The Butcher and the Butterfly (15 page)

As Patience
shuffled from here to there readying herself, Petra began to pulse
- Susie was waking up.

5

‘The black summer
heat grows, young Susie. The crows circle, they cackle like fools
and you dance to it like a shadow under an old oak tree. For years
I have seen you, undressing in the moonlight, I watched you
disappear into men’s beds, I watched you disappear. I dreamed
dreams that I dreamed of you and still dream. The Mighty One saw
fit to cast your womanhood into the fires but yet that womanhood
has blossomed like a fearsome desert rose. That heart shaped bone
that was once your hips shall expand and spit forth a demon and
your screams shall signal the end of the world. The earth shall
decompose and we shall all bathe in the bloodbath; washing
ourselves with the hearts of the young.’

6

Susie sobbed, her
struggles long since gone. Her body ached. The scent of death was
all around her. The air was wet, thick and hard to take in. Susie
didn’t want to think about what she breathing in, taking in. But
that was nothing compared to the fear she felt. The witch was
walking around her, talking in tongues, uttering sentences that
made no sense but at the same time they did – uttering truths of
her life that Susie wanted to forget - was trying to forget now
that Stephen was in her life.

‘Stephen has
come.’ A distant voice from the far room spat. Susie closed her
eyes not wanting to see anymore. She feared what monsters hid in
the darkest parts of this house.

‘Open those wide
eyes, girl.’

Susie felt two
clawed hands rest against her naked, shuddering shoulders. The
fingers were cold, scaled and tight.

She opened her
eyes and Patience was stood in front of her, between her hands was
a glowing orb and it pulsed in time with her own heartbeat.

Her hands were
full.

Susie lurched in
the chair, the rope digging into her chest and hands as she tried
to turn to see who was holding onto her…

‘We play with
bones and juggle with hearts.’

…But there was no
one there and yet the grip of the lizard fingers remained.

Patience laughed
and threw her head back.

Susie’s heart was
racing and her chest heaved like a volcano ready to explode.

‘Stop it! Please
stop it!’ She sobbed. Patience stroked the orb and placed it on the
side table next to Susie. She could feel its heat.

‘Hanged pigs and
broken bones, girl. That’s what will be waiting for you. Just wait
and see. Trust old Lud.’

Susie shook her
head violently from side to side. ‘Please…Stop. What…do you.
Want?’

Patience caressed
Susie’s soft wet cheek and ran her cold, long fingered hand down to
her right breast; cupping it like it was a piece of beef.

‘Cut it off,
Patience. Cut it off and feed old Lud.’

Susie screamed but
her attempts to move away were pointless. The scream went dry and
harsh and then faded into nothing. Patience leaned in close, her
stench causing Susie to retch. Un-cupping her breast, Patience
placed her first and second finger into her mouth and then spat out
white gloop coating them completely.

‘Just a little
poke from a couple of little pink sticks. You’ve had bigger.’

Susie’s eyes were
wide with realisation but there was nothing she could do and she
braced herself.

‘Don’t forget what
old Lud wants.’

There was a grin
on old Patience’s face as she slid her hand down Susie’s abdomen,
then her thigh and then on into the dark crevasse of her
vagina.

‘Hold still my
pretty, could get messy if ya twitch.’

With a not so
delicate thrust, Patience put the two spitty fingers deep inside
Susie, feeling her way to what she knew she would find. Her fingers
came to a stop when she felt it, but they weren’t removed, she kept
them in there for a moment longer, savouring the feeling. She
grabbed Susie’s face with her spare hand and their eyes met – one
full of tears, the others - full of joy.

‘Lud and the
daughter will be pleased.’ Patience hissed, ‘You are with child.
But you will forget.’

Susie didn’t get a
chance to react as Patience spat in her face and then kissed her,
forcing her ancient, wretched tongue deep inside of her mouth. Just
as the kiss was coming to an end, darkness once again came over
Susie. She was grateful for that.

