FLASH FICTION WITH SEX AND VIOLENCE
Murder in a Mug
The Fairgood boys weren’t fair, and they weren’t good to hear most kids at school tell it. In fact, they were bullies.
Warning: Sexual overtones and violence.
Everyone at Littleton Middle/High School knew to get out of the way when they saw the boys coming.
Sure, they had names, Charles, “Chuck” Fairgood was 17, Chase, was 15, and Chad, was 12, but everyone mostly referred to them as “the Fairgood boys.” To say they weren’t well-liked would be a colossal understatement.
Of course, most people around town didn’t know what went on at their house. They had ideas, but no one knew for sure, since their mom, Chalice died, and left them with that no good SOB, Frederick “Freddie” Fernwood.
Everyone loved Chalice, she worked from open to close at the town diner. Always with a smile and a refill of your cup.
At first, everyone was understanding about Freddie tipping the bottle after she died. Breast cancer took her in a flash. Most town folks didn’t even know she had it. Of course, she waited too long to get it checked, but she was only in her thirties.
The good townspeople didn’t know whenever there was a rules infraction or chores left undone, he would line them all up, and take the belt to them. He’d make them drop their trousers and underwear and beat their bare ass until one of them told on the one who did it. Only, none of them ever did; they usually wound up with blood dripping from their asses.
I guess it made him feel like quite the man to be able to beat them like that. And after he was done with the boys, then it would be Cherie’s turn. Only he didn’t hit her, what he did to her was far worse.
Cherie Fairgood
Was he hurting you, Cherie? Because the word all over town was that he was. If he was, why didn’t you come to me? Why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you tell?
In the first place, Mr. Lawman, if “the word was all over town,” she said while making silent quotes in the air, why didn’t YOU say anything? Why didn’t you, as the goddamn sheriff and his brother, ask him? Why didn’t you ask him if he was raping his 13-year-old stepdaughter?
I mean, you are the law, aren’t you sheriff? You are aware that sex with a person under 16 years of age is statutory rape, aren’t you? Some folks might even see it as incest. Why the FUCK didn’t you say anything? Oh yeah, I forgot you’re a dickless wonder and the deceased’s brother.
Come on, Cherie, there isn’t any call for you to be rude to the sheriff, said his next in charge, Deputy Janice. Fact is, Janice was in love with the sheriff, despite her extreme desire to take his job.
I did, said the sheriff, but he denied it. He said there wasn’t anything going on between you two.
Of course, he would jackass. What self-respecting, grown man would admit to raping his stepdaughter, especially to the law.
Besides, if he were, and I am not saying he did. But if he did, why would I tell anyone? Look at it from my side for just a minute, sheriff. What guy is going to want to marry the town slut? The girl who was sleeping with her stepdaddy.
Now, Cherie, as you said before, it would have been statutory rape, and no one would have held that against you.
Yeah, right, sheriff because those asshat SOBs, I go to school with are so kind and forgiving, right?
Well, Cherie, one way or another, it is all going to come out at trial. You know the DA is planning to try Chuck as an adult if he isn’t already 18 by the time the trial comes up. That means he’ll be eligible for capital punishment. He’ll get the needle if he’s convicted.
What makes you think it was Chuck? Anyway, that isn’t going to happen, sheriff, he didn’t do it. I did.
Are you saying you killed him, Cherie? I could make the charges against your brother go away if you did. No court in the world is going to convict you if Freddie was… well, you know.
Cherie calmly repeated, I said, “I did it, so you can just let my brother out of jail. I shot him twice, right there in his executive office chair.”
Chad
I was the youngest, and everyone kind of looked out for me, I guess. Outside of my brothers and sister, I really don’t have any friends.
The day before his death, I stayed home from school because I was sick. Evidently, Freddie forgot something and came back in the middle of the day to get it. He stopped by my room and caught me looking at a girlie magazine and rubbing myself. It just felt good, you know.
Of course, Freddie started screaming was that why I stayed home from school, so I could whack-off? He pulled off his belt and told me to roll over and take my medicine. He said something about truancy, and if I skipped school, he could go to jail.
