Dividing Line Origins (Short story anthology - Dividing Line Series)

by Heather Atkinson

  “Did you enjoy that Babe?” said Jasper, sparking up his own cigarette.

  “It was good,” she replied.

  The answer sounded false to her but Jasper seemed pleased. They were ensconced in his messy bedsit. Jules liked his flat, she didn’t need to be afraid of knocking something over or making a mess, mainly because it was always a mess. It was a relief after being trapped in the grand mausoleum that was her family home.

  Jules turned onto her side to face Jasper. His body was scrawny and pale, dark hair long and straggly, but he was covered in tattoos and they fascinated her. She loved art and she could spend hours studying his ink. Jasper had absolutely no taste but when it came to tattoos his choices were masterful. She ran her fingertips over the eagle etched onto his chest. “I want to get my own tattoo,” she said.

  “Mummy and Daddy will go ballistic,” he replied, puffing out smoke as he spoke.

  Jules knew he hated the fact that her family was rich when he was skint. He liked to make out that he was above wealth, big houses and flash cars when in truth he was jealous, so he took every opportunity to deride the luxury she’d grown up in.

  “So fucking what if they do?” she frowned.

  “What sort of tat do you want?”

  “I don’t know yet. I want to design my own but its got to be big and in your face.” She’d come up with many of her own designs but so far none of her drawings had really spoken to her.

  “You can’t cover up that gorgeous body,” he said, running a hand over her belly and up to her breasts.

  “It’s my body, I’ll do what I want with it.”

  “Speaking of which, how have your parents been treating you?”

  Jules winced and sat up, his clumsy way of asking if they’d abused her lately excruciating. “They’re not my parents. Real parents don’t abuse their kids and sell them to their friends for sex.” She stubbed the cigarette out angrily in a skull-shaped ashtray. “They’re keeping something from me about my past. Tonight I intend to find out what.”

  “How?”

  “I’m hoping it’ll involve me hurting them a lot.”

  “That reminds me, I got you a present.”

  Jules maintained an air of complete indifference but inside she was secretly pleased. She hadn’t been given a present in three years, ever since she’d turned thirteen and her parents had decided she was good for nothing except being used and abused. Up until then she’d been the pampered princess who’d got everything she’d ever wanted. All that had changed on her thirteenth birthday, which, instead of celebrating with a party, she’d spent being tied up and raped by a friend of her dad’s, who was also the highest bidder while her dad, the man who should have protected her, watched with his cronies, ignoring her pleas for help. Life had gone from luxurious and carefree to a daily round of fear and abuse. However, as she’d got older fear had given way to anger and now Jules was in fully-fledged rebellion against her parents, hence her relationship with Jasper - who was eight years older than her - as well as the smoking, drinking and staying out all hours. They’d met in a dubious nightclub that had no qualms about letting in underage girls. Jasper had homed in on her immediately, recognising her need to break the rules as well as something Jules had only recently learnt about herself - her ability to cause others pain without the hindrance of a conscience and he’d trained her to use it to her advantage. For that she would always be grateful to him, it meant the odds had been evened up between herself and her parents, it was thanks to him that she was finally capable of taking them on.

  “Here you go,” he said, retrieving a large black box from under the bed and dumping it unceremoniously in her lap.

  She lifted the lid and was surprised to see a knife. It was silver with a pewter handle coiled in the shape of a snake. The snake’s red jewel eyes stared back at her. Jules weighed it in her hand. It was perfect, as though it had been forged for her.

  “You remember how I showed you to use it?” he said.

  She tilted the blade, enjoying the way it caught the light. “Yes.”

  “It’s a live blade so it’ll cause plenty of damage, especially in your hands.”

  “Do you want me to cause my parents lots of damage?”

  “They fucking deserve it. If they’re out of the way then they can’t stop us seeing each other.”

