Don’t look for regular postings for a while. Sometimes, writing is amazingly easy, other times I can go for days when I can’t get my mind focused enough to write at all. Sometimes I can’t focus enough to even read. Often when I can write, I can’t write this stuff. For some reason, it’s very difficult for me, while other stuff isn’t. So there’s no telling what kind of timetable there will be for me to finish this thing. This is just me fighting back. Trying to find myself again.
Monsters
By Karen Singer
Chapter 38 – Breaking What’s Broken – Part 1 of 2
Ralphie stood in front of the barn looking at the house. He had heard that Brandy was back now, but he hadn’t been permitted to see her. Why? He would have thought that once she had been rescued that he would be one of the first things she would ask for. As he stood there, he could just see Miss Janice sitting in one of the chairs on the back patio. He wasn’t allowed into the house anymore without permission. Not even to take care of Brandy.
His hands once again found the two small pockets in the skirt of his maid’s dress. The dress was by far the most comfortable and less provocative dress he had ever worn. And after wearing almost nothing but high spike heeled shoes for so many years, the practical low-heeled shoes he was wearing now felt like the most comfortable shoes he had ever worn in his life.
He was the maid to the maids…and the rest of the Wu Enterprise people that all lived in the top floor of the barn. He had far more work to do than the maids in the house. And those maids made sure he did everything perfectly. Too perfectly. All of them seemed to take great delight in tormenting him and laughing at him. But that had been his lot in life ever since Brandy had captured him. Long ago, he had been reduced to nothing but something to be laughed at, and his life had remained the same ever since.
But why didn’t Brandy ask for him? Why? Where did he stand with her? Was anything changed? And did he dare ask?
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Brandy headed for the back patio where she had been told that Janice was sitting. The only thing on her mind was that she wanted out of her nightmare. It was time to talk to Janice about it again. She went out through the back door and saw Janice sitting in one of the comfortable chairs, staring out at the barn and the pastures where there were a number of her “chicken” creations running around. One of those chickens was evidently Alfonso. Seeing the chickens didn’t scare her at all. Just one look at them and she knew they weren’t even human anymore. Janice had reduced all of them to nothing but…chickens. And from everything she had been told, they would remain that way for the rest of their lives.
“Brandy dear,” she heard Janice call. Her head turned in her direction, but not before something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye.
“Come sit with me,” Janice told her.
But her eyes were drawn back to that one thing she had seen. Or rather, that one person. Ralphie. A man. For everything she had done to him, he was still a man in that dress. A maid’s dress like all the others she noted. And she noticed one other thing. He was walking toward her. Heading closer…to probably talk with her. Her fear went up.
“Brandy,” Janice called again.
But Brandy couldn’t take being near any man, even Ralphie. She turned and hurried back into the house.
“Brandy?” Janice said again. She got up from her chair, then her head turned, and she noticed Ralphie stopping along the road to the barn. He was watching the door where Brandy had disappeared. Was Brandy that afraid of men? Even someone like Ralphie? She continued into the house and saw Brandy heading toward the front of the house again, as far away from any men as it was possible for her to get. She followed after her and soon found her in the front sitting room. “Brandy,” she said as she walked in and sat down.
Brandy looked at her, but said nothing.
“Are you even afraid of Ralphie? Your own creation? Your own toy?” The look on Brandy’s face told Janice everything.
“I can’t live like this,” Brandy finally whispered. “I can’t go on. The fear….”
“I’m sure,” Janice replied softly.
“Maybe it would be best if you could fix me,” Brandy told her.
“For you, or for Carol?”
Brandy looked at her and tears fell from her eyes. “If I stay like this, I know Carol won’t love me anymore.”
Janice said nothing for a moment. Then finally she said, “Carol isn’t back yet. It’s going to take me a day or two to figure out just how I want to handle you. Beyond that, we’ve got other things to figure out too, like explaining your physical problems and the loss of time. All that can be worked with. But for you and Carol to be together, I believe you’re both going to need to be in agreement on everything we decide before I start working with you.”
“But you can do it?”
“Of course I can do it. There’s no doubt about that at all. It’s just…doing it some way that’s the best for you.”
“When will Carol be back?”
“I understand they’re on their way now, but it will be sometime late tonight.”
“She caught him? She was successful?”
“Yes. Of course. From what I understand, she had no problem at all.”
Brandy shook her head. Once, she would have had no problem either. But now? “Where are they bringing him? Here?”
“Of course. I can’t work on him anywhere else.” Janice noticed the additional fright on Brandy’s face. “Brandy, he’s well secured. There’s lots of Wu Enterprise people around to take care of him and all his men. I’ll start working with them all tomorrow. In another day or two, they’ll all be nothing but chickens, and I already know that my chickens don’t seem to bother you.”
