Sera Ch. 09

She'd finished tying the blindfold and reached around to take my hands herself instead of waiting for my compliance. I heard the double click of the handcuffs at the same time I felt them touch my wrists and, I must admit, I was suddenly alarmed.

"Okay, what's go-?"

"You trust me, don't you sweetie pie?" she said as she tugged me forward.

Shuffling carefully behind her, I could only answer, "Yeah, but this-"

"Then stop worrying. You're in good hands."

We went outside where I could feel the slightly cool darkness of nighttime, hear the crickets singing as she led from my right side, her hand caressing my arm as it guided me wherever. I did trust her in the way that she'd never see any harm come to me, but it was hard to be at ease while at the mercy of an admitted mass murderer, loving mother or no.

After a minute, the terrain changed from cobblestones to something more smooth and consistent, such as a concrete pool deck. As I speculated on this, Mum let go of my arm and shoved me forward.

I was right about the pool deck.

The shock of being suddenly pushed was instantly replaced by that of being underwater. Added with the fact that my hands were bound behind me and that I couldn't see, multiplied by the other fact that my mother was half crazy, my anxiety level burst through the top of my skull in an instant.

Then the blindfold was gone and Mum knelt poolside, holding my head above water with the very same expression on her face as when she met me at my apartment door while I coughed and sputtered. I felt sudden heat inside my pants as my bladder released itself into the chlorinated water. In the back of my mind, I hysterically giggled at the irony of having my Jujitsu neutralized so my life could be threatened in the very environment where I'd conquered others so many times in the past. And it wasn't just irony. No sir-ree, these were two aspects of my life that she had authored, saw as her own achievements and resources. Yes, in that moment, she'd already sent me a very clear message about-

"Sweetie pie, I thought I'd made myself clear where Sheila's concerned," she said in her sweet/horny tone that normally made me want to jump her.

"(Sput! Gu-ulk!)"

She drove my head underwater and I franticly kicked, reflexively straining my arms against the cuffs in a useless effort to make them help me. After what seemed like an eternity, my head was pulled back above the surface by the hair.

"Hmmm?"

"Hu-uugh! Yu-! Yes, Mum!"

"Right; like I said, I thought I did. That's why, for the life of you, I can't understand why you'd be hanging around with her behind my back. After I made myself so perfectly clear about her. I was thinking you could shed some light on that, Son."

"I'm sorry, Mum! I'm sorry, I won-!"

She drove my head under for another seeming eternity, then hauled me up as before, waiting once again until I stopped choking and sputtering before informing me with a sweet tone and bottomless eyes, "When I want your apology, I'll ask for it. Right now, I want an explanation. Why did you defy me?"

"I- I didn't mean to, I just g- got talking to her a- and she seemed so nice and-!" I yammered.

"Seemed so nice, did she? Had you forgotten what I told you about her? What she did to our family? Even Kitten tried to warn you," she reminded, playfully poking my nose. "Did you not believe us?"

"Yes, I believed you, I just-!"

"Did you think I wouldn't find out? It's a big house, but not that big, hon. I'm a little disappointed and... insulted at your blatant disregard of my instructions. See, I thought we were a team. I thought I could trust you."

The vague part of my mind that had been giggling over ironies was now screaming about how stupid I'd been to allow myself to be so easily tricked into something like this. Meanwhile, the rest of my mind held on in blind faith that Mum wasn't going to make me number fifteen.

"Mum, pli- please, I- Idn' mean tisss- dis- diserg...!"

I was so scared I couldn't even speak, not even to beg for my life.

"You really have changed since Saint John," she continued, still in her loving and somewhat slutty tone. "Once I started getting used to it, I found I liked it, but now I see why I also had reservations."

She paused here, looking at me curiously and, in my abject terror, I looked her straight in the eyes and was mesmerized right away. I was able to utter a short, wavery cry before she forced her way into my head, my feeble, confused efforts at stopping her quickly overrun by the aged power of her Jedi stare.

She left me completely aware as she carefully sifted through my experience, recent memories of Sheila and I surfacing here and there. The worst thing about it was that I couldn't feel her as a person, only her actions. I began crying while she raped me in her own way, feeling so alone in this violation that I longed for some part of her beyond the elusive blackness in her bright hazel eyes.

