The House Of Darkness

Innocence in the Darkness.

In certain situations, people will do anything to escape a dire situation. Sacrificing something in order to gain freedom is quite common. Even in the animal world, a fox will gnaw its own leg off to escape the trap so it can live another day in freedom.

The metalic clinking of the chains and shackles that bound her feet were a reminder of the predicament that she had unwittingly found herself in.

Hank had finished with her and was readjusting himself. Lola heard his zipper close and he grunted as he sorted himself out.

Her hands trembled against the top of the wooden table. He had put the gun back in its holster as soon as he'd finished with her. She hadn't even remembered it was right by her hand the whole time he was using her body, an opportunity to get the hell out of there was missed.

She vowed she'd not miss another.

Hank took her by the arm and marched her back up the stairs to the main floor of the farmhouse.  She hadn't given much thought to looking at her new prison while he was carrying her down to the basement over his shoulder. She had certainly got a great view of the linoleum and carpeted floors. But now, she took it all in.

It was modern, though there was still and old wood fired stove set beside a modern gas electric cooker, the electric oven was probably rendered useless, and the gasline probably didn't pump anymore due to the loss of power to the world.

She noticed the dishes were piling up in the kitchen sink and the smell of rotting scraps tickled her nose.

"Daddy!" A little voice cried out. Lola turned, surprised at the appearance of a pretty little girl with blonde pigtails and a blue dress.

"Hey squirt! What are you doing back so soon?" Hank swung the child up into his arms and set her against his hip. She couldn't have been more than six or sevrn years old.

"Uncle Beaufort said he saw bear tracks,  so we came back early."

"Well, looks like the bears are out from hibernating early then, good thing you came back,  you can meet my new friend." he said, setting the girl down on her feet.

Lola forced a smile onto her face, this little girl obviously loved her daddy, but had no idea what the man was capable of.

She had seen the dried blood under his nails when he'd put his hand over hers while he was gripped in his dark lusts in the basement. The cuticles of his nails had dried blood flaking from them. Lola had closed her eyes again, her mind wandering, wondering what happened to the others she was traveling with.
She dared not ask, but had a sick feeling deep in her gut that they were no longer living.

"I'm Penny,  what's your name?" She asked, looking up at Lola with cornflower  blue eyes.

"I'm Lola, it's nice to meet you,  Penny." Lola said, taking the girl's hand and shaking it.

"Why do you have chains on your legs?" The girl asked, looking down at the length of heavy, metal links that ran from one shackled ankle to the other.

Hank answered for her. "They're special jewelry,  honey. So she don't run away like the last lady did."

Penny tugged on Lola's hand to get her attention, Lola looked down to her.

"The last lady got eaten by a bear. Will you help me color?" At Lola's nod of agreement to her offer of colouring, Penny  pulled her to the kitchen table. Lola looked up at Hank, he smirked and she knew that it wasn't a bear that got the last girl.

"Lola can color two pictures, then she can get started on the dishes and dinner. I'll bring in some meat soon."

"What kind of meat?" Lola asked as Penny brought out some pencils and paper for their coloring session. Hank paused at the door to the yard.

"Pork." He said sortly, before he left the house.

"I don't like pork, it doesnt taste like it used to." Penny said as she picked a pencil and began to draw. "And Daddy's pigs make strange noises in the shed when he and uncle Beaufort go in there."

"Does he make you eat the pork?" Lola asked her, as she scribbled aimlessly on the paper, too distracted by the conversation to be even thinking of drawing something that resembled anything.
"I give it to the dogs, he doesn't see me do it." She giggled.
Lola nodded, her mind ticking over.

She hadn't seen any pig stys on their way over from the barn,  and if there were, she certainly would have smelled them. She had to wonder, where else but the shed might Hank in be hiding the pigs that he butchered? She finished a picture, and then got to the mountain of dishes, while Penny happily drew.

Prnny's legs swung merrily, and her little tongue poked out in concentration while she drew and colored pictures of horses and houses, and pretty little girls in pigtails holding her daddy's hand, while on the other side of he drawn girl, was a lady who had hair the same colour as Lola's dark brown, and green eyes just like hers.

Lola's hands had pruned with the washing up, but the kitchen was clean and tidy by the time he got back from the shed.
His sleeves were all rolled up and his arms were bloody to the elbows.
The piece of meat he carried in his hands dripped blood in a trail behind him. His bloodhounds came snufflng behind him, tongues busy against the linoleum floor licking up the drops of blood.

He stopped and looked at Lola as she scrubbed the last pot.

"Penny, go outside and play." He said, looking at his dughter and nodding toward the back door.

Lola tensed, pausing in her scrubbing as she heard Penny scrape the chair over the floor, her footsteps as she walked over to the door, her voice calling the dogs to join her.

A bloody hand reached around her to the clean dishes in the drying rack, plucking a plate from the rack, and depositing the cut of meat onto the plate.

Lola felt his closeness, his hands trembled visibly when he reached both around her and dipped them into the soapy water. She swallowed the knot that had lodged in her throat and trembled as he pulled his clean hands from the now bloody water and lifted her skirt.

"Be good now, Lola,  not a sound or she'll hear us." Hank's breath passed over her skin, chilling her with fear and loathing. She lowered her head, nodding, knowing that she could endure this, she would endure this. She had to gain his trust enough that she could get the shackles off her legs, and escape.

She looked up to watch Penny chasing butterflies through a good sized vegetable garden,  green with produce and ripening vegetables. It was a picture of normalacy, of innocence in a dark and wicked world.

Her body shifted forward as Hank entered her, his coarse grunts becoming background noise as he pushed her against the kitchen counter with each thrust.

She looked down to the piece of meat, the pork still had skin on it... and a tattoo, half of a small Ulysses buterfly wing.