  Jules marvelled at a man who could incite a sixteen year old girl to murder her mum and dad just so they could be together. She wanted to kill her parents, wanted it so badly she experienced a rising bloodlust just thinking about it, but if she did it certainly wouldn’t be for Jasper, it would be for herself and little Cara, the one light in her life, to stop her suffering the same fate as herself.

  A leather sheath with a strap was also dumped in her lap.

  “Keep it in this, you can strap it to your wrist so you can draw it quickly.” Jasper picked up the sheath and tied it to her wrist. “Why don’t you have a practice?”

  She slid the knife into the sheath, which sat perfectly against her forearm. She whipped the blade out and pointed it at Jasper, who smiled.

  “Well done. That was so fast I could hardly see it.”

  Jules didn’t reply, she was too busy wondering what it would be like to cut through his soft white skin and see the blood flow from the wound, what it would feel like when it sank into his flesh.

  Jasper, completely oblivious to her homicidal thoughts, continued to talk. “I’ve got big plans for us babe. Me and Dane have decided to go ahead and set up the MC and I want you by my side.”

  Jules lowered the knife. “You do?”

  “I want you to be my queen. Together we’ll make Lucifer’s Shadow huge.”

  “That’s the name I came up with,” she said, pleased. Living with her parents felt like she was constantly in the devil’s shadow.

  “Yes and it’s perfect. Dane wanted to call it Angel’s Wrath, can you believe it? He can be such a poof sometimes. So, what do you think?”

  Now it became clear why he wanted her parents out of the way. Setting up the club would be a full time job involving some less than legal activity. It was going to be a front for the drug dealing Jasper and Dane had scavenged for together and they were doing well while managing to stay under the radar of the Maguires, the most powerful criminal family in Manchester. It meant serious money. “I’m in,” she smiled.

  “That’s my girl, I knew you wouldn’t let me down,” he said, kissing her. He pulled back slightly to look into her eyes. “You understand what you have to do so you can live your new life with me?”

  Jules nodded. “I understand perfectly and I’m going to enjoy it.”

  He grinned and picked a whip up off the floor. “Fancy using my new toy?”

  Jules was elated as she whipped him, revelling in the livid red marks that appeared on his spotty white back and his groans of pain. When he couldn’t take anymore he pulled her back down onto the bed.

  This time Jules welcomed him inside her because he had opened the door to an entirely new future for her.

  Jasper dropped Jules off a couple of streets from her home so she could walk the rest of the way, as was their usual custom. This time she wasn’t afraid of her parents hearing the roar of his motorbike - she’d never fear them again. She just didn’t want to give them any warning she was coming.

  As she walked down the tree-lined avenue, past the high walls and huge gates of the neighbour’s houses, she held herself tall and proud. This life was behind her now and she was going to make sure it stayed there.

  “Where have you been you dirty little stop out?” screeched Alice Parker the moment she came through the door.

  “With Jasper,” she retorted casually, stalking past her towards the kitchen. She was starving. Jasper never had any food in, never anything that was within its sell-by date anyway.

  Jules hesitated when she heard Cara calling for her. “Jules,” cried her little voice gleefully.

  “Hello gorgeous baby girl,” she smiled, scooping
her up and kissing her cheek. As usual she looked like a doll with her blond hair curled into ringlets and tied back with red ribbon, pristine white dress and gleaming patent black shoes. That’s all she was to the Parkers, something to dress up and spoil. They didn’t see her as a little person. She’d just turned eighteen months old. Jules had expected to hate her replacement. Cara was the new princess in the castle but she’d loved her the moment she’d seen her. She’d just been a babe in arms when they’d brought her home. Jules didn’t know where she’d come from, they never revealed to her where they got all the children. They told their neighbours and friends they were foster carers and everyone said how wonderful they were for taking in so many children but Jules knew they only took them in so they could later abuse them. It pained Jules to see the innocence in Cara’s big blue eyes because she knew if she didn’t do something then Alice and Leighton Parker would brutally rip that innocence out of her and eradicate all trust so she would never let anyone get close to her again. Jules was well aware after all the damage that had been done to her she could never enjoy a normal relationship. What she had with Jasper was far from roses and violins but she thought it was the best she was going to get so she was willing to settle.