Then she was out. I still stared at her, bawling my eyes out and as completely unhinged as Marie was just before Mum killed her. Her smile remained, though it was tighter than before, not quite reaching her narrowed eyes.

"You'd best get your act together, sweetie pie. This is the second time I've had to re-educate you. Will there be a third?"

"Pl- plee-eease, Mum-myyyyy!" I managed to beg around my hysterical sobs.

She shoved my head under again, deeper than the last times and then let me go to sink or swim, as it seemed. This was even worse than being dunked because that hand at the top of my head also kept me from drowning. I floundered in complete panic, my legs splashing at the surface, the cuffs biting painfully into my wrists while I experienced a sickening vertigo, inhaling water despite myself.

I saw her watching a few times from underwater as she knelt there looking down, brief, liquidy images that burned to my memory to always be seen, much longer than the actual experience of it. Just as I'd begun to accept that she was going to let me drown there in front of her, I was grabbed by the collar of my shirt and hoisted to the surface.

I don't remember her hauling me the rest of the way out of the water, nor the removal of the handcuffs, only that I couldn't see for a time while I expelled water from my lungs and stomach. Some time later, I'd managed to collect myself enough to unsteadily get to my hands and knees, grayed vision scanning my immediate area in a half daze.

My other mother was gone.

Kitten

The door opened soon after my knock to reveal Sheila with a winning smile on her face.

My father and Peggy had spoken a few times of a smile that Sheila had, one that went with an overall way that could convince almost anybody to do almost anything, and this had to be that smile. It wasn't just her mouth, or even her eyes, but her entire being. As it dropped like the Liberal Party's popularity, I wondered if I at times showed this smile. Regaining some composure, she replaced her sudden expression of complete surprise with one of acerbic dread as she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, lord. What fresh new hell is this?"

"Expecting someone else?" I asked with a sneer.

"What do you want?" she asked, ignoring my question in a long, classy, very form flattering dress, high heels and with her hair and makeup done flawlessly.

"I already told you that, but I guess you weren't listening," I retorted, suddenly half slipping, half pushing past her and into her apartment.

She'd taken a breath to say something that was halted in her throat as I passed by her. It wasn't until I'd actually moved through her foyer and right into her dimly lit living room that she finally managed to voice her outraged protest from behind me.

"What the hell do you think you're doing!? Get out!"

"Shut up, whore. I told you to stay away from my Stevie, and now I'm back to tell you again."

"Y-! Your Stevie, is he?" she incredulously demanded.

"That's right, and I want you to know that Auntie Kathleen knows all about what you're trying to do and she's as unhappy with you as I am. You should've listened when I told you-"

"What the bloody fuck do you think I'm 'up to', you little idiot?"

"What you always get up to. Stealing men and ruining their lives along with anybody else involved. You make a mess wherever you go and I'll be god damned if you do it with him. He's mine!"

"Oh my god, you're just as fucked up as Mum was."

"She couldn't have been that fucked up to see you for what you are. No wonder she hated you; you're just a lying, emotionally fucked up, filthy pig."

This got quite a reaction. Her expression darkened considerably as her fists balled, feet taking her two steps closer to me, voice low and strained.

"You better watch your mouth, you little fuckin' freak! I'll-"

"Pah!" I scoffed, nonchalantly walking up to a table she'd obviously had brought to her room along with the two chairs that accompanied it. It held two chicken dishes with a lit candle between them, both placements arranged impeccably and with obvious care.

"Is this supposed to be your idea of a romantic dinner? Really, Sheila? God, do you really think he'd be interested in a zero class piece of garbage like you?"

I plucked a thick shard of chicken from the plate with my fingers and took a bite. It was actually very good, but I spit it back into the plate with disgust anyway.

"Hey!"

"Your chicken sucks. Jeez, you're useless."

"I worked really hard on that, you little-!"

"Is that how you lured your Daddy to his own suicide? Some little second rate chicken dinner? Much like yourself?"

Something in her entire being seemed to pop and, with an enraged howl, she was on me in a heartbeat. I was startled, to say the least, as she drove me backwards and over the table, it along with the carefully prepared chicken dinners crashing to the floor with us. Her fists were flying and so were mine, each of us punching and grabbing, pulling and scratching as we screamed like two feral cats.

