Chapter 23

 

1970   Janice watched as the huge joint was being passed around, it's glowing cherry leaving trails behind as it went.  She was beginning to get off good.  Real good.  But not on the jumbo paper cigar with harsh Mexican marijuana that was going around, though that had helped.  Or the partial case of Schlitz beer that was being ignored at their feet.  It was too late for that.  The LSD was kicking in now and she shivered again as another body rush passed through her.  Her scalp felt as if a thousand magic fingers were giving her a head message, and her jaws already ached from the clenching anticipation of launching on another trip.  It always started out this way, but usually slower.

Randy had said that this was the best blotter acid to come through in a long time, and he was definitely right.  One of the things that she really liked about Randy, he knew his drugs, and where to get them.

She had taken it less than an hour ago, albeit on an empty stomach.  She always got off quicker that way, and more intensely.  This was better than she had ever experienced.  It always amazed her that one little piece of paper about a quarter of an inch square could send one so far, for so long.  She had placed it under her tongue and left it there as long as she could stand the feeling of not being able to talk.  Then she had been careful to swallow it with some beer, so the rest would digest in her stomach.  Randy said by putting it under your tongue, like people with heart problems did with nitro-glycerin tablets, was the quickest way to get off.  Based on how she was feeling at the moment, he seemed to be right.

Her mind began to race at an increasing pace, yet she was still coherent.  She flashed back on the conversation that she had with Randy earlier that day just after school.  He had been initially perturbed that she wanted to get four hits from him to go do somewhere without him.  But she had explained that it was for her and her friends, 'girlfriends' she had stressed.  That seemed to appease him somewhat.  Promising to 'make it up to him in his favorite way' had clinched the deal.  Randy was always a sucker for good blow job, her 'secret weapon' as she liked to refer to it.

A nudge on her shoulder got her attention, as one of her friends was trying to pass her the joint.

"Ground to Janice," a voice said, handing her the joint.    

"Come in Janice!" the other two girls giggled in unison.

Janice took the joint in her two fingers, trying not to get burned in the process.  She placed the end of the doobie up to her nose, and inhaled deeply through her nostrils as if there was no air left in the world.

"Nothing like a good nose hit when you're just getting off, you know what I mean?" she said.

"Amen, sister," said Denise Stahl, as she whipped her long straight black hair to one side of her face.  Denise was a tall slender girl, who spent most of her time praying to God that someday her breasts would develop.  She was always being teased mercilessly by her peers because she was flat as a board.  That's what had brought her into the 'Pack'.  The first principle of being a 'Pack Rat' was to not be one of the 'in crowd'.  It also helped that she was a close friend of Janice's and lived within a block of her house.

"Are you getting off already?" asked Linda Horton, who lived next door to Denise.  Her entrance fee into the 'Pack' was the fact that she was about fifty pounds overweight, had the foul mouth of a trucker, and refused to do anything that would make her attractive to the opposite sex.

"Yeah," was all Janice said, it was hard enough to maintain a conversation with her friends, let alone elaborate on the matter.  She was really taking off.

"Just what do you feel when you know it's taking effect?" asked Patricia Warner, to no one in particular.  This was her first time dropping acid, and she was very apprehensive.  She hadn't been with the 'Pack' for very long, but had fit in immediately.  Like Janice, she was considered a brain, as kids called anyone with better that a 'C' average.  She would have been considered attractive by her peers, if it weren’t for her scholastic attitude and thick wire rim glasses.

          "You'll know, Patti.  Trust me, you'll know," said Denise, suppressing a giggle.

"That doesn't tell me shit!" said Patti, and instantly the rest of the girls burst out laughing, including Janice.  It always broke them up when Patti used foul language, something she had just started doing since joining the 'Pack'.

Janice could sense the stress in Patti's voice and mentally forced her self back down to their level long enough to address the situation.

"What they mean Pat, is that it will feel like nothing you have ever felt before.  It's better than pot.  It's better than getting your driver's license.  Hell, it's even better than sex!  The first thing you'll feel is kind of an awakening.  Things will seem to be a little brighter, a little bit more defined.  Your mouth will start to water even though you have cotton mouth from the pot.  Your scalp will begin to tingle and you'll be able to feel the wind blow through the hairs on your arms."

"What wind?" asked Patti.  It was as still as a tomb, ninety-nine percent humidity and over ninety degrees out, even though it was eight o' clock.

"The cosmic wind," said Denise.  Next to Janice, she appreciated the effects of LSD more than anyone else in Platte County.

