What are the Odds? Pt. 01

He pulled her to him, holding her, keeping her warm against the November draft that still found a way into his room - their room.

Commotion woke him the next morning and despite last night, he was already hard when he saw Areli adjusting her night gown, turning and pulling as if she was sizing it.

"Good morning, Areli." She startled a little and smiled at him.

"Oh, morning." She hoped on the bed and kissed him, laying her head on his chest.

"What are you doing? Does your night gown feel funny?"

"Oh no, I'm just seeing if it will be too short when I start showing."

"Showing what?"

"Well, the baby. When my belly gets big, I don't want my butt to hang out of my gown and I think I can hide it still so we can get out of here before Uncle Shane realizes it."

"Realizes what?" Hez raised on his elbows while she rubbed her gown over her belly.

"That I'm probably pregnant after last night." She smiled and kissed him again but he was completely lost.

"I don't think that's how it works, Areli."

"Look, Hez, I know it's scary but a girl can get pregnant her first time. Boys say girls can't just to be tricky. That was semen that came out and what you did was 'semenate', you know when it went everywhere. Since it didn't go in my belly directly, I think that is what we call 'artificial semenation.' Dara told me about it. But don't worry. I told you I was ready."

Hez shook his head. He had a lot to learn but he was sure some of that was wrong. What amazed him is that she did it thinking she would get pregnant and that didn't stop her.

"Areli, I have to move some bricks from the other side of the yard today so I want you to read that book I bought about sex and stuff then let me know what you think and we'll talk."

She liked that idea. "Okay, well, Uncle Shane went bow hunting so we have the place to ourselves but I don't know if you should 'semante' again, not until I make sure it won't hurt the baby." She kissed him on the cheek and went over to the shopping bag, grabbing the book.

"Don't hurt yourself, and I'll bring you something to eat in a little bit. Don't wear your new hoodie, either."

"I won't, just relax and don't think about babies, okay?"

She smiled as she hopped off to her room, book in hand.

He should have bought gloves. After multiple wheelbarrow loads of bricks, Hez sat on porch steps and rested in the noon sun. Thankfully, it was a November sun so it wasn't unbearable but he was thankful for the water Areli handed him.

"Almost done? I'll put ointment on your hands and I'm almost done with our school work too. Want some help?"

Hez shook his head. "I don't want you to do stuff like this. No need for both of us getting cut up."

"It's just hard for me to watch you break your back, Hez. I can help. I'm not a wimp."

"I know you're not, did you read the book? That was your chore for the day."

She lowered her head, probably to hide her red cheeks, and gave a soft reply, "Yea, I read a lot of it."

"And?" Hez sat the empty class on the porch and waited.

"I'm really embarrassed and feel dumb. So, what we did won't get me pregnant. We were right that it was sperm though. The clear stuff is called 'precum' and then you ejaculated; people call it 'cumming' which sounds dirty."

"What was that 'semenation' thing?"

"Nothing, Dara must have just been talkin' to talk. It's semination and it's way different. You came after -

"What?"

"It's still new so it's hard for me to say, ok. I'm ready. You came after I gave you a hand job or jerked you off. That sounds really dirty too."

"It didn't feel dirty." Hez held her hand.

"Thanks Hez. I liked it too; it's just new and this stuff is supposed to be bad, but I love doing it with you." She leaned in for a kiss when they heard Uncle Shane coming down the curved gravel driveway. He swerved onto the grass, almost hitting the stack of cinder blocks Hez brought up the other day. He stopped and staggered out.

"Well, I'm out hunting us some food and you're both sitting here chillin'. You're lucky I'm a patent man."

In the three months they lived there, Shane hadn't shot so much as a rabbit and the bow looked relatively unused. Areli would "borrow" it and shoot it some when Shane was out, because she liked that book character, the one he bought a picture of, but he was sure she shot the bow more than him and his hunting trips were just him and his buddies doing drugs in the woods.

"Hez got most of the bricks and stacked them next to the old coop and I did our homework so no one was just sittin' around, Uncle Shane."