  Jules kissed Cara’s soft cheek and cuddled her tight, Alice still screeching in her ear, calling her horrible names, which was upsetting Cara so she put her back down in her playpen with her toys. Jules wanted her well away from what was about to happen.

  Continuing to ignore Alice she walked into the kitchen, Alice following, her tirade relentless, telling her she was a slag for giving herself to Jasper.

  “You’ve got a nerve calling me a slag you fucking paedo,” snarled Jules.

  Alice was taken aback. No one had ever spoken to her like that before in her life. She slapped Jules hard across the face. “Just wait till your father gets home, he’ll make you pay for that.”

  Jules drew back her fist and punched Alice full in the face, knocking her onto her back. Alice stared up at her from the kitchen floor with stunned cornflower blue eyes.

  “You and I are going to have a little chat Mummy Dearest and if you don’t tell me what I want to hear you’re going to feel the rough end of this,” said Jules, producing the knife from the sheath strapped to her wrist. Alice squealed with fear and Jules released a malicious laugh. “You should have killed me one of the many times you threatened to because your life as you know it is over. I’m moving onwards and upwards and you and Leighton are unwanted baggage. I’m dumping you and stopping your fucking sick activities once and for all.” She pulled some rope out of a drawer, rope that had been used on her often enough. “Sit in the chair,” she ordered, keeping the knife pointed at her face.

  Shaking and tearful, Alice got to her feet and slumped into one of the chairs at the kitchen table, body going weak with shock, face bruised.

  “Hands behind your back,” said Jules.

  “You’re not going to get away with this. Surely you see that?” said Alice in a vain attempt to reason with her.

  Jules pressed the knife to her throat, enjoying how she trembled. “Hands behind your back. Don’t make me slice you open.”

  Alice obeyed and Jules hastily tied her hands behind the back of the chair then tethered her ankles to the legs.

  “Now,” said Jules, running the tip of the blade down Alice’s cheek, being careful not to nick the skin. “You’re going to tell me who my real parents are.”

  Alice Parker was a mess. Every part of her exposed body - which was most of her as she was only wearing a t-shirt and short skirt - was covered in burns and blisters from Jules’s lighter. Not even her lovely face had escaped Jules’s wrath, the pale tender flesh marred by ugly red patches, some of which had blistered into sacs filled with yellow fluid. Jules had decided not to use the knife Jasper had given her even though she was desperate to because she’d come up with an alternative plan. There was no way she was going to prison for this piece of shit so she needed to cover up her crime and it was impossible to disguise stab wounds. But she could hide the burns and at the same time bring down the Parker’s empire once and for all.

  However she’d got more than she’d bargained for. What Alice had told her had knocked her sideways and all she could do was stare at her incredulously while Alice shivered and shook with pain in her chair, a low moan echoing in the back of her throat.

  “You’d better be telling me the fucking truth,” glowered Jules.

  “I am,” she cried in a shaky, high-pitched voice that was so unlike her usual imperious tone.

  “Terry Maguire’s my real dad and Estelle Law’s my mum.”

  She nodded. “They sold you to us. We wanted to meet both parents to get an idea of what you’d look like.”

  “You mean you wanted to know if I’d be attractive so it would be easier for you to sell me for sex when I was older,” said Jules, having to fight not to plunge the knife into the bitch’s face.

  Alice just nodded, too scared of the homicidal look in her eyes to speak.

  Jules had thought she’d experienced every type of pain possible but this was something else. She’d not expected this in all her wildest imaginings.

  “We’re the ones who raised you, took care of you,” said Alice in a timid mewling voice that only made Jules angrier. “I’m your mum and you’re my daughter.”

  Jules grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked back her head. “I am not your daughter. You bought me so you could abuse me and make money off me. Did Terry and Estelle know what you’d do to me if they sold me to you?”

  “Y…yes,” rasped Alice, talking difficult with her head pulled back so far.