7

Outside, Tommy
didn’t really understand what was happening, nor could he see much.
An odd darkness had descended over Patience and Susie but now that
darkness was lifting and Tommy walked around to the front of the
house and opened the main door. He was hoping that now was when
Susie was going to become his girlfriend. He smiled as he entered
the room paying little attention to the filth on the floors, the
walls the ceiling. Even Susie, as naked as a babe wasn’t a
distraction.

He watched
Patience gather the orb and slump in her favourite chair. She
looked happy and Tommy knew that to be a good thing. But she looked
tired.

‘Is she my
girlfriend, now, Patience?’ He asked sheepishly.

Patience answered
her voice slow and breathless. ‘Not yet Tommy. Not yet. Give me a
couple of hours would ya.’

It wasn’t really a
choice, Tommy was stupid but he knew when to leave Patience well
alone. He grinned his famous toothy grin, turned and walked back
outside closing the door as he went. He decided to go pick some
flowers for Susie. That would help pass the time and don’t all
girls love flowers?

8

At around the same
time that Susie was being violated Stephen was helping himself to
some fruit juice and fried eggs with fatty bacon at the Travellers.
The doors had been left unlocked, the bar unattended and now,
thanks to the kind patrons of Rockfall, drank dry but he had enough
to get him through. His bags upstairs had already been packed,
stuffed full with the provisions Tommy had fetched for him. He was
ready to go, ready to leave this place but he had one more task to
fulfil before he went.

Once you have
eaten, Stephen, you must go to the Court House. Petra has been
starved for too long.

‘As you wish.’
Stephen said in-between bites.

Once he had
finished he checked the weapon, ensuring all eight holes of the
casing were full, and then holstered the weapon. He had adjusted
his holster slightly so that it hung extremely low now, like a
gunslinger of old. It allowed for a better draw but hindered
movement. But movement wasn’t a concern.

Leaving the
Travellers, letting the batwing doors swing wildly he walked along
the boardwalk ignorant to the stares and the idle mutterings of the
townsfolk. They lowered their heads to one another, leaning in
close so their whispers could be heard – Demon, hero, killer,
Watchman. All were true but no one knew that. Carried on the breeze
were the cries of the crows and the moans of the farmyard animals
and with it the harsh bite of the sand as it pummelled the skin.
There was a storm coming, one, maybe two days away and Stephen knew
he would have to endure it on his journey. The boardwalk creaked as
he reached the Court House and following the same path he had taken
the previous morning, he ventured across the road, passed the water
well with its ancient iron works and stood outside the decaying
court house.

Kill them all,
Stephen.

9

The sweat on the
Sheriffs brow ran down his face, pooled under his chin and dripped
down to his soiled handkerchief. His white shirt was damp with
sweat and his gusset was moist. Jameson’s fat belly hung double
over his tight belt line and he sat in his mighty chair; the sun
beating down upon him like hells fire passing judgment on those
around him.

His office was
large, dusty and full of junk. The table was festooned with piles
of paper, documents in no particular order spread out until they
formed a white sea. The air was stale like the air in every
building that Rockfall housed. Around these parts the air was
always stale. More so now; for in his office, set back a ways, were
two occupied prison cells filled with two rather smelly,
dishevelled, unwashed prisoners. The eyes of the prisoners watched
the Sheriff as he watched them.

Jameson had asked
his Deputy why he had done it; why had he done such a terrible
thing to his wife? But the Deputy remained silent. Guilt etched
upon his face. Jameson had known Ellen since she was a babe and it
saddened him that she had come to such an end. Such a horrific
murder by men who had no right to be on God’s green earth. And the
poor children. Who would care for the poor children now that their
dear mother had gone? Everyone in town knew that the marriage
between John and Ellen was a farce and that their love had blown
out long ago. But their love for the children kept them
together.

Obviously Johns
love didn’t go that far. It was the money that kept John there.
Greed. Pure and simple.

It was a good plan
that John had devised with the Quint brothers. But they hadn’t
factored in one slight problem; Stephen. The mysterious traveller
from the good lands known as Ritash. He had seen been made aware of
this plan and had done something about it. Some say he be a Daemon,
cast out from the Void left wandering the bleak earth until the end
of all days, but Jameson don’t believe none of it. He had seen
Watchmen before and even though Stephen was good he had seen
better.