"Yeah, the fucking cosmic wind," added Linda as she reached for another beer, ignoring the half full one leaning next to her ample thigh.

"It's what let's you know that you're really alive.  It's all around you," said Denise seriously.

"Yeah," said Linda, "it's what you feel go up your shorts and tingle your pubic hairs as if the paper boy was sniffing at them."

"Jesus, Linda, I'm trying to be serious!" shouted Denise, also beginning to feel the onset of the psychedelic drug in her system.

"Denise is right," said Janice as she breathed deeply, feeling every cell in her body becoming aware to the fact that life, as they knew it, was about to change.

"Fuck Denise, I'm right!" shouted Linda.

Patti looked around the circle just wondering who to believe.

"Yes, Linda's right too," said Janice matter of factly, finally remembering she still had the joint in her hand and passing it on.  "You may even feel it your cunt."

"That's the first place I feel it, honey," said Linda.

"That's because you are a cunt!" shouted Denise, and they all broke up laughing uncontrollably, rolling from side to side in the grass.

 

2

 

Eddie watched the girls quietly from his hiding spot in the tall grass and saplings that lined the riverbank.  Spying on his sister and her 'Pack of Rats' as he chose to call them, had become his favorite pastime.  He had known something was up when his sister began calling up her friends as soon as she had gotten home.  All he had to hear was the words 'Loup River' and he knew exactly where they would show up.

He had beaten them to their favorite hangout by almost fifteen minutes, and was beginning to think they had changed their plans when the four girls nearly ran over him on the way to the grassy mound where they usually sat.  He reveled in the fact that they could pass within a few feet of him, not detecting his presence, and mentally patted him self on the back for having perfected his camouflage skills.  They sat below him now, and he had been able to get up off his stomach and assume a more comfortable sitting position.  The girls weren't more than fifty feet away, and he could hear most of what they were saying.

He loved it when their choice of topics turned to sex, and he learned more about the subject from listening to them than any conversation he had ever had with his male peers.  Someday all of this insight would prove invaluable, he told himself.  Someday soon, he added.  While Eddie's interest in sex was no more intense than any other fourteen-year-old boy with raging hormones, his desire to accomplish the act was bordering on the insane.  He had no desire to follow the normal path of getting to know someone, going out on dates, working his way through some heavy petting and hopefully to eventually getting laid.  He just wanted to fuck.

As he heard the girls calling each other cunts, he was instantly aroused.  That word never failed to excite him.  Sometimes he would just say it to himself over and over and over.  Eddie was no amateur to the concept of power and he found himself amazed at the incredible power that one little four-letter word could yield.  Cunt.  C-U-N-T.  He imagined how Webster would put it in the dictionary.

          cunt  (kunt) n.  1. Vulgar.  A woman's sexual organ.  2.  Vulgar.  The orifice which man spends nine months to get out of and the rest of his life to get back into.  3.  Vulgar Slang.  Optimum word used by all women and some men to piss off other women.  4.  Vulgar Truth.  Triple E's reason for living.  See pussy and gold mine.

Eddie laughed quietly to himself.  Yeah, he would have to get him some cunt.  Soon.  Real soon.  He watched as the girls frolicked in the grass below him, their breasts firmly jiggling up and down and side to side.  Except for Denise.  She really was flat as a board, Eddie noted.  Probably still had a cunt though.  He shifted his view to Linda, who definitely had some tits.  And some ass, a whole lotta ass.  He was sure she had a pussy too, and was definitely nasty enough to know how to use it.  She'd probably enjoy what he had in mind, which totally ruined his ideal fantasy.

Eddie didn't have any problem looking at his own sister in a sexual way, and he had to admit she had the best body of all four girls.  But his sister was reserved for other sports that he found interesting; like spying, pestering, and your basic torturing.  He relished the fact that he could always torture her by fucking her to death, but that too seemed to ruin his ideal fantasy.  We're talking about fucking here, he reminded himself.  Plain and simple.  Torturing takes everything to a higher level, and messes up the simple pleasures of raw lust.  Still, he would have to file that thought away for future reference.  There could possibly be a new sport in the making there.

He focused on Patti Warner.  Now that would work.  The glasses would have to go, of course, but otherwise she looked pretty hot in her faded cutoffs and bright red tube top.  She had an innocent quality about her that seemed to make her all that more desirable.  Like I'd be the first she'd ever have, added Eddie to himself, and they say you never forget your first.  Eddie definitely didn't want to be forgotten.

