The HUSH Series: (HUSH, HUSHED and JANE.)

by Sandra Raine

  But then. . ."Jane, where you going?" I quickly turned around as did Justin and Josh and the three of us just kind of stood there staring at Bree speechless with Justin and Josh expressing a certain amount of elation and me, sheer disappointment. Bree was standing in the doorway to her bedroom yawning and wiping her eyes.

  "Bree, go back to bed. It's late." I said crossing to her in anxious steps.

  "Why?" she then quizzed, wide-eyed and curious. "You're up?" She reminds me.

  "I know. It's just. . .I have to go do. . .something." I stammered while glancing over my shoulder toward Justin and Josh whose expressions were growing impatient by the second.

  "Who are they?"

  "Friends."

  "Friends?"

  "Yes."

  "Hey there, Bree," Justin unexpectedly interceded, stepping around from behind me. My heart thudded particularly when he dropped to one knee to meet Bree eye level. "I hope you don't mind, sweetie, but your sister needs to help me with something very important."

  Bree cocked her head like a curious puppy. "Like what?"

  "Well," Justin began to answer but paused to lock a strand of loose hair behind Bree's left ear. "It's kind of like grown-up stuff. And that's why you have to go back to bed."

  "But I'm no longer sleepy." Bree whined in my direction. I quickly put a finger to my lip 'cause her voice was starting to grow high.

  "Well, I got twenty bucks that says you are." Justin challenged. He reached into his front jean pocket and pulled out a crinkled twenty dollar bill and waved it in front of Bree's face. Bree lit up and snatched the bill from Justin's fingers and giggled. She then looked up at me and placed a finger against her lip before disappearing back into her bedroom. Her door shuts quietly.

  "You see, Jane," Justin prided as he casually rose to his stance while I glowered at him through the partial darkness. "You brag a child with money, and you'll be surprised what the little fuckers will do for you." My jaw clenched, my nostrils flared, but I dared not argue. . .I mean, if I didn't want to risk another beating, particularly from him.

  Justin abruptly grabbed me by the arm and ushered me down the stairs and out of my house via the front door. He then ushered me across the circular driveway and across the street toward the direction of his parked Mercedes which struck me as odd. And not because he was driving his Mercedes but because he parked directly across the street from my house while Dominic always parked down the street. I mean, and I thought, was Justin actually risking getting caught? But then it was in that moment, in that very thought when something became fishy about him and his actions.

  My eyes immediately swept through the car as soon as Justin opened the back door - Dominic was nowhere to be seen. I froze then unfroze when it suddenly became clear what Justin's intentions were with me. And the fact that Dominic was nowhere in sight led me to speculate that either he wasn't aware of Justin's intentions, or he just didn't care. I settled on the most obvious sign that Dominic wasn't aware 'cause I "worked" for him not Justin. I took an unnerving step back, and Justin's jaw clenched.

  "Get in the car, Jane." he demanded, calmly.

  "No." I said shaking my head firmly.

  "Get in the fucking car, Jane." he then repeated while still trying to keep his voice calm, low, patient.

  "No!" I shouted. I abruptly turned around with the sole intent of running back into my house but I had forgotten about Josh standing behind me the whole time; Josh, who then wasted no time backhanding me straight onto the back seat of Justin's car. And by the time I recovered from the hit, Justin's Mercedes was already speeding down south toward Phoenix.

  Chapter 28

  I started screaming as soon as Justin pulled onto the parking lot of a motel.

  "Shut that bitch up! Now!" Justin yelled at Josh from the driver's seat. He hadn't even parked the car yet when my heart sprang from my chest to my throat when I glimpsed two guys already standing in front of one of the motel rooms lining the parking lot. They were drinking and smoking and looking in our direction. Josh slapped his hand over my mouth and yanked me back down onto the backseat. But I had become too hard for him to handle, particularly when I started kicking the door, the window, the front seats. Eventually I bit down on his hand leaving him with no other choice but to let me go.

