Havermouth High School, Five Years Before
Cameron and Heath circled like the wolves that they were as Rhett and Aislen joined them at the table in the shelter of a large tree. Aislen could see some of the celtic knotted triangle designs that decorated Rhett’s knuckles had been scratched into the wood of the picnic table.
Other than the four of them, the park was empty.
“My, my,” Cameron purred, sliding his hand over Aislen’s shoulder to her arm and sending flashes of her shirt buttons popping as he tore the shirt open in order to expose her breasts through Aislen’s mind. “Just look at what was hiding under that f-king ugly jumper, Heath.” He stole Aislen’s cigarette, which had gone out, relighting it and holding it between his teeth as he leered down at her.
“We have to work,” Rhett stubbed out his cigarette onto the ground. “This piece we’re working on is worth thirty percent of our grade this term, and we’ve only got four weeks to get it done in, so if you’re going to distract us, f-k off.”
“Rhett thinks we’ll c-ck block him,” Heath sneered teasing his friend. “He wants to draw every part of her. I wonder if we could persuade her to drop her panties and pose on the table for us.”
“F-k off or you’ll scare her,” Rhett sighed, but his cheeks had coloured as he cracked open a can of beer and took a mouthful. “Aislen?” He offered it to her, and she reached out and took it, the temptation to place her mouth where his had been too strong to resist. The beer was cold, and its bitter flavour made her wonder why people made such a big deal over it.
She placed the beer back near him, and bent over her sketchpad, working on another angle of Rhett’s face, trying to ignore the alarm bells that the two drunk boys were setting off in her mind as they laughed and joked around, many of their jokes innuendos about her that she did not quite understand the meaning of, though their tone of voice left her in no doubt that it was her that they were talking about, and that the meaning was lewd.
She met Rhett’s eyes and under the table felt his hand rest on her knee. She saw him a vision of him cupping her face in his hands and kissing her, his hair falling over her face, his tongue flavoured with cigarettes and beer, and knew that she was seeing his thoughts of the moment, what he wanted to do.
She swallowed and tried to concentrate on her drawing. It was what she wanted, too.
Heath slid onto the seat, straddling her so that she sat between the v of his thighs, his hands cupping her breasts and then sliding down and delving under her skirt before she could recover from the graphic images of him bending her over the picnic table and thrusting into her from behind that his touch bestowed on her. He sucked on her neck above the collar of her shirt and for a moment she leaned her head to the side, as it felt fantastic...
And then she shot to her feet as his fingers went under the elastic of her panties. “Stop that,” she was leaning over the table, her palms on its surface in her effort to get away from Heath and realised that she had put herself into the position that he wanted her in, as he pulled her underwear down past her knees and they slipped to her ankles.
She scrabbled to pull them up as he stood, caging her onto the table surface, pushing her forward over it so that she knocked the beer over and Rhett grabbed his art supplies up and danced away from the table cursing.
“F-k, Heath!” He was angry. “I have to hand this sketch pad in to the teacher at the end of term. I can’t have it reeking of beer!”
Heath’s hands stroked over Aislen’s bare arse under her skirt, and he ground himself against her, his fingers travelling around and over her clit. “She’s au natural down here,” he laughed. “We’ll have to make her an appointment to get the bush waxed.”
“Get your f-king filthy hands off of me,” she struggled against his grip. “I will scream!”
“Heath,” Rhett said, his tone dark. “Not here. Not now.”
“Ah, f-king hell, I’m horny and you’re c-ck blocking me, Rhett?” Heath complained, but he moved away. “She loves it, she’s f-king creamed against me,” he grinned pointing to his groin as Aislen hastily repaired her skirt and pulled her underwear back up her legs. “Begging for us to f-k her.”
Aislen stuffed her art supplies into her bag, her hands shaking, and tears threatening.
“Aislen,” Rhett said softly. “They’re just mucking around. Don’t be upset. We all think you’re f-king hot.”
She jerked her head up in anger, his face distorted by the tears that were just beginning to fall, and then she turned and bolted back towards the school, hearing Cameron’s and Heath’s laughter ring out behind her, and Rhett’s complaint. When she cast a look over her shoulder, Rhett was sitting on the tabletop opening a can of beer, a cigarette hanging off his bottom lip, watching her leave.
