Man of the House

Chapter 6: Meeting the Devil

"Hayley," Caren yells loudly "Hayley come here." Hayley trudges through her house without a care in the world other than sleep at the moment.

"What mom?" she asks, voice raspy from just awakening. She has no idea why Caren is being so weird, whatever she has to tell her can wait until she wakes up.

"I want to talk to you about something sweetie, mommy has a boyfriend now. I think you'll really love him. He loves kids." Caren proclaims, not knowing the extent of Mike's true 'love' for children. "His name is Mike, and he's an electrician. Oh, he also rides a motorcycle, isn't that cool honey?" Caren inquires, desperately awaiting a reply from her daughter.

"Cool, mom." Hayley says coldly. She doesn't care about some new man who's just gonna be gone within a couple of months. She lets them do their thing so long as they leave her alone. "Can't wait to meet him." she lies. If only she had never met him.

When she finally met Mike, he seemed nice enough. He treated Caren well, paid the bills like a gentleman, and even made it seem as though he wanted to be a father for Hayley. Every day he would pick her up from school and take her to the convenience store on the way to their tiny home. He would let her buy anything she wanted, no matter how much it cost. Hayley actually started to think he could be her new stepdad and that she could be okay with that. At ten years old, when someone spoils you for the first time, you think it's love. Things were kind of perfect for about two months until Mike changed. Hayley didn't know the small things Mike was doing was to condition her to be his slave, his puppet, his toy.

One day Mike picked Hayley up from school, just like he usually did, but things went differently than usual. He still smiled at her when she got in the car, and he even stopped at the convenience store as usual. It was when Hayley and Mike got home that things were different. It all started with a conversation about Disneyland.

"Have you ever been to Disneyland, Mr. Mike" Hayley asked, eyes glowing at the thought of all the wonderful stories Mike might be able to share.

"Oh yeah kid, I've been to Disneyland, haven't you?" Mike asks.

"Well, no Mr. Mike, mommy can't afford for us to go there, and she works all the time, so we could never go." Hayley responded innocently.

Mikes eyes lit up, the appearance of some brilliant idea planted on his face. "Well, here's an idea," he starts "why don't we pretend like we are at Disneyland? Wouldn't that be fun too?" he inquires, smiling as wide as possible at her.

"Yeah, that would be awesome Mr. Mike! But how are we gonna do that?" Hayley asks, wanting to be in on the secret.

"You can get on my shoulders and pretend it's a roller coaster, I'll carry you all around the house." Mike answers, holding his hands out to motion Hayley to come towards him. Hayley stands up swiftly.

"Okay Mr. Mike, that sounds like a lot of fun!" she erupts as she makes her way towards him. He lifts her up and onto his shoulders, holding her arms suspended at the side of his head to keep her balanced on his back. He walks through the kitchen and into the living room a few times, making 'roller coaster noises' as Hayley laughs and giggles at the fun they're having. Mike is bending and squatting, pretending the roller coaster is going uphill and back down. He's walking down the hallway with Haley on his shoulders, unaware of the direction they are heading. He pops open the white door to Caren's bedroom and swings Hayley down, bouncing her onto the bed.

"That was fun Mr. Mike!" Hayley says loudly and out of breath from laughing so hard. Mike is standing there, staring at Hayley, seemingly wondering how to do what he's about to do.

"It sure was, wanna play another game?" he asks.

"What kind of game is it?" Hayley demands.

"I'm just gonna rub your back and you tell me if it feels good, I wanna be a masseuse so I have to get real good at giving massages. Wanna help me practice for my work?" Mike asks, seemingly innocently.

Hayley is at a crossroads in her adolescent mind. She's never heard of this game, and she doesn't know if it's one she's allowed to play either, but Hayley isn't about to argue with an adult if he tells her it's okay, why should she argue? She trusts this man. "Okay." She says as if making a resolution. Unfortunately for her, this is a game she never would have played had she known the truth behind this monster.

As soon as the word escapes her lips, Mike's entire face shifts into something like the devil; evil, happy, maniac-like. "Roll over" he says coldly.

Hayley rolls onto her tummy, staring at the pillows thrown this way and that on her mother's bed, she can feel him lift the back of her shirt up to reveal her back. "This is normal for a massage..." she kept telling herself, "this is okay."

Mike is rubbing, caressing Hayley's back, his breathing is picking up and he struggles to control it and himself. He gets bold and starts to take Hayley's shirt off. She's trying to fight him and he leans in to tell her "It's okay, your shirt is just in the way sweetie." She relaxes, allowing him to slide her shirt up to her neck and off of her slender arms. Mike is breathing even faster, he's losing control of his self-restraint if he had any to begin with. He starts to move his hands from the center of her back to her sides, grazing the part of her small under-developed breasts that are still exposed from where she is lying face down on the bed.

Hayley twitches. She's beginning to feel very uncomfortable. "Mike," she says "I don't want to play anymore." She's doing her best to roll over and look at him, to be sure he understands that she doesn't like his game, but his hands have control of her little body, pushing her down so she is forced to remain stationary. She starts to plead as if it would make any difference to the devil "Please, Mike, I don't like this game!" she starts to cry.

"Shh," he whispers as he leans down over the back of her, "we'll be done in a little while."