  I quickly sprung up from Josh's lap, unlocking the door, and storming out of the car. I was only able to clear a few feet 'cause Justin had one arm wrapped around my waist and the other wrapped around my throat. Tears of fear gushed from my eyes. And my screams had become aggressive in spite of his chokehold on me, and despite the fact I continued to fight and kick in light of Justin's overwhelming strength.

  "Pick up her fucking legs!" Justin bellowed to Josh. The two then quickly carried me toward the direction of the motel room where the two guys were standing in front of. One of the guys, seeming in his early twenties with dark brown hair and fiery brown eyes, voluntarily opened the motel room's door casually commenting, "She a wild one, huh?" Both Justin and Josh said nothing leaving the guy to muster with great anticipation. "Good. I like 'em wild!" as we passed him into the room.

  "Give us a few," Justin then breathlessly tells the guy who merely nods and shuts the door.

  A second later, Justin and Josh hurl me onto the bed with Justin furiously straddling himself over me. He slaps me a few times before grasping my throat hard, choking me again. And this time it was only to render me listless.

  "Look at me, Diamond," Justin ordered removing both his hands from around my throat. He sounded calmer, collective while I gasped and coughed and stared at him through dazed eyes. "Josh," he then casually called over his shoulder. Josh stood at attention. "Get that shit ready." Josh nodded and headed toward the dresser.

  Justin got up from the bed and reached for the pack of cigarettes sitting on the night stand. From the bed I rolled over and crouched on all fours. I was still coughing and gasping for air. After about a minute, I finally glanced up in Josh's direction right as he's opening one of the dresser's drawers. I then carefully watched as he pulled out a spoon, a glass tube, a single bottle of water and a lighter all before he reached down into his front pocket and pulled out a shiny piece of foiled paper.

  "Go, Diamond." Justin then urged me through a plume of heavy smoke. I slid off the bed, wiping the tears from my face and crossing to Josh apprehensively. I then watched as Josh unwrapped the foiled paper, placing a few drops of water over the powdery substance. With the spoon's handle he then cut through the substance.

  "Here," Josh said putting the spoon aside and handing me the glass tube. "You're going to inhale the smoke through this tube. Hold for a few seconds, then exhale then repeat. Got it?"

  I glanced at Justin permissibly but nothing escapes his mouth nor his expression. And so I was left with this notion to do as Josh instructed. Josh flicked the lighter beneath the foiled paper and the substance began to smoke right after it started, and what I assumed, to cook 'cause the substance also started to bubble. I quickly shoved the glass tube between my dry lips and inhaled deeply.

  I had never freebased before. And the second I felt this strange new drug filtering through my body, I instantly began to feel relaxed. So relaxed in fact that the fear of men pounding away in me began to subside to the farthest of my unconscious mind. Everything around me slowly began to spin in circles as I gravitated back toward the bed. And the last two things I remembered was feeling no pain, and Josh sliding my pajama bottoms off my body.

  But the moment the drug wore off, a whole new nightmare began.

  I was no longer alone with Justin and Josh in the motel room; I was now alone with three guys I had not recognized. . .Three guys ranging in their twenty-something's. One guy in particular was quite tall and athletically built while the other two guys were a few inches shorter and of average build. It was painfully obvious these guys were still in college 'cause they still possessed that man-child aura with their ill laughs, their disregard for human life, and where every day was a frat party. I
figured they were acquaintances of Justin and Josh.

  One of the guys, the one who was on top of me, sported a Sun Devil tattoo on his left bicep, and the vibe I was sensing from him and the other two guys made me aware that they had already taken their turn with me prior to my sobering up. But because these were college guys who had nothing better to do in the wee hours of a Wednesday morning but wait to get to their next class, they instead continued to have their fun with me. Then, to my horror, the motel room door opened and two other guys strolled in. They were smoking and drinking and undressing and suddenly I began to feel sick.

