PillowFace

by Kristopher Rufty

  “I can see that, but what’s in it?”

  “How am I supposed to know that?”

  Joel kept quiet as they approached. He and Pillowface shared fretful looks, both wondering what to do when the guys realized it was Tonya’s body in the pit. Ethan stepped onto the loose soil, caught one look at the lower half of the naked body, and turned away to vomit. Body heaving, the contents of his stomach splattered at his feet. He glanced at Paul for a moment, and then fainted in his puddle.

  They grimaced. Not just at Ethan’s unfortunate landing spot, but also the smell of the puke and decomposing body melding in the scorching heat. Joel had been sweating profusely the entire hike, but now, he was shivering. His spine felt as if it were being strummed with icy fingers. His testicles retracted against his abdomen.

  “It’s Tonya, isn’t it?” asked Paul.

  Joel nodded.

  Sighing, Paul stepped over Ethan like he was just a rock and walked around to the other side of the hole, then got on his knees. He sifted through the dirt with his hands, eagerly pushing it away to see what was underneath. When he finished, he leaned back on his knees, and placed both hands on his hips. “I knew she had tits, but damn I didn’t think they were that big.”

  Joel stared at Paul, repulsed.

  Paul shrugged his shoulders. “Cut off her head, huh? Well, you had to do what you had to do.” He sighed like a man talking about the weather. “Remember all those nights we spent at your fence, watching her bedroom with binoculars?”

  Of course Joel remembered. It was exciting, the thrill of being caught, the possibility of seeing her naked. They’d never succeeded, but one time Joel was blessed with seeing Mrs. Cantrell practically naked.

  Late one Friday night, Joel and Paul were taking turns spying on the house through the binoculars when the back door suddenly opened. Afraid of being caught, Paul had quickly ducked down, but Joel risked being caught and was thankful that he had. Tonya’s mother had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette naked, well not completely, she was still wearing pieces of a nightgown or something. It looked as if it had been shredded, and sections of her skin showed through the holes. She’d seemed bushed, out of breath, her skin slick with sweat. Joel had always thought Tonya was the gorgeous one, but after that night, he knew he’d been wrong.

  Joel noticed the wicked grin on Paul’s face. The morbid wheels of Paul’s mind were turning. He leaned forward, and reached into the hole. Before Joel could ask what he was doing, Paul had cupped a breast in his hand. “Wow. It’s still soft.”

  Disgust churned through him, but somewhere else, he also felt the heat of jealousy. Paul had tramped on his grounds. Don’t think like that. It’s wrong, it’s sick!!

  He cleared his throat. “Stop it.”

  “Why? It’s not like its bothering her.”

  “It’s sick.”

  “Oh, sure, and what did you do with her before putting her here?”

  “I didn’t do anything to her.”

  “Right.” He slid his hand down her stomach, flicked away some ants, and fingered her navel. “I wonder…” He rubbed her groin.

  “Stop it!”

  Paul laughed, then abruptly stopped as Pillowface moved towards him. He stood up, holding out his hands. “Sorry, I’m sorry!”

  Joel reached out as if his arm could stretch like Mr. Fantastic’s from the Fantastic Four. “No, Pillowface!!”

  He grabbed Paul by the shoulders and slung him against a tree. There was a vicious cracking sound when he hit. He ricocheted off the tree, landing in the brush, his feet sticking out from underneath it. Joel thought for sure he was dead. He realized he was holding his breath, so he exhaled. Everything around him was teetering. He wondered if he was going to faint.

  Joel ran on flimsy legs to where Paul lay. He got down on his knees and examined him. Paul’s feet stirred, twitched. He was breathing. Thank God. With tears in his eyes he looked at Pillowface. “Why’d you do that? Huh?!! He’s just a kid!!”

  Pillowface lowered his head, shamefully staring at the ground.

  Joel looked up at the tree Paul had struck, and saw that bark had split and some chunks were missing. Broke the damn tree. He crawled out from under the bushes.

  Pillowface put his shoulder against a tree to sustain his weight, his chest rising and falling profoundly.