His eyes were the worst when he was like this. Crazy eyes. He was fine when he was drunk, but whatever he bought in Gadsden made him bad. Hez didn't know what was in the needles but this version of Shane scared him. He eyed Areli as he flipped his cigarette at Hez's face; he dodged the butt. Shane walked up the stairs onto the porch behind him to go inside but he wasn't done with them. "Well, I guess any day you aren't sucking dicks like your mother is a day worth braggin' about, Rapunzel."

Hez felt the bow strings on his neck as Shane chocked him. He tried grabbing his hands that were cinched tight on the strings when he heard Areli scream and the world start to darken around his eyes as choked him with the bow. A grunt sounded in his ear and the strings eased up on is neck but Shane kicked him in the back of the head sending him off the porch.

"Did you hit me, bitch?"

He was going to pass out and he would wake up to Areli treating his wounds. Day in. Day out. Until one day they could run, but his world changed when he heard the slap across her face and a cry of pain. Somewhere in his soul, he found the strength as the blood ran down his ear and the buzzing clouded his eyes. But the drums. The drums were thunder in his head as they played a song he'd never heard.

Shane and Areli were on the porch and he towered over her as she laid against the house holding her cheek through her tears. He grabbed Shane's realtree pants and pulled him off the porch, kicking him in the ribs the second he landed on the ground. He felt them crack as he connected with his boot and his knuckles ached as he landed a wild swing at the back of Shane's head sending him flat to the ground. Hez raised his leg to stomp his head when the buzzing caused him to stagger. Shane was holding his broken ribs and his face was busted but he was getting up.

"Run Hez. Get out of here. I'll call the police. Run!" Areli jumped from the porch landing on Shane but he flipped her off. It was enough to stagger him though and she managed to kick his knee sending him back to the ground giving Hez time to run.

He staggered to the tall grass as the drums mixed with the buzzing playing a symphony of pain. Hez had about 30 feet on him when he heard Shane scream his name. He would normally be able to outrun him but the buzzing was so loud. He hoped the broken ribs would stop him but he heard Shane on his heals as he limped to the safe spot in the woods. He didn't know what he would do there, but it would give the police time to get there before he could go back and hurt Areli. Wait, what police? They didn't have a phone. He would fight and hoped she ran but he didn't know how much fight he had in him. She was all he saw in his head when he felt Shane's body against his back, driving him into a tree and then the ground.

He turned to face him and Shane's smile matched his eyes - crazy, drug enraged, deadly. He was something else, something not human. He felt the devil next to him when he saw the large hunting knife come out of its leather sheath.

"I'm going to carve you up, boy and then I'm going to get my friends together and we will take turns fu..."

He didn't see the arrow go through him. He heard a wet sound. Sgweck. That was it. That was the sound. A sickeningly wet sound as the arrow went through his stomach and stuck in the tree over Hez's head. He didn't fall or run. His eyes looked off in the distance and his knees seemed to buckle in on themselves as he dropped down in a lump like a marionette whose strings were broke.

He couldn't hear over the buzzing sound but it calmed down when he felt Areli's hand on his shoulder. She was holding the bow in the other hand and looked at Shane after she saw Hez was alive. The wound was bad but Shane could get to the hospital and they would be able to help. Areli walked to him and kicked the knife out of his hand before she reached into his jacket, grabbing his phone.

"I would have called the police but I ain't got a phone, do I?"

He coughed and spit blood as he feebly raised his hand. "You call them now and I'll let you go. Take the car and leave, but don't let me die out here. If I die, he goes to jail. I know every cop in this county."

"She turned her head to the side, looking at him. Are you asking for help, Uncle Shane? If so, ask politely."

He found enough energy to renew the red hatred in his eyes but there was no strength in his voice.

"Please don't let me die out here."

She nodded her head and walked back to Hez helping him up.

"I would love to help but I can't." She put the phone in her pocket.

"I only take requests during begging time and that is whenever I say it is and it ain't now. Rot in hell."

Hez heard every word through the buzzing, even Shane's weakened scream. The police said he crawled about 200 feet before he ran out of steam. He could have lived if they'd gotten there about 20 minutes earlier but the kids ran to his room as quickly as their injuries would allow, finding the money Shane had stashed from Hez's winnings. They knew they'd never see it if the police found it first. Most importantly, they grabbed a manilla envelope with the information for a lawyer in Montgomery who sent a letter about his inheritance. All that took time so Areli's call an hour after shooting him, just wasn't fast enough.

