Dead to Writes (April Almighty #1) (7 page)

Chapter 18

     April tried to act like she had passed out, hoping they would cut her loose and she could attempt to get away, but they didn’t go for it. She couldn’t keep her eyes closed as they tortured Herbert. It was hard for her to watch, yet she couldn’t look away either. As she watched, the two men violated Herbert in ways she didn’t even think possible.

     Some of these things, she hadn’t seen in the worst horror films she’d ever watched. Though noting Cletus with his camera as Marty ripped Herbert’s teeth out of his head, she was going to be part of a horror film, or maybe a snuff film. What does he plan on doing with that recording? Put it on the internet? Jack off to it later? Have his mom jack him off to it? She shuddered at all those thoughts.

     Herbert had stopped screaming a while ago. They were still doing things to him. April wasn’t sure what they were up to, but it looked like they were cutting his ears off. The only noises Herbert was making were weak whimpers. While she didn’t want him to die, she wanted his suffering to end. She’d never seen a man rape another man that way. It was probably the most horrific thing she had ever seen. Well, everything she’d seen so far had been among the most horrific things she’d ever seen.

     Her fingers were numb still, but she was feeling along the wood bench she was tied to. There was a large splinter of wood she’d been working on, trying to pull it free. It wasn’t much, but it could be some kind of weapon. At least that was her plan. Her fingers carefully worked around the edges as the wood cracked away around it. She felt it peeling away from the rest of the bench. Slowly it came away inch by inch until it broke free. She tightened her fingers around it and held it in her fist.

     It was about four or five inches long and thick enough she could get some force behind it when needed. It’s not like she had anything to lose. After what they did to Brenda, Don, and Herbert, she could only imagine what would happen to her. From across the room, Brenda began screaming.

     Everyone looked over at her, everyone but Herbert that is. Nothing seemed to be happening, she was just shrieking over and over. April figured they hadn’t killed her so they could get another go at her later.  Her screaming was unbearable. Brenda didn’t even sound human.

     “Cletus!” Ma yelled. “Shut that bitch up!”

     Cletus nodded and grabbed a meat cleaver from the work bench, walked over to Brenda who never stopped screaming and slammed the cleaver into her face. He reared back and hacked at her again, and again. April lost count after the eighth blow. Brenda’s face looked like a huge lump of raw hamburger, but she had stopped screaming.

     “Dammit Clete!” Marty yelled. “You fucked her face all up.”

     “So? Her cooter still works.”

     “I know, but I won’t wanna bang her with her face all fucked up. That’s freaky lookin’.”

     “Now boys, you still got these two ladies right here,” Ma said pointing at Nancy and April. That got a reaction from Nancy who sat up right. Cletus grabbed Herbert’s body and dragged him off the table. He took him into the corner of the shed and threw him on top of Don’s body.

     “Let’s do this one next,” Marty said pointing at April. “She’s purdy.”

     Cletus walked over to April and bent down. This is it.

     “Damn, she sure has purdy blue eyes,” Cletus said.

     “She sure does. I’ll put them in a jar in my room. They’ll look real nice up there.”

     What the fuck?

     Cletus reached in and cut her feet loose, then her wrists. She had to act now! He was still on one knee right in front of her. Before he could get to his feet, she thrust the splinter into his eye. He screamed as she felt it go into his eyeball. As he reeled back, she blasted him in the chin with her knee, knocking him flat on his back.

     Once he hit the floor, she ran. She didn’t see what Ma and Marty were doing. Ma had screamed “Cletus!” as she ran, bursting through the door and out into the daylight. The ground was hot, burning her bare feet, but she ignored the pain as she ran past the house and down the trail. Looking behind her, Marty was coming but she had a good lead on him.

     She headed down the trail which was angled downhill. It was hard to keep her balance in her bare feet. Marty was closing in behind her as his footsteps grew louder. She cut to her right, off the trail and into the woods. That killed her feet even more. The ground was covered in sticks, rocks, and thorns as she tore through the woods. She figured if she could get off the trail she might lose Marty.

     It was hard to make her way through, but she thought it might be working. After almost a hundred yards, she hit a clearing. There was some kind of swamp, which was odd. She’d never seen a swamp, but spent most of her time in the city. This swamp was too large to go around; it wrapped around the woods as far as she could see.