 

3

 

An hour later Eddie was still watching the girls.  He wished he had a dollar for every time they had said the words cool, wow, and far out!  They had been laughing a lot, more than usual, and over things that didn't seem funny at all to Eddie.  Some of the things they said didn't even seem to make any sense, yet they rambled on as if they were in another universe, another time, and had left Eddie behind.

He knew they were high, and maybe drunk, although he was amused at the fact that no one was really scrambling for the last of the beer.  Eddie couldn't figure out their desire for getting high, or any one else's for that matter.  His mind was his most precious gift.  Even more precious than his penis, which was still erect from their earlier conversation.  Why would anyone want to diminish their mental capabilities with drugs of any kind, he wondered?

He had tried alcohol once, managed to get drunk before he threw up, and found it totally unacceptable.  He had tried a mental exercise using his powers, one of lifting his fish tank off of its stand and setting it back down again.  He had done it scores of times before, just for something to do while lying in his bed.  It always amused him to watch the pair of red Swordfish go nuts as their world was moved around.  He had gotten so good that the water hardly splashed around at all, but the fish still knew that something was up.  When he tried to do it under the influence of alcohol, all he managed to do was awkwardly get the tank a few inches above the stand, and then it began tipping forward.  Once the weight of the water shifted, there was nothing he could do but watch as the whole fish tank fell towards him and crashed on the floor, sending both water and fish rushing under his bed.

Eddie wasn't one to be concerned about loss of life, but it did mildly upset him that the fish tank had been destroyed.  Not only was he was out about forty bucks, but had to make up some lame excuse to his father because the water leaked through the floor and stained the ceiling in the room below.  He got over that soon enough but the fact that he had lost control over a given situation was more than he could tolerate.  Two days later, after recuperating from his hangover and replacing the fish tank, he managed to mentally lift the new aquarium off of its stand, fly it out the window, and set it on top off the neighbor's front porch.  Then he flew it back in, set it down, and checked the water level after everything settled down to see how much he had spilled.  It was only down a half an inch.  It would be along time before he ever drank again.

Eddie was still trying to figure out exactly what was up when, as if on cue, Linda made it all perfectly clear to him.

"You were right, Janice.  This is the most ass kicking acid I have ever dropped.  What a kick in the pants!"

"You better appreciate it.  It's gonna cost me a blow job."

"Chump change," said Linda matter-of-factly.

"Then maybe you should do it!" exclaimed Janice.  "I'm talking a whole blow job here."

"You mean swallow and everything?" asked Denise, curling up her lip in disgust.

"Nothin's free in this world girls!" replied Janice.

"Look honey," said Linda.  "Any time Randy turns out to be too much of a man for you, just send him my way.  I'll suck him dry everyday as long as he keeps scorin' me drugs like this!"

'You need to be on a liquid protein diet, bitch,' thought Eddie as he eavesdropped.

"I just may take you up on that, Linda Lou," said Janice, as she turned towards Patti.

"What ya think, Pat?  This ride worth a whole blow job?"

"How can you even think?  I mean I feel like my mind's racing at a thousand miles per hour.  It's so confusing, but it's so wonderful.  Fucking wow, man!"

The girls burst out laughing again.

"How wow is it, girls?" shouted Denise.

"It's fucking wow, ma-a-a-ann!" shouted Janice and Linda in unison.

All four girls broke out in uncontrollable laughter again.  Eddie just shook his head in disbelief.

"They're more messed up than I thought," he whispered, as he looked down at the bulge in his crotch.

"Stay alert, one eye.  This may just turn out to be your lucky day."

 

4

 

Eddie had patiently waited for another hour.  He made a mental guess as to what time it must be, coming up with a quarter 'til four.  He glanced at his wristwatch for the first time since leaving his house, and found he was off by only three minutes.

"Not bad, Triple E," he whispered quietly to himself.  He always found pride in the fact that he had such a good handle on the concept of time, and how important it could be.

"I'll bet there isn't one of those cunts down there that could guess the time within an hour," he added softly, knowing that in the condition they were in, he hardly had to worry about being discovered.

The girls had split into two separate pairs, and things seemed to be looking up for Eddie.  Linda had decided that she needed to get up and walk, and Denise had reluctantly gone with her, after much prodding.  She knew that Patti was having a hard, but wonderful time with her first trip, and probably would be best left alone with Janice for awhile.

