Nine Minutes Read Online Free Page B

scrawny
piece of shit, Grizz . I told him you wouldn’t like
her. Right, baby? You don’t want her, do ya ? The guys
can have her, huh? If she’s a gift to you, you can do whatever you want with
her, like give her away. Right, baby? And he should
know better than to bring someone here. Gonna kick
his ass, aren’t ya babe?”
          He looked up then
and stared at Willow without saying anything. I could see her face, and it had
a pleading look. She wouldn’t take her eyes off of him. Just stared with that
look of someone who knows they’ve just lost.
          She then turned
her anger on me. She lunged at me with her hands outstretched. She was going
for my neck.
          Before she
reached me, Grizz grabbed her by the throat and
lifted her off the ground with one hand. He had her suspended, and she was
kicking her feet. She had both her hands wrapped around his one hand and was
trying to pry his fingers loose. Gurgling sounds came from her throat. Without
saying a word, he tossed her, and she fell onto one of the flimsy lawn chairs,
crushing it beneath her.
          A figure rose
from the group and went to her. I recognized the gravelly voice from earlier.
          “It’ll be okay
Willow, honey. He’ll play with her a couple of days and be back in your bed
before the weekend is over.” The man tried to help her up but she brushed him
off.       
          “Shut the fuck
up, Froggy ,” Willow barked. “You don’t know nothin ’. I’m supposed to feel better knowing my man is sleeping with that white-trash
piece of shit? You just leave me alone. Stop touching me! I can get myself up.”
          She stood up and
brushed herself off. She stuck her nose in the air like a queen and started to
walk toward the motel.
          “I’ll be in our
room, Grizz darlin ’, waitin ’ for ya , honey. Just come on home when you’re done and
I’ll show you how a real woman feels underneath ya .”
          I watched her
walk to the motel, open one of the doors and walk in. I looked back up and he
was staring down at me. Without taking his eyes off mine he said, “Moe, take
her to number four. Settle her in. Stay with her.”
          Take who ? Me?
          A tiny person
rose from the ground. She’d been sitting close to the fire and had been staring
into it during the whole scene. At first I’d thought she was a young boy. I
remember thinking they had kids here so it couldn’t be too bad. Now that hope
was gone. She had short, jet-black hair. She was wearing a Black Sabbath T-shirt,
black jeans and combat boots. As she rose and walked toward us, I could see her
face was done up with black eye makeup to the extreme. She probably had a
pretty face under all that paint. As an adult I would see young girls made up
during the Goth craze, and I would think none of them held a candle to Moe. The original Goth girl.
          Without saying a
word she walked over to me and just stood there. She didn’t meet my eyes, but
looked at the ground. I looked to my right where Monster was sitting. He wasn’t
even looking at me. Sometime during the last ten minutes (or had it been an
hour?) he’d gotten a beer and was sitting there with his head thrown back,
chugging it. To his right was the man called Froggy ,
the one who tried to help Willow. He was looking down at the broken lawn chair.
Maybe he was trying to see if he could fix it. I don’t remember anyone else,
although I know they were all there that night. Sitting around the campfire,
watching, waiting, obeying .
          I stood up and
Moe slowly walked toward the motel. I clutched my bag to my chest and looked
straight ahead as I followed her. Without turning around I knew with certainty
that those mesmerizing eyes would watch me until I was behind the closed door
of room number four.

Chapter Three

 
    I followed
Moe as she approached the unit with the fading number four on the door. There
was a noisy air conditioning unit