     The water was dark and murky and had a strange, yellow hue. She couldn’t tell if it was glowing, or if it was just the sun’s reflection. Either way, she couldn’t go back the other way; Marty would be hanging around there. So slowly, she stepped into the water to swim across. Within a few steps she was waist deep and almost instantly it was up to her neck. She did her best to swim across but the water was so thick and full of sludge.

     Her tank top had ridden up and was almost choking her. She pulled it off and continued across, laboring with each stroke. A few times her head went under, but she managed to pull herself back up. As she reached the other side, the water thinned out and became more like pond water. She climbed out, realizing her shorts had come off somewhere during the swim, though modesty wasn’t the foremost thing on her mind at the moment.

     She headed back into the woods just as Marty stepped out and backhanded her across the side of the face.

     “Well, got to give you an A for effort I guess. Cletus might not be so forgiving though. You fucked his eye up good. Mama is pissed at you too.”

     She lay on the ground, dazed from the blow, but feeling sick to her stomach as well. She wasn’t sure what that could be from. Might be from the swamp water; she’d swallowed a mouthful on her way across.

     “Glad to see you decided to get more comfortable though. You got some nice titties on ya!” He grabbed one of her boobs and squeezed it as if he were honking a bicycle horn. She tried to pull away, but he kicked her in the stomach, flipped her onto her back and wrapped her wrists and legs in duct tape.

     He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder as she began screaming.

     “Help me! Please someone help me!” she screamed.

     “Go ahead and scream. Ain’t no one gonna hear ya. At least no one who would help,” he said as he carried her back to the shed.

Chapter 19

     “How much further is it?” Bobby asked. They had been walking almost twenty minutes. The road wound around for a ways, but he hadn’t seen a single house.

     “Not much further. Should be just up ahead,” Higgins replied.

     “Don’t think you’ll get off easy if you’re fucking with me. I’ll shoot you in the nuts.”

     “Duly noted.”

     There was a narrow lane that came off the road just to their right up ahead.

     “Right there. That’s like their driveway, but it winds around a bit.”

     “Ok, you first,” Bobby said as he pushed Higgins up the lane. They walked for several yards as the land wound around through the woods and trees. Around the final curve, there was a white box truck sitting along the lane.

     “That’s Cletus’ truck. He uses it for deliveries and whatnot,” Higgins explained.

     “And whatnot huh?”

     “You know.”

     “No, please enlighten me.”

     “When they go grab someone for fun. They use that truck.”

     “So for fun? What do they do for fun? What are they doing to my daughter for fun?” Bobby asked. The anger was welling back up. As the fatigue set in he found it harder not to just let the rage go. Though he already had some in the strip club, shooting the place up. He wondered if they’d prosecute him for all this, or should he even report it? None of that mattered now. He was close to finding April.

     “I don’t know man. They never let me watch. Everyone here knows about it. These boys are good boys. They help folks out around town. I here Marty is a big time book writer now. Got a book on the interwebs and everything.”

     “Oh wow. Maybe I can get his autograph.”

     “Funny.”

     Just ahead was a house. It was two stories, but run down looking. The porch had no steps leading up to it, and some of the windows were boarded shut. Yet, there was a satellite dish on the roof.

     “Ok, go inside,” Bobby ordered.

     “I don’t have a warrant.”

     God did this fucking fake Podunk Sheriff just say he needed a warrant?

     “I’m your warrant. Now go.”

      Bobby stood behind him as Higgins pushed the door open. It swung open, but there was nothing inside.

     “If they find us here, we’re both dead,” Higgins warned.

     “Where do they keep them?”

     “What??

     “The girls, when they bring a girl back for their fun, dumbass. Where do they keep them?”

     “Shit man, I told you I don’t know. They bring them here and people talk about it, but I never been up here. It’s not like they make a party of it or somethin’.”

     Bobby looked around and took Higgins with him from room to room. There was a laptop of all things, a big screen TV and some old furniture. Plus the place was a mess and smelled like someone took a big shit in the middle of the house.

     “Maybe they went for a walk,” Higgins said.

     “A walk? I swear, if you’re fucking with me…” Bobby said, but as he looked out the back window, he saw a huge man holding a rag over his eye walking through the back yard. Well yard is a strong word. More like back field of dirt. There were old cars and junk strewn about the back field. Behind all that was a shed which looked like it was in better condition than the house.