  Joel watched him worriedly. He’s losing a lot of blood. He might die. He looked at his friends. One was passed out in his own puke, and the other unconscious. He got down on all fours by the hole and began scooping dirt back in. As he worked, he tried to think of something to do about them, but couldn’t get his mind to stop focusing on Pillowface.

  The hole was only halfway full when he stopped. He went to Pillowface, and pulled an arm over his shoulder. He decided to leave Paul and Ethan there for now, then come back and check on them in a little while. If he could at least get Pillowface inside and cleaned up, Joel could return to the woods while he patched himself up again. He felt guilty about it, but it was all he knew to do. He was exhausted and scared, but not enough that he couldn’t recognize he wasn’t thinking clearly.

  “Come on.” Joel and Pillowface moved on, going much slower than they already had been.

  ****

  Pillowface glanced back at the bush, ignoring Paul and Ethan, because of the footprints he’d spied around the exhumed grave. Two sets of army issued boots, size ten and eleven. Buddy and Carp. He looked at Joel, wanting to warn him that hell was coming in a pair.

  ****

  Buddy and Carp came out of hiding, both surprised. Sure enough, Face was courting around with a kid. Carp watched them leave, wondering why Buddy had stopped him from confronting the duo. “I don’t understand why we just didn’t rush out …”

  “We need to assess the situation Carp; you of all people should understand that.”

  Carp looked back at the grave.

  Buddy was already trying to wake up the kids they’d left behind. “I’m sure we’ll find out plenty from one of these little bastards.”

  When the fat one flinched Carp grinned. He was ready for some fun.

  (III)

  Jonesey took a used pair of Haley’s panties from the hamper and sniffed them. His eyes fluttered, savoring the aroma of her natural juices. He thought about licking them, but didn’t. That would just be weird.

  He felt jittery, and couldn’t stop shaking. There was a constant drone in his ears as if he’d been at a very loud concert. His throat clucked loudly, but not from fright. Adrenaline. The rush of being somewhere he shouldn’t be, in a house with no one at home, and all of Haley’s possessions for him to play with. Should’ve been here a long time ago. He stuffed the dirty panties in his pocket, then left the bathroom.

  It didn’t take him long to find her room.

  The bed was a mess of bundled covers and crooked pillows. This was where she slept, her body had caused this. He pictured her laying on her back, nude, her long sunny hair draped across the pillow beside her. Rose petals spread out, a rose stem clenched in her teeth.

  Then he thought back to last night, and how she’d disappeared into the back of the bookstore with that guy, Alan, and the noises the two of them had made, sounds that should have been saved for him and Haley to share. Out of anger he’d punched a wall, and then spent three hours in the ER getting a cast put on his hand. Broke the bone in two places! Afterward, half high on pain meds and his rage flaring, he’d snuck back to the bookstore, broken in, and torched it. He’d seen Alan in the upstairs loft sleeping and had been tempted to smother him with a pillow.

  But, he didn’t.

  Let him burn.

  Kicking off his shoes as he walked, he went to the bed and sat on its edge, laughing at what he’d done to the bookstore. He’d watched it go up from his car, windows shattering, the flames lashing from inside. An old building, parched books inside, the store had disintegrated quickly to a heap. He pitched his head back on her pillow, and laughed so hard he felt a squeeze in his gut.


  A strong scent of sugary soap and perfume breathed on him from the pillow. Her scent. The hum of Haley’s fragrance killed his laughter, hitching it tight in his throat. A deep void opened in his chest, making it hurt to breath. Just thinking about her made him crazy, made him do things he never thought he could do, or would do again.

  Arson.

  The bookstore was his first time.

  Breaking and entering.

  Not his first time, but it had been several years since he last had.

  Getting a hard on, calling Haley so she can hear me and I can hear her, while jerking off. A month ago, he’d never even thought it possible to consider such things, let alone committing them. What had she done to him? To his mind?