I started screaming no, but he didn’t listen. He just started slapping me with that belt as hard as he could. Suddenly, Freddie threw down the belt and picked up the lotion. He began rubbing it on himself. He asked me, is this how you do it? As if he didn’t know.
The next thing I know, he was on top of me, pushing himself into to me and I was screaming louder. He said, what you crying for, that’s what you wanted, right? He grabbed my hair and pulled me around to face him. My stomach just let go, and I threw up all over him. At least that got him off of me even if he did punch me in the face.
He said, “Don’t you tell anyone about this, you hear. I will kill you and whoever you tell. I know you think Chuck can protect you, but I’ll crush him like a bug under my boot. And you just remember my brother’s the sheriff.” I thought about this massive man beating on my brother Chuck, and I couldn’t let that happen.
That’s when I started plotting how I would kill him and use his own straightedge razor to do it.
Chase
Everyone always said I was the smart one. Some even said I was a little sneaky. I would call myself cunning! I mean, why go straight at a problem when you know it will just beat you down?
Like trying to beat my stepfather, that wouldn’t get me anywhere; he’s a mountain.
Yeah, I wanted that asshole dead just as much as everyone else in my family. I’ll never figure out what my mom saw in him. He was OK when he was sober, but that was usually only once or twice a week. Most days, he’d go by the bar on the way home. He’d come in staggering and mumbling, checking everywhere to see if we had done the chores. Looking for any reason to beat our asses.
Everyone says, “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” But when you use a rod to make a person bleed, that is not discipline; that is sadism.
Yeah, I killed him, I mixed up a poisonous cocktail for his coffee. I even fixed him a sandwich to go with it. He always drank his coffee with five sugars and cream. He probably didn’t even notice the taste of strychnine and hemlock if there was any.
The great thing about strychnine and hemlock is that it is a slow death with paralysis, or so I read online.
Oh, you do realize you never read me my Miranda Rights, don’t you sheriff? You were so convinced it was Chuck, I guess you forgot about that.
Chuck
I didn’t kill that son-of-bitch. I wish I had. I’ll tell you the truth sheriff. I hated your brother’s guts, and if you gave me two-bits to kill him. I would’ve done it and gave you 50 cents change.
I heard the shots and came running down from my room on the second floor. When you came in and saw me with blood all over my hands, which were on his neck, I was looking for a pulse.
It was pretty obvious he was dead, though. He had a gaping hole in his chest where he was shot. And it looked like his dick and balls had been cut off.
Anyway, you just assumed I did it. But there was no one there when I got to his study. But if it keeps my sister and brothers out of jail, I’ll confess.
The Sheriff’s Summary
I really screwed this one up. I caught Chuck with his hands around the deceased neck, so I just assumed it was him. Of course, that didn’t match up with the complaint of two gunshots that were called in earlier.
That’s why I went there, actually. That and to tell him to leave Cherie alone. The rumors were flying all over town. I had no proof, but I figure just the threat of me bringing him up on charges might help some.
Cherie’s a good kid, and even if the DA goes after her with murder charges, they likely won’t stick. Same with the rest. Technically, depending on the timing, Chase poisoned him, which paralyzed him. He would have died eventually from the poison; if not, Chad’s castration would have done him in. Freddie probably didn’t even feel the castration, being paralyzed and all.
Then, there’s the question if he was still alive when Cherie shot him. Chase is the most culpable, but I took his confession without a lawyer present, or even reading him is rights. It won’t stand up in court.
Chuck’s definitely off the hook for his murder. Maybe the DA will drop the charges because they were protecting each other from further harm.
There is a “Defense of Necessity.” That is when committing the crime was actually necessary to protect the others. They’re all minors and were being abused. It would be hell trying to pin his death on any one of them.
More Fiction from the Author
Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland and a Certified US English Chicago Manual of Style Editor. Currently living in the Philippines, Stephen is a Top Writer in Virtual Reality.
You can see his portfolio here. Email [email protected]