'Too many cooks spoil the broth,' Janice told her when Denise had first tripped, and had taken her off from the rest of the crowd.  It had been at a party, and there had been just too much stimuli to absorb at the time.  Between the loud rock music, and the multitude of conversations that seemed to blend into one big rush of a giant verbal waterfall, Denise had accepted the fact that she was going crazy.  Until Janice had taken her aside, reassured her, and helped guide her to the real beauty that dropping acid could bring.

Now it was Patti's turn, and she instinctively knew that her job was to go with Linda.  There would be other times for them to mutually share the wonder.  Yet deep inside her, she wished that she could stay behind.  She loved to hear Janice talk when she was at the peak of her high.  Everything seemed to make so much sense.  But the evening was young, and the acid was good, so there would be more time to get to where she really wanted to be.  For now she would just relax and enjoy the chemical high of almost eternal laughter with Linda.  She could always get cosmic later.

Eddie watched as Linda and Denise passed below him, heading upstream along the fisherman's trail that lined the banks.  He slowly managed to sneak a little closer and into earshot of the two remaining girls who no longer found it necessary to talk loudly.  He caught them in the middle of their conversation.

"How's that, Patti?" his sister was asking.

"It's just so different, you know?  A minute ago, I thought I was going to lose it, and now I find myself feeling so peaceful.  I've never felt this way before."

"Yeah, I know what you mean," answered Janice.  "I love Linda, but she's too much for me sometimes when I'm in a full blown trip.  I figured you might need some peace and quiet.  I know I sure did."

"God, I can hear everything now.  And feel everything.  This is fantastic."

"It's pretty cool, I have to admit.  I never get tired of trippin'.  The hardest part is coming down, cause you just don't want it to end.  But that's along way off.  Wait until the fireflies come out.  You'll think you're in heaven."

"You ever have sex when you where tripping?" asked Patti.

"Yeah, once.  But I avoid it like the plague.  Pretty hard to try and get intimate with one person when the whole fucking universe is trying to get you on the phone, if you know what I mean.  It would be like riding the biggest fucking roller coaster you've ever been on and trying to do that crochet shit your Aunt Mabel does at the same time.  I'd hate to admit it, but if Randy ever accused me of just laying there, he'd be right."

'I'll bet', thought Eddie.  'Reminds me of a time…”

"I just thought that having sex must be so wonderful, especially the first time I mean, and to be tripping too, wow."

'To hell with wondering, babe, let's make it happen.  You can fill Janice in later.  With any luck, I can hear you brag about me the next time you all get together.'

"Sex is overrated, especially when compared to tripping.  There isn't a cock in this world that I would trade for a good hit of LSD."

"You've got to be kidding?" asked Patti, having her virginal dreams smashed in one conversation.

'Yeah Janice, you've got to be kidding,' echoed Eddie to himself.

"I don't want to fuck up your shit when it comes time to having sex, Pat.  Some guy will probably do that for you.  Or maybe not, who knows?  You may wait and find Mister Wonderful, and then you can set me straight over a hit of acid.  If that happens though, you're doin' the supplin' and the buyin'."

"You got it.  But what's so bad about sex?"

"It's not bad, just don't compare it to trippin'.  After you've done both, we'll have this conversation again.  You're here to have your first trip, not your first fuck!  Remember?"

'Who says?' thought Eddie, starting to get upset with his sister's train of thought.

"You're right, of course," replied Patti, much to Eddie's dismay.

"You bet I'm right.  Now what say I light up another doobie, to take the frizzies off a little?"

"You're the boss," answered Patti.

'No, I'm the boss, dammit!  And before this little trip of yours is over, you'll know it.  Janice knows it too, but she ain't talking.  You two can share that later and put it a pipe and smoke it for all I care.  Long as you both agree on the truth, and I will be your truth baby.'

 

5

 

Eddie watched as his sister and Patti passed the joint back and forth between them selves, coughing harshly between each pass.  His patience was beginning to wear thin, especially since neither seemed to be in a talking mood anymore.  They might be having the time of their lives smoking dope and 'tripping' as they called it, but he was bored, and tired of sitting in one place.  He was hot, and becoming very thirsty, to the point that beer was even beginning to sound good.  He toyed with the thought of leaving, but the predatory part of his mind reminded him that all good things come to those who wait.  He resigned himself to staying to the end, and quietly shifted positions again to help relieve the cramping in his legs.  He had barely gotten comfortable again when Patti suddenly stood up.

"What's up, Patti?" asked a surprised Janice, who had just been brought back to earth by her friend's sudden movement.  She had been way out there, almost to the point of no return.  Part of her felt upset for being brought back, but somehow she remembered that she was in charge of Patti's first trip.  A responsibility she did not take lightly.