  Jules released her and turned her back on her while she struggled with this fresh horror. Naturally she knew who the Maguires were, everyone did. Rich, violent and corrupt, they were a huge power not just in Manchester but the entire north of England. Drugs, murder, torture, if it was illegal they were a part of it. Terry Maguire was the patriarch’s younger brother, which meant she couldn’t touch him, even though every part of her was screaming out to track Terry down and give him an idea of the pain she’d suffered for so long. She’d heard of Estelle Law too, her eldest son Ryan was a rising star in the criminal ranks and it was rumoured he was starting to give the Maguires a run for their money. Jasper was obsessed with the Laws and Maguires, he talked about them all the time because he wanted to be like them. He was going to wet his pants when she told him she was related to both families. But what use had her formidable pedigree been? It had given her no protection.

  “I’m not the first baby they’ve sold you?” Jules said quietly.

  “You’re the first Estelle’s sold, I’d never seen her before but Terry’s arranged for me to buy other kids before. You were the first that was his own child. Estelle let that slip during the sale and he slapped her for it. She was a prostitute back then and Terry was her client. You were an accident.”

  “Do their families know about me?”

  “God know. Frank Maguire would literally kill his brother if he found out. We agreed to tell no one else. Only me, Leighton, Terry and Estelle know.”

  “How did Estelle explain away her baby vanishing?”

  “She said the child was stillborn.”

  The vague flicker of hope she’d nurtured that she’d been kidnapped by this pair and would one day be joyfully reunited with her real parents who had pined for her all these years was completely extinguished. If she approached Terry Maguire he would kill her because he’d be too afraid of his big brother finding out about what he’d done. Plus he was a bona fide lunatic. Neither could she go after Estelle Law, not if she wanted Ryan and his four brothers after her. She was too young to tackle either of them yet, but one day she wouldn’t be. One day she’d be capable of confronting them and punishing them the way they deserved to be punished.

  Defiance surged through Jules. She didn’t need them anyway. Her real family had cast her aside, unwanted. Well fuck the lot of them. She was embarki
ng on a new phase of her life, a criminal one of her own and she’d make sure that one day both the Maguires and the Laws knew who she was and that they would tremble when they thought of her.

  Tears rolled down Alice’s burnt face, the salt stinging her injuries. Jules’s whole body shook with the violent rage possessing her and Alice had never been more scared of anyone in her life. “Leighton will be home soon,” she whispered. “If you release me now I’ll tell him I had an accident so he won’t punish you.” But in her heart Alice knew her husband would be no match for the psychotic nightmare standing before her with pure hate in her cold grey eyes. Jules had once been sweet and gentle, if a little spoilt and selfish. Alice finally saw what she and Leighton had moulded her into. They had been so intent on eradicating what she was that they’d never stopped to consider what she would become. They’d created their very own Frankenstein’s monster and now it had turned on its masters.

  “I don’t give a fuck about that wanker,” said Jules. “He won’t be around for much longer anyway, he’s going to die, just like you are.”

  “Die?” shrieked Alice. “You can’t kill me.”

  “I can and I am. I’ve got a new life with Jasper and you are not going to spoil it. Neither are you going to do to Cara what you did to me.”

  With that Jules picked up a pan, placed it on the stove and lit the gas under it. Then she filled it with cooking oil, ensuring she splashed the oil all over the units and the curtains. She tipped what remained over Alice.

  “What are you doing? What are you doing?” she screamed.

  “I’m going to set you on fire Alice,” Jules casually replied, taking a set of keys out of the kitchen drawer. “In a few minutes that oil will burn but that’s just the beginning. I’ve got a showstopper for you.”

  “Jules, come back,” she cried, struggling to free herself from her bonds but Jasper had shown her how to tie someone so securely they’d never escape. It had been the most pleasurable part of their sexual games.

  Jules ran back down the hall to the living room to find Cara still playing safely in her playpen. “Alright baby girl? We’re getting out of here but I need to do something first.”