Cadence and Dog

by Lashbrook, Lillan

  They were marched into the Commandants office. Formerly a Master bed room in bed and breakfast. The high ceilings had been painted with a bloody mural depicting the Commandant standing in front of what must be considered helpless people and taking on a hoard of madmen. Cadence tripped over her own feet while looking up at it. The already bruising grip on her arm tightened and pulled her up to correct her. She looked back down where she was going, her eyes fell on the long dark desk. Piled high with papers, guns, food, and all the tokens of wealth in a post-apocalyptic world. Pointing at each of them with a pistol in his pale, boney hand he asked in a thick southern drawl ‘’Where di’ my men fin’ you? Yall just poor babes in the ‘oods. Ha-ha. Well you safe naow. An’ we gonna take good care of you so long as you pull your weight. See ’eryone here in my lil’ safe haven does their share.” He waked around his desk and leaned against the front edge, sliding the gun in the holster on his right hip. Standing the man was tall and only slightly plump near his waist. His hair was the only thing that really showed his age at all. The light glimmered off the grease in the thinning locks. “You a pretty little thing. What’s your name darlin’?”

  “Cadence”

  “And you boy?” Adrien had been trying to read his lips and figure out what was said “I asked you a question boy.”

  “He is def.” but as she turned to translate for Adrien, The Commandant pulled his gun back out.

   “I can't use damaged goods.”

  The loudest sound she had ever heard followed by the ringing eco of the gun shot rang through her head. Cadence watched in horror as the front of Adrien’s shirt slowly turned from blue to a dark muddy red. He didn’t react at first. He was still looking up at the Commandant trying to decipher what the man had said to him. Then the pain hit. Fire was suddenly racing through his chest and spreading out across his body. His lungs filled with blood with every breath he tried to take in. He couldn’t get air enough to scream. His vision started to darken and the light through the window became a small blurry pin prick. He could feel the pull throughout his body as his blood ran down his front and pooled under him. His brain tried to think, to save itself somehow. The pain slowly began to fade as his brain, deprived of blood and oxygen, died. Adrien fell to the floor spasm for a moment, then finally lay still.

  Cadence began to scream “Shut her up” The Commandant said as he walked back around his desk to his chair “and get that boy off the rug before it gets everywhere, no, bring me a new one.” As she reached out for her friend one of the Commandant’s men knocked her hard behind the ear with his line keeper. She too hit the ground.

  As Cadence was carried like a sack of potatoes to a holding room, a woman walks in with one of the enforcers. His voice wasn’t high for a man his age but nasally from too many broken noses. “Cummy here wants to talk to you about that girl. Said she knows her”

  “My name is Cammie thank you very much! Short for Camellia. And that girl is my daughter!” she looks at the Commandant then back down at the floor. Instantly sorry for her outburst.

  “The town whore has uh kid hu? And let me guess you wana take back custody that the state took away?”

  “No sir, well yes I want to take her. I was just getting out of prison when the world went to shit. I saw her when your men brought her in. I haven't seen her since she was a year old. My Husband got me locked up for I had to bring her to my client's hotel rooms when my shit husband wouldn’t watch her. Turns out they liked to look at her and touch her. And sometimes she licked their cocks. So, I started bringing her more, and I was making good money to let them do more to her. She was getting use to being touched like that, and I could have started training her to be a good slut. But my husband found out and turned me in. Probably wanted her for himself.”

  “So now you want another chance to train her in the ways of the whore. Heh-heh-heh why do I need you to do that? She just lays there and I shove my dick in her. If she fights it’ll just be more fun. I can tie her up make a show of it, wouldn’t that be sompin’. Or maybe your right and her daddy opened her up for us, then maybe she knows some secret way to move her ass. In any case I don’t need you. You’d probably give her something while you were a showin’ and then we’d all catch it! I can’t believe you wasted my time with this!” to his enforcer “Get the diseased thing outa my office.” back to Cammie “I’m feelin’ generous today. I’m getting a real good mood thinking about what I’m gonna do to my new toy. I was just gonna find some house to take her but now…You want the girl so bad fine you get to clean her up after we are done with her each day. I’ll even let you watch as myself and every one of my men tare her apart.” The enforcer dragged the poor woman out one hand on the arm one hand tangled in her hair.