At school, she ran into the bathroom, startling a group of younger students who left in a hurry. She washed her hands and face at the sink trying to compose herself. What they had done was not alright, she told herself. She needed to report what they had done to a teacher, to the headmaster, to someone. They couldn’t just handle people in such a way…
“Are you alright?” A girl came out of the toilet cubicle and washed her hands next to her.
“F-king Triquetra,” Aislen spat out angrily. “They just f-king do as they f-king please, as if there’s no repercussions. Well, there will be a f-king repercussion this f-king time. I’m going to tell the headmaster.”
“They raped you?” The girl said with empathy. “You wouldn’t be the first and won’t be the last. Others have reported them and the guys from the football team, but somehow it never sticks. They don’t even get a reprimand or made to say sorry or anything. The girls though, they get f-ked over for making a fuss,” she added quietly. “Suddenly their parents don’t have jobs, and their banks call in on their mortgages, and before you know it, they have to move away.”
“No way,” Aislen stared at her in the reflection, shocked.
“Yes way. No one bothers reporting them anymore,” the girl was apologetic, shrugging as she reached for the paper towel to dry her hands. “It’s just not worth it. You’re new, but you’ll learn. The Triquetra, they’re protected by the community, just like all the other jocks and cheerleaders – they can’t do anything wrong here, as long as it is to someone who doesn’t matter, like you and me.”
“Oh,” Aislen realized that the girl spoke from personal experience. “You too?”
“Me too,” the girl’s smile was sorrowfully rueful. “Shut up and put up, and you’ll survive here. Complain, and you might as well pack your suitcases ready to leave.”
Havermouth, Present TimeThere was no point to hiding out in her house, Aislen decided, the Triquetra knew that she was there, after all. They had probably been expecting her since her father’s death.Her father only had the cheapest brand of instant coffee in his cupboard, which was the equivalent of drinking bath water, in her opinion. She fixed her hair and her face, popped on a pair of sunglasses, and opened her black lace parasol, before picking her way across the gravel and strolling up the street to the town centre in search of a decent coffee.Her appearance drew attention as she strolled up the main street and she grimaced. In the city, her clothing and appearance drew no attention whatsoever. City street fashion was wide and varied, and of all the fashion-sights to behold, a woman in black was unremarkable. In Havermouth, however, amongst the pastel flowers, plaid, and denim, she might as well wear a flashing neon sign.“Why is she dressed like that, mummy?” A little girl in
Havermouth High School, Five Years BeforeAislen felt something small and hard strike the back of her head. She looked up from her sketch pad and felt in her hair, locating a small nut from one of the nearby trees lodged in the curls. She pulled it out thinking it had fallen from a tree or had been dropped by a bird flying overhead, and resumed drawing, only for another to hit her.Laughter stiffened her back. She knew those voices and did not need to turn to look. The table where she was seated was set near a grassy slope where the cheerleaders and jocks liked to spend their lunch time.She had seen the Triquetra there, as she had sat to lunch, but they hadn’t noticed her – or so she had thought – as Heath and Cameron had Lillian between them and were occupied with making out with her and Rhett had been lying on his back just a little way from them, his forearm draped over his eyes.Had she been braver and had she forgiven him for doing nothing when Heath had assaulted her at the par
Havermouth, Present TimeAfter arranging for the real estate to come to take photos of the house, Aislen hired a skip bin, and began sorting through the possessions within the master bedroom. Rip the bandage off where it hurt the most, she told herself grimly as she opened the closet. She tossed clothing that was suitable for charity onto the bed, and those that were too stained, torn or worn into a pile on the floor. When she encountered a flannelette shirt that had been one of her father's favorite and had seemed to feature in every photo of him for the decade of her teen years, she sat on the edge of the bed clutching it to her and wept. It still smelled like him, she thought. She put it into a ziplock bag from the kitchen and stuffed it into the suitcase. Stupid, she told herself as she wiped her eyes. Stupid, sentimentality, for a man who valued what little reputation he had held in the town over his teenaged daughter.Her mother had stripped the house of all her valuables when