"I gotta pee," said Patti, as if the whole world would come to a stop just so she could perform the function.

"Happens to the best of us," replied Janice.

"I'll be right back."

"I'll go with you," said Janice.

"Look Janice, I love you and everything, and I know I'm trippin' my brains out, but I think I can handle this myself."

"Cool.  Just don't get too close to the river bank, okay?"

"Yes mommy," giggled Patti, as she headed down the trail along the river in the opposite direction from the other girls.

Janice watched as Patti slowly walked down the well-worn path, stopping occasionally to observe something new that she had never seen under the influence of LSD.  She smiled to herself, decided that Patti was having the trip of her life, and opted to just let her explore a little on her own.  She knew that in the end, tripping was about being alone, and getting a chance to find your self. 

The true wonderment of psychedelic drugs was the fact that it removed all of the blinders that civilization had put on you over the course of your adolescence.  For once you were not only old enough and mobile enough to check out your own world as it were, but you were free to do it without the inbred prejudices of your parents, religion and culture.  She reminded herself not to let Patti be alone for too long, in case she found herself in uncharted waters that might scare the living hell out of her.  She had seen that happen too, and sometimes the person never came all the way back.  She chuckled to herself.  Maybe she had never came all of the way back her self?  She laid her head down and tried to resume her previous mindset.  Just for a little while….

 

6

 

Eddie watched patiently as Patti headed down the trail, alone.  He wasn't afraid of losing her, she obviously wasn't in any hurry, and he knew these trails better than anyone.  His main focus was on his sister.  He wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to opt to follow Patti, and he needed a window of opportunity to cover the open ground between himself and the next row of trees that ran along his side of the trail Patti was following.

After what seemed an eternity, but was only a scant minute, he decided Janice was comfortably distracted and deep into her own high.  She hadn't moved since laying her head down in the grass.

'Thank God for dope', he whispered to himself, as he crept on all fours and began moving to the edge of his cover.  Sweat was running down his brow and into his eyes, stinging, and making it hard to focus.  He wiped his forearm on his pants, and then wiped the sweat from the corner of his eyes.  Janice was still lying on her back, and from his new vantage point he could tell that her eyes where closed.  Perfect.

He sprinted towards the next clump of small trees and brush, coming to a stop on one knee once he reached the shadows.  He could make out Patti through the saplings ahead on the trail, and a quick glance at his sister showed she hadn't heard a thing.  He let out a breath of relief, followed by two quick breaths of anticipation.  He felt the surge of blood traveling to his penis again, and within seconds he had begun to obtain another erection.  The hunt was on.

Patti found herself totally engrossed in the wonderment of virtually everything.  One thing that any tripper will agree on is if things seem to get boring, just change your surroundings, new stimuli is the key to a good trip.  Just moving fifty yards had brought Patti into anther world.  No longer in the windblown open grass, her new world was one of shadows, and new smells created by the hot, humid atmosphere of young trees and bushes.  The difference in the smell of the air was incredible, and she imagined she was in the deepest jungles of the Amazon.  She paused for a moment to take everything in.  The setting sun still pierced the leafy canopy, but was instantly broken into a multitude of laser-like sunbeams.  There was just enough dust in the air to be illuminated by the sun, creating effects that she had never really seen before.  Better than any rock concert, better than… better than anything she had ever experienced.  Period.  She too had been down to the river hundreds of times before, but now everything seemed so foreign.  She might as well be in another country, lost, a stranger in a strange world, without the apprehension of the unknowing.

She bent down to more closely observe an ant slowly making it's way across her path.  She marveled at its ability to carry some crumb of something unrecognizable twice it's size and still maintain a steady beeline towards its destination.  She chuckled at the thought.  An ant making a beeline.  Her mind ran off on a tangent, wondering whether an ant actually called it a beeline, or whether it should be called an antline, or it actually had a concept of the word line.  Did it even give a rat's ass?  Did it even know what a rat's ass was?  Did it even care?  Her mind raced on at a thousand thoughts per minute until the pain of her bending over and putting pressure on her bladder brought her back to reality.