  “Don’t go too far cummy, the boys and I are going to want something to practice on before we dig in to that little cherry pie you seem to think is your kid.” He dumped her in the road at the end of the building's steps.

  “Children without adults to look after them are kept in the big house until a home can be found.” she was sitting in a small bedroom. The closet had been turned into what gramma had called a water closet, just a toilet and a sink so close together Cadence would be able to brush her teeth and poop at the same time, if they had given her anything to brush her teeth with. There was a bed and an old TV with a VCR built into it, not that Cadence knew what a VCR was. The carpet was old, stained, but under the table where it hadn’t been exposed as much, she could see it use to have a flower pattern. A little table and a chair in the corner. She was sitting on the bed, looking at the food the girl was setting out on the table. Bread, glass of something green, and a bowl of something that smelled like chicken soup. She flipped her blond hair as she stood up making Cadence think she must be a teenager “They may have you see the doctor to make sure you aint sick or cut up anywhere. Some kids we find are all bones and gashes. You look alright though. Those clothes are filthy, take them off.” She started towards Cadence and tossed a large piece of fabric on the bed. When she picked it up, it was a shirt bigger than her father would wear. “Put that on and I’ll wash the ones you came in with. You can have them back tomorrow.” The lady grabbed Cadences shirt and had it almost over her head before she knew it was happening. With her shirt off she felt vulnerable and jumped off the bed. Dashing around to the other side to get away from the next grab. “They have to come off”

  “I don’t get undressed by or around strangers.” Cadence tried to pull the blanket up to herself but it was tucked in too tight. “Thank you for the food and the shirt. I can undress myself.”

  “Oh, you’re a big girl hu? Fine whatever. I got better things to do. Throw them in the hall if you want them clean” she threw Cadences shirt on the floor and walked out. Cadence heard a click from the door and when she walked over to it found the handle locked. Cadence thought to herself ‘how am I supposed to put my clothes in the hall?’ but looking at the door she noticed a handle in the middle of it. Pulling on it opened a small hatch where things could be passed through. ‘People are kept here often with the door locked if they need this little door.’

  She undressed, making sure her pond stone and other mysterious finds weren’t in any pockets, and washed herself as best she could. The water was cold and she was shivering by the time she was done, and the shirt went almost to the floor. She put her clothes through the slat in the door and looked at the food. It smelled good, tasted ok. She didn’t drink the green liquid. She could smell sugar in it but there was something else that did not smell like food. Maybe she was becoming more dog after living like an animal. Maybe it was whatever had been giving her those dreams. Either way she tipped the cup into the sink and washed it out. The water was cold but clean, tasted like the well water she had at daddies' friends’ ranch.

  The bed was warm and more comfortable than the ground she was used to. But she missed dog. She tossed back and forth. Without
him lying next to her or on her she couldn’t sleep. She began to wonder where he was, to worry if they had just killed him outright like they had Adrien. As so many times before tears rolled down her face and she ended up crying herself to sleep her scant valuables clutched in her hands. That’s when the dream came. As if waiting for the moment she was free to hear its message. She was in a room instead of outside, she couldn’t move. Looking around she saw she was tied to something like a doctors table only her legs were pulled up and apart and her bottom was hanging slightly off the end. She ached all over, her face felt hot and swollen so did her legs and in between where she pottied. This room was bigger than the one they had put her in to sleep, couches all along the walls and tables here and there just out of the light. Everything was kind of dim away from where she was restrained. She could see a few people sitting and staring at her but couldn't make out more than just shapes. She could see some faint lights around the room, the one on her was almost blinding like a spot light. The Commandant walked up to her from the gloom, naked and smiling. He was holding something near his hips, when his hand slid around on it, she saw pink. Her friend Mowisha had told her stories about boys and she could guess this was a penis. But as for what he was about to do she could never have guessed. She felt him press it against her sore and swollen parts and with a savage thrust of his body impaled her with it. She screamed as pain ripped through her, that scream was still pouring out of her as she awoke.