She was on top of me and I couldn't squirm out, finding her twisty style of fighting exactly like my own, but with superior strength and skill. She was soon getting the better of me and I knew I'd lose if I couldn't get out from under her quickly.

After my most ferocious attack to her face, I actually managed to kick my way free, but she grabbed my lace leggings by the back of the waistband before I could get completely away from her. Letting me know she wasn't done with me yet, she yanked back hard as she came to her feet, tearing them down the back and spinning me around to unexpectedly meet her fist as it drove mercilessly into my tummy. The wind whooshed right out of me while my eyes opened as wide as my mouth.

Sheila's dress was torn down to her waist and her braless, but very perky boobies jiggled slightly upon delivery of every fist to my face while she held me by the hair with her left. Her punches were fast and furious like mine, my hands and forearms useless in guarding my face against them. Her features raged at me, blood from her nose colouring her teeth a frightening red while it dawned on me that I was going to lose this fight.

She finished her barrage with another fist driven hard into my tummy, buckling my knees while the world went a little dim. Before I could hit the floor, she violently shoved me into the wall, holding me up with a hand closed around my throat as she brought her seething, hateful face up to mine.

"You little twat!" she spat. "Steven and I are friends! If I'd wanted him that badly, I'd have had him by now, idiot! But ya know what? Huh? Now I think I will have him. Yeah, I'm gonna get right into his pants and-"

"(gaa-ag!)"

"-and suck him and fuck him until he can't even remember your name, you warped little freak! That's what you get for fucking with me and, if you think I'm afraid of Kathy, you're sorely mistaken!"

With that, she bodily flung me across the room, landing me on the floor in a heap with a breathless grunt. A moment later, she was dragging me through her foyer by my hair, me trying to scream in pain without enough oxygen in my lungs to do it with while scrambling to keep up on my knees.

Once in the corridor, she barked, "Now get the fuck out!"

Sheila drove the toe of her shoe so far up my bum to emphasize her curse, I'm surprised I couldn't taste it in my mouth, the impact shoving my head hard into the opposite wall, my body heavily to the floor.

Her door slammed shut above and behind me as I finally found the breath for a broken moan, my body hurting all over, but nowhere near as badly as my pride.

Steven

In a sudden, senselessly raging fit, I attacked some young shrubbery on my way back to the house. In hindsight, I'd say it was an understandable, emotional release that one might well experience after having accepting death at the hands of one's own (other) mother.

I collapsed to the grass after my frenzy, out of breath after littering the area with every living thing I could rip up and tear apart, or beat against the cobblestones like a deranged lunatic. Once I'd stopped crying, regained some wind and a little composure, I stared vacantly at the cobblestones while my head began working somewhat usefully again. Mindless of the visual carnage in the artificially lit area around me, I began to tone my excuses for her.

"If she wanted me dead, I'd be dead. It didn't mean anything, so don't read too much into it. It's just the way Mum is, we know that."

" ... Uh huh."

"We know how she is! We knew when we started hanging around Sheila what we were eventually in for!"

"She almost drowned us," my parasite seethed.

"We were asking for it! Fuck sakes, don't do anything stupid, man," I warned.

"Me?" I replied tonelessly, still gazing at the cobblestones. "When have you ever known me to do anything stupid?"

"Oh my god. Okay, just get a hold of yourself. We're not doing anything at all until we've had a chance to think this through."

"No time. Somebody has to warn Sheila."

"What? Look, I like her as much as you do, but if Mum catches us even thinking about her now, she'll kill us! Literally!"

"Can't be helped. We can't let her get blindsided by Mum. If she almost killed us, imagine what she might do to her?"

"Ohhh, fffuck," I lamented in resigned agreement.

I heaved myself to my feet a moment later, stumbling slightly and very much wanting a drink. Making my way up the path towards the house, my teeth began chattering, but I wasn't cold.

Kitten

Again, Gina wasn't in my apartment when I practically dragged myself through the door. Stumbling to the tub while holding what was left of my leggings halfway up my thighs, I made my way to the bathroom and got a bath started. I could taste blood on my lips and in my mouth and I wondered how bad I looked, but was unwilling to take a look in the mirror. Sitting on the marble edge of the hot-tub, I closed my eyes, remembering the last time I took a beating like this.