  I made an attempt to get up from the bed once the guy with the Sun Devil tattoo got off of me but my attempt had been interrupted by one of the newcomers who was forcefully trying to lay me back down on the bed. The guy was slightly heavy set and rough looking with a goatee, and he was sporting a wedding band. I tried to slap his hand away from his grabbing on me but I must've pissed him off something awful 'cause he grabbed me rough by the hair and pinned me down beneath him. All the guys then started to laugh and make baby jokes at me. One of the guys standing beside the bed, and who was the other friend to the tall and athletically build guy, poured some beer into his hand and pitched the liquid into my face while at the same time telling me to, "Grow the fuck up!"

  Still pinned beneath the heavy set guy, I started squirming and shouting as soon as I felt him trying to pry my legs apart with his. I could feel his breath hot, and it was heavily laced in cigarette smoke that seem to scorch against my right cheek. Then with his tongue he began licking up the beer from off my face. And somewhere during his licking on me and his trying to force himself inside me, and beneath all my resisting and screaming, I partially knee him in the groin. The guy yelps and slugs my left cheek. I see stars. I even go deaf for a moment. Then, I hear the guy order the other guys to hold me down. My eyes light up as I make several attempts to scream out to Justin but my panties are shoved into my mouth muffling my screams. The guy with the Sun Devil tattoo then leaped over the bed just above my head and pinned both my arms over my shoulders and held me down firmly. The other new guy, another rough looking prick in a matching goatee and much taller and slender, yanked open one of my legs and held me while the tall athletically build guy yanked open my other leg. Spread eagled and completely immobile, the heavy set guy then fingers and slaps my snatch repeatedly while he and the other guys laughed it up and cheered him on.

  After feeling some satisfaction from beating my vagina to a complete numbness, the heavy set guy literally tosses himself over me and abruptly thrusts himself into me. The stabbing force of his thick member and the raw of my vaginal flesh forces me to cry out from behind my panties. The brutality of his repeated thrusts, and the combined torture of deepened and raw penetration only seemed to add to my excruciating pain. . .And I saw no end, even after he finished and the others started.

  One by one these five guys had taken me by force: spreading me wide, holding me down, flipping me around and around - I actually felt like I was a fish out of water trying desperately hard to grasp the air, to oxygenate my body, to seize the temperate end to a tormenting ordeal. But it was the sharks that thought otherwise as they circled me, repeatedly raping and sodomizing every inch of my body beyond imagination, beyond recognition; their deepened penetrations breaking my flesh, ripping my holes, drawing my blood, and sugar coating it with such a blasphemous pleasure beyond what a child, even a teen like myself, could comprehend nor withstand.

  And I thought the nightmare would never end.

  When the sharks were finally done with me, I was left literally to die.

  On the bed my body laid slain in sweat, beer, semen and blood; my entire body far beyond battered, far beyond bruised. . .I couldn't even bring myself to cry 'cause I had no more tears left. Then, I drifted for a moment. The room was empty, and a faint eeriness loomed over it. I felt extremely cold and more than just alone. It wasn't until I had curled into my fetal position had I found comfort allowing me to rejoice in one tear after another.

  After a while I made an attempt to sit up, to stand but I found I couldn't do either. There was blood trickling down from between my legs and onto the flat shag carpeting. A massive, stabbing pain deep inside of me was accompanying the blood. And right then and there I knew something was horribly wrong with me.

  I noticed some time had passed and neither Justin nor Josh had come into the room to check on me even though I could hear voices just outside the door. I began to panic, my mind thinking on how more guys were sure to come into the room and continue raping me. I buried my face into the palm of my hands while my heart beat rapidly against my chest causing me to fret and lose my breath. I could feel my dilemma growing worse by the second 'cause I was still bleeding, and the blood was no longer trickling as it was now seeping. And those voices outside the door were getting louder.

  God, help me! my voice pleaded inside my head. Feeling trapped and nowhere to run, I went against Dominic's rules and picked up the motel room's phone and dialed his cell beneath trembling fingers. Suddenly the room began to spin. I was starting to feel dizzy, faint, and my eyes were slowly starting to close. I was anxious for Dominic to pick up 'cause I could feel myself literally on the brink of passing out.

  Yeah? Dominic's voice was harsh, groggy.

  "D-o-m-i-n-i-c?" I slurred through the receiver, half-awake, half-dazed, zero-percent elated to hear is voice.