  She jumped out of the bed and raced for the door. Tears pouring down her face. The muscles and tendons in her hips and legs trying desperately to let her fall. The phantom pain left from her dream pulled at her every step. She slammed into the door, bruising her shoulder and side, pulled at the still locked door. Cadence banged at it, kicked, and screamed to be let out! But to no avail. Everyone who could hear were under orders not to interact. Just as she was about to start banging again a feeling of cold splashed over her as if some wave from the ocean had come upon her suddenly. She stopped her hands still in the air aimed at the door. She smelled salt and books and grandmas' perfume. For just a moment she thought she felt hands lying softly on her shoulders then it was gone. The feeling took all her pain and fear with it. “I love you too grandma.”

  They didn’t bring any food the next morning or in the afternoon. She went to the door to knock and asked, but no reply. She could see people through the pass through in the door, they have to have heard me, and asked again. “May I have something to eat?” One did turn and looked at her door. “Please?” no response. She let the little door close and went into the water closet. She filled her stomach with water and laid back down. With no window to the outside she couldn’t tell the time. The cartoon on the TV seemed to be on a loop. This room was designed to make her insane. Or maybe just happy for any reason to get out. When she woke up to the cartoon for the third time, there was a woman in the room with her. Different from the one who gave her food last time. This one was older, with dark hair. When she shifted position, Cadence saw deep red highlights.

  “You poor dear. Your mother must be so worried about you. Where do you come from? Maybe we can bring her here.”

  “I never had a mother. Daddy said she left us when I was a baby.”

  “How sad.” but her face didn’t show sadness. Her tone was flat almost angry, her whole body seemed tense. “Well anyway I brought you something to eat.”

  The tray had a sandwich, an apple, and another glass of green stuff. “Thank you.” Cadence sat on the bed for a moment studying the woman as she herself was being studied. “What about my clothes? The other woman said I would get them back after they were washed.”

  “Those rags got tossed in the burn pit. Not worth washing. Eat your supper, not everybody gets to”

  “If things are so bad then why keep me? I was fine on my own. I can feed myself”

  “Because you a little girl. And little girls need to be taken care of and to learn their place. Now drink your juice.” with that the woman walked out of the room and locked the door behind her. A full day without eating had done more than wet Cadences appetite. She ate everything even the core of the apple. She still didn’t drink the ‘juice’. It had an even stronger chemical smell than yesterday. This time when she woke up the water had been turned off. Another day passed without food, this time without water. And when the tray was brought that night there was only the glass. She drank the ‘juice’ and it tasted exactly like she knew it would. Worse than medicine, and did nothing for her thirst. The moment it hit her tong and she swallowed; she knew it had been a mistake. Her throat closed for a moment as if to keep the fluid from getting inside then opened and finished the swallow.

  She couldn't keep her head up, every movement seemed as if through mud. Just trying to sit up to find something to drink, they said it was there didn’t they but she couldn't find it, was so hard. Her brain was telling her to sleep. She knew she'd be more comfortable laying down. The blankets were soft and warm. They wanted her to feel safe. But this is not a place to feel safe or be relaxed. She should be on guard. She had to remember that! They killed Adreian! Took Dog away! She needed to find him and get out of here. But the more she tried to focus on that the more everything else seem distracting. Her face felt hot and puffy; her throat was dry. The woman had put on some new cartoon for her, some talking animal show, but the volume was too high. The little pig said “It’s bad to lie.” That line kept rolling around and rolling around in her mind but every time it came back to her it lost a little bit of its meaning. She wanted to focus, she wanted get out of here. But whatever they had given her was stronger than she was. She knew she had to get out. Knew she should be afraid of the strange place that they would take her. It's not quite a doctor's office, not quite a bedroom. In her half sleep half dream state her mind kept bringing up the image of the strange room. ‘It’s a warning’ she thought, but the words came so slow ‘this is the lie’. She stood up and everything shifted sideways, gravity was pulling her in every direction at once. Cadence landed on her knees then all fours. Every time she turned her head or tried to stand the world went sideways again. The carpet in front of her blurred for a moment then everything went dark. A hidden door opened silently and The Commandant leered down at the unconscious girl.