St Eubrie: The Cleansing (670 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.88 on 26 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Jack McCallum (View user info) at 2006-08-08 18:21:04 EDT
Sefton overheard the woman talking to a friend while he sipped coffee and tried to decide where he should be.
He had followed signs to this place. He always followed the signs.
The women were one table over from him in the Blue Light Diner. They both looked haggard. Once pretty, now worn down, and trying to hide the years with make-up and hair dye.
Both of them were kind, though. Good at heart. Sefton could feel that much.
"If I only had the money, the cash he got from his so called disability settlement. We could get away. He won't let me touch a penny and I just want to get the girls away from him."
"I know, Vera, I know."
"I try so hard. But I'm so tired. He still doesn't have a job and I'm working my fingers to the bone. He won't let me have any money for the girls or the bills. The last time he caught me looking for the cash he hit me. And I'm losing my girls, I just know it."
Sefton left a five on his table and went out to his truck parked in the front lot. It was a panel truck painted grass green. He had only had it a few weeks. He had a few tools in the back. Tools that helped him in his never-ending task.
The cleansing.
He smoked and waited for the woman to come out. He had a good view of the front door.
Ten minutes later she appeared. She embraced her friend and got into a beat to hell little Hyundai.
She pulled onto the road, and Sefton followed.
Sefton pulled over to the curb on Cherry when he saw the woman pulling into the trailer park. He got out of the truck and opened the big roll-up door. He strapped on a tool belt and picked up a two foot piece of wood that had been cut on an angle. He put on a ball cap, pulling the brim low.
Trailer parks were small communities, and neighbors watched each other come and go. A stranger would be noticed. A contractor who appeared to be on a remodeling job could take his time walking down the street.
Sefton entered Nightshade Mobile Home Park.
It wasn't long before Sefton found the right unit. The Hyundai was parked outside. A little girl in a grubby t-shirt and shorts was sitting on the front step. She was blonde, pretty, maybe five or so. She was holding a Barbie doll by the legs and banging its head against the stairs. Then she gently smoothed back the doll's hair and cradled it in her arms.
Sefton thought she looked like Mary cradling Jesus.
That could be a sign.
Sefton couldn't help but notice that the little girl had used a few strips of duct tape to tape the Barbie's legs together.
Oh baby, he thought.
That was a sign of another kind.
He heard a man inside holler, a drunken slur. Whurryagoin?
The screen door slammed open. An older girl stepped by her younger sister.
"Just out," the girl said. "Away from you."
His girl was older, nine, perhaps. She was wearing eye shadow, mascara, lipstick. She was wearing lowrider cutoffs and a tiny top. Her ears were pierced and Sefton could see part of a small tattoo half-covered by her top. Written across the front of the top in rhinestones was PORNSTAR.
The girl breezed by Sefton.
As she walked he looked for the usual signs and saw them. Like the half-hidden tattoo, he saw half-covered bruises on her inner thighs.
Sefton heard a sound like distant sobbing.
He looked up, wondering if it was coming from the sky.
He continued down the street, turned, and returned to his truck by a different path.
It was Saturday. Sefton could wait. He could wait until Monday.
On Monday morning Sefton was back. He was parked across the street from the trailer park, talking his time with a smoke and a cup of coffee.
He saw the girls come out of the park and wait only a moment before a school bus picked them up. Not long after that the Hyundai pulled out onto the road. As the woman drove by Sefton he could see that she was wearing some kind of cheap polyester smock.
The uniform of the minimum wage hero, he thought.
The woman, Vera, was right. The girls had to be saved.
Sefton drove into Nightshade Mobile Home Park, stopping his truck in front of Vera's home.
He stepped onto the street wearing his tool belt and cap. He rolled up the big door in back, and left it open.
He knocked on the frame of the screen door of the small hell that was home to the little girls.
A man came to the door in boxers and a t-shirt. He was barefoot, and holding a bag of Cheetos.
"Who the fuck are you?"
Sefton walked up the steps and pushed his way through the screen door.
"Hey, you fuck, I'll call—"
Sefton grabbed the man by the throat.
The man dropped the Cheetos. He struggled. He might have been strong once, but now he was weak, paying the price for his depravity, unable to resist what fate had brought upon him.
Sefton moved his hand from the man's throat to the man's mouth, and used his other hand to snap a handcuff around the man's right wrist. He turned the man around and cuffed his left wrist.
The floor was covered in crushed Cheetos.
Sefton reached into his pocket and held up a polyurethane bag. The bag was clear, but the plastic was very thick. There was a drawstring built into the top of the bag. Sefton pulled the bag down over the man's head.
The man kicked out at Sefton. Sefton sidestepped and brought one boot down on the man's bare foot, hearing bones snap and pop. The man's scream was muffled. Sefton still had one hand over the man's mouth.
Sefton took his hand away from the man's mouth and pulled the opening of the bag down against the base of the man's neck. The man exhaled, and before he could draw a breath and call for help, Sefton pulled the drawstring tight, wrapped it once around the man's throat, and tied it off.