"God, I have to pee," she said out loud.  Her own words seemed to startle her, breaking the peace of mind she had slipped into so deeply.  At first all sound seemed to disappear as her voice bounced from leaf to leaf, and branch to branch.  Then, one by one, the sounds around her re-established themselves.  First came the wind rustling through the trees.  Then the sounds of the birds she realized were all around her, providing the background music for her trip, and she felt some remorse for not noticing them sooner.  There was another sound, like the raking of leaves, and a quick snap of a small twig.  She turned her head slightly in that direction while acknowledging the fact that the sound was somehow out of the normal symphony of the moment.  She decided it was merely one of the many critters around.  Perhaps it was a squirrel, or one of the other oversized rodents that roamed area.  Part of her, perhaps an old instinctive reflex developed back in the days of the caveman, told her to pursue that particular sound.  But then the overwhelming rush of the waters of the Loup River came into her ears, desperately reminding her of why she had set out on this journey in the first place.

"God, I still have to pee!" she exclaimed, breaking into uncontrollable laughter that she found as fascinating as the ant that had now managed to make his way across the trail and into the smaller plants.

Eddie heaved a sigh of relief, fearing that he had given himself away.  He thought he had been more than careful in his stalking of the drug crazed female, but he had been mistaken.  He made a mental note to be filed away for future reference.

Never underestimate the hearing sensitivity of someone on LSD.

Patti turned around, doing a complete three hundred and sixty degree turn, looking for anyone who might be around before she went about the chore of going to the bathroom.  She could wait no longer, as she stepped off of the trail a couple of steps into the darker shade and began to drop her faded cutoffs and panties in one swift movement.

Eddie couldn't believe that things were going his way so well after sitting so long listening to your basic girlie-girl drug induced high school babble.  His erection came to a peak as he watched his sister's friend lower her pants down to her knees, legs spread apart as far as her shorts would allow, and crouch down into position.  Although there was plenty of foliage between where he lay and the other side of the trail where Patti was relieving herself, he could still see traces of her light brown pubic hair.

It drove Eddie nuts to be watching the scene, and he almost felt as if he was going to ejaculate as he heard the hissing sound of her urine begin to strike the ground.

Was it really a hissing sound, he asked himself?  No.  It was a pissing sound he decided, hence the word.  Guys take a leak.  Theirs was the not so powerful sound of a small water hose attacking anything laid in its path, or found it self being the focus of their hapless aim.  Girls pissed.  It was a kind of indiscriminate spraying to merely relieve them selves, definitely nothing of more importance.  How could there be, he reminded himself?  There was nothing to grab hold of.  Nothing to really be proud of, or admire.  They didn't have a tool, so to speak.  Merely a petcock of an orifice allowing them selves to drain their reservoir, similar to the valve in the bottom of any common car radiator.

For a moment he almost felt a small twinge of remorse for womankind, but quickly reassessed the matter and reminded himself that although they would never know the pleasure of urinating the way a man did, they were still sitting on a gold mine.  An untapped gold mine, he reminded himself, as he felt his penis reach what he knew must be a new record length.  He grabbed the bulge in his pants and squeezed it as hard as could.

'You ready big guy?' he whispered.

Patti found herself totally enthralled at the feeling that taking a pee could bring.  It wasn't anything sexual, but the immense feeling of release was almost unbearable.  She looked down between her legs and watched as the stream of almost clear urine made it's way towards the trail, leaving a trace of white foam as it went in it's gravitational search for the low ground.  The occasional sunbeam lit the bubbles in the foam, as she watched some of them pop like the soap bubbles she had blown into the wind from the cheap plastic bubble pipes as a child.  She couldn't believe that taking a piss could be such a cosmic experience.

Eddie continued to watch her, spellbound at the thought of her squatting there with her pants wrapped around her knees, seemingly just for his own personal enjoyment.  He had been amazed at how long she had continued, but suddenly became aware that she was almost through as the urine stream began to ebb.

Without hesitation he leapt to his feet, and began to traverse the short distance between himself and his prey, leaping over the brush without any concerns for the noise he was making.  He moved liked a lion springing for the kill, and Patti barely had time to look up and see him descending upon her before it was too late.

 

7

 

Eddie could not believe the quantity of adrenaline flowing through his body as he bounded through the brush, with the exposed and vulnerable teenage girl directly in his sights.  At this particular moment in time he felt that if he had the benefit of the smallest springboard, he could probably launch himself all the way to the moon.  With that thought in mind, he leaped with all the strength his legs could deliver, even before he had crossed the path between himself and Patti.

He fell a little short of his goal, and landed across the bottom of her left shin.  Luckily, between the element of surprise, and his left hand quickly finding her mouth as he fell, she wasn't able to scream a warning audible over the rush of the river.  He could sense from the movement of her lips that she was trying to bite his hand, so he cupped it in a manner that put his tender palm just out of the reach of her teeth.  He applied more pressure to her face, and that seemed to make it even harder for her to bite him.