  Jane? He questioned while sounding undoubtedly confused.

  "No. . .no," I stammered. My mouth was dry. And the words seemed heavy on my tongue. "It's Diamond," I remind myself, "It's Diamond, daddy," I then remind him.

  By this point I had envisioned Dominic springing up in his bed, horror-struck 'cause he blurted, What? Where are you?

  My mouth suddenly numbed. I couldn't speak. The receiver was slipping from my hand. The walls to the motel's room were closing in. Something began tunneling around the light in the room thus drawing it closer and closer and closer to me up until the light distinguished into an absolute darkness.

  Chapter 29

  I was drifting in and out of unconsciousness. I could also hear voices. High voices. Angry voices. Accusing voices. Anxious voices. Desperate voices.

  Wake up, Jane, my mind spoke softly.

  WAKE UP, DIAMOND! my mind screamed in terror.

  My eyes suddenly shot open like I had just woken up from a deep coma, and to my disbelief, I was still in the motel room. Only now there was a sheet covering my body instead of a gang of guys.

  "Dom, what are we going to do? She's still bleeding." And the urgency in Tanya's voice accompanied by a frantic concern lead me to believe they were in a world of shit.

  Tanya's back was to me. She was looking toward the door, looking at Dominic who pacing fretfully back and forth, huffing and puffing beneath a silent rage; a rage that could have very easily brought the entire motel building to a rubble.

  "Goddamn it, Justin!" Dominic suddenly stopped pacing to bitch.

  "What?" Justin then chortled the least bit unfathomed by Dominic's rage. He casually lit a cigarette. He inhaled then exhaled before adding, and quite impassively, "It's not like she's never bled before."

  "She's not on her fucking period, you asshole!" Dominic raved. "And in case you've fucking forgotten, she just had an abortion not more than a couple of fucking days ago!"

  "So?" Justin chastised through another plume of smoke.

  "What do you mean 'so'? We had an agreement. She was not to work for a few days - "

  "I couldn't wait a few days, cuz. . .I needed the money."

  "So this was another. . .favor?"

  "No. This was for money lost. You know, when you were shacked up with her?!"

  "Thanks a lot, bro!"

  "Dominic," Tanya unnervingly intervened, her tone also a fret.

  "What time is it?" he instead responded.

  Tanya glanced down at her recently purchased diamond encrusted Rolex watch. "A quarter to six."

 
"Give it 'til seven. Then call her." Tanya nodded. Dominic then shifted his attention to Justin and Josh. "You two fucks better pray that she makes it 'cause if she don't, we're all fucked!"

  "I'm still a couple grand shy, bro." Justin then had the audacity to rationalize just as Dominic was stepping toward the door for some fresh air. Dominic stopped cold in his tracks, turned around and stared at Justin in a state of incredulity.

  "Well," he then said shaking his head, chuckling. "I can tell you right now, "bro", that you're not getting that kind of money soon…not after this fucking mess!"

  Justin dragged on his cigarette for a second as his eyes swept over Tanya in all her high and mighty glory. "So, cuz, what do you say? In the mood to make me a couple of grand tonight?"

  "Fuck you!" Tanya seethed. Justin laughed as did Josh. "Why don't you bend the fuck over for a change, huh, "Cuz"?"

  Justin and Josh both exchanged amusing looks with Josh summarizing. "He has. Probably more times than you can count. Which sucks for you considering you're the biggest whore of them all! How sad. And disappointing."

  "Yeah, that is sad, if you put it that way." Tanya mused. "I mean, that would explain the fucking shit spewing out of his fucking ass 'cause his asshole is as big as his fucking mouth!"

  I don't think Tanya anticipated that hard slap across her beautiful flawless face nor of Justin yanking back her perfectly manicured hair to face him, either. And it must've been Tanya's wail that sent me cowering against the defiled headboard, clinging onto the sheet for protection even though I wasn't the intended target. And that second backhand across Tanya's face had me feeling for her 'cause I began to sob uncontrollably particularly when Justin grabbed her again by the hair and forced her to look back up at him.