by Ian Woodhead
As I watched them carry Paul down to the first aid room, I marvelled at how quickly they reacted. It didn’t hit me until I was walking home that the stretcher was meant for me. Oh yeah, it turned that just like the ice-cream girl having exclusive twatting rights to Tammy, the same applied to me as well. It turned out that Paul’s dad owned the shop where we saw that bird making off with the severed finger.
I expected to be expelled for what I’d done. Can you believe it wasn’t even mentioned again? No letter for my parents, no trip to the headmaster. There wasn’t even any police involvement. That showed I still had not grasped the rules of the town. What else could you expect though? I’ve always been quick on the uptake, but I still forget that these rules, the glue which holds this crazy fucked up town in place, is instilled into every single Brutality born individual.
If I had really understood the rules then perhaps future events might have been more favourable for our family.
Stuart once told me this story of some priest who came to our town, with this brain dead plan of saving the good folk of Brutality. You know, trying to turn them into proper God fearing people instead of, well, not to mince words here, instead of utter cunts. As you can imagine, his plan didn’t exactly go well. Stuart refused to tell me his eventual fate but he did say he got what he deserved. Meaning they killed the fucker. He also said that the common theory is that the spirit of the town sorta got into his head and turned him into a bit of a mental-case, because this priest somehow managed to murder a few folk before they caught him.
So what the fuck has that got to do with me? Well, it’s this spirit of Brutality thing that I can’t shake, that maybe it got to me as well. I mean, I know I was a bit of a tearaway, but to mutilate another ten year old without a moment’s hesitation? That is pretty fucked up. I didn’t feel any guilt of it either, not one single fucking ounce.
Oh yeah, I never saw Paul again. He disappeared and, with this being Brutality, nothing was ever said.
So yeah, has Brutality eroded my morality? Or had I always been a bit of a psycho and I just needed the influence of a town like this to nurture my gift, answers on a postcard, because I don’t have a fucking clue.
They left me alone after the corkscrew business. If only they had extended this to include my sister as well. Those bitches were merciless to the poor girl. I did try to protect her, honestly I did. Thing is, Brutality’s kids were masters at hurting without getting seen. I couldn’t be in two places at once. Also, with Paul out of the picture, it made me the de-facto crowned king of my year, despite me not being Brutality born. Like I said, rules were rules and they just weren’t allowed to break them.
It took my parents quite a while to notice what had happened to their kids and that their new home was the culprit. I guess that’s what happens when your career becomes more important than anything else. You walk around with your eyes closed. It’s not like they didn’t love us, of course they did, it’s just that neither of them wanted to believe that Brutality was the cause of Tammy refusing to leave her bedroom everyday and screaming whenever anybody tried the open her door. Or that their son was now running with a pack of feral kids and coming home every night with new bruises and ripped clothing.
They moved to another town two months ago. I didn’t go with them. Fuck that. Brutality was my home now and anyway, there was nothing they could do about it, after all, I was old enough to look after myself. Stuart’s dad agreed to take me in, which was nice of him, I guess. I really should have moved out ages ago, considering the time I spent with them. It wasn’t often I went home anymore. The noise coming out of Tammy’s bedroom really was getting on my tits.
Anyway, enough of the all that. The past is the past and that’s it. What excites me is the future, namely the exciting prospect of finally getting into Jackie’s knickers. I’ve been wanting to fuck that girl for absolutely ages. Look, it’s not like I’m a virgin or anything, it’s just that Jackie is like the cream of the cream. When you do her, every other slag just pales in comparison. Stuart says that she really is that good.
We had all arranged to meet at Arnold’s place before setting off for the final stage in my initiation. There’s this big house close to some abandoned church on the outskirts of town. Nobody lives there but it does have a caretaker and that caretaker just happens to be Stuart’s dad. Yeah, I think you can see where I’m going with this.
I’ve changed out of the clothes that the tramp messed and into something loose fitting. I thought it was best not to wear anything that took more than three seconds to pull off, if you know what I mean. Armed with our usual gear of a short bladed knife, some money and a condom, Stuart and I set off walking over to Arnold’s place. He only lived a couple of streets away so it didn’t take us too long to get there. I had to admit, I had this big cheesy smile plastered across my face and Stuart did too. I guess he was happy for me. It’s weird how close I felt to all of them now.