I'd gone to Jaybirds to call out two of the strippers who worked there for beating up Gina, ending up almost killing them both despite the beating I'd received at their hands in the process. Having won that time, the pain wasn't so bad. Having lost to a single opponent, Sheila of all people, the pain seemed all the worse and I understood how Gina didn't want to go out and face people after what they'd done to her back then. I felt like a victim, beaten and humiliated. I hated it.

A little while later, lying back in the hot suds with a soaked washcloth over my face, Gina came back from wherever she was. I didn't remove the washcloth to look because I didn't want her to see my face and, truth be told, I was as sorry she'd showed up as I was glad to find her absent when I'd arrived.

"Where have you been?" she asked with no small amount of irritation in her tone.

"Vodka."

"What?"

"Vodka and chocolate milk. Get me one, please."

After a pause, I listened to her heels leave my bathroom. She soon returned, approaching the tub and stopping to place the glass on the edge before repeating her question.

"Where have you been?"

"With Auntie Ashleigh."

"I've been looking for you all day," she complained.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize," I droned, trying to sound sincere.

"You've been spending a lot of time on your own lately."

"You mean time without you. I haven't been alone, I've been with my family," I returned, silencing her for a few moments.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you, I've just been concerned. That's all."

"Oh, Gina..." I sighed, shaking my head slightly. "I understand that and I know you love me, it's just that... I'm going through a thing right now and... you know."

With a softer voice to match my more conciliatory one, she said, "But we're not communicating anymore, and that worries and saddens me."

" ... I have a real thing for Stevie. A real thing. I'm trying to deal with that and... stuff. It doesn't seem like the kind of thing I can really talk to you about."

" ... Okay...," she said, slowly sitting on the edge of the tub's raised platform. Dunking a hand and softly running it down my arm and across my shoulders, she added, "I just don't want to feel shut out."

She suddenly removed the washcloth from my face and her warm smile turned to one of surprise and dismay.

"Wh- what the hell happened to your face?!"

"I got in a fight," I groaned, rolling my eyes.

"A fight!?" she asked as though she'd never heard the term. "Did you win?!"

"No," I growled in humiliation. "I lost. I haven't looked in the mirror, is it bad?"

"Yes, it's bad! Your bottom lip is swollen and you've got three long scratches down your face from your forehead, almost to your jaw! Fuck! Who did this to you!?"

"That's not so bad," I sighed, trying to minimize the event in her eyes.

"Who!?"

" ... Sheila," I disgustedly admitted.

" ... Wh- Well... I'm just gonna go kick her ass then, aren't I!?" she said with all the attitude of the old Gina.

I couldn't help smiling, even though it hurt, but said, "Smutty, don't. I don't mean anything by this, but... if I can't take her..."

"No way! I'm gonna get a fuckin' table leg and-!"

"It's bad enough that she did this to me," I interrupted. "I don't want to see it happen to you, too. Besides, I can deal with this in another way."

She knew I was right. I could tell by how she sat there in impotent anger, furious resignation in her eyes. See, despite my size, Gina knows from the incident at Jaybirds that, when it comes to fighting, I'm the girl to send in. I go berserk. Apparently, I get that from Sheila because it's exactly how she took me out. In fact, I'd estimate that she probably could take out Gina along with Tisha and Tanya at the same time, fighting all the harder for it. It's exactly how I'd be and, normally, it'd spell victory for me.

"You know what I'd really like you to do, though?" I asked in a sweet voice that I hoped would gloss the situation over a little for her. "If you don't mind?"

"What!?" she strained.

"Believe it or not, the chef down in the kitchen never heard of potato pancakes until I told him how to make them."

"Potato pancakes?" she asked incredulously.

"Yeah. If you really wanna make me happy, maybe you could go down and get us some. We'll eat right here, how's that sound?"

She sighed, a quick, forceful expulsion and put her face in her hand, shaking her head with her eyes closed.

" ... Smutty?"

"Yeees, I'll get some potato pancakes."

"You have to promise not to pick a fight with Sheila."