  But, he’d learned in the past that breaking into the store and the house wouldn’t be as hard as it should have been. Having defended some of the scummiest crooks this side of the state had to offer, he’d picked up a thing or two from their testimonies, confessions, and police reports. Taking it all to his brain blender and thumping spin, he had a dangerous mixture and vast knowledge of their secrets and tricks. He could have written a book on how to get into a place without consent. He wondered why other lawyers didn’t try this.

  He reached into his pocket, tugging Haley’s black thong-panties out by the band. He raised them to his nose, sniffed, and let out a slow, aching moan. The thick-sweet smell of Haley’s sex licked his nose and brought tears to his eyes. “Oh Haley,” he whispered. “Haley…” As if in a trance, he pushed his pants down to his knees, releasing his erect penis. Uncircumcised and fleshy, it looked like an earthworm the length and girth of a minute snake. He’d had a complex about it his whole life, but here and now he couldn’t care less. He held Haley’s panties like a napkin and wrapped the fabric around his shaft, making his own version of an uncut hot dog in an underwear bun.

  Then he began stroking while moaning Haley’s name.

  (IV)

  Buddy slapped the fat kid again, leaving a red handprint on the kid’s cheek. “Where are they going!?!”

  The tub of pre-teen strangled a sob. His lip quivered so vigorously that it was a wonder it didn’t lift him into the air like a propeller. “Huh-who?”

  This would have been fun for Carp to watch if it wasn’t so damn sad. The other kid, the shorter and much thinner one, hadn’t lasted long before Buddy ordered Carp to slit his throat. He just wouldn’t stop that damn screaming. Buddy tried to tell him, tried warning him that if he didn’t shut up what would happen, but the kid just couldn’t control himself.

  Now, that had been fun.

  “Face and the kid,” said Buddy, saliva shooting from his mouth onto the kid’s face.

  “Pr-Probably to his house…”

  “Where is it?!!”

  “Through the woods, but there’s probably people there…”

  “I don’t give a good goddamn; I want to know where this house is and why the hell our man is there!”

  “I don’t know why, I just met him today…Joel knows him, knows him real good, kept calling him his friend...”

  Buddy sighed, then screwed his eyes shut for a moment to think. While he zoned out, disappearing to that part of his mind that made the calls, drew up the blueprints, and relinquished strategy, he didn’t dare let go of Paul’s hair. Keeping a good handful of it intertwined in his fingers, he was able to hold the kid’s head close and the knife closer to his throat. When he came back to reality, he said, “All right, here’s how this is going to work, I have to get to this kid’s house and take my friend. But, I can’t do that until I have taken a full assessment of their position. Do you understand this?”

  “Yuh-yes…I can help you!”

  Laughing, Buddy looked at Carp. “Do you believe this?”

  Carp laughed.

  “No, seriously, I can help you. I’ll take you to the house, show it to you, then you can just let me go home. I’ll go and you won’t have to worry about anything from me, I swear!”

  This time, Buddy didn’t laugh. Carp admired that Buddy had the best bullshit detector there was, and he must have sensed the sincerity in the kid’s offerings. “Good. We can use you. You do what I say and when I say it, you may live to go home and jack off on your favorite pillow after all.” Nodding, snot and blood dripped from the kid’s chin. “You’ve just become the ace up our sleeve boy, you should be proud.”

  The kid looked to be anything but proud.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  (I)

  The doorbell rang.

  Sharon, having just come from the shower, was about to join Richard at the kitchen table. He was looking through Tonya’s cell phone for more friends of hers to call. It looked as if he had three more to go, and if nothing was resolved with them, the police would be next.

  He’d finally decided to search her room, and had nearly cried when he found her cell phone sitting on her dresser with several missed calls, mostly from him, but some from Ray and girlfriends. If she had left of her own will, she would have taken the phone. Tonya never went anywhere without it.

  Sharon stopped at the table on her way to the living room and looked at him, the kind of look that a wife gave a husband when she wanted him to be frank with her and avoid all the bullshit.

  In her stare, she asked: Did she come home?