I’ll admit that I was a little bit pissed off when only Arnold, the goon, came out of his house alone. I was under the impression that Jackie would be with him and we were all going up to the house together, preferable with me playing with Jackie’s arse again. Arnold told us that she had already made her way up to the house.
Stuart then gave me a wink and said she’s probably getting herself ready for you. If my grin could have gotten any wider at that point, I swear I would have looked like some retarded clown. An image of me walking into this bedroom and finding the girl wearing this transparent negligee popped into my head. It was at this point when Arnold fucking ruined my fantasy by saying she’d be wearing that dead tramp’s clothes. I swear down, I’ve no idea what stopped me from punching his lights out there and then. Not that I had to; my mate Stuart just gave him this weird look and the cunt slammed his gob tight. He didn’t utter a single sound until we reached the big house.
“I hope you’re ready for this, buddy,” said Stuart. He thrust his hands into his pockets. “Come on then, lad. Open the fucking door. What’s with the hesitation?”
“He’d rather stick his cock up your arse, Stuart!”
“Get the fuck, the pair of you,” I snarled. There were times when I so wanted to give Arnold a slap, despite his size.. I grabbed the handle and pulled it down, kinda expecting it to be locked and for Stuart to magic the key out of his pockets while they both pissed themselves laughing.
The door opened as smooth as you like, so much for them fucking about. I stepped over the threshold, vaguely wondering why my heart was beating so fast, all of a sudden, I so wanted to be somewhere else, and without my present company. I was aware that Stuart was right behind me, a little too close for my liking but I just assumed that he wanted to get a glimpse of the sexed up Jackie. With him being a dirty perverted bastard.
I wanted him to back away, you know, to get out of my personal space but the room I found myself in, made me forget everything expect my name.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” I gasped, looking around the walls, utterly horrified at the sight of the severed heads.
“Come on, you,” whispered Stuart. “In you get.”
Both his hands slammed into the middle of my back. I cried out, losing balance and going down hard on my knees. He followed this with a sharp crack against my left ear, hard enough to make me see stars.
They stood over me, both laughing while I tried my best not to cringe. The wall of denial which had cushioned my young mind against the horror and atrocities I’d seen and contributed to over the years came tumbling down around my ears.
I lifted my head and for the first time, I saw the real hate in the faces of those two ghouls, the faces of the two boys who stood by as I once mutilated their best friend. They had waited seven years for retribution and right at that moment, I knew I would not be leaving this charnel house alive.
“Don’t just stand there, Arnold, you fucking diseased spastic, help me get him back on his feet. We’re on a time limit, remember?”
They grabbed an arm each and lift
ed me up. I stared at the maroon carpet while the boys dragged me across the room. There was no way I dare look at that wall again without the fear of my sanity fragmenting. I daren’t even close my eyes, knowing that I would see all those rows of shelves, full of severed heads stuck on spikes, each head in a progressive degree of putrefaction. Some of the things must have been up there for decades.
Would that be my final destination?
They dragged me into another room. Stuart forced my arm up my back while Arnold pushed his thumb under my chin, forcing my head up.
“Sorry, dude, but you have to see this. It’s fucking awesome.”
The beans and burger I had for my lunch threatened to leave my mouth at the sight of my second corpse today. Arnold gripped the sides of my chin when I tried to look away.
“Don’t you fucking dare. You won’t believe the twatting inconvenience your behaviour’s caused me.”
“Yeah, have a bit of respect. Drink in the first consequence of your decisions, you cunt,” snarled Stuart.
“Oh God,” I moaned. “You dirty horrible, evil bastards. That is disgusting.”
They had bent some naked man over an old wooden dining table and wrapped barbed wire over his back, neck and arms to ensure he couldn’t move his body. Blood-stained shit caked his upper thighs and had rolled down his knees and ankles until it pooled around a broken milk bottle lying between this poor bastard’s feet.
Stuart placed his mouth up against my ear and whispered, “It gets worse.”