The man danced.
Through the thick plastic his face was a distorted mask.
Sefton held him in place.
There was something inside the polyurethane bag and it scraped the man's cheek, bringing forth a drop of blood. It was the blade of a utility knife. One end of it was taped to the inside of the bag.
Sefton got a grip on the small blade through the bag. It was a tricky move, lining up the bag just right and manipulating the small blade, but he had practiced it again and again. The bag was just big enough that he was able to maneuver the blade.
The man looked startled when Sefton poked the blade into his throat just under the corner of his jaw.
Sefton's hand moved an inch to one side and the inside of the bag turned red.
While the man was still bleeding out Sefton carried him out to the truck and threw him in the back, along with his tool belt. The bag would leak soon enough, but the house was clean. He rolled down the door and padlocked it shut.
Sefton paused a moment, looking up and down the street. No curtains or blinds moved. Perhaps he had been lucky, once again.
Now it was up to Vera.
There was cash in that house.
It wasn't too late to for her find it, start over, and save her girls.
Sefton got behind the wheel of his truck, knowing he'd have to ditch it as soon as he could. That was okay. There had been many trucks in his past. There would be many in the years ahead.
He pulled out onto Cherry Avenue, wondering if he should leave this little town, or stay a while.
St Eubrie might need more cleansing.
He'd wait for a sign.
*
Sefton's first appearance.
http://www.ubersite.com/m/66053
User Reviews
Submitted by Fey (user info) at 2007-02-19 14:51:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Crystle (user info) at 2006-11-01 23:42:21 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Snalty (user info) at 2006-08-19 14:24:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by nrduncan (user info) at 2006-08-11 15:23:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Sockster (user info) at 2006-08-09 03:12:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
My cell phone ran out of batteries but I don't think I'm going to charge it.
Submitted by icarus1987 (user info) at 2006-08-08 23:58:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Another killer performance.
Submitted by Stagger_Lee (user info) at 2006-08-08 23:48:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Very good.
Submitted by Genko (user info) at 2006-08-08 21:11:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm not going to be the one to break the news to you about that, Bubba.
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-08-08 21:06:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Genko (user info) at 2006-08-08 20:46:11 (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool. A little short for your style, though, Jack.
______________________________________
My wife says short is good. . .
Submitted by Genko (user info) at 2006-08-08 20:46:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cool. A little short for your style, though, Jack.
Submitted by KevinHo (user info) at 2006-08-08 19:47:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
My daddy used to beat me with a stick.
Submitted by forthewin (user info) at 2006-08-08 19:43:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It's touching to see a father and son reunited. :)
Submitted by Bubba2341 (user info) at 2006-08-08 19:41:02 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:28:06 (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm some kind of asshole magnet on this site. Sweet Jesus.
_________________________________________
Yeah, you and three or four others of us. . .
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-08-08 19:06:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:59:28 (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:35:11 (#)
Ranking: 2
I hold you to a higher standard than the others.
--
What the -*-
DAD!
That explains all the slams at my dad!
You old self-mocking fool.
-----
You don't call, you don't write.
C'mere you little bastard.
I got your rock right here!
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:59:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:35:11 (#)
Ranking: 2
I hold you to a higher standard than the others.
--
What the -*-
DAD!
That explains all the slams at my dad!
You old self-mocking fool.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:55:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I saw the comments, GC.
Still have a ton of stuff to read.
Good link though.
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:45:52 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by GodChicken (user info) at 2006-08-08 17:53:56 (#)
Ranking: 2
Jack, did you see my comments on the intro post and/or read my own entry?
Submitted by kaos-king (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:43:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
*sigh*
I still hate you...
Submitted by awesome_face (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:43:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:35:11 (#)
Ranking: 2
Good. Perhaps a tiny bit obvious in some dialogue, but very nice.
I hold you to a higher standard than the others.
-
How about you stop telling people how good/bad their post are until you post one.
Youve only posted something good once, then you stretched it out into other multiple post. You hide behind real fancy words.
Submitted by KindaNews (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:35:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good. Perhaps a tiny bit obvious in some dialogue, but very nice.
I hold you to a higher standard than the others.
Submitted by MANICMOTHER (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:32:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Look, just gimme some inner peace, or I'll mop the floor with ya!
-- Homer Simpson
El Viaje Misterioso de Nuestro Homer
Submitted by awesome_face (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:29:08 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Chilling.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:28:06 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I'm some kind of asshole magnet on this site. Sweet Jesus.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:26:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:24:42 (#)
Ranking: -2
Auto -2 for lack of fucking pronouns. AGH you make me so PISSED sometimes.
Other than that, I lovez ya.
--
It's called a writing style, dipshit. If everyone wrote stories EXACTLY the same way things would get dull awfully fast.
Did I forget to tell you to fuck off?
My bad.
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:25:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
But then again...
Submitted by Maltese (user info) at 2006-08-08 18:24:42 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Auto -2 for lack of fucking pronouns. AGH you make me so PISSED sometimes.
Other than that, I lovez ya.