Eddie found himself in heaven.  Which, in Eddie's terminology, meant total control.  Patti couldn't speak, couldn't run, and couldn't….

Attack, was what he was about to say to himself, as she kneed him in the ribs, causing the air to rush involuntarily out of his lungs.

He clamped down harder on her face, knowing that Janice wasn't that away, and used her head to pull him self farther on top of her.  This was where he had wanted to land in the first place, although for different reasons.  Now he just wanted to get his vital organs out of the reach of her potentially deadly knee.  She struggled more, jerking her head back and forth, still trying to kick at him.  His new position made everything impossible for her, but the energy she had obtained from the combination of fear and LSD made her try all the harder.

"Calm down, Patti," Eddie whispered harshly.  "This doesn't have to be difficult.  I just wanted to scare you, that's all."

'Eddie!  It was Janice's little brother Eddie doing this to her, but why?  Why now?' she asked herself, in a mass of psychedelic confusion.

"Just calm down, okay?" asked Eddie, trying to get her to relax for a while.  At first, he realized that his plan has failed, and then he acknowledged the fact that he never really had a plan to begin with.  Not in the end anyway.  All he really had was a hard-on and one of sister's friends spread eagled beneath him.

'Not that it couldn't work', he reminded himself.

"Just promise me that won't scream, and I'll let you up," he lied, unconvincingly.

Patti struggled even harder.  Her mind was awash with a thousand inputs, all of them bad.  Her first, second, and third reactions were to just freak out.  She bucked up and down, and twisted from side to side, all the while trying to get a piece of Eddie's flesh between her teeth.  The transition from the galactic peacefulness of taking her first leak on acid to the harsh reality of being pinned down in the bushes was too much for her.  When she closed her eyes, lightning bolts of every color imaginable flashed across the bright red backdrop of her eyelids, exploding into fireballs of what she perceived to be raw energy.  Whether it was mind over matter, or merely the pure adrenaline provided by the 'fight-or-flight' mechanisms within her body, she managed to shake her head out of Eddie's grasp.

"Help!" she tried to scream at the top of her lungs, before Eddie had a chance to cover her face again.  This time he wasn't so lucky, for the meaty part of his lower palm slid right into her open mouth.  Even though her eyes were still clenched shut, she tasted the dirty, salty flavor of his hand and bit down with a fury that would have shamed any Great White shark in a feeding frenzy.

Eddie howled in pain, reeling back enough to make her open her eyes, as he grabbed his bleeding hand.

"You fucking bitch!  You'll pay for this!" he snarled, totally forgetting where he was, or what kind of predicament he was in, or even how anyone else might perceive the situation to be.  His temper flared past the red zone and into uncharted waters.  His eyes began to glow red and cast a slight orange glow on the nearest plant leaves and Patti's shaded, tear streaked face.

Seeing the rage in Eddie's eyes, Patti realized this might be her only chance to get away from the monster upon her.  She reached out with her hands to try and get enough leverage to bounce Eddie the rest of the way off of her and he ruthlessly slapped her across the face.

She had never been hit so hard in her life, and what had once been colorful lightning bolts of power were now transformed into shooting stars of pain.  She was sobbing so hard she couldn't get out another scream.  He slapped her again, harder this time.  She tried to clench her hands into fists to ward off the pain, pulling up a tuft of crab grass in one, but finding something firm and cool in the other.  He slapped her again, knocking her head to the side where she could see the hard object in her hand.  She blinked three times before she could focus through her tears.  It was a stone, a big, beautiful, two-pound stone.

Suddenly she felt her legs being spread apart.  At first she didn't comprehend what was about to happen, until she saw the blurry image of Eddie kneeling between her legs, then the unmistakable sound of a zipper being ripped open.

'My God, he's going to rape me', she realized in slow motion horror.

Eddie fell on her, knocking the wind out again, simultaneously reaching his hand under her tube top and squeezing one of her breasts.  She winced in pain while he pinched her nipple as if snapping off the tips of newly picked pea pods.  She could feel his erection pressing against the inside of her right thigh.

"They say you never forget your first, bitch, and Triple E's here to make sure you never do!" he said to her, his face just inches from her own.  With that said, he thrust his penis at her as if he was a matador trying to spear a bull, but he glanced off of her pubic mound and ground his testicles into her pelvic bone.  Again he howled in pain.

