Richard Laymon - Fiends

We passed the bottle back and forth a couple of times. We probably would’ve polished it off and gotten ourselves really smashed, except the bottle got smashed first. Jim stumbled on a raised section of sidewalk. He went lurching forward and the bottle flew. It exploded on the sidewalk in front of us.

Scared that somebody might’ve heard the noise, we ran two blocks and didn’t stop till we reached Jefferson.

When the guard rails of the bridge came into sight, my stomach went kind of cold. The last thing I wanted to do was go down to the underpass.

‘Wonder how Georgie-porgie’s doing,’ Jim said.

‘I guess we’ll have to find out.’

‘I bet he’s already home.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I hope so.’

‘I just hope he’s learned his lesson. It’d sure be a pain if we had to go through this again tomorrow night.’

‘When he sees us coming from now on,’ I said, ‘he’s gonna run the other way.’

"Less he liked it down there.’

‘Nobody could like it down there.’

‘I don’t know. He’s a pretty weird kid.’

‘No kid’s that weird. It’s too damn creepy.’

Jim laughed. ‘Hope he crapped his pants, the little shit.’

At the other side of the bridge, we ducked into the trees and started down the slope. I only looked once at the underpass. The idea of George being tied up in that dark, awful place made me feel kind of sick.

Jim and I both fell on our cans a few times before we got to the bottom of the slope. The wine might’ve had something to do with that.

Finally, we got to the tracks.

We walked between the rails, our flashlights off. With every step, I felt shakier. I told myself that George probably had gotten loose and run home. We wouldn’t need to go under there, at all, just shine our lights in, make sure he was gone, and leave.

He’d probably left my rope behind. It could stay right where it was. I sure didn’t need the rope badly enough to go in after it.

Just where the tracks disappeared into the darkness, we stopped and turned on our flashlights. The shiny rails gleamed. About twenty feet ahead, the rail on the left was draped with rope.

My rope. It had to be.

George had worked himself loose.

Now, we could go home.

Jim’s flashlight swung away from the rail, away from the rope, off to the side where we’d left George.

Just as I’d expected, George wasn’t there.

But he wasn’t gone.

Jim’s light found him a couple of yards closer to the wall.

We both gasped. I felt like I’d been kicked in the belly.

We ran toward George, our beams jerking all around as we tried to spot who’d done it to him. We saw no one.

We stopped by his body but didn’t look down at him. Darted our lights everywhere else. We were both panting, even though we hadn’t run very far. Jim made these weird whiny sounds every time he sucked in a breath.

‘See anyone?’ I asked.

‘Huh-uh.’

‘Maybe… they’re gone.’

I swept my light across the center supports. Four broad, concrete walls. A crazy or two or three might’ve been lurking behind every one of them. I knew one of us should go to the other side for a look. I didn’t have the guts to do it, though.

‘Let’s… get,’ Jim whimpered.

‘Can’t leave him.’

We shined our flashlights down at George. He lay sprawled on his back, his shirt wide open, his boxer shorts and Bermudas hanging off one foot. He was bloody all the way down to his knees.

‘What’d they … do to him?’

I shook my head.

George’s eyes were shut. One was swollen so it looked like a hardboiled egg with a slit across it. I’d seen a boxer on TV one time who had an eye like that after going eleven rounds with the heavyweight champ.

George’s neck was shiny red, but I didn’t see any wounds on it.

He was so fat and dumpy that he actually had tits. I thought about how the other guys probably gave him grief about them when he had to dress for gym class. Then I thought how there wouldn’t be any more gym classes for him. Because of us.

I moved my light down his fat belly.

He looked so lonely and pitiful.

‘Where’d all the blood come from?’ Jim whispered. Stepping behind my back, he moved sideways past George’s hips. Then he froze. The pale beam of his light slanted down between George’s legs. He let out a terrible groan, staggered out of my way, whirled around and started to puke.

I pointed my flashlight at George’s groin.

And knew where all the blood had come from.

Blood still trickled out of the raw open slot where his dick should’ve been.

I went numb and started to sway. I thought I might pass out, and hoped I wouldn’t fall on him. Then my arm got grabbed. I yelped. But it was only Jim.

I started to cry. ‘Look… look what we did.’

‘We didn’t.’

‘They cut off his dick,’ I sobbed.

‘No.’

‘They did! Look! Didn’t you see?’ I pointed my light at the bloody opening.

‘They didn’t cut off his dick, you dope. He never had one. George is a girl. They didn’t cut off nothing. They banged her.’

‘What?’

‘She’s a girl. Georgina or something.’

‘Oh, my God.’

‘Don’t know why she’d sneak around spying on Joan, but…’

‘Didn’t.’

I flinched so hard it made every bone in my body hurt. Jim actually jumped and cried out. Then we shined our lights on George’s face. Her eyes were open. One eye was, anyway - the one that wasn’t swollen shut.

She pushed herself up with her elbows. ‘Spying on you guys,’ she said. ‘You’re who I looked at. You two, not girls.’

‘You’re… alive!’

‘Yeah.’

‘Why’d you make us think you were dead?’ Jim demanded.

‘Just wanted to hear whatcha had to say.’

‘Shit!’

‘I’m just glad you’re alive,’ I said. I wiped my eyes with my shirttail, but couldn’t stop crying. I dropped to my knees beside her and put a hand on her shoulder.

‘It’s okay,’ she said.

‘No it’s not! God, I’m so sorry! If we’d known…’

‘How bad are you hurt?’ Jim asked. He crouched down next to me.

‘My face don’t feel too good.’

‘Is that all?’

‘Cept for my twat.’

‘They raped you?’ Jim asked.

‘Yeah. He did. Just one. He really stank. You shoulda smelled him.’

‘We never should’ve left you here,’ Jim said. ‘We never would’ve, if we’d only known you were a girl.’

‘If we’d gone to the pool today like we told her…’

‘Aw, I didn’t show up anyhow,’ she said. ‘You woulda found me out.’

I sniffed, and wiped my face again.

‘I only just wanted to be your friend,’ she said, her voice going higher.

‘You can be our friend,’ I said.

‘Sure,’ Jim said.

‘Honest?’

‘Yeah, honest,’ I told her. ‘This was an initiation. I was just lying about all that stuff I told you.’

‘Really?’

‘Yeah.’

‘From now on,’ Jim said, ‘we’ll never ditch you again.’

‘You guys sure had me going. I was starting to figure you hated me.’

‘Naw.We were just kidding.’

Her bloody face smiled. She sat up.

‘You’d better not move,’ I said. ‘We’ll have to get you an ambulance or something.’

‘I’m okay.’

‘You can’t be okay,’ Jim said. ‘All that blood.’

‘Oh, I was a virgin. But not anymore.’ She looked at each of us. ‘You guys wanta bang me? You can if you want, now we’re pals.’

I went kind of speechless.

‘Not tonight,’ Jim said. ‘Thanks anyway.’