A few little
mumblings, like criminals do when they are in trouble, flittered
into Jameson’s ear and he turned his attention away from the jumble
of papers on his desk and over to the two cells.

‘You two better
not be contriving an escape plan.’

The two lovers
stopped their oh so innocent mumblings.

‘Aye, that’s
better. Keeping quiet is the best you two can do until I figure out
what’s best for ya.’

The Sheriff turned
and looked out of the large dusty window and into the main street
of Rockfall. The people he had been expecting where walking toward
the building now and his heart sank a little at the thought of it.
John had seen this face many times.

‘Who’s coming up
the drive, Jameson? Your new Deputy, maybe? The bastard
Watchman?’

Not removing his
gaze from the window the sheriff said, ‘I said no talking so keep
it quiet if ya know what’s good for ya! And you will address me as
Sheriff from now on. We are no longer friends.’ The Sheriff (for
shall we call him that now) paused for a moment and in that moment
he regretted asking for them to come and for them to see the face
of their mother’s murderers. But it was done now and it was
probably for the best. ‘Actually my dear fellow,’ the sheriff went
on, ‘I am waiting for Mrs Depor to come along. And obviously where
Mrs Depor goes the five orphaned Drive children go too.’

John went to talk
but his mouth was dry. Cathy sunk back against the wall; her
silence was a blessing from the Man Jesus himself. The ex-deputy
couldn’t believe that Jameson had organised this. Why would a
man...How could a man do this? John wanted to puke and took in deep
breathes to calm his nerves. Looking to Cathy he begged her with
his eyes to speak for him and staring back at him was the face of a
woman whom had been beaten but not silenced.

She lifted herself
up and stood at the bars of her stinking cell. Her voice was low,
dryer than the desert but as fierce as the sun.

‘You heartless
fuck! How could you bring them here? Why force them to see their
Dad and make him see them?’

The Sheriff
twisted the chair so he was sat facing the cells. The sweat was
pouring from him now; the room had grown hotter still.

‘I did not order
them here, bitch. I merely asked if they would like to see their
dear Dad before they went away. If they want to see the bastard
that killed their Mother then so be it. I cannot stop them nor do I
want to. If it were up to me then I would have had them pull the
lever that sent you plummeting on Hangman’s Hill. But sadly I have
to wait for the law men to arrive from Westfield before any
judgement can be made.

It was Johns turn
to talk, ‘But why did you...’ But a knock at the door silenced him
and made his stomach twist into tight coils.

‘And here they be,
my good murderers.’ The Sheriff looked at John. ‘Now you pull
yourself together, man and answer any questions your kids have with
the truth.’ The Sheriff lifted himself from the chair and moved
himself up to the bars of John’s cell. ‘The truth, you hear. They
deserve the truth.’

He stepped over to
the gloomy half lit cell that housed Cathy and was pleased to see
her back away from the iron bars once he had arrived.

‘And as for you,
my sweet lipped little fancy... well you keep your fuckin mouth
shut and your thoughts to yourself! If you as so much open yer
mouth ill cut yer fuckin tongue out and nail it to yer left tit.
You understand? Both of ya?’

Their silence was
good enough for the Sheriff.

10

The sheriff moved
slowly to the door, his huge weight and the stuffy heat dragging
him down. Once he was out in the main hallway that had doors
running along both sides, he adjusted his shirt and flicked back
his straggly locks of grey hair. He wanted to look his beast for
the sweet but yet vulnerable Mrs Depor.

Jameson opened the
door and greeted the middle-aged woman that stood before him. Her
face was long and smooth. Eyes full of wisdom and love and a mouth
that demanded attention. In a crowd she could blend in easily but
on her own she had a beauty that the sheriff could not pinpoint.
Once the pleasantries were over he ushered the child minder into
the station and with a nod and a semi caring smile lead the
children in after.

He had no words of
strength for the kids. He neither had them nor did he care for
them. The children had to learn what had happened. They had to
learn what men can do. Even men that you loved.