Havermouth High School, Five Years BeforeAislen wasn’t surprised when Rhett stepped out from the alley between the classrooms as she reached the art room, his eyes to the ground and his hands in his pockets – but his casual demeanour did not fool her for a moment. She hesitated, and he lifted his eyes, meeting hers, and the expression in them caused her breath to catch and her clit to throb.She felt like Eve, she thought, irresistibly drawn to the apple.She crossed to him, and he caught her by the elbows, pulling her flush to him, his body lean and hard against hers, stepping back into the privacy of the alley way, pushing her up against the wall. He lifted her bag off her shoulder, lowered it to the ground without breaking their gazes.His eyes were intense and the almost oily iridescent sheen that she had come to recognize as a sign of werewolfism reflected off their darkness. He buried his fingers into her curls with a sigh as he did so, before leaning forward, the heat of his l
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen did as he had promised, the moment that they were outside of the bar, he scooped her up and threw her over the back of his shoulder, his hands holding onto her thighs, her shriek of laughter and the exposure of her thigh highs scandalizing the yuppies at their meals and cocktails.As Talen strode down the street, indifferent to the stares, she saw Heath stand from one of the tables, pulling his waistcoat down, his expression furious, and his mother reach out to touch his wrist, preventing him from pursuing.She was breathless from the position, the blood rushing to her head, and by Talen’s strength, as he did not even seem to notice her on his shoulder as he strode to the corner. “Which way, sexy?” He asked, nipped the side of her thigh nearest to her, the drag of his sharp teeth across her flesh delicious.“Right,” she told him. “And right again.”Rhett was at the door of his studio, seeing off his client, and she met his eyes as they passed. She blew h
Havermouth, Five Years BeforeIt was near midnight when the house was finally quiet and Aislen snuck out of bed, sliding her window open and slipping over the ledge, pausing with her toes on the narrow footing so that she could reach back for her bag before stepping over the pretty flowerbed that her mother was cultivating, onto the path.The night rustled with life, crickets singing in the grasses falling silent as she walked by and resuming their calls once she passed, a cat’s eyes reflecting eerily from the shadows, and a possum scrambling up a tree. She could hear the cars and music from the town – on a Friday night, the pubs were busy.In the distance she could hear the occasional howl – before coming to Havermouth she would have dismissed it as dogs, but now she knew better. It was the full moon after all, she thought, looking up although she did not need to confirm it visually. Ever since she had discovered that a large percentage of the people in the town were werewolves, she
Havermouth, Present TimeTalen was gone by the time she woke, and she wondered if the legends about vampires and daylight were right. She groaned as she rolled onto her back, and grinned, dropping her forearm over her eyes. Way to make a come back into the dating game, Aislen, she congratulated herself. A sexy daddy-bear vampire f-k buddy.He’d be surprisingly gentle, leaving her feeling thoroughly ridden but not sore, she added as she pulled on a satin kimono style dressing gown that she had loved as a teenager and made her way to the bathroom. She paused in the door to the bathroom, frowning and inhaled.“What the actual f-k?” She made her way down to the kitchen.Heath, immaculate in a grey pinstriped suit, glanced over his shoulder as he buttered toast. “Toast?” He asked coolly. He wore a frilled floral apron that her mother must have left behind tied around his waist and f-k it if he didn’t look deliciously domestic, she thought. The only possible improvement would be if he were
Havermouth High School, Five Years BeforeAislen boarded the bus with a sinking feeling. Already she could hear laughter from the back of the bus. It wasn’t about her, she tried to convince herself, but she recognized Cameron and Heath’s voices, along with Lillian’s and it FELT like they were laughing at her. She picked a seat towards the front of the bus – as far from the Triquetra as she could be. She thought that she had gotten away with it until the bus began moving, and suddenly Rhett sat beside her, having made his way up from the rear, where Cameron and Heath were. He didn’t say anything or look at her but threw himself into the seat next to her with a huff of breath and then organized his sketch book and supplies into his bag between his legs until she couldn’t protest his presence because they were well underway. She sighed and leaned against the windows, looking out. His fingers curled around hers on her thigh, and and her mind filled with his anxiety and concern, images