     Bobby leaned back from the window so as not to be seen. That shed was it; she had to be in there. The back door creaked open as the big man’s footsteps stomped through the house. Bobby ducked into a closet while pointing his gun at Higgins face while holding a finger up to his mouth, as a signal for Higgins to be quiet. He didn’t care for being in such close quarters with the little goofball, but he didn’t have much choice.

     “You can’t shoot me,” Higgins whispered.

     “The hell I can’t.”

     “You’ll give us away and then Cletus will know you’re here. They all will. They might kill yer daughter if they haven’t already.”

     He had a point, but Bobby didn’t want to concede that to him. Instead he jammed the gun against Higgins’ eye socket.

     “Just shut the fuck up,” Bobby whispered.

     He studied the man as a smile cracked on Higgins’ face.

     “Don’t do it,” Bobby warned.

     “Cletus!” Higgins screamed. He barely finished calling the man’s name as Bobby pulled the trigger. The gunshot was extra loud in the small space. Higgin’s head exploded, showering Bobby with yet more blood and brains. The closet door swung open as the big man stood there glaring at him with one eye. The other was swollen shut.

     Bobby spun the gun toward him, but the big man grabbed his hand holding the gun and punched him in the face with the other. His movements were so smooth and quick. Bobby had no time to react. Before he knew it, the man had his gun and his head was bouncing off the back of the closet.

     The man was yelling something at him, but he couldn’t make it out. His ears were still ringing from the gunshot. Bobby tried to struggle to his feet but the large man grabbed what was left of his shirt and punched him several more times. He saw stars with the first few blows, but by the fourth blow, he saw nothing.

Chapter 20

     “Looky what I found in the swamp,” Marty said as he walked in carrying April over his shoulder.

     “Well shit!” Ma said. “Took ya long enough.”

     “She’s a quick one Ma. I say she goes next. I was gonna get that old one over there, but she’s too timid for me.”

     “You’re right. She’s just a waste,” Ma said as she walked over to Nancy who was staring at the floor. Ma picked up a knife from the table, grabbed Nancy’s hair and cut her throat with one quick slice. Nancy gurgled and gagged, which was the most noise she had made through the whole ordeal. Within seconds, Nancy was gone. It was as if her life served no more purpose than a throwaway character in a bad horror novel.

     April had stopped struggling as Marty placed her onto the large table. She was too bound up and there was no point in wasting her energy.

     “Where’s Cletus?” Marty asked.

     “He went to the house to clean up his eye. This little cunt cut him up a good one.”

     “Good, you psycho old bitch!” April yelled. “You’re whole family is a bunch of sick fucks.”

     Though for some reason, she felt funny. Not just funny from being naked and wrapped in duct tape on a crazy family’s table. But funny like she felt lightheaded and parts of her were tingling. Her girl parts. Yes, she felt a strange tingle in both her breasts and her vagina. It wasn’t a pleasurable feeling. It was as if they were asleep like when you sleep on your hand for too long. Except this was her tits and vag.

     “I bet you wrote the nastiest review, about killing my mama,” Marty said.

     “Didn’t you already blame Don for that?” she said.

     “So? Now I’m blamin’ you! Can I cut her up Ma?”

     “Wait till your brother returns. I told him he gets first crack at her. She has a cute little pussy though. I bet Cletus will split that wide open.”

     The mere thought of Cletus coming anywhere near her with that  monster dick of his made her want to throw up. No sooner had Ma spoken when the door swung open.

     “This guy was in our house with the Sheriff,” Cletus said dragging a man behind him by the legs. April sat up and took a look. Dad!

     “Daddy?” she said. Though he looked like hell. His face was bruised and covered in blood while his clothes were torn up. She had no idea how he’d found them, but was happy he had, except for the being dragged unconscious part. That wasn’t how she pictured him coming to her rescue.

     “Daddy?” Ma said looking at her, then toward him. “Aww, isn’t that sweet? Her daddy here came to her rescue.”

     “Not much of a rescue. He was in the closet with the Sheriff for some reason. The Sheriff yelled my name and he shot him in the face, so I punched him out,” Cletus said.

     “Aww, poor Randy. He and I go way back. What a shame,” Ma said.

     “I’m sorry Ma. His brains also got all over your nightgown and your new dress,” Cletus said.

     Her face curled into a scowl as she walked over and kicked April’s dad as he slowly began moving around.