____________________________

"Before you try to embellish, remember my partner is talking to your sister, asking the same questions." Officer Jim Hannon interrogated Hez as the EMT tended to his wounds.

"I ain't got nothin' to hide. I'm glad he's dead. He was going to kill me and maybe Areli."

Hannon crushed a cigarette on the ground and nodded but he didn't look convinced.

"Killin' a man is no small thing, no matter what he deserved."

"Hey Jim, I just talked to the Chief. Got a moment?" Another officer interrupted.

"Yea." He turned back to Hez, "Don't talk to your sister yet, I'll be back."

Hez winced when the EMT touched the abrasion on his neck but he kept his ears sharp, tying to listen to Hannon. The younger officer put his phone in his pocket and grabbed Hannon's shoulder.

"Look, Jim, I get it. He was a prick but he's your friend. The problem is the girl told the same story and he had a knife on him. You know he was doped up too. We all know he beat the stew out of the boy all the time."

"Then they should have called us, Mark. We can't have folks killin' each other like this."

"Yea, we can't but we also managed to not see him deal drugs for the last 10 years. Is that the story? Shit, Jim, the state police are involved because these kids were placed here. How's that gonna look? Let's bury this thing. Make it go away. Clear the house and I'll write up the report. It's easy. Shane went on a binge, attacked the boy and his sister, she shot hit with the bow when he pulled the knife. No one knows about the other stuff."

Jim lit another cigarette and walked back to Hez.

"I'm going to look around the house a minute. I want you to stand by my cruiser and stay away from your sister." He handcuffed Hez who walked to the car. He knew protesting wouldn't do any good.

"You need help, Jim?" one of the younger officers asked.

"No, I got it. Don't come in here mucking shit up either."

Hez stood by the car for what seemed like hours when Jim finally walked out with a few bags and threw them in the trunk of his car. Those were the drugs; he'd seen them when he was looking for the envelope and the money.

"Bring that girl over here," Jim yelled to the detective who'd been questioning Areli. She ran to Hez and hugged him. She had a small bruise on her face but nothing too serious it seemed. Jim was unlocking his handcuffs

"Shame what happened to Shane. Drugs will do that to a man. We tried to help him but you know how it is. You agree that we tried to help him, don't you Hez?"

He wasn't sure of anything other than he needed to agree with the officer.

"Y'all are the only family he has so I reckon you'll get the house at some point. It ain't worth nothing but the land is. Probably be good to sell it when this all settles out. I mean, y'all wouldn't want to live here would you?" He put his hand on this revolver as he looked over them. "Right or wrong, Shane grew up here and knew a lot of people. Losing him to outsiders, even family, wouldn't make for good neighbors I don't think. How 'bout you Hez? You think that would work?"

"No, sir."

"Areli, you get what I'm sayin' don't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, good. I figure this car has enough life to get off the mountain. I found an envelope in there that has the impression of a stack of money. I wonder who stole that? Ah, maybe ol' Shane used it. I don't guess I'll try to find out today but tomorrow I may feel different. Shame for y'all to be here when that happens. Right?"

"Yes, sir." Areli was holding Hez's hand and she stared at the ground with him, not looking at the officer.

"Yea, I figure y'all could find you a lawyer to help get you settled. Shane mentioned y'all don't have IDs or even a good birth certificate, but I think he said you had an inheritance coming. Figure you could just forget about your time here and you wouldn't have a reason to come back, but, hell, that's just me talking. I'll be back around noon tomorrow. I figure the place will be empty, but I can talk to the lawyer you find if I have questions. Wouldn't be a good reason for me to ever see either one of your goddamned faces on this mountain again. You kids sleep well tonight. No one will bother you but I can't say what happens when word gets out, but I'll be here tomorrow. By noon."

Jim looked around the area and soon after loading Shane's body in the ambulance, he motioned for everyone to leave. Hez and his sister stood on the porch and watched them until the taillights were gone.

"It's cold, Hez. Let's go inside."

The house was freezing from the doors being open but they turned the heat all the way up. No one could stop them, now. They grabbed their things, only needing two boxes to carry everything they had. Areli insisted on taking the tablets back to the school in the morning but he had no intention of being on the mountain at noon. He sat the alarm for 6:30.