He took his eyes off of Patti long enough to reach down between his legs and grab his manhood, wanting to be sure he penetrated her this time.  When he looked up again to enjoy the expression on her face as he prepared to rape her, all he saw was a blur in the corner of his left eye.

Patti nailed him right along the side of his cheek with the rock, sending him flying off his knees and to one side of her.  She wasted no time in admiring her handiwork; instead she flipped to her hands and knees and began scrambling away form Eddie.  Once out of reach, she stumbled to her feet, struggling to get her shorts back on, and trying to run at the same time.  Eddie was blocking her access to the trail, so she ran in the opposite direction, clawing her way through the brush and small trees that lined the river.  It didn't occur to her to scream again until she broke through the bushes, only to find herself a few yards from the steep riverbank.  Her forward momentum was too much to stop, and the next thing she knew she was flying the last few feet into the fast running water.  Then that she screamed, with all her might, a long echoing shriek that even the fear of being beaten and raped could not hold back.  Patti could not swim!

 

8

 

Eddie managed to get to his feet by the time he heard the scream, followed by a loud splash.  His head was throbbing and the side of his face burned as if he had fallen asleep on a waffle griddle.  He cursed himself as he refocused on his current situation.  He began to panic, not knowing what to do.  Should he run away?  Seemed like a good idea.  And leave a crazy teenage girl to run around screaming she had been raped by the Triple E?  Okay, scratch that idea.   Maybe he could catch up with her, and scare her into silence.  He had pulled that one off before.  Why not again?

"Patti?  Where are you?  Patti.  Answer me damn it!"

          It was Janice.  She must have heard Patti's last scream.  Hell, everyone in Platte County must have heard that scream, he reminded himself.  Eddie's panic level increased twofold.

"Patti?" came his sister's call again, obviously closer this time.

Eddie took off towards the river, with no real plan.   He just had to put some space between him self and his sister so he could think his way out of this.  He also needed to get to Patti before Janice did.  This was going to be close.  He began following the bent and broken branches that clearly marked the direction Patti had traveled.  He heard his sister in the background again, perhaps even closer than before.

"Patti!  Don't be playing games with me now.  Answer me damn it!"

Eddie began to run too, just as Patti had.  And he found himself in exactly the same predicament as she had when he burst into the open at the edge of the river.  His only advantage was the fact that he could swim like an Olympian, and he quickly converted his fall into a nearly perfect dive, breaking the surface of the water head first with a minimum splash.  The cold water startled him, but it was far from paralyzing.  He arched his back and kicked his feet until he quickly popped up to the surface.

Eddie had always found swimming to be enjoyable, for it was one of the few normal things he really excelled in.  But even he normally stayed away from the swift currents of the Loup River in this area, mainly because there weren't any decent places to get back out of the water.  Rightfully so, Eddie kept himself pretty much centered in the current, watching for signs of Patti, realizing that he could no longer hear his sister in the background.  A person could carefully guide them self towards one bank or the other, if they knew what they were doing.  But that might lead to being speared by a low hanging branch or worse yet, getting trapped in some old brush from the summer before, hidden just beneath the water.  He decided to 'go with the flow', so to speak, and wait it out for calmer water.  It proved to be the wisest choice.

The next morning, he came up with an excuse for the bruise on his face, not that anyone was really pressing the issue.  The whole town was in an uproar over the 'unexplainable loss' of Patricia Warner.  Search parties went out through the day and night.  The 'Pack' explained that they didn't know where she had run to, although yes, they had been 'drinking'.

Two days later, a fisherman found Patricia Warner, her cutoffs snagged on one of the enormous hooks on the catfish trotline he had set out the same evening that Patti had disappeared.  All but one person in Platte County decided there had been no foul play and the matter was quickly explained away as an accident.  That one person was Janice, of course.  She had headed down a different side trail after not getting a response from Patti, towards the riverbank, just a few yards upstream from where Eddie had attacked her.  She had gotten to the bank just in time to see her brother catapulting into the Loup River.  From his reactions over the next few days, she could tell that it hadn't been a coincidence.  Anymore than Patti's death had been an accident.

It seemed to her that one by one, Eddie had been taking the lives of the people that meant the most to her.  He was a monster, and the tragic thing with monsters was, you couldn't get anyone to stop them until you got them first to believe in their existence.  She had been there, and tried that.  It was very clear to her that there was really only two ways for her to escape the hellish predicament she found herself in.  One was to kill Eddie her self.  The other was to run away, as far as she could go, as soon as she could find someone to take her.  Realizing that she didn't stand a chance against Eddie on a one to one basis, she opted for the latter.

 

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