Just Call Her Syndre

Chapter 2 | Stings and Pings of Punishment

The following morning I awoke to a very angry Madame Jacqueline standing above my bed. I jumped at her closeness, letting my sleep be yanked from my mind with a single blink. Her hair wasn't as neat as yesterday, and her bottom lip was working dangerously with her teeth. Movement in her hand caught my eye and I could barely fight back my groan of discontent when her leather whip came into full view.

"You called my daughter a cow!" She swung at me, I narrowly dodged it by rolling off the other side of my bed. "How dare you!" 

Jacqueline came around the side and lashed the whip out underneath the bed, I slid away again and headed towards my closet. I ripped open the door and dropped low to ground, listening to the heavy crack of the whip finding thin air. My hands grabbed my shoes and yanked a dress from the hanger just as she swung again, narrowly missing the top of my head.

"I didn't call her a cow!" I yelled over her wild flailing. Jacqueline immediately stopped, but her muddy brown eyes narrowed in distrust and she ground her yellow teeth. A smirked worked its way across my face as I worked the zipper up on my dress, I toed on my ballet flats and let out a tremendous laugh. The door squeaked when I pulled it open and turned to meet the gaze of my stepmother, "I called her a heifer!"

"You wretched girl!" Jacqueline was yelling again, and I knew if I turned around I'd see her normally neat hair streaming behind her next to that damn whip. "I hate you!" 

My laughter reached a new high at every step I took down the hall, I swung around the bannister and slid down the wrought iron. It groaned just I leaped off and put on a burst of speed. I was almost there! If I made it to the kitchen, Jacqueline would stop and let me alone for the time being. In all honesty, I don't think she'd be in the room since it was completed by the contractors six years ago.

One last turn and I slammed head-on into a wall. A wall of blistering and disgusting fat that had arms, a head and even sported a useless mouth. The last of the triplets: Timotheus, stood around four inches above me. His yellow, broken teeth materialized between his dry, cracked pink lips. This time, I didn't hold in my groan of annoyance.

But I spent too long lodged between his hulking arms and too little time paying attention to how close the Madame had gotten to me. The whip sung, cracking against the base of my back over the thick material of my dress. Snapping my teeth together, I refused to let a cry escape between my lips. Unfortunately for Timotheus, I couldn't say the same for him.

His beefy hands wear curled around my back, sitting just above my bottom when the whip came down. It's cutting edges caught his fingers and pulled soft skin from his knuckles. A scream coughed from this throat, along with whatever he had already been snacking from in the kitchen. In a flurry his early breakfast was thrashing from his mouth, directly towards his angry mother who recently came around the corner.

I pulled away in a daze of pain and wonder, sliding just to the other side of the threshold into the kitchen to watch the magic happen. Timotheus screamed again when his hands came up to block the out flow of vomit on its way to Madame's face and clothing, but either way, he was too late. It slammed directly into her surprised face with murky green vengeance, bathing her head to toe in half processed food and stomach acid.

Allandria and Demetria came running into the room, half dazed and half grossed out, they too, witnessed the moment of their mother's downfall. Timotheus was already letting out a second helping of vomit on top of their mother. Madame fell, crashed to the floor, letting the vomit coat her from head to toe. A look of fear and disgust was frozen to her face and she reached out to her two girls who stood frozen five feet from my right, just outside the kitchen's door.

Blood was steadily bleeding from Timoethus now, mixing with the vile substance on the floor. He heaved again, finally somewhat under control and able to keep the vomit in his stomach. It was all blown to hell when he saw what he had done. His mother was spread out on the floor, her hair sticking in odd directions with bits of food stuck into the ruffles of her dress that was now the color of green poop.

Giggles bubbled out to my right. I raised my eyebrows and leaned out of the kitchen door to look at Allandria and Demetria, completely dry and laughing like their lives depended on it. Timotheus growled at them, but quickly stopped with the loud sound of his stomach lurching. Slowly, but surely, I joined in with the twins, though a lot less loud and conspicuous. If the Madame caught me laughing at her, I'd be clearing up the mess instead of her son.

Disgusted and frightened, Madame began to rise from the floor, squishing vomit under her boots as she stood. It squelched when she moved too far, and like a cartoon character, her feet flew up from underneath her and she fell to her back with a resounding slap. The girls laughed again, sending lobs of spittle to the floor in their laughter. They were holding onto each other trying to remain standing themselves. 

She tried to stand again, this time, more carefully. I couldn't help the look on my face at the sound of her hands pressing into the discarded old food on the floor as she stood. With her legs firmly planted, but her body bent in half to steady herself - the Madame looked quite comical. Then, the unthinkable happened, she opened her mouth to speak and a drop of vomit slid down the side of her face and into her mouth. 

Timotheus, deeply concerned, went from attempting to keep from puking to running out of the kitchen and into the backyard. His heaves could be heard inside, even by Madame would had straightened in a hurry and spit out the puke. She wiped her hands on her ruined dress and gave me a look searing with death written all over it.

Her index finger on her least dirty hand was up and pointing at me before I could think to move. "You better get in town and get something for dinner. If it's not five star quality then I'm going to add to the stripes on your back. Is that clear?" I gulped, pulling at the neck of my dress. "Crystal." My steps were quiet from the doorway to the open back doors, I heard Madame's voice one more time before I was out of earshot.

"You two!" I grimaced to keep from smiling in joy at the anger in her voice. "You and that brother of yours get to work on cleaning this up!"