Brandy managed a smile. “They’re not human. Even looking at them, I can’t even see them as men.”
“But you still see Ralphie as a man? Even after everything you’ve done to him? Even with that metal cage you’ve got his sex life trapped in?”
Brandy shook her head. “That was the whole point of what I did to him. He’s supposed to look like a man. Just one in a dress. He’s supposed to be easily recognizable as a man.”
“And even still, he scares you? Your own personal play toy?”
Brandy shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“Maybe you should at least find out. Talk to him. I believe he was trying to see you a few minutes ago. He’s not normally permitted in the house here, but I’ll allow him to come in and talk to you for a few minutes. Perhaps it would be a good idea.”
Again, Brandy shook her head and said, “I don’t know.”
Janice got up from her chair and went out into the hallway where she spotted one of the maids. “Call Ralphie in here please. Brandy needs to talk to him.”
“No!” Brandy said.
“Janice looked back at her. “Yes! You need to do this.”
Brandy didn’t answer. Instead, her hands gripped the arms of the chair tightly.
Janice sat down and saw the distress on Brandy’s face. “He can’t hurt you,” she told her. “He can do nothing to you at all. Especially sexually. You know that.”
Brandy nodded without looking at her.
“You know that I’m here with you and that there’s a house full of people who will help you at the slightest need.”
Brandy nodded again.
They waited in silence until finally Ralphie arrived. Janice saw him standing in the entrance to the sitting room, but Brandy was focused on the floor in front of her.
“Miss Brandy?” Ralphie said softly. “I’m glad you’re back. You wanted to see me?”
Brandy’s grip on the arms of the chair tightened. Slowly, she brought her head from the floor up to look at him. He was standing there wearing that maids dress. Looking more normal than she ever allowed him to look. For everything she knew about him, the one single thing that stood out about him was that he was still a man. And that thought alone frightened her. It was everything she could do to sit there and not run from him.
She looked back at the floor so she wouldn’t have to see him. “Get out,” she said. “Get out. Leave. Not just the house, but my life. Get out of my life. Leave me. I’m setting you free. Take whatever money you need from the credit card and get out! I don’t want to see you again! Ever!”
Ralphie couldn’t believe it. She was setting him free. “Really?”
“Get out!” she yelled.
Ralphie didn’t wait a moment longer. He hurried back through the house, already trying to figure out what he needed to do. And near the top of that list was getting some new clothes. Men’s clothes!
Janice looked at Brandy as she hurried from the room. Ralphie was hurrying toward the back door. He nearly bumped into Susan as she came out of one of the rooms near the back of the house. Janice headed for Susan. “Susan!” Susan waited for her. “Brandy just set Ralphie free. She told him to get out. She’s simply too afraid of even him.”
“She’s that bad?” Susan asked.
“I think she’s still getting worse. It’s all still eating away at her and sinking in. If we don’t do something soon, she’ll need hospitalization.”
“Are you going to work with her?”
“She wants me to. We’ll talk to Carol again about it as soon as she gets home. In the meantime…” She glanced at the way Ralphie had just gone. “Is there some way we can delay Ralphie’s departure? She set him free, but if she were back to her normal self, would she be upset about that?”
“I’m sure she would,” Susan replied. “I’ll take care of it. I’ll make sure he’s stuck here for a few more days. At least until you all come to an agreement about him.”
“Thank you,” Janice replied. “I know Brandy want’s him gone, but I don’t want her to be making that big a mistake.”
“Of course not,” Susan replied.
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It was late at night by the time Carol’s motorcycle got back to the mansion. The cars with Beastman and his people would probably be at least an hour behind her. She didn’t need to worry about them. The Wu Enterprise agents would take good care of them. Once off her bike, she found her mother in the house waiting for her.
“How did it go?” Janice asked her daughter.
“Great. Easy as anything,” Carol replied. “How’s Brandy?”
“Carol, we need to have a little talk. I believe she’s getting worse. She tried to set Ralphie free this afternoon and she wants me to work on her to get rid of her fear.”
“No!”
“Carol, she’s getting worse!”
“What did you do about Ralphie? Is he gone?”
“No. I had Susan delay him a bit.”
“Good!”
“In the morning,” Janice said. “You, me, and Brandy need to sit down and have a big discussion. My methods may be the only way of saving her. Or at least bringing her back to who she used to be.”
“Mom,” Carol said. “I’ve been thinking hard about that all day today. I may have another solution that I think will work, but it’s also one that I know you’re not going to be happy with.”
“What?”