Arnold let go of my chin and ran over to the corpse. He wrapped his fingers into the hair and lifted the head off the table.
“It’s your dad, dude.”
Arnold burst out laughing and slammed the man’s face into the wood.
“You look like you’re going to cry, dude, you big fucking baby. Are you going to do that?” Stuart pushed me over to another door. “Are you going to start weeping and asking for your mum?”
Arnold had yet to stop laughing.
“As we’re such good friends, it’s only right that we help you out here, dude.”
“Please, no. I don’t want to see this.”
Arnold reached the next door and pushed it open while the other boy marched me through the opening.
Oh No, please not my mum as well. Tears streamed down my cheeks and my knees buckled when they pushed me right up the edge of the bed in front of my mum. Like dad, they had violated her as well. I cried out before my stomach folded up and I chucked up mushed up warm vomit all over the dead woman’s feet.
“Look at her, you cunt!” screamed Stuart.
They grabbed my head again.
“This is all your fault. Don’t you get that?”
Arnold walked over to the corpse, leaned down and ran his tongue over her cheek. I growled, trying to wrestle this big bastard off me. For me efforts, he punched me again and slammed my body into the bed board. Stuart then pulled his blade from his back pocket and pressed it against the small of my back.
“Go on, try that again. I’m begging you.”
“You knobhead, I said we should have tied him up first.” Arnold casually squeezed my mother,s right breast before he strolled back over to me. He pulled out three thick plastic cable ties. “Hold his hands together, Stuart.”
I looked past her mutilated genitals and the wide blood-filled holes in her stomach and focused on her face, trying to compare the contorted features to that beautiful and kind woman who used to tuck me into bed every night.
“I’ll have to admit, dude, your mum was a pretty good fuck, for an old woman, anyway. Not as good as Jackie though. Oh, that reminds me. She still wants to see you.” He grabbed my now secured arms and jerked my body back. “Come on, times a wasting.”
“Oh yeah, we’ve saved the best until the last,” said Arnold, giggling. “Tammy is so dying to see you, dude.”
“Don’t worry,” said Stuart, spinning me around. “We haven’t hurt her. She’s alive and well.” He rested his hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry about what happened to your mum and dad, really I am. Thing is, it’s the only way we could show you. Brutality isn’t just some town where people can come and go. It’s alive.”
“And when strangers come here and start acting like they’re king of the fucking castle, it’s only normal for us to react.”
“Just see us as antibodies. While you lot are viruses.” He stopped outside another door. “Like I’ve already said, dude. This is all your fault. You shouldn’t have tried to play the hard man, tried to be like one of us.” He pushed the door open. “End of the line!” He shoved me inside.
They had hung my sister upside down. Her ankles tied to roof rafters with thick ropes. They hadn’t lied. Tammy still lived. Her eyes bulged in their sockets and behind the black carpet tape, she tried to shout out.
“You said you wouldn’t hurt her!” I yelled. Arnold grabbed my arms before I could run to the girl. “You promised me.”
Another door opened on the opposite side of the room and two more figures entered. I recognised Jackie straight away. Another man followed in behind her. It had been a few years since I had seen him but I would never forget the face of Paul Eccles. He carried a baseball bat in his big hand.
Jackie walked over to the naked girl and slapped her arse. “So, looks like all the gang is here.” She crouched down. “I told you what would happen if you told anybody.” She glared at me. “I couldn’t find any superglue so I had to improvise.” Jackie winked at me before turning her attention to Paul. “Come on then, you idiot. Get on with, we don’t have all day.”
Both Arnold and Stuart held me down, Arnold’s hand clamping tight around my mouth while Paul took up position behind my sister. I saw the bat rise into the air before it slammed down between Tammy’s outstretched legs.
Jackie’s mocking face appeared directly in front of mine. “I guess you thought me and you were going to be together tonight?” She laughed. “Well, you’re kinda right. First, me and the lads are going to play with you before we devote the rest of the night to your sexy sister before we kill the bitch. Lucky for you though, you ain’t going to be around to see what we do to her. You see, we have something really special lined up for you, honey.” She showed me the wine corkscrew she held in her left hand. “This is so going to hurt. It’s going to hurt you a lot.”
The End
