Fiends

    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.’

    I nodded.

    ‘You sure? I’m kinda sore, but if you want…’

    ‘Some other time,’ Jim told her.

    ‘Well, okay.’ She sighed as if she were a little disappointed, then got to her feet. She shook her foot clear of the tangled boxers and Bermuda shorts. ‘Wanta see something cool?’ she asked.

    ‘We oughta just get out of here,’ I said.

    ‘You guys gotta see this.’ She stepped over to her lantern, bent over as if she didn’t mind us looking at her butt, picked up the lantern and turned it on. ‘Come on,’ she said.

    We followed her across the tracks.

    Joined her on the other side of the nearest concrete support.

    Where she shined her light on a bum.

    He was slumped against the support, shirt open, pants down around his ankles. His head was down. Cradled in his arms was a pile of loose guts.

    George grinned at us. ‘Knew he didn’t get far.’

    ‘Holy shit,’ Jim muttered.

    Crouching, George plunged her hands into the guts. They squirmed around like a bunch of wet snakes. Pretty soon, she came out with her knife. ‘Didn’t wanta lose this,’ she said. She stood up and cleaned the knife on the front of her shirt. ‘Betcha didn’t figure he’d get into my initiation, did you?’

    We shook our heads.

    We walked back to the other side of the tracks. There, George stepped into her boxers and Bermudas. As she pulled them up, she said, ‘So, what’re we gonna do tomorrow?’