when I was younger. Her dark hair was pulled up in a bun and her lips were painted dark red.
“How can I…” she started and then stopped.
She recognized me but seemed unsure of herself.
“K…K…Kevin,” I said.
“Kevin!” she squealed. “My God. Come in here.”
She held open the door and as I entered I was overwhelmed by the sense of being home. I’d never had a home in my entire life and this was what home meant in my mind. I’d heard before that when a person dies their version of heaven will be reliving the happiest moments of their life. For me, my heaven would look like Mrs. Rebecca’s house, and I’d spend every night making love to her.
“It all…all…l…looks the same,” I said.
“I’m alone now, you know?” she said. “I spend a lot of time keeping this place clean and chatting with people online. Ever since…well…ever since your brother did what he did and you were all taken away…I just…I don’t go out much. I’m the creepy woman down the street now. Even in the supermarket people look at me funny.”
“Sta…still?” I asked.
My heart broke for her. I’d only known love from her and the world treated her like a monster.
“I…I’m s…sorry,” I said.
I truly was. The whole world might think what she did was wrong and was evil but I truly believe she wouldn’t have forced herself on me if I hadn’t wanted to be with her. I’d spent a lot of time thinking about what had happened in her house. I’d researched other cases and had studied a little bit of history and all the way back to the beginning of time there were arranged marriages between ten year old kids with adults or eleven, twelve, thirteen…all young kids with adults. I think I was fourteen when she started making love to me.
“Come here,” she said, wrapping her arms around me. “Did you miss me?”
You have no idea.
I squeezed her tight and would have been happy to stay that way forever. I never wanted to let her go again. When she finally backed up, I lowered my gaze to my feet. Shame was what I felt. Not ashamed by what the world had discovered about us. I was ashamed that my brother had been the cause of it all. He’d been the homewrecker. All because he was upset by Nikki’s departure. That was the match that had started the fire.
“Y…yes,” I said. “V…very much.”
She hugged me again and I cried. I didn’t let a few tears out and wipe them away quickly. No, I sobbed into her shoulder. I cried for all of the bullies I’d endured, I wept for my brother who was serving time for me and the fact that I wasn’t able to tell anyone the truth about why he was there, and I sobbed because I was alone. I was always alone. The only time I didn’t feel alone was with Mrs. Rebecca, and call it dirty if you want to, but she made me feel loved. In her arms, I belonged. Not once since leaving her home had I been hugged or consoled. Ivory gave me brotherly man hugs, but Mrs. Rebecca hugged me like she might never see me again. That made me cry.
“I missed you too,” she said.
She wiped my tears away and she kissed me. It was the first time she’d ever put her lips against mine and it felt strange, like she was finally giving her all to me. No tongue. No force. Only love and tenderness.
I stayed the night at her house, asleep in her arms, and it wasn’t until the early morning hours, that we made love. Her body wasn’t as firm as it had once been and her boobs were a little softer, but they felt good in my mouth.
When I was younger, the first time we had sex, she sat on me and rode me, showing me how a woman takes care of her man. This time it was my turn. I put her flat on her back, took her knee in my hand to open her up for me, then with a bottle of lube she kept in her nightstand drawer, I slathered my cock and entered her.
With her legs wrapped around my waist, I gripped her shoulders, and slid my cock in until my balls ached, pinched between my body and her ass. Then I pulled out and entered her again slowly. She was warm, wet, and soft. Her body was exactly what I needed. It was what I craved. In every college girl I saw, I imagined what they’d be like at Mrs. Rebecca’s age.
Fuck the world. I’m happy. I’m loved. I’m not a retard. I’m not crazy. I’m not a monster. I’m loved.
There in the early morning sunlight seeping through her thinly veiled window, we rolled over and she was on top of me like she had been so ma
ny times before.
“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she said. “The things I did were wrong.”
“N…No,” I said. “Stop.”
“I was wrong,” she insisted. “But this…”
She took me deep inside her.
“…this,” she continued, “feels so right.”
Tears ran from my eyes, dripping into my ears as she rocked on top of me. Seeing her naked body rising on top of me, without the darkness of night to cover her, was overwhelming. I’d dreamed of it for so many years and here she was, in real life, just like before. But different. We were both adults. This was legal. This was okay now. She wanted me and I wanted her.
Mrs. Rebecca lowered herself so that she was lying on me, belly to belly, and I thrust up into her, fucking her the best I could. Then I realized she too was crying. She cried into my shoulder as I fucked her. I knew she was coming when her legs began to shake and she whined in my ear. I came inside her, something I’d never done before. I knew then that Mrs. Rebecca was my woman. She’d have to be my secret woman, but she was my woman. Ivory could never know about it. He’d ruin it the way he did last time. But he was in prison and while he was trapped in there, I could be free out here.
From that day on, I spent my days in the real world and my nights with Mrs. Rebecca.
Chapter 7 – Simple Simon
I let Ava live and for that I suffered. The demons were unhappy with my decision. They wanted blood. But I refused to give them hers. For that reason, I never went back to the coffee house again. To do so would mean taking a huge risk. She could make me angry again and that wouldn’t be good. I’d come so close to ending her life.
Ava will never know how close she came to death.
Someone needed to die. That I was sure of. I’d begun spending time at Mrs. Rebecca’s house. She lived so close to the college that it made sense for me to spend some time there. She welcomed me with open arms the way moms are supposed to. Things were great there. She cooked meals like she used to and we watched movies like we used to. In some ways it was even better than when I was a kid. None of the other little kids were running around, stealing her attention away from me.