THE LANDLADY by Jay Jay.

Sissy and Megan finally meet The Landlady.

Megan had been away for several days. She hadn't been answering her phone, she hadn't called in for new clothes. She had paid her rent, so, no problem.

She now found out about Sissy's pet dogs.

Megan was already angry. Her boy friend had pissed her off. Big time.

Megan needed to let off steam at someone.

Megan had anger problems.

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Megan had been brought up in a wildly disfunctional family. A bad-tempered, hard-drinking father who raged and slammed doors, punched holes in walls, punched holes in his wife sometimes too. Megan's oldest brother would usher her and her little brother into a locked bedroom when their Dad came home in a mood. They would huddle behind the door, and listen to their parents scream at each other. Sometimes the cops would come and take Dad away, but he would always be back, apologetic and giving everyone presents.

Her mother was a strange woman. At least, Megan thought she was weird. She would never stand up to Dad, always made excuses for him. She took out her frustrations on her kids. Megan's mother had a sharp tongue and a strong right arm. 

She kept buying stuff, cute little ornaments and plastic flowers. Brightly coloured and pretty objects filled the house from top to bottom. That was the beginning.

She started to keep the bags that the stuff had come in, just in case she had to return the items. Of course, nothing was ever returned. The bags piled up.

Mother and father stopped doing anything around the house. The ceiling around the old chimney began to leak. Mold began to creep across the walls. The unwashed clothes and dishes began to pile up. Outside, the lawns became a mess of brown hay.

Soon there was hardly any room to move inside. Good stuff and bad stuff and just plain old rubbish filled a lot of the rooms. Everyone was used to the smell. They did not get any visitors. Megan thought maybe adults had no friends. Even her grandparents never came around anymore. 

Megan figured that her Mum was trying to build a barrier between herself and her husband. Eventually it worked, as Dad walked out one day and did not come back.

By that time Megan was struggling her way through High School and failing badly. It wasn't that she was dumb, but things at home made it hard to concentrate on school work. There was no-where to do homework. Her sleep was often broken. Her older brother had started having temper tantrums of his own, and her younger brother was always in trouble. Megan had inherited her father's temper and her mother's mean streak. At school, Megan was often the ring-leader bully.

Megan and Sissy had been in the same loser's class together. Where Sissy was shy and timid, Megan was bold and sassy. But when Megan tried to bully Sissy around, she found that Sissy had a core of steel, and a temper that was cold and slow to get going, but fierce once aroused. Well, Megan could respect that. Megan and Sissy liked each other, and soon Sissy was shadowing Megan and joining in all Megan's schemes.

Megan still liked to dominate Sissy. Sometimes Megan would use the sharp tongue she had learned from her mother to put Sissy down. 

Sissy, who was used to abuse from her mother, seemed to think nothing of it.

Now, Megan was in a mood to yell at someone. Her anger was looking for a target. Her first thought was to go out and hunt the pigs down.

"We haven't got a gun," Sissy pointed out. "Anyway, chances are the pigs are long gone."

"Let's make sure," Megan fumed. "Animal control or something like it needs to get out here and kill those pigs. I'm going to see that landlady of ours."