     “Daddy! Wake up! Dad!” she screamed, but Marty backhanded her, knocking her back. The tingling in her breasts turned into a burning feeling. She hoped she didn’t get into some kind of flesh eating bacteria in that swamp that will end up eating her tits off. She tasted blood in her mouth from where Marty slapped her. She wanted to kill him so badly. Earlier she had only felt fear, and terror. Now it was pure rage.

     “Look at her Ma, I think she’s gettin' mad!” Marty mocked pointing at her. With her hands and feet bound with duct tape, she wasn’t going to do anything and he knew it. Yet he stood there taunting her. “Aww you gettin' mad? Whatcha gonna do?”

     The burning in her breasts spread to the rest of her body. She didn’t know what was happening but couldn’t control it. The rage, the hate, the anger intensified as she struggled against the duct tape but nothing was giving. As she struggled, Marty had stopped taunting her. He actually looked sick and confused.

     “What’s going on?” he said. “What the…oh. Oh god, oh shit.” He undid his pants and took his dick out. It was rock hard and throbbing, but he was doing nothing to it. “Ma! What’s happening to my pecker?”

     “I dunno son! Does it hurt?”

     “No! It feels good. Oh man. Oh shit, oh oh.” He howled as he ejaculated all over the floor. His whole body was tense as he fell to the ground with his jizz dripping all over his legs. April wasn’t sure what to make of the whole thing though

     Cletus was behind his Ma going through the same thing, but was quieter about it. His big dick was out and throbbing wildly. He ejaculated so hard, half his load got on Ma herself, hitting her in the face just as she turned to look at him.

      “Dammit Cletus! You got yer pecker snot all over me!” Ma screamed as she wiped herself off, but the jizz was thick and stringy as she tried to wipe it with her hands. “What the hell is wrong with you boys?”

     “I dunno Ma,” Marty said lying on the ground. “Damn, that felt good. I don’t know what….Oh…oh shit. Again? Oh, oh fuck!” he said as he watched his dick harden again.

     “Watch out Ma! I’m gonna blow another one!” Cletus yelled from behind her. April closed her eyes as Cletus and Marty both grunted. She’d noticed the tingling in her boobs and vagina had stopped and the weird feeling from earlier was gone. She opened her eyes as Cletus looked at her.

     “Damn that felt real good,” he said, but he didn’t say it. At least not out loud. What? His mouth wasn’t moving. “I sure would like to go over and hump that girl a good one. She all naked and muddy. I like muddy chicks,” he said, but she was hearing his thoughts? Was that possible?  And if she could hear his, could he hear hears? Apparently not.

     “Cletus, you two clean this mess up. Then you can play with this one. I might have a little fun with her myself,” Ma said she picked up a crowbar. “I can think of a few places to put this.”

     April cringed at the site of the tool. She wished Cletus would just take it and crack her skull with it. No sooner had she thought it, when Cletus grabbed the crowbar from Ma and with one swing caved in her entire skull. An eyeball even fell out and dangled along the side of her face.

     “Ma!” Marty screamed from the floor. “What’d you do?”

     “Uh…I dunno,” Cletus said still holding the crowbar. “Ma? You ok?”

     “No she’s not ok! You beat her fuckin’ brains in!”

     April was confused. Did he just kill his mom because she thought it?

     “Cletus,” she said.

     “What? What did you do? You did something to me!” he said.

     “Kill your brother. Shove that crowbar so far up his ass it comes out his mouth.”

     Without a word, he started toward Marty who scooted to his feet.

     “What’d you do to him?” he said. “What’d you do to my brother? You release him devil woman! Release him at once!”

     She didn’t even know what the fuck he was talking about.

     “Cletus. Cut me loose,” she said. He lowered the crowbar, walked over and cut her free of the duct tape. As he did so, Marty took off out the door. She’d get him later. Somehow she was control Cletus’ mind.

     “Why am I doing this?” he asked as he removed the tape from her ankles. “I want to fuck and kill you. Why’d I kill my Ma?”

     “Because I told you to. Understand? You have to do whatever I say.” She didn’t know if that were true, but she was going with it. This new turn of events made her forget that she was naked. Her father stirred in the corner.

     “April?” he mumbled.

     “It’s ok Daddy. I’m fine.”

      “Where are your clothes?” he asked.

     She ignored the question as she stood and looked up at Cletus.

      “Ok. You’re going to sit down here so we can get started ok?”

      “Yes Ma’am.”

     “Now, see those pliers there?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Pick them up and put them in your mouth.”