  Although she spoke nothing, Richard had heard her and only shook his head. Her throat constricted and pulled. Call it a parent’s instinct, call it what you want, but the fact of the matter was their baby girl, their only child was missing. Didn’t matter if it had been two days, or two hours, she wasn’t home and no one seemed to know where she was.

  The doorbell chimed again before Sharon could ask another question without speaking. She looked at the door, then back to her husband, feeling the same pang of dread, scared of who may be at the front door and the news they’d be bringing.

  “Want me to get it?” he said.

  Shaking her head, she answered, “No, I will.”

  “Maybe I should come with you.”

  “No, it’s fine.”

  They shared another look before Sharon pried herself away. She left Richard, and walked to the front door.

  Without checking the peephole, she shot the door open, making the heavy kid standing outside jump. He gasped when he saw her; and she returned the expression, only louder. This kid was a mess. Bleeding and swollen, his hair was stiff and muddled, with bruises dotting up his neck and face like purple freckles. A red mark on his cheek, the size and layout of a hand, seemed to shimmer in the sunlight.

  “My God, are you all right?”

  “No, you’ve got to help me … I barely escaped them. They’ll be here soon.”

  “Who?”

  Upon hearing the commotion out front, Richard came to the living room. “Honey, what’s wr…” He stopped when he saw the kid and darted across the room to the front door. “Paul?”

  Sharon put a hand on his shoulder, he flinched at her touch. “Who did this?”

  “Two guys, they have Tonya, you’ve got to help me!”

  Their minds were speaking to each other again, he’d mentioned a name, their daughter, and someone’s coming. Get him inside. Phone the police right away.

  “Get in,” said Sharon. She stepped aside so Paul could stagger through.

  The kid collapsed against Richard. Even though Richard was much taller and stronger, he struggled to hold the burden of Paul Lancaster. Sharon raised a hand to her throat, reflexively tugging at her necklace. In her tank-top, the necklace hung above her breasts like a golden smile. “How long do you think it will be before they’re here?”

  She was shutting the door as she asked, but it stopped rigid when she heard, “Oh, I’d say a lot sooner than expected.”

  Sharon screamed, trying to push the door closed, but the owner of the voice was much too strong for her. He slammed the door back against her, knocking her sideways into the wall. She reflected off it and crashed onto the floor.

  Then he calmly let hi
mself, plus a guest, into their house.

  Before Richard could act, he felt a clout of doughy skin hitting him hard in the crotch. His stomach went to his throat, making it difficult to breath. He couldn’t counter the assault. The chubby kid had already crippled him with a low blow. As he fell to the floor, a man in a white t-shirt with spiky hair closed the door. The other man, dressed in green fatigues and a hat, was dropping shoulder bags on the floor. Whatever was inside rattled and clanked, shaking the floorboards when they landed. Richard could feel the vibrations against his cheek. He looked at Sharon hugging her knees to her chest. The skin across her chest, normally the tint of melted butter, showed the early signs of a straight-lined bruise from the door. She looked at him, again asking a question with her eyes.

  Are you going to let them do this?

  Then, as the man in the white t-shirt began putting on a clear plastic theatrical mask with makeup painted on the face, of the type you could get at any drug store during the Halloween season for a buck, Richard answered her back with I have no choice.

  Sharon started to cry.

  He heard an indistinct giggle coming from behind him. He rolled onto his back and was surprised to see that it was Paul who was laughing like a kid that caught sight of boobies for the first time. Richard glanced back at his wife, who was staring at the floor, her eyes bulging. He hoped she was slipping into some kind of catatonic state, one that would prevent her from being vigilant through what was to come.

  The man hiked the mask up on his head, making it look like he had another face growing from the top of his skull. “This will all be over before you know it. We’re just borrowing your place so we can scope out the house next door, all right? Play your cards right, and you won’t even know we’re here.”

  Confused, Richard shook his head. “Next door?”

  “Yes,” he answered bluntly. “You have a house next door and we’re going to scope it out from here, incognito if you catch my drift. I’m Buddy and this is my comrade, Carp.”