Areli took a shower and he went in after, she stood naked in front of him as she dried off and the stirring grew in his groin despite the events of the day. She was beautiful, drying off in front of him as if she did it everyday and his eyes focused on the drops of water that rolled on her body and the way her puffy nipples seemed to point at an upward angle, but watching her breasts shake as she wiped them with the towel and the bounce in her ass when she walked made him forget most of what had happened, almost.

"Are you staring at me, Hez?"

"Oh, yea, sorry. You're pretty, Areli. I'll stop though."

"You don't have to. You can always stare at me. I saw the girls in the book and they shave this down here more than I do." She played with the light blonde curls. "I'm going to do that too. Not all of it, but make it shorter. Dara showed me how to shave the edges when I did my legs but I can shave more of it. You think it will look pretty?"

"Yea, whatever you want. I think it's pretty now."

She pulled on the pair of black satin panties from her set and popped the back making sure her round butt was in them.

"Well, it will look prettier. Give me a kiss. I'm going to lay down. I don't want to talk about Shane no more. I never want to hear his name again. I killed him and that's all. Let's never come back here. Not even in our minds. How much money we got?"

"About 1200 dollars."

"Okay. Hide it in case someone comes looking tonight. I don't think they will. Not after what that cop told us."

Hez took a quick shower since Areli used most of the hot water. She never meant to, and he never really cared. She deserved whatever she wanted. Drying off, he wrapped a towel around his waist and looked at the dilapidated bathroom one last time. Areli didn't have much in the way of make up in here but what she did have was gone and he looked in the mirror at the abrasion on his neck, knowing how close he came to dying. He felt no loss as he walked to his room, knowing it was his last night in the house.

The heat worked fast and Areli was laying on top of the covers on her stomach, reading her Hunger Games book. She was still in just her black panties that contrasted her pale skin and blonde hair that was so long it partially covered them. Hez took off his towel, not embarrassed by his erection and put on his boxers as he sat on the bed next to her, stroking her hair.

"You think my hair's too long, Hez?"

"No, it makes you look like a princess from a book."

"So you don't want me to cut it?"

"No, it's perfect, like you."

She smiled when she looked up from her book. "You're sweet."

"Areli, you miss mom and dad?"

She stopped reading and looked up at nothing, choosing her words. "Not like I should. I don't know what happened or who to believe about what happened but Dara grabbed me from bed that night and told me to hide with her. You were gone with PastorFather Byron so I didn't worry about you but I was so scared hiding with Dara. We were in that closet for the whole night until the police found us. Mom had been acting strange before then and was so distant, not like before we moved into the center with everyone. I miss our mom and dad from that time, before the center, but not with the Church. I almost hated them for taking us there, Hez. I shouldn't hate 'em but I do a little. I don't want to think about them anymore either. I want to see if Dara is okay though.

"Maybe we can find her, one day, Areli; I won't talk about mom and dad no more."

"It's fine. We all do things different. I'm done with this house and bad memories. The only memory I want is about us together and Dara. Everything else can go away forever."

Hez got up to turn out the light and felt the soreness in his muscles from the fight. The mattress was terrible on his back, but Areli held him when he got under the covers.

"Kiss me, Hez and tell me everything is going to be okay."

"Everything is going to be fine. We talk to the lawyer and then we see what we can do. See how much money we have from mom and dad."

"Okay. I don't think I can sleep tonight. I'm scared."

"We won't be here after tonight so anything scary we handle together, just like today."

She kissed him on the cheek and nuzzled her face on his shoulder as he felt her hand rub down his stomach.

"Can I touch it again?"

"You don't have to ask; you can always touch me." He took a deep breath when her fingers found his swollen head and she played with the tip; her breasts were pushed against him as she rubbed. She kissed his shoulder and massaged his cock, rubbing her satin panties against his leg as she got as close as possible to him. Precum started seeping from him again as the sensation in his groin spread over him while she stroked his cock.

"Hez, you like my boobs?"

"Yes, don't stop with your hand. I love them."

"The book said we can call them 'tits'. Do you think that sounds too dirty?"

"Not from you. Don't stop. Your hand feels so good."

"So, you like my tits then?" He just nodded his head when he felt her push the covers off and pull his boxers down, freeing his cock before going back to stroking him.